Ryan and Katie kept their guns at the ready, and Ryan's entire right arm was crackling with electricity as they neared a cluster of camoflauged foxholes.
"Grab the guns, ammo and their gear. I'll check around for why the hell they're even camped here in the first place." Ryan said as he lowered his rifle.
Katie got to work, gathering from the bodies until she'd gathered everything into one of their dufflebags and hauled it onto her shoulder. She glanced at Ryan, who was searching through a nearby body's pockets, his back turned to her.
"Find anything?" Katie asked, just as he stood up. He turned and held up a folded piece of paper.
"This is the only thing I found that was unusual." Ryan replied as he opened the paper. "Nevermind, it's just a useless drawing." He tossed it aside and followed Katie back to the vehicles, all of which were running as they arrived.
"How's Alice doing?" Katie asked Claire as they approached.
"Betty patched her up for now. She's in your truck." Claire replied as she opened the door of the Hummer. "Let's get out of here."
Ryan and Katie tossed the dufflebag into the back of the pickup truck, then Ryan climbed into the driver seat, with Alice sitting in the passenger seat, her eyes closed and her shoulder heavily bandaged. Katie hopped into the back and started to sharpen her wrist blade.
"Betty said the bullet's intact, but it's still stuck in my arm. You're gonna have to use that magnetism thing you did for K-Mart once we stop for lunch." Alice spoke up as Ryan started to drive along behind Claire's Hummer.
"It'll be easier than when I did it on K-Mart since the bullet is larger." Ryan replied, scanning the road ahead of them.
"Thanks, babe." Alice sighed, leaning her head back.
Katie's rythmic sharpening faltered for a fraction of a second at Alice's comment, but thankfully neither of them noticed.
A few hours later, Claire called for Mikey to find a place to stop for lunch. A minute later, Mikey began to relay directions towards a motel. Ryan followed behind Claire until she pulled to a halt in front of the motel. The rest of the convoy stopped and Alice awoke very suddenly.
"I sense something." She stated as she unlocked her door. "Ryan, get this bullet out of my arm... quickly."
Ryan instantly climbed out of the truck and slung his rifle across his chest as he stepped closer towards her.
"Ready?" He asked, tearing the bandages away from her arm.
"Yeah, just tell me when to start removing it." Alice gritted her teeth.
Ryan began to concentrate on the metal inside her arm, then gently slid his fingers inside the wound. Alice tensed, but after a moment, remembered to relax so he could work.
"This is going to hurt." Ryan explained as he suddenly pinched his fingers together and pulled the bullet out roughly.
Alice grunted in pain, clenching her eyes together as tears welled up.
"Thanks for the warning." Alice said sarcastically, grabbing her M3 from the truck.
"Now... What is it that you sensed?" Katie asked after Ryan tossed the bloody bullet aside.
"T-Virus." Alice replied as Claire approached them.
"Find it, and destroy it." Claire ordered, cradling an M4 in her arms.
Alice instantly turned towards the motel and followed her senses into the lobby, with Ryan and Katie at her side.
"I sense it now. It's something different than usual zombies." Katie whispered, raising her MP7 while Ryan aimed his G36K behind the front desk.
"Wait." Alice held out her hand across Katie's chest, stopping her in her tracks. "It's moving this way."
Katie froze as the sound of movement down the nearest hallway reached their ears.
"Ryan, this way." Alice whispered, listening as the thing's dragging footsteps started to approach them.
Ryan aimed his rifle down the hall, then saw movement down the hall's shadowy interior. It was humanoid, but moved with a very jerky and erratic gait. Then they all heard the growling.
"Back away slowly, keep quiet. We need more room to maneuver." Ryan broadcast to them both, placing his left hand on Katie's shoulder with a serious look at Alice.
They both caught the seriousness in his words, and slowly backed out of the lobby until Claire approached them.
"What's wrong?" She demanded, but Alice put her fingers to her lips and indicated Ryan.
"Hand." Claire ordered quietly, extending her left hand to Ryan.
Taking her hand, he instantly began to explain. "That thing inside the lobby is a B.O.W nicknamed 'Iron Maiden' according to the White Queen. She said that they regenerate so quickly, they're nearly impossible to kill... However, they have parasitic leeches in their bodies, that when destroyed, prevents the regeneration."
"How do we kill the leeches?" Claire asked quietly.
"Bullets. But they can only be seen with thermal optics." Ryan replied, which made Katie look up.
"I can see in the thermal spectrum." Katie said as both of her eyes began to glow bright red.
"Then you're going to have to track the leeches and tell us where to shoot." Ryan nodded as Claire released his hand.
"It's coming this way. And I've never heard of the Iron Maiden B.O.W before." Alice aimed her M3 into the lobby as the Iron Maiden came into view.
Dark grey skin, spikes covering its entire body, and a mouth of massive teeth, the Iron Maiden shuddered and jerked its way outside.
"Katie's going to call out that thing's weak spots. Everyone hold fire unless she says to." Claire ordered into her radio.
Katie's thermal vision locked on several intense heat sources within the Maiden's torso: Four in total.
"Left shoulder, Ryan." Katie called out, and Ryan instantly activated the laser sight mounted on the side of his rifle, and aimed at the spot.
"Now!" Katie nodded, and Ryan fired a single shot.
Staggering back a few steps, the Maiden's body began to swell in size. It let out a snarl to rival one of Ryan's.
"Claire, heart." Katie said to Claire, who fired a quick burst. "Too high, aim down by two inches."
Claire fired again, and caused it to stagger again, further increasing in size.
Katie scanned the Maiden again, and counted two remaining leeches. She fired into the Maiden's lower leech, and made it stumble forward and swell up drastically. But the spikes on its body extended out of its body to resemble a sea urchin.
