Disclaimer- As you know I don't own Resident Evil. That belongs to Capcom I merely borrowing it for my own purposes. I do however own Miles, and Amelia. As well, as the girls that haven't really made much of an appearance since they escaped the city already. But I'm getting off topic here is chapter 11 of But A Cat Has Nine Lives.
Miles had to admit he was rather skeptical in regards to their plan as he watched as Jill and Carlos milled about trying to come up with a way to hail another helicopter to their location. Call him a pessimist, or an asshole or whatever but he had a sickening feeling in his gut that this wasn't going to turn out how anyone planned. In the entire duration of the time he had spent with people while the world turned to hell before them he had seen plan after plan fall through, hopes die out, friend turning on friend during desperate times as people died all around them.
At this point Miles had all but given up hope that they would ever get out of the city. But despite knowing this he remained silent, the last thing he wanted to do was to upset the others. Running a hand through his hair he heaved a sigh, and got to his feet, despite his thoughts on the matter he might as well help them out. Looking around the upper levels of the clock tower for any way of alert the helicopters in the area of their whereabouts. When he spotted Jill off to the side, admiring three peculiar paintings on the wall.
Moving to stand beside he he eyed the paintings before casting his eyes down to the odd cup shaped protrusions at the bottom of each painting.
"What do you think these are for?" he inquired, his fingers tracing the edge of one of the bowls.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Jill told him, following his gaze. "But experience tells me that we're probably going to have to solve some puzzle in order to get out of here." She added, meeting Miles questioning look she then added, "When I was stuck in the Spencer Mansion I've had to solve all sorts of these little puzzles to progress in searching the mansion. Kind of a pain sometimes. Or in other times we were rewarded with with information, keys, etc, etc."
Nodding Miles smiled. "Sounds like Umbrella really wanted you to work to get out of there, kinda like right now. Trying to get that helicopter here, bell won't ring and you and I are here admiring these odd paintings, as if they might hold the key to helping us out."
"Hey," Jill said, with a shrug. "You never know."
Smiling once more Miles continued to examine the paintings, before tearing his eyes away from them to look to Amelia, who was sitting back against one of the walls, a faraway look in her eyes. When suddenly he head perked up. Blinking a few times as her eyes scanned the very paintings Jill and Miles were at, before letting her eyes fall to the small bowl shaped things under the pictures.
Then, without a word got to her feet. "I'm thinking..." She muttered, moving to stand between the two of them. "That these clocks...the ladies in the pictures seem to be holding have something to do with these bowls. Aaaaand." Amelia trailed off once more as she fished through the backpack she had acquired during their trek through the clock tower. Inside was a silver gear, and three different coloured stones they had picked up on their way here.
Chewing on her bottom lip Amelia reached out and pressed down on one of the bowls, jumping slightly as the pressure she was putting on the bowl caused one of the clock hands to start to spin, making the trio jump at the unexpectedness of it.
"So..." Amelia mused, then turned her gaze to the three orbs sitting idly in the bottom of the backpack. "I'm just spit balling here...but considering we found these orbs thingies in three statues of women and we're standing before before three paintings of women I'm think they might be connected." She told them.
"Really?" Miles said, sounding skeptical, arms crossed as he looked to her. "You got all that from the fact that their are female statues outside, and that there a females in the paintings? For all you know it could be completely unrelated to this, and those weird orbs you felt were necessary are just some odd trinkets, some paper weight or some miscellaneous object that has no use."
Amelia seemed to shrink under Miles' words, her shoulders slumping, eyes down cast when suddenly Jill snatched one of the orbs from her and placed it in the bowl, watching as the clock hand began to spin.
"I wouldn't knock it yet, Miles." Jill said, as she began to work the puzzle. "Amelia might actually be on to something."
Huffing Miles turned away from the women, and moved over to where Carlos was. "So, what do you think?" Miles asked, jerking Carlos out of his thoughts.
"I think I've had more than enough of this city to last a life time, you?" Carlos said.
"I agree, though I was wondering if you have any idea on what we should do now, to get out of here." Miles asked, turning his gaze to the city.
Carlos turned his gaze to Jill and Amelia as they worked on the clock puzzle, and just as he was about to say something a musical chime greeted their ears, as one of the three pictures opened up, revealing a gold gear to match the silver one in the backpack.
