Chapter 12
'Son of a bitch these things are fast,' Joseph Trevor Frost thought to himself as he continued to lead the way. 'Can't keep doing this. No way. They'll kill us all. Gotta fight them. Let's hope these abilities I have are enough.'
They had moved through the art gallery and then had gone half way down a hallway that had a bunch of display cases. Stopping, Joseph ushered for Kevin, Yoko, and Olga to move past him. "I'm going to distract them. Get a good distance from me!"
"You're going to what?" Kevin asked with concern clearly in his words.
"Just go!" Joseph ordered.
Reluctantly, Kevin gestured for Yoko and Olga to go forward and then took off behind them. "Don't you dare die on me, Joey!"
Joseph nodded to the departing words from Kevin. "I'll do my best."
The Leech Raptors rounded the corner and screeched as they swayed their arms and upper bodies right before jumping into the air.
Joseph side stepped the first creature as it crashed into the nearest display case. Another one reared its toe claws as it jumped, but Joseph ducked at the last second, the creature slamming through the nearby window, its head hitting the wall really hard as it went. Jumping over top of another one, he grabbed hold of the tail, leeches pouring off and onto his arm, but he ignored it for a moment as he tossed the Leech Raptor directly into two more. Finally, he shook the leeches off of his arm.
The first Leech Raptor picked itself up from the destroyed display case and rushed toward him as Joseph somersaulted. He landed behind the Leech Raptor and then unholstered his handgun, opening fire on that Leech Raptor.
The one that had gone through the window crawled its way back in and swiped its swaying arms at him, which he ducked and weaved from side to side before firing off several rounds at it.
The other three Leech Raptors got back to their feet, and Joseph sighed as he continued firing at all of the targets. There were way too many of them.
'Layout!' Trent shouted in his head as he led his people through the dining room and toward the door at the far end. 'If you don't remember where you're going, you're going to get them all killed! This place is exactly like the estate in Raccoon Forest. Get your act together!' He found himself wishing he still had the technology that he'd given Jill Valentine before her mission. That felt like a lifetime ago now.
Moving through the side door, Trent turned to his right and continued down that hallway, moving to the first door, which would lead to a hallway that had a side stairwell to the upper level. He heard a scream and knew that it was J.D. Salinas. Opening the door, he turned back.
"J.D.!" Rain Ocampo yelled as she opened fire on the creature that had caught up to her close friend and compatriot. The creature had apparently jumped on him and knocked him to the floor, onto his stomach. She fired round after round to no avail as leeches poured all over J.D., enveloping him in black, his screams silencing.
Dr. George Hamilton, standing nearby, having recovered from his shock of the attack, grabbed Rain's arm, trying to pull her toward Trent. She shrugged him off, however. "We have to go, Rain!"
"You go!" Rain yelled, still firing rounds.
More Leech Raptors swayed into the room.
Trent shook his head. "Ocampo, now! That's an order! J.D. knew his duty! You know yours!"
Rain reluctantly pulled herself away from firing off rounds and moved with Hamilton, through the door that Trent held open for them.
As Trent went to follow them, small, flying, green creatures with wings, having been startled by the arrivals, instantly attacked, going right for Hamilton, swarming him. Trent and Rain both fired off rounds, but it was to no avail.
In his mind, Trent could tell what kind of abomination these things were as he remembered little Tina Bowman's drawing. They had been Procompsognathus Triassicus, but they had been combined with crow BOWs through whatever madness the Umbrella Founders were conducting on this island.
Trent pushed Rain toward the stairs, knowing that what they were doing was in vain. They had lost a brilliant surgeon and a good man just now in Dr. George Hamilton, but they'd also lost a brave soldier and an even better friend and ally in J.D. Salinas. As he ascended the stairs with Rain, Trent felt the weight of these losses and feared that they were all going to die on Isla Tacano.
Kevin Ryman moved through a door with Yoko and Olga following after. They had gone into this door specifically like Kevin had known what he was doing. The room was square, small, and had nothing in it except for another door.
"Where are you going?" Yoko asked. "You act like you know what you're doing."
Kevin turned back toward the door that they came through. "Both of you, go back into the hallway and wait for me. I'll need you to both break the door down."
Yoko and Olga looked at each other in confusion.
"Just trust me!" Kevin exclaimed. "We have to help Joey!"
The two women moved back out as Kevin ran for the other door, going inside. He swept his handgun around, finding nothing in the study that he'd just walked into. "Some recreation. There aren't any targets anywhere other than the mutations." He rushed to the wall where a weapon set on a hook. "Not what I expected. I thought you'd be a shotgun." He pulled the flamethrower off as the hooks raised, a grinding noise occurring. "As expected."
