CHAPTER X
Self-Destructing Ends
They took her, Jill was taken by two tyrants and all Chris could do was hang there. He tugged at his chains and yelled until his lungs went hoarse, both turning out to be fruitless efforts. Jill was in danger and there was nothing that Chris could do about it.
Chris cursed himself for not telling Jill he loved her one last time, for not reaching out to her when she needed him the most. He cursed himself for giving her pain when all that's all he ever wanted to protect her from.
Drowning in his sorrow Chris suddenly cursed himself even harder. How dare he give up hope when all was not lost. He did not know that Jill was dead; and he wasn't going to stop fighting for her until his own breath was gone. Being chained to a wall would not be an exception.
Filled with new resolve Chris started yelling for everything he was worth, though it was indeed a long shot, it was a shot that Chris would never stop taking.
His throat was turning bone dry as he screamed for a savior, his voice reducing itself to nothing but a high pitch plea. The gods, however, must have been with Chris in that lonely dungeon, for at the end of his voice Chris heard his cell begin to open.
"Chris," Came a familiar voice. "Is that you?"
"Leon, yes, thank god."
Through the cell door came Leon, he was followed by Barry, Rebecca and Carlos, each of their faces full of relief when they met his own.
"Guys," Chris spoke frantically, not daring to waist a second on relief "they have Jill. Two tyrants, they just took her. We have to get out of her and save her."
"Of course," Leon replied calmly, from his pocket he pulled out a small golden key. "Like we would ever leave her behind."
As the chains were released Chris desperately wanted to rub his wrist and ankles, but there was no time. The second that he was free Chris was out the cell doors, the others followed questioningly.
"Chris, what are you planning on doing?" Barry's reasonable voice asked. "You're not armed, you have no idea"-
"I don't care," Chris snapped his pace not slowing for a second. "I just have to get to her."
"We all know you have to get to her amigo," Carlos' accent pierced his ears. "But don't be stupid."
Discouraged Chris stopped at a fork in the narrow hallway, and turned to his friends. "Jill's in danger," he pleaded with them desperately. "What the hell do you guys want me to do?"
"Don't go barging in with only your wits would be a start," Barry answered. "We need a plan."
"There's no time!" Chris yelled his frustration and patience battling inside of him. He was ready to storm off when Leon jumped in front of him.
"You guys go find some weaponry and hopefully a way out. Chris and I will go find Jill."
"What if we don't meet up again?" Rebecca asked fearfully.
"Then you guys get yourselves out of here," Chris answered for Leon. "I think we'll have a better chance working with stealth anyway."
"But"- The three of them tried to argue, but Chris didn't have time to hear any of it.
"Go!" He yelled forcibly.
Barry, Carlos and Rebecca all gave each him a feeble nod and a whispered good luck before taking a left at the junction. Moving with haste they quickly became out of Chris' sight.
With a great sense of warmth and affection Chris turned to face Leon. "Thank you," he told the younger man earnestly.
Shrugging Leon told him. "Like I said, there's no way that were going to leave Jill behind."
Having that said the two didn't waste anymore time as they began to hurry on. At a run the two of them continued to move on in a never ending hallway. Chris was starting to worry that this would be a dead end when a not so promising person brought them a promise.
Alfred Ashford stood at another fork of their path; his devilish eyes were staring at the two of them hungrily.
"Oh, how I have dreamt of this moment," Ashford said snidely as they approached.
"Get out of the way Ashford!" Chris knew his voice was deadly, but to little surprise Alfred didn't seem to care. In fact, Chris could have sworn that he liked it.
"Why Redfield? So you can be a knight in shining armor and save your leading lady?" Ashford laughed cynically. "I'm sorry, but this isn't one of those fairy tales."
Chris started to travel angrily towards Ashford, but the devilish man was waiting for such a movement. At Chris' first step Alfred pulled out a gun.
"I'm afraid you're going no where, Redfield."
Contemplating if he should take his chances, Chris was ready to pounce on Ashford when he heard Leon whisper to him.
"You go; I'll take care of Ashford."
Chris threw a glance over to Leon, but his expression held firm. "You gotta go save Jill." Every bone in Chris' body knew that Leon was right, but he still couldn't get his feet to move.
"Just go!" Leon yelled at last before shoving him into the next hallway. The push was all Chris needed. With everything he had Chris broke out into a run, he could hear Ashford's angry cries, but he couldn't let them stop him. Ignoring all other reason Chris just ran.
His quick foot pace didn't stop until at last he came to what he was looking for. An immense laboratory.
At the sight of the clear glass Chris came to a halt, only to proceed on carefully.
