(A/N: New chapter! Yay! I'm glad that I finished this one. As I was writing it, I found that the story was taking a new turn. I think it will be much better than what I had planned before. I'm also considering that I should maybe revamp the first chapters (1 to 4)...because I think they're just plain stupid. I was what? 14 or 15 years old when I wrote them...let's say that I matured a bit since I am now 20. Yeah, I think I'll do that, because in this chapter, I'm implying that Chris doesn't like Steve that much...while in the first chapters he was like: "Hey! Nice to meet you! You can go sleep with my sister, I don't mind! Hahahaha!!" Err...see what I mean? I think I really should do some changes to it, because I became quite fond of that story, but the first chapters are still disgusting me. Anyway, Read and Review, please!!)

BLOOD AND LOVE

Tenth chapter

By Marie B.

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When Steve opened the office door, he immediately heard some shuffling sounds from his right. Poking his head out of the doorframe, he saw three, no, four virus carriers coming their way. Judging from the distance between them, Steve and his two other partners had plenty of time to escape from the other side. Looking back at Chris and Claire, he nodded.

“There are zombies not far away, but we can make it if we move rapidly,” said the red-headed boy.

Chris, supporting his sister, nodded back. “Steve, you take the lead. With your accurate senses, it will help us a lot.”

“Got it!” affirmed the boy, smiling reassuringly at Claire. The girl just returned the smile discretely. He then turned around and passed through the door. With a sign of his hand, he asked the Redfield siblings to follow him. Together they took the left, trying the best they could to move fast, hearing the zombies groaning pitifully.

Making their way through the corridor, they finally arrived at an intersection. Left or right? The threesome hesitated until Claire spoke up.

“Look! There’s an elevator over there,” she said, pointing towards the right corridor.

Indeed, at the end of it, there was an elevator. With that, they could surely go back to the surface and finally escape! Steve could feel a smile coming to his lips, but when he looked behind them, he saw the previous virus carriers getting closer to them. The siblings also noticed them, and then, the three of them decided to make a run towards the elevator.

When Steve first arrived in front it, he couldn’t contain the curse that escaped from his lips.

“Fuck! We need an ID card to activate it!” he shouted, banging his fists against the elevator metal grid.

“What are we going to do?” asked Claire, fear spreading across her pretty face.

“We have no choice but to go to the opposite way,” replied her brother.

Sighing, Steve nodded, frustrated by their lack of luck. He then felt a shiver run through his body. Looking up, he groaned from what he saw behind Claire and Chris.

“They’re already there…” he said.

The brunette girl could have bet that Steve just purred and that his eyes were turning red. The boy then rapidly took position between her and her brother and the zombies. He put his guns at the back of his pants and took a fighting stance, which made Claire frown. Was he going to fight bare hands?

“Steve…what are you-“, started the girl before being interrupted by Steve.

“Don’t worry. I’ll fight them alone. I feel strong and they can’t infect me,” he said; his tone serious and convincing.

Claire was about to object when she realized that Steve was already infected and mere zombies wouldn’t hurt him. He proved to be quite strong when they fought against the super-zombies earlier. The boy changed so much since they came back from Antarctica. The T-Veronica virus had something to do with it, but Claire was certain that in that short amount of time, Steve had grown up. He wasn’t anymore the impulsive teenager she met on the island, but a full-grown young man with the strength of at least ten men. The girl found herself smiling. She was quite glad that he was on their side.

“Do you think you can handle them all by yourself? Or is your goal just to impress my sister?” asked Chris, a tone of amusement in his voice.

Steve just rolled his eyes in annoyance and mumbled something that resembled as “I’m gonna show you”. Claire cracked a grin at that.

Steve was still Steve, and that, it would never change.

Lost in her thoughts, the girl didn’t notice that the boy had already taken care of the four virus carriers. All of them had their head smashed or their neck snapped. Steve just stood there, among their corpses. His hands were covered in blood and he had a small grin plastered on his face. He then quickly gazed up towards the Redfield siblings. His eyes had shades of red in them for a second, but they then came back to their original color.

Chris noticed it too and silently looked at his sister. Claire just nodded back at him, telling that she was already conscious of it. They both agreed to not bring up the subject…yet…as long as Steve wasn’t turning against them.

The siblings returned their attention to the young man when they heard him make a noise with the back of his throat. “See? No big deal at all,” he said, grinning.

Chris sighed loudly, walking towards him with his sister. “I have to admit that you’re stronger than I thought. Maybe you would be able to fight Wesker…” said the man when he walked passed the boy.

Steve just smirked, heading in the same direction as the siblings. “I wonder if he is that strong…” he commented nonchalantly, rubbing off the blood on his hands on his pants.

“He is!” growled back the ex-STARS member, making Claire jump in surprise.

Steve glared back at the man, but said nothing. The corridor that they were taking was leading them to double doors. They weren’t locked, much to their relief. But their faces fell down when they saw that they were entering the laboratories area, which would surely contain various BOW and other experiments.

But it would also give them the opportunity to steal evidence. As survivors, it was their duty to take down Umbrella. Any kind of proof would help them.

“Steve, can you sense something?” asked Claire, breaking the silence.

