Love Lies in a Puddle of Blood

Author: Panika feat. Pyres

Music: Third Realm - Light a Candle

Notes: Hello, everyone. This is my first Resident Evil fic based on the RE for Gamecube. I got inspired from NYPD Blue, but this isn't a crossover. It's just my version of what happens after Chris and Jill get into the mansion. And one final thing, I don't hate Wesker. It's just Jill. I'll tell you later why. -winks-

If you liked this, check out Dark Moon Crystales's stories as well.

Enjoy!

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"Jill! Into my office, now." The leader of the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team, Wesker, commanded and she lifted her gaze from her papers, raising her eyebrows. When Wesker used a tone of voice like that it meant serious business, nothing like her recent work; bending paperclips and filing reports. She put her papers down and sighed, following him to the office and closing the door behind her.

"What's going on, Boss?" She asked, leaning against the door. "Finally got something to kick me out?" She continued, jeering. Jill didn't like Wesker, he had threatened to fire her if she wouldn't stop being so irresponsible and thoughtless, rushing to danger to save an officer who would've died anyway.

"You know I don't want to kick you out of the force, Jill. I have my superiors as well." Wesker answered calmly.

"Yeah, right." She rolled her eyes, Wesker could be as nice as he wanted to but she didn't like him and why would she pretend otherwise? Ass-kissing wasn't for her. She wanted to earn her promotion, not kiss for it. She had the skills; she didn't need to kiss anyone's ass to get promoted.

"Jill, strange murders have been committed recently here in Raccoon City. There are unsolved cases of families being attacked by some… grotesque… things." Wesker said the last words slowly and with a hint of disgust in his voice as he looked out through the Venetian blinded window at the sunny day outside.

"What things?" She asked sceptically, giving a laugh. He was reminding her of those horror movies she had liked to watch when she had been younger, there was a man who had black eyes and pale skin and he killed people just for the fun of it and then there had been another where a man in a yellow raincoat and a hook in his other hand and he would go around killing people mindlessly. Back then they had been scary but nowadays she thought they were laughable.

"All of the victims were apparently eaten. We were able to find bite marks on the victims' bodies."

"And? Rabid badgers? Bears? Bigfoot himself?" Jill continued to jeer.

"Human." Wesker turned to look at her, his expression sad, yet confused.

Jill wasn't able of saying anything yet. She wasn't sure had she heard right. If there were families out there, in danger to be killed by some sick human, a cannibal, why hadn't the news told any of it? And how could someone eat another human without a sensible reason?

"That's not true. It would've been on the news." Jill said, shaking her head.

"It hasn't been on the news because we don't want anyone to panic. There are already rumours, bad rumours and I don't want to feed them."

"But they should be warned that a cannibal, a murderer is on the loose." She took a step towards him, glaring at him. People had the right to know if a slaughterous madman was out there, walking on the streets of Raccoon City freely, looking for his next victim.

"We don't know how many are there. The reports say that the attacks were committed by a group of maybe ten people." Wesker sighed, walking to his desk and looking for some files on it.

"So are you saying this is a cult of some kind?" Jill asked, she wanted to know more.

"I don't know. We sent the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team to the hideout of the group, and lost contact." He said sadly, finding the files and taking them in his hands, checking were they really the right reports. "Here, these are copies so you can keep them. I want you to read these reports and get ready with the rest of the Alpha team, you are going there to find out what happened to them."

Jill took the reports and opened the first one, seeing a picture of a dead young girl, her left cheek eaten and her eyes staring emptily in front of her, blood coloured her dress. "Oh." She said. "I'll tell the rest of the team."

"I've told everyone separately and given everyone copies of the reports. That way you know what you're dealing with. Good luck."

"Thanks." She said and left the office, wondering what kind of a cult would go around murdering and eating people like this. She wanted to find out had they found anything indicating to satanic cults at the crime scenes; it would explain the nature of the murders, but not completely. This really was bizarre.

