Author's Note: Hey everyone! Here's the newest chapter. Hope I didn't take too long. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added this story to their favorites. I guess that's all for now. If you like it, please leave me a review, I love them. :]

Chapter Six: Revelations

Leon and Claire exited the room without talking which made the awkward silence overtake the atmosphere. Leon tried to make small talk from time to time but Claire was spacing out. It was justified; Sherry was alive and apparently, so was Steve. They needed to get ahold of the situation, or something bad was going to happen. The worst part was that they couldn't contact anyone. If anything happened to them, no one would know.

Claire." Leon started.

She turned to him, still lost in her thoughts.

"You need to focus."

"I know. I just…"

He stopped and turned to her. "I know it's hard."

Claire shook her head. "Nothing makes sense, Leon."

"We're gonna get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, I need your full attention."

Claire nodded.

"Good. Now, come on. We need to find the others."

Claire followed him and tried her best to shake off the thoughts. Leon looked so focused and determined, as if he didn't let any of it get to him. How could he do that? Claire found it impossible not to let her emotions get in the way. They seemed so different in that respect. Leon was as cold as stone most of the time, which made Claire wonder if he felt anything at all. It was a cruel thing to think, but apart from the feelings he discreetly showed in Raccoon City for that Ada woman, there had been no other time she'd been able to see Leon's softer side. She knew he had one, but he had probably learned to hide it well. He was always kind to her, but sometimes she wondered if he only saw her as a little sister. She hoped that wasn't the case. She already had an older brother and didn't need another one.

Either way, Leon's attitude was fitting; it might have been what kept him alive through all his missions. Maybe that was the reason Claire had been a member of Terrasave. She thought it was better not to be directly involved with the outbreaks, but it didn't seem like it was her choice anymore. Joining the B.S.A.A. seemed like the right thing to do. If she wasn't gonna get away with her hands clean, she might as well put up a damn fight.

It hadn't been long since she and Leon joined the organization, but it felt like they'd been doing this forever. In fact, they had; it just hadn't been accounted for.

"Leon." Claire looked at Leon who was walking to her right. "Why did you join the B.S.A.A.?"

Leon furrowed his eyebrows, obviously not expecting her question.

"Many reasons." He started. "After the Las Plagas incident I wanted to quit my government work. But of course they wouldn't let me loose; they said I was a valuable asset." He talked but was still alert of his surroundings. His bangs obscured the right side of his face. "Did I ever tell you that those crazy bastards in Spain injected the parasite in me?"

"What? You're serious?"

Leon nodded. "It was taken care of, though."

"How?"

"Let's just say I had some help."

"They really will stop at nothing, huh?"

Leon rested his back against the wall, and crossed his arms over his chest. The gun never left his grip. "The thing is, they're too secretive about everything. They knew the virus was involved, but they only briefed me about a small part of the mission."

"What part?"

Leon shook his head. "I can't tell. I'm sorry."

"But you're not bound to them anymore."

"I am, in a way." He shrugged. "My contract said I couldn't talk about my missions, even if I wasn't working for them."

It made sense. Secrecy was one of the government's main regulations.

"How did you manage to get them to let you go?"

"It took a lot of convincing and blackmailing. I used the fact that they had taken Sherry Birkin without leaving any information of her whereabouts. And mainly, I just refused to work for them." He moved from the wall and walked to one of the nearby windows. It was still light outside; a bright day. "I talked to your brother about it, and he said he could talk to the B.S.A.A. to see if they would recruit me."

Claire raised her eyebrow. "And the government said yes? Just like that?"

"I think there's a catch. They agreed to let me work for the B.S.A.A. but I indirectly answer to them."

"Does that mean the B.S.A.A. is working with the government?" Claire asked.

Leon shook his head. "The Alliance works by itself. It's just my case that's being supervised by both."

"I don't trust them."

