Raccoon City
(Hour after chapter 4)

Sue turned feeling like they were being watched. They had made it out of the house a while ago, and so far they had found no one. She didn't notice Chris was still walking along the path.

Wesker slowly crept up on the girl, waiting until Chris had moved up. Then he grabbed her, slapping a hand over her mouth. One gloved hand wrapped around the necklace. "You really should've been more cooperative before..." He hissed at her.

Sue struggled against him getting her mouth free. "It doesn't work. I tried it..." She hissed. "CHRIS!" She screamed not caring if she brought the attention of any of the monsters.

Chris looked back, and saw a dark figure attacking Sue. He rushed back, his gun out. Wesker cursed, and tossed her down, the necklace coming free in his hands. He darted off into the shadows just as Chris arrived. "Who the Hell was that?!" he said as he stopped and knelt next to the girl.

Sue coughed. When Weskar had pulled the necklace it had strangled her for a moment. She curled up crying.

Jill heard the scream ahead of her and Jotaru and ran towards it. "Chris... What happened?" She asked seeing the girl was crying.

Chris picked her up, and shushed her. "Don't worry, it's okay now..." He looked up at the other two. "Someone attacked her..but I don't know who..." Jotaru was still behind them, sitting on a headstone.

"Glasses..." Sue said touching her neck. "Stole my necklace..."

Jill looked at the girl trying to figure out what she meant.. "Glasses?"

Chris blinked. Glasses? ...that could be almost anyone who wears glasses....from the looks of all the papers they found, scientists were here.... He grinned at her. "Well, you're safe now...and we'll find the guy who did this..."

She pointed at the STARS patch on their jackets. "With you..." She said recovering her breath.

Jill took her from Chris. "I'm out of bullets, so if you two want to cover us..." She said as the girl clung to her.

Chris did a double-take. "Wesker? You don't mean Wesker, do you?" He looked at her intently. "...and where did that cat get to..."

Jotaru pulled out his sawed-off, and cracked it open. He holsered his normal shotgun, and walked up to them. "This is getting more screwed up by the second...." he commented. He pulled out a pair of mirrored shades, and slipped them on for a second. "Glasses like this?"

There was a yelp from a dog and a cat's growl. Sue nodded to Chris. "Fluffy got hungry... He'll come back." She said shivering. Her lightweight jacket was doing nothing to hold back the cold fog.

"Christ....a CAT that eats DOGS?" He kept the shades on, and grimaced. "This place....is like out of a horror movie..." He looked down at the girl, then sighed. "And none of us has a jacket....perfect.."

"Cat? Fluffy? I don't think I want to know." Jill said shifting the girl so that she could slip out of her jacket. "This might give you a little more protection okay? I don't think your parents would like it if you got killed now would they?" She looked at Jotaru. "Think I was going to come in here without one? I know Chris's lousy aim. Come on, we should get her inside."

"He doesn't just eat dogs... His genetic coding is a little messed up... He thrives on the thing that made the zombies..."

Chris snorted. "Me? Lousy aim? This coming from little miss sticky fingers...and I mean that in every possible sense.."

"Language Chris. I mean we do have a kid with us." She said coldly.

Jotaru shuddered. "Okay....she shouldn't have told me that....now, I'm gonna be on edge all night....I was nearly bitten by one of those things not to long ago...I do NOT want to turn into one of THOSE...things..."

Chris glared. "That's why I didn't get specific...after all, she wouldn't know what I meant by that." He turned on his heel, and stormed up the path.

Sue looked at Jotaru. "We get into the lab... I might be able to make something to keep that from happening... That is if it's not contaminated..."

"Damnit... Jotaru, take her." Jill handed Sue to him and went after Chris. "We have to stick together. Now have you seen Barry lately?"

Shades slipping down over his face, he looked at her with one eyebrow raised as he held her. "You do realize that's asking a lot? I mean...if that's where the virus came from....then it's bound to have even more of those things?" Absentmindedly, he rubbed the back of his neck, parting his hair for a second, an odd tatto visible.

Chris glared at her. "No, I haven't...and what the Hell is with you? Ever since we got here...you've been a royal pain in my ass..and I'm getting sick of it!"

Sue sighed. "I know that... My parents worked in the labs... They didn't come home two days ago, so I came here to find them... That's when I saw the first of those things..." She climbed out of his lab sitting on the headstone. "I couldn't make it this far..." She pulled Jill's jacket tighter around her shivering. "Where'd you get that?" She asked touching the tatt.

"Me? I'm not the one who's acting like a god, and nearly letting the kid get killed. Seems she knows what's going on around here whhile the rest of us are stumbling around. And now she just accused Wesker of attacking her."

Jotaru looked down at her, frowning. "I don't know...can I trust you?" He asked her seriously. His shades slipped down again, his ice-blue eyes deep and penetrating. Then he relaxed. "Okay...I think I can...but you have to keep it a secret, and tell me something in return, okay?" He winked at her, and grinned playfully.

She looked at him. "Okay." What to tell him though....

Chris sighed in frustration. "Something about this whole mission is screwed up....none of this make sense!" He started pacing around, his arms over his chest. "Wesker...has been acting weird...and he keeps running off..."

Jill sighed. "It didn't sit right when Irons gave the order to come out here."

