Read this or you will be confused, lol. This is a chapter I'm adding in post. It will be the new chapter 45 and show Chris's side of what happened in the village. I didn't want to cause confusion, though, so I'm going to leave it as the newest chapter until next week to give everyone the chance to read it before I move it into its proper place.

With that out of the way, please enjoy this flash back to Chris's perspective of the village. Watch the DLC is going to come out and spit in my face because I wrote this and be like NO this is what actually happened. Do it CapCom. You won't. I'll tempt fate if it means we all get to play the game x'D

Song Suggestion: Emperor's New Clothes by Panic! at the Disco

Disclaimer: This chapter contains spoilers for the contents of the game Resident Evil Village and show combat scenes with mature themes, violence and gore. I'm assuming if you're reading this you've played the game, and you're probably fine with that, but you've been warned. If you're not in a great mental state. This is not the chapter to read. I own nothing, and I am not associated or affiliated with CapCom. Please don't sue, k, thanks.


Despite the rough take-off from the BSAA HQ, Hound Wolf Squad managed to make shake the few scrambled pilots who tried to follow them. It cost them valuable time and fuel, but the price was worth the lead it gave them. It was January 18th, at 9 pm in Romania by the time they found a place to land, the helicopter's tank was almost empty. There was no turning back, so the team got to work.

Chris carried one of the storage containers out of the back of the helicopter and placed it on the snowy ground by Canine and Umber Eye. "How are we looking so far?"

"It's not great," Umber Eye admits as he works on packing up as much as he could into various rucksacks for the team to carry. "I was able to get a hold of Tiger Orca. They're on board to help, but they're trying to stay under the radar. This little stun put a good size target on our back. It will probably take them a few more days before they can join us." He continued packing as he spoke, and moved to open the newly provided box to start sifting through the contents. "I sent Night Howl and Tundra ahead to try and set up camp. We only have what we can carry until Tiger orca arrives with a resupply and fuel. For now, we should only take the necessities."

"It's a start at least," Chris says with a forced neutral expression before

"Here," Umber eye says before lightly tossing a wireless radio over to Chris. "It's not much, just an old fashion open wave radio, but it's the best I could do on short notice to stay in contact with the other two. We can't rely on any of the closed line communication devices we packed. They all go directly back to HQ, so they'll be able to pinpoint our location in a second. Tiger Orca should have their phones on them but, again, it's safer to avoid calling."

"Makes sense," He stated before activating the radio. "Night Howl, Tundra, this is Alpha. Do you read me?"

It took a few moments, but a fuzzy response from Tundra was heard through the static. "So you're still alive. Night Howl and Tundra reporting in."

"What's your current status," Chris asks with a half-hearted smile.

"We're closing in on the target location," Night Howl announced through the radio. "We should have line of sight in an hour."

"Good, but our priority is to secure a proper base of operation. Don't get too close," Chris warned as Lobo made his way over with another container.

"Understood, Over and out." Night Howl said before a blip from the radio announced that he closed the line.

"Well, you guys heard them. We have an hour to be ready to move out and join them," Chris states while hooking the radio to his belt.

It took some time but between the four of them managed to unload the remaining supplies, divide them out into the 4 large ruck sacks and put back everything they decided against taking with them. Munitions, explosives, rations and medicine filled each corner that wasn't already claimed by pistols, rifles and laptops. Much to Lobo's dismay, the laser guided RPG system he worked so hard to sneak out of HQ, did not make the cut and was left behind.

Almost exactly on the hour, another blip came from the radio announcing a new message. "Come in Alpha. This is Tundra, do you read me?"

Chris retrieved the radio from his belt and activated it. "Loud and clear."

"Target location is in sight," Tundra stated, though her voice seemed distant.

"Holy shit... The tip was right. This place is real. There's a whole village down there," Night Howl adds but clears his throat after a reverent pause. "We have eyes on a set of active smokestacks to the south. That should help find our location."

"Understood. Is your current location secure?" Chris asks while the others started getting ready to leave.

"Confirmed. We're all-clear for the supply drop captain,"

Chris moved to shoulder one of the Ruck sacks. "Supplies in route, we'll be there soon."

"Over and out,"

"Look alive, keep your night vision goggles on and ready," Chris warns, earning a few confirmations in return as Canine, Lobo and Night Howl follow his lead. minutes turned to hours, and the all-nighter extended into its second night. Their marching step crunched through the snow-covered forest floor and echoed through the leaf-less trees that creaked in the wind. By the 9th hour of their trip, smoke could be seen on the horizon.

"Smoke stacks," Umber Eye gestured to the source before looking at his compass. "Due north. they're on the other side then."

"We'll need to circle around then, and avoid being seen, it's hard to say if the locals will take our side or not," Chris states before looking at Lobo. "Keep an eye out for a new landing site for the helicopter while we walk. we're going to want to keep that close in case we need a quick get away."

"You're really going to make me go back and move it, aren't you..." Lobo asks with a squinting, deadpan stare.

"Once we reconnect with Tiger Orca we'll have off-road transportation and fuel. It won't take that long if we have a place in mind now." Chris affirms before a somewhat smug smirk formed. "unless you can't handle flying it. That's fine, I can take over. It's a particularly difficult maneuver for a rookie to pull off."

"Hey hey hey, Not cool. That's not what I said," Lobo grumbled before nudging Chris. "Rookie my ass," he says under his breath before taking the lead to go around the village.

The round about path lead to another several hours long hike. Exhaustion was setting in, but by noon they found comfort in the sight of several tents and familiar faces. Just to be safe, Chris took out the radio once more. "Calling in a status update. Supplies are set for arrival."

"Status update received. I'll send Night Howl out to collect, confirm your location?"

"Got it, camp is in sight with the smoke states to the south," Chris states. It took a minute, but Night howl exited the circle of tents with a wide smile and waved at the group.

"Took you guys long enough," Night Howl states as he walks over and takes the ruck sack from Canine. "You guys look like shit." he adds with a laugh.

"I feel like it too," Canine admits while gratefully handing over the heavy bag. "What day is it?"

"It's the 19th bud. A little past noon," Night Howl replies while giving the youngest team member a pat on the back.

"Everyone, try and get a few hours of sleep. We'll take shifts for now," Chris states as they walk into the camp. "Lobo, Umber eye, you two rest up first. Tundra, Night Howl set up a perimeter and kept watch. I want check in's every 30 minutes, we're not taking chances here. Canine and I will stay here and work on unpacking. In 4 hours, we'll rotate positions. Camp shifts to rest. Rest shifts to perimeter duty and perimeter shifts to camp maintenance until we've had time to catch our breath."

"Yes sir," The group response in unison before stepping into action.

'*'*'*'*'

The changing of the guard went well enough. 4 hours of sleep was not enough after being awake for over 48 hours, but it was a start. Lobo and Umber Eye took over perimeter duty, which allowed Chris and Canine to get some shut-eye. Lobo trudge through the snow, following the trail of footsteps left behind by the others from their watch. As he did so, a figure in the distance caught his attention. A blond woman, probably in her late twenties or early thirties, was walking around in dressed in turn of the century clothing with a panicked expression.

"Turn around," Lobo said under his breath. he really didn't want to do this. From what he knew, they looked like a local. "Come on, turn around." He waited, but to his dismay, the woman continued getting closer to camp. "...Shit." Lobo kept his fire arm at the ready, but slowly started closing the gap to sneak up behind the frantically searching lady. As he got closer, a branch snapped under his foot, forcing him to quickly find cover to avoid being seen. The situation went from bad to worse as she started walking back towards the sound. He held his breath, counted down from 5 and once she was close enough he left the brush he was hiding in to hit the woman in the back of the head and knocked her out. "How is it that Civilians always get involved in this garbage," He grumbled as he moved to tied the woman's arms behind her back before putting her over his shoulder. The heavy weapons expert activated his radio as he started walking back to camp. "This is Lobo. I'm heading back to camp. I got a curious local in tow. we might be able to get some information out of them."

"Rodger that," Tundra replied.

The hike back was certainly not pleasant. Lobo's legs were already screaming from the 14-hour hike he just finished. Carrying his own weight was hard enough, let alone the weight of an extra person. Even then, he eventually made his way back and put the woman down next to the fire.

"Where's Alpha?" Lobo asked as he moves to sit with the other four on the other side of the fire.

"He's still waking up. It should only take him a few moments," Umber Eye replied as he pokes at the fire with a branch to keep it active.

The warmth and scent of the fire seemed to do the trick as the knocked out woman slowly stirred and struggled to sit up while speaking Romanian.

