It begins...Again.. [Open]

[xscarlettravenx]

"It's over...." Chris said. "Finally..." Jill replied, breathing a heavy sigh of relief and allowing herself to sink back into the warm leather back seat of the Helicopter. Her eye lids heavy and slowly pulling her further and further away from consciousness, no longer able to fight back the well overdue slumber that was taking hold of her. The background slowly peeling away before her sleep ridden eyes to reveal a new location she was not at all familiar with. And that was the last thing she remembered... before she dozed off.. The Helicopter...


How had she gotten here? Where were the others? Surely they would notice her sudden disappearance, Were they nearby? Had they all suffered the same fate? Perhaps they had gone in search of food and shelter. Then it suddenly dawned on her...What if they had crashed... There was no sign of an accident, no debris, no smoke, no blood or wounds of any kind on her person, no....bodies. All was silent. A silence she had always hoped for but in this instance sincerely did not like. Complete silence was always a bad sign. There were only two reasons that she could think of behind dead silence. One being, everything and everyone was dead or non- existent and Two, there was something watching her, causing the other inhabitants of this forest to hush up in fear of being hunted instead, awaiting her next move and ready to strike at any moment.


Another trick-or trap- of sorts, she was certain. "What's going on...." A calm and raspy- from lack of use- voice muttered out loud. How foolish of her to assume that the death of Albert Wesker would be the end of her troubles. It was always one thing right after another, wasn't it? Jill Valentine sure did have a bad habit of finding herself, alone, in post- apocalyptic situations; but something told her that her previous experiences were going to pale in comparison to what was to come. No matter, she would approach this new disaster the same way she did everything else; With her head held high and her finger clutching the trigger. But first, she would have to figure out where it was , exactly, that she was.


As a few pale blond strands of hair fell loosely around her face she was reminded of her current state. Her hair color was still the same as it had been when Chris and Sheva released her from the control Wesker had over her, having little, if no time at all to tend to her rather pale and sickly appearance. Unfortunately, that meant she was still wearing the dark blue battle suit as well, the very outfit she had hoped to rid herself of once she and her fellow teammates had made it to safety. Wishful thinking. Jill severely resented this outfit, for obvious reasons, it being a constant reminder of the few months she had involuntarily spent as a personal slave to a man whom she had dedicated the majority of her early career, leading up into the present day, to stopping.


As minuscule as it was, there was a bright side to this unfortunate situation. All of her weapons were still intact, her knife, and her Px4 handgun were tucked into the holster strapped to her thigh.


Squinting her eyes a little as she neared what appeared to be an Altar or perhaps a Shrine of sorts? Jill kept her gun pointing forward, eyes alert and aware of her surroundings as she moved slowly forward to swipe some moss and leaves off the head of a statue. If she could figure out who this Temple belonged to, then maybe she could map out some coordinates for her location.

[claire]

If Claire had to pick one emotion that dominated her life at that very moment, it would’ve been that of confusion. Since her arrival on Terra she met several others like herself, other people who had been taken from wherever they were going about their daily lives and placed onto this land, far from home. After her chats with them she was no closer to knowing why they were all brought there. The locals would answer her questions but rarely in a manner that was helpful. For the most part people acted like she didn’t even exist as she walked around the town. Though clearly an outsider in her pale blue cheerleading uniform no one even gave her a second glance, let alone asked her questions or struck up a conversation.

The main thing that worried her was that she couldn’t decide what was safer: to lay low and not draw any attention to herself or to actively seek answers and make her presence known. She had tried to asking questions bit first, but it wasn’t getting her very far. She decided instead to try her hand at laying low. Walking around the woods, exploring the land, figuring out just where she was and what was around her. Who knew when she would need to know about her surroundings later.

What started off as a simple walk in the woods ended up with Claire completely lost. She had turned herself around at least a dozen times now and she couldn’t tell what direction she came from which direction she was heading. All she could see were trees on all sides, seemingly endless. Claire feared she would end up lost in the strange forest forever until she saw a slight clearing to her left. There were stone steps leading up to something but she was too far away to make out what that something was. Figuring there would be no harm in investigating this place she made her way towards the clearing at a steady pace, crunching leaves and sticks beneath her sneakers as she went.

