Chapter 26: Slightly less terrible

Rick was chewing on the last bit of food the backpack contained while checking his gear. Gun fully loaded, two magazines fully loaded too. A total of fifty six bullets ready to be used and eighty more in four separate boxes. His shotgun was filled to the brim. Five shells and thirteen more on his career belt.

It wasn’t much.

Claire was faring worse. Out of the sixteen incendiary rounds she had when she left the East Area, she only had four left. Two magazines of twenty bullets for her submachine gun with three loose bullets and twenty seven 9mm bullets. Less than two mags.

On the plus side of things, she had found a reinforced frame for her small SLS 60 in the sewer before they reunited. Now the revolver could fire magnum bullets and do devastating damage. On top of that she had one or two grenades and three flashbangs.

Under the watchful eyes of Annette and Sherry they exchanged what equipment. Rick wasn’t in a state to be close and use his shotgun, so he exchanged it with Claire’s grenade launcher. She gave him her automatic gun and the spare magazine.

Annette spoke up then. “I’d like that one.”

The armed pair gave her a flat look they maintained for a few seconds before silently going back to double check they were ready for any eventuality.

Rick rummaged through the backpack again and picked up another knife in a holster he tossed at Sherry who caught it.

“Are you mad?!” Annette protested. “You refuse to…”

Claire interrupted her on the spot, attaching at her lower back a pouch she took from Rick. “We don’t trust you.”

“Sherry is a survivor,” Rick added. “She can handle her own. In fact she already did,” He looked at the teenage girl. “Good job with Irons.’

Sherry, despite being tired, gave him a small embarrassed smile. “I just used the knife to escape the room he locked me in and made him let me go when he grabbed me.”

Annette looked horrified at what she was hearing.

“You’re here, he’s not. Sometimes it’s enough.” He smiled back and after pondering the idea for a moment, he handed a cleaver to Annette. “Take it or leave it.”

The scientist stared at him murderously but took the weapon offered silently. Claire and Rick exchanged one final look. In his was determination and trust, in hers was a bit of worry. She wanted to ask if he was going to be alright but she knew it didn’t matter.

He would do what he had to do regardless.

He had proven that multiple times the past night and she trusted him to do it again and again until they were out. Not for a single moment did she believe he would fail.

The elevator stopped a few seconds later at the deepest level. It looked like some kind of security room. A real one, with computers, camera feeds, and giant screens. They walked as fast as Sherry could, which was a bit slower than Rick.

Beyond the control room was a long descending balcony giving a dwarfing view of a rail for a huge elevator, probably reserved for heavy and big equipment. They didn’t stop to have a look however, they kept going.

Things took a turn for the worst in the next room. Taking a small elevator down, ivies were rising from the ground. Their saving grace was the rails right and left on their way. Claire blew their heads off and Rick punched them over. They were slowed down a little but not by much.

After throwing his cleaver right into the head of a zombie blocking the path to the only door, from twenty feet away, they encountered no more trouble and arrived at a hangar where a yellow locomotive was waiting to be used.

“We need to activate that platform.” Annette said pointing at a control room from behind the vehicle. “It’s automated, it will take us down and the train will depart to the exit.”

Claire went to it, while Rick checked the train if there was any bio-weapon waiting in ambush. There were none but he found some kind of big plug he recognized as a battery.

“That’s supposed to be in the control room.” Annette shouted in panic. A delay they definitely didn’t need when the whole complex was about to blow up within minutes.

Grunting, Rick ran outside with the plug in hand. The bit of food he had ingested had helped in speeding up the regeneration of his organs and even gave him a bit of stamina. Once again he filled the discovery about his body for later.

“Claire!” He called out to her, entering the room. She was talking with Leon through a camera feed, he was at the security room they arrived at when they exited the elevator.

Claire gave Rick a side glanced, her eyes widening when she saw the plug. With her hand she pointed at a huge socket onto the console in front of her. Rick didn’t hesitate and put it inside in a flash then pulled down the prominent lever. The artificial voice told them the automatic train had been activated and would depart within thirty seconds.

“Hurry Leon, we don’t control the train!”

“I’ll be there!”

When Rick turned around to leave he saw perhaps the most beautiful thing in his life so far. On top of a crate rested a huge mini-gun and from the box of ammo next to it, was ready to be used. Not thinking twice, he grabbed it and left the room, Claire falling into steps with two more boxes of ammo. There was no way they were leaving the weapon or its ammunition behind when they were so low on pretty much everything.

They made their ways to the stairs leading up to the entrance of the locomotive when they suddenly retracted into the ground. Now used to shit hitting the fan at the worst of times, Claire and Rick took a stance, ready to face anything and everything.

