High Tide: Isis's Retribution
Dedication: The first of its kind... I dedicate this story to the two people who have stuck with me since my early days... Hyperactive Hamster of Doom and Shakahnna... Anyone who hasn't read their work must do so now!! Quit reading this and go read their stories!! They are worth it!! Both of you have given me something different to help with the writing of Evanescent Dreams and End Game: High Tide... Thank you ladies.. You both have been bigger helps than you realize..
Disclaimer: As always, Do not own Resident Evil.. Just own copies of the games...
Chapter One: Separation
Heavy, solid rain slaps the monstrous concrete buildings as a single car glides to a silent stop, the engine drowned out by the panicking lightning. The drops of water shift direction, now almost blowing horizontally as a strong breeze shoots down the oily road. A loan figure walks down the street, matted brown hair and a deep, almost wishful smile plastered to his face, despite the soaked red hoodie now plastered to his stocky frame. From the small rearview mirror in the red car, three young men, all of them looking not a second older than twenty watch their target pull out a small key, almost losing it as the metal sliver slides off the leather gloves.
As the man inserts the key into the door, static pierces the near-silent car, "Sir, target in sight, do we have permission to engage?"
Their target disappears into the house as lightning crashes again, making everything seem as though it's a part of an over-exposed photo for a brief second, "No.. Stracener will be expecting that.. Drop one of you off here... He will take care of him, the others need to get to the airport and get the girl.. Do not kill either one of them.. As my fun does not need to be interrupted..."
Of the three goons in the small vehicle, the big Asian in the back gets out, his black nightstick clacking on the metal door loudly. The door shuts and the car slowly takes off, leaving the hunter with his prey. His dark eyes watch the building, waiting for a light to signify what room, but finally turns away to grab a small white cigarette from the pack in his breast pocket. Lightning yet again covers everything, giving the appearance that the bolt of electricity just stuck his coffin nail alight, gray smoke twirling and fading away before another gust of wind sweeps the dangerous breath away.
A single window flashes to life, "There we are... Time for the fun to begin..."
Three hours later
"Ugh... What the hell happened?"
Dusty Stracener pushes up, but has a hard time as the two mattresses are pinned on top of his person, applying too much pressure to push off. The man grunts and slowly crawls out from under the spring-mattresses, sighing in relief as he is released from the burden.
A shaky hand runs through matted chocolate hair and he groans, "Ah shit... What time is it? Damn it... Need to go pick up Aya from the airport.. She is gonna kill me for being so late..."
Dusty tries to stand up, but drops as a sharp pain courses through his right leg, a big cramp. The ex-policeman frowns and rubs it out, the pain lessening from the light massage. When the pain has passed, Dusty's attention is drawn to a ringing sound coming from a hidden cell phone. The beaten man screams as he cannot find it in the ransacked house.
"HAH! Hello?" calls out Dusty as he manages to locate the missing device.
The voice is deep, fast, and to the point, "South Side Docks, alone, twenty minutes. You'll come if you want the girl... Alive..."
A deep, almost unforgiving growl shakes the room as Dusty crushes his phone as the shadowy adversary closes the connection. Dusty stands to his feet and walks through his distressed house, finally stopping at a closet down the hall. Quick hands throw the door off its hinges, toss the stuff inside out, and pull up a small box covered in dust.
The brunette smirks as he pulls up the M93R handgun and a few extra clips, "Well... Seems this counts as a second date Aya..."
Dusty reaches into his pockets and hisses, "Damn it, they took my fucking keys.. SHIT!"
11
"Well, glad to see you are alive and w..."
The hidden figure can not even finish the phrase as a swift knee is raised up, right between his legs, "Who the fuck are you and where the hell am I?"
Aya Akechi's green eyes flash open, then take on a smug expression themselves as she watches her captor writhe on the floor. Legs move, but the female scientist can not rise up any higher as tight bindings hold her to the metal chair.
"As I was saying," the man stands up, revealing a face that the auburn-haired woman thought was dead, "I am glad to see you are alive and well... Though one can not say for how much longer..."
