Adam Luck - No need to apologize! You can add as much as you want to your review, no matter how many posts! ^^
About Sherry's life post-RE2, I honestly don't think she would've had a normal life even if she hadn't been captured by the US government. Plus, she's also the main reason why Leon becomes a government agent in the first place. Had she not been captured, they wouldn't have had Sherry to use against him in order to force him to join their ranks. Another thing is that even before Sherry gained her freedom, she actually wished to be a government agent before she was given the offer to be one after Wesker's death. In one of the RE6 files from RE. NET's version, it mentions that Sherry was more than happy to accept the offer of being a government agent. The reason is that she wished to help make a difference in the world for other children not to suffer the same traumatizing experience she had when dealing with BOWs and such. In addition to all this, she admired Leon and Claire so much, she wanted to follow in their footsteps to do what they do.
Also, I really dig the name, Sherry Woods. Honestly, that sounds pretty neat! Even the whole thing of Woods taking care of Sherry, just as he took care of David in Black Ops 2. I just don't know how the heck would I be able to pull it off to make it have some sense for the overall plot leading up to RE6 (if I ever do reach that point anyway). I'm still struggling to think what could be possible for me to do after Code Veronica. Maybe one-shots based on this whole crossover, though I can't guarantee anything.
As always, thanks again!
Recommended BGM:
1. Resident Evil 2 (1998) & Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - The First Malformation of "G"/The First Mutation of "G"
2. Resident Evil 2 (1998) - Sherry's Theme
3. Resident Evil 2 (1998) - The Basement of the Police Station
Bonus Track: Resident Evil 2 (1998) - Who's that Lady?
Chapter 8
David tilted his head around while still crouched with one knee and gasped at what the little girl had seen behind him.
"Oh… shit," he muttered in deep shock.
It was a man, or what looked like a man, whose body had been horribly mutated on the whole right side of his body in the most disgusting way possible. His arm looked unusually longer than the left, its flesh having ripped away as bones were protruding out like a deformed cluttered mess inside the bulbous mass of ripped muscle tissue across his whole arm. Everything on the arm had been enlarged beyond human proportions, added with a tumorous red-yellowish eyeball in his bicep the size of an entire dinner plate, jerking wildly as if scanning the immediate environment. He wore a dirty ragged lab coat, destroyed by the vast amounts of bullet holes and dried blood, ripped apart by his enormous size as it exposed most of his bulking chest and his overall mutated left arm. Around his abdomen, there were two other small parasitic-like arms with sharp talons that seemed to have grown somehow but were all still completely melded to his own body, yet to ever move freely. Half of his head looked as though it had been melted right into his own huge shoulder.
What the fuck am I seeing?!
David stood up, moving quickly to grab onto his Glock, aiming shakily at the impossible creature in front of him.
The man shrieked in pain, almost as though he was still fighting for self-control through whatever infection he happened to have endured. It seemed like a losing battle, as the mutated man had already begun to raise his long, terrible arm, slamming it down onto the grated ground.
David almost lost his balance as he quickly jerked away from the powerful slam. Before he could prepare his aim once again at the inhuman beast close to him, it quickly snapped away a huge pipe next to them, causing the entire grated walkway to give in as both of them fell to the ground some fifteen feet below them.
David let out a sharp yelp of pain as he hit the ground shoulder first, almost having it dislocated when he saw the beast landing just a couple of meters away from him, seemingly unaffected by the fall itself. David struggled to get back on his feet, but the adrenaline was starting to kick in, quickly helping him get back up as he stumbled away, looking back at the monster with a hand over his right shoulder, still feeling the sharp pain from the fall he'd received.
"You have got to be kidding me!" He exclaimed in terror as he aimed his Glock with his other hand, still experiencing utter disbelief at the huge mutant creature that looked nothing ordinary or natural. "What the hell even are you?!"
The malformed man jerked around slightly, almost as if trying to respond to David but could not find any known human language to express the agony it had to be feeling. The bulbous-looking eyeball twitched and turned to finally look at the nineteen-year-old, fixed on him as the beast held his own deformed head with his still-human proportional hand, and started to scream a name David wasn't familiar with.
