Friend Or Enemy

Clyde sat at the makeshift table. His hands were on the guns. He took the time Steve was gone to polish his weapons. The tunnel was filled with silence as the clinking and scraping of the tools cleaned the guns. Clyde gave a glance at James and noticed the blonde man would glance back. James rose a brow and spoke, "Is something up?"

James gave a soft nod as his eyes darted back at the screen of his laptop, "uh... Steve has told me that he's been having nightmares every morning."

Clyde gave an uncaring nod, "Boohoo. So, what? He's having a bad time?"

Jamie shook his head, "Nightmares of Alexia talking to him. Tormenting him."

Clyde paused his polishing and he looked at James, "...PTSD?" he lowered his tools and faced James directly as he now got James' attention.

James shook his head lightly, "I thought it was that at first, but the more he explains these dreams, the more it sounds much worse."

"What're you gettin' at, then?"

James gave a soft sigh as he knew how dumb it sounded, "Steve is under the impression that some form of Alexia's consciousness resides within the Veronica Virus. That she is within him."

Clyde rose his eyebrows and gave a grin that showed just how dumb he thought that sounded. He scoffed before he spoke to James, "Say what you just said in your head and think about how dumb you sounded."

James glared at Clyde, "I know exactly just how dumb it sounds. It's not me who believes it, Clyde."

Clyde's sarcastic tone simmered as he stared a James. Clyde relaxed his shoulders as he spoke in a scoff, "OK. So, what're you saying? Steve believes that Alexia is inside of him, therefore he would will it to be true?"

James gave a soft nod as his eyes left Clyde in a bit of shame, "Ever heard of Dissociative Identity Disorder?" Clyde gave a disgruntled glance at James as he annoyingly shook his head. Clyde clearly saw himself dumber than James so he always disliked it when James showed off any shred of knowledge that was beyond what Clyde knew. Of course, James dummied it down for him, "If a person experiences too much trauma and reaches past their breaking point, their identity would split into several identities who could manifest and take control of their body if more trauma were to occur in their life. Think of it as a broken type of defense mechanism to mental and physical trauma."

Clyde's gaze at James never left him as he explained. Clyde recognized the concept of the disorder. He spoke softly, "I thought that was only in movies. What are the chances of this happening?"

"It happens to point one percent of the population, but for Steve, it may be different. Since his body has acclimated to the cocktail of viruses within his system... There's no telling what his body may do," James gave a grim look as he closed his laptop.

Clyde's eyes drifted in the thought of the idea of Steve turning sides because his body practically demanding to be evil. Still... Clyde had no reason to doubt or dislike Steve. Clyde spoke sternly, "So, what's your point?"

James glared at Clyde and nearly shouted, "We need to keep Steve in check! He could turn on us at any point. We need to know if we can trust him after what he has done and what he has been through."

Clyde spoke as he immediately continued cleaning his gun, "I trust him. I trust him with my life, and you should do the same."

James' eyes widened to Clyde's honesty, "Who the hell did you turn into?" Clyde looked to James as he explained, "Was it not two weeks ago you were a cocky slob, just trying to get into Ada's pants?"

Clyde scoffed as his expression gave a soured look of shame as he showed aggression and force in his cleaning, "When I was stuck in that SimGym with Steve, he saved my ass. Even though I was intending to get him killed in there. I just wanted the brat off of my chest and find some entertainment out of it. He treated that prank as if it were life and death, and he kept me alive. I'm going to remain by his side, no matter what. Whatever choices he makes, I'll be there to support it. If you can't trust him, I suggest leaving. I don't want to find out that another friend of mine turned out to be a rat to the BSAA."

"They KILLED my friend too!!" James barked out at Clyde. Clyde froze as the calm and quiet scientist just shouted at him. His eye showed disgust and frustration as he stared at Clyde. James huffed through his nostrils as he spoke softly, "Steve is my friend, too. I don't want to see him go any lower than how low he was when he killed that boy."

Clyde took a few seconds to let James' words sink in. They both cared about Steve, just in completely different ways. He continued cleaning as he spoke softly, "Then we're in agreement. Steve is our friend and we need to keep him in check."

Steve spoke as he entered the tunnel, "No wonder you two hide your emotions. You get really weird," The air got cold and chills ran down both James' and Clyde's backs. How long was Steve listening to their conversation? Steve walked over to his cot as he held two bags full of canned food in each hand. Steve sat at his cot silently and started lifting the bags as if they were dumbbells' to work out with. Clyde and James slowly looked at Steve as he worked out. The only sound that was heard was the crinkling of the plastic bags as Steve lifted them as he silently grunted to himself, counting each lift he made in his head.

Steve knew he was getting weaker by the second, working out was essential for him. To maintain his unnatural strength, he had to have a full stomach and proper muscle mass otherwise his body would start eating away at itself faster than a normal body would. James openly admitted to him he would never gain a large amount of weight, no matter how much he ate, his body would digest and burn it off too quickly just by sleeping. His blanket was often wet.

The air was still as the three men went silent. Clyde was about to speak only to be silenced by Steve, "You don't need to keep me in check," The color on Clyde and James' faces faded as they both understood that Steve was there probably by the beginning of the conversation. Steve continued, "I'm keeping an eye on it too. Keeping my emotions steady and calm seems to be the best solution at the moment. We'll figure me out if shit ever hits the fan here."

James glanced at Steve and decided to change the subject, "So, you've decided that we are going to stay in this town a little longer?"

Steve gave a silent nod before he walked over and placed the bags of food next to the disassembled gun. Some pieces of the gun jumped in response to Steve placing two very heavy bags on the table which made Clyde quickly palm the smallest pieces of the gun to make sure he would not lose them. Steve spoke, "Somehow, we are on REALLY good terms with the town. They just want us to not be a bother to them," Steve sighed as he took out cans of fruit.

Clyde watched the cans stack and pile up. Clyde responded, "Hold up! You spoke to someone?"

"Eheh... No. They actually spoke to me," Steve chuckled as he was still settling the words in his mind. Steve continued, "The guy who runs the town just sat next to me and started speaking, told me he was aware of all of us and is putting in good word for us for the town. Not that we're important, or anything. More or less, he's letting his town understand that we are harmless."

Clyde and James slowly look at each other, both with a gut feeling that this governor is going to be trouble in the long run. Both men spoke with uncertainty in their voices, "O...K..."

James spoke up, "Hey, did you buy any meat?"

Steve then pulled out a bunch of canned corn beef and hash. The look on the men's faces was rather disgusted. James spoke in disappointment, "Corn beef hash? Really?"

"If you don't like it, you can get a full course meal with your own card," Steve spoke boldly. Steve was right. There were plenty of restaurants in the town that they could eat in if they cant tolerate canned food.

Clyde spoke up, "Thank you, we can last a few weeks with this amount of food if we ration it out."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Steve said with a soft smile. His eyes glanced over at Clyde with a kind smile. Clyde ignored his glance and continued cleaning his gun. Steve stared at his gun for a minute and almost immediately he was taken back to that Umbrella facility. He stared at the gun longer and was then taken back to the prison. His kind smile slowly faded into something hiding the horror behind his stare.

"Steve?" Clyde spoke up as he noticed the cold fear behind his gaze.

Steve broke the stare as looked at Clyde, "Hm?"

Clyde spoke in a softer tone, "Are you sure you're OK?"

"Yeah... I'm just tired."

Clyde and James glanced at one another, pretty certain that was a lie but chose to stay silent.