A/N: It's been a hell of a ride, but the end of RE0 if finally upon us. And now we get to see how things will turn out with Ethan at the reigns, the encounter with the one behind it all should be one to be anticipated. So I won't hold you guys up any longer!
Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil.
Chapter 12:
"When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back." -Paulo Coelho
They walked over the dam as the skies began to brighten, from deep blue to a soft faded gray that hid all but the brightest stars. Morning was just about here, the sun would be rising in another half-hour at least, it would be another hot summer day in July.
Ethan walked along side Rebecca and Billy, exhaustion attempting to grab hold of him with each step he took. He only remembered being this tired a handful of times the only difference was that he wasn't fighting for his life or the lives of others in the process.
The fight against the Tyrant had been a taxing one. He knew that the BOWs were tough and could have easily sliced them to ribbons, or crushed them under its abominable strength. It was a good thing they had faced the Prototype Tyrant that was being kept here...but it made him think about the T-002 that was waiting for them at the mansion.
On his right, Rebecca sagged and dragged her foot a step before righting herself. She was holding together pretty well, but everything was starting to catch up with her as well. Billy looked to be faring about the same. 'Almost out of here.' he thought as they trudged on. They still had one big fight ahead of them before freedom, but it was so close and gave them the strength to keep pushing forward.
The walkway along the dam ended with a short ladder leading to a door. Billy went up first, Rebecca behind him with Ethan bringing up the rear, all three of them now standing in the turbine room of the dam. More rusty metal railings around cement walkways and heavy piped equipment lining the walls. Two doors greeted them; one to the North leading to a storage room, the other to the West that was standing open and led through a long, fenced corridor to another door.
"We should keep going. All paths have led here, the exit should be close." Ethan said reaching the door and noticing that it was connected to a magnetic card reader, but someone had propped it open with a stick so that it wouldn't close.
A wet stick. Rebecca knelt down and touched it, pulling her hand away a moment later to reveal slender strings of goo clinging to her fingertips that stretched away from the stick.
"It looks like the slime that the leeches leave in their trail." she commented. Looking up when she heard Ethan pulling the hammer back on his Beretta and Billy reloading his magnum. Getting the hint she wiped her hand on her vest brought out her MP5, one clip remaining in it and she was going to make sure that it counted.
Reaching the end of the corridor, they pushed the unlocked door open and found another cement and metal entryway. Leading down another short hall that smelled like a beach at low-tide. The room opened up just out of sight just ahead.
Stepping inside, the door closed and the click of a lock engaging was behind them. Billy reached out and rattled the handle. "The fuck? It was closed before, doesn't make sense that it would lock after we came through-" he was cut off when the trio heard a cackling laugh come from the room just beyond the entryway.
Weapon leading, Ethan pressed his back to the wall next to the corner and peered around it. The sight before him made him freeze.
He was staring at a vast sea of life that covered every square inch of wall, ceiling and floor that dripped and crawled. Leeches, thousands of them, hundreds of thousands. And the room was a large one, high and wid, split by a small corridor that ran along the back wall. Incinerators lined the central construct that rose to the ceiling, openings in the metal showing flickers of fire from within.
A big metal door on the South wall was set back in a recessed doorway and seemed to be the only other way out. The cavernous space was bi-level, a catwalk ran along the central construct in a circle. An open fire was at one end casting an eery glow on the black, bubbling sea of creatures below.
Stepping out into the opening, Rebecca and Billy followed. Both of them a loss for words when they saw what was waiting for them. Mind already working as he thought of a plan, the traveler looked at the incinerators and the leeches before going back to surveying the room. 'No way in hell we can run it with so many of them covering every surface.' More cackling broke him from his thoughts and looked up toward the catwalk above.
And standing above the sea of leeches was a lone figure. A tall, broad-shouldered young man, laughing, his strong yet strange voice carrying in the salt scented, rotten air. "Welcome," he said laughing again, a leech curled on each shoulder as through they were pets, others trailing down his extended arm. "So glad you could join us. You're the guests of honor...After all, this is your wake."
