Grunting softly and in pain, Chris coughed a few times, feeling the metallic taste of blood permeate his mouth as the strong smell of smoke invaded his nose. His chest ached with each cough and he could feel a certain weight on his body.
The agent was disoriented and confused, but soon, flashes of memories flashed through his head.
He was on a cruise ship investigating a bioterrorist group called Veltro, this group being the evil mastermind behind the plan to infect the oceans with the T-Abyss.
Things went wrong pretty quickly, which was not a surprise, but which was a major setback in that case.
That cruise ship, Queen Zenobia the name, as well as two other cruises, was infested with several infected and many of his team, as well as other teams on the other two cruises, died in the investigation.
He clashed with Jack Norman, the founder of that bioterrorist organization, until he was cornered by several hunters and other infected just before the cruise hit something.
That was his last memory.
Blinking a few times, he shifts slightly and grunts again in pain. Looking down, he quickly grunts again as he pushes off the huge chunk of ceiling that had fallen on top of him.
Sitting up, he examines his body. Although sore, it didn't look like he had broken anything.
Chris soon drinks a green liquid in a vial he took from one of his pockets and stands up slowly, still with some difficulty, and immediately begins to look at his surroundings.
"Jessica?" He calls out his partner's name, concern already present in his nervous eyes.
Chris didn't really care about Jessica. In fact, he didn't trust her one bit. Especially since she had replaced Jill at the last minute without any notice or explanation from the BSAA. Before that mission, he hadn't even exchanged more than two words with her.
However, she was still his partner, and like it or not, they were in this together and he really didn't want the woman to die.
But no matter where he looked, no matter how many overturned tables and fallen cupboards he lifted and paths he cleared, he couldn't find her.
Shaking his head slightly, he picks up his communicator.
"HQ, this is Chris, do you guys copy?!" He asked, but his communicator was muted. Probably broken.
Great.
Running his hand down the back of his neck, he picks up his military rifle and looks at the status of his ammo. A few dozen rounds from the rifle, and some spare ammo for the pistol in the holster on the side of his thigh.
His knife was gone and he didn't have many herbs with him.
With his rifle in hand, he soon walks toward the barred door ahead and removes a few pieces of debris that blocked his passage, until his path was clear and he could see where he was.
The front of the ship was destroyed. Whatever the ship had hit, it had done a great deal of damage. The ship was slightly tilted and much of the side was also destroyed or dented.
To the side and in front of it were rocks washed by the small waves of the sea. A beach not far from there, and just beyond that, a dirt road leading into the forest.
Chirs walked a few steps forward, running his eyes over his surroundings. He had no idea how he had arrived at that place.
The agent ran his hand through his equipment, and all electronic equipment was destroyed. In other words, he had no way to communicate with his base or other BSAA squadrons.
The sound of something dragging made itself present next to him, and he quickly turned around already lifting his rifle toward the noise ready to fire.
"Captain!" However, he soon relaxed as he saw that it was his partner, Jessica, who was standing up with some difficulty.
She had a trickle of blood running down the side of her head, indicating that she had hit her head during the accident. She was gasping and dirty, and had probably woken up in a similar situation to him.
At a brisk pace, he approaches.
"Jessica! Are you okay?" He asked, watching her take a bottle of green herb and drink it in one gulp, after that, he gently helped her stand.
"I'm fine. A little banged up, but fine." She said, taking a deep breath once before looking at the destruction around her. "Shit. I lost my sniper rifle ."
Jessica was a tall woman with long brown hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. She had joined the BSAA not long ago.
"How's your communicator?" Chris asked.
"Broken."
"Shit." He complained, turning toward the beach and looking out into the forest. "I guess we'll have to walk. Can you move?"
"Yes, sir." She replied, and with a nod, Chris takes the lead and walks along the wrecked bow, searching with his eyes for the best way down.