"Sherrrrrrryyyyy…!" It rumbled just before looking back at a frightened David.
Sherry? Is that… the little girl's name?
David gritted his teeth. If the little girl was really Sherry, this monster had to possibly have been chasing around the girl all the way down here, and he just so happened to be in the way when it finally caught up with her. His heart began to pound harder and faster, afraid at the possibility of what could've happened to the poor girl if he hadn't gotten in the way. He couldn't even begin to imagine how scared the little girl must have been feeling. He knew being alone and isolated as a child was something no one ever liked to experience, just as he had firsthand, but having something like an unbelievable bogeyman to be chasing you around as you try running for your life…
…it was hard to imagine anything he could ever relate to from his childhood years to the poor little defenseless girl.
"You're not hurting Sherry!" He blurted out, finding himself with a revitalized perseverance to take down the mutated man at all costs. David wasn't going to think about finding a way out any time soon. He wasn't going to be like his own father; abandoning a child in need of care. His finger was already touching the trigger and he immediately began to fire, his growing emotions fueled with contempt for the negligence of his own father after all these years, using those same emotions to gain enough courage to kill the hulking monster itself.
Four shots had managed to hit the mutant across his face and exposed chest, splattering steaming blood, alongside some sort of purplish fluid he wasn't entirely sure what it even was. The shots barely fazed the mutant before it finally began to take a few quick successive steps toward him, the giant eyeball on his bicep still leering at him fiercely before twitching violently once again.
"Hellllppppp…meeee…!" It shrieked, seemingly still struggling with himself to take control of his mutated body that had begun to pulsate almost across his entire right side, particularly his overgrown arm, dragging the pipe on the ground fiercely with a defeating metallic scraping sound.
David ignored his pleas, knowing it was already too late to help a man beyond human recognition, and pulled the trigger twice again, backing away swiftly before beginning a full run, afraid to hit any of the steaming pipes as he hoped that none of its contents were flammable, at best. The shots sprayed blood and purple liquids across its half-human head and the mutant began to chase after him in a sudden frenzy of inhuman rage, a deep roar that sounded neither human nor animal alike. The giant pipe immediately began crashing and slamming against the massive machines around them, white steam generating a thick fog of smoke that slowly began to blind the way through the large maze and machinery around. David's eyes were beginning to feel moist and irritated, his vision slowly dying through the dense fog, but the thundering noise of the giant pipe swinging violently against screeching metal gave him enough hints to know where the monster was heading…
…until he heard a soft thump from somewhere and the noises quickly dissipated away.
All he was able to hear were the machines doing their usual work, white steam still coming out of the damaged pipelines, and his own heartbeat and breathing became just as loud as the hissing pipes around him.
Can't be over… could it?
Confused, he began to slowly move his way through the white steam, his left hand jerking wildly in the air in order to prevent himself from bumping into a wall. The atmospheric noise was still the same, and the calmness around was becoming unnerving as he slowly shook in anxiety, not knowing whether or not the monster had either gone away for good or if it really was still there somewhere… hiding… waiting…
…and just as he began to imagine the last possibility, he was immediately confronted face to face with the hideous monster as it landed smoothly onto the ground from high above the machines. David didn't have time to react when suddenly, he felt a sharp, bony grasp over his head, shoving him closer to the ground as it began to squeeze as hard as it could, making him bend his knees uncontrollably and growl loudly in pain.
Becoming swallowed in a frantic panic, he shot his gun three times where the mutant's head would be but immediately dropped the Glock involuntarily as the creature continued to shriek through a vicious turmoil of rage and madness, pushing him closer to the ground, now forcing his knees to touch the concrete almost painfully. He grabbed onto the impossible grasp over his head with both hands, but it was a futile move as there was no way he could fight off such strength from a mutant as big as the one that was about to crush his head in one big squeeze.
SHIT! DO SOMETHING!
