Heya and welcome to another chapter! Like I mentioned last time this is probably going to be another not as fun chapter for those that are sensitive to stress. This one is pretty mild compared to the last one. If you made it through the last chapter you'll probably be fine but I still wanna make sure I have that disclaimer.
Song Suggestion: I Just Know by Jacob Lee - (New Immunity Remix)
Disclaimer: I own nothing~ I'm not affiliated with CapCom or the Resident Evil IP
Chris sat in his apartment with his right leg propped up and wrapped in a brace and his left arm in a sling. It turned out getting thrown through drywall and glass then dangling off the edge of a building wasn't good for you. Who would have thought? He gave a tired sigh as he used the thumb and pinky of his good hand to manipulate a plastic remote sitting in his lap. A quiet whirling sound was made as a small helicopter flew around the room. He was starting to get pretty decent at piloting this thing... God he was bored. After his week at the BSAA medical ward, he was put on leave for four weeks since he wouldn't be able to drive with his leg bound up like this. It had barely been a week and he was already getting stir crazy. He never thought he'd miss doing paperwork, yet here he was. He couldn't even go out for a smoke because he was on medications.
"What day is it anyway..." he muttered with a quiet sigh as he gently landed the tiny helicopter on the coffee table so he could check his phone. September second, 4:42 pm. He put the phone down so he could cover his face with his hand and groan. He wasn't allowed to drive again unless he got a bill of clean health at his next doctor's appointment on the twentieth. He eventually stopped grumbling into his hand and went back to trying to fly the tiny helicopter. Maybe if he kept at it, he'd figure out how to get it to do a loop.
Meanwhile, Emma was sitting at her desk, glaring at her laptop. Where on earth did that file go? She knew she saw the lease for that high rise, she could have sworn she had even saved a copy to her desktop. Yet, all of a sudden, it just didn't exist. She'd spent the last two weeks digging around the different company storage drives and cloud servers trying to find hide or hair of it only to come up empty-handed. Something wasn't right and she was going to get to the bottom of it. She crossed her arms as she leaned back in her chair. There was always a chance that there was a paper copy in the file room, but that place was a maze and a half. She thought about it a moment longer before correcting her posture and trying to get more work done. Even then the missing file was gnawing at the back of her mind. Someone in Research and Development had to be trying to cover this up.
Emma drummed her fingers on her desk before looking at the time. 4:57 pm. She wasn't going to be getting anything done. With that thought, she stood up and packs up her bag.
"Oh, hey Emmy," Veronica said as she walked over.
"Veronica, hey," Emma replied as she froze like a deer in headlights.
"Are you heading home early again?" Veronica asked with a curious tone.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. I'm just babysitting tonight is all, so I need to get home," Emma explained, though she didn't make any further move to pack up.
"Wow, it must pay well." Veronica smirked.
"It doesn't... It's just something I do to help out a friend of mine," Emma replied while internally wincing. She recognized the threat well enough. "I'll be logging back in once I get home."
"Good." Veronica nodded. "Toodles."
"Yeah... see ya," Emma said with a slight frown.
It felt like work was just getting worse and worse between the two album releases. Veronica's release wasn't for another six months, and she just barely finished the songs, yet she was chomping at the bit for anything that could be done to be done immediately. The full album for the Kings was going to release on Halloween and that was only eight weeks away. Emma really needed to focus on that, but any time she tried it was, 'Veronica this, Veronica that.' She gave a tired sigh as she packed up her laptop. On top of all that she was trying to figure out what was going on with that missing high rise lease.
Emma slung her laptop bag over her shoulder and started making her way home, stopping by the grocery store to pick up a few things first.
"Hey Duke," Emma said as she walked in and got her usual excited greeting. She put the groceries on the island counter before leashing the dog up and taking him for a quick walk then feeding him once they got back. With that taken care of, she headed over to the oven to start preheating it, then dug out the two frozen pizzas from the bag and put a bottle of soda in the fridge. The girls wouldn't be spending the night since it was a Monday, and she really did not have it in her to cook tonight. So, pizza party it is. Chelsea sorry but you get to deal with the sugar buzzed babies.
