Claire
She sat up. "What...what happened...?" She sat up to see a man with reddish brown hair in a hoodie. Moira was nearby with the bite wound. "Claire...i never thought I'd see you 't sure if you were a memory or if it was just something my memory made up and kept going. But then I remembered. It had to be real. All of it. I wouldn't have this if it wasn't..." He pulled his shirt down to reveal the scar that went across the entire chest. He had a scar unlike any she had seen before. "What..."
"You don't remember me, huh? Rockfort Island, inmate 267? I dont know if I've aged all that much since then but I know I don't look the same either."
"STEVE?!" Her eyes sized him up. She'd never seen him wearing anything else but his clothing from back in '98 but he also looked different. His hair was shorter. His skin was as smooth as it had been back in the 90's and he had a scar across his left cheek but his skin was otherwise as young as it was when they knew each other but at the same time his eyes made him seem older. A lot of the boyish innocence and the naïve youthfulness and even that charming playfulness was replaced by a haunted look of a young man who as a boy and as he came of age, had seen too much and possibly done too much.
She threw her arms around him hugging him as a wave of emotion swept through her, her eyes welled with tears at seeing him and hearing his voice. "You're...alive...Wesker...he said you might come back some day..."
"I know...and he lied. He never would have let me see you again under his watch. With what he had planned...well...you know.. your bother stopped it..." He then took the time to hug her and closed his eyes. This was a tender moment for him. "But then...he didn't lie. He didn't want to but he couldn't keep me from finding you again."
"What...what are you doing here?" She asked, breaking the hug far enough to part her body from his warmth yet holding onto him with her arms. "I'm not gonna lie to you, Claire. I've had to do some bad things over the years to survive...especially under Wesker. But...
She touched his cheeks. Despite the scars he had accumulated over the years, his face was still youthful and only because of the scars did he not completely look seventeen years old. And yet he didn't look his actual age. "You're still so young..." She said. "I She chuckled. "I was always older than you but ow you're making me feel really old."
He shook his head. "No, Claire. You're still beautiful as the day we met. You're not nineteen but...you're like a fine wine."
She blushed. "Shut up..."
He closed his eyes like a man at war most his life finally getting some peace. "You have no idea how much I would have trade just to hear you say even that to me again..."
She held him for ten seconds not wanting to let go but knew she had to. "Steve...there was another survivor from Raccoon City back there. Billy Coen. And the town people. I can't just leave them there!"
"Claire...your friend is bitten. And I know who she is. Would Barry ever forgive you if you had a chance to save her and didn't? Plus your brother is here. There's an infection here too. And this is worse."
"How can you say that?! After what we went through on Rockfort Island? If Chris is here then he can handle this infection. I don't think the BSAA even know about the infection out there. The survivors there need somebody to show them how to stay alive. Me and Billy and Moira were the best chance they had of that."
"You can't save everyone. You saw how many people were dying even with the three of you there...now listen...ever since last year the BSAA has carried kits. The medic has a case full of vaccines one for each member of the team. It protects against the C virus and that's what seems to be happening there and here. I'm just glad a new virus hasn't been released...we need to get Moira one of those."
"Well which one of us is going to go for the vaccine and who will stay with her?" She asked.
He thought about it a moment. He was super human. At least he had super human speed but he did not have the answer to everything.
"I don't know...it's dangerous for you to go in there by yourself. But one of us needs to stay with her."
"Steve, I know it'll be more dangerous for me to go in there but you said there was BSAA in there. I'll have backup. That's better odds than I had back in Cottage Grove..." She felt sick suddenly and collapsed, dizzy. "What...what happened Steve..what did you do to me...?"
He cursed. "Shit...I forgot...you get sickness...I had to get us here fast but I couldn't take you all the way from Oregon to Washington in one straight shot. The speed...the motion sickness..just breaking the laws of physics with a normal human with me would have killed you both. I had to take bursts of speed. I'd cover as much distance as I could with the two of you but I couldn't go too fast...I hate to say it but this kinda thing is usually why I work alone."
He got out a pill and handed it to her. "Normally...somebody like you moving at that speed would be dead. I had to also slow it down at least to the speed of a car. He handed her a water bottle but she dropped it. He held her face and cradled her and fed her the pill and the water. She whimpered in his lap. "It's okay, Claire...I got you..."
He gave one to Moira too and he had to make sure it went down without choking her. "You should feel better soon..." He whispered to Claire.
"What..what is that?"
"It's an anti nausea pill. It's top of the line. It was a drug from Tricell, actually. Supposed to come out a few years ago but that incident in Africa..."
"Yeah...thanks Steve..."
"Don't mention it..." He helped her up and then checked Moira. "She's alive but she's still out.
"If we get this vaccine and get it to Moira, we have to go back to Cottage Grove."
"Claire, this place is the town with an airport. Not like the little farmtown one you just came from. An international airport. God only knows how many tourists are infected and if these zombies start to get out towards I-5 that's Seattle. 600,000 people. They could already nuke this place, you know. And that would impact the other areas. It wouldn't be like Raccoon City. It would cause radioactive fallout in Seattle, Tacoma...it'd be bad. There's something else you need to know. I checked the bodies of the bank robbers that started this and I recognized one of them. Talked to one of the cops on the scene before he died. Got bitten. He said they claimed to be Anubis. The terrorist group. But that man was with the Family. I saw him before Wesker's death. We had some dealings with them."
"But I wasn't even here until you brought me and neither was Moira. Why would The Family want to attack a small town like Cottage Grove? With such a low population? It doesn't make sense."
