-Boom-
Tatchi, China
Airborne, Leon felt the wind cup him as he went. He figured this is where he died beneath the rushing train, and down he came. He hit the bed of the cargo train raced beside them on the neighboring track.
Gasping, Leon tried to figure out if his back was broken.
Nope.
And Helena screamed at him, "LEON! RUN!"
Derek Simmons had become one BIG UGLY BASTARD.
The beast of Derek Simmons landed behind him. Leon vaulted to his feet and started running. Simmons had mutated again. This time his face was lodged on some kind of elongated mass of a neck above its back. The spine had exploded into a massive boney mess. It towered over the muscled body. And it was equipped with a dozen boney protrusions aimed at him like guns.
The fear beat in his blood as he ran. Ben was screaming at him from the neighboring train.
Leon vaulted over a row of railroad ties and slid across the block. The beast of Simmons chased him, roaring. He leaped desperately and pulled himself up onto the roof of the train car. Behind him, the warbling cry of the beast lit the air, "KEENNNNEEDY!"
And he'd never hated his name so much in his life.
Terrified, Leon kept on running.
Jill shouted, "Leon! Leon! Jump!"
He veered left and pushed. He pushed like he was pole vaulting for the gold. Simmons smashed into the roof of the train where he'd been and collapsed it like it was nothing. Leon gave a fear shout and grappled for the train's roof, where Jill and Helena waited.
They jerked him up after them.
Ben grabbed him to hold on.
And Simmons leaped after them.
The enormous beast hit the train and ripped away from the roof where they stood. They were tossed into the main compartment with a scream of metal and a tumble of fear. Jill spilled into a seat and rolled. Helena fell to her face and scrambled.
Leon hit on his side, keeping Ben from smashing into the floor.
The side of the train was ripped away in a burst of light and sparking metal. It squealed. It tumbled into the dark as the wind rushed in to whip their hair and offered them the view of Simmons racing beside the train.
He roared at them again, "YOU WORTHLESS IGNORANT SLUGS! I WILL GUT YOU WHILE YOU SCREAM!"
Leon threw Ben toward the far side. "Duck! Stay down!"
And the bony protrusions of Simmons lit up like lighters at a rock show. His feet sparked as he ran along the tracks beneath him. He was aiming. He was aiming at them.
Leon shouted, "Get down!"
And the firey pieces of bone shot toward them like bullets.
They tore through the train like knives launched by a practiced hand. They squealed where they stuck. They ripped apart seats, the floor, and the naked steel frame.
It stunk like burning metal and sulfur. The wind smelled like fire and death. Leon felt one zing by his face and spill blood. He dropped to one knee and aimed down his arm at those pounding feet.
The heavy round hit, the monster staggered, tripped, and spilled face down on the tracks. He rolled, throwing sparks and roaring.
Leon grabbed the hatch above him and hoisted himself up. Helena threw herself up after him.
Simmons roared in rage and raced fast and desperate to catch up. But he didn't just catch up; he passed their train. He kept on running. And then he spun to a stop and turned back toward them. Leon knew that Simmons was about to play chicken with them.
He was going to plow right into the train and send them plummeting over the side of the bridge they were on to their deaths.
Simmons roared, "LEON!"
And it was enough.
It was enough.
Leon shouted, "Simmons! You mother fucker!"
He waited. He waited for it. He watched that stupid beast race toward them; it fired off those horrible firey knives at them. One caught Leon's arm and split his shirt, spilling blood down his arm. It didn't matter. It didn't matter anymore.
Leon shot him in the feet again. Once…twice…and the third time dumped the beast onto its face.
He shouted, "Grab on, Helena!"
And the body of the beast rolled over the tracks, roaring. It was hit head-on by the train. The train reared; it tried to spin sideways. It threw the body up into the air like it was nothing. And Simmons spilled back to human form as he landed on the roof in front of them.
