Resident Evil: Living Nightmares

Leon

As the doors opened Sarah and Joshua swung out, ready to fire. Leon checked his ammo reserves – they were depleted…he loaded his gun and followed them down the hall. Two doors hissed open and Leon swung around. Relief flooded his body.

"Claire!" he breathed

"Leon!" she hugged him tightly then pulled away and smiled. Marvin cleared his throat.

"Annette Birkin's dead" Claire said. Leon nodded – he berated himself for feeling a little (only the tiniest bit) glad the mad gunwoman was out of the picture. "But she gave us data on the cure we need, the Angel Vaccine."

Joshua was silent. He was staring at his feet and Leon realized he'd lost a family member. He placed a hand on the boys shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yes – I will be fine" Joshua said slowly. "What does the cure entail doing?"

"We need a sample of the G-Virus, the VN7127 device, a green key card and the chemical Emetine-2" Claire said as she reviewed the notes. Leon shuddered – he suddenly felt at ill ease.

"We can handle this – the machine is on this level – the vaccine bay is on the same level as the train – the chemical bay is here we can take a short cut there" Joshua said.

"Ben and Sherry are in the safe room" Marvin said.

"Claire, you go with Joshua to the chemical bay, we'll go back and get Sherry and Ben" Leon said. "Where can we meet up?" He was glad Joshua was around; the boy had the information as they lacked a map. Still his connection to Umbrella ran very deep and it unnerved Leon that two children like Joshua and Sherry could be so tangled in the web of the corporation.

"The monitor room, it's got a path to the train station" Joshua said. "It's also reinforced – we need to move fast, we can use the Address System from there to stay in touch".

"Good, let's do it" Leon nodded. He swallowed the dryness down and out of his mouth. Claire swiped her green card in a door and she and Joshua ran down a passage. Leon looked at Marvin who took point – they headed towards the safe room.

Leon knocked on the heavy steel door. Ben's face appeared on a screen nearby, he grinned when he saw them. "Come on in!" he exclaimed. The door hissed and he pulled it open. The others slid in. Leon looked at Sherry; she was pale and shivering, asleep in Claire's jacket.

"We should go" said Marvin. "Anyone know where the monitor room is?"

"Here" Ben held up a map. "This should help" Leon reviewed the sheet and nodded. He knew the route…he only hoped Claire and Joshua would be able to meet them there.

Claire

As they ran down the silent corridor, Claire had a sense of unease – she used her Green card to open the door. Joshua leapt into the dark room and fired, the mutated black licker was the same as the last, but it was oozing more. "Epsilon Gas" Joshua mused.

"Hm?" Claire asked, hoping for an explanation.

"Never mind" smiled Joshua. "Emetine-2 should be over there" he pointed at the large cabinet on the wall. Claire nodded; she approached the thick metal cupboard. Something thumped inside. They paused, there was another thump.

Thump…Thud…hiss…thud…hiss…Thump…hisssssssssssssssssss

"What is that?" whispered Claire.

"Something nasty" replied Joshua quietly. "I'll open the cupboard, you get ready to shoot…" he gripped the handle. Claire swallowed a sick feeling; she steadied her trembling and looked straight at Joshua. She nodded he breathed out and pulled.

The bulbous maggot burst from the cupboard, the slimy white body was turgid and spewing slime from its frame, it twisted, long grey tendrils slapped about at its face. Claire blew it away with a well aimed grenade. The writhing body burst apart, maggot chunks splattered around the room but Claire wasn't hit.

With a swallow to keep down her sickened sensation she turned to Joshua. He handed her the jar of green liquid. She looked past him to the cupboard, inside the dark, cool, damp place – there was a cracked snot green egg that had burst open, the smell of old gym socks wafted from it and the waxy strands it was held by.

"What the hell is THAT?" she murmured.

"A Lay egg" Joshua said. "I saw the paperwork…a moth injected with the T-Virus, it lays eggs rapidly and they hatch and develop quickly…they're just not very tough".

Claire shivered at the prospect of facing a gigantic moth…then she followed Joshua out of the room through a different door.

Leon

They moved down the passage, the sound was a squelching, slithering one… Sarah and Leon took point, they kicked open the door – and stared. The massive vine creature had developed around the central shaft core. It squelched and hissed, vines lashed the air. "Sick" Leon breathed.

