OldGlory - I actually hadn't put much thought on Adler. To be honest with you, I never really liked his character. He just didn't stick with me as much as other characters did, though now that you mention it, I might try to include him at some point in the overall story arc since it would only make sense if Bell was anywhere doing "shady things" and Adler being right behind his heels. And to answer your question, I saved Park on my first playthrough because who wouldn't? I did do a second playthrough and saved Lazar next while being loyal to the CIA since my friend that was watching me play the game for the first time told me to betray the CIA first, and forced me to kill two of my most favorite characters of the franchise…
Adam Luck - I'm so happy you liked it! Really appreciate the support! Also, the whole twist with Bell was just a random idea that popped into my head when I first wrote the last chapter. I didn't really think much of it at first, but now that you actually made me see some awesome potential with it, I might end up continuing his part of the story over the next sequel! When you think about it, it does make sense for Birkin to be disposed of by Perseus since in my last story, Kravchenko was worried about Birkin ratting him out about his true intentions, either to the Umbrella higher-ups or the US government, hence the reason why. Damn... I didn't even think about this underlying connection, until now. LOL! Guess, I subconsciously knew all along.
Also, I actually thought Task Force 141 was just a UK thing, not necessarily spanning internationally with the best of the best soldiers all around. With that new info in mind, I seriously need to catch up on the MW series, especially the reboot since I suspect that after Cold War, both Black Ops and MW reboot are connected, all thanks to the multiplayer/Warzone cutscenes, as well as one or two characters from MW making a cameo in CW as well. I might bring some MW characters into this crossover, but that will most likely be AFTER Code Veronica. I'm still not quite sure about David's future either so that will eventually come to fruition at some point.
Oh, and you're good, man! I sold my MW19 copy that came with my PS4 Pro because the game simply didn't catch my attention enough after having played a lot of CoD games that felt underwhelming for a long time since BO2 (with the exception of BO3 zombies). Seeing the reviews and praise for the game's campaign really did make me regret selling it, though I did get enough to upgrade my PC's RAM that I really needed when I previously had just 6GB instead of 16GB.
I've been thinking about the whole "Harper" similarity between Helena, Deborah, and Mike. Could really make a good plot point for RE6 against Simmons, not gonna lie. I've also been thinking about Javier Salazar from BO2. Like making him a distant relative to the Salazar family from RE4. Just a thought, but a really nice one as well. As with Menendez, I'm still trying to think where he'll fit in too, but again, this would all be post-Code Veronica, which I have nothing planned ahead of that as of right now. We'll see!
Recommended BGM:
1. Resident Evil 2 (1998) & Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - Escape From Laboratory/Escape From the Laboratory (David's part)
2. Resident Evil 2 (Remake) - Expansion (Claire's Part)/Collapse (Leon's Part)
3. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles & Resident Evil 2 (Remake) - (SPOILER) Watch for BOLD TEXT below
Chapter 22
David never felt so alive and vivid with a kiss before until now. His first kiss with a girl he met back in high school wasn't as exuberant as with Claire. It was one of those days when he dreaded going back home, to meet with his father and uncle for a long, tiresome training day, and he was never in the mood for relationships since then. He even lashed out at another girl who asked him out not long after he parted ways with the previous girl. After he last recalled the situation, he felt deeply ashamed that he became afraid of ever expressing his feelings toward anyone, and Claire was the only person he had ever confided to in all his life, even about his troubled past.
He was still standing inside the West Area hallway, seeing the ground absently in which a strange purple vial was destroyed, laying its contents dripping over the polished floor. He hadn't had the time to notice it before, but it looked vaguely similar to one of the G-Virus samples he'd seen on the videotape before, though it didn't really matter to him. He was still left appalled at what he could've possibly done wrong prior to Claire leaving. Did he pull her too hard on the kiss as they pressed their lips together? Was it not right for him to have given in? Mike Harper had always told him that if he wanted a girl to be kept satisfied, it was simply to give in to his internal feelings and listen to his instincts.
Coming from someone who had multiple failed relationships, and yet you're still taking his advice… you're surely coming out as complicated now… just like Harper himself.
He couldn't believe he was now thinking about his best friend. It felt like ages ago when he left their place without telling him a word about where he was going - when he last talked to him on the phone booth before he encountered his very first zombie, not counting the one he barely saw down the dark road. After this was all over, there was so much he'd have to talk about, and if possible, he could introduce him to Claire. He imagined himself holding hands with her, hanging out as they had late-night dinners together, kissing and embracing one another after a long day, and then going back home, taking turns taking care of…
Sherry!
As if there was an invisible force behind him to steer and push him into action, he spurred around and without any additional thought, he dashed towards the exit of the West Area corridor, leaving Annette's body behind as the cacophonous alarm around him continued to honk with persistence.
David began to rush through the connected paths inside the main shaft, which formed a shape similar to that of a spider web, trying to recall the entrance from which he and Claire had first entered.
Before he could even turn anywhere inside the center, there was a loud thud from behind him and instinctively, he weaved out of the way, and a sharp piece of flying metallic debris let out a loud BANG, and the entire main power of the whole place instantly went away, rebooting the whole system with a backup generator that was housed elsewhere in the NEST.
Goddammit, what now?!
He turned around to look at the source of where the giant piece of debris flew from.
And there it was… The familiar, demonic head of the G mutant that had taken over William Birkin's humanity had risen into view inside the main generator of the NEST, its appearance giving out an astounding ferocious shock that had paralyzed him once again for a good second.
