73. Claire

By the time Claire had awakened, hell had already broken loose around her. Rebecca had dragged her into what looked like a supply closet, and Claire could hear the roars and gunshots that sounded outside the small room. Her headache, and the feeling of nausea was not something new to her. However, it took her a few minutes to realize what was happening, and by then, it had been too late.

Suddenly, there was an explosion. It rumbled the walls of the small room and knocked the shelves and their contents to the floor. Claire tried to find Rebecca in the chaos, but the doctor was nowhere in sight. Before the woman could move or try to call out her friend, something yanked on her. The movement was so violent and sudden that Claire felt her arm complain in pain.

Everything ended as suddenly as it had started; one minute, Claire was getting dragged all through walls and debris, and the next, she was lying on a cold tiled floor.

"Oh, god. Where am I?" Claire mumbled, trying to get herself up. Her shoulder complained at the movement, and it was then that she noticed that she was bleeding.

Claire looked around her. She did not recognize where she was, but there was a certain familiarity with the place. It was strange, but the room seemed to be empty: no monsters or signs of who had dragged her there. Claire's hand lowered to her hip, searching for a weapon, but to her surprise, the gun was not in its place.

Look behind you.

Claire turned around, but instead of meeting face to face with a monster, as she had expected. She saw a tiny figure hiding in the shadows. It was hard to discern his features, but Claire tried her best.

"Anthony?" Claire whispered.

Anthony was a boy she'd met during her stay in Blackwell. Like Lily, he had been severely abused by his family, resulting in trauma that prevented the boy from speaking. His inability to communicate caused him to get mistreated in the asylum, and naturally, Claire took him in as a protégé. He'd taken time for the boy to trust her, but once he did, the boy was inseparable from Claire, so much so that when Claire was absent due to her time in the maze, the boy would throw tantrums and earn him severe punishments.

The boy reacted to her voice and crawled out of his hideout. Claire had to cover her mouth to silence her gasp of horror. The boy was wearing nothing but a pair of brown trousers. His skin was thin and pale, but that was not what had horrified Claire, but the clear signs of mutation that the boy was developing. Part of his skin was scaly, and it peeled off easily; his right arm had practically fully mutated, losing all of its human nature, leaving a disproportionately large and muscular member. What broke her heart the most was his face. Half of his face had already gotten consumed by the virus.

Despite his horrible appearance, the boy smiled. His only eye glowed with excitement, and he jumped to hug Claire. The woman ignored the pain she felt when the kid unconsciously pulled her arm, patted his almost hairless head.

"Oh, no. Not you..." Claire said, feeling her eyes tear up as she caressed the boy's face.

When Claire didn't see Anthony among the survivors, the first thing she did was ask Henry about the boy. The man's response had saddened her. Apparently, the boy had entered phase 1 one morning, but he had never returned. The idea of the boy dying in the labyrinth tormented her but compared to seeing him in the current conditions. Death would have been a much better fate.

The advance of the mutation was high. The woman doubted that anyone could do anything to regress it.

You should finish it. You know how it will end.

Her doppelgänger watched the kid, cuddling at Claire's touch. Her expression was dark and grave.

If you can't, then you should let me out.

Claire was aware that her doppelgänger was correct. It was a matter of time before the virus consumed him completely, and by then, the boy would lose any remnant of rationality. He would become another unconscious monster that lived only to eat and mutate.

It wouldn't have been the first time that Claire had to kill someone before they mutated entirely, but most of those were nothing but a distant memory, or she didn't remember it at all. Saya would have called it a memory omission. Perhaps it was, or perhaps, it was because, technically, it hadn't been her who did the executions back then.

The longer you wait, the harder it will be.

"I know..." Claire muttered.

Suddenly, Claire heard footsteps. She wasn't the only one since Anthony's head turned, and he let out a growl. The boy jumped away from Claire and vanished in shadows as she heard the footsteps reach the hall.

"Fancy for a research facility."

The voice made Claire's head turn. Leon had made it to the place alone, and he was looking around with his gun raised.

Oh, he caught up.

"L-Leon?" she said automatically.

The agent turned to her, and his expression shone with relief when he saw her. He made it to her side in a blink.

Claire didn't know where Anthony had gone, but he had to be somewhere around the room, and something told her that the boy wasn't happy about Leon's place.

"Claire," he said, checking her for injuries. "Are you ok?"

"I..."

Claire heard a soft crack above their heads.

It's mad. He never liked people getting your attention away from him, remember?

That was true. Anthony was a jealous boy. The boy had pushed Lily to the flower patch once because she'd been talking to Claire, and on another occasion, he had put rocks into Liam's meal when Claire had sat to have tea with the man. Who knew what the boy would do to Leon in his current state.

