Jill grunted slightly as she felt the abandoned bus she was in being violently turned over. The huge creature tried to tear and attack the metal carcass to grab her, and Jill shot the monster in the head with her rifle, keeping the creature's attention on herself rather than causing damage.
"A little help here would be welcome!" She shouted, and in a matter of moments, Chris climbed onto the overturned bus and leapt over the creature, landing just above its huge tail. Chris plunged his knife into the creature's flesh, but grunted in frustration when he saw that the blade didn't penetrate very deep. The thing's skin was quite thick.
The creature roared and tried to take off, but Parker soon appeared and shot at the weak part just below the creature's tail, preventing it from taking off.
Chris looked up and threw his body to the side as he was attacked by the huge tail, an attack that would surely kill him. He landed on the ground and threw a grenade under the legs of the huge infected bat.
The grenade exploded and the creature staggered to the side, just as Jill got out of the bus and raised her rifle, firing at the weak part of the thing.
"Stun grenade!" Parker shouted, and the three of them closed their eyes and covered their ears. The grenade exploded and the creature struggled in disorientation, its hearing damaged.
Chris and Parker put c4 into the sides of the creature's tail at the same time as Jill threw a grenade into its mouth.
They then turned and ran away, and Chris pressed the small button on his hand, triggering the c4.
The explosion together was huge, intense and powerful, throwing pieces of flesh, pus, exoskeleton and bone everywhere. A huge plume of smoke rose into the sky, and the noise echoed through the deserted streets.
Chris lowered his arm, observing the damage from the explosion. The number of creatures that could survive a plastic explosive blast was very small. Tyrants, Infected G... and those were designed to cause as much destruction as possible.
He took a few steps closer, meeting up with the small group.
"Are you guys okay?" Parker asked, still staring at the remains of the creature, just in case.
"Yeah... what the fuck was that?" Jill asked no one in particular. No one there had ever seen a creature like that. Animal-derived mutations, yes, but that type was new.
"It looked like a bat with a scorpion's tail. There's nothing like it in the records." Parker said, reloading his rifle and looking around.
"In other words, it's a new variant." Chris said, doing the same as his partner. His eyes ran over the surrounding buildings.
The street was blocked by a huge iron gate, which had a small passage in the corner, open enough for them to pass through to get there.
There were cars and buses scattered around the abandoned street. For decades, at least. There were equally abandoned buildings. To their left was a factory with the side of the wall destroyed, and right next to the overturned bus was a small playground with broken toys.
"Okay... that's not a good sign... any idea where they took your sister?" Parker asked, turning around and observing the scene once more. They felt a strange sensation, which made their bodies uneasy. They felt as if someone was watching them, and after what had happened with the helicopter, that was probably exactly what was happening.
"... They don't want money and they're not doing this for some kind of revenge... considering that this creature is a new variant, I assume they brought her here for experiments." Chris said with clear disgust in his voice, anxiety rising in his chest.
"We have to find a lab." Jill said, looking at a small device that showed heartbeats nearby. "We-" She was interrupted by the loud noise of something being destroyed, and an explosion happened right behind them.
They quickly turned and raised their weapons. Their eyes focused on the huge creature with a bowl under its left arm that seemed to be on fire, similar to the mouth of a cannon.
The creature was huge, with a robust body covered in scars and stitched wounds. It looked like it had been through extreme torture, and its head was wrapped in bloodstained bandages and encased in a metal cage, leaving only its glowing eyes visible.
The creature roared and raised its huge cannon, shooting a fireball towards the group, who quickly moved away.
An explosion occurred, the impact strong enough to send them to the ground, but without too much damage.
"What the fuck is that?!" Parker asked no one in particular, as they regrouped and prepared to fight when other roars echoed around them.
Infected people emerged from the abandoned buildings. All of them humanoid, some larger than the others, others raising huge axes or normal-sized cleavers, all of them running towards the group.
The ground shook as the huge creature with the cannon in its hand also started running towards them.
"What the fuck! Cover your ears!" Parker roared, throwing a stun grenade to the ground. They closed their eyes and covered their ears and the grenade exploded, stunning all the infected nearby.
Chris was the first to act, he ran towards the infected closest to him and plunged the knife attached to the end of his rifle into the creature's neck. He then tackled the infected man, knocking it to the ground, and finished it off with a shot to the head.
