Recommended BGM:

1. Resident Evil 2 (1998) - The Marshalling Yard (The Latter Half)

2. Resident Evil 2 (1998) & Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - (SPOILER) Watch for BOLD TEXT below

3. Resident Evil 2 (1998) - (SPOILER) Watch for BOLD TEXT below

Bonus Track: Resident Evil 2 (1998) - The Underground Skytram Passage

Chapter 19

They were now in some sort of control room, probably used for either the labyrinth halls of the abandoned factory or the marshaling yard itself. Birkin was left behind, as far as they could tell, yet David and Claire were feeling as though everything around them had been falling apart as Sherry was still out of it. It had been extremely difficult to get her through the hatch as they had to stretch their arms to one another in order to get Sherry's unconscious body to the other side. If it wasn't for David's height, it would've been nearly impossible to get Sherry closer to the top of the surface.

Along the way, however, Claire had found a new weapon to use. It had been lying near the corpse of a dead woman in a dirty white lab coat at one of the many dead-ends, having feared that it may have been Sherry's mother for a moment. The weapon was painted in black and yellow, with a visible Umbrella logo on its right side, apparently the size of a large rifle in the shape of an enlarged stun gun. The voltage meter attached to the weapon read that it was at least fifty percent charged. How the weapon even worked was beyond any of them, but they thought it might've been made in case a spill like this would ever happen. She'd been willing to give it a test for the next time they'd encounter any monster along the way.

Inside the control room was a dusty shelf filled with medical supplies, but none of them seemed particularly useful for Sherry's condition, though they took whatever they could take in order to at least alleviate some of the symptoms she showed before passing out.

Aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, bismuth subsalicylate…

Water bottle.

"I think we got everything we need," said Claire, looking back around the shelf in case she missed anything else. There was still more medicine left, along with a spare water bottle, but she decided to leave those behind in case Leon and Ada caught up with them along the way and she knew Leon needed some of it as well. "We should go."

David, who had finished writing something on a small yellow sticky note, put it on top of a switch-covered console and proceeded to push a button before a large hum of machinery came to life from somewhere outside of the control room itself. He motioned at the small sticky note and said casually, "Leaving this here in case Leon and Ada get here as well." He then looked back down at a small screen in front, thoughtfully. "Bet you anything that this thing will lead us to some sort of secret underground facility. No wonder Umbrella has gotten away with shit like this."

"What 'thing' are you talking about?" she responded, not knowing exactly what he'd done on the console itself.

David tilted his head back around in Claire's direction and pointed at the screen that was now showing something moving from below the surface, which was growing bigger as it moved closer to the camera feed. He began to explain.

"It's a turntable, a lift that goes somewhere below. And if you switch around the camera feed, it'll show that this whole place is a marshaling yard, just like what that large sign said when we ran out of the tram. I mean, if they managed to install a secret lift within a railway yard, you'd start to imagine what other stuff could Umbrella be hiding all along, ya know? No one would've suspected anything shady - and an underground lab isn't out of the question when your brother, my father, and uncle discovered one beneath the Spencer Mansion, at least according to a rejected report I read about that my father had made."

Claire lost herself in thought for a small moment, thinking about Chris' diary and the info she found out inside. It made sense if Umbrella had built secret facilities around town. If you owned a huge corporation that involved itself in illegal bioweapon research, the best approach would be to make a place in which no one would ever imagine where it could be; deep underground, right underneath the public's nose, was the right call. Who would even think there'd be some illegal activity going on by a giant pharmaceutical company that had helped fund its own hometown into a booming functional city for so long?

Annette could've headed underground, and maybe, she could help us out with Sherry. If she cares about her own daughter, even in the slightest, she has to.

The voice in her mind did not sound convincing enough, but they had to firmly believe that she'd be willing to help them for the sake of her daughter. Claire finally fixed her gaze on David and nodded.

"Okay," she expressed before walking past him and picking up Sherry, who was lying on top of the countertop in the middle of the room that separated the console and a large chest on the other side. "We'll be right behind you."

David smiled reassuringly as he proceeded to reach the only door out of there. "Yes ma'am."

