Chapter Text
Turning the ring over in his calloused palm, Leon eyed the inscription hidden on the inside one last time, before stowing it safely in his pocket. He sealed it shut. Glancing sidelong, he watched Sherry check the ammunition in her gun before holstering it under her armpit.
She looked at him, raising her eyebrows.
“Ready for this?” He asked. She smiled almost amusedly.
“I am. You think your knees can handle it?” Leon scoffed and rolled his eyes, holstering his own gun and opening the car door.
Exiting the truck, he eyed the dark building a few streets away from them, looming over the otherwise sparse horizon.
He and Sherry had spent the last few months after his rather hazardous return to Raccoon City tracking down any possible leads on the Connections. From what they could see, it seemed to be an organisation of ghosts, controlling everything from afar and through impossible avenues. They had no known operatives, no bases or labs, no money trail, no cover-ups. Nothing.
That was, until Sherry had done a little reconnaissance mission in Istanbul, on a lead they thought would be pointless. Her informant had pointed them here: to a remote village in the middle of Russia, closer to the North Pole than Europe or Alaska. He had told her that there was supposedly a lab out here- one of the only physical locations the Connections could seemingly be pinned to.
So they had come out here, wrapped in thick coats with heavy boots on. They had travelled separately, reconvened and borrowed a tough truck, designed for the bitter tundra from the most local town (which was well over one hundred miles away), using a fair chunk of the DSO’s mission funding that was definitely not designed to be used in this manner. Leon didn’t foresee having to use much more- it was just him and Sherry out there, going in blind with the weapons they had strapped to them.
It was a dangerous mission for sure, but they had no other leads to go off. Leon figured, if they didn’t start getting a little ballsy, the Connections would only feel more emboldened to pull more stunts like Raccoon City.
Sherry had no problem being ballsy, which made her a good partner. Leon was a little anxious- he and Sherry had never been partnered on the field together, but he reminded himself that she was perfectly capable.
Being out on a mission with the very girl he had done all this to protect was unnerving, to say the least.
She jumped from the high-suspension truck into the snow, glancing about at the village before them.
“Looks… empty.” She commented. Sherry was right. There wasn’t a soul around. The only noise was the chilling wind whipping around them, staining Leon’s ears red and clouding his breath in front of him when he exhaled.
“Looks clean.” Was his observation. The town wasn’t just empty, it looked stark. Sterile- as if no one had ever lived there at all.
“Like a ghost town.” Sherry said, frowning at him.
“Or a decoy town.” He suggested, starting around the truck and up the bitter street. Not a pothole in sight- not even signs of wear on the road markings.
“A fake?” Sherry asked, following behind him with her gun between her gloved hands.
“To hide their lab? It could be,” Leon said, eyeing every window and alley for any trace of human disturbance. He couldn’t spot any. He couldn’t even see any signs of animals. It was too cold for most of them, he imagined.
It almost reminded him of the ruins he had found himself in a few months prior.
Raccoon City had been anything but blissfully empty, however.
“You’d think some of the lab employees would live here, at least.” Sherry mused under her breath. “Like a Company Town.” She had a good point.
Leon glanced at her beside him.
“You wanna poke around?” He asked. Sherry’s nose and cheeks were bright red already. She considered it for a moment before shaking her head.
“Not if we don’t have to. Let’s get to the lab first- if it’s a bust there, we can come back.” She decided confidently.
“Yes ma’am.” It sounded like a good plan to him.
As the two of them trudged up the main road towards the rather foreboding but strangely still lab, Leon kept an eye on the buildings around him. The trudge of snow beneath his boots and Sherry’s cold breath beside him grounded Leon. He wasn’t sure what they would find in there, but the amount of weaponry the two of them were strapped with made him feel confident that they could handle it. Or at the very least, that he could effectively protect Sherry if it came down to it.
He wasn’t sure Jake would ever forgive him if anything happened to her. Or Claire. Or himself, most importantly.
“Leon,” Her voice dragged him from his thoughts and he glanced at Sherry, who nodded down at the ground. A little ways away, at the entrance to another clean alleyway, there was a single set of footprints. They didn’t come from anywhere and there weren’t any more. Stranger than that though, the footprints couldn’t be further from a gripped snow boot. They looked to have been made almost by a heeled shoe, with two separate wedges distinctive in the print.
