Remnants
Chapter 7
"Chris, you and Jill go and check out the BSAA building, seeing as you've been there before. See what's left of the place and try to find a way to get in touch with the local PD. They're not gonna know about having to contain the outbreak. Claire and I'll search around the area and see what we can find out." Leon told Chris, then turned to Ada. "What are you gonna do?"
"I'm gonna go look around, see if I can spot anything you and Claire miss. I'll try and get in contact with Tricell and see what they have to say about all this. Maybe they don't know I've left them yet; they might still tell me what's going on." She said, leaning against a street light that had been smashed and was bent on a thirty degree angle to the ground.
"Okay. Take this," Leon said, handing her his radio, "if you find anything interesting, let us know."
"Will do."
Ada took the radio and smiled at Leon gratefully.
"And Leon, be careful."
Leon smiled at her warmly and nodded.
"Count on it."
The five of them split off in their three directions, knives in hand. The hot blaze of the burning BSAA building made it difficult to see what was going on around the area, but all of them could smell the putrid, wafting stench of death heavy in the air. And after years of dealing with bio-organic weaponry, it was a smell they were far too used to, and far too experienced to ignore. There had been a biohazard outbreak in the outskirts of the city; the only question was who was responsible.
"Chris, its Rebecca. Are you there?"
"I hear you, Becca. Talk to me." Chris replied in his normal, serious tone.
"We've just heard word from your HQ, be expecting a massive viral outbreak. We don't know any details, only that there was an explosion hours ago at the BSAA building and then everybody was dead. The only thing we know for sure is that everyone in a ten mile radius of the BSAA building is now infected. It could be an airborne strain like the T-Virus, but we're not sure at this stage."
Chris was suddenly mortified.
"You mean you just dropped us off in a contaminated zone? We could be infected?!"
"I'm sorry, we didn't know. We could be infected too. But until we find out more about this biohazard, we're not allowed to go back in to evac you. If you find anything else out, be sure to contact me. Carlos and I will try to get some more weapons on board this thing so we can give you support from the air."
"Alright then. We'll be in touch, Becca. Stay frosty up there."
"Will do. And again, I'm sorry."
Chris put the radio back onto his belt, feeling slightly resigned.
But I can't do anything about that until we get more intel. Stay cool, Redfield.
With that thought firmly in place, he nodded to Jill and they entered the burning remains of the BSAA building.
"If my memory serves me correctly, the first floor is reception, lockers, and storage. The second floor is intelligence, and the third floor is operations." Jill said, hands on hips.
"So we'll need to check the first floor for some ammo, then split up to take the other two floors."Chris replied.
"Right...well the weapons were all kept in a storage room out the back, near the garage. Let's go."
Carefully, the two of them walked past the reception desk, noting the locker rooms on the left and right. The BSAA building wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either. The garage took up most of the space on the first floor, so the rest of it wasn't all that big. It wouldn't take them long to go through it before heading upstairs. They reached the door to the weapons storage room, and Jill looked at the bottom of the door hoping that there wouldn't be any smoke coming out from under it. There wasn't, so she opened it carefully, her knife at the ready. Nothing ugly popped out to try and eat her, so she entered. There were shelves on the left and right, along the walls of the rectangular room. Straight ahead there was a larger set of shelves that split the room in a sort of 'O' shape. Jill remembered that the shelves in the middle were for heavy weapons, the ones on her left and right were for the smaller ones, like handguns and magnums. She turned to her left to try and find ammo for her pistol when she was shoved in the back hard. She fell face first to the hard linoleum, just getting her hands up in time to break her fall.
Careless. That was inexcusable, Jill, she told herself.
"Jill!" Chris yelled, and took a big step forward to punch the offender.
His punch landed solidly, knocking the Liberado off his feet and launching him into the heavy weapons shelves, which were...EMPTY.
