Chapter 2
I ran into the room, expecting an onslaught of zombie. Instead, there was nothing. It was actually a quaint little dining room, with candlesticks illuminating the darkness.
"Barry?" I called out. My voice echoed, and I looked up, seeing that there was another room about this one.
"Over here." I heard Barry say. I rushed over to him, relieved that he was still in one piece. He was kneeling on the ground, looking at something. "Didn't I tell you to wait?" he asked, but he didn't really sound annoyed. He clearly had something else on his mind. Hell, who didn't?
"I got worried. What are you looking at?" I asked, feeling as if a zombie was still lurking around somewhere.
"Look at this bloodstain. I hope it isn't someone I knew." Barry said softly.
"I'm sure it isn't." I said. Truthfully, I wasn't sure about anything, but I offered Barry a smile. He smiled back, and I was glad I was placed with him. That Wesker guy seemed a little. cold.
"We better get going." He said, pointing at the door at the end of the dining room. I nodded, and Barry got up and walked over to the door. I stood back, and he opened it up. He looked from side to side, and motioned me to follow.
I walked over to him, and we found ourselves in a corridor. I couldn't see all the way down on the right, but the left side was pretty well lit. Barry started walking carefully towards the left, and I followed close behind.
Suddenly, Barry was about to go around a corner when he stopped. He had a horrific expression on his face, and he turned a ghastly pale color.
"Barry, what is it?" I whispered, frightened.
He wasn't answering me so I had to take a look for myself. Around the corner, there was another zombie, apparently eating something, and making loud smacking sounds. I leaned in for a closer look behind Barry and realized he was eating a person. The guy was still alive, his eyes wide open, along with his mouth. The zombie ripped out his throat, and the guy slumped over, dead.
The zombie, finished with his meal, turned around and realized he had some company. He moaned and rose to his feet and shuffled toward us.
I looked over at Barry, and the look of horror was replaced with sheer rage. Barry took aim, and emptied a round into the zombie's chest. I covered my ears and backed away. Barry shot the zombie again. It fazed him, but he was still steadily shuffling towards him. This time, Barry shot him in the head, and the familiar splash of blood washed over the carpet, walls, and Barry.
Barry didn't seem to mind, however. He kneeled down next to the body the zombie had partially eaten. I walked over to him.
"Oh my God." Barry said, choked up a little. "They killed Kenny."
"You bastards." I said. I left Barry alone with the corpse, now named Kenny, and walked over to a painting on the wall and pretended to look at it. I looked over at Kenny, his throat and eyes still open, staring into space. Man, what a way to go.
"Did you know him well? I asked Barry.
"No, but he was part of the B.R.A.V.O. team. I only met him a couple of times. A good kid. Good kid." Barry trailed off, apparently trying to fight back tears.
"Sorry about that. Look, he was holding onto this." Barry said, handing me a videotape.
I looked it over. Seemed like an ordinary tape to me. No label was on it.
"We need a VCR or something to play it." Barry said.
Well duh, I thought. I decided to keep that to myself. No sense in being rude, especially now. I just wanted to get out of here. I've never seen a dead body in my life, and now I've been standing in the same room with one for at least 10 minutes.
"We'd better report this to Wesker." Barry said, seemingly reading my thoughts.
We walked over the dead zombie and back into the dining room. We walked back to the main hall in silence. When we got there, Wesker was gone.
"Wesker!" we both yelled. In the middle of the hall, there was a handgun. Barry went over to it and picked it up.
"That's strange. This is definitely Wesker's handgun." Barry said. "I'm going to go look upstairs. Stay here.
Barry went up the stairs. I looked around the room nervously. I walked around, and realized there was a hallway next to the dining room door, under the stairs. I walked over to it, and there was a major contrast between the nice marble of the main room and the cement of the hallway. It was very dimly lit, and it smelled awful. There was a door there. It actually looked more like a cage or prison with the bars. I was about to touch it, when a loud moan pierced the air, and then a rattling of chains. It sounded like a woman. She could be hurt, but my first instinct was to haul ass.
I ran back in to the main hall as fast as I could, and started panting. I know the moan sounded like it came from a woman, but I seriously didn't trust that idea. It's probably some mutated beast with a remote form of a woman, with inhuman strength of course.
