Resident Evil:

The Whole Story.

Chapter Forty

Enrico took a moment to catch his breath, to just allow his mind to come to terms with all that had happened so far in this terrible night. His team had been scattered all through out the massive house and he had seen things that he was certain had crawled out of the depths of hell and as much as he hated to admit it he had never been more terrified than he was in that moment.

In order to take his mind off of things he ejected the clip from his gun and counted how many bullets he had left. Five, that was all that he had left if he came across anything else in this house of horrors. He had wasted pretty much all the bullets in his first clip until he realised that body shots weren't going to take down anything he was likely to come across tonight.

All the old movies he used to laugh at always said only a head shot would work on the walking corpses that infested this house and it seemed like those movies hadn't been that stupid after all as a head shot did seem to work on them as the movies always said it would work on them. On zombies. Because that was what they had to be, right?

Honestly, what the fuck sort of nightmare had his life become? He was never, ever going to be able to sleep again when he finally got out of here. If he got out of here.

Okay, he needed to stay calm.

Enrico took another deep breath before he started to continue down the corridor that he was in, he wished he had a map or something to help him get his barring's at this entire damn house was like a labyrinth, and the confusing layout was only made worse when you factored in the possibility of a monster jumping out at you from around any corner.

Luckily, he didn't encounter any as he made his way to...well, he honestly he didn't know where he was making his way to, his dream scenario would be to find a well fortified room filled with food and water and working radio equipment so that he could get in touch with the RPD and all of his teammates would be there, alive and well.

Oh, and there would be someone else there who could explain what the hell had been happening in this house. That would be nice as well.

Sadly, the next door he opened only lead out to another corridor. Enrico sighed and began to walk down that.

He had tried to reach the others with his radio but so far there hadn't been any luck, he had taken to telling himself that there must be something blocking the transmission rather than the possibility that all of them were dead and that he was the last one that was left but he knew that was a possibility that he would have to face.

He briefly considered going back the way he came to get to the Main Hall and setting up there, it was brightly lit and safe enough and when Alpha Team eventually showed up then more than likely that was the entrance they were going to use and he could inform them about what happened and what horrors they could expect and how to deal with them.

But heading back to the hall would not be an easy trek, he had needed to conserve ammo after wasting his first magazine and there had to be at least a dozen zombies between the hall and him and he wasn't certain if he was going to be so lucky again, maybe if he found some more ammo first.

Enrico came to a stop as a change brought him out of his thoughts, at first he didn't know why he stopped but something in the atmosphere had changed and it was both to subtle for him to know what it was and yet noticeable enough for him to come to a stop. The air felt...lighter, not as stale. Fresh, without a hint of decay.

Like there was a door open somewhere, if he strained his ears then he was almost certain that he could here the gentle sound of rain falling.

He followed it, keeping his gun up in case anything tried to get in his way. But it seemed that maybe his luck wasn't as bad as he thought it was as nothing jumped out at him and he soon found himself in front of a door that was swinging back and forth on it's hinge.

Enrico pulled it open and walked out into the pouring rain.

The door lead out into a walled off courtyard with a dry stone fountain in the middle of it, the moon was still high in the sky but the sky was starting to lighten which suggested to Enrico that it was closer to the morning than it was to night and while he knew that daylight wasn't actually going to make him safer he was certain that he would feel a little better if he could just see the sun again.

He holstered his gun and then took his radio off of his belt, he knew that it wasn't likely to work but he wanted to try if being outside of the mansion might make a difference if something was jamming it. "Hello? This is Captain Marini, can anyone hear me? If you can hear me then please respond, over."

He pulled his thumb off of the talk button and waited for a response, a response which never came. He tried two more times, but the only response he got was static.

All right, he'd have to think of another plan.

It would still be hours upon hours before Alpha Team arrived and they needed to know what they were going to be walking into, he needed to get back to the city as soon as he could so while the idea of it did not sit well in his gut he knew that he had to get out of this mansion, now.

