JILL VALENTINE

Pandora's Box

by PJ

 

 

Debriefing

The S.T.A.R.S. helicopter descended onto the brightly-lit landing pad with a violent shudder. Two S.T.A.R.S. officers crouched low and raced through the blasting wind, halting near the starboard landing cradle. The tall, male officer grasped the helicopter's starboard hatch and pulled it aside, the female officer saluted crisply to the young woman who disembarked from the aft cabin.

"Welcome back to S.T.A.R.S. HQ, Lt. Valentine!" said the female officer with a smile.

Jill raised her right hand to keep her dark brown bangs from slapping into her lovely face. She nodded to the female corporal before walking briskly away from the whipping helicopter. The tall male corporal followed the two women, his long face stern.

Jill still wore her civilian clothes, a blood-stained blue halter top and a torn black leather skirt. Hastily cleaned scratches covered the lengths of Jill's slim legs, a long, glistening scar still stretched over Jill's left eyebrow.

"Did Captain Kurasawa get back?" demanded Jill as she marched down the hallways of the sprawling S.T.A.R.S. command center.

"Yes, Lt. Valentine! He just came back from Washington a few hours ago," nodded the female corporal.

Jill headed straight for Kurasawa's office. Two guards straightened to attention when Jill approached the captain's closed door, they brandished their heavy black assault rifles.

"You're not cleared to see the Captain," growled the right-hand guard.

Jill glared up at the burly soldier. A slender female secretary rose quickly from her desk and joined Jill.

"I will ask the Captain if he wishes to speak with you," offered the blonde secretary with a soothing smile.

Jill placed her hands on her hips and tapped her right foot impatiently. The guards watched Jill and cradled their weapons, the female corporal waited tensely, the male corporal kept his left palm discreetly on the butt of his holstered pistol, his cold, gray eyes locked upon Jill.

The blonde secretary reappeared from the captain's office. "The Captain will see Lt. Valentine."

Jill smirked at the expressionless guards before marching inside her superior's office.

"Lt. Valentine," greeted Captain Kurasawa, standing behind a simple desk covered in reports from the field.

Jill stopped next to a chair and saluted smartly, Kurasawa returned the salute.

"Did any of the infected escape Raccoon City?" inquired Jill as she sat down facing the captain's desk.

"No, thank goodness," answered the Captain, sitting back down in his chair. "The nuclear blast destroyed everything."

"Am I under arrest?" asked Jill hesitantly.

"No, Jill. S.T.A.R.S. conducted a full investigation after the Spencer House incident. We discovered Umbrella's attempts to incriminate you for their mistake, all charges were dropped by S.T.A.R.S. Command."

"That's good," sighed Jill gratefully.

"Umbrella is under investigation itself right now. The government is furious that they had to step in and nuke Raccoon City, there's talk of deporting Umbrella's executives and seizing all of their American assets."

"Umbrella won't like that at all," grinned Jill.

"Chris and Rebecca have been contacted, I've authorized their trip to Europe in order to find Umbrella's HQ. I have a new mission for you too if you're ready for it."

"I'd like to shower and change into a uniform first."

"You'll have time. The mission is very important. Both S.T.A.R.S. Command and the government are afraid Umbrella will retaliate for the destruction of Raccoon City and the threats against their U.S. assets. There are reports that Umbrella has actually built a delivery system for the T-Virus."

"A..a bomb?" stammered Jill, wide-eyed.

"Hai. They may use it against the United States, if the government seizes their assets they have nothing to lose, and they make an example for any other country that thinks about opposing them."

"What's my mission?"

"S.T.A.R.S. Command believes that Umbrella has a launch site in the Rocky Mountain region of Montana. I want you to take a small S.T.A.R.S. team to the site and neutralize it."

"Okay. When do we leave?"

"Five hours."

***

Gholem

Fresh from the shower and in a clean S.T.A.R.S. shirt and pants, Jill followed Captain Kurasawa down a narrow hallway. To Jill's left was a long bank of windows looking down into an enormous laboratory. Out of the corner of her eye, Jill watched three white-frocked scientists lead a squat, hunch-backed man from a bubble-shaped, reinforced, containment pod. Jill frowned at the massive man, he wore a dark green jumpsuit and a gas-mask that completely hid his face. Red, burning lenses looked around the spacious lab, the man's huge knuckles dragged across the polished floor as he followed the scientists' prods.

Captain Kurasawa stopped before the tall, metal-framed hatch that led into the lab. He removed a key card from his right pocket, he sighed heavily and looked at Jill.

