Chapter 14: True Sight
Chris grinned like an idiot as Piers hopped out of the truck and started running down to the shooting range, rifle case slung securely over his shoulder. Chris turned the truck off and grabbed his own gear, determined to give the unusually chipper Ace a run for his money. Chris opened up the door and saw Piers was already a fourth of the way to the shooting range.
"Hey! Get back here Piers!" Chris couldn't help but just keep grinning like a madman.
Piers waved his free hand over his head and kept running. "No chance in hell you old Bear, you're gonna have to catch me!"
Chris shook his head and took off running, easily starting to gain up on Piers. The base wasn't very full right now which was somewhat odd but Chris figured a few of the teams had been sent out on a mission. A few soldiers were milling around, all of whom already knew about Piers' condition, and when they saw Captain Redfield chasing Piers Nivans down to the shooting range, they all smiled. Half of the people on base cheered for Nivans and the other have for Redfield, some even starting a pool for bets to see who was going to win.
Chris was getting closer to Piers, who was laughing like an idiot, and was almost within an arm's reach of the rifle case slung across his immobile arm. They were still about a fourth of the way from the range, and Chris was now running beside Piers as Piers himself pushed harder and harder to get there while Chris was simply jogging now.
Piers managed a glance to the side and smirked. "Finally found your speed Chris?"
Chris grinned devilishly. "Nope, just finally caught up after your head start from the truck, feeling a little sneaky today Piers?"
Piers laughed again. "No more than usual Chris, I just thought you needed a little incentive to run."
Chris rolled his eyes, Piers was starting to slow down. "Please, as if I haven't done enough running in my life already."
Piers snickered and kept running. They finished the rest of the run to the shooting range and clambered inside, Piers almost passing out from exhaustion and overuse of his muscles that haven't seen so much work in a long time. Chris walked over and leaned against a wall, eying Piers curiously. Piers looked up after a moment of panting and smirked at Chris.
"Waiting for something there, Captain?"
"Not really, waiting for you maybe, but I've got all day long to wait for you."
Piers laughed and stood up slowly, walking over to Chris and giving him a hug. Piers then walked over to a lane at the range and set up his rifle to get ready to shoot.
"Still sure you want to go up against the B.S.A.A.'s best sniper Chris?"
Chris grabbed a handgun and MP-AF, walking over near Piers in another lane and rolling his eyes again. "Best sniper maybe, but I'm sure I can still win with handguns and horseshoes Piers."
Piers rolled his eyes and began lining up his scope. "As if Chris, after all this time I bet you couldn't hit the back side of a barn."
Chris smiled and picked up the handgun, making a quick shot into a targets head without even so much as glancing in its direction. "So, still think I can't hit a barn, Piers?"
Piers gulped a little. "Um… maybe?"
Chris smirked and made another shot just like the first. "Still think that Piers?"
Piers grunted. "Ok, ok, fine, you win Chris, you can still hit the backside of a barn."
"That's what I thought. So, what are we going to compete with today hmm?"
Piers raised an eyebrow in questioning. "Oh really, you haven't thought of what we are going to use yet?"
Chris rolled his eyes. "Anymore talk like that and we could just start using grenade launchers if you want."
Piers' eyes widened in surprise. "I really hope you aren't serious Chris."
Chris grinned devilishly. "As serious as a heart attack Piers."
Piers chuckled and patted Chris on the shoulder. "Whatever then Chris, I'll be using my rifle, obviously." Piers patted the case as he took it off his shoulder with a loving smile.
Chris chuckled back. "In love with your guns as always Piers, go ahead and start shooting though, I will be right back, need to make a call."
Piers laughed and waved over his should as he began setting up. "All right Chris, but don't stay wimped out for too long!"
Chris snorted back in response. "You wish Piers."
Chris walked off looking for a semi-private space that he could make a phone call. He walked by the communications room and figured that would be better than just making a phone call. Chris found a computer and turned it on, waiting while the screen took a minute to boot up. Chris got connected to the communications network and sent Jill a message asking for the contact information of where V was currently stationed.
