Whoo hoo new chapter already up! Give my beta askita a quick thanks, because this was beta'ed at 1 in the morning cuz I was impatient to get this posted lol! Oh! Speaking of askita, she's got an RE fic up too called Revolt. Only one chap so far but it's got potential.
And no, I don't own anything. Haven't we been through this already?
Chapter 4: Over Fire
The group, now whittled down to a quartet, stood in silence in the wake of Carlos's admonishment. It was an uneasy silence this time, unlike the focused quiet of their trek through the parking garage. This quiet, Dannie knew, only meant that none of them knew what to say to each other. She certainly didn't; hell, she wasn't even sure she knew how to meet the mens' eyes. She turned away, and wiped at her mouth again with the back at her hand, still more than half convinced she could taste vomit on her own breath. Her throat was still raw, even if the taste was all in her head. She shook her head at herself, and her long hair flopped into her face, causing her to frown. The licker had really fucked up her up-do. She pulled her hair the rest of the way down and attempted to pin it back into a knot. It wasn't as tight as it had been, she realized ruefully, but at least this way it wouldn't obstruct her vision. She wished absently that she had some kind of a hair tie so she could just braid it back, but those had been in her purse. Along with her phone to call her likely to already be dead brother, and breath mints for her vomit breath, and bandages for the new scrapes on her other knee, and… and… and just something like normalcy. She turned back to find the men pointedly not watching her or meeting each other's eyes. Her gaze lingered on their weaponry, and for a moment she thought of her purse again, and one other much missed item.
"I need a gun." That she'd actually said it out loud surprised her almost as much as it did the men. All three jumped, startled out of their personal brooding. She found herself rather glad the hoard they'd run from hadn't actually followed them; none of their group had been much up to keeping track of their surroundings. Now they were paying attention again, or at least attention to her. Yuri sneered at her, not that Dannie would have expected anything else; Nicholai looked skeptical; and Carlos, well, Carlos looked calculating. It was much the same look that she'd seen on him when he and Nicholai had decided to take her with them from the roof, and Dannie hoped that was a good sign in this case. Carlos studied her a moment.
"Do you know how to use one?" he finally asked, no hint of his thoughts in his voice. Yuri opened his mouth, clearly wanting to argue, but Carlos just shut him down with a single solemn look before turning back to Dannie. "Be honest with me. We don't have time for more than a crash course, and an amateur with a weapon could be dangerous to the rest of us."
Dannie took a breath to settle herself under the weight of his steady gaze and then nodded.
"My brother… Derek's a cop, Dad was military. When I set up to go overseas, they got me a concealed carry course."
"Caliber?"
".380 in a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard pistol," she answered without hesitation, then waited for the 'manly men' to make the expected quips. Yuri was quick to take advantage of that.
"Cute. That's more of an accessory than a weapon. It would hardly do anything but tickle an attacker."
"It will do a hell of a lot more if you aim in the right place, and I do. Are you accurate enough to do damage with something that small?" Dannie shot back, irritated despite expecting it. Carlos shook his head sharply at the scowling pair before Yuri could continue the verbal battle.
"Enough." As much as it annoyed her to do so, Dannie obeyed the steely order, vaguely wondering just how she'd managed to end up as subordinate to the dark man as the others were. Carlos flicked his eyes between Yuri and Dannie as if daring either of them to speak again. Then he nodded to himself, and reached back to draw one of his pistols from its holster and held it out to Dannie.
She took it gingerly, forcing herself to hide her apprehension. The 9 mm handgun was definitely larger than her little Bodyguard. That hadn't been all that much bigger than her palm, but this… this had some heft to it. She double checked that the safety was on, and then released the clip to check how many rounds were left. Satisfied that she had more than half a clip left, she shoved it back in smoothly, and then gripped the weapon properly with her right hand ready to squeeze the trigger, but not too close for the safety of those around her. Finally relatively comfortable with the larger handgun, she looked up to find all three men studying her with a considering air. She swallowed, a little unnerved by the attention, but then straightened her shoulders and stared back.
