Gone by Dawn


Part One:

-Downfall-


Chapter 5: Resistance


Raccoon City


It seemed that a moment of peace would find them talking about how Rebecca had come to be in the company of a betraying FBI agent. She treated Leon's arm wound while the transfusion occurred, talking softly to him as she moved, "I found her in the parking garage of the RPD. I was trying to find anything on the location of the vaccine and knew that Irons kept an office in the gun range where he might have stored information. She was fighting some of those...dog things?"

Leon nodded in understanding.

So, Rebecca continued, "I killed one trying to eat her face. She decided I was useful I guess. Being together seemed better than being alone. So...we teamed up."

After a moment, Rebecca sighed and suggested, "...I don't think she's really FBI...she seems..." She trailed off. Leon nodded again as if reading her mind. He patted the former medic's arm.

Rebecca sighed, "...and now Jill might pay the price of me trusting her."

"...don't do that. It's not your fault. She made sure you believed her for a reason. Did you come upon any one else while you were together?"

Rebecca nodded, dipping her cloth in the warm water to bathe his arm, "A couple of road crew guys and a highschool band member. We sent them out the mountain path because Ada swore it was unblocked...now I'm starting to wonder if it was a trap."

He soothed, softly, "There's still a chance she was FBI, Rebecca. There's the real possibility she just stole that vaccine for herself because she's afraid. Don't think the worst...it'll cause you to want to give up."

Rebecca smiled gently, "...you're a bit of a boy scout, aren't you? You never give up?"

He laughed, shrugging, "Why give up? There's always something worth fighting for."

A soft scoff drew their attention to the table. A pink faced Jill was watching them now, "...the sentiments of a fucking hero there, Bec..."

Rebecca gasped and ran toward her. She bathed the sweat off Jill's face and cooed, "...you're alive! You look good, Jill!"

Jill laughed derisively, "...you're a terrible liar, Bec...although I appreciate the effort. What are you doing here?"

Rebecca carefully checked the needle in her arm before answering, "Saving you, apparently...along with the help of the world's cutest boy scout over there."

Leon flushed, making him somehow cuter. "...cute is for bunnies and babies."

Jill chuckled, woozy and tired but at least she was herself again. "...it works on you too, rookie, don't kid yourself."

Rebecca mused, taping the needle against Jill's skin to hold it in place, "His face is quintessentially perfect - symmetrical features and the addition of that cleft chin...some cultures see that as a sign of virility."

Leon shook his head, embarrassed at the assessment, "Just a face...nothing special."

Jill wondered if he was being modest, or he was that unaware of what he looked like. After studying the pink cheeks on him, she was betting he was both. She laughed again and shook her head where she lay, "Right. Nothing special." She waited until he glanced at her and added, "...helluva hero though."

That worked. He was officially flushed. Clearing his throat, he looked away. Rebecca leaned down and murmured, "...adorable, right? Or has it been too long since I saw a man who wasn't rotting?"

Jill smiled softly, "...adorable. Dead useful too. Never seen better aim on a cop."

Rebecca's brows arched, "Even Chris?"

Jill considered that and responded, "...it's too close to call."

Impressed, Rebecca leaned up and removed the needle from Leon's arm. She did the same for Jill and wrapped the used supplies in a roll of gauze. As they continued to sit or lay, she instructed, "Don't get up until you have to...it's gonna take some time for the blood to start doing it's job. We need to head across town to the col-"

The roar of pursuit brought the nice peace to an end. "STARRZZZZ!"

Jill tried to roll off the table but was too weak. She was caught in Leon's lap instead and he held her, hand over her mouth. Rebecca whispered, "Billy!"

She gave Leon desperate eyes and he simply nodded, reached into his vest with his free hand and offered her the vaccine. She took it, grateful, and instructed, "Get her somewhere and hide...I will lead him away...pray to god this works. Jill - don't be brave, stupid, and wonderful and try to follow me. Do you hear me? Stay down, stay safe...and let the rookie do his damn job and protect you..."