*Hey Jill, need to get in contact with V, would you be able to patch me through somehow?*
*Hey Chris, how's it going, and I might be able to not sure, we had to deploy several teams to a hot zone to try and contain a sporadic outbreak of infected activity, although it was a relatively small one it could have grown pretty quickly.*
*Really? Damn, do you guys need Alpha Team for any of it?*
*Nope Chris, don't need to worry about that! Especially after China, you guys got enough R&R time to last you years as far as I am concerned. But as far as the infected go, not really, there was just a few dozen J'avo and a couple Nepads but we had to send in a few teams because they were trying to rampage all over the place.*
*All right then, do you know how long it might be before you can get me in contact with V?*
*Yeah, yeah, hold on let me patch you through I think his team is currently resting at their outpost.*
Chris waited a few moments while Jill tried to patch through to the on-sight command post for the deployed B.S.A.A. teams. While he waited Chris decided to pull up another search to see if he could find out some information on this sporadic outbreak of infected activity Jill had mentioned. Chris didn't have much to go on, being only told the sparse information of *some J'avo and a few Nepads* but he was eventually able to find something that might be what Jill was talking about. Narrowing down the search results by numbers, Chris was able to find that there was only a couple incidents with the range that Jill was talking about. Even further, there was only one single incident in which several teams had to be dispatched to contain it.
Case Number: 303719
Location: Santa Rosa, Argentina: South America
Date: August 27th, 2014
Situation: Three dozen J'avo reported in the area along with up to half a dozen Nepads. Subjects have been seen roaming in groups and conducting a sort of guerilla warfare against the local militia and military forces. Activity is reported to have no enhancing factors in the region, no recent town have been invaded or large numbers of people going missing. It is also reported from a body that was found that these are not newly infected individuals; some seem to have been infected as long ago as the Edonian War.
Dispatched Personnel:
Delta Team: Leader – Captain Dane Salazar
Echo Team: Leader – Captain V de la Cruz
Charlie Team: Leader – Captain Veronica Green
Zeta Team: Leader – Corporal Nezhua Ling
Chris heard a persistent beeping and switched out of the search session he was in to see that he had a request for uplink. Chris slid the mouse over to click on accept and within a few moments a view of someone came onto the screen. Jill signed off with a message saying *Good Luck* and Chris was left staring at someone he almost didn't recognize, being shocked into some sort of muted silence. The other person was the first one to speak.
"Hello there, Captain Redfield, you need something?"
Chris just continued sitting there in muted silence, staring through the screen, with the other man eventually sighing. "Captain Redfield, Sir? Do you need something or are you just going to keep staring?"
Chris swallowed dryly. "H-hey uh… V… that you?"
The other man grunted. "Yeah, why, I don't look that different, do I?"
"Well… um…"
V snorted. "Spit it out Captain Redfield."
Chris rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well… I mean I just wasn't really expecting…"
V chuckled while Chris looked at him confused. "C'mon now Chris, this is nothing."
Chris shook his head. "Nothing, but I mean… you have an eyepatch and your arm is in a cast…"
V smiled and brought a hand up to the patch, slowly moving it. "Captain Redfield, it's not that I'm missing an eye," V moved the patch up, revealing what was beneath. "It is that I never had one to begin with, and this one got a little… hah… should I say, damaged? As for the arm, it's just broken, no big deal really. So, what do you need me for Captain?"
Chris scratched the back of his head for a moment and looked away, but then shifted his gaze back to the screen. "Well uh… was wondering if you might be back soon to check on Piers' stuff, you kept trying to do something with it but you weren't ever able to."
V smacked his good hand to his forehead. "Oh damn that's right! Kid is probably walking around blind by now that stuff has been out since yesterday!"
Chris scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "Wait… what do you mean it's been out since yesterday?"