"Your ass again?!" he said defiantly as he stood up, taking out his short-barreled Remington as fast as he could, aiming at it directly into its giant, red eyeball that continued to regenerate from its previous battle, claws being drawn back as it bellowed an inhuman, predatory scream that no existing ordinary animal could produce.
It wasn't long before he began to shoot at the mutated William Birkin and the dull, emotionless voice in the background began to announce something louder than before.
"Minimum safe distance countdown initiated. East Area lockdown complete.
All employees must evacuate to the bottom platform, immediately. You have five minutes to reach minimum safe distance."
The shots tore down at its giant eyeball on the enlarged bicep, some of which had also hit the exposed chest in an explosive burst of steaming liquids, its lab coat already completely burnt out by Claire's spark shot weapon from before. The G mutant screamed in rage, the eyeball still twitching, making David fall back as it swung its arm across the main generator where the fuse was located, barely missing him by a hair.
Shit! Gotta get out before he destroys my only way out of here!
Realizing that the lockdown could reach other places in the lab, along with the capability of G-Birkin being able to destroy the main fuse and any other suspended platform, he ran swiftly out of the main center part of the shaft, taking a detour back to the West Area in order to lead G-Birkin away from Sherry's location. By this point, he hoped that Leon and Ada had arrived at the lab somewhere, having somehow noticed that Sherry needed someone to be with her right now.
Just as he was starting to rely on his flourishing hopes, they were quickly destroyed the moment he saw that the door to the West Area refused to open automatically, apparently jammed in place.
"Are you shitting me?!" he exclaimed loudly as he tapped quickly on the mechanical door in vain. "It's East that's in lockdown, not fucking West!"
And immediately, another painful realization hit him inside his mind like an intense shockwave of defeat.
The bellowing creature somehow knew that knocking down the generator would mean trapping him inside the main shaft, the remaining exits requiring the main generator to work, making sure he wouldn't escape anywhere.
That thing had to be wise for all the wrong reasons…
Looking around his back, he quickly noticed that the mutated beast was now rushing at him, bony claws being prepared to swipe at his flesh, to rip him into pieces…
…and in an instant, the ghoulish creature used its muscular legs to jump what must've been several feet high into the air, about twice David's own height, and for a split second, David was able to clearly see William's former self, his frozen agonized face still nastily embedded inside the creature's chest.
David gasped and yelped in both shock and terror as he ran forward, shooting it once at its swollen eyeball, and immediately, he dove to the ground as the creature stumbled, hitting the platform as it shook the whole thing. The howling, rasping voice of the creature that had overtaken William's body echoed as loudly as the dry, female voice ringing in the shadows. The eyeball in its huge bicep had apparently burst in a combined mixture of steaming liquids altogether.
He was about to pump in another shell when he realized that the shotgun's barrel was now empty, cursing at himself for having forgotten to reload his weapon previously when all of his remaining shells were still inside his drawstring bag. It would take so much of his time to start trying to reload his weapon so instead, he opted to swap to his handgun, taking aim at the same eyeball on its back he once had taken out before and shot at it twice.
The creature screeched another deafening roar, and before he knew it, the G mutant had finally collapsed on the ground, twitching slightly for a brief moment, and then, it stopped moving. A thick purple liquid of its ferocious body started oozing out from underneath, creating a pool of its own, alien-like blood. The only sounds inside the room were the blaring alarm and the persistent, cold voice in the dark, shadowy background.
"... are four minutes to reach minimum safe distance. All employees must evacuate to the bottom platform, immediately…
Repeat. Self-destruct sequence has been activated…"
Out in the stairway, there was a giant plant, which moved somewhat similarly to the vines attached to the plant zombie from before, but Claire did not slow down one bit to stop and look at it for even a second. She had been lucky that the plant didn't bother to do anything to her as she climbed down a series of small grated stairs, the bleating alarm and icy voice of the self-destruct sequence forcing her to move without stopping…
…until something fell from above, slapping the grated ground with a wet-like thud.
No!
A plant, which was somehow shaped like a humanoid with its entire body made up of vines, began to stand up in front of her. Its vines for arms were swinging wildly as the flower-shaped head slowly lowered and twisted itself down to face her, revealing its large, green mandibles from the flower itself. It began to move towards Claire in a wet, slithering sound, much slower than your average zombie.
Claire had already grabbed for her spark shot and fired a powerful electric charge at the plant monster that perfectly matched the photo and description of Plant 43 itself. The plant twitched and churned violently as its vines combusted into small flames before it overcame the monster completely, letting out a dying gurgling squeal before finally becoming motionless on the ground, spilling out a green-like substance that seemed to be the digested nutrients of the plant monster itself.
"Gross!" she blurted out in revulsion, skipping over the plant monster as she hurried toward the door leading to the B5 corridor.
Inside, it reeked so much of death, Claire had to cover her nose from the horrible stench that emanated from the air around her. There was a large network of dead creatures everywhere, spanning from withered skeletal zombies to another type of the same alien-like creature from the RPD and Plant 43s.
God, I hope I'm going the right way. Hang in there, Sherry. I'm getting your treatment, no matter what it takes…
The thought of Sherry writhing in pain due to her parents' work on a virus that seemed to threaten humanity's own existence kept driving her insane. Ever since she learned about David and Sherry's childhood struggles, it made her develop a deep sense of sympathy for both of them, so much so, it caused her to develop a painful knot in her stomach that had been catching up to her throat every time she thought about it, and she'd blame herself if she did nothing about it in return, especially now that Sherry needed help more than ever.
