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Kingdom Come: The Ashes of Paradise
Chapter 8
"Action is the antidote to despair."
- Joan Baez
Beep … Beep … Beep
The beeping was rhythmic…slow, gentle, steady, it soothed the sleeping beast, kept it happy within its sedated world. Everything there was peace, floating, perfect nothing. There was no pain, no anger, it was pure, utter, bliss.
Beep … Beep … Beep
"Wake up." The voice was a sudden, terrible intrusion on the beep, and the creature had to resist the uncontrollable urge to lash out and silence it. "Wake up. It is time to fulfill your purpose. You have survived the rebirth. You must wake up!"
The voice stopped…but the beeping did not resume, and the creature shifted in it's bed, restless, searching. The voice had touched something, something almost forgotten, and it was beginning to stir. "Wake up!"
It opened it's eyes, staring into the dimly lit darkness of it's home. A tiny room, full of cords and pipes and his single glass and iron bed. Green letters began to appear in the corner of it's eye, reviving long-dormant programming.
Designation – Nemesis Hunter 4.
Territory – Philadelphia
Directive: Eradicate survivors. Ensure purification of area. Determine threat level.
Threat level – STARS 1, Military 2, Local Enforcement 3, Civilians 4.
It reached out and pressed a hand against the glass of its bed, and the front slid away, letting it climb down onto the ground. A case sat by it's feet, and it leaned down to open it, gathering up the armaments left there, carefully hanging each it the appropriate holster.
"Good. Remember, fulfill your objective and you will sleep again. Leave nothing behind, and the beeping shall return."
It growled a soft acknowledgement to the disembodied voice, and then stalked across the small room, its massive feet thudding like elephants on the stone floor. Against the far wall a panel stood, and the creature reached out, and with grace belying its massive fingers, pressed three buttons quickly. And the ceiling groaned and creaked, disappearing into the wall.
A single leap drew the beast up into the world, the floor receding behind it to conceal its home. It would return here when the mission was accomplished.
A quick scan of the area revealed the creature was in a large, glass-encased building, with a cracked bell resting on an altar just behind it. Outside, the area was almost entirely clear, no carriers, and only a single pair of uninfected people running desperately across the grass.
Without hesitation, the beast reached back and grabbed the bell by the large wooden brace, hauling it up with one hand and hurling it through the glass. The two figures outside had just enough time to let out a startled scream before the metal slammed into them.
Two down. The rest would fall, and then it could sleep.
July 22nd, 2:30 PM
Philadelphia was lost.
It was hard to admit, even harder to deal with, but as Rich slammed on the gas and drove the front of his Navy Jeep into two carriers, sending them splattering to the ground, he had to admit it was true. If a city could be alive (as many would argue) then this city was a body in the last, desperate throws of death. And all they could do was get as many people out before it died completely.
He threw the jeep into third gear and slammed forward, crashing into a pair of zombies that had shuffled out into the street and sending them sprawling and twitching. It wouldn't kill them, he knew, but it was satisfying. Made him feel like he was doing something other than just…searching.
Rich had been in the Navy his entire adult life. Twenty-two years as a ship's mechanic. He'd served on fourteen ships under nine commands, until he'd injured his arm and finally been moved to Captain Kershal's personal staff. When the navy yard was left with a skeleton crew under the Captain, Rich had gone along. A nice, cushy job in his home town, without to much to do beyond maintenance, until he retired. It had been impossible to pass up.
So he'd moved home, got an apartment that had probably burned down, a girlfriend who was probably dead, and a life that he'd been contentedly bored with. A whole three months of peace, and then the world ended. Figures.
But it didn't matter. They were alive, and they were going to stay alive as long as they could. The small group of survivors at the Navy Yard had spent the last two days finding the things they need, and searching for more survivors. Not many…not nearly as many as they'd hoped. It didn't matter…tomorrow they would stop searching and leave. No one was certain where they would go, but at this point, anywhere was better than here.