He didn't know if this place had a garage or not but even if it didn't he wasn't likely to find it. He was going to have to hike through the woods, he didn't like the idea of walking through those woods in the dark with the only source of light being his flashlight but the zombies were slow and dumb and there was room to manoeuvre in the woods, he would be fine.

There was some ivy growing on a frame that was built on to the wall, the wood looked like he was rotting and Enrico was certain that it would not hold his weight for long but he didn't need it to. All he had to do was climb up fast enough and he could throw himself over the other side of the wall and he would fall to the ground and he could get out of here.

No, this wasn't a great plan at all

It wasn't the best plan that he had ever had, and he knew there were a lot of problems with it, but he wasn't certain what else he could do at the moment. Go back into the house and try and find the others? They could all be dead by now. Go back and try and find a phone? There might not be any and even if there was one it might not work, if something was jamming the radios then it would be jamming the phone lines as well and he didn't have the bullets to waste trying.

This was the best out of a bad bunch of plans, he had to go for it.

He walked over to the frame and put both of his hands on it, putting his fingers through the holes in it and pulled on it experimentally. It wasn't solid and he would need to be quick but it should hold his weight for a few moments, long enough for him to get to the top of it. He could do this.

Enrico began to climb.

Now, the Bravo Team Captain was in fairly good shape considering he was getting close to being on the wrong side of middle aged but climbing in the dark, in the rain on a piece of rotting wood was pretty hard, even if you were in good shape but all the same Enrico manged it, getting to the top of the wall.

Once he had reached the top Enrico pulled himself up a swung a leg over so he was basically straddling the top of the wall and took a moment to get his breath back, the cool night air seasoned with the rain almost made him feel better. But he shook his head, he wasn't done and he wasn't safe and his team could be dead or dying and every second could make the difference.

He took his flashlight from his belt and turned it on, shinning the beam down into the tall grass on the other side of the wall. It looked like he could just drop down, it would be a bump sure but for the most part it looked like it would be a soft landing and then he could just get up and move.

He brought the beam of light up to focus on the thick line of trees that surrounded the mansion and more doubt began to raise in his gut, how would he even know if he was facing Raccoon City or not? He was more likely to get lost than he was to find his way back to the city.

God, this had been such a stupid idea. He had only been thinking in terms of getting as far away from this madhouse as he could as soon as he could and he hadn't been thinking and Enrico wanted to punch himself for being so goddamn stupid, it was mistakes like this that was going to get him killed.

Fuck it, he needed to stay calm and get a grip on the situation. He could do this, he knew that he could.

A soft growl drew his mind from his recriminations and he looked up towards the trees, the light from his flashlight was reflecting off of something in the tree line. Something small...but it was moving towards him, and it was moving fast.

It was on him before he knew about it, something snarling that launched itself up at him. Whatever it was, it was to low down to get up to him on the wall but it could reach the bottom part of the leg that was slung over the wall. The sudden heavy, wet weight shocked him and he jerked his leg back which caused him to loose his balance and fall back.

His right leg took the brunt of the fall and Enrico made a noise that was a mixture between a scream and a curse as pain blossomed from his leg. He wasn't the team medic but he didn't need to be know what a broken limb felt like, he had plenty of them before and from even before he had joined S.T.A.R.S.

He could hear...barking, dogs? There was a lot of them from the sound of it, a big old pack of them on the other side of the wall and they seemed pretty determined to get on this side, he could hear their bodies smacking against the courtyard wall again and again and again. Why weren't they stopping? Surely slamming into a stone wall had to be hurting them?

But then, emptying five bullets into a zombie's heart didn't hurt them, did it? They just kept coming and coming like they didn't even feel it at all. Had whatever happened to the people in the mansion affect animals as well? Zombie dogs? Why the hell not, was that really so out of the ordinary considering everything else he had seen tonight?

No, not really.

Enrico forced himself to get up to his feet, the pain became agony and a scream was burning at the back of his throat but he bite his tongue to stop it. If he screamed then one of his team mates, if they were still alive, might hear it and coming running but something else could hear it as well.