"We can't stay on the streets!" He shouted, turning and firing at the huge creature with the cannon, causing the beast to stagger backwards.
Jill and Parker shot at the infected around them, making their way to Chris, who was entering the abandoned factory.
The huge creature roared in annoyance and threw the cannon to the ground. Then, from its back, it pulled out an M202 FLASH. A fucking rocket launcher with four barrels (Quad Launcher).
They entered the factory just before the wall behind them was destroyed by a concentrated explosion, causing Parker to stagger and fall to the ground.
Jill and Chris gritted their teeth at the sight of a huge infected man with its head covered by an iron cage and a huge axe in his hands. An axe which the infected raised and prepared to kill the man.
Chris started shooting while Jill stepped forward to help the man. The creature staggered a little from the blast of bullets that hit it, but just in case, as soon as Jill got close, she grabbed the tactical shotgun on her back and fired point-blank into the creature's chest, watching as the monster was practically thrown backwards and fell on its back on the ground with a hole in its chest.
"Parker, are you all right?" She asked, helping the man to his feet, and in response, he just shook his head. They ran through the factory, looking for an exit or anything that would get them out.
To the left there was nothing, just fallen, old and dusty shelves with long-forgotten machines. On the right, however, there was a broken staircase a dozen steps above the ground.
It would have to do.
They ran towards the stairs, only to stop when a rocket exploded right behind them, causing them to stagger backwards and grunt as they felt the impact and small pieces of debris hit them.
Chris gritted his teeth and took the lead as he saw a small group of infected advancing against them.
"We're going to have to deal with them!" Chris said, firing at the infected, and grunting softly in frustration as he saw more coming.
"Parker and I can distract the big guy for now! Deal with the small ones!" Jill said, and before Chris could even say anything, she was already running to the side practically dragging Parker along with her.
Jill leaned against the wall next to one window and Parker leaned against the other. The woman picked up her rifle again while Parker changed the ammunition in his battle rifle.
"Finally a chance to use that explosive rounds." Parker said as he looked at his rifle, and Jill snorted slightly.
"You do realize that this type of ammunition is illegal today, don't you?" She asked, watching the creature roar as it reloaded the quad launcher. The thing was smart enough to know how to use a gun, but it didn't seem to be the smartest infected they'd ever seen.
"And who's going to arrest me? Your brother? Please... that thing is going to have a very bad day." Parker said, leaning his rifle on the window opening and firing. His battle rifle was a SIG MCX Spear, the magazine was a little smaller than normal due to the explosive ammunition, there was a laser attached to the side and a holographic sight with 4x zoom. Unlike ordinary camouflage, his rifle was platinum, as were all his weapons. A personal preference. Not to mention that, as he wasn't on an official mission against other soldiers, it made no difference whether his weapons were camouflaged or not.
The first shot crashed into the creature's chest, a small explosion forming a deep wound, causing the monster to stagger backwards, almost falling backwards onto the ground.
Jill pulled the trigger together with Parker, causing a great deal of damage to the creature's tainted body, which, in an angry roar, raised the quad launcher again and fired at the two of them, who quickly left the window.
The window exploded, causing another large hole in the wall. However, the explosions didn't stop there, and the two were forced to move to the back of the factory, accompanied by explosions getting closer and closer.
As they stood up, they heard a buzzing in their ears, a buzzing that was getting louder and louder, mixed with what sounded like the flapping of the wings of a very, very large insect.
"Argh! T... what the...?" Parker grunted, getting more and more disoriented as the noise got louder, his vision was getting blurry and he could hardly move. Jill was a little further away, but suffering from the same things.
Parker then screamed in fright as he felt his body being grabbed, and he came face to face with a new creature.
A mixture of human and insect, although the human part was barely recognizable. The head was human, with the face in a melted state and lifeless eyes with little hair still attached to the head. The front resembled a man's torso and the legs hanging in the air were clearly deformed. The skull had split in half and the brain had atrophied, forming a jaw-like opening that the creature opened freely.
Instead of human hands, claws took their place, and three wings appeared on each side of its back, insect-like wings. A kind of gas came out of its back, probably the chemical component that was doing this to their senses.
Parker grunted as he felt himself being squeezed... that thing was strong... and it was about to break his spine.
