Angel’s Thanatos (Resident Evil/Silent Hill Crossover)

[T-Virus Rose]

This is a fan fiction that I've been working on for some time, and it may be a bit, umm, lengthy. I'll have to do it bit by bit because of the current length. It's one of two fan fiction projects of mine that are still underway, and the beginning of this may be due for another round of editing, but I hope you enjoy it.

Angel’s Thanatos (Resident Evil/Silent Hill crossover)

The Door Is Opened (Her)
The dogs in pursuit, somehow Chris managed one more burst of speed, sweat beading all over his face and neck.
****, ****, ****!
He never should've gone through that back door. After reaching a tool shed, he'd chosen the door that had led onto a wooded path behind the mansion on instinct, and now was paying for it.
One of the dogs barked, the other two snarling furiously as they chased him through the small, overgrown cemetery.
The gate, the gate!
Chris reached it after what seemed like much, much too long and slammed it behind him. The dogs threw themselves into it, howling, but didn't manage to get through. Thank god. He gasped for air, his lungs aching.
After a minute or so, from between the trees, he noticed something up ahead, what looked like a cabin.
"Huh?
Chris took a single step forwards. Then Richard's radio came on, effectively scaring the **** out of him. The voice was Wesker's, though it was interspersed with bouts of static.
"Someone, respond!"
"Wesker?" he said aloud. He did not like his captain's unusually rattled tone.
"Retreat... Monster in chains... stay away from the forest outside of the mansion!"
The radio then went dead.
"Damn..."
Something that could've gotten that kind of reaction out of Wesker was not something Chris wanted to go up against. But, despite what he'd just heard, Chris found himself being almost... drawn forwards... Before he could think it through any further, his feet were crunching over the carpeting of dead leaves and pine needles.
Alright, Chris… Let’s see what the hell you’re getting yourself into.

A high, female shriek of terror pierced Chris's ears the second that the door swung open.
"No! Stay back!"
Chris put up his arms in assurance, looking around in every direction.
"Hey, hey, calm down! I'm a police officer!"
Where was she? After a moment, someone slowly and cautiously moved into view from somewhere in the other room, announced by the soft sound of heels clicking across the floor.
Oh my god...
Stunned, Chris stood in front of the cabin door, taking this woman, this girl in. Young, teenage young, much too young to be caught up in any of this. A pale complexion, like porcelain, wearing a simple white dress with a light jacket draped over it, her nervous face framed by a halo of short, white blonde hair. She stood at maybe five foot three or so, and her pale blue eyes were wide with fear and apprehension.
What was she doing here? With all that was going on in the forest, it was hard to imagine that she was simply lost. After a moment she spoke again, her voice a gentle soprano.
"You mean... You're not one of them? Those things out there?"
Chris nodded. "Yeah. My name's Chris Redfield. And… who are you?"
The girl took a deep breath, as if trying to settle herself.
"I'm... My name's Lisa. Lisa Trevor."

Lisa smiled slightly, not quite shyly but anxiously, at him.
"I'm sorry for screaming like that, I thought that..."
Chris shook his head. "It's no problem. I've got to say, this whole thing's got me pretty tense, too." He paused for a moment. "Lisa... What are you doing here, anyways?"
The forest was the center of the murders plaguing Raccoon City over the past few months, what would such a young girl be doing in such a dangerous place? Let alone this particular girl. Lisa seemed... soft, delicate even, she couldn't be older than fifteen or sixteen and was hardly muscular. She absently brushed her bangs out of her eyes, her slight smile still lingering.
"Well... I'm here looking for someone. My mother. I wasn't expecting any of this. As you can imagine."
By the time she’d finished speaking, that smile had faded away. Chris studied her for a moment; she seemed completely honest.
"You're not from around here, are you?"
Lisa shook her head. "No, I'm here from New York. I started getting really worried. I hadn't seen my mother since she left for here a little while ago... So I basically hijacked the car and came down myself to see what was going on."
"You old enough to drive?"
"Please don't turn me in, officer."
Chris nodded. "I won't tell a soul. I wouldn't want to put a pretty thing like you in handcuffs." He sighed. "So you wouldn't know, then."
Lisa took a step forwards. "Know what?"
"Lately... people have been getting killed around here. I think we know what from now... This forest is just about the worst place to be right now."
If it was possible, Lisa went even paler. “Well, I know that now. Murders, though..." She obviously wasn't too pleased to be hearing that. The poor girl must've been worried sick... Chris sighed deeply.
"Yeah. Look, though, I'm sure that your mother's fine," he said softly, trying his best to sound comforting and hoping that she didn't hear the uncertainty in his tone.
"Really? I'm not."
Lisa took another step towards him, placing one hand on her hip. "Chris... I'm fourteen, but I'm not naive. You don't need to condescend me. Please... don't."
Once again, Chris found himself surprised. Maybe he'd been given the wrong impression of Lisa by her young age. She may have been small framed, but obviously possessed strength of a different kind. He found himself reminded of Rebecca, and his own sister.
"Right. I'm sorry. How about this, then? This place is too dangerous to be wandering around on your own. Why don't you stick with me? I mean, I'm a cop. I kind of feel like it's my job to keep you safe, you know? And that way, we can look together. Besides," Chris said with a brief grin of his own, "Maybe I need someone to watch my back without my teammates around."
Lisa gave a short, surprised laugh.
"What, a big, strong guy like you?" she responded in a sarcastic tone. Then she smirked. "Sounds like a plan, Chris."
A breeze wafted through, and Chris shuddered. This place was freezing, in the middle of the summer...
"Right. I'd say we try to meet up with what's left of my team. You up for that?"
Lisa nodded firmly. "Let's go."

 

[L]

Very good so far. Im not the kind of guy that does fan fics. i awlays end it in some crazy way.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Everything Falls Apart
Chris looked up, not believing his eyes, then rubbed at what had just landed on his cheek. What the hell...?
"Snow...?"
Lisa shook her head, the flakes now settling in her hair. "I think it's ash. You didn't notice it before? It's been falling like this since I got here. I have no idea why, though..."
He shook his head, too. "Your guess is as good as mine."
How could he not have noticed something like that? But the damned dogs had been chasing him; he hadn't been paying much attention-
The dogs. They were right behind that gate at that cemetery...
And he heard nothing. There was dead silence on the winding path, the only thing moving other than himself and Lisa the steady fall of ash from above. Chris shuddered, and not just because of how much colder it suddenly seemed. He turned to Lisa, as much to distract himself as to speak.
"We should-"
He was cut off by a sudden loud burst of static from Richard's radio in his vest pocket. Lisa blocked her ears against the sound.
"What's that noise?” she complained. He pulled the radio out, pushing several buttons at random, but nothing he did seemed to stop the noise.
"Damn thing hasn't been working right-"
"Oh god."
Chris jerked his head upward at the sound of the gate hinges squealing... And froze, his stomach dropping at the sight of the thing.
Another zombie? he thought, already knowing that it wasn't true.
The thing lurching its way towards them was drenched head to toe in blood, staining the white coat it wore red, and its body was gray with ash between the splotches of red. As it approached it made strange, gasping noises and seemed almost to be homing in on Chris and Lisa. A bloodstained scalpel glistened menacingly in its hand.
He stumbled backwards. "What the hell is this thing?!" In an instant the shotgun that he had found was out and he fired, hitting it dead on. The doctor-thing gasped loudly... and kept coming.
"Jesus!"
He fired again, blasting apart more of its coat, again... Until finally it dropped with one last groan. Chris took another step back, drawing in big, frantic gasps of air. What the hell was going on?

The now-dead creature was still twitching on the ground, and Chris seized Lisa by the waist, pulling her back. "What... the hell... is that?!"
She struggled her way out of his grasp. "I know about as much as you." She seemed shaken, but not nearly as shocked as him.
"Lisa... What the hell is going on?!"
"Chris, haven't you seen them, too? When you said..."
"No. Not like this. Not... And you have?"
Now Lisa looked surprised. "Yes, since I got here."
Chris took a few more deep breaths, trying to collect his nerves before speaking again.
"Okay. This is just insane..."
"I can't argue there. But, Chris... What do you mean?” Once again, she seemed entirely honest. Confused, but honest.
Something had changed. Something had most definitely changed since Chris had gone into that cabin. Though he wasn't sure just what it was, or why... The sudden cold, the bizarre rain of ash... And whatever it was that he had just dropped. He had no explanation for it.
Chris stared uncertainly at Lisa for a few seconds, searching for a clue, for something that he hadn't seen before. He paused at her stomach. At what stained her white dress. He mentally kicked himself for not noticing it sooner.
Lisa!
"That gash, on your stomach! Are you okay?!"
Lisa placed one hand on where the fabric was sliced open, showing a bit of her lean stomach, covered in blood.
"This? I'm fine, Chris. Well, as fine as I can be stuck in a place like this. I had a close call with one of those things a little while before you found me."
The idea of tiny little Lisa having to face one of those things alone...
"Wow. How did you live through that?"
A look crossed her face. Chris couldn't quite tell what it was, something like fear and confusion.
"I... I don't know." She moved her hand from her stomach to her forehead, narrowing her eyes as if in concentration. Something in her expression, that fear, made Chris not want to push the matter any further.
"Maybe you're tougher than you look."
Lisa sighed, slowly lowering her hand from her head.
"Yeah... Y-yeah."
They both jumped at the sound of Richard's radio beginning to emanate static again. From behind them came the sound of something stumbling through the brush after them.
Oh god, not more of them...
Chris grabbed Lisa by the hand, his own slick with sweat.
"Run!"
They did. Through the drifting ash, down the terribly quiet path, back to the mansion, where maybe things would start to make sense again.

 

[Levan]

Wow, awesome crossover.

I'd like to see more, you're a pretty good writer.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Oh, thank you. I'm aiming to write horror fiction professionally.

