A World Without Fear

by Onkwehonwe Kashatstenhshera

New pockets of outbreaks run the risk of the previous pandemic repeating itself. The DSO, BSAA & TerraSave are tasked with a race against time to battle the new epidemic and those responsible. From the NW to Iraq, the mission continues. The Raccoon survivors and their new allies must face new enemies. But what of the ghosts of the past uwilling to stay at rest?

17. Save Yourself

Steve

He saw National Guard soldiers engaging the crowd of zombies. It looked like a whole platoon even more than that because he had seen at least three helicopters just coming in. He spotted a soldier that was getting bitten as six of them were rushing him even as he let them have face fulls of lead. Steve wasted no time and he broke the man's neck to spare him turning. He took the man's Rifle and he got his magazines and frags. He sped back to the farm and he also pick,ed up one of the shotguns and got the ammo for that as well.

He arrived back at the farm. He had finished up doing something for the survivors. Billy, Tobias Vasily and Sheila were huddled up on the top half of the barn. They'd blocked off the door to the barn with a rake but he wasn't sure how long it would hold. "Figures..." He sighed before speeding up and with a burst of speed snapped several necks and disemboweled a good number of them. He ran p the side of the barn through the opening. Billy turned his gun on him. "Easy...we talked before..."

"So you didnt forget us huh? Well I guess it's too much to assume you found us a way out of here?"

Steve stated, "I got the parts for the plane. I put it all together. Now we just gotta get all of you out of here and out of that door. Off this farm. You know the last time I went through this shit we never got this ganged p on by zombies. And Raccoon City was a lot more populated."

"I never got that outnumbered on Rockfort Island either but this town got hit hard. There's more open space. Easier for the zombies to move around. And you're right...there's a lot of them. The National Guard is here but they may not be enough."

"Did you kill one of the...?' Asked Billy looking at the fresher blood on Steve's clothes. Steve nodded. "He was already infected. These soldiers aint the BSAA they should be calling the BSAA in but these are people that never dealt with it before..."

Steve blinked and asked Billy, "How did you know anyway? That I killed one? This blood could be from zombies. I did take out a bunch at the barn door."

"Cause you got new weapons I didn't see you having before. We've been hearing the automatic fire all over. We thought about making a break for it and we probably could have taken out the zombies but the shots would have attracted more."

"We don't got enogh ammo..." Stated Tobias. "Fuck...Jack...Jane...Martin...Leah...I can't believe what happened...that poor kid..." He said looking at the Native American girl. "This isn't right what happened to her. She's just a kid..I'd have given my life to have it be so she would have at least one parent."

He turned to Billy. "Well...Sam...Billy...you say you've encountered these people before. Umbrella...and this guy did too...that's how he's got that ability you wwere tellimng me about...hell he got up here withot a ladder...is it Umbrella that did this shit too? In the larger picture I mean..."

"Yeah..." Steve said. "Anubis did it here and The Family...that's a whole other ball game that would take some explaining but they're all guilty. But at the end of the day yeah there are still Umbrella remnants and none of these other groups would have the virus to create all of this shit if it wasn't for Umbrella..."

"Then if we manage to get outta here by some miracle...I'm helping you take them down. I want revenge for what they did to my friends, my fellow officers...this community. This is true America, you know? It's the small towns that make up America not the big cities. They wouldn't be able to function without close knit farming communities. Small towns."

"All due respect..." Steve said, "The two feed into each other. It's all America. If this spreads to a big city then trust me all the small towns are gonna get infected too. It's been around the county that's why the soldiers are spread out and haven't been able to focus all its attention here. It's the entire county. And in Seatac Washington there's an outbreak too. That's where I took Claire and Moira."

"Well if you got them out of here why not bring the little girl out of here at least? Don't get me wrong..." Stated Vasily, "I do not trust this man...why should we trust you? Especially if you were an expiriment by the same people? Trusting Billy is one thing but I can see the truth in his words even what he was court martialed fotr I can spot a lie and he tells the truth but you have this same virus in youl Your DNA;...I am no scientist but your DNA is the kind where the virus works with your body instead of turning you into a zombie. What is to stop you from turning on us?"

"If I wanted to kill any of you I could have done it when you were in that church..." Steve told him. "Or at any point but me and Claire we have history. There's a woman that Billy has history with over in Seatac. She's part of the mission to stop this. I could take Billy to her but he's not going to abandon you..;."

"Rebecca..." Billy said and he looked down but then said, "You're right this is my community and if we have to move away to survive it's what we gotta do and I'm not abandoning them. Maybe one day we can come back. Or even if we can't...their fate will be my fate. I'm not running anymore. I'm in this to the end. If I didn't...I wouldn't be worthy of seeing her again cause that's what she'd do..."

"Jesus, Billy...moving on already?" Tobias asked in disgust.

"No it's not that but...we survived my first outbreak together and I haven't seen her in sixteen years. She covered for me she was a cop like you. She told the world I was dead to cover my escape and for all she knew I could have been dead. In all those years I could have died."

"There's one other thing you didn't answer..." Stated Vasily addressing Steve who noticed the little girl had fallen asleep despite all the trauma and heartbreak she had encountered, she was exhausted. "Why not take the child with you at the very least? Get her out of here. Either to the soldiers or to Seatac Washington. Even just a safer part of this state! Why do you not do this for her? We are adults we can fight but she is a child."

"When I took Claire out of here unconscious she still had some dizziness and motion sickness. I have to go in small distances at that speed with a normal human. Anything else is too much i haven';t really done that before with anybody in that long of bursts of speed. With a little kid I don't want to risk it. It's better if I stay here with all of you and help clear a path. And I'm gonna be brutally honest. It's like you all said you can fight so you gotta watch your own asses so if worst comes to worst and you all die I'll at least make sure she doesn't. I can keep them off her. But watching out for three more of you is another story. In fact...I'd let the three of you get eaten if it meant saving a kid. No offense. So you better hope it doesn't come to that."

"We don't need you to watch out for us..." The Russian stated coldly. "I am a survivor and maybe most have not survived but we have so far without your help. Still, I sense no lie in what you said. The fact that you admitted that you would cut us loose if it meant saving her is at least honest."

"I would say you would probably do the same thing to save your own life but let's be real about things. It aint your life that's in danger with any of this right?" Tobias asked. "You can't even get infected. You're already infected.

"You handled that? Jesus...thanks...I guess we got a way outta here. But we still gotta get out there and there's zombies everywhere..."

"It's not a problem butwe have to get you all out of here. We're off Oak Road and the Row River Trail. We gotta get to the airport. I scouted that house up on that big hill to see if there was anything we cold use. That gate has a pass code but I was able to get past it. The person that lives up there...whoever he was had security but he ended up killing himself. I'm gonna clear a path for you all and I'm gonna go get his Toyota. I can move faster than all of you but it's better to just have two vehicles for all of you in case one gets destroyed. Crazier things have happened."

"All right...if you clear us a path...we'll make our way out to the truck..." Stated Billy.

Steve nodded and he jumped out and he saw at least twenty four zombies. With a burst of speed he was able to kill them all within seconds. Billy and the other survivors exited the barn and high tailed it to the truck. Steve looked at the amount of zombies that were still peppered around Oak Road and all the way walking along the Row River National Trail and he called out, "Nevermind getting that other vehicle! You'll just have to drive carefully! I'll clear a path for you every step of the way!"

Sherry

They made their way back to the child's house. Jake knocked on the door and the two were answered and the Yazidi gunman that Jake encountered before had eyes on them and a gun. He glared at Sherry and despite her covering her head in the scarf, he still knew from her appearance that she was a westerner. He waited a moment and then said, "Come on! Get in here..."

"We got the food..." Jake said with a pant. He then stated, "You know you could have gone out and got this for the kid..."

