September/28/98
Two days had passed, and Gina finally felt that things may be looking up for her and Cynthia…sort of. Just yesterday they'd finally found their way to the R.P.D. and people were still alive inside. She'd met a ma n, called himself Leon, he was handsome, green too in a sense he was still trying to find survivors, and hoping against hope they were still alive. As she continued talking to him, she realized that he was the last officer left in this god-forsaken place. Leon was here on his first day, he was running a little late, and even thought of holding off a day, but the demand for officers had been too much. She felt sympathy for Leon, a lot of it. He had a future, quite possibly a bright one. Leon showed a lot of confidence, although he was a little too quick to submit, epically to women, she had learned that through his conversations with the woman named Claire.
The room in which she and Leon stayed was it was a small little dark room. There was a desk, with a closet in the corner. On the far wall was the room where the pictures were developed. "So, Leon, did you find the note left for you?" Gina asked finally remembering the message addressed to Leon.
Leon finally stirred from his thoughts, his eyes came looking up at her, "Note?" he asked.
"Yeah," Gina then laughed a little, "there was going to be a surprise party for you." Right then, Gina and Leon laughed a little, it wasn't even funny, but they laughed anyway. Both of them didn't want to admit it, but they both had their doubts about making it out alive. Gina then looked over at Cynthia. Cynthia was sleeping peacefully on the desk that they had cleared off. It had probably been the first time she'd slept in a while. Gina wanted to sleep too, she'd been up for nearly four days straight, and fatigue was definitely getting to her.
"So where are you from Leon?" Gina then asked wanting to keep the conversation going.
"I lived here." He then said.
"You lived here?" Gina asked surprised.
"Yeah, in fact, I lived not three blocks from this station." Leon then thought of the memories he'd had in this town, when things were a lot simpler.
At that time another silence fell over the room. Gina then listened out to see what she could hear. There was the light moaning of a zombie, most likely one of the few that had made their way upstairs. After a few moments passed by, the moaning trailed off, and Leon and Cynthia looked at one another, both their faces showed a look of discomfort.
Leon then shook his head in annoyance, "Just why the hell is all this happening?" he then asked and looked at Gina as if she knew the answer.
Gina shook her head, and then whispered, "I don't know, I just don't know." Gina had lied though, she knew. In fact she knew a lot more then she let on.
Hours later Gina and Cynthia would be on the move again, they'd be forced to leave Leon behind, and tread through the city of Raccoon. But in the time they'd spent together, Gina found that she liked Leon, a lot.
Gina had business to take care of, she needed to move, the factory wasn't going anywhere, but Nicholai was on the move, and soon the government might take action, and she didn't want to be around for it. Gina thought about what to do with Cynthia. The next few ours for her would be tough, but it be that way anywhere, she decided she'd have to take her along.
Rolland eyed the Tyrant though its holding facility. The Tyrant featured superhuman strength, its skin was a very light gray, and its head completely bald, it was extremely muscular too. On the Tyrants right side, instead of an arm there was a long claw, and while it didn't look nearly as fierce as the last few models it was probably the strongest Tyrant out there. Rolland smiled at his creation, he had to commend himself, and he'd done an excellent job. Rolland then heard the door to the lab slide open. Rolland turned around to see Nicholai.
"Did you find her?" Rolland asked still preoccupied with monitoring the Tyrant.
"No," Nicholai replied, "She's gone."
Rolland then slammed down his pencil. "Jeez, Nicholai, can't you do anything right?" Rolland's voice began to rise, "every time I give you a simple task you always blunder it up, and I'm sick and tired." Rolland then walked over to a phone.
"What are you going to do?" Nicholai then grinned, and began slowly walking over to him, Rolland stopped and looked at Nicholai as he advanced towards him.
"What are up to? "Rolland asked nervously?
"Nothing," Nicholai then said, drawing his handgun.
Rolland instantly went weak in the knees, and stumbled over a chair, "N-Nicholai," He then said pleadingly, "You can't do this." Rolland continued to back up until he backed into a desk. His face went a very pale white, and he was scared half to death.
"Here." Nicholai then offered extending his hand to give him the gun, "Take it, it may come in handy."
Rolland straightened up and snatched the gun away, examining it closely, "You fucking moron, everything is a game to you isn't it?" Rolland then scolded him and turned around.
"How much more work needs to be done on the Tyrant?" Nicholai then asked unusually calm.
"Well I can tell you that it's not much longer, in fact, my work is basically done."
Nicholai then grinned, and Rolland shook his head in disgust, "Now you've only got to wait until the machines do their work and then went you want to release it, just uh," He then walked over to a control panel and showed him a small blue button, "You need press this button." He then smiled at Nicholai, "Now get the hell out, you're distracting me."