"False flag, probably. Then again, I don't know how there's been no news coverage so far. I don't have a clue what's going on but by now it probably has stretched beyond Cottage Grove in fact I know it has. The only question is how far..."
"You didn't answer my question."
"I don't know. I guess we could go back there and find out. But first we have to get the vaccines. Can you handle it?"
"I can try."
"I got you something stronger to use. Fresher weapons. Plus some survival gear."
He handed her a new Shotgun. This was a Spas 12. He also handed her a Glock 21 with a thirteen round mag as well as five more .45 magazines to go with it. He also gave her a combat vest with a holster for said pistol. In addition, he also gave her a .44 Colt Anaconda with 24 rounds besides the 6 in the magazine. "Thanks..." She said. She kissed him on the cheek earning a blush. Super human or not he was still a red blooded male and a pretty auborn haired woman kissing him earned that reaction.
"Remember when we did that trade with the Machine Guns for the Lugers?"
She laughed. "You thought I cheated you. I never was going to let you go without ammo. Whjat I should have asked was where you even found the ammo for the Lugers in the first place."
"I know I was a dick back then. I'm sorry about that."
"Don't be..." She smiled holding up the Magnum. "One of these can be as much as $2000. Maybe when this is over we should go shooting sometime..."
"It's a date..."
She made her way to the mall past the barricades or rather, the failed barricades.
She spotted several carriers and they spotted her. She fired her Glock striking the first three, the first a gray skinned monster, she hit with four rounds in the chest, the next, with two in the throat and a third she hit with a single headshot. The two wounded carriers screamed with undead rage. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Claire cried. She gave a kick to the one hit in the chest and sent it crashing into the one with the throat wounds.
She made her way through the hordes of the undead and she saw three survivors holding off the carriers with sporting goods weapons. The firs a Caucasian male standing six foot five from Amsterdam with a hockey stick and he had blonde hair and green eyes and wore a white baseball cap on backwards a gray Adidas sweater and blue jeans. The second was African American, female wearing a hot pink tank top and black pants and she had a baseball bat. Last was another African American, this one lighter skinnedabout six feet tall with blue eyes but he kept them back not with a sporting good weapon but a dropped billy club from a deceased officer.
Claire went to try and interefere when a hand grabbed her wrist and she was pulled away. A Native American woman carrying an Assault Rifle stood there. "What are you doing?! You'll draw more of them this way and get yourself killed..." She then stopped as she recognized her. "Claire...? Claire Redfield?"
"Do I know you?" She asked the dark brown skinned woman quizically.
"No, I'm Raven, Agent Raven Nezhii of the North American BSAA branch but I know your brother. He's here."
"But how do you know me?"
"Your face is pretty much known by every SOU agent. After that incident with Alex Wesker we had to be careful and make sure you're protected. You didmn't know this and you're not supposed to know this but Chris made sure there was always at least two SOA agents watching you so that you never get kidnapped again...what are you doing here? Chris said you were on your way to a vacation to Mexico."
"I was but the town of Cottage Grove, Oregon got infected when I got down here. I have Moira Burton with me. She's safe but she's been bitten..."
Raven led her to a store and closed the shtutter behind them.
"Listen..Chris, Jill, they were all together we all were foir this mission. We were supposed to sterilize this mall manually if we had to but there's too many of them.a couple of my team mates...they..."
"I'm sorry..." Claire stated. "But if we don't act now more will die! Moira...she helped me take down Alex Wesker. I need one of the anti viral vaccines each team carries. Would any of the members you lost have it? I know it's a lot to ask but..."
Raven sighed. "It's more than likely that they lost them. I don't know...we've lost a few members so far. But my team mate Cameron...this thing killed him. I was with Agent Valentine. You know, your brother's..."
"I know who she is. Where is she?"
"That's the problem. I don't know. Her and Agent Stone I haven't seen them in about forty five minutes. We got separated by a herd of zombies and they managed to get inside one of these stores. There was more coming and sinde I was on the outside, and Jill was too we had to go another way. I lost her. But Agent Alomar..." Claire knew the woman was speaking of her with a casual tone because she knew that not only would Claire know who Chris's old partner was from Raccoomn City, Sheva Alomar was still to this day considered 'rookie of the year' ever since 2009 and despite that not having been her first rodeo, Claire knew that because she was stoill a really young agent andf to have assisted in Wesker's demise, this would make her a hero.
"Got to a gate to help another senior agent..." Continued Raven She then frowned. "We lost each other...but if I had to guess., Jill would either try to find a way to the two agents or try and regroup with Chris. I've been trying to reach out but nothing so far..."
"Can you help me or not? Moira is Barry's daughter. Do you know how bad it would be if we had a chance to save her and we didn't?"
"Well wait a minute!" The Navajo agent stated. "How exactly did you get back here? That doesn't make any sense. Cottage Grove is near Eugene...OREGON..."
"We got some help from a friend with...abilities."
"You mean he's a human BOW?!" Raven's eyes flared with anger. "Claire, those people are dangerous. They all should be killed. At best they're like Jack Krauser and at worst they're like Albert Wesker. I killed one of them in my last mission. In China, they had one. He cut so many SOU agents to pieces. They had softened him up for me and he still almost killed me but an agent like that...just one of them can go through soldiers like butter."
"He's Steve Burnside. He helpeds me. We were going to die. Now are you going to help me get that vaccine or not?"
"Yeah...I'll try. But not the mutant. I see any BOW no matter how human they look, I'm killing them."
"He's the kind that has full control of his own mind. They're not all bad. Albert Wesker was a sociopath before he got injected with the Tyrant virus..." Claire reminded her. "And I don't have to be with the BSAA to know that. I had a run in with him before the BSAA even existed and I still have nightmares about it."
