Recommended BGM:

1. Resident Evil (Remake) - Macabre Hallway

2. Resident Evil (1996) & Director's Cut (DualShock Ver.) - Second Floor Mansion

3. Resident Evil (1996) & Director's Cut (DualShock Ver.) - Meeting Rebecca

Chapter 7

The dim-lit corridor Chris had just entered contained all kinds of dusty furniture laying around. At least three dusty lampshades were turned on, spilling their dead orange-colored lighting throughout most of the hallway, though not enough to see much of the corridor's dark corners. Broken silver plates were set on top of the first cabinet to the left side, one of which was smashed onto the floor, as if someone had thrown it violently in a fit of rage.

No one seems to be home. Unless…

A faint, but murky smell hit him as he walked past some of the furniture, suddenly feeling extremely uneasy about it. A humanoid figure at the far end corner of the dark corridor came out of the shadows. The first thought that came to his mind was that it might've been the same person that did the gunshots earlier, but the figure looked clumsy, almost as if they were drunk and walking like a sleepwalker. Little did he know after a few seconds of staring at them that it wasn't anyone from STARS or any other ordinary person in general. They looked …almost completely dead. Their skin was completely pale and decayed with barely any signs of hair left. Their deathly stare was as white as those mutant dogs from earlier, its mouth showing signs of nasty gum disease of sorts. There were also signs of a yellow liquid around its loosened lip tissue, oozing some sort of acidic bile all over its open sores on its chin and down to its blood-stained clothing near its chest, the only sound coming from the person being that of an unsettling inhuman moan.

What the hell am I looking at!?

He aimed his gun at it, not knowing whether to engage or flee elsewhere. That is until he heard a pair of voices coming from the door right next to him. Without giving it a second thought, he quickly burst through the half-opened door, hoping he could finally see someone that wasn't what looked like the walking dead. His wish would come to be true in a quick instant. However, his gaze was met by a person, aiming directly at his face, not far from his current position. Below him was another dead, rotting humanoid creature, but this time, in a small pool of its own blood, apparently having been a target from the same person who was aiming at him with their weapon in hand, possibly thinking that Chris was another one of those deathly creatures walking around. The smell was more noxious than before, becoming extremely putrid that was comparable to that of rotten fruit and spoiled milk, with a deadly combination of a badly decomposed sun-bathed roadkill. He was forced to cover his mouth and nose for a moment before being able to say a word to the person who was still aiming at him.

"FREEZE!" The man quickly commanded, who was staring back at him, his tone filled with authority, but his eyes defining the complete opposite filled not with sovereignty or anger, but with both worry and sorrow. "BACK OFF BEFORE I— …wait you're not—"

"Chris, Chris Redfield from Alpha team," he replied back, still gasping from the sickening smell, not paying much attention as to who it really was in front of him. He quickly closed the door behind him so as to try and stop the shambling creature from entering the room they were in, trying not to throw up in the process as a result of the decomposing body underneath him. However, as soon as he found himself staring at the guy's chiseled features he's seen on him before, that's when he finally recognized who it really was.

"Mason…, right? Alex Mason from Bravo?"

"Oh shit," he said in response, putting his weapon down immediately. "Sorry man, I…" Mason felt both shock and embarrassment, tilting his head down in defeat, knowing he was about to kill one of his own STARS comrades, seemingly triggering some bad memories in the process as he looked down at the dead carcass lying in between them. "I'm just a little on edge because of everything that has just happened recently. Again, I'm—"

"Hey, it's alright," Chris replied calmly as he skipped over the cadaver, reaching closer to him, now being able to face him directly into his weary gaze. "My team and I just went through a lot recently as well. And we lost—" he paused for a moment. The last memory of his best friend, Joseph Frost, being violently eaten by those rabid dogs was still freshly etched inside his mind, driving him into a state of rage and sadness that was kicking in all at once. He finally gave a deep sigh before he could finish his sentence. "We lost Joseph. He was eaten alive by those mutant creatures outside just minutes after we arrived at the forest."

Mason didn't know what to say. He struggled to tell him anything to comfort him, but one thing immediately popped up in his mind right after.

"Woods and the others; are they here?" Mason's tone gave off a sense of desperation for answers, even if he ended up liking them or not.