Barry came back down the stairs, shaking his head. I'm guessing he didn't find Wesker.
"I didn't find Wesker." Barry said. Bingo. I hate it when I'm right. "But, I want you to hold onto this, in case we get separated."
Barry handed me the gun, but I held up my hands.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" I said. "I don't do guns." Seriously, guns scare the heck out of me. And considering I've seen two zombies already, that's saying something.
"Look, it's either you take it and survive, or you don't take it and die. It's your choice." Barry said, holding the gun out to me.
"Ok, ok." I said, reluctantly taking the handgun.
"Let's go back to that corridor we found." said Barry, leading the way. I followed, holding the gun as far away from me as possible. It looked silly, but who was going to laugh at me, the zombies?
We went back over to where Kenny's body was. Next to him was a door. Barry opened it and cautiously walked in. He took a quick look, and motioned me to come inside. We were in the middle of a dark hallway, with only the light from the windows to guide us. At the end of the hallway was a room with stairs leading up to another room.
There was a table in the room, with a cage on it, and something I couldn't identify. I looked in the cage and there was a dead raven inside. Isn't that some kind of omen? Things were getting better all the time.
Barry walked over to the cage, but didn't seem too interested in it. Instead, he picked up the object next to the cage.
"Hey, look!" he said. "You can use these clips for you gun." He handed me the ammo, and I put it in my pocket. I hoped I wouldn't have to use them.
Other than the table, there wasn't much else to look at. Barry started up the stairs, and motioned me to follow. There was another door up there, which led to another hallway. This hallway however, was built somewhat like a maze, and there were mirrors everywhere. As we walked in, we noticed there was another zombie on the floor, except he was a bright red color.
"He looks like he's dead. Best to leave him alone." Barry whispered, in case the zombie was just playing possum. Nope. He seemed dead as a doornail.
Suddenly, the distinctive moan of a zombie filled the hallway. Barry cocked his gun and cautiously peered down the hallway. He kept going and I followed behind him. We went all the way to the end, where there were two doors and a mirror to greet us.
"That's strange, where is that thing?" Barry said, shaking his head. I shrugged my shoulders and looked into the mirror. I looked awful. My hair was all messed up, and blood was spattered all over my jeans and shirt. I tried to fix myself as best as I could, when I noticed something moving behind me.
"Barry, there's the zombie!" I yelled. Barry whipped around, but it was too late. The zombie grabbed onto him, trying to bite him. They struggled until the zombie's back was facing me.
"Shoot him quick." Barry yelled, his calm exterior gone. I almost forgot about the gun in my hand, which was now covered in sweat. I breathed hard, took aim, and popped a cap in his ass.
No, literally - I popped a cap in his ass. The zombie yelped, obviously not expecting that one. He turned his attention toward me and I quickly backed away. It's a good thing that zombies are pretty slow. Barry quickly recovered, and shot the zombie in the back. The zombie let out a final moan of protest and fell face down on the ground, bleeding out all over the carpet.
"You ok? I asked Barry meekly.
"Yeah, how about you?" he asked.
I nodded and tried to catch my breath. By the time the game was over, I would either have severe nightmares, hear failure, or my hair would be white. Why couldn't I be transported into one of those Sesame Street games? Well, I guess I should be thankful that my brother wasn't into hentai games.
"Well, we better get going." Barry said, moving over to the door on the right side of the mirror. It opened it easily. It lead out into a circular hallway above the dining room. We walked around the hallway, nothing special. Barry went to go examine paintings on the wall, while I leaned against a statue that was apparently concealing a gap in the railing. I was glad to have the time to think. What happens if I die? Well I die in real life too? Or will I be out of the game? If I finished the game, will I be able to get out of here?
I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't realize the statue was slowly moving towards the edge. I felt a falling sensation and quickly stood up. However, the statue didn't have the same luck I did. It fell into the dining room with a loud crash
"What did you do?" Barry asked, giving me the evil eye.
"Nothing." I said quickly, trying to look innocent. By the look on Barry's face, it wasn't working. We both looked over the railing into the dining room. The statue was smashed up pretty badly.
"Now look at what you did!" Barry said, irritated.
