Leon slowly awoke from a
fiery nightmare into familiar grey surroundings. He realised that he was lying
on his back, his head propped on a pillow and his body on an adequately soft
mattress. As his eyes slowly focused to his gloomy surroundings, he knew where
he was. The medical room.
He was…injured? Couldn't be that much, he didn't feel any pain
in his legs or arms, so he obviously hadn't broken anything.
Leon slowly sat up, his green camouflage jacket and shirt
standing out against the trousers he'd worn nearly every day since he'd arrived
in Raccoon City on that fateful day on September 28th, 1998. It was
now approaching the summer of 2002. Nearly four years after he'd first met the
zombies that haunted his dreams still.
He sat up, and touched his forehead.
He winced in pain.
"Agh- Damn that hurts" he muttered.
"Relax, Leon - it's just a cut" Chief Medic Spike Reeman advised
him from the other side of the room. Reeman was washing his hands at the sink
as usual, and then walked along the racks of medical equipment and supplies
that they received and scavenged regularly up to Leon, and sat in a chair
beside the bed.
"How are you feeling?" he asked Leon.
Leon glared at him.
"How do YOU think, smartass?" Leon growled.
Reeman sniffed.
"It was a matter of fact question actually, Leon"
"I feel awful," Leon said, slumping back into the pillow.
"You're lucky that your patrol group took you away when they did
– You could be a zombie's vol-au-vent by now"
Leon sat up again.
"How's Jill and Claire?" he asked.
"They're fine. It seems that shooting that glass too close-"
"Yeah – I made a mistake, okay!!" Leon snapped at Reeman.
Reeman shifted.
"Please yourself" he said, and stalked out of the room.
Leon sat up slowly, and then sat on the edge of the bed. When he
became confident that he could stand up again without falling headlong onto the
concrete floor, he rose unsteadily to his feet. He walked slowly out of the
room, and picked his way through the labyrinth of corridors past other
resistance members either going about their business, fetching supplies or
getting ready for sentry duty down in the sewers.
'Nightwatch' as it was called was the most dangerous of all the
zombie watches that occurred during the 24-hour day that everybody on earth
experienced, and in the sewers it was even worse.
Night was dangerous, because there are other things out there,
besides the zombies. At night, when many of these creatures were awake they
tried to find food – you. Hunters were the worst. They were silent Attackers,
whom you would only know were there until they shrieked their horrific attack
cry and jumped down on you.
Leon made his way through various featureless grey corridors
in the underground base their resistance occupied. His boots clicked on the
smooth concrete floor, and he tried to remember, through his fuzzy mind, where
the Operations Room was.
He continued his walk, and after a few false starts, found the
door crudely labelled 'OPS ROOM'. He walked through the door into the
hustle-bustle of the Operations room. It was quite a big room, about thirty
feet across and about forty feet long. It was filled with machinery, connected
up to generators that functioned several storeys below the Operations Room. It
was these Generators that gave the base its power – without them, it was
nothing.
The centre of the room was a large table, covered with a map of
the city and its outer limits. The room was full of people, all sitting at
machines and doing something or walking around doing very little.
As Leon walked in, he caused little attention. On one side of
the room, near to where he was, a friendly young face popped up behind a
console. It was the face of 22-year old Rebecca Chambers.
"Hi!" she said. She hadn't changed for four years – it was
unbelievable. Admittedly she was a little more knowledgeable about what they
were up against, but her size hadn't changed. She still acted virtually the
same too; she still was referred to as 'kid' despite her insistence that she
was not. She grinned like a madman, and waved at him.
His eyes rolled, she still behaved like a kid.
"Hi Rebecca" he called back, smiling.
They'd only met after Chris had introduced them, and that was only
six months ago.
Jill Valentine, seated at a monitor, turned and smiled at him with
that famously pretty smile of hers.
"Oh, hi Leon!" Jill said, standing up "Feeling better?"
"I still feel awful, but I guess I could be worse" he admitted to
her, letting off a grin.
"We grabbed you after the window exploded – That glass sliced
your forehead pretty good"
Leon nodded, and pointed at the bandage.