As she hurried along the way, barely having noticed a closed shutter with a computer panel that blinked a red light, the whole lab seemed to shake violently for a moment once again and as a result, the lights around the hall flickered in and out of existence before keeping themselves with steady lighting once again. Not long after, the voice in the background was now telling her she had five minutes to reach a minimum safe distance out of the place, while also announcing that the entire East Area is in complete lockdown. To what extent the required minimum safe distance was, she did not know, but all the more reason to hurry up with Sherry's vaccine, now going inside a room that looked as though it was another security room of sorts.
A large series of monitors were set up against the wall on the other side of the room. Most of them seemed out of order, but just as quickly as she began to scan anything of importance, something moved in one of the working screens.
Claire looked up carefully, watching someone standing in front of a pair of hydraulic doors with their head hanging down, someone in blue, bandaged with dried blood that looked like…
"Leon!" she said out loud in excitement and surprise. She looked down at the set of controls and decided to figure out how the whole thing worked. She managed to turn on the microphone that lay in front of her and hoped that the system had audio for both ways. "Leon, can you hear me? It's me, Claire!"
She saw Leon looking around in confusion for a moment before finally looking up at the camera facing him.
"Claire? Is that really you?"
Yes! It works!
Joy rushed through her veins, and she felt like she wanted to cry herself in relief to see that Leon was down here with them, alive.
"You have no idea how good it is to see you here!" she said enthusiastically. However, she noticed that Ada wasn't with him and wondered. "Where's Ada? I thought she would've been with you after we got separated in the sewers."
"Ada, she…" Leon slowly looked down at the ground again, reluctant to answer her question, and Claire already knew in the back of her mind what it was the moment he hesitated to say anything back.
"Oh, Leon… I'm — "
"Are David and Sherry with you?" he asked quickly as he raised his head again towards the camera before giving her the chance to say anything relating to Ada.
"David's gone to stay with Sherry, but…" she looked up at the ceiling, noticing there were faint rumbling noises coming from above as dust came falling down over her head and shoulders, and then, she had an ominous feeling growing inside her like a harmful parasite trying to take over her logical thinking.
"Claire? You still there?"
Leon snatched her back into rational thought again. As the alarm around her continued, she grabbed the microphone, leaned down, and proceeded to plead to Leon.
"Sherry's inside the security office near the turntable lift. I don't know if David has caught himself in deep trouble right now, but please… you have to stay with Sherry, at least until David gets back, and wait for me down the bottom platform til then."
"Wait! Where are you?!" he said in a panic. "What are you planning to do?"
"I'm getting Sherry's vaccine and I'm not leaving until I do," she said fearlessly. "I'm counting on you!"
Without waiting for a response, she turned off the audio system and left in a hurry, now feeling fairly confident that Sherry will be in safe hands, either by David, Leon, or both.
Now rushing towards the other automatic door, it tried opening itself, but to no avail. It moved, but something kept it from moving all the way up.
Why now of all times?!
Feeling a rush of pure adrenaline, she grabbed the door from below with both hands and pulled it up with all her might, grunting and struggling to force it open until it finally gave away, though not before throwing up some kind of nasty sticky-like substance from above, hurling out an unsettling smell in the process as well.
Claire closed her eyes slightly as she put an arm over her nose once again.
"Eugh! What the — ?! What is this…!?"
As she focused her gaze closer inside the corridor, whatever filled the whole area was something out of a terrible sci-fi horror movie.
A thick web-like substance had embedded itself all over the hall, covering every exposed surface from the ground, walls, and ceiling, leaving nothing spared from the horrors of the slimy substance. The goo around the place smelled like blood and vomit, with eggs the size of human heads attached to the ceiling and wall to her right, some of which seemed to have already been hatched.
What could've done all this?
There were many possibilities, some of which she thought could've been the nest of the larva both she and David had seen coming out of Irons' body, though it would've been impossible since all of that took place inside the RPD basement and in the sewers, yet the amount of time it would've taken for one larva to make would've been days, maybe weeks. Whatever the case was, she hoped there weren't more of them in the lab, let alone anything else that resembled a viral mutant she had yet to discover…
Stepping over the disgusting substance, she proceeded on, trying to hold her breath for as much as she could, each step becoming a struggle as the sticky stuff clung to her stained boots in wet streams.
Okay… just think about Sherry's vaccine. P4-Lab could be here for all you know…
Feeling more determined, she hurried along, stopping at an intersection.
To her right was a small group of larvae, all of them wiggling about through the green-like substance across the covered surfaces. They looked abnormally large, about the size of her whole hand, but Claire could not tell what type of insect species could it be when most larvae looked about the same without any known significant difference. However, she feared what type of insect it was that had birthed them all. Mutant or not, they looked big enough to potentially grow into something huge and fearsome, not daring to even imagine the type of creatures either the t-Virus or the G-Virus could bring into this world other than the kind she had already faced beforehand.
Feeling already entirely revolted at the mere thought, she turned away, looking to her left…
"OH-MY-GOD!" she shrieked out of dread and terror.
What seemed to be a moth, or a giant moth, was hanging itself from the wall ahead, surrounded by a group of dead human corpses, all of which were covered in some kind of weird webbing. Some of their faces looked agonized and mummified as if they all suffered a slow, painful death. At that instant, most of her recent questions had been answered at the horrifying sight of the giant insect, which began to drop itself down in response to Claire's high-pitched voice of torment, making a loud wet thud.
The behemoth creature soon began to flap its wings in great succession, its wingspan looking as though it could compare to the largest wingspan of a bat, about over five feet wide. Not looking forward to what the creature had in store for her, she aimed at it with the spark shot weapon and fired without hesitation. The giant moth gave out a squealing cry soon after it was hit with the electric spark that enveloped its entire body for a fraction of a second. Its wide yellowish body struggled to hover over the ground as it began to raise its mouth and spit some kind of acid at her.
