Chapter: 16

Claire stirred in her sleep, her eyes slowly creaking open, her nose was filled with the intoxicating scent of a rich spice scent. Not wanting to leave the delicious scent she pressed herself closer toward the smell. She felt a shift in her body as she opened her eyes completely, the sun was out and shining through the small openings of the cave , illuminating the inside.

"Sweet dreams?" Wesker asked, his gloved hand pushing her away.

"Um, yeah." She responded looking down at his hand.

"I could tell, since you kept trying to lay your head on top of me." He grumbled, his eyes held a cold stern look.

'Hey he didn't put his sunglasses back on.' Claire smiled on the inside.

"I suppose we should continue." He stood up, starting out toward the exit of the cave.

"Wait up!" Claire's voice echoed through the walls, her footsteps also crunched a splattering sound unlike Wesker's calculated elegant strides.

"Don't you want your coat back at least?" Claire offered, noticing the coat was still around her shoulders.

"It's filthy now. Why would I want something trashed."

Claire decided it was best to keep quiet to his blunt comment.

'More warmth for me then!'

"Doesn't look like much of a biohazard, no undead, not even a survivor?" Chris commented.

"Yeah-" Jill stopped short, noticing a little diner, blackened with soot. "Chris, look at that little building. Let's check it out." Chris looked at Jill, his mouth crunched in thought. He nodded his head after a moment agreeing to go toward the destroyed building.

"This one got hit the hardest, there's nothing left of it!" Chris said staring at the indescribable damage.

"Yeah but there's one thing that did survive." Jill spoke, pointing at a small silver box. Chris bend down to get a better look at the device.

"Shit," Chris grunted, balling his fist into a ball. "This is a bigger problem than we thought."

"Why do you say that?"

"These were almost the same devices used to blow up the Arklay Mountains. When they investigated the incident, they put these in the report." Chris's jaw clenched. Jill mouth gapped piecing all the pieces together, leaving her stunned.

"You're not saying-"

"Yeah Jill. He's here."

"My, my, dear heart, you're proving to be much stronger than I suspected," Claire trudged weakly behind Wesker, her stomach making a growl sound for the fifth time.

"You know you don't have to hide the fact that you are quiet famished."

"No I'm fine," Claire's vision was becoming hazier by the minuet, so much exercise and not enough energy to counter it made it a little difficult for her to keep up with the blondes pace. Wesker puffed out a laugh.

"If you say so."

"Yeah, I'm totally fine you don't need to worry about me." Claire said lightly.

"I'm oka-" Claire's vision began to fade, becoming darker and darker. She fell forward, her body barely being caught in time by Wesker.

"It was about damn time." Wesker mumbled, throwing Claire over his shoulder.

"Tsk tsk." Wesker shook his head in disappointment.

Claire's consciousness regained a few moments later, but instead of the grass ground, she felt a sturdy body and saw the green forest ground below her.

"You know dear heart, being so stubborn isn't a very good idea when you're out in the wilderness." Wesker's velvet silk voice spoke, her head shifting to the side to meet his eyes.

"I was okay until I tripped-"

"Save the excuses Miss Redfield, don't over work yourself, besides you never have. Didn't it occur to you to at least give some thought to have some kind of nutrients before leaving." Under his scrutiny Claire felt smaller, but defended herself none the less, having a reasonable excuse for her stupidity at the moment.

"Well you were in such a rush; I don't want to be in this forest as much as you do."

"Don't let it happen again." He sternly spoke. Claire nodded, after a moment noticed she was still being hauled over his shoulder.

"Could you put me down? Besides, I can handle my own."

"It showed just moments earlier." Wesker mocked, continuing on the path. Claire sighed, her head began to feel dizziness from the unaccustomed position.

"Could it at least get a piggy back ride?" Wesker gave her a puzzled look.

"What the hell is that?" He asked, his eyes held something rare, a puzzled look.

"You don't know what a piggy back ride is?"

"Yes I know what it is, that's why I'm questioning it." Wesker sarcastically spoke, back to his dulled look; Seeming more interested in seeing paint drying rather than hearing the younger Redfields attempt in explaining the wonders of a child's game.

"Okay, so a piggy back ride is when someone hops on the persons back, and the person carrying the individual grabs their legs for support so they don't feel uncomfortable, and the person that's on their back wraps their arms around their neck or can just leave them loose if they feel safe enough." Wesker's face scrunched up at the very thought.

"That doesn't sound appealing at all." His face was disgusted.

"Yeah when you explain it it doesn't sound all that well," Claire explained, looking at the green forest that encircled them. Her eyes light up remembering the days when Chris would carry her on his back when they would go to the park and she was exhausted from playing on the monkey bars.

"But it doesn't sound as bad when it's done in actions."

"Hm."

"So will you do it!" Claire smiled, hoping for the blood rushing to her head would cease.

"No." Claire eyebrows furrowed at his response.

"Come on! Please?"

"I said no." Claire bit her lip.

"Please?"

"No. And don't ask again." Wesker tightened his grip on Claire's body In a sign of annoyance and warning.

"Give me a good reason why, and then I'll stop asking." Wesker's eyes flashed a red.

"I told you not to ask again." He snarled, gripping Claire to the point where she would surely have bruising, sending a small cry to leave her lips.

"I didn't ask the question." Claire bit her lip to stop any other voices to escape. A sigh from Wesker and he placed her on the ground. Claire stood looking up toward the tall demonic man.

'Great, I'm on my own now, I'm so stupid-'

"Are you just going to stand there? You've wasting enough time as it is." Claire looked puzzled, until finally realizing what he meant. His usual patient physic was shattered with his frown at Slow pace.