So they had sent out patrols, skirting around the center of town in the hopes of finding any survivors who had not been bitten yet. They'd found a few who had…which had felt horrible, telling someone what was going to happen…but at least they seemed to understand when they weren't allowed to come along. Or if they didn't understand, they were so angry they didn't want to come along.
Rich pulled the jeep around a corner, pausing as he studied the street before him. Like every other, it was in shambles…broken cars, small fires, and even the occasional carrier shambling against a wall. It was the same thing he'd seen on every other street he had turned down. He hadn't found a survivor since the night before, and bang.
A gunshot? He wasn't even sure he had heard it, over the quiet rumble of the jeep, but a few moments later it was joined by a second gunshot, and then a third. Rich started down the street towards the noise, and a moment later a red-headed woman jogged into view from a side-street, a pistol in each hand. She fired off a pair of shots, clipping a carrier in the shoulder and head, and then stopped, looking around as though searching for something.
Halfway down the street, Rich risked the noise and beeped the horn on the Jeep, hoping to make sure the woman wouldn't run away. Almost immediately she spun around, pointing both her weapons at him, and he slammed on the breaks…but she didn't fire, and a grin broke out of her face.
The grin died almost immediately, and as Rich watched the woman turned to face the way she had come, staring out at something…and then sprinted towards his Jeep, waving her hands at him as though telling him to turn around. Behind her, a crowd of the carriers lurched into view, moving much faster than Rich would have given them credit.
He spun the jeep around, narrowly avoiding slamming it into a parked car, and waited just long enough to feel the shift in weight when the woman jumped onto the bumper and into the back before taking off the way he had come.
A pair of gunshots rang out, then a curse as he heard the redhead fall on her rear in the back of the jeep. Firing a pistol was difficult enough standing still, after all. "Don't bother!" He shouted back to her, and spun the jeep around a corner. "They don't follow very long."
Five blocks and five minutes later he pulled the jeep into a large, empty parking lot, bringing it to a halt in the center. It was completely silent now, except for the distant moans of carriers. It seemed they had lost their pursuers.
Rich twisted around to find the redhead sitting with her back against the canvas-covered rear machine gun, trying to catch her breath while she reloaded one of her pistols. And on closer inspection, he found that her shoulder was covered in a slightly bloody bandage. "Are you alright? Have you been bitten?"
"What? Oh…yeah, I'm fine. I wasn't bitten…got attacked by a licker…" She reached up and scratched at the bandage on her shoulder, then shrugged. "A couple days ago, not infected, don't worry about it. I'm Liz…thanks for the save." She grinned, dropping the gun into her lap and holding out her glove-covered hand to shake.
Rich resisted the urge to ask what, exactly, a licker was, and just reached out and shook her hand. "I'm Rich." He stopped when he thought he heard a footstep, glancing out at the streets around the parking lot for a moment.
"Nice to meet you, Rich." Liz slapped the clip back into her gun. "Well…sort of. Not the best time to meet people, really. I was beginning to think the whole city was empty!"
"It almost is. There are a hundred or so of us at the docks, but otherwise…" Rich trailed off, shaking his head. "Where did you come from? I've been searching this area for two hours and haven't seen any trace of people."
"Oh, I'm not from Philly," Liz grinned. "I came here with some other people, looking for survivors. We managed to escape from St. Louis, and came here thinking it was far enough away that the virus wouldn't have traveled, but I guess it did. Or there was an outbreak here, Claire wasn't really sure…" The redhead gave another shrug. "But we figured we should come in and check. There are about fifteen of us here now, I think."
They had come into the city? And there were zombies as far as St. Louis? It was all Rich could do not to collapse back into his seat. They had suspected, when aid hadn't shown up…when no one had shown up…but they hadn't let themselves really believe it yet. So this was happening all over the world…
"Maybe we should…" A blood-curdling scream cut through the air around them suddenly, and they both spun around to stare down the street where it had come. "That's one of those monsters. It must have found someone." Rich said, his voice barely a whisper. "We ran into a couple of them yesterday."
"Well, we should go see if we can help!" Liz said, tucking the pistols into her belt.
