39. Helena

The silly smile on Leon's face by the time he and Claire had reached the parking lot was something Helena had never seen before. It was a genuine smile, unlike the usual gallant and composed smile he gave to the ladies or the polite smile he gave the higher-ups. It made him look younger and happier, too.

Well, shit, Leon. You better don't let Claire go if she can drag a smile like that one out of you.

"Hey, good morning. Someone is in a good mood, huh?" Helena said, nudging Leon with her elbow. She then whispered in a lower voice, "Makes you wonder what happened last night…"

Leon gave her a slight glare, and she chuckled. She could get used to teasing Leon. It wasn't something easy to do when he was such a controlled and solemn agent, but having his secret as a tool gave her the chance to have some fun at his expense, and she was going to use it while she could.

"Very funny, Helena. Get in, or we'll be late."

"Hey, it's not my fault you were busy doing who knows what with your wife up there…" she smirked, getting into the passenger seat.

"Don't let Claire hear you."

The trip to the shopping mall was pleasant, to her standards at least. Leon focused on driving, but she got a chance to make a casual conversation with Claire. The more she knew the famous Redfield, the more she liked her.

Helena had heard much of the Redfields, both of them. Their names appeared in many of the reports and files she had read when she had first joined the agency. During the attack on China, Helena had crossed paths with the eldest, Chris. The man was tough, good at fighting, and with a high moral; she hadn't been too trusting at the time, but Leon had trusted him right away, after a few punches and other hostilities, of course. However, Leon had said that no matter what, Chris would do the right thing.

She later found out that Leon was acquainted with Claire, his sister, and by extension, she also knew Sherry. The story repeated with many other names and people she'd met, even her sister. The circle of connections that surrounded Claire kept growing. It was as if somehow, everyone seemed connected to her in one way or another. She had always felt curious about her, but as their paths never crossed, she never had the chance to meet her before she got assigned to this mission.

Helena had never been one to make friends easily. In fact, when she was younger, her only friend had always been Deborah. Claire, however, had a warm personality that made it easy to befriend her.

Sherry met up with them at the entrance of the shopping mall, and the search for dresses began. Helena found a modest one without too much trouble, but Claire was forced to try a dress over another under Sherry's fashionista eye. It was sort of amusing, and it was clear that Claire wasn't having too much fun with it, but she bore with it because she loved the girl.

"Enjoying the view?" Helena said, elbowing him. Like any normal husband, Leon was sitting on a set of chairs in the dressing area. The man was looking at Claire as she tried a purple dress that Sherry had forced her to wear. It was pretty, but Helena agreed with Claire that it was a little too flashy for a Christmas party.

"Found your dress?" Leon said, changing the topic. He was trying to play it cool.

"Let's say I did...Shouldn't you be rescuing your wife from your self proclaimed daughter?"

"Let them have fun. It's been a while since those two had a chance to enjoy each other's company…"

"Is it that, or you just enjoy her in all those dresses?" Helena smirked. Leon's face betrayed him, and Helena knew that she'd hit the bull's eye.

"You really enjoy using that to tease me, don't you?"

"Like I said, teasing you is a luxury, Leon. Of course, I must enjoy it while I can…" Helena smirked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I can take your teasing, just don't tease Claire…"

"I didn't intend to. It's funnier to tease you."

"I'm happy to entertain…"

Helena smirked. She was about to say that she was happy to have him as entertainment, but the words died on her lips as Claire's voice interrupted their thoughts.

"Holy shit, I'm sorry!"

As expected, Leon's reaction was automatic. The man was right on his feet and making his way between the stalls to where Claire was. They found her kneeling on the floor and helping up a small blonde woman. Helena knew the woman, Adalind Smith. She couldn't say that she wasn't surprised to bump with her in there, but with the approaching party. It wouldn't be strange that she had come looking for a dress as well.

"Are you alright?" Claire asked, pulling her up.

As other times before, the poor woman stared at Claire like a kid that had gotten caught being naughty. The woman gave her a quick, "It's all right" and then rushed out of the place like something was chasing her.

"Okay...that wasn't weird at all…" Helena chuckled. Looking at the woman as she walked away like a terrified animal, "I've always thought Smith was weird, but that's over the top."

"I don't know...she's like...awkward…" Claire said, standing by Leon's side.

