Chapter 28: Entering the Vale

I don't own anything. Resident Evil belongs to Capcom and Tomb Raider belongs to Core Design, Crystal Dynamics, and I think Square Enix. The only thing I own is the changes made to the stories of the Tomb Raider games/comics and Resident Evil games/comics/CG movies, the Government branch S.P.E.L.L., the person that has taken over Kathrine Warren's life, and Rose Warren. This story also will be bloody, violent, and have cursing. It's rated T for Teen.

Country: Russia, State: Siberia, City: Siberian Wilderness, Place: Near Kitezh, Area: Near Soviet Installation/Old Way, Month: November, Day: Tuesday 28th, Year: 2000, Time: 14:07 KRAT…

They stayed crouched by an out cropping of trees when they heard their radios go off again.

"Overwatch, we have contact with the native girl in the old Sawmill!" The guy said and gunfire sounded both garbled from the radio and cracking from the distance. "We've wounded her, but it looks like they set traps around the perimeter. I've got one casualty so far. Doing a sweep."

By then the three were heading for the sawmill, the same place Leon had been at before. He led the way to the edge of the path into the mill. They didn't enter yet.

"Do not let the target slip away. We need to know why they were following Bravo team." A woman said over the radio.

"I'll bet she wasn't following them." Kat muttered.

"Or she was because they were close to the vale." Lara added.

One by one, they climbed up a ladder where they stayed crouched on the wooden floor. They could see a few Trinity members patrolling the mill. Just before they ducked behind cover, they counted three men and one woman.

"Bravo hasn't run into any more resistance along the way." A male voice over the radio said. "But if they find the Native, we need to get some answers."

"HEY!"

Kat spun and threw her spear instinctually at the target. It sank into the man's chest he dropped his gun in shock before falling back.

"God damnit!" Leon hissed as the other Trinity people spun and started shooting.

"Sorry. Instinct." Kat sighed as she pulled her bow.

"Let's just take them down and find Nadia. We don't know how injured she is." Lara said as she loosed an arrow at a woman.

"That's true." Leon nodded and pulled his bow.

Lara's arrow sank into the woman's neck causing her to cough up the blood and fall to the floor holding her bleeding throat. Kat aimed down her arrow as one of the last two men stopped firing to reload. She loosed her arrow and it cut across the two support pillars and into the head she could see peeking between them. The arrow sank in and killed the man instantly. Leon drew back on his new bow and hissed. The pound pull was a little tougher than the makeshift he had been using. He aimed down the arrow and then loosed when he hoped he was aligned with the last guy's head.

The arrow traveled and cut the guy's ear off making him scream. Leon growled and tried again but by then the guy was on the floor holding his missing ear. With all down and one injured the three went around to get usable arrows back and Kat grabbed her spear. Leon walked to the screaming guy and felt himself debate for a moment.

He could let this guy live? It would be risky though. He could be like the guy they'd heard the recording of, the one that was trying to leave Trinity. But this guy could just as easily be like the other guy they'd heard, the one that was clearly some form of psychotic. Swallowing, Leon pulled his knife and stabbed the man in the temple. It was difficult. Different than stabbing a zombie skull. Depending on how long a person had been a zombie, the bone of their skull could be very hard or very soft. A normal human skull of a living person was the middle of that road. Hard and caused a little of his hand to slip. But soft once it poked into the brain.

The man died as the finger guard of Leon's knife hit the skull. He pulled his knife back and wiped it clean on the man's coat. He closed his eyes for a moment though. He didn't like this. Killing undead or living people. Neither one was nice nor fun. But just like back in Raccoon, he knew it was needed. It wasn't for pleasure or want. This was survival. Kill or be killed. Help if you can, but be ready for the knife in the back should it be there. He hated it, but knew it was needed.

He looked over at Lara and Kat. He was back to wondering again how the two had survived Yamatai when they hadn't had that much experience. Leon knew that just because Kat had foreknowledge, didn't mean it was flawless. He knew her knowledge of Lara's timeline was limited as she hadn't paid attention to it until she was in her teens, by then her memories were starting to fade on the smaller details. And by now, she needed to look to her journals as her memories of the game's stories were faded. So, he could only imagine her panic on Yamatai and that made his heart hurt. He didn't like Kat suffering. He wanted to see her happy, see her with her girls doing something they enjoyed. He was also a little afraid of the Valkyrie. When she joined back up with them she was covered in blood, but she didn't seem to care and the Valkyrie spoke to him like she was a split personality of Kat. How long would it be before there was no Kat, just Valkyrie.

