Resident Evil: End Game
Chapter 1

BAM!

A low, guttural moan was heard as an undead creature slumped to the ground with a splattering thud, a single bullet hole between the eyes...and part of its head missing from the force of the shot. A single girl grinned softly, raising her red gun into the air with a victorious twinkle in her hazel eyes, and brushed away part of her long, brown hair that hung slightly in her face. A tall girl wearing a simple green shirt and denim jeans, as well as a pair of sneakers-

-and the screen in front of her swerved to the right, showing another zombie lurching forward, a pudgy one with a chainsaw clutched tightly in its hands. Beside the girl was a boy, with short, brown hair and brown eyes, who wore blue jeans and a blue shirt, and almost as tall as the girl. He rose the blue gun in his hands and fired into the chainsaw-wielding zombie's lower gut, then at the arm holding the weapon, blowing a hole through its stomach and seperating its arm from its shoulder. The zombie moaned lightly as it dropped the chainsaw, then lurched forward again, getting ready to ram into the screen, before the boy fired a shot at its scalp, letting it slump to the ground without another sound.

Behind them, four kids watched and cheered them on, staring at the screen that showed the gameplay of House of the Dead as they did so. The two exchanged glances, grinned, then began to fire at the monsters again, this time at a batch of two Freddy-Crueger look alikes that emerged from a pool inside the building. With a few bullets to the head, the monsters fell to the ground, twitching violently and disappearing into thin air while the screen moved forward, allowing them to save two people after killing off some more monsters.

The screen moved upwards as the first-person characters climbed up a ladder, and two screams were heard. The screen shot to te left and into the sky, and a large bat-like creature came into view, its eyes glowing menacingly and its claws clasped loosely around the shoulders of two people...a female and a male scientist.

"This is as far as you go!" the demon was hissing in a high-pitched voice...a voice that sounded like the one of someone who had just sucked the helium out of a balloon. "I'll finish YOU here!"

And with that, the demon dropped the two humans, letting them fall to the ground, their screams piercing the air until there was a dull thud...and then silence as another screen emerged, showing the demon's point of weakness, as well as its name, the Hangman. Bats flew at the screen, biting at it while the boy and girl frantically began to shoot at them, and at the giant bat-like creature that flew in the air. After a few minutes of firing bullets at it, the creature took to the skies, flying over the building and disappearing, but the screen followed...and slid down the roof of the building as the creature swooped at them.

The two children were now firing quickly, but their efforts were futile, for, after the third swoop from the beast, the creature's hand lashed out, and the screen fell to the ground...the screen flashed for a minute, showing the screen that said 'Continue?' and how many credits to put into the machine, as well as the time limit before the game was over. But the two children had no more coins left, so they simply turned to the rest of their friends, grinning softly.

Four children stood behind them. One was tall, yet somewhat shorter than the one who had been playing House of the Dead. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, and wore her trademark red hairband. She had blue eyes, and wore a blue tee-shirt, as well as a navy blue skirt and a pair of sneakers with matching colors. A foster sister to the girl who had been playing the game...none other than the now seventeen year old Sherry Birkin.

The other girl who stood beside her was much younger, a fourteen year old girl. SHe had long, sapphire hair with white highlights in it...and, oddly enough, that was her natural hair color. Her eyes were icy blue, and a single necklace hung around her neck, one of a silver snowflake. The girl wore a silver tee-shirt and denim jeans, and her skin was marked with numerous scars and bruises. Shiva Ramotha, that was her name...

The third girl was older than both Sherry and Shiva, yet younger than the eighteen year old girl who had just finished the game...she was eighteen, but younger by a few months. She had long, black-brown hair that was tied back in a bun, and had bright brown eyes. Her skin had a dark tone to it, and she wore a red tee-shirt, as well as midnight black jeans. On her hands was a single bracelet, silver with little hearts designed on it, and a few rings sat on her fingers. Celica Ferner.

And finally, there was a boy, with a small black affro growing on his head and black eyes. His skin was also dark, and he was tall and slightly older than Celica, but younger than the older brown-haired girl. He was wearing a red long-sleeved vest with a white tee-shirt underneath it, and wore red stretch pants. He also had various necklaces around his neck, and a wide grin was on his face. Eighteen year old Darek Garland.

The girl who had just finished playing House of the Dead wandered up to the rest of the group and grinned, while the older boy who had played the game with her followed and stopped alongside her. They nodded, and the group began to walk out of the arcade, speaking with each other as they headed home.

