Resident Evil
The Seraphs
By: Xenogears
Chapter four
In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.
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Claire pressed the 'open' button on the keypad next to the door, and the door slid to the side.
When she stepped into the new room, she was greeted by ten lab workers. Ten zombified lab workers. Without wasting a second, she raised her Winchester .38 rifle, and fired.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
She had put two to rest, blowing off their heads, and had hit one in the chest, exposing rotting internal organs.
Leon then stepped up and fired his SPAS 12 at head level.
BLAM! Cachunk. BLAM! Cachunk.
The remaining zombies fell to the floor.
Now that there was time to reload and look around the room, they saw that they were in a chemical testing and developing room. Suddenly wishing that they had taken more time to look at their surroundings, they started to look for any broken vials. It was a relief not to find any.
"Jeez," Leon said. "Lucky we didn't hit any thing like a T-virus vial."
"Yeah..." Claire replied. "Hey, what's this?"
She picked up a vial from a table in the center of the room that contained a dark purple liquid. The label on it read "AE²-virus." The one next to it held a deep blue substance, and read "AW-virus." The one next to that was red in color, and its label read "AF-virus."
"AE²? AW? AF? What the hell is that?"
Leon was reluctant to tamper with anything. "Beat's me, but I think that maybe we should leave it here."
"What? Why? We could use it as evidence against Umbrella! We may be able to finally take 'em down!"
"Think about it, Claire," Leon said, his voice matter-of-fact. "We don't know what this can do. Plus, we don't know what will happen. What if you fall and it breaks?"
Leon paused.
"I don't want anything happening to you."
Reluctantly, Claire placed the vial back in its place on the table.
"Okay, let's keep going."
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Chris raised his S&W M629C .44 caliber magnum. Scanning his surroundings, he found himself in another long hallway. But he wasn't alone. He backed away from the spot where the Licker was on the ceiling, just in time before it landed on the floor in the exact space where he had been standing.
Without missing a beat, Chris pulled the trigger on his M629C. The Licker didn't even get time to scream, for the bullet splattered its head all over the hallway.
Allowing himself a tight smile, Chris continued down the hallway, which had one door off to the right, and one at the end of the hallway.
He chose the door on the right. The room he had just entered was sleeping quarters. Chris counted twenty bunk beds lined up on either side of the room. Though the lights were very dim, he could see that the room was quite tidy. It looked as if it hadn't been touched for weeks. The cabinets next to the beds told a different story. They looked ransacked¾ everything from work-related papers to various personal belongings. He rummaged quickly through them, but found nothing to interest him.
One cabinet above one of the bunk beds was closed. Chris walked over to it and casually opened it. He instantly rebounded backward and almost fell over when he saw a body fall out of the closet. It was formally human, but the corpse looked as if it had been through not one but several zombie meals. Its face was frozen in a death scream. Its legs, torn open in various places, were hanging on by a few thin strands of tendon. Its chest was torn open, and the ribcage gaped. Though Chris wasn't a doctor, he could clearly see that there were a few vital organs missing. The neck was torn through on both sides, but the only thing missing form the head was one eyeball.
Chris, barely able to stand the smell, backed up another step and forced himself to breathe through his mouth.
Just as he turned for the door, he heard something behind him move. Though he had a good idea what it was, he turned around anyway. The corpse, emitting hungry moans, was now slowly crawling toward Chris, closing the gap.
'Lo and behold,' Chris thought.
"Pssshhhh! Please!"
He brought his right foot up¾
"Nighty-night."
¾ and brought it crashing down on the head of the zombie. There was a sound that was between a 'mush' and a 'crack,' and the zombie moved no more.
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One hour later...
They had finished exploring the first two floors of the labs, and were now on their way back to the hotel. The elevator stopped at the boiler room of the school. Ryan and Sherry had not explained anything about the document they had found, because Ryan, 'didn't want to alarm anyone.' Sherry suspected that he was protecting Anna in some way, so he could get the answers himself.