No Escape
Lisa closely at his side, Chris internally sighed in relief as the tool shed came back into view. Fortunately for them, the path had been clear ahead of the twisted doctor-thing. Clear, but... Even the moonlight had vanished, drenching everything in inky darkness, enough that he had nearly been running blind. The dilapidated gravestones, slowly crumbling and growing an almost uniform coat of moss, seemed an eerie reminder of what had almost just become of them. Chris had been driven almost sheerly by the sounds of the strange, gasping cries and moans approaching in their direction. What that must've done to a fourteen-year-old girl...
As they finally reached the-
Was it this beat-up before?
- Shed, in front of the slowly rotting door, he looked to Lisa. She was paler than she'd ever been, which was saying something.
"Hey... you still okay?"
For a moment Lisa didn't respond, before merely nodding.
"Scared?"
"Are you a detective, too?"
"Yeah... I'm scared, too." Chris yanked the door open, and then slammed it behind Lisa before looking around.
"What the hell...?"
The outside of the shed wasn't the only thing that looked different. The single overhead light bulb had dimmed even further, casting a strange reddish glow over the scattered objects that should've seemed familiar.
"What is it, Chris?"
He shook his head slightly. "This is..."
Shelves had fallen apart, the wood piled on the floor. The assorted tools wore a thick layer of rust, and the walls were heavily water stained. Most sinister of all, the door that he hadn’t gone through was now marked by a large bloodstain from a source undetermined.
"Different," he finished. Huge understatement.
Lisa finally drifted away from his side, kneeling to investigate a slip of paper pushed into a corner near the door back to the mansion.
"Different? Different like how?"
"I came through here before, and it wasn't the same. Sounds crazy, right?"
"Well, I think we're both a little crazy by this point. Look at this." She stood, handing him the paper that she'd just been looking at. Weird... The handwriting seemed chillingly familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Chris began to read aloud,
"'Even when I close my eyes, and I try to think of something else, I see only one thing. It's like an addiction, this feeling, to the most powerful kind of drug. My head is full of only one thing, and my body aches for it. For her.
I can no longer tell if this is love or obsession. Whatever. She's the only thing that I can be sure of now.
And I fully intend on being with her in eternity. If that means leaving this life... I will no longer hesitate.
I may be leaving many things behind, many things undone, but I don't care about that any more, either. I can't. It's too late to go back now.
Anything for my love. My obsession. My soul.’”
Chris set the page down. “It sounds like a suicide note... It would explain that over there.”
Lisa nodded thoughtfully, then met Chris's gaze. "I think it's... poetic, almost. Sad, but poetic."
Honestly, Chris was more creeped out than anything by the strange love note. Or whatever it was. But there were more important matters at hand.
"Look, Lisa... I don't feel quite right about leaving you with no way to defend yourself. Those things aren't exactly easy to bring down." He retrieved his handgun, holding it out to her. "Any idea how to use one of these?"
After a short moment, Lisa took the gun from him. Her fingers felt cold to the touch.
"I learn fast, officer. I'm assuming that I aim for things that seem important?"
"I'd recommend the head. Just make sure you know what you're aiming that thing at. I don't want to wind up getting shot in the ass. When we get back to the mansion, maybe Rebecca can do something about that stomach wound. She's our medic. Only a few years older than you."
"Good. I think there are enough ways to die around here without bleeding out."
Again, a trace of that confused look. Chris couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her...
He readied his shotgun, ready to pump a face full of lead into the next thing that stood in their way.
"I got your back," Lisa remarked semi-sarcastically.
"Thanks. But let's hope that I don't need the support."

****. "Oh god..."
The first thing that Chris noticed upon opening the door out of the shed was the pair of blood-drenched creatures that quickly turned in their direction.
"Lisa, get back!"
One clutched another bloody scalpel. The other held a surgical knife. This close up, Chris could now see clearly the extent of how warped and twisted these things were. Their flesh seemed almost to be made entirely of puckered scar tissue, covered in numerous bloody slashes under their tattered lab coats. He wondered if they were another effect of the virus, but he found himself doubting it; these things looked as if they were straight from hell.
Chris aimed and fired the shotgun, obliterating a fair amount of one of their scar tissue faces. After a second blast it went down, and its comrade stumbled right over it towards them. He pulled the trigger again. And nothing happened. Out of shells.
"****!"
From his side, bang! Bang! Bang! A quick series of shots from near his side, slamming into the freakish doctor's chest, stopping it, until one hit it dead center in its forehead. With a groan it fell, only feet away from him. Chris turned around, stunned, as Lisa lowered the gun he'd given her.
"Lisa?"
She just shrugged. "You said to aim for the head."
"That I did."
But... That hallway. Taking it in slowly, Chris walked across the cracked stone tiles, quite a few of which were missing, and looked around. Before, the breeze coming in through the numerous windows had been warm and fresh, a welcome relief from the stale, putrid air inside the mansion. Not much of that breeze was left, blocked off by wooden planks now mysteriously nailed over the windows. Broken glass littered the floor. So whatever had happened had affected the mansion, too. Definitely not good news. He hoped that Rebecca and the others were still okay.
"Okay. Looks like whatever's going on in that forest is going on here now, too. So I guess we're just going to have to deal with that. Maybe our odds are a little better, now that we know you're a natural-born sharpshooter."
"I'm flattered."
"Right. So here's the plan. We try to find Rebecca first, and we hope she's where I last saw her. If not, we look around a bit and try to round up some ammo. And, I'm pretty sure the mansion's the best place to start looking for your mother. Then we take what we have and try to blast our way through the forest back to the police barricade. Our odds aren't good. I'd give us maybe a fifty-fifty chance of actually making it. Sound good to you?"
Lisa sighed. "Fifty-fifty...? Sounds pretty much like we're **** out of luck to me." Then she smirked slightly.
"I'm game."

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Fractioned
The woman had come to Raccoon City several months previously, fleeing her own hometown. She was a fairly young woman, in her late twenties, with shoulder length red hair and cat-green eyes, a distinctly paranoid look in their sharp gaze. Lyra Hudson, she said her name was.
He'd first heard of her when she'd showed up on the doorstep of the Spencer Estate before any of the chaos of the outbreak had been unleashed several months before. When she'd merely stated that she was looking for someone, she'd been promptly taken into police custody, where it was soon revealed that she'd been rumored to be a part of some strange cult. The Order, she called it. Of course, that alone wouldn't have been enough to earn his attention, just another whacked-out religious freak, he would've figured. No, it had been the specifics of whom Lyra had been searching for.
He sighed deeply. It had been three days since he'd been drawn into this hell, with only a madwoman's dubious spells to protect him. "So you say you've seen this before, Lyra?"
Lyra half-glared in his general direction.
"Yes. I believe that this is the same power that destroyed my home. Dahlia Gillespe was a complete fool, using her own daughter like that. Alessa was out of control. If not for these protective spells I've set up, this probably would've turned out the same way. The entire town could've been corrupted. I’m not the idiot that Dahlia was, however, or the rest of the Order, for that matter. They should've accepted that Alessa was a failure. Started looking for another to replace her. I will return our god to this earth, and end the reign of man once and for all. I’ll be led into paradise at God's side. It's going to be glorious."
He smirked darkly.
"I'm not sure if that's the part I'm in on this for, Lyra. But I'm trapped in this anyways, so I might as well do what I can. I always knew that there was something about her. She's... fascinated me since I first began research on her."
Lyra's gaze didn't soften.
"Surely you're going to hell, Mr. Birkin. What exactly have you done to the woman, anyways? Alessa Gillespe was burned alive before causing anything so drastic."
William Birkin stood in what had been the labs underneath the mansion previous to all hell breaking loose, locked into a small holding area to escape the twisted creatures which were the product of what was possibly an even more twisted mind, and carefully observed the deformed and chained woman now trapped behind heavy iron bars.
Though she almost seemed to have given in, retreating into a corner of her cell and giving them a look similar to a glare from behind her gruesome mask, he couldn't help but be concerned about their security. He may have been uncertain of her name, or where she'd come from, but he knew this woman well.
It had been three days since Lyra had managed to imprison her there. From what William had gathered, she'd believed Lyra to be her own mother. He might even have felt sorry for the poor bitch. Any possibility of that, however, had died with what had happened next. Evidently, she'd been furious. And damned if she didn't let them know it.
"All in the name of research, Lyra. And aren't I there already?"
"Perhaps. Her hell. And that's an excuse in your mind, Mr. Birkin? But everything has turned out in my favor. I won't judge you. I'll leave that to God."
Ah, Lyra. Right as she may have been up to that point, she was still a raving lunatic.
"Hopefully he'll have mercy."
"Ours is not a god of mercy to those who don’t deserve it, Mr. Birkin."
For a long moment they both fell silent. Finally William spoke again, "And your religion is an excuse to inflict more on this woman?"
Lyra smiled, as though she was explaining something to a small child. "Excuse? Why would I need an excuse? I’m giving her a purpose for her existence again. A great honor. If she understood, she might even thank me." Lyra took a step forwards towards the bars, seeming thoughtful. The chained woman certainly didn't seem to appreciate it.
"But that wouldn't stop that... other her... from ripping us to shreds about as quickly as this one here, would it."
William had only gotten a brief glance, for which he was thankful, but that one instant had been nothing short of horrifying...
"Oh, no," Lyra said, meeting his eyes for just a moment, "What you're seeing here still has some mercy left to her. She doesn't. If she managed to get in here, it would be disastrous; I doubt we’d last ten seconds, Mr. Birkin."
As much as he'd seen, as much as he'd lived through, William Birkin shuddered.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Death's Door
"Damn it, there's too many of them!"
Chris unloaded another shotgun round into a doctor-thing, but even as he did another seemed to take its place, stumbling towards him and Lisa down the nightmarish hallway. The mansion had definitely been hit, big time.
Rebecca...
Somehow they'd managed to fight their way through a horde of those things to make their way back to the main hall and up the once grand staircase, Chris's dread growing all the while. The mansion had been unsettling enough as it was, but it had been altered dramatically. What he hoped was rust coated the walls, stripped of paint, and the ceilings dripped. Sometimes a foul-smelling dark liquid... sometimes blood. The very structure seemed to have been warped, rooms which he could've sworn he'd known the position of showing up in strange places, or looking entirely different, or not even there at all.
And there was the matter of Rebecca, who he'd left alone. Not only were they more brutal, but the doctors seemed more intelligent than the zombies had been. If Rebecca had been found... But Chris could worry about that if he lived long enough to. They were nearly surrounded. He blasted at the approaching creatures with the Remington again, again... Out.
"Reloading! Cover me!"
Lisa nodded briefly then moved slightly out of his way and opened fire, like he'd seen before, better than quite a few who were twice her age, aiming and firing in rapid succession as Chris quickly pulled out more shells and began reloading. One of the doctors dropped several feet from being able to reach him, full of hot lead. Just one more, slowly coming up the decaying staircase, they were actually going to make it...
A gasping, excited cry, and Lisa shrieked. Chris whirled around.
"Lisa!"
He'd overlooked the one coming up from behind, and it now held the struggling Lisa in its disgusting grasp. Though she'd managed to knock away its scalpel at the cost of a long but shallow cut across her arm, she flailed wildly at it as it raked at her chest.
"Chris! Help!"
Acting almost without thought, Chris brought down the barrel of the shotgun with a loud grunt, slamming it right into the thing's head. Something cracked, but it was barely phased in its attack.
"Get the hell off of her!" he shouted furiously, then raised the shotgun to fire at point-blank range.
The doctor's head nearly exploded. Its slack arms fell from around Lisa, who jumped back with a sharp cry of revulsion when it fell forwards into her. There were flecks of crimson splattered in her hair and her breathing was heavy and erratic. Her dress was torn quite a bit, and she bled from the shallow claw wounds to her heaving chest.
"T-thank you. You just saved my ass."
"Don't mention it. I'm returning the favor."
Richard's radio began giving off static again. But this time it was different. It rose to an even higher pitch, louder than ever, until it nearly sounded like a scream. Nothing was in sight, at least not at the moment. Whatever it was, Chris did not want to meet up with it.
"Come on," he whispered.
"Right behind you," Lisa whispered back.
They were headed for the door out of the hallway when the radio's pitch rose even further and a high, female, somehow sinister laugh echoed through the hall. Chris looked around in every direction.
What the hell...?