"And leave them unprotected? Even someone such as you...who have lived in an area such as this before cannot understand Iraq. I would have bought them some time. Maybe Malak would have gotten out. Maybe not. Since his mother is not well...I am afraid we would have had to have made a last stand here. But if I had gone out to look for the food I would not have been able to buy him a chance. Remember, you made a deal with him."

"I know..." Jake stated and he handed him the sack full of fruits and vegetables. "The apple has come full circle, eh kid?" Jake said with a winking smirk.

The uncle began to cut things up to prepare some food. "Do you have an exit strategy to get him out of here?" Asked Sherry.

Malak's glare met her blue eyes. "You would have my nephew the future generation leave?! I will keep him safe! If we run that is admitting defeat!"

"Defeat? This is a child! Not a war. Even if it's for self defense that's still a child soldier if you have him fight Anubis you're no better than they are! Jake was a child soldier he got forced into this too young and it was all he could do! And it still ended up being for nothing!"

"This is not America!" Hassan told her. "We do not have adequate police force to protect us. Or have to fend for ourselves. I've shown Malaak how to use a gun before. There may come a time where I cannot defend him. His mother is still sick...Jake understands the way the world works."

"To be fair..." Jake stated. "The kid could run away for now. He could always come back some day."

"Where do you live, mercenary man?"

Jake turned back at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You say you are from Europe. You have done jobs all over the world. Where do you rest your head most times?"

"I don't sleep much, pal. What's it to you?"

"With a name like Muller...a German name somehow I don't believe you started off in Edonia. You also speak perfect English..."

"So what?"

He turned to Sherry.

"We live and sleep here. My ancestors bones rest in this city. I can trace my ancestry back thousands of years...can you trace yours?" He eyed both Sherry and Jake in this way. "My ancestors lived here since before the Torah, the Gospels or the Quran was written. Where does your ancestry lie? What is your last name?"

"Birkin. I'm American..."

"Birkin...a surname originating from West Yorkshire..."

"How do you know that? Just because somebody left on a boat from England to here doesn't mean it'swhere they came from..."

"I fought plenty of British soldiers. Just because I am a polytheist does not mean that I did not fight on the side of the government."

"We need to get moving. We helped you get food. But you know that you can come back here someday..." Jake stated. "The kid is in danger here. And his mom aint doing too good, pal."

Samia stated, "I know the two of you mean well...but you do not understand the way things are seen out here. My community is very close knit. We know there are Yazidi diaspora in Armenia and other countries but we would be so far from home!"

She then explained, "I am lucky to have not had this happen to me. We are a...how do you say in English?" She spoke a few words in Yazidi and Hasan told her what to say in English. "Endogamous group...my neighbor...she was raped by one of the men from Anubis. She had two children from him. A son and a daughter as well as her son and daughter she had from her husband...this new man killed her husband. They were children of rape and he brought them all to live with him in Morraco. But she escaped. Many Yazidi women escaped. They were allowed to come home."

Hassan sighed and added, "This was unprecedented. There is a deep stigma against rape in our community and sadly a lot of our people are not as understand as I am. But we are learning and we know this is not the woman's fault. It is the trash of the outside world who would violate our women. But the children..."

The older woman sighed. "It is one thing that our community has welcomed back the women who were taken away. But the children of rapist father's especially sons are rejected...any BOY born to an Anubis father is seen as somebody who could potentially be a child soldier one day. They are seen as dead to us. Not one of our people. And they would carry ARAB blood in them..." He snarled with venom in his tone. "With the Kurdish...we used to be one with them and at least they are related in the past. But the Arab...they have been our enemies for a very long time."

"But this doesn't apply to you. Like you said."

"I have been trying to change our community here. We try to heal. And we encourage families to accept those who had Anubis fathers. It is not the woman's fault as Hassan said. It is also not the child's fault. We are a dying people and if some of these children could be raised with our love rather than Anubis's hate...it would be a good thing"

There was an explosion and the side of the house was destroyed. They were all thrown to the floor and Jake returned fire with the M9 as a C Virus member who was also a member of Anubis. He was brandishing a scimitar which he swung at Jake. Jake dodged backwards falling back and a cut on his forehead was cut as the swing mostly missed but nicked him a bit. He fired striking the carrier five times in the chest. Sherry followed up with a left kick in the chest and the man crashed into another carrier.

Sherry noticed a few of the carriers were of ethnicities not of Middle Eastern ancestry. At least three were Nigerians,dark skinned men dressed in Islamic style clothing. Jake fired two into the side of the face of the first one of them, a black male with brown eyes. Hassan fired striking down the next two of them. He noticed that the third one he shot was not even a carrier. This was the thing that was quite disarming to Sherry.

They were being controlled by Anubis. For years Umbrella had wanted to make it so that there would be the ability to control the carriers and now it was doable. He had a few stomach wounds and he was immobilized. Hassan dragged him into the corner and growled, "I will be dealing with you later..."

Sherry fired an Uzi which she took from one of the Nigerian members, the other one that Hassan had shot. Jake made his way to shield the kid and he fired with his right arm while shielding Hassan with his left as glass flew at him. He dropped three of the Jinn. He got to Malaak's mother. "We gotta go, mama bear! Wherever you all stay it can't be here!"co

Four rounds struck his mother in the left side with two hitting her ribcage. She fell over crying out in pain. "Mother!" Cried Malaak running to her side. Sherry withdrew her combat knife as a wounded Jinn tried to stand up and come after Jake with a hammer. She kicked the man who was a Caucasian of possibly eastern European ancestry in the back and she let out a yell and drove her blade into the back of the man's neck jabbing through his spinal cord.

Hasan angrily fired his Kalishnikov into the chest of the man who shot the Yazidi woman. The man fell with eight rounds in the chest and as he lay dying coughing blood which was dark red like wine, almost black in color, the insurgent grunted, "Al...Ala...Allahu Ackbar..." Hassan pressed the barrel against his wounds. "Your God has no place here...this is Mesopotamia. A land of many Gods."

He pulled the trigger and let the rounds fill the man's lungs up as air exited the lungs themselves and the gunshot wounds. Hassan got to the woman's side and he began to try to treat her weounds as did Malaak. "Malaak! Keep pressure right here!" He instructed. He did not have surgical tools but first aid sprays had been known to help sometimes as had green herbs. He only had a green herb to use on the gunshot wounds.

"If we can get her to the American embassy..." Sherry started to say.

"Do not give the boy false hope..." Hassan stated. "He does not deserve that. Facing the truth will hurt him but it is better to be hurt by the truth than a lie."

"Malaak...my sweet boy...I want you...to get out of here...go to the west...other countries with Yazidi..."

"I can't leave you!" He cried.

"You have to...besides...you can see how other Yazidi live...in Europe..in America...maybe you see some of our old friends and neighbors?"

"I can't leave you!"

"I will always watch over you...like the moon watches the Earth below...Hassan...this is my wish for him...you cannot deny me this!"

"This is not a good idea!" The Yazidi man growled. His expression softened however and concern filled his face.

"Why doesn't the herb work, uncle?"

"It can treat her exterior wounds but she has internal bleeding. I have seen the green herb capsules heal people with internal injuries but I do not have them..."

"One day, Hasan, Malak will return here and when he is grown you must keep my dream alive...bring back the children separated from their mothers..."

There were several carriers trying to come at them all and because Sherry and Jake had been unloading round after round from their pistols into them, a few with AK's were firing at them.

"Jake!" Cried Sherry as she reloaded slamming a magazine in as she put it against a carriers skull and she slammed it hope and loaded it up ad put the shot against the forehead.

Jake growled, "Getting real old real fast, super girl! How many more of these assholes are there?!"

The mother held Malaak's hand and now even Hassan had a single tear in each eye. "I know that the people...won't want us to bring in the children of Anubis soldiers but we must! These are evil men who go above and beyond...to spread chaos...wwe must go above and beyond to spread good. We must take in their victims...all of their victims..."

"I am not sure...I am not a leader, sister. I wil fail the people if you ask this of me..."

"You will only fail if you dont try...you have survived and helped us survive I know you will do this now..."