His right hand had begun to move away towards his lower back, searching for the sheathed knife before his mind had the idea to use it somehow. Finally grabbing onto the handle, he quickly took it out and by memorizing where the giant eyeball had been, he jabbed it directly into the bulbous tumor as strongly as he could, feeling the sickly hot liquids that began to splatter all over his hand. He heard the inhuman piercing roar of pain before it finally released the painful pressure across his aching head.
David pulled the knife with the help of the mutant itself retracting his arm away from him and saw the gross white and yellowish fluids from the disgusting eyeball, the thing still twitching and blinking as if it was merely just a small poke to its eye caused by a rain of dust.
What the hell?! That should've destroyed the eyeball! This fucking city knows how to defy the laws of nature itself!
Shaking his head in disbelief as his eyes narrowed in pain, disgust, fear, and frustration, he went on his way to put the knife away and take out the short-barreled Remington, fully focused on finishing him off for good. He fired a loud booming shot at the creature, the knockback of the shotgun catching him slightly by surprise as he hadn't wielded one in ages since he was at least thirteen. The thundering pellets managed to hit most of the mutant's stomach, making him slightly stagger as his remaining clothing shredded even further, its body pulsating faster, almost as if he was regenerating from its wounds of the ongoing battle that seemed to have no end.
David ran back as the beast began a massive walk toward him. He pumped another shell almost breathlessly, turned around, and fired again, this time, making sure most of the pellets hit around the massive tumor on its right arm, finally finishing off what neither the combat knife nor his Glock was able to do. The exposed eyeball exploded in a burst of mixed liquids of yellow, red, and purple colors, making the mutant growl in pain, dropping the large pipe as its human-sized arm held at the large, empty socket where the bulbous mass once was.
The mutant was still standing near his dropped gun, but it seemed as though it had begun to stumble away from him, its tone now regressing back to a more recognizable human groan of pain and agony before it immediately bent over the railing, almost as if it hadn't noticed it beforehand. With the unbalanced weight of its mutated arm, it tipped over and fell into the dark abyss, the sounds of rage and immense torment fading away as David moved closer to overlook the darkness below. After several seconds, a distant crashing noise was heard below, confirming that the thing was now finally dead, the monstrous screams stopping abruptly.
"Jesus…" he panted, trying to catch his own breath after the long battle against the terrible inhuman beast. "God, I hope it's all over with."
After a short moment, he quickly inserted more shells into the Remington and pumped it fiercely before putting it back into its holster on his back. He felt extremely relieved as he hoped he wouldn't be forced to use the Remington against anything like that mutated guy again.
Great, now you're getting ahead of yourself. Don't start getting cocky now. Who knows if there are more people infected like that man was… or if they only stalked little girls like…
…Sherry!
He had almost forgotten about the girl from earlier. It was the main reason why he wanted to get rid of the mutant in the first place at all costs, in order to prevent it from ever hurting the little girl. That and not having the added risk of having it around to impede their escape from this hellhole of a place as well.
David ran back to grab his gun and holstered it before rushing to the center of the machinery maze, looking back up near a folded ladder as he scanned to see if the girl was still there somewhere.
"Hey! Little girl…?!" He called out, still panting from the previous battle he had against the mutated beast.
There was nothing, other than the hissing pipes of steam that had already dwindled down, making his visibility much clearer than it was just minutes ago. For all he knew, she either ran away someplace safer or could still be hiding in that same dark place he'd found her in earlier.
"Sherry?" He followed up with another call, hoping he was right about her name, but at the same time, wishing it wasn't her that was being targeted by the mutant, which was almost out of the question considering the circumstances. "Is that your name, sweetie? My name's David. The monster's already gone. Come on — it's safe now… It's over."
After a few seconds of silence, there were light footsteps coming out from above, and the little girl's head slowly popped into view near the folded ladder as she leaned forward on the railing next to it, looking down at David with a worried look. Her face looked discolored, her eyes were watery as it seemed like she had been crying, understandably so when there had been a grotesque monster that she might've thought David wouldn't have survived against and would turn its sights on her after.
"Are you sure?" She asked nervously, her light tone echoing across the huge chamber.