"So you think she's one of the villagers?" Canine asked while keeping an eye out for any sudden movement.

"Right, sorry. English. It's been a while. Hey there." The woman said as she corrects her initial greeting.

"She's an American." Night Howl mumbled with a stunned expression. "How the hell did you get here?"

"Vacation gone very, very wrong..." She says with a laugh as she seemed unfazed about being tied up. "Are you the BSAA?" She asked which surprised them once more and at this point, Chris walked out of his tent to join the conversation and took a seat with the others.

"Who are you?" Chris asks while trying to wake up. This was just what he needed, an interruption to the limited sleep he was going to get.

"Charlotte... Mayweather," The woman hesitantly replied. "I heard your radio chatter. You're lucky the villagers don't know English."

"You're not one of them then? So why are you here."

"That is a really long story." she admitted in return. "to sum it up, I went hiking. I got lost, ended up in Miranda's lab, and was put on death row like every other sap that gets lost out here, but managed to bullshit my way out of it by offering to help her in exchange for my life. I've been trying to sabotage her work ever since. I thought I could handle this but, it's gotten out of control..."

"You helped her? So you are one of them," Chris pointed out with some level of disgust.

"Okay, easy for you to say. I didn't want to get eaten alive. That was my alternative," She scowled. "I sent in the tip because I can't get people out anymore... I." she paused, "One of my allies who was helping me get people out... he got caught. I've been on a short leash ever since."

"You should have called in the tip off the bat and left this to professionals," He replies with a frown. "Where is Miranda now?"

"WOW if only I thought to call the organization of professionals that I didn't know existed until a few months ago! Maybe my friends might not be dead! Yeah sure, by the way, Mr. professional, this is a great place to camp if you're trying to end up dead in the night," Charlotte says with a frown. "I've managed to survive being in this place for a year and a half. I might know a few things you don't. So don't fucking patronize me when I'm trying to tell you, you don't have to start from scratch."

Lobo covered his mouth as he snorted and tried not to laugh while Chris glared at him.

"So, let's try this again." Charlotte said with an irritated smile. "Hi I'm Charlotte. I called you here to help protect people who need it and don't realize they're in danger. Over the last year and a half, I've gotten a lay of the land, access to pretty much all the buildings, and became allies with the ONE person that has an army that can help you. I know basically every lord's daily schedule and can get you anything and anywhere within this village. What's your name?"

Chris took a breath to calm himself before looking at her once more. "Chris Redfield."

"Chris. Nice to meet you," she says with her best customer service voice. "I'd be more than happy to help you and your team in any way possible to help assure the safety of the villagers if you would be so kind as to untie me."

"How do we know we can trust what you're saying?" Tundra asked with a skeptical glance.

Charlotte nudged at her pinafore to push her phone out. "The tip you received has a phone number with it. Turn on my phone, and text the number you received with the tip. that should confirm that I am who I say I am." She answered. "And we really kinda want to put some hustle on this. I wasn't joking when I said you picked a dumb spot. This is Lycan territory, and the sun is about to go down. They love to stay by the factory since Heisenberg gives them marching orders."

"What's a Lycan?" Umber Eye asked as he took the phone and power it up as requested. He made his way back to his seat while digging out his own phone so he could look up the tip to find the number and call it.

Charlotte remained silent during the process. "and there you have it." she said after her phone started to ring. "And as for your question, I don't really know what they are... I know they used to be villagers, but they turned into these. things."

"Bioweapons..." Chris muttered quietly.

"Maybe? I dunno it's got something to do with mold and a parasite that Miranda calls a Cadou..."

"You don't think this is another baker incident, do you?" Canine asked while looking at Chris.

"It's hard to say," Chris replies before getting up and walking over to Charlotte to untie her. "Tell us what you know."

"Gladly, while walking though. We don't have enough time to move all your supplies now, but I know a place you guys can safely rest for the night," Charlotte agrees.

"Alright..." he hesitantly agrees. "Hound Wolf squad, pack it up," he orders and goes to gather what gear he can carry. If they were getting closer to the village, he wanted to have some supplies at least.

Charlotte waits until they were done and starts leading the way down the mountain towards the reservoir. "Moreau rarely comes out at night, he's docile as a lamb unless provoked." she explains as she walks. "The lords are all what Miranda considered to be failed experiments to bring back her child named Eva. This apparently wasn't her only attempt. She mentioned some Eveline project."

"She was connected to the Louisiana outbreak too?" Canine rhetorically asks before muttering under his breath. "So this is another baker incident."

"Not sure when that happened, but this has been going on for over a hundred years. The four lords and Miranda are considered immortals and honestly, I'd believe it. I've seen what they're capable of." Charlotte replies. "Luckily for you guys, the strongest of the four is your best chance at an ally. I'll try and introduce you guys sometime that isn't now because if I don't get back to the castle by curfew, you'll be short a mole."

The group continued to ask questions, which Charlotte answered in turn as they make their way down the mountainside. It took a while, but they manage to get to the reservoir as the sunsets. Once there, she leads them to a small abandoned boat house on the water.

"Here, the villagers aren't using these right now since fishing season is more or less done," she says as she lets them into the building. "Moreau tends to go for a morning swim. When he's out in the water, make sure you're quiet. he doesn't have full control of his beast, and he tends to move towards sound."

Chris nods. "I think this got missed before... Where is Miranda now?"

"She's been gone for at least three months now. almost four. She left in October."

"What?" Chris asks with a tone of anger and concern.

"Yeah, kinda thought I mentioned that in my tip. She's trying to steal a baby. She can change her physical form," she replied.

"We're changing plans and leaving as soon as possible. We need to get there before she takes Rose by any means necessary." Chris says with a frown.

"What?" Charlotte says as her shoulders drop. "But. You just got here. There are people in danger. Here."

"We'll come back after," Chris confirms.

Charlotte frowns as presses her lips together before walking away.

'*'*'*'*'

Just like Chris said. Hound Wolf squad only spent a few days in the village before leaving to go and find Miranda. January turned to February as days stretched into weeks. If it wasn't for Tiger Orca they would have never been able to confirm that Miranda swapped places with Mia. Getting access to a blood test was crucial, since it seemed she wasn't able to change her blood type. Even with the weeks of effort, the team of twelve had no idea where the real Mia went, How long Miranda had been in Mia's place and worse still, if Ethan had been in on the plan. How else could Mia have been so easily replaced?

Chris watched the winter's abode with night vision goggles and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Months of planning lead up to this. They needed to take out Miranda and get Rose to a new, safe location to make sure she wouldn't be used as a bioweapon.

"I've got eyes on the package," says one of the members of Tiger orca.

"Confirmed. Package is solo in second floor nursery," Another adds.

"They let their guard down, on my signal we move. Collect the target and make sure Miranda is dead. Hound Wolf will escort Rose to the new safe house while Tiger Orca takes Miranda's remains back to BSAA Europe's HQ. Understood?" A collection of confirmation was received. "Alright. Ready... Aim..." He looked down his sight into the winter's home to see Ethan and the disguised Miranda talking at the dinner table. "fire!"

Tiger Orca's sniper took the shot and to the horror of the team, they watched as the bullet to the heart did Nothing. a blood splatter formed on her shirt as she looked around in confusion.

"Cut the lights, open fire!" Chris barked out orders and the group of 12 sprang into action. 6 Tiger Orca members riddled bullets through various windows looking into the home and targeted the false wife. Stray bullets took out various lights and bottles as Ethan moved to hide under the table to avoid getting hit. Though electricity wasn't the greatest concern as the remaining 6 Hound Wolf members worked on infiltration. Night Howl cut the power to the house as the other 4 broke in through various doors and windows. Chris similarly made his way into the dark house.

As the gun fire came to a stop, Chris walked into the dining room, where he could see and here Ethan cowering.

"Mia. Oh god," Ethan whispered.

Chris walked over and effortlessly flung the dinning room table out of the way, so he could keep a close eye on Ethan.

"Chris? What the hell?!" Ethan shouts as fear turned to anger, though his legs refused to move.

He still didn't trust that Ethan wasn't involved somehow, but even then, there was a moment of hesitation. "Sorry, Ethan," He says before looking at the unmoving figure between them.

"NO!" Ethan shouts as he realized what was about to happen, only to watch in horror as Chris unloaded a few bullets into Mia's head and flinched with each impact. "What? Why?!" Ethan asks in horrified rage while still too stunned to move. More shattering glass could be heard as the room filled with Tiger Orca members who were ready to provide back up and kept their weapons aimed at Ethan.

