III
There was a sick tightening in Aleksandra's stomach as she watched John Strife's face contort to reflect his physical pain. One last angry tear trickled down his sullen cheek, and his mouth remained open for a moment. A soft cloud of breath escaped his lips as he exhaled for the last time, and fell to the ground. Aleksandra's index finger shook around the trigger that she had never pulled.
To her right, she saw Stella's small hands trying to push out the noise from her ears. Her eyes were shut so tightly that Aleksandra feared she would never open them again. The teenager that Leon had brought up from the warehouse was positioned over Stella in a protective hover. Leon's eyes were still on Aleksandra, but the shock on his face seemed to mirror what she was feeling.
A set of heels' light clacking shook her out of her stupor. The heels belonged to a set of expensive looking leather boots that grew increasingly familiar to Aleksandra. It wasn't until she spied the leather jacket and the flawless bob that she recognized the woman. She had been the other survivor picked up by Aleksandra and John – the same survivor that had deserted them not too long ago.
"All that drama and for what?" She stared at Aleksandra with a calm glare and smiled devilishly. This wasn't her first rodeo either. She nodded towards the plastic case. "Well go on…it is what you wanted, wasn't it? I don't want to believe that I wasted a bullet on something that held no importance."
Aleksandra kneeled down until her knee grazed the frigid roof. The woman chuckled lightly and took a step forward. Ada's audible gasp caused Aleksandra to peer up at her. She had to choke back grim laughter as Leon clenched his hand around the woman's wrist.
"Every life is important, Ada – even Strife's." His eyes thinned into dark slits.
Ada turned towards him, her eyes as sharp as ever, and smiled coolly. "I hardly think John Strife was worth anything more than the pennies in his pocket."
That small comment shook Aleksandra to her core. It wasn't because of the dark undertones in her voice, but because Aleksandra agreed. If Ada hadn't pulled the trigger for her, Aleksandra would have eventually given in to the anger inside.
"To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" Leon still had control over Ada's wrist but relaxed his grip when she pushed her pistol into the holster resting on her hip.
"Call it a paid vacation…" She shrugged him off and rubbed the area that now held the red remnants of Leon's hand.
Aleksandra reached across the roof and picked up the blue disk before Strife's cold puddle of blood could drown the valuable item. She immediately walked over to her niece while Leon and Ada continued to bicker. Without much more than a few glances at Leon, Aleksandra quietly dumped the disk into Stella's messenger bag.
"Tyotia…I have the spider feeling again."
Aleksandra sighed and tried to give her niece a reassuring pat on the head. Stella had keen intuition. When she was younger, the foreboding spark that usually hinted something was up scared her to the point that she would have nightmares. Her father would tuck her back in, explaining that spiders must have been dancing in her tummy. Aleksandra was sure it gave the child arachnophobia, but it seemed to calm her down. It could have just been the fact that it was Stella's father telling her.
"Why don't you ask the Russian? She has a knack for getting what she wants."
Aleksandra's eyes jerked up to find Ada stalking towards her with a glint in her eye and a smirk on her face. She hadn't realized that Leon and Ada's conversation had drifted on to herself. Aleksandra held back the urge to spit in the woman's face as Ada gripped her chin and tilted it until Aleksandra's scar was visible to Leon and the two girls. She had never met Ada until she came to Germany and ran into her by complete accident. But it seemed that Ada knew everything about her.
"Kindly remove your hands from my face," Aleksandra growled.
"That is such a terrible scar, Ms. Smirnov. It doesn't look like it was meant to kill you though." Aleksandra kept her gaze on Ada. She was quickly crossing a thin line that others never made it back from. She had kicked ass for a lot less than a petty comment like Ada's. She unstrapped the dagger from her thigh and held it up to Ada's wrist. Her reflection was caught perfectly within the blade.
"Either remove it by choice or I will remove it for you."
Leon cleared his throat and cautiously eased his body between the two females.
Ada smiled once more and pulled a phone from her jacket pocket. "I get the hint, Kennedy," she said. "Besides, we don't want another event like Marseille."
