"How close are we, Hunnigan?" Leon yelled into his headset.

"You should be right on top of her," Hunnigan's voice came out of the earphones. Jake and Leon were in the helicopter with Leon piloting, Jake was scanning the ground looking for any signs of his wife.

The forest was on fire which had made tracking the signal difficult. "We'll set it down there just out of range," Leon shifted in his seat. The helicopter bucked slightly against the wind.

Jake didn't bother to respond, he just kept looking suddenly he clamped a hand on Leon's shoulder. "Uh, hero..."

Leon glanced over to his right, there on the ground was another Ustanak. "Damn," he whistled. "How many of those things does this kid have up his sleeve?"

Jake shook his head. If they were right on top of Sherry so was that Ustanak.

"Do we set down?"

Leon shook his head, "not here."

Jake wasn't listening, he was tensed, quite ready to jump out of the helicopter. He already had a parachute strapped to his back, as well as being loaded for world war 3. He had taken pretty much any weapon he could get his hands on before they left. Leon had done the same.

Leon broke him out of his revelry. "Don't even think about it. It's going to take both of us to take that creature down."

Jake nodded but he was impatient. He scanned the ground making an attempt to see in the buildings as Leon moved the helicopter away.

"How long till Claire and Chris get here?" He asked.

Leon shrugged. "Probably another 3 hours. We did call him from the road."

"In time to clean up the mess." Jake smiled. "He wasn't too happy about it."

"Yeah well, he'll want to call in the calvary."

"Whatever," Jake muttered. "We are the fucking calvary."

Leon didn't respond and Jake still wondered if there was any way they could have smuggled Chris aboard. Not that he normally needed his help, but with Sherry out there, he didn't mind the extra hand.

Leon started his descent well away from the Ustanak. They could still see it in the distance. It hadn't moved as the fire drew near it.

Leon set the helicopter down and Jake was out of the chopper as soon as it touched down.

"Forest Service and firemen will be out this way soon to control that fire." Leon stared at the distant standing figure warily. "We'd better hurry if we want to keep a low body count."

Sherry had watched the helicopter fly away dismayed. Andrew had removed his hand and they had laid low. She had a feeling the Ustanak was either waiting for them to emerge from the trees or already knew they were here. The creatures were surprisingly intelligent, but she didn't need to let Andrew know that.

"If they sent that thing after you," she started. "They probably have no intention of giving you any money."

Andrew just sat. He was a hard man to read and Sherry was hoping she was right. There was something vaguely familiar about him that Sherry couldn't place. He had the look of a man who had been in hard situations, much like Jake, Chris, or Leon. Sherry was familiar with the look on Andrew's face. How did I get here?

"They said there would be back up." He whispered. "They just weren't very specific. They aren't going to just ditch me anyway. I'm just as important as you are."

Well that was new. Sherry filed that away and studied him again.

He motioned in the direction the helicopter had gone. "Friends of yours?"

"No," She lied, hoping it wasn't too quickly and wondering what he meant. Just as important? Who was he?

He smiled then. "They also said you were a pretty good actress. I'll have to take their word for it." He turned away staring at the Ustanak. He wasn't sure how HE would be received but if it was the back-up then at least it should have been HIS back up.

Sherry sat quietly. Anja had long ago finished nursing and Sherry had wiped her as best she could under the circumstances. Her outer shirt was smeared with a baby poo which discolored it to a bright yellow on top of the grey button up shirt she was wearing.

Andrew had glanced at her and grimaced but said nothing. She knew exactly who he was working for. Only one person had ever called her a good actress recently. Jill had said Wesker was sending them a message, that he could get at them whenever he liked. She hadn't been kidding.

Meanwhile the Ustanak waited, the forest burned and there was no sign of anyone else, yet.

Sherry knew too, who was in that helicopter. Jake, probably Leon too. But Jake would have gotten here as fast as humanly possible. If the DSO had tried to stop him, he would have gone rogue without a second thought.

Although other helicopters started arriving on the scene to put out the fire. Sherry had no idea how many people would see the Ustanak but she surmised that stories of big foot would abound for weeks. Not that the area wasn't supposedly crawling with creatures before. Neo-Umbrella's choice of experiments would make any cryptozoologists wet dreams come true if they weren't created by mutating humans into weapons.

Andrew finally made a decision, he stood up slightly nervous and cupped his hands around his mouth intending to yell at the Ustanak when someone else yelled first. "Hey asshole!"

"Leon!" Sherry was up shoving Andrew from behind as hard as she could she tried running past him.

