Chapter 6. "Secrets Part 1."

A lone man sat in his office, the room was dark except for the flicker from a bank of observation monitors, and ten of them all over the place where he could watch everyone, the radioman never stopped to talk about the outbreak where couldn't help the menacing smile on his face. "You're not responsible for this, are you?" A cocky board voice echoed behind him. A chuckle escaped his lips, and he didn't bother to look. He knew exactly who it was.

"Do you really think I'm that reckless? I know who is behind this, and the consequences will bite him in the ass."

A woman entered the office and took a seat on the armrest next to him. "He never listens to me, I warned him: leave Hunk out of this. You don't want him as your enemy, but he went through with the plan anyway." She gazed at the soundless black-and-white screens.

With all the funds they would earn, the woman pondered why they don't have more colored TVs. She knew it would be useless to bring it up anyways, she shrugged the thought off.

The collected man laid back on the chair, most of his attention was focused on a specific screen. Someone else walked in the room then paced back and forth like a troubled animal, "It's too late now to do anything, he's going to die." The man on the chair pointed at the screen with his index finger.

"Along with the one who paid him to go with the elimination plan, the past is coming back dear heart I knew this will happen, that's why I never took any part of this." The man stopped for a moment and looked at her to emphasize his point.

The woman chuckled and crossed her arms, the whole situation amused her, though he had a point. Hidden secrets will begin to float, the spark was lit as the ensuing wildfire will spread… and the two of them have a front-row seat. "Well, it's going to be entertaining to watch this unfold, it's too bad I didn't bring popcorn with me."

"Operatives from the Wolfpack arrived five minutes ago, over." A radio buzzed, his voice crackling through the dimly lit room.

The collected man smiled at the woman and leaned in. "Copy that, I'm ready." Silence filled the darkened room. There was no need to talk about what would happen when they entered the town. The mercenary has never been the type to speak more than it was necessary, anyway. He did press buttons on the computer in the side and brought the mic closer.

'It's all coming down, I won't fail.' The collected man thought, watching the new screen.

"Hello, Vector, Bertha." He could see them in a clear view of the sky.

The two members were silent and hesitated for a moment, "Chairman Wesker! What do you want?"

Vector answered. "How did you…"

"Well I don't want to lose good mercenaries of the organization, what do you think?" He sneered back. "Listen to me I have information on Hunk's whereabouts and what's going on around."

"We're listening, sir," Bertha replied.

(...)

A giant bloated corpse emerged before them, spreading a white liquid all over the place it walked.

"What in the world is that?" Claire thought out loud. "Some kind of an animal?" she aimed at the thing and fired at the torso's upper region, or what she could assume to be a torso.

Once a bullet struck it, the glossy skin of it had a prolonged ripple throughout its body. Claire's skin crawled, and her gun clicked on the fourth bullet. She kept calming then slowly walked back to have a chance to reload. Hunk came forward as he waited for the perfect moment to counter, the creature trembled and bend down charging toward him. Hunk frowned and bent down swiftly to dodge the thick arm, and his knife went through its chest. The force of the blow forced the creature to fall back to where it was. Claire's gun clicked, then lowered it and came closer as Hunk watched the beast. "Did we kill it?"

Though Claire didn't get an answer from him once again. "Hello! Did..." She stopped talking after the creature made a sound and trembled on its feet.

"I'm almost out of ammo." she cursed, and her gun flash of four more bullets. It slowed the creature, it groaned at her. From there, there what appeared to be the head leaned back, and a peach organ flopped out, then it cried louder at them. The organ separated in the middle to reveal rows of teeth. It reminded her of a lot of a leech. Claire felt like throwing up, and she watched her steps while her eyes focused on the thing. Though Hunk was nowhere near her…' Great, he left me to deal with this, why am I...' she couldn't finish the thought for she saw him jump behind the creature and bury his knife inside its mouth. It gurgled on the knife as several bits of teeth flung out, and the crimson lens had a tooth bounce right off it. He shoved the blade deeper inside until the upper half of what appeared to be a head was sheared off as the head and organ had its glossy drip out in different directions across the room.

