Dark Dragon X: Woohoo! New reviewer! Glad my story has captured your interest, and I hope you'll continue to enjoy it until it's very end … which is coming up pretty soon, now that I think about it.

E-Z B: Kinda felt I needed to add Jill's perspective after putting in Chris's. Maybe I'll make it a habit to start putting little diary entries from all the main RE characters …

Jojo 10: Thank you ! I just needed something to keep readers interested while I typed out this chapter. It's pretty long – compared to the other chapters, anyway.

JanoI was just thinking that Jill has no way of finding out that Kenny made it out of Raccoon City alive until she meets up with Either Chris or Barry ... oh no wait … she DID meet up with Barry at the end of RE3! Okay, I think I have to go back and do some revising.

Author's Notes: Lisa Hartley, Jack Carpenter, Justin Thomas, Beatrice Wrigley and Julie are characters borrowed from "Resident Evil: Project Lucifer", by fellow author, Hyperactive Hamster of Doom. I highly recommend the story, and I encourage all of my readers to check out her story as well. She is a respectable, talented writer whose work is worthy of attention. Thank you, HHoD, for letting me borrow your characters.

XXXXX

I dreamt of being back in Raccoon City – not during its final days, but of the time I first moved there. A peaceful, mid-Western town nestled comfortably inside a ring of mountains. I dreamt of my school, walking through the hall, seeing all the familiar faces of friends and teachers. I hated high school when I was actually there, but the military had such strict training that I actually value gossip now. I missed the freedom to talk about shallow things and other people, or shallow things about other people.

But almost immediately, those nostalgic times gave way to terror, disease and death – just like the actual fate of Raccoon City. I remember how it all started. Right after the first "cannibal murder" occurred, the news spread like wildfire among the students. It was exciting to talk about it – sad to say, my life before the Raccoon City disaster was boring, caught up with prep clothes, cologne and hair gel. Ah, the life of an Uptown Raccoon City kid. Looking back at just how disgustingly preppy I was in Raccoon Secondary School, I feel embarrassed for myself, all shallow like that. But work with me here, in a small city like that, cut off from the outside world by a bunch of mountains, there wasn't really anything to do for fun!

Anyway, so it was exciting to talk about the strange cannibal killings that had taken place. I'd spoken to like, ten people that day already and everyone came up with their own "I heard that …" rumors. I wasn't actually stupid enough to believe any of them, but it was crazy fun to consider all the possibilities, all the conspiracy … until I spoke to a girl named Lisa Hartley, and then I realized just how close to home the incident hit. Raccoon was a small city, but it wasn't small enough for every single one of its citizens to know each other, let alone on a first name basis.

Turned out that her neighbor was the 42 year old woman that reported one of the first zombie sightings, and that the lady was now sick, probably with the mysterious virus. Beatrice Wrigley. Now I know for a fact it was the T-Virus, being more familiar with how the virus works. I couldn't believe Lisa at first.

"Are you serious?" I kept asking her. She would only nod solemnly in response. We were sitting on the stairs outside the school, just after classes finished for the day. "I'm sorry … I didn't mean …" It didn't sound like anything I was saying was helping me.

"It's alright," Lisa said, "I never liked her much anyway. I just feel sad for her … she couldn't even remember her name before she died, at least that's what I heard."

I can understand why Lisa would hate the woman though. She wasn't quite aware about the rumors spreading about her throughout our year. I'll fill you in. The girl was famous for having a pair of horrible parents. Mr. and Mrs. Hartley were doing such a bad job of guiding their daughter in life, that they tried to make up for it by going too far in the opposite direction. Lisa would tell her best friend Julie about her domestic problems – and why she would do that baffles me to this day because Julie was a real bitch but everyone pretends to like her anyway – and Julie would spread it all over the school.