Jill started to argue and Leon gathered her up instead, pinning her against him as he turned and took the stairs of the clock tower two at a time. He was dizzy from blood loss, but better than Jill who limply laid in his arms even as she struggled against her own weakness. He tucked them both into the office at the top of the stairs, securing the door and carefully setting Jill on the desk.

She weaved a little and he whispered, "It had the chance to kill her before and didn't. She's onto something here, I can feel it. Trust her. She saved us both...don't waste that gift."

Jill said nothing as Leon moved to the window of the office and peered down into the street below. Rebecca was racing away from the Nemesis, shouting and circling it in the burning street. It didn't hit her. It didn't hurt her. It chased her, roaring. It could have killed her...but it just pursued her instead.

He was starting to believe it was really Billy Coen.

When the quiet descended again, Leon speculated over his shoulder, "We'll give them a few minutes so you can get your sea legs back before we go after them. I don't want to leave her alone too long with that thing." He told Jill about what Rebecca speculated that the Nemesis was and who it had once been. She said nothing.

When he turned away from the window, she finally spoke, "...it killed Brad...why kill Brad but leave me alive?"

Leon offered, softly, "It's possible that what's left in the Nemesis recognizes you're a woman and wants to protect you."

Jill scoffed, "Great...a misogynistic monster. Perfect."

Leon laughed and patted her shoulder, "Better that then the alternative."

She quirked a brow and he quipped, "A feminist one."

They held gazes until she snorted and he chuckled. Why was it annoying to find out he was adorable and funny? She didn't want him to be funny. However, if it was a nice thing to break the tension for the first time in days. Her tired body appreciated the effort.

So, she rewarded it.

Jill slapped his ass as he walked toward the bathroom of the office. He jumped, eyes wide, and she teased, "There...feminism be damned. Good game."

He had the strangest urge to grab her and kiss her. It was amusing even as it was a relief. Apparently, under all the fear and the survival and the need to escape, there was still a man in a room with a beautiful woman. Sure - they were both filthy and sore and scared and smelly...but he still knew he liked her. He liked Jill. It was easy to, she was tough and determined and charming in her sheer dedication.

What had she called him? Adorable. She saw a younger rookie trying to be a hero. It was tough to explain he was just trying to do the right thing. He'd gotten into police work to make a difference. There was never a better time than now. Every life they saved mattered here. He wanted to make sure he saved as many as he could.

But he was still man enough to know he liked her looking at his ass in the process.

Leon leaned on the door, bracing a foot against it and crossing his arms on his chest to check the impulse to flirt with her. Most of his life, honestly, he'd been an abject failure with women. His "handsome face" only got him so far. He wasn't built for cooing and winking and charm, not like some guys were, so he'd relied on good old fashioned sense to get dates. He'd had them, his face was worth a few after all, but they didn't end well. Most of the time, his lack of enthusiasm over mundane things drove girls away. He simply didn't care about fashion or famous people or gossip.

Girls, it would seem, rarely wanted to talk politics or statistics of crime to a failing economy and coupled with poverty. He doubted Jill did either, although he wondered if she'd want to talk about the rate of success for hand to hand combat over firearms in standard groups of six men or less while attacking. Why did part of him think Jill knew all about hand to hand combat?

What he did know? Jill was the type who'd be happy to focus on what mattered most here. His face, her ass, and all the in between? That was for a better time and place.

Quietly, he told her, "Rebecca wants us to get to the university to try to find something called Daylight. Apparently, this transfusion was a temporary band-aid."

Jill nodded, "I figured although...why you? What's the catch?"

He started to answer and she caught sight of the gauze wrapped around his arm. It was pink where the blood from the bite had soaked through a little. Jill's eyes widened and she whispered, "...tell me that's a knife wound."

Leon said nothing.

The tension spiked and she hissed, "...you transfused me with dirty blood!?" She sprang off the desk like a woman who hadn't just nearly died. He caught her as she swung at him, slinging her away to stumble into the desk again.