The two of them frowned at it for a long moment, Sherry glancing back at him.
“What is this? There’s no trail,” She pointed out. Leon just shook his head.
“I have no idea.” He mused that perhaps the wind had covered their track. How it missed those two prints was a mystery, but not entirely implausible.
Either way, there wasn’t a clear direction to the markings so there wasn’t much more to do than to carry on.
As they approached the lab, Leon and Sherry ducked closer to the building, trying to stay as hidden as they could. They needn't have bothered however, as they realised upon their approach, because the outside of the lab was deserted.
Leon had been expecting a high security presence with spotlights and heavy artillery. It looked as if once, that had been a feature. The spotlights had been abandoned, now coated in a healthy layer of snow, and there wasn’t a person in sight.
The only obstacle was the towering fence surrounding the entire place.
Leon was almost disappointed. All signs pointed towards this place being abandoned. That meant there was no one to be caught and brought to justice. But, then again, he had thought Raccoon City would be empty too.
Not only that, but the lab's desertion didn't mean there wasn't evidence to be collected and new leads to be found. This could still be fruitful.
“I don’t get it. Why would they leave?” Sherry asked, frown deepened as they approached cautiously. “Did my guy tip them off?”
“I don’t think we’re enough to send the Connections running.” Leon replied, voice slightly rough against the viscous chill. “Either way, even if they have left I don’t think they’d be kean on leaving much evidence. We need to be careful.”
“Right,” Sherry agreed, casting her eyes about the perimeter as they approached the fence. From what Leon could tell, it seemed to just be a chain-link fence, climbing upwards to what could’ve easily been fifteen feet tall. Too high to go over. Going under wasn’t an option either- the earth would be way too tough from frost.
The gate to the lab was reinforced, thick and needed some sort of code. Even if they’d had it though, it seemed as if the card panel had frozen over. Leon would’ve called it shit design, but it only made him wonder how long it had been since someone had used it. Now that he looked, it seemed as if the hinges on the gate were also frosted over. Not that that was saying much- he imagined that would happen within a few hours in this tundra.
“Leon!” At some point during his gate analysis, Sherry had wandered off and was now beckoning him further up the fence towards one of the corners.
Leon bit his tongue when the urge to say ‘Sherry, don’t wander off’, came up.
She was a capable adult, agent and partner. He had to trust her.
He followed Sherry over to the corner where she ducked down to show him a small breakage in the fence, just as it wrapped around the corner.
He knelt beside her.
“You think you can get under there?” He asked. Sherry eyed it for a moment before she nodded.
“Definitely, if you pull it back. I can go open the gate for you from inside.”
“Ok,” Leon felt a little grim about being on the other side of the fence from her. Trust her, he told himself.
Leon gripped the ragged edge and pulled upwards with his gloved hands, letting out a grunt as the frozen metal tugged against him.
Sherry shuffled down onto her stomach, shimmying under the fence against the ground. Leon checked ahead, behind and either side as she did.
Sherry got both legs through and Leon unhooked her bootlace from a fence prong. She straightened and looked about, reaffirming her grip on her gun.
“Ok, let me get the gate,” The two headed back towards the gate without incident, Leon keeping his gun drawn as Sherry searched the control panel.
She tugged on a lever with a huff, before jumping with her hands on the handle, trying to pull it down with her entire bodyweight. It didn’t budge, and Sherry just stayed there, legs dangling a foot off the ground.
She backed up.
“It’s frozen,” She shook her head. Leon stepped back from the gate to search for other options. “I’ll check the guards' posts. See if they left anything that can be used to melt it.” She said surely. Leon nodded shortly after a moment of hesitation.
“I’ll head around the back and see if there’s any other way in.”
“Ok. Be careful, Leon.” She told him sternly.
“Only if you do.” She offered him a smile that reminded him so much of how she had looked when she was a young girl, before she turned away from him towards the dark guards’ post.