"So all I would need to do is press this button?" Nicholai asked.
Rolland then turned around with a look of impatience in his eyes, "Yes you mor--" Rolland's jaw dropped as he saw Nicholai with a gun directly in his face. Nicholai then grinned, "Thank you Rolland," he then squeezed the trigger before Rolland could bring his gun up. Rolland's body the fell to the ground a dead heap, Nicholai's face wore some of Rolland's blood.
Nicholai then lifted up his radio, immediately!" He then cried into the radio, "It's Rolland he snapped, and came after me, tried to shoot me, I-I had to take him down."
"Yes sir, will get some men down as soon as possible." Nicholai smiled at the corpse, the look of pure terror may have vanished, but he remembered it, savored it. He then turned and exited the room, as guards rushed in to find the dead body of Rolland.
Hawk had head a loud shot, probably on the floor above. Hawk paused for a moment, and listened for anything else to happen, he stayed perfectly still for a while, and the resumed on his quest to find the key card.
Hawk was resting in a small lab. He found it hard to believe but as the shot echoed he found himself thinking of Cynthia. Hawk then tried to contact Cynthia right then. She picked up instantly her voice still low.
"You okay?" Hawk asked.
"I'm fine," She then said laughing a little.
"What's so funny?" Hawk then asked.
"You, every ten minutes you call in wondering if I'm fine, and every time you get the same response."
Hawk could feel his face redden, "Sorry," he then apologized and continued on forward.
Cynthia didn't leave after that, and Hawk didn't either, instead they both stayed on exchanging conversation, giving each other insight, into some of the others life.
"Hawk, can I ask you something?" Cynthia then asked once she felt comfortable with him.
"Go for it." He replied.
"Why did you get into this?" She then asked.
Hawk went silent for a moment, "I had nothing else to do." He replied, and Cynthia could tell by his tone there was more to it.
"What happened she then asked, what was your child hood like?"
Hawk fell silent once more, and then sighed, "It was normal." he then simply said.
"Normal? What were your parents like, did you have any brothers or sisters?"
"You go first." Hawk then replied.
"I asked you."
"So, I'll tell you about family life if you tell me."
Now it was Cynthia's turn to be silent.
"Rachel's my family." She then said.
"What do you mean?" Hawk asked baffled.
"I mean my real family is gone."
"How, what happened to them?"
Cynthia paused, "Raccoon City," she then said, "they all died there, I had two brothers, and a sister, I had a mom, and a dad, and in the span of twenty four hours I lost them all."
"How'd you survive?" Hawk asked.
"Rachel found me."
"Rachel? She was there?"
"Yeah, I was a frightened girl, and I was at the end of my rope, then she came, saved me from the walking dead, risked everything to make sure I lived."
Hawk remained quiet; he noticed that he could hear Cynthia sniffle a little.
"How about you," She then asked solemnly, probably trying to keep from thinking about it.
"I've got a brother" Hawk then said, "His name is Tom, he's a lawyer down in Washington, my mom, never met, her, she died during the Birth of Tom. My father, he was pretty strict. He was a big time athlete in high school and wanted me to do my best at everything, track, basketball, football, you name it and I did it, my brother too, not by choice though."
"Sorry," Cynthia then said apologetically.
"Don't be, in fact, here comes the answer to your first question." Hawk then said, his voice going low. "My father was killed, but not by just anyone, he was killed by my brother." Hawk then said.
"He did that?"
"Yeah,"
"But why he's your--he's your father?"
"My father didn't care for me, he just wanted me to make it big, do what he couldn't do, all he did was try and train me to be some all-star athlete, and then it happened, I lost it. A while back, when I was eight teen, my dad came in, he was drunk, in a rage, my brother had just recently just suffered a serious injury, meant he couldn't play anymore, it didn't go over with my dad too well, he went out had a little too much to drink and he hit me, and did it again. But I fought back; he hadn't expected that. My old man nearly killed me, but then as he was about to bring his fist down on me once again, I remembered hearing a shot fired. Everything paused for a second, I had no idea what had happened, all I know is, that Tom, my brother, had fired off a shot. I remember the blood flowing on to my shirt and then my father collapsing on me. It was over, just like that." Cynthia didn't say a thing instead she kept on listening, "After that, I went on trial. I took the rap for my brother, he tried his best too stop me, even tried to confess, but it was unsuccessful I made sure of that. I was punished to the full extent of the law, rot in jail on a 2nd degree murder charge." Hawk then paused real quickly, and then he smiled a little, "but then he came." Hawk's voice was full of envy and thankfulness.
"Who?" Cynthia asked.