David moved slightly closer, nodding as he spoke with the friendliest voice possible, trying not to intimidate her. "Yeah, I promise. Everything's fine." He then motioned his head above next to where the little girl was before looking back at her again. "Just need you to lower down the ladder for me. It's all I ask."
She looked at the ladder, almost hesitantly, and David thought he must've said something wrong for a moment before she quickly turned back to look at him again, her worried expression still unchanged.
"Will you help me find my mom?!" She said almost frantically, her shaky voice giving hints that she had been missing her terribly.
David felt his stomach turn into a swollen knot instantly. This little girl kept reminding him of his own childhood trauma, longing to be with his parents just as much as he was seeing the little girl miss hers with the simple question asked. He was feeling like he needed to protect this girl, the same protection he never had from his father when he really needed it the most, especially when his mother passed away. David swallowed slightly before responding back to her, trying not to think about the worst for her parents if they were still in the city somewhere.
"...Your mom is here in the police station somewhere?"
"I think so," she said before her gaze broke elsewhere, her face looking as if all hope had been washed away from her. "I hope so…"
David's expression immediately turned sympathetic, feeling all kinds of sorry for the poor girl as he looked down almost in defeat.
Geez… how can anyone abandon such a nice young child in the middle of a zombie apocalypse? That's just awful…
…there's simply no way that I'm turning my back on her just like dad did almost every damn time, especially when mom died. I will never forgive him for that…
He finally looked up to face the little girl again and nodded back at her. "Yeah…yeah, of course. I'll help you. No matter what."
The smile he saw from her after that was something out of a huge miracle he had never seen before. It lit up a lot of the darkness he had within himself, almost like he was now given the gift to right his father's wrongdoings by making sure that Sherry, if it was her actual name, would be feeling safe and protected by a parental figure, or even by an acting big sibling, which he had none as he was an only child. It was as if she had inspired all of David's protective instincts - stuff he thought he might never have any experience with at all.
The girl had turned to the ladder and with a simple click of a button that David couldn't see, the ladder began to unfold itself down and he climbed up, thanking her with a silent nod as he joined up with her on the top.
"This way," the girl's voice echoed loudly, waving at David to follow him over the pathway and onto a set of stairs, which led to a control room with a panel that held a lever for a suspended walkway. She pointed at the controls, seemingly unable to have been able to pull the lever on her own. "I tried it and it won't move."
David moved closer to the control panel as the little girl stepped aside. He looked back at her and winked back briefly.
"My uncle told me this once; put your mind into it and nothing in this world is impossible." He pulled back the lever with his left hand, using all of the muscle on his arm that had the least amount of aches, and a second later, pulled it all the way down without so much of a grunt.
The walkway in front began to move in place, connecting the incomplete bridge that connected from the control room to another room up ahead to a right.
"You got it!" She yelled out in astonishment. "Your uncle must be a smart man."
David smiled back at her, nodding, "He really is. If only you could meet him someday…" Quickly trying to attempt to break the subject about his uncle, he immediately asked a question that had been lingering in his mind for a while. "So… your name's Sherry, right?"
Sherry met him with a nod. "Yeah… that monster you fought, he…" Sherry paused as she seemed to be shaken up about bringing up the thing that he had to deal with previously.
David instantly regretted having brought up how he could've guessed her name, so he once again switched the topic to something less painful to talk about.
"Your mom…," he said suddenly as both of them began to walk together out towards the bridge. "What's she like?"
"She works at Umbrella," she began to explain. "She's… making an important new medicine."
David's jaw began to tighten up.
Her mom works at Umbrella? Is she one of the people responsible for this mess? Or was she simply just another pawn to be used by them?
He took a deep breath, trying to make himself look as though he didn't know much about Umbrella and their potential crimes against humanity itself.
"Umbrella? That big pharmaceutical company?" He said, trying to sound more surprised than angry at the thought of them potentially getting away with everything that has happened to Raccoon.
Sherry nodded. "Yes…my mom said there was a big accident that happened in her job, and I don't know if…" her tone broke slightly into a hint of sorrow at the end of her sentence, which made David feel even worse about her situation.
