Claire and Leon, with Zohall in tow, ran away from the bent over figure. As they did, they felt heat rising from the end of the hall, and smoke filled their lungs.
"Something's on fire!" Claire stated as she stepped out of the hall and into a more ruined one, where a pipe leaked a flammable gas. Leon whistled as Claire brought her gun up, and shot an emergency sprinkler on the ceiling. "Let's go!" she said as she ran ahead, leaving the ruins behind.
"Is he following us?" Leon gasped as he turned around, moving past the ruined hall and down yet another. Seeing nothing, he turned to Zohall, who seemed out of breath. "Zohall, what was that?!"
Claire turned and faced the two, her eyes on Zohall. The young teen looked between the two of them, and started stuttering.
"What do you mean? Did I hurt one of you two?" he asked frantically. "I just knew I had to try to do something!"
"And it was great," Claire smiled, and Zohall calmed down slightly.
"I'm talking about your eyes," Leon clarified, and Zohall looked confused.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"You- your eyes were glowing," Leon stated, and Zohall blinked.
"I… they were?" Zohall asked. Leon couldn't believe how clueless he was about the things he had just done. He was acting like charging the monster behind them had been just as much of a chore as taking laundry away to a washer. "I just didn't want anything to happen to you two," Zohall admitted, looking at the two of them," I mean- several days running with sick and hurt people… it kind of makes me want to keep sane company."
"Zohall," Claire grabbed his shoulder from his back, and gave him a forceful hug, "you're a sweet kid." Zohall only gagged, as she was tugging on his neck. Leon smiled and nodded.
"Let's keep mov-" he started, but he stood upright fully as they all heard the scream. Running down the thin and dimly lit hall, they burst open the door out the end, and found nothing but darkness. Continuing screams forced Leon to scramble for a flashlight.
Switching the light on, he immediately spotted a zombie trying to take a bite out of the girl in a blue school outfit.
"Get off her!" Claire shouted as she took the shot with Leon, peppering the zombie again and again. As the infected man collapsed, they noticed the girl had vanished, and heard frantic footsteps, too fast for a zombie.
"Come back!" Zohall shouted, " come on! Please?!"
"Zohall!" Claire shouted as she heard movement closest to Zohall, and Leon turned his flashlight to show three zombies about to lunge at the teen with a sword. He dealt with each with a swing of his sword, decapitating them.
"Nice," Leon said, and reached for another flashlight and gave it to Claire.
"I don't get one?" Zohall asked.
"I only have two," Leon admitted, " and you need two hands for your sword anyway. Claire and I have the extra hand."
"Fine! Let's just find her?" Zohall asked, somewhat uncomfortable with not having his own source of light.
They had stumbled into a private study, or small library in the station. Old styled wooden walls lined with large stuffed bears surrounded them, and several large bookshelves sliced up the room into small alleys. There was an overturned table with spilled papers, blocking several of the bookshelves, and as Leon turned his light to the right, he spotted a desk just in time to see the small girl running towards the bookshelves.
"Wait!" Claire said, putting her gun away and running after her. As Leon and Zohall followed quickly, they all heard a strange rumbling sound, and the sound of gears clinking. As they ran against the wall past the bookshelves, there was a source of light past the bookshelves near a wall, and the girl ran into it. Before Claire could reach it, a Zombie lunged inside, and the girl screamed.
"Zohall, go!" Leon ordered at Zohall, who was on the undead man before Claire could reach for her gun. He spun inside the room, where the undead man was crawling, and grabbing onto the leg of the young girl, and slashed his sword at the rotting neck. The body of the undead man went limp, and the girl crawled backwards into a corner, where she held her legs close to her, and stared at Zohall.
As Zohall stood up, he realized that this room wasn't intended to be easily available, and behind him, the 'would be' doorway was devoid of a door, and they were in some sort of secret passage. There was an old looking service elevator in front of him at the end of the hall, leading down.
"Hold on!" Claire said, who put herself in between the girl and Zohall. "Look at me?" Claire asked the still shaking girl, " do I look like a monster?"
"N-no," she responded, loosening her grip on her own legs.