However, the creature roared and released him when Jill fired at close range with her tactical shotgun. Parker fell to the ground, grunting in a mixture of pain and relief, his senses slowly returning to normal as the creature stopped releasing that strange gas.
Jill realized how dangerous the thing was, and not wanting to give the insectoid creature time to recover, she threw a grenade at its feet and pulled Parker away. The grenade exploded, and the creature fell to the ground in an aggravated roar. Its torso opened up a little, revealing similar little insects... damn, that thing could reproduce... it would probably use Parker's body as food for its babies.
Parker stood up, and his eyes went to the hole in the wall, where he immediately gritted his teeth as he saw the huge creature aiming the quad launcher in his direction.
He grabbed Jill and pulled her away just before the huge infected fired, and the explosion of the rocket finished the insect off on the ground, killing its offspring in the process.
Well... good.
Chris ducked, dodging a horizontal blow from the infected's huge axe in front of him. Quickly, he countered with a body slam, knocking the creature to the ground. He then attaches the blade to the end of his rifle and unloads his magazine into the monster, killing the infected.
He then gets up and reloads his rifle, turning to his companions shortly afterwards. However, just as he did so, he heard the uncomfortable sound of flapping wings. Something was approaching, like an insect, and something was in the air, dulling his senses. His vision blurred and the buzzing got louder and louder.
His instincts screamed. He turned when he realized that the noise was coming from behind him, and quickly grabbed his magnum, a Taurus Raging Bull, a gift from Barry on his visit to South America.
He fired even though he couldn't see exactly where the infected was, and his eyes blinked in surprise as he saw a half-human, half-insect creature fall to the ground.
"Chris! Look out!" He heard Jill shouting for him, and just as he turned, he was hit by a strong fist to the face, stunning him. Then he grunted as he felt his body being jerked backwards, and the sound of something shattering caught his attention.
He soon recovered and, in an irritated grunt, landed a knee to his attacker's stomach, followed by an elbow to the back. Putting his arms around the man's torso, he threw his attacker's body to one side and raised his rifle, until his eyes widened slightly and he gritted his teeth.
Krauser snorted, standing up and glaring at him as he raised his knife.
Chris didn't respond immediately, he looked around with some surprise, concern and confusion. The infected were running towards Parker and Jill's shots, but they passed right by them and didn't even seem to notice that they were there. The infected were ignoring them.
Krauser smiled as he noticed the man's confusion.
"Amazing, isn't it? They follow my orders without blinking. Controlling such creatures... a power like that is wonderful." Krauser played with his knife, throwing it into the air and catching it as he spun the blade around, showing extreme mastery. "They do everything I want... loyalty like that is hard to come by."
"So you've made it... you've become the monster I knew you were." Chris said, his rifle pointed at the center of the man's head. "Damn it, Krauser! You've always been an asshole, but I never thought you'd come to this! You were a good soldier!"
"... Exactly... being a good soldier wasn't enough. It was pathetic. I was like a good trained puppy. Just like you." Just before Krauser finished speaking, they heard the cries of Jill and Parker, and while Chris gritted his teeth in worry and anxiety, Krauser smiled almost contentedly.
"Your little friends seem to be in danger... you can go save them... if you can kill me." Krauser said, throwing his knife at such a speed that Chris could only react when the blade was already a few centimeters away from him, and all he could do was throw his torso slightly to the side and raise his rifle as a form of protection.
The knife slammed into the metal with such force that it almost penetrated the weapon completely, and the impact was such that the rifle was knocked out of Chris's hands.
The man clicked his tongue as he stared at Krauser's smug face. Superhuman or not, he would plunge that knife into that man's chest.
Sherry walked slowly through the dark corridors of the abandoned laboratory. Her attentive eyes scanned the place with a certain frenzy, her body attentive to even the slightest noises around her.
Everything seemed calm, but she knew she wasn't alone.
After a few minutes of walking, she passed a broken door and her eyebrows arched slightly. The room she was in had overturned chairs, broken lamps... the wall next to it was completely destroyed and there were bloodstains all over it.
The place seemed to be a lecture hall or something, there was a small stage at the front.
After checking that there was nothing there, she followed the destroyed wall, as the other corridors were covered in debris from the fallen ceiling.
As soon as she had passed the destroyed wall, she walked into a cave. A deformed and unnatural cave. It had certainly been created, not by machines or anything like that, by something else.
