Chapter Three: Abandoned Death
Deep within Umbrella owned lands, standing tall and defiant, an abandoned factory once used to produce the many military vehicles scattered throughout the complex refused to rust away like many of its run down brethren. It was almost as if the hundreds of ransacked laboratories used to house and experiment with thousands of viral born bio-weapons mutated the iron walls of the factory, giving it an unnatural will to survive.
Michael glanced up at the steaming factory of death while pulling one of the last two handgun clips from his back pocket then lowered his stare and any small amount of respect he had for the building to the ground, reloading his gun. Linn came to a halt beside the young man, unable to remove her gaze from the mystifying structure. An uncontrollable fear swirled around her heart as she stared up at the factory. Her brain unwillingly shot several horrific scenes from a movie she'd seen in which a house possessed with a demonic soul nearly murdered an entire family.
Two loud clicks from Michael's gun snapped Linn's mind back into focus. "Tell me again why we have to go in there?" Her voice trembled with every word she spoke.
"We don't have to go anywhere. You can stay out here if you want." Michael replied showing little concern for Linn's fears.
Linn had become familiar with Michael's lack of feeling for anything in the world and was unaffected by his cold answer. "Ok then why are you going in there?"
"Because I feel like it." Michael glanced at Linn. The fear and despair projected by her eyes cut a hole in his steel heart. "Look, this is a factory."
"So?"
"Factories have radios and radios don't need phone lines to work."
How the hell did I get myself into this? How the fuck did I end up in a place like this?
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Twelve rotting corpses quickly crowded around a young man. Their eyes stared off into a distant limbo between life and death. Their arms reached out; parting the mist and thousands of ghosts blocking the clear path to the live flesh glistening in front of a stained and rusted steel wall. Broken words…loud cries…distorted screams and hungry groans generated from torn throats and seeped out of blood soaked mouths.
Two green eyes constantly rolled from the left to the right. "What the fuck is wrong with you people!?" Heavy perspiration oozed down from several lochs of brown hair clinging to pale skin and a furrowed brow. "No way am I getting munched on by some old dirty bastards!"
An unfortunate woman who had lost her life to the horrors lurking throughout the town and complex pushed her way through the undead crowd. Her blonde hair flung back following her movements. Several tears in her business suit revealed her once useful attractive features to the all but one uninterested males surrounding her.
Although his mind and spirit were terrified, every other part of the man's body had no intellect or will of their own "Ok…I might let you do some munching if you were alive." He allowed himself two seconds of hesitation. "Shit if bites from you psychos didn't make other people go psycho…"
Distorted snarls from the zombies pushed the man's back against the wall. Instinctive human impulses for survival guided the man's hands against the wall. His frantic grab for life almost caused him to overlook the worn out doorknob camouflaged by the brown rust intertwined with green grime and moss. The undead hands of the zombies pressed hard against the door then slid up the filthy wall as the senseless creatures continued to walk forward as if the metal barrier didn't exist.
A white T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans glowed weakly under the dim light inside a small square room. Ok Thomas; take it easy…they're gone. A sharp vibration shook Thomas's heart as the zombies outside finally realized an obstacle blocked their path. Slowly, he regained control of his breathing, ending his hyperventilating. His feet froze to the floor as his mind retook a hold on his legs. His hand wiped away the sweat from his forehead, brushing back his brown hair. "Ok…now what." Thomas scanned the room he entered with latent thoughts of more undead people hiding in every shadow the light failed to illuminate.
Over thirty TV monitors lined the far right wall of the room. A massive steel sheet covered the entire top half of the left wall. Thousands of keys hung still and silent on hundreds of small metal pegs plugged into the sheet. A large green desk and a few chairs took up the space in front of another wall. Two teenagers captured Thomas's attention. Linn and Michael stepped into the line of sight of the monitor's camera inside one of the many offices located inside the abandoned factory. The fear and tension pulsating through Thomas's veins slowly faded allowing his blood to circulate and recolor his pale white skin to its normal pinkish glow.
Curiosity replaced anxiety and relief washed over the teenager's senses. "Now all's I have to do is find them…" His stare turned to the keys shinning from the other side of the room.
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Deep within the corporation owned complex, an airstrip cracked and crumbled under forty different planes and choppers. The immense weight of the air traversing vehicles was not the cause of the facility's plight. Instead it was the dense vegetation that had settled over the roads and buildings. Giant vines stretched out across all four runways. The bodies of these vines rose over eighty feet in the air and sixty feet in diameter. Ferocious sharp fanged plants towered over the vines.
A small group of humans raced across one of the decimated runways with a herd of brown rotting two legged flower buds in close pursuit. "I told you coming to this place was a bad idea! Didn't I tell you coming to this place was a bad idea!?" One traumatized man screamed.
"Will you shut up and let me focus on running!?" Another man yelled.
"Why!? It's not like we can outrun these things!"
"I don't have to outrun them I just have to outrun you!"