"Well, she works with Mercer 24/7…" Sherry observed, "I'd be edgy too…"

"Aren't you under Mercer's command as well?"

Sherry made an unamused look. Helena had heard about Mercer's ways. The man was an extremist and - in her opinion- a sadist. He was famous to be excessively stern to his subordinates, and suddenly, Smith''s attitude felt reasonable.

"Exactly, I'm lucky I just have to hand in reports now and then, but can you imagine having to deal with that man every day?"

"He can't be that bad, can he?" Claire chuckled.

"Oh, you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Andrew Mercer. He's worse than Simmons," Helena said, shaking her head. She had once been present in a meeting with him. He hadn't spoken to her, but by the poisonous look he had sent to Leon and her, she knew the man was an ass. "Thinking about it, maybe it is better if you don't. He hates Leon. I don't want to think about what he'd do to his wife."

"So he hates Leon?" Claire smiled, looking at him and grabbing his arm, " Who could ever hate him, huh?"

"As I have a fan club, as you call, I've got a hater club as well…"

"Lucky for you that there are more fans than haters then…"

"Yeah, not that I mind. Found your dress?"

"I don't know...ask Sherry."

"Nah, I vote we keep looking, but how about to get some lunch first?"

"Not a bad idea…" Helena grinned. She was starving. And knowing Claire's eating patterns in the last few days, the woman needed nourishment "God knows we should feed your wife...so what do you want to eat?"

Before Claire could answer that question, chaos broke over then. It took her a couple of minutes to understand what was happening around her. One minute he was happily talking about lunch, and the next, something had hit her on her head, and a curtain of dust was surrounding her. She was a little disoriented at first, but her senses came back as soon as she began hearing the screams.

Helena pushed a large piece of debris off her back. The roof had collapsed over them, and the place was now a complete mess of debris, clothes, and dust.

"Leon? Sherry? Clara?" she coughed. She tasted blood in her mouth, and she guessed that the hit had made her bite her lip.

A pile of debris moved at her right, and right after that, Sherry's blonde and dusted head raised from under it, coughing. A couple of steps from her, Leon pushed away a large panel that had fallen over them. He was unharmed except for some scratches, and Claire was safely under him. He had used his body to shield her from the impact. Very brave and silly.

"Is everyone okay?" he said.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Sherry coughed.

"We are lucky the roof wasn't concrete...We'd be done if it was," Helena said, standing up and patting the dust from her clothes, "What the fuck happened?"

"Your guess is as good as mine…" Leon replied, helping Claire up. He made a quick scan of her to make sure she wasn't injured. Helena was relieved to see she was unharmed. With her blood problems, any injury could be potentially fatal.

"I think I heard an explosion..." Sherry said.

Helena stepped aside and looked out of the store. Chaos was worse outside; she saw debris lying all over the place, people screaming and…

"Shit…" Helena groaned, reaching for the gun she kept in her holster, "We got company...the dead kind."

"Here? Why?" Sherry cried.

"Do you have to ask? Here…" Leon said, pulling out his guns. He passed one to Claire, "Listen, use it only if necessary, okay? Stay close…"

"I think I can handle a couple of zombies…" Claire said, taking the gun, "Don't worry."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Leon said, "if you get hurt, I don't know how long it'll take for you to get medical attention, and I'm not thrilled to have you bleed to death."

Leon's voice sounded collected, but Helena could tell he was sending a more profound message to Claire. The woman seemed to understand him and nodded quietly.

"Okay...this is going to be difficult…" Helena said, scanning around, "Any ideas?"

"How about shoot them in the head and run?" Sherry suggested.

"That could work...but we don't know how many they are," Leon replied.

Claire looked outside with a frown.

"Assuming they started the outbreak with one patient zero…" Claire said, "The infection spread rate should be around four or five people per infected. The average time of incubation depends on the strain, but in the worst-case scenario, it'd be about 15 minutes. So, there should be around 25 or 30 right now, and it will keep growing."

"How did you count them?" Helena asked, shocked.

"No, I've read and studied the virus enough to estimate the model…"

"Well, that's useful. I forgot you were a virus nerd…"

"Yeah, easy to forget. Judging by the color, the movement pattern, and the level of hostility…." Claire said, looking out, "I'd say it is T-virus."

