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Assistant: Title: Dulce et decorum est
        Author: LadySirana LadySirana 
        Chapter: 27/162 
        Summary: It has only been a few weeks since Spencer Manor, and Chris is back in Raccoon City. He doesn't know if he’s seeking justice or revenge, but he doesn’t care. Blood will flow and he’ll be the one to spill it.Jill is afraid Umbrella has something terrible in store for them, and she wants nothing more than to get her remaining friends to safety.Leon should be happy, he is the best cadet to graduate from the Police Academy, but he is miserable. However, he still has hope, since he’s going to start his life anew. A hope that is a fading flame.Carlos is a ray of sunshine, he strives to be because no matter what life brings you, there’s always a reason to smile and be kind to others. He just wants to bring joy, hiding his sadness.Nicholai is the scum of the earth and he feels no shame. When the world wants nothing more than to drown you in sh@t, whoring yourself up to the top is the most suitable solution. Anything has a price tag until your conscience knocks on your door like an unwelcome, rotten guest.In a Raccoon City doomed to destruction, they’ll have to find a way to survive. Will they do it together or will they stab each other in the back?
        Contents: Chapter 27
    

    


      
        
          
          (See the end of the chapter for  notes.)
          
      
  

  
  
    
    
  Nicholai was driving with careful circumspection. The city had been completely transfigured in the time he had spent inside the campus. It looked like a war zone with entire neighborhoods on fire, abandoned checkpoints scattered at almost every intersection, and the heavy, oppressive atmosphere in the air of a place entirely gone to sh@t.

  Zombies were everywhere.

  They mostly stood in clusters on the sides of the streets where they had probably chased some poor unfortunate soul who was now part of their ranks, and they were caracoling left and right with no real direction. They did not seem to be particularly interested in the car, but this was something Nicholai already knew. As long as they didn't notice that he was inside they would barely look at it, drawn by the movement and nothing more.

  He was not frightened but neither was he tranquil. He had always been a precise, organized man, almost maniacal in the way he did his work because he liked it and because it was the only sure path to avoid an untimely demise, but Umbrella did not work in that manner and that was starting to get on his f@ck@ng nerves. The company was like a hydra with many heads, one dumber than the other, in which everyone was sending forward a different agenda. Sergei, for example, since he was the one Nicholai knew best, was perhaps Spencer's most loyalist subordinate not because he had any particular admiration for the man himself but because in his heart he hoped to use perfected B.O.W.s to reconquer Russia, rebuild the Soviet Union, and probably annihilate the United States once and for all in the process, like the nostalgic @ssh@l@ he was.

  F@ck, that was certainly a scenario he wouldn't want to see for sure, and not out of any particular love for the U.S., which he actually rather loathed, but because he didn't want to risk finding himself under a regime again, let alone one led by that sadistic pig. Fortunately, the chances of Colonel Vladimir succeeding were close to zero. Nicholai didn't know what Spencer wanted, nor had he ever had the chance to meet him in person, but he certainly wasn't interested in that cr@p, and if Sergei became too restless in that regard, he didn't doubt that he would have him eliminated with a snap of his fingers. In fact, that was what he hoped, what he had hoped for since they had joined the ranks of Umbrella because, although he didn't like to admit having it, he wanted to be free of the yoke Sergei had put around his neck. Sure, he could have left but the Colonel would have personally chased him to the deepest circles of Hell if necessary because he perceived him as his own beast of burden to dispose of. Clear as lightning in the dark he was reminded of the day Sergei had come to visit him in that provincial clinic, so many years prior. They had not talked much, partly because the deal with the Devil had already been sealed when he had pulled him out of the labor camp, but there were specifics the Colonel had wanted to make.

  "Непокорные собаки заканчивают с дыркой в голове, Николай. Не кусай руку, которая тебя кормит, иначе я сначала научу тебя, что такое страдание, а потом усыплю тебя, как ублюдка, которым ты являешься," which roughly translated to: 
  
    Unruly dogs end up with a hole in their head, Nicholai. Don't bite the hand that feeds you, or I'll first teach you what suffering is and then I'll put you down like the b@st@rd you are. 
  
  That was what he had said to him, looking at him with that one inhuman eye of his, and Nicholai, who at the time was only a twenty-one-year-old boy had been fearful. He was no stranger to violence, pain, or injustice and he already was a fighter and a survivor, but the most basic of animal instincts had made him understand right away that he was facing a predator bigger than himself, crueler and more ruthless. So he had bowed his head and agreed to submit because he was not convinced that he would live much longer anyway, so he might as well employ every opportunity while achieving his revenge.

