Author Note: Continuation to Secret's and Flies that starts three months after the end. Love, betrayal, suspense and action are on the menu for this story as we watch our favourite band of Umbrella renegades give it their all too hopefully bring a final end to their hellish lifestyle. To do that, assistance will be required for some, unconventional characters...
I do not own the characters & this will be very different from any RE movie and/or video game plot (to date)
Please read & review as you wish!
B.
Update 06-Apr-2016: Thank-you for all the avid readers/comments/predictions/thoughts & ideas :) I appreciate it all!
I also want to give a personal shout-out to Eric, Bobby and Allen. You guys have been constant followers/supporters of this story and I appreciate all your comments and ideas as each chapter progresses. I wish I could respond to your reviews with comments in the review section, but because you have guest accounts, the site will not allow me to do so. So instead, I wanted to let you know here at the top of the next chapter that your suggestions are not falling on deaf ears. Please do keep in mind though that this is my story with a pre-planned plot points. I hope that'll help ease you through the events of the upcoming chapter. That being said, I'm also excited to hear what you have to say about what unfolds.
You all have great imaginations and if I don't incorporate your ideas here, it's not because they were bad, they just did not fit with my dynamic. Finally, you three should think of writing your own story. If you do, I'd love to read it and review just as faithfully as you have mine.
Without further adieu, I hope everyone is ready for the next installment with our band of misfits!
Chapter Twelve
-Alice-
She walked over to the soldiers loading gear into one of the beige hum-v's graciously being supplied by Wesker. The men stopped, saluting Alice as she walked by, their faces stone and eyes hard, staring off into the distance. Alice had never had that happen before, she was never in the military, not even Cadet's as a kid. Alice nodded curtly, relieving the men to return to loading piles of green rucksacks into the back of the truck already overflowing with supplies. It sickened Alice that Wesker was sitting on a surplus when people, like those who remained aboard the Arcadia, are trying to survive with next to none.
Ada approached from the left, her face flushed eyes narrowed. It was hard to tell if she was pissed off at Wesker's sudden change of heart, or that the man she clearly had some sort of affection for finally succumbing to the moral act of death. She grabbed Alice by the wrist her grip as tough as iron.
"I have something to show you." She whispered before pushing past, not waiting for Alice step in line.
Intrigued, Alice followed, catching Claire's wandering eye. She shrugged in response and caught up to Ada who'd disappeared into a military tent. A short, fat, cylindrical tube was perched on a metallic charging stand in the middle of the tent. Blue and yellow liquid swam inside the glass, glowing so bright it was almost blinding. There was a small keypad attached to the side showing the image of a battery and the percent rising.
"What the hell is this?" Alice asked.
"This is the weapon to destroy the Red Queen." Ada replied, as the machine beeped to signal it was charged.
"How?"
Ada pressed the numbers on the keypad as the weapon detached from three metal clamps in the charging base. "The code is 0-4-2-7 to arm it. You'll do so when you're as close as possible to the main chamber. Once armed you have three minutes before it explodes, wiping out anything, including the electrical circuits that run that bitch, within a 300 foot radius."
"What the hell's in it?"
"I don't know, and frankly I don't care. This was how Wesker got infected, when he and a group of soldiers tried to bring this weapon to the Pentagon a week ago."
Alice now understood why Ada was showing her this and no one else, "Wesker expects me to be use this because he believes I can resist her control." She stated, crossing her arms with a scowl.
Ada typed in another code, the liquid going dark and stagnate in the cylindrical tube. "It was why he wanted you here, why he had to wait until you had left the Moscow compound before sending Leon and I after you aboard that doomed ship."
"And what if I don't?"
"Then you've already gotten a preview into what will happen to you if you fail." Ada stated, getting bored of this conversation.
"Three minutes and three hundred feet...doesn't leave much room for error." said Alice.
She picked up the weapon by it's handle, surprised at how light it was. Wesker was one sneaky bastard, even in his last breath he still wanted to cover all his bases. With himself, the Red Queen and Project Alice gone it would be a true eradication of what remained of Umbrella's prodigal children.
Ada placed a hand on Alice's shoulder with a smirk, "I hope you can run fast." she called over her shoulder as she left the tent, Alice close on her heels.
