Author's note: I'm feeling generous today so I thought that I should update and I'd much rather do this than homework. Okay, so by now you should know who Vivica is, so if you're the tiniest bit interested, Foggy Brains and myself have created a website that is currently in the works, all about her. So far it's only the homepage but more will be added on, hopefully after I'm done updating all my stories. Thanks to everyone that reviewed and a little shout out to Luna-Starr: ADVENT IDIOTS ROCKS!
Crimson Ribbons
Chapter eight
Like stepping into a beehive
He didn't need to be able to see at the moment to know that they were walking further and further into Umbrella's secret labs, ones where they created monstrous viruses and deadly ideas. It was impossible to see walking down yet another pitch-black hallway yet they where more than lucky to not have bumped into anything grotesque. In other words: the walking dead.
Barret and Michael were only a foot behind him. Leon could hear one of his friends from the new Raccoon City disaster digging into something, most likely a pocket of some sort. The blond was then blinded with a neon white light, coming from a miniature flashlight that Barret held between his teeth.
With more visibility, the three mercenaries were able to see what lay ahead. There wasn't anything but blood coated walls and puddles of ice cold water. Nothing was moving around and no noises could be heard. At least they had the luxury of not having to put up a fight.
The hallway took a sharp turn, then another and another. Leon could not see a single door down this stretch of the factory. He guessed that it was probably abandoned or not used, but there was still the possibility that somewhere down the blood stained hallways, a lab could be hiding away from the others and maybe even Wesker.
As to why he thought that the blond man would be cowering in a secret lab was beyond him, but Leon had nothing else to look forward to. He should have known better. Wesker was probably plotting their demise while eventing yet another virus, one stronger than the last. Or maybe he was waiting for them right around the next corner. He didn't know but what he did know is that if they ever happened upon Wesker, the unnaturally strong man would die.
Case closed.
From behind, Barret coughed loudly. It made Leon's eye twitch just from getting himself worked up about what could be hiding behind the next corner. He ignored how loud it really was and pressed on, determined to find the end of what seemed to be a never ending hallway.
The water dripping from the ceiling splashed onto his pale face. Leon turned around to make sure that Michael and Barret were still behind him and as he turned around, the bright light piercing his eyes. When he could see past the black circles that had formed in his line of vision, Leon could see that the two men were standing shock still, guns raised to the ceiling just above his head.
Tilting his head up as slowly as he could muster, Leon got his first good glance at what clung effortlessly to the ceiling. It was then that the blond realized that water hadn't been the thing that had splashed on his face, but saliva mingled with blood. His arms instinctively rose, index finger lightly resting over the trigger of his shotgun.
Soaked with blood and as naked as you could get, a thing which they all guessed had once been a human stared at Leon with intensely red colored eyes, the whites no longer visible. Whatever it was must've been hungry for it's ribs were submerged from it's yellowish-white skin and the blood that had splashed onto Leon's face wasn't that of another creature or human, but his own. A pulsing bite mark bubbled and burst every few seconds, obviously inflicted by himself.
A creature that eats it's own body, Leon thought as the threat to his life became much greater when the thing slowly began to displace itself from the ceiling. What will Umbrella come up with next?
Barret and Michael aimed their guns at the creature but Leon lifted one of his hands, motioning for them to hold their fire. He watched as the grotesque form inched closer and closer to him, always sticking to the wall for support. When it finally set what used to be it's feet on the ground, Leon slowly pretended to lower his weapon, understanding completely that the creature saw his shotgun as the threat it was supposed to be.
"What the hell is he doing?" Barret whispered to Michael.
"I don't know, watch for yourself."
The abomination let out a hissing noise that ended up sounding like a choking cat when the eerie noise ripped out of it's throat. With incredible speed, the creature was standing before Leon, waiting to slice his head off when it suddenly stopped. It hissed again but the double barrel shotgun was thrust into it's mouth before another hiss could be issued.
"Choke on this."
Leon pulled the trigger once, sending two shotgun shells into it's mouth. The slugs that tore through the flesh were an inch long, strong enough to take a bear out. Whatever pellets that had been stuffed into the plastic shells had either entered the creature's body or the wall behind it. Dead once again, the abomination collapsed in a bloody heap onto the cold, wet floor.
Not waiting to see what would happen afterwards, Barret and Michael followed Leon, stepping around the creature when they ran past.
By now the three men had tired themselves out. The hallways didn't seem to want to stop being so frustrating and curvy, the awful stench of death had finally shown itself, and the secret lab Leon had presumed would be somewhere near, was nowhere to be seen.
An emergency light flickered on and off overhead. Still strapped tightly into her chair, Vivica thought she might as well make a counting game out of it and complain to Wesker how much the lighting in here sucked. Then she was going to curse his life some more and if at all possible, give him a nice black eye as a thanks for 'leaving me locked in a lab with zombies swarming around outside'.
Satisfied, Vivica allowed herself to grin a lopsided grin. She knew the chances of getting out of here were like Wesker willingly taking off his sunglasses. There wasn't anything for her to do and nobody to bitch at. The least Wesker could've done was leave behind a video game console and a nice big television with a fifty inch screen.
