Chapter 10: Rest

The African heat was too intense. Billy couldn't tell if what was going on in front of him was real or not. It was a nightmare…but he knew it to be true. There were yells and screams, gunfire that ripped against the wind. Billy tried to yell at them to stop, but his unit wouldn't listen. His commander kept ordering them to kill the defenseless villagers. He saw children crying, grandparents trying to flee with the young ones. He saw so many dead, bleeding bodies. Billy ran up to his commander, trying to yell at him to stop. This was wrong! He felt sharp pain strike him, his ears hummed as he collapsed and everything went black, cold, and wet.

Billy jolted awake, coughing up water. He realized they were in a gloomy, sewer duct. They had somehow got washed up onto the walkway. Billy was super weak as he tried to move. He noticed Rebecca's limp body and hurried to get her onto her back. He checked for a pulse, and there was nothing.

"Rebecca!" Billy yelled. Fear slithered down his throat. He tried to shake her, but she was unresponsive. In the end, Billy knew immediately what he had to do. He took a deep breath, sitting next to her tensely. Please oh please wake up and bitch slap me…

He plugged her nose and put his lips to hers, blowing air into her lungs. He proceeded to push on her chest in the correct manner. He kept repeating the CPR, begging for her to regain her pulse. The more and more he tried, the more and more faith he lost. Finally, Billy stopped, clenching his jaw and slamming his fist into he ground and busting his knuckles. He yelled out, not from the pain that he could not feel, but from the failure of keeping Rebecca safe. He kept at her side, feeling storming emotions mix within him. It had been so many years since Billy remembered the last time he cried, but he could feel the burn in his eyes of the threatening tears.

This is all my fault…I failed at protecting you Rebecca…I'm so sorry…

Not only had he failed at so many other things in his life, but the travesty in Africa that haunted him reminded him just how much of a failure he really was.

Suddenly, Rebecca was coughing and shuttering. Billy jumped, pulling on the handcuffs for a moment to turn towards her. He grabbed her by the shoulders, vaulting her up into a sitting position. His heart just about cried out in relief.

"Rebecca! Are you alright? Please answer me!"

"B-Billy?" she stuttered. She reached up towards his face.

"I gotcha, doll face," Billy sighed, smiling. He couldn't help himself; he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. "I thought I lost you."

"Did you do CPR on me?" Rebecca asked as Billy helped her to her feet.

"Yes. I was hoping you would wake up and slap the crap outta me."

Rebecca laughed weakly, looking pale and sickly. They were both extremely weak. Not only that, but they lost all of their weapons. They were going to have to be careful now until they found some more weapons…if they were able to find more weapons.

As Billy looked around, he suddenly felt Rebecca punch him. "Ouch! What was that for?"

"That's for giving me mouth to mouth without my permission!"

"You were dead! How could I get your permission?" Billy barked.

She suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck. Billy grunted in surprise, but slowly his arms wrapped around her securely. He buried his face into her neck. Rebecca was shivering, but he couldn't tell if it was from the cold of their wet bodies or the shock of still being alive.

"I owe you everything, Billy," she whispered. He could tell that she was restraining herself from crying.

Billy closed his eyes, slightly smiling. "Shh, it's fine, Becca. I owe you everything as well."

They stayed like that for what felt like hours. Slowly, they pulled away from each other. Billy stroked her cheek, feeling warmed by Rebecca's soft, beautiful smile. His eyes rose to behind her, noticing something piled up at the corner of the room. Now he understood why the scent of death was heavy in this room. There had to be up to ten bodies piled in the corner, all skeletons with slimy liquid covering them, along with slithering leeches.

"What could have done this?" Rebecca gasped.

Billy didn't know what overtook him. He felt lost in his own body for a moment. He tensed, froze like a deer in oncoming headlights. His eyes widened, and he felt rushing emotions consume him. The events of Africa replayed in his head like a nightmare, making him pale and shiver.

"Billy? Billy, please answer me!"

He was able to tear away from the void. He looked down at her, his eyes catching her pleading ones. She had grabbed his arm, and he was just now feeling it. Billy swallowed hard, jerking his head for the nearest door.

"C'mon, let's get out of here and find somewhere to get some rest."

Rebecca was confused at first, worried about the look that was in his eyes. He tugged her along with the handcuffs, wanting desperately to leave the room they were in. The door led them outside to a small area just by the rapid river of sewage water. The railing was wet and slimy, and so was the ground. A broken down forklift was sitting with the lift on the ground. They continued on through another door that led across a few rooms of water treatment rooms. Finally, they came to a flight of stairs that led up into another building. They could tell they were at a sewage treatment plant. But, knowing Umbrella now, they were sure sewage wasn't the only thing they were treating.

