"I'm so sorry...we hid it from you...I hid it from you...it's all my fault..."
Date: 2nd June 2023
Second to last one, folks, hope you're ready.
I must say, I was so happy to not get any of the backlash that I thought I'd get, so big big thanks for that! I was so worried coz my stats (on FFN at least) seemed to point that a lot of people were reading HFE first, and I had received a few DMs and stuff of people wondering who her dad is. Again guys, thanks :)
With Wesker now resembling an undercooked but deconstructed burger patty thanks to Granny, Chloe ran to Chris' side and pulled his arm over her shoulders.
How anticlimactic. After all the stories she had heard, she thought that Albert Wesker, a man who saw himself as a god and wished to smote Chris as such, had lasted a little longer than, what, ten minutes? Pathetic.
"We have to get out! Louise will only keep her cognition for so long!" barked Grandpa, and they all moved as one towards the doors. As they stepped over the broken door Chloe twisted her neck to get one last glimpse of Dave. He was now further to the opposite door, but he lay motionless at the end of a blood trail. Even though he could be labelled as the reason why herself, Chris and Mom were here, she still felt pity for him. He had still tried to help her, he had led Chris to her location, and for what? For his spine to be torn out a la Mortal Kombat?
They shuffled down the long white corridor; Claire was quietly crying, Grandpa was silent, and Chris occasionally groaned in pain, and it was then that Chloe realised that he was dragging his leg along. She hoisted more of his weight onto him, unimpeded in the slightest. Her crawlies still squirmed and writhed throughout her body, and Chris gripped her hand tighter.
She briefly let go to remove the barricade she had earlier set up to prevent Grandpa from following. He clearly knew more ways around the place than she initially thought.
"I'm sorry, Chloe…" whispered Chris, leaning in as Chloe supported his arm again.
She thought back to that moment earlier as they returned to the cargo elevator, where Thor was waiting loyally, earlier to when Chris openly confessed his revelation to her.
And she felt sick. So sick. And furious. And confused. And even betrayed. A vibrant wave of different emotions overcame her, and the crawlies increased their hot wiggling.
She wanted to drop him and let him fall in a helpless heap. She wanted to slap him. She wanted to scream at her mom. She wanted to just leave them both here to rot together with their horrible and disgusting lifestyle choices.
"Where's Beethree?" asked Grandpa. The tannoy crackled to life above their heads.
"I turned the power back on so you can get out. I'll be fine! Just go! I'll try and get the other test subjects out!"
Chloe did let go of Chris, and she didn't care that Grandpa had to quickly grab his son to stop him from falling over. She punched the button to start the elevator before cooly pacing over to the abandoned assault rifle and bullets.
God. She could fucking put them all down right now if she wanted, and no one would know. No one would even suspect. She eyed the three adults in her family. Grandpa wasn't even meant to be alive, Chris was a slimy, lying sister-fucking asshole, and Mom was a lying, narcistic Mold carrier.
No one would suspect that the teenager ended them all. No one at all.
"t-Phobos…" she whispered to herself, and she flexed her hand again in front of her face. Is this what it felt like? To be a B.O.W? That's what she was now, right? A Bio Organic Weapon. She could totally be a weapon if she allowed herself to be. She could totally smash up Keith Lanes. She could get full, well earned revenge against Nicola, Stacey, Tara and Skyla, more than just a broken arm or a pencil to the leg.
She smiled wryly. Think of the money she could make if she sold her blood, or even used her new powers to her advantage. She could be a mercenary, using her powers to fulfil the requests of others. She could own her own house in five years, finally a house that she had longed for and not some cramped apartment with a tiny shared yard with other kids. She could cut contact with Mom and Chris, like, seriously! Why the hell would she want to speak to them now, after this shit show she had just learned about?!
Oh but what if your blood is used to create fear and terror, they would ask.
Pah.
She looked up at Chris.
The man who had fought B. for years, and yet he was more than satisfied with repeatedly sticking his dick inside his sister. That was its own fucking terror, right there. And now here she was, his niece, his darling little niece, a B.O.W of all things! How ironic! Niece was the word, no fucking way was she ever going to consider herself as anything else.
"Go on, kill me, it's what you do, right?" she whispered again. Heh. Imagine. Imagine if she used this power to put an end to the man she called her uncle all of her life. His memory would be ridiculed for years to come if he died at the hands of his weaponised niece!
The elevator stopped, and ahead of them was another corridor. With Thor at her side, she began to walk, deliberately disregarding the struggle that Grandpa was enduring, trying to haul his two kids. She harrumphed to herself. Mom wasn't even injured, why was she being hauled ass anyway? No, let him fucking drag his gross kids.