Once they stepped out of the control room, they were now inside a huge structure that seemed to be like an open-ended warehouse, doused in the bright moonlight of the dark sky, almost big enough to be an aircraft hangar. It was barren, dilapidated, and heavily shadowed with barely any lights shining in the area, but the cool breeze of the night made it calm, almost pleasant. It would've been much better without the small, familiar acrid smell filling their nostrils along the way; the smell of rot, the stench of disease, the scent of burning death and decay…

…and the lift finally came to a stop in a sudden loud metallic steaming sound just outside of the large hangar. As the elevator halted in place, it blended itself perfectly with the railings and the rest of the abandoned railway yard beyond the premise of the destroyed wired fencing. Looking at it from afar, you'd think it'd be nothing more than a simple railroad for ordinary shipping routes.

"Guess you were right about this place being so secretive," said Claire, still looking back and around the whole area that seemed almost quite majestic in a strange way with the moonlight ahead.

David hadn't bothered replying back right away. He looked dumbstruck at just how the whole place was designed. It was as if he had entered into a zoo or aquarium for the first time in his life, seeing the environment from two different perspectives at how natural and unnatural the place seemed to be.

He began to walk on top of the large elevator, stumbling upon a section of a parked railcar in the middle of the huge platform, his eyes darting to a set of controls.

"There are spots of blood here," he said, pointing at the specks of dried blood near the key that was already put in place. "If Annette did come here and she's bleeding, you don't think she's…?"

Claire shrugged anxiously. "Who knows, but even if it isn't hers, we still have to hurry and get Sherry her actual treatment. God only knows if there's a vaccine for —"

"We don't know if she really is infected," David interrupted, trying not to think of the worst as he looked back at Claire with piercing eyes. "I mean, she hasn't shown any signs of… turning… right?"

Claire thought back about Kendo, of Marvin, and what he told her about the sheriff back at the gas station. All of them were infected as a result of a bite; of the t-Virus itself. They had looked over Sherry almost too many times to count, and there was no bite or scratch mark that could indicate a sign of potentially turning into a monster. The only thing she had were a few bruises, both of them assuming they were a result of her falling inside the dark, winding shaft. If she had been infected by other means, how could it ever happen? None of them knew the exact differences between the T and G viruses, and it only made them worry even more after Annette told them about her husband's mindless goal to procreate through people that had similar genetic makeup to his own.

Claire shook her entire thought process as violently as she could, looking at David with worried eyes.

"Get this thing turned on," she said quickly, fixing up her grip on Sherry's limp body. "Sherry needs our help and we are not giving up on her."

"Right," he nodded back quickly. "Get in then."

Claire hurried to climb aboard the parked railcar. As soon as she stepped toward the door and pulled the metal latch, she heard a clicking sound, followed by a loud shrilling alarm that pierced the entire night sky. Two red flashing lights had lit up the place, and not long after, David followed her inside, his face slowly degrading into a grim expression as he closed the door behind him, muffling the alarm outside.

"Whatever it is, I hope we get her treated in time," he said, frowning. "It's almost impossible to see her like this and not think about what could happen if…"

"She's gonna be alright," said Claire, her tone barely having a tinge of optimism as she carefully laid Sherry on the bench beside them. "We'll find Annette… We have to…"

The lift had sprung to life, slightly shaking the whole platform as it prepared to do what it needed to do. Seconds later, they were now descending into the unknown, into what could potentially be a secret Umbrella hideout.

None of them spoke to one another during the trip, the silence of the air inside speaking for themselves, the subtle rumbling sounds of the lift humming softly within their ears as they waited, both of them leaning against the wall beside a still unconscious Sherry.

Claire silently thought about everything they have been through so far, from the incident at Emmy's Diner and the car accident to the encounters with Mr. X, the insane Chief, and Sherry's mutated father. Nothing could compare to even the worst days of her life, the days in which her mother and father died. They had been some of the most traumatic times, but this whole night had been on another level of traumatizing. She knew she was going to have never-ending nightmares after this was all over and she couldn't even imagine the nightmares Sherry may end up having later in her life. All of this had made her wonder: when will they ever get out of this whole place alive? When will Sherry wake up? How will they ever be able to nurse Sherry back to health? How long before she…?

The painful questions had been flowing inside her mind for far too long when a warm hand was slowly put over her left hand that hung limply on her side. She looked to her left and saw that David had been staring at her intently, a look of both worry and concern, though something about his eyes was telling her that he'd been feeling more than just those emotions. He was holding her hand softly when he began to open his mouth to say something, but couldn't.

