Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope
Chapter Thirteen: Fractured Memories
"They said all of this was just part of a larger plan, that trading the G-Virus in my veins for the technology they did was to spread the word of…" Sherry struggles to remember the name of the leader of these people.
"Saddler… The Word of Saddler, he called this parasite…" Claire shudders at the mere thought of the name, the word itself leaving an unsettling taste in her mouth.
"Another face for me to crush with my bare hands," it would be adorable how he still demands to protect his sister, if Claire didn't know Chris could actually crush a skull with his hands…
Leon and Jill say nothing as the group makes their way to the upper deck of the freighter, something akin to hope covering them as they reach ever closer to their goal and an escape. None of them have mentioned how they were getting off the freighter, which worries Claire a little, but she finds solace in the fact that all of them have faced much worse and came out the better for it.
Chris is the first to emerge from the depths of the freighter onto the main deck, his machine gun already sweeping side to side for targets, "All clear…"
Jill climbs out next, a smirk on her face, "Try not to sound too disappointed, Chris."
Leon helps Claire and Sherry up before he is the last to exit, all of them standing on an empty deck, not a single infected soul in sight. The group makes their way toward the ladder that brought the older three up in the first place, but a series of well-placed sniper rifle shots stops them in their tracks.
"I wouldn't attempt to make another step toward that railing, my pets…" the voice is Krauser's, but those are not words he would use.
"So it's true, you are just Saddler's puppet!" Claire screams back at the voice before pulling Chris aside as a red dot appears at the base of his skull.
The shot rings out and misses, Chris thanking his sister before springing to his feet to track down the location. There are too many perches to shoot from, with too many catwalks to get to them all. He growls in anger as he motions for Leon and Jill to start moving toward two of the more likely spots as he urges Claire and Sherry to follow him up to the bridge of the ship.
"Thinking about splitting up already? You did so well sticking together, Chris!" this shot digs into the glass next to Chris's face, sending another bolt of rage through his body as Claire and Sherry scramble to take cover.
This isn't a good spot to be in! Krauser has the high ground and the element of surprise as he quickly moves from perch to perch, taking pot-shots at all of them as they struggle to get a bead on his position. Chris Redfield does not like feeling like a rat in a maze and this is exactly what they are here. He is thankful for one thing though: at least there isn't a mob of infected goons rushing them as Krauser takes his shots in the middle of the chaos.
He finds a bit of comfort in that his life doesn't feel too much like an action-packed video game, but his thoughts are scrambled as another shot almost finds its intended target, "God damn it, Krauser! Stop hiding like a snake in the grass and just STRIKE ALREADY!"
"Krauser has given himself to the Word of Saddler and Saddler demands he play with you before you die!" that's it, Chris has had his full of fanatical people thinking they are god just because they have a bit of power.
First it was Spencer in that infernal mansion, then it was Wesker in Antarctica, now it's this Spanish douchebag with a bug that controls people. Chris catches the reflection of the laser sight and follows it to one of the perches he told his team to go after. Leon is quickly closing in, which means this will be over soon enough and that the two women at his side will be safe.
"Ah, you chose your partners wisely, Chris… Seems stealth is no longer needed…" there is a single gunshot before he spots Leon hanging from the perch by a single hand, Krauser standing over him, ready to stomp the ex-policeman into nothingness.
The left foot is raised, but a gunshot from Jill sends their target stumbling a few steps away as Leon swings his body toward a closer landing spot, "Fine! Let's conclude this face-to-face!"
Chris is awestruck as Krauser drops from the catwalk, falling what must be a few hundred feet to the deck of the ship. There is an almost deafening explosion as wood, dust, and metal fill the air from the not-so-graceful landing. As the cloud dissipates, he stares at the standing form of their nemesis, his beret the only thing out of place, but only slightly. Chris pushes Claire and Sherry toward the bridge as he slowly descends the stairs, ready to take this freak of nature on for the last time.
"I've fought your type before, you know… Super-powered psychos with a God-complex… I wasn't prepared then, but that fight made me ready for this, and I find myself relishing the fight," Chris lets the machine gun rest at his side as he rolls his shoulders and cracks his knuckles before bringing the weapon up to aim before smirking, "Don't disappoint me!"
As Krauser takes off into a sprint, Chris for just a second imagines the form as Wesker, which fills him with a rage he has long-desired to put to rest. His trigger finger applies pressure and the small burst of lead finds its mark in the core of Krauser's chest. The rounds don't stop him, much like Chris expected, but the power of the punch takes him completely by surprise.
There are other gunshots that fill the air as Chris lands hard against a metal container, his world spinning for a second before he rises to his feet, ready for round two, "Don't stop now, Krauser, this was just the warm-up…"
"Such an American way to look at things… Unable to see the unstoppable force coming right for you until it's already run you over. I look forward to stomping out the fire of the West forever…" now that's just plain rude in Chris's book.
