Code Veronica: Resident Evil IIIS
Chapter Twenty Eight: Resurrection
Kakka-kakka-kakka! Not long after Steve picked up Claire and started toward the elevator, the growls of that blindfolded monster became mixed with the screams of the soldiers, most likely because it had finally reached them, and gunfire had erupted by the time the young man pushed the button for the doors to open. Since no one else had been in a hurry to go down there, he had expected the doors to open right away, but for some reason this was just not happening… and the gunfire was dying down.
Something moved out of the corner of his eye just as the doors started to open, and Steve looked to see one of the armed men running toward him from around the corner… only to be stopped abruptly when something stabbed him through the back so hard that the pointy tip was sticking out through his chest. For a moment the young man found himself paralyzed as the soldier was lifted off the floor, but as soon as the blindfolded monster came into view behind its victim, Steve ran into the car as fast as he could.
Pounding the bottom of his fist rapidly on the only button available, once again the doors were taking forever to close, finally starting to move just as the monster's shadow came into view. Had these doors been so slow to move when he and Claire were brought down? Or was this just because the universe hated him? The young man wondered these things as the doors closed just as his pursuer was stepping out into view, and then he let out a loud sigh of relief when the car started moving upward.
"Its okay, Claire." He panted, trying to catch his breath. "We're safe now."
The young woman in his arms was no longer conscious, her head tilted back and her eyes closed, just lying there limply as if no longer alive. No, she was still breathing; her chest moving a little with each slow, labored intake of air… he had to get help for her, fast. On the way into this building, Steve had seen some of the soldiers working on a couple of the old snow trucks that were in storage, and those big, treaded vehicles with the plow attachments were just what the young man needed in order to drive himself and Claire to that nearby research base. Getting to one of those vehicles, however, was easier said than done.
Even with Sir Alfred and his personal guards most likely dead from that monster, there were still a lot more soldiers up on the factory level, so he needed to sneak past them and somehow steal one of the trucks without getting himself shot… all while carrying Claire. Yeah, no pressure at all, he thought as the elevator continued upward. Man, as much as Steve really hated Elza Walker, he genuinely wished that she was there with them, if nothing else, just to have another person there to help him fight if it came to that.
Now the elevator was slowing down, so the young man pressed himself against the wall so that his bright orange jumpsuit wouldn't be spotted as soon as the doors opened, but it seemed that luck was actually with him for once when there were no soldiers standing there. Steve could hear them talking and moving around while they went about their current tasks of fixing the place up, but none of them were paying attention to the elevator, so he took a chance and ran for it.
Okay, it wasn't so much of a run, and more of a brisk walk across the factory floor, ducking behind machines and crouching down behind conveyer belts whenever the armed men came near. A couple times he had almost been caught, but the first time another soldier had called the one searching for the young man to help him lift something just before he would have looked over the other side of the conveyer belt, and another one turned out to be looking at something else entirely when he got near the machine Steve was hiding behind.
So far so good, he thought while getting closer to the stairs that led to the door. The young man wasn't crazy about going outside again, but it was a hell of a lot better than staying in there… especially when the elevator doors were heard opening… followed by a familiar sounding growl that definitely got the soldiers' attention. Are you serious, Steve wondered as he heard this noise? Had that blindfolded monster somehow figured out how to use the elevator?
Kakka-kakka-kakka! His answer came in the form of gunfire that began once one of the armed men saw the thing, but the good news was that with all of them focusing their attention on that freak, it gave the young man a clear run for the exit. Not stopping to see what was happening, or if the soldiers' weapons were having any effect on the monster, Steve kept moving as fast as he could, reaching the stairs, and then struggling a lot more than he expected to carry Claire up them to the door. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who was getting worn out from everything that was happening.
Even though the young man had been outside before, he was still shocked by how cold the temperature was while the blowing wind went right through his jumpsuit, and everything was so damn bright that he had to keep his eyes partially closed while walking forward. The young man tried to hold Claire tighter to keep her warm, but this just wasn't working… God damn it, where the hell were those snow trucks he had seen? Okay, the tower was over that way, so he just needed to go the other way around the building's dome… no, not that way, that was where the plane crashed.
The building's walls and blowing wind must have prevented the soldiers outside from hearing the commotion of their comrades trying to fight off that monster, because they were just going about their routine of getting the vehicles ready… and leaving each one they finished working on completely unguarded. I mean, why not, since how many people were out there waiting to steal a snow truck that looked like it was from the 80's, right? Well, there was at least one out there now, and boy were those guys gonna feel stupid when Steve drove off in it.