Chris frowned. "Frank went looking for someone as we heard gunfire on the other side of the mansion. Then we heard gunshots here as well. So Jill and Barry went to go and see if Frank is alright himself as he ended up firing at what I'm assuming to be one of those dead-looking things along the way and then I went to go and investigate here. Wesker should still be waiting for us at the main hall, in order to regroup."

Mason's eyes grew wide open with sudden horror.

"Oh no… If you heard gunfire coming from the other side of the mansion, that could mean—"

He was about to tell him his part of the story before someone in the other corner of the L-shaped hallway began coughing and moaning in pain. Mason immediately went to the other side, crouching next to someone before Chris turned to the left and was able to recognize the young man's dirty blonde signature haircut and orange undershirt, who was lying helplessly on the ground, touching his swollen arm in great agony.

"Richard!" Chris gasped, shocked at the abnormally large bite marks across his whole left arm. "What the hell happened to you?!"

"Chris…" he said, his tone giving out implications of both intense struggle and the lack of strength he had to even give a complete conversation to anyone. "This place… …get your team… …out of here…" he gave a heavy grunt before continuing on. "Demons… …everywhere…!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Look at me!" Mason called for his attention, grabbing his cheeks with both hands to try to calm him down. "Don't talk. Save your strength." He then turned to Chris and continued to explain the situation to him, "When the chopper failed us and got out, we got attacked by those same 'mutant creatures' you mentioned and Kevin was the first casualty. Along the way, they also got Edward; got attacked from behind and I guess the infection got to him pretty fast. It killed him in less than ten minutes, with the combination of extreme blood loss to make it even worse. Then we lost Enrico somewhere in the forest before Rebecca and I got here. Not sure whether or not he or the others made it here. I told Rebecca to stay in a secluded room somewhere in the west area of the first floor and that I was gonna search for the other Bravo members." He quickly turned his head towards a struggling Richard, "That's when I found him like this, apparently bitten by a 'giant venomous snake'." He then immediately shook his head in a depressing manner. "I just hope it wasn't Rebecca who…"

Chris couldn't believe what he heard. There was a lot of information to swallow; Bravo got attacked, Edward and Kevin are confirmed to be dead, Rebecca could be in serious danger, Enrico, Forest, and Kenneth are still missing, and now Richard is slowly dying from a "giant snake's" venom.

What kind of nightmarish, freakshow are we all living in!?

"It's not just your ordinary… …big snake… …take my word…. …for it," said Richard, struggling to even take small breaths in between his sentences.

Chris was speechless. He didn't even know where to begin. Though he had one more question that sprouted inside his head the moment he first saw the seemingly walking dead humanoid creature.

"So… about those things," said Chris, not knowing the right words to describe what he saw earlier. "Have you found any clue as to what they are exactly or whatever happened to them?

"They're not exactly people anymore. I'll tell you that much," Alex said coldly, not even meeting his confused gaze as he was focusing on calming a dying Richard. "Still have no clue what the hell's going on around here, but apparently, the dead here are able to walk like it ain't nothin' - zombies are what I call'em."

"Zombies, huh?" Said Chris in confusion and Mason merely shook his head in a confident approval.

This place is freaking cursed. Now the dead are able to walk, much like how those ghoulish dead-looking hellhounds outside. What exactly happened in the Arklay areas?

Richard suddenly began coughing up blood as Mason held him up and helped him let it all out until he was now on his back, laying on the ground as before.

"Alex, we can't leave him like this," said a concerned Chris, trying to figure out their next move before Mason finally cut in.

"You're right," he said as he began to carry Richard, ignoring his own body aches as he did so, his adrenaline pumping all over his body. "We have to move him into that storage room that I told Rebecca to stay put. You take point and I'll tell you where to go. And remember, if you see any of those rotting freaks, shoot them in the head. It'll drop'em quicker."

Chris nodded in response as he slowly opened the door leading to the other dusty corridor he had just come in through.

"Got it!"

He looked sideways to make sure no surprises were going to pop up anywhere, save for a distant gurgling moan somewhere inside the dimly-lit corridor, most likely coming from the other side of the only corner on the right. He felt chills going down his spine as he heard the ungodly sound that he guessed could've most likely been the same zombie that was wandering around earlier.

My God… that's just…

He didn't even know the right words to describe their current situation but wasted no time pondering about any of it as his main priority was to help get Richard to safety. The first thing he thought was to quickly report to Wesker about their crisis before heading to the storage room where Miss Chambers should hopefully be still waiting. However, after entering the main hall and looking down below, he saw no sign of Wesker anywhere at all.