"Yeah but he still went through Project Wesker, remember? And that wasn't something a normal human could survive...he might not have had the same abilities but he still had the DNA. He was still a sociopath. It's like...unstable people having nuclear bombs. The US tested it in my home states and they've only used it twice but if people could use it again, they would. Do we really want to leave something like the power that a virus gives you to be available to...anybody?"
"I don't think like a soldier. I think like a humanitarian. Even though I know how to fight...I don't even think nukes are a good thing. It's not good that the United States ever used those either."
"My grandfather was from Alamogordo, New Mexico. They tested it there. He was also fighting the Japanese. He was a code talker. He translated radio codes.I'm not sure how I feel about it. That war. He said he felt that America was in danger and it got attacked. I don't know why he would after the US government made us walk on the Long Walk. But he said that could have been us. I thought that was weird. We're a pretty landlocked people so we weren't anywhere near boats much less Pearl Harbor."
"I think I remember learning about that in college history..." Claire said. "Plus a Nicholas Cage movie. One of the few he was actually decent in. Plus there was a pretty cute guy as the radio man."
Raven laughed. "Adam Beach. The funny thing is he got the blessing of the nation to play that role but he don't look Navajo. He looks like what he is. Saulteaux. Their features are different from ours. But anyway...my grandpa came home. He survived Iwo Jima. He saw a lot of his team mates die just like I have. And when he heard that they'd dropped the bombs he was relieved. Not because they nuked civilians. For that he felt like shit...but the Tokyo Bombings killed a lot more people than Hiroshima or Nagasaki. And despite all that radiation if you looked at pictures of the Tokyo Bombings back then and the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings it looked the same. He felt bad for the civilians but he felt the same way a lot of Americans did back then. He thought it was good the war was over. Even he knew that there'd be more deaths if they hadn't."
She then sighed and admitted, "He ended up getting cancer when he came home though as a result of the radiation. Seventy years later people were still feelings the effects. He died of cancer cause of what they did. So I get why you don't want that. Any of it. But now some countries have them and there's mutually assured destruction and if any country acts up, and launches them it'll happen to them. But now there's religious extremists with them. Fringe groups are less worried about what would happen if they blew up a city. But let's be honest, Claire. Without those nukes...Raccoon City wouldn't have been cleaned up. I guess what I'm saying is...by nuking Raccoon...just like Hiroshima and Nagasaki a lot more lives were saved. And I think a hell of a lot more people survived those bombings than Raccoon."
"But Steve isn't trying to make everybody else like him. It's more like he's trying to protect regular people from people like him. He's like...our own nuke..."
Raven shook her head. "Then again as crazy as it sounds I think about the people in those countries we invaded. Cause I served too ya know. Some people in my hometown looked at me as an apple."
"Apple?"
"Red on the outside white on the inside. For serving in the military like my grandpa."
"That's crazy..."
"You aint Navajo.." She replied. "We got a Mohawk in one of the other SOU teams and one who's that and Oneida. It'd be the same way for them. For you or mabe your brother it's just serving your country for us it's serving the country that invaded us. But for me I know my land is in the country and the country is on my land and it aint going anywhere. But I still served and I fought and I had to wonder if we were the bad guys. I could justify our presence in Aghanistan by 9/11 but not Iraq. But those religious extremists...they're the patriots of their countries too if they don't have an army. Or if they think their army is like a traitor for the west. And then I thought...how scary must it be even if you have a nuke and you're in a militia and you're willing to use it but you know that the US military could destroy your country and make Japan's bombings look like a Sunday drive?"
"They didn't find any weapons of mass destruction. I',m grateful to you for your service even if I don't agree with the war and I appreciate what you do now but you must know that was all wrong. It'd be the same thing if you or even Chris got sent out on a BSAA mission to find something only to find out it was for nothing."
Raven had regret in her eyes. "Yeah. I know. I was there. But my point is...even if you see Steve as a nuke of our own...when you think about it that way...if we have him as our all the other BOW's out there...little and big it's really not that much. So even if you could trust him...and I don't...it's like having one crude missile and we're like the Taliban or what we THOUGHT the Baath party was up to. Even if we have him as a weapon for ourselves we'd be going against a much bigger arsenal."
"That might be true..." Claire said as they made their way. "But Steve...even though I though he didn't survive Antarctica he really did. And just what we went through with me on that island...even if it was a BOW like some of you have killed that could move fast like him. they might have been infected and then set loose on the public without ever killing anybody before. I'm not saying that doesn't make them dangerous but he has been through it more than they have. He was in an outbreak almost near the start of all this. He was only a little less experienced than me."
They saw about ten zombies near where the corpse of her team mate was. "There they are...let's move..." Claire got her knife out and said, "We should probably be more quiet."
They both made their way through and Claire plunged her knife into the back of the head of a red haired Soccer mom who was carrying a lead pipe. She pulled the blade out roughly and she saw the next one came after her. This was a Mexican American male who had a fist sized hole in his right cheek and he tried to bite her but she plunged the blade into his throat but he kept coming. Raven had her back and put the knife in the back of the head of the man. She also kept her Rifle ready in one hand and she swung it with one arm beaming another in the face. "Uhhhh..." The zombie tried to grab her and she hit him in the face again. As it fell over, she stomped on his head and as the things head was cracked open she drove the barrel of the Rifle and she gouged his right eye out.