"Hey, it's not like the zombies are big fans of interior decorating! I mean, what's the theme of this house anyway? Creepy mansion? How original." I said, equally annoyed.
"Look, let's just get out of here." Barry said. There was a pair of double doors at the end of the hall. We went through them, and it led into the upstairs of the main hall.
"It's like a goddamn maze." he said. We walked back down the stairs, where we first started. I took the opportunity to rest on one of the stairs. I didn't realize how tired I was. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get up again.
"Come on, let's go see if we can find Jill." Barry said, walking towards the door on the right. I sighed and reluctantly followed him.
The zombie we first saw had disappeared. There wasn't a trace of him, not a single blood stain. Maybe there was some sort of zombie clean-up crew.
"Look, there's some sort of art room back here." Barry said. It was very dark, and I really didn't want to go looking at paintings. Although there was a particular painting of the mansion that caught my eye. It was as long as I was. I pulled on it, and it opened a secret room.
Woah, maybe this will help me get out of here I thought to myself. I rushed in excitedly, hoping for a secret portal or some kind of machine to take me back. Instead, I was greeted with some old clothes on hangers. Boy was that anti-climatic or what?
Needless to say I was pretty discouraged. Why would someone go through all that trouble to hide a wardrobe room? I looked at the clothes, and none of them seemed valuable, or even remotely stylish. Some had even fallen victim to moths.
Barry walked in the room, and I tried to hide the disappointment on my face. Didn't work.
"Why so down?" Barry asked. I just shrugged my shoulders.
"Well, your clothes are pretty bloodstained. Maybe you should borrow something. I'll wait outside." Barry left and closed the door behind him.
I looked around, and there wasn't a great selection. I finally settled on some black baggy pants that I guess were once tuxedo pants and a somewhat loose-fitting black long-sleeved shirt that had a logo of an angel on it. There was a mirror in the room, and I tried my best not to look like a bum. Wasn't working. Oh well, it wasn't Lara Croft, but I guess it had to do.
I stepped outside and walked back into Jill's room where Barry was waiting. He looked at me, surprised, and tried to hold back a smile.
"Shut up." I said annoyed. "Let's go."
We walked to the end of the room where a door was. We went through the normal drill of Barry going in first and me following. I held on tightly to my gun. The door led into a long corridor, with windows every 2 feet from each other. It was pitch-black outside, and I couldn't see anything.
Barry and I slowly walked down the hallway. The wind was rattling the windows and I jumped at every sound. I heard a crack and whipped around. The window had broken a bit.
I sighed. I really shouldn't get so worked up about this. As long as I was with Barry, I was safe. There was another door at the end of the corridor.
We went through the drill again, looking around carefully. It was a dimly lit hallway, with many doors.
"We'll have to go through every door to make sure we find all the survivors." Barry said.
The first door was a heavy- looking metal door. We went through it and we ended up outside. I could hear dogs barking, but I couldn't see them. It was chilly outside, and I didn't feel like walking out here.
"We shouldn't go outside yet." Barry asked. We should just call out for them." Barry took a deep breath and yelled out, "Hello? This is the S.T.A.R.S. team! We're here to help you!" No answer.
We waited for a couple of minutes. Barry yelled out his message again, but still no answer. We decided to keep looking in the mansion. We continued down the hallway, until we found another door. This one led to the bathroom.
"Eeww, gross!" I exclaimed. And indeed, it was gross. Nobody had cleaned it in years it seemed like. There was dirt and dust covering the sink, floor, and bathtub. There were spiders and roaches crawling all over the place, and the toilet.lets just not go there.
The bathtub was full of grimy water, I looked in, but I couldn't even see the bottom.
"Pull the plug will you?" Barry asked. I gave him a strange look.
Are you smoking something?!" I yelled. "I'm not sticking my hand in there!"
"Just do it!" Barry said annoyed. "How about you do it?" I said. "I have to make sure nothing pops out and kills us!" "Oh yeah, thanks! Something could bite my hand off!" "I won't let that happen!" "BS! If you want to see what's in there so much, you do it!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!"
A hand reached out of the tub, stopping our argument. Soon, a head emerged as well. It was a zombie. Their expressions are usually blank, but this one looked pissed. I guess we accidentally woke it up.
