The True Nature Of Things

Chapter 2

William was busy drinking his hot chocolate, grinning against his mug and awaiting her reply.
"Me? Im a cop. I mostly do undercover stuff, or if im ever needed to help convince a victim who is too scared to press charges. They do eventually, but it can take a while." Blanky shook her head and took a sip of her drink. "Before that I lived together with my sister and our living dummy Slappy. She smiled wider, her inner voice announcing to herself just how nice a smile Birkin had.
Birkin had placed his drink down, added more sugar and was stirring it when she mentioned she was a cop and then shortly after something about a living dummy. He instantly dropped his spoon and looked her dead in the eyes.
"L-Living... Dummy?"
"Yeah. He is something of a guardian to us." She fumbled in her seat a little. "To cut a long story short... We were living at boarding school together with our dummy. One day, the authorities saw me trying to do some ventriloquism and well, they didn't like it. Had me shipped off to the hospital. Not a pretty place. I was given shocks on a daily basis and stuffed with pills. If Niky and Slappy hadnt come to rescue me when they did, I may have been put down, who knows. They did that a lot."
Birkin suddenly felt a little awkward.
 "H-How did you... become a cop?"
"Well after graduating high school, I decided I wanted to join the police fofce. Ive been all for jystice and helping people all my life, so I figured this was something I should do. Had to toughen up a little, which was tough ." She chuckled a little and sipped from her cup again. "The best thing about it is knowing im helping to save lives and help bring justice to the world."
 "You don't seem like a member of the Racoon City police department... Where are, or were you based?"
"No, im not a member of the Racoon City police department. : I work for Metropol police."
She paused for a moment and placed her cup back down. "You said your wife passed away?"
 Birkin was caught offguard by her question and he jumped a little inwardly. "Oh. Yes, her name was Annette."
"I'm sorry. How did she die?"
"It's... Kind of a long story..." He glanced up at her for a second, twiddled his thumbs and returned his gaze to his lap.
She insisted that he go ahead with his story and so he took a deep breath. "I did it."
Blanky was somewhat shocked. "What?
"After I had infected myself with the G-Virus I began to mutate. I regenerated all the lost tissue and became immensely strong. I grew in height, girth and developed superior muscle structure. I also developed large claws. I was a hideous monster..." He heaved a sigh and slumped back in his seat.
"I see....That makes sense, because somehow I cant picture you as a murderer. In that case, it wasn't your fault, it was beyond your control."
Birkin rested his chin on a hand. He found it somewhat cute that Blanky saw him in such a sympathetic light. "Annette had been searching for our daughter. She encountered some other people, a mole trying to steal research, a member of the RPD and a relative of a STARS member. She knew that as the beast that I had become I was driven by instinct and that, since Sherry was my daughter, I would use her to implant embryos in my non-human state. She fought with them. She thought they were all against us. I eventually came upon them and..."
Blanky was listening intently and was leaning forwards on the table. "And?"
He felt suddenly reluctant to proceed. He felt his stomach tense, a horrendous sickly feeling invaded his body.
Blanky reached a hand forward and patted his shoulder. "It's OK. You can say if you want to."
He sighed, looked away out the window and just went for it. "I killed her. I used those claws and killed her. I didn't know what I was doing! It wasn't me!"
"I'm so sorry Birkin for your loss. But there was nothing you could do. Sad it turned out like that."
"No... I am far from a nice person." Looks away with a frown* "I understand if you want nothing more to do with me."
"Youre not a monster, Birkin."
"You wouldn't say that if you knew me..."
Blanky shook her head. "I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Oh, I just remembered... you said, your daughter's missing, didn't you?"
Birkin rubbed a hand over his face. He felt rattled by the conversation. "She was. I haven't seen her since the incident. But I know she's safe. She will be older now. Almost a grown up, even."
She nodded. "A long time, huh? Well, I hope they find her somehow. Perhaps I can help?"
