A/N: Another day here, another update ready to post. I'm also going to take this time to let folks know that I'm digging deep for chapter names and quotes to go in the beginning of them. So I'm giving a call out to my fellow writers if they have any ideas they would like to pass along, it would take a bit of strain off my mind and I would be greatful.

Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil.

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." -Mark Twain

Phase Four was indeed a city, and Ethan considered it the strangest environment by far.

The first three phases had been bizarre, unreal, but they'd also been obviously fake, the sterile woods, the white walls of the desert, the sculpted mountain. At no point had he forgotten that the environments were manufactured.

This, though...it wasn't some counterfeit organic habitat; it was how it was supposed to look.

Four was several square blocks of a city at night. A town, really, none of the buildings over three stories, but it was a town, streetlights, curbs, stores and apartment houses, parked cars and asphalt streets.

They'd stepped off of a mountain and into Hometown, U.S.A.

There were only two things wrong with it, at least at first glance; the colors and the atmosphere. The buildings were all either brick red or a kind of dusky tan color; they looked unfinished, and the few parked cars that he could see all seemed to be black, it was hard to tell in the thick shadows.

And the atmosphere...it felt very still...very silent.

"Spooky," John said quietly, and Leon and Cole both nodded. Backs against the door, they surveyed the silent town and found it completely unnerving.

It wasn't like a ghost town, it didn't have the air of an abandoned place, a place that had outlived its usefulness; no one had ever lived there, no one ever would. No cars had driven down its streets, no children had played on its corners, no life had called it home...and the blank, unlife feeling was, indeed, spooky.

The hatch had opened up onto a street that ran east to west, dead-ending just to their left in a wall painted midnight blue. From where they stood, they could see all the way down one wide, paved road that went south, ending in darkness some indeterminate distance ahead, a grid of intersecting streets along the way.

The soft light from the streetlamps cast long shadows, just bright enough to see by and too dark to see clearly.

There was a car just in front of them, parked in front of a tan two-story structure. John walked across to it and rapped on its hood. All of them could hear the hollow tink sound beneath his hand; an empty shell.

John walked back, scanning the shadows warily. "So… Hunters," he said, all eyes turning to Ethan who had mentioned facing them before in the previous chamber.

The traveler's eyes were darting to every shadow around them. "The name matches the characteristics..." he said quietly. "Stealthy, fast...lethal. They picked the perfect environment to test them out."

"Weaknesses?" asked Leon, his shoulders tense, eyes doing the same as Ethan's.

"The scales covering its body are stronger than kevlar so don't bother trying to shoot it in the sides or back. Best way to take them down it either a headshot, or its chest were the heart should be..." the traveler trailed off a moment. "Of course...I don't know if these ones will be the same as the ones me and the others faced back in Arklay."

"You saying they could be 'upgraded'?" asked John.

"If the Umbrella higher ups got their hands on the research data from when we tore through the Training Facility and the Spencer Mansion, then yeah." came the reply, causing the larger man to curse under his breath.

The odds were even worse than the previous stages in this sick little test. If Ethan had been keeping correct tabs, then there would be eight Hunters lurking out there. And if that wasn't bad enough, their ammo reserves were dwindiling dangerously.

Barely a dozen clips between all of them, one grenade against what the traveler considered hyper-lethal killing machines.

'Fighitng them would be suicide. Only one option, then.' Ethan turned to Henry. "You said the last exit's bolted?"

Cole nodded, and John did the same.

"Worse case, we blow the damn thing open."

"Unless it's the same kind of setup as the entrance." Leon cut in, causing John to sigh heavily, but nodded in agreement.

"Guess we can burn that bridge when we come to it."

They were all quiet for a moment, a profoundly uncomfortable silence that Cole finally broke.

"So...ears and eyes open and stick close?" he said tentatively, a question more than a statement.

John raised his eyebrows, smirking. "Not bad. Hey, what are you doing with your life if we make it outta here? Want to join the cause, stick it to Umbrella?"