Rich wasn't sure that was the best idea in the world…but he wasn't going to look like a coward in front of the woman either. "Alright. Here, there's a mounted machine gun under that blanket…you can use that, I'll drive."
"Right."
July 22nd, 2:47 PM
Leon trailed off as the hunters suddenly screamed, the sound so loud that the cars of the windows closest to them buckled and shattered inward. Their muscles tensed, all three hunching over, ready to spring. Leon braced himself for the strike, half-closing his eyes as he resigned himself to what was coming. "Claire…now! Ru-"
With a screech, the first hunter leapt, its left hand stretched out, massive claws glistening in the afternoon light. Leon raised his weapon, ignoring the fact that he could hear Claire starting to run away. The creature was ten feet away…falling, arm held back…Leon pulled the trigger.
And the hunter disappeared in a hail of bullets.
Leon watched, dumbstruck, as the bloody, bullet riddled corpse hit the ground several feet in front of him, twitching rhythmically. "What the…"
Another round of bullets came, from somewhere behind him, and a second hunter collapsed on the ground, almost as mangled as the first. Perhaps sensing a losing proposition, the third whirled around and leapt into the shadows of a nearby building, then disappeared into an alley. "…hell?"
Leon whirled around just as a battered looking grey and green jeep pulled up behind him. A massive black man was seated in the drivers seat, and standing behind him, wielding one of the largest guns Leon had ever seen, was Liz. "Hey Leon! Look what I found?"
"Huh." Leon wasn't sure what else to say, he just stared at the man and the jeep. Well, at least that meant there were some survivors… "How did you…"
"Find you? I found Rich here, and when we heard that scream…" Liz folded her arms on top of the gun. "Rich said he killed one of the things earlier…we figured it had found something to attack, so we came to help." She shrugged. "You're a lucky son of a bitch, you know that?"
"Yeah, I am…" He was about to say something else when Claire came running back down the street, sliding to a stop next to Leon. "I heard gunshots and…and…" she trailed off, staring at the jeep for a long moment, then twisted around and gave Leon a massive hug. "And don't you ever do something that stupid again." She muttered into his shoulder.
"I don't plan on it." Leon couldn't help but grin, draping his free arm around Claire's waist before turning his attention back to Liz and Rick. "So what's the deal?"
"Apparently there are like, a hundred survivors or something at the Navel yard. We didn't have a lot of time to talk, but it sounds like they're pretty organized. They've got an aircra…" She trailed off as a sudden, collective moan echoed to them from far down the street.
"Oh…yeah. We kinda incited some sort of zombie horde." Claire said, leaning over to peer past the Jeep. "They were chasing us when the hunters attacked."
"Well, then I guess we better go, huh?" Rich said, a grin on his massive face.
"Yeah…that sounds like a plan."
July 22nd, 3:00 PM
Fifteen minutes later the Jeep was parked outside of a small grocery store, and the four survivors were hauling bags of canned goods out and tossing them into the jeep. "Everyone is going to meet at the entrance to the highway where we came down into the city in a couple hours, so we'll have to go there and tell them what is going on." Leon was talking as he tossed another bag into the back.
"Alright. We should be able to get your people to the navy yard for the night, but I'm not sure we'll be able to go back for those people you left at the hospital." Rich tossed the last of his own food into the back and climbed back into the drivers seat. "We might just move further down the coast, maybe send some people out to go around the city…it'll take longer, but it'll probably be a lot –"
The radio on the dashboard suddenly cracked to life, a garbled, slightly panicked voice echoing out of it. "Anyone out there?"
"That sounds like Joseph!" Claire said, hopping into the front seat. Joseph had been a gun owner in St. Louis, and was one of the people who had volunteered to come search Philadelphia for survivors. Claire scooped up the radio. "Joseph, it's Claire, what's going on? Where are you?"
