Chris grits his teeth slightly as he throws the jaguar's body aside. The animal was quite heavy, and seemed to be bigger than a lion.
He stood up and looked around. The water from the river behind him was flowing into the abyss below, the ground had been destroyed by the laboratory.
Wesker was clever, as much as they had equipment to circumvent the site's protection, they must have imagined that he would put microchips in the animals' heads as a form of protection. That's how he knew they were there, it had to be.
"Is everyone all right?" He asked his men, who seemed to be fine, despite having been taken by surprise.
"I can't access our system. But there don't seem to be any hostile creatures nearby." His man on his left said. Finn, young but very smart.
"You heard. Let's stick to the plan. Get back into formation." Chris said, taking the lead and walking towards the destroyed ground without letting any of his men say anything else.
As he approached, his eyes surveyed the abyss below. The laboratory was immense. The ground beneath them was practically hollow, supported only by metal beams and columns, with a layer of steel just below the ground.
Whoever built that place took a long time and certainly spent a lot of money. It was surprising that such a place existed without arousing any suspicion.
"Alpha A, ready to enter the laboratory. Descending." He communicated through his communicator, and signaled to his men, who took some ropes and tied them tightly where they could.
"Copy. Alpha B approaching from the west, approximately one hundred and fifty meters, over."
"Alpha C from the east. There's what looks like a river entrance. Over."
"Alpha D from the south. Descending."
Chris turned and nodded to his men, grabbing one of the ropes soon after and leaping into the abyss below.
He let himself down quickly, landing softly on the metal below and raising his rifle almost immediately, running his eyes around in search of hostiles and watching out for some crows that were still around.
His men followed close behind, and they walked along the metal walkway. They were just above a corridor that led to the dome. This corridor was surrounded by metal walls. Pretty sturdy, but they were prepared.
They stood in a circular position while two of their men knelt in a certain spot and took some equipment out of their bags.
Lucas took out a special type of blowtorch while his partner Noah took out a type of adhesive.
Both soldiers began to cut a hole in the metal while the others waited. In less than five minutes, they managed to open the place up and Finn took out a device, knelt down in front of the hole and put the device down, checking to see if there was anything in the corridor before they went down.
Waving to Chris when he saw that there was nothing, Redfield was the first to go down, raising his rifle in both directions of the corridor and taking two steps forward, giving the others room to go down behind him.
Behind him was the dome, so he moved forward and leaned against the wall next to the metal door.
Finn ran over to it and knelt down in front of the door with another device in his hand. The device had a small greenish screen, and in a matter of moments, the metal door opened.
They got back into position, and after a nod, Chris opened the door and quickly went inside, checking the elevator next door and the stairs ahead.
Signaling that everything was clear, they quickly followed the winding staircase that spiraled down. The place was huge, as they descended step after step and there seemed to be no end.
The stairs were made of sturdy steel and reinforced with industrial-grade handrails, echoing every step they took, however quietly, which made some of them a little anxious.
Then they finally reached the end of the stairs and passed through the door, checking the elevator again before moving on. Ahead, they emerged into a corridor suspended high above by a metal walkway, where they could see the vast expanse of the facility from this vantage point: a maze of interconnected chambers and workspaces that should have been teeming with human activity.
However, all they saw were infected. The curious thing was that it didn't seem to be an outbreak. The place was too tidy and clean for those infected to have escaped their confinement.
The lamps were still on, the equipment still working. The floor was clean and everything showed signs of recent human activity. Wesker must have put the infected there on purpose.
The place was full of Hunters, Lickers, and the most curious thing was the people. Well, not exactly people, their skin was extremely pale, their eyes were red and they behaved like addicts. Infected, that's for sure. Infected with what? He didn't have an exact answer, but he had a few ideas.
"Alpha A. Confirming encounter with infected in the north wing." He said through the communicator, running his eyes around quickly.
Following the metal walkway, he reached the steps leading down to the area below, and before he started to descend, he ran his eyes over his men briefly.
