Chapter 32: Via The End
"I would've brought my swimming gear had I known we'd be paddling to this damned place." Jake moaned aloud as his fingers clamped around the metal chicken wire fencing that surrounded the entire plant, both their eyes dripped with the rain that hadn't so much as paused since earlier that day.
Before the two, lay a huge crater in the earth; the plant situated on the edge of the lagoon, whilst various rooms made of concrete showed dotted all around the place. It was obvious some kind of catastrophe has happened many years ago that had led to the destruction of the ceiling to the site; almost all the ceilings had fallen in.
Most the rooms were laboratories, a good portion of them were still somewhat intact, what with the large to medium sized specimen tanks, some broken some not, walls still lined with bookshelves full of books, and glass ware on the counter-tops, as well as black blood stains across the floors and walls, which were still obvious even in the flashes of limited illumination from the lightning.
The two had come off the path to see what lay beyond the wire fencing, and had plodded up a very steep muddy bank to get where they were now, their boots were caked in mud and minor slush from the heavy snowfall that hadn't been washed away yet.
The rumble of thunder sounded and another lightning flash above, again striking the top of the plant giving a small amount of light for them to see their surroundings better; they were more than half way around the complex, and Sherry could see a set of dangerous looking stairs that had no railings or underneath to them, in fact they looked like they were floating in the inky darkness.
"There! Jake! Stairs!" She yelled as she pointed, and he nodded in acknowledgement. "Come on!" She continued to yell over the deafening weather, letting go of her hold on the fencing.
Jake also let go of the fence and followed closely behind her, watching as she put one foot on the mud before screaming on impulse, falling over, and sliding down the muddy bank, stopping only when her legs came in contact with the old mossy slabs of the path.
Jake hurried after her, sliding down the mud like a pro on two feet, like a surfer riding a wave, and the mud beneath his feet kept building up the more he slid, creating a tiny mud avalanche.
"You alright?" He asked jumping the last foot to her side, holding out a sodden wet hand to help her up which she took gratefully.
Sherry nodded thanking him silently as she stood, feeling disgusting with the sloppy brown stuff coating her legs and backside, sensing the coats of mud bead off her and onto the already soaked floor.
As she let go of Jake's hand to brush some of the mud from her legs she was caught off guard by the clicking sound of hooves on the stone path, and a large puff of breath, immediately she turned to her right to see the new monstrosity that presented itself to them.
"Oh shit." Sherry barely managed to whisper as she straightened herself up, feeling Jake's eyes follow hers.
How he hadn't heard it, or sensed it baffled him to a degree, a large Stag or what was left of a large Stag stood proudly yet menacingly a good 15 foot away.
It's great but ragged puffs of breath could be seen soaring from its half decayed nostrils, he guessed the by-product of a less than perfect respiratory system trying work after its long passed death.
The Stags fur had fallen away except from around its muddy hooves, and was in a quite advanced state of decay from what Jake could see; the muscle that showed from beneath the sick peeling dewy skin was dripping with blood and goo, he didn't even want to know what it was if he was honest, and most of the deer's flesh on its stomach had rotted away and/or been eaten in certain parts showing gross amounts of bulging innards and the animals rib cage.
As it's legs manoeuvred slowly to its side, turning watching them closely, Jake could see that its hind and backside had huge chunks of flesh torn away, some intact that flopped hideously as the thing moved.
He continued to stare at the infected animal taking in its vulgarness, noticing that it's antlers dripped with fresh blood and fragments of furry skin of another animal, which he immediately felt sorry for.
The Stags mouth was also horribly disfigured, looking like it had a disjointed bottom jaw with a missing bottom lip showing its tattered teeth, but the saliva and hunks of red bleeding meat stuck out of the things mouth was enough to tell him that the thing could defiantly bite and feed.
More long breaths later and it was obvious to him that it was taking in the scent of their flesh, staring at the pair of them with its cataract fused eyes.
"Run..." Sherry whispered to Jake, who didn't move a muscle.
"Run!" Sherry said again, only to have Jake lean towards her, to hear her better.
"What you say?" He asked quietly, his eyes trained on the deer.
"I said RUN!" She spat back loudly and angrily over the rain, turning on heel and running as fast as she could away from the beast, in her mind loosely thinking about the stairs not far.
"Right!" Jake roared as he too twisted sharply and began to run at break neck speed after her.
