Resident Evil:
Redemption
By: Myst Dragon
Chapter 1: the Mean Streets
Shortly after getting on the exit for Raccoon City, Kyle noticed that there were no longer any other cars on the highway. "That's odd; three days on the road I've never had it all to myself." The only probable cause he could think of was a group of police cars he'd managed to bypass.
Shortly after, the young man pulled into a gas station just inside the city limits; as he was about to grab the nozzle he saw a sign saying that the pumps have to be turned on inside, before pumping can begin. He sighed exhaustedly, needing a good night's rest. As he walked into the small store of the pumping station, he heard a strange crunching sound coming from behind the counter. He slowly crept over to investigate, and to his horror, the grisly sight of a slightly decayed man wearing tattered clothing, devouring what appeared to be the station clerk greeted him. A look of terror is trapped in the clerk's face. Overwhelmed with shock, Kyle bolted for his car as the man stood up and reached out for him! Still in need of a lot of work, Kyle's 67' Mustang refused to start at first. It's not until the decaying man made it out of the store, and two more zombies came out of the shadows, that it finally started and he pulled out, tires squealing.
He began to curse himself as he realized that he had wound up going further into the city, instead of driving away. Believing that there was still a chance that he could drive through the city he continued on, constantly glancing out the corners of his eyes. He soon found that the street had been barricaded. As he began to turn around, a large cylindrical object crashed down in the middle of the narrow street he had pulled onto. The crashing object had created a large hole leading down into the sewers.
"Days like this, I wish I'd listened to the news!" Realizing that he'd have to abandon his car, Kyle quickly grabbed his backpack out of the passenger seat and pulled out a Sig 9mm handgun. After getting out of his car, he carefully walked over to hole and looked in. All he can seem to make out on the object is a large T, and then it opened up. The moment he saw a massive gray hand reach out, he ran for it! "If there are any survivors still holding out in this little corner of hell, maybe I can find them at the hospital!"
He walked down the street, crowded by wrecked and abandoned cars, as well as mutilated bodies. One of them appeared to be militant, so he walked over for a closer look. The dead man was holding an assault rifle. Kyle examined the weapon and noted that it had backfired. "Useless!" He threw the weapon down, and heard a moaning sound come from behind. He turned around to discover, to his horror that the corpses he passed have risen! "I don't have time for this!" The young man brought his gun about and opened fire on the walking corpses as they lumber towards him. As he hit one in the head it collapsed. "You things really are zombies." He then shot the brains out of the remaining zombies. He pulled out a street map and looked for the fastest way to the hospital. He continued to wander the streets, working his way around roadblocks and barricades, and destroying zombies. As Kyle passed by a club entrance, he heard a cry for help. He rushed in and saw a group of zombies inching towards a corner. He quickly killed the zombies and reloaded his Sig. He walked over to the corner and saw a young woman crying. He looked her over and saw that her left leg was broken and bleeding.
As he approached her she holds her arms out, screaming "No! Stay away from me!"
Kyle spoke coldly as he looked down at the frightened woman. "You're hurt. I doubt you'd make it out of here, even with help. You'd probably just weight me down."
The young woman looked up at him surprised "You're human? Thank god! Please, you've got to help me!"
Kyle grinned at the woman, half amused. "Human? Some people would say otherwise. By the way, I have no intentions of helping you, but I'd like to rest, so you should be safe for the time being." His words left the woman too stunned for words. A few moments later the wall behind them bursts open, throwing them forward. Through the hole in the wall the Kyle sees a tall gray-skinned creature, with a huge claw-like left hand.
"You must be that thing that was in the canister, huh 'T-boy'?" with a growl the creature rushed forward and swiped at him with its massive claw. Kyle rolled out of the way and began firing at it with his 9mm. The bullets barely penetrated the skin. "Okay, new game-plan." He quickly holstered the Sig and pulled his Desert Eagle while he rolled to avoid the monster's next swipe! "You'll have to be faster than that if you want to catch a Katro! Let's see if you're really alive, shall we?" He then quickly emptied the clip of 50 cal. bullets into the monster, and it collapses. He smirked, "That answers that question!" he holstered the gun. "I guess I'd better get moving, maybe I'll find some useful survivors."
