- Happy Birthday, Ada Wong!-
Tall Oaks
Leon poked it in the video player while Jill and Helena inspected the tanks filled with humans. The faces were human. They were people. Living people? Or dead people being used as guinea pigs? How could they really know?
The tape tossed static and started flickering on the lumpy, bumpy, goop-colored black pod. The camera focused on it, waiting. It burped, it cracked, and it split like a cracking egg. Viscous fluid spilled outward and splattered on the cold steel ground around it. A hand poked free, dripping in ectopic goop. And then an entire torso erupted free, head thrown back, spine arched, breasts jutting into the cold air.
The person spilled to the ground, slick and covered in a thick fluid. The face rotated, glancing at the man with the camera on it. The hair was black and chin-length...and the face was indeed Ada Wong's.
The video cut off and left them in stunned silence.
Helena said softly, "Friend of yours?"
Leon shook his head. He shook it again. "Not exactly. What the is this, Helena?"
"I swear to god; I don't know. Let's keep going. The answers are here. They have to be." She left the lab and hurried down the far hallway. Leon turned to meet Jill's calm gaze. Ben was poking at a tank close by.
Jill said, "Is it really her?"
"I don't know. It can't be...can it?"
Jill shrugged, studying his face. "If it is, we have to put her down. You know that."
He turned back to the videotape. Happy Birthday, Ada Wong! What did that mean? Birthday? Was she...hatched? It was hard to believe. He'd touched her. They'd done more than that once upon a time. She was a lot of things...but inhuman?
It seemed surreal.
They wouldn't know the answer until they found whatever waited for them in this lab. From down the hallway, Helena had started to scream.
"LEON! OH MY GOD! HURRY!"
And they were running now. They ran. The corner turned, and Helena stood surrounded. She was surrounded.
They were blocked on a narrow walkway with nothing but hordes of the undead between them and safety. Behind them, from where they'd come, the door whooshed down and sealed...beeping red and dealing them the hand of death in a single ugly blow.
Helena glanced behind them at the only path that wasn't thirty deep with the dead. She backed up. They moved with her. Leon looked down into the abyss beside the walkway. There was no jumping. If they jumped, they'd die. If they stayed here, they would die. If they fought, they'd die. They didn't have enough ammo in the world for all those zombies.
There was a trash chute on the farthest wall. Jill hurried toward it and jerked open the door. They'd fit. Easily. It was meant to receive bodies.
The horde was ten feet away. There was no time for other ideas. She yelled, "Here!"
Leon leaped first into the chute, no questions. He put his arms up, and Jill passed him Ben. With faith and desperation, Leon let go into the darkness. He held the little boy close to him and prayed they weren't going to head down the world's worst slide of darkness...to pop out in a pit made of crushing death and destruction.
At this point, all they could do was hold on...and pray.
The slide flipped and rolled. It spilled them down while Ben put his face against Leon's neck and held on. Leon kept his pistol in his free hand, aimed straight down into the darkness. They hit the end of the chute, and Leon went to one knee, clutching Ben to his side. He barely shifted out of the way, and Helena flopped down after them.
It was catacombs, clearly. It had the dirty, musty, awful odor of the long dead. The walls were lined with stone and openings where decaying bodies lay decrepit and disintegrating. Pushed and shoved haphazardly over the narrow, jagged walkway, sarcophagi waited, some with lids, some without. Leon set Ben down on his feet and rubbed a hand over his hair before he turned to look down the long, narrow, dark opening between two walls lined with corpses.
His guts were cramped at the idea of treading through an entire tomb filled with dead bodies. Were they really dead? Would they just rise again? Jesus. Terrifying.
The chute made a noise, and Jill rolled clear of it. She wasn't nearly as graceful as he and Helena. She went to her face with a grunt. Leon shifted toward her, "Hey…hey, hey. You ok?"
He helped her up. Her knees and palms were torn up and oozing blood. She smiled sheepishly, "So much for grace under pressure. But, in my defense, they were grabbing at me as I jumped in. I wasn't thinking about what happened next."
Leon scooped her up in his arms, and, well, he kind of stole her breath with it. It was a nice feeling to be swept off her feet. He set her down on a smooth, broken pillar that had collapsed on the floor to inspect her knees better. She winced when he brushed the rocks and dirt out of the weepy wounds.
Touched, she smiled at him. "I'm ok. Seriously. It's more embarrassing than painful."
He shook his head and unbuttoned his shirt. Amused, Jill watched him. Helena covered them while he moved.
Leon whipped off the buttoned shirt and grabbed the v-neck blood red t-shirt he wore beneath over his head. He stripped it off and ripped a piece off the hem. Jill figured it was probably a bad time to appreciate the muscle under that shirt. And she should not be thinking of how nice his chest was with goosebumps all over it.
He dabbed at her knees with a delicate touch and stole her fucking heart.
