Rookie Life

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“God Chris, of course I’ll be alright. No... I know it’s all new... I can handle it, seriously! Don’t make me come all the way out there and kick your ass. Yeah, yeah... love you too old man.” Claire hung up the phone, still grinning to herself. “So over protective.” She chuckled, standing in front of the mirror in the tiny apartment she had rented, looking at her reflection of her first time wearing the R.P.D uniform. “I got this.” She told herself, exhaling the breath she had unknowingly been holding. It wasn’t her first day on the force that had her nervous... it was what her big brother, STARS hero, self proclaimed ladies man Chris Redfield was going to do once she set foot in the precinct. Maybe he wouldn’t notice... maybe STARS never even paid attention to lowly grunts with big ideas. Claire had kept her secret for this long throughout all her training, what was a few more weeks?

Billy took the key, but simply stared at it. Rebecca was better with out him, Chris had it all wrong. She had her friends, they would keep her safe while he fled this. All of it.

“So... I hear Hernandez had to take a shower five minutes into briefing...” Claire mused as she practically bounced up to the desk. Just being around Leon always seemed to put a spring in her step, even after she was reprimanded for something she had no real control over.

Both STARS teams had been called in and were being briefed. It was decided that Enrico's team would head into the mountains first and if any help was needed they would radio for help. 
Not long into their helicopter journey, it mysteriously crashed. Rebecca would find evidence that Billy had escaped and she had kept it to herself. As their group was picked off in the Spencer mansion one by one, only she remained alive. As far as she knew...

Leon grimaced. "Yeah, this whole shift hasn't been my day or night. I swear I'll never work a double again. Your brother can't stay out of trouble." He groaned. "Neither can Jill."

Jill couldn’t stop fidgeting as their chopper began its path to the forest. Most of it was the worry in her gut that something bad had already happened, but the rest... She glanced nervously across at Wesker, uncomfortable being this close. Her knee bobbed up and down slightly where she was seated next to Chris, wishing she could have just told him the truth.
Billy didn’t know how things had turned south this quickly. He had freed himself from imprisonment, and headed for the city limits. Somehow he had gotten off track and ended up here, amid the wreckage of an antique looking train.

Claire lost her smile somewhat, worried by those words. “What happened?” She breathed, bright sapphire eyes searching Leon’s face for some sign he was hiding something.

Chris stared out the other window of the helicopter, making sure not to look at the way Wesker was placing his hand on Jill's knee. He'd been doing all sorts of things like that while they were gearing up. He'd given Chris the side eye more than once to see if he was watching. The younger man showed no sign of it. Instead he and Forest showed off their custom weaponry ordered from Kendo and talked shop. Chris loved a good gun conversation. 
He did "accidentally" knock Joseph into Wesker when he saw the other man had Jill alone in a dark corner. Knowing she'd yell at him later, he'd taken her hand and yanked her away, talking loudly about her promising to show them her new gun too.
He didn't like these missions where they were together like this. It was toouch of a temptation for him to once again beg Jill to take him back.

Leon told Claire about her brother and Jill. He also told her about his suspicion with Wesker. He was pretty sure he'd over heard something.

Jill had wanted to hug Chris and never let go when he had pulled her away from Wesker, her slender fingers had only dared to give his hand a squeeze, though the material of their gloves had made it seem much less intimate. It would only be as they burst through the doors of the forbidding mansion that Jill would realise all the things she wishes she had said to Chris. Because after what they had just seen... she wasn’t as confident of this mission as she had been before.

Claire hadn’t laughed, or called him paranoid, she had simply listened. Claire was good at that, she was simply good with people. The only action she seemed to make as he told her everything was to chew on her lips thoughtfully. “Chris never did like Wesker, but it definitely sound like he knows something more than he’s letting on.” She agreed finally. “I...” She almost told Leon that she would be able to snoop more once she was on the team, but chickens out at the last moment. “So Chris is the reason half your face looks like a bruised peach?” She teased.

Chris found himself alone in the mansion, growing more worried by the moment. He'd found nothing but dead teammates and the undead. He was growing more than a little panicked that it was Jill he was going to see next. 

