See the prologue and first two chapters for appropriate disclaimers; I own no one except for Carter Myers and family.
Additional warning: this is rated T, and for good reason. Then again, if you're a Resident Evil fan you should ideally be a teenager anyway...
Please offer feedback - it tells me if I'm doing this properly.
Resident Evil 6: Rampage
CHAPTER 3: BUS RIDE, CATHEDRAL CHAOS
"The best way to lampshade a character's departure? Put 'em on a bus." - Titanium Gold
"Hell will rise and chaos will reign!" - Carla Radames, "Resident Evil 6"
In battle, there are three options - lead, follow, or get out of the way. In the battle Helena Harper and Carter Myers fought to restore their quad-core group, each lead and followed the other as the situation demanded... and in the process, Leon Kennedy - the senior field agent Helena was partnered with - mostly kept out of the way.
After all, why interfere with a winning team?
Having navigated their way through the subways, the trio of Agents had found their way to the surface - and subsequently to other survivors at a gun shop. The shop owner - having contacted a friend of his to bring a bus to transport survivors - had died alongside his son trying to get the Agents and other survivors out... but the bus still managed to leave, with the Agents' assistance, and begin ferrying them and the remaining survivors to Tall Oaks Cathedral.
"90% of the population of Tall Oaks is infected with the virus," Hunnigan explained to the Agents over the comms, "That rounds out to about 70,000 hostiles."
"Well," Carter snarked dryly, "At least now we know how many enemies to shoot at."
Helena elbowed her friend none-too-gently in the ribs as Hunnigan continued her update.
"We also received word that an organization named 'Neo-Umbrella' just claimed responsibility for the attack."
"'Neo-Umbrella'?" Leon echoed as Carter softly cursed - either at the organization's name, the pain in his ribs or both at once; the senior agents couldn't tell.
"Son of a bitch..."
"I know what you're thinking."
"Yeah," Leon grimaced, "This is Raccoon City all over again."
"Only this time," Carter scowled, "It's worse."
"How?" Leon grunted.
"Raccoon was an accident in a lot of ways - but this mess was planned. That and a mole in his protection detail are the only ways President Benford, of all people, could have been caught vulnerable here." Carter hypothesized, "And dad... he survived Raccoon, and all the viral shit that came with it. If this were really an accident, I'm certain he'd be with us right now."
"A good theory, but you'll have to find evidence to support it yourselves - and for now, that's all the news I've got," Hunnigan replied, "Now it's your turn to help me. I need to know what's in that cathedral; I've got suits breathing down my neck for info."
"'Suits'?" Leon echoed.
"Specifically," Hunnigan elaborated, "Derek C. Simmons - National Security Advisor."
Helena started at the mention of that name, looking towards Leon's radio; Carter's spine went cold.
"Simmons, you said?" the survivalist asked softly, noticing the flash of emotion in Helena's eyes... and combining it with her reaction to his mole theory to create another theory, one which turned his stomach.
"Yes," Hunnigan replied, "Why?"
"Hunnigan, it's a long story," Carter grimaced, "But if this goes as I think it will, it'll all be in my report later - and you'll be among the first to read it."
'If I can submit it at all once we get out,' he silently added, 'Simmons... damn. Never thought I'd hear that name again. And he's the country's Security Advisor... that explains a lot about the government in the last fifteen years.'
"Understood, Myers." Hunnigan replied, "Good luck to all of you."
"Thanks, Hunnigan - we'll let you know what's inside the cathedral," Leon added, before cutting the video link.
"Hang on!" the bus driver barked, seeing a zombie blocking the road ahead - and deciding to crush it flat. The effort was a success - but the resulting instability sent the bus careening out of control. The driver managed to compensate and keep the bus from rolling - but the bus still spun; Leon, Helena and Carter still flew towards the back of the bus, landing in a heap... and the bus still stopped at a cliff edge, its rear tires dangling over the drop even as the headlights revealed trouble; zombies - at least a dozen - shambling towards the bus itself.
"Son of a bitch..." Carter groaned, rolling onto his back a minute later as the other survivors screamed for help against the zombies swarming the bus, "Last time I take transit."
"Carter, focus!" Leon barked as he and Helena fired at zombies ahead of them, "We've got trouble here!"
After a quick habitual check of his pack (which took a matter of seconds) the survivalist leaped forward, firing his own gun at a zombie that nearly took a bite out of Helena - hitting the walking cadaver square between the eyes. As the two old friends shared a look, Carter grabbed the ammo packs that had fallen next to him - and then kneeled behind Leon and Helena as the trio shot at the zombies attempting to swarm them.