Cole grinned nervously. "If we make it out, ask me again."

As ready as they were going to be, they started south, walking slowly down the middle of the street, the dark buildings watching them with blank glass eyes. Although all of them tried to move quietly, the empty town seemed to echo back the soft sounds of their boots on asphalt, along with their breathing.

None of the buildings had signs or decorations, and there were no lights inside as far as they could tell.

The oppressive, lifeless feeling gave Leon an unpleasant flash of the night he'd driven into Raccoon for his first day on the RPD, after Umbrella had spilled their virus.

"Stay focused." the ex-cop looked over at Ethan who was walking beside him, eyes trained on the side of the street closest to him. "We made it through Raccoon, we can get through this as well. Just keep your senses sharp and nerves locked down."

Taking a calming breath, Leon did his best to do just that. However, a question struck him that he had never asked the young STARS before.

"How did you manage to thrive when Raccoon fell apart?"

Even though they were focused on other points around them, John and Cole both turned an ear to hear what the response would be.

Ethan adjusted his grip on the G36, "I kept moving. Taking only an hour or so to sleep or rest so that I could stay one step ahead of the zombie hordes and the BOWs that prowled around. Only fighting when I had to. Too much noise would attract more trouble, and I'd waste ammo at the same time. Of course, that was before Umbrella's Security Service started dropping in their death-squads, at that point it was a damn warzone on every block."

"Sounds like hell." said John. Ethan had given them an overview of what he endured in Raccoon City, only Rebecca knew the full story along with Leon, Claire and Sherry who all experienced it first hand.

"It was..." the traveler continued, "But I had a job to do, and people counting on me to survive." The others nodded in understanding, Cole looked in awe at how someone so young endured such situations and came out of it alive.

But it wasn't a surprise seeing how they'd gotten this far in the testing program.

About midway down the block, John held up one hand causing them all to halt. "Just a sec," he said, and jogged over to one of the 'stores' on the left, a glass-fronted construct that reminded Leon of a pastry shop, the kind that always had wedding cakes in their windows.

John peered in through the glass, then tried the door. To the surprise of the others, it opened. John leaned inside for a long second, then closed it and jogged back.

"No counters or anything, but it's a real room," he said, his voice low. "There's a back wall and a ceiling."

"Maybe the Hunters are hiding out in one of them," Leon said.

"That's it!" Cole said too loudly, then immediately dropped his voice, flushing. "How we can get out, maybe. The, uh, animals were all kept in cages or kennels or something behind the back walls. I don't know about the other phases, but there's a hall that runs around Four, I've seen the door to this one's, it's maybe twenty feet from the southwest corner. It has to be easier than the exit; I mean, it'd be locked, but probably not reinforced."

"Sounds a lot better. Especially if the hatch is set up to be strong enough to keep BOWs from getting out." said Ethan. John was nodding along while Leon seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"Good call," John said, "Let's see if we can-"

Something moved. Something in the shadows of a tan two-story building on the right, something that shut John up and had all of them aiming into the darkness, tense and alert. Ten seconds passed, then twenty, and whatever it was seemed to be holding perfectly still.

"Nothing there," Cole whispered.

Ethan shook his head in disagreement, "No..." his sharp eyes seeing subtle movements in the darkness.

Then there was screaming, a shrill and terrible shriek like some kind of terrible bird, like a feral beast in a blind rage. A noise that the traveler had heard many times before as the darkness itself moved.

It was like a shadow, a part of a building that was in motion, but he saw the tiny, shining eyes, light-colored and at least seven feet off the ground, and the dark and ragged talons that nearly touched the asphalt.

Ethan's eyes widened, '...camouflage...like a chameleon.' he realized then why they hadn't seen any of the creatures yet. And that the monsters working for Umbrella really had upgraded the Hunters he encountered before.

The Hunter let loose another loud shriek and sprang toward them, claws outstretched on either side ready to tear them to shreds.