"Mr. Kennedy, it's just booboos. I'm fine."
Ben said, "I falled off my bike once. Dat's what my knees looked like. Hurts?"
Jill smiled at him softly, "It stings. But it's all better now. Turns out, just needed the right touch."
Ben nodded sagely, "Leon made your booboos go away?"
Oh, he was adorable. And he was so right. She answered softly. "Yeah. Leon makes my booboos go away."
There was that squishy feeling in his belly for her again. He winked. She said softly, "Kissed and made it better. Thank you."
He held her gaze longer than he should have, given their situation.
Leon slipped the ripped red shirt back on and threw the button up over it. He didn't bother to button it. The nice flash of red and black was catchy. And he'd just ripped a three hundred dollar t-shirt to treat her booboos. She had to appreciate him.
He patted Helena on the shoulder as he moved forward. "Thanks for the cover."
"You bet. What the fu-" She paused to look at Ben and quickly amended, "-fudge is this place?"
Jill, one hand on Ben's shoulder, moved with them. "Crypt. But whose? And why? Why hide it under the lab?"
Leon shook his head, annoyed. "We won't like the answer. I promise you that. That fu-" He did the same as Helena and glanced at the boy, "-funky lab above us? I'm gonna lay my money on Simmons."
They moved through the narrow, cold, damp stone room. The bad news was, it wasn't entirely a tomb; it was also a mine, apparently. The further they moved, the more he could see the wooden walkways and rope bridges that waited in the darkness ahead. They were suspended over the endless darkness. He could hear the rushing river somewhere close by, signifying they were moving steadily out of the valley where the Cathedral had sat and toward the lake that bordered Tall Oaks and Whispering Pines on the other side.
That part was good. Getting out of Tall Oaks? Good. Going through a rotting mine and tomb to get there? Bad. The ancient stone and walls shivered, shedding broken chunks down on them as they hurried. They splashed through ankle-deep water that had infiltrated through crumbling and seeping walls.
They were under the river. The more he moved, the more he was sure of it. He could smell the rush of it around them. It pressed like an angry hand down on the rotting crypt. As they shifted down a crumbling corridor, he watched a chunk of the roof collapse and spill down on them in a geyser. He shifted, and the water hit him instead of Jill and Ben. It was…as fucking freezing
as a ski slope in hell. It hit him on the neck and shoulders and soaked his shirt.
Awesome. Fucking balls. It was as cold as a witch's tit.
Leon squeaked from it.
Jill paused, blinking at him. And her mouth turned up in a smirk.
He kept his face deadpan. "Not a peep, Valentine."
"Pretty sure you just made the peep. Was that chilly, Mr. Kennedy?"
Oh, the look on his face was something. It was adorable. He looked so cold. He shivered. He sneezed and endeared himself to her.
Drolly, Leon intoned, "Pretty mean to make fun of a guy who just took a hit for you."
Jill cooed teasingly. "My hero."
Leon snorted.
Ben said, "You want your jacket, Leon? I can be tough if you is cold."
Touched, Leon rubbed his hair and winked. "We're good, buddy. I have been a lot colder. I promise you."
He started forward, and Jill whispered, close to his ear, "I dunno about cold, hero. I think you're pretty hot."
She took Ben's hand in hers as they walked over rotting boards.
Leon chuckled and kind of loved her. Fart jokes and flirting…what a Friday night. She was something else. That something else was pretty great. The only thing he knew for sure here? If she wasn't with him, he'd be spiraling pretty hard into the gutter.
They came up against a steel gate. It was warped and bending and rusty beneath the weight of the wall it tried to support. The sound of rushing water was so loud beyond it that it must've been direct access to the pit where all the bridges waited.
Leon lifted a boot and kicked the gate. It clanged and held, annoying him. Jill stepped up to help, and Ben beat her to it. He waited, looking up.
Leon smiled a little at him. "On three?"
"Ok."
Amused, Helena and Jill stood back to watch them kick the gate down. Leon reared back and drove a kick from the hip. Ben grunted and imitated the move perfectly. He even went OOF. He was probably, the cutest thing they'd ever seen.
The gate fell inward with a rusty ring of wrought iron. It clattered down and exposed a walkway surrounded by water. A tiny dais floated in the center of the water-filled room. Waterfalls rushed down from high above them, spilling and tossing with foamy waves. The dais opened to another path that led further down into the darkness.
Above them, bridges and walkways rotted and tumbled down in chunks and hunks of warped and ruined wood. They moved across the stone, aware that a wrong step would send them into the rushing water, and Helena shouted.
"DEBRA!"
It was so loud. It scared the shit out of all of them.
She was running now. She ran across the slick, damp stones and leaped the distance to the body that lay on the platform. Leon hurried after her, covering her. He aimed at the body as Helena scooped it up and turned it over in her arms.