After jumping onto the rocks below and ignoring the somewhat sloppy landing due to the slippery ground, they both walked down the beach to the dirt path and into the forest.
Although dense and abandoned in appearance, they both hoped to make human contact there. However, there were many things to consider before they thought this would be a good or bad idea.
The ship was infested with infected monsters, perhaps the surviving infected had started wandering around the forest. Jack Norman was nowhere to be found and they had no idea where they were.
Anything could happen.
After some time of walking along the dirt road that seemed only to get higher and higher, they came to a bridge. The bridge was already looking a little older, rusty.
On the other side of the bridge, just a few meters away, was a radio station with a huge tower.
The two agents looked at each other in mute conversation before walking quickly across the bridge.
The sea water was flowing below. It was a very high drop.
The place was silent. A silence that was broken only by the footsteps of the two agents. No sign of civilization, no sign of any living soul there, in fact.
But in spite of this, they both walked with their weapons raised and their guards high.
As they approached the station, before they could even enter, the muffled sound of something falling on the grass a few meters from where they were standing caught the attention of the two, who quickly turned around with their guns drawn.
A small building, part of the station, locked it seemed.
There was nothing there, just an iron object on the ground, too far away for them to identify what it was.
However, they soon widened their eyes when they heard the howl of a wolf. Well, or at least what sounded like a wolf, but too distorted to be just an ordinary animal.
Many howls joined the first, and the aluminum gate suddenly began to warp as the creatures threw themselves against it.
The first one soon passed through the gate and moved quickly toward the agents. They had encountered that creature before.
It was no ordinary wolf, it was a biological weapon. One infected by the T-Abyss. The wolf had most of its torso exposed, a huge hole in the side of its body, as if a small explosion had happened from the inside out. Gray eyes, much larger teeth than normal, a more robust and stronger body.
Right behind the first wolf, two more.
Chris took the lead and started firing as he approached the first wolf, hitting the beast several times and causing the infected animal to jump to the side in an attempt to avoid further damage and have a chance to attack.
At the moment the animal did this, one of the wolves following behind jumped towards Chris. A long and very fast jump.
The agent was quick to dodge as he crouched, still shooting at the first wolf while his partner shot at the one that had jumped towards him.
The first wolf jumped, but rolled on the ground due to the rain of shots it received and had its attack halted.
Another wolf, however, advanced even faster toward Chris.
However, the agent grabbed the wolf's head still in the air and threw it backwards as he threw his own body to the side and shot the last of the creatures.
Behind him, Jessica reloaded her pistol and dodged an attack from one of the infected animals, the one that had leaped towards Chris earlier.
Using the momentum of her movement to dodge, she turned her body and landed a kick to the side of the head of the second wolf that was advancing towards her.
Spinning her body again, she fired a few more shots towards the first wolf, missing a few shots due to the animal's fast movement, but hitting enough to make the infected beast fall and roll on the ground due to its speed.
The second wolf soon advanced against her, and seeing that her pistol had run out of ammo again, she grumbled softly and grabbed her knife from her belt, waiting for the wolf to approach.
Those beasts took a great deal of damage before they died, no wonder her pistol with a capacity of only nine bullets ran out of ammo so quickly.
The wolf leaped toward her. Jessica shifted her body to the side and, as soon as the wolf landed, she leaped toward the beast and stabbed her blade into the side of the wolf's neck.
The beast grunted and struggled violently, knocking the woman backwards and already turning around immediately.
Jessica's eyes widened slightly as the creature leaped toward her. Reacting quickly, she threw her torso to the ground as she raised her leg and kicked the wolf in the side of the torso, causing the animal to miss its attack and roll a few times as it fell to the ground.
Before the animal could react, Chris shot it with his rifle, killing the wolf at once after several shots to the head.
Jessica stood up slightly breathless after reloading her pistol, and her eyes soon met Chris's, who was looking at her in mute question if she was all right.
