The Good Tenant(A Resident Evil SI/OC)

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 21


“So, once we had made it out of the facility, the self-destruct went off,” I explained. “And we pretty much all sat around the remnants of the facility for a little while before dispersing.”


“So that’s what that was,” Forest said with a small smile. “We felt what we thought was an earthquake, but now I’m fairly certain it was you guys.”


“You going to explain why you want to kill Wesker?” Richard asked as we all sat in the bedroom we had overtaken.


“None of you would believe me if I told you,” I shook my head with a wry grin, “Hell, I wouldn’t even believe me. So let’s just go with me having a gut feeling.”


“Why did you let those Umbrella Paramilitary types go?” Captain Marini asked after a minute. “As far as we can tell, Umbrella is directly responsible for all of the shit we’ve seen over the last day and a half.”


“I don’t think they had anything to do with the zombies and other things we’ve encountered,” I said bluntly. “They were disposable grunts and were supposed to die down in the HIVE.”


“We did find orders with two of the bodies on the train to kill the UBCS members if they encountered any classified information,” Richard reminded the STARS Team captain. “It’s likely that those four were the ones that were supposed to die if they saw any classified information.”


“That,” I agreed. “And that zombies have probably interacted with the packs of wild dogs and wolves on this mountain. This means that Raccoon City is at risk of this kind of thing spreading. We’re going to need all of the help that we can get if we’re going to survive the next couple of months.”


“There’s also the fact that Kaplan has a bunch of data on what research was being conducted on the HIVE,” Edward spoke up. “He was working on decrypting it, (whatever that means) but said it would take a while. That information could be useful in bringing down Umbrella for the kinds of experiments they’ve been running.”


“They should be waiting for us back in the city once we’re done here,” I agreed. “But there’s some sort of creature that’s entirely different than the usual ones we’ve faced. I heard it creeping around while Ed was resting.”


“Does anyone else want to take bets on this being an Umbrella facility as well?” Forest asked. “The mansion that you and Edward checked out first was an Umbrella front, the other facility that looked big was their training academy, and the odds are that this one was important to them as well.”


“Agreed,” Captain Marini stated. “We’ll begin searching this mansion while trying to look for a phone or some means of communicating with the RPD,” Captain Marini turned to me. “I’m not forgetting that you haven’t told me why you suspected Wesker, and I won’t press you for an answer now. But we aren’t finished discussing this.”







“Everyone go grab your gear,” Captain Wesker ordered the Alpha Team of STARS. “We leave in thirty minutes.”


“What are you running for this op?” Chris asked Barry as they entered the STARS standalone armory.


“I’ve got the old hand cannon,” Barry replied as he patted his chest rig where his Colt Python was seated in its holster. “I’m gonna run a shotgun for this op though,” Barry grabbed a Remington 870 off of one of the racks before giving it a quick inspection. “Yeah, I think that'll work just fine. You?”


“I’m running standard kit,” Chris replied as he loaded a magazine into his MP5 and gave it the HK slap, sending the bolt forward. “But I’m bringing this just in case,” He slung an M79 Grenade Launcher over his back via a sling and grabbed an assortment of grenades that he loaded into some pouches. “I’m mostly going to be bringing nonlethal stuff for this thing though.”


“You can run the big guns,” Jill spoke up from behind Chris as she hefted the carbine in her hands. “But we all know what that means,” She winked at the two men before loading her carbine and slapping the side of it to chamber a round. “Let’s go rescue Bravo team yeah?” She left to head to the helipad.


“Chris, you okay after that burn?” Joseph Frost spoke up as he simply loaded up an MP5 and some spare magazines. “It’s okay, we all know that Jill’s got bigger balls than everyone on the STARS.”


“Let’s just go rescue Bravo Team,” Chris replied to his friend. “We both know that she’ll shoot us both if we aren’t there on time.”


“Indeed,” Barry agreed as he hefted a case and began moving towards the helipad with the other two members of Alpha Team.


“Are we all ready?” Brad Vickers asked nervously as he ran through the final checks on the chopper.


“Yeah,” Wesker’s voice came from behind the members of Alpha Team, causing them to jump a bit. “Let’s go.”


“I’m running through pre-flight checks now,” Brad said as he climbed in. “We’ll be ready for takeoff in a few minutes.”


“Just let me tuck this in here,” Barry said as he tucked the large case into the chopper’s cargo netting. “We get any more intel on where Bravo might be?”


“Negative,” Wesker stated. “We’re going to head directly along their planned flight path though and see if we can hear them on the radio or track down a beacon,” Wesker climbed into the copilot’s seat and began to assist with the chopper’s checks.


Once they had finished the pre-flight checks, the chopper began to take off with permission from the local air traffic controller.



“Settle in for a bit, people,” Brad said over their headsets. “It’ll take a bit before we’re over the mountain area that Bravo was supposed to be in.”


“Copy that,” Jill replied as she looked out the doors of the chopper at the sun vanishing behind dark clouds. “Looks like rain might be in our future.”


“Hopefully it stays off of us until we can run a proper check on the area,” Joseph replied with a grin. “Do you guys think that Bravo got into an engagement with the cannibals?”


“We’ll find out when we get there,” Barry told the younger man. “And don’t be eager to get into a fight. That’s a good way to get yourself killed. “


“Whatever,” Joseph replied, the adrenaline junkie not really listening to the other man.


“It’s your funeral,” Barry shrugged before leaning back and closing his eyes while listening to the calming sounds of the rotors spinning above the chopper.


“Besides,” Brad spoke up. “They’ve got both of our medics with them, I’m sure that they’re doing just fine.”


“If they were,” Jill said with a frown. “Then they’re not doing fine anymore. You’ve just summoned Murphy, Brad. May God have mercy on your soul.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 22


“I’m dropping all of you off next to the crash site now,” Vickers informed the members of the STARS Alpha Team as he lowered the helicopter down into the clearing next to the crash site. “I saw a building with a helipad on the roof a short distance away. I’ll stay circling and be ready to pick you up when you need evac.”


“Copy that,” Wesker replied as he and the rest of the team jumped out of the chopper. “I’ve got a shortwave radio and will stay in contact as best I can.”


The team moved quickly to the downed chopper before they heard an explosion in the distance.


“Bravo didn’t have any heavy ordnance with them,” Barry said as they all turned to the area where they heard the sound. “But the cannibals might have had some.”


“Agreed,” Wesker nodded his head in Barry’s direction. “We should probably only give this area a quick look before moving on.”


“Radio is busted,” Joseph Frost said as he looked at the interior of the chopper. “No evidence of anything other than some emergency repairs to get the emergency beacon up and running though.”


“Did any of you hear that?” Jill asked in a moment of silence. “Sounded like something crashing through the trees.”


“Negative,” Chris shook his head. “I didn’t hear anything.”


Then they all heard the sound of a tree being forcible strained as it was pushed against another one.


“Damn,” Barry whistled as he looked at the grizzly bear that emerged from the shadows. “That is one big bear.”


“It’s wounded too,” Jill said, “Looks like chunks of its flesh have been eaten out.”


The Bear then collapse in front of them onto its face, no breath coming from its massive chest or any sign that it was alive.


“Think I can skin it and get a rug out of it?” Frost asked as he moved closer to the bear.


“I wouldn’t get too close to a bear,” Barry cautioned. “Even if it appears dead, it might accidentally kill you if it has even the slightest bit of life. And most of our small arms here won’t do much more than irritate it.”


“I’m fine,” Joseph said as he got close enough to poke the bear with his submachine gun. “See, it’s not even moving.”


The bear’s head snapped up, the eyes blazing with an undead fury before it turned to Frost.


“Oh, fuck,” Frost said as he began to backpedal away from the bear as it rose to its full height. “Guys, a little help here!”


“I’ll use a grenade, but you need to get clear Joe,” Chris said seriously. “And then we need to all start running. Because I don’t think this will do all that much to this thing.”


Shouldering the aged grenade launcher, Chris loaded the explosive round in before snapping the chamber shut and aiming at the bear that was still processing the area.


“Moving!” Joe yelled as he began to sprint away from the bear, his SMG banging into his back as it slung on the sling behind him.


“Fire in the hole!” Chris called out as he pulled the trigger on the launcher, launching the round out and watching as it impacted the bear without doing anything more than bouncing off of it.


“You forgot about the arming distance,” Jill said as she shouldered her rifle and fired a pinpoint round into the grenade, causing it to go off before turning and sprinting after Joseph.


Barry had already turned and begun running, leaving Chris and Wesker to look at the bear as it stumbled to its feet and turn its burning eyes to the two of them. As the two of them turned and began to run, they heard the sound of something smaller and faster than the bear chasing them as well.


“Those aren’t bears!” Chris yelled as he turned his head and caught a glimpse of a canine figure leaping after them.


“Just keep running!” Wesker yelled back, nearly out of breath. “I think I see a building in front of us!”


The two of them hit the door and forced it open before turning and shoving it closed behind them.


“That was too close,” Chris said as they heard the thump of a dog or whatever it was that was chasing them hit the door.


“Where are the others though?” Wesker asked as he turned and looked at the entryway of the building that they were in.


“Thud!” a massive sound hit the door and it shivered a second before they heard the bear growl and move on a bit.


“Let’s go see about finding the others yeah?” Chris agreed as he backed away from the door before his feet hit a bunch of spent shell casings and he nearly slipped onto his back before Wesker caught him and prevented him from hitting his ass on the ground.


“That’s a lot of shell casings,” Wesker said as he knelt down and picked up a piece of brass. “There’s some scorch marks over in the corner too. Whatever happened here, someone used a lot of ammunition to try and kill something else.”


“Doesn’t look like they were too successful either,” Chris said as he picked up a 7.62 NATO casing off of the ground. “Otherwise we would have seen a body around here. It was definitely Bravo Team though. Forest marks his duty ammo with a small red sharpie so that he doesn’t grab his range ammo by accident. This is definitely one of his.”


“Well, that puts us at least somewhat on the right track,” Wesker replied. “I wonder what they faced that would require so much spent munitions though.”


“No idea,” Chris shook his head. “But we should probably regroup with the others before we try and locate Bravo Team.”


“You go locate the rest of Alpha Team,” Wesker ordered Chris. “I’m going to see if I can track down Bravo, it looks like one of them may be injured,” Wesker indicated a small trail of blood. “They might need assistance of some kind.”


“Alright,” Chris agreed. “I’m not sure that splitting up is the right idea, but you are the captain.”


“Godspeed, Chris,” Wesker said as he turned and began to follow the trail of bloody bootprints. “I’ll meet you back here in an hour to regroup.”


“Copy that,” Chris said as he shouldered his SMG and began to check for unlocked doors. “I just hope that they made it into the building without any issues.”


“I certainly wouldn’t want to be trapped out there with that bear,” Wekser chuckled.


“Agreed,” Chris said. “And Captain, take an extra flashbang, I have a feeling that you’re going to need it,” Chris tossed the grenade to the Alpha Team captain before opening the unlocked door and moving through it.


“Poor fool,” Wesker muttered to himself as he pulled a suppressor out of one of his pouches and began to screw it onto his Samurai Edge. “I doubt that the rest of them escaped from Cerberus, much less the bear.”


Wesker swapped his magazine for subsonic ammo and chambered a round before moving forward, making sure to follow the trail of blood closely. “Let’s find out how many of you are still alive after this.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 23

“Fuck,” I exhaled violently as a clawed hand ripped open my tactical vest and tore a gash deep into the side of my ribs, the Hunter taking a swipe at me once it was in range. While the claw was stuck into my side, I pulled my combat knife out of its sheath and jammed it deep into the eye of the creature, sinking the blade deep until it finally stopped, the blade finding a material that it couldn’t keep going past. The Hunter, screaming in rage dropped me and tried to reach its face, driving the blade deeper while trying to claw it out, and killing it in the process.

“Guys,” I said as I turned to the rest of the squad who were stuck gaping for a minute. “We should probably get a move on, there’s never just one of these things.”

“I’ll take a look at that wound once we’ve found a place to bunker down,” Rebecca said as I tried to hold my side together, blood leaking out through some of the gauze bandages that I was pressing down against it to staunch the bleeding.

“Well, we might want to hurry up on that,” I said as I looked at a figure perched above us on the balcony. “Because I think that there’s something or someone else here with us.”

The figure dropped from the balcony to the ground in front of us, the chains on it rattling as it gave us a glare out from its somewhat misshapen eyes.

STARS Team Bravo immediately opened fire, not wanting the figure to try and take them out.

Then, the figure stood up, the bullets pushing themselves out of its body, and it screeched. The noise drawing in both zombies and more hunters to their location.

“Get clear,” Ordered Captain Marini as he shouldered his MGL while the creature continued to screech. And once the rest of Bravo Team was clear, he fired a HEPD round into the creature, the explosive round detonating and sending the creature away and into the wall.

“Let’s move!” Forest said as he saw the creature start to get back up. “I don’t want to stick around and find out what else this thing can do.”

Shifting as a group, we began to move down one of the hallways, keeping an eye on the zombies that were surrounding the creature that had attacked us while we retreated away from the entryway and opened a door that led to some sort of art room. Rushing through we entered a hallway and trying all of the doors eventually found one that only had one entrance that we breached and cleared before closing the door, locking it, and setting up positions to watch the door.

