Resident Evil: Return of a Nightmare
Epilogue
By Windra
Several days had passed since the Umbrella facility had been destroyed, since Wesker became missing, since the Exeter S.T.A.R.S. left to go back to their lives and since Brad, Rowan, Gartha, Sherry, and Rachel had fled New York altogether, and now resided in Pensylvania, still hopping to different cities and heading towards the Middle Eat, hoping to be out of harm's way for a little while. Rowan eventually broke out of her fever, and Sherry was now living with her and Aunt Gartha, as Rowan's sister and Gartha's daughter, although not biologically. Rachel also stuck with them, deciding to help the group out against Umbrella, and for other reasons. She felt like she owed them, and she spawned a great friendship with everyone, but there was another reason. Brad was still there, still refusing to leave Rowan's 'family' in case Umbrella ever found them again.
Days passed, and soon weeks, and the group continued to move and shift away from Umbrella's prying eyes as much as possible, trying to stay out of sight. They had gone back to the way they were after the Raccoon City incident, except they had two new companions. Jill, Carlos, and the others in Europe were still plotting how to get into the main Umbrella headquarters in Europe. Rowan was still trying to hack into Umbrella's files. Rachel was now helping Brad and Rowan, since she knew most of the codes to get into most of Umbrella's files, and Sherry was doing whatever she could to help, as was Gartha.
Brad seemed to get worse, though. He was becoming more frightened of small things, almost always jumping if someone merely put a hand on his shoulder. Something had shaken him, something terrible, and everyone had a good idea of what it was...
Wesker was supposed to have been dead, but if he was still very much alive, with strength that could surpass the most Steroid-packed wrestler, it was not good news to the ex-S.T.A.R.S. members. Even Jill was shocked when Brad called with the frightening news, as she had fainted while she was on the phone at the mention of Wesker being alive, and that only increased the tension growing in the air.
Rachel was determined to change that.
**********
One week later...
Brad was now walking down the small, damp street of a Pennsylvania town, his eyes wide and blankly staring at the ground, as if he had found something interesting to look at. His face was emotionless, except for the traces of fear and depression that were on his face, and he was dressed in casual clothing...a pair of denim jeans, a white tee-shirt, and a green jacket. Nothing special...then again, there was nothing special about today.
A small rumble of thunder was heard, but it was so faint that one couldn't tell if it was the thrum of a distant car's engine or not. The sky above swirled with gray and black clouds, blotting out the night sky. It was cold out, but not cold enough to freeze the droplets of rain that fell to the ground, forming puddles and, sometimes, little streams if the conditions were right. The street was almost completely abandonned if it hadn't been for the few other people who were taking an evening stroll in the rainy weather.
Brad blinked, tugging the coat tighter around himself, shivering slightly before looking up, panicked. He heard footsteps, fast-paced, running behind him. Probably Rowan or Sherry, but still, he was too shaken up to take anything lightly anymore.
"Brad...?" a woman's voice whispered softly, trying not to frighten him. The voice didn't belong to Rowan or Sherry, nor Gartha. He still recognized it.
"Hey, Rach...," he answered solemnly, staring at the ground again. The woman gave a small smile and patted him on the shoulder, but her expression turned to worry as she saw the look of emptiness on his face.
"Brad...," she whispered. "C'mon...cheer up...it's over...for now..."
He looked up at her slightly, just enough to make out what she was wearing. A blue tee-shirt and black jeans. She wasn't even wearing a coat, as if she had just ran out to meet him.
The corner of his lips curved upward slightly, then shook his head. "I wish I could cheer up," he said softly. "Too much is on my mind, way too much...and it all hurts..."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Rachel asked, raising a brow.
"Nah...I'll be fine for now..."
Rachel shuddered softly from the cold, and Brad stood up straight, removing his jacket and placing it on her, while she tried to refuse it.
"I'm fine...," the woman whispered, still shaking.
"You'll catch a cold," Brad replied, ignoring the raindrops that hit him. "You can use it, I don't mind..."
