Disclaimer: All Resident Evil characters, places and things all belong to Capcom and other involved companies. I own none of it. This fanfic is purely for the fun and enjoyment of others and myself. I make no money from it.
RESIDENT EVIL: ROAD TO DESTINY
CHAPTER 8
Claire shook her head vigorously. She tried to collect her thoughts while clearing her eyes of unwanted dust. The last thing she could remember was a loud noise and…
Suddenly she clutched her head as a searing pain reached up into her skull. She looked around in surprise. Everything was in flames. The hallway had erupted into a gulf of fire and destruction. It had all happened so fast, she never had a chance to retaliate. Immediately something occurred to her. She looked around anxiously. She was with Leon when the walls had exploded.
"Leon!" She called in alarm. "Leon where are you?"
She slowly rose to her feet, covering her mouth against the fumes of smoke. "LEON!" She called again in between coughs.
"LEON! WHERE ARE YOU!?"
She listened anxiously for any sort of reply. Her heart clenched in fear. She prayed he was not under any of the fire consumed rubble.
"…C- claire?"
The voice was faint but Claire heard it well enough.
"Leon!" She called back. "Where are you? I can't see you!"
"Claire I'm here."
She heard the voice coming from her left. Claire swung in that direction and saw a figure crouching slightly below the flames. Leon was directly behind a beam blocking her path.
"Leon are you alright?" She asked in concern.
Leon nodded briskly as he coughed up a lung full of smoke while at the same time, slightly clutching his injured side. "Yeah I'm fine. How about you? Are you ok?"
"Yeah. Leon I can't get to you from here. I'm going to try running through the other end. It might wind back around your way."
"Ok… Claire… be careful. I have a bad feeling about this. This may be an Umbrella attack."
Claire nodded. "Yeah you might be right. You be careful too. I don't want to see you on the receiving end of a bullet or a zombie bite anytime soon."
Leon smiled back at her. It was her way of saying she didn't want him to die. For some odd reason it made him feel happier knowing she felt that way about him.
"Claire, I'm gonna take this path. Hopefully it will lead the same way and we can meet up in the middle."
"Ok, I'll see you soon." With that, Claire sprinted down the other side of the hallway being careful to dodge the burning debris around her. Leon watched her run off for a moment then pulled out his standard Issue Barrette handgun. He silently said a prayer of thanks that he had decided on bringing it along. He checked him ammunition level then ran down his side of the hallway.
****
Chris ran down the burning hallways of the S.T.A.R.S safehouse anxiously looking in all directions. He clutched his Colt Python tightly in his sweaty grip.
"Claire?" He called out in a concerned voice.
"Claire where are you?"
He broke into a run once more. There was a narrow hall engulfed in flames. Chris closed his eyes and ran through it, heedless of the searing heat. After crossing through to the other side, he looked to the left noticing that the corridor cut off into two separate sections. Chris looked from right to left, trying to decided which route to take.
Suddenly there was another loud explosion and Chris barely kept himself from falling to the ground. He griped his gun tighter and made a desperate choice. He ran left.
****
Claire coughed up smoke for the third time since leaving Leon. She had crossed many hallways trying to keep to the walls, hoping that the corridor would wind around in a circular pattern. Unfortunately, she felt as if she were going deeper and deeper into another direction all together. And, as if to add insult to injury, every area she passed was similarly surrounded in flames. Claire sighed in frustration.
'At this rate, I'll never catch up with Leon.' She stood there, vaguely pondering whether or not it would be such a bad idea to simply backtrack and try to get through the burning beam.
Suddenly a huge fist burst through the wall, just inches away from her face. Claire screamed out in fear and surprise then quickly scattered away.
The wall crumbled further as the force tore the rest of it apart. Slowly a figure emerged into view. At the sight of it, Claire's voice caught in her throat.
The figure was huge and his skin was gray tinted. His shaved head only added to the evil black hollow depths of his eyes. His left eye was completely covered by a huge gruesome scar. And on his right arm he had a huge set of talon claws in place of a regular hand. Over his body, he wore a single trench coat and set of baggy pants. Only one thing in the world could ever put this much fear in Claire's heart.
