A/N: I bet you all weren't expecting the next arc of the story to be starting this quickly, did you? I figured with the fact I'm on a good roll with this I'd keep it up as long as possible.
This particular arc of the story will end up being longer than the first two combined, encompassing S.D. Perry's fourth book 'Underworld', Code Veronica, 'The Fall of Umbrella' portion of the Umbrella Chronicles game, and several chapters of my own design to tie all of them together. I'm dubbing this part of the series, "The Umbrella War Arc". One that will live up to the name and hopefully keep you readers on the edge of your seats from beginning to end.
As I said before, the entirety of Re: Legacy will be one massive story instead of multiple large ones. I figured its better to keep them all together instead of splitting them up for your convenience. Now...with all the formalities out of the way, let's pick this crazy train up where we left off, shall we?
Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil.
Chapter 37:
"If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up aganst the odds." - Jesse Jackson
Ethan's POV:
They say that war never changes. The people, weapons and environments may, but war itself remains an everlasting constant. A deadly struggle between two opposing sides that encompass ideals, religion, morals or power. And given what I've endured in the last few months, it's a philosophy that I've learned in spades.
After escaping Raccoon and linking up with Rebecca, David and John, I informed everyone of the safehouse that I had set up in Latham, the small town a couple dozen miles away from where we were picked up.
I rented out a small house on the outskirts, big enough to fit all of us and I had it stocked with food, medical supplies, weapons and ammo. It was an ideal location, small, out if the way, and best of all private. A perfect spot to rest, regroup and plan our next move against Umbrella.
All of it nearly expended all the money Oracle had given me in the beginning, but it was all worth it in the end to give us a better advantage.
When we all settled in after arriving, Claire, Leon and I sat with the others and told the others what we had been through and what we had uncovered before our escape. Rebecca had been interested in the spare vial of T-Antigen I still had on me and vowed to research it exensively.
I went into detail about the BOWs we encountered, even documenting them and adding it to the already large profile I had compiled about Umbrella's experiments just incase we encountered more like them. Which included Birkin's G-Virus and how superior it had been compared to T.
Most of that part of the discussion was done when Sherry was asleep. She already had such a low view of her parents and what they had done while she grew up, I didn't want to completely crush what little good memories she had left. David agreed, especially after I informed him and the others that her own mother tried to use her as a way to sneak a G-Virus sample out of the city.
My fellow ex-STARS all gave their account of what happened in Caliban Cove, I nearly lost my temper when Rebecca told me the mad scientist running the place was intending on drowning her and David in a tank until she got them out with the use of a grenade another team member of theirs had on them before they died. But in the end they shut the place down, and the man in charge was six-feet under.
Personally, I was just happy to have my woman safe and in my arms again.
In the days that followed, we all settled into a stable routine while we planned and those of us injured could heal. It was three days later when the inevitable happened.
Watching the news, we saw the report that stated the viral outbreak in Raccoon City had forced the US Government to take extreme measures. In response, the President had okayed a tactical missile stirke that reduced the infected city to dust.
But that wasn't where it had ended. Apparently, US Marines on sight had more than enough evidence and eyewitness accounts of the events that transpired, and that Umbrella was responsible for the largest disaster on American soil since Pearl Harbor. The public was outraged, and politicians were preparing to crucify the corporation to the wall for their involvement in not only the infection, but for attempting to cover it up through multiple means.
It was a big victory...but Umbrella wouldn't go down easy. They were rooted too deeply in various places, and with their main headquarters in Paris they would find someway to keep operations going.
Not to mention all of us where on their shit list, and wouldn't stop at anything to make sure we were out of the picture.
After hearing about Raccoon going up in smoke, David was contacted by Chris wanting to know what had happened if everyone was okay. After telling him, Jill and Barry everything, we let Claire have time speaking with her brother. Allowing the siblings to reconnect and ease their troubled minds.
A couple weeks later, it had been decided that we would head to Europe to link up with the others before going after the head of Umbrella. But there was one issue that needed to be addressed before we could move out.
Sherry.