"But-"
"It's okay, I'll be fine."
Rachel paused for a minute, then nodded softly, knowing that it would be useless to try and argue over it. She sighed, then continued the conversation. "Anyway...Look, Wesker may be alive...," -Brad cringed at the mention of his name- "...but, if you keep fearing the fact...nothing will change. He'll feed off of your fear...Time will pass on...and hopefully, so will Wesker..."
"But that's not it," Brad whispered softly. "If I didn't abandonn everyone in the Arklay Mountains...no one would've been killed...by Wesker's hands...He knew about what would happen, he even said so, and if I didn't flee...no one would have been killed, like Wesker wanted...So many people were killed because of my actions, Rach, all because of me..."
"Brad, you're missing something...," Rachel spoke up. Brad looked at her with blank eyes. The woman shook her head before staring directly at him. "If you didn't flee...your friends would never have found out about Umbrella's experiments...You wouldn't have discovered what Umbrella was doing..."
"What's wrong with that?" Brad asked, raising a questioning brow.
"Umbrella would've continued their experiments without any interference, meaning that Raccoon City would've been overrun by monsters two months or so earlier than September. All those people you escaped the city with would probably be dead, because you weren't there..."
Brad blinked for a minute before processing the words. She had a point. If he hadn't been there, Jill would've been killed...and, more than likely, Rowan and Carlos as well. They would've all wound up dead, and so would he.
And if he hadn't fled...if he stayed when his team needed him the most...Umbrella would still be thought of as a normal pharmaceutical company. Nobody would suspect them, and no one would be aware of the T-Virus or G-Virus....and so many innocent people would've been killed, both from experimentation and sudden outbreaks.
Now it was Brad's turn to shiver, both from the combination of rain and the chill in the air, and of the thought of so many deaths. Rachel smiled suddenly, and walked up beside him, wrapping one side of the jacket around him so that they were both covered by it, and she didn't see him blush.
"Uhm...er...eh...," he stammered as Rachel leaned against him slightly. His cheeks were now glowing a bright crimson. Rachel, in the meanwhile, seemed to be enjoying it. She looked up, then giggled when she saw the predicament he was in - he was choking for words, and his face was bright red.
"Uhm...Rach...?" he finally managed to choke out.
She nodded. "Yeah?"
"Wannagoouttodinnerwithme?"
She laughed lightly. He looked so cute! "I'd love to!"
In the meanwhile, two faces peered out of the window of a nearby house, watching the two speaking to each other and heading in the direction of a resturaunt down the road. The two people, two young girls, exchanged glances and grinned.
"They look cute together," the older, Rowan, whispered with a giggle.
"They do, don't they?" Sherry, the youngest, laughed out.
They chuckled and looked out the window again, with Sherry watching intently and Rowan chanting, "Go on, Rach, kiss him!"
"C'mon, c'mon!" Sherry chimed in. "Brad, give her a peck on the cheek or something!"
"You can do it!"
They fell silent as they saw Rachel look at him and smile. "Brad?"
He looked over with a smile. "Yeah?"
A pause, then Rachel leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for saving me in that facility..."
Brad blinked, and the blush dissappeared momentarily. "Welcome..." He gave a nervous smile, then returned the kiss. He nodded. "And...thanks for being there."
"Welcome," Rachel giggled.
After a second, they continued to walk down the road, arms wrapped around each other, and speaking to each other, with Rachel blushing madly and Brad grinning like an idiot.
_____________
Sappy, yet cute ending! A V-Day special epilogue! *huggles Brad and Rachel* You two are cute!!
And yes, Brad IS my favorite character in all of RE. For those of you who think he deserves to die? *flashes middle finger* Deal with it.
And, to make up for my crappiness, I'm gonna include a very short excerpt from the sequel to this story, the next installment of my RE series, which takes place 5 years later...in the year 2003!
