Resident Evil: Don't mention it. Ever.
Chapter 2
"I wondered where you've been at." Chris was greeted by Barry as he came to the S.T.A.R.S office. Barry had been waiting for him outside the office on the deserted hallway. No one really came to the S.T.A.R.S office, not even the police, so the hallways were always deserted.
"I was just saying goodbye to my habit." he answered and scratched the back of his head. "Oh well. Are you ready for the meeting?" Barry asked and Chris took a look at his watch. "Yeah, I am." he answered.
The door to the office opened and Albert Wesker, the captain of the Alpha team, stepped out into the hallway and greeted his team. "Chris. Barry." He said as he nodded to both of them. "I see you are ready. Let's head to the meeting room, shall we?"
Chris respected Wesker a lot and so did many others, but Wesker wasn't the sort of person who gave a positive first time impression. Wesker wore black sunglasses all the time and never really took them off. Chris wondered why he always wore them, but never asked because Wesker had a bad mood, and honestly, Chris wanted to avoid pissing him off. He never expressed himself though, always having a cold attitude, but, that was how Wesker was.
As they went down the stairs to the first floor, where the meeting room was, the three men didn't have any kind of conversation before Wesker broke the silence.
"Chris, Barry, I need you to meet me after the team meeting. I have some news for you." Wesker said calmly without looking at them and slowly passed them. Chris and Barry, walking behind Wesker, looked at each other. Chris chose to break the silence this time.
"Bad news?" He simply asked and Wesker chuckled lightly. Chris wondered what was so funny. Wesker rarely found anything amusing and Chris felt uneasy because of Wesker's reaction to his question.
"Only time will show, Chris." He answered him and stepped down the last step of the stairs. As they followed, Barry took a look at Chris. He could see that he was thinking over what Wesker had said to him. Barry was amused by it, because Chris always took Wesker seriously and was now thinking intensively over his answer. Barry put his hand on Chris' shoulder.
"Don't think about it, Chris, he's just messing with you." He said. Chris looked at him like he didn't believe him at all, but chose not to worry about it.
Wesker opened the doors to the meeting room. Inside was Joseph Frost from the Bravo team and Brad Vickers from the Alpha team sitting right beside him. Chris greeted them both and took a seat beside Brad.
Brad was a nice guy and skilled at flying, but usually he also tended to get nervous and stressed during missions and endangered his team mates when panicking, still, Chris wasn't the guy who judged people.
"Hi. You must be new here. Mind if I sit beside you?" Chris heard Barry say and turned around to look at him. Barry was talking to the exact same girl that Chris met outside the R.P.D.
"No, not at all." She said and Barry sat down beside her, starting to introduce himself to her. Chris' attention to the two was broken when Wesker began to speak.
"Ok, everyone, we are now beginning the meeting." He said and positioned himself in front of the blackboard located at the end of the room.
"I have some points to go through during this meeting. Firstly, we are promoting the Bravo team member, Joseph Frost, who will work for our team from now on." He began as people started clapping before Wesker was done. Joseph smiled, but the smile faded when Wesker broke the clapping.
"I'm not done yet." He said loudly, but calmly, enough for people to stop clapping. He continued. "Secondly, we are getting a second new member, coming directly from the Delta Force. Jill Valentine."
When Wesker told them that, Chris was shocked. He slowly looked at Jill from the corner of his eyes and wondered how a young woman like her could be in the Delta Force. Chris knew that the Delta Force didn't take just anyone into their team. Chris' thoughts were broken as Wesker continued.
"You know I love short speeches and today is no exception. Tomorrow we have training starting at 6 am. I expect you to be ready half an hour before training starts. Use the time to get the newcomers to feel welcome." Wesker continued as he looked at Jill and Joseph. "Valentine, Frost, go to the central desk in the entrance and get your locker key. In your lockers are badges and uniforms. The number on the key will tell you where your locker is located." He looks at Joseph and continues. "Frost, your things have been moved to a new locker, so there are no new routines to get familiar with. Please, show Valentine around while you are locating your lockers."
Wesker looks at Chris and Chris knew he had eye contact with him, even if Wesker wore those sunglasses.
"Chris, you and Barry are staying here with me for a private conversation. The rest of you can go. The meeting is dismissed." He said and people started rising from their seats.
Jill, Joseph and Brad left the meeting room while the others stayed. Wesker gave the gesture to sit, to Chris and Barry, who then took their seats again.
"Since we got some new members, I had to rearrange the team a bit." He started. "Chris, your partner will no longer be me, instead it will be Jill Valentine. Barry, yours will not be Brad anymore, since he will be assisting Joseph. Instead, I will be assisting you. Are we clear?"
Chris and Barry were fine with the decision and nodded. "You are dismissed. We will be trying the new rearrangement tomorrow at our training session."
With that, Chris and Barry rose from their seats and went to get out of the meeting room. Chris was in deep thoughts again. He didn't like the fact that Barry no longer had to prioritise having Chris' back covered anymore, but taking it as a man, he had to get used to work with the newcomer, Jill Valentine. He knew she had to have some potential, being from the Delta Force. At the hallway, Chris and Barry split with their captain who returned to his office at the second floor.
"Nice girl, that Jill." Barry said, getting Chris' attention.
"I haven't really talked to her that much. I got to know her name, but that's it." He answered and Barry smiled at him.
"Well, she seems to be nice. I hope she won't give you any trouble." He said and padded him on his back as he usually did, chuckling. Chris smiled at him at that remark, knowing that Barry knew how he hated to work with rookies.
"I'll be just fine. I think she has the guts to be a S.T.A.R.S." he answered. Barry nodded at Chris' remark and waved at him. "Well, I'll be heading up to my office. There's some paper work to do before I can get home." He said.
"Yeah. I got some too, but I think I will have a little talk with the Valentine girl before I'll be joining you." He said and Barry nodded at him. "Ok, Chris, good luck." He told Chris before leaving up the stairs.