In response, she just shook her head, and after they checked their surroundings for a few more moments, they entered the radio station.
Jessica was the one who took the lead upon seeing the equipment ahead.
Chris stood beside her in silence, letting her work for a few moments.
"Is anyone listening to this?! This is Jessica Sherawat, we need backup!" She tried the microphone, still toggling the buttons in search of some signal.
Chris reached over and grabbed the microphone, an act that caused Jessica to quickly move to the side and try to set up the devices.
"This is Chris Redfield. We need backup. I repeat, we need backup! We are-" His voice was cut off by the loud static noise coming from the surrounding speakers. This noise seemed to echo throughout the area and caused both agents to put their hands over their ears.
Jessica worked as fast as she could to make the noise stop, until after several moments, the noise finally disappeared, and all the lights that were on before were turned off.
"Ah, shit!" Jessica grumbled, trying to make the equipment work, but to no avail.
"What are we going to do now, Captain? This shit ain't working." Jessica asked, without turning to Chris.
"Hopefully someone heard. But for now, we may have to spend some time here, see if we can rewire the system." Chris replied, walking over to a window ahead to observe the surrounding situation.
There were infected wolves out there. There was also the chance that there was another type of creature in the vicinity, and if that was the case, such a creature would certainly be attracted by that noise.
Well, sometimes Chris hated to be right.
There were some skylights in the ceiling. The skylights were soon broken, causing pieces of glass to fall everywhere, hitting both agents, who turned suddenly when they heard the noise.
They barely had time to process what had happened, and Jessica was forced to duck, dodging a piercing attack from a hunter's claws.
Chris raised his rifle and fired at the creature as Jessica rolled away.
The hunter raised its huge scaled arm and turned toward Chris, growling as it literally ran toward the agent.
The hunter attempted a diagonal attack with its claws, however, Chris dodged and countered with a strong elbow to the side of the creature's head, causing the hunter to stagger back a step and the agent immediately shot at the infected's head.
The hunter, however, recovered quickly and attacked Chris again with its claws. And once again, the agent dodged, but had his gun thrown from his hand due to the proximity.
Jessica shot at the hunter, however, much to her chagrin, another hunter came down through the destroyed skylight.
Not only that, but both agents could hear that distinctive grunt of a Ooze that they had fought so hard on that ship.
Things were getting better and better.
Chris dodged another piercing attack from the hunter in front of him and countered with a punch to the side of the head, stunning the hunter for only moments, but being enough for Chris to move towards the creature, grab the hunter by the torso and knock the creature to the floor, creating the opportunity to run and grab his rifle from the ground.
As he raised his weapon again, however, Chris grunted slightly in surprise as he felt his vest being grabbed from behind and he was literally thrown backwards with extreme force. He grunted in pain as he felt his back hit the wall violently.
In front of him, the other hunter had grabbed him and was now moving towards him to attack him again as the first hunter got up from the ground.
However, the hunter stopped advancing toward him when it was hit by some shots in its head, destroying a part of its scales that served as armor for its brain, now slightly exposed.
The hunter turned to Jessica and advanced toward the woman while the other went toward Chris.
Jessica fired until her pistol ran out of ammo again, and whimpering softly, the woman threw her body nimbly to the side, dodging the first attack made by the hunter.
The creature reacted quickly, giving the woman no time to counterattack, and all she could do was dodge again.
She couldn't go on with this, though. At some point, she would get tired or not be fast enough to dodge the attack.
Crouching down, she drove her knife into the side of the hunter's thick leg, causing the creature to grunt in pain and kneel on one of its legs, which gave her the opportunity to drive her knife into the side of the creature's head, this being the only fatal spot she could strike before the creature reacted, and since her blade didn't pierce the brain, despite the great damage done, the Hunter was still moving.
It was to be expected that the creature would react, and soon, Jessica gasped heavily as she felt the back of the hunter's huge hand hit her stomach hard, literally throwing her backwards and causing her to be dragged a few inches across the floor.