Chris remained quiet while thinking over what to do at this point. "Tie him up. We're bringing him with..." He states before turning and walking away, so he could regroup with his team by the front door. This would be the end of it. 3 years of work and finally, he'd get some answers. The soft sound of an infant crying came to ear along with heavy footsteps as Canine walked down the stairs with Rosemary Winters in his arms.

"Go on, move," said one of the two tiger orca members as they pushed Ethan to try and get him to move towards the door while a second member walks past them.

"All clear," the second says as Night Howl Walks past Ethan.

"Rose?" He asked quietly before realizing that Night Howl was handing over Rose to Chris. "What the hell are you doing with my daughter?!" Ethan snarled while trying to rush forward, only to be stopped by the agent that pushed him before.

There was a moment of pause as Canine looked at Ethan before turning his attention back to "Package Secure, Sir." He hesitantly states while gently handing Rose over.

"Take him away," Chris stated, sparing Ethan a passing glance before turning to walk away with Rose.

"I said get your hands off her!" Ethan shouted as he tried to grab Chris's shoulder to stop him.

"Ethan, No" Chris warned, but it wasn't in time as Ethan was promptly knocked out by the nearest member of Tiger Orca.

"Rose," Ethan weakly said while trying to reach for her in his last moments of consciousness.

"... Get him out of here," Chris said while staring down at the knocked out father. His instructions were followed without question. "Alright, we have a lot to do and not much time to do it. I want three people in each car. You three, you'll be in the car with Miranda and Ethan." He ordered, while walking over to one of the four Vehicles, so he could put Rose down in the baby seat they prepared ahead of time. "The three remaining Tiger Orca members will guard Rose. Hound wolf will escort. three in the front most Vehicle, three in the rear. We'll ride together for now before splitting off. Rear security will follow Miranda and Ethan to HQ while front security escorts rose to the safe house. Once this is done, we'll work on extracting the villagers."

"Sir Yes, sir," the soldiers all replied in unison. Within a matter of minutes, they managed to pack up and start driving.

The drive should have been quiet. Everything was going to plan. the groups split up and yet roughly an hour after doing so a dark raven like monstrosity landed on the escort car for Rose. With a resounding screech of tearing metal, the top of the armored SUV was ripped open.

"Shit shit shit," Chris repeated while quickly turning the car in a tight U turn to face the monster. Just as quickly as it arrived, it took flight and disappeared, and the torn up SUV was left to careen Head long into the one Chris was driving. He was left face to face with the remains of what used to be the other vehicle's driver. a hole had been pierced clean through their skull. "Damn it!" Chris shouts while punching the steering wheel. "Get me on the phone with the other Convoy," Chris says while trying to put the car in reverse, so he could get around the wreckage and carnage.

Night Howl got to work on that and tried dialing the number. "They're not picking up."

"Call again," Chris orders while making his way back down the road to try and find the other convoy.

"They're still not answering," Night Howl says.

"Then keep calling," Chris irritatedly barked back as he focused on driving. This was not going to be another failure.

Night Howl continued to call each member of Tiger Orca with no success. He couldn't put it off forever, though, and he slowly started dialing the number for Umber Eye, fearing the worst. No answer. after another thirty minutes, they found another wreckage. two cars toppled over with the back of one ripped to shred with bodies littering the ground. "... If they're alive, they'd head back to camp to regroup..." Night Howl finally says with a solemn tone.

Chris set the GPS to the coordinates from Charlotte's tip. The map updated, providing new directions, and they were quickly followed. "They're alive," Chris says while trying to focus on the road until they came to a break in the guard rail that would allow them to drive off-road.

The breaking SUV bumped and rattled down the path it forcefully made. an hour in to the drive, the trees slowly shifted and swayed in an un natural way as their bark became sickly and dark. the ground grew dense with mud that slowly caused the heavy vehicle to sink and stall.

"Looks like we're going the rest of the way on foot. Stay alert. It's safest to work under the assumption that we didn't kill Miranda. She could be anywhere." Chris warns as he powers down the SUV and gets his weapon read. Night Howl and Canine do the same and follow behind him through the snow and mud covered forest. The fog from their own breath made it difficult to see at times, but they pushed forward all the same.

"What the Hell is that..." Canine asks with quiet disgust while staring at something hanging from the trees. The three cautiously approached and found a decapitated goat's head hanging from the branch that Canine pointed out before. "That's disgusting..."

"We're getting close," Chris says while trying not to focus on it. "Keep moving."

They continued through the trees, and as they did so, ropes and mist became more and more plentiful. Goat heads and dolls were left to hang from the branches and as they got deeper in to the forest the dolls became bigger and graves began to litter the forest floor.

Chris

Chris looked around as he heard his name on the wind. His breath caught in his throat as he recognized the voice. "That's not possible." Chris says under his breath.

"Are you okay, boss?" Night Howl asks with a raised eyebrow.

Save us. Please. Help us.

The voices began to multiple and grow louder, causing Chris's breathing to labor. he knew those voices. he knew all of them. How were they here? He couldn't get distracted, though, he needed to focus.

"Chris?" Asked a woman's voice as clear as day. Standing in the distance was a face he didn't think he'd ever see again.

Chris stared at his mother with wide eyes and a pained frown before he shook his head. "No. You died. It was a car crash. It was thirty years ago. This isn't real," Something was messing with his head. Chris looked around to find he was alone. "Night Howl? Canine!"

"You're no fun. I wanna play, I wanna play, I wanna play," Chanted a childish voice that cackled.

Chris quickly looked around trying to figure out where the echoing voice was coming from before feeling a sharp pain in his back. He could hear the same cackling behind him as he reached back and grabbed whatever it was that was on his back, finding a porcelain doll dressed in a wedding gown that was holding blood soaked scissors.

"Uh oh... uhh. I-I don't wanna play anymore," The doll nervously announced while swinging its scissors at him. "Let go of me. Let go. you're stupid. you're ugly. Let go!"

Acting out of fear, Chris quickly threw the doll as far away from him as he could before firing a tirade of bullets in the direction he threw it.

"Jesus Christ Alpha, a warning!" Canine yelps as he quickly backs out of the way and the illusion drops.

"I think he's finally snapped," Night Howl says confused. "What happened to your back?"

"We need to get out of here... Now," Chris urgently ordered while leading the way. any way that would get them far from here.

'*'*'*'*'

The forest eventually thinned as the village came into view along with the morning sun. What was once a somewhat active community was littered with corpses and pools of blood. Seeing little reason to be particularly stealthy at this point, the Trio quickly ran through the village to the other side of the forest. through the trees and all the way back to the helicopter, which Lobo did inevitably move closer to the village.

As they approached the helicopter, three figures also came into view. "Alpha? Tundra, Lobo, they're here," Umber Eye happily announced. "Boy are you three a sight for sore eyes."

"Same to you. We didn't have you too worried, did we?" Night Howl asked with an attempt at a confident grin.

"Just glad to see you're all in one piece," Umber Eye admits. "We're just as lucky. For the most part..."

"What does that mean?" Canine asks as a sense of dread set in.

"Tundra got hit pretty good during Miranda's escape, She got hit in the shoulder by a piece of scrap metal."

"You're sure it was Miranda? We shot her 30 times, at least. Alpha put five bullets in her head point-blank," Canine shook his head in disbelief. If she was still alive after all that, maybe she really was immortal.

"I can only assume that was her, since the SUV in front of us toppled over as something exploded out of the back and flew off." Umber Eye frowned despite his best efforts to keep a neutral expression. "It's not Ideal, but she's going to need a bit more time to rest. The injectors are working the wound's practically closed at this point, but walking the whole way here after all that. I wouldn't push it. she needs at least a few more hours to catch her breath."

Chris nods "Alright. Well, we can't just do nothing..."

"I'm not so sure cap, I mean you kinda lost it earlier. Are you sure you're okay to keep going?" Night Howl points out, earning a heard stare for it.

"I'm fine." Chris insists. "Lobo get over here!" Chris called and waits for the heavy weapon's expert to join them. "Here's the new plan. Umber Eye will stay here with Tundra. I'll go back to the village with Lobo, Night Howl, and Canine. We'll get Lobo to a defensible position in the center of the village. While there, He'll fill Tundra's role and set up a base of operations. That boat house from before seemed like a useful asset as well. I'll get Night Howl and Canine set up there. I need you two to focus on analyzing the mold, so we know what we're fighting because clearly we got it wrong."

"What about you?" Umber Eye asked with a knowing frown.

"I'll go off on my own from there. Our tipster from before said these things use the factory as a hub of sorts. they like to gather around it because the one controlling them lives there. I'll make my way in, and destroy the place to flush out the last of them."