"Thomas... Glad to see venom is one of the many things you are immune to... Seems Isis is even more potent than our research team realized..."
HCF scientist Thomas Weidick smiles and places one shaking hand between his legs, trying to alleviate the nauseating pain swelling toward his stomach, "Quite.. But there is one last piece of business I must attend to before the grenade-toting bastard arrives..."
The Philippine soldier leans in, producing a rather large cattle prod from somewhere on his person, for Aya cannot discern the item's hidden place. She growls and tries to knee him again, but her legs are bound, a thick, rather wet and disgusting tentacle wrapped around them, pinning the redhead's weapons of choice to the cold tile.
"See, I am adapting to things as we speak... Now, you are going to tell me what I want to know... And I am not going to let you get away with lies.."
Small, red lips open as a yawn escapes the woman's lips, which then turn upward, "Hmm... I thought someone of your..." green eyes gaze him up and down, "Condition would enjoy the hunt before I give any information... Tell you what..."
Aya applies her most seductive look to her round face, "You catch me... I will tell you anything you want to know..."
The bio-organic weapon chuckles loudly, the strident sound reminding her of a school bell, "Sorry, but your feminine wiles will not work on me... I have grown beyond the need for women..."
"I," comes the reply, "beg to differ.. You may say that, but your own body belies you..."
Thomas stares down at his tentacle, which has dropped off her legs, but nothing can be gained from this as two white sneakers are driven into his mouth, knocking several ivory blocks loose. The male soars back, his spine connecting with the door as he falls down, unconscious upon impact.
While her captor was flying back, Aya keeps flipping back over the chair, freeing her arms and landing square on her feet, "You will get your chase no matter what..."
The Japanese woman slides her arms over the doorknob and she pulls back, the ropes snapping from the tension. Footsteps sound off as the door opens, then quickly shuts, Aya now free for the moment.
You better get here and fast Dusty...
11
"Sir! There is a motorcycle heading our way!"
Thomas's voice filters through the communications unit and replies, "Well, destroy it."
The goon steps back and holds up his shotgun, "We.. We can't sir.."
A silence, then Thomas sighs, he expected this, "Well? Why not?"
The goon tries to reply, but a speeding fist sends him to the floor, dead upon impact. As the motorcycle roars off, a single shout lands upon deaf ears.
"Thomas! You sick FUCK!"
Chestnut hair flaps in the wind as Dusty speeds through the pier, nearly losing his head by dangerously short lengths between him and the freight boxes. The engine screams as the pissed male spots the ship that his girl has to be on. With a twist of his body, the small two-wheeled vehicle turns to face the loading ramp. A sick grin crosses Dusty's face as the ramp is quickly pulled back by two guards, leaving what he guesses to be a thirty to forty foot gap. With a twist of the left wrist the engine roars louder, almost resembling the Genesis Creature from Riley. Am gonna have to repay that kid for this bike.. Cause he will not see it again...
"Come on.. Do not fail me now..."
The world shrinks as Dusty squints and leans back, pulling the bike off the front wheel, allowing the revving motorcycle to land on the ramp evenly. Before he can imagine the flight, he is gliding through the air, catching a glimpse of who the target is supposed to be, then uses his feet to push the two-wheeled vehicle toward the soldier. The bike dies and slams into the heavily armed and armored soldier, apparently killing him as blood lines the walls of the cargo crates in the general vicinity.
"One down.. 'Bout a hundred to go... Not a bad start... Hold on babe, I'm coming..."
The enraged zombie-killer lands on the deck hard and rolls forward, trying to lessen the blow. His black boots scrape the ground, trying to beat inertia, but fails as he quickly careens down the stairs, metal rails and pipes missing his ragged frame, but that soon stops as his legs and back connect with the metal flooring.
Dusty holds his legs and softly hisses in pain, "That sucked... Agh... Okay... Now, to hide so no one will know where I am..."
The male slowly looks around for a room or crevice to hide in, but has to settle for the old cliche of behind the pipes... His large frame manages to slide behind the metal rods just as a few armed mercenaries come running through the cramped hallways. Dusty ignores everything about the men just to settle his gaze upon the insignias on their backs.