Maybe she could speak to Mia, maybe she could live there instead. Or maybe Moira and Prof Chambers. Just anywhere that wasn't a shell of a home that had the closely guarded incest secret embedded into its walls.
The door ahead of her rattled, like someone was gently bashing at it. She raised the rifle right as the doors flung open, and two zombies stumbled forward, landing in a heap of semi decay. Chloe's pace quickened, her crawlies increased in their activity, and she tapped the trigger to release three bullets at the rotting skull of the nearest one. All three must've hit their mark as pink mist dusted the face of the other zombie. This second one slowly shambled back to its feet, but Chloe hesitated, removing her finger from the trigger.
These two were wearing white jumpsuits, with their little white wristbands…
Two more zombies staggered and moaned into the corridor, also in white jumpsuits with white wristbands.
"Beethree? Can you see this?" Chloe shouted, half glancing to the ceiling, as if he'd hear her voice. After a few seconds and three more zombies entering the corridor, she decided to resume action. The shuffling seemingly slowed, as if their path towards fresh flesh was hindered by thick oil all around them. Chloe raised the rifle again and squeezed the trigger, and she frowned as her eyes traced each bullet through the air to their target.
"What the…" she uttered. How could she so accurately see the bullets moving at that speed?
Hold on?
Back in the country house she could clearly and crisply read that inscription, even though she knew she shouldn't have been able to, even though she was due an eye exam and would likely need glasses.
Her eyesight…was this a side effect too? Did she now have 20/20 vision with slo-mo built in?
She grinned as the zombies closed the gap between herself and them. She could hear voices behind her, shouting in urgency. Chris' voice. She paid no heed to him, and began slotting bullets through the skulls of the not-dead. They all fell, piled on top of another, a meagre pile of death and decay. Wasted, she thought.
"Chloe!" Grandpa's voice filled the corridor, and she twitched her neck. "Chloe, they're the other test subjects! He activated their viruses!"
Chloe sank four more bullets into yet another stumbling, fumbling zombie that had emerged from the doorway.
"Remotely? Like with Granny?"
"No, she was the only one with a remotely activated virus. He likely injected these ones before we arrived and fed them out into there somehow. The remotely activated virus was his latest experiment!"
Ratatat!
Another zombie destined for the floor, blood slowly oozing from its shattered cranium.
"Well good thing I helped end him then, huh?" sneered Chloe. After still more zombies shambled in, the rifle clicked, and she coolly dumped the spent magazine before slotting in another. This was her final magazine clip, but with her insane aiming and minimal bullets needed to dispatch each zombie, this was gonna be a walk in the park, right?
She began to walk again, poised, ready for any more zombies to make their presence known. As she approached the pile of corpses she cautiously wielded her knife, taking a stab at each head she could see. Satisfied that they were dead-dead, she hopped over their legs, but more pitiful moaning noises came from the next room, another cargo elevator it seemed, and she leant in, aiming the rifle. To her left were another four zombies, and to her right, three.
"Ok, easy. Maybe three in the head each. Twenty one bullets. I should have that amount." Chloe remarked smugly, and she began making each bullet count. As if there was no skill issue to sniff about, the final zombie fell as she spent the last bullet, and she sighed happily. She flicked her auburn ponytail over her shoulder in a display of sass, and turned to look at the adults, who were still trying to navigate the bodies she had left in her wake.
Above their heads an alarm sounded, with a generic female computer voice;
"EXCESSIVE VIRAL LOAD DETECTED IN TEST LAB 1, SELF DESTRUCT SYSTEM HAS ACTIVATED. TEN MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION. REPEAT. EXCESSIVE VIRAL LOAD DETECTED IN TEST LAB 1, SELF DESTRUCT SYSTEM HAS ACTIVATED. TEN MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION."
"Are you fucking shitting me?" groaned Chris, and Claire giggled.
"Well, not like we haven't heard that before, huh, Chris?"
"No, really, we need to go!" shouted Grandpa, "That means Louise's mutation has outgrown the test lab!"
"What?!" said Chris weakly.
"Oh God…" gasped Claire, and Chloe knew that her mother was thinking of a previous encounter of an outgrown mutation; G5 back in Raccoon City. The girl marched in random directions, impatiently waiting for the other three to take a few steps onto the elevator. Once they were on she punched the up button, and it creaked and squealed to life with a metallic heartbeat.
