Post-injection

By: sorryformyenglish

Hi everyone!

I'm trying out a fic for RE6.

At the end of Chris' campaign, being the big baby that I am I cried for weeks! But I finally managed to move on and now to get back at Capcom I'm writing slashfics with their characters. Don't mess with me :-) !

Translator's note:

This is a project that I've wanted to try for a pretty long time now, the original work in French was posted all the way back in 2013 on , and I only just recently felt the inspiration to ask the author if it would be possible to get their work translated into English, so here I am, five years later lol ! At the time I'm not sure I had even played the game yet, but I had watched some of the RE6 cutscenes and read a few fics from the RE universe, and the relationship between Chris and Piers really stood out to me. I think it's because it's one of the few relationships between males that gets any story development, whether you ship them or not, besides Chris and Wesker. But what struck me about sorryformyenglish's story was their take on the dynamic between the two, a truly sordid affair at times that creates the central conflict of the entire story. Set in relief by an unexpected friendship with Jake and some typical RE shenanigans, their relationship was truly amazing to follow through the course of the fic. I hope that you enjoy this overall unique presentation of the events following RE6 as much as I did reading and translating it! And if you are versed in French, I definitely suggest you check out the original fic at (ffnet) /s/9260001/1/Post-injection (this is the url following the ffnet address; the site doesn't seem to like even its own links! :( )

Post-injection 1.

Piers:

I wanted to smile. Truly.

As he banged on the glass that separated us, as he yelled things I could no longer hear, I would have loved to give him one last smile. A smile so radiant, so magical, to make him understand that I didn't regret it. To tell him that everything would be fine, that he was a hero, that I loved him. That the world loved him. Anything to soften the blow, if even just a little, of the shock from watching me die.

But I couldn't do it. I tried, but to no avail. I was too tired. I barely even managed to hold my focus enough to look him in the eyes. Not to mention the pain that was searing down all parts of my body. I was at least able to steel myself into holding a gaze that I hoped was impassive, but if I opened my mouth I was going to start wailing. And if my captain made it back to the surface with his last memory of me being the image of a soldier screaming out of fear in the face of certain death, he would never get over it.

Well, so much for smiling, then. In any case, a whole part of my face wasn't mine anymore, I could feel it. All I could hope for then, was to not give the impression that I was in too much pain. That would be just as bad, and he wouldn't be able to move on.

I watched him go as the capsule took him away, further and further, and it broke my heart to do that to him. But what choice did I have?

Haos shot up after him. I opened fire. I waited a bit, to see that everything was okay, and when the capsule that brought Chris to the surface disappeared from sight, I collapsed on the floor.

And now?

Jake Muller, Agent Birkin and Chris Redfield were safe. Mission accomplished. I was now all alone in this underwater facility infested with monsters. Fortunately, I had several things to keep me busy. Dying, first of all. No way around it. And destroy the facility, if possible. Kill any J'avos, along the way. But my absolute first priority, was to get rid of the mutant horror I had in place of an arm. I did not want to die with it on.

I dragged myself through what remained of the hallways. Water was coming in from all sides, and there were J'avos and corpses of J'avos everywhere. I found a machete. I blasted anything that moved that was around and then I sat down on the ground, against a wall.

I looked at my arms. What was left of my right was just a giant mess of organic material, full of blisters, enormous veins that weren't human, blood-drenched organs, sacs of pus and slime, things that glistened and pulsated on their own, all mixed together in a mass that was little by little taking control of the rest of my body. What a nightmare.

My left arm trembled, my hand gripped tightly on the machete.

I hesitated for a second: Should I cut off the arm, or should I save myself the time and pointless suffering and simply go for the throat?

It's not like I had even the slightest hope of getting out alive. At that point, I didn't even have the desire.

In the end I aimed for my shoulder. Why? I had seen enough decapitated J'avos to know what would happen. Something horrendous like my arm would pop out from their necks and they would turn into some mutated form of the following: some type of bird, some type of dog, or some type of disgusting grasshopper-man.

