Rock992: You put more thought and sympathy into Nikolai than I did lol but I'm glad the character and depths appeal to you, make some good points. Despite how awesome they are at the things they do, in many ways they are both just two pathetic villains fighting on a rooftop, for different complicated reasons. Made terrible choices and became awful, violent people. I'm not out to romanticize them all that much, but do want to humanize the characters, heroes and villains alike, provide a bit of sympathy and more motivation. Especially with the Umbrella characters, the villains. HUNK is Lawful Evil and Nikolai is Chaotic Evil. Though where HUNK is gradually learning and self reflecting, Nikolai is not. I like making parallels and similarities between adversaries. Glad you enjoyed the chapter, and hope you continue to.
nliochristou: They skipped a remake of Code Veronica to jump right to 4, unfortunately. I can see them remaking 5 and 6 at some point as well. It's difficult to say if I'd wanted a shot for shot remake or changes/additions/expansions to be done... the changes were done quite well in the remake of 2, which was still very respectful to the source material and characters... 3 was not. It can be hit or miss with changes, can make the original story stronger, but elements that worked better in the original can be lost. I liked the very slight alteration to HUNK, where he's still a cold, strict, professional and a hardass, but not an unthinking robotic sociopath who doesn't care at all about his team members. Someone like that wouldn't be put into a position of authority like him, leading others in a squad. He's still clearly a villain, but he's more of a human, not a robot and blank slate, which is something that went into my writing of him for this story. I liked the change in orders of them being ordered to take in Birkin instead of just shooting him for dropping a coffee mug, and then him getting pissed when Birkin is gunned down by GHOST... not because of moral reasons, but because GHOST just fucked half the mission with one pull of the trigger. All the same he is sensible and aware enough to defend GHOST to U.S.S. Command and informs them the truth, that Birkin resisted, so knows GHOST made the right call. 2 also had more development time than 3, which probably helped, they churned out 3 after cutting way too much of the original content to qualify it as a remake. We'll see what they do to 4... but at least HUNK will be in it, Mercenaries Mode, in all his neck breaking glory. Assuming it's not cut like it was in 3.
Jinero: The nursery rhyme was definitely part of my choice for the name, along with a number of Jack and John characters who helped inspire my depiction of HUNK lol.
The HUNK/Ada thing was just a fling in my universe... they were too much alike to really like one another for anything more serious. They were both working together in the Bosnian War for their respective companies, and HUNK was between relationships with Lady Spencer and Comtesse Henri, entering his cold, serious HUNK character stage. Would have made quite the power couple, but they're both walking messes, and spies like them don't have long term things together really. Oh it would be quite a double date if it happened... pretty funny actually... but it's not Leon Ada would be bringing with her to that date ;).
Red Umbrella is my version of Wesker's Umbrella. 4 originally hinted along with Umbrella Chronicles that he was going to forge his own Umbrella... but that plot was dropped in 5 for Uroboros Supervillain Wesker. I think Wesker will create it in my universe after Umbrella collapses, and it will be a powerful diversion from him off his Tricell activities for the B.S.A.A. to be distracted by. An umbrella covering his true goal, if you will. A bit more clandestine than the actual Umbrella Corporation, more paramilitary, and a force acquiring more viral samples from rivals for Wesker. There are many reasons HUNK would accompany Wesker. Can't tell you them all but will say because Wesker asks him to, HUNK would be working as the head of the U.S.S. for Red Umbrella, and because he will want to confront Lord Spencer and ask him questions about himself, his past, and about Lady Spencer. Also Wesker will want HUNK to choose once and for all when Jill and Chris arrive, a test of loyalty.
117: She'd be touched, of course. And yes I think it's a more poignant founding for Blue Umbrella, was pleased by how well that part in my universe came to me, how fitting it is. Plus the lenses for the gas masks, and HUNK's, would become blue instead of his recurring red. 'Good' HUNK will have blue lenses, the one we're used to will wear red.
Wish I could, but that would be a big emotional scene requiring context, and to be apart of a huge chapter, and isn't related to this story. Hope I get to it one day. Just gave the Spencer Family exchange to inform you all of my vision for Lord and Lady Spencer, their characters. If I did an adaptation of 5, there would be a giant prologue where it happens there, and would be the emotional climax of the prologue.
Magd305TLC: Thank you as ever, friend, good to hear you are enjoying it, and that I did alright with that important chapter and showdown. I was dreading it and the Nemesis showdown, don't want to get such important parts wrong.
Bella definitely screwed him up the most, even though she saved his life. She gave him both his greatest strengths and weaknesses, trained him, prepared him to handle a life like the one he is in for Umbrella... but also stunted his character and moral growth at the same time. Her leaving was a good thing for him in the end, I think. Forced him to grow and reevaluate his life. Or he'd still be nothing but an unthinking henchman, a slave to 'love', ignorant to the shackles he's wearing. Comtesse Henri is also bad news for him, basically him indulging an old habit. The similarity between her and Lady Spencer... but she's a pale imitation of Bella, he doesn't think of her the same way. Feel the same way. She's more in 'love' with him than he is with her. Still, theirs is an interesting relationship that I will explore more of, later. One where perhaps HUNK has more power than he thinks he does, even with their vastly different stations in Umbrella and society.
As for your curiosity of what happens next, you'll just have to keep reading ;) thanks again.
Spartan: Lord Spencer's body in my universe, and I think the canon one, would be returned by the B.S.A.A. to the remaining Spencer Family, and he would get that respectful private funeral he doesn't deserve, the mourning of his family. Sorry. Bureaucrats, money and connections for you. Much as he'd deserve to be thrown through that window and off the cliffs of the Spencer Estate, there isn't always justice in the world. HUNK would simply leave and so would Chris, both just wanting to be as far away from the Spencer Estate as possible after Jill is seemingly killed. HUNK would call in a chopped back to Red Umbrella, Chris would call in the B.S.A.A. It's enough that he's dead, at least, though the damage he inflicted on the world is done. All the evil of the Resident Evil universe goes right back to him. Marvelous, despicable villain I would love to write more of, make him more layered and complex villain, even some spots of sympathy. I like getting inside troubled heads and finding out what makes them tick as a character, their beliefs, motives, troubles, etc... hence the way I write HUNK. For instance there was a time Spencer did genuinely love his daughter despite his steady descent into madness and his increasing emotional abuse of her as she disappointed him for not being how he wanted her to be, they made a good villain team until then. And I think he was fond of his brother and his grandchildren, in a distant way... but obviously nothing that would change what he is. There was a time he genuinely considered James Marcus his best friend as well. I like having his presence looming over the background, expanding on him through other characters, instead of outright depicting him, but I would like to depict him at some point, since I do all the Umbrella villains.
Vong: Nikolai's troubles are far from over.
In the end the Wesker Project is merely a byproduct of the true threat of the Resident Evil universe: The Progenitor Virus/T-Virus. Everything after it, all the other viruses and research and bioweapons, projects including the Weskers are a byproduct of it, and Lord Spencer's mad utopian vision. Even after Umbrella and Spencer are dead, their evil lives on in the universe and always will. Spencer and Marcus's true legacy. They'd be disgusted of course, most people would be though. Spencer and Marcus were as batshit crazy and evil as they were geniuses. Many of the key players of Umbrella are, like attracts like, but those two were the worst. Though I will say Spencer had more control over himself and more personality than Marcus, for what little that is worth. Towards the end Marcus couldn't even come out of his laboratory, pure mad scientist and a butcher who got his hands dirty unlike Spencer, part of why Spencer took over the company and assumed full control of everything after having Ashford killed. If Marcus had been more proactive and less delusional, locked away in his own little world, aware of the rest of the world, he might have got to it before Spencer. But Lord Spencer also had a capable right hand in the form of his daughter, who is very aware of the world and kept her father appraised, as head of U.S.S. A Utopian father with his head somewhat in the clouds, and realistic daughter, they worked well together for awhile, Bella balanced out Lord Spencer a bit, while expanding Umbrella's reach.
evolution-500: Much appreciated friend, glad you're enjoying it ;), better get some popcorn.
Echo Five: Yes, I think that works well for Carlos.
Akira-Hayama: Despite the temptation, I wanted to keep him alive like he is canonically, but humiliate him, put him through the ringer, just like he deserves after all the shit he has done. As you say, doesn't deserve simple death. And besides, if I do a sequel, I have plans for him.
Much appreciated. I would have liked to make the fight have a bit more variety to it, but considering the big empty rooftop location I could only do so much. If they had been in an apartment building or office on the other hand lol... as such I focused on concise, layered action along with character interaction, layers to supplement the action, and details. Glad to hear you appreciated the fight for what it was... more about their characters instead of the action itself.