Simmons oozed, he gushed, he gasped. He was split in places like Freddy Krueger had carved him up. He staggered; he screamed at them. "Do you know what happens to the world if I die!?"
Leon shouted back, "I don't know about anyone else. But me? I'm having a fucking party!"
Simmons burst apart again in a spill of fluid and screams. He hit the roof, and the metal peeled, squealed, and flew toward them with a careless speed. It sheared free without stopping.
Leon dropped, throwing himself to his side to miss losing his head. Helena didn't. She remained standing as the metal missed her face by a breath. And she fired.
One bullet. Just one. She put a clean shot in the mutated face that roared at them.
Right between his fucking eyes.
Simmons roared. He glanced up as a helicopter lifted into the sky away from them. And he cried out, "NOO! How could my family abandon me!?"
He lost his footing.
He scrambled and fell over the side of the roof. He hit the tracks in front of the racing train. The mass was too much. He went under the train, screaming in horror. Blood geysered, and the train couldn't hold on. It pitched; it went parallel. The wheels screeched and caught fire with a burst of light and sparks. The compartments rocked and fell sideways like the body of a snake that had lost its head.
Leon scrambled; he shouted, "Jill!?"
Her voice called to him, "Leon!?"
"Jump! Grab Ben and jump!"
And there was no time now. It was done. The train rolled. It threw him out.
He leaped over the side of the bridge. The water raced toward him. And he hit, sinking. It stole his breath. It was coupled with the explosion as the train went up with a massive burst of sound and fire.
He kicked through the water and came up, gasping. He spun. He spun again. He shouted.
"Helena?!"
"I'm here!"
She was clutching a buoy, safe.
He spun again. "Jill!?"
There was no answer. There was no answer. He felt the panic of it spread through his guts. "Ben!?"
And a tiny voice answered, "Leon!"
Ben was on the far shore. He was waving his arms. Jill was climbing out of the water beside him. Relief spilled through him so hard that he was dizzy. Leon sank beneath the water to use the cold to gather his thoughts.
He swam toward them and climbed free onto the cold pavement.
Jill pulled him up as Ben helped Helena out of the water.
They panted, shivering a little in the muggy air. She said quietly, "We're ok. We're alright. It's done?"
Helena answered, holding on to Ben. "Yeah. It's done. He's dead. The fucking B.U.B."
Jill tilted her head, and he told her, "...big ugly bastard."
The humor danced across her face. "You acronym stuff like that, Mr. Kennedy?"
He grunted, "When it suits me, you bet."
"What do you call me?"
He shook his head. The look on his face was answer enough. The look said - mine. Ditto, she thought wildly, mine.
There was the lolling gong of a buoy out in the water. Ben said quietly, "Can we…go home now?"
Leon turned his eyes to him, "Yeah, buddy. Yeah. Let's go home."
They got to their feet. Jill clutched at his vest to be sure he could stand. Touched, he cupped her face. He wasn't gentle. He held her with a purpose. She lifted her brows at him.
Leon intoned, "You doin ok?"
"I'm great. I'm wonderful. I'll be better in a hot shower with a steak in my belly. But I'm good."
Leon narrowed his eyes. What was that look on his face? She expected relief and humor but he looked pensive. Almost...what? Sad. Something.
Ben and Helena were moving toward the stairs to leave the dock where they'd pulled themselves up. Leon paused, listening to the voices above them.
Someone shouted, "Why are we evacuating? There's been no evidence of the virus here!"
He glanced at Jill. She held his eyes for a long moment.
The people were evacuating. They'd put boots on the ground to control the spread in Lanshiang. They had to be outside of Tatchi now, and things were ok here. An evacuation was happening for safety's sake.
And his earpiece buzzed at him. "Leon!? Come back."
He touched it. "Hunnigan. Simmons is done. It's done here."
"Awesome. Thank fucking god. But we have a problem on my end. Sherry and Jake were abducted before we could extract them. Satellites put them on an abandoned underwater oil field about eighty kilometers outside Tatchi."
