To continue the fight
By: Bloodlover
Disclaimer: All the characters, except for the ones I made up, and other things related to Resident Evil belong to Capcom.
A/N: Sorry for taking so much time. This is the last chapter then I´ll do an epilogue that´ll deal with the aftermath of the battle. Whatever what may happen in this… This chapter will also be longer than the previous ones. Hope you don´t think it became TOO long but I wanted to wrap it up in one chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter 10- Umbrella is going down
Secret goverment base, somewhere in the U.S.A
Sherry was crawling through the ventilation shaft, very aware that she didn´t had so much time left now. She better find the room Thompson was in or he would die. She glanced up to the sign above the next shutter.
Block:A:7
It was here! Sherry smiled as she carefully began to open the shutter. It fell down and she began to crawl out as fast as she could. The closet where Thompson was supposed to be locked up in stood in the upper right corner. Sherry went over and tried to open it, but the door wouldn´t open. Not that it was a big surprise she had heard the soldiers saying that it was locked after all… But there had to be way to open it.
Wait a minute was that footsteps coming this way?! In that case she was out of time she had to find the key fast! She noticed that a small picture of a flower was carved in the wood. It reminded her of the doors she had seen in Raccoon City. But what did that mean? Maybe the key was hidden in a flower pot? She looked up and saw a strange flower pot in the window. She ran over and began to search it. Please, please be here key… One thing she found a bit strange was that the beautiful flower was made of plastic. Sherry tested to try and pull the flower out. It let go, revealing a key at the bottom. She smiled and quickly ran over to the closet, put the key in and turned. The door opened smoothly and a tall man fell out, nearly knocking Sherry over though she managed to jump out of the way at the last minute. She untied his hands so he could stand up. Thompson rose to one knee, took out the gag from his mouth and smiled tirely at her.
"Thanks. You sure saved my life and…"
"We have to get out, the bad men are on their way…"
Sherry was interrupted as the door flew open. The big, grumpy one stood in the doorway, eyes flaming and right behind him stood the scared one. They walked into the room and shut the door behind them. The bully´s lips curled into a cruel parody at a smile, the scared one was reaching for his gun, Thompson himself stood up straight and placed himself in front of Sherry to protect her.
"So! The little brat tried to save you? Too bad it was all in vain."
Thompson met the bully´s gaze coldly. "Hardly. She is smart and brave. More than I can say for YOU. But I´m more surprised about you `STAR´!" He had turned to the other guy. "I never thought you would betray the boss for this scum and Umbrella."
The scared guy dropped his aim and looked ashamed. "Ark… I´m so sorry. But you have to understand…"
"Understand what?! Understand why you turned to Umbrella, an organisation dedicated to greed and death? Understand why you betrayed your friends? Why you knocked me out and stuffed me into a closet like a rag?!"
The bully broke off the arguing by walking towards Ark and Sherry. He cocked his own gun and aimed it at them."Shut up Thompson! Now I´m glad this weasel didn´t have the balls to kill you. Thanks to him I can blow you away myself. And after you that little brat."
Ark knocked down Sherry, saving them both from the first shot. But the room wasn´t big enough to move around and the door was blocked. Sooner or later… thought Ark bitterly. He felt more sad that the little girl would die too, beacuse she tried to save him, than for his own sake.
But suddenly the scared soldier shook his head and attacked the bigger one. They both fell to the floor in a heap. Ark still held Sherry behind her, preparing to dive in himself. He never got the chance because suddenly two shots were heard accompied by two screams. The first was from the bully, the second one came from the other soldier.
Ark carefully walked towards the pair, motioning to Sherry to stay behind him. He knelt down by the man he´d known as STAR and turned him around. He was dying.
"Forgive me, Ark… Please…"
Ark took his friend´s hand and held it. "You saved mine and Sherry´s life. I think you have redeemed yourself."
"Thank you. It mean a lot to me… I´m sorry for what I did to you Ark… to all of you… "
"Don´t talk now. You´re forgiven."
"I have to tell you.. one last thing. There is one more traitor in our ranks…"
Ark widened his eyes in shock. "What?! Who is…"
But the hand went limp in Ark´s hand. He carefully laid it down. There would be time for mourning later but now he had to warn the group.
"Good bye to you too. My friend…" He turned around to face Sherry. She had tears in her eyes. Poor kid… Better take her with me to the boss. There it should be safe. At least more safer than alone in this base. What if the traitor is here? Or maybe he went with Hawkins´s team…? This is bad.
"Sherry, I´m grateful for your help. You have proved to be very brave. But I don´t want you to be alone now so I´m going to take you to my boss. There it will be safe. Do you understand?"
"Yes." She replied with a shaken but calm voice.
Umbrella HQ, location unknown
"OK guys, this is it! We´ve got the signal. Time to party!"
The group all tensed when they heard Hawkins´s words. Emily checked her gun last time. The rest of the team did the same thing. This was after all their last chance before the final battle.
The team waited until the helicopter was near the ground. When Emily gave the signal, Donnie opened the hatch. One by one the team jumped out of the chopper. They had agreed to do this since the helicopter had to leave quickly or it might be noticed. Finally, all of them were on their way. Emily made the "go" signal to the pilot. One moment later it rose to the sky and flew away so fast it looked more like a big, black bird. They moved silently through shadows like ghosts until they reached a grey, rusty door.
"Here´s the entrance according to our sources." whispered Dan. "So now we´ll split. This is your entrance. My team will move to the next one. We´ll regroup inside, according to the plan. Good luck!" Dan and his team quickly sneaked away.
Donnie reached for the handle but the door wouldn´t open. "Fuck! It´s locked! What will we do now…?"
Jill moved up to him. "Let me handle this." She took out her lockpick and began opening the lock. "Almost there…" The lock was released and she grinned. "Now we can enter."
Claire looked impressed. "Man that was quick! I´m not THAT good at picking locks yet."
"Practice gives experience."
Donnie whistled. "Not bad!"
