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Familiar Hauntings
Chapter Five
The door shut loudly behind the three students, echoing throughout the cavernous hallway that was the entrance to the Computer Building. Their shadows were long on the tiled floor, reaching ahead of them into the darkness of the facility.
"Okay," Bethani said, "this is really dark. We can't see those things in the dark, you know."
"Yeah, I know." Devon's voice traveled the room before returning to its owner. "But I've got to see if I can find her." He fought uneasiness as he yelled her name, yet heard nothing. He walked into the room, listening intently to something other than his resounding footsteps. He knew there had to be something in here besides Lori, Bethani, and himself. His eyes slowly began to adjust to the area that didn't benefit from the lamplights outside. He yelled her name again.
"Demi!"
Nothing still.
Lori, still grasping the cloth Devon had used from his sweater to wrap her shoulder wound, walked over to the wall of the grand hallway, and tried flicking the lights on. They flickered weakly, and the room amplified the faint charging sound made by them. Still, it was adequate enough to see most of the room. It was a quite elegant hall; there were two staircases that had criss-crossed a giant brick column that raised to the second floor. The tiles were a beautiful white marble, its shine still able to reflect the dim lights of the ceiling. The walls were made of a beautiful deep red brick, and there were no visible corners in the room. Each of the hallways was tapered out, the mouths stretching over twenty feet at times. Giant dark bronze statues some ten feet tall were tucked near the walls, and behind the crossing stairways. A balcony was on the second floor, and it curved around the column with exquisite railing that was for the most part decorative.
Devon turned back around to see what had turned on the light.
"This is really creepy in the dark, I had to see what was in here."
Bethani walked to one of the hallways, peering down it, looking for signs of life. And un-life. "There's nothing in this place. No zombies or anything, it's like, really quiet."
"Let's start this way," Lori said, pointing to the west hallway. Devon looked down it, and then walked closer to the east hallway. He was trying to sense her, somehow. However, it was to no avail.
"Alright, let's go, girls."
The three disappeared into the hallway; the only audible sounds were distancing footsteps and the lost girl's name ringing into the night.
****
The campus was silent. No, maybe "silent" was the wrong word. Eerie, calm maybe. Like the calm before the storm. Claire stared at the lush green grass on the ground that just seemed to defy the madness that had been occurring. "It only gets worse," she thought, "It always does." She continued to reflect on her thoughts as she walked around the side of the Psychology building. A few of the undead beings were shuffling around in front of her. "What does Umbrella want with this campus?" She furrowed her brow. "What would be so important to them that they'd kill thousands of innocent people to get?" she chuckled to herself out loud. "Do I have to ask?" She trotted around the creeping zombies, easily evading them in the wide-open space. She rounded the other side of the Psych building. "No matter what, I've got to put a stop to this. I can't let them keep doing this. When this is over, I'm re-enlisting with the S.T.A.R.S." In the distance, she heard more automatic fire, which she wrote off as the Umbrella employees having a few troubles of their own. "If we could just get outside the school grounds…It'd be so much easier." Would they bomb this town like Raccoon City? Would the government do such a thing? Claire wasn't sure. She rounded a Ford Mustang GT in a parking lot, and caught sight of the Centennial Square. In the far distance, next to the Student Services building, she saw a small figure running around the side of it, before the decorative hedges obstructed her view. "Is that who I think it is?" She yelled to the now out-of-sight figure.
"Demi!"
Claire quickened to a run as she tried to follow the individual. She was surprised to see the small girl re-appear, and then stop. From her distance, she could see the reddish hair that was the embodiment of Demi.
She began to run to Claire.
****
As soon as Eric and Bobbye opened the doors to the Art Building, they heard a girl's frenzied screaming and a couple of men yelling at someone, or something. The two took a quick glance at each other before Eric yelled out to them.
"Hello? Who's there? Demi?!"
