Recommended BGM:
1. Resident Evil: Extinction - For Alaska
2. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) - Ever After
3. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - Survivors
Epilogue
The Raccoon City survivors were sitting inside some sort of room that looked more like a cell. Each of them had their injuries treated and it hadn't taken long after the doctors had done so inside the cell. David's leg had been properly treated and he was given a pair of crutches for the time being. Leon's gunshot wound had also been properly treated and was now in the process of healing itself with medication that made the pain more tolerable than ever before. Claire's back was filled with small stitches and her shoulder had a white patch covering it.
They were inside some sort of military complex, an abandoned building that looked like it had been built as far back as the fifties or sixties. They'd been stripped of their weapons before any of them had woken up from their partial slumber. Even after spending over an entire day locked up inside like animals, they were still wearing the same smudged and dirty clothing from before. At the very least, they were being well-fed and all of them ate as though they'd been starving for weeks without food.
It was now the following morning of the first day of October, the same morning they'd been told about which the bombing of Raccoon City would take place, making David grieve his uncle's untimely death for the second time as he had been informed that there had been no contact from him or his supposed escort whatsoever. He simply couldn't understand how could he have been alive this whole time when his dad and everyone else inside the room at the hospital, saw him die. The way his father described his uncle's death was something he couldn't keep off of his mind for so long. It kept repeating itself over and over again ever since he was told that there was a possibility of his uncle being alive somewhere in Raccoon. That was until the news of the city becoming destroyed by an experimental missile strike finally sealed off any hope he had left of his uncle surviving. And of course, the mass media informed the public about the city suffering a nuclear strike when Hudson had specifically told David and his companions that it was thermobaric, not nuclear. But even at that scale, he couldn't blame anyone for thinking it was nuclear, as the city had an entire mushroom cloud that looked vastly similar to the old pictures of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings.
However, there was something that David became suspicious about after they had their blood tested for anything unusual. The doctors had been muttering to each other almost constantly before they gave them an odd look as they were leaving the room, a look that told him they were about to be interrogated soon enough, possibly separating all of them apart.
After the doctors took their leave, he sat closer to the other three survivors and began to mutter at them in a whisper.
"If we do end up becoming separated," he started, "make sure they don't keep Sherry in their custody for whatever reason, no matter what. I know how these agents think things through. If they already knew about Sherry's connection with her parents from Umbrella, they'll stop at nothing to use her as leverage to further their own goals."
Claire nodded silently, and Leon narrowed his eyes slightly.
"And how would you know that?" he replied.
"Call it a hunch," said David as he took a quick glance at the only door inside the empty room with windows that barely threw any sunlight inside. " My uncle had informed me about how these types of people play their cards."
"Are we still gonna be together?" Sherry asked with slight nervousness behind her tone, looking back at David grimly.
"I don't know, sweetie," he sighed, and he put an arm over Sherry as she leaned closer to him, laying her head on his healthy leg. "But we'll make sure not to leave you out of our sight, okay?"
Sherry nodded slowly. "I love you so much," she said shakily. "Like a big brother I never had."
David looked down over Sherry and slowly smiled at her as he moved a few strings of hair out of her face. "Love you back, little sis. We all do."
"That's right," said Leon, nodding as he formed a smile as well.
"We'll all get through this together. It'll all be over soon," Claire crooned as she leaned closer to her, caressing her arm as she gave a radiant smile.
The door at the back suddenly opened and a pair of armed men walked through and looked back at them, one of them being Hudson himself. The other guy's features were hidden by a thick balaclava.
"Two of you are coming with us for questioning," said Hudson. "I'd prefer if I had Mason and Kennedy come in first."
"Alright," said Leon as he stood up, walking toward the armed pair.
"Fine," David scoffed and slowly stood up, handling himself with the pair of wooden crutches he was given. He looked back at Sherry and began to reassure her in a whisper, hugging her in the process with one arm. "We'll meet up soon. Stay close to Claire, okay? Love you lots, kiddo."
"I love you too, David," Sherry replied, almost on the verge of crying. "I'll be with Claire, waiting for you and Leon."
"Good girl," he said as they both separated. David switched his attention to Claire. "Don't leave her out of your sight, no matter what."
Claire nodded at him. "You got it."
David grabbed his other crutch on his right hand, hobbling over toward Leon and the waiting MPs, his face gradually changing into more of a stern look as he leered past Hudson and the other MP, who he immediately managed to recognize the half-hidden features of Agent Benford.
As he looked back at the room they were in one more time before Benford closed the door behind them, he saw Claire hugging Sherry, and he could tell that Sherry was now crying as her whole body shivered uncontrollably with small whimpers coming out of her.
Fucking government agents…
It's their fault we've been through hell and back. Their fault Dad's wanted by Umbrella and Perseus. Their fault Uncle Woods died along with Raccoon City…
Silently, Leon and David followed the other pair through long corridors. The building was like a huge maze, everything looking old-fashioned as though they were in an old espionage movie. In one intersection they passed, the ground had a huge faded circular label printed over the tile.
