Spooky scary skeleton time /o/ what could possibly go wrong in this chapter ufufu

Song Suggestion: All Eyes On Me Cover by OR3O, The Musical Ghost, and GenuineMusic

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Resident Evil is an IP that belongs to CapCom with whom I am not affiliated. Plz, don't sue. kthx.


"Yeah, sorry, I can't come in today." Emma coughed. "I'm not feeling well," she said to her boss on the other end of the phone. She nodded as she listened to voice on the other end. "Yes sir, of course... I understand," she replied before coughing again. "I'll let you know. Thank you." She hung up and smiling.

"It's been a while since I played hooky," Emma said with a short chuckle as she got ready for the day. True to his word, Chris called in that he received an information drop. HQ wasn't thrilled about an anonymous tip and requested that he bring Emma in for questioning on his first day back to have her vouch for the information she found and provide a statement. She'd just finished getting ready when she heard a knock at the door.

Emma walked over and opened it to find Chris. "Ready?" he asked with an attempt at a smile. He was still worried, but at least she had promised that after this she was done with snooping around. She had done her part in getting this shut down and that would be enough.

"Yep," Emma said with a nod as she headed out and locked up behind her. She walked with Chris to his car and the two made their way to the BSAA headquarters. The building was huge, but tucked far back behind so many security gates that it would have been impossible to notice or find without help getting to it. Suddenly she understood why she wasn't allowed to just drive there on her own so she could leave after the interview. She was nervous, but still determined as she looked down at the files on her lap.

Eventually, the car was parked and the two got out. "So, are you excited for your first day back?" Emma asked as they walked towards the building.

"You mean, am I excited to do something other than stare at the ceiling or the back of my eyelids?" Chris asked with a slight smirk, which caused Emma to chuckle. Chris led the way as they chatted. Past the receptionist desk, up the elevator, down the hall, and to the break room so the two could put their lunches away for the day.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in. You brought Emma?" Canine said, surprised, as he walked over with Night Howl and a woman a few years older and a few inches taller than Emma, whose ponytail sported brown hair with the remains of blond dye at the ends.

"Jill?" Chris said with a mixture of happiness and surprise.

"Hey, long time no see," she said in response with a small twinge of a smile.

"Long time?" He jokingly scoffed. "Yeah, try ten years. What are you doing here? I thought you ran off to run manage your own Squad in South America."

"HQ called me in to cover for you. Something about you getting into a fistfight with a T-Type?" she said, amused, causing Chris to laugh.

"Well, I won."

Jill just shook her head. "From what I heard, you're lucky," she replied, her amused smile remaining. "Good to see you, though," Jill said before noticing that Emma had stopped alongside him. "Showing around a new recruit?" she asked curiously.

"Ah. No," Chris said as he looked to Emma. "Emma, meet Jill. She's an old partner of mine from my S.T.A.R.S. days. Jill, this is Emma."

"Stars?" Emma asked confused, that was a new one. "I didn't think you were interested in acting..."

Hearing that caused Jill to laugh. "Which Squad are you with?"

Oh, this again... great. Luckily, she knew what to say this time. "I'm a civilian." Three. Two. One.

"Really? Huh. And what is a civilian doing here?" Jill asked, looking to Chris for an explanation though a hint of knowing amusement could be seen in her expression.

"She has some information regarding a recent outbreak," Chris replied as Emma nodded and casually held up the two envelopes.

"Yeah, hopefully, it will help make your lives easier," Emma said as Night Howl and Canine look at each other, confused.

"Why does she have info on the outbreak?" Night Howl asked, concerned. Last he knew, Emma shouldn't have known anything about… well, any of this.

"...I'm really sorry, but. I think the company I work for is behind it. It's not much but I want to try and make this right," Emma said with a nod, causing Jill's smile to soften.

"Well, we shouldn't keep the two of you then. Sounds important," Jill said before looking to Chris. "By the way, I hope you don't mind but I've been using your office for the last month. No worries though, the director had me move out on Friday to a different one." Jill's smile regained its playfulness while Chris tried to keep a neutral expression. Well... shit. Did he remember to lock his de— "Thanks for leaving your desk unlocked, by the way. It was very thoughtful of you."