****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER*****
A strong scent of bile and rotten eggs filled the air as the army of the undead came closer, but all her thoughts were on one zombie at a time. Rowan gripped her Colt Python tightly, gritting her teeth and aiming at the nearest undead human - a human ripped apart by the T-Virus, a human who once lived a normal life before it was infected, and a human who was now dripping rotten flesh onto the ground. Its jaw had been shot, leaving it hanging like a door on a single hinge. It's eyes were a ghostly white, covered with a thick white film, and its body was covered with various scratch and bite and bullet wounds. Coagulated blood covered its clothes, which were ragged and torn, missing in chunks in some places. It's hair was thick and greasy and black, and its chest had a gaping hole where someone must-ve shot it with a very powerful fire-arm. It moaned, raising its bony, torn arms and reaching out for her, its cracked lips opening wide to reveal blood-stained teeth.
BAM!
And it hit the ground as a matter of blood and bones and brains exploded from where it's head had once been. It hit the ground and lay in a crumpled heap, twitching slightly as Rowan reloaded her weapon. She looked back at the others, and a look of relief washed over her face as she saw that they were still fending off for themselves quite well. She headed towards them, ready to fire at any approaching zombie-
-and was almost immediantly blinded by a sudden flash of light from above, followed by the low crackling boom of thunder.
Thunder? That storm is already here?!
Indeed it was, and, as she looked up, she could see the mass of large, black clouds, tinted a yellowish-green and swirling in a counter-clockwise direction. And she noted that there was no rain falling...no rain...yet she could hear the loud CLUNKs of something heavy falling out of the sky nearby, and she could see shafts of what appeared to be hail stones raining down on the houses about half a mile away. And there was an updraft, growing stronger by the second...
Not good...
There was another burst of light, and Rowan saw a thin, reedy lightning bolt begin to crawl along the swirling cloud above them like a spider, breaking up into smaller branches and moving along the bottom of the cloud as if searching for a place to hide. As it moved past a certain spot on the cloud, she could see something poking out of the cloud...a cone shape that slowly began to stretch out and twist and spin, rotating...
__That's all for now, kiddies! Enjoy!!___
Epilogue
By Windra
Several days had passed since the Umbrella facility had been destroyed, since Wesker became missing, since the Exeter S.T.A.R.S. left to go back to their lives and since Brad, Rowan, Gartha, Sherry, and Rachel had fled New York altogether, and now resided in Pensylvania, still hopping to different cities and heading towards the Middle Eat, hoping to be out of harm's way for a little while. Rowan eventually broke out of her fever, and Sherry was now living with her and Aunt Gartha, as Rowan's sister and Gartha's daughter, although not biologically. Rachel also stuck with them, deciding to help the group out against Umbrella, and for other reasons. She felt like she owed them, and she spawned a great friendship with everyone, but there was another reason. Brad was still there, still refusing to leave Rowan's 'family' in case Umbrella ever found them again.
Days passed, and soon weeks, and the group continued to move and shift away from Umbrella's prying eyes as much as possible, trying to stay out of sight. They had gone back to the way they were after the Raccoon City incident, except they had two new companions. Jill, Carlos, and the others in Europe were still plotting how to get into the main Umbrella headquarters in Europe. Rowan was still trying to hack into Umbrella's files. Rachel was now helping Brad and Rowan, since she knew most of the codes to get into most of Umbrella's files, and Sherry was doing whatever she could to help, as was Gartha.
Brad seemed to get worse, though. He was becoming more frightened of small things, almost always jumping if someone merely put a hand on his shoulder. Something had shaken him, something terrible, and everyone had a good idea of what it was...
Wesker was supposed to have been dead, but if he was still very much alive, with strength that could surpass the most Steroid-packed wrestler, it was not good news to the ex-S.T.A.R.S. members. Even Jill was shocked when Brad called with the frightening news, as she had fainted while she was on the phone at the mention of Wesker being alive, and that only increased the tension growing in the air.
Rachel was determined to change that.
**********
One week later...
