In a matter of minutes, what had once been the hub of tactical coordination in this private military maneuver had been ripped to shreds. That - that thing had taken what was Umbrella's task force and in it's wake left an empty husk of death and disorder. Had Claire been aware of the activity around her, she would have seen chaos incarnate. Any soldier still breathing and able to move after the sudden assault on the base quickly made their way from camp with no regard to orders or regulations. Everyone seemed to have a common destination in mind - away from this madness.
Claire wasn't aware of the soldiers' actions. She wasn't sure how long she stood there. Though the sounds of the pursuit had long since faded, all Claire could see was the look on Leon's face as he told her to run. The look he had once he realized who the intended target was. It broke her heart to bring it to mind, but she clearly recalled the moment of detached acceptance that flittered across his face just before it turned into a steeled resolve as he ordered her away from him.
Damn him for always playing hero. Just like Chris. Always trying to keep me out of things I'm already involved in. How is he going to stop that thing alone? We got through this together, why does he keep pushing me away like this?
Rambo. That was the answer. Boys spent too much time watching war hero movies, and this was the result. When they got out of this, she and Leon were going to have a long talk about the difference between Hollywood and reality.
Moaning pulled her from he internal meanderings. Not moaning as she's heard it through the night, rising from dead lips. Instead it was the pained moan coming from a very live person returning to consciousness. She turned and pushed the tent flap back, peering inside at the havoc she and Leon had unleashed moments earlier. The forms of the guards remained motionless where they fell, but Steiner seemed to be coming around, if the writhing fetal form clutching his groin counted for anything.
She walked over and pushed Steiner onto his back with her foot. He let out another moan, then cried out in pain as she straddled his chest, pinning him down with a knee on each arm. His tone had a definite whining quality to it.
"Quiet," Claire commanded as she leaned in, her weight pushing on his arms. She grabbed his collar with one hand and held the 9mm to his neck with the other. She watched as Steiner glanced around the room, looking desperately for assistance. She would have smiled when his panicked faced looked back up into hers once he realized he was alone in here, but the image of Leon running off with that monster chasing him drove any calm emotion from her mind.
Steiner saw the doubt in her expression and grasped at it quickly, "Get off me! You'll regret this. Guards!"
Claire pressed the gun into his cheek, "Shut up!" she hissed at him. "You troops are deserting as we speak. Some creature tore into your base and ripped this place up. What was that thing?"
Steiner looked confused a moment, whether by the fact an 8 foot tall monster was roaming around, or by the fact that the previously well-maintained emergency base was now in shambles, Claire didn't know or even care. Too many questions were fighting for her attention.
"That thing - long leather coat, big teeth, stitches all over the place. Kept saying S.T.A.R.S.' - what the hell was it? Why does it want Leon?"
At this, Steiner demeanor changed immediately. He got this big grin on his face, like a kid who snuck a cookie from the cookie jar. He knew what she was talking about. What upset Claire though, was how he gave her the once over and began talking to her in a truly condensending way, as if she wasn't the one with a gun pointed in his face.
"Now Ms. Redfield, surely you can see that things are far from out of my control. That B.O.W. is but one reason why things are still well in hand. If you wish to see Mr. Kennedy live through this, if in fact he is still alive.... highly unlikely as that is," he almost muttered the last part to himself as if lost in thought, "you'll need to let me up."
Claire stared at him incredulously. What could this thing do that would give him this much confidence? Steiner continued to look up at her, quite full of himself despite his current predicament. "Come now, Ms. Redfield, you don't want to be doing this. Threats and torture do not become you. Just give me the gun and we can get the matter resolved rather quickly."
It was as Steiner's smug expression grew that Claire realized it wasn't confidence in his secret weapons, but confidence in the fact that Steiner believe to have Claire pegged. He obviously didn't believe that she'd go through with this interrogation. That she wasn't up do going what had to be done to get the answers she wanted.
But was he wrong? This wasn't what she wanted for herself. This wasn't who she was. There were lines she thought she'd never cross - never even have to consider crossing in this life. Damnit, she didn't even like guns! She'd learned to use them to reassure her brother. Chris had wanted to make sure she could protect herself if he wasn't around. But this was different. This was dark and malicious. This wasn't who she was.
Claire looked down at Steiner's smirking form. Before this night, things had been different. Things had made sense. Things had felt safer.
Now? Inside, she new things had changed. She could feel the difference in herself. She looked down at the captor-turned-captive, the man with the answer she needed. The man with the answers that could save the lives of the people important to her.
