Resident Evil:
Redemption
By: Myst Dragon
Chapter 3: Escape!
As Kyle Katro slept, his consciousness began to recover from its recent trauma, and he saw an important event that had helped to shape his identity. He remembered the last time he'd fought his twin brother five years prior. The two stood about sixty feet from each other, their main defining features being that one wore a tan leather jacket and held a reverse-bladed katana; and the other wore a black trench coat and held a Glock handgun.
"You can't dodge me forever hypocrite!" Kyle yelled at his brother
"I don't have to." The young man smirked. "You're empty, and by the time you reload, I'll have knocked you out."
"Alright, let's settle this then. I promise I won't dodge." His brother nodded in agreement, and after a brief pause rushed towards him! He quickly dropped the Glock and twitched his right arm, releasing an arm-mounted gun hidden under his sleeve. As he fired a shot, Kieran ducked down and slammed the blunt edge of the sword into his abdomen. The gunman fell unconscious.
After he came to, his brother handed him a holstered Desert Eagle. "You remember the promise right? Don't take any jobs, or do anything to intentionally harm innocents." Kieran paused before continuing apologetically. "If I'd known Cass and the others were going to be in danger, I would've done everything I could have to save them, but I think the one you really blame is yourself."
"The only thing I've got to blame myself for, is putting too much faith in you." He scowled as the environment changed and his consciousness shifted from the memory to his mental plane. As he looked around he saw what looked like rabid dogs, chewing on pieces of his scattered self. He quickly brought his Desert Eagle to bear and started shooting the creatures and absorbed each piece. As he'd absorbed each piece, except his sense of remorse which he'd locked away long ago, the creatures had gathered themselves up and formed a hulking juggernaut. The young man ducked a swing and started firing into it. He shot at different parts of the creature trying to find a weak spot, but the behemoth didn't seam to be affected by the bullets. "I'm not strong enough like this. I need more." He changed his target to the cage holding the remorse he'd felt for some of the people he'd killed in his earlier days. After shooting the cage open, the last of his scattered psyche was absorbed and he was whole. "Damn, I hate feeling this way. As is, the vaccine I took isn't enough. But the information it gave my body should allow me to use my chi to take care of you!"
Kyle pulled out another magazine from his belt and focused his chi into it; transforming the bullets. "This'll teach you to mess with a Katro!" He slammed the magazine into the well of the Eagle and released the slide, chambering a round. He quickly jumped onto the shoulder of the monster attacking his mindscape and emptied his fifty caliber weapon into the head of the creature. He jumped off as the then headless creature collapsed, lifeless. He stepped close, examining it. "If I just leave it as is, it'll probably revive and attack my mind again. I'd better use my chi, and what my cells learned from the vaccine to transform the virus, and assimilate it." He grinned. "At least then, I won't have to worry about becoming someone's dog anymore." He placed his hands on the creature and began focusing chi through it. "I may not be as good as Kieran when it comes to focusing chi, but I'll be damned if I let someone take away my sense of who I am." Several hours later the creature was absorbed into the clothes of the mindscape Kyle Katro. "Now, to just find my way out of here and wake up."
"Hello, is anybody in here?" Cassandra heard a voice coming from inside the main part of the store. She looked through her peek hole, and could barely make out the silhouette of a thin man holding a rifle. He seemed to be carefully scanning the store. The man leaned against one of the support pillars.
"Wait here." She told the boy, as she stepped out of the storage room, into the main part of the store. After she'd taken a few steps towards the man, he'd turned to face her, aiming his rifle at her! She held her arms out frightened. "Don't shoot! I'm not infected."
"Where's Katro?" The man asked her as a familiar large man walked into the store.
"Oh shit. Crow." She looked back to the man with the rifle. "You're the one who shot Kyle with that dart, aren't you? What was in it?"
The man smiled at her. "It was a product of my research. He will become a perfect weapon." He glanced over to the door she came from. "My new weapon wouldn't happen to be in there, would he?" At that instant, the door flew open and Kyle brought his Desert Eagle to bear on Crow, and his Sig to bear on Dr. Miller. "Stand down on command: Zulu, Alpha, Sigma, Delta!" He ordered Kyle.