Before his stunned eyes, something black and creeping began to snake its way up the stairs, spreading over the carpet and climbing the banisters like some kind of dark stain. There was a sound like footsteps on the padded steps, coming up, then a slight click from nearby.
Oh ****, don't let that be... Chris gave the door a solid yank. Locked. **** **** ****! Bad thing!
"Chris," Lisa said, still whispering, and pointed in the direction of the fallen doctor which had assaulted her. What...? He turned around... and felt himself gripped by a sudden rush of complete and utter dread.
Over the fallen body stood another figure.
Oh god...
A young girl, that much shouldn't have seemed threatening, but... The dark stain dripped from her hair like black ink and left tiny rivulets flowing down her nearly white skin, staining her dress pure black and plastering it to her skin. Her eyes were closed gently and she smiled, a slight grin, which on any other girl would look sweet, but on her looked like death. In her right hand was a gleaming and bloody dagger, engraved with an intricate design and with a bright scarlet ribbon tied around the hilt.
Sacrificial, he thought, his stomach in a knot.
This girl, who looked like hatred and death, opened her eyes. Blue, pure pale blue like Lisa's, but cold as ice and a good deal more violent.
Her smile didn't falter as she took a step forwards, then another. Lisa gave a little whimper, edging back, and Chris trained his shotgun on her chest.
"Who are you?!"
The girl didn't respond, other than to grin more widely. A shudder ran down his spine but he fired, the round smacking into her chest. The girl gave a slight gasp, turned around a bit by the blast... then she laughed again, sharp, mocking peals, and she just kept on coming.
"Ouch."
Oh god no. It couldn't end like this, with Lisa right behind him, inevitably this freakish girl's next victim. So he fired again, and again, producing nothing but a few droplets of unusually dark blood and a wider and wider smile from the girl. She raised the dagger, now barely two feet from him, and what happened next almost seemed speeded up, happening too fast to prevent. Chris braced himself as he fired his last shell, expecting to die, and soon...
"No! Chris!"
A pair of slim arms slammed into him with a surprising amount of force, sending him stumbling even as he reached out to stop this, and then the effort was for nothing.
The sickening sound of metal piercing flesh. Not his own. The handgun clattered to the floor.
"LISA!"
Lisa gave a little strangled cough, fresh blood spilling across her lips, her eyes enormous with pain, the dagger thrust deep into chest. The girl, this terrible, demonic entity, smirked and leaned towards Lisa slightly.
"Endgame," she merely said, "I win."
And with that, she roughly kicked Lisa off of her dagger. She collapsed like a limp rag doll. For a moment all Chris could do was stare, at her sprawled bleeding and helpless and quite possibly dying on the floor. And then he turned.
"You," he snarled, the word a furious growl, "I'll kill you!"
But before he could do anything more the girl chuckled, still smiling at him... and in seconds melted through the black stain now enveloping the hallway. The inky tendrils vanished moments after her passing. Chris's anger quickly gave way to desperation.
"Lisa!" he cried, kneeling by her side. Still breathing, thank god.
Lisa turned weakly, and she was pretty damned close to losing all of what little color she'd had in the first place.
"Hey," she murmured pathetically, "Chris. Are you okay?"
Chris holstered the shotgun and wrapped one of her limp arms around his neck, then gently hefted her petite form into his arms.
"I'm not going to let you die," he swore.
Lisa's breathing had become weak and labored, and more and more blood stained her dress a shade of bright crimson. No. She was going to make it. Chris denied any other possibility.
"I promise," he said softly.
Then he took a few running steps, crashed into the door, and busted it open.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Chris touched his lips to Lisa's ashen cheek for just a moment. It felt much, much too cold. She was unconscious, the shallow rising and falling of her chest growing weaker and weaker. He held her too small, too young form a bit closer to his own body and quickened his pace.
She jumped in front of me.
The sickening sound of metal piercing flesh. Not his own. The handgun clattered to the floor.
"LISA!"
Rebecca had to be there, she could do something, she had to save Lisa, she was just a child... She murmured softly in his arms, unintelligibly.
Lisa gave a little strangled cough, fresh blood spilling across her lips, her eyes enormous with pain, the dagger thrust deep into her chest.
"Hang in there," Chris pleaded. He'd said that he was going to protect her, and he'd let this happen? He sighed. No time for self-recrimination now. He'd have to move quickly, before she bled out.
At least this hallway looked fairly normal. Still cold, uninviting, and- perhaps thankfully- utterly deserted, but at least it wasn't blood-soaked, or crawling with doctors. In fact, it was nearly the same as when he'd left it. He wondered if something had changed, again...
"Almost there," he whispered, almost as much to reassure himself as to Lisa.
Even as Chris took his first step onto the cracked and worn wooden staircase leading down, he thought he heard some slight movement from inside the small serum room off to the side of the steps.
Rebecca!
He would've all but sprinted down the rest of the stairs if it weren’t for Lisa in his arms. Whatever the noise had been from suddenly stopped, perhaps at his noisy descent. When he reached the door he called out,
"Hey! Please, let me in!"
There was no response from the other side of the door. "Please... I've got an injured girl out here! She could die! She needs treatment, now!"
Slowly footsteps began coming towards the door, obviously hesitant. "It's okay, I'm not one of those things!"
The knob turned. The door opened. Upon first seeing the female figure Chris couldn't help a relieved sigh of, "Rebecca." After a moment he realized his mistake.
"Rebecca...?"
No, it wasn't her. This woman was older, in her twenties or early thirties perhaps, with dark hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and she wore a now familiar white lab coat, though she looked completely normal. Alive.
"Who's-" The woman cut herself off at the sight of Lisa. "Oh my god! What happened to her?!"
By this point, Chris was frantic. "I'll explain later, just please help her!”
The woman nodded briskly.
"I'm... I was a doctor here. Lay her down on that cot; we've got to bandage those wounds before she loses any more blood. It's a miracle she's even still breathing..."
More than relieved to have found someone with an idea of what she was doing, even if he had no clue where Rebecca had gone, Chris obeyed and carefully set Lisa's limp body down on the same bed which his comrade Richard had rested earlier. A little dried blood from his wound was still on the bed, and Chris's vest was damp and stained with Lisa's.
"I didn't know anyone else was still alive," the woman said as she opened a chest and retrieved a roll of bandages, "My name's Christy Foster. And you are...?"
He kneeled by the bed, unable to tear his gaze from Lisa's prone form.
"Chris Redfield. I was sent to investigate the area, and everything went to hell. I found Lisa, and she already had the stomach wound and... she got stabbed by some bitch with a dagger. I put enough shells into her to drop an elephant, she wouldn't go down..."
Christy placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey... Chris. It's okay now. I'm going to treat her. I need you to look away, alright? I'm going to have to take off the top of her dress to bandage her chest, and it feels kind of, well, improper to have you watch. The way I was raised, you know?"
Finally Chris looked away from Lisa, and turned to face the other way with a sigh.
"Yes, ma'am."
Christy kneeled beside him, unraveling a length of bandage before setting to work on Lisa.
Lisa... Please let me have been right about you being tougher than you look...

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Live
Christy had worked quickly, bandaging Lisa's now numerous wounds swiftly and skillfully. Definitely a professional. Chris was grateful for that much. She now kneeled next to him beside the cot where Lisa rested, her young face deeply troubled even in unconsciousness. He supposed that it would be after the ordeal that she had just barely survived.
"So is she going to be... okay? She's not..."
Christy sighed, seeming troubled herself.
"I can't be sure. Honestly, I'm not sure how she even lived through something like this. So much blood loss..."
Lisa's odd reaction outside of the cabin came to mind, when he'd asked her about the gash on her stomach.
"I... I don't know."
Something was off. Chris couldn't quite place his finger on what it was, but something was.
Yeah, maybe there is something up. So? This isn't the time to be suspecting the girl who just saved your life of...
He didn't even know what he was suspecting her of. Ridiculous.
"Yeah, Lisa's pretty tough, I guess."
Christy nodded. "I suppose so."
Chris felt her hand on his shoulder, warm. "I was starting to think that I was the only one left after... whatever happened. I must've blacked out or something, and then everything was like this. Everyone else except me is gone. I was so scared..."
And it was obvious that she was, from the anxiety alive in her warm brown eyes to the nervous way she fidgeted with her hands. Chris immediately wanted to offer her some kind of comfort.
"Christy, it's alright now. I'm here; you don't have to go it alone anymore. Okay? I'm going to keep you safe, too."
Like you did for Lisa?
He shoved the thought aside. Christy smiled slightly.
"Thank you. I definitely appreciate it."
"Hey... Don't mention it. I'm just doing my job."
Her smile grew brighter, and she shifted her body closer to his. "Chris..."
Chris wasn't sure of how to react. He was spared the difficulty when a muted thump came from outside in the hallway, followed by a series of slow, deliberate footsteps. Christy gave a little gasp, and now Chris was really regretting using up the last of the shells for the Remington, and leaving the handgun he'd given Lisa in his hurry to get her to Rebecca. Hopefully whatever it was wouldn't realize that they were there... Another footstep.
****!
He searched the room for something that might make a suitable weapon. There was the pair of scissors, but that was looking pretty pathetic considering how hard the doctors were to bring down. If worst came to worst he supposed he could use the shotgun as a club...
"I'll check it out," he said, keeping his voice down. Christy rose to her feet, then opened the chest which she'd gotten the bandages from and pulled out a heavy looking iron pipe.
"You can use this if you have to," she offered in a hushed tone. He nodded, taking the pipe before setting it down for a moment. Chris pulled off his bulletproof vest and held it out to Christy, who accepted it with a slightly bewildered look.
"Give this to Lisa," he explained.
Without even waiting for a response he picked up the pipe again, headed for the door, then opened and closed it behind him. Richard's radio began to faintly give off static, which grew stronger as Chris took a step forwards. He readied the pipe and tried to mentally prepare himself for what might be coming. Time to find out what he was up against.

