Umbrella Corps had a fucking endless supply of the undead.

Jake Muller, former mercenary turned US DSO agent cocked his rifle as he studied the hallway in front of him. His body tensed as he listened for any sound. Blood splatter already littered the walls, and several downed zombies lay on the floor. But there were always more. 

He stepped forward and the floor groaned under his boot. 

"Shit," he whispered.

They were upon him before he could another step. Eyes missing or simply in the wrong place. Some of them had more eyes than they should have, and one was dragging an arm that was twice the size of its body, a clawed appendage on the end of it. These were the smarter variety of B.O.W.S. 

Damn J'avo.

He sprayed the hallway with bullets as they came at him. Bodies hit the floor. The smell of gun powder and smoke filled his nostrils. His breath caught and his finger tensed but eased off the trigger. Where were their weapons?

This was too easy. Silence reigned. Gore covered the end of the hallway and several bodies littered the floor.

Jake Muller tried not to look at the bodies as he approached the door, his rifle out in front like a shield. He should be used to this by now. He'd been a mercenary since he was 14 years old. Gunfights were nothing new to him.

His body involuntarily shuddered as he passed. He stopped at the oak door and stood, listening, straining for the slightest sound. 

He dropped his hand and reached for the brass blood-splattered knob. Every nerve in his body tensed as he twisted the handle. The door creaked open.

He stepped through and found himself inside a large but richly-furnished room.

A fireplace roared in the corner of the room and in front of it stood a boy. This was what his father had looked like as a boy. Blue eyes stared at him under a mop of blonde hair. The poster child of American innocence.

Damn it.

He tapped his earpiece. "Leon, we got another one."

"Copy, I'm almost there."

He could hear Leon's footsteps now. Along with the rest of the team. He hadn't bothered to get their names this time. It had become a habit of his and Leon's. They sent him in first as a rule. Always point man. He wasn't invincible but he did have a few abilities the rest of the DSO agents didn't have.

Plus Leon had vouched for him. The son of Albert Wesker coming back to destroy what his father had created. It was a delicious irony that Jake appreciated. Especially now that clones of his dead father were popping up all over the place.

He stared at the boy again, not daring to speak to him. 

Leon pushed into the room the rest of the DSO agents filing in silently, their laser sights pushing around the room. Leon's hair was graying at the temples and a few lines appeared around his eyes. He'd been fighting monsters for a long time. It was no secret he wanted Jake Muller to be his successor. Or at the very least take up the fight if he was too old or dead.

"It's clear," Jake said looking everywhere but at the kid.

The boy took a step back and raised his hands. His gaze flitted between Jake and the rest of the team. There was nothing to be afraid from the clones as far as Jake could tell. Most of them had no memories of anything outside of the compounds they were discovered in. Many died soon after. For reasons unknown they were unstable and simply broke down. 

Jake's nostrils flared and he turned and went to the open window, another nameless DSO agent moved up and started talking to the clone. 

"Hey," Leon came up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Everyone that we find is one less, you got it?"

"Got it," Jake said. He didn't miss how the boy's gaze followed him. He found himself breaking into a cold sweat under his stare. Swallowing Jake kept his eyes trained on the lawn outside.

"Hey, you good?" Leon asked from his right. 

"Yeah," Jake muttered. "Is it too much to ask for my father to stay in his fucking grave?"

"He just needs a hand from us," Leon said. 

Both men surveyed the scene. Nothing was touched in here. It was clean and tidy, and well furnished. The boy was taken by one of the other agents but he still turned to look at Jake again. 

There was a flash of something in the boy's gaze. But it was gone in moments. Jake wondered if he'd imagined it. But where Wesker was concerned, he seriously doubted it. Something was up.

The ground shuddered beneath their feet. The rest of the agents looked around.

"What was that?" Leon put a finger to his lips and raised a hand.

The boy who'd been silent up until ran towards Jake and clung to his arm. "It's coming," he whispered eyes wide as he trembled. It wasn't fear that he was faking.

Jake moved to shove the kid off but refrained at the last second. 

He put a hand on his shoulder instead. "What is, kid?"

"It's..." The boy struggled to a word for it. "It's big... They kept it away... but..."

"Ok, got it..." Jake locked gazes with Leon.

Leon nodded and held out a hand. "Take the boy," he looked to the nearest agent. The man nodded and took the boy's hand from Jake.

"Move out."

"Feels like old times," Jake muttered as he and Leon moved toward the rumbling.

"What's the biggest thing you've ever had to fight?"

"The government?" Leon joked. "Seriously? I've seen things that don't even have names."

"You bragging?" Jake muttered as he moved to take point.