"Weapons silenced. Let's take them out quickly without making too much noise." He said, nodding to them and descending the steps.
He raised his rifle and fired at the Licker on the wall in front of him. The creature grunted in surprise and pain and ended up falling to the ground, shot by several more shots not only from Chris, but from the other soldiers as well.
The Licker's grunt was enough to attract the attention of the other infected, who began to run towards the soldiers in a furious mob with mixed shrieks.
Chris turned his rifle and fired at the Hunter that had jumped towards him, hitting the creature while it was still in the air and causing it to miss its attack, falling and rolling a few times on the ground. He then aimed his rifle at the pale man in front of him, who raised an arm towards him.
Redfield's eyes widened slightly as he saw the man's arm become deformed, and a huge claw surrounded by black tentacles formed in place of his limb. The man tried an uppercut, but Chris dodged it by stepping to the side.
He then counterattacked with point-blank shots to the man's head, causing the infected to fall to the ground and struggle in apparent pain.
"Type 3 rapier, go!" he shouted, and the men moved away from each other, forming small groups of two, and some were left alone at certain points, with Chris still in the lead.
His eyes widened as a Licker leapt towards him from the ceiling. However, he was quicker than the creature and ducked, dodging its advance. Behind him, another soldier called Piers shot the Licker with his submachine gun, dodging an attack from a Hunter soon after.
"Concussion grenade!" Finn shouted, and the soldiers took cover. The grenade exploded, causing the surrounding Lickers to fall to the ground in stunned grunts, their eardrums temporarily injured.
Chris grabbed his knife and plunged it into the neck of an infected woman, pulling her towards him and kicking her towards a Hunter in front of him. The creature, despite not having had its attack canceled, slowed its advance, and Chris shot it with the remaining bullets in the magazine of his rifle.
The man quickly reloaded his weapon, looking around in the short space of time he had.
The air grew colder, carrying with it the faint smell of ozone and machinery
Along the walls, observation windows gave glimpses of the various research areas, showing small parts of the experiments and research being carried out. Some of the computers were still on.
His attention was drawn by the sound of rapid footsteps, and in front of him, a Licker was running towards him. The creature was fast, and tough, as it didn't even seem to feel the shots that pierced its body.
The Licker leapt towards him, its claws extended in front of its body ready to pierce the man. However, Chris dodged by ducking, and quickly turned to warn Piers behind him.
However, the soldier was skillful, and dodged moments before being hit by the claws, reloading his submachine gun and firing at the Licker.
Chris stood up and advanced on an infected man in front of him, hitting him with a strong punch to the face, leaving him disoriented. Before he could do anything, however, a Hunter tried to attack him with its claws, and the soldier was forced to dodge.
However, the man he had punched was soon hit by a shot from one of his soldiers, and Chris was able to focus on the Hunter in front of him, placing the barrel of his rifle against the creature's neck and firing until the clip ran out of bullets.
His team's coordination was good. And in a matter of minutes, they cleared the place.
The floor was covered in infected bodies and blood, the walls scarred with bullets and claw marks.
Chris reloaded his rifle and ran his eyes over his men.
"Anyone hurt?" He asked, and the soldiers checked each other out.
"No, sir!" The man in charge of medical treatment, Austin, replied.
"Good. Check the rooms." Chris said, beckoning Piers to follow him, and they both headed for the room ahead.
Chris kicked open the aluminum door and they entered with rifles raised. The research room was clean and the computer was still on. There were some documents on the small table, and a glass of coffee, now cold, next to some files.
Chris walked over to the computer while Piers took care of the back office.
"Malaria rates have increased in recent years. The Amazon River, the largest river in the world, is also the largest river by volume of discharge, contributing around 20% of the total river discharge into the oceans. The hell..." Chris muttered to himself as he read the research.
It didn't seem to have anything to do with bio-terrorism. Just a survey of the region. However, this was also worrying, because with a river of such importance, throw a dangerous virus into its waters and the damage would be disastrous. It was likely that Wesker planned to use this at some point.