Brad was now walking down the small, damp street of a Pennsylvania town, his eyes wide and blankly staring at the ground, as if he had found something interesting to look at. His face was emotionless, except for the traces of fear and depression that were on his face, and he was dressed in casual clothing...a pair of denim jeans, a white tee-shirt, and a green jacket. Nothing special...then again, there was nothing special about today.
A small rumble of thunder was heard, but it was so faint that one couldn't tell if it was the thrum of a distant car's engine or not. The sky above swirled with gray and black clouds, blotting out the night sky. It was cold out, but not cold enough to freeze the droplets of rain that fell to the ground, forming puddles and, sometimes, little streams if the conditions were right. The street was almost completely abandonned if it hadn't been for the few other people who were taking an evening stroll in the rainy weather.
Brad blinked, tugging the coat tighter around himself, shivering slightly before looking up, panicked. He heard footsteps, fast-paced, running behind him. Probably Rowan or Sherry, but still, he was too shaken up to take anything lightly anymore.
"Brad...?" a woman's voice whispered softly, trying not to frighten him. The voice didn't belong to Rowan or Sherry, nor Gartha. He still recognized it.
"Hey, Rach...," he answered solemnly, staring at the ground again. The woman gave a small smile and patted him on the shoulder, but her expression turned to worry as she saw the look of emptiness on his face.
"Brad...," she whispered. "C'mon...cheer up...it's over...for now..."
He looked up at her slightly, just enough to make out what she was wearing. A blue tee-shirt and black jeans. She wasn't even wearing a coat, as if she had just ran out to meet him.
The corner of his lips curved upward slightly, then shook his head. "I wish I could cheer up," he said softly. "Too much is on my mind, way too much...and it all hurts..."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Rachel asked, raising a brow.
"Nah...I'll be fine for now..."
Rachel shuddered softly from the cold, and Brad stood up straight, removing his jacket and placing it on her, while she tried to refuse it.
"I'm fine...," the woman whispered, still shaking.
"You'll catch a cold," Brad replied, ignoring the raindrops that hit him. "You can use it, I don't mind..."
"But-"
"It's okay, I'll be fine."
Rachel paused for a minute, then nodded softly, knowing that it would be useless to try and argue over it. She sighed, then continued the conversation. "Anyway...Look, Wesker may be alive...," -Brad cringed at the mention of his name- "...but, if you keep fearing the fact...nothing will change. He'll feed off of your fear...Time will pass on...and hopefully, so will Wesker..."
"But that's not it," Brad whispered softly. "If I didn't abandonn everyone in the Arklay Mountains...no one would've been killed...by Wesker's hands...He knew about what would happen, he even said so, and if I didn't flee...no one would have been killed, like Wesker wanted...So many people were killed because of my actions, Rach, all because of me..."
"Brad, you're missing something...," Rachel spoke up. Brad looked at her with blank eyes. The woman shook her head before staring directly at him. "If you didn't flee...your friends would never have found out about Umbrella's experiments...You wouldn't have discovered what Umbrella was doing..."
"What's wrong with that?" Brad asked, raising a questioning brow.
"Umbrella would've continued their experiments without any interference, meaning that Raccoon City would've been overrun by monsters two months or so earlier than September. All those people you escaped the city with would probably be dead, because you weren't there..."
Brad blinked for a minute before processing the words. She had a point. If he hadn't been there, Jill would've been killed...and, more than likely, Rowan and Carlos as well. They would've all wound up dead, and so would he.
And if he hadn't fled...if he stayed when his team needed him the most...Umbrella would still be thought of as a normal pharmaceutical company. Nobody would suspect them, and no one would be aware of the T-Virus or G-Virus....and so many innocent people would've been killed, both from experimentation and sudden outbreaks.
Now it was Brad's turn to shiver, both from the combination of rain and the chill in the air, and of the thought of so many deaths. Rachel smiled suddenly, and walked up beside him, wrapping one side of the jacket around him so that they were both covered by it, and she didn't see him blush.
