Chapter 42: Jonah
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: Cathedral/ Flooded Archives, Month: November, Day: Wednesday 29th, Year: 2000, Time: 22:07 KRAT…
Walking down the tunnel they pulled their masks down to breath the somewhat filtered air. They paused there to check their weapons and reload. After that was done, they started down the tunnel. It was flooded with water. Their glowsticks provided some good lighting in the dark tunnel.
"Oh no…" Lara breathed as they looked down the tunnel, seeing the smoke ahead that was colored yellow. "Sulfur."
"Crap." Leon said. "One spark and this whole place could blow up." He said as he pulled his mask up, Lara following.
"Got to hurry." Lara nodded.
"They've got to still be here." They heard someone say as they neared the end of the flooded hallway. "Cover the exits." They said as Leon and Lara ducked under a branch, moving slowly as to not make sloshing sounds in the water. "We have to retrieve that package!"
"What about those things? Did we lose them?" Asked another.
Leon looked up and his eyes widened, the hole above them was open to up top and there was a man standing there. Lara looked up and saw why Leon had frozen. The man was in fire protection and held a flame thrower. The pair ducked under water just in time as the guy sent a torrent of fire down the hole. They stayed under water as long as they could, swimming their way through. They could hear gunfire and muffled screaming while under.
When they surfed for air, the sounds of battle were clear. "Multiple hostiles!" They heard one yell then screams. They were back under water to avoid fire that lined the walls and was causing the air to quickly become contaminated. Just as they were running out of air on this second dive, they were on the other side of the hell hole. They surfaced gasping on the dry hot air that flowed down from above.
Feeling the air, they looked up at another Trinity Burner. "Freeze! It's over!" He snarled at them, ready to burn them alive if that was necessary. "Hand over the Atlas—" A blade pierced through him from his back.
Blood sprayed out for a second as the man gasped in pain. His body then dropped into the water. It landed on top of Leon and Lara, sending them both down to the ground underwater. Leon was able to help get the dead man off them quickly. Lara however stopped him from surfacing. She took three things from the body's belt, a mask, and three Rebreathers. She handed one to Leon, packed the other in a pocket, and used the last to breath. Leon followed how she put it in and blinked as he found the rebreather was converting the water into breathable oxygen. With that, they stayed under water and swam down.
They swam down some flooded stairs. As they moved, their glowsticks lighting up the water around them. Old papers floated around them like thin jellyfish, as they passed through the area. The roll holders for scrolls, were heaver and they bumped and bounced along the floor, moved by the currents they were creating. They turned corners, found blocked tunnels from fallen shelves, but they squirmed and wiggled through a few to eventually came to a dead end and surfaced. Into a large area full of crumbled buildings, half submerged but the water that was a fast-rushing torrent on the east wall.
Looking around with a practiced eye, Lara could see that the way out was on the other side of a collapsed bridge that water was slowly draining over on this side of the room. Right next to the bridge was a large statue of the Prophet. All around it was a support structure. It looked like at some point they were still carving it; all the scaffold was still in place. The water was flowing slowly around the statue and over the edge. They needed to increase the water so it would push the statue over and then blow up the support structure around it.
Hand on her hip she said, "Right. Here is what we need to do." She laid out the plan to Leon. "Make the water fall larger, blow the support, and topple the statue."
"Oh sure. Piece of cake. But I don't have a rocket launcher. Kat says there is always at the end of the game, so we are not at the end yet."
Lara looked at him and frowned at how casual he sounded. Just accepting the fact that this was all a game to others. She pointed to the Red Barrels. "Kat's Greek Fire."
Country: Russia, State: Siberia, City: Siberian Wilderness, Place: Near Kitezh, Area: Cathedral/ Flooded Archives, Month: November, Day: Wednesday 29th, Year: 2000, Time: 22:15 KRAT…
After setting off several barrels, to make the water current fast and deadly, Leon kicked the last of the needed Greek Fire barrels, sending it floating toward the statue. They waited till the barrel was right by the last of the old wooden supports. Once the water's current lodged it in the cross beams, Leon fired his handgun at it. The explosion was as loud and bold as the last three. The supports caught fire and broke apart from force of heat and scalding air. With no supports to hold it up, the large statue of the Prophet fell backward and crashed into the stairs of the old bridge, making their makeshift bridge, for their escape.
The pair jumped into the water and swam over to the statue and climbed up onto the broken base. They frowned. That feeling of being watched crawled up their spines. The two turned around and their eyes widened. There they were, six of the Deathless. They were in Greco-Roman armor, flaming arrows pulled back in their bows. The one in the middle of them all held his arm up in a signal to hold.
He then said something in Ancient Greek, throwing his arm down. The roar of more than six sounded from above. Lara and Leon looked up their eyes widening farther as they saw the army of immortal undead warriors. Their arms falling back as fire arrows flew. The pair gasped and turned back around.
