Next chapter up. Things are starting to get dramatic now. Thank you to anon reviewers 'jess' and 'Jill valentine'. And also to 'lekittenz', who for some reason I forgot to thank last chapter.
Red
Instantly Jake reeled back, standing up and removing his hands from her as quickly as possible as though she were contagious. Sherry tried not to let the hurt at his disgust show on her face.
"What the hell?!" he demanded, pointing an accusing finger at her. She stood and stepped out of the bath, grabbing the warm towel that was previously resting on the floor and wrapping it around her body hastily.
"Jake, please listen-" she implored, but he cut her off.
"I can't believe this!" he yelled angrily, "You're a member of the Family?!"
"No!" she denied, "I'm not-"
"Then what the hell is that?" he exclaimed, pointing to her chest.
She pressed a hand over her heart, "It's a tattoo."
"It's a tattoo of the Family's serpent emblem." he hissed, leaning forward imposingly, "Why is that on your body, Sherry?"
She moved towards him, reaching for his arm, "Please just sit down and I'll explain-"
"Don't fucking touch me!" the mercenary spat, glaring at her as he pulled away. Sherry panicked; if she couldn't get him to calm down and listen to her, then there would be no reasoning with him.
"Jake, wait..." she strangled out, the fear constricting her voice as she tried to cling to him.
He struggled with her half-heartedly, not allowing her to get too close to him, yet the look on her face broke his heart. But his feelings for her was what made this betrayal hurt so damn much.
"You've been lying to me since we first met!" he accused, finally flinging her hands away from him, "You've been working with the enemy all along!"
She shook her head and opened her mouth to speak, but he interrupted again, "What did you really do with my blood, Sherry? I bet you passed it off to them to experiment with!"
"No, I didn't!" she shouted frantically.
He ignored her, "And when I was captured by the Family...you probably led them right to me, didn't you?!"
Sherry continued to shake her head wordlessly, tears welling in her eyes at his accusations.
"So this must be a set up." Jake concluded, livid and hurt, "I don't know what you're planning but-"
"I'm not planning anything." she sobbed, "I'm not part of the Family, I swear."
She looked so distraught and sincere that for a moment he almost believed her. But he'd been hurt by others too many times, and this treachery was the worst of all. He'd let her in, trusted her, and it had come back to bite him, as it always did. Suddenly he wasn't angry anymore; he just felt drained, and broken.
"I can't even look at you right now Sherry." he told her, almost choking on her name. He snatched up his jacket as he walked towards the door.
"Jake," she wept, "please don't leave me."
He paused with his hand on the door handle, closing his eyes briefly in regret, before he yanked it open and stepped out into the cold.
Sherry managed to stumble towards the couch and collapsed on it, crying mournfully. It was ironic he had finally left her now that she wanted him to stay; it crushed her more than she thought it would.
"Sir, your shoulder needs attending to." The nurse tried again, reaching for his arm.
"I said I'm fine." Chris repeated, jerking away from him, "Can you please just see what's going on in there?"
The nurse sighed in defeat, but shook his head, "No one can go in to the operating room until the doctor says so."
The BSAA Captain put his head in his hands. The nurse finally left him reluctantly with a sympathetic look.
He prayed Jill would be alright. If he lost her, he didn't know what he'd do; there was already a tense, nauseating knot in his stomach at the possibility. There had been a time when he'd thought she was dead -saving him from Wesker- but they had never found her body, so there had always been that glimmer of hope. Yet this time, he had seen for himself the bullet tear through her chest; saw all the blood she'd lost before he'd got her to the nearest hospital. If the doctor told him she was dead, there would be no denying it. There would be no hope left.
The doors to his left opened, and a surgeon walked out. Chris stood up swiftly.
"Is she alright?" he asked anxiously.
The surgeon nodded and responded hesitantly, "It would seem so." Chris sighed gratefully and sagged back into his seat, overwhelmed with relief.
"But that is what's so strange about it." The brunette woman continued.
Chris looked up, "Why is that?"
"Your colleague shouldn't have survived." she responded simply, "The bullet passed through her heart."
He frowned, but didn't question how she could be alive; he was merely thankful that she was.
The surgeon clearly wanted answers, and pressed further, "Right now she's in a medically induced coma, though it seems she can wake up whenever she likes, despite the hole in her heart."
"Hole in her heart?" Chris repeated, confused.
She nodded, confirming he'd heard right, "We closed it up as best we could, but still, it's there. And yet she's breathing on her own, and her heart is functioning."
He didn't know how to respond, and she smiled, "You can see her now, we're putting her in a recovery ward."
