Chapter 18
(Please take it easy on my English. It is my second language.)
Note #1: Bruce McGivern was a main character of Resident Evil: Dead Aim. He was a USSTRATCOM (United States Strategic Command) agent, while Fong Ling was a Chinese M.S.S. agent. Despite they had different bosses and their unfriendly first encounter, the two of them had to team up due to the nasty situations. At the end of the game they were attracted to each other and were kissing on a life boat when a rescue chopper arrived.
Note #2: SAC stands for Second Artillery Corps. It is the strategic missile forces of China.
As soon as Fong Ling opened fire at the door, suddenly the door was broken off from the inside by a huge force. It flew toward her with lighting fast speed from just 3 meters away. Before she could react, the door had already hit her really hard. She was pushed backwards and hit her back on the wall heavily. The door dropped onto the ground at the same time as Fong Ling had collapsed. She fainted because of the huge impact force.
The young soldier who was closer to Fong Ling had turned his face to look at Fong Ling's direction just for a second. Before he turned his face back, a claw was already in his stomach. He saw nothing but a shadow right in front of him. Blood rushed down from him onto the ground.
Sherry's view was completely blocked by the soldier's body. She only saw a claw came out of the soldier's back with blood rushing around it. The moment the claw was pulled back and had disappeared, the soldier collapsed. A creature appeared in her view right behind where the soldier was standing. It had the exactly same look as the one they had just encountered earlier.
The creature must have thought Sherry was just another easy target like all the others. It rushed at Sherry with lighting fast speed on four legs. Sherry turned her assault rifle to aim at the creature, and she pulled the trigger just as the creature had dodged away from where the gun was pointing at by a sudden jump to the wall at the right. To its surprise, Sherry's gun was able to follow its movement. Before it could reach the wall, it was already hit by 2 bullets. The moment the creature had touched the wall, it made another quick jump which almost made it look like rebounded from the wall. This jump had increased in the speed dramatically compare to the last jump, and it was toward the ceiling. Sherry tried to follow its moment, but this time her bullets had missed it by just a few inches. The next moment, the creature had reached the ceiling. There, it made a third jump the moment it touched the ceiling. And it was patting right at Sherry from the ceiling just a few meters ahead of her. Because the creature was patting right at her, Sherry's aiming was able to catch up with the creature. Another 2 shots were put into creature's body before it was getting too close. She quickly jumped backwards as the creature's claw was about to reach her. In a flash, Sherry was standing 3 meters behind where she was standing, and the creature was right on the spot where she was.
The creature never stopped its moment. The moment it had landed on where Sherry was standing, it "rebounded" forward toward Sherry's new position. Sherry continued to fire her assault rifle while making another backward jumping. The creature's forward jumping speed was much faster than Sherry's backward jumping speed. In the middle air, Sherry stopped firing as the creature was closing in. She had put another 3 bullets into the creature before the creature caught up with her. By the time the distance between the two had closed to just about 2 feet, the creature made a piercing with its claw toward Sherry's throat. Sherry changed her motion in the middle air and let herself dropping down backwards. She was apparently lying in the middle air parallel to the ground while flying backwards. Her move not only avoided the creature's claw, but also at the same time her feet were against the incoming creature's chest. She kicked the creature with both legs at full force. The kick not only knocked creature toward the opposite direction, but also increased her own speed flying backwards.
Everything happened in a flash. By the time Sherry flew another 2 meters backward in a position parallel to the ground, she flipped back and landed on her feet. She opened fire again since the creature was still in the air flying toward the opposite direction. It was hit by another several bullets before it landed on four legs 40 feet away.
The creature was obviously injured to the point it could no longer moving that fast. Lots of black blood rushed down its body from the many bullet holes. From that moment on, Sherry's gun was able to followed the exactly movements of the slowed down creature, and she did not stop firing until all 30 rounds in the magazine were gone.
The creature collapsed onto the ground from a wall. A big pool of black blood quickly formed on the ground around it. Sherry quickly put in another magazine of ammo. She walked a little closer, and put all 30 new rounds into the creature's head. After she had stopped firing, the creature's head was turned into a pie.
"Ouch, it was fast!" Sherry was amazed at the creature's super speed even though she had won. It was jumping around faster than she could before it was too badly injured.
Putting another magazine of ammo into the gun, Sherry quick looked around. The soldier was obviously beyond help. He had a huge completely penetrated hole on his chest. The big pool of blood on the ground around him was still increasing in size. His eyes were still widely open, but he was not moving a muscle.
"I am sorry," Sherry crouched down and closed the young soldier's eyes with her own hand.