"We're going over!" Helena gasped.
"Brace yourselves!" Leon ordered, the trio doing so to the best of their ability, simultaneously fending off the zombies even as Carter muttered a string of curses.
"Goddamn stupid motherfucking rear-wheel-drive buses and bloody fucking zombies and shit-eating..."
Suddenly, a bright light flared through the windshield... the headlights of an 18-wheeler tractor-trailer truck.
"Oh, HELL NO!"
"GRAB HOLD OF SOMETHING!" Leon screamed as the truck - under attack from zombies as well - slammed into the bus at full speed. Out of old habit, Helena reached for Carter's hand and grasped it tightly. As the survivalist pulled his old friend into a hug with one arm, they both reached for Leon as all three of them were thrown clear from the bus...
...and then everything went white momentarily as the Agents hit the ground, only to awaken moments later to a bus aflame and aches galore.
However, the driver was still alive, pinned inside the front end of the bus - and as he reached towards the fatigued trio, the bus exploded completely, forcing Leon and Helena had to duck to avoid flying debris. Carter simply turned, letting his reinforced gear take the hits even as he shielded his face with an arm.
"They escape the infection..." Leon mused sadly, looking at the blaze, "Only to die like this."
Wordlessly, Carter slammed a fist into his palm, the fire ahead reflecting in his dark eyes as rage flashed through them... only for that rage to be extinguished by Helena's touch to his arm. As he turned to look at her, a concerned, saddened expression was on her face.
"There's no time to grieve," Helena breathed, looking at her best friend and her newest ally, "We have to get to the Cathedral."
And so, with one last look at the wreckage, the trio pressed on.
'Leon! Helena! Myers - are you okay?' Hunnigan asked, clearly concerned.
"Yeah." Leon grunted, activating the comlink on his ear, "For whatever reason we're still alive."
"And surprisingly unscathed," Carter mused, looking over his survival gear. Mostly everything on his vest and backpack had survived the fall; the few unsalvageable compartments were quickly torn off and discarded.
"We're cutting through the cemetery," Helena grimaced, "To reach the cathedral."
As the trio cut the audio link, Carter looked to Helena.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," Helena gasped, "Just a bit sore. You landed on me again." she added teasingly as a tight smile graced her expression. Carter grinned sheepishly as the group pressed on, Leon taking point.
"I was trying to achieve the opposite this time - you landing on me," the ex-outdoorsman explained, "Guess it didn't work."
As the trio attacked the zombies lying in wait in the cemetery, Helena smiled coyly at her friend.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine - but the next time you want to hold me, Myers, just ask."
Carter blushed as he picked up another serpent-themed flash drive and a box of handgun ammo, but otherwise didn't reply. In fact, outside of battle cries and cursing at the undead he was silent for the rest of the cemetery journey, a pensive gleam in his eye... at least until the Agents got to a shack at the other end of the cemetery, where Carter aimed his handgun one-handed at a door inside.
"Got a bad feeling about that door." he explained, "Get it open - I'll cover you."
"Did you train in zombie apocalypses at the FBI Academy?" Helena asked sardonically while moving towards the door's right side. Leon moved to the left side after raising an eyebrow at Carter, whose expression turned sheepish.
"Ah, no..." the trainee blushed, "I played a lot of survival horror video games after you and Deborah left - to keep my instincts sharp. Still do, actually."
Helena saw Leon's raised eyebrow - and raised it with a wry grin towards her friend.
"It's a long story," Carter added, "I'll explain when we get a chance to relax a bit."
"Roger that." Leon smirked. As Helena pushed the door open, Carter aimed his gun - and then had to quickly readjust, firing from the hip and his primary gun simultaneously as a zombie dog attacked instead of the zombie the trio had expected. Hitting the mutt with two shots per gun and a back-flip to its hindquarters as it flew overhead, Carter lay on his back for a moment, gasping for breath as the adrenaline rush spiked once more.
"Warned ya..." he ground out with a smirk as the undead dog, killed as a result of Carter's counterattack, dissolved behind him.
"You cocky little..." Helena groaned, uncertain whether to hug her friend or hit him. Both men chuckled, and as Helena pulled Carter to his feet Leon noticed a key sparkling in the organic debris.
"Huh... how'd you know?" the senior agent asked Carter while picking up the key.
"Lucky guess - worked that way in video games," Carter grunted, reloading and holstering his secondary gun, "The gates to the cathedral are locked, so logically the key had to be close. On the other hand, I thought a zombie would have the damn thing on its belt... not a dog holding it in its teeth."
"At least you got it," Helena smiled, "Good work."
