Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or House of the Dead. Resident Evil and all RE characters mentioned here are the property of Capcom. House of the Dead and all HOTD characters are the property of Sega. This is a work of crossover fiction designed for entertainment purposes only.
The House Of The Dead
Chapter 3 – A first taste of the house
By Bhamv
Message from the author: This chapter is a bit more graphic and has a bit more gore than the previous two. Nothing extreme, but I thought you might want a bit of warning. Also, I'll mainly be focusing on Leon and Claire in this story (like in this chapter). Why? RE2 is the only Resident Evil game I've played, so I know Leon and Claire the best, and tried to write them more like the game characters in terms of personality and mannerisms.
*****
Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield walked up to the large, ornate oak doors of the mansion lab, pistols held ready in their hands. Testing the knob, Leon found the doors locked, and backed up two steps before raising his booted foot and smashing it into the doorway. The wood of the entrance crumpled under his kick and flew open inwards, revealing the entrance hall of the mansion to the duo.
The entry hall was very large, and had a grand, lavish look to it. A set of carpeted staircases rose on either side of the building to the wooden balcony opposite the front entrance, although the staircase on the right side of the room had collapsed partly. The balcony seemed to lead to a set of doors made of wood, opened wide and leading further into the mansion. Under the balcony were another set of wooden doors, battered and broken in places but firmly shut. The atmosphere of the lobby was one of desolation and despair despite the lush decor, bloodstains splattered over the walls and tiled floor. The stench of death and rotting flesh permeated the air. Large crates and barrels, presumably originally containing research equipment, were scattered over the place, some piled in awkward heaps, suggesting the brave survivors of the mansion had tried to barricade the doors against the bloodthirsty undead. At the center of the high ceiling a large gold-and-crystal chandelier hung, and two bloody, screeching monkeys hung from the lighting fixture.
Leon did a double take at the ceiling… monkeys???
Beside him, Claire gasped and backed up a few steps, staring at the creatures swinging from the chandelier. They were simian in shape, and gave monkey-like screams, but they were quite large and strong looking. Their fur was white and stained with bright red blood in places, and their bared teeth and fangs certainly looked very threatening. The old chandelier creaked under the strain of the two creatures swinging back and forth, and with one final groan of protest the hinges came loose, sending the chandelier crashing down to the floor of the entry hall. With a deafening shriek, the mutant apes leapt aside right before impact and hurled themselves at Leon and Claire, murderous intent in their eyes.
Dodging to either side, the STARS pair sidestepped the flying attack, causing both chimps to miss their target. One monkey ended up flying out the front door and tumbled down the staircase outside, somersaulting over the stone steps, while the other slammed against the concrete wall of the lobby with a sickening crunching sound. Both creatures collapsed to the floor, squeaking pitifully before falling silent and unmoving.
Leon and Claire looked at each other with grim amusement. "Not very durable, are they?" Claire quipped, a trace of a smile curling the edge of her lip.
Leon chuckled and scratched his blonde hair with the barrel of his gun, "Not at all. I wasn't expecting things other than zombies, but if this is the standard of bio-engineering we're gonna be going up against, I think this mission is going to be really eas…"
He was cut short by a blood-curdling scream, coming from balcony above, atop the staircase. Glancing at Leon, Claire led the way up the left hand staircase with her partner close behind her. Atop the balcony was a female researcher sitting on the floor, desperately scooting backwards from two snarling zombies walking towards her. Taking one look at the situation, Claire made a decision, and shouted to Leon, "I'll get the zombies' attention, you go get her to safety!"
Leon turned his gaze to her briefly before nodding and holstering his gun, freeing up both his hands in case he needed them. Clearly they had to save ammunition when they could, something they had learnt the hard way in Raccoon City. Claire waved her arms around above her head, shouting, "Hey, hey look over here you smelly pieces of rotting meat! Come get me!" The zombie closer to Leon and Claire turned his head towards them, before changing his trajectory to start shuffling at the duo. This opened up a gap between the zombies, a space wide enough for Leon to take advantage of.
"Leon, now!" Claire shouted, backing away from the zombie approaching her, keeping her wide eyes on the walking dead. Leon dashed beyond the zombie and ran to the researcher, arms outstretched to pull her away from the creature and to safety as soon as he could reach.