National Security Agency
United States of America
NSA… of course, it would be.
As far as David could tell, they were definitely in an old NSA building. Though he still wasn't sure whether or not Hudson and the rest of his goons were working for the NSA themselves. As he kept walking alongside Leon, following the other pair, there was one random thought that kept lingering inside his mind, remembering his dad mumbling things in his sleep. It seemed pretty insignificant at the time for him, and even now that he kept thinking about it, but of all the muttered words he could remember, they were "Room Nine", "locked", and "Reznov", along with a few other random numbers he'd completely forgotten about.
"Kennedy, Room Eleven. Mason, Room Nine," said Jason abruptly.
David's heart skipped an entire beat. How ironic it was for him to be in Room Nine, the exact same name of a room that his dad used to mumble silently in his sleep. He never bothered to ask him what it was all about; the numbers, Reznov, and being locked up somewhere. As he grew up and Frank told him some vague things about his father's experience in Vorkuta, the name, Reznov, popped up again. He was supposedly an old friend that his dad met inside the Soviet prison before he perished inside. Hearing about it at the time just made sense that his dad was suffering from PTSD due to his past experiences as a military vet and POW, but the fact that he was now in an old NSA building, entering a room with the number nine label on the side of the door, it was either life's attempt of a teasing irony, or it could've most likely been the same room that…
…no. Could've been the number of his cell back in Vorkuta. You're probably getting too paranoid, especially after Raccoon. Just calm down, and try to do the interrogating yourself. Demand answers if needed. This ain't nothing like dealing with zombies and mutated monsters.
Yup… nothing to it. Nothing at all.
David took a large, deep breath and finally entered the room inside, while Leon entered the room opposite of him.
The room inside was dark, but not entirely. Fluorescent lights above shined their trail of white light with scattered, shadowy patterns of a rusting grated ceiling in between, the walls and floor dull and gray in color. There was a single chair in the middle of the room just behind a rectangular-shaped table. It looked quite uncomfortable and unnerving to some extent, like a chair made for torturing someone physically or mentally, making David's hairs stand up with a chill that ran across his crawling skin. The door closed behind him, locking itself shut. At that very moment, he was now at the mercy of whatever questions he was going to be asked by either Benford or Hudson himself.
Reluctantly, he sat down on the metallic chair, his butt feeling the freezing cold of the chair's seat. As he laid his back to rest, it seemed like the back of the chair just kept pushing him to keep himself sat up, not being able to put himself in a comfortable position at all.
As he looked up, there was a large rectangular window, bright enough to shine the rest of the room inside. There were several computers and panels on top, overseeing the entire room around him. It was obvious enough that this room was used for interrogating purposes, possibly where they used to hold sessions of torturing people as well, forcing them to divulge information that the NSA might've wanted from their subjects.
There was a small mirror on top in the corner of the ceiling and walls just above the only exit out of the room. It was facing him directly, and he was able to see himself for the very first time since he first arrived at Raccoon. He was still covered in sweat, blood, and grime from the day before. His hair was messy and looked much darker in color, no longer resembling the former brown color he had previously. His white tank top undershirt was covered in small rips, and the smudgy remains of sewage water and dirt were showered in spots of dried blood, even across his bare chest and arms. If anyone were to see him in public, they'd be thinking he was stranded on an island in the wild for weeks, seeing him as a hardened survivor from an unimaginable hellish place, which wouldn't be far from the truth either.
David closed his eyes, unable to see himself in such a state any further…
…but he was now back, seeing himself inside Raccoon all over again, fighting for his life, for Leon, for Claire … and for Sherry…
The flashing images of the undead were burned inside his mind like a permanent scar, but the worst part was the G monster and Mr. X, two of some of the most dangerous beings he has ever encountered in his whole life, and it left him to have his very first nightmare not long after having escaped the train's explosion.
He forced himself to open his eyes again, blinking rapidly to wash them all away for the time being. He knew the flashing images come back to haunt him again, but wasn't going to let them deter his focus from what type of questions he was going to be asked and what questions he was going to ask them. He let himself relax as much as possible, preparing himself to hide the fact that he was more mentally damaged and unstable than he ever was previously in his life.
If I'm feeling like this…I can't even begin to think what Sherry must be feeling right now…
It wasn't long before someone's silhouette from above the large rectangular window popped into view, handling some paperwork in their hands as they sat down on an office chair. David watched as they prepared the mic in front of them, and an intercom crackled to life around him. He quickly noticed that the intercom was hiding the man's real voice, making it more low-pitched than normal and David glared at them with a threatening look.
"Hello, Mr. Mason," the man said. "You may already know me as Agent Jason Hudson. I must say that I wish circumstances were… different… but you must understand that —"
"Yeah, yeah - you're simply going by the book, blah, blah, blah…" David interrupted bluntly, glowering at Hudson's silhouette with a stern look. "Frank already told me how you love doing things your own way - told me quite a lot of things about you, believe it or not. If you really cared about him, you'd know."
