Claire hit the final keystroke, sighing with relief. She was still in the mansion, but for good reason. After her run in with the dual identity woman and her maybe brother, Claire found a computer. It had been sitting in plain sight directly across from the double door leading into the mansion. It had taken her no more than two minutes to discover it was connected to an outside phone line and another three minutes to contact Leon. With luck Leon would get the message back to Chris.
"If I'm lucky I can be out of here in a matter of hours."
She sidestepped around the desk and headed toward the door. Of course there was always the route the woman claiming to be both Alexia Ashford and Alexandra Wesker had told her about. But could she really trust her? If she was who she claimed to be then she worked for Umbrella. If she wasn't then she was mental. Either choice was not reassuring.
Claire stepped out onto the marble stairs, relived to find it had quit raining. Not that it really mattered what with zombies running around and God knew what else Umbrella had created, still she preferred being dry when she could help it.
She glanced back at the door, giving the woman one last thought, when a cold laugh echoed across the open courtyard. Claire's blood froze as she slowly turned toward the voice. A man stood near the gate to the catwalk, idly leaning against the courtyard wall. Claire's eyes widened.
The man was tall at least 6' if not more, broad shouldered, with light blonde hair. He was dressed completely in black, including the dark sunglasses that rested comfortably on his face. There was an inkling of remembrance and Claire was almost positive she had seen him somewhere before. Claire raised the gun, moving to aim for him when he suddenly disappeared.
"What the…"
"Right here Miss Redfield."
Claire slowly turned her head to find the Man in Black standing behind her and slightly to her right. She gasped softly, she hadn't even seen him move. The Man in Black laughed again, sending shivers up Claire's spine.
"Where is that dear brother of yours Miss Redfield?" The man's voice was soft yet commanding. "He and I have unfinished business to discuss."
"Who are you?" Claire demanded, stumbling slightly as she tried to back down the stairs. "What are you?"
"I'm…different."
The Man in Black grinned and suddenly Claire found herself laying face down on the ground, a sharp pain resounding in her head, and her gun laying too far to reach. She tried to push herself up but was slammed back into the ground when a booted foot came down on her back.
"Don't leave just yet Miss Redfield, we're just getting reacquainted."
"Reacquainted?" Despite her dangerous position, her curiosity was peaked. "Do I know you?"
"I'm hurt you don't remember me." The Man in Black laughed again. "But I bet your dear big brother will."
"What do you want with Chris?"
Her own safety took a backseat to her brother's. Even if she didn't know who the man was, she could certainly tell he was dangerous. So if he wanted her brother, by God she was going to know why.
"Your dear big brother ruined my plans, resulting in some unpleasant…changes."
The Man in Black twisted his foot, pushing Claire further into the ground and knocking the air from her lungs. She coughed as the weight lifted unexpectedly, allowing her to breath again. She turned her head, glaring up at her assailant.
"I don't know where Chris is and even if I did…I wouldn't tell you!"
"Pity."
Claire bit back a scream as the pressure on her back increased. If he kept it up he would snap her back in two. Leaving her alive, yet helpless against anything that might come along and want to eat her. Then again, she supposed that was his plan all along. Without warning the pressure let up and she felt his foot move from her back. She coughed, looking up at the man to see him listening intently to something from an earpiece.
"I'm on my way." He dropped his hand back to his side and grinned down at Claire. "I do hope we meet again Miss Redfield, I've found this little interaction to be most enjoyable."
Before she could come up with a snappy comeback the man leaped into the air. At the same time the door behind her clicked open.
"What the hell?"
Claire had no idea who it was, nor did she care. She was busy watching a man leap an eight foot high granite wall. In the blink of an eye the man was gone, leaving Claire and her unknown visitor in stunned silence.
After everything Alex had seen she was completely confused. After changing clothes she had run out of the mansion as fast as could, hoping to catch up with Claire before she got to the plane. As she had been making her mad dash down the stairs in the lobby she had heard two voices in the courtyard. One she had identified as Claire, the other…well the other sounded like Albert. Of course that was impossible, but she had bolted through the front doors just the same.
Hope springs eternal, or so they say.
What she had found was Claire laying on the ground and someone, or something, leaping over the courtyard wall. From the brief look she had gotten she was almost certain is was a someone. But in all her days with Umbrella she had never seen anyone that could pull something like that off. It certainly wasn't a zombie that was for sure.
"Claire…" Alex's voice was uncharacteristically confused. "…what the hell did I miss?"