"So regular zombies…"

"Most likely…yes."

"Well, better than J'avos…"

"Or the C-virus in general," Leon said, shaking his head.

Claire gave him a sympathetic look.

"The building must have entered into lockdown procedure by now. No one goes in or out. BSAA agents should be arriving in about twenty minutes to contain the hostiles, but by then, at least 50% of the people would be either dead or infected. If we can, we should lead as many survivors as we can." Claire said.

How did she even know that? Luckily, Leon was the one to ask the question she had in her mind.

"You sound sure. How do you know?"

Claire snorted.

"I designed the emergency procedure for this place…" Claire replied.

"What?" the other three said.

Had Claire designed all the anti-bioterrorism protocols in North America or what?

"Well, not this place in particular. I mean, I made a general protocol for places like this. It's a mall. There are lots of people, lots of chaos, so it's easy to get in and out. It's a time bomb. Perfect place to put an attack."

"I think that just picked up my curiosity," Leon said, and Helena agreed.

"We can talk all you want when we get out of here. Now we need to find any survivors and lead them to safety."

"Sounds like an excellent plan...but lead them where."

"The rooftop. The easiest place to perform any rescue attempt and contain the hostiles…" Claire replied, "It would give us access to antennas and better signal to ask for help, too."

"If we can make it up there…" Helena sighed.

Claire's plan was good, but rescuing civilians and trying to lead them to the rooftop through a zombie-infested building wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do.

"T-virus infected are slow. We can avoid them. Make sure you get them right through their heads. You want to make sure they stay dead…"

"Okay...sounds easy."

"Sherry?" Leon said, looking at the youngest woman.

"It's alright. I can make it. I made it out of Racoon, right?"

The girl was brave. Helena gave her credit for that.

"All right. On my count...1...2….3,"

The group stepped out, shooting at every enemy that jumped at them. It was a horrible scenario that made Helena's stomach shrink. Just a few minutes before, the place was full of people that worried about nothing but shopping and having fun. Now, half of those people were dead or turned into bloodthirsty zombies. Damn, bioterrorists.

"Okay, I hate to be a party pooper, but we don't have infinite ammo…" Helena gasped, kicking the head of a zombie.

"Agree to that, let's move. We need to save ammo. Let's go." Leon said. He was in his superagent mode, a familiar view to Helena in this chaos.

"Well...I told you it wasn't going to be easy."

Helena wasn't sure how long they had been running through the corridors evading zombies and searching for survivors. It had felt like hours, and everyone was starting to show signs of fatigue, so they had taken refuge in a grocery store to rest a little.

"getting to the roof is starting to sound too difficult." Helena said, drinking some water, " especially if we are running out of ammo. I thought you said BSAA would be here in 20 minutes…"

"It's been almost 6 hours… " Sherry said, looking at her watch, " do you think something happened to them?"

"In normal circumstances...BSAA forces should have moved in already." Claire replied. Leon passed her a bottle of water, "Thanks...if they haven't reached us, then something must have happened."

"Uhg...just great, when I thought we could have a nice normal weekend.".

Helena saw Claire smile apologetically at the girl as she took a drink of her bottle. At the moment, the lights began to flicker, and then darkness wrapped them. It was amazing how dark it was even when they were in the middle of the day.

"It's alright. I'm here, Claire…" she heard Leon's almost inaudible voice whisper.

Claire was terrified of darkness. Leon had told her that she'd come back with that trauma. It was hard to imagine someone with the experience she had, to be frightened by something as simple as darkness, but Claire was missing for eight months. Eight months from which most of her memories were gone. She remembered the things that Simmons did to his prisoners, and who knew, Claire could have gone through even worse things.

Nobody could blame her for being terrified of the darkness.

"They're here…" Claire whispered, "They are here…."

"They...who?" Leon said.

"You know who…"

Helena was about to ask what she meant, but she was promptly interrupted by a piercing howl that wasn't zombie nor human. Helena had no idea what it was, but the sound was creepy enough to send chills down her spine.

"What the…?" Sherry began, but Claire quickly shushed her.

There was a tense moment in which no one dared to speak. Helena wasn't sure of what they were waiting for, but her answer came on its own, and she had to say that she didn't like it.