There was a pause.
"I'm deeply sorry about —"
"Do you not have anything else to say other than canned platitudes?" David retorted, feeling extremely annoyed by Jason's indifference about him and his family. "My dad and uncle never gave up on family. You never even bothered rescuing my uncle before they blew up Raccoon! Not even back when he first needed help…when you took away Dad — when you made him break the promise he made to me all those years ago! The one promise I —!"
"You wouldn't understand, David!" said Hudson, almost in a frantic voice through the low-pitched intercom. "War never leaves room for second chances. Woods knew that… your father knew that. They both did ever since they fought in the Korean War."
"I wouldn't understand?" David replied in a shuddery voice. He was now fighting back tears over his blurring vision. "When I arrived at Raccoon City to look for Dad and Uncle Woods, I saw a sheriff getting eaten alive at a gas station. I was scared… and I froze. I was forced to watch his jugular get ripped apart right in front of me - by a fucking zombie! And he wasn't the only one…" David looked down at the table, closing his eyes as he was forced to revisit the events of that horrible night. " At the police station, I saw so many bodies… dead people… all of them eaten… mangled… shot to death… and then when I found Sherry… this… thing… it was…" his throat locked up, and he felt a sudden intense of emotions washing over him, not wanting to recount what happened when he first encountered Sherry's mutated father.
"Go on…" said Hudson's low-pitched voice, sounding indifferent about David's apparent mental instability.
David shook his head slowly. "Is this really necessary? I don't feel like talking about it."
There was another pause, and then a sigh from Hudson's low-pitched voice in the intercom.
"It's for our own records," he said. "We need to know exactly what happened in Raccoon City. You, Kennedy, Redfield, and the Birkin girl are survivors of this unfortunate tragedy that had come to ravage our entire country. If you're still wondering, this building is an abandoned NSA facility just a few miles north of Stone-Ville, a small village within the Arklay region. We are not here under direct orders from the NSA or the CIA. We're still within government jurisdiction, but that's all I'm able to tell you."
David sat up, his face slightly contorted with a mix of anger and sadness.
"How did you know who Sherry was, exactly?" he inquired. "None of us told you her last name, yet you and the rest of your goons somehow knew about it already."
"We've done our research on the Birkins," he explained. "Their old records never stated they had a daughter, but we've had our suspicions when the RPD had an unusual amount of welfare checks on the Birkin residence. Many outside third parties might've suspected the same thing as well, but none of them could come close to a confirmation either."
"And what about Perseus then?" David asked in a harsher tone. "Back in Umbrella's underground lab, Claire and I found footage of Perseus infiltrating Umbrella in an attempt to murder Sherry's father and deliver virus samples to them. Can't remember their actual name, but it was someone codenamed 'Bell', who recorded what they called 'Operation: Nestwrecker'."
"What…?" Hudson gasped, stunned at what David had told him. There was an unusually long pause before he continued. "Are you sure about this, David?"
"Why would I lie about it?" he said, shrugging. And then he remembered the name. "His name was Obolensky, I think…"
Another pause.
"Konstantin Obolensky… Is that correct?"
David shrugged again, now looking back down at the empty table before him. "The video only showed his last name, but… yeah, the letter of his first name showed it was a 'K'. Could stand for Konstantin too. Did you know him or something?"
"Shit!" he cursed loudly over the intercom as he slammed the desk in front of him with both of his fists. "Damn you for not cutting off loose ends, Adler…"
Adler…
That was another name David was familiar with.
Raymond? Rey…Russell! Russell Adler… wasn't it?
It was fortunate enough that both his dad and uncle were sometimes loud in their conversations about their past missions inside their home back in Fairbanks.
He began having a growing feeling that his experience back in Raccoon had led him to many truths about his own past, which as a matter of fact, was actually frightening him. It was normal for his father, Frank, and Jason to be leading very secretive lives due to their line of work, but he never thought he would ever be able to connect all the individual dots up until now. He started to wonder how many more lies had they ever fed to him or even to his father, who probably wasn't even aware of much due to outside influence over his own mind and sanity. All of these running thoughts only made him miss his dad more than ever, all of the opportunities he had with him wasted away due to a blind hatred he had toward him for abandoning him most of his childhood life.
And with that… he was also reminded of Frank's passing. The lack of communication from him or his supposed escort was a worrying confirmation that his uncle was not coming back ever again. His whole family was ruined, destroyed, nothing but a trail of death and misery that would continue to haunt David for the rest of his life. This made him afraid of continuing a relationship with Claire, of keeping contact with Sherry and Leon, because all this meant that as long as they were around him, something bad will eventually happen to them or their families. And thinking about it now, if Harper thought he'd perished inside Raccoon's annihilation, it was probably for the best as well. At least his best friend will not be under Umbrella or Perseus' crosshairs, all because of his connection with him and his father.
