Author's Note: Well since it is my birthday today I am giving you all a super long chapter that I've been working on for days instead of just 30 minutes worth of typing. Anyways I'm going to start putting the date at the start in every chapter. RE4 takes place in 2004, and so will my story. So here's the next chapter, enjoy!

This chapter is dedicated to Laura, who's birthday was 2 days before mine and might be moving away...we'll miss ya Laura!

Note: I will usually not dedicate the chapters to anyone, but if something special or bad happens, then I most likely will, just for their sake.

This chapter is dedicated to Laura, who's birthday was 2 days before mine and might be moving away...we'll miss ya Laura! This chapter is dedicated to Laura, who's birthday was 2 days before mine and might be moving away...we'll miss ya Laura!
Inject the poison into the bloodstream
Pick up your shovel, do what you're told,
The probe is out,
the watchdog grows to incredicble lengths to incredible lows

Well off your target now you have missed,
Deliberate lying and recklessness,
Don't get crushed in the iron fist,
Resist, resist, resist, resist!

"Outta Control" By: Rancid

How long is the night?

Chapter 18

On the move

September 1st, 2004

The feeling of autum carried itself on the wind. The temerature was getting a little more cooler as the days seemed to pass away since Leon and Ashley's meeting with Barret and the phone call that Wesker had made.

A gentle windpicked up a leaf was caught in its draft. It soared high, high above the abandoned buildings of Washington D.C. It was carried along several of the old factories, who's broken doors and ripped up roofs seemed to moan in the wind like they had a life of their own.

It was raining out, no pouring out. It had been doing this for the past six days for a never ending period of time. The tiny droplets of water gathered on the ground forming puddles that would never be disturbed in their silent slumber on the ground.

It had rained so much that now there was no trace of blood on the streets, alley walls or anywhere outside. It was refreshing for a while, before itrefused to stop. The roads were almost flooded, the pavementinvisible under the water due to the rain droplets hitting the surface and blurringand sight of the pavement below.

There was no power in the city. It had gone out about three days ago and would not go back on. Leon and Barret had tried to fix the problem while Ashley watched in silence, but their efforts were in vain. There wasn't anything they could do so they decided toroam around without any heat or electricity.

Throughout the past six days they had wandered around the entire city looking for any survivors, but found nothing at all. They saw very little of the gray people, Ganados or zombies and were feeling quite alright about it. Leon, Ashley, and Barret had all picked up new weapons. Leon chose a new shotgun but insisted on keeping his handgun. Ashley picked out a pistol since she had dropped her gun while being attacked by some beast. Barret had chosen a brand new rifle and a silver handgun that he had become quite attatched to.

Barret didn't recieve any other calls from Wesker. His phone had gone off only once, and that was just to let him know that the battery was dying. He had thrown the phone out with there being no use carrying something around that wasn't working and couldn't be charged.

By now they were getting ready to pack up and leave. Leon sat under an old tree, polishing his guns and making sure that he had enough bullets to last them the journey to Raccoon City. Ashley was checking their supplys that they had gathered and nodded her headwhen she saw everything to be okay. Barret was scouting around the buildings that surrounded them to make sure no one or nothing was spying.

"Do we got everything?" Barret asked as he walked up to Ashley with his beloved handgun.

"Sure do." She walked towards the line that she had made that consisted of three backpacks. "This one," she pointed to the one in the middle,"Is yours. It's full of ammo for your guns, healing items, food, and extra clothes just like all the others are." Ashley smiled, feeling like she was on top of the world for packing someone's bag.

"Nice job there," Barret said. He bent down and picked up his backpack then the one that Ashley had told him was Leon's. He headed towards Leon and threw the backpack onto him and chuckled.

"Thanks," Leon picked up the pack and sat up. He put the polish away and kept his shotgun with him and his handgun in his bag.

"So," Ashley said while she was walking towards Leon and Barret. "Where are we headed to?"

Barret pulled out an old map that had a tiny dot on it that was representing Raccoon City. Then he trailed his finger from where they were to a couple of different towns that collided with their path.

"We go to those towns first, look for any survivors or alley's we can get, then we go up against that Wesker fella."

"Just as a warning Wesker always has something up his sleeve and will most likely pull something off when we finally get to Raccon City, if it really is Raccon City."