It was the most nightmarish, grotesque, and devilish thing she had ever seen, and she'd see lots of horrible B.O.W.S in the last few years.

She didn't know how to describe it. It looked almost like one of the monsters that Wallace kept shooting in one of its video games. The new creature's body seemed like it had been forcefully and painfully deformed to the point that the vertebral column was visible through shredded skin. The monster was faceless, or most accurately, eyeless. It had a mouth, a large mouth with a double line of saw-like teeth and long black claws. If that thing had ever been human, it had lost all its humanity.

The creature moved its head as if it was searching for something. Suddenly, it let another howl and ran off at a speed that Helena had never seen before. No one said anything, either for shock, terror, or both.

"It's…." Claire's soft voice whispered, "It's gone…it probably found a prey..."

"What in heaven was that?" Sherry groaned.

"One of them…" Claire answered, "I've seen them before."

Claire and Leon exchanged looks for a couple of minutes. If the situation hadn't been as grave as it was, Helena would have teased Leon about his uncanny ability to communicate nonverbally with him. Claire's expression was enough to give Helena a chill. She had turned deathly pale, and her eyes were visibly horrified.

"Those are bad news…" Leon said, looking at Claire.

"Y-yeah." Claire replied, "We...we need to get out and quick..."

There was something off in her voice. Helena wasn't sure of what it was, but it didn't sound like her usual self. Claire usually spoke in a confident and friendly tone, but her voice was suddenly quieter, hesitant, and frightened.

"How do we kill it ?" she asked.

"No, we can't. Not in our current situation. Regular weapons won't harm it. " Claire replied, "Avoid conflict, and stealth is our best chance, even if we could harm them...it would heal in seconds."

"Regenerators…" Helena sighed. Of course, they had to be fucking regenerators; those things weren't on her good list.

"Yeah, more or less…" Claire nodded, "besides good hearing, they can smell us, so we should try to disguise the scent…."

"Disguise our scent? will perfume work?" Sherry asked.

"I don't think that would work. They are ...they are like ...mosquitoes." Claire said, "They can track carbon dioxide and flesh scent."

"Mosquito repellant…?" Leon said.

The idea sounded silly, but Claire seemed surprised.

"Yeah...that might work."

" The outdoor section is just that way…" Leon whispered. Helena saw him turn to Claire and say in a less serious tone, "maybe we should consider carrying some aromatic candles with us..."

It wasn't unusual to see Leon crack a random joke just to lighten the mood a little. It was obvious that Claire needed it.

"Citronella, perhaps?" Claire said, playing along.

As Leon had guessed, they found a variety of bug repellants in the outdoor section. If any of them found the idea of bathing themselves in bug spray before diving into a building infested with zombies and monsters strange, no one said anything about it. Helena was feeling anxious, and she could see, by how the youngest agent looked, that Sherry wasn't too thrilled either. Unlike Leon, and Sherry hadn't had the "opportunity" to face any of the new B.O.W.s before, but at least Helena had the advantage of having a little theory knowledge. Naturally, before being assigned to guard Claire, Helena had been given a detailed report about the new batch of virus mutated creatures; but reading about them and facing one of them were completely different things.

Lucky for them, Claire seemed to know, exactly, what to do, but even Helena, without much experience in psychology, or whatever, could tell that the woman's answers and reaction felt a little mechanical.

Claire simply knew what had to be done, but it didn't mean she understood why. Helena wondered if Leon thought the same she was thinking when she caught the man looking at the auburn headed with a frown.

Their way through the devastated mall was quick. The nasty creatures seemed to have taken care of the zombies, judging by the trail of dismembered and brutally eaten corpses that had been left behind. If those things were capable of doing this to their kind, then perhaps the hope of finding survivors was wishful thinking, considering that scared civilians would do, exactly, what Claire had advised not to do.

Claire came to an abrupt stop. Her expression under the emergency lights clearly showed alertness and fear.

"Did….you hear that?" Claire whispered.

"What?"

"Shhh…"

Helena exchanged looks with Leon and Sherry. After a couple of minutes, they heard it too. It was a soft moan, fearful moan.

"Survivors…" Sherry said with wide eyes.

"This way…" Leon said, leading the way. The man always took point in these situations. Helena liked to call it the Hero complex.

