Surviving Raccoon City

And we all Fall down

I ran down the dark stairs, ignoring Leon's protest. This area has been locked down by Annette, meaning there shouldn't be any threats down here. My sore ankle gave at the last step, sending me stumbling for my footing. I braced myself against the wall, cursing my weak ankle as Leon came rushing down, having seen my fall. "You okay?" he asked resting a hand on my shoulder. "Fine, just my ankle" I muttered giving him a small smile as thanks. I spotted the door separating Sherry from us and hobbled over to it, careful to avoid putting to much pressure on my ankle. "Shit this one locked too" I started pressing all the buttons as if it would open. They didn't even beep or light up as I pressed em. "Powers out" Leon stated, heading over to a door marked with an electrical sign. "Should be over here" he continued as I jogged over to catch up. The breaker was in the back, only four switches to choose from. As Leon played with the circuit I inspected the room, cans of gas for I assumed the generator lined the walls where we came from. It seemed like a hazardous spot in my opinion. Shrugging to myself I turned to Leon just as the power came on with a ding. Without a skipping, a beat Leon stalked towards the door when a large hand crashed through the ceiling right in front of the door. The sudden action caused Leon to stumble backward into me. I wasn't prepared for the sudden weight so we both fell to the ground with a yelp. Leon landed on top of me, knocking the air out of me. as something wet soaked my jacket. I felt Leon roll off of me and grab my arm, just as the room caught on fire. The cursed gasoline cans must've spilled, hence my wet sleeve. Leon yanked me up away from the spreading fire, as I shielded my eyes from the intense fire. Letting Leon guide me towards the back the clawed hand attacked again, coming down right between Leon and me. I cut into Leon's arm, making him let go. He cried out in pain as I stumbled to the floor too close to the fire. My soaked sleeve caught fire, engulfing my entire right arm in flames. Crying out in shock, I desperately swatted at the flames trying with all my might to put em out. The room was beginning to darken due to the thick black smoke, making it hard to breathe. I ignored my surroundings, only able to focus on the flames burning through my jacket and soon arm. A heavy force knocked into me sending me to the floor as my attacker straddled me. Scared, I started thrashing thinking it was the beast. My assailant instead focused on my arm, struggling to put out the fire as I thrashed. "Stop!" Leon yelled using all his body weight to keep me from moving. I stilled, trusting Leon and letting him help put out the flames, my heart beating so fast in fright I could barely make out what he was saying. "Your okay, fires gone!" he yelled out scrambling to get off me as the fire spread further into the room. My entire arm felt like it was burning, and it hurt to touch as Leon guided me to the back of the room, right next to a metal garage door. It was locked, trapping us in the burning room. Leon coughed hard into his fist, having accidentally breathed in too much smoke. I pulled him down be his vest so he could breathe easier when a hand busted through the metal door, just where his head was. Leon cursed loudly as the metal twisted and screeched as the mutated Dr. Birkin came stumbling into the room with a roar. Still having my grip on his vest, I pulled him back just as Birkin charged, missing Leon my a few millimeters and headfirst into the fire. Not wasting another second I pulled up a groaning Leon and ran out of the burning room. He struggled to walk, having been hit in the head by a rogue piece of metal when Birkin had busted in. so I guided him as we stumbled through the bowels of the sewer, Birkin chasing us. We had nowhere to go, only straight leaving me panicking on where to go. At our pace, Birkin was sure to catch up and kill us. Birkin let out another roar as he prepared to charge, as we near a corner. I will myself to run faster, pulling Leon along as he came back to his senses. He speeds up as well sensing the impending doom as we turned the corner, narrowly being squished to death by Birkin's death charge. Up ahead there was a drop, leading to a loading bay of some kind. The drop wasn't so high so we jumped. My perception was wrong though and we both stumbled, Leon almost falling over the edge. He gripped my burned arm causing me to cry out in pain. Tears stung my eyes as I tried to ignore the pain as I grabbed him, pulling him away from the edge. "Sorry" he panted instantly letting me go as we hid behind the large cargo crate. "It's okay" I groaned squeezing my eyes shut as I cradled my arm, knowing he honestly didn't mean to hurt me. We both tried to stay quiet but with both of us breathing heavily from all the running Birkin found us. His body shot out from behind the crate startling me backward, my hands shooting out behind me and onto the control panel for support. A ding sounded out and the crate moved, to hang over the edge, opening up the dock area and leaving us no place to hide. "Fuck!" I yelled as Leon forced me down as Birkin swung, tearing the top part of the panel clean off. "Lara! Lore him away!" Leon ordered, seeming to have some sort of plan. "Fine, but If I die, your ass his haunted!" I yelled pulling out the new gun from before and aiming it at Birkin. I pulled the trigger and was caught surprised to see flames spurt out, dosing Birkin. He thrashed in pain, completely ignoring Leon and focusing on me. I backed up as far as I can as he thrashed, slowly stalking towards me. "What's the plan, Leon!" I cried out ducking when Birkin swung at my head. "Stay down!" he ordered as I crouched to the floor and