It was a theme I wanted to explore, or have present at least, for getting into HUNK's psyche as a person. I think HUNK in a position where he doesn't actually know if they are his kids or not... which is a strange, awful, purgatory feeling... he doesn't know if he wants to know the truth or not. And even if they are his kids, they still aren't really his children, don't even know who the hell he is. Along with not knowing if it would be better or worse if he is their genetic father or not. He knows he is an awful man and a killer who wasn't made to raise children. Still, it gnaws away at him. Part of him feels, believes that he's their father, but the fact is he doesn't know, she never told him, and he wistfully knows they are better off without him. Still, he thinks about it, what he might be missing out on, and it troubles him deep down. As many things do. I think its one of the biggest things he's been stewing over for years, helping him regain some of his humanity. He would have married Lady Spencer if he could have, wanted to, had kids together he could raise... but he couldn't, for obvious reasons, so now he is what he is instead. He's a dirty little open secret of hers remaining at the company while she left. Many within Umbrella have put two and two together on the likelihood of it, plenty of gossip around the company, politics.
Rookie U.S.S. Agent #1: "Hey man, did you hear that Mr Death is the one who knocked up Lady Spencer? Honest to God, word is they're his kids. All three."
Rookie U.S.S. Agent #2: "Bullshit, that's just a rumor. No stuck up married blue blood is taking a risk like that on some commoner. Whether he lives up to the codename or not."
*Fully armored, armed and masked HUNK starts to silently move down towards them in the corridors of the Leviathan*
Rookie U.S.S. Agent #1: "There's nothing 'common' about that man. I'm telling you, it's true, lady has daddy issues too, was probably getting back at old man Spence... oh shit here he comes. How about that baseball game the other day?"
Rookie U.S.S. Agent #2: "Helluva game, perfect weather for it. Oh, hey sir, how you doing?"
*HUNK stalks by them without a glance or a word, simply breathing through mask, and the two rookies breath sighs of relief when he's gone*
Lol, something like that happens often, all the stories about HUNK and about her. Nikolai was one of very few with the balls (or crazy enough) to speak about it and Lady Spencer to his face, mock her and him. I get the feeling even ranking members of the company wouldn't bring it up around him, he scares quite a few of his fellow employees and superiors, and has a good amount of power with his benefactor in Comtesse Henri, Lord Spencer's left hand. And it's something of a berserk button to HUNK, even now that he's colder and more distant, hearkening back to my original inspiration for Bella in the first place, Operation Raccoon City, where supplement material for the game mentioned an Umbrella psychologist bringing that name up to HUNK, and it being the only thing to get an emotional reaction out of him. NIGHTHAWK only hinted at the matter hesitantly because he thought HUNK was going to die, and wanted to be a bro and pass along any last words he might have had for them. And she is a very important character to HUNK, for good and bad reasons, and important to this universe, her role in it. I'd like to write her at some point, but I felt it worked better if she was not actually in this story. More hanging over it like a cloud, over HUNK. The absence felt.
Much appreciated, wanted to give them a well earned moment, in the wake of their 'victory', something poignant and peaceful. A respite from what they survived to that point. Though Carlos has quite the timing lol but better a way out of the city alive than a face reveal. That is a fitting enough song, though I was also thinking of the Final Fantasy XV version of 'Stand By Me' by Florence and the Machine, for Jill and HUNK lol. Jill singing it to him, basically. Or "I Will Always Love You", of course. Something more bittersweet and melodic, slow and sad. As you will soon, sadly, see is quite appropriate for them.
HUNK's development was probably my biggest drive to even do this story in the first place. I lacked the life experience to properly tell the tale when I originally started, I had only a vague understanding of who he is... but it came together over the years, why I kept at it behind the scenes. Now I understand him, complicated as he is, I know who and what he is, what drives him. He will be quite changed by the events of Raccoon City and meeting Jill, and will carry that development going forward... whatever else is in store for him in the future. I wanted the challenge of humanizing the badass blank slate of the games, and to be the first to really write the definitive HUNK story. Capcom and no other writers seem to have gotten to it, so I figured I would. When I write stories I want them to be an angle or something that hasn't been done in the fandom before, explored. I wanted to humanize him, of course, while also honoring the robotic faceless emotionless badass of the games. I did that by juxtaposing the two, what we see in his head and how others perceive him. At Umbrella to most folks he is the HUNK from the game, since most people don't really know who he is, just his presence, cold distant personality, and the legend and stories around him. And they don't bother trying to find out more. He is quite imposing, even with his relatively low rank within the company, a glorified security guard who happens to be the best at what he does. It took someone like Jill to really start digging into him, someone not afraid of him, but curious, and caring. Someone outside his life at Umbrella, and on the opposite side of it.
Not quite a finale and epilogue chapters only left. More an extended aftermath of Raccoon City, the epilogue will be the final chapter. And my story and character notes/afterward lastly, of course lol. But we are indeed almost there, out of Raccoon City.
Thank you kindly as ever, glad you're still liking it ;).
bakaultima: You are indeed correct, it ain't over til it's over. More to go, with their escape and after Raccoon City. Hope you like how it pans out. And I appreciate that a great deal, it means a lot, glad you're enjoying it.
Thank you all for the reviews, as ever. And now, on with the show, the escape you've been waiting for. You may want to go to YouTube and play Marilyn Manson's Umbrella theme again, or either of HUNK's Fourth Survivor themes from the original Resident Evil 2 or the remake ;). And here we go:
October 1st, 1998, 5:42 AM
Control and Communications Tower, Incineration Disposal Plant P-12A, Northern Raccoon City
"But who is it? Who could possibly be looking for me?"
Jill froze where she stood, still trying to digest what Carlos was saying to her... trying to tell them. Her pulse racing faster all at once as the news settled over her. Having trouble believing it was true, even knowing it was something even Carlos wouldn't joke about. Not now. The chance they still might have had... after she had accepted her death. She wanted to believe it... but it was too much to be true... wasn't it? Behind her, HUNK emerged from out of the elevator into the Control and Communications Tower with Nikolai's backpack containing the laptop case strapped securely across his back, and carrying the bleeding, handcuffed, unconscious madman over his uninjured shoulder. Hefting him with ease, in spite of his injuries and likely exhaustion. The doors closed behind him, shutting out the mocking, upbeat elevator music that had followed them up. The agent's piercing grey eye within the mask and red lens looked silently between her and Carlos, moving to her side closely and remaining quiet and alert as the Corporal went on.
"It doesn't matter! We just need to be in the scrapyard when the chopper gets here!", Carlos answered her hurriedly from where he stood before the central computer system. Turning back again to face them, excitement writ large all over his disheveled features... life, like there hadn't been before. The very hope he had spoke of. "It's approaching the city from the south and will be headed north... if we meet the chopper down there, there should be enough time to get out of here! Just need to find the damn override for the hatch again... the thing closed and locked again after you restored control to the system, HUNK. Some automatic feature... back to it's default setting, perhaps..."
Cursing and muttering to himself, Carlos continued poring over the system, looking for the override. The loudspeakers activated instead, then, without him touching a single button. All around them, the three survivors heads snapped upwards, pausing where they were. A woman's cold, accented voice carrying through the Control and Communications Tower, along with blaring sirens and rotating, flashing emergency lights. Not a monotone, blatantly computerized voice as the others had been... but could well have been an actual woman's voice over a loudspeaker. Clear. A Scottish accent, Jill realized, if she had to place it... with some faint English dialect to it. Not that she was a master of such things as dialect. The computer's useless warning ringing throughout the facility, falling on their ears, and the uncaring ears of the infected and other monsters occupying and infesting every level of the Dead Factory, now.
"WARNING! MISSILE ATTACK CONFIRMED! WARNING! MISSILE ATTACK CONFIRMED! EMERGENCY LEVEL D! ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!"
"Yeah... think you're preaching to the choir, Lady..."
The U.S.S. Agent's low voice muttered dryly through the mask in the wake of the warning, trading a look with Jill, who somehow smiled at him grimly. Feeling her pulse quicken at the warning... something about hearing it aloud making it real, even though it had already been. Even knowing for days what was coming. Carlos's eyes bulged in his head, any sign of exhaustion long evaporated. Frozen at the control panel while still searching for the button to open the lid. He needn't have worried much, as it turned out. The locks on the hatch drew back again, and it opened up automatically, along with the banging sound of the titanium, automated shutters on the windows of the tower lowering, and back at the entrance they'd taken up to the tower. Fortifying itself into a bunker... though Jill had severe doubts it would withstand the magnitude of what was coming. The three survivors looked towards the open hatch, Carlos stepping away from the computers to join HUNK and Jill over in front of it, the agent speaking again.
"Must have been a left over program of the RED QUEEN. Connected to the Umbrella Satellite Network and NORAD. Spencer was always paranoid... saw enemies everywhere, had them dealt with, while making new ones. Probably never ruled out a potential missile attack on his city. His facilities. Planned for damn near every possible eventuality."
"Yes... I saw that mansion of his... certainly sounds like him, doesn't it?", Jill returned quietly, remembering the deadly puzzles of the mansion, the various traps, the laboratory and what the old aristocrat had done to the Trevors. A monstrous old man... his portraits likely doing little justice to how he really appeared these days. Beneath the veneer and trappings of civility and nobility. "Batshit crazy."
"To put it mildly. It's time to move out, people.", HUNK commanded without hesitation... breaking off from the matter, in a flash his old self again. All the pain and exhaustion receding, replaced by steel. Regardless of the weight he carried, and the toll the fight had taken on him. He pointed to the ladder, taking charge of the situation again. "Corporal, you take point. Move it."