He squeezed her sons hand. "Show your uncle how it is done...make me proud..." With a harsh breath she was gone. The boy was sobbing into the breast of his mother. Jake fired the Einfield as a carrier tried to come through the hole. He hit the carrier, a woman in a pink Niqrab in the side of the face near the left eye.

The Jinn began to change as a few of them were already dispatched by Sherry and Jake. Hassan told them, "Get him out of here! I will hold these demons off and I will bury her..."

"Do you get it now?!" Sherry growled. "It's not about running from your country it's survival!"

"Get him to safety! By any means! I am just one man! You are the US government! You have all the resources in the world! I am just a man with a death wish!"

Jake escorted Malaak who was crying his eyes out. "It's gonna be all right kid..." Jake said as he hugged the kid. He got at his eye level. "Listen...I lost my mom at a younger age than you...it fucked me up and I was on my own. But you're not...I got your back...your mom wanted the best for you just like mine did...you can do anything you want to do someday. See the world like I did or come home and liberate it. But right now we've gotta go.."

They took off and Hassan went to finish off the Nigerian Anubis member. "Get away from me..." Growled the Nigerian national.

"What tribe are you?" Demanded Hassan. "Tell me! We are all polytheists at one point before these monotheist dogs came to destroy us."

"I am not an idolater! I am a Fulani!"

"Fulani...one of the major tribes in the slave trade. They took and sold many other tribes and sold them into slavery, their enemies and yet many of them were as well. It seems that just because you help the Devil after all so that he does not harm you as much does not nessecarily mean you have escaped hell. It only means you are inflicting pain on somebody else."

"You..deserve all the pain in the world...idol worshipper! You worship Satan!"

"Even stil I understand your concept of good and evil...I still read the Quran. Many of the men I served with were Muslims. Just because they had no intrerest in learning of my faith and perhaps even wanted people like me gone doesn't mean I did not try and learn about them. But a Muslim is a slave. All Muslims are slaves."

"Slaves to Allah...!" Growled the wounded insurgent.

Hassan chuckled. "No...just slaves to a long dead war lord with a misguided morality...there is no bigger slave in the world than a Muslim. You are killing your own people in your home continent jkust as these Anubis dogs from this country do to me and my people. We are not the same but we are countrymen. But a Muslim such as yourself especially a Fulani can only ever be a slave. The same as most Kurds. Slaves just the same to a common Arab colonizer. There is no bigger slavery than fightoing for your true oppressors and destroying others for the people who defeated and enslaved your forefathers. People like you are in a never ending cycle of ignorance..."

"We will see...you devil worshiping dog! You are allies of the Great Satan! I saw it...you love them more than your own brothers! Kurdish brothers...traitor!"

" The kurds are the true traitors. The Arabs have persecuted my people for many years. Yes, the westerners are devils and I fought them as hard as I could but at least they leave when they are done...to them you are just an abeed a slave. That is how they view all of the world. But you are willing to die for them."

"For Allah..." Growled the Nigerian. Hasan nodded and pulled out his own schimitar. "Your brothers in arms have killed my sister in law..." He knocked him to the ground and brought it down n his throat. Blood sprayed like a geyser from his wound and Hassan hacked him again decapitating him.

Just then, he looked and saw a man of Middle Eastern ancestry carrying an AK and Hassan held the blade and the man lowered his weapon. He had flowers with him. "Saladin...what are you doing here?"

"I have told you I would never let any harm come to your family. I try to keep Yazidis out of this. But when there are child soldiers taken in by my brothers who do not see the bigger picture...I try to take command of them instead. You know what I will not allow my soldiers to do.."

It was true that Hassan and Fatima and Malaak had survived and had not been raided directly because of Saladin taking pity on the family and he preferred to direct his rage at the Iraqi security forces trying to stop him as well as the western enemies.

"You are not a good man, Saladin. Not any more than I am but at least my bloodshed is nessecary. You are just a wandering aimless fool. Trying to take on the entire 't you and your Anubis dogs leave me to bury my sister in peace?"

"I saw the boy leaving with the two Americans. I just hope you do not forget who you are. You and I are still Iraqi citizens and they are the enemy."

"As I just told our unenlightened friend...at least the Americans go home when they finish stealing our oil. You never try to stop converting us. I have killed so many Anubis...so many Arabs I cannot count. Most were not even worth counting."

"Still, if me and my men wanted to overcome you we could have. You and that boy live only by my word..."

"You already missed Samia being killed you bastard!" Growled Hasan. "We took care of your men for dong this. But Malaak will have a better life. If you are here to kill me you had better shoot me and shoot me good otr I will be back."

"Those were not my men. I am short on some men. I took three men with me to scout the perimeter of the UN forces but I lost all three in a firefight. I came here to escape the soldiers looking for me. I also helped out two American agents. But those carriers were not with me and neither were those men you killed..." They hear demonic roares and gunfire. "It seems that the others are not as quick to let your nephew escape..."

Hassan took an AK off of a dead Anubis agent and as much ammo as he could find and carry.

Leon

He stared at her as he listened.

"I'm not willing to say who I work for. Not right now..."

She looked at him. "As a child I lived in a desolate and war torn Asian nation.I didn't have a family as a child. My parents died before I was born. As a child...I would search the streets for rations off of dead soldiers. It was...hard...but it became a day to day thing. I just got used to it. One day...there was an airiel attack against the country's enemies. I had a loaf of bread. But I lost it in the firefight. In the end...this boy...he found a loaf of bread in a dead soldier's backpack. I had a shotgun...from another dead soldier."

"What happened, Ada?" He asked, listening, watching, trying to listen for the ring of truth in her voice. "I followed him to a house. He was taking care of his mother. She was sick. He'd risked his life...not for himself. But for his mother. I killed them both...after I killed him...i knew it would be cruel to leave her alive...it was quick..." She had tears in her eyes. "Leon...I'm a bad woman..."

He wanted to say something but he couldn't. He just listened. "I'd been around dead bodies all my life. I got used to it. I saw them more than live ones. My parents had died a long time ago and I had to learn how to survive all on my own...I don't know if the boy and I could have teamed up and survived...but I saw that he risked his life for her and he wouldn't have left her behind and there wouldn't have been enough food for three."

"So you made that desciscion for the three of you...?" Leon was trying to listen since she had finally been willing to tell him something and he didn't want to seem like he was judging her so that she might clam up but he was horrified.

"He wouldn't choose to abandon his mother to survivwe...I did whatever it takes. I had to learn about life the hard way. The inhumane way. Later...I saw buses of people being brought onto buses. They were busing men and women to become Umbrella agents. I decided then and there to become an agent."

"All this time...I thought it was Umbrella who made you who you were. But it was what you went through before."

"Yeah..." She blinked back tears.

"Where was this?" He asked.

"It was the Third Indochina war. It went on from 1979 to 1991. I got out of there long before it ended."

"Just curious...which side of the border were you born on?" He was trying to in a nice way ask if she was Chinese or Vietnamese. Ada Wong was a pseudonym as far as he knew and she was Chinese American or at least he thought she was. But then it wouldn't have been the first time Caucasians or any western people may have gotten it wrong.

"We were born on the border, Leon..." He accepted her answer. He did know one thing from class mates he'd had in college he had noticed that Vietnamese people were shorter than Chinese people even if Southern Chinese people were generally smaller but then Ada also had a more Northern Chinese look to her. It was hard to say but mayybe she would tell him someday a bit more. Was she a dual citizen? Was one parent Chinese or Vietnamese? He wouldn't care either way but knowing who she was would be an improvement on what he didn't know about her. "Many people have dual citizenship there. My father died before the Vietnam war ended. I was only a little over a year old. My mother died in the border war in 1979."

"I'm sorry, Ada..."

"Don't worry about it. It was a long time ago...there was nothing I could have done."

"Do you miss them?"