covered my head as Birkin loomed over me. The crane holding the crate moved, slamming right into Birkin. I looked up as he teetered over the edge struggling to hold on. Before he could right himself, I dosed him again in flames, the pain-causing him to let go and fall into the dark abyss below us. The crane moved, as Leon ran over, holding his bleeding arm as we both looked over the edge. "Think he's dead?" Leon asked, letting out a sigh of relief. "I doubt it" I answered bitterly, the adrenaline rush of almost dying beginning to wear off letting me feel all my injuries. I groaned in pain, clenching my jaw as my entire arm pulsed. I looked down at my charred sweater, my wrist and just above the elbow was red, some areas already starting to blister. "Shit" Leon muttered noticing my arm and digging through one of his pouches. His gash wound on his arm from earlier wasn't in good condition either but I let him treat cut away the busted sleeve, knowing he wouldn't take care of himself first. He grabbed my hand and poured water onto my arm. The sudden action caused my arm to jolt away in pain, but his firm grasp didn't let up leaving me to squirm and hiss in pain. "Sorry" he mumbled, applying some type of healing ointment onto the wound, the cream magically taking some of the pain away. After instructing him on how to wrap it I thanked him, taking all his supplies and getting to work on his. "How do you know how to do this?" he asked as I cleaned out the wound best I could before tightly wrapping it to stop the bleeding. "Classes, for work" I answered tying the knot, wiping the excess blood on my hands onto my pants. "Your good at it," he said inspecting my work giving me a sincere smile. "Thanks, I don't know a lot though, just basic first aid. You don't need to know a lot when you're a lifeguard" I explained accepting Leon's outstretched hand to help me stand. "What made you become a lifeguard?" he asked as we climbed back up the ledge to get back to where Sherry was trapped. "Easy job I guess, most of the time you just sit there and watch people swim. Hardly ever rescue people, save for a few kids" I answered as neared Sherry's door, the fire from before somehow put out. Leon pulling down the lever, opening the door to Sherry. Before he could answer Annette's voice rang out from a speaker in the room. "Sherry? mommy's here..." Leon and I shared a glance at each other as we impatiently waited for the door to open, "Sherry! Sherry, can you hear me?" Annette called out beginning to panic. When the door was high enough to duck under Leon and I rushed inside, spotting Sherry passed out on the floor. "Oh no, Sherry!" I cried out fear flooding my system as she remained unresponsive. I ran over to her dropping to my knees and instantly checking for a pulse. For a second I thought she was dead, but after a second, I faintly felt a pulse. A sob of relief left me as I checked for breathing. "Lara?" Annette called out, astonished that I was still here. "Sherry?" I called out gently scooping the girl into my arms. She coughed, her eyes opening slowly to met mine and Leons. Her left eye was yellow, dark red veins surrounding the area. I felt my heartbreak as I realized she was infected. I pulled her close to me, trying to hold back a sob as Leon cradled Sherry's head since she was too weak to hold herself up. "What are you doing?" Annette called out from the speaker above us. "Trying to help Sherry, something you should've done!" I spat turning to look up at the camera glaring at the horrible woman. "Sherry's been implanted. She can't be saved" Anette informed, not even an ounce of sympathy or remorse in her voice. That only fueled my anger even more towards the scientist. "You made this fucking virus! You must have a cure!" I yelled as Leon tried his best to calm me down. I shrugged him off scooping up Sherry and Standing to look up at Annette. "You don't understand-" she began but I cut her off. "So make me understand!" "William is still out there, and if I don't stop him-" she tried to excuse herself but stopped as I began to walk off with Sherry. "Wait! wait..... I.. I can treat her, in my lab. It's not far" That stopped Leon and me in our tracks turning to look at her. "Mommy?" Sherry called out, the infection making her delirious. "There's, not enough time... Millions of lives are at stake. Sherry.. mommy loves you, sweetie. Goodbye" and with that Leon and I were left alone with a dying Sherry. "Are you fucking kidding me!" I cried out as the red light on the camera turned off. "Sherry, don't worry We WILL get you the cure. I promise, okay?" I asked looking down at her. "Why are you doing this?" she asked, surprising me. Why? "There is no why silly. I care about you" I answered moving towards the stairs with Leon who offered to take her. "No, you have better aim, it's best if you cover us," I said as Sherry spoke up again. "Thank you Lara, Leon," she said before passing out from the pain. I bit my lip in worry climbing up the stairs as fast as I could. Claire was immediately on us as we walked in asking what happened to us before noticing Sherry's state. "She's infected, we need to get her to Annette's lab, but I'm not sure where that is" I answered watching as Ada perked up at the mention of the lab. No one else noticed though to busy worrying over Sherry as Ada stood up from her spot slowly limping towards us. "I think I can help with that but we need an ID band. But the kids got that" Ada said holding up Sherry's limp arm to show us the ID. The train car from earlier that yelled at me popped up into my head. "The train car," I said, as Ada smirked, nodding in approval. "your smarter then you look kid" she teased turning to leave. "We better get a move on it if you wanna save the kid" she called out already out the door.