Raccoon City...
Slammed between row upon row of quaint, suburban complexes, complete with green grass, black shutters, spacious parking lots, and fenced off swimming pools, Rebecca's apartment was in a particularly crowded area of downtown Raccoon City. Or it was, before the outbreak. Now, streets that were once paved with laughing children and newly weds were abandoned, a hollow breeze rattling the "for sale" signs. The sun was still in the sky, casting rays of gold across the still waters, bits of trash and discarded luggage strewn about the ground. The area was empty, void of all life, aside from the small group that worked its way into the center most building. But for a residential area, why was it so vacant?
Skirting the tacky wall, observing every door carefully before crossing it and ducking underneath every curtained window, Rebecca lead everyone up the stairs to her apartment. Scouting for signs of the undead that just weren't there, Billy had her back, and Robin was behind him, sandwiched between him and her brother, her knife ready to strike at a seconds notice. Alastair had been given a spare handgun Billy had acquired on his journey. Pushing the polished double door open, she allowed everyone else in first, taking a more familiar place in the back. The pewter ceiling just brushing past eight feet on each floor, glass hanging artfully by nearly invisible strings, eggshell stucco supporting the floors above at exact right angles, darkened marble running up lofty staircase that were wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side, railings made of charcoal looped iron, similar to the modernized rooms, all painted in cool, neutral colors.
"Nice digs." Billy whistled, casting an impressed glance around the foyer, never guessing in a million years that Rebecca would live in such an upscale place, "So, where is it?"
She suddenly felt like a snob for living in a place like this, even though her parents had wired her the money from their summer home in Hawaii, "On the third floor."
Robin took a hesitant step closer to her, "Should we make sure that this place is secure first?"
Alastair proudly clapped his little sister shoulder, "She has a point."
"On the other hand," Robin thought about own suggestion some more, "we should get the hell out of dodge before its too late, and conserve our ammo. Who knows what we'll meet out there."
Rebecca and Billy exchanged glances, knowing that among other things, ammo conservation was key to surviving situations like these, "No, we should head over to Rebecca's."
Betting that she knew about these monster things becuase of Onni, Rebecca walked next to her as they ascended the stairs, "That was amazingly good advice."
Robin nodded, still a bit shy, "Onni loved monsters, and becuase we were all so close, we learned a lot. I just never expected that I'd ever have to use any of it. And what about you? You seem to know quite a lot yourself."
Overhearing their conversation, not that it was whispered to exclude anyone, Billy chimed in, "She might not look like much, but Rebecca knows what she's doing."
Blushing, Rebecca once again reflexively held onto his dog tags, which Billy definitely saw. So, she was still wearing them? Figuring that she had kept them as proof of his death, he had wondered what became of them, assuming that they had been locked away in some box, never to see the light again, but never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that she would be wearing them to this day. In a way it made sense that she would wear them, because after all, they had been through so much together, and that was the only thing they had that proved that the nightmare had happened.
Reaching the second floor, they found that they were not alone in the building, thank the fucking stars. The anticipation and solitude were overwhelming on the nerves. A little boy not much older than Armas was staring out of the window, in his arms an orange fluff ball. Meowing for food, an adorable, green-eyed kitten was pawing at the boy, though he seemed to take no notice. Being protectively close to her younger brother, Robin broke away from the group, concerned for the boy's safety.
"Are you alone?" She beamed at him, holding out her hand, leaving Rebecca to wonder how she was bashful.
The boy shook his head, pointing to the door of a room catty-corner from the stairs, "I can't get in. Would you help me?"
Twisting the door open, the baby cat pounced from the boy's arms darting inside, nudging the door open further. Not moving from the window, the boy looked at the others, still standing by the stairs with their guards half-up. In the pitch blackness of the room, three pairs of inhuman, bloodshot eyes lit up, eying the foolish human with blood-lust. Involuntarily screaming, she backed away from the door, dagger clattering to the floor, but she wasn't fast enough - a dog had lunged at her, knocking her on her back and pinning her down. Red teeth gleaming, she reached for the knife, grasping the hilt as she brought it around into the dog's leg, cleanly severing it. Throwing the skinned canine off before it could retaliate, Billy shot the dog point-blank.
