Back in town

After dumping the guns and crap in the weapons depot, Chris slowly walked up the stairs, rubbing his sore back. Why the Hell do the big guns always have to be so damned heavy? He asked himself as he made his way to the showers. I mean...my back is killing me.... Then he heard footsteps, and found himself on the floor with two other men. "HEY! Get off, please..." he said rather angrilly, pissed because they hadn't been watching where they were going.

Leon got up. "Shit sorry man." He held out his hand to help him up.

Chris took it and stood, brushing the dust off of him. Carlos looked up, and blinked, before staring. "Holy shit...Chris Redfield...one of the STARS Alpha team...so you guys actually made it back?" the UBCS man asked as he managed to stand back up.

Chris nodded. "Yea...though it was close...what's with the hurry, anyway?"

Leon looked at him. "Did you guys find a kid out there? About ten... She looks like sh might be about six though

Chris nodded. "Yea...Sue Jamieson...and her pet Fluffy...amongst other things..." He turned, showing them the shredded vest and shirt he was wearing.

"She made it back with you right?" He asked with true concern.

Chris nodded. "Yea...she's fine....she's with Vickers..." He scratched his chin, and smiled a bit. "And she has her cat...that thing can sure dish it out..."

Leon sighed. "Okay. Oh... hm... Carlos... Should we fill him in?"

Carlos nodded. "Might as well...but not out here.." he motioned for them to follow him into a vacant office. "So, I'm guessing you ran into some serious trouble up there, right?" he asked Chris, who nodded.

Leon stayed quiet.

"Let's see...zombies...mutant dogs...and a giant-assed monster named Tyrant....not to mention a traitor, and nearly losing one of our own repeatedly...I think that qualifies..." Chris began counting the things off.

"We saw some 'zombies' here too. At the hospital.. and 'lizardmen'. That's the easiest way to explain it."

Carlos nodded. "Not only that, but things get even worse: Irons is involved in a big way, probably Vickers...though we're not sure..seems that Umbrella's been shipping it's freaks into Raccoon and field-testing them...only things got out of hand...we think we got them all though..." Chris frowned heavily.

"Well, Sue should be fine...that Fluffy of hers isn't stupid...it bit Wesker, so he probably became one of those zombies before the explosion, and it went up against the Tyrant same as J-" then he stopped. Even if they were friends, he didn't want to let that bit of info slip.

"Seems they brought someone else too... Didn't she say she was from Atlanta... Wonder if she was there when the hurricane hit."

Chris nodded slowly. "I think the best thing for us to do is find Barry, give him the rundown, then watch out for anymore suprises...we shouldn't tell the others yet, because...well, one of our team is a little...okay, let me put it this way...if he finds out, you can be damned sure he'd kill both Vickers and Irons, proof or no proof. And I'm not kidding."

Leon nodded. "We should get Sue away from Vickers too.. Just in case he is involved."

Chris thought for a moment. "As long as she's with the cat, she's fine....but don't worry...as soon as I can, I'll get one of the others to get her...though they'll look anyway...we ran into some, uh, 'complications' back at the mansion.."

"Oh?" Leon asked looking at him.

"Damn...one of our team..the one I mentioned before...he was infected....and he's not completely over it, though he's not going to be a zombie....but he's not going to be normal anymore, either....long story, and you'd have to see it to believe it..." Chris rubbed the back of his head. "It's complicated, the whole mess...what we should focus on is getting more evidence, then telling everyone what we know..."

Leon nodded. "Let's gather everyone else then. We told Alanyia and Danny we wouldn't leave them at the motel too long."

Chris thought. "Like I said...we should wait before telling all of them...I don't want a killing spree on my head...I think the best way to do it, is to let everyone have some time to calm down, then let them know...even a few hours would be good...a lot of weird stuff went on in that mansion, and some of them are a little jumpy, if you get the meaning..." he said, while he watched Carlos and Leon thoughtfully. "Plus, I saw the emblem on your buddy's back there...that's not exactly going to engender much trust amongst them.."

Leon nodded. "So who else would you trust?"

Vickers led Sue into the kitchen and opened the freezer. "Hey, you're in luck, we have some. You like chocolate?" He asked figuring he'd humor the kid a little.

"Chocolate's nasty... You have french vanilla?" She asked peeking in the freezer.

After getting her some icecream he lead her up the stairs. "You know you're a special little girl."

Fluffy stayed by her side. Sue slowed down. Does he know who I am? She thought biting her lip.

They were in front of Irons' office. "We were going to look for Sherry, but you know what... You're a little deeper in the company than she is.."

Sue was ushered inside the office and she heard the door click behind her. Chris... Jotaru... She thought wondering if they'd hear her if she screamed.

The leather desk chair swiveled, and Chief Irons came into view. "Hell, Miss Jamieson...won't you have a seat?" He had changed into cleaner clothes, and was smiling softly.

"I know you.. You're one of the ones that Umbrella keeps on a short leash.." She refused to sit down. Vickers moved her to a chair. She yelped as she was forced into it. Fluffy growled.

"We should do something with that beast of hers..." Vickers said kicking it away from him.

Irons shook his head at Brad. "Don't encourage it's wrath...there's a reason it was created....we'll need it if we want to make the virus work..." He kept his smile. "Besides, we wouldn't want the STARS to become suspicious now, would we?"

"I'm not helping them... They killed my parents.." She scowled yelping more when Brad dug his fingers into her shoulder.

"Don't even start brat. You're in as deep as we are." He scowled at her.

"BRAD!!" Irons hissed in his dark voice, his face turning into a frown. "Well, I managed to FINALLY get a hold of William...we can send the girl to him, see if he fares any better....He is the creator of both the T AND G Virus..." The stocky man slouched back in his chair.