One of the women among the group stumbled as she tried to keep up. Her short dark brown hair splashed over her eyes and nose as she turned her head in the direction of the plant creatures. Her stare centered on the vines and vehicles in front of her. "Damnit…! Where is he!?"
"Just keep running!" Another female replied.
Two small private jets faced each other thirty feet down the runway in front of the fleeing humans. The airstrip's exit was not far from this makeshift checkpoint and this fact kept each of the exhausted survivors up and running. Once they reached the wheels of the left jet however, one of the massive vines decorating the airstrip crashed into the runway ripping apart a large section of the road. All of the startled humans were thrown a few feet into the air then hit the ground with several thuds. Long cylinder tongues with pointed ends lashed out at the live flesh in front of the plant buds. Drool and other fluids gushed out in between long blood stained fangs.
One of the women used her long dirt stained legs to push herself back into the wheel of the nearly turned over jet. "Cy…Cy…Cy…Cynthia! Get up Cynthia; it's coming right for you!"
The other woman of the group rose to her hands and knees. Her long red hair draped over her back and shoulders as her stare centered on one of the plant creatures. "Shhhi."
Before Cynthia could say anything, two constant clicks repeatedly echoed in her ears. A quick glance behind the wheel of the jet revealed two black military issue boots. Tucked neatly into the boots were long black military issue pants with a black belt laced through the loops. A long black overcoat draped over a short black jacket with the umbrella logo stitched into its upper right corner covered the top half of a tall well built man with short black hair.
The plant buds' heads harbored no eyes but they still noticed the fresh meat that appeared from behind the jet. Slowly, the overcoat came to a halt at the back of the man's feet. His blue eyes scanned the group of five mutated plant monsters as they crept closer to the people in front of him.
One of the men reluctantly sitting on the pavement stared up at the man dressed in black. "Are you done taking in the night air…? Do something!" His head turned at one of the bud creatures' roars.
The barrel of a small rocket launcher peeked out from underneath the black overcoat. "They said we would be keeping corporate spies out of their secret facilities." He centered the crosshairs of the sight scope onto the lead plant bud. "Not fighting zombies and mutant freaks."
As the monster roared again, all of the escaped prisoners scrambled behind the jet wheel just before a rocket launched from the bazooka resting on the soldier's shoulder. The rocket propelled grenade jammed itself down the bud creature's throat and the following explosion blew the soldier's overcoat back into the wind. The umbrella employee turned his back to the slain monsters then dropped the bazooka and stepped over to the trembling survivors.
"God damnit, you took your sweet time getting here didn't you?" One of the men snapped.
The soldier only smirked and turned facing his handiwork. "It's funny…I was all set up to be a gardener before Umbrella pulled me out of society."
"Somehow I just can't picture that." The strawberry red haired woman stated.
"Well that, Cynthia, is because you haven't met the civil citizen Mark. You've only met the U.B.C.S. (Umbrella Biohazard Counteractive Service) Special Forces branch, Mark.
"I wouldn't flaunt that information too much if I were you." The second man in the group of survivors warned.
"Easy there, Frank. I wanna get the hell out of here just as bad as you do." Mark assured him.
"So you can turn us all over to your employers?"
The other male escapee placed his hand on Frank's shoulder. "Hey, calm down."
"Thank you, Richard." Mark nodded to him.
Richard wiped the sweat soaked strands of his short blonde hair back off of his forehead. "I didn't say it for your benefit."
"Oh for Christ's sake! Did I not just save all your sorry asses?"
"He's got a point there." The woman with short brown hair pointed out.
Cynthia shook her head while holding it in her right hand. "Oh shut up, Lisa."
Lisa stared up at Mark, who was leaning against the jet wheel unloading and reloading one of his handguns. "So…what do we do now?"
Mark hadn't noticed how close Lisa had approached him. When he glanced up in the direction of her voice his military gaze met her terrified yet hopeful gaze.
"You're asking me?"
"Well…you are a soldier and you do work for the people who built this place."
Mark lowered his stare while forcing any romantic thoughts about the attractive woman in front of him that tried to surface out of his mind. "Yeah well I did memorize the grid map of this place but a lot of good that did us. I mean take a look around. Just because I know where something is doesn't mean I know what's lurking around in it.
"Maybe we can get out of here in one of those choppers?" Cynthia wondered.
Mark shook his head. "There's no way those vines or giant plants are gonna let us even get to the choppers let alone get them off the ground."
"Isn't there anywhere else we can get off this god forsaken island?" Frank pleaded.
Mark hesitated for a moment then turned his head at the sound of more plant creatures stomping toward him. "There might be, but we have to get out of here first." The Umbrella mercenary quickly holstered his gun and grabbed the rocket launcher from the broken street. "Let's go."
A violent rumbling halted the five survivors' advance knocking two of them back to the ground. Mark and Richard both gazed up at the new monster that blocked their path. Fifty feet of black shadow stretched out devouring the two private jets along with the five bewildered humans.