"Sir, yes sir! Way ahead of you!"
Carlos all but flew down the open hatch and ladder, not bothering to strap his assault rifle over his shoulder, his boots tapping against the metal loudly in a flurry as he descended out of view. Jill descended right after him, looking back up to HUNK and smiling... feeling many things all at once. Fear coiling that hadn't been there before when she had made peace with the helicopter's destruction. Their doom. But she seized on to that fear... for intertwined with it was hope. A chance remaining, that it wasn't all for nothing. One final chance that hadn't existed minutes before. As she descended the ladder, Carlos reached the bottom while HUNK began his own descent above, moving as rapidly down the steps with the madman's unconscious body as he could. Jill drew back from the bottom of the ladder when they reached the familiar basement passageway of the Control and Communications Tower. The accented voice's warning repeating periodically, and the sirens still blaring around them with the flashing emergency lights, echoing through the corridors of the facility. Already Carlos was racing down the passageway, scrambling over the bodies of the infected she had gunned down as he dashed towards the far doors. Thankfully the area remained clear... it didn't look like she had missed anyone on the way through and back before. Jill waited until HUNK had reached the bottom, before the two of them broke into a jog after him as well. Moving as fast as they could, despite their injuries, half limping, half jogging, and their exhaustion and the weight HUNK carried. Pain didn't matter now... only survival... they weren't dead yet.
As they moved along the passage, over the pathway above the holes in the floor leading to the subterranean level, HUNK looked down it below to the infected and mutations who lurked down there. In the tunnels to NEST... and the deactivated transit system. Likely he had been through here or somewhere like it earlier, with his infiltration of NEST, the underground. Jill spared it a glance as well... the infected employees milling about down there... incapable of even knowing the facility was about to drop on top of their heads. Burying them alive... if they were even still alive. A final resting place either way. He didn't say a word about the view, instead he activated his radio and spoke firmly into it, voice focused and intent. Somehow calm and steady as ever... even now with the clock ticking against them faster than ever before.
"NIGHTHAWK, this is HUNK. Listen to me carefully. No interruptions. Inform Command that Operation: NESTWRECKER is still in progress. A chopper is en route to pick us up at the plant's scrapyard. I have taken Nikolai into custody. He's not feeling too well. Prep your chopper with a fully equipped security and medical team ASAP for liftoff. Will radio you our coordinates if... when we've escaped the city limits."
There was a silence from the U.S.S. Agent, then. It being a radio attached to his mask or helmet... maybe an ear piece... they couldn't hear the voice on the other end undoubtedly talking back to him. Carlos had pushed open the doors to the scrapyard passageway beyond and was waving them to hurry. As Jill and HUNK reached the doorway and passed through it as well, his voice spoke up again, something dryly amused in it as well.
"Of course she does. Tell her to come along, then. Could use a taste of in field experience. Get her out of that lab for awhile... might spare us some nagging, later. Roger that. We're en route to the extraction point. Agent HUNK, over and not out."
His hand fell away from his damaged mask as he finished up on the line, flying through the door they all ran up and around the pathway amid the debris and metal of the passageway. Flying over the bodies and around the bend, passing the still burning fires and wreckage of the stacked cars. Carlos and HUNK both looked around the hangar-like area within the depths of the facility, taking in all the surroundings as they went... what they had missed out on. Looking to the various fallen, bloodied Delta Force operators and zombies corpses... and passing around the next bend. Nothing jumped out at them or attacked... she had been thorough in that regard, but nevertheless Carlos swept the area with his rifle, and HUNK drew her Samurai Edge in his free hand, doing the same. Red laser sight and silencer passing over their surroundings, narrowed grey eye studying each corpse they passed. Carlos looked around himself but didn't stop, he beat them around the corner, to the great doors to the generator room she had left open. He paused to look at the giant body of the burning Tyrant with a grimace, before running past and through the open doors, with HUNK and Jill in close pursuit. HUNK's grey eye spared the Tyrant a side glance as well, before looking right ahead as they bustled by it. They all entered the generator room... and the moment they did she saw Carlos and HUNK's heads swiveling about to take in all the wreckage and devastation, the operator and Tyrant bodies and remains all around the vicinity. The fires still burning high... the destroyed sections of walls with the rain pouring in... the melted path of metal between the railgun and what had been a wall of machinery and metal that had divided the chamber. Shell casings and rubble all over the devastated battlefield the generator room had been reduced to. Carlos whistled loudly, the shrill sound echoing throughout the great chamber around them.
"Jesus Christ. Looks like we missed a hell of a cookout here. You have been busy, Supercop."
"Perp proved... uncooperative. Railgun helped there."
"No shit. Almost feel sorry for the giant motherfucker. My kinda police brutality. Couldn't happen to a nicer 'guy'."
Jill's bruised features merely smiled faintly at the observation, while HUNK silently observed the battlefield, grip on the Monitor tightening. Then she directed the men through the melted, destroyed pathway the railgun had opened to buy them some time. The three of them raced towards the northern side of the generator room, through the gap in the destroyed machinery... and towards the still slightly twitching, oozing remains of the Nemesis lying before the colossal Demon Sword of Paracelsus that came into sight. The Nemesis' biomass was still burning partially, smoke rising above it, the purple fluids beneath it thickening like jelly beneath it... while the great cannon had fully cooled down, remaining in standby mode for another trio of blasts. Both HUNK and Carlos froze for a bit... Carlos's eyes gaping widely... while HUNK simply glanced between the titanic railgun and the defeated B.O.W. and looked back over Nikolai's blood dripping body to her with a slight respectful nod of his scarred helmet. Exposed eye plainly satisfied with the results of her battle, as she had been with the results of his. She smiled at him with a wink of her blue eye, and the two of them moved on together, down towards the door to the maintenance elevator.
Carlos on the other hand lingered behind a moment, still looking between the twitching, smoking, burnt Nemesis remains and the railgun, HUNK and Jill swept past him to the door. Jill tapped the button on its panel and the electronic door opened on its own, revealing the relatively cramped work elevator platform to the scrapyard below. To their last escape. A sudden roar of an automatic rifle echoed from behind them and Jill nearly jumped, heart racing as she turned around. Carlos stood over the Nemesis, and had fired several bursts into its remains, spraying its purple fluid about and tearing up more of its parts and entrails. Biomass spraying about. When he finished firing on the thing, there wasn't enough left joined together for it to even remain twitching. He looked up and down to the door at the pair of them watching him and shrugged faintly, entirely unapologetic.
"What? It was twitching. Now it ain't. Only fair. Stole plenty of my kills. You softened it up a bit for me, at least."
"Just a little bit. Save your ammunition for the scrapyard, tough guy. There's some infected down there in the scrapyard."
"Now she tells us!", Carlos retorted sarcastically, taking only a moment to spit contemptuously on the Nemesis's pulpy remains before turning and sweeping down towards the door to join them. Looking between them and the maintenance lift just ahead over a small metal catwalk. Keeping his rifle close and at the ready as he moved. "Good to hear it though. I was wondering if you left anything for us to kill. Everyone cramp together... this elevator's worse than the last one we were all on."
"You've survived worse by now, Carlos, stop whining."
"Yeah? With our luck it'll... hey hold up a second!"
"What is it?"
Jill and HUNK looked back hurriedly to find Carlos had paused where he was near the door, but was looking over to the corner near it. Where the corpse of the Delta Force operator there lie. Hurrying, Carlos passed her melted rocket launcher on the ground and ran over to the body and knelt down, reaching down to retrieve something. Jill's heart pounding, looking over to exchange an exasperated look with the agent at the delay, looked back to the Corporal to find him risen and holding up a glinting metal object on one hand. One they both recognized. A .44 Magnum, the sidearm she'd seen earlier and left where it was. Carlos let out a whistle that carried through the generator room. Dark eyes looking between her and his newly discovered prize, popping open the cylinder to examine the glinting shells within.
"Don't tell me you were planning on leaving this beautiful baby behind in the nuclear shitstorm like Nemmy over there!", Carlos declared loudly, looking over the impressive hand cannon, turning it over in the light to inspect it closer. Glancing back down apologetically to the fallen operator he had retrieved it from. Shrugging his shoulders absently. "Sorry buddy, but you won't be needing it anymore. Hey, you can keep the sawed off shotgun, Supercop, the Dirty Harry gun is all mine. Just gotta come up with a fine name for her, any suggestions?"
"If you don't get your ass into the elevator you can name her Ashes! After yourself!"
"You heard her Corporal! Let's move!"
"Right... helicopter... nuke... priorities. Let's get going. Not feeling so lucky anyways..."