Claire stumbled backward, the sticky substance making her struggle to move anywhere, but got herself lucky when the acid barely hit the ground just several inches away from where she stood, melting away a small puddle of the green-like stuff. As soon as the giant creature had gained control over its ability to keep its enlarged body off the ground, Claire raised her spark shot weapon again and fired a second electric spark, the gooey substance beneath her feet holding her in place from the powerful knockback of the thundering weapon itself.
The second shock was enough for the creature to lose momentum in the air, its wings singeing in smoking bits as its body finally collapsed to the ground in a large thud, the high-pitched squeal sounding more disturbing than ever.
"There are four minutes to reach minimum safe distance. All employees must evacuate to the bottom platform, immediately."
Glad that the insect was now seemingly dead, she looked upward, seeing the barely visible label on top of a set of doors to the left.
P-4 LABORATORY
This must be it!
As she tried to hurry along, a few of the larvae that hung in the ceiling above her fell on top of her right shoulder and a couple over her hair, making her shake and squeak in disgust as she swiped them off of her. The larvae left some sort of warm ichorous liquid on her clothing and hair, and she tried her best to wipe herself off as much as she could, even after finally entering the room she needed to go to.
David was still aiming his Glock directly at it, still quite unsure whether or not G-Birkin was really dead. In his experience inside Raccoon City, he learned that not everything you kill can stay dead, and the G creature was exactly the living proof he had. Even the zombies themselves were proof of the living dead anyway, and he managed to learn that the hard way the moment he arrived at the outskirts of the city.
After several passing moments, he slowly lowered his gun, trembling at the mere sight of the ungodly creature, of the thing he had to deal with for what seemed to be the millionth time. He was feeling exhausted, but he knew he had to keep going. The countdown timer was still flying like a jet, and even though it only mentioned a minimum safe distance countdown, he didn't even know just how big the explosion would be or how fast or slow their way out of there could be, keeping him more on edge about the thought than he was already feeling.
Right. Get the hell out of here somehow. Sherry's still waiting…
Feeling the rush of the best hurry, he stashed away his sidearm and grabbed his bag to pull out all of the remaining shells and magazines to put away in his pouch on his utility belt, and started to reload his shotgun before putting on the now-empty bag and sprinting toward the main generator, trying to figure out whether or not it was beyond repair. He took several seconds to scan the whole thing thoroughly, trying to see if there was a way to reboot the main system when a cracked panel in the corner of his eye managed to catch his attention, flashing a few words in red.
MAIN GENERATOR OFFLINE
PRESS ENTER TO REBOOT THE SYSTEM
David pressed the "ENTER" button without hesitation, hoping that the whole thing was still intact. The main generator started to reboot, announcing that it would take approximately a full minute to do so, much to his annoyance. The countdown to self-destruct was not slowing down and the reboot process seemed to take hours, maybe years to finish…
…and then, something moved, something began to growl, a terrible, horrific scream, adorned with the snapping of bone and tearing wet tissue. In the back of his panicked mind, David knew the source of the frightening and ominous sounds, though he did not want to accept it.
Taking several steps to peek out at the West Area passageway, he gasped and saw, to his absolute horror, the body of William Birkin continuing to mutate as the creature stood to a crawl, malformed to extremities he could not have ever dreamed of in all of his terrible nightmares.
No… how - how is this possible!?
The creature was overgrown in size, no longer wearing any clothes as it tore it all away, a dreadful symbolization of William's dignity and humanity completely stripped away by the Golgotha creature. It continued to grow, bellowing that terrible, demonic scream, tearing flesh and muscle as it began to outstretch its two enlarged arms, both now proportional to one another. However, it had grown another pair of limbs, the former, detached arms replacing the original pair in its place, making a four-armed monster with legs that now looked more animal in nature than human.
The mutated beast was now standing, turning around as it howled and rasped with rage not even the foulest human being on earth could fathom. Its chest seemed to have grown a pulsating cluster of closed, sharp teeth, an aberration of an incomplete mouth that seemed to belong to a mythological sea creature. William's vestigial human face had shifted closer under the creature's front-left shoulder. It had shrunk in size so much, there was almost no remaining evidence that he used to own his own, malformed body.
The demonic being fixed its deadly gaze on David. It had grown an additional eyeball across its massive left leg, its slits on its porcelain white fleshless skull having expanded to make the glowing, red eyes more menacing, more frightening, resembling those of a skeletal reaper, almost as though he was looking at the reflection of the devil himself. The mouth had shifted to a horizontal position, forming a lipless, malicious grin that seemed to mock David's entire existence…
…and once again, David somehow managed to beat the paralyzing fear that drew inside him, not daring to face the monster any longer and deciding to rush to the nearest door the creature had yet to block, hoping for a way of escape, hoping to escape this never-ending nightmare. (BGM #3 - The Third Mutation of "G"/Third Demise)
He reached the main exit that led towards the turntable, somehow hoping he could leave the monster inside, and much to his horror, he realized just how mistaken he was.
Forgot that the whole system is still rebooting!
And just as it hit him, the vast, towering G creature slammed onto the platform in front of him, landing just a few feet away from him. David staggered slightly, panting in shock and exhaustion as he steered away towards the connected platform that led to the red-colored passageway, feeling the air behind him getting ripped apart by a vast, powerful swipe that managed to hit the railing beside him. The screeching noise of bone and metal striking violently nearby, made him realize the seriousness of the situation he was in. All four of the G-mutant's hands were equipped with giant deadly talons that could chop him up like a T-bone steak if he wasn't careful enough.