The elevator had barely ascended more than a hundred metres before it jolted with a steely sigh, and it stopped moving. Chloe hurried to the edge, alongside a barking Thor, but was immediately met with a huge impact across her body, and she was flung into her family. Dazed, she sat up, and found that both of Chris' arms were wrapped around her waist, and Grandpa and Claire were a few feet away… she hadn't landed on her family, Chris had lunged to grab her, and took her weight upon impact. He breathed shallowly as Chloe observed his tactical turtleneck at the stomach level, glistened wet with blood.
She shouldn't care. This asshole had done questionable shit, she wanted to abandon him, she wanted to hate him, and yet even with four bullets lodged in his cavity and shoulder, and another possibly in his ass, he had STILL chosen to protect her. He looked up to the roof of the shaft with half open eyes, and he again lunged over Chloe to the booming sound of another impact, and the elevator shifted back down a little. Chris groaned and rolled to Chloe's side, pressing his hand into the bleeding wounds. He was bleeding profusely yet he was willing to risk his injuries, his life, to protect her.
From the corner of her eye she saw a deep red…thing, descend rapidly. She leapt to stand with her feet astride Chris' body, and with an unsheathing slash outward, she stopped this huge meaty tendril from giving them the same fate as Wesker. It…shrieked? How was a tentacle thing gonna shriek?
"EIGHT MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT. REPEAT. EIGHT MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT."
At the two overhanging corners of the railing, two more tentacles held on firmly, occasionally pulling and jolting, and Chloe got up to run at them, knife in hand. She slashed at the left one, then scurried over to the other side. She took a glance down the shaft, and a huge, congealed mass of muscle and flesh crawled out from the corridor, and she saw that the tentacles were attached to it. A hand touched her shoulder, but from the gasp that followed, she knew it was Mom.
"No…" Claire breathed, and she twisted around, "Dad, how many viruses was Mom given?"
"I don't know, why?"
Claire turned back in time to observe with Chloe. More biomass appeared, and several huge, yellow eyes bulged from the mass. As well as this, and Chloe wasn't sure if Mom saw, but beyond a gaping maw of rib like teeth she could just about see Granny's whole body, with snake-like parasites fused to her flesh.
"G-virus…"
Chloe side glanced her mother; slowly her face contorted, and she cupped her hands to her mouth.
"Mom… G-virus and Las Plagas…"
"And Las Plagas?" asked Chloe, and Mom nodded slowly.
"It matches Leon's description from what he saw in Spain back in 2004…"
The pink, pulsating mass threw itself up and attached to the cargo elevator, and Chloe ducked under a sweeping tentacle, and then again as it rounded back.
"Mom…" sobbed Claire again. She wasn't moving. She just stood there, merely inches away from this…thing, even when jagged bone darted straight for her. Chloe began to run, to push her out of the way, but Chris had beaten her to it. And he fell heavily with a cry of pain as the jagged bone snapped off in his forearm.
Still Claire remained motionless as she kneeled at Chris' side, and Chloe leapt forward again to dodge yet another sweep, smoothly transitioning into a front roll. She knew she had no handgun bullets; she had used them all on Wesker out of pure anger, and the rifle ammo was totally spent too.
"Oh, well. Knife-only run. Let's fucking go."
A tentacle swung for Chris and Claire, and she rolled back, thrusting the knife upwards and forcing all of her viral energy up into her fists. She didn't even have to work to focus, it came as naturally as putting one foot ahead of the other to walk. The tentacle shuddered and pulled away back down the shaft.
In a screeching roar, the mass of rib like fangs and bloated matter sprung up and over the railings, and the metal screamed under the weight of it. Everyone lost their footing as the elevator was jammed down a wheel or two. Grandpa pushed off and grabbed his children by the arms, dragging them away from the abomination.
Chloe silently swore at herself. Abomination? This once used to be Granny; Louise Redfield: a mother, a wife. Mother and wife to the three adults she silently sneered at.
She used to be human.
Used to.
But now-
Chloe dropped one leg down to avoid a glancing sweep-
-but now she was this, she was the bane of every mission Chris had ever been on, she was what Mom ran from.
A hot surge of power briefly fuelled Chloe again, and she backflipped to avoid a devastating smash of the tentacle. A metal plate inside the centre of the platform bent out of shape and rattled off, revealing a hidden compartment. She dove again, and she caught a fleeting glimpse of inside this compartment.
The cargo elevator began to move again even with the added "cargo", but it screamed with a metallic hiss as it rolled up the incline.
"What is…" she trailed off as she peered into the compartment. Inside was a sleek rectangular box, with thick piping attached at four points. She heard the tell-tale sign of another tentacle attack, and she glanced up, but this one missed widely, and she returned her eyes back to the shiny box.
"In case of mass BOW outbreak, use Linear Launcher." Chloe read to herself before flattening herself against the metal.