She then put her boot heel into the ruined eyeball and she had another zombie try and grab him but she dodged the man and got behind him breaking his neck. Claire plunged it into the chest of a male zombie of African descent wearing a red t shirt and light blue jeans. She swung the knife into his throat and the blood sprayed and she stabbed the open wound again. She then got behind him and plunged her blade into the back of his neck cutting the spinal cord and she followed up the stab into the back of the head.
Raven stabbed and kicked the next one over the balcony. They finally finished killing the ten of got to the vaccine. Claire panted. "Good..we got it. I hope this works..."
Raven assured her, "It will. It's worked on other people. It worked in China."
Claire asked her, "Do you think we have a chance of finding Chris? After all this time I know he'll be fine but I always worry that someday he won't be. I don't want to be right about it but I think I can be. I...I wish he'd retired after what happened last year. I told his partner to take care of him and he did but it cost him his own life and...I don't like that this happened but I'm glad my brother lived."
"I think there's a 'but' coming..." Raven observed her eyes looking inquisitive towards Claire.
"Yeah...the problem is...he was supposed to be Chris's replacement and now with Piers dead Chris is in this still. And I told Piers to look after my brother I talked to him on the phone before their mission. In a way I feel responsible for his death too."
"You're not. I was out there in Lanshiang too, Redfield. And we lost a lot of good men and women. The situation was so bad there it made me miss the fuckin sandbox. That's just how bad it was. I wish Piers and Chris had been on my team. I think more of us would have survived if they had. Or maybe they would have died. I don't know...you can't really tell what will happen on a 'what if' situation."
They heard stomping. And growling. Claire looked behind and saw a creature that was dressed in black coming for them. "J...jesus!" She backed up and aimed the Spas 12 at it. She fired a shot and Raven did unload on the thing too but backed up. "Goddamn it!" She cried as they spread out to give the beast a wide birth.
"What?!" Demanded Claire.
"That's Erebus. It's the thing that killed Cameron!" Claire fired a shot at the face and saw a chunk of the jaw come off but it lunged at her and threw a hard punch. Claire dodged and its hand crashed through another window of a store and while the gates of that store were down there were zombies in there about twenty five of them and they staggered out coming after them and the hulking Tyrant creature walked among the C Virus zombies.
"I'm sick of this bullshit!" Raven growled. "We emptied a magazine into that thing's face his face was hamburger when we last saw him!"
"These tyrants have regenerating capabilities..." Claire said. She was grabbed by a tall Caucasian man with gray skin and red hair in a white and silver shirt. She kicked him off. Raven told Claire, "We can't take these things and him. Get back!" Claire saw what she was planning on doing. She pulled the pin on a grenade and held it until it was time. She then lobbed it in the direction of the zombies.
It went off and seven zombies were exterminated from it and it rained charring remains and burnt flesh and bone fragments and the blast was illuminated by the flames the mix of fresh blood and bright orange flames followed by black smoke and debris and shrapnel. At least three of the zombies were writhing on the floor some with shrapnel in the neck others with it in their backs but they were as good as dead. Raven stomped on the back of their heads to finish them.
"Nice throw!" Claire complimented. She saw the Erebus tyrant regenerating in front of her. It grabbed her by the throat and held her upp. Raven tried to aim but a zombie got in her way. Claire struggled to breathe as the shotgun clattered to the floor and it strangled her its lifeless ruthless eyes staring into hers as it choked the life out of her. She struggled with her hands and she remembered the handgun she had. She fired three rounds into its stomach but this did nothing. Her shaking hand dropped it. Shit! I have to something or I'm gonna die...
She then remembered she had another weapon. She pressed the Colt Python to its face but she couldn't lift that far for long and her face was red. She knew she had maybe twenty seconds before she would be dead if that. She fired and the round struck into the meat of the thick side of the right side of its neck. It staggered and dropped her. She fell coughing trying to get air in her lungs. Raven gave a running charge and gave it a running kick to the chest. This was enough to send it over the balcony to the ground below. Claire wheezed trying to breathe, coughing up a storm.'
Raven helped her. "Come on! I bought us some time get your guns! He won't be down for long!" She collected her dropped weapons and she saw the Tyrant going to the far side of some stairs ascending them and though it was a good distance from them, the way these stalker tyrants were, Claire knew it wouldn't be long before he closed the distance. Claire tried to catch her breath still taking up the shotgun. God, I wish Steve were here...or Leon..even Billy..this is too much!"
Raven unloaded on him. She fired striking the thing from the back. He turned back to face her and she continued firing but she fired in a retreating manner yet drew his attention. Claire hit him from behind with a shot herself hoping the two catching him between them would be enough. He seemed to ignore Claire's second gunshot and went for Raven backed away still but the creature threw a blow crashing into her and sent her falling to the floor below and he had hit her hard. Claire panicked when she landed hard bleeding with blood forming under her head.
"Raven!" She called out. The thing was on her next. She got to the weapon her temporary ally had dropped and evaded a strike from the beast. Claire let it have a face full of lead before she retreated yet again.
A burst of rounds came in from behind the thing rattling it in its ribcage. At least forty rounds hit it and the rounds traveled up to the side of its head on the right. Claire looked to see Jill Valentine standing there and she followed up with a hand grenade which she lobbed at the thing's feet. It exploded and the thing fell down but Claire wasn't sure how long it would be down. Jill recovered some of Raven' gear and took her dogtags. "Come on, Claire We gotta retreat! There's nothing we can do for her now."
They got to a safe distance ducking into a restaurant that had been closed and Jill shut the shutter behind them. "Jill...thanks for saving me..." She hugged her old time brother's partner. "Raven...she..."
"Claire what are youi doing here? I thought you and Moira were going to Mexico."