HCF... So could Thomas be back after all?
"Sir, no one is here..." reports one of the figures into his microphone.
The soldier's face cuts into despair as someone, possibly Thomas, berates him from behind the wiring, "Yes sir.. Sorry sir.. We will keep looking."
Dusty smirks from his hiding spot and slowly pulls out his knife, since the one who's been talking moves up the steps, while the other remains behind.
Chestnut hair moves out and he twirls the knife around, First mistake, turning their back to me...
The soldier has no idea what hits him before the a silver blade is penetrating his spine and heart, killing the HCF member on impact.
Dusty kicks the man's body to the ground and places a scratch on the barrel of his M79 with the bloody dagger, "One..."
Dusty turns to go after the other soldier, but is sent over the first cadaver as a pair of boots are thrown into his face. The other soldier lets his grasp on the railing overhead loosen so to drop down, driving a large knee into the intruder's back. The ex-lieutenant screams in pain and rolls to the left, and drives the edge of the blade into his attacker's shin, causing him to join Dusty on the ground. Before the man can react, Dusty is on top of him with the blade pressed firmly on its side against the guard's neck.
"Now," the male shifts his weight around to a more comfortable position, for him anyway, "where is my girl?"
The soldier groans under him and replies, "You are going to have to kill me... Cause I do not know..."
Dark chocolate eyes flash, but his hand is still, "Why are you so eager to die?"
Before the other soldier, Cp. Pearcy as the badge implies, can reply, something wet is wrapping around Dusty's neck, strangling the life out of him.
The brunette turns to face, "Holy shit... You have got to be kidding me!!"
The form strangling him is the mutated soldier he just killed. The red-colored body, black eyes, but not a zombie... More like an Alpha Hunter... It has to be Isis... The Hunter screams in his face and clenches its teeth, causing the tentacle to tighten its death hold.
"Hah! That is why I am so eager for you to kill me! Everyone on this ship has the dormant strain of Isis... When we are killed, the virus comes to life and mutates us... As we speak, the ones you killed up there are coming back... Soon you will have an entire ship of Isis-enemies..."
Dusty growls and brings his left knee up, driving it into the mutant's head, snapping the cranium off neatly. The body drops dead for a second time as Dusty kicks off it, flips through the air, and lands on the still-living soldier, knife aiming for his forehead.
The trapped soldier lifts his head to the knife and screams, "Do it! Kill me!"
Dusty smirks, pulls a grenade from a pouch, the places it in the soldier's mouth, but not before setting the timer to ten seconds. The defeated guard protests, but Dusty slits his throat, stopping all conversation.
"Bye..." smirks the ex-officer as he walks down further into the freighter, farther from the booby-trapped soldier.
Dusty snaps the stolen com-piece over his ear and listens as a new soldier or two arrives at his trap, "Sir, we found Slater. But.. Oh no.."
A great quake pounds through the ship, sending a few pipes crashing around Dusty. He looks around and sighs, not really wanting to kill people before he gets to them...
This, is gonna be one HELL of a night... Don't worry Aya, I'm coming for ya!
11
Red hair swishes as Aya slides around a corner on her stomach, having tripped over a table a few seconds prior. Aya scrambles to her feet and rips off her lab coat, then runs at the soldier holding a gun in the woman's direction. She growls and tosses the coat at him, it slaps into his face, but he can't do a thing as she grabs the sleeves, pulls them down, and drives the soldier to the ground. She reaches down and grasps the rifle, having to slow down a bit to get a good grip.
"Stop her!"
She ignores the screams and gunshots as the redhead dives into a room, rifle rounds digging into the floor at her feet. Green eyes close as bullets puncture the wall, sending white chalk everywhere. Aya coughs, the chalk upsetting her throat horribly. Her white shoes swipe the tile as she slowly climbs back up right.
"This," she huffs between rushed gasps, "sucks.. Got a lunatic following me, people shooting at me, and no sign of that crazed bastard... But, what was that explosion?"
A familiar face appears around the corner, the sick smile sending cold chills down her back, "Hello again... If you give up now, I will forgive you for kneeing me in the children..."
