Chapter Thirty-Six: Without Saying Goodbye
"You sure you're okay to do that?"
Sarah gave Drake a quizzical look then tracked his gaze to the hand she was holding the injector gun loaded with the T-virus anti-gen in. She was surprised to find it trembling violently.
Damn girl, you're really at the ragged edge now aren't you?
Closing her eyes, Sarah inhaled deeply and slowly. She held the breath for a count of five then let it out just as slowly as she had taken it in. Sarah looked back at her hand and noticed the shaking had subsided.
"Sorry," she muttered, turning back to her patient and finished rolling up the sleeve of his t-shirt over his shoulder. "It's just nerves after, you know, everything."
Everything. Sarah thought it was funny what fell under that category in her life now. Well, almost funny.
Everything includes seeing an entire city brought to its knees by the most virulent and dangerous pathogen on Earth then finding out that pathogen was engineered by a company that had become the most powerful corporate entity on the planet by being involved in the fight against disease.
Everything includes seeing that virus turn people into honest-to-God flesh eating zombies…and then watching them rip apart their neighbours, families and friends.
Everything includes watching my best friend get shot to death by a lunatic who was planning to rape and murder me too.
Everything includes seeing Harry Hargreaves, my grizzled old bulldog, get his head torn off by something that shouldn't fucking exist-
Sarah couldn't finish the thought. The wound his death had left was still too fresh, too raw.
He had saved her life at least twice since had become swept up in the whirlwind of madness that was Raccoon City. If it hadn't been for him she would have died on the floor at Saint Jude's Hospital with Regina Gordon snacking on her jugular. If it hadn't been for him it would be her headless corpse lying on the ground back in the vaccine and anti-gen storage room. The knowledge that a man who had come to her rescue so many times was dead and she, who had done nothing for anyone since entering the city, still lived seemed profoundly unjust.
What have you done to deserve the right to still be here?
Sarah's felt her hand begin to tremble again.
"Don't," Drake said, closing his fingers over hers, steadying her hand. His own was large, rough and surprisingly warm.
"Don't what?"
"Don't think what you're thinking." The look he gave her was piercing and unflinching. Sarah wanted to shy away from the intensity in his eyes but found herself powerless to look anywhere else.
"You can tell what I'm thinking now?" She countered with a lame smile. "I didn't realize being psychic was one of your abilities."
"I don't have to be," he shook his head but held her gaze. The intensity in his eyes didn't dim a single watt. "I can see it written all over your face. It's a look I've seen on the faces of a lot of people in my previous line of work.
"You're here and people you care about aren't. You lived and they didn't. You start crunching the numbers to see if that adds up, to see if that makes sense but guess what? It never does and never will. Life and death don't make sense. The universe doesn't make sense. Trying to make it all compute will only sending you tumbling down a deep, dark hole that there's no climbing back up out of."
He squeezed her hand tighter. "You can take that plunge if you want. You can let the waters of self-pity, doubt and guilt wash you out to sea but it won't change a damn thing. You'll still be here and the people you cared about still won't be. Maybe a better idea would be to ask yourself what you can do to earn the life you've been given."
Drake let go of her hand. The injector gun holding the T-virus anti-gen stood rock steady in her grip.
Sarah studied the man in front of her, trying to unlock the puzzle that was Drake Lincoln. The man was a killer for hire who, if Danny was to be believed, had left a trail of bodies in his wake that would make the Grim Reaper jealous. Yet at the same time, she sensed nothing sinister about him – on the contrary, he had proven himself a hero countless times during their flight through the streets of Raccoon City. He had saved her life too and very nearly given his own in the process.
And now he's trying to talk me off the ledge. The thought made Sarah smile in spite of herself. If only my parents could see me now: the girl genius with a hit man for a therapist.
"You're a complicated man, Mister Lincoln…but thanks for the pep talk."
"I'm easier to understand than you might think," he shrugged. "I just figured if you're going to punch another hole in me I want you doing it with as delicate a hand as possible."
