The Long Dark

XVII.

Echoes

The first building in Nome caught fire at 10:26 a.m. - ten minutes after Jill Valentine and her teammates were shoved into cells and staring down the barrel of torture. Two more buildings went up in flames within minutes. Within half an hour, it was a full blaze. A distraction, clearly, but a good one. The town went out to battle the fire.

Chris and his team surged in to help.

And the communicator on Shenmei's wrist went off to determine her watch had been dumped less than a mile from the caves where they were taken. Rebecca's silent alarm was answered with an immediate response. But the blazing town took priority. As the B.S.A.A. set about controlling the madness, Leon and Chris split the focus to divide and conquer.

By 11:15 a.m. Leon and Kevin were tearing across the snow to confront the last men set loose to create a diversion.

When the crawling man on the ground begged for his life, Leon granted it to him - long enough to determine that he was little more than a hired grunt. What he knew wasn't enough to pinpoint where the women were being held. And so, Leon executed him with a bullet between the eyes.

Kevin stood behind him, watching the wind flutter through all that blonde hair, and he didn't see a halo; he didn't see a golden boy. He saw an executioner, and it was a title well-earned. The emptiness on Leon's face spoke for itself as he gazed down at the bodies he'd left in his wake.

There was nothing more frightening than the knowledge that whatever he'd been once, Leon wasn't that cop Kevin had met years before. He wasn't that kid anymore, and what was left was a war machine, an exquisitely trained weapon that had shirked its command to pursue its own purposes. When faced with the enemy, an executioner didn't hesitate; he just killed. And he didn't regret the lives he took.

Leon didn't find answers in the men he slaughtered. But Kat came back to them with a plan.

The topography of the area was limited to caves and abandoned villages. Searching the caves one at a time could take days. When the blaze in Nome was controlled, they coordinated to start at caves adjacent to villages. After all, the abductors would need some resupply, so the logical location was close to where they could get water and food.

Chris dispatched a team to set up at the mouth of the original cave and maintain the area. The aerial surveillance was en route, with Leon able to call in the support with the full weight of the White House. In a few hours, they'd have eyes in the sky to help control any further attempts to usurp control of the plagas-infested areas.

Kat brought them coordinates for the caves outside of Imiq, a small neighboring village about fifty miles north. When she handed them over, she gave Leon a long look. Without a word, he knew where the information had come from. She'd bought the hideout by promising something else. What?

It didn't matter. He'd pay the price. They needed Rebecca back at all costs. She was the only damn person with knowledge of how to attempt to eradicate those caves. Without her, there was no hope for a peaceful resolution here. Getting another scientist with even half of her knowledge base would take weeks.

Practicality had to replace sentimentality here. He wanted the other women back, too, because they were his team and his responsibility - but Rebecca had to be the priority. It was that simple. Both Shenmei and Jill would agree with that - no questions asked.

He left Kevin in charge of controlling Chris' men at the caves, and with Chris and Kat in tow, he set off for the village of Imiq. Kat tossed him a KS-23 shotgun as they were climbing onto their snowmobiles. When he just looked at her, she remarked, "Anything is better than that popsicle you're carrying. Trust me."

The 4-gauge death machine felt solid in his hands, and he strapped it over his back and trusted her. If there was anything Kat knew better than anyone, it was battling monsters in subzero temperatures. Chris was also solidly equipped, and European and Russian funding gave him better weapons for cold-weather combat. If there was one thing they could agree on, Russians knew how to fight and survive in arctic weather.

As they took off, the horizon lit like a beacon, and the smoldering skies of a recently burning village plumed dark and ominous behind them. There was no way to know it at the time, but the symbolism wasn't simple foreshadowing - it was inevitability. Because behind them was nothing but destruction. The only hope left was forward.

While they raced across the snow, Jill's zip tie finally snapped. Her left hand was a bit sticky with blood from the rocks, shallowly nicking her as she worked, but it was worth it. She wiped the blood on her pants and froze as footsteps sounded in the hallway.

Those steps lumbered to her cage door. Keeping her hands behind her back to pretend, she eyed the man breathing hard and watching her. His eyes were red, his skin sallow, and his cheeks hollow. She felt her throat seize as she realized she was staring at plagas.