Leon furrowed his brow. He stepped away from the others and queried, "What? Why?"
Helena called out to them. "The data, Leon. The data she gave you. Simmons wanted it, remember?"
Leon pulled out the tiny SD card and popped it into his phone. It threw data at them as they stood there, reading it. It was uploaded to Hunnigan at the same time.
Jill whispered, "Oh my god...oh my god…he's got the antibodies for the virus."
Hunnigan returned to him, "I have a patch through to Chris Redfield."
Leon lifted his brow at Jill. "Redfield?"
And Chris came back to him over his headset. "Leon!? Are you alright? Where are you?!"
The desperation in his voice frightened Leon a little. "I'm fine. We're fine. We're just outside of Tatchi…why?"
"GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!" Nobody roared quite like Redfield. It scared the piss out of everybody listening.
The sky split with a whooshing metallic zip of sound. Leon glanced up. Jill looked up. Helena and Ben looked up.
A missile streaked across the sky toward the heart of the city.
Helena whispered, "Oh god…."
And the world was filled with screams. The missile exploded, but it didn't spill fire. It didn't ignite the flame and burn them down where they stood. It sent gushing plumes of infection out in a murdering cloud. The gas spilled across the whole city, blue and noxious and deadly.
Chris came back to him, "Leon! Are you there!?"
"I'm fine. I'm here…but things…are fucking bad here, Chris. They're bad."
Panic had spread like mass hysteria through the crowd of fleeing evacuees. Where the gas struck, they fell. They turned. They died. They fed on each other and rose again. They fled, screaming. They died, screaming. The crunch and squelch of bone, blood, and flesh peppered the sky like an orchestra of death.
Ben turned his face into Jill's leg and hid it.
Leon said quietly, "Chris…I need you to get to an underground oil rig less than a mile from your position. There are two agents there that need rescued. Sherry Birkin and Jake Mueller. Chris…he's Albert Wesker's son."
The silence was long. Chris finally breathed it back at him, "Wesker!?"
"Yes. Chris… Mueller has antibodies for the C-Virus. We need him alive. At all costs."
Chris replied softly, "I'm on my way…but Leon…listen…Ada Wong is dead. I did what I could. But…"
Leon held Jill's eyes. She touched his arm with sympathy.
He answered, "Copy that. Hurry, Chris. Hurry."
Chris came back to him one more time, "I will. I'm en route. Leon…is she alright?"
Leon was still holding her eyes. "She's alright. I'll get her out of here. I swear it."
"Good. Redfield, out."
Jill gripped his arm now. "I'm sorry about Ada."
Leon wasn't sure how he felt about that. He didn't know what he was feeling. There was the fear that beat in his chest again. There was the knowledge that Chris Redfield was somewhere over the ocean thinking of Jill Valentine.
That they both were.
He held her gaze and said, "He's still in love with you. Tell me you don't know that."
Jill shook her head, looking mildly confused. "Does that matter?"
He didn't answer right away. He scanned her face. She did the same. Her fingers curled around his vest. "Answer me. Does it matter?"
And he said, "Not now."
And there went her heart again.
Her stomach hurt at the look on his face. What was it? Insecurity. It was fear. It was a lot of everything in a short space of time. It was waking up after being in a dream or something. Was he going to look at her and regret this? Was he going to wonder if what they had was real?
Could she really blame him if he did?
They'd crammed a lifetime into a handful of days. Maybe there was a moment when they'd both have to realize that love like that...it wasn't forever. Had she ever really thought she'd get to keep him?
He wasn't a man you held onto. Was he?
She started to answer, and Helena shouted at them. "Hurry!"
Leon let go of her, and they ran for the stairs. They hit the top and were directed into a building. The door was kicked closed by a soldier just as the gas hit the street where they'd stood.
Without pausing, they were directed up a flight of stairs and down a long hallway. Outside, the gas hit the people, and they all screamed and fell.