Jessica, wide-eyed, squirmed for air, and as soon as she got it, she soon groaned loudly as she had to move to dodge another blow coming from the hunter.
Raising her gaze upward as she turned away from the creature, Jessica widened her eyes slightly.
"Captain!" She yelled for Chris, who briefly, after knocking down the hunter he was fighting, looked to where she was pointing, and like her, he slightly widened his eyes.
Chris threw himself to the ground while Jessica stood right in front of the Hunter, exposed for the creature to attack her, but using it as a shield for the rain of bones that were literally flying towards them after an Ooze explosion near the window.
Bones stuck to the ground, to the equipment, and to the two hunters, who roared loudly as they were penetrated by the bone piles.
Chris quickly stood up as he grabbed something from one of his pockets.
"Let's get out of here!" Chris shouted, pulling out the pin of a grenade and letting that grenade fall as he ran toward the door through which they had entered.
Jessica stood right next to him, with a pained expression on her face from the heavy blow she had taken.
As they left the station, Chris took the lead and shot at the infected coming over the bridge, attracted by all the noise, and as they ran in the opposite direction from where the infected were approaching, they heard the grenade explode and hoped it was enough to kill those hunters.
Or at least buy enough time to get away from there.
Sighing once more, Jill ran her eyes through the file in her hands. Honestly, she had expected something like this, a sudden change of plans.
She hadn't even been able to rest for a while and was already sent on another mission.
She was worried, though. It wasn't often that Chris was involved in a problem like that. More than ten hours without any contact? Something really serious must have happened, and all they had as clues was a call for help made by Redfield himself.
"Jack Norman?" she asked over her communicator.
"No confirmation. Although it is certain that Redfield was facing him before we lost contact." She squeezed the back of her neck slightly as she continued to read the file.
"Unknown island?" She asked aloud, more to herself than to the person on the other end of the line.
"We have analyzed the coordinates from which we picked up the call. None of our records show such coordinates, we don't have them on record, although we do have satellite images." The voice on the other end answered, and picking up a tablet in a compartment in front of her, Jill arches an eyebrow as she looks at the satellite image.
"It's a pretty big island to go unnoticed..." She muttered to herself, though she knew she was heard.
"We thought the same thing. We suspect that such an island has some sort of relationship with some bioterrorist organization. Perhaps Veltro itself." The satellite image zoomed in, and Jill focused her gaze on a facility near the corner of the island.
That alone would not be enough for such suspicion, were it not for the fact that the site was littered with bodies. Not just human bodies, but the bodies of creatures she could not identify because of the distance, and because the bodies were disfigured.
The floor was stained with blood and there were very strange marks on the walls and fences of the place.
Some of these marks were very similar to large claws.
"Well, I don't believe in coincidences." Jill said, putting the tablet back in the compartment and closing the file.
The helicopter approached said island, some time after their conversation, and Jill was looking out the small window at the spot they would land.
The island was large, easy to get lost in, although there weren't many buildings from what she could see.
In the distance, she could see a radio tower, that being the place where Chris sent the call for help, she imagined.
As they got a little closer to the island, she looked at her watch and set the timer. Every two hours she was to contact HQ. If they have no contact after four hours, reinforcements would arrive with heavy artillery, scour the island, and as soon as they left, sink the island to the bottom of the ocean with a missile.
An extreme action, but one that they would certainly have the permission of the government to carry out, should things not go as planned.
As soon as the helicopter began to land, she checked once more the ammunition in her weapons and stood up, walking to the back of the helicopter and being the first to leave as soon as it landed.
The forest was dense, and a single dirt path cut through the trees.
Looking at her team for a few moments and watching some soldiers walk towards the wrecked ship, she turned and walked into the forest with her rifle raised and her group of soldiers.
It was expected that they would encounter hostile creatures out there, everyone there was already "hoping" they would.