"Neither do I. I think they took it as an opportunity to keep an eye on the Alliance." Leon looked at Claire, and then darted his eyes behind her. He brought his gun slightly upwards, and his eyes narrowed.

Claire made a swift turn and looked to that direction. Seeing nothing, she quickly turned back to Leon. "What is it?

"I thought I saw something." He held his position for a while before making sure there was nothing there. He lowered his gun and sighed. It looked like this situation was slowly getting to him.

"Leon?" Claire looked at him confused.

"It's nothing. Probably just my imagination." He holstered his gun and brushed a few strands of hair off his face. "Let's go."

Claire nodded and followed. They had been walking around for a while now, but it didn't feel like they had covered much ground. The building was huge and they hadn't set a destination, mainly because they didn't know the layout of the place, but Claire hoped they would get lucky and eventually meet up with the others.

They finally reached a new location. Two white double doors stood in front of them. They resembled those of a hospital. This place was getting more and more suspicious. On the left was a large metal sign.

"B-wing?" Leon read the writing.

Claire shrugged. "Here goes nothing."

Leon nodded and pushed through the doors. They made no sound as they opened, and they walked into another one of those long white corridors. A gentle breeze blew in from one of the broken windows on the far side of the corridor. If it wasn't for the sound of the wind, the place would be as silent as a grave. There were numerous doors along the corridor both on the left and right, probably patient rooms. Was it a lab or a hospital? Nothing made sense.

"This place keeps giving me the creeps," Claire said.

"If this scares you then you're not gonna like what's coming next." Leon had his eyes fixed straight ahead.

It took a moment for Claire to understand what Leon was saying. She turned to where he was looking. A couple of feet ahead, a man in a white hospital gown was standing in the middle of the corridor. Claire would have thought he was looking at them, but she couldn't say for certain since his eyes where blindfolded. Could he have been a patient?

Leon signalled her to follow. She nodded, and he started walking towards the man. Keeping a safe distance, he stopped and aimed his gun.

"Sir?" He shouted and it echoed everywhere. "Are you alright?"

The man just stood there, slightly bent as if standing was too tiring. Claire noticed there was blood on his bandages. She held her breath for a moment before gripping Leon's arm and whispering in his ear. "Be careful." She had a bad feeling about this. It was hard to believe he was just some innocent injured man.

"Sir, can you answer my question?" Leon gave the man another chance to reply in case he hadn't heard.

The man took two steps forward and clenched his fists. He slowly brought his fingers to his head and put them over his eyes. He slowly started pressing them inwards.

"What is he doing?" Claire shouted.

"Sir!"

The man ignored them and kept gouging his fingers into his eyes. Claire felt sick to her stomach. "Leon, he's crazy!"

"Sir, stop!"

Blood started gushing out of his eyes and the man screamed. Claire looked away not able to witness the horrifying sight. The bandage fell, revealing two bloody holes. The scream had now turned into a low sob, and he started twitching. His bloody fingers reached forward, and he started running to their direction even though he obviously couldn't see.

"Leon!" Claire yelled as the man ran to them, closing the distance.

Leon just looked at him, eyes focused, gun aiming.

"Leon, shoot him!"

The man jumped for Leon, but met the floor seconds later, with a bullet hole in the through his temple. They both stared at the body as a pool of blood filled the floor around him. Claire pressed her hand over her mouth as she felt her stomach contents make their way up but she quickly swallowed. She had seen a fair share of dead bodies before –too many to count- but watching someone push his eyes into his skull was a whole new thing.

"We shouldn't have killed him." Leon said.

"What are you talking about? He was coming at us! He would have killed us."

"For all we know, he was just a self-harming lunatic."

Claire looked at the dead man. Leon had a point, but what other choice did they have? She knew better than to make the mistake of checking if the person was alright. That was how people got killed. If it tries to attack you, you shoot first and ask questions later. "I'd rather have killed a crazy person than have him kill you, Leon."