Jake was cold, and he was sure the town was at least an hour away, but he needed to do something, so he continued to walk in the general direction of Verkhoyansk.
He couldn't get his head around it; his sweet, beautiful Sherry was his enemy. It just didn't make any sense. It made him question all he knew about her. He knew she'd been locked away from the world since she escaped Raccoon City, keeping her safe from his father's clutches. Yet this must have made her awfully lonely. Perhaps she had turned to her guardian for guidance – Derek Simmons, previous leader of the Family. Perhaps he had convinced her to become a member.
The mercenary halted abruptly, finally realizing he'd been so shocked and hurt at his discovery that he hadn't given her the chance to explain herself. He sighed, deciding to turn back; he hadn't planned on leaving her for more than a few hours anyway. Glancing up at the sky, he noted it was getting dark, and wondered of Sherry believed he wasn't coming back. He supposed he would put her mind at rest.
Despite not being as aware of his surroundings as usual, instinct still made him duck and roll a split second before the shot rang out. He rolled just enough to turn around and face the four armed mercenaries that were closing in on him. Jake cursed himself for leaving his weapons back at the cabin. However, he was confident he could take them out without weapons.
In the next second, Jake was sprinting towards the group of mercenaries, zigzagging as he ran to avoid the bullets they sent his way. Once he'd reached the nearest man, he executed a faultless back flip that knocked the mercenary to the ground hard. Without pausing for breath, Jake grabbed the man's legs and threw him into another two mercenaries to his right, sending them all crashing down in a tangle of limbs. Turning his attention to the man on his left, Jake elbowed him in the face causing him to stagger back in pain, clutching his bloody nose. He took the opportunity to put the man in a headlock and twist his own body around while falling backwards, driving the man's head into the ground and breaking his neck. Jake flipped back up to see the last two mercenaries were standing once more.
Sherry had temporarily frozen in terror at the sight of Jake's attackers, though he seemed to have the situation under control; she watched as he knocked one of the mercenaries out by throwing him into two others, and then used a simple DDT to break another man's neck. Her eyes widened in shock; he was killing them?
"Jake!" she yelled, pushing Viktor to head towards him.
"Sherry." he muttered aloud, surprised, though he didn't tear his gaze from the mercenary that was raising his shotgun in his direction. Before he could pull the trigger, Jake managed to get in a powerful tiger uppercut that sent him flying, knocking the gun away. Then he had to dodge the sharp combat knife that was swung towards his face by the female mercenary, whom he had previously been avoiding. He'd always been slightly apprehensive about fighting women; he could never shake the feeling that it was wrong. But if she was clearly intent on killing him, he had no choice. That, and he couldn't stand the thought of dying by a blade. So when she swung at him again, Jake grabbed the hand wrapped around the hilt of the knife and twisted her arm behind her, stabbing her in the back. She groaned in pain as she slumped forward, and he caught her and set her down in the snow.
By this time Sherry had almost reached him, and saw him pick up the shotgun. Jake checked it was loaded, and aimed at one of the unconscious mercenaries on the ground, before he pulled the trigger.
Viktor abruptly lurched back in alarm at the sound of gunfire, and Sherry struggled to calm him.
"Jake, stop!" she exclaimed, shocked at his actions. That man had been unconscious, and no longer a threat, yet he had still killed him. She didn't understand why.
Jake looked up at her this time, frowning slightly. He didn't understand what she was so shocked about; he killed other people for a living. Not that the mercenary could ever get used to it. Sometimes he'd see their faces and blank stares in his dreams and thought he was going insane. But this was what he had to do to survive. This was part of who he was.
He pointed the gun at the head of the final unconscious mercenary and fired once more, strewing masses of brain and bone across the pure white snow. Viktor swayed back again, frightened, but Sherry couldn't take her eyes off Jake, surrounded by all the dead bodies and blood that stained the snow red. She felt like she didn't know who he was anymore.
He stared back at her silently. Sherry was clearly frightened of him, and that hurt. Yet what a hypocrite she was; he didn't know who she truly was either.
Jake turned away from her and began walking towards the town. Sherry did not attempt to follow him.
After travelling almost a thousand miles, Leon and Claire were mere hours away from Verkhoyansk.
The twelve sled dogs pushed on with minimal guidance from Claire, who stood on the back of the sled while Leon ran alongside for a while.
"Almost there!" she exclaimed eagerly. Beside her, Leon grinned; her enthusiasm was infectious.
They were almost there. However, they were unprepared for what awaited them.
Okay, that's it for now. What did you think?
I want to thank everyone who has reviewed so far. It keeps me going. :)