Taking a deep breath, she looked up at him in gratitude and admiration, "You saved me. Thank you."
"We're not done yet!" He helped her up, tossing her to the back.
Bum rushing them, two zombies barreled out of the room, arms outstretched to grab their prey. Running to their aid, the others fired their guns at the monsters, stopping them in their tracks. Forgetting the little boy, they had their backs to the window, leaving Robin to stand uselessly behind. The boy saw that they were distracted, so he grabbed Robin, holding his own knife to her throat. Thinking of Onni, Armas, and her parents, Robin refused to give in, so she grabbed his arm, slashing viciously at him with her free hand. Not letting her go, she headbutted him, stabbing and shanking him until she was free. Freed, she collapsed into her brother's arms. He didn't coddle her, pushing her into a standing up position.
"Just a little more" He grinned encouragingly, nodding toward the stairs.
Billy passed her, giving her a small nod, "Good job, kid."
Rebecca patted her shoulder, "You handled that like a pro!"
Collecting themselves, they continued to the stairs, hurrying before anything could be drawn to the racket they had made. Thankfully the landing was empty, and even more fortuitously, Rebecca's room was the very first door they came to. Removing the key from her pocket, she unlocked the door, letting the kids in first. Her place was messy and far from the hotel clean of the rest of the building, so it looked real, which in the chaos around them was an immense comfort. Locking the door behind them, Rebecca immediately went to the closet where she kept her guns and ammunition, pulling out a SIG P226 for Robin, a Mossberg M500A Persuader for billy, and a Riot gun for Alastair, along with additional arms and ammo. Robin took the handgun she had been given, looking at it thoroughly before aiming it at an imaginary foe. Alastair worriedly fussed over her, giving Billy an opportunity to speak with Rebecca privately for the first time.
"How are you holding up, Rebecca?" She had forgotten how smooth his voice was, and ever so pleasing to the ears.
"I've been better, but I've been worse too..." She shivered, visions of the second mansion flooding her brain, "But what about you? I thought that you would have left the city behind."
He looked at her, a ghost of a smirk on his face, "I would have, but when I realized that the monsters were going to come here, I thought about you."
"I thought about you every day since..." She broke off, mortified that she had said that, especially since that was the first time she had even acknowledged it.
He laughed a her, stroking her face with the palm of his hand, "Rebecca."
"Billy..." She uttered his name lightly, getting on the tips of her toes so that her arms could reach his neck.
Seeing that things were heating up between the two, Alastair shoved Robin into the bathroom, closing the door behind himself. He knew that it was Rebecca's apartment, but didn't she have any decency? Robin was just a child, not even a teenager yet! Well, he supposed that a little down time would be alright, so he decided to take the time to look after his little sister. Swiping her hair behind her ears, he took in her ragged appearance, seeing that she was still covered in blood, so he grabbed a white hand towel from the rack above the toilet, running it under a hot tap.
Standing next to the shower, she pointed her thumb over her shoulder, "They're going to have sex, aren't they?"
He nodded, unsure about what to tell her about that, so instead, he just pressed the wet washcloth to her face, wiping away the grime that coated her. She sat on the toilet, after closing the lid, and let her brother clean her up. She was tired, miserable, hungry, and in pain, yet this ordeal was far from over. Relaxing a bit, she realized that she had been hit by the spray that had killed Onni, and that ninety percent of the pain she was feeling was from that. Curling into a ball, she fell off of the seat and onto the floor, rolling around in agony. Too busy caring for his sister, Alastair didn't know that he had also been hurt.
Finland...