That's not good. There weren't any operations in place that I was aware of, someone else must have taken those weapons. There were rocket launchers and all sorts of stuff there, if those pricks got their hands on-
Something grabbed him by the neck, choking him and shaking him harshly. Chris was so surprised by the empty shelves that he'd completely forgotten to check for more hostiles. He was trying to wrestle the Liberado away from him when a leg shot out from his left and hooked around the Liberado's neck. Jill had grabbed hold of an overhead pipe and swung up, wrapping the crook of her right knee around its neck. She let go of the pipe with one hand to grab her right foot and swiftly snapped it to the left. The Liberado's neck broke instantly, and it slumped to the ground.
"Get down!" She yelled, after landing back on the ground.
Chris ducked, and Jill lunged forward with her knife now in hand again. She thrust it out, stabbing another one in the throat. The Liberado let out a defeated gargle, blood bubbling up in its throat and spraying around wildly as it tried to yell. Chris got up and looked around, but saw no others.
"Thanks. That was close." Chris said, dusting himself off.
"Let's just hope there's some ammo left in here that we can use. I'd rather not have to do that again. Shooting is much easier."
"Yeah, agreed. It looks like someone took all the heavy stuff, though."
Chris pointed to the empty shelves in the centre of the room.
"That's not good. We have to tell Leon and Claire, and Rebecca and Ada."
"Okay, you do that while I try and find us some ammo."
Chris walked slowly around the room while Jill pulled her radio from her belt.
"Claire, Rebecca, Ada, we've got a problem." She said.
"You mean besides a viral outbreak that might have infected us?" Claire replied.
"Yes, besides that. We're in the BSAA gun storage room, and all the heavy weapons are gone."
"What do you mean by 'heavy weapons'?" Ada asked.
"I mean there was an entire set of shelves five metres long that was loaded with rocket launchers, grenades and automatics. They're all gone. I can't say for sure, but I think the odds are pretty high that the Liberados' took them."
"Well, we haven't found anyone yet. But we haven't gotten very far either. We're still trying to find some ammo." Claire said.
"Same here." Ada told them.
"I haven't heard anything new, but I'll keep you posted if I hear anything." Rebecca said in her tiny voice.
"Well be careful. If you spot anyone, don't be surprised if they throw a grenade at you or start shooting thousands of bullets."
Jill clipped the radio back onto her belt and noticed Chris grinning as he came back around from behind the central shelves. His hands were behind his back.
"What are you so pleased about?"
Chris brought his hands back around and produced a Remington M870 12-gauge shotgun.
"That's the best thing I've seen all day. Just like the one I used in the mansion, too." Jill said, managing a smile.
She walked up and took the gun out of his hands, giving him a peck on the cheek before strapping the gun to her back holster. She saw him blush a little, and she smiled.
"So what else did you find?"
"A couple of boxes of nine-mill ammo and shells, and some bullets for the cannon." He replied. "I've already stocked up. I found a speed loader in there too, and there's just enough bullets for it."
Chris smiled, brandishing the M500 magnum.
Boys, Jill thought, and smiled as she shook her head.
She went around grabbing all the remaining ammo, which wasn't much. There were ten shells for the shotgun and fifty nine-millimetre bullets all up. Once Chris had taken his share, there were only twenty five bullets between them.
"This is going to be fun." Jill said as she loaded up a handgun clip. "A whole area of town infected, and we've got shit-all ammo."
Chris looked sombre. He holstered the magnum and drew his P226 handgun.
"Come on, we better get moving. We need to find a way to alert the cops about this. Otherwise a whole lot more people are gonna be infected."
They exited the storage room and went straight for the reception desk. The locker rooms weren't worth checking out, the smoke was far too thick and the flames far too hot. Chris hoped that the phone at the desk was working, so he wouldn't have to go upstairs. He picked it up, but there was no dial tone.
"Damn. Looks like we're going up there after all."
Jill didn't react at all. It was as if she already knew what he was going to say before he even thought it. She started to move up the stairs to the intelligence floor when she stopped dead in her tracks.
"What is it?" Chris asked quietly.
"Run. We have to get out of here. NOW!"
Jill and Chris turned and bolted, running straight for the front doors. They were ten metres away when the roof suddenly crashed down in front of them. Jill screamed in surprise as she registered that their path to the door was now blocked by burning roof debris. She and Chris turned simultaneously, trying to remember another way out. Then they heard the footsteps – dozens of footsteps.