“Fuck,” I said as I eased the bandage off and immediately put pressure back on my wound. “Rebecca, you’re going to need to cut off my shirt, and I think my vest is trashed too.”

“Forest, Edward,” Rebecca took charge as she slipped both my pack and hers off and began to work my vest off. “Forest, I need you to look in my pack and get the first aid spray. Edward, I need your help with getting his gear off.”

“Copy that,” Forest said as he began digging through the med pack, trying to locate the first aid spray.

“Come on,” Edward said as he began to pull my tactical vest off.

“I’m taking over here,” Rebecca told me as she pulled out a fresh roll of gauze and took over holding pressure on my side. “You’ve lost a ton of blood and it looks like that claw nicked a rib, I’m probably going to need to use an entire can of spray on you in order to seal this up.”

“Alright,” I grit my teeth as I held my hands up and helped work my vest off.

Grabbing a pair of shears out of her kit, she cut my shirt off with one hand and held the bandage tight while I ripped the rest of the shirt off after she had cut across some of the seams.

“Edward,” She said after he had set my vest to the side. “I’m going to need you to get a clean thing of gauze, he’s going to want to bite down on something, this spray stings like hell, but it’ll hold him together until we can get to a hospital.”

“What about infection?” Captain Marini asked. “Is there a chance that he could turn into one of those things out there?”

“I have no idea,” Rebecca shook her head. “But even if it can be transmitted by those claws, this spray should clean any virus or bacteria out.”

“I should be fine,” I said as Rebecca accepted the first aid spray. “But we’ll find out by the end of this if I turn or not.”

“Here,” Edward said as he handed me a small roll of gauze. “You’re going to want to bite down on this.”

Taking the gauze roll into my left hand, I shoved it in my mouth as Rebecca quickly removed the pressure from the wound, wiped any dried blood out of the way, and shoved the nozzle of the first aid spray into the open wounds. Groaning through the bandage, I bite down hard as the sensation of being poked with hundreds of needles filled my right side, the sensation continuing until well after the first aid spray had been used up and Rebecca had wrapped my torso in a tight bandage.

“You’re going to need some stitches when we can get to a hospital,” Rebecca said bluntly. “And there’s going to be a hell of a scar there too. I saw part of one of your ribs there for a second before I used the first aid spray.” The medic sighed, and rooted through my medbag for the extra clothes that she knew were in there. “Here,” she handed me a plain black t-shirt. “You’re going to want this to go between your vest, and I don’t think you’ll be using your rifle for the rest of the op.”

“I’ll make it work,” I replied with a groan as I stood up from where I had been kneeling and put my kit back on. “We’re all going to get out of here.”

“You’re damn right we are,” Marini said as he moved to the doorway. “Given that all of the other facilities we’ve been in have had underground areas, what are the odds that there’s one here too?”

“I’d say pretty high sir,” Richard replied as he took inventory of what was left of his breaching gear. “I’m glad that the armory back at the outpost had extra breaching shells. Otherwise, we’d be SOL if we wanted anything broken into.”

“You good to keep going or do you need to stay here?” Enrico met my eyes and took my measure.

“I’m with y’all til the end,” I said as I stood up and grabbed my rifle. “Let’s get this shit over with.”



Author's Note: Sorry for the late update, my muse has been mostly on my other stories.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 24

“Did you hear that?” Jill asked Barry once they had sealed the door behind them and Frost.

“Yeah,” the older man replied. “Sounded like gunfire somewhere in the facility/”

“Not sure where though,” Frost said as he gasped for breath. “The acoustics of this type of building might be screwing with our perception of where sounds are coming from.”

“Well, we should probably stick together,” Barry said as he checked the chamber of his shotgun. “I do have the breaching rounds if we need them, after all.”

“Alright, Frost, you’re on point, Barry, you get the middle and I’ll bring up the rear,” Jill gave short pointed instructions.

“Where do we start though?” Barry asked.

“Looks like we came through some sort of servant’s entrance,” Joseph Frost said as he looked around. “We should probably see if there’s some sort of medkit around here before we move on.”

“Sounds good,” Jill replied as she looked around the small room. “We’ll take that hallway when we’re done, then we’ll move and see if we can locate some members of Bravo Team or maybe the rest of Alpha.”







“Why are there so many of these things?” Captain Marini asked as he led the STARS Bravo team through the hallway of this mansion. “You'd think they’d have sent commandos in to clean this site up like they did the rest.”

“Maybe they did,” Dewey replied with a shrug as he killed another zombie with his handgun. “Those reptile things might have gotten to them, and given the damage they caused to Mark, I doubt a full commando team would be alive if they got ambushed by enough of them.”

“You may be right there,” Forest said as he nudge a zombie's body with his booted foot. “These guys don’t look like they’re all that important to any of Umbrella’s operations. These guys are dressed in the sort of clothes a server would wear.”

“Never know with Umbrella,” I said as I moved past the dead with a slight wince. “Could have been important lab workers that never managed to escape for all we know.”

“Well, it’s up to us to ensure that whatever happened here gets out to the public,” Kenneth said as he turned his camera on for a handful of minutes to get some footage of the dead zombies that littered the ground. “We’ll be the only ones with evidence of what happened here after all.”

“Just got to make sure that Umbrella doesn’t just write this off though,” Rebecca said as she brought up the rear with Aiken. “There’s a lot of ways to fabricate evidence or cover things up after all.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Captain Marini said as he slowed to a halt. “I think this leads to a basement, stack up.”







“Well, it looks like they encountered something a bit lethal,” Wesker smirked to himself as he looked at the blood-soaked shirt that was left in the room he had followed the bloody footprints to. “I wonder who the clock is ticking for now,” He mused as he stepped out of the room and looked around at his surroundings, trying to figure out where he suddenly heard footsteps coming from.

Turning around, he saw something that he had thought was dead for many years. “Ahh, Lisa. I had thought it was too good to be true when I heard that you were dead.”

The creature that had once been Lisa Trevor simply stood there for a moment, examining him before letting out a screech and charging at the man who had contributed to her suffering.

Palming the flashbang that Chris had given him, Wesker pulled the pin and closed his eyes as he released it, the flash of heat and sound deafened him as he opened his eyes and saw Lisa curled up on the floor flinching away from the grenade that had just gone off. Turning and walking away, Wesker used his knowledge of the mansion to navigate to a hidden elevator. Pressing the button, he made his way down into the depths of the Spencer Mansion, where his next objective lay waiting.

Author's note: A bit short as I get back into the swing of things regarding this fic.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 25


“Well, it looks like Bravo Team has performed above and beyond what could have been expected,” Wesker muttered to himself as he looked over the camera recordings from the Umbrella Executive Training School. “If I wish to profit from this I should ensure that the BOWs are capable of handling them.”


Wesker began downloading the recordings to a CD and also began looking at what specimens might still be available for activation to use against both Bravo and Alpha Teams.


“It appears that the extraction team left some Lickers behind,” Wesker then glanced up at one of the camera monitors and smirked wickedly. “Yes, I remember you, YAWN,” Wesker looked at the giant snake as it slithered around some parts of the mansion. “We’ll have to see about luring you into Bravo Team. Their wounded member should slow them down after all.”

Wesker then typed in a series of commands that would set in motion the awakening of two Tyrants in the laboratory that he was standing in and would unleash the Lickers that were in stasis as well.


“Now, let’s check up on Chris,” Wesker went back to the hidden elevator and pushed a button, the doors closing on him and the elevator beginning the journey back up.








Chris leaned back out of reach of the zombie that was trying to bite him and shoved his MP5 into its face, squeezing the trigger as he did so before turning and killing the zombie that was trying to come up behind him and get a bite.


“Man,” Chris sagged a bit after the last of the zombies in his area had been killed. “Where did all of these things come from?” He took a minute to catch his breath before continuing to walk down the hallway, picking up a small keycard off of one of the corpses as he moved past.


“I’ll have to see if I can find out what this goes to,” he muttered to himself as he checked a corner and then cleared it, coming to find Captain Wesker killing a zombie with a smooth headshot from his handgun. “Captain Wesker!” Chris called out as he approached. “Any luck in finding the others?”


“That’s a negative,” Wesker shook his head, the ever-present sunglasses hiding some of his facial expressions. “I also haven’t been able to get a radio message out to Mr. Vickers as of yet, it seems something is jamming us.”


“Damn,” Chris shook his head. “I thought I heard gunshots a while ago but I guess that was you.”


“Maybe,” Wesker shrugged. “Could have been the rest of Alpha Team too, we might as well split up again to see if we can find anything. I’ll meet you back here in a half hour or so.”


“Copy that,” Chris nodded. “I’ll be back here in thirty mikes,” Chris started to walk away and then stopped and looked over his shoulder at Captain Wesker. “Good luck Captain.”


Wesker just nodded before turning around and walking in the opposite direction.








“Nope!” I said as I peered around the corner and began backing up. “I’m out, you guys can handle whatever that is, but I’m out.”


“What?” Dewey asked with a smirk on his face. “I’ve never known you to be scared of anything before.”


“I don’t deal with snakes,” I replied as I checked my magazine and itched my hand down for a 10mm handgun that had been replaced by my Sig P226 when I loaned the Glock to Dewey.


“Yeah, and that is one big motherfucker,” Forest said as he shouldered his SR-25 and peered at the giant snake that appeared to be resting at the moment. “Should we try and take it on now, Captain? Or should we just try and bypass it?”


“Bypass it for now,” Captain Marini replied. “No sense in pissing off something now that might be able to take one of us out.”


The rest of Bravo Team responded in the affirmative as they moved quietly through a secondary room, bypassing the giant snake entirely.


“Now, we need to see if we can find some sort of blueprints for the place,” Captain Marini said quietly, not wanting to wake the sleeping snake. “Let’s see if we can find some sort of library or office space of some kind, try and get a better idea of the big picture around here.”








“Did you see that?” Jill asked as she thought she saw movement ahead.


“I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye,” Barry replied as he slowed to a stop and looked around, his shotgun at the ready.


Joseph, bringing up the rear, stopped and looked behind the trio, checking the rear, and then seeing that it was clear, he turned around and peered up ahead, trying to see if he could spot the movement that the other two had mentioned.


“I don’t see anything,” Frost said with a shrug. “Maybe it was your imagination.”


“I’m not so sure about that,” Jill said as she relaxed her posture a bit. “But I can’t figure out what it was so I guess we can move forward.”


As the trio began to move forward, a massive figure lurched out from the darkness of the corner of the ceiling, its muscular body tensing as it snatched Joseph and jumped away, Jill and Barry turned at the sound and began firing their weapons into the area where the figure had disappeared to.


“Joseph!” Jill cried out as they began to chase the sound that the figure made as it ran, the gunshots punctuating the noise as Joseph seemingly tried to kill the humanoid as it carried him. One last gunshot echoed through the air as a roar sounded in the distance.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 26


“Dammit!” Barry swore as he and Jill rounded the corner, seeing the dead body of Joseph Frost accompanied by the body of whatever creature it was that had dragged him away.


“What the hell is that thing?” Jill asked as she poked it with a rifle. “Looks like someone got fed steroids and turned inside out.”


“Whatever it was, it managed to tear up Joe in no time at all,” Barry said as he knelt and ripped the dog tags off of the Alpha Team member’s neck. “We’ll have to come back and recover his body at some point. He deserves a proper burial,” Barry continued taking care of some final rights and then turned quickly as he heard a sharp intake of breath from his partner.


“Barry, don’t make any sudden moves,” Jill breathed out as she saw two more of the creatures that had just killed Frost perched on the ceiling.


“Focus fire on the closest one?” Barry whispered back.


Jill just nodded, not wanting to speak for fear that the creatures would move quickly.


Jill flipped her fire selector switch from single to full auto, the small click seemingly setting off whatever triggers the creatures were waiting for.


Pulling the trigger, Jill stitched a line of rounds up and into the creature, leaping to the side and continuing to fire as it leaped past while Barry slam-fired his shotgun, operating the pump as fast as humanly possible until he was out of rounds.


“Reloading!” Jill called out as she fished another magazine from her magazine pouch and slammed it into her rifle.


“Covering!” Barry yelled back as he shoved another shell into his shotgun and fired it before drawing his Samurai Edge to continue firing while Jill was reloading.


Seeing the first creature die, the second jumped out of the way, seeming to fade into the darkness of another hallway, leaving Jill and Barry alone with the dead


“You got his dog tags?” Jill asked Barry as she slapped the bolt release on her rifle, sending the bolt home and chambering a new round.


“Yeah, I got 'em’,” Barry replied as he reloaded his shotgun.


“Then let’s find the others and get out of here,” She responded. “If Bravo Team ran into these kinds of freaks then I doubt any of them are still alive, so let’s just find Chris and the Captain and get outta here.”


“Marini is one tough SOB though,” Barry replied. “If there’s a chance that any of them are still alive then we owe it to them to see if we can at least recover their bodies.”


“Sure,” Jill shrugged. “Preferable with some special forces and a lot more firepower up here.”


“If we could reach Brad then I’d have already called him to go get backup,” Barry reminded Jill. “Now let’s get moving, there might be more of those things out there for all we know.”