David looked up again, now determined to find more answers about Hudson's vague comment from before. "Russell Adler. That's his name, right? Who is he?" There was silence for another long moment. "Jason!"
"No one important," said Hudson's low-pitched voice, seemingly irritated and furious before clearing his throat quickly. "Now, can you tell me more about this footage you and the Redfield girl —?"
"NO!" David bellowed angrily, standing up with one leg limping from the injury he had, leering back at Hudson with another threatening look. "First, you're gonna tell me who the fuck this Adler guy is all about. I want to understand everything that happened to Dad - I want you to tell me everything about his past in Vorkuta. I wanna know everything about Perseus, about Kravchenko, Adler, Bell - all of it! Right from the start! 'Bout damn time you owe me some answers after all this time, don't you think?"
He continued staring at Hudson's silhouette. Apparently, the old man was stunned about everything he had told him, or rather, demanded from him. There was no response from him for several seconds and then, he got closer to the microphone, finally speaking to him.
"I'm sorry, David," he said apologetically this time, his angry tone having faded away entirely. "You already know it's all classified information. We cannot risk to —"
"Please!" David begged this time, overwhelmed with tears and desperation. "You have no idea how much I miss Dad… how much I wasted my whole life hating him… until…" he looked away, wiping a drop of tear off of his left cheek. As much as it crushed him to relieve the worst moments of his life, he needed to get through all of it if he wanted to have any hope of finding his father, of finally being able to reconcile with him. As he started to slowly weep, he finally looked up, his face destroyed by intense emotions of sorrow and despair. He'd lost the battle of trying to hide his mental state of irreparable damage, hating himself to no end. "I remember everything…"
"Remember what?" said the familiar, cold voice of indifference through the intercom.
David suddenly felt his veins boil into madness, narrowing his eyebrows intensely.
As if he never knew…
"About mom's death!" he said angrily. "She was never killed in a car accident. It was Dad all along! He wasn't himself when… when he shot her! And even after all this time… you and Uncle Frank kept me under a lie - kept us under the same lie! But of course… you're probably the one who suggested the cover-up, didn't you?"
"David, I…"
"DIDN'T YOU!?" he cried out, his voice dying off to a dwindling echo across the room. Immediately after, he swallowed intensely and then continued in a drowned, trembling voice. "Tell me… were you the one on the phone with Mom on the same day that it all happened? Did you already know whatever happened to Dad after he was gone all those passing days? Weeks? Months? — Did you?!"
Jason's silhouette was frozen for several seconds until he finally stood up from his office chair, and without a single response, he slowly walked away, ghosting him completely.
"Jason, come back here! Jason! JASON!"
David was once again all by himself. Feeling defeated and betrayed, he sat back down in the uncomfortable metallic chair, thinking to himself for a short moment. After about a whole minute inside his own thoughts about everything that's happened recently, about every lie, about every nightmarish creature he encountered previously, about every death he's seen, about his uncle's passing, the obliteration of an entire city, the resentment he's endured for so long, the lost opportunities with his father, he was now far past his breaking point.
He leaned towards the table before him and began to whimper and cry in despair, feeling as though he was stuck inside an endless void of grief and misery.
Leon sat in what felt like the most uncomfortable chair he's ever been in his whole life. Even though the room was mostly empty, save for a rectangular-shaped table, it felt like there was some old history to be told inside. It was apparent that inside a facility like this one, there had to be several harsh sessions with people that were most likely subjected to some form of physical or mental torture inside.
To the left above was a giant window pane that oversaw the whole room itself, and he could only guess that whoever was going to interrogate him would actually reside there, all comfortable inside with a normal office chair.
And then he turned to a small mirror that was located just above the only exit of the room, facing him directly, and was able to see himself clearly for the first time in days. His RPD uniform was no longer blue. It was entirely discolored, turned to more of a brownish-like color, his bullet wound properly patched up with no signs of blood seeping through unlike before. His hair had probably collected quite a lot of dirt, sweat, and blood, seeing it was heavily greasy and messy. There were a lot of small cuts and scrapes across his face, with at least two small stitches just above his right eyebrow. At this point, he wished for nothing more than a hot shower and clean clothes when the intercom inside the room cracked to life. A man was already sitting inside the room through the window above, having not noticed him entering the room above.
"Welcome, Officer Kennedy…" the man began through the intercom's voice changer that lowered his pitch to hide his real voice, something which seemed rather unnecessary to Leon. "My name's Agent Adam Benford. I believe we met yesterday morning, but regardless… I am with the Private Anti-Biohazard Service. Agent Hudson is the one running things around here, but as a government agent with orders coming from the president himself, I'd like to ask a few questions for you."
Leon raised an eyebrow at this. If they were working directly for the president himself, what exactly did it mean for him and the rest of his companions?
"Fire away, sir," he said blankly.
Benford began shuffling some papers in front of him, scanning them thoroughly before he began to speak.