V raised an eyebrow back at him. "Uh… they have been out since yesterday… he should be walking around pretty much blind at least… why is he not?"
Chris' eyes widened in response to V's statement. "Well… no actually, he's at the shooting range now practicing… should I go get him?"
V smiled. "Yeah man go get him! I need to see this for myself!"
Chris hurried out of the communications room, leaving the screen on with V waiting, while he went to go get Piers. Once he got back to the shooting range he watched Piers for a moment, still performing with pinpoint perfect accuracy. Chris smiled, his Ace never truly would be gone, just buried somewhere deep inside under his shell. Chris walked over and put a hand on Piers' shoulder, startling him slightly while he lowered his rifle so he didn't take another shot. Looking over at Chris, Piers smiled but also raised an eyebrow in curiosity at him.
"What took you so long, trying to get Jill to somehow talk you out of a contest with me Chris?"
Chris snorted. "In your dreams Piers, I actually have someone who wants to see you, if you would be so kind as to follow me."
"Really now, who would that be?"
Chris winked. "V, he wants to see how you are doing with your eyesight and stuff."
Piers gave a small cheer when he heard that. "Alright yeah let's go! I've been waiting for him to tell me if I am getting better or not for a while!"
Chris and Piers both hurried back to the communications room where V was waiting for them. When they got back into the room V was turned around speaking to someone. Chris and Piers decided to stand by and not interrupt the conversation before it was over.
"Lieutenant, if they are doing something then you need to move in to stop them."
"But sir, we are spread thing as it is trying to find them, we don't have the manpower to send out a team to stop them."
V sighed and brought a hand up to his face. "We don't need another team, suit up and I will meet you out there shortly."
"Sir? But you're arm-"
"My arm is fine Lieutenant, and I can still shoot a gun, get suited up and we will move out shortly. That is an order."
"Yes, Sir."
Piers and Chris watched as the soldier walked out of the room, obviously somewhat annoyed, and then V turned around with a sign. When he saw Chris and Piers on the screen with his monitor he glanced behind him and then back to them, putting on an unconvincing smile.
"Hey you guys, how's it going?"
Chris was wondering whether or not he should ask but Piers saved him the trouble of doing so. "Fine, how are things going there? Doesn't seem like it is going to good."
V shrugged. "It's not as bad as it may seem, but such is the price of war I guess."
Piers and Chris both nodded in understanding. "So, Chis told me that someone wanted to see me?"
V smirked slightly. "Yeah, Chris has told me some interesting stuff, you can still see?"
Piers' brows furrowed in confusion. "Yeah… why, should I not be able to see right now?"
V smiled while Chris stayed in the background next to Piers. "Take your goggles off for a moment."
Piers slid the goggles up from his eyes and continued looking at the screen. "Ok… so now what?"
"Turn around in a 360."
Piers did that, feeling dumb while doing it. "Ok? So… where are you going with this exactly?"
"Is your vision blue?"
"No…"
V laughed and put a hand on his forehead. "Chris, maybe you can show him where I'm trying to go with this?"
Chris chuckled himself and looked at Piers, pointing at his eyes and back to the screen. "M-my eyes?"
"You're getting closer…"
"Uh… I can see better?"
V grinned. "Bingo kid! You're able to see like normal again!"
Piers looked at Chris. "Is he serious?"
Chris laughed and clapped Piers on the shoulder. "Don't look at me, look at him."
Piers turned back to the screen. "Are you serious?"
V shook his head while the Lieutenant from earlier walked back into the room. "Piers, your goggles have been out for over a day, I'm surprised you are able to see to be honest!"
The Lieutenant tapped V's shoulder.
"Sir, we need to get moving."
V turned around and looked at him, sighing.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Get the vehicle ready and I'll meet you out there in a couple minutes."
The Lieutenant nodded and walked out.
V shook his head. "Well, sorry, but looks like I need to get going. I'll see you guys in a week or two after this is all over."