"We were...we stopped at a small town in Oregon. Cottage Grove..."
"The one from Animal House?"
"What? Yeah I think... is with me she's been bitten but...Steve. He's the one that got us here. He got us out of that town. Steve Burnside."
"Steve Burnside? The last anybody heard of him was the virus in his body being used for Manuela Hidalgo."
"He's alive, Jill. Wesker said he would be..." Her blue eyes had a frantic look in them. "All right...we need to tell Chris. We need to find him. I was with Sheva and Josh and we had Raven with us but we got separated by a herd of the infected. I think Josh and Sheva may have stuck together but I can't be sure."
"Jill, I have to get this vaccine to Moira or she's going to turn...she's outside the mall...and there's one other thing..Billy Cohen is alive. He helped me and Moira survive. He was living under an assumed name in that town. He lost his wife to the infection."
"I'll need to check with HQ to see if they've even been made aware of the outbreak..."
She sighed. "Our communication is out right now. I think they're using signal jammers."
"Can't the BSAA do something to stop that?" Claire asked.
"You would think our gear would be more advanced than anything any terrorist gets their hands on but that doesn't seem to be what's going on."
Claire sighed. "Well whatever the case is I need to get this medicine back to Moira. Barry would never forgive me if I let anything happen to her."
"He's here you know..." Jill said. "He's along for this mission he has his own team. He'd be happy to see her but probably not here. I want to see if I can get a signal outside the perimeter and two people are better than one. I'm coming with you."
Claire nodded. "We've gotta survive this and take that monster down. Raven said she faced it before and it killed a team mate. And now she gave her life to save mine..." She looked at Jill. "How do you stomach all this? I never see you have any emotional reaction to this. No offense it's just you seem like as much of a soldier as Chris is. All stone...I know that's not how he is when he's on a mission but he keeps everything bottled up."
"We aren't all built the same, Claire..." Jill said as they left and went back into the mall and began to slowly make their way out. Claire shot a glance in the direction of where the tyrant was fallen and she felt her heart skip a beat that he was no longer laying there but she also felt some relief that it wasn't on them for the time being. "If I let every thing that happened to me or that I saw bother me I wouldn't be able to be in the field. Somebody like you is better for Terra Save."
"I know it's just what happened with Wesker..."
"Let's not talk about that..." Jill said a little too quickly. "It's the past. He's dead."
"Okay...but you and Chris are going to have to deal with your own demons eventually."
They made it back to Moira without incident. Claire saw the vehicle she had been left in was abandoned but there was a note in there with Moira and Claire read it.
Claire
I saw the BSAA agent with you I was watching from afar and I was able to get closer to you and watch you and I saw that you had the cure. You can see all these dead bodies and that's how many tried to get to Moira but they started to back off for a little bit and I don't know if that was because of me or if it's because of the fact that she's going to be turning into one of them soon. What I noticed about these things is that a lot of people turn but some like you don't you must have some kind of immunity maybe you always did. I think I do too or at least I did back on the island up until Alexia infected me. We've both been lucky so far but we don't want to push our luck. With these viruses, it changes things and even if somebody had immunity before it doesn't mean they will now. I'll be watching you and seeing you around but I'm going to hang back. For reasons I can't get into right now, the BSAA wants me dead.
Steve
Claire smiled a bit impressed that he'd even been able to find a piece of paper and something to write with in the time he'd spotted her and jill and in the time it took them to get back to the vehicle. He was also more knowledgeable and well spoken than he'd been at Rockfort Island but it was to be expected. He was older now and yet still her impression in her head of him was still from when he was just a teenager. "What's that?" Asked Jill.
"Just something from Steve."
She realized as she said this, however that this put her in an odd place as Steve had not wanted Jill to see him but she had assumed that he was going to wait with Moira which he seemingly had but now that a BSAA agent was with her, he'd run. She didn't know if he'd fault her mentioning he was back to Jill but if he did he shouldn't since she had every reason to assume he would be there when she got back with the vaccine.
"All right..." Jill said seeming to accept what she said without asking to see what he wrote. "Im gonna try and get some distance between me and the mall and see if we can find a signal. You can come with me if you want."
Claire looked at her then at the resting Moira and said, "I'm gonna make sure she's all right first but I'll catch up with you."
Jill nodded. "I'll be just north of the mall."
Leon
He gathered his weapons having made it back to the street level. He had no idea where Ada was or where Helena or Sherry for that matter might be. He made his way through the streets of the city. Making his way past scores of dead bodies in the streets he cursed to himself. Jesus...how can they kill their own countrymen like this? Us, I understand but why each other?
He heard a woman scream and he stayed low behind a broken down old Toyota. Black in color. He checked his handgun. He had ten shots left and an extra magazine. It certainly wasn't enough to play hero. He spotted a man with a blowtorch and a razor wire and three men holding a little girl down about thirteen or so. These were not Yazidis but instead regular Arabs but there was also three more men holding down a grown woman he presumed to be the mother.
An Anubis member dressed head to toe in black with a ski mask had forced the woman's dress up and Leon saw her bare buttocks as the man kicked apart her legs. "aibnatak aimra'a! wamae dhlk , lm tazil eayiquha 'amam altawadue waleifa! min almftrd 'an yakun min wajib almar'at alqiam badhalk! li'anak lam tafeal dhlk , yjbu ealayna 'an nakhudhaha fi 'aydina. wa'ant ... ladayk aydana ..."
(Your daughter is a woman! Yet you have not removed her impediment for modesty and chastity!It is supposed to be the woman's duty to do this! Since you have not, we must take it into our hands. And you...you have it too...)
