Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Chapter 12: Escape

A/N: Not as many reviews as last chapter, but I'm guessing that's because of how slow I've been at updating lately. My excuse this time is just all around laziness I guess. I've been trying very hard to do this, but certain things have prevented me from doing so; such as planning a vacation I was supposed to start Sunday and never went on it due to certain circumstances. We have re-scheduled the vacation for TOMORROW, and I won't be back till Thursday. I'll start work on CH. 13 as soon as I get back.

Billy looked back at the others. "We'll restore the power, and head right back up. Okay?" He received nods from the three younger companions. He turned back around, re-directing his attention to where he was walking. The hallway was pretty long, but the door at the end of the hallway was no doubt the one they needed. It was unmarked, but he just had a feeling that that was the door.

Once arriving at the door, he stopped, and listened carefully. He didn't want to go in and get from some M-16 wielding zombies. He heard nothing, and grabbed the doorknob slowly, twisted it, not all the way at first. When the door clicked, he cautiously opened the door, the end of the nine-millimeter lead him into the room- and he saw another door close, saw a beam of light enter the room and leave just as quickly as a figure ran out of the room.

Who-

"Who was that?" Rebecca asked in a whisper. Billy smirked slightly, but dismissed the odd coincidence.

"Not sure." Billy mumbled. "I'll watch the door, you look for the power restoration switch…" He said, moving toward the door, still open ajar. He didn't hear Rebecca's confirmation, but heard her footsteps as she walked over to the control panels under the wall of monitors. The room was dark, the only light provided by the bright colored switches, and the light that shone through the halfway-open door from the corridor on the other side. It wasn't very big either, couldn't have been more then ten by ten feet.

Billy poked his head out of the door, into the bright corridor. It wasn't a long corridor, it had no offshoots, only had one door at the very end of it, about twenty feet long. Whoever was inside the room had escaped. It was weird that this corridor had lighting, must have been important. He pulled his head back into the room and closed the door quietly, just as the wall of monitors buzzed to life, providing new lighting for the room.

Jeff and Tara were at the back of the room, opposite wall of the monitors. Billy grinned slightly to himself; they were doing pretty good in such an uncomfortable situation. He looked back over to Rebecca; she was looking down at the buttons, making 'hmm' noises while looking over the many colorful switches. She finally pressed a button, and his grin faded as an electronic voice broke the silence.

"All door's have been unlocked, and opened, personnel are advised to stay clear of immediate test grounds. Doors will close, and lock in ten minutes. Repeat all doors have been unlocked…" The voice continued, repeating itself endlessly, and Billy looked up and grimaced at the ceiling.

Rebecca turned to him, biting her lower lip, a look of guilt mixed with fear on her face. Billy couldn't help but be mad, what could this cost them?

"Rebecca, what did you do?" Billy asked, walking toward her. Rebecca shook her head.

"I don't know. I pressed the power button, it's right next to this unmarked button. I accidentally pressed them both I guess…" Rebecca frowned. "It must be a safety measure, just in case the facility is on self-destruct, they press this button so no one has any problems getting out."

He nodded agreement, but knew that they needed to escape quickly. If the doors were closed and locked, who knew what monsters they'd be caught with? "No time to ponder. We need to get out of here, if we're locked inside, it could mean some trouble." She nodded to him, and Jeff and Tara were already at their sides. "Alright then, let's go."

Michael punched in a few buttons on the control panel of the helicopter. A holographic screen appeared in front of him, a hologram that showed what a camera hooked to the bottom of the 'copter was seeing. The image was fuzzy, but he could make out a person, jumping up and down, waving it's-her- arms. There were a few buttons such as 'zoom' and 'pan' on the left side of the holographic screen. Michael pressed the button marked 'zoom', and the camera zoomed in onto the figure.

He didn't exactly know how the thing worked, how he could touch a hologram, but he loved it. He loved technology. And that's why he loved the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, Umbrella Inc.

That's the used-to-be-largest company in the world…

As the camera zoomed in closer, close enough that the woman's body took up the entire two feet tall and two feet wide screen, he recognized the attractive red-head, but couldn't believe his eyes. Kainite was bragging about killing her a few days ago. She was dead. There was no way that she could be alive. Kainite wouldn't have allowed it, he would have made sure she was dead.