After having narrowly escaped the powerful strike, his uncle's voice started to emerge from within his mind.
"You find yourself in a life or death situation where you think all is lost, never give up. Use your enemy's strong points against them. Never fails to make'em underestimate you. How do you think me and your ol'man did it?"
"Except, you never had to deal with actual monsters before at the time," he said breathlessly as he continued to run around the main shaft, making sure to put enough distance away from the creature. "And it's gotten you killed in the end…"
He wished his uncle was here, to help him and Claire, or at least be with Sherry, protect her the way he protected him from his brainwashed father.
The thought of his uncle was somehow making his senses sharpened, more alert, and as he stopped at the East Area passageway, he saw that the evolved G-creature was moving onto him, ready to finish him off. Quickly, he aimed the Remington directly at its newly formed eyeball on its muscular left thigh, and fired, stumbling backward as he did so.
The shotgun pellets all missed it when the G mutant began to jump higher than it did before, and without even thinking, David rolled to his side so fast, he hit himself in the head painfully over the ground. As his body toppled to the cold metal floor leading inside the main generator, huge sparks were made by four bony claws impacting the railing that was next to him just less than a second ago, snapping apart like thin branches of a withered tree. The whole platform they were standing on felt like it was about to give in as well, making David rush back up to his feet and run elsewhere on the other side of the main shaft.
As he ran, the main generator finally burst to life, giving him some slight relief that he could finally get out of the main shaft, though with the grim realization that he had missed the announcement of the lady's voice, most likely having informed him that they only had under three minutes left of escape.
Better hurry with that vaccine, Claire…
The loss of Ada was still haunting his mind as Leon arrived in front of the security office. There was so much he had been wondering about her, mostly about who exactly she was working for.
Could it have been the CIA? A crime syndicate? Another pharmaceutical corporation secretly making bioweapons?
Leon shook all of it off his head.
Ada may be gone, but there was still Claire, David, and Sherry to worry about. He was at least glad that he only had to deal with a couple of brittle zombies that had come back alive from where he first broke into the lab. The elevator he used to go down had its lights flickering for several moments, which made him feel as though the lift was going to be his own tomb. Thankfully, it reached its destination without a hitch and the security office wasn't far from the exit either.
However, there was still the ominous feeling that something seriously wrong was happening on the other side of the door leading to the main shaft as he heard muffled shots and loud growls of a monster he didn't know anything about.
He tried everything in his power to break through the door, but nothing would force it open. The light above it was blinking in red, something Leon didn't know what it was all about.
Maybe David or Claire are inside dealing with whatever kind of shitshow this lab had to offer in surprise…
The whole area was shaking. Whether it was due to the unknown monster inside or the lab doing preparations to self-destruct soon, he did not know. Whatever the case, he hurried inside the security office, closed and locked the door from inside, and then he heard someone coughing weakly.
Leon looked to his side and saw Sherry, who was laying on her side, facing the wall on a sickbed.
"Sherry?" he said calmly. "It's Leon. I'm the police officer from the parking garage, remember?"
The girl shifted her body slowly to face him, and Leon gave a subtle gasp at her terrible condition. Sherry's face was drenched in sweat. It was extremely pale and gray, contorted in so much pain, he could almost feel it himself. Her left eye was entirely swollen with inflamed veins bulging out in a bright tinge of orange, the iris in her eye having changed to an orange-crimson color compared to her normal eye on her right. It reminded him of the monster's giant eyeball he and Ada fought against inside the sewers, feeling like it was a lifetime ago.
"Leon?" she said weakly as she tried to focus her frail gaze on him, seemingly struggling to see him clearly. "Is it really…you?"
Leon sat next to her, looking back at her as he tried forcing a soft smile. He tried his best to hide the fact that she was looking much worse than she might even realize.
"Claire sent me here to stay with you until David comes back, and then we can get you to a safer place. She's still getting your medicine as we speak."
He put a hand on Sherry's left palm and to his surprise, it felt so warm, almost as though her hand was burning itself. Instinctively, Leon checked for her temperature across her forehead and if his calculations weren't mistaken, it felt far worse than your typical fever, probably over one hundred ten degrees in Fahrenheit.
How is this poor girl still alive?
She was strong. That was the simple answer. And he admired Sherry's tenacity to keep herself as calm as possible, despite how horrible she must be feeling with her infection spreading throughout her body. If she wasn't giving up, there was no reason for him to do otherwise. He still had the duty to help those in need of protection and he felt like punching himself in the face for ever having considered the possibility of staying behind with Ada's body, letting the flames of the incoming self-destruct explosion consume him completely.
Leon looked back at Sherry, and his faint smile widened even more.
"You're one hell of a strong girl," he said admirably. "You know that, right?"
Sherry locked her gaze on him and managed to slowly form a grin.
"Thanks," she said with whatever enthusiasm she had left. "David and Claire told me that too."
"And with great reason," Leon continued, grinning back at her.
"What happened to you?" she said suddenly, coughing weakly afterward and pointing a finger at the bandaged injury he had on his left arm, barely being able to raise her hand to do so.
"Oh, this?" he said as he looked at his bandaged arm, almost having forgotten about the stings of pain he was used to getting by now. He decided not to tell her the full truth, considering that it was her own mother who shot him. "I was shot at by mistake. Someone thought I was one of those zombies. I'm fine though, don't worry about me."