Rebecca's hell had brought her to the mansion and had forced her into seeing her everyone she'd been come to know and care for die in horrible ways. At the moment she was lying on the floor in a library, pinned there by a monster she'd seen in the sewers below the station. She deserved this, she thought as she closed her eyes. She hoped it was painful.

Jill was having concerns of her own, though it wasn’t about dead teammates. She swore she could feel eyes on her all the while, more so each time she eliminated one of the undead in her path, almost like she was being... evaluated. As each time she cleared a room, next time to came back through, the bodies were gone, but often something more vicious was in their place. It felt too much like a test.

It was painful, just not for her. The create howled in agony as it’s head was partially exploded from the shotgun currently pointed at it from no more than a few feet away. “This is how a STARS operative conducts themselves?” Billy’s cool voice mocked.

Barry was finally sent to retrieve Jill and place her in a holding cell. He apologized several times though he was well aware it was not good enough. Wesker was going to kill them all in the end. All he needed now was Chris. 

Rebecca sat where she was, pushing off the gore from her face. It took her a moment to process the voice she was hearing. She'd heard it many times before in her sleep and in her daydreaming. But never in her nightmares.

Jill didn’t believe a word of what Barry was saying to her. Wesker had been threatening her for weeks, but that didn’t mean she had become his lapdog. The part that hurt most? She was beginning to think she would never get to tell Chris all the things she had been bottling up.
Wesker meanwhile had been having much fun watching Chris. He had been right in separating his two star STARS. They had given him combat data more valuable than he could have even dreamed.

A hand reached down and helped Rebecca back to her feet. “Honestly, who did you think you were calling to for help?” He teased, picking a po be of green and red flesh out of her hair.

Chris was covered in grime and yet more blood of other team members. He stumbled into a quiet room with a bed and managed to close his eyes for a few moments. He'd found Jill's gun and was beginning to give up hope that he was going to find her alive.

"It certainly wouldn't be you." Rebecca snapped, fighting the urge to gag as she reached up and touched her hair. "What are you doing here? I figured you'd have shacked up with Juliana by now."

Wesker had planned everything, right down to Chris finding his former lovers weapon. Hope was slipping away from the younger man, and Wesker wanted to see how long before Chris took that weapon he now cherished so dearly... and pressed it to his temple, Jill’s name on his lips. Wesker allowed Chris no more than a minute or two before he fired his own gun out in the hallway, offering that brief moment of belief that someone else was still alive in the mansion. All Chris would find would be one of the creatures he had already put down, suddenly awakening once more with an even deadlier bloodlust.

“Jealous?” Billy mused as he watched Rebecca, finding her attempt at being authoritative entirely too charming. “I could ask you the same question. This place isn’t linked to any of your RPD cases, trust me, I know.”

Rebecca was fumbling for the handcuffs on her belt. Instead she found another chunk of monster meat. This time she did gag. 
By the time she'd composed herself Chris had come barreling into the room, followed by a zombie with angry looking claws. When it realized there were more living beings in the room, it was more than happy to turn on Billy.

Billy was quickly to turn as he raised his shotgun, blasting at the creature coming at him. One wasn’t enough. It was still coming, it’s long claws close enough he could see the already dried blood on them. It took two further consecutive shots before he could back up enough to take a breath.

"I already killed that thing..." Chris gasped out. He was still trying to catch his breath too. Finally he saw Rebecca and grabbed her, hugging her tightly. "You're ok." He breathed. "Thank god you're ok."

Billy was eying Chris with suspicion. “Apparently we have different definitions of dead.” He snorted, fighting the urge to tear Rebecca out of the other man’s arms. “You came alone?”

Chris kissed Rebecca's forehead and set her down. He took a long moment to look her over, ignoring Billy. "Is anyone from your team alive? Enrico? Richard?" 
Rebecca glanced toward Billy, her eyes watering and her nose red. Then she turned back to Chris and shook her head. "Everyone is gone. All of them."

