The Story of Resident Evil (Game One)
Chapter Five

                Four shots. Jill's breath caught in her throat, even as Wesker swore and said, "Jill, can you go..."

                "I'm going with you," Barry said firmly. "Chris is an old partner, you know."

                Wesker sighed, then nodded. "How much ammo do you have?"

                "Twenty shots," Barry replied, just as Jill said, "Fifteen."

                "Okay. Vickers might send help. I'll wait here."

                She and Barry head for the entrance Chris had gone through. "Stay alert," Wesker called after them. Jill nodded briskly, then jogged to the blue double doors, Barry close behind.

                "A dining room," Barry said, moving deeper into the room as Jill shut the doors behind them. It was a grand, beautiful room; a few of the candlesticks would fetch maybe a hundred bucks at a pawn shop, definitely pure gold...

                Jill shook the thought away quickly, walking along the table and checking the floor for shell casings. All of a sudden Barry shouted from the far end of the room, by the fireplace. "What is it?" she asked, alarmed.

                "Blood." Barry looked up at her, his face pale beneath the reddish beard as he knelt by a large red stain on the floor. "Jill, check the door over there; see if you can find any more clues. I'll be examining this," he said, glancing around the tile for any other drops of blood. "God, I hope this is NOT Chris's blood."

                "I doubt it," she said, trying to sound convincing. "Why wouldn't he come back to the hall, then, if he was injured?"

                He sighed, moving around a marble column to check the other side. Jill felt her heart sink as she went to the door by a loudly-ticking grandfather clock.

                She swept her gun left and right, checking the dimly-lit hallway for anything that might be threatening. An alcove was off to her left, and looked slightly better lit than the rest of the corridor; three separate doors were to her right. Frowning, Jill cocked her head. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she'd heard a soft noise from the alcove. Moving cautiously, gun ready, she headed towards the sound. "Chris?" she said softly as she turned the corner.

                Her gun fell limply to her side as the offshoot came into view. A body was on the floor, a bloody stump where its head should have been. The head itself was maybe five feet away, covered in gore and blood. Worst of all, a man was crouched over the corpse, his teeth tearing into the stomach of the dead body. Jill gave a strangled, horrified cry, the stench of decay and rot filling her nostrils and making her all the more weak-kneed. The man stopped its chewing at the sound, and turned towards her.

                Her eyes widened in terror. The man's skin was cracked and blistered, and his eyes were wide and sightless. Blood stained his lips and jaw like some demonic, dead circus clown. "Barry!" she screamed, as it stood, stretching out his arms to her like a sleepwalker. She backed away, back down the hall, petrified.

                "BARRY! It's a monster!"

                Barry appeared at the dining room doorway, bewildered, staring at her in confusion; the look on his face would have made her laugh if she hadn't been scared to death. "Monster?" He turned, and started in shock at the sight of the creature slowly shambling towards Jill. "Let me take care of this!" he roared, motioning her behind him. He raised his gun without a second thought and shot twice, the rounds going deep into the guy's collar bone. The freak kept coming, barely staggering as the shots bit into its rotting body. Barry's third shot finally stopped it... and blew its head into fragments with a wet popping sound. Barry grimaced. "What IS it?" he moaned, disgusted beyond belief.

                "Kenneth..." Jill whispered. He whirled, staring at her in alarm. "Kenneth was killed too," she managed, "by that creature..."

                She gestured down the hall at the alcove, and Barry dashed around the corner.  The sick feeling in her stomach grew as she heard Barry whisper, "No," and slump against a wall, turning away from Kenneth's figure. Jill had only recognized the Bravo team member at the last second, and had been too distracted to think about it. She watched with pity as Barry punched the wall with one fist, then stepped over to Kenneth's body. He returned with three clips and handed two to her, pocketing the other. "Where's Chris?" he muttered hoarsely.

                "I don't know," she said. She nodded at the doors down the hall and Barry trotted off to check them. The door closest to the dining room was locked, but even as she opened her mouth to tell Barry, he said, "Locked. Both of them."

                "WHAT?!" Jill pulled harder on the doorknob. "Where'd he go, then?"

                "I dunno," Barry replied softly. "Maybe..."

                Jill followed his gaze to the creature at her feet. "No," she whispered firmly. "If he was dead, his body would be lying there, too, Barry."

                "Then where the hell is he, Jill?" Barry snapped. "What, he vanished into thin air?"

                "If he didn't, then his body did," Jill said peevishly.

                Barry blew out his breath gustily. "I know. I just..."

                Jill swallowed painfully. "Let's report this to Wesker."

                "WESKER!"