  "Убей человека, которого ты должен убить, а потом возвращайся ко мне. Теперь ты принадлежишь мне. Мое - инвестиция, и ты будешь служить мне хорошо. 
  
    Kill the man you must kill, and then come back to me. Now I own you. Mine is an investment, and you will serve me well. 
  

  Sergei had kept his word and Nicholai had done the same, returning to him more like a hollow shell than a young man in the prime of his life, but despite this obvious proof of loyalty, the Colonel had been heartless all the same because the lesson had to be well taught. He felt a chill at the memory and the muscles on his back involuntarily spasmed, tensing the skin of his scar. It was not only a matter of loyalty to the Colonel but also of attitude, ideals, and decorum. His subordinates had to reflect in every way his ideals, his conception of a soldier and a man. Anything that was not in line with his moral doctrine had to be eradicated in blood, and at the time, Nicholai practically was the living embodiment of everything Sergei despised from every point of view, political, moral, and human.

  “Давай начнем с того, что удалим эту грязь с твоей кожи, Серебряный Волк. Ложись, это займет всего минуту.” 
  
    Let's start by removing this filth from your skin, Silver Wolf. Lie down, it'll only take a minute.
  

  He had fainted. Passed out from pain for the first and only time in his life, and it had been even worse after that when he had had to start special training with a third-degree burn that covered almost half his back. In retrospect, he was amazed how he had even managed to survive at all since more than a third of his group had died trying. Where had he gotten all that strength to fight and where had it gone now? Sure, he had seventeen years of experience under his belt, but that energy, that drive, that passion he had had at the time had long since disappeared. The anger had turned into a habit, the missions had gradually all become the same, and the people he had killed were just a long list of forgotten names in the archives of his memory.

  Except for one but his name was banned. He didn't want to think about him, even though it had already happened twice since his arrival in Raccoon, the first time in the car, the second when he had failed to kill the kitten in the woods.

  He had changed. All that hate towards everyone, himself included and first, had subsided over the years, and he was no longer a suicidal ticking bomb. Perhaps Sergei was right, he had succeeded. Maybe he really was his perfect dog and nothing more. After all, everything he had been before the Colonel no longer existed but, to be fair, it had died long before Sergei came into his life. He had killed what he had been, which, to be clear, had never been anything special. Just an idiot kid. Useless. Dangerous.

  Now he was nothing but a greedy @ssh@l@ and it suited him well.

  Although, even the money... Why did he want all that money? More specifically: what was it that he wanted? His childhood had taught him the hard way what it meant to have nothing, but now he had a roof, a job, and food. He didn't even have expensive vices. Yes, his house was not cheap and required constant investment in maintenance and improvements, but he was not the type to collect expensive cars, high-class whores, or whatever rich people did with all their money.

  "For f@ck's sake, give it a rest..." He ordered himself with a guttural growl; this was certainly not the time to get caught up in a midlife crisis.

  He reached out a hand toward his duffel bag on the passenger seat, intending to turn on the radio to hear what the other U.B.C.S. teams were doing, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something launching itself into the middle of the roadway. Too fast to be a zombie. With quick reflexes, he pressed the brake pedal and the car stopped with a sharp screech just in time to avoid running over...

  
    A little girl?!
  
   Nicholai winced as he spotted that blonde kid just a couple of inches from the hood of his off-roader. She was harried, her cheeks were red, her hair was in disarray and she looked scared to death, even the plaid vest she was wearing was all rumpled. Otherwise, she looked fine. Uninjured. 
  
    Miraculously,
  
   he felt like adding. Before he could even take a good look at what she was running away from, the child rushed to the door, opened it, and slipped into the car.

  "Go! Please go! Go!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs, panting.

  Nicholai stood frozen for a moment. What the f@ck was just happening?! Absolutely not!

  "Get off!" He blurted out, alarmed because the only thing he was missing on that f@ck@ng mission was a little girl in the way. He didn't know how to deal with kids, had never been around them, and that was fine with him.

  "The monsters are coming!" She retorted, terrified, pointing to a group of zombies who were inexorably approaching the car from the alley she had just escaped from.

  "Sh@t!" He hissed, backing up to maneuver and then starting off again at full speed.

  The little girl, after catching her breath, pushed Nicholai's duffel bag off the seat so she could sit more comfortably and even fastened her seatbelt. "T-Thank you, sir," she whispered.

  He did not answer her. He didn't even look at her. Too focused on trying to find a solution for how to get himself out of that situation and, yes, putting a bullet in her forehead was definitely a fix on the table. What the f@ck had he done wrong in life? Probably everything in the bl@@dy book with very few exceptions, okay, but he still perceived it all as f@ck@ng divine overkill against him.

