Chapter 24: Thrill of the Fight
I don't own anything. Resident Evil belongs to Capcom and Tomb Raider belongs to Core Design, Crystal Dynamics, and I think Square Enix. The only thing I own is the changes made to the stories of the Tomb Raider games/comics and Resident Evil games/comics/CG movies, the Government branch S.P.E.L.L., the person that has taken over Kathrine Warren's life, and Rose Warren. This story also will be bloody, violent, and have cursing. It's rated T for Teen.
Country: Russia, State: Siberia, City: Siberian Wilderness, Place: Near Kitezh, Area: Soviet Installation/ Copper Mill, Month: November, Day: Monday 27th, Year: 2000, Time: 05:35 KRAT…
They finished climbing up onto the platform. They'd taken out two more small groups of Trinity men on the way up here. Their arms were also sore from all the climbing on wood supports, metal ladders, and rope lines. Lara picked up a tape and put it in her player as they rested for a moment.
"I'm in trouble. Big fucking trouble.
I've been snooping around, saving a few files for my personal use, and I found a correspondence thread. About me. Worse, I think I was supposed to find it. The head of security knows I've been leaking data. Probably known all along. And they're just watching for now. Waiting to see what my endgame is.
I wish I had an endgame. I'm gonna die just because I was nosy and stupid.
I don't even think this channel is secure, now. They could have picked you up already.
I'm getting paranoid out here. But this Trinity...They are big. And they're everywhere. The more I find out, the more I realize how badly I fucked up.
So here you go: You were right.
I hope I can tell you that in person."
"Trinity knows he's leaking information..." Lara voiced then it clicked as she looked to Leon and Kat. "These tapes…They're Trinity's recordings. Not his."
Leon nodded. "Kat, didn't you say they'd be listening in on Jonah and us?"
Kat nodded. "This is likely. I remember Lara finding recordings of Jonah's radio calls." She shook her head. "Kinda also sounds sorta like what Steve's dad did. The guy with Elza and Claire two years ago."
Leon nodded. "Yeah, it does." He crossed his arms. "I saw a swing rope bundle on a pully over there. Maybe we could use the rope arrows again."
Kat peered around and nodded drawing her bow. "Sure."
She notched a rope arrow and aimed up at the pully. She loosed as the arrow flew. The arrow impacted into the weird pole thing. Kat gripped the rope and tugged on it. She nodded. "One at a time."
Lara nodded and Kat swung to the other side, a wooden scaffolding. She sent the rope swinging back toward Leon and Lara. Leon caught it and handed it to Lara as she was the next lightest. Lara took the rope, backed up then ran and swung a crossed. Lara then sent the rope back over and to Leon. He grabbed it and took a breath before following their actions. He swung over the gap, careful to not look down. He landed on the other side and smiled as he let the rope go.
Their radios beeped then. "Leon, Lara, Kat!" Jacob's voice crackled through. "Are you there?" He asked as the sky just seemed to open with heavy snow. "I'm pinned down, you three," He was panting heavily as they descended the stairs. "You need to get out—"
He was then cut off with a burst of static or maybe that was gunfire. Lara pulled her radio.
"Jacob!" She called into it only getting static in return. "Shit."
"They went through a lot of trouble to seal it up." Said a nearby voice. "It might be the artifact we're looking for."
They looked at each other before looking around the small room. Leon walked over to a wall and pressed his back to it, bent his knees, and laced his fingers together into a basket. He nodded at Kat and Lara and tipped his head at the upper landing above the wall. Lara nodded and moved first. Popping her foot to his hands and the other to his thigh.
"God willing." Said a voice as Lara then pushed off Leon as he pushed her up onto the ledge above them. "That'd be too easy."
Once Lara was up top and crouched, Kat followed Lara's actions. Popping her foot to Leon's hands and her other on his thigh.
"Let me see that activity log." The first voice said. "I think it mentioned the safe." He said as Kat got up top, then she and Lara spun around and held their hands down for Leon. "Manifest says the Soviets stored the most valuable artifacts from the site in this safe." Leon ran and jumped, kicked off the wall to get more height, then grabbed Kat and Lara's hands, making them hiss as he started to fall back down. "Let's crack it open…who's got the torch?" The guy asked as Leon got up with the girls.
The three of them ducked down into crouches and moved into some sort of wooden tunnel. They came to a small opening and peered through it. The room had pipes all over the walls and ceiling. There were a few warning signs of flammable substances. Firearms wouldn't be a good idea. There were crates everywhere too, perfect for cover.
"Okay, the rest of you: don't touch anything." Called a voice as Lara crawled out first, pressing her weapons to her back more.
"On it!" Said another as Lara then rolled into a crouch, watching the men.
"Catalog any artifacts you find." Said the first voice as Lara waved for Kat to come out.
Kat climbed through and rolled into her own crouch and pulled her spear from her back. Leon was next and gritted his teeth, his pack made him a bit wide for the gap. But he managed to squeeze through. The three moving to cover.