All that could be heard from the girl were the words "help me" being repeated over and over again. The two cautiously made their way down the hallway, peering into each of the rooms before continuing. The rotting smell was thick here, and they knew that there were zombies nearby. The building was architecturally confusing; it was literally a piece of art itself. Low arches of brick supported the ceiling, and the hallways themselves were jagged and confusing, and the corners of the walls jutted out in irregular patterns. In the darkness, it almost disoriented Eric and Bobbye, as their hands passed over the wall, in an unconscious attempt to keep balance. However, Eric knew the building well, as he was majoring in Art. He looked into another of the classroom, to see a few undead stumbling over desks and falling to the floor in wet 'thuds.' The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end at the sight of the creatures. They were clumsy, stupid and slow, yet none of that mattered, as they were still able to kill a man in seconds. The cheek was ripped off one of the undead, and even in the near-darkness, Eric could make out the working yellow teeth. As he continued to walk by the door, it turned slowly to stare into his soul. It scared him to no end. He was about to call it off and turn around, even if there was someone in here that needed his help.
The cries were louder now, and Eric was able to pinpoint the location.
"Bobbye, they're in the lecture hall!"
"Are you sure?" she said, as he broke off into a sprint. She followed him.
He threw open the double doors, and yelled in surprise as the corner of one of them hit a zombie in the face, knocking out a couple of its teeth. It staggered back, and fell over one of the back seats of the amphitheater seating arrangement. The room was full of them, and they were evenly spaced throughout, but they were all scrambling towards the lecture space, where there were three guys and a girl there. The two guys were bleeding and weak, no doubt from fighting the threats, and the girl was being held by the other guy, whose job was apparently to protect her at all costs. One of the bleeding men ran towards another nearby zombie with a large hunting knife, stabbing it in the chest. The zombie seemed not to notice, and took the opportunity to grab the young man's shoulders, and moved in for the kill. However, the young man kicked the zombie's legs out from under it, and it fell over, its grip sliding down to the man's leg. He kicked to get away, but not before the undead had successfully managed to tear a large piece of flesh from his calf. The young man screamed in pain, and scrambled to safety, back to the guy and girl, who were frozen in their embrace, fear coating the both of them. The zombies stumbled down the aisles, some losing their balance and falling over chairs, but it wouldn't be too much longer before it was upon them. The other man had seen Eric and Bobbye at the back of the room, and was waving at them to come and help.
"Hurry!" he yelled, "Get down here and help us, please!"
Bobbye looked at the zombies in the room. There were about fifteen of them, and she thought that it wouldn't be too hard to escape. Without thinking, she ran down one of the aisles, kicking an unsuspecting zombie in the back, causing it to fall to the ground hard. She leapt over it, and in a track runner's stride, she was at the front of the lecture room with the injured fighters.
Eric stared in disbelief at what he had just witnessed. He knew Bobbye was tough, but he'd never thought she was so brave. Braver than he could be. He gritted his teeth and followed her, letting out a yelp of fear as he stepped on top of the zombie, still face-planted on the ground. He ran down the aisle towards Bobbye, and sighed relief as he also reached the front. From here, he saw the conditions of the men that were fighting. One was nursing his leg at the moment, gingerly touching it and then crying out in pain. The blood flowed freely from the wound, and it appeared it had snapped at least one of the tendons located behind the knee. The girl's eyes were wide with shock, and she was shivering uncontrollably, as was the guy holding her. The other man was cornered by three of the undead, and he knew that his time would come any second.
Bobbye turned away as the man was overpowered by the three bloodthirsty demons. He screamed with his last breaths, the sickening sound of living tissue being ripped from the bone. She looked over at the other man, who was not faring much better. He couldn't walk, and Bobbye knew that he would soon follow.
"Help me! Please!" The man reached up to Bobbye with a bloodstained hand. She looked around as if to call for help, and returned her gaze to the unfortunate individual. Not knowing what else to do, she took his hand, and patted it gently, the familiar feeling of sadness and loss surfacing to her consciousness once again. However, she remained stone-faced. She wouldn't show emotion. Not now.