Chris looked at them puzzled. "Where did you both learned this?"
"In school. Come on let´s go." Claire opened the door and moved in. Chris looked dumbfonded after her before going in. In SCHOOL?! What else has she, and Jill, learned there? On a second thought I don´t want to know.
The corridor that they arrived in was bleak and cold. Chris could hear something dripping further down the corridor. Claire clenched her teeth.
"I´ve got a bad feeling about this. When I was walking through the RPD in Raccoon, I met a Licker after hearing that sound."
"On the other hand, maybe it´s just water dripping? It doesn´t have to mean that there are a monster there."
"That´s true, Richard, but we better be safe than sorry. Claire could you check it?"
"Sure." Claire began to walk with careful steps towards the sound. Maybe it´s just me being paranoid but on the other hand… Well at least I have a grenade launcher. Last time all I had was a Browning handgun. Took me forever to kill it… Lost some blood too… She was now about to turn the corner and made sure her weapon was ready. She pressed herself up against the wall, took a deep breath and quickly turned the corner. The corridor continued straight forward and there were doors on both sides. But no monsters in sight she sighed with relief.
That was when she heard a wheezing sound. Claire ran forward a few steps and pointed her weapon at the ceiling. A Licker hung there. After seeing her it dropped down on her. So I was right after all. Well it´s a good thing I loaded the grenade launcher with acid rounds!
"Come on, freak!" She managed to nail it with a grenade just before it hit the ground. It screamed and tried to get up but Claire was too fast for it. The second grenade hit it´s target and the licker laid finally still. The others had now come up to her and they looked worried.
"Claire are you alright?!" aked her brother frantically. Claire laughed, a short, cocky one.
"I´m always fine when I have this baby. Thanks for your concern but now I have some battle experience." Unlike before. But Claire knew that if she had said it, it would had made Chris feel guilty for her experiences when she was looking for him so she kept silent.
Emily walked past them. "Good to see that you´re well Claire. But the question is where do we go from here? We can´t afford to stay in one place for too long. Someone may have heard the shots…"
"Maybe the last one?"
The team never got the chance to chose, because suddenly the door blew open. Nicholai stood there, with a lot of Umbrella soldiers.
"DAMN! How did they knew we were here?!"
"No time for that now, RUN!"
All of them only got a split second to decide what do do. They all managed to dive into the side doors right before the gunfire. All except for Claire, the fire cut off her escape. When Jill was about to close the door behind them she saw Claire´s predictament.
"CLAIRE!" The young woman threw herself at the other woman, making them fall into the opposite door which closed behind them. Chris´s face was totally white with fear. He was about to run back into the corridor but Richard stopped him.
"Let go of me!"
"No. We have to move on or we all die." said the other man and looked down on the other. Chris clenched his fists and seemed to want to go through Richard and the door.
"In case you haven´t noticed it, these two are all I have left!"
"I know. One thing I also know is that they both managed to get themselves into safety. And according to their past experiences they should be fine together. We´ll probably find a way to reunite later. But for now we have to get out of here."
As if on cue more shots were heard.
"Do you think they´ll try to shoot down the walls?" asked Donnie.
Emily started to walk. "A big possibility so we have to move fast. Let´s take roll call shall we? I´m here and so are Chris, Richard, Barry, Carlos and Donnie."
"And me." It was Rebecca.
"That means only Jill and Claire are missing. But the team is still divided…"
"All of us are alive and we can always come back for them later. It´s also possible that Dan and his team will get them out." said Richard.
"Yes, I hope so." Chris´s reply didn´t sound very hopeful but he walked away with the rest of the team.
Divide and conquer. Chris knew these words and was sure the others knew them as well. No one spoke them. All they could do was going on.
*****************************************
"Claire are you alright?"
Claire looked up at the person who shook her. It was Jill who carefully helped the younger woman up.
"We have to keep moving! Are you alright?!"
"Yes! But where are the others?"
They started to move toward a door they saw at the end of the small corridor.
"I think they all got away, but now we have to keep moving. If we stay here…"
They started to move down the corridor fast, but when they got to the end of it they discovered that they were trapped. The room they had arrived in was some kind of computer room.
Claire walked up to one of the desks that were in the room and kicked at it.
"SHIT! We´re trapped!"
Jill just looked at her. She had been close to death before, but to die like this… It´s not fair…
*****************************************
Nicholai frowned. Things like this annoyed him. They managed to divide the S.T.A.R.S yes, but not kill anyone. He especially wanted to kill Carlos and that Valentine woman. His gaze turned to where Valentine and Chris´s Redfield´s little sister had disappeared into. His men had tried to break it down but it was made of tough material. Reinforced steel or something like that. In any case we can´t waste time here. We´ll get to those too, we just chase after the rest…
"Okay, that´s enough! We can´t waste time here!"
One of his soldiers was working with the door that Redfield and the rest had slunk into."Sir! I think I can get this door open!"
"Do it then you fool!"
The soldier did something with the doorlock. A click was heard and the door opened. Well finally things will go my way. thought Nicholai when he went through the door.
When the door closed after the last of Nicholai´s soldiers, the door next to it opened with a similar sound to the last one. Ada carefully peaked her head out and when she saw it was clear, she gave Leon the signal.
"It´s clear."
"Good. But it was a close call!"
"Yes I know Leon. Just hope our luck doesn´t run out." Ada turned her eyes to the door that the grunts had fought to break down. "They sure wanted to come in there. I wonder what´s inside. But since they couldn´t enter…"
"That´s because THEY didn´t know what to do. All they resorted to was violence." She gave him a crooked smile and walked to the door. She carefully ran her fingers over the frame. Leon frowned. Was Ada going crazy or something…? But suddenly, when he was about to tell her they were wasting time, the door popped open.
"Whoa! How did you do that?"
Ada smiled at him. "I´m a spy remember? One of my assignments was finding out Umbrella´s weapons and technology."
"Good for us!"