Carter smiled at his old friend in return - and fought valiantly to ignore the butterflies in his stomach as their eyes locked, causing the pensive gleam to return to his eyes.
"Let's get moving - like you said, we don't have a lot of time."
"Sonofa-!" Carter cursed.
"Leon, are you alright?" Helena asked over the radio; a zombie had just flown past Carter, and knocked the senior agent onto a lower level of the veritable maze between the cemetery and the cathedral.
"Nothing broken, bruised or bleeding - lucky me," Leon replied, "Good thing too; I kinda doubt you'd be doubling back for me."
Carter's only response was a facepalm, audible enough to be picked up over the radio. Grumbling followed, though it was too muffled to be intelligibly translated.
"You never know," Helena teased, grinning at her friends' antics, "Meet us at the cathedral!"
"I swear," Carter groaned as the duo moved ahead, "You two are worse than every pair of fraternal siblings I've ever met."
Helena's lips twitched, but she was otherwise silent - at least on that topic - as she and Carter shot down multiple zombies on the path ahead of them.
"I'm glad you and I found each other again, Carter," the ex-CIA Agent smiled, "When we get Deborah out of this hellhole, it'll almost be just like old times."
"I hear that," Carter grinned, "I've missed having you two around... I keep looking for big apartments, thinking you two would make great roomies."
"Well, I'm hardly attached to my brownstone," Helena mused playfully, "Let's find a place - all four of us - when we're through here."
"Leon too, huh?" Carter smiled.
"He's grown on me a bit - what can I say?" Helena chuckled.
"I think he's married, though - his file says that Claire Redfield's his next-of-kin," Carter recalled, "Maybe just the three of us?"
"Sure you can handle living with two women by yourself?" Helena teased, "We tend to be unpredictable."
Shooting down a Shrieker at a distance before turning his gun on a Bloodshot zombie, Carter chuckled as the Shrieker's final scream had no effect, being too far out of range.
"We practically lived together as kids, Helena," the FBI Agent grinned, "and the three of us meshed flawlessly. We'll do it again - properly, this time - once we're out of this place. I'm sure we can all handle whatever we throw at each other - it can't be worse than any of my blood-kin's bullshit."
Helena's smile softened as a memory came to the front of her mind.
"'We're a team forever,' I think you said once?"
"I did," Carter grinned, "'Forever and always,' I think was your counter-pledge?"
"It was," Helena chuckled, "And it still is."
"I'm glad," Carter's grin softened into a small smile as Helena's eyes met his.
"Carter, I-"
"Hey!" Leon grinned tiredly, jogging up to the duo, "Man, are you guys a sight for sore eyes."
"Thanks," Helena replied, "You coming into this cathedral with me or what?"
"Of course," Leon nodded.
"You know I've got your back, Harper." Carter added, "Let's move."
Opening the gate ahead, the trio found their way to the front of Tall Oaks Cathedral - as well as a small stash of ammo and grenades. After loading up, the trio stood in front of the Cathedral as Helena banged on the door and Carter watched their six.
"Hello?" Helena barked, "I know someone's in there - open up!"
"Are you crazy?" a survivor within the cathedral retorted, "Those things will kill us!"
"Look, it's just us - hurry up and let us in!" Leon added. Carter grimaced, tapping Helena on the shoulder with his left hand as his right held his handgun steady at the fence behind the group.
"Zombie alert," the survivalist explained sotto voice.
"Okay, okay," Helena retorted - whether to Carter or the survivor, the men couldn't tell, "We'll get rid of them first!"
And so, the three agents dove into the fray - punching, kicking, shooting and (in Leon and Carter's case) slashing/stabbing away, even as Helena spun and twirled between zombies while blasting away with her Hydra shotgun.
Eventually, after contending with several zombies of the standard and mutated varieties, the trio were helped out by another survivor with a sniper rifle - and eventually, the door to the Cathedral was unlocked.
"I'm putting a lot on the line trusting you," Leon told Helena as he stood by the door, "I hope this info of yours is worth it!"
"It is," Helena replied, closing in on the door itself, "I'll stake my life on it."
"And I'll be right there with her," Carter added from beside Leon, "Helena's never lied to me before; I trust her with my life."
"Then let's move, and find out what this is about." Leon nodded. The trio sped through the door as Leon opened it and spun towards its inside handle, Carter twisting towards the open gap behind him and Helena as they sprinted through, Leon shutting the door on a couple zombies' necks.
Helena turned, and as Carter kneeled out of the way of her line of fire, the two younger agents fired their weapons at said zombies' heads - pushing the cadavers back long enough for Leon to shut and seal the door completely.