"I'm sorry, comrade. I'm sorry."
The man looked into her eyes, his own full of what appeared to be deceit and betrayal. His eyes were pleading for her to help him, somehow, yet Bobbye told herself that there was nothing she could do. The zombie began to drag the man towards itself, and three others accompanied it as they literally began to tear apart the ill-fated teenager. He screamed in horror and despair as he was eaten alive.
"Eric, let's get these other two out of here, before they join them!" Bobbye could barely think. There didn't seem to be room for both horror and rationalism.
Eric's stare was locked on the remains of the other man. The zombies were literally hollowing the figure out. In Eric's mind, the figure being cleaned was no longer a man. A man retains some form of humanity, some recognizable trait that is others are able to relate to.
This was no longer a person.
"I could be next…"
Upon the realization, Eric's eyes grew wide with frenzied panic, and he ran to Bobbye, shaking her shoulders wildly. "We're going to die, Bobbye! We're going to die!"
His words tore into Bobbye's psyche, as she tried to shake the psychological plague that threatened to overtake her, as it had done Eric. "No!" she yelled, "We're going to make it out of this alive! Just keep cool, comrade!"
He didn't hear her, his eyes frantically looking around at the advancing army. "I've got to get out of here."
Bobbye looked behind, noticing a small door, she ran to it and opened it. It opened into a dark hallway, leading to an outside door. The green "exit" sign penetrated the relative darkness at the end of the hall, and she could see that it was clear of zombies. "Eric," she yelled, "over here!"
He didn't respond, his eyes were too busy darting about the room, trying to find the best way to escape. He didn't even know where Bobbye was anymore. In his mind, she didn't exist, and he didn't care. Nothing else existed, except the fifteen zombies that were out to silence him, and his own drifting consciousness. Without thinking further, he leapt into the seats in front of him, and scrambled up them, barely avoiding the rotting fingers of the undead. He screamed in horror as he gained momentum, losing more ground to his fear by the second. He clawed his way over more chairs to the center aisle, and made a mad dash for the double doors he had entered from.
"Eric, no!" She tried a last attempt to reach him; to touch his soul somehow before he made the biggest mistake of his short life. She knew what was going to happen, and she turned to the teenagers, still frozen on the speaking platform as a means of thinking about something else. "You two, come on!"
They didn't answer; they just stared ahead in horror, as the first of the zombies overtook them.
Eric ran towards the doors, taking a last look behind him, at the creatures bringing down the two immobile people on the stage. He absently opened the doors, and walked out of them, still looking behind.
He didn't even see the rotting faces overtake him.
Bobbye watched in horror as Eric walked right into them. One of the zombies grabbed him by the shirt, barreling him back through the swinging doors, and landing on top of him. He began to scream, but it was cut brutally short. She could no longer see his form under the huddle of bodies. It looked to her like a giant dogpile at a football game. A wave of nausea passed over her, and she closed her eyes to keep the feeling at bay. She turned to the guy and girl on the stage, and they were also falling victim to the undead. The two were still locked together, horror glazing over their eyes, blinding them from everything else. Much like Eric had done. They didn't even scream when the zombies began feasting. They didn't even flinch. As if they had already been dead. Another wave of sickness passed over her. She tried to shake it away, failing somewhat, and ran out the door and down the long hallway that led to the exit, fighting back tears that threatened to spill down her face for the first time since she could remember.
****
Demi's uniting with Claire had started a little rocky. Demi was very glad to see her, as was Claire, but they had never really been that close. Demi figured it was because their personalities were so similar. Claire was rather quiet normally, as was Demi, so the floodgates of conversation were never really released. But tonight, Claire was different somehow. She seemed to be more open towards Demi, and Demi took notice of this, and she began to follow suit. Before long, they were talking about everything they could think of. Anything to keep their minds from destroying them with the uncertainty and despair that came from the situation.