"Not bad, huh?"
"You can add it to your collection" Jill joked.
Leon laughed quietly, and then he turned to her.
"Thanks for saving my life" he said.
She shrugged.
"No problem. I've done it often enough"
"As have I…" Leon pointed out.
Rebecca appeared beside Jill.
"Is the burn okay?" Rebecca asked.
"It's fine Becky, absolutely fine" Leon said, and smiled at her.
Rebecca blushed.
He turned so he could get both of them in view at the same time.
"Anything new?" Leon enquired, knowing he'd get a negative
answer.
Jill shook her head.
"Nope, it's dead out there – If you get my meaning"
Leon nodded, knowing exactly what she was talking about.
"Food's a bit down though" Rebecca chipped in "Willoughby,
Fredrickson and Carlos are out on the next food raid in about an hour"
Leon wasn't in charge. There was only one real leader, Imanhoe,
and he co-ordinated attacks on the zombies, night-raids and out-of-town
missions. Leon was a tough guy – After two years of fighting zombies, what else
could you call him? There were only a few men tougher than Leon – and one of
them was Chris. Yet Chris was missing. He'd gone out on another night mission
to seize a weapons cache that was rumoured to be hidden in an air force base
about thirty miles north of the city. It was obvious to Jill that Rebecca had a
crush on Leon, which was quite funny really – however, Leon's real love
interests remained a secret. Leon was also quite a good leader. Having started
off naïve and unprepared, he was now more prepared than he ever could be and
had developed an aura of respect that quite a lot of males in the underground
home of the resistance lacked.
"Imanhoe's got his
pants in a twist over the weapons that Chris was supposed to get" Jill said
"He's screwed up right now, so expect a damned rude answer if you try to talk
to him"
Rebecca nodded in strong agreement.
"Yeah, earlier I brought him the report from C-Team's food raid
three days ago, and when he asked if I had D-Team's too, he then practically
bit my head off when I said I didn't!!"
She shook her head.
"Why does that guy have to swear so much, it's not as if I'm a
zombie or anything, I mean jeez…"
Leon nodded.
"I understand Becky. I get the picture"
There was a clang behind them. Leon spun on his feet to see that
the door had opened, and Claire Redfield, the younger sister of Chris had
walked in. She wore blue jeans and her famous red jacket on top of a black
T-Shirt.
She saw Leon, and her melancholy face improved.
"Leon!" she said, and gave him a strong hug "Thank god you're
okay!"
Stunned by her reaction, Leon struggled to find words to say.
"Uh…it's good to see you Claire," he said.
Claire drew back, smiling now.
"I was worried there – Those zombies were sure tough creeps,
huh?"
Leon nodded.
"Right on"
Her hand pulled out the twin semi-automatic Berettas she carried
around with her all the time. Whenever she felt slightly emotional her hand
travelled down to her weapons.
It was like she wanted to feel secure, she'd told him once.
"It's good to see you in one piece – you could be in several by
now"
Leon laughed.
"Well I'm not yet, so be on your toes"
Claire laughed softly.
She turned to Jill and Rebecca.
"What's new?"
"Nothing. A little food shortage as I said to Leon, but apart
from that – everything's just like usual"
"That bad, huh?" Claire pointed out.
There was a long sullen silence. Things were never particularly
easy down here – apart from starvation, thirst, decapitation, infection and
burning - things could have been a treat.
"LEON!!" there was a loud and aggressive call from across the
room that made five or six computer operators look up, and gulp.
Jill, Rebecca and Claire gave him the kind of look you would
give to a condemned prisoner whom you felt sorry for. Leon nodded, and jogged
across the room, and up some metal steps towards the office where Imanhoe sat most
of the time. Leon didn't like Imanhoe – Imanhoe was a brash, arrogant but
unfortunately very clever man who had a short temper and zero tolerance for
people like Leon.
He stepped into the office, where Imanhoe sat – strangely quiet
for the person he usually was.
"You wanted to see me?" Leon said, his voice dry and not at
all afraid.