They began running on the statue, tripping, and stumbling on the details of the stone and metal. Arrows hit the ground around them, bursting into blue flames as they hit, signaling they were a form of the very hot Greek Fire. They made it to the solid ground of the cathedral floors but didn't stop. They turned and ran at a wall, ran up it, kicked up and grabbed the edge. They ducked their heads as they pulled themselves up.
The shockwave of heat that rushed out from an exploding barrel of Greek Fire sent them stumbling forward from the edge they pulled themselves up from. They ran, climbed, swung, and ducked around the room to get to their exit. Feeling the heat of all the fires and arrows was making them sweat heavily as they ran around and through. So close to the exit as they scrambled up some old scaffolding.
"Almost…" Lara gasped out as they climbed to the top of the walls toward their escape. "Almost!"
They ran across the ground once up, their breath panting out, their mouths dry from the heat and flames roaring after them. Just ahead they could see a few planks of wood angled up like a ramp. With a burst of speed and hope they pulled their grappling hooks and ran at the ramp. They could see a beam over what looked like a pit, but as they ran, they could see a growing Orange glow growing brighter second by second.
At the same time, they flung their hooks and jumped as they hooked to the beam suspended out over the absent flooring. They swung across, just as a wall of fire exploded up from below, catching the bottom edges of them with coats flapping behind them. There was not enough wood in the room to keep feeding the fire and as they ran the glow of the flames dimed.
They came to another opening in the tunnel into a larger area that by far looked as if it has suffered most of the damage over the years. Perhaps this was one of the first areas, and Leon hoped that meant they were near the exit. As they bent over, hand on their knees trying to catch their breath, they heard the stomping of large feet, steadily moving toward them up the tunnel.
"Run!" He shouted and they took off heading to the other side of the room.
Once again dodging pits in the ground, climbing low walls as they did their best to not get hit from the fire arrows raining down on them. They turned a corner of a structure and skidded to a halt. In the dim light they could see the red Greek Fire barrels dotting here and there alone the path they had to go through.
"Shit, it's a Gauntlet!" Leon swore out.
Lara looked over her shoulder and then gave him a shove forward. "No choice! Go!"
They took off running and from a distance behind them they heard the first of the barrels exploding.
'Damn they were good shots!' Lara thought as she raced down what was once a street.
The street was quickly running out and she could see a ramp they could jump off on and a tall wall with an overhang they could climb over.
"There! Ramp! Wall!" She shouted out as she tried to pull more speed from her tired legs.
They jumped from the ramp as more barrels erupted and sent them at the overhang before them. Using their grappling hooks, they flung them at the lip of some rocks. But the rocks were too fragile, and it broke from the impact of their hooks.
"Shit!" They yelled at once as they plummeted to a tunnel and began sliding down a muddy slope that felt, as their butts bumped over and over the cobblestones, like it was an old road.
Sliding on a flowing stream of mud down the tunnel, the voices of the Deathless faded behind them. They fell from the drop at the end and into a pool of water. The two panted as they surfaced and pulled themselves to the shore. They laid there for a moment, panting on fresh air that wasn't tainted by ash, smoke, death, and sulfur. Yet still caused a spasm of coughing as they coughed out the junk they had breathed in.
Leon could feel his legs quivering with little jerks as the adrenaline started to ware off. Then his left calf cramped, and he sat up with a yelp to rub it.
Lara jumped, if he was hurt Kat would kill her. "Are you hit?" She asked in alarm.
"No. Cramp! Shit! Shit! Shit!" He hissed through gritted teeth.
Lara stood up and held out a hand. "Up! Put weight on it and walk. You have to get the lactic acid out of the muscle."
With more cussing and grunting he got up and started to pace to work out the cramp. He tried not to limp, but his legs felt like Jell-O and his chest was burning from the smoke and fumes he was breathing in when they were running.
With a head nod to the exit, he smiled at Lara. "Let's get the hell out of here."
At the entrance to the tunnel. Lara pulled her radio as Leon checked their glowsticks.
"Jacob, Kat, we made it." Lara reported. "We're out."
"Lara, Leon, thank God you're both all right!" Jacob said relieved over the radio. "Both of you bring the Atlas to me in our observatory in the mountains."
"We're on our way." Leon said into his radio. "Kat?"
"I'm good. Ran an experiment with the herbs." Kat reported.
"Tell me you didn't eat them." Leon groaned.
"Not in their herbal form." Kat assured making both him and Lara shake their heads. "Serafima looked them over and found a way to make them consumable. Even showed me a variant of them up here. Anyway, she helped me make tablets."
"You didn't take them as the Guinea Pig, right? You don't know what they'd do to your internal systems." Leon pointed out.
"No. She had someone close to death take one. It gave them a fighting chance to heal their burns." Kat informed. "Turns out, a minute after consumption, they are way more potent with the healing."
Leon blinked as he looked at Lara. "How potent?"
"Scars are still a thing and internal bleeding is still a thing, but bones, infections, and external injuries nearly fully heal. Not quite Wolverine healing like Sherry has, but more like Spider-Man or Buffy healing." Kat relayed.
"Did you take some?" Lara asked.