"Chris... Ghost... Anyone?" She asked through the radio, but after some time without an answer, she just grunted in frustration and entered the cave.
The place was cramped... but something big had certainly passed through. At a certain point, she arrived at a point that led in two directions. Ahead there was a place that seemed to be some kind of cell, from what little she could see, to her left the cave continued, going up a little, and at the end she could see light... light from outside.
She followed the cave until she reached the outside. The sky was overcast and there was a strange smell in the air.
She looked around and realized that she was near the wall that surrounded the city... it looked like a normal place, there was a gas station a few hundred meters away, clearly abandoned. A street led off to her left into the town, with equally abandoned buildings all around.
Well... getting to the surface was easier than she thought...
A noise came from behind her.
Ah, of course.
As soon as she turned around, her eyes widened at the sight of the large creature right behind her. A man, or at least what was left of one.
The man had wrinkled skin with blisters around it, similar to toad skin with a few tumors along its length. His eyes were large and bulging, his pupils dilated. There were stakes driven through its back, long claws on its fingers and a huge axe in its hands.
The creature wore torn clothes due to its mutation, but Sherry recognized them, they were very familiar. It was the Terrasave uniform.
No wonder the man looked familiar.
The creature immediately attacked her with its huge axe, trying to split her in half, a vertical attack from top to bottom.
Sherry sidestepped by throwing her body to the side, and cringed as she heard the loud noise of the axe smashing into the ground, and the destruction caused where she had once stood.
The creature roared and acted quickly before the girl could counterattack. The monster tried a horizontal attack with its claws, but Sherry was quicker and ducked, dodging the blow and taking long strides away as she shot the creature in the head with her rifle.
The creature grunted as it felt the shots, and put its huge arm in front of its head to protect itself as it approached, dragging the huge axe along the ground.
Sherry let out a scream without realizing it and ducked, feeling the strong wind hit her face along with bits of dirt and grass.
She moved away quickly and threw a stun grenade at the ground.
That was the first time she had faced a creature like that on her own. Zombies weren't a problem, Lickers she could handle... she was capable of a creature like that, she just had to calm down.
Taking a deep breath, memories of her training surfaced, along with memories of Ghost's movements, the way he fought that creature at the airport...
Determined, she ran towards the creature, which roared loudly again and raised its axe. Quickly, the moment the creature attacked her, she ducked and threw herself forward, letting her body slide through the dirt and hearing the axe move just above her head.
Without giving the creature time to turn around, she grabs her two knives and jumps on the monster's back. The creature, in turn, grunted and struggled to get her off its back.
Sherry was quicker and plunged her two knives into the monster's eyes, pulling its head back with all her strength after planting her feet on the creature's back, forcing the infected to stagger back a few steps.
From her tactical vest, she takes a grenade and sticks one of her knives into the monster's mouth, forcing it to keep its mouth open. She then puts the grenade in the creature's mouth and jumps back, just before the grenade explodes.
The monster fell to the ground with a dry thud, its mouth destroyed and its head deformed by the explosion. Well, at least what was left of its head.
Sherry stared at the creature's fallen body for a few moments. She blinked a few times. She had just repeated what she had seen Ghost do before, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had worked.
Not surprisingly, he moved in a way that eliminated unnecessary movement. It was practical and straightforward... perhaps she could add a bit of it to her own style.
Grunts could be heard coming closer, and she turned with an unfriendly expression to the small horde of infected that was approaching. Of course, that noise would attract the attention of nearby infected.
The first infected to approach tried to attack her with a piece of metal. However, Sherry interrupted him by kicking his right leg, causing him to stagger forward a few steps. She then turned and shot the infected man twice, in the back and once in the back of the head.
The second approached quickly, attacking her with punches and scratches. However, she dodged the first attack by crouching down and throwing her torso to the left, and then stopped the infected's next attack by throwing her elbow into his bloody hand.
She then placed the barrel of the rifle against the infected's chest and fired, causing the monster to stagger backwards, and then she finished it off with a shot to the head.
Sherry sighed a little. She had to deal with it soon and call for her group... but in the meantime, she would try to eliminate the hostiles nearby.
Redfield style.
And as she made her way through the small horde, she didn't even notice the huge figure with a bag over its head watching her from not far away.
Claire grunted as she felt the pieces of wood hit her face. Her eyes focused on the half-insect creature that was trying in every way to pierce her body. What was left of her human features was quickly being consumed by whatever that infection was.