He knew it wasn't Sherry's fault at all and if it really were an accident, it was highly unlikely that her mother would even be alive anymore. However, he didn't bother saying any of this to her as he remembered the excruciating pain he felt when Mr. Hudson and Uncle Woods told him about the death of his mother. Plus, there was no confirmation about her mother being dead, much like the unknown fates of both his father and uncle.
"Well," he said shakily as he paused for a moment before continuing on. "Hopefully you get to see her again soon." Both of them continued their walk towards the operator's room of the basement's machinery and before they entered, David started off with yet another question, hoping it wasn't a painful one to answer. "So… could you tell me anything about your dad?"
Sherry looked at him briefly before long back at the huge chamber they were now leaving behind, and then proceeded to explain something David wasn't expecting at all.
"He, umm…worked with my mom but… He's gone. You actually just… fought him."
David swallowed, his eyes slowly widened, his eyebrows raised as he turned to look back at Sherry to his side, feeling a mixture of gloom and uneasiness settling in all at once.
Sherry's father was that monster? Oh, Jesus this poor girl…
"Wow…I'm, I'm so sorry you had to… see all of that," he said, struggling to formulate a proper sentence as he took a few breaths of shock and surprise. "Really, I am… I can't even imagine what you must be going through…"
Once David turned to enter the room in front of them, he looked back again at Sherry and she stood still, looking down at her golden necklace, a locket that looked shiny and new. The locket was opened, and Sherry was simply staring at something inside that made her face turn into a look he had seen on his uncle once before, one that he knew shouldn't belong on a child. Almost instantly, Sherry began to turn tearful and slowly began to sob as she got on her knees, the pain of the girl being too much for her to contain, and cried almost uncontrollably, letting all of the painful sorrows go.
David couldn't even begin to describe the dreadful, gut-wrenching look on her face, and he walked back to her location, crouched down, and began to hug her as she hugged him back tightly, almost like he was the only person whom she could trust anymore. He began stroking her blonde, silky hair, and as soon as he grabbed onto the locket and saw what Sherry was looking at, it was a picture of her and what looked like her parents, all three of them smiling back at the camera.
The picture reminded him of the last picture he took with his dad and uncle, all three of them smiling just about the same as the family inside the locket, almost when he was about Sherry's age, if not, younger. Sherry's cries were muffled through his jacket, but not long after, he also found himself shedding a few tears, remembering the happy and painful memories of his own childhood as both of them continued their hug for several more minutes, almost completely forgetting about the dreadful hell both of them were still in.
Leon stood silently in the ransacked basement weapons locker room, holding onto his breath as he heard the massive, echoing footsteps of Trenchy still trying to follow his tracks. His heart was thundering within his ears, he could almost feel that if it didn't calm down, the thumping inside his chest might be the end of him if Trenchy were to come inside the room and stand near the locker he was hiding in.
Come on… leave goddammit.
The hammering footfalls stopped immediately for a long moment, and Leon could hardly even breathe anymore. He wished the door somehow had a small window for him to see whether or not Trenchy could be standing there, waiting for him to come out, or if it had his attention put elsewhere that Leon did not know about…
…and almost immediately after pondering on what the giant beast was doing, he heard a distant growl from what sounded reminiscent of a dog.
A dog? Are you even sure it's even a dog, considering what's happened around here?
A terrible flashback popped up from when he was on his way to Raccoon City, from the moment he saw that red, slimy demonic figure, chasing after the deer that crossed the road and he almost managed to hit both of them with his jeep. It had been an unbelievable sight at the time, but after encountering zombies and that terminator guy that had inhuman strength and endurance, it was now hard to believe that zombie dogs were a thing of fiction.
And the STARS might've found out about them as well. What else could they have encountered?
Something hit the only metallic door inside the weapons locker room, the loud banging quickly being followed up with a muffled, high-pitched whimper. The giant, evil man had most likely dealt with the canine as swiftly as he did previously when Leon was punched harshly with his massive right fist. There was a thundering stomp that rattled the ground and lockers inside, the wet sounds of bone and soft tissue muffled as though a rounded watermelon filled with glass shards had been violently crushed inside a powerful compactor.