X

Reston hurried back toward the control room, the weight of the sidearm against his hip making him feel a little better. He'd feel better still if he made it back in time to watch the Hunters slaughter the intruders, although he'd settle for just seeing the dead bodies.

'That would be perfectly fine, no problem so long as they die.'

Reston wanted a drink, he wanted to get back to control, lock himself in and wait for Hawkinson to come back. He'd felt a moment of near-hysteria when he'd realized that communications had gone down, but nothing had changed, not really.

The elevator was still locked off and the incompetent sergeant would be back with the helicopter in no time at all, if it was the surface trio who'd cut the outside lines, which he had no doubts about, not really, Hawkinson would handle them.

If by some small chance it was actually a technical problem, a new electrician would be brought in as soon as he missed his morning report.

Not being able to contact his colleagues had been the distressing part, but he'd decided that it could work to his advantage, who wouldn't be impressed, that in such nerve-wracking circumstances he'd still managed to handle things? All things considered, trapping the invaders in the test program was his only recourse. No one would blame him, or at least not overly much.

Retrieving the .38 revolver from his room had eased his mind even mor, he'd brought it to the Planet mostly because it had been a gift from Jackson, and though he knew very little about guns, he knew that all he had to do with the .38 was pull the trigger. The heavy handgun practically shot itself, there wasn't even a safety switch to fuss with.

Reston was halfway back to control when it occurred to him that he should have let the workmen out of the cafeteria, he'd walked right past the locked door, twice, and hadn't thought of it. Too much brandy perhaps. He considered going back for about one heartbeat, deciding that they could damn well wait, making certain that the 3Ks were acting as they should was much more important.

Besides, he meant to fire the whole worthless lot as soon as he'd reestablished contact with the home office; not one of them had even tried to protect the Planet or their employer.

Control, ahead on the right. Reston broke into a jog, rounding the corner to the offshoot and hurrying through the door. There was movement on one of the screens, and he ran to the chair, both excited and anxious to see the men fall. It was nothing to be ashamed of, they were in the wrong, after all...

And they weren't dead, not one of them, but Reston saw that now it was only a matter of moments. All four men were shooting at one of the Hunters, and as he watched, a second loped on to the scene, still as black as the car it must have been standing by.

Red spun to his right, shooting at the new threat, but the 3K wasn't to be put off by a few puny bullets, with a single massive leap, the Hunter closed the gap between them, twenty feet with one powerful thrust. They could do almost thirty, Reston knew from the preliminary data.

Now Ethan was shooting at it, too, as Cole and John continued to blast at the first, already the deep gray of the asphalt. The first had taken a lot, fire from all four men; as Reston watched, it turned and sprang off of the screen, out of sight.

The second was still a deep shining black, perfectly defined as it raised one muscular arm to swat at the bullets hammering its body.

Huge, a naked, sexless humanoid shape, the towering beast with the sloping, reptilian skull and three-inch talons threw back its head and howled. Reston knew the sound, his mind filling it in for the silently screaming creature as it started to disappear into the street, the match near perfect, as it swung its arm again and Red was knocked sprawling.

'Yes!' he mentally shouted with excitement.

John stepped in front of his fallen comrade and blasted at the fading monster, as Cole pulled Red to his feet, the two men backing away. There was some vocal interchange-

Then Ethan was suddenly moving. Sprinting toward the 3K while the others shouted after him. Reston's excitement mounted, prepared to watch the youngest of the men beheaded. The Hunter's claw raised to finish the job.

But the young man somehow reacted even quicker. Blocking the BOWs forearm with his rifle, pulling out his sidearm and firing point-blank into the 3Ks face. The creature rearing back, another silent scream pulling from its throat in pain and fury.

The two leapt back from one another, the Hunter performing another powerful jump and disappearing from sight. The second that John had still been firing on toppled over, blood pouring from its face and chest, but it was still moving.

'The eyes...they must have hit them in the eyes! Dammit!' Reston gritted his teeth in frusteration as Ethan and John both turned and ran after the other two who had gone off screen to the south no other Hunters in sight, at least Reston didn't think so.