He warned her, "-don't be stupid...wait a minute! I can explain!"

She came for him again, swaying, but alert. He grunted, "...Jill...goddamnit...wait!"

She hit him in the stomach. He caught her wrist and tugged it up behind her back which got him a spare elbow thrown at his face. With another grunt of effort, he lamented, "...women!"

The next few minutes proved she knew plenty about hand to hand combat. They grappled as she snarled, "...you son of a bitch! You got bit! You infected me!"

He caught her finally as she threw another kick at him. He let her land the slap to the side of his head to get control of her leg. He jerked her into him, spun her around and planted her against the wall on her face, pinning her arms behind her back as she snapped into her ear, "...listen, you stupid woman, even if that was true...you were already infected! Your nemesis did that, not me. And take a minute to think about what you just yelled...infected? I'm still alive! How could I be if I was infected? When you know the only other sample we had is with Rebecca? I'm not infected Jill!...I'm immune!"

She went still.

He held on to be sure she was finished attacking him.

After a moment, she soothed, "...I'm good...I swear. I won't came at you again...you can let go."

He did, stepping back. His hand itched to draw his weapon to protect himself, but that was over kill and would likely make a disaster. He didn't want to hurt her! He'd just busted his fucking ass saving her. He was going to credit her stupid leaps of logic with being ill and nearly dying.

Jill turned against the wall, hands up to show herself not a threat, "Sorry...sorry...shit...you're would you transfuse me if you were infected? Come to think of it...why would you transfuse me if you weren't?...you could have infected yourself Leon! What you did...brave...but stupid."

His eyes flew wide. "You calling me stupid for saving you?"

She shook her head. She covered her face with her hands, trying to find one coherent thought. She was scattered. The fever had rattled her brains. She needed to step back and see what he was saying here.

So, she lifted her head and told him, "...no...seriously...thank you. I can't thank you enough...I just-immune? How? How can you be immune to it?"

He shrugged, watching her now with a furrowed brow like she might attack him at any moment. She couldn't really blame him. "Rebecca says something like one percent of any population will be immune. It's basic survival of a species."

Jill nodded and moved to look out the window again. "As much as I want to hide out here, we need to get moving. I don't want to-" She trailed off, shaking her head, "...I can't turn into one of them."

She turned back to look at him, voice pleading but determined, "...if I start to turn-"

He waved that away.

She grabbed his good forearm and held it, urging, "If I start to turn, Leon...you finish me. That's the deal here. I'll keep going, but if the Daylight is a lost cause...if that thing comes for me again and I get hurt...finish me off. Promise me."

He said nothing.

She shook him a little, "Promise me, Leon."

"...I promise." He didn't like saying it.

She didn't like making him.

But it was something they needed clear. He was immune; she wasn't. If she turned, immune or not, she could kill him. It would be a huge waste of what could be life changing antibodies. He had to be kept alive.

Somehow, the rookie had just become the most valuable man in Raccoon City.

It was time to repay the favor and keep him alive. She needed to cure herself to do that. She had no hope at all for saving Billy Coen. Honestly, she thought Rebecca was living in fantasy land, but the girl scientist had always been the smartest person she knew. The book smarts came with zero street smarts. Rebecca was as cloistered as she was clever.

Jill knew about Coen and their time together on the Ecliptic Express before the mansion. She knew Coen had been framed and become a fugitive. She knew Rebecca had cut him loose in an attempt to spare him being persecuted.

She was sorry as hell to think he's bravery had cost him his life and resulted in him becoming nothing more than a weapon for another cruel commander. Sadly, that's how it was likely to end for him. She wasn't leaving this city without knowing that thing was dead.

If she had to go over Rebecca to get it done, she'd do that too. Coen wasn't "Billy" anymore. He was a monster, a predator, a pursuer meant to murder and destroy. He was her nemesis.

He was...the Nemesis. God forbid he take out Kennedy or something trying to kill S.T.A.R.S. Was it safer to separate from Leon to protect him? How much help could she possibly be staying beside him? He kept saving her. Was she really helping?

