Hello, everyone! Here is the final chapter in this story. T-H90 searches for a way to escape, and has to face a few more challenges along the way. There is also a Resident Evil reference or two dropped in here for you to find.
Not much else to say, really. There will be more Author's Notes after the story itself.
DISCLAIMER: The "Resident Evil" game series is developed and published by Capcom. The author, in collaboration with the user "RT86", owns the custom characters and elements mentioned in this story.
Onward!
[ROCKFORT MANSION RUINS]
[A FEW HOURS LATER]
Rotting corpses meander on two or four legs. Sunken, gray eyes devoid of life search for the living. Rotting teeth gnash into human bodies, no respect given for the choking gurgles and terrified screams of the victims. A great fog shrouds the thoughts of each individual piece in place of a single set of directives; Search. Infect. Spread.
David feels this fog's effects over his eyes and tries to blink it away. It does not fade so easily, hanging at the corners of his vision and constantly creeping inward. Its hold is not permanent, but the extended effort of scattering the fog away builds with each new door he opens, each new scene of methodical organization or carnal butchery. The Umbrella Corporation's two sides are shown to David as he wanders what used to be the home of Lord Alfred Ashford. He doesn't like either side alone; putting them together is only a further aggravation.
Conflict grows thicker the further up into the mansion he goes. Individual or small groups of forces from either side engage their enemies in brutal melees. David does not feel the humans here require his help; he had not known these people when he was a human, so why should he care about them now?
Find the traitors. Kill the traitors. But where are the traitors? How long has the traitor's attack been happening? How much of the devastation and death David sees is from the people he was ordered to kill? These questions linger in his thoughts as solid points against the primal senses that push his mutated body towards different sights and sounds. As he sees more and more of his home – "home" being a generous word – be destroyed, he feels a growing urgency to escape this island.
This brings several more questions to bear: the vehicles Umbrella has here; how dangerous it is to take them; how long you would need to get somewhere; where that somewhere might be. These unanswered concerns race each other around and around David's thoughts and prove useful in keeping the T-Virus's effects from consuming him completely.
I need to get out of here, David tells himself, moving faster when he sees natural sunlight at the end of a branching pathway. His enhanced heart thunders as he smells even more blood in the air, mixing with burning wood in his nostrils. When he fully steps outside he sees the smoke from nearby fires stretching into a clear daytime sky. The Sun and its light provide no beauty, only highlighting the blood and guts spilled across ornate carvings and sculptures of a small outdoor gallery. The stone images did not react to their new appearances, some sporting crimson robes while others had limbs blown apart from explosions.
David hears audible groans getting louder as he walks through the gallery. As he reaches the corner three infected humans, moving and groaning like the classic horror-movie zombies, shamble as a group from the opposite direction. Lacking any greater coordination than not bumping into or tripping over each other, they each wear an Umbrella trooper's uniform with different bite and gouge marks. The infected see David at about the same time he notices them, but he does not stop or slow down for them.
The zombies look at David with some semblance of intelligence behind their fogged eyes, the T-Virus that made them both connecting at an instinctual level. David does not feel this connection, so he feels confused when the zombies move to either side for him to pass by. They do not attack or menace him as they do the uninfected; when he looks back at them, they stand together and silently watch him leave. Why would they do this for him?
The virus in David's brain provides an answer after a moment's consideration: The strong command the weak. We are strong. David takes this answer as truth, unable to conjure contrary evidence. Still, it feels weird to be this strong after working as a "weaker" person for several years.
We will learn. David sees the wreckage of a helicopter in the distance, the vehicle burning on a helipad near the sparkling ocean. We will grow stronger. Human figures stand near the helipad as the wind carries the sound of gunfire to David's ears. Between the mansion and the helipad is a curving path large enough for a jeep to pass through, moving around various large trees too great to cut down. As a delivery driver David drove along several paths like this one, and this path leads to what might be a way off the island.
He starts running down the path.
[A FEW MINUTES LATER]
Wooden platforms rest above the ocean water of a relatively well-hidden dock with attached helipad to the island's south. The poles that hold the platforms up sink deep below the ocean's surface as the pounding waves slam against them incessantly. The burning helicopter becomes more of a landmark now than a beacon, a sign of what the traitors have done to this place. David emerges from between two trees and into a small battlefield already filled with the same conflict as the mansion had.
There are more zombies here, but they are joined by other infected creatures. Several large dogs with cuts on their bodies race between overturned crates with short barks and high-pitched yelps, slobbering as they run faster than the zombies. At the back, moving amongst the zombies but not with them, is a gaunt humanoid giant taller than David and sporting a single extremely engorged arm. At the end of that arm is a hand as big as David's head, fingers dragging against the ground as its tiny head bobs lazily back and forth.