"By yourself?" Umber eye repeated.

"It's better than leaving Tundra on her own, she's a sitting duck if she's still recovering. She needs you more than I do right now." Chris offered in his own defense.

"I don't thi-"

"I'm not asking," Chris pointedly stated, which causes Umber Eye to remain quiet.

"Alright," He said and takes a few steps back. "You guys heard the man. Get to work. I'll be here."

There's an unusual moment of hesitation, but the remaining three sound off in compliance and follow Chris's lead back down the mountain. By the time they made it back to the village center, it was around one in the afternoon. After a bit of help from Night Howl, Lobo was left in an abandoned church, which seemed to be one of the few buildings that were still in good shape.

Chris, Night Howl and Canine made their way to the Reservoir after this. One PM turned to three. then four. Chris and Canine would take turns running off to get samples for Night Howl to test. Chris was about to leave for another run when the sound of grunts and creaking floorboards caught his attention.

"Get off of me!"

"Stay the Fuck down," Canine snarled, which finally got Chris to look over and see that somehow. some way. Ethan actually managed to not only survive Miranda's escape, but he made it all the way back to the village. Just to end up pinned to the ground by Canine.

"Ethan," Chris says with annoyed amusement. " I gotta say, I'm surprised you made it this far." He admits. The guy never did pay attention during training. the fact he still had most of his fingers and all his toes was a miracle in and of itself. "It'd be a shame if something happened to you now."

"Sure Chris, Why not? you killed Mia!" Ethan accused while trying to get away from Canine. "Now do me and finish the job!"

Chris frowned at that. If this guy kept getting in the way, he just might have to. He wordlessly pushed himself to stand up from his leaning position against the wall of the boat house, and starts walking over to Ethan.

"Hey Cap, I'm getting some serious motion readings out here, We should move on." says Night Howl which causes Chris to stop and look at the man behind him.

"What kind of readings? what's moving?" Chris asks as he elects to ignore Ethan.

"Unknown, but my guess is we've been here too long, and Miranda knows it," Night Howl admits with a frown behind his gear.

"Hey, Hey, did you say Miranda?" Ethan asks, "How are you involved?"

Chris turns his attention back to Ethan and points at him, "Leave it alone, Ethan. You are out of your depth." He sneered before he turned his attention back to Night Howl. "What about the sample analysis?"

"It's definitely related to the mold."

Ethan finally pushes himself to stand as Chris walks over to investigate an unusual sound as a large creature pops out of the water for a split second.

Night howl walks around the outside of the house as Chris heads over to Ethan, pointing once more. "You stay out of our business, Ethan," he says in an accusing tone

"What business? I don't-"

"God! Watch out!" Chris shoves Ethan, hoping to get him out of the way of the charging creature. only to get thrown back through a wall while flailing to try and keep his balance. The impact of the icy cold water and debris falling on top of him proved to be too much and knocked him out. He only started regaining his consciousness as he felt himself being dragged. Panic caused him to quickly sputter and cough to get the water out of his lungs.

"Oh thank god you're not dead," Charlotte says as she flops back to sit and rest for a second. Everything hurts.

"You. You're still alive?" Chris asks as he pushes himself to get up.

"What can I say, I'm really, really stubborn," she admitted with a tired laugh. "and I need your help..."

Hearing that caused him to pause. "Alright," He agrees as Charlotte pushes herself to stand as well before getting her coat.

"We need to get to the factory. Quickly. Follow me."

"You can get into the factory?" Chris asks stunned. He'd kinda figured he'd have to fight tooth and nail to get in there.

"Like I said before. I can get into all the buildings here, and Karl isn't so bad once you get to know him. Same with Moreau actually... Sorry about," she gestures to the area where the building was. "That... It's not him... He can't control that form, and he has to use it sometimes, or it hurts him," she explains before motioning for Chris to follow her. "There isn't a lot of time, but we can still stop Miranda."

Chris nods and follows Charlotte over to the slice gate, which just got a few dozen times more dangerous as there was now a rampant fish monster slamming around in the reservoir. "Hold on tight. This is the fastest way across with the least Lycans. That's going to help a fair bit since we're both unarmed at this point."

"I still have a knife," Chris counters and follows.

"Oh good," Charlotte replies. "They can pick their teeth after they finish eating," she adds before bracing for another impact. "It's best to just avoid them completely, right no-OW!" her last word became more panicked as an unexpected impact came along while she was stepping on Ice. She nearly fell off the gate, only to be caught by the wrist and pulled back before she could fall. She clung to the railing once more and looks between where she almost fell and Chris.

"Guess we're even," he said with an attempt at a smile, only for her to glare at him in return.

Her silence only lasted until they were safely off the gate. "We're absolutely not remotely close to even," Charlotte said as she caught her breath now that they were safely on the other side of the gate. "I told you there were well over a hundred people who needed help. I told you what was happening here, and you left," she says before continuing to lead the way. "But you're here now... so maybe you can still help us."

Chris remains silent, but followed. he needed to get into the factory to shut it down. As they made their way to the factory's main gates, the sound of rushing water and alert siren announced that the sluice gates had been opened.

Chris watched as Charlotte shook her head and continued to push herself to walk forward until she got to the main gate. "Karl! Karl, open the gate."

No answer.

"Well crap... He must be out... Sorry, I can't open it myself," Charlotte admits with a frown as she tried to figure out what to do.

"You've never climbed a fence?" Chris asked, confused before moving to do so. If this was the only security, then this was going to be easier than he'd thought. There was barbed wire at the top, but that was easy enough to get around with well-placed footing.

"have yo- dumb question, of course you have," she says as she watches him begin to do so with easy. she shook her head and attempts to climb the fence.

Chris managed to get over in a matter of a few seconds and hopped down, to nimbly land on his feet. He stood up to dust himself off as Charlotte not so gracefully belly flops behind him with a yelp, due to getting her skirt caught in the barbed wire. The sound caused him to pause and look back to find the woman lying there. "Come on," he says as he offers a hand to help her get up.

She stared at the offered hand, seeming confused, for a few moments before she accepted it and got up so she could continue leading the way to the factory.

Chris watched as Charlotte attempted to nudge the heavy steel door open with no success. "Move," Chris said and Charlotte complied, giving him the space to effortlessly open the door.

"Boulder punching. Got it." She says with a nod.

"You know about that?" he asked, a bit surprised as they walk in.

"Saw it on your company website profile," Charlotte explained, earning a few grumbles in response.

"I thought I told them to take that part off," He said with an embarrassed frown.

"Come on, it's not much further. He asked me to bring you to the 5th level." Charlotte explains and Chris nods. Luckily, this place was considerably warmer than it was outside. The two had to pass by several rooms with mechanically enhanced bioweapons to get to the elevator. "How are you holding up?"

"I've been better, also been worse, so." he shrugs.

"I mean, do you need anything? Medicine, bandages. I'd offer a change of clothes, but I honestly have no idea where he keeps anything in this place aside from the medkit..."

"No," Chris replies as they step onto the elevator.

"Mk," she shrugged as she worked the elevator, causing it to lower them further into the factory.

as the elevator descended, Chris Crossed his arms and waited. "... You've really been here for a year and a half?"

"Yep." She says with a slight bobbing nod. "feels like longer. Yet like no time at all..." she admits as they waited. "There were a few times I could have run for it, but I couldn't get myself to do it... I couldn't leave everyone here, knowing I was in a rare position that I could fight back for people that couldn't..."

"I see," he says with quiet hesitance. "So did they end up experimenting on you too?"

"Luckily no," Charlotte replies as she stops the elevator at the 5th level and pushes the button to get the door to open so they could leave. "That was my deal with Miranda. I'd help her and in return, she'd leave me alone. I pointed out if she did experiment on me, I'd be useless. Managed to get myself into a pretty cushy place where I was able to really make a difference until about 7 months ago. She started catching on to what I was doing and sent me to the castle." She says with a short laugh before holding up her hands to show the now callused, cracked, and scared digits. "They didn't look like this before I got here." She adds with an attempt at a smile as if she was saying 'ta-dah'.

Chris nods to show he was listening while trying to avoid eye contact. This place was a mess.

"But now you're here, and we can work together," Charlotte says with a hopeful tone. "You, Me, Karl, Moreau, and that other guy he was talking about. The kid's father," she listed off while looking around as well.

"Ethan," Chris says surprised.

"Maybe? Karl never mentioned his name, only that he wanted to try and get him on our team," She says as she finally turned her attention back to Chris.

Chris shakes his head. "That's not happening. Look, you've been through a lot, but this place is crawling with bioweapons, it's not safe."