Suddenly though, both zombies lowered their heads and charged, one at the woman on the floor and the other at Claire. Their rotting legs threw tiny chunks of flesh everywhere as they flailed with surprising efficiency, closing the distance to their targets frighteningly quickly. The one attacking the researcher reached its target first, reaching down with one decaying hand to grab the woman by her shoulder, sinking sharp bony fingers into her flesh and eliciting a loud scream of agony, blood quickly staining her white uniform crimson. Lifting the woman by her impaled shoulder on to her feet, the zombie growled loudly and raked his other hand diagonally across her chest, sending blood spraying all over its own torso and arms. The researcher gave one final cry of pain before slumping in the arms of the zombie, dead.
"Dammit!" Claire and Leon cried in unison, Leon drawing his gun while Claire raised hers. However, while Claire was watching the technician being murdered she failed to pay attention to the zombie approaching her. By the time she turned back, it was already within arms length, and had raised one hand in a lightning-fast attack. Cursing silently to herself, she dodged to her right, trying to avoid the bony fingers, but was too slow by a fraction of an inch. The zombie managed to rake his hand along the outside of Claire's forearm, cutting two long gouges in her skin.
"Oww!" Claire yelled, before back-pedalling to avoid a follow-up attack and raising her gun at the zombie's head. Aiming carefully and firing once, she hit the monster's cheek, knocking the head off its shoulders completely, sending the festering cranium spinning into the air. Ichor gushed out of the zombie's ruined neck, before the undead creature collapsed to the floor, its missing head dropping down onto the floor beside its corpse, bouncing once.
Leon raised his own gun against the other zombie, firing his first shot into the knee of the creature, the bullet shattering part of its leg before continuing to travel on and reduce a wooden crate behind the zombie to splinters. The reanimated corpse lost its balance and fell face-first onto the floor of the balcony while Leon took careful aim, firing a second shot into the back of the zombie's skull. The creature twitched once, twice, before lying completely still.
"Claire!" Leon said, rushing to her side while pulling a first-aid kit from his bag. "Damn, are you ok?"
"I'll be fine, it's not a deep wound." Claire answered as Leon started to gently wrap bandages around her wounded arm. She glanced at the former scientist, lying crumpled on the floor. "Is she… is she…"
Leon nodded grimly, "Yeah… she's dead." Claire lowered her head and sighed softly. Finishing his treatment of her arm, Leon put away his first-aid kit and walked to the body of the scientist, inspecting her nametag. One half had been ripped away by the fatal blow from the zombie, but the other half remained.
"Her name was Catherine, Catherine P-something. Looks like she was one of the people who stayed behind to stop the zombies." Leon said bleakly. "Brave girl."
"Leon, these zombies aren't like the ones in Raccoon City. At least those just wanted to eat you, these guys are really out to kill…" Claire said. "Look, we're going to have to change our way of thinking. From now on, if we see a zombie, we're going to have to shoot it, not try to run around it."
Leon nodded again, then glanced at Claire, his eyes full of concern. "Are you going to be ok with that arm? You think you can continue?"
"Hey, they didn't get my shooting arm. I'll be fine, let's get going." Claire replied, hefting her firearm in her right hand.
Leon started to protest some more, "But…"
Claire cut him off with a smile, "I'll be ok, Leon. Let's just get moving, there could be other survivors." Leon shook his head and chuckled, before leading the way through the doorway atop the balcony.
The portal led to a raised walkway around what looked like an outside courtyard. The walkway encircled the garden, with several doors leading to other parts of the mansion. Walking to the edge of the walkway, Leon glanced downwards, inspecting the area for any zombies or survivors. The foliage was difficult to see through at first, but after a few moments inspection it was clear there was nothing in the courtyard. Turning back to Claire, he shook his head, and Claire walked to the door closest to them.
Testing the knob, she found it unlocked, and cautiously pushed the wooden door open. A quick survey inside the room indicated there were no immediate dangers, and she walked in carefully. The room appeared to be a recreation room of sorts, with three pool tables arranged in the center of the area, and several bookshelves holding novels and magazines spaced around the walls. A large grandfather clock stood between two windows, pendulum swinging normally and rhythmically as if nothing was wrong. Walking around the tables, Claire gasped as she came across another grisly scene.
