New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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The two enormous figures stepped down from the trucks.
Dark coats had been fixed to their bodies with rivets and restraint straps.
Heavy boots with metal soles struck the road.
Their gloves were reinforced with brutal studs.
Above absurdly broad shoulders sat pale, bald heads.
They did not need to move to make the air heavier.
Tyrants.
Adrian would have known them even if they had been burned to ash.
They were classic Bio Organic Weapons born from T-virus research, their development tied to the genetically compatible clones of former Soviet officer Sergei Vladimir.
Tyrants had appeared in more Resident Evil stories than any sane person wanted to count.
Only these Tyrants were not exactly the T-103 model he knew.
They lacked the deeply wrinkled face of the remake’s version, and their size was wrong.
Too big.
Much too big.
They stood nearly three meters tall, closer to the oversized monsters from Resident Evil: Damnation than the standard model in his memory.
High-tech visors covered their eyes, and strange collars locked around their necks.
Wires ran from the collars and disappeared into their temples in dense clusters.
“Open your eyes, gentlemen of the BSAA!
This is art!”
Freeman had gone completely mad.
He waved the tablet in the second truck’s bulletproof compartment and shouted at BSAA troops he could not even see.
His face carried the manic pride of a propaganda officer who had mistaken a war crime for a masterpiece.
“Targets locked.
Attack!
Go, Bear One!
Go, Bear Two!”
He hammered the tablet again.
The two Tyrants moved.
Heavy steps shook the road as they charged up the slope toward the BSAA position.
Adrian stared so hard he did not notice when Norman returned to his side.
“Five minutes is enough for those two Bears to tear the BSAA up there apart,” Norman said.
“This is what you meant by insurance?” Adrian made no effort to hide his shock.
“Correct.
What do you think?”
If he were being honest, part of him thought it looked terrifyingly cool.
That did not make him feel better.
If high-end monsters like this were only insurance, what the hell was inside the third truck?
On the slope, Chris watched the two Tyrants charge like armored battering rams and felt the situation turn ugly in real time.
“Fall back!” he shouted into the radio.
“Spread out!
Their coats are armored.
Aim for the head!”
The squad followed his orders, firing as they shifted formation.
Bullets hammered the Tyrants’ bald skulls in a rapid series of cracks.
Neither creature slowed.
Each raised one hand to protect its more vulnerable face while continuing forward, snapping trees aside as if they were dry sticks.
Worse, the security team on the road had started firing again.
The battle tipped the moment the B.O.W.s entered it.
BSAA operators threw smoke grenades and frags, trying to block the security team’s line of sight and slow the Tyrants’ charge.
It was useless.
One Tyrant crashed into the defensive line under a storm of bullets, grabbed an operator by the head, and squeezed.
The man’s skull burst in its hand.
The creature hurled the body at another BSAA member who was still firing.
The corpse hit like a cannonball, knocking the operator backward into a tree.
He coughed blood and collapsed, unable to fight.
The B.O.W.
had no mercy to offer.
It charged the wounded man and crushed his upper body under one boot.
At the same time, the second Tyrant had a dead BSAA operator by the leg.
It swung the corpse like a war hammer, smashing nearby soldiers off their feet.
“Withdraw!
Break contact!” Chris’s eyes were bloodshot.
“Newman, get the vehicle!”
“Newman’s being used as a hammer!” the sniper shouted over the radio.
“Damn it!” Chris snarled.
“Contact Kirk.
How much longer?”
“Don’t panic.
I’m here.
I can see the fire.”
A helicopter roared overhead.
Chris looked up as it swept over the battlefield.
In the cockpit, Kirk stared down at the Tyrants tearing through the mountain position.
“What the hell are those things?”
“Don’t ask.
Everyone scatter!
Kirk, take those bastards down!”
“Copy.
Hold on!” Kirk called back to the BSAA operator behind him.
“Get the RPG.
I’ll give you an angle.”
The operator in the helicopter grabbed the launcher and leaned out to aim at the Tyrants.
A burst of gunfire from the road forced him back inside before he could fire.
“No shot.
The people on the road are shooting at us!”
Norman lowered his rifle and clicked his tongue.
“I should have saved a grenade.”
Adrian leaned out and fired a burst toward the helicopter.
It circled above the battlefield, then pulled away toward the mountain.
A moment later, an RPG streaked down from the aircraft and slammed into one Tyrant, knocking it to one knee.
The other Tyrant turned and hurled Newman’s ruined body at the helicopter.
What was left of the corpse struck the helicopter’s windshield and smeared blood across it.
A second rocket streaked down from above.
The Tyrant that had been knocked down did not get a chance to rise.
The rocket hit before it could recover, and the explosion tore away half its head.
Blood sprayed from its neck as it collapsed to the ground.
“No, no, no, no, no!
My Bear Two!”
Freeman’s shriek tore out of the second truck like a man being dragged to slaughter.
“You filthy, worthless bastards!
How dare you destroy perfect art?
Die!
All of you!
Go keep my Bear Two company!”
He yanked the tablet up again, tapping with a smile that had slipped past sanity.
“All of you die,” he muttered.
“All of you…”
Up the slope, the collar around the remaining Tyrant’s neck detonated with a sharp crack.
Rivets popped free one after another.
Restraint straps snapped loose.
The monster’s body began to swell.
Its muscles expanded so violently that the coat split apart.
Skin cracked under the pressure, exposing wet red flesh beneath.
The reinforced gloves burst as its hands warped into claws.
Freed from its restraints, the creature stood in scraps of torn fabric under the firelight and released a roar that shook the road.
Then it bent its legs and leapt.
One claw came down across the helicopter’s tail rotor.
The aircraft spun out of control, whipping through the air before it plunged toward the ground.
“The last one’s power limiter is gone too?” Norman slapped Adrian’s shoulder.
“Looks like we can’t recover our insurance.
Abandon trucks one and five.
We’re leaving.”
Adrian did not answer.
He held his rifle and stared up the slope.
“Stop looking.
We need to move.” Norman was already issuing orders over the radio, but Adrian barely heard him.
“What are you looking at?” Norman snapped.
Adrian turned and pointed toward the Tyrant.
“Does it look to you like…
it’s coming at us?”
“Wh-”
Norman froze.
In the instant he hesitated, the second truck launched into the air with a metallic crash.
Freeman’s scream rose from inside the compartment as the whole vehicle tumbled over the far side of the road and down the cliff.
The unrestrained Tyrant was too fast.
From the moment Adrian noticed its change in direction to the moment the second truck went over the edge, only a few breaths had passed.
“Spread out!
Spread out!” Norman shouted.
For the first time, Adrian heard panic in his voice.
He moved fast, sliding behind the third truck and using it to break the Tyrant’s line of sight.
Norman kept barking orders as he ran.
The monster had gone completely out of control.
Friend and enemy no longer meant anything.
One security guard tried to create distance.
The Tyrant’s claw punched straight through him.
Body armor might as well have been paper.
The BSAA survivors began moving down toward the road.
Some members of the security team tried to flee by vehicle, but only the fourth truck could still carry people.
The battlefield had dissolved into chaos.
Adrian did not fire.
He crouched behind the third truck and listened to the overlapping nightmare outside: gunfire, monster roars, men screaming, the BSAA still calling for a ceasefire so both sides could kill the Tyrant together.
The panicked security team had lost all order.
They fired wildly while shoving toward the fourth truck.
After tearing everyone near the first truck into meat, the Tyrant charged the fourth.
The security survivors around it screamed as if the nightmare had reached into the vehicle with them.
From the BSAA side of the road, someone shouted, “RPG!”
A rocket tore through the air and struck the Tyrant.
The impact knocked the creature off balance and sent its massive body toppling toward the third truck.
Its weight hit the vehicle hard enough to flip it onto its side.
‘I’m really not allowed to sit this one out, am I?’
Adrian cursed under his breath and scrambled clear.
The Tyrant lay half across the overturned third truck, trying to rise.
Another RPG slammed in, followed by grenades.
Explosions hammered the area around the monster and the truck.
The BSAA bought enough time for the fourth truck to start.
Survivors packed themselves into the compartment, fighting for space.
While the Tyrant staggered through fire and smoke and the BSAA kept pressure on it, the driver floored the accelerator.
The engine roared as the truck tried to squeeze between the half-stunned monster and the BSAA line.
At the last instant, the wounded Tyrant surged up.
It roared, braced against the fourth truck’s front end, and flipped the vehicle into the flames.
Screams erupted from the cargo compartment.
“Seeing them in games and movies was one thing,” Adrian muttered from the other side of the road, flat against the ground.
“Being here in person is something else.”
The more terrifying the B.O.W.
looked up close, the more frightening the Resident Evil protagonists became in his mind.
If they could bring down monsters like this, what the hell were those people made of?
On the far side, the BSAA kept firing.
The Tyrant was trying to tear open the fourth truck’s compartment with its bare hands.
Its claws pierced the armor like paper.
With one pull, the bulletproof shell peeled back like a tin can.
Maybe the BSAA feared hitting people trapped inside, because the explosives stopped.
From where Adrian lay, the overturned third truck blocked most of his view.
He could only see the Tyrant’s huge back rising over the vehicle as it tore into the compartment.
Under the gunfire, faint screams and curses could still be heard.
Then the fourth truck exploded.
A mushroom of flame leapt into the sky.
The shockwave lifted Adrian off the ground and slammed him into the guardrail near the cliff.
His hearing nearly vanished.
His mind slipped half a step away from his body, thoughts breaking apart into static.
He clutched his head, one hand pressed to his aching lower back, and staggered to his feet.
He needed his rifle.
He could barely hear the gunfire.
His vision blurred.
He saw the blood-soaked Tyrant charging the BSAA again.
He saw the overturned third truck’s tank leaking fluid.
He saw the third tank slowly open.
He saw a naked young woman tumble out of it.
‘Wait.’
‘A woman?’
‘What?’
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.