It wasn’t until Claire was halfway up the stone stairs that she noticed a movement at the top of them that was more than just the limbs of trees blowing around, shifting the daylight and shadow the way it had been all day. No, this was a definite outline of a person, she was sure of it. Just happy to see another person around Claire forgot all of her inhibitions about laying low and keeping to herself as she figured things out. Right now her focus was on this mystery person at the top of the stairs and whether or not they could get her out of this forest. She liked nature as much as the next person but she had lost track of how long she had been wandering these woods and her primary concern was getting out of them.

They were facing away from her, inspecting what appeared to be a statue. Maybe that would explain a little bit more about where she was, maybe it was a statue of the town’s founder or something… or maybe it would just raise even more questions than she had to begin with. Without thinking of how this other person would react to someone coming up from behind them Claire made her way up to the top of the stairs, not speaking so as to not startle the other person, waiting for them to turn around and spot her first. She hadn’t exactly been stealthy about her climb, surely they had heard her coming.

((ooc- I was going to continue, but I figure Jill would've reacted to her by that point, being all military-like and attentive. ^_^))

[xscarlettravenx]

If that stranger knew any better they would know that carelessly approaching an already suspicious and paranoid person, or in this case a S.T.A.R.S [Special Tactics and Rescue Squad] Alpha Team Officer or her recent employment as a BSAA [Bio terrorism Security Assessment Alliance] member, with a gun was definitely a horribly bad idea if not a suicidal one altogether. Whirling around on the balls of her feet Jill Valentine swiftly turned to face the new stranger, firing a few warning shots that were meant to startle and purposely miss her target, her gun pointing at the other woman's forehead as she held it steady; Ready to shoot to kill should it come to that. Although, under these circumstances she was not so sure that wasting ammo was such a good idea."Stop right there." Said Jill sternly, years of experience making her an expert at these situations.

Clearly, this was not someone who was well trained in combat or even battle for that matter, as was made obvious by the her attire and the manner in which she approached Valentine. Another lost and confused wanderer like herself, no doubt, but just because the two were in the same predicament did not mean it was acceptable to act as if every stranger in the area was your friend. The girl didn't look to be much older than a teen in High School; teens these days were numb to the world around them and while she figured a gun wasn't anything new to the girl, some even thought it was 'cool' and a good way to pick up girls--if they weren't already completely indifferent and unaffected by it, in these hands it was the last thing anyone saw. So children were stranded here as well, were they? What kind of sick place was this? If there was a way that lead her back home or to her team mates, one could be certain Jill Valentine was going to find it.

Deep down inside a part of her wished she was face to face with Chris or Sheva right about now, a familiar friendly face was always reassuring and comforting but she found herself alone in the dark as she always was, unsure of whether or not she would live to see another day but determined and focused on making it to the light on the other side of that dark tunnel regardless; Even if it meant taking as many foes down with her as possible, she would not go down without a fight, it wasn't in her nature to give up and accept defeat. Never. Never give up, Never surrender.

[claire]

Woah woah woah woah WOAH! Claire stopped walking as soon as she saw the gun but it was too late. The warning shots went off around her and despite the fact that she knew the bullets would do nothing to her Claire couldn’t help but squint her eyes shut and bring her arms closer to her body. It was a reaction she hadn’t managed to get rid of yet but she was glad for it in the long run. If she always managed to act afraid of guns and other weapons then people would continuously underestimate her. This underestimation was her greatest weapon at times, aside from the whole healing thing of course.

But those thoughts aside, shots had been fired and Claire was now standing still, poised at the top of the steps. Her right foot was on the top step and her left foot was on the step below, and while she knew that she could balance in this position she was going to hope that this lady wasn’t crazy enough to shoot her from moving her leg. She chose to bring her right leg back down a step since that was the slightest motion she could’ve possibly made. Also it was a step back instead of moving forward which could have been taken as a hostile movement after the warning she was given.

With a gun aimed at her head Claire took a moment to compose her thoughts. The older lady wasn’t going to say anything more at the moment so Claire took it upon herself to say something first. She made sure to keep her tone as friendly as possible and remained smiling despite the fact that this other person would probably have no problem whatsoever shooting her right then and there. A small part of Claire wanted to trick her into shooting just so she could stun her by healing or coming back to life, but after a moment of thought she decided that wasn’t the best way to go about being stranded here. It would’ve been wrong to pull something like that on this lady anyway. She was clearly not from here, which probably meant that she had been thrown into this world just like Claire, who was sure that she was on edge enough as it was. On edge enough to pull a gun on a teenager, at least.