Sue spit at Vickers. "Makes you feel tough picking on a brat doesn't it? And try it... I doubt you'll get far.. Jotaru would find me and mop the floor with you. Bet all I have to do is scream and he'll come." She said with a smug grin.

Irons cocked an eyebrow. "Him...wonderful. I knew he'd be a pain in the ass from the moment they brought him here..." He shook his head, and reached for a cigar. "Good thing we've got something on our side....if anyone tries anything, we can convienently shift the blame to Officer Ogami....say he was a terrorist plant...which isn't too far from the truth..."

Sue bit her lip. "But he didn't he's not a terrorist." She lunged at Irons to kick him only to have Brad catch her and hold her.

"What do we want to do with her? They'll know something's up if anything happens to her..."

Irons thought again. "Simple...we let her go back. WITH the cat. As long as she stays quiet, we won't need to release anymore of the 121s...otherwise...well, there won't be much left of ANY of the STARS once Umbrella sends in THEM..."

Sue went still in his arms. "You release them and they'll destroy everything... How many people have you already killed that way? You let one loose downtown and you'll be lucky to escape with your live." She growled.

"Then that's a reason to keep your mouth shut or work with us isn't it?" Vickers asked setting her down. He kicked her cat again making her struggled to get away from him to make sure the cat was okay.

"VICKERS! STOP BEING A GODDAMNED IDIOT! THE LAST THING WE NEED IS TO GIVE HER MORE REASONS TO TELL REDFIELD AND HIS BAND OF INCOMPENTS!" Irons bellowed, his face gone red with anger, and his eye twitching.

She backed up holding her cat when Irons yelled. She curled up biting in tears.

"Like they'll believe a brat." He sighed opening the door.

Sue ran from the room not knowing where she was heading, just knowing that she had to get away... She found a corner and curled up in a ball behind the potted plant holding Fluffy who mewed slightly in pain. She cried hard.

Barry was walking down the hall, rubbing his sore head. When he heard the crying, he walked over to the plant, and saw her. He smiled gently. "What's wrong, kid?" he asked her softly.

She looked up seeing he was one of the ones who had been at the house she grabbed him holding on tightly. Fluffy mewed again softly.

She hiccuped slightly. "I... They..." She shook her head. "He's here.. one of the men that Mr Spencer didn't want me to get the key to..." She shivered. "And the pilot... He kicked Fluffy...."

Barry looked down at her, slightly confused. "Brad kicked your cat? And what do you mean he's here? Who's he? What are you trying to tell me?" he asked her slowly, carefully. He patted her on the head, and smiled slightly.

She shook her head. "I... They threatened to release a monster in town if I told... I.... It'll kill everything..." She shivered more.

Barry blinked slowly, then frowned. "I see....well, I'm sure everything will be fine....once we find Chris, we can sort this whole mess out...and maybe go kick Brad around a bit."

The cat looked like it wanted down. Sue held him tight still, not wanting to let it down.

Barry sighed. "Come on, let's get you back to the office...once everyone's there, we'll get you somewhere you can stay...somewhere where no one will get you, okay?" This day was really starting to get on the bearded man's nerves, and now the odds that MORE of this happening in the city was beginning to get him slightly riled.

She nodded letting him lead her to the office. Her stomach growled again, the little bit of icecream had done nothing since she hadn't eaten in the two days before she had fallen out of the vent.

Barry sighed again. "Once we get you there, I'll go see what I can get you to eat, okay?"

"I'm sorry... I had some icecream... I guess it wasn't enough...

He shrugged. "Anyway, we're here..." They stood next to a door that had, next to it, STARS on a plain white sign. "Not much, but, it's ours..."

She nodded entering the room. Jill was sitting at her desk flipping through a magazine. She looked up. "What happened?" She asked seeing the girl was in tears.

Barry frowned slightly. "Seems something's going on with Brad, and somebody else..talk of a monster, here in the city...Somehow, I doubt we've heard the last of Umbrella..." Then he noticed something. "Hey, what happened to the rookies?"

"Becca was heading for the showers. No idea where Jotaru went off to." She picked up some paper and a pen. "I know it's a dumb idea, but why don't you draw something.. Anything you want okay dear, it might help you relax a little. We don't have anything here you might want to read..."

Barry went over to his desk, and started checking it. "Well, nothing's missing..." Then he ahd an idea, and went over to Wesker's desk. "Jill, did you already check the desk for anything out of the ordinary?"

"Yeah... Nothing.. If he knew anything he kept it out of the office." Jill held up the pin she had used to pick the lock on his desk. "It's open if you want to check."

Barry decided to sit down at it, and frown. "Well...at least he had good taste in chairs..." was all the senior member had to say.

Sue took the offered tablet and pen and climbed up on Chris's chair to draw. I've read things that you probably haven't... but I'll humor you. She thought.

Barry looked through a few papers on the desk, and found somethind odd. It looked like some kind of weapons request form... "Hey Jill....when has the RPD EVER needed a gatling gun?" he asked, his brow furrowed.

"Never that I know of..."

"Huh...here's something else weird....there's two signatures on this form already....I can't make out the other, but I recognize the first one..."

"Let me see."

Barry handed her the sheet. "Now, I could be wrong....I mean, I'm still a bit jumpy...but it looks an awful lot like our Alpha rookie's..." He clasped his hands together, and thought. "The form's been processed by now....it just needed the final authorization from Wesker.."

Jill nodded. She looked at the girl and bit back a curse. "We'll have to ask him then..."

Barry looked serious. "Except he might not show up again....he may just run off, or something worse..."

Sue looked at him. "Jotaru wouldn't leave me... I... He promised he'd take care of me."

Barry shrugged. "Well, I doubt he's in the ladies' showers..." He shook his head with a slight grin on his face.