The leech creature convulsed for several seconds before it tripped onto the floor. The body shrunk in size before his hands until there was nothing but a puddle of blood.

Hunk looked at the woman in front of him, he could swear her jaw hit the ground of how shocked she was. "What the hell is this!? Answer me!"

He sighed and took a clipboard from the ground, most of it was stained with the white liquid, but he was able to read some of the things written in it. "Will according to this, his name is Joseph, AKA subject 3 of the Abyss experiment."

"Another life ruined." Claire muttered. Hunk walked passed her out of the office, once again ignoring her.

"How could this thing even surprise you from what we've seen all night?" Hunk shook his head as he continued to rummage through the desks.

"Well, you don't have to be a dick about it," Claire grumbled. She frowned and looked down at the remains of the creature. 'What did I get myself into?' She pondered.

"Hey, stop wasting time." She heard Hunk call out.

Together they went through a corridor called 'Section C.' Claire could see large windows in the left-side overlooking what it seemed to be a chemical lab. The electricity seems to be working order as well. All the machines inside were lit. Without hesitation, she opened the glass window and jumped inside.

She went for the nameless journal on the table before the machines and begin to flip through the pages.

"The Abyss Virus has been under development for five years now, the effects of the test are unbelievable, we had an experiment of five subjects for our client to witness it, we saw the great change in just a few hours. It matches the composition of human, but without the bone structure, it was really the subject lost so much of her shape that all noticeable features were unrecognizable. We're dealing with this very carefully, the Virus is not ready yet to be used. She just began the process of discarding her bones, and the pain limiters are removed. We can have an idea of average tolerance to the process. We're told to work more in perfecting a vaccine in case of an emergency.""

"A new virus? Is there no end to this?" Claire sighed. "Is this Virus already out? Still no answer for the outbreak up in the town."

Judging by the bodies inside that place, they've failed and were murdered by their own creations.

"Poetic justice." She whispered. "Rest in peace."

A sudden creek had interrupted her train of thoughts, Claire shook her head, raising her weapon. This new Virus eradicated the body, unlike what she saw in Raccoon city, even now in this poor town. She had to do something about this. If the Virus was contained down here, it had to be destroyed. If only Chris was here with her instead of that creepy ass mercenary.

Three corpses emerged, they stood between her and the window where she entered through. Claire could try to make a run for it, but she knew better even as the three men-things moved closer, showing bloated gray arms and moaned with hunger. They were about to come and attack her.

Shoot! Do it!

"Stop there, Ugly!" She shouted, one of them was close, he was too close. "Aaaahh," the monster groans, about to grab her, and Claire fired two, three shots, the rounds tearing into the rippling flesh. It stumbled as the first two rounds hit the chest, making his step halt for a second, the third supposed to blow a hole in its forehead, but strangely enough, there was a white liquid all over the ground. With the third shot, the creature let out a loud squeal and started to shrink.

Claire took the chance and aimed at the next one was coming close to her from behind the table, she fired twice at it she spun, and her hand found a flask, "Take this." She teased and tossed it at its face praying that the last one is still far around the lab. Claire checked the magazines left in her belt, and she cursed how little she had, it took her a moment to reload the magazine with the last twelve bullets she has. Five of which were left in her gun. Claire was about to move when she heard wet sounds behind her.

There the survivor saw two bodies had stood up, and they were almost upon her, their hungry rotating teeth, their moans eager to devour her. "Oh, come on," she whined. Claire observed the situation. "Two zombies and a bloated creature coming closer, and another emerged." she sighed. "Four against one girl, this is not my day."

She ran and jumped at one of the tables, the barrel of her flashed before the bloated corpse until it falls for a second, it was an excellent chance to focus on the zombies.