I was not going to turn into a grasshopper-man. It wouldn't change anything, cutting off my arm, but I didn't want it on me. I wanted it as far away from me as possible, and when I tore it off, I would unload all the bullets in my anti-materiel rifle on it and blast it to smithereens. I wasn't scared. It wouldn't even be the first time that day that I tore off that damn arm, and besides, it wasn't even really my arm. It was just a mutation, it wasn't mine. My real right arm was 1000 feet away under a heap of metal.

Hence, the virus. When I had found my arm wedged underneath it all, I was so fixed on saving Chris that I didn't even think for a second before pulling. Before wrenching myself free, to extract myself. Not much came out of that, but I was then able to crawl toward the syringe containing the C-virus and inject myself. A mutant arm that shoots lightning to make up for the one that I had lost, still stuck somewhere under all that metal. And thanks to that, I saved Chris. That's all that mattered. But now that he was flying away towards the surface in the escape pod, now that I was alone and the only human being for miles around, I would admit it: the thing was horrifying.

I clenched my teeth and I planted the machete in my shoulder. It wasn't easy, even though I'm left-handed. One blow wasn't enough. With a groan, I withdrew the machete to strike a second time.

The arm reacted. It began to move on its own, giving off small jolts of electricity. It hurt, much worse than the blow from the machete. I got ready to strike again. I aimed for the gash that I had just created, and then…

I screamed out in pain.

The spot where the blade had ended up, in the wide cut that I hoped went all the way to the bone, began to stir.

I cannot describe the terror that I felt. At first I thought that the wound was closing itself, but it was worse than that. A blood-stained bulb emerged out of it, like an embryo of a second mutant arm that grew bigger, and bigger, and fused with the first.

I went into a complete panic. I turned my head and kept it out of the way as much as I could, and then I proceeded to slash at my arm and my shoulder with the machete at random. I didn't even register the pain I was so scared. Altogether it was unbearable. I ended up passing out.

Jake:

Elevators, doors, elevators again, unkillable monsters, bodies sliced in four that were still moving, explosions, walkways built on top of lava, it was enough to drive someone insane. I couldn't take it anymore, we had to get out of this facility.

According to a map that we had found, there was supposed to be an escape pod in the corner. No doubt those BSAA guys had passed through here because there were bodies everywhere. Every step was trudging through corpses.

"Jake!" Sherry called.

I came to join her. She had stopped in front of what I had originally taken for a dead J'avo. But I quickly noticed two things: first, that he was still alive. His chest rose and fell slightly as he breathed painfully. Second, that he was wearing a BSAA uniform.

Shit.

"It's the soldier that was with Chris," said Sherry.

He was pretty hard to recognize with the C-virus covering his face, but it was him, alright. Definitely that same little puppy of the BSAA under all that infected skin.

I could never stand that guy, but even then, I felt bad seeing him in such a state. If he was there, it's because he had come to save us.

"Damn, what a shit way to go."

"He's not dead, Jake. We have to do something!"

This girl, always wanting to save everyone. Fine, fine.

"Keep your gun on him. At the slightest sign of danger, you shoot."

She nodded and complied. I approached the soldier.

"Hey."

No response.

"Hey," I repeated, giving him a light kick to rouse him.

Still nothing. He was unconscious. I shot Sherry a glance. She was still focused, arm at he ready. I got down, crouched beside the guy, shook him by the shoulder and I yelled:

"Soldier! At-ten-tion!"

He jolted awake as his eyes shot open. Well, his eye, I should say, the right one being busted. He straightened up slightly. He gazed from Sherry to me, looking completely disoriented. But not hostile. Not yet.

"Aaaarrrggh," he groaned.

Sherry immediately rushed to his aid.

"Hey? Can you hear us?"

He swallowed back some liters of blood, or drool, or who knows what sort of gross thing that seemed to want to come back up before nodding.

"Where's Chris?" asked Sherry.

It took him a great deal of effort just to speak.

"Left… in the escape pod."