“But they made it to the house, right?” Billy interjected, not wanting to think of Rebecca having run through those woods alone. “What about you? You didn’t answer my question. Don’t tell me they sent you in alone.”

"Not everyone did." Chris and Rebecca said together. Then Chris turned to Billy and gave him a hard shove. "What the hell are you doing here, soldier boy? I thought I told you to get the hell out of dodge?"

“Funny thing about dodge, there’s a whole lot of nothing around it.” Illy snorted. “I was on board a train when it crashed. Weird thing was, it didn’t seem to be going through the forest, so much as to SOMETHING within the forest, if you get me?” He replied as he reloaded several more shells into his weapon. “As soon as people started eating each other, I got out of there, this was the nearest building. Like the train was carrying all those suits right here.”

Rebecca didn't say anything. She'd seen all the mechanics that Umbrella had built. It was a massive infrastructure that looked more like a give than a lab. This place was more or less testing grounds. 
"This is Umbrella, as I'm sure you know. Some guy named Spenser owns the mansion but...there's other people living here and...I think they were making monsters. I can't wrap my head around it all." Chris muttered.

“No, but you let one of them wrap herself around you.” Billy pointed out, though his tone wasn’t harsh. “That was always her goal; get close to one of you, find out how much you knew about the strange murders, and if it tied back to Umbrella.” He added, leaning against the wall now, taking the moment of respite while he could.

"I was..." Chris shook his head, trying to shake away the moment of shame. "Listen, Jill, is alive and I need to find her. You should get going. Becky and I have got this. Right, Rookie?" He turned to look at Rebecca only to see her giving him a green faced thumbs up. She didn't look so well.

Billy pushed away from the wall and shook his head. “She came here with a whole team, and now they’re dead. Sorry, but I’m not going to trust your STARS are you to the task any more.” He replied. “How are you even sure Jill’s not one of those things by now anyway?”

Chris shoved Billy again. "Don't say that!" He roared. 
Rebecca was quick jump between them. "Lower your voice!" She hissed, her back against Billy. "Those things could find us...we need to be moving anyway. It's not safe. If Jill is alive we need to find her quickly...Chris have you seen Captain Wesker?"
Chris shook his head. He didn't know why but he wasn't sure that was such a good thing.

“I’ve got little miss officer Chambers, you go find your... partner.” Billy replied, real emphasis on the last word to make sure Chris knew he knew the truth. “How about this, those dusty old typewriters that are everywhere, every time we pass one, we leave the time and our next destination? Keep tabs on each other than way?” He suggested, softening a little once he had heard the despair in Chris’ voice at the thought of losing Jill. He would be no different if it was Rebecca who was missing. That’s why he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.

"We're all staying together." Rebecca said firmly. "We will never make it out if we don't." 
Chris nodded. "We need to head for the basement. That's the last place I haven't looked." 
Rebecca looked toward Billy, not sure she really wanted to go to the basement area. Something about it didn't feel right.

Billy met Rebecca’s gaze and hesitated; he felt it too. “Moving in a group like this will attract those things right to us.” He countered. “Besides, what are your plans if we even find your partner? You aren’t seriously considering going back outside? Rebecca and I should be finding a way out.”

"You leave the notes. Rebecca and I have worked as a team for more than a year. We know what we're doing." Chris growled, handing his gun over to Rebecca. "You just keep doing your thing." He turned his gaze toward the young woman, all but insisting she give them an answer. 
Rebecca was still staring at Billy. He'd torn her to shreds in so many ways. She didn't know if she could trust going with him.

“Right, and I should trust you? You couldn’t even keep your own partner safe!” Billy growled, squaring up to Chris this time.

Chris shoved Rebecca aside and leapt on Billy, taking him to the floor. It was as the two men wrestled that the strange noise echoed through the hall. The three of them would be too late to stop the strange creature that stumbled into the room. 
Rebecca didn't have enough time to warn Billy or Chris before the monsterous woman bound in cuffs slammed into her. She managed to pull her gun out and fire into the woman's back as her vision began to blur. 
Chris felt the bullet whizz past his cheek. At first he thought it was Billy so he threw a heavy punch, covering them both in blood.