Chris shouted. "Wesker! You there!?"

"Maybe he ran into one of those dirtbags?" Mason guessed. He wasn't surprised that Wesker might've disappeared on them since he's seen firsthand that this whole mansion can swallow up people whole and lose all sorts of contact between one another.

"Not sure," said Chris, hesitantly. "But even if that was the case, why didn't we hear a single shot fired nearby?"

"Your guess is as good as mine…" he replied back, shrugging while still carrying Richard in his arms. "We better hurry though. Richie here ain't doing better by the minute."

Alex was right. Chris knew it'd be a waste of time to ponder where their captain went while having a teammate with them in desperate need of medical attention. He'd have to worry about Wesker's whereabouts later and so he went through the double doors that Alex told him to go through ahead of them.

The room they had just entered was the second floor of the dining room. The balcony spanned all around the room, with two suspended chandeliers in the center of the hall. There was also another dead corpse at the other end of the balcony, next to a set of doors that led elsewhere in the mansion, which Mason mentioned was one of the rotting freaks he'd killed along the way with Rebecca, just before they found the storeroom downstairs. As they passed the corpse, which its decomposing skin looked rather more crimson than the previous corpse he'd first seen on the other side of the mansion, he took a quick peek down below as there was no sign of Jill, Barry, or even Frank anywhere. However, gunshots were heard underneath them someplace else, suggesting it could've been either of them encountering one of those same things.

No!

But when he looked back at Alex in the eyes for a brief moment, he saw the dead corpse quickly rising up from behind him, as if it was heavily driven by their fresh scent of flesh and blood.

"Behind you!"

While still carrying Richard and without looking back, Mason quickly ran towards the door furthest away, signaling the younger man to follow him inside as Chris sprinted after him, both of them shocked at how the zombie was quickly catching up to them, seemingly filled with more fury and bloodlust than even the one Chris first saw before.

Chris closed the door behind them, trying to catch their breath as they tried swallowing what the hell they were seeing now.

"I killed it before!" Alex exclaimed in a growing tone of panic. "I swear! I killed it! I KILLED IT! WHAT THE FU–!"

The crimson zombie blew the door open with enough fury to break it partially into pieces, splinters flying across in small chunks as the zombie had its fuming eyes dead set on Chris, Alex, and Richard.

Another zombie came up right behind Alex by surprise, its peeling fingers grasping at him as it tried to lunge itself towards his jugular.

Rebecca Chambers has never been more afraid in all of the eighteen years of her life, not once. Minutes were turning into eternal hours as all she could do inside the small storage room was to listen to all the soft, scraping of rotten flesh, brushing against the door, trying to desperately think of a backup plan, her dread filling up with each passing minute. There was no lock on the door and she only had at least five rounds left inside her handgun, enough to dispose of at least one shambling creature roaming about, if she could get her shots right. Other than that, there was also a half-filled can of insect repellant as a last resort for self-defense.

Oh ha ha ha. What are you gonna do? Spray them with bug spray and hope they drop like flies? Ridiculous!

As far as she knew, when both she and Alex were exploring parts of the mansion itself, those creatures didn't feel any pain at all, let alone get affected by a gunshot wound virtually anywhere in their bodies, and from what she read on a note laying on the bedside in the room, it said something about the ghouls not dying completely, even after shooting them to death. Apparently, they can revive themselves over time, should enough time have passed and the only way to prevent them from coming back to life is to either incinerate their bodies or decapitate them completely, meaning that headshots don't even matter if they still have their entire head intact.

That's just perfect, isn't it?

She heard what could've been distant shots somewhere close by in the mansion and it wasn't just a few. There was about quite an unusual amount. She could've sworn she heard about an entire clip's worth of ammo.

My goodness… How many of them are there or better yet, how many shots would it take to kill one of them? I hope it's not what I think it is…

She hoped that her team was still alive somewhere and that they would find her here inside the room, waiting for Alex to come back and regroup together. Though as seconds and minutes flew by, her hopes were slowly fading away, even thinking to the point where she may even be the last one left alive. Without warning, the door suddenly flew open, seeing a couple of gasping figures hurdling inside and by quick reaction, she shot her gun at them, merely missing by an inch before she finally heard one of them yell something at her.

"Hey! It's us!" The figure in front yelled as another one was carrying someone else in their arms.