"So you don't want to take down Miranda... because that's what we're trying to do," Charlotte says as some annoyance started to eat away at her.

"I'm taken down Miranda and all of this as well. Bioweapons are dangerous, we can't let any of them leave the area..." Chris counters.

Charlotte remained silent as her angered expression was difficult to mask. "Fine. Fine, just." she paused while trying to think of a new plan. "You're going to want that thing then," she said, gesturing off to some strange tank like device that was nestled off to the side of the garbage heap of a room. "It's made of a metal Polymer Composite. So, Heisenberg can't control it. He ended up abandoning the project because of that, so if you can figure out how it works. Be my guest."

Chris nodded in approval, "Nice. That will definitely help," he said with a smile as he walks over to check it out by knocks his knuckles against it. "Weird. feels like metal."

"Oh yeah, no, that's the polymer part. See it looks and feels like metal, but it's really more just reinforced plastic," She says as she just goes with it.

"Weird..." he says and moves on.

"Yeah, I don't really get it either," she says with a shrug. "Anyways... I should probably go. sounds like you made up your mind."

"Yeah..." Chris pauses before speaking again. "If you don't mind, helping a bit more. We set up a secondary base in the village church. One of my Squad members should be there. Goes by Lobo. Can you try and reach him to get a supply drop?" Chris requests.

Charlotte thinks it over. "Alright. I'll be right back," She agrees and heads back to the elevator, leaving Chris on his own.

Once He was sure he was alone, he took out his phone to call Lobo. "Lobo? Hey. yeah, I'm fine, I've made it into the factory. There's a civilian in route. Get them back to the helicopter and order everyone to regroup there. We're going to need to work as a unit on this one. It's bigger than we thought," Chris stops to listen as he tinkers with the odd tank-like tractor. "I'm still good to clean out the factory. I got a good tip from that civilian before sending them off to meet you. I asked them to go to you to pick up supplies. they seem resistant to leave this place, so just work with that. Must be the trauma. Yeah. Survivor's guilt is a bitch. keep me posted. bye."

Chris got to work tinkering on the unusual tank, two hours or so had passed before he heard a distant shout. Chris quickly reached over and flipped a light switch. If it was dark, at least whoever it was wouldn't know he was here.

"Dammit again?"

Chris turned to try and find the source, only to hear the scraping sound of metal from a nearby vent. He wasn't sure if he was still amused or just pissed off at this point, but lo and behold, there was the every persistent Ethan Winter. How did he get down here without the elevator? Chris tried standing off to the side to stay out of view, but the place was basically an open junk pit. Ethan pushed some sheet metal out-of-the-way wandering closer to Chris's location. This dumbass was going to get spooked and end up shooting him. Frustration set in as he realized that Ethan was barely paying attention as he walked past Chris without seeing him. He was going to get himself killed at this rate.

"Give me that," Chris said as he grabs Ethan's pistol. This moron should not be handling any sort of fire arm. To Chris's annoyance, Ethan managed to keep a hold on the gun even though he was missing two fingers. In his frustration, Chris decked Ethan to get him to let go, causing the injured man to stumble and fall back. "I told you to leave it alone, Ethan," Chris scolds while staring down at the nuisance while emptying the chamber of Ethan's pistol, so he could take out the magazine. "You are in the way," he threw the emptied weapon off to the side and moved to walk away.

"What do you care, Chris?" Ethan asks as he pushed himself to get up. "You killed my wife, you son of a bitch!"

Hearing this caused him to pause and look back. "You think I'd kill Mia?" He asked, annoyed with the engineer who clearly only had three brain cells. "That wasn't her, It was Miranda."

"...What?" Ethan asks, understandably confused by that, since he only just learned that Miranda even existed about 24 hours ago.

"She's a Bioweapon. She changed her appearance and pretended to be Mia. It seems she also survived being shot," He says with an irritated scowl as he went back to tinker with the tank again. "So now I'm here to finish the job."

"Bullshit!" Ethan replied as he stormed over, grabbing on to Chris's shoulder to force the soldier to look at him. " Why didn't you fucking tell me right away?!"

"Because I knew you would want to be involved!" Chris shouted back while shifting to use Ethan's strength against him to pin the upset father against the tank. "...And this job is hard enough without civilians getting in the way." He adds, giving Ethan another shove before moving to go and find a part he needed to get the tank up and running again.

Ethan watched in Silence this time and stayed put. went he spoke again, a quieter, meeker voice was heard."Why us, Chris?" He asks while staring at the back of a friend turned enemy turned... he didn't know what. "What the hell is going on?"

"All right, Ethan. All right." Chris says, as his own tone became gentler. " I guess I owe you an explanation." he admitted as he turned to face Ethan once more. "Hand me that wrench," Chris requests as he walks back over to the tank with the part he needed. with the part in hand, he got to work, using the time to try and think of how to explain all of this. "Long story short. Miranda is fucking insane, and this village, all these monsters and freaks. This is her life's work. Some sort of crazy experiment with the mold."

"The Mold. Like Louisiana." Ethan moved to sit down and process this while thinking back on the nightmare that seemed to keep following him. "Goddammit... All this time, I thought I could save my family. I can't escape from here. I can't do anything!"

Chris tried to ignore the panicking tirade while he put the last few pieces of the tank together. With the last piece attached, the ramshackle, piecemeal tank started up. yet even now, sympathy was hard to ignore. "That might not be true," He'd been too hard on Ethan... for a civilian, he did well to survive this long. "Take a look." Chris says before reaching into his pocket to toss his phone over to Ethan, who miraculously caught it with a severely injured hand. "My men sent me those pictures a few minutes ago."

"Miranda..."

"Keep looking," Chris crossed his arms and waited.

"Rose! Holy shit, we've gotta go!" Ethan says as he scrambled to get up again. He collected the scattered pieces of his pistol from earlier and started quickly putting them back together.

"Relax, my men are monitoring the situation,"

"But they have my daughter," Ethan sneered as his anger and determination rekindled.

This is why he hated getting civilians involved, they don't think properly. "You don't get it, Ethan," He warned. "You don't stand a chance against Miranda by yourself" Chris walked back onto the tank and tested out the trigger for the main cannon like weapon which worked and fired an explosive blast at the elevator door to force it open once more. Was it necessary? No, but he was trying to prove a point. "I will stay down here and finish planting explosives. You take that elevator, and I'll meet you topside." Okay maybe he shouldn't have shot the elevator. At least it still works. probably. "I promise you, we will get your daughter back. Together,"

"Damn Straight we will" Ethan said through his teeth as he loaded a bullet into the chamber of his gun. "And when I find Miranda, She's a dead woman."

A half attempt at a laugh could be heard in response to the display of unfounded bravery. "All right Ethan," Chris said, still trying to hide his amusement. "Then you take this, and do me a favor... Try to stay under the radar,"

'*'*'*'*'

The sun began to set as Chris made his way to Hound Wolf Squad. While all 5 were geared up and ready to greet him, his attention fixated on one person as he rigidly stormed over to the civilian sitting in the open helicopter.

"You lied to me!" Charlotte shouted once she saw Chris and started fighting to get free of the Zip tied that held her arms behind her back.

"Yeah, well, you did too," Chris said with a sneer. "Fucking metal polymer."

"A metal-polymer still has METAL in it, dumbass!" Charlotte shouts the point that had been bothering her the whole time.

Chris's shoulders tensed up as he tried to hold himself back. Despite the urge to hit her, he slammed his fist against the button on the side of the helicopter wall. Gears whirled as the doors slowly started to close, giving Chris enough time to hop out to rejoin the others. Why did civilians always have to make things so complicated?

Chris took a breath before looking over to the team. "I think Ethan's dead," he admits, while trying to force down any emotions of guilt and anger. "I left him alone for a few minute. When I called him, Miranda was there. I could hear her and the call abruptly ended."

The five Hound Wold Squad members looked at each other in silence for a few moments as words failed them. It was quiet until Umber Eye spoke up. "I'll go check," The second in command calmly offers as he noticed Chris starting to shake. "Take a few minutes. Breathe, I'll get the team ready for the next phase of all this." He put a hand on Chris's shoulder. "We will take her down."

"... All right," Chris reluctantly agreed. "If you see Miranda do not engage."

"Understood captain." Umber Eye gave Chris's shoulder a pat before letting go. "There's still an SUV left by the helicopter. should work well enough for a bit of space away from the Civilian." With that Umber Eye, walked away and started handing out orders.

