Chapter 39: Encountering Wesker

After bidding farewell to Barry, Jill set off alone on her return journey. The corridors of the underground dormitory remained deep and cold; rusty pipes dripped cold water from time to time, the sharp splashing sounds against the floor feeling particularly jarring in the dead silence.

She gripped her handgun tightly and secured the grenade launcher on her back, warily scanning every corner. The fierce battle with Plant 42 had drained much of her stamina, and she carried the faint scent of burning and dust on her skin, yet she dared not relax her vigilance in the slightest.

Retracing her steps along the familiar route, she intended to leave the underground area and return to the Spencer Mansion to continue searching for clues and her teammates. Just as she reached the corner connecting the dormitory area to the main passage, a sudden burst of concentrated gunfire rang out, followed immediately by the raspy roars of zombies, shattering the underground peace.

Jill's heart tightened. She immediately pressed herself against the wall and slowly peered around the corner. She saw a familiar figure with his back to her, firing his handgun steadily. His posture was upright and composed—it was Albert Wesker.

At that moment, Wesker was being hemmed in by two shambling zombies. His movements were efficient; every shot hit a zombie's head with precision, quickly neutralizing the threat. The moment he lowered his gun, Jill's tense expression relaxed, and she stepped forward, unable to hide her joy as she called out, "Captain Wesker!"

Hearing her voice, Wesker spun around. When he saw Jill, a deliberate look of surprise and relief appeared in his eyes. He took a few quick steps toward her, his tone carrying a calculated amount of concern: "Jill! You're alive!" He had been missing ever since the squad had been separated.

Jill was filled with the joy of finding her teammate. Even if she had harbored slight doubts before, they were pushed to the back of her mind for now. She spoke with a hint of reproach, "You suddenly left on your own before, and we couldn't find you. We were worried sick."

"That's exactly what I wanted to say," Wesker sighed softly, a touch of helplessness appearing on his face as he waved a hand in explanation.

"I'm sorry. The situation was too chaotic then. Zombies suddenly surrounded me from all sides. To survive, I had to do my best to break out alone. Fighting those monsters, there was simply no time to regroup with the others." His tone was sincere and his expression natural, perfectly portraying the image of someone forced to separate in a desperate situation.

Looking at Wesker's frank expression, Jill's resentment instantly vanished. After all, in this mansion filled with death, being barely able to look after oneself was the norm. She nodded, her tone relieved: "I understand. Anyway, I'm just glad you're okay."

Wesker's eyes swept over Jill, flickering slightly. Then, feigning mystery, he lowered his voice and asked, "By the way, Jill, during our time here, have you noticed anything?"

"What?" Jill looked at him in confusion.

"Barry has been acting a bit strange," Wesker said slowly, his tone carrying a hint of deliberate testing. "Ever since we entered the mansion, he's always acting alone, looking dazed, and behaving more abnormally than usual. Have you noticed anything?"

Jill felt a jolt in her heart. Wesker's words struck right at the heart of her own doubts. Remembering Barry's previous talking to himself and his abnormal insistence on splitting up, she couldn't help but nod and speak truthfully: "Now that you mention it, that's true. I just ran into him, and I also felt his state of mind was off. I'll keep a closer eye on him from now on."

Seeing that Jill had taken the bait, Wesker shifted the conversation, waving his hand slightly as if generously making excuses for Barry: "But there's no need to be too tense. Perhaps in such a desperate situation, this is a very normal reaction. After all, this is completely different from our usual missions. Facing these monsters, anyone would be under immense pressure; it's inevitable for emotions and behavior to deviate."

This explanation sounded reasonable, and Jill agreed, nodding without saying more.

Seeing this, Wesker dropped the subject and turned to look toward the end of the passage. His tone became serious as he returned to the main topic: "Jill, our primary task now is to find a way to leave this place safely. Everything else can be put aside for the moment."

"I agree," Jill responded without hesitation. Escaping this mansion of death was everyone's most urgent desire.

