Before the Incident - Resident Evil -1

5 - Aftermath

August 6th

Rachel trudges into the break room in her usual morning mood where she spots Barry, she waves lazily at him but no reply. She looks back at him, only to see him lost in a daze staring at the floor.

"Yo, Barry."

"Huh?" His head shot up, as if he had just awoke from a nap. "Oh. Hi Rachel."

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Fine."

"Ya know, I was thinking that it might be time for me to go to a shooting range." She said as she ordered her usual coffee and cream from the machine, flicking the two sugar sachets in her hand as she waited. "Especially with these weird news reports lately. I avoided it before because of Dad but...." She then turned to him. "Think you could take me to Kendo's sometime? Show me the ropes?

There was a long silence until he spoke up again. "Is that so?"

Rachel scoffed. "Okay. Enough of this. Talk!"

He snapped out of it again like before. "I'm sorry?"

"Don't be sorry. Be talky. Maybe not with me but someone. Whatever happened up in those mountains is clearly bothering you. Barry."

He looked at her and noticed a rare concerned look on her face. "Don't worry about me, but thanks Rachel." He then raised his Styrofoam cup at her. "Have a good one."

During lunch, once again Rachel was eating alone. It had been almost a week now that Rebecca was a no show. She usually liked being alone, but now that Rebecca had integrated herself into Rachel's life, she felt annoyed to be pining for her company. She hastily put away her lunch and decided to investigate.

She usually didn't head this way around the station, but she headed up to the third floor to the STARS office. But when she turned the knob, she noticed it was locked. And at the same time the voices inside came to a hush. She was going to knock on the door, but saw a silhouette on the other side growing closer. After a few metallic sounds, the door opened revealing Jill.

"Hey Rachel. What's up?"

That should be my question. She was about to speak this aloud, but then remembered her place in all this. The locked door said it all. She wasn't STARS. She wasn't assigned to anything regarding the mansion. She didn't even receive any paperwork to digitise about the event. She was only told it was a special assignment and would be dealt with by more higher up staff. But she had digitised STARS case files before with no issue. Something was definitely up. Being alone was one thing, even being ignored. The less drama the better. But she hated being lied too. Even if it was by omission. Even the way Jill was standing by the door; using as much of her body to block the gap, reminded her of when Rachel would try and see Charlie when he had friends around and he didn't want to be disturbed. Nevertheless. "Is Becks there?"

"Oh. Yeah. Sure" She looked over her shoulder. "Rebecca?" Jill then looked back at Rachel with a customer service smile – creating an awkward silence, until she swapped out for Rebecca.

"Hey. Sorry I haven't been able to make it for lunch. Things have just been....kinda hectically."

"Yeah." Rebecca nodded. "Look...I'm no good at this stuff but..." She shuffled on the spot. "...you were there for me a lot when I was all emotional constipated and things were dramatic and whatever. I know I didn't know the rest of your team well but, I know how it feels to...I mean it's different but similar...although...." She scoffed. "I'm just here if you need to talk, okay?"

Rebecca gave her a thoughtful smile, but there was a layer if guilt to it as she felt her stomach tense. "Thanks Ray. I appreciate that, really. I promise we'll eat together again soon, okay?"