“You just had to piss off the giant snake!” I yelled at Edward as we split off from the rest of Bravo Team, my side aching as the bandages began to slip and I started to bleed again.


“It was a goddamn sneeze!” Dewey yelled back as we cut another corner and then ducked down as the snake rammed into and through the wall of a T-shaped corridor.


“You think we lost it?” I asked as I passed my rifle over to Dewey and drew my handgun while checking the wound in my side.


“Nope,” Dewey replied as he began shooting at the giant snake that rounded the corner to come after us again. “It’s back!”


“Eyes and mouth look like the only unarmoured targets,” I said as I fired my pistol at the roof of the snake’s open mouth.


“We don’t have enough penetration to get through the scales,” Edward said as he sling my rifle and bodily grabbed me to begin running again. “We’ll have to improvise.”


The two of us eventually found a room with a giant fish tank of some sort, a catwalk hanging over it as the snake’s body causing the walkway to buckle slightly under the extra weight.


“Ed, just keep running,” I said as I glanced down into the water and saw a mouthful of teeth. “Don’t stop for anything.”


Reaching the end of the walkway, we began running down the stairs as a giant shark shot up and caught the snake in its jaws, the snake curling around the shark as the two began to struggle for supremacy.


“Not a fucking word,” I breathed out to the other Bravo Team member.


“Got it,” Edward nodded as we slowed down and looked back at the tank. “Who do you think will win?”


“Doesn’t matter,” I shrugged. “Whichever one does will just be pissed off at us for getting away and want to kill us even more.”


“Point made,” Edward said as he tried to hand me my rifle back only for me to wave him off.


“I can’t use it very well right now,” I said with a small gesture at the wound that had resumed bleeding. “Speaking of which, we’re going to have to stop in a minute for me to redo this, otherwise I may bleed out.”


“Too bad our radios aren’t working,” Edward sighed wearily. “We could have used some backup again.”


“We’ve made it work all night,” I replied as we found a small room for us to hide in while I redressed my wound. “We’ll regroup with the others eventually, with yet another crazy story to tell them.”


“What a fucking day,” Edward leaned back against the wall. “When we get back to Raccoon City I’m going to sleep for a week.”


“Keep that energy,” I pulled my bandage tight and grunted as it compressed the wound on my side. “It’s what will get us out of here alive.”








“Is this the right address?” Rain asked as she pulled the Hummer down the streets of Raccoon City.


“Looks like it,” Kaplan said as he looked up from the map. “Think there’ll be enough space for all of us?”


“Anything will be better than the HIVE after tonight,” Alice said with a groan as she stretched out in the back seat next to Natalia and J.D.


“Looks like it’s a 2/2,” J.D. said as he found the fake brick and opened it to reveal a spare key. “Let’s see what the interior’s like.”


“Pretty sparse,” Rain said as she drew the handgun she kept concealed and cleared the main rooms of the house. “But at least it’s furnished.”


“Ladies go shower first,” Kaplan said as he set his backpack down on the kitchen counter. “We’ll see if there’s any grub left in the house.”


“He’s got two showers,” Alice said. “I’m okay with waiting for the two of you to finish.”


“Sounds good to me,” Natalia replied, her accent becoming stronger for a minute. “I’ll try not to take up all of the hot water da?”


“Even a cold shower would be welcome!” J.D. yelled back with a grin as he poked his head out of the fridge, an armful of containers and ziplock bags stacked up carefully. “Man, he’s got some pretty good leftovers here, he even labeled and dated them.”


“Just save me something good,” Rain called out from the master bedroom’s attached bathroom. “You know what kind of food I like.”


“Wilco,” J.D. said as he began to preheat the oven for some of the leftovers. “I’ll make sure we all get something decent.”


“Wake me up when the other two are out of the showers,” Alice said as she reclined on the couch. “I’m taking a nap.”


“I’m glad we pulled all of our cash out,” Kaplan said as he glanced at the laptop screen. “Looks like Umbrella just closed all of our accounts due to us being registered as ‘dead.”


“Damn,” J.D. shook his head as he handed a slice of pizza to the resident technician. “Looks like Mark was right.”


“I’m still decrypting the files,” Kaplan said through a mouthful of pizza. “But it looks like this sort of thing goes way deeper than I could have ever imagined. It’s like anyone who was actually important knew about the kind of things Umbrella was into.”


“Is she on the up and up?” J.D. asked under his breath just loud enough for Kaplan to hear.


“Yeah,” Kaplan replied. “She checks out. It looks like most of the people at HIVE were doing legitimate research on things that are approved by the WHO and CDC. It was only a small percentage that were into the freaky shit.”


“Good,” a weight seemingly lifted off of J.D.’s shoulders. “I was worried I’d have to shoot her.”


“Nah,” Kaplan finished off his slice of pizza before reaching for a plate of biscuits and gravy that J.D. set on the counter in front of him. “We’re clear.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 27


“You hear that?” Jill asked as she walked through a small section of the Mansion. “Sounded like gunfire.”


“Yeah, sounded close too,” Barry said as he double-checked the load in his shotgun. “You ready to go see who it is?”


“Yeah,” Jill replied. “I’m ready to unravel this mystery.”


The two of them began jogging, moving towards the sound of sparse gunfire.


“Blue Blue Blue!” Jill yelled as she saw who the two people moving and shooting were.


“Jill?!” Edward asked as he killed a zombie and made sure the area was clear.


“Ed, it’s damn good to see you,” Barry said as he clasped arms with the other STARS member before turning to look at the wounded medic who was standing beside on overwatch, his side held with one hand and a pistol in the other.


“Jill, Barry,” Mark nodded at the two of them. “Where the hell have you guys been? We’ve been fighting for our lives up here on the mountain.”


“We didn’t get authorization to come look for you guys until about four or so hours ago,” JIll said as she glanced down at her watch. “And we’ve already lost Frost to some sort of strange creature in the mountain, and we lost track of Chris and Captain Wesker immediately after we located your crash site.”


“Well, we’ve had one hell of a night,” Edward said with an exhausted look in his eyes. “We just got split off from the rest of Bravo Team by some sort of giant snake a little while ago, and now we’re trying to figure out where they are.”


“The rest of Bravo Team is alive?” Barry asked.


“All of us were there before we got seperated,” Mark said as he press checked his Sig. “Given our night though, I’d rather have eyes on our teammates.”


“Agreed,” Ed replied to his partner. “Would hate to have to kill them after becoming one of those things.”








“Shit!” Captain Marini swore as Bravo Team splintered once again to evade some sort of monster. “Roll call,” he said after the snake had passed.


“I think I pulled something in my leg, but I’m here,” Forest said as he used his rifle as a crutch to stand up again before steadying himself on a wall.


“Here!” Rebecca called out from where she was partiallly buried underneath some drywall. “Kenneth hit his head, and he’s out.”


“We’ll have to carry him then,”Marini said as he and Forest dug the other two members out of the debris. “At least until he’s conspicuous enough to walk by himself.”


“Is the video camera intact?” Forest asked. “We need to at least save what footage we already have.”


“Let me check,” Rebecca said as she dug through Kenneth’s pack, pulling out a slightly dinged camera that was still functional. “We’re good, but I’m going to swap out the tape for save keeping anyway. It should be fine with all of my medical gear.”


“Alright, I’ve got Kenneth, just keep me covered,” Marini began to pick up the big man before Rebecca stopped him.


“Wait,” Rebecca said as she dug into a pouch and pulled out a plastic vial. “I’ve got smelling salts, let’s give them a try before we try going through this entire mansion with an unconscious teammate.”


Cracking the smelling salts open and holding them a distance away from Kenneth’s nose, Rebecca kept careful watch and made sure that she was able to catch his head when he jolted awake.


“What the hell was that?” Kenneth asked as he jolted upright from where he was laying on the ground. “I remember some sort of giant snake, and then just nothing.”


“Yeah, you got hit pretty hard,” Rebecca said with a calming smile. “You good?”


“I’m good,” Kenneth accepted Marini’s hand as he stood up. “Is the camera okay?”


“Yeah, we checked it, and swapped out the tapes just in case,” Rebecca replied.


“Good,” Kenneth said as he rubbed at a sore point on his shoulder. “I’d hate for all of our work so far to be in vain.”


“Well, you’re alive, that’s more important than any more evidence we could have picked up,” Enrico said as he patted the other man on the shoulder. “Now let’s go find Ed and Mark and get back to Raccoon City, we’ve spent way too much time in these mountains.”








“I shall have to consider allowing that recording to be a part of what I sell,” Wesker mused to himself as he watched the battle between Yawn and Neptune. “Yawn seems to be the superior experiment, I shall have to consider more studies in that area.”


Wesker then looked at another camera feed, seeing that some members of Bravo Team had met up with Jill and Barry.


“Well, it looks like it’s time to plant some seeds here,” Wesker smirked as he located Chris on the feeds, plotting out a path that would lead him to the other Alpha Team member.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 28


Lisa watched the Hated One, the one who she remembered as he walked through the mansion. When she had tried to confront him before, she had been blinded by some sort of thing, but this time, she would be prepared for that.


Letting out a screech of anger, she dropped down, her chains echoing in the hallway, and began chasing the Hated One, intent on hurting him the same way that she hurt, and making him scream the way that she screamed when he stabbed her with the things.


He was alone, and that was a good thing, it meant that she would be able to pursue her hunt until it was finished and she was sated.


She scoffed as the Hated One began to run away in fright, with a roar she chased, intent on her revenge before she rounded a corner and saw that the Hated One had found a member of his pack.


Swinging her chains at the duo, she aimed to cripple the Hated One and kill his packmate, her chains hitting the leg of the Hated One and causing him to stumble to his knees.


Roaring in victory, she lurched forward, intent on grabbing him and taking him with her. But then there was pain, and she shied away from the pain, shielding her head she backed away as the pain increased. Then, seeing an escape, she ran away, intent to resume her chase later.








“What the hell was that?” Chris asked Wesker as he helped him up to his feet.


“Some sort of creature that I angered in some way,” Wesker replied as he brushed himself off and readied his handgun once again. “I evaded it once before with the aid of the flashbang that you gave me, it must have wanted me dead since I was able to evade it once before.”


“Good work,” Wesker said as he did a rough check on his leg by putting more weight on it. “I was trying to find you and let you know that I found some data that indicates one of our Alpha Team members was working with whoever engineered this whole incident.”


“Who was it?!” Chris asked angrily. “I’ll help bring them into Chief Irons myself.”


“I’m not sure,” Wesker said with a small shrug. “But it most likely would have had to be someone skilled in both breaking and entering without leaving a trace behind. Or someone who was able to have access to our helicopters the entire time.


“Which pretty much narrows it down to Jill, Edward, or Joseph,” Chris said angrily. “Edward is likely dead or lost in the forest, so that leaves it down to Jill or Joseph.”


“That is the same conclusion that I came to,” Wesker agreed. “Don’t let them know that you’re onto them, should you encounter them, it would be better to take them by surprise should the right time come.”


“Agreed,” Chris said as he looked around them.”You seem to be better at finding the evidence around here than I am, so let’s split up again. I’ll continue to look for everyone else on Alpha Team, while you look for the rest of the information that we need to pin the traitor to the wall. “








“So you’re not going to tell us what happened up here?” Barry asked.


“Not while we’re still in this mansion surrounded by more freaks,” Edward replied with a glance at me. “We’re going to be trying to regroup with the rest of Bravo Team and then we’re out of here.”


“They were trying to see if there’s a basement like the other complexes we’ve encountered,” I agreed. “We know the general direction they were headed, so we should meet up with them sooner or later.”


“Will you at least tell us what did that to you?” Jill asked as she pointed at the wound in my side they had just watched me pack and then rewrap.


“Some sort of giant lizard,” I replied. “The claws are probably the most dangerous part of them, they managed to just slice through Ed’s MP5 like it was nothing.”


“So beware of the claws, got it,” Barry said. “Anything else we should know?”


“Pistol caliber rounds did nothing to them, and my 5.56 didn’t do more than scratch them, it required my 10mm to put them down for good,” I shrugged. “Well, that or a solidly placed grenade or knife.”


“Alright,” Jill said once we had finished discussing some of the creatures and how to kill them. “We’ve been stationary here for far too long, let’s start moving”


“Wait,” Edward said as he heard something around the corner. “I hear that snake again.”


“Stupid fucking snake,” I muttered as I reached for the one frag grenade I had left. “That shark better have left you hurt.” I rounded the corner and saw the giant snake with bloody gashes all over it as it tore into a group of zombies for food.


I pulled the pin for the grenade, counted down from three, and tossed it right into the snake's mouth as it opened wide to spray poison, some of the poison hitting my ballcap before the grenade disappeared into its gullet.


“Choke on this you stupid snake,” I muttered as the snake began to try and move on us before exploding into small chunks of gore.


“Mark, you might want to get rid of the hat,” Ed said as he gestured to the poison that was dripping down the side of it.


“Nah,” I said as I took the ballcap off and used some dirty gauze to wipe the poison off of it. “I’m keeping this thing,” A small design had traced itself down the black ballcap as the poison had eaten away at the black dye. “I might even copyright the design.”


“Well, your hat,” Ed shrugged. “Now that your grudge match with the snake is taken care of do you mind if we continue linking up with the rest of our teammates?”