"Oh you have got to be shitting me." Mark concluded.
A forty-foot high eighty-foot wide green vine towered over the broken runway. Thousands of green thorns decorated the plant limb and at the top of the vine twelve red petals surrounded a brown decaying face with three slits. Two of the slits, which remained closed, acted as eyes for the beast while the third stretched horizontally across the bottom of the face. The ear-piercing roar that erupted from the plant revealed two sets of razor sharp fangs dripping with drool behind the third silt.
Mark quickly turned around and before he could take a single step, stumbled at the sight of ten more plant bud creatures. "Holy shit!"
"Now what the fuck are we gonna do!?" Cynthia shouted.
Richard glanced at the monster free path to the left of the group. "Fuck this…"
The four other survivors followed Richard as he crossed over to another runway.
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Two weak three foot long cylinder shaped light bulbs repeatedly flashed on and off. Five feet below them a large rectangular device with several knobs and multicolored lights flew across a square shaped room. A loud crash echoed off of a steel wall covered with fading silver paint. Thousands of tiny components sparked and sizzled on the metal floor.
"Fucking useless!" An agitated male voice boomed over the silent ambience of the small room.
"Calm down, Michael…we'll find something." Linn's soothing voice echoed softly off the walls. She gazed down at the sheet of paper in her right hand.
File
Memo to all active project managers: New T-Virus and G-Virus samples will be sent to their respective containment facilities. Each antidote base for said viruses will be stored together and placed in each active laboratory. If any project should be shut down after the antidotes are sent the said antidotes should either be moved to another active laboratory short on supplies or disposed of. No antidote base should be placed in either virus containment area. More importantly the antidotes should never under any circumstance be placed in a bio-weapon containment facility. Anyone who disobeys these orders will immediately be removed from any active and or inactive projects they are currently assigned to and terminated from company employment. This, as all employees know will reduce the said perpetrators to civilian (guinea pig) status.
End File.
"Michael you should take a look at this." Linn suggested. She handed the memo to him and watched him read it over. "What are those base things they're talking about?"
"This whole mess started up from a virus. A virus they knowingly and purposely created. So of course they made an antidote in case one of their homies bites them in the ass." Michael stared down at the destroyed radio and scoffed. "Fucking useless…"
"Hey don't worry about that. We'll eventually find a way out of here." Linn assured him.
Michael took in a deep breath, exhaled, let the memo fall from his hand to the floor, and then turned to Linn with a sly grin on his lips. "I guess…but until then…why don't we release some of this sexual frustration hip hoppin' around between us?"
Linn took a step back as a frown crept onto her face. "You…"
Before she could insult him, Linn was silenced as Michael's hand snapped into the air.
"Shh…" The young man ordered as his carefree demeanor warped into his all too familiar warrior like stance.
Just as she had accepted his indecent personality, Linn had learned to pay close attention to Michael's instincts and take heed to his innate sense of danger. As she watched him turn, slowly scanning the room, an unexpected emotion sparked inside of her chest as the realization to an unexpected fact flared up in her mind. I…I trust him. I just met him but I trust him.
Linn turned as steam suddenly brushed against her arm. Soon the young woman realized that nothing had brushed against her but instead a strange sound that was unnoticeable earlier had stimulated her eardrums and at the same time fooled her brain into thinking a gust of steam had swept pass her.
"What…"
"Shh!" Michael silenced her again.
Linn's eyes followed Michael's gaze around the room then settled onto his back. Slowly, Michael's head leaned back as the ceiling filled his vision. The once low steam like sound warped into a loud hiss that did little to startle the two teens but instead increased their curiosity as to the origin of the noise. Their answer came with a burst of horror as a long strand of pink flesh shot out from the open ventilation shaft centered above the unsuspecting young man.
"What…the fuck!?" Michael screamed while the pink rope of flesh wrapped around the rude warrior's head covering his eyes and tightening around his chin. "Oh hell no! Get this slimy shit the fuck off me!" He frantically grasped at what in his opinion appeared to be a tongue with both of his hands, which only caused his mysterious captor to tighten its grip. With one unnaturally powerful tug, Michael was lifted high into the air and his head slammed into the vent denting the weak metal.
"Michael!" Linn screamed reaching out for Michael's legs. After successfully putting her own tightening grip on the unfortunate young man, Linn pulled with all of her strength and a flicker of relief sparked behind her eyes as Michael's body lowered from the ceiling.
A moment later that relief was doused as the tongue pulled Michael from Linn's hands and up into the shaft. Michael, now unconscious from his head destroying the vent that once blocked the shaft, was pulled from sight deep into the ventilation system. Thousands of panicked thoughts ran through Linn's mind in the three seconds it took her to pull one of the few chairs in the room under the vent and climb up inside. Michael's limp body filled her vision the moment her head cleared the thin metal floor of the shaft then quickly began sliding away into the darkness. Besides the fact that the terrified prison escapee did not want to search the complex maze of facilities alone, she couldn't imagine herself surviving her unwillingly accepted situation without the young man being stolen away from her by another one of Umbrella's nightmares.