Fuck. "Not a problem," Chris replied, still trying to main his indifferent expression. "How long are you in for?"

"Heading out on November first. Now that you're back they need me to cover for another squad until they find a replacement. They do take their sweet time when it comes to training up recruits." Jill shrugged.

"Yeah..." Right, they lost three men. Not the worst casualty rate they'd had on a mission, but two were from the same squad so it was bound to take a while to fill that gap. "Well, see you around until then" Chris replied before motioning for Emma to follow him.

"It was nice to meet you," Emma said quickly before following Chris to the director's office. The meeting went about as well as Chris expected... The director listened, accepted the evidence, and explained there wasn't much they could do with it since it didn't really provide evidence of the actual virus coming from the company. Yes, they rented the space, and yes, they bought cadavers to test on for some makeup division. Two damning pieces of evidence but they were missing the main connecting piece, a physical piece of evidence of the virus strain connected to the company. It mostly just confirmed what they already knew, they were barking up the right tree. If the director would have actually let them do that.

"See the virus we're working with requires a liquid and a gas in order to activate. I don't see that being connected to… what was it you said again?" the director asked while looking over the files.

"Makeup," Emma replied, embarrassed the way he said it, which made the whole thing sound ridiculous.

"I'm sorry to have wasted your time, Miss Swanson, but rest assured though we'll keep this on file in case further evidence shows up to support your claims," the director said in his usual tone, as if he were talking down to a child. It honestly made her feel pretty stupid. Maybe this really was a waste of time...

"Of course. Thank you for your time," Emma said as she got up and offered the director a hand, which he shook before she walked out of the office and closed the door behind her.

"How did it go?" Chris asked and Emma frowned. "That well?" he motioned for her to follow him once more.

"Pretty much," she said with a sigh, following him into his office and taking a seat. "I guess I kind of wasted your time with this... Sorry about that. I really thought I found something useful."

That got Chris' attention as he closed the door and went over to his side of the desk to take a seat. "That was some of the more concrete evidence we've had," he replied before bobbing his head. Aside from that blond chick just waltzing in and admitting that she was doing the testing, but hey, surprise, surprise… that wasn't admissible because it wasn't recorded. The only people who knew about that were the director, Veronica, and Hound Wolf Squad.

"He said it wasn't enough, though. Hopefully, it at least gets you a lead. Maybe try talking to that mortician guy—" Emma started, but stopped as she noticed the look Chris was giving her.

"Let me worry about that," he said.

Emma nodded then took out her phone, poking at it. It was going to be a long eight-plus hours. Meanwhile, Chris bit the bullet and opened up his desk to see if his suspicions were correct. Aaand they were. Jill had been snooping around his stuff.

"Is something wrong?" Emma asked curiously as she noticed Chris staring down at an open draw and not moving to grab anything.

"Yeah, Jill reorganized my desk is all..." Chris grumbled as an excuse as he reached in to move a few things around, in particular a small strip of three photos, which he neatly tucked to the back of the drawer where it was supposed to be.

Meanwhile, Jill was still smiling to herself while training with the Panther Hog squad. Same old Chris.

'*'*'*'*'

Bastion smiled to himself as he waited in the hallway of the apartment building. It was that time of year again and Halloween had arrived once more. The nail tech was currently dressed in a full steampunk set up with a black spade painted over his left eye. He had truly outdone himself this year. Emma walked out first wearing a mostly maroon full-body leotard that had blue and gold steampunk/harlequin style detailing on it, a little red nose and a black heart with a few other details around it painted over her right eye. The nail tech insisted that the costume would be cuter if the bodysuit only had one leg and the other was covered by a long black sock that reached most of the way up her thigh. However, as a compromise, Emma insisted that she be allowed to have a simple cinched waist bag since she wouldn't have pockets. Inside she had a good ten feet of colorful bandanas tied together to use as a 'magic trick.'