The last thing that Chris had been expecting was the man. He seemed tired, weary looking, with disheveled brown hair... There was an air of menace to him, though, which made him immediately stop in his tracks.
"Who... are you?"
The man turned slowly to face him... and the radio exploded into a burst of static.
Oh... ****!
"Traitors..." the man murmured, brandishing- Chris felt his stomach twist into a knot. A magnum revolver, with what appeared to be blood splattered across it.
Wasn't that...Barry's?
That thought definitely wasn't a pleasant one and didn't lead to anything good. Chris raised the pipe, which was seeming pretty damn ineffective against someone who could've-
"They're gone," the man spoke again, his voice now a low growl, his dark eyes glinting with malice.
"Drop the gun," Chris demanded, though from the waves of white noise hissing from the radio with his every move he wasn't expecting a response.
A moment later there was an explosive bang, a flash of muzzle fire, and Chris leaped out of the way as a heavy slug whistled past and embedded itself in a wall.
God, Christy and Lisa!
He had to get this man away from where they were sheltered, defenseless. So before he had a chance to aim again, Chris vaulted over the railing of the staircase, taking the steps at a full sprint even as he felt an explosion of wood chips just behind his feet, pelting his legs. As soon as he got the chance he took cover behind a wall, ready to make a run for it if the man made so much as a move toward the small storeroom. Fortunately he did just as Chris had hoped he would and began approaching the stairs. He switched off the radio, pressed himself closely against the wall, and cautiously edged sideways.
Now if I can just keep quiet, if I wait just long enough…
He counted the unhurried, echoing footsteps coming slowly towards him and clenched the pipe until his knuckles turned white with the strain.
Just a little farther now…
The instant that the man turned to round the corner Chris brought the pipe down with a grunt of exertion. He was rewarded with a resounding crack as the man’s head was forced down from the impact… and he barely flinched.
That’s not good!
The next things that Chris felt were frigid hands grasping his neck. Chris gasped for air, franticly struggling against the man’s iron grip.
What the hell… I can’t… breathe!
The man’s face was entirely expressionless, just about the complete opposite of that strange girl’s violent brutality. Either way, if he didn’t act fast, Chris was screwed. His lungs crying out for oxygen and the strength fading from his limbs as he was literally lifted off of the ground, he brought up one leg and gave him the most solid kick to the gut that he could manage at the moment, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. To his intense surprise and relief, the man actually doubled over a bit for just a moment, releasing Chris’s throat. He fell to the floor on his knees and quickly jumped to his feet.
Yes!
Relying on the adrenaline burst that caused sweat to bead all over his brow and neck and his heart to pound at easily twice its normal rate, he sprinted down the short stretch between him and his escape route, barely escaping another shot that flew past and tore up a good chunk of the nearby floor, fired from close enough that his ears were ringing. Chris slammed his body into the same door he’d come through with Lisa and was already through by the time it smacked into the wall, searching the stained floor.
Chris’s suspicion that something had once again been altered was confirmed by the state of the main hallway- it was nearly the same as it had been when he’d first entered the mansion, seemingly ages ago now.
Come on, come on… There!
Lisa’s handgun, lying abandoned by a gut-wrenching bloodstain.
Lisa…
He snatched up the gun, jerking it in the direction that he had just come from. The man already stood in the doorway and was aiming Barry’s gun right at him.
“****!”
Chris dodged in the same instant that a bullet would’ve hit him. At least the man didn’t seem to have much of an aim, otherwise he doubted that he would’ve lasted that long. Fortunately, he was a much better marksman, as anyone could attest to. He aimed, fired… and a shot was sent straight through the man’s forehead. He gasped, staggered-
Thank god!
And stood straight once more, staring directly into his eyes with a terrible, soulless glare. The same dark fluid that he’d seen rapidly began melting into place, repairing the gaping hole in the man’s skull until it was once again smooth.
Oh… ****!
What else could he do? Chris fired again and again as the man raised the weapon that would be the end of him.
I’m sorry, Lisa.
Then, as if something good finally had to happen, the magnum clicked dry. For a moment Chris was stunned by the utter stroke of luck. But only for a moment. He knew that he’d have little time. Letting his fury at this man wash over him until his skin felt flushed with it, Chris tensed, readying his body.
“I’m not going to let you touch Christy or Lisa,” he growled, intent on fulfilling his vow to protect them this time.
There was no change in his expression. “Lisa…?”
Firing again and again into the man’s chest, Chris charged straight at him with a low howl that he barely recognized as his own, wanting whatever the man was to die, plain and simple. The clip loaded into the handgun ran out almost in the instant that he slammed into that clammy body, and the impact sent him stumbling backwards into and over the banister. He hit the floor below with a sickening but undeniably satisfying crack, his head bent at an unnatural angle and his limbs splayed crudely. There was no movement.
“Son of a bitch,” Chris muttered, then leaned over above where he’d landed and loaded another clip into the gun and emptied the entire fifteen shots into the still body.
After the eighth shot, however, the figure began to seemingly melt into that inky black substance, seething, and seep into the floor until nothing remained. It almost seemed too good to be true, but when he switched on the radio it was silent, without a trace of static.
Thank god… Time to be getting back there.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Without warning, a door across the hall slowly swung open, creaking on its rusty old hinges, and he franticly reached for the handgun’s last clip. It was only once it was fully open that he saw that there was no visible cause for the door’s opening.
What the hell? I’ve had enough of this…
Still though, he should investigate a bit, to take out any other impending threats. He didn’t think he could live with anything else happening on his watch. Still hesitant to be even farther from the room where he knew Christy and Lisa would be waiting, Chris began walking towards the opened door.

This Can’t Be Real
Drip. Drip.
Am I… alive?
Drip.
From the screaming pain just below her heart, the answer was fairly obvious. Lisa took a deep, shuddering breath, unable to open her eyes just yet. She could feel the semi-dried blood caked all over her chest, from what should’ve been a lethal injury.
That bitch with the black hair, she was going to stab him, and I…
Chris. He’d probably met up with Rebecca; they’d probably patched her up and, without a doubt, saved her life. But then why was it so silent? It was freezing, a cold cement floor under her, and…
It reeks like blood.
Drip.
“C-Chris…?”
No response. “Chris?”
Another drop of liquid fell and rolled in an aimless path down Lisa’s arm and a shudder ran down her spine. Oh god, something was wrong, really wrong… In an instant her eyes were open, and for one frantic moment she couldn’t even believe what she was seeing. She gave a sharp gasp and got herself up into a sitting position, immediately flinching against the pain the action brought on. The forest had been bad, and the mansion worse, but this… This was something right out of someone’s nightmares.
The patch of cement floor that she was on seemed to be the only one, the rest of the floor made up of filthy, rusted grating, and she could see another floor below right through it. Across the room several sheets, stained entirely red in places, hung over-
I don’t want to know.
Her stomach lurched.
Drip.
Another drop of something that was suspiciously warm, into her hair this time. On instinct Lisa looked upwards, and shortly after cried out in disgusted distress, pushing herself backwards away from the source of the drip. No sheet over this one, and the body was horrifically battered beyond any kind of recognition and seemed to be suspended by some kind of meat hooks.
“Where am I?” she moaned to no one in particular.
Great question. Right up there with, where’s Chris, and, what the hell is going on here?
Lisa didn’t want to move. Whatever else was there, she didn’t want to see it. For a minute or so, she didn’t, and no one could’ve gotten her to. Something was nagging at her though, something that had seemed unimportant…
Is that perfume?
She didn’t dare to breathe in too deeply, but it was definitely perfume, some kind of floral note mixed in with the odor of blood wafting up from down below. But why the hell would there be-
Click. Click.
That was what finally got her back on her feet. It sounded like… Then the footsteps continued, moving away. There was someone down there! Gritting her teeth at the stabbing sensation in her chest, the hammering of her heart only making it worse, Lisa set off at an awkward run in the direction of the sound. Whoever it was didn’t pause, instead quickening their pace.
“Hello?” she called out, getting no answer in return. “Hey! Please, I’m-“ A door slammed shut. Damn… Who could that have been?
And I’m not honestly going to try to find out, am I…?
Lisa continued at a cautious walk forwards.
Jesus Christ, I am, aren’t I. I guess if I get myself killed it’s my own damned fault…
There. A ladder descended near the wall opposite the one where the bodies hung. From what she could see, the floor below seemed similar to the one she was on, with a grating floor interspersed with one patch of cement in the center, and below that…
Holy ****…
Lisa told herself that, realistically, there had to be some kind of end, it was probably just too far down to see. But on an instinctive level she knew the truth. Either way, she could see where the ladder led to the next floor down. It was just a question of whether or not she was actually going to follow it. Within moments, her feet were on the rungs and she was gripping the top as though her life depended on it. Looking at that drop, which she was putting a great effort into not doing, it probably did.
Minding her every movement as she climbed down, Lisa soon stood at the end of an L-shaped hallway lined by high windows to the left and several cracked glass cases to the right. The door was probably around the bend somewhere. But inside of one of the cases… Lisa picked it up and held it up to study it. It was a long, single-edged blade of sharp and glistening tempered steel with a recognizably Asian design on the hilt. She’d seen one somewhere before, a katana, that’s what it was called. She gripped the katana in both hands as she rounded the corner; she might need it.
Sure enough, the door was directly ahead at the end of the hall. For some reason she wasn’t sure of, Lisa shuddered just staring at it. It was a plain wooden door, not particularly threatening looking, but something about it made her stomach twist uncomfortably. More of a sudden anxiety about what might lay behind it, she supposed. Only one way of finding out though. Taking one deep breath to settle herself, she took a single step forwards…
And one of the windows imploded, showering her with ****tered glass. Lisa cried out and stumbled back into the wall away from the dark shape that shot in through the frame, protecting her eyes with her arm. The scent of blood and ash and rot washed over her. She quickly moved to defend herself against the still unknown threat, and-
Oh Christ! What… what is it?
It was all she could do not to drop the katana out of her shaking hands. Whatever that thing was, it was not a dog. That was the basic shape, but the resemblance stopped there. Lisa’s stunned mind took in dragging, bloody bandages, a wildly flickering tongue, and something that greatly tempted her to vomit. Sliced cleanly in half vertically, and yet still snarling. Still coming towards her. The thing reared back on its clawed paws in preparation for a leap at her. With some cry caught between a wail and a shriek that she’d hardly known she could produce, Lisa practically slammed the blade down and into its lithe, disgusting body, shrieking louder when the thing gave a long, furious howl. She pulled the katana back, wildly slashed again, again… until the dog finally dropped with one last growling whine. Lisa gasped for breath, her limbs now feeling like liquid. All she’d seen over the last few days had been unbelievable, but this… This was not possible! This just couldn’t exist! On the floor the dog twitched in a dying motion and, groaning in distress, she gave it a firm kick to the head, instantly stilling it. A garbled howl echoed from outside the window, soon joined by another in its chorus.
Screw this! I’m not dealing with any more of those!
Lisa took the rest of the hall at a full-on sprint and nearly slammed into the door when she reached it, already groping for the handle nearly blindly. As soon as she had it open, she all but flew through it and slammed it behind her.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