"Sir." He turned and focused his gaze on Lucas, who was standing in front of the door with his rifle in hand. "The place is clear. We haven't found anything, but there have been signs of human activity recently. We found a bottle of coffee that was still hot."
Lucas explained, and Chris walked away from the site.
"There's no one here but them." Piers said, pointing to the bodies of the infected people lying on the ground.
"Hmpf... what you'd expect from a complete psychopath." Chris said, signaling for his team to regroup.
"Alpha C here. We've had an encounter with some infected, but we've encountered a slightly bigger problem." His communicator beeped with Parker's voice.
"Alpha A, what is it?" Chris asked.
"We found a missile, sir. American. There are some empty compartments the size of glass vials on the sides. It looks ready to launch." Parker explained, and Chris growled low.
"Copy, location?" He asked, glancing at the 3d map on his watch.
"Launch control room, northeast of the facility. The area is surrounded by the command center, security monitoring room and some storage areas."
"Copy that, we're on our way, we'll let Finn take a look."
"Copy, stand by, over." They ended the communication, and Chris turned to his team.
"Let's meet up with Alpha C. Reload your weapons and let's get going." Chris said, turning shortly afterwards and walking towards the front door.
Chris opened the door, and just as the last man in the formation entered the next room, an alarm sounded. The red lights came on, and Chris growled lowly as he saw all the cages in the room open.
That room contained infected animals trapped in electronic cages with reinforced bars or completely closed. There was a glass room in the corner with a huge creature sitting on the floor. This creature was now standing up and stretching its enormous limbs out from its back. The thing looked like a huge cockroach.
"Run!" Chris shouted as he saw bars starting to come down in front of the door behind him, and then ran towards some exit with a grenade in his hand, knowing that they would be trapped in there if they weren't quick enough.
The infected creatures and animals came out of their cages and immediately attacked the small group of soldiers.
Chris threw the grenade towards a small group of infected. The grenade exploded before they got close, breaking up the small group and throwing the infected away, forming a cloud of smoke mixed with blood.
Chris passed through the cloud, and as he did so, his eyes widened at the sight of the cockroach-like creature right in front of him, with its fangs bared and its many arms ready to grab him.
Quickly, the man threw himself down, sliding along the ground while kicking the side of the creature's leg, bringing it to its knees.
Behind him, Piers rotated his body and landed a powerful kick to the side of what appeared to be the monster's head, sending it crashing to the ground. Then came Lucas, who fired his shotgun at the creature, buying more time for the others to run with them.
A Licker landed just in front of Chris, who gritted his teeth. The creature raised its huge arm to attack him. However, Chris was quicker and landed a high kick to its head, knocking the creature to the side.
Piers found himself facing two Hunters, who watched Chris run past them but focused their attention on Piers. The soldier grabbed his magnum and fired at the hunter on his right, then, taking advantage of the cage next to him, he leapt towards the shelf and, taking advantage of the momentum once again, jumped over the hunter, who, distracted, was shot with a shotgun by Lucas, who was following close behind.
Pressing his rifle against the neck of another cockroach-like creature, he took out his machete and cut off one of the limbs of the monster that had tried to attack him. Still holding his machete, Chris drives his blade into the creature's neck and pushes it back, using it as a shield for an attack by a Licker, which pierced the cockroach monster's back with its huge claws.
Moving away, Chris throws a grenade at the feet of both monsters and focuses his gaze on a freight elevator ahead.
He advanced towards the freight elevator, and within moments, the grenade exploded, throwing both creatures away.
"Concussion grenade!" Finn shouted just behind, and the instant the grenade exploded, the soldiers advanced towards the elevator.
As they entered, Chris fired at the infected who tried to go after them, but being stunned by the grenade, together with the pressurized bullets, prevented the infected from advancing many steps, and the elevator doors closed.
Sighs were heard throughout the elevator, along with the sound of guns being reloaded.
Chris turned around as he reloaded his rifle, and ran his eyes over his men.
"Noah, you're hurt." He said, and the man in question looked at the side of his arm, the claw marks on the side of his bicep.