With another dry laugh he closed the cylinder and tucked and secured the .44 Magnum into the front belt on his body armor, rushing back down to join them at the door. The moment he did, the three of them, plus the unconscious Monitor, boots tapping over the metal walkway, piled into the maintenance lift and pressed together awkwardly. Jill tapped the control panel, it beeped as it activated and at once the motor came to life, beginning their rumbling descent to the surface. Deeper down the heart of the facility, the great metalworks passing them by on all sides throughout. Cramped and fairly noisy, the whirring of the engine and the blaring sirens echoing through the facility... but there was no elevator music on this lift, at least. Jill pressed her hand gently against the front of HUNK's armor when she turned back to face him. Fingers toying with the straps and buckles, peering up at his mask again. For his part, Carlos tried to remain awkwardly as far off to the side as he could, giving them what space was possible and their moment as the elevator rushed down towards the scrapyard, averting his eyes. With her free hand, she drew Matilda down at her side, breathing deeply. One last battle for them all... that would make or break their last escape. The only possibility of survival remaining. She felt fear again... as the elevator carried them down the facility... fear that came with the hope... but it was offset by the way his grey eye was looking at her. His stolidness... his strength. Self assurance. It was intoxicating... especially finally being able to see the window of his soul. By contrast, where she drew his weapon in preparation, he tucked her Samurai Edge away into his holster, and she felt his free arm wrap around her waist. Drawing her even closer, pressing against him with a smile as she held him back without hesitation.
"Almost there...", Jill murmured quietly to the agent, gripping him tighter. Feeling him return the grip reassuringly. Finding herself breathing easier, heartened just by saying it aloud. "We're almost out of here..."
"Yes."
She felt a sudden peace, in his embrace, and at that simple affirmation, as it had been at the courtyard. Even now, after all the pain and exhaustion, suffering and exertion... they were all still standing. That they had made it this far, all the way to the end of the road. The final hurtle... whatever the outcome that awaited. Her team. Her friends. And a man she now knew she loved. No matter who and what he was or had been outside of this city. Maybe in part because of it... because he knew how much he needed her. Whether or not he could admit it... it was enough that they both knew. And because in spite of everything else he was out in the world to Umbrella... he was something else here, with her. Had something more left inside him. Something Umbrella had not been able to steal from him... something she doubted his masters would be pleased to know existed after all this time. All the likely indoctrination into their corporation. He wasn't what she had thought he was at the start... what she had thought they made him. And she was still coming to terms that any good could exist within something like Umbrella... in an unexpected form such as his. He lowered his head down closer to her level, and she pressed hers against his battle scarred helmet gently, a smile touching her swollen, bruised face again in spite of the pain. Even racing down into the awaiting danger, in that moment it seemed further away than it was. Her hand rose off his body and up to his mask, gloved fingers tracing along it. Off to the side as the two held each other, Carlos distractedly, popped open a pouch on his armor, producing the glinting emerald he had been stowing away within, with a smile. Remembering he'd at least get some cash when all was said and done. He glanced over to the star-crossed quasi couple and drew their attention with a clearing of his throat and the emerald. The two of them looking away from one another at last and towards him and it, the jewel glinting in the passing lights.
"Almost forgot about it, in all the insanity. You still got yours, Jill?"
"Think so.", Jill murmured quietly at last, remaining close to the agent, hand retreating for the moment and reaching into one of her pouches, grasping the hard jewel within. She withdrew the sparkling sapphire, the blue of her eyes, and glanced at it for a moment with a slight shrug. Looking from Carlos and back up to her agent. "Brought me luck so far. Well... something certainly has, at least."
"Just wish we'd found that damn ruby. HUNK here is the odd one out... as usual.", Carlos chuckled to himself, raising a hand and rubbing his stubble lined, weary face. Speaking up again over the rumbling of the engine as that piercing grey eye within the agent's mask didn't waver off him. The young man's voice wry and teasing. "Not that he isn't already loaded. Doubt he needs any jewelry, given his... other associations."
Silently, at the Corporal's words and wry look that touched his face, along with Jill's visibly curious features towards them. Before she could ask about what or who the Corporal was referring to, HUNK's arm left Jill's waist, and the hand settled into a pouch on the front of his armor. Fingers slipping within and drawing something out, deliberately taking their focus off the matter and on to another. A red glinting gemstone, red as the reflection of his intact eye piece... the ruby in question. The grey eye inside the broken lens turning very faintly self satisfied. They both stared at him, bewildered, and the agent's muffled, somewhat amused voice explained tersely.
"Train's fuse box. Central Street Station. Was a cleaning rag inside hiding it."
"No shit? You had it all this time?" Jill spoke with her own tired amusement, thinking back to it. Remembering. Or trying to. She didn't recall a rag... but then those days ago felt like years, now. All the same, she shook her head slowly, pressing up more closely against the agent. "I overlooked it. Well... least we solved the mystery for poor Marvin. One last one."
"So we did. Pity there was no diamond missing to be found, from the look of you two. Need a ring if you're going to get hitched. Get a room. Almost starting to feel sorry for Nikolai about now."
Jill and HUNK's gazes snapped off each other and over in the Corporal's direction reproachfully, and he merely rolled his eyes, entirely unapologetic. On that note, all of them tucked away their respective gems into their pouches, closing them back up again. Though the mercenary remained digging through his, while the agent and officer looked to one another once more. Remaining close together, returning to their embrace as the elevator continued to rumble. Ignoring the weight on his shoulder and looking into her eyes. She felt his hand touch her back, and even in the machinery noise of the lift, even as the city's destruction loomed... she felt at peace. As she had on that rooftop. She only wished that it could last longer... grim, cold reality approaching again below them.
"More important than gems about now, I also got a flare.", Carlos piped up again at last, taking it out and waving it before them. Her and HUNK both looked over to him with it, as he flashed a tired grin. Leaning back a bit against the elevator's control panel. "Was wondering when I'd get to use it. Should come in handy."
"I have one as well. Fires into the sky. We'll use it. You will cover us when we reach ground level."
"Man, talk about one-upmanship. Hard to compete with another walking armory and storage container who has access to Bond gadgets. Everything but the kitchen sink in those pockets, right?"
HUNK and Jill glanced at one another at that familiar remark. And then slowly back to him. Not saying a word.
"Fine, fine.", Sighed Carlos with feigned bitterness, smirking and tucking the flare back away. "You just want to hog everything important, don't you, Secret Agent Man?"
"You wanted to kill some zombies, didn't you?"
"Yeah but I-... wait a minute... did you just call them zombies?"
"Infected."
"Pretty damn sure I heard the Z word. Unless it was my 'dead on my feet' level exhaustion speaking. Mighta imagined it."
"I think I heard did too.", Jill piped up too, smiling again through the pain in her bruised face, unable to help herself. "Difficult word to misinterpret."
"I knew it. Have to make him watch a Biohazard and Dead marathon at some point, when we get outta here. We really are brushing off on him, ain't we Jill?"
"I think so. Inch by inch."
"That will do, Corporal. Officer. We're here. Always been more of a The Thing, Nightmare and Evil Dead type anyways."
"Deadites are zombies though, man."
"They are not. Now focus. We have arrived."
"Man you're just trying to get out of...-"
Sure enough though, the agent was proven right, and the elevator reached ground level at last. The rumbling of the descent slowed down and stopped, and the doorway off the elevator opened, the cool air from outside washing over Jill welcomely. Though much less welcome were the familiar moans over the rain. At once, with a tired, quiet laugh, Carlos tucked away the flare again and took up his rifle and squeezed by them, stepping outside on to the concrete scrapyard path. Jill stepped off next, fingers lingering on HUNK's body armor before retracting... stepping out into the open area that awaited them, hearing and feeling him moving close behind her. The rain resoaking all three of them and the unconscious Monitor quickly when they stepped back out into it. The sirens within the facility were still audible, but more muffled, distant, at their position outside. The two of them stopped while Carlos moved a bit further ahead of their position. A sizable yard lie ahead of them, filled with emptied barrels, junk, debris and rusted out old scrap metal. More of it and an even larger area than had been in the hangar-like passageway to the generator room. No fires burned around the yard, there were numerous murky puddles around... and a clearing in the middle of the yard... more than big enough for a helicopter, she was certain. Most of the junk was pushed back towards the edges of the yard. A tall, steel outer wall ran around the circumference of the area and there were a number of looming, dangling cranes over the walls at different points. And rotting, tattered infected, of course... dozens of figures scattered about the area. Former maintenance workers mostly, standing out in the open or shambling through the rain and debris of the scrapyard blindly, not yet aware of their presence... but they were far from the only ones of their kind.
A great section of the outer wall to the far north of the scrapyard had been blown apart... the steel and titanium that comprised it melted right through like a hot knife through butter. The smoke still rising off it. Tracking its trajectory upward to the sprawling, towering, rusted metalworks of the sprawling Dead Factory above them, she spotted another sizable hole in the side of the building up there. She knew it was where the unrivaled power of the railgun's rounds had traveled from in the generator room, blasting through the wall of metal as though it were mere tissue paper. The angle it had been positioned at arcing enough to strike the wall of the scrapyard below. Outside the broken, melted, breached section of the wall, the shuffling horde of the dead citizens in the northern streets outside occupied it. Gathered together en mass. Of course. It wasn't going to be a simple escape. There was a sizable crater from the three blasts that had impacted into the street, blowing apart the pavement and dirt beneath it. The smoking, burning remains and entrails of numerous infected littered all over the streets and in the crater. The infected and mutations moved about through the crater as well, big enough to contain a number of them. But it was the closest monsters, she saw, who were about to prove the most pressing problem in the scrapyard. One by one, rotting faces turned towards them around the scrapyard... their dead eyes spotting the survivors who had arrived... and the hungry moans went up together like a wailing chorus, steadily alerting the others. One by one all their moans and snarls went up into the air, thunder upon their ears... and turning entirely, they began their familiar shambling gait. That was their cue. Carlos raised the rifle higher and shot down a pair of them on the path to the center, bursting their heads and dropping them unceremoniously into the muck and gravel. Waving his hand back at HUNK and Jill and shouting to them between gunshots, further infected falling until each of the concentrated rounds.