“You kept me waiting.”
Lisa could feel the blood drain from her face within seconds at the sound of that voice.
Bad idea. Worst idea I could’ve had, god, what was I thinking?!
The source of the voice sat patiently at the foot of the stairwell, her pale face showing only rage and irritation. That dagger, still crusted with blood that must’ve been hers, lay on the steps behind the girl. Instead she now gripped a massive, towering sword-
More like a knife. A huge one…
- that, as a girl Lisa’s own size, she should’ve barely even been able to move. She stood, however, knife and all. Lisa turned and gave the door handle a good yank though her palms nearly slipped from sweating. To her dismay, it didn’t budge.
“Why are you still alive?”
The door at the other side of the hall! Lisa gunned for it until her lungs felt ready to give. Locked as well. ****! She could hear the knife scraping across the floor as the girl unhurriedly approached. The entire hall, floor to ceiling, was already stained an inky and dripping black by the substance that seemed to follow that girl, making the floor feel as though it would bind Lisa there if she stood still for too long.
“You were supposed to be weak! You were supposed to be half dead already! How is it that you’re still… alive?! I’m going to finish what I started now. I’m going to kill you, and you’re going to stay dead this time.”
Lisa edged slowly towards the bend behind the staircase, only to be met with a gaping drop, which she very nearly stumbled right into. She flailed her arms with a scream and took a large step backwards on instinct.
“Who… who are you?!” She’d meant to sound firm, though that failed miserably. Her voice shook and broke in terror. The girl paused for just a moment, regarding her with another of her evil-looking smiles.
“Me?”
Her smirk grew until it seemed that every one of her teeth was showing.
“I’m the mother of god.”
She swung the enormous knife so hard and near that Lisa could hear, feel it slice through the air and then, with a squeal of protesting metal, into the grating floor. She’d been driven right to the edge of that hole and was beginning to dread that there was no other way to go but down.
And down… and down.
Still though, fighting her way through the fear that nearly paralyzed her, Lisa brandished the katana.
“Chris saved my life, and I’m not letting you get to him. Not on my life.” To her own near amazement, her voice didn’t tremble as her hands did. She was confident of at least that much. The girl laughed once, a triumphant bark, maybe at something in her expression, or just at the fact that Lisa was, indeed, cornered like a rat waiting for the hungry cat to make its move.
“Chris? Oh, so that’s it, is it?” Now she outright chuckled, her white and streaked face twisted into a sneer. “I’ll kill him too, of course, just to make sure you’re good and buried. Wouldn’t want you walking away from this one. I’ll have my fun with him, too. Don’t worry, though, you’re not going to have to see that. I’ll-“
It was then that Lisa felt her hands tensing on the katana until her knuckles turned white from the strain, felt flushed with a sudden rage, felt the scream rising in her throat, felt something that resembled adrenaline but was more like raw power pounding through her until the pain in her chest was barely a whisper, and it didn’t matter who the **** this girl was or if she was some demon straight up from hell.
“Shut… The hell… UP!”
The blade was deadly steel in her hands and she was the one stabbing forwards this time, unable to aim in her fury but rewarded nonetheless by the resistance of yielding flesh and a small gasp of surprise, indignation, and yes, pain. The girl was indeed bleeding that inky substance from the fresh cut just above her stomach. When Lisa withdrew the blade, it was stained with it. The girl stumbled back a step and the knife slammed into the floor as if for support. Lisa howled, swinging the katana back over her head and lunging forwards to deliver the most powerful blow she had in her. In that single instant, though, the girl straightened herself, spat, and lifted the knife.
“Bitch,” she growled.
For a moment there was only pain as Lisa’s vision momentarily went black… and then she realized what had happened. The blunt side of the knife had caught her, she was stumbling backwards… Lisa screamed and flailed frantically for something, anything, but her searching hands met only air. The last image she had of that girl smiling vengefully tilted crazily as Lisa fell backwards into the blackness that she’d realized not so long ago was nothing.

Something against her chest felt tight.
What…?
A mere moment ago, she’d been screaming, falling, and now something against her chest felt tight. One of Lisa’s hands groped out and beneath it was… She opened her eyes. A bed. She’d been laid out on a bed, her chest bandaged, and… Lisa sat up and looked down at the green tactical vest that had been put over her torn dress. Chris’s.
“Chris?” Like before, no answer. She felt a chill run down her spine. Her brow was still beaded with sweat. Had that all been some sort of nightmare? She found that hard to believe; the room that she’d been brought to had much the same hellish scheme as the rest, with the rusty grating floor and matching ceiling in addition to a decaying shelf and table, a chest seemingly thrown forcefully at a wall and laying there with its contents of papers strewn about. The final nail in the coffin-
Jesus, what a euphemism…-
Was what was still clutched in her right hand tightly enough that Lisa had to unlock her fingers with her other hand. The katana’s blade was still bloodstained.
Something on the table at the foot of the bed caught her eye. Lisa swung her legs off the bed and stepped off, then walked over to investigate it. A fresh sheet of paper was in the antique typewriter. As soon as she’d read the first few lines, her heart jumped in her aching chest.

“You didn’t honestly think that you could win, did you? I know that you didn’t; I know and so do you that you’re not that stupid and naïve.
So then, what was it that you were looking for? I mean, really looking for when you came after me like that? Your mother? Really?
Or maybe, you’re like a moth drawn to a flame; maybe you’re headed for your own end because it’s the only light you can see.
Either way, I honestly don’t care. Because this isn’t a game anymore. No, you’ve already crossed that line. No turning back now. Now this is war. And we both know it’s a war that you can’t win, right?
Why can’t you just accept the fact that you should’ve been dead already, a ghost? In fact, this would even be best for you. Better than waiting for something else to come and drag it out. I can just imagine…
But maybe you shouldn’t worry about that now. After all, you’ve gotten away from me for now.
Right?
I’ll leave you with that. Until next time, I’m always watching you… Lisa.”

“Crazy,” Lisa murmured, trying to suppress other thoughts that the letter had brought up.
Something is wrong, definitely wrong, how would she know about my mother, about me? Watching me, oh god…
“Should’ve been dead already-“
Stabbed in the stomach by a monster… right?
“She’s crazy.” And yet Lisa crushed the paper in her hand and threw it into the pile of rotted wood that had been a rack of shelves with a sigh of exasperation and that same feeling of almost uncertainty that she’d been afflicted with off and on. “I don’t get it,” she groaned to no one in particular, “What does she mean?”
There was one certainty, though. That girl was still out there… Lisa shuddered. And so was Chris. Unless of course-
Put that right the **** out of your mind, he’s fine and you know it. He had to have left to… to look for Rebecca or something…
Her own rationalization and the hint of desperation in that thought was enough motivation to get her moving. Lisa retrieved the katana from the bed, inhaled deeply, and after a moment’s pause removed her heeled shoes and slammed them into the floor one after the other, effectively snapping off the stilettos before putting them back on. Then she strode across the room for the door.
“Chris…”

 

[T-Virus Rose]

True Otherworld
Chris stared down at the mauled corpse sprawled out on the floor, sliced open down the middle to the extent that its entrails were spilled out in a bloody heap and dismembered. A scalpel was still clutched in the hand of one severed arm.
I’m being led. I have no idea where to, or by what, but I’m being led.
From the bloody trail made by creatures killed in a similar manner to the doors that slammed and locked immediately behind him, he knew that for sure. Whether it was like an animal to slaughter was yet to be seen, but it wasn’t as if he had any other choice.
And it had happened again… But this time was different from even before; it was as if reality itself was falling apart. The halls had taken on the quality of someone’s nightmares. Chris almost could’ve sworn, and he would not allow himself to believe that it was true, that the walls were breathing as blood slowly oozed forth from them and trickled down through the floor and on and on down…
The door behind him would be stuck beyond opening, and he knew it. He’d tried to return to Lisa and Christy to do what little he could to defend them, but the door hadn’t budged. Nor the next, or the next. It hadn’t just felt as if they were locked either, it seemed like the doors had been sealed by some sort of force, an unmovable object against the other side. Something wanted him to go the way he was going.
It was stupid to do this in the first place, why didn’t I just turn back as soon as that guy dropped?
For the same reason that he’d ignored his captain’s warning, of course, that strange, eerie feeling of being drawn in by some power much greater than himself. Maybe he really had very little control at all over it. Or maybe that was ridiculous… Ridiculous. Try insane, but everything had indeed gone insane by that point.
“Well, I think we’re both a little crazy by this point.”
It hit him again, suddenly and acutely. By that point Lisa could’ve been…
Admit it, Chris. She looked bad, dying bad…
Jesus Christ, stop that! Christy fixed her up, she’s going to be fine. Just worry about what’s going to happen to you right now…
There was a kind of scraping, shuffling noise from behind the next door, like something heavy being moved. Something like a body… Within seconds of the thought Chris had thrown open the door, gun at the ready. And…

