Chapter 5
"I said don't move." He heard the woman say. When Angela and Bain heard the voice they turned with their weapons at the ready. The one with the gun to his nape quickly told them "I would advise against that."
That voice…
"Shit…" Rabbit smiled ruefully.
"Drop the rifle, same with your friends."
"Yeah, that's not happening, sweetheart." Rabbit smirked, thinking of how stupid this all was. Feeling reminding him of a cliche coincidence of sorts from some crappy young adult novel. "Or are you really going to shoot me? I know we didn't part on the best of terms, but this is just silly."
"Wha?"
Slowly he motioned himself around. The gun holder was not too visible with the lack of light where she was standing, but he was certain about who the voice belonged to. Pulling the flashlight attachment off his rifle and flashing it on from beneath his chin. "Get it now?"
"Damien?" he heard the original female voice say in unison with a second, also familiar, woman's voice. It caused the pistol to be lowered and the owner as well as her companion stepped forward.
It was Claire Redfield and Rebecca Chambers.
Rabbit smirked contemptibly. "Been a while, doll face."
The majority of BSAA, DSO, and Blue Umbrella members swarmed into the police station once the sweep was completed. Making the preparations to give a decent defensive angle for this base of operations.
Crosshair had spotted the signs of a zombie horde at certain, distant points in the adjacent streets but as of that point nothing too grim appeared to be coming their way. As far as Stump could tell they were in the clear for the moment.
A few of their other snipers such as Archer and Toad took positions on the station's roof as well. Doing so in shifts with other snipers.
After taking off his tactical gear, he took to resting on a couch in one of the rooms with Nadia, trying not to think too much about the situation. Nadia was doing the same for a similar reason. That disc she found gave her an ominous vibe—even after handing it over to their analyst field, Bishop—but she was suppressing the thought as best she could.
"You okay, James?" Nadia asked, noticing how quiet he had become. "You seem…lost."
"No, I'm fine."
"You worried about Walker?"
"A little. He'd be pissed if I had Hunnigan patch me through to him, so I can't do anything 'til he contacts us."
He had gotten into a brooding mood by that point, similar to how Rabbit was prone to doing. Only when he did such things he was actually miserable. She wanted to distract him from the thought. Kissing his cheek, she told him "I'm sure he's fine. You know how stubborn he can be."
Fortunately for him Blackwatch had that mission in New York City.
Facing her green eyes with a smile, Stump nodded. "You're probably right." Leaning into her smiling lips. Feeling her hand stroke against his right cheek before both her paws grabbed his shirt and pulled him onto her as they continued to embrace.
Wrapping the arms around his neck.
"What are you doing here, Damien?"
"It's Rabbit." Rabbit corrected her. "We were dispatched here to find survivors and fight the infected."
Claire looked to his companions, recognizing only one of them. "Miller?"
"Good to see you again, Claire. It's been a while."
The Blue Umbrella quickly was giving a scowl of condemnation the second she saw the logo on his gear. "And you are…?"
"Bain." was the answer.
"Don't get pissy with him." Rabbit said in his squadmate's defense. "He's been helping me and Angela survive since we diverged from your darling older brother."
That widened Claire's eyes, the same with Rebecca. "Chris is here?"
"Yeah." Rabbit was ready to yell her ear off. "So are Leon and Jill."
He explained the situation and the two women found it as baffling as everyone to enter the city did.
"Well that's something, Damien." Claire began to say, but Rabbit stopped listening. Pressing on his communication device. "What're you doing?"
"Keeping Chris informed."
Chris and Jill were watching Bishop go to work on the disc Nadia had come across. One of many pieces of data she was needing to sift through. They had done an autopsy on the police chief. He had been zombified for a short while. Maybe twenty-fourish before they had arrived. The result was not even from a zombie's bite, but an injection.
The fact he had been in that particular room was even more dubious.
So they told Bishop to focus on the disc first. The downside was that it had some sort of protection encoding. Not standard police procedure, at least for a low or mid level police case. Giving off a scent of intrigue. Even the spooks back in the Megiddo would find this a point of interest.
So the ex-NSA was working hard.
That was when Hunnigan patched through a call from Rabbit.
"Yeah?"
"Good news, you sis-con."
"Sis-what?"
"Nothing. Never mind. I found Claire and Rebecca."
"Are you serious?" Christ gasped so loud he alarmed his partner and Bishop in the process. He wasn't pulling a fast one, either, as he could hear Claire's voice in the background. Then came the bad news. "Yeah, but there's a slight snag: we're trapped in a building with a army of zombes nearby."
"That's it? Just hang back and we'll send Rooster with a team to collect you." Chris told him. "Just send us the coordinates. He'll be there."
"Got it." Rabbit groaned. "I'll do that now." Hanging up then and there. Proceeding to press on the arm pad.
"What'd he say?" Bain asked.
"We sit tight."
"That's it?" Claire was rather incredulous of this so-called 'plan.' "More thoroughly planned out ones had failed in Raccoon City. This sounds half assed."
"Claire…" Rebecca could see where this was going, but too late.
"Well I don't recall being the one making the call, so why are you barking up my tree?"
