Chapter 27

'Looks abandoned,' Chris Redfield thought as he led the way into the village that stood in the outskirts of the castle that was their final destination. Remaining ever vigilant, Chris chose not to be caught off guard as he scanned the area with his eyes and swept his weapon around, reassured by the weight of the AK47.

"What do you know about this place?" Jill asked of Trent as she moved in step with him.

Trent turned his head toward the first woman that he'd interacted with at the start of this nightmare so many months ago in the RCPD. "There used to be a thriving community here. I've done my best to keep informed about all of the properties that Ozwell Spencer owns, but even I wasn't aware that the village had been cleared out."

"Then there has to be a reason behind that happening," Joseph stated from the other side of Trent that Jill wasn't on.

A scraping noise suddenly sounded out, causing everyone to stop in their tracks.

Barry shook his head, raising his magnum high. "In our experience, I definitely do not like the sound of that."

"Prepare yourselves," Chris ordered.

Another scraping noise built behind them, causing Rebecca and Marco to both turn around from the back.

"There's another one coming from behind!" Marco exclaimed.

Claire turned toward the side as a gurgling noise sounded out near to where she stood and only had mere seconds to jump backwards. "What the hell?" was all she managed to scream out before a massive weapon that looked like a cross between a hook and a hammer slammed where she had previously been only a second before.

A massive man with a large growth on his left shoulder moved into view. He had a hood up over his face to conceal what he looked like underneath. He wore tattered pants that looked more like shorts now. There was blood all over him, and his weapon looked like it had received a lot of action recently.

Similar looking people emerged, one from the front, another from the back of the group, and one more came in from the other side, totaling four.

Trent shook his head. "They're blobs."

"Blobs?" Jill asked.

"Spencer's guardians," Trent replied. "I was under the impression they were in the prison beneath the castle. They must've been released. Someone in the castle knows we're here."

"Spread out!" Chris ordered. "Groups of two! Go!"

Jill stuck with Trent, not wanting to take her eyes off of him for even a second. She fired off rounds at the nearest of the blobs, not seeing any real reaction from it as she continued moving with him. "How do we take these things down?"

"I don't even know what virus they used to create these things, so your guess is as good as mine, Miss Valentine," Trent replied.

The blob that had tried to attack Claire pulled up his weapon and swing wildly toward her as she hadn't moved off yet.

"Claire!" Chris exclaimed as he had already been moving for his sister to team up with her in the first place. He knocked her to the ground and then the two of them rolled in opposite directions as the blob brought down its weapon, missing both and claiming the ground where they had been only seconds before.

'That was too close,' Chris thought as he got to his feet, fired off several rounds into the head of the blob with his AK47, and then helped Claire to her feet. They moved off together as the Blob moved to follow after them toward a nearby house.

Rebecca followed Marco's lead as the both of them fired rounds at the blob that had tried to cut everyone off from behind.

"We should go back to the helicopter," Rebecca suggested. "If this one got behind us, there's a chance that the men that brought us are in trouble."

"Sound idea," Marco agreed. "Stay close!" He took off at a run, moving around the blob with Rebecca right behind him. The blob swung wildly as they moved past, just barely missing them.

Barry fired round after round into the blob that he'd chosen to focus on. However, the blob continued to move in close.

Joseph ran forward to join his former Alpha Team compatriot, pulling out double magnums from his holsters. His eyes turned a burning red as he fired off rounds, the kickback of the weapons not affecting him in the slightest as the rounds pounded into the blob.

Barry looked onward in shocked amusement at Joseph's control over the double weapons that Barry had always struggled just to use one because of the powerful kickback. "Good show, kid."

The blob raised his weapon and swung widely.

As Barry took multiple steps back to avoid being hit, Joseph's amazing speed took hold as he seemingly teleported past the weapon, somersaulted over the blob, and fired rounds into the blob's head. He landed behind the blob and kicked him hard in the lower back, causing the blob to stumble and crash onto the ground.

Barry rejoined in firing rounds into the blob's head, but it simply wasn't enough. The blob was already getting back to its feet once more, and so Barry found himself jogging over to Joseph. "We're going to have to make a tactical retreat. I don't have a clue how to take this thing down. Headshots aren't even affecting it."