The lab wasn't locked, the doors slid open with an unsettling ease, as if they were waiting for him. Chris' instincts of danger were screaming, but all other options vanished when his eyes came upon an operating table. Chris felt his heart skip a beat when he saw a helpless Jill lying naked on top of it.
All other thoughts suddenly disappeared as Chris ran foolishly to Jill.
"That was a foolish mistake on your part, Mr. Kennedy," Ashford snarled. "Letting Redfield go."
"Sometimes you just have to take your chances," Leon retorted back, careful not to take his eyes off of the pistol that was before him.
"I suppose we all do," Ashford replied in a long drawl. "Speaking of… how is Claire doing?"
At the mere mention of Claire's name all Leon's muscles tightened. "What do you mean by that?"
"I think you know exactly what I mean, Mr. Kennedy," Ashford said knowingly.
Falling right into the maniacs trap Leon asked him. "What do you know about Grace?"
"Oh, you mean other then what Adam Skampa told you? Not much, but I be willing to bet it's more then Claire knows. I could hardly see her baring the knowledge of who her daughter really is."
"You're so full of shit," Leon said more defensively then accusingly.
"Am I? Tell me this Mr. Kennedy, have you told Claire what you know?"
Gritting his teeth Leon remained silent.
"I didn't think so."
Leon made an irrational move towards Ashford, who cocked his gun. "Your just as fool hardy as Redfield, do you know that?" Ashford said snidely.
"Alright Ashford, if your telling me the truth then tell me how that innocent child could possibly be your insane sister? Prove me wrong, if you can?"
"You'll know when the time is right, you stupid credent," Ashford replied angrily.
Leon stared at Ashford all the way to the mad glint in his eyes. He tried to read for an opening or weakness. Something that would put Ashford off his track, if only for a moment.
"I wish you could be there at that moment," the nutcase went on. "I wish I could be with you just as the realization hits you. I wish you could see justice prevail and me and my sister re-united." As Alfred finished his last word Leon found the weapon that he had be searching for.
"Your sister was quite the nut job wasn't she, plotting failure after failure."
"My sister was brilliant!" Ashford yelled furiously.
"Right, just like the Veronica virus, or her futile attempts to kill the Redfields."
"Watch your mouth Kennedy!" Ashford said dangerously, but now Leon was on a roll.
"I suppose you would call those things brilliant, it's hellova a lot more then you ever did."
That was Ashford's boiling point. With his eyes glowing with fury he started shooting, but for this Leon was ready. He jumped out of the way of the fired shots; landing at Alfred's feet Leon was quick to take away his balance. Ashford fell to the cement floor, his gun flying from his hands.
On the ground Leon tackled him, the two wrestled, but Alfred had the strength of a wilted flower. Pinning him to the ground Leon released all his anger and pain he held, not only for Ashford, but for Umbrella and all of its seeds of evil. After three swift punches he left the psycho unconscious.
Getting up Leon looked at the pathetic figure, his eyes then darted over to the gun that had flown from Ashford's grasp in the midst of the scramble. Picking the weapon up he moved back over to Ashford and pointed the pistol at his head.
There were so many reasons for him to pull the trigger, so much he could prevent and all he had to do was move his finger…yet Leon couldn't.
The bastard had already destroyed so much, but for whatever reason Leon wouldn't let himself add to that total.
Backing away Leon was going to find the others when he heard Ashford's voice hissed behind him.
"You fool."
Turning back around Leon didn't hesitate, firing two rounds he watched the bullets pierce Ashford's torso. A knife that was in Ashford's hand fell to the floor, the blade's collision with the cement echoed down the hall.
It wasn't what he wanted to do, but standing over Ashford's figure Leon didn't have any regrets. He wouldn't let himself.
Gathering the few shreds he had left of his composure, Leon was about to be on his way when an all too familiar voice echoed throughout the building.
In a cold, curt tone a women's voice spoke "Fifteen-minutes till self-destruction."
Stirring from a deep slumber it took Jill a moment to conquer her drowsiness, and even longer to figure out why the hell she was naked and strapped to an operation table.
Then it hit her.
Suddenly she was overcome with a very vulnerable fear, one that was greatly multiplied when she noticed Charles Spencer approaching her.
"Welcome to consciousness Miss Valentine."
"What the hell are you planning!" She yelled, panicked stricken.
"You know exactly what I'm planning Miss Valentine, you're just going to be the first of your friends, but don't worry they soon will join you."
"You sick-son-of-a-bitch," Jill said acidly, Spencer merely smiled.
"I'm not that bad Miss Valentine," he told her; Jill didn't like the look that was in his eyes. "Not once you get to know me."