"One thing down, another twenty to go," Emma said quietly as she rested her forehead against the fridge, taking a deep breath. Then she left the apartment to head over to Chris' door and knocked.
"It's open," she heard in response from the other side of the door.
Emma walked in to see Chris resting his head on the back of the couch, looking up at the tiny helicopter flying around above him. Seeing this caused her to crack a smile as she pulled out her phone to take a picture. She snapped one without saying anything first to make sure she at least had that. With that done, she pressed and held the button to record.
"Hey, can you give me a thumbs up?" she asked with a smile, causing Chris to look over with a raised eyebrow. He attempted to give a thumbs up, only to realize that he only had one good hand, and he'd just taken it off the controller. A panicked expression replaced the bored one as he quickly moved to go back to controlling the tiny copter that was inches away from crashing. Emma laughed as she realized she had accidentally been kind of mean.
"I'm sorry, I forgot," she admitted, trying not to smile but failing horribly.
Chris grumbled in response as he landed the little copter.
Emma walked over to give him a peck. "How was your day?" she asked as she walks back to the kitchen to start tapping at her phone.
[Emma] Chris report: Resting but bored.
[Emma] -Video file-
[Claire] Is that a toy helicopter?
[Emma] Long story.
[Claire] LOL kk, thanks for the update.
"Well, I counted dots on the ceiling. Again," Chris replied grumpily.
"Oh? How many were there this time?" she asked as she smiled at the phone before shaking her head and putting the device away.
"Three hundred and forty-seven."
"Fifty more than last time," Emma said, shaking her head as she dug through the fridge for something to make for him. "I can't stick around for long tonight; I'm watching the girls." She added, which caused Chris to frown as he leaned over to grab his crutch. He got up and hobbled over to join Emma in the kitchen.
"Okay... so bring them over here then," he offered sincerely.
"You're joking," Emma said, amused as she closed the fridge and looked over at him.
"I'm really bored. Please. A conversation with a seven-year-old is better than staring at the wall for another five hours."
"Did Mrs. Russo not stop by?" Emma asked, surprised, last she heard Mrs. Russo was stopping by around noon to make sure Chris didn't need anything and had been talking his ear off.
"Nah, last she mentioned to me there were some complications with Marco's surgery because of the power outage and he's been in a home since."
"Why is this the first I'm hearing of this?" Emma asked, concerned. The poor thing!
"Because you are already stressed as it is," Chris said with a frown. "You can't look after everyone."
"You could have at least told me," Emma complained.
"If I did, you'd be worrying and trying to bring meals over," Chris countered.
"What's wrong with that?" Emma asked with a pout.
"The bags under your eyes are getting worse. You're going to run yourself into the ground if you take on anymore," Chris rebutted. "Let me handle this one."
"Fine." Emma relented. "I'll go get dinner and bring it over. If you're okay with watching the girls, I need to get some work done..."
"All right, I can do that," Chris agreed as a smile starts to return.
"I'll be right back," Emma said. She walked over to her apartment, turned off the oven, and got the pizza and soda to bring back to Chris'.
"Pizza for dinner, and soda. You were really looking for brownie points with the girls, huh?" Chris said, shaking his head as he moved to sit back down.
"Hey, if they're busy running around and entertaining themselves then they're hopefully staying out of trouble," Emma said as she turned on the oven. "If anything, you're probably going to get the credit, since it's your place."
[Emma] Hey, so I'm babysitting Chris too. Do you mind dropping the girls off at his place for the night?
[Chelsea] Right, he messed up his leg. Sure, if he's okay with it. I can't guarantee they'll leave him alone.
[Emma] And I quote "A conversation with a seven-year-old is better than staring at the wall for another five hours." He was warned.
[Chelsea] His funeral, then. Good luck.
Emma chuckled at that. By the time she put the pizzas into the oven and threw out the boxes, there was a knock at the door.
"Door's open," Chris called and the door opened.
Summer, Maurie, and Annie ran in. That caused Emma to do a double-take. That's right Annie was two-years-old now.
"Oh my gosh she's running," Emma said, stunned. When? How had it been two years? Her shock grew as the child climbed onto the couch on her own to sit with Summer, Maurie, and Chris. Oh gosh, she was getting old! Noooo. Cue the internal panic.