"Uhm...er...eh...," he stammered as Rachel leaned against him slightly. His cheeks were now glowing a bright crimson. Rachel, in the meanwhile, seemed to be enjoying it. She looked up, then giggled when she saw the predicament he was in - he was choking for words, and his face was bright red.
"Uhm...Rach...?" he finally managed to choke out.
She nodded. "Yeah?"
"Wannagoouttodinnerwithme?"
She laughed lightly. He looked so cute! "I'd love to!"
In the meanwhile, two faces peered out of the window of a nearby house, watching the two speaking to each other and heading in the direction of a resturaunt down the road. The two people, two young girls, exchanged glances and grinned.
"They look cute together," the older, Rowan, whispered with a giggle.
"They do, don't they?" Sherry, the youngest, laughed out.
They chuckled and looked out the window again, with Sherry watching intently and Rowan chanting, "Go on, Rach, kiss him!"
"C'mon, c'mon!" Sherry chimed in. "Brad, give her a peck on the cheek or something!"
"You can do it!"
They fell silent as they saw Rachel look at him and smile. "Brad?"
He looked over with a smile. "Yeah?"
A pause, then Rachel leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for saving me in that facility..."
Brad blinked, and the blush dissappeared momentarily. "Welcome..." He gave a nervous smile, then returned the kiss. He nodded. "And...thanks for being there."
"Welcome," Rachel giggled.
After a second, they continued to walk down the road, arms wrapped around each other, and speaking to each other, with Rachel blushing madly and Brad grinning like an idiot.
_____________
Sappy, yet cute ending! A V-Day special epilogue! *huggles Brad and Rachel* You two are cute!!
And yes, Brad IS my favorite character in all of RE. For those of you who think he deserves to die? *flashes middle finger* Deal with it.
And, to make up for my crappiness, I'm gonna include a very short excerpt from the sequel to this story, the next installment of my RE series, which takes place 5 years later...in the year 2003!
****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER*****
A strong scent of bile and rotten eggs filled the air as the army of the undead came closer, but all her thoughts were on one zombie at a time. Rowan gripped her Colt Python tightly, gritting her teeth and aiming at the nearest undead human - a human ripped apart by the T-Virus, a human who once lived a normal life before it was infected, and a human who was now dripping rotten flesh onto the ground. Its jaw had been shot, leaving it hanging like a door on a single hinge. It's eyes were a ghostly white, covered with a thick white film, and its body was covered with various scratch and bite and bullet wounds. Coagulated blood covered its clothes, which were ragged and torn, missing in chunks in some places. It's hair was thick and greasy and black, and its chest had a gaping hole where someone must-ve shot it with a very powerful fire-arm. It moaned, raising its bony, torn arms and reaching out for her, its cracked lips opening wide to reveal blood-stained teeth.
BAM!
And it hit the ground as a matter of blood and bones and brains exploded from where it's head had once been. It hit the ground and lay in a crumpled heap, twitching slightly as Rowan reloaded her weapon. She looked back at the others, and a look of relief washed over her face as she saw that they were still fending off for themselves quite well. She headed towards them, ready to fire at any approaching zombie-
-and was almost immediantly blinded by a sudden flash of light from above, followed by the low crackling boom of thunder.
Thunder? That storm is already here?!
Indeed it was, and, as she looked up, she could see the mass of large, black clouds, tinted a yellowish-green and swirling in a counter-clockwise direction. And she noted that there was no rain falling...no rain...yet she could hear the loud CLUNKs of something heavy falling out of the sky nearby, and she could see shafts of what appeared to be hail stones raining down on the houses about half a mile away. And there was an updraft, growing stronger by the second...
Not good...
There was another burst of light, and Rowan saw a thin, reedy lightning bolt begin to crawl along the swirling cloud above them like a spider, breaking up into smaller branches and moving along the bottom of the cloud as if searching for a place to hide. As it moved past a certain spot on the cloud, she could see something poking out of the cloud...a cone shape that slowly began to stretch out and twist and spin, rotating...
__That's all for now, kiddies! Enjoy!!___