They didn’t have to wait long. From above, as the elevator was going down, a grotesque, mutated humanoid creature landed on top of the locomotive. A new mutation for William Birking composed of what appears to be a mass of exposed flesh and muscle tissue, with a predominantly deep purple and reddish hue. Its form was amorphous and distorted.

A nightmarish appearance which fit well in the insane hell they were into.

“That guy never quits, doesn’t he?” Rick raised the minigun to aim.

Claire agreed with the statement completely. “He’s like that one stalker that doesn’t know what ‘no’ means.”

The creature's head was vaguely defined, with some sort of protrusion at the top and what might be a few green eyes. The mouth area was open, revealing multiple rows of teeth-like structures. Its arms were large and ended in sharp, claw-like appendages. The chest area appeared to be a gaping cavity, exposing some internal organs and small, round, yellow eyes. The legs were also mutated and ended in clawed feet.

The creature's posture suggests a dynamic pose, as if it is about to attack or is in the middle of a movement. There is no visible expression, as the face is too distorted. The overall impression is one of extreme violence and decay.

It roared loudly, like a lion trying to impose its rule or reminding its surroundings who’s the predator here. In one leap it landed right at their position.

Thankfully, they had both dodged to the sides. Claire began to use her shotgun immediately, round after round, she unloaded it all onto its chest maw.

Rick was taking some backwards steps to create some distance. When he estimated he was far enough to have room to move in case of an attack, he pulled the trigger on the mini-gun.

The bullets started flying right onto the monster’s back, hitting a few eyes on it. It was good enough to attract its attention away from Claire and allowed her to reload her shotgun.

When the monster got too close to Rick’s he began to jog, disappearing behind the locomotive from the right. Claire holstered her weapon onto her open backpack into her back and drew her magnum as she went around but from the left.

When Rick saw her, he began skirting left to let her have a line of sight to shoot and repositioned himself. The magnum seems to be the most effective if the scream of pain were any indication.

Between the pair's barrage of bullets, the former Willian Birkin decided to change tactics. It began charging Claire, who dove to the side and rolled to stop next to Rick.

The monster was unable to stop itself from hitting the wall it encountered. Instead of turning around, it sank its claw into it and let the platform going down create a high ground advantage.

Before it could jump down, Rick’s continued fire severed its lower part. Everything under the cavernous torso dropped to the ground and began to melt into nothing else.

“Half down, half to go.” Claire used her speedloader to reload her SLS 60.

Rick inwardly agreed, letting the mini-gun cool down. “At least he won’t be as fast now.”

The abomination let go of his support and landed with a heavy thud back onto the platform. They immediately fired and when Clair was out of magnum bullets she went behind Rick to grab the grenade launcher. She couldn’t remove him from around his shoulder, so fired it from above it. Reloading wasn’t easy.

“Right!”

Following Rick’s command without a second thought, Claire dove right at the same time he did. How the monster charged by using the strength in its arm to do so would have been impressive had they not been their targets.

“I have it with that asshole!” She grabbed her grenade to throw it right under the huge mass of flesh.

“Take mine.”

Her hand went to his hip while he was still shooting, and grabbed the explosive. The explosion resulting from arming it and tossing it, stopped the next in coming charge. Afterward, Claire used her two flashbands in succession, warning Rick to close his eyes while he sustained his fire until he needed to reload again.

He didn’t have to.

With a final deathly roar, their opponent fell to the ground, unmoving. To make sure it was dead for good, Claire took the MQ11 and emptied a magazine on it. It didn’t twitch.

“Finally,” Rick said, breathing heavily, mini-gun still aimed although empty.

Without being conscious of it, Claire extended her hand and grabbed his. “Let’s get into this train.”

Side by side, they went to the other side of the locomotive where the stairs were deployed again. She went first, to keep him on balance and pull him up. When they got inside, they heard Sherry calling their names with more energy than she had before.

“What’s next?” Rick asked Annette. “In detail.”

“Soon enough we'll arrive on the ground floor, the train will be put on the trails and wagons attached to it. Then it’s launched 1.5 km forward towards an exit near the desert, south of the city.”

“And afterward? Any vehicle? Anyone waiting?”

Annette shook her head. “Nothing. We’d have to walk.”

Rick sighed in resignation and Claire pulled on his hand towards a seat on the side of the wall. “Come on, take a break.”

“No.” His answer was firm. “If I take one, I won’t have the strength to move anymore. We’re not out of the woods yet.”