Chris took a moment to think over what he wanted to do, but he ultimately went to the SUV and sat in the driver's seat. He remained silent as he watched the sun set on another day of this nightmare. What should have been an easy enough transport mission turned into a descent to hell. It was hard to call this a moment of peace or even a moment of pause as his mind continued to race in a desperate attempt to think of a solution that would fix all of this. The sun had completely disappeared by the time his phone's ringtone caused him to jolt. He instinctively moved to answer it, holding it up to his ear. "What?"

"Captain... I've confirmed the death of Ethan winters," Umber Eye reverently states. " I wasn't able to retrieve the body but, I've recorded evidence."

Chris slowly exhaled as the news hit him... He didn't have time for this. He needed to focus. what did they need to do? He'd need a log for when they returned home. "Share your screen, and I'll go over the situation" Chris states as he set his phone to speakerphone and starts recording his screen. "My team and I were careless. Yesterday, We took down the transformed Miranda. but we didn't kill her."

"Who knew she could fake being a corpse," Umber eye comments under his breath while flipping through the various pictures he took to log the mission.

"Since Miranda could've infected Ethan, I forcefully took him and Rose with us, But the vehicle they were riding in was attacked. When I got to the wreck, Ethan and Rose were gone." he continued to watch as various pictures of the wreckage appeared on his screen, and occasionally tapped the screen to keep it from entering sleep mode. "The last time I was able to contact Ethan... I heard Miranda's voice. She murdered him, and she is not going to get away with it." Chris stared at the photo of Ethan's unmoving body that Umber Eye was able to take from a distance. He thought he'd be used to this by now, but anger set in, and he stopped the recording."Goddammit, when does it end?" He asks under his breath as he put the phone down and picked up a discarded pack of cigarettes that were bent and mishappened.

"What's that Sir? the Mission?"

"All of it," Chris put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. "Three years trying to put this thing in the ground... Three years too long."

Umber Eye remained silent for a few seconds, unsure of how to respond at first, but he eventually found the words. "We'll get her Captain, the squad is ready for you,"

Upon hearing this, Chris pushed himself to get out of the car, collecting his rifle along the way. As he closed the door the soft hum of an engine could be heard over head causing him to look up and see a BSAA Helicopter flying towards the village. "So, BSAA out here already. They didn't waste any time," He sarcastically remarked as he made his way back to the others.

"Mission adjustment?" Canine asked as he walked alongside Chris.

"No, It doesn't change anything," Chris put out the cigarette he barely got to use and tossed it. "Terminate Miranda, and rescue Rose. That's the Mission, and failure is not an option."

"Let's have some fun, People! Like old times," Lobo commented while resting a rather large machine gun against his shoulder while his other hand held his coveted RPG system.

"let's move out." Chris ordered and heard the usual cluster of confirmation in response. As everyone starts heading towards their various objectives, Chris moves to stop Canine. "Canine, I want to know what the hell BSAA is doing here. Find out what you can"

"Rodger that, I'm on it,"Canine confirmed before hurrying to follow the helicopter.

"Been a while since we fought together Captain. When was it last? The desert?" Lobo asked through the headset mic system.

"Doing nothing but recon's gotten me outta shape." Tundra added with a laugh as the group continued to spread out.

"but thanks to your recon, we know Miranda's plan," Chris pointed out while picking up the pace towards the village.

"Couldn't quite believe it when I heard she'd turned herself into Mia, Though" Canine chimed in.

"Taking Five shots to the head's nothing to sneeze at either. Spooky..." Night Howl joked.

Chris shook his head and tried to focus. as he walked out of the treeline and towards the path, he found Umber Eye Kneeling by a ledge, and using the scope of his sniper rifle to keep an eye on everyone. Chris moved to kneel next to Umber Eye, silently trying to think of what to say. Sorry? Thank you?

He didn't get the chance to say anything, as Umber Eye simply offered his gun to Chris. "Hey Alpha, look at this."

Chris accepted the offered weapon and looked down the scope. The building that was at one point their base of operation was now over run by bioweapons. Somehow these animalistic, humanoid, things managed to build a crude towering structure from various scraps and planks around the village. These, Lycans as Charlotte called them, were showing some Bronze Age level of sentience, as they'd even constructed patchwork armor from remaining scraps. some held tools as weapons, while others brandished bows with flaming arrows. Weapons they made for themselves.

The helicopter from before came into view and quickly stole Chris's attention."BSAA..." He watched as the helicopter tried to get as close to the structure as possible to drop off a few agents that were dangling from ropes. "They've gone too far," He warned as if they could hear him, only to watch as the living tar like vines that the lycans were trying to protect, lashed out. It grabbed the helicopter and effortless threw it across the sky. "Christ." Chris lowered the weapon with a pained expression before handing it back to Umber Eye.

"Looks pretty rough down there," Umber eye accepted the weapon back. "How are you planning on reaching the objective?"

"First we're going to have to take that thing out," Chris said, gesturing to the vine covered structure.

"I've got your back boss. Let's get to work," Umber Eye said in return as an unspoken acceptance of an unspoken apology.

Chris nods before starting to walk down the path towards the village. "Everyone, watch for hostile bioweapons." He received a few confirmations as he walked down the path only. Mere seconds later, several Lycan's jumped out to attack. That didn't take long. "Made contact with a group of Hostile Bioweapons," Chris announced to the radio while firing at the group. These bioweapons didn't seem too tough. three or 4 shots each and they were out.

"There's more than we thought, watch out," Night Howl warned while Chris refilled his rifle's magazine with a clip.

"Western route is clear, moving out" Tundra announced by the time that Chris made it to the outskirts of the village.

"Rodger that," Chris said as a trail of blood and gore was left in his wake. It was hard to tell what was once a villager and what was a bioweapon that met its own gruesome end. A partially demolished wall gave him access to an old supply point that they set up earlier.

Lobo was the next to speak up. "BSAA craft spotted. Two guards. Heh, I can take'em."

"Don't get cocky," Chris warned while restocking on munitions and grabbed a few grenades to strap to his gear.

"What the hell is that thing," Canine asked.

"It's all Mutamycete," Night Howl answered with a tone of horrified awe.

Muta wh- right. The scientific term for the mold. Good gracious, they really needed to agree on their terminology. "That's probably where Miranda is," Chris replied, having a decent guess about what the Canine and Night Howl were looking at. The same giant tower he was trying to get to. "Let's go." Chris continued to make his way forward past a large Iron gate as thick vines and roots continued to spring from the ground around him.

Howling cries announced the arrival of more bioweapons. Larger once that held a more animal like form than the read. As if human skulls had bed stretched and warped to look like a dog's. hair grew down the creature's backs, as an elongated spine and hunched legs supported oversized arms. The two circled Chris for some time before leaping forward to try and pin him to the ground.

A quick step back helped keep Chris out of harms way as he shifted his attention and fired at each of the beasts if they got too close. "Large Mutated Bioweapons sighted" Chris warned the others.

"The mold might be releasing infectious particulates, keep your masks on," Night Howl warned in return as he continued to shift between the two terms.

"Hey Boss it's me," Lobo spoke up at the same time making it difficult to hear. "I'm at the location preparing for support fire, but it might be a minute."

"Rodger" Chris said in return to both. He didn't have time for this. Chris plucked one of the Grenades from his vest and tossed it at the two oversize bioweapons. In a flash, the two creatures were ripped apart by the explosion. While he wanted to take the time to breathe a sigh of relief, he pushed forward towards the bright neon green light of a supply flair.

"Tundra here, I'm leaving some supplies in some of the houses, captain. Help yourself,"

Chris smiled to himself at the convenient timing of the offer as he did just that and stocked up again, taking another grenade for a total of 5. that should be more than enough. While in the safety of the home, Chris took the time to reload again before heading out. However, it seemed he's waited too long as there were, roughly half a dozen bioweapons waiting for him. "Umber Eye, I need some back up."

Just as soon as the request was made, one. two. three of them fell one by one, each taking a bullet to the head. "I see you, Two hundred to the point."

Two hundred feet felt like a mile. If he was making progress, it didn't feel like it. Chris continued to push forward all the same. Wave after wave of these mutant dog-faced freaks. What was more concerning was, now that he got a closer look, there seemed to almost be a hierarchy among them. The larger, stronger Lycans were covered with better armor made from bent metal scraps, while the weaker once tied wooden planks to their limbs.

"I've never heard of a Mutamycete colony growing so huge,"

Before Chris could chide Night Howl and tell him to pick a name for whatever this was, Lobo spoke again. "Hey, I got eyes on you boss. Keep going."

Sure enough, Chris looked up and saw Lobo on a nearby roof, firing down at some of the undead army.

"If my mom saw this shit, she'd think she'd died and gone to hell" canine remarks with a slight chuckle in an attempt to ease some stress.

