I sauntered out of the bushes, half limping, half walking. Claire was gone. Despite our brief meeting, I was beginning to get real worried about the girl. She didn't look like the warrior type, with her petite figure, gentle flowing hair and crystal blue eyes. I believed that she was Chris's sister. I could see a lot of his facial features in her. They were really similar around the mouth – the way her lips were pressed when she was drilling the whereabouts of her brother from me – it was just as stern as Chris's, if not more so just because she was a girl. If it weren't for Leon telling me about her, I would've never believed she made it out of Raccoon alive. Then again, look at me. The chances of someone like me surviving were slim to none. Had I not run into the people I did … I didn't even want to consider what could've happened.
The little girl was the first to see me, as she gripped Leon tighter around the waist as she noticed me approach. He took notice of her sudden fear, glancing in my direction to see what could've been the cause of her reaction, reaching into his holster to pull out his handgun.
"It's me," I said weakly. All the energy was gone from my body at this point, as if the weight of guilt on my shoulders for telling Claire where Chris was wasn't enough. I now not only endangered Chris's cover, but Claire's life as well. I couldn't enjoy my newfound freedom knowing that both their lives were potentially in danger because of me.
"Kenny!" Leon cried, somewhat surprised to find me outside, alive and well. "Are you alright?!"
"You look worse," I pointed out, motioning to the bandage around his chest. "What happened to you?"
"I got shot …" he shamefully admitted. "I guess they didn't train me for this kind of disaster."
"Who did?" I asked.
"Her mom." He looked down at Sherry as he spoke.
"What?!"
"She was actually shooting at Ada," Leon began, "but I intercepted and got shot in the process. It wasn't worth it if you ask me."
"No, I didn't trust Ada from the second I laid eyes on that woman," I continued. "I could sense something about her … something that I didn't like."
"You've got good intuition. Ada was a spy sent in by an unknown organization to steal the G-Virus. I mean … er …"
"Look, I really don't care about all this classified information bullshit," I said, throwing my hands in the air. "I'm just glad we escaped the city with our lives. But the question is, where do we go from here?"
"We can get back to my place just under an hour from here."
"I think we better get to a hospital first," I suggested.
"That's right!" Leon said, slapping his hand to his forehead. "Sorry, it's just the past few hours have been so … traumatizing that I've forgotten about our own injuries. Sherry over here had a nasty parasite inside her, but I think Claire got rid of it successfully."
"You know, you didn't have to yell at her like that," I said, remembering the fight I overheard.
"What are you talking about?" he asked innocently.
I shot him a frown. "Don't act all innocent, Leon. You were loud enough."
He gave up his act and spoke honestly. "Finding her brother was more important to her than helping Sherry get back to civilization safe and sound."
"But it's her brother…"
"… who happens to be a S.T.A.R.S. member, as opposed to Sherry who is just a child," Leon snapped, cutting me off promptly. "He is more capable of taking of himself than Sherry is."
"Sherry has you."
"I just didn't think she would ditch us like that."
"Claire came into town on a mission, and though she's survived, her mission isn't over yet. And I think I've just endangered her life even more by telling her where Chris is."
Leon's eyes widened. "You know where he is?!" I instinctively bit my tongue, accidentally letting the secret out again.
"Look, it's nothing really."
"HEY!!" somebody shouted from the distance, thankfully interrupting us before Leon could force the information out of me as well. There was a group of three … they looked like S.W.A.T. members or something, their heads covered with a thick looking helmet, their faces barely visible underneath a plastic visor.
"Thank god," Leon said under his breath, as he turned around to face them. "We just managed to escape from Raccoon city as we're …" His words went unnoticed as the first S.W.A.T. guy dashed for Leon, seizing his arm in the process, taking the rookie officer down to the ground within a few seconds. "Hey, what …" Leon protested, but was silenced as the larger man pushed his chest into the ground, knocking the wind out of him.
