Chapter 13. "Truth."

A room with mostly closed curtains and the windows had the light glow of the moon's rays enter the room. At the desk, Albert Wesker leaned forward. Calmly, he brushed several document pages as there was a logbook of various phone numbers of associates.

"So he did not end up as a total failure and died like expected?" Wesker's voice on the phone was stern. "Who pulled the trigger on Hunk, who pulled the trigger on Nikolai?"

'Who is foolish enough to think about pulling this on me?' Wesker thought to himself.

Excella rubbed her forehead. "Is this a cat and mouse game?" She stood in the same room but just finished looking over the paperwork to an unrelated corporate matter. She could hear the murmur of voices, a girl talking in the next room. "...the attack. If Wesker's right about that..."

"It fits in with what we know. It's the last piece of the puzzle, Albert. We have to assume it's true." Excella finally returned to where her partner is, there she saw a woman in red and short raven hair at the door out, talking.

The two had stopped talking after they saw her. "Go now, don't you dare fail us."

The woman rolled her eyes. "I never fail, trust me," she closed the door.

"Are you going to explain to me what happened exactly in that town?" Excella clarified and brought an armchair close to him, where she took a seat. "I find it hard to believe that you didn't take part in it."

Wesker's eyes shined under the shades. "Let's just say we have the T-Abyss in our possession now."

"What!?" Excella shot up from the armchair. The moonlight slighting glinted off her lightly added makeup.

"You're going to visit a former associate I know at the police Department. He'll see you. There's an office right here in Chicago. He'll take you to the rendezvous point." Wesker did not waste time to explain himself. Nor did he feel like expending the brainpower.

Excella held unto her chin; her expression speaks loudly of understanding. "You planned for Henry to die, did you not?"

"You believe that?" Wesker lowered his chin for his shades to droop lower so his eyes could glance at Excella while he crossed his legs.

"Certainly, it will actually make a lot of sense if you did; after all, you're trying to surpass the older generations, the failed ones anyway. Sergei stands on your way, plus Nikolai went rogue when he was with the UBCS. Nikolai could have been under Sergei's orders. And this is pretty much what these Purity guys are." She retorted with a smirk. "We're one step ahead in this game."

Wesker's smile never vanished as he opened a drawer and took out a piece of paper. "John Murphy's inheritance will be mine. The success of this mission is one step ahead. Sergei's men planned to hit me right where it hurts. They wanted to get Murphy's children and destroy all the data they saved there. Though Henry was able to unleash the hunters down where they work and get to me what I wanted before he died, though this escalated to a T-Abyss Virus outbreak, where no one survived. I would love to see Sergei's face when his operation completely and utterly… failed."

Excella touched his shoulders and brought herself closer. "You fox, that's why you sent help after Hunk and his brother? You wanted them for yourself."

"You are astonishingly perceptive, Miss Gionne." He replied and pushed her chair away from him. Though his tone never changed, she enjoyed his method of 'playful' mannerisms.

The phone rang loud enough to bother her ears. Wesker scoffed maniacally when he saw the number. With a click, the small screen revealed a middle aged brunette man. There were touches of grey mixing in along his sideburns. Narrowed eyebrows with eyes full of anger. "What'd you think you're doing!?" He shouted. "You're working for me, got it, end this game now!"

"Since when did I ever tell you that I was a servant?" Wesker smirked, which only infuriated the man on the other end even more.

Murphy bared his teeth. "I should've known that you will turn your back on me."

"Hindsight is always 20/20, why would I trust someone who murdered his own wife and sold his children to the company?"

Murphy scoffed. "You're not a Saint either Albert, these words won't work on me."

Wesker placed the nib of his right index finger on his chin. "May I witness your murder? Your children will slaughter you soon, I'm sure. I recommend you don't stand in my way."

"That's not going to happen. You will pay for this!" Murphy hung up.

Wesker pulled the phone away from his view. He snickered at his victory.

"Huh, what a spineless coward," Excella added.

…

A man came in through the front yard, as Jill opened the door and singled him to enter. "Welcome, doc."

A man had a thin face framed by a spill of almost pure white hair, looking like a dandyish but down-at-the-heels doctor in his long white coat and brown boots, the ruff of a shirt spilling over his collar. He carried a doctor's bag that he placed on the ground and kept his eyes forward. The redhead as he took something from it, something long and curved. Then smiled and showed the needle filled with a pink liquid, and it gleamed wickedly in the light.

The moment Claire feared so much, who would have thought that fear of needles can grow with them.

Fear nibbled at her insides.

"Alright, Miss Redfield, relax. It won't hurt." Whispered the doctor as he used the needle on her left shoulder.