Bastion happily clapped. "Very nice," he said with a nod. It took a few more minutes but Chris eventually walked out with a top hat, dressed as a ringleader in a similar steampunk/harlequin style with a black diamond painted over his left eye.

"And now we're cooking with fire," Bastion said with an ear-to-ear grin "We're going to win that contest for sure. Remember to meet at the mall by six pm, okay? Travis will be waiting for us there," Bastion reminded the two, clearly excited to win by a landslide. "Both of you stand together. I want to get a picture," he added, and the two did as they were told. Upon seeing them just standing there, he dropped his shoulders "Act like you like each other, please. You're not fooling anyone anymore."

Emma laughed at that before standing on her toes to give Chris a quick kiss as he put an arm around her waist.

Bastion quickly snapped a picture of this before speaking. "That's better," he said, shaking his head before walking over to the two to get a selfie with them. "Now, on the count of three. One, two, three," he counted and the two smile with him. "Thank you," he said. "See you guys at the mall."

"See you there" Chris replied.

"See you then," Emma said as well before heading out to go to work.

She was honestly pretty excited to go to work for the day, The release of the Punk Rocker's album was at three pm. She was excited to hear the main song of the album on the radio for the first time. It also meant her workload would be decreasing. Plus, it was Halloween, so she'd get to be of a goof and have fun. It was the perfect day.

Well, it was… until 1 pm.

"Emmy, I need you. Can you join me in my office?" Veronica asked sweetly.

Emma looked over and to her surprise, Veronica was dressed as some kind of sucubus chick. The costume design looked vaguely familiar. The chick from the Capcom fighting games?

"Hey Veronica. I didn't realize you played video games," Emma said, surprised.

"I don't," she replied, confused.

Oh... "Never mind." Yeah that tracks. "What did you need?" Emma asked, only for Veronica to motion for Emma to follow her.

"I need your help with a few details on my next release."

Emma's shoulders dropped. The release for the Punk Rockers was in two hours... "Sure, is something wrong?" Emma asked as she follows Veronica to her office where her two bodyguards were waiting, one on either side of her desk. Laid out on the desk were dozens and dozens of different album covers, CDs, promotional pictures, contact lists, and venue contracts. This wasn't a few details; this was well more than half of them. This was weeks' worth of work. Hopefully, she was just messy and only needed help with something small.

"Take a seat if you'd like. We're probably going to be here a while," Veronica mentioned but continued standing on her side of the desk.

Emma remained standing as well. "I'll help however I can," she agreed and got to work with Veronica, going over different potential options for the release.

Which poster do you think is better? What about this design? Maybe this cover with this CD? What about these venues? Do the contracts look okay? Who have we contacted from these lists and who have we not? Who can't be added? The questions came one after another in a constant barrage, giving Emma little time to think of anything else. Before long an hour and a half had passed.

Thirty minutes to the release...

"Emmy you're just so sweet to help me with all of this. I know how busy you usually are," Veronica said as she opened a drawer to her desk. "So I have just the thing to thank you. Here," she said, placing a small, delicate-looking container on the desk. "Tadah," She smiled. "We just got in some samples of that new makeup line we're going to be launching. It's supposed to make you look five years younger. I think I got your color; you should give it a try."

"Oh. Um, thank you. That's very kind of you," Emma said with a confused expression. Here she thought the whole makeup thing was just a front. Though, I guess they would have to actually produce something to keep any research hidden... "I already have a full face at the moment. I'll have to try it another time." It wasn't like she didn't have face paint and a nose on at the moment.

"You do?" Veronica asked while tilting her head to the side. "Aw I really want to make sure it's the right color. Are you sure you can't try it? Please?"

Rude... Emma gave a quiet sigh, but she took off the cap to squirt it out onto the back of her hand. Instead, a soft spray could be heard, and Veronica's smile twisted for a slight second.

"Aerosol?" Emma asked, confused. That was weird for a liquid foundation...

"Yep, we found that an aerosol works much better for getting an even coat," Veronica said as her smile returned to normal.