The other two came for me and Sherry. Her assaulter picked her up effortlessly off the ground, with her kicking and screaming in protest. I turned around to run, but something hit my shins hard, knocking me swiftly off my feet. The third S.W.A.T. member performed a crouching sweep, expertly kicking his leg out, tripping me in the process. He seized me painfully by the elbow and single-handedly yanked me to my feet and with his hands grasping my wrists, locked my arms painfully behind my back.
"What the fuck is going on?!" Leon demanded as he was being cuffed. I felt the cold metal slip around my wrists as well, my heart sinking upon hearing the click of the lock.
"The three of you are to be taken into quarantine," Leon's captor said with a gruff voice, muffled by the helmet. "Raccoon City was sealed off from the public for a reason. Nobody was supposed to leave the city alive due to a virus threat."
"We don't have the virus!" I shouted, but that only earned me a slap to the back of the head.
"That's for the doctors to determine."
* * *
I expected them to take us to some kind of lab where they would probe us or something. But no, they took us to what looked like a hospital. There was no way of telling where we were going because Sherry, Leon and I were stuffed into the back of a Dodge work van – you know, the kind you see rapists driving in on T.V.
But the room they placed me in – and where I was now, was quite comfortably furnished with a bed in one corner, and a small wooden desk beside that. There was an old looking sofa near the entrance of the room and a window across from the bed that now sat open, allowing the fresh breeze to blow through. They only opened the bloody thing after the doctors determined that I was virus free. You should've seen them too, wearing the bio-suits as if I had some kind of freak contagious disease.
It was nice to be out of Raccoon, but I was starting to question whether it would be better for us to have died in the explosion. Now that we were out, our futures were insecure. I was an exchange student studying in the United States, and they wanted to keep me for observation. But if they let me back home to Japan, would the Japanese government allow me re-entry due to the fact that I COULD have a deadly contagious disease? It was hard to determine at this point, and I wasn't familiar enough with the law to successfully predict my own fate. The only thing I could do was wait … and worry. And it wasn't like I could leave this place either. No matter how comfortable the room looked, it was still a prison. The door was bolted locked from the outside.
There was a knock. "Come in," I called out. That's strange. Despite the hostility we first encountered before coming here, they now had the decency to knock before entering a room. Whoever these people were, they sure had their priorities wrong.
A tall man entered with a doctor, dismissing the doctor off at the entrance. I could immediately sense the authority this man had – even the doctor had scurried away like a terrified mouse after being dismissed. He had blond hair, and was dressed in a black Armani suit. His shoes alone would've paid for an entire year of my tuition. He had on a pair of sunglasses that …
"Captain Wesker!" I called, more surprised than anything. I began feeling faint. He was supposed to have died a few months ago. I could do nothing but stare fearfully into the sunglasses that stared back expressionlessly. "How did you …"
"Don't believe everything you hear, Kenny," he said, the familiar deep voice boomed from under such a calm looking exterior. "I'm sure Chris and the others told you I died during the mansion incident, but fortunately, I was rescued and restored."
"But by who?" I asked, the fear slowly subsiding in my voice. "And why didn't you come back to the precinct to let everyone know you were okay?"
"It's … a complicating issue," he replied. "I was so worried about the others when I heard what happened to Raccoon …" He started coughing violently into his hand for a few moments. It wasn't one of those something-in-your-throat coughs. It was more like a smoker's cough, a smoker who's growing a nice garden of cancer in his lungs.
"You got a cold or something?"
"No, I'm fine. My body is still healing."
"I should tell the others that you're okay."
"I don't want anyone to know. I just wanted to know if the others are dead … or alive. I don't work for the Raccoon S.T.A.R.S. unit anymore."
"They're alright … But Jill … she's still in Raccoon. I hope she makes it out alive."
"I hope so too."
"Who do you work for?"
"I can't tell you that."
I rolled my eyes. "Enough with all these secrets. I'm sick of classified information that I've promised to keep, classified information Leon has to keep – did anyone ever stop to think that maybe if we shared information, all of this could've been prevented in the first place? I mean if Umbrella really is that big of a threat …"
"How do you know that?" he asked, suddenly sounding very angry.
I tried hiding what I knew. "Well isn't it obvious enough that Umbrella was behind Raccoon City's destruction?"