The woman raised her semi-automatic shotgun and fired once, twice. The gun was strong enough to destroy the creature with just a few shots. So far, just one shot had been enough to eliminate the threat.
The dead body of the infected fell backwards and another just like it threw itself against the few wooden planks that protected her.
Claire gritted her teeth and threw herself out of the window behind her, entering the abandoned cabin in that small, destroyed village. Inside the cabin were two infected who were already heading in her direction.
She put the shotgun on her back and picked up the rifle, shooting both infected with great precision. She would try to use the rifle more than her other weapons, as she had more ammunition and the shotgun would be useful for more resistant creatures.
Right behind her, the infected half-insect destroyed the wall and advanced towards her. Claire turned at the same time as she picked up the shotgun and fired point-blank at the creature, literally blowing off what was left of its humanoid head and part of its torso.
At first she thought she was fine, however, she soon gritted her teeth as she heard heavy footsteps behind her, and as she turned, she reflexively ducked, dodging the blade of a huge axe aimed at her head.
Another one of those big creatures with a metal cage protecting their heads. Now, however, she had a way of piercing it.
The woman stepped back and picked up the rifle, firing at the creature's head. The armor-piercing ammunition penetrated the metal and pierced the creature's head, which remained motionless for a few moments until it fell backwards onto the ground.
Good, maybe then they wouldn't be such a problem.
Sighing, she concentrated. She couldn't hear any other infected nearby, but she could hear the low breathing and whispers of nearby survivors.
She walked through the abandoned rooms of the hut and left the place, walking towards the largest building there. It looked like some kind of bar, the sign had long since deteriorated. The glass windows were still preserved, considering the state of the other places.
In fact, it was the best preserved building there.
"Hey... I know you're there." She said, knocking twice on the closed door.
"No fucking way... did they survive... did they kill all those monsters?" A voice asked quietly, very familiar.
"Wait, is that Claire's voice?" Another voice asked, and Claire smiled slightly in relief as she recognized them.
"Pedro, Gabe. I can hear you." She said, smiling as she heard Pedro.
"Holy shit, it's her!" The doors opened, and she found her colleague Gabriel staring at her with a relieved smile.
" Fucking hell, Redfield, it's good to see you." He said, giving her room to enter. As she did so, she came across Neil standing further away, a pistol in his hand and a surprised expression on his face.
"Neil." She ran towards him, hugging him tightly, relief spreading through her chest.
She felt him embracing her, his surprise evident in his grip.
"Claire... I'm glad you're all right." He said, pulling away slightly from the embrace shortly afterwards, looking deep into her eyes. "I had no idea where they'd taken you, I was worried."
"Me too. It wasn't easy waking up and realizing I was alone." She said, holding his hands in front of her stomach.
"I woke up in a cell in some kind of underground prison. I ran into Gabe and Pedro as I was trying to get out. We were chased and found this place." He explained, taking a few steps away, and although Claire felt her insides protest at the lack of his warmth, she understood that they had more important things at the moment.
"I... woke up in a truck. There was an accident while they were transporting me... It wasn't easy, but I managed to escape." She explained, alternating her gaze between her colleagues.
"Holy fuck, Claire, did you kill all those things?" Peter asked loudly in surprise, interrupting the small talk between the two.
"Redfield here is really tough. By the way, where did you get those guns?" Gabe asked, and Claire shook her head. She would leave her conversation with Neil for later.
"Some of the guards died in the accident. Others were busy dealing with the infected who were lured there. I got it from the bodies." She said, walking over to the nearest table and placing her two pistols on it.
"I don't have many guns on me. Here, take these, there's a good amount of ammo, but it might run out faster than we can count." She said, watching Gabe and Pedro take the pistols and two mags of ammunition each.
"Got any ammo?" She asked Neil, who was standing next to her with a pistol in his hand.
"No. I used it all to get in here." He said, and Claire took the shotgun off her back and handed it to him, as well as the ammunition mags.
"Me, Pedro and Gabe eliminate the common infected. Save the shotgun ammo, it's the strongest weapon we have." She said, and realized that he was looking at her with an arched eyebrow. "Don't get me wrong, but my aim is better than yours, and the less ammunition we use, the better."
Neil grimaced and raised his arms.
