Deadly Silence: Resident Evil
Chapter Twenty Eight: Backtracking
Being released from the stabbing, crushing vine of the giant plant monster was both a relief, and extremely painful at the same time for Valentine; being able to breathe again was nice, but she cried out in agony with tears running down her cheeks while its dozens of stabbing knives were ripped out of her flesh. Redfield helped her over to the wall, where she was able to sit against it while the plant crumbled into nothing… good riddance.
"Looks like I got here just in time." The young man said as the rotting plant went silent. "Are you all right, Jill? Looks like Wesker was right about that root."
"Wesker… you saw Wesker?" Valentine replied, coughing as her hands still shook. "Where is he? Is he okay? Has he seen Enrico?"
He urged her to calm down, updating the young woman on everything that had happened down in the basement after their latest forced separation; the giant shark, draining the water, and destroying the root with Alpha Team's long lost Captain. Valentine was glad to hear that he was still alive, since she had been worried about Wesker after he had vanished from the main hall… but she was far less happy about his decision to stay in the basement to collect information.
Yes, they still had a mission to complete, and yes, as much information on this whole freak show of a mansion as could be gathered was needed… especially for the inevitable mission report that would have to be filed when they got back to the RPD. However, at this point, staying alive was more important than anything else, but at the moment… the young woman didn't feel quite up to enforcing any of her ideals about the matter.
"Chris, I think… I think that thing really hurt me." She continued, groaning with pain the next time she tried to move. "Can you… can you get me back to Rebecca?"
"That's probably the best plan for now, Chris." Burton added, taking another look down the hole where the plant had fallen. "But she's right, we can't leave Wesker all alone, either, so I'll stay here with him."
There didn't seem to be a problem with this plan, since everything between where they were and the main house had been completely cleared out of zombies and other monsters. So the big man headed for the basement, after Redfield made a point to tell him where the entrance was hidden, leaving Valentine to rely heavily on the young man as he helped her to her feet. He made a crack about carrying her if he hadn't been so tired himself, and honestly, with the way she was feeling after being snared by the plant, the young woman just might have let him… but for now all he could manage was to hold her up while they started back toward the exit.
As they passed through the rooms and hallways between there and the door to the enclosed courtyard, Valentine started to feel a little bit better, perhaps only needing to move around a bit to counteract how drained the plant had left her, and even though the still pouring rain was colder and heavier than it should have been at that time of year when they went outside, it felt just so… nice. Even though the water quickly soaked both of them, it was kind of refreshing, as was the break they took over the central gazebo they had stopped at before, only…
"STARS Alpha Team… STARS Bravo Team." Vickers' voice called from the helicopter's loudspeaker, interrupting her thoughts as it flew overhead. "If any of you can hear this, you've got to give me a signal of some kind."
"What is that dumb-fuck doing?" Redfield asked, almost angrily as he looked up at the helicopter. "Doesn't he know that when you're searching for survivors on the ground, you're supposed to hover with the nose pointed down at regular intervals so you can actually see the people? Where did he get his license, a God damn Cracker-Jack box?"
Letting out a pained laugh at that final comment, Valentine knew that he was right, regardless of her not knowing the first thing about being a pilot. The way Vickers was flying around up there was too fast, and with the nose pointed more upward as if he were more concerned with fighting the storm winds than looking for them… which, in a way was kind of understandable, considering that he was flying through a storm.
"I wonder how much gas he has left." She asked as it vanished from sight. "I mean, since we've been stuck out here this whole time, he could have easily gone back to Raccoon City to refuel, and oh, I don't know… told Chief Irons about what happened to us, maybe."
She was sure that their pilot was doing the best he could under the circumstances… yeah, while probably pissing himself every time the lightning flashed… this also made her wonder how a man like Brad Vickers had ever gotten accepted into STARS in the first place… or any kind of police work in general, for that matter. Everyone else on the team had years of police experience, or a military background, or something, but Vickers… there were rumors around the RPD that he was even scared to go to the firing range.
"Feeling any better, Jill?" Redfield asked. "You look like you're moving around a little easier."
"Yeah, I'm getting there." She replied, using one of the gazebo's posts to stand all the way up on her own. "I still want Rebecca to look me over, but… I'm getting there."