"I've explored the mansion for a long time and found that many important rooms are locked. I haven't been able to find a way to open them, and I'm still trying to figure out how to bypass those locks."

Wesker continued, his tone carrying a hint of frustration as he subtly fished for information from Jill. He knew well that the hidden rooms in the mansion contained Umbrella Corporation's experimental secrets, and he wanted to confirm if Jill had acquired any key items.

Jill was sharp and instantly became cautious. She had already found several keys corresponding to the rooms during her exploration, but she didn't reveal a thing. She simply nodded calmly: "Alright, I understand. If I make any new discoveries, I'll return to the mansion's main hall immediately to regroup with everyone."

Wesker looked at Jill's steady expression and failed to detect any flaws. He nodded slightly, his tone sounding trusting: "I'm counting on you, Jill."

Having finished, he didn't stay any longer. Giving Jill a brief nod, he turned and headed toward another direction in the underground passage, his figure soon vanishing into the darkness. Throughout the encounter, he showed no flaws, perfectly playing the role of a captain concerned for his teammate.

After Wesker left, Jill stood in place, yet the doubts in her heart did not dissipate. Wesker's deliberate reminder and Barry's abnormal behavior made her feel more and more that everything in the mansion hid a conspiracy, though she couldn't quite grasp the thread yet.

She took a deep breath, suppressed her thoughts, and turned back toward the mansion. After only a few steps, the radio in her backpack suddenly emitted a crackle of static again, the piercing sound exceptionally clear in the silent passage.

Jill stopped instantly and quickly pulled out the radio, her fingertips rapidly tuning the frequency. A glimmer of hope rose in her heart. She had briefly received Brad's signal before but lost contact quickly; now, she desperately hoped to reach him again.

Sure enough, amidst the static, Brad's anxious and desperate voice soon came through. The signal was still intermittent but incredibly clear: "This is Brad! STARS Alpha Team, please respond if you hear me!"

"This is Jill! Brad, I can hear you!" Jill immediately shouted into the radio, her tone unable to hide her excitement.

But on the radio, Brad seemed not to hear her response at all, continuing to call out incessantly: "Is anyone there? Whoever you are from S.T.A.R.S., Alpha Team or Bravo Team, please answer!"

"Repeat, this is Brad. I'm circling over the Arklay Mountains, I need to confirm the safety of my teammates!"

Jill gripped the radio tightly, responding loudly over and over: "Brad? Brad! It's Jill, please respond!"

But no matter how she shouted, there was only Brad's helpless calling on the radio. Then, his voice came through with even deeper despair: "Even if you can't answer, just make some kind of noise! Please!"

"Jill calling Brad! Do you hear me!?" Jill increased her volume, calling out again and again, "Brad? Brad! Brad!"

Only when the radio returned to nothing but piercing static did Jill stop shouting. She frustratedly slapped the radio against her palm, her face full of helplessness and irritation.

This damn radio signal was terrible. She had clearly received her teammate's signal but couldn't complete a two-way conversation. Watching the chance to regroup with Brad slip away left her feeling utterly stifled.

She clenched her fist tightly, eventually putting the radio back into her backpack. She had to set aside the thought of contacting Brad for now and continue toward the mansion.

Returning to the courtyard via the underground passage, the torrential rain outside was still pouring down. Cold rain soaked the ground, and the entire mansion was shrouded in a curtain of rain, looking even more sinister.

As soon as Jill stepped into the courtyard, she sensed a sharp aura different from that of a zombie. Amidst the stench of rot in the air, there was a faint, fishy scent of blood. A sense of danger struck instantly.

She immediately held her breath and ducked behind a stone pillar, slowly peering out. She saw a lithe, grey-green mutated creature with sharp claws and fangs wandering leisurely through the courtyard. Its movements were swift and agile, far more threatening than a zombie.

It was a Hunter, a high-level B.O.W. developed by Umbrella. Its combat capability far exceeded that of an ordinary zombie; once discovered, it would be difficult to escape unscathed.