The little girl made our situation a little more brighter, she got along with everyone and her knowledge far exceeded her age. Both Rebecca and I related to her very well in that regard. However, we wouldn't put her in Umbrella's crosshairs more than what she already was. And for that I had come up with a perfect solution.
Having a talk with Barry, who put me in contact with his wife, I explained what was happening and she was more than willing to take Sherry in until the corporation was no longer a threat.
After that was established, David helped me by getting in contact with a trusted friend of his still working out of the STARS office in New York. They helped us get ahold of fake documents that could have passed for the real things, among them being a blank birth certificate and social security card.
In less than a day everything was ready and in place. As far as the Government, public, and Umbrella knew, Sherry Birkin died in Raccoon City with her family. And in her place, Sherry Mercer had been born.
When I told her what I was doing she had been stunned beyond words before hugging me tightly. I made her a promise that I'd be there for her no matter what it took, and what better way than to become her new brother?
The full story was that she was born of my adopted parents when I was seven, and even if someone working for the corporation was able to figure out it was falsified it wouldn't have mattered. She'd be too far out of their reach and wouldn't get their hands on her ever.
Sherry didn't like the idea of being sepearated from us, having formed a bond with each member of our team and developing a stronger one with me, Rebecca and Claire. But she understood that she was in danger and we were doing what we could to keep her safe.
Before taking her to the nearest airport, the girls dyed her hair so that she would be even less likely to be recognized. Making it look more like my own soft-brown hair which she actually really loved. I gave her what money I had left and told her that Mrs. Burton and her daughters would be waiting for her when she arrived.
Hugging the girl one last time, I promised her that when everything was done with Umbrella I'd come back for her. Rebecca backing me up by telling her that she'd make sure I did no matter what.
Then she was gone. Safely on a plane and out of reach of the Umbrella corportation. And seeing her go I couldn't help the couple of tears that escaped, but I knew it was for the best, we all did.
When we returned to the safe house we gathered up our supplies and packed them all into the SUV before heading North. Keeping out of the major cities as we headed toward Maine. David said he had a way for us to get to Europe without rousing suspicion, and given the man's connections even though we're wanted by Umbrella we had every right to believe him.
It was only a matter of time before we were all together and ready to kick in Umbrella's front door. But if there is one of many things I knew since arriving in this universe so long ago was that nothing goes according to plan.
Especially when a curve ball gets thrown at you at the last minute.
X
October 6, 1998
"Go, GO, GO!" David shouted, and John Andrews hit the gas, whipping the minivan around a tight corner as gunfire thundered through the cold Maine night.
John had spotted the two unmarked black sedans only a moment before, which had barely given the team enough time to arm themselves. Whoever was on their ass; Umbrella, STARS or the local cops, it didn't matter.
Any of them could have been on Umbrella's payroll...and the locals didn't just randomly shoot at someone.
"Get us lost, John!" David called, somehow managing to sound cool and controlled even as bullets riddled the back of the van. It was the accent, he always sounded like that, and where the hell was Falworth?!
John felt scattered, his thoughts racing and jumbled; he kicked ass on a mission, but sneak attacks bit the bone. 'Right on Falworth and head for the strip. Fucking Christ, ten more minutes and we would've been gone!' he thought angerly as he maintained control of the vehicle.
It had been too long since John had been in combat, and never in the midst of a car chase. He was good, but it was a minivan-
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Someone in the back of the van was returning fire, shooting out of the open back window. The nine-millimeter explosions in the tight space were as loud as the voice of an irate God, pounding at John's ears and making it even harder to focus.
'Ten more goddamn minutes.' he thought throught he ringing in his ears.
Ten minutes from the airstrip, where the chartered flight would be waiting. It was like a bad joke, weeks of hiding, waiting, not taking any risks, and then getting tagged on the way out of the damn country.
John hung on to the wheel as they shot down 6th Street, the van too heavy to outmaneuver the sedans. Even without four people and a shitload of artillery, the bulky, boxy knockoff mini wasn't exactly a power-house.
