For all disclaimers: see earlier chapters.
Faith
Chapter Nine
/January 4th 2001, northern Afghanistan/
Warm, she was warm. Why was that?
"Matt?" she muttered, not even aware of what she was saying. Semi-conscious at best, she'd never know she was voicing what she wanted most to be true. Luckily, though, nobody was able to hear her.
She could still remember just how much he'd made her scream that night, all of the right ways, just how well they're bodies had fitted together, just what it had felt like to have his skin against hers, his lips on her breasts, his hands on her hips and-other places. He'd kissed her and claimed every part of her with the kind of deep, desperate passion that most people would only ever have thought of on the last day of their lives, made her genuinely feel for one of the very few times in her life...and she still wished she could have gone back for more later.
She could remember waking up in bed with him at five in the morning, feeling utterly drained in the most delicious way possible, every part of her body tingling, most of her still in close contact with most of him. She'd slept well for the first time in three months that night, since the mission in Bosnia that had become a slaughterhouse, a fact she'd never shared with him. But then she'd gotten up, dressed and left without saying goodbye. They'd only just met again for the first time, in fact, six years later and, to her, he looked even more delicious now than he had then.
She'd used him to get what she wanted back then, yes. But now? If he'd let something happen between them, if she would? She might just be tempted to let nature take its course...
She could still feel the delicious sense of heat his body had created when she'd woken up to find them wrapped so tightly around one another-
Wait. Something wasn't right, she wasn't remembering the heat, she was feeling the heat now...
She opened her eyes-and nearly screamed for the second time in an hour. She was in the underground tunnel in Afghanistan, still, she remembered that as memory came crashing back into her mind-and the air was on fire...
She could feel her skin starting to burn, smell her hair cooking, tell that her clothes were seconds from catching alight and roasting her alive. She didn't even dare breathe in in case she swallowed airborne fire and scorched her lungs from the inside out. This was it, there was no way out, she was going to die...!
The fire suddenly disappeared, as quickly as it seemed to have appeared, leaving Anna wondering if someone had just fired on her with a flamethrower before the memory of the most recent events finally crashed back into her mind and she breathed in sharply, realising what had to have happened. She sat up fast, only to nearly fall over as her centre of gravity floated around the room before settling down. She had a Concussion, now, too. Wonderful.
Xenia was slowly levering herself to her feet not far away, rising too slowly on hands and knees, letting Anna realise that the tough Russian had to have been badly hurt in the fight with the Licker. Xenia was clearly trying hard not to move her neck at all, and her entire body was trembling as though she was trying to lift some incredible weight with immense strain. That told Anna's sharp eyes the Russian woman had somehow driven herself so hard physically that she was borderline physically collapsing, unable to go on at all. It was a credit to the woman that, despite her evident injuries and massive physical exhaustion, she was getting back to her feet for more.
Matt, though? Anna looked around and saw him...crumpled up at the far end of the corridor back the way they'd come, so crumpled up that he looked like a broken puppet rather than a living human being. She could tell that he was breathing, though, steadily and regularly, so he'd live.
All she could find of the Licker was a dark smear on the floor and tiny pieces of half-cooked meat scattered around the small area of the doorways and corridor. Matt had to have used his hairspray can and lighter to blow up the Licker rather than cook it-and he'd done a damn good job of it. Not that she would have expected anything less, she was just more than slightly amazed that they'd all survived him doing it at such close quarters...
She leaned into the wall and carefully made her way to her knees, then her feet, occasionally having to stop to let brief sensations of vertigo-which she never suffered from when healthy-and motion sickness pass, even as her eyesight swam occasionally. Was her skull cracked? This wasn't the first time she'd suffered a Concussion, but she seemed to be suffering far more and worse from this than she had the other two times.
Was it even safe for her to try and get up to walk around under her own power with such a significant head injury? No, not really. But, then, she didn't have a choice did she?
Anna suddenly noticed the blood pouring down Xenia's face and onto the floor from her clearly broken nose and realised that there could well be more than simple physical exhaustion to Xenia's evident physical weakness. Was the older woman worried that her back or neck had been injured? It occurred to Anna, all of a sudden, that she might just have gotten off lightly in the fight with the Licker if Xenia had nearly been crippled and Matt had been knocked unconscious. That was not a thought which appealed to her, with all of them still stuck in this underground chamber of horrors.
10:02:09
"Ow, that...really...hurt" muttered Xenia, shaking her head to clear it. Given the fact Anna could see a massive bruise already forming around Xenia's broken nose, which was still spilling blood onto a small pool on the floor, not to mention the fact that smaller cuts and bruises highlighted every area of exposed skin-just like her own, Anna knew, Matt's too-Anna didn't bother stating that she agreed since they were all intimate acquaintances of pain now. What was worse was that it still wasn't all over.
"Can you stand up?" she asked, as Xenia managed to get her knees under her and get into a kneeling position. Xenia paused a moment then, her legs trembling with the strain, nodded as she stood up shakily, even though she staggered as she stood before catching herself.