"…Maybe there's a trail somewhere." Lara voiced getting Leon to shake his head and stand fully.

"Yeah. If she's hurt and these guys were around, I'd hide too and hope to come up with an ambush plan." Leon voiced, guessing correctly that's what Lara was talking about.

"Didn't you say it was her father she was looking for?" Lara asked looking to Kat as Kat hooked her spear to her back.

"Yeah, 17-year-old me mixed up who it was she was looking for clearly. My brain must've forgot the "Grand" in front of "Father"." Kat grimaced. "I'm really hoping that I don't have any worse mix ups."

"Like what?" Lara asked.

"Like…maybe the virus in the bunker effects both men and women. Maybe it was an assumption that it didn't affect woman because the player, Lara, is a woman." Kat said showing them her fear as she trembled a bit and getting Leon to walk over to her. "If I'm wrong…" She shook her head. "Then I don't know, what to do."

"You're not alone in this." Leon reminded her, resting his hand on her shoulder. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now, we've got to focus on Nadia."

Kat nodded took a breath. "Yeah." She looked around as Lara did. "She's a young woman. Small…"

"Think she'll be in one of the lockers?" Lara asked.

"If I was a small woman, yeah." Leon agreed then cringed. "Not…"

Kat and Lara laughed a bit as they all started moving around the mill. They checked a locker on the bottom floor and found that it was full of old mining supplies. But it was when they saw a small blood trail that led right up to the second locker on the first floor that got their attention. Nadia had to be in that one. Unless it was shity jump scare with a dead body inside.

Leon pulled his handgun as Kat used her trusted axe to pry this one open. Lara did the same. Nadia was going to be an animal backed into a corner. She was injured and as far as she heard just now, was people talking casually or just heard the gun fight. She wouldn't know they meant her no harm. A short amount of intimidation was the best route.

The moment the locker doors whined open and broke off hinges Nadia, braced up on the back of the locker and pointed her handgun at Kat with a shaky hand. "Stop! No…" She then saw that she had two guns pointed at her. "…closer…" She closed her eyes and tipped her head back. Then narrowed her eyes at them. "If you think I'm gonna go down without a fight…you got another thing coming!"

"We're not with Trinity." Kat voiced.

"Yeah right, pointing your guns at me." Nadia muttered under her breath as Lara continued.

"My name is Lara, this is Kat, and Leon…" Lara said as she lowered her gun, seeing Kat wasn't worried.

Leon did too as he lowered his gun. "That cylinder's empty. You haven't loaded that gun."

Nadia looked from Kat, to Leon, then lastly at Lara. She growled and lowered the revolver in exasperation. "The firing pin never worked anyway." She leaned out with a sharp wince, looking around to see if the three were lying to her.

"You're hurt. You need medical attention. This is a lot of blood." Kat voiced as she helped Nadia sit down.

"I just need…" Nadia hissed as Leon and Lara holstered their guns. "sit down for a moment. Lara, Kat, Leon?" She asked looking at each of them as if making sure she'd heard the names right. "I'm Nadia. I…could use your help." She said as Kat pulled her pack off to get out some of their medical herbs harvested from the plants around the area earlier.

"What can we do?" Leon asked as Naida tried pushing Kat's effort to tend to her side away.

"My grandfather snuck out of the village in the night." Nadia explained. "I think he'd head up to the Wicked Vale where the witch, Baba Yaga, lives." She hissed as Kat pressed the herbs to the wound and began to bandage her. "I was trying to catch up with him, when the invaders caught me. You see, before I was born, the witch killed my grandmother." She nodded in appreciation to Kat as Kat packed away the unused stuff. "Grandpa always talked about revenge, but I never thought he'd actually go through with it…" She looked to her newly bandaged wound and shook her head. "There isn't much time, and I'm in no condition to go myself. We have to find him." She looked up at the three with a pained but hopeful expression. "Please."

"We'll head out that way." Lara assured.

"We'll see if we can find his trail." Kat nodded as she stood with her bag on her shoulders.

"You need to get back to the village, if we find him, we will bring him back to you there." Leon informed her.

"Oh, thank you!" Nadia breathed in relief. "The path to the Vale is through the cave to the east of here."

"Rest, then head back to the village. Take it slow, keep hidden, and wash the blood from your clothes with some melted snow, you don't want to attract wolves or a mountain cat." Kat told her, not wanting the poor girl to suffer the possible hallucinations or get attacked by someone or something.

Nadia looked around and saw a radio on the belt of one of the fallen men, she pointed to it and said. "I'll radio you, if I remember anything, but yes, I will head back."

