Uroboros: Resident Evil V

Chapter Forty Five: The Only Option

Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta! Pulling the trigger as soon as his enemy emerged from the cockpit, Chris did his best to hit him, but the blond man was still able to become a blur, even though it wasn't as seamless or for as long at a time as usual. In fact, Wesker was starting to look pretty bad when he took cover behind one of the supports; breathing heavily while his eyes continued to flicker like a lightbulb with a loose connection. From where he was hiding, there was no clear shot, so the Agent tried something clever, firing at the metal wall next to him, and actually managing to his the blond man in the back with one while all the others went wild.

Was it a good idea to be shooting inside of a plane that was filled with Uroboros-tipped missiles? Probably not, but the aircraft was still climbing regardless of the partially open ramp, just slower than it had been before. When his enemy took cover again, Chris saw that although his wounds were still regenerating, it was nowhere near as fast as before, so he stepped out into the open to make his move… at the same time that Wesker came out of hiding to utilize his own strategy.

Becoming a blur as he dodged the first two shots, the blond man allowed himself to take one right in the chest in order to get close to the Agent, seemingly unhindered by the bleeding wound when he grabbed Chris's arm and hip-slung him so hard that he was almost at the very front of the plane when he crashed to the floor. The wind was knocked out of him, but he tried to get up as quickly as he could, looking back at the rear of the plane just in time for the wind to stop after the ramp was closed again.

"Nice try, Chris." Wesker growled, ripping off the manual crank as the plane resumed its original course. "But your attempt to stop me has failed, and once you use up the last of your bullets… well, you get the idea."

Although his enemy had been weakened, it wasn't nearly as much as Chris hoped, and there couldn't have been more than ten bullets left in the rifle. God, this would have been so much easier if Sheva hadn't been left behind on the cargo ship, because at least then she could have held him off while the Agent took control of the plane. It would've been so easy to take the aircraft off autopilot, and then take it back to the ship, but now there was no way to stop this thing from reaching the optimal point for global saturation, at least not without getting himself killed.

"You're going to die in here, Chris." The blond man continued, remaining behind the hydraulic. "You will be vaporized when the United Nations shoots down this plane, but look on the bright side… at least you won't have to watch everyone you care about getting eaten alive by Uroboros."

As much as the Agent was wracking his mind, there really didn't seem to be a way out of this, but… maybe… maybe if he was really going to die inside this plane, then the least he could do was make sure that Wesker was there with him for the whole ride. A single, desperate, absolutely retarded option flashed through his mind, and then for a moment time seemed to slow down as he saw the faces of everyone he cared about… the survivors from STARS, his comrades at the BSAA, his sister Claire, his wife Amelia… or Alexia, if the blond man had been telling the truth… now he would probably never know.

"Hey Wesker, do you remember when I said I'd pay you back for betraying STARS?" Chris called, trying to keep his hands from shaking as he prepared to make his move. "Well, this one's for Bravo Team, you son of a bitch!"

With that, the Agent turned away from the blond man, aiming the rifle through the cockpit door, and then pulling the trigger. Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta! He was right, there were about ten bullets left in the magazine, and now sparks were flying as each one of them slammed into the plane's control panels, causing an alarm to go off as the aircraft suddenly banked right. Now there was black smoke and just a little bit of fire coming from the gages, and to make matters worse, a couple of the bullets had struck the windshield, allowing the wind to rush in once again.

Chris thought he heard Wesker scream in rage just as they went into a downward spiral, the whole world seeming to spin around as the plane went down, but thankfully the missiles had been strapped down very well. As for the vehicle's two inhabitants, they were both thrown around a bit, but then the spinning actually started to slow down when the cargo ramp began to open. It must have been some kind of malfunction with the controls, because it was more than halfway open by the time the Agent managed to grab onto one of the cargo nets to keep himself from getting thrown around more.

The blond man had managed to steady himself as well, holding onto the hydraulic near the ramp and yelling something at Chris… but the wind was too loud for it to be heard. Then he let go, Wesker allowing the wind to rip him out of the plane to where he vanished into the darkness, and then a couple seconds later everything stopped. The spinning, the falling, all of it came to a powerful, crashing halt that sent him flying away from the cargo net, and knocking several of the Uroboros missiles loose from their straps as the plane was left tilted upward.