Once the doctor finished, Claire laid in bed in her new home. It was a one-story house with two bedrooms, one guest room, and a contemporary living room. It had dark grey and white walls and a decorative ceiling light that created a beautiful sight between the kitchen and the living room. However, the windows didn't have much of anything of interest to look at. The back window for the kitchen only stared into the house's outer wall and fence next door. Not to mention in the front lawn was an overgrown rose bush that needed to be trimmed, which the survivor will get around to doing… next year.

The house would have been difficult, but Chris helped Claire and Annie in their attempt to start over.

Claire stared into the popcorn ceiling. It was the kind that looked to be more grovel and made a crooked shadow smile from where her lamp was placed. On the other side of the room, the doctor was in the middle of putting his utensils away. Without the need to knock, Chris entered her new bedroom, and she saw him enter by using her peripheral vision.

"I swear I'll pay you back, Chris." Claire did not break her attention from the ceiling.

"You don't have to do that. I'm happy to help." Chris put his hands in his jean pockets while he walked to the bed. He wore a grey short sleeve shirt and sat on the edge of the bed. He gave a light smile but faded quickly on the blank expression Claire had.

"No, I don't like anyone doing favors for me. I will get a new job and pay you back."

Chris grinned and played with her hair a bit. "Stubborn Claire-bear…"

The survivor cringed as she sensed the needle on her skin, the hot medicine going through her system. Though despite the pain, she felt her knotted muscles feel much better than before. Her annoyance at the feeling had her barely notice Chris' attempt of comfort.

The doctor placed a roll of bandages on the nightstand next to her. "Here you go, Miss Redfield, since I cleaned your wounds, soon enough you won't need bandages."

"Thank you, mister Graham. It's weird how you didn't change much in my eyes." She said happily.

"Yeah, I'm happy to see you again. Remember the lollipops?" He pretended to reach into the part of his bag which carried sweets.

"You don't have some right now, do you?" She laughed. The doctor shrugged cheerfully and closed his bag. With a nod, the doctor left the bedroom. Chris looked over his shoulder and remembered there was a box to bring in the house. He tapped Claire's shoulder and left her room after the doctor.

The survivor laid back with a smile, welcome a new life in a new home.

Still, though, a certain masked man did not leave her mind. So much mystery surrounds him that she, for some reason, desired to crack. Who would have imagined 'The' infamous Mister Death... will invade her thoughts like this.

… The smug asshole…

Claire covered her face, sighed, and thought to herself. 'Enough, he is gone. Forget about him, dammit.'

A knock on the door interrupted her train of thoughts. "How do you feel, darling?" Annie came in, she wore a white pajama, and her hair seemed wet.

"Hey, you finished packing already?" She asked without moving from her position.

"Not really, only my clothes. For now." Annie answered and sat on the bed next to her. "What happened to you? You seem different."

The survivor chuckled softly. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. I'm troubled about how we are going to live here, ya know?... No jobs."

"I'm going tomorrow morning to a restaurant, maybe I can be a waitress somewhere nice. You wanna come with me?" Annie commented while giving Claire a supportive tap to her shoulder.

"I guess. God, I have no goal. I'm so lost I'm about to cry. I always feared change out of nowhere."

Annie bent over a bit and rubbed her hand. "How about you work with me for now, until you decide your future job is going to be. We need all the money we can get."

"Yes, you're right. I owe Chris." She shrugged.

"It's a shame your brother is married… that shirt does his muscles justice," Annie smirked.

Claire leaned up and playfully shoved Annie. "Eww."

…

The doctor paced back and forth, looking at his cellphone and waiting.

Chris and Jill were in the kitchen, talking. "So Claire described a middle-aged man vividly. I'm impressed. Her description fits with what's on file." Jill placed a photo on the counter.

"Colonel Sergei Vladimir, a high ranking executive of the Umbrella Corporation, highly recognized as the company's Captain of the Guard, and Oswell E. Spencer's most loyal officer," Chris said with crossed arms. "What is he planning?"

Jill sighed heavily, her elbows resting on the counter. "Isn't it strange? we have a plan to chase him in Russia, and his name came out before that in another outbreak?"

The doctor walked in and waved goodbye. "Have a nice day Mister Redfield."

"Thank you, doctor," Chris replied. Once the front door closed, Chris returned to his partner. "I don't know why I have a feeling Claire is hiding something from me! Something she had seen in that town."

"Why would you think that?" Jill asked.

"It's her eyes. There were those eyes when something got her interest good. Which is what I saw from her in our reunion."

Jill rolled her eyes. "Oh god, you worry too much. Don't you know how to relax and be thankful she survived?"

"Shut up, Valentine, no siblings, therefore no opinion," He teased.

"I hate you, clueless idiot," Jill replied happily. A game she enjoyed doing with him, they do end up laughing and feeling much better after the ugly missions they went through.

Thank you for reading. I hope you liked this.

Special thanks to my betareader The95will.