"Shit, they're all still alive." Chris blurted, raising his handgun.
"And hungry." Jill added.
Just as she finished speaking, a wave of Liberados came down the stairs, all dressed in either BSAA uniforms or suits with BSAA ID tags. They took one look at Jill and Chris and decided it was time to kill.
"Well I'm not waiting around to see what they can do." Chris said, turning back to the door. "Fire a shell at the door, we'll leap over the crap in front of it and charge straight through."
Jill drew the Remington and fired off an explosive blast at the big double doors at the front of the building, and it promptly blew out the handle section. The two of them bolted towards the doors, leaping over the burning rubble that had fallen in front of it and crashing through.
"Which way?" Jill asked in a panic.
Chris thought about it for a second.
Leon and Claire went right, and so did Ada.
"Left."
They bolted to their left, running down the empty, burning street. They ran for a good few hundred metres, away from the epicentre of the initial blast.
Whatever Tricell used to blow up the BSAA building and infect everyone, it mustn't have been very explosive, Chris thought. We've only run three hundred metres or so, and there's no fire down here.
"Stop for a moment." Chris said, putting his arm out to halt Jill.
"What is it?"
"There's no fire out here. So whatever Tricell blew up the BSAA building with must have relied on a heavy spread of the airborne virus." Chris surmised.
"So you think it might not last very long in the air?" Jill tried to think of a reasonable explanation.
"Yeah, I think so. Keep in mind that this isn't just a virus, it's a parasite too. If they infected the parasites with the T-Virus, it would still be a parasite. Meaning if they used an explosion to spread it, it wouldn't last very long at all. It'd be all over in a matter of minutes."
"And the rest of the spreading would be done by body fluid transfer..." Jill trailed off, thinking about it.
"Exactly. We need to find out exactly how far the infection spread, and cut it off. We can't allow this to get out. These Liberados are much smarter, stronger and faster than anything we've faced before. And if they've got the T-Virus in them, they're gonna be highly contagious as well."
Jill nodded sternly.
"Let's go then. We need to contact the others and tell them what we've found out, too."
Jill grabbed her radio and started talking.
"Claire, Ada, Rebecca. I don't know if you've noticed, but the explosion wasn't very large. Chris and I theorised that the actual spread of the infection would be limited because it's not a virus, it's a parasite, so it's not gonna last as long in the air. They're relying on the infected to spread it. We need to find out how far it's spread and make sure it doesn't get any further. And we need to hurry. We're dealing with people infected with the Plaga parasite and the T-Virus so it's gonna be very, very contagious."
The others all said their affirmatives in turn. Chris and Jill went running down the road again, this time at a jog, keeping a close eye out for anyone infected.
"Chris, let's check out some of the houses." Jill jogged towards one of the houses on the side of the road, choosing one with lights on inside.
As she approached the house, a woman of about forty years came outside.
"What's happening? I heard yelling outside, it's been quiet for so long." She said, approaching Jill.
"You have to get out of here! There's been a biohazard outbreak, it might not be safe" Jill yelled.
"Biohazard? You mean like what happened to Raccoon City all those years ago?" She asked, suddenly looking terrified.
"Yes! Just like that! You have to get out of here, and try to warn as many people as you possibly can."
"Okay..." the woman trailed off, but kept walking towards her.
"What are you doing? Didn't you hear what I just said?"
Jill was flabbergasted. Why wasn't she running away?
"I heard you. Don't you think I would have run hours ago?"
It suddenly occurred to Jill that Rebecca said the explosion had happened hours ago. It was already approaching daybreak. The woman would have heard the explosion and gone running, or seen the Liberados. She'd either be dead, infected or far away by now if she had half a brain.
"Get back, Jill. I think she's about to change." Chris said, taking his handgun from its holster.
