Again a mandatory MATURE WARNING for cussing and a lot of violence in this chapter!
Taking up where we left off in Ch 30! Helena Harper has just gone though a horrifying change and Leon S. Kennedy and his team have no idea what to do next...except for Anne Cunningham, who has seen for herself how people can change in the otherworldly darkness, and that's meant literally!
Meanwhile, Alpha Team and Cybil Bennett have hooked up with Alex and Elle Shepherd...but something horrible is coming for the survivors. It's none other than the Judge of Judges, THE most popular symbolic demonic force of the Silent Hill mythology, the guy who has endlessly fascinated SH fans for many different reasons, including that classic "Raep Time!" meme! You know it and you love it, whether you like it or not: I'm talking about the Red Pyramid, aka Pyramid Head!
The Red Pyramid has come to destroy Chris Redfield...and tragically, a brutal death *will* claim another hero. I'm not gonna say who, though. You have to read what happens for yourself!
RESIDENT EVIL X SILENT HILL: JUDGMENT DAY
written by Charles Spencer,
inspired by Ygure
Chapter 31:
"DREADNAUGHT"
-1-
About twenty seconds ago, deep in the darkness that was once Black Falls, something happened that should have been impossible.
Leon S. Kennedy, Anne Cunningham, Karena LesProux and Caroline Floyd stood in shock on a hellish side street as they stared at the statue-like substance that encased their fellow survivor Helena Harper. The lady Leon was falling in love with blamed herself for her sister Deborah's death...she said she should have been suffered and become a monster, not her sister...and it seemed as if her wish was fulfilled in the most terrible of ways. Anne Cunningham stared at the sight and felt a hideous sense of deja vu as she remembered Murphy Pendleton and breathed, "Jesus."
Caroline Floyd finally blinked, but her eyes were wide...her soft voice asked no one in particular, "W-what just happened?"
"Helena," Karena LesProux whispered as she slowly approached the coccoon. She recognized what happened to her friend and colleague. How couldn't she? Karena said fearfully, "Sacre bleu...I have seen this before, I have seen this too many times in the past year during the Pandemic!"
Leon S. Kennedy finally found the strength to speak, even as he was clinging onto his sanity by his fingernails: "This...this is exactly what happened to Helena's sister, Deborah." He forced himself to say it... "It's the Chrysalid Virus..."
Disbelief gave way to horrified denial for Caroline...the former Ranger stepped toward the amber shell and said in an escalating tone, "No-no-no-no-no, this can't be! This can't be happening, Leon!" The beauty turned to Leon - her eyes were wide as saucers as she yelled, "Helena was vaccinated against the C-Virus just like you and me and everyone in the DSO, right?! THIS SHOULDN'T BE FUCKING HAPPENING!"
"But it is, Caroline." Karena moved close to the Native-American warrior. It was to the French-born agent's credit she kept her voice calm. Her focus was on soothing Caroline as she said, "There is no logical reason for this, but...but it has happened before our eyes. And this is nothing like our being manipulated before. There is no trickery here, Caroline. This is real." Caroline responded positively with a shaky nod, willing herself to be calm again...
But calm was something Leon couldn't be. His love and his desperate need to help the woman he was falling in love with overrode everything in his soul. Leon moved toward Helena's encased form and he began haltingly, "Helena...Helena, are you there?! It's Leon, please answer me!"
Out of concern, Caroline wanted to stop him and began, "S-sir - !"
Leon quickly whirled on Caroline and snapped, "Shut up, dammit!" Caroline didn't say another word as she and Karena looked at him helplessly. Leon turned back to the ugly chrysalis...he drew closer, to within a yard, as he spoke. His voice became more urgent, more terrified as his words came out: "Helena!? Helena, please talk to me...please tell me this isn't real, that this is like our seeing your sister fall on that television that wasn't plugged in and someone's messing with our heads, please tell me you're all right and...and..." He was so close, and he could almost see himself in the glistening substance. "Helena...? Helena!" Leon felt despair rise within him as he finally yelled, "HELENA!"
