Chapter 14: Ghost

"You have to what?" Both Jake and Claire asked in sync. Sherry had broke the news to them; she would have to fly back to the States due to Hunnigan thinking she was unfit for the mission.

"It's a good thing flights aren't running at the moment." Leon smirked.

"Leon... I'm staying out here and fighting." Sherry said defiantly.

"That's my girl!" Jake egged on with a serious nod.

"You could lose your job Sherry!" Leon countered.

"I don't care, fighting bio-terrorism is the only thing I know, want to do and WILL DO." She emphasised, "After Raccoon, my mother and father... Leon, it would all be for nothing if I don't keep fighting!"

Leon knew how she felt, he would feel the same if it were him in that position.

"And if I do get fired, I'll join the BSAA."

"You'll what!" Jake said in a shout. "You'll be a jarhead..." He spoke now in a soft small disappointed voice with a grimace.

"If it's the only way to fight Umbrella and the Family, I'll do it." She said proudly.

Chris and Jill both sat quietly listening to the conversation the others were having.

"I'm sure I could find a perfect place for you Sherry." Chris answered with a smile, "You would fit in perfectly."

"Captain Redfield!" An armed BSAA man shouted, running into the hotel catching everyone's attention, "We have received new Intel on The Family and Neo-Umbrella, you need to see it."

"Can't you just tell me Linnankivi?" Chris asked, the man shook his head.

"It is very important to you Sir, you MUST see it."

"Alright then." He replied as he jumped to his feet and ran out with the soldier.

When Chris arrived at the BSAA headquarters near the hospital he saw many armed men with blood dripping down their faces; it was the team who'd been sent to fix the satellite phone signal.

"Report."

"Captain!" One man addressed, "Intel was found on a small disk at the satellite's location. We took it for investigation and found this..." He moved aside to let Chris watch the video and read the files that had been recovered.

The video showed a bright laboratory with an Asian man with thick lensed glasses staring at a half mutated man in a large glass chamber filled with water, wearing a torn BSAA uniform.

"Piers!"

"Jill, we're taking a team and we're going to infiltrate that hospital." Chris said sternly when he'd calmed down and plotted the route and plan of their next mission.

"I'm coming too!" Sherry jumped in after overhearing the conversation.

"I'm in too." Jake commented following her.

"Sherry, Hunnigan will-"

"Leon, the BSAA need our assistance as seen as we've already been there!"

Leon didn't want to argue, she'd already made up her mind and he'd already bat for her corner to Hunnigan, this was her choice and both would likely be bitten in the ass for it later. 'On second thought, Me, Sherry and Jake will get it in the neck.'

"Fine." He sighed, it was a good job Claire had gone back to her room otherwise she would have chained Sherry to a chair, and cut his head off for agreeing to let her go.

"We move out in an hour." Chris ordered.

Jake couldn't believe she'd been out of hospital a day and was already getting herself into trouble, but this time he wasn't going to let her out of his sight, even if he had to handcuff themselves together.

"You got everything?" He asked as she sat down on the couch putting her holsters on her legs. She didn't respond but just sighed. "You're worrying about losing your job?"

"Jake... It wouldn't matter if I did, I'd always find another route to fight for this cause but, I am happy working there."

"Whatever you chose I'll be right behind you."

She thanked him and made her way to the bedroom to pick up her guns, just as she'd popped them into their places she was pushed to the bed, rolling over she saw Jake looking highly amused before he joined her.

"Agent Muller what do you think you're doing?" She giggled as he crawled between her legs.

"Taking advantage of the situation." He murmured as he kissed her neck, making her moan lightly.

"I wish there were time..."

All 6 of them hurried to the BSAA armoured vehicles that waited outside the hotel for them, Leon and Claire were also going because they wanted to keep an eye on the others, plus Leon had been ordered to take over Sherry and Jake's mission so this was banded in the category. He wasn't going to tell Hunnigan until they were there, although she would know from satellite tracking.

"We rendezvous at the hospital in 30 minutes, if we are separated for whatever reason try to make it back to HQ... Move out!" Jill ordered as Chris was talking to the other men in a different team, everyone nodded and was handed a walkie-talkie to keep in touch.