  "Do you work for Umbrella?" She asked him, after seeing the logo on his vest. "My daddy does, too! Do you know him? Have you seen him? His name is William, William Birkin!"

  
    G@dd@mn it! 
  
  The bullet was off the table. 

  Yes, he knew him. Not personally, but he was one of the chief scientists there in Raccoon City. One whose daughter it would not have been prudent to kill.

  "You can't stay with me," he informed her, bluntly, stopping the car in a relatively safe spot. "Get out."

  Sherry sulked and glared at him, outraged. "I'm a child!" She pointed out to him. "You can't leave me alone! Besides, I have to find my daddy!"

  She was aware that hers had been a stupid decision and that, under normal circumstances, she should never, ever have gotten into a car with a stranger, but that circumstance was anything but normal. She had dearly regretted leaving home like that and had even tried to go back, but when she had seen the zombies massing against the front door she had gotten scared and ran away. She hoped that Leon and Chris were okay. She was still angry with them, but she never wanted anything bad to happen to them because of her. She would never have forgiven herself. At the very thought, her lips trembled and her eyes filled with tears.

  "Oh, 
  
    niet! Niet!
  
   Don't you dare, 
  
    devochka!
  
   Stop that right now!" Nicholai intimated, finally turning to look at her. To say he was uncomfortable in that situation was a f@ck@ng understatement.

  "You are mean! A-and rude!" She sobbed. "I didn't do anything to you! Why won't anyone help me?!"

  Her crying grew more and more desperate, and he could do nothing but look at her, feeling... annoyed. Why was she crying? Crying was pointless. It certainly had not helped him when he had found himself completely alone after his mother's death. He was only eight years old at the time and had had to find a way to survive on his own, because in this world, if you want something, you have to take it, otherwise no one will ever give you sh@t. So he had little sympathy for a soft little American girl who clearly had never seen hardship before that moment.

  Yet, he still felt like an @ssh@l@ and he didn't like that sensation.

  "Okay, okay, let's start again," he told her in a calmer tone, "what's your name?"

  "S-Sherry."

  "Nicholai."

  "P-please, help me, Nicholai, please!"

  "Fine, but stop shouting and... crying. I won't even listen to you otherwise, and I'll throw you out of my car."

  She shivered but straightened her back and wiped her face with the sleeves of her blouse, choking back sobs until her breathing returned to near normal.

  "Well done," to him the compliment came out spontaneously even though he would not have expected it of himself. "Tell me about your father. In an orderly way. The last time you saw him and where you were going to look for him."

  "He's been gone for days. I-I was trying to go to the police station to talk to some real cops. I know dad has associates there, maybe they know where he is."

  Nicholai frowned. "Real cops? Have you met fake ones?" He investigated, intrigued by that small detail.

  Sherry hesitated and lowered her gaze, blushing a little in shame. "Well, they weren't really fake but they didn't want to help me. They just wanted to pry into my daddy's things. They said he did some bad things, but he didn't! I know him! He wouldn't hurt a fly!"

  Nicholai winced, raising both eyebrows. 
  
    Blessed innocence,
  
   he thought, but he saw no reason to disillusion her. As far as he knew, and given the position Birkin held, he was probably at NEST, but he had no clearance for that lab. He also did not know exactly where the access points were located in the city. What he did know, however, was that if the situation was that bad on the surface, it could be much worse in the labs, so the child's father was probably already dead, but he would not be the one to break that news to her. 

  "I'm taking you to a rescue center now," he informed her, restarting the car. He had heard on the radio that several U.B.C.S. teams were preparing subway trains to take survivors to safety. "There will be people there to take care of you and get you out of the city-

  "But I don't want to leave, not without my daddy!"

  
    Surely she knows what she wants,
  
   he thought, but it was irrelevant.

  "If you take me there I will just run away again! Like I got away from Leon and Chris!" Protested Sherry, stubbornly, then her voice broke again. "H-he is the only thing I have, please, Nicholai sir."

  He sighed. "Let's make a deal," he relented, already knowing he would regret it, "I'm going to the station too. If we find someone there who can help you find your father, I will leave you to them, otherwise, you will be a good 
  
    devochka
  
   and have me take you to the rescue center. Does that sound reasonable?"

  She nodded and thanked him with some hesitation. The guy was really strange. Scary, however, he didn't seem entirely bad, just awkward and grumpy, maybe she could try to make friends with him. For long moments the journey proceeded quietly. "What is a dev... dev-ochka? Is that a bad word?" She found the courage to ask him.

  He snorted through his nose, somewhat amused. "No. It means little girl. It's Russian."

