Let's go back about an hour and see what we have missed this whole time.
-X-
GWEN
11:37 A.M.
SECOND BASEMENT "DOOR THREE" HALLWAY
-X-
Oh, God...
Oh, God...
Oh, God...
D-Don't look back, Gwen. Don't look back!
...
Fuck! Where do I go now?
...
Left. Okay.
(The door opens slowly, creaking softly.)
Keep going, Gwen, keep--AH! ...Agh, almost fell down the steps...
Oh, G-God, he could be right behind me...
Oh, man... I don't wanna die, I don't wanna d-die...
...This way, this way.
...Shit! Now where?
No time! Just keep run--
OOF!
"Hey! Watch where you're going!"
Ow... What hit me?
I look up from my fallen form.
...Courtney?
"You are NOT getting MY million dollars, Gwen!"
...
She walks away. As I get up and hold my sore head, I look around, my brain starting to function a little more.
I hear a door open. "Geez, Chris, could you come up..." The door closes, and I hear no more... until...
"NO! GET AWAY!! GET AWAY!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
...Oh, God...
Could it be... him?
My mind hazes.
I run again.
He's still after me.
He's still after me.
Oh, God...
I run to the end of the hall. Fuck that side hallway and door across from it. They were too close to where I came in--he might be coming from those areas. He's crafty. He's smarter than he looks. And he wants blood...
...Oh, God, keep running Gwen, keep running...
Four doors, and nothing else. Oh, man... please open... Damn! Locked! ...Damn! Locked! Oh, God... Damn! Oh, God! ...Oh, thank God! This one's open!
(The door opens slowly, creaking softly.)
Oh, man, there's gotta be a way out of this... Please, God, let there be a way out of this!
There's a door at the end of this "L-shaped" room. I take it.
(The door opens and shuts quickly.)
...Wait...
If this is the only way I could go...
If he follows me...
Oh, God...
Panicking, I look around the room, and notice a few tables and chairs. Quickly thinking and acting, I prop some of the furniture against the door, hoping he wouldn't be able to get through. I spy another door in the room, and I try to open it. It's locked. Good... he can't come through there anyway; that's probably the room I couldn't get into before...
I notice a staircase on the side of the room. Hmm... What if he does find a way here? I probably should keep going...
(Down the stairs I go. Where I end up, no one knows.)
I reach the bottom of the stairs, and take a deep breath. Fuck... I need to rest... And he won't be able to get this far for a while yet. I hear no movement upstairs; no doors opening, no furniture being pushed. I'm safe for a little while anyway...
I take a breather for about a minute, my mind still cloudy, but at least I am able to make some sense of the situation. Though I'm not sure of the reasons why Cody did what he did, the look on his face... He seemed so... scared. He dropped the gun in fear. Would a cold-blooded killer really show remorse like that?
But then why did he do it? Why did he kill Trent? After all the things I confided in him... he decides to kill my boyfriend?! It doesn't make any sense!
Damn you, karma, if this is about all those pranks my brother and I di--Oh, God, my brother... My mom... God, I may never see them again!
Oh, man...
My mind hazes a little more as I begin to panic. I run to the door across from me. Locked. SHIT! Okay... There's another door over here...
(The door opens and shuts quickly.)
I just keep running. Luckily, every door I made it to in this combination of hallways was unlocked, and ultimately I ended up in a room I assumed was next to the room I had entered this floor in. The door was locked, but there was a key inside the keyhole. I shook my head. I'm not that stupid. If I unlock it, I'm as good as...
Uuuuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
...dead...
I turn around slowly, eyes wide open. Another intern, this one more deformed than some of the rest. One of his eyes had fallen out; that particular optic nerve must've decayed rather quickly. Or it plucked it out itself... which is highly possible considering it was also missing one of its arms. Perhaps it was hungry and had nothing to feast on.
But now he does...
Scared, I fumble for my gun. ...Shit! Where's my gun!
...Oh, don't tell me I fucking dropped it!
Shit! SHIT!
I run down the hallway, noticing a room to the left and an area on the right at the end of the hall. Without thinking, I take it.
...Fuck.
Nothing.
Though I do spy a trap door on the floor. Maybe someone is supposed to use a fire hook or something and--
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
Oh, fuck!
...Wait...
I took down a psycho killer once, maybe I...
WHOA!