Leon watched her go before dragging his gaze to his surroundings. He headed towards the other corner, eyeing the fence and the area for any discrepancies or weaknesses. Leon kept an ear out for any sounds, especially from Sherry’s side. He heard nothing.
The silence was unnerving, if he was honest. Leon didn’t understand it- where everyone was. Did this place even have anything to do with the Connections?
It didn’t look all too refined. The foreboding lab resembled one more of the Cold War era. If it did belong to the Connections they had taken it over from assumedly the Russian government, which was a whole other can of worms, or they had built it deliberately to blend in to the local soviet vibe.
For an organisation so well known, the Connections seemed awfully keen on blending in. And they did it seamlessly, which was the frustrating part.
Leon trudged his way around the entire right side of the lab, finding nothing that would aid him in his fence conquering endeavor.
That was until he noticed that one of the nearby buildings seemed to have a small shed on the property. If there was some sort of hardware or gardening tools (not that Leon expected anyone to be gardening in this climate), a break-in could be on the cards.
He hopped the snow-covered picket fence and, eyeing the evidently empty house, used his hatchet to pop the lock on the shed. He opened up the door and swept the inside.
There wasn’t anything of much use. A toolbox, woodsaw, snow shovels and several icepicks. There being contents at all did point towards the idea that at some point this town had been inhabited, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility that the Connections needed an inconspicuous toolshed just outside.
Leon pocketed an icepick for good measure and on his way out, noticed a long spool of rope hung on the inside of the door.
“Well, hello,” He slung the rope over his shoulder and headed back the way he’d came, towards the large gates.
When he got there, Sherry had not returned so he called out for her. She appeared from the guards station and jogged back towards him.
“Any luck?” He asked.
“No, but there are some pretty interesting documents in there. There’s a journal log that gets updated every time someone comes in or out. Two days ago, the whole place cleared out.”
“Shit. Just missed them.” Leon cursed.
“Yeah, but I found a letter from one guard to another. He said he doesn’t know why they’re leaving and was instructed to tell the other one to go home when he came in the next day. It’s like in the middle of the night, everyone in the building was told to evacuate. No warning. The next morning the day team showed up and found it deserted.”
“Well, if they left in a hurry they probably left evidence behind.” Leon suggested.
“Hopefully. Begs the question though- if the day team were left behind, where did they go?” Sherry asked, expression troubled.
“They might still be inside. We should keep our guard up.” Leon said rather grimly. Sherry nodded. “Here, if I throw you this rope can you attach it to something heavy? I’m coming over.”
“Don’t hurt yourself.” Sherry advised helpfully as Leon tossed one end of the coil up and over the gate. Sherry caught it and wrapped it tightly around an industrial floodlight, powered down as all of them were. She tied the rope taught and glanced back at Leon, who let the rest of the length pool down at his feet.
He eyed the height of the fence, sighing. His breath clouded in the air.
“Watch my back,” he said. Sherry nodded, raising her gun. Leon wrapped his hands around the rope and tugged it a few times, making sure it would take his weight.
When he felt confident he pulled upwards, yanking himself off the ground. Using the grip on his boots against the fence, Leon scaled upwards, breath clouding his vision as he grunted.
He put one gloved hand in front of the other, hauling himself up inch by inch. Despite the cold, his layers made him sweaty and his neck prickled with heat of exertion.
When he reached the unhelpfully curved top, Leon wrapped his hands around the metal plateau and pulled himself outwards slightly, upwards and over.
When he reached the top, it was just a matter of sliding a few feet down the rope. He let go and landed in the snow, rolling to soften the impact.
Leon swallowed down breathlessness, righting himself.
“Nice job, old man.” Sherry brushed some snow from the plush collar of his jacket. He shot her a look.
“Next time, you’re boosting me over.” He joked. Sherry scoffed, glancing back around them.
“Yeah right.”
They searched the perimeter for any more information they could find from various guards stations and maintenance posts. They found nothing aside for some ammunition that they shared and a spare hip pouch, which Sherry immediately utilised.
When they had exhausted their exploration, the two eyed the foreboding doors.
“You wanna take a bet? Locked or not?” He asked as they began towards them.