"Look what you did!" I exclaimed. "What I did? You're the one who started yelling!" Barry shouted.
"So! You're the one who wanted me to have my hand bitten off!" "So, I've been doing all the work!" "What work? Leading us into zombie traps?" "You ungrateful little." "SHUT UUUUUP!" The zombie screamed at the top of its lungs.
Barry and I stood shocked. In the midst of our arguing, we had forgotten about the zombie. We certainly didn't know zombies could talk, and we just stared blankly at him.
But we soon snapped out of it.
"Look what you've done! You could've gotten us killed!" "What I've done?! You're supposed to be the manly man, with your big gun, shooting your way through every situation!" "Don't tempt me!" "Oh, I'd like to see you try!"
We both pointed our guns at each other. The zombie sighed and held its head in its hands.
"What, are you gonna shoot me, little girl?" Barry said mockingly. "If you don't shut up, I'm going to cap you where I shot that other zombie!" I yelled.
The zombie began peeling at its skin, tearing off little bits of flesh.
"Well if you're not careful I might shoot your ass first!" "You go ahead-right after you kiss it!" "For a girl, you're not very polite!" Yeah, well for a fat guy, you aren't very jolly!" "Ok it's on now." "Just bring it, you poor, pathetic excuse for a man! And you!" I pointed at the zombie. "Stop picking yourself!"
The zombie finally had enough and grabbed my gun away from me. Before I could do anything, the zombie shot himself in the head. He slumped down back into the bathtub face first, the grimy water turning red.
Silence filled the room. We both looked at the ground for a while. Finally, I had to say something.
"I'm sorry." I said
"Me too." Barry said.
More silence.
"Well, go get your gun and lets go." Barry said.
I looked over at the tub. The zombie was still hanging onto it, and the gun was completely submerged in water.
"I can't, it's underwater." I said.
"Well reach in and get it."
"What if the zombie has HIV or something?"
Barry gave me a hard look and I caved in. I rolled up my sleeve and felt around for my gun. The water was cold and disgusting. I finally found it and wrenched it from the zombie's grip.
"Ok let's go." Barry said.
Barry turned around and headed for the door. I wiped my arm on his back.
"Hey!" Barry yelled.
"You'll live." I said, smiling slightly.
We went back into the corridor and kept walking. There were two more windows and a cabinet decorating the room.
I went over to the cabinet, nothing special. I don't think anyone would survive this place.
Just as I thought that, a loud crashing sound filled the room. Four zombies came through the two windows. Looks like it was time to test out my theory.
"Run!" Barry yelled. There was no way we could take on four zombies in such an enclosed space. We went to the end of the hallway, where there were double doors. We ran through them and closed the doors behind us.
"Can they come in after us?" I asked, breathing hard.
Before Barry could answer, the door began shaking violently, and there was no doubt that it wouldn't break open. I quickly looked down the room, there was a door on the right and at the end of the hall, there was a door on the right, and a corridor.
"Let's go down there!" Barry said. "Maybe they'll be too stupid to follow us all the way there.
We ran down the hall, Barry leading the way. He was about to turn the corner when a zombie came lurching out. Barry tried to stop, but it was too late. The zombie grabbed onto Barry and tried to bite him. Barry tried desperately to wrestle away from its grip.
"Barry!" I yelled, and started to come closer to help.
"Stay. back!" Barry managed to choke out while struggling with the zombie. "Just go through another door! I got him."
I reached for the nearest door, but it was locked. I ran to the other door, near the double doors the zombies were trying to break down. Luckily, this one was unlocked. I looked back and I saw Barry push the zombie to the ground. My hand was on the knob, and I was inside, yelling for Barry to hurry.
Barry started for the door, but the other zombies broke open the double doors. This caused a chain reaction. One of the double doors crashed into my door, pushing me down with such force that I fell backward into the room, and slamming the door so hard I broke the doorknob.
"Barry!" I yelled through the door.
I heard him scream and the zombies shuffle. With the knob broken, there was no way he could get in, or I could get out. After a few minutes had passed, I heard nothing.
I began to panic, worrying that Barry was lying out there, a zombie feast. But I had problems on my hands. From inside the room, I heard the unmistakable sound of a zombie.