And then something broke out from within the chrysalis...he finally registered numbly that it was a slender arm, covered thickly with dripping ooze, reaching out to him with desperation. It was Leon's turn to feel overwhelming deja vu as he recalled a similar moment in the Tall Oaks caverns...he recalled, yet he couldn't help himself. It was Helena, she needed help, and he tensed to move closer, to reach out and touch that hand -
But Anne Cunningham was there...she realized the danger if Leon couldn't, and her hands grabbed one of his arms, restraining him. Leon looked at her angrily, but Anne's piercing green eyes stared back at him as the prison guard cautioned, "Leon, don't!" Leon paused and frowned deeply as tears welled in his eyes...
...and that was when the coccoon exploded. What emerged was only barely recognizable as Helena Harper as she issued a hissing, inhuman shriek...she looked virtually the same as her sister Deborah when she became a monster deep in those forgotten caverns not so long ago! Helena was nude, her skin bruised in color yet virtually transluscent - one could see her discolored veins. The skin was split across her still-gorgeous body in too many places, even her face, appearing to be like open wounds. Her hair was slicked back and hardened into a shell on her head. There seemed to be no humanity in the way Helena looked at Leon and the others, in the sound of her growls as she coiled into a feral type of posture...
...and then she did attack with the speed and ferocity of a lioness, but Leon had years of experience fighting monsters, and even as Helena attacked his instincts anticipated her faster than his mind did, and he BARELY managed to jump to one side with Anne in his arms. Helena whriled on all fours, almost feline, as she snarled and looked at them all with her no-longer-human eyes.
Caroline Floyd quickly stepped up to put herself between Helena and the rest of her team...she drew her lethal survival knife from her belt and shouted, "Helena, STOP! I want to help you, but goddamn it, I won't be afraid to defend my team, either! Please don't make me hurt you!" If Helena understood Caroline, then she didn't care as she moved like lighting to attack. Fortunately, the former Ranger was more than able to back up her words through action. The beauty with black hair entered into a savage dance with what was once Helena then, barely able to avoid her deadly, sweeping strikes with an acrobatic grace. Leon could only stare at the sight numbly...he hesitated to take any action for a moment...
...but very close by, Anne moved fast to Karena and said, "Hey! You're our designated medic, right?!"
Karena nodded shakily. She had been given that duty ever since they lost Lawrence Kimbala, Bravo's medic. Leon and his team, as it stood now, had no idea that Lawrence had been killed hours ago, when the fog still reigned. "O-oui, but - !"
Anne demanded, "Tell me you've got some kinda sedatives! Do you have morphine?!"
If her masked face hadn't been obscured, Anne would have seen how unsure Karena's expression was...still, doubt was thick in her voice as she asked, "W-why?"
Anne shouted then as she pointed at Helena, "Do you want to kill that lady or d'you want to save her?!"
For a brief moment, space separated Helena and Caroline for the first time in what seemed like forever. Caroline considered the creature carefully, her full lips a thin line of determination. But her gaze was soft as she looked at Helena and said thickly, "Please stop, Helena! I don't want to hurt you!"
"You won't have to!" Those strong words came from Leon, who was standing next to Caroline. He'd found his strength again, for Helena's sake, as his expression took a grim set. Helena seemed to grow even more agitated and savage in response, and she attacked them both! They both defended themselves from the creature with earnest, yet with love in their hearts they held back from really causing Helena any harm. They had to lock Helena down, incapacitate her somehow. For a moment, they seemed on the cusp of succeeding...Leon and Helena got close enough to take hold of and restrain each of Helena's arms, and in spite of her inhuman strength, they fiercely kept their hold.
However. Both were shocked as new limbs began to sprout from Helena's back with a sickening sound...they were almost crustacean, these limbs that ended in hideous claws. And Leon felt sick in the pit of his stomach as he realized. WAS history repeating itself? Will they have to kill Helena, like she and Leon had to destroy Deborah - ?!