Jill's heart sank. Her stamina hadn't fully recovered yet, and she didn't want to face a Hunter head-on. She could only press herself tightly against the stone pillar, holding her breath and remaining motionless, waiting for the Hunter to turn and leave.

She watched the Hunter's movements intently, seeing it slowly walk toward the corridor on the other side of the courtyard. Only after it completely vanished from sight did she dare to move quietly, quickly crossing the courtyard and cautiously returning to the mansion's interior.

Once back in the mansion, Jill didn't delay. Following her previously marked route, she began searching for those hidden rooms. Relying on her keen observation, she found an extremely well-hidden secret room behind a mottled wall on the west side of the second floor.

Following a narrow stone staircase inside the secret room, she arrived at a small basement. The basement was piled with clutter and covered in dust. On a dilapidated wooden table lay a sealed letter; the envelope was marked: George Trevor's Last Words.

Jill immediately picked up the letter and quickly unfolded it to read. The yellowed paper was covered in scrawled handwriting, full of despair and agony. The letter was filled with George Trevor's guilt toward his wife and daughter.

He had been deceived by Umbrella into building the mansion, which ultimately led to his family being imprisoned and turned into test subjects. He hated his own ignorance and Umbrella's cruelty; every line was an expression of anger and accusation against the Umbrella Corporation. At the end of the letter, he wrote his final wish, praying that heaven would allow his wife and daughter to escape these clutches and stay far away from this living hell.

After reading the letter, Jill's heart was heavy with anger. The tragedy of the Trevor family made her realize even more clearly the cold-blooded cruelty of Umbrella. She carefully stowed away the suicide note; this letter was yet another piece of ironclad evidence to indict Umbrella.

Leaving the secret room, Jill continued her exploration of the mansion, eventually arriving at an abandoned office. Scattered documents lay on the desk, and deep inside a drawer, she found an unsent secret letter. The contents of the letter made her whole body go cold.

The letter explicitly recorded that Umbrella had long planned to lure the STARS squad to the Arklay Mansion. The purpose was to have the members face off against various B.O.W.s to obtain practical combat data of bio-organic weapons against professional soldiers, refining their biological weapon development.

It turned out that from the very beginning, they were Umbrella's experimental lab rats. This mansion nightmare was nothing but a meticulously planned conspiracy!

Jill gripped the letter, anger and chill intertwining in her heart. She finally understood the truth behind the teammates' separation and the endless stream of monsters. She also understood Barry's abnormality and Wesker's testing more clearly; everything revolved around this malicious plan.

With a heart full of shock and anger, Jill continued her exploration, only to find that as time passed, Hunters began to appear in every corner of the mansion. Their lithe figures could be seen everywhere in the corridors, rooms, and hallways; the danger level had skyrocketed.

She could only avoid them along the way, not daring to engage in head-on confrontation. Eventually, she decided to return to the underground dormitory area to continue searching for deeper secrets and the true way to escape the mansion.

She cautiously avoided Hunters all the way back to the underground dormitory and went straight to the small elevator she had discovered earlier, preparing to take it to an even deeper underground area.

To her surprise, after the elevator reached the bottom floor, a gap had actually been broken through the originally sealed passage, revealing a dark cave. The inner walls of the cave were rough and filled with rubble, clearly having been broken through recently.

Jill gripped her weapon and stepped slowly into the cave. It was cold and damp inside, and the space grew wider the deeper she went. At the end of the cave, a vertical iron ladder appeared. The ladder was rusty but still sturdy. The sound of hollow wind came from below, clearly connecting to another unknown area.

Without the slightest hesitation, she grabbed the iron ladder and climbed down step by step. After landing, a spacious mine appeared before her eyes. Rail tracks meandered through the mine, and mining tools were scattered about. It was pitch black all around, with only unknown sounds faintly echoing from the distance, hinting at even deeper unknowns and dangers.

Jill stood at the entrance of the mine, gripped her weapon, and her eyes turned determined. She took a deep breath and stepped toward the depths of the mine, beginning a new round of exploration.