Chapter Text
Chris woke up to someone calling his name. His head was pounding and his ears felt like somebody had stuffed cotton in them. Had he been drinking last night? Was this some kind of hangover?
Again, someone was calling for him- Claire? No, not Claire, it was somebody else.
“Captain!”
Chris forced his eyes open and slowly took in his surroundings- he was lying in a heap of broken beams and mortar. Through a hole in the ceiling, he could make out the rooftop above him. Some feet away he spotted the limp body of a J´avo. Oh, right, a J`avo! Alpha Team was on a mission after enemy contact with bio organic weapons was reported in suburban Winslow, Arizona.
Somehow, one of the BOW had taken hold of him and thrown him through the window of a heavily destroyed building. Not through a window on the ground floor but on the second floor. Just his luck! The structure was too damaged to take his weight and had broken. At least, it had buried the J`avo that was hiding in the building.
Chris brushed mortar and dust from his eyes and hair and activated his micro to answer but all he got out was a dry cough.
“Captain Redfield? Chris, where are you? Are you okay?”. Somebody was starting to sound frantic.
Chris cleared his throat and climbed back on his feet with a groan. If his lieutenant was using his first name, he must be really worried. Chris had offered him to call him “Chris” about a dozen times, but the sniper preferred to address him by his rank.
Chris had mentioned it to Claire on some occasion, but after she had laughed and suggested that the lieutenant might have a kink, Chris had decided never to discuss the subject with his sister again.
“I´m okay, Nivans.” He heard a sigh of relief through the static noise of his earpiece.
“I have to admit, when that BOW grabbed you and threw you around, I got worried for a moment, Sir” Chris could make out a hint of disapproval in Piers’ voice. Maybe sarcasm as well. Piers probably thought him pretty reckless to go for a BOW in one-on-one combat. And he probably was right. Not that it would stop the BSAA Captain from doing it again. After all, he became famous for punching a boulder.
“Nah, it´s fine. I`m still standing”.
There was a paus on the other end of the line, then:
“Elton John!”
Chris stuck his finger in one of his ears to see if it was clogged with mortar and he had misheard. “I think my hearing is damaged. What did you call me?”
“Not you! Uh…sorry, Captain. No idea where that came from.”
Chris couldn´t help himself, he started laughing. “That wouldn´t have been the first thing to come to my mind, but you´re right. Think it´s a song by Elton John.”
Although Chris had recruited the young man himself - a move he still congratulated himself on - their interactions were still not as comradely as with the other members of Alpha Team. Chris had decided to work on it and noticed with great satisfaction that Piers was slowly coming to terms with the idea that his captain was not only a captain, but also a human being. Might have to do something with Chris` fondness for bad jokes.
“Do you require medics, Captain? That punch looked like it hurt.”
So, back to business they were.
“Calm down, lieutenant, I just fell on my ass. Gonna survive it. “
The BSAA had been called in after two bloody big BOWs showed up in the surburban area around Winslow and reduced half of the small town to rubble. When they arrived, the BSAA quickly discovered that they were not only dealing with the two big BOWs, but that other infected were roaming the streets as well. Infected that tended to mutate when you tried to shoot them. Great! Chris decided that Alpha Team's primary goal had to be eliminating the enemy and limiting civilian casualties.
Chris made his way to the opposite wall and peered out the shattered window. "Where have our two big, fat friends gone?"
„One down- McCauley caught him with a nice explosion-the other one fled. The rest of the team gave chase. We should catch up with them as soon as possible, Captain. A BOW fleeing is unusual behavior for these creatures; usually they are fighting to their death'
Chris hummed. "Just my thought. If this is an ambush, I don't want my men walking in while I'm lazing here on my ass.”
"The one you fell on, Sir", Piers chuckled.
"Thank you for reminding me, LT. Don´t spend to much time thinking about my ass” He heard a sound as if Piers had choked and continued with a grin: “It's swarming with J'avo here and I´m running out of ammo. Could use a little support.”
“I'm on my way to the clock tower. I can cover you from there.”
Chris positioned himself by the door, rifle at the ready, and waited for his lieutenant to give him the "go."
"Are you ready, Nivans?"
"Right away, Sir. This tower has a heck of a lot of steps”
„It´s a long way to the top if you wanna rock n´roll.”
Piers laughed. “Who says that?”
“ACDC”
He could hear Piers getting into position. “Well, I´m ready to rock if you are, Captain.”
“Always” Chris confirmed and stepped out onto the main street.
With Piers as support atop the belfry, it was a short fight. Piers took out the J'avo as soon as they dared to come out of hiding and lunge at Chris, and Chris dispatched the few who could get close enough with his knife or the barrel of his gun.
“Looks like these were the last”, Chris said while loading his rifle with ammo one of the J´avo had dropped. “All clear” the LT confirmed, “I´m coming down.” “Down, down, deeper and down.” Chris mumbled. “Sorry, Sir, what was that?” “Another line from a song. Can´t remember the band.”
“So, we´re still doing this?”
Chris couldn´t help it: „Don´t stop me now, I´m having such a good time”
“Uh… what have I done to deserve this?”
“Very good, Piers, very good. Pet Shop Boys?” He could practically hear Piers rolling his eyes.
“Whatever it was, it wasn´t intended.”
Five minutes later and Piers joined him on the now deserted street.
The second BOW had left a path of destruction in its wake. Following his trail shouldn't be difficult. Piers used the time while Chris made radio contact with the other team members to critically examine his captain.
"It doesn't look too bad, sir," he said, holding out a packet of painkillers to Chris. “A cut on the forehead.”
“Yeah, looking like a true survivor.”
“You´ll never let me forget this, right?”
“Nope. Let’s make sure we catch up with the others,” said Chris and together they chased after the sounds of fighting that could be heard in the distance.