Biohazard: Resident Evil VII

Chapter Thirty Six: Worst Case Scenario

Ethan had only dimly been aware of being encased in the black moldy substance, focused far more on what he was seeing through Mia's eyes. He wasn't even going to try and guess how Eveline was forcing this ability onto him, and he had been glad to find that both his wife and Zoe had survived the boat being overturned, but as the two women made their way through the wrecked cargo ship, he started to feel that… okay, he wasn't completely sure what it was making him feel.

Everything that had happened to him from the moment he and Travis entered the Baker estate pointed to Mia being somehow involved, but to find out that his own wife not only knew all about the little girl beforehand, but was actually some kind of field agent for whatever organization had created Eveline in the first place was just… it was just overwhelming. To Ethan, Mia had always seemed to sweet and innocent, like the stereotypical girl next door… but after seeing her orders, and then watching the memory flashes of her willingly transporting this… weapon of mass destruction…

He loved Mia, but there was no denying that she had been directly responsible for pretty much everything that had happened to both the Baker family and all of their victims over the past three years. Ethan still wanted to save her, and was ready to do whatever it took to do so… but the bottom line was that his wife had completely deserved it when Zoe punched her in the face. Of course, Mia had also been suffering for the past three years… but what would happen to her when they escaped and this all got reported to the authorities?

These thoughts were crashing throughout his mind during the whole time that Mia and Zoe were making their way down into Engineering, interrupted only once because of how flattered he felt when the two women were basically fighting over him… never had that happen before… but then they had reached the bottom of the ship, and suddenly the connection with Mia was severed.

One second he was watching them approach his cocooned self through his wife's eyes, and the next thing he knew there was a stinging sensation in his cheek that made him blink and see Zoe smacking him. The short-haired woman was pulling large pieces of the hardened black mold away from him to the point where he was able to pull himself free, but then Mia shoved Zoe out of the way; a wild look in her eyes as she pressed a green hard-plastic vial into his hands.

"Ethan!" She screamed desperately, guiding his hand to put the vial in his pocket. "Ethan, you need to take this! It's important! Please, there's no time, I can't fight her anymore! Ethan, you and Zoe have to get out of here before… before… Ethan, whatever happens, just remember that I love you… I love you so… so…

Mia didn't finish her sentence, her words devolving into an incoherent shriek as her face became discolored and swollen, and then she shoved Ethan backwards with the same savage power that she had possessed when he first found her in that basement cage. Easily knocking him off his feet, Ethan slid a short distance after crashing onto the grated floor, and in the meantime the apparently re-infected Mia had turned her full attention to Zoe.

"I'll teach you to try and break up my family!" She screamed, swinging the short-haired woman around and tossing her across the platform. "Ethan's my man, you fucking home-wrecker!"

"Get her, Mia!" Eveline cheered, jumping up and down while clapping her hands. "Show her what happens to people who don't behave! Show her that you're my new mommy, after all!"

By this time Ethan was back on his feet, and he grabbed Mia from behind, wrapping his arms around her so that her own arms were pinned to her sides. He attempted to drag her backwards, away from where Zoe had fallen, but this effort was stopped when Mia threw her head backwards, making Ethan taste blood when the back of her skull was slammed into his face. This also caused him to let go of her, allowing Mia to turn around and punch him in the stomach hard enough to make him bend forward.

"We're supposed to be a family, Ethan!" She scolded, shoving him roughly up against the guardrail. "I'm your wife! Eveline's your daughter! Isn't that enough for you?! Why are you running around with this stupid bitch, Ethan, when you know it fucking pisses me off?!"

Now grabbing him by the hair, Mia forced him to stand back up, before kicking his legs out from under him, and also slamming his head into the guardrail with a hollow clang. It took a few seconds for Ethan to realize that he was even lying on the grated floor after taking a blow like that, and even then he was too dazed to try and get up. This gave Mia plenty of time to go after Zoe; easily catching her, and then wrapping her hands around the short-haired woman's throat.

"That looks like it hurts, daddy." Eveline said, leaning over to look at Ethan while Mia choked Zoe. "Don't worry, I'll have mommy take care of you after she's done over there, and then we can all go home… won't that be nice?"

Struggling to look up at the little girl, Ethan wanted nothing more than to break Eveline's neck, not that he currently had the strength to do so… but then he noticed that she wasn't looking so good. The little girl was breathing heavily, and sweat was beading off her forehead as if she were exhausted… just like he had seen happen to her back at the Baker estate before she had run off for her nap.

Hoping that there was a way for him to use this to his advantage, Ethan grabbed onto the guardrail in order to drag himself to his feet, putting his other arm around a nearby machine to help steady himself… when he felt something. It was rounded and metal, like a thin pipe, and when he craned his head around machine to see what it was… his eyes widened when he found that it was an emergency fire hook that was hanging off the side, next to some other forgotten tools.

