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 myself and others. I make no money from it.
RESIDENT EVIL: ROAD TO DESTINY
CHAPTER 10
"Get away from me you damned beast!" Claire screamed in a mixture of panic and anger as she relentlessly fired bullets into the acrid, dead flesh of the huge monster known as Tyrant.
Claire had just finished running through countless corridors and hallways, completely aimless as to where each path would take her only to end up opening a door directly in front of her pursuer. She reacted immediately, running as fast as she could away from the oncoming monster until she found her escape path had cut off from the ensuing fire. There was truly no other choice to make and now Claire found herself facing off with the horrid monster, firing as many times as she could, hoping with each shot, one would knock it down, at least temporarily.
However, tyrant would not be so merciful. He continued to march forward, heedless of her bullets.
Claire could hear the beast's approach with every footstep. Her heart beat in rhythmic sync with each thump the creatures foot made. For Claire knew, each step lead closer and closer to her death.
Claire swerved her handgun in line with the creature's face then fired again. It continued to walk, unfazed by the bullet. Claire's face beaded with sweat, and she could feel her heart pumping even faster. She fastened her sweaty fingers tightly on the trigger and fired again. Still nothing. She fired three more times in succession, all in the same area yet still the beast would not give. Claire's hands shook violently. She only had on bullet left. Her senses were now heightened by her fear. She could clearly smelled the defined stench of tyrant's, bloody, virus filled, body. She could see every defined muscle as they all spasmed methodically with each step. She could heart the disgusting beat of its blood read heart as it pumped more and more fluid through its distorted veins and arteries.
Claire shook violently now. She knew one shot would not be enough. As the beast came closer, she knew she was going to die. She could almost feel the sting of its sharp claws as the glistened in the dim light, hungry for her blood.
Claire shook her head violently. 'NO!' Her mind screamed. 'I will not die this day! I will not die like this! I will SURVIVE!'
Suddenly Claire snapped her eyes open, temporarily possessed of a force far beyond logical thinking. Instead of her previous movements of retreat, she now rushed swiftly towards the walking menace.
It was almost as if the horribly distorted monster knew of her plan. A slight trace, almost a grin, tugged at the creature's lips. Tyrant leaned low, angling to its side in an almost lunging position, outstretching its right claw, preparing for the attack.
Claire was unheeded and ran swiftly onward, totally bent on her attack. Then, after a moment, Tyrant too, rushed in, charging at full speed towards her. Claire gripped her fingers even tighter around her handgun. Tyrant ran up close then lunged his claws forward in an attacking strike. At the very last second, Claire dropped low and slid right under the attack. Without stopping, she then quickly sprinted back up to her feet, took aim and fired her berretta dead center into the base of Tyrant's skull. The creature roared in pain after being hit, obviously in it's weak spot. Claire never waited to find out. She continued sprinting down the hall the other way, then rammed into the door breaking it down on impact. She fell to the ground then looked around at her surroundings. She noticed by the loud humming noise and the distinct smell that she was now in the furnace room.
However, the loud scream emanating from the other room broke her from her thoughts immediately. In no time at all she was back up on her feet and running again. She scaled the outer interior of the reactor room trying to find any way out of this new area. She heard the soft thump of bare feet as the tyrant once again resumed his search. A billion thoughts ran through Claire's mind at once. The furnace room broke off into roughly two columns. Each sector covered a different heating source for the safehouse above. Claire ran along the sides of the second column as the Tyrant neared further. She continued to look frantically for an exit. All the while, the soft footsteps became more and more oppressive to her senses.
The heat emanating from the room was making the softly glistened sweat stick to her body like hot wax. She anxiously tugged at her shirt to fan herself off from the relentless heat while still trying to keep the heavy scent of burning oil out of her mind. Suddenly the huge beast let out yet another lour roar. Claire immediately flinched at the horrible sound.
She cautiously peered from cover in time to yank her head back and run the other way. The Tyrant was once again after her. Claire ran as fast as her legs would carry her as she heard his relentless approach from behind. Fear gripped her heart, willing her on, past endurance. Claire quickly ran up along side the center walls of the left furnace engine, cautiously peering over the edge to gauge his position. However, to her horror, the monster was still at full tilt, running ruthlessly towards her.
Claire zipped her head from left to right, desperately trying to think of a way to outsmart the enormous beast. Her eyes suddenly landed on the fourth tank in the far back of the center row. It would be a close call but desperation and anxiety overruled all logical thought.