Andrew hit the dirt hard, but was able to reach out with his hand as he did so and snag Sherry's ankle.

She saw Leon on the other side of the Ustanak as she fell. She tried rolling to one side as she went down and barely managed it. Her head hit the ground and she was momentarily stunned. Anja who wasn't crying before was wailing now. The wailing sounded far away as Sherry fought to stay conscious. She couldn't black out, not now.

She turned attempting to wrench her ankle out of Andrew's hands and crawl forward when she saw a blur pounce on him from behind.

Her headache eased and suddenly she saw that it was Jake who was on top of Andrew. He flipped Andrew over like a rag doll and started throwing punches.

Sherry froze and suddenly realized what it was that was familiar about Andrew. He did not have the height that Jake did, but he was a still tall. Maybe 6 ft. But he had the same blue eyes, angled chin. But where Jake was red-headed Andrew was blonde. Jake was hard, scarred from life as a mercenary. Andrew certainly had his share of action but he was by no means a killer.

From behind Jake came the Ustanak who was no longer distracted by Leon. It yanked Jake off of Andrew by the throat and tossed him. Jake flew twenty feet into Leon who was cursing loudly running to try and head the creature off.

"Jake!" She yelled.

The Ustanak pivoted toward Sherry. She glanced around wildly realizing for the tenth time that day how useless she was. She had an infant strapped to her chest, not to mention the infant's poo was running down her outer shirt and absolutely no weapons to speak of. She turned and ran, knowing there was no escape from the Ustanak if it decided to charge her.

Gun shots rang out from behind her as she ran deeper into the remains of Raccoon City away from the fire, trying to sooth a wailing Anja at the same time.

She paused and turned just as the creature charged towards Jake. Leon opened fire causing it to hesitate. In turn Jake would fire on it as it charged Leon.

Suddenly it made for Andrew who was still trying to figure out if the creature was on his side. He shrieked and Sherry realized he had never seen any of the experiments, the infected, or any of the creatures Neo-Umbrella worked on. If he was Jake's half-brother, as Sherry suspected he was relatively new to the game plan. Andrew was groggy, and his face was bloodied from where Jake had punched him. The creature picked him up like a sack of potatoes and slung him over its shoulder. With a quick glance around, it shot off through Raccoon City faster than any of them could run.

Andrew struggled the whole way.

Sherry listened as his cries lessened when suddenly Jake was wrapping his arms around her. "Sherry we've got to move," he whispered into her hair holding her close. He pulled back. "You kind of smell..."

"I know..." she snapped pulling back to look up at him. He looked so relieved to see her that she did not bother to finish her sentence. He grabbed her hand and followed after Leon who was waiting for them.

Suddenly the flames that had been threatening them the entire time reached Leon's helicopter.

"Well double shit," said Jake despondently. "I brought clothes and diapers for you...they were in there," he motioned helplessly.

"Jake," Sherry started again as they moved. "I think he's your half-brother."

Jake came to a dead stop whipping around to stare at her. "You saw another clone?" He scratched the back of his head, then cupped his face with his hand, both actions he subconsciously did when he was seriously thinking.

"No," Sherry replied. "That guy, Andrew. He wasn't a clone, but he's definitely a Wesker, he gave his name as Andrew Hardy. He's a pilot, I'm not sure how involved he is, he was too surprised at the appearance of the B.O.W. And the dogs also were new to him."

"Dogs?" said Leon. He came closer, he wrinkled his nose at the smell but didn't comment otherwise. Anja was the closest thing he was ever going to have to a grand-daughter and he wasn't about to make Sherry feel bad because of the mess she was covered in.

"Great," said Leon. "I hate the dogs. Worse than the lickers, how did you get away?"

"They ran from the fire," Sherry explained shivering. Suddenly she glanced around them. Orange coloring from the fire had started dancing around in her eyes. Flames they had barely noticed with the Ustanak around were suddenly the biggest threat.

"Well," Jake muttered. "Why does this feel like de ja vu?"

"China again," Sherry pulled Anja out of the carrier. "Is there water at least nearby? Leon do you remember?"

Leon glanced around, "There's a lake that way. But it's dark, we need to take shelter while I radio in back up."

He glanced around. "Any basements in these buildings?"

Sherry tensed, there were plenty of underground portions of the city, and she was sure she wasn't ready to go back into them.

Jake who had never been to Raccoon City before and was not privy to its history in the close and personal way that Leon and Sherry were, only shrugged. "Lead the way."

His only concern was to get them to a safe location and then they could clean up the mess. He had grown up as a mercenary so he'd seen a lot worse than an infant who was diaper-less.