The frightened woman called out to him as he started to walk away. "You can't just leave me! If another monster comes here I'm dead! I can't even walk on my own right now!"
Kyle turned to look at her. "And that's the reason I'm leaving you, because you are of no use to me. In fact you'd be nothing but dead weight! I couldn't give a damn what happens to you after I leave here. Unlike my brother I don't care about preserving life, but I revel in the power to take lives. I might have been willing to take yours for you if I didn't need the bullets. And so, like the monster I am I'll leave you to your own devices to most likely die a pathetic death." He then walks through the hole made by the monster he knocked down.
Looking down on the young man's exit are two men, one large and muscular, and the other of slight build. The smaller man is holding a sniper rifle and has spiked blond hair. The larger man is bald, and looks down at Kyle Katro with great amusement. Crow turned to face the smaller man. "So, when do I get to mess him up for what he did to me?"
"I want to observe him a little more before I inject him with my special version of the T-virus. If only Dr. Birkin had been more of a team player. His G-virus, combined with my variant of the 'T' could have created something even more magnificent. Oh well." Miller, the smaller man answered.
"That stuff you gave me wasn't one off those virus things, was it?" The larger man was starting to feel like he'd been taken advantage of.
"No. We just gave you a special 'enhancing' serum, we use on all of our elite." Miller lied to the bigger man, hoping to ease his concern.
"Good, 'cause I'd snap that scrawny neck of yours If you had. Why Katro, anyway?"
"His excellent combat skills, of course! You saw how he handled that Tyrant down there!" Dr. Miller couldn't help but smile at the prospect of what the fruit of his research could create when combined with the combatant he had been spying on.
"Dirt on the skylight must've made me miss that part. Doesn't this jerk have a brother, that's even better at fighting hand-to-hand?" Crow asked as the two prepared to move on.
Miller smiled. "You mean Kieran? Yes, he is a superb combatant. However, He is motivated to protect life. I'm looking to create the ultimate bio-weapon! I need a killer, a man who could be mistaken for death itself. The only reason you survived your last encounter with him, was because the agent of the company that he was hired by, told him that he had to deliver you to the authorities alive."
"Yeah, whatever. I just want to get to the good part of this job, where I get to knock him around a bit for making me a cripple 'til you guys came along."
"It was impressive how he shot out both knees while jumping to the side to avoid the knife you threw. Let's get moving now, I don't want to loose track of Mr. Katro." With that they move out with Crow jumping across the rooftops carrying miller.
Back on the streets the target of the conversation crossed into an alley to try to get to the hospital faster. He soon noticed a mutilated body lying next to five others. The other bodies were riddled with bullets. The young man took the time to ensure that they had all received a bullet to the head. He then noticed that the mutilated body was holding a Browning HP. Kyle picked up the 9mm handgun and after taking out the magazine and ejecting the chambered round, he played around with it to get a quick feel for it.
"Custom job, smaller grip." He pulls the trigger and gets annoyed. "The trigger pull is light! Who was this made for, a girl scout!" After stowing the gun in his bag, he finished searching the body and found forty-eight 9mm rounds. Shortly after clearing the alley he heard the sound of a dog's claws clicking against the concrete as they approach him slowly. He quickly turned around, bringing his SiG. to bear, yelling "Stay!" He is taken by surprise, due to the appearance of the three decaying dogs. One of them growls and rushes him. He easily shoots it in the head knocking it down. "Bad dog!" A smirk appears on his face, but is quickly lost when he almost doesn't sidestep to dodge another dog he'd failed to notice! He barely had time to put the other two down as they rushed to towards him! Then the dog he'd barely dodged hunched down and began to growl. He nonchalantly shoots the final dog. "Shut up!"