The gunfire from before is louder, more precise in David's ears. He hears steady rat-tat-tats of machine guns, broken every so often by louder booms or sharp cracks from weapons he cannot see. All the infected here travel towards the gunfire, the scent of blood, dead flesh and burning metal mixing with a salty tang from the sea. Leaving those creatures to fight by themselves, David looks for a way to escape. He searches along the wooden platforms for a motorboat, a smaller helicopter, anything like that. A few metal boxes big enough for him to stand inside have nothing but crates in them, some of them open and their crates used to try and block the path toward the gunfire.
David quickly runs out of options after what feels far too short a time. He resorts to skirting near the gunfire for what he wants. By now the infected he saw before have all moved further forward, some of their number dead on the ground. The infected dogs David sees ooze black blood from their transformed flesh; the upper half of a zombie tries to crawl on mangled hands towards one of the dogs, mouth gaping open with the urge to eat.
David looks on this and feels only contempt for the zombie's hunger. All it knows is to move and eat like an animal. He is more than that, even if the same power inside him also drives this cadaver to act beyond death and without legs to walk on. A motion with his claws cuts the zombie's head from its torso. Its struggles end after that, and David leaves the twice-dead body to rot on its own. Both sides of his new mind agree that this was the right thing to do, and then discard it in favor of what is happening around the next corner.
David passes the helicopter's wreck, the metal still alight as some fuel inside it readily cooks the outer shell to keep itself alive. There is no possibility of using it to escape. With that option gone, David goes back to the group and follows their progress. The gunfire still comes from around the corner, the chance for escaping still over there. But the way there is paved with death, as David sees with one shambling zombie amongst the group.
As David observes, the zombie attempts to turn across the corner around a large rectangular shipping container and to a smaller corner of the docks hidden behind a sharp slope. Instantly a hail of bullets slam into its chest, staggering it and scattering ichor along with bits of flesh. At the next moment one of the loud cracks sounds and the zombie's head explodes in a cloud of black blood and bone fragments. The other infected pay no heed to the headless body, pushing it into the water as they try to do what it failed to achieve.
David watches a few more zombies fall to the unseen assailants before his curiosity grows too strong to ignore. He advances into the remainder of the group, pushing aside the one-armed giant as he gets up to the corner. The giant looks at him with some spark in its small eyes that David takes to heart. It knows he is stronger than itself without doing anything. The strong command the weak.
David sees several Umbrella soldiers standing in a line, guns aimed at him. Bullets instantly impact him but do not push him back. After a few moments of this the soldiers realize what they are shooting at and stop firing. David cannot see their faces through their helmet's visors, but the lab-coat wearing man just behind them is instantly recognizable. The old scientist "Simeon" blatantly stares at David with wide eyes as his face turns white. So, he remembers David from before. He might know a way to leave the island.
The sharp crack of an unseen gun sounds just before David feels something sharp pierce his left shoulder. Simeon starts shouting to a space behind and above him immediately afterwards, his words not clear enough for David to hear against the groans of the infected pressing into his back. They all want to push forward, driven by a mindless desire to reach these living people and spread their contagion. He holds them at bay for now, but they will break past him eventually.
Another crack rings out across the docks. David hears the hum of a bullet fly very close to his ear, and then rip open some part of a zombie just behind him with a loud squelching noise. He sees the glint of a black object rest just inside the broken upper window of a two-story warehouse farther back from the soldiers.
"T-H90!" Simeon's voice shouts across the docks towards David. "I am Simeon Belwert, co-head of this facility's science team. I am one of your creators! You will obey me!"
David does not answer. Simeon's frown deepens slightly but he maintains his composure as he points towards him – no, to the infected behind him, the ones he holds back and whose moans grow in volume. He feels more of them clump together, the large giant's groans standing out less than before.
"Kill these infected behind you," Simeon orders David while still pointing at the near-mindless masses behind the Tyrant. "Keep us safe from these monsters!"
David looks at this man, one of the people who tested his new body. He remembers him standing beside Doctor Schrovol as the head of the team. What he said just now confirms that status is correct. The determined glare Simeon sends David confirms a much darker fact, too; that Simeon only thinks of David as a tool, something to be used until not needed and then put away until needed again. Doctor Schrovol had thought the same way, but she also had an attraction towards him that could not be suppressed.
The smiling face of that doctor, that woman who grew to love her work, flashes before David's eyes as he stares into Simeon's face. Compared to her, Simeon appears less powerful and commanding over him. Love, a human emotion, holds sway over David even as he realizes what he is thinking. He does not want to obey this man, fighting against the urge to satisfy the demands of his superiors.