Suddenly, Michael's body came to an abrupt halt above another open vent. Linn's soft skin glistened with sweat as she regained control of her breathing. A loud bang echoed below her. A second later the shaft floor cracked then ripped open. Shock froze Linn's movements until a loud thud caused her body to flinch. Terrified, Linn cautiously peeked out over the destroyed shaft and saw Michael lying unconscious on the floor of the room below, the tongue still wrapped tightly around his face. Strangely, the thought of more undead creatures lurking below her or inside the ventilation shaft had never crossed her mind, only the insured safety of Michael's life. Three seconds after spotting the fallen warrior, Linn climbed down from the shaft and landed lightly on the thin metal floor.
One step towards Michael's body caused the tongue to pull him three feet back. Soon Linn found herself running across the room after Michael's unconscious body. A quick turn through the open doorway of what at a quick glance appeared to be a ransacked laboratory brought a massive creature into view. Linn's heart dropped at the sight of the beast. A pink pulsing brain throbbed on top of an eyeless human shaped head with a set of razor sharp fangs decorating its mouth. Bright red muscle tissue with no skin to cover it also pulsed with every reptilian movement the human form made. The creature's fingers and toes flattened and sharpened forming claws that clicked and scrapped along the ground. A pink mesh of distorted flesh clung tightly to an unnaturally flexible spine that appeared to be as soft and moist as the skin around it.
It took Linn's mind a few moments to begin receiving signals from the other parts of her body. Another handful of seconds passed before the petrified teenager's lips moved, forming broken words then short sentences. "Wha…wha…huh…how…why…Oh my god! What the hell is that!?"
An ear piercing roar escaped the monster before its tongue pulled Michael's head towards its teeth.
"No!" Linn screamed as she leapt forward grabbing Michael's right foot with one hand and the side of the laboratory doorway with the other. For over twenty seconds Linn's strength held out and the infuriated creature's drool splattered on the floor five feet away from Michael's head. "Michael…wake up…please wake up!"
The long tongued creature pulled Michael's head another two feet closer to its anxious wincing jaws breaking Linn's firm grasp on the doorway reducing it to a feeble trembling cling. Water began to fall from the frantic woman's eyes as her fingers began to slide along the doorway wall. Large patches of blood shined from underneath her soft girlish flesh in the bright light of the hallway as pain and stress overtook Linn's arm.
She could feel her grip loosening and could tell that Michael was only a few seconds away from being ripped apart by the monster hovering over him. "Please…" Every ounce of feeling left Linn's hand as her strength gave way and her nerves temporarily shut down. "No!!!"
One split second before Michael's body launched forward, a tiny piece of scorching led metal sliced through the creature's tongue launching blood and the monster itself back into the silver wall behind it. Michael's body hit the floor with a gentle thud as the dying flesh around his face loosened, pulsed, and flapped with a vain attempt at holding onto life. Dazed and disoriented from the abrupt loss of energy, Linn barely felt her tumble to the floor and was unaware of the loud boom that echoed throughout the hallway before the monster's tongue was severed. Another loud bang rang in the young woman's ears and this time she recognized the sound of bullets leaving a small nine-millimeter handgun and their casings rattling on the floor. Her gaze slowly rose to the creature, which only a few seconds ago ruled the core of her life. Now, the creature screeched and convulsed on the floor as its blood sprayed out in every direction from exploding gunshot wounds that were quickly overtaking its body. A steady pace of human footsteps echoed just under the dying monster's screams inside the hallway. A tall well built young man came into Linn's field of vision. Blue jeans and a white T-shirt covered the young teenager and his arms were outstretched, both of his hands clasped tightly around a berretta nine-millimeter.
Thomas's head turned to the right and for a few seconds, Linn and Michael filled his vision. Relief brought a small grin to the man's lips. "Good evening." Another screech from the long tongued monster returned Thomas's attention to the beast, after ripping open another three holes in the creature's weak flesh with the handgun; his hands finally began to lower. The monster squirmed and twitched on its back as a pool of blood spread out around it. Thomas allowed his adrenaline rush to fade and his anxiety to subside as he wiped the renewed perspiration from his forehead.
Too preoccupied with Michael's wellbeing, Linn didn't notice Thomas walking over to her. She quickly unraveled the dead rope of flesh from the unconscious man's face then gently laid his head down onto the floor. A sigh of relief left Linn's lungs as she felt breathing and a heartbeat generating from Michael's body. A quick glance beneath his hair revealed no blood or any severe damage.
Thomas knelt down beside Michael and briefly looked him over, noticing the gun tucked under the front of his pants. "He got distracted?"
Finally realizing there was someone other than Michael and herself alive in the hallway, Linn gazed up and gasped as she didn't notice Thomas had gotten so close. "Oh…no. Well…I don't know. We heard this strange hissing in the other room and before we could tell where it was coming from this freaky tongue thing wrapped around Michael's head and pulled him through the ceiling."
