Grim satisfaction laced through Jake just as quickly as the pain left his gut when the side of the Neman's head exploded all over the Ustanak. Blood coated all over the wall as it suddenly dropped to the floor almost taking the Ustanak with it. The Ustanak dropped its hold on the Neman and then proceeded to pound the head into a pulp for good measure. It then cast a wary eye over to Jake and nodded at him. At least for the time being they were on the same page. It then retreated behind its master who came forward with a cock-eyed smile on his face. He didn't have to say a word, Jake knew what he was thinking already. Told you so.

Worse Jake would have to admit that this was his favorite part of being in the DSO. Or one of them anyway. Being a mercenary since you were a kid didn't afford you too many people skills, unless that involved killing them. But the DSO had allowed him to use what he knew, and use it well. And he loved this part of his job. The rush of taking out the monster, making sure it hurt no one else. There was a single satisfying moment when the job was done. He was doing some good. At least that's what he told himself. There was always a rush that went through at the beginning of any battle. He would be lying if he denied that he enjoyed fighting. It was a part of him as much as Wesker's damned DNA. But the way Wesker held his chin up, a smug expression on his face made Jake doubt that he was doing anything remotely helpful.

Again, Wesker's words floated through his mind. You are the most dangerous B.O.W. here Jake. He stared at the ceiling for the moment and groaned. At least he wasn't dead yet. His hand was coated with his own sticky blood where it started to coagulate on his shirt. There was a perfect hole in shirt but at least the injury was gone. He pulled himself to his feet feeling perfectly fine, something he'd seen Sherry do when he'd pulled a large piece of shrapnel out of her back. He'd been shocked when she walked away from that, the only evidence it had happened were some blood stains and a torn jacket. That was the first time he'd really seen her as a person and not his ticket to 50 million dollars. Ironic when no one else saw her that way.

She was going to have a fit when she saw him. He wiped his hands on his shirt as best he could.

"You ok, Jake?" Jill moved closer examining the hole where the wound should have been, and then she shrugged and moved off. Chris too came in for a closer look. Only Claire stayed back breathing hard. She'd been hit with a bit of blood and had feverishly wiped it off. Jake didn't have the heart to tell her she had some smeared across her face. If it infected her through the skin it was already too late. He hoped it didn't work that way for her sake.

"Which way, old man?" He looked at Wesker, ignoring how pleased he looked. Wesker pointed off to the right and Jake started moving in that direction. Jill fell in next to him, surprised he looked down at her and she shrugged.

"I don't self-heal," she whispered. "But I've got other talents." Jake only nodded. The noise from fighting the Neman had undoubtedly caused other creatures to start coming their way. Jake couldn't wait to see what they ran into. "He does that you know." Jill spoke in a low voice so Chris couldn't hear.

"What?" Jake shrugged, he held his glock in front of him with his other hand free.

"He gets into your head, makes you doubt yourself or your friends."

Jake flicked a glance at the woman next to him and briefly went through what he knew about her. Sherry had given him the shortened version and Jake wondered if had been the "clean" version just as Sherry's had been. Guilt gnawed at him as he remembered he'd left her with the man who'd given her the G-virus in the first place. And basically, raped her as a mutated B.O.W. to do it.

"I'm not doubting my friends." Jake muttered. "Just me."

"Yeah, he's pretty good about that." Jill went silent, her ears straining. "Well shit that's not good."

"What else is down here?" Chris asked from behind them both.

"Could be anything." Claire added glancing behind her at Wesker. "Care to weigh in?"

"We're getting close. If I recall correctly there are several labs with smaller experiments, you name it."

"Anything dangerous?" Claire asked looking forwards again.

"Dangerous?" Wesker laughed. "There isn't anything down here that isn't dangerous Ms. Redfield."

"Sounds like more dogs." Jill added from the front.

"How many?" Jake strained to listen so he could answer Chris's question.

"Too many." He put the glock forward his body tensed as he waited. The sound of clawed, running, feet on concrete was definitely not his favorite. He hated running into infected dogs. They were too quick, too fast and agile. And you could shoot them repeatedly and they didn't die. You needed a head shot, although he'd been able to take them out with a quick kick to the face, destroying their brains in the process. This was especially effective against what used to be Dobermans.