"This door technology of them is pretty new. You can´t open it with force but push the right places…"
Leon frowned. "On the other hand, how come the soldiers didn´t know about this way to open it?"
"It´s a new technology and not very tested. Only a few people know of this and since Umbrella obviously don´t bother to inform their people what they don´t need to know at the moment…"
"Yeah that´s right! Umbrella is a bunch of fools I forgot that."
They started to walk down the corridor. When they came to the door at the end, Leon moaned.
"Not ANOTHER goddamn door!"
Ada felt on the doorknob. The door opened, giving them a perfect view of the room.
Claire and Jill had decided not to lock the door. As Claire said there was no need to lock it, if the Umbrella troops managed to break down the first door, which was more stronger, then they would break down the second too. Instead they let the door be unlocked, if intruders came, they would be able to ambush and maybe use the door as some kind of weapon. Like throwing it into the face of an Umbrella soldier for example... Even if it was a longshot it was better than nothing. When they heard the footfalls in the corridor they hid, checking their weapons. They were truly surprised when the door opened and they saw the people that had arrived.
"Who are you?! I know you Leon but who is she?" asked Jill.
The woman held up a hand. "My name is Ada Wong. I´m here with Leon…"
"Yes, we both know him." Both of the women nodded to Leon. Claire continued. "But who are you?"
"Like I said, my name is Ada Wong and I´m an ally of Leon´s."
Jill suddenly understood. "You must be Leon´s contact!"
"That´s right."
"So what are we going to do? The troops outside must be gone otherwise you wouldn´t be so calm. Me and Claire got seperated from the others, we should go after them."
Ada shook her head as she was going over to the computers. "No We have a better plan. This is the control room. We should be able to trace the others this way."
"Good idea! And maybe we can find a way to avoid Nicholai´s troops."
Chris clenched his jaw. He never liked elevators. Not at all. After his experiences with Umbrella and it´s labs his dislike grew even more. Something ALWAYS happened. For example some monster popping up. Or perhaps the elevator stops and you don´t know when or even IF it will start again.
"Shouldn´t we soon be there?!"
Emily looked at him. "We´ll get out soon, it´s only a matter of time. In any case we don´t have much of a choice. There is only one stop and that´s where we going."
Donnie sighed. "I understand how you feel Chris. The face that´s it´s only one stop makes me even worrier."
Richard drew in air fast. "Heads up folks. I have a feeling that we´ll soon stop."
The elevator stopped with a jerk that almost knocked them over. Donnie looked at Richard with awe. "Are you a physic or something? You really scare me sometimes."
Richard just shrugged. "No, just gut feelings. When you´ve become as old as I am you´ll have it too."
"Ha,ha! Very funny."
The team carefully stepped out of the elevator. The first one to notice the danger was Chris. He saw a little camera coming at them and knew right away what it was, he knew about them from Rockfort and Antarctica.
"Watch out!"
Too late, the camera´s beam had already fixed itself on Carlos. The light turned red and an alarm started. Carlos looked at his friends with fear clearly written on his face.
"Guys… what was that?!"
"Just be ready for anything!" shouted Chris back. The attack will come at any second now. Don´t have time to explain. Fortnately all of his team was experienced soldiers so they knew the situation had turned dangerous. All waited with weapons ready breathing deeply. Farther away they could hear something growling and heavy footsteps.
The team froze with their weapons drawn. Chris was reminded by all the stalker movies he´d seen. He knew Umbrella had created stalker monsters before, Jill had run into one of them in Raccoon City and he had heard about Leon´s run in with the one called Mr X. It´s a stalker but I bet it will look like the other freaks.
Chris knew he´d been right when the monster finally came into view. It was towering over them and was walking on two legs. The strange thing was that the legs seemed weak and frail. On the other hand it didn´t mean that they were frail. Two arms were stretched out towards the group. It looked like it tried to grasp them. Instead of fingers it had claws, claws made of organic material instead of metal. That was all they could see of the thing´s body, it had a coat on.
"Fuck! It looks just like that Nemesis-freak me and Jill ran into! But it wasn´t THIS scary!" There was an underlying tone of fear in Carlos´s voice, it bordered on hysteria. Chris couldn´t see how his own face looked like but suspected it looked like the other man´s. He knew he felt more and more scared. His friends looked very afraid too. Clever of them. Playing on typical fears… He shook himself, they needed to open fire before things turned worse. Chris pulled the trigger to the magnum and the shot hit the stalker right in the chest. The thing was pushed back a bit but it still kept going forward, slowly like a killer from a horror movie. It knew it´s prey couldn´t escape it so it could take it´s time.
Barry, Richard and Emily were also firing their weapons but their shots had as much effect as Chris´s. On the other hand they fared better than Carlos, Rebecca and Donnie. Their weapons didn´t even seem to faze the monster. It was now only a few steps away. It looked like it picked up some speed now that it was so close to it´s prey.
The team had no choice than to back up while firing. Emily clenched her jaw.
"We can´t keep this going forever. We are cornered. Okay listen up, this is the plan! You guys keep firing, I´ll be the bait!"
"No fucking way Emily!" exclaimed Donnie. The rest of her comrades gave similar comments but she silenced them with a stare.
"No time for that, just do as I tell you!"
The former captain for the U.B.C.S fired two shots directly at the stalker. It was pushed back for a moment but that was just the time Emily needed to roll under it and coming back to her feet right after.
"Hey freak! Look, now you´re surrounded!"
It looked more like a cop trying to get the bad guy to stop! Thought Carlos with amusement. The next thing that happened, quickly erased his smile. The monster did turn against Emily, just as she had planned. What she hadn´t planned was that it attacked her with more feriousity than ever. She frantically tried to dodge it attacks but the stalker finally grabbed her. The claws made bloody stripes along Emily´s arm and she let out a horrified scream.
"Let her go you freak show!" screamed Donnie in fear and anger as he kept firing with his rifle. The others fired with him at the thing´s back. It roared and threw Emily a couple of feet away. She landed in a heap. As she began to rise the thing lifted it´s left claw and slashed at her exposed back.
