Chapter 5. "Into the depth part 1."
...
The sun has tilted towards the horizon, its light falling upon the garden in spite of the gathering clouds, giving the grass a beautiful golden glow. The flower stems and their peddles waved in unison to a gentle breeze.
A graceful woman stood in a small room, her fine raven hair tied back in a pony tail and with only a few touches of gray mixing in with the dark locks. And what gray there was fit in well with and indeed enhanced upon her lovely yet mature features. She wore a simple yet well made black suite and bluetooth headset ready to leave... in theory at least. In reality however she needed to be in this room for a moment longer, to catch her breath and get her game face on, and to just... remember what past few years had cost her, and remind her why she still kept fighting despite it all.
The room had a small bed with white sheets and two pillows, in the left side of the room is a small desk with tiny school bag filled of books and pens. The walls of the room were of a pale faded blue color.'same as the sky!"' A young voiced piped up from the recesses of her memory.
She couldn't help the smile that broke out across her features. the memories are still fresh in her mind from when he was still a silly seven year old cutie. A boy she knew.
Their relationship had changed greatly through the years and she couldn't understand what happened, where her little boy had gone to. Being in this room actually helped her to feel a bit better and strengthen the hope which still flickered in her heart.
She is Elizabeth Kennedy, wife of Senator Steven Kennedy and the two of them were living in a fine looking manor. The married couple dressed up for an event that they personally held great support of. Today they were asked to aid the BSAA during their Investigation.
"Darling, we must leave now." Elizabeth heard his gentle voice call to her, and she sighed.
"I'm coming dear." she said and looked at the room one last time. Down the stairs a tall-athletic looking man stood talking in his cellphone, his skin tanned of long hours jogging under the sun, with just faint bit of scruff caressing his formidable jawline, and anyone who looked at him could immediately could tell he was basically an older version of his son, for the serious resemblances the two of them shared.
"Adam, I assure you we'll help as best as we can." he said with much anxiety evident in his voice. "Is my son already there?"
"Yes, he was paired with a woman named Miss Valentine. His handler told me so far the two of them are out on a mission together." the president spoke.
Elizabeth left the room with a somber exhale of nostalgia. "Let's go Steven, if we're lucky we might get the chance to talk to him."
Steven heaved a long shuddering sigh. "He's stubborn." he looked at her with a teasing smile. "Like you."
Elizabeth playfully smiled in his direction. "I had to be, how else was I gonna get you out of your studies and out on a proper date?" she walked passed him and went through the front door.
"Excuse me madam and sir, we have to leave." he spoke in the phone one last time and hung up.
...
A pair of feet wander through the building in relative silence, save for the occasional grunts and groans as they take care of yet more twisted monstrosities. The duo walked in the same two person formation as before. Their pace was rather slow until they reached the rusty door, and Leon kicked it open.
The very moment they stepped outside, they felt a cold breeze, it carried a familiar bad odor, but it was gone before they could properly identify it.
The clouds hanged low in the sky. Gray and ominous, light flashed along the clouds in the distance. Jagged and vibrant.
They saw the lightning, but heard no thunder, which meant it had to be a long way off, then again, storms move quickly when you don't least expect them. "You two are finally out." a familiar stuffy voice beckoned. "Quint," Jill said with a smile.
The bald member waited for them near the door. "Hey Leon?" he called and tossed a large object at him. Leon couldn't see the object clearly until he caught it. "That's a Genesis Scanner, state of the art tech for detecting and identifying plants, animals and viruses, you're gonna need it." Quint also passed Leon a thigh holster for the Scanner.
"Ah, thanks." He examined the tool carefully. "I don't know how to use it though."
"Better learn quickly then." Quint cracked with a grin. "You two better hurry, O'Brian is waiting," Quint said and pushed them forward. Leon was rather taken aback by how casually the man spoke, despite how they hardly knew one another. Just like Mike... will probably die like him too. Leon quickly pushed the thought out of his head, to focus instead on the mission. As always the mission came first and foremost, above any and all feelings of guilt and... grief.