The first one came out of the flickering darkness, jaws flapping as the skin sagged off exposing a row of blood stained teeth. Jake wondered when they'd hit their first zombies today. Naturally the coat was full of open oozing sores dripping blood as the dog leaped into the air. Before Jake could react something flashed in front of him. A blur of movement that he realized was Jill. She was behind the first dog and suddenly in the middle of the pack. She had a dagger in hand smashing it into a dog's head before he took a breath. The pack didn't seem to realize the danger they were in as the knife hit home several times.

"Three," he heard her mutter.

Jake's foot flashed out and took down the first dog that reached him. And then they were surrounded.

He felt his hand hit a jaw aimed for his throat, heard the crunch of bone into brain matter.

"I got two," he said.

"This isn't a contest!" Chris said from behind him. Jake snuck a glance up at Jill, who grinned wickedly showing off just how flexible she was by hitting the floor in a perfect split to stick her dagger into the eye socket of the closest dog.

"Sure it is, loser buys us all around when we get out of this." She was up on her feet moving down the all. Jake followed with Chris next to him. Chris swore at his wife but he was smiling.

Jill was actually having fun.

If Sherry hadn't been trapped back with the clone of her father, Jake probably would have had let go and had fun too.

"Three, four!" He shouted as he shot two dogs that tried to rush him. Behind him he could hear Chris taking aim. With Jake and Jill in front, Chris was free to take out anything that got past them.

"Damn it!" Jake swore as he felt teeth bite into his leg. He saw two dogs fly over his head, past Jill, and the Ustanak was then between them and the rest of the pack.

It was an incredible sight to behold. As much as Jake despised the creature, even he could admit as much. He swung his arms without thought or care catching the infected animals left and right. It was enough to give the rest a break from fighting, although Jake just felt his adrenaline starting to cycle back.

The Ustanak turned around and stared at him for a moment, Jake realized there were no more dogs to fight. There was a moment of silence and then it shrugged its shoulders.

"Ok, big ugly, you win!" Jake glanced at the spattered walls. "Although how you are buying a round is beyond me."

Jill laughed, the sound ringing out into the flickering black.

"So what exactly is left down here?"

Wesker shrugged. "This level is tame compared to the lower levels."

"The lower levels?" Chris pointed a gun at Wesker's head. "I'm kind of getting to the point where I want to test a theory. They say you can heal like Jake there, would you die if I blew your head off?"

The Ustanak growled a warning. Chris subsided but didn't lower his weapon.

"Let's just move guys," Jake said when Wesker remained silent. Again the silence, the smug expression. He glanced at Jill who only shook her head. Jake could have sworn that they were being tested again. Chris had a grim expression on his face and Claire remained silent.

"All of you have always been so good at surviving whatever this company has thrown at you." Wesker said into the silence. "I wonder which one you won't make it this time."

"Seriously?" Jake rounded on Wesker. "Give it a fucking already."

"Just making an observation." He pointed in front of him and Jake turned. There in front of him stood an enormous locker, with a hallway that squared off to the left. He moved to it and glanced down but saw nothing but empty hallway when the lights flickered on.

"This happened really fast." Claire whispered behind them. "Just like the hospital."

"Or you are just so boringly predictable." Wesker replied.

"Is there a time you weren't an asshole?" Jake muttered moving to stare at the locker, he turned to look at Wesker. "I don't suppose you want to open this up?"

"Of course." Wesker put his palm on the door and it scanned his hand. A keypad popped open and he typed in a code, and then lowered his eyes to the same scanner and had his corneas scanned...

The large door swung open silently on well-kept hinges.

Jake's eyes lit up at the artillery in front of him.

"Grab what you can in a hurry." Wesker glanced around. "We've seen the dogs, I'm pretty sure the rest of the staff won't be far behind."

Jake moved forward and simply loaded up, handing Chris back the Glock. Even Chris grabbed a few grenades. Grenades, Jake though sheepishly as he belted on a vest made just for carrying them. They must have some serious shit down here.

