Sixteen Ain't So Sweet

by

TheSmallishOne

Chapter Five

Out of the Pan and into the Oil

"Fuck…! I knew those damn things...were gonna...come out…!" I screamed -mostly spluttered; my wheezing breaths grating on my own ears and I couldn't help the strangled coughs that forced their way from my raw throat. A trickle of wetness dribbled down my chin before I felt and tasted the blood on my tongue, my nose feeling flu-like and stuffy. Shit, of all damn times to have an intense, virus induced coughing fit.

"Shit... Lia! Stay back as far as you can, I'll try and lure them away!" I couldn't reply as my burning, heavy body suddenly dropped to the ground knees first, the intensity of my hacking aching my bones and flecking the floor with blobs of crimson. My stomach twisted with nausea, poison in my veins and eyes watering from the burn of not being able to properly breathe. I completely lost focus of everything around me, my ears ringing loud and shrill, blocking out the gunshots and screeches of the lizard-looking creatures Jill fought.

"Oh? It looks like you're finally succumbing to the final stages, Lia. I wonder if you'll get the vaccine in time -the clock's ticking; tick, tock, tick tock!" Zoe appeared, giggling in my ear, somehow clear despite how deaf I currently felt. I felt my eyelids slip closed, pressure in my head and chest building far too much, and the distant feeling of my skull smacking against the ground, before I fell into a black void.

x-ResidentEvil-x

"Lia?" I felt like I was underwater again, whoever was calling my name sounding warped and garbled, my brain feeling disorientated. "Lia! Oh, God…" Was that Jill..? Why did she.. was she panicking..? My senses were slow to boot back into gear, and I could just about feel something pressing against my shoulder as she muttered to herself -or was she speaking to me? I wasn't sure.

With extreme effort I attempted to crack my eyes open, my eyelids feeling like they were glued together but managed to pry them apart a slit, hissing at the harsh glare of ceiling lights. Everything was so blurry, a mesh of sepia-toned hues and greys. "Lia..?" My ears made a pop and I groaned hoarsely, a splitting headache making itself known and rolling nausea in my stomach. "Fight it… Fight it, Lia. I'm not letting you turn into one of them!" Something wet hit my cheek and I jerked, squinting up at my sister's face as she slowly came into focus, though everything stayed in classic-like tones.

"J...ill..?" My voice was a croaky rasp and I lifted a hand to rub at my throat, only to pause and stare at my limb in confusion. Raised blackish -or what I guessed was black- veins lined the pale, greyed skin of my hand, trailing up my wrist and up my forearm, and with shaking fingers, I finally touched my throat -feeling the same raised veins there, too.

A warm hand gently grabbed mine and pulled it away from my neck, my eyes meeting Jill's tear-filled ones while a cold feeling of shock washed over me. "We'll get you through this. I swear." She shifted me upright slowly and carefully, until I felt my chest pressing against something warm and hands tucking under my thighs; feeling myself being lifted, hair tickling my nose. "I got the antigen sample -don't give up on me now, kid. We'll get you that vaccine even if I have to fight the devil himself." I could only manage to nod against her shoulder as she stood, hiking me higher on her back, my fuzzy brain just about able to make coherent thought -with both her hands currently holding me up on her back, how would she defend herself?

"Don't worry, everything's dead. I had.. I had to leave you somewhere safe, just for a few minutes, to get the sample. I panicked and… I'm sorry.." She sniffed once and didn't make a sound afterwards, instead she walked through a set of doors hissing open and carried me up a set of stairs without much effort at all.

"I..forgive..you.." I whispered so quietly I wasn't sure she heard, but she tightened her grip on my thighs as she trekked down a familiar blood-splattered hall; the crimson now a dark rust colour from my weird change in vision. My bloody mess of an X on the wall next to the door sprang a flutter of hope in my chest -now we could make the vaccine.

She stepped through the open door and made a beeline towards the synthesis machine, gently setting me down next to it before grabbing the two tubes of samples from her pouch.

"I might need your help with this…" She murmured, combining the samples and slotting the tube into the machine, reading over the instructions on the panel.