Sherry didn't say anything back and Leon was partly glad that she didn't bother to ask him who was the person who shot him.
Then, something popped into his mind right away.
Oh, right!
He unzipped his pouch and slipped out Sherry's missing locket, the same locket Ada had in her hands previously, and he couldn't help but remember that fact alone when finally giving it back to its respectful owner, making him frown internally.
"I think this belongs to you," he said as he leaned closer to Sherry, wrapping the necklace around her neck and snapping the small golden chains in place.
Sherry looked at him slightly confused and switched her gaze to the golden piece that lay in her chest, examining it closely. After a small moment, she gave a soft smile.
"I thought I was never going to see this again," she said feebly. "Thank you, Leon… You, David, and Claire have done more for me than anyone else in my life…"
Leon nodded slowly at her silently, smiling back as he patted her shoulder carefully, feeling extremely miserable from the inside for the poor girl that was suffering needlessly.
Not long after, a dreadful silence took over the room, the alarm still blaring in the background as they waited for David's return, both of them hoping in silence that David and Claire will make it in time to help save her from her infection…
Dealing with a giant moth was one thing, but two of those nasty walking plant monsters waiting for her on the other side had made her appreciate insects more than actual plants altogether. Before Raccoon, she would've imagined walking plant humanoids to be a matter of pure science fiction. Even fictional, it would've most likely scared her in her sleep. How she would ever have a good night's rest after this was all over was something she thought would be ludicrous by this point.
After having gotten rid of the Plant 43s that were in her way with the last remaining charges of her spark shot, she turned back at one of the opened lockers, and to her relief, saw a well-preserved M79 grenade launcher with a stock and a pistol grip, coupled with a cartridge of six acid rounds. Knowing that a zero percent on the spark shot's voltage meter would be useless against anything in the near future, she put the large individual rounds inside her hip pouch for easier access, barely being able to fit them all in. She then switched her spark shot with the newly acquired grenade launcher, examining it for a brief moment as one round was already inserted in. Nodding at this, she put the M79's strap over one shoulder, hoping she wouldn't have to test out her new weapon any time soon. Though she knew this would be an eventual inevitably, knowing what was currently at stake.
Okay… just a bit over three minutes left and we can finally get out of here.
She hurried along inside the same lab in which Birkin's attempted murder took place, looking around for any sign of danger before walking closer to the blood-covered terminal at the back of the lab. To her right side, there was a large, empty tank filled with a clear greenish-like liquid and she wondered if there were any experiments held inside prior to everything that has happened since.
Claire rushed forward and stopped. She gazed mindlessly at the huge machine for a moment, noticing all of the empty slots from which the t-Virus and the G-Virus were extracted by Birkin himself. She couldn't stop but put her mind into an alternate reality from which the scientist wouldn't have gotten his hands on the viruses at all in the first place. What would've happened if he would've simply have left them alone, or what if they were never invented? None of the disasters she had seen firsthand wouldn't have happened, the doctor wouldn't have turned into a hideous monster, and his daughter would've been completely fine, probably spending more time with her, if anything. Sure, it would've meant Claire would have never met Sherry in the first place or even David and Leon for that matter, but it would've been far better than people having to deal with a zombie apocalypse on their hands.
No. No time to be pondering. Get that vaccine ready!
Wasting no more time, she took out the base vaccine and inserted it inside the only empty slot out of the machine itself, assuming it would have to be it. After it encased the vaccine inside, she pressed a green button to her left and the huge machine began to do its thing, humming like a running vacuum cleaner inside a noisy freezer as it rumbled loudly. She saw the vaccine inside as the machine began adding a green-colored agent to the mixture before it began to cryofreeze the entire liquid for several moments.
During this time, she decided to explore some of the documents scattered on the other side of the lab. Most of them seemed to have been thrown carelessly, probably as a result of the raid that had happened inside by Umbrella and Perseus themselves. She quickly scanned through the first one she could get her hands on, which was a map of the NEST itself.
No wonder why it's called the NEST. Looks like an actual nest by the looks of it, like a hive for monsters, and…
…cargo room! A shortcut leading deep underground inside the subway station! If Leon and David can get Sherry out of here, they'd all be there waiting for me.
She grabbed the disk from earlier to check on the label and it was the exact same thing that she needed in order to access the cargo room itself. Flipping it over, she discovered there was a code handwritten on it, "345", most likely as another layer of encryption to verify it was the same disk for the lock, possibly one of many of its kind.
I can only hope we can get out of here in time…
After putting the disk away, she proceeded to further examine some of the partially destroyed documents, skimming through various torn pages from weird-looking creatures with names like Chimeras and Eliminators to Mr. X that was described to be…
"So this is what Irons meant when he said Kravchenko helped with the 'Tyrant series'..." she said in surprise.
Mr. X was a tyrant, a T-103, one of many humanoid beasts that had apparently been mass-produced at an Umbrella facility in Sheena Island under the leadership of some Vincent Goldman, and God only knew how many more of them were being produced elsewhere. The most shocking part was that Mr. X's document described a compulsive interest in David's father, Alex Mason, and the effects of a Soviet brainwashing program that had affected him for what seemed to go as far back as thirty years in a Soviet prison camp inside Vorkuta. It was quite a disturbing background history, not simply because of what Alex had to endure over the years, but the fact that Umbrella seemed as though they had been secretly spying on him for decades, possibly since the company's initial formation.
And then there was Perseus, a secret Soviet paramilitary organization that had been working behind the scenes since the beginning of the Cold War. One of the documents suggested that Umbrella, or rather the CEO, Oswell E. Spencer, had some dealings with Kravchenko that has been happening since the eighties, stuff like funding for BOW development and military expansion within the Umbrella Security Service.
