Resident Evil: Royal Hell

By Ryu Hogosha

Chapter 1

************

"Run, Claire!" Leon shouted. He could feel the air on his back as the Tyrant relentlessly slashed at him with its claw, missing only by mere centimeters. Claire turned around slightly and aimed her shotgun. She pulled the trigger, sending 10-gauge buckshot over Leon's left shoulder into the creature's chest. The Tyrant didn't even flinch.

Leon tucked the barrel of his Desert Eagle under his arm and fired three shots into the Tyrant, causing it to stagger. Seeing this, he fired again, this time at its head. The Tyrant let out a growl as Leon's bullet struck home. The young man fired until his clip ran empty, finally dropping the monster.

Claire Redfield, along with rookie officer Leon S. Kennedy from the Raccoon City Police Department, had received reports of a bizarre creature roaming through the English countryside, attacking tourists and natives alike, apparently gouging them in the stomach with a razor-sharp weapon. The victims were later seen rising up and walking like nothing had happened, with one difference: they had become mindless zombies, with dead and rotting skin hanging from their bones, their eyes searching…searching for the warm flesh they knew as prey.

Leon stood over the Tyrant, loading a fresh clip into his gun. Claire joined him by his side. "I think that about does it," the young woman said, her words echoing down the corridor of the now-silent laboratory. It had been four months since the day that the quiet, mid-western town called Raccoon City was literally blown off the map to cover up the mistakes and secrets of the pharmaceutical corporation known as Umbrella.

The Tyrant uttered a low growl, and Claire pressed the barrel of her shotgun to the monster's face and pulled the trigger, causing the creature to sputter blood and sending bits if it onto her clothing. Her face wrinkled in disgust.

"Now all we have to do is seal this place off for good," Leon said finally. "Where do we go, though?"

Before Claire could answer, emergency lights flashed and a calm voice began talking through the loudspeaker, "Warning. The self-destruct system has been activated. All researchers and guards should report to the nearest evacuation facility. Repeat..."

"I guess that settles that little problem," Claire said loudly over the speakers. "Let's move!"

Leon looked at her and nodded. "Right!"

The two of them rounded the corner at the end of the hall and jumped into the lift. Leon quickly pushed the button for the top floor of the subterranean complex. The door started to close, when they heard a voice coming from the other end of the corridor. "Hey! Wait up!!"

A young man was running full-speed down the hall. Leon braced the door open and the stranger bounded inside. Leon let go of the door and the elevator moved upward.

"Thanks," the young man said in a moderately heavy Australian accent. "Name's Seiyn. Jenner Seiyn."

"Claire Redfield," the young woman responded. "This is Leon Kennedy."

Jenner gave a nod to the both of them. He was tall, about 6-feet, 2-inches, and he looked about Leon's age. His short, blood-red hair was damp with sweat. He wore a set of blue camouflage pants and a white T-shirt, along with a blue camo vest. His jet-black boots housed twin combat knives, both on the outside of his legs. In short, he looked very much like a veteran survivor.

The young man gave them a look-over. "So you're the blokes that are here to take down Umbrella?"

Leon nodded back. "That's the plan, but...what are you doing down here?" he asked. Jenner leaned against the wall of the elevator and said, "The same thing you are. My grandfather worked for Umbrella way back, when they were working with medicine, not building bio-weapons. He was one of the leading developers for the new drugs. One of the higher-ups decided to try something 'different'. They asked my grandfather to help out. He agreed, thinking they were planning on creating a new type of medicine. They shipped him off to America, to this mansion outside of an isolated city. I forgot the name, though. Anyway, I never heard from him again."

"The Spencer Estate," Leon said. "It was just outside of Raccoon City before S.T.A.R.S. teams went in to investigate a series of unexplained murder cases that were centered around that area."

"Yeah," Jenner replied, crossing his arms. "I remember reading about that somewhere. It was said that the S.T.A.R.S. were lying, and that the mansion was destroyed due to 'careless behavior' on the S.T.A.R.S.' part."

