Gone by Dawn
Part One:
-Downfall-
Chapter 2: Hail Mary
Raccoon City
The thunder grumbled mutinously as they surged against the silence toward the warehouse. Jill, lost in a sea of regret and remorse, kept imagining the look on Chris' face when she told him she'd let Brad die pissing himself. No help. No bravery. Just cowardice.
She'd stood there while he'd been murdered in cold blood.
Was the rookie right? Was the circumstance worth the cost?
The moment they emerged into the warmth of the warehouse and she saw Olivia, Jill knew she was right. She'd done the right thing. Olivia, Charles, and Linnie were three children with no one else in the world to watch out for them. She'd found them huddled in an attic at Emmy's diner. They'd been hiding out there, eating canned foods, and waiting for help. Olivia, almost twelve, had been smart enough to secure the attic door against the undead.
They'd smeared old blood on the ladder leading up to the hideout, signaling death to anything that tracked by smell. It was clever, it was calculated, and it was worth keeping this girl alive. She had smarts that needed to be rewarded with a shot at life. The other children gathered were a small class of kids left from a field trip to the zoo. They lost friends there and were mostly terrified, but they were tough and holding it together.
Jill crouched to hug Olivia and the little girl chattered about what they'd done while she was gone. Charles poked a finger at Leon's gun and made the rookie wink at him. Linnie took three seconds to decide to sandwich herself to his leg and made him smile.
This, he thought, was what she was trying to protect. Could he really hold it against her that she'd left a man behind for this? It was entirely possible these people had no hope without her. She was their lighthouse, desperately trying to weather the storm and bring them home.
Leon ruffled the hair on the little girl and when she lifted her hands, he hiked her up on his hip. A quick study told him she was barely two years old. She thoughtfully touched the ends of his hair and he teased, "...like a pretty girl?"
She giggled and melted his heart.
He got it. He really did. Kids had no one but adults to save them. In this case, Jill Valentine was their messiah. They all looked at her like she just might know the path to heaven.
All in all, she had thirteen people in this warehouse that needed her help. She'd be damned if she left them all because of Brad Vickers. Maybe that made her a monster, she didn't know, but she'd be ok with the label if it meant they all got out of this city alive.
Sister Agnus, one of the nuns hiding with the children, hurried over to greet them. She cooed sweetly over Kennedy and treated Jill's wounds. Secure at the notion that no one was bitten, Agnes went back to attempting to keep the children quiet but entertained. She was young, still weeks fresh into her vows to serve God, and looking to prove herself. She'd lost sisters to the hordes, but was hanging on to the hope that God would save them.
Jill was fully aware God had left this city long ago.
Linnie let Leon set her down and ran to join her friends. He watched her go with an intelligence on his young face that Jill appreciated. "You did the right thing back there."
Surprised, Jill angled a look at him, "...did I?"
He gripped a hand on her forearm, squeezed, and answered, "...I'd have done the same. Looking at what you have here...I'd have done the same."
Jill's face tried to collapse. She flipped her hand over and squeezed his palm, reciting a plea, "Don't. Don't show me any empathy, rookie...I can't afford to fall apart."
He nodded, but he squeezed her hand with it anyway before he let go.
Softly, Leon inquired, "Anyone but kids and women?"
She gave him a sad look, "Just you, rookie. The rest of the men I'd found died...trying to be heroes."
He gave her a cool look and she added, "Apparently, there's still some chivalry left in the world. We had four men, but each one died protecting these children. I have to make their sacrifice matter. It has to matter."
He gave her a nod and his hand lifted, secured over her wrist, and squeezed in support. She took some kind of strength from that one gesture and turned toward the back doors. "Out here is the bus. I figure the best way out is the way you came in. Any chance you can drive this thing?"
She gestured out the window and Leon laughed, "...I think I'm more likely to wreck it, honestly. I flipped my Jeep racing against the horde and a trucker with a death wish back there. I'm not sure I'm the best option for a driver."
Quietly, one of the nuns remarked, "Sister Adaline is."
Surprised, Jill turned as the nun in question sighed, "I was the driver for our outings. I can handle the bus."
Impressed, Jill instructed, "Good. Gather what you can...we have to go...now."
There was no need to mention the thing stalking her. She was already fully aware what it meant. She couldn't flee this city - not now. Not knowing it was chasing her. She had to get them out, and then she had to stay to finish that thing. She was hoping Kennedy would be the person to get them safety. It was the least she could do for all of them.