"Oh." Well, that kind of made sense? "I'm sorry I don't think this is the right shade," Emma said, hoping that would be enough to reject the gift as she put it back down on the desk. She liked the makeup she had already. Not, the clown stuff she was wearing now, of course, but her usual stuff.

"Pity," Veronica said as she happily continued working, occasionally glancing at Emma.

Over time, her expression became sourer and sourer. Fifteen minutes. It had been fifteen minutes since she was infected. Why wasn't she turning? Veronica looked at the bottle and snatched it, looking it over... could it be that they actually got the formula, right? It worked on a living subject? Her soured expression turned to a smile.

"Is everything okay?" Emma asked, looking befuddled.

"Yes, everything's perfect. I think you're right, though. This isn't your shade," Veronica said as she walked over to a mirror attached to the wall of her office and sprays the misty foundation up both of her arms and onto her face and neck.

Emma watched the display, highly concerned. She didn't know a lot of things but she was very sure that was not how you applied foundation. What the heck was wrong with Veronica? She was acting weirder than usual... was she trying to get high on fumes?

Veronica walked back to the desk and got back to work. After five minutes Emma started noticing a bubbling, blistering rash on Veronica's arm that was spreading at a rapid pace. "Whoa, uh, hey. I think I should call an ambulance. You must have been allergic to that foundat—" She was cut short as Veronica started to jerkily twist and contort while screaming.

To Emma's horror, Veronica's arms seemed to be splitting and multiplying as her face became tight and stiff. Emma slowly walked back to try and get to the door. The two bodyguards were frozen in place, only to be cut down as Veronica used one of her now-three sets of arms as a flail, cutting into their torsos before they dropped to the ground.

"You!" Veronica cried as she used another to reach out and grab Emma's leg, knocking her down and dragging her across the floor.

"STRIKE THREE!" she said with a demented smile as she pulled Emma towards her.

Emma quickly kicked the mutating Veronica in the face before slamming her heel down on the arm that was holding her, causing Veronica to howl in pain and let go. That worked! With that realization, Emma didn't hesitate to escape, scrambling to get up and run out of the office.

Holy shit, Holy shit, Holy shit, Emma thought as she sprinted through the office and her co-workers screamed in horror at the monstrosity chasing after her. She made her way into the stairwell and sat on the banister to slide down. Thank you spandex! After going down two flights of stairs she exited to the third floor and started running, trying to find anywhere to hide, and hoping that the sudden change in direction would be enough to lose Veronica. Quickly she rounded a corner dodged into a broom closet, closing and locking the door. She heard more screams as Veronica ran past.

What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?

How did this happen? The director said that there had to be a liquid and a…gas. Aerosol... a liquid AND a gas. With that, she quickly looked at her hand. Oh fuck. she leaned back to rest the back of her head against the wall. It didn't seem to be having an effect yet but how long did she have? She took a breath. If she only had a matter of minutes left, she was going to make them count... With that, she dug her phone out of her tiny satchel and tapped at the screen to set it to silent so it wouldn't give away her location.

[System] Emma Swanson is sharing her GPS location

[Emma] SOS Bioweapon.

[Emma] I'm sorry...

[Emma] It's not your fault, okay?

[Emma] I love you.

With that she put her phone back into her bag and looked around her. That should do. She grabbed a broom with a metal handle and unscrewed the brush from it, then used some of the tied-up bandanas from her bag, tying them to the broomstick so she could carry it over her shoulder.

She was dressed as a clown... and had a broomstick covered in colorful bandanas as a weapon... I look ridiculous, she thought as she ditched the red plastic nose. Not that it mattered if she looked stupid. She was going to die anyway.

Okay, how had the other incidents that she knew about, get noticed? Just in case the texts didn't go through...

Local pharmaceutical lab goes up in flames.

Breaking news from the AccuNews helicopter. A fire appears to have started in the newly constructed high rise.

Fire. Janet always had that wax melter on her desk. If she put some paper between the bowl and the burner that would catch fire... Okay, step one. Check.