There was no time to consider it because they were suddenly no longer alone.

The door was quite literally blown off it's hinges. Leon and Jill were tossed backward by the force of the blast. The door smashed into the wall between them, shattering into shards of wood that scattered down like rain made of shrapnel. Leon grabbed for her like he'd put her behind him somehow and a voice instructed, "...it would be in your best interest not to move."

They stared up into faces obscured by masks. Six, maybe more, it was hard to tell with the world in smoke and searing flame and pain still making her weak and shaky. Jill grunted, "...and if we do? You think you can do anything to us that we haven't already survived?"

The masked leader sounded like Darth Vader as he answered, "We're about to find out."

There was a sound of a gun firing. Leon, the great and brave fool, dove over her to block her and she felt the blood splatter her chest from where he blocked the shot. Horrified, she grabbed him and whispered, "...why!?"

To which he simply answered, "...big hero, right?"

He slumped forward as the man beyond his shoulders told them, "It's a tranquilizer, you stupid boy...it never fails to surprise me how the young ones are so goddamn selfless."

Behind him, a female voice inquired, "Should we take them both?"

The masked man crouched and tilted his head at JIll. He asked, "...how have you survived this long?"

Like he really couldn't believe it.

Jill laughed, "...dumb luck?"

The man returned, "We're about to find out..."

She felt the tranquilizer dart hit her in the shoulder. She gripped Leon to her like she'd spare him the torture of it all. She slid down to the floor while the female voice offered, "...let's see if you're as tough as you think you are."

The lights flickered. The world shifted. The smell of smoke and steel was cloying.

She heard someone say, "...seems like a lot of work for a skinny girl and a buttchin boy."

She wanted to laugh.

She wanted to scream in defiance.

Instead, she slumped to the ground still clutching that buttchin boy who'd dove in front of her like some kind of hero.


The high pitched beeping woke her. She blinked, head pounding, heart thumping. The cold steel on her back was somehow soothing.

The screens on the wall flickered and offered a face obscured by shadow, "Ms. Valentine...you're awake. Perhaps you should take a moment to understand your position."

Jill blinked until her vision wasn't blurry and rolled her head on the cot where she lay to take in the visage of her captor. Sadly, all she could see was darkness and the whites of eyes. So, she taunted, "...why don't you come on down and give me the grab tour?"

The teeth flashed in the dark, "I think not. After all, the mastermind doesn't generally descend to convalesce with rat in the maze."

Right.

The rat in the maze.

That's what she was now.

Jill cleared her dry throat, "...what am I doing here?"

"What else? Surviving. You do that, I open the doors and let you out. All you have to do is survive for the next three hours. Seems easy right? I've put your boy wonder in the maze too. You find him, you can team up. The thing is...you're not alone in the maze. I'm going to try to kill you...with everything I have in my arsenal."

Jill laughed with anger now, staring at the ceiling as she mused, "Of course...because that's the only way you psychopaths know how to do things. It's not the first time some great bastard has tested my abilities you know."

"Oh, I know. That's why you're here. I know you can do. I need to know how badly you want to live. I need to test the best against the best. Welcome to Project Resistance."

Right.

Monsters made to kill her. Monsters making monsters to test her. Monsters in the street trying to eat her.

Her life was nothing but monsters.

She'd be damned if she went down that way.

So, she gave it her best tough guy speech, "...bring it on, you coward. I don't die that easily."

"Oh, I know that too. I'm hoping you're right. After all, my last three batches of recruits...we're all talk and no actions. The longest survival? Ninety four minutes. How long do you think you can last?"

Jill said nothing.

The voice finally finished, "...game on, Ms. Valentine...and good luck."

The door buzzed and slid up.

Jill rolled to her feet to find a shotgun lying right there on the table beside her. The doorway filled with undead. She grabbed the gun, she braced her feet, she taunted the horde like a hero, "...whose first!?"

And she got ready to start playing the game.