"Let's go" Ben said, Marvin was carrying Sherry in his arms and Ben was taking up the back – so far only a few zombies had been seen and as such had easily been dealt with. The vines lashed out, Leon fired his shotgun and green slime spewed out against the wall as a vine recoiled. Sarah screamed as a vine wrapped around her leg – she fired at it and it let go…then the vines snatched her up.

"SARAH!" roared Marvin. Leon grabbed the girl's arm, desperately clinging as she screamed and tried to break free – but all was lost. She was dragged away with a last scream…and vanished into the darkness below. There was an explosion as her grenade stores went off.

The plant screamed and Leon covered his face, saying a short prayer to her spirit…

Shaking, Leon looked at the others, Ben was pale and Marvin was teary eyed, but the tough cop wiped his eyes and nodded at the ladder, according to the map it was a shorter route to the room. Leon nodded and in silence, each one of them mourning, they descended the ladder, gently helping a barely coherent Sherry down.

They moved along a walkway…footsteps echoed nearby, from the darkness Claire and Joshua came. "Claire!" Leon gasped. He hugged her. "We lost Sarah" he whispered. "This fucking plant…"

"The explosion?"

"Her grenades went off"

Joshua was tending to Sherry and Ben was fidgeting. Slowly, reluctantly, Leon let go of Claire and wiped his eyes. Claire patted his shoulder. They moved towards the monitor room and Claire unlocked it with her key card.

They stepped into the heavily plated room and the door sealed behind them. Claire walked over to the monitors and started them up, thousands of images clicked on. "The labs on this floor, the two above and the two below are in a bad way" Claire sighed.

Leon watched, he could see small fires, mutant Lickers fighting each other, plants encrusting rooms, zombies cannibalising each other and ugly monstrosities lumbering around. "Its chaos" laughed Joshua. "The bastards really fucked themselves over". He rubbed the back of his neck. "We have to get out of here" he said at last.

"Where's the security train?"

"There" Leon pointed to a 3D map displayed by a screen on a wall near the main console. The room flashed red under his finger. "Not far, from here we should be able to authorize it to open – so long as we don't hit the wrong buttons that'll give us full control and plenty of time". Leon watched as Claire and Joshua started working on the keys of the huge computer.

Then Leon spotted her.

Ada.

She was moving along a corridor – relatively unharmed but dishevelled. He stopped; he'd have to try the PA system… "Don't touch anything" Joshua snapped as Leon reached out a slow hand for the microphone. He looked up at the screens. "She'll be fine, but she did run off on us – her decision" he shrugged and went back to work.

Leon stared longingly at the screen and then shook his head.

Ada

She was going to get a sample; her employer was paying 3 million for a sample. That was if she brought back the minimum amount – that virus, a full vial of it, could pay her way into a future with golden paved streets.

She wasn't about to let it slip away.

Sorry Leon she thought…and continued.

Joshua

The gang moved on with heavier hearts then before. Sarah's loss had been felt, like Bob's and Jim's. It was terrifying and now the fear of "Who Next?" was seeping in deeply. Joshua led them down the hallway. A Weed appeared, he fired before it could spew acid, but a second one appeared.

"Weeds!" he exclaimed. "Don't let them get close, they spit acid!" as if to demonstrate his point one of them spat at him, he vaulted backwards and fired his magnums. The monster burst and sprayed acid on its comrades before falling over twitching. Three more appeared but Claire's flame grenades, Marvin's magnum and Leon's shotgun ended them much like the first.

Carefully avoiding the acid stains the group of survivors continued down the passage, ivy lined the corridor, bursting forth from cracks and gaps in the walls. Thud.

Joshua froze.

"Did anyone here that?" he whispered.

"What?" Ben asked.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

"That!"

Everyone had been listening carefully, they heard nothing – and then the Thuds became audible. Before they could do anything Mr. X burst through the wall.

"For Fuck's sake!" groaned Joshua. The monster bashed him aside, it had ivy strewn over its body and the blank eyes were messed up now, scarred around the bones of the eye sockets…its coat was singed and dirtied – the Tyrant wasn't looking so great.

The monster lurched forwards and went straight at Sherry. Joshua swung out in front of him like an idiot; firing hopelessly… the monster swung at him and slammed him into a wall. Ben fired like a chicken but he made an effort… Sherry was in his arms at the moment so he was definitely about to die.