"Smart ass." Sarah jabbed the point of the needle into the meaty part of his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. There was a mechanical hiss as the injector fired the solution into Drake's body. Sarah doubted the man needed the shot at this point but there was no sense in throwing the caution to the wind.
Not when dealing with a virus that literally turns people into monsters.
"Alright," she said, ejecting the spent vial and retrieving the second from the case at her feet. "You're up next, Sarge."
Kuznetsov walked over from where he had been resting against the wall near the elevator. Sarah had set up her makeshift immunization clinic near where they had entered this part of the complex. She told the others it was because the lighting above the elevator was the strongest but in reality it was because the spot was the farthest from where Hargreaves' body lay.
Tears stung her eyes as she thought of the security guard, headless and bloodied, resting on the cold floor. Before leaving the room, Tommy had used his leather jacket to cover up Hargreaves' mutilated figure. It was a paltry excuse for a burial shroud but the best they could do given the circumstances.
Sarah had found the gesture oddly touching. She had always viewed the photographer as being a man who possessed the qualities of a tick or tapeworm: parasitic, irritating, repulsive to look at – but it seemed even he was capable of embracing his better angels.
She glanced back to where Tommy stood at the mouth of the hallway, keeping watch with rifle in hand as Danny crouched nearby, pouring over the building's schematics as he sought a way out of the facility. The man, whom she had once thought of as having the looks, disposition and courage of a rat kept a watchful eye on the darkness. He appeared ready to spring in to action at a moment's notice. Whatever fear he felt, he was keeping a firm lid on.
Glad to see all we've been through has brought out the best in someone.
"That says anti-gen on it," Kuzentsov nodded to the injector gun. "Shouldn't you be giving me the vaccine?"
Sarah shook her head as she pushed up the Russian's sleeve the expose his shoulder. "A vaccine is what you take when you're healthy to prevent yourself from getting sick. An anti-gen is what you take when you're sick to kill off the infection in your body." She stuck the needle into Kuznestov's arm and smiled at him. "I'll pretend you weren't second guessing a woman with degrees in virology, microbiology and immunology."
The UBCS commander let out a soft sigh as Sarah pulled the trigger, unleashing the anti-viral torrent into the man's bloodstream. She wished it luck in eradicating the bug that was working to twist and corrupt Kuznestov's cells, mutating them as it warped him into a creature whose only imperative was to eat and kill. If the T-virus was a small inferno then she hoped the anti-gen would work like a tsunami, dousing the flames of the pathogen and sweeping every trace of it from Kuznestov and Drake's systems.
"Good as new," she said patting the Russian's arm and hoping she wasn't lying.
Perhaps her optimism was misguided but Sarah felt confident that the solution would work. Kuznetsov was deathly pale and his skin feverish to the touch, true, but he didn't seem to have suffered any of the neurological damage that was associated with the virus. They had treated his infection early enough that if the anti-gen compound did its job then the man should bounce back within a matter of hours.
Umbrella kept this stuff under wraps in a secret underground facility for a reason. It has to work.
"Thank you," Kuznetsov said, rolling his sleeve back into place. "I owe you my life, Doctor Waxer."
His words curled around her heart like the teeth of a cold, sharp vice. They made her think of Homer, Michelle, Hargeaves and everyone else she had failed to save. She hid her tears by ducking away to replace the injector gun in the case that still contained the vaccine samples.
No one owes me anything.
"Save your thanks for when we all make it out of here," Sarah said, snapping the lid shut. "Then you can make it up to me by buying me a drink. Or a few hundred. Speaking of which, any progress on locating the exit, Danny?"
"Yeah but you're not going to like it." The marshal walked over with Tommy and spread the map out along the wall so the others could see. "This is where we need to get to." He tapped a finger against a section of the blueprints marked SUBBASEMENT then drew a finger across a large square-shaped area labelled GENERAL STORAGE to a rectangular section of the facility denoted as EMERGENCY EVACUATION TRAM CONTROL. "The problem is that's one level below our current position and with the abrupt cancellation of our security credentials, the elevator is out and all the access doors are locked."
