Resident Evil: Emerald City Chronicles
Book 1: Deadly Forest
Chapter 2
Note: All the characters, except Rebecca, are characters of mine. Emerald City does not truly exist, at least to my knowledge, and is purely fictional. Credit to CAPCOM for the cute Rebecca and the monsters.
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"You've got to be kidding me..." Rebecca muttered as she waded through the disgusting water up to her breasts. They had found a small sewage system, and now had to find a door to get out of this place, one that wouldn't get them killed. Lance was a little farther ahead, his gun drawn, looking around as one of the several sconces flickered, he aimed and nearly fired, he was so jumpy now, there was nothing that would suprise him anymore, at least he thought. "I've been waist deep in something worse..." He said and took another step. "Now is soooooo not the time for one of your crackpot stories bud." She growled and side-stepped twice toward him, feeling something with her foot, but ignoring whatever it was.
"This story is true." He returned, taking another step, there was a turn up ahead, so he pointed his gun foreward and stepped around quickly, though still slow, and stared into the rather bright area. "Hurry up." He called to Rebecca and started walking ahead steadily. "I'll get there when I get there..." She grumbled and kicked something underneath the water. Once she kicked it her eyes widened and she stumbled back, her eyes wide, this felt so familiar. Then, out of the water, rose something rather tall and dark. She stared into it's silver eyes, and let out a loud scream, that alerted Lance, who was kind of far away.
"Rebecca!!" He called back as her feminine scream reached him, he swiftly turned and waded back to the turn. "Damn it, I'm losing time!" He raised the gun and quickly turned around the corner, seeing Rebecca, and someone with their arms out, in torn and tattered clothing, a white shirt and jeans, with flesh dripping off of their clothing and body. "Uuungh" It groaned as it reached toward Rebecca, it's mouth slowly opening to reveal it's yellowed, sharpened teeth. "Hey! Stop there!" He shouted at the man, who stopped and slowly turned his head to look back at Lance, and he froze, staring into those unseeing eyes, it sent chills down his spine, he shuddered and lowered the gun so the muzzle was pointing into the water.
The man groaned and turned around, walking toward Lance now. The smell of the sewer was soon wiped out when he got close enough, now the rotting man's smell filled his nostrils. "Stop now!" He ordered, lowering the gun to the mans kneecap now. The man took another slow, shambling step, his one arm raised. BAM! The bullet fired straight into the persons kneecap, causing him to stumble, but he kept his slow march. "What the...?" BAM! BAM! BAM! The bullets entered his leg but they barely fazed him, he kept coming. Lance finally raised the gun and fired it into the steadfast man's chest, finally dropping him.
Rebecca stared in disbelieve, he had fired four shots and he had barely faltered, what was with that guy? She stepped foreward, but then saw something behind Lance. "Look out!" She said and raised her gun, firing immediatley, it his a man in the forehead, dropping him to the ground, Lance stared, shock all over his face. "Oh shit..." He said and and finally motioned for Rebecca to follow. She ran to his side, then slowly followed, keeping up with his speed, listening for any unnatural sounds, like the moans of men, or women. "What's going on...?" She whispered and nearly tripped over something in the water, then, as if it were a switch, people began to rise behind them, staring with their blank, hungry gaze that seemed to look through them. "RUN!" She screamed and the two started to flee.
Mark and Julia stared up at at the doorframe, it was surrouned in a good leaf, while the door was made of a dark wood, maybe willow, but it had been stained a long time ago, a few years maybe. A small gold dragon stared back at them from the top of the door, it's piercing red eyes causing them to shudder. "Think they went this way?" The woman asked, suddenly unsure of herself. Her boyfriend looked over at her, then nodded, and finally, after deep breath, he pushed open the door. The door, led into a large open lobby, and the two drew in a quick breath at the sight.
The hallway was lush, it's floors tiled, infront of them was a grand, marble staircase that stared down at them, like it was begging them to come forward and walk on them. Julia immediatley ran across the dark yellow carped that ran from the top of the staircase, all the way back to the door. "This place, is SO beautfuil Mark!" "Disgusting though." He ran his finger down the door as he closed it behind him. There was at least one-fourth of an inch of dust on it, and it made Mark shudder. There were two doors on the halls first floor, one on the left, a navy blue one and a mahogany one. "So where do we start?"
"I say the one on the left, the navy blue door." She nodded and walked toward it, Mark soon catching up. She slowly grasped the handle and pulled it open, raising her handgun, a Samurai Edge, and pointed it inside. It was a large, empty hallway, small lights on the walls, illuminating little pieces of the room, seeing no threat, Julia stepped inside, her boyfriend stepping in close behind and closing the door. Click. He turned and looked at the door, then shook his head and started walking back with Jule. The hall had a door to the right, one at the end of the hall where there was a turn, and they didn't know what else.