"All of this came out of that mine?" Asked one of the other men that were crouched by a safe.
"Last reports say they shut down operations as soon as they found the site." They said as Lara picked up a can and started making a small grenade. "The revolt must have come right after, in the confusion"
Leon looked from Lara to Kat in confusion. He wondered where Lara learned that.
"This stuff is ancient…the writing's not Russian." Said the other guy as Lara moved around Leon and got her arm ready. "Any idea where it's from?"
"Mix of Greek and…Mongol I think."
That's when Lara tossed her grenade. It flew through the cold air and bounced on the ground at the feet of the men. The explosion was just seconds after. Fire and bits of the can blew outward. The three men in the room took hits from the metal bits and the fire. Two had their throats cut form the shrapnel, but the one closest to the safe was killed instantly when his head smashed on the safe. The three came out of cover. Leon had his bow drawn with Lara while Kat had her spear out.
They checked each of the men and nodded. All were dead. But they didn't relax. The can grenade was loud, so they had made themselves known to any men in the area. Kat lit a Molotov and threw it at a pile of wood and cloth. She, Lara, and Leon got behind cover as a cracked open pipe exploded from the Molotov's fire and the blockage was destroyed.
"She's coming through!" Shouted a man from somewhere behind the wreckage. "Hold your positions!"
Leon quickly switched his bow and arrow for his handgun. "Cover's blown."
"Fun." Kat sassed as she peered around at the vanishing flames.
"We should move closer." Lara said as she switched to the assault rifle.
"Better shots yeah." Kat nodded as she stood and ran through the flames.
Leon and Lara right behind her. They stopped at the end of the short hallway and Kat peered around the corner. She spotted one man and stepped quickly into view. With a yell she spun to avoid gun fire and as she came out of the spin, she threw her spear at him. The man's scream of surprise was cut off as the spear sank into his skull through his left eye.
Kat pulled her rifle as she ducked down and both Leon and Lara provided her cover fire. As she raised her rifle, Leon's two shots hit the chest and neck of the man that had been on the right side of the room. He dropped to his knees, clawing at his bleeding throat as Kat rushed at him. The third man came around the corner and Lara's bullets cut across the room as Kat ducked down into a sliding kick to knock the blood choking one to the floor.
Leon tucked and rolled behind a crate and Lara did the same but to a pillar. The man Lara fired at had some form of body armor as he was still standing. Kat, her rifle forgotten, pulled her axe and slammed it into the choking man's face, his blood splattering her's. She looked up as she saw the man duck behind a pillar and smirked at the lamp above him.
"Zujō no ranpu, Reon." (Overhead lamp, Leon.) She called out in Japanese.
Leon jolted. He looked sharply to the lamp she was talking about and spotted it. He raised his sliver ghost and looked down the sights at it. He pulled the trigger when he was sure he had the shot. Three bullets fired just to be sure he hit it. One hit the handle knocking it into the air and off its hook, the second missed, but the third hit the glass as it tipped in the air. Flaming oil spilled down and over the man. He started screaming as he dropped his gun and started slapping himself franticly trying to put out the flames. Can't really do that when fire has something to eat, but he was too panicked to do the Stop, Drop, and Roll thing. Not that it would help with the oil on him.
Leon ducked back down in time as another man came running down the stairs in the back. Lara's turn as she stood and held the trigger tightly, letting bullet after bullet fly from the mag to the chamber, then the barrel, and into the chest and head of her target. As the guy fell, he fell into the man on fire, causing him to stumbled over to a leaking gas pipe and set off an explosion. The whole area was now on fire. Leon grabbed Kat's Spear and tossed it to her as the three ran from the room and up the stairs, to get away from the growing flames.
"Kill them, now!" Yelled someone from above. "This whole place is going up!"
Kat turned the corner, Rifle to her back, Spear and axe out as she rushed the man at the top. He wasn't ready for someone to run at him, and he yelled as Kat came at him through the smoke, smiling with the thrill of battle.
"Stating the obvious," She called in her Norse voice as she slashed his throat with her axe and stabbed his gut with her spear. "Cliche!"
She then saw people over his shoulder. She let out a grunt as she slammed her axe into his shoulder. He gurgled at the pain, but she wasn't done. She spun and side stepped with him, using him as a meat shield. The gunfire from his allies riddled his back as Leon and Lara came up behind her. Lara started to return cover fire with Leon when she saw a can. She snatched it up as she rolled into cover. She made a quick can explosive and then darted to a closer cover and stood from it, throwing it into the room ahead of them.
It exploded seconds later as Leon stepped around Kat and rushed a guy that was trying to get shots on them by walking up to them. Leon switched for his two climbing axes; he ducked down from the gun fire then stood quickly in the guy's space. The guy started to back up, but Leon slammed the two axes into the guy's shoulders. The man screamed as Leon pulled with a grunt and ripped his axes back out before he slammed them into the man's thighs and pulled them back. He cracked one into the man's head after kicking the guy's legs out from under him. It was more savage than he was used to, but efficient.
