Disclaimer: Do not own Resident Evil or any other trademark I might mention in this story

Summary: Sean and his friends must face their deepest fears in order to survive the horrors of Raccoon City. A long and exhausting battle awaits them, as they will attempt to escape the horrible nightmare.

Chambered

The cure for writer's cramp is writer's block

Inigo DeLeon

Chapter 1

Son of a Gun

Wednesday

September 23rd, 1998

Finally, some much needed vacation! Sean Hayter thought to himself, as he was driving home.

Sean hated driving on the highways of Raccoon City. There was always a lot of traffic at 3 pm. Even though there were three lanes, the road was packed with cars.

Sean was 20 years old and it had been several years since he'd got his license. But he was still a little edgy, when driving in heavy traffic. But when he finally got off the highway, he started to relax.

It's gonna be nice with a little off time with my friends. Sean thought.

He only had a week off, but after working for six months straight, without any vacation, a week seemed like a lot. He had just got off from work, and was heading back home to his house. Well, it wasn't exactly "his" house, but his parents. He was watching over it, while they were on a business trip in Europe. His dad worked for the pharmaceutical company Umbrella. They had sent him to their European department in Paris, and his mom had tagged along. So he had the whole house to himself for an entire week.

Sean yawned. He was kind of tired, even though it was way too early at the day, to be thinking about sleeping. But he was really bored of driving. He turned on the radio.

"Mass hysteria is what might have caused campers to think they saw a giant moth…"

He changed the channel.

"Witnesses claim to have seen dog looking creatures in the forest…"

He had heard enough of that stuff at work, so he turned it off.

Sean worked at the Raccoon Police Department as a gunsmith. Or a "gun bud" as most of the officers called his profession. He worked along side the finest police officers in town and also the famous Special Tactics And Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S). So he had overheard a lot of conversations about the case. And he also had debated it with a couple of the S.T.A.R.S members and some other co-workers, over the lunch breaks. It was horrible what had happened to that female hiker and the other victims. They said that the body had shown evidence of teeth marks. And that they might have been human.

Who could do something like that? Sean thought.

It really seemed unreal to him that anyone could get them selves to do something so cruel.

Sean tried to focus on something else. He thought of the shooting practice some months ago. Some of the S.T.A.R.S members had been practicing, and Sean had dropped off some new gear for them at the range. He had shown that Chambers girl how to hold her gun correctly, since she was new and still a little inexperienced with the Beretta M9. She tended to stretch her arm to much when shooting. He showed her that she had to bend it a little, in order to absorb the recoil.

Then Barry Burton had asked Sean if he wanted to try a little shooting competition, and he had been thrilled. He thought it was a real honor to compete against a S.T.A.R.S member. They had squeezed off about 10 rounds each, and the final score was unfortunately in favor of Barry. Sean's score had been 98 points and Barry's had been a 100 points. That was the highest score you could get. They had all been really impressed of Sean. And he was really proud to be the one with the second best score at the shooting range.

So Sean really loved his job. Guns were his passion and having that job was his childhood dream. He even helped Joe Kendo, brother to Robert Kendo and one of Barry's close friends, designing and modifying the special Beretta's the Samurai Edge, which S.T.A.R.S was using. But lately he hadn't really gotten the chance to speak with any of them. After their last mission, Chief Irons had given Sean and his co-workers specific orders not to talk to any of the members.

Sean was pretty sure that they knew something they weren't supposed to know. And it had something to do with the rescue mission in the Arklays. And what was worse, was that several of the S.T.A.R.S had died under that mission. Kevin, Joseph, Forest, Richard, Edward, Kenneth, Enrico and even Capt. Wesker. All dead. And why wouldn't Irons let people know what went on out there? Sean was really frustrated about it. Though he wasn't close to any of the diseased, he felt really sorry for the families that had been left behind. They probably hadn't been told how or why their loved ones died. But he couldn't do anything about it, because the Chief would fire him if he as much as looked at any of the remaining S.TA.R.S.

Still… the rumors about them seeing zombies and monsters? That made him question their sanity. But apparently the S.T.A.R.S weren't the only ones who had seen abnormal creatures lately. So maybe there was some truth in those rumors.

Sean drove down the road to his neighborhood. Bergen Street.

"Home sweet home," he mumbled so himself.

The house was in the finer parts of the city, and it was placed together with a series of other similar houses. It was a rather big house, with plenty of parking space. Usually there were about three cars parked here, but now the only car was his own metallic red Honda Civic Hatchback.

He stepped out of his ride, and picked up his cell phone. He called his friends, Mike and Patrick. Nobody answered though, only the machine.

"Hey it's Mike Barnett. I can't answer the phone right now, due to the fact that I'm not really here, so leave a message. BIIIP"

"Hey Mike, it's me, Sean. Just wanted to know if you and Pat still were up for movies tomorrow? Call me back when you know, allright?"

He hung up and took his bag from the back of his car. Sean went inside the house, left his shoes in the entrance, and started to undress as he went trough the entire house, leaving his clothes all over the place, as he headed for the shower. But when he entered the living room, there was a surprise waiting for him.

"Jesus Christ, Sabrina! What are you doing here?" Sean shouted shockingly, and tried to cover himself, since he was only wearing boxers.

"Ohh, I'm so sorry. Uhmm, go get dressed and I'll explain afterwards." She said and tried to cover her eyes. Not that she wanted to, because he was kind of attractive, but of pure reflexes.