She immediately realized it wasn't monsters that were bursting inside, but rather Chris Redfield of Alpha team and her Bravo teammates, Alex Mason and—

"Oh my God! Richard!"

Rebecca was already reaching out into her field medical kit, her immense relief, embarrassment, and distraught, all taking over her at once. Upon seeing Richard's terrible state, she began fumbling with a small bottle of distilled water and a piece of dry cloth before applying it to Richard's huge wounds on his left arm, with Richard already put in bed by Mason. She wasn't going to let another teammate die in front of her this time. Not ever again. Meanwhile, Chris stood beside Mason and Rebecca, happy to see both of them alive and well, but saddened at the terrible sight of a bleeding Richard.

"These bite marks… are huge!" Exclaimed Rebecca, her eyes widened in deep horror as she began nursing him. "What happened to him?!"

"He was bitten by a giant venomous snake," Mason explained, his face overcome by worry. "This place has gone insane!" He slowly walked away, facing his back against his teammates, thinking back about what would've been the worst days of his life are nothing compared to what they are now going through. "This entire charade of a shitshow doesn't compare to anything I've previously experienced in my whole life."

Chris and Rebecca didn't know what else to say, but couldn't even begin to start thinking about what they have gone through all in one night.

As Rebecca began finishing up cleaning Richard's wounds, she immediately grabbed one of the red-colored serums, put it inside an empty vaccine she happened to carry in her personal medical kit, and injected it near his injured arm for it to take effect faster. After bandaging up his whole arm, she then questioned the duo on how much worse had it gotten out there.

"How many of those ghouls have you seen out there?" She asked curiously, half-hoping they didn't answer her question.

"It's gotten worse, much worse…," said Mason, not trying to also sound like a pessimistic jerk either. "You remember when we killed some of those zombies roaming about, right?" She nodded at him. "One of them came back to life and they were nothing like those slow-walking freaks. They were more agile, being able to run just as fast, if not, faster than any of us. Their skin turned to a crimson-like state. Their eyes were like nothing I've ever seen, their hands and feet having huge grown claws, and they will stop at nothing to pursue you, even slashing other zombies who get in their way."

"It was as if a demon possessed one of them…" said a distraught Chris, still looking somewhat pale from what they just encountered upstairs right outside of the room they were in. "Like how is that even possible that things like that can even exist?"

Mason shook his head, not knowing what else to tell him as everything that has happened is all new to him as well. The murders in Raccoon City were deeper than they all thought. Something was seriously wrong with the entire place.

Rebecca was still disturbed about everything herself, but these "powerful zombies" were probably something that would keep her awake all night long. Not that she could imagine herself sleeping in a mansion filled with monsters all around, but it was definitely something that would keep anyone awake without any real sleep.

"That would explain this note that I saw earlier," she said nervously as she took out the note from her side-pack and handed it over for Mason and Chris to look at. "The note there, mentions that no matter how you put them down, they will slowly come back to life over time unless you either burn their bodies to a crisp or destroy their head completely. Headshots will put them down quicker, but the regeneration process will still continue, albeit a bit slower than normal."

Mason grunted loudly in frustration. "Well, that's just fuckin' great, isn't it?! Where do you suppose we get some fuel, matches, lighters, or hell, a flamethrower around here?"

"I have a lighter right here," said Chris as he took out his personal lighter from his left pocket. Although he'd smoke every now and then, he was never much of a heavy smoker, all thanks to his younger sister, Claire, for intervening every time he'd smell like a walking cigarette around her. "But uh…no fuel or kerosene around. By the way, how's Richard doing?"

Rebecca turned around and sat next to Richard, examining his bandaged wounds as he was seemingly now resting.

"He should be alright," she replied, feeling slightly more relieved than before. "He's fast asleep now. I think it's better if we leave him here to rest for some time. The serum seems to be kicking in as he is no longer experiencing heavy amounts of shallow breaths anymore."

Mason and Chris nodded in unison. Richard had already gone through so much. It was better for them to leave him in Rebecca's care. After all, she was the only medic on the entire STARS team who apparently knew her medicine and chemical knowledge well enough than anyone in the room combined. Who'd be better off with the medic job other than her at this point?

"So," Rebecca said as she turned her head towards the duo in front of her, mainly putting her attention on Chris, "Where's the rest of Alpha team? Did they make it here too?"