"I know," Chelsea replied, understanding the shock. "She's been walking for a while now, but lately it's all running all the time."
"They grow up so fast," Emma said, still internally screaming.
"Yeah, thanks again for watching them so we could go out. You two are the best," Chelsea said with a sheepish smile
"It's fine, we got this." Chris made a shooing motion with his free hand.
"Eee gattis," Annie babbled in an attempt to repeat what Chris said.
"We'll be back by 10," Chelsea said before giving Emma a hug and hurrying out. While the kids were busy sitting on the couch, Emma took out her laptop and sat at the island to get started on work. She was already behind schedule...
Summer sat next to Chris while swinging her legs off the end of the couch and eventually noticed his leg. "Uncle Chris? Did you hurt your leg?" she asked curiously.
Chris nodded. "Yep," he replied.
"Oh..." she said and continued staring at before looking at his face. "Can we play a game?"
"I don't have any," he admitted… unless the kid wanted to try messing with a Rubix cube from ten years ago that he never used.
"That's okay. I know a game," she insisted with a nod. "We can play super spies!"
What the he— "And how do you play that?" Chris asked, concerned.
"You give us missions and then we sneak around and do them," Summer replied with a nod.
... That was a game? "Okay... um... Well, practice sneaking around then," he said, very unsure about this. He was hoping he'd at least get an idea of what exactly they meant.
"Okay," Summer said. She got off the couch and hurried over to a pile of blankets and put one over her and started briskly walking around the apartment with her sisters following behind her.
"Summer, what are you doing?" Emma asked as she saw the trio scurry through the kitchen.
"I'm being sneaky. Shhh," Summer replied and continued leading the tiny brigade.
"Okay," Emma said, shaking her head and getting back to work.
Eventually, Summer walked back over to look over the side of the couch, causing the other two to bump into her as she stopped. "Okay, ready for a mission," she said determinedly.
"You're sure?" Chris asked and Summer nodded enthusiastically. "There's a bottle of soda in the fridge. Get that and a cup and come back." Having a tiny task force could have its perks if this works.
Emma tried to keep a neutral expression to hide her smile. Dang it all, she really was babysitting him too. The soda was way too high up for the girls to reach. She stopped what she was doing to get a cup from the cabinet and walked over to the fridge, moving the soda to a lower shelf and placing the cup next to it.
Before long, the trio 'sneakily' made their way to the fridge. Summer got the bottle of soda and Maurie grabbed the cup before heading back.
"We did it!" Summer and Maurie exclaimed at the same time.
"Good job. Now to test it for poison," Chris replied, accepting the bottle and leaning forward to put it down on the coffee table after getting it open. He took the cup after that, placing it on the table, and poured a little bit into the cup before closing the bottle.
"I wanna try," Summer said, but Chris shook his head.
"Let's see if it's poison first." He drank the bit of soda he poured before going limp.
Summer gasped. "He's dead!"
"No, he isn't," Emma said calmly from the kitchen.
"Yeah-huh," Summer argued back as she nudges him, only for him to stick out his tongue. "See? He's dead."
"Hmm. Well, that's a shame, because dead people can't eat pizza," Emma said without looking over while she continued reading over documents for work.
"I'm up," Chris said, popping up. He did not want to lose dinner over this.
Seeing the sudden change caused the girls to laugh and squeal before running off. He chuckled at this. They were cute.
The night went on in a similar fashion. Summer, Maurie, and Annie would run around being 'sneaky' while Emma worked at the island with a small break in the middle for pizza.
Emma smiled as she quickly snapped a picture of the three girls trying to hound Chris for his slice while he laughed, trying to keep it away from them. She sent it to Claire and Chelsea in their respective chats.
'*'*'*'*'
The next day Emma was back to the grind at the same desk as always, this time drumming a pen between her fingers. Another day of working and digging between meetings and still nothing on the high rise. She was running out of places to look. Again, her mind drifted to looking for a physical copy in the file room. If she went during her lunch break, no one would notice...
As her lunch break grew closer her stomach became more and more knotted with nervousness. What if she didn't find anything... What if she did? What if someone walked in while she was digging around, how was she going to explain that one?