"Sometimes..." She admitted after what seemed like an eternity. "But there's nothing I can do to bring them back...part of me thinks..."

"Thinks what?"

"It's not important..."

"You can tell me, Ada..."

"Maybe another time."

"Ada...you think you're a bad woman cause of what you did back then. But you were just doing what you had to. To survive. You saved people in a helicopter. On rooftops."

"I could have done more. i wanted to do more. But I had a mission..."

"Ada..I don't blame you. But your mission? I don't know what it is. I'm supposed to bring in Abu Mahseh. Or kill him. I don't know if I can do it alone. Sherry's out there..."

"Mahseh has to go. And I need a sample of the C Virus. He should have one. Whatever this strain of the C virus is it seems different somehow."

They heard growls and howls and turned towards it. There were several undead locals coming at them. Ada raised her Crossbow. "I killed them..." She declared. "They shouldn't still be up."

Leon began to fire at them as well with his Handgun and he fired a barrage of rounds. Six struck a dark brown skinned Arab man in the chest, a man wearing the country's national football team. The man was carrying a pipe. He swung it at Leon but the agent dodged and Ada put a bolt into the back of the man's neck killing him instantly.

He fired another four into the head of another, a female arrier wiyh her burka ripped up revealing her arms, bare abdomen, bare breast on the left side and her fae plus the knees were revealed showing a large scrape wound on her left knee going all the way up her thigh. He killed her instantly but he noticed the other townspeople with her carrying weapons.

They ran forward and automatic rounds narrowly missed them but did hit the carriers behind them striking them all in the abdomen. Leon looked to see it was more UN troops. The remaining six bodies fell with multiple wounds to their chests and stomachs. They cleared the hostiles for weapons. "Who are you?" Demanded the leader of the troops. Ada turned to Leon pointing her hookshot towards a rooftop. "Need a ride, handsome?"

"I'll say..." He replied. "If it gets me out of exoplaining things to them when we got a job to do..." He grabbed onto heer and she fuired up and pulled them up. The NATO soldiers called out to them but they vanished over the rooftop. Just then they heard a scream of agony. One of the men was bitten in the left leg. "What the hell?!' Leon asked looking down. At least two UN soldiers had been bitten by the C Virus zombies that they had previously believed to be dead from being shot.

"That's not a good sign. It's worse than I thought..." Ada stated.

"What is it you think happened?"

"These are C infected J'avo. But they came back when they were shot. She handed him a pair of binnoculars. He looked and saw the UN soldiers firing their Rifleds to finish off the presumably wounded creatures with headshots. "They look like...the Afflicted from the Burton report. What's going on?"

"There's two kinds of C Virus carrier remember? The zombies from the fumes and bites and the J'avo from the injections. But now it's looking like these J'avo have reanimated. As the Afflicted."

"So what now? We gotta kill em twice?!"

"I'm afraid so. I read a report from Jill Valentine some years ago detailing what she went through in the Spencer Mansion. As it turned out there wasn't just zombies. There were these things she referred to as Crimsons who had to sometimes be killed twice but when they reanimated they were faster and more aggresive. Her only solution was to burn the body."

"zAre you saying that's what this is here? The virus used at that island wasn't the C it was T Phobos."

"This is...not good. I have to warn Sherry. And Helena. And Ark too. They're my friends."

She looked with the binnoculars to the east by about a hundred yards. She saw muzzle flashes and looked to see Sherry Birkin and Jake Muller cutting down several Jinn. They were escorting a child. "Sherry Birkin is down there..." She told Leon. "Along with Wesker's son..."

Ada opened up a silver suitcase to reveal a PSG1. She got onto the roof with her began to aim down the scope as she put it together. He climbed up himself manually. She spoke to him as he came by without looking at him. "This will be the second time I've covered them from a distance...I'll do what I can but there's a lot of them..." She fired striking one of the Jinn a man of Chechen ancestry in the face. She blew his nose apart and the round pierced into his brain splitting his skull apart. His brain matter covered Sherry as they were that close.

The two outbreak survivors were doing their best to hold off the carriers. Ada got a look at some of the BOW' behind them falling. She looked and saw an Iraqi man with an AK firing at them from their flank and screaming something in a foreign language. The rounds dropped four of them and this got the attention of the BOW's who turned their attention to him.

He reloaded as they started to come towards him by the dozen and he retreated back into a house with a hole blasted in the side of it. Leon looked through the binnoculars and said, "I'm gonna go back them up. We need to expedite this mission and stop Al Mahseh."

"I can cover them from up here. You should stay up here with me. It's safer that way and we have two eyes..."

"We only need one Sniper, Ada. Besides, Sherry isn't just a survivor from Raccoon and a team mate she's a friend."

He got down to the ground level and found an unexpected find. He picked up an Uzi. "Thank you, Israel..." He said as he took the magazines for it. He started firing from 100 yards out. "Get clear!" He yelled to Sherry, Jake and the boy. They did, moving off to the side and he began laying down fire. He struck down four killing three but only wounding the fourth. It fell over and the body began to melt and shift.

He emptied the rest of the magazine into it. "Come on! We gotta double back to the rooftop! We got sniper cover!"

Sherry asked, "We got help? Is it from Helena?" Leon shook his head. "Not quite! But close enough!" They made their way in somewhat of a left turn going under Ada's firing position and she fired striking a BOW down with a neckshot that severed the spine and left the head partially hanging off. "Jesus...!" Leon cried out. She had switched to a higher caliber it seemed.

The carriers kept after them and Leon looked over his shoulder as they all ran. Five more Djinn fell as Ada fired round after round. The rounds went through more than a few of the carriers going through one man, a Kurdish man with a five o'clock shadow wearing a brown jacket over a white t shirt and blue jeans hitting his spine and slicing through it like a knife through butter and the round hit his friend behind him in the chest.

Leon, meanwhile watched as one began to transform and mutate much like the J;'avo in europe had. He found himself down to his last magazine for the Uzi. "You need an upgrade, pal!" Jake declared opening fire with the Einfield striking the J'avo in the head. "No shit..." Leon replied firing his Uzi as the next group of them as well as the Djinn who had mutated. Up on the roof, Ada got a look at Hassan as he was mowing down another seven carriers who had been Anubis insurgents but they were closing in on him. He managed to shoot them in their stomachs and waists and their weapons fell but two of them grabbed him and began to grapple the Yazidi man to the ground.

Ada fired a shot into one of them blowing out the back of his head but it was too late. They were piling on him and he dropped his Rifle as he tried to struggle. The others were picking up their weapons again. "Damn it..." She breathed in silent frustration and she aimed fotr the one that had picked his schi,mtar up and shot him in the back and the round exited his chest.

She was just about to fire again when she felt a rough pair of hands grab her and throw her off the roof. She cried out in pain as she hit the looked up and saw he was dressed like your typical jihadi dressed in all black with a baklava but he was unusually pale for a middle eastern and over six feet tall. She had seen light skinned Kurds and Arabs who made even her look dark by comparison but as the man lept off the roof and landed on his feet with not even much problems for his knees in the way he landed, she saw something was amiss. His eyes were lighter colored.

"Guess we can ditch the getup at this point can't we?" The man spoke in perfect English in a deep familiar voice pulling his mask away. "Krauser?!" She said his name aloud. She went for her hookshop gun and her her sidearm but he stomped on each hand and she cried out in pain. "Yeah..."

"I was almost sure I had killed you..." Ada said with a smirk. "I'll have to be more..." He brought a boot down on her head knocking her unconscious. 'Nope..." Krauser stated. He picked up her nconscious body and put a bag over her head. "You're lucky somebody wants you alive for now. Don't count on that to last...

Meanwhile, Leon, Sherry and Jake held off the attacking carriers as best as they could but there was about twenty five more and they were surrounded. Leon saw a few of them with AK-47's drawing a bead on them and he knew that in that instant one or moee of them was going to be hit and there was nothing he could do to stop that except yell, "COVER!" And he bolted to try to. To his surprise, 7.62 rounds flew through the air and the carriers began dropping like flies. They looked up on rooftops and saw that about six Anubis members, clearly not under the control of the virus had began unloading on their own countryen. The carriers fell like dominoes and Leon saw even as they reloaded and Jake and Sherry aimed their respective weapoms that they were outmanned and outgunned.