Leon didn't need a translator to see what was about to happen. They had the daughter's clothing ripped as well and they were about to try and perform female genital mutilation.
"Raja'an! la yujad dhakar fi alquran lilhajat 'iilaa qate juz' manaa!"
(Please! There is no mention in the Quran of a need to cut a part of us off!)
The man got behind her and whispered, "wamae dhlk , hunak hadith yumtadihuh. ymkn 'an yakun hunak sbb wahid faqat lihafz albazar alkhasi bika. 'ant eahirat watushajie aibnatak ealaa 'an takun hi nafsuha."
(Yet there is a hadith praising it. There can be only one reason for keeping your clitoris. You are a whore and are encouraging your daughter to be the same.)
Leon moved in closer so he would get a shot. He knew he was jeopardizing the mission but he couldn't just stand by as this happened. He drew on one of the men holding the crying daughter down. "Lays ladayha zawj wahataa ladayha abna! yjb ealayna alhajar laha bued alaintiha'!"
(She does not even have a husband and yet she has a daughter! We should stone her after we are done!)
"Dhlk li'anak qatalat zawaji! 'unas mathluk!" Wailed the mother.
(It is because you murdered my husband! People like you!)
Leon waited with his Handgun. He had his headset on. "Hunnigan...I've got hostiles with a civilian. It looks like they're going to do something to her. Rape her or mutilate her..."
"Leon, do not engage. Your mission is too critical."
"It's just a kid...I'm going in..." He fired a headshot hitting the insurgent who had been about to mutilate the girl in the sweet spot of his brain. He fired at another nearest him hitting him twice in the chest.
"Algharbiuwn huna! aiqtalh! yjb 'an yakun hdha alkalb wikalat almukhabarat almarkazia!
(The westerners are here! Kill him! This dog must be CIA!)
Leon ran east and the woman and her daughter ran south. Leon wanted to help them more and even knew that he should since he had initially helped but he also knew that doing any more than what he had already would make his mission impossible if he hadn't already done that with his own actions. The crack of Assault Rifle fire came back towards him and he ducked down past a few wooden crates that had old trinkets in it. He made his way along the cover of an old cart.
He had at least four armed men coming his way and he knew that it wouldn' be long before they were on him. One of them did rush at him. He tackled Leon and slammed the man against the cart. He had a few inches on Leon standing at six feet. Leon countered with a right knee to the stomach and a follow up to the jaw but the man who in the grappling the two shared, had his magazine fall out of his weapon somehow, punched Leon in the right side of the face and then proceeded to hit him with a left and the man went for a knife all while cursing in Arabic.
Leon's face felt wet and he was blinded and he felt blood all over it. He fell blindly and he felt the heavy body of the man on top of him. He brushed the blood from his face only to see the next three Anubis members aiming their Kalishnokov's at him ready to unload but another fell through as a round entered his back and exited his gut.
The next fell with a similar wound. He got to his feet and he saw the woman and her daughter running and he covered them with gunfire emptying his magazine. He got them down the block but one Anubis insurgent, a Kurdish male with caramel skin and light brown facial hair and piercing hazel eyes standing at five eleven fired a barrage of rounds their way, about twenty in all. Leon managed to miss them as did the teenage girl but the mother was hit by eleven rounds in the back. She fell over crying out, choking on her own blood. The teen screamed for her mother as Leon put in a fresh magazine and he fired a five shot barrage at the man who had done it hitting him with three rounds in the chest. The man fell over bleeding and the other insurgents rushed to pursue them.
"AM!" Cried the teenaged Iraqi.
(MOTHER!)
He knew she would never understand him but as her mother had bubbles of blood from her mouth and was barely conscious, Leon pulled her. "Come on! We gotta go..."
He took her east down an alley where he could hear more automatic fire. He recognized the sounds of the Assault Rifle fire. "Those are NATO Rifles..." He led her to them. "Come on!"
She was weeping profoundly and he gave her a hug. "I'm sorry about your mom but we have to keep moving if you want to survive this."
He then smiled and pointed at himself, "Leon..."
She sniffed and said, "Alya..."
"That's a pretty name...uh shit you don't know what I'm saying..." He could hear the screams in Arabic as more Anubis members were after them.
He saw a perimiter of NATO forces firing on Inurgents. Leon yelled to one who had a lock onhim and he yelled, "I'm an American! We need help!"
"Hands up!" Bellowed the soldier, a Caucasian Brit with blonde hair and gray eyes in his early forties. "Lower your fuckin weapon!" Leon did as he was told. "Now show me some identification! Slowly!" He did as he was asked. "I'm Leon Kennedy, DSO."
The British soldier looked at it and then handed it back to him. "I figured you couldn't be a spook. The agency would have been a lot more tactical than that. Who's the haji?"
"She's an innocent teenager. They were going to perform a brutal ritual on her puberty ritual."
"Yeah I know the sort. Bloody barbarians the lot of them."
"Hey if you don't care about these people why are you even here?" Leon asked.
"Because it's what I get paid to do. I believe in securing stability for the Kingdom and its allies and sometimes that means killing a bunch of tossers in a hell hole country I don't give a shite about."
Leon looked at the man. "Iraq is the cradle of civilization you know...it wasn't always like this. They're just going through bad times. Europe had the middle ages and America had the 1600's for its shitty times."
"Was and is are two different things, mate. Besides, Africa is the cradle of humanity and I won't be kicking my feet up there any time soon for the exact same reason."
"Look, if you have any decency in you at all you'll take care of her. I just got her away from Anubis. They killed her mom in front of her she didn't even have time to mourn..."
