Authors Notes: Well here it is! Chapter 3! I finally got some real time to sit down and just work on my writing, and lucky for you readers I was in the mood for a little Resident Evil! Now, a quick word of warning, it has been a while since I worked on this so the actual writing style has changed a little and might seem a bit off at first. Hopefully however it won’t seem like a big deal. Secondly, If you want to know why it seems that someone in particular is acting strangely then read the ending authors notes.
02 Escape from the Homicidal Queen
Dreaming of Death
Dreaming of Death -The Crazed Undead
Rain was now bored, since the initial moments of Deja vu nothing else had happened that had triggered the feeling and just standing here watching Matt was boring no matter how you sliced it. So now she stood cleaning her nails with her tactical knife, something she had picked up from her old man.
“They’re late.”
JD’s voice startles her a bit but not enough to make her jump, and she quickly checks the time which reads at 1:27:45.
The sudden sound of metal on metal has all three of them turning to investigate. Rain quickly returns her knife to its sheath before pulling her Colt and setting out to see what it was.
“I got this.”
Again the noise sounds and she heads towards it while remaining on guard, it isn’t until the noise sounds for a third time and she can see the metal canister rolling across the floor that the feeling of danger nearly staggered her. Cautiously she peeks around the nearby corner and spots someone in a white lab coat having difficulty standing against a rack of tanks nearby.
This is triggering some very bad alarms and I should just walk away very quietly very fast.
Against her first instinct, Rain quickly walks over to help the survivor while shouting for JD, though she does keep her pistol out and in her off hand somehow feeling better for it.
“JD, we got a survivor! It’s okay ma’am we’re here to help you.”
Fuck my training, if this bitch starts with the biting I swear to god I will kill someone for getting me into this.
The person stumbles and starts to fall but Rain quickly reaches out to catch her, gun hand on her shoulder the other upon her face. She goes to speak with the woman again but is cut off as teeth sink into the flesh of her hand. The pain is enough to keep her off balance and when the crazed woman lunges she falls to the floor trying her hardest to keep the bitch from biting her again.
She can see the woman’s mouth covered in her blood, the teeth looking rotted and her face crazed. Something inside snaps and she begins trying harder to get the monster off of her so she could put a bullet between its eyes.
“Damn it! I fucking knew it! Get off of me so I can kill you!”
JD who had rounded the corner sees this and runs over to pull the crazed woman from his teammate and managing to drop her several feet away. Helping Rain from the floor he asks if she was okay.
“Fuck no I’m not okay! That damn corpse just bit me! I’m missing a chunk of my hand!” She quickly pulls out some gauze and begins to bandage the wound, trusting JD to keep the thing at bay until she was done.
JD for his part cocks his own pistol and takes aim at the crazy with a command to ‘stay down’. Of course she doesn’t listen and slowly rises to her feet, lurching little by little towards the commandos.
“I’m warning you, I will fire if you continue moving any closer!” She takes another few steps closer and Rain continues to calmly wrap her hand as JD threatens the woman. With a quick muttered curse He fires a round into the left knee of the being, only to watch as she continues standing and even moving again after only a moment.
A look of surprise crosses his face and he ignores Rains comment to ‘Shoot that bitch in the head already’ to instead plant another round in her opposite knee. That one didn’t even slow her down and as he raises his gun to fire off another shot he is pre-empted by Rain firing one of her own.
“I told you dumbass, shoot the bitch in the head.”
The Latina calmly replaces her sidearm and then continues to wrap her hand, even as JD gawks at her.
“You just shot a survivor!”
At this point Matt, Kaplan, One, and Alice, arrive on the scene. Matt who had heard the most quickly asks Rain what happened.
“She shot a survivor!” JD is still gawking at Rain and turning to look at the dead body every few seconds.
“I did not! That fucking corpse bit me!” Rain was mad now, because no matter what anyone else believed she knew that things were a lot more real around here than they thought.
Although why I got to dream of this fucked up day before hand I don’t want to know.
“I want a report Ocampo!” One wanted answers and he wanted them now.
“Oh cool, you survived!” Now that her hand was taken care of she walked over to Matt and set the man’s hands free from the cuffs completely ignoring the looks she was getting. “Well sir, I’m pretty sure I’ve either gone completely insane or that I dreamt we would all die down here at the hands of corpses and monsters. Seeing as one said corpse just took a chunk outta my hand I’m still hoping I’m ready for the loony bin.”
Alice who had been watching everything carefully noticed something odd about the dead woman on the ground. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it but... looking at Rain’s hand and noticing the amount of blood it hit her.
“Why isn’t she bleeding?”
Everyone turned to look at the blonde with questioning eyes. “Why isn’t she bleeding? Rain shot her just a few minutes ago but there isn’t any blood. Why?”