"Okay," Sarah said slowly, raising an eyebrow, "but what's the part I'm not going to like?"
"How we get there." Danny moved his finger across the map and traced a line illustrating a narrow space connecting the floor they were on with the subbasement. "This is a maintenance ladder connected to the elevator shaft that runs the length of the facility. We can pry open the elevator doors, climb down single file and then pry open the doors again to reach the subbasement but –"
"It's a long way down," Sarah finished the marshal's thought as she looked at the map, realizing just how far a fall missing one of the rungs on that ladder would mean.
"There's also the issue of how to proceed once we get down there," Danny continued. "Tearing open the doors will get us on the floor where we need to be but there's going to be a bunch of closed doors between us and the room we need to get into. Without any way to override the lockdown I don't see how –"
"Danny, please, you're insulting me," Drake interjected. "You must have read my brief cover to cover every day for more than a year now. Did it slip your mind what I did with Delta? I wasn't just a shooter. I was my team's designated tech specialist. If we can get to a computer on that floor then I can get us through those locks faster than shit through a goose."
Sarah nodded, settling the matter before there was time for any further debate. "Let's make the climb and we'll figure out the rest when we reach the subbasement. We need to keep moving. We don't have time to stand around strategizing. Half a plan is better than no plan at this point."
"Alright," Danny rolled up the map and stuffed into his back pocket. "Get your selves squared away and –"
"One second," Sarah said, holding up a finger. "There's one thing we need to take care of before we leave."
"Aren't you the one who just said we don't have time to be standing around?" Tommy sniped, throwing her a questioning stare.
"Yes, I am and it's not standing around that I'm talking about. Now come with me."
Sarah started down the hallway back towards the vaccine storage area and when the photographer failed to follow, she grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and dragged him after her. Sarah led the way back to the room before coming to a stop in front of the shattered window. She cast a look around the area, forcing herself to let her gaze linger on Hargreaves' body, his missing head mercifully hidden beneath Tommy's leather jacket.
She took in the corpse of her savior and friend. She took in the bloodied remains of the creature he had sacrificed himself to save her from. She took in the tall, industrial refrigerators stamped with biohazard seals. She took in the red and white shield of the Umbrella Corporation that decorated each of the fridges.
Sarah turned back to Tommy. "Take pictures of it." She nodded to him. "Take pictures of everything."
"E-everything?" He cast a sidelong glance to where Hargreaves lay.
"Yes, everything," Sarah replied, following his gaze. Forcing herself to look. To bear witness. It's funny what falls under the category of" everything" in my life now. Well, almost funny.
"Why?"
"Because it's evidence," Sarah answered slowly, firmly, resolutely. "Because I'm going to make the bastards behind this wear what they did here."
-PAGE BREAK-
Danny pilfered a fire axe he found bolted to the wall in the main hall and used its blade to wedge open the elevator doors. Drake and Kuznetsov then joined him in wrenching the doors apart. It took no small amount of sweating and swearing but after a few moments of strained shoulders and backs the doors slid apart.
Cool air howled up from below, buffeting Danny's face, driving him back a step. The shaft stood dark and empty even though they had ridden the elevator down to reach this floor. It must be on automatic recall to the entrance level, the marshal realized as he swept the space with the flashlight mounted to his M4.
There was little to see. The chamber was framed by rocky walls with metal tracks built into them to carry the elevator between floors. Bolted to the wall on the right, outside the path of the tracks, was a long steel ladder that ran the length of the passage and disappeared into the darkness below. The space appeared free of any obvious threats but the beam of Danny's light revealed more spots of rust on the ladder than he was comfortable with.
No turning back now, Danny Boy.
