"We are the reckless
We are the wild youth
Chasing visions of our futures
One day we'll reveal the truth
That one will die before he gets there
And if you're still bleeding, you're the lucky ones
'Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone
We're setting fire to our insides for fun
Collecting pictures from the flood that wrecked our home
It was a flood that wrecked this
And you caused it" -Youth, Daughter
She looks around Spencer's office. Wonders who it will be this time. The some swirls. The black door is open again. Sounds of moaning and hushed whispers coming from beyond it. She wonders if it's Him.
To her surprise it is Eliot who is sitting on the couch.
"Eliot?"
It surprises her because everyone else she met were people she knew in her old life. It surprised her, because everyone she met here was already dead.
"Natalia? What is this place?" He asks confused.
"It's a dream." She says, uncertain anymore.
"Oh. That makes sense. "
She feels awkward seen him there.
"So anyways." He says." Since it's a dream I guess I can say it. But it's kind of hard to put into words."
"Just try." She says.
"Well I don't know but I think I'm starting to fall for you." he says embarrassed.
She almost laughs. He looks cute, innocent.
"I'm afraid it wouldn't work out between us." She says. "But I'm flattered none the less."
"Yeah. I figured as much." He sighs. "You're on a whole different level and I'm just a loser."
"No you're not. You're a kind person, I'm sure one day you'll find someone who can appreciate it."
"Thanks for trying to make me feel better." He says. "But it's not that. It's like I can't explain it at times but deep down I know this how it meant to be. I've had this feeling for the longest time. Like I'm just running in place. Like I'm going to die soon."
Her look changes to one of concern.
"You can't possibly know that." She says.
"Ever since my parents broke up it's been this way. Like no matter what I do it's all pointless in the end. "
It's a feeling she knows well.
"You can find something to do that will make you happy. You just have to look."
He shakes his head.
"I've tried. But it just ends up dragging me down even more. "
"Have you tried getting help?"
"Yeah but I stopped going. The doc said I should try weed but I couldn't afford the medical kind. That's how I got addicted to this shit." He takes a drag of a cigarette that just appeared out of nowhere.
"And yes, I've tried quitting." He says" but I just ended up drinking instead. I know I'm just a loser. I don't have the will power to get over my addictions. I can barely keep myself in school. I thought I could get a hot girl but it ended up being some fucked up sadist. My parents don't give a crap about me. Nobody does."
She crosses her arms around her waist.
"I'm sorry you feel this way." She says. "I think you're a good person. You're kind and gentle. You're carring. And you can always try again- to quit. Get your grades back up too. No reason to give up."
He smiles a little.
"I don't know. I just had this feeling for year's now- that I'm not going to live to be old. Maybe that's why I never tried much. "
"You can still turn it around." She says, wishes it to be true.
"Maybe. I'm glad I met you. I'm sorry for the rant. Didn't mean to dump my problems on you."
"It's alright. Sometimes we just need somebody to listen."
"And sorry about ya know, all that stuff Hoffman made me do. "
She shakes her head, smiles.
"You don't need to be sorry. He's the one who should be."
"Well. I guess I'll see ya around."
He gets up, walks to the door. Stops to waive at her. There is a sinking feeling that this is the last she will ever see of him. She wants to stop him. To reach out and pull him back but he is gone. The darkness swallows him up and the door closes. Disappears.
Alex opens her eyes. Tears roll down. A heavy weight on her chest. Blurry visions takes time to focus. The ceiling is white. Light coming in from the right- a window. She tries to sit up. Weak. Barely manages. Muscles ache. How long was she asleep for? An IV in her arm. Something clear and a packet of blood, ready to be hooked up. A nurse walks in, gasps in surprise and runs out.
Claire rushes to the room. Apparently Alex was awake. It has been two and a half days since they got her out of the basement. They did what they could to get her blood clear of the serum. Even resorted to blood transfusions. She had remained unconscious the whole time. They weren't sure she would wake up or if she would be coherent once she did. The serum had been an experimental one. Dr. Haupman had stolen it with some help. It was known to cause medium to severe brain damage to those who receive it. Haupman was arrested and transported to the US. Awaiting punishment for all his crimes.
Alex is sitting up in bed when she enters. Déjà vu.
Claire pulls up a chair. The girl isn't looking at her. Despite all the heavy wounds she had, they were all gone by the time she got to hospital. They just healed on their own.
"Hey. " She is sure what to say or do "Natalia?'
Not sure what she is hoping for.
"Sorry, still me." She says.
Claire feels stupid for hoping the girl would just wake up once more.
"Right. So, your injuries, healed up on their own. Mind explaining that?"
"Probably the virus I infected Natalia with back on the island."
"But we checked her and she was clear." Claire said.
"It reacts to fear, remember?"
Claire would like to forget but she never will.
