Sixteen Ain't So Sweet
by
TheSmallishOne
Chapter One
Unsuspecting Shit-show
When people think of family reunions, they don't expect having to survive through a weird, fucked-up zombie apocalypse where a single bite or scratch can turn you, and a mutant monstrosity out to kill your sister. I've only just turned sixteen -I should be going out with friends, having a boyfriend, doing normal things like normal teenagers instead of trying to stay alive!
But before I get too far in my ranting, let me rewind and start from the beginning; throwing you in the deep end is a shit-show -I should know, I'm there.
x-ResidentEvil-x
It all started on a seemingly normal day -what? I'm reading you my story, so be quiet and listen, it'll get interesting soon. Ahem, as I was saying -it all started on a seemingly normal day; sun bright, birds chirping, and me stuck in school listening to our history teacher drone on in that annoying voice of his.
No one really paid him any attention; most of the class turning in their seats to chat to their friends about plans for the upcoming weekend. Me? Well, I was drawing doodles of Chris Redfield on an empty page at the back of my notebook, hearts and all. Who could blame me, even with the nine-year age gap? Has anyone seen those arms? Not to mention he's a close friend of my sister's, so I get to see him up close and personal whenever I visit the police station to bug said sister.
"Hey, Lia, are you doing anything at the weekend for your birthday? Want to stay over, go shopping, watch movies?" My best friend, Zoe, threw her head back as she leaned back on two legs of her chair, her long golden hair spilling over my doodling. I looked up and met her bright blue eyes and excited sunny smile -she was someone who never had a bad mood, always cheerful and attracting everyone to her. I grinned and leaned my elbow on the edge of the desk, mindful of her long hair, and plopped my chin in my palm.
"Consider it a date, chick. I'll pen you in as very important in my diary, so my sister don't have me running stupid errands for her as she can't leave the apartment." Zoe giggled and sprung back up, turning fully so her back was turned to the oblivious teacher.
"Aw, it can't be that bad, can it? That Chief Irons is a major jerk doing that to your sister; she was only doing her job, for Pete's sake!" Even angry, Zoe never once sounded hateful or harsh. I wish I had a few of her nice traits -I usually just get into trouble once my mouth starts running. Huh, maybe that's what got my sister into trouble most of the time, too…
"Ugh, don't remind me. Irons creeps me out -there was one time I went to the police station to bring lunch for my sis, and he just stared at me with this weird, creepy look in his eye. He's either a murderer or a rapist, I just know it!" Just the thought of the freaky Chief of Police had me grimacing and goosebumps prickling up my spine. I don't know how my sister stands being around him, much less work under him!
"Oh I hope not, could you imagine what he'd get away with in his position-"
"ALL STUDENTS ARE TO EVACUATE TO THE MAIN ENTRANCE IMMEDIATELY. THE SCHOOL IS NO LONGER SAFE -LEAVE ALL BELONGINGS BEHIND! I REPEAT, ALL STUDENTS ARE TO EVACUATE TO THE MAIN ENTRANCE IMMEDIATELY AS IT IS NO LONGER SAFE, AND TO LEAVE ALL BELONGINGS BEHIND. THIS IS SERIOUS AND NOT A DRILL!"
Everyone silenced at the principal's voice over the speakers, the clear panic reaching our ears. It took a moment for my class to register the words before they were all up and shoving each other to the door, some screaming as they fought to get past.
I looked back at Zoe, seeing her eyes wide with shock and fear, and I gently grabbed her hand. "Don't worry, I'm sure everything is fine and everyone is overreacting. And if it's not… I'll keep you safe, okay?" I see her swallow back her tears and nod, her lips quivering into a small smile as she grip my hand tightly.
"Thanks, Lia. I trust you." I felt my own lips tug into a smile and we stood, making our way to the door just as the last of our class pushed their way through. We hung back from the rush of the others as we walked down the halls and stairs until we reached the main entrance, the loud hustle of hundreds of students gathered, worrying and panicking, almost drowning out the words of the principal.
"-erupted in the city, and is spreading fast! Each class will be guided by their homeroom teacher to their homes in vehicles, for safety reasons! No questions, just get home safe!" Screaming suddenly came from the back of the crowd, the fear like a physical wave as it spread amongst everyone until they were running back towards the school, tripping and treading over one another. I quickly pulled Zoe off to the side, away from the stampede of students, my eyes searching everywhere for whatever caused them to be so terrified -and then I spotted it.