Aleksandra winced at the memory associated with Marseille. Ada had obviously studied her file and was kept up to par about the incident. It was something Aleksandra desperately tried to forget but was reminded of every time she glanced in the mirror or felt a lover's finger trace the rough edges of her scar.
The sound of a chopper's blades caused everyone on the roof to search out its location. Ada clicked her phone shut and waved a gloved hand to signal where they were. When they had first found Ada, she was wandering around the town with no weapon and relying on the shadows to protect her. She told them a helicopter was coming to get her, and that if they ensured her safe passage, she would guarantee them a seat on the chopper. Strife didn't trust Ada from the get-go, but perhaps she had kept her end of the bargain after all.
A thin rope ladder danced down towards the roof as Aleksandra hurried Stella onto the rough material. The child was petrified of heights, but a BSAA soldier was willing to meet her halfway up. She waited for Ilda to scurry behind them before allowing Ada up as well. It was only fair that her majesty went up first.
Aleksandra turned towards Leon and motioned for him to go up.
"Ladies first," he yelled with a half smirk.
Aleksandra couldn't tell if he was trying to tease her or just put her in good mood with the idea of leaving this forsaken town. For his sake, it had better be the latter. She had just cleared the halfway mark when she felt the ladder shaking violently below. Aleksandra closed her eyes and waited for the second sharp pull before finding the courage to spy on what horrible creature was lurking below them.
She remembered her first encounter with a Licker very clearly. The BSAA had spent an entire month showing new recruits the black and white lab photos seized from Umbrella files. They were all the same: the cannibalistic smile, the mutilated body bending every which way, and the vile tongue that lashed out towards its victims. Every recruit had seen photos of these monsters, but nothing could prepare a person for when a group of Lickers ambushed them.
Aleksandra gripped the rope ladder until her knuckles turned white. Marseille held more memories than she cared to dig up.
The rope shook beneath her body as Leon struggled with the Licker's whip-like tongue. Aleksandra snaked a leg around the ladder and extended a hand towards the man who had just saved her own life not too long ago. His warm fingers tickled Aleksandra's as she leaned down further to grab a hold of his thick leather jacket. Her own fingerless gloves slid against the material as her fingernails drove into the body beneath it. She could see the Licker burying its claws into the roof and pulling with unbelievable strength.
Aleksandra had just wrapped her fingers around Leon's wrist when she noticed the Licker's new plan. The abomination unwrapped its tongue from the ladder and instead opted for Leon's ankle. She watched helplessly as he tried to kick the thing from his body but was finally torn from the rope ladder. He fell to the ground and rolled away from the monster. Aleksandra scampered up the rest of the ladder and motioned for Stella. The child understood and tossed the messenger bag down to her aunt. Immediately, Aleksandra's hands began to rummage through the bag just as the first shots from Leon's gun were fired.
Aleksandra smirked as her hands slid over Phantom 8's cool metal shell. With a wink in Stella's direction and the messenger bag slung over her shoulder, Aleksandra climbed back down to the roof. The Licker's attention was fixated on Leon as he meticulously dodged the monster's mutated tongue. His death defying dance wouldn't allow him a clear shot, and time wasn't on his side. Aleksandra pulled out the small crossbow followed by the nickel plated bolts, tipped with arrow heads designed specifically for neutralizing Lickers. The arrow wasn't much to brag about, but the hungry blade that adorned it was a deadly little beast. When impacting with a soft target, the arrowhead would expand – leaving quite the massacre around the multiplied blades. Her commanding officer once said it worked like a saw to inflict the best damage.
Aleksandra loaded the weapon and sent a single shot towards the Licker's head. That was the best advantage of the Phantom 8: it was silent.
The arrow glided through the air and pierced the Licker's skull with a revolting crack. The arrow head twisted clockwise and for a moment, the creature howled in pain before falling to the roof. The wound leaked the horrors of the T-virus as the Licker twitched one last time.
Leon bent over to catch his breath and waved quiet thanks towards Aleksandra. "Took you long enough," he said between breaths.