"Damn, damn, dammit all to hell...!" Carter grunted, lowering his weapon as he stood, "When I get my hands on whoever caused this shit, he'll need to eat through a bloody feeding tube!"
"Get in line," Helena sighed, looking at her old friend and her DSO ally before turning towards the cathedral interior... where several survivors, including their sniper-aid, had holed up. One of the men jogged towards the agents, throwing an appreciative look Helena's way before Carter stood in front of her, expression stoic.
As Helena blushed pink and her lips curled in a slight smile, Leon was the one who delivered the message of disappointment.
"Sorry, guys. We're not rescue workers."
Carter scowled briefly as the survivors returned to the benches further ahead, hopelessness etched into every millimeter of their body language.
'We've gotta find a way to rescue these people!' the FBI Special Agent mused, 'But first...'
"Well, Helena," the survivalist murmured, "We're here. What's next?"
"There's a secret door by the altar that leads underground," Helena explained, all business again, "but we need to find a way to open it."
"You wanna tell us what's down there?" Leon asked.
"It's better if I show you," Helena murmured. Carter grimaced.
"Do not tell me that Deborah's down there, H. She'll get eaten alive!" he hissed.
Helena's silence spoke volumes, as did the shine of unshed tears in her eyes as she looked at her oldest remaining friend, whose jaw was clenched tightly enough to cause his teeth to grind.
"Dammit." the survivalist grunted, scanning the altar even as he fought the urge to shoot it, "So what do we do?"
"The entrance is below the statue," Helena blinked away the tears and resumed her explanation, "As for how to open it... your guess is as good as mine. It was open last time I was here."
Leon's expression soured briefly as well.
"Then let's get up there, and start investigating."
Finding and resetting a pair of smaller, hand-sized statues opened another passage into the church, where - behind more puzzles and traps, to the younger agents' consternation - more of the same statues and a sniper rifle were located. Smiling at the disappointed scowl on Carter's face, Helena picked up the rifle instead.
"You can have it later," she teased, "After you stop carrying that beast on your back."
"That 'beast' is full of survival gear, Harper," Carter retorted wryly, "It might help save our asses. But if you want, once we get out of here you can help streamline my supplies."
A chuckle from Leon drew the younger agents' attention, as did the riddle on the wall next to him.
"'Toll the five bells loud and clear, and thus the true path shall appear.'" Helena read the riddle.
"Whoever designed this place should really not give up their day job," Carter lamented, "These riddles are just... ugh."
"I hear you," Leon groaned, "The designers in Raccoon City had a similar problem, so I've heard."
"Well, now we know what to do," Helena mused, "I'll get the bells, you get ready to grab the bust."
"I presume you mean the statue, Helena," Carter teased, "'Cause while your bust is attractive, I'm not grabbing it in public."
Helena blushed, and shot Carter a glare before heading to the outer pathways to shoot the bells. Leon, meanwhile, was sniggering at his friends' antics once more.
"And you said she and I are worse than siblings?" the older agent teased, "You two are flirting like schoolchildren."
"Leon..." Carter groaned, "...just shut up."
"Sorry," Leon grinned, unrepentant, "Just ask her out and be done with it."
"You're mixing up which Harper sister I'm in love with, man," Carter sighed, "H and I have always teased each other - it was Deborah and I who did the schoolyard flirting."
"So if we find Deborah alive and the four of us get out of here...?"
"Then she and I will pick up right where we left off," Carter responded firmly. Leon nodded, the conviction in his younger friend's eyes reminding him of a time years ago, when he had the same conviction regarding Claire; that thought caused the senior field agent's mind to briefly wander to who and what would await him at home, after they escaped.
"We'll find her - for Helena's sake, and for yours." Leon confirmed.
Meanwhile, in the depths of the catacombs under Tall Oaks Cathedral, the sole remaining living survivor of The Family's experiments fought the C-Virus infection within herself using all the focus and control techniques her old friend's family had shown her. All the while, two thoughts - two names - kept her focus strong... kept her alive, conscious, and unblemished by the C-Virus.
'Helena,' the young woman mused through the pain, 'Carter... I know you're coming... please, get here soon... I need you...!'
"You never gave up on me before," she whispered to herself, as though her sister and her beloved - her two best friends - were in the room with her, "So I won't give up on myself... or on you. Helena... Carter... I love you..."
The young woman's attempts at fighting off the infection through sheer willpower continued, even as (unknown to her) her two closest friends and a new ally were on their way to her location.