"I'm hiding under the dash of a police car…there's some kind of monster out there." Every crowded around the Jeep, listening to the panicked man's voice. "I had found a couple survivors hiding in an apartment building when this…thing came out of no where and attacked. Never seen anything like it…"
"Joseph, calm down. Are you hurt? What does it look like?" Claire was running through the catalogue of Umbrella created monsters in her head, and she couldn't think of many which would phase the former gun shop owner.
"It's huge! I didn't really get a good look at it, it attacked the others first and…" There was a pause, and an audible intake of breath on the other end of the line. "It looks like a giant person, but the face is screwed up. Dressed in black, and it was carrying a rocket launcher! And…it just…smacked them with it. God, I can still hear it out there."
Claire and Leon exchanged glances, a mirrored frown on their faces, not quite certain what he was describing. "It almost sounds like that thing Jill described from raccoon." Leon said, glancing out at the street.
Claire nodded before turning back to the radio. "Joseph, where are you? We'll come get you."
"I'm…not sure, exactly. I went north from the highway, didn't get very far…ten blocks, maybe? I'm in a police car…it was the first one I saw. It's coming closer!"
"Try to stay quiet, Joseph. We'll be there as soon as we can." Claire put down the radio, glancing over at the others. "We're in the other direction…but the streets were pretty clear, we'll have to hurry!"
"Right." Rich nodded as he threw the Jeep into gear and they took off down the street.
July 22nd, 3:12 PM
The jeep came to a stop next to the cop car, the first one they had seen in this direction, and all Claire hoped out to check it while the others kept a lookout. The street-side door had been ripped off its hinges and was resting on the ground nearby, and the inside appeared to be completely demolished, but there was no sign of Joseph. The driver-side door was left open.
"He's not here," Claire finally said as she stepped back from the police cruiser. "But I don't think he was killed…there's no blood in the car." If there was one thing she had learned, it was that fighting those monsters and zombies left a lot of blood. "He probably tried to run away, out the far door."
"Yeah, but which way did he go?" Liz was standing in the back of the jeep, her hands resting on the hilt of the swivel-gun. "We can't split up, not if that monster is as dangerous as he described."
"Well, maybe he…" Claire was about to offer a complicated argument that he would've run in the direction the door opened because it was faster, when gunshots suddenly sounded from a nearby side-street. All four people turned to stare for a second, before Claire leapt back into the Jeep and Rich took off around the corner.
The side street was littered with police and swat corpses, many holding guns and rifles, and Rich had to stop just before he ran one of them over. In the middle of the street though, was Joseph, leaning against a wrecked S.W.A.T. van, his rifle braced against his side as he fired, his left arm hanging uselessly at his side, covered in blood.
And stalking towards him was a monstrous man, dressed in a blue-black trench coat and lugging a shiny square four-rocket launcher. His skin was brown and wrinkled, his muscled bulged, and his footsteps thudded like elephants on the asphalt. Joseph was firing almost continuously into the beast's chest, and the monster wasn't even slowing down.
"Tyrant!" Claire hissed out, leaping from the Jeep. "Joseph, run to us!" She fired her pistol uselessly at the monster, missing several times but hearing one rewarding fleshy 'thud.' Not that it did anything.
Joseph turned and took one step away from the van, but before he could take a second the monster closed the distance and caught him in his stomach, slamming him bodily against the S.W.A.T. van. Joseph managed to twist around and fire off two shots with his rifle before the beast swung its fist like a hammer, and punched the poor man through the side of the vehicle, where he disappeared inside.
"No!" Liz shouted from the back of the Jeep, opening fire with the swivel-gun. The creature twisted around to face them, taking the shots in the chest and legs…and ignored them, almost like they were insect stings. After a few seconds, and probably two hundred rounds, Liz stopped firing, staring at the creature as it just stood there watching them.
"Claire, get back in the jeep." Leon said, his voice barely a whisper. "That's not just a tyrant, that's the thing Jill talked about. That's a Nemesis!"
"What?" Claire was about to start shooting again, but brought herself up short when Leon spoke to her. She glanced from the creature to him and back…and the motion apparently drew the attention of the creature, as it turned to stare at her, its brown eyes narrowed…as though it were studying her.