“No, I’m good,” I said as I spat on the body of the dead snake. “Let’s go.”


Author’s note: This was meant to be written yesterday, but I felt like I had gotten hit by an Isekei truck.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 29


Chris Redfield walked through the mansion alone, his MP5K at the ready to face any threats, the night had been a strange one, and he wasn’t sure what he was going to encounter after the zombies and the bear, but whatever it was, he would be ready for it.


“Dammit,” he exhaled as he saw two bodies and one of the zombies at the end of the hallway. “That’s Joe,” he rushed forward and got closer to the corpses, killing the zombies that was tearing into the body of his dead friend.


What was left of Joe was leaned up against the wall with his hand still on the MP5 that had delivered the killing blow to the monster that had killed him, with his other hand was clutched in a fist around something.


Kneeling down, Chris looked around his friend’s neck for something that should have been there.


“Someone already found your tags,” Chris muttered to himself as he stood up and turned around to consider the creature that Joseph frost had killed when he died.


Seeing something move in the corner of his eye, Chris pulled his submachine gun up to his eyes, shifting his eyes back and forth to try and see what it was that had caught his vision.


Then, hearing a groan behind him, he turned and saw the body of Joseph Frost standing up and lurching towards him. The thing clenched in his hand now identifiable as a fragmentation grenade with the pin pulled but the spoon held down.


“Oh fuck,” Chris said as he backpedaled away from the live grenade and stumbled over the corpse of the monster, fallig backward just as an identical creature leaped over him and tackled Joe’s body to the ground.


“Shit,” Chris said as he saw the grenade rolling around on the ground underneath the creature as it tore in to the dead STARS member’s body.


Then the grenade went off, sending shrapnel flying in every direction while Chris was knocked backward and to the ground from the concussive blast.








Meanwhile, a massive tube with a creature called a Tyran finished the process to awaken the monster within.


“We’ll have to see how Bravo team handles this,” Wesker said as the elevator took the first of two slowly waking Tyrants up to the surface. He then turned and began flipping through the cameras to locate exactly where they were.


“Oh, they’re in the garden, this should be interesting,” Wesker muttered as he zoomed in on the action that was taking place.








“Why are there more of these giant lizards here?’ Rebecca asked as they killed another one with a well placed grenade from Captain Marini’s grenade launcher.


“They probably like the humidity and the heat,” Kenneth said as he shut down the camera to pick up his weapon again. “I’d keep an eye out for more of them, they may try to make this their home for now.”


“Expect more lizards with razor sharp claws that can cut through steel and are capable of tanking most of our guns, that’s just terrific,” Forest snarked as he looked at their surroundings. “What’s next supersoldiers, mutant alligators in the sewers, something else?”


“Who knows what the kind of people who can make these sorts of abominations get up to,” Captain Marini muttered as he surveyed the area. “Looks like there’s some sort of path and a stairway up ahead that leads down into the greenhouse.”


“Given the other crazy stuff we’ve found in random places we might as well check it out,” Rebecca said with a shrug. “We might actually find something worthwhile while we’re down there after all.”








“Hey! I think I found out what caused that explosion,” Barry said as he knelt down and checked Chris Redfield’s vitals. “Looks like a frag went off, took what was left of Joseph with it along with whatever it is that Chris was fighting.”


“I’ll make sure Chris is good to go,” I said as I took over while Barry began guarding me along with Jill and Edward.


“Vest is intact, looks like the body here absorbed most of the shrapnel,” I said as I continued checking for any overt wounds. “No bite marks from what I can tell,” I said as I flipped him over and frowned. “He’s got a pretty nasty gash on his head though, I’m gonna wake him up and see about taking care of it.”


Grabbing his shoulders, I began shaking Chris, but when he didn’t wake up I opened up my med kit and broke out the smelling salts.


“I didn’t want to do this,” I sighed as I cracked open the container and held it a distance away from his nose, allowing the salts to do their job.


As soon as the odor hit his nose, Chris jolted upright, instinctively grabbed my arm that was still in front of him and put me in an arm bar.


“A little help here,” I said as I struggled against my own training. “I don’t want to have to kill the guy to get him to let go.”


“Hey Chris, you awake man?” Barry shook his hand in front of Chris’ face, the other man blinking and then recognizing the older man before letting me go.


“Dammit,” I groaned as I looked down at the messed up bandage that had been covering the giant wound in my side. “You tore the gauze. I flipped Chris the bird once he was lucid enough to recognize me. “You’re lucky my blood’s already clotted for the most part,” I hastily rewrapped what was left of my gauze before turning and beginning to clean out the gash on Chris’ head.


“Sorry man,” Chris apologized while he winced at me digging some debris out of the wound on his head. “SERE training sticks with you even after you leave the Air Force.”


“Fuckin’ Chair Force,” I shook my head at the other man. “Next time you can wake yourself up in a hostile environment.”


“Chris,” Edward nodded at the other man now that he was present enough to notice the other Bravo Team member. “Good to see that everyone on Alpha made it here to join us in this shitshow.”


“Except for Vickers,” Jill chimed in as she stepped into view. “That chickenshit took off and left us for dead pretty early on.”


“He’ll be back,” I muttered harshly. “Or I swear to God above that I’m haunting him for the rest of eternity.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 30


“Get down!” Rebecca yelled as a giant vine tried to crush most of Bravo Team. “It’s coming by for another pass.”


“Try aiming for the vines, maybe we can tear them off if we put enough rounds into them,” Forest said as he tried hitting the main body of the big plant only to cause minor damage that seemed to heal up as soon as it struck.


“Try and get the vines to stay in one place for long enough for me to put a grenade into each one as they come by,” Captain Marini instructed as he pumped his MGL to rotate the cylinder to an incendiary grenade.


“Working on it!” Forest said as he dove out of the way of one of the vines that was trying to kill him. “But they don’t want to stay still.”


“Burning it!” Captain Marini said as he fired an incendiary at the main body of the carnivorous plant. “Let’s see how you like fire.”


The plant seemed to scream, the sound not anything like Bravo Team had ever heard before, it echoed through their skulls and made them cover their ears to prevent the sound from being worse.


“What the hell was that?!” Marini yelled out as he shouldered the MGL and fired another grenade into the giant plant, this time a high explosive one that tore chunks off of the main body of the plant.


Forest, the next one to recover from the noise, shouldered his SR-25 and started filling the hole that had appeared in the giant plant with rounds as fast as he could pull the trigger, the open wound not being able to regenerate while he filled it with 7.62 NATO rounds.


“Keep firing,” Captain Marini ordered as he fired four more grenades before ducking back behind a pillar to reload. “Don’t let it heal up!”


“Copy that!” Forest said while Richard began firing his Benelli M3 into the plant’s open wound as well.


“Kenneth is down!” Rebecca said as she dragged the big pointman behind cover while killing the few zombies that tried to find the source of all the noise. “I think the noise rattled his brain a bit! He’s stable, but I’m keeping him out of the fight!”


“Copy that!” Captain Marini yelled back as he stepped back out from cover while Forest ducked back down to reload his SR-25 again. “Fire in the Hole!” he yelled as he fired all six grenades in rapid succession, the incendiaries combined with the HE rounds causing the chunks of plant matter to catch on fire as they blew off of the plant. And finally, with one last ear-pounding shriek, the plant creature collapsed, seeming to be dead.


“Keep shooting,” Marini said as he checked his load of grenades and frowned, finding that there were only around nine left. “I don’t want to use any more grenades when we might need them in the future.”


“I’ve got a frag,” Richard said as he pulled the grenade out, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the remaining plant matter. “Frag out!”


“I think it’s dead,” Forest said as he stood up from his crouched position, pulling the magazine from his SR-25 and checking how many rounds were left before shoving it back into the receiver. “Can we leave now, boss? I’m tired of having to kill giant monsters.”


“We can leave when we get the rest of Bravo back together and have a ride out,” Marini patted the sniper on the shoulder. “Let’s go check on Kenneth.”


“He’s awake, but I’m fairly sure that his eardrums are busted,” Rebecca said with a sigh. “He’s bleeding out of his ears even with the ear protection that he had on, and has to read my lips to fully understand me.”


“So he’s going to have to hold onto the back of one of our vests,” Marini said with a heavy sigh. “Alright, we’re going back into the mansion, and we’re getting our team and getting off of this godforsaken mountain. Even if we have to walk the entire way to do it.”








“I don’t remember there being an elevator here before,” I commented as we entered the main room. “You remember seeing anything like that, Ed?”


“Negative,” Edward shook his head. “I’d have remembered an elevator. Someone must have taken it up here.”


“Well, let’s check it out,” Jill stepped forward with Chris right behind her while Barry brought up the rear. “Might be something important.”


Then, the group of five began to hear heavy footsteps from around the corner.


“What the hell is that?” Chris asked as an eight-foot-tall monstrosity stepped around the corner.


“Yet another impossible thing we’re going to have to kill,” I said as I saw the red eyes glow as it glared at the five of us. “Edward, can I have my 10mm, I’m not sure that my Sig will do much to that thing.”


“Yep,” Edward passed me the handgun over while still staring at the creature. “You’ve only got the mag that’s in there though, we’ve pretty much used the rest of it.”


“Well that’s great,” I snarked as the creature started charging. “Guys, we should probably kill this thing now before something else comes along.”


Barry just stepped forward and shot the creature with his Remington 870, causing it to stagger back at first before it braced itself while pushing the massive clawed hand out in front of it to block any more incoming shots.


“Just pour on the fire!” Chris yelled as he emptied his SMG’s magazine into the giant. “It can’t take the combined firepower!”


Raising my Sig, I carefully aimed for what looked like an exposed organ on the right side of the creature, my 9mm rounds impacting it and causing the creature to roar as it turned its focus onto me.


Running at me, the creature tried to swipe at me with the clawed hand but I dove out of the way, feeling my side begin to radiate pain as I hit the ground with my injured side. Ignoring the sharp spikes that felt like they were digging into my side, I staggered up and ran away from the creature, dodging claws as the rest of the STARS team shot the giant.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 31


“Now that the giant has been dealt with,” Chris started as he panted from having stabbed a combat knife into the exposed organ of the giant that had been trying to kill them. “Would anyone care to tell me what the hell is going on here?”


“You want the long version or the short one?” Edward asked as he reloaded the rifle he had borrowed from me. “Because I’m not sure we’ve got time for the long one, and it takes the rest of Bravo Team here to tell it properly anyway.”


“The short version then,” Chris nodded as he straightened up.


“Barry and I are in the dark too,” Jill said with a small smile as she helped me up from where I was resting after the fight. “So we’d like the short version now, with promises of the full story later.”


“Long story short, Umbrella Corporation is doing some shady research up in these mountains,” Edward said. “Mark and I ended up in a lab, while the rest of Bravo Team dealt with some sort of training facility.”


“Turns out Wesker worked for Umbrella for years before he ever joined the Army,” I chimed in as I opened up my pack and dug out some ibuprofen. “We think he might have sabotaged our chopper so we would end up crashing in the mountains.”


“You got any proof to back up those claims?” Chris asked. “Because I trust the Captain, he’s had my back in this mansion.”


“You’d have the check the chopper for yourself,” Edward shrugged. “And Captain Marini and the rest of Bravo have our evidence, and we don’t know where they are currently.”


“Well, I’m sure that the noise in here will draw them in sooner or later,” Jill said. “Should we wait here for them to show up?”


“I like that idea,” I said with a groan. “I’m okay with taking a break until the rest of STARS shows up.”


“Of course, you would be okay with that,” Jill said as she shook her head. “Your favorite thing to do when your favorite thing to do when not at work or working out is to sit and read in that apartment of yours.”


“Just because you go out clubbing doesn’t mean that all of us enjoy that,” I snarked back. “Besides, I go to the range with you guys to blow off steam all of the time.”


“Range time doesn’t count,” Edward argued back. “It’s work related so it doesn’t get included in your list of hobbies.”


“Fair enough,” I nodded my head. “I’m not the kind of person who likes to go out and do stuff all that much.”


“Yeah, but we make you come and hang out with us anyway,” Jill punched my shoulder a bit as we both slid down the wall to a resting position. “Because we think friends shouldn’t stay cooped up for long periods of time without being around other people.”


“How many rounds of 10mm you got left, Mark?” Barry asked me as he slid the cylinder over on his.357 magnum to reload, sliding the cylinder shut with a snap of the wrist once he had dumped the speed loader in.


“Maybe half a mag left,” I replied as I slid the magazine out and checked the round count. “Yeah, maybe eight rounds left. We’ve had to use it on a ton of stuff up in these mountains.”


“Well, I think I’ve got a box in my pack,” Barry said as he pulled off his small backpack and tossed it to me. “It’s been in there since range day, so no idea how many rounds are left in the box, but it should help fill up at least one or two extra mags.”


“There’s twenty-one rounds here,” I said as I opened the box and began loading the partially full mag before loading it back into the Glock. “That’s enough for me to have two full mags. Thanks,” I nodded to the bear of a man.


“You’re welcome,” Barry responded as he accepted the backpack and put it back on. “Use them wisely.”


–

–


“Good, you guys are alive,” Rebecca said as the remainder of Bravo Team entered the main entrance area of the mansion. “Mark, I need you to help run some checks on Kenneth if this area is secure, he took some pretty nasty hits earlier and I need a second opinion.”