Claire had filled Demi in on what was happening here, and that her friends were all okay. Claire had told Demi about her past, about what she had experienced the past few years, at Raccoon City, Antarctica, and Europe. She told her everything that had been keeping her personality at bay, in an attempt to be freed from the demons of her past. Demi listened with intent to what Claire was saying. Close friends were something that was hard to come by for Demi. She wouldn't allow anyone to touch the recesses of her heart. The only reason she was so close to Devon was because he was so damn persistent. It was the same for Eric. They had a decent conversation going, despite the cautious glances around to make sure they were still relatively safe.
"So," Claire had started, "enough about me, where have you been hiding since this started?"
"Well, I was in my room for a while," Demi started, "then those things started knocking on my door. I got scared after I looked through the peephole at what they were, so I dressed and was going to call the police. The phones are dead, though."
"Yeah," Claire said, "They normally are when you really need to use them."
"But then my roommate was a zombie too, and when she began to get out of bed, I knew something wasn't right. So, I climbed out my window, onto the tree just outside of it, and I just stayed up there for a while."
Claire smiled a little. "You were in a tree all that time?"
"I didn't know where else to go, but then I thought of the Centennial Square. I went by, and no one was there. Then you saw me, and…" she trailed off slightly, before finishing her sentence. "Here we are. I did a lot of thinking in that tree though. I think I have an idea as to why we weren't affected though, and everyone else was."
"Oh really?" Claire was genuinely intrigued. "What do you have?"
"Well, none of us ate anything from the café yesterday, right?"
"No, I had breakfast there," Claire pointed out.
"Oh…" Demi thought for a moment. "Well, it doesn't matter. None of us ate dinner then, right?"
Claire began to see what Demi was getting at. "You think Umbrella put something in the food. How clever of them."
"How else would they affect so many people on campus, and not us?"
Claire nodded to the younger girl. "You do have a point. We'll go and check it out after everyone gets back."
The new concept troubled Claire. "Why would they intentionally infect so many people? They have to be researching on some level. Just like Umbrella to use innocents as lab mice. Is that it? What else are they wanting?"
The two of them eyed a nearby zombie that seemed to not notice them. It wandered by aimlessly, and continued on its own agenda.
"I never would have thought this could happen." Demi shook her head sadly, and gestured towards the drunken figure. "I mean, you want excitement in your life, and it always seems to come, just never in the form that you want it to."
"I don't know…" Claire reflected, "I don't think I can take much more excitement. I mean, I have the Redfield name and everything, and we seem to be destined for excitement, but I can't keep doing this, you know?"
"Is that why you came here?" Demi sat on the grass, and began picking at it with her fingers. "To get away?" Claire followed her, stretching out, and lying on her side, propping her head up with her hand. If one looked at the way the two were sitting, it would have seemed nothing was wrong, and normal campus life was continuing.
"Yeah, partly, I guess." Claire looked up at the sky, at the beautiful stars still shining brightly in the sky. "I mean, if I had my way, I'd still be working with the S.T.A.R.S. and my brother, but he didn't want me to anymore."
"Why not? Did he not want you to get hurt?"
"Well, not really. I mean, he didn't want me to get hurt, obviously, I mean, he's my brother." She continued. "But, I guess I had kind of outlived my usefulness for the time. Chris and Jill were pretty much in charge, Barry was a seasoned veteran, and knew all sorts of strategic implementations and stuff, and even Leon was able to hack into some of Umbrella's files. There just wasn't much more for me to do than to tell them what I had experienced, and what I had uncovered." She frowned, as she continued to look up at the stars. "If I would have known this would have happened though, I would have insisted on staying with the team."
"But you couldn't have known."
"Yeah, I know."
Demi's thoughts wandered to Devon. "So, he's okay then?"
"Who?"
"Devon."
