A/N: I was watching Resident Evil: Afterlife when I was writing the last chapter. It gave me the idea of all this gory stuff, and gory stuff in the next few chapters. I wanted to add in another twist/danger since they now have a weapon against the creatures, (but...not a way to get rid of them completely).

PREVIOUSLY

It's an understatement to say that they all had high hopes. Since Dylan's death, they'd given up on finding others.

But none of them were expecting the sight they saw in front of them...

October 2012

Part three

Broyles heaved the thick metal door open, revealing the inside of what should have been a bank vault. The door had been unlocked, much to their surprise.

They weren't expecting gold bars, or silver dollars. Treasures or priceless valuables. But they weren't expecting this.

The walls were covered in blood splatter and blood clotted . . . chunks of flesh. The floor was no better. Four, five, no six, bodies of what use to be people. Their flesh was torn, shredded off of their bodies. A women, blonde hair, the flesh on her left leg was completely gone, her femur (leg bone) stained with blood and dirt.

The other bodies were worse. Two of them were completely flesh-less, just bones. Bloody, fleshy . . . pieces of the other 3 had been ripped from the bodies, scattered around the vault.

They almost didn't notice the huddled body of a little girl, shivering in the corner. Too distracted by the blood and bodies. She was clutching a stuffed, old, worn and torn penguin. The child couldn't have been older then Ella, but she was dangerously thin, her ribs showing under her skin, through the tear in the side of her dress.

"Oh God." Olivia held a hand against her mouth as she took in the sight in front of her. There were no better words to describe the scene.

The little girl's brown locks were mattered with blood and possibly pieces of flesh. Blood was smeared all over her body. Arms, legs, down on side of her cheek, on her dress. She looked like she had come out of a horror movie, the only survivor of some axe-wielding-murdering-rapist who would hide in the bushes.

She lifted her head slowly, her eyes meeting Olivia's. They were a deep blue, but they were hollow. 'The eyes are the window to the soul', that particular quote was true in this case, this child's soul seemed to have vanished. She was bottled up, emotionless, huddled up among the death that surrounded her.

The child's eye suddenly became wide with fear, looking at something behind the group.

They turned around, not sure what to expect.

"Oh my god! I . . .," a man stood at the vault door. He wore torn jeans and button down shirt. He held a can of some food in his hand.

"Who are you?" Broyles asked. They all had pointed their weapons at him, but lowered them when they realised everything was safe. They were just jumpy.

"George Olson. I, we. . .I left to find food. I was only gone 10 minutes!" his voice was broken, but Olivia couldn't see any kind of shock or sadness in his face. His eyes unmoved, he didn't look scared, or petrified, by the scene in front of him. Olivia was a tad suspicious about it at first, Killers aren't affected by their murder scenes, they don't look away, they enjoy watching what they did, she thought, but pushed it aside when she considered all the things that he and the little girl must have seen since the end of the world. Blood and bodies were practically the norm nowadays.

"How far did you go? To get the food." Charlie asked,

"Ah, a block or two. There was a deli. They had only one can." George explained,

Olivia looked at Charlie, "The sewers are all connected to the tunnels. One of the creatures could have fled, ended up here. The door was unlocked; they could have come here looking for shelter from the flames we started. Attacked the people." She theorised.

"Would they come out into the sunlight?"

"Would you stay in a flaming hole or risk the few meters of sunlight to shelter?" she replied.

oOo

The little girl was still shaking in Charlie's arms as he carried her. It was easier to carry her as they ran back to the lab, night wasn't too far away. She looked around Ella's age, so Charlie placed her in the office with Ella, hoping the two would bond and the girl would start talking. They had a small fire going in the middle of the room.

The man, George, sat with the adults, explaining what happened to him when the world ended. They were huddled in the corner furthest away from the office. John managed to get Ashley asleep and placed her in her home made 'cot' in with Ella and the young girl, so he, Broyles, Charlie, Peter, Olivia, Walter and Astrid were able to talk without interruptions.

Like most of the world, he was confused by these 'attacks'. The military, air force, navy, army, every defence force seemed to fall within minutes of their countries invasion. Nothing could stop these creatures.

"May 2010, I was in Morocco when we got news that France, Portugal, Italy, most of the Eastern Europe had fallen. I didn't believe it at first. Great countries destroyed in days by 'creatures'. It wasn't until survivors entered Africa, showed me a video someone had taken of a creature mauling a child. I believed after that."

"How'd you get here? All flights in, out, anywhere in America were stopped." John asked.

"A boat. A deep sea fishing boat offered us a last minute transport to America. They were headed to Virginia, hoping to find family. They got to theirs in time. I wasn't as lucky. They dropped me off and I started my way to New York, were my wife and daughter lived. New York was no longer a great city. It took me 2 days, walking and hitchhiking when I could. I only saw 4 cars and probably 20 people in total in my journey."