Rain goes to say something sarcastic but is interrupted by JD holding up his hand for silence. Slowly they all become aware of what sounds like metal dragging across the floor. The sound is chilling and Rain instantly pulls her rifle up and into position, making sure to set it for single round shots as she does.
“I don’t care if you don’t believe me but I do suggest you aim for the head and don’t let them bite you.”
The commandos each face a different direction as the sound gets closer until finally they can see its source, what seems to be a man with a clearly broken ankle dragging a fire axe behind him. It isn’t until he faces them full on that they can see he is missing half of it.
“Jesus Christ! What happened to his fucking face?”
“There’s more over here!”
“Don’t panic!” One’s voice is commanding and calm, keeping the group more level headed. It isn’t until one of the things lunges at Rain from her side that the shooting starts, her first shot hitting it in the face and blowing it back to the floor.
Rain takes her time, lining up the shots one by one to take them out of the fight once and for all, knowing that the others still didn’t believe her even with the building evidence.
Even I don’t fucking believe me! This shit is nightmare movie material, not real life! But how else do you explain the assholes they keep shooting just getting the fuck back up while mine don’t?
She hears Alice screaming something about the things not dying but doesn’t pay any attention until she hears her warning the others about shooting the tanks.
Jesus JD, watch what the fuck you’re doing over there!
“Fall Back to the Exits! Move!” One calls for them to get a move on and starts off towards the Hive exit with everyone but Matt, Alice, and Rain following him. Alice yells for them to wait, but they are concentrated on trying to escape and cannot hear her over the sounds of gunfire. Rain grabs hold of Alice’s arm and shouts for them to Move.
They head off just seconds before a punctured tank explodes into a large fireball, throwing the three of them several feet away to land on the floor.
Rain’s ear are ringing something fierce and for some reason all she can think as she stares at the blonde is I wonder if I can get that kiss this time. The sound starts returning and Rain realizes she just got thrown 10 feet from a rather close explosion and didn’t die. Awesome! Now to get a move on before the corpses do.
“Hey Alice, wake your ass up! You too Matt, time to get the fuck out of here!” She shakes them both awake with a bit of effort, but soon enough they are up and moving further through the stacks. Only moments later however, Rain is cursing the others for getting away from her.
What the fuck is with these people? Why on earth would you want to go traipsing through this place alone?
Even so, the Latina wasn’t going anywhere else unless it was to find them, especially since as far as she was concerned dying twice sounded like a sucky idea.
Dreaming of Death –In a similar state of affairs
One felt like swearing a bit himself at the moment as he came to realize that he was missing people. “Where is Ocampo?”
“She took off after the Woman and Cop!” JD shouted to his commanding officer just a moment before heading to find out what was taking Kaplan so long on that door.
Moments later and One finally comes up on the others, letting them know he is almost out of ammo. He is just in time to see JD turn back from the now open door and be dragged backwards into a swarm of the monsters. Without thinking he rushes in to pull his man out of the swarm, but has no chance to rescue him as he is soon completely dragged under. One can feel the bites they had inflicted on him, and pulls himself from the door with the command to retreat to the Queens Chambers instead.
Once they make it there the group takes refuge behind the heavy security doors. One checking his remaining Ammo with thoughts of scavenging if needed only to hear Kaplan screaming about the bodies being missing.
“Damn it. Ocampo was right wasn’t she?”
“It looks that way, and here I thought your soldier girl was just a bit off her rocker.” One gives Spence a look of disgust at his response, even though he had thought the same thing for a bit.
“We’re never gonna make it to the surface.” Kaplan had said it softly but both other men still heard him loud and clear. One was ashamed to admit he felt much the same.
Dreaming of Death –They Don’t Play Fetch
Alice had been wandering the facility on her own since losing sight of Matt and Rain, only to end up here.
Let’s see, there are broken cages, lots of blood, and it smells of wet dog and death. Yep, whoever I am is definitely crazy for coming in here on purpose.
She heads further into the lab area where the cages are held and is startled by the sound of clanging coming from behind her.
Watching towards the other end of the hall, she hears the sounds of tapping and is only mildly surprised to see a Doberman that starts to growl at her.
Yep, it’s a dead dog. I think it’s Time to go.
Once through the nearby containment door, she watches as it jumps at the window for a second and turns into the room only to find an undying worker already with in arms reach. Quickly she fights him back with several punches and then uses a spin kick to send him flying into glass shelves with a crack and a crash.
Holy shit! I can fight! Guess One wasn’t kidding when he said I was a security operative.