The scene devolved into a spat between the two. Rebecca held up her hands—wishing to intervene, stopping it from progress, but fearing she'd end up losing a hand…or head...or have her throat torn open. They were in such a frenzy she was convinced it was a possibility.
It would be funny if it wasn't so asinine that they chose to do this at a very inconvenient time.
Suddenly there was a ping, indicating he had another call in anticipation. Now what?! Pressing it in his frustration. "This had better be good Hunnigan."
"Is this a bad time?" a cold voice came through and Rabbit went pale.
"I, uh…" he stepped away from Claire and the others, telling them to keep a good distance. "Trent," he whispered. "Sorry about that. What do you need?" Trying not to sound as if he was on the verge of pissing himself out of fear.
Trent was perhaps the most fear inducing person on the planet. Was so even before Umbrella went under. Even in the world of cloaked daggers and political intrigue he was infamous for his ability to influence events to play to his desired outcome—the quintessential opposite of Albert Wesker. He was on the side of the Angels, but doing so on his own personal terms.
Rabbit was never sure if that meant Trent was on the wrong side of heaven or the righteous side of hell. Either way he knew to fear him
"I thought I should warn you in advance, Rabbit. Despite our differences you've been an invaluable asset to my cause, I'd hate to see you go the way of the Family's previous leader."
"I appreciate that…I think."
"One of my agents recently came across some information related to a faction known as Talon. It seems that a B.O.W. in their possession has you on a hit list." Trent told him, his voice remained level. "Along with Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Rebecca Chambers, and more."
Rabbit felt an ulcer inbound. Responding dryly "Thanks." Sighing with some annoyance. "Okay. Did this intel you recovered happen to mention what the B.O.W. happens to look like? What its capabilities are?"
"That part of the data was unfortunately corrupted."
"I'm just going to assume Esper was involved and power through here. Is there anything else?"
"Nothing substantial."
"Well then, respectfully…" Rabbit hung up. If he was killed later as a consequence, oh well; he didn't have much to lose anyways. Returning to Claire. "Now where were we?"
"Would you care to share with the rest of the class what that was about?" Claire asked in response.
"No. No, I really wouldn't."
"Typical."
Rooster rushed through the station looking for the people to take with him, hastily opening the door to the room he knew one of them was in. "Hey Stump, I—" then he suddenly felt an urge to gouge his own eyes out before immediately slamming the door shut.
"Yeah, Rooster?"
"Seriously?"
"What? Technically we're off duty."
"Would it kill you to at least lock the door?! Or, I don't know, leave a sock on the door—something!" Grumbling to himself "Not enough therapy in the world to unsee that."
"Did you charge in for a reason?" Nadia asked.
Groaning, pondering how to best purge the image from his mind, Rooster answered "We heard from Rabbit, he found Redfield's sister and Chambers, and I need some people to help me go retrieve them."
"Oh. Sure…in five minutes."
"James…" Nadia said wearily, sounding as if a lecture was on the horizon. Causing him to sigh "I was joking."
The passing scores of zombies were numerous; a legion of the dead. If someone told them about the Attack of the Dead Men Rabbit and Claire would have presumed it was similar to the scene playing out on the other side of the building's window in the streets.
It was to their benefit that they kept enough of a distance from the window for the visual of the party was not available to the undead.
Rabbit could get a good enough look at a few of them, despite his distance from the window. His eyesight was still as good as ever. More than a few of them had a number of wounds from prior encounters with humans.
One had an arrow in the side of the head.
One was riddled with bullet holes.
One had a stump for an arm.
One after that had an arm barely hanging on by a tendon.
One was limping with a broken leg.
So many broken forms continued on. It was that tenacity of zombies that freaked Rabbit out the most. Much like the communists and American (and non-American) liberals they keep pushing forward no matter what. Going after what they want hungrily no matter what, doing their damnest to reach the goal of a next meal regardless of the damage they suffer as a result.
It was why preventing another full-scale incident similar to Raccoon City proved to be the most difficult.
Reminded of the inmates—of the screams they made, of the smell of their dead flesh, of the faces their corpses made…how they came at him. Both he and Claire were to respectively experience those unpleasant memories. All to their secret displeasure.
In the midst of an unpleasant flashback, gunfire suddenly erupted as the tires of two military vehicles were heard approaching. It tore through the zombies—rendering them asunder.
"I guess that's Rooser." Rabbit sighed.
Bain approached the window. "Damn, did he do a number on them."
Grabbing the side of the bookshelf pointing upward, Rabbit said and he sent it tumbling "Let's get going, shall we?"
Pushing through the door, eager to make tracks.
Emerging from the building, he saw the driver sticking his head out. "Everything okay, Rabbit?"
"Yeah. Pretty good, Rooster."
As he reached the back of the two humvees "Have fun?" a familiar dark-skinned woman was waiting for him with her usual enticing smile and self.
Rabbit smirked. Almost laughing as he said "Sheva."
Stump helped Claire into the back of the humvee he was in. "What, no greeting for your pal?"
"Hi, pal." Rabbit said dryly. "There. Happy? Now let's get outta here."
Rooster quickly complied.