The young man stopped moving and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he reopened them and shook his head. He heard Claire breathed out and felt Chris relaxing.

“However, there may be some survivors hiding,” said Steve, looking around.

“This place seems empty. It’s as if it has been abandoned not long ago,” voiced Claire, looking thought a lab window. She saw capsules, but they were all empty with no sign of breaking.

“What about the scientists we saw?” asked Steve, reaching the point where Claire was standing.

“They were there to make a last check-up at things,” answered Chris, holding a pile of paper in his hand. “They didn’t abandon the facility. They just moved out,”

“That explains all those empty capsules,” said Claire, nodding. It all made sense now.

“Where did they move all that stuff?” asked the red-headed boy, scratching his head.

“They don’t say…it’s only written that they had to move out all the good experiments and destroy the bad ones,” responded Chris, frowning. “We would have to go in the director’s office or something like that to find out.”

The two teenagers nodded, but when the girl put her arms and weight on Steve’s arm, he reminded himself that Claire was wounded. “Do you think you can come with us?” asked the boy with concern.

“I…”

“She’ll stay here,” shot back Chris. “She can’t go on like that. This place is safe and if something happens, she can hide.”

“What about Wesker?!” yelled the girl, insulted that her brother was going to leave her alone. “He’s probably still in this facility!”

“He probably left the place, seeing that nothing of interest was left,” argued back her brother.

“But still!” Clare groaned. “Steve?” she pleaded, looking at her friend.

The boy was frowning as if it were hard to decide what to do. “I think your brother is right. You’re safer here, Claire. And we won’t be long…” he told her, smiling reassuringly.

“I can’t believe that…” hissed the girl who then let her body fall against the nearest wall. “Do as you want. It’ll be your fault if I get kidnapped or something!” she snapped back, pointing accusingly the two men.

Chris just rolled his eyes, while Steve shot her back a grin. “You still have your magnum?” he asked, cocking his head.

“Yeah, yeah”, she pouted, showing the gun and waving it from left to right.

“Good,” finally said Chris and both men were gone in an instant, trying to be as fast as they could.

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Making sure to not make her ankle ache, Claire brought her knees to her chest, pouting like a little girl who wouldn’t be allowed to eat her dessert. What she was supposed to do now? Wait for her two macho heroes to come back? They were probably killing each other right now. Chris didn’t seem quite comfortable that Steve was infected. The man probably thought that the boy could mutate or have the urge to change his diet into cannibalism.

Claire didn’t know what to think of it. She wasn’t really a specialist of the T, G-virus or even the T-Veronica virus for that matter. She had read a little about it on RockFort Island and in Antarctica, but she had no idea how the virus was supposed to react. Steve had already mutated into an 8 feet tyrant before, but thanks to his human conscience, he managed to regain his original body. However, nothing was confirming that he wouldn’t mutate again. And that scared Claire. The young man hadn’t shown any sign of his infection until they had entered the base. His eyes…they had sometimes turned into shades of red…but only when he had fought those zombies…

Maybe because they were also infected, it was stimulating the virus inside of Steve. What if it was stimulating it too much? Would he turn back into a tyrant? She hoped not.

The girl closed her eyes. She loved the boy, she truly did. She didn’t want to relive what happened in that creepy room with the armours. She had almost died by Steve’s –no- his tyrant’s self hands. She never wanted to live again the fear and distress she felt when she saw her friend turning into her headsman.

The brunette let out a long sigh, deciding to not think about it anymore. She looked around her, finding nothing of interest. It was a bit frustrating to not being able to do something to help. She then suddenly thought about the elevator they saw earlier. Steve had said that they needed an ID card or something like that to have access. Maybe she could do her own investigation and look for that card.

Determined and pushing aside her mind telling her to listen to her brother, the girl got up, gripping her hands and arms against the wall, trying her best to not put weight on her ankle. Clumsily, Claire went further into the labs, checking for scientist bodies or desks or anything that could hold an ID card. She was about to enter an office when she heard something that made her freeze.

“The self-destruct system has been activated. This sequence cannot be aborted. All employees must evacuate through their proper emergency exit. The self-destruct…”

Claire couldn’t move until she realized what was happening. A load of curses escaped her lips. Who in the fucking world activated that fucking self-destruct system?? It couldn’t her brother or Steve: they wouldn’t be that stupid.

“Wesker…” she groaned, trying to not let panic or anger overwhelm her. She then saw a lab coat on a pole in the office. She almost ran to it, checking every pocket. She grinned when she felt something plastic and rectangular. At that moment, she couldn’t be more proud of herself than she was.

“Claire Redfield: 1, Chris and Steve: 0,” she whispered, looking at the ID card, a picture of a somewhat old man with grey hair and big glasses plastered on it. It was written: Paul McLay, Head Researcher.

Still grinning, the girl turned around to exit the office. Passing through the doorframe, she felt something hard connecting with her head as if a ton of bricks had fell on her. And then, she saw her magnum and the ID card falling from her hands.

A second later, she was on the ground.

Another second later, she could decipher many feet around her.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” she thought, before all she could see was blackness.

Pure blackness.

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To be continued!!