Chapter 61: Cockroach Principle

Rick was on solid ground, coughing all the water in his lungs. It hurt like a bitch and far more than his burned skin healing itself at a very fast rate. When he could breath again he rolled around to lay on his back and take in his surroundings.

“Oh, god.”

He looked to the side to see Angela blush and put a hand over her eyes. That confused him. After being burned, he knew he wasn’t pretty to look at and understood why she might not want to look at him but there was no reason to blush. He was even more confused when Leon removed his leather jacket and tossed it right onto his lap.

It was then that Rick realized the purge had completely burned everything away. Not just his skin but also clothes. Thinking about it, it was a given, his clothes had been over his skin.

“Thanks.” He simply said and sat up. The reconstruction of his skin now felt like a prickling.

Leon smirked. “Well… Couldn’t let you with your parts dangling around with a lady present.”

“Good thing I didn’t get mouth to mouth from the lady then.” Rick joked back rubbing his arms.

Angela protested on the spot. “That’s not what happened!”

Leon was having a good chuckle. When the purge happened he and Angela, already in a water hole, deep dive to avoid being burnt to a crisp. They had to stay there for a while as the firestorm was raging on and Angela began missing air, so Leon shared a bit of his reserve. Rick, who had entered the water burning to hell, had witnessed it all.

Leon had shot at a glass wall, breaking it down and letting the water flow away, dragging them along. The purge hadn’t stopped at the firestorm, it also sent the garden sector to the depth below, a last protocol in case the fire didn’t eliminate all lethal viral agents and as such when they were carried away by the water, they had to grab a steel beam to not join the garden.

“Hmhm.” Rick knew perfectly well that Angela was telling the truth but after the day and night he had, which included but wasn’t limited to being torched alive, he felt himself playful and messed with her. A good coping mechanism. Far better than the usual night of sex with the night stand of the day.

Angela’s embarrassment was almost gone now, her righteous anger flamed. “That’s—! Nevermind! What the hell are you?!”

“Hm?”

“Rick, you survive the purge with mere burns which have now healed.” Leon remarked.

“Ah, that.” He replied flatly stalling but there was no point so he sighed. “I’m… a superhuman?” The blank face he got made him sigh again. “Sometimes… some people are immune to the T-virus and they develop enhanced abilities.”

“Huh, so you’re part of the 10 percent. Definitely wasn’t in your file.”

Angela, being out of the loop, asked what it was all about. “The 10 percent?”

Leon turned to her. “The T-virus has a 90% fatality rate. Meaning 10% has more or less a resistance to it. An even lower percentage are immune and develop superhuman abilities. Usually it’s greater physical capabilities.” He turned back to Rick with a bit of an accusing stare. “Nothing like fast regeneration or fire resistance.”

“I’m… unique.” Rick cracked his neck. Putting a hand on his crotch to maintain the jacket, he stood up. “I’m not immune. Immunity implies that the virus is still in your body but can’t do anything. There is no trace of any virus in mine.”

“Then how—” Angela waved at him from top to bottom. Leon too was intrigued.

“My body kills the virus. Any virus. It takes whatever information it contains and can be useful and add it to my DNA while breaking a virus down. The T-virus gave me the recorded and known enhanced strength, speed, reaction time, and a slightly faster healing rate. The G-virus.”

Leon’s eyes widened, both in shock and in horror. “You were infected with—”

“Yeah.” Rick nodded. “In Raccoon City’s sewers by Birkin. My body killed the G-worm.” He shrugged. “Anyways, it enhanced even more what the T-virus gave me. Especially the healing factor. The fire resistance is new but I think it comes from the T-veronica. Don’t bother asking about that one.” He cut them at the knee before they could ask about this particular virus.

“Huh… So that’s why your codename was Roach.” Leon remarked.

“Roach?” Angela repeated in confusion.

Rick explained it to her. “For ‘cockroach’. Because I’m really hard to kill and because I keep surviving despite the odds being against me.” He tied the jacket around his waist, tired of holding it. “As for why it isn’t in my file it’s because of multiple factors.”

Leon pressed for answers, feeling like Rick wouldn’t be forthcoming. “Such as?”

“I don’t want to be tied up to an operating table and experimented on by the government. Gosh I’m saying that a lot today.” He frowned, remembering he had told that to Claire less than half an hour earlier.