"S.T.A.R.S. Command wants you to take Gholem along with you, it's a pet project of theirs."

"What is it?" asked Jill while the Captain slid the strip of the key card along the lock reader.

"We've been studying the T-Virus for quite awhile. The additional data derived from the new G-Strain confirms our scientists' theories about the nature of the virus Umbrella is developing. S.T.A.R.S. scientists have designed their own version of the T-Virus, called the S-strain. Gholem is the product of the S-strain."

Jill was speechless as she followed the Captain through the decontamination filter. "Why? Why would Command want to develop their own virus strain?"

"To fight Umbrella. The Gholems will go into contaminated areas to destroy infected hosts."

"Command's afraid Umbrella will use their T-Virus bombs," guessed Jill.

"It's only a matter of time. Even if you shut down the U.S. launch site, we assume they have working launchers in Europe, Asia, and who knows where else, maybe even space."

"But eliminating the Montana site buys us time..," mused Jill.

"Hai, time to confiscate Umbrella's assets here and discover where their other launch sites are."

Jill and Kurasawa directed their attention to the scientists who guided Gholem up to them. Jill could hear the sharp rasp of Gholem's breathing through his dark mask. Gholem's crimson lenses focused upon Jill, he crouched lower and scratched lightly at the slick floor with his extended, black nails.

"Gholem's ready to go," smiled Dr. Franken, stroking his thin, white beard. "He'll obey your commands and put himself between you and any aggressive T-Virus hosts."

"Can he speak?" asked Jill, squatting down to peer at Gholem. Gholem lunged forward so quickly Jill almost fell onto her butt, Gholem sniffed loudly at Jill, gathering her scent.

"No, his mental capabilities are limited. We're working on increasing cognitive ability in future test subjects," admitted Franken sadly, the doctor's assistants nodded vigorously in agreement.

Gholem drew closer to Jill, sniffing her feet, her shoulders, her short, brown hair. When Gholem pressed his mask between Jill's breasts, Jill jerked away and stood up. "He's a little too curious."

"It's good that he likes you, he'll be more pliable when you give him orders," smiled Franken.

Jill snorted, then spun when she discovered Gholem sniffing her butt, long, gnarled fingers reaching for her shapely buttocks.

"You better get him to the chopper, Jill, they're waiting for you," said the Captain, barely stifling an amused smile at Jill's embarrassment.

The Flight

The chopper's wide blades were already cutting through the cold, evening air when Jill and Gholem emerged onto the landing pad. Gholem crouched low, snarling at the whipping chopper blades, massive shoulders bunched together. Jill sighed and knelt down next to Gholem.

"It's okay, Gholem, the machine won't hurt you!"

Gholem snatched Jill's left hand. Jill reflexively tugged her hand away, but stopped at the last moment, realizing how frightened the strange man was. Jill allowed Gholem to keep her hand, she guided the hunch-backed man to the waiting chopper, her short hair whipping around her head.

The chiseled-featured S.T.A.R.S. corporal jerked the aft cabin hatch open for Jill and her companion. Jill prodded Gholem into the wide cabin, then hopped in after him. The corporal eyed Gholem distrustfully as he slammed the hatch shut. When pressure was equalized, the chopper's pilot raised the aircraft, the chopper launched upward on a column of spinning air, then dipped forward, flying west across the glittering, black sky.

Jill took a place on a bench facing the two corporals who had greeted her at S.T.A.R.S. HQ. The female corporal extended her right hand and Jill shook it.

"Jennifer Hayes," said the young woman, her shoulder-length red hair tied back into a french braid.

"Who's your quiet friend?" asked Jill. She watched Gholem squat on the deck next to her left leg, he regarded her with his glowing scarlet lenses, not moving another inch, his breathing a soft, measured rasp.

"Shirow Takashi," growled the black-haired corporal, his arms cradling an oiled M-16 with under-slung grenade launcher.

"You have to cut Takashi some slack..," sighed Jennifer.

"I had friends stationed at Raccoon City Police Headquarters, and a fiancee," said Takashi without emotion, his gray eyes hard.

"Oh, I'm..I'm sorry, Corporal Shirow," apologized Jill sadly.

Takashi looked away from Jill and stared at Gholem, his finger ready upon his rifle's trigger.

"Who's that?" asked Jennifer, pointing at the motionless Gholem.

"An experiment that Command's trying out, I'm stuck with him," sighed Jill, glancing wearily at Gholem's staring, rasping mask.

"He's infected, isn't he?" demanded Takashi.