"NNOOO!!!" screamed Donnie and the others as one. He ran forward as the others shot the monster and he managed to get to Emily. He held her tightly as if he thought he alone could hold her to life.
"Don´t worry Emily just rest. Becky can…." She shushed him.
"These…are…mortal..wounds Donnie. Too… late for…me…" He was about to interrupt her but she continued. "I… just had an… idea how…to beat this monster…" Behind him he heard Chris scream.
"See? You´ll all… die… let me… help you… one last… time…" Donnie nodded. She was right, as she always had been.
"Remember… it has weak legs…. Weak point…Hurt the legs then… you should be able to defeat… it."
"Thank you Emily. As soon as we beat it we´ll get you treatment."
She smiled, a smile filled with sorrow. "You were always a sweet kid Martin. Take down Umbrella for me. For our friends. Farewell…." Emily´s head fell back and a shadow fell over her eyes. She was dead. Donnie put her down and turned around with his rifle drawn. He saw the stalker was about to deliver another death blow, this time to Chris.
"Forget it you fucking freak!" He opened fire but this time at the legs. The stalker stopped it´s attack and fell to it´s knees. It was screaming in pain. Emily had been right!
"Come on now don´t just stand there! Kill it!" All of them charged at the creature together. Shot after shot punched into it´s skin and it roared, finally it let out one last cry and fell down. Black liquid began to pour out under it. Blood. They all let out a collective sigh, a sigh that had both sorrow and relief in it. They were relieved that they had managed to kill the stalker but they were also grieving over Emily´s death. Rebecca knelt by her body.
"Farewell Emily." She then gently placed her fingers on Emily´s eyelids and slowly closed them. The rest of the group payed their respects to their dead friend while Rebecca quickly tended to their wounds. Overall most of them was okay. Except for Emily, Chris had been the only one to suffer major damage. As they began to move again Carlos couldn´t help but wondering how lucky they had been. But if Emily hadn´t made her move he was sure all of them would be dead. Still if they had thought about it earlier maybe Emily would have been alive… Carlos shook his head. He couldn´t keep thinking about how things could have worked out it was too late to change the past. And they were still in danger.
The corridor stretched out before them, it was long and the walls seemed to be made of cold steel. They shimmered in the dim light. A door could be seen at the end.
"Great. I bet it´ll need a card key to open." muttered Richard under his breath.
But when they came closer they saw it was in OPEN mode.
"What is this?! I have a bad feeling about this." Chris sounded worried. "Here we are in the main HQ of Umbrella and security is this lazy?! Even if Dan and his men managed to take out guards, defeating monsters and maybe even open a few locks… it shouldn´t just be this easy even though we had to battle a Stalker."
"On the other hand Chris, maybe this IS Dan´s work and he´s waiting for us to regroup inside? There is only one way unless you want to go back and run into Nicholai and his troops?"
Chris nodded relucantly. "I see your point. Fine, but if our work is done we still have to find Jill and Claire. I´m not going without them and that´s final."
"Whatever you say Redfield." Richard pushed the button to open the door. It slid up with a wheezing sound. The team went inside, only to be horrified with what they saw.
Dan Hawkins was dead. His insides had been ripped out, and he had also been shot. He wasn´t alone though, his men laid sprawled across the room the group had now entered, a huge laboratory. It looked like a version of hell. The only one standing was one man, Gilbert Masters. He had a gun pointed in their direction.
"Masters! What has happened here?!" Barry looked straight at the other man, who just grinned at them. Before anyone could react, the door behind them slid down and a clicking sound was heard. They had been locked inside.
"Did you do this?!" asked Chris angrily. "Let us out!"
"Chris, calm down. It was you wasn´t it?" Richard stared at Gilbert with a look of pure hatred. "It was really a spy and it was you all along."
The traitor laughed. "Yes. No surprise that I managed to fool the S.T.A.R.S and the rest of your crew, but I´m especially disappointed with you Richie. I thought you were supposed to be the expert on finding traitors but you have grown rusty. And before you ask it was me who has been setting up traps for you all those months."
"Why?"
" `Why´? That question sure is popular… I did it for money you fool! What other motive would I have?"
Carlos glared at the traitor. "It was you who betrayed the survivors of the U.B.C.S too, correct?" When Gilbert nodded, he took a step forward clenching his hand. "You… you and Nicholai… you killed practically all my friends. And for money." He was interrupted by a shot. Gilbert had fired a bullet right in front of him. Rebecca gasped. She was reminded by a similar situation when Wesker had shot her right in the chest at the Spencer mansion. She too had acted just like Carlos had now. It was only her bullet proof vest that had saved her life, still she had felt pain when the bullet struck her down.
"Spare me your blabbing please! Yes it was me all along."
"Was it you who made Jill go into the Umbrella HQ so she got caught?" Chris´s voice was cool but his eyes burned.
"No of course not stupid, that was another spy. You should know him, STAR." Now it was Chris´s turn to gasp but Gilbert didn´t stop. "In any case now I should have covered everything. Now it´s time for you to die!" He went over to a console, still holding the gun at them, and pushed a button. A roaring could be heard in the distance.
"Now if you excuse me I have a boat to catch. You on the other hand will meet the same fate as poor Hawkins and his men here…" He went over to a door in the back, still holding his gun at them, and went through it.
"Farewell you fools!" The door closed, separating the traitor from the S.T.A.R.S.
"WAIT!" roared Carlos and threw himself at the door but it wouldn´t move.
Chris ran over to the console, thinking there might be some way to open the door but it remained closed. To make things worse a capsule had came up through the floor. Inside, something roared and tried to crack it open.
"Great! Everyone stay clear of it!" All of them spread out to avoid being in the way when the creature finally got out.
************************************************
Meanwhile the others in the control room had finally managed to locate their friends and they saw what predictament they were in.
