Chapter Eight: The Price is Payed

Claire's whole body shook. For half an hour she had been making her way across the large room, and having to bend down and inspect each tile before she stepped on it was starting to take it's toll. It was hard to bend her back, and even harder to straighten it again. I can't keep doing this! her mind screamed, but she kept going anyway. She could feel a headache coming on as well. She was halfway across the room now, and ten feet awa from her was Tim's body. She forced herself not to look in the direction, but the path of tiles that she could stand on made that immpossible. It was a long and painful process, but she finally made it to the other side of the room, and she wondered breifly for what, when she spotted the door. Painted black, it was almost invisible. Still being careful, she went for the door and turned the knob. Thankfully it opened. The other side of the door was painted bright red. She stepped into the room, and gasped at what she saw. There were more of those zombies piled everywhere, all torn to ribbons. Before she could inspect them further, she heard shouts,and gun fire coming from behind another door, this one black.

She was heading for the door, when a sound behind her caught her attention. She turned around, and gasped in surprise. In the doorway acrss the room stood a tall well-built man. His blonde hair was streaked with blood. His skin was red from blood as well. He appeared human at first, until she saw his arm. His arm wasn't an arm any more. It resembled a wing, almost, but it was really a blade.

"Boo," He said, watching her closely.

Claire didn't dare move. Something told her that it would be a death warrant if she did. After two minutes of standing stock still, she began to inch towards the door again. In the blink of an eye, the man was blocking her path. Claire gaped at him, and decided now would be a good time to get the hell out. She could hear voices, coming from the left of her, one was Rebecca. Trying not to let it show on her face what she was going to do, Claire bolted for the door the man had come through. Just as before, he was blocking her path in the blink of an eye.

Claire backed up, trying to think of what to do. The door she had heard the gunshots from burst open suddenly, and without thinking, Claire spun around. Chris was there, and for a moment, he looked relieved to see her, then his eyes widened it horror. Claire didn't even turn half way around before she felt the blade slicing through her back.

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"I'm telling you I heard something!" Rebecca argued.

She had been fighting with the two men for awhile now, bugging them to go back and check, but neither of them would listen. Were it not for the fact that she had hardly any ammo, she would have gone to see what it was on her own. But that fact was just that, a fact. So she stayed with them, and tried to persuade them to turn back.

The hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood up. Was it her imagination, or was something blocking out the light? Was there someone behind her? Or was it just her?

"Hey Re...becca..." Billy started and turned around. So did Justin. He had the same look of shock on his face that Billy did.

"What-"

She stopped speaking when Wesker's calm voice interupted her, "Hello again, Rebecca."

Hearing his voice sent Rebecca leaping forward to get out of his reach. He was standing there, looking rather amused as Billy wrapped a protective arm around Becky. Justin had his gun aimed at Wesker, though it was obvious he knew it wouldn't do much good.

"Well well well, Justin Le, is it? I must say, had I not been told you were with this rag-tag little bunch, I wouldn't believe it."

He got no reply, but he didn't seem to care. He pulled a knife seemingly out of nowhere. "It seems," he said with some disappointment, as he pretended to examine the blade, "That someone stole my good knife...Pity. It's the one I like to use when killing a former employee."

Before any of them could so much as breathe, Wesker had moved forward and buried the knife deep in Justin's stomach. At first, neither Billy nor Rebecca reacted, then in a flash, Billy lept forward, to try and tackle Wesker. The man simply acted as if Billy were nothing more than a bothersome fly, and flung him away, slamming him into the wall.

"No!" Rebecca shouted, trying to get to her fallen partner, but Wesker caught her as she went by, and threw her into the miraculously still standing Justin. She and Justin hit the floor with an audible thud. Wesker payed no more attention to them. Instead he turned to Billy, who was trying to get himself back into the realm of conciousness.