"Tyrant!"
The beastly man turned his head as if responding to the name he was unanimously dubbed. Claire inched further away from the ghastly creature and slowly reached for her 9mm handgun. She knew the weapon was useless against a Tyrant. They always were. The Tyrant module was designed to take massive amounts of punishment. Nothing short of a rocket launcher could drop them.
She gradually overcame her fear and rose to her feet, now facing the monster. The Tyrant sensed the threat she posed and growled in bestial rage.
Claire knew this was her only chance. With the swiftness of a seasoned gunslinger, she whipped out her 9mm and fired three shots directly into the Tyrant's chest, hoping she hit his heart.
The Tyrant walked towards her, heedless of the bullet wounds he had just received.
"Shit!" Claire hissed. She noticed a side corridor to her left but she had to distract him long enough to make the move.
Clenching her teeth in anticipation, she swiftly trained her 9mm once again and fired two shots directly towards the Tyrant's face. One of the bullets pierced through the beast's eye causing him to roar in pain. The other bullet tore into his head but was not enough to do anything more then tear some of the already dead skin tissue away from his bio-genetically enhanced skull.
The monster continued to roar in pain, thrashing his arms against the wall, shattering much of the framework.
Claire took full advantage of the opportunity and quickly dashed into the side corridor, running at full tilt. She knew she could only hold 15 rounds at a time in her handgun with no extra ammunition to reload and she had already spent five bullets on distracting the Tyrant. She silently prayed she could make it to Leon and get out of this hell-hole before running out completely.
****
Leon paused in mid step as he heard the sounds of yet another explosion. He was becoming extremely worried about Claire. Even though he packed a gun he wondered if Claire thought to bring one herself. He silently berated himself for not asking her. 'I shouldn't have left her behind.' He scolded himself. 'I should have found some way around that fire.'
Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of gunfire. Leon darted his head in the direction of the gunfire. 'Claire!'
He quickly ran down the corridor leading to the source of the battle. He quickly pulled out his magnum and checked to make sure it was fully loaded. Once he reached the end of the hall he grimaced in annoyance. There were three separate corridors leading into three separate directions. Leon lay the cold steel of his magnum against his forehead trying to decide the best path to take.
BOOOOM
Leon dropped to the ground in alarm. His eyes darted left and right for any signs of danger. After a moment, he slowly rose back up to his feet.
"Another explosion." He mused silently. He looked to the left where the sound had come from. Sighing heavily, he clenched his teeth and ran down the far right corridor with new determination etched into his face.
****
Chris knew he was heading further into the sleeping quarters yet still he saw no sign of Claire or Leon. With each step closer, new dread washed over him. 'Claire where are you?' he said to himself anxiously. He took a few more steps down the hallway when suddenly he heard footsteps.
Chris quickly darted to the side so that whoever it was could pass. As soon as the shadow loomed into view, Chris darted from cover and aimed dead center at his target.
"Freeze right now! Drop your weapons!" He called out.
The figure paused then raised its arms facing him. "Chris! Don't shoot! It's me, Leon!"
Chris immediately lowered his gun at the voice. "Leon?" He ran up to the man as fast as he could. "Leon are you ok? Where's Claire? Is she injured somewhere?"
"Calm down Chris. Claire's somewhere back that way. We got separated by a burning beam and had to split up to double track. Chris I heard gunfire a few minutes ago. I think Claire may need our help!"
"Ok, we can't go back the way I came because that only loops around towards the hanger bay. And the path further towards that leads to the storage area."
"Claire was around the sleeping quarters on the other side. Does that area also loop around at all?"
"Yeah." Chris cocked his gun then turned towards the far right exit in the corridor they were currently at. "It leads down this way. But we'll have to hurry. If Claire's in danger then we're running on borrowed time."
"Right! Then lets get going!" The two men rushed down the corridor heedless of the immense danger lurking further away in the shadows.
::::::::::To Be Continued::::::::::
Author's note: Thanks for reading and please stay tuned for chapter 9.