The fact that the local authorities did not bring the decoy team into the pharmacy was not a good sign. Just meant that we had to get into the pharmacy. Through the back door. It was very quite funny considering seventy-five percent of the four of us were men over six feet and we still pulled it off. To be fair, the pharmacy was closed, though, which was not impressive now that I thought of it.
Hunk told me to get ahead in the marching order while he took the rear considering it would be safer for bioweapons professional to lead the way and to have the other's back. Usually, he would be up front, but he did not feel comfortable putting me on the back. Simon was right behind me and his presence was loud. It oddly made me feel safer.
At first, nothing was wrong about the pharmacy. Then, we were by the door of the backroom which was ajar. I peeked through the crack and found it thrashed. There were blood splatters here and there. Even the lights were hanging off the ceiling, faintly blinking. There were stuff on the floor.
I looked back, catching Hunk's gaze, I signed at him to suggest that we should wear masks. He confirmed that and I attached my mask to my helmet. Simon and König somehow figured out the comfortable way to put their masks on.
After that, Hunk signed to me to proceed.
So, I entered, checked the back corner before checking the other as I moved in. I proceeded with caution, looking down occasionally to make sure I was not stepping on something noisy or dangerous.
Eventually the four of us spread through the room. I did not intend to look for anything in particular, but on the table right before the other door that led to another room, I stopped because I saw the name Redfield on a paper that was on a stack of paper.
So, I pulled it out and was surprised to see that it was my name instead of Chris. It even had my photo in the corner. What even more concerning was that it was medical records—something that should have never left the BSAA database. It even had a list of my medication.
Realising what this was, I felt a tingle on my left hand.
I looked through the other papers on that stack. Some of them were of the people I happened to be familiar with. Rose and Ethan Winters, Jake Muller, Albert Wesker, the Ashford twins, Maria and Diego Gomez, and there were question marks on the names Zoe Baker, Leon, as well as Mia Winters. Other than those, there were other names that stood out such as Dimitrescu, Heisenberg, Beneviento, Moreau, and Miranda.
Those last ones were located in Romania. The last I heard about Ethan before his death was that Chris moved him and his family there. Not long ago, Chris left for Romania and returned with Mia and Rose without Ethan on sight. I heard from Dion that Ethan died.
A few days after that, Chris put me to babysit the Winters a lot. It really did take a lot for Mia to recover. There were medical professionals in their living space the whole time. Even more military personnel around the house.
If these people I was reading were the people they had to deal with back in Romania... it would take a lot for me to recover, too. Losing Ethan, too?
A lot of these people's status was dead. Some was alive. There was one person with the status dead (allegedly). Whatever that meant.
"Found something, Dead?" Hunk's voice echoed in my helmet.
I looked up to find him still across the room, but Simon was next to me.
"Just a very intimate information about a bunch of people," I sighed.
And about myself.
"These easy to get?" Simon asked.
"No," I shook my head.
"Would you... leave these documents here?" König asked.
"If I get my hands on them, no," I sighed. "Even in an emergency, I would pick these up first."
I looked at more of these and recognised some more of them to be BSAA soldiers who had gone through the same procedure as myself. The difference would be that they did not make it.
The more I looked at these files, the more invaded I felt.
Simon lightly kicked the side of my foot simply to get my attention. I turned to face him and with just a look, we agreed that this did not look good. Then, his gaze turned into a warning that I should proceed carefully.
Through my goggles, I winced my eyes at him, challenging him to stop me. He knew that unless Hunk agreed with him, he would not be able to stop me. He would not even be able to pull rank with Hunk in charge.
"Let's keep going," Hunk said.
Simon looked as if he just lost a two hour game of UNO when he heard that.
So, I started making my way ahead, but I stopped when I heard Simon said something that I never thought he would say.
"Sir, permission to make a suggestion," Simon said.
I turned to face him in complete disbelief.
"Go ahead," Hunk replied.
"Dead Weight's a target. She shouldn't lead the march," Simon said.
The two seconds Hunk took for consideration felt tense for me.
"I don't have a problem with that," Hunk said before looking at me. "However, I do have a problem with you being reckless. Switch order with Ghost for now."
Now, I was the one looking at Simon as if I just lost a two hour game of UNO despite him only being able to see my eyes through my goggles.
From there, we moved on ahead. Simon led us to the door that was slightly ajar. A few steps in, I could see that to the left side was a wall, but to the right side was a cement hallway that was so dark that I could only see a few feet ahead due to the limited lighting from the lab.
As I got my NOD on, I felt so worried that something would just jump out and attacked Simon. My heart started to race. I almost yelped when I heard a clank from the end of the hallway.
The further in we got, the more nervous I got. I thought about the multiple way I could jump ahead and pulled Simon back if something happened, despite in reality I would probably not be able to do that. I also thought about where I should aim in case something happened so I did not miscalculate my shot and hit Simon instead. I could probably lunge forward in front of him, but that was all.