Leon swallowed slightly, not wanting to know the full extent of whatever happened to the canine that was on the other side, afraid of seeing just how much more menacing Trenchy was than previously imagined. For another whole minute, he stood still, frozen as he began to sweat profusely at how hot it had begun to feel inside the locker, almost unaware that his fear had managed to warm up everything inside with his own body heat. He had no ammo with him, and even if there were any left inside the armory, he knew in the back of his mind that several entire magazines wouldn't be enough to kill him for good…
…and surprisingly so, the massive, echoing sounds of his metallic footsteps were slowly dying away elsewhere, as though it seemed to be giving up the chase and looking for more things to hunt, or rather, other survivors to kill.
Throughout his trip to escape, he had been lucky to have come across dead corpses that were cleanly shot in the heads, confirming that there could still be other survivors somewhere in the building as well, in addition to Trenchy having given up looking for him that easily.
Still, not a good sign as he could be on his way to kill whatever few cops are left, or worse, other civilians like Claire and David.
Leon quickly got out of the locker. The thought of Trenchy going after either David or Claire scared him more than what the hulking monster had to offer to him, almost wishing he should've let it chase him around the building as he looked for ammunition from fellow officers' corpses. Scavenging dead bodies wasn't exactly ideal, even if he were to put aside some of his morals since anything in Raccoon could come back alive from the dead to feast on the living. One potential bite or scratch from any of the creatures could mean an automatic death sentence for him if the fluids themselves don't manage to infect him first with whatever disease they had happened to suffer.
He sighed, trying to forget about the rampant disease as he looked around the armory, now having a clear grasp of the environment around him without being under severe pressure. The room itself was cool and humid, possibly due to the fact that he had been suffering a feverish sweat inside the locker for a good amount of time and the difference in temperature felt drastically different.
Come to think of it, what if I'm infected too? What if this is the same disease that killed my grandparents at the hospital? And Kevin… is he even around anymore?
Leon felt the cluttered environment slowly move in a fuzzling motion, an anxiety flash he had begun to feel in response to the thought of being infected since he had first arrived in town. Maybe that's why, Trenchy set its sights on him to kill any potentially infected survivors, to wipe the city clean of any infected person or animal, just like it did when it killed the canine behind the door. Maybe Trenchy wasn't such an evil being as he thought it was…
Jesus, Leo…now all you need to do is offer him a drink. See if he spares you after that…
The truth was, he had spared him, but not exactly because he was being nice. He probably had superhearing that he might've heard other people in the building that could be easier targets for all he knew. However, before panic began settling in about the potential reality of him somehow being infected, the voice inside his mind began to speak to him - remind him to simply accept whatever end could be waiting for him when the time comes for him to go.
If you're infected, you're infected. Something crushes you, it crushes you. A bomb explodes, it explodes.
At the end of the day, no one knows specifically how or when will anyone die. That's the way life works. There's nothing you can do about it, other than to survive and live your life, whatever means necessary. You're a cop - remember that.
Leon nodded to himself, sighing once again as he stood in front of the messy shelves. It was much better than increasingly worrying about being infected, and he now had an entire room to loot for things that could help him increase his chances of survival. The electronic lock for the armory had been short-circuited or in other words, shot down completely, saving him the trouble of having to look for a keycard or risk generating so much noise with a gunshot when running away. The door had dents that looked as though there had been multiple attempts to pry it open without disengaging the lock, which probably didn't help out much for whoever tried breaking in first.
He worked his way through the shelves and cabinets, desperately looking for any other firearm, but found nothing, feeling disappointed, but not at all surprised either. He figured if people have taken shelter inside the station, the officers would've most likely handed weapons and ammunition to some individuals in order to protect themselves and their families from the zombies that might've swarmed around the place.
"C'mon…" he grumbled as he began opening the other lockers next to the one he chose to hide in. "There's gotta be something in here."
As he opened the last locker, something fell off from above the locker, almost hitting his head when he saw a large box crashing against the ground, revealing several different types of magazines. Before searching through the last locker, he crouched down and fumbled over the many types of mags, some of which were for known former RPD standard-issued handguns like the VP70, Browning HP, and the M1911.