The hiss was inhuman. Joshua leapt through the air, eyes glowing red, he landed on the monsters back and raised his hands back, and the backs of his hands were covered in a heavy black carapace with a hiss he stabbed down with the iron hard talons that topped his fingers. Mr X grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hurled him into a wall.

Joshua hit it with a thud but leapt up, he opened his mouth and hissed, and vampire like fangs glinted in the fluorescent light. With a snarl he charged and stabbed – repeatedly. Mr X staggered back, Joshua spun and lashed out with a kick that threw the Tyrant down the hall. Mr X stood up, Joshua ran at him again – this time Mr X grabbed the boy by the throat and violently smashed him against the walls, swinging him head first left to right and then right to left.

Joshua bit down and twisted the hand. Mr X grunted in pain and released the boy, there was steam rising from the bight mark. Joshua stabbed Mr X in the stomach, pulled back and spun slashing both his claws hands across the body before spinning back with two backhanded strikes to knock Mr X down a chute.

The massive booted feet vanished last and Joshua turned around, black veins were running out from his temples and his pupils had dilated completely…he gasped, reverting abruptly to human and collapsing.

The hall was still and silent…his knack for survival had been explained and it hung in the air like a screamed curse…suffocating and smothering all thoughts not about it.

LEON

Leon and Ben carried the boy between them down the hall with Marvin and Claire behind. The officer carried Sherry on his back.

Ada was still preoccupying Leon's mind – though Joshua's transformation had…frightened him beyond belief. "Here we should try and find a place to rest" Ben wheezed through smokers lungs.

"All right" Claire muttered as she pushed the button to a lab. The doors hissed open…the zombies were already dead and Ada was standing at a table, tucking test-tubes into her side pack.

"Ada!" exclaimed Leon. "What…" Ada raised her gun and fired. Ben screamed and ran out the door, Leon was caught off balance, still holding Ben, and he fell aside behind a desk. Marvin and Claire ducked with Sherry.

"Sorry Leon but Annette Birkin was right – I am an Agent and I did use John…the virus is going to make me very rich – I only wish we'd met in a different place and at a different time"

"God I hate her" muttered Claire. Marvin clutched Sherry and Joshua close and dragged them closer to the steel unit giving protection. Claire leapt up and fired, Ada shrieked as the bullets caused a computer beside her to explode into a cloud of sparks.

The agent darted for the other exit. Leon couldn't breathe but he could function and all he wanted was to catch Ada. He ran. "Stay with the Kids" Claire shouted as he felt her running behind him. She was calling his name but he didn't hear…he had to catch Ada and look into her eyes.

BEN

As he ran Ben tried to formulate a plan, get back to the elevator and then the train car and go back to the surface and see if he could find a car and then drive as fast as he could because he had guns, maybe contact Alyssa or something.

He entered the room, vaguely aware of the smell of rotten eggs.

Something hissed.

Ben Looked up…the walls were writhing as maggots hissed and growled…Ben looked up.

The clammy, warm body landed on his face, its huge wings flapping and its legs piercing through his facial bones…he screamed…and the maggots poured into his body like warm noodles, wriggling into his body with sharp needle heads.

He was vaguely aware of an exploding feeling in his lower body… but the things bulging and festering under his skin preoccupied him with cold death. Smothered under a mother's body…

CLAIRE

Ada swung around and fired. Leon dived aside, she'd been aiming at him – she hadn't seen Claire duck down a side passage. But when Ada heard the movement behind her the shock was priceless, she took the punch to the jaw and dropped her gun.

"Claire! Leon shouted. Ada kicked Claire in the stomach.

"I am going to kick your ass" Ada said.

Claire smiled and cracked her knuckles, then her neck. "Bring it on you cheap whore"

Ada punched; Claire avoided, grabbed the arm and flipped her. Ada rolled and grabbed Claire by the neck put a foot on the girl's stomach and flung her onto a walkway over the steep drop. Ada leapt on Claire and pressed her forearm across the girl's throat.

Claire's head was off the edge of the platform and she couldn't breathe properly of course…so she clapped her hands into Ada's ears, the woman shrieked and pulled back, earning a punch to the nose that knocked her backwards.

Claire had lost her backpack in the hall…she had only her fists and feet to work with. Ada rose and punched Claire to the ground – in response Claire kicked the charging woman in the stomach and vaulted to her feet.

