Uroboros: Resident Evil V

Chapter Sixteen: The Bigger They Are

Even with the truck, the giant was still gaining on them because of how long its strides were, so Sheva began making wild turns with the Humvee, causing the monster to sometimes just stumble as it tried to come after them, and once in a while trip so that it fell right into a small building. From where he was in the back, Chris kept trying to shoot the thing with his rifle, peppering its face and legs with tiny wounds that did… absolutely nothing, so he slung the weapon over his back before reaching into the back seats to see if there was anything useful inside.

"Yes!" The Agent exclaimed, pulling out a box of grenades just as the young woman took another sharp turn. "Sheva, find me a straightaway!"

Pulling on the parking brake and then turning sharply so that the truck drifted back onto the main road through the village, the young woman hit the gas in order to keep ahead of the monster who now had nothing to stop its pursuit. This gave Chris plenty of time to pull the pin on the first grenade and throw it, causing the monster to stumble a bit when the small explosion went off right next to its foot. The giant looked down at its foot with an angry growl while the Agent got another grenade ready, but instead of chasing them again, the monster walked over to an electrical pole and ripped it out of the ground.

"Oh shit!" Chris exclaimed as the pole was lifted over its head. "Sheva, hard left, now!"

She turned the wheel hard to the left just as the giant tossed the pole at them like a javelin, and the Agent couldn't help but be impressed, because the giant's aim was dead on and would have hit them if she hadn't turned like that. The pole tore up a section of the dirt road upon impact, making Chris have to turn his head for a second to keep it from getting in his eyes, but then he had to hurry up and throw another grenade in order to stop the monster that was now running at them as fast as it could.

This time he tossed the explosive upward, and when it went off the giant shielded its eyes with its arms, causing it to run right into one of the village's larger buildings so that the whole thing collapsed when it fell on its face. The thing didn't say down for long, though, and then an angry roar shook the whole village as it knocked down what remained of the structure in order to free itself. With the truck and the grenades the Agent knew that they could stay ahead of the giant for now, but there were only so many in the box, and what was going to happen when the Humvee ran out of fuel?

"We need a better plan!" Chris yelled to be heard above the wind. "We gotta find a way to lose… Sheva, head back for that bridge, dive as fast as you can and don't stop!"

The young woman didn't say anything in reply, but from how rapidly she was breathing and how tightly she was gripping the steering wheel, the Agent could tell that she was frightened out of her wits… just like he was. One turn later the bridge was in sight, but now the giant had crouched down and was running… God damn that thing could run fast. Chris yelled for her to step on it, even though he already knew the young woman was going as fast as she could, and now that the giant was just starting to reach for them again, he pulled the pin on the last three grenades in the box at the same time.

BOOM! Tossing all three explosives right into the monster's face just as the truck reached the narrow bridge, sparks flew from the side of the Humvee scraping against the side supports, making Chris have to hold on to keep from falling off. As for the monster, it held up its arms to protect its face from the much more powerful explosion, and just like with the large building, it ran at full speed right into the bridge. There was a metallic scraping and bending sound as the side supports were warped and twisted by the impact of the falling giant, and now the platform of the whole bridge was shaking apart as well.

In fact, the whole structure was collapsing, rapidly turning into an upward slope, and if Sheva hadn't been driving at full speed their heavy truck probably wouldn't have made it to the other side before the whole thing fell down into the canal. Bringing the Humvee to a stop, the young woman pulled them alongside of the canal, and the Agent was relieved that even though the giant was still alive, it had become tapped in the twisted mass of the bridge's supports. It roared that was partially a gurgle as the water flowed right into its face, and the monster tried to force its way out, but its struggles had left it restrained at such an angle that it couldn't get any leverage with its arms.

"Is… is it over?" Sheva asked with a shaky voice. "Are… are we okay?"

Chris replied that he thought so, since the giant was trapped, but then instead of saying anything else, the young woman got out of the truck and stumbled a bit before falling to her hands and knees and losing her lunch. Now breathing so fast that she was hyperventilating, Sheva scooted backwards across the ground until she was up against the back tire of the Humvee, where she hugged her knees up into her chest and just sat there wide-eyed while the Agent climbed down from the truck.