Leon looked at Claire as if he hadn't been expecting that. It seemed like he was convinced though because he nodded and took his eyes off the corpse. "We need to report this. Check if the radio is working."

Claire pushed a button on her headset and tried to get a response from the others, but all that could be heard was static. She shook her head but then snapped her attention back to the radio. The signal wasn't clear, but she heard a human voice.

"I heard something." She pressed the transmit button and spoke into the mic. "Hello? Can anyone hear me? This is Claire Redfield. I repeat, this is Claire Redfield, over." She tried to make sense of the incoherent voices, but the static was too loud.

"Put it on speaker." Leon said, and Claire did as she was told. They both tried to make out anything that could be recognized as a voice.

"…don't….danger…wing…place is…meet at…"

"I don't understand." Claire said.

"I think this means we gotta be very careful."

Claire heard a faint mumbling sound coming from somewhere close. She turned her attention to the source. A couple of doors had opened, and people in white started walking out. They were all dressed in hospital gowns, most of them with very apparent wounds. They looked… dead.

"Oh, God. Leon." Claire pointed to the corridor.

Leon turned to look and his eyes grew wide. "Not again." He drew his gun and Claire did the same. "What do we do? We can't shoot them all."

Some of them were tumbling around. They definitely looked like zombies. If there was one thing that made Claire feel a bit relieved –as relieved as one can be in a situation like this- was that they looked like the kind that had no other brain function than to smell, chase and eat. That didn't mean they weren't any less dangerous though. "I don't think they've noticed us."

Their voices turned to whispers. Leon moved closer to Claire. "Maybe we can go around them."

There weren't too many zombies yet, and it looked like they could make a safe break. Claire nodded and tiptoed to the left. She put her back against the wall and walked along the side, taking deep breaths and trying to keep as quiet as possible. There were some locked doors on the opposite side of the room. They trembled and banged. They had to be quick or they would soon be in the middle of a big crowd.

As she passed by one of the zombies, it seemed to realize dinner was somewhere near. It walked to her with outstretched arms, and she tried to press her back as close to the wall as she could. They were getting too close.

Leon's body touched hers from the side, and she twitched. He leaned close and whispered in her ear. "They can smell us. On my count of three we start running. We can make it to the far door before they get to us. Okay?"

Claire nodded twice.

Leon looked straight into her eyes and started counting. "One… two… THREE!"

He grabbed her hand and they made a run for it. The zombies behind them had realized their presence and were running after them. There was no way they would get to them though. They were too slow. They moaned and growled, but the sounds were gone as soon as they made it to the next room. Leon closed the door behind them.

Before Claire could catch her breath something grabbed her and pushed her to the wall. A zombie was pulling at her, trying to bite her shoulder. Claire pushed and screamed until a gunshot rang out and she felt the zombie's weight off her. Her heart rate was rising too quickly, and she needed a moment to calm down. She turned to Leon, who was coming towards her with his gun aimed at the zombie. He shot it two more times and went to her. She took deep breaths, and tried to calm down. It had all happened so fast. She didn't have the time to use her gun, and if Leon hadn't been there, she would have been a goner. She thanked him.

"Are you okay?" Leon put a hand on her shoulder. "Did he get you?"

Claire shook her head. "I got lucky." She double-checked just to make sure. "What the hell is going on? How can zombies be here?"

"Beats me." Leon locked the door behind them.

"If they get out, it's gonna be disastrous."

"The place is on lockdown. France is safe for now."

Claire looked around. They were in a big living room sized space, with sofas and couches all around. There was a register right in the middle of it that made the place look more like a hotel reception rather than a hospital. All it needed was a sign that read 'Enjoy your stay'. In hell, Claire would have added.

Leon walked behind the counter and went through the stacks of files. Claire noticed a bunch of wheelchairs in a corner next to several tables and metal chairs.