As he continued on, he began to glance around more nervously, not wanting a zombie or dog to get lucky and take a bite out of his hide. This was one he was very grateful for his twin brother teaching him how to get a feel for the environment, by concentrating on all of his senses. As he walks into the hospital he was grateful not to encounter any more rising corpses or rotting dogs trying to eat him. With much of the hospital barricaded, and corpses all around, Kyle carefully walks one of the unblocked paths. Along the way he almost loses a little of his dinner as he finds a very gory hall with a street clothed zombie and a nurse zombie eating away at the remains of a doctor.
Kyle whistled, and the zombies slowly stood up and turned to face him. "I'm canceling your dinner plans." He put the two down quickly. When he found an elevator, he decided to check it out and when he examined the buttons inside he saw a stained one with no markings. He presses the button, only for a recorded female voice to ask him to scan his I.D. card. The young man then goes back out and takes the doctor's I.D. card, and scans it. The doors closed and the elevator lowered three stories below basement level three. "Guess this is my floor." After quickly glancing around, he walked out of the elevator. "From now on when someone advises a shortcut through a city, I won't take it!"
As Kyle wandered the halls, he stopped suddenly as he heard something land behind him. He closed his eyes; and as it jumped, he quickly ducked, avoiding its sharp claws; and he dropped the Sig to pull out his Eagle. As the monster landed, he fired a magnum round into its head. It collapsed with a high pitch shriek. He turned the creature onto its back and is too horrified for words by the sight. It looks like a strange mix between a lizard and a gorilla, with its fingers and thumbs being almost nothing but claw.
Kyle forced himself to regain his composure as he leaned down to inspect the now deceased creature, being cautious to look for any signs of life. "I've seen some ugly pieces of crap in the past ten years, but you take the cake!" Suddenly the closet door behind him flew open, and before he could bring his gun to bear; a female zombie was already on him, causing him to fall and drop his Desert Eagle. With the weight of the zombie on him, he had a hard time trying to fight her off. She almost bit him a few times. He heard someone running towards them. "Low-heel shoes. I hope she's armed." A brown haired woman ran around the corner.
"Kat! You have to stop. Sit back down in the 'safe place' and let me give you the vaccine, so you won't get any worse." The woman called out to the zombie.
Kyle yelled at the woman, still struggling with the zombie. "You idiot! She can't get 'any worse', so just shoot her and be done with it, Cassandra!"
"Catherine!" she injected the vaccine into the zombie's neck, and it collapses in a matter of seconds. Her eyes widened in realization of what just occurred. "I… I killed her! No!" She fell to her knees and started crying. Kyle stood up and collected his guns. As he looked at her, he wass reminded of the little sister that he used to have. He helped her stand, and return to her lab. As she sat down, she slowly stopped crying and an almost blank look appears on her face. "The vaccine didn't work. It killed her. I failed and I killed my own sister! Some doctor I turned into."
Kyle picked up an injector gun with a strange colored fluid in it. "Is this the vaccine? What virus is it for?"
Cassandra answered him, trying to hold herself together. "It's supposed to destroy the T and the G-virus that creates those creatures, as well as prepare the body to defend against them, but I failed. I have to perfect it before things get to out of hand outside." Her eyes widen as she sees Kyle putting the injector to his neck and injecting the vaccine into it. "Are you insane, that stuff killed Catherine?"
Kyle smiled warmly, hoping it would help the woman pull herself together. "The dead can't die. Five years ago I was hired to kill a budding new medical researcher. She was a genius, and she looked like my little sister! Needless to say I couldn't kill her, and right now I'm glad that I didn't! It wasn't you that killed your sister, it was one of those viruses."
Cassandra was surprised by what he'd told her. "You were hired to kill me? By who?"
"Some insecure nutcase by the name of William Birkin. He apparently thought you'd be too much competition, and wanted to use someone outside of Umbrella to do it." Kyle told her not thinking much of it.
"Dr. Birkin? How could I possibly be a threat to him? I don't even work for Umbrella!" The young researcher couldn't believe what she'd heard.