"That was damn good, Rowan!" Celica yelled out, flashing a grin at the older girl. "You've got pretty damn good aim, y'know? Right between the eyes!"

Rowan grinned back, eyes flashing with some kind of recognition that none of them saw, none of them except Sherry, that was. "Just lucky, I guess," Rowan said, smirking softly. "Guess I'm just good at aiming, just lucky."

[i]None of them know...none of them. They don't know about Raccoon...don't know about Umbrella, the T-Virus, G-Virus...they don't know about anything that happened to me...about the monsters, zombies...the victims of Umbrella's torment...[/i]

She shook her head softly, and turned to face Greg, the boy who was playing House of the Dead with her. The nineteen year old boy looked over at her and grinned, and she nodded before turning back to the others. "It's late," she said softly, blinking. "I guess we'd better get home?"

"Aww, c'mon!" Darek cried out desperately, a grin on his face. "It's Friday night...let's hang out at some more places!"

"Sorry, Dracula," Sherry chimed in, grinning at the dark toned boy, who snickered at his nickname...after all, he was what they called a night dweller, always hanging out at night. "She's got a point. Auntie'll have a fit if we get home too late..."

"If we aren't late already...," Rowan finished, rubbing the back of her head.

Darek gave a sigh of surrender, and turned to Celica, who nodded. Shiva sighed and shook her head, while Greg simply wandered up to them. Rowan and Sherry nodded to them. "We'll see you tomorrow?" Sherry asked, blinking.

"Sounds good to me," Celica smirked, flashing an alien peace sign before walking down the road. "See ya around!"

Darek nodded and followed the girl, swinging around and flashing a grin at them. "Yeah, see ya tomorrow!"

Greg looked over to Rowan and Sherry, and gave a thumbs up, nodding and smirking. He began to walk away, but with his head looking back over his shoulders. "I'll give you a shout and see if I can come."

FInally, Shiva began to walk away, turning to look at them with a grim smile. Her eyes were filled with terror and nervousness, and Rowan and Sherry knew why. Since the girl's mother died, her father and her brother...they weren't exactly the best family...

"Shiva...?" Rowan began, and the girl looked over to them. "Do you wanna stay with us? Your family is gonna be...uh..."

"I know," she said slowly, then shook her head. "I'll be fine...somehow. I'll make it out of the house somehow tomorrow...if they don't put me six feet under, first..."

"We'll come and pick you up," Sherry said softly, grinning and flashing a thumbs up. "Rowan's old enough to drive. We'll get you outta that Hell hole for you."

Shiva gave an approving nod, and began to walk down the street. "Yeah...hopefully, I'll see you tomorrow..."

They watched her go, exchanging nervous glances. Sherry's eyes were filled with sorrow for the girl, while Rowan's eyes were filled with boiling rage at the brother and the father of the child. How could someone treat one of their own kin like that?!

The nodded to each other, turning away and walking down the road in the opposite direction of the way the others had gone, speaking softly with each other.

**********

They had walked into an alleyway, now...a shortcut to get home. The city had become their playground, now, and they knew every street and alleyway like the back of their hands. Sherry was snickering while Rowan was frowning, for the younger girl had been picking on her because of the way Greg was acting towards her.

"I'm telling you, Rowan!" she was saying. "He's got the hots for you!"

"He does NOT," Rowan scolded, eyes twitching. "He's just a friend!"

"Well, he's a pretty damn close friend to you, then, because he was swooning over you the other day!"

"I can't get involved," Rowan hissed suddenly, looking up at her. Sherry rose a brow, blinking with confusion.

"Why not?"

"Cuz Umbrella's still after us, remember?" the older girl said softly, tearing her eyes away and staring at her feet as they walked. "If something should happen and he gets involved with this shitty conspiracy...because I let something slip or he figures it out...I don't want anything to happen to him."

Sherry shook her head, staring at her older 'sister'. "So you mean that you...?"

"Yeah...I like him, I like him a lot...but I can't take the chance of losing somebody...I've already lost my parents, I don't want to lose any other loved ones."

Sherry fell silent, eyes softened as they walked through the alley.

[i]So that's how she feels? That's why she's never had a boyfriend in her life...Well, neither have I, but there have still been people hitting on me...I'll get a date when she does...that's my rule...[/i]

Her eyes wandered up to the sky, and a grin appeared on her face. [i]Yet, those other two lovebirds...Brad and Rachel, heh, they've been swooning over each other for QUITE some time, now...but they're still involved with this Umbrella crap. I guess they just know how to keep tabs on things...Rowan's young, and even I know she's not organized...[/i]

Sherry simply shook her head and followed her sister, sighing and staring at the ground, at nothingness, and delving into imagination-

-until she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

She froze, blinked, looked into the shadows where the movement was, and turned to Rowan, giving a small squeak of fright. In response, the older girl turned around to look at her, and she also froze, for the source of the movement darted past her, and the details of whoever or whatever it was couldn't be seen, for it was too dark...

