Gaiden: Resident Evil SIV

Chapter Nine: Unexpected Help

Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta! Flashes of light illuminated the doorway as the unknown woman with long red hair began shooting, but as dozens of casings bounced off the floor and the noise echoed throughout the corridor, Leon was surprised to find that he was not the one being aimed at. A few of the bullets missed their mark, sparking as they bounced off the walls, but most of them struck Tobias in the torso, making the creature cry out in pain as he was driven back; arms up in a futile attempt to protect himself as he was struck again and again.

Little splashes of discolored red blood came out of each wound, leaving a light spray pattern that was easily visible against the gray metal and concrete, but as many times as Tobias was hit, including one instance where the small caliber bullet slammed right into the side of his head… the creature was still on his feet… although his yellow eyes didn't seem to be glowing nearly as brightly as they had been before, if that meant anything.

Click. Finally the woman's TMP ran out of ammo, leaving the corridor suddenly silent as smoke flowed out from the woman's barrel, and Tobias's now shaking arms slowly lowering. In fact, his whole body was trembling a little as if the hail of gunfire had really taken it out of him… well, the Agent certainly hoped that it had done some damage, given that the creature had been shot more than two dozen times with an extended clip, which the mystery woman was now trying to quickly reload.

"You… little… bitch." Tobias growled, the last of the glow fading from his eyes as several of his wounds started closing. "I'm… going… to…

The creature had started to walk toward her, when there was more movement as this time a man with short black hair came through the door, getting in front of the mystery woman while at the same time aiming the Benelli M3 Shotgun that was in his hands. Boom! Click-click. Boom! The first shell halted Tobias's advance as it struck him in the stomach, and then the second one sent him reeling backwards from a direct hit to the chest that nearly tore all the way through his body.

Click-Click. Boom! The third shell hit his neck and part of the creature's face, this time knocking him off his feet, and there he lay motionless on the floor as his own blood pooled around him. Leon, during this whole exchange, had remained where he was on top of the crates, trying to process in his mind everything that had just happened… who were these people? Where the hell did they come from? And more importantly, why did they save him?

"How many more are there?" The red haired woman demanded, grabbing him and pulling him to his feet. "Is the cargo secure? Report, God damn it!"

The Agent tried to say something, but he was too shocked by everything that had happened, to actually form a full sentence, especially without knowing who these two were. Had HQ sent more backup without telling him? Either way, the red haired woman got tired of his blank stare pretty quickly, and instructed her partner, whose name was apparently Curtis, to go and check on what she only referred to as The Cargo. Taking a key off his belt, Curtis walked back through the door, opening some of the padlocks on the sealed rooms, and briefly looking inside before locking them again.

"Oh shit!" He suddenly exclaimed, turning back toward them. "Cora, the kid's gone! It looks like someone shot off the… aw crap, look out!"

Bang! The red haired woman, Cora apparently, turned around just in time to gasp as her cheek was grazed by a bullet fired from a revolver… a revolver that was being held by Tobias and… and how the hell was he still alive? The bullet continued past her down the hallway, sparking as it bounced off the door, and making Curtis cry out when it tore through his leg, making him collapse to the floor. As for Tobias, not only was he not dead and able to fire a weapon while sitting up, but then the creature used the distraction of shooting Curtis in order to crawl away, vanishing around the corner into another hallway before anyone could do anything.

"Damn it!" Cora exclaimed, pulling Leon along as she backed away from where the creature had vanished. "Come on, we gotta go! Help me with Curtis!"

Once again in control of himself, now that she shock of everything had worn off, the Agent stumbled along with her, and found himself putting the wounded man's arm around his shoulder… after stopping a moment to reclaim his lost pistol, which had fallen near the now open door to Lucia's room. The little girl he had seen before was definitely gone, and the padlock that had held the door shut was lying in pieces nearby… must've been hit when Tobias's revolver had first gone off during their struggle.

"Let's go, people, move it." Cora ordered, keeping the hallway covered with her reloaded TMP while Leon helped Curtis along. "We need to regroup and find out what the hell that thing was."

Together the three of them moved down the metal hallway, all the way down toward the other end of the ship, where Cora led them up another stairwell. Passing the engineering and service decks, but stopping at the very lowest of Third Class. Leon thought for sure that they were going to be seen by the passengers, but apparently the ones staying there didn't want to spend much time hanging out in these sparsely decorated lodgings, since there was absolutely no one around.