"Hey, Claire, I think I found one of the doctors' diaries. Listen to this." Leon said and he started reading out loud. "'Subject No. 6538 responding well to the process. The virus is adapting to his body and he's showing no signs of aggressiveness so far. Must be really close to perfecting it.' There's another entry after that one. 'Subject No. 4739 failed to accommodate the virus. He's showing signs of cannibalistic behavior similar to those of the T-virus. To be terminated. Subject No. 6538 still doing well.'"

"What the hell? More experiments? What were they trying to create?" Claire said.

"Hold on, there's more." Leon said as he kept reading. "'Subject No. 6538's cells are regenerating. Brain activity is normal, though reduced but most functions are normal. Will move him to the underground lab to begin Project Ondria. Monitoring required at all times. Subject No. 9824 completely overwhelmed by the virus. Cannibalistic tendencies towards itself. Moving it to the B-wing.'" Leon stopped reading and examined more papers.

"My God. That means all those…things we saw back there were actually zombies. That's why that man tried to poke his eyes out; he must have been one of those patients that were showing cannibalistic tendencies towards themselves." Zombies gone nuts, great. Claire thought it was time to start getting really worried. The files were showing that many horrific experiments were going down here and they couldn't know the immensity of the danger. Judging by the B-wing it was quite big. The place had to be neutralized.

"There are files on every patient in here." Leon said as he checked the register. They could look for more answers, but it would take forever to find anything specific. They at least had an idea of what was going on now.

"There ought to be more and worse than those guys back there." He pointed to the locked door of the B-wing. "According to this they were only subjects that didn't quite work out."

"What if they got to the others?" Claire immediately thought about her brother. She knew he was perfectly capable of defending himself and the others,but under the element of surprise even the best ones can fall.

"Let's hope not."

The door started banging repeatedly.

"Shit, they got to us." Leon looked around hastily and pointed to a bunch of tables and chairs that were close. "Help me with these."

Claire helped Leon push two tables in front of the door. They grinded against the floor and let out a screechy sound that made the hair on Claire's neck stand up. They pushed a couple of chairs, too, just to make sure. The barricade would hold long enough for them to be able to get out.

They ran to the exit but were stopped dead at their tracks by an overwhelming figure towering over them. It was about seven feet tall with large arms and a small bulging head. Its torso and legs were too bony compared to the abnormally sized arms. There were bones protruding from its joints. Its skin was transparent like a membrane and the veins and arteries looked more prominent. Its eyes were red with the vivid color of blood, and it stared at them like a lion would a gazelle.

"This definitely falls under the monster category." Claire said.

"Alright, the lines are back up again!" Ian said, clearly content with the results of his hard work. He had been trying to hack the systems for a while now, and Chris noticed he was slowly beginning to get frustrated. Even for a computer tech like him, this didn't seem like a piece of cake. As soon as he was done he shot them a victorious look and Chris would have bet that if they weren't there he would have done a victory dance.

"Can you try to make contact with headquarters?" Chris asked.

Ian nodded and went back to pushing some buttons.

Chris took a look at the girls who were sitting in the corner eagerly waiting for nothing more than to get out of there.

Jill had been trying to calm Elise down, who was still insisting on saying they were all gonna die in here. Jill told her she didn't have to take the dying man's words seriously. Chris knew that it was mostly a lie, but there was no harm in trying to raise her morale. She gave Elise a moment to take it all in and after a while she seemed to be fine. After all, she was a B.S.A.A. agent. She had to be fine. Chris partially understood her panic since she was relatively new but he couldn't help but wonder why they had assigned her to this mission. Her nationality was one thing; they could need her help with communication -which apparently they did- but other than that it seemed like it was her first serious mission. Maybe she had never been directly involved with the monsters, but no matter how hard they train you, or whatever they tell you, unless you come face to face with them, you can't know how you'll react. Maybe she would consider a career change after this. Sherry on the other hand, didn't seem affected by the events at all. It was almost as if she didn't understand what was happening. Or the poor girl had witnessed death so many times, it didn't strike her as something unnatural anymore.