"I can feel the virus within," Joseph said. "There's definitely something foreign in it. It's not one of the viruses we've dealt with before. Hell, I'm not even sure it is a virus." He patted Barry on the shoulder and then they both moved past the blob as he regained his footing and pursued them once more.

Chris led Claire into one of the houses, slamming the door behind him once they were both in. Pressing his weight against the door, Chris turned his gaze toward his sister. "Check around. We have to make sure the place is secure and then –"

His words were cut off as the massive weapon slammed into the door, just barely missing Chris' head.

Claire let out an instinctual yelp from the sudden attack and pulled her brother back toward her.

They both raised their weapons and backed toward the open doorway as the door broke down when the weapon was pulled back out again. The blob moved in, continuing his pursuit.

The Redfield siblings moved deeper into the house, looking for a new exit.

As the blob moved into the next room, Joseph and Barry moved inside the house next, still also being pursued as well, but Joseph took up the lead, going after the blob that still stalked Chris and Claire, kicking the blob in the back.

Barry turned around as he moved backwards to keep up with Joseph and opened fire on their blob that had been following them still. As before, nothing appeared to be working.

The blob that had been kicked turned around and swung its massive weapon to attack and, as he did so, Joseph quickly jumped toward Barry, pulling him to the ground, the blob managing to strike the other blob that had been after them previously, slicing him in half.

Joseph sighed in relief.

"Did you mean to have them do that?" Barry asked.

Joseph quickly got to his feet, helping Barry up. "Let's just say yes to that."

The blob that was still standing roared in a way that sounded almost pained, that it hurt for having killed its ally.

Joseph and Barry quickly moved past the blob, back into the room that Chris and Claire had gone into only to find them climbing out a window. They moved to follow suit as the blob apparently collected itself and moved into the room once more, going after them.

One at a time, Joseph and Barry dived out of the open window before being helped to their feet by Chris and Claire. They looked back toward the house, seeing the blob's weapon slice right through the wall like it was nothing, causing the foundation to rock.

As the four people backed away, they watched, the wall that had been attacked collapsing inward, slamming on the blob.

"Did it survive that?" Joseph asked.

"I don't see any movement," Claire replied.

"Let's not wait around to find out for sure," Chris said, patting Barry on the shoulder. "We need to help the others."

They moved off.

Rebecca stopped moving, shock crossing her face. Leeches were crawling all over the gun runners that had brought them out this way as they rushed out of the helicopter.

Marco stood beside her, disgusted at what he was seeing. However, he heard the movement behind him and instantly remembered the blob that was after them. He took Rebecca's hand and pulled her along, which she didn't resist to.

The reason she didn't resist was because someone else moved out of the helicopter. It was the James Marcus imposter, but Rebecca knew exactly who it really was, and her heart sunk into her stomach the moment she laid eyes on him.

"Get back in the game, Chambers!" Marco ordered.

Rebecca shook her head when she heard the order, finally realizing what was going on around her as the blob was closing in and Marco had been firing off rounds at him.

"We should regroup with the others," Marco said. "We can't help those men anymore."

Rebecca knew that he was right, but there was a nagging in her mind as she joined the former S.T.A.R.S. director in the firefight against the blob: Billy. She had to help Billy.

Singing could suddenly be heard, and Rebecca instantly recognized it, but it didn't sound the same as the horrifying tones that she'd heard coming from The Leech Queen several months back at the beginning of this nightmare. Risking a glance toward the choppers, despite the danger, she saw that the imposter's arms were extended wide as he looked at the leeches, finishing off the gun runners.

"Chambers, look out!" Marco yelled.

Rebecca turned back just in time to see the blob swinging his massive weapon in her direction. She quickly ducked and rolled away as the blob continued to swing for her, ignoring Marco's gunfire that was slicing into his skin.

"Billy!" Rebecca called out, getting to her feet and moving away from the blob, trying to go in his direction.

"Chambers, get back here!" Marco ordered, continuing to lay fire on the blob with little to no effect.

The James Marcus imposter turned his head toward her, but he continued to sing to the leeches, clearly barely noticing what was going on.

"Billy Coen!" Rebecca yelled, still moving in his direction. "Remember who you are! It's me, Rebecca!"

