Chapter Twenty-Two.
Claire, Carlos, Heinkel, and Yumie rode over the desert scrub in the Hummer. Claire sat in the passenger's seat looking at a topographical map and spotting what little landmarks there were outside the window. She was armed with a 9mm handgun and a .44 magnum revolver. She also carried some of the Semtex that had been taken from The Bus along with a detonator in a backpack at her feet.
"We should be coming right up on it," she said.
The ground became loose and they could all see where the quarry dipped and expanded into a huge bowl ringed with winding dirt road that overgrown with scrub. Rusted digging equipment was at the bottom of the football field sized basin. Carlos parked the Hummer at the top and they all got out, marching single file down the dirt road.
Claire was glad the tunnel entrance was obvious. Refuse, garbage, and corpses lay in a pile outside it and it was t ground level, easy enough to drive a truck through. "Should we drive?" Claire asked.
"You tell us, you're the commander," Heinkel said.
"Let's take the Hummer. We might need to get out fast," she said.
They walked back up in time to see the Hummer explode.
All of them ducked as bits of debris rained down on them. Claire wondered if she had left some of the Semtex inside accidentally and it had gone off somehow. She knew something else was the matter when bullets from automatic weapons peppered the ground around them. "Take cover!" Carlos shouted.
Claire saw figures walking towards them from across the scrubland. They must have been lying in wait near the edge of the basin and had gotten up to either shoot down on them, or come up from behind in the tunnel.
She began crawling along with Carlos on her belly down the road towards the tunnel where they would have cover and would be able to defend themselves. Heinkel was firing back with one hand while she lie on her stomach, trying to keep the heads of their attackers down.
A bullet hit the dirt near Claire's head, knocking sand into her eye. When the edge of the basin was above her head, she stood and ran down with Carlos, followed by Heinkel and Yumie, to the tunnel entrance which she hoped hadn't been set up as well to greet them.
It was. Alice stepped out of the tunnel with an assault rifle and fired before anyone could react. The gun had been set to full auto and the bullets were wild. Still, they were all in a tight group and the range was close. Carlos went down while shooting, Yumie went down as well. Claire dropped, but didn't think she had been shot. Heinkel merely crouched and fired, putting a bullet through Alice's forehead. She fell dead with her weapon still spraying into the dirt on full auto.
"Ah, my leg," Carlos said, holding his thing.
Yumie was on her back, sucking in air and bleeding out her chest.
"Yumie!" Heinkel shouted, crawling over to her friend.
"The tunnel!" Claire shouted. "Get to it, now!" she got up and dragged Carlos to his feet while he managed to hobble. Heinkel hooked Yumie by the armpits and dragged her down after Carlos and Claire.
"That traitorous bitch!" Heinkel shouted. "How in the hell did she…"
"Who cares right now?" Claire said, letting Carlos lean against the tunnel wall where the rock became steel. "Get pressure on her chest. Carlos, cover our back, I got the entrance."
The tunnel itself wasn't lit, so Claire had no way of knowing what was beyond the little bit of light that able to get under the ceiling. She also wondered why Alice had betrayed them, and how.
"That bitch," Heinkel said. "How the hell did she…when the hell…"
Claire studied the dead woman out of the corner of her eye while keeping an eye on the road leading down. They'd be tossing grenades soon, if they had any. The woman was Alice, but she was dressed differently and her hair looked cleaner. The Alice Claire knew, like the rest of them, was in bad need of a shower. Unless Alice had time to bathe before to the base and ambushing them, it wasn't her.
"Looks like you killed your friend," a male voice said from above. "I've got more, don't worry," he said.
"Who the hell are you!" Heinkel said. "Where's Wesker?"
Yumie had stopped breathing.
"Jack Krauser," he said. "I was hoping to fight you all at once a little sooner than this, but you surprised us by splitting up. Satellite surveillance is a wonderful thing."
Claire realized the dead Alice must be one of the clones she had heard mentioned. How many Krauser had with him, she didn't know.
She tapped Carlos and motioned for him to keep an eye on the front entrance. She took off her back pack and removed half of the Semtex, along with one of the detonators. "Are you sure they won't miss you up front?" Claire shouted. "You know we're the decoy, right?" She began setting the Semtex and concealing it behind rocks.
"I know that once you're dead, I'll be going to the front to kill the rest of you and collar that bitch Alice. It was a mistake to bring any of you onboard this project to begin with. Should've just left you to die."
An arrow landed in the dirt and was beeping. It exploded, sending smoke everywhere. Coughing, Claire knew she was too late and they were rushing the entrance. The Semtex had been set to explode via a radio remote, but they wouldn't be able to put enough distance between them and the bomb in time.
"Duck," Carlos said, and began firing his rifle into the smoke. Claire herself lay flat as she could and heard Heinkel begin shooting blindly while they were joined by more gunshots.
She felt a bullet zip over her head, into her ponytail and knew any moment the next would kill her. The smoke was clearing and five dead women, plus the first, lie on the ground. Heinkel was clutching her chest now, and kneeling over Yumie. Claire felt a pain in her forearm and saw that it had been grazed by a bullet.
Claire got to her knees as Krauser jumped down from the top of the ledge and landed with his back to them. He was a tall, shirtless, muscular man with short blond hair. He dropped the bow he had been carrying and turned, as Heinkel shot him in the chest.
He laughed as the blood ran down his body. He had painted red streaks across his face and was looking at them with a grim smile. His left arm began to twitch and the bone tore out of it under its own power, forming a wide, long, blade. "This is going to be fun," he said. "With any luck, I'll be able to save your heads as trophies."
"Here's a trophy," Claire said, throwing the Semtex bomb at Krauser. He caught it with his human arm and looked puzzled.
As he realized what it was, he tried to drop it, but it was too late. Claire pushed the detonator button as she turned away, covering her ears at the same time.
She felt the vibration from the bomb ripple through her body, making her want to vomit. She tried to hold it back, but the ringing in her ears was too much and her breakfast came out in a wash.
Claire rolled into her back, away from the mess she had made and saw Carlos out of the corner of her eye, slumped over but alive. Breathing even and looking at the ceiling, she hoped no surprises would come until she recovered.
To be continued…