Aya spits at him, causing him to reel back. He turns to face her, but receives a rifle-butt to the face, sending Thomas to the floor. She jumps over him and prepares to run down the hall, but a wet tentacle wraps around her slender neck, choking the life out of her. The woman is pulled back to the mutant human, the scowl on his face more unsettling than his smile earlier.
The tentacle pulsates with each flex of his muscles, "Now.. I am afraid we cannot forgive you now..."
Aya stares into his black eyes and grunts, "We?"
Thomas laughs as five to six Isis-creatures stalk around the corner, slightly resembling the Alpha Hunters from a few years ago, "This can't... Be happening..."
The bio-human before her smirks and holds up his hand, the Hunter-Men staying in their place, though the anticipation is evident in their sporadic movements, "See, Miss Akechi.. I have been working on Isis for the past 4 years, ever since that day I was reduced to a puddle of my own enzymes... And I would rather not talk about how I came back either... But," he sighs, "I digress.. Using samples of my own blood, and this fine HCF facility... I have managed to make the newest virus ever known to man.. Perfectly flawless.."
The auburn-haired hostage leans against the wall, still clutching the machine gun, "So, tell me.. What do you call this 'super-virus'?"
Thomas chuckles and holds up a vial of the virus and slowly opens his mouth, "I call it Mutante.."
Aya arches an eyebrow and spurts, "Wait? Mutante? You can't come up with anything better? I thought you were one of HCF's best scientists? Fusion is a better name..."
The male before her scowls and turns away from her, "Kill her..."
Aya raises the M4 as the five monsters step forward, each of them producing tentacles from their wrists. The woman frowns and rolls back as a tentacle tries to snag her.
The wet appendage slams into the ground, shattering the tile and the concrete underneath, "Holy shit, that could have killed..."
But she can't finish as she is sent flying back from the force of another tentacle. She slams into the wall and impressions her form into the stucco and sheet rock. Aya pushes from the wall and faces the men before her. A smile crosses her lips as she runs down the hall, leaving her adversaries behind for a quick moment.
11
"Some kind of viscous liquid on the floor... Not something I would want to eat any time soon..." mumbles Dusty as he runs a finger through the black film.
He swipes the finger along his pants leg to clean it off and stands back up, groaning as his knees pop loudly. The male grabs his M93R and pulls back on the barrel, finally loading a round into the chamber. Three distinct sets of footsteps bang behind him, signaling the arrival of the new patrol.
"Nothing here sir."
"Confirmed.. Will continue searching with sector twelve... Understood."
Dusty smirks and slowly creeps back into the shadows, but silently curses as a bright light is flashed on him, "I found the intrud.. AGH!"
The man is stopped in his words as Dusty fires a round right through his neck, severing the spine instantly. Gunshots pelt the walls and pipes around him as the other two soldiers open fire. Dusty growls and jumps at them, throwing his butterfly knife at the closest one. The blade drives into his hands, pinning them together, giving Dusty the chance he needs to drive his left knee into the wounded soldier's face, driving his teeth into his own skull.
"Need help! Send reinforcements!"
Dusty smiles and tosses the dead soldier at the last one, sending him crashing against the wall, a look of pain and agony on his face. Upon further inspection, Dusty finds that both soldiers are pinned on a pipe, steam rising from the bloody wounds.
"Well, that was easy.. A few more down..." mumbles the ex-cop as he scratches a few more marks on his M79.
Just on a hunch, Dusty pulls a grenade from the body of one of the men and pulls the pin, nonchalantly dropping it down the stairs behind him. A smile shoots across his lips as an explosion rocks his footing, and a few screams filter through the creaking metal and crackling flames.
"Oohh... Incendiary grenades.. Might want to save a few of these..." drools Dusty as he pockets the four black grenades.
He turns around, but immediately throws his hands up as four shotgun barrels are thrown in his face, "You are coming with us Mr. Stracener."
Dusty sighs and replies, "Might as well.. You will take me to Aya.. Makes my job easier... Take me away boys..."
First chapter out of the way.. Dead bodies that mutate? Hunter-Humans?