He stepped back after making sure he had a dagger similar to the one Leon insisted saved his life more than he could count.

"They will never accept you as one of them."

The voice was so low that Jake barely heard it. Unconsciously he had placed himself between Wesker, and the others.

Jake could never get over how calm Wesker always seemed. He flicked his eyes back up to Jill who was watching him. Jill shook her head, silently agreeing that Wesker was an asshole.

"Things ever go like this before?" Jake asked out loud before Wesker could start talking to him again.

"Yeah," Chris responded turning around, "especially with him."

Jake nodded and he closed his eyes picturing Sherry for a moment. He felt guilty about leaving her with the clone of her father but his real worry was that this was all a show and he had played right into Wesker's hands.

He hated how fucking calm the guy was.

"How big is this place?" The question was directed at Chris but it was Wesker who answered.

"The original facility expanded far underground beneath Raccoon City. We had accesses that led into the mountains, to the mansion, everywhere. There were plenty of escape routes. Initially, the project was huge. There were plenty of no-go zones, even I wasn't aware of the size and scope of the facility that Spencer had planned. I've tapped into it, Umbrella or whatever they want to be called now, they're everywhere."

Jake turned to stare at Wesker. "And you joined them?"

"Joined them?" Wesker laughed, the scorn apparent in his voice. "Joined is such a strong word...I came from them. They made me..."

"You were a test tube baby." Jake finished.

"In a manner of speaking." Wesker looked away his hands balling into fists for a moment before relaxing. Was that a trace of anger?

"What happened to the original owners?"

In answer, Wesker smiled and said nothing. Jake turned away, not really faulting the guy for killing anyone involved with Umbrella. The organization itself was still fairly far and remote but the connections to himself were falling into place. It made Jake feel uncomfortable. His father had been "made" and his mother worked here.

"Hey," Chris put a hand on his shoulder. "We should get moving, this place is huge. Honestly, I'd rather head back to Sherry and take our chances together getting out then to keep going deeper into this place."

"I thought they bombed this place into oblivion," Claire muttered, simultaneously coming forward.

"The surface was completely destroyed," Wesker responded. "But the Underground facility runs pretty deep. It would be impossible to destroy completely with surface bombs."

"So what do you suggest?" Jake asked.

Wesker hesitated. "I would suggest not going too deep."

This time everyone's eyes were on him and he looked uncomfortable.

"What's down there?" Chris demanded. Jill moved closer, eyes narrowed. She'd gotten the closest glimpse of the madman that was Wesker and didn't even looked surprised.

"Other projects that got out of control, projects that should remain buried." Wesker paused. "An AI that is worse than any BOW ever spewed out. You don't want her getting to the surface."

"Her?"

Wesker focused on Jake now. "You think that biology is the only department Umbrella worked on? What if you could copy the mind and load it into the hard drive of a sophisticated computer system? What if they copied the mind of someone truly terrifying and loaded it into the system as a guard."

"At this point, nothing would surprise me," Chris muttered. He glanced at Jill whose jaw had dropped.

"Jesus," Claire said at the same time.

"So, no I wouldn't recommend going too deep. Umbrella lost control of that... technology. Safety protocols disconnected it from the surface."

"Who was her?" Chris demanded suddenly. He had a nagging suspicion, someone they had encountered before...he didn't even want to consider it.

Wesker stared at him, his lips quirked at the corner before he answered. "Yes...Alexia."

"Care to explain?" Jake asked, but the Ustanak suddenly grunted.

"We've got company," Jill responded, she turned to Chris and Jake. "They're coming from where we left."

"Shit." Jake looked up the hallway. These weren't dogs but the things that bothered him the most even if they were the easiest to kill. People who were straight up Zombies, just like the hospital.

He lifted his gun and fired, taking down the lead and watching those behind it trip over the body. At least these weren't J'avo. They were mindless and easy to kill, but the problem was the numbers.

"Guess we found the lab techs," Jill said from next to him.

Jake moved forward before anyone else could. "Jake!" Chris shouted as he moved behind him. Jill was already up next to him.

"No way I'm getting those drinks," Jake muttered as he mowed the zombies down.