Neither woman saw K-Mart's wide eyes poking through the flaps at the back of the tent, overhearing the entire conversation.
- Angela -
Everyone was moving with a purpose, even if they weren't apart of the Arcadia crew, they knew exactly what needed to happen in order to die. She sat on a bunk, dressed in military fatigues including a bullet proof vest. It made her laugh that these army assholes thought Kevlar would protect them from the creatures over the wall. They used teeth and claws, not bullets.
On the bed beside her were three weapons; a pistol and two machine guns. Her pockets were stuffed with ammo and a large hunting knife was strapped to the inside of her left ankle. She stood, looking at her reflection in the small mirror propped up against one of the tent poles. Her eyes were hollow, red hair pulled back into a pony tail as the freckles she had since a little girl stood out against her pale skin.
The bullet wound had healed well, but there was still pain when she moved too aggressively. That was okay, the pain reminded her she was still alive. Her breasts ached reminding her constantly that in five months she would've been a mother, finally have something worth living for. Now there was nothing, only darkness and sorrow.
She'd shed blood this one last time to keep her friends alive, but that was it.
Angela grabbed four grenades from the crate beside her, stuffing them into the pockets of her cargo pants before going to rejoin the group.
- Leon -
He stood with Chris, their arms folded over their chests, watching the unnamed foot soldiers loading up the trucks. He rose an eyebrow as Ada shoved an over sized duffel bag into the back of the truck giving Alice a sideways glance.
Leon turned to Chris, swiping his blonde bangs from his eyes, "So you and Alice have quite the history huh?"
Chris scowled, "Unfortunately yes."
"She seems like the type of person you'd want on your good side,"
Chris turned, looming over Leon as the musk of testosterone and anger floated around them like a cloud, "Whatever she's told you, it's a lie." He growled before pointing at Alice, "I'd watch my back if I were you."
"From who, you or her?" Leon called after him as Ada, who saw the altercation, walked towards him.
"You know, I can make it look like an accident once we're over this wall." She chided with a smirk.
"He's harmless, at least to everyone but himself. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
Leon frowned, "Are you sure? For the first time today I swear I saw you show emotion." He stated with a smile, noticing the kill look in her eyes, holding up his hands in surrender. "I'm not judging just asking, as a friend."
Leon reached out and put a hand on Ada's shoulder, but she grabbed his wrist and bent it behind his back, stretching it as far as she could.
"Friends are a sign of weakness and I'm not weak." Ada spat before letting go and walking off.
- Claire -
"Already everyone listen up!" She heard Alice yell as a sea of buzz cut, army brats turned to look at their newest leader.
Claire stopped tightening the straps on some cargo and walked over to K-Mart. The young girl was chewing her fingernails, some so bad that they were already starting to bleed.
"Hey, what's the matter?"
"N-Nothing," K-Mart stuttered, her face ashen and eyes darting from her back to Alice.
"Claire!" Alice yelled to catch the redheads attention, "You, K-Mart, and Leon are with me."
She gave a cut nod, "Sounds good." She called back and when Alice wouldn't break her stare she smiled in hopes that would ease the tension.
Alice continued handing out the assignments; Ada, Luther and another man named Mason, an ex police officer from Baltimore, were leaders of group two. This left Chris, Angela, and Jill to head up the third.
With no time for disagreements, they separated and got into their armored trucks. Driving single file towards the wall where a crew of welders was working on opening the metal slabs. Claire watched from the side window that was the size of a cracker box and made of thick bulletproof glass. Sparks rained down like sparklers in a Fourth of July festival. It was almost beautiful, even if for the most morbid of reasons.
They rolled to a stop as the gates opened, leading them into a safe zone between them and the next barricade. What the team thought was only one wall standing between them and the BOW's was really two identical, metal walls.
- K-Mart -
She looked out the small Plexiglas window of the vehicle eyeing the evenly spaced out gun turrets. They were two feet apart and not armed by people. They were automatic, drones controlled at a safe distance. It wouldn't surprise her if Wesker was in control of them from the comfort of the Oval Office. They waited in idling vehicles for the metal slabs behind them before those ahead opened bringing them face to face with whatever demons the Red Queen created in the last Umbrella lab still in operation.
