Author's Notes:
Hello everyone! And welcome to chapter two of "HHiH"! Because typing it out takes too long!
I'd like to take a moment and thank everyone for the awesome reviews they've taken the time to submit and for those that have "followed" or "favorited" me. I truly appreciate the feedback! It helps me get in the writing groove when all I feel like doing is being lazy.
On another note, I'd like to point out that I have created spacing for the paragraphs so that they are easier to read via "."
If this doesn't appeal to you and actually hinders your enjoyment let me know so I can remove them for others. I don't really care for walls of texts and just thought this might prove a bit helpful (and I don't know if there is an option to apply extra spaces directly within Fanfiction. Everything I've tried doesn't seem to work.)
That's it for now folks, see you at the bottom!~
That piercing blue.
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Icy and relentless.
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It poured over him, prying into the very depths of his soul. And still he could not bring himself to believe what he was witnessing. No, not completely. As the sky shattered above them once more and bright, blinding light enveloped their bodies Albert Wesker stared down and into the azure irises of Jill Valentine.
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The woman had survived.
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The two remained on the edge of Mother Nature's fury. The tide continued to threaten them, pressing further and further into the rocky masses Wesker stood upon. And yet they continued to gaze at one another. The great entity born from Umbrella and the woman who had brought the corporation to its knees. It was only when Valentine's hardened features flexed and her eyes closed that the man cradling her battered frame reacted.
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Instinctively he drew her close, holding the fragile life against his chest and away from the hazards of the open water below. Each careful step backwards took Jill further from the frigid grave Wesker had committed her to and he stopped only after he'd put a few yards between themselves and the incoming ocean waves. And then he turned his attention back down to her.
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Wesker had to admit... There was a large part of him that wanted to finish what the fall had not. An unyielding desire to watch the light forever fade from those ever reproachful eyes. And yet something else had won against Wesker's need for bloodshed. With a cruel smile he could only assume it wasn't some last desperate trace of morality.
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The blond turned his attention to his surroundings and for the first time since the plunge truly acknowledged them for what they were. The sheer cliff side stood at their back, leading high up to Spencer Castle. Mighty boulders towered over their left while the ocean tide continued to rise. The only option seemed to be the narrow strip of rock to their right that led off and around a bend. Tilting his head, Wesker considered this and ran his boot along the ground. It felt slick, covered in residue from the ocean.
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Putting his speed to good use here would prove absurd. As much as he longed to be free of the ever present threat that was the BSAA he was certain the terrain would only cripple him if he applied himself too much. To prove his own point he shifted himself and his cargo by five feet in the blink of an eye toward the route he planned to take. The scummy surface of the ground removed all traction from his boots and they slid a good twenty feet more before stopping.
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Wesker let out a brief sigh and looked down on Jill's tattered remains. As another flash of light struck across the skyline he soaked in her visage and began his slow and cumbersome walk. Now that he had another to fend for the weather suddenly seemed annoying and at best, tedious.
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The trek was sluggish, but steady as Wesker pressed uphill against the constant barrage of rain and wind. It tormented his grip on the slippery mud and rocks beneath his feet and chilled the cargo he had tucked into the depths of his coat. Every so often he paused to regain his sense of direction, using the castle off in the distance and the ocean itself as marking points. The forest ahead was growing more and more expansive. No doubt they would be enveloped by its harsh, overgrown branches in a matter of minutes.
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But this news did nothing for him. His brow creased and he searched the treeline for what lay waiting. Wesker was no fool. He could already feel the tension heavy in the air, hear the gnashing of warped gums embedded with overgrown teeth. And yet there was no way for him to continue, but onward to what kept hidden within.
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Stepping beyond the first downed tree and into the forest, Wesker kept himself steady as the rocky terrain was replaced with rotting foliage. The heady crunch of twigs and branches were muffled by the storm overhead laying siege to the canopy high above. But it provided little protection from the hail that was now falling from the heavens. Wesker let his ruby orbs adjust to the low light and listened as a low cry hailed from the path ahead.
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Movement.