The Katro shot out Crows knees, and scowled at the researcher. "Was that supposed to do something?" Kyle's eyes had become avian. "Thanks to your little bug, I'm being forced to deal with some issues I'd rather left buried in my subconscious. Let's just say you're damn lucky I don't want to waste ammo right now."
"This isn't possible!" Dr. Miller's mind raced, trying to rationalize what he'd just witnessed.
Kyle's scowl turned into a malicious grin. "Drop the gun, and step back." He waited a moment for the doctor to comply. When he didn't the young man yelled. "Now!" After that Dr. Miller quickly complied; dropping his rifle and stepping back. "If you really understood who you were messing with, you'd know that nothing's impossible for me." He holstered his Sig, leaving the Desert Eagle in his left hand. "In my past I murdered just about any sort of man or woman for the right amount of money, I've always preferred fighting through a big crowd to do it though. Cassandra, get the kid and start going upstairs." As the woman, and Jack started on their way to the stairs, Kyle punched through one of the support columns, causing part of the ceiling and debris to fall between the men. Kyle holstered his Eagle and followed his companions.
"Won't that make going up dangerous?" Cassandra asked the young man, concerned.
He seemed slightly distracted. "Not if the builders knew what they were doing."
"How are you feeling Kyle? You're eyes are almost all black."
"Didn't notice. Physically I feel fine, stronger than normal." He answered her, trying to hold back the frustration he was feeling, about his past. "It's easy to kill scum, for me anyway, but I had to cut away apart of my self to become the cold-blooded murderer I used to be." He whispered to himself as they ran up the stairs. "My hands are stained with the blood of innocents." As they ran out on the roof, Kyle started to scan the area, looking out past several rooftops. He suddenly pointed to something off in the distance. "Look. Over there."
"Where? I can't really see anything." Cassandra looked trying to see it.
Kyle shook his head grinning. "Not used to being this different. A couple of rooftops over, maybe six blocks, there's a Hawk. It's still giving off some heat."
"You mean a helicopter?" She asked unsure. "But I don't know how to fly. Do you?"
"No, but if I had to, I'd be willing to learn. How hard can it be?"
After climbing down the fire escape, and starting on their way to the building with the helicopter. Kyle once again scanned for threats as they walked. His Sig was ready, but he was still distracted. He spun around as he heard a roar from the distance. "Kyle, are you okay?" Cassandra asked, concerned.
"I feel like a rookie after his first kill. Innocent or involved with an organization; that distinction only mattered to me once, and it was the worst job of my life." He began to grit his teeth. "I swear, if I see either of those two again; I'll kill them." He sniffed as he caught something in the air and started moving again. "We've got company comin'. Let's move." Cassandra sighed, and followed after double-checking her Browning. As they passed another block of weaving through wrecked cars and debris, Kyle fired into an alley. After the first shot, he heard a soft thud and a set of growls. He quickly picked off the remaining three dogs as they rushed forward! He suddenly heard a heavy thumping sound rushing towards them. "Get down!" He pushed Cassandra and Jack to the side as he dropped to the pavement, just in time to keep from loosing his head to a hunter's swipe!
As the beast with huge fore-claws landed, it skidded to a halt and turned to face them again. It let out a low gurgled growl as it snapped its claws against the street. Kyle glanced back to see another was approaching from the same direction the first came from. "This is nice. You brought a friend." He holstered his Sig and slowly reached inside his trench coat for his Desert Eagle. The two hunters seemed to be relishing the experience as they slowly made their way to him. He drew the fifty caliber weapon as they started to run towards him, and shot the one he'd been facing between the eyes. He turned towards the other as it jumped at him, but before he could shoot, it was hit by a spray of bullets! The dead carcass still completed its targeted leap, landing on the young Katro and knocking him down. "Ow" The impact winded him, but he didn't feel like taking his time pushing off the repugnant creature. As he stood, he saw two men walking out of another alley. They wore uniforms similar to other militants he'd seen lying on the streets, with the umbrella logo and the letters U.B. C. S. sewed on their tactical vests.
