The final chapter. There are actually two chapters in here but the second was so short i just made them both into one edition.
Chapter Eleven
Leon spun around in the steam, sopping wet as he stood knee deep in the hot water of the boiler room. His eyes looked around desperately, his heart pounding in his chest as he felt the virus inside him slowly grow stronger and stronger.
"Come out, Wesker!" he shouted, "Come on! Don't you want your specimen!"
"Yes…" came a voice from everywhere, "But I want to test you first."
Suddenly a flying blur came splashing from behind Leon and knocked him violently into the air, his body twirling around before falling to the ground. Leon flipped himself back to his feet to meet another sudden blow to his jaw. He fell to his hands and knees, feeling the heat and his blood merge together in his mouth, making his breath gasp and wheeze.
"What's the matter, Leon? You're supposed to be invincible. Live up to your rank. You were unstoppable enough as a mortal, now as a god you kneel before me?"
Suddenly from out the steam Wesker came again, nothing but a black phantom as he kicked Leon in his ribs. Leon yelled in agony as he was thrown to his staggering feet. Wesker laughed from everywhere around Leon. Leon was horrified, waiting in a ceaselessly torturing anticipation for when the next blow would occur, when another reign of agony would fall upon him. He had to relax, he had to focus. Calming himself, he felt something he had never felt before. A stinging feeling that asked for his attention, bringing him awareness of everything around him. It was as though he could feel the boiler room, he could feel the water, the beams supporting the catwalk above, and Wesker as he crouched down in the steam. Leon had him now, almost as though he could sense Wesker's presence, and he waited patiently. Suddenly Wesker charged from the steam, and Leon retaliated as he threw out his fist. A resonating snap sounded out as Leon clothes-lined Wesker in the chin, flipping the man's body into the air. Leon brought his fist up and down upon Wesker's body in mid-flight, crushing him down into the water. Wesker kicked Leon and quickly scrambled away.
"Good," he breathed in exhaustion, standing, "Good, you're letting the virus help you. You're learning."
Wesker again charged, a fist towards Leon, but Leon was took quick as he hooked elbows with Wesker and flipped him over and onto his back, twisting his elbow around and snapping it. Wesker screamed and twisted his entire body around, throwing an array of splashes up in the water as he tripped Leon to again escape. Leon took the opportunity to leap back up to the railing of the catwalk and climb back on.
"My god! You've become incredible," Wesker said in panting astonishment as he looked at Leon from below, "Perhaps too incredible. It's time now that I tame you, Leon. Give in."
"Give it up, Wesker," Leon said, "Just forget it."
"No," Wesker snarled, "You're mine."
Suddenly Wesker soared into the air, rising high over the catwalk and above Leon. Wesker bellowed as he came down, driving his foot into Leon's head. Leon's skull was smashed down into the metal floor. But he threw his fist into the back of Wesker's knee, freeing himself to bring Wesker's head into one of the support beams for the catwalk. The impact left a dent as the two struggled and fought through the steam, along the catwalk. Wesker kicked Leon, twisting him around to face away, and Wesker took the opportunity to grab Leon's hand and hold him tightly from behind, his fingers grabbing for Leon's spine.
"Give in to me, Leon," Wesker snarled through perspiration and blood, "You cannot escape me, no matter what you do. I am your creator now, I am the only other being in your life."
He pressed Leon up against the railing, leaning him over to touch his face to the scalding hot metal of one of the boilers.
"Obey me or burn, Leon."
Leon looked about frantically, looking for something to free himself with. Then suddenly he saw it. The crowbar Barry had held. In a last attempt of desperation he suddenly slipped under Wesker's grasp, and Wesker fell against the burning boiler pot. Wesker screamed in pain as Leon rolled and scooped up the crow bar, turning to face his opponent. Wesker's entire left face and hands were burned and singed black, the hot smell of burning flesh fuming from his furious expression.
He stumbled, and screamed at Leon, "You fool! I'm going to destroy you!"
Wesker snarled and leapt at Leon but Leon ducked and drove the crow bar into his heart. In a spray of blood the crow bar burst out of Wesker's back, and he dropped to his knees. Wesker looked at Leon in horror, his jaw quivering as he stuttered, "Y-you you've beaten me? I am you creator…"
Leon slowly twisted the crow bar around before ripping it free, blood spewing from Wesker's broken heart. Wesker kneeled there, his breath in gurgles as blood filled his lungs and trickled from his eyes.
