Lavender

Resident Evil and anything related to it is owned by Capcom.

Chapter 1: 1000 Points.

It had been a tiresome day for Jill Valentine, and the first thing she was going to do when she got back to her apartment was to sink into a long, hot bath. The slow day had begun rather well, with her receiving an urgent phone-call from S.T.A.R.S. H.Q. Little did she know that they only needed her to run to the supermarket to buy a new coffee machine. Resisting the urge to fill her misogynistic male colleagues with bullets, she had spent the rest of the day filling paper cut-outs of zombies full of holes, using a stock pistol that they kept in the arms cabinet; seldom did she use her beloved Beretta now, which had saved her life on many occasions.

Sipping at some hot tea she had made, she ran her ringers against the surface of the water; it was at a perfect temperature. Quickly setting aside her mug, which had the face of one of her team members across the front (for she had a huge crush on him), she began to untie the belt which held her pink, soft bathrobe together. She hesitated, seeing the face of her team member on the mug staring at her. She chuckled a little to herself, and then turned the mug the other way; she knew it was childish, but what the heck. On the mug was the face of a man called Barry, who had been by her side during the 'mansion incident'. At least, that's what she chose to remember; in reality, he had ditched her to go and find Wesker, running into her a few times and fobbing her off with some ammo. Completely naked now, Jill stood slowly into the bath and lowered herself into the warm water, feeling the stress of the day release itself through the luxurious vapours of lavender. Shutting her eyes tightly, she blindly fumbled for her pack of Lucky Strikes, pulling one out of its packet and sending the rest to the floor. She placed the cigarette in her mouth and lit it with a Zippo lighter that she had found during the 'mansion incident'; she held onto any old tat she found, if it still worked.

Jill became pensive as she sat in the bath-tub; thinking about the day she had just gone through, she asked herself if her life had really become that boring. Was she now just a tea-girl for the men in the office? Where were the days when she was blasting the heads off zombies and launching grenades into the mouths of deformed monstrosities created by the Umbrella Corporation? She had accepted that those days were all over now; the S.T.A.R.S. Team had become simply a joke now, a relic of the last century that was best forgotten by the governments of today. She cast her mind to Barry, the only man she had ever loved; what would he be doing at this precise moment? Would he also be alone with his thoughts, pining for what once was?

Meanwhile, in Baltimore...

"This is Beta team, now past the border of Baltimore. Over." a voice crackled over the radio. Barry could barely hear it over the propellers of the helicopter in which he was riding, that had also just passed the border to Baltimore.

"Affirmed. Over." he replied back, over the radio. He glanced at his watch: 1:12a.m.; visibility was bad, and the clouds didn't help much. He brushed the sweat away from his forehead with a gloved hand, his heart beating at the thought of another 'Raccoon City' incident. Could it really be happening again? Barry thought that the Umbrella Corporation had long since gone.

He thought back to the case file which had brought him here: in a small city in Baltimore, called Dog City, whole families had been brutally murdered in the night, their corpses half-eaten. If this was another outbreak of the T-virus, it had to be dealt with sharpish; the American government certainly couldn't launch another attack against its own cities again.

Back in Jill's apartment...

Jill grabbed her aviator jacket and ran out of the door, a smile planted firmly on her lips; it was that time again. Clutching her car-keys to her breast, she pushed the elevator button repeatedly and awaited its ascent as she paced up and down. When it arrived, she literally jumped inside and punched the button for the Parking Lot. Checking her hair in the mirror within the elevator, she inhaled deeply and exhaled after the count of five in an attempt to calm herself. After a minute the elevator reached its destination, and Jill stepped outside. She walked towards her car, unlocking it with the remote control attached to the keyring. Opening the door, she entered inside and jammed the ignition key in; the car roared into life.

Speeding down the dark, quiet streets at 80mph, Jill laughed manically; racing down the many streets in the city she lived in was one of the only forms of real excitement she got out of life anymore, nothing else she did really compared to the thrill she received from her former S.T.A.R.S. Days. Slamming her foot down on the accelerator as she espied an old lady 100m down the road, she violently pulled the steering wheel to the right and drove onto the pavement, accelerating rapidly towards the helpless senior citizen! With a loud scream, the car plowed into the old woman at 100mph and sent her flying over the dashboard, her Zimmer frame rocketing over the building adjacent to the sidewalk! Jill didn't bother to look into the rear-view mirror as she drove away into the night, her eyes streaming with tears as she laughed uncontrollably; the excitement was overwhelming! She mentally added 1000 points to her mind's scoreboard, which was how much an old lady was worth. She would add a further 500 points if she wasn't caught on CCTV when it inevitably came on the news the next day.

Back in the helicopter...

Barry swung open the helicopter's side door as the flying vehicle landed in a field within the city's limits. As the noise of the propellers died down, and he could again hear himself think, he jumped down from the helicopter and took out his beloved magnum which he enjoyed waving around in people's faces. This time he would go in alone due to his own special request; the last time he went in with a group of people they were either killed or eaten. Or Jill Valentine. He shuddered as he thought of her name again; he had met many lunatics in his quest to neutralise the threat of the Umbrella Corporation, but Jill was something else.

Stalking through the night, he breathed deeply as his heart raced. He drew nearer and nearer to the city; it was quiet, and he hadn't seen a soul since he departed from the helicopter 15 minutes ago. Eventually coming onto a street, he looked up and down the road; there were no cars in sight. Readying his Colt .45, he jogged across the road towards a gas station and peered through the window; still, there was nobody. Where could everybody be? Usually gas stations were open throughout the night, and this one still had its lights on, the door open and the gas pumps turned on.

Entering inside the gas station, Barry suddenly felt very stupid. Grabbing a chocolate bar that lay nearby on a shelf, he unwrapped it and shoved it into his mouth. He felt stupid for wasting time; he knew everyone was dead and that a huge catastrophe had happened, so he resigned himself to stop wasting time visiting small-time places and think about what he could do to stop this virus threat. Last time, the threat was contained by the use of explosives... more precisely the US Government bombing it to hell. This was not an option now, due to some stupid UN Law that came about recently. So what could he do?

"Explosives, explosives..." he thought, his mouth wording his thoughts.

He clicked his fingers as his eyes smiled with glee; he could simply stay here in the gas station and get drunk while the Beta team sorted it out!