"I'm alright" said Xenia, weakly, her voice so weak she almost seemed to be whispering with the strain just standing up was placing on her battered body. "What about you?" she asked, slowly, managing to turn just enough to see Anna with what looked like real effort.
"I'm Concussed and bleeding, so I'm alright too. The Lickers gone, Matt blew it up, I think. We still need to get out of here, though, so we should see if he turned his brains to jelly trying or not" said Anna, forcing herself upright and away from the wall she'd been resting against carefully. She felt a sudden surge of nausea, but it passed and she stayed on her feet, forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other.
"That sounds like a good plan" replied Xenia, stepping forwards gingerly and unsteadily herself. She, though, visibly recovered as she walked forwards, even though she winced with every step, the shivering quickly disappearing from her movements and body. Not that it stopped the blood still running from her nose from turning her shirt into bloody swamp, but she ignored that. After all, for the minute at least she couldn't really do anything about it.
Anna discovered that while she could walk normally as long as she was careful, quick movements or sudden physical efforts were a serious problem. She had a bad feeling that she'd pass out if she tried to push to even just what she normally considered her limits.
09:42:57
Xenia reached Matt first, knelt down and shook him gently by the shoulder. "Matt, are you dead? If not, I'm going to slap you until either both cheeks bleed or you wake up, just so you know" she said. That said, she ran a caressing set of fingertips over his left cheek to his lips...
"...Jus a few more minutes Melissa...'L get up...SHIT..." replied Matt, as he almost literally spat the last word out when his eyes finally opened and he saw who was leaning over him. Then he managed to smile, slightly. "You're a sight for sore eyes sometimes, Xenia" he managed, speaking slowly and clearly as though he wasn't quite sure how too.
"Anyone else might think that's what's known as flirting, Matt. You can kiss me later, though, or do something else if you have that in mind, right now were a little busy just trying to survive" replied Xenia, with a look in her eyes Anna didn't see too often. Matt had actually managed to get under Xenia's skin, somehow, not a feat easily managed. In fact...was that the faintest hint of a blush she saw in Xenia's cheeks?
"Right. Okay. I really wish you hadn't said that. But, you're right, we've got to get out of here. As for can I walk? I have no idea, hold on" said Matt, before managing to force his elbows under him and lift himself half off the ground. Anna had seen worse than the injuries on his back, but only her near-obsession with self-control, that made most think she was either crazy or truly twisted on the inside-which was a long, long way from the truth-let her not show anything she was thinking when she took in his injuries. After all, Matt meant something to her, her hands and lips had been there once not so many years ago...
He leaned forwards, straightening up slowly, which let Xenia see his injuries too. She kept her reaction to herself too, but it was easier for her since she still barely knew him. All the same, considering just how ugly it all was...
Matt rolled left, got his feet under him and, with a gasp of pain, managed to stand up almost upright, despite evidently being in pain from his back. He reached back with one hand to gingerly check his back, winced and visibly held in a yelp, then made a point of holding his hands by his sides. He looked at Anna and Xenia-and evidently didn't like what he saw.
"Alright, give it to me straight. Just how badly torn up am I?" he asked, loudly.
"Not. You've been burnt, Matt, there are blisters all over your back, big ones...and some of them must have burst when you were thrown over the ground by that blast you set off. They're weeping what I think is pus, the dark yellow badly infected kind. I'd say we should lance them all now to get the infection out before it sets in, but we'll just make it worse without sterile instruments and disinfectant. I'd try not to think about it because it's going to hurt like Hell when your pain receptors start working properly again" replied Xenia, shaking her head slowly.
"I see. Well, thanks for being honest, that just means we have to find a way out of here before I'm left a cripple on the floor you'll have to carry because I can't handle the pain anymore. Please tell me you have a plan?" asked Matt, hopefully.
08:50:32
"Actually, yes. That little stunt you pulled might have solved our problems for us, if it had the same vacuum effect on the whole complex where there's open passage. The way out was down that passage we couldn't pass because it was on fire, I'm sure. If were very lucky all the air was pulled out of that passage in here for long enough to kill the fires there. If it was, we can get out. If it wasn't, we're dead. Can you make it?" asked Xenia.
"Just watch me" said Matt, turning and taking off at a decent run, despite staggering more than once, back the way they'd come. Xenia glanced at Anna, caught her eyes, shook her head and took off after him.
"Never mind me, I'll make it, Concussion and probable skull fracture notwithstanding..." muttered Anna, as she tried to force down another wave of nausea before taking off after the two of them at best speed. The most she could do was extend both arms and use them as braces to keep her upright while she forced her legs to cooperate and accelerate up to a staggering run.
Y
Ada Wong was no electrician, but she knew her way around computer consoles and that had taught her how to pick out and repair electrical connections. She didn't have the tools she needed here to do a proper job, especially given the already evident reactor core breach which was making her a lot more than simply nervous, but she didn't need everything working perfectly. She just needed everything to connect the way it was supposed to, she could work with that.
She shocked one finger screwing the last of the damaged circuits back into place, but the control panel lit up, if dimly, when she was done. The small screen on the wall came to life as well as she succeeded in rerouting power to reactivate key systems. The screen was fuzzy and thick with static, but she just needed a few seconds if she was right.
