Chapter 13
All I could see was the darkness. I felt my body shutting down, losing feeling inch by inch. I could tell my eyes were still open, even though I couldn't see out of them. I could barely feel myself hit the ground, but I knew I was on the cold metal floor. As the last bit of consciousness slipped from me, I heard the angry cry of a woman and the rattling of chains.
July 25, 1998 Tina and Matt's room in at the Arklay Manor
I felt my hand first. I couldn't see anything, or hear much. I tried moving my hand, and it perused over a soft blanket. I started regaining feeling in my other hand as well. It seemed to be under the blanket, and I could feel another kind of fabric under my hand. I was beginning to hear again, and I could hear the rattling of chains. I could finally open my eyes, and I was in my room. I turned to see what that sound was. Standing in the corner was the woman who had helped me escape Wesker. I jumped out of my bed when I saw her, but she appeared completely calm. She didn't attack me, as I somewhat expected her to do. She cocked her head slightly, as if to ask what was wrong.
"Sorry, you startled me." I told her.
I immediately questioned myself, why was I even talking to this creature? She proceeded to walk into the bathroom, gesturing me to follow her. I followed her into the bathroom and she stopped at the bathroom sink. She lifted her bound hands and gestured to the mirror. I looked into the mirror and collapsed onto the floor. Staring back at me, were two gold, catlike eyes. I blinked, and they blinked back. There was absolutely no way the virus could have lasted so long, I should be dead. This couldn't be happening, I was just like Matt, or was I? I stood up and further examined myself in the mirror. My usually brown eyes were indeed now a golden orange. My dark hair was all over my face, so I took the time to push it out of the way. The woman was already starting to hobble out the door.
"Wait!" I quickly cried to her.
The woman turned around, tentacles slightly peeking out of her skin.
"Who are you?" I asked.
The woman looked at me for a couple of seconds, even though she had no eyes that I could see. She then left the room. I didn't try to follow her, she probably had no way of telling me anyway.
I wasn't very eager to try out my new powers, but at the same time I was. I now would be able to fight off Matt. My first instinct was to test my strength. I picked a random wall in the mansion, and punched it as hard as I could. I hurt like hell, and I didn't make a single scratch on the wall. Huh, why didn't I have the power that Matt seemed to have? I was beginning to doubt my new powers, but I had to keep trying. I then tried my speed, since I remembered Matt having amazing speed back at the facility. I started in the art gallery and I nearly flew through the doors to the main hallway with such immense speed, I could barely see where I was going. I felt so good, it really did feel like I was flying through the air, but then I ran into the wall. I fell to the floor, incredibly dizzy. I sat down on the cold marble floor, holding onto my head. The grandfather clock ticked away, but I also heard footsteps. I could see a pair of dark sneakers and blue jeans. I looked up and saw a blue t-shirt, covered with a black vest. I got up onto my feet and saw dark hair, and sunglasses covering gold eyes, and a crooked grin. Matt stood right in front of me, hands behind his back. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. There was absolutely no way he could have survived being crushed by that train. Maybe I was imagining him, a figment of my imagination, created by all my loneliness and stress.
"Well? Aren't you going to welcome me?" Matt asked, tilting his head.
I backed up towards the dining room, but Matt could easily tell that I was trying to run.
"Tina, wait." Matt grabbed my arm.
I tried shaking him, but as usual, he was way too strong. Matt took off his sunglasses to reveal his gold eyes. They stared into mine for a long while, then he let go of my hand.
"How'd it happen?" Matt asked, stepping away from me.
"Huh?" I looked back at him.
"How'd you do it? Wesker said that the virus should only work within a short amount of time and you had passed that window of time." he told me.
"I don't really know." I told him.
"Well, it's good that you're still. I was starting to worry." Matt confessed.
"You were worried?" I asked, not believing him for a second.
"Yes, I was very worried!" Matt barked at me.
More silence. Matt crossed his arms, and I leaned against one of the hallway's large pillars. I'd of never thought Matt would worry about me, especially after he tried to kill me. But if he knew I was going to come back, would that make him good? Suddenly, Matt picked up the conversation again.
"So, what have you been up to?" he asked me.
I didn't know how to respond. What was I suppose to tell him? That our real parents could never be traced, and the people who we grew up thinking were our parents are dead?
"Nothing." I replied.
"Nothing? That's all you could think of? You could have at least thought up of something a little more creative." Matt countered.
Suddenly, we heard a crash come from the art gallery. Matt was instantly at the door to the art gallery. He took out his handgun and leaned against the wall.
"Well, aren't you going to help me?" He whispered over to me.
I ran over to the wall and took out my gun, Matt gestured to me to open the door. I gently pushed the door, but before either of us could enter, two large creatures burst through the door and into the hallway. The creatures were huge, having the physique of a wrestler, but they had green, scaly skin. Their yellow eyes fixated on us, and they lunged at us high into the air to attack. Matt jumped higher into the air to dodge their attacks. I tried dodging the monsters just as Matt had, but I couldn't jump as high as he could, and a monster grabbed my leg with one of it's long claws.
"Tina, kill it!" Matt commanded to me.
I had no idea what to do. The monster had me pined down, and I couldn't reach for my gun. With the other claw, the monster slashed at me. It's claws swiped my back, creating a deep gash in my back. I yelped out in pain as I felt blood drip down my back, staining my shirt with crimson blood. The monster raised it's claws to attack again, but before it could, I heard a groan behind me, and blood splattered all over my shirt.
"Look out!" Matt barked at me.
I turned to see the monster dead, and falling. I leaped out of the way as the monster fell to the floor.
"What the hell are those things!" I asked Matt.
"Those are Hunters. They've taken out a lot of the zombies here. You've really got to watch out for them." Matt told me.