Claire smiled again, her lips parting, showing her teeth from behind. Leon Kennedy had always complimented her smile. "Why don't you just get your feelings out in the open with him? You know how he feels about you, don't you?"
Demi frowned. "Yeah, I do. I don't know…I'm just…" she stopped herself in mid-sentence. The dawning realization crept up on her and took her completely by surprise. She now knew what it was she was feeling.
Claire had noticed to, and smiled with knowing approval.
"Is that what it is? Am I scared to let him know how I feel? Of what? What would I have to be scared of? I know how he feels, why would I be scared? …But I am, for some reason."
Claire finished her thought for her, aloud. "You don't want to allow yourself to get that close to anyone, right?"
Demi was silent.
"Don't let that scare you. He really cares for you, and you'd be missing something wonderful, I'm telling you. I think I missed my chance, and now I kind of regret it."
Demi spoke, quietly, as if she were inferior to her thoughts at the moment. "With Leon?"
"Yeah. I never really let him know how I felt, and…" she sighed, "Leon's a great guy and all, but when he comes to women, he's…well, he's a little dense."
Demi laughed aloud at Claire's words, and it was the first time that Claire had heard her laugh out loud since she had arrived over a month ago.
"So, don't miss out, Demi, I'm telling you. You'll really hate yourself for it."
The two were silent for a moment, before Demi had gathered her thoughts and feelings. She had decided that she would take a chance with Claire.
"Claire?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm…" The words were still hard to say for Demi, however. "I'm really…glad I got the chance to talk with you."
Her words touched something inside Claire's heart. Claire had always imagined this to be what a normal life would be like. Getting a chance to really bond with people, to know more about them than what shows on the surface. She couldn't remember the last time she had a talk like tonight. It made a part of her heart she didn't even know she had ache for more experiences like this.
"I'm really glad, too, Demi." The release of feelings had rejuvenated her, encouraged her. She felt good about tackling the crisis at hand, once again.
"We'll make it out Demi," she beamed knowingly, "I've done it before, and I'll do it again. We'll be okay."
Demi managed a weak smile, not completely sharing in the confidence. "I hope so."
Claire checked the number of bullets she had remaining in her handgun, and spoke. "I just hope everyone gets back soon. I'm getting bored of waiting for them."
****
Devon stormed out of the Computer building, with the two girls close behind. None of them had bothered to say anything to him for the past minute or so, his irate face had prevented it. He stopped in front of the building, not bothering to turn around to face his companions. He opened his mouth to speak, before shutting it again and shaking his head in another wave of fury. After standing there for a moment, he opened his mouth to speak again. This time, he succeeded. "We're supposed to meet Eric and Bobbye right about now, right?"
"Yeah," Beth said quietly, "I, I think so."
"Fine, let's go." Devon's voice was harsh, uncaring. He had explored the entire building looking for Demi, and she still was nowhere to be found. He would not accept the possibility that she may be dead, and because of that rejection, he grew more upset by the minute. He swung his arms wildly as he walked, accentuating the baseball bat waving in front of him. The girls managed to keep some distance behind. Lori was slowing, the pain of her wounded shoulder shooting electric daggers through her blood. She winced with each step, and Bethani braced her by putting Lori's arm around her shoulder, to hopefully prevent the pain of the circulating blood. They rounded the side of the facility, and the Art Building came into view, with a pacing Bobbye out front. One of her hands covered her face, and she continued to pace, walking about ten feet before turning around, and doing it over again. She heard commotion, and looked up to see a few zombies staring at her, growling their trademark growl. She stood straight, rigid, as the fight-or-flight sequence began to kick in again.
"Bobbye!"
She turned to see Devon striding towards her, and she trotted over to him.
"I'm, I'm…" She stuttered her words, visibly shaken. "I'm really, uh, glad to see you guys."
Devon eyed the three zombies shuffling towards them. "What's wrong, where's Eric?"
