The plane made a rough landing on the dirt runway and jolted to a stop as its passengers unbuckled themselves and grabbed their gear. On the makeshift tarmac, they were all briefed by the satellite team that had they had been briefed on.
"I'm Captain Hollis, you must be Harper and Kennedy." A burely man, about the size of Chris, said as he extended a hand toward them. They each shook it before he added, "Nice seeing you again, Redfield."
"Patrick." Chris said with a head nod. "I wish we had more time to get to know each other but it seems there's quite a crisis out here."
"Indeed. Follow me, we have a tent set up to brief you." They followed the Captain to his base of operations, a dimly lit tent set up on the opposite of where their plane had stopped. There were maps and photos, much like the ones Leon and Helena received at HQ, spread across a folding table. There was a notepad with barely legible notes scrawled across it. Helena could make out the words immediate action, all to be neutralized.
"The threat has made its way past city limits." Hollis said as he pointed out a few places on the map. "We've been given the order to take out the threat by any means necessary."
"Roger, what do you want us to do?" Leon asked, all business.
"I want you two to pull off whatever the hell you did in China. We need your brains and our brawn to get out of this mess, if you know what I'm saying. There's one asset we need you to bring to us alive. A scientist named Alvin Brooks. He's who spread this, and I want him alive. You'll find him in a neo-umbrella laboratory here." He said, pointing to another location on the other side of the city.
"How long do we have?"
"Sunrise. That's five hours. I'm impressed from what I've seen from the two of you, so I expect you won't let me down."
"We won't." Helena said. "Just show us the way in and we'll figure a way out."
"That's the spirit. Here, I've marked on this map every location in which you'll find the opportune areas to contain and destroy the threats. Your rifles will be assigned to you once you leave this tent as well as all the ammunition as you can carry on your person. My teams will be in designated locations to lay cover fire and do their part to take down the B.O.W.'s, we need you two to take out the infected."
"Thank you for your trust. We won't let you down." Leon took Helena's arm and began to guide her from the tent.
"Oh, and agents, don't die." Chris added.
"We'll try not to." Leon said, nodding to his friend and Hollis before the two walked out into the cold night.
Outside, Helena turned to Leon. "Do you…think that maybe they're going to do the same thing here like they did to Raccoon City. I saw some things he'd written and it sounds like that may be the plan."
"I don't know. I hope not, no city deserves that. Not again at least." Leon saw the tears threatening in her eyes, and with a quick glance to ensure no one was watching, he pulled her to him, lifting her chin with his finger so he could look her in the eyes. "Hey, stay strong, for me. Please Helena, I promise you I'll do whatever I can to fix this as long as you give me the same effort in return."
She nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I promise." She kissed him, deeply, before pulling back. "This do this. I already want to go home." Through her reddening eyes and the tears that were left, she forced a smile. Leon gently wiped those tears away and returned it with one of his own.
"Me too." He said. "Let's arm up."
After receiving their weapons, they headed for the safest alternative entrance to the city.
"Remember, don't fire unless you know they're a threat. There are civilians in there." Leon said, double checking his rifle before he nodded, confirming mission was a go.
They slipped by the broken area of a fence and were in the red zone. The scent of death and sounds of the undead were already evident. Staying silent, they made their way to an alley and carefully glanced around the corner. Nearly two dozen zombies were shambling through the street, not nearly as bad as they knew it had to be in the more populated areas of the city. Leon gave Helena a signal and they quietly moved behind a car, where they jointly opened fire, quickly dropping what was in their line of fire.
They moved on, down the street, and found it much more settled.
"It's too quiet." Helena whispered, stopping for a moment to take in their surroundings.
"Tell me about it. Something's not right." Leon replied. "Keep alert."
As soon as the words left his mouth, a large, grotesque B.O.W., almost as tall as the buildings, slowing bounded around a corner.
Leon and Helena darted toward an open building, trying to get out of its line of sight and not succeeding. The monster let out a blood curdling screech and made its way toward them, smashing the corner off an apartment building as he did. The pair ran down a hallway, hoping toward the other end of the building as the monster frantically looked around, trying to locate them.
Leon ducked into a small kitchen and pulled Helena with him. "I think it tracks by sound, I didn't see anything that would remotely resemble an eye on that thing. Keep low and quiet. " he said.
Helena nodded, and soon the sound of a heavy vehicle and a .50 caliber machine gun ripped the silence as a BSAA team responded to the incident.
"Looks like the cavalry's arrived. "Helena said, as she glanced around the corner to see the team assault the creature.
"Good, we can carry on our mission. Let's head upstairs and see if we can get a vantage point."
Carefully, they made their way up the staircase, taking note of a few unlucky souls who weren't lucky enough to escape the carnage. Upstairs, they had come to the conclusion that this was once an office building, as they came to a set of double doors at the end of the hall. Leon presumed this was a conference room, and their best bet at finding some sort of access to another roof top. Checking the handles, he found them locked and shook his head.
"We'll have to breach it." He said, and held up his fingers for a three count. With the nod of confirmation, he kicked open one of the doors while Helena aimed her weapon forward. Once inside, they found themselves staring at the wrong end of someone's pistol.
"Drop it!" Helena said, finger poised on her trigger.
Leon immediately lowered his as his jaw dropped.
A red head, with her hair pulled back and a red jacket mimicked his reaction and slowly lowered her gun.
"Leon?" She said, almost in disbelief.
"Claire." Leon said, greeting his old friend.
AN: So I didn't have much time or energy to preview this too much so I take full responsibility for any mistakes. I just wanted to update so I didn't go cold on this story like I have with ones before. As always, let me know how it's going. Suggestions and comments are always welcome.