Pandemic: Resident Evil VI

Chapter Twenty Three: A Real Short Trip

Dark clouds and heavy winds were starting to move in as the helicopter left the Edonian city behind, but at least now they were flying above the incoming storm instead of trying to hitch a ride with the locals, and for that Sherry was grateful. The people she had met while undercover were really nice, and the young woman was actually getting pretty fond of the city itself, at least before the separatists attacked, but as far as creature comforts and modern conveniences were concerned… her time there had really made Sherry appreciate everything she had taken for granted back in America.

Then again, all the paperwork and constant communication that came with working for the United States government, made her appreciate Edonia more at the same time. In America everything was rush-rush, do it now, hurry-hurry, faster… while the Edonians had a much more relaxed view of their daily taskings. The mayor's idea of a productive day was to come into work at about ten in the morning, and throw a dart at a large board that had the different items of his to-do list spread out on it. He focused on whatever item the dart hit, and when that was done he told the whole department to take a break, while he spent the rest of the day inside his private office with his secretary/fiancé… had the mayor even survived the attack?

Oh well, if he was still alive, then the BSAA would help him, and now Sherry needed to focus on her real job of getting Jake Muller to the extraction point. It was too bad this helicopter couldn't just take the two of them all the way back to the US, but again it was better than walking, and now it was just about time to make the scheduled report to her supervisor. Somehow her satellite phone had survived everything that had happened since the attack began, and her supervisor was relieved when she told him that they were on schedule for the mission.

"Oh, um… there is one more thing I needed to run past you, Sir." The blonde explained, almost forgetting to mention the price of Jake's cooperation. "Mr. Muller is willing to cooperate with us, but… but Sir, he wants fifty million dollars in return… that's right, fifty million… he said it was going to be more, but he lowered it because I'm pretty."

She expected her supervisor to freak out, or at least to a little yelling, but surprisingly he agreed to the terms… hell, the government had paid a lot more for far less important things in the past, and honestly… if the young man had asked for even more than that, they probably still would have agreed. After all, he was the only known source for antibodies needed to stop the new C-Virus, and Sherry was sure that the government would get back any expenditures from the taxpayers at the end of the year… they always did.

"Congratulations, Jake." She announced once the conversation was over. "They've agreed to your price, and you'll get the money after you've given your blood."

"Yes!" The young man exclaimed, raising his fists above his head. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Looks like America really is the land of opportunity, huh? Do you have any idea what I can do with that kind of money?"

Sherry had a feeling that he was going to tell her, and she was right, beginning with how he was going to buy a big, flashy car, like the one on that show, Knight Rider. With all that money, Jake could afford to take a nice, long vacation, and since he was going to be in America to give those vampires his blood, he might as well take advantage of that, since he had never been there before.

"I'm gonna eat steak at one of those fancy restaurants." He continued, leaning back in his seat with arms folded behind his head. "And go see a Hollywood Movie as soon as it comes out… in my country we always have to wait a few months, unless we want a bad camcorder bootleg from China."

Sure, Jake's ideas about what to do with his money weren't exactly grandiose, but then again, maybe they were for someone who was born in Eastern Europe before the Euros were around. It also explained how someone his age knew about the show Knight Rider, since that was one of Sherry's father's favorites… it was crazy to think that now, in the year 2012, there were still parts of the world that were decades behind as far as pop-culture… hell, the girls in Edonia still thought that it was cool to wear a blouse with shoulder pads… but to be fair, some of them really pulled it off.

"So what about you, Sherry?" The young man asked, interrupting her thoughts. "After all that undercover work slumming around Edonia, how does a super spy spend her vacation?"

"Well, I guess I have a little time coming." She replied, not having thought about it much. "It's Christmas Eve today, so I doubt I'll be able to go anywhere until after New Years, but… maybe I'll go visit the Burtons up in Canada, since Claire's still busy trying to run TerraSave. Or maybe I'll go to Pennsylvania and visit the Kennedys. Leon's mom makes these tarts every year that are…

Suddenly the helicopter rattled, stopping the blonde in mid-sentence as the two of them were shaken around a bit, and then Jake nearly fell forward when the aircraft tilted hard into a left turn as if the pilot was avoiding something. Falling back against the wall, Sherry was now able to see what that something was when she turned to look out the side window. There was another helicopter behind them… a few of them, in fact, with the same logo on them as the one the young man was wearing on his uniform… and hanging off the bottom of the nearest one was… was…

"You have got to be kidding me." She whispered, almost unable to believe her eyes. "Uh, Jake… Jake, you need to see this."