Quietly, she held that gaze. It staggered a little, eyeing her. The big machete in its hand looked sharp but dry. She had the errant thought that at least it wasn't soaked in blood, which was a good thing, and it jerked on her cage door.

Feeling her mouth twitch, Jill stated, "Sorry, tough guy, gonna need the keys to get this hamburger."

It licked the cage's bars as it had once licked Rebecca, and Jill scrunched her face with disgust. "Really? How's that taste? If you've got the keys, I can open that door and make this easier for you. What do you say? Teamwork?"

It jerked on the doors again and again and again. The bars held but shuddered. She'd forgotten, it seemed, that the plagas were infused with massive strength along with the parasite. It might actually tear that door down if it pulled hard enough. The ceiling rumbled, casting dust and chunks of ice down as it tried to rip it off the hinges.

When the door made a small cry of twisting metal, she started to pull her hands from behind her back. One more good yank and it would be after her. She readied herself; it jerked on that door, the metal gave with a shriek of defeat, and the thing rushed her—a handful of moments.

The cage door smashed into the wall, it came for her with a warbling cry that was still eerily human, and Jill braced herself. It swung the machete, she dropped to her side, and buffalo kicked it for all she was worth, and it was thrown into the downed cage door with a clang of battle. As it scrambled for its feet, she kicked it twice in the face, jerked the machete from its grip, and swung. The big blade met the neck, caught, and caused the damn thing to tumble to the side with its head half cleaved.

This was one of those moments she wished had Chris' strength. He could have taken the head in a single blow. She had to jerk the big blade clear where it was lodged in the spine and kick the attacker back as it tried again to grab her. She swung again. The head slurped as it separated, the thing went to its bloody side on the ground, and Jill drove the knife into its chest for good measure.

She searched the corpse for a gun without much luck. To hedge her bets, she cut off its damn hands and feet to guarantee it didn't rise again like a discombobulated amoeba or something and come after her. Better safe than sorry, after all. Exiting the cage, she heard the sounds of fighting from somewhere else in the cave.

Backup? Or mutiny?

It was impossible to know with plagas.

She moved out of the hallway and slunk along the wall into the open area beyond. She made it about four steps when a bullet to a chunk of the wall beside her face. Ducking, she rolled behind an outcropping wall as Nikolai shouted, "Bitch! You think you can stop me!?"

He sounded insane. It was that simple. He sounded mad. Not that he'd ever really been all that sane anyway. But now he sounded slobbering nuts.

Trying to pinpoint his location, she called back, "Your man back there turned, you idiot. Blame him."

"I can control my men!" His roar echoed around the caves and didn't offer her a location she wanted.

"Apparently not, comrade," Jill challenged, "He tried to eat me."

"I'm going to enjoy turning you, you bitch. I'd have done it already if you weren't worth so much intact."

That was curious. Why? Who wanted her whole? And a better question was, why? Why was she worth anything at all?

"To whom?" She wondered. What the hell? Maybe he'd answer. Villains loved to monologue, after all. "I'm not worth anything."

"Oh, I agree," Nikolai snorted, "But the right people find out what I know about you? They'll pay big bucks for that pouty mouth and impressive ass of yours."

Jill furrowed her brow, listened, and heard him moving around in the room beyond. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not doubting the power of my fabulousness here, but I don't have anything to offer but bad quips and decent knife skills. Not sure how that's worth dying for."

Nikolai said, "Because what's inside us, Jill, is sometimes worth taking a couple of bullets to obtain."

A bullet struck the wall by her face again, and she rolled, rising to her feet now with no cover. He aimed his gun at her and advised, "Drop it. You stupid woman. Drop it."

He still hadn't killed her. Curious. Whatever he thought she had, it was worth keeping her alive. That much was clear. Jill palmed the knife and queried, "I think I'd rather keep it and have you kill me for it."

He was turning or had turned, but there was enough Nikolai left in his fevered gaze to answer the hate his old body had kept for her. It was there, on his face, the face holding a monster inside him, wrath. He wanted her dead. He hated her. And whatever operated inside his body like a puppet master, it wasn't enough to stop the human side of him that wanted to kill her.

And that told her Rebecca was right on; the host still had some control. Because to overtake it, the plagas had to lay siege, coerce, or destroy, and it couldn't defeat what it didn't understand. It was too alien - and aliens didn't do well with human shells. There was hope there, in the mess they were in, there was real hope - that just maybe the infected could be saved.