She needed proof. The spray can. That might not be enough... if she could manage to keep it together long enough to get back to the lobby maybe she could download the security footage from Veronica's office. Hell, those bodyguards had actual weapons. If she could just get to the office again, she might stand a chance—again, she looked at her hand—assuming she didn't go insane first.

She looked over at a breaker box in the closet and a few valves. She quickly twisted all the valves to off, flipped the breakers for everything not connected to the first floor, and took a few quick breaths before unlocking the door to look out into the now dark office.

'*'*'*'*'

Chris sat at his desk looking over the usual pile of paperwork. Being gone all of September meant a lovely backlog of work to do since Jill was really only here to fill in on a mission level. He heard his phone buzz once, twice. Five times? What was going on. He dug through his pockets to pull out the device and scroll through the alerts newest to oldest.

I love you. It's not your fault, okay? I'm sorry... SOS Bio—

He stopped reading at that point, ditched the top hat, and jumped up to leave his office. Shit shit shit shit, he thought repeatedly as he hurried through the halls before running into Jill. "There you are," he said with a panicked tone "Get a team together. There's another outbreak. We have to go, now."

"Chris, whoa. Hey—what?" Jill stammered as she started to process what Chris was saying. "Did the director say something."

"I need you. Do you trust me?" he asked, still very much in a state of panic.

Jill slowly nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I do," she said quietly.

"Then meet me at the coordinates I'm about to text to you with a team. I'm going ahead," Chris said before quickly turning to leave, trusting Jill to do what he asked.

"Okay," Jill said with a nod as she watched him run off to the locker room, likely to change into proper gear instead of his costume. After a moment, she hurried off to get the team of operatives that Chris requested.

'*'*'*'*'

The building was eerily silent now that everyone had, hopefully, gotten out... Emma quietly walked through the room, illuminated only by the sunlight leaking through the windows. There it was. With how slowly she was walking, from fear of making any noise, she wouldn't be surprised if it took her ten minutes just to get to the other side of the office. She breathed a sigh of relief as the battery-operated burner she remembered was still there and turned on. Emma quickly put three pieces of printer paper between the bowl and burner, and gathered more papers around it. Hopefully this wor—

"Gotcha," said a quiet, demented whisper.

Emma gasped and stumbled back. Veronica gazed down at Emma from her place on the ceiling, using her arms to cling to it like a spider. Shit, shit, shit, Emma thought as she made another break for the stairs, this time to go back up.

"You're not getting away from me that easily!" Veronica said, cackling as she followed close behind.

Get to the office. Get to the gun. Just get to the office. Please be loaded, Emma mentally chanted as she heard thumping, rhythmic patters of arms and legs following her up the stairs. Flashing red lights and the bleating of the fire alarm joined the already terrifying noises screaming around her, vying for her attention. Come on. She was almost the—a sharp pain shot through her back as she was flung into the office. The metal rod had luckily been enough to keep Emma from taking any serious damage to her spine from the slash.

Emma rolled and slammed into the desk before pushing herself up, scrambling to grab the decorative aerosol container and the gun from the downed bodyguard's belt, which she promptly fired at Veronica. Thin wires sprang forward and burrowed into the now writhing figure.

It's a taser? Of course, it was a single-use fricking taser.

With little time to really complain about it, she ditched the taser and pushed past the dazed diva, sprinting for her life with the evidence in hand. There was no way she could keep outrunning her like this. Emma was getting tired; she needed a better plan. She checked her hand to see how much time she had left... it looked the same as before.

"What the he—" she was cut short as a tight pain gripped her ankle. The extended arm of Veronica had gotten ahold of her once more and was dragging Emma toward her.

"He-he-Hungry...f-food. EAT!" Her speech had become more erratic, but she certainly got the point across, and this time kicking and flailing was not enough.

Do something! Emma's subconscious screamed as fear caused her to start to freeze up. She pointed the can at Veronica's face and sprayed, getting it into her eyes and causing her to howl in pain as she threw Emma against a wall before letting go. The thing that had been Veronica held her face and writhed in agony.