Jill stepped back a few paces, and suddenly the woman's right arm grew a foot longer. Acidic, slimy yellow goo spraying everywhere as her skin was dissolved, revealing darkened muscle tissue. Long claws sprouted from where her hand used to be, and then all of her skin started to melt away. She grew bulkier, her muscle tissue expanding, and more acidic slime sprayed, narrowly missing Jill. The woman was screaming; a violent, gurgling scream that reeked of pain-racked pleasure. Jill watched in stunned horror as the woman grew a foot taller, her chest heaving as the muscles expanded painfully. Then her left arm changed too, becoming like her other one. The only thing on the woman's entire body that was retained from her humanity was her hair.
"We should go. Now." Chris said, turning to run.
Jill was already moving, several steps ahead of him as they ran at top speed away from the deformed, clawed woman. They heard an ear-blasting shriek from behind them, and suddenly the monstrous once-woman had landed right in front of them, chest heaving and a sickly grin on her face.
"Jill's not answering her radio. Neither is Chris." Claire said sadly, putting the radio back onto her belt.
"We'll have to go look for them." Leon said. "They might be in trouble. But I'm gonna call Hunnigan first and see if I can get some support here."
"Sure." Claire said casually, leaning against a brick building and rubbing her sore thighs.
She suddenly remembered how long it had been since she's taken a rest.
I can't wait to take a nice hot shower. She looked across at Leon as he fiddled with his PDA, and smiled to herself.
Maybe with him.
She waited patiently for Leon to finish making the call, mindlessly adjusting her vest and tiny shorts, then re-tying her ponytail. Then she realised how ridiculous she was being.
I'm in an area that's just been blasted to shit by an evil pharmaceutical conglomerate, all the people in the area are infected and trying to kill me, Jill and Chris aren't responding, and I'm worried about what Leon's gonna think of my appearance? Get a grip, Claire.
Leon smiled when the PDA's screen showed a moderate signal coming through.
Good enough, he thought.
"Leon, what's happening over there?" Hunnigan asked as her face appeared on the little screen.
"Hunnigan. There's been an outbreak here in the city and the BSAA headquarters are down. We can't get in touch with any of the local police, and we've just lost contact with Chris and Jill. We're gonna go back for them, but I need you to order an evac of one kilometre from the BSAA building, excluding the blast radius of five hundred metres."
"And an air strike, right?" Hunnigan asked.
"Right." Leon nodded. "We can't take any risks. We've scouted around, and there are people who aren't infected from five hundred metres onwards from the epicentre, but everyone inside that area is history. And we need to move fast; this infection can be spread by blood."
"Okay, I'll get right on it, Leon. You have twenty minutes to get out of there. The police are already surrounding most of that area now, so it shouldn't take them long to get everyone out. Try and make it to the southern edge of the blast radius and give the police a hand in getting everyone out. And good luck finding Jill and Chris."
"Thanks, Hunnigan."
"You owe me, Leon."
Leon looked at his watch: 6:05am.
"We need to warn Ada and Rebecca, then go and get the others." Leon said, putting the PDA away.
"Right."
Claire took the radio out and started talking as they ran back the way they came, hopefully towards Chris and Jill.
"Ada, we've got twenty minutes before this whole place gets blown away. Get to the southern-most area of the blast zone and head south until you see the police. We're going after Chris and Jill, they're not answering."
"I'm already there. And I managed to get in touch with Tricell just a moment ago. They were sceptical when I told them I was here, but they still let me in on a little bit of what's happening. Chris was right: the airborne strain doesn't last long at all, and it spread about five hundred metres from the blast. They didn't say why they did it, but they did tell me about a test B.O.W. they released here. It's been created solely to kill Chris and Jill. They've been watching them since they entered the BSAA building, so head back that way and you'll find them. I'm gonna stick around here and try to give the cops a hand. I'm too far away to get there in time to be of much use to you."
With that done, Claire called Rebecca.
"Becca, make sure you don't fly over a one kilometre radius from the BSAA building. They're gonna fry the whole area."
"Okay. We found something very interesting north west of here. Where can we meet you guys?" Rebecca asked in her tiny voice.
"We'll be at a police barricade one k south of the BSAA building."
