Biohazard: Resident Evil VII

Chapter Twenty Eight: The Boathouse

Expecting to have to navigate more of the barn's labyrinth of hallways and game rooms, Ethan was pleasantly surprised when, after only walking down a single short hallway, the next door led him and Zoe back outside. It was still raining heavily, so the two of them were almost immediately soaked, although it did feel nice to have the blood and drywall dust washed off so that he wasn't constantly coughing or smelling rust all the time.

"Lucas must've taken her to the boat house." Zoe said, wiping the rain from her eyes. "C'mon, we gotta go get Mia fore' that dipshit figures out he's cornered, and does somethin' dumb."

After already seeing what Lucas was capable of, Ethan didn't bother saying anything in response, instead just following the short-haired woman as she started jogging away from the barn, leading him in the opposite direction from where the houses and her trailer were located. It was nice to be moving further away from the main Baker estate, but as another large building came into view, a sinking feeling started to form in Ethan's stomach, since every building he had been into had been progressively worse.

The full moon must've been really bright, since it illuminated the landscape even through the cloud cover, and Ethan could see that the boathouse had been built right over the water. This made sense, being that it was called the boathouse, but light was coming through the windows… hopefully Lucas hadn't modified this place like he had done to the barn, because honestly the only reason Ethan was still alive right now was because of dumb luck.

"Okay, he's probably got her up in the watch room." Zoe said as they reached the building and hid next to the wall. "If we're real lucky he's up there thinkin' we died in the blast, so let's creep on up there, then you hit'em with somethin' while I free Mia."

"Zoe, hold on." He replied, stopping her when she started toward the open window. "Lucas has the gun I got from Deputy Anderson; I want you to stay down here while I go after Lucas, I just… I don't want anything to happen to you."

The short-haired woman then gave him the same look that lots of other women had given him during his attempts to be chivalrous; being happy that he cared about them, while at the same time wanting him to recognize that they were just as capable as any man when it came to certain things. Of course, those things usually covered activities like holding the door open or carrying heavy things… not borderline-supernatural hostage situations.

"Look, Zoe, I'm not saying that you're not capable." He continued, trying not to offend her further. "I just really care about you, and…

"Mia's lucky she got a man like you." Zoe interrupted, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But I see how you go bout' handlin' Lucas on your own… no offense, Ethan, but you need me."

Ethan had to admit that his track-record for confronting the bald man was less than stellar… since he had fallen right into every single one of Lucas's traps. Of course, there was no more time to think about that, when Zoe suddenly gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, before easily climbing into the boathouse through the open window. There was no choice but to follow her, even though getting through the window wasn't as easy for Ethan because of his sore arm, and once inside, Ethan found that the entire first floor of the building was a single open room.

There was a wide dock around three sides where people could walk, but the center was open water, which was only a couple feet deep, judging by the parts of sunken fishing boats that were sticking up past the surface. Zoe, however, was already creeping up the nearby staircase which led to a sectioned-off area that reminded him of a factory manager's office. He wanted to call out to her, to get her to wait for him, but there was no way to do that without alerting Lucas to their presence, so all he could do was follow her up through the open door at the top.

"He ain't here." Zoe said after walking into the office. "Ethan, it's fine, Lucas ain't here."

"What do you mean, he's not there?" He asked, honestly confused. "Where the hell else could he have gone?"

Moving up the stairs a lot faster now, Ethan entered the room at the top, and the first thing he saw was that she was right… Lucas Baker was nowhere to be found. Mia was there, however, sitting on the floor, handcuffed to an exposed pipe, and he was about to try and free her, when the sound of a small motor reached his ears when it started up. It was coming from outside, so he and Zoe moved over to the window just in time to see a small fishing boat take off across the water.

"It's Lucas!" Zoe exclaimed. "But… where the hell's he goin'?"