Oh how her life sucked right now.
Vivica peered over to the side and listened as nails dragged across the surface of the door, as if the owner of them was trying to claw it's way inside, which it probably was. She just reached five hundred, five hundred times the light had flickered off for only a matter of seconds and the teenage tyrant was getting closer and closer to having a breakdown from boredom.
"Asshole," she muttered as another minute passed by inside her mind. "I'm just going to have to sleep this away then I'll have more strength back and we'll just have to see how much power it'll take to break these god damn straps!"
Her eyes began to droop, even though she wasn't all that tired. She let silence replace the sounds of clawing and slipped into a world before she just been 'Frost'.
Warm sunlight seeped through dark blue curtains and shone onto a sleeping body. It was covered in a deep red blanket and it's head was tucked under a bloated white pillow. The person under the covers stirred and several strands of long, light brown hair spilled off of the bed and onto the floor.
There was a knock on the door that was meant to stir the slumbering person out of their sleep, but it failed.
A woman in her early forties opened the wooden door and quietly walked across the carpeted floor. She stopped at the bed where the person rested. Bending down to pick up two text books that were left forgotten, the woman raised them over the sleeping person and slammed them against each other.
That did it.
The blanket flew into the air and landed on the woman's head and the pillow shot across the small room. The long brown hair shot up, off the ground as the person sat up and glared at the older person who had rudely awoken her.
"What was that for?"
"Hurry up and get dressed."
"What time is it?"
"It's twenty after one and you missed both breakfast and lunch."
The person flopped back down into her bed and buried her face into it. Her mother tried to talk her out of not getting up but the girl in the bed only swatted at the person who was annoying her, missing terribly and hitting nothing but thin air.
The middle aged woman grabbed onto the outstretched arm and pulled back as hard as she could and brought the dozing person completely awake once she landed roughly on the floor.
"You have ten minutes."
Vivica stood up and looked out of her window that gave her a pretty good view of the neighborhood surrounding their two story house.
It was well into autumn. The leaves were turning different colors and littered the streets and sidewalks. People were beginning to wear warmer clothes as the days became colder. Today it was warm outside and the wind was scarce.
Tossing on some loose clothing and throwing her blanket and pillow back on her bed without even putting them in the right place, she made her way out of her room and into the hallway.
The walls up here were wood. Not fake plastic wood, put the real deal. They had been stained a deep red color and stretched all the way down the hall until it hit the stairs. Vivica was at them in an instant and was running down them when she almost crashed into her younger brother.
"Watch where you're going," he said as Vivica flew by and went straight to the kitchen to eat something because her stomach was making funny noises.
Her mom was there and had already set out a bowl of cold cereal for her to eat. The stainless steel spoon was raised out of the bowl with a huge amount of cereal on it and was getting ready to be plunged into Vivica's mouth when her mother started questioning her again.
"What did you do to Shaun?"
Vivica's answer was muffled by the cereal and some of it even flew out of her mouth while she tried to speak.
"Chew with your mouth closed," her mother said before turning around and making her way towards the front door and yelled back to Vivica. "You're babysitting your brother, your dad and I are going out."
Vivica rolled her eyes and mumbled something before she slid off of the chair she had been sitting on and went into the living room where she planned on watching cartoons for the rest of the afternoon until her parents got back.
Vivica sprang awake, wondering how she had wrapped herself in such a world that she didn't even know existed. The straps bit painfully into her arms and her sides, causing a light amount of pain to jolt throughout her body. She sighed heavily and lay back down, wondering how the hell she was going to get out of this wreck.
Just like he had hoped before, a single white door made itself visible among the mess of blood splatter. All three men entered with extreme caution, raising their guns so anything that decided to lunge towards them was quickly put out of it's misery.
They checked behind every desk, every chair, every piece of furniture and found no signs of movement and smelt no distinct odor either. Leon told Barret and Michael to guard the outside of the room while he investigated, looking for something about the new creatures and how to destroy them.
Placing his gun down, Leon went through all the pouches attached to his belt and every pocket he could feel in the dark until he found a small flashlight. When he had the small object in his hands, Leon switched it on and began his search through the papers.
No evidence had been left behind about any sort of creature. Leon cursed his luck until he happened upon a rather large file with bold letters on it reading: 'Vivica'. The deceased teenager's name caused his curiosity to rise and he couldn't help himself but reach for the folder.
What did Umbrella want with her anyways?
Inside it Leon recovered many photos, obviously taken while she was captured. He flipped through and studied each one, becoming more and more disgusted at what Wesker had done to somebody that had only fought to avenge her family and friend's death.
Leon picked up the next picture and dropped it, disbelief etched deeply upon his face. There, in the picture, stood the exact same girl that he remembered walking into only days before they
invaded the lab. She looked exactly like Vivica and even had the same eyes, even thought they were lighter than before. But there was no way she could be alive.
Leon grabbed his gun and was out of the room before the picture landed on the ground, trying to convince Barret and Michael that they had to hurry and search throughout all the labs and end Umbrella's twisted games they played with human lives and the life of a teenager who had taken her own life to save him.