I laughed. Maybe not the best time, but I couldn't help myself. Chris Redfield, savior of mankind, had abandoned his guard dog and had taken off.

He gave me a strange look for a moment, then seemed to come to his senses all at once.

"What the hell are you two still doing here?" he spit angrily as he tried to sit up.

"We're looking for an escape pod to get out of here," Sherry responded. "Don't move, we're going to help you. Jake! Your blood!"

I stood there, blinking. I was afraid of where she was going with this.

"What?"

But Sherry was already standing in front of me, with a barely clean syringe in her hands.

"Hey now, Supergirl, are you sure now's the best time for some medical experiments?"

"We don't have time! He's going to end up transforming!"

"Yeah great, and then they'll tell his mother that he died a hero…"

"Jake!"

Sherry had that look in her eyes that was angry and hopeful all at the same time. She was just so dauntless that I couldn't disappoint her. I felt a bit like a loser compared to her.

"Okay fine, come on. But hurry."

The two of us sat down on the ground beside the soldier, who looked on silently as we prepared. Sherry drew some of my blood, and then injected it straight into his mutant arm. The thing had some sort of spasm and then shriveled up, it was horrible to watch. The guy had screamed like a little girl at first, but he quickly held it back and grit his teeth. Yeah, a real tough guy.

"One more time, just to be sure," came Sherry as she planted the empty syringe in me once more.

"You don't have AIDS at least, I hope?" I asked the soldier as I laughed.

The situation was really so absurd I couldn't help but find it funny. But apparently he didn't. He shot me a brief glance that asked if I was serious, and then proceeded to ignore me flat out. Pff. When I think about the fact that my fifty-million-dollar blood is going to this little shit for free… Man, it blows.

Sherry had given him another injection of my blood, but this time in his good arm. That seemed to hurt less for him.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Better…"

"Good."

She gave him a smile that really got on my nerves.

"I'm not exactly sure how much you'll need, the quantities and all that, it's all new to me. So if you feel like you need more of the antibodies, or anything else, don't hesitate to ask, okay?"

Of course, and if the poor thing needs some, Jake, the free blood bank is here for that, right?

Slowly, and with great difficulty, he got up, his arm dragging on the floor. And speaking of, his shoulder was seriously messed up. It didn't even look like part of a J'avo anymore, more like chili con carne. Barf.

"You need to get out of here right away," he told us.

Not even barely recovered, and he's already starting to boss people around, really?

"No need to thank us for saving your life," I groused. "It was reaaally such a pleasure."

"I'm serious. We thought you had gotten out a long time ago!"

"Yeah well we ran into some trouble."

It was Ustanak that had kept us from getting out. Fortunately, that bastard had ended up drowning in molten lava. Good riddance.

"Don't worry, c'mon. We have a map of the facility. There's an escape pod just nearby."

His face fell.

"The one that Chris took?"

Shit.

We all stayed silent for a good thirty seconds.

"Damn it!" I exploded, "You guys were supposed to get us out of here! Not take off with the last escape pod!"

"We thought you had already left!"

"Calm down!" interrupted Sherry. "There are other pods, on the other side of the facility. We can go there."

"What? And go through all that again?"

The elevator? The walkways suspended over lava? No way. Half of it was already buried in any case.

I thought we had almost made it. We were just a foot away from getting out of there alive, against all odds, Sherry and I. Just a foot from finally seeing the light of day again.

But Captain Redfield had taken off in the last escape pod by himself.

I was absolutely pissed just thinking about it, and in some ways I was glad because if I hadn't been, I think I would have completely lost hope instead.

"Come on, Jake." came Sherry. "We don't have a choice."

We had almost no more ammo, nothing to eat. Let's be honest: we didn't stand a chance.

And suddenly came the groans of zombies. We all turned towards the door: there were two of them. The gray ones, that don't die. The ones that reform when they're cut in half, with the hands that run after you even when they're detached from the body. The ones that take five clips of ammo apiece to take down. Hell, what perfect timing.