Looking across her she saw a young boy, about the same age, with jet black, buzz cut hair and piercing brown eyes. He smiled nervously, his cheeks turning crimson while pretending to re-adjust the ammo pouch on his utility belt. K-Mart noted that the embroidered name tag on his vest "Mason"; the same last name as the ex cop in the convoy behind them.
"Is your dad the cop?" K-Mart asked.
"Yeah. I'm Jacob, what's your name?" He replied.
"K-Mart."
He rose his eyebrow skeptically, "That's a weird name."
She shrugged, growing so a custom to it that she forgot her real name. "It's where Claire and the others found me five years ago. Those who knew my name were dead so I decided to change it."
Jacob smiled as the truck's engine began to rumble back to life, jolting them forward in their bucket seats. "No time like an apocalypse to reinvent yourself. When my dad retired from the Police force he swore he'd never fire a gun again. Now he sleeps with a loaded one."
The gate ahead of them opened as darkness and silence stared back at them. The buildings were bulldozed or crimson with flames. The streets were barren and littered with dead bodies of creatures and soldiers picked clean to the bone. They edged further from the wall, their headlights illuminating desolate highway and charred grass. Where were all the monsters? The creatures that were targeted by turret guns and rocket launchers at a seemingly alarming rate.
"Do you guys see anything?" K-Mart asked, glued to the window.
Alice scanned the windshield from the passenger seat, trying to find any sign of movement. This silence was scaring her more than a bombardment of creatures. The Red Queen had a plan, and if she was able to sense that Alice was close, then whatever was in store for them was not going to end well. A deep feeling of dread began to brew inside her, but it was too late to back out now.
"Where the hell are they?" Jill's voice cracked over the radio.
"What the hell have you gotten us into Alice?" Chris barked, once again pissed at the woman's poor intuition.
As the gates were about to seal shut a loud screech came from above. A flood of winged creatures dove down from the sky, skimming over the military vehicles & diving into the opened gate to go attack the base camp. Rockets and gunfire erupted from the top of the wall as the sky illuminated with flashes of white.
"Shit! What the fuck!" Luther yelled over the radio as screams could be heard in the background.
"Drive!" Alice yelled to a solider with the name tag "Rogers" as he tried to put the truck into gear. It was then the creatures began to take an interest in the vehicles, pecking, clawing and headbutting the metal sides and roof trying to get in.
The truck rocked back and forth from the weight of the winged creatures piling a top of one another. One of the men went to man the flamethrower a top the vehicle in an attempt to scare them away so they could make a break for it. Instead, it aggravated them more, their disfigured faces, bulbous red eyes and large pointy ears chomped at the bulletproof windows with fangs as long as a grown mans foot. They screamed and squawked at their friends, the flames burning their large wings and furred bodies to a crisp.
Claire watched as the bats overran the wall, collecting in a mountain of dead bodies in the doorway, jamming it open. That was when more creatures, those with four or more legs and two or more heads rushed to the hoard, climbing the dead with their over-sized paws and claws, pounding again and again into the interior wall in hopes of breaking through.
"Jesus," she breathed and turned to Alice, "They're not interested in us, they want through that wall."
"Claire!" K-mart yelled as they turned to the blonde.
She watched a creature, a hybrid of a rhinoceros, an elephant, and the undead came barreling from shadows. It struck the side of the third armored truck as it rolled like a child's toy four times before resting on it's side. The creatures horned head was through the windshield, breaking the glass in one swift swipe. When it pulled out the drivers lifeless body was pierced atop the point like a marshmallow on a twig at a campfire. It did not take long for more bat creatures to dive bomb and pick at the dead body for there next meal.
"Chris! Jill!" Claire screamed just as there truck was hit on the side, tossing them around like rag dolls before it finally came to rest on its roof.
The sound of claws and teeth scrapping at the underbelly of the truck shook Claire back to consciousness, blood trickling from her head wound. She grabbed her assault rifle and shot upwards as the bats deformed head, exploded above like a popped balloon, blood showering down on her. Those who were knocked unconscious became quick food for the creatures, grabbing them from their strapped in bucket seats, ripping their torsos from their legs head first. Claire, Jacob, K-Mart, and Leon fired until they were temporarily deaf from gunfire echoing inside the metal vehicle.
