Part IX

(Just a minor filler chapter for now, I do apologize for the long wait. Life has been keeping me on my toes.)

She threw the car in to gear and slammed on the gas. Rain turned to look at the woman driving the car, Max, as if she was crazy. She had to be. Her eyes fell on the speedometer and she winced as it inched past one-hundred and five miles per hour.

"Shit Max, why you going so fast?"

"I want to," Max didn't take her eyes off the road but she grinned widely. She shifted gears ago and kept her eyes on the heat gauge before taking a very sharp turn.

"FUCK! Warn me next time!" Rain grabbed a hold of the 'oh shit' bar and held on.

"Warning," Max turned again and then came to a stop in the middle of the road. Rain gave her a narrow eyed look before shaking her head.

"Why we stopped here?" Max slowly nodded her head and Rain turned to look. There was a wall, a big fucking wall, that cut straight through the street. Her eyes followed along the wall and she saw that it went on and on for a while before ending at a large building. Her eyes focused on the building and she realized the windows had been bricked up.

"Wanna get out and check it out?" Rain shrugged and jumped out of the car and they both walked up to the wall. Max put her hand against it and then knocked.

"Trying to see if anyone's home?" Rain smirked and Max rolled her eyes.

"Solid steel," she ran her fingers over the wall and frowned, "Umbrella."

"You sure?" Rain walked up and looked at her then at the wall, "You a fuckin' wall whisperer now?"

"No ass, feel it," Rain rolled her eyes and touched the wall. She could feel the smooth texture and she traced the marks along the wall. Individual Umbrella symbols covered it; just like them, so full of themselves.

"Oh shit," they looked at each other and Max shrugged. A loud gun shot rang out and Rain jumped as it went through the tip of her boot, narrowly missing toes. They both spun to find four Umbrella guards getting out of their apparently silent SUV and aiming weapons at them.

"Run!" Rain grabbed Max's arm and ran toward the left; gunshots rang out behind them, some ricocheted off the steel wall behind them. Their feet slid on a few pebbles and shards of broken glass as they took a turn behind a building. Max sprinted for a broken piece of plywood covering a window. She rammed her shoulder in to it, breaking a good chunk away from the mixed wood. Rain pulled the wood and tossed it on to the ground behind them; Max jumped in followed by Rain and they took off. Out of the room and up the stairs of the building. Vaguely they heard voices from down the stairs and they quieted their movements and hid beneath the stairwell.

Two of the men that had chased them went up the stairs just above them; Max grabbed Rain's gun before she could fire at them and motioned for them to wait. The other two men came up, slowly, checking all corners and she carefully pressed Rain closer to the wall. Rain held up two fingers and pointed at her eyes then at the man leading the two. Max nodded and watched Rain carefully make her way over to the man trailing behind. Rain grabbed him in a choke hold tightly, and the man made no noise but grabbed at her arms. She watched her squeeze until the man was out cold.

She drug the body toward Max and they silently high-five. Max began to undress him and Rain gave her a confused look before Max passed her his dark vest. She held it and checked the pockets for useful items (which it had many) and Max passed her his shirt. Silent understanding washed over Rain's face and she pulled on the shirt. Max took the mans pants and passed them to her. She playfully grabbed Rain's ass as she took off her own jeans and she turned and pointed at her, gesturing for her to quit it.

Max, amused, blew a kiss at her and took the man's boots. Rain looked at her own and then at them, she shook her head and Max shrugged before kicking off her own cheap tennis shoes and pulling the boots on. They were a bit big but not big enough to hinder her steps.

"Bravo four, report," they looked at the radio piece in his ear and Max picked it up to listen.

"Bravo two and Bravo one, Bravo four isn't responding, double back and help me search for him," Max looked at Rain who nodded and walked toward the other edge of the room.

Max held the 9mm up as she heard the footsteps echoing off the walls as the men descended the stairs. Carefully Rain pressed Max closer to the wall and kissed her with a wink, she pulled the knife out and reached up through one of the steps and sliced straight through the man's heel as he placed his foot down.

A small strangled scream escaped him as he fell down the rest of the stairs. Max drew the 9mm and put a bullet through the mans partner's head and then put one in to the yelling man on the floor. Gunshots rang out and struck the plaster behind Rain's head; bits and pieces of it went everywhere, some landing in her hair as she dropped down and returned fire. Max didn't see where the gun shots had come from and she spun on her heel, searching for the source of it.

Her eyes caught sight of a man on a stair level above them; his gun aimed directly at Rain who was preoccupied with a man firing blindly at her from the doorway across from them. He fired and a bullet struck Rain in the arm but all Max saw was a small spray of blood shoot up in to the air. Her mind went hazy and red with anger and she let loose a flurry of bullets in to the man who'd shot Rain. They hit him in all the right kill zones. Head, throat, heart and lungs. Their cheaply made vests clearly weren't made to withstand bullets; so much for Umbrella caring for their employees.

The mans body slowly fell over the rails and Max called out a warning to Rain; Rain's eyes went up from holding a bloodied hand to her wounded arm and she leaped out-of-the-way just as the body hit the floor with a sickening crack. The commando jumped back up in time to dodge another series of bullets followed by the sound of a gun jamming.

"Fuck, no!" Rain smirked a little and grabbed the man in the doorway; with a vicious jerk she sent him sprawling to the floor in front of them.

The man whimpered and tried to scoot away from a rather pissed off looking Rain only to bump in to an equally pissed Max. They both trained their weapons on him and the smell of urine hit their noses. He had pissed himself; "Please, I don't w-wanna die!"

Rain's face held a disgusted look as she side stepped a line of urine, "Oh and we do?"

The sound of static followed by, "Bravo team, report," hit their ears.

Max took the communications device from the mans ear and slipped it in to her own, her finger pressed down on the button so she could speak freely, "Bravo team is a little...busy at the moment. Can I take a message?"

Rain rolled her eyes but smiled any way as she began to take the piss soaked man's gear from him. Her hands moved quickly as she shoved more items in to her now over laden vest and in to the vest pockets of another vest she'd taken off the man Max had shot down.

"Who is this? Bravo!" Max shrugged and threw the comm on the floor as she took the MP5 that Rain was holding out to her. Quietly she bent down and took the zip ties off the mans belt and zip tied him to the body next to him and the stairwell.

"Don't go anywhere," Rain laughed as they both rushed out and toward their abandoned vehicle. They jumped in and gunned it toward the motel they were staying at.