Leon nodded and got the radio and turned it to the channel they were all using. "We are positive that Trinity is monitoring all of the channels. So don't give your location out on it."

With that the three left the mill and headed toward a cave that Leon remembered seeing that happened to be east of the mill. At the mouth of the cave was a fresh carcass of a deer. Lara sighed.

"Wolves." She said, and as if to punctuate her point they heard some howls eco from the cave.

"I get the feeling dogs and wolves are gonna be a normal thing for us." Leon commented as he pulled his handgun.

"They will be. Infected, trained, or normal, they'll be popping up a lot." Kat voiced her hand moving for her bow or her melee weapons.

"Let's be careful." Lara advised as they entered the cave.

Inside the cave, they cracked new glowsticks and hooked them to their belts. They each had handguns out as it would be quicker to take the wolves down with a bullet rather than arrows. A few moments later, after killing three wolves, they came to a gate. It was open and appeared to be old and made of Iron. Kat frowned as she looked at the old white paint on the brick work.

"I know these." She spoke. "They're Old Slavic protection and warding runes."

"Really?" Leon asked looking at them. "Wait…For the witch, right?"

"More than likely…" Lara said slowly. "If she's real…would these work?" Lara asked looking to Kat. "You have a Rune witch co-worker, right?"

"They might work to keep her confined to the area beyond this point. But once we're in there…we've got nothing protecting us if she's a real witch. Even my tattoo of a Nordic protection rune wouldn't keep you guys safe, and it might fail for me if she found it and cut a line through it. Runes only work so long as there are three factors, belief, unbroken, and has power in it." Kat took a breath. "If it's really Nadia's grandmother, then these won't do shit. And we'll be hallucinating soon…" She swallowed. "Let's just try to remind ourselves that anything we see could be fake."

"Right…" Leon took a breath. "Okay. How do we kill a witch?"

"Chop off their head is the quickest way. Or find their grimoire and burn it." Kat said. "I haven't had to kill one yet in S.P.E.L.L. but we're all training and learning to take down most mystical, demonic, undead, cursed, or mutated threats."

Lara slowly looked at Kat. "Cursed?"

Kat nodded. "Yeah, were's fall into that category."

"Were's? Plural? Like multiple werewolves?" Leon asked.

"Werewolves, wererats, werecats, werebears. Juzo said he and one of his teams ran into weresheep and there's a rumor going around that a bunch of collage kids ran into Werebeavers." Kat shrugged.

Leon shuddered. "Okay…that's weird."

"Yeah, but I think someone got mixed up with a B-movie that came out a year ago." Kat shrugged.

They walked through the open gate and followed the tunnel. After climbing up some rocks their radios beeped.

"Lara." Nadia's voice came through them. "Can you hear me?" She asked.

Lara pulled her radio. "Load and clear. Kat and Leon can hear you too."

"I can monitor the invader's frequencies from here while I rest up. I'll let you all know if I hear something useful." Nadia said.

They all stopped a moment as they came to a wall with crumbling chunks and hand holds. Taking out their axes, they climbed it up toward the light above and came out of the tunnel to a gorge.

Kat pulled her radio. "Nadia, what can you tell us of the Wicked Vale?"

"My people stay far away from that place." Nadia explained as the group started to find hand holds to climb and get to the cave that was on their map. "They have for centuries. When the Soviets were here, they tried to build an outpost in the Vale." She paused. "But they angered Baba Yaga…and she drove them all mad." She voiced making Leon and Lara look to Kat in concern as they came to a ledge. "Grandpa told me all about her…she lives in a magic house that can walk around on the legs of a bird…"

"And do you believe that? Any of it?" Leon asked into his radio, sounding only a touch skeptical.

"The house on bird legs?" Lara asked also feeling skeptical, but both she and Leon knew of what was in the world and anything was possible.

"I trust grandpa." Naida continued. "He was in the gulag when the Soviets took my grandmother into the Vale, to help them study the ruins." She said as they got to climbing again, using their axes. "The Witch killed her, and he's never forgotten that."

"But, a witch, straight out of a Russian folktale?" Lara asked as she paused on the rock wall. "It sounds…unlikely." She said and finished climbing up to Leon and Kat as they came to a thin stone bridge that looked like it had been a path at one point but has since been eroded by a waterfall.

"Just…be careful." Nadia said. "Something is in the Vale. Nothing good happens in that place."

With that they were greeted with silence from their radios.

"I'll go first. This looks like it can only hold one person at a time." Lara said.

Kat shook her head. "You're heavier than me now. You've got more weapons on you."