"Your arrival at Raccoon City, when was it exactly?"
"On the evening of the twenty-ninth of September," Leon began. "I was supposed to report to the station at nine o'clock that night, but then…" the haunting images of the first zombie dog he encountered just several miles away from the city kept popping up inside his mind, alongside the zombies, Trenchy, and…
"Everything happened so fast…" he said finally, his fingers tensing up as they slowly closed to a fist. "I met David and Claire along the way. Both of them were being chased by… zombies. And before we arrived at the station, we were hit by a tanker. Everything blew up, and more of them kept popping up out of nowhere and…"
Leon stopped himself abruptly. He didn't think it was going to be quite difficult to describe his experience in Raccoon City, a city that used to be a fond memory of his childhood. Now the city was in ruins, destroyed by a missile strike, by their own government, and not even a single care for any of the surviving souls inside the city. And it could've easily been him, along with Claire, David, and Sherry… all of them trapped and perishing along with the entire city. It made him furious just the mere thought of the senseless deaths that occurred inside the annihilated city.
"Officer Kennedy?"
Leon became startled and looked back up at Benford, barely noticing that he had been trying to talk to him for a long moment.
"Sorry, I…"
"I completely understand this may be difficult for you and for the rest of your fellow survivors," said Benford apologetically, though it was harder to tell through the low-pitched voice in the intercom.
Yeah, no shit it is… What do you expect?
"But the point of this interview is for us to understand what exactly happened in Raccoon City. We need to check all the factors here, anything that could give us a clear picture of the whole tragedy."
Interview? More like prying my brain out…
Leon closed his eyes briefly and sighed, trying to prepare himself for any more questions. He kept thinking about whether or not to omit any details about his encounter with Ada, but then again, it probably wouldn't do much change one way or another.
"Could you tell me what kind of virus the city was infected with?" Benford said calmly and probingly.
Either he doesn't know or he's simply testing my knowledge…
"T-Virus," Leon replied, remembering Ben's scribbles in one of the RPD's jail cells and every bit of incriminating information that he, Claire, and David were able to share together inside their cell room. "It turned people into zombies. Chief Irons was corrupt and tried to suppress everything from the very beginning. Umbrella and a group called, Perseus, were the ones responsible for everything that happened to the city since the first cannibal sightings in the Arklay Forest."
Benford had his pen in his hand, writing every bit of information Leon kept telling him.
"So this 'Perseus' group…" - he cleared his throat - "Anything you can tell me about them?"
"Ex-Soviet paramilitary group or something," he responded, not entirely sure about the details since Claire and David had barely known much about the group themselves when they'd told him about it. "Heard about their leader having conspired against the country through the use of Umbrella and their bioweapons that roamed throughout the city."
"And… could you tell me how many of these zombies were there?"
Leon shook his head. "Who would even think to keep count when a horde of them is coming after you and your friends?"
"I suppose," Benford said indifferently. "Could you give an estimate as to how many of them you killed?"
Leon didn't exactly think much about it until now. All of those zombies were people once, people with family, friends, pets, and busy lives… and a sudden wave of guilt washed over his mind like a tsunami of gut-wrenching emotions without warning. He'd called them names - insulted them for being dumb and trying to kill him, to eat him alive… when all this time, they were just victims of the t-Virus itself, Umbrella and Perseus' victims…
He blinked rapidly, shaking his head for a quick second to flush those images away as he put his hands on his temples, looking down at the table in front of him.
"Too many…" he said finally. "I can hardly remember the faces of any infected individual out there…"
Benford continued to scribble in silence during an unsettling pause for Leon's struggling sanity.
"How would you describe your relationship between Sherry Birkin, David Mason, and Claire Redfield?"
There was a pause as Leon tried gathering his mental state together in one, fragile piece.
"Sherry…" he began in a low voice. "She's a child I grew to like and admire the moment I first saw her when David had found her and met up with me after we'd all got separated from the tanker accident." Leon finally looked up at Benford's silhouette. "Do you even have any idea what a zombie outbreak does to a child's mind like hers? At one point, I thought about giving up completely several times… but when I saw Sherry and figured she survived on her own out there for an entire week… she lit up a small flame of hope I never expected to see or ever have. She's the reason why I'm still here."
Leon skipped any mention of Ada. He wouldn't have minded talking about her if it didn't hurt him to think about how he failed to save her, how she might've died a second time in the NEST…
…but even if it were otherwise, she might even be on the FBI's most wanted list for all he knew and after what she pulled in her last ditch effort to save them all from Trenchy, he wanted her memory not to be tarnished any further than it needed to be…
But I could also clear her name if any of them knows about her…
There was another pause.
"And… what about David Mason?" Benford probed. "Did you ever know he's the son of a nationwide wanted fugitive?"
Huh? And I thought Ada would've been it…
Leon began to sit up straight. "What - you mean, Alex Mason? STARS? I mean why would he —?"