"Of course, Miss Redfield, at your service." He joked, and Claire scratched the back of her head.
"So, what's the plan?" Claire asked, leaning on the small wooden table.
"Find a vehicle to get us out of here. A helicopter, a boat." Neil said, putting the shotgun on his back and crossing his arms.
"What about a car? I know where we can get a van. Maybe it's not so trashed." Claire suggested.
"We'd be doing that for nothing. We're on an island, Claire." Gabe said, and the woman ran a hand through her hair. Well, that complicated things a bit... but it made sense. "We saw a helicopter crash a while ago. We thought we'd go and find out what happened, but there were too many infected."
"Okay... fuck. Anywhere in mind then?" She asked, putting her hands on her waist.
"Let's look for a helicopter. There's a facility nearby. A destroyed laboratory. We saw that there were some hangars there, similar to an airport." Gabe said, stuffing the ammunition into his pockets.
"'Far?" Claire asked.
"No. But there are a lot of infected. Now with these weapons, we should be able to make it without too much trouble, I hope." Neil said.
"Okay, then, the sooner we go, the better." Claire said, and after everyone nodded in confirmation, they walked towards the door.
Gabe led the way, Claire close behind, followed by Peter and finally Neil.
"Just to warn you, there were several infected behind us. And our ammunition is limited. Let's try not to attract attention." Gabe said, following a small dirt road just after they finally left the small village.
"I have a knife... does anyone here have a melee weapon?" Claire asked quietly, looking around after passing through some iron gates. The village was surrounded by a stone wall, which was curious. Soon after, they were entering the forest.
"I have a Karambit knife." Pedro said, and they ducked down, hiding among the vegetation.
There was a small dirt track, probably the one they had used to get to the village. The vegetation covered the path almost completely, leaving it hidden by the time.
Claire squinted slightly. The infected were scattered around, walking aimlessly through the vegetation. There were a lot of them, but they were very spread out.
"Right. You and me, we'll go ahead and take out all the infected we can in silence." Claire said, turning to them.
"Ahm, what?" Peter asked, his eyes slightly wide.
"There's too many of them. If we shoot through here, we'll have a horde on top of us, and it'll be dangerous and we'll have to use up a lot of our little ammunition. A knife is enough to save some of our bullets." Claire explained, resting an arm on his thigh.
"... She's right. Not to mention that we'd attract even more of those things to us." Gabe said.
"Ah, I'm not very good at this." Pedro said. "You have more experience with bio-weapons than I do."
"Give me the knife then, I'll do it." Neil said, taking Peter's place. He then faced Claire. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, better than wasting ammo." Claire said, just before turning and sneaking towards an infected further ahead.
Quickly, she grabbed the infected by the neck, put her hand over its mouth so it wouldn't make a sound and plunged her knife into the creature's neck, following its lifeless body to the ground.
She looked over and saw Neil doing the same, and further back, Gabe and Pedro were crouching in silence.
She sneaked up on two others further on. And in one swift movement, she kicked behind one's knee and turned to the other, plunging her knife into the infected's neck and, in one smooth, agile movement, she plunged her blade into the other infected's eye, pushing it to the ground soon after.
She almost smiled as she saw the incredulous looks and whispers of the two men behind her.
They continued this silent carnage for some time, until the woman's eyes focused on the creature ahead.
The creature was larger than the rest of the infected and walked with a bent back. Its skin was gray and it had claws instead of arms. However, what was most striking was its body... it was as if it were a creature created from parts of several other bodies sewn together. A real Frankenstein, only more bizarre and cruel, since there were signs of torture all over its body.
Or, rather, a pile of bodies.
Claire suppressed a small startled groan when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She was so focused on that creature that she didn't even notice when Neil approached.
"Careful... that thing's pretty tough... ordinary weapons hardly do any damage." He said, standing next to her.
"Really? How do you know?" Claire asked.
"I've seen some guards face something like that. The bullets stun, but they don't kill." He replied.
"So what do we do?"
"Simple, these creatures have a weakness. It works like a heart that changes location from time to time. It's a pulsating yellow ball, it moves inside the body, which makes it difficult to locate." Neil explained, and Claire took something from her tactical vest.
"I've got this." She showed a grenade in her hand.
"Well, it'll work, but it'll attract a lot of attention. I can knock that thing over and you stick your knife in its back. The weak point will show." He said, and Claire stared at him for a few moments.