It didn't exactly help Chris, though. At this point, he tried to tune out any further chatter and focus on moving forward. He'd thought 700 rounds of ammo would be enough, and yet even after two partial resupplies, he yet again found that he was maybe halfway through his supply. Though to his relief, he did eventually make it to the torch lit fort that was once the church. "I've reached the target location. Damn this is big..." He looked up at the structure that had to be a good fourty feet tall. When did they have the time to build this? "Alright, Lobo, marking the target."

"Rodger that boss" It took a few minutes, but an explosion was seen as the RPG hit the side of the building. "Bingo! alright!" Lobo cheered, but the cheering fell silent as the smoke settled, and the tower was still partially intact thanks to the vine like mold. "...Reloading now, just a minute."

"There's a swarm headed your way," night howl warned as a good twenty or so furious lycans left the fort.

Chris cursed under his breath as he openly fired at the beasts while slowly backed up to try and keep some distance. In a mater of 20 seconds he'd picked off about half of them, but they were getting too close. He quickly tossed two of the grenades at the remaining crowd before taking cover. one explosion set off another, and to his relief that was the last of the hoard.

"Okay captain, I'm reloaded ready when you are"

"The mold is rapidly expanding. There must be something stimulating it,"

If I survived this, I'm writing Night Howl up. I'll find something, Chris thought as he marked the target again with the laser portion of the system. Just like before, an explosive round hit the building.

"Another Hit! Hah! Looks like it's about to collapse."

"It's them. Watch your perimeter, Chris" Umber Eye warned this time as another wave of Lycan's left to defend their for. Umber Eye helped this time around taking out one or two of the rampaging monstrosities, but there were more than last time. He was down to maybe 200 rounds now, and he wasn't at the target. The last 3 grenades were tossed into the crowd and like last time, Chris took cover. The explosions did their job, scattering limbs and ligaments across what was left of the village center.

"I'm reloaded. Where should I point next"

Using one channel for communication turned out to be a cluttered mess as Canine spoke before Chris could reply to Lobo. "BSAA guys are engaging the bioweapons. You're right, Captain, They must be after the Megamycete too."

Oh, not you too now canine. So, we're calling the mold site a Megamycete now? Just going to make that term up and not explain it. Cool cool cool. Chris thought as he silently aimed the guiding laser at the remaining structure.

"How many are there? Everyone okay?" Tundra asks.

"They're coming from the mold. There's no end to them..."

"Gimme a break!" Chris finally shouts as more lycans started to leave the fort while he waited for the next RPG.

"Boom, HAHA Take that!" Lobo says as the structure is hit yet again and this time the mold gives way and falls apart.

"Captain, the Megamycete is underground," Night Howl instructs.

Okay, I guess we're calling it that now, Chris thought as he made his way over to where the tower used to be. It didn't take long for him to find a deep hole in the ground that the lycans seemed to have dug themselves. After a moment of hesitation, he spoke. "I found a way down, I'm going in. The rest of you stay back." No one else was dying on his watch.

"Captain, I've compared the mold sample at the village with a sample from the bakers' and"

And we're back to mold. Silent sass aside, Chris continued to listen to Night Howl's explanation.

"there's no sign of the genome editing we saw in the E-series. the stuff originated here."

Chris remained quiet as he focused on climbing down the hole into the depths of a dark cavern like tunnel underground. It was holding a giant spiked mace that was as big as the creature welding it. That's not good... "Guarding the Megamycete, huh?" Chris taunted but winced after. Yeah, that still didn't sound right. The taunting worked though, and the towering creature rushed forward swinging the weapon with ease, narrowly missing Chris's head as he ducked out of the way. Chris emptied a full magazine of bullets into the creature, who barely flinched. His eyes darted over to the hole that the spiked mace left in the wall of the cave. "Dammit I'm getting nowhere," If he didn't do something and quickly, he's going home in a body bag. While he fought on his own for a few seconds more, Chris caved after another narrow escape from having his head bashed in. "Lobo, I got a tough guy here! I'm going to need back up."

"Boss, you're underground!"

"There's an opening in the roof. Use it," Chris barked out the order in his panic as he rolled out-of-the-way once more.

"Okay, I'm moving out. Hold on til I get there," Lobo replied, and that's precisely what Chris did. 3 minutes felt like 3 hours, He was down to his last preloaded magazine when he heard Lobo again. "I'm over head boss"

"Good! I'll signal with the locator" Chris says as he quickly reached for the laser. Hopefully, Lobo would know to dial back the explosive just a tiny bit since he was in an enclosed space.

"Give a guy a break..." Lobo says with a tired sigh.

It took a minute more, it certainly didn't help that Chris had to stop using the location beacon rather frequently to get out of the way of the charging giant, but the explosion met its target and the beast Calcified and crumbled to dust. "Nice! Hostile bioweapon eliminated," Chris announced with a sigh of relief. "I'll keep going, the rest of you stay above ground."

Chris followed another path and there was more chatter from the team as he went. Winding crudely dug pathways felt like a maze, but after an Hour or so of turning this way and that, while marking down which way he went by carving markings into the stone walls, he eventually found a large open space. hanging from the center of the ceiling was a large heart like growth that connected to the inky vines and roots that the Lycans were trying to protect. "Alpha to squad. I've located the megamycete," Okay the name was starting to grow on him.

"So now we can end this mess after all" Umber Eye said with a quiet sense of relief.

"About Damn time," Chris replied as he got to work. He carefully removed a very sensitive container of high-grade explosives and started tying it to a spare knife. He looked over his handy work before drawing his arm back and chucking the knife bound bomb at the heart of the mold. By some miracle, that actually worked, and the knife dug into the pulsing mold enough to hold it in place. "N2 explosive's armed. there's enough there to blow the whole village sky-high."

"Let's get out of here and blow the damn place" Umber eye says with a celebratory tone. The mission over, right?

"Not before I end, Miranda" Chris corrects. "I'm not taking any more chances. I'm going in."

There was a slight pause, but Umber Eye replied."Rodger that, Standing by..." There was no changing Chris's mind when he got like this. All they could do is back him up. "Captain, I have eyes on Miranda at the Ceremony site."

"Keep your distance. do not move until I give the order," Chris said as he started making his way into another section of the maze like paths.

Umber eye remained silent as he tried to think over how to voice what he wanted to say. "I know it's too late now, but. We really should have told Ethan the plan."

"There wasn't time, and we didn't expect Miranda to act so soon" It was an excuse and Chris knew it. Umber eye did too, leaving little room for sympathy. They all told him months ago to talk to Ethan.

"Even so, you should have told him."

"Yeah," Chris begrudgingly admitted. After that spat between the two in charge, the rest of the team wasn't in the mood to chat. Chris made his way up a set of stairs and into a hallway that seemed more meticulously constructed. Old bricks were held together by cement, leading to a heavy wooden door that seemed clean and new. "This must be Miranda's lab," He whispered as he looked around, finding books and books of notes that he didn't have the time to sift through. Letters over 100 years old sat alongside newer research notes and proclamations of success. A collection of Photos sat next to a jar labeled Cadou. It looked like some deranged fetus. "So they're using this to control the bioweapons..." Chris breathed before picking up a few of the picture to look them over. The photos proved once more that the initial tips from Charlotte were correct. Miranda was involved with the Evaline project. The more interesting picture to Chris was a group photo showing Miranda standing next to Evaline along with 5 others. One of which, was Mia Winters. Evaline's handler, but Chris already knew that. The BSAA knew that she admitted as much when they first interrogated her about the whole ordeal in Louisiana. She used that to make a deal, the BSAA kept quiet about her past, gave her a new home, a new life, and protection, while she'd help shut down the people she used to work for.

Chris put the photo down and got back to work, he looked around and a locked iron bar door caught his attention. His ammo was limited he had maybe 2 more magazines worth of ammo left, but he spared a single shot to break the lock, so he could open the door and see what was behind it. before he could fully enter the room a figure jumped out from its hiding place and tried to hit him with a rusty pipe which he catches, pulls out of their grip and tosses to the side.

"Show me your hands" Chris demands while staring down the sight of his gun at what seemed to be Mia winters, but Miranda already used this trick once before. "Umber Eye, This is Alpha. Where is Miranda right now?"

"Still at the ceremony site... Whatever she's doing, She's staying put."

"Goddamn," Chris relaxed and slowly lowered his weapon. "It really is you." Mia slowly lowered her hands with a forced smile as she avoided eye contact. "I'm glad you're safe, Mia. Why are you here?"

