FANDOM: FAKE & Resident Evil: Zero
PAIRING: Billy Coen/Rebecca Chambers, Dee Laytner/Ryo McLane
RATING: NC-17, just to be safe
WARNINGS: Yaoi, Het, Violence, Angst
DISCLAIMER: I don't own 'em. Don't sue me, I'm not worth enough. The loveliness that is FAKE belongs to the talented Sanami Matoh. Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen are property of Capcom. Many thanks to the late Sam Kinnison, who was an influence in this chapter.

CHAPTER 04 – The dead live! THE DEAD LIVE!
by C. Ravenlocke

"So why are we going down here again?"

"We need to find my partner's phone."

From his place leaning against the wall of the elevator car, Dee looked over at Billy incredulously. "You just dragged me all the way down here to find a cell phone? Are you insane!"

Billy smirked. "That depends on who you ask. By the way, Slick, are you carrying extra ammo?"

"Why? And quit calling me Slick."

"Just curious," Billy replied with a smile that said under no uncertain terms was he about to give up the nickname he'd christened Dee with.

Dee leaned back against the wall of the elevator car they were both standing in, seriously considering whether or not he'd be able to get away with shooting Billy or not. The grim-looking man had been yanking him around every chance he got, and it was starting to piss Dee off. Tell me something, God, he thought to himself. Is this your idea of a joke? Because if it is, it isn't funny. I mean, can't you just tell me to run for President or something? He sighed. No. Instead, you stick me with the one guy who probably pisses me off more than Berkeley does.

That thought in mind, Dee watched Billy silently from the corner of his eye as the shorter man checked his gun and slipped it away under his coat again. The cool, calm precision with which he did it reminded Dee of Ryo. A habit left over from the military, Ryo had said. Curiosity overcame irrtation and Dee spoke. "So...were you military?"

Billy looked up, raising an eyebrow. Dee only shrugged at the unspoken question. "Well, we know more about Rebecca now. I just wanted to know a little more about you, too."

There were several moments of silence before Billy spoke. "Marine Corps."

Dee nodded. "My partner, he was in the Army. You guys have some of the same mannerisms."

A wry smile twisted Billy's lips. "He must have been above average for the Army then."

"He's above average at everything he does." Dee couldn't help but smile as he replied.

Billy smiled just a little at that. "You two are really close."

Dee nodded. "Lovers. Have been for a little over a year now."

"Oh..."

Billy's sudden silence only made Dee smile a little more. The dark-haired detective had a tendency to use his bisexuality to get under people's skin, and over the years, Dee had found that ultra-conservative cops and military men were two of the easiest to get to. And while there was a part of Dee that took a sadistic little pleasure in making Billy uncomfortable, the other part of him let it go. For now, at least. "So what about you and Rebecca?" he asked. "Are you guys really married?"

Billy shook his head. "Nah, we're just friends. Comrades-in-arms, that kind of thing."

"You're hoping for something more, though, am I right?" Dee said with a little knowing smile.

"Maybe."

"I'd say definitely."

"I don't remember asking for your input."

After that, the two men lapsed into silence until the elevator reached its destination, the distinct chime announcing their arrival. Billy drew his gun from under his jacket again, and Dee caught him by the arm. "Hey," he hissed. "You can't just walk out there with a weapon drawn."

Billy glared at Dee, shaking off the detective's grip. "Trust me, Slick, you don't want me to walk out there without a weapon drawn."

Once again, Dee's reply was cut short as the sounds of shuffling footsteps reached the two men. Billy switched off the safety on his gun, tensing and stepping in front of Dee. "Oh hell...she was right..."

"What? What the hell's going on?" Dee asked, pushing Billy aside a little, then stopping dead in his tracks, as his eyes fell to where a nude corpse lay sprawled face-down in the middle of the corridor.

It looked almost as if it had been attacked by a pack of dogs. There was definite evidence it had been gnawed on, the bitemarks bearing the all too distinctive crescent-shaped pattern of human dentition. Blood had spread out under the body in a dark, almost black puddle. A puddle that had several smeared sets of footprints leading away from it. There was a dark figure crouched next to the corpse, hunched over it. It looked up as the elevator doors opened completely, and Dee gasped sharply, beginning to murmur every prayer he could still remember from his childhood.

The figure looking up at him was one very familiar to him, and yet at the same time, alien enough to be unrecognizable. Drake Parker stared at Dee through a single clouded white eye, flesh hanging off of him in ragged flaps. For the first time, Dee could see the severity of the attack that had killed the other detective. Great, gaping wounds had nearly split Drake's torso in half. His face had been mangled badly, deep cuts scoring the man's features.

He also had a ragged piece of the corpse he'd been kneeling near hanging from his slack jaws.

As Drake's eye fell on Dee, a low, hungry moan escaped him. Dee took an involuntary step backwards, backing up slowly until his back was touching the back of the elevator car. "D-Drake?" he said, his tone as incredulous as it was questioning. The only reply Dee received to his question was another hungry moan.

Christ on a cross. Billy's reaction to the sight of the zombie was instantaneous. He raised his weapon, and fired once. The gun went off with a pop that was deafening in the small, confined space. The shot caught Drake dead in the center of his forehead, and he dropped with a soft sigh. Blood oozed from the wound, and that was the last thing Dee saw as Billy slapped the button to close the door, and sighed softly.

When they reached the basement again, Billy led Dee out of the elevator, and looked at him critically. "You okay there, Slick?"

In spite of his lingering shock, Dee managed a glare at Billy. "Stop calling me that," he growled, "And tell me what thehell just happened! Why was Drake alive down there! And why did he look like a...a..."

"A zombie?" Billy supplied quietly. At Dee's nod, he replied. "He's...he was a carrier. That's what the T-Virus does."