"Know this, Leon Kennedy…" Wesker muttered, "While you may have evaded my grasp, they will never stop hunting you. You cannot escape Umbrella…not even in death."
Leon rose the crowbar once more and said, "Then I won't stop hunting them."
Wesker stared up at his beautiful creation in awe, the Perfect Soldier was finally created, and he had to let it go. He closed his crimson eyes, and bowed his head in acceptance of his death. Leon swung the crowbar down upon his skull, tearing Wesker's head from his neck. Leon watched Wesker's headless body slump lifelessly to the ground, his head rolling to Leon's feet. Raising the crowbar once more, Leon came down upon the skull and smothered it for good. This nightmare wasn't coming back to haunt him.
Leon wiped the blood from his mouth and shook his head. Suddenly the female's voice over the monitor changed, and came on saying only, "Four minutes to detonation. Four minutes to detonation…"
Leon jumped and pumped his legs for the ladder at the other end of the catwalk, hoping to god Barry had been able to convince the others to find him. He knew if not, then Joseph certainly would. He hoped…
000
Chris screamed as he and the Tyrant locked hands amidst the roaring fires. His skin turned black and purple, he could feel his bones building and forming, his muscles popping and bursting as they grew bigger and bigger. He twisted around and kicked the Tyrant down, the two breaking through glass and metal. He felt the Tyrant's claw upon his face as his skull was smashed again and again into the wall, the two grappling and roaring as angered gods amidst the fires of a biologically engineered hell.
"Three minutes to detonation…"
Joseph swerved the van around the gravel road that led through the dark woods towards the mansion. God dammit, Leon be there. Behind him he could hear the roaring chants of the zombies as they chased after the van, nearly every one of them running now. Why had they gotten back up when he'd flattened them like that? He'd think the fuckers would have enough sense to not come back at all, or at least die for good the second time. But now they ran like goddamn berserkers or something, their dark crimsoned heads glistened with blood in the moonlight. They were nearly as fast as the van.
"Faster Joseph!" cried Rebecca as she peered out the window in horror at the gaining monsters.
"God dammit! What do I look like to you! Super soccer mom! It's a minivan for Chrissake! A fucking minivan!"
Anything else he could maneuver with grace and dignity, this was like scooting a fat ass twinkie across sand. Any faster and it'd probably fall to pieces. He swerved again, thrashing the tail of the van into several approaching zombies, crushing them as the van jerked up and down from going over their ragged bodies. Blood and bits of flesh slopped against the windshield, and he flicked on the wipers to clean it off. Suddenly from around a corner in the road he could see lights. The lights of the mansion, and he began laying on the horn. Just be there…
000
Leon burst out into the dining hall from the halls of the abandoned mansion, feeling a distinct regret that he had been left behind. Suddenly he heard the wimpiest honk in the world, the honk of a car. Running to the windows of the dining hall, Leon saw the unsteady lights of a car. A minivan? No, couldn't be. He knew it was the others, and he had to get to them.
"One minute to detonation…"
"I hate you, I hate you…" he mumbled as he pumped his legs down the dining hall towards the main hall.
Bursting through the doors, he stumbled to see a group of half a dozen zombies staring him down. But they didn't look like normal zombies, if any sort of zombie could look normal. They hunched over, snarling and sniffing at him as they readied to strike. They blocked his way to the front doors, he couldn't get out to the van. Upstairs. He turned and burst for the stairs in the center of the room, just in time to hear the zombies fly after him, the thundering of their bloody feet pumping towards him. He reached the upper balcony just in time to feel the hot breath of the zombies as one grabbed him from behind. In a twisting jerk he launched it over the railing, running closer and closer to the rows of windows at the face of the mansion.
"Twenty-five seconds to detonation…"
Not gonna make it, gonna die. Leon leapt into the glass, shielding his face and neck as he burst through, feeling the shards cut into him as he soared out into the cold night's air, the zombies falling after him. He felt his stomach fly up into his lungs and his heart stop as he fell. He flipped, landed upon his feet, and rolled again, tumbling to stand on his feet. Where was the van where was the goddamn van! Oh Jesus, it was way over on the other side of the lawn.
"Ten seconds to detonation…"
The roars and cries of an entire mob of zombies entered Leon's ears, and he looked to see them charge at their new prey: him.
"Oh shit…"
"Leon!" came Joseph's cry from beneath the pathetic squeal of the minivan's engine, "Here we come!"
The van swerved upon the gravel road around the edge of a large fountain, flying towards him as its side doors opened.
