Meet Sherry's mother, and more

Claire losses Sam to the blonde vampire, and her brief reunion with Sherry is interrupted by a grotesque monster. She is knocked **** in the chaos, and wakes up in a darker place...

Chapter 7 - Not Enough Room For Love

“Claire...Are you alright...Can you hear me...Claire...”

She didn’t know exactly how long she’s been out. In her semiconscious state, she heard Sherry crying, but everything was like a dream. She couldn’t move her eyes or her body. She could feel the pain and fear in Sherry’s echoing voice, yet she could do nothing. Until another light flashed before her eyes.

“Wake up! wake up!” A mid-age blonde in a white lab coat was observing Claire’s pupils with a flashlight, “Open your eyes...Hold still...”

Claire was confused at first, but after putting back pieces of memories in her dizzy brain, she struggled to get up.

“Not infected...” The lady in lab coat was relieved and went on taking notes on the broken elevator.

“...Sherry?” Claire looked around and found herself in an underground facility with this lady, and Sherry was nowhere to be seen, “Where is Sherry!?”

“Sherry...Sherry’s fine.” The lady replied casually without looking at her.

“Do you know Sherry?” Claire was worried.

“...was an impressive display of strength.” The lady didn’t even respond to her this time.

“What happened to her?”

“We have to assess the situation.” The lady continued writing.

“Who are you? I’m Claire.”

“I didn’t foresee this...”

“Excuse me. Where is she?” Claire was a bit angry and walked right in front of her, “Hello?”

“What...? Oh, Annette.” The lady looked at Claire with curiosity and asked, “Tell me, what happened to William?”

“I don’t know. Who’s-who’s that?” Claire frowned.

“The creature responsible for this.” Annette briefly answered that.

“What...?” Claire was gradually putting the puzzles together, but her priority stayed the same, “Can you help me find Sherry?”

“Seems to be evolving much faster than expected...” Annette walked away as if there was something more important for her to do.

“Where are you going?” Claire tried to follow her.

“Look, I don’t have time to play twenty questions.” Annette impatiently turned around and said, “Everything is under control.”

“I need to find Sherry-”

“My daughter is not your concern.” Annette yelled with emotion and slapped the door before leaving.

Sherry’s...her daughter? Claire was shocked by the reveal. Sherry called the monster that attacked them “Daddy”, which was also addressed as “William” by Annette. The attitude of the lady just now...it almost seemed like she saw the monster as a test subject more than her husband.

Wait...According to Sherry, her mother, Annette, was working for Umbrella. Could this mean...that Umbrella was behind the creation of that monster, or even this vampire virus incident?

Her suspect was proved to be true by a report on a table in the next office room, through the door Annette just passed. It was written by an Umbrella scientist, predicting the intelligence, physical abilities and reproductive behavior of their latest and greatest creation - the G-Virus. There was no doubt that the monster Claire had encountered, Sherry’s father, William, was the result of his G-Virus infection.

That last part of the report, which indicated that the reproduction of G required a close match on DNA, gave Claire goosebumps.

“Oh, my god...So he was chasing Sherry all this time.” She didn’t dare to think what would happen if that monster got to Sherry. She needed to find Sherry before the worst happened.

The other door across the room was locked, so she had to go back to the elevator room and jumped down a rift to travel deeper into the facility. Soon she found herself in the large sewer system under the city. This place was also infested with vampires, most of which were sewer workers and Umbrella employees. She needed to tread carefully.

Founding a cable car in a sewer system was strange enough, but it didn’t take long for her to reach the monitor room. On one of the monitors she saw a little girl standing in a waste disposal room, talking to someone through the phone. Judged by the voices, she would say they were Sherry and her mother.

“Sherry...I told you, I cannot leave here until my work is done.” Annette was a little upset.

“That’s what you always say.” Sherry responded in low spirits.

Claire got close to the monitor and checked the computer next to it to find out where Sherry was. There were several waste disposal rooms in the system, and the one Sherry was in was not far away.

“Why didn’t you stay in the house? It was safe there.”

“I was scared.” Sherry was a little breathy, like she was really tired, “Those things were everywhere and-”

“You should’ve called the police! That’s what we taught you!” Annette yelled aloud at her daughter.

“I did, but nobody came. And you didn’t answer your phone, so-” Sherry responded with a crying tone.

“Sherry, I don’t have time for this!” Annette hung up the phone after scolding her.

Sherry was painful, both physically and mentally. She covered her stomach with her warm hands and slowly lay down on the ground. Claire was holding the monitor, worried and scared. She didn’t know what’s wrong with Sherry, but she needed to get to her as quickly as possible.

She took one last glance at the monitor before leaving, and it was at this moment, noticed something strange. Sherry on the monitor was becoming a little bit transparent. At first, she thought it was a malfunction, but she ruled that out by moving the camera.

There was something wrong, seriously wrong, with Sherry.

“Sherry...I’m coming...” Covering her fear with tough acts, Claire rushed out the room and headed for the little girl.

Traversing through the sewer and evading blood thirsty vampires were horrible, but the conviction to save Sherry was keeping her forward. Although, as if everything she had endure wasn’t enough, when she jumped down on an opening that led to a lower level sewer, she could feel the ground quaking.

“What was that?” She looked around and stayed highly alert.

To answer her question, a giant alligator, over 30-feet long, surfaced from the sewage and growled at its prey.

“Jesus!” Truly terrified, Claire immediately turned around and ran.

But she was in a two-feet deep water. She knew it was unlikely for a human to outrun a reptile in it, let alone an overgrown mutated alligator. In mere seconds the alligator caught up on her, and was about to bite.

Bang!

A loud sound pierced the air and the alligator’s eyeball exploded. It cried in pain and stopped. Claire was pleasantly surprised and looked up at the corridor of the upper level. A man in a black combat suit with tactical glasses, same as always, was pointing his magnum pistol at the alligator.

“Dustin!? You’re alive!?” She yelled joyfully.

“Long story...” Dustin replied while breathing heavily, “Now get out of there! I’ll stall it!”

Claire nodded and started running again. It didn’t take long for the alligator to regenerate its eye and got back up. Damn it...Dustin didn’t have enough ammo to put that thing down. He looked at Claire, and suddenly noticed that she wasn’t going to get out of the water, but turned around at the next corner and went into a branch.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Dustin was worried. The alligator started to charge at Claire.

“I have an idea!” Claire saw the fuel canister ahead and smiled.