He pulled himself out of the shaft and turned to face the others. "It's about thirty yards to the bottom. A long way, but we can do this. Just take it one rung at a time and don't look down." He knew the doubt and apprehension he saw on his companions' faces was mirrored on his own. "We can do this. We have to."
The others nodded gamely.
"I'll go first," Danny offered, turning back to face the darkness of the shaft. "The rest of you follow one at a time."
Danny removed the flashlight from under the barrel of his M4 and swung out onto the ladder. He pinched the light between his teeth so that he could see where he was going while keeping his hands free. Sucking in a deep breath, the marshal began making his way down.
He had never thought of himself as being particularly averse to heights but this was testing even his limits. Danny felt his stomach jump and his heart skip as he blindly kicked below him, probing with his feet to find the next rung before stepping into it. The darkness was almost absolute, giving him the disorienting sensation of being surrounded by a black void.
Miss a foot or handhold and you'll find out real quick this void has one hell of a hard bottom to it, Danny Boy.
Danny tried not to think about what would happen if he missed a foot or handhold as he continued to make his way down. He tried not to think about the yawning blackness beneath him. He tried not to think about what else might be lurking in the elevator shaft aside from a steep drop that would come to a sudden end.
He tried and failed.
Any number of things could be waiting in the darkness below or climbing up through it right now. Things with tearing claws, snapping jaws and impossibly long tongues so strong than can pop your head clean off your shoulders like they did too poor Harry Hargreaves or Sergeant Scaggs or –
The brakes were put on Danny's unpleasant reverie as a soft vibration ran through the ladder. He looked up to see small points of light break through the darkness above him as the others began their descent, using a similar strategy as he did to light their way. The ladder groaned ever so softly as they started their climb.
"Please hold. Please hold. Please hold." Danny whispered as he pull himself down rung after rung, trying to keep the ladder bolted to the wall through sheer force of will.
Repeating the mantra with every step, Danny continued his way down. He dared not look down as he moved from rung to rung but he could feel himself closing the distance with each move, drawing closer to the subbasement and the way out of this place – drawing closer to escaping from Raccoon City itself.
After what felt like hours clinging to the ladder, Danny risked a glance down. He saw that he was no more than a dozen yards from the bottom now. A faint light pierced the gloom below and he realized the glow was coming through the cracks in the elevator door on the subbasement.
Almost there.
"Shit!" Tommy hollered from overhead, his voice echoing through the shaft. "Look out below!"
Danny could hear something banging and clattering against the ladder and pulled himself tighter against it. He curled his arms around the bars, trying to make his grip as secure as possible while also making his body as flat as possible. Whatever was falling, bounced past his head, spraying his face with a dizzying blur of light as it tumbled to the bottom of the shaft where it struck the ground with the sound of shattering glass.
"Sorry!" Tommy called down from above. "I dropped my flashlight. My bad!"
Danny glared up towards the sound of the photographer's voice. For fuck's sake there's enough ways to get killed down here without him adding to them.
"Is everyone okay?" The others shouted affirmatives and Danny let out a sigh. "We're almost to the bottom. Only a few more feet. Tommy?"
"Yeah?"
"Try not to anyone into a pancake before we get there, okay?"
"Roger that!"
Jackass.
Danny waited for his heart to approach a more normal rhythm before resuming his descent. He stepped off the ladder and popped his flashlight out of his mouth and shone it up the length of the ladder, illuminating the way for the others before helping them step off the ladder.
"Drake, give me a head with this," he said nodding to the doors. "The rest of you be ready. Who knows what's down here."
Kuznetsov drew his pistol and Tommy raised his rifle as Danny and Drake wedged their fingers between the elevator doors. A couple minutes of moaning and groaning later and they were through.
Danny reattached his flashlight to his M4 and scanned the path ahead.