It was just…a girl: just a girl, probably early twenties, in a flimsy little gray peignoir. She was just lying there...lying in the middle of a crypt.
Leon glanced at Jill, who had the same look on her face. It said: TRAP.
Jill didn't wait there. She took Ben and hurried over the walkway to the other side. The roof was trying to collapse. The building had started shaking.
Leon said, "Who in the hell, Helena?"
She shook her head, and the groaning girl was tossed over her back, holding onto her like a monkey. Helena rose, carrying her. "Just cover me, ok? Please. Let's get her out of here."
Gnashing his teeth, Leon followed her and finally took the lead. Jill brought up the rear. They kept Helena and the girl on her back and Ben between them. They hurried down the narrow bridge to an adjacent tower of stone. The floor shook, pitching. The walkways wouldn't hold for long. They needed to get down quickly.
Leon hurried to shove a crate filled with stone out of the way. Jesus, he thought while sweating and grunting, where was Chris Redfield when he needed all those damn muscles? Ben threw his shoulder to it to help. Proud, Leon let him give the final grunting push that sent it out of the way.
"Nice muscles, pal. You work out?"
Ben grinned at him.
Leon went to ruffle his hair and heard it. The moan was too close. He turned, and it leaped on him. The goddamn skeleton. It went for the kill. Jill shouted. Helena shouted.
And Leon went down to his hands and knees with a dripping, stinking, grunting corpse on his back, trying to eat his face. He tried to shake it loose and felt the teeth skim off the side of his neck. He shoved it back against the crate, and Jill shouted, "Leon! Move out here! I can't get to you!"
Well, shit. He was dead.
He rammed it back against the crate with a shout of desperation, but it clung like a burr. It drove its rotting jaws for his face again, he smelled its acrid breath, and the sound of the gun was so loud it made his ears ring. The corpse fell on him, still.
Leon went to his hands and knees, and it fell to the side, finished. Dead...again.
He lifted his head, and through his hair…he saw Ben with his pistol.
A curl of inky steam eased out of the barrel. The boy had wide eyes and trembling lips. But his hands? Steady.
Jill rushed around the crate, breathing too fast. And she froze.
Ben lowered the pistol, and Leon rose to his knees. Ben whispered, "I had to. I had to."
Leon nodded, face calm. "You did. You did good. Come here. It's ok."
Ben hurried forward to hug him. It was a good hug. It was tight and shaking. Who was shaking? Leon was sticking to the idea that it was Ben shaking. But he was pretty sure it was both of them.
"You did good, Benny. You hero."
Ben let Jill take the pistol from his hands while he held on. Against Leon's ear, he whispered, "Did it bites you?"
Leon rose, holding the boy against him. He rocked him a little, which…made Jill feel warm and sticky in places. "No bites. You saved my life, buddy. You know that?"
"Yeah?"
"Oh, yeah."
Ben leaned back to smile at him. "I'm da hero?"
"That's the rumor. Thank you."
Ben grinned at him. "Yous welcome."
"You ever shot a gun before?"
Ben grinned a little again. "Wif my BB gun. I always hits the target."
Leon and Jill shared a look. It was full of too many things.
He swung the boy on his back like a piggyback. Now he had Ben and Helena had her sister. Jill nodded, taking up the charge to cover them.
Thank god. If he'd missed…well…it wouldn't have been any worse, right? He'd have shot Leon in the face, sure, which would suck, but at least he wouldn't have been bitten. So it was kind of win/win.
They ran for it. The ceiling was desperately unstable now. They ran, with Jill picking off corpses as they moved. She was a crack shot, that was for sure. She took the lead, and he secured their rear. With Ben holding on, he could still shoot. And, apparently, Ben could too.
A BB gun. Lord. Not even close to the same thing. The kid was a natural. There was no other word for it. Leon had known the second he put a shotgun to his shoulder in the fifth grade with his Uncle spurring him on what the term "natural" meant. He'd shot skeet with almost perfect precision for a first-timer. They'd called him Wiz Kid. He was "a born marksman". Apparently, Ben was too.
They hurried across a narrow bridge and into a room barely held up by rotting pillars and crumbling stone. Water spilled fast and deep in the center. And it was as far as they were going.
Debra slid off Helena with a groan. She grabbed her stomach and screamed. It echoed in the empty room.
Helena grabbed for her. "No!, Debra, it's ok! Hold on, ok? We're almost out of here. Just hold on."
Debra grabbed her hands and cried. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She gasped, "…Lainey…why?" And Jill grabbed Helena by the back of her shirt and jerked.
Helena was barely pulled clear as Debra burst into flame. It was so fast, so startling, that they could all do nothing but stare in horror. She burned, Helena screamed in denial, and all that remained was a pulsing, slick, goopy pod.
Like in the video.