"A man in black leaping over an eight foot high wall…"
Claire sounded as confused as Alex. Slowly the younger girl climbed to her feet and retrieved the gun. Not surprising, Alex found herself looking down the barrel of it a second later. Alex slowly raised her hands.
"Lady, just what the fuck is going on?"
"Actually…" Alex smiled grimly. "The wall is ten feet high."
"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Claire's arm was shaking slightly, either from fright or shock…maybe both. "Who the hell was that?"
"Look Claire, I just got here, alright." Alex narrowed her eyes and with the sunglasses on top of her head for once, Claire could read every ounce of annoyance in them. "How the hell should I know?"
"Look Lady…"
"And stop calling me Lady, it makes me feel old. My name is Alexandra or Alex or Wesker…pick one."
"Fine, Wesker. All I know is that some guy in black tried to kill me and apparently wants to kill my brother. I want to know how much you know about what is going on."
Claire's hand was no longer shaking. The anger at Alex was pushing away any fear she may have had. Alex on the other hand, was more than a bit nervous about whether or not Claire planned on shooting her. It would definitely suck if she had finally gotten out from under both Umbrella's and Kent's thumb only to be shot by a college student in the middle of a T-Virus outbreak. She really couldn't think of a more ironic way of dying.
"All I know is somebody attacked this installation about six hours after you were brought in. I seriously doubt it was anyone affiliated with the former S.T.A.R.S. agents. My best guess would be a rival company of some kind. Umbrella does have its share of enemies."
"What about you?" Claire tightened her grip on the gun. "Whose side are you on?"
"My own." Alex lowered her hands. "I don't work for Umbrella anymore."
"But you did, Chris told me."
"Yes, I did, but I don't anymore alright. I watched an entire city get overrun with zombies then blow up. I watched as an entire team of U.B.C.S. agents were killed in order to test a new B.O.W. I murdered three men in cold blood, then…oh and you're gonna like this…I was drugged up, reeducated, and sent here to pose as a lunatic psychopath's dead sister."
Alex took a deep breath, now shaking from her own barley contained rage. Reliving old memories was never something fun, especially with the memories Alex possessed.
"So, you know, after all that I just figured on retiring early. Maybe kick back and blow up Umbrella HQ with about six hundred pounds of C-4 and some dynamite."
"You're serious?"
"Look Claire if I still worked for Umbrella, you'd have been dead the moment I found out you didn't have any information. Long story short…you'd have never gotten up off the ground. Not unless you turned into a zombie that is, then I'd have had to shoot you again."
Claire finally looked convinced and lowered the gun. Alex was exceptionally glad of that. Now maybe they could move forward instead of having this run around of questioning which was getting them nowhere fast.
"Alex, about that guy." Claire bit her lip. "I swear…I think it was Captain Wesker."
"Claire…Captain Wesker is dead."
"I only met him once, but I'm almost positive."
"I saw the tape Claire. A Tyrant shoved a claw right through his chest. He was dead before he hit the ground. Chris was right there when it happened, trust me he's dead."
Claire bit her lip again, glancing back toward the garden wall. Alex remained silent. There was no way her brother was still alive, it was impossible.
"What now?"
"Me, I say we get the hell out of here." Alex flicked her head toward the second gate. "We get in that sub, get on the plane, and haul ass."
"Can you fly a plane?"
"I can fly a chopper, how hard can it be?"
"Alright…shit!"
"What?"
"Steve."
Alex tilted her head. "Who the hell is Steve?"
"A prisoner, I met him earlier. We have to find him."
"Why do things always have to get complicated? Alright I'll head back toward the training facility and U.B.C.S. barracks and see if I can find him. You head to the plane." Alex pulled a radio from behind her back and held it out to Claire. "Take this, I found a couple in Alfred's office. Kind of glad I grabbed them now. I'm on channel 2."
Claire took the radio and carefully clicked through the channels. In the meantime, Alex did an about face and headed toward the courtyard's main gate. She slide the magnum out of her shoulder holster and flicked the safety off as her hand fell on the gate's latch.
"Hey Alex."
Alex turned. "Yea?"
"I gotta say, Chris was right about you." Claire smiled. "He said you were a good person."
"No I'm not. I'm just not like those other bastards that make up Umbrella."
Alex turned again towards the gate when Claire called out to her a second time.
"Alex!"
Alex sighed. "What now?"
"Be careful."
Claire's face was etched with worry. Alex grinned, reached up, and slide the sunglasses into place over her eyes.
"Tell it to the zombies."
And with those parting words she opened the gate and disappeared…