"Something wrong?" she asked, seeing him going through some sort of internal unrest that she knew he'd gone through after what happened with Irons. "You can tell me anything. I won't bite, you know?"

David turned his head around, facing the wall across from them, and sighed, quickly letting go of her hand almost in shame.

"No, nothing. It's just that…" he paused for a moment as though he was trying his best not to show any emotional distress in front of her. "I can't stop thinking about what dad wrote in his journal. He kept talking about…the numbers…as if it had been some form of a brainwashing experiment gone wrong. Heard about this guy, Kravchenko, being one of those responsible for his capture and imprisonment in Vorkuta, but nothing much. And then Wesker… he mentioned him along with other names I wasn't exactly familiar with — talked about him as if he were also responsible for his delusions and such. Like is it possible that…maybe…Umbrella had something to do with any of it? About his imprisonment in Vorkuta…the numbers…my mother's murder? I know it all sounds crazy, but —"

Claire looked at him, surprised, but not at all judgmental. In fact, she felt the complete opposite. "Crazy would be dealing with undead cannibalistic people and giant monsters trying to kill us," she conveyed. "Can't go any crazier than that."

After a small moment, the name, Kravchenko, clicked something inside her mind like a lightbulb turning on in the middle of a dark place.

Irons did mention his name, thinking I was sent by him in order to kill him…

"Do you know anything about a group called Perseus?" she said suddenly.

David tilted his head, the look in his furrowed eyes telling her he may have heard of them before, considering he knew of Lev Kravchenko himself.

"What?" he said in a restrained voice.

Claire continued, "Irons mentioned him when he thought I was working for them…for Kravchenko. Thought I was sent to kill him or something."

David let out a slight scoff. "Serves him right anyway, but…are you saying that - Kravchenko is… Perseus?"

Claire took a raised brow at him. "You didn't know he was their leader?"

He took a deep sigh, putting his gaze elsewhere, away from her. "As I said, I only knew about Kravchenko being responsible for several messes my uncle and father dealt with back when they were CIA. Perseus, well… only managed to overhear that name through some of their conversations that popped up after many rough training sessions they'd given me. Rumors about coming back to finish what they started or something, a sort of uprising, like the start of a second Cold War."

Claire felt a piercing shock of surprise stabbing her within. "What?!"

Just after expressing her startlement to him, a sudden jolt around them shook them off balance, the entire lift quaking so violently, it made the whole platform screech loud enough for them to hear it clearly inside the metal walls of the train car itself. Something large and heavy had landed on the moving lift, and Claire immediately began to fear who it really was.

William… no…not all the way down here. Can't be!

"Stay here with Sherry," said David, pulling out the short-barreled Remington as he made sure there was a shell already pumped inside. "If it's really who we think it is, we can't risk leaving her here alone."

Claire opened her mouth to try and protest but immediately stood her ground, nodding at him silently.

"David!" she called to him, suddenly, a second later after hesitating to say anything. David turned back around as she rushed toward him and put a hand over his left bicep, worriedly. "Be careful."

With a lopsided smile and a final silent nod of approval, David stepped out of the railcar and closed the door behind him. Claire was now left alone with Sherry, thinking to herself just how close she was to kissing him but didn't have the courage enough to do so in the heat of the moment, fearing that he may not exactly share the same growing feelings she was now developing for him.

He grabbed your hand for a reason. He's most likely growing feelings for you as well. And he may not know how to express those feelings either. Poor guy has gone through so much too, and you've seen him break down, probably struggling to tell what he truly feels…

He needs someone…

…he needs you.

The voice inside her mind quickly reminded her of the way he looked at her on multiple occasions, the same look she's seen whenever someone is trying to show their feelings but is struggling to do so. She felt conflicted as she's only met him just hours ago, yet they'd gone through so much together, it was next to impossible not to deny those strange feelings for him that were flourishing inside. It was almost as if fate itself brought them together; a match made in heaven.

Claire looked back at Sherry, seeing how perfect the vest looked on her, and couldn't wait for her to wake up and see it for herself. Claire's favorite band "Made in Heaven" was printed on the back of the vest. It was somewhat poetic in a way. She imagined Sherry being heaven itself, the one little girl who was a saving grace for both her and David in this whole entire nightmare. Seeing her ill had been making her feel sad and miserable, and thinking of David's safety made her feel even worse.