“But…If you’re immune…” Angela interrupted. “Can’t your blood be used to… make cures?” Leon nodded with the idea but knew better. It never was that simple.

“Second reason why I keep quiet. My blood and… well… pretty much every cell in my body, attacks everything that is not it. If I give you my blood, you’ll die in extreme pain because my cells will simply kill yours. It will eat your body from the inside. Can you imagine what terrorists could do, the kind of virus or bio-weapons they could create with this?”

Leon finally understood. “Nothing would be able to stop whatever they make out of your blood.”

“Yes. That’s why that information is highly classified. The former president, President Graham, my superiors in my ex-Unit and my doctor know. No one else but the few people I trust and even then, most don't know for their own protection. It’s not all bad however. The data collected from my cells had been funneled to WilPharma for the development of the T-virus vaccine. That’s the reason why a prototype vaccine has been in the works since 1999 and we have a working vaccine today. Otherwise…”

“We’ll be years away.” Leon finished the sentence.

“So you know… Keep what I told you to yourself. Babbling isn’t worth the risk of being disappeared to protect the information or extract it out of you.”

Angela shrugged her shoulders “Who would believe me anyway?”

““The US government.”” Both Leon and Rick answered in perfect synchronisation and it surprised her.

“They would investigate on the one chance you’re telling the truth.” Leon explained and Rick nodded vehemently, leaving Angela completely dumbfounded.

The moment of respite was interrupted by a low guttural and predatory roar. They all looked up to see G crawling on a wall and mutating further. Seeing the creature alive prompted Angela to have a mini-breakdown, not believing her eyes and despairing. If a whole unit of rangers and whole purge wasn’t able to kill the thing then they certainly wouldn’t. Not with one assault rifle, a gun and a nudist even if said nudist was a superhuman.

Another alarm with red lights, blared. The walls moved forwards and the automated voice warned about the level being dropped, much like the garden sector has been.

Leaon grabbed Angela’s shoulder to calm her down so she could center herself. “Let’s go back up. We can’t do anything from here.”

The trio walked back the way they had come from. They found a ladder going up and climbed it to arrive higher, at the top of the levels about to be let go. With no other options they jumped on to the roof and began to run from across to reach the one overture they had seen on the other side. When they had to jump to reach the next level. Rick simply grabbed both Leon and Angela by the waist and went over the huge chasm without any difficulty while carrying them.

He didn’t let them go and kept running toward the next platform when G landed heavily in front of him. Thanks to his fast reflex, he was able to throw them both to the side. His run turned into a sprint then a charge and he met G head on, a fist right on its face making it reel back. Rick didn’t stop there and went with a roundhouse kick right into the giant eyeball.

“GO!” He shouted while dodging a claw.

The previous level had dropped down to the abyss and soon enough the one Rick and G were standing on would fall too. Rick needed to time everything just right. Get to the next platform just but let G get taken by gravity with the level. Easier said than done. Especially when G began mutating again.

Apparently it was more than a little bit annoyed by Rick pummeling him without being able to land a single blow in return. Tentacles began to sprout from his back. Very long tentacles and very nimble. What was worse; they seemed to have a mind of their own and Rick quickly found himself on the defensive.

Without his enhanced speed he would have died many times over.

More tentacles sprouted and it became more difficult for Rick to dodge properly because of it. No matter how slow he saw the blows coming and how fast he was, he couldn’t react to everything. Sometimes there was simply no solution or escape. Sometimes one could do everything right and still fail.

Rick had a choice. Being captured or taking a hit to the thigh. It was a no brainer in his opinion. One option would get him killed, the other would hurt but give him a chance to survive.

As a result of the hit on his leg, Rick lost his balance and fell down. Not giving up and knowing that if he didn’t do anything right this moment he was done for, he pushed himself forward when his hands touched the ground, making a roll.

He dodged another swing of a claw by simply not being high enough and propelled himself between G’s open legs. With no time to get on his feet, he ran on all four like a dog. A first in his life and something he would remember with embarrassment for the rest of it. That he had lost Leon’s jacket and was back to being stark naked wouldn’t make the memory better. Far from it.

Reaching the edge of the level he felt it began to fall. Immediately jumping to the other side, he was barely able to grab the ledge of the platform. Climbing up, his legs were grabbed by tentacles. The next thing he knew, he felt the whole weight of G pulling him down.

“Fucking cunt.” Rick gritted his teeth and crawled up.