The screen…it's just not a clear image, too fuzzy perhaps. He told himself, but he knew it was a lie. Even though the screen was a bit distorted, he knew it was Claire Redfield. I'll kill her then! I'm sure Wesker will appreciate it!

Michael smirked and pressed another button that made the screen disappear, and then started to lower the helicopter. It was time to have a little fun…

Wesker grimaced and turned from Spate. Why now? Of all times, why did something have to go wrong now? When he was witnessing the raw strength of his newest child? The Gargoyle screamed-roared-wanting more food, and it started to eat the remains of the Hunter's. Crimson liquid dripping from its jaws, hunks of flesh torn from the small bodies of the Hunters by the G-18, the Gargoyle looked invincible as it stood there.

"We should get out of the facility, for now. Wait the ten minutes out and come back in. We'll try to round up as many of the creatures as we can, we'll kill the rest. It's a lot of work gone, but we can't afford to lose valuable lives. Let's go." Wesker said flatly and started moving toward the now wide-open lab doors. Even though he said he would kill the creatures, he didn't want to. He didn't want to destroy something so valuable, so perfect.

The lights were just flickering on as the trio walked out into the bright corridor. Every door of every offshoot was wide open. And that meant that every door of every cage that housed his children were open. And that meant that they would be roaming the labs very soon, if not already.

"What about the others?" Glitter asked, following Wesker hastily, Spate right behind her.

Wesker shook his head. "We'll just have to hope they have enough sense to escape." Although he had said 'they couldn't afford to lose valuable lives', the only life that was actually valuable was Spate. He was the one that would lead Wesker to victory. All others were obsolete. And if it came down to it, Wesker was willing to risk his own life if it meant that Spate were to live. Spate would carry on his plan, and through Spate, his dream-his vision-would come true…

It was relieving that the lights had come back on; it wasn't very comfortable standing around in complete darkness. But there was still somewhat of a burden on his mind, what if something happened to Billy and the others? Leon sighed, and hoped. Ada had said they would move on in one minute if they didn't arrive. She didn't want to be locked down here, and he couldn't blame her.

But still…God I hope they are okay…

Maybe it was just the stress that was slowly turning him into a worrywart, he wasn't sure. Stress, he'd had enough stress to last twenty lifetimes. All of the events of his life together couldn't even add up to what happened seven years ago, what happened a month ago, and what was going on now. Hell, the events of ten different men couldn't hold a candle to what he's been through.

Thank God I'm still sane…Thank God any of us are still sane!

The constant repeating of the warning was still going. Probably it's tenth time so far. It was getting quite annoying too. He didn't appreciate the electronic voice that stubbornly repeated itself- and the hum of the elevator was heard.

It was like a prayer had been answered. And if prayers were working right now, he would do a hell of a lot more of them. The doors finally opened, and the four piled out into the hallway, each had a look on their face. A look of fear. The voice was going on its twelfth time, when Ada yelled for everyone to run. It was time to leave, and he just hoped that time was on their side.

Ada led them down the twisting concrete corridor, running as fast as she could. They were only a few levels under the rooftop, and there, they would be home free. They would get into a 'copter, and she'd take them to George. George would provide them with what they need, and they'd escape the country. Maybe go to Europe, Japan maybe. Anywhere away from America.

There was a set of metal stairs that winded upwards, these stairs were three floors worth, and would lead them right out into the roof. Right out onto the helipad-CRASH!

The entire group stopped as the earth shattering noise exploded through the long corridor. They were about halfway through the long hallway, it was about two hundred yards long, and behind them, next to the last corner they took, the wall had exploded. Chunks of concrete lie on the ground, metal pipes hanging from the wall, unknown gases and liquids emitting from them.

And there stood the most horrendous thing she'd ever seen-at least one of them anyways-. She'd never seen something like this before. It was huge, at least ten-feet tall, muscle-bound, with large arms tipped with razor-sharp talons. Sharp appendages protruded from it's back and from its chest, around the bone-like objects that were just opening with a cracking noise, and exposed a convulsing chunk of red tissue.

Gargoyle!