  "Oh, cool, I studied Russia in school! In geography! The capital is Moscow, and it’s a very big country. It has about 147 million people and is divided into five natural zones: the tundra, the Taiga, which is the forest zone, the steppes, the arid zone, and the mountain zone."

  He shot her a brief incredulous glance but let her continue listing all the things she knew about his homeland. It didn't bother him and, in a way, was almost pleasant. Usually, when he had happened to hear anyone talk about Russia they always fell back on politics, preconceptions, and decades of rhetoric distorted by a Western-centric narrative. It wasn't that Russia didn't have its issues, but it was absolutely unbearable to hear trash talk about it from people who had not only never set foot there but had never even done the minimum amount of research sufficient to get their heads out of their stars-and-stripes @ss@s. The child was not making that mistake and her enthusiasm seemed sincere. It was clear that she was trying to calm herself down and bamboozle him by talking like a crazed little chatterbox, and he saw no reason not to let her.

  "Is it true that you have bears as pets? Have you ever had one?"

  He could not hold back a short laugh. "No," he replied, "but it is partly true. In some villages a few loons have. They are intelligent, loyal animals."

  "I would love to have a bear, I could ask my daddy for my birthday."

  
    And, given the average sanity of Umbrella employees, he might as well indulge her,
  
   Nicholai thought, 
  
    assuming he isn't dead.
  

  "Do you miss home?" Sherry asked him innocently, and he frowned. He had never wondered.

  "No, I don't think so," he admitted truthfully. Russia was a closed chapter for him; he had never gone back there since he started working for Umbrella. Why would he have to? He had nothing there anymore. He certainly had no intention of ever setting foot in Moscow again, that for sure. Too many memories. Not all of them were bad, but all inevitably ended in tragedy. Perhaps in Leningrad. Yes, he had always loved Leningrad and had spent less time there than he would have liked. It really was a magical place, even for someone who hated cities and people like him. 

  Holy sh@t, was he even getting nostalgic now?

  "In Leningrad, between the end of April and the end of August, the sky never gets dark." Someone had told him that they had even started holding a festival around that time. Maybe it had been Sergei or Mikhail. He hadn't really paid attention.

  "You mean St. Petersburg? It's St. Petersburg, right?" Sherry asked him, after a moment of confused hesitation.

  He winced and sighed, wistful. "
  
    Da, 
  
  it's called St. Petersburg now."

  "It must be very nice. I wish it happened here, too. I don't like the dark, you know?" She confessed to him with candor. "What's going on?" She then asked him, showing that she was not just a silly child and that she really did understand.

  "It's complicated and I'm not sure."

  "But... But these people, I mean, they're going to be okay, right?"

  "No."

  "O-oh... I-I see."

  Nicholai looked at her again. "There's still time to get you to the rescue center. What do you think your father would want?" He asked her without sugarcoating it.

  "I don't care what he would want! He is not here to tell me in person, so he has lost the right to decide what I should do," she hissed with sincere resentment because although she loved her father tremendously, she was also angry with him for making her die of anguish like that.

  "You talked about those two cops… About Leon. How is he doing?" Nicholai had been holding that question on the tip of his tongue for a while and, in the end, had failed to keep it to himself. After all, he was there with a little girl in his car, he might as well admit he was interested in the kitten's fate. He was losing his dignity anyway. The fact that the Kot was at Birkin's house with Redfield, however, also answered his earlier doubt: none of those four idiots had left town. He had to admit that he was not surprised but indeed he was displeased.

  Sherry jolted in her seat. " You know him?"

  "Not really. Just enough to have realized he is very good at getting into trouble."

  She blushed with shame and lowered her gaze, clutching the edge of her shorts between her fingers. "I hope he's all right. I'm mad at him for being a liar, but when I left the front door open I didn't think..." Her voice trailed off, choked with guilt.

  "He's probably fine. He has nine lives," retorted the Russian, partly because if those two couldn't even handle a few zombies then they didn't deserve to survive.

  At the intersection, he turned to head toward the police station but there the situation was definitely worse than he had expected. Dozens and dozens of crashed or simply abandoned cars occupied the roadway. He was slow in moving forward so as not to attract the attention of the countless zombies moving all around. 

  The situation sucked and he was conflicted. If he had been alone he would have simply gotten out of the car and bridged the distance on foot but doing it with a little girl? Too much risk. He was about to engage the reverse gear to take her to the nearest subway station whether she wanted it or not when the sudden sound of a loud horn made him wince. He cast a quick glance toward the rear window and saw a massive lorry proceeding toward them at breakneck speed.