"I am ok," Claire said. "But you shouldn't be here. It is too dangerous."

"What are you talking about?" Leon said, "I need to take you out of here. This place isn't safe. BOWs are coming from everywhere..."

"I know," Claire said. "But it is not safe for you."

"What?"

A terrifying scream echoed through the room, causing Claire to look up at the ceiling, searching for Anthony. The boy was nowhere in sight, but Claire could feel his presence and his mood clearly. Anthony was furious.

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;

It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock

The meat it feeds on. (1)

Leon fired, but Anthony was too fast even for the agent's impeccable aim to hit. Claire could sense the boy's intention to hurt Leon, and the woman felt panic begin to flood her.

"Anthony, stop!" Claire shouted.

A part of Claire thought Anthony wouldn't listen to her. The boy was mutating at such a rapid rate that Claire knew his mental state must be on the decline. Still, it was worth a try.

"Stop it!" Claire said with a stern voice that oddly reminded him of Leon of his mother. "He's important to me. You can't hurt him! You can't hurt people because you think they are taking something from you."

Claire felt pleased when she saw the mutated Anthony stagger. She'd never used a scolding tone with him before, mainly because she'd pitied him and his past, but like we other kids, sometimes you need it to show who the adult was.

"Don't let it control you, Anthony," Claire said soothingly. "You were a good boy. You have to stop..."

Claire tried to get closer to Anthony, but Leon stopped her by placing his arm in front of her. The agent was trying to protect her, but Leon was the one in real danger. Claire's words seemed to have some effect on the boy. Perhaps, part of his mind was still intact.

"No," Claire said. "I know you are angry. It is ok. They did things to you, but my friends are not the ones who hurt you. Please, please. I know you can fight it. Don't let it control you."

The boy shook his head as if trying to understand what she was saying, but then two shots hit him from behind, causing his disproportionate body to reel. Claire let out a groan of horror.

"Ada!" she heard Leon say.

"I'm doing you a favor..." Ada replied. "That thing is already a lost cause."

Claire looked at what was left of the boy. His body trembled, and she could feel the mixture of hatred, anger, and fear in him. Anthony let out a chilling howl, and Claire knew immediately that the boy was gone. The mutation began to consume Anthony's body until he was nothing but a grotesque monster.

It's too late now.

"No!"

You should have ended it earlier. Now it will be painful.

"No, no," Claire said. "We can't leave him. I can't do this again. I can't! I can't!"

You will have to do it, or will you let it kill everyone?

"No, no. He's just a child. Please, no. Don't make me do it. Please."

You can't run away from it. If you don't do it, then let me out, and I will.

"You don't have to," Leon whispered. "I'll do it."

Leon's voice, shocked. She'd been so caught up in her inner argument that she almost forgot he was there. The agent was looking at her with concerned eyes.

"Stay here. You're still hurt, and you have already fought enough."

"Leon..."

"It will be fine. I got this."

The fight broke out, and Claire looked on helplessly. The woman watched as Leon and Ada fought the newly mutated Anthony. The brawl only got worse when Chris and the others joined the battle. It didn't matter how much ammo or grenades they used. Anthony was not a conventional Alpha form.

Are you going to stay here and do nothing?

Are you going to let everyone die?

Her doppelgänger stood in front of her defiantly.

Are you willing to let them die here?

Her doppelgänfer was right. She was acting like an idiot. Chris, Leon, and the others were at their limit, and her hesitation would only put them at risk. The only solution would be to stop Anthony, and weapons wouldn't be enough to do it, especially now that the boy had reached 100% mutation. She was the only one who could stop him just because Anthony trusted her.

Sometimes...

"You have to take the hard decision," she and her doppelgänger said together.

Claire took a deep breath and came out of hiding. Her teammates were exhausted and injured, but Anthony seemed ready to fight more.

"That's enough..."

Yes, it was enough. It wasn't something Claire was going to enjoy, but it was something she needed to do.

"Claire, stop!" She heard Chris shout, but she didn't listen to him.

Claire didn't know if Anthony's mind was already too deteriorated and the plan would backfire, but she had to try it. The woman approached Anthony slowly, like someone trying to tame a wild animal.

The boy didn't seem to want to attack, but he didn't move away either. That didn't make her feel any better since it meant that part of Anthony was still there, and that was going to make everything harder.

I can take over. You just need to let me out.

"No, It's time that I face my demons," Claire whispered to herself. "And I will stop hiding behind you."

Claire stretched her hand at Anthony, and the boy seemed to smell it like a dog.

"I am sorry..."