Ethan lowered his weapon, standing tall as he looked up at the man commanding the leeches. His voice loud and stern as he spoke clear across the room. "So we finally meet face to face...Doctor Marcus." His companions shot him a shocked look before looking back up at the man above the room as he chuckled.
"As expected of one such as yourself," said the young man. His body suddenly began shifting before their eyes. His long hair shortened and turned white, youthful features melted into ages ones. Eyes changing color and pupils enlarging. In seconds he became the exact visage of the long since dead doctor, but his cold and brutal smile remained the same. "I have watched you specifically, Ethan, you're intelligence in the situations you and your companions were placed in has made you a formidable foe in my eyes."
The profiler narrowed his eyes, glancing down when he saw two leeches trail over the tips of his boots before joining their brothers and sisters. They were waiting for a single command to attack, and with their numbers all three of them would be in trouble. "That means a lot, coming from one of the men that pretty much made the organization that believes they could play God."
Marcus' face twisted into one of anger, " 'Play God'? We were gods!" his voice rang along the walls loud and clear, the many at his feet shifting at the echo of his words. "What we were planning to achieve, what I was able to achieve was truly extraordinary...but they..." his anger morphed into white-hot fury before slowly simmering back down.
"Ten years ago, Spencer had me assassinated," he said remembering that day flash through his hive mind, the children remembering for him clearly. "I hae been expecting such for some time yet still came as a surprise. My own brilliant disciples were the ones to kill me, men I had taken under my wing and tutelage had ultimately betrayed me to the man I had once called a friend."
His fists clenched as the many shuttered around him, "They left me to rot, took my notes and closed my lab, leaving it all to the ruin of time. They didn't understand, you see. Time was what was needed. It took years for the T-Virus inside my queen to reconstruct, to evolve...And become the variation that created what I am now."
The man smiled, relishing in the mute awe of the two standing behind the one leading them whose gaze didn't falter. "So you are correct child. I am Marcus, but I am also Marcus' son, and grandson, and every other extension, all other offspring, the union between Marcus and his queen. My queen. She lives inside me. She sings to her children."
At the sound of his joy and rapture, the leeches surged toward him. Swimming up his legs as he reveled in the feeling. "Marcus' death freed him! Making him into something far greater than his weak human life would ever allow! And soon, it became time to exact the revenge he so deeply deserved against those that had wronged him."
"I scattered the virus. The world will know, now, what Umbrella has done. What Spencer and his stupid greed have contrived. Umbrella will burn, but Marcus will be hailed as a god for what he created. I am the archetype of a new man, far superior to the lonely pattern of humanity; the world will seek me out, will beg to join the hive, to unite as one mind, one all-powerful being!"
Bam! The hive let out a small shriek as the leech that had been sitting on Marcus's right shoulder had been shot off. Its deceased form falling into the ocean at the 'man's' feet where it was embraced by its grieving brethren.
Ethan lowered his Beretta and locked gazes with the man that had started all of this. "You honestly believe what you have done is no different than what the rest of Umbrella has committed? Innocent people have died because of your quest for vengeance. And if you think the rest of the world will flock to you like lambs to a shepherd then your really are crazy as fuck. What you fail to realize is that this so called 'superiority' that you have created is nothing more than rape of the natural world. Look around you!"
He motioned to everything around them, "This isn't unity, this is madness! Death, destruction and chaos that would consume everything in its path like hell-fire. And as for you? You're just another walking corpse. A vessel to carry the leech queen and do her bidding. And if you're so called 'children' can be killed...so can the two of you."
The silence that followed the teen's words was almost suffocating. Marcus looked down at him as a great anger rose in him, in the children, tainting their joy. So much so that his body was quaking with it. His form shifted back into that of the young man he had been before. "You...inconcievable wretch." he said, his voice trembling with barely contained rage. "You will be the first of many to fall before our might."