"RUN!" Ada was running herself, even as she screamed the words. This creature, Gargoyle, was possibly the strongest, and the most vicious creature that had been created thus far. It was strong, too strong, and bullets didn't phase the beast. The only way to kill it was massive punctures to its heart, and Spate designed it so that the heart was protected, and only left exposed for around thirty seconds every few minutes.

She heard the running footsteps of the others behind her, heard the crack of a few of their handguns, and she didn't bother to tell them it was useless, that it would only enrage the G-18. She just kept running, ran as fast as her legs could take her. When she reached the metal stairs, she didn't stop, she kept going, pumping her arms, taking two steps at a time. She heard the others on the stairs below her, their footsteps rapid and quick, they were still firing- and Gargoyle growled. It was mad, and it was hungry. Another growl, and it took a quaking step forward, smacking at the concrete walls with its arms, and the corridor, the steps, the entire facility, vibrated under the strength of the G-18.

Her heart pumped. There were three floors worth of stairs to take, and she had just cleared one floor. Everyone else was below her. Two more and they were home free- God willing Gargoyle didn't get to them first.

She was following right behind Wesker, Spate not far behind her, his unseen legs moving quickly under the cloak as Spate ran to keep up with Wesker and herself. She knew where Wesker was leading them: the emergency elevator, the only other elevator that would lead them directly to the roof. It would save them all of the running up those stairs, and would save them a lot of time.

Slowly, the metallic liquid started to form on her feet. It started at her toes, and worked up past her calves, over her thighs, past her hips and further up until her entire body was cased with the liquid that instantly hardened. By the time this process was complete, they had arrived at the elevator. Wesker pressed the up button patiently, and soon the doors were open and the trio moved into the normal-sized elevator.

The doors closed, and the elevator started its slow ascent. The voice was just announcing that everything would be on lock-down in five minutes-but was cut short as yet another warning interrupted. A warning that said the facility was going to blow up in three minutes.

Kneeling on the floor, holding his head in his hands, David breathed heavily through clenched teeth. The migraine, it was started. It was pumping through his head, likewise, every pump was equivalent to the beats of his heart, and each pump sent a new wave of pain through his head. It felt like his head were being squeezed, being compressed. The pain was unbearable. He screamed out, clutching his hair with sweaty hands, and the pain was gone.

With a breath of relief, a breath of exhaustion, David fell backwards against the door. He had managed to run down the hallway and into a small storage room before the headache started. Luckily, whoever had found the Control Room hadn't chased him. He locked the door anyways.

"All door's have been unlocked, and opened, personnel are advised to stay clear of immediate test grounds. Doors will close, and lock in ten minutes. Repeat all doors…"

David looked up the ceiling, as if he expected to see the owner of the voice. Of course, it was a recorded voice, a female with no accent whatsoever. And suddenly a cluster of images flashed through his mind. He saw her, saw somebody with her, saw the lab he had woken in, saw Wesker, saw Glitter, Kainite, Spate, Nemesis, and then his mind slowed to a stop as it passed through these images. He saw a blonde-haired man, dressed in a red jacket, he looked rich, and he was giggling. Another flash, and he saw a creature that looked very much like Athena's monster form.

"Shit!" He gasped, and suddenly, everything was coming back to him. Alexia Ashford, Alfred Ashford, the Rockfort Island Prison, the Training Facility, The Ashford House, The Antarctica Base, the T-Virus, the G-Virus, the Tyrant on the plane, being injected with the Virus, Chris Redfield…and Claire. He sat there, dazed for a moment as all of these thoughts entered his mind, and although they were cluttered, afterwards they left his mind completely cleared. He just knew one thing, he had to go!

Steve scrambled to his feet and pulled the door open and burst out into the hall, only to hear the feral scream of something as he did so, and he was on the ground before he knew it. Pain surged up through his right leg, and he looked down to see a creature- a Hunter- sinking its teeth into his leg. Steve screamed in pain, and the creature screamed back, and took its mighty jaws from his leg.

Steve started to scoot backwards as fats as he could. The Hunter reared back, it was ready to pounce at him, it raised its arms, only verifying the stone cold truth that it was about to rip him into pieces. And then it leapt, and his brain ticked, it worked quickly, and he brought his good leg up with all of his might. The steel-toed boot connected with the chest of the Hunter with dramatic impact, and sent the creature flying over his head and landing awkwardly, on the side of its head. A satisfying crack made him feel good.