As the bus crossed town, Jill told him, "When we get to the edge of the city, I'm going to expect you to get them the rest of the way to Wombat Junction."
He gave her a cool look and she finished, "Please...you know I can't run. I have to stop that thing. It's after me...you heard it call back there. You heard it. You know it's stalking S.T.A.R.S."
He tilted his head and she showed him the badge in her back pocket. His eyes flicked down and back to her face and she informed him, "...yeah. Jill Valentine...rear defense, B & E, and demolitions - Special Tactics and Rescue Service."
His mouth twitched as Leon mused, "...ah...the master of unlocking...your legacy proceeds you."
She rolled her eyes and started to say something flippant when Sister Adaline shouted, "Oh my God!"
Praying it really was Jesus Christ walking on water, Jill turned sharply in her seat to glance in front of them...and there it was. The thing chasing her. The monster. The nemesis out of her worst nightmares.
It was just standing in the street watching them come.
Jill shouted, "Everyone get down! Adaline...floor it."
She did. She hit the gas. Jill lifted the grenade launcher and she warned, "MOVE! You stupid bastard!"
He lifted his gun and she beat him to the punch. The grenade hit him, he caught fire in a WHOOOOOSH of sound and pressure, and the bus barreled right over him. Thump. Thunk. Whump. Whomp. Sounds and sputtering. Everyone either whimpered or screamed.
Olivia shouted, "JILL! HE'S STILL COMING!"
Jill grabbed Adaline and told her, "...stop this fucking bus. I'm gonna get off...I want you to keep on driving. You hear me!? Don't you stop! FOR ANYTHING."
The bus squealed to a stop. Jill ran out of the doors while Olivia shouted for her to come back. She yelled, "I have to! It's just me he wants! He won't touch you if you go now! Do what I say and go!"
She hurried toward the fire that ate along the cars and the street. The grenade had blasted a fucking crater in the ground where it had struck. But the thing chasing her? It was walking through fire like it was impervious. It's scarred skin didn't burn. It's ugly face was still grinning around all those horrible teeth.
Grenades didn't kill it.
Would anything?
Jill instructed, "Adaline...GO!"
The bus roared away, Jill felt a flicker of real fear, and a voice shouted, "Go left and let it chase you!"
The idiot rookie had gotten off the bus while she wasn't looking.
Horrified, she shouted, "IDIOT! GET BACK TO THE BUS!"
"Shut up!" He pointed, "Go down that alley...now!"
She turned. She ran. What choice was there? The thing on fire turned toward her and lifted the gun as it walked. Jill grabbed a trashbin and threw herself behind it. The scatter of machine gun fire lit the metal with pops and squeals. The bin jerked and jumped. She half crawled, half crouched and ran toward the next turn in the street.
As she burst through the alley into the main road, she spun around with the grenade launcher. The thing on fire came out of the alley and she hit it again with a clunking thump of release from the launcher. The big round struck, the fire was instant, the world lit with smoke and stench. She watched it absorb the blow and half of its arm was simply obliterated. The heavy machine gun clomped on the ground with a clang.
The thing reached up and pulled its own arm off. A slurp, a pop, a crunch of bone - Jill gagged in horror as blood sprayed and sizzled in the fire around it. It tossed it's machine gun arm to the ground and what came from the hole was worse somehow. It was so much worse. It was tentacles. Like that thing that had grabbed Brad and impaled him, it whipped toward her. She scrambled back, fell on her butt, and tried to reload the launcher.
It ducked its head and just started running.
With a yelp, she flipped around and almost fell getting to her feet. The wings on her shoes gave her pure flight. She took off at a pace so fast that there was no time to do anything but run. Run run run run runrunrunrunrunrunrunrun.
It went through her head like one continuous sound.
She knew she'd tire. She had to tire. She had to tire eventually. She cut left through some cars and the tentacles simply lifted the vehicles and threw them away like they weren't tons of steel. Terrified, Jill ran for the gate to the playground attached the orphanage and the tentacle finally did its job. It looped around her ankle and jerked. She screamed, the grenade launcher went spinning over the ground, and she was jerked across the pavement trying wildly to grab anything to stop it.
