Chapter Three-Hell Breaks Loose (Chris' P.O.V)

Luciana walked past me, her ponytail kissing her leather bomber jacket. As we approached her door, the screams became clearer and clearer with each step we took. She placed her hand on the door handle as I raised the gun up to my face.

"Ready," she asked, glancing at me then back at the door.

"Yeah," I breathed, calming my heart.

Before she opened the door I murmured, "Be careful out there."

"I'm a big girl, no worries," Luciana chuckled, giving me a wink before she flung her door open.

The scene before us was a repeat of Raccoon City. Many of the employees were running or limping away from their opposed attackers. I looked over at Luciana, whose face remained calm yet focused. She turned around to me and fired behind my back. I glanced over to find a fresh infected littering the bodies.

"Much appreciated," I grunted as we ventured forward.

Luciana huffed in response as she slammed an infected in the face before breaking its neck. She turned around and her jaw dropped.

"Oh my God," she breathed.

I followed her gaze to see a ocean of infected feeding on whatever they could find. I shook my head as I swallowed the bile that I held in my throat.

"How deep are we under from the surface," I hollered over the commotion as I clocked off any near by infected.

Luciana shook her head as she fired shots, trying to maintain a train of thought.

"We are on the sixth level. There is a escape hatch on the third floor," Luciana hollered.

An infected reached out to grab her but I got to her first, I whipped her around, blasting a bullet straight into the infected's brain. It gurgled before it twitched as it made one last fatal attempt to reach out and grab me. I looked down to find Luciana still gripping my hand, while she fired with her right; her breasts resting against my forearm.

As a pathway was cleared before her, Luciana tugged on me as we rushed towards a closing metal door. She let go of my hand and fled; sliding under the opening she reached the key pad, slowing down the speed that the door was closing at. Luciana fired shots around me, making sure no infected got a hold of me. I glided underneath the small crack as it slammed an inch above my head. Both of us breathed a sigh of relief.

I looked over at Luciana to find her staring at her wrist: a bite.

"Shit," I hissed, as I scrambled up and approached her.

"Stand back, Chris," she ordered.

I shook my head, "When in the fuck did you get bit?"

Luciana leaned against a wall, her face already turning ashen color and sweat glistening over her naked flesh. She dropped her pistol causing it to skid across the floor.

"I-it was when, I had reached the door. As I grabbed the side and swung around, an infected that had no legs had crawled up to my hand and took a chunk out. Free dinner buffet," Luciana chuckled darkly, as she reined in her breathing patterns.

The sweat slowly evaporating from her body and her color flooding back.

"What in the hell," I whispered, as I watched her body transform back to normal.

"One other thing I forgot to mention of why and how I got thrown into this mess. My mother tested certain combinations of viruses. Building me an immunity," Luciana hissed, as she popped her neck.

She removed her bomber jacket to reveal the bite covered in thick mixture of saliva and venom. The bite already healing. I backed up into the opposite wall and slid down, the barrel of the pistol resting against my right temple. Luciana grabbed a nearby piece of shrapnel and scraped off the strange oozing substance.

"What you see here, is the T-Virus in liquid form," she replied hoarsely, "What you see out there, is the physical form and what the virus does to the host's body."

Luciana flung the shrapnel into an incinerator just above her head, as we heard the pop of the metal; she swung her arm up causing her fist to slam into a button and making the incinerators doors close.

"Does the B.S.A.A know of this," I murmured.

"No," she stated.

"So… do you have any special abilities," I asked, looking up at her from my ground level position.

Luciana chuckled, "No just immunity."

"Why haven't you told the B.S.A.A," I inquired, my eyebrows knitting together.

"Because then I would become a guinea pig for them. They would be testing me to the extremes and could possibly fuck up all the barriers my mother had built for my immunity," she explained.

"Fair enough. How did you know you were immune," I asked again.

Luciana sighed then said, "When I was travelling through that fallout tunnel, I ran into a stray infected. I was out of bullets and it got a grip on me before I was able to break its neck. And that's when I discovered it. Whenever I got back on a 'normal' lifestyle, I hacked into Umbrella's main frame and retrieved my parents files from their office computers. My mom had pictures of my blood build up of immunity to every specific virus that Umbrella has created up to 1998; notes of side effects I had shown and how close I had came to death. She named the file 'Miracle'."

Luciana used her last air quotes enthusiastically as she sighed and plopped down besides my outstretched legs.

This beautiful, young, compassionate woman in front of me doesn't deserve this hellish life. Nor does she deserve to be in this God forsaken place with me, I frowned to myself.

I thought you said attachment wasn't an option, my subconscious chided.

Shut the fuck up, I shot back.

I shifted over, patting the spot beside me. Luciana gave me a soft, weak smile and crawled over to the spot I had just motioned for her to be in. She crawled up next to me and scooted close towards me. I draped my arm around her, pulling her closer to me; her head resting against my chest.

"Where are we anyway," I mumbled as sleep started to overcome me.

I looked at my watch and noticed it had been a little over ten hours since I had slept.

Curse you eight months of break and getting off sleep schedule, I berated myself.

"Storage room. There is a secret tunnel that winds up to the fifth floor. We can travel to each storage room and stay there till we break to the third floor," Luciana yawned.

Her yawn sounded like a puppy. I chuckled to myself, as I felt her face temperature increase.

"Ok, laugh at the cute yawn," Luciana joked, giggling slightly.

"We are in middle of hell and yet we are cracking jokes, jeez," I laughed, rubbing my eyes with my free hand while my other rested on Luciana's shoulder.

"All humor comes around when all hell breaks loose... how clichéd," Luciana mumbled, as she drifted off into sleep.

I listened to her breathing as it slowed into a steady rhythm, the song of the infected playing outside. I looked down at Luciana, and frowned. One certain thought still playing at my mind:

I never did this with Jill or Sheva… why does this woman draw me near to her more than they ever did? Jill and Sheva were both as attractive as Luciana even with their different features. So again what in the hell is it about her that draws me dangerously closer… what is going on with me?