Out of nowhere, Karena LesProux literally jumped into the fray...she pounced on Helena as her right hand held a long, thick hypodermic needle filled with morphine. The powerful opiate was used by combat medics to counter pain soldiers suffered from serious injury on the battlefield. It affected the central nervous system and could sedate with a strong enough dosage. Unfortunately like any drug, morphine could be dangerous if the dosage was too high. The masked woman in black hoped and prayed she guessed the right amount - what her needle held was more than enough to overdose several humans. And Karena hammered the needle down HARD into Helena's sternum and her thumb pressed down on the plunger with all her strength to inject the morphine directly into Helena's heart!
Almost immediately, the drug had an effect and Karena's prayer seemed to be answered...Helena's feral expression softened as her body slowly relaxed. Karena hugged Helena's body as Leon and Caroline held her arms...the creature's clawed appendages began to shrink into nonexistence and receded into her back. She became limp and the three agents carefully, gently lowered Helena to the fencing under their feet as Karena said quietly, "We have you, Helena...it'll be all right, we have you...!" Helena's face looked to Leon, and for a brief moment he saw her expression shifted. The look on the lady's face was much softer, she seemed to return to her true self and her expression was so full of regret and apology...but she didn't have the chance to say anything as her eyes closed and she lost consciousness.
Leon, Caroline and Karena knelt around Helena Harper then...they were unsure what to do next...
"Okay!" The three agents looked to Anne Cunningham who stood close by looking at them. With knowledge in her eyes, she said, "I'm here as your advisor, but I did hold back some information..." She gestured at Helena. "...after this, though, I think you're ready to hear about the shit you never would've believed before now!"
-2-
Somewhere else in the darkness, in one of the many, many apocalytic ruins. It was once a humble two-story traveler's hotel, but it had changed like everything into a terrible mirror version of itself. Alex and Elle Shepherd had just been saved by Alpha Team. The young couple was reunited with their friend and fellow survivor of Silent Hill, Cybil Bennett. The agents in Alpha were quickly enlightened that this was the couple Cybil described as having been kidnapped, possibly by The Order, before the mission began. Cybil was as surprised as anyone to see Alex and Elle, and so thankful the lovers had been saved.
After retreating to the large kitchen area on the first floor, the agents began to question them, find out how they could be here and how they survived so long. The couple began by recounting how The Order's forces kidnapped them, took them to Black Falls and then they were under the malevolent watch of Reeve Meyers himself. When Alex and Elle told them of how they were kept hostage in the hospital, how they were saved, Jill Valentine felt a sunburst of excitement in her heart...she asked urgently, "You two were with Rebecca and Cheryl?!"
Alex nodded grimly as he testified, "If it wasn't for Rebecca, we probably would've been sacrificed by those Order bastards long ago - !"
His wife Elle quickly interrupted, "W-wait!" Staring fearfully at Jill, the lady asked, "We need to know if any of you have seen a young girl all by herself?! She's only 19 years old, blonde, wearing a motocross jumpsuit!"
Jill looked at Elle blankly, just like her fellow agents...she said, "We haven't seen anyone like that since we entered the town. I'm sorry."
Elle Shepherd's expression broke with fear...she began to cry as she said mournfully to her husband, "Oh god, we lost Elza, we needed to get her back and we lost her...!"
Alex Shepherd quickly held his trembling wife tight...he knew exactly how Elle felt, so damned helpless. He whispered, "Easy, baby..."
The team's medic, Christine Yamata, asked, "This girl Elza, she was a part of your group?"
Elle nodded...she said thickly, "The poor girl got so scared and ran when...w-when the darkness came..."
Chris Redfield asked, "What happened to Cheryl and Rebecca? Why aren't they with you now?"
Elle shook her head sadly and began to say, "Cheryl tried to stop the dark from coming, but - !" Suddenly, the lady awkardly stopped herself as Alex's being tensed. Suddenly quiet, Elle exchanged a strange look with Cybil that no one else missed.
Chris frowned and said, "Wait, what did you say?"
Alex said quickly, "Cheryl wanted to stop the darkness...we all wanted that! Me and Elle, we found out what The Order wanted to do...all we wanted was to stop it - !"
Regina, the commando in black and gray, stared at him and asked, "How did you know what Reeve and The Order wanted to do?"