Sherry stood up and turned to look at Fong Ling. Fong Ling was lying beside the wall motionlessly, but she had no blood on her. Sherry walked closer and took a quick check on Fong Ling's pulse. Fong Ling was alive, but unconscious. The door had hit her too hard. She was lying on the floor with her gun dropped aside.
"Wake up," Sherry pushed Fong Ling.
There was no response.
"Please wake up!" Sherry shook Fong Ling a few times
Fong Ling did not have any reaction at all.
Sherry pulled Fong Ling into a sitting position against the wall, and she slightly slapped Fong Ling in the face. "WAKE UP!" She shouted.
Fong Ling slightly moved. Immediately Sherry gave her another two slaps in the face really hard.
"That…hurts…" Fong Ling protested with a low voice. She was badly injured even though there was no opening wound on her for the blood to come out.
Fong Ling was still barely conscious. She even had trouble to completely open her eyes.
"Can you walk?" Sherry asked
"…" Fong Ling couldn't even talk any more.
"I guess not," Sherry said. "Let me help you". And she put an arm of Fong Ling around her own neck and supported Fong Ling to stand up.
"Let's go," Sherry tried to get Fong Ling walking by supporting her side by side.
"Wait…" Fong Ling tried to stop and to turn around as Sherry had already supported her to walk forward.
"What is it?" Sherry asked in curious
"There…" Fong Ling struggled to raise one of her arms and pointed her finger at the ground where she was lying. She could barely talk with her condition.
Sherry turned her face to look at that direction. There, she noticed a broken necklace on the ground right in front of a flashlight. A tiny locket was on the necklace, and it was open. Sherry supported Fong Ling walked back to the necklace, and she bent down to pick it up. After she got it in her hand, she took a look at the opening locket. There was a small photo of Fong Ling was hugging by a man from behind who looked like an American. They both looked so happy.
"Who is this?" Sherry asked
There was no answer. And Sherry suddenly felt the weight on her shoulder had increased. Fong Ling had gone unconscious again.
Sherry took a look at the back of the Locket. It had some English words on it
"Fong Ling and Bruce forever".
"He must be her lover," Sherry thought "How sweet!"
Fong Ling's condition had made Sherry feeling really sorry for her, just as much as Fong Ling had felt sorry for Sherry earlier.
"Don't worry, you will make it. I will make sure of it," Sherry said to the unconscious Fong Ling as she put the necklace into her own pocket "I will hold onto this for you," and she supported her with one arm, while holding the assault rifle in the other hand.
"Where is your daughter? And why had all the soldiers left of this building?" General Zhao questioned General Wong as he did not see Ada exit the building like everyone else. Not only the remaining members of the meeting, the escorting marines, but also everyone who was guarding this building which was next to the Agency building had exited behind General Wong.
"The council had agreed to let my daughter to set the girl free. The soldiers on this side of the passage must be cleared before they arrive. Or the girl will become suspicious if Ada was seen with the soldiers," General Wong replied
"Oh? When did the council say that?" General Zhao was trying to deny it since all the council representatives were killed. "If anything happens to Agent Fong Ling, your daughter will be held responsible! You too will go down!"
General Wong ignored it since he knew he can't really be reasoning with General Zhao, the man who hated him for many years. He knew General Zhao did not really care about Agent Fong Ling, but it could be used by him as an excuse.
"Everyone clear out of this building and the area surrounding it," General Wong ordered on the radio. He wanted to make sure Ada would have no trouble "sneak" the girl out of the building which was beside the Agency headquarter.
"General Wong, we have just received a call from Sand City base. There is a situation in the city…" A voice on General Wong's radio
"WHAT?"
"No matter," General Zhao thought to himself. "My commandos will arrive shortly and they will make sure the girl won't escape".
"How long before you can arrive?" General Zhao asked on his phone
"Just less than 25 minutes, General," Someone replied on the other end
"Good".
General Zhao then dialed another number
"Connect me to SAC, now,"…
Somewhere inside a dark conference room, a huge screen was displaying a live video from a spy satellite. At least 20 people were sitting in the dark watching. Some of them were talking to each other in low voices at the same time.