Her first shot hit the pale man in the shoulder, and as he reeled back, she was about to shoot it Hunk came in. The blackened figure swerved to the left with a solid hook. He punched its face, and swiftly he stabbed the other in the face. He had a death grip in place without letting go for a second, he grabbed the other zombie and rotated its neck for it snap. Hunk then pulled the head back for it catch again, and he brushed the body out of his way.

THUD!

Claire turned her attention to the bloated corpse who trembled on its feet, his throat gurgling the white liquid on her foot.

"Disgusting," she said, but it still tried to grab her, she didn't have much time to feel sick, to think. She raised her aim and fired two more times, all the liquid spreading everywhere around her until the thing started to shrink to a puddle of blood. Several bits of bones rolled out of the blood and water.

"Will you stop with the silent treatment and tell me what the hell is going on?" She shouted at him.

Hunk retrieved his knife and cleaned it from the blood. "I found files nearby talking about some side effects and another map of locations around here." he took something from his pocket and spread it in the table.

Claire raised an eyebrow and put her hand on her chin. "What?"

His finger went through the map and went on. "According to this, there is a section especially for hunters or as you call them, lizards. So the outbreak could have originated from there." Hunk looked back at Claire, he didn't expect to see a shocked expression written all over her face.

"Why are you...?"

"We have a deal, correct? The sooner we've done here, I'll get rid of you. Come and take a look at this."

While Claire checked the paper, Hunk went over the dead bodies and searched them. Most of them looked to be scientists or other such employees and failed the golden rule.

It didn't take too long to find a weapon, and as luck would have it, Hunk was intimately familiar with it. An ATIFX45 handgun he found in an under a body. It was under the engineer's stomach, and the blood didn't ooze far enough. It was the same kind that an old friend carried. There was a spare magazine and a half full box of pistol ammunition, and it seems their chances of survival skyrocketed. The mercenary knew he was bullshitting, but having a destructive mindset helps no one, and he needs to be sharp.

Though it was only left to reload the gun, with six bullets. Granted, the weapon can hold nine with one in the chamber, but it was much better than before.

'I've been expending too much energy. I need to conserve.' Hunk thought to himself. The pistol was a Titan Blue model. Not quite to his liking, but the mercenary will make do.

He loaded up and holstered the gun in his belt. "God, there are so many things to look at here." He heard Claire speak.

"Since when they were working down here? What's with the experiment?"

Claire was annoyed by his behavior, but he felt equally confused on the situation. Usually, the merc was told of what's going on, of hidden labs, and more. He started to look over the jackets over the dead bodies, looking for key cards and anything helpful for the doors. He violently stabbed each head before he flipped several bodies over and searched the pockets. As he did that, Claire kept an eye out for any potential threats. None of the coats didn't bear any fruit. The truth was he felt creeped out, the feeling of Déjà vu is too much. Sure he had seen labs before, but this one is different, there is something about it he couldn't understand right off the bat.

He stood at the door that led back into the corridor, weapon in hand, and told himself that he needed to leave now—and yet not leave. He'd have to search for information, he had to figure this out. Only a few minutes had passed as he sought some more.

"I could go for a soda right now." Claire thought out loud as she did a quick equipment check. Hunk showed little reaction to her statement.

The survivor seemed to hold her own excellent. It wasn't too late for him to leave on his own and search over the documents— 'Are you crazy?' His brain shouted at him. 'Dumbass, remember the golden rule. Finish your mission and get the hell out of here, she's not important.'

Hunk patted his chest as he doubled checked his own gear as well. Claire raised an eyebrow as it looked like Hunk patted himself on the back. She slightly widened her eyes in whatever gesture as she didn't know what to think about that.

Claire went over the next room, and it was too huge to be done with it in a short time. It had tubes filled with a dark liquid, not sure if it is dirty water or something she doesn't want to find its name. A large machine-thing and there were lizards inside it, they look dead, but she didn't want to take chances. Hunk went in front of her toward the desks near the tubes.