The fencing around campus had crashed down, blood coated people from the street scrambling up and latching onto the closest student and… tearing their teeth into them. What in the actual fuck?
"Are you shitting me right now -this isn't a video game, or a movie! What the fuck is going on?!" Zoe flinched next to me, her eyes wide and terrified, tears streaming down her paled cheeks but not once letting go of my hand or leaving my side. "We need to get out of here before they see us -I'm not letting that happen to either of us!" She nodded with a sniffle and I all but pulled her along with me around the side of the school building, tracing my usual route when I want to skip lessons or school itself. Though usually it's an escape from the window and down the gutter, not straight from the ground, but that's not the point and either way it still works.
We jogged until I found the small cut I'd made in the fence; hardly noticeable to anyone not knowing what they were looking for, but this was something I used often. I slipped my hand out of Zoe's to untangle the wire I used to keep the fence looking untouched and squeezed easily through the gap, checking the coast was clear before I motioned Zoe through.
"Just don't let go of my hand, okay? We're going to need to go to my place; my sister will know what to do. And she has a gun for... you know? She's a cop." She kept quiet at that, her shaking hand slipping back in mine and we trudged on, and I've never felt more thankful towards my sister for drilling survival methods into my head after she came back from that Mansion incident. I dread to think what horrors she'd seen; she'd been closed off for months and hadn't told me anything.
"Lia? I-I'm scared, what if… What if there's p-people like that all t-through the city when we get t-there?" Zoe's soft stuttered voice brought me out of my musings and I glanced back at her, trying to offer a reassuring smile. "We'll be okay. Once we get to my sister, we'll be fine, I promise."
"Yeah… Do you -Do you know w-what they are? Why this... is happening?" I kept myself alert to everything around me even as I mulled over her question. Being the sister of a police officer, let alone one from the S.T.A.R.S unit, Zoe probably thought I knew more than I actually did -which wasn't much, only useless snippets from old reports that were carelessly left out at home.
"In all honesty I'm not sure; something about that corporation called Umbrella and that my sister was investigating it. That's when Irons put her on house arrest." Now that I thought about it, why had Irons done that? Was he somehow involved with Umbrella? And if so, was he involved with what was happening now?
"Let's just keep moving, our apartment is still a long ways off."
x-ResidentEvil-x
The sky was bleeding into inky blue by the time we made it to my street, and the closer we got to the main city, more of those zombies seemed to be about. It was hard, I got to admit, to sneak around them with no weapons and Zoe stifling her whimpers, but we managed. The explosions and fire with sirens a little further away seemed to help keep them off our asses, I guess. As well as some barricades put in place, though they seemed easy enough to tear down. Probably not built for zombie-apocalypse trafficking.
"Nearly there, Zo. Just a little more, can you do it?" She didn't trust her voice and instead nodded, her hand sweaty and cold in mine but I didn't dare let go of her. I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to her.
We rounded the corner, using the crashed cars and overall destruction to hide from any prowling man-eaters, and an involuntary gasp left my lips at the sight of my home. Flames licked through broken windows on the lower floors and rubble littering the ground outside from large holes in the outer walls. Were they from explosions or something else?
"Lia… Lia!" Zoe's panicked whisper and her shaking my arm tore my eyes from the building, her eyes impossibly large as she pointed over at a fairly big group of zombies feasting on a body not far from us. "Shit, let's move from here. We need to get to the fourth floor -there should be a fire escape along that wall, we can use that to climb up. But we have to be quiet."
We crouch-walked behind a van that had crashed into the wall of the adjoined building, then to the garbage bins, until we made it to the ladder. I checked around us before boosting Zoe up first, waiting with a racing pulse as she climbed higher so I could make a leap for the end of the bars.
"Lia watch out!" A snarl below me had my heart leap into my throat, my arms straining to pull myself up as I kicked at the hands making a grab for my legs. "Lia!"
"Get off of me, you disgusting mother of fucks!" I felt my foot collide with its face and its hands leave my calves, a strangled yell escaping me as I managed to pull myself up and place my feet onto the bars.