"Oh! Okay!" Smiling on the inside, Claire jumped on the blondes strong back, her legs wrapped around his waist, her arms doing the same but to his neck. Wesker began walking again, a scoff leaving his lips shaking his head. The trip was silent, except for a few splashes of mud here and there.

With the sun lowering and night time lurking closer and closer, Claire began to doze off.

"Don't tell me you're getting tired already." Wesker's sharp cold voice woke Claire up to see his jaw tighten slightly.

"No, I'm okay," Claire said lazily, resting her head against his back. Dozing off again, her eyes slowly shut, soft breaths escaping her slightly ajar lips. Wesker shook his head.

"When the sun goes down, you may take a rest for the day." Claire eyes lazily opened, saying a 'uh huh.' Agreeing and laying her head back into the tyrants body.l

The moonlight was now shining through the overcast, both of their skin glowing in the pale white light. Claire's stomach made a loud growl cause her to awake from her slumber.

"I hear a river nearby, fish would be the easiest and most nutritional item you can have at the moment." Wesker noted, stopping under a canopy.

"Seems like luck isn't with you tonight dear heart, there is no shelter for you." Claire looked to see Wesker was right, there wasn't a cave or anything of that matter to protect her.

"You're obviously incapable of getting yourself food," Wesker said sitting Claire against the bark of a tall oak tree.

"I shall be back in a few minuets, until then, try not to do anything foolish." Wesker jogged into the forest after that leaving a weak Claire.

'God, why am I so stupid, why didn't I think of eating anything before leaving. Now Wesker thinks- wait, what do I care what Wesker thinks?' Claire blinked, shaking her dazed head. 'I shouldn't care at all.'

Claire's shoulders fell, her head handing, almost looking as if a corpse was settled to the tree.

"I shouldn't be this stupid, especially here." Claire spoke to herself, curling her legs, she sat with her head on her knees. Claire sat in silence until she heard the soft footsteps who were undoubtedly the blonde tyrants. He carried three fish on a spear, along with logs.

"I knew you weren't going to get fire wood, and if you would you'd get the poorest quality." To weak to protest Claire nodded her head.

Smelling the delicious scent of cooked food, Claire's mouth watered with hunger.

"Don't drool on yourself, it's impolite." Wesker chuckled, turning the fish to cook equally on its opposite side.

"It's about to be ready, I'm sure this will satisfy your hunger." Claire sat in silence until the meal was ready. Her thoughts were only on food, seeing she hasn't had anything since the crash She truly was famished. Every time they passed a river she would take a drink Wesker just stood there, sometimes she wondered if her ever regretted losing his humanity.

"Don't be so quick to eat this all, you'll end up making yourself vomit." Wesker warned handing her the cooked fish.

Devouring the white meat inside, Claire's munches was the only sound filling the silent forest, once in a while spitting out the pieces of skeleton.

Holding the barren fish now, Claire looked to see Wesker looking at the fire deep in thought.

"Wesker, why?" Claire asked her voice held a timid trace, wanting to fill in the void with conversation.

Claire threw the useless fish in the flames, watching the flames gulp the waste in whole. Opposite of Wesker, Claire sat patiently for an answer.

"Well there's a lot of answers to why, but what do you ask specifically?" Claire thought for a moment.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Wesker smirked instantly appeared, taking a stand, walking into the canopy, his eyes in contrast with the dark.

"Why you ask?" He took a deep inhale. "Well there's a lot of answers, for that, the main one is, survival, of course."

"But what's the real reason." Claire asked still sitting against the tree bark, almost as if his answer was a lie, she laughed slightly also at the end of her sentence.

"Redfield," Wesker warned, his eyes glowed slightly. "I answered your question. I think you should be satisfied I even chose to respond to such rhetorical question. There's no background to the answer."

Rolling her eyes Claire hugged herself Wesker's coat still around her.

Wesker took a seat next to Claire, sighing once again rubbing his temples.

"I'm surprised there hasn't been any wild animals trying to kill us." Claire attemtped to changed the subject, the cool breeze hitting the auburn girl. Wesker nodded, his lips in a fine line, seemingly not caring for Claire's comment.

"Wesker," Claire turned to see the disheveled blondes hair move In sync with his head.

"I just wanted to thank you." Claire looked towards the ground while speaking.

"Chris would probably be more than disappointed in me if he saw me giving thanks to you, even though your past deeds outrule your good deeds by far, if it wasn't for you, I'd probably be behind and even more lost, perhaps even dead by now." She laughed dryly. Not expecting any response she turned to her side away from Wesker, her eyes wide at the mystery hidden in the deep brushes of the forest.

"You may hold your brothers surname," Wesker spoke, his eyes still intent with the flames. "But my main propriety is Chris's head, as well as my goals, nothing more, nor nothing less. I've become far to acquitted with you, dear heart." Wesker's cold attitude returned, pushing away Claire's warm gestures. Hearing this Claire felt uneasy next to the blonde again.

Claire thoughts were filled with his comment, without her notice, her eyes began to fall, causing her to descend into a slumber.

Wesker settled for a few hours of sleep himself, feeling a slight exhaustion from being awake for such a long period of time.

It seemed he had been socializing a bit to much with the captive. She fought back, her spunk attitude towards him made it all the worth while to pick fun at her. Idiotic to challenge someone like him, who could break her easily, but get she was willing to stand up to the man. Claire switched laying her head on his chest, causing the blonde's eyes to open immediately, only to see her head to snap back toward the bark tree In reflex. She was a very intriguing individual indeed.

A/N: I think I'm getting Wesker's attitude back Hehe :3 I'll be working more on that, feel like I'm losing the touch of him ;_; hope not. currently 2:04 am. Fawk.

R&R please :3!