Moving back for the door, he shook his head but smirked at the same time, pleased with himself that he'd been so thorough before everything went to shit back in Raccoon City. As he stepped into the empty room, Kevin looked up, hearing the grinding noise. The ceiling was lowering downward.
The door behind him closed and locked, and then the original door did the same. Kevin could hear Yoko and Olga beating on the door and screaming out his name. Moving over, Kevin kicked the door multiple times as he heard the two women throwing their weight into the door as well. All the while, the ceiling inched closer and closer.
Finally, a gunshot went off, causing the doorhandle to fall, and the door kicked inward. Standing there, to Kevin's surprise, wasn't Yoko and Olga. It was Trent. He waved for Kevin to come on, which was exactly what he did as the ceiling crashed the rest of the way down.
Kevin sighed in relief as he took notice that Rain was there as well. "Where are Dr. Hamilton and J.D.?"
Trent and Rain both looked at each other solemnly.
Olga cleared her throat. "They fell behind." That was the code they used for lost comrades.
Kevin shook his head. "The Umbrella Founders are going to pay for this. You must've taken the long way around to get here."
"We heard Miss Suzuki and Medic Danilova screaming and banging from a few hallways away," Trent explained.
"Those dino things are still after us," Rain said. "And another variation could have joined them. We have to move."
Kevin looked past them, hearing squishing sounds and roars in the distances. He then nodded in the direction that he had previously come with Yoko and Olga. "We have to go back and help Joey. He's taking our monsters on by himself." He then held up the flame thrower. "This might help."
Trent nodded. "It just might. Let's move." He took up the lead in the direction that Kevin had nodded. "We can take all of the raptors down in the same area."
Kevin followed after, holding the flame thrower at the ready.
"How did you know what was going to happen when you came back out of the other room?" Olga asked as she moved to keep up with Kevin.
"Before Chief Irons disgraced the S.T.A.R.S. survivors of The Spencer Estate, I looked at their initial briefing notes," Kevin said. "Jill Valentine especially was quite thorough with her details. Let's just say, I was almost a Kevin Sandwich."
Joseph spin kicked one of the Leech Raptors and then grabbed another one around the throat, a tidal wave of leeches pouring off of the creature, trying to overtake him. However, Joseph swung wide, tossing the Raptor half way down the hallway, the leeches screeching and moving to go back to their host.
"Mr. Darius or Commander Frost, do you read?" the voice of Director Marco Palmieri said through Joseph's radio.
He completely forgot that it was strapped to his belt, but Joseph was instantly relieved to hear Marco's voice. After somersaulting several feet away from the Leech Raptors, Joseph unclipped his radio and pressed the talk button. "Frost here." He then fired off a few rounds.
"We took massive casualties at The Special Operations Complex," Marco explained. "Only five of us made it out, and we're bringing the party to you."
"Party?" Joseph asked. He could hear an engine revving outside the nearby broken window from where he'd knocked one of the Leech Raptors out and instantly figured that was Marco arriving. He spin kicked one of the Leech Raptors as it came too close. "I hear your vehicle. You're nearby. I'm in a hallway being swarmed."
"We see you," Marco said. "Doc Thorne, lets lead our pursuers over that way!"
Before anything else could even happen, Kevin led the way into the hallway, which instantly caught Joseph's attention. However, before he could even say anything, Kevin immediately ignited the flamethrower, attacking the Leech Raptors, also succeeding in setting the display cases and walls on fire as well. Many of the Leech Raptors backed away from the attack, which turned out to be to their end as a massive, Carno Hunter rammed into the wall, debris taking down the Leech Raptors.
Leeches poured off of the pinned down raptors and rushed to the Carno Hunter, swarming it, turning it from a dark green color to pure, oozy black. The Carno Hunter threw itself into more of the wall, causing the hallway to cave in.
Kevin grabbed Joseph, pulling him back to the others as debris fell where he had just been standing. "Watch yourself, Joey."
Joseph nodded to Kevin in thanks. "Director Palmieri is right outside. He's the one that brought that huge thing to us."
Trent stepped forward. "Looks like it was a Carnotaur. Let's move out."
Trent led the way as the others followed out of a nearby hole in the wall, having to stop short as they could see two large, blurry forms staring at them.
Lights suddenly flashed on and off continuously from a nearby vehicle, revealing the Carno Hunters as their camouflaging abilities failed to keep them hidden.