"My name is Claire," Claire smiled and held a hand to the girl," what's yours?" The girl slowly reached out with her own hand and took it, allowing himself to be hoisted up.
"Sherry," she said, looking at the other two, and stepping behind Claire.
"This is Leon, and this is Zohall," she pointed to them both. Both men smiled and responded gently, a small nod from Leon and a slight wave of the hand from Zohall. Sherry giggled at Zohall's name.
"I like that name," she said, but she had a sudden change of expression, and turned around.
"Wait," Claire said as Sherry stopped herself at the elevator, and turned halfway to them," where are you going?"
"My mommy and daddy's lab is in the basement," she stated nervously. At this, Claire and Leon exchanged a look, while Zohall blinked.
"They… have a lab in the basement of a police station?" Zohall asked.
"Forensics scientists," Leon suggested but Sherry shook her head.
"They do a lot of research," she said, reaching her hands into the gate, trying to pull it aside," but I don't think they work for the police."
Leon stepped up with Claire, and helped Sherry move the gate aside. As the little girl stepped inside he turned to once again look at Claire.
They both thought immediately of the growing tales of the Umbrella Corporation's total control over the city, as Umbrella centralized most of its research in the area. The girl had no idea, but she may have unintentionally confirmed many conspiracies of absolute corporate control.
"Do… do you think that Umbrella has something to do with-" Zohall suddenly asked, the idea Leon and Claire had just had dawning on him too, but Claire put a hand on his shoulder, and shook her head as Sherry looked at him.
"That's really cool," Sherry said, addressing the sword. Zohall blinked, and smiled bashfully.
"It's my family's," he said holding it in the light for her to see," I was… uh," he struggled to convey what his plan had been in kid friendly terms," going to fight off the zombies using it."
"He's really good using it," Leon said with a smile at the both of them. Claire stepped inside, and looked behind her shoulder once, and Leon caught her worried look. "I don't think he'll catch up with us," he reassured her.
"Who?" Sherry asked.
"Just a bad guy," Zohall said, and as they all stepped inside, the gates closed quickly, and the elevator darted downwards, much to their surprise, having everyone almost hit the floor. Except Zohall, who fell to his side against the wall, narrowly missing Sherry. She chuckled as he stood back up, brushing himself off slightly, and realizing to his disgust, he was still covered in blood. "Wasn't anyone going to tell me I had all this on me!?"
"What?" Leon asked, and snorted as he too just realized Zohall was covered in the blood he had slid on back in the hallway.
"He was scaring me," Sherry admitted," you all looked scary with the gross stuff."
"Oh… sorry," Zohall groaned, trying to wipe away some of the remains.
They stepped out of the elevator into a rather small hallway. With dim lighting from exposed, old looking light bulbs, that moved out and turned with the hall. Exposed pipes lined the top corners. As the elevator closed behind them, strong scents stuck their senses. The overlaying one was rot and old brick. The odor was musky and wet, but could not mask the underlying smell as well.
"Does anyone smell ethanol?" Leon asked to Zohall and Claire.
"Smell what?" Zohall asked, but Claire nodded her head while fanning her face. "Hey!" Zohall shouted and turned. Leon and Claire spun as Sherry screamed and backed into a corner. Zohall followed her closely, as another red creature could be seen climbing on the walls behind them, its eye-less head bobbing in the air. Leon and Claire shot at the thing, and even as it seemed to be able to shrug off several rounds, regardless, it fell and died.
"Look out!" Sherry shouted, and Zohall swung his sword as something small lunged at him. He cleaved it into two, the pieces flopping against the wall behind him and to floor.
"What the-" Leon said as he tried to get a good look at it. Zohall swung his sword again, narrowly missing Leon's face, who ducked back and fell over.
"Shit!" Zohall yelled; he had gotten two more, but one had grabbed onto his shoulder, and he couldn't pull it off, even with Sherry's help. "Get it off!"
"Sherry, move!" Claire said, leaping over Leon, her dagger out. As Sherry stepped over to the corner, watching with worry and fear, Claire stabbed the parasitic looking thing, and it fell limp off of Zohall's t-shirt.