A man emerged behind two of the goons and Leon recognized him. "Saladin!"

"I can't say I am familiar with you but judging from context you must be Leon...somehow I doubt those two are..." The man said pointing to Jake and Malaak.

"What do you want, Saladin?!" Demanded Sherry. "Why did you help us?"

"I didn't Your friends did. We have an understanding..."

Helena Harper and Ark Thompson emerged with the latter firing a few kill shots into the dead carriers. "Ark, what the hell is this? Helena, he's the enemy..."

"Right now there are bigger enemies. Where's Ada? I heard she's in the area.".. Helena replied.

"She was covering us. IO'm sure she still is. If not she'll be catching up real soon. What's going on here?"

"We need him,Leon..." Stated Ark. "I don't like it and I know you don't either but he can be reasoned with. We gotta go after Al Mahseh and he's willing to give him to us."

"He's guilty of everything Mahseh is!" Sherry protested.

"I am guilty of waging war on my enemies..." Saladin corrected her. "I have bombed people, shot them, cut their heads off, slit throats, disembowled them. And yes...I have even taken children under my army. But I have never raped anybody and I do not allow any under my commasnd to. Despite what you Americans think we are not all barbarians here..."

"Could have fuckin fooled me, asshole! I see nothing but Anubis agents coming after this kid. They killed his mom!" Jake growled.

Saladin climbed down. "And you are guilty of just as much as me. Perhaps more. You have the stench of death on you but somehow you do not strike me as a soldier. Soldier of fortune, perhaps. You are Blackwater?"

"Freelance..." Jake shot back.

"What do you hope to get out of this by helping us?" Demanded Sherry. "You're still an international fugitive."

"Of that I have no doubt but Allah is my protector. I have no illusion that you American pigs will be leaving Iraq any time soon. Or that the Russians will leave Syria! This community still hugs the border. The Shinjar Mountains. And it is a long border with many settlements. But my family has lived here a long time too. No different than the Yazidi. You may not pull out of our country but you, and your western forces you will leave us this territory. That is my conditions. If you want any change to occur within our organization Mahseh must be disposed of and I must have sole leadership. I must be the true Khalifa."

"Yeah, good luck with that...the UN isn't going to let a man who took children as soldiers."

"I'm not the first to command children in an army. Sometimes, this happens when the soldiers come after you from foreign lands. Sometimes a child has to fight back. What if the child's mother and father is killed and there is only him between the infidel soldier and his sister? Childhood is over and manhood begins much sooner here..."

"You can dress it up however you want. These are grown men making kids commit attrocities and if what you were doing before the virus was a part of this wasn't bad enough, you added bioweapons into it!"

"Child soldiers in Anubis is an inevitability. I cannot stop it yet myself even if I tried. All I can do is try and get some of these children under me. I only instruct them to wage war on the kaffir. Not civilians not civilians from our communities. I don't even try to attack Shi'ite if we can help it but sometimes they attack us based on what the misguided under us do."

"Even if I believed that you did this...kept the child soldiers from being under more evil warlords...it's still brainwashing and it's unjustified!" Sherry snarled. "I lost my parents when I was a child to these bioweapons and now here you are ruining more lives. I'm from Raccoon City. That's ground zero!"

"Was your American revolution unjustified against the English? You had child soldiers fighting them too..." Sneered Saladin.

"That's not the same thing and you know it!" She exploded.

"So it is okay for young boys to die in battle for their independence and in the name of patriotism but not for us to do the same in our country? You have a strange way of looking at things. If it is wrong now for my reasons. You should do more research of your own history. Many American soldiers were sixteen years of age. That's an adult in my country but in yours? That was just a child. But you also had soldiers as young as nine. So what is the real difference between you and your founding fathers and us?! We used child soldiers, they use child soldiers. We owned slaves they owned slaves."

"

Chris

They spotted the survivors from before. "It's good to see you're still alive..." Chris stated.

Theresa stood up. "Where have you been? We almost all died and when that old man killed Kieth you all just left when we shut the gates!"

Scott nodded. "And those other two BSAA assholes that were with you left! Idiot one and idiot two. Fuckin Grinder and Jackass is what they called each other? Jackass sounds about right for the bald one. And the other one acts like he's some kinda ladies man with that nickname? That's the name of a dating app just for men."

Priya sighed, "That's irrelevant, Scott. They left us here..."

"We're sorry..." Rebecca stated. "We just wanted to lead the carriers away from where you were. And we did! They gave chase for a long time after us and we laid down suppressing fire. Gave them something to chase. After a while, they lost us and we figured if we got them far enough away from you...we'd buy you some time. We didn't think Lumley and Catchum would leave you."

"We're spread too thin..." Chris said resting his hand against the gate leaning gagainst it. "We're supposed to be protecting all of you and dealing with the outbreak. Normally an outbreeak in a city this size would be a piece of cake for us. But...a mall and an airport...I don't know..."

Sebastian snarled, "Sounds like a fuckin excuse to me! You haven't evacuated anybody."

"I know..." Chris stated. "The only helicopters out there are gonna be supply drop helicopters. The National Guard are coming but they're being held up. The truth is...they're trying to quarantine the outside and cut off all entry points in and out of Seatac. They're putting down the infected outside in the city. Our job is to cointain it here and in the airport. Some of the stragglers got away. And they turned small groups into big groups. We got here as fast as we could."

"If the cops and the military are here then maybe they can evacuate us?" Asked Priya.

Rebecca hated to be honest with her but she wasn't going to lie to her. "On the way over here we heard the radio from a dead SWAT team members radio. They wouldn't even begin to be able to evacuate anybody for seventy two hours."

"Three days?! We could run out of food by then. We probably will!"

"It's a mall..." Chris said. "If we're strategic about it I'm sure we can all manage."

Scott shook his head. "You don't understand, man. Do you know how many parking spaces this mall has?" Chris, trying to be respectful, humored the African American security guard. "How many?"

"7,143. So let's assume that meant every vehicle only had one person which is not the case but let's just assume that was...that'd be 7,143 zombies. But in reality most people in here are at least two people per vehicle. A lot of them are four. Then you gotta factor in all the people that walk here on foot that live in walking distance on any given day. And there's 218 stores. Even if you...or the National Guard or the police or whoever only had to put down just every zombie in this store that's a tall order."

"We've dealt with worse places. That weren't anywhere near as armed. I've dealt with bioterrorist situations. Usually when we do it in a third world country it's harder to find ammo unless it's a war zone in the Middle East or Africa. Then there's a surplus of hostiles with AK's. But if it's just a poor country that has a lot of poverty but not a bunch of guns it can be a big problem. This is America. There's guns everywhere. That';s why the Japanese said they didn't want to invade the mainland. There was a gun behind every blade of grass."

"Actually, Chris that quote wasn't something they really said..." Rebecca corrected him.

"It is gonna be hard. We don't know how many other survoiors there are. And what if they decide to just drop bombs on the city like they did in movies? Like they did in Raccoon City?"

Theresa also worked there. "This mall...he city of Tukwila...it's really close to Seatac but you gotta realize with Seatac nearby and 27,000 people and however many people go through the airport every day...and here in Tukwila? That's another 20,000 people. Including the amount of people that are in this mall. But there could be zombies out there just walking around in people's houses."

Chris told them, "Look it won't be easy and some of you might not make it. But some of us might not make it. A lot of my team mates haven't made it. We're dying to try and protect all of you. We're trying to do our job."

"You think you deserve a pat on the back for doing what you're supposed to?!" Cried Scott. "No! You do your job. I do my job. There has been mall shooters in the past I do what I have to but you never know if some psycho may wanna stab or shoot me when I catch him shoplifting."