And I was alone.
I ran into the room, expecting an onslaught of zombie. Instead, there was nothing. It was actually a quaint little dining room, with candlesticks illuminating the darkness.
"Barry?" I called out. My voice echoed, and I looked up, seeing that there was another room about this one.
"Over here." I heard Barry say. I rushed over to him, relieved that he was still in one piece. He was kneeling on the ground, looking at something. "Didn't I tell you to wait?" he asked, but he didn't really sound annoyed. He clearly had something else on his mind. Hell, who didn't?
"I got worried. What are you looking at?" I asked, feeling as if a zombie was still lurking around somewhere.
"Look at this bloodstain. I hope it isn't someone I knew." Barry said softly.
"I'm sure it isn't." I said. Truthfully, I wasn't sure about anything, but I offered Barry a smile. He smiled back, and I was glad I was placed with him. That Wesker guy seemed a little. cold.
"We better get going." He said, pointing at the door at the end of the dining room. I nodded, and Barry got up and walked over to the door. I stood back, and he opened it up. He looked from side to side, and motioned me to follow.
I walked over to him, and we found ourselves in a corridor. I couldn't see all the way down on the right, but the left side was pretty well lit. Barry started walking carefully towards the left, and I followed close behind.
Suddenly, Barry was about to go around a corner when he stopped. He had a horrific expression on his face, and he turned a ghastly pale color.
"Barry, what is it?" I whispered, frightened.
He wasn't answering me so I had to take a look for myself. Around the corner, there was another zombie, apparently eating something, and making loud smacking sounds. I leaned in for a closer look behind Barry and realized he was eating a person. The guy was still alive, his eyes wide open, along with his mouth. The zombie ripped out his throat, and the guy slumped over, dead.
The zombie, finished with his meal, turned around and realized he had some company. He moaned and rose to his feet and shuffled toward us.
I looked over at Barry, and the look of horror was replaced with sheer rage. Barry took aim, and emptied a round into the zombie's chest. I covered my ears and backed away. Barry shot the zombie again. It fazed him, but he was still steadily shuffling towards him. This time, Barry shot him in the head, and the familiar splash of blood washed over the carpet, walls, and Barry.
Barry didn't seem to mind, however. He kneeled down next to the body the zombie had partially eaten. I walked over to him.
"Oh my God." Barry said, choked up a little. "They killed Kenny."
"You bastards." I said. I left Barry alone with the corpse, now named Kenny, and walked over to a painting on the wall and pretended to look at it. I looked over at Kenny, his throat and eyes still open, staring into space. Man, what a way to go.
"Did you know him well? I asked Barry.
"No, but he was part of the B.R.A.V.O. team. I only met him a couple of times. A good kid. Good kid." Barry trailed off, apparently trying to fight back tears.
"Sorry about that. Look, he was holding onto this." Barry said, handing me a videotape.
I looked it over. Seemed like an ordinary tape to me. No label was on it.
"We need a VCR or something to play it." Barry said.
Well duh, I thought. I decided to keep that to myself. No sense in being rude, especially now. I just wanted to get out of here. I've never seen a dead body in my life, and now I've been standing in the same room with one for at least 10 minutes.
"We'd better report this to Wesker." Barry said, seemingly reading my thoughts.
We walked over the dead zombie and back into the dining room. We walked back to the main hall in silence. When we got there, Wesker was gone.
"Wesker!" we both yelled. In the middle of the hall, there was a handgun. Barry went over to it and picked it up.
"That's strange. This is definitely Wesker's handgun." Barry said. "I'm going to go look upstairs. Stay here.
Barry went up the stairs. I looked around the room nervously. I walked around, and realized there was a hallway next to the dining room door, under the stairs. I walked over to it, and there was a major contrast between the nice marble of the main room and the cement of the hallway. It was very dimly lit, and it smelled awful. There was a door there. It actually looked more like a cage or prison with the bars. I was about to touch it, when a loud moan pierced the air, and then a rattling of chains. It sounded like a woman. She could be hurt, but my first instinct was to haul ass.
I ran back in to the main hall as fast as I could, and started panting. I know the moan sounded like it came from a woman, but I seriously didn't trust that idea. It's probably some mutated beast with a remote form of a woman, with inhuman strength of course.
