Surviving: Resident Evil Remake

Prologue

AN: Hey all! I'm kinda new to this whole writing thing, so please go easy on me. Any sort of constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, so please read and review. Thank you! :)

EDITED ON OCTOBER 4TH, 2015: I'm baaaack!

Yep, it's finally here! To all of you who've waited patiently this whole time (you know who you are) I finally managed to get Word on my new computer and am finally getting around to rewriting my age-old story. And once I'm done tweaking it I'll finally continue it! Yay! I hope you guys are excited as I am.

So I ultimately decided that the core of the story is acceptable to my standards with a little tweaking, so I'm just going to make a great deal of adjustments to the already existing story, rather than rewrite it from scratch. The downside is that it might be lacking a little bit of quality, but the plus side is that I'll be able to get it done a lot quicker. I don't know how long it will take me to rewrite it, but it shouldn't take me too long.

So without any further delays, here's the remade Prologue of Surviving: Resident Evil Remake.

October 4th, 2015

I remember that day like it just happened yesterday. I distinctly remember waking up laying on my left side, immediately rolling over to my right, and thinking Another day another nickel to myself with a silent laugh. I slowly stretched my stiff limbs across my large queen sized bed, letting out a small groan whilst doing so. I then reached over and turned off my bedside fan, then began the process of re-hydrating my dry eyes.

"Stupid Computer Vision Syndrome," I muttered.

My name is Atom Fischer. I was born on February 9th, 1997, which makes me 18 years old. I have a mom and dad (yes, they're still married. Weird, right?) and an older brother; Tayne, who is 22. My mom works as an HR assistant for a local casino while dad works on a farm. He used to take care of the animals, but he was switched to an on-site IT job at the farm due to an unfortunate back injury. Tayne used to work there too, but he moved away to Montana with his girlfriend about 6 months ago. They were scheduled to come back midway through next month, but they ended up finishing their work earlier than planned and came up a month early! They've been staying in a trailer out behind our house for a week and a half now.

Today was supposed to be just another ordinary day in the life of one Atom Fischer. Wake up, take a shower, maybe get something to eat, poop off on the computer until it's time to leave for school. Then I'd either get started on my school work, or get home and poop off some more; depending on whether or not I had to leave before 1:00. But in the end, that day would get crazier than I could have possibly imagined.

I realized that I'd been stuck in my head for the last 5 minutes and needed to get up soon. I kicked off the covers, rolled off the bed and stood up for the first time that day, giving a mighty stretch.

It's at this point that something tickled my brain, almost like something urgent was trying to make itself known. But once I caught a glimpse of one of my bath towels hanging over the door this feeling was quickly replaced by an inner debate of whether or not I should shower before going to school.

I decided that I'm not in the mood for a lecture from my mom about not taking a shower, so I ended up taking one. This one was abnormally quick; usually I stayed under the stream for a minimum of 30 minutes, but 5 minutes later I was out of the shower and getting dressed. Once I was done I walked out into the living room only to find it completely empty.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I made the connection that, since it was Friday, mom and dad were at work. Tayne wasn't there either, most likely he was still sleeping in. However, this was quickly overshadowed by the urge to get on my computie and check my accounts.

First I checked my Facebook (nothing but garbage and conspiracies,) then I checked for new videos on YouTube (The Sw1tcher had a new video out, but it was an LP for some game I'd never even heard about.) Now that I'd gotten all that out of the way it was time for the best thing on the internet.

This was my main way of passing the time. I'd get on my beefy-ass computer and read fanfics for a maximum of about 5 hours at a time, go take a bathroom break, eat some food, rinse and repeat. I used to take breaks a lot more frequently, but luckily my CVS has died down quite a bit over the years. I discovered fanfiction about 6 years ago. Having a concrete outlet to go back to whenever I want was a huge comfort to me, because when I get bored, I usually get depressed.

So I went to one of my bookmarked stories only to find that the site had automatically signed out my profile.

"Must have signed back in last Thursday" I thought aloud (the site automatically signs you out after a week for security purposes.) I signed in only to be pleasantly surprised to find that someone had PM'ed me.

"Probably a thank you letter for one of my most recent reviews" I continued to think aloud, smiling. Sure enough, it was someone thanking me for reviewing their story. I smiled to myself; a warm feeling spreading through me. I love this community; the community of aspiring writers. Those negative assholes were very few and far in-between here.

Just as I was gonna go back to my bookmarked list of stories I felt that tickle again. Only this time I was awake enough to not get distracted by something else. So when I thought about it I remembered: my GameCube was gonna show up today!

Earlier in the week my old GameCube had unfortunately crapped out on me. It totally came out of nowhere! One minute I was blasting a Crimson Head's face in with the fire-and-forget rocket launcher, and the next:

"A System error has occurred."