"Jesus," Rain said under her breath, crossing herself.
"Move for the vehicle," Joseph said.
"There's no way they have enough room for all of us in that SUV," Trent pointed out.
Another vehicle moved out of the foliage, unknown to any of them, it was the vehicle that Ed James was driving with Tom Kurtz at shotgun, and ironically so, as he pulled himself half way out of the window with a shotgun.
"Look out!" Olga yelled, throwing herself at Trent, to block him from being fired at, only to receive the blast herself instead.
"Danilova!" Trent exclaimed.
The Carno Hunters, having been forgotten about in all of the confusion, rushed Ed James' Vehicle. The attack happened so fast that it could've been easily missed entirely as one of the Carno Hunters grabbed Tom Kurtz's upper body in its jaws, ripping him in half. Another one rammed its head through the windshield of the vehicle, the glass slamming into Ed James' head, imbedding right in his forehead.
Through the attack, Trent stared at Olga Danilova's lifeless body and closed her eyes. "Thank you for your sacrifice." Before he could do anything else, Joseph and Kevin were pulling him to his feet and the three were moving with Rain and Yoko toward the vehicle their allies were in.
However, before they could make it, the James Marcus imposter moved into their way, having sped there from out of nowhere. He growled at them. "You hurt my children!"
The Carno Hunter that had Leeches swarming all over it roared, moving out of the destroyed section of the mansion and strode over to the Marcus imposter. Several more of the Leech Raptors, the ones that had been following Trent and Rain previously, moved out of the mansion as well, but the Marcus imposter put up his hand to stop them from coming, not wanting to endanger even more of his precious babies. They reluctantly stopped and moved back into the mansion.
Trent put up a hand in defense. "You're not yourself. You don't know what you're doing."
"I know exactly who I am," the Marcus imposter said. "You will not question my resolve!"
The flame thrower activated, as Kevin rushed forward, burning the leeches on the Carno Hunter, causing the creature to back away from the flames.
"No!" the Marcus imposter exclaimed, rushing toward Kevin to stop him.
However, Joseph Frost's lightning-fast speed took over as he realized his closest friend was about to get attacked. He sprung forward, getting between the Marcus imposter and Kevin, slamming a fist into his face, knocking the imposter back. Joseph continued swinging his fists as unknown to him, Marco and Shade were getting out of their vehicle, firing off rounds at the other Carno Hunters that had finally turned their attention away from the massacre of Kurtz and Ed James and were stalking toward their allies.
Joseph began moving so fast with his attacks that even he couldn't keep up with them as he ended up accidently ripping the sleeve off of the imposter's right arm, revealing a large tattoo that he couldn't read, not that Joseph had even registered this.
Trent, however, had seen the tattoo reveal, and it only further confirmed what he now knew about this Marcus imposter because of something that Lord Spencer had said. Before he could even react with words, the sound of a loud engine coming caused him to turn around.
A tractor trailer moved in their direction from the same way that Marco's vehicle and the other one had come from as well. The vehicle came to a stop, and Trent could just barely tell who was in the vehicle: Jeff Rossiter sat at the wheel, an angry sneer on his face. Inside the vehicle, he clearly pressed a few buttons on the console, which caused the trailer at the back to open.
A massive Tyrannosaurus Rex stepped out of the trailer, roaring wildly, but Trent could only barely tell that it had been the base model of a Rex. It had the clear features of a Tyrant: exposed heart, tendrils on its face, and even a massive claw arm where one of its smaller arms should've been. This was the Tyrant Rex, and it was likely the final product of what the Fossil BOW had started out as.
Levine looked out the window from his vehicle, breathing heavily. "My God. What have they done to the tyrant lizard."
"I think the name tyrant is right," Gennaro said from the backseat. "I heard them say that they had a tyrant lizard on the island. You're looking at it."
"Still wish you'd asked Ian to join us?" Thorne asked, not turning away from looking at the monster that had just joined the field.
"Very much so," Levine replied. "He's missing out on all the fun."
The Tyrant Rex roared mightily as it took off from the temporary prison that it had been stuck in and rushed forward, toward the many succulent morsels, just waiting to be snacked on. The first two that it came upon were attacking it with little golden things that hurt a little, but it was more like being stung. It was an annoyance more than anything else. She shrugged off the pain and shook her head wildly before bending down, scooping up the darker skinned man into her mouth and biting down, not at all caring that he had a name, which had been James Shade, or that he'd had a life. All that mattered was how tasty he was.