"Go! Go! Go! Set off that flare, man!"
While Carlos covered them, targeting the various zombies around the yard, HUNK and Jill moved as quickly as they could through the rain and over towards the middle of the scrapyard. Reaching it, Jill joined in on covering HUNK, while he set down Nikolai on the ground roughly. Targeting a couple more of the infected close by with Matilda, aiming with both hands carefully, she fired a burst into each, teeth, blood and grey matter flying every which way from their rotting heads. She lined up all her shots carefully, focused with everything she had... missing now and again, aggravation growing every time she did... knowing how much was counting on this. She had to do her part... couldn't let up... every shot needed to count. Especially now. Digging inside one of his pouches while she covered him, the U.S.S. Agent produced a sky flare, sticking it into the ground and digging out a lighter... the Bar Black Jack lighter she had given him. He lit the flare's fuse and drew back, tucking away the lighter with a snap of metal, raising her Samurai Edge and aiming the red laser sight in the direction of a snarling, infected former civilian woman she had missed. The red laser sight settled on the side of its head, and he put a round through it, the muffled echo of the silencer kicking out its shot. The infected fell down, bleeding all over the concrete, twitching, in front of Jill, and she quickly looked back her agent's way, with a grateful nod, before they both resumed their gunfire, selecting new targets. Within a matter seconds, the fuse ran out and the hissing device went up and burst, and a flare flew straight up into the early morning with a pop, passing through rainy skies in an instant... exploding into a glowing red star high above the Dead Factory. Hanging in the air over their position for a good thirty seconds or more, before the red light of it began slowly dissipating.
"There. Now we have to hold the landing zone until it gets here.", HUNK's low voice spoke to her after setting it off, nodding her way and looking down to the Corporal, yelling over the gunfire, moans, rainfall and sirens of the facility echoing through the scrapyard. Beckoning the Corporal with his free hand. "Oliveira! Get over here! Form a circle and watch each others backs! Pick a direction! Clean the scrapyard, then focus fire on the horde!"
Carlos's head snapped in their direction and with a nod the young man obeyed at once without delay, running down the path after them to the center of the rain soaked scrapyard, spinning around and covering the south. Targeting the rest of the infected lurching through the scrap metal towards them. He seemed to want to go full auto, but reserved himself to single shots, lining them up, as she and HUNK were doing. Jill pressed into Carlos's backpack and HUNK's, against it and the laptop case, the three of them gathered around Nikolai's quite unaware body. HUNK covered the north while she covered the east... Matilda's roar echoing through the scrapyard along with the muffled echoes of her silenced Samurai Edge, and the roars of the assault rifle. Working together in unison with overlapping fields of fire. Falling into the pattern instinctively. The zombies beyond the wall, out on the road outside the Dead Factory were swarming by now, splitting up in groups and shambling closer, advancing... slowed by all the scrap metal and debris, but tireless. Inexorable. As the survivors were not... all three of them exhausted, pained and worn down... but all the same, fought on with what they had left. One after another the enemy dropped, slowing down others even further, but they shambled and crawled on, towards the three. Jill focused on clearing out every zombie she could of the former workers that were already in the scrapyard... if they could get rid of them, the three could focus on stalling the horde, just as HUNK had commanded. Where she knew the bulk of their problems lie... not only the horde but the even worse monsters among them that would be drawn by the gunshots and wailing of the infected. She wouldn't be surprised if damn near every infected and mutation in northern Raccoon City would descend on them before long, at this rate. HUNK's red laser sight shifted from head to head, firing a round through each he could get at... precise... machine-like... but even then he was clearly slowed... slower than usual, his reflexes dulled by exhaustion and injury. They all were. Even as the wall of rotting death approached. Jill and Carlos steadily finished up the last of the infected workers, before at last turning their attention to the horde with HUNK, shifting from a circle to each of them standing on either side of the agent, shoulder to shoulder. Facing down the screaming army.
Together, as one, they unleashed fire and fury on the encroaching horde, making each shot count, shell casings falling like the rain. Going through magazine after magazine of the ammunition they had left. Littering their bodies about over the concrete and debris of the scrapyard... but it still wasn't enough. They drew ever closer, snarling, bloody, rotting infected ravenous for their flesh... and this time there was no running away. Infected dogs appeared now and again, Jill and HUNK targeting them first... thankfully they were slowed down by the mass of humanoid infected in their way. But there were things worse than either of them that arrived... the mutations. A Licker appeared, scaling one of the undamaged walls on the side of the street, tongue darting about from its jagged maw as its eyeless face looked down to them, smelled them... giant razor sharp claws clicking on the metal... preparing to lunge towards them. Thankfully instead Carlos flipped to full auto and greeted it appropriately, hosing it down between curses, watching it torn apart, screeching under the hail of bullets, HUNK and Jill assisted him, prioritizing the threat. It screeched under the hail of bullets and dropped among the infected... buried beneath the mass of their rotting bodies, but the wall of the dead kept right on advancing. All they could do was slow them at best... make things difficult... not that they were capable of recognizing difficulty anymore. They were as merciless as they had ever been... could not reach their breaking point, as the three survivors now stood on the precipice of theirs. More of the enemy streamed in through the breach in the wall steadily to replace those that fell. A Hunter screamed and charged through a number of them, claws swiping, rending apart infected that lie between it and the survivors, blood flying all over it and the clothes of the horde. There was little true loyalty between the different kinds of T-Virus infused monsters, she remembered... the Nemesis had torn through the infected just as unrelentingly. Especially when living prey lie ahead of them all... fighting for a meal they didn't even require. When the reptilian B.O.W. emerged at the head of the crowd the three of them opened up on it as they had on the Licker, tearing it apart with a greeting of bullets. It dropped to the ground, screeching, bleeding and still trying to crawl towards them, but was trampled over by the advancing infected it had plowed through earlier, vanishing as the other abomination had.
Still they came. Filling in the gaps the Hunter had briefly created. There was nowhere left to flee to... this was it, now or never... even as Carlos voiced her own increasingly dreadful thoughts.
"There's too many of them! We're not gonna make it!"
"Don't even think about it, Corporal! Shut up and hold the line!"
The U.S.S. Agent's grey eye within the broken lens turned as cold and hard as his muffled, authoritative voice through the mask, concentrating on every shot, not sparing either of the other two so much as a glance. Unblinking. Fearless, in the face of the onslaught... while it threatened to overtake Carlos and grew steadily within Jill. Jill's heart pounded in her chest and head as they crossed the yard... she shot the leg out from under one and made it trip up a few others. Even in the cold and the rain, she felt heated, coursing through her veins... sweat running down her back. As it had been in the generator room... if she was going to go down... it would be swinging. Taking as many of the bastards with her iin the process, before the missile took care of the rest. She had no intention of dying... but was more prepared for it down here, with her team, than she had been alone. She continued focusing on tripping up the lead infected to slow the others behind them, while HUNK and Carlos focused on scoring head shots on all the closest snarling infected. She saw more and more mutations appearing among them... the infected with the glowing eyes especially, remembering their deadly purple vapors when killed, targeting them first. In the midst of reloading another magazine, she remembered her three spare proximity mine and grenades, drawing one of them and priming it, the blue light blinking and beeping audibly. Drawing it back, she threw it with all she had down towards the midst of the approaching horde, where the concentration of the mutations resided. The blue light turned red over their heads and landed somewhere among the infected and mutations of the scrapyard, activating and detonating. A great explosion tore through them, blowing a number of the infected and mutations alike, body parts, flaming metal, concrete, gore and blood flying and splattering the others, smoke and fire rising. Raining over the battlefield. Lighting up the horde and catching a number of them on fire in the process. A hole punched in their ranks that staggered many surrounding it, slowing their advance... if only for a few precious moments. Long enough for them to hear it, somewhere in the distance. She almost thought she was hallucinating it... off in the distance to the south.
Jill's head snapped in that direction as the low, familiar rumble of the engine and swishing rotors drew steadily closer, over the moans of the army of the dead. An unmistakable blue and white painted Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil police chopper cut across the rainy skies high above towards them, its searchlight activated, drawing closer to their position. The letters on the side of it emboldened, illuminated and familiar. Almost relieving her, even in the midst of the chaos and carnage.
ARKLAY COUNTY SEARCH AND RESCUE
"Fuck yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Here comes the cavalry!"