"Yes…" Imanhoe said, turning around. Imanhoes' face was stony
and uncompromising. He glared at Leon with two bright green eyes, and then
began to speak.
"Leon…You nearly got yourself killed today"
Leon nodded, apologetically.
"I'm sorry"
"Leon, I don't want an apology…I want to tell you to not to
practically kill yourself in future – Damn, you're one of my best fighters,
you're important to me…to all of us"
He sat down.
"You're one of the reasons people still have hope around here,
one of the reasons people still have the courage to fight"
He looked up at Leon
"And you ain't no good to us if you get killed, do I make myself
clear?"
Leon nodded.
"Permission to be smug, sir"
Imanhoe rolled his eyes.
"Permission granted"
Leon grinned, expansively.
"Now get outta here, and get some rest. I'm bumping you up to
the next assignment, when you're ready"
Leon shifted in his seat as Imanhoe dimmed the lights, Jill sat
just behind him and Claire to his left. Also with them was young Luke, leaning
back idly in his seat, and from the popping sound that emanated from him every
now and then, was obviously chewing some bubblegum. Leon didn't even know it
had existed anymore, so the thought of Bubblegum startled him.
"Okay people" Imanhoe said, glaring at Luke, who promptly
stopped chewing under his baleful gaze "Listen up"
He pulled down a projector sheet that was fixed to the wall of
the Briefing room, a fairly small room which, with their dry humour they
described as 'The Small Room' which like the rest of the underground complex
was made entirely out of concrete, with rough concrete floors.
Metal chairs were scattered across the room like litter, only
ones that were needed were actually sitting up. Imanhoe hated untidy people,
and hated more people who ate while he talked. Which was not a good look out
for Luke.
He pressed a button, and suddenly the sheet was illuminated
with a complex map, streets and highways covering it like varicose veins and
small grey, red and green blobs indicating various buildings. Across the top
part of the map was written 'GREGAVILLE AND THE OUTER LIMITS'
"Right" he said "This is a big out-of-town mission, so it is
essential you listen hard"
A short silence, mainly for effect, then…
"As you all know, Chris Redfield disappeared about a week ago,
approximately thirty miles north of here at an abandoned Airbase"
He raised his hand, and spread two stained fingers.
"First objective: Capture the Weapons cache, and bring it back
here. Second objective: Investigate Chris's disappearance, and find what you
can"
Jill raised her hand.
"Yes, Jill?"
"A question – How do we get out of the city?"
Imanhoe smiled.
"I was just getting to that"
He pointed to a white, black-edged box somewhere to the north.
"This is an old vehicle compound, where there are a lot of old
vehicles, including one or two army Jeeps that should still be working, but
there are plenty of spare parts around if repairs or replacements are needed"
"Sir" Claire raised her hand "Replacements are needed - He's
called Luke"
Everybody, apart from Luke, snickered.
"Can it, Claire" he snapped.
"The vehicle compound, unfortunately, is not only just on the
border of the outer limits, but also in Terra-Umbrella's territory – But a
sneaky night infiltration should get you in and then you'll be able to break
out of the compound and continue your mission"
"Sir" Leon asked "How do we get there without encountering
zombies?"
"Take the sewer route – It stinks, but it's scenic"
There were one or two laughs.
"We can give you the weapons and ammo we can, but apart from
that we can't give you that much more than an average patrol group – Although
maybe we can spare a few extra clips for you"
He nodded.
"That'll be all. You're leaving tonight, 11pm – So get some
rest before then"
Leon adjusted the strap on his M16, and then gently helped
Claire into the knee-deep filth of the sewer tunnel.
"Yeuch" she wrinkled her nose "We are going to seriously stink"
"Well, we only have to walk IN the sewage until we reach the
end of this section of the tunnel"
She grinned. Then, she squeezed his hand.
"And we've got each other"
Leon blushed a little.
"Yeah" he said.
"Um…" Jill was also standing in the sewage, drumming her
fingers on her hip "…Don't want to interrupt any 'moments' here, but we are
standing knee-deep in sewage"
The smell was absolutely awful, Leon tried to block out the
all-permeating stink, but with little success.