CHOMP!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
I shove him away. GEEZ, he was fast! Without a second to spare, I kick him several times in the face, the last kick sending his head flying off his body. The body fell to the floor, blood pooling from the hole on top of its neck.
...
FUCK!
I seethe, eyes clenching shut before realization hit me like a shot.
I'm dead.
I'm fucking dead.
...No...
Mom...
Baby brother...
I love you so fucking much...
Trent...
I'll be with you soon...
Duncan...
Carry on. Courtney and I may be gone, but... you can handle it. I know you can.
...Chris...
Fuck you.
...Cod...Cody...
...
It's as if a veil was lifted. It is at this moment that I realize... what I should've realized right away.
Cody listened to me. And he showed he cared for me.
Trent was going to kill him. I intervened and he turned on me.
It probably... it probably looked like Trent was going to kill me...
Cody... was trying to save me.
...
Oh, God, what have I done?
...
And... and he can't get to me. I can't tell him I forgive him...
...Or... maybe I can...
I walk back toward that one room. I could've sworn I saw...
A typewriter.
I sit on the chair, spying a piece of paper next to the typewriter. Curious, I read it... and rip it up afterward. Those assholes... if it wasn't for them, none of this would've happened in the first place!
Then, I take a clean sheet of paper and put it in place. Still in pain from the bite, it takes me a little over two minutes to type my apology to Cody. I'm not sure if he'll ever get to read it, but if he does... at least he'll know how I feel.
But honestly, what I could possibly write, couldn't scratch the surface.
Cody... you have no idea how much I appreciate the way you feel about me. Especially now. If you read this, then that means I'm right. You really are the friend I think you are. And you really were the right person for me to confide in. I just wish I would've known that sooner...
May this be my last goodbye.
I finish typing, content with my last words to the world, and especially to Cody. Curiosity gets the best of me again, as I figure... why the hell not? I'm gonna die anyway, I might as well check out that room on the left...
I enter the hallway again and enter that room.
It's a beautiful balcony of a theatre.
How fitting. I die in a room dedicated to the arts.
I walk toward the edge of the balcony, admiring the molding on the rail. The design is so amazingly crafted...
Then, near the middle of the rail, I spot a cross-like shape with concave edges protruding out...
Upon closer inspection, I spy a similar cross in the same spot, though tilted to fill in the blanks, indented into the wood.
I no longer admire this railing. That symbol... the Umbrella symbol... is now a symbol of everything I hate right now...
I look over the side of the balcony. The Umbrella symbol is also painted on the stage, but other than that it looks like an ordinary fancy theatre. Rows of chairs are facing the stage, and I can imagine people sitting in them, watching some sort of play. Perhaps Shakespeare. Pfft! Like these people had such culture...
...
...It looks tempting though...
I gasp at my own thoughts. I was thinking about jumping. I'm already going to die, why do I need to do it myself?
...
Wait...
If I stay up here, and Cody reads the letter...
I'll still be up here...
...I can't put Cody in that kind of danger.
After all...
I know what happens once you've been bitten...
I look at the bite on my arm and gulp.
There's no going back...
I take a deep breath...
And I plummet.
...
...
...
THUD!
...Ow...
...Well, at least I'm not up there, where he would be.
And I can't move my legs, so... hopefully it'll stay that way when I become a zombie.
I no longer fear death. It's inevitable now.
But...
But as I lay here, I realize something...
I begin to fear something else.
What if Cody doesn't heed my warning?
What if... what if he still looks for me?
...Oh, fuck... I know I told him not to, but...
How do you tell someone who loves you to forget about you, and then expect them to just do it?
It's never worked for me before, and it probably won't now.
Cody.
Please.
Don't let me die in vain.
Save yourself.
Live to tell the tale.
Don't be a hero...
Cody...
Forget me...
Please...
Ugh...
Unnnnnnnh....
YOU ARE DEAD.
-X-
For those of you who could stand Resident Evil: Apocalypse, did you appreciate the reference? (The reason I'm pointing it out is because Izzy wasn't there to shout "Obscure reference!")
So yes, Gwen is gone, unfortunately. Which brings us to Bombshell One. Well, part of it, anyway. There's still more to that bombshell. And what about the second one? Well... that one's still not quite here yet, but you'll know it when we get there. And who knows? You probably already know what the second one is. Hell, you probably know what BOTH of them are, if either a) I talk to you regularly, or b) you are a pretty good guesser and have noticed some moments of possible foreshadowing.