A Star's Descent

Chapter Twenty-Two: Departure

A Star's Descent

By evolution-500

Disclaimer: House of the Dead and Resident Evil are properties belonging to SEGA and Capcom respectively. I do not own any of these characters.

Music: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta*

Chapter Twenty-Two: Departure

Rebecca couldn't stop her heart from racing as she climbed down the ladder. With the cable car now operational, they can now finally leave this place.

'How long have we been here?' part of the medic wondered.

As she descended, Rebecca became aware of how tired she truly was; in fact, she felt absolutely exhausted.

Her muscles ached and parts of her body felt sore, but her whole being itself was running on nothing but fumes.

There were only two things Rebecca looked forward to right now - seeing her mother again and getting some sleep.

Rubbing her eyes, the medic forced herself to stay awake.

The moment her feet touched the floor, she hurried as quickly as possible to join with the others as they gathered in front of the cable car.

As she got nearer, Rebecca's senses suddenly tingled, causing her to snap awake in alert as she heard a growl. Casting her eyes up to the cable car's roof, her eyes widened as she caught sight of a large baboon.

"LOOK OUT!" she yelled as it leapt amongst the group, causing them to scatter and shout as it charged each person.

Turning its attention to Coen, the creature roared as it leapt in his direction. Coen caught it in midair and struggled as it wriggled in his grip and tried to bite him.

"BILLY, THE RAIL BEHIND YOU!" Rebecca yelled.

But it was too late; as the convict backed into the rail, he flipped and disappeared over the edge, taking his attacker with him. Running toward the edge, Rebecca stared down below.

"BILLY!"

The lights dimmed.

"REBECCA LOOK OUT!" Marini yelled.

She grunted as someone tackled into her, knocking her off her feet. Raising her head, she stared with surprise at Aiken.

"Richard what are you-" she cut herself off as she finally caught sight of the leech man. While she was peering down below, it must have snuck up behind her and tried to attack.

Marini fired away, blasting round after round into the thing's strange body, knocking it back with each subsequent shot.

"EVERYONE INTO THE CABLE CAR!" Marini ordered.

As Aiken helped her up to her feet, the survivors rushed inside, sliding the double doors open before slamming them shut on the thing's face. The leech man stared at them for a few seconds, then wobbled off.

"Fucking Christ," Marini swore, then looked to the others. "Is everyone okay?"

They murmured in acknowledgement.

"Okay," Marini said as he surveyed the interior of the cable car. At one end was a console for operating it, while on one of the side benches was the body of a man in combat gear with a hole in his head, holding in his hand a magnum. Approaching it, he pried the weapon from his fingers, then checked its condition, then checked the ammo clip. "Looks like we got ourselves a new toy."