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Annette Birkin's hand shook, the weight of the pistol suddenly too much for her to bear. Her eyes darted between Noah and Leon, searching for a threat that wasn't there.
Leon's RPD uniform was a rag of Kevlar and sweat, caked in blood and sewer grime. Noah stood beside him in casual gear, looking less like a combatant and more like a college kid who had survived a car wreck. Neither of them looked like the Umbrella USS specters in her nightmares—those faceless killers in black tactical suits and gas masks.
The manic hatred that had been fueling her collapsed like a punctured lung.
Clang.
The pistol hit the floor. Annette covered her face, her body sliding down the cold metal wall until she was a heap on the ground. The sobs started low, a jagged, broken sound that quickly escalated into a hollow wail of grief and absolute regret.
Noah and Leon shared a look. They didn't move. They just let the silence of the Hive swallow her cries until she finally looked up, her face a haggard mask of the woman she used to be.
"William... he just wanted to protect his work," she whispered, her voice cracking. "Umbrella... they wanted everything. He was going to take the G-Virus and find a buyer—someone who actually understood its value."
She closed her eyes, fresh tears tracing lines through the soot on her cheeks. "But they came. The USS team. They didn't negotiate. They just opened fire."
Annette mimicked her husband's final, frantic tone, her voice a ghostly echo of a dying man's pride. "'This is my life's work! No one can take it from me!' Then... he jammed the needle into his chest. I watched the bones break and reform. I watched the man I loved turn into... into that."
Noah sighed, crouched down, and handed her the pistol. "We found Sherry at the station. We brought her with us. She's safe, Annette."
"Sherry?" The name acted like a jolt of electricity. Annette grabbed Noah's arm, her nails biting into his sleeve. "Is she alright? Tell me she's okay!"
"She's stable," Noah said firmly. "Her fever broke. Claire Redfield is watching over her in the lounge right now."
Annette buried her face in her hands again, but this time it was relief that shook her. "I'm a failure... I chose the lab over her every single day. I even let Irons have her..."
"Go see her," Noah said softly. "She's been waiting a long time."
Annette struggled to her feet, desperate to reach the lounge. But the Hive wasn't done with the Birkin family.
BOOM—!!!
The ceiling detonated inward. A massive chunk of reinforced concrete smashed into the floor, followed by a rain of twisted rebar and debris. From the hole in the ceiling, a nightmare plummeted into the center of the corridor.
It stood over nine feet tall, its body encased in a dark purple, chitinous carapace. Its right arm had elongated into a two-meter bone claw that hummed with a metallic resonance. On its left shoulder, two scythe-like accessory arms twitched with a life of their own.
Worst of all was the head. William Birkin's human features had been swallowed by a massive, pulsing tumor, and in the center, a singular, blood-red cyclops eye split open.
G3 Birkin.
"Wi... William..." Annette breathed.
"ROAR—!!!"
The monster's cyclops eye locked onto her. It lunged with a speed that defied its mass, the massive bone claw whistling through the air.
"Move!" Noah and Leon dived in opposite directions.
Pfft—!
The sound of tearing fabric and flesh was sickeningly clear. Annette hadn't been fast enough. The bone claw raked across her midsection, throwing her against the wall. She slumped to the floor, blood pooling instantly beneath her.
"Open up!" Leon shouted, his Desert Eagle roaring in tandem with Noah's Python.
A hail of lead slammed into the G3's carapace, the sparks flying as the bullets struggled to penetrate the chitin. The monster shrieked, its focus shifting from the dying woman to the two men.
"Lead him... to the east..." Annette gasped, her voice a wet rattle. She thrust a blood-stained ID card toward Noah. "...Lab... warehouse... freezing... pipes..."
Noah rolled, narrowly dodging a strike that shattered the floor tiles, and snatched the card. "Leon, move!"
They sprinted toward the East Wing, G3 Birkin thundering behind them, his claws carving deep furrows in the metal walls. They reached a heavy door marked with a biohazard sigil. Noah swiped the card.
Beep.
The doors hissed open, releasing a cloud of sub-zero vapor. They dived into the warehouse, the air turning their breath to ice instantly. It was a forest of metal shelves and industrial tanks.
"The pipes, Leon! Aim for the joints!"
They didn't waste ammo on the monster's armor. They targeted the frosted valves above.
BANG! BANG!
The main valve detonated.
HISS—!!!
Liquid nitrogen erupted in a high-pressure spray, drenching G3 Birkin. The monster's roar turned into a choked, crystalline gurgle. A thick layer of white frost bloomed across his body, freezing the muscle and chitin in seconds. He was transformed into a massive, jagged ice sculpture, locked in mid-lunge.
Noah and Leon didn't wait to see if it would hold. They scrambled out through the door crack, their lungs burning from the cold.
Behind them, the ice was already starting to spider-web with cracks. Birkin was shedding the frozen layers like shattered porcelain, his cyclops eye glowing with a renewed, predatory fire. He leaped into the ventilation shaft, seeking nourishment to repair the damage.
Noah and Leon rushed back to Annette. She was fading fast. She pressed a crumpled document into Noah's hand.
"The vaccine... the formula..." she whispered, her eyes drifting toward the West Wing where Sherry lay. "Tell her... tell Sherry I'm sorry. Tell her... I love her."
Her hand fell limp. The light left her eyes.
Leon stood in the silence, his face a mask of weary anger. A spiral glass test tube rolled out of Annette's pocket—a deep purple liquid sealed with a metal cap engraved with a 'G'.
Noah picked it up. "The sample." He handed it to Leon.
Leon gripped the tube, his knuckles white. "All this death for a few ounces of purple sludge," he muttered.
Noah gripped his shoulder. "We finish this, Leon. I'll synthesize the vaccine in the lab. You head back to the train and check on Ada. She's going to need an escort out of here."
Leon nodded, tucking the G-Virus into his bag. He turned toward the elevator without a word, his silhouette disappearing into the sterile white light of the corridor.
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