Not that it mattered, they were as good as dead, there was no way they could get through the city without being attacked, nowhere they could hide, though just to be on the safe side, Reston tapped the doorlock for the connecting door back to Three.

'No retreat, gentlemen...'

They hadn't appeared on the screen that showed the street just south of the first camera angle; frowning, Reston switched cameras, using one from a building front.

A door closed, the men seeking sanctuary inside one of the stores. Reston shook his head. That would probably shield them for five minutes, certainly no longer, the 3Ks had the strength to tear down the city, if they so chose, and hunted primarily by sense of smell. They'd track the cowering men, track them and finally put an end to their troublemaking, useless lives.

There wasn't a camera in the building they'd entered, he'd have to wait for them to reappear, or for the Hunters to drag them out. Reston grinned, his teeth grinding together, impatient, wondering why the 3Ks were taking so goddamn long. It was time for the test to end, time for the Planet to be restored.

The Hunters wouldn't fail him. He just had to wait a few more minutes.

X

They found the way in at the back of the middle building, past the generator room, where they'd put the three snarling guards. It was a total fluke, as they'd only been looking for the controls to unlock the service elevator back in the entry building.

There were four of them, a bank of elevators in a carpeted alcove against the far west wall. They weren't operational, but there was a two-man lift in the first shaft they opened up, David and Claire prying the doors open with no small effort. Though tired and unwell, the sight of the tiny platform hooked to its own pulley system made Rebecca want to laugh out loud.

'They'll never suspect that we're coming, we'll slip in like shadows.'

"Looks as though someone forgot to lock the back door," David said, a look of triumph on his weary face.

Claire looked at the small square of metal doubtfully. "Will we all fit?"

David didn't answer right away, turning to look at Rebecca. She knew what he was going to suggest and started digging for a decent argument before he even opened his mouth.

'The helicopter could come back, probably will, if they're injured you'll need me, what if the guards manage to get out.' she mentally prepared when David spoke.

"Rebecca, I need an honest assessment of your condition," he said, his features carefully neutral.

"I'm tired, I have a headache and a limp, and you need me down there, David, I'm not a hundred percent but I'm not on the verge of collapse, either, and you said yourself that another team is probably on the way."

David was smiling, holding up his hands. "All right, we all go. It will be a tight fit, but the weight shouldn't be a problem, you're both small."

He stepped inside, pulling his flashlight and shining it across the hanging cables, then on the simple control box attached to the lift's half-railing. "I think we can manage well enough. Shall we?"

Rebecca and then Claire stepped into the elevator shaft, the makeshift service platform only filling a quarter of the dark space. Cold, open air was above and below, and the rail was only on one side. Claire squirmed uncomfortably against the metal bar, the three of them pressed tightly together.

"Wish I had a breath mint," Claire muttered.

"I wish you had breath mint," Rebecca said, and Claire snickered. She could feel the movement of Claire's rib cage against her arm; they were packed in tight.

"Here we go," David said, and pushed the controls.

The lift started to descend with a huge, buzzing rumble that was so loud Rebecca began having second thoughts about their sneak attack. It was slow, too, inching down at less than half the speed of a normal elevator.

'God, this could take forever.'

Just the thought made Rebecca feel incredibly weary, the noise of the roaring motor compounding her headache. Standing still made her realize just how sick she really felt, and as the bright square of the open doors slid up, shrinking away as they descended into the dark, Rebecca was suddenly glad that they were huddled together; it gave her an excuse to lean heavily against David, her eyes closed, trying to keep herself together for just a little longer.

'Ethan...' the image of her lover appearing in her mind, smiling at her in that charming way she loved so much. Swearing right then and there that when they got out, the two of them would curl up in bed and stay there for a day or two.

X

They were in trouble, falling into the building and moving to the back wall through the dark, sweating and gasping, Cole expected the flimsy door to crash open any second.

'Boom, and they come pouring in, screaming, clawing us to shreds before we even see them...' his fear filled mind conjured as his hands shook violently.