"Okay" Rebecca said, jumping into the sewage with a splash
"Let's go!"
Luke rolled his eyes, and jumped in after.
Apart from the splashing sound of them all wading through the
stinking sewage, there were no other sounds. Apart from the persistent drip-drip
of water from mysterious cracks in the ceiling and mysterious scrabbling
sounds in the walls, there was nothing else to hear.
They were all overwhelmingly glad to reach the other end, to
haul themselves out of the reeking muck.
"Phew" Luke said, trying to waft the smell away from his legs
"We stink"
"At least if one of us farts nobody'll notice" Leon pointed
out.
Claire laughed, followed by Jill, Rebecca and Luke.
They walked down the concrete platform that bordered the
sewer tunnel in single file,
Their boots clicked on the concrete, echoing loudly, the sounds
ricocheting off the circular walls and down the tunnel.
"Keep your eye out for hunters" Jill warned "We had five in
here two days ago, we might have more here now"
"Right" Leon said.
They walked and walked, and most of the time silently. You
didn't risk chatting that much when you were in the sewer tunnels, you didn't
know how far your voice could carry.
It took twenty minutes to reach the sewer ladder, which was
situated right at the end of the tunnel.
Rebecca stared at the ladder.
"The only way is up" she commented, as Leon mounted it,
climbing up towards the closed manhole cover.
He grasped its edges, and heaved.
With a screeching groan, the lid reluctantly moved, and Leon
pushed it open. He exhaled, and peeked out of the top.
Leon could see the deserted street, abandoned shops and a
coffee shop that still had a few circular tables sitting outside, some upright
but others lying on their side, paper cups rolling around on the ground,
creating faint rattling sounds as they met small sharp pieces of debris from
the buildings that made up the street. The other sound was of the wind sowing
down the abandoned street, a few stars creating an eerie blue glow through the
cloud layer, making the place seem even deader than usual.
Leon gave them the all-clear signal, they cautiously climbed
out into the cool night, the wind howling through their guts.
Leon nodded at them, and they walked, in pairs this time, Leon
with Claire, Jill with Rebecca and Luke bringing up the rear.
Their boots crunched on gravel-like debris, all of them
looking around at the abandoned or bombed out buildings.
Some buildings were almost totally intact, with little damage
done, while others looked as if somebody had taken a giant ice cream scoop and
gouged a huge gash in the side of them.
"To think…" Claire said softly "That people lived here once.
Ordinary people"
There were a few moans up ahead. They stopped dead in their
tracks.
"Oh shit…" Leon muttered "Zombies"
Seven of them, dressed in ragged civvies clothing lurched
down the street towards them. To the zombies, they were food, and nothing more.
They raised their weapons to counter the zombie threat, when
with a soul-shattering crash of glass the window of a shop the zombies happened
to be passing exploded outwards, shards of glass crashing over the street like
solid rain. Out leapt three dark shapes, which landed on top of four of the
zombies, and in a few seconds there was the revolting sound of tearing flesh,
ripping sinew and crunching bone – accompanying this was the cold, bloody
screech that sent a shiver through their spines…The cry of the hunter.
The three hunters, having ripped apart their zombie prey in a
matter of seconds and having gorged upon the putrid carcasses just as quickly,
turned, still hungry towards the four humans.
Leon gulped.
"Fire" he said, quickly, and within seconds they withdrew
their weapons and the staccato snigger of gunfire filled the air as it so often
did, Leon, Claire and Jill taking one hunter each, while Rebecca and Luke gave
the three remaining zombies a baptism of lead.
Then the abrupt noise of guns and mayhem ceased, silence
filling the air once again, apart from the lonely sounds of the wind.
"Okay" Leon said, lowering his smoking M16 "Why don't we just
get to the compound and save all our ammo now by switching to Beretta's or just
avoiding creatures now, huh?"
"Good idea" Claire said "We need ammo for the whole trip, so
we'd better save"
"Now we've decided that" Jill said, stretching "We'd better
find this vehicle compound"
The vehicle compound had a high fence, but the gate was
hanging off its hinges, so they entered the wire fence-bound compound with
complete ease.