He still had his gun, thank god, but his flashlight was gone. Either it had fallen on the other side of the wall where he had no chance of getting it or it had broken in the fall down into the courtyard and he had no chance of finding it in the gloom and even if he could it would be useless now.

For just a moment, he wanted to give up. It all seemed hopeless and he was so tired, all he wanted to do was sleep. Enrico shook his head and forced himself forward, using the wall as support and he walked deeper into the courtyard. He was not going to give up, he could do this.

There was a heavy iron gate on the other end of the courtyard, the metal was rusted. It didn't look like it lead outside the walls so he would probably be safe from the dogs if he opened it. The gate screamed it's protests and the noise was so shrill that Enrico had to grit his teeth.

It was a passage way, a corridor with high walls that Enrico could use to support himself. He had no idea what was at the end of it but it was at least something to work towards, then at least he could pretend that he was making some sort of progress instead of just wandering around and waiting to die.

His knees were threatening to buckle from the pain when he turned the corner and saw the light from the lantern that was mounted at the side of the plain wooden door, the mansion that Enrico had come from had been opulent to the point of excess and even all the doors that he had seen had been richly decorated with golden handles and fancy carvings, this was just a door like any other.

It was odd but the light almost seemed to him like the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, there were two moths fluttering around it and Enrico was following it as well. He allowed himself to be convinced that whatever was on the other side of the door, there would be safety and salvation there, a way out of this horrible nightmare that never seemed to end.

He opened the door, and was greeted by a hallway.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or to scream, in the end he choose to do neither and instead forced himself inside and shut the door behind him. This place was as silent as the grave and worlds apart from the mansion, the floor had been marble and there had been artwork and vases everywhere. It had screamed money.

This was completely different, there was the faint hint of cleaning chemicals in the air and dust as well and something that might have been alcohol. If the house was something out of a period drama filled with rich people in fancy costumes then something about this building screamed servants quarters and storage rooms.

How many people had lived here that they needed two separate houses? What the hell had been going on up here? Enrico shook his head and forced himself towards the nearest door to him and opened it.

As soon as he opened it, one of those chilling moans met his ears. There was one of those things in the middle of the room, this was the first female zombie he had scene since he had arrived in the nightmare. A ragged hole was her throat should have been and one of her eyes was filled with blood.

Enrico cursed and raised his gun, pulling the trigger and with a loud bang the zombie's head snapped back and blood and brain matter painted the back wall and the body fell to the ground with a thump. Enrico shut the door and, doing his best to ignore the rotting corpse, scanned the room.

It looked like it was some sort of infirmary, there were glass bottles filled with pills and liquids locked behind a cabinet with glass doors, a large sink with a box disposable gloves on top of it and a bare mattress on top of a iron frame that under normal circumstances wouldn't look that appealing but at that moment looked like heaven.

For a moment he considered dragging the body out, locking the door and getting some sleep but he knew that he had no chance of dragging the body out with his leg messed up, he could barely move as it was. Plus, there wasn't a lock on the door and he wasn't certain he would be able to get to sleep now if he tried.

Enrico gritted his teeth and made himself move over to the medicine cabinet, he didn't recognise most of them but he knew a bottle of morphine when he saw it so he grabbed that and found a needle in another of the cabinet's cupboards. He wasn't sure if it was sterile or not but right now that was the smallest in a long list of problems.

Enrico took his bullet proof vest off and then peeled his white shirt off and tore some strips of fabric off from the sleeves of it, there was a cheap wooden chair in the room which Enrico picked up and then threw it down on to the floor to break it, he scooped up two long fragments of wood and used them with the fabric from his shirt to make a splint for his leg.

Taking a deep breath Enrico grabbed the morphine bottle and filled it up halfway, he needed something to take the edge off of the pain but he had to try and remain in control of his faculties. He jammed the needle into his arm and pushed down on the plunger, sending the morphine rushing through him.