"A man named Fredrick, he offered a solution. He told me that I could either stay in jail serving my thirty-six-year sentence. Or, I become an agent, under the U.S. government. Fred had done research on my past and me. I was the person he was looking for. He decided to use my abilities, I had to take classes on defense, but I caught on quick. Training was hard, but I was thankful each and everyday that I wasn't behind bars. Cynthia the last few years of my life have just been preparing for this sort of thing. To kill."
"So do you…enjoy it?"
"Nope, shooting dummies, and then shooting real live, breathing people are two different things, it's not something I enjoy, but I've had to do it. I've killed five men tonight, and the same thing keeps running through my head over and over."
"What is that?"
"These men may have had families, they may not have been truly bad men, one of them may have even had a kid, or kids."
"Hawk, your on a mission." another voice then said.
"Rachel?" Hawk asked.
"Yeah, Hawk, I've been monitoring the conversation, Hawk, you can't dwell on this, you're on a mission, people are depending on you, you don't have time to sit around and wonder if what you're doing is really worth it, if it's really justified." Rachel then stopped for a moment.
"Then why do it?" Cynthia asked, "Why do you do it?"
"Cynthia, maybe later on I'll tell you, but right now, it's like I said, there is a mission that needs to be completed, and I plan on doing it. Hawk, you've only got three hours, hurry up, and disarm those missiles, as for you Cynthia, tell Chris that Barry's going to have to make his trip over earlier, you understand?"
"In unison both of them said yes."
"Whose Barry?" Hawk then inquired.
"A friend," Rachel replied, and they left it at that.
Hawk then said goodbye to Cynthia and then stepped out of the office, looking to see if anyone was coming by.
He then made his way through the halls, he ducked around the corner as a guard rushed by. Hawk then got a view of him from behind, and could see that he had a blue key card.
"Yes!" Hawk then whispered to himself as he watched the man duck into the bathroom. Hawk then rushed behind him but being careful not to make to much noise. He then took out his gun as he entered the bathroom and held up his gun.
The guard moaned in relief and then began to zip up his pants, at that moment, a gun the pressed against his head. The guard instantly froze with fear.
"Don't move." Hawk then said as he reached out and took the keycard. He smiled as he looked over it real quick, and then he knocked the guard out with the butt of his gun.
Hawk hurried down the halls, only three hours were left, he was in a rush to find that elevator. When Hawk came to it, he slid the blue key card through and then waited for the elevator. Hawk peered around for a moment to see if anyone was coming. The doors then slid open in front of him and Hawk quickly got in, and punched the key that read B1.
After a light shutter the elevator began to move down Hawk's heart was pumping hard against his chest now, as soon as he got this done he'd be another step closer to ending this mission. Hawk felt another shutter and the doors opened.
B1 was well lit, and large too. The floor was just gray, and the walls were also gray, pillars were everywhere, and at the end lay another elevator, Hawk then walked forward. Hawk didn't go far though he stopped dead in his tracks as he realized the elevator was coming up. Hawk then heard the beeping sound and looked on in surprise as the Elevator doors opened and out stepped Hunter.
"Not good." Hawk then said.
Hunter stepped forward and smiled at him, he now had on a white t-shirt and his white army fatigues, and over his shoulder he had his regular assault rifle.
"So, you finally came?" Hunter asked.
"Out of my way, I'm getting to those missiles." Hawk then managed to say.
"Only over my dead body," Hunter then said, and rose up his gun.
Hawk drew his weapon too, "That can be arranged." he then replied.
Hawk then ran behind the nearby pillar to his right as Hunter began to fire. Hawk waited as Hunter's bullets continued to pound on the pillar. As soon as he stopped, Hawk rolled out from behind and fired off three shots, he then instantly moved again as the barrage of shots went off again.
"You can't win!" Hunter then cried out. Hunter then tried to shoot at Hawk but the boy was too quick, he was behind the pillars again, he hated that. Hunter then began to shout once more. "Come on," he then cried, "let us settle this like men" he then said.
Hawk stood behind the pillar wondering what to do, whether or not he should try it. Hawk then heard the sound of a gun hitting the ground, and knew that Hunter had dropped his gun. Hawk then popped out and held onto his gun, but nothing was there. "What the heck just happened?" Hawk then asked and then as if to answer his question, Hunter came down from the ceiling knocking his gun down.
"You've got to be kidding me." Hawk then said.
"I assure you it's no mutation my friend, it's just my raw power."
"Great." Hawk said sarcastically.
Hunter then let out a great primal roar and Hawk braced himself as the monstrosity charged towards him.
Hunter sent Hawk flying back. Hawk struggled to get up for a few seconds; the impact had set his chest on fire, the man hit real hard. Hawk then got into his fighting stance. Hunter came again this time with a barrage of punches that Hawk blocked successfully. Hawk then ducked as Hunter tried to kick him in the upper body, once down low he tried a sweep kick, but Hunter's legs were like steel. Hunter then grabbed Hawk and lifted him up high; he then threw him behind him like a rag doll.