“So you guys are actually alive,” Chris said after a minute of shocked silence once the rest of the battered group had walked in.


“Bruised, and a little beaten, but we’re alive,” Enrico said with a smile at the sight of his friends. “It’s been a hell of a day, but I think we’re through the worst of it.”


“Nice piece you got there,” Barry said as he looked at the grenade launcher that was slung over the STARS captain’s shoulder. “Where’d you find that thing?”


“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Enrico said as he shook his head. “It’s been quite useful though with all of the monsters we’ve encountered over the last while.”


“Given what we just faced I can believe that,” Jill said as she stood up. “We figured we’d wait to see what’s down at the bottom of this elevator once we got the rest of you guys here.”


“Given most of the crap we’ve found was in underground labs, I think it’s a safe bet there’s something important down there,” Forest said as he lowered Kenneth to the ground so that Rebecca and I could do some quick aid.


“I’ll stay here and mind Kenneth,” I said with a gesture toward my side. “Rebecca can take care of any injuries you face down there, just don’t leave us behind.”


“We’re not leaving any of us behind,” Captain Marini stated firmly. “Let’s go finish this,’ he began moving toward the elevator, the rest of Alpha and Bravo Teams in tow.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 32


“Well, it seems that I’ll have to reevaluate my opinion of you,” Albert Wesker greeted the members of STARS teams Alpha and Bravo as they exited the elevator. “I fully expected the Tyran to kill at least a few of you.”


“Wesker,” Captain Marini growled. “You’ve got a lot to answer for.”


“Do I?” Wesker smirked. “I put together both STARS teams to show off exactly how effective the experiments were. Did you think I wasn’t prepared for you to do well?” He scoffed. “The Tyrant that you faced out there was one of the first ever manufactured. But it was far from the only one created at this facility.”


As Wesker said this a Tyrant stepped out of a tube and stabbed Wesker with its claws, the sharp implements exiting out of the man’s chest.


“That one’s taller than the other one,” Chris said as the massive creature turned to look at the remaining members of STARS while tossing Wesker’s body off of its claws at them. “Looks more deadly too.”


“Still has an exposed organ,” Jill observed as the creature turned to fully face them. “There does look like some sort of armor growth over it though.”


“It’s probably a mutation of some form,” Rebecca said as she knelt down to check Wesker’s body. “Wesker’s dead, nothing I can do.”


“Jill, grab what you can off of his body,” Captain Marini instructed. “There might be some sort of evidence that he has on him.”


“There’s a suppressed Samurai Edge,” Jill said as she looked through what was on the dead man’s body. “But not much else aside from this CD case.”


“Grab the handgun and stow it,” Captain Marini said. “Give the CD to Rebecca, she can put it in with her medical gear.”


“Guys, that creature is starting to move towards us,” Forest said as he began backing up. “We might need to leave.”


“This is Brad Vickers, can anyone hear me?” a voice echoed over the shortwave radio that Chris had on his tactical vest.


“This is Chris Redfield, most of Alpha and Bravo Teams are alive, we need evac though,” Chris responded as he began firing at the Tyrant’s eyes, causing it to slow down to protect the vital organs. “We’re at the big mansion, we’ll head on up to the roof and send up a flare to signal our position.”


“Copy that,” Brad replied. “Make it quick though, I’m nearly Bingo on fuel after circling for most of the night.”


“Back to the elevator,” Captain Marini ordered as he fired a grenade at the Tyrant, causing it to shift backward. “We need to grab Kenneth and Mark before we leave.”


“Get in!” JIll shoved Forest into the Elevator before diving in just before the doors shut, a dent appearing where the Tyrant had run into the doors before it started going up.


“Can this thing move any faster?” Edward asked as he kicked the side of the elevator. “I’m ready to leave.”


“Self-Destruct is armed and will detonate in ten minutes,” a feminine voice said over the intercom systems. “Evacuate immediately.”


“That doesn’t sound good,” Rebecca said as the elevator crested to the next level. The elevator doors sliding open to reveal Mark and Kenneth fighting off a small group of zombies.


Grabbing Kenneth, Mark pulled him back into the elevator, killing a zombie before stepping in and the doors sliding shut.


“Just in time,” Mark said with a small grin. “I was worried that we’d have to fight our way out.”


“You doubted us?” Jill asked with a sarcastic lilt to her voice. “How could you?”


“Never doubted, just worried that there was some sort of big creature down there,” Mark replied as he leaned against the wall of the elevator. “Now please tell me that we have a way out of here.”


“We’re heading to the roof now,” Chris responded. “I was able to get into contact with Brad, and he’s meeting us up there.”


“Awesome,” I replied. “Can’t wait to leave.”


“I’ve got the flare gun,” Barry said as he pulled the orange flare gun out of his pack and checked to make sure it was loaded. “One’s in the chamber and we’re ready to go once we’re up there.”


–

–


Down below, the Tyrant began climbing up the cables of the elevator, eager to hunt and seek the prey that had escaped it while a lone corpse began to twitch. The blond man eventually opening his eyes to reveal a bright red hue behind them.


“I owe you one, William,” Wesker said as he stood up with a groan. “Now it is time to leave.”


–

–


Lisa Travers had found a new meal, a meal that suited her needs greatly, she could feel her mind opening up again and new abilities flowing to her. The corpse beneath her twisting the virus in her body and changing her once again.


The Hunted One would still pay, she could smell him below, and would be pursuing him for what he did to her. But first, she would finish this meal.


As she stood up from eating the fallen Tyrant, Lisa felt her body straighten itself out as her skin smoothed itself into a small resemblance of what her mother looked like, her face turning into what she would have looked like as an adult as her legs straightened themselves out as well, the monster that Lisa Travers had become seemingly reversing as she became more human-like than she had been in years. With a groan, she moved toward the elevator shaft and jumped down. It was time that she had her revenge.


–

–


“Sending up flare now,” Barry said as he held the flare gun up and pulled the trigger, the red light shining bright in the dark sky.


“I see you!” Brad’s voice came over Chris’ radio. “I’m heading over to the flare now.”


“Good, we’ve got wounded here,” Chris answered. “We’re going to need to leave in a hurry.”


As they heard the helicopter begin to descend down towards the roof, they also heard the screech of metal as it was bent outward. The Tyrant stepping forth out of the elevator and roaring at the ones who dared to escape it.”


“Well shit,” Mark said with a sigh. “I knew that things were going too well.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 33


Landing at the bottom of the elevator shaft, Lisa screeched in victory as she spied The Hated one hunched over some sort of computer terminal.


“So it was you,” Wesker said without turning around and facing her. “I always wondered if what we did would be able to finally finish you off or not,” Finishing his task, Wesker pulled out another CD that he had burned and placed it in a shatterproof case before turning to face Lisa.


“I see that you’ve adapted once again,” Wesker mused as he considered the shape she was in now. “In fact, you almost look human again now. What a pity that you couldn’t have adopted that form sooner.”


Lisa simply lurched forward aggressively, intending on killing the Hated One now rather then let him speak anymore.


“I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m afraid that we’ve run out of that sort of time,” Wesker taunted as he moved around Lisa before rushing toward the elevator shaft. “I don’t think I’ll be seeing you again,” he started climbing while Lisa screeched, he body starting to shift once again to something even more human. Doubling over as something seemed to click into her mind.


Standing up straight, the chains slipped off of Lisa’s form, and her face rippled, showing that of Rebecca Chambers first, and then flowing through various other faces before settling on the one that seemed right. Turning as she moved to the elevator shaft, Lisa stopped in front of some glass as she saw her reflection. There, standing in front of her, was the face of her mother, Jessica Trevor. Her nude form a picture perfect model of what she remembered her mother looking like. Clenching her hand into a fist, Lisa drove it into the glass, the shards digging in before being spat out by her skin as it regenerated.


“Self Destruct has four minutes remaining,” the feminine voice said over the speakers. Words that Lisa could understand and comprehend for the first time in years. “Please evacuate immediately.”


“Please evacuate immediately,” Lisa parroted, perfectly mirroring the voice recording before she leaped up into the elevator shaft, grabbing the cable and finishing the climb before spying Wesker leaving through the front door.


“I suppose it’s up to me to finish the job,” Wesker muttered as he ducked out of the way of the enraged Lisa. “I should have made sure of this years ago.”


Lashing out, Wesker punched Lisa with all of his might, sending the old experiment flying backward into the mansion. “I seem to pack a bit more power,” Wesker mused as he stared at his hand for a moment. “Let’s see about finishing this.”








Up above, STARS was tangling with their most dangerous foe yet.


“My grenades aren’t doing much more than irritating him,” Captain Marini said as he fired one of his last grenades. “We’re going to need something that packs a bigger punch if we want to take him down.”


“Last mag!” I shouted as I slammed the last magazine of 10mm that I had into the Glock and chambered a round.


“I’ll pull its attention off of Mark and Kenneth,” Richard said as chambered then ghost loaded shell into his Benelli while loading more shells underneath. “They’re the wounded here.”


Grabbing a grenade off of his pouch, the breacher tossed the flashbang at the massive creature, hoping that its eyes were as sensitive as a humans. “Banging him, cover your eyes.”


The grenade went off, causing the Tyrant to hold its hands in front of its face for a moment, revealing the organ beating on its chest.


“Aim for the organ while it’s stunned!” Jill shouted as she began firing her rifle in short bursts, each round striking the exposed organ.


With a roar, the disoriented creature turned toward the one who had made it this way and charged, its vision clearing up just enough for it to see and grab ahold of the breacher with one of its hands.


“Fuck, it’s got me!” Richard yelled as the creature began to slam him on the ground, the man falling into blissful unconsciousness as his head hit a part of the roof before the creature’s claws cut the man to ribbons.


“Kill that bastard!” Marini roared as he loaded his last three grenades into his MGL. “Fire in the hole!” The two incendiaries and one high explosive grenade went out and set the creature on fire. The flash bangs and all of the rest of Richard’s explosives going off when the HE grenade struck, sending the creature down to the ground as Brad hovered over the roof.


“Here, you might need this!” Brad shoved a case out of the helicopter.


“I knew this would come in handy,” Barry muttered as he slid over to the case and opened it, revealing the rocket launcher they had confiscated from one of the gangs earlier that year.


The Tyrant stood up and seemed to recognize the rocket launcher for what it was, so it decided to make Barry its primary target.


“No you don’t,” Edward said as he diverted the attention off of what Barry was doing as he set up the rocket launcher. “You’re dead.”


The pilot shoved his rifle into the creatures face and began firing as close as he could. Walking the Tyrant back as he fired until the magazine was dry before swapping to another one rapidly.


“I’ve got one mag left!” Edward yelled as he slid the least magazine in. “You better be ready!”


Edward emptied the last magazine into the organ before holding the rifle in front of himself as the clawed hand tried to cleave him in two. The rifle taking the brunt of the attack as Edward was nearly launched off of the roof.


“I’ve got you brother,” Chris said as he grabbed the other man’s arms and began to pull him up and onto the roof. “You’re not dying today.”


The Tyrant, turning to face Barry once again was met by four rockets that all struck it and exploded in unison. The force causing the Tyrant to be pushed back as the explosion caused the pulsing organs to rupture before it collapsed.


“Now would be a very good time to leave,” Mark yelled as the chopper descended now that Brad was certain it was safe to do so.


“Get on,” Brad said. “I’m at Bingo Fuel now!”


“One second!” Captain Marini said as he ran over to where Richard’s body was. Grabbing the dog tags off of the younger man and grabbing the shotgun that has survived the explosion he ran back and climbed into the chopper. “Let’s go!”


The STARS team members all breathed a collective sigh of relief as the chopper took off, the mansion going up in flames behind them as they ascended into the night sky.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 34


“Good riddance,” Wesker spat at the mansion that he assumed had taken Lisa Trevors with it when it exploded. “Now, let’s see about getting you to the right buyers,” he mused to himself as he pulled out the unbroken CD still fresh in its case.


Meanwhile, a short distance away but hidden by the shadows cast by the burning mansion a figure stood up and patted the tiny flame that smoldered on her shoulder away before staring into the flames for a long while. A lone tear dripping down Lisa’s face as she struggled to find her voice.


“Mother,” her voice finally croaked out, the sound of her natural voice shocking her as it seemed to ring in her ears for the first time in decades.


Turning away from the fire, she saw the figure of The Hated one darting off in the distance, his speed greater than hers but she was not concerned. She would hunt him, and one day he would be killed by her own hand. But first, it was time to mourn.








“Kenneth is going to need a hospital when we get back,” I said as we neared the RPD. “Brad, can you radio ahead that we’re going to need medical services on standby?”


“He’s not the only one going to a hospital,” Rebecca said as she gave me a glare. “You’re just as wounded as he is, if not more so.”


“I’ll be fine until we get back,” I replied with a small smile. “I’m not in danger of losing my balance and getting more hurt like Kenneth here is.”


“We have everything Kenneth took on video right?” Forest asked as he checked his SR-25 for any damage. “Because I’d hate for us to have lost our guys for nothing down there.”


“We got it,” Rebecca said as she patted her medical pack. “I’m leaving a blank tape in the camera though, just in case Umbrella decides to try and have someone destroy the camera.”