"Look bro, civilians!" A slightly younger one proclaimed, smiling as he walked ahead.
"Careful, Jason. They could be infected." The older brother cautioned.
"Come on, Rick. They don't look sick to me."
Kyle dusted off his black coat and put on his sunglasses. "Do either, of you two jokers know how to fly a Hawk?"
The younger one's attention is brought back to Kyle. "I'm the backup pilot. Me and my bro here, were on our way to the rendezvous point." He gave Kyle a confused look and laughed a little. "Why are you wearing shades?"
"My eyes are sensitive to light right now." Kyle told him with a wry grin.
"But its dark out."
"Trust me." Kyle told him, slightly annoyed. The brown haired man holstered his Desert Eagle. "If you're a pilot then you just gained a new friend who'd like to see you make it out of this alive."
Dr. Miller looked around impatiently, as he waited for Crow's knees to finish regenerating. "You just had to let him take out your knees again, didn't you? There's no way we can find them in time now!"
"Just shut up." The large man glared at the researcher. "It's your own fault. He'll be looking for a way to fly out of here, and I know where there's a Helo nearby."
"It doesn't matter, we should leave. This has been nothing but a mess." As he said that, Crow put one of his large hands around the smaller man's neck.
"We're not leaving 'til I see Katro dead!"
The frail man grabbed the larger man's arm, uselessly trying to pry himself free. "You… you can't kill me. You need me to fly the helicopter." His voice betrayed his fright, as he struggled against Crow.
"I'm not the moron you think I am." With that, the large man added his other hand and crushed the researcher's throat.
"So, Mr. Cool. Are you gonna thank me?" Jason asked as the group of two mercenaries, an assassin, a woman, and a child continue.
"For what?" Kyle asked.
"For the save, man!"
"I had everything under control." Kyle was starting to grit his teeth. "It was just going to be a little close."
"What were those things?" Rick asked, as he scanned the area.
"You mean, you work for Umbrella, but you don't know?" Cassandra asked, surprised.
"Hey babe, we're just hired guns." Jason sighed. "It's not like we made this mess."
"When I started researching it, I had no idea what it was really capable of. I still couldn't believe it when I broke into the secret lab hidden under the hospital." The young woman paused. "I bet you don't care what they do as long as you get paid."
"Hey now. I'm not like that. We were just told to come in and extract the execs, because the city was a disaster area."
"Be quiet, unless you two want to attract attention." Kyle glared at the two.
"Does somebody mind answering my question now? What were those things?" Rick asked again, annoyed.
"They're called 'Hunters'. One of Umbrella's great product line." Kyle couldn't help but grin. "All this senseless death was caused by corporate greed and researchers without conscience. I may have done some pretty messed up shit, but never anything this bad." As the group approached the building with the Helicopter on top, they saw crow waiting in front of the main doors, with bloodstained hands. Kyle looked to the others. "I want you guys to circle around, while I take care of this asshole." Kyle handed his bag off to Cassandra.
"Are you sure." The young woman asked concerned.
"I wouldn't have said it, if I wasn't." Kyle slowly walked forward as the others went off to the side. As he walked, he reached inside his trench coat, behind his back and pulled out the Desert Eagle. He pulled the magazine and Ejected the chambered round. After storing them on his belt, he pulled out a different magazine and slammed it into the Eagle. "You really shouldn't have played with Death, Crow. Now you lose." Crow started walking towards him.
"You're the one that's gonna die. I'm gonna leave your corpse to rot in this city, along with the bitch and the brat!" Kyle's eyes narrowed on the man. He barely rolled out of the way as Crow rushed at him and brought his fist crashing down. It left a small crater where it impacted. As the large man fired off several punches and swings at Kyle, the man in the trench coat simply sidestepped, dodged, and ducked everyone of them. More infuriating to the larger man, was that the Katro was grinning.