The elevator opened out into a long hallway bathed in the same crimson glow of emergency lights as the floor above. The corridor led to a large pair of metal double-doors marked GENERAL STORAGE in tall black letters. The hallway was flanked by rooms on either side. One was labelled SECURITY and a window looked into an office were two computers rested beneath a wall of CCTV monitors. The other doorway was marked CAFETERIA. Key card readers rested next to every entranceway. They burned with red light, their glow seeming somehow amplified beneath the emergency lighting.
"There's your computer, Drake," Danny said, stepping up to the window that looked into the security office, "but I don't see how we're –"
The marshal jumped as gunshots sounded over his shoulder. Three bullets struck the window, punching holes in it and sending spider-web cracks running along its surface. The glass was reinforced but not intended to take so many rounds at nearly point blank range. It shattered as Drake unloaded three more shots into it.
Danny glanced back at the man as he lowered his smoking gun and strode towards the opening he had created. "Hargreaves said it best," Drake muttered as he pulled himself through the window, careful to avoid the broke shards. "Sometimes brute force is the best way."
Danny stared dumbstruck after the man as the others climbed into the office through the makeshift entrance he had created.
You can argue with his methods but he does get results.
Scowling and shaking his head, Danny rejoined the group.
Drake pulled up a chair behind one of the computers and tapped a key. The machine whirred as it came out of sleep mode and booted up. The red and white octagonal shield of the Umbrella Corporation spun on the screen for a moment before a login screen loaded. Danny frowned as Drake was prompted to enter a user ID and password to access the system.
"How are you going to get past this?" He inquired, placing a hand on the back of Drake's chair.
"Quickly if I don't have to spend time explaining what I'm doing to you."
The man's fingers flew across the keyboard. Dozens of windows of static and scrolling code began to pop up on the screen almost faster than Danny's eye could follow. Drake barely paused in his typing, hammering out lines of what, to the marshal, looked like extremely complicated gibberish. Danny watched in silent fascination with the others. The only sound in the room was the click-clack-click-clack of Drake's fingers springing from key to key.
"Voila!" Drake exclaimed and hit the ENTER button. The windows vanished as fast as they had appeared and were replaced with the words ACCESS GRANTED in bright green letters. "For a company that manufactures weapons of mass destruction their cybersecurity leaves a lot to be desired. The number of firewalls is impressive but so is the number of backdoors left in the code. Clearly Umbrella is more worried about external threats rather than an internal one."
"Command told us the White facilities security was hackproof during the Alaska operation," Kuznetsov said with awe. "They said the only way in was with the proper clearance codes."
Drake shrugged. "Ever been lied to before? It doesn't surprise me that a bunch of filthy-rich jerkoffs who make their wealth by manufacturing bioweapons under the nose of the U.S. government would be arrogant enough to view every aspect of their business as being infallible. Anyway, let's get this party started."
The hitman-hacker hybrid typed in another series of commands and a new window popped up on the screen. Danny saw it controlled power to the lights and doors on the facility's subbasement.
"Let there be light," Drake intoned as he toggled a tab marked lighting from emergency to regular. They were all immediately plunged into pitch darkness for half a second as the backup generators switched over then slowly the overhead fluorescents flickered back to life as the hum of energy coursed through the room. "That's better – as much as I was enjoying the Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe the emergency lights were giving off. Now, let's work on getting the hell out of here."
Drake moved the mouse over to a tab labelled door controls and clicked the switch from secure to open. The hallway filled with cheerful beeps as the lights above the key card readers all flashed from red to green in the same instant. With his work done, Drake rose from behind the console, walked past the broken window and pushed the door open.
"After you, I insist," he said, bowing like a faithful doorman.
Danny stared at the man for a long moment, considering the truly terrifying depths of his knowledge and skillset, before sighing and leading the others into the hallway. On the way out, he heard Sarah mutter something to Drake as she stepped by him.
"You're a complicated man indeed, Mister Lincoln."
Danny was inclined to agree.