I'd sat there staring at the screen for several moments, mouth agape, before I finally turned off the console (cough rage quit cough.) It never worked right again after that, no matter how many tricks-of-the-trade I implemented.

The next day I'd gone on EBay to look for a cheap, used Game Cube in good working condition. Long story short I found one, but the description was kind of odd.

"Whoever buys this, I recommend playing something non-violent on it first."

Sure I found it super weird, but it was still a total steal. So I bought it the very same day.

That was exactly 1 week ago. Now, the package was supposed to show up today! I quickly looked at the clock (which, I realized even more quickly, was the first time I had done so today) and saw that it was 11:27. I had exactly 10 minutes to get ready and go! As soon as this registered in my mind I was on my feet and in a flurry of motion. I finished tidying up and getting my school supplies ready with three minutes to spare. I locked all the doors and left, starting my walk into town (yes, I don't have a license yet. I've got severe anxiety issues about it, don't judge me.)

I lived in the country, just outside of a small town in California. And when I say "small town," I mean "small town." Consequentially, the walk from my house to the campus was really long, so I had to leave an hour and a half early to make it in time. Blech, I thought, this is gonna suck. I hate college.

I had graduated High School that year and was enrolled at Butte College at the present time. I went to school full time, four days a week. I had History (super boring) on Monday and Wednesday, Art Appreciation on Monday (my least favorite class because it's the most demanding, and it's a three hour class,) English on Tuesday and Thursday, and Beginning Algebra on Tuesday and Thursday as well. I'm only taking these classes because some asshole decided that college students have to complete even MORE general ed before they can actually go to school for what they want.

Back when I was in High School, I had taken Theater-Workshop in my Sophomore and Junior years. Then, in my Senior year, Theater-Workshop was merged with Musical theater. I was involved in six plays total: My first was Outside In, a drama (the only drama I ever did), next was Divine Stella Divine, a comedy (my first comedy, my first lead role, and also my first train wreck), then was Stranded, another comedy (A/N: To all you veterans of Surviving: Resident Evil Remake who might be curious, yes, the play ended up going just fine. :), after that was Pistols and Posies, another comedy and my second lead role, further yet was Zombie Night, My first musical and third lead role.

And then after all those was the sixth. This was the big one. The cream-of-the-crop, if you will. It was the first Broadway musical Orland High School had done in its 50 years of teaching students.

It was Meredith Wilson's The Music Man, and I scored the lead role. It was by far my hardest venture yet, but I aced it in the end.

I'd always had an affinity for acting. By the time I was five I could recite any movie I've watched more than five times from beginning to end, flawlessly. So going to Theater-Workshop was the best thing that could have possibly happened to me, because it allowed my acting prowess to grow and flourish. Plus, all the social interaction didn't exactly hurt anything.

After emerging from my inner thoughts, I noticed I was already half way to school. I looked at my IPod Classic's clock and found that only 20 minutes had passed.

Wow, I thought to myself, I'm making good progress. Smiling to myself all the while, I put my IPod back in my pocket and turned on my favs list, banging my head to the heavy beat.

An hour later

After an hour of learning how to write political debates (snore) the class was finally dismissed and I was free to leave. I walked outside and found my mom's car parked out front. I opened the door and climbed in.

"Heyo." I said to my momma as she pulled out of the parking lot. "Hi! How'd it go?" She replied. "Good! I finally learned how to properly use a semi colon, which is one of the staples of my writing style. So I'm definitely learning from this class," I answered.

"Hey Atom~," mom said in a singsong voice, grinning from ear to ear.

I knew my mom too well, so I instantly knew what she was going to say.

"Did my package show up?!" I asked eagerly.

Mom looked over at me and laughed, "Get out of my head, you!"

"YES!" I exclaimed, pumping my fist. Finally! I'd been waiting 2 weeks for it and it was finally here!

"Hey could you go 50 miles over the speed limit so we get there in a third of the time," I asked her with my infamous Intense Sarcasm Face.

She playfully slapped my knee, both of us laughing all the while.

At home

The instant the car was in the driveway I was out and running to the door. I was too impatient to wait for mom to unlock the door, so I hurriedly fished out my house key, unlocked the door, and rushed in.

I wasted no time in snatching the box off the table and running into my room. I got the Balisong knife I'd bought in Nevada (has a blue flame handle, very cool) off my desk and used it to cut the tape off the sides of the box. After absentmindedly putting the knife in my front pocket I ripped the flaps on the cardboard box open (anyone know what those are called?) and lo and behold, my new GameCube was sitting neatly inside a mess of Styrofoam pellets and bubble wrap.

I carefully reached in and lifted out the wrapped Game box, cradling it as I would a newborn. I slowly pulled off all of the bubble wrap, at which point my eyelids snapped open.