With the whole world spinning again as he tumbled across the floor and out the ramp, the Agent expected to have to start swimming for his life after hitting the open water, but instead the rolled out onto solid ground. Really rocky and uneven terrain that he was too dizzy to even sit up on even as the Uroboros missiles landed on the rocks next to him. God damn, his head hurt, and his whole body was sore like he had taken a spin in a clothes dryer, and the air… the air was so dry and hot that it burned a little each time he took a breath.

There was light there, too, the whole rocky landscape illuminated by a dim red light that he didn't understand at first… but then his mind got clear real quick when the whole plane moved. It shifted a little, as if having landed in some loose dirt, but then the Agent's ears stopped ringing, allowing him to hear the sizzling that was coming from… from the plane? Finally managing to sit up after seeing that there was an odd glow coming from the bottom of the aircraft itself, Chris finally realized where he was… after getting a good look at the river of molten rock that was very slowly melting the plane's metal hull.

It was a volcano, one of those constantly bubbling and flowing ones like in Hawaii, and somehow the plane had landed right in the middle of it. This was good, since with the exception of the two that had landed next to him, each of the black missiles that came into contact with the glowing lava was melting nicely… well, that takes care of Uroboros. Looking around as the last of the fogginess cleared away from his vision, there was no sign of Wesker, so Chris struggled to move closer to one of the remaining missiles, and then put his feet against it in order to push.

Even though those were small for missiles, the thing was still hard to move, but the strain was worth it when the weapon fell over the edge, and started to sizzle along with the others. Great, he thought, eventually all of that stuff would be melted away along with the plane, leaving only one missile left for him to dump into the river, but that could wait at least until he caught his breath. It was nothing short of a fucking miracle that the Agent hadn't been killed or crushed on impact, and hopefully Wesker was drowning in the open ocean somewhere, so Chris just sat there, coughing a bit from the lava's smoke as he tried to catch his breath.

Well, this was just… fucking wonderful, he thought while trying to get up but only making it as far as his hands and knees. Yeah, the blond man was gone and Uroboros was about to be melted into nothing, but now the Agent was trapped there inside of an active volcano, with no way to call for help, and the only available vehicle about a third of the way melted by lava. Seriously, this whole setup was like a poorly written action film, and was just so… so damn ridiculous that Chris couldn't help but laugh a little, even though it hurt to do so.

"It's a volcano." He said to himself, laughing so hard now that he failed the next attempt to get up. "I crash landed a plane inside a God damn volcano."

Although truly happy to still be alive, the Agent knew that he couldn't survive for long in a place like this, so he put all his remaining strength into it, and managed to get up to his knees without needing the support of his hands. All right, so far so good, and even though his whole body felt like he had been trampled by bulls, at least nothing appeared to be broken. If this was a whole island instead of just a volcano, then he could possibly find water and shelter in the lower areas, and if not, then at least getting to the coast would allow him to cool off with the water and get fresh air, because breathing in this smoke couldn't have been good for him.

Okay… ready, and… up. Silently giving himself commands, Chris got up to his feet in a kind of awkward squatting position, needing to brace himself with one arm for a minute, and then… yes! Still dizzy and a little wobbly in the legs, the Agent managed to stand up, afraid that he was about to fall over, but then remaining as the last of the dizziness faded from standing up too fast. All right, just one last missile to push into the river, and then it was time to find a way out… if there even was one.

No, this wasn't the time for negativity; one battle at a time was the key to success, and right now the battle involved moving that last missile. The plane continued to sink into the glowing magma so slowly that it would probably be an hour or two before the whole thing was gone, but the missile was going to be history a lot sooner than that, so the Agent bent down so that he could get his arms underneath the weapon, and now he had to…

"Chriiiis!" A voice yelled, causing some of the color to drain from his face.

It came from around the other side of the plane, and when the Agent turned his head to look, he saw that there, standing on the rocks on the other side of the magma river, was a very much alive Albert Wesker.