“We’ll have to make copies of the tapes though,” Barry said. “And scatter them among us and some of our closest friends. Otherwise, they’ll be able to just clear out and destroy the evidence that we all have.”


“So we’re going to push against Umbrella?” Jill asked. “That’s what we’re dead set on?”


“They’re the ones who researched and developed all of the creatures we encountered down there,” Rebecca said with a tired sigh. “Which means they’re responsible for not only putting Wesker in the right place to engineer all of this but also for the deaths of Richard and Joseph.”


“We’re going to bring Umbrella to justice,” Captain Marini said firmly. “But we’re going to have to get back home first. We all need some rest, and to recuperate from our ordeals over the last couple of days.”


“ETA back to RPD HQ is fifteen mikes,” Brad reported.


“Something wrong, Chris?” Jill asked, noticing that her best friend was oddly silent.


“I trusted him,” Chris hung his head between his knees. “Wesker lied, straight to my face, he even had me convinced that one of you was trying to get the rest of Alpha Team killed. Jill, I’m not certain I’m the kind of man who you should trust if my judgment is that off.”


“Chris,” Jill shook her head. “I’m pretty sure we were all convinced that Wesker was on the up and up. He was our captain for a year, remember?”


“Wasn’t just you that trusted him,” Forest said with a gesture around the chopper. “All of us here did, and he did have our backs for two years before this. So don’t beat yourself up over it, I’m sure there will be plenty of other things we can rag you on later, but this isn’t one of them.”


“We’re about to land,” Brad said as the chopper began to slow down. “And just in time too, we’re almost out of fuel.”


“That’s a ton of people down there,” Forest said as he looked down onto the brightly lit helipad. “And they’ve got some people in riot gear.”


“Mark, put this in the bottom of your pack,” Captain Marini ordered as he field-stripped the MGL. “No, don’t ask why right now, I’ll explain once we get done with this.”


“It looks like they’ve got SWAT on standby,” Brad said as he lowered the chopper gradually to the ground. “Captain Welles is pissed, I’d tread carefully.”


“It certainly doesn’t look like we’re getting the red carpet treatment,” Barry said with a grim look on his face.


“Just keep on your toes people,” Captain Marini said as he mentally prepared himself for the storm that they were about to face.


“Touching down now,” Brad said as the helicopter set down entirely on the helipad, both Chris and Brad going through the proper shutdown procedures before following the other members of Alpha and Bravo teams out onto the pad.


“We’ve got wounded here,” Rebecca said as soon as we got off of the helicopter, her and I helping the wounded Kenneth over to a stretcher before anything else.


“He’s got busted eardrums and probably a concussion,” I reported. “We’ve done rough checks but he’ll need a more in-depth check-up.”


“And Mark here is going to need more than a few stitches,” I tore off the vest and handed it to Rebecca so that the paramedics could take a look at the massive gash in my side.


“Now hold on a goddamn minute,” Captain Welles said. “You’re not taking him anywhere yet,” he gestured toward me. “Where the fuck is Captain Wesker?”


“Dead,” Captain Marini stepped up and stood in front of the SWAT team captain. “Just like the rest of us almost were.”


“I don’t give a rat’s ass what happened to you,” Welles stated coldly. “I’ve been fucked over one too many times by Captain Wesker and you STARS assholes to care.”


“Hold on a minute, Captain,” Chief Irons stepped forward. “Now, you, you’re fired,” he pointed at me. “STARS teams Alpha and Bravo, you’re hereby suspended pending an investigation. I”m not sure what happened up on that mountain for you to come back without Joseph Frost and Richard Aiken, but we will find out. Now, if you’ll turn in your guns to the nice gentlemen standing here.”



“Get fucked,” I said when a SWAT member tried to take my Glock and my Sig Sauer. “Last time I checked, this was the USA, and I’ll be damned before you take my personal firearms.”


“He’s right,” Captain Marini said as he held a hand over his 1911 and his Samurai Edge. “You can have the weapons that belong to the RPD, but you’re not taking this.”


“Fine,” Chief Irons spat out. “Take the guns that belong to us and get them out of my sight.”


“Come on guys, let’s get out of here,” Jill said after she had handed over her rifle and vest to one of the SWAT team members. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need a drink after this.”


“I’ll meet y’all at Jack’s after I get stitched up,” I said as I was finally allowed to lay down on the stretcher. “We can work out more stuff then.”








“What the hell happened after we left the mountains?” Rain asked as she pointed at the TV. “Local news has our guys on it right now.”


“Man, it looks like they got beat up,” J.D. muttered as he reclined on the couch. “Ed looks like he took a beating, and Mark looks like he’s lost a lot of blood. The rest of them just look exhausted.”


“If their night continued the way ours started I imagine that they’re ready to do a post-op crash,” Kaplan said from the kitchen counter where he was sipping some coffee. “The SWAT Team members looked worried. Like they thought the STARS Teams might snap and try to kill them or something.”


“Maybe that’s what they were told,” Alicia said from her spot. “Considering how scary they look to me, I bet they look a whole lot scarier up close.”


“And even training doesn’t manage to get rid of the kind of fear that a good operator produces in most rank and file,’ Rain added. “You know what I mean, J.D.”


“Yeah, I do,” J.D. replied. “So what do we do next?”


“We wait for Mark to get home and then we try and figure out what our next moves are,” Rain shrugged. “I’m not exactly a genius here, but if Umbrella thinks we are dead, then we should probably continue to lay low until we have a rock-solid plan.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 35


“You’re sure you don’t want painkillers?” the nurse asked as she began cleaning out the wounds that needed stitches. “We’re going to be here for a while.”


“No painkillers,” I stated as I looked the nurse in the eyes. “I’ve got to head home after this.”



“Your funeral,” the nurse shrugged as she began stitching the massive wound on my side shut with deft movements while I bit down on a piece of cloth, the wound radiating pain as it was being pulled back together. “You still good?” She asked as she reached the halfway point.


I just nodded, my teeth still clenched tight as time seemed to slow down while the pain increased for a short bit and then tapered off to a dull ache as the nurse tied off and cut the stitches.


“There, all done with the big one here, you’ve got some others that could probably use stitches,” the nurse shrugged. “But we could probably superglue those shut with no issues as well, your choice.”


“I’ll take the superglue,” I said as I massaged my sore jaw. “I’m good to sleep with my concussion right?”


“As long as you have someone else in your home to help monitor you for any seizures or anything else,” the nurse said. “Now, we’ll get a doctor in here to double-check everything and then you’ll be able to go on home.”


“Thanks,” I said as I slipped my shirt back on. “I know that I’m not always the best patient.”


“You weren’t awful,” the nurse smiled. “Most people want the painkillers though.”


“Alright, I’ll hang out until we get the doc back here,” I laughed. “Not like I’m going anywhere else while I wait, my ride isn’t here yet, after all.”


The Nurse just smiled again before exiting the room ad hanging up my chart on the door. Leaving me to lean back onto the hospital bed and close my eyes for a moment.


“Damn I need my bed,” I sighed as I felt the hard mattress underneath me. “I’m wiped.”


“Not too wiped, I hope,” Doctor Oswald Smith entered the room with a smile. “Alright, you seem to be pretty beaten up, but it looks like Nurse Russel took good care of you.”


“I’m ready to go home and sleep in my own bed,” I said with a pained smile.


“Well, I’m going to prescribe you some painkillers, nothing narcotic, because I know you won’t take them, but if the pain gets too bad I want you to take some anti-inflammatories, just to make sure that any swelling on the stitches goes down properly.”


“Alright,” I nodded. “Any tips on going to sleep with this?” I gestured toward where I had the wound.


“Yeah, make sure there’s a pillow in place to prevent you from rolling over onto it at night,” Doctor Smith said with a shrug. “There’s not much else I can tell you.”


“Just wait here for a bit and Nurse Russel will be over to help you get checked out,” Smith said as he stood up and made a couple of notes in my chart. “I assume you have a ride?”


“Give me a minute to see if they’re available,” I said as I reached for the hospital room’s phone.


Hitting the handful of digits that I had memorized, I waited for the phone to be answered.


“Valentine,” a female voice answered.


“Yeah, it’s Mark,” I replied. “I’m finished getting stitched back together and I need a ride. My car’s still at the HQ, and I’m not walking either to Jack’s or home in this state.”


“Give me fifteen,” Jill said with a sigh. “Wait, make that thirty, I’ve got to dry my hair and then fight traffic.”


“That’s fine,” I said. “Just get here when you can.”


–

–


“So you’re going to have a pretty gnarly scar there,” Jill said as she watched me struggle to buckle up in her beat-up Toyota, the pain finally setting in and causing a deep soreness.


“Probably,” I said as I settled down. “So, I’m out of the loop, we going to Jack’s Bar tonight or some other time?”


“We’re all heading home,” Jill said as she slowed down at a red light. “Get some rest for the next couple of days, we all agreed that we should probably wait for Kenneth to be able to at least hear some of our conversation before we meet up.”


“Kenneth is going to have some hearing restoration by Friday, but it won’t be perfect,” I said as I recalled what his wife had told me while we were at the hospital. “He’s in pretty solid condition aside from that though.”


“So I’ll drop you off at your apartment,” Jill said as she began to accelerate. “It’s a good thing that you’re so close, otherwise I’d have been tempted to leave your ass at the hospital.”


“Yeah, yeah,” I snarked back. “You’d have come because this makes us even.”


“Does it really though?” Jill asked as she finally eased into the area where both of our apartments were. “Because last time I checked you owed me.”


“No, I settled that score when the gangs were fighting, that time I literally took a bullet for you, remember?”


“No, that’s not how it happened,” Jill argued with a good-natured smile on her face. “There was plenty of stuff going on during that time period.”


“Even?” I asked as I opened the door and held out my fist for her to bump.


“Even,” Jill smirked. “Until I save your ass again.”


“Please,” I said as I straightened up. “I’ll save you first.”


And with that parting word, Jill drove off toward her own apartment a couple of blocks away, leaving me to make my own way in.


Reaching for my keys, I dropped them by the door before noticing that the front screen door was cracked open a bit. Reaching behind my back, I pulled my P226 out of its concealed holster and frowned as a small wave of pain shot up my side before I suppressed it and got ready to open my door. Pushing my key into the lock quietly, I turned it, and the handle before throwing the door open to point my pistol at who or what was inside.


“Shit!” Rain said as she dropped the bag of trash and backed up. “You scared me, man!”


“Sorry,” I said as I lowered the handgun and moved fully into my house, closing the door behind me. “It’s been a helluva long couple of days.”


“I’ll say,” Rain said as she looked me up and down. “You look like you got into a fight with an alligator, and lost.”


“That sums it up fairly well,” I said as I set my pack down on the kitchen counter, making a mental promise to clean everything up tomorrow. “Now, I’m taking a shower and then crawling into my bed. Please don’t wake me up for anything short of the police showing up.”


Moving to my shower, I quickly rinsed off the dirt and grime of the last couple of days, being sure to avoid getting my stitches soaked before stepping out, grabbing a towel and fresh pair of underwear, and making my way to my bed. Seeing a blond figure curled into my blankets, I nearly turned around and headed for the couch before shrugging and moving into my bed anyway, everything going dark as soon as my head hit the pillow.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 36

“Ugh,” I woke up with a groan as a scream echoed in my ears. “What? Where’s the fire?” I jolted upright before giving a gasp of pain as I twisted wrong. “Oh,” I calmed my brain down as I realized it was just Alicia freaking out that I was in bed next to her. “Be quiet,” I tossed my pillow at her head before setting mine back down on the pillow that I was using to sleep on. “We didn’t have sex,” I turned so my side was shielded and tried to fade back into sleep.

“What happened?” Rain burst through the door with her Beretta in hand.

“Nothing,” I said as I buried my head back into my pillow. “Alicia freaked out that I was asleep in my own bed.”

“Oh,” Rain said as she lowered the pistol, the shirt that she was using as sleeping wear barely coming down to her mid-thigh. “It’s like three in the morning.”

“Shhh,” I said to Rain. “Sleeping.”

“That sounds like a plan,” the Latina woman responded. “Alicia, you can move to the couch if you’re going to act like that.”

“I’m good now,” Alicia said as her brain finally caught up to the two of us. “You’re good to go back to sleep.”

“Done,” I said as I closed my eyes and began deep breathing while counting down from ten.

–
–

“So, I hear someone had an interesting night,” J.D. wagged his eyebrows at me as he smirked.

“I’ve had quite a few interesting nights over the last week, you’re going to have to be more specific,” I replied as I began making coffee.

“I was hoping for more of a reaction,” J.D. said with a small frown.

“Due, I’m still in post-op crash,” I muttered as I poured my coffee into a cup before opening my fridge and reaching for a big mason jar that was waiting for me.

“What’s in the jar?” the other man asked.

“Homemade coffee creamer,” I replied as I shook the jar before opening it and pouring it into my coffee before stirring it. “You don’t need much, but it works like putting both cream and sugar in at the same time.”

“Huh,” he replied.”I’ll have to try some of that later.”

“Give me a minute to process the caffeine and I’ll be able to respond better,” I said as I moved to my small table to drink my coffee in the slight peace and quiet of the morning.