Chris tried to draw his attention elsewhere. "Miles, any luck?"

Ian was breathing heavily. This was taking longer than Chris would have expected.

"Is anything wrong?" he asked, hoping to receive a negative answer.

"Dammit." Ian placed both hands on his sides and stared at the screen. "There seems to be some kind of firewall blocking all communications outside of this place."

"I thought you fixed it?"

"I did." He turned to Chris and pushed a button on his headset. "We can communicate through the radios with the other team, but I can't get a signal when I try to connect to headquarters."

"Someone doesn't want us spilling any info on whatever it is that's going on here." Chris concluded. "I'll contact Leon." He dialled the other team's frequency and spoke into the mic. "Kennedy, come in." He waited a bit, but there was no response. "Kennedy, I say again, do you copy, Over."

Everyone was staring at Chris anxiously. Still no response. Chris glared at Ian waiting for him to justify what was wrong.

Ian looked clueless. He shook his head. "No, it doesn't make sense, I fixed it!"

Chris thought it would be best not to push the poor guy. He'd already done a lot of hard work. He was about to give up when a beeping sound came from the radio.

"Alpha Team… Can you hear me?" A familiar male voice spoke. It wasn't Leon's though.

"Grimes? I can hear you loud and clear." Chris replied as soon as he recognized the voice. It was the bulky blonde guy from Beta Team. He sounded agitated.

"Mr. Redfield, is that you?" A faint sigh was heard. "Thank God! We've been trying to contact you for hours!"

"Where are you? Is my sister with you?"

"No, sir, we split up; she went with Kennedy. I'm with Lambert."

Chris immediately remembered Leon informing him of that, but there was no harm in asking if they had reunited. "What's your position?"

There was a slight pause. "We don't know. We were just checking the place out."

"Sir, there's something going on here. Something bad." Another voice took over. It was the other guy, the French one. He could tell by the accent.

Chris sighed. He didn't want to scare them, but they were experienced agents, they would have to deal with it. "We know. We have a dead body here." He decided to omit the part about the dying man telling them to get the hell out of there. "Meet us at the checkpoint in exactly half an hour. Approach with caution."

"Yes, sir."

"Be careful, guys. If you manage to contact Claire and Leon tell them about the meeting point."

"Copy that."

"Redfield out." Chris cut the connection. All they had to do now was contact Claire and Leon somehow and tell them to get to the meeting point. Once they were out, they'd request backup to take over from there. It was not wise to continue the mission with only eight agents. Plus, they had a civilian, a very important one and a dead man.

"Good job, Miles." Chris made sure to thank the man for bringing back the connection. He then turned to Jill. "Alright, you heard them. We're getting out of here."

Jill turned to Chris with a troubled look. Chris wondered what it was for, but he understood as soon as he looked to Jill's side. Sherry was on her knees, hurling her stomach's contents on the floor. Judging by the amount of time she'd been in that capsule, it wasn't a lot. She couldn't eat solid food.

What now? He thought.

"There's something wrong with Sherry." Elise said. She was holding the girl's hair to make sure it didn't get dirty.

Chris walked to her and Ian followed. Sherry looked up and revealed an unnaturally pale face with blood smeared around her mouth. He looked to the floor. Among the spilled stomach fluids was a lot more blood.

"Sherry, what's wrong?" Jill asked.

Sherry shook her head and shut her eyes so tight it almost seemed painful. "I don't know… But it… hurts." She winced and when she opened her eyes, Chris noticed they were bloodshot red.

Jill looked at Chris. "I think it's the virus."

It didn't make sense. Sherry's body was supposedly rid of any harmful form on the virus. So, what was happening to her? He wasn't about to just sit there and find out.

"Let's just get you out of here." he said and they all agreed. Elise helped Sherry stand up and they made their way back to where they came from.