Alex growled, "The son of a bitch told us while he kept us hostage, that's how! He loved to talk about how he was gonna create Paradise."
Regina continued to look at the couple with quiet intensity...her instincts spoke to her, and she focused on something Elle had begun to say just before. "We already know some things about that, but what did you mean before? You said Cheryl Mason was going to stop the darkness. You said Cheryl specifically. How - ?"
Jill Valentine said, "I think we can ask Cheryl that when we find her and Rebecca!" She looked at the couple again and demanded, "But you didn't say what happened to them! Where are they?"
Again, Alex and Elle looked strangely at Cybil...Jill, from her vantage, saw the police captain from Brahms, Maine had a tense expression on her face. She got the impression there was a quiet, secret knowledge between the three of them. Jill and Chris and the others couldn't have known that their advisor and the lovers knew how extraordinary Cheryl was. Alex finally managed truthfully, "We don't know. I wish to god we did." But then Chris immediately saw a tell that the man was lying, his gaze averted away reflexively from the agents as he continued, "S...something happened to Cheryl, and we lost track of her..."
Elle said, "Rebecca told us to find Elza as she ran after Cheryl. W-we have no idea where they are."
Cybil reached out and took one of Elle's hands...her expression was resolute when she spoke: "It'll be all right, we can still find them. We need to find them, one way or the other."
But then the three of them realized how the agents of Alpha Team were now looking at them with examining eyes. Chris Redfield's expression was firm as he said, "Just a minute. Before we do anything else, we need to know more...we need you to tell us EVERYTHING you know. That includes you, Cybil! For the longest time, I've gotten the impression you haven't told us everything. I'm getting that same feel now and that your friends are holding back, too!"
Jill spoke then, and it was clear she had that same feeling and wasn't shy about expressing it. "We know Cheryl Mason is important to the Order for some reason, but we need to understand why right now, and if you know anything about what I'm asking, please, we need to know! Why is she so important? Why do we need to find her and Rebecca?! How could Cheryl stop this nightmare?!"
Chris' eyes were narrowed and intense...his tone was more aggressive as he demanded, "Could Cheryl Mason have played a part in this - !?"
"NO!" Elle Shepherd looked at them all angrily, defensively as Alex held her. She said passionately, "Cheryl would never have wanted this horror to happen! Never!" Alex stared at them with unkind eyes.
Cybil Bennett stared at Chris and said earnestly, "Captain, Cheryl isn't one of the enemy, I promise you!"
Frustrated, Chris fired back, "You want me to believe that? Then you and your friends had better be ready to convince me, Captain Bennett! You come clean right now and tell me everything! Let me put it this way, knowing more might increase our chances of surviving and..." Chris stopped for a heartbeat, suddenly distracted. He tried to press on. "...and finding Rebecca and...Cheryl..." Chris frowned as his voice trailed off. He seemed more distracted than ever, there was an increasing expression of fear in his eyes.
What Chris felt was something vague yet beyond denial...it was a feeling that gripped his heart tighter and tighter, like it was being squeezed slowly but relentlessly in a workshop vise. Chris finally said very quietly, "S-something's coming."
Jill stared at him...she said thinly, "Chris?" That was when Cybil's radio began to sound...she took it out of her pocket, and god, the static was escalating in intensity at a rapid pace...the little radio began to vibrate in her slender hand...!
Then. Sounds could have been heard in the distance, drawing closer. Heavy, plodding footsteps. A intermittent, grating sound of metal against metal.
"Something is coming...I don't know what, but..." He rose to full height and readied his carbine. He looked to the other side of the kitchen, at the double doors of the service entrance. It was from beyond those doors that they heard the sounds of whatever was approaching. The sounds of the footsteps and grating metal was getting louder and louder from outside.
Hector Hivers had his huge automatic shotgun in his hands and said dubiously, "I don't know about your feelings, boss, but those fuckin' sounds have gotten my attention!" He focused completely on the doors.
So did everyone else...Jill looked at the petite team medic and said fearfully, "Christine...?" She was getting her M4 at the ready.
Christine had her sidearm in her right hand immediately...she felt a rising, elemental fear as well as she said, "I hear you, Jill!"