"As everyone can see, our new generation of B.O.W. is proved to be effective. Just eight of them could infiltrate a highly secured military base of over 5,000 soldiers," Someone sat in the shadow had spoken
"It is impressive, but I don't see how you can justify the cost. You said each unit cost over $5 million to produce. What have they accomplished? Killing a few infantry soldiers? I don't really see how your B.O.W. could handle a war against tanks and air strike on a large scale," Someone with a weird accent had replied
"You got this all wrong, ambassador. Once we can mass produce them, the cost per unit will drop dramatically. As I said, this assault was targeting the Chinese M.S.S. headquarter. Our intelligence had reported there must be an important meeting taking place in there. Some of the Chinese military council members and high rank military officers are attending it. Our objective was to prove our B.O.W.s have the superior abilities in a Special Operation. In the other word, go for the enemies' heart. Just look at the group of people who had walked of the building just now. We don't see those who we thought were council members. They must be dead. Mission accomplished! And they don't even know who hit them! Besides, you haven't seen anything yet. Our B.O.W.s don't just kill the targets directly. They are T-Virus carriers. Many of the dead targets will be turned into secondary B.O.W.s shortly and they can kill and infect more targets, and so on".
"You mean turn the targets into zombies? Just like the Raccoon City outbreak six years ago?"
"Exactly"!
"Didn't you just say your facility was taken out just 2 days ago? Can you produce more of these units?" Another voice with a different accent asked
"We still have other facilities in different countries. The production will not be a problem. The Chinese thought they had taken everything, while we had smelled something was not right in advance. All 12 units were shipped out before they surrounded our lab".
"But why did you pick the Chinese as the target for this products demonstration?"
"We had nothing against the Chinese. But since they had just taken out one of our labs, we would like to return the favor. It has just become a good opportunity to test and demonstrate our new product. That was why everyone here was invited. Eight units were sent to attack this military base, and four others were released in a small city just 80 miles away from it".
"Wouldn't this outbreak get out of control? I mean the spreading of the T-virus?" A different voice with a different accent asked
"Don't worry. I am sure the Chinese will have to nuke the entire area at the end. There is nothing to be worried about. The outbreak will not come all the way here. We are over 10,000 miles away. Not to mention, we have the anti-virus for sale in large quantity".
"Oh and look, the Chinese are pretty occupied. They did not even bother to block the area with their satellites image disrupting technology. They usually would block our views with a piece of black something…"
Before he was able to finish, the screen suddenly went blank.
"What happened?" The man asked on a microphone beside his face with a worried tone.
"…Sir, we have just lost the satellite".
"What?? What do you mean by we just lost the satellite?"
"Our satellite was just hit by an anti-satellite missile launched from the ground from northwest China".
"Why?!?! Why didn't they just block our view with their satellite image disrupting technology?"
"Ha, it looks like the Chinese got more angrily than you thought. They might be still not sure who did it, but they certainly had noticed there was a spy satellite watching them," A man stood up in the dark. "Since you can no longer put up with the show, I guess I will take my leave". He had a different accent.
"No, wait! Wait, General! Soon our ground crews with cameras will transmit live videos back to us".
"The videos from that military base?"
"Not exactly, but it will be just as good. I promise!" The man tried to keep all the audiences in their seats "I promise our products will suit your needs, with much lower price than the current cost!"
Leon was walking back and forth inside the living room. Now the police cars could be heard from every direction in the city, although they were very far away from Leon's location. Some choppers in the sky had large speakers shouting something to the city below. Leon couldn't understand a word, but he wished he could. He knew something was not right, and he really wanted to find it out sooner.
Ada's home was one of the many houses in a neighborhood made of the families of many military personnel in nearby bases. The entire big neighborhood was surrounded by a tall wall. The only two gates were guarded by soldiers.
Soon, Leon heard there were lots of footsteps outside. And the neighbors' doors were knocked on one after another. He took a peek at the window. There were soldiers talking to every household who had opened the door. It looked like they were delivering some important messages.
It was not long before Ada home's door was knocked on. Ada's mother had gone to bed already. So Leon opened the door. The soldier who was in front of the door froze for a second when he saw a foreigner.
"Do you speak English?" The soldier unexpectedly asked Leon in English
"Yes! What is going on here?" Leon relieved a little as he finally could ask someone.
"Ah, then you must be the fiancée of General's daughter they were talking about".
"Wow, words spread fast! Now please tell me what is going on in the city? I heard so many police cars and helicopters".
"There is a situation in the city. I can't speak about it right now. We were only told to spread the words to every household to stay indoor. And have doors, windows locked. Get something you can use to defend yourself. You will need it".
"Defend myself from what?" Leon asked in a more worried tone.
"I am not sure either. I was only told so much".
"What can we possibility use to defend ourselves? This country does not allow civilians to own firearms".
"You are right. There is not much you can do. Meanwhile, we had both gates increased guards. Nearby roads all had roadblocks set up and are all heavily guarded".
"I wish the military can just give us some weapons," Leon sighed "We can help ourselves".
"I agree. But please do not worry too much for now. I heard they are talking about an evacuation plan for the military families here. You might want to pack up some valuables".