"Nini kutomba tu kilichotokea?!" She screamed as he knelt down with her. "Ni tu… na kisha ni… oh mungu wagnu… iliwaua wote!"

"Sheva, its okay… everything's okay." Chris replied, not having a clue what she said as he hugged her. "We beat the monster, and you did great… I wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for you, but we can't quit yet. Delta Team needs us, and I need you to back me up."

The Agent was worried that his new partner was about to cut and run, but what gave him hope was that she had been able to hold it together until after the giant had been dealt with. Okay, this all had to be reported to Headquarters, so Chris decided to give the young woman a few minutes to process everything while he took out the satellite phone to make his report. Standing up and moving away from the truck to get a better signal, the report he had to give was a simple yet grim list of events, including the request of a cleanup team to deal with El Gigante's angry cousin.

Once the report was finished, the Agent turned back around to check on Sheva, only to find that the young woman was getting to her feet. He asked her if she was all right, and the young woman nodded, wiping a tear from her eye while clearing her throat. This kind of reaction was expected, especially the first time someone encountered such an extreme situation, and Chris couldn't hold it against her, since there had been a time back at the Spencer Estate where even Jill had broken down like that… was it those giant spiders? He couldn't remember which thing it was, but he just hoped that Sheva wouldn't fall apart.

"I know we have to keep going." The young woman said quietly while pointing at the trapped giant. "If this is what people like Irving are doing to my people, then I know that we can't quit no matter how scary things get… and I am very frightened right now, Chris. We're partners and we have to be there for each other, but… how are we going to get across the canal?"

He hadn't expected that last part, and now that the Agent looked at the only bridge for as far as the eye could see, he had to admit that he didn't have an answer. Obviously the bridge was a no-go, and he didn't want to risk trying to swim across just in case the current swept them right into the arms of the monster, so… what were they going to do, jump the canal in a Humvee? Actually, right now that didn't seem like such a bad idea, since there was no special equipment weighing the truck down.

"Are you sure about this?" Sheva asked as he got into the driver seat. "You really think this can jump that far? We, um… we could always drive down to another bridge."

"We can't afford to lose any more time." Chris replied, putting it in gear. "Delta Team's gotta be in the marshlands by now, and they're expecting us to be close behind with all of um… well, it's just us now, so get in. Partners have to trust each other, right?"

She took another look at the canal and then at the truck, before mumbling something in Swahili that sounded less than supportive as she went around and got into the passenger seat. Now that the young woman was inside, the Agent backed the truck up to where they both had a really good running start, and were a good distance away from the giant… and then he stomped on the gas. Dirt and gravel were kicked up as the Humvee took off, reaching top speed well before getting to the edge of the canal, and then flying into the air while Sheva closed her eyes tight.

Slam! The vehicle's shocks bounced hard upon contact with the other side, and now all Chris had to do was drive them to the waterfront and… and why weren't they moving? Wait, they were moving, just very slowly backwards as if… as if the truck had fallen short and landed on the canal's opposite embankment instead of flat ground… which the Humvee was now sliding back down toward the water. He hit the gas and switched to a lower gear for more traction, but that just made the truck slide back down faster, giving the two of them no choice but to bail out just before the back wheels hit the water.

Opening the doors and climbing out, Chris nearly fell down the embankment himself while watching the truck get swept away by the current… going all the way downstream to where the trapped giant growled when the rear bumper collided with its nose. Now the two BSAA agents had to work together to get up the embankment, which was mostly made of loose sand, with both of them letting out a long sigh of relief once they were on flat land.

"I will let you do the report to Headquarters about this one." Sheva said while they caught their breath. "Washirika wanapaswa kuaminiana… mjinga ng'ombe wa Amerika."

"Yeah, I'll tell them later." The Agent replied as he got up. "Right now we gotta catch up with the rest of Delta Team."