"Come on, I know you can do better than this. I've killed old ladies that could move faster than this!" Kyle taunted as Crow continuously tried to hit him. The swings and Kyle's movements were barely detectable by the normal eye; as Kyle was using his focused internal energy as well as the enhancements absorbed from the virus.
"Come on, Rick. Shouldn't we have just ventilated the guy and been done with it?"
"Do you enjoy wasting ammo? Besides, I get the feeling that was personal." He looked over to the two men as the group started walking the halls of the building. "Besides, it's in our best interest to prep the Hawk for takeoff as soon as possible."
"You mean the nuke, don't you bro?" The younger mercenary sighed.
"The what?" Cassandra, barely kept herself from yelling.
"You know. If I'd wanted to end this quick; I've already had twenty openings." Kyle continued to taunt as he leapt away from the brute. "It's time I let you have a taste of my special recipe." As the large man rushed forward, Kyle quickly fired a bullet at each of Crow's knees. Upon impact with bone, the bullets exploded in a fiery blast! Spreading tissue from the undamaged bone and causing the brute to stagger. Kyle could actually see the flesh regenerate. "No way."
The large man laughed as he now swaggered towards his prey. "That trick won't work on me anymore. My body has adapted." As the large man reached Kyle, who'd only stood there. He grinned, with an expression full of malice. Kyle ducked in the blink of an eye as Crow reached for his throat. As the big man withdrew his arm, the assassin leapt over him landing several feet away!
"Shit, I should have grabbed more explosive rounds from the bag!" Kyle cursed himself as he tried to think of a way to kill his enemy. "There has to be a limit to what he can regenerate." Kyle smiled as he turned to face Crow, who was now glaring at him. "You know, this has actually been a little fun for a one on one fight. It helped me clear my head and figure out how I should live after you die. I mean I may have killed plenty of innocent people before I fought Kieran, and made that promise. But, I never killed anyone without a reason; unlike you. You've killed people on a whim. That's why I could never respect you."
"You're not better than me Katro, I don't have to rely on guns to do what I do; and I don't have to spend half a fight running away!" Crow rushed towards his enemy again, enraged. Kyle flipped back and the large man followed. As Crow swung at him again, Kyle leapt over him. The large man wasted no time twisting around to attack again. If Crow hadn't been blinded by his rage, he would have noticed that while Kyle's movements remained effortless, he was starting to tire. He ran towards the gunman yet again, but this time Kyle unloaded his Desert Eagle's explosive rounds into the brute's chest. Crow's chest was wracked with explosions as the internal flesh was shredded, and the muscle tissue covering his ribs were blown outwards. The large man collapsed, his eyes staring out at nothing.
As Cassandra, Jack, and the two mercenaries walked through the halls, on their way to the separate stairwell leading to the roof; a door blocked their way. Rick, the slightly older mercenary, walked to the door and slowly started to open it. He is taken by surprise, when a weight forces the door open and two zombies throw themselves on him before he can defend himself. Before anyone can help the man, one of the zombies bit deep into his throat, tearing it out as the other bit into his arm. Cassandra covered Jack's eyes.
"Rick!" Jason yelled as he emptied his assault rifle into the two zombies. "You bastards!" As his clip ran out, he collapsed to his knees in shambles. "Rick's gone. What am I going to do now?" He stared out into space, in shock. Cassandra walked in front of the broken man and glared down at him. As he continued to look down in misery, she slapped him hard enough for it to be heard throughout the building. He quickly looked up at her holding his face, glaring. "What was that for?"
"Do you think your brother would want you to just sit there waiting to die, or do you think he'd want you to survive; no matter what?" Her face softened. "I know it's hard to lose someone you care about, but we have to keep moving on, or we won't make it! Me and Jack, we need you. We can't make it out of here without you. You'll have all the time you need to mourn after we get out of here." She sighed as the young man, who was barely nineteen, looked back down.
"You're right. I'm sorry." He stood up, ejecting his empty magazine, and loading a new one. He sighed as he looked back to the sight of his brother. "Sorry bro."