Birkin glanced over at Blanky and let out a small chuckle. "She wouldn't want to see me. She has been fighting against Umbrella. That's the last thing I heard anyway." He poked at his now empty mug nervously. He wasn't sure if he should really be telling her the information he was, but he felt it may be good to unload.
"I see...but people can always be convinced."She looked at his empty mug and shot him a big grin. "How about a refill?"
Birkin raised a hand and chuckled. "I'm good, thank you. I fear that if I consume any more liquids I'll have to be living in a toilet for the rest of the day.So, I'm curious... What made you want to see me in private?"
"Well, you seemed like an interesting, nice guy. And you've made me chuckle a few times." Blanky heard her inner voice yell about how he was also very handsome on top of that and snickered a little under her breath.
Birkin had picked up a salt packet and was fiddling with it. He was fiddling so much it exploded in a shower of white all over the table. He let out a small shriek and started to sweep it up with his hands.
Blanky tilted her head with a look of concern on her face. "Are you ok? You seem a bit nervous. I hope its not me."
"N-No, er... Yes. Er. No, yes. I don't get out the lab much!"
"You seem to be quite stressed and over worked. I hope taking you out to lunch has been a bit of a distraction"
"Yes. Much appreciated." He decided a subject change was in order. "Say... How is it you know Axel and Wesker?"
"I actually knew her from her famous father I was a fan of his you see, and kept on bumping into him at conventions, and got to know Rachel at the same time. Well, I'd purposely go to conventions where I knew he'd be, I was a bit of a crazy fan. Managed to scare him a couple of times."
Birkin chuckled. He had been around Dick a few times to understand exactly what she meant. "Yes, DD is easy to scare. I dread to think what he'd make of my first ever creation."
Blanky laughed and nodded. "Yeah! I know, right?"
"I had wondered. I'm still in the dark about where Axel and Wesker actually met, but I have my ideas. I may be wrong, but I guess I will have to quiz him when he is in a better mood."
"Dick has a tough exterior, but deep down he is a softie, and despite what he calls his subordinates, is a bit of a scaredy cat himself. Im not surprised he never caught Yankee Doodle, but that pigeon sure didnt make it easy for them!
"A pigeon, you say?" William raised a brow, his interest suddenly piqued. "How... Interesting. This pigeon wouldn't happen to have amazing speed and somewhat above average intellect, would it?"
Blanky nodded and shrugged. "Either that, or he was very dedicated to his job. Outsmarted Dastardly and his men every time!"
"Was it white?" He looked at her with a serious expression and leaned forward impatiently.
She nodded and tilted her head. "Yes, he was."
"It couldn't be..." His attention suddenly trailed off and left him spaced out, fiddling with yet another packet of salt.
"Hm?"
Birkin was muttering to himself over and over. "ProjectSky Kid... No... Couldn't be."
"What is it? Is something wrong?"
"Back when I first started out I had a project. I named him Sky Kid. He was a standard pigeon. White. Very basic bird, nothing out of the ordinary."
"He was YOUR pigeon?" Blanky nearly fell out of her seat in shock.
"I was working on a serum that was to enhance brain power and dexterity. It was to be used for troops, you know... To improve battlefield performance. I had a few test subjects. Two mice, a Great Dane, a few cats of varying breeds, a canary and this pigeon. The mice were promising, but one was better than the other. I still have them in my lab, actually. The Great Dane ran out of use for me and only went so far, I had him adopted out to a family instead of destroying him, the same for the cats." He continued to fiddle absent-mindedly with the salt packet. "The canary was only going to live a short time anyway, so he went with one of the cats to an old lady."
"Wow, so many animals! How did you aquire them all?"
"How labs normally get them. Some labs have specialist breeders, others scour shelters." He waved a hand and dismissed that part of the conversation and went back to the pigeon. "This pigeon, though... It showed promise. I was working so hard on the serum and testing it on him every day. At first, the changes were only slight, but over the course of a month there was progress."
Blanky was sat there with her mouth flapping open, surprised, shocked and intent on hearing more.
"He started to be able to grasp objects, his eyes became larger, his vocalisations were more..." Birkin was suddenly interrupted by the packet exploding all over him again. "Agh!"