"A Hunter grazed me, sir. It's no big deal." Noah replied.
"Still, Austin better take a look and bandage that wound." Chris said, and Austin went straight to work, bandaging Noah's arm after the man sat down.
The elevator doors opened, and the soldiers advanced down the long corridor. The place looked like a garage, and there was what looked like a warehouse right next to it.
There were several vehicles parked there, military vehicles, trucks, vans and even some planes and helicopters.
Looking around, he focused his gaze on the door they had to pass through to get to Alpha C.
However, before he could do anything, he felt his skin crawl. Suddenly, the weather turned even colder, and his instincts screamed.
Chris turned quickly, and all he could see was a figure just above him. In pure reflex, he dodged it by throwing himself to the side.
The soldier quickly got to his feet, only to see Piers and Lucas being thrown aside, and Finn being knocked to the ground.
Chris gritted his teeth as he recognized the blond figure, and raised his rifle. However, if he knew Wesker well, he knew he would dodge, and he didn't want to risk hitting one of his men.
Grabbing his machete, Chris advanced against the man, who grabbed Noah by the neck and threw him towards him, at the same time hitting Austin in the leg, bringing him to his knees, and finishing him off with a kick to the face, literally sending the man flying to the side.
Chris dodged the soldier's body and tried a piercing attack on Wesker, who easily dodged to the side and grabbed his forearm with his right arm, and countered with his left arm, hitting an open-handed blow to Chris' chin.
Redfield gritted his teeth but recovered quickly, only to be elbowed in the side of the face and thrown to the ground.
"Chris... ignorant cretin. Still playing hero, I see." Wesker said, in his usual arrogant tone, so convinced that he was superior, even in his words.
"Captain!" Piers shouted, firing at Wesker, who leapt backwards away from Chris and teleported around the room with superhuman skill. Wesker lunged at Piers, hitting him in the chest and sending him flying with his attack.
Chris quickly got up, wiped the blood that ran down the side of his mouth and remembered the conversation he'd had with Hunk some time ago. (It'll be in the bonus chapters)
Keep your distance, but don't shoot. He can teleport, but only to a certain distance, he'll dodge your bullets and approach at the same time. But if you let him attack first, you'll be able to see his advance. It's a short time, the timing has to be perfect, but there's a chance.
Wesker turned and faced Chris, his eyes hidden by his sunglasses. He looked... almost fed up, as if he was just an inconvenience that had already taken up too much of his patience.
"I don't have time for our little encounter, Chris. Unfortunately, that ends here." Wesker said, and Chris just snorted.
"There won't be an after for you, Wesker." Chris said. "Go! Stick to the plan!"
"Captain!" Piers tried to intervene.
"Get going! I'll be right behind!" Chris said, picking up his machete and getting into attack position.
Chris's men got up from the ground and went on their way, with Lucas helping Austin to walk.
Wesker glanced at them, sighing in annoyance and turning to Chris.
"It won't make any difference. I'll take care of them after you." Wesker said, fixing the gloves on his hands.
"You talk too much!" Chris said, and all Wesker did was glance at the watch on his wrist.
"Seven minutes. Seven minutes is all I can spare to play with you." Wesker said, smiling and adjusting his glasses as he got into position.
Ghost and Claire approached the destroyed area ahead. What had once been a small tribe was now nothing more than a destroyed field, with debris, large pieces of destroyed rock scattered over a large area, fallen and twisted trees.
They watched with serious and somewhat uneasy eyes as they saw what appeared to be part of the underground laboratory. Now they knew what had destroyed the ground, Wesker lifted the laboratory to the surface.
There was a dome just in front of them, and this dome was apparently the upper part of the laboratory. And probably the place where that madman had left those crows.
The laboratory was huge, perhaps the largest they had ever seen. It stretched for at least a kilometer. They had no idea how long the rest of the lab actually was.
"Alpha A, ready to enter the laboratory. Descending." They heard Chris on the comm, and Ghost knelt down on a piece of rock, staring into the abyss below.
