4. Negotiations.

The Umbrella agent's blank gaze lowered with an eerie glare. The red color of his goggles glinted from the dim lighting as he held Sherry closer. The girl cried out in pain, and Claire tensed, feeling herself on the verge of panic. Her brother had taught- and warned her- that anyone trained in the military would also be most likely to use pressure-points in their choke holds in subduing their captives… could he doing the same thing to Sherry?

Claire had to be discreet.

"Please," Claire said, stepping forward and hazarding the situation. "Please, she's just a kid. Why don't you just let her go?"

The Umbrella agent remained silent.

Claire had the disturbing feeling that he was in a hurry and that he might be close to shooting her dead just to get on with it. She lowered her gun in a gesture of temporary peace to placate him, but he didn't do the same. Chills crept down her arms; this guy seriously disturbed her to the third degree. The mask shrouding his face lent to the emotionless, cold visage of his demeanor more than she would've thought possible. No wonder young Sherry looked so terrified in his grasp! He seemed to lack all the emotion needed to characterize a human. Peering at him, Claire took the chance to take in every detail, starting from his gas mask down to the pattern of his BDU belt webbings. Along with the Umbrella logo on his shoulder pads and helmet, he also had a nametag that simply said, 'HUNK'.

"She's just a kid," Claire said. Although she knew she had to keep control of her emotions, she just didn't care right now. She didn't have time for this! This agent, this Umbrella Agent, Hunk was taking a little girl hostage in the middle of a situation where hostages weren't needed! "What do you want from her?"

The agent tilted his head, giving Claire the only evidence that he even heard her. Then his gun aimed a little bit higher, to prepare for recoil. He apparently wouldn't give her the chance. Claire's eyes widened, there was no time for her to-

But before Hunk could fire off a shot, Sherry squirmed in his arms, and screamed, "NO!"

She kicked and raved, squirming like a wet fish, forcing Hunk to drag her back quickly, lowering his gun. Claire had hers aimed and cocked before he subdued Sherry down back under his control. Watching, Claire seethed at him, the pistol in her hands shivering slightly. Hunk obviously didn't know how important Sherry was to her, but she'd make him know it. Deftly cocking back the ring hammer, her finger slipped inside the trigger guard and touched the trigger.

Hunk spoke. The slight mechanical grating in his tone made her wince.

"I need this girl."

Claire's response was immediate. "Her name is Sherry Birkin!"

She knew, from some of her college psychology classes, of a certain tactic that most killers would use to distance themselves from acknowledging the humanity of their victims, called 'subject dissonance'; thinking of them as a mere subject rather than a human being, making them easier to kill. The toneless and casual way Hunk referred to Sherry sent chills up Claire's spine, so she had to repeat, "Her name is Sherry Birkin. She's my friend."

"I know her name." Hunk said. "And I don't care if she's your friend, civilian. She's not mine."

"Then why do you need her?"

Hunk didn't reply, opting to move to strike her down with his machine gun instead. Sherry kicked out and screamed even harder, despite the choke hold, and the operative hefted her up into the air, forcing her to stop.

Realizing that Sherry was monitoring the Umbrella agent and moving to escape every time Hunk tried to do something to kill Claire, Claire said, "Sherry- honey, please don't move- you don't need to do anything. And you! Answer me."

Hunk obviously didn't want to play along. Sherry, ignoring the pony-tailed woman's protests, strained against his grip, and the agent relented a bit. "You don't need to know."

"Yes I do!" Claire said. She was becoming irate at his curt responses.

"Look," she said, visibly forcing herself to calm down. "Please. Just tell me what you need from her. We don't need to do anything rash, okay?"

There was a hiss of disdain from his gas mask. "I won't indulge you in amateurish negotiations. I'll explain this to you only once, civilian. This girl is vital to the completion of my mission. Any obstacles are to be put down. You're in my way. Move."

She didn't move.

"You fucking asshole, Sherry's not a thing! That's my friend you're holding there, and I don't care if she's not your friend, she's mine! If you hurt her, I am going to kill you. I am going to kill you."

Hunk didn't seem to be bothered by her threat, although, Claire could see, something else was already troubling him.

The Umbrella agent moved softly, and for a second, Claire thought he was going to try killing her again. She had a feeling that if he did it now, Sherry would be helpless to stop it. But he stayed on the trigger and asked, not without a tinge of incredulity in his voice, "Why?"

"Why, what?" Claire asked, edging closer. She might have a chance.

In the darkness, Hunk was contemplating a word that she kept blurting out.

"Why is she your friend, civilian? You're so willing to die for the child, yet she doesn't concern you, nor your survival, in any way. Why would you die for such a hindrance?"

Claire was stunned at his barrage of questions. She didn't know how to answer. Looking down at Sherry, the girl stared back at Claire, determined not to show any more fear. Hunk watched the pony-tailed woman.

"Tell me, civilian."

Understanding maybe just a bit, Claire narrowed her eyes

"Do you have any friends?" She said.

Hunk merely watched. His grip on Sherry tightened slightly. Claire moved closer. She asked again:

"Any at all?"

Notes: Another blurb of a chapter, but I've got a review! Of course, Yuki, hangovers do indeed suck, but the literary freedom to write all sorts of amazing stories in alcohol-induced throes are quite awesome... though I don't recommend it for every writer. Anyway, more Hunkage. I always imagined Hunk to be a sort of loner-type, the 'wolf' of the group, so to speak, since he's probaby jaded from all the dying teammates around him.

I haven't seen many good fictions about Hunk lately, and the ones I have seen had him with the personality of a jock, spouting out things like "your piece of meat is here" (I'm not lying), or being a Chris-type character with the gung-ho attitude, and so on and so on. Although some are good readings, I can't really envision Hunk in any of those roles, I'm sorry to say, and it dampens my enjoyment of the story a bit.

Which is why I wrote this, because I want to try and see what kind of character I can forge out of Hunk while sticking with the personality he seems to have in the games, and I hope people will continue to do the same without veering to extremes such as football jock Hunk.

Thanks for reviewing, man.

-Jeremy (Ronald)