David had bought it because it was so nondescript, so unlikely to be noticed, and they were paying for it, if they managed to shake their pursuers, it'd be a small miracle. Their only chance was to try to find traffic, play some dodge. It was dangerous, but so was getting run off the road and shot to death.
"Clip!" Leon shouted, and John shot a look in the rearview, saw that the young cop was crouched at the back window next to David. They'd taken out the back seats for the trip to the airstrip, all the more room for weapons, but that also meant no seatbelts; take a corner too fast and bodies would be flying.
Bam! Bam! Two more blasts from the sedan assholes, maybe from a .38. John gave the shuddering van a little more pedal as Leon returned fire with a Browning nine-millimeter. Leon Kennedy was their best shot, David probably had him trying to draw bead on the tires—
'Best shot next to me, anyway, and how the hell am I going to get us lost in Exeter, Maine, at eleven o'clock on a weeknight? There is no traffic!' John gritted his teeth as more rounds hit the back of the van.
Claire tossed Leon a mag, John jerked the wheel right, heading for downtown. With a smoking squeal of rubber on asphalt, the mini teetered around the corner of Falworth, heading east. The airstrip was west, but John didn't figure that anyone in the van was worrying much about getting to the plane on time.
'First things first, gotta ditch Umbrella's hired goons. Doubt there's room on the charter for all of us.'
John saw red and blue light in the mirror, saw that at least one of the sedans had put a flasher on the roof. Maybe they were cops, which would really suck. Umbrella's attempt at control after Raccoon fell wasn't completely useless. Most of the higher-ups at STARS had sold out, and there were a small number in the public that believed that the corporation wasn't capable of what happened weeks ago, or were simply paid off to believe that way.
None of them having no idea that they had become a puppet of the pharmaceutical company...which makes it a hell of a lot harder to shoot back.
No one on their makeshift team wanted innocents to get hurt; being misled by Umbrella wasn't a crime, and if the sedan teams were cops-
"No antennae, no warning, not cops!" Leon called, and John had time to feel about a second's worth of relief before he saw the barricades looming in front of them, the roadwork sign propped next to the blocked street. He saw the white circle of a man's face above an orange vest, the man holding a sign that said 'Slow' the man dropping the sign and diving for cover...
...and it would've been funny except they were doing eighty and had maybe three seconds before they hit.
"Hang on!" John screamed, Claire pushed her legs against the van wall, saw David grab onto the door handle closest to him with Leon snatching at the one opposite. Then the van was screeching, jerking, and bucking like a wild horse, spinning sideways.
Claire actually felt open space beneath the right side of the van as her body was compressed to the left, the back of her neck crunching painfully against the tire well.
David shouted something but she didn't hear it over the squealing brakes, didn't understand until the Captain dove to the right-
-and wham, the van dropped back to the ground with a terrific bounce and John seemed to have it under control again, but there was still the piercing screech of locked brakes coming from-
CRASH!
The explosion of metal and shattering glass behind them was so close that Claire's heart skipped a beat. She turned, looked out the back with the others and saw that one of the cars had barreled into a roadwork barricade. A barricade they'd probably come within a second or two of bashing into themselves.
She caught just a glimpse of a crumpled hood, of broken windows and a stream of oily smoke, and then the second sedan was blocking her view, shrieking around the corner and continuing the chase.
"Sorry 'bout that." John called back to them, sounding anything but, he seemed wired with adrenaline-pumped glee.
In the few weeks since she and Leon had joined up with the fugitive ex-STARS, she'd discovered that John would make jokes about anything. It was simultaneously his most endearing and most annoying trait.
"Everyone alright?" David asked, and Claire nodded.
"Took a whack but I'm okay," Leon said, rubbing his arm with a pained expression. "But I don't think-"
Boom!
Whatever Leon didn't think was cut off by the powerful blast that slammed into the back of the van. Still most of a block away, the sedan's passenger had fired a shotgun at them; a few inches higher and the pellets would have come in through the window.
"John, change of plans!" David called as the van swerved, his cool, authoritative voice rising over the noise of the screaming engines. "We're in their sights-"
Before he could finish, John took a hard left. Claire fell backwards, nearly crashing into Leon. The van was now headed down a quiet suburban street.