Barry came back down the stairs, shaking his head. I'm guessing he didn't find Wesker.
"I didn't find Wesker." Barry said. Bingo. I hate it when I'm right. "But, I want you to hold onto this, in case we get separated."
Barry handed me the gun, but I held up my hands.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" I said. "I don't do guns." Seriously, guns scare the heck out of me. And considering I've seen two zombies already, that's saying something.
"Look, it's either you take it and survive, or you don't take it and die. It's your choice." Barry said, holding the gun out to me.
"Ok, ok." I said, reluctantly taking the handgun.
"Let's go back to that corridor we found." said Barry, leading the way. I followed, holding the gun as far away from me as possible. It looked silly, but who was going to laugh at me, the zombies?
We went back over to where Kenny's body was. Next to him was a door. Barry opened it and cautiously walked in. He took a quick look, and motioned me to come inside. We were in the middle of a dark hallway, with only the light from the windows to guide us. At the end of the hallway was a room with stairs leading up to another room.
There was a table in the room, with a cage on it, and something I couldn't identify. I looked in the cage and there was a dead raven inside. Isn't that some kind of omen? Things were getting better all the time.
Barry walked over to the cage, but didn't seem too interested in it. Instead, he picked up the object next to the cage.
"Hey, look!" he said. "You can use these clips for you gun." He handed me the ammo, and I put it in my pocket. I hoped I wouldn't have to use them.
Other than the table, there wasn't much else to look at. Barry started up the stairs, and motioned me to follow. There was another door up there, which led to another hallway. This hallway however, was built somewhat like a maze, and there were mirrors everywhere. As we walked in, we noticed there was another zombie on the floor, except he was a bright red color.
"He looks like he's dead. Best to leave him alone." Barry whispered, in case the zombie was just playing possum. Nope. He seemed dead as a doornail.
Suddenly, the distinctive moan of a zombie filled the hallway. Barry cocked his gun and cautiously peered down the hallway. He kept going and I followed behind him. We went all the way to the end, where there were two doors and a mirror to greet us.
"That's strange, where is that thing?" Barry said, shaking his head. I shrugged my shoulders and looked into the mirror. I looked awful. My hair was all messed up, and blood was spattered all over my jeans and shirt. I tried to fix myself as best as I could, when I noticed something moving behind me.
"Barry, there's the zombie!" I yelled. Barry whipped around, but it was too late. The zombie grabbed onto him, trying to bite him. They struggled until the zombie's back was facing me.
"Shoot him quick." Barry yelled, his calm exterior gone. I almost forgot about the gun in my hand, which was now covered in sweat. I breathed hard, took aim, and popped a cap in his ass.
No, literally - I popped a cap in his ass. The zombie yelped, obviously not expecting that one. He turned his attention toward me and I quickly backed away. It's a good thing that zombies are pretty slow. Barry quickly recovered, and shot the zombie in the back. The zombie let out a final moan of protest and fell face down on the ground, bleeding out all over the carpet.
"You ok? I asked Barry meekly.
"Yeah, how about you?" he asked.
I nodded and tried to catch my breath. By the time the game was over, I would either have severe nightmares, hear failure, or my hair would be white. Why couldn't I be transported into one of those Sesame Street games? Well, I guess I should be thankful that my brother wasn't into hentai games.
"Well, we better get going." Barry said, moving over to the door on the right side of the mirror. It opened it easily. It lead out into a circular hallway above the dining room. We walked around the hallway, nothing special. Barry went to go examine paintings on the wall, while I leaned against a statue that was apparently concealing a gap in the railing. I was glad to have the time to think. What happens if I die? Well I die in real life too? Or will I be out of the game? If I finished the game, will I be able to get out of here?
I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't realize the statue was slowly moving towards the edge. I felt a falling sensation and quickly stood up. However, the statue didn't have the same luck I did. It fell into the dining room with a loud crash
"What did you do?" Barry asked, giving me the evil eye.
"Nothing." I said quickly, trying to look innocent. By the look on Barry's face, it wasn't working. We both looked over the railing into the dining room. The statue was smashed up pretty badly.
"Now look at what you did!" Barry said, irritated.