Hawk stood up on one knee, and Hunter came once more. Hawk managed to run back against a wall, he then jumped and pushed off of it, bringing his right leg around, connecting with a blow that knocked Hunter square in his jaw. Hunter stumbled back; the move had caught him off guard. Now it was Hawk on the attack, as Hunter stumbled back Hawk ran in, punching his hardest connecting with blows over and over to the mid-section. Hawk was surprised when they seemed to have no effect. Hunter then raised his right hand and slapped him away.
"You disappoint me little man." Hunter then said arrogantly while slowly walking towards him.
"Well," Hawk said out of breath, pushing up slowly "Maybe you should" He then tried to strike him, "Back off!" He then cried. Hunter easily caught Hawk's fist, and lifted him by it. He then struck him twice in the stomach, causing Hawk to spit up a little blood. Hunter then dropped him and kicked him back.
Hawk didn't move for a moment, instead he lied there, trying to take a breath. After a second he then forced himself up again, a little blood dripping from his mouth.
Hawk could hear Hunter coming and he rolled away, as Hunter leapt in the air, about to bring his knee down on him. Hunter let out a little moan of pain, but quickly tried attacking again. Hawk managed to stand now, and jumped back as Hunter came swinging, he continued to do so until he came to the end of the wall, he then watched Hunter pull his fist back and try to hit him. Hawk ducked and then went with an uppercut, which sent Hunter back. Hawk then ran forward and tried a jump kick. Hunter stumbled back some more, and Hawk kept coming gaining a little momentum with each hit. But as the tides turned, Hawk tried to come with another punch. Hunter caught his fist though, and then pulled Hawk in close, and wrapped his arms around him. Hunter had Hawk in a bear hug now, and he began to squeeze. Hawk screamed in pain as the grip tightened. Hawk couldn't breath, he felt as those his ribs were going to break any second. Hawk then tired to strike him with his head over and over, and all that did to Hunter was make his nose bleed and cause him to squeeze even harder. Hawk could see everything starting to blacken, he struggled to free himself, and then got a solution, Hawk then kicked with his legs, and then Hunter yelled out, in pain, as e was forced to drop Hawk. Hunter stumbled back hunched over.
Hawk gasped for air, and the battle had ceased for a moment. "At least he's not immune to everything." Hawk the grinned a little.
Hawk then looked around and saw what he had wanted, he instantly started to move, scrambling for his gun, He then heard Hunter roar out, and heard his heavy footsteps coming.
Hawk extended his arm and dived out, he then managed to turn over, and let out a shot, that echoed through the floor. Hunter slowed but didn't stop, Hawk fired again. Hunter then fell to one knee but still kept trying to come at him, Hawk then fired two more shots, and Hunter fell over on his back.
Hawk got up slowly clutching his stomach. Hawk kept his gun leveled at Hunter, he was prepared for everything. When he got there, Hunter was short of breath, and his life was quickly slipping away.
"You are a good warrior." he then said, his voice raspy and full of exhaustion.
"Just why the hell were you willing to betray your own country?" Hawk asked as he looked over the warrior.
Hunter paused a moment, "it betrayed me." he then said, "they're using you, they just want that virus, that's all, and they'll stop at nothing to get it," he then paused for a moment. "I'll let you in on a secret." He then said, his voice growing fainter.
Hawk leaned in to hear what he had to say.
"Karl," Hunter then wheezed in a low voice, "Karl is not the real threat."
"What do you mean?" Hawk then asked, his interest peeking.
"The missiles-" Hunter then mumbled and managed to get out something else, but Hawk couldn't understand it, he then looked into Hawk's eyes, "they'll mess with you, try to change you," he then said. "Just remember though, no matter what, always…always, fight for what you believe in."
"Hey, you can't die, not now," Hawk then begged. Hawk couldn't make out all that Hunter had added, all he heard was boss and to fight for what he'd believed in. Hunter had breathed his last breath there was no getting him back.
Hawk then closed Hunter's eyes.
Hawk got up, and slowly walked over to the elevator. Hunter had told him the missiles were no threat. In his last breath, Hawk knew Hunter was being honest, but Hawk was looking at a worse case scenario, and he couldn't possibly risk it. Hawk stepped in the elevator taking one last look over Hunter; he then whispered something, "thanks." Hawk then punched in the B2 button, and descended below.
NOTE: I screwed up, Cynthia was supposed to be thirteen in the flash backs
Next: Hawk finds the missiles, and is captured, and finally meets Karl who explains his motives. Also in the flashbacks Gina and Cynthia find themselves in a race against time to get out of the dead city as they learn of the bombing.