"But that doesn't explain the healing"
"It's a strand of the T virus. Has all the same properties with some modifications. "
Claire looks at her as if she was going to grow a second head any moment.
"Don't worry. That is why I froze her for six months, for her body to incorporate the virus into it. A mutation had not occurred in all this time so you don't have to worry."
She sounds almost bored the way she is talking. Claire wonders. She has been wondering from the start. They had raided Haupman office and found a bunch of files detailing his sessions with Natalia and how he noticed a change in her sometimes. How he made a plan to bring Alex Wesker back. But the most interesting thing to Claire was the side note. : Even though she is a copy she should hold all the knowledge and memories of the original Dr. Wesker."
"Why did she do it?"
Alex looks at her. Curious, surprised.
"You're aware of it then?" She asks.
"You mean..."
"That I'm not the real Alex Wesker. Just a digital copy of her memories, her mind uploaded into a human host."
"I had my doubts." Claire says" I guess, since the beginning you never felt like the same person. But I guess I never really knew her so I just dismissed it."
"I didn't immediately notice it myself." Alex admits.
"Does it really matter? You still have her memories, her personality. You are in essence her. Like a clone. "
Alex shakes her head.
"Maybe. But I don't have to make her mistakes."
Claire nods, agrees.
"No, you don't. You escaped from the sickness that plagued the original. So what now?"
"I don't know. " She says. "Depends on what the B.S.A.A. decide to do with me."
"That maybe a while." Claire sighs. "So what was her sickness anyways?"
Alex is silent for a moment.
"One that has no cure."
Claire sighs, again with the cryptic answers.
"The one eating away at her body was not the one she sought to escape."
Talking about it like this somehow made it easier. Like it didn't happened to her but to somebody else.
"What do you mean? " Claire looks confused.
"Her true sickness was something she could not escape no matter what – heartbreak."
Claire bows her head. It's a feeling she knows. She's felt it when her parents died. When Raccoon city happened. When Steve died. When she lost her friends and coworkers over and over. She thought she had become numb to it but deep down it still hurt. It always did, she just got good at pretending it didn't.
"It was Wesker wasn't it..."
She says nothing. Only nods slowly.
"I'm sorry." The words just come out, before she can even realize it.
She imagines how it would feel to lose Chris. It already tears her apart ,even just the thought.
Alex looks at her. Searchers for lies and deception. Finds none.
"You wanted to know about the Wesker Project."
Claire's head snaps up.
"How did you?"
"I know you were looking in to it."
"Yeah, I was. "
"Project Wesker was named after the man in charge of it. It was started by Oswell E. Spencer after the discovery of a special virus in Africa. The goal of the project was to create a superior breed of human beings that shared in his ideals and replace humanity with them. The project began in 1960. "She sounded like she was reading a report.
"The test subjects were acquired from various countries. Children born to parents of superior intelligence or physical ability. They were adopted, purchases or kidnaped. Brought to special institutions where they had their memories of the previous life altered. Those who met the requirements were then brought to the facility where they received education and were instilled with the ideals and values of Oswell E. Spencer. They were all given the surname Wesker."
Claire was trying to wrap her head around it. The way she spoke was emotionless, as if it didn't happen to her.
"The experiment started the first phase of testing in 1971, by having most of the candidates injected with the virus in its raw form. This resulted in the deaths of all participants. Thirteen of the very best were selected to advance to phase two. The subjects had to be completely unaware of the project. Having their memories of the facility altered for that purpose. They were sent to live among families selected for them or to other institutions. All of their actions were being monitored in secret to determine if they were worthy to receive the virus. After a weaker strand of the virus was created half of the thirteen were infected. Out of them only one survived. Subject 13. Albert Wesker. After his death in 1998 the remaining subjects were infected. Once again all but one died. With the death of the last remaining subject in 2011 the project is concluded to be a complete failure."
"How do you know all this?" She asks" If it was kept secret from the subjects? "
She sighs.
"Because I was there… in that basement..." the image surfaces and she closes her eyes. "Because for some reason I never completely forgot. Spencer knew this that was why he made the Overseer of the project. "
Claire remembers the drawing. The graves Haupman showed her. The image of the girl.
"You worked for Umbrella even though you knew?"
"I wanted to know if it was real." She says." I had to know the truth. But by the time I got to it, it was too late to get out."
Kidnapping, brainwashing it shouldn't have come as a surprise to her. Claire knew Umbrella was fucked up. But now she got to see the other side of it. She was aware of the monsters they made in labs. Born from viruses inside test tubes. But now she was aware of how they made monsters of people, warping their minds into something twisted and inhuman. People who did horrific things without remorse, acted like they had the right to do it. How else it could be possible that everybody working for the company was a complete psycho?
"Did you ever try to find your parents?" Claire asks.
Alex shakes her head.
"The reports stated that most parents were disposed of to prevent intervention."
"Jesus… why am I surprised? Claire shakes her head "So Alex is not even your real name?"