There was what appeared to be a broken glass room deep below. A room with grass and even a tree. A place to simulate a certain biome, perhaps.
"Alda D from the south. Descending." He said into his communicator, standing up again and hearing Claire standing next to him.
"Descending? And how do you plan that? Jump from here?" she asked, but soon Ghost's gaze on her made her realize that he was quite serious. "Wait, you're not serious."
"Hold on to me." He said, picking up his Hookshot. It wasn't as if Claire doubted him, she knew he wouldn't be serious like that if he wasn't sure, so she just did as he asked and wrapped her arms around the man's neck.
Ghost leaned forward and let himself fall. Claire squeezed him a little tighter as she felt herself free-falling, but after a few moments, he fired the Hookshot, and they both swung down to the ground, where they landed safely.
Ghost kept his arm firmly around the woman's waist, who in turn left her arms around his neck.
Their eyes met for a few brief moments where they held each other, until Ghost swallowed some saliva and released her.
Blinking a few times as if she had woken up from a trance, the woman took a step back.
"Well... I need one of those." She said, trying not to look too flustered.
"I'll lend you mine sometimes." He joked, raising his rifle again and pointing it in the direction of what appeared to be the hospital wing.
The place seemed... alive, so to speak. The lights were on, the computers were on. The beds were tidy and some were even messy, as if a patient had just gotten up.
However, after checking the place out, there didn't seem to be anyone there. The whole place was silent.
He signaled Claire to move, and they both walked to the door of the room, which was open. Ghost checked the corridor quickly, and just like the room, everything was relatively in order, nothing out of the ordinary. It looked like just another hospital corridor.
They made their way along the path, looking at the watches on their wrists. The system seemed to be back up, and they could see the location of the other teams.
Ghost arched a slight eyebrow as he saw the accelerated heartbeats of some of the men.
"Alpha A. Confirming encounter with infected in the north wing." They heard Chris on the communicator, and their silent questions were answered.
As they walked, they heard a noise in the background. Claire put her hand on Ghost's shoulder, who signaled him to a specific point in the corridor ahead.
She could hear it, wings flapping, something like a grunt that stirred her senses.
"There's something over there..." She said quietly, and with half-closed eyes, Ghost raised his rifle towards the noise that was getting louder and louder.
Pulling the trigger, he fired in the direction of the noise, and an insect-like creature appeared in mid-air.
Despite its humanoid appearance, the human part was almost unrecognizable. The head was human, with the face in a melted state and lifeless eyes, with little hair still attached to the head. The front resembled a woman's torso, its breasts deformed and torn. The legs hanging in the air were clearly deformed. The skull had split in half and the brain had atrophied, forming a jaw-like opening that the creature opened freely.
Instead of human hands, there were claws in their place, and three wings appeared on each side of its back, wings similar to those of insects. A kind of gas came out of its back, and the roar that came out of its mouth no longer stirred their senses.
They remembered that thing. It was one of the creatures from that damned island.
Ghost fired a hail of bullets at the creature, which could only grunt in pain and fall to the ground from the shots. The man took long strides forward, only to feel his instincts scream.
Out of the ventilation duct came a gray-skinned creature. A blade at the end of its left arm, and a very large hand on its right arm. The creature's mouth stretched to a superhuman width, its eyes were gray, and despite its humanoid appearance, the exposed flesh of its body was joined with a kind of exoskeleton. On its back, limbs resembled insect arms
The creature grabbed the agent and lifted him into the air with extreme ease, pulling his left arm back to kill him.
Claire raised her pistol and fired at the creature. However, her instincts screamed. She heard muffled footsteps approaching from behind her.
The woman turned and crouched quickly, dodging a fatal attack from an insect-like creature. The creature growled and attacked her again, and Claire quickly analyzed it before dodging once more.
The creature had five sickle-shaped arms, two of which were on its back, just behind its thick neck. It was a mixture of human and some kind of insect with an exoskeleton. The creature was large and heavy, almost reaching the ceiling of the corridor. However, its footsteps were muffled, despite its clear weight.