The retrieval of the statue concealed by the riddle had opened a door leading to the top floor of the cathedral... and a platform, where the statue and its twin (retrieved earlier in the maze of traps and puzzles) were meant to sit. As Leon and Helena placed the statues, the secret passage behind the altar opened completely; the three moved as close to the edge of the flooring as they dared... and Carter immediately raised his handgun as he heard wet, uneven footsteps coupled with faint, guttural grunting.
"Carter?" Leon raised an eyebrow.
"Shh!" the younger agent hissed, "Listen!"
Straining their ears, Helena and Leon heard the same sounds as well... and then they saw the monster that was hiding behind the doorway. It was a creature, humanoid, covered in gas sacs - a creature that the three would later learn (through the flash drives they'd been finding) was named Lepotitsa.
"What is that thing?" Helena breathed.
"You're asking us?" Leon retorted. Carter's eyes narrowed as he continued to watch events unfold.
A survivor - the same one who had rendered aid to the Agents before - walked up to the monster, and after finding no trace of humanity in the creature, shot it. Unfortunately, that was the survivor's undoing; the shot punctured one of the gas sacs, through which blue gas was secreted - right into the man's face.
"Son of a bitch..." Carter grimaced as most of the survivors panicked, fleeing towards the Cathedral's front doors.
"Are you okay?" a brave female survivor asked, attempting to help the man to his feet after he'd suffered what appeared to be a seizure... only to find he had actually been transformed into a zombie. Carter's expression went cold.
"I'm guessing that's what unleashed this hell." Leon deduced as the woman was attacked by the very survivor she tried to help, transforming into a zombie as well.
"Then let's take it down!" Carter snarled, jumping onto the chandelier ahead, moving into a front flip and shooting down the newly transformed zombies ahead as he fell, landing on his feet. Leon and Helena landed right behind him.
"Everyone get back!" Carter barked, "Don't panic! Keep clear of the creature, move away if it gets too close; the three of us will stop him!"
Over time, though, that proved to be... difficult. Shooting Lepotitsa, even as such action did damage it (Helena's new rifle and a shotgun Leon had found being the most effective in that respect) also unleashed more blue gas in a decent-sized area around it for the first few attacks. Getting in close was a suicidal tactic as a result, cutting off the Agents' most powerful offense - and the casualties (and zombies) continued to mount as a result of the gas, though thankfully said gas seemed to fade quickly after Leon hit Lepotitsa with a frag grenade.
However, the three agents were determined, and made a formidable team in their own right. As Leon and Carter kept the monster busy, Helena (who Carter had entrusted with as many of his remote bombs and incendiary grenades as she could carry) moved behind it, setting a bomb between her and it in the process - and threw one incendiary grenade at the distracted monster.
The high-pitched scream that came from Lepotitsa's mouth as a result of the attack, coupled with the B.O.W.'s response to the frag grenade from before, proved the agents' theory true - fire and explosives did the most harm. As the monster stumbled back, its foot fell on the remote bomb Helena had placed... just as she pulled the detonator. The explosion sent the gas-filled monster reeling to the left - straight into Leon's shotgun blast, which drove it to its knees. Taking the opportunity, Helena sprinted forward and spun into a roundhouse kick - which drove Lepotitsa back where it began, straight into the range of Carter's survival knives. Metal met flesh - and flesh lost - as Carter furiously hacked, slashed and even stabbed at the face of the monster that had unleashed the nightmare of bioterrorism on Tall Oaks, Deborah, and his father. Jumping towards Helena, the younger agent looked back - and saw Lepotitsa, battered, bloody and burned, rise to its feet again. The process was repeated two more times - before a final shotgun blast from Leon put down Lepotitsa for good.
"Finally," Carter grunted, clearing his throat and spitting a glob of phlegm splashed with blood on the corpse before sipping from his canteen, "That's one more mutant down... and all it took was losing this entire group of survivors."
The trio grimaced, looking around at the decomposing piles of organic matter; not a single person besides them had survived.
"Let's get moving." Helena replied, "You okay, Carter?"
"I'll live," Carter smiled at his old friend, wiping his hands on a wipe from his vest pocket before discarding the wipe and picking up a key card from the smoking wreckage of Lepotitsa, "Let's go find Deborah and get the hell outta this pit."
"Looks like you fought hard," JJ noted, "Even after helping you in China, I can't begin to imagine how you became so strong."
"I had no choice," Helena replied, "My sister was down there... one of my sisters, anyway."
JJ grinned.
"Even after all this time, you still...?"
"You're damn right I still considered you family, JJ," Helena smiled, "I never stopped. We each had to go our own way, do a little growing up... but don't all families do that eventually?"
That question brought to mind the departures of Agents Seaver and Hawkes from the BAU team... as the memories faded, JJ nodded.