"Oh… holy… holy shi… ship," Zohall stopped himself from swearing at a strong warning glance from Claire. She shook her dagger, and the lifeless body fell off and hit the floor, like the sliced others, with a splat. "What were they?"
"I'm not sure," Claire said. It was bulbous, slimy, with pale white skin, and had five short tentacles for limbs, which had latched itself to Zohall's shoulder. "It didn't bite you, did it?"
Zohall checked his shoulder, even going so far as to lift his shirt off entirely, and brushing off his neck. He seemed unharmed, and he sighed, slipping back on his clothing.
"I can't be too careful, you know?" He said with a tired look to the others," I saw too many guys and girls not check… and, you know how that ends up."
"Yeah," Leon nodded, and spotted Sherry. "Are you okay?" he asked her, coming closer.
"I… I was scared," she admitted, trembling slightly. "I didn't want to see anyone get hurt any more." Claire kneeled down with her, and wrapped her arms around her, pulling her into a hug.
"No one is going to be hurt anymore," Claire said softly.
"You promise?" Sherry asked to the others.
"Cross my heart," Leon said.
"Hope to… well, not to die, I guess," Zohall admitted. Sherry smiled and stood up with Claire. The group continued down the hall, and found an old, thick, wooden door to the side.
"Something is back there," Leon said as he listened before pushing the door open. It creaked loudly, and he and Claire moved out first, guns in front of them. It was a massive stone built room, with various cabinets to the sides. Several overturned stuffed animals were present as well on the far side of the room. At the moment, only a large light was on, at the center of the room, casting dark shadows everywhere else. Underneath the heavy light was a long slanted operating table, and a body lay on it. To the side of the room, there seemed to be a small pit with red stains coating the sides.
Leon and Claire stepped closer, their guns trained on the body, but Zohall and Sherry stayed behind them just slightly. The young teenager's eyes scanned behind them and around.
"What is going on?" Zohall finally asked as he spotted the body of a woman in front of them.
"Isn't she beautiful?"
A voice called to them from the shadows, and they all turned to the approaching figure. As he entered the light, the male was revealed to be wearing a tidy sleeveless black jacket and red tie, with a white business shirt underneath and blue jeans. A black badge was pinned to the jacket, revealing a name- Chief Brian Irons, R.P.D.
"I was about to stuff her," the man stated matter-of-factly after a moment where he sighed pleasantly. His rough voice carried into his face, where his dark eyes and thick moustache gave him an intimidating appearance.
"Chief Irons?" Leon lowered his gun uncertainly.
"You know him?" Claire asked, keeping her gun on him. She didn't need to say it, but this man made her worry more than the monsters upstairs did.
"Prowling around in a time like this…" Brian Irons started slowly, looking at the body of the woman with longing eyes," you're… after 'G' too, aren't you?"
"What?" Zohall asked, his sword readied, unnerved by this man.
"G? Sir, are you alright?" Leon asked, taking a step closer. Irons suddenly revealed a large steel cleaver, holding it up and threatening Leon with it.
"Don't play dumb with me, kid!" the Chief of Police stated.
"See how it feels," Zohall mumbled to Leon, who ignored him.
"Only reason someone else would be around here now," the chief began to ramble, taking a step closer to them, his eyes glaring at Claire and Leon," Is to steal G away for themselves!"
"Who is that, behind you!?" Claire demanded, and Irons turned slowly, looking at the body.
"Her name was Beverly," he said with a hint of sadness," poor thing- I couldn't let her turn into one of those others-"
"Beverly Harris!?" Zohall exclaimed, catching the other's attention," wasn't she the Mayor's daughter?"
"Ex-mayor," Irons laughed harshly, and stopped, spotting Sherry. "Huh…" he stepped closer yet again, and Leon raised his gun to him, certain this man was insane," Aren't you Doctor Birkins-"
As the group stepped to closely surround Sherry, Irons stopped, and stepped back, clutching his chest. He dropped the cleaver, and stumbled further backwards. He gagged, and coughed, expelling from his mouth a huge glob of thick pale-yellow mucus. He gagged again, more of the thick substance spilling from his mouth. Zohall looked away, and tried blocking the view from Sherry.