Hadn't she seen it in Jack? Infected but still guided by humanity. Leon, infected but still guided by humanity. Ashley, infected but still guided by humanity. Even Saddler had been almost human in his infected shell. Salazar had been nuttier than a fruitcake, but he'd been almost human too. And that was after years of infection. And now Nikolai, infected but still guided by humanity.

The answer to stopping the plagas was somewhere in that hope. She was sure of it.

So, playing to the human side, Jill goaded him, "Do it, you gutless turd, kill me...or are you nothing more than a nasty parasite with a little man attached? I always knew you were a dog, Nikolai...I just didn't know you were a bitch to boot."

"Shut up, you vicious cunt!"

It echoed through the caves, that shout. It roared. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand up with the first edge of real fear. She was waving a flag in the face of a bull hopped up on PCP. He would rip her to pieces.

He wanted to rip her to pieces.

When Leon had attacked in the elevator in Spain, there'd been nothing in his eyes. Nothing. A void of emotion that was backed by a bottomless well of white noise that allowed him to kill. Did the plagas manifest and increase the existing emotions of the host? Nikolai's wrath amplified to near-fatal levels.

And Leon's emptiness.

A frightening thought.

She only had one shot here. She needed him to charge her. If he shot her, it was over. But the longer he stood there, the more she was nearly positive he wanted to kill her with his own hands. It was written all over him.

He hesitated, and she started to challenge him again. But then he lifted that gun and aimed at her face, and she knew he'd decided the reward wasn't worth the risk after all. He fired, she threw her shoulder forward desperately, and the bullet caught her in the vest. The knife winged, Nikolai grunted, and Jill skidded over the floor from the shell. She started to get to her knees, and he grabbed a handful of her hair, jerked her face back, and laid the knife against her neck.

He was bleeding from the shoulder. She'd known she couldn't get him in the chest with his vest, but she'd tried to disarm him. It had worked, sort of, as the gun was gone, but the knife was in his possession. So, she'd traded one problem for another.

She taunted, "...do it, you coward...do it..."

His wrist trembled, and he breathed, "I'm going to enjoy watching you turn."

She started to answer, and his mouth peeled back. The thing inside wiggled, waggled like happy fingers waving, and burst from his mouth in a writhing mass of horror. The tentacles whipped her face as the knife sliced shallowly over her collarbone, and she fought. She jerked on her hair in his hand, lifted both her hands and brought them up between his legs as hard as she could. The low blow connected, his nuts taking a hit worthy of a bad YouTube video, and he staggered, swallowing the thing back into his mouth as he retreated in pain.

She divested him on the knife as he went and lunged. He caught her, his mouth peeled back again, and she shoved the blade into his groin. It sunk in while Nikolai roared in rage and pain, and she twisted it as he jerked it free in an impressive burst of blood. His hands jerked her up by her face, she tore the knife up his body like opening a zipper, and he wrapped all those tentacles around her face while she screamed.

He bled everywhere, the sticky and tacky substance covering her in a red wash, and Jill sank the blade in her hands into his sternum. The tentacles drug her closer to his mouth, looping around like an overly needy lover. She had a moment of thinking - this is how I die...in a shitty hentai...and she let loose a roar of rage and a shriek of fear so loud it echoed through the cave. She ripped the knife out of his chest, gave one final call of battle, and shoved it straight up through the underside of that gaping chin.

The machete went in, went through, and burst out the top of Nikolai's head in a shower of brain matter and blood. It pinned his jaws shut and trapped the struggling thing inside him with his teeth and momentum. The thing squealed, shrieking and shaking, and released her. Jill tumbled to the floor and jerked the gun on his thigh free.

His body started to rise to follow, and she spat, "...I'm going to enjoy watching you die." She fired into the mess of tentacles and bound face. She fired until it went to its back and obliterated the struggling thing that had once been Nikolai until there was nothing but flopping pieces and the stench of raw hamburger.

The gun clicked empty.

She lowered it slowly as she eased forward, kicked the body to be sure it was dead, and searched the pockets for a spare magazine. She had just snapped it into place when she was tackled from behind. The attacker didn't even try to disarm her; it just wrapped around her and tried to choke her to death. Hands closed around her windpipe and crushed, not human strength, monster strong.