She spent the rest of her day at work wondering who, or with growing horror what, could've done those murders. Her thoughts raced from

Hannibal "the cannibal" Lecter

old B-class zombie movies to satanic cults and from madmen to the possibility that there was, in those forests, living an untamed denomination of some primitive man, living by the laws of the Aztecs or Mayas. Ridiculous, of course, but she didn't want to rule anything out before she was absolutely sure.

She got home and checked was there anything in her fridge, finding a can of orange juice and a half-eaten sandwich, wrapped in thin plastic. They were better than nothing and her today's meal. She was too excited to read the reports to order food, she wouldn't eat it anyway.

Jill looked at the images of the eaten people, realizing from the victims' facial expressions, their eyes wide open in horror, their mouths curved to a grimace of pain and fear, that they had been alive when someone had taken a bite of them. What kind of a monster could eat a child alive like the girl whose picture she had seen?

She woke up around three in the morning, noticing that she had fallen asleep on her desk, holding a cup of cold coffee in her other hand. Although the reports fascinated her, she needed sleep to be sharp tomorrow when they would go look for the Bravo team.

The morning came and she arrived to their headquarters, she saw Chris. For a while already she had had a crush on him, but she had always thought that it would pass like al of her other crushes when she had them. Se was Chris's friend; she wasn't in love with him. Besides, it wasn't appropriate to date someone from work.

Are you giving reasons for not accepting your love towards him? Her subconscious asked maliciously. She shook her head slightly, of course she wasn't. And this wasn't the time to be thinking about him now when murderers were walking freely on the streets of Raccoon City.

But he sure is handsome, isn't he? Her subconscious continued.

"Okay, everyone. Into the helicopter." Wesker said after a brief introduction. They would go to the forests and locate the Bravo team's helicopter. After that they would take a closer look at

Chris

the helicopter and see what had happened. They were all a little scared about what they would find in the forest, but no one dared to show it, not even their chicken-hearted pilot. Everyone just looked at their feet, wondering and imagining, having mental images of mad humans eating flesh, all the remnants of humanity gone from their hearts.

The day was leaning towards night already and ominous clouds were starting to gather above them, t would rain heavily later on today.

"Look, Chris!" Jill shouted, pointing at smoke rising from the forest. It was the helicopter of the Bravo team, it had crashed on the ground, but they saw no fire.

The landed with their helicopter and everyone else except the pilot got out to see what had happened. Strangely, most of the equipment was still in the Bravo team's helicopter along with one of the members, he too… eaten. Jill and Chris were looking for the other members, walking deeper into the forest when one of the members called:

"Hey, come here!" He shouted over his shoulder. As Jill ran loser to him, she saw that he was looking at a body being eaten by dogs. But these weren't normal dogs, they were somehow… rotten. They smelled like rotting flesh and parts of their body had been eaten. Had they been attacked by those mad people as well? And how had they survived, how could they live with their bodies, some of them had just their spine where the chest was suppose to be. What was keeping them together?

They're dead. Metabolism stops when you die, they're all just pieces of dead, motionless, lifeless meat.

But they were still moving. They were still alive.

They're dead. Nothing can live without ribs, all body liquids would flow out.

"Joseph!" She saw these warped, perverted creatures ripping their team member's hands and legs and eating him. They were eating him. They were feasting with his body. She tried to go closer, but one of the dogs saw her and turned to them. It snarled, blood dripping from the corner of its mouth. Then it dashed towards them and they start to run towards their helicopter, firing at the dogs at times.

When they got closer to their helicopter, it began to take off and left right before they got to it.

"No, don't go!" Chris shouted after it. But their chicken-hearted pilot couldn't hear him. He was flying back to Raccoon City alone, leaving his team members to die into the forest.

They kept running away from the dogs, still occasionally turning around and firing them, hitting few that collapsed, but they knew they couldn't go on forever. Then they saw an ominous-looking mansion coming to view gradually from behind the trees.

"Jill! Run for that house!" Chris commanded her and she took his word, shooting one of the dogs again. They got in with Wesker and closed the door behind them, all secretly wondering why the door was open.

There are only three STARS members left, Captain Wesker, Chris and myself.

But what was most important was that Chris was safe. Jill walked closer to him and although exhausted from running away from the dogs, smiled at him.