They could see a bunch of dead researchers around.

Claire moved closer to the nearest corpse and squatted down next to it. She looked over the wounds and knew there is no use to this, but some of them could still be alive. In the recently written journals, she breathed shallowly through her mouth. No sudden noise or stupid movement. A developed reflex from Rockfort Island. Two of the bodies were horrible. She noticed a visible sign of claw indentions on half the bodies. Some of them had their faces chewed out, something she would never wish to see. A man with a broken pair of glasses had the chin torn away, and the left side of his face had bits of skin flak off, and the stretched muscle beneath it. Another person had his throat torn out, and his lab coat was more red than white.

Claire averted her gaze and went over a computer, she thought that perhaps she might find more about this lab and that Virus. She tried to go over the welcome screen, but it was protected with a password. "Ah, go figure," she whispered.

The survivor looked back at Hunk, who seems to be behaving weird, unlike what he was before, up in the town. Claire noticed that Hunk was at her shoulder and leaned it. It unsettled her, and by reflex, her right arm was about ready to quickly draw her weapon. 'Calm down, Claire.' She focused on the monitor than let her paranoia get the better of her. He seems to be looking over the screen at something, she frowned and went toward him. 'No way would he do something without me.' She concluded.

She bends a little and observed the screen,

"""Code-name: Nighthawk

He was seen: Escaping Raccoon city with only one member of the Alpha team. Speculated to reside in New York last year.

The price has gone up for the mission, thirty thousand dollars. Another fifty thousand if things go smoothly. Several hired mercenaries apprehended him once his location was confirmed.

Nighthawk had to be apprehended. HUNK and Nighthawk need to be eliminated, or history will repeat itself. Execution of the operation to remove these two is underway, and Hunk was sent into Tall Oaks.

*Update:* The mission was successful, Nighthawk is imprisoned in section D and has been questioned. He'll be dead soon enough, but integration and advisement are needed. We're worried that he could expire before the truly relevant information can be documented."""

"Who's Nighthawk?" Claire glanced at Hunk.

Without any forgone hidden reaction, Hunk's mask flinched as he leaned away from the monitor. Claire did the same, and she focused on his body language.

"Who's Nighthawk?" Claire cocked her head.

"No one." Hunk grumbled.

"Bullshit." She fired back.

"It isn't your business anyway."

"You're not backing out of our deal now, are you?" Claire's left index finger twitched for her pistol.

'Foolish girl…' Hunk shook his head. 'Aw hell…'

"He's...my brother." The mercenary noticed her trigger finger twitch. "I'm going to look for him." He walked passed her as he shoved her shoulder out of his way. From there, he started looking over the other side of the room, in the same general direction of the clawed up corpses of the former staff. With little light left, his lenses reflected the task ahead.

"Are you crazy?! There's..."

"Quiet, this isn't your business anyway." The mercenary's words were laced with venom. "You don't want to come. Fine, I'm going." Hunk racked the chamber for the next phase of his mission.

Claire, no longer know what she felt about this. Hunk was sent here to be killed along with his brother. A weird feeling was in her heart, is it pity? Perhaps, she's not heartless after all. For a moment, she watched him vanish in the door on the other side.

Nothing but footsteps echoed down the hallway.

She returned back to the screen and looked over another file. "The town over the beautiful coast. Too many secrets in there to be ignored, it must be burned with the rest.

'Well, I think I learned as much as I could for Chris to act on…'

The footsteps lessened in sound.

'… It's not like he needs my help…'

The plan is clear, eliminate everyone who knew about the experiment, about the children of Raccoon city, if the umbrella ever rises from the ashes, it must be done. Here are some of the names I know so far... the rest were blank like someone deleted them.

'The place?' Her eyes scanned as much as she could. 'They went it to be covered along with Raccoon city, but it seems not the whole town is damaged… at least so far.'