She smirked her cocky Russian smile and retrieved the arrow from the Licker's head. "I like to make an entrance."
"And what do you call that?" He pointed to the weapon in her hand.
She gazed back at him with wide eyes, feigning innocence and naivety."My entrance…"
Their small dose of laughter was cut short by the rope ladder's descent to the roof. The chopper's lights went dark as it veered off to the right, towards the containment base. Aleksandra burst into a sprint, and she chased the helicopter until her foot caught the edge of the roof. Ada Wong peered down from her place in the copter and waved.
"Blyad!" Aleksandra's irate scream could have possibly wakened the dead, had they not already been crowding the streets. Leon had never taken the time to study Russian, but he was positive that the word leaving her lips wasn't common for a young woman to speak so boldly. Ada was no stranger to the art of deception, and he was well aware that her appearance meant trouble. But that didn't make it sting any less when he watched Aleksandra fall to her knees and hug her torso in an attempt to squeeze everything out. It wasn't until he saw her shoulders shake that he realized she was crying. She had been stone cold, with the exception of a smile here and there, up until now.
Leon dropped down beside her."Ada is conniving by nature. It's always a gamble when it comes to trusting her. At least Stella is already on her way to safety."
Aleksandra shook her head, sending strands of white blonde hair into her face "And who will be there waiting for Stella? It won't be my father! And it won't be Sascha!"
Leon gripped her shoulder. She needed to pull herself together. "You don't know that they're dead yet."
Aleksandra's head snapped towards Leon. Her mouth formed a livid grimace as her eyes lit up with anger. "I know they're not dead. It's not…you don't…if Claire is the one that asked you…" She shook her head in her hands.
Leon was even more confused than when he had first met Aleksandra, but he stayed crouched beside her until a low rumble grabbed his attention.
The first growl didn't necessarily put Leon on edge. It sounded like a starving stomach was trying to scream through its hunger pains. But then he spotted the set of large claws creep over the edge of the roof, the metallic talons piercing the tar and concrete underneath like a pin cushion. He gently pulled on the wool fabric of Aleksandra's coat to get her attention. She turned just as the creature came into view.
It wasn't formed like the normal Lickers. This monstrosity was larger with razor sharp teeth fanning out into a sadistic grin. Its tongue was black and the smell of rotting flesh hit their noses at once. The creature's muscles were slick with the fevered sweat brought on by the mutated T-virus, but this particular version held a different hue. Shades of black blue created an almost panther effect to the Licker's body, and Leon twitched his fingers to signal Aleksandra. She must have read the signals correctly because she slipped the Phantom 8 in his palm. The slight click from the metal caused the Licker to twitch in their direction. A regenerated sense of sight obviously wasn't a high priority for this new breed of Licker. Leon then felt the smooth surface of the arrow roll around in his hand as well, and he carefully set to loading the small crossbow. If only he had been a few seconds faster…
The mutated Licker's tongue shot out towards Aleksandra and wrapped around her ankle. It didn't take much for the creature to pull her up in the air, her body dangling like a limp rag doll in front of Leon's target. The outline of his body was upside down and slowly began to swing from side to side like a pendulum. The Licker tossed her into the air once more and let her lean body smash against the roof.
She knew that she had only been a few feet off the ground. She knew the force of the blow would knock the air out of her. She knew these things. But she still felt the tiny tremors of terror flutter underneath her skin as she tried to fill her lungs after the impact. She felt her chest heave and burn with the aching need to breathe. Her heart sped up as she felt her body move against the rough tar, the material scraping against her back like millions of tiny claws. Aleksandra's eyes darted to the other side of the building, where Leon was taking care of a smaller Licker that had snuck its way onto the warehouse roof.
If only the helicopter had been equipped with the proper weaponry to take out these new Lickers. If only she had listened to John Strife's warning about taking on another survivor. If only Ada Wong had let them climb up the ladder instead of leaving them to defend their selves against a mob of Lickers.
'The problem with 'if onlys', Aleksandra sighed as she heard her father's voice ease into her mind. '…they never solve the problem at hand.'