"Oh shit…" was all Claire said but her face was pale. The information on the new B.O.W´s had said the new monsters were practically impossible to defeat. They had been especially enhanced in order to deal with intruders. Ada frowned but kept pushing buttons, entering commands. Dan and the others dead… There MUST be a way to get the survivors out… Suddenly a menu popped up.
"What´s this?" asked Leon and looked over her shoulder to read the text. "Anti B.O.W gas… Used in emergencies. Caution is advised since it´s effects are still unknown."
"We can use this to weaken the creature so they can kill it!" exclaimed Claire happily and Jill looked positive, Leon on the other hand looked worried. "It also says it orginated from the Pepsilon gas. I found a document in the lab in Raccoon. It weakened some of the monsters but at the same time it made others stronger. Another risk was that during time, they would gain immunity to the gas. We have no idea if this creature would be weakened or strengthened by this gas. And what if there is effects to humans, negative effects?" Silence fell over them. What was worse, to see their friends go to a possible death without doing anything, or release a gas with unknown side effects on them? After a short period, Ada broke the silence.
"We may be able to contact them. That is if this communications device works…" She flipped a switch and spoke into the microphone before her.
"Alpha team do you read me?" The one who was nearest the camera, Chris, turned around. He looked surprised.
"Who is it?"
"My name isn´t important right now. I´m at the control room with a couple of your friends We have the option of releaseing a gas that might weaken the monster. On the other hand there is also a chance that it might strengthen it or that the side effects may be harmful to you. What is your suggestion?"
Chris looked as if he was in deep thought. He was interrupted by the creature breaking out of it´s capsule. It looked like an hideous frog crossed with a lizard. It screamed, a horrifying sound that made some of the team to cover their ears. Barry, Richard and Carlos started to fire into it´s skin but it made no difference, the creature still kept up it´s pace. It started to swing it´s arms menacing. Chris turned quickly to the camera.
"It may be a risk but it looks like we don´t have a choice. Go ahead. And cross your fingers!"
"Got it." Ada took a deep breath and flipped another switch. A green, thick gas began to seep into the room. Chris and the others covered their mouths and noses as best as they could while jumping clear of the attacks. Jill noticed that the monster were as fast as the Nemesis had been. The only chance Chris and the others had was the gas. Bullets and grenades hadn´t stopped the Nemesis, only the Rail Cannon had been powerful enough and she couldn´t see one at the monitor. Please, let it work…
Suddenly, the creature stopped it´s rampage and screamed. Chris and the rest held their breath and waited. The monster went down. Their gamble had been successful it was weakening the monster. All of them began to fire at it, finally it gave out one final scream and fell down in a gush of blood.
******************************'
"We did it!" screamed Chris. He turned to his friends. "How are you guys?" They nodded at him, all doing the "everything-is-okay" sign..
"I think we´ll be okay." said Rebecca. "If there is any side effects that hasn´t yet shown… We´ll deal with them later."
Chris turned to the camera again. "Did you hear that?" No answer. Chris felt dread coming up but he fought it back and called out yet again. Still there was no answer…
Ada, Leon, Jill and Claire all glared at the door. In the doorway, grinning, stood Albert Wesker pointing a gun at them.
"Cut off the mic." Ada flipped the switch. "Good. It´s strange to meet you two, Kennedy and Wong or whatever your name is now." His gaze turned to Claire and Jill. Both women looked defiant and scared at the same time. They had both run into Wesker before and knew what he was capable of. "Always a pleasure to see you too Jill. You survived your encounter with the Hunters." At that Jill took one step back, remembering being captured, interrogated and nearly killed. "And of course you Claire. I know you hate me, but look at whom I brought along just for your sake." He stepped forward and made a gesture. Another person followed. It was Steve Burnside. Claire gasped and without thinking she had taken a few steps towards the men.
"S-steve. You´re alive…" Despite their predictament a smile crept over her face. Steve looked back at her.
"Claire…" Before they could run to each other, Wesker stopped Steve.
"Spare me the sappy reunion scene please. Steve, now it´s time to do your job. And you too Nicholai." He made another gesture and Nicholai stepped in.
"I left my soldiers outside as you ordered."
"Good. You Nicholai will make sure Kennedy and Wong doesn´t do any funny things. However they aren´t that important so if they make too much trouble you may shoot them. As for you Steve, you´ll keep an eye on miss Redfield. I´ll take the lovely miss Valentine for myself." Steve looked at Wesker with hate in his eyes.
"What are you going to do with them?!"
For a moment silence fell over the room. Leon and Ada watched, holding their breath. Jill and Claire looked even more scared, especially Claire. What will happen? What will Steve do? I would hate to see him as Wesker´s pawn but on the other hand… if he resists Wesker would probably kill him. That would be even more terrible. Wesker smiled at Steve like a predator.
"My dear Steve just do as I say and everything will go well. If you disobey me all of you will die. Including your beloved Claire." Steve hung his head in defeat.
"Claire, I´m sorry…"
"No it´s okay. It´s not your fault it´s Wesker´s." She stepped over to Steve, letting him grab her arms, and looked Wesker straight in the eye. This was the monster who had betrayed her brother and his friends, beaten her up at Rockfort, later took her as a hostage in Antarctica and had taken Steve to use as a guinea pig. Now he forced Steve to co-operate with him, like he had forced Barry in the Spencer mansion. Chris had told her that.
"So what now? Let me guess, you´ll use us as baits, correct?"
Wesker grinned down at her. "You´ve always been so smart. Yes you´ll be baits, with the help of you two I´ll kill Chris." When both of the women gasped he laughed. "Just imagine. The two people he loves in my grasp. He sure will suffer. And then he´ll die. Ha, ha, ha! Excellent plan, right?!" With that he gave Steve a push, urging him to go forward. Claire was dragged out, still glaring at Wesker. He smiled back at her and took a firm grasp at Jill´s arm and dragged her along too. "We have a meeting with Chris and we shouldn´t let him wait." Nicholai followed, holding the helpless Leon and Ada at gunpoint.