With every step toward the vehicle, he thought for sure he was going to be caught, but nothing happened by the time the young man pulled the door open, and… nope, still nothing even after as long as it had taken him to put Claire into the seat and then get in himself. Locking the doors and wiping the frost off the gauges, the young man felt a little better now that the wind was being blocked, but then he looked out the windshield to see that the soldiers were now running toward him. Shit, they must have seen him after all… no, Claire was dead for sure if they got captured again, so Steve reached for the key to start it up and make their escape… when the soldiers ran right past the vehicle.
Kakka-kakka-kakka! The gunfire was muffled by the wind this time, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the monster had followed him outside. Thankfully, the armed men had just finished servicing this snow truck, but the cold still caused the vehicle's engine to struggle hard before finally starting up. Revving it up with the throttle a few times to accelerate the warmup process, the young man slowly worked the trucks controls, turning it away from the garage, toward the east where the research base was… when he saw that the monster was right in their path.
"Hold on, Claire." He said, shifting gears after putting on both of their seatbelts. "This could get a little bumpy."
The monster had just finished harpooning another soldier through the chest with its stinger, so Steve cranked down on the throttle, the vehicle's treads kicking up a bunch of snow behind them as it started forward. Picking up as much speed as possible, the young man didn't even try to avoid the blindfolded monster's stinger, which put a small crack in the truck's windshield just before the creature vanished underneath the vehicle.
Driving over his pursuer felt like going over a large speedbump, but Steve wasn't about to just let this thing follow them across the snow to the research base, so he turned the truck around, and lowered the plow attachment just as the monster was starting to get up. Whump! Catching the monster's head with the bottom of the plow, the young man again felt the speedbump-like sensation of driving over his pursuer, but this time he stopped the truck right on top of it, and began to spin around.
Crunching and grinding down on the monster by spinning the treads around on top of it several times, Steve finally put the truck into reverse and backed off just enough to leave his pursuer underneath the plow attachment that was raising up. As soon as it was up all the way, he brought it down onto the monster's body, knocking it back down just when it was starting to get up… and then again… and then again… and again. Finally, after bringing the plow attachment all the way down onto the monster's neck until it couldn't go down any farther, Steve drove forward, creating a large pile of snow as he dragged his pursuer across the hard ground.
Eventually the monster's neck broke, causing its body to go underneath the treads one last time while its severed head was pushed deep into the snow pile… it was over. The monster was no longer moving, the soldiers had been good enough to fill the truck's fuel tank all the way to the top, and hey… in all the excitement, Steve had just noticed that the heater was even working. All right, it was time to get out of this nightmare once and for all, so he turned the truck toward the east, and resumed heading toward the research base… there was nothing that could stop them now.
Meanwhile, back down in the pit…
Sir Alfred wasn't sure what happened… one moment everything was going fine, and then there was a bright flash, and… and now not so fine. The soldiers around him were dead, stabbed to death by that monster, while the Commander himself had been left badly burned along with… along with a hole in his side that was making it difficult to breathe. A trail of blood was left along the concrete wall that he was leaning on, desperately trying to stay on his feet while keeping his vision focused long enough to enter the code to open the other reinforced door.
This took a couple tries, but eventually the door slid open, revealing not a darkened cage, but a highly sophisticated laboratory, at least for its time. Most of the equipment was off, with only a few indicator lights blinking around the largest machine at the center of the chamber, and Sir Alfred nearly falling over when he reached for the light switch. As soon as the lights were on, it was revealed that the largest machine in the room was actually a large transparent tank, where a naked young woman with long blonde hair appeared to be complete submerged in frozen water.
The Commander coughed up a large amount of blood, silently swearing vengeance against Claire Redfield and Steve Burnside as he stumbled toward the tank, but Sir Alfred's strength was running out, causing him to fall to the floor just before he could reach the emergency override button that would activate the silent machine. No, he couldn't die yet… had to reach it… come on… reach… yes! Using his remaining strength to reach up and press the large button, all of the lights on the machine came to life as the ice inside the tank immediately began to melt.
As it was an emergency function, the process was quick, opening the transparent capsule as soon as the water was in a liquid state, and allowing hundreds of gallons of water to spill across the floor. The naked young woman remained standing, though, motionless for a few moments while the color returned to her pale skin, and then taking in a deep, slow breath while he shiny green eyes opened.
"A… Alexia." Sir Alfred coughed as his vision started to go black. "Alexia… you're… you're… awake…