The children swept through him, swollen with his anger and ignoring his inner commands. And for the first time since his reanimation, since the hive had given him his new life and purpose, he had no control over it. The many would not listen, only to smite the intruders, to completely crush them under their fury.
Down below, the trio watched the as the ocean of leeches all gathered around the man and started attaching to any place they could get ahold of. His mouth opened and more spilled from his throat like bile, hitting the floor like fat raindrops. Rebecca gagged and fought down not to throw up at the sight, Billy swallowed to keep the rising bile down his own throat as the gathered mass began to shift and change.
His clothes melted away as the leeches continued to swarm, changing the shape and texture of his flesh and giving his body a very rubbery-like appearance. His arms and legs started looking like great masses of fat worms twined together, his face elongated, stretching, the skin tearing to expose ribbed striations of purplish muscle tissue turning thick and wet with clear slime.
The 'man' had lost his human appearance entirely, its whole body was made of large, fat worms now, stuck together by dripping webs of slime. It grew in size as well, the leeches near it joining in multitude, adding further mass and height. Long, stringy tentacles shot up from its back, whipping around like streamers in a high wind, the color of inflammation, of infection.
"The queen," Rebecca breathed. "She's taking control."
The thing flew upward, leaping straight into the air. It hit the ceiling with a huge, wet smacking sound and clung there for a moment. Billy had raised his magnum and fired, but it was already gone, dropping to the floor in front of them, condensing slightly as it hit the ground like some giant rubber toy.
It...she...stretched out again. Towering over them before the tentacles snapped forward reaching toward them.
Ethan stood perfectly still as the other two raised their weapons, the tentacles closing the gap before he raised his foot and stomped down on the remaining leeches still on the floor. The soft, fat pop of each creature beneath his boot heel was followed by loud squeaks that was hear by all.
The deaths of a few of her ghastly children was immediate. The leech queen pulled her tentacles back and let out a scream, a strange, high warbling wail that nothing on Earth could ever make with how alien it was. All the remaining leeches moved away from the trio, clearing a path away from their killing footsteps and made toward their mother.
"How did you know that would work?" asked Billy.
"They're a hive mind, all connected together through a special link. She feels it when something happens to her children, one of her weaknesses." replied Ethan. He looked around the queen as she started growing from the added mass as he children latched on to her.
They couldn't go back the way they came, it was a dead-end. Their only chance was the door on the southern end that he scoped out earlier. The ocean of leeches keeping them from it was thinning out as they swarmed their mother. "I got an idea, grab your grenades." Rebecca and Billy looked at him in shock. "Just trust me, it's the only way we can get out of here before that bitch can get to us."
Trusting his judgement, the medic and soldier pulled the explosive devices he had given them out and waited. Ethan surveyed the area one last time before nodding to himself, "Alright, Billy, chuck yours at the queen. It'll distract her long enough for us to get past. Rebecca, throw yours in the same direction of the door to the South of the room, clear us a path."
"What if the door's locked?" asked Rebecca grabbing the pin of her grenade.
"Gotta risk it, get ready." said the profiler as he took out his shotgun. The queen had nearly doubled in size in less than a minute and it wouldn't be long before it would block their escape completely. "Ready...NOW!"
The two pulled the pins on their grenades and threw them. Billy's bouncing once and rolling underneath the leech queen, Rebecca's bouncing along the line of leeches that were still slithering toward their creator and stopping half-way to the exit.
The two explosions shook the room, the queen shrieked even louder than before as chunks of her body was blown off. Shrapnel burning and tearing through flesh as she collapsed on to the ground. "Go! Now!" Ethan shouted as they ran for the other door. Going around the downed queen and through the large gap made in the ocean of leeches allowing them passage.
Despite her pain, the queen noticed her targets fleeing, managing to raise her tentacles and send them after the humans while her children helped to heal her.
Seeing the movement, Ethan spun around and fired his shotgun. Blowing one of the tentacles apart, racking it and firing again to take down another one. It wasn't enough to stop her, but it would hold her off long enough to reach the exit.