"According to my watch, we've been inside for three hours," he murmured as passed through a small dirt underpass covered in thick layers of moss and salt crystals.
Once they were greeted with light again, they could see a figure, and his back faced them. He wore a light green overcoat and brown pants. It looked all rather dated, but O'Brian looked comfortable with himself. "Ah, there you two are." he said from the moment he saw them.
"You must love to be back in the field, huh?" Jill tilted her head in a friendly manner.
O'Brien's smile grew, "Well, my doctor told me I need exercise." He turned his back on them and looked at the abandoned beach.
"I assume you both know that the FBC cordoned off the entire area," he sighed and went on. "However, the past few weeks a number of mysterious carcasses have washed up." He indicated for them to follow him down the stairs.
"I guess the FBC couldn't cover up this mess," Leon muttered. Jill crossed her arms and whispered. "Anyone who knows what happened here is gonna put two and two together."
"That's why I sent the B.S.A.A. to investigate, I told the president of what is going on and what we're planning," O'Brien stated and glanced back at Leon. "That's when you came into the picture mister Kennedy. The president evidently thinks quite highly of you and your... skills." he murmured. Leon's jaw clenched just a little, and he saw the way the man looked at him. He knows.
Leon pushed his personal feelings aside and just nodded,"Yeah, Hunnigan informed me of the situation." O'Brien checked the file in his hand one more time before he spoke again. "Did you pick up your new equipment from Quint?" he asked.
Leon slowly took out the Scanner and show it to him. "Yeah, Genesis...something. Same one Jill has."
O'Brian nodded to Leon. From the files Hunnigan had sent to Leon's PDA. Clive R O'Brian, age 58, born in Cleveland, Ohio. A man that grew up on the outskirt of the city and often visited his extended family on a farm. Joined the US Army when he was 22 for the sake of having a job. Calm, collected, and has a sense of justice. It comes to no surprise that he is a key founding member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. A firm created in the beginning to be a form of investigation in potential corporations and wrong doers of the world. Sanctioned by the United Nations, the B.S.A.A. has been often used as consultant on many different Bioterror events. Never the ones with any real 'teeth,' since the US government preferred the Federal Bioterrorism Commission. A government firm that O'Brian has spoken up against in the past. The D.S.O. and B.S.A.A. have more of a symbiotic relationship.
Both divisions share and relay information to each other to carry out their tasks.
The D.S.O. or the Division of Security Operations was a long used branch of government intelligence that is involved in many new issues. Bioterrorism being one of them. Since the D.S.O. isn't strictly meant to counter Bioterrorism, which was the main reason to recruit Leon into their organization.
At last they jumped down to the shore, following O'Brien to the weird Carcasses. "Look at this." O'Brien knelt down to check one of them. "They're rotted to hell."
"The skin is so pale, I've never seen anything like it," Leon said.
"Use the Genesis to get a reading on it. The Genesis requires a decent sample size to get an accurate reading, scan the carcasses on the beach and send me your data." Jill and Leon exchanged looks before he answered. "Roger that."
"Make sure to take the lens cap off." Jill joked as she walked ahead of Leon. He looked down at the Genesis Scanner. He sighed as the lens caps were indeed on the Scanner.
"Well, you can't put a cap on these lenses." Leon lightly pointed at his eyes with his left index finger. O'Brian heard that pun clearly and rubbed his forehead.
Jill just shook her head in response. Her eyes focused on the scanner. Leon focused on the green screen, the trigger was heavy to his finger unlike the normal gun, with a simple pull, and the scanner served its purpose. "I'm getting something ..." he heard Jill shout out. It was the same time his screen showed 'metal detected.'
"I got something too, it's from the inside," he holstered the scanner and looked at Jill. "Be careful, okay." he said as he knelt down and hold onto the thing, it was heavy but not too much for him. Slowly he lifted it up, high enough to show what looked like a mouth.
"Don't worry, I've done this before." she said. She bit her lip in disgust and pushed her hand to inside the thing, she searched through the soggy insides, until her gloved fingers touched a metal. "Found it." Heavily she pushed it out, it was vial with dark liquid.
"Isn't this..." she whispered.