"Yeah. I need to be able to use both arms. My shoulder's still sore and stiff, but it's not in danger of re-dislocating." Kat said.
"Kat, are you trying to be a Slayer now?" Leon laughed shaking his head at her stubbornness.
"I'm a Fallen Valkyrie that needs a fight. So yes. That's the two instincts of Slayers in the Buffyverse. Fight and protect." Kat said and Leon could just see her shrugging. "Valkyries are very similar."
"Guess they are, given what you did to the guys that took Sherry." Leon voiced.
"They deserved every bit I gave them." Kat reminded with her Norse accent.
"I'm not saying they didn't. Just an example." Leon told her. "I helped with the interrogation, remember?"
"Yeah. Never knew how thick your New York accent could get." Kat joked.
"Should I start talking like that more often?" He asked teasingly.
"Maybe, like anything about mine?" Kat teased back.
"Hmmm, hard choice. Your Norse is pretty nice to listen to when intentional." He flirted.
"Christ, you two better snog when this is all over and everyone's safe." Lara laughed.
"That's the plan." Leon joked, but was serious too, deciding that kissing Kat at any point while in danger was a stupid idea.
"After that talk about how we'd do this if we do." Kat remined sounding both joking and serious as well.
Country: Russia, State: Siberia, City: Siberian Wilderness, Place: Near Kitezh, Area: Cathedral, Month: November, Day: Wednesday 29th, Year: 2000, Time: 22:43 KRAT…
They surfaced from swimming through some sunken tunnels and walked through what looked like a hall of statues. As they passed some scrolls and turned go down some stairs their radios beeped again.
"Lara! Leon! Kat! Are you up there?" Jonah's concerned voice crackled through filling both with relief.
"Jonah, is that you?" Lara asked into the radio as she and Leon slowed their descent.
Jonah laughed over the radio with relief. "Little bird!" He gasped out. "You're alive! I knew it!" He laughed again. "What about Leon? And Kat?"
"It's gonna take more than an avalanche and Trinity to kill me, Jonah." Kat's voice came through.
"Yes! Good to hear your voice, Flower!" Jonah cheered. "Leon? Didja make it?"
"I'm alive. With Lara currently." Leon voiced.
"This is great!" Jonah cheered.
"Jonah, what are you doing here? Where are you?" Lara asked as she and Leon reached the bottom of the stairs and waded through a stream.
"I'm up here in some kind of fortress." Jonah informed. "You can thank Jacob…his people picked me up half-dead out on the tundra."
"I see you!" Kat called.
"Holy shit you're here!?" Jonah called and they heard Kat and Jonah laugh.
"I can't believe you came after us!" Lara sighed. "Bad enough Leon came after us and Kat refused to go back."
Leon, Kat, and Jonah all laughed.
"Is that so hard to believe?" Jonah asked. "I told you, I got your back. I couldn't leave you and Kat out here alone."
"I told you, Lara. None of us would leave you behind." Kat voiced. "You are my Shield Sister. We stick together."
"We've also picked you to be part of our family-away-from-family. And family leaves no one behind." Leon voiced into his radio, so everyone knew what he was saying to Lara.
Lara smiled at the sentiments as she and Leon reached a wall they could climb. "Leon and I are on our way up to you now. Neither of you go anywhere!"
"Hadn't planned on it." Jonah assured. "Be careful out there."
"And Jonah, make sure Kat doesn't experiment with herbs anymore." Leon said.
"Le, I don't need a babysitter." Kat joked back.
"You do when you made tablets with Serafima." Leon snorted. "We'll see you both soon."
"I'll keep an eye on her, don't worry." Jonah laughed.
The pair then climbed up the wall. At the top they came out of a cave and were back in the geothermal valley.
Country: Russia, State: Siberia, City: Siberian Wilderness, Place: Near Kitezh, Area: Geothermal Valley, Month: November, Day: Wednesday 29th, Year: 2000, Time: 22:53 KRAT…
After hopping stones in a river Leon and Lara met up with Kat and Jonah. Kat rushed Leon and hugged him as he pulled her close. Just a very tight hug.
"Jonah!" Lara cheered as she hugged him.
As they parted Jonah gave Leon a big bear hug, thumping him on the back a few times as Kat hugged Lara. As they all parted there was more than a few with happy tears in their eyes.
Jonah looked around them all and shook his head after all parted. "You all look terrible." He smiled at them all, seeing they were all smiling with relief that he was okay. "Terrible…but happy."
"I was right. Kat was right, Jonah!" Lara told him excitedly. "My dad was right! The Divine Source is real!" She smiled sadly. "I wish he was here to see this."
Jonah nodded as he rested a hand on her shoulder. "He'd be proud of you." He then looked to Sofia who'd come down the steps. "Sofia's told me about what the three of you have done for her people."
"Lara. Leon." Sofia greeted the pair who'd returned.
Lara and Leon nodded.
"It's good to see you, Sofia." Lara greeted.
"Jacob is waiting for you in the observatory." Sofia told the four, gesturing up the stairs.
And so, they began the climb up to the observatory.