"You need...to..level out...the temp..temperatures.." It took me a few moments to process the words, and I was surprised the answer came as quick as it did, as well that I somehow knew. Maybe I wasn't as far gone as I thought. I watched her fiddle with the controls, doing as I instructed until a beeping repeated and the machine's robotic voice spoke "Synthesising vaccine."

"Yes!" Jill's hopeful eyes looked down at me and I felt my lips tug into a small smile. I just hoped the damn thing kicked in fast, or more importantly, that it wasn't too late.

"Synthesis complete. Please remove the vaccine canister." The tube popped up with a luminescent liquid that my sister carefully took, a grin forming on her lips. She took out the syringe from earlier and fumbled with filling it, before tucking the luminous glowing tube into her pouch. I breathed out in relief and held my arm out, but a movement behind her caught my attention and I was too late to shout out.

The syringe flew out of her hand and rolled undamaged to my foot while she struggled with the tentacle-like appendage around her neck, my body slow and sluggish to pick the vaccine up and grab my gun. Jill gasped and spluttered, her fingers wrapping around the hilt of her knife and slashing the tentacle until it threw her across the barrier on the other side of the room.

"Jill!" I clumsily got to my feet and tried to run, fear running down my spine at the all too familiar roar of Nemesis. I just managed to make it to the barrier when something whipped into my already fucked-up back, sending me flying over the rail and smacking painfully onto metal ground in front of Jill.

"Lia! Are you okay?!" I cried out when I moved my right arm underneath me to push myself up, tears springing to my eyes and a sob breaking free. For fuck's sake, why is one shitty thing after another shitty thing happening to me?! "Fuck…! That damn thing's back again!" I saw Jill through my tears limp over to me, holding her side with a grimace on her face and hauling me to my feet despite my pained cries. "I'm sorry Lia, but we need to move..! Do you have the vaccine?"

I grit my teeth until I was sure a tooth would crack and cradled my most likely broken arm to my chest, nodding at her and dragging my feet under me as I followed her. "Yeah..I g-got...it.." It didn't look like there were any escape routes; no doors, only a vent at the bottom of a wall small enough for us to crawl through, and I didn't know how quick I could go with one arm. Jill went first, motioning me after her with a flick of her fingers, and I begrudgingly and painfully slithered through, careful not to jostle my arm too much. She banged the other end open, the metal clanging loud and making my ears throb, her body halfway through the exit when she was suddenly grabbed.

"Jill!" I rushed through the gap as quick as my body allowed, the sound of her gunshots shooting much welcomed adrenaline through my disgustingly dark veins, just as heat washed over me when I stood and Jill slammed into me, crashing us both to the ground with pained cries.

She rolled off of me and pushed me onto my knees, "Hurry, get on the lift! I'll work something out to get this fucker off of our asses, go!" I did as she said without arguing, limp-jogging over to the small platform while looking back, watching uselessly as she was dragged towards the mutated monster before shooting a bullet off into a tank; almost the entire space lighting up with the heat of fire and engulfing the writhing form of Nemesis. But I knew that wouldn't stop it for long.

Jill ran towards me and hooked her fingers around my left arm's elbow, dragging me onto the lift and slamming her hand down on the button, bringing us upward just as an explosion belted out.

x-ResidentEvil-x

We had a moment to catch our breaths and I slumped gratefully onto a discarded crate, my whole body trembling from fever, pain, and the remnants of adrenaline.

"Here, pass me the syringe." Jill squatted in front of me, her hand on my knee to keep her balance and her other holding her palm out towards me. "I don't know if we'll have another chance after this." I fumbled with my shaky fingers, not having let go of it once in fear of it smashing in my pocket or something, and dropping it into her awaiting palm. Her lips tugged into a small smile while she popped the cap with her teeth and motioned my arm forward.

I held my left out and flinched at the sharp prick when the needle sunk through my skin. I fought back a gag and looked away, shivering when I literally felt the vaccine slither through my veins like slime. It was nauseating; almost as much as the whole ordeal of being infected in the first place. Though it didn't erase the pain in my right arm, or the throbbing of my back -heck, everything just damn hurt.