Claire looked at Jenner, his angered expression reminded her of Steve's when he told her of his past. She thought back to when she and another young man, Steve Burnside, were imprisoned on Rockfort Island. They had been brought there as captives of Umbrella Inc. Steve's father worked for Umbrella and tried to steal information and sell it to the highest bidder. He was caught, and Steve's mother was executed. Steve and his father were then taken to the island.

Oh, Steve…

A jolt brought Claire back to the present. The elevator had stopped. Leon stepped out, followed by Jenner. Claire was last. "So it was you who threw the failsafe switch," Claire said as they bolted out the main door and into an open field. They didn't stop until they were two hundred yards from the facility, where they promptly collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. "Yeah," Jenner answered. "How did you manage to make it through the place?" Leon asked. "There had to be hundreds of--"

His sentence was cut short by the Triggering System's detonation. The resulting explosion shook the very ground they stood on, and sent a large column of flame spouting into the sky. When the shaking finally ceased, Jenner reached into his vest and produced a semi-automatic handgun. ".45 SOCOM," he said. "I snatched it out of a guard's locker, as well as quite a bit of ammo, but that was it."

"Could I see it for a sec?" Leon asked. Jenner handed over the weapon. Leon looked at it for a moment before handing it back. "Come on. There's still a lot of ground to cover," he continued.

Jenner tucked the SOCOM back into his shoulder holster. "There's a small Umbrella facility just south of London, about thirty miles west from here. My grandpa worked there." he said. "Then let's go!" Claire replied.

************

They had opted to walk the rest of the way after taking a cab as far as they could. Their trek took them to a small woodland area, shrouded in thick fog. "I've got a bad feeling about this, mates..." Jenner said softly.

"I agree," Leon responded, slowly looking about. They pressed onward, working their way through the dense fog and foliage. Suddenly, Jenner stopped them. He raised a hand, as though telling them to wait. "What's that?" he asked. Claire looked around, slowly drawing her M93R. "What is it?" she replied.

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what? I don't hear anything," Leon spoke up.

"Exactly," Jenner said. "There are no songbirds, no bees, not even squirrels. It's the middle of bloody spring, for crying out loud!"

Leon finally became aware of the eerie stillness about him. "You're right," he replied softly, releasing the safety of his Desert Eagle. Jenner did the same with his SOCOM. "I'll take point." Leon said. "We'll triangulate."

The words had barely passed his lips when a growl emanated from somewhere in the forest. It was joined by a second, then a third. Soon, leaves and twigs began crunching rapidly, as if something were moving fairly quickly. From out of the fog, three creatures leaped at them. Without thinking, Jenner yanked out one of his knives and hurled it straight into the head of one of the beasts. Leon fired his gun at another, while Claire's pistol spat three-round bursts into the third. The creatures didn't slow, with the exception of the one that Leon had shot. A large chunk was missing from its head. Jenner drew his SOCOM and fired twice, killing the remaining monsters. He slowly walked toward the one that his knife had struck, keeping his gun trained on the nearest of the other two. Retrieving his knife, he knelt and took this chance to examine the beasts carefully. They appeared to be large dogs, with the exception that in some places, their skin was rotted away and only muscle showed. "Damn..." Jenner whispered.

"It's just like before..." Leon said, holstering his weapon. The three continued on their way through the forest. They encountered a few more dogs, but other than that, they had no problems.

Claire dropped to her knees quickly, drawing her gun. The two men followed suit. Claire pointed ahead of them into the fog. They could barely make out the shape of a building, and standing outside, were two humanoid figures. Leon peered through the thick fog at the guards. His face grew pale. "Oh, no....."

The guards wore ragged clothing. Their lifeless eyes stared blankly into the distance. Their jaws-- or what was left of them-- opened and closed silently. Fresh blood covered their faces.

They had become zombies.