With the small window of opportunity, Alice kicked out the broken windshield, grabbing the duffel bag beside her and stumbling out into the war zone. She fired with her sawed off shotguns, taking down whatever creature she could as K-Mart, Claire, Jacob and finally Leon climbed out the back. They stood, back to back in a circle firing until there was a lull.
"We need to find cover!" Chris yelled over coms.
"There's a building five hundred feet west of us, make a break for it." Ada replied.
"Copy!" Alice yelled as she rounded the truck, catching Claire's eye. "Help me clear a path."
The redhead nodded as they started to move as a group, there gunfire beginning to concentrate on the only upright vehicle left. It was the one Ada and Luther were trapped inside and it looked like time was rapidly running out for them. When they were within fifty feet of the the vehicle, Alice broke away from the group and headed for the drivers door. The windshield was already smashed by the creatures claws, the driver and passenger's bodies missing.
"Alice! What are you doing!" Claire yelled.
"Claire, please don't follow. They'll need a leader like you." Alice replied.
Claire scowled, "You're not leaving us behind god damn it! We're a team!"
Alice tossed the duffel bag into the cab "I need to do this on my own Claire. Trust me, you being there will only make things harder." She noticed K-Mart rounding the passenger door and sliding into the blood soaked seat. "Get out K-Mart."
"I'm going with you, we're going with you." The young girl snapped.
"I hate to break up this bitch fest, but I say we have about two minutes before those elephant fuckers come after us!" Jacob yelled, firing the last round of his mag into an oncoming bat.
Alice sighed, "Fine, get your asses here double time. We need to go now!" She yelled over the coms.
- Angela -
She heard Alice's order through the crackle of her headset, but still froze in the pitted building that was on the verge of collapsing any minute. From the truck to the building ten men were picked up by those oversize man-bats talons and whisked off into the moonlight. The only ones who made it here were Chris, Jill, Luther, Mason and herself. As they sat in the dark, watching the scene unfold out there, it reminded her of the monster horror flicks she used to see with her father. It wouldn't be long until they had broken thorough the wall and Wesker and the rest of the soldiers using the White House as a sanctuary would become kibble. Her eyes trained on the half elephant half rhino BOW still ramming the side of Alice's truck before turning to run off through a path of dead bats and back into the darkness.
"Come on Angie, we need to move." Jill whispered grabbing the young woman's arm.
She fought back, "I'm staying."
"What!" Chris snapped.
"You need a distraction from those things or you'll never make it to the truck,"
Jill grabbed Angela's hand, "Hell no! You're coming with us." She tried to keep her voice strong, but the tears came anyways. Before Angela could answer Jill embraced the young woman, feeling her rigid body. She wasn't even crying, "I love you." Jill whispered before Chris pulled her away.
"We need to go, now!"
Angela stood, as Luther gave her an embrace and Mason a curt nod before they filed out of the rubble and towards the vehicle. Chris turned back and looked at the young woman, a woman who was stronger than anyone of them put together. He knew her reasons and nothing he would say would change her mind. He just nodded and then took off. For the first time since he was a kid, his eyes glistened with tears.
She waited until they were halfway to truck before she stepped out into the war zone. It was eerily quiet aside from the squeaks and pounding of their merciless bodies against the wall. Angela stood in the open, catching K-Mart's wide eyes as she was trying to break free from Chris's grip to run to her friend. Her fingers played with the grenades stuffed into her pockets, as she gave K-Mart a small nod before turning her back to the truck. She waited to hear the truck engines rev to life as deep, loud growls came from either side. They were smart, waiting until their target moved before they ambushed their prey again.
Angela whistled loudly, grabbing the attention of the two ragged, patchy fur bodies as steam wafted from their nostrils like a bull in a bullfight. The two creatures peaked out from the dark, there large, red eyes glowing while they barred teeth stained with blood. They made a break for her, forgetting about the vehicle that was getting away as the ground began to shake under their weight. While they came closer she pulled the pins on the grenades and closed her eyes.
"I'll see you soon baby girl,"
Suddenly a large explosion erupted, engulfing the creatures and Angela who was seconds away from being sliced in two.
T.B.C.
Hope you all enjoyed! Please let me know what you think :)
Always open to suggestions/comments/concerns/praise/ etc.
