Biohazard: Resident Evil VII

Chapter Six: Zoe's Medicine

For a little while there was only darkness, but as Ethan's senses began to come back, he became aware that he was moving. No, not moving… more like being moved by something else… or more accurately dragged. Struggling to open his eyes, he saw that the sun had finally set, being that the sky was black with a full moon, but then he must have passed out again, because the next time he was able to open his eyes, he was being dragged by the ankle, through a familiar looking gate that was now open.

The next thing he saw was the back of the strange man who had attacked him during the fight with Mia. But where was Mia? Blinking to bring his eyes back into focus, he saw that Mia was there as well; slung over the strange man's shoulder, but now unconscious. At first, Ethan was worried that he had seriously injured her during that… madness that had occurred in the other house… but then he had a vivid flashback of his wife running Travis through with a chainsaw, so he really wasn't sure what he was supposed to be feeling at that moment.

The only thing that Ethan knew for certain was that he needed to get out of there, so he came up with a plan to kick the strange man with his other foot, and then run for it when he fell forward… but only succeeded in tensing up part of his body before blacking out again. This time when he woke up, it was no longer dark, but it was a lot harder to even move his head now, so it took a while for him to realize that he was now indoors. The floor was hardwood, and there was a washer and dryer set against the wall, but given their partially rusted condition, it was unknown how long it had been since they were used.

"You fix this one up real good now, hear?" The strange man said as he dropped Ethan down into a chair. "Eveline wants him at supper."

"Don't worry, daddy." A familiar voice answered as the strange man walked away. "I'll make him all better."

Ethan heard the strange man's footsteps until they were interrupted by the opening and closing of a door, and then the footsteps continued, growing softer and softer until vanishing completely. Now that he was gone, this might have been the only opportunity to escape, so Ethan tried to jump to his feet, but apparently someone forgot to tell his body about the plan, since it barely responded.

"Hey, hey, you're still bleedin'." The familiar voice said again as a pair of hands stopped him from moving. "Shhh… shhh… I know you're scared, but you gotta be still, okay? I'm not gonna hurt you."

There really wasn't much of a choice in the matter, since his remaining strength had been used up in the attempt, so Ethan raised his head, and saw that it was the short-haired woman he had seen earlier, who was talking to him. Not only that, but she was also putting bandages on his shoulder and hand, allowing Ethan to relax… that is, until she picked up a staple-gun from a nearby shelf, and brought it toward his nearly severed arm.

"No, you gotta be still." She said, restraining him when he started trying to move again. "Damn it, you're just gonna hurt yourself more with all that blood you lost."

Again the fatigue set in, making it impossible for him to stop her from pinching the wound on his arm together, and putting the first two staples into his flesh with a cross pattern. Ethan had hoped that the lingering pain from the chainsaw would keep him from feeling it, but this was not the case, forcing him to twitch and groan until each of the twelve staples were put in. This seemed to stop the bleeding, but what good was that if he was still stuck there with the people who had done… whatever it was they had been done to Mia?

"Okay… the hard part's over, okay?" She asked, lifting his head to look up at her. "You still with me in there? Can you tell me your name?"

"Ethan." He forced himself to say. "Ethan… Winters."

She nodded before letting go of his head, and then she walked over to another shelf, where a glass jar filled with green liquid was sitting. Opening the jar while she walked back to him, the short-haired woman grabbed his arm, before sprinkling some of the green liquid onto his stapled wound. It started sizzling almost immediately, burning with more intensity than any kind of rubbing alcohol that he had used before, and Ethan couldn't help a couple of tears coming to his eyes while he groaned in agony.

The burning started to fade a few seconds later, and he was just starting to relax, when she poured some more onto his shoulder, where Mia had stabbed him with the sharpened wood. Crying out even louder, he managed to get his body to cooperate enough so that he could flail around, but the short-haired woman still easily restrained him until the burning started to fade. Thinking that this was the end of it, Ethan relaxed once again, only to tense up more than before when she brought the jar up to his lips.

"Stop that, now." She said, pinning him down when he fought. "I know it's pretty awful, but it'll make you better… Eveline didn't show us how to fix the taste, though."