Mia was at a loss for words for a few moments. Opening and closing her mouth as she tried to think of how to answer. "I was caught... and used in experiments..."

"Wait, did you say Mia? Mia Winters?" Canine asks in response to the sudden news.

"In the flesh. What's the situation up there?" Chris asks as Mia's answer was good enough for him and he turned to walk away. This lab seemed safe enough to leave her hear for now. She barely looked like she had a scratch, and she'd been missing for weeks, if not longer.

"Kind of a war going on. Nothing we can't handle." Lobo sarcastically replies.

"Don't get distracted. Stick to the mission. I'm heading to the ceremony site."

"Wait!" Mia said as she stood by the door to the cell she was in before."You can't leave me here," She said, which caused Chris to stop walking and turn to face her again. "You Promised, dammit! You said you'd keep us safe!" Mia accused as Chris averted his gaze from the guilt he felt. "We did everything you asked. We moved over here, everything! And I didn't care, so long as we were together. So, you tell me, Where is my husband?" She asked as she became more agitated, which made her voice raspy. "Where is my daughter?!" She shouts and in her anger she steps forward to push Chris.

"Ethan is..." Chris paused. He didn't want to have to do this right now. he was wasting time..."He's gone." Mia remained silent and still as she glared at him. "I couldn't save him. But I can save Rose." As he said this, the room began to shake as an explosion went off above it. Luckily for Chris, it wasn't the N2, or they'd all be dead. This realization caused him to rethink leaving Mia here alone. "Come on, It's not safe here after all."

Once more, as Chris started to walk away, Mia broke her silence. "What do you mean he's gone?"

This had the same result as the last time. Chris stopped walking, but this time he couldn't bring himself to face her. "He's dead" Chris says bluntly, though the words stung his tongue. "I'm sorry, Mia, but we have to leave." Mia is silent as Chris pauses. He really didn't have time for this. "We have to destroy this village."

"NO!" She shouts. "You're wrong," She adds while Chris turns to face her. "...I tried to keep this a secret but," Mia says while seemingly at war with herself. "You don't understand how special he is." She shifts her weight from one leg to the other and back again. "I've been monitoring his vitals. Outside of the BSAA tests. I know what to look for after all and... He died already... Back in Louisana," Mia explained. "His body is uniquely compatible with the mutamycete or Mold I guess is what you usual call it. It's keeping him alive, no matter how badly he gets hurt. I cut his hand off while under Evaline's control, and he just stapled it back on. it reattached. There's barely even a scar."

"That... Certainly explains a few things," Chris said while thinking over how many times he'd said or thought that it was a miracle that Ethan was alive. "We'll talk more later, though we need to get you back to the others. I can still fix this." He says and Mia starts to limp alongside him, moving at a snails pace. He wasn't going to be able to make it to Miranda at this rate. Not if Mia was injured.

"Alpha to Squad, New plan. Regroup by cave entrance. Canine, Night Howl, Umber Eye you three escort Mia to a safe distance from the blast site. Lobo. Get the helicopter and land it in the field near Miranda's last known location. After that, join the others."

"I'm not leaving you high and dry, captain. You might need me again after all," Lobo responds. "I'll stay with the helicopter."

"That helicopter is our best bet out of here. I'll stay with Lobo to guard it," Canine adds "Two people should be enough for an escort."

"I kinda prefer that plan myself," Umber eye admits.

"Alright. Pack rules. Everyone get to work," Chris says before picking up Mia. They didn't have time to waste.

'*'*'*'*'

Chris sprinted through the caves while breathing heavily. That took way too long. If there was a god, then Miranda was still at the ceremony site Umber Eye mentioned and rose was still able to be saved. He ran into a clearing to find. To his great surprise and excitement, Ethan winters standing in front of Miranda who was holding a still safe and completely intact Rosemary winters. "So Mia was telling the truth... He's a bioweapon?"

"Interesting, Your body certainly isn't normal" Miranda hissed while holding Rose close to herself.

"Give Rose to me, Now!" Ethan demands as he steps forward.

Chris hunkers down while Miranda is distracted by Ethan and lines up a shot.

"You will see. Once I kill you properly, Everythin-" Miranda's words were cut short as Chris squeezed the trigger. The overpowered rifle created a spray of blood as the bullet made contact with the side of her head.

"Get her, now!" Chris shouts down to Ethan. only for his line of sight to be blocked off by more roots and Vines made of mold. "Shit," Chris backed away. He needed to get down there somehow. Gunfire and shouting could be heard as Ethan and Miranda fought.

"I spent a lifetime creating this moment, And you try to take it away from me?" Miranda accused as Chris panicked and looked around for a solution. "I will take what's due. My desires will be fulfilled!"

Chris strapped his gun to his gear and started climbing as he heard Ethan shout in horror. He didn't care how he got down there, he just knew he needed to be there now.

"You understand the love of a parent to her child, don't you? How can you deny me?!" Miranda shouts. "I will take back my daughter!" She shouts as the room grows so dark that not Chris couldn't see, even with the help of night vision goggles. All that he could do was cling onto the side of the cave wall and hope the light would return.

By the time Chris could see again, he looked over his shoulder to see that Miranda had slowed her attacks significantly and that Ethan was covered in cuts that were trying to heal shut as the mold, inside him, stitched him back together. the roof of the cave started to flake away and crumble, revealing the morning sun. Fearing that the walls would fall away soon too, Chris let go to try and control his landing.

"Rose! Shhh-Shhh. It-It's all right, Rose." Ethan picked up Rose from the pedestal -esque remains of the now officially deceased Miranda. "It's all right." He cooed though he grunted and started to breathe heavier as his hand started to deteriorate and crumble away in a similar fashion to the root like mold walls around them.

Chris watched as, Despite Ethan's best efforts to stay on his feet, he fell to his knees while holding Rose protectively. "Ethan!" Chris shouts as he rushes over. "Ethan," he repeats. "Come on Ethan. Come on. Ethan, Wake up!" He says while trying to support Ethan's weight. A loud rumbling stole Chris's attention, causing him to look up at the sky, only to see that the remaining vines and roots were starting to lash out without Miranda around to control their growth. "oh no."

"Chris?" Ethan asked as he could barely keep his eyes open.

"Ethan, You did it. It's finished," Chris replied while continuing to hold up Ethan's weight. another rumbling forced Chris to look at the sky again.

"I think we finished each other..."

"Ethan, We've got to move," Chris says while trying to keep the panic out of his voice. He forced Ethan's arm over his shoulder and pulled the man to his feet so they could start walking away. Behind them, the Megamycete had forced its way above ground. What once looked like a heart, started to bloom into a strange four petaled flower that was large enough to block out the light of the sun from the surrounding area.

Chris pressed on as roots and vines continued to cut off various exits. when one was blocked, he'd turn and find another way that ultimately lead them to a stone bridge. "Keep moving Ethan. There's a bomb in that thing that'll blow this whole village Sky-high." Ethan was starting to slow down though. "Look at me" Chris demands as he takes the remote detonator from his vest and holds it up for Ethan to see. "When I hit this trigger we can't be anywhere near it." Despite this, Ethan stopped walking all together. "Dammit" Chris looked from Ethan back to the growing threat and back again. "Mia's waiting for you. She's alive, you hear me? Alive." He pleaded to try and get Ethan to move once more.

"M-mia" Ethan finally spoke, sounding even more tired than before as he could barely breathe. "I'm so sorry... I love you...Keep Rose safe" He managed to eek out in response before he started to fall to his knees.

"Hey hey hey," Repeated while catching Ethan before he could fall and forcing him to stand again. As Chris did so, Ethan put's Rose in Chris's arms before starting to back away as he managed to stand on his own without the additional weight.

"You tell her yourself," Chris says with a pained expression. "Now come on, It's not that much further," adds while he watched Ethan struggled to take off his coat and puts that over Rose.

"Watch over Her," His words sound painful as they grew raspy. "Teach her to be strong." As soon as he finished speaking, a new Root threatened to hit the two as it grew across the bridge. However, before it could, Ethan pushed Chris back while grabbing the detonator.

"Goodbye, Rosemary" Ethan says through newly formed tears that Chris can no longer see because of the forming Roots and branches.

"Ethan..." Chris looks at the baby in his arms to the wall of moldy roots. He bounced on his heels, considering climbing his way over to get to Ethan for half a moment before he sneers and turns to leave Ethan behind once more. There was no way of knowing how much time Ethan will give him before activating the N2. He had a promise to keep.


Oh my gosh this chapter is so long. I've died inside trying to finish this but hopefully this will help with the overall flow of the story now that the full timeline is filled in. until next weekend. I need a nap.