Claire frowned, not liking what she was hearing. Rick was hanging on by pure sheer will at this point and she didn’t like it one bit. She squeezed his hand and tried to pull him towards the seat but he didn’t move an inch. The only thing that did was his eyebrows which knitted together into a scowl.

The shaking of the train stopped any retort that was about to leave her mouth. From the window in front of the locomotive they could see that they had touched the bottom. Another shake and the train turned to the side.

A red light turned off on the console and a green one turned on. The locomotive began to move forward, slowly at first then it quickly gained more and more speed. Sound came from the back and immediately Claire and Rick drew their guns, aiming at the door which opened.

“Leon!” Claire shouted in excitement and relief.

“Hey!”

“I’m glad you made it.”

“I almost didn’t. I got on on the go.” Leon turned to Rick and smirked tiredly. “You were right, nothing short of a rocket.”

A heavy shake of the train, coming from the back, made everyone stumble. The three survivors exchanged a look. As usual, Claire was the hopeful one.

“Maybe someone else got on the train at the last minute too?”

Annette disabused her without missing a beat. “No. Everyone else died in Nest but me.”

Claire closed her eyes and sighed. When she felt Rick moved forward to go to the next car to take care of the problem, she reacted.

“Absolutely not! You’ve done enough! You’re barely standing on your legs as it is!”

“I-”

“You nothing! You stay here and you let Leon and I take care of it.”

Sherry let out a giggle while Leon had a surprised but amused smile on his face. To everyone present, Claire and Rick, who were busy glaring at each other, looked like an old married couple having a row for everyone but the two of them.

Knowing he had lost because there was no way he could prevent Claire stopping him from joining, he grabbed her head and kissed her square on the lips. Hard.

“What was that for?!” Her shout of complaint held no weight because she was blushing up a storm and because she hadn't just been kissed, she had kissed back.

“If I have to die because you fucked it up, I’ll die with a memory slightly less terrible than the rest of the week I had.”

Claire gaped at the audacity she was presented with. It took three seconds for her brain to recover from the blowing it got. She answered with pure fire.

“YOU JERK!” She kicked his leg. “Once I’m back, I’ll give you ‘less terrible’!”

Huffing she turned around and went through the door, telling Leon and his grinning face to stuff it.

“Wait!”

The two fighters turn around at Rick’s call. Leon had a curious expression on his face while Claire was frowning.

“What?!”

“Just detach the wagons. No need to go fight it.”

“...”

The pair gave him a silent look then exchanged a glance. Having a wordless conversation, Leon shrugged his shoulders and looked down.

The creak of metal being folded violently dragged their attention back. A mass of flesh without any shape of form was absorbing the metal and spreading itself along the interior of the wagon. At the center of the mass a bulge began to appear, pulsing until it burst open to reveal an eyeball almost taking the whole space of the compartment.

“Yeah, good idea.” Leon let out and activated the release system between the wagon and locomotive.

Claire had to help him as the thing was rusty but it wasn’t anything they couldn’t resolve without a good push from their legs. The wagon separated and without the locomotive to pull and give it some speed it began to slow down.

“Oh, Shit!”

Claire grabbed Leon and went back inside the locomotive when she saw burning fire engulfing the tunnel, the mass of flesh and the wagon, making its way towards them. Thankfully the train had enough distance and speed to not be caught up.

Claire exhaled believing the nightmare to be over and made the introduction between Leon, Annette and Sherry. The latter began to ask questions to Leon about who he was beyond his name which he was more than happy to answer to while Annette looked at him as if he was a potential threat.

She didn’t bother with Claire and Rick because they were too busy kissing like newlyweds.

“How slightly terrible was that, hm?”

Rick smiled at the girl in front of him that he was holding by the waist to not fall to the ground where he stood.

“I don’t know. I need more data to be sure.”

Immediately she teased him with a whisper pulling her arms around his neck. “Greedy much?”

“No, but after all the times I saved your life, that’s not nearly enough compensation.” He whispered back, leaning his head down for another kiss. “You’re lucky I’m tired as hell.”

“Hmhm. Too bad for you then.”

Her eyes shifted from his to his lips. A message that Rick understood and kissed her again without any hesitation. The sudden and a bit brutal stop of the train made them stumbled, breaking the kiss. They exchanged a look, sharing a silent promise of more to come as soon as they were alone.

“Better take a shower first.” Rick whispered to her, teasing.

“Are you saying I smell?”

“I’m saying I’d love to wash away everything that has been coating your body for the past night.”

“Hey, lovebirds, are you coming or not?”

They looked at Leon who was almost out of the train, Annette and Sherry nowhere in sight. Holding hands consciously this time, said loverbirds followed him out.