With little choice, Leon offered his pistol to Ben. And he pulled his Magnum. He said, "Just in case. If she turns, buddy. Shoot the monster. Don't aim it anywhere but right at the monster and only if we go down. You hear me?"
Ben nodded sagely.
Leon set him on the ground.
The pod split. It cracked and burped and lurched open. Something wet and horrible threw itself free in a viscous, ectopic fluid burst. Leon dropped the hammer on the Magnum, and Helena queered his shot. She stepped into the horrible mess that had been Debra and tried to…hug it?
Jill shouted, "Helena! Get back!"
And the thing that had been Debra dove for Helena's throat.
There was no time to shoot. But there was time for the zipping whoosh of sound that accompanied the arrow that brushed inches from Leon's ear to imbed in that diving face. It struck Debra's corpse in the forehead and threw her backward. Helena shouted her denial and raced to the fallen body…and Ada Wong emerged from the shadows.
Leon lowered his gun. "Ada!?"
He put his hand on Ben's to lower it as well.
Jill? She kept her pistol on the woman in red. Ada smiled wolfishly as she lowered her bowgun and winked at him. "You look like you've seen a ghost. It's good to see you, Leon."
Helena was holding the body of Debra and sobbing softly.
Ada said, "There's no time to tell you what's happening here." To punctuate that truth, the room shook. Rocks and debris tumbled around them, indicating they were in a dangerous situation. "This place won't hold, Leon. We need to get to the lower levels."
Jill kept that gun on her. Ada turned toward her. She arched a brow. "Will you shoot me? I saved your lives."
Jill remarked, "Did you? I saw the video. I know what you are."
Curious, Ada tilted her head. "What I am? What am I?"
Jill smirked at her. "The question of the day. What do you have to do with Simmons? And what game is this the two of you are playing?"
Ada lifted her lips in a smile. "Simmons is a fool. And you're dealing with the people who really run this country now. It's worse than your little mind can imagine, girl. I promise you. Do yourself a favor, get out alive, and stay that way. Stop trying to play games when you don't know the rules."
Jill dropped the hammer on her gun. "Tell me the rules. You'll find out what kind of games I can play."
Leon said softly, "Jill."
She glanced at him.
He shook his head. He lifted his hand to indicate she should lower her gun.
"Are you kidding? You saw that video, Leon. You saw it."
"I did. Answers, Jill. We need them. We won't get them by killing her."
Ada glanced between them. She looked down at Ben. And she smirked. "Happy family, Leon? Is this your game now? What kind of family can you have eyeball deep in conspiracy? You're out of your depth here. And worse yet? It's so much uglier in the dark than you can even begin to imagine."
He took a step toward her. Jill turned the gun on him.
Surprised, he met her eyes.
Jill said, "Don't touch her. Don't. I'm sorry. I won't risk you for that. Stay there and talk to her."
He held her pale gaze and finally nodded. "Alright. Ok. Ease down, Jill. Ease down. She won't hurt me."
Ada smirked a little. "Not today anyway. Maybe you should tell her about the times we hurt each other, Leon."
Ben said softly, "He fixes booboos."
Ada grinned at the little boy. "So he does. He fixed mine too before. Kissed them and made them all better."
Leon was watching Jill. She shook her head and turned her gun back toward Helena.
Leon wasn't sure he liked that look on her face. What was that? It wasn't jealousy. What was it? He couldn't put his finger on it.
Ada said, "I'm Ada Wong. Who are you?"
Ben smiled at her sweetly. "I'm Ben Foster."
"That's a good name. Will you protect Leon for me?"
He held her gaze. "I will. I'm a tough boy."
"I can see that." Ada turned her gaze to Leon again. "We need to move. Now. No more of this. Let's get to the lower levels, Leon. I'll tell you what I can."
Helena eased Debra's body back, wiping her cheeks with the heel of one hand. "I'm sorry, Debra. I'm so sorry."
The body twitched.
Leon shouted, "Helena! Let her go!"
And Debra's back exploded. It burst in a splatter of fluid and blood. Enormous claw-like protrusions erupted out of her back. Like the legs of a venomous spider, five awful, sharp-tipped claws waved around her as she caught Helena's shoulders in her hands and screamed. The legs were as long as a man and as wide as a tree trunk.
Debra threw Helena to her back on the ground and drove one of the enormous claws into her shoulder. She screamed, bucking and jerking.
Ada shot Debra in the face again with her bowgun. Leon echoed it with a blast from his Magnum. Debra was thrown back, shrieking like a banshee.
Jill grabbed Helena and threw a hand over her bleeding shoulder.
Debra threw her spider legs out and smashed them into the last structurally sound pillar that held the roof up.
Leon whispered, "Son of a bitch…."
The floor groaned, the walls shook, and the stone gave way with a groaning roar of destruction. Leon grabbed Ben to him, who latched onto his back like a monkey, and down they went.