Chapter 7: Mommy's Home
Marching down the stairs from the bedroom, each S.T.A.R.S. member held a gun in their hands tightly, making sure not to leave any blind spots for their 'younger versions' to get at them. They were well organised, as they all were—or rather, used to be- S.T.A.R.S. members, so it didn't take long for them to secure the area (no one was there), and come to the basement door.
"That was easy." Chris smiled, as he knelt on the floor and aimed his gun towards the kitchen.
"Yeah," Claire replied, "too easy."
Barry wiped the sweat from his brow and then kissed him magnum for good luck. "Let's just be thankful and get Jill the hell out of there. Who knows what could have happened by now?"
Just as Barry was about to touch the doorknob, they heard a door close behind them. It came from the living room. Turning around swiftly, everyone aimed their guns towards the noise. Slowly, from out of the shadows, came Rebecca's mother! Holding a shopping bag clutched tightly to her breast, she stared at each of them in shock.
"Rebecca!" she suddenly shrieked. "What on Earth is going on here, young lady?" she demanded. Rebecca shifted on the spot in guilt; she never could tolerate being told off by her mother. Momentarily letting their guard down at the sight of the old lady, they lowered their guns. In that instant, Rebecca's mother smiled manically. "You've been a naughty girl!" she suddenly croaked. In a flash, she had procured a shotgun from her shopping bag, and aimed it directly at Rebecca!
Shrieking, Rebecca rolled out of the way just as her mother let out a shot, causing one of the doors on the cabinet behind her to explode out as it took the blast. Just as everyone hastily returned fire to stop the old woman, Rebecca's mother dove into the shadows of the living room again. Not wasting a moment, they all ran over to the wall in which the living room door was situated, out of the shotgun's line of fire.
"You are going to get punished for this, young lady!" they heard Rebecca's mother laugh, as she reloaded her shotgun. Not wishing to get shot at again, Barry quickly took a grenade from the belt he wore around his S.T.A.R.S. uniform and pulled the pin out with his teeth.
"I'd stand back if I were you." He said calmly, a smile plastered over his face as he rolled it into the living room. Rebecca's mother screamed manically as she saw the grenade, and attempted to escape the room—it was too late. The explosion rocketed forward, sending a wall of fire that engulfed the old woman just as she had made the door- her charred corpse slumping forward in the doorway.
"This isn't really your day, is it?" Wesker asked Rebecca, as she looked in horror at the burnt remains of her dead mother; she knew it wasn't real, so quickly looked away and focused her attention on being angry at Wesker to get the image out of her head—she thought about beating him up to calm her nerves.
"Come on!" Barry exclaimed, doing his best not to look at the old woman's cadaver. "Let's rescue Jill and get the fuck out of here!"
Running back to the basement door, Barry wasted no time in flinging it open, only to reveal Jill, safe and sound and dancing wildly with teenage Claire, Barry and Edward. Upon hearing the door open, they all turned to face the intruders. Immediately, the young versions of Barry, Claire and Edward stopped dancing and opened their mouths. With a blood-curdling shriek that almost deafened Jill, they all ran at full speed towards their older counterparts.
With no hesitation whatsoever, the S.T.A.R.S. team hastily raised their firearms and took aim.
"Get down, Jill!" Barry cried—as they opened fire. In a few seconds, after they had been filled with lead, teenage Claire, Barry and Edward fell down dead as a large pool of blood expanded around their corpses.
"Jill!" Chris cried, as she turned to face him. "Thank God you're all right!"
"What the hell is going on?" Jill demanded angrily, as she pulled herself up from the blood stained floor.
"Um…" Rebecca began, confused. "We were saving you?"
"From what? The Spice Girls?" she replied; she was not happy to have seen people she had just been dancing with shot to pieces.
Unable to take the noise of the Spice Girls much longer, Wesker skilfully shot the radio into oblivion.
"The younger version of you turned violent and tried to kill Rebecca, Jill." Barry replied, sombrely.
"Well, duh? Don't you remember that fight we got into Rebecca? Of course you thought I was trying to kill you!"
"No! This wasn't that mud wrestling fight we had to turn on Dewey; those bastard copies of Chris and you tried to actually murder me. But don't worry, they're dead now, and we saved you!"
Pushing her way pass Rebecca, as she was still angry, Jill stood at the basement door and brushed away the last bits of Claire's corpse from her uniform. "Let's just get the fuck out of here." She demanded.
"She's right; can we just get the hell out of here?" Claire pleaded, tugging on her brother's arm.
Climbing up the stairs back into the hallway, the S.T.A.R.S. gang decided unanimously to leave. The only question was, how would they get out of there?
"Why don't we go back into Rebecca's bedroom and go through the wardrobe again?" Chris suggested, "You never know, it might lead somewhere else."
"But wouldn't that place be as dangerous as this one?" Jill asked, taking out her pistol in case any more of Rebecca's family decided to come out of the shadows.
"I suppose you're right. I doubt it'd be much safer."
"Let's just go out into the city and see what's happening." Rebecca sighed, glancing over at her mother's corpse. Thinking that was probably the best option, they all crept over to the front door of the house within the hallway and stood in front of it.
"I bet you five dollars it's locked!" Wesker exclaimed, dragging on his cigarette.
"We'll see." Barry said, grabbing the doorknob and turning it. Surprisingly, it was unlocked—pushing it, the door opened out onto the dark streets of Raccoon City. "Five dollars, please."
"You gotta be kidding me…" Jill said in awe, as she slowly stepped forward onto the sidewalk.
Raccoon City was a disaster area, just like it was all those years ago when Jill had to fight to survive on the streets. Claire was also experiencing the same nostalgia as she crept forward in silence; her thoughts suddenly turned to Leon Kennedy, the man she had met here in the city so many years ago…
Alarms sounded in the distance as they all emptied the house onto the street. All around them were destroyed cars that seemed to have had attempted a desperate escape, only to crash into their surroundings. Several dead bodies lay still on the sidewalk, their figures partly hidden by the fallen debris of a tobacco shop that stood nearby. There was no life to speak of, and the houses stood empty and quiet.
Jill shook her head slowly, not wishing to think back to the times she had spent here. "What are we going to do?"
Everyone was silent for a moment, not knowing which direction to take. The city was very large, so on foot they didn't have much chance of escaping, especially with the city in such a state.
"Well, I say we've got to get out of here." Barry said, flatly. He turned to Rebecca and gazed into her eyes. "Rebecca," he began, he voice deep and soothing, "this house is near the police station, isn't it?" She nodded her head quickly and pointed south.
"It's just in the other street." She replied; long ago, when she was younger, all she saw all day was police vehicles and police officers due to the proximity of her house to the station. She had always had a fascination of the police, which Rebecca assumed was the reason she had such a strong desire to join the force.
As they all headed towards the police station, they were unaware that they were being watched… the young version of Rebecca stood still in the shadows, a knife clasped firmly in her hands…