So here's what I heard straight from Julie's mouth. Apparently, Lisa's parents were big time doctors or something, and were always too busy with work to be at home with her. Lisa decided to rebel by going out with one of those downtown hoodlums who goes to our school, Jack Carpenter. He was a good for nothing schmuck who couldn't even speak English properly. His immigration from Mexico serves as no excuse, because I'm an immigrant too – ethnically Chinese born in Japan. And I don't speak all crazy like Jack did. And how the hell does someone with the last name "Carpenter" be Mexican? I bet he was just some kid sad enough for attention that he pretended to be all exotic so Lisa would be attracted to him. He followed her around like a dog too … society could really benefit from losing such uselessness.

So to make up for their horrible parenting, abandoning Lisa all the time for their work, Mr. and Mrs. Hartley decided to forbid her from seeing Jack anymore – because Lisa was too good for him. And its true, who'd want to be associated with the scum of Raccoon City? But going on an immature streak, Lisa threw a tantrum. Really, here we are, grown 15 year olds, and she's throwing a fucking tantrum because her parents won't let her see a downtown skating loser who can't speak English, that Lisa's only dating so it makes her stand out from the rest of us Uptown preps. Pathetic, I tell you. So Lisa's parents decided to have their neighbor, Beatrice Wrigley, to baby sit Lisa and make sure she didn't see Jack anymore.

I keep going off topic. So there was an outbreak in Raccoon City. More and more reports of zombie sightings filled the newspapers until they gradually began appearing on the streets and less on the papers – the reporters apparently had been eaten.

It wasn't until around the 28th of September when the situation got out of hand. I got a phone call from a friend of mine, who attended Lisa's birthday party. Julie invited me too, but I had to rack up my hours for work experience – and I didn't end up going. Anyway, my buddy from school who called me, Justin Thomas, went to the party, but they had "an unwelcome guest." He sounded terrified, while there was a whole lot of shouting and screaming in the background. He was in the middle of talking to me when suddenly I heard a wet crunch, and the phone line went dead. I don't think Justin made it out alive, or anybody else for that matter.

It was that incident that propelled me to find a way out of Raccoon City. I didn't leave the R.P.D. Precinct that night. Instead, I helped the officers herd in any survivors they'd plucked off the streets. But it wasn't until the next day – after the survivors had turned into zombies – that I began my treacherous trek out of the city.

And three months after Raccoon's destruction, I'm still in danger.

XXXXX

I awoke from my tortured slumber with a start. The skin all over my body sprouted goose bumps from the chill. I shivered, rubbing my upper arms for warmth. I looked around the room … wondering why it was so dark. My sleepy mind was slowly slipping back into reality. I was in a computer room, I knew that. I just made a rescue call to Chris and he was on his way. But how long had it been since then? How long had I been sleeping for?

And why was it so fucking dark? Suddenly a panic attack struck. I gripped my head between my hands and fought my primal instincts for control over my own body. There was an electric generator somewhere far off in another room. I didn't set the handle properly, and it was loosened from the explosion, thus cutting off electricity once again. That explained the darkness. But what explained the explosion? What was it?

There was a loud thump somewhere close … beyond the walls of the computer room. My hands scrambled all over the surrounding floor, searching for the flashlight. My body froze when it came into contact with the cold steel. Ignoring the shock of the sudden temperature change, I turned the light on, breathing a sigh of relief when I was able to see something, even though it was the bottom half of a swivel chair.

I could hear a sick noise coming from the main hall of the underground mansion, just beyond the secret passageway behind the painting that led to this computer room. It sounded slimy … like someone dipping their hands in a puddle of pure snot and then rubbed them against each other. The description still makes my stomach turn. What the hell was out there? Did I want to go outside to investigate? No … not right when whatever it was making that noise could still be out there. I turned off the flashlight, it case it could somehow see it. Most likely not, but I didn't want to take any chances.

I waited in darkness and in silence, with only the rhythm of my steady breathing keeping me company. The slimy noise gradually got softer in volume and then vanished over a time span of about fifteen or twenty minutes, my rough estimate. Not wanting to take my chances right away, I decided to wait another ten minutes – another estimate – to make sure the thing was gone.

I rose to my feet, turning the flashlight back on, and searched for the door. When I located it, I walked with care, trying hard not to produce any noise. I grasped the cold door handle, turned it, and walked out into the hallway and faced the back of the painting.

"Rockfort-16320," I whispered.

"Access granted!" the computers voice boomed making me leap at least three feet into the air. I prayed to the big man in the sky – who seemed to let me make it so far – that the thing didn't hear it, although the announcement was loud enough to wake the dead. Why did they even need to make it that loud? To show off to everyone else that the person being granted access was a Senior Researcher or General or a higher rank? Fuck these pompous, corrupt Umbrella officials.

The painting slid out of place, allowing me access into the main hall. Before proceeding far from the entrance, I let my flashlight search the hall – it was a big room, but the light was a cop shop, heavy duty light. Impressive stuff. After deeming the hall clear of slimy creatures, I gathered the courage to venture down the stairs and search the area for any sign of the creature's presence. But … there was nothing. There was nothing by the main door, nothing on the clean marble floor, nothing by the east door, nothing by the west door, nothing behind the stairs …

"Holy SHIT!!" I cried out loud, clasping my hand over my mouth when I heard my voice echo back to me off the walls. It was Claire, and she looked pretty badly beaten up. But that wasn't what worried me. What made me cry out in surprise was the green, alien adhesive that held her body plastered against the back of the staircase. It touched it, and not surprisingly, it was coated with slime. What was Claire doing here? She was supposed to stay on Rockfort … unless … she took the plane that I'd left her. I slapped myself for being so stupid. Alfred brought my own escape plane to the Antarctic base. The other planes also made it here. What made the escape plane I left Claire any different? Alfred most likely had control over that one too! Great. So now we can all be eaten alive together. Better than facing that fate alone, at least.

"Claire," I said, lightly slapping her face. "Wake up!" Her eyes moved underneath her eyelids.

"W…what's going on?" she mumbled sleepily, without opening her eyes.

"Please tell me," I began, "what are you doing here? I thought I left you back at Rockfort so that you could help Steve."

"We made it out," Claire replied, waking from her nap. She tried to move. "What the hell is this?!"

"I don't know … but it's kinda gross." I ran my fingers over the adhesive that had dried, trying to find a way to rip it off Claire. But the protective layer of slime got in the way and I couldn't get a proper grip.

"Use something sharp to cut this cocoon off the wall," she suggested.

"Good idea. I'm gonna go find something back in the computer room. I'll be right back, you just hang tight." She was so weak, the only thing she could do to acknowledge me was a slight nod.

"You're not going anywhere," someone said. It was a beautiful, feminine voice, almost gentle if she wasn't saying it like a bitch. I looked around the staircase, to see a blond woman in a sleeveless, purple dress standing at the main doors. Her hands were covered in white gloves that ran al the way up her arms. She wore a gold necklace with what I could guess as a ruby brooch in the middle, hanging between her collarbones.

"Who are you?" I asked the woman.

"My name is Alexia Ashford," the woman replied with a hint of pride, as if the name would actually mean something to me. "It was the Ashford family that helped establish the Umbrella-"

"Admiral Ashford, is that you?!" I interrupted in astonishment. "I always thought there was a feminine quality about you but …"

"Alfred Ashford is my TWIN brother!" Alexia cried as I bit my lip.

"Oh …"

"And just what do you think you're doing here?"

"We're here on Admiral Ashford's account," I replied simply. "There was a T-Virus leak on his place of command, the Rockfort Facility. And I believe in order to conceal the leak …"

"Yes, I am familiar with Umbrella's policies," Alexia snapped. "In that case, I have no intention of letting you spill the T-Virus and the rest of Umbrella's research to the rest of the world. That's why you're staying here with us … as test subjects for the T-Veronica Virus."

"So is that how you'd like to treat your newest asset?" I asked cockily. Alexia was a pompous bitch, but not even she could afford to risk harming me. "I'm protected by the Umbrella Corporation. Even ask your brother. I have something they want – the Shadow Technology."

She raised an eyebrow. "And what might that be?"

I shrugged. "I don't know exactly what it is either, but sofar, it has allowed me to escape two T-Virus outbreaks by fighting the virus. I am immune."

Alexia snorted. "So you escaped two outbreaks without a trace of the virus in your bloodstream. That's not saying much, seeing as how in order to contract it, you must either breathe it in within the first few minutes of exposure, or get bitten by a carrier. And you're alive, so I doubt you were bitten."

"I was slashed by one of your creations," I said proudly, rolling up my pant leg to reveal the bottom of my scar from the giant worm. I couldn't believe I was actually showing it off like some kind of battle scar. Had I been any average Joe, aware of Umbrella's illegal experiments in biological research, I would've been shot on the spot to destroy any witnesses.

"A likely story," Alexia said, putting her gloved hands on her curvaceous hips.

I went bug-eyed. "It's the truth!" I protested.

"A fictitious tale only a child would be capable of manufacturing."

"W…where the hell have you been, lady?!" I asked in astonishment. "I've been dodging Wesker and Ada this whole time, locked up at the Rockfort facility, just because I've got this bullshit in my body and that I'm so important to Umbrella, and you don't even know what I'm talking about?!"

"Well when you've been cryogenically frozen for the past few years …" she retorted, sounding quite frustrated.

"Excuse me?"

"You fool …" Alexia said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I'm well aware of Wesker's intentions, and he's coming after me. He wants the T-Veronica virus that I host."

"But …" I said, pointing at her, "you're not some mindless zombie."

"I've been incubating the virus. By freezing my body, the virus manifested itself a lot slower than it would have, had I been active. Otherwise, it would have developed far too quickly for me to handle, thus turning me into a mindless monster."

"What the hell kinda people does Umbrella employ?" I asked myself out loud. Alexia frowned at me, having clearly offended her.

"I am Alexia Ashford from the Ashford family!" she announced proudly.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, finishing her sentence for her, "one of the founding families for Umbrella – the backward company that manufactures aspirins, cough syrups, first aid sprays, and biological weapons of mass destruction – I get it, woman!!"

"It seems I will have to teach you some manners," Alexia replied coldly, her body suddenly transforming before my eyes. I really need to learn when to shut my mouth sometimes. "Suppose I believed your story about the Shadow Technology, do you even think I would care? The abilities of the T-Veronica Virus clearly surpass anything ever created – including your ridiculous technology. My resurrection from being cryogenically frozen with the virus fully at my command will bring the Ashford name back to its former glory. And that means more to me than Umbrella's overrated attention diverted towards you."

Her human skin and clothes peeled back, to reveal a mockery of humanity – a dark gray skin strange tumors protruding from random parts of her body. She still retained her body shape, but she was now anything but attractive. Her hair clumped together to form thick vines protruding from her skull. Alexia began walking menacingly towards me.

"Kenny, get away from her!" Claire shouted from behind the stairs, still stuck onto the wall by that strange cocoon-like material.

Normally I would've jet out of there as fast as my feet could carry me. But to this day, I can't explain why I didn't. I was furious at Alexia for even doubting my father's scientific ability – though I'd never met him in my life. Or perhaps it was my concern for Claire's well being that rooted me to the spot, facing Alexia full on, hiding nothing.

"Bring it, you viral ridden tramp," I sneered. My mind screamed at me. What the hell was I saying? Why was I tempting Alexia to finish me off? I could sense the power emanating from her body. It was like she was no longer human – some kind of demi-goddess about to display her prowess. I heard the sickening slice of skin, and she whipped her hand outward in an arc. I instinctively dodged the trail of blood that followed, seeing it spill onto the carpet. I don't know where I got my courage – or stupidity – from but I cocked an eyebrow at her. "What are you gonna do, bleed on me till I die?" I suppose with her virus infected blood, she could do some decent damage.

Alexia just smiled as the trail of blood erupted into flames, roasting my body with its intense heat. I jumped back to safety, gawking in awe at what she'd just done.

"Fucking bitch!" At this point, my mind was going insane with fear. It was as if I'd lost completely control of my body, like it was acting on its own as if it knew what to do. I jumped through the flames, confronting Alexia so that my nose was only inches from her own. She reeled back, startled, and that's when I punched her – a powerful sock right into her nose.

"Aargh," she grunted, holding her face in one hand. With her other hand, she threw more blood at me, but I dodged again, letting it pass by harmlessly. As I went in for another counter attack, I could feel the heat of the blood behind be as it ignited. I turned my body sideways so that I was perpendicular to her, and brought my right leg up, executing three well placed kicks to her face. Alexia blocked with relative ease, until I surprised her by catching her off her feet with a low roundhouse kick.

She rolled away from my attacks, and stood back up, clearly infuriated with the fact that I would dare lay a finger on an Ashford. But as far as I was concerned, they were a bunch of cross-dressing crazies. It seemed as if the woman was able to read my mind because just as the thought ran through my head, she threw a huge puddle of blood at me. Some of it landed on the jumpsuit I was wearing, and I tried rubbing it off in vain with my hand buried in the sleeve before it ignited. But when it did, I was successful in removing enough so that it only burned a small hole in the fabric from when it landed. How much blood would it take for her to throw so she's bleed to death?

Getting frustrated with the slow moving fight, I withdrew my magnum and took aim, punching a hole in her shoulder. The bullet penetrated her body and came out the other side, but Alexia only took a second to absorb the shock, and continued on her merry way towards me.

"She needs to get close in order to do some real damage," I said quietly to myself. "So all I have to do is keep a decent distance away from her until she bleeds herself to death trying to kill me." It was a long shot and it worked, in theory. But would my plan actually work if it came down to the nitty-gritty? No, I couldn't risk fighting her here, knowing that if she succeeded in catching this whole place of fire, Claire would surely be killed, trapped by the cocoon. I couldn't afford to risk her safety anymore, not when she was completely defenseless like this.

But at the exact moment I lost interest in the fight, so did Alexia, as if we were on the same wavelength. "I would love to continue entertaining you," she said coldly. "But I have some other issues to attend to."

"Don't you lay a finger on Steve!" Claire screamed in protest, but Alexia only let out a hysterical laugh, walking out the front door of the mansion, leaving a trail of fiery blood behind her.

"Claire!" I said, running over to her, trying to pry the cocoon off her body. "Hold still, I'm going to get you out of here."

"No, don't bother with me," Claire protested. "Alexia's going to harm Steve, I know it."

"How did you get separated?!"

"We were on our way out of the base, but something big … I don't know what, but it knocked the vehicle we were traveling in. I was knocked out and when I came to, I was here with you. But when Alexia said something about "test subjects", I knew Steve would share the fate that she had planned for us. You have to stop her Kenny, with whatever it is you have inside your body!"

"I don't even know what I have!" I cried out in frustration. I clasped my hands around the sides of my head.

"Well it worked against Alexia!" Claire said, clinging on to her only hope – me. And I wasn't even so confident in myself. "You may not have beaten her to a pulp, but you were able to repel her and you hardly had to use your weapon. You are a match for her! Please, you're the only one who can save Steve right now!"

"Alright," I said giving in. As much as I didn't like Steve, I didn't feel right about letting him die a torturous death at Alexia's hands. Nobody deserved that. "I'll follow her, and I'll stop her from laying a finger on Steve," I half-heartedly promised. "You don't know where he is? That would save me some time." She shook her head, looking helpless and angry about it. "Okay, don't worry about it, Claire. I'll be back." I patted the cocoon, trying to reassure her and went on my way, running towards the front door of the mansion.

XXXXX

I was back out in the strange man-made garden, built far underground. It was hard to see in this lack of light, but I was going to have to manage. I extracted the flashlight from my pocket and turned the thing on, letting the beam scour the room so I could get a good sense of what surrounded me. There was the fake pond, the pair of merry-go-round style horses, the painted clouds on the walls, some fake ferns, a pair of sunglasses set in a dark, shady face …

"Fuck!" I turned around and tried to run but a strong hand grabbed my shoulder.

"You keep struggling if you want to die," came the threat from the mysterious assailant.

"You know I know you can't lay a finger on me, Wesker!" I hissed. With an arrogant shove, Wesker had pushed me into the wall. I collided with my shoulder. Pain exploded through the point of impact and up and down my upper body. I slumped back against the wall and helplessly watched him approach.

"I had made sure with the pilot of your plane to deliver you to the co-ordinates I gave him," he said calmly, as if he'd hardly raised his heartbeat to beat me up. "Instead I find that the Ashford fool sent all the escape planes over to the Antarctic. Not only that, but I also found out that Alexia has awoken from her sleep – long before my estimation. Now in order to take the T-Veronica virus, I will have to confronther personally! You can imagine that I'm very, very pissed off. So I wouldn't push it."

WHAM!

He punched me across the face, sending me flying from the wall to having my face carve its own imprint onto the ground. I urged whatever it was … the Shadow Technology to come out again like it had with Alexia. But no such thing happened. I wasn't motivated by anger this time. Alexia legitimately pissed me off with her cockiness. But Wesker's unspoken pride was more intimidating, and this wasn't the first time I encountered him. Did I fear him? I didn't want to admit it, but that could've been it. And thus, that could've been why I wasn't fighting back like the way I had with Alexia. I had to find another way out.

"Y…you have to let me go," I said, pulling myself up from the ground with great effort.

"Oh? And why would I want to do that?"

"I … I'll," I couldn't believe I was saying this.

"How would letting you go, after going great lengths to get you, be beneficial to my cause?" I couldn't see him, but I could feel his breath on my forehead. I couldn't believe his sadism, messing with people's minds before moving in for the kill.

"Alexia Ashford is about to tend to Steve, Claire's friend," I replied. "Before running into you, I was on her tail. I'm not going to let her harm Steve."

"I still don't see how that concerns me."

"I believe I have what it takes to bring her down before she can get to him."

"What do you think it takes?"

"The same thing you're after in me – the Shadow Technology."

Wesker let out a hearty laugh in response to my claims. "This is too good! A showdown between the two forces I've come here for! The Shadow Technology versus the T-Veronica Virus!! It does sound rather tempting indeed, to let you face off against Alexia. But I can't have one wipe out the other. I want you both in once piece."

"I won't kill Alexia – I can't. Killing is not part of my nature. Instead …"

"Instead …?" Wesker asked curiously. I knew I had captured his interest.

"I will bring her to you." I bit my lip. Again, what was I doing, making all these promises I wasn't even sure I could keep. All that mattered to me was fulfilling Claire's wish, that I wouldn't let Steve get hurt.

"Hmmm …" Wesker sat in deep thought, evaluating my offer for a few seconds, probably wondering if he could trust me. I wouldn't blame him for not trusting me. I mean, I'd almost ripped his nose off his face with my teeth, mouthed him off enough times for him to give me a bleeding nose, leaving me to die in the rain on Rockfort … "Very well!" he announced, much to my surprise. "I will let you go after Alexia, and I want her brought back to me!"

Good. So that meant I will let Alexia and Wesker finish each other off while Claire and I escaped this base with Steve. It seemed like a good plan. He seemed to have confidence that I would be able to subdue Alexia, but what made him so sure that I wouldn't kill her against my word? Perhaps he could see the truth behind my claims.

"And if you do not return with Alexia, I will personally hunt down Claire and Steve in this base and execute them with my bare hands. Do I make myself clear?"

I gulped. Shit. He had me in a trap. I had to follow through with my plan – it was our only guaranteed way out of here. Ignoring my conscience that once again screamed at me, this time to stop me from digging myself into a deeper hole, I reached out for Wesker's extended hand, and we shared a brief handshake.

"Crystal." I gulped in realization. I had made a pact with the devil.