Surviving: Resident Evil Remake

AN: Hello again everyone! As you may have noticed, a great deal of chapters has suddenly gone missing! That's because due to the new direction my story is going, I have to rewrite them all from scratch. Sorry about that, but at least I'm back, right? :)

Italics: my thoughts

"Quotes": speaking aloud

Bold: author's note

'Apostrophe': inscriptions and writing

Chapter 6: The 2nd Floor Map

After leaving the Safe Room I immediately ran up the stairs, to the second floor. Minding the blood and body from the now headless zombie, I walked past the banister, around the corner, and to the door at the end of the short hallway. I was about to open the door, but stopped myself.

If I recall correctly, I thought, there are two zombies in this next room. One is further in the room to the left, and the other is directly to the right of the door…

I slowly reached out and turned the doorknob, opening the door just a crack and peering in. I instantly noticed the brown clothes of a zombie. Luckily its back was turned to me.

I slowly brought my pistol to bear, putting it through the crack of the door. I lined up the sights, and just as it turned around and noticed me, I put one right between its eyes.

Once again, its whole head exploded in a fantastic spray of gore, the remaining body slumping to the ground shortly after. Luckily I had quickly shit the door after firing, preventing any mess from hitting me. I opened the door again and stepped through, into the "U" Corridor.

The room was named for obvious reasons; the whole room is shaped like a "U". It stretches to my right and ends. To the left is another short hallway with a 90 degree turn to the right at the end, and I knew there was another 90 degree turn to the right at the end of that hallway, which then led to another dead end. There were a lot of tables and such scattered around the entirety of the hallway, one of which had broken china all across its surface.

To my right, at the end of the hall, was another door. This was my goal. I gingerly stepped over the fresh(?) zombie corpse and walked down the hall, stopping in front of the door. I held my pistol in my right hand and opened the door with my left, slowly scanning the room.

I found myself in what seemed to be a small Study. There was a couple of small desks against the wall to my right, on top of which were various nick-nacks, a clip for my pistol (yoink), and an expensive looking ivory chessboard that had a game on it which seemed to have ended in a "checkmate." There was a double-sided bookshelf in front of the desks, and a much larger corner desk in the far corner of the room, across from the door I came in from. I walked to that desk.

The desk mostly had rubbish on it, such as paper scraps, pens, pencils, etc. What I was really looking for, however, was the shiny gold-plated lighter in plain sight, which I quickly snatched up. I examined it closely, flicking the lid open and checking the parts. The wick and flint looked fine. I gave it an experimental strike, and sure enough, it lit up without a problem. I flocked it back closed and flipped it over, reading the inscription on the front:

Don't play with fire! Love, Jessica.

Jessica is, of course, George Trevor's deceased wife, meaning that this is George's lighter. The thought that I was currently holding THE George Trevor's lighter in my hand was almost enough to make me nerd out, and definitely enough to make me crack an awestruck grin. It didn't take long until I snapped out of it and put the lighter away into another pouch.

Upon closer inspection I could also see the corner of a bright green book peeking out from under a pile of scrap paper. I pulled it out, spilling papers all over the ground. I remembered this as the book that gives you a small tutorial on Herbs in the game, however, glancing through it revealed a lot more information. It now detailed not only the effects of herbs, but also how to prepare them for use! Apparently all the medicinal qualities from the herbs were found solely in the leaved. All you needed to do was grind up the leaves into a fine powder. Then, you smoke the powder.

Yeah, don't worry. I'm joking.

What you REALLY do is take the fine powder and either ingest it, or pack it directly into the wound. The former is more tolerable but takes longer to work, while the latter hurts quite a bit but works almost instantly. I'll probably only use the second method in case of emergencies, I thought as I put the book in my pouch.

I looked towards the other door in the room, on the far right wall from where I came in. I should probably grab the Wooden Mount and use that before I make the trek across the mansion, I decided. I walked back across the room and headed back the way I came.

Just as I reached out to grab the doorknob, however, something banged on the door from the other side. Loudly.

Needless to say I jumped about a foot in the air and hurriedly backpedaled away from the door, aiming my pistol at it all the while. I waited a couple of seconds, and sure enough, another loud bang came from the door.

What the fuck, I thought, what could this be? It can't be a dog, there's no way a Cerberus could have made it in there. Can't be a hunter, it would have just broken the door down…

Oh yeah.

I had totally forgotten about the other zombie in the previous room.

I slowly walked towards the door, ignoring the now continuous banging and scratching emanating from it. I reached out with a violently shaking hand and grasped the doorknob. I took three deep breaths to steady myself, and quickly twisted and pulled the doorknob.

The zombie had been leaning against the door at the time, causing it to crash to the floor at the sudden opening. I took the opportunity, bringing my foot down onto its head with a loud SPLAT. Brains, blood, and bone once again coated the floor.