Ghost struggled and kicked the head of the creature holding him, shooting it in the neck shortly afterwards. Now free, he spins his body while still in the air and lands softly on the ground. Stepping back, he changed the ammunition in his rifle to armor-piercing bullets.
Turning, he throws a grenade towards the fallen monster in front and quickly dodges an attack from the monster before him. He tried to react, but the monster viciously attacked him with another of its claws.
Pressing his hand against the flat surface of the wall, Ghost leaps into the air, catches momentum on the wall and leaps over the creature while grabbing his Desert Eagle. On the monster's back, he places the barrel of his gun against the creature's neck and fires.
The heavy firepower of the gun caused the creature to roar and fall to the ground. Jumping to the side, Ghost takes aim at the creature's head and fires again, killing the monster by exploding its skull.
Behind him, Claire did the same with her pistol, changing her ammunition to armor-piercing bullets.
The creature raised its arms and tried to crush her. However, the woman jumped backwards as she fired at the monster's head.
Roaring, the creature advanced against the woman while brandishing its arm from left to right. Claire, for her part, dodged by throwing herself to the ground, and kicking the creature's leg, she propelled herself backwards.
The monster was too big and the corridor too small. In other words, the thing couldn't move around very well.
Getting up, she shot the creature in the knees, which, due to the armor-piercing bullets, fell to its knees as it was hit. Quickly, Claire took a grenade from her tactical vest and forced it into the monster's mouth.
The grenade exploded, pieces of bone, skin and blood flew around, and the creature's body fell motionless to the ground.
Claire reloaded her pistol and ran her eyes down the corridor. Checking that everything was clear, she turned to Ghost, who had done the same.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yes. It was no big deal. He was too big for such a small corridor." She replied, and Ghost nodded.
"Those two are new." He said, pointing at the creature lying at his feet and the one Claire had faced. "Insect hybrids, apparently. Sick son of a bitch." He muttered, more to himself than to Claire.
The woman opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, they both heard a noise coming from the end of the corridor.
Ghost turned quickly with his rifle raised and Claire had her pistol ready. All they could see was something moving at a glance.
"Did you see that?" Claire asked.
"It looked like a person. It could be infected." Ghost replied.
"Too small to be an adult." Claire said, and he glanced at her.
"What is the difference?" he asked, not waiting for an answer and moving on down the corridor.
Claire stared at his back for a few moments, but then followed him through the maze of corridors.
They passed an electronic double door and entered what looked like dormitories. For patients or for the workers there, they didn't know.
All the bedroom doors were open, but there was no one there, no sign of anyone, despite the personal items lying around.
Up ahead, they heard something fall, and their guns immediately went to a girl running down the corridor.
"Hey, wait!" Claire shouted, and the girl stopped running, turning towards them with her arms clasped against her body in fear.
The girl was young, very young. The girl was wearing a long light blue dress, her brown hair in a braided ponytail, tied with a blue ribbon. On her feet were gray ballet flats.
She looked scared, but otherwise fine. And that made Ghost more than a little suspicious.
"It's okay, you don't have to be afraid." Claire said, raising both hands in the air, approaching at a very slow pace.
"Claire." Ghost warned her, and although she didn't look at him, she turned her head in his direction. "A child... here? Near those creatures?"
He whispered, but Claire just ignored him. She knew it was suspicious to say the least, but at the same time, they had no proof that this child had anything to do with it. For all they knew, she could just be another victim.
"My name is Claire. What's yours?" She asked, kneeling down in front of the girl, who was alternating her gaze between the woman and the agent behind her with a certain frenzy.
"... Natalia." The girl replied quietly.
"Natalia... you're a very brave girl, Natalia." Claire said. "How did you end up here?"
"I... that man brought me here." She said, now somewhat aware of the approaching Ghost, who stared at her with neutral eyes and kept his rifle lowered.
"It must have been awful. We can get you out of here." Claire said, raising her hand towards the girl, who shook it, still uncertain, but a little more comfortable.