“I’m kind of hoping locked. If we can just waltz through the front doors it’s going to give me the creeps.” Sherry admitted.
“Let’s find out.” Leon readied his gun, taking one door. Sherry posted up beside him, one hand on her own. She looked at him and he nodded.
Together, the two of them pushed open the grand, unlocked doors. They raised their guns and swept the immediate room, finding nothing.
Inside, it was noticeably warmer, but that wasn’t saying a lot. The interior was distinctly brutalist. It looked a little like a soviet hotel lobby, stuck in time. The room that they found themselves in was that of a foyer, all straight lines and garish wallpaper. It looked polished and well-kept, as if the interior design was a choice instead of something they couldn’t be bothered to update.
“What is this place?” Sherry asked quietly.
“Shame there’s no receptionist. They could’ve pointed us in the right direction,” Leon mused, lowering his gun slightly. He closed the doors behind them, shutting the bitter wind out.
He glanced about the large space as Sherry advanced towards the empty receptionist desk. She began rifling through the discarded contents as Leon looked both ways up the corridor towards the back. The same design continued as far as he could see, as did the distinct emptiness.
“There’s got to be a map somewhere around here.” Sherry muttered absently.
Suddenly, somewhere far off, Leon could’ve sworn he heard something. It almost sounded like someone shuffling along concrete flooring.
Leon hung back from the corridor, out of visible view, holding his gun up as he took a wall. He snapped his fingers twice and Sherry glanced up at him.
He held a finger to his lips and she stilled where she was, suddenly listening hard.
The two waited in baited silence, listening. For a moment, all Leon could hear was the howling of the wind outside.
Then he heard it again, the imperceptible sound of footsteps, getting closer. Clearly Sherry heard it too because she silently straightened and came to stand beside him, hugging the wall with her gun drawn.
Leon glanced at her shortly, cocking his head towards the sound. She nodded once.
Leon readjusted his grip on his gun and with a short breath, turned and stepped out into the corridor.
He came face to face with the barrel of a gun, pointed directly between his eyes. For a moment, Leon almost squeezed the trigger, before his perception alerted him to hesitate.
He looked past the gun.
He blinked.
“Leon?”
“Claire!” Sherry gasped.
“Sherry??” Claire dropped her gun, stood in shock as she looked at the two of them. Leon lowered his own, momentarily stunned.
He hadn’t seen Claire in a good few years. They text fairly regularly, usually about Sherry, but never happened to be in the same city at the same time. He knew Sherry tried to see her whenever she could, however.
Claire looked a little different. She was older, of course, with a couple defining lines, especially on her forehead where her eyebrows were currently raised in surprise. Apart from that, her long red hair was still swept back into a high ponytail, but she seemed to have cut in a couple wispy bangs that hung over said lines.
She was in a coat similar to Sherrys, black thermal up to her throat and dark pants tucked into long, brown boots. She had a knife strapped to her shoulder and was repping a couple pouches too. She looked ready for anything.
Leon couldn’t help but smile as Sherry pulled her into a fierce hug.
“What are you guys doing here?” Claire asked in disbelief, squeezing her tight as she caught Leon’s eye. Something passed between them, fleeting and almost impossible to name. It felt like a common relief that they had shared for over thirty years, whenever they realised the other was still alive and ok.
“What are you doing here?” Leon asked in return as Sherry let go of her. He wrapped his arms tight around Claire and squeezed as she hugged him back tightly.
“I’m looking for information on the Connections,” She answered over his shoulder.
“On your own?” Sherry asked. Claire and Leon parted but he squeezed her arm on the way back. She offered him a soft, private smile before turning back to Sherry.
“Well.. I’m not technically meant to be here.” She admitted. “There were rumours going around that the Connections were pulling some strings at TerraSave, but my boss kept telling me to stop poking. So, I took a ‘sabbatical’, did some digging and my intel led me here.”
“Funny. That’s exactly why we’re here.” Leon said. Claire frowned at him.
“Really? You think they’ve got their claws into the DSO?”
“After Raccoon City, we’re not sure where they haven’t managed to infiltrate.” Sherry admitted. Leon knew Claire and Sherry had seen each other since that little endeavor, mainly to deliver Claire her dose of Elpis. He could only imagine that the delivery had come with a nice trip down memory lane, free for the both of them.