"Ok, thank you for the information," Leon smiled at the soldier and gave him a hand shake
"Stay cool. We will inform you if there is any situation change," The soldier walked to the next house.
The message the soldier had just delivered only made Leon worried even more. Because now he knew there was something huge going on, but he did not know what it was. Just as he closed the door and was thinking how to tell Ada's mother since they did not speak the same language. The phone rang.
Leon picked it up. It was General Wong. General Wong told Leon both the military base in the desert and Sand City were under attack by B.O.W.s from an unknown origin. There was an outbreak underway in Sand City. Leon quickly asked about Ada, but he was told not to worry too much. And General Wong told Leon to pass the phone to Ada's mother. So he did.
While General Wong was talking to his wife on the phone, Leon started packing his things up. The situation had really worried him. It was going to be like Raccoon City all over again! So he thought.
As Leon was throwing his stuff into a big case, he came across a small flat wooden box. He took it in his hand, and touched it with care. Then he opened it and took another peek. It was a pretty green jade bracelet he had just bought today on his way back from the Sand City military base. He was going to give it to Ada as another gift when she back to home.
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Inside Leon's memory,
About 12 hours ago, Leon's helicopter arrived back at Sand City military base after he was kicked out of the meeting at the desert base. After he got off the helicopter, a military jeep was sent to drive him back.
On the way when the jeep passed a small street, there were lots of people selling random stuff outdoor on the ground along both sides of the street. Leon saw one of the sellers had lots of Jade jewelries. So he asked the driver to let him get off. The soldier who was driving him said he was ordered to return within half an hour, he would be late and get punished. Leon was a nice guy, so he said he would just take a taxi home. The soldier thanked him and left after dropping Leon off beside the street.
Leon walked to the Jade seller. And he crouched down to look at all the stuff on a blanket on the ground. There he saw a pretty green jade bracelet. He got excited.
"It will look so nice on Ada!" He thought. "I am buying this".
"How much is this?" Leon pointed at the jade bracelet.
The seller obviously did not speak English, but he immediately understood Leon was trying to ask the price.
So the seller put up 3 fingers. He really meant "30 Yuan". Because it was really just a piece of cheap low grade jade. But Leon was no expert on jade. All he saw was a pretty Jade bracelet, and in his mind it should be very expensive.
"Did you say 3000?" Leon asked.
The seller did not understand it and was just looking at him.
Leon took out a piece of money and wrote on it
"3000?"
The seller quickly nodded.
Leon paid him 3,000 Yuan which equal to about $375 USD. The "nice" seller even gave him a small wooden box to put the bracelet in. Leon thanked him and left happily.
What Leon did not know was,
As soon as he got onto a taxi and left, the jade seller and a few other sellers nearby all looked at each other and
"HAHAHA! Stupid foreigner!" Those unscrupulous merchants laughed at each other.
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Now back to the real time,
Leon looked at the pretty jade bracelet. He really wanted to put it onto Ada himself. He did not expect Ada would still be out there so late, and he really wished to see her soon.
"She will like it," He smiled as he was imagining how Ada would look with the bracelet on her wrist.
Inside the Agency Headquarter, Sherry was supporting the unconscious Fong Ling while walking forward slowly. Without anyone led the way, she couldn't tell where to go inside the huge maze like building. But she followed the sound of gun firing. There were still non stop gunshots somewhere on level 3.
Soon they were approaching a three-way. The hall they were in would soon end at in the middle of another long hall. By the time they were still 40 meters away from the other hall, Sherry saw a bunch of soldiers running from the left to the right really fast. They were in panic, and it looked like they were running away from something, because some of them were looking behind them while running.
"Hey, wait!" Sherry shouted. She tried to get some help to carry Fong Ling. It was not like Fong Ling was too heavy for her, but it was hard for her to carry both Fong Ling and an assault rifle while be able to handle any sudden attack.
The soldiers did not hear her. At least a platoon of soldiers had passed the three-way really quick and disappeared before Sherry could reach there.
Soon Sherry arrived at the three-way with Fong Ling. She took a look at left. It was a long hall over 70 meters long, and there was nothing there. She looked at her right. It was not long before a crossroad, and the soldiers had already disappeared in that direction.
It did not take long before Sherry carried Fong Ling arrived the crossroad.
"Where should I go now?" Sherry asked herself. Fong Ling was still unconscious. The platoon of retreating soldiers had run too fast. There was no sign of them already. Sherry had no idea where they went.
"So brave!" Sherry said with sarcasm
She suddenly saw a headphone on the ground right at the middle of the crossroad. The same one Fong Ling was wearing, but she had lost it from the last battle. Now sherry came up with an idea.
"Anyone can hear me?" Sherry asked on the radio.
Nobody answered her. There were lots of shouting, screaming, and shooting came from the radio. There were also some people talking really fast on it, and they sounded like officers, but Sherry couldn't understand a word of it.
After a few more tries, Sherry gave up. It looked although there were still lots of people on this level, nobody could speak English among the ones who could hear her.
"Maybe I should just wait. More soldiers might come across here," Sherry thought as she put Fong Ling down slowly and sat her against a wall.
Sherry was holding the assault rifle and stayed on guard in the middle of the crossroad. She kept looking at all four directions. For quite some time, there was nothing.
About less than 10 minutes later, there was about a squad of soldiers coming from the same direction where the retreating platoon of soldiers came from. It was a long hall. They were still too far away. So Sherry couldn't really see them clearly. Sherry stood there and waited them to get closer. While waiting, she couldn't help noticing those soldiers were walking in a strange way. They were moving toward her direction very slowly, a little too slow. And they looked like they were having trouble to keep their balance. Their bodies were shaking left and right after each step.
By the time those soldiers had arrived at the three-way which was just 30 meters away from Sherry. Sherry finally was able to see it clearly what was wrong. Those soldiers had blood all over them. Every one of them had claw marks on their body. One of them had only one arm left.
"Urrghhhh…", "mmmmmoooaaaaa…" Those men were groaning as they were walking toward her. Now Sherry could even see their eyes. They looked like...dead!
"Zombies!" Sherry was shocked for a second because it brought back creepy memories of Raccoon City outbreak. But she quickly cooled herself down, "Long time no see!" She said.
The one squad of zombies moved closer and closer slowly. Sherry switched the assault rifle to single fire mode. When they arrived to about 20 meters away from her, she opened fire. Just one headshot on each of them, all zombies fell down onto the ground one after another.
"That was easy," Sherry thought. The slow dumb zombies were not too hard to deal with. She was told to shoot the zombies' heads by Uncle Wesker a long time ago. Now that little trick worked for her, and the zombies were killed instantly without causing any trouble at all.
Sherry was standing in the middle of the crossroad. The dead zombies were lying just over 20 meters away. She looked down at Fong Ling, and Fong Ling was still unconscious with no sign of could wake up any time soon.
As Sherry continued to stay on high alert and look around at all four directions, suddenly there was a noise came from the vent right above her. She immediately looked up and stepped back at the same time. There was no more noise. Nor there was any movement at all. She patiently waited for over 15 seconds, but there was nothing.
Then there were some noises coming from the tree-way direction. She quickly took a look there. The new noises sounded like came from right around the corner. Something must be right behind there in the other hall.
Sherry switched her attention to the three-way as there were still continuous noises coming from there.
To her surprise, while the noises still kept coming from the three-way, the vent above her suddenly cracked open and a creature jumped down right at her. It was so close. Sherry only had enough time to rise the assault rifle for a defensive block. She held the assault rifle with both hands horizontally in front of her chest, and it blocked both incoming claws of the creature. Sherry was pushed against the wall the moment the creatures' claws impacted her gun. Now it looked like both of them were holding onto the gun and tried to push it toward each other. Sherry used all her strength tried to push the creature's claws away from herself. But the creature's claws were getting closer and closer to her chest, and she couldn't hold any longer.
At that moment, a few quick pistol shots were heard from the right. The bullets went in from the creature's right side of the head, and blood came out of its left side. The creature screamed as the gunshots continued. A short moment later, it let go of Sherry's assault rifle and collapsed onto the ground. It was no longer moving.
Sherry looked at her right. At far end of the hall, a pretty woman in red dress was walking toward her, and she was reloading a pistol. It was Ada!
As the woman in red dress walked closer,
"Thank you!" Sherry said gratefully to Ada. She did not reorganize Ada yet.
Suddenly another creature came out from behind of the three-way and rushed toward Sherry, just as Ada had arrived at the crossroad right beside Sherry. Ada immediately grabbed the assault rifle from Sherry's hands and opened fire at the incoming creature.
Right after Ada had opened fire, she suddenly realized the gun was set on single shot mode. It had only fired 1 bullet as she held the trigger down. Before Ada could do something about the assault rifle, the creature was already right in front of her. The one round shot into the creature did not slow it down at all.
In a flash, the creature's claw was piercing at the Ada's heart. At the last moment, Ada raised her foot and did a lighting fast whirling high kick. She kicked the creature in the face with her high heel while avoided the creature's claw at the same time. The creature was kicked away over 30 feet far and dropped onto the ground on its back. Before it could get up, Ada had already switched the assault rifle to automatic mode. She fired a blast shot at the creature with all the remaining rounds in the magazine.