Looking toward the next morsel, the man that had been beside the one that had just been devoured, Tyrant Rex moved to attack.
Joseph Trevor Frost wasn't about to allow what just happened to James Shade to befall Director Marco Palmieri as well. He teleported like a shadow in the direction of the Tyrant Rex and slammed all of his power directly into the Tyrant Rex's head, knocking it backwards multiple feet, right into the nearby Carno Hunters, causing them to lose their focus on stalking after Kevin, Yoko, and Rain as they were firing their weapons at those creatures.
Joseph moved to them, and ushered all three away as the Tyrant Rex's focus turned directly on the Carno Hunters, attacking them with great ferocity, impaling one of them with its clawed arm before biting the neck of another one, chomping right through, beheading the creature.
Trent waved everyone toward the TMFS SUV as he got into the back seat and then crawled into the back storage area. He saw the face that he didn't recognize, Gennaro, but knew this wasn't the time to question it.
Joseph practically dragged Kevin to the vehicle and got him to get in, followed by Rain and Yoko. Director Palmieri moved over, getting in as well, Joseph was the last one to step in as he turned to see the Tyrant Rex roaring over its victory from defeating the Carno Hunters. He got in and closed the door. "Move, move, move!"
Thorne slammed his foot on the peddle as the vehicle took off.
The Tyrant Rex saw the vehicle moving away, roared, and then pursued after them.
"Increase your speed," Levine suggested as he looked out the sideview mirror.
"We're going to turn over if I go any faster," Thorne told him.
"I warned you to make these things faster," Levine mumbled under his breath.
"You may prescribe to the impossible mentality of light and strong, Richard, but some of us live in the real world," Thorne told him.
Gennaro pointed forward from the back seat. "Boat!"
"I see it," Thorne said. "We can't lead that thing to the dock. It'll destroy the ship."
Trent sat on top of their supplies in the back with Kevin and Marco. "He's right." He looked to the other two men. "Help me." He rummaged through the cases that they were sitting on, having a hard time moving around them with as little room as they had. Finally, he found what he was looking for: another rocket launcher. "Just the trick. Help me steady, Kevin. Director Palmieri, open the trunk."
As Marco opened up the truck, Trent shouldered the rocket launcher with the help of Kevin, taking note that this rocket launcher felt heavier than the one he'd used earlier on the Spino Nemesis.
"Game Over, Rexy!" Trent called out before firing the rocket.
The Tyrant Rex exploded in a blaze of glory, the legs still moving for a few feet before finally collapsing.
Trent sighed in relief as he lowered the rocket launcher.
"Are we really just going to retreat?" Marco asked. "Mr. Gennaro up there told us that there's an underground facility here. We're nowhere near finished with the investigation."
"We'll have to make a return trip," Trent said.
"They could be gone with everything by then," Kevin pointed out.
"Umbrella has a knack for blowing up their facilities, sir," Rain pointed out from the back seat. "They'll destroy all evidence."
Trent sighed. "At this point, that might be for the best. We can't contend with that Marcus imposter's abilities, especially after losing so many people. I won't risk the rest of us too."
Closing his eyes, Trent tried to imagine the hot shower he was going to take once they were back on the ship and did his best not to linger too heavily on the lives that had been lost, but deep in his heart, Victor Darius knew there would be hell to pay for their losses and a lot of questions would need to be answered.
However, rescuing the Marcus imposter would be top of his list…
The imposter of Dr. James Marcus moved into the art gallery after having to climb over debris from the destruction of the display hallway to get there. He felt weak from the attack of the man named Joseph Frost, and it frustrated him.
"I'm supposed to be all powerful," the imposter whispered to himself.
Stopping at one of the paintings, surrounded by protective glass, he looked at his reflection, shock crossing his battered face. He didn't look like Dr. James Marcus' younger form at all. He looked different. His face was a man's that belonged to brunette hair instead of the dyed blond that he had. He saw the revealed tattoo that covered his entire right arm. It said too words: mother love.
Billy Coen's lips quivered as memories flooded into his mind, but he couldn't make sense of any of it.
'Rebecca?' he thought to himself. 'Rebecca, where are you? I need you. Help me.'
Then, the red scarab on his chest pulsated wildly, pumping the P30 drug derived from The Progenitor Virus through his veins, forcing Billy Coen to instantly begin thinking he was Dr. James Marcus once more. He swung wildly, cracking the glass of the protective display around the painting.
"I am Dr. James Marcus," Billy Coen whispered.