"Porter why don't you quit being an asshole?" Came another male voice. This man was a tall Caucasian about six foot six from Norway. "Like the Yankee says she is just a kid."
The Anubis members seemed to be on the run and he turned to Leon saying, "We can't promise to get her out of the country but we will make sure she doesn't fall back behind Anubis lines. I'd like to get her out of the country we've done it before for people but at worst we would maybe put her with Iraqi security forces."
Porter sighed. "Then can we get a translator at least? Bring Duchamp over here. He speaks Arabic, yeah?"
Leon wished he at least knew sign language but even then that wasn't a sure sign that she would know it. "I'm gonna have to leave you with these people but you're going to be okay. You're in better hands with them than with me and you're in better hands either way than before. Your mom would have wanted you to live."
She hugged him. "Yaqulun 'iina al'amrikiiyn hum alshaytan al'akbar , lakanakum 'awal min qabilatih wa'ana 'aelam 'an hdha ghyr sahihin. shukraan lakama! la 'astatie sidadak abdana."
(They say you Americans are the Great Satan but you are the first one I have met and I know this is not true. Thank you! I can never repay you.)
She had tears in her eyes still but she gave him a brave smile as they got ready to move and he had to move on as well. "What about you?" Asked Porter. "You need an evac?"
"Eventually but not until I get what I'm here for."
He saw no reason to disclose to them that he was going after the man that they were going after. He didn't know for sure that they were after him but it was an educated guess and the NATO forces were there just to deal with Anubis on the grounds of them simply being religious terrorists before they ever got into bioterrorism.
The BSAA was here for the same reason but he could accept that much more easily. They knew what they were doing but the NATO soldiers did not understand what they were up against but they still had to do their jobs but this made them sitting ducks out here just as much as the Iraqi army and police forces. They were already on the ground so it was too late for them to pull out now until some ground was gained and he knew they wouldn't leave just because he would say that they should. For the time being, he was grateful that they were there at least around if for no other reason than they could get people like Alya out of there.
Hunnigan checked in in his ear. "Leon, are you all right?"
"Yeah...strange as that is..."
Helena
They took cover behind a rusted gold Toyota with no tires on it, they ducked down, the rounds came cracking at the two DSO partners. "Fuck! We need backup!" Cried Ark. He fired his Handgun around the side of the vehicle back at one of the terrorists and he struck down one of the Anubis gunmen and he fell over with two rounds in his left leg. Helena fired over as well as the rounds came back at them. Helena fell over, however as three rounds did in fact hit her in the chest. She fell over back into the protection of the vehicle. Ark ran across from cover to cover. Helena cried out in pain.
She rolled herself to the other side of the truck. She hit another insurgent and the agent fell over with a bullet wound in the right side of his forehead and he went down with his brains decorating his own comrades. "alhusul ealaa hadhih 'akyas hithalat al'iimbirialiat skhyf!"
(Get these fucking imperialist scum bags!)
The Arab insurgent fired to try and hit Ark. "Are you okay?!" He screamed back to her. "I'm fine!" She called back. She was somewhat pissed that he had run from cover to take cover behind some sandbags without her but she understood the logic.
It made sense in case she was to die from being shot it didn't make sense for both of them. He looted the body of a dead soldier.
He tossed a grenade. The smoke began to go off and provided her with some cover. He took an M4A1 off a deceased UN soldier who was a black male but from Scotland, he had died of three rounds to the fired striking two Anubis members and even though they both had on body armor themselves the rounds went through the vest and the two fell over with the first had five rounds in his stomach the other had six rounds in his chest.
Helena fired her remaining magazine and she took down two more Anubis members the first, she hit with a round in the right side of the neck while the other fell with three in the right arm and the other fell over and she hit him with a right thigh shot.
Helena managed to sneak out and grab an AK-74 and took it from a deceased Anubis and she took the Rifle and began to fire letting off twenty eight rounds and as Ark was also firing from a distance, they both fired and took down the rest of the eight insurgents. An Anubis member fired a round at Ark and hit him in the back. He fell over with three rounds hitting the vest. Ark tried to roll around to shoot back but he realized it was Saladin who had the Rifle on him but before he could shoot, the Arab kicked the Rifle from his arms and he kept the Rifle on him. Helena aimed at Saladin. "PUT IT DOWN!" She ordered. "You can see you are surrounded! We are going to win this battle with the United Nations."
"You kill him, I'll kill you!" Helena warned. The Arab chuckled. "You people have killed my people for so long. Not just since 9/11. But before. The crusades. To the days of the Prophet, peace be upon him."
"Fuck that pedophile!' Growled Ark and Saladin kicked him in the ribcage. "Well, ms American invader...you have me. But my men have you in their sights..." She noticed had five Assault Rifles trained on her. "So I am not afraid to die. But I would rather see what you are here for. If it was just another way to invade and exploit my poor country, I would expect to see you in a United Nations Uniform. Or those kaffirs with the BSAA. They work for the UN too! I know this. So we shoot them."
"We're here to help protect people from assholes like you! Anubis...you claim to be for your country and in my country we fear people like you but I''ve worked in the field. The truth is I know westerners usually don't end up on the receiving end of your blades or bullets. It's your own countrymen. Say what you will about America and Europe we generally don't kill each other like Anubis kills Iraqis and Syrians..." Helena stated.
"Protect? When you invaded my country for oil this was protection? When you bombed entire cities just to get Saddam? You people CREATED Anubis. You created us. I do not deny we killed many people but I have also seen your American crime statistics. You don't kill each other over faith. You kill each other over sneakers, over drugs over cars. Chicago alone is good for at least 700 murders a year. Baghdad has less murders a year than New Orleans! New Orleans has a murder rate close to Capetown. And this was a Time Magazine article from five years ago!"