He and Kuznetsov took point as they pushed through into the plant's general storage area on their way to the tram control room. Their boots clanked across an expansive metal walkway that stretched over a warehouse space below. Staircases at either end led down to the area below that was filled with pallets piled high with cardboard boxes wrapped in sheets of plastic. The skids were fenced in by rows of shelves that lined bare concrete walls. The shelves were similarly stuffed with cardboard boxes. Each box bore a label stamped with the Umbrella logo but Danny was too high up to make out what was written on them. That didn't stop him from guessing at the boxes' contents.
Office supplies, computer monitors, microscopes, beakers, Apocalyptic viral weaponry – you know, the usual stuff any Fortune 500 company keeps in its warehouses.
Trying not to think about what might be stored just beneath his feet, Danny kept his eyes on their goal. On the other side of the walkway a pair of metal doors were set into the wall. Bold black lettering declared it the entrance to the EMERGENCY EVACUATION TRAM CONTROL. The light next to the key card reader remained a solid, promising green.
Almost there. Almost out of here.
Escape lay only a few feet away but Danny dared not hope. Not yet. Not until they were all aboard the last train out of town while Raccoon City fading out of view in the rear view mirror.
He moved cautiously across the platform, fearing an attack by howling monsters or masked men with guns. He scanned every nook and cranny with his M4, straining his eyes and ears for the sign of any possible threat.
None emerged. There was little to look at on the walkway save for a few abandoned tool kits and tanks for acetylene torches that had been stashed in the alcoves dotting that dotted the platform. Some sort of renovations or construction had been underway when the outbreak occurred, forcing the workers to flee in the middle of their labours.
They reached the other side of the walkway without any confrontation and Danny felt himself trembling with equal parts excitement and trepidation as he approached the doors to the tram control room. His presence triggered the motion sensor and the doors zipped apart revealing a room that looked like an expanded version of the security office.
There were several banks of computers and CCTV screens. A bulletin board to the right of the entrance was hung with folders marked EMEGENCY EVAC PROTOCOLS and MAINTENANCE LOGS. There was an elevator tucked away in the far corner of the room that Danny assumed led down to the tram station itself.
None of these things commanded the marshal's attention. Instead, he focused on the large Plexiglass window that dominated the wall on the opposite side of the room, behind the computer workstations. It looked down into the tram station – the empty tram station.
Danny stood before the window and gazed down on a length of track that disappeared down a tunnel lit by the pale glow of lights that ran across the ceiling of the passage. The part of the tunnel that he could see ran for about twenty feet before disappearing around a curve – but that was all there was to see.
"Where the fucking train?" Tommy growled, asking the question that Danny knew was on everyone's mind. Something seemed to break in the man then and he collapsed onto the floor. "This can't be it. We made it all this way…we made it through so much shit...we –" the rest of his words were lost in a ragged sob.
"Drake," Danny spoke slowly with his fist clenched at his side, barely holding himself onto the edge of a cliff perched above a pit of despair. "Find me my train."
"On it," the other man replied, darting away and pulling up a seat behind one of the computer stations. The rattle of a keyboard flooded the room.
"I'll check the emergency evacuation protocols," Kuznetsov offered, "maybe there's a clue there. Something we need to do to call the train."
Danny nodded silently. He had no better ideas to suggest himself.
He pressed a hand to the glass and looked down onto the empty length of track below. He stared at that emptiness for what seemed like hours. He prayed it was some kind of optical illusion or that he could will the train to appear…but it wasn't and he couldn't. The marshal shut his eyes and pressed his forehead against the window.
End of the line, Danny Boy.
For a moment, the noise of Drake's fingers hammering across the keyboard sounded like laughter to Danny, as if the universe itself were having a chuckle at his expense and why shouldn't it be? The outcome of their flight through Raccoon City certainly seemed like the punchline to some twisted joke.