When the gun stopped firing, the creature had stopped moving while still lying on its back.
"Thank you again!" Sherry smiled at Ada.
"Well, well, well. See who is that? Lauren Wesker". Ada threw the assault rifle back to Sherry.
"Um…Ah, it's you," Sherry caught the rifle in the air. She suddenly recognized the pretty woman in red dress was the same one sitting beside Leon in the restaurant in Spain.
"Who am I?" Ada asked with a smile
"You were with Leon," Sherry replied without thinking.
"So you know Leon after all?" Ada looked at her.
"Oops," Sherry thought. She blurted out.
She thought quickly and said "He told me his name in the restaurant, didn't he?"
"I don't think so, you knew him before that encounter. Lauren Wesker, it is not even your real name," Ada looked at Sherry with piercing eyes. "You can't lie to me. I can read your mind, well almost".
"What do you mean?" Sherry was not sure how much Ada really knew.
"Let's just say Wesker asked me to break you free," Ada smiled at her
"Really?" Sherry was confused. "But…"
"But why I was with Leon who Wesker wanted you to avoid?"
Sherry did not know how to answer. This woman in front of her probably knew a lot more than she thought.
"Oh, Sherry Birkin? Does that name sound any familiar to you?" Ada was really just testing Sherry.
"No," Sherry lied poorly. She could have done better, but with almost three days of terrible experience after being captured, she was not at her best condition.
"Just drop the act please. Leon was SO worried about you. You have no idea how much he had done for you! He took on a job he did not want in order to exchange for your freedom," The test results had shown Ada that Sherry was lying. "My name is Ada Wong, I am Leon's fiancé. You can trust me".
"Leon…" Sherry stopped for a second, her eyes started to become blurred. She couldn't help it this time.
"So you are Sherry Birkin after all, right?"
Sherry nodded silently, a tear dropped down her face, then another…
"Ok, stop crying, little girl. Let's get out of here. We can talk about everything later," Ada walked closer and put one hand on Sherry's shoulder. She did not expect Sherry would act like this after all these years she spent with Wesker. She thought Sherry would be more heartless than that. In fact, Sherry was no different from any ordinary teenage girls, with an even softer heart.
Sherry tried to stop dropping tears, but she couldn't. Too many things from her past had all come to her mind at once. Her parents' death, the nightmare at Raccoon City, and how Leon took good care of her for a while before she was adopted…
Ada's heart was softened further. Wesker's adopted daughter was nothing more than a little girl who owned super soldier strength and speed. She was the same cute little girl Ada had seen at R.P.D., the same cute little girl who dropped a locket. Ada pulled Sherry closer and gave her a hug with one arm, while petted her on the back.
"It will be alright. I promise," Ada said in a very soft voice.
Sherry finally stopped crying after over a minute.
"Are you trying to harm my Uncle Wesker?" She asked. Sherry obviously had figured out Ada was an undercover agent who pretend to work with Wesker, since she was with Leon who was Wesker's semi-enemy.
"Why are you so protective to him?"
"He treated me really well…" Sherry replied in a low voice while still slightly sobbing.
"He was just using you".
"No, he truly cares about me. He always gave me everything I wanted. He never said no to me".
"Then why did he put you in danger?"
"I wanted real assignments. I asked for it, and he finally gave it to me because it was my request".
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"Why did you call him Uncle Wesker, while you are his adopted daughter? Shouldn't you call him dad?" Ada asked curiously
"He did not want to force me call him dad. He said Uncle is good enough, and since he was a good friend of my parents…"
"Sounds like Wesker really do have a soft side," Ada thought. "That's…kind weird".
"Are you really going to return me to Uncle Wesker?" Sherry started to doubt it, since Ada was really working against her Uncle Wesker.
"It depends. Now we both know each other's background. What are you going to do if you go back to your Uncle Wesker?" Ada asked
"I…I won't say anything to harm Leon or his fiancé," Sherry replied
"Good girl!" Ada could tell Sherry really meant it when she said that. "Do you want to meet with Leon?" She asked "He would be so happy to talk to you again, as Sherry Birkin, not Lauren Wesker".
"Really?" Sherry got excited "Where is he now?"
"He is at my home. About 80 miles from here," Ada replied "I was originally planning to set you free right outside the fence of this military base. If we are going to see Leon, let's go together. I will walk you to my home. He will be so excited to finally meet and talk with little Sherry". Ada smiled
Sherry smiled too, even though she still had tears on her pretty cute face.
"Let's hurry, Sherry,"
"What about her? She needs help," Sherry pointed at Fong Ling "She saved me back there. And now she is hurt."