"Yes!" Amelia cheered, as she high fived an equally pleased Jill, before the girls turned to face the boys, Amelia meeting Miles gaze, as she snatched the gear from Jill, and walked over to him, a triumphant grin on her grimy face, as she waved the gear a few inches from his face. "All that talk about how there was nothing to be gained by messing with those paintings, well look at this!" She gloated.
Miles sighed, and rolled his eyes. "And how do we know it will help us get out of here?" Snatching the gear from Amelia, Jill only rolled her eyes at him, and reached for the smaller gear, and put the two of them together.
"Must you always be so negative?" she muttered, before disappearing for a moment, soon the all too familiar sound of the clock bells chiming reached their ears, sending hope soaring through their hearts, as the three of them rushed over to stand with Jill as the all too familiar sound of helicopter blades reached their tired ears.
"I'll take back all the things I said." Miles sighed, as he saw the helicopter on the horizon, drawing closer and closer.
Until finally the helicopter was in reach. However their relief was short lived as a high pitched hiss reached their ears, followed by the sight of a rocket launcher rocket as it began to race towards the oncoming helicopter, and everyone's heart sank as the rocket hit the helicopter full on.
"Oh, you got to be kidding me." Jill cursed, as the flaming wreck of the helicopter struck the clock tower above them. Bits of the building raining down on them, as they jumped down to the courtyard below. Just as they heard it.
"Sssstars..."
Looking up they saw the Nemesis standing on top of the neighbouring building, glaring down at them, rocket launcher perched on his shoulder, smoke rising form the barrel. Suddenly the hulking monster jumped down, and turned to face Jill. "Ssstars..." it rumbled again, and took a lumbering step towards her.
And before Jill or anyone else could react the monster lashed out a her with one pulsating tentacle, piercing her right shoulder, pain radiating from the wound as she glowered at the monster. "Jill!" Carlos cried out, as he rushed over to help her, and opened fired on the lumbering monster, while Miles and Amelia looked on in terror.
Looking over his shoulder Carlos looked to them. "Go on get out of here!" He shouted, watching as the two of them raced off, hoping that in doing so they wouldn't run into any trouble in the process, before turning his burning gaze to Nemesis, who was slowly backing the injured Jill into a corner, as she fired round after round at the Nemesis, who seem impervious to the meagre bullets tearing into its chest.
Howling in anger Carlos raised his rifle, and opened fire on the Nemesis' back. Snarling Nemesis turned to glare at Carlos before lashing at him with one of its tentacles, knocking him off of his feet. Grunting he picked himself up, and continued to attack, watching as rivets of blood streamed down the hulking monsters back. His heart began to pound against his rib cage as he watched as the monster wrapped its massive hand around Jill's neck, lifting her up off the ground.
Screaming in terror Carlos opened fire on the Nemesis once more, bullets tearing into the tentacles around the Nemesis' shoulders. Purple blood spraying from the ruptured tentacles, as Nemesis howled in pain, and dropped Jill to the ground, as it turned away from her, and walked a few steps before collapsing face first onto the ground.
Eyes glued on to the monster, Carlos released the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, before turning to Jill, who was slumped against the dirty brick wall, her eyes closed, her skin gleaming with sweat her skin pallid. Eyes widening he rushed to her side as he rushed to her side.
"Jill, Jill!" he called out, gathering her in his arms, shaking her slightly. Receiving no response Carlos cursed under his breath as he looked around before picking Jill up. Looking around once more he headed for the clock tower once more. Dodging the overly larger spiders, as he made his way to one of the abandoned rooms. A sign of relief escaping his lips, as he placed Jill on a small alter, looking down he took in her features, a pained groan escaped her lips, as she shifted slightly but did not rouse.
"Jill, can you hear me?" he whispered leaning down closer to her, hoping that she would be able to hear him, and wake up.
His eyes soon moving to the gaping wound on her shoulder, the flesh around it was an angry looking red, making Carlos' heart stop, when he recalled what happened not an hour earlier when the Nemesis had destroyed their way out of the city, before going after Jill. Was she infected? At that thought Carlos' blood ran cold, at the thought of Jill becoming one of those undead monsters.