"Hey, it's not like the zombies are big fans of interior decorating! I mean, what's the theme of this house anyway? Creepy mansion? How original." I said, equally annoyed.
"Look, let's just get out of here." Barry said. There was a pair of double doors at the end of the hall. We went through them, and it led into the upstairs of the main hall.
"It's like a goddamn maze." he said. We walked back down the stairs, where we first started. I took the opportunity to rest on one of the stairs. I didn't realize how tired I was. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get up again.
"Come on, let's go see if we can find Jill." Barry said, walking towards the door on the right. I sighed and reluctantly followed him.
The zombie we first saw had disappeared. There wasn't a trace of him, not a single blood stain. Maybe there was some sort of zombie clean-up crew.
"Look, there's some sort of art room back here." Barry said. It was very dark, and I really didn't want to go looking at paintings. Although there was a particular painting of the mansion that caught my eye. It was as long as I was. I pulled on it, and it opened a secret room.
Woah, maybe this will help me get out of here I thought to myself. I rushed in excitedly, hoping for a secret portal or some kind of machine to take me back. Instead, I was greeted with some old clothes on hangers. Boy was that anti-climatic or what?
Needless to say I was pretty discouraged. Why would someone go through all that trouble to hide a wardrobe room? I looked at the clothes, and none of them seemed valuable, or even remotely stylish. Some had even fallen victim to moths.
Barry walked in the room, and I tried to hide the disappointment on my face. Didn't work.
"Why so down?" Barry asked. I just shrugged my shoulders.
"Well, your clothes are pretty bloodstained. Maybe you should borrow something. I'll wait outside." Barry left and closed the door behind him.
I looked around, and there wasn't a great selection. I finally settled on some black baggy pants that I guess were once tuxedo pants and a somewhat loose-fitting black long-sleeved shirt that had a logo of an angel on it. There was a mirror in the room, and I tried my best not to look like a bum. Wasn't working. Oh well, it wasn't Lara Croft, but I guess it had to do.
I stepped outside and walked back into Jill's room where Barry was waiting. He looked at me, surprised, and tried to hold back a smile.
"Shut up." I said annoyed. "Let's go."
We walked to the end of the room where a door was. We went through the normal drill of Barry going in first and me following. I held on tightly to my gun. The door led into a long corridor, with windows every 2 feet from each other. It was pitch-black outside, and I couldn't see anything.
Barry and I slowly walked down the hallway. The wind was rattling the windows and I jumped at every sound. I heard a crack and whipped around. The window had broken a bit.
I sighed. I really shouldn't get so worked up about this. As long as I was with Barry, I was safe. There was another door at the end of the corridor.
We went through the drill again, looking around carefully. It was a dimly lit hallway, with many doors.
"We'll have to go through every door to make sure we find all the survivors." Barry said.
The first door was a heavy- looking metal door. We went through it and we ended up outside. I could hear dogs barking, but I couldn't see them. It was chilly outside, and I didn't feel like walking out here.
"We shouldn't go outside yet." Barry asked. We should just call out for them." Barry took a deep breath and yelled out, "Hello? This is the S.T.A.R.S. team! We're here to help you!" No answer.
We waited for a couple of minutes. Barry yelled out his message again, but still no answer. We decided to keep looking in the mansion. We continued down the hallway, until we found another door. This one led to the bathroom.
"Eeww, gross!" I exclaimed. And indeed, it was gross. Nobody had cleaned it in years it seemed like. There was dirt and dust covering the sink, floor, and bathtub. There were spiders and roaches crawling all over the place, and the toilet.lets just not go there.
The bathtub was full of grimy water, I looked in, but I couldn't even see the bottom.
"Pull the plug will you?" Barry asked. I gave him a strange look.
Are you smoking something?!" I yelled. "I'm not sticking my hand in there!"
"Just do it!" Barry said annoyed. "How about you do it?" I said. "I have to make sure nothing pops out and kills us!" "Oh yeah, thanks! Something could bite my hand off!" "I won't let that happen!" "BS! If you want to see what's in there so much, you do it!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!"
A hand reached out of the tub, stopping our argument. Soon, a head emerged as well. It was a zombie. Their expressions are usually blank, but this one looked pissed. I guess we accidentally woke it up.