He took a breath and drank from the cup of water Astrid had given him.

"I found survivors hiding out in buildings. They told me that most of the people had taken their cars and families west, to the oceans. There were theories that the creatures couldn't swim, that if they were on boats they'd be safe."

"We know for a fact that isn't true. These creatures are part Hydrophis Belcheri. The Belcher's Sea Snake. These creatures do in fact swim, extremely well." Walter spoke, interrupting George's story.

"How do you know that?"

Walter opened his mouth to speak, but Olivia stopped him. "We managed to capture one of them. We did tests on them. We're scientists." The others caught on quick.

As Walter went to speak, Olivia stood up. "I think I hear Ashley, Walter care to help me?" Olivia gave him a glare and Walter nodded feebly and followed Olivia to the Office. Ella, Ashley and the young girl were asleep, so Olivia kept her voice down.

"Walter, we have to be careful with what we say. We do not know this man. We do not know how he will react if he found out we are the reason his family is dead. Do you understand, Walter?"

"Yes." He nodded affirmatively.

"Okay." Olivia went to leave, but was called back by Walter's near silent whisper,

"Agent Dunham, may I hold my grandchild?"

"Of course, Walter. Just come get me if she cries." Olivia gave him a soft smile as he picked up the sleeping child and rocked her in his arms.

Walter wasn't the most trustable person, but he was dead serious and completely lucid when it came to his granddaughter.

When Olivia returned she found George had continued his story.

". . . I found the group, the people in the vault, a month after I arrived in Boston. What survivors we found had remained with their friends and family, but passed on what news they had heard from others." He acknowledged Olivia's return with a simple nod, "we were told about a radio frequency that survivor military, defence force (etc) used to give out news and updates on what was happening. We thought it was a miracle that we had this, that we could keep ahead, alive with the information given. They told us of sunlight being their weakness, torches, flames... and that as long as where we were, as long as we were well lit, we were safe. The transmissions were transmitted every day at noon. But one day, there was no transmission. We waited a week, still no more transmissions. We were alone."

Turned out that most survivors he encountered were referring to that day as the day the world ended.

"We've been in the vault for, I think a few months. We've only been outside maybe once a week. I'm surprised we didn't find or cross paths with you."

"How have the creatures been acting, what do you think?"

"Well, a few months ago, myself and another man had left our group in search of a new place to hide. We got caught in the dark, we had torches. But there were no creatures around. We could hear their cries in the distance, screams of someone, a women maybe. But we didn't stick around to find out. We returned to the vault and sealed it."

"Yeah, there's a very good chance that was us. Olivia was in labour. Her cries attracted the creatures. My father, Walter," Peter pointed his thumb to the back office, "he's our resident expert on the creatures," he said, keeping up the ruse that they, well Walter, were scientists, "he thinks that the creatures are partially sentient. That they hear the screams, hear 'prey' in distress and came looking for her."

"Oh. Well, obviously you survived. How though?"

"We have an advantage." Charlie stated simply. But George wouldn't have that; he looked at them, curious.

Charlie looked at Olivia, his eyes asking whether or not to tell him. Olivia subtly shook her head, no. George didn't see this, his back turned to Olivia.

"We've managed to create . . . bombs of sorts. Fire and gas in tubes which once the glass is broken, mix and explode. Keeps the creatures away until whatever is a light and burning, dies." Charlie explained.

"Wow. Well if you would excuse me, I am extremely tired. I'd like to sleep for a while."

"Sure, um, here take that mattress in the corner. Liv, we'll move to the office, keep Ashley away so everyone can sleep." Peter suggested. Peter felt Olivia's unease. It was literally rolling off of her. She simply nodded.

"I'll go kick Walter out."

oOo

"What's wrong, 'Livia?" Peter asked softly. Everyone except Charlie, who was keeping watch, was asleep.

"I don't trust him. He's got a . . . creepy vibe. I don't think he was telling the truth, about being out looking for food. His eyes didn't leave the bloody bodies when he saw the vault."

They lay down on the blankets in the office, Olivia cradling Ashley in her arms, settled between her and Peter's bodies. Ella and the little girl were asleep on the couch. The girl looked more peaceful now, calm.

"He was in shock. Probably still is. Just give it time; I'm sure there are perfectly reasonable answers, sweetheart."

"I still don't trust him."

A/N: Please REVIEW, I'm not really good at describing gore, so help, critique much appreciated. Was it okay, too little, too much...?

**okay so I've changed the cannibal/child abuse part to later on. I'll put a warning before it when it occurs so if you want to skip it.