"Yes, some strain that our scientists whipped up."

"Why?" frowned Jennifer, disgust obvious upon her face as she slid further down her bench away from Gholem.

"He's cannon fodder. They probably think Umbrella's going to use the T-Bomb and they want to be ready," deduced Takashi.

Gholem dug his black nails deep into the deck, leaving narrow furrows in the metal. Jill jerked when Gholem rested his head on her left knee, his breathing slowing further, his lenses dimming.

"He's got the right idea," grinned Jennifer. She leaned into the port bulkhead, watching the landscape blur beneath her before she closed her green eyes and slept.

Takashi looked at Jennifer, then gazed at Jill. "Be careful, LT. The eggheads may think they've tamed a rabid dog, but we both know rabid dogs can still bite the hand that feeds them."

Jill looked down at the sleeping Gholem. Takashi and Jill both watched the mutant as the transport arrowed towards the Rocky Mountains.

***

Armageddon

Takashi crouched low behind an outcropping of rock. He carefully peered from behind the jagged stone, two Umbrella soldiers guarded the second floor entrance to the compound. The Umbrella facility clung to the mountain face like lichen on cave stone, it had three tiered levels, the second was flush with a long, wide rock shelf that spanned around the slender peak.

Takashi reached into his knapsack and withdrew several components. The frowning S.T.A.R.S. corporal quickly assembled a short, compound bow, he screwed together two arrows and set one upon the ground, the second shaft was set within the weapon, he smoothly drew back the taut bowstring and sighted on the left-hand guard, who cradled an assault rifle in his arms.

The bowstring hummed, and a fletched shaft sprouted from the left-hand guard's throat. As the soldier choked on his own blood and fell to his knees, Takashi drew and released a second time, impaling the second guard in his right eye. The dead Umbrella soldier smashed back into the compound wall, then crumpled in a heap.

Jennifer and Jill raced past Takashi to the compound doorway. Jill knelt before a lock pad and swiftly removed the casing, she dug into the mass of wires and circuit boards, probing with two small rods. Gholem loped along the rock shelf, he squatted just behind Jill, sniffing the chill, mountain air.

Takashi had his M-16 in hand when he joined his teammates. Jill smiled when she tripped the unlocking sequence, the compound door hissed aside.

Jill took the lead, armed with two heavy pistols with extended magazines. Gholem followed close to Jill, his large knuckles sliding across the floor while he moved in a swaying, heavy-footed waddle. Jennifer crouched a short distance behind Gholem, brandishing a long-clipped Uzi. Takashi guarded the rear, staying close to the right-hand wall, rifle extended as he shifted the barrel smoothly from right to left.

"Jennifer?" prompted Jill when the team safely reached a four-way intersection of sterile, white corridors.

Jennifer brought up the schematics of the facility on her hand-held display.

"Umbrella architecture is pretty uniform," explained Jennifer while she used a small ball mouse built into the hand-held to search through the map screens. "The schematics say the launch control room will be on the third floor, fairly isolated and reachable only through three guarded lifts."

"Where's the closest lift?" demanded Jill.

"Take the left-hand turn, then make a right, then another left."

"Keep your eyes open," warned Jill, pointing her pistols to the ceiling as she took the left-hand passageway.

Gholem was waddling behind Jill, mid-way through the intersection, when three Umbrella soldiers appeared at the far end of the northern passage.

"S.T.A.R.S.!" shouted a tall soldier, lowering his assault rifle and firing a burst at Gholem.

Gholem roared as bullets ripped through his green jumpsuit. Jill grabbed Gholem's thick, right wrist and yanked the burly mutant into the shelter of the left-hand passageway. Black blood poured from Gholem's numerous wounds, he squatted against a wall, whimpering softly, dark nails scratching deeply into the floor.

"Don't move!" ordered Jill, taking a deep breath before rounding the corner of the intersection and blasting at the Umbrella guards. Armor-piercing rounds punched through a squat guard's body vest, he shuddered and went down on his back. Takashi's rifle spat out a stream of fire, the tall guard convulsed and fell. The last Umbrella soldier fired wildly from his assault rifle, back-pedaling until he dove into an adjacent passage.

"Keep the hallway covered!" snapped Jill to Takashi and Jennifer. She crouched beside Gholem, critically examining his bullet wounds.

The bleeding had stopped. Gholem was quiet, he watched calmly as Jill probed the tears of his jumpsuit, all of his wounds had sealed, only puckering scars remained.

"Good thing you're a mutant, huh?" smiled Jill, patting Gholem's bulging left shoulder.