"This is not the same as we saw in the video." Leon continued. O'Brien came forward and took the vial from her hand.
"I'll run some test on this, continue with the Investigation." Jill stood up and took a deep breath.
"Roger." Leon was already in front of her scanning another thing, near a cave- like tunnel.
Wondering why he moved without her so suddenly, she pulled her hand back out by reflex. Just in the presence of safety, she was hardwired to react. "Careful you two. God only knows what strains of virus we're dealing with." O'Brien informed over the radio.
With his left arm Leon took one of his Wing Shooters and multiple flashes appeared from the barrel. "Don't worry, we're on it." Leon said.
Jill paced closely behind him and tried to focus her aim on the large mouth, three bullets went through it. The thing fell back to the ground, convulsing in place for several seconds and the sight of it sent a cold chill down Jill's spine.
The creature moved again revealing its wide wretched mouth again. Leon fired several more times, but still the thing kept moving. "Eat this." Jill whispered and the barrel of her gun flashed twice to the mouth. The creature convulsed again and it crawled forward. With every wound they created, the bullets sent ripples through the skin. It moved far faster that it looked, and before Jill knew it, it was within crushing distance to her.
It lifted the front end of itself for an opening to reveal its great maw and consume her. Jill fired three more bullets and the creature howeled its fury at her.
She walked backwards as her weapon was still honed on the creature, never losing her cool, yet poised to spring off to the side if it lunged at her again. The ripples grew in frequency and the body started to shrink. The creature more or less melted. And in its place puddle of water, slime and blood formed.
"I see you two are okay, continue your work, but proceed with extreme caution." They heard O'Brian, he was calm again.
"That's an understatement." Leon joked which in turn caused Jill to roll her eyes at him.
The two of them ventured into the tunnel in silence, they could see another creature on the ground, but it was too small. "Maybe it is a part of a creature." Leon drew the Genesis. Jill kept her pistol at the ready. "I'll go to the other side, you just follow me later." Jill said and took off in a hurry to the other part of the beach.
The place have a broken wooden bridge, left over boats, dead fish all over the shore. The carcasses were close to the bridge. The smell of the fish perfumed the area. What confused Jill was that there weren't any seagulls at the water. This was the prime opportunity to do such a thing.
It seemed that the seagulls knew there was some kind of potential danger. The moment she got close to the thing, there was a sudden explosion of blood and soggy insides, that almost caused her to lose her cool and start shooting off randomly. From the look of it, the thing begun decomposing from the inside rather than the outer layer. 'Ah the smell. Must've ruptured from internal gases.' She thought to herself. Leon came out of the tunnel, and saw the scene before him. "Christ, what a mess." he sighed. "I got this over here, you check the ones behind the rocks."
"Roger that."
Jill went through the small path, it appeared like a hidden took extra care on the placement of her every step. She didn't want her ankle to get caught on anything after all. Jill looked up and noticed another carcass hanged on to a high rock.
Jill aimed her scanner up, when her PDA started ringing. Using her left hand she took the mic and put in her ear. "Yes, Valentine speaking."
"Miss Valentine this is Senator Steven speaking."
Her eyes widened in surprise. It took her a moment to muster a response. "Mister Kennedy, to what do I owe this honor?"
"Ah, you always been a smooth talker Jill. We'll be assisting you in this mission, is Leon there with you?"
Jill rotated her head to look for Leon, and she could see him scanning the beach. "Yes, but we're working at the moment, sir." she answered.
"I understand, but I need you to tell me of the situation so far?"
Jill sighed and looked down at the ground. "The things we saw in the building and in the beach nearby show a true viral infection. We found some message I'm guessing it's written by a man named Jack Norman, we still don't know if he is involved or just a witness of the Terragrigia tragedy."
A tense silence took over the conversation, before Steven answered at last. "I see...thank you. I'll search that name carefully" he whispered. "Right now we got a tail on the other BSAA members and we're watching over them too, keep up the good work."
"Roger that sir," she said and closed her device. Her feet felt the decompression of the sand beneath her boot, before she needed to move. The conversation must have taken long than expected.