Steve got to his feet, the pain was close to unbearable, but he could do it. He could, if he put his mind to it, he could survive. Steve limped down the hallway and into the control room. Limping past the table of colorful buttons and switches, a thought crossed his mind and he was limping back toward the controls.

Using the table of switches to support his weight and give his leg a rest, he scanned the many switches and buttons until he found what he wanted. It was a button marked 'self-destruct'. It was something Wesker had designed 'just in case'. Steve pressed the button, and there was another knob under the button, a knob that had to be turned to a certain number to verify how many minutes until detonation. There were enough explosives planted in this place to destroy it, and everything in it. If his life was taken, and if that was the price that had to be paid to teach Wesker a lesson, then so be it. Steve twisted the knob slightly, and it was activated.

"All personnel evacuate immediately, self-destruct sequence activated. Self-destruct in three minutes. All personnel evacuate immediately…"

Steve put a hand under the table of controls, and glided it across the smooth surface of the table, until his hand hit a lump. A gun. Steve pulled at the gun, and tore it from the tape that held it to the underside of the control panel. The gun was a G-18 Machine Pistol. Steve looked over it quickly and checked the clip, which was two times longer then the handle itself, he smacked the magazine back in and headed for the exit.

He was taking up the rear, firing off his nine-millimeter at the approaching creature that took its time in approaching them. Nothing was hurting the gruesome creature, not his blasts, and not the rounds of Barry's weapons that was significantly stronger then the handgun he wielded.

Chris looked up, saw Ada almost an entire floor ahead of him, and it made him all the more determined to haul ass. Chris pumped his arms to gain more speed as he ran up the stairs two steps at a time. The creature growled and he peered down the corridor at him- the ceiling was as high as the stairs- and saw that it had increased it's pace. It wasn't running, but wasn't walking either.

"Hurry!" He screamed, putting all of his effort into running faster. If they didn't make it, if they were to die…everything they've done in the past few days, and through the past seven years, would be for nothing. He wondered for a moment, that if Umbrella hadn't been shut down a few months back, how would their mission in infiltrating the main Umbrella HQ have gone? Would it have been a suicide mission, or the easiest thing they'd done? They'd spent almost a whole year planning an attack. Rebecca had stayed behind, along with a few more Ex-S.T.A.R.S. that were against Umbrella, and tried to gather as much information as she could. Barry, Jill, and himself went to Europe and started planning. They bought a house, a 'safe house'. They attained weapons, ranging from handguns to Assault Rifles, and they started to slowly plan their 'course of action'.

When something went wrong, when Claire Redfield and her newest partner Leon Kennedy, didn't arrive in Europe on time, he went out looking for her. She had been caught by Umbrella Employee's while braking into a Umbrella lab with a few Ex-S.T.A.R.S. Leon narrowly escaped, and when Chris traveled back to Europe, back to the safe house, with her, Leon was already there and waiting.

Before their plans could be put to work, and ironically, on the same day that they were going to infiltrate the main headquarters, the President of The United States ordered Umbrella Corporation to be closed. Soon after, a new President took his place, President Graham. What was Mr. Graham planning to do? Would he have opened Umbrella again, if certain things didn't go wrong? Was he already in the process of re-opening Umbrella when Wesker decided to infect the world?

CRASH!

Chris really had no clue why he was thinking of all of this now, but was broken from his thoughts either way, when the creature smashed it's arms into the concrete wall. Once again, the huge corridor seemed to shake under the strength of the creature, and it continued toward the stairs. One swift smack on the stairs would send the entire staircase tumbling down.

"I'm at the rooftop, hurry!" Ada yelled from a floor and a half above him, he glanced up for a split-second, still running, and just realized just how tired he was. His legs ached, his heart was pumping ferociously, and the thought of dieing was ever present in his mind now, as he saw the creature coming closer, only about fifty yards away from the base of the stairs. In front of him was Ashley, she was being lead up the stairs by Leon who held her hand firmly, she about ten steps ahead of him. Before he knew it, she disappeared through the door up top, Ada was standing there, motioning from him to hurry up, only about ten steps away-and the entire metal staircase rocked.

