Resident Evil 9: Return
Chapter Ten: Moreau's Mistake
"Those men grabbed him and ran!" Samuel explained to Averie, while a distraught Taylor cried as she stood beside Kai.
"Why didn't you do something?" Averie demanded.
Samuel was taken aback. "Well I never! I didn't know what to do, those three men seemed rather strong…"
"Anything would have helped." Averie said through gritted teeth.
"Which way did the men go?" She demanded. Samuel pointed into the trees, and before anyone could stop her, Averie ran after the men.
"Averie!" Arcane shouted, but he wasn't able to chase after her. The noise had brought the group a lot of attention as several villagers left their homes and came outside to see what was going on. They saw Arcane holding down one of Moreau's men, and started to walk towards Arcane angrily.
However, they weren't upset with Arcane. The first man who reached him helped stand the prisoner upright, while another man bound his hands with rope.
"These men are worms, don't deserve our respect." The first man explained, pulling Arcane aside as other men came forward to help out.
"Thank you, but I need to go after Averie. I can't let her face those men alone." Arcane explained, trying to walk away.
Several members of the group stopped him, arguing why he needed to stay behind.
"More lycans are coming, I can feel it in my bones!"
"This man needs to face trial immediately."
"That girl didn't run off alone, that fancy man followed her."
"My bones have never lied, I know they're coming!"
The men of the group continued to argue, while Moreau's abandoned worker stood off to the side, tethered to the group by a rope leash. Kai stepped forward and grabbed the group's attention.
"Wait a minute, who did you say followed her?" Kai demanded.
"That one man over there who was dressed very nicely. He watched her run off and decided to follow. Though we're not sure why."
"He most likely saw you all coming, and was scared you'd drag him into a cult." Kai stated sarcastically, but then realized that that was probably exactly why Samuel ran after Averie.
"Son of a-" Arcane tried to state, but he caught Taylor trying to run into the forest after Averie and Samuel, and went after her.
"Hey hey Taylor, you can't follow them!" Arcane said, grabbing onto Taylor's arm gently. She was crying after her brother, but Arcane's voice caused her to pause. She turned around, glaring at the villagers.
"Why did those men take my little brother?" She demanded.
"What did they want with him?"
"It wasn't those men who are after your brother." The villagers gasped as one of the doors to the caravan opened, and Duke sat down with a heavy grunt onto his seat.
"It seems that Lord Moreau is after your brother. As for what reason…is an excellent question."
The group of villagers was torn. Would they go after Averie and Samuel to help them rescue young Carson? Or would they deal with the man they had captive, and put him on trial?
Kai soon realized that the villagers had to create their own laws apart from the orders they were given by the Four Lords, and was scared to see how dire the consequences were when their laws were broken.
"Execution by shooting range."
"Trial at sundown, followed by banishment into the forest."
"Hung by his wrists on the tallest tree in the village, and left to the lycans."
"Turned over to one of the other Four Lords."
The village was not a settlement of the twenty-first century, and even though these men had grown up in different times their methods of justice were old fashioned. But they worked with what they had, running off of neighbours' morality, fear of judgement, and the ever- present doom that awaited them should they step out of line in the eyes of the Four Lords.
Kai clenched his fists and almost wanted to protest in the man's defense, when he could hear the screeches and growls of incoming lycans.
Before anyone could react, a lycan leapt through the trees and attacked the central group of men. The rope leash was severed, and Moreau's worker was dragged into the woods by the creature. His screams were cut short, and all Kai could hear were the cries of fear from the men around him.
Not realizing how far he had backed up, Kai felt something grab his shoulder as he was pulled backwards and into Duke's caravan. Taylor closed the door in front of Kai as a lycan came running towards the caravan. Duke could see Arcane outside of his window, but knew that the man could hold his own.