Standing up on her own was still a bit easier than walking on her own, so she still needed to lean on the young man pretty heavily as they stepped back out into the rain, but by the time that they had made it to the doors of the tool shed before the main house, she was almost doing it on her own… almost. No, now that several minutes of trying to recover had gone by, the young woman was pretty sure that she would be leaning on him, at least a little, until they got back to where they had left Chambers and Aiken.
It was going to be so good to have both of them in action again, since in a place like this, safety in numbers was paramount, especially since it had been a while since either of them had found any more ammo for their weapons. She still had plenty of bullets for her pistol, but the pouch where Valentine kept her extra shotgun shells was getting pretty light… and she didn't see very many extra clips on her partner's belt, either.
Hopefully they would find a way to escape before all of their bullets ran out, either that or hopefully this place would run out of nightmares to throw at them. Worse come to worse, she and Redfield both had their knives, but those just didn't seem like enough for this mission… and in her current condition, the young woman wasn't exactly in a hurry to get into a physical battle with another zombie.
Taking a few minutes to dry off inside the musty tool shed before heading into the main house, mostly so that their wet boots didn't slip on the wooden floors at a critical moment, the young man pushed open the door that had needed that special object, allowing them to return to the mansion after working so hard to leave it. Valentine had really been hoping that there would have been some kind of hidden back door, or at least a telephone or a radio somewhere inside the smaller building… instead of the mutated plants and monsters in residence.
"All right, Jill, the hard part's over." Redfield said, laughing a little as they stopped in front of the door to the stairwell. "Now all you gotta do is walk up the stairs, and then go damn near to the other side of the house."
"Oh, is that all?" She replied, laughing with him as he turned the doorknob. "Think you can keep up with…
Her words then stopped when he pushed open the door, as did her breath when she saw what was standing there on the other side, as if it had been waiting for them. Valentine only saw it for a second; green and scaly like a reptile, stocky and muscular, and maybe as tall as a man if it hadn't been hunched over… then one of its powerful arms swung upward, letting her feel the wind from its horrible claws on her face as it tore off the beret she was wearing, along with cutting off a little bit of her hair.
Boom! Aiming the shotgun more on instinct than anything else as she stumbled backwards, the force of the weapon firing made the young woman lose her balance completely, falling on her rear while the clawed creature took the full force of the shell to its face. Knocked off its feet, and shrieking almost like a dentist's drill, the monster quickly recovered, jumping to its feet and running after them just as Redfield pulled the door shut.
"New plan, let's go that way!" He yelled, pulling her to her feet just as the stairwell door shook from a violent impact. "Come on!"
Doing her best to keep up with him, Valentine was still not at one hundred percent as they ran, only managing to reach the door to the hallway where that crusher booby trap had been, before the stairwell door was blasted into pieces from the clawed creature throwing itself through it like a battering ram. Bang! Bang! Turning back and firing at the monster as it ran after them, only one of his bullets hit, striking it in the arm, but only seeming to piss it off.
This had given the young woman time to open the door, though, and again they slammed it in the pursuing monster's face just in time. It was already bashing the door by the time they had gone a couple steps, and Valentine knew that they would never outrun it like this… but then an idea came to mind when she saw the door that Burton had tried earlier… the metal one that led outside.
"Wait a second." She said pulling away from him. "Quick, hide over there."
Unlatching the metal, rusting door, and leaving it open just a crack, the young woman ran over to where she had sent Redfield, ducking behind a decorative display case, and keeping their weapons ready just in case this didn't work. An instant later the clawed creature smashed its way through the double doors, shrieking as it ran down the hallway, and… shouldering its way through the metal door… to where the large pack of mutated dogs were still waiting.
All of them were starting to run toward the monster just as Valentine came out of hiding and pulled the sturdy door closed, and now there was the muffled sound of barking and growling from outside… followed by the creature shrieking… then more yelping than barking… then more shrieking… and then no barking at all. Bam! The two of them jumped back as the metal door was struck so hard that a small dent was left from outside, prompting them to run back down the hallway, toward the stairwell before the clawed creature forced its way back in.