As Kyle opened the doors to head inside the building, he heard the Tyrant's roar again, but it was echoed and he couldn't tell where it was coming from. He went inside to join back up with the others. Shortly after Kyle went into the building, Crow coughed. His chest was slowly regenerating, and as he started to stand, he barely saw the Tyrant coming in for the swipe that took his head off.
As the group with Jason reached the roof, they ran into the helicopter. Cassandra and Jack, jumped into the back, as the surviving mercenary took the pilot's seat. The pilot wasted no time running through the startup sequence. "Hope your friend doesn't get himself killed."
"Don't worry. He'll make it." Cassandra assured Jason, as she looked to the door they had used to get to the roof. "He'd better make it." She whispered softly to herself. Something started to shake the roof, suddenly! After several shakes accompanied by loud crumbling sounds; the large helicopter started to lift. "What are you doing? Kyle isn't here yet!"
"Sorry lady, but there's no way I'm leaving us on that roof, if it's unstable. He'll just have to climb up the rope ladder." Jason glanced back. "Don't worry, we've still got time."
Kyle picked up his pace as he felt the building start to shake, and heard the unmistakable roar of the Tyrant. As he ran through the hall of the building's top floor; he came across the bodies of Rick and the two zombies. He paused only to make sure they weren't going to attack as he carefully stepped over them and hurried on. "Rest in peace." As Kyle reached the roof, he saw the helicopter hovering overhead. Before he could call out, the roof shook violently, causing him to stagger. With another shake, part of the roof fell in, leaving a large hole. He drew his Desert Eagle as the Tyrant jumped from the hole with a load roar!
"No! It's the Tyrant." Cassandra looked down on the scene worried; and she barely heard Kyle call out to her.
"Throw me my bag! I need my explosive ammo!" Kyle yelled up towards the helicopter and was forced to jump to the side, as the Tyrant rushed in for a swipe at him. The gunman quickly back-stepped, to regain his distance; and he yelled out once again. "Hurry up!" Cassandra quickly scanned the interior of the helicopter as Kyle continued to dodge the humanoid monstrosity, and its gigantic claw. Kyle maneuvered himself between the hole and the grey skinned monster as he continued to dodge its attacks. He grinned as it prepared to charge again. "Let's see how you like this." As it charged, he once again jumped to the side, but the creature managed to stop itself in front of the hole. Kyle heard a voice coming from the helicopter and he looked up to see something fall. He ran to grab it, and leapt over the Tyrant's head as it swiped at him with its massive claw. As the young man looked at what he'd grabbed; he shook his head, grinning at the sight of an explosives pack.
Kyle flashed a malicious grin as he came up with a plan. The young man maneuvered himself to a far corner of the roof as the Tyrant stomped forward. "Hope you like your present." Kyle set the bomb down in front of where he was standing. He couldn't help but smile as the monster rushed at him again. The man dived to the side as hard as he could and turned, shooting the explosives, as the Tyrant stood over them! The large creature was shredded by the blast. As Kyle stood up, he looked over to the pieces of the monster and brushed off his black coat. He holstered his gun and waved to them, and Cassandra dropped the ladder, allowing him to climb up.
As Kyle finished pulling up the ladder, the helicopter began the flight out of the city. The young man closed the sliding door, and set him down on the floor. "Man am I glad that's over." He looked over to the little boy sitting next to Cassandra. "Hey Jack. How ya holdin' up?"
"I'm alright." He answered, sighing.
"Don't worry; I'll help you find your parents." Kyle grinned as he made the promise.
"You will?" The boy's face lit up.
After the Helicopter had flown far from the city, just after sunrise, the group felt a harsh turbulence! Kyle and Cassandra looked out to see a column of smoke that had risen from the ruins of Raccoon City. "An entire city wiped off the map, because of corporate greed. In my past I really wasn't much better." Kyle sighed as he looked out at the sight. "As of today, I'll refuse to take hits; but I'll still kill for my own reasons." He swore to himself.