Feeling extremely guilty for not having looked back on David's struggles to express himself to her earlier, she sat down next to Sherry, silently praying that things get better for all of them involved…

Trenchy followed them directly into the sewers and after several shots were pumped into him, he simply refused to bleed or drop to a halt. He was determined, fueled by a silent serial killer's instincts, his dark, piercing gaze fixed on them, fully prepared to kill them at all costs. (BGM #2 - "T"-A)

Leon turned to look back at Ada and quickly noticed she had already run ahead, not even a single sign or gesture to let him know she planned on taking off much earlier than he'd anticipated.

"Ada!" he called to her.

But there was nothing. There was no sound or reply from even the opened door that led directly into a large room that looked barely lit compared to the rest of the sewer tunnels. As Leon slapped in another magazine in his Desert Eagle, he took a full sprint, barely having noticed that the giant humanoid had its large fists raised to pummel him to the ground, smashing wet concrete in the process, the thunderous reverberating sound of broken hard material flowing intensely within his ears.

He continued to run, his injury barely even putting a single sting over his arm, and simply focused on locating Ada. Leon took a quick glimpse over his shoulder and the beast was not falling behind just as easily as before. It was still walking towards him, but its steps were much bigger and heavier than his. One massive step was almost a few normal running steps ahead of him, and Leon had to think fast about what to do in order to impede Trenchy from following them. If anything, the huge monster didn't need to guess where they'd go anywhere in the city. If he had known where they'd been after having hidden from him before, there was no way of losing him.

Unless…

Leon heard a huge echoing sound of some machinery ahead through the dark room he'd entered. He guessed it must've been Ada activating something elsewhere and as he looked back once again, Trenchy was already catching up to him. Looking around in front of him near the suspended catwalks, there were loose hinges and cables on some parts of its group of connections that barely held the bridge in place. His quick steps had made the whole thing creak, but Trenchy's heavy steps were making the entire place raddle, almost as though his massive size and weight were more than enough to destroy the entire thing at any moment.

Must be out of my damn mind now…

He instinctively turned back around, aimed his magnum at one of the loose joints on the left, and fired.

One shot and it was enough to cause a chain reaction of the entire catwalk bridge to start collapsing in on itself. One of Trenchy's enormous steps had been enough to make him fall into the darkness below them and Leon did not wait to sit around and guess whether or not he was going to come back from the fall itself. As the entire set of catwalks started to break and fall, Leon ran as much as he could, adrenaline pumping, his mind only focused on the light ahead of the opened door that was no more than ten meters away. Pieces of wood and metal were breaking apart, wires snapping loudly within the echoing chamber, and after a heavy rumbling that seemed to come from Trenchy's heavy fall, he was already on stable ground. He'd almost lost his footing, had he not thrown himself out of there to safety just in time when he did.

"Damn," he cursed loudly, grunting as the pain from his injury was coming back to him. "Too close for comfort."

"Leon," Ada's voice was barely audible. He looked up and saw her holding out a hand to help him up. "You okay?"

Leon hesitated for a moment, trying his best not to feel some sort of anger and betrayal from her. How could she have left him behind like that? What was so much more important than dealing with Trenchy first? Was she scared? Had she known where Sherry was?

He decided not to take her hand in defiance, looking up at her with a piercing look, scanning her carefully. But after a short moment, there was something about her that made him feel…calmer. She had a concerned look on her smooth features, her almond-shaped eyes not swaying anywhere else. He felt like he was in some sort of trance, a place he could not escape from, the feelings of betrayal and bitterness slowly fading away. His mind was racing to find answers as to why he felt the way he did. However, he didn't have to wait for long before the sharp stings of pain reminded him that he was neither dead nor in a bad dream.

"Man, it still stings like hell," he said, touching his left upper arm carefully as he looked back at his injury.

Ada crouched down in front of him, her face slowly forming a reassuring smile at him.

"I'm sure we can find you some pain relievers once we find Umbrella's secret lab," she said, not taking her gaze away from him. "You know, you're probably the only officer I met that's done more alone than an entire police force combined, and trust me, that's saying something."

Leon couldn't help but smile in return, almost forgetting about the number of times she's left him behind. After all, he didn't expect her to help him out as if she were a colleague of his. He was simply just doing his job as an officer.