It dangled her upside down as it lifted her, Jill grabbed for her knife, and as it turned her toward it - she thrust the damn knife right into his face. It went in the left eye, it popped and spilled fluid on its ugly burning cheek, and the thing roared in her face, "STARZZZZZZ!"
She jerked the knife clean and went for the other eye. It grabbed her by the face for the effort, made her shout in horror into its hand, and it just...threw her. It threw her by her face into a car. Her back hit with a heavy clang of metal and pain up her spine, Jill rolled and it grabbed her again. It lifted her by the throat, she kicked it in the face, and its tentacle snaked up her belly.
She was going to die like Brad.
Maybe it was no less than she deserved.
Jill shouted in rage and fear, "FUCK YOU!"
She gagged, choking on the hand around her throat, and the tentacle reached her face. It looped toward her mouth, Jill clamped her teeth shut, and there was a whistle. She jerked her head as a horn sounded.
She had a moment to think - holy shi-
And the car struck the nemesis. He threw Jill to the ground, he was tossed into the air over the battering ram of a cop car, she watched the rookie hit the gas and keep going and the damn thing was pinned between the wall and the car as he hit head on with the damn thing clinging to the hood. The sound was massive, the crunch and pop and shattering of glass and air bag deploying.
She watched the rookie fling himself out the door moments before impact. She watched the damage race in waves of fire and oily smoke up the wall of the big building that had made her attacker into an ugly sandwich - better a monster sandwich than a Jill one- and the rookie shot the damn thing in the face four times from the ground with that Magnum.
Its face was reduced to hamburger and fire.
It burbled. It gurgled. It went face down on the hood and didn't move again.
Jill, aching, limped toward him and offered a hand. Leon took it and she leveraged him up. Impressed, she whispered, "...I thought you'd run for the hills."
He laughed, shaking with adrenaline, "I thought about it...but I'm too big of a hero for that."
Jill nodded. She jerked on his vest to back him toward where she'd lost the launcher and lamented, "...thank the good fat lord for bravery."
Her hands gathered up the launcher. She turned toward the ticking car, loaded a fat round, and fired at the mess of monster and twisted metal. It struck, lighting up the night in a wavering orange glow. Jill stumbled a little from a sore hip and she whispered, "...is it over?"
They watched the bonfire of monster burn in the cold night.
The rain started, sizzling as it struck flame and made smoke. Leon put a hand under her elbow when Jill staggered again. "..let's look at your leg. How bad?"
She limped with him toward the gate into the orphanage. She let him support her weight a little as they moved into the building and found the first place to sit down with light for him to look. Wincing, she felt him lift her pants leg.
The knee was twisted and swollen, bloody, but not broken. He treated it with the First Aid spray she offered and used a shredded jacket from the coat rack beside them to wrap it. They were both silent, thinking of the thing that'd died out there in street. She wasn't sure how she knew it, but her gut told her it wasn't dead. It wouldn't stay down for long either.
Jill thought of Olivia and her laughter. Safe. She had to believe they were safe now, safe beyond the city...safe and sound. It was what motivated her to tell the rookie, "...you know that staying with me is suicide."
He lifted his eyes. She had that moment again of thinking he looked like a movie star and not like a cop. His voice was calm, "I didn't decide to become a cop because I was afraid to die, Jill. I decided to become a cop to protect and serve. I just did that. You need me...we both know I just proved that."
Jill held his gaze until she finally nodded. Her eyes shut as she took a sharp breath, "...so, now we figure out how to stop the damn thing. I'm not sure ho-"
There was a loud rustle and a shout. A clattering sound of battle brought them both to their feet. His bandage was well done. She felt the support of it as she whispered, "...someone's here."
He nodded and she advised, "High and low...circle out to the stairs and cover me, ok?"
Another nod.
There were definite benefits to an eager rookie. He wanted to help. She was about to find out how far he'd go. She eased open the door and heard a commotion on the second floor. A thump and a cry brought them out into the lobby of the orphanage.
Toys were scattered in boxes and bags. Tiny chairs were over turned and tables tossed with papers and crayons. It was easily avoided as they rounded to the stairs and cleared the upper balcony. Jill went up first, listening to the sounds of conflict.
A man shouted and a girl screamed, "NO! DON'T!"
It was enough being caution. They sped up their assault. Jill eased open the door at the main floor and Leon cleared above her, remarking softly, "Hallway clear."
