Resident Evil Recall: Operation Arklay

Episode Nine: Square One

Part Three

Forest Zone, Arklay Mountains, 9:00 PM…

The sound of the helicopter's rotors could still be heard through the noise-cancelling headset when they had lifted off from the landing pad on the roof of the RPD, and now the last of Raccoon City's suburban lights were passing underneath as Janet Carver changed course to head into the mountains. Normally their destination would take more than an hour to reach by car, but by air she could more than half the time. This was good, because their response to the distress call had already been delayed thanks to Chief Irons.

"Do you even know where we're going?" Proske asked through the radio.

He was in the co-pilot's seat next to hers, and he looked nervous as hell to even be there with her. This was understandable, since Carver had disobeyed orders and stolen a police helicopter, but to her, saving lives was more important than keeping herself on the good side of their overweight Chief. As she had prepared the helicopter for takeoff, she thought that Proske wasn't coming, but at the last possible second he pulled open the side door and jumped in. He hadn't said much after that as they flew across the city.

"Of course I do." She replied. "The coordinates are past the resort, just off the main road into the mountains. "It'll be easy to find, all we have to do is look for a light when we get close… and Sarge… thanks for coming."

"Don't thank me, Detective." He said. "All I want to do is make sure my fellow Officers are safe, but other than that, I was never here. I didn't come out here with you, and I don't know anything about you stealing this helicopter."

Carver understood, and she wasn't the type of person to tell on him anyway. She also wanted to make sure that their fellow Officers were safe, regardless of her personal relationship with Liquid, and yes, she was willing to risk her badge over it. She should have been out there with the Task Force from the beginning, and would have been if not for Irons saying that she couldn't. The mission that Liquid and the others were on was incredibly dangerous, and it still baffled her as to why he was given so little support. There should have been twice as many people on his team, with support from the S.T.A.R.S. unit.

Angling the helicopter upward to accommodate the changing terrain, she leaned back in her seat as they followed the ascending forest. The Arklay Mountains were beautiful, even at night. The computer at the center of her console showed the distance and direction to where they were going, so it wouldn't be much longer.

"Carver, I just gotta ask." Proske continued. "Everyone knows you're smart, and you're a good cop with a bright career ahead of you. Look, I know this is none of my business, but why would someone like you be interested in someone like Liquid?"

"Oh, who knows?" Carver replied with a slight smile. "Probably his confidence has something to do with it, and he makes me feel special. I know everyone says he's got problems, and trust me, they're right, but he's actually a pretty decent guy once you get through his trauma and defense mechanisms."

The mountain plateaued, so she leveled off, and now a light could be seen in the distance. It seemed a little brighter than the normal lights of a building, and as they got closer, she saw that this was because it wasn't the lights of a building… it was fire. The top half of a large building was engulfed in flames, and as they moved in closer, it was clear that the flames were slowly spreading.

"Holy crap, the resort's on fire!" Proske yelled as he fumbled with his helmet to switch to the external radio. "We gotta call this in!"

"Proske, no!" Carver yelled while smacking his hand. "If you call it in, then Irons will know you're with me! And if I call it in, there won't be any way to return the helicopter without them noticing."

Her reluctant co-pilot huffed angrily as he looked at the building, but they both knew she was right. But he seemed to relax when she circled the burning building, and they got to see that police and fire crews were already there. She watched as the people on the ground fought the flames, but it was a losing battle. The hoses on their trucks just didn't have the capacity to push it back, and it was unlikely that Arklay County had a firefighting helicopter.

"Well, at least we know we're on the right track." She continued as they gained altitude. "Now, all we gotta do is… oh, you have got to be kidding me."

"What is it?" Proske asked. "Is something… Carver, is that another fire over there?"

Off in the distance, a few miles from the resort, another light could be seen among the trees. It was a lot smaller than the one that led them to the resort, but again as they got closer, they saw that it was, in fact, another fire. Now hovering above the blaze, she could see that this time it was a house that was burning, and the entire thing was completely engulfed. Turning on the helicopter's searchlight, it was easy to spot the wrecked SUV near the driveway, as well as two figures trying to get their attention while a third remained motionless against a tree.