"Extra clips?" she asked with as forced smile. Carlos pulled a couple from one of the many pockets on his ammo belt, and handed them to her. Dannie shoved one into each of her skirt pockets carefully, hoping they'd actually stay in. Her pockets weren't exactly intended to hold anything like this after all. Fairly certain she wouldn't need to hold anything else now, she wrapped her empty left hand around the bottom of the 9 mm and her right hand, steadying the unfamiliar weight as she'd been taught. Dannie was all too aware that after a while she'd need that extra steadiness. Even the recoil on her little Bodyguard was hell on her tiny wrists after a while. The 9 mm was probably going to hurt. So be it. It was sure as hell better than being unarmed. She took a deep breath and then lifted her eyes to the men again. Yuri didn't look all that convinced, but Nicholai seemed grudgingly respectful at her competent handling on the weapon thus far.
"Alright then. Hold your fire unless you're sure of a kill shot. We'll need to save ammo," Carlos said gruffly, his eyes proud though the rest of his face was carefully schooled into impassiveness. Dannie just nodded, encouraged by his words, though she didn't bother to say so. "Let's move out. Yuri on our 6, Nicholai and Dannie take the center. I'll take point."
Carlos paused for only a moment by Taka's body, a solemn look on his face. He muttered something under his breath than almost sounded like an apology, but then leaned down to take the fallen man's dog tags and refill his own pouches with as much of Taka's ammo as he could hold. Yuri ground his teeth behind her, but as he and Nicholai passed the body, they did the same. Dannie didn't have room to carry anything else, but she thought a prayer for him as she passed, though she found she couldn't actually stand to look at his mutilated body again. Once had been more than enough, and they didn't have time for her to be sick again.
Her head cocked to the side as the now familiar moaning began to fill her hearing. Now they really didn't have time. The men picked up their pace to a slow jog as they trekked through the back alleys and side streets, barely pausing to gun down the scattered groups of infected they encountered. Dannie gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep up. She hadn't needed to fire yet; the men's automatic weapons could drop the infected at a farther distance and with a hell of a lot more speed than her pistol. She just held on and waited; with the way the night had gone so far, there was no doubt she'd need the weapon eventually.
The team ducked across a larger street and the moaning grew to a roar. Dannie had only a moment to look, but the sheer number of infected filling the streets had her nearly faltering from absolute fear. Yuri was at her back though, a hand on her shoulder shoving her forward before she could stumble to a halt.
"Keep moving!" he ordered, and she snapped back to the present, forcing the panic down with a nod to him over her shoulder. Yuri dropped back into the tail guard position, and as the hoards began to pour down the alley behind them at that painful shuffling run, Nicholai dropped back behind to join him. Carlos turned half to look as the trailing men opened fire, both of them forced to slow to a careful backwards march as they aimed and fired. Their leader slowed too, boxing Dannie back in between them with a bare glance.
She now turned her gaze back and forth to either side, keeping track of anything threat that might come from that direction to take her men the way Phil had been taken. She too finally opened fire, the 9 mm bucking into life in her hands as they passed a small cul de sac with a trio of infected shuffling their way. Despite the pain that caused her to grimace at the much stronger kick of the heavy pistol, her aim was true, and each infected dropped with a bullet to the head. She allowed herself to think for a brief moment that her brother would have been proud, but then she had to move again as Yuri and Nicholai almost drew abreast of her, still firing steadily to the rear.
Dannie began to wonder vaguely where the hell they were going to go with infected at every turn, but then the sound of squealing tires and gun fire began to echo ahead of them, and she guessed Carlos was likely making his way to that sign of other armed survivors. Voices crackled from the damaged radio in their leader's vest, a garbled message of something about 'rendezvous' and 'secure against' coming through, though she couldn't be quite sure of what she was hearing in the din of gunfire and infected. Carlos seemed to, though; his steps quickened after he heard the message, and he shouted back an order to the men to double time it. They abandoned their attack on the few infected left behind them and began to run with Dannie keeping as close to Carlos's heels as she dared. Flashing red and blue lights flickered at the alley entrance, and the team burst out onto a busy street into sheer chaos. Carlos immediately opened fire down the street with Nicholai kneeling at his side, his gun blazing too. Yuri turned back to face the alley again, covering their rear against any attack from that end.