"Hear anything?" She whispered, and the male shook his head slowly, stepping infront of her, he didn't like this place, it was too empty, too quiet. He took a single, silent step and perked his ears up, trying to hear any sounds, and what he heard was a faint tapping, like a leaking roof onto a hardwood floor. "What's that smell?" The woman put her hand over her nose and whispered, swallowing back bile as did so. Mark shook his head and took a step foreward, and then stopped, pointing the Beretta up ahead at the corner. Shhff, shhff, shff. Something was up ahead, and it sound like it something was being dragged. After a few seconds, which felt like eternity to the party of two, what was being dragged came around the corner.
It was a dog, dragging what looked like a human leg. At seeing the two live people, it immediatley dropped the foot and turned toward them, lowering its center of gravity, and let out a low gutteral snarl before flying at them. The two quickly dodged to the side and as it flew, and at the second they moved it went passed and smacked into the wall, hard, and dropped to the floor, stunned by the blow. Mark stared at the dog, it was large, covered in black fur, a Doberman, but with blood around it's muzzle and holes, revealing muscle and part of it's ribcage. As it started to stand, Julia fired into it's back, but the dog kept getting up. "Just die!" She fired three more times, and it fell, spasmed once, and then stopped, a nice pool of blood forming around it.
"Julia, why'd you shoot it?" Her boyfriend asked, staring at the strange dog on the floor. "Just... It didn't feel safe, I mean, it jumped at us and tried to bite us." She pushed at it's hindquarters with her shoes and grimaced as a slab of meat was taken off with the soft push. "Ugh, things repulsive, smells like it's been dead in the backyard for at least twelve hours." She shook her head and looked at what the dog was dragging, it was a leg, and it seemed to still be attached to the body. The two started foreward and stopped, the foot started to move, and then it disappeared behind the corner.
"What the...?" They aimed their guns at the corner and watched as starched hands came into view, then the rest of the body, until it was full into view. It was a man, his pants black, he had no shirt but had a white labcoat on. His left pantleg was torn up to his knee, and it was bleeding, actually, he very nearly bleeding all over, except his face, which was just pale and white. His open labcoat revealed several bite marks, most of them from human teeth it seemed, and the skin was pulled tight on his ribcage. "Stop right there!" Julia shouted, like there was no danger at all, and the man took a few more steps. "I said stop!" She tensed, why hadn't he stopped, her voice could stop a group of rioters!
"Grunh." The man moaned and took two more shambling steps foreward. "I'll shoot!" She shouted, but she didn't believe her words, not in the least. "The leg..." Mark whispered to Julia, who nodded and aimed. Bam! The bullet caused the stumbling man to fall over, but he soon got to his feet again and was three feet from them. Bam!Bam!Bam! Three bullets in the chest and he fell over, a pool of blood forming around his chest. "That is... The creepiest thing I've ever seen." She knelt next to him, prodding his head with her handgun. "He's covered in bite marks, around his neck, down to his feet, what the hell is going on here?" "I have no idea, but I think we need to get out of here as quickly as possible..." They nodded and opened the door behind them, backing out slowly, watching every side they possibly could, incase any more of these strange people showed up.
"Oh god... That was close..." Lance shook his head and kept himself pressed on the door as a group of zombies banged on it, groaning and slamming their bulk into the cold steel. "Yeah, lucky they're slow." The girl was rummaging through the area, it looked like a train statiion, but there was no way once could get in. "We gotta find a way out, they'll eventually break the door down if we don't move." He said, pushing harder against the door as it nearly opened enought to let one of their hands through.
"I'm working on it!" She pushed some rubble to the left and sighed heavily. "Shits everywhere, we need a door brace so we can both look." She sighed again, this time deeper. "You see anything from where you are?" Lance looked around, then pointed with one arm toward a huge pile. "I think there will be something there!" He called loudly, and watched as the girl ran toward it, pulling out a big piece of metal. "We can wedge this in the door handle, get ready to move." Rebecca ran next to Lance, and held the rusted piece, then as soon as he moved she propped it on the floor and inside the handle. "There, now let's find a way out!"
With the two of them pushing aside rubble it made finding an exit easier, and soon they had found a manhole cover, and the two sighed in unison. "Great, down into hells bowels we go..." Lance said and grabbed another piece of metal, then propped up the grate and pushed it away. "Ladies f-"
Bam! The door had been forced open by the zombies, and the gang of two stared in horror at the mob as they surged into the room. "Rebecca! Go, climb down!" Lance had his gun out, a H&K VP70 with triple shot capability, and aimed at the group, firing into the firsts chest, knocking him off of his feet and stumbling into the growing crowd behind. "No!" Rebecca shouted, getting ready to fire with her Beretta at the advancing group. "I'll be down soon, hurry before it's too late!" He fired again, dropping two with one shot, and glared at the woman. "Rebecca, I'll follow later, I promise, now GO!"
She nodded slowly and turned to the hole, then started climbing down, she looked up at the light one last time before it was forever covered by the manhole cover, but she could still hear the shots from above, one after another. Until, they stopped, and nothing was heard. For five whole minutes the woman waited, and he didn't come. "No..." She whispered and started up, but she heard shuffling footsteps, and decided to head down. "There are probably a lot of them up there, so I might as well get to safety, find Mark and Jule, and get the hell out of here..." She climbed down, into the darkness that held uknown horrors to the girl.