Resident Evil Legends Part Three - The Mansion Incident by Andreas Leachim
Chapter 36
The hardest thing that Barry Burton ever did in his entire life was keep calm during the short trip to the emergency elevator. His emotions raged under the surface, and keeping his voice steady when he talked took an inhuman amount of effort. He forced himself to walk at a casual pace, and to keep from acting too anxious or impatient, or else the others might suspect something.
Jill already did, Barry was sure of it. But he had a feeling that Jill suffered more emotional trauma than the others, and she would probably be doubting her own suspicions at this point. From the moment they entered the mansion, Jill was in way over her head. Finding Kenneth’s body, the episode with the chained woman, watching Enrico die right in front of her ...
Barry’s anger threatened to overwhelm him. Wesker said nothing to him about murdering Enrico. He mentioned that Enrico might still be alive, but why on Earth would he have any reason to kill him? Barry could not understand why Wesker killed him, and it must have been Wesker, because there was no one else. His confusion over the murder only made him more furious, and that made it even harder to maintain his composure around the others.
Barry knew where he was leading his teammates. Wesker would surely be waiting for them, but to what end? Barry had no idea. He fought the urge to simply stop and confess what he knew. He knew that Wesker betrayed them, he knew Wesker murdered Enrico, and he knew that they were headed straight for a trap.
But what difference did it make now? Barry might have felt shame and guilt for leading his friends into certain death, but he knew that it made no difference whether he led them to the elevator or not. Wesker was not about to let them escape this lab with their lives. He brought them here to be killed. They were all going to die anyway, so why try to run from it? He felt that it was better for them to make a stand, and face whatever Wesker planned for them, as a group, rather than be tracked down and killed one by one. Better to face their fate together.
In that sense, Barry didn’t feel that he was betraying his teammates at all. He was lying to them, that was undeniable. But he wasn’t just leading them to die, he was leading them to fight the person who truly betrayed them. Wesker’s orders were to find the other members of the team and take them to the emergency elevator, and that was exactly what Barry was going to do, just not for the reasons that Wesker had in mind.
“Barry?” Chris asked. “You’re pretty quiet. Is something up?”
Barry did not reveal anything in his expression. He smiled wanly and shrugged. “Just tired, man. Just thinking about getting out of here.”
“Yeah,” Chris said. “Me too.” He glanced back at Rebecca and Jill, who were walking a few paces behind them, talking to each other. “I still can’t believe we all found each other like that. Talk about crazy luck.”
“You got that right,” Barry said. “But we haven’t found everyone. We don’t know what happened to Richard.”
“I wonder if he’s still alive somewhere down here.”
Barry shrugged. If Richard was still alive, Wesker probably would have told him, so he assumed that Richard was dead as well. “Maybe. He might be hiding anywhere. But I think we have to assume he’s gone.”
“You’re right,” Chris said. “We certainly can’t go looking for him. Rebecca said that Enrico and Richard were together last time she saw them. They must have gotten separated as well.”
“Exactly where has Rebecca been?” Barry asked, honestly curious. “She said she entered this lab from outside?”
Chris chuckled and said, “Yeah, she told me what happened to her. It was pretty crazy, but I think she left out a lot of details. After we get out of here, she can tell you herself.”
Barry didn’t think he would get to hear that story. “I suppose we’ll all have some incredible stories to tell,” he said. “But I wonder if anyone will want to hear them.”
“Don’t worry, man. This whole place will be exposed now. There’s no way they can keep it a secret.”
“They kept it a secret for this long, didn’t they?”
“That was before half a dozen police officers died here,” Chris reminded him. “The department has to investigate this. Umbrella can’t cover it up, not when the entire city will be demanding answers. Most of the things they did here fall under federal jurisdiction, so that means the Feds will take over, and you can’t screw with the Feds.”
“If they want to investigate this place, they better bring the National Guard,” Barry said. “They better come here with an entire army.”
Chris patted Barry on the shoulder. “They’ll do whatever is necessary. As soon as we get back to Raccoon, we’ll raise the alarm. In two days, this lab will be all over the newspapers. Umbrella will be finished.”
“I wish I was as sure of that as you are,” Barry said. “You were in the military, you know how the government keeps a lid on things that it doesn’t want the people to find out about. Do you really think that the government would want people to learn what happened here? That scientists invented some horrible disease that turns people into zombies? They can’t let people find out about this. It would cause anarchy. If news of this gets out, the entire country will be in an uproar.”
“They can’t keep it a secret, Barry. There’s too many people involved. Not just us, but all the people who worked here. How many people do you think have died at this lab already? I’ve seen at least fifteen zombies tonight already. Rebecca told me that the entire train was full of them. There’s probably a hundred bodies here that need to be identified, a hundred people with families and friends who want to know the truth. Do you think that the government could keep that many deaths a secret?”
Barry wished he could be as optimistic about it as Chris was. But despite Chris’s arguments, Barry didn’t think that news of this atrocity would ever be released to the public. It was just too dangerous to be widely known. The government would step in to do the investigation, but they would cover it up afterwards under the guise of public safety. The truth was just too explosive.
All the families of those who died would receive financial settlements with the condition that they would never talk about it. Barry felt certain that the entire grisly episode would eventually be swept under the rug. In a few years, people would have mostly forgotten about it, and any research would turn up vague references to a chemical spill, or a biological contaminant, or some other sugar-coated phrase to hide the reality of what truly took place. The public would be given a handful of convenient lies, and they would go on living their lives, none the wiser.
And the people who died would be erased from history, their deaths made meaningless and without repercussion. So many deaths, and all for nothing. Perhaps Umbrella would pay for their crimes in the long run, but it would never be tied to the events in the Arklay Mountains.
“The truth will come out in the end, Barry,” Chris promised. “And maybe when this is all over, we can all get back to our lives.”
Barry nodded, but did not reply. He would never get back to his life. Even if they managed to avoid whatever trap Wesker planned for them, Barry did not think he would escape with the others. Because he already knew there was no life for him to return to.
Wesker slipped up, and if Barry had been thinking more clearly at the time, he would have realized it right away. But the knowledge that his family was held hostage shocked him so much that he couldn’t think straight. He was too stunned to carefully study what Wesker told him. Now, looking back on what Wesker told him, he knew that Wesker lied.
Wesker said that Barry’s family would be killed if he didn’t make a phone call every half hour and use a special code word. But then he said that everyone would all probably die there in the labs. Wesker claimed that even he might be killed. If that was the case, then how could he call the man holding Barry’s family hostage? Wesker promised that Barry’s family would be safe, but Barry now realized that Wesker could not promise that,
Wesker had no reason to keep his word. If he could murder Enrico in cold blood, why would he let Barry’s family live? They might know of knowledge of Wesker’s involvement, since the man on the phone used Wesker’s name. Barry’s family was a liability, and that meant that they were probably already dead.