"Hold on to your asses!" John called over his shoulder.
Chill night air whipped through the van, dark houses flying by as John picked up speed. Leon and David were already reloading, crouched behind the metal half-door Claire shuddered involuntarily as John took a hard right, veering wide around a parked truck, the sedan gaining ground. Raccoon City; the scratches and bruises on Claire's body hadn't completely faded yet, and she knew that Leon's shoulder was still giving him pain-
Boom!
Another shotgun blast from behind, but it went wide and high...This time.
They needed to think of something an fast before the ones chasing them managed to get a lucky shot in, on top of that they didn't know if any more would join the chase if they didn't end it quickly and get away.
They needed something to-
BANG! CRASH!
Everyone jerked to attention and looked out the back, finding the last sadan that had been chasing them with its front wrapped around a lamp post. Beside it was a 4X4 truck with its right-front end crushed inward, but still very operable as it pulled away from the crash site and quickly picked up speed to catch up with them.
David couldn't help but smile widely when the truck got close enough to see through the slightly cracked windshield. Finding Rebecca giving them a wave while Ethan drove.
The older teen had the idea to go in separate vehicles, just incase they did end up getting chased by someone they could split up and provide support when needed. And in the end it worked out for the better.
There had been three sedans chasing them in the beginning, when Ethan and Rebecca broke off in another direction causing the third pursuer to go after them. And if they were there helping them with their last tail, then the one that had been after them was no longer a problem.
"Was wondering where those two went off too." John commented as he led their small convoy to the airstrip.
David glanced around at the others before staring out the side window beside him, watching the homes and buildings slip past in the cold dark. Everyone seemed a bit subdued, always the aftermath of an adrenaline rush.
Claire was unloading clips and repacking the weapons, Leon sitting close beside her, neither of them talking. Those two were usually joined at the hip, and were still as tight as they'd been since David, John, and Rebecca had picked them up just outside of Raccoon over a month earlier, dirty and damaged and reeling from their run-in with Umbrella. David didn't think there was a romantic connection there, at least not yet; it was more likely their shared nightmare. Nearly dying together could be quite a bonding experience.
As far as he knew, Leon and Claire were the only survivors aside from Ethan and Sherry that made it through the Raccoon disaster who knew about Umbrella's T-Virus spill.
Thinking about the young profiler that was following behind them, the Captain had been impressed beyond words. Ever since their first meeting his expectations had been blown away in regards to the younger man's resourcefulness and planning.
Not only had he made it through Raccoon on his own for so long, but ensured the survival of others even while facing down deadly BOWs and Umbrella's attack squads. Then to top it off, he had a full stocked safe house waiting for them after they escaped.
David Trapp was rarely surprised, but Ethan Mercer was someone that had been doing that more than anyone he had ever met. Rebecca had told them about his skills, and how they aided them through the Arklay facilities, but to see it first hand was something to really behold.
With him being the leader of their little group of rogues, no one argued when he made the profiler his second-in-command given his knowledge and past experience with Umbrella's madness. Infact, everyone had been all for it.
"Heads up boys and girls!" John called from upfront as the airstrip came into view. Soon they'd be in the air and heading across the ocean where the rest of their team would be waiting for them.
They pulled out into the long stretch of asphalt and headed toward the far end where a lone plane had been waiting for them.
X
Ethan pulled the truck up next to the badly damaged van and switched off the engine. He and Rebecca hopping out their respected sides before heading to the tarp-covered bed and opened the tailgate to reveal the other half of their weapons and other supplies.
"Took you guys long enough!" John called from over by the van as he and Leon unloaded what they had been traveling with. "Where were you? Finding some place to have a quickie?"
Rebecca blushed while she rolled her eyes at the man's antics. "Got caught in traffic...and besides, you're just jealous because you don't have a hot biochemist for a girlfriend." Ethan said back with an arm wrapping comfortably around the medic's waist which caused her face to redden even more.
John's barking laugh was heard clear as he hefted several dufflebags and carried them onto the plane.