Billy slammed his shoulder into the steel door then kicked it realizing it was locked, "Shit! Now what?!" he shouted as Rebecca tried to operate a console that was close by.
"This has to open it, but I can't seem to figure out how to-" Ethan jogged over and gently pushed her aside. Aiming at the console with the shotgun and firing straight into it. Sparks and the smell of burnt metal and wires shot out when he fired a second blast before kicking the door hard causing it to fly open.
The queen had regenerated enough with the help of her children to stand once more, her large form lumbering after them and ready to tear them apart. However, Ethan was anticipating this. He raised the shotgun, but aimed it just past the queen toward the incinerator behind her. "Burn bitch." he muttered pulling the trigger.
Boom! The shot peppered one of the heating ducts, tearing through one of the aluminum panels and allowing burning matter to spill across the floor and on to a group of leeches. The small creatures screamed in pain and moved faster, climbing on to their queen's towering body to find solace from the pain, but in the process causing the mobile hive to burn as well.
The queen screeched in agony when the smoking, burning leeches joined her. Parts of her body turning black, melting, running like molasses to pool on the smoldering floor. The trio took this time to go through the door and slam it behind them, shutting themselves into a platform elevator shaft. One that went up from the depth of the wide tunnel and stretched away from them at a diagonal, leading toward a circle of light far, far above the platform which went all the way to the surface.
"This is our way out!" Rebecca shouted in elation just as the leech queen roared in fury behind them. Without another word they ran to the platform, reaching the console that controlled the lift. Billy studied the panel for a moment before turning on the power and started it up. The platform beginning to climb and carrying them away from this nightmare.
"That, was crazy shit." Billy said casting a look at Ethan, "How the hell did you managed to pull even half of that off?"
The profiler chuckled tiredly. "Observation, and execution. I've got a high IQ and can process a situation on a much different scale than others, one of the reasons why I was given the job as Alpha teams' strategist as well. Basically, I kept an eye on the leeches and combined my knowledge of how they operate along with the research I dug up back in the labs. And after I looked over the room where Marcus and the queen was set up, I came up with the best way we could escape with the least amount of trouble."
Rebecca smiled, "You're definitely one of a kind." Her fellow rookie sent her a grin as they continued to ascend toward freedom.
They took the time to take stock what supplies they had left. Ethan still had one grenade, three full clips for his Samurai Edge, fifteen rounds for the shotgun after he finished reloading, and ten rounds for his magnum. Rebecca had one clip left for her MP5 and three for her Beretta. Bill had only two clips for his pistol and three rounds for his magnum.
They also still had two first aid sprays and a box and a half of 9mm rounds. It was a good supply regardless...but not for what was coming next.
The circle of light overhead was steadily growing brighter, lift already halfway to the surface and would be there in a couple more minutes. But it was in this moment that an alarm blared throughout the entire facility. Red lights bathing everything around them in crimson splotches of color.
"THE SELF-DESTRUCT SYSTEM HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. ALL PERSONNEL MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. REPEAT. THE SELF-DESTRUCT SYSTEM HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. SEQUENCE WILL COMMENCE IN...TEN MINUTES." chimed a female, automated voice over the loud speakers.
'Shit...guess Birkin managed to activate the facility's auto-destruct after all.' Ethan thought bitterly. 'At least this place, the BOWs contained here, and the queen will go down with it.'
"Maybe the queen..." Rebecca offered but not finishing the thought since it seemed unlikely.
"Probably, but we'll be long gone before it happens. So we shouldn't worry about this too much since-" Billy was cut off when they heard a loud crash from below, the thundering, squealing rip of metal and incredible ruin at the base of the elevator shaft.
The trio ran to the edge and looked down toward where they had started and saw what was coming. The leech-queen shrieked at the base of the shaft before scaling the wall after the lift. Her size much larger from before, and a hell of a lot faster. She was a huge dark mass pulling itself after them.
And she was pissed.
