Life Finds a Way

Chapter 75

The next morning the whole team was up with the dawn. Clarissa was certain that she had seen Vincent leave the night before, but he must have been scouting as he was with them when they all went to meet their guide. She was slightly disappointed that it wasn't Tifa, but she remembered that the girl was only thirteen currently.

Once they all surrounded their guide, a middle-aged man named Jack, he briefly went over some of the dangers they might encounter as they went up and how to flee if it came to it. At that Reno spoke up with a laugh. "There ain't a beast I've seen yet that a Turk would run from, much less a Soldier. I think we got ya covered, so unless we need to know about any weird shit we might run into let's go."

The man gave Reno a glare, but it didn't last long. His eyes instantly went to the towering form of Vincent. "I didn't realize they sent a Soldier as well."

Vincent raised a brow at the man's look. "I believe you are looking to the wrong person." He nodded toward Clarissa.

The man's eyes widened even further as he finally realized what the insignia on her stomach plate was. She rolled her eyes at his disbelief. If the uniform didn't give it away, then the swords should have. "I agree with Reno, let's get this over with."

At that he finally turned and started up the path to the reactor. It was a fairly uneventful trip overall. They did have several monster encounters, but between Vincent's gun and Clarissa's swords, no one else really had much of an opportunity to even fight.

Clarissa did stop them when they reached the hanging bridge. Their guide had already started out onto it, but she put out a hand and stopped one of the infantrymen from following right after. "Trust me, it'll be best if we go one at a time."

Several people gave her questioning looks, but no one bothered saying anything. More importantly they waited until the guide was across before the rest followed one at a time. The man looked put out when they all finally made it, but no one said anything.

It was late in the day when they arrived at the reactor. Clarissa felt herself stiffen up for the first time in a long time. She admitted to herself that she was terrified of what might happen. Veld was the one that spoke finally. "You infantrymen, keep our guide company while we go take care of this issue. We shouldn't be long." He stepped up next to Clarissa and spoke in a voice quiet enough for it not to carry. "If anything looks like it might go wrong, we will get you out quickly. This should be a simple in and out. Don't worry."

She gave him a tight-lipped smile as she followed him up the steps. Vincent was right behind her. There was a low thrum that she could feel as soon as they entered the building. It was barely audible. There were no other sounds though so the walk through the building gave her goosebumps.

When they finally made it to the room with all the pods, Clarissa had to stop. Several eyes looked back at her as she looked everywhere but up. As disgusting as the pods were, she was having a hard time controlling the fear that she would somehow be vulnerable. It was Reno that sidled up to her. "Hey, this ain't you. Snap out of it already."

She finally managed to move as she turned to him with a smile. "Thanks." She turned to Veld then. "Those pods probably contain some of Hojo's experiments. Ones that used to be human. We can check those first."

Veld's gaze turned hard and he immediately walked to the closest pod. He had to lean up some to see in the window, but when he did he immediately stepped back. He turned to Reno and Rude with a glare. "I want all of these destroyed. I don't care what it does to the reactor."

Both men widened their eyes at his order but started toward the first one. Clarissa barely paid any attention to them as they tried to open it or figure out how to disable it. Her attention was already drawn to the top of the stairs. She couldn't repress a shudder as her eyes landed on the large letters that arched over the lone door at the top – JENOVA.