"I-I could really do... with a hot shower... And loads.. of soap…" I winced, feeling her pull the needle out of my skin and gently apply a small strip of fabric around the bloody prick. The corners of her lips twitched up, the tension around her eyes giving way only just as they locked onto my own.

"Heck, I think after this we're entitled to a spa day." She kept her gaze focused on my face and drew in her bottom lip, gnawing at the skin. "Do you… feel okay? I know it won't work straight away, but can you feel it… doing anything?" I slowly shook my head and just focused on breathing instead of the piercing throb of my arm, my sight lowering to the raised veins of my left hand. They did look a little lighter… or maybe that was just the hope making me delusional. Either way, we couldn't stay here much longer.

"Let's keep going… Maybe we'll catch up… with your man-bear." I tried a grin while pushing myself up and onto my feet, grunting slightly at the effort but not missing the half glare Jill sent me, though she looked as though she was fighting a smile.

"I'll ignore the 'your' part, but fucking 'man-bear'... that I can admit suits him." She let out a huff of a laugh and helped me up, scrutinising me carefully with a barely concealed relief. "You're getting a little colour back in your cheeks, kid. Let's hurry and get the fuck out of here, get that arm strapped up." She left it at that and walked over to the only other door in the room, twisting the lock until it clicked open. I shuffled behind her cradling my throbbing arm, feeling lighter and warmer from the spark of hope igniting inside me, peering over her shoulder as she stepped through the open door.

"What the heck is this place?" Damp, cool air hit our faces but Jill walked on with caution, glancing over the metal barriers to the dimly lit floor below. I managed a shrug and followed her, warily glancing above and behind us for any signs of that damn fugly monster, Nemesis.

"Let's just hurry up and get out of here, this place is giving me the creeps…"

We semi-jogged across the platform, our shoes clanging noisily in the suffocating silence. It made me cringe, the paranoia making me glance over my shoulder every five seconds for something to jump out at us. Yet nothing did, and my stomach still dropped when we slowed to a set of stairs going down.

"Only way is down; let's go." Jill looked back at me, trying to smile reassuringly, but it did little to ease the sudden queasiness of my stomach that had nothing to do with the virus still inside me. She started down when I could hear loud clanging getting closer, just managing a "Jill wait-!" when the door we left through only moments before flew off its hinges, Nemesis barrelling through the destroyed doorway.

"Shit!"

A scream tore from my throat when it launched itself towards us; the impact sending me flying back into the wall with a short lived cry, debris dust catching in my throat and making me cough harshly. My eyes watered and I struggled to lift myself to crawl one handed towards the ledge, fear pulsing through me when I couldn't see Jill. "Jill..!"

Something solid caught me just below the ribs, flinging me across the walkway and onto my back with a strangled cry, blood filling my mouth and catching in my throat. "Well, well… I commend you for surviving this long, little Valentine." I fought to crack my eyes open, seeing a blurry silhouette whose voice could only belong to a certain shitbird.

"N-Nicholai… you prick…" I could just make out his twisted smirk through my swimming vision as he came closer; the pain of my torn up back, my broken arm, as well as the virus still attacking my system bringing me to my limit. I couldn't take any more.

He crouched down, and before I realised what he was doing I felt the sharp sting of a needle pierce into my neck, my breathing stuttering until black started to engulf my sight. "You really are an entertaining one. Don't worry, I'll be back for you -you are becoming a valuable test subject, after all."

"F-fuck… y-you…" I managed to wheeze out, spitting blood that landed on the toe of his boot, before whatever he injected me with slipped me into unconsciousness, my mind and body becoming numb as sweet nothingness surrounded me.

A/N: Hi guys, sorry it's been so long. Had a bought of writer's block halfway through this chapter, so you'll probably see a change in writing maybe. This was meant to be the last chapter, but because of the writer's block I thought I'd stop there, just to be safe. Next chapter, once I find a rhythm with this again, will be the last for sure. Possibly with an epilogue, but I'll see how I go. Thanks for sticking with me, and for the reviews so far.

Til next time~

TheSmallishOne x