Chapter 9. "The End of All Things Part 1."
There was no time for questions, no time to wonder what's going on? The spread occurred too swiftly if this was an accident. Black heavy combat boots echoed off the asphalt of the street. Two figures in the shadows in unison with each other as one tapped the other's back. Both wore gas masks; one with a hood was codenamed 'Vector,' and he was in front, as the other had blonde tied back hair and her given codename was 'Bertha.' For their gas masks where the lenses should be, instead of red circles, they had dim sapphire hues of light lenses.
Vector motioned for Bertha to be careful; he could sense that both were being observed by creatures in the shadows. Vector stepped back, angled his back to a wall on his left, and aimed his weapon downrange. Bertha did the same as both directions of the alleyway were covered. The streets and the hissing became louder. Four hunters jumped down then towered over the black-clad agents.
There was a fifth hunter, and it walked past the group with a corpse still punctured with its left claw. A small child, just the age of nine with eyes rolled back with mangled flesh at where the throat should be. The last expression of shock persists, and the left arm hung on with close skin while a bone was severed from the rest of the skeleton—just another causality of the spread.
The creatures looked down at them with their narrowed, hungry expressions. One of the hunters started to drool through its bladed teeth. "Come to play?" Bertha raised her rifle while bright flashes of light pierced through the darkness.
The blast went through its chest, and black blood burst through its back then toppled over. Bertha leaned forward and jumped to the side, avoiding a claw swiping for her throat. Vector stepped fired at the closest hunter, so it was forced to place its back against a wall while blood erupted from the chest like a geyser. The rest of the hunters decided to make their move. The fifth hunter flicked its right claw to discard the corpse.
Bertha rolled over on her back, raising the gun again; her fast-swift aim caught another hunter with five shots, killing it. Vector fired his submachine gun non-stop. The grim mercenary kept his posture leveled and moved away to not give the creatures the last chance to claw him. The light of his gasmask went brighter as a teardrop of blood landed on the left lens.
The hunters did not stand a chance. Bertha ejected a magazine and yawned. "Their effectiveness dropped significantly. The hunters behave like wild dogs than wolves." The sadistic mercenary shook her head.
"I did not spot any Alphas." Vector cocked his head while Bertha walked past him.
"On point." Bertha arched her back then prepped her weapon.
"Roger that." Vector followed in formation behind her.
The two walked through the park; to their surprise, a large part of the place remained untouched, the perfect place for relaxation. Their assumptions still held true when they discovered on the other side were corpses of people and hunters. From a glance, the bodies were slashed and shot, meaning zombies. Two of them were outside of the park, and another zombie was impaled to a tree. "So it's true, Hunk was here." Bertha leaned in to get a closer look at the handiwork.
This situation didn't make sense, and Vector would bet money that Wesker withheld information. The hooded mercenary had no choice but to trust him on where they should go. He would be meticulous when it came to depending on Wesker for information and escape plan.
"Wesker… you're thoughts?" Bertha asked.
"Sergei is the new de facto leader, according to Spectre. Wesker and Sergei are constantly making power plays against each other." Vector aimed his weapon down at open space, and Bertha walked past him. "Destroy the site to hide all evidence."
"We could end up dead with Hunk and Lone Wolf," Bertha replied.
"Affirmative. We're in the middle of a sick game Bertha." Vector cut the conversation short. He crouched next to the steel gate; he could see a strange liquid spread over it. His fingerless gloves allowed the tip of his fingers to touch it carefully, and he rubbed with his fingers. It did feel strangely sticky and had a grey color mixed with blood and what it seems to be bloody pieces. "What the hell is this?"
The sadistic mercenary kneeled down and sweep it with something small in her hand. "For study." Carefully she put the small sample in her pocket and secured it.
The two left the park, trying their best to not be visible to the eyes even though the town seemed to be a ghost town. They stood outside the house where Hunk was assigned to investigate, and immediately Vector used bolt cutters to pry the gate lock, then sprinted toward the front door. While Bertha stayed behind, watching the area and make sure it was safe or discover a trap.