Has anyone not seen these or…
Bingo!
He had hit a jackpot as he found at least four more mags for his Desert Eagle, a slight smile forming over his relieved face as he slapped one of them inside his magnum. A magnum like his wasn't common for the RPD, but he was willing to bet someone had one similar to his own and most likely stashed it here, completely forgetting about it after.
That, or they might not even be alive to come back for them anymore…
He picked up the remaining magazines and stashed them away in one of his belt pouches, now feeling some sort of freedom to do as he pleased against any monster that'd get in his way…
…and that feeling was enhanced even further when he found a stashed Remington M1100, a powerful semi-automatic shotgun that had been personally customized to have a longer barrel, adding to the destructive power that Leon felt like he needed to add to his arsenal, especially against Trenchy, if it ever came back for him. The shotgun already had a strap of its own in order to help the user carry it around at all times. He checked to see it also had an extended tube barrel, being able to hold two more rounds, up to a combined maximum of seven rounds.
Close to the shotgun, there was a fallen box of twelve-gauge shells inside the locker's ground, enough to say he'd have enough ammo to hold back just about anything, be it a zombie or a giant humanoid in a dark green trench coat.
With a final tuck on his last available belt pouch for the box of shells, he decided it would be best to start his search in the basement for anyone he could come across. He hoped that Trenchy had gone elsewhere upstairs since the last time he heard the fading footsteps was exactly where he had come in from to the basement floor.
And I'm not keen on getting myself a cool surprise from him either. Just look for any survivors down here, ask them anything of what they might know about this mess, and warn them of the evil trooper upstairs. Maybe then, we can work together to take down that monster somehow…
…and I'd have to backtrack to the main lobby at some point, leave a note for David and Claire if they—
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Gunshots echoed from somewhere in the basement. The sounds came as if they were inside the parking garage just down the hallway outside. Leon whipped out the magnum, ran towards the door, and pushed it open, hand on the handle as he jerked his head around to see if there were any signs of the huge beast from earlier as well.
Nothing, except for…
There was a body, sprawled on the ground close to him with what seemed to be the same canine he heard before. It had its head turned into a mangled mush of bone and decomposing tissue, the smell being one of the worst he's ever experienced.
The dog… so that dog out in the woods had been the same as this…
…ugh…more like hammered shit!
The dim lighting of the basement revealed quite a lot from the rest of its slimy body, with Leon being able to see just how truly horrifying it looked. The glimpse of the hellhound-looking canine from the woods was blurred and barely visible, but it looked as though it had the same strips of wet and decaying skin, the muscle exposed as well as part of its ribcage, looking just as dead as the body in front of him. Trying not to let it faze him any further, he continued towards the door to the parking garage and stood at the edge of the opened exit, taking in a brief peek at the inside of the room.
There was no sound or movement. The only thing that was heard was the small buzzing sound of the green sign above him that labeled the door as "Parking". Nothing inside the parking garage seemed out of the ordinary from what he could gather so far. The only other door that was visible was that of the station's cell block. Everything else seemed to have parked police patrol cars, among other cars that most likely belonged to the officers that used to work in the building.
Alright, take it slow from here. You don't wanna get shot at by mistake either. Be prepared to identify yourself, loud and clear.
Two nimble silhouettes came bursting out from the far left side of the garage up ahead. Leon could easily tell it had to be one of those infected canines as they growled and yapped at someone who clearly wasn't anywhere in his point of view.
BAM! BAM!
The gunshots echoed loudly from somewhere on the opposite side up north from his location. Leon quickly spurred into action, now entering the large garage as he entered a full sprint to help whoever was the one dealing with the canines. As he made his way to the other end of the parking lot, he saw one of the dashing canines drop to the ground with a low whimper as it curled and twitched its body before finally stopping after less than a few seconds.
BAM!
It was now the final shot before a swift kicking sound that impacted something wet, hitting against what seemed to be the metal-barred gate out of the parking garage, followed by another puppy-like whimper erupting after. Another one of the canines appeared right underneath one of the parked cars close to him as Leon turned to face an oblivious, young-looking woman, who appeared to be simply focused on the last infected dog that she'd just killed.