"You are really a good little girl, aren't you?" Ada laughed "Let's help her together. We can drop her near the entrance of the next building. Soldiers will find her".
"Sure," Sherry was going to carry Fong Ling.
"Wait, there is one more thing," Ada stopped her
"What is it?"
"Do you know you have a beacon on you?"
"Sure, Uncle Wesker put it in me so he can always find me in the case like this one".
"We have to take it out. I don't want Wesker knowing the location of my home".
"Oh, you are right…"
"Do you know where it is?"
"It is in my chest close to the shoulder. It is not deep. I can feel it when I touch there".
"Alright, let me take it out now," Ada looked around tried to look for something sharp "There," She walked toward the dead zombies soldiers and pulled out a knife from one of them.
"Take off your clothes please," Ada asked
"I…I am not wearing anything inside," Sherry was getting a little embarrassed
"I am a woman, you are a woman. What are you afraid of?"
"It's not you. What if there are more soldiers passing here?" Sherry looked at Ada with a pair of eyes which were begging her to do it a different way. She looked so shy at that moment. After all, she was raised by Wesker and educated by hired private professors. She had no influence from the society. Wesker did not even let her watch any movie rated over 5 years below her age.
"Alright, shy girl. Let's go inside one of these rooms," Ada opened one of the doors in the hall and took a quick look inside before walked in.
Sherry carried Fong Ling and walked in right behind her. She closed the door behind her.
After putting Fong Ling onto a table, Sherry removed her top.
"Here," Sherry pointed at a spot a little over where between her shoulder and her right breast after a short moment of searching around with a finger.
Ada quickly used the military knife cut Sherry's skin open, and dug out a small chip of beacon. Blood ran down Sherry's skin all the way from her cute breast. Sherry bit her own lips. It was just a small cutting wound, but somehow she had shown great pain.
"Are you ok?" Ada was a little worried "You shouldn't be like this. You are a super soldier!"
"They…mistreated me…after I was captured," Sherry replied slowly
"What did they do to you?" Ada was not surprised since that General Zhao was very cold hearted.
"They did not let me eat or drink anything. All I got was two shots of glucose in the last three days…"
"What? After your leg was almost blown away and lost so much blood?" Ada widened her eyes
"Yes. And they did not let me sleep. They had different persons questioned me over and over. I did not say a thing. So they kept waking me up as soon as I was about to fall into sleep. I was only able to sleep for a few hours today on a chair while sitting," Sherry said as her voice really sounded weak. She was only able to sleep during the meeting because the council representatives were right beside her room. General Zhao couldn't torture her right in front of those people.
"You poor thing… General Zhao is a scumbag! He will get what he deserved sooner or later," Ada petted Sherry's pretty little head. "Now dress yourself up, girl. We are getting out of here together. You will get all the food and sleep you need once you get to my home," Ada smiled warmly at Sherry.
Sherry smiled too while putting her top back on. The last 3 days was a terrible experience for her. She was shot by a 12.7 magnum bullet, and she almost lost one of her legs. Although she had kept her leg, large amount of blood was lost. Then she only got two shots of glucose in three days, with no food, no water, and almost no sleep. It was a torture. Not even a super soldier could last long under such condition. She was really weak at that point. No wonder the creatures were faster and stronger than she was.
Think about all the nice food and sleep she would be getting. Sherry forgot about all the terrible experiences already.
The two of them carried still unconscious Fong Ling and walked out of the room.
To their surprise, the two dead creatures in the hall were no longer there. There were only two pools of dark blood at where they were.
"Crap, I should have known. Now they will go around kill more people," Ada regretted her carelessness.
"Shall we go after them? So they won't kill more people," Sherry asked.
"No. We have to get out of here now. General Zhao's Special Force commandos will arrive very soon. They can take care of them. And I am sure they will try to give us trouble too."
"Why is that? I thought you work for…"
"He hates my dad, he hates me, he hates everything after his brother and fiancé were killed 25 years ago during Sino-Vietnam war".
"What really happened?"
"During that 1979 China's border conflict with Vietnam, General Zhao was a company leader just like my father was. His fiancé who was a 20-year-old young nurse in a military hospital, and his 26-year-old elder brother was the commander of a radar station. The radar station was used to detect incoming artillery firing. Once the Vietnamese had fired a single shot, that special radar station could immediately determine their exactly locations. Within minutes or even seconds, Chinese forces could blow their entire bases into pieces. It was giving the Vietnamese quite some headaches, since they were technological inferior. One night, 4 or maybe 5 Vietnamese commandos sneaked across all the check points and patrols, they blew up the entire radar station which was guarded by over a hundred Chinese soldiers. General Zhao's brother was badly injured in the explosion. And he was sent to the hospital. The hospital was guarded by my father's men. One afternoon, some Vietnamese commandos blew up the entire hospital along with all the 200+ people in there including General Zhao's brother and fiancé while my dad was away. He blamed everything on my dad…he said it was because my dad's careless caused him lost two loved ones. He never got married afterwards".