Dannie could barely move, the weapon trembling in her hands. She'd been able to handle the near-panicked retreat, but this… this was a war zone. All around her bullets were flying as more and more police and S.T.A.R.S. officers poured out of armored trucks and police cars and rappelled down from helicopters to fill the street. She was relatively safe in the center of the madness, but every shout of fear and rage and every new blast of gun fire had her flinching. She held her fire, knowing she'd be unlikely to hit anything in her shaking state. A sudden shout from Carlos's drew her gaze, and then Nicholai was forcing her down to the ground with an arm over her head as an explosion ripped through the street.
"Grenade," the redhead shouted into her ear in explanation and she nodded in comprehension. "Stay down!"
He pushed her toward one of the parked cop cars, and she knelt pressed up against the front wheel, Nicholai bracing his weapon on the hood beside and above her. She gripped her 9 mm tightly and tried desperately to stay out of the tall redhead's way as he guarded both of their positions. Now she didn't dare fire; even if she could steady her hands, she'd have to risk shooting toward the backs of the men around her. The rain of bullets continued as the hoards of infected forced their way closer despite everything the defenders could do. She forced herself to look away from the more anonymous police officers. It was likely she knew at least some of them, but in the heat of the onslaught, she couldn't stand to care for anyone else but the men who'd protected her so far. She locked her eyes on those three, watching for any attack she might need to warn them of, wishing there was anything else she might do.
Under her watchful eyes Carlos and Yuri emptied their magazines almost as one, and both cursed and reached to re-load. Their eyes were focused on their weapons, and thus Dannie was the only one to see the metal door at Yuri's back slam off its hinges under the weight of an infected. Both plowed into the soldier, and he went sprawling.
"Yuri," she screamed, suddenly terrified for the man she could barely tolerate. Carlos half turned at her shout, and then shifted back to Yuri who Dannie was terrified to see was being bitten right before her eyes. Then there was a flash of metal and a long throwing knife was buried in the infected's forehead. She had only a moment to wonder where the hell Carlos had pulled the blade from, and then Yuri was pulling the pin from a grenade and tossing it half heartedly down the alley. Dannie's eyes widened at just how close the explosive landed, and she reached up to jerk Nicholai down as Carlos lunged to pull the door up to shield himself and his fallen comrade.
Then the blast went off, nearly blinding her in an orange flash, the roar of sound all but deafening her for a moment. She could feel the heat of the blast just beyond Nicholai's sheltering form and she shuddered at the thought of Carlos and Yuri so close. She prayed the door was enough to keep both of them safe from the flash of fire, but she couldn't look far enough over Nicholai's shoulder to see if they were unharmed. Once the wash of heat faded, Nicholai hauled himself back up, and Dannie looked to see Carlos practically lifting Yuri back to his feet. Then she shouted again as the shadowy form of an infected suddenly loomed on the momentarily unarmed pair. Nicholai spun and put a bullet right between the attacker's eyes, and she let out a shuddering sigh of relief.
Then she looked around, and her heart all but stopped in her chest again. The rally point was being overrun. There was no longer any way to count the hundreds of infected pouring relentlessly into the sparse wall of gunfire. She could tell that even the superior weaponry wasn't going to save the defenders for long. Already men were being dragged down at the edges of the line. Soon the infected would even reach the protected center were she and her men were. She caught a glimpse of Carlos looking around as he finally slammed a fresh magazine home, the frown on his face saying he saw the same fate she did.
"Back, fall back!" Nicholai and Yuri both surged back down the same alley way the quartet had run from in the first place, and Carlos took only a moment to drag Dannie to her feet and shove her past him as he took tail guard. Dannie forced herself to follow the pair in front of her as they fired on the approaching infected.
There were still attackers facing them down the alley, but those were far less in number than the hoard in the street they'd just left. Dannie swallowed and hoped less would be enough for them to survive.