Realizing that it'd be too late to announce the imminent danger coming to her, Leon aimed his magnum directly at the dog's moving head, and in a quick thundering shot, he had burst half of its already deformed face before it even had the chance to leap at the woman in front. Chunks of blood and decaying matter had splatted across the tip of her red heels as the canine beast collapsed to the ground next to her, dead.
The woman had turned in the canine's direction as soon as Leon popped into view, but she seemed barely bothered by what it was about to do to her. It almost looked as if she knew it was coming at her beforehand but sensed that someone else was there to save her from a certain fate. She finally turned her head around to meet his gaze, nodding at him as she barely had a look of distraught on her expression, and began to finally speak as she ejected the magazine on her gun, seemingly to count how many rounds she had left.
"Thank you," she said in a velvety, but eerily calm voice as she clapped the magazine back inside her gun, returning a warm smile at him. "You saved me some bullets."
Leon didn't know what to make of the woman, but as she walked closer to him, there was something about her that sent him in a wave of serenity, an aura filled with so much light that he hadn't seen since being in the nightmare they were all in. However, it was such a big contrast with the way she expressed herself to him as if there was something dark within the beautiful elegance she emanated with her apparent presence.
She looked Asian-American, fine in shape and reasonably tall, her short hair at neck-length, thick and glossy black. The smile she bore didn't necessarily reciprocate the look in her eyes, surveying him carefully as she continued to pass him before evidently going for the door to the cell block.
"Hey, wait," Leon called out to her, bewildered by her odd behavior as she paused making her way to her destination. "I believe I haven't introduced myself yet. My name's Leon Kennedy. RPD officer. And you are…?"
She turned her head around smoothly, now putting more attention to him than before, her smile slightly growing while her expression remained unchanged.
"Ada Wong," her smooth, purry voice somehow still unmatched by her darting eyes. She immediately bent down to wipe out some of the gore that had been splattered on her red, polished heels before finally looking up at Leon again as she raised herself up, her overall expression regressing to a more serious look. "You're a cop here, right? Do you know a Ben Bertolucci? He happens to be a freelance reporter around here, got himself locked up, and I think he may have some information that could help me find my boyfriend."
Leon shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, but I just got assigned here," he paused for a moment before continuing, his curiosity becoming peaked at the mention of a reporter being locked up, possibly for uncovering massive amounts of damning evidence that could've led to the outbreak itself. "You said he's a reporter, right? What kind of information do you think he has at his disposal?"
Ada shook her head, her enticing gaze still fixed on his. "Not sure exactly… But that's why I'm here to find out."
Without any further interaction, Ada turned to her right and began her walk toward the cell block, almost completely ignoring the fact that Leon was still there with her, leaving him behind without so much of a plan to stick together and survive.
"Hey!" He called out to her, but still, she kept walking, as though she was trying her best to ghost him out.
Leon felt a wave of mixed emotions. She sounded genuine, even concerned about trying to look for this "Ben" guy in order to be one step closer to finding her boyfriend. However, something just didn't seem right about her, almost like she wasn't telling him about something crucial.
And why would she lie about something like that? Maybe she's just simply worried about her boyfriend, just as much as you are about David and Claire. If we wanna survive this, however, we have to stick together, especially when…
Something popped up inside his mind and he hurried after her.
"Ada wait!" He said in a louder voice this time, trying to get her attention in order to at least get some sort of reaction. "I need to warn you about something…"
Ada tilted her head back, looking back at him with one, glistening eye as she stood right in front of the door, her hand already on the knob itself.
"Yeah, what is it?" Her voice was smooth as ever.
Immediately, there was an echoing noise from somewhere where Leon had come in from just minutes earlier.
"Look out," Ada muttered as she aimed her gun past him.
Leon quickly turned around, only to see a manhole moving ahead on the ground as he aimed his Desert Eagle, not knowing whether or not it could be another intelligent monster like Trenchy, or something worse…