How did he know?
"Are you sure?" Was all she asked, ignoring the feeling in her chest.
"Trust me." Was all he said before sneaking towards the creature.
Claire soon followed behind him and waited for him to act.
Quickly, Neil ran up and kicked the creature in the back, knocking it to the ground. Claire soon approached and plunged her knife into the creature's back as Neil left it immobilized.
"It didn't appear!" She grunted slightly.
"Stab some more!" Neil replied, and she did, viciously stabbing the creature's back until, at one point, a large yellow ball destroyed the skin and flesh around the creature's head.
Claire raised her body and stabbed the yellow ball, which exploded in a mixture of blood and pus.
Neil stood up next to Claire, both of them observing the motionless body of the disfigured infected.
"Well... it worked." Claire said, looking with a disgusted expression at the pus that stained her knife and hand.
"I told you." Neil said, watching the Karambit. "It doesn't look like there are any more of those things around." He signaled for the two of them to come closer.
"Is everything all right with you guys?" Gabe asked, looking around somewhat uneasily. Claire understood him, she felt very exposed there.
"Yes, everything's fine. We managed to eliminate all those who were relevant. The way to the facility is this way." Neil said, pointing to the right. There was a dirt track just as hidden as the previous one and a destroyed sign in the corner.
"Great, we're close then." Pedro said. "But isn't that the direction we saw that helicopter crash?"
"Hopefully, the infected have already left. We can't stay here." Neil replied.
"The sooner we get there, the better. Maybe we can get a map there." Claire said, following the indicated path.
"That's weird... I would have sworn there were more infected around here." Gabe said, discomfort evident in his voice.
"I'm not going to complain about that." Pedro said, constantly looking over his shoulder.
"Are you guys... okay? I mean, they didn't do anything wrong to you?" Claire asked, taking advantage of the small moment of calm to get some information, however little it was.
"I mean... I don't feel any different. I don't think there's anything wrong with us, I mean, nothing apart from these weird bracelets." Gabe replied, raising his arm and pointing to the bracelet on his wrist.
Claire had noticed this earlier, she just hadn't asked due to the inopportune moment.
"Mine's been locked on orange since we left prison. Gabe's is still yellow, as is Neil's." Peter noted, raising his wrist.
"I don't know what the fuck it is, I don't feel anything different. But that's weird." Neil said, also looking at his bracelet.
"Odd to say the least. For all we know, these things could have trackers. Someone could be monitoring you." Claire said, trying to control that growing feeling in her chest.
Something was wrong, her instincts were screaming it.
"If that's the case, we'd better get this off as soon as possible." Neil said, sounding a little apprehensive, but calm. Too calm.
"They didn't put it in you, Claire." Gabe said, looking at the woman's arms. "What happened to you?"
"I woke up tied to the back of a truck. There were soldiers around. We had an accident, there were infected people on the route they were using. I took advantage of the accident to escape." She told a half-truth, hiding and changing some points that didn't need to be said.
"Maybe that's why they didn't put it in you. You were still being transported." Peter said, being the most apprehensive of everyone there.
"Why?" Claire asked, even though she knew exactly why. "Why put us apart?"
"No idea." Neil replied, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, just before focusing his gaze on the laboratory that was appearing in his line of sight. "We're not the only ones on this island, that's for sure, and I think whoever brought us here runs different tests on different people."
Claire stared at him for a while, until she turned away from the lab.
"Maybe you're right." She swallowed some saliva. Her instincts were screaming, and usually, they didn't lie. But she had no idea what was around. She heard no creature, no other person nearby.
The place they were approaching was surrounded by a high stone wall with barbed wire on top. There was a building in the center and a few hangars scattered around.
They approached the iron door at the front and Neil tried to open it, only to sigh in frustration when he realized it was locked.
"Of course it would be locked." He muttered lowly.
"Maybe we can break in." Gabe said, approaching the door. "Let me borrow your knife, Redfield."
However, before Gabe could even do anything, the door made a noise, it had unlocked. Claire grabbed her rifle and looked around with Peter while Gabe and Neil eyed the door warily.
"Maybe... Claire was right..." Gabe said, looking at the camera just above the door.
"Oh, I don't like this one bit... not one bit." Pedro said quietly, more to himself than to the others, he didn't want them to see him freaking out.