Cybil Bennett pocketed the vibrating radio quickly in her jacket, which didn't quiet its thunderous static...she stood close to Alex and Elle as she readied her carbine. She said to them quietly, "No matter what happens, stay close to me, the both of you!"
Armed and at the ready as well, trying to understand, Regina asked Chris, "Captain, what exactly are you feeling? What's coming?"
Chris stared across the kitchen and shook his head slowly... "I-I don't know...it feels like it's coming...for me..."
Less than a moment later, the doors burst inward as something entered from the darkness outside. What came in had to stoop as it crossed the threshold. Because it was so goddamn tall.
What the survivors saw enter made them feel their fight-or-flight instincts virtually scream danger, even though it only stood there and groaned with every exhale it took, as if it was in agony. It was indeed tall, at least seven feet in height, and it was a threatening, lurid vision. It looked like a man, perhaps, but there was no way to see its face because its head was covered by a huge, metal, pyramid-shaped helmet the color of thosuand-year-old rust, its sharp angles reaching down to cover a fair degree of its bare, muscular chest. The being's upper torso was nude, but its lower half wore what appeared to be a butcher's smock that covered its long legs and feet. The smock and every visible inch of the figure's ruddy skin was covered in blood...among other forms of stains that none of the survivors would have wanted to guess at. The only feature most predominant of this sight besides its pyramid-shaped helmet was the weapon it carried...the Great Knife the thing held in one hand and had been dragging along behind it, seemed an oversized butcher blade as long as the one that held it was tall. The Great Knife looked incredibly heavy, but it was also nearly coated with blood wet and dry, except for its long killer edge that had a dull, ominous gleam.
The sight of the new arrival was extraordinary, unique, unlike anything any of the agents of Alpha Team had seen in their lives. Fortunately for most of the agents, it wasn't a threat to them. Unfortunately, even though Reeve Meyers had been assaulted and driven unconscious by a mystical attack from Cheryl Mason, Reeve had already manipulated the being into 'locking on' to one of them. This was the Judge of Judges of the oppressive darkness...it was neither good or evil, a virtually elemental force in and of itself, and it always obeyed its purpose, to punish and torture and terminate the guilty no matter where it found them.
Chris Redfield stared at the thing as all of the darkest feelings he held in his heart, what he held secret even from Jill and those closest to him, become stronger. Those feelings had always been with him. The regrets...the terrible guilt...
...and somehow he knew instinctively that the Red Pyramid had come for HIM.
-3-
Hector Hivers had always been a big man...and as big of a joker.
As Hector grew up in a small town in Virginia, especially in his teens, he had a tendency to overeat. That wasn't a crime, of course, but so many of his peers targeted him easily and might as well have made him feel like a criminal. When he started high school, it was painfully obvious that he was the odd boy out from the rest of the kids, and even before then some tried to bully him. But the word 'tried' needs to be emphasized because Hector had a pretty thick skin when it came to insults, and he'd only get really mad at some punks who wanted to try to prank him in some stupid, juvenile way...they found out the hard way that their quarry loved to prank as well, and the ways he retaliated were memorable and quickly discouraged anymore would-be bullies from picking on him. The more unworthy idiots simply got a heavy dose of his sense of humor, which could cut as sharp as a knife but was also harmlessly self-depreciating. True to his nature, he wore a cruel nickname many kids gave him because of his size, Beltway, as a badge of honor!
Hector was never the most popular kid in school, but he definitely stood out.
As his freshman year in the minefield of high school progressed, Hector got the attention of the head coach of the football team...he gave the young man an invitation to join them. Hector was a geek more than anything else, he loved video games more than the idea of getting into sports. But he gave it a try, and to his surprise he had a natural proficiency for being one of his team's defensive ends. Being part of the team didn't result in his being a difference-maker and local hero like you'd see in the movies, but Hector still always did his best, and it showed in the positive changes in the team's win-loss ratio. He also discovered to his delight that, well, as he told another testosterone-fueled buddy: "Being a player's turned me into a chick magnet!" It was a pleasant change for the socially awkward teen.