"Ethan?" John said, panting as he swung around to face the younger man who was leering out into the dark through one of the building windows.

"They ain't like what I faced before." he said lowly, his voice taking on a southern accent. "Bigger, stronger...and they sure as fuck didn't have active goddamn camo. No way in hell we can fight these things with our reserves so low."

John took up position beside the younger man, "I got an idea..." and Cole felt a flicker of hope, a hope that lasted until John's next sentence.

"We run like hell for the back wall," he said firmly.

"Are you nuts?" Leon said, holding his midsection where the Hunter had swatted him aside. "Did you see that one jump, there's no way we can outrun them."

John took a deep breath and started talking, low and fast. "You're right, but you, Ethan and I are good shots, we could take out some of the streetlights along the way. Even if they can see in the dark, it'll be a distraction, stir up some confusion maybe."

"It's the only choice we have." said Ethan, seeing something shift in the shadows half a block down the street. "In another few seconds they'll have us boxed in and block off any chance of escape. We need to move, and fast."

Leon didn't say anything, and although he couldn't see his face clearly, Cole saw him rubbing at his side again. Slowly, like he was actually considering John's idea.

'They're all nuts!' Cole struggled to keep the blatant terror out of his voice. "Isn't there some other option? I mean, we could...we could climb, go across on the rooftops."

"Buildings are all different heights," John said. "And I don't think they're built to hold much weight."

"What if we-"

"Henry," Ethan said softly, "We don't have the time or the ammo."

"So we go back to Phase Three, think it over."

"We're closer to the southwest corner," John said, and Cole knew they were right, knew it and hated it, a lot. Still, he searched for some other option, trying to think of some other way. The Hunters were terrible, they were the most terrible things Cole thought he'd ever seen.

From somewhere outside, one of them screamed, the screeching, furious sound blasting through the thin walls, and Cole realized that they didn't have time to come up with a better plan.

"Okay, yeah, okay," he said, thinking that the very least he could do would be to suck it up and face the inevitable like he actually had guts.

'I won't drag them down.' he thought, and took a deep breath, straightening his shoulders a little. If this was the way it had to be, he wasn't going to shame himself in front of them by turning into a sniveling coward, and he wasn't going to lower their chances by becoming a burden.

Cole pulled the clip that John had given him out of his pocket and fumbled through swapping it for the empty, his heart pounding, and was a little surprised to find that now that he was committed, that the decision was made, he felt stronger, braver.

'I might very well die,' he said to himself, and waited for the rush of horror, but it didn't come. He'd already be dead if it wasn't for John, Ethan and Leon, and maybe this would be his chance to keep one or all of them from getting hurt.

Without another word, the three of them moved for the door, Cole thinking that his life had changed more in the last couple of hours than in the last ten years, and that in spite of how it had come about, he was glad for the change. He felt whole. He felt real.

"Ready..." John said, and Cole took a deep breath, Leon grinning at him in the soft light from the window, Ethan giving him a thumbs up.

"...now!"

John yanked the door open and they ran out into the street as all around them, the night was shattered by the savage screams of the Hunters.

X

Reston's eyes glittered. He leaned forward, staring at the screen intently, delighted by the suicidal decision. All four of them, storming out into the dark like lunatics. Like dead men who didn't have the sense to stop moving.

They ran south, John in the lead, Ethan beside him with Red and Cole right behind. From a sidewalk to their right, a Hunter leapt out to greet them-

-and there was a flash of light, a brilliant burst of white-orange high above, burning glass like glitter raining down across the street. One of the street-lamps, they'd shot out one of the lamps, and the 3K seemed to go mad as the broken glass pelted down over it. The red-turning-gray Hunter whipped its body around, frenzied and screaming, searching for its attacker and completely ignored the running men.

All four sprinting past, raising weapons, firing into the sky. Firing at more of the lights, and Reston saw another Hunter spring out into the street, almost lost as a shadow among shadows.