"What fuckin planet is this from?!" I shouted aloud.

"What?!" mom called back.

"My new GameCube," I yelled back "It's hella weird looking!"

'Hella weird looking' was an understatement.

For starters; on the top, where there are usually three buttons, instead there was just a thin slit smack dab in the center of it.

Also, there was only one cable port in the back; the one for the TV cable. How the hell am I supposed to power it? I thought.

And finally, upon turning it over to look at it from every angle, it was completely pitch black with no logos, stickers, or anything to show what it was or that it was made by Nintendo.

It was at this point that mom walked in and saw it.

"What's weird about it?" She asked.

I walked over to my bed, pulled out my old gaming bin, fished around in it, and finally pulled out my old broken Game Cube, at which point I gave it to my mom to compare it to my new one.

Upon examining them for a few moments she finally looked back at me and spoke "Do you think this is a fake?"

"I don't know," I replied "it looks like it doesn't even have a means of powering it."

I sat there for a few seconds, staring at the monstrosity on my lap before I finally blew a gasket.

"God damn it," I cried "This wasn't the one in the picture! They tricked me!"

"Atom! Jeez! Calm down!" Mom said in her best 'ribbing' voice.

I rolled my eyes, grinning all the while. That was the thing about mom; she always knew what to say to cheer me up.

I sat there thinking for a couple of seconds before I came to the decision that I'll call the guy in the morning and demand a refund. Then I sat against the wall, bummed.

I must have had a sad look on my face because mom sat down next to my and hugged me, comforting me. "I'm sorry that your GameCube was scammy Atom. Don't worry though; we'll get it taken care of tomorrow. In the meantime, why don't you try it out?" She gestured to the GameCube as she said the last part.

"How? It doesn't have a power cable port." I replied, eyebrow cocked.

"Maybe this was an alternate model or something; one that gets its power through the TV cables." She answered.

I raised my eyebrow and looked up at her, "I don't think that's possible, mom. I'll give it a shot though," I finished quickly, sensing mom was getting frustrated.

Mom nodded and walked out of my room to do who knows what.

I got started on hooking the cords up to the TV. Once I got that done I brought my head down to look more closely at the GameCube. Looking closer I noticed a small message etched into it.

Insert the disc, and then hold your thumb on the scanner.

I cocked my eyebrow confusedly. What the hell? I thought. This must be from the previous owner. Is this how you're supposed to use it? Of course he didn't think to include the manual. Then again, I wouldn't blame him if he lost it at some point; we've all done that at some point. Come to thin of it, why'd he have to etch the instructions into it? Why couldn't he have just attached a note? It's almost like he expects this thing to have multiple different owners. Could this thing really be that bad?

This mystery aside, there was one more thing I was confused about.

How the hell am I supposed to open it?

Almost as if it had heard me, the tray popped open to reveal the standard disc drive of a GameCube; no abnormalities about it.

I stared at it for a couple of seconds; freaked out. Okaaay, that was spooky.

After a few seconds of deliberation I came to the conclusion that it simply must have been a coincidence. It must have been loosened up by the trip over here and finally gave in at that moment. It was the only explanation. Unless… NO! No. There's no way the console read my mind. That's just crazy Atom. Get a grip here!

With a sigh, I leaned down and grabbed my sleeve full of games. This was the most important decision in my life; what will the first game on my new GameCube be?

…Okay, so it's not that important. But it's important to me, damnit!

Anyways, so I browsed through my huge collection, murmuring to myself as I did so.

"F-Zero GX, nah. Midway Arcade Treasures 2, nah. OH YEAH! I was playing Resident Evil when my old GameCube broke. I should continue my game."

I grabbed the memory card from my old Game Cube and tried to plug it into my new one, only to realize that it's lacking memory card ports as well. I paused for a second with a stupendous look on my face, then face-palmed. Alright, I thought, I'll just start a new game.

I suddenly remembered the description on the EBay page. "Whoever buys this, I recommend playing something non-violent on it first." I wondered if I should heed their advice for a few moments, but then thought better of it. I ain't gonna play a poo baby game for my first one just because of some geezer's paranoia. I thought as I put the disc in, closed the tray and rested my thumb on the slit.

If I'd known what would happen next, I would have taken the geezer's advice.

The instant I put my thumb on the slit my whole body exploded into agony. It felt like all my bones were being ripped out of my body and shoved back into place, over and over! Every moment was agony; it hurt just to think! My mind was going haywire at this point; there were probably about a million thoughts going through my head at once. But the one that stood above the rest was As soon as I wake up, I'm gonna sue the HELL out of that fucking guy! Then, everything was, simply, nothing. No sounds, no sight, no feelings, no nothing. Simply blackness.