Jill stared at Spencer horrified as he began to walk towards her; she now recognized the nasty desire that was flickering in his eyes.
Feeling a scream building in her lungs Jill was about to let it loose, just then she heard a rusting noise come from the laboratory doorway. Her eye's instinctively darted to the source of the sound, unfortunately, so did Spencer's.
They both recognized Chris as he ran towards them; in the span of a second, as Chris raced towards the table; Spencer pounced out into view a pistol clutched in his hand positioning Chris at a gun point.
"Redfield, how the hell did you get out if your cell!" Spencer yelled angrily.
"You keep underestimating our will, Spencer."
"You believe yourself to be so clever don't you Redfield, you think you and all your companions to be so on top of everything. When in truth your crusade is nothing more pathetic."
"It's gotten us this far hasn't it?" Chris told Spencer snidely, the latter just smirked.
"This, my narrow minded friend, is only the tip of the iceberg. You honestly think that Umbrella just stops at a privately owned company?" Jill watched, thinking that Chris would some how respond, but all he did was stand there. His lack of action provoked Spencer to continue on.
"You all fight so hard, but at the end of every day you come up with nothing."
"You can spare me the word games Spencer," Chris spoke up.
"Then you want me to jump to the truth, the truth that you've all so valiantly been fighting against." Spencer paused, his eyes darted between her and Chris, a triumphant grin was plastered against his face. "The government has been behind Umbrella all along, from the beginning we've been working with the very being that you've been working for."
"You can stop with your lies Spencer," Chris told him. "There's no way the U.S government would partake in any of this."
"You're so naïve Redfield. Why do you think we've been striving so hard in our tyrant projects…so the government can have the perfect soldier. Everything that Umbrella has ever done has been at the government's push."
Jill stared at Chris' doubtful expression, feeding off its hope that her inner feelings were quickly destroying.
"Still not convinced Redfield? Why don't you recall your 'trust worthy' F.B.I. How coincidental it must have been in your head to have the very plane that the F.B.I gave you be hijacked. Then again, maybe the thought never crossed your incompetent mind."
Suddenly a single name struck Jill just as it came out of Chris' disbelieving mouth.
"Williams."
"At last he catches on. How easy you and your faithful companions were to manipulate. Right from the beginning you were ripe for the Assistant Director's picking."
"But back in the tunnel," Chris stuttered angrily. "He saved us."
"Saving you from what, Redfield? Saving you from doubting his loyalty to you? Trust me; Williams did exactly everything that I wanted him to. That information that you courageously gathered, its right back where it started. The F.B.I never saw it."
"Then the others"-
"The other agents had no idea, just like you. They were all part of the same plot to get you right here, exactly where I always wanted you."
As Chris' eyes grew big and incredulous, Jill found herself voicing the one singular thought that kept pounding in her head.
"Why?"
At this Spencer turned to her, his eyes were tingling with excitement.
"Because Miss Valentine, I can."
Everything from that point happened extremely fast.
As Spencer's back was turned to him Chris attacked, he was able to kick Spencer's gun from his hand, but the action left him unbalanced. Spencer retailed by punching Chris squarely in the face. Stumbling back a few steps Chris fell back, giving Spencer enough space to pick up his gun and point it once again on his opponent.
In a heavy voice Spencer regained enough breath to say to Chris. "That Mr. Redfield will be the last time I underestimate you."
Jill shut her eyes, not able to bear the scene that was about to unfold. She waited for the horrible sound of a fateful shot being fired; instead all she heard was the sound of shattering glass and a string of Spencer's curses.
Re-opening her eyes Jill's heart rose as she stared at Chris standing over her. He smiled at her, though nervously.
"What happened?" She asked him confused.
Chris didn't answer with words, instead he looked around the laboratory, Jill's eyes followed his gaze.
A pair of tyrants had entered the room, and though the sight sent a chill down Jill's spine, the two monsters seemed to be preoccupied with something else. She immediately looked away when the recognition hit her.
"Is that…"
"Was," Chris corrected, as he begun to untie the ropes that were binding her.
Once un-done the two collapsed into each other's arms. Burying herself in the crane of his neck Jill was ready to never let go when a voice echoed into the room, thrusting reality right back in her face.
"Fifteen-minutes till self-destruction."
Pulling away Jill and Chris looked at each other with terror filled eyes.
"We got to go," Chris told her, taking off his shirt and throwing it on her naked body. "Now!"
AUTHORS NOTE: This is the second to last chapter. My world series is almost over. I just want to say thanks to anyone whose stuck with the story this far.
Always,
Leah