Chris grabbed the railing as he was knocked off balance, the monster below had rammed into the base of the stairs that were only held up by beams of metal, one of which was now gone because of the monster below. Chris pulled himself to his feet slowly, and the staircase rocked again as the creature below smashed a mighty arm into another support beam.

Notgonnamakeit!

And the entire structure collapsed.

The helicopter landed about a block away, and she was putting all of her energy into running as fast as she could toward it. Maybe she could get some information from whoever was piloting it! Maybe the person would know where Chris and the others went! The redhead rounded the corner, and saw the 'copter sitting in the middle of a empty street. The blades were just now slowing down, starting to come to a slow stop, and she saw a man dressed in a tactical vest, and black pants.

The man waved. "Ahoy there! You need a ride?" The Hispanic man yelled out, trying to sound cheerful despite the circumstances. Claire literally yelped in joy, and ran toward the man whom wielded a sub-machine gun. The man was grinning toward her, probably happy to see another person alive, and she was too.

Claire stopped within arms length of the man, grinning happily. He was holding the machine gun at his side, in one hand. "Wow! I've been searching for hours! You're like my guardian angel! Oh my God, I am so happy you're here! I'm looking for my brother, and a few of his friends and-oh God, do you know where they could be?"

The man nodded. "Probably at the shelter a few miles West of here. It's a blockade on the freeway, I'm from there, do you want a ride?"

Claire nodded happily. "Yes, please!"

The man smirked, and just as quickly he pulled the machine gun up, and stuck the barrel literally inches from her face. "I'm here to finish Kainite's job. I see that his work wasn't very sufficient. Time to die, little girl." He had a look of pleasure on his face, a look of accomplishment mixed in. She probably had surprise and fear written all over her face, because those two emotions were pumping through her like blood. All of this…for nothing. Was this where her luck ran out?

The Hispanic man pulled the trigger.

"Chris! Hang on!" Ada shouted, holstering her sub-machine gun in her thigh holster. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. He knew before she shouted, he heard the crash of the stairs, he knew that his best friend was in trouble. Barry Burton ran back through the door, and was greeted with a ledge only about five feet by five feet, about a foot thick, concrete. There were metal rails on either side of the small platform, the metal rails were connected to the rails that were connected to the stairs-that were now gone.

Chris was hanging on to the very end of one of the rails; the stairs had been ripped from the rails and was now lying in a large heap three floors below. He was clinging with his hands, one above the other, and his grip couldn't have gotten any tighter.

Barry got down onto his hands and knees. "Billy!" He shouted over his shoulder, and scooted as close to the edge as he dared. He heard Billy's' heavy footsteps, and he was instantly behind Barry. "Make sure I don't fall!" Barry said to Billy as he reached down toward Chris. Chris was at least fifteen feet below, definitely out of reach. "Your going to have to climb up, I can't reach you!"

He could see the fear on Chris' face, but at the same time, saw the determination. Saw him nod, tighten his jaw, and he was starting his way up, starting up toward Barry's large outstretched arm. He was coming up, hand-over-hand, and Barry thanked god that Chris was trained well. He was an Ex-S.T.A.R.S. and S.T.A.R.S. were nothing like an ordinary person. S.T.A.R.S. were trained to survive. They were trained to overcome any obstacles, and this wasn't anything near as bad as what any of the people here have been through.

"Come on, Chris! You can do this!" Another struggling hand moved, pulling him up just slightly, and he was getting closer. Barry could see the muscles in Chris' arms tightening, and he pulled himself up further. Another, another, and finally he was grasping Chris' hand, and was pulling him up onto the platform.

"…One minutes until detonation. All personnel evacuate immediately. Self destruct sequence…"

"Come on!" Ada yelled as the two scrambled to their feet and ran out onto the roof. They were free, out of this nightmare for now. The sun felt good, and it just felt so damned good to be out of there, so good to be out in the world again, and Barry froze stiff at the sight of Wesker, Glitter, and the cloaked figure standing directly across the roof, by two elevator doors, and saw the creature Nemesis standing just about twenty yards to their left. They weren't going to make it, unless they could go through all of them.

Is this it? Is this how it ends? Damn it…

A/N: Cliffhanger…AGAIN! Sorry for the lat update, again. I hope that when I get back I have a pleasant surprise P Which means…lots of reviews lol.

So until then…PEACE!