Resident Evil, White Claudia

Epilog

By Fenris Ulf

They were gathered about the room, dressed all in sober black. A woman weeped, her black veil did not stifle her sobs.

The minister, an older, black man, stood up in front of the grieving audience. "Dear friends, we are gathered here today, to say good-bye to our dear departed brother, Michael Unison. We did not know him as well as we should have. I, especially, did not know my brother very well.

"But now is not the time for regrets. Now is the time to reflect on what we do know. To cherish the time that we did get to know him."

The front door then burst open. Everyone turned to look at the door. The man who stepped through the door looked like a scarecrow. He was a tall, thin, black man wearing a tattered business suit. His clothes were splattered with blood, dirt, oil and other stains. They were tattered and torn.

One of the women stood up.

The man reflexively tried to aim a gun that was not in his hand. He then put his hand down.

The woman took off her veil. "Michael?" she whispered.

The man walked foward, hesitantly, but steadily. When he was close enough, he looked at the woman's face for a few moments before he leaned down and hugged her.

"I've come home, Momma," he said.

Somewhere, out there, a woman was looking into the tiny screen of a handheld device. She was looking at the homecoming of Michael Unison and smiling for a brief moment. She tucked the device into her long coat and she hefted her M-8 rifle, modified for close-in fighting.

"All right you slackers!" she bellowed out to the motley collection of men, "We are going to start our war right here. You are going to go out and confront the Red God, Xuchilbara. Do not let go of your talisman. They are the only thing that will allow you to get back to the Hospital. If we are successful, some of you may be going home."

She turned around and looked out over the landscape. For a moment, the darkness lifted and she could see the nightmares swirling around her.

"To home."

Fin