+Author's note:
Off we go on the way to Rockfort Island. Hopefully this fic is fun. It makes me laugh as I write it. I do a lot of fun poking at everyone in it. Steve will get his turn in the fun here. And Chris will pop up eventually to likely fight shit with his bare hands.
In other news, I have not played Veronica in…years. Years. So this is all subjective. Hah. And fun.
Slainte.
….
V. I SAID I WAS SORRY! And why can't anyone spell on this island!?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::FIVE::::::::::::::::::::::::::
"STOP SHOOTING, YOU DUMB SHIT!" Yelled Leon Kennedy as he popped off a round at the crazy spot light blistering down on them.
The rotating gunfire came to a halt. And a small voice shouted, "OY! Who's down there?"
Claire shouted back, "Who's up there?"
There was a clunk, a thunk, and a plop of mud as the kid who'd been shooting at them dropped down. He grinned, flashing big white teeth in a skinny face. Handsome, seemingly, with red hair and big blue eyes. He winked at Claire, "How you doin, dollface? Name's Burnside. STEVE, Burnside."
Claire smiled, "Hi Steve. I'm Claire Redfield. This is Leon Kennedy."
"You mean Kennedeed?"
"Damnit! That was spelled wrong!" Shouted Leon.
"Sorry," Said the kid with the bad Boston accent, "Just tellin ya what was written. They call me Burnside because when I'm in…all your sides is burnin baby!" And he made a sizzle sound.
Claire blinked at him.
Leon said, "Are you seriously hitting on her right now?"
Steve considered this, "Yes?"
Claire said, "You're a cutie. But you're also like five years old."
"I'm seventeen!"
Leon snorted and moved toward the console where Steve had been standing. "You're twelve."
Steve sneered a little. Leon was clicking around on the console, trying to see what he could get to pop up regarding their location. He said, "Ok. The good news? I think I can possibly get a transmission out to alert your brother to where we are."
"Yeah?"
"Yup."
Steve Burnside said, "I'm not twelve. I'm seventeen. And who?"
"My brother," Remarked Claire happily, "If he's available, he'll come save us."
"Whoa," Leon said gently, "We do NOT need him to save us. BUT it would be a good idea to have some back up show up since there's a good chance this island will probably blow up at some point."
"Oh yeah," Claire agreed, "Do you want to go to the mansion that guy was talking about?"
"We should. It's probably the best idea for an escape route."
"Can I come?" Queried Steve Burnside.
They eyed him. Claire said, "Sure. Just don't be stupid, ok?"
"You got it, dollface. I'll be your bodyguard! A body like yours NEEDS a tough guy guarding it! Forget this girly haired doofus with you! How'd you like your insides to buuuuurn?"
Leon had to chuckle as they made their way out into the main area of the prison. Surely he never sounded that fucking stupid. This kid. All talk and bad one liners. What kind of guy hit on anything with tits like that? (…cough) The dude had ZERO game. And clearly he was barking up the wrong tree there. Claire wasn't looking to get down on a fetus, seriously.
Claire blinked once, twice, and a third time. "If my insides were burning, I'm pretty sure it would be a STD. So I'm gonna pass."
Leon snorted a little and moved toward what appeared to be the barracks for the staff. Or possibly the prisoners? It was hard to say. The area was over run with zombies and rotten food. It smelled worse than three day old shit and road kill left out in the Louisiana heat. But they managed to find some hemostatic medicine amongst the abandoned supplies there.
Claire hefted the bottle. "I'm going to take this back to the guy in the prison."
"I'll come with you."
Claire shook her head. "I think you and Steve should go toward the training facility we saw on that map. We have to cross through there to get to the mansion on the hill. The dude said the escape route was that way."
"You think I'm going to let you go back there alone and hang out with Sideburns?" Leon queried.
"It's Burnside." Whined Steve.
"Whatever, dude."
"I'm USEFUL! WATCH THIS!" And Steve turned, wielding two very gold, glittering (possibly real?) old pistols…and he proceeded to shoot them wildly toward the distance.
Claire yelled, "WAI—"
And a very loud, very explosive BOOM sounded followed a huge WHOMP of pressure. They were pressed to the dirt as the world shifted and debris rained down like fiery rain drops. He'd managed to hit the explosive tanks of oxygen piled up beside the infirmary. The noise was cacophonous and had clearly alerted a pack of zombies to their location.