It wasn't safe for him to get up until the helicopter finished its turn, but then the young man got up and looked out her window, only to have the same reaction of disbelief that she did at what he saw. The pursuing aircraft were nothing special, and they didn't even seem to have guns mounted on them or anything, but what the lead chopper did have… was a very familiar looking figure hanging down from one of its landing struts with its one human arm. Obviously, it was the same monster that had attacked them back in the factory, but how had it survived a whole building falling down on it… and why did the drill on its other arm look so different?

Instead of seeing multiple mining drill facets on its arm, the beast now had a completely different tool attached, but from that distance the blonde couldn't tell what this new attachment was… until it was pointed right at them, and the three long barrels at the end began to spin around. Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Several fist-size holes were blown into the side of their helicopter as Jake grabbed Sherry and tossed her onto the floor, putting himself over her like a shield while the pilot made another violent turn in an attempt to lose their pursuers.

But the attack choppers kept up with them, and each time the aircraft had to straighten out to keep itself form rolling over and crashing, the beast would unleash another barrage of gunfire, causing further damage. Besides the pilot, there had been two other BSAA soldiers onboard, and they looked like they were going to try some kind of counter attack, but the next time the monster shot at them, the two soldiers were caught in the firing line. The bullets the beast was shooting were of such high caliber that the first soldier's leg was completely blown off in a spray of red mist, and then the whole left side of the second soldier's body just vanished when he went back to help his partner.

To make matters worse, all of these hits had damaged the aircraft's systems as well, causing a fire to break, filling the interior with smoke while the pilot struggled to keep the helicopter under control. Jake got up and grabbed the small fire extinguisher on the wall, but even after he managed to get the fire out, a lot of the internal systems were still sparking and malfunctioning, and Sherry could tell that the pilot was starting to have a lot of trouble keeping them in the air.

"Jake, keep those fires under control!" She yelled while picking up a rifle that one of the soldiers had dropped. "I'll use this to hold them off!"

Even though the blonde had used M4 rifles like this during training, the fierce wind coming in through the holes in the wall was making it difficult to even get close to them, let alone aim a weapon through. Still, she managed it with great effort, and the wind was so loud now that almost nothing else could be heard when she pulled the trigger. At first, Sherry tried to shoot the monster, but that hadn't done anything even with a larger rifle at point blank range, so the blonde aimed up a little higher, and was a little shocked when a small crack appeared in the lead chopper's windscreen.

There was no way for such a small weapon to pierce the pursuing aircraft's hull, so she kept aiming at the windscreen, putting bigger and bigger cracks in it until the pilot inside suddenly slumped over. As soon as he did, the chopper tilted in the same direction, heading rapidly toward the ground until the whole thing vanished in a small fiery explosion. However, as if it was aware of what was happening, the beast used its incredible strength to fling itself away from the crashing chopper as soon as it tilted… and managing to grab onto the next one.

"No… get down!" She yelled as the beast's weapon started spinning. "Everyone get down!"

Sherry had just dove onto the floor when a whole new set of holes began appearing in the closed cargo ramp, with one of the bullets striking the pilot in the shoulder so that his whole arm was ripped off. Somehow the BSAA pilot was still trying to keep them in the air, even though the helicopter was starting to slowly spin, and now Jake had abandoned his task of putting out the fires in favor of putting on one of the parachutes that were hanging on the wall. Only one of them was still intact, from what she could see, and now… oh shit, the cargo ramp was losing hydraulic pressure from one of the bullet hits… and it was lowering so that the monster had a clear view of its targets.

"Come on, time to leave!" The young man yelled, grabbing her by the arm as he ran for the cargo ramp. "Hold onto me as tight as you can, and don't let go!"

No way, Sherry thought once she realized what he was doing, jumping out of a helicopter with only one parachute was just… that was just retarded. Jake disagreed, though, picking her up off her feet and carrying the blonde as he ran onto the lowered cargo ramp, so… so Sherry closed her eyes and clung to him as tightly as she could just as he jumped. The monster had been just about to start shooting again, but changed its aim at the last second to try and shoot the two jumpers, but inadvertently hitting the other chopper in the process.

As a result, the second pursuing aircraft spun out of control, and the lead tried to avoid it, but that must have been the exact moment that the BSAA pilot finally lost control of the transport helicopter. The disabled chopper was pitching sideways, while the lead was pulling up, and the transport helicopter decelerated, causing all three to collide with each other in an explosion of fire and twisted metal that was barely audible over the rush of wind that came from freefalling.

Jake must've done some parachuting before, because he deployed it a few seconds after jumping, forcing Sherry to open her eyes after the opening shock made her have to cling onto him tighter to keep from falling. Well, the parachute had slowed them down, which was better than crashing, but… but something was coming toward them… something fast. Oh God.. it was one of the rotors, it… it broke off from its aircraft and it continued to spin, and there was nothing either of them could do as it got closer and closer.