John Andrews was their comic relief, even when things were stressful and dark, he was always finding a way to make them smile or laugh. He was a good man at heart, and one that could be trusted. It also helped that the man was a walking piledriver, two hundred and fourty pounds of hard muscle packed into a 6'6'' frame.
Grabbing everything that was in the truck bed, Ethan tossed the keys in the driver's seat before the couple headed for the plane as well. Hands held with fingers intertwining as they walked the small distance.
Being together again made life easier for the two of them. The traveler had told her everything that had happened after they separated, and how even when things looked bleak he thought about her and seeing her again which gave him a boost of strength to push onward.
Rebecca had been shocked and terrified when he told her what had transpired, but she was beyond joy to see him alive and well. And seeing the bond Ethan had formed with Sherry was heart warming as well, his interactions with her and willingness to protect her was inspiring and the young medic couldn't help but love him more than she already did.
She slept better at night with him beside her. They'd talk late into the evenings, glad to hear each other's voices and able to hold one another after being apart for so long, which had felt even longer given the horrors they had to face.
When everything was loaded onto the plan, the team all strapped themselves in and got comfortable. Ethan and Rebecca sitting side by side in the middle, the young medic seated beside the window as she observed what would be taking them partway around the world.
She wished that David had chartered a jet. A giant, solid, can't-possibly-be-unsafe-'cause-it's-so-damned-big jet. From where she was, she could see that the plane ran on propellers, like on a kid's toy.
'This thing will sink like a rock, though when it falls from the sky at a few hundred miles an hour and hits the ocean there'll be nothing left to-' she paused mid thought when she felt Ethan take her hand and squeeze it.
"You got that overthinking look on your face again." he said smiling at her, "Relax, everything's going to turn out okay."
Rebecca took a deep breath and smiled back, she had been on only two planes in her life. The first was when she went came here with David after leaving Raccoon city, this would be the second. And being so high in the air with the possibility of something happening did nothing to help her anxiety of the situation.
"Just so you know, this is the kind of plane that's always killing rock stars and the like." said John leaning on the back of the seat ahead of them with a grin, large arms folded across the headrests, "Just as they make it off the ground, big gust of wind knocks them right back down."
Ethan was about to fire off a sharp retort when his lover beat him to the punch. "We'll be lucky to get off the ground at all dragging your fat ass up there."
The Traveler bit his lip hard to the point of almost breaking skin to avoid laughing so hard when he saw the grin vanish like melted ice from the man's face. John was tough, but he was vain about his looks. And after the injuries he had sustained at Caliban Cove that he was still recoverig from, he couldn't work out...which he hated with a passion.
A moment passed before John grinned even wider, his brown skin crinkling. "Yeah, you're probably right. A few hundred feet and wham, that's all she wrote." he turned his attention to Ethan, "Got yourself a hell of a woman there, Mercer. Better treat her right."
"Believe me, I know that very well." The traveler replied wrapping around Rebecca's shoulders, her head laying instinctually on his shoulder in response.
The plane started to rumble all around them, the engine whining up into a deep hum that made the seats vibrate some. Ethan gripped Rebecca's hand a little tighter when he felt her tense up. Looking toward the front of the plane when Leon and Claire came aboard and took their own seats across from the couple.
"Where's David?" asked the medic, John shrugged.
"Talking to the pilot. We've only got one, you know, some friend of a friend of some guy in Arkansas. Not many pilots willing to smuggle people into Europe, I guess..." the large man grinned again and looked back at her and fake whispered, "I hear he drinks. We got him cheap 'cause he crashed some soccer team into the side of a mountain."
Rebecca shook her head and admitted defeat, "Okay, you win. I'm terrified." Her admission was followed by Ethan running his thumb across her hand soothingly.
"That's all I wanted to know." John replied mildly as he turned back around. Claire leaned over across the isle and spoke next.
"Any of you flown before?"
"Once." replied Rebecca.
"Handful of times." added Ethan with a shrug. "How bout you?"
"Same as you, but always in big airliners, DC-747s or -27s, I forget. I don't even know what this thing is." said Claire.