"I… no…" Irons gasped as he spun about, trying to rip off his jacket, and spilling over the table and the body," this wasn't supposed to happen!" he roared.
Chief Iron's body began to rapidly mutate. His skin stretched grotesquely as his bones and muscles expanded at incredible speeds. His neck began to bulge and grow up and outward as his hair fell away. His eyes bugged outward as his face's shape changed to look more reptilian. His already large body warped and became bulbous on one side- a large overly muscular arm, while the other elongated and shriveled slightly. On his now small looking legs, a tail sprouted from his right leg, and grew outward as he bellowed loud enough for the walls to shake.
Sherry screamed and ran for a door across the hallway. Zohall gasped and tried to run after her, but the new monster before them spotted Zohall and lunged for him.
"Shit!" Zohall yelled, and dodged away just in time for him not be grabbed by the huge armed beast.
"Sherry! Wait!" Claire yelled after her.
"Hold on," Leon shouted," we need to stop this damn thing first!" He opened fire immediately. Claire followed suit, and shot at the huge monster. The beast hardly recoiled from the impact of the pistols. The mutant growled and gurgled as it continued to regurgitate more mucus. The mutant had become just about as tall as the room, and it slowly made is way for Leon and Claire, who were backing up against the wall. The once 'Chief Irons' then struck forward, punching with its overly large hand. The two dived aside, each a different direction.
Leon landed smoothly, and rolled to his feet, spinning to continue the attack, but Claire barely managed to avoid running into a medical drawer.
"Over here, big guy!" Zohall roared and charged at the large monster, his sword above his head. The creature spun away from him and smashed his tail into Zohall, who hadn't seen it coming. He flew near Leon, who continued firing. "Damn, it hits hard," Zohall groaned.
"Come on," Leon shouted, quickly helping Zohall to his feet.
Claire now had the undivided attention of the former Chief Irons, and the first thing it decided to do was to knock the overturned table at Claire. With a powerful sweep of its larger arm, the metal table folded and bent, and flew through the air. Claire's reflexes barely caught her enough time to dodge and roll away, scuffing her shoulders lightly.
"Claire!" Leon shouted, shooting at the mutant while side-stepping towards Claire," are you alright?!"
"Yeah!" she said, getting up and adding to the gunfire," where's Sherry!?" she asked as she reloaded her gun.
"I don't know!" Leon said, standing next to her, glancing around," but let's take care of this thing first!"
There was a bellow of a roar that hadn't come from the monster, and Zohall raised his sword above his head, and ran straight for the beast. Closing the distance, he swung his sword down and cut flesh, but no serious harm was done.
The mutant felt that pain, and turned, sweeping the huge arm around faster than Zohall could anticipate. He was grabbed by the huge disfigured hand, and felt the pressure around his chest building.
"Shit! Zohall!" Leon shouted, and ran closer. He was a pretty good shot for his training, considering the amount of time an energy he put into understanding and practicing with firearms, but Zohall was being waved around like a bath toy held by a demented infant. Just like an infant getting bored with the toy, the mutant Irons turned, and spotted the stained well, and toss Zohall towards it. As soon as Zohall had left the monsters hand, he continued to shoot.
"I'll get Zohall!" Claire shouted as Leon began to back up, shooting the thing in the face, which caused it to raise its larger arm and hold it up, shielding it from more damage.
"Hurry up! He's doing something!" Leon yelled back while retreating a safer distance. The mutant had started to convulse like before, the elongated neck bulging with small spheres, as something was being pushed to the surface. Leon decided to start shooting at the neck.
"Zohall!" Claire said, sliding at the entrance of the pit and onto her stomach. Zohall was up, and desperate to get out. "Oh my god, what is this place!?"
"Don't know, don't care!" Zohall announced disgustedly. It appeared that this was some sort of crude blood pit, as a mix of water and blood sat at the bottom of the five-foot wide circular pit at ankle depth. Zohall was not pleased with the fact that he was even more bloodied than he had been before, and jumped, trying to get height to reach Claire, some ten feet above him.
