simiteen: I apologize if there are any errors. Suffice to say, this was a rush job.

Ch.21 Fourth Boss: Tyrant

Seeing as there were no monsters in sight, everybody lowered their weapons. Enrico glanced at the rest of them before returning his attention back to Rebecca. “Are you okay Rebecca?”

“I’m fine, sir. Where are the others?”

He frowned. “They should have arrived here before me,” he revealed, worry tinting his voice. “Haven’t you seen them?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“That’s unfortunate. Who are these people with you?” He gestured toward the others.

Before Rebecca could respond, David stepped forward. “Private David Simic of the 287th, sir.”

Alicia was right behind. “Private Alicia Askew, also from the 287th.”

Then came you-know-who. “May. Tiffany May. Badass monster slayer.”

Enrico raised an eyebrow at that introduction, but continued on with his next question. “Where did you find these people?”

“We found each other aboard one of Umbrella’s trains. Somebody started it and we eventually ended up here. We’re trying to find an exit. Several other members of the group are in desperate need of medical attention,” Rebecca summarized. “What about you, sir?”

“I found this facility earlier and have been investigating it since. I discovered that there is an old mansion not far from here where Umbrella was conducting illegal research. I was going to ask you to come along, but if you have injured, then you need to follow-up with that.” He pointed at the opposite elevator. “That elevator will take you to a railroad that leads to the outside. Or was that the way you entered?”

“Unfortunately, yes. The train crashed when we arrived here. The exit is blocked.”

“In that case, take the elevator down to level four. You’ll find another facility. On the opposite side of the facility is a freight elevator that will take you to the surface. Once outside, try to reestablish contact with Alpha team. They should already be nearby. If they’re not, head back to the copter. Hopefully, Kevin has repaired it. Take the wounded directly to the hospital and report back to the RPD, and tell them of our situation. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“By the way,” Alicia said, “what’s that?” She pointed at a shiny object in a corner.

Rebecca picked it up. “It’s a key.”

David glanced at Enrico. “Is the elevator locked?”

“Possibly.”

“So, this might be the key to that elevator,” Tiffany inferred, all the while glaring at a certain someone.

“Well, let’s go find out,” David suggested, flashing her an apologetic smile.

They were halfway across the room when Enrico directed a question at David. “Are you sure you shouldn’t be resting with the rest of your group. Your injuries look serious.”

If we were in the video game, my condition would probably be orange, he admitted to himself. Aloud, he answered,” I’ll make it. If we’re as close to the exit as you say, then I can handle it. We need to get my friends out of here ASAP.”

“Just don’t push yourself too hard,” Enrico warned. “Or you’ll end up killing yourself.”

By then, they had reached the other elevator. Rebecca tried the newly-found key.

“It fits perfectly,” Tiffany noted.

“Alright then, I’ll-“Enrico started when he was interrupted by a rock that tumbled from atop the debris pile. Now that wouldn’t be so bad in of itself, except rocks can’t move. So….

“What…the…hell?” Tiffany whispered. One of the problems with video games was that they can’t accurately portray life even with the best graphics. For the first time, David realized why tyrants were always bosses in the series. They were utterly terrifying in real life. To begin with, it was huge nearly twice their size. And twice as grotesque as they were in the video games, from the beating heart on its chest to its incomplete face, it was painful on the eyes. But the worst part was, without a doubt, the giant, five-“fingered” claw it had in lieu of a right hand. Even at first glance, the claws screamed “eviscerate” in the worst possible manner.

It let out an inhuman roar that chilled its prey from within. It leapt off the rubble and landed only a foot away from them. They quickly backed away from it, scattering as far as they could within the small area. As it started to stand, David let out a single command. “KILL IT!”

Nobody needed any more motivation than that. It was stopped short by the sudden onslaught of weapons fire. But then problems emerged. Tiffany, who was still using Alicia’s machine gun since the last hunter fight, pulled the trigger only to hear the infamous click of an empty gun. Ah hell! I forgot to reload earlier!

As fate would have it, she wasn’t the only one with this particular problem. After firing twice on burst mode, David found out the hard way that was all that he had within the magazine. Now that it was no longer taking fire from three different directions, the tyrant moved toward its first target: Rebecca. Despite firing the machine gun at nearly point-blank range, Rebecca was unable to stop its march.

She ducked under the claw that came flying her way. Of course, the claw had to hit something, so it ended up hitting the controls for the shutter door for the passageway. After a second of delay, the door began to close. Escaping through the door looked pretty tempting if it weren’t for the fact that the tyrant would simply slice through the door. Deprived of its first target, it locked onto another one: Tiffany.

It crouched and drawing its arm back. David, who instantly recognized what was about to happen, noticed Tiffany was still struggling to reload her weapon. After all, it was the first time she used a machine gun. His first instinct was to shout out a warning, but… She can’t react in time!

So, he resorted to the next best thing. He charged straight into her. She just finished reloading when he crashed into her. At first, he thought they had made it to safety. The claw that cut through his upper back disagreed. They landed on the floor. Tiffany swiftly returned to her feet, but David was still on the ground trying to come to grip with the pain.

After its jump, the tyrant stood up and slowly turned around. This action left it wide open for Rebecca to unleash her vengeance. She was NOT happy to see David hit the ground, bleeding. She expressed it by pulling out the magnum and firing, with one hand, directly into the giant’s heart. To her, the recoil felt like it would tear off her arm. But it did do the job.

The tyrant roared in pain from the devastating shot. For one brief moment, nobody was shooting at it since Alicia and Enrico were now reloading, David was just standing back up, and Rebecca was still recuperating from the shot. That is, until Tiffany leapt back into the fray. While standing directly in front of it, she unloaded on it. After all the prior damage it had taken, the last round of bullets hitting its heart directly was the final blow. It let out a last roar before collapsing onto the ground, nearly crushing Tiffany.

