"So Jake's signal leads to an abandoned building in northern Russia?" Chris looked over the report from the recon team, examining the photos that they provided. It appeared to be some sort of open field that held a broken down house, the landscape completely buried in the country's typical snow. There were no signs indicating movement in the snow—no footprints, drag marks, snow pushed to the side from the helicopter blades—which made Chris wonder exactly where the entrance was. Then again, the snow appeared fresh, and it was entirely possible any sign of interaction could have been covered over by this point.

"Yeah," Jill hummed. "The signal is originating from underground, so it's entirely possible that the house is just a decoy and the entrance to some kind of underground lab is around there somewhere." More than likely the house had some sort of hidden latch or service tunnel entrance to the lab, or at least that's what Chris suspected.

"Wouldn't surprise me at all," he commented. "Has there been any news from Jake?"

"No, but it's still too early. Preparations for phase two are complete; I've got the bomb loaded on one of the choppers and I'm ordering the recon team to remain there and keep an eye on any suspicious activity, but so far they haven't seen anything. They'll be acting as backup when we finally arrive." She turned her focus to her partner. "How do you think Jake's doing?"

"The kid is tough. I'm sure by now he's already got his escape planned out." Chris looked at Jill, his brow slightly narrowed in thought. "Still, I can't shake the feeling that Neo Umbrella might have already gotten what they wanted from him."

"No way." She looked at him in disbelief. "It took them six months to develop the enhanced C-Virus. Even then, that was with Ada Wong on the job." She leaned in a bit closer to him. "If you're right and Neo Umbrella really is just a collection of leftover J'avo and scientists there's no way they'll be able to create something else in just a few days." Chris nodded.

"I guess you're right, but they also had Piers for three months. He can't really remember what happened during that time, and it seems a bit out of Neo Umbrella's interest to kidnap someone simply for torture." He dropped the weight of his hands on the table. "Either way, be prepared to extract Jake in case he doesn't make it to the rendezvous. I want as many of our best men as we can get on this case." Jill nodded in acknowledgement.

"Think they might be planning an ambush on us?" she questioned. Chris recalled their conversation earlier about things seeming to have gone too smoothly, and he could understand her reasoning behind those thoughts.

"If that's the case, we'll still have recon as backup and we can play it safe and delay the second team. We'll keep an eye on the situation and judge it from there." Jill nodded in acknowledgement. "Get the team prepped for departure and inform them of details for when we arrive. We need this to go as smoothly as possible. We leave in one hour."

"Understood," Jill released, and with that the two went their separate ways.

Just a few days ago one hour felt like an eternity to Chris, but now it seemed like it was hardly that much time at all. Those sixty minutes passed so quickly, though perhaps it was Chris's apprehension that was doing that. Jill and the rest of their team were waiting for him in the hangar, suited up and prepared to go. Two helicopters rested outside in wait for them—one carried the bomb they were intending to plant in the facility, so in order to make up for the space they had another chopper prepared to take the rest of the team. Chris walked over to them with a stern expression on his face; this was the mission where everything mattered, where they could finally be rid of Neo Umbrella and its troubles.

"You ready?" Jill questioned. She never looked more determined to go on a mission, and Chris knew she shared the same thoughts as he did about it.

"Yeah," he commented. "Are the helicopters all set?"

"The bomb is set to go and the pilots are waiting for your command, sir," one of the team members told him. Chris nodded.

"Alright," he began. "You've already been informed about this mission, so I'm sure I don't need to remind you the severity of this. We need you all to be at your absolute best today. This mission will be extremely dangerous; this is the last chance you have to back out." No one took the offer.

"Let's go!" Jill shouted, and motioned for the team to start boarding. The blades of the metal birds began spinning at this motion as well, stirring the air around them with incredible force.

"Captain!" Chris turned around to hear the voice of Piers behind them, who jogged towards them with guards in tow. He took a quick moment to catch his breath so he could speak when he arrived in front of the two. "I just wanted to wish you luck on this mission. I wanted to be sure I told you myself in case anything happens." Out of the corner of Chris's eye came a blur of a figure motioning at them, and Jill excused herself and ran towards it. He then realized it was one of the doctors, though he focused again on Piers when he realized Jill seemed to be taking care of it. Chris put his hand on Piers's shoulder as a way of comfort.

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine." His voice was genuine in confidence, despite the question of whether or not Neo Umbrella was expecting them still being unanswered. Chris's attention was soon distracted, however, as he realized Jill had drawn out her rifle…and was for some reason aiming right for the two. His look of confusion caused Piers to turn around in search of the source for his captain's emotions, and he too seemed startled at Jill's odd actions.

"Get out of the way, Chris!" she screamed from behind her scope. "He's been infected with P30!"

What?

At that moment, time itself seemed to have stopped. All of Chris's senses were frozen, drowned out—the boom of the helicopter sweeps were muted, Jill's cries were left unheard. The shock went through him like a wave, tightening his muscles and leaving him aghast. No…

"How?"

That question barely came out of him as a whisper. It was a crack in his voice, something that slipped out with his lips hardly even processing it. Piers did nothing to deter the accusation, not even trying to prove his innocence. Blue energy began to bounce off his arm, his face started to contort with a yell. Chris was too late to react as he watched Piers send shots of bioorganic electricity towards his partner. There was no way she could have possibly avoided the shock—in an instant she was hit with the full force of the energy and her body wildly convulsed, before it shut down and she collapsed onto the ground.

"No!" Immediately Chris pulled out his assault rifle and aimed it right at Piers, the anger of his betrayal and the attack on Jill fueling his motions. How did this happen? Piers had no device on him, there was nothing that showed up in his blood. It had been days since they had freed him from Neo Umbrella's grasp, by now the chemical would have been completely expelled from his body. This wasn't possible. This was not possible.

He had Piers right in his sight, his barrel aligned with his head directly in the crosshairs, but he couldn't pull the trigger. It was confusion, it was denial, it was him failing to act. Piers turned around and looked at him, his arm bubbling and unfolding into a mutated mass of black and red muscles, blue sacs of electricity, bone extending into gigantic claws. He smacked Chris out of the way, the super strength behind his motion throwing Chris across the room and rolling many feet away upon impact. He could hear the cracks of the energy surrounding Piers's arm, and Chris watched in horror as a gigantic bolt of electricity launched from his mutation and directly hit one of the helicopters. The impact light the metal beast aflame, followed by a gigantic boom as the energy caused it to combust, metal, fire, and smoke pushing everywhere. Chris screamed as he realized his team was in those flames, their cries drowned out in the explosion. Piers turned around to Chris and stared him down, his face showing no remorse to his actions. A flash of blue soon surrounded him and Chris could feel his body jolting, before it finally came to a rest and his vision drifted into black.

This was the last chapter I wrote before I landed in the hospital and all that started. I swear this ending on a cliffhanger was a complete coincidence.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end! I hope you enjoyed what was here. Like I said I am interested in continuing this (if only to get the damn thing done) so if you have any ideas feel free to let me know!