If asked, she would admit it wasn't a conscious decision. It was nothing she had done before this nightmarish night. But now, she looked upon the prone figure and weighed her options. She'd seen madness in the eyes of a mother who had put ambition before family, and the absence of a soul through the eyes of walking corpses. She learned what hoped looked like in the eyes of a burgeoning hero, and what courage looked like through the eyes of a little girl. Now she sat in judgment over the man below her, and she could see that past the exterior of outrage and confidence lay a core of fear and cowardice.
Before tonight, if she was honest with herself, she could not do what she was doing now. But before tonight she didn't harbor the need she did now. In one evening, her priorities had changed so drastically, Claire could hardly remember what she had wanted before. She'd be damned if she didn't do everything she could to save Leon and Sherry after making it this far.
Steiner saw none of the internal conflict that battled within Claire; but when asked after this moment, he could tell the asker about how he had seen what determination looked like in the eyes of a young woman wielding a 9mm.
Shifting her weight to her left leg, and thus inspiring a new whimper of pain from Steiner, Claire moved her right leg down his left arm, past the elbow. She then placed the muzzle of her gun in the spot on his shoulder that mirrored Leon's wound, and before Steiner could gather himself to protest, she unloaded a round into the soft flesh.
A cry rang out as an echo the the gunshot that filled the tent. Steiner's form struggled beneath Claire's body trying to get away and cradle the wound, but Claire didn't relinquish any of the control she had. Instead, she leaned closer to Steiner's sweaty, panicked face and said with an eerie calm, "Tell me about that monster. Now."
Steiner stopped struggling, but his chest was heaving as if he was unable to draw breath fast enough. Each exhale was laden with a whimper of pain. His eyes darted around the room, obviously hoping that someone would rush in having heard the gunshot, but Claire's gaze never wavered. Having seen the carnage outside, she was confident that there was no back up to come running to his aid.
When no answer was forthcoming, Claire pressed the hot muzzle of the gun into Steiner's new wound, drawing from him an even louder cry of agony. "You seemed to like this method of interrogation when Leon was in your place, Major, so let's give this a try. What was that thing - that B.O.W. as you called it?"
Self-preservation kicked in, and Steiner found his options limited as he looked at the gun in front of him and the angry woman atop him. "I - It's called Nemesis. One of the projects that was developed with the T-virus," he stammered, pausing. With a little prodding by Claire and her gun, he whimpered and continued. "It had been released once the outbreak of the T-Virus in Raccoon City had been confirmed. It was part of a cleanup program set into action by Umbrella. It had been sent to find the former member of S.T.A.R.S. and eliminate them."
Claire's heart slammed in her chest.
Oh God. Chris. Please tell me you really are in Europe now and this thing didn't find you!
Steiner picked up on Claire's momentary distraction and attempted to make a move for the gun, but Claire felt this struggling before he could get far and turned her complete attention back to her captive. She pressed the gun into his aggravated, bleeding wound as she brought her left hand up to his neck, gripping it tightly, provoking a yelp before the sounds of his strangled breath filled the room.
"Let's not try that again, all right? Why is it after S.T.A.R.S.? Did it find any of them?"
Claire relaxed her grip only slightly, just enough to let the Major speak. "I don't know." At at increased pressure on his windpipe, he implored, "I don't! It doesn't report to me - I was only told it would be in the city. But we never should have seen in. Any targets were reported to be further downtown. We were waiting for it to finish before pressing in further."
Claire sat, disbelieving what she was being told. "Why S.T.A.R.S.? Umbrella had already gotten them suspended - why did they send that thing after them now?"
"They had been discredited because of their absurd accusations. With the outbreak of the virus, their stories would have commanded more interest from higher government offices. It would be beyond what Umbrella could control locally, so they had to be eliminated to assure any sort of damage control."
Claire couldn't squelch her concern for her brother, but this new information was only creating more questions. "But why was it after Leon? He was never in S.T.A.R.S. - he hadn't even been an officer before yesterday!"
Steiner seemed to consider this a moment, wince as he croaked, "I don't know." He yelped as Claire leaned in again, applying pressure to several painful places upon his person before he managed a strangled, "Wait - Wait!"
"Tell me," Claire commanded coldly.
"The Nemesis is a specially designed Tyrant; it was created with one specific purpose - tracking and eliminating it's designated prey. For lack of a better definition, it's a bloodhound of sorts. Each time one is sent out, it tracks the subject or subjects by pheromones it was genetically created to hunt. To assure it finds the proper quarry, the subject is injected with an agent that bonds to them on a cellular level to produce a pheromone untraceable by anything except the Nemesis and a few other olfactory driven animals."
"After the incident at the Spencer Mansion, the S.T.A.R.S. members that survived had been placed in quarantine overnight. They had been inoculated while being treated for their wounds, and Umbrella agents placed within the department had included the Nemesis inoculation with the rest of the treatment. That way the Nemesis protocol was an available option should the Raccoon situation deteriorate. As you can see, the situation turned bad quickly, and Umbrella invoked the Nemesis protocol."