And Duke certainly wasn't wrong about Arcane, the man could hold his own. Any lycan that came near him was stabbed, sliced, and shot, causing the lycans to stumble and giving the majority of villagers a fighting chance. Though Arcane could hear the screams of villagers being mauled by the lycans, and smell blood in the summer air, he could see the number of lycans dwindling faster than villagers. After a few minutes the small battle was finished, and every lycan that had attacked was turning to dust as Arcane wiped his knife blade.
One of the older men of the village patted Arcane on the shoulder.
"That was why we needed you to stay."
If Arcane had followed Averie into the forest, he would have drawn the attention of the lycan horde her way. But Averie and Samuel were far enough away in the forest to not be noticed by the creatures, who were more interested in the sounds coming from the village.
Averie heard Samuel panting behind her and wished he hadn't followed her. But there was no point in telling the man to go back.
Averie was scared that she would lose track of which direction the men headed, but thankfully could hear the sound of the reservoir not too far ahead and knew she was on the right track. As she weaved through the large trees of the forest, Averie tried to come up with a plan to save Carson.
"Why would Lord Moreau be interested in Carson?" Averie pondered aloud, trying not to think about what Duke had explained in the caravan. She couldn't bear the thought of Lord Moreau, the hideous fishman hybrid creature, needing Carson for such a vile experiment…
"Yes…that is a rather…good question." Averie rolled her eyes as she listened to Samuel wheeze behind her.
"You know, you could head back to the village and let the others know where I am headed. I could use some back up."
"Oh, I'm not enough am I?" Samuel demanded, taken aback by Averie's comment. Averie stopped dead in her tracks, glaring at Samuel.
"No, you're not. You didn't do anything to stop those men from taking Carson in the first place, what makes you think I'd believe you were cut out to help me now?" She demanded. She then turned away from Samuel, both satisfied with her remark and also feeling guilty for how rude she was.
"Well, I could always be a distraction." Samuel protested. "This Lord Moreau may be distracted enough by my charms that you could grab the brat and be out of there! And why are you going after the boy anyway, doesn't he have an older sister?"
Averie ignored the comment, knowing in her heart that she was doing the right thing. Taylor wouldn't stand a chance going against Lord Moreau on her own. And at least if anything happened to Averie, Taylor would have Arcane and Kai to look after her.
"Why don't we just get to the reservoir and see what the place looks like?" Averie offered.
"Then we can come up with a plan from there."
"So, any plans on going after Averie and Carson?" Kai asked Arcane. Arcane sat in the doorway of the caravan, watching with a heavy heart as the villagers mourned the death of their neighbours who suffered the wrath of the lycans.
"We head over to the reservoir and offer backup." Arcane said simply. "Nothing complicated. Get in and get out."
"If you can get in." Duke pointed out. "Who knows what Lord Moreau has set up to keep unwanted guests away from the reservoir."
"So, none of us can get in?" Taylor asked wearily, leaning her head against Kai's arm. Kai gently patted her head.
"Not necessarily, I just wouldn't rush in after them. I'm not exactly sure what Moreau has planned for your brother, and I wouldn't want anyone to 'force his hand', so to say."
Arcane turned around to look at Duke.
"What about those plans of the Four Lords you were telling Averie and me about earlier?"
Arcane asked without giving too much away. He didn't want Taylor to hear about the need for human donors and become even more afraid for her brother's wellbeing.
Duke sighed as he leaned back in his chair. He smiled sweetly at Taylor as he grabbed a cup from beside his seat.
"Taylor, I am very parched and wondered if you would be willing to fill my cup with some cold water from the well beside the house across the road?" Taylor nodded politely and headed out the door with Duke's cup. Once the girl was out of earshot Duke leaned closer to the two men.
"Moreau made a mistake." Duke explained.
"He can't use Carson. The Four Lords would need adult humans not children. They wouldn't survive the procedure."
"I'm sorry, what is going on?" Kai demanded, but Arcane held out his hand to silence him.
