RESIDENT EVIL
A N A M N E S I S

Written by Nick Blackford
Based upon Capcom's Resident Evil created by Shinji Mikami

Chapter Eight: Amanda

"Let me take a look at those." Lisa said. Celeste took the towel away from her cheek. The cuts and grazes she'd sustained weren't serious.

"The hospital's gone." Mike called back.

"Gone?" Celeste asked, confused.

"Yeah," Lisa said, hanging her head slightly. "The whole thing's fallen down; it's just a big pile of rubble," She wondered how many of her co-workers had died in the devastation. "I still can't believe it. I can't believe any of this." She said shaking her head, wiping the blood from Celeste's forehead.

"It's crazy," Celeste agreed. "We were attacked by something," Celeste explained, she didn't know how to explain what it was to people who hadn't seen it. "It wasn't human."

"It wasn't, but it looked human enough, like it might have been, once." Nathan guessed.

"The city's full of monsters," Mike said. "We should get out, just drive right out and find somewhere." He said decisively.

"We're getting my girlfriend first." Nathan said quickly.

And so the group continued to drive through the pouring rain, to find Amanda, following the route that the bus had taken them earlier that night, with no need to stop at red-lights and no traffic it wouldn't be a very long journey.

Lisa and Mike had been lucky, they had found the hospital a smoldering wreck, but near to what had been the entrance was the ambulance, the doors open and the keys in the ignition with the engine running.

The ambulance radio spat static but Mike had left it on, to drown out the silence rather than in the hope of hearing a transmission.

"Thanks for helping me out back there." Celeste said to Nathan who was drying his face with a paper towels.

"Anyone else would have done the same." Nathan said modestly. While both of them had lost their weapons in the encounter with the long-tongued creature, they hadn't been badly hurt.

Lisa wiped the last of the blood from Celeste's brow.

"Dear God." Mike said, clearly shocked. The others leant towards the front of the ambulance to look out of the window. Outside, overturned cars littered the street, thankfully none obstructed the road. Fire engulfed one car, flames also poured out of several windows in the distance.

"No bodies." Celeste remarked. The others stared as the debris and destruction passed them, Lisa climbed into the passenger seat at the front of the ambulance to get a better view. Mike was slowing down to take everything in and to make sure he didn't hit any of the debris that covered the road.

Without notice, a hand of huge claws tore through the ceiling of the ambulance. The metal had peeled like paper under the force, the hand swiping inches above Celeste and Nathan who had ducked instinctively. Rainwater poured in and one of the ambulance lights sparked out.

"It's that thing, it's on the roof!" Nathan yelled

"Speed up!" Lisa shouted. Mike slammed his foot down on the accelerator pedal. The creature, noticing the change in speed, let out that same hideous scream.

They heard it scamper angrily across the top of the ambulance, its daggered hand burst through the top of the ambulance once again, this time nearer Mike, who swerved the ambulance in an attempt to throw the creature off. Frustrated at the creature's resistance he slammed his foot on the decelerator, nearly loosing control but sending the creature hurtling ahead of them. Celeste had fallen embarrassingly into Nathan's arms and Lisa had stopped herself hitting the windscreen by grabbing the dashboard. The creature slammed into the road and rolled violently to a stop, alive but broken.

"Run it over." Celeste said, and with that Mike revved up the engine. The creature, as if defiantly screaming at the knowledge of its impending end, let out one last terrible scream before the underneath of the ambulance crushed the life out of it, rolling its broken body out of shape.

They continued driving, some rain got in and a breeze filled the ambulance through the two large gaping holes in its ceiling. Nathan was leaning between Lisa and Mike now, directing him as they approached the flat he shared with Amanda.

"You want to take the next right, then it's the second left, about half way down." Nathan told Mike who nodded.

"Nearly there." Nathan thought, his heart pounding. At that moment he wanted to jump out of the ambulance and run, even if it was slower, sitting and waiting was worse somehow.

The ambulance stopped slowly, crunching over the gravel that lay in the driveway of the building. It was an old house, split into several flats after it became too big and expensive to sell as an individual property in the suburbs. Nathan burst out of the back of the ambulance, he pulled out his keys, opened the door and ran into the house.

"I'm going to go see if everything's okay. You wait here." Celeste told Lisa and Mike. She climbed out of the ambulance and realised she had lost a shoe in the alleyway. Carefully pulling off the remaining shoe, she threw it away she made her way carefully over the gravel and to the house. It was still raining.

She pushed open the front door to be confronted by a staircase, Nathan was gone. Dead leaves had collected near the door where the days post lay uncollected.

"Nathan?" She called up the stairs, he didn't reply.

Cautiously but confidently she went up the stairs, they creaked under her uneasily. The silence struck her, as it had over and over again that night. Celeste found the door to what could only have been Nathan's flat swinging open.

She made her way inside slowly, it was a beautiful flat compared to her own. The floors were all made up of polished pine, the corridor smelt of fresh paint. It was definitely the house of newlyweds. Celeste reached a bedroom at the end of the corridor where Nathan sat on a bed.

"She's gone." Nathan said. The window in the bedroom was broken and the curtains together with the rail they hung from had been torn from the wall. The room was a mess and there was blood on the end of the bed, enough of it to presume something quite serious had happened.

"Oh Nathan, I'm so sorry." Celeste said, sitting next to him on the bed.

"I was cheating on her. That's where I was going on the bus tonight." Nathan said hurriedly.

"You're here now." Celeste said, she knew it didn't mean anything as soon as she'd said it. She just hadn't wanted to remain silent.

"It doesn't matter now, she's gone. She's gone and it's my fault. Something really terrible has happened to her, I can feel it. I should have been here." He said hanging his head.

Celeste watched him for a moment, pity filled her. He was now a broken man, his head buried in his hands, not the same arrogant, selfish individual he'd appeared to be earlier that night. "There's nothing you can do about it now. Nathan… We have to think about what to do next, it's not safe here."

While lifting his head, Nathan held one of his hands over his face and with his thumb and forefinger he pinched the bridge of his nose, wiping away semi-formed tears.

"She was everything I ever wanted. I don't even know why I was cheating on her," he said, looking totally confused. Celeste wanted to tell him that there was a chance Amanda was alive, but from the looks of things it seemed doubtful, if not impossible. She'd never say what she really thought, that Amanda had probably been attacked in their home by something as terrible as what they had encountered that night. "I have to stay here. What if she comes back?" Nathan said, his eyes glistening from accumulating tears.

"Nathan…" Celeste said softly. He looked at the bedside table where a photo sat of the couple on their honeymoon. Amanda's smile lit the picture, Nathan was giving her a piggy-back and a stretch of beach filled the background, it was the kind of picture you'd find in a holiday broacher. It was taken when they had been truly happy together, what had happened since that photograph was taken? How can so much change between two people in so little time? Nathan broke the frame over the corner of the bedside table, pulled out of the photograph and folded it into his pocket. After a few seconds thought he wiped his eyes and nose with his sleeve and slowly got up. Celeste followed, put her arm around him and together they left.