He is not stronger than me. Not anymore.
Simeon shouts more words at David, most likely some command or demand for him to carry out, but he does not focus on the words. The soldiers keep their guns trained on him, a sign they still fear him. They might even kill him if given the chance. He doesn't want to die, not now or ever! He is too strong to die, stronger than a human, than this man who treats him like a toy!
David's lips peel back to reveal his fangs. The T-Virus pumps faster through his veins, sending energy and strength and power to his organs. The heavy fog spreads over him and he welcomes it, washing himself in the primal urges and the whispering commands he shares with the other infected. For a few heartbeats he feels the presences of each of the "monsters", tiny fires that smolder inside the greater sea of biological impulses.
Infect. Spread. Become stronger!
David roars, a thunderous noise that rolls around in his chest before it leaps from his mouth. The sound ignites the other infected into action. The one-armed giant roars in response, and then the rest of the horde howls. They understand what David wants more than the humans do. David feels their bodies and minds against him, moving with him as he steps forward. Then, he charges towards the humans with his new speed and strength.
The horde acts as one with their Tyrant. Infected dogs scamper by and around his feet, barking furiously as slobber flies from their open jaws. The thundering footfalls of the one-armed giant come from close behind him, the creature surprisingly fast for its misshapen appearance. Zombies try to keep up as Simeon shouts a command to the soldiers in front of him, the remaining toys he has left to order around.
The guns add their force to the horde's general noises. Bullets impact flesh or shred through skin. Two of the soldiers wield louder and more explosive shotguns compared to their fellow fighters. The shotguns make the dogs and zombies fly backwards and their bodies tear in half by the force of the buckshot. David, at the front of the line, takes a shotgun blast straight-on in the upper chest and it winds him, making him stop as pain spreads through his body. But it is only a temporary pain, his blood and muscles recovering quickly and creating extra layer of skin to protect his vitals.
David moves towards the shotgun-wielding soldiers first. One of them sees him coming as he is loading more shells into the gun. The sight of a Tyrant charging at him causes him to drop his shells and fumble in his motions. He snaps the gun up and fires once more without targeting, hitting David in his protected chest. This time David does not slow down from the force, the pain he feels instead pushing him to strike before he feels worse.
David swings his larger arm down in an arc. His claws slice through the armor with mild resistance, and then the inner skin without any at all. The man lets out a gurgling scream as he is shredded into three pieces from one blow. His gun falls to the ground as blood flies out of his body and onto David's skin. The hot liquid, the copper scent of spilt blood, shuts David's higher thinking out. Instinct takes over completely; the T-Virus guides him along with the other infected as he whirls to face the rest of the firing squad.
Kill! Kill them all! It does not matter if these humans that wear Umbrella Corporation uniforms are the traitors or loyal members like David once was. They are hurting him, and they are keeping him from completing his mission. For that they must be killed, and he goes to this task with primal fury. He feels pain and pleasure as hits to his brain, his body moving as an extension of the virus's will.
"Fall back!" a voice yells out amidst the carnage. "Get to the boats!"
David breaks out of his furious trance, realizes he is standing over the headless body of a soldier even as an infected dog digs its teeth into the torn neck, and thinks on what he just heard. Boats… that's what I need. A glance around the battlefield reveals several dead infected, including the one-armed giant, around the bodies of all but two soldiers and Simeon. One of these two holds a very long rifle that he suspects fired those powerful cracks that blew the zombie's head off before.
David moves to follow them with determined steps, leaving the horde to feast as they choose. The human trio moves towards the last warehouse on the docks, whatever is inside kept in there by a metal gate that takes the place of a front door.
The other soldier running with Simeon, all of them going on the wooden platforms to the final warehouse, first notices David coming. "The Tyrant is still following us!" he shouts to the others as they all continue running. David feels the wooden boards beneath his feet bend under his weight but does not care about them breaking.
"Then stop it!" Simeon yells without looking back. "Use the grenades!" The soldier pulls out an egg-shaped object from his belt and flings it at David. The object explodes just as it hits the ground by David's feet. Fire and shrapnel fly into him, making him cry out as he feels his flesh burn up. He stumbles to one side, almost falling into the water but righting himself by flailing his arms around.
The soldier repeats "Shit!" over and over as David sees him fire his gun wildly. Bullets fly around David without doing much damage. The second soldier drops to the ground and readies his longer rifle to fire. Not wanting to feel that much pain from a single shot again, David lunges towards the two as his legs spontaneously grow extra layers of muscle.