As soon as they began to run Sherry could hear a deep sound come from behind as the Stag realised its latest dinner was making a break for it.
The sound of hooves began as a trot to begin with but soon picked up speed to a rampaging sprint.
She looked over her shoulder as they ran, noticing quickly that the Stag was a lot quicker than both of them and nearing on Jake's six dreadfully quickly.
"Around here!" Sherry yelled, taking a sudden right, swinging them around the metal fencing and moving ever closer to the stairs down into the complex.
The deer's hooves sped up along with them, though faltering as they rounded the corner it sliding on the stone slabs, but recovered in seconds and was again right behind them, it's hot infected breath bearing down the back of Jake's neck.
He knew before it hit him, the Stag would get him, even with his new C-Virus speed and agility there would be no way of getting away, and as he saw the horror in Sherry's eyes as she turned her head for the last time that was it.
The galloping of the deer became closer and he could feel it's deadly antlers brushing the back of his coat, then with brunt force and the pain of a thousand arrows it hit his back ramming him to the floor.
He rolled onto his front to aim and fire but was soon overcome with pain that paralyzed him, he could barely think and dropped his gun, as it clanked to the floor he was being flung into the air again but the pain kept on coming.
His hands instinctively went to the source of the pain just under his right rib, to feel a hulking something sticking into him, then another wallop and he was in mid air being held against something.
He couldn't help but cry out in pain, he could feel the warmth of his blood soaking through his cold rain-drenched clothing when black specs started to form in the corners of his eyes as the pain became unrelenting, becoming worse by the second.
"Oh god!" Sherry whisper-screamed seeing Jake being impaled by the great undead male deer, his form flopping to the floor as if he were a ragdoll, then to be further impaled within seconds when the creature decided to throw him against the wire fence.
She heard his gun clatter to the floor as he was pierced and knew at that moment she was living one of her nightmares, and wished she would wake up; it was just like her dreams with the Ustanak, his gun would fall and he'd struggle wildly punching and kicking and then he'd be mutilated.
Her nightmares were becoming reality.
Through the pain he blinked at top speed to make the approaching darkness scatter, and was thankful that it worked and his mind started to come back to a rational sense of thinking, even through the agony.
He slowly released his hold over the antler penetrating him and outstretched his arms to feel behind him, becoming conscious he was jammed against the rusting fence.
"Sherry..." His voice rasped, "Help me." He tried pushing himself away from the fence but was promptly pushed back even further by the Stag, and cried out in agony again as the antler protruded deeper into his right side.
Sherry ran forwards quickly grabbing Jake's lost handgun, duel wielding she began to shoot at the horrendous creature that was slowly killing her love, as she was attacking a very animalistic roar came out of her small frame as she kept nearing the creature shooting every bullet they had.
Jake could feel the air being sliced by the bullets coming from the guns Sherry held, but the deer kept it's grasp well, snarling its miserable lipless mouth when bullets tore into its body over and over.
He kept trying to push himself forwards as the deer was being pelted by heavy fire but to no avail, it's pale cloudy eyes glared up at him with a hunger Jake could only say was the typical zombie starvation-look.
After hearing the dull clicks from the two guns, Sherry began to reload and watched in panic as Jake began to kick the slimy underbelly of the Stag. The thing didn't even so much as flinch, but it was without a doubt effecting Jake; with every kick his groans became worse until he just gave up and made no sound at all, his hands left the fence and wound back to his wound.
Sherry continued her duel assault trying to shoot as many bullets into the Stag's thick cranium as she could, it was tough to say the least and within seconds she'd emptied another clip into its head, but continued firing with the other gun.
"Hold on Jake!" She shouted over the thunder, hastily holstering the two guns after the other ran out of ammo and she wasn't going to waste any more time reloading, then reached for her magnum.
Sherry jogged closer to the terror in front of her and pointed the gun almost at point blank range, not caring if she got attacked; she could heal, he couldn't, and pulled the trigger once with the loudest boom the gun could kick out.
The Stag wavered, and she fired again, watching as half its brains were blown out the side of its skull, and finally it crumpled to the floor taking Jake with it.
He moaned as he hit the floor, the sudden jolt and the antler sliding away from him slightly made the blood pour out of his middle furiously, he could feel a lot of blood trickling down his body and through into his trousers.
"Jake! Jake!" Sherry called as she grappled to his side and shakily put a hand around the wound, "I... I need to get this out of you Jake, so I can try and patch you."