She fired into the body as they hit the floor, vision going gray, and she humped her hips to catch her boots in its groin and kick. It went up; it held on, jerking her with it. She was thrown up and fired into its face as she went. It let go, air rushed in, and she rushed out - launched like a slingshot across the room. She was getting tired of plagas throwing her around like it was nothing.

She tucked her body and rolled when she came down, catching the brunt of the fall as she was trained, and she skidded out to rise to one knee with the gun aimed at her next attacker.

He knocked the gun aside in a split second it took for her to aim. They locked arms, and he hooked her body against his hip to toss her and throw her into a roll. As she returned to her knees, her finger squeezed on the trigger before her brain told her that her attacker was the biggest threat she'd ever faced.

But this one wasn't her executioner - at least not today.

He commanded, "Don't shoot; I'm human."

Right. Jill's finger eased on the trigger as the burst of adrenaline took her breath away. She felt the thrill of fear that came with knowing she'd been a twitchy digit away from blowing him away. She'd have shot him if the trigger on her damn gun hadn't been stiff.

He passed right by her while she aimed at him, and the boom of the gun he held was so loud it made her ears ring. It also blew apart the thing running at them like it had swallowed a grenade. Blam. Blood and guts exploded like confetti, plopping down in a macabre rain.

When she stayed on one knee, he put his hand down to her to offer assistance.

Jill took it and stood as she greeted, "...Leon."

"Jill." He eyed her for a fraction of a second before surveying the rest of the cave, "You, ok?"

"Mostly." She touched the blood at her collarbone, "Shallow, but I'll live."

"Good." He listened; he watched with eyes that never failed to impress, "Nikolai?"

She gestured at the body on the ground she'd left behind. He eyed her, glanced at it again, and back at her face and remarked, "Guess we won't be interrogating him. I don't think he's got the head for it."

Jill shook her own and looked at him long enough that he arched a brow. "What?"

She studied him for long enough that he wiped a hand at his face. "What? I got goop on me or something?"

Emptiness. It was hard to believe from a man who felt things as deeply as he did. A man with the world waiting for him beyond these caves. He wasn't empty. But something in that plagas had found the part of him that was cold, dark, deep, and inhuman. And that ugly truth was just as much a part of who he was as the man who sacrificed himself for those who mattered.

Concerned, he took a step toward her, "What is it? Jill? Are you alright?"

She shook her head and instructed, "I'm fine. Let's get the hell outta here."

They emerged into a hallway and rounded a corner without coming up against anyone else. As they circled another chamber, the doors opened, and Kat came through with Shenmei in tow. They grouped and circled back through the next chamber.

This one was set up as a worship chamber. The plagas were poised on banners and hung around like flags everywhere you looked. An altar was equipped with a still pulsing human heart in the center.

Disgusted, Kat stared at it before thrusting her knife into the beating tissue to make it fall silent. "Fools," She breathed, "Why do they insist on worshiping madness?"

A good question with no real answer.

Knifing the heart was the wrong move.

The second she jerked her knife clear, the roaring started. Horrified, Kat stepped back as the double doors across from the altar burst open. What ducked under the overhang was worse than El Gigante. It was worse than anything they'd ever seen.

Its wings spread so wide they touched the far walls. It was scaly, black, and somehow aquatic because it had gills below the tentacles that burst from its face with suckers on the appendages like an octopus. It was Cthulhu, it wasn't, or it wanted to be. The red eyes flashed in its Volkswagen size head as it looked at the altar, looked at Kat, and decided who was dying first.

It rose to stand, its head brushing the ceiling, and Leon muttered, "...I think this shotgun might be under-kill."

Jill breathed, "You should have brought a tank."

And just like that, as if summoned, the door to their right was kicked wide, and Chris came charging through with Rebecca in tow. He was spattered in blood and already firing.

He roared, "GET COVER!"

Leon swung an arm around Jill's waist and ducked, covering her with his body. Kat and Shenmei dove under anything they could find. And then Chris hit the damn thing with a 40mm grenade. The whomp sounded louder than it should have as it fired.

Leon cursed, "Stupid son of a bi-"

And the explosion rocked the room. A piece of the monster blew away in a burp of fire. The heavy explosive smashed into the Lovecraftian nightmare, and it roared. The roar was so loud it shook the walls.