When it came fully into view, Carlos uttered a whooping laugh, slung his rifle and pulled out his flare in an instant, pulling the tab and lighting it up. A burning phosphorescent green light flashed on from its end, hissing and burning away. The same colored smoke rising over their heads, lighting up the center of the scrapyard they stood upon.
"Down here you big beautiful son of a bitch!", Carlos shouted into the skies, waving the flare and his hands wildly from side to side at the approaching chopper. Drawing his SIG Pro from its holster, he jumped back into the fray at the same time he waved the flare, blowing the heads off a closing pair of infected, aiming and firing at others. Taking out one of the glowing eyed mutations, its head bursting and putrid purple vapors escaping freely. "Hurry up man!"
The chopper gradually, carefully came to a stop in the air and descended over the yard, moving to somewhere off behind their positions. Touching down carefully against a level section of the concrete of the scrapyard at last. Jill saw the blurred figure beyond the rain soaked window gesturing a hand their way.
"Go!", Jill shouted at HUNK and Carlos between shots at the narrowing infected, her head snapping back in their direction. If only for a moment. "Move! I'll cover you! No arguments!"
She wasn't the only one who did, then. No... it wasn't a lone figure in the police helicopter, she realized... but two figures, a much smaller one sitting low in the passenger seat, equally obscured by the rain soaked window. The door opened and the passenger stepped out into the pouring rain. A diminutive figure with short, boyish cut brown hair, a pink choker, green uniform and stark white Kevlar vest with a red medical logo on the back, while another familiar emblem resided on her shoulder. The dog tags on the figure's necklace jangling with each step, the wind and current of the rotors helping there, stepping away from the chopper, raising her familiar sidearm in a pair of small, fingerless gloved hands and opening fire on the horde as well, aiding Jill in her time of need. The almost immediately rain soaked sole survivor and rookie of Bravo Team stood next to the chopper, her alert eyes narrowed on her targets, helping slow the advancing horde, aiming down the attached scope of her dark, customized Samurai Edge, grip on it tightening, covering HUNK and Carlos as well. Blowing the heads off several infected and gunning down an infected dog that barked and ran towards the vulnerable chopper. Its whines turning to screeches, blood coating what fur was left on the creature. Calmly determined, even in the face of the horde, looking as though she were attempting to stare it down.
Former S.T.A.R.S. Officer Rebecca Riva Chambers spared only a moment between gun shots and reloading a fresh magazine from one of the pouches on her belt to look Jill's way. The eighteen year old, fresh faced and physically intact rookie casting her a brief knowing look and faint smile of acknowledgment, before continuing to concentrate and fire, eyes narrowing determinedly on the infected and mutations. Jill was nearly so startled by the sight and recognition of the girl that she froze on the spot as the baying horde descended on them, but quickly remembered her duty. Priorities. Survival... and buying more time. Drawing another proximity grenade, she activated it, and threw it once more into the midst of the infected who had reformed the horde after the first devastating blast. Another explosion rippled through the crowd, to the same effect as before, slowing the bulk of the advance, scattering them... buying more, precious time. HUNK, over where he was, reached down and scooped up the bleeding, unconscious Monitor... while Carlos and Jill kept firing into the horde, slowing it. He raced the Monitor down towards the chopper in a bustling of movement, reaching Rebecca's position, who ceased fire. Looking over, the girl found herself staring back in alarm at the sight of the much taller, fully armored, masked and helmeted U.S.S. Agent towering over her, the state of him, and the state of the Monitor he carried, as well as Jill's modified, cobalt blue steel Samurai Edge in his hand. Undoubtedly recognizing his uniform as his muffled tone speaking loudly over the engine and quickly washed over her rapidly like the rain.
"Officer Chambers. S.T.A.R.S. Medic. Lone survivor of Bravo Team. Survived the Ecliptic Express. Umbrella's Executive School. Marcus's Queen Leech abomination. The Spencer Mansion."
"How the hell do you... who... do we uh... know each other?"
"Negative. But I know of you. Performed impressively in the Arklay Mountains. Unimportant now. Have a patient for you."
"What the hell happened to him? He a friend of yours?"
HUNK looked back at the startled late teenager without a word, moving down to the back door of the helicopter, gripping the handle. Throwing open the back door, he all but threw the bloody, broken Monitor like a piece of luggage clear across the back seat and into the corner by the far window. Then he turned from the doors back to the former S.T.A.R.S. medic, with a single shake of his battle scarred helmet.
"He's cargo. He doesn't die until I say he does. Took a Hippocratic oath? Get back in there and keep him alive. I'll cover Jill."
"Sir, yes sir."
Rebecca rose her hand and snapped off a sassy, sarcastic salute at him that did not go returned... rallying and adjusting quickly from her visible confusion. Shaking her head slightly, moving over to the open rear door, though taking the occasional shot at the infected drawing closer. Eyes lingering over on the masked agent with unveiled curiosity. Though clearly not intimidated by him in the least, as Jill had been when they met.
"Only because you asked so nicely. And called me Officer."
The girl received no comment from HUNK at her wry words, instead as she holstered her Samurai Edge and climbed into the back seat to tend to Nikolai, he turned back, and the laser sight took down a few zombies that were closing in on Jill. Firing at them while moving to the open co pilot's door. With HUNK taking up the cover fire position, and Carlos running dry of rounds in his rifle and pistol, the Corporal holstered his pistol and drew the .44 Magnum. She heard it roaring into the crowd, targeting worst of the mutations... more screeching Lickers who had appeared in the swarm... but after six thunderous blasts at them of the hand cannon, taking down a couple of the abominations, the Corporal could contribute no more to the battle. Instead, cursing, he tucked away the magnum and raced down to the awaiting chopper with all he had left and leap in the back seat as well, out of Jill's view. Though not out of earshot.
"Come on! Run! Go!", Carlos's voice screamed out at the two of them from within the helicopter. "Get to the chopper!"
"Jill! We are leaving!"
At both men's shouting, demanding voices, Jill unslung her double barrel shotgun and aimed into a close together group of infected. Squeezing the trigger she blew them all down with a deafening boom... before swinging the shotgun again to clear out another group approaching from another angle. Another boom rang out into the scrapyard, the infected slamming against one another and hitting the ground... and reloading rapidly she fired another two shells among them, scattering the front of the horde. Tripping them up. After stalling them with the blasts, flesh and blood splattering through the air, turning and preparing to retreat and reload again simultaneously... a powerful, stark white, long fingered hand latched down on the end of the barrel. Fingers wrapping around it and pulling it from her startled, slackened grip before she could react. Her gaze snapped up to the owner... and her lips parted. She numbly recognized it all at once... not just what it was... but which of them it was. The one from the clock tower... as she had fled with HUNK from the burning train. The tall, naked, pale, emaciated thing with no face, save a jagged maw of yellowed razor teeth... and maybe it somehow recognized her. Without eyes, it looked at the double barrel in its white, long fingered right hand, and then to her old modified M4 rifle with the empty drum magazine, scope and under barrel grenade launcher down in the left. The Pale Thing dropped the rifle to the ground unceremoniously, and kept the double barrel shotgun, while around it the infected kept a slight distance, from both her and it... as though it were their leader... deferring to it, like they had the others of its kind. Then it looked back up at her, waxy, bloodied, pale face snarling silently... salivating its acidic saliva... twitching rippling through its entire nude, emaciated frame. Before it could go berserk and lunge at her, tear her apart as it had tried to do to HUNK in the cemetery, she drew back her combat boot she kicked it sharply in the midsection with all she had, grunting. Taking it off guard and driving it backwards into the infected lurking behind it and dropping them to the concrete ground like bowling pins. Slowing the advance of the horde for a matter of precious seconds. Enough time for her to reach down, scoop up and sling the M4 assault rifle back over her shoulder, where it belonged, once more. The horde was already swarming the twitching, thrashing Pale Thing that had vanished into their heaping midst, swallowing it from her view. Had overtaken much of the scrapyard by now. Her bruised face twisted into a satisfied expression at the sight.
"Keep the shotgun. Have something else here too... with your name on it..."
Plucking the final proximity grenade from her bandolier, she activated it, the blue light flashing on and blinking visibly and audibly. She flicked it into the midst of the pile where the Pale Thing lie, and as the flashing light turned red she turned and made her retreat at last. The explosive device detonated behind her, and it rained blood, entrails and body parts all around her while her boots flew into motion, towards the police helicopter and U.S.S. Agent covering her, at last.
"Move it Jill! Run! There's no time!"