What…? For a moment Chris’s exhausted mind would barely even process what he was seeing. It was… a little girl. A little girl, probably around ten or so in age, with red hair brushing past her shoulders and clutching a pink stuffed rabbit in one hand. She stood alone at the opposite end of the hallway, and turned around to face him upon his entry.
“You…!” he couldn’t help calling out in surprise. Another young girl caught up in all of that?
But something about this girl seemed… off, for lack of a better way of putting it.
It wasn’t anything in her demeanor or her expression, but...
“Huh?”
The girl took a step forwards, looking nothing more than somewhat curious. It seemed genuine, and Chris wanted to believe that. The radio was quiet though… “Who are you?”
She giggled slightly and leaned against a wall, seemingly ignoring its gristly covering completely. “Me? I’m Rachael.”
Trying to ignore the sudden dropping feeling in his gut, Chris took a step towards her, only to have Rachael respond by taking one back.
“Well… Rachael. I’m-“
“Chris… right?”
Get back, his gut seemed to be insisting, This is trouble, I don’t care what the damned radio is or isn’t doing…
Are you willing to take that chance, though? What if you really are just leaving a little kid to fend for herself in a place like this?
“How…” Chris paused to steady his voice. “How did you know that?”
Rachael shrugged. “I heard you. And that other girl. I saw, too. She was all bloody and stuff… Hey, is she dying?”
She’d heard them. She’d been watching…
“Hey, is she dying?”
“Lisa’s… going to be okay.”
Rachael grinned a pearly white little smile. “Oh, good. I was worried. She sure looked like she was dying…”
He did his best not to mind the casual tone with which she discussed the possibility, and not to raise his voice to a shout.
“Well, she’s not. And what are you doing here anyway? You shouldn’t be running around like this, why aren’t you with your parents or something?” Rachael merely shrugged again.
“I don’t think that’s any of your business. But oh well… I guess it won’t matter if I tell you. I’m here… looking for someone,” she replied brightly.
Again? Chris nearly sighed out loud. When he took another step forwards, she took one more back in the direction of the door behind her.
“Rachael? What are you doing?”
“What’s it look like I’m doing, Chris? Leaving. I don’t have time to stand around talking to you. I’m way too busy.” She put her hand on the doorknob.
“Rachael, wait! I really think that… that you should come with me.”
Of course he thought she should. There was no reasonable explanation not to, and no reasonable explanation for the chill running up and down his spine… Rachael didn’t even turn to face him. “Nope,” she said, shaking her head without hesitation, “I don’t need you following me. All you’ll do is be slow and worry about Lisa.” She opened the door.
“Rachael! At least tell me who you’re looking for!”
That got her to turn around, though she seemed to have no intention of staying.
“Oh,” Rachael said sweetly, her expression now somehow loving, as if she was thinking of something very dear to her…
“I’m looking for god.”
“Wait, Rachael!”
She closed the door behind her. Chris ran the distance to the door and tried to turn the knob, but once again it wouldn’t budge. Rachael was, for all intents and purposes, gone.
“Looking for god…?” he murmured out loud, and with an abrupt certainty that any questions that that might have risen weren’t ones he truly wanted answered.
Looking for god in this hell, what could she have meant? And a little girl wandering around talking about looking for god…
Bizarre, but not the most unusual thing he’d seen…
The radio began giving off a low hiss of white noise. Not the static he’d heard in the presence of the creatures, but some kind of interference… Underneath it was what sounded like distressed, feminine breathing. “What the hell?” He turned up the volume and listened closely. After a moment or so the breathing escalated into a soft, steady whine, then a whimper… All but forgetting that the radio was broken, Chris held down the transmit button.
“Lisa!”
There was no break in her pained whimper. If anything, it seemed to grow just a bit louder and clearer by the second. Oh god, was she okay?
Don’t let that other door be locked, I can circle around, get back to the storeroom that way…
Luckily the handle moved easily when tried and the door swung outwards. The first hall they’d come through after returning to the mansion… But where were the bodies? They’d barely been able to blast their way through before… Finally Lisa’s whine came to a sudden stop. Chris couldn’t be certain of whether that was a good or bad thing. But after just a moment’s pause, in a soft, oddly lost voice,
“Chris…?”
Once again forgetting that it was useless, Chris nearly shouted into the radio, “Oh god, Lisa, I’m coming! Just wait for me!”
Something about her tone was off though, like she was speaking in her sleep.
“Chris…?”
“Li-“
“Chris… Chris… Chris…”
Lisa just kept repeating his name over and in that lost, dreaming whisper; she was calling him to her. Chris sighed.
“Just hang on.”

As soon as he opened the next door, he heard the footsteps at the other end of the hallway and froze, wary of whatever may have been coming.
Not the guy with Barry’s gun again. Not that bitch with the dagger…
The steps stopped at almost the same time that Chris’s did, however. Even Lisa on the radio fell silent. So he continued forwards at a cautious pace. No static announced the presence of a creature… The other set of footsteps resumed moving as well.
“Chris?”
Instinctively Chris raised the radio, but…
Wait…!
He froze in his tracks.
“Lisa?”
A sigh of almost frantic relief, and then she was running for him.
“Chris!”
He met her at the bend in the hallway and caught her in his arms, then held her back a bit to see what damage had been done. She was still pale, and her chest was still a little bloody through his vest, but it appeared to be drying. Aside from that, there were traces of blood in her hair and in meandering paths down her arms, but no new injuries were visible. The katana she now gripped, however, still glistened red in the dimmed light.
“You’re okay,” he sighed in relief.
“More or less.”
“I knew it. You’re pretty tough for a kid.”
Lisa stepped back out of his hold. “Did you… find Rebecca? She’s the one who bandaged me up, right?”
Christy, why hadn’t Christy been there? Had she run when the mansion had been warped once again?
“No, I didn’t. But there was this woman, a doctor. Christy. Did you see her? She was right there when I… left. God, I’m sorry Lisa, there was this guy, I think he killed one of my partners, and I was just trying to keep you safe, I didn’t mean to leave you there…”
Lisa waved away his attempt to apologize. “It’s fine, Chris. I’m okay. But no, when I woke up, there was no one there. I can’t blame her for leaving, though, this place really went to hell this time…”
Chris nodded in agreement. “I hear you there.” Then he sighed, looking her over again.
“But Lisa… Why were you-“
“Chris…?”
Lisa’s face drained of what color she retained… She hadn’t said a word.
What the hell?

 

[T-Virus Rose]

“Chris?”
For a moment she fell silent. Then…
“Chris? Where are you?” Her voice had lost its dreamlike tone, and now sounded not just frightened, but terrified. In panic, he looked from the radio to Lisa and back.
“What’s going on?” she whispered, even as he heard her sob.
“It… it hurts! Where are you, Chris? Chris! I… I feel like I’m dying!” She sobbed again. “Help me, Chris… Please…”
“Chris.”
A different voice over Lisa’s pleas, a mocking feminine one.
“You can’t save her, you know. It’s too late for that.”
“Chris… Help me!”
“I doubt you can even save yourself now…”
“Where are you? Please!”
“And you can’t save her.”
Chris heard gasping, terrified breathing that he recognized in an instant. His stomach plunged.
“Rebecca!”
“Chris? W-who is she? Oh god, Chris, I think she’s going to kill me!”
The girl laughed.
“See, Lisa? You can’t just get rid of me, and it would be stupid to think you can just run.”
Lisa snatched the radio from him aggressively.
“Shut up! You shut the hell up!”
“Oh… I’m just being honest.”
Radio’s supposed to be broken, how did she hear that?
Over the radio, Lisa whimpered again. “I’m so scared… I don’t know what’s going to happen to me!”
“What are you going to do with Rebecca?!” she demanded.
“Go ahead, come get her. And hurry up, I’m getting bored.”
Lisa growled. “**** you! I don’t know what you want from us, but I’ve had it with playing your sick game!”
Her second voice on the radio paused in mid-sob.
“You’re…”
Faint waves of static began washing over the words, but were growing stronger.
“… Can’t save her,” the girl mocked again.
“Chri-… -lp me!… wai-… for you… I’m waiting for you, Chris!… I’m…”
The rest was lost under white noise, which then fell silent. Lisa sighed in frustration and handed the radio back to Chris.
“Bitch… Well? Are we going to go after Rebecca or what?”
After everything that had happened to her, and he had been unable to prevent…
“You remind me of my sister, you know… It could be some kind of trap.”
Lisa shrugged. “Are we going to just leave her?”
“Nope.”
“That’s what I thought. I don’t mind fighting for an impossible cause.”
Chris didn’t like the idea of Rebecca going up against that girl; she’d been unarmed the last time he’d seen her… She could be dead in a matter of moments if they weren’t lucky.
“We’d better hurry. Like she said… I doubt she’ll wait long.”
Lisa nodded firmly. Relying on his gut instinct… At least, he hoped that was what it was… Chris led the way down the hall at a steady run.

 

[Levan]

Awesome writing, I gotta say. I feel envious that I'm not even close to be as good as you as a writer. xD

But don't mind me, keep going, I'd like to see more of the story.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Thanks. I want to read yours but I don't want to know anything about RE5 until I can play it lol. I'm sure it's pretty good.