                Jill gazed dubiously around the empty main hall, her heart heavy. Wesker was no where in sight, and the hall didn't have many places to hide. "Help me look for him, Jill," Barry called.

                She sighed, heading for the shadows behind the large staircase. A quick glance revealed absolutely nothing, but she searched the small, dark areas between the columns anyway. She came out on the other side of the stairs, tugging at one of the two doors. It was locked. "Find anything, Jill?" Barry asked.

                "Nothing," Jill replied dismally. "What is going on? I don't get it. Why would he leave? It doesn't make sense!" she nearly shouted in frustration.

                "Well, it can't be helped," Barry said grimly. "We should split up, look for any clues. I'll check the dining room again. Maybe I can find Chris."

                "Okay. I'll check the door on the opposite side."

                Barry sighed, his broad shoulders sagging. "This mansion is gigantic. We could get into trouble if we get lost. Maybe we should stay together."  He looked up at her, concerned.

                Jill knew she must still look green from seeing Kenneth's body. She shook her head firmly. "No, we need to cover a lot of ground. That... zombie or whatever was slow. We can take them, and if you find Chris, maybe he'll have the floor plans Angela gave him. We'll just meet back here in an hour or so, okay?"

                Barry nodded. "All right. If you're sure you're up to it, we'll meet back here. If something happens, just come back to this hall and wait. And..." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small, black cloth case. "Jill, here's your lock picks. Probably be handy if you, the Master of Unlocking, take them with you." He shrugged and smiled at her. "I never had much luck with them."

                Jill grinned, accepting the case from him gratefully. When she'd first joined the S.T.A.R.S., she'd worried that they would snub her for her past as a common thief; she'd spent most of her life ripping off high-security homes and businesses. The team was a bright group, however, and was anxious to share any knowledge related to the job. Barry had asked to borrow her old set of picks a few weeks ago, but he hadn't even been able to open his cheap bedroom door lock. "Thanks," Jill said warmly, opening the case and running a hand over the picks almost lovingly. "Maybe I'll need 'em."

                He nodded, then turned to the dining room. "Meet back here in an hour," he said. "This time, someone'll be here."

                Jill sighed as he shut the dining room door behind him, still feeling worried and sickened by Kenneth's attacker... not to mention the fact that Chris had completely disappeared. She thought for a second, debating whether or not to actually go through the door she'd said. She'd be back in an hour to meet Barry, so it didn't really matter; maybe Wesker had gone upstairs?

                No. The only reason he would have done that was if he'd heard something, and even if that was the case, Wesker would have waited for them to return. Most likely (well, more likely, because the idea that Wesker had a good reason to have left at all was UNlikely), Wesker would have stayed on the ground floor.

                She went to the other side door she hadn't checked, pleased to note that it wasn't locked. The room beyond was poorly lighted, with a stature of a woman holding a water pitcher on her shoulder, an odd metal step-ladder, and a wooden chest that was shoved in front of an open door. She doubted Wesker would have blocked the door with a piece of furniture behind him, so she opted for the second door, which was closed.

                And locked.

                "What the hell?!" Jill shouted, angrily kicking her foot against the solid oak. She plopped down on the metal step-ladder, glaring murderously at the door and trying to force herself to calm down.

                "Be smart, Jill," an internal voice whispered. "Fighting's not the only way to get through this. It's a puzzle, and you can't always physically knock the crap out of a puzzle. Think."

                Jill smiled, instantly feeling better. Her father had told her that when she was younger, when she had blacked a boy's eye in sixth grade for teasing her. Her father had told her that everything had a reason, an underlying meaning, and she needed to figure out what it was and put an end to it. In the sixth grade, that was a simple solution: the boy had liked her, and that's why he'd teased her, stupid as it was.  Psychology was a much better way to solve a problem, and she'd kept that philosophy close to her heart long after her father was dead.

                Slowly, she thought through all the possibilities of why the team kept vanishing behind locked doors. The simplest one was that the door simply locked itself when someone went through; plenty of locks did that.  And Wesker must have gone through one of the two locked doors on this side of the hall, or else she and Barry would have seen him.  If he hadn't, then she'd wait for Barry and they'd head upstairs together. Deciding that, since she was already in front of this door, she'd go through it first, and then try to pick the lock on the other if the Captain still hadn't showed. She settled onto her heels, crouching low as she examined the lock. A sword was etched by the key plate, and she filed that information away for later. Taking out her picks, she went to work, and the lock soon clicked open easily.

                With a sigh, Jill squared her shoulders determinedly.  Then she stepped through the door, ready to do her job.