His head was pounding to the point where it was still difficult to keep his balance, and when Ethan looked back over at the two women, he saw that Mia had forced Zoe down onto the floor, still strangling her. The short-haired woman was flailing around, and trying to break Mia's grip, but she was getting noticeably weaker, and when Eveline made a snide comment about 'it not being long now', Ethan knew that it was time to act. The little girl's attention was solely focused on watching Zoe gasp pitifully for air, so she was taken completely by surprise when he made his move.

Grabbing the fire hook, Ethan turned around and swung the tool right into Eveline's forehead with a loud whack, making the little girl gasp as she tripped over the lower guardrail, hitting her head on the upper one before falling between them, and tumbling down into the darkness below. Now he had to deal with Mia, and the only good thing about her being infected again was that she would regenerate just like Jack had done if he needed to use force.

Zoe was barely moving now, and her hands were losing their grip on Mia's wrists, so Ethan stumbled up behind them, and swung the metal tool with all of his remaining strength. There was a wet crack as the fire hook was brought across the back of his wife's skull, causing Mia to lose her grip on Zoe as she fell to her knees, allowing the short-haired woman to take in a gasping breath. Ethan expected to have to hit Mia a least a few more times, since while infected she was just as powerful as Jack and Marguerite had been, but instead the yellowish discoloration and swelling faded from her face… and the back of her head was bleeding… a lot.

"Ethan?" Mia asked weakly, turning her head to look at him. "Ethan, I'm sorry… I… I feel strange."

Coughing hoarsely as she looked down at herself, Mia and Ethan both gasped when they saw that there were now small veins of whiteness starting to form across her torso… veins that were very slowly spreading outward… and just as slowly getting bigger until Ethan realized what he was seeing. This was the same whiteness that had overtaken both Jack and Marguerite during their final confrontations, but… but there had to be a way to stop it.

"Fuck you, Ethan!" Eveline's voice yelled, making him turn to see that the little girl had climbed back onto the platform. "If you don't want to be my daddy, then you can die! All of you can die!"

The whiteness continued to slowly spread across Mia's body as Eveline screamed in rage, causing all of the mold in the Engine Room to liquefy and gather behind the little girl. It swirled around as if a choppy ocean, and then started to solidify again while several figures began to rise out of the black substance. They were skeletons… dozens of skeletons, each becoming one of the monsters that Ethan had encountered in the basement of the Baker's main house, and once formed, they all started following Eveline as she walked across the platform.

"Ethan, go." Mia said as the whiteness spread to her arms. "You have to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you here." Ethan argued, holding up the fire hook to face Eveline. "I promised you that I'd get all three of us out of…

Suddenly his words were interrupted when the little girl waved her arm, sending some kind of barely visible distortion through the air that slammed into Ethan's chest. The pure force of this strange attack felt like being hit by a truck as Ethan was thrown backwards, crashing into Zoe who was just getting to her feet, and causing both of them to tumble down the stairs. Eveline giggled as she walked right past the almost completely white-covered Mia, and the little girl looked like she was about to wave her arm again, when Mia reached out and grabbed her by the hair.

"Let go of me!" Eveline yelled, struggling to free herself. "God damn it, Mia, let go of my hair!"

"Run!" Mia yelled weakly as the whiteness completely overtook her. "Ethan, run! I… I love…

Twisting around so that she was facing Mia, the little girl interrupted her words by waving her arm, and causing her now completely calcified body to explode into a shower of white dust that coated the newly created monsters like a powdery snow. Ethan was too shocked by what had just happened to do anything but just lay there at the bottom of the stairs, looking wide-eyed at an event that… that couldn't have just happened. No, he was supposed to rescue both of them, and then… but now… this wasn't… no, this couldn't be happening.

Eveline, on the other hand, seemed totally unaffected as she turned back toward them, but instead of coming after Ethan and Zoe, the little girl stumbled sideways. She coughed and rasped, grabbing onto the guardrail to steady herself, and this seemed to effect the monsters as well. They all stopped advancing, while a few started shaking, while others simply collapsed where they stood.

"Ethan, we gotta go!" Zoe exclaimed as Eveline slowly sunk to her knees from fatigue. "Ethan, we gotta get outa here fore' those things recover!"

But Ethan wasn't listening, instead just staring in disbelief at where Mia had been kneeling… that is, until the short-haired woman slapped him in the face, causing him to gasp and look around as if having been suddenly woken from a deep sleep. Again yelling at him to get on his feet, Zoe grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him forward until he found the ability to move again, although nearly absent-mindedly as the short-haired woman pulled him along.

"Ethan!" Eveline screamed as more of her monsters collapsed. "Ethan, come back here, you piece of shit! This isn't over! Ethan!"