"Don't think so negative," Barret said. He brushed past Leon and Ashley and began to walk out of the city. Leon and Ashley followed quickly behind.

The roads were muddy and very slippery due to the rain.There had been some flooding along the roadside at some points, but it was nothing serious. Everyone managed to go unhurt with not even a scratch.

The rain still continued to pour down on the three beings that were trecking across the empty land on a mission that could result in death if they weren't careful.

It was early in the afternoon when they neared a sudden drop off on the one side of a single lane road that was extremely muddy and even the smallest slip up would end up with something very nasty. Everyone tried to stay as close to the safe side as possible but their foothold was usless and they soon found themselves slipping towards the edge, their efforts to stay as far away as possible were futile.

"Shit," Barret mumbled between clenched teeth as his feet gave out from underneith him and soon found himself slipping ever so closely to the edge.

Barret thought he was going to go over when Leon grabbed his arm and lifted him up even though Barret was a good fifty pounds heavier than Leon could manage to lift, but he did it anyways.

The rain was coming down even harder now. It had went from a tiny flowing puddle on the single lane road, to a very fast stream that had spread itself over the entire road and there seemed to be no way around it.

"We're going to have to go straight through," Barret inquired. "There's just no other way."

"And risk falling over the edge?" Ashley suddenly snapped, afraid that her legs would be too weak to make it across. "There's no way I'm going!"

"Then we'll just have to leave you behind." And with that Barret turned around and began walking forwards, into the waters that could sweep someone off the side with no effort what so ever.

Ashley turned and looked to Leon for support but he was already following closely behind Barret and using all his strength to stay ballanced. She huffed and blew her bangs up, away from her face. Then she rolled her eyes and followed Leon and Barret.

The waters hit her at full force. Ashley 'eeped' but pushed forward. She made her way to the far edge and was grasping at anything possible that would keep her from being swept away. Ashley spotted severa tree roots sticking out and quickly grabbed onto them, unaware that they were old and worn and threatened to tear away from the earth at any given moment.

Ashley looked down at her feet then back at the roots. She could feel them giving away and was about to release them when they snapped and flung Ashley back, her feet slipping on the wet pavement.

As soon as she fell she tried to grasp for something, anything, but found none. She managed to look up and see Barret and Leon trying their best to make their way towards her.

Her vision view was cut short when the waters gave an extra hard push and sent Ashley flying over the edge.

The room was dark. The air smelt damp and the temperature was getting too high. To the far side of the room there were a set of blinds with tiny rays of light pooling out of them. There was a wooden door in the right corner, locked.

Ada sat in the chair that she had been bound to for three days straight. Her muscles ached and were burning because of the position that she had been set in; arms behind the chair and tied to it with a very thick white rope.

Wesker hadn't informed her about any of the progress that Leon was making getting here. She knew he had sent spys out and that one was on its way back to Raccoon City where it would give Wesker all the information that it had obtained.

As Ada sat in the chair she was still in shock that Raccoon City was real. She doubted it at first, but then Wesker had brought her out and showed her all the buildings that his workers had made.

The city looked normal from the outside, just another mountian city with humble people. In the inside though there were cameras in every building, light pole, and every nook and cranny that existed.

Paranoid, Ada thought. She could see that he wanted complete control over the beings that lived in the city and was very paranoid that they might do something out of step and try to bring him down.

But the people that lived here weren't even considered people. Their skin was an awful gray color and they seemed to be smarter than any average human. Ada knew what it was, she had seen the experiments that had gone on in the underground lab and even in the building where she sat now.

They did all their testings on the second floor of this four story building. They would gather any survivors that they could find and then feed them lies about injecting a anti virus liquid into their blood stream that would prevent them from becoming infected by any of the viruses that had been spread about. Then once they had their newest victims they would put them in a white room and hook them up with tubes. The latest virus that they were working on would be injected through the tubes and the people would start to convulse and then they would become one of the gray people that saw Wesker as their leader no matter whathe did.

Ada staredat the blinds, trying to look outside but was distracted when she heard someone unlocking the door. It was probably another slave to the plaga virus but when the door opened it was no other than Wesker himself.