By the time he finished high school, Hector had stood out to such a degree he was offered sports scholarships by several schools who were looking for a kid with the right size and power to increase their football teams' dee-fense. But he surprised everyone by saying he wanted to hold off on going to college...he'd always wanted to join the military, see what kind of difference he could make like his late grandpa, who served in the Navy during World War II. Hector was barely accepted by the recruiting office - again, he was a big and heavy young man - but he lost a lot of weight during basic training and showed a natural aptitude for demolitions. He decided to stay in the military, leaving any scholarships on the back burner for the duration, and got curious enough to try out for the Navy SEALs. The rest of the story was a distinguished career that led him to being recruited into the Division of Security Operations. He'd regained most of his weight since as well, along with an annoying reputation for being a joker and prankster that never stopped.
As he stood in a dark kitchen in what was once Black Falls, Vermont, Hector Hivers didn't feel like being funny. He looked at the Red Pyramid like his comrades did, and he could only say, "Okay, somebody mind telling me who or WHAT that is?" He looked at Cybil, Alex and Elle and said loudly, "Maybe those who have been to Silent Hill would have a clue?! Hel-LO!"
Cybil Bennett could only stare at the thing...she responded simply, "Never seen anything like that before...!"
Alex Shepard, who had an arm around his wife Elle, stared at the Red Pyramid. Did it look...familiar to him? It did, and yet...he shook his head, unsure, as he offered, "I-I think I did, when I was in Silent Hill...but this is definitely different..."
Chris murmured, "It wants me...I know it wants me somehow..."
To Jill Valentine's dismay, Chris looked...frozen as he stared at the Red Pyramid. Jolted by the drive to protect the man she secretly adored, Jill suddenly stepped up in front of the survivors, stared at the ominous being, and snarled, "I'll be damned if it'll get you, Chris!" Jill readied her M4 immediately and at full automatic fired on the Red Pyramid.
Hector honestly thought he'd see the strange-looking bastard get cut down...but that didn't happen. Shocked, he realized NOTHING was happening. He yelped, "Jesus! Is it just me, or is it soaking up those bullets?!"
Christine Yamata's eyes were fearfully wide above the mask that covered the rest of her face as she cried back, "It's not just you, Hector!" Jill ran out of bullets, and as she reloaded she was also stunned to see that each and every bullet she fired did no damage whatsoever to the Red Pyramid. The frenzied assault of bullets disappeared into the being's skin, but not even a mark was left to show it had been shot!
At that moment, finally, Chris Redfield snapped out of his self-paralysis. No matter what he felt, he remembered his team needed him. Jill needed him. He brought to bear his assault rifle and with a commanding roar ordered, "Everyone fire! FIRE!" Frantically, desperately, they all fired as one upon the Red Pyramid...but as most began to reload, they realized that still no damage had been done to the adversary.
Regina breathed, "It is just...absorbing everything we throw at it...but that can't be possible...!" Every one of the survivors felt a collective, overwhelming fear as the Red Pyramid began to advance upon them with slow steps, dragging its Great Blade with it.
Hector snapped, "Well, let's just see how much this big puppy can eat!" He then unshouldered his customized grenade rifle he named with affection Bitsy. He still remembered how he took out one of those giant B.O.W.s in Eastern Europe with one shot with his trusted long gun. He yelled at Chris, "Captain, get everyone outta here! This WILL be huge!"
Chris understood and shouted at Jill and everyone, "Back! Get back! Out of the kitchen!" No one needed to be told twice and they ran out into the adjoining lobby. Hector was the last, backing out slowly yet still outpacing the Red Pyramid's speed as he pointed Bitsy at the being.
A few meters away from the kitchen entrance, in the spacious lobby, Hector Hivers yelled, "CATCH, ASSHOLE!" He fired Bitsy, and the RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade sheared into the kitchen. And into the Red Pyramid dead-center. The explosion was incredible as the kitchen was completely decimated. The big man pumped a fist as his other hand held Bitsy and he roared, "BOOYAH!" Behind him and at a safe distance from the blast, everyone saw that the kitchen was a blinding inferno no human could have survived.