"Don't worry, Pedro. They're probably looking for us by now." Claire said, also quietly so that only he could hear.
"How do you know?" He asked, a little embarrassed that she had heard him.
"Well, if I know my brother, he's probably stolen a helicopter or two and is already looking for me. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd already discovered my location by now." She said, perhaps sounding a little too positive, but knowing the older Redfield, she didn't doubt it.
"So... are we going in?" Gabe asked, loud enough to interrupt the small conversation between the two.
"And what other choice do we have?" Neil asked rhetorically, taking the lead and entering the place.
They followed him, and their eyes traversed the large spiral staircase that went down a few floors.
They descended, feeling a little uncomfortable with the sound of their footsteps. It seemed louder now than before.
As soon as they descended, they opened another door and found themselves in a huge room.
In the center of the room was an elevator that went up to some place they didn't know. There were a few floors above with some offices visible.
All around, there were large tanks scattered with cables that connected below the elevator. Tanks of gasoline or something like that probably powered the generators.
"What kind of place is-"
"How predictable you are, Miss Claire." Alex's voice emanated from the bracelets of the men around them, and they all stopped.
"Oh, it's that bitch again!" Gabe growled angrily, looking around with an unfriendly expression.
"It was a mistake not to put a tracker on you, but I knew you'd go looking for your friends." Alex said, and Claire clucked her tongue. Of course she knew.
"You've taken longer than I thought. How long do you plan to keep this up?" Alex asked, and Claire blinked a few times, her eyebrows coming together in a confused frown.
Her instincts screamed, her skin crawled and, before she could turn around, she heard a shot coming from the shotgun Neil was holding.
As she turned, she saw, almost in slow motion, Pedro's body lying on the ground with most of his skull destroyed. What little was left was covered in blood and bits of brain.
"What the... what the fuck, Neil?!" Gabe asked in an exacerbated scream, raising his pistol, but before he could think of doing anything, Neil fired in his direction, and he fell to the ground with a hole in his chest.
Claire took a few steps back, fearful, her wide eyes staring into Neil's cold ones, and she felt her chest tighten. So that's what that strange feeling was... that's what her instincts had tried to warn her about.
She should have listened... but how would she know?
"... Neil... wh... what..." She couldn't exactly say anything, and her watery eyes followed his footsteps.
"As you asked. Now what?" Neil asked, looking at the bracelet. He was talking to Alex.
They knew each other... was he... on her side?
"Neil... what the fuck-" Her speech was interrupted by another shot, and a cry of pain escaped her throat as she felt her right leg being hit. She put her hand on the ground to stop herself from falling, but stayed on her knees, feeling the sharp pain spread throughout her leg, just below the knee.
"I've done my bit. It's time you did yours. You should have delivered the package to me months ago." He said, pacing back and forth impatiently, seeming to avoid looking at Claire, who felt her heart being crushed by the whole thing, and couldn't hold back the tears that kept streaming down her face.
She felt breathless... that... that day was... destroying her heart.
"Yes, you did your part. You're a good listener, Fisher, but for such an intelligent man, you're pretty dumb." Neil's bracelet glowed red, and he grunted loudly as he felt sharp needles pierce his forearm. His veins began to darken and his skin turned gray.
"What... Fuck! We had a deal!" He shouted, but Alex didn't respond, and Neil squirmed in pain as he felt the infection spreading up his arm.
"Neil... what the fuck... did you do?" Claire asked, not knowing where she had gotten the strength to say those words, her vision blurred by tears as she tried not to look at the bodies of her colleagues.
"She..." He shouted. "She should... have given me... the sample!" He fell to his knees and a loud scream escaped his throat, the muscles in his back seemed to twitch, his clothes began to tear and his voice became less and less human.
"I would have... we would have... control..." He couldn't form complete sentences, and his mutated arm pulled on Peter's leg from beside him. His teeth pierced the flesh and he devoured that mass. Ingesting mass to form mass.
His body grew, his muscles atrophied, and the punch he drove into the ground deformed the metal beneath his feet.
Claire wiped the tears from her face and picked up the shotgun that had fallen to the ground. Her eyes stared at Neil's mutated body in front of her, and her throat closed.
She didn't know why, much less where she would get her strength from, but once again, she had no choice, and once again she would have to lose the man who had made her heart smile.