Blood flew. It splattered. It hit, and it burned.

Acid.

It left acid everywhere it bled.

Some hit Jill's shoe and landed on Leon's arm as he tucked her tighter and waited for the splatter to die down. She gasped and tried to wipe his arm, and he shook his head sharply, "I'm good. It's fine. Stay down."

Hurt now and pissed, the monster swung out and knocked the tables and pews around like a child having a temper tantrum. They scattered as wood shattered and spewed in deadly shrapnel. Jill rolled across the floor, and a tentacle struck an inch from her left eye. She scrambled; she took flight so fast it amazed her as one looped at her wrist and jerked.

She was tossed airborne and flipped twice before coming down in a heap on top of Shenmei. Yep, she thought absently, these goddamn plagas loved throwing her. Shenmei grunted, more guns sounded, and the two women helped each other up. The Cthulhu monster was raising Kat to eye level and lifting the tentacles around its mouth as if it was going to snack on her bones.

She blasted it in the face with her shotgun, it shook her like a dog with a bone, and Chris climbed up its side. He reached the head, blasted it at point-blank range with the shotgun he'd traded out for the grenade launcher bouncing on his back on a strap, and it looped a tentacle around his throat twice before it dangled him effortlessly to the side.

The more they shot it, the more it scattered death around it in a rain of fire.

Leon shouted, "Don't shoot the head, goddamnit, dismantle the limbs!"

Chris was covered in that acid. It ate through his armor, and he couldn't even scream. Kat strangled, and Chris choked and burned. But even as he burned, he picked off pieces of the creature with unflagging aim. Impressed, Leon did the same. Jill fired at its tentacles for all the good it did, and Shenmei did her part on the other side.

When Chris lost the shotgun to the tentacles, he kept right on punching even though it felt like hitting a boulder when it struck that scaly skull. Hook, hook, jab - he used those fists of his to pummel even while he died. It was bravery, but it wouldn't be enough.

Men burst from doors to fight for their "god." It was gunfire and madness, and blood and battle and horror. It was minutes that felt like hours. Jill, Shenmei, and Leon tried like hell to hold off the horde while Kat and Chris died like criminals forced to be hung.

Leon spun, and he battled until his gun was empty. He kicked and punched and moved like music. Jill and Shenmei teamed up to work the horde together. One shot, one kicked, one stabbed or retreated, or broke a neck. It was coordination at its finest.

Jill picked off two before they tore Leon in half. He rewarded her teamwork with a spinning back kick that dislodged another from eating her face. They used every trick, every skill, and every weapon in their arsenal like they'd been trained.

It wouldn't be enough. Not even close.

They were grossly, horribly, terribly outmatched here. The monster didn't get the memo, it didn't care, and it didn't even notice.

Rebecca whistled, the monster whipped its eyes to her, and she lifted the weird stick in her hand. It paused, and it eyed her. She wiggled the ugly stick in her hand, and Jill noticed what was on it - another beating heart.

A heart, a gathering of white feathers, a hunk of fur, and two human fingers. They gave the monster what looked like a grotesque peace sign as Rebecca shouted, "Let them go!"

Leon mounted its other side and lifted his knife as if he'd go for its eyes. Blind, at least it couldn't spot them to kill them.

Just like that - it dropped its prey. When Leon drew back the knife to stab it, Rebecca shouted, "No! Stop!"

The plagas men stopped like someone had thrown a switch. One was in mid-shuffle and held that foot off the ground without lowering it. They were terribly literal. They just went as still as death and waited, watching her.

Leon froze in mid-strike. Rebecca shook her head. "Get down. Get away from it. Now."

Without a word, he listened. Impressed, they backed up one by one as Rebecca shook the stick. When they were gathered at the door behind her, some of them hurt, some of them shedding armor to stop the acid, she informed them, "Go. Go now."

Jill scoffed, "You kidding?"

Blood and guts were everywhere. It looked like a slaughterhouse. The good guys were limping and near losing...and then they weren't. They were surrounded by evil, but apart from it because the evil was watching Rebecca like empty-eyed dolls. No...like eager dogs waiting for a command.

Rebecca gave Jill a sad look. "I got this."

Chris, voice gruff from choking, commanded, "Give me the stick. I'll handle this." He was covered in oozing wounds from the acid. He looked half-dead but determined.