"STARS." The word was deep and resonating, like a judge slamming his gavel down, and Claire just stood there staring at the creature. It made no move towards her, it just continued to stare right back, at her and nothing else.
"What does it mean? I'm not in…" She trailed off…she wasn't in STARS, but Chris was…and they had never really figured out how the Nemesis had tracked Jill all over Raccoon. If it did it on a genetic level somehow, then…the fact that she was related to a STARS member could have been throwing it off.
"Claire, get back in the jeep!" Leon leaned out and grabbed the brunette by the arm, hauling her bodily into the Jeep. And the creature started to charge.
"Drive!" Leon yelled, once he was sure that Claire was inside. Liz opened fire, mostly missing as Rich swung the jeep around and took off the way they had come. The creature ran after them, faster than Claire could've dreamed, and was only ten feet away when Liz steadied her aim and unloaded several hundred rounds point-black into the creatures chest and head.
It let out a roar of pain and anger and stumbled backwards, and Rich took the opportunity to swing around another corner and head back out of the center of the city.
"STARS."
The creature stopped running shortly after the jeep was out of sight and stood stock-still, allowing the regenerative properties of it's body to begin forcing the hundreds of bullets out and heal over the injuries. The entire process would take about ten minutes.
Which gave it time to consider, as loosely as the world could be used, it's current objectives. Encountering a STARS operative was unexpected, it did not quite mesh with the initial instructions the creature had received. But according to threat assessment, a STARS operative was first priority. And judging from the amount of damage the creature had received, the assessment was accurate.
Which left the creature with a choice, something it was not accustomed to. Would it hunt down the STARS operative, or continue its trek across the city eradicating the human infestation?
Spent bullets began clattering to the asphalt around the beast as they were forced out of its body, the bullet holes healing over, leaving only the various breaks in it's trench coat to indicate they had ever been there at all.
"STARS members will attempt to collect civilians." The voice in the back of the creatures head spoke up suddenly. "They will surround themselves with companions if they can. Seeking out STARS will allow the continuation of your objective. Then you can sleep."
The creature felt the last of the bullet holes close, and shifted in place, adjusting the rocket launcher over its shoulder. The voice was correct, the creature found no fault in it. It began walking in the direction the jeep had gone, a steady pace, knowing it would never grow tired.
July 22nd, 3:20 PM
The four sat in silence as Rich drove the jeep to the highway where Leon had said they would meet the rest of his team…short one now that Joseph was dead. "What the hell was that?" He finally asked, looking over at the other three people. "You called it a Tyrant?"
"It's…complicated." Claire said softly, staring at her lap. "One of the things Umbrella created is called the Tyrant…it's a big, humanoid war machine, like that thing was. They usually aren't very smart, but…" She trailed off and shrugged. "Some of the newer ones are, I guess."
"A friend of ours was chased through Raccoon City by something like that," Leon said from his seat in the back. "She said it hunted her relentlessly, and could use weapons…she only managed to stop it when she used some experimental umbrella rail-gun against it."
"It's only supposed to hunt STARS members, but I guess it thinks I'm one. But why would Umbrella release it? Why here? They couldn't have known we are here." Claire frowned, trying to keep her hands from shaking by reloading her weapon.
"Well, Joseph said it was attacking him, and the people he had found, so maybe it's just gone rogue?" Liz spoke up, leaning over the gun so they could hear her. "I mean, everything else got released…so maybe they had a spare, or were planning something else, and it got out?"
"Why are you saying Umbrella is causing this?" Rich spoke up, before Leon or Claire could answer. "Umbrella makes painkillers, not zombies."
"…they created the virus that caused this, and pretty much everything else you might've seen in the last few days. Their pharmaceutical business is just a front for their bio-weapons development." Leon sighed. "I can't explain it all now. We need to go pick up the others, and then see about meeting up with your group. If that creature is running around, we're either going to have to give up looking for survivors and leave the city entirely, or find a way to stop it. And I doubt we're going to stumble across an experimental rail-gun here."
Next time: More Rebecca and Carlos stuff!