Leon slapped him upside the back of the head. "IDIOT!"
"SAWRY! Sheesh!"
Claire yelled, "GO! Run for it! I will meet you at the mansion!"
"CLAIRE!"
But she was gone, running back the way they'd come. And there was no chasing her because the horde of the undead were shambling all around them now. Leon and Steve picked off the closest ones and hurried up the hill toward the bridge that would lead them to the facility.
Claire hurried through the graveyard, slopping wetly as the rain started to barrel down upon her. She could hear the echo of thunder in the distance, rumbling like an angry old man. She hit the stairs and flipped open her lighter, sending shivering flickers of light around her face as she hit the bottom floor. Rodrigo was still there, breathing slow but steady.
He gave her a surprised look as she gave him the medicine. He took it, swallowing it with the bottle of water on his desk. "Why?"
She met his eyes. "No deserves to die here. Can you move? You can come with me."
"Not yet. But you should go, seriously. Get out of here. And thank you."
Claire nodded and hurried back toward the stairs.
Rodrigo called, "Redfield was it?"
"It is."
"A good name…for a good woman."
Claire winked and hurried up the stairs toward the sound of pouring rain and thunder. She hurried out into the blinding rain, carrying the big knife she had. In hindsight, she might have taken one of Steve's stupid gaudy guns. But she was relatively sure she was going to be ok anyway.
And then something slapped her face.
Although slapped was a mild word. Something literally smacked the shit out of the side of her face. It threw an arm like a rubber band, snapped it sharply into her face with a meaty THWAP of sound and instant shooting pain, and threw her out and away like a swatted fly.
She was airborne, flying up and over several coffins. The knife was tossed clear out of her hand as she hit the ground, rolled, smashed into the side of a headstone and came to a head swirling stop. She breathed, trying to feel if anything was broken. She felt the throb of her skull but was otherwise ok.
The thing coming toward her looked like a corpse with bulbous eyes and melting skin…and one four foot long arm. The other arm? Gone. Finito. Missing. It was just hanging flesh. The remaining arm was coming in for another slap. Claire squeaked and rolled.
The arm slapped the muddy ground where she'd been, tossing chunks and plops of wet earth up like sloppy confetti. Claire scrambled to her feet and ran for it. She barreled through the pouring rain, gasping and terrified.
….and came face to face with the horde of undead lingering on the bridge.
"Oh my gawd." Breathless, terrified, she realized she was trapped. She couldn't face the rubberband man behind her. She couldn't fight the undead without a weapon. She was screwed. And she whispered, "Whafuck?"
At the top of the rise, Leon was inspecting the tank that sat in the middle of the open area in front of the big building they'd come to. What kind of place was it? It appeared to be a training ground of some kind. But for what? What happened here?
He was trying to find some way to activate the tank. Steve was currently inspecting dead bodies for useable weapons. Without Claire to hit on, the kid wasn't so bad. A little stupid maybe trying to be the lone ranger but boys tended to play hero when impressing pretty girls.
Steve said, "Hey, Kimmidee?"
"It's Kennedy, Sideburns. Get it right."
"Whatever." Steve snickered, "Look. I found this on the dead guy over there."
It was a journal. The journal was pretty explicit. It detailed the fall of the island at the hands of the overlords named Ashford. It went into detail about "Alfred" the brother of the dead sister, Alexia who were the offspring of Alexander. The ties to Umbrella were through the grandfather, Edward, who'd helped found the company.
Clearly this island used prisoners as test subjects for their perverted BOW experiments. Was there anyone tied to Umbrella that wasn't a psychotic asshat? Seriously? What the hell were they hoping to discover here? That nasty beasts were good as weapons? Who would they market to? Terrorists no doubt. Leon tried to imagine what life would have looked like if Hitler had had BOWS at his disposal in WWII.
Frightening.
"Fucking freakshow." Leon muttered and stuck the tiny journal into his chest pocket.
"Right? What the hell man." Steve agreed.
"Let's go back for Claire and fill her in."
"Cool."
They started back toward the bridge and heard the screaming. Leon was running, running, running. He burst out of the iron doors to find her trapped atop a couple of crates and kicking the infected around her for dear life.