Claire's head spun as she considered the information, remembering Chief Irons and the reports telling of his involvement with Umbrella. She recalled the times before when Chris would speak fondly of the police chief and her anger at that betrayal burned within her, refocusing her thoughts on her unanswered question. "How does this have anything to do with Leon? "
Steiner's demeanor was changing; his pale skin and heavy-lidded look indicated that his untreated wound would cut their question-and-answer session short soon. "I don't know for sure. I suspect that after S.T.A.R.S. was disbanded, Umbrella was concerned about officers within the department who were loyal to the S.T.A.R.S. team and decided to slowly include the entire department in their preventative action. It would be a sensible procedure. They must have worked up a plan to use the S.T.A.R.S. inoculation on all officers. A sudden vaccination department wide would be more suspicious than the company wanted, so they were working it in slowly, slipping it in where it would garner the least suspicion. So the S.T.A.R.S. inoculation must have been added to the standard medical examination given to all incoming officers, including the 6 officers hired to replace the now defunct S.T.A.R.S. division."
Claire was unable to keep the hint of panic from her voice, "So that thing is just going to keep chasing him? It can find him anywhere? How long does it last?"
Steiner took in a deep breath, then tried to wet his lips to continue speaking even though it seemed his mouth had long since gone dry. "I said the serum bonds on a cellular level. It won't wear off. The only thing that can stop it is the developed counteragent." The shock from his wounds was keeping the delirious Major in an informative mindset, but Claire felt that her time for this interrogation was running short.
"Counteragent? Do you have some here? "
"The Nemesis control group was set up in a different camp, further in the city. They were tracking the B.O.W.... making sure it finished the job......"
"Steiner?" She asked the limp form below her. She dropped the gun and grabbed his collar, shaking it, "Damnit Steiner, wake up! I need to know where to find the other camp!"
With no response forthcoming, she let the unconscious form fall to the ground. Sighing, she grabbed her gun and stood up. Her mind was reeling - Leon was as good as dead. That thing could find him anywhere, like Leon was a perpetual "X" on some damn treasure map no matter where he went....
Map? Her eyes darted desperately around the tent. This was their base of operations, right? Steiner wasn't much of a soldier, but he had that nerdy buried-in-paperwork-and-loving-it feel to him. The area was a bit of a mess from the struggle earlier, but before her stood a large set of tables with all sorts of light, equipment, and paper scattered around.
She practically dove at the table, shifting reports and pictures aside, letting things fall to the floor as she rifled through all the information before her. Nothing seemed to be fitting what she was searing for. After a few minutes, she stood back up, resting her left hand upon her head as she sighed in frustration. Looking around in irritation, she froze as her gaze fell upon the bulletin board before her. There, pinned to a cork backboard, sat a large map of Raccoon City. Upon it was marked various bits of information such as blocked off roads, reclaimed areas, and, to her great relief, other Umbrella camps positioned throughout the city.
Ripping the map from the pins affixing it to the board, Claire held it before her as her eyes roamed for the information she so desperately craved. And with a squeak of joy, she found the other camp Steiner had been talking about. Unfortunately it looked to be about 2 1/2 miles due east from here, through some nasty, mainly unexplored regions of the city. Also, there was no guarantee that the camp had not been overrun by the undead residents of Raccoon, or that Leon had survived his encounter with Nemesis.....
Claire shook the doubt creeping into her mind. No. What this was was hope. Hope that she could get that thing off Leon's trail and they could go find Sherry and get the hell away from this God forsaken city once and for all.
A shuffling noise caught her attention, and she turned to see one of the soldiers from their earlier skirmish had regained consciousness and was looking directly at her. For the briefest of moments, they stared at each other, but in a blink he began scrambling for his gun as Claire crumpled the map in her grip and made a mad dash for the entrance.
By the time she heard the frustrated swearing of the soldier, she had taken up a secluded spot to watch from. The soldier scanned the area one last time before grudgingly heading back into the tent to attend to Steiner.
Claire unfurled the map, and with one last check on her destination, folded the paper and secured it on her person. She darted off into the night with her determination renewed and her hope for a happy ending to this hellish adventure rekindled.
A/N - So I remember now why I don't update more often. I've spent my whole day trying to get these chapters uploaded right, only to find that I can't keep them as long as they used to be. I had to split my 2nd and 3rd chapter into 2 parts each. So if you're wondering how I went from 4 chapters to 7 with only one chapter that's actually new - that's how. Man I hate this uploading system.
I won't even speculate when my next chapter is going to be because I don't know. It's a combination of when the muse strikes me and how bad people want to see a new chapter. So help me out and review - let me know what you think!