Ethan had his magnum out and fired down the shaft. The slug piercing into the queen's mass and shredding multiple leeches that made up her form. She paused in her movements before charging up after them again. The traveler fired the remaining three rounds in the powerful gun with the same results as they kept climbing up slowly.
The other two added their own gunfire in an attempt to slow her down when the platform suddenly upended. Breaking through a wall and pitching all three of them off on to a concrete floor a few meters away with painted yellow lines radiating in a specific pattern.
An underground helipad. A vast room with plenty of mechanical equipment strewn about, the small islands of metal only emphasizing the room's spaciousness. But no helicopter in sight. What little light there was came from a few stray shafts of sunlight coming down from the motile ceiling, meaning that they were only a single floor from the surface.
Though this was only on their minds for a second as the hulking form of the leech queen crawled through the ragged hole in the wall where the elevator platform had come through, flopping mass of tentacles over the broken pieces of metal and stone. Almost like some kind of crazy optical illusion, pulling itself from the shaft.
Billy shouted about an exit staircase across the room, but the huge mass of leeches seemed to understand him and began moving. Heaving its great bulk across the floor at surprising speeds to head off their escape route.
Ethan had swapped to his shotgun but paused when the beast suddenly stopped, then squealed, pitching back and forth. a high, hissing noise erupting from its squalid body. Smoke starting to rise from its back. The profiler grinned when he saw the cause, a small beam of sunlight cast across its form.
"ATTENTION! SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE WILL COMMENCE IN...EIGHT MINUTES." blared the alarms around them.
"It can't handle sunlight!" Rebecca shouted seeing the same thing Ethan had as they all started to run toward the room's northwest corner. The shambling mass of darkness humping toward them, weaving in and around the stray beams of light and almost keeping up with them.
"Rebecca, find a way to open the roof!" the older teen shouted aiming his weapon at the queen. "The power's out, but there should be manual latches to activate the hydraulics to unlock it in here somewhere! Billy and I will hold her off!"
Nodding, the medic headed off to find the panel she needed while the two men started shooting the mass heading for them. Chunks of dead, black flesh falling from her form with each successful hit.
The queen screeched and jumped at them, Billy and Ethan rolled out of the way, but one of her tentacles managed to sweep their feet out from under them. The thin, dark limb grabbed the ex-Lieutenant's ankle and started to drag him toward the shambling mass.
Raising his boot, the soldier slammed his heel down hard on the bunched tentacle as hard as he could several times until the appendage retracted and the monster thrashed away from him.
Ethan had rolled to his feet, shotgun in hand as he pumped a round into the thing's side. Racking the pump and firing a second into the same spot making the hole in the wriggling flesh even larger. The queen squealed and moved out of the way of the oncoming blasts only to find herself in another beam of sunlight that burned along her back making her sound of pain even louder.
"SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE WILL COMMENCE IN...SEVEN MINUTES."
'Come on, Becs. We're running out of time.' the traveler thought, leaping away as the queen leapt at him and Billy again.
Rebecca activated three of the latches and found the fourth just as the recorded loop told them that they had six minutes left before the place went up in flames. She grabbed the small wheel that served as the manual key and twisted...but the wheel stuck. Not completely, but it took all her strength just to get it to move halfway. Her muscles screamed in protest while she gritted her teeth in exertion. "The last latch is stuck!" she called out.
"REBECCA WATCH OUT!" She looked over her shoulder and saw the queen barreling toward her, she kept pulling on the wheel hoping to get it to budge before the thing was upon her. The sound of Ethan's shotgun and Billy's Beretta echoing immediately along with the sound of the bullets hitting flesh.
"Come on! Come on!" she screamed as she put every ounce of strength she could muster while pulling the obstinate wheel...until it came unstuck and started turning.
A warm, wet limb wrapped around her ankle and was about to pull when a boot stomped down on it. Ethan pulling out his combat knife and slicing the appendage in half causing the queen to shriek at the loss. Billy stood on the opposite side with his magnum drawn as the heavy squeak of powdering rust came from the panel the young medic was working on.