She heard sand crunch under shoes. "Are you done here Jill?" A voice came with the noise.
"Yeah," she replied. "I think we have enough samples let's go back to O'Brian."
On the shore, they saw all of the Carcasses move, gathering and coming towards them.
"Great." Leon said and took out both of his Wing Shooters. "It's party time." Without hesitation he stepped forward slowly and his Wing Shooters flashed bits of light.
Jill aimed her gun. She picked up the pace and fired. Giving Leon the chance to reload. Two of the creatures melted before her gun.
"Let's go." Leon took her hand and ran to the opposite direction, upon the bridge.
Leon fired five more bullets into two of the three creatures, while Jill focused her aim on the one. It took a minute for the pair to put them down at last, they took a moment to catch their breath as the Carcasses melted to the sand.
"Finally." Jill breathed a sigh of relief. She looked around to see if there any more danger. Once it was over. Several seagulls dive bombed to the water to carry off several fish… 'Little jerks.' Jill thought to herself.
They made their way back to O'Brian who was waiting anxiously close to the tunnel. "There you are." O'Brian smiled. "Nice work."
"No doubt about it, these corpses show signs of viral infection." Jill spoke up first.
"I don't think its a coincidence, that these things are coming through the FBC's blockade." Leon said.
It wasn't uncommon for the FBC and the DSO to cross paths in jurisdiction. He recalled all the times Hunnigan complained about the paperwork. O'Brian nodded as his expression turned sour. "Well, we did all we can…"
Leon's phone started to ring. It opened the clear phone and flicked it open. The display showed a head view of Hunnigan.
"Leon come in?" Hunnigan's voice came from Leon's phone. He brought his finger to his ear, "Hunnigan, you got anything new for me?" he asked.
"I just got done speaking with the Senator. He has an update about Chris."
"Senator?" Leon spoke in a half surprised tone but deep down he knew whom Hunnigan referred to. He frowned, as he pondered how they could have gotten themselves involved in all of this. "What happened?"
"That's what I want to talk to you about..."
O'Brian looked back at Jill. "We will wait for the results to come back from HQ." he said when his phone started to ring.
He took out of his pocket, the number in the screen told him it must be something bad. "It's the emergency line." he said and answered. Jill nodded to her boss as she glance toward Leon. "Yeah, it's me..."
Leon came back to Jill and touched her shoulder, "I have bad news. There's-."
"What?" O'Brian's voice got louder, cutting Leon off.
"I see, I will take it from here. We'll have to speed things up." In all the time Jill worked with the BSAA, it was a rather rare occasion for O'Brian to raise his voice about anything.
Usually meant something went from bad to worse. With a sigh he turned to face them. "Jill, you are still in the case."
"What happened?" Jill asked. "We lost contact with Chris and Jessica." O'Brian broke eye contact with Jill.
"How?" she asked, worry clear in her voice.
"We're not certain."
"Hunnigan couldn't figure out what happened as well." Leon added.
"Yeah, I've forward their last known coordinates to your PDAs."
Both of them checked their devices and saw the message. A map appeared in the small screen as a green light that flickered to a certain place. "The signal was lost over the ocean. I thought they were in the mountains following a lead on Veltro, but judging from their position, they must be..." Leon trailed off.
"On a ship." O'Brian interrupted. "I'm heading back to HQ, you take charge of the search and the rescue, I'll talk to Parker and see if he can go with you." He put his PDA into his back pocket. "Yes sir." Jill didn't hesitate on her response.
"You can count me in sir," Leon added with a ghostly imitation of what was meant to be a comforting smile, "I kinda owe his sister after all, so its only fair." Jill didn't respond, she was too lost in her own thoughts, Where are you Chris? she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?" Leon asked. "Looks like it's going to be a tough road."
"Never thought I would be using the tugboat in a rescue mission." She mused.
"At least I'll be seeing prettier sights than decrepit abandoned villages and creepy old castles." Leon said. His Wing Shooter shone in the light as he pulled back the slide, ensuring that a round was loaded into the chamber.
Jill chuckled at this. "Let's go."
Thank you for reading, reviews are always appreciated.