Ugh… I've got so much stuff to update more often, like this…I know, I know – after a year of working on this, you would think it would be longer than four chapters. Well, I work on a lot of stories, and I have a hard time coming up with anything for this anymore… It's like I go brain dead when I open the document, or something… If anyone who originally read this when I started is even still reading, I'd be amazed.

I'm not sure where this story is going from here, 'cause I haven't thought much about it… But, I think the main plot of RE3 will come into this soon…

I'm going to let it write itself and see where I end up, hopefully somewhere where I'm inspired. Anywho…

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Chapter Four: With One Foot in the Grave

Restless… Restless and starving…

I blinked once, finding myself in a place dominated by orange and green blurs. Where was I? I didn't know, but I didn't feel surprised to find myself there. It almost felt normal, like I was supposed to be…

I opened my eyes again, gazing around disoriented at the blurs until they came into focus. Lilies.

I was lying on the ground, surrounded by the forms of hundreds of bright orange lilies that felt cool against my skin. They gathered close around me, like a flower blanket, their aroma sweetly perfuming the air. Behind me and on either side I could make out the canopies of tall trees, blocking out the grey sky, the leaves waving in the gentle breeze, while the foliage of the poison ivy vines clinging to the trunks stayed ominously still.

It was quiet, except for the rustle of the leaves, and somewhere in the distance I could hear a familiar voice…

"Travis…" it called again and again.

I blinked and I was back in the alley. I had been asleep, dreaming.

Hm, zombies dreaming…

I settled back against the wall, considering going back to sleep, when the voice from my dream came again.

"Travis?"

I looked around, finally spotting the source. It was Amanda, one of my Aunt Kathy's two daughters!

The young girl was standing close to a pile of rubble, looking at me fearfully. Her clothes were visibly dirty, and it seemed she had been on quite an excursion. I held my hand out in her direction and she gasped, ducking behind the rubble as though she thought I wanted her for dinner.

I wasn't surprised. She had probably seen the zombies at work, and it must have been obvious that I wasn't human anymore.

I reached over to my side, picking up my chalk and writing on the pavement 'Mandy, you're okay!'

She hesitated for a long time, took a few steps closer slowly, watching me cautiously, then stopping to read my message.

"Travis," she said quietly, "What happened to you?"

'I was attacked,' I wrote, 'But I'm okay now.'

Mandy's gaze never left me, and I could tell that she was weighing the situation carefully in her mind. "You're one of them now, aren't you?"

I nodded slightly. 'Yes. But I won't hurt you, I promise.'

She looked at me in silence for a while, before coming closer and sitting down on the pavement in front of me.

'What happened to the others?' I jot down.

"I don't know… A monster came into the apartment and we left… But we all got separated on the way over to the car park and now I don't know where they are… I just kept wandering around looking for them, and I found you."

'Everything will be okay. I'll make sure nothing bad happens from this point on.'

She muffled a sob, rubbing the back of her arm across her eyes. "I'm so afraid they're gone…"

I knew how she felt. Since this whole thing began, I had been questioning whether I'd ever see my friends and family again. And by this point, I was starting to lose hope.

I reached out my hand, placing it on her shoulder and she threw her arms around me in a tight embrace.

"I'm glad you're here."

I held her close to me until she began to doze off, then I took out the CD player I had found in the pizza parlor. Together, we drifted off into sleep to the sound of The Smashing Pumpkins, her nestled gently in my arms.

"Hey," I heard suddenly, opening my eyes.

We must have been asleep for a while, because the CD had since stopped and the only sound in the area was the crackling of the huge fire burning nearby.

"Who's your friend?" It was Carlos.

I picked up the chalk. 'Mandy – family friend.'

"Are there any others?"

'Missing. She hasn't seen them recently. My mom was with them.'

"I'll look for them – I'm sure they're probably somewhere safe," he reassured and I nodded. "It might be safer to move into the trolley. I've been seeing a lot of zombies hanging around just outside of here."

I gave him another nod and carefully picked the sleeping girl up, carrying her towards the trolley that made me think of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, while Carlos resumed patrolling the area. Inside, I laid her delicately on a seat, watching for a moment as she murmured something in her sleep, and then turned to exit.

When I stepped back down onto the asphalt, I was met by a familiar voice from nearby.

"I found one of them." Nicholai had just come through the far door that led back out into the alley, leading a lanky, dark-haired man in a bloody lab coat, who seemed rather disturbed already, scrutinizing his surroundings warily. Until he laid eyes on me.

The poor fellow, apparently terrified by either my presence or appearance, went to turn back towards the door, but Nicholai grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him to come closer. "This is what I told you about. He's intelligent – on a human-level."

The man was shaking and I could smell the fear practically dripping off of him, interlaced with the scent of the blood on his coat. It made me hungry.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, his voice heavy with anxiety.

"Fix his… injury," Nicholai replied, eyeing me from his spot, "Would it be possible to repair his vocal cords?"

The man gave me a look of near disgust, before looking away again. "Perhaps… It depends on how much they have decayed…"

"Well then, I'd suggest you get to work," the Russian responded, giving him a shove in my direction.

He whined very quietly, slowly coming towards me, as Nicholai wandered off, possibly to find Carlos. I just looked at the man, wondering exactly what it was about me that made him skittish when he had been working for Umbrella. I wasn't like the other zombies; I hadn't eaten anyone… yet.

