Resident Evil:
The Whole Story.
Chapter Forty-Five
Jessica was still sobbing as she scrambled to her feet and threw herself towards the door, when the dogs had burst though the doors she hadn't thought about the others she had just ran for it, up the stairs to the balcony that overlooked the main hall, there was nothing she could do of course as she had dropped her gun in the grass when she tried to help Joseph and she had forgotten to pick it up when the dogs had come bursting out of the shadows to attack them and forced them to run.
But that did nothing for the shame she felt as she ran, the door burst open as she fell against it and then scrambled back up to her feet and ran down the corridor as the dogs barked behind her, she could hear them gaining on her.
When she took the corner Jessica's heart dropped when she saw that the hallway ended in a wall but she kept going, desperate to stay alive. Her hands came up and slammed into the wall, almost hoping that the wall would disappear when she touched it but it was as solid as it seemed, she sobbed and would have fallen to her knees then and waited for death to come if not for the fact that she caught sight of a door in the corner of her eye.
She lunged for it, at the same time as one of the dogs leapt for her and she felt it's claws scrabble over her back through her bulletproof vest, and then she heard a yelp from it as it collided with the wall and the door burst open and Jessica spun on her heels and slammed all of her weight back against the door to slam it shut just as two other dogs were about to lunge inside after her.
Jessica leaned against the door and slumped down to the ground, sobbing as she went and her hands coming up to cover her face. The fear was overwhelming and she hated herself at her thoughts turned to the others, she had abandoned them and now they might all be dead.
Dead, just like poor Joseph.
Oh god, poor Joseph. She knew that she would have been able to do anything for him, the wounds that he had suffered were so terrible and he had no chance of survival and yet that did nothing to ease her guilt.
She didn't know how long she sat there, her head resting on her knees and her hands clamped over her ears to block out the sound of the dogs clawing at and barking outside the door, desperate to get inside and maul her, it was only the sound of something falling to the ground and shattering that made her look up.
There was a bookcase that divided the room and it was from behind it where the noise had come from and Jessica looked up just in time to see someone stumbling out from behind it, it was a man dressed in a brown blazer and a white dress shirt with dark green slacks and brown loafers and the smart way he was dressed was undercut by the way he moved.
He was stumbling like he had to much to drink, and that sight should have been enough for Jessica to get off her ass and help him but she stayed sat there as the man kept stumbling towards her.
It was odd, he didn't smell like he had been drinking but there was a smell, something cloyingly sweet and think in the air and there was something about it that struck her as familiar.
It was when the man had crossed half the distance between them that Jessica knew what she was smelling.
It was rot, it was death.
And just like that Jessica knew that she wanted to get as far away from this man as she possibly could.
But the dogs were still on the other side of the door she came in from and they would definitely kill her as soon as she opened it and she didn't know if there was any other door in the room but if there was it was behind the man who was getting far too close to her.
"Sir," Jessica said as she slowly got to her feet, trying to sound more stable than she felt. "I'm going to need you to take a step back, do you hear me?"
If the man did hear her then he showed no sign of it, he was close enough now that if Jessica reached out then the tips of her fingers would brush against the front of his shirt. "Sir," Jessica tried again and this time her voice was definitely trembling. "I am a police officer and I am ordering you to step back from me right now!"
The man did not step back and kept coming towards her and when he opened his mouth the smell of rot grew worse and Jessica tried again, fighting not to gag. "I mean it, this is your last chance!"
The man said nothing and lunged for her, Jessica screamed and dove to the side and cursed herself in her head for dropping her gun back in the woods as she collided with the floor and scrambled to her feet as her attacker collided with the door.
While the man was pushing himself away from the door Jessica ran around the bookshelf to the other side of the room and she let out a sob of relief when she saw another door but that hopeful feeling died when the handle would not budge at all, the door was locked and she was trapped.
And she could hear footsteps coming towards her.
Jessica looked around frantically, looking for anything that she could use to defend herself and the only thing that looked like it could be of any help was a thick leather bound book with metal claps to hole it closed that looked like it could break some bones if it was dropped on your foot.
She picked it up and tested it's weight before she waited for the man to come into view, with a cry she lunged forward and smashed the book right into the centre of his face, the sound of something snapping in the man's face made Jessica feel sick to her stomach.
The man reeled back and fell over but as soon as he was down her was trying to get back to his feet, his eyes cloudy and unseeing and seemingly unconcerned about the bent shape of his nose.
"Stop, stay down!" Jessica cried out and then swung the book again as the man stepped towards her, his arms outstretched.
The blow knocked the man to the side and he collided with the bookshelf, knocking some of the books to the ground. The man just moaned and reached out for her again, unstoppable.
"Stop it!" Jessica screamed and hit him again, and again, and again. She didn't stop hitting him even when he was on the ground, she didn't stop until he finally stopped moving.
Jessica let the book slip out of her numb fingers as she saw the red blood and grey matter that stained it and stained the front of her uniform as well, mixing with Joseph's blood that was already on there.
Acid burned the back of her throat and Jessica had to stumble to the side to vomit into a corner, all the while the dogs kept hammering at the door, she could hear them throwing themselves against it.
She stumbled over to the door and slide down against it, using her weight to hold it closed while her hands came up to cover her eyes, praying that when she opened them again she would be anywhere else.
End of Chapter Forty-Five