"But what can I do?" he muttered, unable to keep the crushing feeling of hopelessness overcoming him. But then it dawned on him. This was a virus, and if that was the case there must be some way of counteracting it, and antivirus!
Carlos felt his heart skip a beat as he came to this conclusion. But the question is where would I be able to find something like that? Then it suddenly dawned on him, not far from here was a hospital, and Carlos had no doubt that he would find something to help Jill. When a low groan reached his ears, making his start.
Looking up he saw Jill as she slowly began to rouse, getting to his feet he moved to Jill's side. "Jill?" he whispered, placing a hand on her as she began to cough. Carlos watched as she wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, before turning to look at him.
Dark circles were under her eyes as she blinked up at him. "C-Carlos?" she choked out, as he ran a hand through sweat soaked hair. "Where are we? What happened?" She choked out, her throat felt unbearably dry, however that was short lived as Carlos handed her a bottle of water, and held it to her lips, watching as a small trickle of water dripped down her chin before he wiped it away.
Placing the water bottle beside her, Carlos slowly eased her back down. "I'm infected, aren't I?" she choked out, catching Carlos off guard. Trying to swallow the lump in his throat Carlos tried to come up with something to tell her, to reassure her.
"You don't have to hide it from me." She told him, moving onto her side, turning away from him. "I know I am I can feel it."
"How do you feel?" he asked.
"It's strange...I don't feel anything no pain, or anything, odd isn't it? I should feel something." She told him, looking over his shoulder at him.
Carlos was silent, as she continued on. "I got a huge infected looking hole in my shoulder, that should be hurting like a bitch. The virus is flowing through my veins, I should feel symptoms of that but nothing... how should I handle that I'm infected, it'll only be a matter of time before I turn into-"
"You stop that right now." Carlo snarled, gripping her uninjured shoulder tightly, his teeth bared. "That is not going to happen, you hear me?" Jill blinked up at him in surprise etched on her exhausted face. "You're going to beat this, you will not let this virus beat you, understand I won't let you." He added, giving her a firm shake.
"B-but-"
"Ain't no buts about it. I'm going to find away to save you, Jill. So just hold on, okay? Promise me that."
Swallowing Jill said nothing, as she turned away from him, tears burning in her eyes. "Jill..." Carlos sighed, as he looked around the room. "I'm going to head to the hospital, see what I can find there, hopefully along the way I'll run into Amelia and Miles as well, but don't you dare give up, you hear me?"
Silence once again greeted him, as he picked up his rifle, and what ammo he could scrounge up, and headed for the door, confident that he could leave her alone once he scanned the area, and saw no immediate threats in the area. Leaving the clock tower once more he scanned the area, fires burned everywhere, no doubt from the various car wrecks that had occurred the first few days of the outbreak. People trying to escape the virus only to die in some wreck, unfortunate.
Tearing his gaze away from the carnage, he tried to remember where the hospital was located. When it suddenly popped into his mind. Nodding to himself he headed in that direction the hospital was in hoping that it would have what he was looking for.
This was going far too smoothly, Nicholai thought as he stood over the body of one of the supervisors, barrel of his gun smoking as blood blossomed across the mans shirt, lifeless eyes staring up at him. "Do not take it too hard." He told the lifeless body, as he slid the mans research into his pocket, before moving to search the rest of the office, finding nothing of consequence, he headed for the door.
And was immediately greeted with a lone zombie that lunged at him the moment he had opened the door. Decaying fingers immediately latching onto the front of Nicholai's coat. Grimacing in disgust he grabbed a hold of the zombies wrist, and managed to pry him off of him as the zombie dropped to the ground, before he brought his foot down on its decaying skull.
Grimacing he pulled his foot away from the mess before wiping the bottom of his boot on the already grimy carpet, before stepping over the body. Ever since Nicolai had went MIA he had been preoccupied taking care of some loose ends so to speak. After all there was another reason he had come to this doomed city, and it involved a rather hefty paycheck if things went according to plan that is. And judging how well it was to hunt down one of the supervisors, and gather the data they should have collected, it should seem rather easy. After all he knew for a fact that most of them were still in the city.