Just as Sherry left the elevator, she saw something move in the darkness just behind the boiler.
"Hey!" she exclaimed.
A figure disappeared into the shadows of the room.
"What's wrong, Sherry?" Claire called.
"I...I saw something move over there..." Sherry replied.
"Don't worry, sweetie," Claire replied. "It was probably just a rat or something."
"No! It was too big to be a rat! It looked human!"
"Let's just worry about this tomorrow, neh?" Ryan, his voice laced with fatigue, turned to the girls.
"He's got a point," Chris said as he checked his watch. "It's already 2:30 in the morning."
Sherry was hesitant to comply, but she put the sighting out of her mind and followed them back to the hotel.
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Next day...
Ryan had awakened early, on account of how late he had been up. His watch read 10:43 AM. He quickly wrote out a note and taped it to the door of the bathroom.
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'Share,
I went to check up on Anna. I really don't know when I'll be back, so don't wait up for me. Oh yeah, and tell the others, will you?
Dewa matte noshi-hodo, Sherry-chan!
-Ryan'
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The last sentence was written in Hiragana, one of the Japanese forms of writing that Ryan had been trying to teach Sherry for the past few months. He was sure that she would understand what he wrote; it was one of the first phrases he had taught her.
Exiting his room, he checked the gear he was carrying.
'Colt .45, four magazines, Beretta 92, five magazines, PPK/S, four magazines, canteen, that document we found, two packs of cigarettes, lighter, and muh good ol' switchblade.'
He shook his head as he remembered how he had acquired the switchblade.
He was 13 at the time, and he was always in trouble with someone, mostly the police. One day he walked into the local hardware store, and after five minutes of wandering around, found the best-looking switchblade. He had placed it in his sock and then calmly walked out. And after he thought about what he'd done, he'd never got the chance to bring it back over the last two years.
Just to test it, Ryan flicked the switchblade open. The five-inch blade was in nearly mint condition, and still as sharp as it was when it was new. He gave it a few swings, then retracted the blade and placed it with his cigarettes in the inside pocket of his hooded sweatshirt.
Now prepared, he headed off.
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"If there's a such thing as Hell's Kitchen," Ryan remarked as he reached Anna's door, "then this is God's Icebox..."
Indeed it was. The weather had gotten worse since the day before, the cold was worse, winds were blowing hard, and there was a light snow.
Ryan thought of knocking on the door, but he just let himself in when he could hear the distinct sound of a piano playing. It took him only a seconds to realize what was being played. 'Fly Me to the Moon' in C major.
He began to play the words in his head.
Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars
He heard the music coming from upstairs. Casually, he began to walk up the stairs.
In other words hold my hand
In other words, darling, kiss me
When he reached the top of the stairs, he traced the sound to a room on his left at the far end of a hall.
Fill my heart with song and let me sing for evermore
You are all I long for all I worship and adore
He opened the door, and found Anna at a piano in a rather large room for a second floor. She looked as if she was flowing with the music, as if she was actually a part of it.
In other words, please be true
And for the first time, he thought of her as something more than an acquaintance. 'Beautiful...' he thought.
In other words, I love you
Ryan waited for the piano's chords to fade to silence before he greeted her.
"Yoi, Anna-san!" he said.
Anna turned around, surprised, but quickly her expression became friendly.
"Domo arigato gozaimashite, Ryan-san."
"O-genki desu ka?" he asked.
"Hai, genki desu. Anata wa?"
"Hai."
"You know, Ryan," Anna said, reverting to English, "you don't have to act like I'm some gai-jin to America or something."
"Sorry."
There was a moment of silence.
Ryan was about to ask Anna about the papers that he found when she spoke again.
"Ryan?"
"Yes?"
"Can I ask you a favor?"
"Sure."
"Um...well...it's about Mark...he's not back from the labs yet, and I'm starting to worry."
"What?"
"Can you help me look for him?" Anna pleaded.
"Yeah, I guess. Just let me go get the others."
"No!"