“I stopped!” Claire said, thinking back to some of her previous confrontational situations. “I’m unarmed,” she added, feeling a little ridiculous saying these words like she was an actress in a movie as she raised her arms up slowly to demonstrate that her hands were empty. She had dropped the track pants she had been holding when the shots had been fired so they were now on the ground next to her.

After another moment of silence Claire continued on with a hesitant “I was just exploring a little, but I got lost in the woods. I thought maybe you knew the way back to the town?” She did not expect any sort of help from this woman now but it never hurt to ask.

[xscarlettravenx]

Looking the young girl up and down, Jill noted that she was- indeed- unarmed, but that wasn't going to stop her from being cautious or keeping a very close eye on her. "That was really careless of you, Do you always go wandering around by yourself in unknown territory? " Umbrella had used children as a distraction in the past, assuming people like herself would not be inclined to attack them so they could strike and destroy first. As obvious as it was, Jill always assumed everything was a trap, which is why she was still alive. This woman had witnessed and experienced just about everything this twisted and malicious world could throw at her, something that to this day still kept her up at night, so nothing came as a shock to her anymore. She was a walking, living and breathing example of that. Having been genetically altered and tampered with herself-- Jill still considered herself human--as she was for the most part, just a ... Super ..Human? Or something to that extent, she wasn't exactly sure what category she fell under, not that it made much of a difference, it hadn't changed who she was or her decision to join the fight to stop people such as Wesker and The Umbrella Corporation; who were hell bent on destroying the world so they could rebuild it for themselves.

After she had been infected with the T-virus due to a zombie bite in battle several years back, the cure was administered to her shortly after, causing her body to have an odd and yet positive reaction to the cure, almost bonding with it and giving her abilities a lovely boost. When Wesker got a hold of her...Well, those abilities were sky rocketed into space. She was able to move quickly enough to dodge multiple bullets, grenade launchers even, and her healing was just as quick as his, her strength matching his own as he attempted to mold her in his image, but there was something that Wesker had miscalculated; Jill's free will, her ability to continuously fight the control he had over her even at the most advanced stage, until finally she was free to think for herself once more.


"Well you and me both, kid." Jill commented calmly, lowering her gun a bit to examine another statue beside her. So there was a town nearby? Perhaps she could find the answers she sought there. Ignoring the minor details in the girls statements Jill stuck to the facts."You said something about a town...Which direction did you come from? Do you at least remember that? " It didn't matter to Jill that she may or may not have been overwhelming the girl with a million and one questions if it meant she would get back to her teammates.

[claire]

Claire did not appreciate the tone in which she was asked that question. She knew that her age made people look at her as ‘just a kid’ a lot of the time, but that gave her no right to assume she couldn’t handle herself. The way the other lady had asked the question seemed to have an insulting undertone to it. She understood why she said it like that, but she didn’t like it, not one bit. There was something different about this lady, something she had seen in some of the people her fathered worked with. That constant fear and paranoia that everything was a trap, that everyone was out to get you. She knew that there would be times - like this one perhaps - where that would benefit her, but she just couldn’t wrap her head around it. That was no way to go through life. Maybe it was her inability to die that allowed her to have that trust, to take those risks, but no matter what the reason she was glad it was how she looked at things.

“I don’t know, I’ve never been in unknown territory before. I didn’t really know what to do about it, and seeing as I don’t know anybody else here I thought exploring might help me figure out where I was,” she explained, using the logic that one would expect from a teenage girl. Yes, she had been put in plenty of situations in which she had to use carefully thought out tactics and exercise caution, but nothing to this extent.

The gun was lowered and Claire felt a little better. At least she wasn’t seen as an immediate threat, which was a step in the right direction. She wasn’t looking to get shot even if that wouldn’t do her any long term damage.

“Yeah, there was a town… when I showed up here I was in a garden that was near the outskirts of some shops and houses.” She thought about the direction she had come from. She had gotten lost, yes, but she had kept in the same general direction the whole time as far as she could remember. “Uhhh,” Claire started, turning around to look back down at the forest. The shrines were on an elevated portion of land, and looking back down the stairs she could see where she had come from. “That way,” she said, pointing back out into the woods and a little to the left. “That’s where the town is, a while out. I’m not sure how long I was walking before I got here,” she admitted. Claire had never liked to wear watches so she had no idea what time it was. She could guess based on where the sun was in the sky, but even that wouldn’t help a whole lot. After all, she had recently come to the realization that she may be on another planet all together, so who was to say how long the sun stayed in the sky here, or if that was ever the sun at all.

