Chapter V: Unbroken
The lickers clawed at the home's white-painted walls, tearing chunks away with their hands. They snarled and groaned, and hissed an unmistakable roar, looking for a way inside in their mindless hunger, banging windows and gnawing at corners. Many parts of the structure looked ready to break.
"Over here." The lickers turned their heads to the origin of the sound. Two shots rang through the air, followed by several unearthly shrieks as Axl unloaded his shotgun's shells into three of the creatures together by the bay window. He replaced the two spent shells with the efficiency of an experienced soldier, guiding them perfectly into the holding slot. The others turned and began to walk towards him, with the nearest leaping at him with its clawed feet. Axl stepped to the side and fired point blank at the monster, sending twenty ball bearings through the licker's decomposing body, killing it almost instantaneously as the blast threw it to the wall.
He moved fast, making a quick run around the house, using his shotgun to clear the area around. Many of the lickers were bunched together, making firing the shotgun at close range highly effective. He disposed of each as they came into view without hesitation, reloading as he ran between shots. Two others were rounding the corner by the front door of the two-story house as Axl headed for it.
"I can't let them get inside!" he thought verbally. He stopped with a skid while firing two more shots and tried to turn the knob. It was no use; it was locked from the inside.
Having no time to spare with dangerous monsters all around, he stepped back and aimed the Benelli at the lock and blew the whole thing off. He kicked it open and ran inside, shutting it, pressing his back against the door. He had bought some time, but he knew there were a lot more left in the garden.
"Ok, that was nine shots in total, and I've only got three left inside. Better reload fast." Axl reached into one of his pouches and took out five shells while holding the gun firm in his right hand. He breathed in through his nose, keeping his lips tightly together as he tried to hold the gun tightly to his shoulder and began to load a few shells. But after placing several shells into the rifle, he slowed as he noticed the air carried a strong, acrid smell. His hands came to a stop once he noticed what was on the floor. He looked up slowly from his shotgun and saw the entire interior was coveredin kerosene.
"You've got to be kidding." said Axl, dropping the rifle and the remaining shells in his hand. The house was lit only by the midday sun slipping in through the curtains, but still shimmered on the fuel-laden oak floor. He looked around saw a little old woman in an old blue 1950's style dress hobble out of what looked like the kitchen.
Axl picked up his rifle and the shells and finished loading while speaking up, "Excuse me ma'am, I'm Colonel-"
The hunched over woman raised her hand to silence him as she walked across the other side of the room. She spoke in a kind, elderly voice. "Oh, hello! Come in, come in. Your name isn't important! I'm so sorry, this place is a mess. As you can see, I can't really entertain any guests right now." She gave a warm smile under her silver-gray hair.
"Ma'am, you're in grave danger!" Axl spoke with concern as he heard the faint sound of hissing from outside begin again.
The elderly woman stopped, looked, and began to walk towards him. "Oh, I know that. What, you think I'm senile?" She laughed, looking down to watch her step. She came to about ten feet of him and stopped again. "You look lost, is there somewhere you need to be?"
Axl couldn't understand this woman nor how she could know he had lost the route. With nothing else he could thing of, he went along with, what he figured, her lucky guess. "Yes ma'am, I'm heading toward the penitentiary, if you know the way it would help."
"Oh that awful place! They should never have built it. You know, I never liked the fact they would send prisoners to my town than to some city that could use one of those hell-holes!"
Axl tried again, searching for the map in one of his pockets. "Miss, if you could please tell me where I am on the map, I might be able to find my way there." he found the map, but then put it back with a growl as remembered where he was and how dire the situation was for this woman, "No, first we need to get you out of here and to safety! I warded off some of the lickers but I'm certain more are coming!" He began to walk forward, holding his free hand in front as he continued. "Is there a vehicle we could use to get you out of the city?"
The old woman moved to her fireplace, fixing the knick-knacks she had collected over the years. She spoke so calmly, despite the approaching danger just outside her door. "It all started with that blond man in the sunglasses, claiming to be sent by the government. When people began to get sick, he set up a quarantine on the town so no one could leave. Then he prohibited going to the gas stations to fill up your car, saying that burning something in the fuel' and releasing it into the air was causing the illness. Oh what a bunch of crap, if you don't mind my language!" She turned to him and put her hands together. "I'm sorry, but there are no working cars left in this entire town."
A dark shadow fell upon his face. Axl understood that without any vehicles, travelling would be far more dangerous as well as more strenuous, but something else she said bothered him greatly. "You saida blond man with sunglasses? Was he caucasian, around forty, about six feet tall with a deep voice?"
The old woman nodded. "Yes, yes, he said he was a captain or something. He didn't give his name."
Axl clenched his fist and whispered, "Wesker" Axl looked back up to the elderly woman. "Please, let me get you to safety, I can't leave you here."