Poor guy… I hope he's somewhere safe at least.
Damn Umbrella and Perseus to hell…
The machine processing the vaccine gave a small whine and as Claire turned to examine the machine, its rising temperature began to heat up the vial, turning it into a cyan-like color, liquifying the antiviral agent once more. After it was over, it cooled the vaccine and transferred it back into the outer case. The case opened itself up to reveal Sherry's final hope of survival; a vial with a clear liquid of blue inside.
Yes! Finally!
Beaming that it was now complete, she grabbed the newly made serum and stored it inside her bag, turning around to leave and find a way out.
Going through the goo-filled corridor was disgusting in and of itself, but she was glad that the mother of all moths had been killed. The larvae that were left behind were all hurriedly trying to wiggle themselves toward her as an act of revenge for their fallen mother, but none could ever match the speed at the rate she was going and she was still somewhat struggling to move through all the sticky substance as she exited the corridor as fast as she could.
"...two minutes to reach minimum safe distance…"
Back inside the surveillance room, she was halfway through when the ceiling above her came crashing down in front of her to reveal a pair of ivy zombies collapsing to the ground in wet thuds, croaking and clicking their dry, vocal cords as they slowly stood up. Claire did not have the spark shot with her any longer and she doubted the acid would do her wonders against them for a brief moment when out of nowhere, one of those same alien monsters she fought in the police station previously, had landed right behind her.
Shit!
This one seemed darker in color, the brain looking less jelly-like than the one at the RPD, though grayer as if it had been starting to decay. She was trapped, sandwiched in between several horrible man-made monsters. She wouldn't be able to deal with all of them at once and with time not being on her side, it'd be near-impossible to kill them all without wasting too much time or bullets. The nude-brained creature was drawing closer to her, extending out its tongue as it hissed a shrieking cry of hunger for flesh and blood, tapping on the floor with talons that took the shape of sharp scythes. The ivy zombies kept croaking so disturbingly, Claire could barely move a muscle from the dread and panic that began to engulf her completely, watching their mummified bodies move like drunken puppets, inching ever so closely toward her.
Gotta move, now!
There was an opening beside the pair of ivy zombies and the monster behind her hissed another screeching cry that warned her it was going to jump at her at any moment. She dashed forward, leaping over a slab of metal that sat in the center of the room. The alien creature barely missed her as it slashed the head off of one of the ivy zombies that stood in her way, the snapping sound of dry bone and vines hitting the metal ground as she continued to run out of there without stopping, panting heavily, hoping that it wouldn't catch up and do the same to her. The door in front of her automatically opened, and Claire kept running even after it had shut the creature inside the surveillance room, putting Sherry inside her mind as her main driving force, her legs working hard to lead her to her destination.
The creature he thought he had put enough distance away from, was more relentless than ever as it continued to bellow a growling, unnatural predatory scream, and managed to make another powerful landing in front of David, preventing him from going any further as the entire ground trembled in a violent jolt.
David screamed out in extreme vexation and fright, firing at the G creature on its biggest eyeball yet. The shotgun blasted the entire twitching eyeball on its top-right arm, stunning it in place for a moment before pumping another shell and firing at the eyeball he missed earlier. Bursts of steaming liquids came out of both sockets and the creature's rasping screams were now difficult to distinguish between pain and rage altogether, though it did not matter anymore as all David wanted was to put a permanent silence to the mutant once and for all.
The eye on its back. Gotta put it out!
He didn't even know how to make the creature face its back on him in order to destroy the last remaining eyeball. It seemed more determined to face him with its endless malevolent grin, the most vicious, lipless grin that he'd ever seen in his life…
…and just when he only had a couple of seconds to think about his next move, the ferocious G creature raised all of its four hanging limbs, looking like a giant deformed six-legged spider, standing on two legs.
In the split second it took for David to execute whatever improvised plan he had in mind, he ran forward and slid in between both bestial legs when the G creature had begun to strike with all four taloned arms, with one claw managing to hit David's bare right arm, leaving him with a small laceration that made him yowl in pain. As he slid past it, he turned his back as fast as he could and fired away with the shotgun toward the eyeball on its back, quickly ignoring the injury he had just received. The knockback, however, gave him another painful hit on his ribcage but did not let it bother him as he felt more satisfaction seeing the Golgotha creature lowering its arms and crouching down in pain.
David stood back on his feet again, his arm still bleeding, and began walking a few steps back to see the creature now revealing a set of growing eyeballs in the center of its enlarged, gaping chest filled with sets of sharp teeth.
"Man you're the most disgusting thing I've ever seen yet!" he said out loud before finally shooting it with a booming shot from the Remington, bursting most of the cluster of eyeballs into steaming white and yellow liquids.
The door behind him suddenly opened.
"William!" the voice said in a weak, but immense desperation.
David turned around in surprise to see Annette Birkin, apparently having only passed out from her sustained injuries. Miraculously, she was still able to run with one hand clutching at her bleeding wounds while still holding onto a weapon that resembled a lot like a white flare gun. As she ran past David as though he did not exist, she aimed the flare gun at the wounded beast.
"This ends now!" she uttered faintly and fired a round at it, exploding upon impact as it doused G-Birkin in a powerful acid bath, burning at its mutated flesh and bone. She limped forward as the creature struggled to stand up again. No longer holding onto her injuries, she reloaded another round inside her flare gun turned grenade launcher, fueled with the goal to put her mutated husband to rest. "I'm sorry William - but you left me no choice," she said shakily and fired yet another acid round at it, directly into its hideous demonic face as the rain of acid itself finally compelled it to collapse weakly onto the ground, its whole body slowly lacking any motion or sound.