"Look what you did!" I exclaimed. "What I did? You're the one who started yelling!" Barry shouted.
"So! You're the one who wanted me to have my hand bitten off!" "So, I've been doing all the work!" "What work? Leading us into zombie traps?" "You ungrateful little." "SHUT UUUUUP!" The zombie screamed at the top of its lungs.
Barry and I stood shocked. In the midst of our arguing, we had forgotten about the zombie. We certainly didn't know zombies could talk, and we just stared blankly at him.
But we soon snapped out of it.
"Look what you've done! You could've gotten us killed!" "What I've done?! You're supposed to be the manly man, with your big gun, shooting your way through every situation!" "Don't tempt me!" "Oh, I'd like to see you try!"
We both pointed our guns at each other. The zombie sighed and held its head in its hands.
"What, are you gonna shoot me, little girl?" Barry said mockingly. "If you don't shut up, I'm going to cap you where I shot that other zombie!" I yelled.
The zombie began peeling at its skin, tearing off little bits of flesh.
"Well if you're not careful I might shoot your ass first!" "You go ahead-right after you kiss it!" "For a girl, you're not very polite!" Yeah, well for a fat guy, you aren't very jolly!" "Ok it's on now." "Just bring it, you poor, pathetic excuse for a man! And you!" I pointed at the zombie. "Stop picking yourself!"
The zombie finally had enough and grabbed my gun away from me. Before I could do anything, the zombie shot himself in the head. He slumped down back into the bathtub face first, the grimy water turning red.
Silence filled the room. We both looked at the ground for a while. Finally, I had to say something.
"I'm sorry." I said
"Me too." Barry said.
More silence.
"Well, go get your gun and lets go." Barry said.
I looked over at the tub. The zombie was still hanging onto it, and the gun was completely submerged in water.
"I can't, it's underwater." I said.
"Well reach in and get it."
"What if the zombie has HIV or something?"
Barry gave me a hard look and I caved in. I rolled up my sleeve and felt around for my gun. The water was cold and disgusting. I finally found it and wrenched it from the zombie's grip.
"Ok let's go." Barry said.
Barry turned around and headed for the door. I wiped my arm on his back.
"Hey!" Barry yelled.
"You'll live." I said, smiling slightly.
We went back into the corridor and kept walking. There were two more windows and a cabinet decorating the room.
I went over to the cabinet, nothing special. I don't think anyone would survive this place.
Just as I thought that, a loud crashing sound filled the room. Four zombies came through the two windows. Looks like it was time to test out my theory.
"Run!" Barry yelled. There was no way we could take on four zombies in such an enclosed space. We went to the end of the hallway, where there were double doors. We ran through them and closed the doors behind us.
"Can they come in after us?" I asked, breathing hard.
Before Barry could answer, the door began shaking violently, and there was no doubt that it wouldn't break open. I quickly looked down the room, there was a door on the right and at the end of the hall, there was a door on the right, and a corridor.
"Let's go down there!" Barry said. "Maybe they'll be too stupid to follow us all the way there.
We ran down the hall, Barry leading the way. He was about to turn the corner when a zombie came lurching out. Barry tried to stop, but it was too late. The zombie grabbed onto Barry and tried to bite him. Barry tried desperately to wrestle away from its grip.
"Barry!" I yelled, and started to come closer to help.
"Stay. back!" Barry managed to choke out while struggling with the zombie. "Just go through another door! I got him."
I reached for the nearest door, but it was locked. I ran to the other door, near the double doors the zombies were trying to break down. Luckily, this one was unlocked. I looked back and I saw Barry push the zombie to the ground. My hand was on the knob, and I was inside, yelling for Barry to hurry.
Barry started for the door, but the other zombies broke open the double doors. This caused a chain reaction. One of the double doors crashed into my door, pushing me down with such force that I fell backward into the room, and slamming the door so hard I broke the doorknob.
"Barry!" I yelled through the door.
I heard him scream and the zombies shuffle. With the knob broken, there was no way he could get in, or I could get out. After a few minutes had passed, I heard nothing.
I began to panic, worrying that Barry was lying out there, a zombie feast. But I had problems on my hands. From inside the room, I heard the unmistakable sound of a zombie.
And I was alone.