The heavens split wide above them, raining daylight over everything and there was nowhere for the queen to hide.
The hive screamed as death rained down upon it, first poaching skin, then boiling it, thousands of individual leeches dying and falling away. The burning worse than the fire because it was now everywhere all at once. It tried to escape, to find shelter from the torture, but there was nothing...there was nowhere.
With so many dying around her, the queen's vulnerable core was soon exposed to daylight, burning just like her children. When this happened, Billy aimed his magnum and cocked the hammer back. "Fuck you, bitch!" he fired. The slug flying through the air and hitting the core and causing the beast to rearback and collapse completely. A mess of writhing, burning, and dying limbs and leeches with no hope left.
When the recording loop warned them about the destruct sequence and that they had five minutes left they bolted, leaving the queen and her brood to die in the morning light. Its death throws and shrieks at their backs as they went up the stairs as quickly as possible, shooting down a small corridor and shoulder tackling the door at the end open letting them out into the cool breeze of the Arkley forest.
They kept moving, half running, half staggering away from the small structure that had been their exit. Weaving between tree trunks as the morning air filled their lungs, birds singing their morning songs in the branches above.
Ethan counted down in his head ever since they heard the last announcement back in the complex while they ran. When his mental countdown reach zero they felt the ground shake under their feet, the roar of the blast washing through the forest, a pillar of smoke stretching up over the tree tops behind them where the facility once stood.
X
July 24, 1998
The trio stopped when they'd come out of the treeline, standing in the middle of a small clearing. All three of them collapsed on to the ground, Billy on all fours, Ethan on his back and Rebecca on her knees, all breathing heavily with sweat pouring down their faces.
From his spot on the forest floor, the profiler looked back, upside down, at where the smoke was still trailing strongly from the training facility. A grin on his exhausted, sweaty face knowing that they had made it out. They survived...for now anyway.
But despite that, feeling sore, hungry and emotionally drained from what they had endured seeing that place in ruin filled him with peace and a sense of accomplishment.
After catching their breath, the three of them stood up and just watched as the sun continued to rise on to the sky. Bringing with it a new day and gave them all a strong sense of hope that the darkness nearly took from them.
Billy smirked to himself before turning to the two STARS. "Guess...this is it huh?" he said not sure how to address their inevitable separation.
"Guess so." said Ethan before flashing a smirk, "Though I'd say after what we went through, things worked out pretty well." The soldier chuckled, Rebecca giggling as well making the tension not so bad.
The traveler then grabbed Billy's tags and pulled them off, holding them in his fist as he addressed the ex-Lieutenant. "As far as I'm aware, Lieutenant William Coen died back when the train crashed. Body completely unrecoverable. And if anyone asks, that's the story they'll hear." he said slipping the tags into his pocket.
Billy smiled, "Yeah, I'm zombie chow." he regarded the two teens and felt a wistful feeling fill his chest and gut. "Thank you...both of you."
Rebecca nodded, straightening herself, head high and shoulders back before snapping a salute. "Thank you as well, Lieutenant." Ethan repeated the action beside her.
Mirroring their posture and returning the salute. Billy held it until they dropped their hands before relaxing himself. Giving them one last nod before turning and heading for the trees. "Billy!" He turned and caught the half-box of 9mm bullets Ethan had thrown him. "Just in case." the profiler said.
Smiling his thanks, the soldier disappeared into the trees and headed roughly South. Enjoying the warm sun on his shoulders and the song of birds in the trees as he went.
X
Back in the clearing, the two rookie STARS had fallen back into a sitting position. Gazing over the small ledge at the ocean of green trees below.
"We made it." The young medic said with true happiness in her voice as she leaned on Ethan's shoulder.
"We made it." he agreed putting an arm around her as they watched the sun continue to climb in the sky. "You wanted to tell me something back in the labs. What where you going to say?" he asked remembering that moment after the fight with the Hunters.