David and Annette both walked closer to the mutated body, seeing that it was no longer an immediate danger to anyone anymore. David kneeled down to inspect the body closely and could not have been any more revolted than before.
"Annette, I need to know…" he said after a moment of inspecting the seemingly dead, or rather, unconscious body of William's former self. There were so many questions he had to ask her about and did not know where to start. He looked over at Annette while standing up, finally having chosen the first question that'd come to mind, "What exactly happened that caused the whole city to fall? What was the whole motivation behind it?"
Annette, still aiming her gun at her former husband, lowered it, her arms trembling in what seemed to be pain, fear, and anguish altogether, and somehow, David could feel some sense of pity for the woman who did a lot of wrong to both her child and the city above them.
"That thing…" she gestured at the mutated body in front of them. "That creature used to be my husband… By the time I hesitated to put him out of his misery, he…" She looked away, and David could see a tear flowing over one wasted cheek. "He went on a rampage to kill those that were responsible… the people that tried murdering him… And when they took the case, it was forced open inside the sewers during a firefight… and William must've swallowed all the G samples that were left behind, while the remaining t-Virus samples spilled, and…" she finally looked at David, her eyes entirely teary and bloodshot. "It was all Umbrella and Perseus' fault this whole mess."
David furrowed his eyebrows at her.
"You're Umbrella too. You and your husband made the G-Virus. You telling me you didn't have a hand in all this?" he said condescendingly.
Annette glared back at him reprovingly. "Yes… we made the G-Virus — but we never meant for this to happen!"
"Then what about Sherry?" David pressed on, feeling a rush of burning anger inside of him. "How could you have left her behind, and while Raccoon City burned to hell?!"
Annette limped past him and the unmoving G creature, no longer looking back at him as she spoke quickly. "I need to see my daughter - take me to her…"
"You still haven't answered my — "
David was quickly interrupted when the G mutant regained consciousness and managed to get a hold of Annette with its back-left hand, its powerful grip squeezing her firmly across her chest and waist before finally shoving her violently against the wall above the exit leading back to the turntable. Annette screamed and gasped in pain as a loud crack was heard from a shattered bone when hitting the solid surface, hitting the ground and grunting in pain afterward. Blood could be seen smeared over the wall and floor where she had impacted and collapsed.
"Annette!" David yelled out as he rushed toward her. He could barely believe how she was still alive after having received many fatal blows, still somehow feeling pity for her.
There was something inside of him that kept telling him he needed to help her. Even after all the wrong and atrocities she had helped cause, he could tell that she was simply doing what she thought was right, committed to her own beliefs about the world around her, and he at least was able to understand her to an extent, despite the immense feeling of unjust towards her only daughter. His uncle and father might've done horrible acts on their own accord in the past, but they did so under the belief that everything was for the better. David couldn't help but compare this with Annette, and if his gut was right, it would've been something all three of them had in common.
David put a hand over one of Annette's arms, but she ignored him, still struggling to insert a new acid round inside her gun.
"I got this…" she panted as she finished reloading her gun.
With the little strength she had left, she stood up, panting and grunting with pain as she did so. David merely watched as he saw her limping slightly closer to the G creature that was now slowly standing up.
"Forgive me, William…" she apologized to her former husband before pulling the trigger, her expression destroyed by grief and despair.
The acid round impacted the creature's pale skull, washing over it as its flesh sizzled in steaming white smoke. The mutant pulled itself into a crouch, though not entirely collapsing as it did before, but merely recovering from the effects of the acid burning into its thick mass of steaming tissue. David soon realized that at this point, they were merely just wasting their time and ammo on it, noticing the voice in the background that they only had two more minutes left to spare for whatever was coming for them.
"C'mon!" he shouted to Annette as he put his left arm over her in order to help her walk. "We gotta get outta here!"
Annette nodded at him and simply looked back at her mutated husband, who stood up with a mighty growling rage that echoed all across the huge chamber. As she looked away toward the ground, David could hear she was now sobbing silently to herself as they exited the main shaft. At that moment, he could not help but feel sorry for the entire Birkin family.
Author's Notes: Initially, I was going for David and Claire sticking together all the way to the end, but I wanted both of them to shine on their own for a while instead of just making the duo feel like one person doing all the work entirely. Plus, it'll also make it all the more interesting as the next chapter comes into play as well.
Don't be surprised about Annette's sudden return. It's a recurring theme in both the original game and the remake as well (OG making her survive an entire head injury while still being able to shoot Ada and talk to Sherry afterward and Remake making her survive a handful of injuries before passing out and coming back just to die later as well.)
One more thing… DEATH ISLAND, BABY! Another awesome CGI film, and this time, (just as Adam Luck mentioned) with fan-favorite characters from RE1 and RE2 altogether onscreen (Chris, Rebecca, Leon, Claire, & JILL, FINALLY)! The most exciting thing about the film is that we get to see Jill after her long absence in the timeline since the events of RE5! And about time we get to see them altogether too! Can't wait to see some duo action like Claire & Jill and Leon & Jill. It's like the Avengers/Power Rangers of RE, and I cannot complain! Screw all those RE-action haters! This is exactly what I've ALWAYS wanted to see, video game or not! Just a bit sad that the only ones missing are Barry and Sherry (maybe even Moira since she's also with Terrasave along with Claire). They would've been great additions, IMO, but it's already perfect as is!
See you all next chapter!