"All right, in here." She said after using the keycard around her neck on the very first door. "Come on, before somebody sees."

Pushing the door open, they entering what looked like where a bunch of sailors would have slept in an old movie; small cots mounted permanently on the wall, a few random pieces of furniture, and no bathroom… huh, must have been community facilities in the lower class sections. There were also two others, a stocky man and a really petite woman, who didn't seem that surprised, rather only concerned when Curtis was brought in. The small woman immediately took out what looked like a medical kit from underneath her cot, beginning to evaluate the wounded man while Cora quietly pulled Leon aside from everyone else.

"So what are you, UBCS?" She asked, folding her arms as she looked him up and down. "What else could you be, the way you just charged in there and attacked the first thing to come snooping around? Well, I got news for you, Death Wish, this isn't one of your suicide missions… if you wanna work with the USS, you're gonna need to use your brain and not just your guns, understand?"

For like the ten thousandth time today, Leon found himself confused by what Cora was saying to him… that is, until he remembered what the acronyms UBCS and USS stood for when it came to dealing with Umbrella. The UBCS, or Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service, was supposedly a group of hired mercenaries that the company sent in on occasion to try and contain situations like the outbreak in Raccoon City. The USS on the other hand, or Umbrella Secret Service, was supposed to be made up of the company's very best, and used for covert operations.

Good news in all this? He had managed to find all of the Umbrella agents onboard the Starlight. Bad news in all this? He was standing right there in the middle of their base like a goon while their leader grilled him. Okay, if the Agent was to survive this, then he needed to pass himself off as some UBCS thug, maybe an officer or something… but wait a second, if these people were working for Umbrella, but Tobias wasn't with them… then who in the hell were he and Gillette working for?

"Okay, we made it back, and everyone's still alive… so yay for that." The red haired woman continued, pulling him back over toward the others. "First introductions: I'm Cora, the Captain of this merry little band. You already met Curtis, our point man; and over here is our sawbones, Katelyn, and our muscle, Tiny. Everyone, this is…

"Uh, Leon." The Agent answered after a slight hesitation. "I'm Leon from, uh… the UBCS."

"Yeah, I fricken thought so, you crazy asshole." Curtis replied, groaning a bit as Katelyn tended to his leg. "Walking right down to the cargo just to lure that thing out, and then taking it on by yourself… you must have balls of solid rock and a brain to match."

Everyone laughed a little at this, including Katelyn, causing her to slip and cause Curtis more pain, which in turn made everyone laugh again. Well, now that the pleasantries were over, and they seemed to accept him, Cora wanted his report on Tobias, as in every single detail he could remember. There was no harm in sharing this, since the creature seemed to want them dead as well, so the Agent told them everything he could, none of which seemed to really interest them until he got to the part about the P-001 tattoo on his forearm.

With a sudden serious look on her face the Captain told Tiny to make sure the door was secure, and then went to her own cot, where she took a small laptop computer out from under the mattress. It was smaller than any that Leon had ever seen before, and proudly displayed the Umbrella Corporation logo when opened, prompting Cora to enter a series of passwords that she typed too quickly for him to see.

"What's all that?" Leon asked.

"This is UCDB#7." The Captain replied, pushing her hair back behind one ear before typing again. "Normally I'd shoot you for even knowing that I have it, but you need to know in case for some reason you're the last of us alive."

According to Cora, UCDB#7 stood for the seventh of a series of twelve Umbrella Corporation Database Backup devices. It was no secret that the company wasn't doing so well these days, and with more facilities being lost all the time, all elite USS teams were issued a complete backup of all company files, to either be delivered upon the establishment of a new headquarters, or destroyed if the team was compromised.

"Are you telling me that Umbrella's entire database is on that computer right there?" The Agent asked, trying to move closer but stopping when she started to close the lid. "As in like… everything?"

"I know, right, one hell of a responsibility." Tiny said, laughing a little. "We're all up the creek if anything happens to it… I bet you wish you stayed on the front lines now, huh, merc?"

Everyone laughed a little again, and Leon did as well, but the whole time his eyes were on that tiny computer. He was going to need these people's help to deal with Tobias, that was for sure, but if he could also somehow get his hands on UCDB#7 and get it back to HQ… then the fight against Umbrella would be over before they could blink. But how was he going to get it?