Chapter 22

"I'm dropping all of you off next to the crash site now," Vickers informed the members of the STARS Alpha Team as he lowered the helicopter down into the clearing next to the crash site. "I saw a building with a helipad on the roof a short distance away. I'll stay circling and be ready to pick you up when you need evac."

"Copy that," Wesker replied as he and the rest of the team jumped out of the chopper. "I've got a shortwave radio and will stay in contact as best I can."

The team moved quickly to the downed chopper before they heard an explosion in the distance.

"Bravo didn't have any heavy ordnance with them," Barry said as they all turned to the area where they heard the sound. "But the cannibals might have had some."

"Agreed," Wesker nodded his head in Barry's direction. "We should probably only give this area a quick look before moving on."

"Radio is busted," Joseph Frost said as he looked at the interior of the chopper. "No evidence of anything other than some emergency repairs to get the emergency beacon up and running though."

"Did any of you hear that?" Jill asked in a moment of silence. "Sounded like something crashing through the trees."

"Negative," Chris shook his head. "I didn't hear anything."

Then they all heard the sound of a tree being forcible strained as it was pushed against another one.

"Damn," Barry whistled as he looked at the grizzly bear that emerged from the shadows. "That is one big bear."

"It's wounded too," Jill said, "Looks like chunks of its flesh have been eaten out."

The Bear then collapse in front of them onto its face, no breath coming from its massive chest or any sign that it was alive.

"Think I can skin it and get a rug out of it?" Frost asked as he moved closer to the bear.

"I wouldn't get too close to a bear," Barry cautioned. "Even if it appears dead, it might accidentally kill you if it has even the slightest bit of life. And most of our small arms here won't do much more than irritate it."

"I'm fine," Joseph said as he got close enough to poke the bear with his submachine gun. "See, it's not even moving."

The bear's head snapped up, the eyes blazing with an undead fury before it turned to Frost.

"Oh, fuck," Frost said as he began to backpedal away from the bear as it rose to its full height. "Guys, a little help here!"

"I'll use a grenade, but you need to get clear Joe," Chris said seriously. "And then we need to all start running. Because I don't think this will do all that much to this thing."

Shouldering the aged grenade launcher, Chris loaded the explosive round in before snapping the chamber shut and aiming at the bear that was still processing the area.

"Moving!" Joe yelled as he began to sprint away from the bear, his SMG banging into his back as it slung on the sling behind him.

"Fire in the hole!" Chris called out as he pulled the trigger on the launcher, launching the round out and watching as it impacted the bear without doing anything more than bouncing off of it.

"You forgot about the arming distance," Jill said as she shouldered her rifle and fired a pinpoint round into the grenade, causing it to go off before turning and sprinting after Joseph.

Barry had already turned and begun running, leaving Chris and Wesker to look at the bear as it stumbled to its feet and turn its burning eyes to the two of them. As the two of them turned and began to run, they heard the sound of something smaller and faster than the bear chasing them as well.

"Those aren't bears!" Chris yelled as he turned his head and caught a glimpse of a canine figure leaping after them.

"Just keep running!" Wesker yelled back, nearly out of breath. "I think I see a building in front of us!"

The two of them hit the door and forced it open before turning and shoving it closed behind them.

"That was too close," Chris said as they heard the thump of a dog or whatever it was that was chasing them hit the door.

"Where are the others though?" Wesker asked as he turned and looked at the entryway of the building that they were in.

"Thud!" a massive sound hit the door and it shivered a second before they heard the bear growl and move on a bit.

"Let's go see about finding the others yeah?" Chris agreed as he backed away from the door before his feet hit a bunch of spent shell casings and he nearly slipped onto his back before Wesker caught him and prevented him from hitting his ass on the ground.

"That's a lot of shell casings," Wesker said as he knelt down and picked up a piece of brass. "There's some scorch marks over in the corner too. Whatever happened here, someone used a lot of ammunition to try and kill something else."

"Doesn't look like they were too successful either," Chris said as he picked up a 7.62 NATO casing off of the ground. "Otherwise we would have seen a body around here. It was definitely Bravo Team though. Forest marks his duty ammo with a small red sharpie so that he doesn't grab his range ammo by accident. This is definitely one of his."

"Well, that puts us at least somewhat on the right track," Wesker replied. "I wonder what they faced that would require so much spent munitions though."

"No idea," Chris shook his head. "But we should probably regroup with the others before we try and locate Bravo Team."

"You go locate the rest of Alpha Team," Wesker ordered Chris. "I'm going to see if I can track down Bravo, it looks like one of them may be injured," Wesker indicated a small trail of blood. "They might need assistance of some kind."

"Alright," Chris agreed. "I'm not sure that splitting up is the right idea, but you are the captain."

"Godspeed, Chris," Wesker said as he turned and began to follow the trail of bloody bootprints. "I'll meet you back here in an hour to regroup."

"Copy that," Chris said as he shouldered his SMG and began to check for unlocked doors. "I just hope that they made it into the building without any issues."

"I certainly wouldn't want to be trapped out there with that bear," Wekser chuckled.

"Agreed," Chris said. "And Captain, take an extra flashbang, I have a feeling that you're going to need it," Chris tossed the grenade to the Alpha Team captain before opening the unlocked door and moving through it.

"Poor fool," Wesker muttered to himself as he pulled a suppressor out of one of his pouches and began to screw it onto his Samurai Edge. "I doubt that the rest of them escaped from Cerberus, much less the bear."

Wesker swapped his magazine for subsonic ammo and chambered a round before moving forward, making sure to follow the trail of blood closely. "Let's find out how many of you are still alive after this."

Author's note: Please remember to leave a review. I like to improve on things and constructive criticism never hurts