Hi, I'm back! Sorry about the time it takes for me to post these but I have a valid excuse: It's the summer holidays. Would you stay inside when it's thirty-three degrees Celsius outside in the shade? Well, I wouldn't. Sorry! As Shady777 has pointed out, I am very found of cliff-hanger endings. If this gets irritating, let me know and I'll try to change it. It's just the easiest way to end a chapter, so that's why I do it.
Zarbok and Shady777- Thanks for the reviews! I'm trying to make Wesker's opponents seem stronger, not make him seem underpowered. Sorry for any confusion. Hopefully you'll see what I mean when STARS come up against these vampires in later chapters. (spoiler alert!~) As for portraying Wesker slightly more `human` that's a work in progress. If you want to find out what I'm rambling about, you'll just have to keep reading. insert evil laugh here
Jellysunshine- thanks for the review! Sorry about the twenty feet thing. I work in the metric units, so where there was twenty feet, read something closer to twenty metres or really big distance. (I looked it up and found that it's about three feet to a metre. But feet sounds cooler than metres. Sorry.)
(^_^)
Chapter 10
Chris grinned in triumph as he pulled his gun on Wesker. Barry, being a multi-talented man, juggled both his torch and STARS custom Berretta. Chris's smile faltered when Wesker didn't seem disturbed by his predicament.
A soft gasp and the extra brightness of more torches alerted Chris to the others' approach. As if on cue, Wesker's features softened into an expression of gentle concern. His voice became light and genial, almost fatherly. In fact, it was very similar to Barry's when he was with his family.
"Is everyone alright? I've been scouring these tunnels form top to toe trying to find you all! Why didn't you stay put, where I told you to?"
Barry recognised that Wesker was mimicking him. In one fluid movement, he rid himself of his torch, levelled his gun and removed the safety with a loud, echoing click. Wesker didn't even blink. Chris shot Barry a warning glance.
"You left them in a dangerous position, with no means of defending themselves, and you didn't go back for them," he said in a voice flinty enough to light a fire, "you left them to die!"
"Oh come now!" Wesker spread his arms wide in a gesture of innocence. "Would I do something like that?"
Yes! Chris strove to keep calm and collected. He risked a side-glance at Barry. His team-mate's posture was ramrod straight as he glared down the gun-sight with a set jaw and blank expression. However, he showed no sign of intending to do something stupid. Chris allowed himself to relax. Slightly. Right, what now? Of course, Celia and Sena…
"Where are the girls?"
"Girls? I guess one is Sena, and she's safe. Don't know what you mean by the plural," Wesker said, still imitating Barry.
Chris narrowed his eyes. Was he lying? Impossible to tell. Wesker sighed and idly checked his nails.
Barry snapped. "You're involved in this, aren't you?" he hissed, "the clean-up boy, covering everyone else's tracks."
Wesker furrowed his brow at the insult but let it slide. Instead of rising to the bait, he shot a surreptitious glance towards the shadowy corner.
"What are you lo-" Jill began, stepping forward. She abruptly jumped back as a rasping cry issued from the corner. The torches focussed and illuminated a figure. Chris first thought he was looking at a pack of potatoes. Then the thing stirred, and his second thought was Lisa Trevor was alive and well, living in the sewers. It was sometime before he finally realised what he was looking at. Celia.
**
Wesker took advantage of the distraction to haul his black-clad ass outta there. He went back the way he'd come.
Flick- fli-flick- flick
In the dank corridor Sena flicked Jill's torch on and off. In bursts the grimy sewer walls and plumbing was illuminated but she stared ahead unseeingly. Thoughts of viruses and cures swam through her mind. She forgot she was cold, hungry and claustrophobic. She also forgot about Wesker, until he roughly grabbed her forearm and dragged her down the tunnel.
"What? What's going on? Slow down!" She jammed the torch into her pocket and with her free hand tried to pry off his fingers. "Let go!"
Realising he was ignoring her, Sena abandoned trying to loosed his grip and threw all her wait backwards in an effort to stop him, or at least slow him down. The attempt had no effect, but Wesker did eventually stop.
"Thank you-" Sena began haughtily. Wesker cut her off with a low hiss. She became aware of a dull purple glow, in pinpoints. Like eyes, she thought. If they were eyes, there had to be at least fifteen.
Wesker watched them curiously. The vampires were hesitant. He sniffed disdainfully, and smelt, to his eternal surprise, pine scented cleaner. Wesker waited for his brain to translate it. A bottle of cleaner? No…. So what then? Wesker waited some more, receiving an 'um…' for his troubles.
The group of vampires shifted and Wesker decided he couldn't wait for them to make the first move. As much as it pained him, the seven he encountered before had been tough to beat, so fifteen? He ran back to the mineshaft, pushing Sena in front of him.
**
Rosanna heard a dry choking cry from the corner. She turned to find the source, searching with the flashlight, and saw Wesker run down a tunnel out of the corner of her eye. Rosanna ignored him and fervently hoped he was going to Sena. A doubt had flickered briefly across her mind that he had been lying about finding Sena but she paid it as much attention as she did Wesker's exit.
The creature hissed and slowly, very slowly, dragged itself out form behind the mound of rubble and into the light. The moonlight served to illuminate it, and soon the glow of torches added to the brightness.
On the other side of the creature, Wesker re-entered, dragging a protesting form that could only be Sena, judging by the brightness of her lime-green shirt. Rosanna sighed in relief. Sena blinked, blinded by the sudden brightness, but managed a small smile and wave before she noticed the thing.
Rosanna realised it to be Celia first, before Chris's confused contribution of "huh? Potatoes?" The cloth that Chris had thought to be a sack turned out to be dirty overalls and a shirt that was once a pale blue. She edged slowly towards Wesker and Sena in such a way that from her position, Rosanna couldn't see her face.
Wesker, Sena and Chris could though. As always, Wesker showed little emotion, but Chris looked shattered. Sena took a step back, repulsion spreading over her face. Rosanna doubted she recognised Celia to be human. Celia reached out for Wesker's leather boots, her fingernails creating a high-pitched squeak as they came in contact with the leather.
"Help me," she shrieked in a piercing voice.
"What's happening?" Ian asked.
Celia turned her face blankly towards him. Her dark brown hair that had been glossy at the back hung in straggled clumps around her face. Her tawny skin was becoming mottled and tiny red cracks formed in it. Celia gave a smile, or grimace, revealing rotting lower teeth and prominent upper canines. Vampire Children! Chris prepared to shoot.
"Don't!" Rebecca called. "She's still human."
Expressive brown eyes fixed themselves on Chris's own. "Help me," the girl choked. She gave a low whimper of pain.
"Can we reverse it?"
"I don't think so," answered Jill, "it's a different type of virus."
"Then we should shoot the poor thing," said Claire. She looked miserable. "Save her the suffering."
"Please help me!" Celia screeched, reaching in the air for Wesker's face.
Wesker took off his aviators and polished them on his black top. A red glow issued from his face. Celia fell silent, as if the sight of these eyes had ordered her to stop shrieking. The teens stared at him incredulously. Casually, he replaced the shades.
With the air of a man walking through a park Wesker regarded Chris. He had stopped his mimicking and when he spoke it was in the voice Chris had known to be that of a caring man, the Captain of STARS. But his words were very cold, that of Dr. Wesker.
"So, are you going to kill her yet?"