"Thanks," he said softly, slowly standing up as Ada grabbed him gently, trying to prevent him from hurting himself in the process. "So…where are we again?"

There was a hissing sound of a large mechanism from somewhere in the rather huge room they were in. Ada turned around and walked over to what seemed to be a loading dock. As Leon followed her through the corner, he saw what had been making those sounds from before. It was a suspended cable car, a tram that had been called to their location. Leon's jaw dropped slightly, amazed at the environment around him.

So, Umbrella must've used all this to do their illegal activities, all of it underground…

…and right beneath the busy streets of Raccoon.

"How is it that they had all this underground…without the authorities knowing?" he said in awe, still staring at the tram system as Ada walked closer to the opened doors on its side.

"Welcome to cooperate America," she said casually, gesturing at the cable car itself. "You do realize that Umbrella's controlled Raccoon City for years, right?"

"Well…yeah. I used to live here back when I was a kid," he said, following Ada inside the tram. "I just didn't know they'd be in some pretty deep waters about…you know…everything that's happened recently."

Ada pressed a red button inside, closing the doors, and the tram was now headed into what Leon presumed to be the location of Umbrella's underground lab if Ben's scribbles were anything to follow up with.

"So, how is it that you know you're way around?" he said, scrutinizing her with a raised eyebrow, not exactly paying much attention to the various holes inside the tram that overlooked the darkness above them. "With what happened back there, it seemed like you knew this place already existed. What gives?"

Ada glanced up at him, her gaze as unfaltering as ever. "I found a map when I was chasing after the woman who shot you. It showed a tram network that connected the sewers and the lab itself," her eyes darted above the broken ceiling, surveying the place as she continued. "My boyfriend, John, used to work for Umbrella. Back then, I was so naive to think they were working for the greater good of humanity, making medicines that could cure the incurable, but…as you can now tell, it didn't end well for anyone involved. Found out recently that he's dead, and Ben probably knew already before any of this mess ever began. Umbrella had him killed to silence him I suppose."

Leon was still gazing at her intently, still not quite sure if he believed her whole story. Though he was feeling sympathetic about her finding out that her boyfriend had been dead all along. How she came to find out was up for debate, but he didn't bother asking her a sensitive question like that either.

Trying not to think much of it, he looked elsewhere, taking in the tram's empty environment for the first time. The ground was littered with debris. There was dust that could only seem to have come through the ceiling containing various rips, dents, and holes all around as if something powerful had been trying to get inside. Then, something clicked inside his mind, making him shiver in fear.

I hope it wasn't David and Claire that had to deal with whatever caused all this…

…and Sherry? Have they managed to find her yet?

He walked closer to the windows, inspecting what little light he could see from the loading dock that they were on earlier. He wished he didn't make the terrible mistake of destroying the catwalks, preventing any of them from ever accessing the tram. He'd be feeling extremely guilty if it had been the case, but considering they hadn't seen David or Claire come back to the sewer tunnels, he hoped they were already ahead of them, along with Sherry, and looking for a way out of the city by now.

"Where do you think David and Claire are right now?" he asked suddenly, still looking back at the dimming light of the loading dock.

"If they'd come through here, I'd say they're probably already inside the labs. I'm sure they already found Sherry as well. According to the map I found earlier, the whole sewer system isn't as big as it seems, at least the section in which we all came from so I'm fairly confident that they are all ahead of us."

Ada's statement eased his nerves a bit, and both of them waited for the trip to finish, with Leon hoping they could finally reunite together and escape the city alive.

The elevator hummed as various rows of white lights shined everywhere once every couple of seconds, bathing the whole platform in both light and darkness at a time. David was feeling nervous, almost scared of finding out the true cause of the elevator quaking, and he still had to walk to the other side of the platform in order to see what it really was that landed on it, even though his mind was already screaming the answer at him.

It has to be William…Sherry's father. Who else?

Just deal with it like before. He'd grown claws, but as long as you keep your distance, you should be fine.

Immediately after, he thought about the potential reality of the tall, humanoid being in the green trench coat he'd faced back in the STARS office; Mr. X, as Claire called it, which in some way, was a better fitting name than "Trenchy". Could it be possible that it was also stalking them all the way here? There was no sound anywhere, other than the large turntable descending further below the surface, still making him feel quite unsure about who or what it really was that caused the whole lift to shake.