We came so far, lost so many people to learn the truth about what happened here. About what Umbrella did here. Anger swelled in Danny's chest. He could feel the nails of the fingers he had balled into a fist digging painfully into his palm. We came so far, we sacrificed so much and, in the end, it won't make a lick of goddamn difference. The world will never know what Umbrella did, what it's doing even now. The truth will be buried here with us. Those bastards are going to get away with one of the most heinous acts of mass murder in history!
Tears welled in his eyes, trickled down over his cheeks.
I'm so sorry guys. I'm so sorry. Tuck, Sheesh, Mitch. You were all counting on me and I let you –
A soft touch on his shoulder made Danny look up. He found Sarah staring back at him. Her face was calm but her eyes held a darkness that disturbed him. It was as if the light inside the woman had been snuffed out. Looking into that darkness sent a chill through the marshal, a sensation that was amplified when he saw her extending the handgun he had given her at the library out towards him in one hand.
"How do I eject the magazine?" She asked her voice as devoid of feeling as her eyes.
The question caught Danny off guard. "Wh-why?"
"Just show me."
Confused, the marshal took the weapon from her and showed her where to find the clip release. "You press this and that'll spit the clip out." He hit the button and pulled the magazine free, handing both back to the young doctor. "To reload, just pop in a new one but make sure you really give it a – hey! What are you doing?"
He watched as Sarah thumbed a single round out of the top of the clip and went to tuck into her front pocket. He caught hold of the hand she held the bullet in and met her eyes. They were no longer cold and dark but sparkled with something far more chilling. He could see the shadows of defeat swirling in their depths.
"Before we found your group," Sarah began, tears glinting in her gaze, "Homer, Tommy, Hargreaves and I were hiding out. Hargreaves did the same thing. He said he was saving one for himself in case…well, you know."
Danny did. He remembered the way Hargreaves had kicked and struggled after being pulled into the vent in the vaccine storage area. He remembered feeling him suddenly go limp as the creature tore his head from his shoulders. He remembered seeing the man's headless body flop onto the floor, spilling blood far and wide.
He was saving one for himself in case he found himself in a situation where something like that might happen.
"He didn't get a chance to use it and I guess that's my fault," Sarah went on, the tears flowing freely down her face now. "Still, I remember thinking it was a good idea at the time and…with no way out of here, I don't see the harm in following suit. More of those things that got Hargreaves are down here and maybe Umbrella's goon squad is too. If either of them come for us…well, I'd rather go out by own –"
"No," Danny didn't let her finish, closing his fingers tightly around her hand. "No. Don't you say that."
The anger in his chest burned hotter, flared brighter, as he looked into Sarah's eyes and saw the wreckage of her soul shining through. This was what Umbrella had done. This was what Umbrella did. It destroyed more than lives, it destroyed people, ruining them to their core – stealing hope and humanity.
He wouldn't allow it. He wouldn't be defeated. He wouldn't let the bastards win.
I won't rollover. I won't say quit. I won't let them hide the truth.
"We are getting out of here, Sarah." He told her and believed it. "We are going home and I promise when we do we are going to show the world what really happened here. We're going to expose those motherfuckers sitting in their ivory tower at Umbrella HQ. We're going to drag them kicking and screaming into the sunlight and then we're going to burn that tower down to the fucking ground." He squeezed her hand and somehow found the strength to grin. "But I need you to do it with me. You're the brains of this operation remember?"
She looked up at him, through the sheen of her tears and somehow found the strength to grin back. Slowly, she uncurled her fingers from around the bullet she was holding. Danny picked it out of her palm and held it up.
"I'm going to hang on to this for now," he told her, tucking the loose round into a pocket on his vest. "It'll be our lucky charm. I'll give it back to you when we get out of this place, a sign that I'm capable of keeping a promise."
Sarah nodded, wiping at her eyes, and opened her mouth to say something but was cut off when Drake called out.
"Danny!" He barked over his shoulder, waving them over to his station where Kuznetsov stood at his side with the emergency evacuation protocols manual cracked open. "I've got good news and I've got bad news."