He nodded gritting his teeth, knowing she was right but also very wrong; he could die from this, unlike her.
"Keep the pressure up, okay?" She told him, moving backwards towards the rear end of the dead deer, silently freaking out at the sheer amount of blood that was pouring from him, and that was only what she could see from the faint light of her flashlight.
She grasped the hind legs of the creature and gave it one almighty tug, wincing as she heard Jake cry out again, looking up he was almost free.
"Keep up the pressure." She reminded him again, and she gave one last tug holding her breath because of the stench coming from the Stag.
"You're free... You're free Jake..."
He heard her voice but couldn't really register, the last burst of pain had made him black out for a short while, he opened his eyes to a very distraught Sherry, looking at her quickly he could see her hands were stained with blood.
"Supergirl?"
"It's... It's your blood." She answered quietly noticing his concern, "I've patched you with what I had but you've... you've lost a lot of blood." Her voice was shaky but she tried hard not to let her worry show too much.
"We need to get you to shelter and look for more supplies, even see if we can get some kind of extraction..."
He nodded along knowing full well that the only means of extraction would be through Leon, and even then he might not be able to get clearance, then the BSAA? 'Yeah right, Jarhead and Hero would love that.' He thought cynically, grimacing at the idea and the pain.
"Let's move then..." He muttered as he pushed hard to make him stand, but stumbled as he slid back up the wall.
Sherry however was at his left side helping him up all the way.
"Thanks Supergirl." He whispered into her ear as she delicately moved into place, putting his left arm up over her shoulders, trying to support as much of his weight as she could, and they began to walk slowly towards the stairs not far from them.
'Wesker could be within the building.' Sherry thought holding onto Jake as tightly as possible. 'We have no choice now...' She thought glumly, thinking more of Jake's condition. 'Built like a tank? I hope so...'
The rain continued to pelt down, turning colder with each cloud, soon it would be snowing and he hoped they'd be undercover before that happened. Sherry had done her very best to stop the wound from bleeding, but it wasn't enough, he could still feel it seeping through... and the pain, damn he'd been in pain before, but this? This pain was like all of the injuries he'd had put together then timed by two.
He smirked through the constant grimace on his face thinking how stupid he was; he'd never had a wound this big before, he'd always been fast enough and smart enough to out run or kill the foe. 'Fucking piece of shit animal!'
Sherry and Jake hobbled to the break in the fence and looked down the floating concrete steps, looking to one another after hearing movement behind them in the bushes.
They both turned together in sync looking behind to see an even bigger Stag appearing through the foliage.
Neither of them spoke or had chance to, the Stag had appeared but charged at them too fast, they only had chance to turn their heads and put one foot in front of the other, after that they were both thrown into the air, quite literally flying over the stairs and plummeting down a very large drop into the complex.
The moment they hit the floor and their heads made impact to the extremely hard cold concrete floor they'd been knocked out, and the Stag stood atop the stairs snarling behind the wire fencing.
He wasn't sure how long they'd been lying there, and all he knew was the pain spreading throughout the entirety of his body.
One eye opened after the other, and they swooned as he took in their surroundings; they'd fallen a good twenty plus feet and landed in a room that seemed to be a boiler room with various metal lockers. 'Janitors room?' He questioned silently, noting there was an odd crackling sound from behind him, then Sherry sprawled 5 foot away from him in a star position; her head in a pool of blood.
"Sherry?" He called out, his voice raspy as it had been before. "Supergirl?"
No movement.
In desperation, he attempted to move but then became all too aware that he too was in a pool of his own blood; the knock to his head had been nasty and there was a large gash, as well as the continued bleed from his torso that had managed to pool around him.
"Supergirl!" He called once more, managing to push himself up slightly but the crackling from before became worse, and a huge explosion erupted knocking him back down, and soon he felt the full force of something very large and heavy falling on top of his back, pushing him into the floor.
"Get up Supergirl..." He whispered, as debris fell over Sherry's unmoving form and he hoped and prayed she was still alive.
"Please..." He pleaded his voice becoming quieter as he could feel the darkness coming through the pain and weight of whatever had fallen on him, pressing him into unconsciousness.
"Come on baby girl..." He barely managed before his sight decidedly became worse, and the image of someone clad in black in a wheelchair wheeled into the room from a door not far from where Sherry lay, and then the darkness came.