Hector turned to them, confident, and quipped, "You know what they say! If you can't stand the heat, you should've kept your ass out of the kitchen!" But Chris and Jill and all of the others were staring at him with wide eyes, he realized...wait, no. They were all staring at something behind him. He then registered the sounds. The footsteps. The grinding metal. He turned again to look at the kitchen, and he felt sudden, total horror.
The Red Pyramid had just appeared in the incredible fire, bathed in it, as it moved relentlessly into the blasted threshold with a lurching gait. It still dragged its Great Knife with it. And in spite of the flames eagerly licking its skin, it hadn't been harmed at all.
Chris said quietly, "Dear god..."
Alex Shepard held his terrified wife tightly as he grunted, "Sorry, Captain. God doesn't have anything to do with this shit." At least not a holy, benevolent god.
Regin drew closer to Chris and said, "Captain, everything we've tried so far hasn't worked. We need to fall back." Chris didn't seem to hear the commando, and so she shouted to get his attention: "Captain?!"
Chris said, but with unsure quiet, "This...this thing has to have a weakness..."
But Jill Valentine felt a virtually religious level of fear by this time and she said urgently, "Chris, we can't stay! We have to fall back and figure out how to destroy this monster!"
Regina added as she looked back at the burning being, "We have no idea what this thing is capable of, we don't even know how fast it is! We may need room to - " Fortunately, the redheaded commando was wise not to take her eyes off the enemy because in an instant it moved, it was charging VERY fast toward the survivors, its Great Knife digging into the fencing under its feet. Regina screamed, "Oh, SHIT!"
Chris, Jill and Regina immediately and instinctively broke in different directions, and barely in time to avoid the Red Pyramid and a sweeping swing of its massive weapon, which would have cleaved into all of them. Jill roared, "EVERYONE SCATTER! DON'T GIVE IT A SINGLE TARGET!"
Everyone did so, and fortunately there was enough room in the lobby. But the Red Pyramid was clearly fixated on one of them, only one, and as it walked in its lurching way, Christina cried, "Oh my god, it IS focused on Captain Redfield! But why?!"
The thing was approaching Chris slowly, and the survivor backed from it, a grim expression on his face. He knew his weapons were useless against the Red Pyramid, and his mind raced to find a solution...
...but another, darker part of Chris wondered why he should have even bothered running...
...perhaps he deserved this...?
Jill screamed, "CHRIS!"
Someone else yelled, "EVERYONE TAKE COVER!" It was Regina, the redheaded commando. She had her Bear Commander at the ready, her finger on the trigger of its attached grenade launcher. Everyone dove to the floor...thankfully, she was positioned behind the front desk and she knew it would be enough of a barrier. Regina cried, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" She fired the grenade launcher and she barely ducked in time before the round detonated, POOOM!
The Red Pyramid hadn't been harmed. At all. Worse, it fixated on Regina at that moment. The lady with red hair seemed to want to defy its mission and its judgment of Chris Redfield. It wouldn't tolerate that at it lurched after her! Christine screamed, "REGINA!" Just like that, the protection the commando had felt like a trap.
At that moment not far away, Hector was frantically trying to reload Bitsy, but his hands were shaking as he attempted to fix the shell into the grenade rifle's barrel. He muttered, "Hold on, you pointy-headed asshole...just gimme a sec...!"
The Red Pyramid reached the front desk, took a swing with its Great Blade, and blasted a portion of it into splinters. Regina's speed was all that saved her as she hurdled the desk on one side, barely avoiding another swing!
In another part of the lobby, Cybil Bennett took a defensive position in front of Alex and Elle Shepherd. Elle moaned, "Oh Cybil, I don't think we can fight that monster!"
Alex put it more bluntly by saying, "We REALLY need to get the hell out of here right now!"
Cybil nodded shakily. She called out, "Chris! Jill! WE NEED TO GO NOW!"
Jill cried back, "Copy that! Chris, everyone, OUTSIDE!"
"Go, everybody, GO!" It was Hector...he had Bitsy at the ready, reloaded. He looked at Chris and yelled, "Get outside, boss! I'll be right behind you!"