"So he's unconscious because it strangled him?" Thomas wondered.
Linn shook her head and grunted a negative response. "Take a look at the roof of that lab, when I said he was pulled through the ceiling I wasn't exaggerating."
Thomas followed Linn's thumb and spotted the large hole in the ceiling. "Ouch."
A painful groan flowed from Michael's throat followed by a few coughs as the disoriented teen sat up while rubbing his sore head. "Fucking freaked out piece of shit thing, lickin' me like I was its pimp."
Thomas glanced at the twitching heap of dead flesh at the end of the laboratory hallway then returned his stare to Linn and Michael. "What?"
Linn smiled, almost giggling. "Don't mind him; he just has a very carefree outlook on life."
"Carefree huh?" Thomas held back a smirk.
Linn nodded as her girlish warmth returned to her demeanor. "Yeah, carefree as in he doesn't care how indecent or obscene some of the things he says might be to other people."
"Teenager's prerogative." Thomas stated.
"Yep yep." Linn agreed.
Michael switched his stare from Thomas to Linn a few times before letting his hand fall to his side. "Yeah yeah, fuck fuckidy fuck fuck fuck let's get the hell out of here."
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Brownish green rotting flesh combined with dying aloe cracked as the fang filled mouth of a mutated plant bud screeched while in close pursuit of the live flesh in front of it. The plant monster behind it grew angry with not being able to close any distance on its prey and using its heightened intelligence, roared as its ten inch wide cylinder shaped tongue lashed out towards a lamppost and wrapped tightly around it. One second later the plant creature launched itself high into the air and shot through the mist filled night towards a panicked blonde haired man.
Richard's head turned at the sound of the monster's screech and the sight of the beast soaring through the air widened the man's eyes with shock. "Jesus Christ!!!"
Somehow, the five adult survivors had managed to escape the giant vines living throughout the complex airport and became lost in a sea of tall two story homes with undead residents. Richard stumbled to the side into a few plastic trashcans just barely escaping the plant creature's clawed feet then used all of his strength and willpower to stay on his own two feet.
Frank glanced at what had taken place behind him then turned his stare to the mercenary in front of him. "You didn't tell us they could do that!"
Mark frowned as he stared back at Frank. "I didn't know they could do that!!" A small crowd of undead citizens wandered around the street a few yards ahead of the group. Mark knew that if they were forced into the viral gauntlet with the plant creatures behind them that someone would be unwillingly torn from the group of humans. "I've had enough of this shit…" He pulled a black grenade with a silver pin from his belt with his right hand and ripped the pin loose with his left. "Fan out!" He shouted as the grenade left his hand and hovered into the mouth of the closest plant monster.
The group of survivors broke to the left and right, diving over fences and mailboxes into the front lawns of the now ownerless homes. The following explosion kept their heads buried in the artificial grass for over a minute as several different rotten plant limbs and fluids rained down from the sky.
Mark slowly rolled onto his back and took a deep breath. His eyes slowly opened to a thick mist of smoke and fog. A sigh of relief left him and the mercenary was allowed a brief moment of peace before a human silhouette darkened by the mist filled Mark's vision. One of his fellow survivors entered his mind and from the shape of the silhouette Mark knew it could only be Frank or Richard approaching him. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting Umbrella employee the figure belonged to neither Frank nor Richard. Instead, as the mist parted, two rotting undead hands reached out for the live pale flesh covered in black.
Shock widened Mark's eyes as his military training had his handgun centered on the undead man's forehead in less than two seconds. "Fuck!!" A ferocious bang followed Mark's screams and a led bullet ripped a hole through the zombie's skull. Mark quickly rose to his feet while trying to reduce the violence of his coughing. "Lisa! …Richard! Damnit I'll even take a reply from…Frank!"
"Mark!" Lisa cried out from beneath the cloud of mist. "I…I can't see anything!"
"Just stay there." Mark ordered. "I'll be there in a sec." He cautiously followed Lisa's voice through the smog with his arms extended and his hands clasped tightly around his handgun. Constant clicks and shuffling combined with low groaning flowed in and out of Mark's ears as he slowly made his way across the street. Another dark silhouette appeared out of the shadows and Mark readied his handgun then gasped as he almost put a bullet in the center of Lisa's forehead. Mark let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "I told you to stay put."
Lisa's gaze lowered to the ground as she shook her head. "I'm sorry I…"
Before she could finish her sentence, Lisa was knocked to the ground by her own fear as a surviving plant bud leaped through the mist. Mark's head turned as fear exploded onto his face. His arms began to move the handgun in the monster's direction. The beast slammed into the mercenary forcing him to fire a stray bullet into the mist before he stumbled to the ground. The taste of blood and live flesh between its fangs excited the plant creature so much that it did not notice the other human towering over it with the fallen mercenary's handgun. The loud bang from the nine-millimeter drowned out Mark's agonized screams for a few seconds. The creature screeched as it jumped back disappearing into the thick mist.