Claire pulled out the hidden blade in her hand and stabbed it directly into the jugular. The sound of the blade ripping through tissue was one of the most horrible things Claire could have heard, and she knew it would haunt her for a long time.

Anthony screamed and howled as Claire took a step back, feeling tears roll down her cheeks. The boy screamed in agony as the mutated tissue began to unravel and fall apart.

She had already coated the blade with the anti-vir serum, so her death would be quick, but it would not be painless. And Claire watched with pain as the BOW fell apart until it regained the form it had before mutating. At least the boy could die as a human.

"I am sorry..." Claire mumbled, approaching the remnants of what had once been a quiet but energetic boy. He was still breathing, but it would be a matter of minutes for his heart to stop. "I am so sorry..."

Anthony stared at her. His eyes were glassy and opaque as life escaped his body. His lips moved, but no words came out.

"Oh, my god..." she heard Julie sob behind her.

"It was the lad," Liam said. "Oh, bloody bastards..."

"Huna blentyn ar fy mynwes. Clyd a chynnes ydyw hon..." Claire sang softly between sobs, stroking the dying boy's head.

Henry had taught her that song. The man told her it was a lull she could sing to her children someday. Since she didn't have any, she had sung it to Lily and Anthony. It was Anthony's favorite, and it always seemed to calm him.

Liam and Julie had approached. They knew Anthony, too, so they were also mourning their dying friend. The boy died silently with a deep exhalation; his body went limp, and that was it. There was no graciousness or dramatic words. He only left.

Suddenly Claire felt a hand on her shoulder. Leon had knelt beside her, looking sadly at the corpse. The agent's left arm seemed to be at an odd angle and probably broken. He would need a fix before they tried to leave the facility. Leon used his uninjured arm to hold her and let her cry into his chest. A gesture that she deeply appreciated.

Chris, Barry, and Helena had approached, too. They were silent, but they understood. While neither of them knew Anthony, seeing a little boy die like that was shocking enough.

"Chris, do you copy?" Jill's voice sounded from the radio.

Chris didn't answer immediately. He looked at Barry and the old man sighed with sadness.

"Y-yeah, what's it, Jill?" Chris finally answered.

"We might have found the way out," Jill answered. "Meet us at the Medical Bay"

"Yeah," Chris sighed. "We'll be there."

With Anthony's death, all the BOW died, too, and peace returned to the empty building. Rather than peace, it felt more like a depressing void. While Chris discussed their exit plan with Jill, Barry, and his team, Claire took upon herself patching up Leon.

Leon's arm was broken. There was no doubt about it, and there was little that Claire could do for him with what they had available on-site, but she did the best she could.

"Diclofenac should help with the pain until we get to a proper hospital," Claire said, injecting him with the medication. "We are just lucky this place had medicines."

"Yeah, maybe..." Leon sighed. "How's your shoulder?"

"Healed up. I got over the infection," Claire replied.

"And how are you feeling?"

"Not close to mutation, I think," Claire shrugged.

"That's not what I meant," Leon replied. "Are you ok?"

Claire sighed. Was she? She wasn't ok, but she would be someday.

"Yeah," Claire replied. "Tough decisions are like that."

"It was the best for him," Leon said. "I know how it feels."

"Yeah, I think we all have gone through that."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing much to say," Claire sighed. "I should have done it earlier. He wouldn't have suffered that much if I hadn't been an idiot."

"He was a child. You would never do that to a kid, Claire. It's not your fault."

"I can't believe they kept him here. I thought he was dead, but he turned out to be another of Mobius's test subjects."

"We'll take down Mobius. You'll see..." Leon said, grabbing Claire's hand.

Claire appreciated his comfort. Physical contact was a curious thing. Sometimes it could induce repulsion, and sometimes, it was warm and addictive.

"Ok, we have a plan," Chris said, approaching them. Claire had expected Leon to release her hand, but the agent kept a firm grip on it.

"We are all ears," Leon said.

Chris cleared his throat, and Claire looked at them suspiciously

"We can't backtrack. Going out by the way we came in is the safest bet, but we are low in ammo, and we would risk confronting the remaining BOWs out there," Chris said. "Bad idea, especially if you busted your arm, Leon."

Leon shrugged.

"I found a map in the files from the security office," Jill said. "There is an exit from the central area, but it is staff-restricted access. It will require some tampering for us to use it."

"In other words, it needs hacking," Claire said.

"But who will do it?" Helena asked. "None of us are hackers, are we?"

"We already have someone on it," Jill replied.

Claire scoffed. She was glad that she'd given Jill the access card to her lab's secured line, before they entered the maze. Jill pulled out a tablet and turned it to them.

"Yo, Red," Wallace greeted them. "Having fun kicking asses and looking good while at it."