Leon looked at the stone that looked about as wide as his head at the widest and Lara's boots at the thinnest. "I don't like this."

"Nor me. But it's our only path forward." Kat said as she put her arms to her sides.

She then walked onto the stone and put one foot in front of the other. Kat got to the middle, sending snow falling from it and hissed as she nearly lost her balance. She blew a breath she was holding, then continued. Once on the other side, she braced on her knees for a moment with a small smile then turned around to look at a relived Lara and Leon.

"I'm good! Be careful. It's slippery and thin." She warned.

Lara nodded and put her arms out. She walked slowly along the stone. The sound of a crack got everyone to freeze. Lara swallowed and kept walking. Once on solid ground she and Kat turned to Look at Leon.

Leon swallowed and bounced on his feet before he put out his arms for balance and stepped onto the path. He moved slowly with a clenched jaw. He could feel his teeth protesting from the pressure, but he was focused on getting across. Halfway another louder crack sounded and he speed up as bits of rock fell from under his feet. He risked a look down and looked back up quickly. The fall below was high enough up that they'd have to hope they landed on their heads, or they'd be broken and die slowly and painfully.

Once he was on the other side of the stone path, he opened his mouth and let out the breath that was trapped by his clenched jaw. "Okay…we need to find another way back. I don't trust that on the way back." He wheezed before standing up right.

"I have no arguments." Kat said.

They pulled their axes and began climbing another rock wall. They slowly rounded a bend on the wall looking behind them to see the path they needed to go down. They heard the beeping from their radios and listened.

"You three, hang on, I'm picking up a transmission." Nadia told them. "You all need to hear this."

"Overwatch, come in. Cough We need Cough immediate extraction-Cough" They heard as they climbed onto a platform, hearing screaming and shooting in the background.

The first guy on the radio screamed before being cut off. Then someone else took over. "Shit! Cough What the hell was that! It's…walking…how could-how-couldCough" They stopped speaking as they coughed more and it sounded like deep coughs, but watery.

They climbed some handholds as a new voice spoke.

"CRO THAR AH NAK RA!" It sounded aged, like an angry old woman.

"Did you hear that?" Nadia asked, sounding very spooked. "That was the witch!"

"Something's definitely happening out there…" Lara breathed as they shimmied close to the entrance of the Vale, and by a small camp. "Whatever it is we'll get to the bottom of it."

"If it's a hallucinogen, we should cover our noses and mouths, right?" Leon asked looking at Kat and Lara.

"We don't have anything that would block it." Kat said as she shuddered. "We can't keep our shirts up on our faces very well or very long. I should have thought to rip up one of the Trinity guards' shirts"

Lara nodded in understanding. "The fabric is too thin on our shirts. Small particles would go right through it. Same with our long underclothes. The only thing that would help is a surgical mask, maybe, or gas mask.

They pulled each other up onto the path and looked at the camp.

"Maybe we can use something here…" Leon said as he started searching it for some cloth to make lower face masks, he was thinking if they doubled it up, it would block the gas.

"We've found some sort of camp." Lara reported to Nadia as Kat looked over the fire pit and Leon held some of the cloth he found over the rising smoke.

"The fire went out recently." Kat reported as Leon shook his head at not finding any cloth suitable for making protective face coverings, the smoke flowed easily through the lose weave of the fabric.

"I found a blanket, but it is too thin to keep any cold out." Leon voiced into his and looked at Lara and Kat as he lifted his thumb away. "And too thin to keep smoke out."

"Sounds like Grandpa made it that far at least…" Nadia said as if thinking hard. "The three of you are almost into the Vale."

They put their radios away and looked to the crack in the wall behind the camp.

"We're gonna see bad stuff, aren't we?" Leon asked looking at Kat worriedly. He took out his knife and started to rip up the blanket anyway. It won't block all the gas, but maybe some of it, he hoped.

Kat nodded stiffly. "Yeah. I um…I don't know what we'll all be seeing. Other than Baba Yaga and her house. Individually, I don't know." She took a breath. "But it'll likely be the things we're scared of or maybe repressed stuff." She took the length of fabric Leon handed her and she folded it over a few times then tied it over her mouth and nose.

"This is gonna be a willpower test." Leon sighed as he walked forward. "Let's stay as close together as we can, okay?"

Lara and Kat nodded. One at a time, they slipped through the crack. They jumped down some small terraced rock slope and stopped before a cave entrance. Lit torches were on the edges of it. The orange light made shadows dance in the dark canyon they looked in at the darkness of the tunnel before them. It looked ominous and evil. They walked through the torch lit tunnel and came to a small room with a ritualistic symbol, animal bones, and a small campfire.