"How'd you find out about them?" I asked.
"I found some slides in one of the labs about them. It also had information on those Cerberus." Matt informed me.
"The what?" I looked at Matt, unsure of what he was talking about.
"The zombie dogs that chased us to the facility." Matt explained.
"Oh, now I know what you're talking about." Tina replied.
"So what's going on with your powers? Because to be honest, if I hadn't been there, you'd be Hunter food." Matt pointed out.
That was true, but I had no clue as to what was wrong with my powers.
"I don't know." I told Matt.
"Well, that sucks. I'm sure that once we get back to Birkin, he'll explain everything." Matt predicted.
I somewhat doubted that. After all I've been through, I don't really want to go back to living under an Umbrella again.
"I was thinking…" I started.
"Yeah?" Matt asked.
"I was actually thinking of running away from Umbrella after we get out of here." I confessed to him.
I mean, Umbrella had just been using us this whole time, and to be honest, I'd like to know what it's like to have a normal life, like Sherry.
"Are you crazy? With our powers, we could do so much more than just be regular kids." Matt said.
"We could do anything." he told me.
"That may be true, but I think I'd rather just have a normal life." I told him.
"Whatever. Let's just focus on getting out of here for now." Matt said.
The main door creaked open easily, but Matt was skeptical about going outside.
"What if we run into more Cerberus?" he asked.
"Well, we certainly can't stay here." I told him.
We were just outside the mansion when we heard a familiar voice.
"And just where are you two going?" Wesker calmly asked us.
His clothes were covered in blood, and there was a large hole in his shirt and vest. For once we wasn't wearing sunglasses. He raised his head to reveal gold, catlike eyes.
"Oh crap, run Tina!" Matt yelled as he took off into the forest. I quickly followed him, running as fast as I possibly could. I could hear Wesker swiftly catching up to us.
"You can't run forever!" he yelled back at us.
The forest was blurry with us going so fast. I couldn't afford to look behind me for a second, for fear of crashing into something. I had no idea where I was going, but all I knew is that Matt was beside me. We were about a mile into the forest when we heard a very loud crash behind us. On the ground, I could see red and orange lights flickering.
"Don't look back! We can do this!" Matt told me.
He grabbed my hand and began running even faster through the forest. But we soon began to tire, and we finally decided to rest at the edge of the forest. From the hill we rested on, we could see the lights of Raccoon City in the distance. Matt flung himself to the grassy dirt. I lied down on the ground as well as we stared into the starry night sky. As we watched the night sky, we saw a helicopter fly over us and then disappear into the city.
"Well, what do we do now?" Matt asked, turning to me.
"I have no idea." I told him.
"I still think we should try to find Birkin." Matt suggested.
"I think I've had enough of Umbrella to last me a lifetime." I told him.
"But there is still work to be done." Matt reminded me.
"What if I don't want to work with Umbrella anymore?" I burst out at Matt.
"Hey, I didn't say anything about continuing to work for Umbrella, I was just thinking of confronting Birkin with what we know." Matt explained.
I still didn't like the idea. Where were we going to confront Birkin anyway? We certainly couldn't sneak into the Umbrella facility in Raccoon City where he works.
"I still don't like that idea." I told Matt.
"Well then, making plans are we?" a voice came from nearby.
Matt and I whipped around to see Wesker, leaning against a tree. Matt immediately drew out his gun, but Wesker grabbed him, and held him by the throat.
"Run Tina! I'll be fine!" Matt choked out to me.
"I wouldn't suggest that princess. Think of what would happen to poor Matthew here." Wesker threatened, squeezing Matt's throat tighter. I looked over at Matt, not knowing what to do. He was always the one making the decisions, not me. He told me to run, but who knows what Wesker would do to him if I abandoned him…but then I remembered when Matt and I were separated. I did so much on my own, without Matt. I then knew that I could make this one decision for myself.
"Wesker, you win." I surrendered.
"Good choice Tina, now hand over your weapons." Wesker commanded, dropping Matt to the ground.
Matt got up and leaped onto Wesker. I took out my knife and stabbed him in the leg. Wesker yelled in pain as Matt pulled at his blond hair. Then Matt took out a small, red object, and jammed it down Wesker's throat. Matt jumped off of Wesker just in time to see him explode into flames.
"Let's get out of here!" Matt yelled to me, already taking off towards the city.
Matt and I wandered through Raccoon City until we found a pharmaceutical store, ironically owned by Umbrella. We each bought a pair of reusable contact lenses, using money Matt stole from the mansion. We spent a few days in the streets, learning how to conceal our guns by observing the R.P.D. Once we were completely sure we could conceal our weapons, we turned ourselves into the local orphanage. There, we made a promise to keep in touch, in case we ever got separated. We still had the walky-talkies that Wesker gave us. We decided to use them to contact each other.
"It'll be fine." Matt told me.
"It's all over.".
Epilogue
August 7, 1998 Raccoon City Orphanage in the Cedar District
"I like her Harry. She reminds me of my brother." Ann Peters Connors told her husband.
"I think she's too quiet. Aren't kids that age suppose to be full of energy?" Harry Connors asked his wife.
"Hey, most parents complain that their children are too loud. Now I for one, really like this kid. I say we adopt her." Ann countered.
Harry sighed, he just couldn't say no to his wife.
"Alright. But I better not regret this." he warned his wife.
Ann and Harry walked into the room where the girl was sitting. She had dark hair, pale skin, and light brown eyes.
"Sweetie, we're your new parents. I'm Ann, and this is my husband, Harry. What's your name?" Ann cooed to the child.
"Tina." the girl quietly replied.
Author's Note
The new sequel to Virus Kids, VK: Raccoon City can be found here: s/8272417/1/Virus_Kids_Raccoon_City