"God damnit!" Mark screamed as he held his arm trying his best to keep himself from hyperventilating.
Frank kept a firm grip on the handgun as he scanned the streets, which were finally coming into view as the still winds began to stir. "Get up that thing's not dead yet!"
Mark managed to rise back onto his feet but hunched over holding his forearm close to his chest. "No…really?"
Frank ignored the mercenary's sarcasm as he sidestepped towards Lisa. "You alright?" He asked after stopping next to her.
Lisa nodded a yes then stood to her feet never taking her eyes off of Mark. As a low growl from the prowling plant monster entered her ears the wellbeing of the other woman of the group suddenly entered her mind. A short gasp escaped the bewildered woman as her gaze turned in the opposite direction of the plant creature. "Cynthia!"
The plant bud leapt out from the mist towards Mark wanting another taste of his flesh. Six bullet holes ripped open along the side of the monster's body weakening the beast, allowing the mercenary to launch it into a blood stained picket fence with a firm roundhouse kick. Mark yelped from the pain in his torn arm as his body twirled to complete his attack then stumbled back catching himself only a second before he fell. Frank centered the barrel of Mark's gun on the plant bud and pulled the trigger then winced at the sound of the weapon clicking. A quick glance revealed the empty chamber and Frank's fear nearly caused him to drop the gun and run. Mark pulled a second handgun from his coat and emptied its clip into the plant bud causing the creature to fall limp onto the ground and twitch in a pool of green fluids.
The mercenary gazed down at his torn jacket and wounded forearm. The bright red glow of his torn flesh had already begun to take on an unnatural yellowish color. "Great…just great…that's just fucking great!"
Cynthia and Richard slowly made their way over to the group and stopped next to Lisa, who then walked over to Mark.
The frightened woman made no attempt to hide her concern. "Mark…"
The mercenary chuckled as he let his arm fall to his side. "Don't. Pity is the last thing I need right now."
Lisa took another step towards Mark. She glanced at the ground then gently patted Mark's chest with her hands. "Well…how about some affection?"
Too much pain surged through Mark for him to control the confusion that overtook his face. "Hey what's with you anyway?"
Cynthia glanced up at the two and shook her head with an annoyed expression covering her face. "Your guess is as good as mine. I thought I knew her seeing as how she's my sister and all. Never seen her fall for the macho head types."
Lisa flinched as her cheeks began to glow red. "What? I haven't fallen for anyone I just…"
Mark fought past his pain to discredit Cynthia's analogy of his personality. "Hey I'm not a macho head."
Richard scoffed at the useless conversation passing between the group of survivors as his concern for his own life began to take hold. "Yeah, that's real interesting, but if you all hadn't noticed…we're lost in a zombie infested town!"
Mark ignored Richard's shouts as his gaze wandered around the town. He was too preoccupied with Cynthia's comment to notice his current situation. "All I did was give a few orders."
Frank took a few steps towards Cynthia who had turned her attention to Richard. "Well it's better than being trapped in a giant plant infested airport."
"I was trained to take the initiative in hostile situations!" Mark protested.
"I guess you're right, it shouldn't be that hard to find our way around in this place." Cynthia pointed out.
"All right let's try and find a map or phone or something." Richard suggested.
The three walked away leaving Mark and Lisa behind.
"Just because I know how to use a lot of weapons doesn't mean I'm a meat head. So I use a lot of big guns, so what?" Mark rambled on.
Lisa stared up at the mercenary and found herself smiling at Mark's awkward demeanor. "Mark…"
For some reason, Lisa's voice broke through Mark's rambling state and brought him back to the land of living, surrounded by the land of the dead. He glanced down at his wound one last time before centering his eyes on Lisa's eyes. "Don't get too affectionate. No point in falling for a dead man."
Lisa lowered her gaze from Mark's for a moment. Then, as all of her emotional barriers faded, she gazed up into his eyes once more. "You know there's still a chance we can save you."
Mark chuckled while rubbing the back of his head. "Thought I was supposed to be saving you."
Lisa smiled and giggled as her eyes closed. "We can take turns."
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Three different sets of footsteps echoed down a dimly lit hallway inside the abandoned factory. A feint groan flowed through the air every few seconds. Thomas, Michael, and Linn wandered down a musty hallway in search of anything that could lead to their quick and painless escape from the island. Linn stared curiously at the backs of the two teenage men that saved her life.
"So um…who are you anyway?" Linn asked while staring at Thomas.
Michael glanced at Thomas waiting for him to answer. "Hey, the lady asked you a question."
Thomas shrugged nonchalantly. "Am I supposed to care about what some dimwit asks me?"
Linn's left eye twitched at Thomas's remark. "Dimwit!? Who the hell are you calling a dimwit!?"
Thomas smirked and closed his eyes while he let his hands rest behind his head. "You see? She's a dimwit."
Michael shrugged. "Can't argue with you there."