Inside the house, darkness welcomed Vector; he couldn't hear any sound inside... deathly silent.
"This is Vector. Can you hear me, sir?" His gun's light pointing at all the scanned all directions for potential threats of the living room and the stairs.
"This is Vector. Can you hear me?" He searched for any sign. The corpses with precise cuts to them were more than easy to identify the work of a professional.
Vector went up the stairs with light feet, barely audible to the ears, up the hall, he found three bodies over a pool of blood, and it seems to trail down to an opened room at the end of the hall.
'So he was here?' He thought to himself.
The office was a complete mess; paperwork scattered everywhere around a dead body. Their time was running out, the BSAA will be here soon, and this mission will become more trouble than it's worth.
Something on the ground near the shelf caught Vector's attention. "Bertha." He coldly spoke into his radio. It was built into his gas mask. "Get in here, hurry."
Boots echoed from the front door and hall as Bertha entered the room. "What's going on?"
"Just come here, and I'll show you." The hooded mercenary brought his hand down, still looking at the thrown picture of a brown-reddish haired young woman. "Why are you here?"
-Meanwhile-
Hunk crept through the hall, careful not to attract more abominations, especially now with no ammo. The mercenary went around to the stairs. Finally, the mercenary knew the people responsible for this outbreak; he'd expected them to try to message him again, but they apparently were waiting for the moment to report the possibility of his death.
'Yeah, in their dreams.'
The contract was preplanned for termination by the numerous violations of conditions. A professional cannot allow such disrespect to happen to a professional. A professional is beholden to their reputation as much as they benefit from it. The mercenary still gets calls from many clients after Raccoon city's destruction. At the end of the day, someone will want someone else dead or remove problems involving words like profit, business, or competitor.
Overanxious, Hunk took out his knife to wipe away some of the blood onto his left sleeve. He walked into a new area to see a potential threat but knew he should not exhaust his energy.
Hunk bent over and crawled quietly until he reached the hall and spotted several creatures in the distance. The mercenary could hear Claire not too far behind his steps. He listened to her breathing, which was rather loud, but he didn't want to waste time over a pet peeve. The stairs were right up ahead. Just a little more, and they could be safe.
For some reason, he felt pretty heavy now; sweat drifted down from his forehead. At last, he reached the other side of the hall and went up the stairs running. The stairs were a bit long, like he was going up a tower. He expected to hear Claire blurt one of her jokes, like what a way to exercise or how a person could lose weight, much like that other person he knew.
"Jackass," Hunk murmured in his mask, but it was not auditable enough for Claire to hear it.
Still, she remains quiet, staggering a bit over the wall because of her wound, obviously. 'Come on, now is not really the time to think like that.'
Claire came in front of him still silent, she turned the handle and carefully looked at the hallway there. The hall had wood flooring with a carpet for decoration. Other than that, the walls had pictures of locations and loved ones for the homeowner. Hunk grimaced to himself at the sight of hardwood flooring. The unintentional sound that could give away his location from every creak. From experience, he conditioned that sound worse than nails to a chalkboard.
The hall was dense with dust and sections of dim light.
To their luck, nothing was there. Claire sighed in relief and entered. Hunk checked the place and recognized the sight of rusted hospital rooms. The mercenary stood in the middle of the path, the red lenses reflecting the walls and the corners; once again, something in his gut told him this won't be easy like another problem is waiting for them somewhere to slow them down even more.
He was about to speak, though Claire kept looking and walking in front of him like he did not exist. 'Yeah, that's better.'
Hunk stood about four inches taller than Claire, so he still had a clear view of her. Claire kept her back somewhat bent and constantly shifted her head to anything remotely suspicious. Hunk let her scan the immediate area while keeping his back to a wall and watched over potential entrances.
Claire's investigation only found more dust and bodies.
"Should we hold up in a room?" Claire did not break her concentration toward their surroundings.
"Negative. I've wasted enough time as it is."