He had another hero moment here. One that would define him later as he rose from the ashes of a rookie wet behind the ears to become the man who would one day stand at the right hand of the most powerful man in the world. He paused, aimed down his arm, and blasted the first one that touched her. She jumped, caught his eye, and looked relieved.
Steve yelled, "CATCH CLAIRE!" And threw one of his pistols down to her from the top of the rise.
She caught it, turned it, and blasted the next one that grabbed her boot. Leon was already leaping down. He landed in the mass of zombies and had Claire screaming in horror. But he turned, ducked, and started kicking.
He knocked two of them together and threw a pretty sweet kick that level three more. They tumbled, like bowling pins, knocking each other down. He blasted one in the face with his sidearm, leapt onto the crate with Claire, and cradled his hands. She put her foot down, he power tossed her up, and Steve caught her hands to pull her clear.
So she was safe…and he was now stuck on the crates.
How was this better exactly?
Claire threw her hands down to him, Steve grabbed her legs and lowered her a little over. Leon kicked the face of a zombie, grabbed the rocky wall of the rise, and pulled himself up sharply. He caught her hands and she grunted. They tugged, grunting, and pulling.
They got him halfway up and the rubber band man snapped that arm at him. Claire screamed as it caught Leon around the chest and jerked him clear.
"NO!"
It threw him away and he was gone. Gone. GONE. He went over the edge of the bridge and down into the water beneath.
"NOOO!" Claire shot the rubber band man with Steve's pistol until it was empty. She just kept firing. She kept shooting until it was down and dead. The zombies shambled around stupidly beneath the rise.
Steve helped her to her feet.
"He's dead. We have to go."
"Shut up, you idiot!" Claire ran toward the edge of the drop and looked down into the water. But Leon wasn't there. He'd been swept down the river or something. Horrified, she felt the tears try to rise up in her throat.
"Claire!" Steve grabbed her arms and shook her. "We have to get you out of here. It's what he'd want. Come on!"
He shoved her forward and they started running up the rise toward the palace looming there. Claire was breathing fast and sharp. It hurt. It hurt to breathe.
It hurt to breathe in and out.
She made it across the narrow walk way and started crying. The tears were hot and hurting. She leaned against the wall and gasped with it. Her heart. HER HEART. She tried to picture Leon's beautiful face being lost beneath the water and the pain was nearly blinding.
She gasped and covered her face. Steve opened the door to the palace and helped her inside.
"I'm sawry, Claire. I'm so sawry."
Claire opened her mouth to say something and there was the sound of a gun going off. They dove apart, rolling. Claire hid behind a column, Steve ducked behind the desk across from them. The main area of the palace they'd entered was wide open and flanked by a large curving staircase in white marble. Paintings graced the walls of various blonde children in states of play. It appeared they were twins and mischievous.
A whiny, high pitched, effeminate voice floated down to them from the top of the stairwell.
"YOU CAME TO PLAY WITH ME!? OR TO KILL ME!? You won't touch my sister! Do you hear me!?"
Claire tried to lean around the column to see the owner of the voice and the column erupted in marble as she nearly lost her face to the sniper round that met her attempt. She stayed put. "GO BACK AND DIE OUT THERE!" Whined the girly voice, "Or I will DESTROY YOU!"
She heard a door open and close and silence.
She and Steve held eyes across the room. Claire finally peeked again and found the room empty. They met in the center of the room. Steve tried to touch her and she shook her head at him.
"Don't. Let's get moving."
They turned to the far door. The one at the top of the stairs through which the weirdo with the gun had gone was locked. Leaving it alone, they chose the door on the bottom floor. It opened to a library of sorts with bugs. Bugs everywhere. It was clearly a collection from a clever mind. They were in framed collections along the walls and along the shelves around them.
They crossed through the large room looking at the gross bugs. Someone had lovingly displayed them everywhere. A small plaque informed her that Alfred's prize collection was his ants. Gross. And huge! She'd never seen ants so damn big before.
The far door opened to a courtyard of sorts. And waiting in the water? A hatch to a submarine. A submarine. Yes. A submarine attached to a palace on an island filled with zombies, prisoners, rubber band arm men, and psycho's that screamed like girls and tried to kill them.
The island where Leon Kennedy had died saving her.