The survivor group was small; five people: two teenagers, a middle-aged man, and a woman with her baby. The group was hiding in the dressing room of a clothing store, looking terrified. Helena couldn't blame them; in their place, she'd be the same. Claire was the one to approach them, and it was there that Helena understood why she had been one of Terra Save's top agents. The woman knew exactly how to handle scared people in the middle of chaos; she knew what to say to calm them and give them hope.

"She's good, right?" Sherry muttered to her, " I remember when she found me back in Racoon. I was terrified, but she made me feel safe."

"I'd heard about her many times. I thought everything was a little exaggerated, but I guess it wasn't. At least not entirely..."

Sherry smiled with affection and pride. Claire finished talking to the group and approached Leon.

"Hey...Sherry?"

"Yeah?"

"How would you feel if Leon and Claire were a thing?"

"Are you kidding me?" Sherry chuckled, "It is what I've been praying for since I was 12. I always thought those two had a thing. I remember the way they saw each other, but well, I was a kid. I suppose my opinion was not that important, huh?"

"Yeah...I think I see what you mean…" Helena smiled.

Claire and Leon approached them, and both women turned to receive them. Claire seemed visibly worried and -in her opinion- sick.

"They're ready; shaken, yes, but they have not significant injuries that could interfere with their mobility, so they shouldn't have troubles following, but there are ...certain matters that might...complicate things."

Helena didn't need to be a genius to see what she meant.

"The baby…" Sherry guessed.

"Yeah...we can't explain to a baby why he needs to be quiet." Claire replied, "but we can't leave them behind…"

"No, of course not, " Leon said, shaking his head. He'd prefer to get shot than let anyone behind, "We'll take the risk, and we'll cross that bridge if we get there."

Helena thought Leon was optimistic. Babies cried; it was their nature, and in their predicament - being hunted down by some hellish mutants that relied on noise to hunt their prey - that was like a death sentence. Surprisingly, things were looking bright so far. The baby had been quiet and fast asleep during their crusade through the last few floors, and there were no creatures nor zombies.

Helena wasn't entirely sure whether it was a good sign or an ill omen, but perhaps they would make it out of it without any issues.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

The baby's sudden cry cut through the silence like a sharp knife making all of the present stop dryly. Leon had his gun ready to shoot at anything that dared to jump out of the shadows, but everything looked ominous still.

"Shut that fucking thing…" the man who Helena hadn't bothered to learn the name snapped, "shut it, or I'll do it myself."

Claire glared at the man and approached the woman, trying to help her quiet down the infant. What happened next was so quick that no one besides perhaps Claire, who had pushed the woman to the ground, could react.

A long snake-like tinge had wrapped around the man, and he barely had time to react before he had been pulled into the air and disappeared into the darkness. The only remnant of him were the echoes of his desperate screams.

The baby was still crying, no matter what the mother did to calm it, and it was soon joined by the two teenagers who began screaming and crying in panic as Sherry tried to tranquilize them. However, it was too late, they had made enough noise to attract unwanted attention, and just like the man, their fate was left unknown. The only remaining one was the mother and her child, but with the infant's full lung cries, the strike would come soon.

The tongue wrapped around the woman's hand, but before it could pull her away, Claire had sliced it with a piece of broken glass that she must have picked from the ground.

The creature let out a howl of pain as Claire pulled the mother and her baby as far from the spot as she could, and Helena saw, horrified, how the tongue regrows the cut-off tips in seconds.

They were surrounded, and if those creatures were as resilient as Claire had described then, Helena feared that this would be a hell of a fight. True enough, if she had thought the battle against Simmons was the top worst fight she had in her life, she stood corrected. This monster was 100 times worse.

The sound of gunfire broke through the place. The bullets did nothing more than scrape the monsters' decaying skin and reveal their presence like the ring of the bell for dinner. One of the creatures hit Helena, sending her against a wall. Her gun went off, flying, and she heard a loud crack followed by a horrible pain in her left leg. She was surrounded and alone, a bad combo in such a situation. Suddenly, an ear-piercing alarm rang through the place. The sound was high-pitched to the point where their ears were horribly in pain, and Helena recognized it as the mall's fire alarm. She then felt someone lifting her.

"They're stunned… it is our chance. We have to go now."