"This procedure, are you meaning the one that needs human donors?" Arcane asked. Duke nodded. Kai felt the blood drain from his face.
"Averie and Lady Dimitrescu…"
"It is possible that Averie could be a perfect match for our fair lady but that isn't the point right now." Duke stated.
"I don't know all the details of the experiments or procedures, but it is clear to me that the Four Lords need to be extremely particular about the people they use. Let's look at Moreau as an example, shall we? Because of the experimentation he went through, alongside the fact that he was brought back to life, his body is deteriorating far quicker than the others. The effect of the mutagen that Mother Miranda originally used with him all those years ago played a drastic effect on his physical appearance and inner workings, and now his body is starting to…unwind in a way."
"My guess is he would need the organs of an extremely healthy individual, and those organs would have to survive the effects of these mysterious experiments in order to be useful as well as useable."
Arcane looked over at Kai, then back at Duke.
"So Carson wouldn't be eligible?" He questioned.
"Precisely. Carson is far too young." Duke explained. Kai and Arcane both sighed with relief.
"Then why was Carson taken?" Kai asked. Duke crossed his arms, staring at Kai, expecting him to know the answer already.
"Think about it, Kai. Lord Moreau has eyes throughout the village, just like the other Four Lords. In kidnapping an innocent child, who do you think would be drawn out to rescue said child, and fall into Moreau's hands?"
Arcane answered for Kai. "An eligible match for Moreau."
The Duke was giving Lord Moreau far too much credit. The older Lord was not aware of how particular he needed to be with choosing his "donor", and thought that Carson would be a good fit. As he stood in the doorway of the old wooden house located in the middle of the reservoir, he spoke to someone over the phone as he three goons dragged Carson into the gated facility.
"Yes, I found him!" Moreau gurgled over the phone, saliva dripping from his deformed, bloated lips.
"Are you sure you found the right one? Describe him to me." The woman demanded on the other end of the phone. Moreau was speaking with the mysterious woman that Carson had mentioned to Chris earlier, the one who apparently brought back the Four Lords.
"He's young and healthy looking-"
"How old, Moreau?" The woman demanded.
This is where Moreau hesitated.
"Not quite ten-"
"Moreau, you fool! We cannot use children in this experiment!" The woman yelled.
"Send him back into the village with the others."
"But my lady-"
"You've failed once more, Moreau, trying to beat the other lords to the final step. In your haste you have made grave errors, and I will not experiment on another "possible" subject."
The woman hung up the phone on the lord, and the old fish began to weep pathetically.
The mysterious woman stood in her laboratory, inherited from Mother Miranda. It was located in a dark cave, and the walls were damp with moisture. Torches were present on every wall of the room. Screaming could be heard from a nearby cave as the woman rolled her eyes.
"Ungrateful pests." She muttered under her breath. She took down a few notes about the conversation she had abruptly ended with Lord Moreau, shaking her head in disgust.
"That creature is so vile, why go through all of this trouble?" She asked herself, until she remembered the end goal of her plans. Sighing, she knew how much work needed to be done before she could achieve such wicked goals.
Walking into another room, the woman glanced at the camera footage that she had of different areas of the village. The Four Lords had their privacy in their areas and homes in the village, therefore no footage could be seen inside Castle Dimitrescu, or of the ominous factory that sat at the edge of the village. But the main roads and large front gate were always being filmed, so that the woman could keep an eye on her people.
Through these screens, she immediately noticed Kai, Arcane and Taylor as they stepped out of the Duke's caravan, and she clenched her fists in frustration. She had been told that all of the new villagers had been sorted and were with the Four Lords. Or they were dead. Escaping was not an option.
Since the reservoir was considered the domain of Lord Moreau and therefore not filmed by any of the cameras, the woman was unaware of Averie and Samuel. As she picked up her phone and made a few calls, the woman jotted down information about the three individuals she saw on the screen, determining their fate from the comfort of her cavern lab.