Leon scooped Ben up against him as they ran.
They hit a small passage that would take them out to the back alley, and it was filled with the dead.
Ben clung even as Leon let go of him to start shooting.
Gunfire erupted loud and murderous.
The windows in the room they'd just left behind burst from the gas pressure beyond them. The soldiers started shouting at them. "GO GO GO!"
Jill raced passed him to drop low and sweep her leg out. She toppled zombies like bowling pins. Helena covered him as he ran passed with Ben clutched around him.
The soldier waved his arm, beckoning.
Leon burst through and took the stairs to the Hummer that waited at the bottom of the rise. He tossed Ben in the back and leaped in the front. Jill and Helena climbed in the back with Ben. The soldier slammed the door, smacked the hood of the Hummer, and the driver took off into the fog.
The soldier driving glanced at him as he plowed over the dead. The fog closed around them like a blanket. "I'll get you to the edge of the city. Once you get there, hit the bricks, ok? Don't stop until you're well beyond the perimeter."
Leon nodded, glancing over his shoulder into the back seat. Ben was curled against Jill. Helena was looking out the window. Jill was watching him.
It was a long look.
There were a lot of things in it.
But there was no time for it now. Beyond the windows of the Hummer, people were screaming and dying. Ben started to shake, and Jill cuddled him closer to her.
The sound of her musical humming filled the interior of the Hummer.
The soldier driving whispered, "My Mom used to sing that to me to put me to sleep at night."
Helena answered, "Mine too."
Without looking at her, Leon slid his arm around the back of the seat and touched Jill's knee. He squeezed it once, and she covered his gloved one with hers to squeeze in return.
His hand retreated, and she felt...what? Sad? Yes. Because part of him was retreating from her the same as that hand. And she didn't know how to hold on to him.
Leon watched the fog thin and disappear as the Hummer emerged onto the quiet street. A barricade had been erected from fallen vehicles.
The soldier said, "Get to the towers over there. This is as far as I can get you. There's a helicopter on top of the towers that you could use to get extracted. I gotta go back for my unit."
Ben told the soldier softly, "Don't be scared, ok? Just don't look back."
The soldier nodded, looking a little teary-eyed, "Right. Right. Good luck."
Leon patted his arm and alighted from the Hummer. Helena, Ben, and Jill followed him.
They climbed over the makeshift barricade. The street was quiet. The night was filled with crickets and summer. It was hard to believe that the world was burning behind them.
Leon opened his mouth to offer some kind of encouragement, and a horn blew.
He turned his head.
A gas tanker was barreling down the street toward them. There was no one behind the wheel that was living. A zombie was gnashing its teeth in the driver's seat.
They separated. They dove.
The tank missed them by inches. It careened. It spun out of control. And it smashed into the barricade. The tank burst and spilled gas in an acrid wash.
Leon grabbed for Ben. Jill shouted to Helena.
And the gas hit the ticking, smoking hood of the flipped tanker.
There was the sound of ignition—a rush of noise. And the world exploded around them.
Fire licked the sky, and the pressure of the blast hit them like a wave. It tossed them up and threw them out like they were nothing. Leon hit the windshield of a car and shattered the glass. He rolled off the hood and hit the ground on his face.
Helena was thrown down an alley into a row of trash dumpsters.
Ben went past the car where Leon had landed and burst through a stack of crates to disappear. Jill was ejected like from a burning plane. She went up; she went over. She landed on her face atop a half-over-turned semi and didn't move.
Leon struggled, gasping. His body said: Nope. And he went back to his face on the dirty pavement.
The gas burned and bled. The buildings and the street caught fire around them.
And his cheek pressed into the cold ground. His head swam. His body throbbed. He courted the dark even as he fought against it. He smelled the fire and heard the screaming…but there was nothing he could do. His body was done.
It dumped him into the dark.
The lights went out like someone had thrown a switch.
And took the rush of the pain and the fear with it.