Gholem made a deep, huffing sound, Jill supposed it was a strange form of laughter.

"The hallway?"

"Clear, LT," replied Jennifer.

"They know we're here, now. Let's haul ass!" said Jill, rising to her feet and leading the way down the long passageway.

***

Bullets exploded just above Jill's head. Jill ducked and replied with her pistols, then fell back into the corridor. Takashi stood against the opposite wall, he held his rifle with both hands, firing short bursts into the lift security checkpoint.

"They're dug in good, LT!" snapped Takashi, dropping onto his haunches when a string of bullets smashed into the wall, leaving a diagonal line of smoking holes. "I can use a grenade, but it might damage the lift controls!"

"Forget it, we have to pry them out of there!" replied Jill, shaking her head as she looked down both sides of the corridor and thought furiously.

"We could use Gholem as a shield to get us in there!" panted Takashi as he slapped a fresh mag into his rifle.

Jill started to say no, but her brow furrowed as she evaluated the suggestion.

"Okay, here's what we do! Takashi, you and Jennifer keep them busy, lay down cover fire while I take Gholem and get in position in that other corridor across the room. When Gholem and I attack, you move in and take them down."

"Affirmative, LT!" agreed Jennifer. She joined Takashi in spraying the checkpoint with gunfire, her Uzi chattering distinctively.

Jill slapped Gholem on the right shoulder and rushed back down the white corridor to the last intersection, Gholem loped obediently after her. Chest pumping, Jill followed the passage, then dove left, racing down a long hallway before reaching another intersection. Jill had turned left again and was jogging along when three rounds slapped into her ballistic vest from behind. Jill went sprawling onto her stomach, pistols slipping from her hands to clatter loudly onto the floor. Jill looked over her left shoulder, wincing when she noticed the four Umbrella guards charging from an eastern passage. Gholem crouched in the right-hand corridor, Jill waved him back and crawled to her fallen weapons.

The Umbrella soldiers surrounded Jill quickly. A leering guard kicked Jill hard in the belly while another soldier collected her pistols from the floor.

"Got one of the S.T.A.R.S. bitches!" spat the long-faced, leering guard, reaching down to grab Jill's hair and slap her hard across the face.

"Quit fucking around, Hantei! Cuff her and get her down to confinement, we've got three more to neutralize!" snapped the Umbrella officer. "Bronovich! Make sure Hantei gets the prisoner into lock-up! Jones, follow me!"

Hantei drove his right knee into Jill's spine while he yanked back her arms and handcuffed her wrists. Jill grimaced as the wiry Umbrella guard pulled Jill to her feet.

"I say we have some fun with the bitch first! How about you, Bronovich?"

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea!" grinned Bronovich maliciously.

Jill spat in Bronovich's leering face. Hantei pulled back on her hair and slapped her hard again. "Better behave if you want to make it to lock-up, cunt!"

Pinching Jill's bottom and stroking her thighs, the two Umbrella guards led the handcuffed young woman to a nearby barracks room.

***

Gholem peeked out from the corner of the passageway. He stood very still, sniffing the cool air. He could smell Jill, her scent was strong, sweet and arousing. Rasping through his dark mask, Gholem waddled along an empty passage, following the trail of Jill's scent.

Jill's scent was very strong when Gholem reached a single closed door. The mutant inhaled sharply, lowering his head to the floor, snuffling at the door's base. Jill's smell was almost overpowering, it wasn't just sweet, it was musky and cloy, Gholem's heart quickened with every deep inhalation. Gholem lightly scratched the closed door, he moaned sadly.

Jill moaned and bit her lower lip. She lay on a mattress that Hantei had snatched from one of the bunks and dropped to the floor. Bronovich sat behind Jill, his muscled legs outspread, fencing Jill in between them. He had pulled off Jill's blue tunic and now he groped her bare breasts, painfully pinching her round nipples with his coarse, blunt fingers.

Hantei knelt between Jill's open thighs, grinning maniacally while he fingered Jill's pussy, thrusting two fingers hard into her cunt, giggling when her juices started to flow over his stabbing digits.

Jill still had her hands handcuffed behind her. Hantei had pressed a strip of duck tape across her mouth to keep her from screaming and attracting the other Umbrella soldiers.

"You've got a nice, sweet, little pussy, bitch!" sneered Hantei. He lowered his face to Jill's crotch, Jill watched wide-eyed while the scruffy guard licked her pussy with a clammy, gray tongue, groaning with pleasure when he buried his mouth in her cunt, slurping on her sweet honey.