Chris didn't want to worry Rebecca any more than she already was. So he omitted the details of Joseph's death, still feeling shaken up about it.

"We landed here safely, but Brad decided to be the coward he's always been, left us for dead, and after arriving here at the mansion for refuge, we all split up and now I think we're all lost inside this— …insane place to say the least. Wesker was supposed to stay in the main hall in order to regroup, but…" Chris tilted his head to the side as if checking out the door on his back and hoping one of his teammates would somehow manage to show up at any second. "I'm sure they're all still here somewhere…"

Outside the door, low, guttural wails from one of the monsters they somehow managed to dodge were heard and everyone in the room stood silent, their expressions growing grim with each passing second.

Rebecca shuddered. "So… what do we do now?"

"Chris and I should head out and look for the others, while you stay here and care for Richard in the meantime." Mason sighed and looked down at his weapon, ejecting his magazine to see that he didn't have much ammo left, and remembered that Rebecca had a similar problem as well. "Chris, you wouldn't happen to have any spare ammo, would you?"

Chris frowned as he checked his weapon and realized he only had seven rounds left.

That damn crimson shitstain took a hell of a lot of bullets, I must say.

"I uhh… just have seven rounds to spare. Hopefully, we don't run into those powerful versions of those things out there."

"You said it, man," said Alex as he cocked his gun, preparing himself for the worst once they got out of the room. "C'mon, let's go look for any more of our team and regroup if we can."

"Oh! I forgot!" Rebecca exclaimed loudly, briefly forgetting that Richard was asleep next to her before reaching out to the only desk in the room. She opened the drawer and took out two full magazines, giving one to each, alongside a golden key she managed to find hidden underneath the desk, handing it over to Alex. "That should temporarily solve your low-ammo problem for now and that key has a sword engraved on it. Not sure if it'll be of any use, but just in case you ever need it."

Mason and Chris nodded, but Mason immediately raised an eyebrow, fazed by the fact that she needed the ammo more than they did as she would have to protect Richard, in case any of those creatures came barging in somehow.

"Wait, but aren't you gonna—"

Rebecca grabbed Richard's gun, ejecting the magazine, and showed it to him. "I think I'll do just fine with his gun if at any point I run out of ammo with the one I have." She then pointed at the shelf next to them. "Plus, there's also that half-empty can of insecticide that I can use to blind them temporarily and maybe be able to shove them out of here and move that giant trunk next to it over at the corner if I can. You know… to block the entrance, if necessary."

"You are very resourceful for your age, you know that, right?" Chris commented, surprised at how Rebecca is able to handle their current situation quite well, considering the circumstances.

Alex nodded in agreement. "You should've seen her when we first got inside the mansion. Not once did she lose self-sense of control when we got surrounded by those freaks inside here."

Rebecca smiled back at them, feeling happy that her teammates knew what she was capable of and did not treat her as some kind of helpless kid like most of her age, who wouldn't even bother doing or facing half of the things she's experienced during the whole night by far.

There was another soft thump at the door and her smile faded. She was definitely getting experience out in the field, alright.

Chris smiled gently, apparently noticing the uncertainty in her expression. "We won't be long. We got enough ammo, thanks to you."

She nodded, forcing herself internally to relax. She was definitely scared but letting them see it wasn't going to help matters either. They were most likely just as scared as well.

Both Chris and Mason walked to the door. Mason continued with the conversation before leaving for good.

"Block the entrance as you've planned. And make sure to keep eyes and ears open in case either of us return or anyone from either team comes knockin' or walkin' nearby. We'll make sure to give a yell so you don't confuse us with those things out there."

Rebecca nodded in return once again and with a quick final smile, Mason turned the door handle with one hand, the other keeping his weapon raised as Chris held his own weapon with both hands, ready to rush out as the door opened, both now moving out into the hall. She closed the door behind them and leaned against it, listening.

After a few minutes of silence had passed, with only the sound of faint footsteps from either her teammates or zombies themselves, she moved the old trunk to block part of the door, edging it directly in front of the hinges so she could move it out of the way just as easily. She leaned against it on the edge, trying to clear her thoughts as she started looking directly at a sleeping Richard, wondering how long will this whole night even last.

Sighing, she grabbed a handful of papers from the only shelf in the room that related to some chemical formulas, grabbed a chair nearby, and sat next to Richard, reading as she waited for time to pass.