Chris swaps the machine gun for his pistol and a knife, hoping a closer fight will go more in his favor. The infected soldier steps up and prepares to throw a right hook, but Chris ducks under it and fires a quick grouping into the exposed flesh under the arm, trying to pierce through to the heart. No luck, the rounds hitting skin that seems to almost be steel-like in toughness. There is a backhand Chris didn't see coming, but he quickly brings the knife up and smiles as the arm is impaled on the blade, stopping the attack.
"Such childlike tactics," Krauser begins to raise the arm up over his head, taking the knife right out of Chris's hands as he chooses to not go with it.
The blade is ripped from the flesh before being casually tossed over the side of the freighter, "Chris!"
There is an unusual sound as Claire's voice echoes from the sound system, but the shadow growing to his right urges him to leap backward and roll to safety. Krauser takes another step toward his target, but is swept up by the swinging container sent down by Claire. Chris looks up at his sister and gives her a thumbs up before moving toward the container as it comes to rest at the edge of the deck. The wrenching of metal stops Chris in his tracks as Jill and Leon finally join him, Krauser apparently not happy with the attack.
"Las Plagas cannot be stopped by anything of this world…" the side of the container is split open as something that resembles Krauser steps from within the dark depths, "Let me be the first to introduce you to the new world order…"
"How many cheesy lines do these guys have?" Leon drops a round into the monster that was once Krauser.
Chris watches as Krauser brings up the mutated left arm and uses the blade-like appendage to soak up the round before he continues walking forward, "The lines must come with the God-Complex…"
Jill takes aim and fires another round, which Krauser again blocks, but this time Leon capitalizes on the move and drops down into a crouch and fires a round under the arm, the bullet digging into the right knee, causing the monster to stagger a bit. Chris picks up on this and the three of them take turns distracting him while another shoots at his knees. Eventually Krauser drops to his knees and drops his guard, allowing Chris and Leon to run up and capitalize.
"This is for the torture you put Sherry through!" Leon drives his knife hard into the sternum of Krauser as Chris pulls his right arm back as far as he can, the gun held in his hand to increase the power of the punch.
"This is for Ashley Graham!" he drops the fist against Krauser's jaw, breaking it upon impact.
Both men take a step back and ready their guns right in his face, "And these are for CLAIRE!"
Both weapons are drained into the mass of flesh that is Krauser's head, the two men not stopping until the guns click with empty magazines and Krauser's body drops to the wooden deck. Chris drops his handgun before falling to his knees himself, a sense of accomplishment and the lightened load becoming too much to bear.
Claire runs up to them with Sherry in tow as they all look over Krauser's quickly dissolving body, "We still have more to handle, it doesn't end with Krauser…"
"We know," Jill drops down next to Chris and wraps her arms around him as Leon steps next to Claire, "but this is a victory we need…"
11
It only took another hour to completely eradicate the Plagas-infected soldiers from the freighter and get the radio working. Director Reed was not as welcoming as they expected him to be with regards to Claire and Sherry's rescue, but his threat of jail was a surprising turn of events. The BSAA wouldn't actually arrest them, would they? This question and others plague the group of warriors as they await the helicopter being sent to retrieve them.
Claire sits in the corner of the bridge, keeping her back covered with Sherry sitting in front of her, the two talking, reminiscing about the events in Raccoon City, "Think they'll be okay?"
Chris slowly looks up at Jill, frowning as he throws a quick glance at his sister, "I hope so, they both are as strong as the rest of us, but we don't know what they have completely gone through…"
"True, hopefully she opens up before it starts to fester…" she runs a hand through Chris's short hair as he returns to cleaning his handgun.
Leon drops his booted feet to the floor as he spins around, "Hey, Claire, you said the leader's name is Saddler, right?"
"Mmhmm," she nods before walking toward him, "not real sure on the first name. Why do you ask?"
Leon looks down at the computer he's been messing with since they killed Krauser and points to a single name, "Osmund Saddler?"
"Possibly? Sherry, any input?" the blonde shrugs, seems this Saddler is as mysterious as he appears powerful.
"What does it matter if he is named, Osmund?" Chris is aggravated at the conversation heading nowhere.
"Well, it seems our boss was receiving visits and payments from a Slade Drumonds. Turn the letters around and you get…." they all nod at the link, but Jill has a single question.
She drops a hand on Chris's head and asks, "Where did you get Osmund as his first name?"
"Well," he smirks, "we are on a boat called Osmund's Wish? Also, his name is listed all over these files on Krauser's laptop."
Chris finally stands up at this information, his hands turning the laptop toward his own eyes as he begins to work on finding more links, "It seems that a lot of the dates of these payments coincide with a lot of the G-Virus deals Krauser handled… If Cranston was being paid by Los Illuminados, who else were they paying?"
"You know," Jill leans back in the captain's chair and smirks, "I love how much work we actually get done when we aren't fighting for our lives…"
11
Claire sits back as the rest of the group roots through the files looking for more important names to add to their growing list of targets to take down. Random noises from the group remind her of things she experienced while under their captivity, some of them worse than others. She starts shaking as the memories start hitting her harder and faster, her world now replaced with visions of the events she experienced.