It's fine. You're fine. Everything will be fine. You work here. It's not that weird to go to the file room, Emma thought, trying to calm her nerves. She eventually got up and headed down two flights of steps from the top floor to the third floor. Okay, she could do this. Emma walked over to the file room and entered her ID code to open the door, and walked inside. It was a pretty nice setup; a maze of metal filing cabinets filled the room. Each drawer was outfitted with a keypad requiring ID access.
Emma wandered around, trying to figure out the system was for filing, reading different labels, and mentally cataloging them to find a pattern. Okay, it's by department then by year. Where is R&D…After thirty minutes of wandering and checking cabinet labels, she eventually smiled. There it was. Now to just find 2019, and…
"Got it," Emma said with a smile. She entered the code for the drawer, and it gave a soft chime and a click as it unlocked and partially slid open. The woman gave a sigh of relief. It worked. Thank heavens. It would have been heartbreaking to get this far and not have clearance...
After another ten minutes of looking through file tabs, Emma eventually found what she was looking for. Leases. Yes, okay… um. She pulled out the folder and sure enough there was the original copy of the lease. I knew it! I knew I wasn't crazy. Ace Avenue and Bravo Boulevard, floors thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. The lease started back in February. She needed to make a copy of this and get it to Chris. He would know what to do.
"Well then, I was wondering how long it would take for someone to show up," said a calm yet eloquent voice.
Emma yelped in surprise as she turned to face the speaker and hid the file behind her back. Walking towards her was a woman who Emma did not recognize with dark hair, styled in a short bob, wearing a red button-down and a black skirt. Upon realizing this probably wasn't an employee Emma quickly shut the file cabinet.
"No need to be a hero. We're on the same side," the woman said, maintaining her calm, even tone with a cheeky smile "Now just open the cabinet and we'll both be on our way." She tapped a small piece of metal on her hip.
Oh gosh, a gun again. Nope. Nope, nope. Yeah, she did not want to die on this hill. If the company was up to something, and they were on the same team then... Emma nodded and turns back to the cabinet, entering her pin which caused it to unlock.
"Glad we could reach an understanding." The woman dug through the files, opening and closing folders as she stacked up a few and put others back. She picked up her stack of folders before looking back at the cabinet and picking up another and offering it to Emma. "You're going to want this one. Don't open it until you get home."
The file was labeled 'Invoices.' Weird, but okay. She already had the files she was looking for... All the same, she hesitantly accepted the offered folder. She hadn't planned on keeping these, just scanning them to get a copy and put them back… but after meeting this person, maybe she should keep them...
"See you around," the woman said before closing the cabinet and walking away.
Emma waited a moment, then walked around the corner to find the woman was gone. She didn't open the door... where did she go? Emma shook her head; she didn't have time for this. She hurried back to her desk and put the files into her laptop bag. The next four hours passed slowly. She was anxious that someone might stop by and catch her with the files in her bag.
Relax, no one saw you, Emma thought quietly. She managed to stay until 6:30 pm to avoid leaving 'early' again and drawing attention to herself. Since when was on time early, anyway? Emma packed up her laptop and walked out of the building to her car, feeling stiff. She looked at the bag after getting seated but remembered what the woman told her. Wait until you get home to open the files...
When Emma eventually made her way into the apartment building, she looked at her door for a second before heading straight to Chris' place and knocking on the door.
"Come in," replied the ever-bored tone of the couch-bound Chris.
Emma walked in, closing the door behind her, and headed over to Chris to give him a peck on the cheek. Then she went to the dining room table to put down her bag and dig out the files.
"How was your day?" Chris asked before going back to reading.
"Fine," Emma said as she dug out the two folders. She already knew what was in the Lease folder, so she put that down in favor of opening the Invoices folder. Lots of receipts for equipment, desks, basic office supplies. Nothing really too interesting until she got about five pages in.
Memorial Morgue and Funeral Home
April 10th, 2018
Sale of 25 Cadavers as follows
Jane Doe, F, 42
Mark Daniels, M, 23
Karen Fletcher, F, 35
Emma read down the list mortified, stopping as one name caught her eye in particular.