The sound of the footsteps faded out more.

She held her head between her hands. "This is too much to handle. God help me."

She looked over another file, and it contained photos of the bloated corpses and their names down at the corner, a total of ten photos, it seems the experiment was done in more people then she thought.

"If only I had a CD or something to save all of this." She sighed. "Maybe I can find something around here."

Claire could hear nothing but her own breathing by that point.

The survivor found her way around the machines and tubes and went through the door, there she saw a large amount of blood on the ground, and the hallway seems to be small and narrowed. Claire ran to the end of the hall to it seems a small room, where she needs to be protected and cleansed by some gas, the door automatically closed behind her, and some kind of a weird green gas filled the area for a minute.

Claire shivered slightly and went out to the other side. The next place appeared to be a monitor room, multiple screens were working fine. Claire watched the screens until she spotted Hunk. He bent over something. "There you're, so this is..." Something weird appeared at the corner of the screen.

A towering figure appeared before the camera, creeping behind the mercenary. "Oh shit! What is that?" The man doesn't seem to acknowledge it yet.

The figure seems to be more significant to be a lizard unless it is some kind of powered-up lizard, Claire took out her gun and started running to the other side for the door.

'I really hate having a conscience!' Claire cussed herself out as she got her gun ready and jogged down the same hallway. She decided to follow Hunk for now, until she found something to come back for the computer.

(...)

Hunk looked over a cell down in the section, he found some papers he wanted to check for more clues. The cold self was now forgotten once he knew Nighthawk is dragged into this. He was too distracted, he didn't hear the sound behind him. His breathing echoed in his mask as he scanned the room.

A giant burst seemed to be coming from the ground, it slammed him off his feet and knocked him up over the stairs to the second floor of the cells. It happened so fast that he didn't actually see what it was. He moaned in pain, though he could feel the air on his face, in a hurry, he touched his face in total surprise. "My mask!?"

He wanted to stand up, but he felt a flaming wound in his abdomen, his finger could feel things are sticking in like a sharp needle. The thing came in again, shaking the ground beneath it. Gasping for air, he took his gun and aimed over the railing.

It was a giant worm-thing… that inhabited the ground of this place. "Screw you." He whispered under bated breath, the slow and very bitter burning sensation with every passing second… the gun fired nonstop.

The things that tore through him was that of something felt worse than what it actually was. Gutshot… he'll be fine for an hour at most. He ignored the wound as he wanted to keep the creature suppressed before he can formulate a plan.

Though the worm didn't seem to be affected much, the ground trembled beneath him once again. The worm appeared too fast. It wrapped him and lifted him up, squeezing so hard like a snake strangling its prey. Hunk felt more sharp needles going through him over the waist. At last, it slammed him down on the sandy ground. His knife was loosened, and it flung out of its holster on impact. So Hunk spent his ammo, and he needed to be careful about his movement now.

It approached him again from the sight of the kicked up dirt from its movement. Hunk lowered his back somewhat to prep his body for the next attack. The knife reflected in the light, and he was ready to make a move. It burst from the dirt of it shriek at him. Then as Hunk was distracted, his left leg was pulled from the place, and he landed flat on his back. Hunk grunted in pain as the worm went for the kill.

The mercenary let out one more grunt, and his eyes stared blankly back at the giant worm. 'The Golden Rule always takes priority.' In moved his head forward to strike the worm in the head.

For the first time in years, he felt hopeless, he bit his lip and tried to push himself to stand if this the end he won't go down without a fight. The adrenaline continued to pump his mind, but he could vaguely feel the blood seep from him. Several of the needles of the worm retracted from multiple needle-things were ready to impale him.

The worm charged once again, but this time he saw the flash of a gunshot behind him. Much to his surprise, it was Claire, she sprinted in and stood between him and the worm. "What a Giant Ass worm." She shouted until her gun clicked with the last of her bullets.

