Resident Evil Recall: Necropolis

Chapter Twenty One: Elza's Choice

Elza was still having a hard time wrapping her mind around what was happening around her; chained up along with all of those other girls, the one called Stephanie dead while her zombie boyfriend was shoved back into the storage room by Dr. Hartwell, and now the deranged former professor resumed his little walk around the room, stopping to either hit, grope, or make insane accusations at his captives.

"Stop it!" The young woman yelled, no longer able to take the cries of agony from the stun gun being used on a girl. "Please… just stop! You don't have to do this!"

"Oh, don't I?" Hartwell asked, leaving his victim and walking up to her. "Modern girls don't understand the proper way to respond to a man who is simply showing them affection… you're all so spoiled, and a bunch of entitled little sluts, but then again… if you are taken out of your privileged environment… then shown how vulnerable and helpless you really are… here, let me just show you."

Never before in her life had Elza experienced such pain as when the former professor stuck his stun gun into her partially exposed midriff, making her shriek while he pressed the trigger with a tick-tick-tick. Falling against the chains as her body twitched uncontrollably, the young woman was crying by the time he stopped. It felt like every nerve in her whole body was firing at once, but then he pressed the stun gun into her stomach again, not even giving her enough time to beg him not to, before pulling the trigger again.

"Nothing to say this time?" The former professor asked, smirking after letting go of the trigger. "No demands? No threats to have me arrested? Nope… just another weak, scared, crying little girl, aren't you? Oh, you think staying quiet will make me not hurt you?"

Elza pulled at her restraints, trying to get away while Dr. Hartwell clamped his hand over her mouth, muffling her screams when the stun gun was shoved into her ribs. Tick-tick-tick, the young woman was sobbing uncontrollably, as were the other captive girls, and it seemed like the pain would never end… until there was a loud bang as the door was kicked open, causing the former professor to stop as a familiar figure entered the room.

"RPD, nobody move!" Tobias yelled, keeping the pistol aimed on the former professor. "You, there, drop your weapon!"

For a moment Dr. Hartwell seemed to be frozen in place, but then he suddenly rushed forward, trying to get behind Elza like a shield. Bang! The Lieutenant pulled the trigger, sending a bullet right through the former professor's wrist, making him drop the stun gun, and stumble backwards. Groaning in pain while holding his now bleeding wrist, Dr. Hartwell looked around the room as if looking for an escape route, but finding none… until his eyes fell on the knife sticking out of the dead Stephanie's shoulder.

Bang! With another pull of the trigger, there was a small spray of blood when the bullet slammed into the former professor's leg, ending his attempt to grab the knife, and resulting with the deranged man collapsing to the floor. As for Tobias, he was now starting to advance toward the wounded kidnapper, when he stopped… looking around the room as if just now realizing what was going on.

"What the fuck?" The Lieutenant asked, looking at the captive girls, Elza, Stephanie, and then back at the former professor again. "All right, sicko, there's still a few bullets in this gun, so you just lay there real still, and maybe I won't have to use them."

"Oh, don't act so high and mighty, officer." Dr. Hartwell groaned, holding his leg on the floor. "Don't tell me you've… never thought about taking one of these little sluts for…

The former professor's words were stopped when Tobias roughly kicked him in the mouth, causing blood and something that might have been a tooth to go flying as Dr. Hartwell fell the rest of the way down onto his back. The Lieutenant then reached down and picked up the fallen stun gun, before pulling the knife out of Stephanie, and using it to begin freeing the captive girls.

"First off, you sick bastard." Tobias said, cutting another girl's restraints. "It's Detective, not officer… second… no, I would never take a girl against her will… because I'm a real man, unlike you."

Finally getting over to Elza, and cutting the cords around her wrists and neck, the Lieutenant was starting to say something else to the former professor, but was interrupted when the young woman threw her arms around him, squeezing as tightly as she could while continuing to cry. He hugged her back, repeatedly telling her that everything was going to be all right now, but that didn't keep her from being scared. In fact, the only reason that she let go of him at all was because there were still a couple girls to free… and then there was Dr. Hartwell.

"Okay everybody, listen up." The Lieutenant announced once everyone was loose. "The pervert here can no longer hurt you… but it's a little hard to arrest anyone right now, given the state of the city, so here's what we're going to do."