Shock spread across Linn's face, shock that quickly warped into a frown as the infuriated teenager growled.
Michael stared back at Linn in bewilderment. "Whoa…do that again."
"Huh? Why?" Linn's anger changed to adorable curiosity.
"Because it was sexy." Michael replied.
Once again, blood made Linn's cheeks glow a bright red and she turned her head staring through the windows of one of the many rooms the teens walked past.
Thomas laughed as he watched the two. "What a cute couple."
"What!?" Linn's shock heightened her adorableness.
Michael smirked then put his arm around Linn. "Cute? Nah…We're more of a freakish buck wild couple. Hell…just before that Licker thing attacked us we were about to…"
Linn put her hand over Michael's mouth before he could finish his sentence. "Don't lie! We weren't about to do anything!"
Michael pulled Linn's hand down to his chest. "I know that. We were about to fuck. Fucking isn't just anything, fucking is the symbol of a freakish buck wild relationship." His stare turned to Thomas. "So what's your name anyway?"
"Thomas." Thomas replied.
"Hmm." Michael thought for a moment. "That's my brother's name."
Linn turned to Michael as surprise overtook her expression. "I didn't know you had a brother."
"That's because I didn't tell you." He pulled her closer to him. "Now…about that freakish buck wild relationship."
Linn gasped and turned her face away from the two men who both laughed at her. "You two are…"
"Shh." Michael and Thomas both ordered.
Linn froze and turned around trying her best to listen for anything unusual. Loud shuffled footsteps followed by loud groaning flowed into her ears and as she gazed down the hall behind her a crowd of undead Umbrella employees filled her vision. Thomas and Michael both took a step back from the army of undead humans.
"Ok they have got to be able to smell us or something." Michael suggested.
Linn sniffed her arm for a moment, only noticing her own unique scent overlapped with sweat and dirt from the prison. "I don't smell anything…and I'm not wearing any perfume."
Thomas smacked his own forehead, too annoyed to say anything.
Michael sighed then stared over at Linn. "I meant they can smell us because we're alive." He walked over to her and sniffed her neck. "But are you sure you aren't wearing any perfume…because you smell good."
Thomas turned his stare from Linn to the zombies running towards him. "Yeah…uh…I don't think we have enough bullets for all of them and…what the hell? They're running!"
Michael turned facing the zombies. "Yeah…a virus caused all of this right? Maybe it has different stages or something?"
"Whatever." Thomas concluded. "We have to get the hell…" He turned to his left and noticed Michael and Linn were gone. A quick glance behind him revealed the two teenagers dashing down the hallway.
Michael looked back and noticed Thomas standing still. "Thomas…dawg…you comin' or what!?"
Thomas started running after them then stopped. "Dawg? What's up with that dude?" He decided to find out later and kept running.
Black plastic letters glued onto stainless steel doors shot past the views of the three unnerved teenagers as they ran at top speed down one of the many halls of the factory. A few yards behind them forty undead factory employees ran twice as fast as the panicked humans reaching out for their warm live flesh. Thomas glanced to the left and right begging the factory to yield a room without any windows but none presented themselves.
Michael stared up at the roof then at the right turn at the end of the hall. "I don't like where this is going."
Linn glanced at Michael. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know I just got a bad feeling about this hallway." Michael replied.
As the three teenagers turned the corner and entered the second half of the hallway they all paused, Linn nearly stumbling to the floor.
"Holy shit!" Thomas shouted.
Michael stared at the solid wall with no visible doors or windows at the end of the hall. "Right…"
Linn turned around at the sound of the zombies' groans. "Wha…wha…what are we gonna do!?"
Thomas glanced up at the ceiling and spotted a square vent. "Vent."
"But we don't have anything to open it with!" Linn screamed.
Michael pulled his gun from his pants while walking towards the vent. The dark weapon rose into the air and two loud bangs later, blasted the thin metal from the steel ceiling. His lips formed a sly grin as he held up the escape route with his right hand while staring at Linn. "Ladies first."
Uncertain about traveling through another dark ventilation tunnel, Linn glanced around at the lab doors on either side of the hall. "No way! Do you remember what happened the last time we stood under a vent!? What if another one of those things is in there! Let's just hide in one of these rooms!"
Michael walked over to the large rectangular window on the left side of the hallway. He took in a deep breath then pulled his hand back. Two seconds later his closed fist smashed through the glass. Slowly, his serious gaze focused on Linn. "If I can do that just imagine what all those muck mouthed bastards are gonna do when they get here."
Linn nodded to Michael then quickly ran under the vent. Michael clasped his hands together and Linn stepped onto his hands then grabbed onto vent edge as Michael lifted her into the air. Thomas climbed into the vent next then held his hand out for Michael to grab on. As Michael reached out his hand suddenly flew back and an agonized gasp escaped him.
Linn's eyes widened as she watched an undead woman tackle Michael to the floor. "Michael!"