“What happened to you, man?” J.D. asked as he saw the stitches on my side. “It looks like someone tried to carve you up with a sword or something.”

“Or something,” I agreed as I took another sip. “One of those creatures got me, went right through my kevlar vest as if it were nothing, took a good chunk of me with it too as you can see.”

“Yikes,” the ex-UBCS merc said as he began drinking his own coffee. “Remind me to bring more firepower the next time we run into those sorts o things then.”

“Sure,” I nodded blandly as I waited for the caffeine to kick in. “Want to help make breakfast? I’m great at waffles if you’ll handle the bacon and sausage.”

“Count me in,” the man rubbed his hands together at the thought of food. “I’m always down for some good grub.”

“Let’s get to it then,” I said as I stood up and began navigating my kitchen to get the ingredients I needed.

–
–

“So, want to tell us the story of what happened up on the mountain after we left?” Rain asked as we all sat down around the table to eat the breakfast that J.D. and I had made.

“Sure,” I said in between bites as I filled my stomach. “But we’re going to be here for a little while.”

---

“Hey, Mark!” Jill banged on my door as we began to clean up the dishes from breakfast. “I know you made breakfast, I can smell the food from here, mind sharing some of the wealth?”

“Sure,” I said as I opened the door. “We’re just starting to clean up now.”

“Mark, who are these people?” Jill asked me cautiously as she saw the UBCS members and Alicia, reaching for her concealed Samurai Edge as she did so.

“They’re some ex-Umbrella employees who Edward and I met when we got separated from the rest of Bravo Team,” I explained. “Long story short, they ended up being set up by Wesker the same way we were. They’re just as eager for payback on Umbrella as we are.”

“I want the full story later,” Jill said as she sized up the UBCS members. “But I’ll accept it for now.”

“I mean, I already told mine and Ed’s point of view,” I said with a shrug. “Them sharing couldn’t hurt any.”

“Alright then,” Jill said as she walked over to the cabinet where I kept my plates. “I’m Jill Valentine, the one who typically keeps our resident medic out of trouble. Not that it did any good while we were up in the mountains.”

“Rain Ocampo,” Rain said as she pointed to herself. “J.D. Salinas, Alicia Marcus, Chad Kaplan, Natalia.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Jill said as she started into her breakfast. “Now, let’s get down to what happened.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 37


“So, what’s the game plan here?” I asked as we all sat down around a table in a busy bar.

“Well, I don’t like to talk about it, but I did work for the CIA as an operative for a while,” J.D. said as he reclined back into his chair while looking around at the STARS team members and ex-UBCS members that were all seated with us.

“What do you recommend?” Captain Marini asked.

“Well, some of us should stay in Raccoon City,” he said as he leaned forward. “Mostly those who are being investigated with exceptions made for those among us who have larger families and have more to lose.”

“So someone like Jill, Chris, or Forest?” Captain Marini asked.

“That’d do the trick,” J.D. nodded. “Kenneth is going to want to go dark, and you should probably let him and his wife do that because he was the one doing the filming for the most part, so I’ll pull some strings to help him disappear for a little while.”

“What about you guys?” Chris asked with a gesture towards the mercenaries, Forest and Edward nodding in agreement. “What are you going to do?”

“We’re going to have to go loud, and very very public,” J.D. sighed. “I’d like to stay in the shadows, but I know our chances of survival are best if we are the subject of the public eye for long enough that people are likely to take notice if we die,” he shrugged. “Sarge here isn’t going to want to go public so she’ll likely stay dark until this whole thing blows over.”

“Got that right,” Rain muttered. “I’m not one for the spotlight. Is there any option where I get to take the fight directly to them?”

“Not unless there’s another outbreak,” the CIA agent-turned-UBCS member shook his head. “Which means that we get to submit evidence to government agencies and be public enough that we aren’t killed when Umbrella tries to bribe their way out of this.”

“I’ll stay here in Raccoon City,” I said with a shrug. “I know Barry is going to want to keep his kids and wife out of this though. Same with you Captain Marini. Besides, this is one of Umbrella’s major R&D areas, they post about it everywhere, so I might do some low-level sleuthing while I’m here.”

“Keeping an eye on Umbrella might not be a bad idea,” J.D. said with a frown as he considered it. “But considering that you’re in some of the video footage that we’re going to be going public with you should probably stay out of sight.”
“I’ll go public,” Captain Marini said. “And I’ll help us all stay in contact with each other as we move around.”

“I’m certainly not going to miss the opportunity to snipe at a target like that,” Forest drawled. “Besides, I never got my revenge on Wesker, so I might as well get some shots in at the company that he worked for while I’ve got the chance.”

“Count me in as well,” Edward replied. “I’ve got nothing tying me down to Raccoon City, and I might as well make a difference.”

“I’m going to be doing some detective work,” Chris said after having been silent this whole time. “There has to be something or someone who Umbrella has pissed off that’ll have more evidence we can use. So I’ll start diving into that, see what I can find.”

“I’m not going to be much help on any of those fronts, I’m afraid,” Alicia Marcus said with a sad expression on her face. “I signed many NDAs when I started working for Umbrella in smallpox research, and I didn’t encounter any illegal activity or research until the HIVE was locked down.”

“So you and Rain lie low,” J.D. suggested. “Natalia, Kaplan, and I will be the public faces along with you STARS members that are willing to join us.”

“And I’ll disappear and get out of the picture while I do my detective work,” Chris said with a shrug. “Seems like we’ve got it all planned out.”

“I guess,” I shrugged. “But the biggest thing to remember is that it’ll take years for everything to finally be dealt with. The courts will take their time, and that’s without taking into account the money sink that this is going to be for Umbrella.”

“Agreed,” J.D. said as he took a sip from his beer. “It might end up being the money sunk into this that brings Umbrella down in the end. Well, that and the damage this is going to do to their reputation across the globe.”

“So we do this and then basically just wait everything out for what might take years?” Jill asked with a sigh as she put her head down in the crook of her elbow.

“That about sums it up,” I said as I looked at her. “Look, on the bright side, we’ve got the job of staying here in Raccoon City and trying to figure out if there are any more labs where Umbrella is conducting that sort of research.”

“Either way, we’re going to have to put together statements and have the evidence presented in such a way that it can’t be disproven,” Kenneth finally spoke up.

“I’m going to head back home for a bit,” Rebecca spoke up. “My parents have been calling me since the incident in the mountains and I think I should spend some time with them before dragging them into this sort of thing.”

“I’ll take my time leaving Raccoon City,” Barry said with a grunt as he began eating some fries that had been bought as an appetizer. “Make sure that you’ve got some backup,” He indicated me and Jill.

“So we’re splitting up into groups to get done what we can,” Chris said as he looked around to various nods from people. “Rain, Alicia, you two want to help me out?”

“I’m always up for a good fight,” Rain said with a grin. “And I can tell you’ll be getting into plenty of trouble.”

“I’m gonna stick around here,” Alicia said with a glance at Jill and me. “I may be able to help Mark and Jill with some of their work given that the world thinks I’m dead.”
“We change your hair and get you a new style and no one will be able to tell that you were Alicia Marcus,” Jill grinned. “Call you something similar but different and you’ll be set too.”

“Getting off topic here,” Captain Marini said as he leaned back. “But I reckon we’re about done here anyway, only thing left is to see about clearing out our offices in the Precinct HQ.”

“Well, that and I’ve got to find a good lawyer,” I said with a sigh. “I thought my contract didn’t allow me to be fired, and so I may have a wrongful termination suit on my hands.”

“Sounds like we’re all about to be very busy,” Forest said with a small smile. “We should probably enjoy spending time together like this before we all separate.”

“Agreed,” Natalia finally spoke up while raising her glass of vodka. “To hurry up and wait,” her Russian accent bled through.

“To hurrying up and waiting,” we all echoed as we clinked our drinks together before taking a gulp.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 38
Raccoon City, September 5th, 1998

“It’s nice to have a roommate,” Jill said as she helped Alicia settle into her apartment. “Mark’s not a bad neighbor, and I like getting free food whenever he’s cooking, but he’s a guy. He just doesn’t seem to understand some things.”

“Such as?” Alicia asked for clarification as Jill continued working the brown dye into her blond hair.

“Such as not understanding that sometimes I just want to vent, I don’t actually want solutions to my problems,” Jill replied with a sigh. “And then there are other times that he just doesn’t want to go out and do things, we’re friends, but he seems so distant from the rest of us sometimes.”

“You said he wasn’t exactly a part of the STARS proper, right?” Alicia asked. “More of a go-between for SWAT and STARS, right?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Maybe he felt like he was torn between the two, I mean, we all saw how the SWAT team members were scared of you STARS, and he had to go and work with both SWAT and STARS with the expectation that both teams would watch his back.”

“I never thought about it like that,” Jill said as she finished. “We’ll have to let your hair sit with the dye for a couple of hours before washing it out, and we should probably take it to get cut too.”

“That’s probably not a bad idea,” Alicia said as she stood up and stretched. “I’ve needed a trim for a couple of months, and a wardrobe shift away from lab coats would be nice.”

“Shopping trip?” Jill asked with a sigh. “I tend to only go when it’s absolutely necessary. Or when I owe Mark some groceries.”

“It does look like you eat out a lot,” Alicia noted as she glanced at the trash can full of take-out containers. “Not that I’m one to judge given I spent most of college living off of junk so I didn’t get any student loans.”

“Well, I’m not exactly the best in the kitchen,” Jill said with a glance toward the small pile of dirty dishes in the sink. “I can manage some basic stuff, but I didn’t have much of a teacher for that sort of thing growing up.”

“Well, once this dye is done setting we should head to a clothing shop,” Alicia said. “I’ve got to get some new clothes that aren’t borrowed anyway,” She gestured to the shirt and gym shorts she had borrowed from Mark. “These don’t exactly fit properly.”

“Right,” Jill said. “Do we want to see if the rest of the girls want to join in before they leave next week?”

“Might as well,” Alicia shrugged. “I’m not sure how Rain and Natalia will handle it though. They don’t exactly strike me as the shopping type.”

“There’s a mall here that has clothes that should work for their styles too,” Jill replied as she moved over and plopped down on her couch. “Besides, if Rain is heading overseas to England with Chris she’ll need a new set of clothes anyway.”

“True, and Natalia might need a business suit or something for when they’re able to go fully public with everything.”

–
–

“Well, I don’t normally do this sort of thing, but it’s nice to do something a bit different sometimes,” Rain said as they relaxed in the eating area of the local mall. “Thanks,” she nodded toward Jill.

“No problem,” Jill said as she dug into her burger. “Been meaning to hang out with someone that’s not a guy for a while now.”

“Speaking of guys,” Rain said as she leaned forward. “You got a stake on Chris?”

“What?” Jill asked after she had finished choking down a bite of food. “No, we’re just really good friends.”

“You sure about that?” Rain asked. “Because he looks at you like he’s lovestruck.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m just friends with him,” Jill replied.

“You never hooked up with him?” Rain asked with a raised eyebrow. “He’s a hunk of a man.”

“I never thought about it,” Jill said with a frown. “I mean, he’s attractive, but I never considered it before.”

“Well, that just means I’ve got a shot at it,” Rain said with a smirk before it dropped off of her face. “Look, I’m not trying to poach or anything here, but I might see if we work.”

“Take your shot,” Jill said with a smile. “Chris pretty much only has a sister left for family anyway, and I’m fairly sure that she’ll want to vet you herself.”

“I’ll take my chances,” Rain said as she made herself comfortable in her new gear, the black cargo pants fitting comfortably along with the dark camo jacket and gray shirt she was wearing.

“I think I found some stuff that works,” Alicia said as she walked up to Rain and Jill, followed closely by Natalia, both of them already wearing their new outfits.

“I am not certain that I like this,” Natalia said as she twisted a bit in the business suit she had bought. “It looks professional, but feels too tight, movement is limited.”

“It suits you,” Alicia said with a smile. “Besides, if you find a good tailor they can fix up that fairly quickly.”

“And you look like you found something practical,” Rain said to Alicia. “It’s not tactical gear, but it doesn’t scream ‘scientist’ either.”

“It works,” Alicia shrugged. “And it fit the budget we had for this.”

“Looks like we’re done here then,” Jill said. “It’s a shame that Rebecca decided to go ahead and head back to her family, but it is what it is.”

---

“Mathias Dawson,” I greeted the SWAT team Sergeant as I opened the door. “How are you healing up?”

“I’m almost back to a hundred percent,” the man said with a smile. “I’ve been on medical leave since that night and just dropped by to see how you were doing.”

“I’m not half bad,” I said with a smile. “I’m actually expecting Captain Welles to stop by for a visit soon.”

“Really?” Mat asked. “I thought you’d had a falling out?”

“Nah,” I shook my head. “I get along plenty well with most of SWAT and STARS, it was Captain Wesker and Chief Irons who I didn’t like, they just feel oily and slimy if you know what I mean.”

“I think I get it,” Mat said as he walked into my home and sat down in the chair I indicated across from me at the table. “I’ve been looking for other job opportunities outside of Raccoon City since the mountain incident anyway. After I got put on medical leave I was told that I would be moved to regular beat cop and my salary cut to go with.”

“Did they give you a reason why?” I asked.