Claire quickly dashed away from the side of the furnace running towards the last tank. The closer she got, the scent of oil and gas emanating from the distance became more and more apparent. She knew this was the worst thing she could ever do. A thousand visions of painful deaths floated into her senses all at once. She pushed all of this to the back of her head angrily then sped up even more. She could feel the ache in her legs and shoulders as fatigue continued to gnaw at her body. She wanted to give up now yet the will to live overpowered anything else that possibly had a chance of entering her mind.
The sounds of feet slamming against concrete signaled her to the Tyrant's proximity to her now. Claire risked a glance to the rear noticing that the monsters was now only a few feet away from her. She shut her sweaty eyes tightly against the fear of what lay behind if she missed even one foot.
Finally, Claire came to a complete stop, spinning swiftly around to look dead center into the face of the enormous beast which constantly pursued her. The Tyrant continued its attack, heedless of her sudden action. It stretched out its massive claws, arching them for the strike. Claire flinched slightly at the sight of the bloodied razors tearing apart from each other as the hand opened wide. She nervously gripped her fingers waiting for the right moment.
Tyrant lunged in at full force, flashing the claws swiftly towards its target. Claire quickly dodged to the side just in time to see the Tyrant strike down on the tank which was leaking gas fumes from that very spot. Claire didn't waste a second. She sprang to her feet as fast as she could.
BOOOOOOM
Suddenly she was flying through the air, from the sheer momentum of the blast. She groaned in pain as she crashed painfully into the ground then tumbling around a few times, all the while, holding her head for protection. Claire could barely see anything as bright lights flashed all around her. Pain racked her body all over yet she still yanked herself into a standing position. 'I've gotta get out of here!' She thought desperately, speeding further and further away from the rear tank. She felt as if her ears would pop at any second. Each explosion reverberated off the walls creating an almost super sonic noise level driving havoc throughout her senses. Claire dug the palms of her hands over her ears but to no avail. The noise would heed to nothing. Dragging her racked body even further away from the source of the disaster she looked on with relief. The exit was right ahead. With the last of her strength, Claire dove through the exit, falling hard onto the floor coughing vigorously from all the dust and debris.
CLICK
Claire drew her head up at the all too familiar sound, a new level a dread washing over her senses all at once. She narrowed her eyes as the barrel of a gun was drawn further towards her dirty, fatigued face.
"That's far enough." Came the voice of the Umbrella S.W.A.T. trooper standing over her aiming his M16 directly in front of her skull.
****
Belivan drew back as heavy bullet fire zipped past his face. He exhaled a shaky sigh of relief, taking small glances back at his opponent. He then trained his head to the side towards Rebecca Chambers, the medical specialist of S.T.A.R.S. Belivan felt sympathy for the frightened girl who refused to open her eyes the whole time since the attack began. This wasn't her environment, he realized. She wasn't used to this kind of fighting. He knew the whole situation must be terrifying to her.
Belivan reached out a hand and gripped her shoulder firmly, startling her enough so that she opened her eyes slightly, now looking up at him. He slightly marveled at how pretty her eyes were but quickly erased those thoughts, remembering where he was.
"Hey, it's gonna be ok! I'm gonna get you out of here. Understand?"
Rebecca slowly nodded her head in understanding but was still too frightened to say anything for fear that the slightest utterance might destroy what little remained of her shallow protection at the back side of the helicopter. Belivan quickly ejected all of his wasted ammunition, then smacked a new magazine into his AK47 machine gun. He expunged a final breath of air then once again, zipped from cover, spraying a few rounds of gunfire and then dropped back down again. His forehead beaded with sweat as he drew his shaking face towards the edge of cover, surveying his work.
"Two down…" He whispered.
Suddenly the bullet fire intensified and he found himself ducking further into cover. Not moving his head away from the protection of the facing helicopter, he angled his arm out, firing random bursts out at his enemies.
Rebecca slowly raised her eyes to regard him once more. 'Why are we fighting?' She thought to herself in mild shock. She still couldn't fully deal with the whole issue of fighting. Rebecca had never liked war nor fighting of any kind for that matter. She had lost her father to the demons of war at a young age. As she grew up, she wanted to dedicate her life to the preservation of others. She wanted to save as many people from the tragedy of war as she could. Yet now she could not comprehend what was going on at all. Why did people constantly want to kill each other? Why did people want to purposely destroy other people? Especially when all they wanted to do was save humanity from a far more dangerous threat. Why did they want to stop them? It was madness. That was the only logical explanation Rebecca could find to justify the situation. It was all pure and utter madness.