He stayed sitting there for about half an hour until the pain began to ease off, it was still there but it was not quite as sharp as it had been. He could do this, he could.

He pushed himself off from the bed and made his way to the door and pulled it open, gritting his teeth against the pain and kept his gun up in case anything happened to jump out at him.

At the end of the enterance corridor were two doors made of wood that seemed to be stained red, there was another door about halfway up the corridor but Enrico decided that he would check that one out later, in dangerous situations people tended to head for larger doors that were more obvious and those doors would have been the first thing people saw when they walked into this house.

He hadn't, but that was only because the pain he had been in had made him overlook it. If someone else was in a better state than he was then, by odds of probablity, they would have checked the double doors first. A part of him was hoping that the rest of his teammates were in there, waiting for him.

Failing that, a survivor from the people who had lived here would be good. It was unlikely, of course, he was getting pretty damned tired of stumbling around in the dark without any idea what was going on or what to do next. Failing that as well, a phone would be pretty damn good too.

In the end, it was not any of his teammates or a survivor and there didn't seem to be any sort of phone here either. But to be honest, after he saw what the room was he couldn't find it in himself to be to let down.

It was a goddamn bar. There were dust and cobwebs on the bottles held behind the wooden bar but it was alchol all the same, there was a pool table and pinball and even some arcade machines that didn't seem to be getting any sort of power but still, the sheer absurdity of finding this after the night he had been having so far almost made him laugh.

For a moment, he considered staying here. He could probably manage to push the pool table in front of the doors and he'd be safe enough until Alpha Team showed up and he could spend that time getting utterly wrecked. But in the end, damn it, common sense won out.

His main priorty had to be finding a way either to get the hell out of dodge or find a line of communication back to the RPD so he could warn the Alphas about what they were going to walk into. It would be a slaughter if they just blundered in, he needed to warn them.

Then they needed to call in the National Guard, S.T.A.R.S was good at what they did but this was so far beyond them and they could not handle this on their own. Hell, the entire combined police forces of all the cities and towns in the Arklay region probably wouldn't be enough.

There was a noise then that drew Enrico out of his thoughts and he turned around without thinking, it hadn't sounded like a footstep and it hadn't sounded like it was coming towards him so he hadn't been that worried. It had sounded like something furry rubbing against something, not a sound that would cause him to jump to alert.

It should have.

It was a spider, that was what his mind told him it was. Eight legs, big furry body, lots and lots of eyes. But his gut didn't want to accept it because spiders did not, in any world outside of cheesy black and white films that were shown late at night to have something to show, grow to be the size of a small car.

But nothing in the world made any sort of sense any more, it seemed. And this was real, it was standing right in front of him. It was on the wall on the other side of the room of the bar, moving across the wall like it had all the time in the world. It was the more horrible thing that Enrico had ever seen in his life.

He needed to get away from it, so he made his way to the double doors he had come in from. He was half way there when one of the floor boards underneath his foot creaked and all of a sudden the spider stopped moving. It was like all of time had stopped in that moment, nothing seemed to be happening.

And then the spider dropped to the floor, landing perfectly on it's limbs.

There was already something horrible about the way spiders moved, Enrico could now attest that them being massive did not make it any better. It was coming for him and Enrico threw himself toward the doors, the pain in his leg that shoot through him did not matter in the slightest.

He was through and slammed the doors in the spider's face just in time, he could hear it on the other side pressing against the door but it was firmly shut and Enrico didn't think that it would be able to get the door open on it's own, he was safe. At least for the moment.

He sliped down the wall and buried his face in his hands.

"Fuck this place."

End of Chapter Forty

Wow, it's nearly been a year since I updated this story huh?

I am so sorry for the long wait, it's been hectic but this story was always in my thoughts. Enrico is one of my favourite minor character so I had fun with this chapter.

Next time we're back with Rebecca and Billy, and we should be finishing up with the events of Zero

Hopefully, it won't take a year.

With a lot of love,

DiscordantSymphony