"Yeah well you've probably increased those murder rates yourself..." Ark snapped. "It's not bad enough that you're wrecking your own country cause of a book. You're using bioweapons to do it."
"You accuse me of creating these abominations? It was Umbrella an American company that made this happen! I remember feeling sorry for Americans when Raccoon City happened. But this was before the new millennium when you made my home country another conquest but that sympathy is gone now."
"We're tracking one of your brothers in arms who is doing this..."
He said something to the men in Kurdish and Helena was disarmed as well. "You two will be my prisoners. American hostages will be great for morale and it will show that the Great Satan cannot come to our country and take whatever they please anymore. We are an army of GOD and we will resist you with every breath."
Before long, the two had black bags over their heads and they were put in a jeep and driven for a while. "Helena...can you hear me? You still with me?"
"Yeah...you shouldn't have antagonized him or what he believes in..." She whispered.
"It's just not right. In America they get to wear their head covering even if it can be a problem if a cop might have problems with ID dealing with their hair being covered but in their country even a woman like you who isn't their religion has to wear it. It pisses me off...and for the record? I'm no bigot. I think all religions are full of shit."
"This place isn't the place to say that. Now listen...can you hear anything?"
"I hear a lot of machinery...and these assholes talking to each other. We...aghhhhhhhh!" She heard him make a rattling sound and she soon felt it too as she was hit with a cattle prod.
Later That Day...
She woke up to find herself in a dark room tied to a chair with a gag in her mouth as did Ark. He was already awake. She looked to see the door open to whatever dark damp room they were in and Saladin strutted in. He told the guards to wait outside and he took their gags off. "Let me make myself very clear. I don't trust you. You're Americans and for this reason I never will. I have done many things in the name of my God and my country but I have never raped or abused, and I have never myself made any children into soldiers. A child is too young and undisciplined for the kind of war we must wage against people like you. I try to hold my own men to these same standards but sometimes they fail me and when they do they die. But that is my own men...I cannot control what other men fro,m Anubis do such as Al Mahseh."
"Why are you telling us this?" Asked Helena.
"Because I know that he was involved in black market deals with foreigners who have worked with these pharmaceutical companies that created these things. Maybe old white Umbrella...maybe Tricell I do not know. He is willing to cross boundaries even I will not just to get even with the West. I've killed fellow Iraqis this is true but they have been collaborators with the west who I kill. He uses this virus on children..old people...for reasons you may never understand I have not been able to officially move against him. I wanted to kill him but I can never get close to him and have him be alone."
"And why the hell did you have us kidnapped and brought here?"
"As I said I can trust most of my men but in war certain information must be privileged in case of a traitor and now you can never be too careful. So I have a proposition for you. You tell me what it is you need from me or what you think I should do to dispose of my enemy on the same side. You tell me what is in it for me. In return I may let you live but if i find you are of no use to me I will slit your throats personally and I will not feel any remorse for it. More Iraqis have been killed by Americans than Americans by Iraqi. So every American I kill or British dog is simply evening the score. The two of you have five minutes to tell me why this should not be..."
Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before
Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before
My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
An' the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
An' all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands, time can't deny
An' are washed away by your genocide
An' history hides the lies of our civil wars
D'you wear a black armband when they shot the man
Who said peace could last forever?
An' in my first memories, they shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall in D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom when it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin' for their promised land
And I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich, while it buries the poor
Your power hungry, sellin' soldiers in a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh? I don't need your civil war
Ooh, no, no, no, no, no, no
Look at the shoes you're filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
An' I don't want to hear no more
My hands are tied
For all, I've seen has changed my mind
But still, the wars go on, as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
An' all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars
That's it for this chapter guys I hope you enjoyed the ride. I know it wasn't a long one but I just finished a Grand Theft Auto story that has taken me since 2013 and that makes it the second story I finished, the first being my Resident Evil story the war ends now. Even though this wasn't that long I feel we've covered a lot of ground with it all the same.
Steve is back, Claire managed to save Moira though Raven sacrificed herself to do it, and Leon put himself at risk for a teenage girl but honestly if you saw Leon in that situation seeing that is there any doubt in your mind he would step up cause there isn't for me
I gotta say also I fuckin hate the new Resident Evil 3 look these remakes are just making terrible character models at least the RE 1 remake was faithful to it RE 2 was a mixed bag cause they did good with Leon and Ada but were horrible with Claire, Sherry didn't look like herself, with Chief Irons he lost everything that made him so creepy in RE 2. They fucked Jill and Carlos up IMO much like Ada in RE 6 they white washed the hell out of him and a ladies man would never have hair that messy come on Capcom. Plus Jill...eh don't get me started.
As far as Ark and his opinion on religion look with Resident Evil Survivor and Ark's character we don't have that much to go on personality wise compared to other characters so I kind of have to make some shit up but at least I'm being true to him being a friend of Leon even if the main series doesn't mention it, they should. I mean after all Resident Evil 7 acknowledged that Outbreak is canon after all.
And I had Claire and Jill meet in this chapter because the games themselves has not yet had that happen which is absurd. Hey crapcom maybe instead of remaking games how about just putting out the next games? I'm not saying 7 was the worst game but it wasn't good enough to be part of the main series not long enough either.
I would like to see Claire return for a numbered series game same with Jill i suppose but also Billy and Carlos and Sheva and Rebecca. Anyway that's all for now