With the danger over, Rebecca rushed over to David. He didn’t need to be told to turn around to let her check his injury. She was pretty scared when she saw his bloodstained back that was still bleeding. She quickly applied a first aid spray. Thankfully, upon closer inspection, the wound wasn’t as deep as she feared.

“How is it?” He asked her.

“You’re going to be fine,” Rebecca answered.

“Good.”

“Just in case, how many fingers am I holding up?” Tiffany held up her right hand with a certain number of fingers.

He wasn’t amused. “Three and a half.”

Tiffany grinned. “Ah, close enough.”

Satisfied that the young soldier was going to make it, Enrico turned his attention to the monstrosity that attacked them.

“Zombies, z-dogs, giant spiders, lizardmen, and now this,” Tiffany commented. “And here I thought these things only existed in the movies.”

“Where did it come from?” Alicia wondered.

“Doesn’t matter,” David replied, “What’s important is that we get outta here.” As much as Enrico hated it, he was right. Besides, he wasn’t sure if he could glean any information by looking over a corpse. “But first, we need to make sure all of our weapons are reloaded.”

“Before we do that,” Tiffany pulled out her handgun and made sure they were bullets were in it. When it was full, she knelt down next to the giant. She lifted its head up, and fired into its eye, not one, not even twice, but thrice! The effect was instantaneous. It spasmed, letting out a dying shriek. “Ha! Thought ya could play possum on us, ya bastard!”

If only we could do that in the games, David lamented. Now that the tyrant was really dead, everybody took care of their weapons. Rebecca handed her machine gun off to Alicia, who only had the M16. “Hey Simic,” Tiffany called out, “what are you going to do about her jacket?” Thanks to the tyrant, it was now in practically in two pieces. He sighed. He emptied the pockets before letting it fall to the ground. “Is it just me, or do the monsters hate your outfit.” She grinned. “Or maybe you just want to show off those muscles?”

“What muscles?” In the month since he had returned from Basic training, David had neglected to work out. Granted, he wasn’t exactly out of shape, but still. Unfortunately, his body began to relax which wasn’t as good as it sounded. To push back his health problems, he brought up the nightmare for a third time. But after doing it so many times, the fear was nowhere as strong as it used to be. I have to get us out of here soon. Otherwise, I won’t even be able to stand up. “Time to go on the elevator.”

“Be careful.” Enrico encouraged. “I have to go and make sure the rest of Bravo team is safe.”

“Where are you going, sir?” Rebecca asked.

He pointed to the rubble. “This passageway connects to a network of tunnels that leads to the mansion I talked about earlier.”

“But, Captain-” Rebecca started, worry clearly evident on her face.

“I’ll be fine, Rebecca. And now I know you will be too. You’ve found some capable people to help keep you safe.” He nodded to the others. “Thank you for keeping an eye on her for me. I’ll make sure you’ll rewarded for your help.”

“She’s helped us as much as we have helped her,” David declared. “The only reward I want is to get everyone out of here alive.”

“Screw that!” Tiffany retorted. “I want that reward! I’ll hold you to it!”

Enrico actually smiled. “I won’t forget. Goodbye.”

“Bye.” Rebecca returned before the doors closed. And with the press of a button, they were on their way to level four.

“You sure you’re going to be okay?” Alicia pressed David. “You remember what he said about this elevator going to level one. We might be able to find a shortcut back to the main hall where you can rest.”

“I’ll make it,” he reassured her. It wasn’t effective, especially with him swaying the way he was. But when they reached their destination, he surprised them all. He quickly stepped out of the elevator with an unusual amount of body control. There was a bridge that connected the elevator to the facility, which was very dark. Below them was an underground river that flowed deeper into the facility. David scanned the area before focusing on a single point. The women followed his gaze and discovered what he found.

“Billy!” Rebecca shouted as she rushed to the railing.

Miraculously, the former marine had survived his fall and was now fighting the current by holding onto a rock.

“How are we supposed to rescue him from there?” Tiffany wondered.

Of course, things took a turn for a worse. A large shape began swimming toward Billy from underwater. “I got it.” Tiffany announced.

“Stop,” David intervened. “We can’t hit it from here. And if you tried, you might hit Billy.”

“Dammit!” They could only watch as the shape approached him. In a spray of water, it attacked him. They feared the worst, until they saw him resurface a few feet away. Deprived of his anchor, the current grabbed and pulled him deeper into the facility.

“No! Billy!” Rebecca screamed.

“C’mon!” Tiffany shouted. “We might be able to save him, if we hurry.” She took one step toward the facility and stopped out of sheer surprise. “Where the hell is Simic?”

The other two tore their eyes away from the scene below them, and confirmed that their companion had already entered the facility. They entered and stopped when the power, and subsequently the lights, was turned on. “What the?”

David came running out of an office to their right carrying a gas tank. “What the hell, Simic?”

“C’mon” was his sole answer. He walked onto a lift and pressed the button. Due to its small size, only one more person could fit on it, and Tiffany was the first one to reach it. The room below didn’t seem to have a specific purpose. Equipment lined along the walls. Thanks to the center of the room being large hole to see the room below this one, they had to use the walkway, which followed the wall instead of being connected directly to the other side, to reach the door opposite to them. While they were still descending, David took out his handgun and began to snipe the zombies, thanks to the scope attachment. With the zombies eliminated, he pressed the “up” button before he stepped off and headed to the door.

Tiffany scrambled to catch up. “Where the hell are you getting all this energy, Simic?”

He didn’t say anything, but kept running for the door.

You must survive in order to expose this nightmare…