"Something is wrong…" muttered Chris. They still hadn´t figured out how to get out, they were locked inside. And since the person who had helped them in the fight against the monster hadn´t said or done anything it meant that something must have happened. And we can´t do ANYTHING to help! This is so frustrating! And dangerous too. What if we are stuck here for good? What if Masters has set a self destruct to blow the whole place up?
"Hey, it looks like someone is opening the door!" shouted Carlos. All of them stared at the door. They could hear the lock release, the door began to slide up. Despite that they would now finally get out, there was a strong feeling of danger. When the door had opened, he knew that his hunch had been correct.
Wesker came in first, holding Jill captive. Right after him came a young man holding Claire by the arms. Lastly came the one called Nicholai holding Leon and another woman at gun point. "Hello everyone!" grinned Wesker. Chris draw his weapon at Wesker, his friends following his move. Wesker shook his head. "And here I thought you finally had grown some brains Chris. I have hostages, drop your weapons all of you or they´ll die."
DAMN! Chris hated situations like these. Especially with lunatics like Wesker. But he would not dare disobeying him, or people would die. Among them his sister and girlfriend.
He dropped his wepon. "Everyone do as he says!" He heard his friends dropping their weapons. "Alright we´ve done as you said, now let them go Wesker!"
The traitor grinned at him. "Okay, since I´m feeling so generous I´ll let your TEAM go. But you stay here Chris. And my lovely hostages so that you´ll behave." Behind him he heard his entire team gasp. " Oh come ON! I want to make up all the bad things I´ve done to you. Barry, I let you live because of forcing you to betray your friends, Rebecca I know it wasn´t nice of me to shoot you, the rest of you… well I haven´t really done you anything but I´ll give your lives to you as a bonus."
"Don´t you have a debt to Chris, Jill and Claire? And you should let Leon and his friend go too!" asked Barry angrily.
Wesker returned the anger with his own. "Don´t test me Barry, if you do you´ll die."
"Barry it´s okay. Just go I´ll be fine." Chris knew Wesker would back stab them. On the other hand they had to play along for the time being. "Wesker this thing is between you and me. Let Claire, Jill and the others go!"
Wesker tsked. "Redfield, this is my offer. Take it or leave it."
Chris closed his eyes. What should he do? I´ll take it. At least Barry and the rest will be safe. At least from Wesker. The person he hates the most is me. I´ll make sure he remembers it and leave the others alone. As for Jill and Claire I protect them. Somehow. He opened his eyes, his choice was made. "Okay Wesker. Barry, all of you get out!"
Wesker smiled in triumph. "Good, very good." He took a control pad from his pocket and pushed a button. The door that Masters had disappeared into opened. Barry took one last look at Chris. Then he motioned to the others too go. Chris watched as his friends walked through the door. He hoped they would be okay, but they really didn´t have any choice. The door closed.
"Okay Wesker. You got what you wanted. Your problem is with me so leave the rest out of it! Let them go!"
"Not so fast Chris. Those two…" he gestured to Leon and Ada. "will be witnesses of your death. And I have some questions for them. After all they can give me vital information about the goverment. If they don´t talk by their free will I´ll GET them to tell me." Both Leon and Ada managed to stay cool but Chris could see the fear in their eyes. They all know what Wesker talked about. Torture. That won´t happen guys. We´ll get out of this. "But first I´ll make sure you´ll regret the day you stepped in my path."
"Why don´t you just cut the crap and fight! It´s me you want and here I am." Chris knew it was risky but he wanted Wesker´s attention to be fixed on him alone. His adversary smiled like a cruel predator, ready to take down it´s prey.
"You sure got balls Chris! Okay then. I´ll let those two see you die. And you´ll know what will happen to them afterwards." Wesker tossed Jill over to Nicholai. The U.B.C.S leader let his men guard Leon and Ada and kept his weapon at Jill. Steve held on to Claire, an expression of raw pain on his face. "And to make it more exciting here´s what I´ll do." Wesker walked over to the console and pushed a few buttons.
"Self destruction will begin count down."
Damn. That was all Chris had the chance to think before Wesker´s fist connnected with his jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground. Jill and Claire screamed his name. Their captors restrained them although Steve wasn´t as brutal to Claire as Nicholai was to Jill. Chris rose slowly. He HAD to win this time! He managed to evade Wesker´s blows by good reflexes and, he had to admit, good luck. Sadly his good luck ran out. Wesker had him against one of the corners and rammed his fist into his stomach, Chris doubled over, gasping. No this can´t be the end oh please no… He heard a chuckle over him. Wesker grabbed him by the hair and forced his head up so that their faces was just inches away from each other. Despite his hazy sight he could see the smile Wesker gave him. God he hated that smile!
"So this is the end for you Chris. But I have to say that you was better than last time we met. Sadly for you it was not enough!" With that he delivered one final blow to his defeated opponent.
"NNOOO!!!" It was Jill and Claire. Both women fell back as if it had been them and not Chris who had suffered Wesker´s beating. Jill looked like her heart had been broken while Claire just shook her head in denial, tears running freely from her face.
"Damn you Wesker!"
Wesker went to them, chuckling. "He´s dead. Now is the question, which of you will I kill first…?" He walked over to where Jill was being held by Nicholai and yanked her away from him with a hard jerk. She stared at him with tears in her eyes, but also with defiance. She would never beg for mercy from him. Brave girl! Wesker was amused this was just like Jill.
"I think I start with you." He slapped her hard across the face, ignoring the angry cries from Claire and the others. Jill´s nose and mouth began to bleed but the look in her eyes remained as determined as she began to defend herself. Wesker struck again and again, even though Jill got in a few hits she was struck down just like Chris. Wesker looked down at his defeated enemy. She looked back at him with hate in her eyes.
"Not so lucky this time miss Valentine? This time Chris is not here to save you. But don´t worry you´ll meet soon. In hell."
"The only one who´ll burn in hell is you Wesker." She spat.
"Oh yeah? We´ll see about that…"
Wesker was about to deliver the death blow, but a cry interrupted him.