"Okay, see you then."
Claire clipped her radio back to her belt, and was suddenly thrown to her left by a strong hand. She landed heavily on her hip, grazing her left thigh a little. Surprised and shocked, she looked up to see what it was, and almost died with fright. A huge, clawed hand had pierced the bitumen road right where she had been standing.
"Stay down!" Leon yelled, and took aim at the owner of the claw's head with his handgun.
Chris and Jill had been running at top speed for what seemed like forever. The once-woman was hot on their heels the whole time, and they'd barely kept in front. But now Jill was slowing down, and Chris was getting concerned.
"Jill! Keep running!" Chris yelled.
"I can't! These stupid pants are slowing me down!" Jill yelled back.
Damn Harman, what a pain in the ass. Good thing he's dead, Chris thought.
"Chris! Watch out!"
Chris instinctively ducked, and the woman sailed over his head, landing in a crouch with her claws dug a few inches into the road, right next to...his sister.
"Stay down!"
Leon S Kennedy fired six rounds from his handgun in quick succession straight into the once-woman's head. It didn't even flinch in the slightest. Instead, it removed its claws from the road and walked straight at him. He fired the rest of his clip at the once-woman, and after unloading his fifteenth bullet it finally recoiled, screaming as its head became filled with the bullets and inhibited its ability to use its brain.
Claire got to her feet and ran towards the monstrosity, drawing a Benelli M4 shotgun. Jill saw what Claire was doing and drew her own shotgun, charging at the beast and aiming for the head. She looked at Claire briefly and nodded, and they pulled the triggers of their guns. Just as they pulled the triggers, the woman-beast pushed off the road with its powerful legs and leaped twenty feet into the air, making the shotguns spray into the road harmlessly. The beast kicked out with its two legs as it landed, kicking Claire and Jill into the road. They cried out in unison, their backs hitting the bitumen hard.
Chris seethed when he saw them both get hurt. He drew his magnum and pulled the trigger once, twice, three times, blasting chunks of skull and muscle tissue away from the monster's head. It screamed in furious agony, holding its head where Chris had blown parts of it off. The beast fell to its knees, still screaming. Chris prepared to fire again, and the beast took its hands away from its head, revealing the exposed brain tissue and flowing river of blood leaking from its wounds, trickling in a thick stream down the sides of its head. It didn't look hurt thought, just furious. Before Chris could make sense of it all and fire the magnum again, the beast brought its right hand back, then swung it forwards, releasing one of its claws. It shot straight out at him, piercing his left shoulder as he attempted to dodge. He grunted, grabbing the shoulder and applying quick pressure, dropping the M500 in the process.
The woman-beast smiled a hideous grin, blood still flowing freely from the holes in its mutated skull, and began to walk towards Chris, stepping over the limp and unconscious bodies of his partner and his sister. Chris fumbled for his magnum on the ground, knowing the handgun wouldn't do shit. He found it and grabbed it, never taking his eyes off the beast for a moment. Just as his fingers closed around the handgrip, the beast raced forward in a blur and stepped on his arm, forcing him to release the hand-cannon and pinning him to the road. It roared triumphantly, bringing its right arm back for a decapitating blow. Chris just grinned and gestured behind the beast. It turned around, and had its head and shoulders promptly blown away in a shower of sticky flesh and bright red blood.
"Hasta luego, motherfucker."
Leon was standing behind the fallen body of the once-woman, Remington M870 in one hand, Benelli M4 in the other.
"Thanks, man." Chris said, then ran over to Jill and Claire.
Leon picked Claire's head up off the ground, cradling it in his arms, stroking her hair.
"Claire, Claire wake up!"
She didn't stir, so Leon lightly slapped her face a few times.
"Did we win?" She asked groggily.
Leon smiled and laughed, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand.
"Yeah, that thing's long gone. Take a look." He pointed to the headless, shoulder-less corpse a few metres away.
Claire raised her eyebrows, then quickly turned away, totally grossed out.
"That's...impressive." She said.
Chris had roused Jill, and were enjoying a similar moment when Claire's radio went off.