Jerking awake, Robin sat up in bed, her undershirt sticking to her skin with sweat. Holding her head, she recounted visions of mutilated human remains, dogs that had been skinned and pulled inside out, and the screaming faces of her family. They were swimming in her brain like a swarm of angry bees, waking her up from a troubled and paranoid sleep. Grunting in aggravation and falling back down onto the mattress, Robin cursed Suvi, becuase if she hadn't convinced Chris that they should start their search in the morning, she wouldn't be in this room right now, trying to sleep.
"Oh, Chris!" Suvi cried out from the next room over, startling Robin so badly, she wondered if she hadn't fallen back asleep.
"Chris?" Robin jumped out of bed, almost breaking the wall when she clung to it in a desperate attempt to see if Chris was really in there with her.
Because the bunker had such thin walls, thin enough for a two pound chihuahua to break, she could clearly make out what was happening on the other side. Stomach falling out of a highly unlikely and physically impossible place, she turned away from the sheet metal, hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes. How could this happen? Chris wouldn't do this sort of thing during a mission... But becuase of Suvi's stalling, they weren't really on the mission yet... It all made perfect sense now.
Hustling back to the bed, she grabbed her things from the wide space underneath the bed, pulling her jacket, vest, and hat on as she left the room. Looking around the lonely hallways, high barred windows casting shadows over the uneven floor, she counted two soldiers who were patrolling the passage way. They saw her, but left each other alone, the guys clearly in no mood to deal with a crying woman. Too distraught to be ashamed of her open sorrow, Robin stalked by them, throwing dirty looks over her shoulder toward Chris and Suvi. Sure that no one else was around, Robin found one of the nine exits and looked at the heavily nailed door. When she left, she would be turning her back on everything that she had fought for. But the only reason she even wanted this in the first place was becuase of him, so, really, what was there to lose? Unfastening the padlocks and shoving the door open with both hands, Robin stepped out into the edge of a forest. Casting one look back, she took a deep breath, treading softly through the snow into the pine trees...
AN: Thank you so much, "Angelxwings" for telling me! I honestly had no idea about that, so I changed my summary the moment you told me(although it took five times to come up with something I liked)! Plagiarism is the absolute worst thing that anyone could do, so thank you again if you happen to see this! And to Padme4000, thank you again for all of the awesome reviews! I really do take the advice to heart, so you rock! Seeing that Rebecca was rear guard in S.T.A.R.S., I think that it's weird for her to be leading the group, so, she only did that for the children's sake, and so they they could find her place intact. Fun fact, the guns I chose, Robin's handgun and the guys' shotguns, are weapons from RE0 and RE5, both of which Rebecca was in (counting Gold/Alternate Edition). And from this chapter on, unless having a flashback or otherwise specified, "Raccoon City" is going to be the past, when she escaped from the city, and "Finland" is going to refer to the present, during the mission. Kinda obvious and self explanatory, but I don't want anyone getting confused, so there it is. Ay-ay-ay, this was the chapter of a million rewrites...
To Recap This Chapter: Rebecca leads the crew back to her apartment, where she hooks up with Billy at long last. But before that can happen, the group is attacked on the second floor. While the adults are busy, Alastair looks after his little sister, finding out that she had also been hurt by the blast that had killed their brother. Presently, Robin wakes up from a nightmare, only to hear Suvi screaming "Chris". She freaks out and leaves the bunker, despite Suvi's multiple warnings. Looking back at Chris and everything he symbolizes, she walks into the forest. Idiot.
Songs: Ok, I've been meaning to add this for a while now, but better late than never! I'll kick this off with Metalica's "All Nightmare Long", going to Cradle of Flith's "Nymphetamine" (which was on the soundtrack for Apocalypse), and finally "Weak and Powerless" by A Perfect Circle. And this chapter, The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go?", needs no explanation I trust.
Disclaimer: Capcom owns Resident Evil, not me. All respective properties, like, but not limited to, songs, belong to their respective brands. All I can lay claim to is the Varis family... and this work of fiction. Any game-related information used in this story comes from the Resident Evil Wikia, actual game play, and videos (official ones of the games) come from YouTube.