Heart racing, half running, half limping with everything she had left, under cover fire of HUNK with her Samurai Edge, Jill retreated back to the open helicopter door's co pilot seat, climbing inside at last. Drawing and firing the last of Matilda's rounds in the magazine into the screaming, moaning, closing in horde before slamming the door shut in their faces and locking it, unslinging and dropping the recovered assault rifle down at her feet. She saw their enraged, rotting faces out there... a sea of them... more of them with glowing eyes... tattered forms coated in blood, dirty hands reaching for the chopper. More of the Pale Things as well had arrived, rushing through the horde and towards the chopper, knocking aside their subordinate infected. Moving the way the one in the graveyard had, going berserk. HUNK was the last survivor inside, doing the same with the door to the seat he took behind her, and his hard, authoritative voice commanding the pilot to take off. At once the groping, clutching hands of the dead were banging on the reinforced rain soaked windows and both sides of the helicopter... surrounding them. Banging against the metal, shaking the helicopter... nearly making her heart seize in her chest as death surrounded them. But within a split moment the chopper was moving again, and they were all rising up and away from the concrete, over the walls and looming cranes. And soon, the hulk of metalworks that was the Dead Factory facility. Leaving the screaming, impotent horde of infected and mutations below in the scrapyard, and the streets outside the Dead Factory. Looking more like a swarm of ants rather quickly than the true horrors of what they were at ground level. The police chopper moved beyond the Dead Factory and began its ascent over the northern section of the city, climbing ever higher, gaining speed and distance. Jill's heart was still pounding in her ears... breathing raggedly, and it took all she had to try to gather herself, collapsing backwards into the cool, comfortable seat. Gasping in her breathing, trying to catch her breath... closing her eyes to try to concentrate, get her head back on straight, even as her hands were trembling at the close call. Trying to reconcile that they were really leaving. Still alive. To drown out all the rotting, snarling faces of the monsters.
"Good lord. You've been busy and then some, girl. Cuttin' it a bit close there. Out by the skin of your teeth. Tryin' to give this old man a goddamn heart attack?"
The deep, grizzled voice of the figure behind the controls of the chopper addressed her gruffly... glancing up at the mirror to the back seat from the corner of her eye. To the bloodied, handcuffed Monitor slumped unconscious in the corner staining the window who Rebecca was busily working on, the heavily breathing, blood and sweat soaked disheveled young U.B.C.S. Corporal in the middle. Then lastly to the battered, battle scarred, silent, masked U.S.S. Agent in the seat just behind hers, whose piercing grey eye and red lens were looking right back at the pilot.
"Interesting company you been keepin' lately too... but hey, I ain't in a position to be judgin'."
"Thank you... you... you saved our lives..."
"Couldn't let ya die, Jill. Owe ya too damn much. I'm a man who pays off my debts too."
"Is that... it's you!"
"Who the hell else was gonna be crazy enough to come here? Not countin' a Redfield. Have to settle for me n' Becky."
Former S.T.A.R.S. Officer Barry Michael Burton smiled back at her broadly through his thick brown beard and behind those sunglasses of his, fingerless gloved hands tightening on the controls. The heavily built older man's hat tucked low, headset adorned, wearing his old S.T.A.R.S. uniform like Rebecca... albeit a white uniform and a red Kevlar vest over it with a number of pouches on it and dark pants. His familiar giant Colt Anaconda revolver the Kendo Brothers had designed for him, that he had dubbed the 'Silver Serpent', was visible in its leather holster on his vest. His equally familiar and customized jet black Samurai Edge in the second holster down on his belt. The symbol of their old group imprinted on a patch on the grip, albeit in red, while another more familiar patch resided on the material of his uniform's shoulder. The two of them, the veteran of Alpha Team and the rookie of Bravo Team alike having done what she should have and refusing to return their uniforms or their weapons to Irons before leaving Raccoon City. The veteran looked back at her shocked face and uttered that gruff, familiar laugh she thought she would never hear again, her heart beating quicker still.
"That was too close. Looks like bailin' you out of a tight spot is gettin' to be my second job. You ready to finish this?"
"Oh Barry! I... should have known it would be you!"
"Looks to me like you had bigger fish to fry. No offense kid, but you look like shit. Kinda smell like it too, now that I mention it."
The pilot laughed and so did Rebecca where she worked in the back seat at that remark. It was all she could do not to lunge across the seat and embrace the big S.T.A.R.S veteran, and go into the back and do the same to the diminutive rookie teenager tending to the madman. A man she had come to think of like a father who hadn't gotten himself thrown in prison... and a girl she considered a little sister. All thought of what was to soon arrive evaporating in an instant. If only briefly. The ticking of her watch she didn't dare glance at. All that mattered was that they were leaving. At long last... they were leaving the nightmare behind... and she was reunited nearly in full with her team. Jill could hardly believe it, even as she was living it. She was afraid if she closed her eyes again and opened them, she would wake in her bed again during the outbreak... hearing the monsters out in the streets... destroying her city... or slowly dying on the chapel alter again. That it had all been a dream. Instead she looked out the window, to the passing land below, the buildings... and then backwards to her companions, the new members of her team... and to her old teammate. A trace of a smile touching her bruised visage as she looked among them all. HUNK silently observed the reunion all the while from where he was, eye betraying nothing of his thoughts. Finding her voice again at last, and making the necessary introductions, well aware of how strange the situation must have been for the two groups.
"Barry, Rebecca, meet HUNK and Corporal Carlos Oliveira, HUNK, Carlos, meet Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers. Sleeping son of a bitch is Nikolai. He's going into custody. Long story."
"Good to meet you, son, have a face to match the voice. No offense intended there either."
"Lookin' better than you imagined, I'm sure. And back at you old timer. Got a hell of a sense of timing too. Owe you one, man."
"That's for damn sure. More than one. I'll put it on your tab, when we get to the closest bar. And uh... 'Hunk' was it?"
"Codename. Didn't pick it. Don't ask."
Barry was silent a moment at the terse, clipped voice that emerged from the mask. Then, glancing at Jill who offered him a sheepish smile, didn't ask, but did chuckle under his breath instead. Shaking his head slowly as he piloted them on.
"My sympathies on the codename, Bond. H it is, then."
"Tolerable."
"Jill... did Brad make it out of the city in time? We didn't receive any calls from him.", Rebecca's hesitant voice spoke up at last, cutting in from where she worked on the unconscious, bleeding Russian. Jill looked back over to the girl, meeting her concerned, brown eyed gaze. Forcing herself to maintain it and not look away. "What about Robert and his family? Alyssa and Ben? Did any of them find another way out?"
"No...", Jill murmured quietly to her and Barry, shaking her head, meeting HUNK's grey eye for a moment within the shattered lens, before looking back at both of them. Pain swelling inside her, voicing it aloud. With difficulty as she remembered what had happened at the station. Would never forget. There was no sense in elaborating... especially not now. "Brad didn't make it. I'm sorry, Rebecca. And I don't know if Robert and Emma made it. His wife didn't. I don't know about Alyssa and Ben either. We were separated, during the chaos."
"Damn it. Down to four of us. Rest in peace, Braveheart.", Barry muttered grimly while Rebecca fell silent, the girl looking visibly stricken over the bitter news. Carlos was silent as well, looking sympathetic. Understanding loss quite well. "Figure he earned a new nickname, at least. Balls of steel staying in that godforsaken city. We'll drink to him, when we get outta here."
For her part, Rebecca nodded, but didn't say another word... staring at Jill for a moment while she worked... and then down past Carlos as if he weren't there. Watching the equally silent U.S.S. Agent by the window speculatively, who didn't meet her gaze in return. Before at last returning to her work, clearly forcing herself to focus on the mutilated Monitor... asking no questions about him. About any of it, what she and Barry had missed out on. Jill expected the two of them would have an avalanche of questions, when all was said and done. She had no idea how she was going to even begin explaining it all... but forced the prospect from her mind. First they had to survive. One matter at a time. Jill looked to the control panel of the helicopter then... noticing the family picture Barry had taped near the controls. Barry stood in a forest grinning beside his equally happy wife Kathy... holding his younger daughter Polly, while Moira stood just before them, too short to be entirely in frame. The sight of them made her smile as well, as the seconds ticked away to destruction. She hadn't seen them all in too long... and she hoped for the chance to again. The helicopter cut across the city, flying over the assorted buildings... but along the way, the survivors caught sight of something else passing over the city as well. Bound northward. Not a civilian or police helicopter... but one she hadn't expected to see. An attack helicopter... not an Apache, but a massive light tinted unmarked Hind D Gunship... modified from the look of it, and fully armed with missile pods, a nose gun and turrets. More interestingly, it was hauling a red tanker beneath it from a great four pronged cable tied at each end. The Hind snared Jill's attention at once, having caught her breath... and Barry uttered an impressed whistle at the sight of the attack helicopter soaring across the skies swiftly, grizzled voice speaking up again.
"Damn. Looks like we ain't the only ones gettin' out last minute. That the military? Don't look like it. And it's haulin' a helluva lot heavier cargo than me."
"That's Colonel Vladimir's gunship. Grabbed the U.M.F.-013 on his way out. Records of all Umbrella activities within the city. Central database. RED QUEEN. WHITE QUEEN."
"Snatched Umbrella's holy grail at the last minute for safekeeping. To go off and do this again to another city... somewhere. That son of a bitch..."
"Bummer. Still... might not be all bad. You guys think 'Sir Galahad' knows he has stowaways?"