"Claire! Leon, where are you? You've only got two minutes left before this place goes nova! Get the hell out of there!"
Leon looked at his watch and saw that it was twenty-three minutes past six.
Shit.
"We're coming, Ada."
"We need a car. We'll never get there in time on foot." Jill said.
"I'll go inside one of the houses and try to find a set of keys. There's gotta be at least one car around here." Claire suggested.
"Okay, I'll go with you." Chris said. "You two, stay here in case there are any more surprises."
Leon and Jill nodded and drew their handguns, then Chris and Claire raced towards the closest house with a car out the front. Chris ran at full pace at the door, jumping into the air and giving it an almighty kick. The door flew back and the two raced inside.
Claire looked at her watch: 6:23:20.
There was small table with a couple of hats on it, and some coats hanging by hooks above them. Chris swept the contents onto the floor, not hearing anything metallic.
Claire ran into a kitchen area, looking around for anywhere someone might keep keys, but saw nothing. The place was extraordinarily tidy, and nothing was out of place.
Straight down the white-walled hallway from the front door was a master bedroom, and Chris was sweeping the contents of everything onto the ground. Still there were no keys.
6:23:50.
Come on, come ON! Where the fuck are the damn keys?!
Claire raced into a living room, pushing everything off a coffee table in front of a big plasma TV, mostly magazines and newspapers. Then she heard the magical chink sound of keys hitting the carpet.
"CHRIS! I'VE FOUND THEM!"
6:24:04.
"Let's roll, then."
The two of them bolted out the front door as fast as they could possibly go, turning left one-hundred and eighty degrees to the house's car port, where an old GMC truck was parked.
"Chris! Look!"
Claire pointed at the sky in the distance, and saw a very small object streaking towards them, a tiny tail of efflux trailing it.
"Here it comes..."
Chris opened the driver's side door, got in and leaned over to unlock the passenger door for Claire. Jill and Leon came running up behind them.
"It's only a two-seater, you guys ride in the tray." Chris yelled back to them.
They jumped in without hesitation, and Chris fired the ignition. It started first time.
I love you too, old girl, Chris mentally kissed the car as he hammered the accelerator. The car lurched backwards and onto the empty street, Leon and Jill bouncing painfully around in the tray, holding on for dear life as Chris recklessly sped away towards the safety of the Police line.
6:24:34.
Chris checked the speedometer as he floored the truck's pedal, the truck in fourth and revving high. It read ninety miles per hour.
"There's the police line! We're almost there! We're gonna make it!" Claire yelled excitedly.
6:24:53.
Chris eased the brakes on, slowing to a reasonable speed before hammering the brake pedal and engaging the handbrake. The truck skidded sideways and smashed through a rough police barrier.
Then the sky and the entire horizon erupted in a fierce, searing flash that wiped out everything. The shockwave blew the truck away and it rolled for several metres, the Redfields still inside.
Jill looked around and spotted Leon a few metres away, already on his feet and rushing towards the overturned truck.
"They're inside!" He yelled.
As he spoke, half a dozen cops came running up to see what had happened.
Leon went to the passenger side door of the upside-down truck and tried to open it, but it was jarred shut from the impact of the rolling.
"Jill, give me a hand here."
She went around to where Leon was waiting, and placed her hands on the window frame of the door.
"On three." Leon said. "One, two, three!"
On the count of three, Jill and Leon pulled the door with all their strength. At first it didn't move much, but after a little help from a couple of the cops, the hinges gave way and the door cracked open with an ear-splitting shriek. Leon quickly reached inside and unbuckled Claire's seat belt, being careful to catch her as she fell from her awkward position.
"How about a little help over here, too?" Chris yelled from the driver's seat.
All six of the policemen went to Chris' aide and helped him out of the truck. He got out and shook himself off, checking his weapons first, then his body for injuries.
"Are you okay?"
Jill put her hands on his chest and stood close to him, looking up at him with concerned eyes. Chris smiled strongly.
"I'm fine, thanks. Couple of bruises, that's all."