Rebecca also remembered and blushed, "I was...I was just thinking that, you know..." she sighed before leaning off him and turning to face him directly. "Do you remember the talk we had the other day, back at the precinct?" she asked.
Ethan nodded, "Yeah. It was about whether or not we wanted to be official with our relationship. To be boyfriend and girlfriend."
Looking down at her gloved hands a moment, the medic looked up and met his gaze when she spoke. "I wanted to tell you, that I made a decision. And after everything we've been through in the last 12 hours, everything we've faced, I'm more sure than ever."
Her companion remained silent, though his mind was turning wildly at the thought of what she was going to say. Taking a deep breath, Rebecca sent him a beaming smile that warmed his chest. "I was going to say, that I want to be your girlfriend...and that I think I'm in love with you..." her face turned a light scarlet at the admission and waited for what his reaction would be.
She didn't wait long.
A pair of warm lips met hers, eyes sliding closed as her hand reached up and stroked along the sides of his buzzed head. Fingers brushing over the small bristles of new hair growing from his scalp. Ethan's arms reached out and wrapped around her petite form and brought her closer, one of his hands threading through her short, dark-red locks as they kissed in sync with one another.
Lips parted and their tongues danced with one another as things started to get more heated. A soft moan coming up from the back of Rebecca's throat as she pressed her body closer to his, looking for more contact while he laid her on the grass, his bigger form laying comfortably over hers as they kept the kiss going.
They didn't know how much time had passed, even though it was only about a minute. But to them it felt like a lifetime when they finally pulled back. Looking into each others eyes as though they were seeing something amazing for the first time.
Ethan smiled as he stroked the face of the beautiful girl below him, "I think I'm in love with you too, Rebecca. And It would be an honor to be your boyfriend."
The medic's smile was brighter than the morning sun. She kissed him softly one more time before they got up. Sitting herself between his legs and leaning back against his chest as his arms wrapped comfortably around her stomach.
Her expression almost dreamy as she looked out over the valley that the clearing showed down below. Her green eyes finding a large house down amongst all the trees roughly two miles from where they were all sitting. The light of the sun glaring against the many windows along its walls. "That must be the place Enrico was talking about." she said drawing the attention of her boyfriend who looked out at the building as well.
A dark shadow cast along Ethan's gaze. The Spencer Estate. He was reminded that this nightmare wasn't over yet, that this moment was just the eye of the storm and they'd be thrown right back into the terror once more.
"Yeah, and the rest of your team should be there waiting for us. And hopefully there's a way to contact Alpha team so we can get evaced." he said keeping his dark thoughts about the place in the back of his mind for the time being.
Rebecca nodded, "We should get going soon." she said while wrapping her arms around the ones that were holding her. As much as she wanted to stay like this, it was better to get there before night fell again. And with being as tired as they were it wouldn't turn out well.
They stayed like that for another minute before getting up. Both taking a deep breath before they started to make their way to the mansion. Along the way, their hands reached out and intertwined with one another. Holding firm to let each other know that as long as they were together nothing would stop them.
Even though more nightmares and death waited for them behind the dark walls of the Spencer Estate, they just relished in the warmth and happiness that came with being with one another. After the night they had, they more than deserved this moment.
For now...they'd enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasted.
X
The distant explosion reached the Spencer Estate, shook it so very slightly. Dust shifted on tables. Dirt trickled in the underground tunnels. And the creatures that still lived there turned blind, dead eyes to the windows, to the walls, listening, groping in the darkness, hoping that the very slight movement meant that food would be coming soon.
They were hungry...
A/N: And there it is...and for those of you wondering this is not a 'multi-sequel' kind of story. All the arcs will be contained within one fic and separated by 'bridge-chapters' to keep the story flow stable. I am also combining RE0 and RE1 into one arc since they tie together so easily. So it goes without saying, Ethan and Rebecca will be hitting the mansion in the next chapter. But how will things differ with Bravo MIA and with Alpha team not arriving until later that night?
Stay tuned guys, and I'll answer any questions you might have through my PM box.