"Listen to me." The old woman straightened herself, seeming to grow twice as tall as she first looked. "I had a son once, a long time ago. During the 70's, he was drafted to fight in Vietnam. I had made such a fuss because I didn't want him to go and even asked him to escape to Canada so he wouldn't be in any danger. Buthe wouldn't back down, he wasn't scared to fight. He always told me that it wasn't right to walk away and leave the fighting for others. Oh, I didn't think one more teenager fighting would mean anything, but he always told me one person was what made all the difference. Each day went by slowly, and I feared getting that letter from the government telling metelling me he..." She sat down, looking emotionally drained as she told the story. She closed her eyes and wiped them with the back of her hand before putting on a pair of glasses that hung from her breast pocket. Axl was listening intently to her, standing upright with a blank expression on his face. He could guess what had happened.
The woman picked up a small frame from the stained-wood table next to the chair. The picture it held was a black and white photo which had yellowed over the years of man — more like a boy — of 18, in full military dress uniform with a large grin from ear to ear. "November 9th, 1974. That day it rained so harshly as I went to get the mail. Then I saw it, a letter from the United States government. I broke down crying right then and there as I opened the letter in the pouring rain. The letter read my son was killed in action, protecting his platoon from a grenade thrown by a deranged soldier from his own unit during a battle. I didn't understand then why he sacrificed himselfbut I understand now. He gave himself up without second thought and died bravely to protect others and for a cause he believed in."
Axl stood silent, feeling sympathy for the woman as he looked into her saddened face. He understood her reasoning more clearly now, even if he still believed it mad to want to stay and die.
He silently thought to himself, "She is bound to this place"
She stood up once more. "This is my home. I've lived here all my life, in this town, in this home. My son was born and raised in this home. No monster will EVER set foot here, and I'll make sure of that! I will defend this place from being defiled by thosethings," Axl looked at her, her eyes and face were now sharp, showing her firmness in her belief and her lack of fear. She had doused her home in kerosene and his guess was she was ready to burn the house down with her inside before any virals could get in.
Axl's demeanor remained the same, a cold exterior to mask any welling emotion. He gazed at the old woman; he knew she would not leave her home alive. He felt so sorry for her, but there was nothing more he could do. She had made her choice.
The sound of lickers hitting the windows and attacking the walls became audible. He knew it was only a matter of time before they would overrun the house. He began to turn away, she was lost and there was no use in trying to save her. He would kick down the door, blast whatever was out there, make a run for it and try to find the right road.
The woman saw this and cried out softly to him, "Wait! You don't know the way. Head left down the road in front and you'll reach Main Street after a half a mile of walking. I'm sorry I went on rambling deary, butyou remind me so much of him." she laughed mildly, "At first glance I thought you were a ghost!"
Axl nodded, also chuckling mildly. The elderly woman reached into the drawer under the picture and took out a small, worn out oak box.
"There is one more thing. I want you to have this, because I can see it in your eyes you have the same courage and determination that my son had." She opened the box and took out a medal attached to a blue-striped ribbon. "For his unflinching courage in the face of death for the sake of others, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Take this with you and never forget what you're fighting for. May my son's spirit help you in your journey, and please, live through this."
Axl smiled weakly at her as he took the medal and slipped it into his shirt's left front pocket, "Thank you, Miss." He locked his shotgun and held it to his shoulder. He would have felt like crying, but it would have done no good, so he kept his composure. He wasn't going to ask her again to escape, she would just end up dead and that was reality. He said the only thing he thought appropriate, "God save you."
As Axl moved to look out the bay window, the elderly woman's hands gripped something she had concealed in her pocket the entire time: a lighter. She lit it and sighed, checking its flame.
A small crash from the ceiling grabbed his attention and he spun around to see a licker had broken in and dropped down, behind the unknowing elderly woman. She was directly in the line of fire and there was no time to react. Before Axl could say anything, the monster had run its lance-like tongue through her chest.
"NO!" He cried, but then saw the small flame in her hand: the lighter remained lit. At once he realized the body was going to fall onto the kerosene soaked floor once the licker retracted its tongue. More and more of them were pouring in from freshly breached openings, each emitting an ear-splitting hissing roar from their throats, nearly deafening him. Axl cringed at the noise, but managed to look on with terror as the first licker saw him and prepared to draw its tongue out to launch another strike.
It took only a split second for Axl to snap out of his stupor. Thinking quickly, he spun into a firing stance, fired at the window with his shotgun and jumped through, just as the body hit the floor.
Axl looked up as the house erupted in flame. He heard the collective sound of dozens of lickers being burned alive in the home, their hissing and inhuman screaming curdling his blood for a moment. He got on his feet and ran into the street, where he looked at the house in full as it was engulfed in flames in the middle of the garden. The screams stopped after a few moments.
"I'm sorry they entered your beloved home, but they never took you from it, even to the very end." Axl put his hand over the pocket holding the medal, "Nothing could break you, just as nothing could break your son. Go with your son, dear woman, and go with God." He said a silent goodbye before heading down the way the nameless woman had told him to go.