Adaglanced at Wesker as he neared, thenset her eyeson the door. She could escape if she could only out-smart him.

"Why do you keep me here?" Adaasked as she kept her eyes focused on the door.

"To bait Leon of course and destroy him."

"Don't you think that's kind of cowardly?"

Ada's face was met with Wesker's hand as he slapped her across the face, making it swell up. Ada struggled not to tip over and fall on the ground from the force.

"You should learn not to lip off." Wesker walked behind the chair and undid the ropes that bound Ada to the chair. "Get up, we're going somewhere."

Ada whirled around and went to go punch Wesker in the face but he easily caught her fist and sent her flying across the room. She got up and stared at Wesker.

"How come I can never remember almost anything that happens to me?"

"I have control over you for trying to betray me." Wesker snapped his fingers and Ada felt the painful headache coming on again.

She fell to the floor in pain, struggling not to give into the voice that was calling her name inside her head and telling her to follow Wesker, who was watching the whole thing in amusement.

Finally Ada gave in and was no longer in control of what she did.

"Come now," Wesker said as he turned around and went out the door.

"Yes," Ada got up and began to follow him.

"Ashley!" Leon yelled over the side of the road. He was holding onto a rock and trying his best to look over the edge, but couldn't see Ashley anywhere. Just when he thought that she had fell to her death he heard something over the roar of the water.

"I'm down here!"

"Are you alright?"

"I fell on an extra ledge but my arm is injured. I found a way up so wait for me."

Before Leon could protest he knew that Ashley had already left. He turned around and began to slowly make his way over to the spot that Barret was standing and waited with him until Ashley got back.

The president's daughter was currently climbing up a muddy slope. She was halfway up when she heard a loud noise. Ashley looked up to see a great ammount of water come pouring down the slope straight towards her. She looked for something to hold onto but the water hit her before she had a chance.

Ashley held out her hands to grab out for something and found another tree root that had lost its underground hold. She grabbed it and held on tightly as the water went by. Ashley managed to look up for a brief moment through water-filled eyes to see a rock coming right for her. She put her her free hand infront of her face to try to stop the impact on her face.

The rock was rolling down the hill at a tremendous speed. It rolled right past Ashley, but it caught the side of her hand and bent her pinky all the way back.

Ashley screamed out in pain but ignored her broken finger and continued to climb up the hill. She reached the edge of the road after a long time of climbing up the muddy slope. She grabbed the pavement and lifted herself up. Ashley spotted Barret and Leon a fair distance back and called to them when they didn't notice that she was there.

"Hey!"

Leon and Barret looked over to a very muddy Ashley and made their way through the strong but shallow water. When they reached the president's daughter Barret gave her an extra coat that was stored in his back pack and they all agreed that they would get away from this place as fast as they could.

After leaving the flooded road and tending to Ashley's broken finger, the three travelers were about four hours away from Washington D.C. Barret was leading down the highway and checking his old map every once in a while to make sure they were going the right way. Leon had his gun out and kept a watch out for any trouble while Ashley walked in silence behind them.

The rain had stopped after everyone had made up their minds that a big rain cloud was following them. The landscape was changing with every hour that passed as they walked along.

The sun broke through the clouds and was shinning down on the land below. The air was clear and animals were everywhere, basking in the sun rays that they had longed for. The leaves on the trees were a briliant green, lighting up everything.

All the dirt on the roads that the rain had brought had gone away with it. There were mounds of mud in the ditches and some on the pavement but it was of no bother to anyone.

"So," Barret said as he walked along. "That's how I escaped out of my office. Good thing the security office had some extra guns or I would never had made it out of there."

They were traveling down the same empty highway. Barret was telling them of his narrow escapes and showing off. Ashley listened to them with her eyes wide all the time. It sure sounded like he had some close encounters to her. Leon on the other hand was keeping himself busy by checking the area for any spys. He was scanning the open land when he spotted the pointed rooftops of a near by town.

"Over there," Leon pointed to the little buildings. He began to cut across the land and was at the outskirts in no time.

The town was the same as all the others. Smashed up cars littered the streets and some still had smoke coming from their interiors. The buildings were pretty beaten up and were still ablaze. Bodies were scattered on the ground every which way and the evident way of their deaths was clearly visible.