Tanner Penmark, M, 41
The names kept going. As she got to the bottom of the page, Emma started shaking.
Cadavers to be cut into segments at the joints for transport and future use.
The next page showed piles of chopped-up and mangled bodies. Emma dropped the file onto the table and ran to the bathroom. She had finally hit her limit from the stress and lost what was left of her lunch to the porcelain gods.
"Emma?" Chris said, confused and concerned as he tried looking around from his place on the couch and ultimately reached over for his crutch to get up and check on her. When he got to the table, he noticed the scattered papers. A sinking feeling came over him as he changed his path to look at what was dropped.
He dug through the pages of a lease for the building on Ace and Bavo that covered the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth floors. Purchase receipts, including one for cadavers... Oh no. He looked at Emma with a mix of fear and concern as she walked back into the room.
"Where did you get these?" She wasn't supposed to get involved.
"I found them..." she replied quietly.
"Why were you looking for them?" Chris demanded, starting to get upset.
"I was trying to help," Emma replied, stunned.
"I don't need you to help, I need you to not get involved in this! You're not a mole, you're out of your depths and you're going to get hurt!" Chris countered. He was becoming more and more aggravated. "This is why I didn't want to tell—"
"This isn't just about what YOU want anymore!" Emma shouted, cutting him off as the built-up frustration finally got to her. "You keep saying don't do this, don't do that. You're not supposed to be involved. Well, guess what? Whether either of us likes it, I am." She laughed as her body tried to process the stress. "Because even if you didn't tell me, I still knew something was wrong! I knew we rented those floors. I made the frickin' ads the company used to hire whoever it was in that stupid building that made the THING on the TV. I would have gone looking anyway," she countered, causing Chris' already frustrated frown to deepen. "The company I work for is doing this. I work there Chris. I HELPED these people, and they used my friend for SCRAPS."
Chris remained silent.
Emma's frustrated rage calmed, and her voice grew quiet. "You want me, to sit here and smile and pretend none of this is happening so you can feel like you're protecting me, but I can't do that... If I do, I'm no better than the ones causing this. Because I'd be letting it happen..."
Chris gave a quiet sigh, leaving his crutch to rest against the table, and slowly hobbled over to use his good arm to hold her. As much as he hated it, she had made a decent argument. Damn it. "Okay... I'll bring in what you found once I'm allowed to go back. But this is enough. No more, okay?" he requested as he leaned forward in an attempt to give her a kiss.
"I promise," Emma replied with a nod as she returned the hug and kiss.
'*'*'*'*'
Veronica sat alone on a beach chair by a well-lit indoor pool, staring at her phone, which she occasionally tapped in the same place. The buzz of an intercom interrupted her silence. "Enter," she called as a door opened and her bodyguards led a scientist over to her place by the pool. "So?" she asked when nothing was said.
"We're making progress. We moved on from testing on parts to live subjects, but what you're asking for is... difficult," he admitted. "While the product seems to work on the cadavers, the test samples that we've sent out have all resulted in minor outbreaks..."
"You already have what you need you just need to mutate it so it doesn't make people brain dead and bite the shit out of anything near them after. How hard can that be?" she asked with a frown.
"Sending out samples to civilians is getting dangerous. If we could just go back to testing on parts," the scientist requested and she rolled her eyes.
"Fine," Veronica said in an incredulous tone. "Fine, just use what we have left from the lab corpses." She frowned. "I'll find you more bodies," she said with a tired sigh as she tapped at her phone again, replaying a clip of security footage from the file room. Emma opening a drawer for an unknown person and the two taking files from it."
"Charles, James, escort Harold out please. And while you're at it, call Oliver and have him do an audit of the file room. Keep it on the down-low though... I want to see what our little pest got into first."
She watched the clip once more as they left. "Actually, Harold, while you're at it have the lab make me a sample, please," Veronica said before closing the footage. "Strike two." She was going to have some fun.
Dun dun duuuun. The plot thickens~ next chapter is gonna be fun x'D for me. Not them. Lmao.
Review Responses:
Guest 1995 - the cat is 100% out of the bag and refuses to go back in the bag lmao X'D
StarRat - Glad you like the story U hope you enjoyed the latest update too.