I prepared myself mentally to sacrifice my last few bullets on those things that regenerate infinitely just to slow them down, when suddenly…

Salvation. Divine intervention, I kid you not.

Out of nowhere, a sort of giant electric laser beam passed in front of me and annihilated the two zombies in one shot. Both of them. In one shot. Autonomous hands included, and I recall that those things were supposed to be unkillable.

Sherry and I turned around together to see Redfield's lieutenant, supporting himself weakly on the wall once more, his arm still sparking from the discharge.

"What the hell was that?" I exclaimed, completely dumbfounded.

It took a moment for him to try and catch his breath, keeping his gaze fixed on us all the while.

"Let's go," he said simply, struggling to right himself. "We're going to find another escape pod and you are getting out of here alive. I'll go in front."

I don't believe it, what a prick. But still, I suddenly felt a lot better. As he passed, doubled-over, in front just as he said he would, I nudged him lightly.

"Okay, Terminator," I said to him. "Get us out of here."

Chris :

To see the sky again, to smell the fresh air, they were what I had dreamed of but now they did nothing for me. I was stricken with anger and with grief.

How could Piers have done such a thing? He knew well that I couldn't stand to witness the deaths of any more of my men, that it already kept me up me at night. How could he do this to me? If he had only obeyed my orders, we could have both made it out, together. But he chose to sacrifice himself, the selfish boy. He chose to leave me on my own.

I wanted to turn around and start searching for him immediately. There was a chance that he was still alive, and it was my job as his captain to make sure he didn't get left behind.

It took four of the men from the rescue team to overpower me. I struggled against them like a madman, insisting that they let me go, that they let me go back to look, but they injected me with a sedative and I was out cold.

I awoke eight hours later in a military hospital still in full midst of this nightmare that I had vaguely hoped was only a dream. Piers had indeed injected himself with the C-virus and had indeed pushed me into the escape pod to make me leave without him, and what's more there was still no word from Jake and Sherry.

A failure on all counts, then. Jake Muller, the only one who possessed the antibodies capable of stopping the bioterrorist attack, was still in the underwater facility. The virus would spread throughout the world and there wasn't a thing anyone could do about it, all because Captain Redfield had failed.

It was a feeling I was well familiar with. Survivor's guilt, the shame of being the one to make it out alive, of having no choice but to carry on where others… couldn't.

But before I could go too far down that grim road, a thought came to mind: They had denied my request to return to the underwater facility in search of Piers because he was just a lieutenant, his life wasn't valuable to them. He wasn't irreplaceable. Muller, on the other hand, was.

I contacted HQ asking for permission to go back to look for Muller. The fate of the world depended on it. If there was any chance that he was still alive, we had to take it. And who better suited for the job than I?

They agreed. They sent me a team of soldiers to support, a group of good men who all seemed to be proud to follow my orders. They were all risking their lives to die for me once more, I thought bitterly.

I shook my head, I had to believe in the best. I was going back to that hell and I was going to bring back Jake and Sherry once and for all. And this time I wouldn't leave alone, not without Piers.

So hold on, soldier. I'm coming to find you.

And there you go… I hope you guys like this first chapter!

Don't hesitate to give me your impressions, it's only the second fanfic that I've written, I'm still just starting out!

Translator's note:

Wow, what a start. If this is how it feels simply translating a fic I can't even imagine trying to write one and update it regularly. XD XD I promise I won't be putting too many notes at the end of chapters, but I felt it was important to explain a little bit of the translation process for me. In general, I have my work cut out for me, as the author did such a great job with the story, and I have little to do except translate and try to keep the tone in line with each of the characters' POV. However, in certain cases the word order makes it choppy or slightly awkward-sounding when directly translated, so I've had to try and be a little more creative with those instances, either rewording it or trying to add a bit of transition to make it sound more natural while preserving the original mood and overall sense. But as much as I try, this is my first attempt at translating a work of fiction after all, and so please bear with me if there are any stylistic concerns or odd phrases here and there! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, and if you have any notes for the original author, I'd be happy to pass those on as well!