"What's the good news?" Danny grunted, walking over. "We could use a break for once."
"The good news is we can get the tram back," Drake spoke as he tapped away on the keyboard. "The bad news is it's going to take some time."
"The staff here used the tram to get out of the facility after the outbreak," Kuznetsov explained. "The train is designed not to return to the plant after it exits the facility as part of safeguards aimed at keeping any possible contamination from spreading outside the city however it can be recalled from central control, where we are now."
Danny clutched the back of Drake's seat, leaning over the man to stare at his screen. It was a CCTV image from the tram tunnel. It showed a small train cart rocketing down the tracks, headed back towards the facility. The sight made his heart swell and his pulse race.
We're not done yet.
"How long is it going to take to get back to the station?" Danny was aware of the ticking of a clock in the back of his mind. He remembered Briggs' warning about their timeline for getting out of Raccoon City. Sunrise was fast approaching.
"Uh guys?" Tommy leapt to his feet, pointing to a security monitor in the corner of the room. "I think we've got another problem?"
Danny glanced towards the screen that had the photographer so worked up and felt his heart skip a beat. It was a feed from inside the facility's main elevator. It showed four men dressed in black combat gear and toting assault rifles making their way down. Danny could guess their destination.
"Seems they won't let us leave without saying goodbye first," the marshal turned back towards Drake. "How long do you need to get the train back?"
Drake glanced back at the screen and shook his head. "At least ten minutes and that's just to get the damn thing docked. It'll take another couple minutes after that to prep for departure and get it rolling again."
"The Umbrella cleaners will be here in less than five," Kuznetsov said, shaking his head.
Nothing's ever easy.
"Can you seal them out?" Danny asked.
"Sure," Drake nodded, "for about five seconds. I can lock the doors but our friends out there work for the company that runs this place. I'm pretty sure they've got all the keys to the castle."
"All right, all right," Danny nodded and moved back towards the doors. "I'll handle this."
"Where the hell are you going?" Sarah called after him.
"I'm going to go and have a word with those assholes," Danny replied, nodding to the security monitor. "I'll hold them off as long as I can. Seal the doors behind me anyway and don't wait. Drake, do whatever you can to get the tram here and gone as quickly as possible. If I'm not back by the time you're ready to leave – then just go."
Drake watched him for a moment, weighing his words. Whatever else the man had become since leaving the military he had been trained to leave no man behind. Still, in the end, he saw the practicality of what Danny was saying and nodded solemnly. Sarah wasn't so quick to give up the protest.
"Danny, we're not going to –"
"Yes, you are." He shook his head. "There's no time for debate, Sarah. You said that yourself earlier. If you have a window to get out of here then take it."
"Let me go with you at least," Kuznetsov said, stepping around the desk. "Two against four are better odds than four against one."
The marshal shook his head again. "No, I need you to stay here and stand guard in case they get past me." Danny paused, fixing the Russian with a stern stare. "If it comes down to it, promise me you'll get them out of here Dmitry."
Kuznetsov's lips twisted into a sour expression and although the man looked like he wanted to press the issue further, he chose not to. He gave Danny a curt nod.
"Danny…" Sarah began again, her face flushed with uncertainty and fear but none of it was for herself.
"It'll be okay," he told her, patting the pocket on his vest that held the bullet he had taken from her. "I've got my good luck charm."
Danny gave Sarah one last smile that he hoped was more reassuring than it felt on his face before turning on his heel and stepping back out into the warehouse area again. The doors slid shut behind him and the key card reader buzzed as its green light turned red.
The marshal shut his eyes and took in a deep breath. He pictured the look on Sarah's face as he left the control room. He pictured his own smile as he told her it would be okay. He shook his head as he did so but was unable to shake the feeling that he wouldn't see her again.
Putting his doubts aside, Danny moved towards the doors on the far end of the walkway.
His enemy was approaching but he was ready.
It's time to end this.
Author's Note: Please read and review.