"I think you've been enough of a nusiance," he said, preparing to strike. Rebecca was quick this time. She grabbed Justin's gun, and fired several rounds into Wesker's knees. She managed to drop him with the fourth round. Now Wesker turned his attention to Rebecca. He got up, though not without some difficulty, and moved towards her. This is it...I'm dead... Rebecca thought, seeing him raise his arm to hit her. But the blow never came. Wesker was looking down the hall at something that Rebecca couldn't see or hear, until a few seconds later. Wailing. Becky recognized the sound, and she wasn't sure if it was a good thing this time or not. From around the corner came two people, Leon and Ada, it looked like. And following them was Kylie. Ada was going slower than Leon, and it was easy to see why; blood poured from a wound on her thigh, and Kylie's hands were covered in blood as well . She ran with amazing speed, for someone with such short legs. She was quickly gaining on the pair. The pair didn't seem to notice that Wesker was ahead of them...Didn't notice, or didn't care. Ada's leg gave out, and she dropped to the floor. Leon was quick to spin around and help her up, but by then Kylie had caught up to them. She wrapped her hands around Leon's arm and dug her nails into his skin as he tried to get her off and help Ada at the same time. Ada used her good leg, and delivered a kick to the girl's stomach, knocking her back long enough to give her time to get back to her feet.

That was when they saw Wesker.

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Ozwell Spencer sat behind his desk in the dim light. He could hear shouts and gunshots now and then, but he didn't let them disturb him. Things had gone wrong, yes, but that did not mean that there was reason to panic. There was always a way, he had found, to fix something. And for now, the best remedy was to let all the different parties fight their little battles, and finally, when they were all dead, the creatures could be taken care of. The sad thing was, Albert would have to be taken care of along with them. It had been a long time since Albert had actually had any loyalty towards Spencer, but he'd never done anything about it. But now...Now would be a good time. When things were in a frenzy, when he would least expect it. Yes...Now would be a good time. A smile crept to Spencer's lips. He would do it himself... After all, who better to kill Albert than the man who had given him shelter all these years? Perfect.

In the ever growing darkness, as the lights began to lose their power again, Spencer began to laugh.

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"What is-" Leon began, staring at the child, but Ada stopped him.

"When I say go, we run past her at the same time...We don't want to fight with her," the expression on her face told Leon that she wasn't lying. "One...Two...Three...GO!"

Both of them dove out of the hatch, and ran. Leon grasped Ada's hand, though wether to make sure she kept up, or just because, he wasn't sure. But it was a good thing he had, for a moment later, she stopped running, and in turn, stopped Leon as well. The girl had hold of her, and was sinking her teeth into Ada's leg. Ada shoved her off, and stumbled forward, and they started to run again. The child began to scream, behind them, and they could hear her feet pounding on the floor. They rounded a corner and Ada began to slow down. Leon was about to reach back and grab her hand again when she fell. He stopped and went back to her and tried to help her up. He felt pain falre up in his arm and realized that the girl was digging her fingers and nails into his skin. Ada kicked at her and shoved her back, then got back to her feet. But they didn't start running again...In front of them was Albert Wesker.

For a moment, Wesker looked as shocked to see them as they were to see him. But he quickly got over it. Behind them, the girl stood up, and began to slowly walk towards them. Ada glanced back and forth from the child to Wesker, as if trying to decide which she'd rather run past. She started to turn and go the other way, when she heard a voice say "Look out!"

That was Rebecca. But the warning was to late. Before either Ada or Leon could seewhat was happening they were both in Wesker's grip.

"Ah...The traitor and the ghost," Wesker said, coldly, "You were supposed to be dead, Mr. Kennedy,"

Neither of them could reply, as their air supply was cut off by Wesker's hands wrapped around their throats. His grip tightened bit by bit. Ada tried to force herself to remain concious, but she knew it wouldn't do much good. In a matter of seconds, both she and Leon would be dead... That was her last thought...

Before Wesker suddenly released both of them.