"No ordinary citizen would've known that," Wesker said, folding his arms. "What happened to you in Raccoon City? How did you escape? Who did you meet?" He stepped closer with every question, forcing me back until I was cornered against the wall. His attempt to intimidate me was working, as he was so close now I had to look up just to make eye contact. He was tall enough at six feet, but I was just short of five foot seven. He almost had half a foot on me. Not to mention he was an experienced S.T.A.R.S. captain and I was a prepubescent high-school law student.
"Something's wrong with you, Captain," I said, noticing the aggression in his voice. Why would he be asking me all these questions? It's as if he knew something about Raccoon's destruction and didn't want me knowing … like he was somehow responsible for it. He took off his sunglasses revealing grotesque reptilian eyes, causing me to jump in surprise.
"Tell me, Kenny," he hissed, "what do you know?" His face was now unbearably close to mine and that snake-like glare … it was too terrifying to look directly at. I don't know what it was, but something inside me screamed. Perhaps it was the pent up stress accumulating over the past few nights, or maybe it was the fact that I had the most mysterious member of the Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S. staring at me in the face like a snake glaring at its prey before swallowing it whole. But I clenched my fist and sent it flying across Wesker's face. The force wasn't powerful enough to knock him over, but it definitely caught him off guard, giving me a small window of time to escape. I felt his cold skin of his cheeks against my knuckles as the force of my fist pushed him backwards a little.
Taking advantage of the few seconds I bought myself, I dashed past Wesker. It had only been another few seconds when he was up and running at my heels. I pushed past the door that he'd forgotten to close on the way in and into the hallway – the hallway that I actually got to see for the first time without being strapped into a portable bed. But there was no time to enjoy the scenery, as I pushed past doctors and nurses alike, trying desperately to get some space between me and the psycho captain.
"Somebody call security!! Wesker screamed. "This patient is trying to escape!"
"This guy's a fucking murderer!!" I hollered back. "He's responsible for the Raccoon City disaster!!" I was aware of just how ridiculous I sounded – just like a mental patient. And that belief was reinforced as I noticed some odd glances in my direction … that is, BEFORE I pushed them out of the way as I ran.
The two glass doors that served as the exit were quickly approaching. Then again, so was Wesker. Adrenaline fueled my body as I continued sprinting for my freedom, although I didn't doubt that Wesker would pursue me even if I left the hospital. The doors slid open too slowly, and I crashed into them. It seemed like they were made of plexiglass or something because they didn't even crack upon my heavy impact. I could feel the blond dripping from my nose down my face. I landed on the floor and Wesker was moving too quickly to stop himself. His foot kicked into my ribs and he was sent flying THROUGH one of the doors, taking out the glass, shattering it into little cubes that rained down on the both of us. What kind of human could shatter plexiglass moving at that speed? Leon was right about my intuition. I could sense something very wrong with Wesker and it was becoming more and more apparent, from those reptilian eyes to the way the so easily smashed unbreakable glass. Once again, I was able to pick myself up off the ground somehow and continued my way out of the building. I tried to run faster, but the pain in my body from my previously sustained injuries and from when Wesker kicked me in the ribs thwarted my efforts.
The sun was shining brightly in the afternoon sky, but the heat wasn't getting the better of me yet. I knew I wouldn't feel completely safe until I left the hospital – and Wesker – far, far behind me. As I passed an alleyway someone swiftly grabbed me by the shoulders, picking me up off my feet and throwing me into a pile of garbage bags. The world was still spinning, my chest was still burning, but all of that melted away when I saw who was responsible for nabbing me.
I could've sworn I just saw that face earlier that day, but this one seemed a lot more familiar for some reason. He had short dark brown hair with a medium stocky build, wearing his traditional work clothes – blue pants, shin-high black outdoor boots, and a white T-shirt underneath a green sleeveless outdoor vest.
"Relax, Kenny, it's me!" he said.
"Mr. Redfield!" I said, astounded.
"Let's get out of here." He said, helping me up to my feet. "It's not safe."