He slowly began to walk forward when all of a sudden, there was another powerful jolt around the elevator, the screech of metal generating sparks across the working gears of the platform itself, and a dark shadow appeared atop the roof of the train car. David snapped the shotgun up, but what he saw made his whole body paralyzed in calcifying fear. In the second it took to grasp what he was really seeing, his determination to rid of their elevator problem blew away into so much dust, it was replaced by a feeling of bone-chilling dread that froze his blood into ice.

Holy shit…

The thing that used to be William Birkin was still shrieking, its head shifting back in a violent burst of muscle tearing, the brutal, guttural screaming like the voice of a damned soul moving in the dark. If anyone asked if it used to be a man, it'd be almost impossible to tell anymore. The arms and legs were growing, puncturing bone and flesh as they expanded in huge muscle mass - shreds of clothing still hung from its massive body. Anything else that resembled human had changed, still mutating as it bellowed a howling rage of fury and pain into the cold black and white shades of light, and David could only stare in horror.

Its body was swelling, ripping apart flesh as it grew strange muscles, the bare chest bloating with its endless, piercing scream. Its enlarged arm grew even more, widening and elongating as the blood-encrusted claws kept ripping through its tangled mass of bone and flesh, bulging out violently from the pulsating hand. The tiny pair of taloned arms that were glued within its body had grown and detached, limping across like the arms of a melded dead man's body. The bulbous, regrown tumor on its right bicep was growing considerably, the yellow eyeball jerking wildly as if searching…

…and the horrific scream was no different. It, too, was changing, getting deeper, rougher, and more inhuman. The fuzzy face was still moving forward, shifting into its chest like hot melting candle wax, like a CGI movie effect…and the creature's head combined itself smoothly into its inflamed fleshy body, almost disappearing inside. At the same time, another face was growing, another head forming like a shapeshifter, shedding what little skin was left as it protruded out of the steaming body where the former head once was - rising with a horrible snapping sound like breaking bone.

Eyes in the form of slits cracked open, a bony red hole of a mouth forming almost vertically over the face, overshadowing the gurgling cry with a new voice of its own…

…and David somehow managed to shake himself out of the petrifying terror. He had enough, squeezing the trigger in denial, a denial of the monster's ungodly existence.

BOOM!

The shot hit its pulsating body, resonating loudly throughout the entire dark shaft, and a thick, purplish liquid sprayed out, no longer containing any trace of the color of its former human blood. It cut off the creature's newly changed, growling screaming, but that was all the shot managed to do. The monster's new face glanced over at David menacingly, the unholy domed head tilting…

…and the creature hopped down onto the platform itself. David quickly dodged out of its way as the elevator shook once again, but this time, more violently than ever, and the thing had landed half-crouched with legs that were as wide as David's entire chest. (BGM #3 - The Second Malformation of "G")

One jump and it was close enough for David to smell the new, strange chemical musk that emanated from its glistening malformed body, close enough to see where the shot had hit it. The wounds on its chest had stopped bleeding. The bizarre flesh was eating up the tiny holes made to it…

…and the creature began to raise its sharp claw and David stumbled backward, pumping another shell, and fired as the talons came rushing down…

Shhink!

…and bright sparks from the metal rail shined in the second it took for the darkness to envelop them. The shot had blasted into the creature's stomach, more of the steaming purplish liquid gushing out of its body. He'd hit it almost point-blank range and yet the creature was barely fazed by it, if at all. The towering, hulking monster drew its claw back, taking another step as David backed away as quickly as he could, pumping another shell…

…and he tripped over the railing on a twisting path, falling on his ass as he took a wrong step, hurting his ankle, and the round he shot had missed the creature entirely just above the tip of its bullet-shaped head.

There was no time to finish pumping another shell. One more step and it'd be on him, ready to impale him with its giant claw. He struggled to stand up, his right ankle stinging him with huge pulsating pain, and stumbling backward wasn't going to be enough to evade the incoming attack.

This is it for me…

…except it wasn't. There was a huge blinding bolt of electricity that had come across from the other side, the sound so empowering, he could barely hear the screams of pain from the creature that stood only a few meters away from him. It had stunned the creature in place as the blue bolt disappeared as quickly as it came, discharging what could've been massive amounts of voltage power toward it. The thing growled in a feral, gurgling fury as it turned to face the one who was responsible for the damage it endured.