Billy and Rebecca were slow in their movements. Billy could feel the pain of being banged and washed around in the sewage river. He just hoped there were no enemies because they had no weapons. He watched Rebecca closely, making sure she was good. He could tell that she was tired, weak, and sore.

They found a small break room that held a bar, a refrigerator, a pool table, and a broken down pinball machine in the corner. Billy saw several bottles of beer and alcohol lying about, and he felt that he could go for one. Billy checked the pool table out, noticing it was left in the middle of the game…solid colors were winning. He sighed, moving on to the pinball machine. He grinned, glancing back at Rebecca.

"Now this is old school shit! I haven't played this since I was a little guy!"

Rebecca giggled. "I knew you were a dinosaur, you old geezer."

"And you are a brat," Billy chuckled.

They walked over to the bar and was about to sit down when Rebecca grabbed his arm. "Billy! You're bleeding!"

She pointed it out. His shirt was soaked in blood on his lower back. He was sure it was a gash from the ride down the rapid river. Rebecca went for her medical supplies but found them to be soaked and useless. She cursed, quickly looking around. Her eyes brightened when she saw a first aid kit by hanging on the wall next to the refrigerator on the other side of the bar table. They went around. She started grabbing items out of the box, while Billy opened the refrigerator to rummage for food.

There were a few bottles of water that he managed to grab. Most of the food was souring in the fridge, but Billy was starving. He knew Rebecca was starving as well because he would hear her stomach growl once in awhile. He was surprised that she kept so quiet about it. Billy found a package of sliced sandwich cheese in the door. It was the only food that seemed to be edible. It was better than nothing.

Rebecca dragged him over to the table that was sitting on the other side of the pool table. He sat down and let her work on the gash. Billy felt a little cold from his wet clothes and knew it would take a long while before they started to dry.

"We need to find something to dry off with or we risk catching pneumonia," Rebecca sighed as she cleaned and bandaged his cut.

Though pneumonia was the least of his worries, Billy could only nod his head at her. He could tell that she was just as cold or colder from her hands. Her teeth were starting to chatter a little when she was finished with him. They went to the back of the bar, and were able to find some towels to help dry them up. Afterwards, they sat down on the floor, up against the wall side by side to eat the cheese.

There was silence between them. Billy was trying to fight the exhaustion that was coming over him. He could already tell that Rebecca was nodding off. They had to keep moving, but Billy's legs weren't budging. He watched Rebecca as she had her eyes closed. She was still shivering, and for a moment Billy was worried about her.

She shouldn't have to be going through all of this…she is just a kid…

That wasn't true. Rebecca proved to him so many times over that she was definitely capable of taking care of herself. She was ten times more mature than Billy had been at that age. She was handling herself just fine. Still, Billy wished that Rebecca would have been far, far from here.

But then you would be dead…wouldn't you? he asked himself.

He could only snort. Billy could care less about his life, especially when he felt this natural urge to protect Rebecca completely, even at the cost of his own life. Billy had lost his faith in humanity, but Rebecca was definitely bringing some of it back. He knew he had never felt this way about any other person before, and it wasn't just because of what they were going through. There was something about Rebecca that just drew him in.

He couldn't stand watching her shiver anymore. Sighing, he reached his hand over and snagged her arm. He pulled her easily over to him. Instead of drawing back, Rebecca easily complied and snuggled up to him. He wrapped his arms around her, and proceeded to lay his chin on top of her head.

"Thank you," she mumbled.

"You looked like this pitiful little baby animal," Billy joked. He received a slap to the chest and he chuckled.

"You look like a drowned rat!" she retorted.

"I'll take that as a compliment," he answered, feeling at peace for the moment.

Rebecca grew quiet, letting the sound of his heartbeat completely relax her. The soft thumping was strong, but also soothing. It sounded like a lullaby that she so badly wanted to give in to. For a moment, her thoughts drifted to her teammates. As much as she wanted to find them, she felt too comfortable with Billy. Even now as she realized how close their bodies were, how right it felt, she could only imagine the looks on Enrico's face if he managed to find them like this. She glanced down to the handcuffs, how they glistened in the overhead fluorescent lights. Their hands were night next to each other, and Rebecca could only laugh at how stupid, yet strangely binding the handcuffs were.