“This place is completely empty. I haven’t found anyone,” Claire admitted, gesturing around them.
“It seems like they had to drop everything and leave a few days back.” Leon explained. “We were hoping they’d left some evidence behind.”
“I haven’t managed to find anything yet but I came in through the back. We might have a bit more luck around here- my map says this is the office section.”
“Alright, let’s see.” Sherry turned to head back to the reception desk, before she squeezed Claire’s hand. “I’m glad you’re here, Claire.”
“I’m glad you’re here.” Claire told her, expression so fond. By all accounts, Sherry really did seem like the child neither of them had ever managed to have.
Leon was grateful they were all together.
He and Claire headed a little ways away from Sherry into what Claire told him, after glancing at her map, was a filing room. They kept the door ajar, Sherry always within yelling distance.
As soon as they were alone, Claire shot him the same relieved look.
“I’m happy to see you, Leon. It’s been too long.” She told him. Leon couldn’t help but smile. He struggled to think of someone he had a softer spot for than Claire. Maybe Sherry, but he didn’t really count her- she was basically his flesh and blood as far as Leon was concerned.
“It has. How you been holding up?” He asked. She nodded.
“I’m good. Chris has fallen off of the face of the Earth again but at least, this time he had the decency to give me a heads up.”
“What more can you ask for?” Leon joked. Claire scoffed into a filing cabinet, shaking her head, before she eyed him again.
“Sherry told me about Raccoon City. That must’ve been… tough.”
Leon eyed the many files in front of him, before doing the decency of meeting Claire’s soft gaze.
“It was.” He admitted. “Still, could’ve been worse. I’m sure that whole night would’ve been more awful if you hadn’t been there with me.” His voice was earnest. Claire tilted her head at him, looking at his face rather tenderly.
“We made it,” She said quietly. “We’ve got the wrinkles to show for it.”
“Don’t remind me,” Leon chuckled. “At least you’ve aged beautifully.”
“Oh shut up,” she rolled her eyes, moment passed as she turned back to the cabinet. “You could still pass for a model.”
“Maybe for coffins.” He joked. Claire laughed as brightly as she always had.
They began rifling through files side by side. A lot of them seemed pretty perfunctory, logging maintenance and checks. He moved downward, kneeling to search another cabinet.
“So apart from the evil overlords, how are things at TerraSave?” He asked, glancing up at Claire. She shrugged lightly.
“Rewarding,” she answered. “And I only have to kill a BOW every now and then, instead of all the time.”
“Sounds nice,” he commented, throwing aside a stationary purchase log. They were thorough, that was for sure.
“Oh hey, I wanted to ask,” she dropped her voice and crouched beside him. Leon glanced up as she eyed the door behind them. “Sherry was telling me she thinks Jake might propose soon,” Claire whispered. “Do you think he’s any good for her?”
Leon considered it, shrugging after a moment.
“I mean they’ve been together for a good while,” he pointed out.
“No I know but it’s another thing to get married.” She pointed out. “He just gave me a bit of an.. ominous vibe when I met him.”
“He’s very protective,” Leon muttered. “He keeps her safe, which is what I care about.”
Claire hummed, nodding as she thought.
“Hey, guys?” Sherry appeared in the doorway, holding a file. She frowned as she noticed them both crouching on the floor, whispering. “What are you doing?”
“..looking for files,” Leon lied. Sherry clearly didn’t believe them but shook it off.
“Right. Well- here, check this out,” Sherry joined them in crouching on the floor rather needlessly, setting a file between the three of them. On the front it had a huge ‘classified’ stamp.
Opening it up, Sherry pointed out the title.
‘Project Gladiator’.
“It’s full of plans for the evacuation. Looks like it wasn’t as spontaneous as we thought.” She explained. Claire frowned, flicking through the file.
“What’s the project?” She asked.
“It doesn’t say,” Sherry admitted. “But it’s got specs for all sorts in there. Heating systems, ventilation, maintenance.”
“Why plan to abandon a perfectly good research lab?” Claire shook her head. “It makes no sense.”