"Very sad story, but it is not helping if he turned into a mean person," Sherry was still young and too innocent to realize some people could no longer change.
"I agree, but go tell him…" Ada was shaking her head. She knew how hopeless General Zhao had become. That man was full of hate. "Well, let's hurry. We have to leave this base before his commandos arrive. They will not be so easy to deal with. I am sure he would order them to stop you from leaving".
It did not take too long before Ada and Sherry carried Fong Ling crossed the secret passage into another building. This building supposed to be heavily guarded, but General Wong had already ordered all personnel cleared out of it to make way for Ada and Sherry. There was not a single person inside that building, nor at the outside.
It was still many levels under the ground. It will take them a few minutes to exit to the ground level and find a way to sneak out without being detected.
At that moment, they started to hear the sound of many helicopters coming closer. There were just too many of them, and they were definitely not the Z-10 attack choppers of this base.
At Zion Township on the other side of the earth,
Four men were riding on bicycles on the road as fast as they could. Soon they entered an alley. It was not long before they stopped in front of a warehouse's door. They got off the bicycles and knocked. A small window was opened for a second before the door was opened. The four men walked in with their bicycles.
"Hunk, you are late!" A man in white shirt stood up from beside a big table. There were over 20 other men there.
"What happened? You were NEVER late! And why the bicycles? Where is your car?" So many questions in a row. The guy was one of the supervisors from the company.
"Blame Nicholai!" Hunk replied
--------- --------- ---------
Inside Hunk's memory,
3 days ago at the local bar. Shortly after Nicholai had left on foot,
"So much for Nicholai's new sports car," Hunk and his three men were still laughing when they walked out of the bar onto the parking lot
"Yeah, he should buy a bicycle instead so he won't have to worry about car bomb any more".
"Hahaha…" All four of them were laughing so hard
Then suddenly
"What the fuck?!?!" Hunk and his men were all frozen there at what they saw.
To their surprise, Nicholai's car was on the top of theirs. Both cars were still burning.
When the car bomb had set off, Nicholai's new sports car was blown into the air and dropped back down…right on the top of theirs...
--------- --------- ---------
"What do you mean? Did he find out what we are up to?" The supervisor asked
"No. He knows nothing". Hunk said it with a very convinced tone.
"What happened really?"
"It is a long story".
"If it is really long, then we can talk about this later after this operation. Let's brief on the mission now".
"Sure, but I was thinking why we have to wait our turn? Can't we just take their hard work?" Hunk said
"What do you mean? They already did the hard part for us. They dug the tunnel".
"You said let Nicholai get what they want, then we go in and get what we want".
"Yes".
"Wouldn't it be easier if we just wait Nicholai to get the stuff, and we take it from him?"
"We do not want a direct confrontation with their company yet. There are other dangerous competitors out there who we really need to watch out".
"Who would know if we wipe them all out at the tunnel?"
"I don't like this. Hunk, I know you are tough. But please don't be so aggressive on everything and everyone".
"Fine, let's do it your way then".
"Our undercover agent had reported that Nicholai had just finished digging the tunnel not too long ago. He and his men had already moved in for hours. They should be coming out any time by now. After their leaving, you and your men can move in. You guys could gear up now".
"Was that all?"
"It is harder than it looks. Don't underestimate the surviving mutants".
"I won't. I just hope they don't underestimate me. Or their necks will be broken," Hunk said with a cocky smile on his face. His nick name was Mr. Death after all. The Death couldn't be killed.
"Don't be so cocky, Hunk. I am sure your neck breaking move did not work on William Birkin. Or you wouldn't be prone in that sewer drinking dirty water for hours,"
"I said not to bring that up again! I was a little careless. And it was six years ago anyway!" Hunk raised his voice.
At the desert base 80 miles away from Sand City,
In the sky, many large helicopters had arrived above the base from Sand City direction.
"PLASOF report to duty, General!" A voice on General Zhao's radio
"You have finally arrived," General Zhao smiled while talking on the radio. "Drop yourselves directly at the Agency building and the building beside it. I want the two buildings completely cleaned before morning. Make sure no intruder stay alive. And one more thing, bring me back the girl we had captured 3 days ago"…
To be continued…
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