The imposter's lips twitched as the singing stopped, but he turned away from her anyway, looking back to the leeches.

Rebecca arrived at the first of the choppers, the one that Trent, Joseph, and Marco had arrived in, and without warning, the blob flung his weapon in her direction.

"Duck!" Marco yelled.

Rebecca immediately went to the ground.

The weapon crashed right into the front of the helicopter and sparked a fire.

"Get out of there!" Marco continued yelling.

Rebecca crawled on the ground, the blob closing in on here. However, the chopper exploded, the blast hitting the blob in the back, catching him on fire as it quickly spread over his whole body. Getting back to her feet, she moved away from the blob and back in the direction of Marco, walking backwards, her gaze more fixed on the imposter than on the blob.

The blob finally fell to the ground, the flames too much for it, and it stopped moving.

The fire from the chopper explosion moved in the direction of the leeches as they were finishing off the gun runners and caught a lot of them on fire, causing them to call out in pain, the pain clearly expressed on the imposter's face. He sang to the leeches, getting the ones that weren't burnt to return to him, and he moved off.

"Billy!" Rebecca yelled, but the imposter didn't listen to her as he continued off back for the Spencer castle in the distance.

"You're lucky we aren't S.T.A.R.S. anymore, Chambers," Marco told her. "I would've suspended you for your actions."

She looked to him, tears welling up in her eyes. "I have to help him."

"Getting yourself killed in the process isn't going to do that," Marco told her. "Now we have to get back to the others. That's an order." He turned, moving back up the hill to the village.

Rebecca glanced toward the departing imposter one last time and then resigned to following after Marco.

Jill Valentine did not like her and Trent's odds. This creature, or blob as her teammate had called him, was relentless in chasing after them. The only thing that was to their advantage was that he was slow. They had tried to hide multiple times already, but that wasn't working as the blob managed to find them relatively quickly.

"I think it can smell us," Trent observed as they moved away from another hiding spot.

"Then we aren't going to be able to avoid it long enough to get behind it," Jill said. "Have to face it head on."

Trent put his right hand in his trench coat pocket, gripping hold of a syringe tightly. He didn't want to have to resort to the ultimate backup plan, as it was something that he felt would completely send him over the edge, but there was every chance he'd reached his endgame anyway. Perhaps it was his destiny, and maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Joseph didn't seem ruined by it.

Jill pulled her baretta as she stopped running and finally turned to face the blob, opening fire on it.

Trent knew that this wouldn't do any good. He'd heard all of the gunfire from their teammates around the village, and it was clear that more than likely wasn't going to do any good. They would need to be…

An Osprey suddenly flew in from the North, opening fire on the blob.

Trent pulled Jill down to the ground and they both watched as the shells tore into the blob, ripping off his arms and turning his legs into Swiss cheese before the foe finally hit the ground.

The Osprey continued onward like nothing had even happened, clearly going for the castle.

"Wesker," Trent hissed as he helped Jill up.

"Are you sure?" Jill asked.

Trent turned to her and nodded. "Whatever it was that kept him from already being here, I don't know, but we'd best get to that castle."

Rebecca and Marco were the first ones to regroup with them, Rebecca hugging Jill.

"Your friends back at the choppers are dead," Marco informed.

"Damn it," Jill stated, shaking her head.

"It was Billy," Rebecca said to Trent. "Well, Billy thinking he's Marcus. He's controlling leeches. Is his infected? Can we even save him?"

"I don't have all the answers, Miss Chambers," Trent said. "For once, I'm just as in the dark about a lot of things."

Chris led Barry, Claire, and Joseph as they all rejoined them, everyone looking clearly out of breath and in need of a rest.

"We have to get to the castle now," Trent said, pointing toward the Osprey as it was landing in the courtyard in front of the castle. "Wesker's beaten us there."

Chris slammed a new clip in his handgun. "Then it's time to go say hello." He took up the lead as they all moved, once more, toward their destiny.

Trent, however, knew that his destiny had finally led to this point, and as he grasped hold of the syringe still hidden in his trench coat pocket, he knew it was time to face what he'd been avoiding for far too long if he wanted to be able to help Joseph.