The soldier who threw the grenade is shoved aside, falling into the water and out of David's interests. He then crosses his arms in front of his chest, tilts his body down and keeps his hands in front of his face. Not able to see in front of him, David feels a bullet smash into his hands and break a few fingers. He then gets on top of the soldier and dives at where he thinks he is. The full weight of his body slams into the wooden platform, breaking the wooden boards and crushing something softer and squishier as well.
The water feels cold to David's body, freezing him up for a few moments as he sinks beneath the surface. It takes that much time for him to remember swimming as a human child, and his new body is much more robust and heavier than what he remembers having. His want for oxygen makes him move harder against the water's pull, urgent to breathe air again. A series of metal bars graze against his back as he swims under them, moving by a dark object bobbing on the surface. He then breaks the surface and takes a giant breath of air in a darker space than he was last in.
Footsteps come from wooden platforms above David's head. He frantically moves his arms and legs to keep his head above water as Simeon walks by right above him. The Tyrant's muscles strain as he reaches for the boards and grabs them, but Simeon is already past him by the time he gets a good grip. He pulls a few boards out of the platform to create a hole for him to climb through. It takes him three attempts to pull himself out of the water again.
Simeon curses as David rests for a second on the platform. "You need to obey me, damn it! I helped make you with Millicent!" David looks up towards Simeon's voice to find him standing near the back end of a small white boat with two levels of floors. Several instruments and equipment along the top and sides are not important to David; all that matters is the fact this is a boat. A boat he can use to escape. And Simeon is about to board it and escape instead.
Simeon shakes his head, keeping his eyes on David as he moves to the opposite end of the boat. "She always liked you, too much to be normal. I figured she would release you when shit hit the fan." He then puts a hand on his chest. "I want to live, okay? I want to get off this damn rock and live free from this mess. I won't kill you if you let me leave."
David stands up, heaving breaths as his anger at Simeon comes back to him. He lies, the virus whispers in his brain, and David accepts this without question. Simeon has treated the soldiers like objects, believing he is more powerful. Without these people to protect him, he is just one man. David is more than that now.
With a single bound, David jumps onto the boat's deck, slipping on the polished surface as the boat sinks a bit deeper into the 's cry of, "No! Please!" goes unheeded by David as he leaps at him with bared claws and fangs. He grabs Simeon in his hands as he breaks through the wooden floor and into the water once again. Simeon thrashes about, trying to escape until David rips him in half. The man's face freezes in a screaming expression, bubbles trailing out of his mouth as blood flows into the water. David lets the two halves go to float on their own as he swims back to the surface.
David feels some satisfaction for personally ending Simeon's life. He used me as a toy to please someone. Now I broke him like a toy to please me.
Breaking the surface once more and climbing up the hole he made earlier on the platform again, he kneels on the dock and rests. The battle is over. He has won. The small boat still floats nearby, untouched by the attack and subsequent destruction. It is his way out; he can take it anytime. He can take it right now, in fact.
No. Not just yet. There is still something he should do. Something in his heart calls him back to the mansion one final time before he can escape with the confidence what he has done as a Tyrant is correct.
The Sun is higher in the sky as David moves back into the mansion's corridors. He sees more infected creatures walking around in their search for uninfected flesh. He enters the artificially lit corridors without incident, the infected in his path letting him pass on their own accord. They recognize he is stronger and obey him. He likes that the more often it happens, enjoying the power he never had in his human life. No humans wander around here, either dead or escaped by some method he has not seen. This allows him to focus on his desire, calling him back to the deepest levels of the mansion.
The first real obstacle to David's desire comes in the form of another infected – another Tyrant, in fact, stalking the halls and moving its head slowly around as if searching for something. It has the same grey, naked skin and human-shaped body as David, but with white eyes instead of red and layers of hardened, rock-like flesh over its arms and knees. A series of dark red veins spread along its arms, one of its hands transformed into a fingerless spiked mass. It stops when it sees David and does not react at first, nor David to it.
The two Tyrants look at each other, trying to comprehend each other. David never saw another Tyrant while being tested, the one-armed giant at the docks being the closest similarity. But he can feel the power from this one, raw strength contained within flesh and bone without much concern for intelligent thoughts. It is a close replica of David, and he feels fear from seeing it. This could have been what David became had fate played out differently.
The new Tyrant suddenly turns around and walks away like David does, still searching but not looking back towards David. David waits until this creature is completely out of sight, his thoughts jumbled with the discovery he is not the only member of his kind here. Could this other Tyrant be an ally, or an enemy, in the future?