The train had stopped in the middle of nowhere as far as they could see. Annette pointed in a direction North. Electrical poles indicated that a road was nearby.

Sherry came to hold Claire’s hand while holding her mother’s. She didn’t seem affected by the death of her father but Rick knew she’d have nightmares for the months if not years to come. He still had some almost every night since his experience in the Arklay Mountains.

One thing Rick was happy about was that the night and the rain were over. During their time inside the sewers and Nest, the sun had risen and the mountains’ winds had chased away the clouds.

The silence felt peaceful and victorious but no one was interested in it. Talking made them feel alive. A way to anchor reality and not think they weren’t in the worst of dreams.

“So, what’s everyone going to do now?” Claire wondered aloud.

Leon was the first to answer. “I’m still a cop, so I have to wait for a new affectation. I’d also have to testify about what I’ve seen in Raccoon City.”

“So will I.”

Sherry turned her head in surprise at her mother “Mommy?”

“Umbrella needs to pay or you and I will never be safe.”

“I need to go back to the city.”

“What?!” Everyone turned to Rick when he said that.

“I haven’t found Jugs yet. I’m not going to stop until I do, whether she’s alive or not.”

Claire frowned but had nothing to say to make him reconsider his decision. She would do the same for her brother.

A 18 wheeler truck came from behind them, when they reached the road. Leon tried to make the driver stop by waving his arms but the driver just flipped him the bird.

“Charming.” He muttered.

Rick tapped his shoulders in comfort. “You should have let Claire or Annette do it.”

“Why?” The former asked.

“Because we’re both women and truckers do have a reputation.” Annette let go of Sherry’s hand to remove her labcoat and drop it to the ground.

Rick had to give it to the woman, she was a bit of a knock out. You wouldn’t think she had a twelve years old daughter at first glance.

Claire was flabbergasted. “Are you serious?!”

“I’m pragmatic. Your boyfriend would do the same thing had he been a woman.”

“Hm, true.” Rick nodded in agreement.

Claire gave him a murderous glare before looking back at the scientist. “First off! He’s not my boyfriend.”

“He’s a boy and her friend.”

Sherry interjected with amusement in her voice and on her face. It was the same words Rick told her when they met but with the gender flipped. Leon snorted without shame. After the couple had kissed like mad, he doubted it was true.

The pre-teen was ignored however. “Second! That’s-”

The sound of a helicopter coming from the direction of Raccoon city made her stop. Everyone looked up and saw the Umbrella logo on it. They all had the same reaction of tensing. Rick was already gun in hand when the helicopter, after passing them, turned around and flew right at them. It landed on the road fifteen yards away.

The side door opened and a brunette with a bright blue tank top putting on display quite the heavy cleavage and a short skirt came out of it.

“JUGS!” Rick shouted, completely dumbfounded.

Claire gawked. In her mind, Jugs was a tough bitch with defined muscles and at least six feet tall. What she had in front of her was a well trained woman which could be a run out of the mill civilian. Even with the bruises, cuts and dirt on her body. It was clear she had gone through hell too.

Rick let go of Claire’s hand and walked as fast as he could to the woman, who crossed the distance between them too. He took her in a bear hug instantly.

Jugs answered it with as much strength. “I’m so glad you’re— What the…”

Her face got confused as she suddenly found herself having to support Rick’s whole weight. Leon and Claire immediately came to the rescue. Grabbing him from under the armpits.

“Sorry, about him.” Claire said. “The only thing that kept him going was finding you.”

Jugs blinked in shock when she saw her face. “Claire?”

“You know me?”

“Yeah. Chris had a photo of the two of you on his desk. I’m Jill. Jill Valentine, one of his colleagues in STARS. Well, was. There are no STARS anymore.”

Claire recognized the name immediately and wanted to facepalm for not understanding sooner that Rick was referring to her brother’s ex-girlfriend. She also couldn’t believe he named Jill, Jugs, because of the size of her breasts. She filed a mental memo to punch him gently for this later.

Jill got a quick introduction of everyone and invited them onto the chopper. They, Jill and her companion Carlos in the pilot seat, had stolen it from Umbrella to get away from Raccoon City before the US government nuked the city. They barely made it away in time.

The revelation even shocked Annette who, while having considered the possibility, didn’t think it would come to this.

“Come on. Carlos got word there is a military camp not far from here which is supposed to create a quarantine area and take care of any survivors who made it out.”

With no other option, everyone got on. It was only when they were high in the sky did Claire relax for good. Taking an unconscious Rick’s hand in hers, lacing their fingers together she let her head rest on his shoulders.

She too needed some rest.