Leon snorted, "Don't give him shit. He'll just try to blow us up with it."

Rebecca gave Chris another deadpan look. "It can't be you."

What did that mean?

When a moment passed, it was Leon that spoke first. "...when?"

Rebecca turned her eyes to him. "Not long after we got here. They needed me to open the caves, and this guaranteed I would."

He gave her a long look that she returned with a nod. "Yeah. I know."

Chris demanded, "Know what? What is it?"

And the truth slid between them as Jill finally understood. She got it. There was only one way Saddler could control the plagas with his staff - you had to be one. She gave Rebecca a horrified look as the girl scientist shrugged sadly. The bruise on her face and the blood on her vest made her look like a warrior as she nodded, "Yeah. Nikolai was thrilled to share the gift after all."

Jill whispered, "We can stop it. We can fix it. Come with us. We'll find a way."

Chris listed to one side; his left arm was badly singed from the acid. Shenmei stepped up to put his good arm over her shoulders as he barked, "What is this!? What are you saying?"

Rebecca looked him in the face and said, "I'm infected. They turned me and did it so I'd free the plagas in the cave," she met Leon's eyes and added, "don't let it happen. Do you hear me? Stop it."

He nodded. Voice gruff, he returned, "Jill's right. You can come with us, and we can find a way."

She shook her head. "No. We both know that. There's no time. And there's no way to guarantee I'll even make it out of this cave. The change is slower, but it's happening. I will do what I can here, but you have to go. I need you gone."

She looked at Jill, and her voice broke a little as she demanded, "I left my research in my room. Use it. Put together the pieces. Tell Kevin...I don't know...tell him something witty and clever. At least..." Her eyes teared as she tried to joke, "At least I got laid one last time, right? One last hurrah for humanity. Small blessings."

She stepped toward the creature and instructed, "There's nothing else in this cave but his followers. More than these. So many more. They're coming, and I can feel them. Get out. Go now. And level this place when you're out."

Chris grunted angrily, "...this is bullshit."

When Jill grabbed her arm to force her, Rebecca commanded calmly, "Let go, Jill. It's time. Let go."

Jill shook her head sharply, "Come on, please? We can fix it. We can."

Rebecca gave her a sad look as two small tears slid down her cheeks. "It's too late. We both know that. Let me have my hero moment, ok? If I cry, it'll ruin it."

The monster cooed happily at Rebecca like a happy kitten. She made a small, sad laugh and whispered, "It's happy. It's so happy. Maybe...when the bomb hits...at least I'll die happy. Maybe..."

Chris urged, "Rebecca...this is stupid...run with us. Run. We can contain you."

It showed what she meant to them to have him even offer. He was usually the first guy to put a bullet into a monster's head. But she wasn't a monster. She was their friend. Their comrade in arms. Their family.

And you never left your family behind.

They hesitated. They all did. Jill tried again to grab her, and Rebecca finally shouted, "You know it won't work, Chris. You know. Your face? It says you even knew before you set foot in this cave. So...go! Idiots! Go now! Get the hell outta here!"

When they still hesitated, she shook the stick. The monster swung at them and struck the wall just above their heads. They were forced to scatter back through the open door. She eyed them one last time and demanded, "Go...and stop them..."

The monster swung again as Jill shouted desperately, "Rebecca!"

The wall collapsed with the next swing. It was so loud it sounded like thunder inside the walls. The ice collapsed with a nearly musical clatter. Jill fought against the hands, pulling her back, and she fought until the slap on her face made her gasp.

Leon gave her a sharp nod and commanded, "Not now. Now you move. Do you hear me?"

He shoved her forward when she stared glassily at him and shouted, "MOVE!"

His shout worked. It spurred her forward. She ran, chasing the retreating backs of the others. She felt the sunlight on her face and the cold air. She breathed in the open sky. Her body answered the demands of the mission.

It operated on sheer automation.

She ran.

She fled.

She left Rebecca to turn.

And she left Rebecca to die.

Even when they were in the clear and the whistle of the air strike joined the sound of wind and rain, when the cave became a smoking pile of ice and death. She was still breathing when she watched it turn into a hole in the ground. She was still breathing when the horror and loss nearly choked her where she stood.

And there was nothing but wind and silence.