"Jesus Christ..."

Billy managed a tiny, humorless smile, walking over to one of the small lockers that lined one wall of the tiny room. He checked through it on an impulse, and was rewarded when he saw the locker had been serving as a maintenance closet of sorts. A slightly more thorough search yielded him a heavy flashlight, a foot long Maglite. "Yeah. Now you know why I couldn't just tell you."

"You should have just told me."

With a nonplussed expression, Billy shook his head. "Sure, okay. And what the hell am I supposed to say? 'Hey, Slick, there are zombies in the basement. Wanna help me go put the corpses down if they happen to be walking around again?"

The man's tone was pissing Dee off, which actually pleased Billy to no end. Aside from the sport involved in getting under Dee's skin, Billy knew keeping Dee pissed would keep him thinking clearly instead of dwelling on what he'd seen. "Still..." he heard Dee say, although the protest was half-hearted at best.

"Look, I meant what I said. There are some things you just gotta see. Now, you just head up to your partner's new room while I go down after that phone, okay?"

Dee's eyes widened. "Are you out of your goddamned mind!"

"I thought we already went through this," Billy replied with a smirk, and then he was gone.

Dee looked around, and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. Hospital rules be damned. If they were going to let zombies wander around in the basement, they could damn well let him have a smoke. Or three. After taking a long drag off the cigarette, Dee exhaled the smoke and shook his head. That's it, Laytner. You've finally cracked. You're seeing zombies...time to check yourself into third floor.

Diana Spacey was feeling unusually thoughtful as she watched Rebecca check over a still unconscious Berkeley Rose. The whole situation thusfar was bizarre, with Dee's sudden appearance in Rose's room with Ryo. He'd told Diana immediately that she wasn't to let anyone in without his okay. Beyond that, he'd answered very few of her questions. Then there was the issue of Billy and Rebecca. From the sound of things, Dee had only met the two of them that day, and apparently using assumed names. That, in and of itself, didn't lend itself to inspire trust in the long since jaded FBI agent.

Still, even Diana had to admit that there was very little about Rebecca Chambers that was even the least bit threatening. She had an innocence about her that was much like Ryo's, and Diana supposed that was part of what had made Dee trust her. What little she had seen of the man, however, made her metaphorical hackles raise almost as much as her hormones.

There had been something dangerous about the man, who had identified himself as Billy. It was written in his very stance, and the way his eyes never stopped moving. Diana had seen it before. She decided he must be military. And if he wasn't currently, then he had been at one time. Diana had dealt with plenty of military men in her work. The fact that the Marines had a school in Quantico where she, herself, had trained for the FBI had encouraged that. Although they'd never socialized, it wasn't unusual for FBI trainees and Marine Officers-in-training to end up in the same bars. It meant that Diana had had ample time to watch the men. And during her time working actively, she'd met men from every branch of the service, and found them to all be fairly similar.

Breaking from her reverie, she looked at Rebecca, who had begun looking Ryo over again. "So are you really a doctor?"

"More of a field medic," Rebecca admitted with a shrug. "But I know enough to know what I'm looking for."

"And just what are you looking for?"

"Something that turns people into zombies..." came a voice from the door.

Rebecca and Diana both looked up and over toward the door as Dee stepped into the room. Immediately, Rebecca could tell that the detective had gotten his first look at a T-Virus zombie. He was pale, his hands shaking slightly as he shut the door behind himself. He reeked of cigarette smoke, and Rebecca wondered if he'd actually smoked inside the hospital, or if he'd gone outside before coming back to the room. Then, her brain latched onto something alarming that made her forget all about Dee or where he might have been smoking; Billy wasn't with Dee.

Before she could ask about it, though, Diana spoke. "What the hell are you talking about? Zombies?"

"I know how crazy that sounds, Diana," Dee said, raking a hand through his unruly hair. "But I swear to God, that's what I saw."

Rebecca nodded. "You saw a carrier. They're not actually zombies, at least not quite in the traditional sense. The T-Virus is a really adaptable, though. It seems to be able to infect corpses and essentially resurrect them. But I've seen its effects on a living subject, as well..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "Dee, where's Billy?" she said, interrupting her own train of thought.

"He's still down there. Sent me back up here, and said he was gonna go down after your phone..."

"He's going down there alone!" Rebecca gasped. "What the hell is he thinking!"

Dee shrugged, walking over to Ryo's bed and looked down at him, his expression softening. After a moment, he looked over at Rebecca. "So...he's gonnna be okay, right?"

Rebecca nodded and smiled a little. "Yes, I think he'll be fine. He's been injured, obviously, but I don't think that's why he's been out for so long."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, he's got injuries, but he honestly shouldn't be comatose like this. I think he's been drugged. I've seen Umbrella do that before, to keep potential witnesses quiet until they can be taken away and interviewed. If that's the case, then he should wake up soon...I figure that our moving Ryo probably disrupted their medication schedule."

Dee only nodded silently, his eyes on his partner once again. Concerned, Diana rose from her chair and walked over to him. "You okay?"

"It was Drake, Diana...that's who I saw..."

Diana blinked in surprise. "But...he was..."

"Dead, I know. We both saw him dead...but he wasn't dead down there...he was...eating...another body..."

Rebecca said nothing as she listened to the two of them speaking by the window. She let her gaze turn down to the unconscious man in the bed. Berkeley Rose, commissioner for the 27th precinct. He was an important man, both to the station, and to Diana. He'd been there for the attack, like Ryo had. Unlike Ryo, however, he hadn't come out of it nearly as well, and Rebecca wasn't quite sure how to break the news.

Berkeley Rose had the T-Virus.

Okay, and here's Chap 04! I hope ya'll enjoyed. More updates coming soon, I hope!