"STOP!"
It was Steve.
Wesker frowned, irritated. "What is it Steve?!"
"You stop this . Right now."
"Why?"
"Why?! Do you really need to ask that? You´re sick I wish that I never followed you."
Wesker sneered this time. "And the reason why you did it? Because of Claire. Speaking of her I think I kill her now. Jill can wait for the time being." But before he could get a chance to grab Claire, Steve gave him a hard shove. "I don´t believe this. But all right Burnside you asked for it!" Wesker rammed his fist into Steve, sending the young man flying. He landed hard.
"Steve…" Claire was frozen with fear. And even if she wasn´t, she couldn´t just run and leave her friends. Besides the doors were locked. Steve rose, unlike Chris and Jill he wasn´t totally human anymore. Wesker had told him about the side effects of the virus that they had injected him with to revive him. Does that mean I´m a.. monster a BOW?! I don´t want that but if it can help me save Claire then I can live with it!
" I should have done this earlier. Now I´ll correct that mistake."
"I see… So you actually have balls. Never could I have guessed that… Nicholai keep an eye on Claire. I´ll deal with Super Boy here." Wesker charged Steve but this time his intended victim managed to get away. The following second, Steve had struck at Wesker hard. The red eyed man glared at the younger man. He had thought Steve was just a weakling, someone he could use as a puppet. That had changed now.
Ada looked on the two fighting men. She couldn´t help feeling admiration for Steve. The young man was just a teenager, and an untrained one. Yet he managed to stand his ground against someone who, except for his super abilities, was a trained soldier. If Steve could win they would have a better chance of getting out alive. If Steve beat Wesker they only had to take out Nicholai. In any event some commotion could help Steve a little. It may distract Wesker. But there was another reason. Ada Wong NEVER went down without a fight. When and if Wesker killed Steve he would go after them all. He wanted them all dead, unless the count down ended and they were blown up.
If we´re going to die then we might as well go down fighting!
She carefully caught Leon´s gaze and he looked back at her. A quick nod, he knew. The only thing that was left to decide was WHEN to strike. The opportunity arose the moment later. Wesker was about to pin down Steve and had his back to the others. Claire was screaming, Nicholai and his grunts had their full attention on her. Ada thought they soon had to TIE the girl down. But if things would go well there would be no "soon". At least not for Wesker and his gang. She caught Leon´s gaze again. Now! They had to be fast. Ada spun around and delivered a powerful kick at the nearest soldier while at the same time shoving her elbow into the stomach of another of his friends. They both fell to the floor. Leon managed to take down a couple more. He then gave Nicholai a hard slap at the head and while he was distracted, got his gun back. This also allowed Claire to break free and take the Umbrella soldier´s own gun. She hit him on the head with the butt of the gun and he fell to join his mates. In a matter of seconds, Leon, Ada and Claire had taken down the Umbrella goons. Wesker, who was about to finish Steve turned around, allowing his opponent to get the upper hand. Steve threw Wesker to the floor with an angry roar. This man, this creep, had threatened Claire, murdered her brother and his girlfriend, and had used him as a pawn. And this was just the sins Steve knew about. If I had resisted Wesker back there, Claire´s brother and his girlfriend might have been alive now. On the other hand he might as well killed me and these events would still had occured. In any event I´ll end it now! Steve grabbed a sharp piece of metal that had been torn off in the battle and cut Wesker across the throat. The man gave out one last strangled cry…
Then he went limp. It was over.
Steve felt sick. Yes, it was self defense, yes Wesker had wanted to kill them all. But this… Steve had never done anything like this. He had killed a lot of monsters but this was a human. On the other hand could you call Wesker human? He had bragged about not being human and about having super powers. But still…
In any event, you did it to defend Claire and yourself and these other people. And to get revenge for the ones he had killed. Now you have to get out before you all get blown up! He looked at Claire. She had gone up to him, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"We have to get out."
"Yes I know."
Leon went over to Chris. He was about to close the man´s eyes in respect when he saw that Chris still breathed. Slowly but he was still alive.
"Hey! He´s still alive!"
Ada look surprised. "What?"
"Yes. Take care of him Ada. I ´ll check Jill out." Leon wasn´t too optimistic about her chances too survive either. She hadn´t moved at all during the fight between Steve and Wesker but he had to check. Carefully, he put two fingers on her neck to feel the eventual pulse. Yes! There is a pulse, she´s not dead yet! Just have to keep her alive then… Leon began first-aid. He only had one spray left but considered it a fair sacrifice if it meant saving Jill´s life. Her heartbeats came steadier, regular now. Her eyes slowly opened.
"What..?" Leon helped her sit up and hugged her lightly. Calm her or she´ll go into chock. "You´re alive Jill."
Ada had her hands full with Chris, who looked as shocked as Jill. "Jill Claire… Are they alright."
"Yes." Before Ada had the chance to say anything more Claire had thrown herself at her brother. Leon and Jill joined them and after releasing Claire, Chris embraced Jill. The two didn´t say anything they just held each other.
Meanwhile, after seeing that Jill and Chris were alive, Steve went to the door where Wesker had forced the rest of the gang to go. They needed to regroup and get out fast. The problem was how they would open the door? He decided to check Wesker´s corpse and slowly walked to it. He was reminded by the horror movies when the killer always came back to life. Hope it won´t happen he has to be dead… Carefully Steve began his search and found the control pad that Wesker had used. He stood up, pointed the control pad at the door and pushed the button. The door opened and Barry and the others nearly fell into the room.
"Thank God! You´re all alive!"
Claire walked over to Steve and put her arm around him. "Yes. Steve killed Wesker and opened the door."
Barry looked at Steve, clearly impressed. "YOU killed Wesker? Are you Superman or something?"
Before Steve had the chance to answer, however, Rebecca interrupted him. "You can tell us later. We have found a way out of here. And…" She waved a computer disc. "… we found the evidence we´ll need to take down Umbrella for good! And after their HQ is finished…"
Carlos grabbed her and began to drag her through the door. "Tell them on the way out of here Becky!" His eyes suddenly fell on a small set of monitors. "Guys look!"