On the floor were two dead bodies, one of a zombie, the other belonging to another female researcher, fresh blood staining the carpet around them dark red. The zombie had one hand plunged inside the woman's abdomen, the other grabbing her around her neck. However, the woman's hands were wrapped around a long, thin pool cue, the tip of the cue impaling the zombie through one eye. Undoubtedly, the courageous researcher had used the cue to take down the zombie, at the cost of her own life. Unable to look any more, Clare shut her eyes against the macabre sight while Leon softly muttered, "Oh man…"
Opening her eyes again, Claire looked around the rest of the room. There was a large metal door opposite the wooden one they had walked entered the room from, but it appeared to be chained shut. Approaching the door and testing it, Claire found the door was indeed locked and chained tightly, probably a defense measure against the zombies. The padlock and chains were old and rusty, but still kept the door firmly and safely shut against any attack the zombies could muster. She was about to suggest to Leon they move on to another room when there was another loud and desperate female cry of help from the other side of the door.
Turning back to the door, Claire tugged at the chains, but to no avail. "Stand back!" Leon ordered, aiming his gun at the lock. Claire backed away and Leon fired twice, the first bullet shattering a link in the chain and causing it to fall aside, the second blasting the rusty lock open and knocking the door back on its hinges. Rushing through the open doorway, Leon and Claire found themselves on another balcony, overlooking what looked like a storage room of some sort. Large crates and barrels were piled around the perimeter of the room, with the exception of several doorways, leaving the exits open. In the middle of the room, another lady researcher was backing away from two zombies, one of them wielding makeshift axes, similar to one of the first zombies the STARS team had encountered outside the mansion. The woman's arms were held up in front of her, to ward off the two undead creatures, but her back was almost to the wall, where she would not be able to escape further.
"Man, it sure seems like a lot of the people who stayed back to help were women…" Leon thought to himself. He then glanced down at the floor of the storeroom, judging the height of the balcony not to be too high. Leaping down, he landed hard on his feet, bending his knees to absorb the impact, but even before he had completely straightened up, Leon opened fire on the axe-wielding zombie, his bullet striking it in the shoulder and knocking its arm off. Claire sniped from atop the balcony, her higher position allowing her to hit the other arm of the zombie, knocking that arm off as well, axe included. The disarmed creature looked around, seemingly confused as to where its limbs had gone, before Leon finished the creature off with a volley of bullets through its brains.
Taking aim at the remaining zombie, Leon realized his pistol was empty. Cursing at himself, he pulled another clip as quickly as he could from his bag to reload his gun. Glancing up at Claire, he realized she was reloading as well, unable to help the scientist either. Looking back at the woman, Leon could only desperately watch as the undead creature shuffled towards her, trying to replace his bullets as quickly as his fumbling fingers would allow. The zombie was only a few feet away from her now, two more steps and it would be within reach, not enough time for Leon or Claire to finish reloading and take aim…
Suddenly, two gunshots rang out and the head of the zombie exploded in a shower of blood and brains. The decapitated zombie fell to its knees, then onto its front, revealing Chris Redfield aiming his gun at the zombie, Jill Valentine right behind him. They had entered from the door on the other side of the storage room, which presumably led from the sewers. Pointing his gun at the prone zombie, Chris paused to make sure it wasn't getting back up before nodding to the scientist.
"The sewers should be safe now, you can get out through there." Chris said, pointing at the darkness through the door he came from. The woman choked out a thanks before rushing out the door.
"Boy, am I glad to see you guys!" Leon said, finishing reloading his gun. He walked up to Chris and Jill, hearing Claire jump from the balcony and land behind him.
"Claire, you're hurt! What happened?" Chris asked, his brow furrowing as he noticed his sister's bandaged arm.
"It's nothing, a zombie got too close. I'll live." Claire answered nonchalantly. She then wrinkled her nose at Chris and Jill. They were covered in green muck, staining their clothes and making soft squishing sounds in their boots whenever they took a step. Their bodies reeked of sewage, and Chris sported a large dark bruise above his left brow.
Noticing Claire's expression, Jill laughed softly and said, 'Next time you two get sewer duty." Claire and Leon chuckled in reply, while Chris nodded knowingly.
Pointing to the contusion on Chris' forehead, Claire asked, "What happened to you? Did a zombie get you as well?"
Chris shook his head and smiled mirthlessly, "No, I slipped in the sewage. Like Jill said, next time it's your turn." He touched his hand to the bruise and winced gingerly.
Leon grinned and shook his head, turning to the wooden double door nearest them, he opened it and led the way through, deeper into the mansion of the dead.
*****
Thanks for reading this far again! Do please let me know what you think, ok? -Bhamv