Holstering his pistol and then holding out the stun gun and dagger, Tobias explained that each one of the captives, including Elza, were going to get the opportunity to pay him back for his, uh… hospitality. It was obvious what he expected them to do, each take a turn either shocking or cutting Dr. Hartwell, but while the young woman wanted nothing to do with this… the others weren't so reluctant.

"He called me a slut." A redheaded girl said quietly, taking the stun gun. "He said I was a whore, when I've never…

She didn't finish her statement, instead pulling the trigger as she moved toward the former professor, and making him scream when she jammed it into his side. Dr. Hartwell flailed his good arm at her, forcing her to back off, but then another girl, this time a blonde, took the knife and stabbed him in the shoulder. One by one each girl took their turn, cutting and shocking him until he had urinated himself, and lay in a fetal position sobbing just like he had done to them.

"Do you feel that, pervert?" Tobias asked once they were done. "That's called karma… you girls grab your things and get ready to go… Elza, you come over here."

The other captives slowly walked over to the pile of clothes and possessions, getting dressed while the young woman walked up to the Lieutenant, and then he surprised her by placing the pistol into her hands. Looking down at the bleeding and helpless man who had tortured her, Tobias explained that sometimes the only way to stop a criminal so that he would never hurt anyone else… was to kill him.

"Elza, I'm going to give you the same choice my Lieutenant gave me when I was a rookie." The Lieutenant continued. "As bad as things are, we can try to bring him in by the book to face justice… or you can pop him right here."

There were pros and cons to both choices, as Tobias explained; she might feel better about letting him live, but he might escape, or due to what was happening in the city, such charges might be dropped, leaving him free to go and hurt more girls some other time. On the other hand, shooting him would guarantee that no one else would ever be hurt like this again, not by him… but taking a life would be something that would stay with her for the rest of her days.

At first she wasn't going to do it, since killing someone was never something that she could have imagined herself doing, no matter what… but then she looked at Stephanie… an innocent girl, killed by that maniac… and her zombie boyfriend… and the scars and bruises on the other girls. Lastly, there was how he had treated her… there had been no mercy, and if Tobias hadn't shown up when he did, Elza would still have been getting tortured.

Bang! There was a flash of light, a tiny bit of smoke, and an instant of noise as the bullet tore through Dr. Hartwell's forehead, leaving a splatter mark on the floor as he collapsed, and then it was over. For several seconds the young woman just stood there, trying to process what she had just done, but only having a kind of numb feeling… she had really done it… she had killed a man. She wasn't sure what to do or say, only managing to move again to look up at Tobias when he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Well done." He said calmly as all of the former captives looked at them. "It might not feel like it now, but you've made this city a better place… now, as head of Homicide Division, I'm ruling this man's death a suicide… and hereby Deputizing you into the Raccoon City Police Department."

Elza wasn't sure if all this was really happening… everything that had happened today since leaving her parent's house this morning felt like some kind of bizarre nightmare; the zombies, the monsters, the survivors, and now all this… Tobias had just convinced her to murder a man who should have been taken into custody, regardless of how bad things were in the city… and she wasn't sure, but it sounded like he had just made her a cop?

"All right, everyone, show's over." The Lieutenant continued, searching Dr. Hartwell until he found the elevator key. "Now, Officer Walker here is going to lead you up to the third floor in an orderly manner, while I make sure there's no stragglers, and whoa!"

The Lieutenant jumped back, and everyone else gasped as Stephanie, now with glazed-over eyes and discolored skin, growled while pulling at her restraints, trying to bite him. In response, Tobias extended his shock baton, and the formerly captive girls gasped again when he struck her with it, causing sparks to fly. Instead of putting her out of her misery, however, the Lieutenant cut the cords holding her up, but left her wrists and neck restrained, sort of like what Dr. Hartwell had done with Stephanie's boyfriend.

"Linda said she needed an infected specimen." He explained, getting a better grip on the zombie to control it. "All right, let's get out of here."

"Uh… everyone to the elevator." Elza said a bit nervously once she had been given the key. "Apparently we're going to the third floor."

As happy as she was to be getting out of the basement, the young woman was suddenly very nervous to know that, since her sudden draft into the RPD, these girls… and Tobias… were going to be counting on her… for what? Leadership? She was a nobody with terrible taste and timing for going to college… what exactly did the Lieutenant expect her to do?