Resident Evil Rekindle

Chapter 3

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 is in his system."

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."