"M-my name is Gabriel…" he said hesitantly.

Gabriel, huh? The Archangel of Judgment?

"I'm going to take a look at your neck and see if I can maybe patch you up a little bit better than the staples have." He chuckled faintly, probably out of apprehension.

Before either of us had time to move, a low growl came from nearby, and I peered around Gabriel who had froze as soon as he heard the sound, slowly looking back over his shoulder.

Standing a couple yards away was my once good-natured German Shepherd, Robbiecomefront, whom I thought I had killed. But, being as he had become a zombie himself, I should have realized he wouldn't be so easy to slay. He hadn't changed a bit since I'd last seen him, except for the large amount of blood dried in his fur, and he seemed to be just as aggressive as last time, snarling at us like a wolf about to attack a moose.

I reached steadily for the door, watching Robbie for any sign of an attack. Once my hand had met the cold iron handle, I turned quickly, yanking the door open and stumbling up the steps as fast as I possibly could. Gabriel was right behind me, but before he could get inside, Robbie grabbed him by the foot, trying to pull him back outside.

He was clinging to the edges of the doorway for dear life, trying to jerk his foot from the dog's grip. He finally managed to kick Robbie in the face, and dove inside, landing on the floor. I slammed the door shut, watching as my old pet began to circle around the trolley like a vulture.

Gabriel lay on the floor, catching his breath. He finally sat up and pulled his pant leg back, finding several wounds where Robbie's teeth had punctured his ankle. I went a little closer to him, and he glanced up at me.

"I think I will be okay. They're just punctures, nothing serious," he said, trying to sound hopeful, but failing miserably. This guy obviously knew what was going to happen to him eventually, but he didn't want to acknowledge it. He sighed. "Why don't you sit down over there, and I'll see what I can do for you."

I took a seat on the bench, and Gabriel examined my neck for a little while, before taking out some tools he had in his lab coat pockets, and began to pull out the staples one by one. I didn't really feel anything until he began to stitch things back together. After what seemed like a year, he finally tied the thread, and gave me a weak smile.

"Try to say something."

I opened my mouth, and to my surprise, I actually heard something. "Did you ever hear about Cocaine Lil? She lived in Cocaine town, on Cocaine hill. She had a cocaine dog and a cocaine cat, they fought all night with a cocaine rat."

I had my voice back! It sounded a little raspy and awkward compared to when I had been alive, but I didn't care. I could finally speak again. One question came to mind, though. "When I… came back… I could only groan. Why can I talk now?"

"I'm not fully sure, but it could have been because your vocal cords had not adjusted to the, err, change."

I shrugged, and then smiled back at Gabriel, giving him a gratified nod. "I can't thank you enough."

"Think nothing of it." He sat down nearby, looking extremely worn out, and rubbing his ankle. I was beginning to wonder how much time he had before he began to change, as much as I didn't want to think about it. But I couldn't deny that if he didn't get help, he would die.

To take my mind off of it, I went over and sat down next to Amanda, who opened her eyes. "Hi, Travis," she said sleepily, looking around. "Where are we?"

"In the trolley."

She stared at me in shock. "You… talked…"

"Yeah."

"You… can talk again?"

"Exactly."

"That's great!" she said, giving me a hug.

"No kidding." Listening to the near silence outside, I could hear the soft scritch scratch of Robbie's toenails against the pavement.

He must have still been circling around us, waiting patiently to see if a potential meal was going to emerge. I wasn't terribly concerned about it, unless he caught one of the others who had wandered off upon their return, but I was slowly starting to question whether or not there was any possibility he could get inside…

No one spoke, although I wasn't sure if it was because they were listening or just didn't have anything to say, and the scraping continued, traveling all around the outside, until it stopped. There was a growl, followed by a few gunshots. Footsteps drew closer to the trolley when the other noises had hushed, and the door slid opened slowly.

In stepped a woman, who looked around the compartment in a troubled manner. She looked from Gabriel, who was bleeding on the floor, to me, and then to Mandy, who gripped me tighter.

"Is… Is that a zombie?" she asked, pointing at me.

"Yes," I replied, and she jumped.

"Jill?" Carlos addressed the woman, coming in. "I'm glad you're safe. I see you've met Travis and Mandy."

Before the conversation could continue, Nicholai entered, walking over to the maimed Gabriel. "What happened to you?"

"That dog outside bit me," he replied unfocusedly, swaying back and forth a little.

"I think you should follow me."

He waited for Gabriel to get up and they left the trolley, heading for the alley door.

When they were out of sight, the discussion went on.

"What's going on?" the woman known as Jill asked, indicating me.

"Travis is practically a normal human – except he's dead."

She simply nodded, not sure how to comprehend the situation.

A shot suddenly rang out somewhere not too far away, and everyone turned to look in the direction of the alley door. After a moment, Nicholai came back through… Alone.

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Eh… Didn't really want to end there, but I ran out of ideas. At least the plot is sort of getting somewhere now.

And, the segment of poetry that Travis recites when he speaks for the first time, is borrowed from W.H. Auden's (my favorite poet) "Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue", a rather creepy poem about a drug addict who dies after snorting coke.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm not sure when I'll be getting back to this, but in the meantime, if anyone is actually reading, leave me a review and tell me what you think.