"Nine…………Eight…………"
"Come on, Leon! You can make it! Run!"
Leon pumped after the van, just barely missing the hands of his companions as they drove past.
"Slow down!"
"Seven…………Six…………"
The back hatch opened. The roars of the monsters became indefinitely loud as he could feel their hot breath panting behind him.
"Five…"
"Come on Leon!" cried Rebecca from the back hatch, she and Barry reaching out for Leon.
"Four…"
Leon pumped his legs harder, reaching out for them, and suddenly he felt himself dive. Into the clinging arms of his friends he fell into the van, Barry closing the hatch and Jill yelling, "Joseph we have him! Move!"
"Three…………Two…………One………"
The van lurched forward as an earsplitting explosion erupted from behind them, just as it reached the edge of the lawn, flying past the open gates of the estate. Behind them Leon watched as the entire front lawn was pummeled with debris, crushing every walking dead amongst its fiery breath. The explosion grew and grew, rising high into the air as it all went up in flames. They had made it, they were safe.
000
Chris and the Tyrant locked arms, both staring one another down as the countdown sounded out around them. Suddenly Chris twisted the monster and brought him to his knees.
"Die…" he murmured.
And the explosion enveloped them completely, and Chris felt the Tyrant's body incinerate in his grasp. He had succeeded. The others would be safe. Jill would be safe, and in a final exertion of strength he fell back into the flames.
Chapter Twelve
Leon sat slumped against the backseat between Barry and Rebecca. Everything was silent save for the gentle hum of the minivan's engine. They moved through the forest, a pink and blue sky peering through the treetops. The van rolled over a hill overlooking the vast green that was Raccoon Forest to reveal the most beautiful thing Leon had seen in a long time. Dawn. It's yellow warmth reached over the hills in a great embrace, shining down upon the van as it drove gently closer to the highway ahead. Leon stared the marveled beauty as slowly the pink clouds transcended with the yellow sunlight and baby blue shadows. Leon's gaze turned to his companions inside the van.
Rebecca lay quietly sleeping in her seat, her head gently leaning against the window. Leon smiled calmly as he looked at her, glad to see a hint of her sweet innocence had come back. He turned his gaze to Barry who sat cleaning his Colt Python magnum with a dirty rag. Barry noticed Leon's gaze and looked up to smile. Leon smiled back and patted Barry once on the shoulder. Leon then turned to Joseph who drove calmly now, surprisingly saying nothing. He placed his hand on Joseph's shoulder and whispered subtly, "Thanks, Joseph. I knew you'd come back for me."
Joseph could only smile and nod back. Leon turned to Jill who sat quietly, her eyes clung to by glossy tears, her hands in her lap. He felt so broken to see her like that, and gently he touched her arm. She turned to him suddenly, her fixation on nothing broken as she tried to smile. But he reached over and clasped her hand, whispering, "Jill…I'm sorry."
"Don't be…" she replied, trying to smile as she squeezed his hand back.
He looked at her for a moment, then said, "Why?"
She smiled wider and replied, "I know he's still out there. I'll see him again."
Leon smiled back, and suddenly felt the assurance that she did. He didn't know, but somehow he just felt that Chris wasn't gone.
"Yea," he said in all honesty, "We will see him again."
And so they drove off into the warm hands of the morning sun, at last free of the nightmare that slowly burnt in its own chaos. At last they were at peace.
Epilogue
Amidst the scorching, roaring teeth of the fire was the singed body of Lisa Trevor. She lay ragged and crumpled amidst the ruin, her skin smoldered and black; her wild eyes holding an empty gaze amongst the tangled dreads of her long, sinewy hair. Finally her tormented soul had been lifted from its brutally everlasting life. However, a creeping shadow still remained amidst the wreckage…
Coming forth from the wreckage, Jessica Trevor caught glimpse of her daughter's ravaged body. She whimpered in denial, in refusal of the withered corpse that lay before her eyes. She slumped to her daughter's side, Jessica's massive figure hovering over the fallen angel. Her bony tendrils curled about mother and daughter as Jessica whimpered. The long years…the desperately long years she had waited to see her daughter again. Jessica squeezed her arms about Lisa's body, holding her close. In agony she began to wail, her echoed screams swallowed by the roar of the immense fire.
Those who did this will pay.
And so the beginning has come to an end. But how long will the ending last? All I can say is I'm going to need a decent break before I begin the sequel, and when it does come I can only say one thing:
"If the fear doesn't kill you, something else will..."