“Budget cuts,” Mat shrugged. “They’re cutting an entire team of SWAT members too, said that we don’t have the funds for everything and since crime has seen a general downturn this year the city has started cutting the RPDs budget.”

“Well, I’m willing to be one of your references if you need one,” I offered as Mat accepted the cup of coffee.

“I’m planning on moving south to Texas,” Mat said as he took a sip. “I’ve got an offer to join a SWAT team in the Houston PD, and my fiance and I have decided to move into that area this week. I just dropped in to say goodbye and thanks for saving my life.”

“It’s not something you need to thank me for,” I said as I eased myself down into the chair. “You and your fiance getting to have a family and a life is more than enough for me.”

A knock came at my door and I stood up and moved to answer it.

“Captain Welles,” I greeted the sizeable black man and his wife. “Come in, come in.”

“Mark,” the man said as he wiped his shoes off and came into my apartment. “I see you’ve got company,” he said once he saw Mat. “We can leave if you’re busy.”

“No, that’s not necessary,” I said as I waved them into my house. “Mat here was telling me that he was moving to Houston to join their SWAT Team there. “

“I didn’t want to cut you,” Welles said with a frown. “But you were already on medical leave and Chief Irons had already cut personnel that he had put down as ‘excess expenditures’.”

“I figured,” Mat said with a sad smile. “But in a way, this works out for me, I’ve got family that’s down south and this way I can be closer to them as well as be back on a SWAT Team.”

“I’m glad to hear that you found a good job,” Welles said as he and his wife took a seat at my table while I got them some coffee. “I’m just sorry that you’re leaving, you were a good cop and a damn fine operator.”

“Thanks for the coffee, Mark,” Mat said as he took his cup to the sink and rinsed it out. “I think I’ll be on my way. I’ll keep in touch though.”

“See ya,” I shook his hand before he left and then sat back down to talk to Captain Welles. “Now, you wanted to speak with me?”

“I wanted to apologize for you losing your job,” Welles said after he had taken a breath. “You were our medic and despite any issues that I may have with the STARS teams, you never treated us any differently. I was merely told that the STARS teams were being put on leave pending an investigation. Not what else was going to happen there.”

“You mean when some of SWAT Team Gamma tried to go against the law?” I asked.

“Yeah, that,” he said uncomfortably. “That team is mostly made up of hires that don’t answer to me, I only know a handful of them and they’re all from out of town.”

“Seems like Irons is bringing on a lot of people that we don’t know,” I said with a shake of my head. “I heard rumors about him setting up some sort of team to replace the STARS from somewhere, but I doubt they’re true if the funding issues I’ve heard of are really happening.”

“I came to apologize, but also to give you this,” Welles said as he pulled an envelope out of his jacket and handed it to me. “It’s the check that’s mandated by your contract to cover the replacement of your personal firearm. We saw that your rifle was destroyed by something and so we managed to convince Irons that the rifle cost a lot more than you paid for it when you and the armorer built it. It’s not a lot, but it should help cover your expenses until you’re able to get into another job.”

Welles stood up and began to leave before turning his head and looking at me from over his shoulder. “The RPD thanks you for your service and wishes you well on your journey in life.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 39

“Thanks for helping me out with this,” I said to Jill and Alice as they helped me strip the storage unit where the UBCS members had stashed their gear before leaving Raccoon City. “I had Kaplan forge some paperwork so that I legally own the Humvee, but I haven’t gotten the guns they left behind back to the apartment yet. And given I still haven’t gotten the stitches out,” I trailed off.

“You needed some help to load everything up,” Jill finished as she grabbed some of the MP5s and loaded them up into the back of the vehicle. “I see they left pretty much everything except for their sidearms.”

“Yeah, they figured they’d need something to defend themselves with,” I replied. “But given the news lately, I figure something might have escaped from the labs here in the city that they’re trying to cover up. They’ve basically coopted an entire SWAT team, and I’m concerned there’s more going on behind the scenes.”

“So what’s your next step?” Alice asked as she loaded up the last of the ammunition and we all climbed into the vehicle.

“I’m gonna be calling up the Kendo brothers,” I said with a smile. “Captain Welles just handed me a check for two grand, and I pretty much own my apartment, I’ve only got a handful of payments left on it. “So I’m going to see what kind of deals they can cut me.”

“And you already replaced your rifle with that M4, right?” Jill asked as she gestured towards the weapon I had pulled out of the MP's car in the Arklay mountains.

“Yep, so I have no need to go out and spec out a different rifle,” I said as I patted the case that the weapon in question was in. “That reminds me, we’ve got to clean out our offices by the end of the week, I got a voicemail yesterday about it. “

“Yeah,” Jill sighed. “I don’t really want to go back, but I figure we kinda have to.”

“I don’t mind going back and cleaning out both of our offices,” I offered as I drove back to my apartment. “It’s not a big deal for me.”

“No, I should go get my stuff,” Jill replied. “Just kinda feels like we’re outcasts when we interact with any of the people who used to be our friends.”

“Like I said, I don’t mind grabbing everything and just bringing it back. It probably won’t fit in your Toyota anyway,” I smirked in her direction.

“That’s probably true,” she conceded as she stretched in the passenger seat. “Alicia, you want to go do anything? You’ve been kinda cooped up for a little while.”

“I’ve always been a bit of a homebody,” the scientist said with a smile. “That said, I wouldn’t mind getting some range time in if we’ve got the ammunition to spend.”

“I’m in,” I said with a grin. “Training is good for you, and it’s always worth the time spent on the range.”

“He,” Jill pointed at me. “Is insane about getting as many training hours as he can possibly acquire. I think he got more overtime doing training than he did actually being a medic to the STARS and SWAT Teams.”

“Not true,” I replied. “Part of my contract had me working with EMS teams when I wasn’t working with the RPD, so when I had spare time I was training because I wasn’t the one paying for it and it made me better at my job.”

“Anyway,” Alice got our attention. “I’ve got this Beretta, you think I can convince the Kendo brothers to give it the same makeover that Jill has?”

“Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “But I’d ditch the Beretta for something that’s a bit hardier. Or, if you’d rather have the Beretta because it’s more familiar I can have them do something with it.”

“I mostly want the rail and flashlight,” Alice said with a shrug. “I’m not picky on what handgun I have aside from that.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can find for you,” I said as we neared my apartment. “We’ll get you kitted out before anything goes bump in the night.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” the now brunette said with a smile. “But let’s get all of this inside first.”

“Yep,” I said as I backed into the parking spot for easier unloading. “Did Rain and the rest of the group clean their weapons before they stored them?”

“I don’t think they did,” Alice replied. “We were sort of trying to avoid attention and so didn’t have a ton of time to do anything like that.”

“Just means that I know what I’m doing tonight,” I said with a shrug as I grabbed the boxful of magazines and began carrying it inside my apartment.

“Want some help?” Jill asked as she grabbed Natalia’s AK-74U and brought it inside while Alice grabbed some of the MP5s.

“Sure, I can order pizza or something and we can just chill while we’re working on it,” I replied.

“I’m in,” Alice replied as I passed her and grabbed the M4’s case, and brought it inside. “I might need some instruction on cleaning everything though.”

“That’s fine,” I said as I closed up the Humvee and locked the doors. “I’ve got the manual for the MP5 on my bookshelf, we can go over it one more time before we start stripping them down for cleaning.”

“You know how to clean this thing?” Jill asked as she hefted the Russian AK-74U.

“It was designed to be cleaned and maintained by conscripts,” I said as I took the weapon from her and set it down. “It’s not hard to field strip or clean the damned thing. In fact, this one is nice because it’s got a nicer handguard and a threaded barrel for a suppressor. I’ll have to see if there’s any ammo at the gun stores though. Because if not, this just became a very nice paperweight once we’re out of ammunition for it.”

“Alright then,” Jill said as she moved over to my phone and reached for it. “You want a meat-lovers right?”

“Yep,” I replied as I began stripping down the AK. “And get whatever you two want as well, cash for takeout is in a jar on the counter.”

“So, where do we start?” Alice asked me.

“Let’s go get my cleaning kit,” I said as I set down the pieces of the field-stripped AK. “This is going to take a while.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 40

“Is there a reason you’re actually keeping all of your paperwork?” JIll asked as she shredded another personal document.

“I medically treated people,” I replied as I taped up the box that I had just finished packing. “I documented everything in case someone tries to sue me for malpractice.”

“I never thought that was something that you had to be worried about,” Jill said as she finished packing up the last of her personal effects. “Shows what I know.”

“It isn’t something I talk about a lot,” I replied as I stacked the boxes up on a hand truck. “Partly because I’ve never been sued for treating anyone, and partly because I just never saw the point in bringing it up.”


“I’ll have to remember that EMTs and SWAT medics have different rules than the Army medics I’ve worked with,” Jill said as she helped me move the documents out to the small that we had rented for our personal effects.

“It’s probably something to keep in mind,” I agreed. “If a medical professional in the civillian world screws up, they can become the subject of a malpractice suit. If they screw up in the military, they hand you some Ranger candy and tell you to suck it up.”

“You’re not wrong,” Jill laughed as she climbed into the passenger seat after a moment of looking back at the building that contained our offices. “Well, there’s one chapter of our life closed,” She said with a sad expression on her face.”

“Yeah,” I said as I started the truck up. “I’m not so sure about that. I think we’ll be back here sooner than we think.”

–
–

“So, you need a weapon with a rail mounted light?” Robert Kendo asked Alice as he studied the frame of the woman.

“Yeah,” Alice said with a shrug as she set a pistol case on the gun countet. “I’ve got this Beretta 92FS that I’ve had for a little while. I’ll trade it for somehting with a weapon light and I’ll pay extra cost on top if necessary.”

“Let me get my brother Joseph,” Robert said as he inspected the Beretta. “He’s the gunsmith here after all,” Robert walked into the back of the gunstore.

“I hear you’re looking for something with a light,” A slightly shorter but thinner man stepped out of the back followed by Robert.

“I am,” Alice replied. “Looking for some ammo too.”

“Well, I can do a trade,” Joseph said as he picked up the Beretta and went over it. “But it’d honestly be more cost efficient for me to just swap out the lower receiver on your Beretta with one of my custom ones. It’ll cost about $200 for the modification and you can then throw whatever light or laser you want on it.”

“That should work fine,” Alice replied. “Any idea how long it will take?”

“It should be done by tomorrow at the latest,” Joseph said as he placed the Beretta back into its case before closing it and moving it behind the counter. “We take half payment up front for any modifications, and then half afterwards.”

“Sounds good,” Alice said as she moved to the register. “Mind if I take a look at some of your other stock? I’m curious to see if there’s anything else I might want to purchase while I’m here.”

“Go ahead,” Robert took over and began writing a ticket as Joseph took the handgun to the back. “Just let me know when you’re ready to check out, and this slip is what you’ll use to get your weapon back.”

“Sounds good,” Alice smiled as she looked at the various weapons that were in the gun store before her eyes settled on one gun in particular. “What is that?” She asked as she pointed to the strange blocky weapon with a small scope on the top of it.

“That right there is a gun that I personally hate,” Robert stepped over to the weapon in question. “The High Point 1095TS, a 10mm Carbine that works pretty decently, but is probably one of the worst looking weapons ever created. And don’t get me started on their handguns,” the man shuddered. “You’re better off getting one of these and having me touch it up a bit if you want something more tactical,” Joseph pulled a small wooden rifle off of the rack behidn him. “This is a Ruger Mini 14. This one in particular is capable of firing both 5.56 NATO, and .223 Remington. It’s a rugged machine that’ll take care of you if you take care of it.”

“Anything for bigger game?” Alice asked, trying to figure out what exactly she wanted.

“Sure,” Joseph put the Mini 14 away and brought out a lever action. “This is a lever action chambered in .357 Magnum, it’ll kill anything you want it to, and will also fire .38 special if you’re aiming for something more self defense.”

“I think I’ll take it,” Alice said with a strange gleam in her eye. “Add it to the ticket and I’ll buy it tomorrow when I come back for my Beretta.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Joseph said with a smile. “It’s nice to meet a woman with an appreciation for the classics.”

---

“So you got everything squared away?” Jill asked Alice as we picked her up from a small restaurant.

“I’ve gotten everything I wanted done,” Alice replied. “And I handed the list you made to Robert, he said it’ll take a couple of days to get everything together.”

“That’s fine,” I replied as I backed the truck up. “I’m not in a rush for it.”

“What did you order?” Jill asked.

“Five or six thousand rounds of various ammunition,” I replied. “Even managed to find a case of 5.45x39 for the AK.”

“You preparing for a war?” Jill asked as she glanced in the back at the boxes of ammo that I had claimed from the RPD before we left.

“Jill, have you paid attention to the news while looking into Umbrella, recently?” I asked as I took a left and began the drive back to our apartments. “The news looks a lot like it did when we were about to head up into the mountains, and the odds are that whatever it is that Umbrella was working on has made its way into Raccoon City.”

“Fuck,” Alice breathed out as she realized what that would mean. “If it spreads as fast as I think it does then the city has been slowly infected for weeks now.”

“Which means that we are limited on time,” I replied. “I don’t know how long we have, but we need to start prepping for the worst.”

“Before the worst comes knocking,” Jill muttered as I slammed on the brakes, the truck screeching to a halt.