"Get off me! Get off me!" Michael shouted while ramming his fist into the side of the senseless woman's head. "I'm not into Goth chicks aight!? Get the fuck off me!" Although the woman's bones were almost as meshed as her skin, her strength seemed to increase by the second and Michael knew that he would have to risk letting go of his attacker to pull his gun. Michael raised the zombie woman into the air with his knees and in the split second of safety presented to him, grabbed the gun from the back of his pants. "Suck on this…" A ferocious growl escaped the woman just before Michael jammed his gun into her mouth. Blood and brain fragments splattered onto the floor and both sides of the hallway. Michael rose to his feet and took one last glance at the lifeless corpse at his feet. "Bitch…"
A horrid ambience of growls and groans pulled Michael's stare to the group of zombies that had crowded into the small hallway. His gaze rose to Thomas and Linn inside the tunnel then back down to the monsters blocking it. His gun rose and Michael walked towards the group of the undead bringing several of them to the ground with a well-placed head shot. A safe passage under the vent had been cleared and Thomas reached down towards Michael's hand, grabbing it tightly.
"Come on man!" Thomas struggled, pulling Michael up.
Linn almost let relief wash over her wracked senses but a loud agonized scream from Michael almost stopped her heart from shock. One of the more determined undead workers latched onto Michael's right leg and buried his teeth into the calf. Five more sets of hands pulled the unwilling meal from Thomas's hand down to the floor where the rest of the zombies all pilled on top of the unfortunate teen.
"No…No!" Linn shouted through her tears.
Thomas turned his head unable to watch the blood splattering onto the walls. Michael's screams were so loud that Thomas almost didn't notice Linn pulling herself out of the vent. "What the…are you crazy!?"
Linn struggled trying to free herself from Thomas's grip. She couldn't understand why she was fighting him. Thomas didn't even exist in the world her mind had unwillingly been sent to. Only Michael's insane screams and the inhuman sound of his flesh being stripped from his body by human teeth flowed in and out of her ears. Linn landed one lucky kick on Thomas's face freeing her from his grasp then quickly pulled herself out of the vent. Thomas watched Linn fall to the floor and stared at her for a handful of moments, his face warped with grief and confusion.
Michael's insults had already faded and were replaced with gurgled groans by the time Linn had stood to her feet in front of the crowd of undead cannibals. Linn spun around searching for anything she could use as a weapon. The large sparkling glass shards spread around the floor filled her vision first. Another two seconds of scanning revealed Michael's handgun sitting two feet from the group of zombies. The sight of the gun reminded Linn of her own gun pressing against her back underneath her tight black jeans. She frantically pulled the gun from her jeans then grabbed the dark weapon from the floor and stood tall over the monster horde.
A second of forced hesitation unleashed a flare of anger Linn was unaware she was capable of feeling. "Get away from him!!" A flurry of bullets ripped open several holes throughout the rotten flesh causing many of the live corpses to topple over onto their backs and twitch on the floor. One gun rattled on the floor and the other was stuffed into the back of Linn's jeans. The determined girl ignored the searing pain from the heated gun barrel and ran over to Michael who was now visible under a hungry young undead female. She grabbed the woman's back and pulled with all of her strength but only managed to remove the zombie's teeth from Michael's chest. Shocked from how useless her own physical strength was against the mutated corpses, Linn could barely react to the hands wrapping around her arms.
"Oh god no!" Linn's scream echoed down the hallway as she was pulled to the floor beside Michael.
Michael stared out into the darkness surrounding him. His strength had left him and a blanket of drowsy disorientation settled over his mind. He felt his life slowly slipping away from the massive amount of blood leaking from his wounds. Through all of this he could somehow hear Linn's voice. Her words were unrecognizable but she was frightened or in pain. Michael was no longer in touch with what was going on in reality but Linn was in danger and that simple fact brought the young warrior back to the land of the living.
Michael's eyes shot open and Linn filled his vision. Immediately after seeing the zombie's teeth less than an inch away from Linn's throat, Michael grabbed the undead man by the mouth and threw him back into the wall. Too concerned with Linn's safety, Michael didn't notice how easy it was for him to knock each and every zombie near Linn and himself back. Dazed, he stumbled back and grabbed the gun from the floor. A quick thud echoed through the hall as Michael's back hit the wall. Four zombies hit the floor with bullet wounds decorating their heads. A loud click signified that the gun was now useless. Michael let the dark weapon fall into his black jeans then stepped over to Linn who had been rendered unconscious from overwhelmed shock. His hands slid underneath her and he gently lifted her into his arms. Several zombies still wandered around the hall towards Michael. The decay in their flesh seemed to be halting and their reflexes ever increasing. Michael kicked open a door to an office with a large square shaped window then slammed it shut with his left foot. The undead workers crowded around the window sliding their hands against it as if it weren't there. Michael laid Linn down near the back of the small office room he entered then used the last of his fading strength to position a heavy bookcase in front of the window.
Michael's gaze slowly lowered to the beautiful helpless girl at his feet. "You…idiot."