Blanky laughed and helped him sweep it up. "Sounds like he, uh, mutated... still, that doesn't really surprise ne all that much, after my strange upbringing, nothing really does."
"He somehow got out one morning. I went out to lunch and when I returned he had somehow escaped from his cage."
"That must have been when the army got hold of him..."
Birkin smiled. "I always did wonder what became of him..."
"Me too. But I'm sure hes doing fine, wherever he is. He always did know how to look out for himself! You taught him well, Birkin."
"I was a little concerned that he may have mutated to far. Do you know if he presented with any boils, or extra limbs?"
She shook her head. "From what I know, no. His appearance was perfectly normal. And might I say, what an appropriate name to give him!" She stretched and smiled at William. "So, what shall we do now? If its not too much trouble, id like to have a look at the lab."
Birkin instantly bristled at the suggestion and gave her a confused and suspicious look. "Why would you want to do that?"
"Oh, sorry." She didn't realise just how forward she had been and flushed a little red. "No reason at all its just that those places have always fascinated me. It's alright, please forget I asked"
Birkin wrinkled his nose a little. "Forgive my suspition. I have had so many people try to steal my data from me."
"I understand. I would never steal from anybody, first of all because of my morals and second because I would be contradicting myself as a cop."
"You do know that some of the people who have been fighting against mine and Wesker's research have been cops, right?" He lowered his gaze again. He was was inwardly kicking himself for saying it and thought she may end up not wanting to bother with him again.
Blanky raised a brow. "Really? That's something I wasnt aware of, like I said I dont really know much about your organisation... but that is a shame."
Birkin winced. It sounded as if she was deterred by it after all. "Uhh..." He scratched the back of his head nervously. "Yeah, I, uh... They pretty much shot me up pretty bad."
"They shot you?"
"I looked like swiss cheese, according to Wesker."
Much to his surprise, Blanky reacted with outrage. "That's terrible, Mister Birkin. Its times like this I'm ashamed of my fellow cops and fear for the human race. There's no justice in what they've done. What about Wesker, did he manage to escape unharmed?" Blanky looked sad that William had to suffer so much, especially at the hands of the police. An organization who she was a part of herself. She felt herself warming to him, but tried not to let it show.
"Wesker is... Wesker. I think he was born lucky."
"Yeah, too lucky, it seems..." She scrunched up her nose and pouted.
Birkin couldn't help but laugh. "And you still do not approve of Axel's choice?"
"Well not really, I guess, but its her choice after all. Although if she ever needs police protection, I will be there to provide it. The same goes for you too, Mr Birkin, should you ever need it.
A small grin spread across his face as he ran a hand through his hair. "Aha, well thank you."
"Anytime!"
"But, I do agree with our previous statement. I think we need to keep our attention on Wesker, Axel and Dick... I am somewhat curious about what Wesker has up his sleeve."
"Me too, now. And yes, they should be kept under observation. Wouldn't want anything happening to father and daughter because of him."
There was a slight pause, the sound of the TV in the corner of the cafe echoing through the empty room. The waitress clattered and clanked cups as she stacked them of shelves behind the counter. Birkin rubbed his hands together and blew on them to warm them up. "It's dropping colder now. I wonder what time it is..."
Blanky, who had suddenly spaced out herself, perked up as he spoke. "Oh, I didn't realise the time myself!"
Birkin grined over at the waitress who had finished stacking the cups and had taken to leaning on the counter. "I think they are waiting for us to leave."
"Oh! Right...yes." She instantly flagged down the waitress and took out a roll of money from her wallet. After handing it over she also pulled out a photo with her, Niky and Slappy on it. "Well, here we are, me, my sister and our dummy. A happy family. Well, mostly."
Birkin took it and examined it carefully. "You look a little... different in it."
"Do I? Well, I was younger then." Blanky chuckled.
Birkin grinned and handed it back. "I bet you'll never guess how old I was when I first started working for Umbrella."
"Uh, im guessing in your early twenties?" She took the photo and stuffed it back into her wallet. The waitress returned with her receipt and smiled at them both.