Damn, wasn't this similar to how every encounter that Mom and Chris had with BOWs? Big ass weapon to neutralise the big bad BOW, a self destruct timer. She punched the activation button and ran to the back of the elevator with a slight grin on her face. Bet they were going to get out in a chopper too, that's how it always ended, right? Everyone lives, they pile into a waiting chopper and fly off into a sunrise or sunset. Textbook. Add a few remarks, smile at each other, easy deal.
She again ran at the tentacles, and swiped at them with her knife before the bulging mass shrieked an unearthly sound and fell hard onto the platform. It juddered, but still continued up, up away from the labs. Chloe then ran in the opposite direction and caught a glimpse of the charge bar on the launcher; about 70%? Damn this charged fast. On the other side, Chris pushed Claire down to avoid a sweep, then grabbed her to roll them both out of the way.
"FIVE MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT. REPEAT. FIVE MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT."
His face said it all. He was beyond pain at this point. Then again, who wouldn't be after being shot several times, after having a whole set of fingers snapped, after taking a sharp implement to the arm? Chloe casually leant aside to avoid a hit, but she still stared at Chris.
No matter how much pain he was in, no matter how dangerous it was for him to carry on moving, he still fought back, he still fought to protect Mom, to protect herself. His family meant more to him than the agony he was enduring.
A loud and elongated beep announced that the Linear Launcher was fully charged, and Chloe dove her hands into the compartment as the tubes attached to it hissed apart. She looked up in time to see two tentacles sweeping one above the other, and she shuffled back swiftly, raising the launcher.
"Family reunion is over, Granny!" She pulled the trigger and a blinding beam of light shot forward at an impossible speed, right through the two tentacles as they brushed by her, right through the main mass and straight out of the back in a shower of blood and other fluids, viscous or otherwise.
"FOUR MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT. REPEAT. FOUR MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT."
"Sorry, Granny…"
The fanged rib-maw loosened and opened, and Granny's body fell out heavily, slamming onto the metal as the biomass shrilled and shrivelled and fell down the shaft. The elevator sped back up to its normal speed, and Grandpa ran to Granny.
Chloe herself ran to Chris' side, and horror filled her core. He was pale, his breathing was laboured, his eyes were glassy, and STILL he attempted to move.
"No…don't move. Rest until we get to the top."
"Chloe…"
"Rest, Chris."
"Help me get over to Granny…"
Chloe hesitated, but Chris held his arm up, and she helped him to his feet, slowly guiding him over to Granny. Covered in blood and gunk, she lay there, her long red hair stained and wet, her lips parted, her eyes open but empty of the light of life. Her already pale complexion was masked by blood, but it was clear to see by the chalky white of her skin that she was no longer alive.
Chris slumped down and touched Granny's cheek with the back of two fingers, and Claire knelt beside him, placing one hand on Chris' arm and the other cupped around Granny's other cheek.
Their faces gave away the signs of a whole new grief; one that they had only thought they had already experienced. Chris wrinkled his nose.
"At least this time, we know for sure now…" he said, and Claire tightened her grip on his arm.
"THREE MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT. REPEAT. THREE MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT."
Chloe threw her glance upwards; the elevator would arrive at the top within the next ten seconds, and they had three minutes to get the hell out. She only hoped that this was near the way out. She spun back around and touched Granny's hand, silently wishing her a peaceful rest after all this time.
The elevator shuddered to a stop as it reached its level, and Chloe quickly stood up, looking at the opened sliding door. Far down that corridor she could see daylight, and even trees in the distance.
"Go." Grandpa said, and the other three Redfields all looked at him. He was crossed legged on the floor by Granny, but he didn't take his eyes off her.
"Dad…"
"Go, Claire." He raised his eyes to her. "All of you. You have just over two minutes to get as far away as possible."
"Dad, please…"
Chloe ignored her mother's pleading and helped Chris to his feet. He didn't argue with her, and he began to make the motion of leaving.
"TWO MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT. REPEAT. TWO MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT."
"Claire, princess, go. Please."
"But Dad…"
"Don't make me tell you again! I'm begging you, go!" shouted Grandpa, and Claire slowly stood up, sniffling and sobbing.
"Ok…I love you, Daddy…"
"I love you too, my biker princess."
"Dad?" said Chris weakly, and Grandpa looked at him. Chris nodded; "Thanks Dad, for everything."
Grandpa smiled thinly and nodded back; "You're welcome, son."
Claire ran and scooped Chris' other arm, and they shuffled away from the cargo elevator, away from the two people that they had all believed to have died in 1991.
The place began to rumble, but they pressed on.
