Chapter 17
"I never want to do that again," I said as I knelt and let Alice drop off of my shoulders and onto the ground. "We didn't even make it to the motor pool."
"I say we take a break," Kaplan said as he leaned against a tree. "I've had my laptop working on decrypting some of those files while we were leaving and some of them should be close to finished by now."
"What are you all planning on doing now?" Alice asked as she massaged her twisted ankle. "I don't exactly have anywhere to go, that's why I spent so much time devoted to my lab and research."
"Edward and I are supposed to meet up with the rest of our team at the Mansion complex up there," I gestured vaguely in the direction of the bigger mansion complex. "I guess you could tag along if y'all wanted to."
"Well, we're not going back to our old jobs anytime soon," Kaplan chimed in. "You know of any job openings nearby?"
"And why aren't we going back to our jobs?" Rain asked. "Even with all of the crazy shit they've put us through it pays pretty well."
"Yeah," J.D agreed. "We got a nice fat check for helping pull VIPs out of that Ebola outbreak about a year ago."
"Because they set us up to be killed," Kaplan turned his laptop around and showed the authorized "testing" of their new Hunters against the UBCS. "They wanted to see how their precious experiments would do against trained operators."
"Whelp," J.D said after a moment. "That's a good enough reason for me to quit." He ripped the umbrella patch off of his vest and sleeve and threw them into the inferno of the small mansion behind us.
"Here's what you do," I said after letting J.D's words sink in. "We find that motor pool and get the five of you a ride out of here," I indicated the four ex-UBCS members and Alice. "Take this, and make sure you pull all of the cash you might have in your accounts out." I took out a notebook and wrote down the address of my apartment. "Find a place to stash your gear somewhere that you'll be able to get access to it again and hunker down in my apartment until we're done on this mountain."
"And if you don't make it back?" Kaplan asked as he took both the map and the note I handed them.
"Then you get the hell out of town and publish the decrypted files," I replied. "I think I know one of the major players behind this and I'll need your help to make sure that we bring anyone involved with him down."
"Alright," Rain said after she had ripped off her own umbrella patches and tossed them into the flames. "So we hunker down for now, but I expect both you and Edward to be back and ready to help us figure all of this out."
"You can count on it," I met Rain's eyes. "And if I don't come back then know I put up one hell of a fight."
"Anything else we should know?" Natalia asked. "How are we to get into your apartment?"
"There's a false brick in the walkway," I replied. "The spare key is in there and there's a decent storage facility down the street for your gear." I wrote down the directions for where the false brick was as well and handed it to them. "Now y'all need to get moving before they realize that you made it out alive," I paused and considered the rifle I currently had in my hands. "Here, take this and put it with your gear," I handed J.D the M4 that I had taken from the Jeep. "I have a feeling I'm going to want that for later." I took my flashlight and sling off of it before kneeling down and taking out the rifle that I had started the day with and attaching both of them to it again.
"You sure you won't need that up on this mountain?" Rain asked as we all began to stand up and get ready to move again.
"No, I think I might need it up here," I replied. "But I'll need it in the city later. I have a feeling that this isn't the last we've seen of zombies or those big lizards."
"Alright then," Rain said as she stood up. "Let's get moving, we've got a lot to do."
"You ready to move?" Edward asked me. "Because I'm ready to meet up with the rest of Bravo Team and get the hell off of this mountain."
"Yeah," I replied as I stood up. "I've got first dibs on killing Wesker though."
"And my prized experiment, the Queen Leech merged with me and we became one, and so I am now able to enact my revenge." The young looking man narrated his life story, not knowing that it was being captured by Kenneth's video camera.
"You're just as sick and evil as the rest of those other scientists!" Billy Coen interrupted the thing wearing a person's skin. "You can rot in hell with them too."
Captain Marini just facepalmed at the other man's mistake before hefting his grenade launcher. "Fire in the hole!" He yelled as he fired a HEPD grenade at the creature that had just finished a monologue. Watching as the creature flinched back and began transforming into some sort of twisted creature, the rest of Bravo Team began to open fire, their small arms distracting it while Captain Marini continued to fire his 40mm MGL at the creature, watching as it flinched back from every explosion he hit it with.
"Keep up the pressure, I'm reloading!" Captain Marini called out as he fell back and reloaded with some incendiary rounds that they had found in the firing range of the facility. "It's sensitive to the heat, so let's finish this thing off." He said as he fired two rounds and watched as the leech shrieked in pain and began trying to put the fires out. "I've got four more of these, let's see if they make a difference." He fired two more and the leech creature started to collapse in on itself before it stopped moving entirely.
"We should probably get out of here!" First yelled as the underwater facility began to collapse. "I think your grenades did quite a bit of damage, captain."
"Agreed," Captain Marini said as he finished reloading his MGL. "I just want to do one thing first," he turned and fired one last HE grenade into the leech's mass and watched as it disintegrated into various piles of flaming goo.
"Alright, let's get moving before this place comes down around our ears!" The team began moving to the elevator and all piled in as it began shooting up as fast as it could.
"You think Mark and Edward made it to the mansion?" Rebecca asked in the midst of the quiet. "Or do you think that explosion killed them?"
"We'll find out when we get to the mansion, won't we?" Richard patted the young woman on the shoulder. "But they're pretty tough guys, I'm sure they made it out just fine."
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"Where's the Marine?" Forest asked as they began to jog out of the complex.
"Unfortunately, William Coen perished in the Arklay Mountains with the MPs that we found. And they were all three ravaged by some of the Arklay cannibals," Captain Marini replied with a wink.
"We're going to let him go like that?" Richard asked.
"Son, he was willing to fight those strange creatures with us, and not once tried to shoot us in the back. Even when he did have the opportunity. I'd say he's earned a new lease on life."