The first thing that appeared were wolves. Infected wolves, a grotesque sight of their exposed interiors, their organs destroyed and their bones penetrating the flesh of their deformed bodies as they were blasted with bullets.
The wolves were taken care of very quickly, but soon, more creatures arrived through the forest. Too many creatures, coming scattered in front.
With just a hand motion made by Jill, her men spread out, walking through the trees as they advanced, Jill being the only one who had stayed on the dirt path.
Those humanoid creatures were more dangerous, not only because they took considerable damage, but because some of them could throw several bone stakes, and in a group together, that was almost certain death.
Jill shoots at the infected in front of her as she moves forward at a rapid pace, accurate head shots at which the creature, still far away, could barely react.
From her peripheral vision, she could see the creature just behind it swelling, the bone piles in its body inflating.
The soldiers in the line of fire took cover while others continued to advance as they fired,
Jill stopped firing at the infected in front of her and moved a few steps to the side, using that infected as a shield for the powerful explosion of blood and bone piles that followed.
The bones stuck into the body of the Ooze in front of her, killing the creature already weakened by the shots it had received and driving away those around it.
More infected wolves were running through the Ooze, and Jill grabbed a stun grenade from one of her pouches.
"Stun grenade!" She shouted as she threw said grenade. The soldiers took cover and she turned on her back as the grenade exploded.
All the soldiers turned around at the same time and advanced as they shot, giving the infected no chance to react, and killing the small wave of creatures.
The shooting ceased, everyone reloaded as quickly as they could, and silence soon reigned.
Despite this, everyone remained in their positions, observing the scene, analyzing the situation, and waiting for orders.
Jill ran her eyes around her. The forest was quiet; she wanted to make sure that the danger had passed. With infected, she expected everything.
Soon, the sound of moving leaves caught her attention, all around her.
Her eyes focused on the moving treetops, and moments later, the sound of something heavy landing caught the attention of all the agents, and they quickly turned around.
"Behind!" One of the agents shouted, and all the others focused their eyes on the hunter advancing toward that agent.
The creature was fast, and took everyone by surprise by its presence.
The hunter tried a vertical attack with its claws the moment it approached the soldier, too fast and in a position where no other agent had a good sight to shoot.
However, everyone there was a highly trained agent against bioterrorism, and although some stood out more than others, no one there was an amateur.
The soldier dodged the attack and countered with a spinning kick to the hunter's torso, serving not only as a way to ward off the creature, but as a way to ward off himself with the momentum he picked up from the blow.
As soon as the agent moved away, everyone fired at the hunter, who was hit by a shower of bullets and had no way to react.
However, that wasn't the only hunter there, and soon, more of those creatures fell from the trees.
"Reposition!" Jill shouted as the creatures advanced, and the soldiers retreated toward her while still firing at the hunters.
As soon as they repositioned, one of the soldiers grabbed a stun grenade from one of his pockets.
"Stun grenade!" He shouted as he threw the grenade, and all the soldiers turned around and covered their ears as the grenade exploded. Again, they quickly turned around, and the same soldier as before threw a hand grenade into the middle of the creatures.
The grenade exploded, causing two hunters to fly a few inches into the air before falling to the ground, and three others to be thrown towards the group of agents due to the impact.
The agents soon opened fire on the creatures, and only stopped when no hunter moved.
Missions like those, they carried a large amount of ammunition, and none of those bullets were spared. Those viruses were lethal, and to fight them effectively, they had to use everything they had.
The two soldiers at opposite ends of the formation walked over to the hunters and kicked their motionless bodies as assurance that they were dead, and Jill relaxed her stance a bit when none of the creatures moved.
"Targets eliminated. Well done, Alpha team. Reload and let's keep going." Jill said, reloading her rifle just before picking up her communicator.
"HQ, Jill here. We have encountered hostile infected. The island is most likely infested. Do you guys copy?"