ACCESS: Granted. Welcome, Researcher Philips.
:System status?
WARNING System Interrupt WARNING
CORE BREACH DETECTED. Safety Systems Protocols COMPROMISED, estimate 15 percent efficiency.
BREACH POINT ALERT. RADIATION LEAK CORE STRUCTURE CONFIRMED.
All staff EVACUATE. Initiate PROTOCOL: DEAD CELL.
Estimated time to total system failure:
07:49:49
LOCKDOWN INITIATED. Self-Destruct ACTIVATED.
WARNING System Interrupt WARNING
PATRIARCH program running.
Self-Destruct ABORT.
System RESET.
:Initiate Manual Override Reactor Emergency Shutdown procedure.
CLEARANCE CODE REQUIRED.
:******
CLEARANCE CODE ACCEPTED.
Reactor Shutdown Manual Override ACTIVATED.
Initialise Shutdown timer?
:IMMEDIATE initialise. Bypass Timer requirements.
Command ACCEPTED.
Reactor SHUT DOWN in progress.
WARNING System Interrupt WARNING
REACTOR Safety Protocol FAILURE.
System integrity nine percent.
ALL STAFF EVACUATE.
REACTOR CHAMBER SELF-SEALING IMMEDIATE.
Ada barely had time to blink at the words on the dimly lit computer screen before she heard the whir of hydraulics start up behind her. She span and leapt for the door as fast as she'd ever moved, but even so barely got both feet through before the door slammed shut with a deadly solid "thud" that sounded like the End of the World being announced in Hell with a single drumbeat.
She started to run, stopped, felt very weak suddenly, fell to her knees without even realising that she'd collapsed-then threw up. She thought she felt something tear in her throat, but it couldn't be helped. She threw up again, but fought back a thick wave of nausea that threatened to drop her and keep her down for good. Once she could see again, she dragged herself back to her feet and forced her legs to run.
She'd stopped the reactor from blowing up, saved lives in all likelihood-not that she'd have shed tears over that, since Umbrella would have killed them, not her-and kept her promise to her grandfather. This time. She'd just have to find out if she'd killed herself in the process, but she was sure she'd be alright somehow.
Both "S", her real employers and Wesker, her supposed employer, had access to some truly unique medicines and treatments that she suspected could deal with even radiation poisoning. Wesker, at least, wanted her alive as his top "Spy", so she just had to get out alive and this could be dealt with.
The only problem left was that she had to get back to the entry point her team had blasted into the facility and escape from the mountain area completely, all the way back to her Extraction point, before she was brought down by the poisons now floating throughout her body. She could do it, of course, because she had no choice. Dying was not an option here, or failure.
At least she had what Wesker had sent her for and would have time to make a copy. She'd send the real one to "S", as usual, while giving Wesker the copy. It would, of course, work just the same way as the original, even though it would actually be less effective than the original sample. The point was, though, he wouldn't turn her into a Test Subject to "punish" her for her "failure" and would keep her in his inner circle, where her mission demanded she be...
Y
Leon Kennedy had only finally survived the inferno that had washed over him when he hadn't been able to outrun it by throwing himself down as flat as possible on the ground and doing his best to protect any exposed skin from the fire. He'd felt the hair on his arms and the back of his neck burn, know that he was next, this was it-then the fire had simply disappeared. Just like that.
He jumped back to his feet and found himself staring at a scene which made no sense. The entire corridor, while still blackened and warped in places from the fire and its heat, was simply dark and dead now, the lights long gone. The fire was just gone, as though God had snapped His fingers and looked at it a certain way...
"What the Hell is going on down here?" muttered Leon, so quietly that he could barely hear himself speak. If there were any Umbrella survivors down here, despite everything, he didn't want to tip them off as to his presence.
That was when he heard them, three sets of running footsteps approaching his position at speed, one oddly lagging but the other two so close they were almost on top of him. There was nothing to duck behind, nowhere to go, so he assumed a marksman's firing stance and readied himself.
Two tall figures came running towards him out of the darkness, both at least six feet tall, one a woman one a man. The gender didn't matter, this was Umbrella, nobody could be trusted. No matter what they said or claimed. That he'd learnt the hard way years ago now, which always brought to mind a beautiful young woman's face with slanted brown eyes, black hair and the flicker of red silk in the corner of his eye.
"Stand and be recognised!" he barked out in his drill instructors voice. That warning was basic enough for any idiot to understand, no matter how mad or shut away in their own little world Umbrella Scientists sometimes got. It was also the only warning they'd get, another lesson he'd learnt the hard way.
One of the two figures, the man, started to slow suddenly, but the woman just overtook him and even appeared to accelerate. That did it, he wasn't letting anyone within arms reach in here.
"You were warned" he said, then he drew a direct line of sight on the centre of the charging woman's chest. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger-even as the man suddenly shouted, with a strong American accent.
"DON'T SHOOT-!"
06:40:29
/End of Part Nine. All Reviews welcomed/.