Chris and I looked both ways before exiting the alley, making sure the coast was clear. I saw nothing but the sunshine in my eyes, illuminating the city streets with its afternoon rays. I looked into the direction of the hospital for Captain Wesker, hoping that he hadn't bothered to pursue me after I exiting the hospital like a caged hound seeking freedom. In a sense, that's what I felt like.
We jogged down the street at a medium pace, occasionally glancing back to make sure nobody was following us. As for the other citizens on the street … we got a few strange looks from them, but nothing to suggest one of them was going to call the cops on us. Not that I blame them. I'd think there'd be something suspicious about two guys running somewhere, making sure nobody was following them.
Chris stopped me in front of a run down gray ford truck sitting by a parking meter. "Get in," he ordered.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"We're getting the hell away from here." That was a good enough answer for me. He pulled open the door to the passenger side and I jumped in, immediately feeling the heat in the vehicle sear my skin. Reaching over the worn leather seats, I unlocked Chris's door and he entered the vehicle, pulling out the keys from his pockets and inserting it into the ignition. His driving abilities scared the crap out of me as he pulled out at full speed without even looking for oncoming cars.
"Whoa! Watch out there!" I cried, holding on the dashboard. "I haven't even gotten my seatbelt on yet."
He gave me a funny look. "You're telling me how to drive?"
"Well I'm studying driving theory now," I replied confidently. "I was gonna book my road test soon. But then Raccoon City happened …"
Chris just smirked, turning his head towards the road. "Whatever you say, Squirt."
"So … what are you doing around the Raccoon City vicinity?" I asked.
"I don't even know I should be letting you in on all this classified information…" That was when I remembered. I told Claire that Chris was in Paris! She was probably on her way there now! But … how? Now that Chris was here, she wouldn't need to travel all the way to France to find her brother. And what if Umbrella was looking for her, just as they were hunting down Leon, Sherry and me? I had to tell Chris about his sister. "I decided to postpone our trip to Umbrella's European location. Barry and I didn't feel good about leaving Jill in Raccoon, especially with what's going on over there now. But when we tried to get back into the city, we found that the authorities had it barricaded. Nobody was allowed in or out.
"Oh, so that's why they took us …"
"And Jill's in there. They probably won't let her out because she could be infected … But I'll be damned if I ever settle for that. Christ, listen to me talking about her like she's alright. I don't even know if she's alive."
"She is," I said quickly.
Chris looked at me, his eyes suddenly lighting up. "Are you sure!? Jill's really alive!?"
"I ran into her and one of her friends when I was trying to escape the city," I explained. "She looked hurt. She's … been infected."
"No …" The light in Chris's eyes suddenly disappeared. "We survived the mansion incident only for her to be infected in the end. I'm aware that you might not know the answer but … do you know if she suffered?"
"Her friend Carlos was trying to find some kind of a vaccine at the Raccoon hospital. I went with him, but we got separated. I don't know if he managed to save her or not. But Jill's a S.T.A.R.S. member. She's a fighter. I don't know how, but something tells me she'll come out of this alive."
"Damn, I hope so," Chris mumbled more to himself than to me. "What were you running from earlier?"
"Mr. Redfield …"
"Chris, please!" he interrupted.
"Alright … Chris …" I began shakily at first, "you're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you. Captain Wesker is alive."
He paused for a moment and let out a loud laugh. "Do you seriously think you're funny!?" he asked.
"No, Mr. Red …, Chris! I'm being serious! He tried to get me to leak information to him about who I was involved with while escaping Raccoon. He said I knew too much and he wanted me to spill the beans on everyone."
"That's impossible," Chris said stubbornly. "I saw Wesker die in the mansion, right in front of my eyes. The guy was impaled!"
"Well whoever killed him didn't do a proper job. I swear he's back there and he came looking for me!"
"Even if Wesker was alive, why would he come after you? If he truly wanted everyone to believe he was dead, then he would've kept a low profile."
"I don't know why he would bother to come and see me. He only seemed to be interested all of a sudden when I mentioned that I knew Umbrella was behind everything."
"Umbrella participates in bioweapons research. I wouldn't be surprised if one of their scientists found a way to clone. But whatever the case, the man you saw was NOT Wesker. Like I said, I saw him die."
I tried to protest, but realized it was no use. As convincing as that man in the hospital was, he couldn't have been Captain Wesker. Sure the guy looked like him, sounded like him and even dressed like him, but Chris would never lie about what he saw.
"I'm sorry you got dragged into this, Kenny," Chris said, the regret sounding quite genuine in his voice.
"Well, I got myself into it …" I replied. "I know too much, and now people know that." Oh right, Claire! "And there's one more little bit of information I have for you that I think you've gotta know."
"Okay, I'm all ears."
"But before I tell you, you MUST swear to me that you won't get mad."
"What did you do, Kenny?"
"I didn't do anything! I just … you know … ran into a couple of people and …"
"What did you do!?" he asked, more firmly this time. I glanced at the steering wheel, purposely avoid eye contact with him, noticing his white knuckled death grip on the steering wheel.
"You know how you didn't want me to tell anyone where you were going?"
"You leaked to somebody, didn't you? Damn it, how am I supposed to stay undercover when I've got you running around the place with classified information!?"
"Relax, Chris! I didn't tell anyone outside of S.T.A.R.S.!"
"Who did you spill to?"
"Your sister, Claire." The car screeched to a halt suddenly. I found my body being thrown towards the dashboard and I had to push my hands forwards to prevent my face from carving a mold into it.
"You told Claire!?" he asked, trying hard to surpress the anger I could sense building up. "Do you realize what you've done? Now she's gonna come looking for me and Umbrella will take notice of her and probably use her to try and bring us down! You've dragged her into this mess that's supposed to concern ONLY the S.T.A.R.S. members! Kenny, how could you be so stupid!?"
"Are you sure it was Claire and not some Umbrella spy?"
"She looked like you."
"God DAMN!" He smashed the sides of his fists into the horn of the steering wheel, resulting in a brief honk.
"Look," I said calmly, taking my seatbelt off. "I know I wasn't supposed to say anything, but Claire was genuinely worried about you. She was caught up in the mess long before I had anything to do with it. She went into Raccoon City to look for you on her own accord. If you had told her what you were up to in the first place, she would have never gone to Raccoon and put herself in that kind of situation. She survived pure hell just to find out where you were and came out with nothing more than she went in with. I think she deserved that much. And if you still have a problem with that, maybe I was better off with Wesker back at the hospital." I opened up the car door and prepared to step out.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, the look on his face telling me that if I dared to step out of the truck, it would be Raccoon City all over again for me.
"I've caused enough trouble for you," I replied simply.
"That doesn't mean I want you to get nabbed by the Umbrella agents. You're coming with me to headquarters."