"Is that… them?" Proske asked.

"Probably." Carver replied as she looked for a landing zone. "But what the hell happened here?"

It was comforting to know that she hadn't stolen the helicopter for a false alarm, and the yard in front of the burning house was large enough to land, so she slowly set down while giving the people on the ground plenty of time to get out of the way. Once they were set down, she left the rotors going while as and Proske jumped out. It was clear that the two standing figures were Liquid and Lopez, since they ran over to the tree where Ashwood was laying. She and Proske ran over with them, and it was clear that the Tech Specialist had taken one hell of a beating.

"Be careful when we move her!" Proske yelled over the noise. "We don't want to risk a neck injury!"

"It's a little late for that!" Liquid yelled back. "She was in the basement, and Lopez had to carry her out when… holy crap, Proske?! What the hell are you doing out here?! And… Janet?"

"We'll talk later!" Carver yelled back. "We need to get out of here before the fire spreads!"

The four of them took hold of Ashwood, and on a count of three they carefully lifted her off the ground. The cabin was starting to collapse from the fire as they were laying her across the seat, and some of the fire was just beginning to jump to the nearest trees when Carver lifted off. There were a couple more helmets in the back, so Liquid and Lopez put them on in order to have proper communication.

"You guys aren't gonna believe this!" Lopez began excitedly. "This big guy ambushed us when we got back, and we shot him, like, a hundred times, but he just wouldn't die! He had the strength of ten men, and he wrecked the SUV with his bare hands!"

"He was waiting for us, we think he came in through the roof." Liquid continued. "He destroyed the computer equipment, and then he took down Ashwood before we could really do anything. I don't know if it was drugs or body armor or what, but we'd probably be dead now if we hadn't forced him off the cliff."

Liquid and Lopez did a quick high-five as Carver tried to process what they were saying. The three of them looked like they had just been through hell, and she was getting a mental picture in her head, when this was interrupted by Proske turning toward the back and sniffing the air.

"Do you smell alcohol?" The Sergeant asked.

"Oh, that's me." Lopez explained after smelling himself. "I got sprayed pretty good when Liquid broke that whiskey bottle. See, he soaked the guy before shooting him with the shotgun, to, you know, burn him, and this kind of started the fire in the cabin."

"You burned down your house to take down one guy?" Carver asked while looking back at him.

"I didn't know what else to do." Liquid explained. "Going against this guy was like trying to fight the damn Terminator. Bullets and shells didn't stop him, he crushed the engine of my SUV, and he tossed us around like we weighed nothing. I tell you, this guy wasn't normal; I don't even know if the fall down the cliffs killed him."

"Oh, why can't it ever be easy?" Proske asked while shaking his head. "Look, the first thing we need to do is get Ashwood to the hospital. After that, we can sort out all this… weirdness."

Carver agreed, and she was bringing the helicopter around so that they could head back toward the city, when an alarm started going off. There was a red light blinking on the console, and she was just starting to investigate it, when the helicopter started to rumble a bit.

"What's going on?" Liquid asked.

"Uh, we've got a small problem." She replied nervously. "I don't know how, but we're losing fuel… sorry guys, but we're not gonna make it back to Raccoon City."

"Is there some place we can set down?" Lopez asked.

"Arklay Village." Liquid answered. "Head down into the valley to the east, and just set down anywhere."

There wasn't any danger of crashing as long as she found a place to land within the next three minutes, based on how quickly her fuel gage was depleting, so she followed Liquid's plan since all she could see were trees across the landscape below. The valley he spoke of was the only one in sight, and there were tiny dots of lights, which thankfully didn't appear to be any more fires. The helicopter was rumbling even more now as they flew down into the valley, and Carver just hoped that the villagers didn't too angry if she had to set down in someone's backyard.