“I’m Claire,” she added, hoping that maybe an introduction would make this situation a little less tense.

[xscarlettravenx]

It was safe to say that Claire was not an immediate thread at this point and she lowered her gun completely now, still holding it in her hands but not so much in the threatening manner she had been before. "That works for me.. Let's go." said Jill simply, quickly heading down the Shrine steps, skipping a few steps on the way down to save time, swift and agile footsteps moving with ease in the direction the girl had come from; assuming Claire would be following closely behind. If she had no interest in being left here alone to her own devices the girl would have to make sure to quicken her pace if she had any intention of keeping up with Jill-- who was already at the base of the Temple and continued to move forward without pause. Fantastic, a tag along. Not that she had a problem with helping out those in need of assistance, it was in her job description--her specialty to be exact-- but attempting to get some answers and keeping an eye out for danger while making sure an innocent did not get hurt in the process tended to complicate things further. And that was the last thing she needed right now, further complications. Besides, she couldn't deny that the company was pleasant, for the meantime. If Claire was correct, and town was indeed in that general direction then Jill would have no trouble finding it.


Navigating through the forest appeared to be a breeze so far, the trees were widely spaced out enough to allow her to see movement between them, making any sort of sneak attack impossible without her knowing. There was a strange beauty and magnificence in this place that deserved to be taken in, Jill was certainly taking note of it, that was only overshadowed by the eerily ominous silence that took place during the small break between her footsteps. Her eyes darted around in every which direction but her attention was focused on the path ahead, paying extra close attention to the small crunching and snapping noises the twigs and leaves made beneath her heavy boots as she crossed over them. Should something disturb the pattern of sounds she was deliberately following, she would know.


Where were all the animals? Usually there was, at the very least, a squirrel or two.

Jill's gun, no longer pointing in the direction of anyone or anything in particular, rested idly at her side but was still clutched tightly. Tilting her head back a bit to glance up at the sun, she attempted to decipher a time of day, to no avail as the large canopy of trees overhead blocked any kind of sunlight from shining through. It was still light out, so she deduced it to be sometime around early afternoon, couldn't be too late in the day but who knew how things worked in this place.


"Jill Valentine." she said after what seemed a long period of silence, nearly forgetting that the young girl had introduced herself earlier. Small things of that sort usually slipped her mind, not due to lack of importance , but because there were matters of higher priority to be dealt with therefore names and introductions were not at the tops of her list of things to remember at the moment.

[claire]

It was a false sense of relief that Claire felt when the gun was lowered completely. After all, the gun was not going to hurt her - though this lady didn’t know that, so she supposed that the relief that came along with this lady trusting her was real relief even if the relief from the actual act of the gun being lowered wasn’t. “Thanks, I-” Claire started before realizing that it was useless. The older woman was gone already, walking right past Claire down the stairs in the direction she had pointed just a moment ago. Really? She was flabbergasted. Here they were, transported to a new place, surrounded by strangers, and all this lady had to say to her was ‘that works for me’ before taking off without another word? After having a GUN pointed at her? REALLY?

Claire had been standing there for a moment, not reacting fast enough to follow right away as her brain processed the interaction she had just been in. When the woman was halfway down the stairs Claire started after her, running to catch up. Good thing she had to go through all of those intensive stadium-running warm-ups with cheerleading. Her legs were strong and she was fast, catching up without too much of an issue. She didn’t like the idea that she had now adapted the role of the tagalong. That was not what she wanted to do here - she didn’t want to have to keep up with anyone, to just be along for the ride. This whole thing was an adventure, and just because she was younger didn’t mean she had to fall into this stereotypical role! Though, thinking logically, she had been lost (even though she had been able to find the direction of town from the top of the shrine and would’ve been able to find her way back on her own). And it wouldn’t hurt to have another person around to help her try and figure things out. But that didn’t give her the right…

Still, despite her thoughts, Claire found herself following the strange woman through the forest, looking mostly down at her feet to find the safe places to step on the earth littered with rocks and other such things. The last thing she needed was to take a spill while trying to follow her new guide’s footsteps through the forest. Still the other lady had said barely two sentences to her - she hadn’t even introduced herself! And then, out of nowhere… ‘Jill Valentine’.

It had been so long since the top of the shrine that Claire was startles by the words. She didn’t know what they meant for a moment before she realized it was her name.

“Nice to meet you, Jill,” Claire said, smiling a little. “So, you’re big on the weapons, I see?” she asked, not sure what else to say to Jill.