"He's been… compromised…" Benford interjected. "We fear that he's on the run, and God only knows if either Umbrella or Perseus has him under…"
There seemed to be a long pause, almost as though Benford didn't know whether or not to reveal any more information about Alex. However, Leon already knew some of the details about him, thanks to Claire and David, such as being subjected to some sort of experimentation in a Soviet prison called Vorkuta, and the murder committed on his own wife while being entirely unaware that he'd done it at all. Leon was still quite unsure whether or not to divulge anything to them in case they were looking to arrest David's father or worse…
He finally decided against it so he'd play it dumb, preferring to put his loyalty toward David rather than siding with their own government that thought it was a good idea to outright murder an entire city without even looking for any other alternatives.
"Under what?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"And what about Claire Redfield?" said Benford, dodging the question entirely. "Anything you can tell me about her?"
Leon looked away from the window above, letting his back rest against the ugly chair he was sitting on, feeling extremely exhausted. "She came to the city to look for her brother in STARS. We've been friends ever since."
"Ah yes…" said Benford, looking at a stack of papers in front of him. "Miss Redfield… yes… Sister of Chris Redfield, now a former member of STARS Alpha team. Former US Air Force pilot… Discharged for insubordination… Quite a reputation Mr. Redfield formed himself, even at a young age." He cleared his throat. "You don't happen to know anything about the whereabouts of Chris Redfield, would you?"
According to Claire, she managed to find out that he's somewhere in Europe, helping do a headstart on investigating Umbrella. As far as Leon was concerned, all the coverups Umbrella had been trying to do were all an attempt to prevent the company from collapsing into fault and bankruptcy. After being informed about Operation: Nestwrecker however, it seemed like Perseus had other ulterior motives they didn't share with Umbrella, and who knew if they were going to be the next Umbrella in the future…
Leon shook his head, trying to protect the Redfield siblings altogether. "Not that I'm aware of, no."
"Hmm…Shame…" said Benford before someone else inside the office above came bursting inside and the two shadows of Benford and the other person within were engaged in a muffled conversation. Leon was unable to understand anything they were saying, but after a short while, Benford finally reached the microphone and said, "Wait here."
Leon closed his eyes shut, sighing.
Not like I'm able to take a bathroom break or anything…
David had spent at least five minutes alone, crying and sobbing for just about everything he had been feeling and thinking about recently. All the misery, the senseless deaths, the monsters, the lies, the manipulations, his possibly dead uncle, his missing dad… it was just too much for him, and there seemed to be no cure for anything of the sort, of the mental suffering he'd have to endure for as long as he lives…
…and the door inside the room he was in suddenly opened and closed shut. David didn't bother to look at who it was that entered the room, knowing almost exactly who the person was standing just across from him.
"Get out," he said coldly, his voice stricken by prodigious emotions inside him, still keeping his head down inside his crossed, bruised arms.
"It's okay," Hudson's voice echoed outside of his arms, his ears barely concentrating on his overall surroundings. "I turned off any recording device inside the room to buy us some privacy. It's only going to be me and you for five minutes at most…"
David didn't reply back. Instead, he kept his head down, still crying softly.
"I know how you're feeling," he continued. "I get it. It's something that will never —"
"I said get the — FUCK OUTTA HERE!" David roared in agonizing frustration, rage, and sorrow all at once, finally facing the man that had all the fault in the world for every misery he had suffered since he was a child. "You think you understand everything about me, but you've proven otherwise over and over again! So for God's sake, stop lying to my face for once and LEAVE ME ALONE!"
David crossed his arms again, letting his head rest inside as he leaned back to the table in front, weeping.
Whatever Hudson was doing, it didn't seem like he wasn't leaving the room at all. From what David was able to hear through his weeping, he was fumbling around something, probably the same foldable chair he saw him carrying earlier, and sat right across from him. David continued to ignore him, only being able to hear silence as he struggled to have some form control of over his emotions, hating Hudson for making him be put in a position to be hating himself in the state he was in.
After several moments of silence from him, he began to speak.
"Your father, he uh…" he sighed deeply before continuing. "When he was first captured on April nineteen sixty-one, eighteen years before you were born, they sent him off to Vorkuta - a Soviet camp at the time. There, he was subjected to Soviet experimentation by brainwashing him using a series of numbers to be implanted inside his head, to become a sleeper agent, to make him do their own bidding…"
He paused, but David decided not to look up, still feeling so much anger against him. However, he chose to allow him to explain a few things without uttering a word to him. He let himself give in to listening, putting a mild stop to his weeps.
Hudson continued uninterrupted. "But you see… your father fought vigorously against it for so long, something I admired deeply from him… But there's only so much a person can do until one finally hits their breaking point. We still don't know exactly what they did to your father, even right before he killed your mother… but we think that Perseus had something to do with it after we crippled them through various operations we've done in the past. If they wanted to exact revenge, it would be to make sure Alex, Frank, and their families would suffer for the rest of their lives."