The girl was attacking Wesker. Beating him with tiny fists and biting anywhere she could reach. Trying to shove her away did no good for Wesker, as she latched on to his hand. Fron the look of things, her teeth had gone even though the bone. Still choking, and rubbing her throat, Ada drug Leon to to his feet. They went to check on Rebecca, who was untangling herself from a body. Ada bit back a gasp when she saw who it was. An angry yell from Wesker kept her from examining Justin any further. Rebecca, as soon as she stood, rushed to billy, who was pulling himself up as well. They all looked back at Wesker. He was still tryin to get the girl off of him, only now she was clinging to his arm instead of his leg . Something was happening to her, as well. Her nails, on her hands and feet, were growing longer, becoming more like claws. She used them to do further damage. Not wanting to know what would happen if they stuck around until either she killed Wesker or Wesker killed her, the group turned and ran.

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The creature came up from behind them, and when they tried to run, it gave up on stealth and simply began to blindly chase them. Tyler was the first to see that the hall was a dead end. Part of it, it seemed, had caved in. Tyler skidded to a halt. Jill, who was paying more attention to the Stalker than where she was going, ran into him. The others managed to stop before they to ran into him. They were trapped. The Stalker was coming up fast, and there was no way to go around the cave in.

Sighing, Tyler turned around and took aim at the approaching creature. He knew his rifle wouldn't have much effect on it, but it might buy them some time to get by it. The others joined him in firing at the thing. It went down, only for a few seconds, but it went down. None of them needed to be told to move. They ran back the way they'd come, though it was a few minutes before any of them realized that the thing wasn't pursuing them.

Tyler didn't let his guard down, though. just because it was gone for now, didn't mean that it was gone for good.

Chris was at the front of the group again. No one objected though, which was just as well. "I guess we have no choice but to go back the way we came," Chris muttered to Phyllis who was behind and to the left of him.

She gave no reply other than a simple nod. It hadn't taken long for Chris to figure out that Phyl wasn't much of a talker. Not that any of them were in the mood for a conversation anyway. Despite her occupation and her silence, Chris found that he actually liked Phyl. They reached the door they'd come through and Chris opened it. Claire stood there, with her back to them, though she spun when she heard the door open. For a moment, Chris was relieved to see her, then the relief was replaced by horror when he saw the person behind his sister. The man raised his bladed arm, as Claire started to turn and see what Chris was looking at., and brought it down across her back in one clean swipe, dropping her instantly.

NO!! Chris's mind screamed, though he was sure he must have spoken aloud as well. The second time he did say it out loud, "NO!"

This isn't happening! He told himself as Claire fell to the floor and her attacker laughed, It can't be! I'm dreaming! I'm DREAMING!! But it wasn't a dream...Claire's lifeless form was really on the ground in front of him. And the man who'd killed her was really standing there, laughing. Without any other thought than vengance in his head, Chris charged at the man. It didn't matter that he could have killed Chris as quickly as he had Claire. It didn't matter that there was little chance that Chris could beat him. All that mattered was that Claire was dead, and this man was going to pay. But the man was gone in the blink of an eye. Chris swore loudly as Jill called out behind him.

She was knelt over Claire's body, not noticing the blood that soaked through her pants. Chris knelt beside her. At first, Chris could believe his eyes, but Claire was still breathing. Though this knowledge did little to make him feel any better. Her breathing was labored, and from the sound, she had blood rapidly filling her lungs. He cradled his sister as she struggled to hold onto life. She looked up at him, and muttered one, barely audible word; "Chris..."

Jill was in tears next to him, and Chris was close. Claire went limp, and the tears couldn't be held back any longer. Claire was dead. His baby sister, who he'd always fought so hard to protect, who should never have come with them, was dead. He'd never hear her laugh again, never see her bright smile again. He'd never see her drive up on her motorcycle to drag him off "to have dinner with Jill" again. It was a long time before he finally kissed her forehead and stood up to face the others.