Sean was an average sized man, a little underweight, but well build. He had short dark ash blond hair, and cute blue green eyes. Of course Sabrina had noticed all those attributes before, but she had never seen him without his shirt and pants on.

Sean left and came back a little later, fully dressed this time.

"So would you be so kind to inform me, what in the hell you're doing here? And how did you get in?" Sean said still a little shocked.

"Ehm, I kinda got evicted from my apartment, and I needed a place to stay, so I called you, but nobody answered, so I walked all the way out here and locked myself in, using the spare key under the doormat." She explained in what seemed like one breath.

There was a seconds silence…

"Look, I'm really sorry, but I was desperate to find a place to stay, and you're the only one I know around here."

Sean felt sorry for her. Sabrina had moved too Raccoon City not too long ago. She used to live with here parents too, but she had to work in downtown, and since she didn't have a car, she had to move closer to her job. She had gotten a job at the animal hospital as an assistant. But it wasn't going so well, because she didn't make a lot of money. Sean guessed that she couldn't pay the rent for the apartment.

"Okay," he sighed and scratched his head. "You can stay here a couple of days, but if my parents find out, they're probably gonna kill me. But they won't be back for another week, so I guess its okay."

"Thank you sooo much." She said and gave him a huge hug. "You're so sweet."

She gave him a kiss on the cheek, and he blushed.

"Well, you're welcome. You can use my parent's bedroom if you want to."

"Okay." And then she started to carry her bags upstairs.

"Here, let me help you with that." He suggested and took one of the bags.

"Thanks. You sure are a gentleman."

"Gotta treat my guest well, right?"

"Right." she said and smiled to him. He smiled back.

Sean and Sabrina had known each other since highschool, and she kind of had a crush on him back then. She was clearly still a little interested in him, but Sean wasn't really sure if he wanted a relationship with her. To him they were only friends. And she knew that, but still she wanted him.

"Can I take a shower?" She asked all of a sudden.

"Ehh, actually…"

"No sorry." She apologized quickly. "You were about to! You go first."

"Well, unless you wanna join me." Sean suggested sarcastically, and grinned.

"You wish." She laughed. "I'll be in the bedroom watching some TV, ok?"

"Ok sure." He said and went to the bathroom.

xxxxxxxxxxx

When Sean got out of the shower, he dried himself up with a towel and wrapped it around his waist. Then he hurried to his room to change his clothes. He didn't want Sabrina to see him partly naked again. That would be way too awkward to go through a second time.

As he was looking for something to wear, he found one of his black RPD t-shirts. He usually wore those at work, but he kind of liked the way it looked together with his dark jeans. He liked dark clothing. It looked good he thought.

When he had suited up, he went to check on Sabrina. She was lying on her side in the bed, facing the other way. So she didn't notice that Sean was checking her out, while he stood in the door. She was busy watching the news, so he saw an opportunity to get a good look at her.

She was actually a quite attractive girl, when he thought about it.

Long dark, almost black, hair, the right curves, and a nice a… No! How can I think like that? We're just friends…

RIIING RIIING

"Jesus!" he blurted out at the shock of the phone ringing.

RIING RIING

He ran to the phone and picked it up.

"Sean here"

"Hey Sean. It's Mike"

"Hey Mike. What's up?"

"I'm just calling to confirm that me and Pat ARE coming tomorrow." Mike said and was expecting a quick answer. "Remember… Movies… Snacks…Maybe some beer"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Was a little distracted." Sean said, still looking at the beauty in his parent's bedroom. "Sabrina is here."

"Sabrina? Sabrina Dowell?"

"Well yeah."

"Hmm, is there something between you two that I should know about?"

"Drop it, Mike. We're just friends, all right! "

"Relax, I'm kiddin, man. But anyways, what is she doing at your place?"

"Well, she got evicted from her apartment, and I've let her stay over for a couple of days."

"Ok, cool. Look, I've gotta go. Pat's starting a fire in the kitchen, I think. You know how much he sucks at cooking. We'll talk tomorrow."

"All right, see ya."

They both hung up.

Sean, Sabrina and Mike had known each other since highschool. Patrick was Mike's older brother. They shared an apartment not too far away from Sean's neighborhood. Sean knew Patrick from work. He was an RPD Officer. So they had spent a lot of time together, talking in the coffee breaks. Pat was a good colleague, a really good person in general. And since Mike was his brother, they had all started to hang out together.

Sean went back to the bedroom.

"Hey, Mike and Pat are coming over tomorrow. We're gonna watch some movies. You can join us if you want to." He suggested.

"Ok, sounds cool. I'm in."

Sean paused when his eyes caught the TV.

"What are you watching?" He asked Sabrina who was still starring at the TV.

"It's the news. It's about all those people who have gone sick lately. They think it's a virus of some sort."

"Okay… Sounds bad."

"All the people that yet have fallen victim to this mysterious disease have either been bitten or scratched by animals. Some reports of people getting bit by humans too. If there is any connection between those things, are still being investigated. But it is a possibility."

"That's horrible!" Sabrina said and looked back at Sean who was totally consumed by the broadcast.

"If you have been bitten or scratched by any animal or suspicious person, you should seek a doctor immediately. First symptoms is said to be itching, dizziness and/or nausea."

"Hmm, they said people have been bitten by humans… Maybe it has some connection to those cannibal-murders in the Arklays?" Sean wondered. "I hope not…"