At that a grin broke out across his face, as he stepped out of the building he had been in. A cool summer breeze washing over his overheated skin, as he scanned the area. Overhead he heard the sound of crows cawing above him, looking up he saw several of the infected birds looking down at him with those beady eyes of theirs, before he tore his gaze away from them, and began to make his way to the hospital, where he knew another of the supervisors was.
Only one more. Nicholai thought as he scanned the area, catching sight of a few zombies lumbering his way from the corner of his eye, seeing that they were still quite a distance from him, he chose not to waste his time with them, and continued down to the hospital. Thankfully no zombies or other such creatures had wandered into his path along the way, somehow that managed to brighten his mood, that is until a blood curdling scream reached his ears. Causing him to turn his attention to the right, as he saw a young woman around the age of 18 heading in his direction, blood caking the plain white t-shirt she wore and torn blue jeans.
Behind her Nicholai could see several undead dogs chasing after her. Terror filled as they settled on him. "Please! Please help me!" She pleaded, as she moved closer to him.
"Oh, I'll help you." Nicholai muttered, and raised his rifle and lowered it, aiming for her right knew and fired.
Smirking as the girl dropped to the ground, clutching at her bleeding knee, as she looked up at him. "Why?" Why would you do this?" she cried out, as the dogs closed in on her, her cries soon turning to screams of agony as they tore into her, her blood soaking the ground beneath her as she continued to cry for help.
Turning away from the girl Nicolai continued to the hospital. In his travels he had stumbled across tow more hopeless survivors which he quickly disposed of, before he spotted the hospital in the distance. Picking up the pace Nicholai suddenly cried out as something grabbed a hold of his ankle, tripping him.
Looking over his shoulder he spotted the sad remains of a legless zombie. A pitiful moan escaping its lips as its mouth edged towards his ankle. Growling in frustration Nicholai kicked at it, watching as a flap of skin slid away from its skull, revealing the glistening white bone underneath. Pulling himself out of the zombies weak grasp, he got to his feet and opened fore on it, killing it.
Dusting himself off Nicholai finally reached the doors of the hospital, and entered it. Scanning the area he saw bodies littering ground, and wasn't the least bit surprise to see a few of them twitch, a sure sign that they were still alive, and playing possum. Waiting for some unsuspecting sap to get too close, and take a nice, juicy chunk out of their ankles.
Not wanting to waste time or ammo on them he quickly moved past them, and towards the elevators. When a low groan reached his ears, and a lone zombie stepped into his line of sight. However before Nicholai could react a high pitch screech reached his ears, as a dark blur leaped out in front of him, and towards the zombie. And in a blink of an eye the other creature lopped the zombies head clean off, before turning to look at Nicholai.
Cursing under his breath Nicholai felt his blood run cold, as he recognized the creature standing before him. A hunter, and not just any type of hunter, it was the hunter B, one of Umbrella's long standing creations. However before Nicholia could dwell on the creature any further, it suddenly turned towards him and let out another earsplitting screech. Before jumping at him. Cursing again Nicholai managed to get out of its way as it landed where he had been standing mere seconds ago, leaving deep grooves in the cement, with those lethal looking claws that were adorned on both hands. Opening fire he watched as his bullets tore into the hunters guts, dark blood spilling onto the already dirty floor, before dropping to the ground, dead.
And to think. Nicholai thought, as he headed for the elevator. I thought traversing the hospital would be a walk in the park, so to speak. Watching as the doors slid shut Nicholai leaned against the wall, and allowed his eyes to slide shut for a moment or two.
Ding
Nicholai pushed himself off the wall, as the elevator doors slid open on the floor he needed. Peering out he saw no threats before stepping out and continued down the hall.
They didn't know how far they had ran, but Amelia did know that she was far beyond exhausted, as Miles continued to drag her along.
"Miles, Miles, stop!" She pleaded, as she stumbled slightly before Miles finally slowed to a stop, and turned to face her.
"I think...I think...we're a safe enough distance..." Amelia panted, as she placed her hands on her knees as she fought to catch her breath.
"S-sorry..." Miles said, running a hand through his hair, sweat glistening on his grimy skin, as he leaned against the wall beside her.