There was a pause and David finally looked up, his weary bloodshot eyes fixed directly on Hudson's aging face.
"And what about you?" he said finally. "Why do my family and I get to suffer when you also had a hand in all of it? I don't see your family having suffered losses like I —"
"Don't!" Hudson said abruptly, looking slightly away from David, and there was a crossing expression of a guilt-stricken look on his face. "Don't talk to me about loss…"
David felt confused and there was a glint of curiosity flowing inside his mind. He was about to open his mouth before he was immediately interrupted by something he did not expect from Jason at all.
"Jenny never moved out when I told you otherwise She… she…" his voice quivered softly, and he looked like he was about to break into tears himself, incapable of holding himself together as he turned to look at David in the eyes this time, and there was grief written all over them. "She was killed…"
David's eyes became dilated in shock, his mouth opening as his jaw dropped heavily. "Holy shit… what?! H-how?"
"I was away with the kids, doing grocery shopping with them for their mother as I almost never have the time to spend with them… When we came back home, we…" Jason looked away briefly, licking his lips as he tried to keep himself under control. "We found her in the kitchen. Stabbed multiple times as she lay in a pool of her own blood… with the phone barely gripped in her hand — She was still alive after it all happened… and she…" The last words died off immediately with a sudden swallow of apprehension.
David was completely awestruck, unable to comprehend who would even do such a thing when Jenny was just as nice as his mother was to him. But when Perseus finally came to mind, it almost didn't surprise him anymore.
Bastards probably ordered her murder… Same ones that probably made Dad do the same to Mom too…
"Jesus…" he muttered slowly. "Jason… I'm… I'm sorry about —"
"Now do you understand why we want to know everything that happened inside Raccoon?" he spoke abruptly, trying to clear his throat after. "It's so that shit like this does not happen again…to you, to me, to your fellow group of survivors, or anyone else. Umbrella's the one to blame for the whole viral outbreak, but Perseus has been under the radar for far longer than they have. So please, David… I need you to tell me everything. So we can put a stop to all of it. Once and for all."
David looked back down at the table, arms still crossed, but his posture straightened up, thinking and weighing his current options.
Jenny has been dead for a long while, there was no denying it, especially when her number would go straight to a hollowed dial tone ever since he moved to California. No one, not even his dad or uncle, had ever bothered to inform him about Jenny's passing and it was only Jason who told him she supposedly moved after he left Alaska. As of now, his uncle was either missing or dead, and his father was either in Europe with Claire's brother, or somewhere else, hiding from the rest of the world, probably thinking that his own son still hates him. Claire still seemed determined to find more clues about her brother's whereabouts in Europe, and Sherry's predicament of being an orphan and having no immediate family to take care of her meant that one of them had to keep her under their custody one way or another.
I'll fight for having Sherry by my side, no matter what it takes. Maybe then, Claire could go on ahead and look for her brother without having to worry about Sherry's well-being…
Think it's what Uncle Woods would've wanted me to do… what Dad would want me to do…
He gave a deep sigh and looked up directly at Jason in the eyes, saying, "I'll tell you everything but under two conditions."
"Name them."
"First, Sherry gets to stay with me," David demanded reprovingly. "She'll move to Alaska with me and you'll make sure the government never tries to bother us ever again."
There was silence in the air for a brief moment.
"I could make it work," Jason said calmly. "I won't be able to guarantee anything since the doctors have found some anomalies within her bloodstream, but you have my word that I'll do the best I can to give you the protection you both need."
"Anomalies?" David asked in shock, leaning slightly forward. "Is she gonna be okay?!"
"They didn't tell me anything specific, but they promised me that she's in perfect condition," he informed him. "What's the second condition?"
David straightened up his bare shoulders, still looking at Jason directly in the eyes with a glaring look.
"Second is that I want you to find Dad, and once that's done, I want to meet with him right away. I think it's best to tell him what really happened to Uncle Woods. He at least deserves the truth, especially coming from you of all people. No more lies between us."
Jason looked away for a brief moment before shaking his head slowly.
"I'm sorry, David," he said, frowning. "We spent a long time looking for him for the past month, but…"
"Then look harder!" David pressed. "You're still a government agent, aren't you? Shouldn't be that difficult to find a man who spent half their life with you on missions and all."
"He's wanted by so many," argued Jason, giving David a weary look of exhaustion. "Even if I do find him, what then? There's not gonna be a single welcoming party waiting for him. The CIA, Umbrella, Perseus…they all want his head on a silver platter. It's too dangerous for him to be anywhere in the country. Think it's best if he isn't found."
"You'll either find him and set up a meeting for both of us," David leaned back to the metallic chair and continued to speak in a menacing tone. "Or you'll never hear anything from me ever again. No find, no help. Your call… Mr. Hudson."