At Carlos's amused, accented observation and point of his finger, Jill's gaze redirected through the rain flecked window to the tanker below the helicopter. Sure enough there were two humanoid figures standing upon it as the chopper flew north that she had missed at first glance and from the distance. Both of them staring back at the police helicopter from where they were. One was a bigger, masculine figure in thick, dark outfit... armor perhaps... similar to HUNK's, including a yellow combat harness... but with no helmet or mask on his head, with dark hair. A few objects fastened down on the belt of the figure's uniform, and weapons slung from his shoulders... she could just barely get a glimpse of them from the distance. A soldier of some sort, most likely. The other figure stood out better... had a number of visible white bandages... a feminine figure in a red dress with short black hair. She couldn't make out much of their features from the range and point of view, but she tried to while their helicopters remained somewhat level, if somewhat far apart. The dark figure had white bandages on him as well, was holding on to the cable above connected to the gunship to brace himself, another arm fastened around the woman's waist, while the red figure held on to him with one arm. The other hand reaching into the soldier's armor to retrieve something, raising it to her face... before lowering it, tucking the object back in the soldier's armor. She withdrew something from a belt on her dress, then... a cylindrical glinting metal object... waving it back and forth... removing her arm from the soldier's waist, raising that hand towards her face and making a gesture in their direction that Jill couldn't make out. Returning her arm back around the figure's waist once she made it. From behind his binoculars, peering through the rain flecked window, HUNK released a familiar low, cold, sharp sound that might have been a laugh, at whatever it was he saw through them. Whoever it was he saw through them. He lowered them, merely shaking his helmeted head... grey eye somewhat amused, tucking away the binoculars and leaning back in his seat a bit.
Before she or any of the others could ask him about it... what it was, who they were... there it came, then... flying not far past the Hind. Close enough that the bigger dark figure on the tanker clung to the smaller red figure tighter nervously, the strange woman and soldier watching it pass, as the occupants of the police chopper did the same. Jill's gloved hand tightened against the helicopter's dashboard as she tracked it... feeling fear, dread... revulsion at the sight of it. The knowledge of what would come next. Finally sparing a glance at her watch. Right on schedule... of course.
"It's coming!"
"Yeah.", Barry murmured quietly, slowly shaking his head, yet keeping his gaze fixed determinedly north instead of on it. "It's the end."
Colonel Vladimir's Hind gunship with its valuable cargo and strange pair of mysterious stowaways, fellow survivors, flew north east, then, growing too distant from their chopper. But by now Jill's focus had shifted entirely to the thing itself. The threat dangled over their heads almost as long as the Nemesis had been. The only thing more destructive than it had been. Courtesy of the U.S. Government this time... instead of Umbrella. The missile flew true, descending upon the city like a fireball from the heavens, smoke and fire billowing behind it. No... not the heavens. Straight from the President. Carlos and Rebecca watched it pass by their helicopter with silent horror writ large on their faces, Rebecca pausing in her work and Carlos taking out his crucifix necklace, kissing it and murmuring a quiet prayer in his Portuguese language. Jill by contrast instinctively reached her hand back around the seat... and felt HUNK take it gently at once... their fingers intertwining together. She squeezed his hand tightly, ignoring the pain of her burnt palm and fingers... her jaw tightening as well, bracing herself for the inevitable. Forcing herself to remain as calm as she could, as total destruction rained down on her home. The only home she'd ever had or known... one she had fought for with all she had and had failed to save. Had never stood a chance to save.
Just as HUNK had warned her in that apartment building, what felt ages ago, on October 1st 1998, at 6 AM, Operation: Bacillus Terminate commenced. The missile struck the epicenter of the city... and a second sun appeared on the horizon. A flash of blinding, pure, cleansing white light that lit up the entire helicopter. The looming wall of a firestorm rose high over the city and expanded... demolishing and incinerating everyone and everything in its path. The living and the dead alike. A rippling ring of destruction spreading out for miles, the entire circumference of Raccoon City and then some. Incinerating everything within the city and a good amount of the surrounding forests and the outlying Circular River, along with the Quarantine Zones. A shock wave along with the thunderclap of the detonation rolled out with it... reaching even them from their position in the air far away from the epicenter. Carlos, Jill and Rebecca each let out an involuntary cry of alarm as the entire helicopter lurched and shook around them, holding on tight, certain for an instant sure it would explode or they would plummet. Go into a tail spin. But in the next moment it balanced out again, and Barry remained firmly in control of the machine. All they heard was the light patter of rain against the helicopter, the swishing rotor... and its rumbling engine. The cabin was dead silent... none of them seemed to even breath. Slowly, Jill leaned back into the seat, maintaining her grip on his hand all throughout and after. In her mind's eye she saw it all exploding and burning. Her apartment. The R.P.D. Main Street. City Hall. The Kendo Gun Shop. The Raccoon City Orphanage. The Raccoon Zoo. South Raccoon Street Station. The Bar Black Jack. The Raccoon Press. Raccoon High School. Grill 13. The Koi Restaurant. Central Street Station. The Saint Michael Clock Tower. Raccoon Park. The Dead Factory. Her family home. Gone. Nothing but ash. All of it. Her home and everyone remaining there were evaporated in that flash... as though it had never been. Reduced to ashes, atoms... and to memory.
She felt more ancient in that instant of grief and realization than she had at any time preceding it through the city's downfall. Tired in heart, mind and soul... defeated. Helpless.
"I can't believe it... we're alive... we actually made it.", Carlos murmured from the back seat, finally managing to recover himself. The first to break the disquieted silence that descended over them in the wake of the blast. Drawing all of their attention. His eyes looking among them with a mixture of exhaustion and disbelief to match his voice. "We did it... I can't fucking... believe it..."
"Believe it. You made it. It's over. You guys can breath easy, now."
Barry's gruff tone assured them firmly at last, while Rebecca recovered herself from her shock, or at least pretended to, forcing herself to continue her work on the brutalized Monitor, bandaging him gradually and spraying her First Aid Spray bottle now and again. Though looking over past the stunned Carlos to Jill's hand still joined together with the agent's silently. The teenager's features inscrutable at the strange, unexpected sight, as the pilot went on attempting to reassure them.
"It's going to be alright, now. It's finally over."
"No... it isn't, Barry. Not yet."
Jill found her own hollow voice at last... and with it her cold fury... and her sorrow. Mixing together... giving her purpose. Clarity. Even as she felt she had aged a decade or two. She opened her eyes again slowly, looking north to the Arklay Mountains... where it had all began. Seeing only their corporate logo. Their darkly ironic company motto writ large beneath it. Feeling her lips murmuring it.
"Our business is life itself."
"What are you talking about, Jill?"
"It's only getting started. Umbrella is going down."
A tense silence returned in the cabin at her resolved vow... save the rumble of the engine as they flew on to the north. Leaving the devastation gradually behind them... in the distance, if not in memory. His grey, inscrutable eye and red lens met her gaze in the mirror above. They did not speak to one another for the remainder of the trip... his gaze remaining unfathomable... and she felt the tension of her words. Growing. Reality returning to the both of them... of what lie ahead. Who and what they were... their differing sides in what they both knew would be a war. Was already one. Of the barrier that stood between them. The looming red and white umbrella. Despite everything that had happened in the city... the danger they had been in... it had been another world from the one they were now flying out to. One without a reason like survival that had forced them together in the first place... taken them to another world. Erased the barrier. A world away from Umbrella... and from what she would have to do, soon. It had been easy to forget about all that... as they had been focused on simple survival. Now that excuse no longer remained for either of them. And the knowledge of that chilled her insides... the shield covering them was lifted.
His hand tightened on hers... but did not leave it. It remained there for the remainder of the ride to their destination. And she intended to fight for him when they got there... if he would have her. They still had some time left until then, between them. Whether if it was to prove precious little or not... right now... he was hers, as he had been in that clock tower courtyard. Not Umbrella's.
Not yet.
No... not yet. But bittersweetness is coming, brace yourself, Jill, and reader.
Press F to pay respects to Raccoon City.
Officer Rebecca Chambers FTW. Love me some Resident Evil 0. Couldn't resist doing what the original and remake of 3 should have done, and including her in Barry's big goddamn heroes moment. Never liked the way she just vanished for many years, after RE 0 and RE 1, and never really was done proper justice again when she did reappear. Figured I would fix that mistake. And I can't stand the idiocy of the remake leaving Barry out, among other details.
And looks like they weren't the only ones to get out by the skin of their teeth ;) a little cameo appearance on that tanker beneath the Colonel's gunship by the two stars of the upcoming interquel story I'm posting once this one is complete. By all means, let your imaginations run wild and speculate. Think we can reasonably guess who the woman in the red dress is... as for her jumpy companion... "Who's that Pokemon?" Lol. You'll find out soon, but I want you speculating in the meantime.
You just know Lord Spencer jumped out of his wheelchair at that last escape like Link did in The Matrix 2 when Neo swooped in and saved Morpheus and the Keymaker. Among the reactions of the many other Umbrella employees and watchers. Real nail biter entertainment. Would be the first time in years Spencer's nails have been trimmed.
And yes, I'm loving HUNK and Carlos being around the other S.T.A.R.S. and new character dynamics ;).
And thus our heroes have escaped the infected and now fiery clutches of Raccoon City at last and are free and in the clear. Most of them, at least. Stick around.