David's desire calls to him again, his heart reaching out to it once more. He travels down, down into the lower levels of the ruined laboratories. He sees no further infected or Tyrants, the grisly remains of different bodies no concern to him anymore. He knows what he wants.
Just as David enters the corridor he wants to be on, a quiet gasp comes from near the center of the path. An uninfected man and woman stand near each other, the woman's sharp red hair reflecting in her red vest and brightly colored clothes. The man has a dark blue shirt over a yellow shirt, brown pants matching his smooth brown hair. They stand between him and the object of his desire.
The man notices David after the woman and instantly pales. "Shit! Another Tyrant!" He grabs the woman's arm and shouts, "Run for it, Claire!" while jerking her down to a splitting path of corridors. Their feet pound against the metal as they run away from him, the woman glancing back once to check if he has moved. David listens to them go without pursuing them. They are not in his way. They are not worth his time.
The door he wants to enter is fully open, and he stoops down a bit to enter. The colder air of the cryogenic chamber runs along his skin, heightening his senses as he looks towards where his desire urges him. He sees the same machine that he once slept in, the same control panel for that machine, and then the thing that drew him back here.
The body of Doctor Millicent Schrovol, the woman that offered everything to him, is still splayed out on the floor like he last saw her. But her body lies inside a larger cocoon of fleshy material that sticks to the metal surface. Her eyes are also closed, a peaceful smile on her lips. He can't see any part of her form, only the features of her face pressing against the cocoon's walls.
She is alive. He feels some spark of life from inside her, the thing that drew him back to her from across the island. Now that he is here that desire turns to eagerness. He knows something is going to happen very soon, and that he will want to see it. The connection he felt when they joined together keeps him here, waiting and ready.
Millicent's eyes slowly open, glowing white around gold irises and black slitted pupils. Her smile grows even brighter when she sees David looking at her. That emotion reaches deeper than David expects, and he does not know what to do. David's urge to breed starts to return, but fades once he sees Millicent start to tear herself free from the binding flesh. Her smile doesn't change in the slightest as she shifts around until the flesh gives way. Small streams of clear liquid flow down from the tears to the floor, the same spicy aroma that drove David wild before filling the chamber in a few seconds.
Millicent stands up by herself. Her new body is no longer human, skin replaced with small brown scales that turn blacker around her chest, large purple veins stretching out from her breasts and across her torso. Her face is the clearest sign of her former humanity, save for the white irises and lack of pupils. Those eyes glow with their own light as she takes in her surroundings. She steps out of the cocoon with swift motions, the scales spreading down her body like a reptile and covering everything he can see. Several ropy lengths stretch down from her brow in place of free-flowing hair, the largest lengths reaching the bottom of her neck.
Keeping eye contact with David, Millicent places a hand on one of her black-scaled breasts. A short squeeze of that breast leads her to lightly moan, her voice melodious to David's ears as the outer armor yields to her soft touch. Her other hand goes up to her face as she rubs her smooth cheek with a quick stroke. Her fingers sport tiny black claws that press against the scales, tiny webbings of flesh connecting them together. A harder squeeze at that breast causes her to hiss in pleasure as the entire breast splits open like David's loins did. She draws her hand back to reveal a bright pink heart wrapped in layers of muscle, engorged with purple veins, and protected behind a few bones of her new ribcage.
David feels pride grow in his own heart when he sees Millicent open herself this way. He caused this, this is his genes at work, and Millicent clearly enjoys it. That pride stays with him as the breast closes back up again, skin resealing itself shut with barely a sound. Millicent then comes up to David, her feet clicking against the metal as she walks. Her head is on level to David's shoulders, the look she gives him through her thin eyelids enough to excite him. She places her head against his chest and listens to him breathing. One of her hands slowly rises and presses against his shoulder, rubbing the area in circular motions.
"My love…" David hears Millicent's voice in his head, the doctor speaking with a barely concealed passion as she listens to his heartbeat. "My breeder. I see why you like this body, this power." She looks up at him and grins, revealing fanged teeth like his. She licks her long, thin tongue over them with a slow, sultry manner that David finds alluring, a free hand moving down to her belly and pressing against it.
Millicent is strong now, David realizes. Strong as he is. They can escape here together on the boat, leaving this destruction behind them. They can show their strength to the world, as they both want to do. And maybe, perhaps if they show their power to the right people, they can become even stronger.
And that's the story!
I want to thank "RT86" for working with me on this, and their enthusiasm for making this story a possibility. It has been a challenge to write, but it was also fun to do.
I may return to this story with a sequel at some point. In the meantime, any feedback you can give will be great for me and "RT86" to see.
Draconos is taking off!