Getting over the shock she notices a pistol holstered on the body and carefully goes to retrieve it, afraid of the man coming back again. Just as her fingers touch the gun the sound of glass breaking has her turning to spot the Doberman having jumped through the large glass window. Quickly she backs up and escapes out into the lab once more, leaving the Doberman scrabbling at the door once again.
Hah! Take—ah shit.
As she turns Alice spots 7 more of the dogs waiting for her, all in various states of un-death, one even missing a large chunk from his throat. As one they charge for her and she quickly fires on them until the gun is empty, dropping them all permanently with perfectly placed head shots.
As she lowers the gun she hears the tapping of claws from off to the side and turns to spot the last Dog staring at her from its place in the window. She gasps and drops the now useless pistol and takes off as the dog leaps for her. Stepping up on to a nearby crate and then pushing off the corners of the wall she gets enough height to perform a flying kick that snaps the dog’s neck and sends it crashing into another window.
Holy Shit! I kick ass!
“Fuck that was hot! I’m glad I found you when I did.” Rain had finally caught up to her. “But why don’t we go find Mr. Trouble before he gets himself eaten.”
Alice blushes a little at Rain’s choice in words but agrees to get out of there quickly. She is somewhat surprised though when Rain stops her and hands her a pistol and two magazines. “What?”
“I saw the way you used that gun and I still have my own rather large ammo supply right here. Besides if we get separated again you might end up needing it.”
Without quite knowing why, Alice is flattered by the fact that the other woman wanted her to stay safe even when they were apart. Quickly she places the extra magazines of ammo in her boots and carries the pistol like she had been born holding it.
“Alright, let’s find Matt and get back with the others.”
Dreaming of Death –Of Sisters and homicidal AI.
Rain sighed in disappointment as she watched Alice speak with Matt over the body of his dead sister. How the hell could Umbrella do this kind of shit and get away with it? To think that this will all end with a cover up just seems fucked up, but there is no way they will let this thing go public.
Not wanting to interrupt the conversation but sensing trouble heading their way Rain motions the others to shut up and start moving. Up the hall several figures can be seen slowly coming closer to them.
Only minutes later however they are forced to run for their lives as what seems to be the entire horde catches their scent. Quickly enough they can see the door to the red queen’s chamber before them, Rain taking her time to shoot a few corpses the closer they get to the door.
I might as well thin the herd while they take the time to get that door open.
She snickers at the sudden image of mooing zombies and behind her she can hear Alice yelling at the others not to shoot. Quickly she takes down the three closest corpses before turning to pass through the door. The second she is through it she turns and shoots the nearest corpse sending it backwards into its compatriots and clearing the doorway so that it seals shut smoothly.
“Ocampo! Where the hell have you been?” She turns at the sound of One’s voice and smiles seeing him still alive, before faltering as she sees the bloody bandages on his arm.
“They followed me home so I decided to keep them.”
Rain enjoys the ‘What the Fuck?’ faces she is receiving, but can’t really say why she finds everything so goddamn hilarious right now.
Maybe I have a concussion?
She starts touching her head and trying to check if she might in fact be injured but comes up blank and shrugs deciding that going nuts was the least of her worries. At this point the others have decided to ignore her in favor of keeping Alice from opening any doors and killing them all.
“So, what about going that way?” Rain pays attention to the conversation as Alice asks her question, vaguely remembering this happening before in her dream.
That’s weird, before it was like really bad déjà vu when things lined up with each other, and now I just remember her saying that before like she was simply repeating herself.
“So we wait. If someone doesn’t hear back from you, they’ll send back up or something. Right?” Rain zeroes in on Spence and has to stop herself from shooting him right that second.
Ugh. Why can’t I remember what it is he did to make me hate him?
“What’s wrong?” She comes back to the conversation in time to hear One’s answer.
“We have just under an hour to escape through this facility before it is sealed shut and we are trapped. Containment is the only failsafe plan against possible contamination the corporation was able to implement.”
“And you are only telling us this now, when we’re trapped, half a fucking mile underground?” Spence was furious, but to be fair he had every right to be.
“We have to find a way out of this room.” Rain is up and following Alice as she retrieves the bag containing the Red Queen’s core and heads into the next chamber.
“Where are you taking those?” Kaplan sounds very worried, and One just seems a bit resigned before getting up and following after the group.
“I’m turning her back on.”
“That is not a good idea.”
“She’ll know a way out of here.” Alice sounds determined and Rain gets a small shiver down her spine.
I knew there was an upside to liking things equally. It lets me appreciate everything else so much more.
As they approach the room, Alice immediately places herself by the pedestal in order to replace the missing circuitry. Rain having known where this was leading simply waits against a wall nearby for things to play out. It is One who questions Alice on her course of action.
“That homicidal AI killed my men, nearly killed me, and may yet succeed in killing us all.”