Emma shuffled back towards the stairs down to the third floor to the file room. She needed time, and she had an idea of how to get it. Do or die. With this hobble she was not going to get enough of a lead to get out, let alone with the security footage. The third floor was now an open frenzy of smoke and flames as the fire continued to spread upward. Emma coughed into her hand as she punched in the code for the file room and waited for Veronica to catch up, making sure the woman saw her go inside. She hurried to the back before hearing the wall crash and crumble.

"Fiiind you. F-Fiiind food," the voice taunted as it slowly got closer. With that Emma rammed into the cabinet causing it to start leaning. Come on... come on! Once, then twice more, and it finally toppled over, creating a domino effect and eliciting a shrill scream of pain from Veronica. Emma none too gracefully crawled over the metal stacks of cabinets to make her way out of the room and down the stairs to the first-floor security room.

She made it to the door, entered her code, and—

Access denied.

"What?!" Emma shouted in frustration. Her ankle, head, and back were bleeding at this point, and her arm hurt like hell from tumbling and ramming into that cabinet while clinging to this darn thing. She did not go through all this to trip up at the last step.

She put the aerosol container into her satchel before getting the metal broom handle from her back. Grabbing it like a baseball bat, Emma swung it at the large, thick tempered glass window next to the door like her life depended on it. *Crash crack clank.* The metal bar started to bend from the abuse, but the reinforced glass eventually cracked and chunks broke off.

The first floor was starting to get smoky by the time she finally made enough of an entryway to climb into the room. Now, sporting new cuts on her arms and legs from the flying chunks of glass and climbing through a partially broken window, Emma had made her way into the security room. She quickly opened the laptop and started digging around in the files.

Okay. Fifth floor, fifth floor. Where the hell is— there it was... What was her office number again? Emma frantically clicked through the files before giving up and dragging the whole fifth-floor file over to the desktop. She'd take the computer with her it was basically a giant flash drive anyway.

5%, 12%, 14%, 22%

Emma tapped her foot against the floor, coughing as the room filled with smoke. Come on.

50%, 52%... 51%

Why is it going backwards!

63%

She could hear the building groaning from the flames.

75%

Emma picked up the laptop and moved to sit under the desk with it to try and get some less smoky air.

81%, 86%, 92%

"Eeeemmmmaaaaa," growled a deep, warped voice, causing Emma to flinch. Come on, hurry up!

95% 99% ... Download Complete.

Finally!

Emma ditched the broom handle and climbed back through the window, earning a few new cuts and scrapes before making her way to the front door. She wanted to run but her legs were starting to give out, resulting in more of a tired jog between coughs and wheezes. Sunlight eventually came into view as she made her way through the door.

'*'*'*'*'

Chris stopped the car as soon as he saw a large gathering of people standing outside of a burning five-story building. The geared up and armed BSAA operative hurried over to the crowd. "EMMA," he shouted, hoping for any sort of response.

None.

"EMMA," he called again. Maybe she just didn't hear him. The shouting certainly got the attention of the others, just not the face he was hoping to see.

"You're that guy. The one on the news," said the older woman who previously helped Emma to her desk when she was panicking. "I'm sorry but... I haven't seen her come out of the building yet," she admitted sadly, causing Chris to frown and shake his head before pushing to get through the crowd and towards the building.

Not again. Dear god, please, not again. He couldn't lose anyone else. Not like this.

Chris let out a sigh of relief as he saw a tired, hobbling figure exiting the building. "Chris," Emma murmured happily under her breath as she tried to move faster with no success. She was past her limits, even with the adrenaline urging her on.

Chris hurried over and picked her up to bring her back over to the other civilians.

"What the hell happened?" Chris asked.

"Veronica, she turned. There was this spray an—" She paused as she looked at her hand... still no change. Why?

"Alpha!" called Night Howl as he, Canine, Jill, and the Panther Hog squad hurried over to join him.

"Stay here," he said as he got up and hurried over to the others.

"Let's move," Chris shouted back to the group, somewhat relieved. He wouldn't be going in alone. Bless you, Jill, for working quickly.

