Finale - Dawn Never Fails To Come

Betrayal, loss, wish, hope...Everything converges on the train. Leon, Claire and Sherry’s final escape begins.

Finale - Dawn Never Fails To Come

The train shook severely like something had crashed on it. Leon, Claire and Sherry could barely stand.

“Jesus...” Leon heard piercing noises coming from the front of the train. It must’ve hit something and it was slowing down.

“What was that?” Claire also noticed that the car behind was still shaking. There must be something wrong.

“I don’t know. I’ll go check the front.” Leon held up the Anti-tank rocket launcher and was ready to go.

“Alright. I’m gonna go check the back. Sherry, you stay here, OK?” Claire nodded to Leon and opened the door.

“Be careful...” Sherry was terrified but all she could now was to pray for the duo.

Leon went into the first car and noticed sparks splashing in front of the train. When he was about to check what that was, a spider leg-like appendage broke the front glass and thrust at Leon. He was too slow to completely dodge the attack and it cut a shallow wound on his right shoulder. Luckily it was not infectious.

“What the...” The monster revealed itself by climbing up from the bottom of the train and it shocked Leon a lot.

He recognized Annette’s face but her whole body has mutated into something like an insect. The appendage that attacked him was one of the two extra limbs protruding from its back. Along with the two mutated from its arms and two from its ribs, it had total 6 sharp limbs for it to grab its prey.

Its eyes were shining red light. It was desperately trying to attack Leon as he was the only thing around with fresh blood. Fortunately, the sharp limbs of its also became obstacles as it couldn’t get inside the train due to their large sizes.

“I don’t know what happened to you, but I think you should learn to give up.” Leon aimed at monster and pulled the trigger. A rocket exploded head on and tore one of its arms, however, did not deal significant damage to the torso. The monster seemed to be shielded with a hard shell, like the exoskeleton of insects.

“Come on, give me a break!” Leon used his Matilda to fire silver bullets at the head of the monster, but they only left scratches on it.

The severed arm of its was regenerating. All Leon could do was to cut off its limbs and prevent it from further damaging the train or killing him.

On the other end of the train, when Claire reached the last car, giant tentacles crushed the door and a pile of meat slowly wriggled towards her. Despite its unusual size and completely twisted head, Claire immediately recognized that it was a further malformation of William Birkin, the G5.

“We gotta stop meeting like this!” Claire fired everything she got at its mouth but it just ate them up like they were nothing.

G5 kept squirming while spreading its tissues in the car and turning the environment to its favor. Claire looked around and realized that it would corrupt the whole train eventually. The only way to stop it was to lose this car.

“For fuck sake! Why the hell are you still kicking!?” Claire nearly emptied all her ammo but the monster didn’t even slow down.

It was at this moment G5 opened its mouth and revealed the giant red eye inside it. Claire was immediately struck by a severe headache and knelt down. The waves of mind control power were stronger than anything she had encountered tonight. She could barely breathe, let alone stand up and keep fighting.

“Damn it...” She struggled to open her eyes for a final glimpse. The countless fangs and tentacles of G5 were right in front of her. No...Maybe she could...

“Claire!” She didn’t know when but Sherry had arrived at the previous car and called out to her anxiously.

For a moment G5’s attention shifted to Sherry and Claire was free from its influence. Claire grabbed a broken metal pipe on the ground and stabbed on its large eye, disabling its mind control power by popping it.

“You like that?” Claire pulled out the pipe and yelled angrily, “Good bye, fucker!”

After taking severe damage, G5 finally slowed down and gave Claire enough time to unbuckle this car after jumping back to the previous car.

G5 screamed painfully and looked at Sherry one last time before the car it’s on was engulfed in the explosion from NEST. Claire and Sherry, exhausted and sitting by the end of the car, looked at the flames in the tunnel and held each other tightly.

Leon used up all his ammo yet the monster was not significantly harmed except all its limbs were destroyed. Once they completed regenerating, there was nothing Leon could do to stop it.

However, he has bought enough time and its fate was sealed.

“Hope you like a sun tan.” Leon smiled.

The train rushed out the tunnel and reached the ground level in the Arklay Mountains. The lights of the morning sun shone on the Nosferatu and set it on fire. It let out piercing screams but the fire was consuming every inch of its skin. It fell down and was run over by the train, leaving only ashes behind.

Leon sat on the floor and treated his wounds when everything were settled. Sunlight came through the window and shone on his face. He never felt it like this warm before.

Minutes later the train stopped at its destination. Sherry was feeling a little bit uncomfortable when bathing in the sun, but she managed to keep cool. Leon and Claire walked on the road quietly while guarding Sherry between them.

Last night was like a nightmare and they were still trying to wake up from it.

“So...are you guys, like, boyfriend and girlfriend?” In the end it was Sherry who broke the silence. She looked at the duo with strange expectations.

“No, we’re just, uh...Well, we actually just met...last night?” Leon smirked when he heard that. The tension between them was smoothly released.

“Yeah...That would’ve been on hell of a first date, though.” Claire looked at Leon with a weird giggle.

“Yeah, you have no idea...” Leon shook his head helplessly.

“So...is it over?” Claire looked around and felt the warm breeze of the morning. Everything was so serene in the mountains.

“I don’t know. But if it’s not, we’ll stop it. Whatever it takes.” Leon stared firmly at the end of the road. The destruction of the NEST was just the first step of taking down Umbrella. There were still too many things that he needed to do.

“Yeah. You’re damn right we will.” Claire was confident, too. She’s sure that her brother were still alive out there in Europe. That’s where she would go next.

“Come on. Let’s go.” Leon held Sherry’s one hand while Claire held her another. The trio walked slowly on the road ahead.

“Hey! you guys can adopt me...”

The world has changed after the Raccoon City incident. The existence of vampires would reshape their view on the world and they could never go back now.

But the nightmare would always end and the dawn would always come.

The END

Character Status:

Major Characters:

Leon S. Kennedy - Alive: Leon made it out alive by the train under the NEST.

Claire Redfield - Alive: Claire made it out alive by the train under the NEST.

Sherry Birkin - Alive: Sherry received the T-Virus ν strain vaccine and DEVIL antiviral agent, and made it out alive by the train under the NEST.

Ada Wong - “Alive”: Unbeknownst to others, Ada made it out “alive” after receiving certain helps.

Supporting Characters:

Annette Birkin - Deceased: Annette was turned into a Nosferatu vampire after digesting T-Veronica Virus and vampire blood. She was killed by sunlight.

Katherine Warren - Deceased: Katherine was turned into a G-vampire after feeding on William Birkin. She was killed by Leon by being pinned down in the UV light.

Samantha Minervino - Deceased: Sam was turned into a Ivy Prototype vampire after consuming the essence of the Prototype. She was killed by the herbicide Claire dispensed.

Dustin the U.B.C.S. Mercenary - Deceased: Dustin was put to rest by Leon after being bitten by Sam.

Rank: S+

Thanks for your reading! After 3 months the story finally get its first big ending. It’s been a fun ride.

But the story won’t just end here. Here are (some of) my future plans:

1. Epilogues about the aftermath.
2. Other major endings led by different choices, and some bad endings.
3. AI-supported illustrations for specific scenes. Like this:

(A scene from Leon's story Chapter 7. It will be updated to that chapter later :b)

Thanks again! Hope you enjoy the story.