Thetown hall stood before them. It was tall and very old. Broken windows could be seen everywhere and the main entrance was a wreck. The glass on the doors were shattered and the doors themselves were busted and hung off of their hinges.

Barret suggested that they get moving and not bother with inspecting the building, which was a good idea because a trap had been set inside; zombies and lots of them.

As they were leaving the town Leon and Barret gathered some rocks and spelt out a message in the dirt.

Any survivors head to Raccoon City

It was getting fairly dark out. The quarter moon shone down so brightly that nobody used their flash lights that Ashley had packed for them. The night air was warm and now the stars were appearing in the dark sky, shinning brightly to match up with the moon that would get covered up every once in a while by a stray cloud. The soft humming of crickets echoed everywhere as three shadows moved through the night.

"What are we going to do once we reach Raccoon City?" Barret was walking beside Leon and talking rather loudly when he should have been keeping his voice to a whisper so it wouldn't attract any unwanted company.

"We should have that planned out by the time we get there."

"So you don't have any ideas then."

"No."

"Well then," Barret chuckled and quickly made sure not to do that again when Leon shot him a warning look. "Looks like we'll have to come up with something since there's nothing much more we can do besides watch out for creatures."

"Hey guys maybe we should find a place to rest for the night. It's really late and I'm getting tired," Ashley stiffed a yawn as she walked behind Leon and Barret.

"We can't," Barret directed his voice towards Ashley. "We can't take the risk of being caught and I'm sure that Wesker guy must have sent out spys because we've been watching out for them all day and if we stop now who knows what might find us."

Ashley nodded her head then gazed at the moon. She wasn't paying attention and walked right into Leon. She looked in front of him to see what they had stopped at.

In the distance a very large darkform could be seen. As it slowly approched Ashley could make out its red eyes and gleaming teeth that were showing because it was snarling at them as drool pooled out the side of its mouth.

"What the hell is that?" Barret whsipered to Leon and Ashley. He grabbed out his rifle, knowing that a simple handgun would not and could not bring down a thing as big as that.

The thing was about seven feet tall. It towered over them even from a far distance. Leon thought that it had to be a regenerator but once it got even closer he knew it wasn't because it had many different features.

The creature was solid, unlike the regenerator. If you threw a metal pole at its leg it would most likely just bounce off. This thing had spikes sticking out of its fists only and were four inches thick each. It's mouth was really huge, sporting fangs that hung almost a foot down and could cut metal with one effortless bite.

As the thing came closer all three of them had their weapons of choice.

Leon fired the first round from his shot gun directly to its forehead, but the creature only stumbled back a bit then continued to walk forward.

"What do we do now Leon?" Barret said as he fired some rounds into the creature that were basically uneffective.

Ashley was still gazing up at the moon that was now being covered with clouds. She glanced at the creature and noticed something. It was moving faster now that there was less light. She pull her backpack off while Leon and Barret were trying to keep the thing at bay.

Once she found her's she went and snatched the ones from both Leon's and Barret's packs. She walked to the front of them with the flash lights and turned them on.

The creature only slowed down a bit but Leon and Barret caught her drift. They soon began to rummage through their back packs until Barret found the thing that he had been saving for their victory: a single firework.

Quickly bringing out his liter, Barret lit the end of the fire work and tossed it just before the creature that was hissing from the brightness of it.

Ashley, Leon and Barret all jumped back when it went off.

The creature began to melt as the bright moonlight came back and helped out with its death.

"Now that's something I don't want to encounter ever again," Barret chuckled and slung his backpack back on.

They walked deeper into the night still staying on track travelling down the desserted highway that lead them to unknown things.

It was daytime in Raccoon City. The artificial sun bore down on the newly constructed homes that rose up everywhere. The buildings were mostly white, to go along with the artifical look and every house supply was white. It didn't matter if it was a toothbrush to a TV, it was all white.

There was an errie silence to go along with the place. There were no birds chirping or any noise coming from the insects. There was nothing here that contained life except the half alive beings that lived in the pure whites homes.

A small black car, sticking out like a sore thumb in the city, was driving down the main street. In it two people sat inside, keeping themselves to themselves as best as they could, well at least one of them.