"All due respect you can't compare being mall security to being an anti bioterrorist organization operating all over the world..." Agent Chambers told him.

"That may be true..." Priya cut in. "But you are alive. The ones from your team that died are the ones that made the ultimate sacrifice. They went above and beyond. I don't want to sound ungrateful but they're the ones who really went above and beyond. You are just doing your jobs..."

She sighed. "Look...I don't want to be a bitch. I'm only saying this because those two BSAA agents...they left us and they put us at risk cause we had to open the gate again for trhem to get out because they wanted to help two of their team mates. Two more agents like you. We saw them fighting some big monster. We...maybe we were selfish and we stayed here and didn't help."

"But we're not trained to fight those things!" Theresa stated. "We can handle zombies but whatever that was? That's too much..."

"Well whichever agents they were I'm gonna have a talk with them about that. It is true that they're supposed to have each other's backs but you don't leave civilians behind to fend for themselves."

Rebecca had an idea. "Maybe we can expedite the evacuation. We need to take out as many of those things as we can. You all have weapons and there are dead police officers with dropped ammo. It can be done We're going to try and find the rest of our team and we can concentrate our efforts. With all of you helping we can make it a lot faster. Would you be willing to help us?"

Scott sighed calming down and he breathed slowly before asking, "What did you have in mind?"

"We'll need to blow this place up. I know there's a lot of survivors here. Or at least a few. If there's even just another surviving group like all of you I'll help them. We have to rig this place to blow up but we'll get into the control room and announce over the intercom what's gonna happen."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Asked Theresa. "If you're gonna do what you can to get any other survivors out we want to help."

Chris nodded. "We'll be getting some C4 dropped soon in a supply drop. We'll get clear of the block zone and make the call."

"We could blow ourselves up, Theresa! Don't volunteer us for that shit!" Scott growled but Rebecca corrected him, "Actually, sir, C4 is stable You could set it on fire or shoot it and it won't blow up. We're going to do it. This is our job and we all owe you. If anything I think the survivors of this outbreak should get paid restoration for lives lost and their lost livlihood."

Theresa's eyes watered with tears. "I lost my brother in this..." She sniffed. "I didn't bring it up till now cause I been trying to hold on but...he got bitten. I tried to help him we all did but there were too many and they devoured him. There wasn't enough of him to een come back as one of them. I don't know how this virus works but...what price can you put on a family member?"

"I don't think you can..." Chris stated. "But you all deserve something out of this. You're victims of it and they've destroyed yor lives here. You have to have some kind of safety net. They destroyed the mall but we're gonna blow it up. There's another team taking care of the airport. These two places are the main sources for the most infected. If there's others still out there, this should buy them some time until help comes."

Barry

As they made it through the mall Barry spotted Jill and Josh. He and the rest of the team began to gather in place near the Abercrombie & Fitch. It was adjacent to the Disney store and a Build A Bear workshop which was next to a Starbuck. "Barry! Thank God!" Jill hugged the team leader. He hugged her back but he asked, "Have you seen Natalia?"

"Natalia?! I don't understand..."

"You know what happened...but...it's Alex Wesker...she's possessed Natalia."

"What?" Josh asked. "How...?"

"You remember the thing with Alex Wesker and how she tried to put herself into her before? Everything that happened to us at the Island? Somehow she's in Natalia's body."

"Goddamn it...I'm sorry, Barry...there';s gotta be a way to get her back!"

"I know. And I haven't given up yet..." The aging NRA member was shaking a bit. "I...don't know...if i can handle it...if it's too late..."

She put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "If it comes down to it...I'll take care of it if you want me to..."

"Jill, I couldn't ask you to do that..."

"Barry...you helped me get through therapy. I wouldn't have gotten through my therapy without your support."

"I know...but I loved Natalia. I still do. We learned to love her as our own. There's no set time for when you start to care for a kid you adopted but it didn't take us long. If it has to be done...I owe it to her to set her free. She's just a child but...there's no way she'd want to live if she was under Alex's thumb. She'd want to die as a human rather than live as a monster."

"Captain..." Elias stated. "I'm sorry this is happening to you but we do have to be careful. If you can't...maybe one of us should. I know you don't want to."

"Is that why you got in this business, Okwari? Kill kids?" Barry snarled. "I've had just about enough of your shit!"

"Captain, he's right!" Kateri insisted. "She's a monster now. I want to save her too but Alex is in control and you saw what happened. What she was able to do. What if we can't save her? Maybe this is why she chose a younger body. Not as strong enough of a will to resist her?"

"That's stupid!" Kiya stated. "You can't measure somebopdy's will by their age!"

"Guys can we not fight?! We're on the same team..." Dayva insisted.

"Barry...anybody else's kid we'd be expected to be objective. But when it's yours we gotta hold back? I'm not looking to kill a kid either. If we can just take her in an do tests on her to get her out of there we should. But I'm not in favor of dying. We may have to fight her. And when we try and capture her, she's gonna try to kill us. I'll hold back as much as I can but I'm not letting her kill me just so you have a better chance of getting her back. If any of us have to die trying to get her back...it's a price too high. It may be too late. If it has to come between me and a BOW I'm not dying for that."

"You insubordinate ASSHOLE!" Barry punched Elias and Elias tackled him and the two rolled on the ground with Barry hitting him in the gut. Elias came back with a right hook to the jaw and an elbow to the chest. Barry grabbed him by his hair and Elias got him by the throat. They shoved each other back and drew their sidearms on each other. "You're unfit to be Captain..." Elias said. "You're unstable."

"Eli! Put the gun down!" Kateri cried.

Kiya added, "He's still your Captain!"

Barry growled, "You're always causing trouble. You came highly recommended but I can see it was a mistake to bring you here!" Josh put a hand on Barry's shoulder. "My friend, it is not worth it. Time wasted fighting is time that could be used to help your surrogate daughter."

"Barry, it isn't worth it. You get ten years for killing a BSAA agent."

"He'll get death row...instantly if I see him try and hurt Natalia..." Barry insisted. Elias saw Dayva also pleading in addition to Kateri. He lowered the gun. "Go ahead then. Shoot me you redneck asshole. You're no more stable than Chris Yeah I may not be the best team player. I don't get along with people but I always did what you said even when I didn't like it. Now I'm just trying to do my duty."

"What if that was your daughter out there?!" Barry growled keeping his Handgun on him.

"I'd probably do what you're doing. But I wouldn't be in any kind of shape to be leading a team. You used to be a cop when you were younger, right? There's a reason they take the cops off the case if one of their family members or their partners get killed. You're too close to this, Barry. We'll do what we can to help her. But you have a team to lead with families of their own. Plus two daughters of your own. By blood. Alex might toy with you but she would kill you too. If you put us and yourself at risk that makes it that much more likely you don't go home to your daughters."

Dayva voiced her opinion. "Captain, I do not want to kill her either and neither does Agent Okwari. None of us do. But it would be selfish of you to expect us to not fight as hard as we can to not die at her hands. I think your daughter is in there somewhere but right now Alex Wesker is using her body as a host. She's a Bioweapon and we have a job to do. Getting rid of them."

"To be fair, Captain we didn't do all this extra effort to save other people's children."

"So because we may have failed before, Natalia deserves to die?!" Barry growled.

"I don't think that's what he's saying, Captain Burton. He's saying that we should do more from now on to make sure less children die. My own death for this is unacceptable to me. And it is also unacceptable to let her die. But we should be ashamed of ourselves for all the children we failed to save. If her death is unacceptable for me, for you then every child victim of Terrorism should always be unacceptable."

"Yes..." Thurston stated voicing his agreement. "But Captain if you truly care about Natalia...you need to be ready to deal with her if it's the worst case scenario. I have two daughters and one son. I spend as much time as I can with them when I'm not with you. But if one of them turned I would deal with them in a heart beat."

"How do you know you could if you had to, Thurston?"