Your Sick Game
As bad as the begging and jeering over the radio had been, the silence that followed may have been worse.
Where are you, Rebecca? Damn it, I’m not failing you, too!
Despite her previous injuries, Lisa kept up just a step or two behind him, and her breathing remained even. Whatever that chilling message from ‘her’ had been about, she actually looked much better.
“Your… chest. Is it hurting much?” he inquired breathlessly, “I mean… you do think you’ll be alright… right?”
She nodded, with… that look. “It… doesn’t.” Lisa pressed one hand to her chest while continuing her jog. “I… I can barely feel it now.”
“What?”
Stabbed in the chest, nearly through the heart, and she could barely feel it? It didn’t make sense. Something was going on… Chris turned and caught her off guard, taking her by the wrists. Lisa protested, trying to pull her hands away.
“Chris…”
“You’re… going into shock or something. It’s the only thing I can think of, hold still for a minute…”
“Chris, I’m not, don’t worry about me now!”
It honestly didn’t make much sense either, though she was still pale and a bit colder than normal she seemed perfectly focused, and her gaze was unwavering.
“Humor me here. I don’t want anything happening to you.”
She sighed in exasperation, but ultimately consented.
“We should be looking for Rebecca right now,” Lisa insisted, and a part of Chris’s mind knew that she was right, but he had to know.
All right, Lisa. What is it that’s up with you? Something’s off, I know that much. Not Rachael off, but there is something there.
“Are you still losing blood? I was pretty sure Christy stopped it when she bound it, but if you’ve lost feeling…”
Rebecca would know what to do, but that was fairly well out of the question at the moment.
“I never said that. It just doesn’t hurt. And I don’t think so…” Probably seeing his confusion, her tone became uneasy and not just a bit frightened. “Chris… I-is something happening to me? What is it?”
He shook his head. “I wish I could tell you. Just… take a look. Tell me if it’s gotten worse.”
A halfhearted trace of a smile crossed Lisa’s face but didn’t quite make it to her eyes. It was a weak attempt, and she knew it. “What, officer? Afraid to see me topless? Fine, then.”
She set down her katana and turned slightly to lift Chris’s vest over her head then shrug out of the top of her dress, exposing her lean and bandaged back.
“There’s a lot on these bandages…”
“Yeah. You were bleeding like a son of a bitch though, you had me worried that you weren’t going to make it.”
With a sigh, she reached for the small metal clips that held the bandages in place.
“Lisa, I don’t think that’s…”
Before Chris could finish, they dropped limply to hang around her waist.
It was only a moment before Lisa screamed.
“Lisa!”
“No. No. No! This isn’t happening! It can’t be happening!”
Chris hurriedly put a hand on her shoulder, entirely unsure of what to suspect. “Lisa, what? What’s going on?”
She gasped and ran both hands over her chest, then turned.
“Chris…!”
For a second or two Chris didn’t even see it. Just her smooth chest, covered by a heavily bloodstained and faintly lace patterned bra. Then it struck him. Yes, the very fact that her chest remained smooth.
It was gone; the clawing marks inflicted by the doctor-thing, and even the gaping wound that had nearly pierced her heart.
Oh Christ. Oh god…
“Lisa!” It was all he could think to say, and the moment stretched on as he stood an arm’s length away stupidly staring at her impossible healing.
“Chris?”
Lisa’s tone had changed completely, to something that was frustrated and upset and almost angry, and Chris could barely recognize the look in her eyes.
“Well, what are you going to do, Chris?”
She brushed his hand away and took a step closer, her voice rising. This was what he’d heard over the radio, he thought, and though it seemed ridiculous it had a ring of certainty to it. She was trembling now, from her pale lips to her hands.
“Well? A-are you just going to stand there, and…” she sniffled a bit, and the first of what looked to be many tears were rolling from her eyes, “And stare or something?”
Now it was her gripping his shoulders, and she let out a wrenching sob that had Chris embracing her back in an instant.
“I’m scared, Chris! I don’t know what’s wrong with me and I’m so scared!”
“Lisa…”
“What are you going to do, Chris?” she whispered yet again.
That was just it; he didn’t know what to do. He sighed.
“Whatever I need to if it keeps you safe.”
Lisa just sobbed again, but then sniffled and wiped at her eyes. She wore her uncertain look yet again. “C-Chris…?” She sighed slightly.
“I’m… sorry. I don’t know what came over me…”
Chris bent down and picked up his vest from the floor, and handed it back to her.
“Hey… It’s okay. Let’s just-“
Rebecca screamed. And he heard her scream… from just two doors down.
“Rebecca!”
Lisa gave him a tight nod and paused only to retrieve the katana and slip the straps of her dress back over her shoulder before taking his side, as Chris slammed open the door.

The second that the door opened, the radio exploded into a wall of static so solid that Chris was tempted to shut it off just to get the noise out of his ears.
“Rebecca!”
She was there all right, cowering against the back wall, and she looked up with desperate hope flaring in her eyes.
“Chris! You’re here!”
As expected, ink crawled over every surface in the small room that seemed to have been some sort of foyer by the dripping fireplace and nearly shredded couch against one wall. The source of it stood over her, holding one massive-ass knife and staring down at her in bemusement.
“Yeah, Chris… You’re here.”
Slowly the girl sneered, and it seemed as though every one of her teeth was visible.
“What are you going to do, Chris? What are you going to do, Chris?”
Lisa shifted back with a gasp. Chris felt fear warring with his fury, that whoever or whatever she was would do something like this.
“Just what the **** do you want?! Do you even have a reason for this?”
She turned her focus from Rebecca to Chris and sighed, but not in anger or exasperation. It was as though she was speaking to a small child. Her smile might’ve given that impression too, but it only managed to speak of some twisted amusement and violence that was soon to come.
“Of course I’ve got a reason, Chris. And a damned good one, too. You’re all in my way, and I’m not going to stop until everything is the way that I want it. Simple as that.”
The girl lifted the huge knife in a don’t-****-with-me kind of way, though she didn’t quite threaten them. Not yet.
“Like the redhead said, right, Lisa?”
Lisa started and almost cried out. On instinct Chris adjusted his position so that he stood slightly in front of her in a protective stance.
Not letting her get to you again…
“I’m going to birth a god.”
Something ran through Chris’s mind, something that he’d heard…
“I’m looking for god.”
“And after that, all of them are going to get it. Sure got us into some deep ****, didn’t they, Lisa?”
“What…?”
“Oh, come on. You honestly don’t see it? Don’t worry about it, though… I’ll give you a hand.”
As she faced Rebecca again, who swallowed thickly with her eyes huge with fear and her lips trembling, Chris drew the handgun, though it was nearly out of ammo. From what he’d seen before, not nearly enough to even inflict any damage.
“Uh-uh-uh,” she mocked, then swung the knife in their direction without so much as a grunt of effort. Rebecca screamed, and Chris jumped out of the way, taking Lisa with him in the process. It passed by close enough for him to feel the air being displaced by its sheer mass before striking a wall, and then the girl brought it back to her side and held it in one hand. “I don’t want any of that.” Her smirk was back in full force. “Strong, aren’t I?”
“I’ll kill you this time,” Lisa almost hissed from between gritted teeth. Chris suspected that there had been some kind of interaction between them during the time after he’d left her unconscious that he’d have to ask her about later if there was any later for them. Like she’d done in that horrible first encounter, the girl laughed.
“What, that again? I’ve got to give you some credit for persistence though. Why don’t you describe it for me, huh? Exactly what it is that you want to do to me. Come on; give me all the gory details. Hack me up with that katana you’ve got there? Just rip me limb from limb? You can admit it. Would you smile? I bet you’d enjoy it. Oh, I know you won’t say it, not with your Chris here especially, but I bet you would.”
Lisa came forwards with a snarl twisting her young features.
“I don’t know who you think I am, but I know I’m not a ****ing psychopath like you!”
“No, Lisa…I don’t know who you think you are. Maybe I’ll just knock that idea right the hell out of your head.”
She toyed with a lock of Rebecca’s hair. Rebecca stifled a scream, and Chris’s heart hammered unevenly in his chest.
What’s she going to do?
“And so the baby bird asked the kitten, ‘Are you my mother?’”
Chris noted the quote, insanely, as being by Dr. Seuss in one of his books.
“But the kitten said…”
“Oh god, Chris, help me!”
The girl placed the hand that wasn’t holding the knife under Rebecca’s chin.
“Hey Lisa, remember this part?”
“Don’t…!”
A second later, there was a horrific ripping sound, and Rebecca’s screaming immediately ceased.
For a moment Chris’s vision faded at the edges, and he was aware that he’d nearly passed out.
Oh Jesus, Rebecca!

 

[T-Virus Rose]

The girl, she… She held Rebecca’s entire face in her hand.
Before Rebecca’s body even slumped limply to the floor, Lisa shrieked like he’d never heard her shriek before. She didn’t stop, and he doubted she could, as the girl dropped Rebecca’s face as she might a wet rag and flicked them a casual wave.
“Well then, I’m busy now, so I suppose I’ll leave you alone. But I’ll be back… Like I said, Lisa, I can’t just wait for something else to finish you off. That would be no good…”
“YOU BITCH!”
Lisa gripped the katana with both hands and obviously had every intent of charging forwards and, as the girl herself had crudely put it, hacking her up with that katana she’s got there. And she put up a pretty damned good effort, too, but not quite good enough to break free of Chris’s arms as he held her back.
“Lisa, don’t!”
“LET ME GO, CHRIS!”
“You’re really trying to fight me, aren’t you?”
At that moment, she began melting into ink again from the feet up, and laughing as she did so.
“Go right ahead, try all you want. But I want to tell you this, Lisa…”
Her voice lingered even after what remained of her had begun to pass through the floor,
“I’m god in this place. Remember that.”
And then she was gone. Chris let his arms fall limply to his sides, and immediately afterwards Lisa collapsed to her knees and began to dry heave. When the retching stopped, the sobs began.
I was too late.
Don’t think like that, she would’ve either way…
Doesn’t change much though, does it? Rebecca’s dead.
Chris kneeled beside Lisa and lifted her back to her feet, trying hard not to look towards the wall but slipping up at the last second. Mercifully, Rebecca hadn’t fallen on her back…
“Come on,” he said softly, though his own voice shook too, “Let’s get out of here.”