They also heard the warning click of a gun, and the footsteps of the person, and the two took off, out of the alleyway, and down the street. Somebody was there with a gun, somebody who didn't seem afraid to use it...but who just wanted to warn them, to get them to leave the area...

...and they did.

**********

By the time they had reached their apartment building, the two sisters were out of breath. Their hands were on their knees as they tried to capture their breath again, and, after about a minute of heavy breathing, they manage to stumble up to the apartment building. Rowan pulled the door open, and began to walk up the stairs, eyes drooping with tiredness. Sherry followed, yawning slightly as a wave of yearning for sleep took over. The two made it towards the top of the stairs, and grabbed at the handle of a door labeled with the numbers 301, and yanked it open, where they were greated with light and a concerned face looking at them.

A woman was sitting at the table in the center of the small kitchen, her green eyes gleaming, her fiery red hair draped over her shoulders and dangling in front of her face. She was wearing a simple white robe, showing that she had just gotten out of bed, even though it was late, and she had a cup of coffee sitting in front of her. Sherry yawned once more, and walked past her, giving her a peck on the cheek and whispering a goodnight to her before lurching towards her bedroom, while Rowan simply yawned and sat beside her aunt, a weak and tired smile on her face. The clock on the wall read 1:30 in the morning.

Well, Aunt Gartha's plan to get me out of the house and hang out with my friends instead of trying to hack into Umbrella's files worked...she's probably gonna cream me for being home so late...

But the older woman did not such thing. Instead, she began to talk about things, asking what Rowan had did, where they went, if anything went wrong and such, and Rowan had filled her in on everything that she, Sherry, and her friends did, save for the encounter with the gun slinging stranger in the alleyway. Gartha was always worried, she didn't want to worry her more.

After a good conversation about anything they could think of, Rowan had pecked her aunt on the cheek and walked off to the bedroom Sherry had gone in, for they shared the same room, but had different beds. She whispered a goodnight to her before walking into the room. She softly snickered to herself when she heard Sherry's low snores and grumbles, and, once in a while, she would see her younger sister jump, as if having a nightmare...but that was the least of her worries. All she did was collapse on her bed, close her eyes, and, within a second, she was off in dreamland.

**********

"You WHAT!?" an angry voice yelled out as a man stood up, his hands clenched into fists. The man had shirt, buzzcut blonde hair, and wore sunglasses, even if it was night. He never removed those spectacles, no matter what time it was, or how dark it was... He was wearing a black suit. Black tee-shirt, black jeans, black leather coat, and had a black belt around his waist, where his gun holsters and portable equipment was kept. His black boots pounded against the floor as he advanced towards the man across the room, the man with reedy brown hair and who wore a Dallas Cowoys cap, who had on blue jeans and a white lab coat. The man quivered, gulping as the blonde-haired man walked up to him and grabbed him by the front ofhis shirt, picking him up and holding him against the wall.

"I-I-I....," he whimpered softly. "I think I d-dropped a barrel of the T-Vir-Virus...I-I think it f-fell out of t-the truck..."

"How the HELL do you drop a barrel full of the T-Virus and not notice it?!" the man hissed again.

"I...I had the r-radio on..."

"Up full blast, hmm? You godamned redneck!" the man snapped, raising the other person up and slamming him into the wall again. "You lost a barrel of one of Umbrella's most profitable and powerful viruses known! Do you KNOW what will happen if anyone discovers the virus?!"

When he got no response, the man lowered his glasses, revealing repitillian yellow eyes that seemed to glow with rage. The man with the cap on gasped in surprise and fear, and watched as the man raised a fist to his throat.

"Umbrella will FALL if anyone finds out about the virus!" the man bellowed, pulling back his fist. "You're worthless!! You ma very well cost us this company!"

"Please, Mr. Wesker, I didn't mean t-to-"

His pleas were silenced as the man shot forth his fist, sending it straight through his neck. The fist emerged on the other side of the neck, and blood spewed out of the wound and pooled onto the floor below. Growling, he removed his fist and dropped the limp body to the ground, snarling and twisting away before lumbering down the halls. He would have to find the virus before the civilians did, before anyone found out...for the sake of this company, for the sake of Umbrella.