“And why make systems that keep the place running without anyone around?” Leon followed up. “Unless they planned on coming back,”
“I don’t know. But, look at this,” Sherry reached forward and flicked to the back of the file. There was a single sheet, with a diagram pasted onto it.
It looked like a floor plan and upon further inspection, Leon realised it was a map of the corridor Claire had just come from. There was a small marking of a doorway that he had not noticed earlier.
Claire pointed at the marking.
“There’s no door there,” she said surely.
“It looks like a secret entrance. For those with high enough clearance.” Sherry explained. “We just have to figure out how to get into it.”
“It’s never easy,” Leon grumbled. “Let’s go see if we can figure it out,” he straightened, offering Claire a hand up as Sherry stood beside him. Claire took it and the three of them headed out of the filing room, back down the corridor.
Searching the marked area, none of them could find any sign of a doorway or secret entrance. They couldn’t even find an inlay.
“What’s up there, Claire?” Sherry nodded up the corridor when they had exhausted their pointless experimentation.
“An Orthodox Chapel, from what I can tell. But I looked about and couldn’t find much.” She answered.
“Well, we don’t have much else to go off,” Leon began towards the chapel, the women close behind. He pushed the door open gently and stood, sweeping the room with his gaze from the doorway.
It was a tidy room, with dark pews leading up towards a small, neat altar. The wooden panelling was ladened with iconography of saints, brushed with gold leaf and centered around an impressive, golden cross. Lining the walls were rows of tiny candles, all extinguished, wicks blackened.
The three of them entered further into the room, beginning to poke about for anything that looked out of place. Sherry inspected the cross whilst Leon’s gaze swept the candles whilst Claire searched over the wooden panelling.
“Looks like a chapel,” Sherry threw her arms up after a long moment.
“Wait, these saints..” Claire put her hands on her hips, standing back to look at the paintings. “They’re all women.” She listed from left to right, “Olga, Xenia and Matrona. Apart from,” she pointed to the one second from the right. “Vasily.”
“Unusual, to have more female saints depicted,” Sherry agreed. “Do the names mean something?” Leon considered it for a moment, stepping towards the centre of the room.
“There’s no pattern.” He figured. “No obvious letter code.”
“Maybe it’s something to do with the ratio. Three women to one man,” Claire suggested. She peered a little closer, narrowing her eyes at the frames. “Look!”
Sherry and Leon crowded closer, eyeing the tiny, golden needle that was sticking from the wooden panelling below the painting of Saint Olga.
Claire leant over and poked the needle experimentally. She jumped backwards.
“Ow,” A tiny bead of blood appeared at the pad of her finger. At the same time, a distant noise that sounded almost like a piston being moved came from the corridor. The three of them glanced at each other as Claire sucked on her finger.
“It’s DNA,” Sherry realised. “Three women and one man are needed to enter.” She reached over and pricked her finger below the painting of Xenia. The sound of a second piston echoed from the hall.
“But there’s only three of us.” Claire pointed out.
“Maybe we’ll be able to pry it open if all but one are released.” Leon pulled his glove off and pricked his finger under the portrait of Vasily. The third piston went off and they exited as he tugged his glove back on.
The door had become clear, set back into the wall but still closed. Leon pressed on it experimentally, but it didn't budge. There were no handles or hinges to blow off, no indication of which way it would swing. He grabbed his hatchet, preparing to set it inside the lip and use the leverage to pry the door open.
All of a sudden however, the fourth piston released and with a hiss, the door slid back and opened.
The three of them froze, glancing at each other.
No. It couldn’t be.
“Who..?” Claire asked. Sherry looked at him and Leon spared one more glance back towards the chapel.
“Quick. We don’t know how long it’s open for,” He pressed them through the door and down the narrow flight of stairs that continued. It was a good thing he did because not a few moments later the door slid shut again, leaving them in darkness on the steps.
Leon pulled his gun and flashlight, holding them up as Claire and Sherry did the same. The corridor in front of them was empty, with only one, large door visible on the left wall.
The three of them stood, scanning the area from the relative safety of the stairs for a moment before Leon took the lead.