"I'm a trained professional – you think getting up in a stylish manner scares me?" Ada sneered.

"No…but the fact I'm going to knot you like a pretzel will"

Ada kicked, Claire caught the leg on her shoulder and kicked Ada's other leg from under her and shifted her weight to put it on the leg and slam Ada harder onto the walkway. Ada swept Claire's legs from under her and tackled the girl as she tried to get up. Ada pulled her back-up gun from her leg holster.

"Not so fast" Claire grabbed Ada by the upper arms and head butted her. "That's a Glasgow Kiss – here's a Glasgow wave" she punched Ada and the gun fired, hitting a control box – the elevators nearby started to move randomly. Clare smacked Ada's arm off the low railing and forced the gun away.

"I. Really. Hate. You. But. You're. Fun. To. Punch." Punctuating each word with a punch Claire hit Ada. But the agent grabbed Claire by the neck and punched her away. Leaping to her feet Ada rushed Claire catching her with a karate kick and two swift Jabs.

"I'll show you whose fun to punch you bitch"

Claire blocked the left hook and the right kick and punched Ada. "Still you"

Ada pulled a knife from her belt and charged. Claire avoided the slash – the woman was fast but her side pack gave a slight advantaged to Claire. She grabbed the arm and smacked Ada in the head with her elbow.

Ada screamed as she fell backwards off the walkway. Claire rushed over and stared. Ada lay on an elevator that sank down into the darkness.

Claire turned and looked at Leon.

He looked away sadly as he handed her back her gun and pack.

"Let's find Ben" he said quietly. They walked in silence…following the most likely route…no intention of going too far for fear of getting lost. Claire opened the door…she fired the grenade launcher with a gasp…it was Ben's body but maggots were crawling from it. The explosions vaporized the festering zombie of their comrade. Something swooped at her from the roof.

Leon shot it with his magnum and it pirouetted in the air to land on its back, legs twitching…body spewing purple slime… "That was pathetic" Claire murmured. "Maybe if there'd been four of them or something…but that was – a bit - disappointing"

Leon nodded…a red folder caught his eye and he picked it up. "Emergency Train protocols" he read…they backed out of the infested room quickly. "We may have a way out"

The Emergency Train:

In case of a severe emergency employees are advised to follow the instructions of the security personnel, the train is equipped with a bio scanner that will initiate a self-destruct sequence if a BOW gets onboard during its journey. The train is not for transport of BOW's. It is a personnel train, the gate locks need to be online and as such the fuses are always given auxiliary copies on the other side of the platform. The train's driving compartment has in internal lock in the case of emergencies and the train can be stopped only from there.

The access point of the train is through elevator 45-D in the storage area

The remote activation for self-destruct and alarm protocols is to be found on the train.

Leon shut the folder and took out the card key. "We're getting out of here" he said.

Claire nodded as she looked over the key card. It had a black and yellow stripe across it. "We need a computer" she said as they headed back to Marvin, Joshua and Sherry.

"He's gone" Marvin exclaimed as they entered. He lowered his gun and held Sherry closer. "He just ran outta here suddenly – he looked in a bad way"

Claire sat down at the computer. "I'll use the cameras to locate him" she inserted the yellow card into the machine. "Password?"

"Nemesis" Sherry said, her face was sickly pale and there were bags under her eyes. "Nemesis is the password…" Claire typed quickly and nodded. "Thanks Sherry" she said.

"No--problem" she grunted as she clutched her stomach. Leon watched the screen – Joshua was walking through the corridor Leon recognized. "The smelting pit?" he murmured.

Claire looked at him, confused as she watched Joshua enter the smelting pit room.

"I think he's about to do something stupid!" Leon gasped.

Claire felt the same feeling of fear well up under her skin. "There's a shortcut to the room, I'll open Storage room 3 on this floor and you can use the cargo elevator to get down there"

"Okay" nodded Leon as he ran for the door. "Stay on the radio!"

"Done and done!" Marvin agreed.

Claire felt a pang of anxiety for Leon as he rushed out the door.

TO BE CONCLUDED

Next chapter is the last one and everything is revealed. Where did Joshua go first? Will Marvin survive? Will Sherry die? What is Joshua? What about Mr X? Is Ada still kicking? And what of Dr Birkin?

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