"It's a DHC 8 Turbo," Leon threw in, "I think. David mentioned it at some point..."
"It's a killer." John's deep voice floated over. "A rock with wings."
"John...you're two seconds away from eating my size 12 foot. So would you kindly shut yer trap?" Ethan cut in, his southern accent bleeding through toward the end.
John held his hands up in surrender just as David appeared at the front of the cabin, stepping through the curtained area that led to the cockpit, their collective attention turning toward him.
"It seems that we're ready to go," David said. "Our pilot, Captain Evans, has assured me that all systems are fully functional and we'll be taking off in just a moment. He's asked that we remain seated until he's given us leave to do otherwise. Um...the restroom is just back of the cockpit, and there's a small refrigerator at the rear of the plane with sandwiches and drinks..."
His voice trailed off, and he looked as if there was something else he wanted to say but wasn't sure what it was. It was a look that all of them a had seen often enough in the past few weeks, a kind of uneasy uncertainty. Since the day that Raccoon had been blown to shit, they'd all had that look at one time or another...
David had decided not to say anything at all. He nodded briskly and then walked back to join them, nodding as he passed Ethan and Rebecca as he took a seat behind them.
'He needs the rest.' Ethan thought rubbing his eyes and yawning a bit, 'We all do, and it's a long flight...so why the hell do I have the feeling that we're not going to get any?'
X
20 minutes into the flight everyone had gotten comfortable and doing what they could to pass the time.
Rebecca stared out the window at the passing clouds. John sat reading a muscle magazine he'd found among other reading material. Claire and David were both lightly sleeping. And Leon was leaning his head back staring at the ceiling.
As for Ethan, he was sitting perfectly still with his eyes closed in a meditative trans. Something he did often in order to clear his mind and think more clearly. He hadn't been able to do so much lately given all of the discussions and planning they had to go through before making their move.
He was thankful for his past knowledge of this universe to help him get this far, but now it wouldn't do him any good now that he was past a certain events. Though honestly he really didn't need much of said knowledge, considering it was his intellect, skills and the aid of his friends/comrades that got him to this point. And it would be those three things that would get him through this war that had been started with Umbrella.
Taking another deep breath, he started going through various scenarios for what they could face when they met up with Chris, Jill and Barry before hitting the corporations headquarters. He heard Leon slide into the aisle beside him and move to the front of the plane, most likely to use the restroom when the sound of the curtain leading into the cabin could be heard opening.
"Hay! Hay, we got company!" the cop shouted causing everyone to jerk to attention and saw a man standing at the front.
A tall, smiling man in an expensive-looking trench coat. He wasn't the pilot, and there wasn't supposed to be anyone else on the plane. The man grinned, his eyes twinkling. "Leon Kennedy, I presume." he said with a soft, yet strong voice.
John was on his feet before Leon had finished his warning, hopping out into the aisle and stepping in front of Leon in a single stride.
"Who the fuck are you!" John snarled, his shoulders set, ready to break the thin man in two if he so much as blinked wrong.
The stranger held up pale, long-fingered hands, looking as though he could barely contain his delight, which made John all the more wary. He could easily pound the guy into hamburger, what the hell was he so happy about?
"And you're John Andrews," the man said, his voice low and calm and as pleased as his expression. "Former communications expert and field scout for the Exeter STARS. It's so good to meet you, tell me, how are your ribs? Still tender?"
The larger man's eyes widened, 'Shit. Who is this guy?' John had broken two ribs and cracked a third on the cove mission, and he didn't know this man...how the hell did the man know him?
"My name is Trent," the stranger said easily, nodding past both Leon and John. "I believe your Mr. Trapp can vouch for my identity...?"
Everyone flicked a glance back and saw David give a quick nod, his expression strained. Ethan right beside him, combat knife in hand with the girls right behind them.
The mysterious Mr. Trent had returned...
A/N: And the first chapter for this arc has ended. A small one, but one that will definitely set the ground work for the thrills to come. Till next time guys, keep the reviews coming and I'll keep writing them out!