"Sorry, this is all I could get short notice," Jill said as she hurried in with him. "Just like old times."

"Just like old times," Chris agreed with a smile. It was good to know she still had his back.

"What the hell is that thing?" one of the panther hog members asked, horrified, as they saw the six-armed, dozen-eyed, seven-foot-tall half-body dragging itself out of the flames.

"Open fire!" Chris ordered the team. He didn't have a choice. They needed to deal with this thing first.

The creature cried out in pain as it was filled with led. It took a good while, even with eight people shooting, for the engorged half of a Bioweapon to collapse and give up the ghost.

"Captain, the building is going to collapse," Canine cried as the creaking and groaning of the main supports of the building became more and more audible over the sounds of the fire alarms.

Shit... they didn't have time... "Everyone, move out," Chris said and the team fell back to rejoin the group of civilians outside.

Chris walked back over to find Emma resting in the same place he had left her. He kneeled down next to her at eye level. "Emma?" he asked quietly. She pushed herself to open her eyes. The adrenaline crash was hitting hard. The texts repeated in his mind as he pulled her close. "Don't you ever scare me like that again. What the fuck were those messages?"

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry," Emma said weakly. "I was afraid, I didn't know what to do. I got infected and I didn't want to go without a fight… I—"

"What?" he said, horrified.

"She had me use some spray... then used it on herself and turned into that thing. I went back to get it. I'm sorry..." she replied as she gingerly held him with one arm as the other clung to the laptop.

His shoulders dropped as he embraced her a little tighter. She had stayed in that building with a hostile BOW, getting evidence, because she thought she was going to die away. If he had just told her she'd had the vaccine, she might have actually ran away like she should have.

"Would you stop apologizing? You're going to be okay... You would have turned by now. You're going to be okay," Chris coached to try and get her to calm down. It took a few minutes but she eventually started to believe him and relaxed.

"How's she holding up," Jill asked, kneeling down as well. Recognition showed in Emma's eyes.

"Jill, right?" Emma asked, and Jill nodded. She knew the Wolf Squad. "Can you get these to Night Howl..." she asked as she attempted to hand over the laptop, which Jill accepted before Emma fished out the decorative aerosol can and handed it to Jill. If memory served her right Night Howl said something about being in a similar field of work as Tundra, and she said she did something with information? So that was probably the best person to get them to. "It has the virus and proof."

"You got some guts running around like that for a can and a laptop. Ever consider a career change?" Jill joked as Emma very emphatically shook her head no.

"I think I'm going to be a one-hit-wonder," she said with a soft chuckle. "I don't have it in me to do that again..."

"Good," Chris said with a mix of relief and concern, which earned him a weak chuckle from Emma. It took him a moment, but he eventually loosened his hold enough to be able to give her a quick kiss. He had almost lost her. She was alive. He tried sorting through the range of emotions. He was terrified, worried, kind of mad, but ultimately relieved. "Let's get you fixed up."

"Yes, please," Emma replied before giving him a peck in return. "Everything hurts..." she admitted with a weak smile. "And if that's not enough evidence... I think I'm just going to look for a different job."

This caused Chris to give a half-hearted chuckle as he picked her up to carry her back to his car.


FanNatic over-explaining fun times x'D because I don't trust myself with my own plot X'DD feel free to skip.

The way Veronica was distributing the virus was with test samples of the makeup. Aerosol requires a liquid and a condensed gas to work and the Arias virus required both of those. so by combining the two, in one smaller container, it made it easier to infect a specific target rather than a large population. Her logic was that, she wanted to stop aging so by using something aggressive like the virus which already had regenerative cellular properties that would target the cells of the body, she could make some form of anti-aging product and she didn't care how many people died for her to get that. They were trying to be smart about testing by having the body parts cut up before testing on it so it would just, grow new skin or something and not attack them but inevitably when working with an aerosol someone accidentally sprayed themself and caused the highrise incident. Chris gave her the vaccine way back in chapter 10 which is within the 3-year time frame to keep it from turning her.