And Cole, Henry Cole feinted left then right, slamming the barrel of his gun against the crouching 3Ks head, there was a burst of liquid, of brain and blood projectile gushing from its temple, the electrician firing at point blank range.

The Hunter's arms and legs were spasming, flailing, but it was already dead. Cole jumped away and kept running, catching up to the others as more of the streetlights exploded, glass flying from strobing flashes of white light.

"No," Reston whispered, unaware that he'd spoken, but quite aware that things were going horribly wrong.

X

John ran, paused to fire, ran again. The violent shrieks chased them, the rain of glass and smell of burning metal was coming at them from everywhere.

He saw one of the BOWs in the street, in front of them at the intersection that would take them to the cage, saw the strange flashing eyes and the open black hole of its screaming mouth.

'Save the ammo, Jesus it looks just like the street!' he shouted in his mind as he kept running straight at it. Taking aim, the thundering rounds of the nine-millimeters and the assault rifle behind him, the screaming monster less than ten feet away when he fired.

'Now!'

A short burst, measured, directly into the howling, unnatural face...But it didn't go down.

And although he swerved to avoid it, he didn't get far enough. Its screeching face seeming inches from his, visible, thick with blood, it swung one impossibly long arm out and slammed it into John's chest.

The blow crashed into his left pectoral, and John expected to be crushed, thrown through the air, his body shattered, but the creature must have been weakened by the bullets, disoriented, blinded perhaps, because though he could feel his pec contracting in pain the strike had been brutally solid, he'd taken harder punches.

He'd staggered but didn't fall, the Hunter that attacked him screeched again, but had been silence when its face disappeared in a blast of bone and gore as he finished running past and turning left, headed west.

John shot a look back, saw Ethan swapping to the last clip in his G36 and sending him a thankful grin. Seeing the others still with them as well looked ahead-

'There it is!'

The street ended at the painted wall less than a block ahead, and there was an opening set about five feet off the ground, a hole eight feet wide and at least ten feet high—

There was another scream to his right, he couldn't see the camouflaged Hunter but bam-bam, Leon or Cole shot at it, the shriek going frantic with rage. John raised the M-16 and took out another streetlight,

'Ten seconds and we're there-'

A panel of deep blue wall started to slide down over the opening, slow but steady. In seconds, there'd be no escape.

X

Reston stabbed frantically at the kennel lock, the gate creeping down on its tracks like a goddamn snail, his hands clammy with sweat, his drunken mind reeling with disbelief.

'No no no no!'

He'd closed Two and Three but there'd been a Hunter still inside before, he'd left it open, forgotten, and now the animal was gone and the four men were about to get away. To get away from him, from the deaths assigned to them.

'Faster!' he demanded as he kept slamming the switch on the console.

John was shooting a look back, screaming, Ethan and Red right behind, Cole almost at their side...and there was a Hunter less than twenty feet behind them, gaining ground, its massive body flickering between tan and asphalt, its claws scraping gouges in the street.

'Kill them, do it, jump, kill!'

John made it to the opening, hands hitting the bottom, vaulting him through in a graceful blur. One hand shot out and Ethan was there, grabbing it, being jerked inside in an instant, Red quickly following.

And there was Cole, and he was going to make it through, too, the gate wouldn't close in time and there were hands reaching out to him-.

The Hunter behind him, sweepingt its arms down, razor sharp talons ripping into Cole's back, through the shirt and skin, through muscle, perhaps through bone.

The others swept Cole inside just as the gate settled closed.

"NO!" Reston roared, slamming his fists on the console.

X

Cole didn't scream as they set him down, though he must have been in agony. They placed him on his stomach as gently as they could, Ethan's stomach dropping with sorrow when he saw the shredded mess that had been Cole's back.

Through the tatters of his wet, crimson shirt, he could see the ripped flesh, the torn muscle fibers and the slick shine of bone beneath. Crushed bone. The damage had been done in two long, ragged tears, each starting above the shoulder blades and ending at his lower back. Mortal wounds.

In seconds, he lay in a pool of his own blood that was spreading quickly...he was dying.