“Stay close, Sherry.” Claire told her. Sherry didn’t argue, despite her capabilities. No arguing with mom, he supposed.
Leon spared another thought to the chapel. He had an idea of what might have caused the door to open, but he knew it wasn’t worth mentioning if he couldn't confirm anything. It seemed, based on the quizzical glance Sherry had shot him before entering that she too may have had an inkling. But she kept quiet, which Leon appreciated.
They made their way down the steps into the corridor, footfalls echoing up the dark path ahead. Leon kept his gun steady.
“Any ideas where this leads?” He asked.
“Well for a lab, the map didn’t have many testing facilities or… much of anything besides offices.” Claire said, voice low and private.
“I wonder if the staff up there even knew what this place really was?” Sherry mused. Leon didn’t answer, nudging the large door on the left with his foot. It didn’t budge.
“Nope,” he muttered. The three continued up the hallway and around a tight corner. The only other door was one at the far end. “It’s a trek to get anywhere, that’s for sure,”
They continued up the corridor, Sherry sandwiched between the two of them. The only thing Leon could hear was their footsteps and quiet breathing.
He simultaneously felt completely safe and entirely anxious. Having Claire and Sherry here made him feel relaxed in a way he only did when he truly trusted his partners. But it being Claire and Sherry, two people he cared about the most out of nearly anyone, did make him feel more on edge. Leon couldn’t bear to think about what he’d do if anything happened to either of them, especially on his watch.
A loud clanging noise from behind them ripped Leon from his thoughts. They turned back, stopping about a third of the way up the arduous corridor to the next door. The three trained their weapons on the bend of the corridor as a loud sound rattled up the way. It sounded almost like something being dragged.
Leon quickly realised it had been the locked door opening when the next sound he heard was that of a large beast.
“What the fuck is that?” Claire’s grip tightened on her gun.
“Back up,” Leon began backwards, keeping his eyes trained on the corner. Sherry and Claire followed him, listening to something large lumbering up the corridor after them.
The suspense was almost worse than the reveal of the thing. Almost.
When the beast hunkered around the bend, it took Leon a moment to work out what it was he was looking at. On the bottom, the thing looked almost like a spider. It had several, noticeably human legs, sticking out at awkward angles. Some were not functional and did not look to be completely formed. It was a gnarled mess of flesh and blood, the top half resembling a horrified face. It almost looked as if someone had had their skin melted off with acid, leaving only the muscle and bone of a head and torso behind. The skin peeled and dragged downward into what Leon could only describe as a morbid scream. It had no arms, but instead a large metasoma, arched upwards and showcasing a gnarly looking aculeus. It resembled a scorpion's tail. If Leon had to guess, it was about eight feet tall and unfortunately, upon noticing them, started moving a lot faster than he was comfortable with.
All three of them opened fire, but it swung its tail forward, parrying bullets off of its plating.
“Sherry, go!” Claire ordered. Sherry listened, slipping under Leon’s arms and bolting for the door. Claire backed up as the scorpion creature advanced, feet making a rather sickening scuttling sound.
Leon put a hand on Claire’s shoulder, keeping her steady and close as the two of them hurried backwards together.
Claire narrowed her eyes at the beast and when it opened its gaping, bloodied maw to howl at them, she got a few shots directly into its mouth. The thing hurtled backwards with a yelp.
“The door’s stuck!” Sherry sounded from where she had reached their exit.
“Leon, help her!” Claire told him. Leon, trusting her to stall the beast, turned and ran after Sherry, who was currently using her entire bodyweight to try and pull a hand-wheel in the centre of the door. He could hear it squeaking but couldn’t see it budging.
Claire’s shots echoed up the hall as Leon reached the door, wrapping his hands around it.
The two of them pulled hard, Sherry clenching her jaw in effort as Leon grunted. It was stiff, that was for sure. Almost as if it hadn’t been used in ages.
For a moment, Leon thought it wasn’t going to move, before he felt it inch left. Sherry’s arms were shaking as they pulled on it.
Leon glanced over his shoulder. Claire had backed up considerably towards them, and the scorpion thing had now taken refuge on the ceiling, scampering towards her.