Claire made a sound and moved toward the submarine. She opened the hatch and peered down the ladder. She started to climb down the ladder and there was a sound.
Turning, she watched three dogs snarl, snap, and try to kill Steve. He shot the first one, lost his footing and fell on his ass, and the second leapt for his face. Claire whistled, loudly.
It stopped, reversed, and ran for her. She braced, waited, and ducked low as it leapt. She rolled to her back, stuck her boots up, caught it clean in its rotting belly and launched it up and out into the rushing water around the submarine.
The third one hit her as she rolled to her feet. She stumbled, lost her balance, and fell into the water. The water was freezing! It stole her breath and she was immediately sucked away in the current. She grabbed the submarine to no avail. The water ripped her away while she heard Steve yell after her.
She went under and popped up, gasping for air even as she was pulled back under and tossed around. The water sucked her down, stole her fight, and tried to kill her. She hit something, hard, gasping and nearly passed out from lack of air.
And she was pulled up and free into the air, choking and sputtering.
Hands tossed her up onto the damp ground and she hit her face, choking and gasping. She was rolled over and she punched the person right in the stomach. With a OOF, her attacker (savior?) tumbled back from her.
Claire stumbled to her feet, running toward the palace in the distance. She'd been swept several hundred yards downstream. She booked it, gasping and coughing. And the voice behind her yelled, "CLAIRE!"
She stumbled, fell, turned back and saw him running toward her.
"LEON!"
She stopped running away and started running toward him. She leapt and he caught her around his front with a grunt. She kissed him, trying to eat his face possibly, or swallow his soul. Or potentially steal his will to live. She was a succubus and he didn't give a fuck. That they were both alive and alright was a miracle. And neither cared about anything but the other.
Claire swallowed his tongue, making some kind of mewling cat noise. They were breathless when they came up for air. He sat her down and she collapsed against his chest.
"Oh my god, Leon! How?"
"That thing knocked me over the bridge and I hit the water. I rolled and let the current carry me. I washed up not far from here. I saw you! I saw the dog knock you into the water. I couldn't get to you fast enough! I'm sorry for that."
Claire gasped, laughed, and started crying.
"Hey hey hey! No crying, Redfield! That's cheating."
Claire turned her face up and he kissed her again. It was softer now, easier but full of so many things. She met his eyes. "I think I love you."
They were both soaked, filthy, Leon's face was swollen on one side and Claire had a black eye. They looked awful, smelled worse, and were probably going to die by the end of the night…but they were both so happy. So happy. Because they had each other.
Leon said, "I know I love you, Claire Redfield. You want to get the fuck off this island?"
"I do. I SO DO. And then we go mountain climbing."
"Yep. Anywhere but an island." Leon agreed, laughing a little.
"Fuck yeah." They started toward the submarine Claire had left behind and Steve Burnside was running toward them.
"HEY HEY HEY!" He was waving his arms above his head. "Lookie lookie! I found this shit in the submarine!"
He was waving a card key and a bow gun. Leon blinked as Steve handed him the bow gun. "AWESOME SAUCE, yeah?"
He was so happy. Eager. Like a puppy. Like a happy stupid puppy. Claire patted his head. Leon patted his arm. Steve looked thrilled.
Claire said, "What's the card key for?"
Leon answered her, "Chances are it's for that training compound we found."
Steve nodded. "It's where badasses go to WIN! You want to see me win, hot mama?"
Claire rolled her eyes but started laughing. Even Leon had to laugh. Claire said, "Why not? Let's go see what winning looks like."
Leon chuckled again as Steve said, "I also win at sex, sweet thing. Want to see what THAT looks like?"
Leon slapped him on the back of the head. "Quit while only slightly behind here, Sideburns. Seriously. This girl? She's out of your league."
"Oh yeah!?" Steve squeaked as they moved into the training facility grounds, "How so!?"
"Because that girl?" Leon nodded toward Claire who was inspecting the tank, "That girl is ALL MINE."
"Oh man!" Steve whined, "This sucks dude. I ain't seen a girl in MONTHS. What do I do now?"
They opened the door to the training ground with a swipe of the card key. Leon met his eyes as they started to move inside, "What else guy? Put your pud in your hand and start pullin."
Steve kept right on pouting as they walked into the training facility and prepared to discover what horrors were lurking inside.