Jotaru took in a deep breath. "This mark...is the symbol for a secret military organization that has almost as much authority as the President of the United States...everyone one of its members has this mark on them.." He parted his hair, showing her that it was a two-headed golden lion. "I think they have something to do with this.."

She touched the mark lightly.

Chris nodded. "Exactly my thinking....why us? I mean, why not send us in first? Why send the Bravos? The whole thing stinks..." He glanced over at Jotaru and Sue. "They seem to be getting along."

"I still think she's hiding something." Jill said nodding to him. "Chriis, let's get out of here, then figure it out."

Jotaru slipped his shades back up. "I was able to get myself transferred to STARS so I could look into it..." He patted her head. "So, tell me one thing...do you know anything about why Wesker would attack you? I know he's been acting strange ever since you fell on him.."

She shivered pulling back from him. "I... My parents work here... And.... Because I was... Because I happen to be a scientist too... I was given a skeleton key... But it doesn't work. I could open two of the doors... Then... then it stopped working..." She almost fell off the headstone.

Jotaru thought. "That seems odd....how did it work?" He was unfazed by her admittance that she was a scientist. "Let me guess one thing...that 'Fluffy'...is he a viral experiment that didn't work right?"

Chris looked over at the two talking. "I think so too...but she seems to be opening up to our rookie friend..." He shrugged. "Well, we'll sort this out later..we still have to see if any Bravos made it through this mess.."

She shook her head. "He works... I... I was asked by someone outside the company that Dad and Mom work for to create something that would clean up the mess if the things they were doing ever wen't wrong..."

Jill nodded. "Jo and I think there has to be at least one. We came across some of the others, but nothing of their medic yet."

Jotaru blinked. "That's something I never heard about...some ELSE involved in this mess?" He shook his head, and looked at her. Then he snapped his fingers. "Hey, I got something I want you to have...interested?"

Fluffy returned and sat on the ground cleaning himself. His green fur was tinted red with gore.

She looked at him. "What?" her eyes were filled with childlike wonder.

Chris stroked his chin. "Or Enrico either..." he added. "Some of them had to have made it."

Jill nodded. "Let's get those two and get going then. Barry shouldn't be that far behind us. I know he had more ammo than the rest of us."

Jotaru, smiling, pulled out a small collar. It was black, and had glittering stones on it. It was big enough for a cat. "Well, there's this if you want it..I never planned on bringing any presents with me.." He grinned at her, and mussed her hair. "I'll get you something better when we get out of here, okay?" He glanced over at Chris and Jill. "And don't tell them about anything we said...we don't want them to think that we were actually involved with this...that would make things even worse.."

She nodded taking the band. "Thank you." She jumped down to go over to her cat, carefully putting the collar on him.

Chris smiled slightly. "Finally, we agree on something..." As he passed her, he grinned and whispered, "Sticky Fingers." Laughing, he walked back down the path. "Everyone ready to get going?"

"Bastard." She retorted quietly.

Sue nodded to Chris. "I'm ready... So is Fluffy." She said as the cat flicked his tail about.

Jotaru nodded, and stood up. He kept the shades on. "Honest opinion...do these shades make me look stupid?" He grinned lopsidedly, hiding the military persona behind his facade of humor, and lousy timing. "I'm ready...as soon as I get my answer.."

Jill snatched the glasses putting them on Sue instead. "Yeah. They look better here." She said reaching down. The small girl giggled and took the older woman's hand. Her free hand moved to keep the glasses on.

"This make me one of the good guys here?" She asked.

Jotaru pouted, then pulled out a second set. He smirked at Jill, and high-fived Sue. "Sure does...and cooler...don't have any in cat size though..." He bent down and looked at Fluffy. "It bite?"

"Only if you attack him." She said as the cat sniffed him. She stayed near just in case. "We should hurry to the labs... I promised to try to treat that..." She said looking at his wound.

Jotaru looked around, confused. "Wha....oh, crap..." He finally saw the bite. "I didn't even feel that...Damned endorphins..." he cursed. He rubbed his arm. "So...now we have motivation..."

Jill looked at him. "You didn't feel that earlier?" She asked.

Jotaru shook his head. "No...I didn't...I knew there was something wrong with my arm....I was on too much of an endorphin high...." He frowned, then shrugged. "Well, I'm not going to worry about that now...juding from the files, I still have what, 24-30 hours before the virus even begins to work on me." He rubbed the back of his neck, and grinned slightly. "I'm not dead yet.."

"Depends.." Sue said not saying anything else as infected surged for them. Jill scooped her up keeping between Chris and Jotaru. "That way." Sue pointed towards an opening.

Chris walked ahead, his gun at the ready. "You're sure?" he asked, even as he stepped through. Jotaru held onto his sawed-off, putting the thoughts of infection behind him for the moment.

Jill followed Chris. "Okay, now where?"

Sue was looking around as if searching for a landmark. Sue dropped down from Jill's arms going to a door. She tapped in a command. The door opened only a few inches. "It's stuck."

"Let me have a look.." Jotaru tapped his kuckles against it. Then he slipped his fingers inside, and started pulling it back to little affect. "Okay...gonna need some help here..."

Jill moved to help him.

Sue backed up knowing she'd be in the way.