"Get back!" Claire yelled, and everyone except Ryan backed away. He remained stationary, only ten feet away from the spike riddled Maiden.
"Ryan! Left hip!" Katie called, unable to take the shot herself due to the swollen mass of flesh.
Ryan pulled the trigger of his rifle, but it misfired. The Maiden began to approach him, and he was forced to back away, pulling out his Beretta and firing several rounds into its left hip.
With a rumbling noise, the Maiden began a stumbling run towards him, ballooning in size.
Alice extended her hand, enveloping him in her telekinetic grasp, violently wrenching him to the side as the Maiden exploded into a spiky cloud of blood.
Alice dropped behind a concrete barrier while the spikes stopped flying around. Once it was safe, she vaulted over to see Ryan standing upright with a frown on his face as he ejected the fouled round from his rifle.
"I'm alright. Thanks for the save." Ryan said when he realized that it was Alice beside him.
"Did you know it would explode like that?" Alice asked as he reloaded his rifle.
"No, I didn't. The White Queen never gave me that detail."
"Well, now we know if we ever fight another one." Alice smiled. "C'mon, let's get some food. And while we do eat... you can tell me everything that the White Queen told you about the B.O.W's."
Minutes later, Alice and Ryan were leaning against the side of the pickup truck, a can of beans in their hands as Alice asked questions about each individual B.O.W that she knew of since she'd last checked Umbrella's databases.
"What about the Web Spinner? Did the White Queen ever mention those?" Alice asked as she shoved her spoon back into her beans, staring at Ryan as he ate. Unlike her, he was capable of eating AND talking at the same time, so his golden gaze was riveted on the beans in his grasp.
"Nope. They weren't even in the archives I checked." Ryan replied, taking another mouthful of beans and shoveling them into his mouth. "Let me guess... they're based on spiders, huh?"
"Yeah, they are. Big bastards, about five or six feet in diameter, and maybe three feet in height. Most of them are tarantulas, but a few were manufactured by Umbrella from Black Widow spiders." Alice explained. "Haven't encountered one myself, to be honest. I just know they exist."
"Y'know..." Ryan looked up at her with a thoughtful expression on his unmasked face. He'd removed his face mask so he could eat, which left his heavily scarred throat open for view. Alice's gaze was locked onto the mass of scar tissue for a brief second, then she pulled her gaze to lock with his.
"What?" Alice asked, having misheard what he just said entirely.
"Y'know I'm not a genius..." Ryan repeated. "But I'm not retarded either." Alice gave him a confused look. "There's something other than B.O.W's on your mind... isn't there, Itoshii?"
"What did you just call me?" Alice shot him a suspicious glare out of the corner of her eye.
"Itoshii. Japanese, it means 'darling.'" Ryan explained, giving her a warm smile. "Or would you rather me call you Alice-senpai?" He teased, his eyes glittering with humour.
"Itoshii, huh? I like that... Sparky." Alice smiled as well, then gave him a kiss... just as Claire walked past them.
"Ahem." Claire cleared her throat pointedly, making Alice step back from Ryan. "Remember what I said?"
Alice and Ryan gave her a nod. They both knew, but that didn't mean they liked it.
"I'll be watching you two..." Claire reminded them as she walked away, leaving Ryan to stare at her back, a rumbling snarl rising in his throat.
"Calm down. This just means we have to do it behind her back." Alice said in a serious tone. "This isn't even worth fighting against."
"We could just leave." Ryan replied in a casual tone. Alice instantly turned to stare at him with a shocked expression on her face.
"Where did that come from?" Alice demanded, tightly gripping her nearly empty can.
"The convoy. We could just leave... get away from this stupid rule. We could manage on our own..." Ryan replied, still sounding extremely casual about leaving the convoy behind.
"No. We couldn't. What about Katie? Do you think she could just get up and leave the only friendly group of people she's ever known? All over one small rule?! Ryan, what's gotten into you? I've known you long enough to realize that this line of thinking is..." Alice suddenly paused, looking almost like she'd been hurt. "It's so different... This is not like you. And it actually kinda scares me that you would consider just leaving like that."
Ryan's hard glare softened at the concern in Alice's voice, and he actually couldn't find any words. He was utterly speechless that she cared about him that much.
"I... I... Uh..." Ryan began, but he faltered when he saw Claire ordering everyone back into the vehicles to start driving again. "I think you should drive this time." He managed to form a sentence before tossing his empty bean can aside. He climbed into the truck and pulled his fedora off his head, then drew up his hood and mask.
Katie joined them in the truck a minute later, climbing into the passenger seat, still eating a can of what appeared to be some type of soup. Alice got in beside her, twirling her spoon between her fingers as she put the truck into gear and began to follow behind Claire.
"Why are you two being so serious? Did something happen?" Katie asked between spoonfuls of her soup.
"Nothing important. Why do you ask?" Alice replied, glancing in the rearview mirror at Ryan. However, all she could see of his face was a small sliver of his nose due to the low angle of his hood. He also had his arms crossed across his chest moodily.
"Because Ryan is clearly pissed off, and you look like you're about to cry." Katie replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Wow. That's being pretty blunt, Katie." Ryan suddenly spoke up. "But I'm not pissed off, to be honest. I'm just thinking over something Claire told me."
"Then why does Alice look like she is going to cry?" Katie demanded, but Alice smiled and stopped twirling her spoon. She dipped it into Katie's soup suddenly, much to Katie's protest. "Hey! Didn't you eat yet?!"
"I did, yes. And I'm not crying in the way you think. I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes." Alice lied to Katie, taking her stolen spoonful of soup and sliding it into her mouth. "Don't worry though, when it comes down to it... I don't get sad... I get mad."