Nemesis: Resident Evil III

Chapter Thirty Seven: October 1st Night

For the longest time there was nothing but strange, vivid dreams, mostly of events from the past, while at the same time there was an intense feeling of heat… intense, burning heat that kept Jill's mind from concentrating on what was happening around her, any more than as a casual viewer. Every breath felt like her lungs were going to burst into flames, and before her eyes was a highlight reel of important events, beginning with the arrest of her father, Dick Valentine, after getting caught trying to rob a bank.

The next thing that she saw was her slightly younger self joining the US Army in order to avoid ending up with a lengthy sentence in the Arklay County Jail like her father got, since up until that point she had idolized her father, eagerly learning how to pick locks from him, as well as the majority of her other less than legal skills. More heat now, making the young woman feel like she was burning alive while seeing visions of her undercover assignments as a Rookie in the RPD, as well as her eventual appointment to STARS.

Suddenly the heat faded away, replaced with a God awful pain that was ripping through her entire body, becoming so unbearable that she found herself screaming for help… but the phantoms of the past did nothing for her as she witnessed the very worst of all the events that happened at the Spencer Estate. Jill couldn't help crying as she had to watch her friends die all over again, and then… and then it all slowly faded away… the visions… the pain… all of it until there was only darkness… darkness, and the sound of falling rain.

Struggling to open her eyes at first, and then having to blink several times to make her surroundings come into focus, the young woman quickly realized that she was no longer inside the clock tower… no, that building had been destroyed… so this was somewhere else. Her memory was a little foggy, but she could recall something about leaning heavily on Carlos while they walked through the mostly destroyed historical building, but then nothing else until waking up to find herself lying on a couch in what looked like some kind of security office, with her leather jacket laid over herself like a blanket, and in the air the scent of… someone cooking Spam?

Yes, it definitely smelled like someone was cooking cheap processed meat, so she struggled to sit up, her whole body feeling sore and sluggish like she had just gone on a twenty mile run like back in the Army. Having to blink again to see clearly, Jill was surprised to see Carlos sitting at the large desk that was nearby, using one hand to flip fully cooked pieces of Spam off of an electric griddle onto a waiting stack of paper plates, while using the other hand to hold up the copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone so that he could read it.

"Uncle Vernon is pretty damn stupid." The young man said to himself, shaking his head at what he was reading. "If my sobrino could do fucking magic, I'd be like 'hey vato, how 'bout you whip us up a new car and then make your auntie look like she did when she was eighteen, eh?' what do you think, Jill? What… oh, mi Dios, Jill!"

Dropping the book and nearly knocking over the place of Spam as he stumbled his way over to her, the first thing Carlos did was make the young woman cough when he hugged her so tightly that she couldn't breathe. Once his grip on her was released, the young man knelt down in front of her while holding her hands and asking all the usual questions about whether or not she was all right, and it was nice for once to be able to say that she was feeling a lot better than before.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" The young man exclaimed, hugging her again before standing up. "You must be starving; here, let me get you something."

Then he began to give her the update on their situation, beginning with the fact that two days had passed, with the sun going down only a few minutes before she woke up. Apparently the young woman had been infected by the T-Virus during their last battle with the Pursuer, and after carrying her over to the security office for Raccoon City Park, the young man had gone to the hospital in search of the cure, which he had found after nearly getting his head sliced off by something that sounded like those big creatures that she had seen at the Spencer Estate.

So what was the good news about all this? Her T-Virus infection had been cured, there had been no sign of the STARS hunting monster since their last battle in the clock tower courtyard, and somehow she had managed to sleep for two whole days without shitting herself… actually, her stomach felt really, really empty as if all the nutrients had been ripped out of her system. According to Carlos, after receiving the vaccine, Jill had become still, and didn't move a muscle for the entire time except to breathe. No eye movement, no snoring, no changing position… hell, apparently she didn't even fart for the whole time.