"There" Jill pointed to a dark green jeep, parked against the
wall. They were so used to living in the dark that torches were only used when
it was pitch black, and so this murky blueness was a piece of cake for
them.
"That was easy enough" Rebecca remarked, as they walked along
aisles of abandoned cars towards the vehicles.
They heard a human voice. A shout.
"HALT! TRESPASSERS!"
They spun around to see a black clad trooper, the distinctive
logo of Umbrella emblazoned on his uniform top.
"I speak too soon" Rebecca groaned, as they all ran up to the
jeep, Leon yanking open the drivers seat and jumping in, Claire leaping into
the passenger seat as the others climbed onto the back of it.
"Hey!" Luke's eyes lit up as he spied a Rocket launcher on a
tripod leaning on the back of the jeep "Nice piece of firepower!"
"I'M using it" Rebecca insisted, as Leon quickly hotwired the
car. There was a spark, a curse and then a roar from the engine. Leon gunned
the engine, and with a screech of tyres that practically removed all of the
rubber from them, took off across the wide-open concrete space that had
presumably once been a car-park, pursued by a hail of gunfire from the guards.
Leon gripped the wheel, and yanked it hard to the left as he
heard the cough of gunfire speckle the rear left corner of the jeep, watching
in the rear view mirror as Jill, Rebecca and Luke dropped to the deck, keeping
low amidst the gunfire.
As he looked out of the window, Leon spied a truck…driving
right into the gap where he'd tried to leave the compound! It was their only
means of escape!
"They've blocked off the exit!" Jill yelled "What do we do?"
"It's called a rocket launcher!" Claire cried back as Leon
took the car into a vicious skid that nearly took it straight into the chain
link fence "Use it!"
"ON WHAT?" Jill yelled back "THE TRUCK?"
"IMPROVISE!!" Leon shouted.
Rebecca eyed the launcher, and tried to stand it up.
"Hey!" Luke said, loudly above the roar of the engine and the
constant rattle of gunfire "You couldn't hit a barn door at thirty paces with a
beretta, what makes you think you'd be able to hit anything with that?"
Rebecca glared at him.
"As a matter of fact" she said, preparing to load the
launcher "I have been practicing"
Leon found that the jeep was screaming towards the fence
nearest to the Umbrella truck, and gritted his teeth as he swung the wheel
savagely
"Hold on, people!"
Leon shouted "We might scrape the fence a bit!"
Claire nodded, and gripped the seat as Leon brought the jeep
around in an arc that nearly sent it through the fence completely.
Leon's face took on an expression that stated pure
determination as the jeep scraped the fence, sparks dancing off the affected
areas as they dragged along it before shooting off in the opposite direction
towards the opposite fence. Beyond that fence was a grassy field with the main
highway stretching off into the distance like a long black strip of liquid
liquorice.
But there was still a fence.
"If you can't use that rocket launcher in less than fifteen
seconds we're going to be flesh paste!" Leon yelled "At the speed we're going,
we won't stop in time!"
Rebecca nodded hurriedly, and fumbled a rocket into the
chamber, setting it up as Luke released a hail of gunfire at the inanely
inaccurate Terra-Umbrella soldiers.
"Damn it!" Rebecca cursed as the launcher swayed wildly in
her grip.
"BECCA!" Leon yelled "FIRE THE DAMNED THING!!"
There was a hiss, a shriek and they saw the white rocket shoot
out in front of them, leaving behind a white vapour trail as it screamed across
the compound before impacting on the wire fence directly ahead. There was an
explosion, and in a few seconds the wire fence was torn apart by a powerful
orange fireball, sending burned pieces of wire hurtling through the air as the
fence burst.
All that was left was a wide, and ragged hole in the chain
link.
"GO! GO!" Claire yelled as Leon accelerated, and took the jeep through the hole in the fence, out onto the grassy field and tearing up grass and muddy lumps of rubbish before bouncing back onto the main road, and before the Umbrella Soldiers could react, in a belch of dark dust, the jeep was gone, speeding off down the highway.
END OF PART TWO