Lara pulled her radio. "Nadia …I think we found your Wicked Vale." She voiced. "I don't know if it's Baba Yaga, but…there's something out here."

"Be careful…that is her land…" Nadia warned.

Lara put her radio away as Leon picked up a letter. "Can't read this…"

Kat walked over and read it around his arm.

Nadia, my Granddaughter. By now you already know: I am going into the Vale to kill the Witch, Baba Yaga. I have gone to seek revenge for your Grandmother. There are newcomers in our valley, armed men arriving in helicopters. I do not know what they want, but I know if I am to go, this is my last chance.

You deserve to know the truth, to know why. Your Grandpa is not a wise man. I have become, with hard work, a good man, for your Grandmother's sake. But it was not always so.

I came from the West, where even a small village has thousands of inhabitants. I was a lazy young man, and I dreamed of an easy life when I joined the Party, a comfortable desk in the big city. But they sent me here, to the ends of the earth. To watch men and women work and starve and die. To participate in their punishment.

I knew it was evil. But I did not know how to fight. Until I met her.

"Is there more?" Leon asked.

"No. Must be scattered around." Lara sighed.

"Found this." Kat said waving a tape and popped it into her player.

"Initial contact was made with the elderly native male at 0700. At first, we believed he was participating in an assault on the facility, but he proceeded away, and through an unmapped canyon.

We received authorization to pursue at a distance, and already we've encountered ruins and other promising signs. We're trying to keep calm out here, but this looks like a big find. That discovery bonus is as good as ours."

"Oh shit." Kat hissed shaking her head as she popped the tape back out. "Idiots."

Leon nodded as they put the found items away. "I get it, that discovery bonus must be money. But going somewhere you don't know, and you see this crap?" He gestured around them. "I'd back out and call for back up or forget I ever saw it. I mean, are you two feeling that "Get-the-Fuck-Out" vibe?"

Lara sighed but nodded. "But we still have to keep going. Stick as close together as we can."

Kat nodded. "Let's go. The quicker we get in there…well…let's just not stall the real or fake shit we're gonna be seeing or feeling."

Lara sighed as they walked up a ramp and to a gap in the upper wall. Lara moved in first, a strange cream-colored dust was drifting around and falling in the air. There was an earthy sweet scent on the air that she picked up even through the thin fabric. After Lara breathed she coughed sharply as a tingly taste hit her tongue and her throat was suddenly dry.

"Lara?" Leon and Kat asked as Kat moved in next.

Kat's eyes widened as she realized what the dry feeling in her throat was. She coughed too as she stepped out and leaned on the wall, looking around the tunnel's vine and flower covered walls. The world was warping a bit.

"Kat!?" Leon asked as he slipped into the room next.

Leon shook his head and rubbed at his nose, he felt like he was gonna sneeze. But then he felt the sudden dryness too. He coughed sharply and gasped instinctively, feeling the powder enter his lungs. It was similar in feeling to when he was poisoned back in Raccoon. But less like it was trying to kill him.

"Le-Leon?" Kat asked looking to him as her world tipped and swayed, going double.

Lara pulled her radio as she saw that the stuff, they were breathing in was pollen from the flowers on the walls and ceiling. "Sh-shit…" She coughed. "There's…some sort of pollen drifting in here…flowers…" She coughed as the edges of her vison turned purplish.

Leon held his head as it started to pound, and he tried to keep both Kat and Lara in his sights. Kat looked up and saw with her purple dancing vison that there was some sort of branches above them. Sunlight filtered through and at them as if peeking through a canopy in a psychedelic jungle.

"What did you say?" Nadia's voice echoed in a confused yet distorted kind of way. "I can't understand you…" She said as her voice deepened and got more distorted for the three as Lara stumbled away from the others.

Leon pulled his radio. "Head's swimming…" He hissed and coughed as he tried to get over to Kat. "spinning…throat burns…" He stumbled and hit one of the walls as he felt his equilibrium get thrown off.

"Something's wrong…" Lara breathed out as she walked toward a tunnel.

"Colors…wrong…world's tipping and…" Kat coughed into her radio, as she felt her body start shaking. "Hallucinations…gonna start…soon…"

"Oh no…it's…" Nadia's voice gasped before her voice fully distorted as Leon looked to see Lara had vanished and Kat was stumbling away from the wall and toward the tunnel. "It's too late for you." Nadia's voice said in a dark and cold tone. "This is where you die."

"-where you die!" A different voice called and started laughing like a classic witch as the three descended into their hallucinations.