DISCLAIMER: Resident Evil © Capcom
PLOT: Post Resident Evil 5 - The world works to eradicate bio-terrorism. Not everything ended in Africa. Concerning Sherry Birkin, the girl who disappeared.
Sherry was sprawled over her bed, half asleep from exhaustion. She had been crying very hard. She had found that some days were easier to cope with than others, but since her relocation she had fallen into a solid wave of despair. How would Claire ever find her now? Why had Claire not come for her sooner?
Between a sob and another sniffle, she suddenly took notice of the shadow on the wall and pushed herself up to look to the bedroom door. He was leaning there, framed by the muted light of the hall, arms laced together gracefully.
"Time to get up. We have work to do."
She rubbed at her swollen eyes. "I want to go home."
He stared back calmly through the dark glasses. "There is no home. Everything was destroyed."
She started to cry again. "Claire is going to come back for me..."
There was a sneer. "Oh, yes. Claire." he mused over the thought. "If she had intended to come back for you, wouldn't she have done so already?"
"S-she won't find me here-"
"Enough, Sherry." he snapped, impatiently. "Don't be a fool. No one is coming for you. No one will. None of them had remembered to look for some lost, little orphan."
She was so hurt. There were no words. Maybe he had seen it smacked on her face.
"Listen to me," he began again, "your father and mother would have preferred you be here. Despite their absences, they still considered you a great deal. I'm the only one who came to liberate you from that miserable system and you should come to accept this. As long as you do as I say, there is no reason you shouldn't be comfortable."
She watched him for a long moment. This man she had known only on a relatively shallow level. Now she was under his singular care, and the thought frightened her almost as much as her abandonment had.
"Now get yourself ready," he instructed. "we have tests to run."
Tests. Many tests. Always new tests to be done in his labs. She had found, however, that there was something comforting about the research. Not as much the participation she had no choice but concede to, but the work it brought about. She was at ease around people consumed by work. This she understood. She would come to understand a great many more things.
She was taller and at ease as she leaned against the shiny, white counter.
"So you're sending me away?"
He didn't bother to glance at her as he squinted down through the microscope.
"It's for the best. You can't stay here."
She tapped at a vial absently. "You've grown tired of me being here."
"Sherry, don't be melodramatic."
"Where will I go?"
"To school." he replied easily. "Then to a university."
Her brows rose. "That's...a long going away."
He regarded her briefly, eyes red and so very inhuman. She was accustomed to the sight.
"There's work I have to see about now, and you're ready to start looking after yourself."
She leaned over the counter, resting her head in her arms. "Where are you going?"
He turned smoothly to his notes, a ghost of a smile lingering. "Far."
She huffed and poked at his glasses on the counter. "Will I see you?"
He paused for half a beat. "No. I'm afraid not."
***
Sherry woke quickly. She yawned, scrubbed at her eyes, and glared blearily down at the documents spread below her across the desk. This place was beginning to plague her thoughts.
On the desk, the Tricell logo glared up at her.
Tricell. She had become increasingly familiar with the company ever since the BSAA released publicly the terrible epidemic in Kijuju, Africa. A terrible outbreak that devastated the region and threatened to spread further. Rumors of a doomsday attempt that had narrowly been avoided. It was the topic of current events, and those concerned stayed up to date with the BSAA's efforts to battle the BOW threat.
To keep the company from imminent ruin, Tricell Pharmaceutical had adamantly claimed ignorance of the entire situation. The company had been quoted as stating the African Branch had been operating in absolute secrecy and independence. They were oblivious to the disaster in Kijuju. Oblivious and horrified.
Sherry (as well as many) hadn't been fully swayed, but the European company had been consistently putting out great fiscal support towards the BSAA's efforts as well as the victims in the contaminated regions of Africa. Tricell was doing everything it possibly could to maintain its innocence. The Pharmaceutical company had even agreed to work cooperatively alongside TerraSave.
Now she knew for a fact that he had a hand to play in it all. She wasn't surprised, but she was comforted in being absolutely certain. There was a strange sensation in her gut. He had been put down in an attempt to re-create a similar disaster to the one that had left her an orphan, only on a far grander scale. What should she feel in retrospect? The BSAA acclaimed it as a tremendous victory against a true monstrosity. She thought hard on the man who had brought her cereal for breakfast - with hands dripping in the blood of the innocent. A true monstrosity.
"Will I see you?"
"No. I'm afraid not."
She riffled through the sparse documents again before slipping them back into the file. There wasn't much that covered anything particular in detail. Just notes and development plans for the facility in Kijuju. Nothing she hadn't already heard about.
Sherry decided then, perhaps she had decided last night, that she would return to her university as soon as she had everything in order. The estate was now hers, at any rate, and all she had to do was mind what funds she had newly come to inherit. She would return to school and enroll in an internship. She would request a transfer to Tricell Pharmaceuticals to complete the remainder of her studies.
Sherry felt, in this way, she could be of some assistance to the reparations of Kijuju. Perhaps she could find more information on the African epidemic. Maybe in this way, helping how she could, she would be able to put her mind at rest.
She rose stiffly from her desk and headed for the bathroom.
Schumann - Opus 15 "Kinderszenen".