Ethan kept his mouth tightly closed so that she couldn't pour it in, so in response the short-haired woman pinched his nose until the need for air forced him to open up. The green liquid tasted absolutely foul when it hit his tongue, and didn't smell any better… although it didn't burn like it had on his wounds... well, not until it hit his stomach, anyway. Once it did, it felt like the whole of his insides were on fire, the green liquid shooting through his whole body in a matter of seconds, and the short-haired woman having to cover his mouth with her hand so that he wouldn't scream while kicking around.

The strange thing, though, was that even with how badly the green liquid burned him, Ethan started to realize that his headache was going away. Not only that, but his shoulder, hand, and even his arm were no longer hurting as badly as they had been before… and it was slowly becoming easier to move his head around. The burning eventually went away, allowing him to completely relax for the first time in what felt like hours.

"Who… who are you?" He asked as she picked something else up off the shelf. "Where… where am I?"

"I'm Zoe." The short-haired woman replied, starting to mess around with another tool. "Zoe Baker, and this is my family's farm… I wish I could say I'm pleased to meet you, Ethan, but… I'm really sorry you're here. Not like nothin' can be done bout' that now, though."

The burning from the strange medicine was just about gone now, allowing Ethan to close his eyes for the first time without worrying about blacking out, but it also left him not caring about what Zoe was doing with… whatever she had in her hands at the moment. He didn't want to open his eyes again, but when he looked, he gasped when he saw that she was in the middle of binding his wrists and ankles to the chair with what looked like duct tape.

His ankles were already inescapably bound, and she was just finishing his left wrist, so naturally he moved his right wrist away from the chair, since a little of his strength had returned. She grabbed his arm in response, urging him to not fight her, although no sane person would have listened to such advice. It was also not as easy for her to restrain him now, and more of his strength was returning, probably thanks to the green liquid, but he was so intent on fighting Zoe off, that Ethan almost didn't hear the door open and close behind him.

Next thing he knew, a hand a lot more powerful than Zoe's was on his wrist, slamming it down onto the chair arm hard enough to make Ethan cry out, and pinning it there while Zoe finished binding it with the duct tape. Turning his head to look at who had grabbed him, Ethan gasped when he saw that it was the strange man from before, and he winced when the man raised his arm, but then relaxed with confusion when he simply patted Ethan on the shoulder instead.

"That wasn't so bad, now was it, boy?" He asked as he moved away. "Now you may be a guest here, but that don't mean you can go startin' trouble with my Zoe, you hear? Now, Zoe, you get finished up with him right quick; your mama's got supper ready, and you know how she gets when you youngins are late for supper."

"We won't be late, daddy." Zoe reassured him as he left the room. "Ethan, I'm so sorry bout' this… I really wish you and your friend hadn't come… I don't want you to end up like the others… I don't want nobody to end up like the others."

"Others?" Ethan asked, making sure to keep his voice down. "Zoe, what are you talking about? What's going on here? What's… what's gonna happen to me?"

A thousand horrible possibilities now started flowing through Ethan's mind; memories about Travis warning him about The Blair Witch Project, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as scenes from a whole bunch of other movies that he had seen over the years. But those things didn't happen in real life… they couldn't happen… could they? Part of his mind wanted to believe that this was all some kind of a sick joke; a kind of three year long prank that Mia was pulling on him, where everyone was going to have a good laugh at his expense, and then it would all go back to normal.

However, all of the pain he had been experiencing definitely did not feel like a prank, and it sure looked real when Mia had… when she had literally killed Travis with a chainsaw. The memory was almost too painful to relive, especially when his friend had come back to save him, and probably did save Ethan's life… at the cost of his own. But there was so much that he didn't understand, and…

"Ethan, I promise I'll help you when I can, okay?" Zoe said, putting a hand on his cheek. "But if they catch me, you're finished, so just… just play along, and whatever you do… don't eat nothin' they give you."

This vague warning just left him with more questions, but there was no more time to explore them, since Zoe walked around the chair and released something down toward the bottom. This was the first time Ethan noticed that his seat was actually a wheelchair, and now Zoe was moving him backwards, toward the door, and taking him to who knows where?