"I'm not in the mood for your jokes, Grant."

"Oooh, Grant. If you're calling me by name, you're on your baddies. I'll be brief then."

"I thought you had to be here to hack this place," Helena said.

"Yeah, but I can do it remotely if I have someone on-site," Wallace answered. "I had Ms. Valentine open a few doors, and that was it."

"Sometimes, I don't know how you are not in jail," Claire sighed. "So you can open the door for us."

"Yeah, but there's a problem..."

There was always a problem. It was a rule of the universe.

"What's the problem?" Leon asked.

"Unlike the BSAA and the DSO," the man said. Claire wondered if any of the presents found the comment insulting. "This security system is pretty complex. It has booby-traps within the code. If I do something wrong, I might end up killing you."

"How come?" Chris asked.

"Well, let me set you an example," Wallace continued. "Let's say I hack into the main server and grant you high-rank permissions. The system can detect that those permissions are anomalies, so it turns on a security protocol and boom. You have mutant guardian dogs chasing after you."

"I don't like how that sounds."

"Yeah? Well, me too. I can unravel the code bit by bit, but that could take me days."

"Days that we don't have," Jill said. The building is running on a power plant supply. It has about three hours left."

"If that thing dies," Rebecca said. "Won't all those BOWs come in?"

"Yeah," Chris nodded. "What's the alternative? "

"Well," Wallace said, showing them a screen on the tablet. "I was looking through the options, and I found one that isn't as bad."

"Isn't that bad?" Claire asked with a frown.

"If I open the elevator using this method, I would unleash the self-destruction sequence. You guys would have exactly 20 minutes to evacuate the building and get as far as you can from there."

"15 minutes?" Rebecca said with wide eyes. "That's crazy!"

"Maybe, but that's our best bet..." Chris nodded. "This place should get destroyed anyway."

"So that's the plan?" Leon asked.

"Yes, that's the plan, unless you have a better one," Chris said.

"Nah, I think this one works."

"So we agree?" Wallace asked. "Good, ok. The sequence doesn't activate until I reach a certain line of the code, so I'll start working at it, and once you guys are ready to jump into that elevator and get the hell out of there, I'll finish."

"That's the plan," Chris nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem, pal. You owe me a raise, Red."

"I owe you nothing, considering I pay for the internet you're consuming in your gaming."

"Touché..." Wallace smirked. The man smirked and cut off the call.

"Wait, if this place is goin' to blow up, what about the others?" Liam asked.

"Don't worry about them," Jill replied. "We contacted the base earlier, the ships should have arrived to evacuate them long ago"

That seemed to calm Liam and Julie.

"Alright, that's it. We'll take a break, and we leave in 15 minutes. Make sure that arm is up for the trip, Leon."

"Sure thing, bro."

Chris grimaced while Rebecca, Barry, and Jill laughed. That left Claire even more confused. The group went back to the rest of the team, leaving Leon, Claire, and Helena to themselves.

"What was that?" Claire asked.

"Nothing," Leon smirked. "Just teasing my brother-in-law."

"Leon, did you hit your head?"

"No, he dropped the news on Chris," Helena explained. "I was expecting the whole speech, but he didn't ask for one."

"Correction, he said this wasn't the time. He'll expect a speech when we are out."

"You told Chris about us? When?"

"When you were out," Helena replied with a snicker. "I'm I supposed to call you Mrs. Kennedy now?"

"She's been Mrs. Kennedy all this time."

"You know what I mean."

Claire ignored the two agents' teasing exchange and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was so tired.

"So I guess this is it," Julie sighed. "It will be the end of this hell."

"I can't say I'm not happy," Liam said. "But who knows what will happen to us now."

"Going home, maybe?" Helena suggested.

"Lord knows if we have a home to go back to," Liam sighed. "I don't remember how we ended up here in the first place."

"You said you lived in Carmarthen. Someone there should recognize you, right?"

"Maybe, but who knows."

"I'm sure the BSAA or the DSO can help you," Leon said. "We could see into that."

"If not, Terra Save can house you," Claire nodded.

"Are you planning to return?" Helena asked.

"Honestly, I don't know," Claire sighed.

"Mobius is still on the loose," Leon said. "I think we should think it over before we decide what you are going to do. As far as we know, they might still go after you and your friends."

Claire sighed. Her life would never go back to normal, she was already aware of it, but Mobius would definitely complicate things.

"Well, you are the DSO's favorite agent," Claire said. "I doubt they will keep you on nanny duty any longer."

Leon shrugged, but Claire knew that he knew that, too. Their little family ruse would have to end soon.

(1) W. Shakespeare, Othello