As the memories start to take over her mind, she remembers a name, "Ramon Salazar… I remember the name Ramon Salazar…"
Leon is quickly at her side as he realizes that she is experiencing post-traumatic stress, "Look that name up, Jill… Hey, Claire, it's okay, you're with us, with me… Calm down…"
"Leon?" her eyes stop sweeping back and forth and focus on his face, the smile that appears on her face reassuring Leon that she is okay now.
She pays no attention to anything else going on behind him, Claire's mind focused like a laser on the man in front of her. Leon has been there through it all, he was there besides her through Raccoon City, he was the one who located her brother when she needed help in Rockfort and Antarctica, and he was here to rescue her this time. What makes him different though, is he never rubbed it in her face, like he had to save her. Leon knows she can handle herself when the time calls for it, but he also knows that like all of them, even a Redfield needs help once in a while. Maybe that is why she's fallen for him, he was there when she dealt with Steve's death, she was there when he finally gave up on Ada, the two of them just always being together…
It's the one thing in their lives that truly makes sense, "Us…"
"Always," it's like he's reading her mind as he sits next to her and brings her head down against his chest, one hand holding one of hers while the other hand slowly runs up and down her arm.
These movements are calming to the redheaded Redfield, who soon falls asleep for the first time in what feels like forever…
"WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY SHOOTING AT US!?" Claire's eyes fly open at the sound of her brother screaming as an explosion shakes the freighter.
11
Chris turns from his sister as she falls asleep, happy that she's finally resting, but still coming to terms with who she is falling asleep next to, "Stop it, Chris."
"What?" he types away on the laptop as Jill smirks.
She pokes a spot on his forehead, "You get this very particular wrinkle right there when you are trying to approve of Claire's new attraction. It will happen with or without your approval… Might as well make it easier on all of us and stop fighting it."
"That's my little sister, Jill…" he sighs and takes a long drink of the water bottle sitting between them, "I will always want to protect her, it's what I've always done…"
His love smiles and nods toward the man his sister is in the arms of, "Someone else can take that burden now… Her life has found a bit more meaning, just like ours did when we finally accepted what we are."
There is truth to her words, like there always is when she gets in one of her preachy moods, but that is what he loves most about her. Jill is the brains to his brawn, the Colby-jack cheese to his bacon cheeseburger. Great, now Chris is hungry, but he forces that aside as the computer beeps at him.
"Holy shit, Jill… Is that…?" the picture is connected to the name Ramon Salazar, but they know it by a different name.
She gazes at the monitor before replying, "That's the younger brother of Deputy Prime Minister Rosa Anton!"
"Seems Ramon Salazar and Los Illuminados are more connected to our world than we ever thought…." Leon comments lightly from his position on the floor.
No one else comments on this revelation as the patter of helicopter blades starts to echo around the freighter, signaling that the BSAA has finally arrived to pick them up, or so they thought, "Everyone get down…"
"What?" Jill turns to face Chris, whose expression silences any further argument.
Chris picks up the machine gun from the console and chambers a round as he turns toward his team, "EVERYONE DOWN!"
Glass shatters around them as Jill quickly pushes Sherry down the stairs into the armor-plated bowels of the freighter as Chris returns fire of his own. He glances at Leon who is trying to wake Claire up, but to no avail.
"They sent a fucking Apache to take us out, Leon! Get her out of here, NOW!" Chris ducks down as the attack helicopter makes another pass at them.
Leon picks Claire up and starts to make his way toward the staircase, but a round from the attacking force digs into the meat of his lower leg, "Mother fucker!"
He drops quickly to the ground, making sure to not injure Claire as Chris screams in rage and continues trading useless fire with the chopper outside, "God damn it all! They never wanted us back! Fuckers are going to have one hell of a fight on their hands if they want to take me down!"
There is a pressure on his leg, the pressure connected to Leon, who is reaching for the machine gun, "You need to get out of here and protect Claire, Chris. I can hold them off."
"No, I'm not leaving anyone behind!" he drops down to avoid another strafing pass, Leon taking this moment to really lock gazes with the elder Redfield.
"Claire means the world to us both! What good is it going to do her if we ALL die here!?" Leon takes the machine gun from Chris and pushes him toward the redhead.
Chris picks Claire up and starts to carry her toward the stairwell, but takes a look back at Leon, who slowly clambers into the captain's chair and takes aim at his target, "Thanks, Leon."
There is a quick wave from the blonde man as he fires a few bursts from the weapon, "WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY SHOOTING AT US!"
Chris feels his sister come to at this point, but an explosion sends them both flying down the stairs, fierce heat burning at his back as he lands, "God damn it all!"
"What's going on? Where is everyone?" he can't answer her questions, not now, not when this ship is going to start sinking at any moment with them all trapped inside.
"I'm sorry, Claire," Chris kicks open the nearest door and rushes in, hoping to escape the flames and the life lost upstairs.
END