Claire shook her head slightly. Hunk didn't pay much attention to her to make another quip… She didn't. A minute later, Claire and Hunk walked at a branching hall into two different paths. Claire raised her hand, and Hunk drew his knife for a threat. Claire just moved her hand in the direction of a nearby corpse. Hunk had his left gloved hand gesture for her to wait there as he would approach to check it out.
There was a magnum locked in the cold, stiff fingers of a dead man. The man was face down with the torso into the hall, and the legs were in the room. Hunk knelt down and plunged the knife into the temple, with undead and large BOWs. A mercenary cannot be genuinely certain until triple tapping the bodies. Hunk pulled his combat knife out of the head then stabbed the palm. Once locked in place, Hunk tugged magnum out of its grip.
Once the fingers released its grip. Hunk checked the weapon. It was a Smith & Wesson Model 19 revolver. He tested it by pulling the hammer back with his thumb, and the cylinder rotated with the hammer. It was in working condition. Hunk checked the cylinder, and it contained two bullets while the other four were spent. He carefully removed the empty bullet casings then set them on the floor.
'Better than nothing.' he took a moment to listen to his surroundings, making sure what this man died fighting against was not nearby. He saw Claire pull something from between a pile of boxes. It looked like a large knife. She dusted it off and breathed onto it for more dust to carpet the air. Claire coughed for a moment then waved her hand even though it wouldn't help.
Claire looked back at him, the first time ever since their fight inside that room downstairs. "You know, it is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." She whispered.
"Excuse me?" Hunk stood back up as he set the revolver in an empty pocket.
"Although despite everything, we do make a decent team." Claire tilted her head with a smile. "I won't forget this, and you have my word I won't turn you in for the BSAA."
Hunk frowned under his mask, and he had to speak about this... get it out of his system. "That is it. What are you? Why are you like this?" The smile vanished from Claire's face and went into a defeated posture.
"You wanted to murder me, you vowed to follow me around for arrest, and after everything I did. You still came back to help me, mend my wounds, and never left me behind even though you had so many chances to leave." He finally stopped and waited for an answer.
Claire heaved a long sigh. "Force of habit, I never leave anyone behind, I in no way agree with your golden rule, if I was able to save one life. What I do is help people. It is how I am wired. Teamwork is always better than being alone, and I still have to question this rule of yours, you say nothing is worth your time, a mission is what really matters to you, yet you stick around for your brother and... I don't get it." She stopped wondering if he'd remain calm, continue talking to her, or perhaps creep her out again. The survivor was not sure he was heartless as he wants her to believe.
Hunk didn't say anything and walked ahead of her.
Claire used to have a voice in the back of her mind, a way of thinking and instinct kept her on fire. But everything that happened to her so far had made her views change dramatically. Still, she kept asking herself the same question. 'Why does he of all people could have this kind of power to challenge her?'
Hunk just sighed. "There is nothing to add to this, Redfield. We made a deal, I plan to honor it. However, I do not see promises that possess the same value as a deal."
Claire looked up.
"You spoke of not turning me into the BSAA. It's just a hollow phrase to me." Hunk walked beside Claire.
"I meant what I said." Claire frowned at him.
"Just don't take things too much to heart-based on my skepticism." Hunk leaned against a nearby wall. "You meant what you said when we met."
"You're seriously an asshole." Claire clenched a fist.
"That's more like it." Hunk replied while he straightened his mask some.
"The BSAA could use some insight on this." Claire shrugged.
Hunk moved away from the wall. "Not likely. All former Umbrella employees, we're all guilty by default." Hunk opened his back pocket and looked at Claire. "Not that it matters to me, though."
Hunk passed off the magnum to Claire. "Here, finders keepers."
She accepted the revolver and checked the cylinder.
Hunk spoke up again. "We need to keep moving. By now, the National Guard and BSAA mobilized."
"Gotcha." Claire rubbed her forehead and took a deep breath. "Lead the way."
Thank you for reading, I hope you like it so far.
There is more to come stay tuned, longer chapter is coming soon.
Special thanks to my beta reader The95will