He didn’t have a choice. If he let go he’d die and that wasn’t acceptable so he’d drag G up if he had to and continue fighting it. Between the weight and the tentacles putting pressure on his legs, he grabbed the latter pull up. Having a knife right now would have been really nice, unfortunately the only weapon he had at the moment was his dick and it wasn’t really useful. Peak of irony.

With enough length of tentacles, Rick did one last huge pull up with all the strength he had. It was more than enough for G to be sent flying so far up that when Rick slammed it down on the level all but one of the appendages let go of his legs. The last one was severed by expert marksmanship from Leon, standing with Angela on top of a broken suspended bridge above.

Now free to move again, Rick got on his feet. Attacking head on wasn’t working anymore so he had to change tactics. First off was to get himself a weapon. Thankfully Angela was providing suppressing fire by shooting her assault rifle on G. It was more an annoyance than anything but it gave enough for Rick to use his environment to arm himself.

The top of the levels weren’t flat surfaces. There was plenty of machinery around, with pipes so huge they were taller and thicker than Rick. It wasn’t what caught his eye however. It was the fence around them to keep away people.

Without thinking twice, Rick began to gather as many poles as he could. By the time Angela was out of bullets he had enough to use them as javelins. Thanks to his reflexes, strength and experience, he was able to throw them with deadly accuracy. Each pole hit an important area for G’s mobility. The first ones blasted its knees making it fall to the ground, the others all ended either in its head or on the giant eyeball on his shoulders.

The bio-weapon tried to use its tentacles to protect itself by taking the hits or trying to grab them but it was to no avail. Rick could see the most minute gaps in its defense in slow motion and had the speed to make sure he could exploit them with a throw.

Severely wounded, G began to mutate again to take a stronger form. Rick didn’t stand like an idiot and watched. He grabbed one of the huge pipes and used the last bit of his strength to rip it off the machine it was hooked too. Now with a huge pipe in hand, he held it like a baseball bat, ready to strike.

The level was dropped, Rick feeling the now familiar sensation of free falling. Not wasting time, he used his exploding speed to cross the distance with his opponent and swung with so much strength that G was sent flying dozens of feet away. More importantly, the abomination was now falling to its death, too far away from a wall or any other surface to hook itself with a tentacle.

G was falling to the abyss and there was nothing it could do to survive.

Unfortunately, the victory couldn’t be celebrated. Rick wasn’t out of the woods. The level was still falling and if Rick didn’t do something soon he would join its adversary soon enough. It took to running then jumped off the platform as it dropped down, to catch a thick power cable hanging from the nearest wall. A remnant of the connection between the complex and the level. He hung there, with the last of his strength, his position precarious but secure.

Or so he thought. And he thought wrong.

When he saw light coming from below, he saw another burst of flames coming up from the depths. Above him, something happened with the walls all around. Pieces of metal were starting to come out and from their shapes he could tell they would form some kind of iris locking up the whole area and containing the inferno coming up rapidly.

Quickly, Rick climbed the power cable as fast as he could. And jumped off the wall to grab the ledge of the piece above it. Out of strength after the fight with G, he could only hang like an idiot.

“RICK!”

He heard Leon’s call but ignored it. It was getting hotter at an alarming rate and the iris was closing fast. If he didn't do anything soon, he would die and no fire resistance would help. Rick had survived earlier because he had quickly put the fire out by jumping into water but a few more seconds and there would have been nothing left of him.

‘Come on, come on, come on! Do Something! You’re not dying here, asshole! Not like this! Not the day you reunited with Claire! Pull yourself up! DO IT!’

Gritting his teeth, Rick tried to summon strength he didn’t have to pull himself up. It wasn’t enough, he was running off fumes and he knew it, yet he wasn’t giving up. He needed to survive if only to try and see Claire one last time.

So focused he was on his effort that his body mutating went unnoticed. Not like he could have. They didn’t get bigger, they didn’t bulge but their composition began to change. The sarcomeres in his muscle cells began to multiply, giving him more force to use, the fibers became stronger to sustain the new power. Everything began to evolve to be more, to be better. And to give him the necessary strength to survive.

Rick swung his body to push with his feet against the bottom of the moving plate to get momentum. When it swung back, with the force and its weight, the pendulum effect made it so his body rose far enough that Rick found himself up in the air a dozen feet above the iris which finally closed. The landing was more a crash than anything and he broke both his legs but he didn’t care.

He had survived.