FicWad

We made love twice more that night and finally fell asleep in the early hours of the morning. It felt so right to fall asleep with Gerard snuggled up behind me, his arm draped over my stomach. I slept better that night than I had in months.

I was almost awake. Just kind of floating in that space between waking and dreaming when I heard a voice suddenly yell, “Holy Shit!” My eyes opened as I turned my head towards the sound, making the room blur as I sat up and clutched the blanket to my chest. It took a moment for my eyes to focus on the doorway and the person who stood there.
“Sorry, I guess I should have knocked.” It was Mikey.
“The door was locked for a reason.” Gerard said. “Go away, Mikey. We’ll see you at breakfast.”
“But, it’s nearly lunchtime, that’s why I’m here. I wondered why you guys weren’t at breakfast.”
“You’re still talking, you’re supposed to be leaving.”
Mikey seemed to suddenly remember that he was in an uncomfortable situation.
“Right, so sorry.” He left quickly.

I flopped back against the pillows. “Mikey has a big mouth. They’ll all know.”

He lifted his head off the pillow and propped it up against his arm. “Are you ashamed of what we did last night?”
I was shocked. “No of course not. I just think some things should be private, you know. In time they’d have assumed we were sleeping together, but now they’ll know and that just kind of makes me uncomfortable.”
He nodded. “Good, because I want this moment, right now, this day, my feelings for you, the way you look right now. When I look at you, I just want this to last forever.”


In the weeks that followed, we spent each night in the same bed, but even Gerard’s arms around me couldn’t protect us from the news we were about to receive.

We were awoken one morning to the blaring of alarms. We sat up stunned just as the screen in our room flickered on, the words Emergency Transmission, flashing in bold red letters across the screen. I clutched Gerard’s hand in mine. We’d never had a transmission like this before.

A well dressed man appeared on the screen, looking grim. His voice had a no nonsense quality to it that was both reassuring and terrifying.

“Reports have just been verified that the United States has experienced a cataclysmic event.”

I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“While we do not know the cause, we do know that most of the citizens of the United State have been lost. Only Battery City has remained untouched. We suspect that Better Living Industries has released some kind of chemical or biological agent in the last few days that has caused conditions incompatible with life. As stragglers continue to trickle in, the tales grow more grim.”

I hugged Gerard and buried my face in his neck. “All those people.”

The man continued, “ All Umbrella employees and Academy students in all locations around the globe will prepare for immediate transportation back to Battery City.”

The screen went blank. I wanted to just lay back and cry, but the screen came on again.

“Samara, report to the lab.” It was my supervisor. The screen clicked off again.

“I have to go.” I said, my voice choked with unshed tears.
“Me too,” Gerard said softly. “Ray’s family lives in New Jersey. He’ll need me.”

I got ready quickly, in a rush to get whatever they wanted done so I could pack and find my friends. When I stepped out into the hall, two armed guards were waiting there. They fell into step beside me as I walked down the hall.

“Can I help you?” I asked.
“We’ve been assigned to protect you, Ms Winter.” One of the guards answered.
People moved aside for us as we rushed down the halls.
“Protect me? From what?” I asked, incredulous.
“Umbrella has ordered all of its most sensitive assets to be placed under armed guard. It’s just protocol, I assure you, nothing to worry about.”
His reassurance did the opposite. I didn’t like being considered a sensitive asset. The last thing I wanted was for Umbrella to know how much I knew.

I worked in the lab for a long time. As the hours passed, I became more and more anxious. I began to worry that they were going to keep me there. When the transport boarding announcements began, I demanded to be allowed to talk to Gerard. The guards refused at first.
“We can’t let you do that, Ms Winter.”
“My friends need to know that I’m okay. They’ll worry. Knowing them, they might cause a problem. You wouldn’t want that, would you? I mean a simple text message, is all I need.”
He thought about it for a moment. Then slowly nodded.
I’m okay.
That’s all he would let me send. I hoped it would be enough.
I worked for several hours after the last transport departed. My work grew sloppy and I was sure I made several mistakes. I didn’t like not knowing what was going on.

I was just about to demand that I be told what was going to happen when the door to the lab opened and in came a man with slicked back blond hair. He stood tall and was obviously very much in charge. I studied him carefully, noting the weapon at his side and that he wore sunglasses.
The guards next to me snapped to attention. “Mr Wesker, sir.”
“At ease men.” The man’s voice was as cold as ice. My supervisor scuttled over towards the man called Wesker.
“Welcome, Mr Wesker. Welcome.”
Wesker nodded. “You done here yet?”
“Almost, almost. Just a few more minutes, and all will be complete. While we wait, why don’t I introduce you to Ms Winters. She the wunderkind that has made this project so successful.”
Wesker looked at me through his dark lenses and I shivered involuntarily. Whoever he was, whatever his purpose, I didn’t like him. Not one bit.

“I don’t have time for pleasantries.” He sneered.

The computer behind me beeped. The program had finished running the data. I tapped a few keys, saving the results and read through the report quickly.
“You done, girl?” Wesker asked. He sounded impatient.
“Yes, sir. I saved the file and there’s really nothing more to do. Whatever the report says is, you know what it says.” I shrugged.
“And what did it say?”
I shrugged. “Dunno. I didn’t read it. Reading reports isn’t what I’m here for. If they don’t like what it says, they’ll send it back to me and I’ll make it do what they want.” I wanted to sound silly and frivolous. Wesker studied me, but without being able to see his eyes, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

Another guard stepped through the sliding doors and into the lab. “Mr. Wesker, sir. The final transport is loaded just waiting on your final orders, sir.”

“Get the staff into long transport pods, and send a crew to pack up this lab.” He reached out and ejected the hard drive from my computer. “ This is coming with me.”

My guards lead me out of the room. Walking through the deserted halls made me anxious. We were almost at the main cargo bay when the alarms sounded. A computer generated voice came over the loudspeakers, “Containment breach. Level seven.” The message repeated. I didn’t realize that I’d frozen in place until one of my guards nudged me hard in the shoulder with the butt of their gun.
“Move.” He shouted. We sprinted through the remaining corridors to the cargo bay. The doors opened automatically just before we would have run right into them. That’s when we heard the sounds of gunshots behind us. My feet skidded across the metal floor.
In front of us was a huge cargo carrier, a sort of airplane/helicopter hybrid. The loading ramp was left open and the crew inside urged us to run.
I tripped my way up the ramp and stumbled into the ship. My guards didn’t follow me onto the plane.

“Go! Go! Go!” They yelled to the crew inside. The sound of the engines were deafening and the plane lurched under my feet as they began their vertical takeoff. One of the air crew grabbed my arms, steadying me, and lead me to one of the long transport pods. I lay down inside, thankful for the oblivion that I knew would follow. The crewman closed the lid and the last thing I heard was the hissing of the life support kicking on.