Birkin nodded a thank you to her and she left to go into the kitchen to help shut the cafe. "No, younger than that."
"In your teens?"
"I was 15, yes."
Blanky's eyes widened in shock. "No way! That is very young. How did Wesker find you?"
"We worked together some years later. I was working on a cure for the Ebola virus."
"Wow, thats such a wonderful thing to do, trying to find a cure for ebola. My admiration for you has gone up tremendously."
He tugged on his collar nervously and got up from his seat. If only she knew... "W-Well... It was then we worked on the, er... T-Virus."
"T-virus?"
"Yes. The T-Virus was discovered and we were trying to use it to develop the ultimate bio weapon. Very much like with my project with the pigeon. Enhanced speed, dexterity and the like." He began to walk to the exit.
Blanky, following in toe, started to press him for more information. "And what happened?"
"Well, the facility was compromised. The virus got out and infected lots of employees mutating them. They became what most would call zombies. All highly contagious, one bite, scratch or drop of blood could infect you and these creatures were ravenous. They hungered for flesh."
"Ugh, sounds like bloody nightmare!" She tried to imagine the situation, but couldn't seem to. "But I'd probably be used to seeing something like that, I've seen enough as a cop. So you've been trying to come up with a cure?"
Birkin chuckled. Her innocence on the subject amused him. He almost found it cute. "Wesker continued with the T-Virus and I was working on what I considered its superior, the G-Virus."
"Is that similar to the T-virus?"
Birkin paused, opened the door and gestured for her to exit.  "After you..."
"Thank you!" Blanky couldn't help but gush slightly. Not only handsome and clever, but a real gentleman too.
He follwed behind her exiting the cafe into the even colder streets of Raccoon City. He looked up at the dull sky and noticed a street light flicker on. "Cold..." He watched his breath as it swirled in the air. "You asked if it was similar to the T-Virus?"
"Yes."
"The T-Virus was created as part of our bio weapon project. The G-Virus was actually from the same line of experiments. It mutated into something separate and the G-Virus..." He watched as other lights flickered on. "Well, it pretty much grants biological immortality."
"Very interesting."
"However, it had its side effects. Much like the T-Virus did."
"Biological immortality eh? Similar side effects to the t virus?"
"Yes." He nodded and started to walk, realized he didsn't even know where he was going and stopped. "The T-Virus tended to turn people into the stereotypical zombie. The G-Virus messed people up a little more. It was also a variety of parasite in the fact that those infected would seek out someone with similar DNA to implant embryos into and that would spawn more."
"Wow. It can't be easy being a scientist." Blanky noticed him stop in his tracks. "Hey there, are you ok? Sorry if I'm distracting you."
"I just remembered that I don't know where I am going." *Smiles sheepishly* "It was you, after all, who set this up. Where are we heading next?"
"Oh yes, of course." She flushed red again. "How about we go back to my hotel? Not much, but better than being stuck out here in this cold. We could have a movie marathon or something."
"You wouldn't happen to be staying at the Apple Inn are you?" William chuckled. That place brought back memories.
"Why yes I am! Is it that a famous place?"
"It has been rebuilt and refurbished. After the incident it was badly damaged by fire. What is it like now? I have not seen it since."
"Actually, its quite nice. Very spacious and luxurious, youd never know it had been damaged."
"I remember staying there once when I was first starting out. I remember room 12 had a smelly old kettle in it. It was like it hadn't been cleaned in years!"
She giggled. "It was that bad huh? Who knew?"
"It wasn't so bad generally. Just that damn kettle..."
"I hope you gave them a bad customer review!"
Birkin snorted a little bit in amusement. "I think the fire did that for me, hahaha!"
Blanky burst into a fit of giggles. "Well, I guess thats one benefit of the whole thing!"
After regaining his composure, Birkin pulled his lab coat on tighter and looked around the streets. "Well, if I recall correctly it's down this way near J's Bar. Wait... Is J's Bar even around still?"
Blanky grinned. "Mmm-hmm!"