"Want me to carry her?" He asked Sherry gently.

Sherry nodded and took off her gray shirt, this she wrapped around Anja and set her in Jake's arms. She took the carrier off of herself and strapped it around Jake who grimaced at the smell but otherwise said nothing. "Sorry it's a mess." She whispered.

Jake's arm suddenly wrapped around her and pulled her close. "Enough about the mess. I thought I lost both of you." He said into her ear.

Leon's voice interrupted him. "If you two could quick making googly eyes at each other, we should get under cover. There's a fire, which you all might survive, but I definitely wouldn't." It was one of the few references Leon made to their ability to heal as a result of being experimented on. Jake's jaw clenched but Sherry only gave Leon a sad smile.

"Welcome home," Sherry said sarcastically glancing around shivering in her black tank top.

"Yeah really," Leon rolled his eyes. Raccoon City was the city where he had his first job as a cop. The city had been besieged by the infected on his first day. And he had survived. His job now was to go in and wipe them out.

Leon rushed both of them along, the smoke, and heat starting to get uncomfortable. The sun was close to setting, something none of them had noticed due to the fire. The blaze was now a brilliant orange, and the smoke filled air was dropping ash over thelm.

"Andrew said he was important," Sherry interrupted Leon's thoughts as they moved.

Jake who still had an arm around her shoulders looked down at her. "What? Why?"

"I don't know," she replied. "Only he said they wouldn't leave him out here...and the Ustanak carried him off."

Jake pulled her forward by the hand running with her behind him. It was completely dark, they could hear helicopters in the distance battling the wildfire but it had started to rain. Not a heavy rain but still helpful. Anja bundled as she was in the carrier on Jake's chest was only getting her toes wet. The rest of the group was not so lucky.

They moved quickly at a jog until they came to what used to be an office building. Leon pointed to the stairs going down with the door at the bottom. It was a basement which would offer some cover until dawn.

They moved down and Jake opened the door covering Leon as he stepped inside. There wasn't much to the room. It was open and away from the rain at least.

"I'll take first watch," said Leon. He closed the door and sat near it pulling out his phone. He pulled out the phone and noticed there was no signal. "Of course," he muttered. Hunnigan would realize at some point they were out of range.

He hoped. At least Chris and Claire were on their way but how they were going to find them was anybody's guess. And there was the issue of the new kid. Andrew. Whoever, whatever he was. Leon hadn't gotten a good look at him but with Sherry bringing him up repeatedly? He'd ask her questions in the morning, he decided.

He glanced over at Jake. The kid had left his daughter to sleep on his chest and Sherry lay dozing against him as well. He had one arm around her shoulders.

He was fuming, Leon realized. Jake stared into space, an angry line across his forehead.

"Hey, you ok?" He whispered.

"That guy got away." Jake muttered.

"We'll see," said Leon. "I have the feeling we're going to see him again soon. Besides we have to get ourselves out of here. We got Sherry anyway."

Jake shifted slowly so he could see Leon better. "Sherry thinks he's my half-brother. A real one this time. We talked about this, but think about it. Look what they did to me, what would happen if they had how many people out there with those abilities working for Neo-Umbrella...or just Wesker himself."

Leon hesitated. He'd seen more than enough things to know that Jake was not being irrational.

"And he wants Sherry." Jake finished. "If there are others, why are they just now coming to out?"

Leon thought about this. "Maybe he can't make a clone of Sherry...or he can't reproduce the G-Virus."

"Or maybe he doesn't want competition." Jake looked around, his arm had automatically tightened around Sherry. His hatred for Wesker blossomed once again. "You know, Sherry is a good person in spite of everything she went through." Jake paused. "And me, I wasn't. I quite caring about everything. She brought me back."

"Yeah, yeah she made you want to be a better man." Leon muttered looking down at gun. He knew plenty of women who'd done that. He was still hunting monsters.

"I wouldn't say she made me better, but she did make me care." Jake looked down at Sherry who was now sleeping deeply.

Leon didn't say anything. He didn't have to. He was hoping Chris and Claire would be in the area soon. They would have been hampered by the fire, and no doubt Claire would be sick with worry by now. "Plus the additional calvary wouldn't hurt."

"Get some sleep." He said finally. "Tomorrow we'll have to get out of here without running into anything resembling your worst nightmare."

"Was this the place where everything went down when she was a kid?" Jake blurted out the question. He couldn't help it. Sherry had told him about it...but had been vague about a few things. Leon nodded.

"I hate irony," Jake muttered.

So, do I, rookie, Leon thought.