  And he reacted by sheer instinct.

  "Get out of the car!" He shouted, pouncing on Sherry. Quickly he unbuckled her belt and, once he had opened the passenger door, hurled her out of the cockpit. At that point, he could do nothing but brace himself for impact. The lorry crashed brutally into some of the vehicles stopped on the side of the road, flipped over with a great clatter, and caught Nicholai's car full force. The impact against the steering wheel was brutal as the hood crashed into an overturned tanker truck in the middle of the road, crumpling like it was butter, but the Russian could not allow himself the luxury of thinking about the pain. He grabbed his duffel bag and sniper rifle and leaped out of the car. The explosion of the tank and his bl@@dy car caught him in mid-movement to take cover, and the shock wave slammed him violently into the side of a police cruiser. Stunned and aching he remained on all fours on the asphalt as all around him the road turned into an inferno of fire, and it was very fortunate that he had used all his c4, plus more left to him by Umbrella, at the campus, otherwise, they probably would have had to spoon him off the dark face of the f@ck@ng moon. He almost laughed at the thought, and then he heard it, the high-pitched, horrified shriek of the child coming from beyond that wall of flames.

  "F@ck it!" He hissed, scrambling back to his feet, and then, taking a run-up, he jumped straight through it.

  
  

    
      
        
        
          Hello, my dears!We reached 100 kudos, thank you, thank you, thank you! I am really very happy! And, as is tradition now, thanks also to all of you who read, leave kudos, subscriptions, bookmarks, and comments <3!This chapter was a mess to write because I started with another scene between Jill and Carlos that... will end in the next one, if not the one after that. I had roughly planned for Nicholai to meet Sherry but hadn't precisely anticipated how they would deal with each other.Poor Nicholai. I don't know if you watched that video going around on various social media with a guy who stops in the middle of the road to rescue a kitten, just the one, and then gets overwhelmed by the whole litter. There, that is precisely what is happening to Nicholai. Since he rescued Leon in the woods he is finding himself charged with them all, and it is quite overwhelming as a condition for him. As we will have a chance to investigate in the future, but we can already guess between the lines, he is a loner by choice. He is not used to having too many people around, so even though he still tries to maintain a facade of composure there are certain situations that are freaking him out.The child was actual overkill against him, but not from a divine entity, from me. I am the b@tch, sorry-not-sorry, Kolya.Since I didn't know exactly how he would react, it was fun for me too to find out his responses as the chapter took shape, and I think Carlos is right in saying that, however unwillingly, Nicholai is a caregiver too. He is also peculiar in the way he helps Sherry, though. Any sensible person would have taken her to the rescue center but Nicholai does not exactly think in those terms. He is a firm believer in self-determination, and if Sherry has decided that she wants to look for her father, as he sees it, she has every right to do so. I am not saying that his reasoning is right because, for f@ck's sake, she's 12, but from the point of view of a man who had no real childhood, for him, children are sort of miniature adults, so he tries a couple of times to reason with her, but if she wants to go straight her way, so be it.And then he then helps her because he is inconsistent. I love getting him in struggles like that.About Sergei Vladimir. First of all, my apologies, I think I called him a general in some past chapter, while he is a colonel. I don't like to make these kinds of mistakes, and as soon as I have a moment, I will go and double-check and eventually correct it. Forgive me, but with so many elements to keep in mind, this has slipped.As an aside, Sergei is another very dark character who plays in the same category as Irons. He is not a rapist, but he is plain cruel. Nicholai is a little short on details in describing him because he is very resistant to thinking back to the past (and I don't blame him), but we will get to know him better later. For now, we know that Sergei pulled Nicholai out of a labor camp and Nicholai chose to work for him in exchange for the head of a man he wanted revenge on, and then Sergei literally burned a tattoo he didn't like off his back to start teaching him discipline. What a ray of sunshine, what a good person!Thank you all for still being here. I'm really sorry I didn't at least show Jill and Carlos but since Nicholai and Sherry are also arriving at the police station (with a bang, but the lorry scene was too good not to use XD) I'll have to write at least one more junction scene before I get to them. As for Chris and Leon, of course, I haven't forgotten about them but I don't know yet if they will be in the next chapter, I will alternate scenes or slip to the next one.One very last thing: I didn't have the Russian sentences checked because I hate to bother people, especially if I don't know them well. I hope they are correct but if there are Russians listening, please correct me in case. I try to be respectful but Russian is a new language for me and it'll take time before I reach a fluency decent enough to double-check properly how online translators work.A big hug!Lady S.'
User: Are chris and leon in this chapter?
User: Are chris and leon in this chapter?
Assistant: