Title: Fading Away; Chapter One: Oblivion
Author: Malenkaya
Rating: R
Summary: (RE movie fanfic) A continuation of the movie, featuring old and new characters, new settings, and new conflict. In a zombie infested Raccoon City, how can Alice, Matt, and Rain survive?
Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or its characters.
Feedback: Would be very much appreciated; this is my first Resident Evil fanfiction. Flames are fine, so long as they're explanatory.
Author's Notes: Thanks much to skittles, bsktballchik, shawn4542, po, AnimaSola, and Keris for their reviews, I really appreciate it.
~ = italics
Fading Away
Chapter One: Oblivion
~~Matt couldn't run fast enough.
He could feel the Licker behind him, chasing him through the ruins of the Hive.
Alice, Rain, Kaplan- they were all dead, he could feel it, the Licker had killed them—
He turned the corner, racing down the hallway and through an open doorway.
He slammed the heavy steel door, locking it, and then turned.
The Licker stood there, in the murky water.
On the computer screen next to him was the Red Queen, who smiled condescendingly at him.
"You're all going to die down here."
And he covered his face with his hands, falling against the door as the Licker dove at him— ~~
Matthew Addison opened his eyes.
A light bulb swayed above him, its dim light crossing through the darkness.
He sat up groggily.
The room shook as a thump resounded through the walls, loose ceiling dust raining down.
Suddenly he realized where he was.
Umbrella.
A slight pain ran through his arm as he moved it, and he looked down.
In the light the bulb cast upon it, he could see an IV needle stabbed into it, held in place by medical tape.
A quick search over the rest of his body located two others on his temple, and three on his upper arm, cutting into the slashes left by the Licker. He yanked them out, quickly and painlessly, casting them on the floor as he pulled himself off the metal table he was lying on.
He crossed the room cautiously, unable to see more than two feet in front of him. His hands finally collided with steel that could only be the door, and he fumbled for the handle.
Reaching it, he turned it halfheartedly, knowing it would be locked—
And there was a slight click as the door swung open.
Surprised, he glanced back at the relative safety of the gurney, still swathed in the pale light, before stepping out into the hallway.
Emergency lights were on in the corridor, casting a slight glow over the tiled flooring.
Across from him, he could see another window. Stumbling forward, he peered into it, trying to see in the darkness of the room.
Turning away in defeat, he looked down the hallway.
The windows into the room stretched forever, covering the walls of the hallway on either side of him. Next to each room was a small door, presumably for observation purposes.
He moved forward another room, and peered through the next glass. Again, nothing.
Where were Rain and Alice?
With no outer windows, he couldn't tell how high the building was, how many floors it had, or if they were even in this facility- they could be literally anywhere-
He forced himself to relax slightly. They had to be in this facility- they had been brought to the same place.
And odds were there was a computer database somewhere that could tell him exactly where it was.
He began to hurry quickly down the corridor, looking for an elevator, or, preferably, a staircase—
And stopped suddenly when he heard the footsteps less than a corridor over.
The footsteps came closer, and the small hissing sound that came with it did nothing to ease his worries.
Whatever was there, it wasn't human.
Matt began backing down the corridor slowly, trying to put distance between him and the thing without being heard.
The footsteps stopped.
Matt froze. He stood still, trying not to breathe, trying not to make any noise.
After what seemed like hours, he heard the footsteps again, as whatever it was began to walk away.
Letting himself breathe again, he took off down the hall, stepping as lightly as possible and running as fast as he could.
*
He heard another virus carrier passing by the door again, it's wet, heavy footsteps a simple giveaway.
J.D pulled himself closer to the wall in reflex. The door was only cheap wood, nothing like the heavy steel and marble the rest of the place seemed to be made up of.
He knew that he only had a matter of time before the Abomination would be released, before it would find him in the weak, tiny closet.
It had already been released once; escaping into the room where he and the other test subjects had been staying, dead and alive, and had attacked them.
J.D had run, along with two other test subjects- he didn't know who they were, didn't know who any of them were- and had found himself in this closet.
He didn't know where they other two had gone, didn't know if he cared anymore. He was safe, for now.
He wished he knew how many days had passed since Umbrella had enforced a lock down over the city of Raccoon. Apparently the Umbrella S.T.A.R.S team's investigation hadn't gone well- in fact, most members of the squad were missing and presumed dead.
Rain.
He had no idea if she was even alive.
J.D remembered almost nothing from his brief escapade in the Hive- the last thing he remembered was Rain, reaching for him, trying to save him from the horde of zombies surrounding him.
She had failed; and he had been killed in the tiny room.
And then he was here, lying on a steel gurney, surrounded by at least thirty other zombies. An Umbrella scientist had been standing over him, prepping him for an injection.
And that's when all hell had broken loose.
He sighed, despite himself.
And froze again as footsteps echoed over his head.
Human footsteps?
They sounded human; they weren't quick and tapping, like some of the other monsters kept on the seventh floor, and they weren't slow and stumbling like the zombies were. Finally reaching a decision, he stood up, reaching forward and pulling open the door.
Whether they were human or not, he couldn't stay in this closet, waiting for the inevitable, any longer.
*
Matt sat in the office directly outside the employee's locker room, typing furiously at one of the computers.
He hadn't had much luck. Finding the room in the first place had taken over an hour, with the added work of dodging all the Umbrella creations he heard in the halls, and now he couldn't find Rain or Alice.
He knew that they had to be on either the fourth or fifth floors- "Light Observation" floors- or on the sixth or seventh, the area where he had been, entitled "Heavy Observation".
He didn't have time to search through each floor, and the computer's database wouldn't let him into the private files without a password.
With a sudden burst of anger, he lifted the keyboard and hurled it off the desk. It flew across the room, dragging the computer with it.
Both fell to the floor with a crash, the computer's screen black, sparks emitting from the exposed maze of metal and wiring inside the computer back.
Matt stared at it in shock, realizing almost immediately that the entire floor had probably heard the crash, feeling abashed despite himself.
He had no idea where the sudden surge of anger had come from.
Shaking his head, he turned away from the broken computer, heading towards the locker room to see if he could at least find some clothes to cover the tiny, Umbrella issued paper sheet he wore.
~ And a weapon. A weapon would be good. ~
He pushed the door open slowly.
It swung open to reveal a standard, but messy, locker room. A row of sinks and mirrors covered the right wall, and the rest of the room housed almost ten rows of lockers. Some lockers were hanging open, others were closed, and he hurried forward for the first open locker he saw.
Rifling through its contents, he pulled out a white lab coat and a grey pair of sweatpants and pulled them on quickly before moving onto the next one.
His pocket felt heavy, and he reached inside it absentmindedly, expecting to find a set of keys.
Instead, he pulled out a black, 9 millimeter revolver. A fully loaded revolver, at that.
He grinned despite himself, and checked to make sure the safety was on before putting it back in his pocket for the time being.
Reaching the end of the lockers, he managed to find another two lab coats, for Rain and Alice when he found them, and a couple of Umbrella ID cards.
He heard another crash from upstairs and winced, wondering how much time he had before the monsters there figured out how to get downstairs.
Hurrying out of the locker room, he checked the office door again, which he had locked earlier.
It was still closed, the hallways still dimly lit.
He sat down at the computer nearest the heavily draped windows and farthest from the doors, and quickly typed in the entry password, which he had figured out in less than five minutes.
The Umbrella database popped up immediately, and he dragged the cursor over to the private patient files and double clicked on it.
The familiar message popped up, asking for his name and password. Reaching into his lab coat's pocket, where he had stashed the identification cards, he pulled out the first one and examined it closely.
Returning his attention to the screen, he typed in "James Stevens", and underneath, his password: "July191989".
The date held no significance to Matt; he assumed it was a birthdate of some kind.
He pressed enter.
The files entry database filled the screen, and Matt smiled slightly. He double clicked on the marker "Category", deciding to simply search the floors, as he didn't know their last names.
However, preceding the general floor numbers was the acronym "S.T.A.R.S".
Frowning slightly, he double clicked on it.
And five names came onto the screen- Matthew Addison, Rain Ocampo, Spence Parks, Alice Parks, and J.D Salinas.
He frowned again, this time in confusion- He wasn't a member of S.T.A.R.S, never had been- and Spence and J.D were both dead.
He jumped as a crash echoed down the hallway behind him. Glancing nervously over his shoulder, he dragged the cursor over to the icon "Print", hoping the printer still worked- he didn't have time to read the entire file.
A slight hum filled the room as the green power light blinked onto the printer, and the pages began to print.
He hurried over to the printer, yanking out the papers as they came, wishing the printer weren't so loud.
The printer finally stopped, spitting out the last of thirty pages, and he quickly glanced at Rain and Alice's room numbers- Room 563 and 407- before folding them twice and shoving them in his pocket.
The room was quiet and still now, the lights dim. Casting another glance over his shoulder, he reached forward for the drape on the window, pulling it up, wanting to catch a glimpse of the city—
And another crash resounded through the room, not in the hallway this time, but closer.
He dropped the drapes and spun.
There was no one in the room, but he pulled the handgun out of his pocket and readied it as he hurried out of the room, pulling the oak office door open slowly.
And as the same crash sounded through the room, he realized suddenly that it wasn't outside, but behind him—
And turned to see the locker room's door bending forward, a massive dent in the metal frame.
Matt turned and ran.
*
J.D hurried down the corridors of the fifth floor hallway, searching for a set of stairs, glancing into the windows as he went.
The entire floor was like a maze, but at least he could see now; the 550's and higher numbers all had regained their proper lighting.
He turned the corner again, and looking at the door to the right of him as he passed, realized that he was in the 560's now.
~ God, how many rooms are there?~
He shook his head in disbelief. With the size of this floor alone, he'd probably never find the stairs before some Umbrella monster found him.
He broke into a jog, hurrying past room 562 and 563—
And stopped suddenly, backtracking to where he was before. He placed his hands on the window in front of him, peering inside, thinking it was a mistake but wanting to be sure—
It was Rain; lying inside, seemingly unconscious, on a gurney inside a room not unlike the one he'd been in, save for the lack of roommates, as far as he could see.
He reached for the heavy metal door handle and twisted it, sighing in annoyance when he found it to be locked. Obviously, if the lights worked, so did the electricity controlling the doors.
He began to bang on the window, shouting, willing her to wake up—
And stopped when he heard the footsteps tapping down the corridor next to him.
He froze, not knowing what to do—surely whatever it was would outrun him—
And he shrank back against the door opposite Rain's, as it came into view.
It was huge, a mess of sanguine tendons and muscle; its eyes empty, the sockets revealing uncovered brain matter.
Letting out a shrill wail, it leapt at him.
****
Matt broke into a run when he heard the sound of shattering glass, accompanied by a shout, on Room 563's corridor.
He flew around the corner, the revolver heavy in his shaking hands—
And saw J.D standing there, looking exhausted and thin, but alive, a look of fear on his face—
And the cause of that fear revealed itself as another Licker clambered gracefully through the remnants of the shattered window of Room 562.
Matt instantly trained the gun on it as J.D shrank back from the monster, shooting it once in the eye and again in the head.
The Licker turned and ran for him, and Matt continued to shoot, sending countless bullets into its brain as it ran at him—
And the Licker finally dropped, less than five feet away from him.
Matt lowered the gun slowly, unwilling to let his guard down- and then, suddenly remembering J.D, turned and aimed the gun at him. J.D didn't seem to notice, staring in disbelief at the Licker's corpse. "What the hell was that?"
"You're supposed to be dead," Matt said shortly, unwilling to let the gun falter. "You were dead, the last time we saw you."
J.D flinched. "Umbrella... has a new anti-virus."
His early bravado was missing, giving way to an almost fearful tone; Matt opened his mouth to ask about it, but stopped as a heavy thud rang through the floor. Handing J.D a lab coat with the 9 mm, he said instead, "We have to get out of here."
He slid the ID card through the slot in the door handle of Room 163 as J.D threw on the lab coat, and was rewarded with a slight beeping sound as the door swung open.
"Cover the door" he whispered to J.D as he hurried into the room. J.D nodded, and turned to face the corridor, his face lined with tension.
Reaching Rain, Matt quickly scanned over her. She seemed fine, despite her unconscious state and the numerous needles penetrating her body.
He reached for the first ones, carefully pulling them out—
And began to hurriedly yank out the remaining ones as another crash resounded through the floor, sounding closer to the corridor.
A shout of pain alerted him to Rain's waking state, and he covered her mouth with one hand, hoping it hadn't alerted the monster to their position. With his other hand, he tore out the remaining needles; Rain sat up immediately, sliding off the gurney, and Matt caught her before she could fall.
They could all hear the footsteps now, echoing down the hall less than a few corridors away.
Matt wrapped her in the lab coat, asking quietly, "Can you walk?"
Rain didn't answer, and looking more closely, Matt saw that her attention was fully fixated on the doorway, where J.D stood, his face pale, motioning frantically for them to hurry.
"C'mon, we need to go," Matt told her gently, lifting her into his arms. She didn't respond, but closed her eyes, falling asleep almost immediately.
They hurried out of the room and down the corridor, J.D following behind, the gun still aimed loosely at the far end of the corridor.
They had barely made it around the corner before hearing the thing as it stomped over the shattered glass littering the previous corridor, and they broke into a run, racing down the hallway.
They could hear the thing behind them, gaining on them, and catching sight of an elevator, its doors open, they ran for it, hoping it would still be working.
They piled into the elevator as fast as was possible, and Matt pressed the lobby button as J.D tried frantically to close the doors.
The doors closed slowly, shutting out any glimpse of the monster— and then they were moving, sliding downwards slowly.
J.D glanced over at Rain. "Is she okay?"
"I don't know," Matt said quietly, sounding exhausted. "Have the revolver ready."
They elapsed into silence as they passed the third floor, moving onto the lobby.
A short bell rang as they came to a stop and the doors began to open. J.D stepped forward slightly, holding his gun level as the door opened to reveal—
Alice, who stood in front of the elevator, wearing another lab coat and holding a shotgun, looking as surprised as they felt.
She started to say something, but Matt cut her off, saying, "No time," and they hurried through the marble lobby together.
Reaching the glass doors, they shoved them open—
And were shocked to see the state of ruin Raccoon City was in.
Ambulance's and police cars were strewn across the road, their sirens still wailing, amidst crumpled cars. Paper and shards of broken glass covered the ground, blood splashed across the street.
The city was dead to the world, and yet, in the far off distance, they could hear the distinct moans of newly awoken zombies.
Raccoon had been infested.
Author: Malenkaya
Rating: R
Summary: (RE movie fanfic) A continuation of the movie, featuring old and new characters, new settings, and new conflict. In a zombie infested Raccoon City, how can Alice, Matt, and Rain survive?
Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or its characters.
Feedback: Would be very much appreciated; this is my first Resident Evil fanfiction. Flames are fine, so long as they're explanatory.
Author's Notes: Thanks much to skittles, bsktballchik, shawn4542, po, AnimaSola, and Keris for their reviews, I really appreciate it.
~ = italics
Fading Away
Chapter One: Oblivion
~~Matt couldn't run fast enough.
He could feel the Licker behind him, chasing him through the ruins of the Hive.
Alice, Rain, Kaplan- they were all dead, he could feel it, the Licker had killed them—
He turned the corner, racing down the hallway and through an open doorway.
He slammed the heavy steel door, locking it, and then turned.
The Licker stood there, in the murky water.
On the computer screen next to him was the Red Queen, who smiled condescendingly at him.
"You're all going to die down here."
And he covered his face with his hands, falling against the door as the Licker dove at him— ~~
Matthew Addison opened his eyes.
A light bulb swayed above him, its dim light crossing through the darkness.
He sat up groggily.
The room shook as a thump resounded through the walls, loose ceiling dust raining down.
Suddenly he realized where he was.
Umbrella.
A slight pain ran through his arm as he moved it, and he looked down.
In the light the bulb cast upon it, he could see an IV needle stabbed into it, held in place by medical tape.
A quick search over the rest of his body located two others on his temple, and three on his upper arm, cutting into the slashes left by the Licker. He yanked them out, quickly and painlessly, casting them on the floor as he pulled himself off the metal table he was lying on.
He crossed the room cautiously, unable to see more than two feet in front of him. His hands finally collided with steel that could only be the door, and he fumbled for the handle.
Reaching it, he turned it halfheartedly, knowing it would be locked—
And there was a slight click as the door swung open.
Surprised, he glanced back at the relative safety of the gurney, still swathed in the pale light, before stepping out into the hallway.
Emergency lights were on in the corridor, casting a slight glow over the tiled flooring.
Across from him, he could see another window. Stumbling forward, he peered into it, trying to see in the darkness of the room.
Turning away in defeat, he looked down the hallway.
The windows into the room stretched forever, covering the walls of the hallway on either side of him. Next to each room was a small door, presumably for observation purposes.
He moved forward another room, and peered through the next glass. Again, nothing.
Where were Rain and Alice?
With no outer windows, he couldn't tell how high the building was, how many floors it had, or if they were even in this facility- they could be literally anywhere-
He forced himself to relax slightly. They had to be in this facility- they had been brought to the same place.
And odds were there was a computer database somewhere that could tell him exactly where it was.
He began to hurry quickly down the corridor, looking for an elevator, or, preferably, a staircase—
And stopped suddenly when he heard the footsteps less than a corridor over.
The footsteps came closer, and the small hissing sound that came with it did nothing to ease his worries.
Whatever was there, it wasn't human.
Matt began backing down the corridor slowly, trying to put distance between him and the thing without being heard.
The footsteps stopped.
Matt froze. He stood still, trying not to breathe, trying not to make any noise.
After what seemed like hours, he heard the footsteps again, as whatever it was began to walk away.
Letting himself breathe again, he took off down the hall, stepping as lightly as possible and running as fast as he could.
*
He heard another virus carrier passing by the door again, it's wet, heavy footsteps a simple giveaway.
J.D pulled himself closer to the wall in reflex. The door was only cheap wood, nothing like the heavy steel and marble the rest of the place seemed to be made up of.
He knew that he only had a matter of time before the Abomination would be released, before it would find him in the weak, tiny closet.
It had already been released once; escaping into the room where he and the other test subjects had been staying, dead and alive, and had attacked them.
J.D had run, along with two other test subjects- he didn't know who they were, didn't know who any of them were- and had found himself in this closet.
He didn't know where they other two had gone, didn't know if he cared anymore. He was safe, for now.
He wished he knew how many days had passed since Umbrella had enforced a lock down over the city of Raccoon. Apparently the Umbrella S.T.A.R.S team's investigation hadn't gone well- in fact, most members of the squad were missing and presumed dead.
Rain.
He had no idea if she was even alive.
J.D remembered almost nothing from his brief escapade in the Hive- the last thing he remembered was Rain, reaching for him, trying to save him from the horde of zombies surrounding him.
She had failed; and he had been killed in the tiny room.
And then he was here, lying on a steel gurney, surrounded by at least thirty other zombies. An Umbrella scientist had been standing over him, prepping him for an injection.
And that's when all hell had broken loose.
He sighed, despite himself.
And froze again as footsteps echoed over his head.
Human footsteps?
They sounded human; they weren't quick and tapping, like some of the other monsters kept on the seventh floor, and they weren't slow and stumbling like the zombies were. Finally reaching a decision, he stood up, reaching forward and pulling open the door.
Whether they were human or not, he couldn't stay in this closet, waiting for the inevitable, any longer.
*
Matt sat in the office directly outside the employee's locker room, typing furiously at one of the computers.
He hadn't had much luck. Finding the room in the first place had taken over an hour, with the added work of dodging all the Umbrella creations he heard in the halls, and now he couldn't find Rain or Alice.
He knew that they had to be on either the fourth or fifth floors- "Light Observation" floors- or on the sixth or seventh, the area where he had been, entitled "Heavy Observation".
He didn't have time to search through each floor, and the computer's database wouldn't let him into the private files without a password.
With a sudden burst of anger, he lifted the keyboard and hurled it off the desk. It flew across the room, dragging the computer with it.
Both fell to the floor with a crash, the computer's screen black, sparks emitting from the exposed maze of metal and wiring inside the computer back.
Matt stared at it in shock, realizing almost immediately that the entire floor had probably heard the crash, feeling abashed despite himself.
He had no idea where the sudden surge of anger had come from.
Shaking his head, he turned away from the broken computer, heading towards the locker room to see if he could at least find some clothes to cover the tiny, Umbrella issued paper sheet he wore.
~ And a weapon. A weapon would be good. ~
He pushed the door open slowly.
It swung open to reveal a standard, but messy, locker room. A row of sinks and mirrors covered the right wall, and the rest of the room housed almost ten rows of lockers. Some lockers were hanging open, others were closed, and he hurried forward for the first open locker he saw.
Rifling through its contents, he pulled out a white lab coat and a grey pair of sweatpants and pulled them on quickly before moving onto the next one.
His pocket felt heavy, and he reached inside it absentmindedly, expecting to find a set of keys.
Instead, he pulled out a black, 9 millimeter revolver. A fully loaded revolver, at that.
He grinned despite himself, and checked to make sure the safety was on before putting it back in his pocket for the time being.
Reaching the end of the lockers, he managed to find another two lab coats, for Rain and Alice when he found them, and a couple of Umbrella ID cards.
He heard another crash from upstairs and winced, wondering how much time he had before the monsters there figured out how to get downstairs.
Hurrying out of the locker room, he checked the office door again, which he had locked earlier.
It was still closed, the hallways still dimly lit.
He sat down at the computer nearest the heavily draped windows and farthest from the doors, and quickly typed in the entry password, which he had figured out in less than five minutes.
The Umbrella database popped up immediately, and he dragged the cursor over to the private patient files and double clicked on it.
The familiar message popped up, asking for his name and password. Reaching into his lab coat's pocket, where he had stashed the identification cards, he pulled out the first one and examined it closely.
Returning his attention to the screen, he typed in "James Stevens", and underneath, his password: "July191989".
The date held no significance to Matt; he assumed it was a birthdate of some kind.
He pressed enter.
The files entry database filled the screen, and Matt smiled slightly. He double clicked on the marker "Category", deciding to simply search the floors, as he didn't know their last names.
However, preceding the general floor numbers was the acronym "S.T.A.R.S".
Frowning slightly, he double clicked on it.
And five names came onto the screen- Matthew Addison, Rain Ocampo, Spence Parks, Alice Parks, and J.D Salinas.
He frowned again, this time in confusion- He wasn't a member of S.T.A.R.S, never had been- and Spence and J.D were both dead.
He jumped as a crash echoed down the hallway behind him. Glancing nervously over his shoulder, he dragged the cursor over to the icon "Print", hoping the printer still worked- he didn't have time to read the entire file.
A slight hum filled the room as the green power light blinked onto the printer, and the pages began to print.
He hurried over to the printer, yanking out the papers as they came, wishing the printer weren't so loud.
The printer finally stopped, spitting out the last of thirty pages, and he quickly glanced at Rain and Alice's room numbers- Room 563 and 407- before folding them twice and shoving them in his pocket.
The room was quiet and still now, the lights dim. Casting another glance over his shoulder, he reached forward for the drape on the window, pulling it up, wanting to catch a glimpse of the city—
And another crash resounded through the room, not in the hallway this time, but closer.
He dropped the drapes and spun.
There was no one in the room, but he pulled the handgun out of his pocket and readied it as he hurried out of the room, pulling the oak office door open slowly.
And as the same crash sounded through the room, he realized suddenly that it wasn't outside, but behind him—
And turned to see the locker room's door bending forward, a massive dent in the metal frame.
Matt turned and ran.
*
J.D hurried down the corridors of the fifth floor hallway, searching for a set of stairs, glancing into the windows as he went.
The entire floor was like a maze, but at least he could see now; the 550's and higher numbers all had regained their proper lighting.
He turned the corner again, and looking at the door to the right of him as he passed, realized that he was in the 560's now.
~ God, how many rooms are there?~
He shook his head in disbelief. With the size of this floor alone, he'd probably never find the stairs before some Umbrella monster found him.
He broke into a jog, hurrying past room 562 and 563—
And stopped suddenly, backtracking to where he was before. He placed his hands on the window in front of him, peering inside, thinking it was a mistake but wanting to be sure—
It was Rain; lying inside, seemingly unconscious, on a gurney inside a room not unlike the one he'd been in, save for the lack of roommates, as far as he could see.
He reached for the heavy metal door handle and twisted it, sighing in annoyance when he found it to be locked. Obviously, if the lights worked, so did the electricity controlling the doors.
He began to bang on the window, shouting, willing her to wake up—
And stopped when he heard the footsteps tapping down the corridor next to him.
He froze, not knowing what to do—surely whatever it was would outrun him—
And he shrank back against the door opposite Rain's, as it came into view.
It was huge, a mess of sanguine tendons and muscle; its eyes empty, the sockets revealing uncovered brain matter.
Letting out a shrill wail, it leapt at him.
****
Matt broke into a run when he heard the sound of shattering glass, accompanied by a shout, on Room 563's corridor.
He flew around the corner, the revolver heavy in his shaking hands—
And saw J.D standing there, looking exhausted and thin, but alive, a look of fear on his face—
And the cause of that fear revealed itself as another Licker clambered gracefully through the remnants of the shattered window of Room 562.
Matt instantly trained the gun on it as J.D shrank back from the monster, shooting it once in the eye and again in the head.
The Licker turned and ran for him, and Matt continued to shoot, sending countless bullets into its brain as it ran at him—
And the Licker finally dropped, less than five feet away from him.
Matt lowered the gun slowly, unwilling to let his guard down- and then, suddenly remembering J.D, turned and aimed the gun at him. J.D didn't seem to notice, staring in disbelief at the Licker's corpse. "What the hell was that?"
"You're supposed to be dead," Matt said shortly, unwilling to let the gun falter. "You were dead, the last time we saw you."
J.D flinched. "Umbrella... has a new anti-virus."
His early bravado was missing, giving way to an almost fearful tone; Matt opened his mouth to ask about it, but stopped as a heavy thud rang through the floor. Handing J.D a lab coat with the 9 mm, he said instead, "We have to get out of here."
He slid the ID card through the slot in the door handle of Room 163 as J.D threw on the lab coat, and was rewarded with a slight beeping sound as the door swung open.
"Cover the door" he whispered to J.D as he hurried into the room. J.D nodded, and turned to face the corridor, his face lined with tension.
Reaching Rain, Matt quickly scanned over her. She seemed fine, despite her unconscious state and the numerous needles penetrating her body.
He reached for the first ones, carefully pulling them out—
And began to hurriedly yank out the remaining ones as another crash resounded through the floor, sounding closer to the corridor.
A shout of pain alerted him to Rain's waking state, and he covered her mouth with one hand, hoping it hadn't alerted the monster to their position. With his other hand, he tore out the remaining needles; Rain sat up immediately, sliding off the gurney, and Matt caught her before she could fall.
They could all hear the footsteps now, echoing down the hall less than a few corridors away.
Matt wrapped her in the lab coat, asking quietly, "Can you walk?"
Rain didn't answer, and looking more closely, Matt saw that her attention was fully fixated on the doorway, where J.D stood, his face pale, motioning frantically for them to hurry.
"C'mon, we need to go," Matt told her gently, lifting her into his arms. She didn't respond, but closed her eyes, falling asleep almost immediately.
They hurried out of the room and down the corridor, J.D following behind, the gun still aimed loosely at the far end of the corridor.
They had barely made it around the corner before hearing the thing as it stomped over the shattered glass littering the previous corridor, and they broke into a run, racing down the hallway.
They could hear the thing behind them, gaining on them, and catching sight of an elevator, its doors open, they ran for it, hoping it would still be working.
They piled into the elevator as fast as was possible, and Matt pressed the lobby button as J.D tried frantically to close the doors.
The doors closed slowly, shutting out any glimpse of the monster— and then they were moving, sliding downwards slowly.
J.D glanced over at Rain. "Is she okay?"
"I don't know," Matt said quietly, sounding exhausted. "Have the revolver ready."
They elapsed into silence as they passed the third floor, moving onto the lobby.
A short bell rang as they came to a stop and the doors began to open. J.D stepped forward slightly, holding his gun level as the door opened to reveal—
Alice, who stood in front of the elevator, wearing another lab coat and holding a shotgun, looking as surprised as they felt.
She started to say something, but Matt cut her off, saying, "No time," and they hurried through the marble lobby together.
Reaching the glass doors, they shoved them open—
And were shocked to see the state of ruin Raccoon City was in.
Ambulance's and police cars were strewn across the road, their sirens still wailing, amidst crumpled cars. Paper and shards of broken glass covered the ground, blood splashed across the street.
The city was dead to the world, and yet, in the far off distance, they could hear the distinct moans of newly awoken zombies.
Raccoon had been infested.