"Lia, are you okay?!" I panted and gave her a thumbs up, not quite able to speak as I tried to breath past the lump in my throat and finished climbing the ladder to meet her on the balcony above. "Oh god, I was so scared it was going to get you! Are you sure you're okay?" There were tears running down her face again and I gave her a soft smile, rubbing them away with the cuff of my school sweater.
"Hey, I'm fine, see? But thank you for caring."
"Of course I care! You're my best friend!" She sniffled and pulled me in for a hug, her tiny frame trembling against me. I squeezed her back and pulled away after a few seconds, not trusting us to be safe enough to let our guards down. It didn't seem to bother her as she wiped away the rest of her tears, her hand finding mine once again as we followed the stairs up until we reached the fourth floor and to an open window next to our room.
I climbed in first, warily looking around for any sign of living -or dead, but finding the room empty. "It's safe, come on in Zoe, but stay in here while I check the hallway outside." I waited for her to climb through and signalled her to hide to the side, so she was out of immediate sight if anything were to be outside the dented door, and slowly pulled it open.
Nothing greeted me on the other side, and I released a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding. But my nerves only became more frayed at the broken walls and floor, smoke swirling in the hall from the lower floor's fires. What the heck had caused this?
I stepped out and half walked, half jogged to my sister's room to the left, hoping it was still in one piece and that she was okay-
The front door and surrounding wall was completely blown out, and I felt my heart drop into my stomach as I stepped through into the corridor, broken plaster crunching under the soles of my shoes, finding the whole room a mess of destruction. I completely forgot about Zoe until her soft steps sounded behind me, and even then I couldn't turn to acknowledge her; my eyes only on the wreckage and handgun lying discarded on the wood floor.
"Jill?" I hated how my voice sounded so meek and the abrupt tears that burned my eyes, my pulse escalating as I moved to check each room with no sign of my older sister. The large hole in her bedroom had a foreboding feeling slither down my spine, but I stepped towards it anyway, my shoe catching on something and sending it skidding across the room. It was our home phone.
"Lia… We should go… Your sister probably escaped, we should check where she'd go next." I mulled over Zoe's words, eyes firmly on the phone, before reaching down and picking it up and dialling the police station's number. If anywhere, she'd be there, right?
"She might be at the police station, it's the only logical thing, right? C'mon, c'mon, pick up already…!"
"Our lines are currently busy or unavailable, please hold or try again later."
"Oh that's just great! The city goes to shit and I can't even get through to the police? Fuck, Jill, where are you..?" My teeth gnawed at my lip until I felt the skin split and iron coat my tongue, and suddenly something cool and metal was placed in my hand as another squeezed my left. I lifted my sight from Jill's handgun to meet determined sky blue eyes, dry tear tracks staining pale cheeks, and I thanked whatever entity out there that I had such an amazing friend that stuck by me for so long, no matter how much trouble I got myself in over the years.
"We'll find her, Lia. I promise, we'll find her. You know how to use one of these, right? We'll be safer with this." I glanced back down at the gun and coiled my fingers around it properly, feeling a surge of confidence and determination with it in my hand.
"Yeah… Jill keeps extra magazines in her underwear drawer for whatever reason; we'll take them with us just to be safe."
"I wouldn't peg what you've told me about your sister to hide things in there, but okay..." I stepped around the rubble and to the side of Jill's bed, opening said drawer and rifling through mounds of a variety of knickers that had my cheeks flushing in embarrassment (oh my God I can't believe she actually wears some of these things!) until my fingers tapped against cardboard boxes. I was quick to snatch them out and slam the drawer closed, ignoring the pair of frilly pink panties half hanging out and Zoe's giggle in favour of checking how many bullets were left in the gun itself. Eight out of the full capacity of fifteen. Jill had used seven bullets on something -was it whatever that crashed through the bedroom wall?
I shook the thought from my head and turned to Zoe, seeing the large hole in the knee of her tights and a rip in the hem of her skirt. Mine was just as bad, if not worse.
"Let's change out of these stupid uniforms and get the hell out of here."
A/N: Another Resi fic that'll only be a few chapters long, that follows the storyline of Resident Evil 3 remake in the eyes of Jill Valentine's younger sister. Hope you enjoyed it!