Her sudden outburst surprised him.
"I...I...mean...I want to start searching as soon as possible."
Ryan wondered whether he had the wrong idea about Anna.
"Dozo?"
Once again, Ryan saw Anna's eyes change color for a split second. He stopped himself just in time from saying "What the hell?"
"All right. Let's get ready."
Anna practically jumped on him to hug him.
"Oh! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"Whoa. Turbo tongue."
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A little while later...
Ryan and Anna were in the school lobby.
"Hey, Anna."
"Yes?"
"Here, take this."
Ryan drew out his Colt .45 and handed it to Anna.
"From what I saw of the labs, you'll need it," he said.
Anna stared at the gun for a moment before she took it.
"Thanks."
As they passed the courtyard door, Anna stopped him.
"Wait. Mark said something about a hidden passage to the labs before he left."
"He'd been here before?"
"Yeah. How else did we find out about all the dead bodies?"
"Point taken."
Anna turned the latch on the door and stepped outside, but then she halted.
"Oh...my...God..."
Ryan stepped past her.
"Holy shit..."
Ryan no longer wondered where the civilians were. They were right in front of them, piled up all over the large courtyard, some piles reaching seven feet high. Not only that, but the carnage was much worse than he had imagined. Most of the corpses were without their heads, and the rest were riddled with bloody holes. Ryan had seen and smelled death before, but not to this degree. Foul-tasting bile rose in his throat, and he fought to keep it down. But he lost his control, turned his head to the side, and vomited.
After losing the contents of his stomach, he raised a hand to an approaching Anna to signal that he was all right. He took out his canteen that had somehow not frozen yet, and washed the bad taste from his mouth and the burning sensation from his throat.
"Are you okay?" Anna asked with a sad and concerned look on her face.
"Yeah...just...let's...go on..."
He screwed the cap back on his canteen, then went to look around the courtyard. Anna went ahead of him, and felt around one of the walls. A square piece of earth in front of them sank below grade, and like the lid of a sunken box slid to the side, revealing a lift.
Ryan thought it strange that she would find it so quickly, but he decided to save it for later.
They stepped onto the lift, and Ryan pressed the 'down' button.
It took a few minutes, but when the lift finally stopped, he could see someone hunched over at the end of the new hallway they were in.
"Mark!" Anna exclaimed.
Anna ran toward him, Ryan not far behind. Anna propped him up and he made a low groan. He had a wound on his forehead that was bleeding severely. He opened his brown eyes and said in a raspy tone, "Anna?"
The man's black hair brushed the shoulder of his blue long-sleeved shirt as his head lolled to the side.
"Mark! You're okay!"
"Yeah..." He tried to brush the dust from the thighs of his carpenter pants.
"What happened?" Ryan asked.
"I...don't know...this pink thing just dropped form the ceiling and knocked me out cold..."
"A Licker? Are you sure? If you're right, then you should be dead!" Ryan said.
"I guess I'm just lucky..." Mark replied.
Mark shakily rose to his feet, supported by Anna.
"Come on. We have to treat that wound." Anna said.
Ryan turned for the lift.
"Wait. Ryan," he heard Anna say.
"Wa¾ " As soon as he turned around, he saw the butt of the gun he gave Anna flying straight for his face. There was an explosion of pain, and then he was overtaken by the darkness of unconsciousness.
Yoi (YO-ee)/Good. (Note that it can also be said as 'ee')
Domo arigato gozaimashite (DO-mo-aree-ga-to-go-zai-ma-shi-ta)/It/that was very kind of you. (The way that Japanese women say 'thank you very much.' Men aren't supposed to use this term)
O-genki desu ka (O-genn-kee-des-ka)/How are you?
Hai, genki desu. Anata wa? (HI-genn-kee-des-auna-ta-wa)/Fine, thank you. And you?
Gai-jin (Gaee-jean)/Foreigner
Dozo? (Do-zoe)/Please?
Draft: 3/14/01
Final: 3/21/01