"Do you think they're okay?" Amelia asked.
Miles shook his head. "To be honest I have no idea." He told her, as he pushed himself off the wall, and turned to her.
"I hope they're okay." Amelia muttered more to herself than to Miles, who merely scoffed, and rolled her eyes at her.
"I don't see why you're holding out such hope for those two." He told her, scanning the area. The last thing the two of them needed right now was some creature sneaking up on them when they lease expected it.
"What's wrong with that?"
Miles groaned surely Amelia couldn't be this naive.
"What's wrong with having hope especially now?" She asked, noticing his look. Miles looked to Amelia, who looked positively exhausted, dark circles were under her eyes, her clothes were torn and tattered and splattered with god knew what.
Does she not remember what had happened to her little friend? To...what was her name again? Molly? Miles thought.
"I don't know about you, Miles but hope is all we got right now." Amelia added.
"Yes, because having hope is doing such wonders for us right now, look around, Amelia." Miles growled, spreading his arms, as he looked around at the chaos around them. "What in the ever loving fuck is hope going to do for us?" Pushing his glasses back up on his face he sighed. "The way I see it we need more than hope to get out of here alive, now come on. I don't want to spend another minute here gabbing when something could jump out at us at any given minute."
"Where do you suggest we go then?" Amelia asked, arms crossed over her chest. "Since you seem to know so damned much about how to get out of here alive, and how people should feel."
"There's a hospital close by." Miles told her, peering out from the building they were hiding behind, and looked around. Seeing no threats Miles grabbed a hold of Amelia's wrist and began to drag her out from behind the building. Just as something dripped onto her shoulder.
"W-what's this?" She grimaced, as she dabbed her fingers in the stuff as it dripped down her arm, just as more of the strange liquid dripped down on her before the two of them looked up.
Their blood running cold as they saw some sort of mutated insect creeping down the building wall towards them, a low hiss escape the creatures mouth, as it dropped to the ground before them and roared.
"Run!" Miles screamed, as he turned his back to the creature, just as it lashed out at them, curved claws catching him in the back, making him cry out. Blood streamed down Miles back, as he quickly fought through the pain and picked himself off the ground, Amelia running a head of him, looking over her shoulder every once in a while to see if the creature that had attacked them was still hot on their heels her hand firmly clasped in his.
Leading him down an alleyway after alleyway until they got skidded to a stop when they realized the creature was no longer chasing after them. "I swear..." Amelia panted as she dropped to her hands and knees, sweat dripping from her face as she sat up and looked at Miles, who was leaning against the wall, his skin pale.
"If I ever get out of here alive I will never have to run again. I would have had my fill by them."
Silence greeted her, which was odd, normally Miles had some retort. Looking over her shoulder she saw Miles slumped on the ground, a trail of blood smearing down the brick wall. "Miles!" She cried out, rushing to his side, and gripped his shoulders, "Miles! Miles!" She cried out as she shook him slightly.
"Mmmph..." Miles grunted as his face scrunched up before blinking up at her. "Amelia?" He grunted, as he ran a hand through his hair once more. "W-what happened?" he asked.
"You collapsed, you're hurt, did that creature get you?" She asked reaching around to press a hand to his back, making Miles cry out in pain as pain lanced through the nasty gash that started between his shoulders, and ended at the small of his back and was still bleeding heavily. "We need to get you patched up." Amelia told him, as she tried in vain to get him to his feet.
Which she managed to do after a few tries. "And where do you think we could get me patched up?" Miles asked, Amelia couldn't help the small smile that formed on her lips at the all too familiar snark that made Miles, well Miles.
"Well if you looked up you could see that we're a few blocks away from the Raccoon City Hospital."
Looking up Miles saw what she was talking about. Up ahead was the hospital. Adjusting the weight on her shoulders Amelia gave Miles one final glance before heading in the direction of the hospital. "You just hang on, all right?" she said, stumbling slightly.
Nodding Miles hissed through his teeth as more pain radiated from his back as the hospital drew closer. Little did anyone know what awaited them in the hospital...
And here you have it Chapter 11 of But A Cat Has Nine Lives. Sorry it took me so long to update this story. Life you know, but neverless don't forget to R/r and this is Blackjack signing off.