"What's going on back there!?" Claire asked, turning to look behind her. She immediately regretted the decision, as the mutant began to regurgitate and throw up the small parasite looking creatures with small, thin, tentacle appendages. "Oh, gross! So that's where they're coming from!?"
"What? What!?" Zohall shouted, hopping up, trying to get her hands. She turned back, feverishly trying to get his hand before the new, smaller monsters got to her and Zohall. She heard the slithering getting closer and closer, and pushed herself further into the pit, holding herself at the edge.
"Come on!" she groaned, going as far as she could to reach down, and he leapt as far as he could up, but was still a foot or so off. "Leon!" she shouted, sure the smaller monsters were just behind her.
A loud stomp and squish behind her told her that he got between her and the other newborn spawn. He shot at the others, while Zohall took a risk, jumping away from Claire on the opposite wall first, then turning from that wall, kicking himself upward. She grabbed his arm as he did hers, and they lifted Zohall back up finally.
"I need a shower, really fucking bad!" Zohall spat as he wiped some of the slime off of him, and narrowly avoided a lunging parasite spawn. "Woah!"
"They jump!" Leon reminded the two of them, killing that last of the new monsters, and then focusing back on Chief Irons. He chose the wrong time to lose focus on the monster, and had hardly enough time to react to it's attack.
The Mutant lunged forward with it's oversized arm, and grabbed Leon by the feet and legs. He gasped and shouted as he was tossed upside and held high in the air. Dangling and almost loosing his grip on his gun, he struggled to wiggle out of the monstrously tight grip.
"Leon!" Claire shouted, and stepped to a safer angle to shoot at the mutant. Zohall took, once again, a more direct path, charging at the arm holding Leon up, and swiping at it. Blood sprayed outward, however the injury was only enough for the mutant to notice Zohall, and try to swipe at him with his smaller arm. He ducked and stepped aside, and swung at that arm, cutting into it deeper than the other.
"Get it off of me!" Leon shouted, finally getting a clear shot of the hideous face of former Chief Irons, and quickly shooting it three times. It recoiled and turned away from Leon, holding him aside and away from the face. Then, and to Leon's disgust, he spotted a feature he hadn't before.
A bulbous eyelid opened, and a three foot wide eyeball stared at Leon, adjusting and refocusing every instance he jostled from the arm's movement. The horrible nature of the 'back-eye' only took Leon for a moment, and he had an idea. Quickly taking a chance, he raised his gun again, and shot it into the eye.
"Damn!" Zohall leapt back, holding his ears away from the shriek the monster made. Quivering and clearly harmed, the beast spun entirely around, and threw Leon as hard as it could away, slamming into Zohall mid-flight. The two skidded across the entire room, hitting the wall with a loud bang. "I'm… not… an airbag!"
"Leon, what was that!?" Claire shouted as she ran to help them both up. Leon's eyes were fixed on the monster, and the other two turned, watching it as well. While stumbling about, the monster again exposed it's right side, and there was the now spastically blinking eye, now red with a small trail of blood Leon gave it.
"Call me crazy," Leon said, standing up and reloading his gun," but I think I found it's weak spot."
"Great! So we can kill this thing?" Zohall asked, holding his sword at the ready.
"What made you think we never had the chance?" Leon asked in amusement," now, it's just easier for us I think! Claire, you and me are going to bait this sucker until he's forgotten we know where he hurts most, kid-"
"Stop calling me kid!" Zohall barked.
"-fine, Zohall," Leon corrected himself quickly," you'll flank the son of a bitch until you get the right moment, and cut that eye right open."
"Okay," Claire said.
"Um… What's flanking?" Zohall asked with confusion.
"You don't know-"
"Watch out!" Claire shouted, pulling Leon aside as Zohall leapt away. The Mutant had charged at the three of them, punching at the wall where they had been. A series of strong cracks in the concrete walls indicated that they might have died had they not moved. The mutant turned to Zohall and his bright sword, and bellowed, charging again.
"Shit! Over here!" Leon shouted as he and Claire shot again and again at the huge creature.