This was an especially interesting moment for me, as normally, the only time you'd ever fight anything in this room is when you rescue Rebecca. It was a bit sobering; it reminded me once again that this wasn't a game.

After coming down from my adrenaline high, I walked back to the door and walked out, closing it behind me.

Now back in the "U" Corridor, I walked down the hallway to the left, back to the door I'd come through before. There, on a side table beside the door, was an inconspicuous wooden plank. But on closer inspection, I picked it up and opened it to find that:

A: it opened via a brass hinge like a book, and

B: there was a blank sheet of paper inside it.

I tucked the seemingly useless plank under my left arm and opened the door with my right, walking back into the East Stairway.

I walked forward, around the corner to the right, over the headless zombie corpse, down to the other end of the hall, around the corner to the right again, and down to the door at the end of the hall. I slowly walked through, keeping my senses on high alert.

After making sure there were no enemies, I looked around the very dim room. There were a few chairs piled up in the corner of the room across from me, with a lot of random stuff stacked on top of them. To the right of the room, on the far wall in the center, was a fireplace. I slowly walked over to it.

I could barely see this far into the room, but I could see a relief carved into the chimney pipe. Any skilled soul would instantly recognize it as a map, but obviously there was no way to bring it with me. Luckily, that's why I had the Wooden Mount.

I set the wooden mount down onto the ground beside the fireplace. I reached into my pocket and pulled out Mr. Trevor's lighter. I crouched down to the ground and looked into the fireplace. Sure enough, there was already plenty of firewood, kindling and paper to start the fire. I flicked the lighter open and lit it once more. Time to put my fire lighting skills to the test, I thought. I brought the flame down to the paper underneath the firewood, catching it and causing the kindling to slowly ignite, followed by the firewood. In no time at all, I had a roaring fire in front of me, chasing away the shadows of the rest of the room.

It took about eight minutes to heat up, but eventually, the relief started to glow red hot from the intense heat of the chimney pipe. I picked the Wooden Mount back up off the ground, opened it up, and fitted it into the relief. Smoke immediately started to rise from the Mount as the design was scorched into the paper. I gave it about five seconds before removing the Mount from the relief, then the paper from the Mount. And just like that, I had the complete map of the 2nd floor of the mansion. I spent a few moments folding it into a compact shape before storing it with my other map.

My job having been taken care of, I turned back towards the door, only to remember the plethora of herbs on the ground near the door I came through. There were five herbs there! Two Reds, and three Greens. I wasted no time grabbing them all, simply gathering up all the pots in my arms to take to the Safe Room downstairs. I struggled to open the door with my foot, but eventually hooked my boot on the doorknob and opened it, stepping into the hallway with an armful of Herbs.

I found myself back in the Safe Room in short order, breathing heavily from slowly and carefully carrying five potted plants down a full flight of stairs. I walked over to the table I had set up next to the Item Box and set all five pots onto it. I also reached into the box and pulled out the other four Green Herbs I'd managed to gather earlier. I then took the time to carefully pull the leaves off of every plant, grind them all into a powder using a small mortar and pestle I'd managed to find in the random junk in the room, and carefully store all of them in individual plastic baggies I'd pulled out of the box. So all in all, I now had five prepared Green Herbs, and two Herb mixtures of Green and Red Herbs. All of that, on top of the First Aid Spray I still had in my inventory, and I was looking really good as far as first aid supplies went. I cleared off the table, putting all the herbs in the box, as well as the mortar and pestle. I shut the lid and walked back out of the room.

After going back up the stairs in the East Stairway, I was once again in the "U" Corridor. I turned to the left and walked around the corner to the right, past the broken wall mirror.

The hallway continued for about another 15 feet before again turning to the right. On the wall to my right was a VERY heavy looking set of iron double doors. I didn't bother, knowing it required the Armor Key. I walked past the door, to the corner, and made yet another right turn.

The last hallway had a door on the wall at the end, and another door halfway down the left wall. Again, this door was only accessible with the Armor Key, so I bypassed it and went straight down the hall. As I was fishing through my pouches to find my Sword Key I remembered I had already unlocked this door earlier. Thanks past me, I thought with a grin as I opened the door and walked into the Main Hall.

After passing through the 2nd floor of the Main Hall I once again found myself in the 2nd floor of the Dining Room. Thankfully there was no zombie in sight, allowing me to take my time. I walked around the room to the right, over to the two side-by-side doors at the far end of the room. As I approached I once again took out the Sword Key. I walked to the far door and fit the key into the lock, turning it once and causing a loud, satisfying CLICK to resonate throughout the room. I took a deep breath with my hand on the handle before turning it and quickly stepping inside.

AN: Sorry it's not as long as the others. I was originally intending to get the Broken Shotgun this chapter, but I started this WAAY later at night than I should have, and I'm in a hurry to post it. Let me know what you thought!