“That homicidal AI may be our only way out of here.”
“Considering the way she’s been treated I’m sure she’s going to be real happy to help us out.” Spence broke into the argument he felt might be brewing and put his own opinion out there.
“Kaplan, that circuit breaker you mentioned earlier. Can you bypass it?” Alice simply ignored the man and his unnecessary commentary to get things back on track.
“Yeah.”
“So do it.” One looks a little upset at Alice ordering around his people, but quickly lets it go. A man like him wasn’t the leader for being petty and stupid; he knew exactly when it was time to let things go and when to push forward.
The two quickly work together and get the job done. Alice placing the circuitry in place as Kaplan finishes arming the remote detonator in his hand. “All right, the circuit breaker is disabled. This time if I hit the switch, she won’t be able to shut down. She’s gonna fry.”
Just as Kaplan finishes speaking, a holographic representation of the Red Queen materializes between One, Spence, and Matt, facing towards Alice and Kaplan who stand upon the pedestal. The image quickly blinks out leaving the others to question the tech.
“Kaplan?”
“The initial charge must have damaged her boards.”
“Ah, there you are.” The voice carries through the room loud and clear, leaving them to search for a source. “Things, I gather, have gone out of control.”
Rain is again enraged by the words but simply settles for huffing to herself in the corner, knowing that the bitch would get her just desserts. Then on second thought... She lunges for the remote half heartedly easily being held back by Alice and Matt.
“I’d rather fry your ass now!”
“I did warn you, didn’t I?”
Kaplan, who didn’t realize Rain had no real intentions of grabbing the remote, still held it out of her reach so they could get answers. Alice on the other hand had settled into holding on to the female commandos arm gently even as Matt let go once they both understood she wasn’t serious.
“Tell us what is going on down here. Now.” One’s voice was commanding and the AI did as requested.
“Research and Development.”
“What about the T-Virus?” Matt’s question raised several eyebrows, most notably those of Spence, Kaplan, and One.
“The T-Virus was a major medical breakthrough... although it clearly also possessed highly profitable military applications.” Rain who had been keeping an eye on the man notices as Spence gets a faraway look in his eyes. To her it looks like when Alice had also been remembering something, and though she doesn’t say anything now she makes a mental note to mention it to the woman currently playing with her arm.
“Well how does it explain those things out there?”
“Even in death the human body still remains active. Hair and finger nails continue to grow. New cells are produced and the brain itself holds a small electrical charge that takes months to dissipate. The T-Virus provides a massive Jolt, both to cellular growth and to those trace electrical impulses. Put quite simply... it reanimates the body.”
“Are you saying it is bringing the dead back to life?” One doesn’t want to believe it.
“Not exactly. The subjects only have the simplest of motor functions. Perhaps a little memory. virtually no intelligence. They are driven by the most basic of impulses, the most basic of needs.”
“Which is?”
“The need to feed.”
Kaplan falls to his knees at this declaration, while One and Spence shake their heads in denial. Matt himself rocks back on his heels while Alice merely grabs onto Rain a bit tighter. Rain on the other hand...
“We already freaking knew that part, get to the part about killing them!”
“Severing the top of the spinal column or massive trauma to the brain are the most effective methods.”
“You mean shoot them in the head?” One gives Rain an apologetic look as he says this, knowing she had tried to warn them all earlier.
“Why did you kill everybody down here?”
“The T-Virus escaped into the air conditioning system and an uncontrolled pattern of infection began. The virus is protean, changing from liquid to airborne to blood transmission depending on its environment. It's almost impossible to kill. I couldn't allow it to escape from the Hive... so I took steps.”
Looking progressively more disturbed as the AI speaks, Matt decides to go for some clarification. “Steps?”
“You must understand. Those who become infected, I can’t allow you to leave.”
“Whoa. We-we’re not infected.” Spence does not like where this is going and hopes to stave things off.
“Just one bite, one scratch from these creatures is sufficient...” One holds his bitten arm worriedly at these words. “... and then you become one of them.”
Alice is also worried, remembering how Rain had been bitten first she looks to her face to see how she is taking the news. She is nearly thrown to see a slight smile! Rain sees her looking and winks at her cheekily while patting the hand on her arm comfortingly.
“A check of my systems indicates my main drive circuit breaker has been disabled. May I ask why?”
“A little insurance. We need a way out of here. If you refuse to help at any time we flip the switch. Understand?” Rain gives Alice an amused look as she sees the blonde glaring at the nearby camera, but follows along without a word as they are directed to a maintenance hatch nearby. It isn’t until the hatch is open and she can see down into it that another thing is said.
“Ugh. I hate sewers!”
Dreaming of Death