Ada sat in the passanger's seat with all her attention directed to the fake city outside. She was tied up still after her little slip up with Wesker and wasn't enjoying one bit of the car ride. She fidgeted in her seat for a brief moment before glancing towards Wesker, just to see the eyes hidden behind black shades staring at her.

"Do you like this place?" He asked.

"Hmph,it's dullest place I've been to."

Ada felt Wesker wrap his hands around her throat and soon there was no air getting to her lungs as Wesker strangled while he was driving at the same time.

When he sensed some danger coming he put his hands back on the wheel and listened to Ada's breathing as she gasped for air.

The street pole that they would've made contact with if Wesker hadn't sensed it with his powers passed by and could be seen down the road a good mile away as the car sped down the street.

They arrived at a small park that was purposely placed there to give the town a more 'real' look. There was a white statue in the middle that Ada knew was plastic just by the look of it. She followed silently behind Wesker as they made their way to the statue and waited.

"Why are we here anyways?" Ada said in a very bland, uncaring, emotionless voice that she had projected purposely to piss Wesker off.

"Be quiet."

Ada rolled her eyes then watched as something pretty deformed looking made its way to them with a limp.

"So what's up with out friend Leon?" Wesker asked in a forcing voice.

"We saw them leaving Washington DC in the rain storm. Some of the troops followed them to the road that we broke as you told us to. The blonde went off the edge and they informed me that she is now deceased."

"Go on."

The spy trembled a little bit under Wesker's gaze, then continued.

"After that they were seen going to a little village where we had set up yet another trap inside the town hall, but the three of them never entered it."

"Three of them? You never told me that there were three of them now."

"Y-y-yes sir there are three of them."

"Get on with the rest of your report," Wesker snapped.

"We let the night beast go that you have been experimenting on like you said, but they killed it when the third member of their party took something bright and sparkly out and threw it at it. The beast was slain, sir."

"A firework, a single firework took down the creature that I had been working on for the past five months! This is pathectic!" Wesker punched the statue behind him in anger and watched as it fell to tiny little plastic pieces on the ground.

Talk about anger management, Ada thought.

It was about two in the morning when they finally saw the soft glow coming from windows in a near by city.

Barret had been very cautious at first, but when the smell of food from a resturant filled his nostrils, he thought otherwise.

"As soon as we get there I'm stuffing my face with food," Ashley said as they walked along.

Their feet were aching and their footsteps were short and slow. After an entire day of walking they had finally made it somewhere that was safe. Ashley sighed and looked to the side to see the houses getting closer as they made a circle around the city just to make sure. It had been a long time since she had seen something that actually looked like it was living.

"Isn't the president's daughter supposed to act formal not like a pig?" Barret looked at Ashley with laughter written all over his face.

"Well wouldn't you if you haven't eaten something decent for how long?"

"Well yes, but you still should if you want some respect. It sure seems like you don't like when people talk about you."

"Hey," Ashley said, getting a little annoyed because she was dead tired and was dying to sleep. "I've been kidnapped by freaks, had the plaga virus injected into me and survived. I've fallen down a steep hill and could've been killed. People talking about me doesn't make me mad anymore."

"Right," Barret said sarcastically.

They reached the edge of the town. They could see lights approaching, most likely flash lights. Leon put his gun away as did Barret and Ashley.

A large crowd of people surrounded them and soon Leon, Barret, and Ashley found themselves being crowed by everyone.

"Hey!" A voice came from the back of the crowd. "Give them some room."

The people seemed to part as a shadow made its way towards them.

"Are you alive?" The person asked.

"Yes," replied Leon, now considering himself the voice of their group.

"Have you been injected with anything?"

When Leon didn't reply for a couple of second he heard the sound of some one reloading their gun.

"No," he said.

"Very well."

The person was handed a flash light.The person walked up to Leon and held out her hand.

"Welcome. I'm Jill Valentine, the leader of this place."

Reviewer responses:

There will be no reviewer responses for this chapter because my fingers hurt( This chapter was about 4820 words long). But here are some shout-outs to the following people:

Foggy Brains, Jediferret, crazygirl306, KhasKlwn

Tell me if you like the longer chapters because I'm more than willing to make them longer, so just tell me in your review, if you got one of course ;)