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Taking Action
Static.
“Chris.”
Static.
“You can’t save her, you know. It’s too late for that.”
“I doubt you can even save yourself now…”
“And you can’t save her.”
Laughter.
“See, Lisa? You can’t just get rid of me, and it would be stupid to think you can just run.”
Birkin stared intently in the direction of the pocket transmitter sitting atop a small table, as did Lyra beside him. She hadn’t expected any less, though; the power that she’d gained seemed enormous, enough to rival what that nuisance Alessa’s had been. Birkin turned to her, though he seemed to be looking more over her shoulder.
“Is that-“
“Shut up! You shut the hell up!”
The tone had abruptly changed, though Lyra knew enough to tell that the voice was identical. Birkin looked taken aback, and obviously startled. “Oh,” she murmured softly to herself.
Of course! Why didn’t I see it before? It’s no wonder that God can’t draw enough power from her; almost half her soul must be missing!
“Oh… I’m just being honest.”
“What are you going to do with Rebecca?!”
“Go ahead, come get her. And hurry up, I’m getting bored.”
“What does that mean?” he whispered, but was interrupted by another shout over the radio.
“**** you! I don’t know what you want from us, but I’ve had it with playing your sick game!”
“What it means, Mr. Birkin…”
“… Can’t save her.”
“Is that she’s gained enough power to physically manifest a large part of her soul.”
Static, then silence.
“Chris… Rebecca… Do you know those names?”
Birkin thought, his brow creasing slightly in concentration. “I do think I’ve heard them somewhere. They’re from Wesker’s S.T.A.R.S. team, if I remember right.”
“S.T.A.R.S.?”
“It’s a branch of the local police, their elite, I guess you’d say. With the viral spill in the lab, it’s not unlikely that they were called in to investigate. If it weren’t for all of this, I’d say that it would be a major problem for the company if they managed to make it down here. I’d say it’s pretty unrecognizable, though.”
Lyra nodded, coolly and thoughtfully, considering the implications of that.
“How long do you think they’ll last?”
“Oh, not long.”
Lyra herself gasped and looked from the radio to their inhuman prisoner and back. The overhead lights began to flicker, and the very walls shimmered with an unreal quality as the static returned and rose to an ear-splitting volume and pitch…
“No!”
Lyra fell to her knees, bowed her head, and began frantically praying.
Oh God, please, more time! I’m not finished! You can’t be reborn yet! Restrain her, don’t let this happen!
The room settled, the static died down into a whisper, and she laughed brightly.
“Oh, calm down. Surprised you, didn’t I? Just trying to scare you, that’s all.”
Should’ve been impossible, my spells, this place is under god’s protection!
Birkin cleared his throat nervously and scanned the room, though Lyra knew perfectly well the eyes she was seeing them through.
“You can hear us.”
“Of course. I can hear everything here. This place belongs to me, after all. Like how you can’t draw enough power to bring back that god of yours.”
Collecting herself, Lyra rose to her feet and nodded. “True. What does it matter to you?”
“Well, you said it yourself; if I understood, I’d see this as an honor. And I understand. In fact, I’ve never seen anything more clearly. Not even back in Manhattan before your people had their fun with me, doc.” She could almost hear the smile in her tone; her actual body, however, remained nearly motionless. “The mother of god…”
“What do you want?”
“Listen up… Lyra, was it? Lyra. I’m not stupid, I know you’re not going to let me in there; you’re not stupid, either. But then, there’s the other part of my soul. I was going to just kill her; it was too dangerous to have her loose. Damage the half, damage the whole, you know. Damned defenseless bitch, I’d swear she’s out to get herself killed. Of course, if I did something about it she’d just get back into my mind where she belongs.”
Taking a longer look, Lyra saw that the chained woman did bear minute traces of fresh bloodstains on her tattered hospital gown, on her chest, and a cut down the length of one arm. Neither had been there previously, and Birkin had assured that she was nearly indestructible…
“To the point.”
She chuckled softly, and the surprisingly young tone was almost frightening in itself, raising several mildly disturbing questions regarding the woman who, for all intents and purposes, the voice belonged to.
“Whoa. Impatient, aren’t you? That’s all right; I guess that makes two of us. My point is, maybe the other part of my soul does have some use, after all. No matter how much stronger I am there is power there that’s being taken away from my actual body. Just saying, Lyra. Maybe she’d be worth tracking down. Don’t think for a minute that I won’t kill her if I get the chance, though, because I don’t have a problem with having your god myself. In fact, I’d like that, and if my other ‘self’ is gone that won’t leave you with much choice, will it? But, hey, I’ll make it convenient for you. If you get to her first, she’s all yours.”
The truth was, it made sense. A great deal of sense, too. Maybe it had even crossed Lyra’s mind, but it hadn’t been driven home until that… woman, girl, whichever… had spoken it aloud. She now faced the woman rather than the radio, as she did indeed have the sense of speaking with her on some level.
“And you think there’ll be no problem with bringing… her in?”
Her child’s voice from the radio behind her, “No, I don’t. She’s a stubborn little thing, but delusional, too. Completely in denial of everything that’s happened. I suppose it’s not all her fault, since she spent just about the whole time nearly dead, but here she is, walking around as some scared kid looking for her mother. The cop with her might be some trouble if it comes to a fight, but it shouldn’t come to that. Should be easy enough to get them to follow you; you can get rid of him afterwards. I’m assuming at least one of you has something along the lines of a gun. Can’t miss her. Lean and blonde, pale, like she might just be getting over a bad flu or something. Early teens.”
Birkin bit at his lower lip uncomfortably, probably troubled by the same matter as Lyra, which surprised her somewhat; it didn’t coincide with any of her previous impressions of him.
“So it’s true.”
Her amused tone faltered. Finally her body reacted to whatever her soul’s reaction was, shifting back a bit with what might’ve been a soft growl.
“Yes, doc. Fourteen, if you want to get exact. Does that change anything?”
Birkin continued worrying at his lip with his teeth, like a nervous tic. “I suppose not.”
“Good. It’s not important.”
That much was true; Lyra didn’t care to get involved with this woman’s traumatic background.
You’ve got your own to deal with, now haven’t you, Lyra?
She shook the thought away quickly, but not before biting at her lip in much the same manner as Birkin. No getting distracted, not considering who and what she was dealing with.
“That’s why, isn’t it? What Umbrella did to you?” Birkin mused, rather foolishly.
Before Lyra could admonish him, the lights dimmed again in response, flickering chaotically. From somewhere outside came a horrific metallic wrenching, like something being disfigured by a massive force. She wasn’t all that frightened that time, even being wary of what came across as an extremely violent temper; Lyra didn’t doubt that she had something she wanted. She might equate it to something of a temper tantrum.
“I said… it’s not important. I’ll warn you to drop that now.”
Birkin paled and nodded. The flickering abruptly died down, and the girl sighed irritably.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

“I’ll give you that though. Yes, that is a lot of my motivation; all that pain your people put me through, doc, and that fear and loneliness. God would never let something like that go unpunished, and she’d like me to know that.”
Lyra’s breath caught in her throat in astonishment. Birkin had made the mistake earlier, and she’d never referred to it…
“You’ve seen God,” she nearly whispered, a thrill of excitement rushing over her, though it only confirmed what she’d thought before.
“Yes,” the girl confirmed, the irritation in her tone giving way to something like pride, “She showed herself to me early on, even before I became physical. I’ve got myself one hell of an ally, don’t I? I’d like to see who dares try to **** with me now.”
Revenge. Of course that was what she’d have in mind. Lyra sighed inwardly, not risking expressing her displeasure.
“I appreciate your cooperation…”
She chuckled dismissively.
“Lyra, we’re on the same side in this, aren’t we? Call me Lisa.”
“Lisa. Right.”
Lyra took her bag from the table on which the radio rested and spilled out the contents. A blessed dagger… Her stomach knotted in unease at the realization that her second dagger was missing… a few holy candles, a handgun and several boxes of ammunition. She stuffed two boxes into the pockets of her pants and another into her bra for good measure despite the discomfort, and picked up the gun. Ready.
“The priest was packing,” Birkin muttered.
“I’ve told you, Mr. Birkin. I’m not a priest; I’m just one of God’s children, and God’s children are obligated to serve her by whatever means necessary.”
He shook his head slowly.
“Count me out, Lyra. I’m staying right here, I’m not going out there with those things. Besides… someone’s got to stay to keep an eye on her.”
Coward.
“Fine, Mr. Birkin. No need to concern yourself.”
“Right,” ‘Lisa’ said cheerfully over radio, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m… preoccupied right now. Good luck to you, Lyra.”
Static began emitting from the radio again, but Lyra heard one more shout, in quite a different tone, of, “YOU BI-". Then there was silence once more.
“Right then… I’ll be going now, Mr. Birkin. If I don’t come back, I’m afraid that’ll be the end of our plans, and of us. She will break down the barrier eventually, and if that happens only God knows what’ll happen to us. You’d better pray that I can pull this off alone.”
“I’ve got the utmost confidence in you, Lyra.”
She merely shook her head and headed for the door, gun at the ready. Once she crossed the barrier, only God herself would be able to protect her.
Well then… May God be merciful.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

'Sigh'...I've just moved and won't have my internet up for a while,so looks like this will be taking even longer than I thought to get my next section up.Just saying.

 

[T-Virus Rose]

Sweet!I'm back,and I can start work on this again!Well,I almost decided not to put this in,but in honor of me getting internet again I might as well.It's just a little joke parody thing I was doing,kind of for a comic intermission and not really fitting into my plot,so here.You probably won't get it unless you've played Silent Hill 2.More coming along the lines of the main plot...err...soon-ish.

Intermission: A Job for James Sunderland...
Standing in the bathroom beside Chris and peering into the clogged toilet, Lisa wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Well?" she mused.
"Yeah. Looks like there's something stuck in there pretty good."
She swept a lock of white-blonde hair off her forehead in an attempt to distract herself, though it was a pitiful one at that.
"Well, then what?" she insisted.
Chris was silent. That silence dragged on for several moments more before Lisa got the hint.
"Christ, Chris, is that what you're thinking?!"
Chris merely shrugged. "It could be a key. Something useful."
"Are you serious? You actually plan on... reaching in there?"
Silence once more.
"Chris. You honestly don't expect me to do it, do you?"
"Well, Lisa, you're arms are thinner..."
"No. No. **** no!"
Chris backed up a step. "Lisa..."
"God, how can you even think of something so disgusting?"
Lisa stormed off a few feet back and crossed her arms, facing Chris.
"If you're so set on looking, you'll do it yourself."
Chris winced.
"Well..."
"It could be a key. Something useful."
He sighed, but gave in.
"You're right. Not so bad... I suppose."
His grimace deepening, Chris kneeled down, then plunged his hand into the bowl. After a second or two he seemed to snag something, and brought it up out of the disgusting muck.
"What is it?" Lisa asked, leaning in slightly.
Chris groaned and held his prize up for her to see. Lisa took it in for a moment before finding her voice again.
"A... tampon."
A scowl darkened Chris's face as he dropped it back into the bowl. Unable to help herself, Lisa broke into a peal of laughter.
"Lisa... Shut up."