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Amidst the flicker of lightning he spotted the beast as it darted from behind one tree and to the next. Small, sleek and agile. A renegade experiment from the castle, perhaps? For the moment Wesker decided to continue forward, his boots squishing through the hearty muck beneath them. Pausing where he'd spotted the creature, nothing was left, but the marred indents of footprints riddled with water. And then there came a low gurgle behind him.
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Speed became the defining factor as the blond shot himself off to the right. And where he'd been standing before now sat a small, malnourished man. In the light provided by the storm Wesker made out the humanoid. Its eyes were burrowed back deep into its skull and its mouth had grown. Sharp, broken teeth protruded from the very front of its jawline and lead the way back to the man's temple. A rich, yellow mucus dribbled from what looked like stitches roving up his arms. They stopped at its shoulder lines, but the skin between each closure seemed to flex with every twitch the monstrosity made.
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Which was plenty now that it had its sights on Wesker. It leaned in close to the ground and let out that low, garble of a noise. Then reared back and lunged. Its body sailed through the air and dropped right before the blond's boot. He scoffed. And use that very same heel to punt the creature into a nearby tree. The beastly humanoid hit with a force that sent the old, half rotted oak to the ground. And with the resounding thud Wesker smirked and turned.
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And found himself facing three more of its kind assaulting the skyline above. Immediately Wesker twisted his back on them and nestled Jill close, using his speed to send them shifting right. This saved him from one, but not all three. He felt a piercing crunch as one ripped into his left shoulder and the other wrapped itself on his right arm. A heavy wave of nausea surged through his body as mucus made contact with his raw flesh.
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Drawing his head to the right, he shot it back and sent it careening into the creature's cranium currently gnawing on his shoulder. One sickening crack and rich pools of black and bits of bone smeared across Wesker's hairline. The other savage, he decided, would receive a merciless end. With his now free left arm he dropped it out from under Jill and reached for the humanoid's throat. Its gnarled teeth snapped and lashed out. Far too close to Valentine's head for his liking. He dropped her to the ground.
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With a guttural wail the monster's grip weakened as Wesker clamped down on two flaps of skin near the humanoid's neckline. He wrenched his gloved fingers in until he felt folds of muscle tissue and ripped through each one. Screeching, the creature sank its fangs into the Ex-Umbrella scientist's wrist. In moments another wave of nausea set in and, seething, Wesker brought his right hand over the beast-man's nape. Each finger bore a hole in and one by one clamped down on its spinal cord. Gripping the connective link carefully as his prey thrashed and kicked, Wesker slowly tensed his hand until, finally, it snapped.
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The creature dropped like a stone and Albert Wesker's cold gaze met with its dead eyes for only a moment. Not a second more, he turned his attention on the jacket he'd so carefully draped over his cargo. In the low light of the forest it lay at his feet in a bundle of black leather.
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But Valentine was nowhere to be found.
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Wesker snapped his head in the direction of the downed tree he'd sent the first man into and stalked across the mulch below. There was no corpse to meet him. And the third humanoid he'd avoided earlier was nowhere to be found. Those blood soaked gloves clenched until each knuckle cracked.
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No. Valentine was his. He'd be damned if some rejected experiment made her its meal.
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The storm was adamant on keeping any particular sound, but his own from reaching Wesker's ear. No matter how hard he honed in on his surroundings all he could hear was the wail of the wind and the thrashing branches above. Time was of the essence if he wanted to find Jill in one piece. At the very least, alive.
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But as minutes ticked by and nothing appeared in the foliage his hope of getting a live research subject was dwindling. The more he spent searching for her corpse the less chance he had of leaving the area without being spotted by incoming BSAA teams. It seemed almost poetic that, yet again, his desires were being postponed by one of his lovely S.T.A.R.S. Agents...
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Author's Recap:
So there you have it! The second chapter of Wesker's wild adventures tracking down a half-dead Jill are not over! And the real fun has just begun!~
Hope this left you all on the edge of your seats. I'll be posting up some more much sooner next time! So please, review and let me know what you liked and what you thought there could be less of so that I may better hone the tale I'm weaving~
Take care!
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