Zohall was in for a test of his life. His heart racing at a million beats a second, he was running along side of the monster, but not fast enough to break away from it. So he stopped, and it swung at him. Rolling to the outside of the forward punch, he sliced upward with the sword, and once again as he passed the shoulder, slicing at that. It turned, and swung across at Zohall, who ducked under and past it, trying to cut at the chest of the monster while Leon and Claire shot at its back.
It roared at Zohall, its slimy mucus spraying slightly at his face, and he raised his hands up to shield his eyes. As he did, the smaller hand shot forward and shoved Zohall into the wall suddenly, knocking his breath out. He slumped down slightly, watching the beast spin towards him again with the right side, the larger arm clipping Zohall's legs in his attempt to jump and avoid.
Zohall fell, breathing hard. Even as the monster closed in on him, and he heard Leon and Claire shouting desperately for him to move, he saw the beast lift one of it's wide feet up, and lower them down onto him. Zohall wouldn't die yet though, and with one hand, placed his sword forward, and then upward, stabbing the bottom of the foot deeply, and slowly halted the attempted stomp on his head. And he felt it.
A surge, a new breath within him rushed forward through his arm, and filled every muscle, and Zohall knew he couldn't let the energy slip from him. Pulling the blade to his side, and putting the monster off balance, he wrenched the sword from the flesh, cutting through huge amounts of muscle as he darted underneath the monster, which Zohall could have sworn slowed down.
"Shit!" Leon shouted. He saw Zohall fly out from under the monster, emerging from the shadows with a trail of blood behind him. Sliding just feet from Leon and Claire, Zohall turned, his sword resting on the ground while he crouched, watching the mutant.
"Just tell me what I got to do," Zohall said after a moment, his entire focus on the monster.
"Well… keep it still," Leon changed tactic, realizing that the monster was now going to go after Zohall whether his old plan needed him to or not," and Claire and I will deal with the damn thing."
"Right!" Zohall shouted, as he stood up, charging down the monster. He dragged his sword against the hard ground, sparks flying in his wake. Getting close, he lifted the sword, and yelled as he slammed it into the turning beast, straight into it's neck.
"Go!" Leon shouted to Claire, and the started running around the room. While Zohall backed off, cutting and blocking attacks as he slowly retreated from single handedly distracting the monster, Leon and Claire got close, and found the eyelid. "I'll get it open!"
"Both of us!" she shouted, and grasped the lower crease as Leon grabbed the upper one. Slowly pushing up, or in Claire's case downward, they opened the large, ugly eye in the monster's back. Only a second later, as the eye darted between looking at the two of them, they both raised their guns into the center, and fired. Not once, not twice did they fire, but they emptied their guns.
The monster howled and shrieked and stepped aside, wobbling off balance and away from Zohall, it tried to clutch the mangled and bleeding eye. Its arms flailed and tossed, its head gurgling more mucus, and finally blood poured out of its mouth, and it stopped moving. With a heavy shudder, it slammed into the ground.
Leon and Claire re-loaded, and stepped closer, their guns train on their massive target, ready for anything else that might happen. Zohall too approached, his breathing low and steady, his bright green eyes also watching endlessly the motionless target.
Leon was able to look the kid straight in the face again, but only saw it for a moment before it faded. Those same, glowing eyes. Not just bright eyes, but a light coming from him, like an energy source pouring out into the world. Leon was on the verge of fear. He, even after seeing a monster, literally watching a horrible unnatural monster be created in front of him, this seemed like something else entirely. Something he couldn't explain.
"Is it really dead?" Zohall asked, worry in his voice as it trembled. Leon sighed and put his gun away. There were a dozen questions he had to ask about Zohall Mercer, but at least he knew one thing.
He really was just a teenage boy, fighting to survive. Just like everyone else.
Come have the days where I update regularly? The FUCK?! Well, it has come again. Not unwanted, I do hope. :)
I hope you guys are enjoying the story of Leon's past, or Resident Evil 2 told in HSWC, because if I recall, there were a few questions in the past to the origins of Zohall Mercer (those questions being asked back when I was writing Time Trouble, so its been a while. -.-)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the read, and you should come to expect another update at the beginning of next week...? Should this spree of updates continue, that sounds about right. So, until then, see you guys later!
-EZB
