New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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Memories flickered through Adrian’s mind like a slideshow with no order.
One second, he was in a classroom in his old school uniform, staring blankly into space.
The next, he stood on a boat with a knife in his hand, laughing as he peeled flesh from a man.
One second, he was rushing around a grill joint, forcing a smile for customers.
The next, he sat on dry earth and stared at a corpse missing half its head.
One second, he was watching someone he had once liked walk away.
The next, he was buried inside a woman he did not know.
Memory after memory assaulted his mind until, at last, every image vanished.
He was in that cramped little room.
Afternoon sunlight poured through the window and fell across the silver-haired woman standing before him.
She stood with her back to him.
Then she slowly turned.
A faint, warm smile bloomed across her emotionless face.
“Welcome back,” she said softly.
The steady beep of a monitor reached his ears.
Adrian opened his eyes.
‘Ah.
An unfamiliar ceiling.
Please no.
That joke was already dead before I got here.’
Fragments of what had happened came back to him.
He reached toward his abdomen and pressed lightly.
Clear pain answered him at once.
He turned his head from side to side.
He lay in a hospital bed.
The white walls were clean and orderly.
Sunlight came through the window and fell across him, warm against the blanket.
Flowers sat on the windowsill, though from this distance he could not tell whether they were real.
Beside the bed, a silver-haired woman was sleeping in the sun with her head down on her arms.
Adrian smiled and reached out to stroke her hair.
In her sleep, T-Lilith rubbed her face against his blanket.
Then her eyes slowly opened.
She stared at him, still hazy from sleep.
“…Adrian?”
Adrian only smiled at her.
T-Lilith stood at once.
Only then did Adrian notice the cast around her leg.
She grabbed the crutch beside the bed and limped to the door.
“Adrian is awake,” she called into the hall.
A moment later, a broad, muscular man in a heavy coat walked into the room.
Chris looked at Adrian and asked, “How do you feel?”
“Alive enough.” Adrian glanced around.
“Where am I?”
“A hospital.
Not too far from Loplers.
Our support team decided the medical facilities in Loplers couldn’t handle injuries like yours and T-Lilith’s, so they flew you both out by helicopter.”
“How long was I out?” Get faster updates on g.com.
“Three full days.
Your wound missed the major organs, but you lost a lot of blood.”
“What happened to T-Lilith’s leg?”
“Fracture.
It’ll need time.”
“What happened after I passed out?”
“Not much,” Chris said.
“Support arrived, moved both of you out, and the technical team took samples from the Nemesis-type B.O.W.
They also disinfected every area the creature passed through.
They’ve confirmed there won’t be a secondary biohazard outbreak in Loplers.
Most of them pulled out yesterday.”
Adrian looked at Chris.
Unease crept into his voice.
“And…
T-Lilith?”
“What about her?” Chris said.
“She’s yours.
Why are you asking me?”
Adrian went still.
Chris folded his arms.
“The objective of the operation was to seize a dangerous B.O.W.
sample that had surfaced in Loplers.
Cornered by local armed forces, the bioterrorists released the B.O.W., causing heavy casualties among those same local forces.
To prevent the incident from spreading, I engaged the target with assistance from the local mercenaries Adrian Voss and T-Lilith.
After a difficult fight, we killed the target B.O.W.
and contained the crisis.”
He shrugged.
“That’s the report I sent upstairs.”
“What?” Adrian stared at him.
“What about Kelly?
Your informant basically handed you everything about me and T-Lilith before you even entered Loplers.
That story is going to hold up inside the BSAA?”
“Kelly said her intelligence was wrong.
According to her, she was misled from inside her own organization.
She’s under BSAA protection now and has left Edonia for the U.K.”
Adrian looked at Chris with a complicated expression.
This upright, painfully honest man had lied to his superiors for him.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Chris said.
“I haven’t decided to ignore T-Lilith.
I’ll keep watching what happens here.
If you or she become a problem, I won’t hold back.”
“Fair.” Adrian let out a breath.
“Honestly, the fact that you’d go this far for me…
thank you.
I mean that.”
“Save it.
One more thing.
The BSAA covered your hospital fees.
Before Kelly left, she put five million dollars aside for you.
She told me to tell you to take good care of T-Lilith.”
“I will. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
She doesn’t need to worry about that.”
‘So what is this?
Approval from the mother-in-law?’
“That’s all for now,” Chris said.
“I’ll stay a few more days, then leave Edonia.
We received some important intelligence…”
He paused.
“Do you know Oswell E.
Spencer?”
Adrian did not answer, but Chris read the answer in the way his expression tightened.
“We may have found Spencer’s hiding place.”
“Don’t overreach,” Adrian said.
That was all he could say.
He knew exactly what was coming.
In the Resident Evil 5 DLC Lost in Nightmares, Chris and his partner Jill entered Spencer Mansion and encountered Albert Wesker, one of the greatest monsters in the entire series.
After a brutal fight, Jill threw herself at Wesker to save Chris, and both of them went over the cliff.
“Now that all that’s out of the way,” Chris said, “maybe we can return to the topic from before.
Wesker.
How much do you know?”
The crisis had passed, and Adrian had no intention of giving Chris too many spoilers.
After weighing his answer, he said, “Do you remember the Umbrella Caucasus Research Facility?”
“Of course.
One of the most dangerous operations I’ve ever been part of.
What does that have to do with Wesker?”
“Everything.
While you were attacking Umbrella’s last fortress, Wesker was there too.”
Chris’s eyes sharpened.
“He was at Caucasus?”
“Yes.
Your mission was to break Umbrella’s final stronghold.
His goal was to acquire information on Spencer.
To do that, he released the T-virus inside the facility.
While you were fighting T-A.L.O.S., Wesker was fighting Sergei.”
Adrian recounted the events from Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and added, “There’s a chance Wesker learned Spencer’s location from Sergei.”
That part was a lie.
Sergei had been fanatically loyal; he never would have betrayed Spencer.
But if Adrian wanted to warn Chris that he might run into Wesker during the next operation, this was the only way to do it.
“You know far too much about that operation,” Chris said.
“Forget it.
If I ask, you either won’t answer, or you’ll lie.”
He waved the matter away with weary resignation.
A few days later, Chris left Edonia.
Before he went, Adrian told him, “Remember this: some goodbyes aren’t final.”
Adrian doubted Chris understood what he meant.
Some time after that, Adrian was finally discharged.
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.