Downfall: Resident Evil II

Chapter Thirty Seven: End of Pursuit

"Oh… shit." Leon quietly said as the giant stepped onto the far end of the catwalk.

There was nowhere to go, since the catwalk was a dead end at the reset controls, and aside from taking a swim in the molten vat of whatever that stuff was down there, the only way out was to go through the green long-coat wearing giant… basically all of his options were terrible. So he started walking toward his pursuer, getting the machine pistol ready, while trying to keep his growing fear under control.

After all, the young man had seen first-hand the power of this monster, the level of destruction it was capable of dishing out, as well as how easily it could destroy a human being. A quick memory of Ben's fate back near the RPD's Press Conference room flashed through Leon's mind, and that almost made him want to see if he could clear the edge of the molten vat by jumping, but then he remembered something: Ben had been taken by surprise and was unarmed… while he was neither.

"Okay, you are really starting to piss me off!" Leon yelled, trying to hide his fear underneath anger. "What the hell is your problem, anyway?! You just drop into the RPD outta nowhere, and then what… just decide that you like me?! Well, fuck you! Fuck you, and whoever dropped you on this city!"

With that, the young man pulled the trigger, sending a metallic rain of bullets toward the giant to the sound of pop-pop-pop-pop-pop. Having moved to less than half the original distance between them, most of the bullets hit their target, and although the ones that struck the giant's massive body had little to no effect, the ones that struck it in the face were a different story. Each one that landed there made the pursuer twitch, and the ones that hit near the eyes would sometimes make it raise its big arms to protect them, and giving the young man hope that maybe this thing could be defeated after all.

Click… the machine pistol's magazine was empty after firing a surprising amount of bullets, but instead of reloading right away, Leon backed off, allowing the giant to recover and start pursuing him again, while he went around the corner to where the control box was located. Unfortunately, for the plan that he was cooking up, he needed the giant to be right in front of him… and there wasn't much room on the catwalk after turning the corner.

Thump-thump-thump… the giant's footsteps were shaking the catwalk as it approached, and Leon swallowed hard, fighting the urge to panic as it closed in. All he could think of was how Claire, Ada, and Sherry were all counting on him to get them out of Raccoon City safely, and if he somehow got out of this… okay, the time for thoughts was now officially over as the giant rounded the corner… cornering him before swing one of those big arms right at him.

Ducking down so that he felt the air moving while the incredibly powerful punch sailed right over his head, everything shook as the giant's fist struck the power generating pillar instead, causing both of them to be put off balance for a moment. Regaining their balance at the same time, the giant raised both arms to finish Leon off, but the young man was just a little bit faster about aiming the machine pistol upward, and pulling the trigger.

Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop! The fury of a full magazine took the giant completely by surprise, and now that Leon was closer, all of the bullets were hitting it right in the face, forcing it to stumble backwards. This time whenever his pursuer tried raising its arms to defend its face, the young man adjusted his aim to keep hitting it, and the giant kept stumbling back… and back… and back, until the abomination's back was right up against the guard rail, and then…

Click…

Leon could feel the color draining out of his face as the weapon ran dry, and even though the giant was bending over backwards against the guardrail, in a couple seconds it was going to right itself, and then… and then he would be royally screwed. Now with only his police issue 9mm pistol to defend himself, and no way to run past the giant, things were about to go bad really fast… unless… unless a really stupid and dangerous idea popped into his head... which it did.

After everything that had happened this night, Leon was not about to let everything end this way. He was not about to sacrifice the safety of Ada and Sherry, nor was he about to give up the chance of having something with Claire after all this was over… so without allowing himself to think about what he was doing, for fear of talking himself out of it… he ran right toward the giant.

Dropping the machine pistol, and sprinting to full speed, the young man rammed his shoulder into the giant as hard as he could, hearing the metallic clink of a section of guardrail snapping, and feeling the giant tipping backwards… and him going along for the ride. Reaching out his arms to try and grab the guardrail, Leon's hands found nothing as they both started to fall, but somehow one of his hands managed to find the catwalk itself.

Taking a moment to watch as the giant fell silently into the molten vat below, seeing the bright orange splash of chemical, and then his pursuer simply being gone was rewarding… but it didn't stop the strain that holding onto the catwalk was having on his recently sutured wounds. Of course, it wasn't like letting go was an option, with great effort, and a feeling that at least part of his wound had reopened, Leon swung his leg back over the edge, and slowly pulled himself back up onto the catwalk.

Once there was no longer a danger of falling, the young man took a look over the side just to make sure that his pursuer hadn't somehow pulled itself out of the vat… and after looking for several seconds, he discovered that it hadn't. In fact, there was no movement at all… meaning that he had won. Leon, all by himself, had taken on the seemingly unstoppable giant in a fair fight, and had won.

"Like I said… fuck you." He groaned, trying to ignore the rediscovered pain, using the guardrail to stand up. "Fuck you and the…

Suddenly there was a new tremor in the catwalk, seeming to come from the pillar while even more crackling energy started to flow up and down its surface, especially in the area that had been damaged by the giant's fist. Then the rumbling stopped for a second as something like a ruptured pipe started hissing up above, only to start up again… stop again… and start again as if the system was trying to compensate for the damage… and not having too much success.

"Oh God." Leon said, helplessly looking around for a way to fix whatever the giant had broken. "Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God."

No, he didn't know the first thing about power reactors, assuming that was that the pillar's purpose was, but as the struggle between the rumbling and whatever countermeasures the system was employing to stop it, the signs were pretty clear that he should probably leave the area. The good news was that now the lights were on, allowing the young man to see down the catwalks and the resulting corridor… but the bad news was that right as he was moving through the area where he had met the creature with the exposed brain… another one was now climbing out of a vent.

Realizing that maybe her preferred to see these creatures in total darkness, Leon froze in place as the thing crawled its way across and down the wall as if it were a lizard, the creature stopped after reaching the floor, only to slowly let out its several foot long tongue, which passed along the floor… easily cutting into both the metal and the other creature's body, before retracting. However, the one thing it didn't pay attention to… was Leon.

Turning its head back toward the pillar every time the rumbling would start, the creature ignored the young man completely as it walked past as if it were blind or something. Not that he was complaining about not having to fight another one of those things, after the last one had nearly cleaved off his head. Either way, the route to the elevator was now clear, and the creature was moving further away, so Leon moved on, only to stop when his foot hit one of the spilled pipes with a loud metallic clank.

"Oh no." He whispered, turning his head to look at the creature.

It appeared that he and it had both stopped at the same time in reaction to the noise, but then the creature turned around, and started to walk back in his direction. Feeling a slight sense of panic return, Leon resumed his trip back to the elevator, but while trying not to make any more sounds that would attract the tongue-creature. This seemed to work, with the creature stopping at the spot where his foot had struck the pipe, but then he was forced to push the elevator button.

The doors opened with a hiss, and the creature made a kind of grunting sound an instant later, and starting to run toward them at the same time that Leon got inside. Now rapidly pushing the button for them to close, the doors seemed to be moving in slow motion, while the creature appeared to be getting faster. With a shriek, it leapt toward the closing doors, but there was not enough space for it to get through, resulting with a loud thud against them just as they closed all the way.

Unable to believe that he had survived another near death experience, the young man just stood there like an idiot, replaying his encounters with both the giant and each tongue-creature in his mind, until being startled when the elevator started moving again. Finally able to let out a sigh of relief as he leaned against the back, Leon brought his hand up to his partially opened wound, and hoped that there wasn't much more to go through before the nightmare would end.