"Damn, a mercenary then an agent... now a BSAA soldier? What's happened with my life?" Jake questioned openly as he sat in the third truck along with Sherry, who had been very quiet. "At least I'm fighting for a good cause though, right?" He asked again only to be ignored. "Hey!" He shouted in her ear frowning.

"What?" She looked blank and slightly angry.

"I've been talking to you for the past 5 minutes."

"Sorry Jake." Sherry smiled, "What were you saying?"

He sighed rolling his eyes.

"It doesn't matter. You know it's not too late to turn back Supergirl."

"Nope, I'm not turning back now." She smiled again more like her usual self.

Exactly thirty minutes later the troops arrived at the hospital without any disruption, everything looked the same, except for a few more bullet and arrow holes in the walls and dirt.

'Ada.' Leon thought at the sight of the arrows, he immediately wanted to know if she was safe but now the BSAA were with them, she needed to be careful.

"Alright," Chris began as they all stood in a group looking up at the massive structure. "We'll go in as far as Jake and Sherry did, then we'll spilt into teams and do a complete search if you find anything, report in straight away." Everyone nodded readying their guns taking the safety off, and preparing to follow Sherry and Jake inside.

The two were happy the hallucinogenic gas wasn't streaming like before as they stepped into the foyer, otherwise it would have caused a lot more trouble for them this time.

Jake wondered if a horde of J'avo would burst in on them like before too, but thankfully as they made their way deeper into the foundations nothing but dust greeted them.

Again it was all too quiet.

"This way." Jake muttered quietly as the party walked into the room where the monstrous Widow had been. Tiny dried blood patches were scattered around the room where Sherry had been bitten by the small creatures, as there was a dent in the wall where Jake had been thrown and held in place.

Jake struggled with his saddened thoughts, he could have saved Sherry if only he'd-

"Jake?"

"Hmm?" He looked to the side to see Sherry staring at him, he'd stopped at the sight of the blood. Nodding he began a slow walk to the next corridor, down this road he would be confronted by the ghost of Sherry's almost death and hopefully the leader of The Family and Neo-Umbrella. He smirked coldly at the thought of finding the person behind all this, how he would love to put his hands around their throat and watch as their life left their eyes.

"Chris, just up ahead is the room where we were attacked." Sherry notified.

Upon opening the large door sunlight streamed into the room as it had before, Chris gasped at the sight of the Stairway of The Sun. The menacing red petals of the plant looked brighter and more vivacious than the ones in Africa. He almost ran down the stairs to look at them.

The BSAA soldier had heard Jake's report of the flower but couldn't believe it until he saw it, and there it was just as he'd described "...evil daffodil with tremendous hidden power."

"How is this surviving here!" He roared in anger.

"We don't know either." Sherry spoke quietly to the sky, she was watching the rooftop for any intruders or assassins, not noticing Jake was standing next to her doing the same.

"This blood?" Claire asked gingerly, pausing near a gigantic puddle of dried blood.

"Yeah... that's Sherry's." Jake replied knowing her silent question.

"Okay, over here everyone." Chris spoke loudly gaining everyone's attention. "Jake, Sherry you two will continue forwards through that door." He said pointing ahead.

It would have been where they would have headed, hadn't the incident happen.

"Myself and Jill will go with you until there's a fork in our path, then we'll split off. Leon and Claire you'll go through that door." He said gesturing to a half broken door left of Sherry's blood puddle. "Everyone do an in depth sweep of every room, you find anything ring it in. If you run into hostiles eliminate them... We all clear?"

Again all nodded and wished each other good luck before heading in the directions specified.

Some time later Claire and Leon found themselves in a small office with no label on the door, it hadn't been touched in weeks by the looks of it; a thin layer of dust covered the entire room, footprints on the floor had already been covered by more dust and sand.

They hadn't found anything yet, and by the silence from the other teams they hadn't either.

"Leon, what is this?" Claire asked suddenly from under a desk.

"A syringe." Leon replied looking over his shoulder to see what she'd picked up.

"But it has a name on it... P...Niv... Nivans?" She had to squint to see it, the name had been almost rubbed off.

Leon stopped immediately, whirling around to her and taking the dusty syringe from her hands and stared at it intently.

"Get Chris on the phone."

UPDATED: 15/01/2015 - Spelling, Grammar & Minor story changes.