"What's so funny?" Billy asked, his lips brushing against her ear.

"I just can't help but to laugh at these dumb handcuffs. How the hell have we managed to stay alive this long like this?"

"Because we make a good team apparently."

"That has to be the only reason. I don't think luck has anything to do with it," Rebecca sighed.

She buried her face into his chest once again, focusing on that heartbeat. She felt the tug of the handcuffs along with his hand. Slowly, she grabbed his hand, and he squeezed his fingers around hers. Billy caressed her back gently, and it didn't take long for the exhaustion to overtake Rebecca, and she gradually slipped into a slumber.

"You've got to be kidding me…really?" William sighed, shaking his head. "This is getting ridiculous."

He had watched Billy come alive after he and his handcuffed partner washed up into the sewer duct. He was able to give the smaller woman CPR and revive her. William watched them on the security cameras as they made their way to the break room. The two had finally collapsed onto the floor to rest. He could tell that they were huddled up sleeping against the wall. William had no idea how they were able to survive getting washed away. That in itself was making William question the silly thought of luck and fate.

"Albert will kick my ass to China if I let these two escape," William heaved, watching as the final test passed with flying colors. Now he could make his way down into the bottom levels of the treatment plant to set the building to explode. To tell the truth, William had come to actually respect these two handcuffed partners. They had definitely proved their strength to survive. However, Wesker was not near as forgiving as William was.

William would let them get to the brink of escape, and kill them before they could make it out. Then he would meet up with Wesker and head out into town. Ada was already heading that way, and in a few more hours, Wesker and William would be meeting up with her and Annette to put the final piece into place.

His cell phone started to ring. The Darth Vader theme was playing and for a moment as William watched the two partners sleeping, he hesitated on answering his partner's call.

Better answer it…you know how he gets…

Sighing, William answered the call. "Hey there, buddy."

"Watch your status at the treatment plant?" Wesker inquired.

"I am probably about 94% done."

"On your way to blow it to hell, are you?" Wesker chuckled.

"You bet!"

"Did you annihilate Chambers and Coen yet?"

"Wow, annihilate huh? That's a serious word you just used…does it have to be that critical?"

Wesker heaved a sigh. "I take it that you haven't."

"I'm totally surprised that they lived going down the sewer rapids. What's your status over at the mansion anyway?"

"I just split up from the group. It won't be long before they start coming upon material they don't need to find. However, I have full belief that they won't last long. Most of Bravo is already wiped out. All that I am missing is Enrico and Richard."

"Well, have fun then. I have to go cause some fireworks," William answered, his eyes watching Billy and Rebecca on screen.

"I look forward to hearing them."

Wesker hung up on him. Sighing again, William slapped his cell phone shut. He thinned his lips, for a small moment feeling guilty for all of this. It seemed like everything was coming down in a way that William had a bad feeling about. He trusted Wesker too much, and he knew that something bad was going to happen even when they managed to blow the Arklay Research Facility to hell.

He watched Billy and Rebecca a moment longer. "As much as it seems that you two are supposed to survive this nightmare…I cannot let that happen. I will let you live as long as possible, but in the end I will have to put bullets in both of your heads."

He would kill them, set the detonation system and get the hell out of there. William knew that this plan seemed foolproof, but he couldn't forget that something could always come up, especially with crazy leech Marcus running around.

Billy jolted awake, hearing some kind of yowl echo within the walls of the treatment plant. Rebecca didn't even stir in his lap, still sleeping soundly. Billy cursed to himself, unable to know exactly how long they had slept. He knew they had to find some weapons quickly and get going. He gently shook her awake, noticing that their hands were still together.

"Wake up, princess. We slept too long," he said.

Rebecca groaned, slowly pulling away from him. "W-what?"

Billy kissed her on the forehead. "Rise and shine. We have got to move."

He helped her to her feet. Rebecca stretched and yawned, and they quickly got to moving. They would need to search for weapons as they continued on, hopefully finding some before something found them.

A/N: Sorry the chapter was a little short, lol. I really wanted to write a chapter with a lot of BillyxRebecca fluff in it. I hope I succeeded in that! :) I think this only has a few more chapters left. I know this is getting close to the end of the game! So, what will happen in the next chapter? Will they get attacked by a crazy, rampaging tyrant that pops out of nowhere...well it does happen in the game don't it? XD Well, hopefully they can find some weapons soon! Especially Leech Marcus of Doom awaiting them! Thanks for reading and reviewing! Love ya guys! :)