There was an unsettling silence creeping between them once again, and Hudson seemed like now he was the one weighing his options, thinking thoughtfully to himself as David grew a subtle smirk on his glaring expression toward him, feeling satisfied that now Hudson was the one with the heavy weight on his shoulders.
After a few moments passed, he finally gave him an answer.
"All right," he said in a defeated tone, nodding at him slowly as he stood up. "I'll let you know once I find him — and you can keep this chair. That seat you're on is giving me bad vibes of deja vu anyway… — I shall be back in a few and we can continue this as you proposed."
David nodded silently, slowly smiling to himself as he watched Hudson walking towards the exit.
Leon was snatched out of his own thoughts when the intercom finally broke the silence inside the room. He looked up at the large window above and saw Benford was now back from wherever he went. He leaned forward toward the table and rested one elbow of the arm he was using to rest his chin on the palm of his hand.
"Sorry to have you waiting, Officer Kennedy," Benford apologized in a blank tone. "I was simply being informed about what Mr. Mason has told Agent Hudson recently."
"Like?" Leon inquired, wondering what exactly David told Hudson about.
"I believe our concern here is that we have the authority to do as we please with you," said Benford in a firm and calculated tone. "You, Mr. Mason, Miss Redfield, and that girl."
Leon stiffened up, his throat choking even before he could form any words to argue against his statement.
"Just leave Sherry out of this," he said in a drowned voice. "She's an innocent."
"An innocent who carries the G antibody," said Benford as though he was talking about some sort of science project. "But don't worry… Agent Hudson will do his best to find and arrange the best care for her. As for the other two, they all have the potential to be used as leverage in order to locate some of the missing STARS members in question: Chris Redfield and Alex Mason."
Leon looked down in defeat, unable to think of anything else to say in order to save them all from the greedy grasp of the US government itself.
Benford continued, "Bottom line is… as a surviving cop of the Raccoon City Destruction Incident, you seem to have the experience we're looking for. So if you want this to end peacefully, you really have only one choice. Work for us, and in return, we can assure you of Mr. Mason, Miss Redfield, and the Birkin girl's safety. "
Leon glared back up at Benford's silhouette. For a moment, he considered yelling back at him, cursing at him for being a cruel, calculated jerk. All Leon really wanted right now was for the others to not be here any longer, to get David in a proper hospital, and for them to have a second chance at life.
But what other choice do I have anyway? It won't matter whether I refuse or accept. They'll do whatever they want, whenever they'd like...
…but maybe, I could also have a chance at helping David and Claire in secret. Maybe use my position to try and help locate David's father and Claire's brother, warn them somehow - and if possible, help protect Sherry as much as I can…
Without further regret or hesitation, he lowered his head again, closed his eyes, and then sharply responded.
"I'll do it."
Author's Notes: Wow! I can't believe this is the end of the line for the second story!
I had so much fun writing it! I'll be honest, a lot of things that may seem new to you from the events of the video games were mainly borrowed from the novelization itself instead. I really wanted to combine different iterations of the events into one, and I feel like I did so almost seamlessly. The epilogue was probably the hardest to brainstorm as I really wanted to leave it open for more possibilities to come for the next story and the one after that. It may seem incomplete, but trust me, it's ambiguous for a reason as we will delve more into Claire and Sherry's parts of their interrogations in the next sequel. You'll see why when it does happen...
Next sequel will focus on Carlos, Jill, and Woods, with the first half taking place 24 hours before RE2 and the latter half two days after. I did mention a few more CoD characters will make appearances so look forward to that! RE3 is my favorite one in the entire classic trilogy so you better hope damn well that I will give it my best shot!
As with the last stories, most of its events will follow up with the novelization, though with Woods being elsewhere in the city, he will most likely follow up with some of the events that happen in the remake. I would say I'll combine some of the events that happen in Umbrella Chronicles' retelling of RE3, but it is probably the worst iteration of RE3 I've ever seen. It's cool that we got to revisit some of the RE Outbreak locations, but none of it made any sense for Jill and Carlos to ever have been in most, if not, all of its locations anyway. However, I could potentially have Woods visit some of its locations however. We'll see how it plays out first...
One last thing, many thanks to OldGlory and Adam Luck for their back-to-back reviews and for putting their precious time and effort to write them all! And many thanks to the rest of you who have read, favorited, and followed this story from beginning to end! You guys are all awesome!
Don't forget to favorite/follow me as an author so you don't miss out on the next story upload when the time comes!
See you all in a few months or so! This time, in the next sequel, "Resident Evil Black Ops III: Last Escape"!
P.S. Before I forget, I actually have yet to reveal what the numbers meant that Wesker used on Mason in the last story...
The answer is "Capture all STARS. Kill, if necessary."
A bit anti-climatic, I know, but just as Adam Luck has said before - sometimes, simplicity works best. ;) Plus, it also kinda foreshadows the events of Resident Evil 3 as well...
For those who had attempted to solve it, if any of you got it correct or were close enough, congratulations! I'd love to see any past guesses, if any! Would be interesting to see!