"Over here, you freak!"

Claire Redfield had just saved his life from certain doom, the weapon she's recently acquired having done quite the unexpected, but the monster now had its sights on her, bellowing as it began to take huge strides toward her.

"Claire!" David shouted desperately as he stood up, struggling to keep his balance through the rumbling platform, ignoring the pain in his ankle. "Watch out for its—!"

Claire fired another shot, and a spark of lightning came from the huge weapon itself, enveloping Birkin with blue powerful sparks of raging electric energy, burning through its flesh as it staggered once more, singed bits of organic matter falling off from its massive malformed body. David could see that the weapon she held had such a huge knockback, it almost seemed as though it had been taking all of her strength to keep herself from falling down.

Another blinding light from the spark shot, another deafening sound, and yet the creature was now meters away from Claire, its flesh turning into a dark, greenish color as pieces of its mangled mass of flesh kept coming off, the last remaining bits of its clothing withering away into gray ash.

With a desperate attempt to return the favor, David aimed the Remington at an eyeball that was on the back of its huge left shoulder and fired. A burst of yellow and purple liquids sputtered out, causing the creature to crouch down in pain, twitching in the most revolting way possible as another ear-shattering spark of blue lightning hit it once more, causing its body to steam furiously as it screamed a bone-chilling, demonic growl of agonizing pain and complete madness…

…and in a sudden turn of unexpected surprise, the huge beast leaped elsewhere, right past a series of red lights that crossed over the platform with what could only seem to be a ventilation shaft of some sort. And immediately after, darkness began to settle in once again.

For a moment, neither David nor Claire moved at all, both of them simply staring at each other with terrified looks in their eyes, too busy wondering what the hell just happened, too busy trying to understand how they were still alive or why it let them live after receiving the amount of inflicted damage set upon it. It had been regenerating lost tissue when it had crouched and it could've easily dragged on the fight until they were finished off for good, which meant it must've smelled or sensed something elsewhere, most likely inside the large passing vents.

"Is it… is it gone? Is it over?" Claire said tiredly, her body still shaking either as a result of the large weapon itself or the fear that had settled inside her. David thought it could've been both.

He grabbed the railing next to him, the pain in his ankle starting to settle in once again as he grunted for a small moment in response.

"I sure as hell hope so… At least for now," he said as he struggled slightly to move without the help of the railings beside him. He walked closer to Claire and put out a hand to help her up as she had been leaning against the steps that led directly to the train car. "Thanks for bailing me out back there. If it weren't for you, I'd probably be dead twice over."

Claire took his hand gratefully as she stood up, her eyes quickly darting to his right foot, noticing he had been dragging it slightly as he walked toward her.

"Did it get you?" she said, her voice quivering with growing concern. "How bad is it—?"

"Just a sprained ankle," David responded quickly, trying to sound more relaxed about it than he let on. "Nothing a few pills won't fix - how's Sherry doing?"

Claire looked at the door to their side, frowning.

"She's still out of it," she said gloomily. "I was about to see if I could do something to help her wake, but then I heard something on the roof - everything shook and then I heard something tear, growl, and… and then gunshots… Next thing I know, I had this feeling that you needed my help - so I just…I did what I could."

The lift around them was starting to slowly come to a halt as the darkness in the environment began to clear in a flash of glowing lights when a series of muffled coughs inside the train car erupted, and then they heard a familiar, but weak voice.

"D-David? Cl…Claire?"

"Sherry!" both of them exclaimed at once and the duo immediately rushed inside to her aid.

Not long after, an emotionless female disembodied voice began to greet them from within the railcar.

"Welcome to NEST. Please remember to wear your ID badge at all times. Thank you, and have a good day."

Author's Note: We've arrived at Umbrella's lab, where a lot will happen…

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, from Mr. X stalking Leon and Ada to Birkin's second transformation. Not to mention the little inner conflicted feelings between David and Claire. I'm not quite sure I nailed the interactions between the two, but hopefully, it's helped enough to strengthen their overall relationship regardless, especially after dealing with G-Birkin together. As for Leon and Ada, it's always felt like a love-hate relationship between the two, and I think I made it show between this and the previous chapter hehe.

From here on out, it's only going to get more intense…

Anyway, I'll see you all next chapter! And for those of you who already preordered RE4 Remake or plan on buying it soon enough, I hope you'll have a blast!