Raising his rifle he started forward. The whole building shuddered around them, dust flew up into the air. Jake raised his mask, sensing more than seeing Leon doing the same around him. He could hear the boy scream as the other agents drug him towards the nearest stairwell. The other team would take him to a safe house. The odds were pretty good he would simply die like the others.

Except this had been too easy.

A loud roar sounded outside the wall, interrupting Jake's thoughts. Whatever was on the other side was big. And not happy. The wall suddenly tore away with a crash, air rushed into the hallway. Jake stopped barely avoiding falling through the new gaping hole in the floor.

At least it's after us, he thought. He pushed back, making sure Leon wasn't hit. He would have no issue recovering from an injury. It was both a gift and a curse, the result of his father experimenting on him with one of the new viruses because they shared the same blood type. Leon had no such protection.

The creature's face came into view. Its large jaws snapped as its maw opened wide and it ripped more of the building away. The sky became visible above as debris rained down.

"Ideas?" Leon shouted.

"Uh..." Jake hesitated. "You know we've kind of been making this up as we go!" 

He paused as he peered through the gap. The creature in front of him was large, pink with putrid flesh and a huge set of jaws and menacing claws on its hands. 

"Ogroman," he muttered in Edonian. All that was missing was an attachment in the back when it had been dropped on Chris Redfield's team in Edonia from Helicopter. This one was much larger and he guessed probably improved. 

"Great," Leon said from behind him. "And you said this was easy."

Huge claws ripped into the building again, slapping into the floor. The ogroman put its face up close to the opening peering inside. Its gaze locked onto the two men in the hallway and it pulled back, rearing up to strike at them.

"Stay low and follow my lead," Jake shouted. He started running and leaped making the gap with relative ease. The Ogroman's giant clawed hand slammed through the space where he'd been seconds before.

Leon stared at him wide-eyed from across the gap. "How about I just find a different way down," 

Jake nodded and then ducked back performing a backward roll as the clawed hand slammed through the wall again. 

Backing up he made sure he had the full attention of the ogroman. The weak point was on the back side of the creature. It had several spines, and he'd killed one before by ripping out the spines and stabbing them into the soft spot on its back. He doubted even with his augmented strength that he had the ability to yank out the spines on this particular one. It was easily taller than this house.

Why? He asked himself for what felt like the thousandth time as he ran. The building slammed behind him. Any second it would collapse. 

Shit. Leon.

He paused long enough to point his rife at the creature's eye and take a shot. It jerked at the last second and the shot went wild towards the mountain behind it. But he had its attention. He needed to hold it. 

He stared at the hole in the wall, briefly wondering how long it would take to get on the roof. He ran letting the rifle hang free as he leaped grabbing a low-hanging wooden beam that was exposed. Swinging himself to the outside of the building he pulled himself up onto the beam just in time to see the ogroman's attention was riveted on the rest of the DSO agents and their cars below.

"Hey, you ugly son of a bitch!" He shouted. Thunder crashed around him, dark clouds were rolling in. He wasn't sure he'd been heard. He sighed and then aimed at the backside and fired into the soft spot.

The ogroman roared in pain before turning its mutated body back towards him. He watched it, fascinated by its sheer size as it came at him before realizing he was simply sitting on an exposed beam within reach.

Hopping lightly onto the beam, Jake ran towards the top of the three-story mansion to put some distance between himself and the giant monstrosity behind him.

"We're like second cousins or something," he muttered as he wondered what mutation of the C-virus was used to create the ogroman. The giant clawed hand reared up again and faster than Jake thought possible it hurtled down. This time he couldn't stop himself from falling inside.

A sharp pain pierced his side and he struggled to breathe. He looked down at his chest to see a piece of wood stabbing him through the right side. Thankful it didn't hit any of the grenades he had strapped there, he reached down and yanked the wooden skewer out of his chest.

"Ah, god..." he moaned as the pain enveloped him. A red haze circled his vision threatening to pull him under. But as soon as it started the pain began to dull. With no time to loose he pushed to his feet ignoring the searing pain from the muscles that were knitting themselves back together in real-time. By his own estimation, he was on the second floor now.

Rain began to pour from the gaps.

He listened for the ogroman but it had moved away from him again.

"Fuck," Jake yelled. He scrambled to his feet and ran to the nearest window just in time to see its legs go thundering past. Gunshots rang out. 

There was no time. He broke the window and climbed through before dropping.  Hitting the ground and tucking into a roll, he came up on his feet, rifle pointed at the retreating Ogroman, and fired into it's soft backside.

The shots registered but the other DSO agents were also firing at the giant creature.

Jake paused taking in the scene momentarily.

"Damn it," he muttered dropping the rifle and letting it hang on its strap. The bullets were having no effect whatsoever. He grabbed the grenade strapped to his chest and shook his head again. This job didn't get any easier. They got creative and so did he.