"I never told you about Angus?"

"Who?" Asked Barry.

"Angus Thurston..." Elias stated. Though he was not a friend per say of Thurston, he knew of his situation.

"That was my brother. He worked with Tricell. Just before we got to Kijuju. He believed his organization was functioning in the same way that Tricell does now. It was believed they would help all those poor people in that area. Vaccinations for diseases we take for granted as cured in the first world, things of that nature. Seriously, Captain they didn't brief you on me before yot got me in a transfer?"

"No, Thurston they didn't talk about that. They just talked about your experience cleaning up Terragrigia It said you had PTSD."

"My brother was infected. I had to put him down."

"How is that possible? Chris and Sheva were the ones to put down most of the Majinis. And the rest were taken out by Delta Team. You weren't a part of Delta or we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"Are you forgetting that there were majinis that attacked them in a group? They ended up barricading themselves from a large group. My brother was part of that large group. If you were going to insinuate that they got to them by climbing fences the way the others did when they got to the assembly area thats simply not the case. Redfield didn't kill them neither did Alomar there was no way for them to get to the assembly area from where they were. There weren't ladders on the way. They sent us in before they sent Terrasave."

He paused a moment and then said, "We mowed through that group like butter with a knife and I saw my brother take rounds to the knee. They blew his kneecaps out and he had several rounds to the abdomen but he he was still wanting to fight. I talked the Captain into letting me do it...I fired a shot taking his left hand out and his right so he couldn't hold a weapon. But he grabbed me with his ruined hands. I stared into his eyes...they were red../..not human...I put one in his forehead and one in each eye because I didn't want to see his eyes like that."

He stared at Barry. "The moral of the story, Barry is I'm almost as old as you. I've got military experience. I'm probably more fit to lead this team than you but I respect my commanding officers. Whether or not you're fit to remain mine will depend on if you can do what needs to be done if it needs to be done."

Barry sighed and said, "Enough about this for now..." They advanced through the mall only to see Rebecca and Chris and some survivors they didn't recognize. Chris, upon seeing his old friend hugged him. They began to introduce themselves the members of Barry's team who had not met Chris. All except Agent Okwari. He stayed back but he listened as they talked.

Barry was briefed on what Chris's plan was. "You want to destroy the mall, huh? Just like old times, right? Seems like forever since the Spencer Mansion."

"It needs to be done here. There's some survivors and we're going to try and help them. Even if it's just one of them. It's still important."

"Chris, you and me have saved a lot of lives. We're gonna do what we can for these people here but as my team told me..." He said eyeing Elias and Thurston. "We gotta be realistic. And I have to be realistic about Natalia...I . I had only really adopted her and had her as part of our family two years but it meant a lot to me and the time on the island...I got to know her. Maybe I can't call her a daughter yet to the same point that I could Moira and Polly...but I wanted the chance to try and give her what she was denied. And what I thought I lost when I thought Moira was gone forever."

Chris put a hand on Barry's shoulder. "I know...but when I think back on Raccoon City and how I wasn't there when the infection came. We were all in Europe but then I find out Jill was there and you were there if nothing else to pick her up and get her to safety. I was the one who wasn't there. Claire survived it Leon survived it. Maybe if I'd have been there too we could have turned the tide..."

"It wouldn't have made that much of a difference, Chris..." Stated Rebecca. "I wasn't there either though and that's why I've been trying to help people too. I didn't even do as much as you did. If anyone should feel guilty for not doing enough it should be me."

"There's not much point in all of us beating ourselves up..." Barry said with a sigh. "We've got a chance to save some lives here.

Billy

Outfitted with the M4A1 that had been taken off the dead reservists, Billy kept watch while Tobias held Sheila and Vasily drove. They finally pulled up to the Jim Wright Airfield. "If I didn;t say this before let me say it now...I don't like the idea of flying out of here on a plane they left in an airfield named after a man who died in an aircraft accident..." Stated Vasily with a grim look on his face.

"It's either that or stay here and wait and see what happens and I don't see any good coming from that..." Billy sighed. "I loved this little town but that's over now. The years I got here with Bridget were what I got. It aint right that it was cut short but I don't want to eend up like everybody else here. Otherwise surviving Raccoon City's Arklay Forrest was pointless."

They got to the plane and it had two two seats. "I'm flying the kid outta here first..." Vasily stated. "I don't know how I'm goping to keep her calm. I'm not even sure it's safe to fly in a plane like this with a six year old. Maybe one of you rides with me and she sits in your lap..."

They heard a crashing sound and they heard gunfire, automatic pops of rounds filling the night air. They looked and saw a large mammoth figure attacking several National Guardsmen. They fired on him with 5.56 rounds peppering the face, chest and back.

It was the same tyrant. It grabbed one soldier by the face and crushed his jaw with a simple squeeze and a popping snapping yet squishy sound filled the air as blood sprayed as though the man's head was just a pimple being popped. The tyrant tossed the corpse aside like it was nothing and a soldier lobbed a pulled grenade at its feet. The explosion went off and the man fell and he was on fire.

An African American soldier fired a twenty round burst backing away and yelled, "Where the fuck is Bauer with that goddamn grenade launcher?! This thing aint going down!"

Vasily started up the plane getting it ready. Blood poured down the skin of the gray skinned Mr. X's skull as it bled from the bullet wounds but kept coming as its face turned red. The soldier who had screamed about the grenade tried to evade it but it lunged suddenly grabbing him by the head but instead of squishing his head, it twisted his neck sideways snapping his neck. Next was a Mexican American soldier firing trying to hit it in the eyes and he almost did but the thing seemed to sense what he was doing and put up both forearms to block and then charged into him knocking him back and winding him.

He cried out trying to catch his breath but the thing punched him cracking his skull open and even though it had only partly clipped him it had been as hard as it could punch and his skull was cracked open.

He fell over backing up going into a seizure. The tyrant stepped on the neck of the deceased soldier whose neck it had just snapped and squished the neck of the flesh beneath the boot, a sickening and ghastly sight to behold. Billy looked at the terrible sight. He knew that the rest of them could potentially get killed and even though he knew that if enough soldiers were there they could probably take care of it but the soldiers were spread across Oak Road and they had been moving through Row River to take care of the zombies there.

Not only that, there had been automatic fire going off and they heard it as they drove back into town. Billy didn't want to take chances since that was the tyrant from before and had proven hard to get rid of. He opened fire letting off a burst of rounds striking it in the face. It spotted him and took a few rounds in the cheek and he went to fire on its eyes hoping to blind it but it grabbed a reserve member and pulled it to him and the rounds struck the Guardsman in the back. Twelve rounds hit him and anothjer five went through and the soldier bled coughing blood as the tyrant held him bleeding midair. The tyrant threw the soldier causing further internal injury and it began to come for them.

Vasily fired at the creaure as well and Tobias got out and he turned to Sheila, "Get in, sweetheart! We're gonna get you outta here!"

He got the shotgun and he began to fire on the tyrant as well bombarding his arms with shots to try and get it to stop guarding its face. It bled but it was not fazed. He turned to Billy. "We're gonna hold em off and let them get outta here!"

Steve appeared again and he charged at the tyrant throwing a hard right and it had enough force to knock it over. Billy and Tobias opened fire unloading into the thing. "Doesn't he ever fuckin die?!" Growled the Sheriff. "Fuckin sick of this shit!"

Vasily started to move the plane but he stopped it crying out, "Come on! There's room for one more of you! I'll come back for the rest!"

Steve turned to him and then to Billy and Tobias, "Up to you two! I don't need a lift. I...ahhh!" He was hit from behind as the tyrant struck him. It seemed the tyrant was not anywhere near as fast but it was far stronger. Steve fell, dazed. Billy reloaded and fired again and managed to take out an eye this time. Tobias blasted it in in the stomach again and again but it bashed him with his fist. He fell bleeding from his nose and mouth and his head bled from hitting the ground. It went to bring its boot down on him but it just barely missed as he rolled away.]