"They, they got him." She sighed and pointed to some of the rotting figures.
"No!" Lori cried, her wailing attracting even more attention.
Devon gritted his teeth behind his sneering expression. He wanted nothing more than to go and break open the heads of the people that killed his rival, and his friend. However, he refrained, knowing what the consequences might be. He shifted his gaze to the zombies, trying to grasp the fact that one of his better friends on the campus had just died. He thought of all the times they had wreaked havoc in prank wars, or about all the trash that they would talk in a competitive game of basketball. He shook his head in disbelief. He continued to stare at them, not moving. Saliva dripped out of their mouth and onto their ragged clothing, mixing with the fresh blood that stained the cloth. They appeared to be completely covered in blood and stringy flesh now, and it was not enough to individually make out the zombies anymore. They were no longer the people they had once known. Devon could not have recognized them if he had tried.
"Let's get out of here." Bethani said. "I want to leave, like right now." Urgency caught the end of her last sentence, and she began to back away, with Lori struggling to mimic her movements. It seemed Lori's legs didn't even seem to work anymore, the stabbing pains were almost too much for her to take. She felt as if she was going to pass out at any second.
"Yes," Lori breathed, "Let's go."
The four began to walk back to the Centennial Square once again.
****
It was quiet at first, only existing as a presence that couldn't quite be perceived. But slowly, surely, the sound gained momentum, alerting the world to what was coming. Before long the slight pitter-patter in the distance would become a boisterous whirring of metallic blades and screaming engines. Even if one were looking for them, they would have a hard time finding them; they were as black as the night that encompassed them. The rotors sang together as a chorus of destruction as the three helicopters stopped over the university. For a minute, they just hovered, making no attempt to take further action. But then came a new sound from the internal compartments of the aircraft. It was the low noise of mechanical gears grinding against each other, straining to lower the bulky loads to the exterior of the helicopters. Again, they remained still, nothing moving but the blades that provided the lift. Three large containers were now situated below the transports. With a swift motion and a loud metallic 'clank,' the three payloads were dropped, and the helicopters slowly began to leave the area. The three containers were suspended in free fall, calm, fluid, serene. They hit the ground hard, two of them a cage of sorts that had sprung open on impact, the other, a hissing cylinder that emitted a type of white gas. The sound of the helicopters disintegrated into the darkness from which it came, having done the unspeakable deeds.
Primal, reptilian creatures exited one of the cages. Out of it prowled three green skinned creatures, standing at four feet tall. Their slimy exterior glistened, their veins pulsing outside the flesh. On one of their hands were three large, seven-inch claws, each moving independently of the other, working tirelessly, eager to meet their next victim. Their yellow, lizard-like eyes scanned the area around them in jerking motions before the hunters bounded off into the recesses of the campus.
The other cage was home to something that could only be described as a somewhat humanoid figure that appeared to be inside out. The muscular structure of the creature was on the outside of its body, the raw fibers working and bulging with each movement. The pinkish brain was also located on the outside, and it sat low on its head, right up to its brow, where its eyes might have been. It opened its mouth to reveal rows of sharp, serrated teeth, and a long, limber tongue. It let loose a deep-throated growl, before scurrying away, hugging the ground as it went.
Then there was the cylinder. The container was split apart, the carbon locks expanding the released gas that removed the two halves. A figure stood, over eight feet tall, its arms wrapped across its chest in a cross, its grey skull tucking its fists underneath it. Slowly, it looked up, as if awakening for the first time, and slowly looked at its surroundings, before taking the first steps. It brought the arms to its side, and with a mighty roar, the right hand erupted in a shower of blood and sinew. From its wake was a large scythe-like claw, over eighteen inches in length that traveled midway up the forearm. Its body heaved from the pain, and inspected its newly made instrument of death with childlike curiosity. It then returned its gaze to the landscape, and slowly began to walk forth, knowing completely its mission, and what it needed to accomplish.
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