"Positive. Reinforcement team already ready for command should you find it necessary."
"Roger that." The short conversation drew to a close, and Jill ran her eyes over her men for a few moments before turning and starting to walk.
However, a few dozen steps later, they suddenly stopped as they heard the cry of pain from one of the agents just behind them.
As they turned around, all the agents' eyes widened slightly as they saw the agent being impaled and lifted into the air by... nothing.
They couldn't see what it was, but they could see a slight distortion ahead, and something that looked like a huge clawed arm being painted by the red of the agent's blood.
The soldiers raised their weapons, and soon, another agent was attacked by the wind. This time they could see something.
The thing was huge, greenish, but they didn't have time to see much, because as soon as the agent's head separated from his body, the creature disappeared again.
"Fire!" Jill shouted, and they opened fire.
The bullets struck the literally invisible creatures and revealed them as they were hit.
Jill's eyes widened a little more as she saw that they were Hunters. Well, at least, hunter-like creatures.
They had darker scales, apparently denser, were slightly larger, red eyes with what appeared to be spines on their backs.
Hunters that could turn invisible, that was new.
Jill fired at the two hunters ahead, who, although they didn't turn invisible again, moved quickly to the side to avoid the shots. Those creatures were fast, too. Maybe faster than the hunters from before.
As she was shooting, Jill could see, right next to her, another Hunter appearing and attacking the agent a few steps away from her.
She turned and shot at said hunter, and despite shooting him constantly, the agent was killed, it was too late.
Hunters that were invisible and made no noise as they moved. Great.
"Fall back!" Jill shouted, stopping shooting and moving her hand to grab another stun grenade.
However, her eyes widened again, the hairs on her body shivered, and a chill ran down her spine when she saw, right next to her, the arm of a hunter materialize in her line of sight and move toward her at great speed.
Jill, in reflex, dodged the first blow. Luck, skill, or desperation, she didn't know. But whatever it was, although it saved her from certain death, it couldn't save her from the blow with the back of the hand that the hunter struck her with.
A very strong blow to the side of her body, literally throwing her to the side and causing her to fly a few feet in the air.
Jill gasped and grunted as she felt her body hit and roll around on the ground for some time. She felt a sharp pain in her torso as her body stopped rolling, and knew right then and there that her ribs were broken. Or at least cracked.
She quickly drank a vial of herb and picked up the stun grenade. Some agents were still alive, but they would be eliminated if this continued.
"Stun grenade!" She shouted, and the soldiers who could, braced themselves.
The grenade exploded, the roar of the hunters were heard, and Jill stood up as she watched the hunters brandishing their claws around in an attempt to hit some soldier.
"Let's go! We have to move!" She shouted again, watching the surviving agents grab those hit by the stun grenade and run alongside her down the dirt road.
Not before she left a hand grenade as a gift to those creatures.
Leon arched his eyebrow slightly as he looked at the tablet in his hand. The tablet was a gift from William, though he knew it was just a way for Wesker not to interact with him face to face.
After he learned that Claire was in Harvardville and that she was being chased by Curtis, he hunted Wesker all over the facility, angry, ready to put a bullet in his chest. William always claimed to be superior, he wouldn't die with a simple bullet in his lung, right?
However, Jonah stopped him before he could shoot Wesker.
And now, his new mission was shown on the tablet screen.
Interesting. The mission was to find out information about the bioterrorist organization known as Veltro, directly connected with an island that is not listed in any government files.
They had a laboratory on said island.
At first, that mission of his did not exist. However, eighteen hours ago Chris Redfield sent a distress call from there, and six hours ago Jill Valentine, the agent sent to rescue him, did not report back to HQ.
Curious. That was the first mission that he had a secondary objective. As it was also the first mission in which he would directly help members of another organization.
Assisting members of the BSAA in their escape from the island.
Hm...
This was certainly going to be an experience.