It showed a lot of monsters, Hunters, Tyrants and worse, prowling through the HQ. Ada and Leon exchanged a look, then turned to the others.
"We had a sub, but getting to it has become an impossibility now we don´t have that firepower. And even if we could it only have room for two persons." The rest of the message was unspoken, there was no way they would anyone behind. The only way out was keep on going.
While the group ran down the corridor, Rebecca explained what had happened. After being forced out of the lab by Wesker, they had found a computer terminal. While trying to get back into the lab they had also found valuable information about Umbrella, good evidence of what the company had done and what they had planned. That information had been copied to a disc which was now in Rebecca´s possesstion.
At last they reached the exit. It looked like some sort of harbor. A big boat was docked and it looked like it could hold several persons, which was good. At a distance they could see a big gate. We have to open it first. And start up the boat. Carlos took a few steps towards the it and adresses his comrades. "We should split up into two groups. The first one check the boat and prepare for taking off. The other one finds a way to open that gate."
They set up the groups fast. The first one was consisted of Donnie, Carlos, Rebecca, Barry and Richard. The rest began to search through the hangar, quickly since the time was running out.
After an eternity it seemed, Jill cried out. She had found the switch. Since she was a machine expert it was basically child´s play to get the gate powered up. Jill entered a command and slowly the big, sturdy gate began to open. Claire was impressed by this woman. No wonder my brother like her so much! Not just a pretty face, she got some brains too. Now we just have to get out of here… Her trail of thought was interrupted when she stumbled over something. She hit the ground hard. Steve ran over to her.
"Claire! Are you alright?!" He helped her up while checking her for any injuries. Even though Claire appriciated the concern, she was more worried about their situation when she saw what she had stumbled over.
It was the mangled remains of Gilbert Masters.
She heard Steve gasping, he had seen it too. Suddenly she thought it was strange that no one of them had wondered why the boat was still there if Masters had gotten away. He sure wouldn´t have left a boat for them. Steve spoke first. "Claire we have to warn the others!" Her only reply was a nod.
"Chris!" He looked up. Claire and Steve was running like hell. Something must have happened. "What?"
"We just found Masters. He´s dead. And not just dead, we´re talking about CRUSHED… It must have been a BOW."
"Great. I hope the others has managed to get the boat up and running." Jill looked as scared as Claire felt. They all ran to the boat. Barry and Rebecca stood waiting.
"Here you are. Looks like we´re ready to go."
Chris nearly knocked them down. " Good. Because we have to go NOW!"
They quickly regrouped in the cabin. Donnie were at the helm. He carefully steered the boat toward the opening gate. They couldn´t waste any time but they also had to be careful so that they didn´t go straight into the gate. A female voice cooly informed them that they only had five minutes left until self destruct. When they were only halfway to the gate they were suddenly being pulled back.
"What is this?!" exclaimed Barry furiously. They were so close!
Richard ran out to the deck. "A monster is pulling us back!"
All of them, except for Donnie, followed. The monster looked like a madman´s vision of an octopus. So this is what killed Masters…Claire couldn´t help but feeling a bit sympathy for the man, even though he had betrayed them. Just the thought of being killed by that…
The ones who had firepower left used it up now, making the monster release the boat. A "thank you" from Donnie was heard.
The gate was nearly open by now. If they could just get through it before getting seized by the monster again…
"One minute to self destruction. Evacuate immidatley!"
The monster was hard on their heels and if that wasn´t bad enough, the gate seemed to malfacture. It was slowly closing and if they were inside the gate when it closed...
"Everybody back inside!" Chris didn´t understand himself why he said that. If the gate crushed them no one would survive. But somehow, it felt like a small protection. All of his friends looked scared now. Donnie looked also very focused. He would NOT let himself and the others getting killed. Now they were halfway past the gate. The sides looked like jaws closing, and they came closer. Just when they passed them they snapped behind the boat. A muted thud was heard indicating the monster hitting the gate. They all fell silent, except for Donnie´s sigh of relief. Richard smiled a little at him, approval clear in his eyes.
Carlos finally broke the silence. "Well it looks like our friend got stuck there!" They all broke into a collective laugh. Once again they had been close to death but evading it at the last minute.
Rebecca smiled back at him. "So we finally took down Umbrella, huh?"
Barry placed a big hand on her shoulder. "If the evidence is strong enough. But I think it is."
"Not to mention they have no HQ anymore!" said Leon with a laugh. Ada just smiled at him.
Steve remembered his parents who had been murdered by Umbrella. I hope you´re proud of me now. He never spoke those words aloud. The wounds felt still fresh. Claire leaned on his shoulder, making him feel warm.
"Yeah…" She sounded sleepy, it sounded like she was going to sleep right there. Not that Steve minded. Claire was the one in his life now.
Jill looked at the two, they sat just like her and Chris. Claire with her head on Steve´s shoulder and Jill had her head on Chris´s shoulder. She closed her eyes and snuggled up more to Chris. He put his arm around her, whispering something into her hair. Right now she was too tired to care what it was but later she would ask him.We did it. Umbrella went down. Now I can go on with my life.
So there! They finally put Umbrella, and Wesker, where it belongs! And got out alive too! Except for poor Emily, not to mention Dan and his men but they will always be remembered. When it comes to Wesker, he was killed by Steve which may sound strange to some. I know that Chris is supposed to be Wesker´s nemesis, but Steve is someone who may become a strong enemy of Wesker now that he´s in captivity and it wouldn´t be a surprise if Wesker tried to control him . Not to mention that he may get powers similar to Wesker, and if Wesker threatened Claire… It was an idea I got which sounded interesting. Personally I like Steve and I wanted him to have an important role in this story, even though it wasn´t until the end that he came into the picture.
Next will be an epilogue, I´ll try to do it as fast as I can. Until next time… * smile *