She went in, hurrying toward the sounds of fighting. A man instructed, "Katherine...stop fighting me. LAY DOWN!"
"HELP!" Her shout echoed in the darkness, "PLEASE HELP ME!"
Jill eased open the cracked door at the end of the hallway. She peeked inside and froze. Horror seized around her throat and held it in a devil's grip. The man in the room splattered with blood was none other than the Chief of Police. She'd known, of course, that he was dirty...she didn't know he was depraved. The walls were lined with sheets stained red with splatter and gore.
He wore an apron like he might be butchering meat, but she got the feeling he was about to butcher the girl that was rounding the blood stained sterile steel table between them. She wore a filthy nightie in pale white. It barely covered her thighs and couldn't hide her pretty breasts that swayed nakedly beneath it.
Young, barely out of her teens, she was blonde and beautiful. After a moment, her face clicked as Jill whispered, "...the mayor's girl?!"
Katherine, the girl in question, swung the battle in her hand. It cracked against the side of Iron's fat, mustached face. He yelped in rage and backhanded her and sent the Mayor's daughter to her hands and knees to crawl like a victim away from him. She whimpered but kept trying to run.
Jill might have stopped, maybe, and yelled freeze at him, but he grabbed his crotch like a filthy pervert as he chased Katherine's retreating ass across the slick floor. Her struggling was turning him on. Jill knew how the story ended too - with Katherine on the wall of trophies behind the fat bastard who'd lived his life in Umbrella's pocket.
He picked up a hatchet like he'd hit the girl in the back and Jill kicked in the door. She shouted, "DROP IT!"
And the rookie?
He didn't bother. He drilled the Chief right in his fat chest. It threw Irons back against the wall with a grunt and a gurgle. Katherine ran toward them at stumble and the rookie grabbed her to sling her behind him. Irons tried to shove off the wall and Jill spit at him, "...more than a coward, you son of a bitch, a fucking monster like the people you served. You deserve so much more than this."
Jill shot him in the face while he gushed blood from his chest. He went over the table beside him and collapsed in a clatter of metal and fat to the ground. Katherine, gasping with sobs, whispered, "...how-ho-how did...you find me?"
Jill shook her head to answer and the roar of the thing that chased her silenced her response, "STARZZZ!"
Terrified, Jill hissed to the girl, "Get in the wardrobe...don't get out...don't blink or breathe until we're gone. Do you hear me? When we are, run toward the warehouse on the u-"
"No!" She grabbed Jill's arm, "The station..my boyfriend, Ben...Ben Bertlucci...he's being held there. I need to free him. I need to get to him."
Jill shook her head and the girl told her, "I'll go without you if you won't help me. I swear to god."
A terrified mess of a girl - bleeding, bruised, half naked, and sobbing slightly. She wanted to save her boyfriend. She was either a fool or a hero. Either way, Jill knew what they had to do.
She told Leon, "I'll lead it away."
When he started to protest, she told him, "Get to the parking lot of the RPD. It should be easy enough with Iron's access card. The cells are on B-2...Bertolucci is in the third one."
Surprised, his brows arched and she told him, "Yeah...I knew he was there. I had no key to force him out and he refused to come with me. So...I left him behind too. Let's rectify that now...you came here to help...so help her and me. Please?"
Out of time for him to admonish or forgive her, Jill shoved them into the wardrobe where Iron's kept his toys. Katherine whimpered and Jill hissed, "I will meet you there. If I don't..."
Leon shook his head, "...I'm coming back for you. If you don't...I'm coming back."
Touched, she nodded and instructed, "When it starts chasing me...run."
She shut the doors and hurried toward Iron's dead body. The wallet in his back pocket had the card key they needed. She raided it, poked it through the doors of the wardrobe and felt someone take it from her.
As she turned back, the clump and clomp of her nemesis became louder. He beckoned her in his oily tone, "STARZZZZZZZZ!"
She was about to test every bit of training she had. Her breath filtered out and she shouted, "I'll give you stars, you piece of shit!"
The door was thrown open and she hit him in the face with the grenade launcher. Fire whooshed, he staggered and Jill ran for the far door out of the room. She felt the walls light up as she ran. She heard the sounds of pursuit.
She prayed Kennedy was as good as he was proving to be.
The world burned around her as she ran until there was nothing but fire, fear, and the nemesis.