Chris nodded and shouted, "YOU HEARD JILL, MOVE OUT!" They all raced to the entrance doors...the Red Pyramid paused as it seemed to remember Chris...the being simply watched Regina retreat...and then in heartbeats, everyone was gone.
Everyone but Hector Hivers, who stood just outside of the doors and yelled, "You REALLY need to fuckin' die!" He fired Bitsy into the lobby from the hip, and there was another devastator of a blast so powerful it made the survivors who were safely outside cringe. Hector bore it well because of his armor...but so did the Red Pyramid once again as it stood in the firestorm of the lobby, unscathed.
Christine Yamata raced to Hector, in spite of the calls from Jill and Cybil to stay back. The masked medic yelled at the big man, "Hector, let's go! We can't stop that thing!"
Hector scoffed, "I don't believe that, Christine! It's gotta have a fuckin' weakness! Here!" He gave Bitsy to the medic, and then stripped the thick bandolier of RPG-7 rounds from his thick waist to give to her, as well. He had an even thicker equipment belt that held frag and incendiary grenades and C4 plastique. "You or somebody hold onto these for me! I don't have time to reload her!" No, he had no time as the Red Pyramid approached him with methodical steps.
Christine held the rifle and bandolier awkwardly - god, they were heavy! - as she asked in a panic, "What are you DOING?!"
Hector unshouldered his AA-12 assault shotgun and snarled, "I'm gonna stay and kill Pointy-Head here. I-if I can't, I can at least give you guys a chance to get away!"
Christine tried to speak, but her voice was full of quiet terror, "Hector...!"
Much further away, Chris Redfield yelled, "HECTOR, C'MON!"
Jill screamed, "GET BACK HERE NOW! PLEASE!"
Christine Yamata urged thickly, "Please, please don't do this, Hector...!"
Hector shook his head...his voice was just as quiet and so, so solemn as he told her, "If I can't kill this thing, then the joke's on me. At least I can buy you guys some time." Then, in a stronger voice, he told Christine, "Give Caroline and my family my love! Now go! GO!"
Then Hector Hivers bravely entered the flaming lobby before Christine's wide, stunned eyes, and she began to weep as she looked into the bright fire. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine were there then...their faces expressed soul-deep sadness as they urged Christine away and they joined the others in the darkness. Chris felt the overwhelming guilt again, the terrible impotence that had always been a part of him, the feelings that had drawn the Red Pyramid after him in the first place. He was failing again...another good man was about to die because of him...again...
Hector felt the heat in the lobby as he approached the Red Pyramid, his only thoughts were for his comrades, and he hoped they'd get away from this freak. The Red Pyramid had stopped and stood there in the inferno, waiting for Hector. The big man yelled, "LET'S DANCE, ASSHOLE!" He fired on the being with his fully automatic assault shotgun and blasted it with a barrage of such force it would have torn any other enemy apart.
But the Red Pyramid was unlike ANYTHING else. As Hector got closer, with a terrible burst of speed the Judge of Judges closed the distance on the armored man and executed its sentence on this one who tried to defy it. In a heartbeat, its Great Knife impaled Hector's thick body horridly, brutally through his torso, and the shock and pain were so intense he couldn't even cry out.
His masked face and the helmet of the Red Pyramid were so close to one another.
The big man knew that was good...as his big hands reached for his grenade belt and he started pulling pins.
Hector Hivers managed a laugh as he executed his last prank and said, "G-gotcha, you sonuvabitch!"
The combined blast was overwhelming and the weakened structure of the lobby couldn't take it...everything collapsed, but didn't quite smother the flames. Not all of them. For a time no one was there to measure, it was quiet.
And then something emerged from the rubble.
In spite of his armor, Hector's body had been torn to oblivion...but the Red Pyramid was standing there in the darkness, lit by the fires. Again, it hadn't been hurt at all. But it felt frustration and cheated anger. The Judge of Judges had been denied the target of its singular purpose.
But only for that moment...it would never stop, never rest until it found Chris Redfield again.
And then it would pass its judgment on that guilty soul, by the harshest of means.
TO BE CONTINUED