"ONE MINUTE UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT. REPEAT. ONE MINUTE UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT."
"We'll make it." declared Chloe, confident in their pacing. Yeah. They'll make it, it's be close as hell but they'll get ou-
A loud bang overhead startled her, and she was forced forward. She broke the fall with her hands, and Claire landed at her side.
"Chris no!" Mom shouted.
Chloe looked back and saw that the ceiling had collapsed, with Chris' legs underneath the pile of debris, both arms forward.
He had pushed them both. Thor barked wildly, and Chloe's stomach turned. He was on the other side of the debris! Chloe began to frantically tear away at the debris, but her crawlies had slipped into a slumber; there was no god-like strength in her arms anymore.
"GO!" Chris shouted with what little strength he had left, but Claire also began to move debris.
"THIRTY SECONDS."
"For Fuck's sake, go! Both of you!"
"But-"
Chris grabbed Claire by her jacket and pulled her face to his, and Chloe looked away upon realising that he was kissing her.
"But…Chloe…"
"She knows, Claire. I love you."
"TWENTY SECONDS."
"I love you, too, Chris…"
"Mom…"
Both females broke out into a run as they heard rubble gently tumbling behind Chris, and Chloe didn't know what she was silently crying for. For Chris? Or for Thor? Both? The light of day was drawing ever closer-
"TEN."
The doors was mangled against the walls-
"NINE."
They ran out into blinding sunlight-
"EIGHT."
Their lungs burned as they ran over dew coated grass, and the countdown faded behind them. They ran until they came into the line of trees, the edge of a forest, before turning to look at the little concrete building.
Amidst their breathless panting, a low, faint rumble came from the building, and Chloe looked back. The rumbling slowly became louder and louder, like a train was thundering closer, and a huge plume of an explosion burst from the open doorway before dissipating. Chloe still watched as the building partially collapsed in on itself, but her mother didn't turn around.
Chloe had to hold her breath as Mom wept loudly, an anguished, mournful sound that Chloe had never heard before.
She was numb, her lips were numb, her fingers were numb. What was she supposed to be feeling? In the space of five minutes she had just witnessed three family members and her beloved dog perish, and she felt nothing but numbness and emptiness.
Mom collapsed forward and wailed, but Chloe couldn't feel sympathy. Not that she didn't want to, but she was seemingly incapable.
"Chloe... I know it's hard for you, I know you struggle with empathy but please, comfort her."
"Yeah…sorry Minnie."
"Don't be. Just be there for Mom. You'll both need each other."
Chloe helped sit her mom up, but Claire threw her arms around Chloe's neck and hugged her tight.
"I'm so sorry, Chloe…" she cried, "We hid it from you... I hid it from you... It's all my fault... I threatened to kill Chris if he told you..."
"If he told me that he's my dad?" Chloe asked bluntly, and Claire nodded frantically into her shoulder.
"I could've prevented this…we could have just raised you to know…but I was scared. I was scared of going to jail, scared of you being taken away. I'm sorry…"
Chloe feebly patted her mother on her back, unsure of the words to say. Claire slowly calmed down, but she began to fall asleep on her, and the girl laughed sheepishly.
"Hey, Mom, can you wait until we're home to sleep?"
She nudged Claire, but her head flopped backwards.
"Mom?"
She held Claire across her lap, and her blood iced over. She frantically unzipped Claire's jacket at the sight of a hole, and screamed.
Claire's vest was soaked with blood, and there was a single bullet wound to her stomach.
When?!
Was it when Wesker shot at Chris?! Did the bullet travel through Chris' ass and into her mom?!
She shook her by the shoulders, whimpering unintelligible sounds, but she did not move.
"MOM?! MOM!"
Chloe cried and looked around helplessly as a huge plume of smoke was visible in the distance. It must've been the country house, but she didn't care. She shook Mom again, calling her, tapping her shoulder blades harshly like she had been taught, she pressed two quivering fingers to her neck, and felt nothing.
"Mom…"
Alone. She was alone.
For the first time in her life, in her fifteen years, Chloe May Redfield was truly alone. Even the tell tale sound of a tricopter approaching didn't appease her sense of sudden loneliness.
The song for this chapter is Forevermore by Lord of the Lost.
Thanks for reading, last chapter will be up one week from now, and even though I did say I had completed it previously, I have massively expanded on it, it might even touch 10k words, making it my longest chapter across any fic! I mean, look at the last couple of chapters, there's a lot to kind of go over, you know? Someone's gotta clean up the mess!
Also? Chris and Claire? And Thor? Sorry not sorry :p
See you next Friday! (9th June)