Claire then turned to Ghost, holding the man's gaze for a few moments, until he sighed and reached for his communicator.
"Alpha D, come in." He began, waiting for an answer. "Alpha D, calling."
"Alpha D, come in. The reaper is unavailable, I'd be in charge for the time being." Ghost bowed his head slightly when he heard Ayala's voice.
"We found a civilian, a child. Requesting a team to get her out of here." He said.
"Alpha C and Alpha A got in touch, Ghost. There's a team on its way to the north wing, I'll mark the location on your map." Ayala said. "Ghost, I ask you to be quick about it, and when possible, go to the garage, next to the B-3 storage room. Alpha A has confirmed a confrontation with Albert Wesker." The news made Ghost's eyes widen slightly, and his whole body tense up.
"Roger that." He said, glancing at the watch on his wrist. The garage, although not exactly on the way, was close enough.
The agent turned to the woman, who was looking at him a little anxiously, holding a few questions inside.
"Let's go." He simply said, taking the lead and walking off at a brisk pace.
"Stay close to me, okay?" Claire said to the little girl next to her, who nodded somewhat frantically, and this brought back some memories for a few brief moments.
What a... coincidence. A cruel coincidence of fate, of course.
Ghost kicked open a door, attracting the attention of some infected people.
Throwing a concussion grenade ahead, he readies himself. The grenade exploded, stunning the infected around him, and it was then that he advanced, shooting the infected with a hail of armor-piercing bullets.
The infected people fell with speed. However, one of those insect-like infected that could turn invisible opened its huge mouth and spat some kind of greenish liquid in his direction.
Ghost dodged it by jumping over the railing of the metal walkway they were on, and hit the creature in midair, causing it to fall with a loud thud to the ground below the walkway.
A Licker jumped towards him, and Ghost, reacting quickly, leapt off the railing, causing the creature to pass straight through him and fall next to the other infected on the floor below. Seeing this, Ghost takes a grenade from his tactical vest and throws it towards both infected.
As he advanced, he heard hurried footsteps approaching in front of him, but gritted his teeth as he saw nothing in his line of sight.
It was then that he saw the faint red glow, and his instincts kicked in. Throwing his torso backwards and taking a single step backwards, he dodges a claw attack by a Hunter.
Quickly counterattacking, he took out his knife and plunged it into the creature's neck. Pulling his knife back in one swift motion, he takes momentum and kicks the Hunter to the side, firing at the infected that followed along the walkway until his clipper ran out of bullets.
Turning to face the Hunter, he sidesteps another slashing attack from the claws of the creature, which was now viciously attacking him, as if irritated by the previous attack. The hunter tries a sideways blow, but the agent dodges it by ducking.
Taking advantage of its own movement, the creature spins its huge body and tries another side attack. However, Ghost dodges by taking two steps back, and with his Desert Eagle, hits a fatal shot to the Hunter's head, who falls to the ground with a loud thud, its body now motionless.
After clearing the place of infected, they continue on their way, until at one point, Ghost stops in front of a double door.
"I'm going to Wesker. You concentrate on getting her out of here. The location is marked on the map." Ghost said, turning to Claire.
If it had been anyone else, he wouldn't have let her go. He was still suspicious about that girl, it didn't make sense for her to be there, apparently fine, when the whole lab was infected. Especially after finding her so close to other infected subjects.
However, considering that Claire wasn't just any human, he would say that she could take care of herself if anything unusual happened.
He held back a sigh. He didn't like being like that, suspicious and wary of a child. It was possible that she was just another victim and that filled him with anger. However, he knew well enough that, even if he didn't like it, that child could very well become a monster at any moment.
"Right... okay... be careful." Claire said.
"... I say the same to you. If necessary, Redfield, don't hesitate. Don't let your feelings cloud your judgment." He said it seriously, looking deep into Claire's eyes, who seemed to swallow a little saliva, and remained quiet for a few moments. But then she nodded.
Ghost immediately turned and went through the door, while Claire continued running down the corridor, not noticing the increasingly black veins on the little girl's body.