The Assassin's Bullet

---Harvardville, January 20th---

Sherry's heart pounded faster than it ever had in seven years, the thumping echoing in her ears. She almost imagined she could feel her blood pumping through her veins as she sprinted down the street, hoping she'd catch up to Angela before it was too late. But she heard the screams.

Sherry was forced to stop as the sidewalk, once mostly empty, filled with people as they tried to escape the fury of the monster Sherry knew was down there. People fled from their cars in an attempt to escape from the deadlocked traffic that had also been caused by the monster. Sherry started running again and finally spotted the horrible monster.

It was a nightmare come true. The creature resembled her father, though her father had lacked the tail and the skull that Curtis Miller sported, and it looked emptily at Angela. Its left arm, which looked somewhat normal while its left arm contained the cancer-like growth that was trademark for the G-Virus, was held horizontal to the street. Angela dangled from the creature's hand, struggling every now and then like a cat that had been caught by the back of its neck.

Sherry tore the Desert Eagle from her holster and aimed the gun at the monster's right arm, at the eye that swiveled around and around. It couldn't find a single thing to focus on but as the steal barrel of the Desert Eagle caught the rays of light spilling from the sun, it looked at the young teen holding the gun.

She pulled the trigger twice, the gun bucking in her hands viciously and the bullets tearing into the tender flesh of the eye easily. The creature released Angela, who fell to the ground limply, and thrashed around while screaming in rage and pain. Sherry clenched her jaw and knew that hell was about to break loose.

---

Leon was about to respond to the assassin, since they'd stood in silence for about five minutes, when two barely audible cracks met their ears. He felt his muscles tense up and Ada's eyes met his.

"That was…" she started.

"Sherry," he finished.

---

Angela crawled away from Curtis' stomping feet, the palms of her hands stinging as tiny pieces of asphalt and rocks penetrated her skin. Sherry was there in a moment, helping Angela stand and aiming her massive handgun at Curtis. The monster stopped thrashing, his 'normal' hand clamping onto the massive eye. Blood oozed from between his fingers and dropped to the street in steady rivers.

"Get out of here," Sherry ordered, aiming the Desert Eagle again. Her eyes, steady and cold, focused on the monster as it started for them again. Angela, however, refused to let the teenager fight the huge beast on her own.

"No," Angela replied bitterly. Sherry shot her a dark and furious look. Angela, again, refused to walk away. "You can't fight this thing on your own!"

"Maybe not but you don't even have a damned gun!" Sherry barked back.

To Angela's horror, Curtis took on a sudden burst of speed and plowed into Sherry. The small teen was thrown back several feet, landing on the asphalt and skidding to a halt. Curtis started back for Angela, his left milky colored eye staring at her emptily. Sherry, on the other hand, was hardly down. She stood, her knees wobbling for a minute or so before she regained the strength she needed, and aimed the gun at Curtis' back. She pulled the trigger four more times and only succeeded in pissing the monster off even more.

---Washington D.C., January 20th---

"We're getting this weird signal from…Harvardville," a Secret Service agent suddenly called out. President Graham, Claire, Ark, Ashley, and Rani all turned to look at him. "Cops… They're saying something about…a couple blondes taking on a…monster."

"Monster?" Rani whispered? "The thing that Sherry was telling us about?"

"You…" Claire started but then something like realization dawned on her. "They're fighting Curtis… Shit…"

"What?" Ark asked. He guessed that Curtis was Curtis Miller, the man who'd infected himself with the G-Virus. But what did he have to do with anything? He was dead.

"They're going to die," she finished.

---Harvardville, January 20th---

The last thing Leon wanted to see was Sherry opening fire on the tyrant. Ada stopped him before he could walk forward and he turned to look at her. The assassin looked like she had in Raccoon. Calm, collected, steady. She knew what they had to do.

"Let Sherry distract him. We need weapons," Ada ordered. Leon shook his head and her green eyes narrowed at him darkly. "We'll never be able to fight that thing with three handguns."

"I agree. You and Angela need to get weapons. It won't do much but Sherry needs help and you're still hurt. Go, I'll send Angela over to you," he ordered. Ada stared at him, obviously fighting herself. He smiled at her, a cocky smile that only he could wear, and she finally nodded and ran off towards the cop cars at the end of the street.

---

"Angela!"

Sherry dared not look back as the woman ran over to Leon. She focused on aiming at the monster's left eye and pulling the trigger. She emptied the clip and took a second to smash a fresh one into the gun. She aimed at the creature again but this time, somebody was at her side.

"Leon, I was wondering if you were ever going to come help me," she teased playfully. He smirked back at her and opened fire with his smaller, but faster, handgun.

"Save your ammo. That thing's ten times stronger than mine. We'll need the strength if I run out of ammo," he ordered. She nodded and lowered her gun. The Desert Eagle was extremely heavy and she wondered how, through the years, she'd carried it around like it was nothing more than a sheet of paper.

Leon emptied his clip and Sherry shot the monster as he reloaded, two more fist size holes appearing in its chest. But she watched, with some sense of scientific amazement, as the creature's deadly virus healed the wounds instantly.

"Where did Ada and Angela go?" Sherry finally asked. Leon opened fire on the monster and was forced to shout over the gun.

"I told them to find guns," he replied. Sherry chanced a glance over her shoulder and saw, down the street, Angela and Ada trying to convince the police to spare their guns.

Sherry could only hope that they'd return in time.

---

"We should be handling this," an officer told Ada stoically.

"They're government! They're trained to handle this! But we were all caught off guard and we don't have the weapons necessary to take the damned thing down!" Angela argued furiously.

The assassin stared at the officer darkly, her emerald eyes unwavering. She noticed him shift slightly and his eyes flickered back and forth between Angela and Ada. He was nervous. He obviously didn't like being stared at. So, Ada continued to stare at him.

"Give us the guns," she ordered steadily. "The shotguns. In your cars. And all of you need to go back to the police station and build up a big arsenal. Make civilians go there with you," she continued. The officer nodded dully, his eyes wide as he realized he was taking orders from her. "Go, now."

The officer and his coworkers started handing over their shotguns to Ada and Angela and a duffle bag full of shells was dropped at Ada's feet. Then, they all turned and walked to their cars, a few of them shouting 'head to the police station' to the civilians who lingered on the streets.

Ada and Angela each had two shotguns and Angela draped the duffle bag over her back. They headed back to Leon and Sherry, who were still opening fire on the monster. Angela glanced over at Ada, who noticed quietly.

"How'd you do that?" the blonde woman asked as they broke into a run to help Leon and Sherry.

"Lots of practice," Ada simply replied.

---Washington D.C., January 20th---

"What?" Ashley whimpered, obviously upset over Claire's statement. "Isn't there something we can do?"

"We wouldn't be able to do anything in time," Graham replied sadly, shaking his head slowly. Claire lowered her gaze to the floor. "It's all up to them to outfight this thing."

"They can't though," Claire repeated stubbornly. Ark glared at her, wondering why she wouldn't put any faith in her friends' abilities to fight the monster. "They will die."

"Shush," Rani hissed, listening intently as the cops continued to speak over the radio. Ark guessed they'd somehow gotten the radio wave in the Bunker. He wasn't certain if it was accidental or if the Bunker was designed to listen to radio waves so they could get the latest news.

And said latest news was that a trio of blondes and a black haired woman were fighting the monster with everything they had.

---Harvardville, January 20th---

The shotgun shells hardly did any more damage then anything else but the four refused to back off. Leon watched as Ada dropped the police issue shotgun and used her much faster nine millimeter. She glanced at him and they shared a silent smile.

"We have to retreat," Sherry suddenly growled as she stopped firing, her voice hardly audible over the roar of the shotguns. Leon stopped firing on the monster, which stood in one spot, quietly watching them. Its entire body was covered in holes and wounds and an endless fountain of blood rushed from its body.

"How?" Angela asked, following the example of Leon and Sherry. Ada lowered her handgun, her eyes focused on the monster icily. "We can't outrun him, even if we had a head start."

"Why isn't it attacking?" Ada finally asked, her fingers gripping her handgun tight enough to make her knuckles turn white. Leon glanced over at her before looking back at the monster emptily.

"I don't know…" he admitted.

"Maybe he recognizes me," Angela whispered hopefully. But Sherry's eyes burned with an empty hatred and she shook her head darkly.

"Tricking us, more likely. It's probably retained its memories from the Dome and it remembers not attacking you. How better to make your prey get closer to you than to act like you don't want to harm said prey?" the teenager coldly stated, her eyes blazing.

"Good point. But let's back away anyway," Ada offered, slowly taking a step back. Leon, Angela, and Sherry mimicked her, their steps careful and steady. The monster never once tried to follow.

What's it doing? …What's its plan?

---

"We've got to leave this city," Sherry said, helping Angela stuff her clothes into a suitcase. Leon and Ada stood silently watching the two, looking like two stone statues guarding them. "The monster will follow us and leave the people safe and if we can get enough of a head start on him, we'll get to D.C. before him."

"And if we don't?" Angela asked. "What if, somehow, he finds out where we're going?"

"Then we'll get there after him. We're going by bus," Sherry replied. "The same way Claire got there."

Nobody added the silent if Claire got there, even though they were all thinking it.

---

Angela shot them dirty looks when Leon and Ada had chosen to sit next to each other in the bus but they both chose to ignore her angry looks. Ada rested her head on Leon's shoulder and stared out of the window. The black world outside passed by silently, isolating the four of them and the two other bus riders from the rest of the world.

"You think we're going to make it to D.C.?" Ada asked suddenly, breaking the silence. Sherry was sitting behind them, sleeping, and Angela was across from them, also sleeping. She didn't care if they overhead them.

"Honestly? I always hope for the best. I always think that we're going to make it. Do you?" he asked. His arm was wrapped around her waist, the tips of his fingers gently stroking her side.

"Yeah…" she replied softly. "Yeah, I do."

"Good," he replied, suddenly kissing her on the top of the head. She snuggled even closer to him and closed her eyes.

What she hadn't added was the fact that with him, she, as cliché as it sounded, felt that everything good would happen and no more evils could touch them.

A/N: Again, blame homework for the shortness. And as a side note, this story probably won't be updated again until next week. I'm going to be dedicating myself to another story so this one will have to wait until next Monday. (Hey, be glad I didn't end this chapter with a cliffhanger.)