Claire opened her eyes and looked around. All she saw was burning. Fire was coming from every facet of everywhere she could see. Nearby buildings were mostly intact, minus the fire, but the ones in the distance were all but destroyed. Roofs were completely gone, second storeys were ripped in half, and flames came from everywhere. And the truck was useless
"Oh my god..." she whispered.
"Welcome back."
Startled, she turned around to see that Leon was sitting next to her, leaning against a brick wall. She looked down, and saw that she too was sitting and leaning against the very same wall. And in the opposite direction to which she'd first been looking, everything was totally normal. Normal shops and houses, normal cars parked on the roadside, normal people walking around.
"You got me out first, didn't you." She smiled knowingly.
"I may have."
Leon smiled back, and Claire rested her head on his shoulder.
"Leon, we're coming in. Make some room down there for us." Rebecca's little voice came over Claire's radio.
"Okay, hold on." He turned to Claire, who lifted her head. "Sorry, I gotta take care of this."
"I'll give you a hand." She said, getting to her feet.
"No, it's okay. I can handle it, you just rest for a moment." Leon said, ushering her back down.
Claire didn't know what to say exactly, so she just smiled a bit and sat back down.
Leon walked over to one of the cops who seemed to be doing the most delegating.
"Hey, I need to make some room for a chopper to come in and land here. Think you can help me out?"
"Sure thing, Agent Kennedy. I'll get right on it." The cop said.
They both moved off to push back the crowd of people who had gathered to see the spectacle. After a moment, Leon left it to the cops and went back to Claire.
"Hey, Leon."
Ada appeared behind Leon, smiling tiredly.
"Ada." He regarded her with a nod. "You coming with us? Rebecca said she had something to show us."
"I've got some business to take care of." She said, shifting her weight from her left leg to her right. "But hey, why don't you come with me? We could get out of all this...this fighting. Go away somewhere, like we should have years ago."
Ada stepped forward and took Leon's hands. She gently stroked them, looking into his eyes with her most sensitive, genuine look. Somehow though, she already knew what he was going to say.
"Sorry, Ada. After Raccoon City, I made it my life to destroy people and companies with ambitions like Umbrella's. This is who I am now. And I've got a mission to complete here."
He took a step back from her and removed his hands from her light grasp.
"On that day thirteen years ago, I probably would have said yes."
He looked around at Claire and smiled, then turned back to face Ada.
"But not now. Now I have another reason."
"I understand, Leon." Ada said, and smiled sadly. She was letting her emotions slip through her careful guard. "I'll miss you, you know."
"I'll miss you too. And thanks, for everything. I know how many times you've interfered with your missions and disobeyed direct orders just to help me out. I'll never forget it."
And with that, Leon and Ada said their final goodbyes – at least for the time being. Not being ones to show too much outward signs of emotion, they didn't make a big physical fuss of it.
Goodbye, Ada. I'll never forget you.
Leon watched her walk away, wondering if he'd ever see her again. It was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do. The only thing harder was watching her fall thirteen years ago, unable to pull her up because of the injured arm that she'd helped to fix.
Just as he was about to walk away and do something, anything else to take his mind off it, he felt Claire's arms around his waist.
"You alright?"
No.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"She's leaving for good, isn't she."
"Yeah."
He turned around and saw the sadness in her eyes, the sadness that came from concern for him. Regardless of the fact that Ada had asked him to go away with her, that he'd once had feelings for her, Claire was still concerned about whether he was sad or not. And he remembered one of the reasons he didn't go.
"I'm glad you're here." He said, turning around to face her.
Claire hugged him tightly for quite a few seconds, then winked as she pulled away.
"Hey, you two, you can cuddle on the chopper. Rebecca's got something to show us, remember? We have to go, right now." Jill shouted to them.
Sure enough, right behind Jill was a waiting helicopter, piloted by Rebecca Chambers, with Carlos Oliveira and Chris Redfield seated in the cabin.
Leon and Claire walked over to it and got in, and the chopper headed back the way they'd just come from. Back towards the facilities crawling with countless bio-organic weapons and the half-insane madmen who controlled them.