Hearing all of this good news was actually starting to make the young woman feel hopeful about their situation, but then this stopped when he got to the part with the bad news. For starters, that helicopter that crashed into the clock tower was the only way that he knew to get out of Raccoon City, and to make things even worse, it turns out that Nikolai was still alive. The young man told her everything that had happened inside the hospital, and up until that point she had believed that the Lieutenant was just another money-hungry rapist, but now… now it sounded like he was part of some larger conspiracy with Umbrella… if it was possible for a larger one than Raccoon City to exist.

"Okay, we're out of options." Jill said as they ate the Spam he had cooked, along with some Coca Cola from the mini-fridge. "We need to get out of this city, and you're not going to like this, but we're going to have to do it on foot."

As expected, the young man was not exactly thrilled at the idea of trying to get out of Raccoon City without some kind of transport, but honestly it was either that or just keep wandering around until they magically found another way out. There were some city maps along with the other information pamphlets kept inside the security office, so the young woman got one of them, and unfolded it on the couch between where they were sitting together.

"So, we're right here." She explained, pointing to where the hospital used to be. "So, if we cut through Raccoon City Park, and pass through the north cemetery, we can use the footbridge here to cross the Circular River, which will get us to the old water treatment plant. From there we just go around the facility to where Ivy Street passes by on the other side, and then just keep walking all the way to Stone Ville."

It wasn't much of a plan, but then again, neither were any of the others that she had been going along with over the past few days. Thankfully, for the past several months most of the park had been closed down because of construction and renovations, and the old water treatment plant hadn't been used since 1995. This, combined with the fact that no one new had been buried in the north cemetery in the past ten years, in favor of the new one to the east, all meant that there would have been hardly any people there before the outbreak… and no people meant no zombies.

Unfortunately, even if the two of them managed to get out of Raccoon City itself by using this route, it didn't mean that they were safe. Once they reached Ivy Street at the other side of the water treatment plant, there were still several miles of steep inclines and heavily forested terrain before reaching the smaller town of Stone Ville, and from personal experience the young woman knew that the forests outside the city were by no means safer than the streets. There was also no way of knowing how far the outbreak had spread, and… oh God, what if it had gotten all the way to Stone Ville by now?

"I'd rather have to deal with a small village of zombies, than stay in this city." Carlos replied, setting the map and their plates on the nearby desk once they were finished. "Besides, we got plenty of ammo now, and now that you're back in action, there's nothing that can stop the two of us… I hate to admit it, but I got pretty scared going around that loco hospital all by myself. I'd do it again though, and I promise you, novia, that I won't let anything like that happen to you ever again."

Jill had always been tough and independent, not exactly the type to ever be considered a damsel in distress, but it felt so good to know that the young man had risked everything to find a way to save her when she was helpless, even after finding out that Umbrella was offering a quarter of a million dollars for her head. He could have killed her for it, or simply let the T-Virus run its course and claimed that there was nothing he could do… but he hadn't, and Jill felt so safe when he scooted closer to her on the couch and hugged her again.

She returned the hug and gave him a kiss on the cheek, followed by their hold on each other tightening when he gave her one on the lips, again which the young woman returned… and then Jill found herself straddling him while he roughly grabbed her hair to pull the young woman's head back while he kissed her neck. Just like back at the clock tower where they had shared their first kiss while waiting for the helicopter, Jill found herself wondering oh hell, why not? Carlos was a great guy who saved her life, he was really good looking, and although she wouldn't have admitted this until right now, his accent had been driving her crazy.

Plus, after everything the two of them had been through over the past few days, maybe it was time for a short break from the nightmare that Raccoon City had become. Yes, their lives were still in danger, and they needed to get out of the city as fast as possible, but it was kind of hard for Jill to think about that, or anything else for that matter while Carlos was picking her up with his big muscular arms, and then pinning her down onto the couch so that he was on top of her.

Yeah… Raccoon City could wait a little while…