"Its Александра, supposed to be Russian. But they changed it to Alex. Most names were kept as they were."
„I apreciate you telling me, but why?"
„Maybe that truth serum hasn't worn off complelty."
„Well, i better let doctor know" she says half jokingly.
Claire get's up. Looks at the vase of white lilies on the table, takes a box of chocolates besides it.
„i'll leave you to enjoy these."
Alex sees the flowers for the first time. The box is white, shaped like a heart. The memory brings tears to her eyes. She looks away.
„What's the matter.?"
„Who sent these?"
„I don't know." Claire Says." They were here this morning when the nurse came in to check up."
She opens the box. Can't help the smile. Claire looks confused.
„ It couldn't be..." She says.
„Am I missing something?"
„It's nothing.. can't beleive they still make these." She takes a chocolate and put's in her mouth.
Claire leaves still confused.
Alex closes her eyes. The taste brings back memories. Of that day. It was the day of her doctare presentation. She wasn't all that nervous about it. She knew she her stuff, after all it was her own work. Spencer was there, even Daniel. And it put her in a bad mood. Knowing the old man was there only to judge her, to put extra presure on her. To make her slip up and fall, so he would have the reason to deny her the answers she wanted. She took that anger and used it to fuel her. The extra energy and determiantion leaving the evalution comity speachless. She got the highest mark that day. But she didn't feel happy. She knew it was stupid, but she hoped He would be there. Of course why would he? She knew he was on a mission, somewhere away. But even if he wasn't. Why would he? They were coworkers nothing more. But when she get's home, refusing to go anywhere to celebrate despite Daniel pesterign her, and finds the flowers outside her door along with the chocolate she knows it's from him. Hidden at the bottom of the box is a note." Congradulations. She knows the handwriting, elegant and smooth- His. Then she recalls seeing Wiliam's car parked outside. Even if he can't be there, he still cares, just knowing it makes her happy.
She takes the candy out of the box. Sure enought there is a note there. It says" Get Well Soon." On the other side is a number 303. The handwriting is unfamilair to her. It's elegant but diferent. She wonders who it is. After the doctors examine her, and the test seem to drag on forever, she slips out of her room. No guards this time. Follows the room numbers to the one on the note. To her surprise Claire and Barry are outside the room. She pauses, feeling unsure, wanting to flee before they noticed her. But Claire notices.
„Alex?" it's the first time she call her by her name.
Barry looks at her too.
She looks at the floor. Tries to come up with an explanation. But the man speaks first.
„You owe him your life. „ His looks is strern but the pure burning hate is now gone.
She doesn't know what he means. But then she rememebrs.
„Eliot. Is he okey?"
She rememebers the gun shot she heard.
„He's in critical condition." Claire says.
„What happaned."
„You don't know?" Claire asks.
„I heard a gun shot before they took me away but I don't know anything else."
„He's the reason we found you." Barry says.
It's her turn to look surprised. She had him drop her off near Barry's house once, back when she still living there.
„He showed up at my door bleeding ,with a gunshot wound and said you were kidnapped."
Barry explained how Eliot refused to go to the hospital and insisted they call the police. He told them about Victoria and the middle aged man in a fancy suit. From the description it sounded like Haupman but nobody could believe it. Eliot told them about the stuff Victoria was involved with. Claire went to Haupmans office and founf all sorts files that proved he was the culprit and linked him to many other criminal cases. She also found out the location from the files. While Barry and Eliot were talking to the police and tryign to get more people from the B.S.A.A. on scene.
Alex recalls her dream. It almost seemed like Eliot was saying goodbey. She doesn't beleive in prophetic dreams. Nurse rushes out of the room. More people come running. They rush him out of the room. She only sees a glimpse of him on the bed. Oxygen mask over his face. He is here only because he tried to help her. Now it looks like he might actualy die.
She sits outside the operating room. Not sure why. She never gave him much thought, used him like a tool. But she didn't want him to die. He had showed her he could be kind and carring. Probalby more than she deserved it. She had gotten Lucy into a similar mess, now another person was sucked in. Panicked voices beyond the door. The sound of a defibrilator going off. And she wishes desperatly that he would live.
Claire put's her jacket over the girls shoulders. She looks up at her.
„So was he a friend too?"
„Just a classmate." She says not looking at her.
„You were with him when it happaned."
She feels her face heat up. How much did he say?
„It was for school work. I know I broke the rules. I didn't plan to get kidnapped."
Claire has an unreadable expresion on her face.
„No, i don't think you did." Claire agrees" but still, you broke the rules."
„Better lock me up somewhere then. Because you never know who else might be after the things i know. That's why i told you to jsut let me die. There are plenty of fools outhere that want immortality. That want my technology. Who knows how many Haupman had told about it already? As long as i'm alive i'll be hunted."
Claire sighs.
„You're right about that. As long as you exist there will be people after you."