"Yeah, eat the bitch out!" chuckled Bronovich, filling his palms with Jill's soft breasts, squeezing and twisting them with savage glee. "I bet she likes it!"

The barracks door exploded inward.

"What the fuck...?" scowled Hantei, Jill's cum still dripping from his chin when Gholem lashed out with his right claw and decapitated the astonished guard.

Jill's eyes narrowed, she slammed her head backward, breaking Bronovich's wide nose.

"Oww!" exclaimed Bronovich, clutching his bleeding nose, forgetting Gholem until the mutant dropped on top of him, gutting the Umbrella guard with his long, black nails.

Jill snatched the handcuff keys from Hantei's pocket and freed herself. Gholem hopped from foot to foot, his claws soaked in dark blood, his lenses bright crimson, his breathing a ragged, hoarse panting.

Jill eyed Gholem while she pulled her trousers and tunic back on. She secured her belt around her curved waist, then checked her pistols automatically.

"Jiiiill...okaaaay?" croaked Gholem, waddling up to Jill and looking up at her from his hunched crouch.

"Yeah...thanks," said Jill, too numb from her near rape to comprehend the significance of Gholem's first words. "We better go save Takashi and Jennifer."

"Saaaavvve..friiieeendsss," nodded Gholem.

***

"We gotta pull back," grimaced Jennifer, glancing at her bleeding left arm before she emptied yet another magazine at the gathering squad of Umbrella guards.

"They'll cut us to ribbons if we retreat," refused Takashi, sending two guards sprawling with two well-placed bursts from his smoking rifle. "The LT will make it, she has to, or we're dead!"

Jennifer nodded grimly and slammed another clip into her Uzi. She stayed close to the floor and leaned around the corner, she started to squeeze the Uzi's trigger when the twin roars of Jill's pistols filled the blood-soaked checkpoint. Gholem's bestial howl followed the report of Jill's weapons, he sprung into the circular room, slapping men aside as if they were twigs, his claws raking through body armor and into yielding flesh.

Launching will commence in three minutes. All Umbrella personnel! Report to your launch stations!

"Move in!" shouted Takashi, dashing towards the crescent-shaped security desk, firing an arc of streaming rounds.

Jennifer struggled to her feet and charged after Takashi, hurling three men off their feet with long bursts from her chattering Uzi.

The S.T.A.R.S. team converged upon the security desk. The last Umbrella guard fell to Gholem's dripping claws, the officer's pistol flashing as he desperately shot the mutant just before Gholem buried his claws within the twitching man's stomach.

Launching will commence in two minutes!

"The lift!" shouted Jill, reloading her steaming pistols while she ran to the closed lift cylinder.

Takashi glanced over the desk controls. All of the displays were shattered except for one, Takashi brought the screen to life and tapped commands into a keyboard.

The silver lift doors adorned with the Umbrella sigil hissed apart. Jill dove into the capsule, followed quickly by Gholem, Jennifer, and finally Takashi just before the portals cycled shut.

Launching will commence in one minute!

"C'mon! C'mon!" urged Jill, hefting her heavy pistols, sweat beading across her forehead.

The lift doors slid open, the S.T.A.R.S. team burst out and leveled their weapons at the black-uniformed Umbrella operators.

"Cancel the launch! NOW!" screamed Jill.

A silver-collared officer smiled coldly, he pressed a single, backlit, ruby button.

"Umbrella cannot be defied!" declared the officer proudly.

Jill shot the smiling officer between the eyes. Thunder shook the control room, Jill wept while she cut down the other Umbrella technicians.

When the last man had fallen, Takashi rushed to the officer's control board. Tapping keys, Takashi brought up a map of the United States upon a wide, overhead display screen, trajectory lines sprouted from the Rocky Mountain position.

"Can you stop them?" whispered Jill hoarsely, joining Takashi at the control station.

"No," murmured Takashi, his sad eyes locked on the display screen.

"The first one hit New York," reported Jennifer dully, tears welling in her grieving eyes.

"Chicago," said Takashi.

"D.C.," wept Jill, hugging her shoulders, quaking with despair.

"Jiiiill..saaaaddd," whispered Gholem, reaching up to take Jill's right hand.

Jill wiped away her tears with the back of her left hand, she took Gholem's long fingers and squeezed them.

"We better go home, there's still a lot to do," sighed Jill raggedly, her heavy steps taking her to the waiting lift. Jennifer and Gholem followed silently, Takashi switched off the display screen, then followed his teammates, shouldering his rifle over his right arm.

*****