She put the gun away and took another one. Even though his vision was blurry, he could figure out what it is, a grenade launcher. "Take this!"

It was diverted off course as the worm tried to retreat. Claire wouldn't have none of that as she slid another grenade into the launcher. Before the worm found lovely move dirt, Claire fired at it for half of the body to be severed. The new bloodied tail flung about as it burrowed below. Hunk stumbled behind her as he walked toward his knife.

Multiple explosions echoed through the place until the worm was down at last. The worm tried to attack them two more times, but Claire blew it up before it had the chance.

Claire coughed over the smoke. "What is that it? I was just getting warmed up! That wasn't much of a challenge."

"Why did you come here?" She heard his voice; it was like a faint of a whisper. Hunk sheathed his knife and dropped to one knee. By now, some of the adrenaline started to wear off.

The survivor looked down at him, and her eyes widened. "You don't look too good." She knelt down in front of him. "I have never been the one to leave people behind."

She looked over his face. He had a hooked nose, light stubble, thin lips, and dark hazel eyes, and blasted back brunette hair. "You're the one I took the order from." she shouted. "You came to my place."

"Reckless bitch." The mercenary whispered as he held several wounds. He scrambled to get to his feet again and waddled on several steps before falling to a knee again. He crossed the open dirt on a concrete and metallic floor before he dropped completely and rested his back on a wall. It was there he could continue his mission from the new hallway.

Claire rolled her eyes, amused, even when he is like this, the attitude toward her won't change. "Lay still jerk,"

"What do you think you're doing, I don't need your help." He said and tried to push her away. A blood tear dripped from his left glove as he grunted again.

She took off her jacket then tore it into several strips. "Swallow your pride unless you want to die." She saw his eyes slowly close, it was apparent his energy was slipping fast.

As carefully as she could, she bandaged him. "Come on, stay awake." Claire kept at it, for she didn't know how long until the bandages were well enough to stop the bleeding. 'Maybe I should go and find some water for him.' Claire recalled finding some bottles back around the computer with the information.

She was about to stand up when she felt his hand stop her. "I don't need it." He gasped.

"Alright," Claire responded. 'Damn fool still has some pride after all.'

The two stayed there for moments in awkward silence. She knew he needed to rest for a while, as so much confusion plagued her mind, and she doesn't know what to do about them. She was sick and tired from all of this, yet, still, she didn't get many answers that she desired.

Hunk was no good either. He thought the woman would be like other non-combatant types. She stayed here in complete silence. Where she could easily leave him behind and save herself from things down here. More so, she's in the opportune position to try to kill or arrest him.

'No, shut up, don't be an idiot, nobody is worthy of your trust, all of them are nothing but backstabbing assholes.' he screamed in his mind as he tried to get back on his feet.

He took several deep breaths, then noticed his mask five feet away and walked to it. There was no way he was the same as before, but he still had a mission. He carefully kneeled down and picked up his mask. He dusted it off some then strapped it back on.

"We're wasting time here, let's go." Hunk walked as tall as he could.

Claire shook her head as the mercenary passed her.

'…Men…'

Thank you for reading, things are heating up what do you think? What's the deal with Wesker and that woman? more is coming.

Special thanks to my dear friend The95Will.

To Reaperfan: Thank you soooo much for another good detailed review, reading your reaction ah I'm so happy I did it, this's the reaction that I wanted. You're correct Hunk indeed think of her as a sore thump, not worthy of his bullets. Ah yes I see that about how both of them have much in their minds, and this indeed reflect on why they treat each other like that. Not to mention the fact Claire is damaged from the horror and she seeks justice for the victims, from everyone related to umbrella. The two of them now are stuck in a weird fate...not sure how it's going to end, and it is getting weirder.

Operation Raccoon city might not be the best game ever, but I still like it, very entertaining. I really like vector and his team.

Thank you again, not to sure what to say more about this, I truly appreciate it bless you.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I did not disappoint.