Suddenly, from its aculeus, it shot what looked to be a smoking prong towards Claire. She dove out of the way, scrambling to her feet to avoid another.
“Sherry- give Claire cover,” he got out, voice strained against the effort of the door.
“Ok!” Sherry let go and turned, opening fire on the BOW as Leon continued to spin the wheel. He could feel the bearing getting looser. “We’re running out of room!”
“Go down, you ugly fuck!” Claire said exasperatedly. Leon reaffirmed his grip on the top of the wheel and with one last strain of effort, finally popped the door open with a distinctive hiss.
“Claire! Come on!” Leon yanked the door open and turned his gun on the beast whilst Sherry rushed through the doorway. Claire turned on her heel and ran for the door. The BOW attempted to nick her with another spike but Leon landed a nice shot to one of its many knees, sending it falling back to the ground with a sickening crunch.
Claire got through the door and Leon followed. He weighed up trying to close the door on the BOW but quickly realised there was not enough time, so followed the others in backing up and putting more space between them and it.
Sparing but a glance around the room they had just entered, Leon noticed that it looked almost like a giant, circular meeting hall. It was completely empty, with no windows or any other discernible exits. The only thing to note was a large pillar directly in the centre of the room.
Training his gaze back on the BOW, it entered the room after them, now trailing a line of blood.
The three of them fanned out, Leon remaining dead on to it as he aimed for its tail. Sherry flanked it right, shooting at its knees. Claire reloaded on his left.
The BOW seemed to not know which way to go, parrying as many shots as it could with its tail and hissing at them. It seemed to Leon that they were wearing it out pretty successfully, but he was also aware that they were using a lot of ammunition.
All of a sudden, it launched itself left at Sherry. She managed to roll out of the way but both Leon and Claire jumped into action. Sherry scrambled upright, backing up urgently as it targeted her mercilessly.
“Hey, ugly!” Claire barked and the thing turned towards her voice, giving Sherry a chance to retreat. Leon ducked as its mighty tail swung past with the movement of its turn. Claire shot a few more rounds into its mouth.
Then Leon got an idea.
“Sherry, call it!” He unhooked his hatchet from his belt.
“Big guy! Over here!” Sherry waved her hands and got its attention again. This time when its tail swung past Leon, he caught it with his hatchet. The blade lodged itself into one of its metasoma segments, and Leon slid across the floor, grip on his boots suddenly useless against the power of it.
The beast shrieked with pain as he yanked the hatchet out of its tail and went back in again.
The thing attempted to turn and spot its attacker. Leon, still very much attached to its tail, came off the ground with its rotation. He threw a leg over it and straddled the beast's metasoma. At the same time, it reared backwards onto its hind four legs. He felt a bit like he was riding a mechanical bull.
“There! The heart!” He heard Sherry shout. As Leon hacked mercilessly at its tail, avoiding wild swipes from the aculeus, Sherry and Claire opened fire on its exposed organ. The thing wailed and swung wide, but couldn’t fend off three separate attacks.
With one last, nearly successful attempt to fling Leon off of it, the thing careened backwards. Leon hopped off his ride and hit the floor, rolling to a stop as the beast crashed to the ground with one last gurgling cry.
When the earth stopped shaking, Leon righted himself onto his knees.
“Leon!” Sherry rushed over, concern evident. “Are you ok?”
“I’m fine,” He took her hand as Claire hurried over, putting a hand on his shoulder with a sigh of relief.
“I thought you would’ve stopped pulling stunts like that when you turned forty.” She joked. Leon chuckled.
“Are you both alright?” He asked. Claire nodded, glancing at Sherry.
“All good,” the younger woman reassured.
The three of them separated, glancing about the space that they found themselves in. Peering up at the impressive, domed ceiling, Leon couldn’t help but think the space reminded him of the bare interior of a cathedral or something equally as old.
“Uhh.. where’s the door?” Claire’s concerned question brought Leon’s gaze back down. She was looking at the door they had just entered through- or, at least, where the door was meant to be. Now there was nothing but a flush wall, exactly like the hidden doorway they had pondered earlier.
“Great,” he muttered.