"Finish them!" Yelled another voice as Kat kicked the man's body from her spear and axe. "We gotta get outta here, before we all burn!"
The three regrouped as Kat made a quick Molotov cocktail. They turned a corner and Kat threw the bottle at a man and his partner. It shattered as it hit the ground and splashed burning alcohol up their bodies. They ran past the burning men and up two more flights of stairs as the fires continued to spread. Just as they came to the top of some stairs, the ceiling behind them started to collapse. They dove forward to avoid getting hit from the falling debris.
They rolled into cover behind an old iron mine cart. The three switched to their guns and took turns peeking out to fire at the men in the area.
"You all realize that this place is falling apart yeah?" Kat called out mockingly. "Shouldn't you be trying to save yourselves and not worry about three warriors?" She taunted farther and she lined up a shot on one of them through her rifle sites.
She pulled her trigger only once and cut into the eye lens of one of the two men. He dropped to the ground dead as Leon and Lara's fire power cut into the face of the other.
An iron door burst open at the top floor. A heavily armored man came through, carrying a riot shield. "I have visual confirmation." He reported to Konstantin.
"Kill them all. Now." Konstantin ordered.
"Yes, sir." Another armored man said as he wielded a riot baton in addition to his shield. "Fan out! We have them surrounded."
Kat smiled and looked to Lara. "Oh, this is familiar."
"Huh?" Leon asked as he changed to a fresh clip. "You guy's fought riot geared guys?"
"Oh yeah. More times than I can count." Lara nodded as she pulled her assault rifle rather than her dual pistols.
"Just have to get behind them and strike quickly. They are slow with the solid metal they tend to use for their shields." Kat smiled as she switched to her spear. "Come and met your fate!" She called out before doing a running tumble to avoid a grenade.
Leon and Lara had to move too. Lara tightening her hold on her assault rifle and Leon gritting his teeth as the three men in riot gear jumped down into the tiny room.
Kat ran and fainted a movement to the right, getting the man to swing that way. She then ran around him and slashed the backs of his knees. Her spear cut his connective tissues there and he dropped to the ground with a scream of pain. She cracked her axe into his neck and pulled back to rip his throat open. She kicked his body to the floor, blood spilling and glittering like demonic ruby water in the light of the hot flames.
Lara pulled off a near flawless diving tumble roll to get behind the second one and spun on her knee and foot. The barrel facing his exposed ribcage on the right side. She pulled the trigger and the bullets cut and tore into him. He jolted and screamed as his lungs were riddled. He dropped to the floor as he tried swing at Lara but ended up on his back from his own momentum. Lara stood over him and pulled the trigger at his eyes through the protective mask, killing him quickly.
Leon fired a few shots at one and did something that he hadn't intended. He caught the grenade thrown at him by the guy. He realized it then threw it back at the guy's feet. It bounced and rolled. The man yelled and lost a leg as it exploded. Leon was on him seconds after and fired two shots to either eye.
With the three foes dead, the group ran through a collapsed wall and up some stairs to where the riot men had come from. There was a ladder leading up to the next level. They rushed it, Leon knelt at the base and kept his gun aimed at the door they just came through, he motioned for Kat to go up first then Lara. Leon was last up, and they found themselves on a balcony of sorts. Lara pulled her bow at seeing a placement for her rope arrow. She drew back and loosed. Her arrow hitting a bundle. She then tied off the rest on a pole next to them.
"We'll have to be fast and time this right. We'll be making a transition part way to another line." Lara informed, she pointed out the line they needed that was bisecting the one she just made before jumping.
Kat and Leon following. Part way they let go of the line with their axes and grasped the next line going sharper to the left. They dropped down one by one onto some train tracks. They were behind what seemed to be a train car before standing up and moving out from behind it.
They jolted as a man rushed to hit them with a combat club. But he yelled in pain before falling to the ground. In the center of his upper back was a knife. Leon, Kat, and Lara looked to see Jacob standing up straighter from the knife throw.
He sighed on the cold air. "We seem to be making a habit of saving each other." He joked.
They nodded and approached him.
"Thanks." Lara nodded.
"We're glad you're okay." Leon added.
"Is that they way through?" Kat asked nodding at the large mouth of a cave and a bunch of machinery and tools.
"Yes." Jacob nodded as they all faced the mine. "There will be more of them inside." He warned and looked at the three, seeing the ash, sweat and blood mixed on them. "You don't have to do this." He told them.
"It's the right thing." Leon told him with a shrug.
"Can't get rid of me so easily. I still need some answers." Lara added, looking to Jacob.
"Where they go, I go." Kat said as she hooked her axe to her belt.
Jacob nodded. "Then there's no time to waste." He gestured to the entrance.