Cole was breathing in low, shallow gasps, his eyes closed, his hands trembling. "He's in shock." Ethan said, checking his pulse and finding it far too low, he didn't have much time left. "Henry? Henry can you hear me?"

"Turn...me, over," Cole whispered. His eyes were open, his lips quivering.

"Hey, lie easy," John said gently. "You're gonna be fine, Henry, just stay where you are, don't move, okay?"

"Bull...shit," the man managed to rasp. "Roll me over, I'm, dying..."

John locked gazes with Leon, Ethan nodded as he slowly rolled the man over. He didn't want to cause Cole any more pain, but he didn't want to refuse him; he was dying, they should give him anything they could.

Cole moaned when his back touched the floor, his eyes wide and rolling, but seemed to feel some relief after a moment. Maybe the cold...or maybe he was past the point of pain, going numb.

"Thanks," he whispered, a blood bubble popping on his pale lips.

"Henry, try to rest now," Leon said softly, wanting to cry. The man had tried so hard to be brave, to keep up with them...

"Fossil," Cole said, his gaze fixing on the three men. "In... tube. Guys said...if it got, out, it'd...destroy everything. In the...lab room. West. Understand?"

Ethan nodded, understanding perfectly. "An Umbrella BOW in the lab room. Fossil. You want us to let it out."

Cole closed his eyes, his waxy face so still that they all thought it might be over, but he spoke again, quietly enough that they had to lean in to hear him.

"Yeah," he breathed. "Good."

Cole took one last breath, letting it out...and his chest didn't rise again.

A still silence filled the room they were now in. They were in a giant mesh cage that stank of wild animal at the end of a long cement hall, one that apparently ran the length of the four testing areas.

It was dark, only a few lights on, revealing the kennel in shadows, the cages were separated by partition walls with huge windows, the one next to them barely visible, the Spitters' home. It was covered in thick, clear plastic, the floor littered with bones.

The Hunters' cage was empty, at least thirty feet wide and twice as long, a couple of low troughs at the mesh walls.

It was a cold and lonely place to die.

Ethan's sorrowful mood bled away and white-hot rage took its place. Cole had been a good man, lied to and fucked over by Umbrella like countless others. He didn't deserve to die like this, in a fucking house of horrors thanks to a madman on a power trip.

"Goddamn..." he muttered, his voice sharp and cold as he stood, fists and arms shaking. "MOTHERFUCKER!" he kicked the nearby cage, booted foot slamming into the iron bars again and again, the dense metal denting and warping inward with each hit. "FUCK THIS PLACE! FUCK UMBRELLA! AND FUCK THAT PIECE OF SHIT RESTON!"

Moving away from the damaged cage, Ethan turned his back to John and Leon, both men with looks of shock as they surveyed the damage he'd caused.

The traveler, his anger sated slightly with the sudden act of vandalism, tried to calm himself. He could almost feel his eyes changing from their usual blue to dark crimson with his outburst and needed to get things back under control.

Closing his eyes, letting his mind drift into meditation like he normally did when his emotions got the best of him, he felt the rest of his anger slip back as he let his logic take over.

A hand on his shoulder had him looking back to see John standing there, "You good?" he asked, his concerned gaze locking onto the younger man's thankfully blue orbs.

"No...I'm not." Ethan replied, almost robotically as he sent one last look at Henry Cole's body, sending a silent prayer to the brave man. "Let's just get the hell out of here..."

The three men took a moment to get themselves together before following the concrete corridor out of the testing area. Leon looked back at the ruined cage Ethan had kicked before looking at the teen's back. John caught the look and shook his head silently, both of them agreeing to talk to Ethan about it when this was all over.

A/N: Losing a man is never easy, especially when they were an innocent bystander but still did everything they could to help others. Ethan's rage is well founded, anyone would lose it when something like this would happen, but now John and Leon know that there is more to him than what they already knew.

The end of this mission is approaching, but what is Fossil? And what will happen when the team eventually regroups?

Till next time folks!