That was, of course, if Simon did not have the reflex to not let anybody do something like that to him.
Eventually, I started seeing a figure at the end of the hallway. This person was facing a metal door, idling. Right away, I knew that this person was infected. If they were initially in the lab, then, it would make sense that they did not leave with those very sensitive files.
However, that did not feel right to me.
Now that everybody saw that, I looked back at Hunk. He signed for me to take care of the infected.
I put away my gun and took out my brass knuckle knife. I stealthily made my way to the infected, grabbed them by the top of the head, pressed my knife on the side of their head and switched it on. The infected fell limp and I carefully put them down.
This person was wearing a lab coat. There was a chunk of flesh missing from their neck.
I was about to stand up when Hunk had shown up next to me, pushing the door in front of me shut. Right away, there were a lot of banging and snarls from the other side. He pressed his shoulder on the door, keeping it from opening.
König and Simon immediately got into a defensive position, circling the perimeter as I continued looking at the dead body in front of me.
"Sounds like a couple dozens in there," Hunk said. "What is it, Dead?"
"Definitely the same one that's running around Manchester this morning," I said, standing up. "No mutation. Hopefully not inside either."
"How bad is the mutation going to be? If there's... one?" König asked, unsure of his own questions.
I flatly laughed.
"Yeah," I said.
There was a brief silence other than the groans and banging of the infected on the other side of the door.
"So, we don't know?" König concluded.
"We never do," I sighed.
"You guys ready to take on these things?" Hunk brought up.
"We're not going to discuss the creatures and just go on ahead and dispose of them?" König sighed before cursing in a foreign language.
I chuckled as I took a position a couple of steps in front of where the door would be opening. I switched my blade off and put it away to replace it with my rifle before I nodded at Hunk. Hunk looked at Simon and König who readied their firearms before tipping a firm nod at him.
Hunk looked at the three of us in consideration for a second.
"Dead, you lead this one. You know what to do," Hunk said.
"Yes, sir," I said immediately.
With that, Hunk swung the door opened and infected spilled out of the gap. I welcomed them with shots to the head along with Simon and König doing the same thing. For a few seconds, suppressed shots and bodies falling to the ground layered in groans and snarls were the only sounds we heard.
Once the path into whatever was behind the door was somewhat cleared save for the limp bodies on the ground, I started making my way in. It was another dark hallway ending with what looked like stairs going down. At least from this far.
The infected looked to be scientists of some sort. Most of them were in a lab coat.
However, as I walked in, I saw that in the middle of the hallway, there was a junction that went to the right. If the first time we went through that last door we were greeted by at least twenty infected, now I stood right in front of at least another twenty.
Continuing to eliminate the infected to the right with Simon, I advanced towards that hallway. It was a shorter hallway than the one heading towards the stairs. However, there was a light at the end of this hallway. It was dim and it came from a circular window of another door at the end of the hallway.
Once we cleared the infected, I paused to look back at the red lensed man. He gave me the go ahead to proceed. So, I put my hand on the door knob. With the racing of my heart still going, I twisted it.
When I heard nothing out of the ordinary, I pushed the door in. I left it hanging for a second entering with the nose of my rifle leading this move.
I checked the side of where the door opened. It was another lab, ransacked, but there was no blood splatter like the other one. No one in sight. Then, I looked to the other side and was immediately welcomed with someone kicking my rifle away before getting my chest kicked in less than a second.
Gasping for air, I steadied myself seeing whoever kicking me back closed the door and pushed the lock on the knob. This person, now that I had a moment to look at them, happened to be a stranger.
He had a tribal tattoo painted down his right arm that said Mother Love.
"Who the fuck are you?" he challenged, hesitating to come at me, but he looked like he would not hesitate to attack if I showed any sign of hostility.
"They're calling me Dead Weight now and I'm with the BSAA," I said, opening my palms at him.
"BSAA?" he repeated, his stance eased a little.
However, at that time, Simon kicked the door open and this stranger dodged away. I saw him eyeing where my rifle had slid off to. He happened to be closer to it than I was. Hunk and König had also stepped inside.
"You better show me your hands and stay still or else we'll be having a bloody problem," Simon said.
The stranger sighed.
"Fine," he opened his palm, looking at me.
Simon took over in securing him as I made my way towards my rifle. I picked it up and stood in front of this stranger before Hunk hushed me away.
"You said you're with the BSAA? You're running around with the big dogs?" the stranger asked with Simon's gun against his back.
König and I started walking around the room to see what was around.
"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Hunk asked.
That question made me turn towards them.
The stranger chuckled in response after pausing in shock.
"You do run around with the big dogs," stranger said.
"Who is this?" I asked.
"Not sure if you'd know anything about him, but your doctor sure does," Hunk said. "Rebecca Chambers reported that Billy Coen was dead at the Arklay Mountains incident. Yet he's standing right here."