Rebecca was roughly jerked out of her deep contemplation as a rough hand suddenly gripped her shoulder with painful intensity.
"Hey!" Belivan said to her in an anxious tone of voice. "Snap out of it. I need you to listen to me for a minute. Can you do that?" His voice was raspy from exertion and anxiety. And Rebecca was almost positive she detected a fair amount of fear in him as well. He was currently sitting with his back against the helicopter. His nervous hands were swiftly going through the movements of loading his ammunition once again.
"I… I can understand. What do you need me to do?" She asked shakily.
Belivan sighed slightly in relief. "Ok… I need you to make a break for it. Look they're gonna continue to attack our position until they take this thing out. It's too dangerous for us to stay here and besides… we've gotta draw there attention away from the helicopter or we won't have any way to escape from here!"
Rebecca nodded quickly, swallowing her fear. "Ok I understand. What do you need me to do."
"When I give you the signal I want you to run over there as fast as you can." He said, pointing to the cover where Jill was crouching low, giving them the signal that she understood and would also provide cover fire.
Rebecca nodded and glanced towards Jill. "Ok I can do that."
"Excellent. You will go first. While you're running, I'll provide as much cover fire as I can. Then once you're safely across, I'll follow you."
"Ok. Then lets do it!"
****
Only a few feet away from their position, James and Risakes also figured out the plan Belivan and Rebecca were concocting. "They're planning on making a run for it." James said, loading his shotgun with more shells.
"Yeah." Risakes replied, inserting a few new shells into his M178 grenade launcher. "You want to cover their tracks while they make a break for it right?"
James nodded his head, a knowing smile on his face. Risakes smiled back with a devilish glint in his eyes. "Thought so. Let's get to it then."
"On three… two…one! GO!" Suddenly in a flurry of movements, James and Risakes shot from cover firing a huge barrage of fire power at their adversaries. James jerked back with every shot he fired but he was not deterred as every shot tore through quite a few of the oncoming zombies. Risakes was faring even better. He fired two controlled bursts, effectively wiping out a dozen Zombies with every shot.
Belivan saw what was happening and reacted right on cue. "Ok, GO NOW REBECCA!" He too jumped from cover then fired his AK47 taking out a huge row of oncoming zombies. "RUN RUN RUN!" He yelled frantically.
Rebecca shot from cover at full speed, not taking a single chance to look back. A stray bullet zipped right by her face, causing her to clutch her hands to her ears in fear. She ran even faster until finally she dove behind the huge chunks of rock shielding Jill and Carlos.
Jill quickly wrapped her arms around the poor girl, pulling her closer behind cover. "It's gonna be ok now Rebecca." Jill whispered silently into the woman's ear. Carlos back was to her as he too made leaps from cover to fire at their adversaries.
Belivan continued to fire until he saw that Rebecca was safely secured. He then made a break from cover, running as fast as he could while firing at the same time.
James saw a single Umbrella agent preparing to fire at the running S.T.A.R.S member. "Oh no you don't!" He said as he reacted with lighting speed. Training his crosshairs towards the Umbrella agent, he opened fire several times, his shotgun kicking him back roughly with ever round. The Umbrella agent exploded in a shower of blood and body parts along with everyone else around him. Another agent swiftly turned then fired back.
James cried out in sudden shock and anger as he felt a searing pain tear through him then suddenly he was engulfed in a pool of darkness.
"$hit!" Risakes cried as he saw his best friend fall limply to the ground. He ran over to the dark skinned man and saw the blood coming from his head. "Damnit! Hang on buddy hang on!" He said in panic, trying to stanch the blood flow.
A few yards away Derrick Mathy saw the whole thing. His world stopped when he saw the bullet hit his brother's head. He could barely breath when he then saw him fall limply to the ground. Derrick had entered a complete state of shock while the other man uselessly tried to save his brother's life.
Barry saw the man's shocked expression but didn't register why he suddenly became that way until he saw the tragedy up ahead. "My god… James…"
Without warning, Derrick Mathy grabbed the second machine gun lying by his feet then burst from cover with incredible speed and opened fire relentlessly on his opponents. Only one sentence was uttered from the man's pain stricken voice. "YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!!!!!"
::::::::::To Be Continued::::::::::
Author's note: Thanks for reading and please stay tuned for chapter 11.