Kyle put a hand on her shoulder. "It doesn't matter, it's in the past. We need to get out of here, and I'm sure that your vaccine can help any survivors we might find. The more people we find and help, the greater the odds of our own survival."
"Survival, How bad is it up there?" Cassandra asked, still trying to reconcile the facts she'd been denying.
Kyle sighed. "It's chaos. There are zombies, zombie dogs, and whatever that thing I killed next to your sister was."
"A Hunter." She told him, referring to the monster he'd killed in the hall.
"What?"
"I broke into some secret files and found out that the hospital has been involved with Umbrella's experiments. They've even incorporated some of my research! Anyway, that creature out there is called a Hunter." Cassandra confessed.
Kyle shrugged his shoulders, not really caring what it's called as much as how to kill it. "Whatever. We need to get out of here. And I think that you and that vaccine of yours can help any other survivors we might find. The more of us there are the greater our chances for survival, it's that simple."
Cassandra looked at him slightly confused. "You really don't care about the lives of others do you?"
Kyle grinned. "Not really. My brother's the hero, always willing to put his neck on the line to save the life of a total stranger, while I'm the monster that kills whatever gets in my way!" Noticing that the young woman was moving behind a screen, "What are you doing, we need to gather the vaccine and get out of here!"
Cassandra yelled back across the screen. "A skirt and heels are hardly practical for running around the streets with monsters after us, so I'm changing. If you're such a monster, then why didn't you kill me, even if I did remind you of your sister?"
"Whatever. I was born with a twin brother, Kieran, and a little sister named Cassandra. By the time Kieran and I were ten I started noticing him standing up to a lot of people. He taught me a little of his defensive techniques and I learned to shoot from a friend. Anyway, back to the point. Over the years I saw him perform his selfless acts; it was like he was drawn to other people in danger. I found I was drawn to danger as well, but unlike my brother I had no compunctions against killing, the only person to matter to me was Cassandra, she seemed to have a calming affect on me. I'd never actually killed anyone until shortly after I turned fifteen. It was a scumbag in a suit that had just finished a drug deal. He attacked Cassandra and me, because we overheard some of the conversation. I used what Kieran taught me to take the gun out of his hands first, I then shot out his knees. When he begged for his life I said, 'Nobody plays with death and wins.' I would have finished him if Cass hadn't been there."
"So you almost killed someone to save your sister, you're not such a monster."
Kyle leaned back in a chair as he continued. "There's more. That evening I told Kieran what happened, and that I would be leaving. After realizing he couldn't stop me without force he told me, 'Become who you will, but don't force yourself to be something because you think it's who you have to be.' I'll never understand what he meant by that. Before I left, I told Cassandra that if she really needed me she'd only have to call. I eventually became like I am now, and five years later she had called me saying she needed me. Later on I found out that everyone related to me and Kieran had been murdered. Kieran took down the group responsible a few months ago. I failed to protect Cassandra. The funny thing is that all of those family members were slaughtered because Kieran was imagined as a threat to their illegal dreams."
"I'm sorry, it must be painful. Why weren't you killed though?"
"They underestimated me. Dodging their bullets was easier than dodging Kieran's fists! I killed all but one. I left him with a message."
"Nobody plays with death and wins." Cassandra remarked as she walked out from behind the screen wearing sneakers, blue jeans, a red shirt, and a denim jacket.
Kyle smirked, "Couldn't you find anything that fit? Can you even move in those?" In the blink of an eye, her foot is an inch from his throat! "I guess you can, but don't ever do that again."
"Sure." As the young medical researcher gathered the vaccine samples and some first-aid supplies into a bag, Kyle handed her the Browning he found earlier.
"You don't have a problem shooting these things do you?"
"I used to shoot in competitions." She told him confidently.
Kyle: "I mean, 'do you have any problems shooting the zombies and whatever other monsters that might attack us'!"
Cassandra grinned, "don't worry."
"Good, I won't." He handed her an extra magazine with ammunition and they walked out of the hospital.