"Are you okay?" He meant it for Chris, she didn't care was Wesker all right or not.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you?" Chris asked, looking directly into her eyes, smiling a little too. He didn't think about Wesker either. It was Jill he wanted to be safe.

"I'm fine." Wesker answered, knocking his sunglasses on his nose. "I'm really fine."

"Okay, stop rubbing it in." Jill answered, irritated. Chris could've said something romantic to her then, but no, Wesker had to tell them he had survived as well. Of course, they could've paid some attention to him too, but what for? She didn't like him and Chris... Well, she didn't know what he thought about Wesker.

"Barry?" Jill noticed that one of their team wasn't with them anymore. "Where's Barry!?"

Wesker and Chris were both quiet for a while, looking around until Wesker said: "I'm sorry, but he's probably--"

"No..." Jill said, looking at her love, waiting for him to tell her Barry was alive and that he knew where he was. There was a gunshot from the western side of the mansion, then everything became quiet again. "What was that?" She asked, every muscle in her body getting ready for combat.

"You go and check, I'll stay here and secure this room." He said and took his gun.

Jill and Chris walked into the dining hall, both wary, not knowing what to expect from this mansion. It sure seemed spooky and freaky, like it lived its own life somewhere in these walls, like it breathed and its breath was poisonous. Something made this mansion malevolent towards them and they had no idea what it was. Or where the feeling came from, it was just a house, nothing more, nothing less.

"There's nothing here." She pointed out the obvious. Chris mumbled something to himself and to hear him better, she trotted next to him. It wasn't the real reason why she got closer to him, but at least she could hear him if he had something to say. Or if he wanted to put an arm around her.

After checking the dining hall, they entered a small, narrow corridor. A strange sound of smacking and slurping and devouring. It wasn't any humanly sound, it was the sound of something much more primitive, something that lived only to eat, that had nothing in its mind but to eat and satisfy itself.

They walked to the end of the hall, seeing a member of the Bravo team being eaten by a human, dressed in rags and it made sounds like a primitive wolf, tearing his flesh with its blunt teeth, gnawing it like it had never eaten meat before. No, not meat. Flesh.

"What the hell is that?" Chris uttered, his voice quivering, staring at the man who had bent over Kenneth, devouring his body.

"I..." She didn't know what it was, she couldn't answer. Before she could even think about it, the warpage of a man stood up on its shaky legs, it wasn't even standing like a person, it seemed like all its flesh, or what was left of it, just hanging from its spine it didn't even bother to walk straight. It lifted its hands in front of it as if it wasn't able of seeing and needed its hands to know where he was, where was the wall and where was the next victim to be eaten.

It moved slowly, and right towards Chris, who had his knife ready. Jill took her gun and fired it in the head two times, but the bullets had no effect. It thrust itself forward and lunged at Chris, taking a hold of him with its rotten fingers and he could feel how its fingernails sank into his flesh. He tried to fight it, but it had amazingly strong hands and without hesitation tried to bite his neck.

Jill watched the horror show in front of her, trying to find a place where to shoot at the distortion of a man, but where ever she went, it always seemed like it was aware that she wanted to shoot it and used Chris as a shield against her.

"Shoot it!" Chris shouted, his powers draining fast.

"I can't! It's using you as a shield!"

"Shoot it, Jill, goddamnit!" He commanded, his voice both desperate and furious. She closed her eyes, knowing that her hands trembled, she was going to shoot first Chris and then that bastard and she would do it now. But she didn't want to shoot Chris, she wanted him to live, she wanted him to know about her feelings towards him.

A member of the S.T.AR.S. team is supposed to do his or her work, commands are meant to be obeyed, feelings must not come in the way of a member, and order is an order, you shoot if you need to or are commanded to. She remembered Wesker's words, cruel but those were the rules.

She didn't want to obey.

"JILL!" Chris shouted and without letting herself think any more, she pulled the trigger and heard the bang the gun made.

And she didn't want to open her eyes until she had fired all the shots.

All the shots.

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Okay, there it is, folks. I used the original intro from the Resident Evil for Gamecube in this, but the story will differ from the game in the next chapter.

Thanks for reading; I'd really love your reviews!