He ran at the creature's legs, grenade in one hand, and picked up the rifle in the other. Once underneath he started firing. Anything to make it take notice of him.  With all of the other shots being fired it barely made a dent.

The putrid stench was overpowering. His senses overloaded by the rancid smell, he missed the claw that swooped down low and caught him up, squeezing him around the middle. He was yanked up into the air arms and legs flopping wildly. 

He owed it to the c-virus that his body was stronger than the average man. But still, it hurt, he could feel at least one rib breaking. He felt the ground heave beneath him, the sky was under his feet. He managed to bring both hands together over his head. Looking down he spied a large cavernous maw underneath him filled with teeth and the source of the horrible stench. The ogroman roared showering him in spittle and grime. 

He gagged. Bile rose up in his throat and he swallowed it down. Up was down, down was up, and it all smelled like death. He was descending towards that giant cavernous maw full of teeth.

He screamed and pulled the pin from the grenade in his hand holding it for a second before chucking it straight down into the creature's throat.

Oh fuck, he thought as raised his arms to shield his face from what he knew was coming.

The explosion through rancid bits of gore and tissue in all directions s the creature's head blew off of its shoulders. Jake felt the burn on his body and face, the searing heat was too much. He couldn't help but scream in pain as his gear was burned away from his body in the places where it wasn't covered with protective padding. The clothes were designed to be burn resistant but that didn't do much against a grenade only feet from you.

He fell into the mass of gore, his sense of smell gone, his ears ringing. His vision was also gone but none of that mattered. All Jake knew was pain beyond belief. He'd been burned before but not like this, the pain was like fire spreading across portions of his upper torso and face. 

-------

"Shit!" Leon ran towards the dead ogroman, whose body was still twitching.  The stench was overpowering but the need to find his partner kept him going.  Leon could hear the screams from Jake Muller somewhere in the middle of the pile of gore. 

 "There!" 

Leon ran forward, a morphine shot in one hand and a blanket in the other. Jake didn't look good. Half of his face was burned and he was panting, vomiting from the pain. Leon jammed the need into his neck and watched the writhing body still as the morphine took hold.

Jake lay panting while Leon took stock of his wounds. Even as he observed them the wounds were healing rapidly. It didn't make it hurt any less. He hurt the snap of a rib settling into place. He looked around. Some of the other DSO agents were standing behind him, one was puking his own guts out. 

A light rain was starting to fall as the sky grew dark.

Leon turned to the nearest agent. "The boy?"

"In the car, Sir." The young man stared at Jake his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open. 

"Go keep an eye on him," Leon snapped. "Higgens! Towels, clothes, you know the routine."

"Yes, Sir!" The young lady ran back to the waiting cars. She'd been out with them before, but this was her first severe injury. Anyone else would be dead. There was a reason Jake ran point. This was it. He always recovered, painfully but quickly.

Leon swore. There were going to be rumors flying. They were all true, but still.... he hoisted Jake up on his shoulder. Jake opened his eyes and groaned.

"Can you walk?" Leon asked.

Jake grimaced but nodded as sweat poured off of his temples. His face was losing the black look and resembled a pink scar that would have appeared there months later. Leon pulled Jake's arm over his shoulder and hauled him to his feet, wincing as the shirt fell off in tatters. Pink lines laced across his body where the grenade blast hit him.

"Medical units," Leon barked. 

They walked slowly and the men around began to salute. Higgens ran up with a bag in hand and solemnly handed it to Leon before joining the rest of the unit.

"The clone?" Jake said straightening as his body took over. He would be starving after that much of an injury. 

Leon looked on, fascinated. By this time the severe burns were almost gone. Not even a scar would remain.

"He's back at the cars, they have him," Leon said. "Don't worry."

Jake stopped and spit and ran a hand over his head. "This was different, Leon. I know it. I don't know what it was with this kid, but an ogroman?" He swore in Edonian, before turning back to Leon.  "This is the one... they either got to him and he's the real deal, or he's an empty plate."

He stopped to pull a shirt out of the bag and shed the ruined gear. He'd go through the rest later.

"Even if he is," Leon snapped. "They will just make another one."

"Who the hell wants to resurrect Albert Wesker?" Jake asked slipping on the black shirt.

"Sir!" Higgins back, her face filled with excitement. "We got another one."

"Another clone?" Leon asked.

"Survivor, Sir."

They exchanged looks and moved forward following Higgins back towards the ruined mansion.

Jake stopped cold when he saw the red haired woman in a white lab coat coming his way. 

His weakened and he staggered, his hands balled into fists. 

Only one person would want to resurrect Albert Wesker. She had died when he was fourteen. 

"Fuck... It can't be. Mom?"