"So long, you fuckin' losers!" Lucas's voice called as the boat got farther away. "Good luck gettin' away without the… without the… aw, fuck! Goddamn it… well, it won't do ya'll no good no how once Eveline finishes her nap! So have fun, you buncha' fuckin'…

The rest of his words became incoherent as the boat vanished into the darkness of the bayou, allowing Ethan to return his attention to freeing Mia. There were several tools lying around the room, so it only took a few seconds for him to find a pair of bolt cutters, and these ones weren't even rusty like the ones he had used to open the cell door in that first house. These handcuffs were a bit sturdier than the rusted padlock had been, so he had time to think about a couple things while trying to break them.

"Don't worry, Mia, I'll have you free in a second." He said, stopping to adjust his grip on the cutters. "Yep… just a second."

The first thought was how Lucas managed to leave the property without using the serum that Zoe was looking for, since he seriously doubted that the bald man was smart enough to make it on his own. According to the short-haired woman, the last infected person that tried to leave was almost instantly killed, although she had never gone into details about it. The second was that even if they got the serum and escaped… what stopped Eveline from coming after them?

"I can't believe this." Zoe said excitedly as the handcuffs broke. "That fuckin' moron left it here… the stuff to make the serum… it's all here."

Not really focusing on what the short-haired woman was doing, Ethan released Mia's hands, and then knelt down to hold her. She was alive, and didn't seem to be in any worse condition than the rest of them, so he just held her, kissing his wife on top of the head, and then squeezing her tightly while Zoe started doing something with the green case and some other items that, well… he didn't really want to see those things up close anyway.

The short-haired woman was talking to herself, first reading the plate that Ethan had seen before, and then mumbling some scientific sounding things that he didn't understand, trying to make sense of the sequencer that had been built in. A few seconds later Zoe let out an excited giggle as the machine came to life, and then about a minute later it stopped. Ethan was just happy to have finally freed Mia from Lucas, and since Eveline was apparently still napping, this gave them all a chance to get away… as long as the serum worked, that is.

"We're in luck, Ethan." Zoe said happily as she walked over to them, carrying two large syringes of an awful looking brown liquid. "There's enough for two, so go head' an' roll up Mia's sleeve for me. Mia? Mia, darlin', I'm gonna give you a shot now, and it's gonna make you feel…

"He's coming!" Mia suddenly exclaimed, nearly knocking the syringes out of Zoe's hand when she flailed her arms. "Daddy's coming! Ethan, run… don't you hear me? Daddy's coming! He's close, you have to run, now!"

"Daddy?" Ethan asked, trying to restrain her. "Mia, do you mean Jack? Jack's dead, honey, I… I cut him in half with a chainsaw. He can't hurt you anymore… neither can Lucas, okay? You're safe now, and you, me, and Zoe are all getting out of…

Mia suddenly screamed, pushing away from Ethan as she scooted back to the far wall, and he was about to go after her, when he realized that Zoe was looking scared of something as well. The short-haired woman grabbed Ethan's hand while staring wide-eyed at something behind him, so he turned around, and got the same expression on his face when he saw what looked like a… gigantic monstrous face looking in at them through the window… the interior window… meaning that it was as tall as the second floor.

Easily taking up the whole row of windows, the monster's eyes were an almost glowing combination of red and yellow, and its skin was black, just like the mold that had wrapped around the smaller creatures after it had hardened. It was strange how every time Ethan thought he had seen everything in this place, the Baker family always managed to throw some kind of insane curveball, but this… this was just insane.

For a moment he wondered if he was really seeing the monster at all, or if he had finally cracked and this was some kind of horrific hallucination… but then the monster swung its arm at the window, pulverizing the entire wall, and a good section of the floor, confirming just how real this thing was, when Ethan found himself falling down onto the wrap-around dock on the first floor. This also allowed him to get a better look at the creature, and on top of being huge and disgusting, it was also covered with… eyes?

"Zoe, you little fuckin' brat!" The monster scolded in a booming version of Jack's voice, looking at the two women cowering in the corner of what was left of the upstairs office. "You an' Mia get your asses on back to the house… I'll deal with you later."

The eyes on the monster's lower body then turned toward Ethan just as he was starting to get up… followed by the main face, and he wondered just how in the hell he was going to get out of this one, as the monster came back down to the first floor.