Steve saw more zombies and now there were National Guardsmen near the airfield trying to keep the zombies away from it as they fell back to the airfield. "We got this!' Billy stated. "Just clear them a path!" Steve did exactly that using his speed to mow down more zombies withdrawing his blade and he killed them by the dozens in each burst of speed but he was slowed down a bit because of the blow from the tyrant.

Tobias got kicked in the side by the tyrant and he flew about fifteen feet landing hard. Billy spotted a deceased soldier and he grabbed a grenade pulling the pin and he cooked it before throwing it. The blast brought the tyrant to its knees buying them some time. He helped the wounded officer up. "Come on...you're gonna make it!" Tobias shoved Billy off of him and said, "Hell with that! Keep this bastard off me and buy me some time! I got a plan!"

Billy asked, "What plan? I'm all ears, amigo!"

The man groaned and asked, "How much is left in that gas tank?"

"About a quarter tank...why?" Billy asked.

"You'll see..." Tobias told him.

Billy did as he asked and the wounded law enforcement officer got into the GMC. He undid the gas tank and let the gas leak out as he drove leaking also from the jerry can as he did leaving a trail. He then floored it at Mr. X crashing into the tyrant. He did substantial damage to it but more to the truck and himself.

The tyrant, bleeding from its skull smashed through the spider webbed windshield and grabbed him. The Sheriff screamed even as he brought the shotgun up firing the last round and the tyrant started to smash his skull. "BILLY NOW! LIGHTMEUP!" He roared as he fired and the fumes caught the inside of the truck which the tyrant was leaning into on fire and Billy fire at the gas trail and the Sheriff was engulfed in flames though he did not feel it as the tyrant's hands had crushed his skull but the two were both in flames. The truck finally did explode as Billy found another grenade and he fragged the truck. The explosion was deafening sending debris and body parts everywhere.

The smell of burning flesh filled the air and Billy was instantly reminded of his time in Africa. He felt sorrow at the loss of Tobias now too and the fire and the flesh brought him back to seeing all those scorched black bodies under the African sun and that of his teammates who had died before the betrayal and his court martial.

"So long, Warner..." He stated. Steve got to him. "The plane aint gonna hold out on gas just circling the airfield forever! You need to get outta here!" He looked at Vasily and the little girl Sheila. "Are you gonna keep her safe?!"

"I will defend her with my life, droog! Even if they get me I will see to it she is squared away!" Billy nodded but then asked, "Where are you going to fly to?'

"Portland! They need to know what has happened! And as luck would have it I did have a cell phone with a decent charge! I can't dial out but I can record video!"

Billy turned to Steve. "I'm coming with you to Seatac. If Rebecca is there I need to be too."

"You should go with them. I'll meet you in Portland but it's better if we do it there when I come get you. Get those two to safety and then you and me can go there. But this isn't the best time for a reunion with an old friend. They're in the middle of stopping an outbreak."

"You got to be reunited with Claire. Besides...this life I had here? That was all possible because of Rebecca. I just want to make sure she's all right too. She was tough I'm sure she still is but she is still small and she was in danger a few times when I last saw her. With this going on...this is the only chance i have at righting the wrong. That kid lost her family, that whole town and so did I. I don't know what's in store for her but I can stop this."

Steve ran up to Vasily as he had stopped still uncertain of if the ex Marine was coming with or not. "I don't see a kid's seat in there or a harness. You sure you got her?"

"It will be a bit more stressful with a kid on my lap but I can fly...I'll get her to safety...poor child...she is going to be traumatized forever by this. Being that young..."

"Just keep her calm and you'll be fine. Your part of this is over you survived..."

Vasily shook his head. "I will make sure the evidence of what happened here sees the light of day! I don't care who was responsible. It is time our government took this shit more seriously!"

With that, they were soon flying to the skies. Billy did a silent prayer that the two would make it. "There's nothing left for us to do here..." Steve stated. "And without the BSAA here as much as I hate to say it even if I didn't have my abilities soldiers have been known to kill survivors in some situations like these. I've done a lot of missions since '98 for bad people and I've seen this thing happen. No offense to yo military boys and all but I think we'd actually be safer around the BSAA. Or at least you would be."

"I was framed for killing twenty three civilians in Africa by the same Corps I'd dedicated my life to, Steve. You don't have to convince me of the shit a soldier will do when ordered. It still...it still burns though. In the Corps we were taught in boot camp once a Marine always a Marine. It isn't like the Army or the Air Force. So when the Corps betrayed me...it fucked my world up."

"Umbrella has fucked everybody's world up, now. That was a long time ago and so was what happened to me but they're still doing it. We have to take down anybody who was ever with Umbrella."

"Agreed. I just..." They heard a large noise and a growl behind them. It was the tyrant but he had mutated and was walking despite the flames still covering it fed by the oxygen of the wind as it strided forwarded and now, the thing had claws. Billy raised his firearm and Steve got into a fighting position. "Shit..." Billy muttered. "Guess that reunion with Rebecca will have to wait a bit..."

---

I know your life is empty
And you hate to face this world alone
So you're searching for an angel
Someone who can make you whole

I can not save you
I can't even save myself
So just save yourself

I know that you've been damaged
Your soul has suffered such abuse
But I am not your savior
I am just as fucked as you

I can not save you
I can't even save myself
So just save yourself

Please don't take pity on me
Please don't take pity on me
Please don't take pity on me
Please don't take pity on me

My life has been a nightmare
My soul is fractured to the bone
If I must be lonely
I think I'd rather be alone (I think I'd rather be alone)

You can not save me
You can't even save yourself

I can not save you
I can't even save myself
Save yourself
So just save yourself

---

That's it for this chapter I know it's been a while and once again you'll have to forgive the typos i can still go back and fix them later but I am tired as shit right now. So now...Malak has lost his mother, Samia, Chris, Rebecca and Barry are planning to blow up the mall and Billy and Steve got the last two survivors outta dodge but still have to face against Mr. X and now Ada is in peril now.

I was uncertain as to whether or not I was going to have Billy go with Vasily and Sheila or not but I figured he would want to go straight to Rebecca because all though he is just a civilian now and still a fugitive he would see her as his best bet at them stopping this if they worked together again.

It pretty much is down to the National Guard solving it Dead Rising style to take back the rest of Lane County, Oregon back from the undead.

Do you think Chris and the others stand a better chance at rescuing more of the survivors from the mall than Billy and Steve were able to?

As far as why I had this taking place with the ISIS and Yazidi massacres i's cause I know somebody from that culture but also I just needed a Middle Eastern setting and it seemed to fit as far as that boy Jake was rescuing in 6 and while I would not make light of a genocide since my people and the Yazidi have that in common, us at the hands of Christian Europeans (As well as some Africans who helped them) and the Yazidi being killed by Arab and Kurdish Muslims despite Kurds being related to them, but the thing is as far as an outbreak goes versus a bunch of religious extremists trying to kill you, well if your culture is being massacred by the thousands that would seem like the end of the world wouldn't it?

That scene with Hassan seemingly going down but actually being alive is inspired by a scene from the zombie movie Blood Quantum. Hassan is durable. And yes him and Saladin do have somewhat of an understanding despite Hassan hating his faith Saladin respects him for having served in the Republican Guard against the Americans so he sees him as a patriot regardless. And the attitude that Hassan has towards Arabs is parallel to how a lot of the Berbers in North Africa view Arabs as invaders and they fight against them but the difference is most Berbers are also Islamic which is an Arab faith where as with the Yazidis in this context it would make more sense for them to be against their presence and not have it be weird as they practiced their enemies religion.

Oh and as far as what Samia was talking about as far as the Yazidi sons who were born to ISIS fathers through rape that actually is true they are not accepted in the Yazidi community. The mothers can be but not the children. I was researching that before I posted this.

This was a dark chapter but still pretty action packed. I hope you enjoy and I'll try and update soon.