Really difficult to write these days when I'm trying to do so much. Life and other projects keep getting in the way which is pretty much why this is mega late. I just recently finished my Resident Evil binge though so that's helped give me some motivation to get my ass in gear to making some progress on this. I'll be making an effort to try and accelerate progress as well for the sake of catching up, and if all goes well I should be able to make a decent amount of progress, but we'll see what happens.

BUT, I'm seriously at a point now where I'm actually starting to consider looking for some co-writers to help me write this damn series.

Also on a side note as of getting back to finishing this chapter, I completed Resident Evil 4 Remake a few months ago. I was actually surprised by how much I ended up loving it. Along with just being a really fun experience, it basically fixed some of the issues I had with the original, so I'd say great job Capcom. Speaking of which, apparently Capcom did hold a survey recently with one of the last questions being which game should get the Remake treatment next. I think it's obvious what it should be and I think most other people are in agreement. Code Veronica is the popular choice I'm seeing most people say and I'm fully on board for that one. I swear to god though if they end up Remaking RE1R especially after I finish writing this...

...Anyway, let's get to it.

Disclaimer: Resident Evil and its characters belong to Capcom obviously, any Original characters in this story belong to me.

Enduring the Evil: REwrite

Chapter 2:
Mansion

"Ok Chris. I went over the statements from the survivors. They seem to line up perfectly with Jill's report."

Chris said nothing as Marvin pulled up a seat just across the table from him. He was still furious that the Chief refused to listen to their reports, claiming their accusations against Umbrella lacked sufficient evidence.

Of course they did! The facility went up in flames, leaving no trace of any evidence remaining.

Despite that there were still some, like Marvin, who were willing to hear him and the others out in hopes that they could push the Chief into launching an investigation.

As an officer of the law of course, Marvin needed to be sure everyone's stories lined up with each other; even the reports from his fellow officers.

"I imagine Jill would have already filled you in on the bulk of the details." Chris said with a shrug.

"Yeah she did," Marvin replied. "Now I want to hear about everything that happened from your perspective Chris."

Chris eyed him with a suspicious glance. "You don't trust us to be honest Marvin?"

Marvin held out a hand, trying to ease the tension. "I'm just trying to be thorough, Chris. If I'm gonna take these to the Chief in an effort to persuade him to start investigating a company as big as Umbrella; I need to hear about everything that happened from everyone's perspective. Every single detail."

A shrug and Chris relented, sinking into his chair. "Fine, fire away."

"Right. Well the start of your report lines up perfectly with the others," Marvin responded as he looked through the papers he had bundled in his hands. "So why don't we just start from after you found this mansion."

The Night Before...

Chris and his comrades had just barely escaped the savage dogs by the skin of their teeth.

Wesker was surprisingly calm and composed despite the attack. Whereas Jill was still trying to catch her breath from all of that running; Chris could not blame her, he too was still trying to catch his breath. It was times like these that he was really grateful they did a lot of that morning jogging on a daily basis. The exercise may very well have saved their lives this time.

"Is everyone all right?" Jill was the first to ask, naturally being the most concerned for the wellbeing of her teammates.

A small and simple nod was all she got from Wesker, whereas Chris gave her an encouraging thumbs up.

She smiled in relief, finally letting that feeling of safety settle in now that she had caught her breath. It was only after she had started to acknowledge her surroundings however that she started to realise they were another Alpha Team member short.

Chris must have noticed this right away too because he spoke up before Jill could voice her concern.

"Barry...where's Barry?" Chris asked, his tone clear with concern over the absence of their other teammate.

"He's..." Wesker started, but before he could finish his response, the faint sound of a gunshot caught their attention.

The three of them looked in the direction the gunshot came from, alarmed, concerned and curious all at once; more so Chris and Jill if the expressions on their faces were anything to go by. Wesker again was calm the entire time, unlike his teammates who were still on edge after their encounter with those savage dogs back in the forest.

"What was that?!" Jill asked with a gasp, handgun at the ready.

Chris checked the magazine of his own gun, placing back in once he confirmed a full clip. "I'll go and check it out." He said without hesitation, before making his way towards the door.

"It's dangerous going alone." Jill replied as she started to follow him. "I'll come with you."

He looked back and nodded, before turning to Wesker. "Captain Wesker?"

"Alright," Wesker replied. "I'll stay and secure the area. Stay sharp."

With that, Chris and Jill moved on, the former taking the lead as he slowly opened the door, inching his way into what appeared to be a dining room. A rather large and luxurious dining room; which he figured was to be expected given the size of the mansion itself.

Whoever owned it must have been pretty wealthy.

Though Chris did question the owner's choice of location for the mansion. It was understandable some people would want their privacy; but isolated deep in a forest all the way out in the Arklay Mountains?

He could only imagine the amount of money they must have paid the construction workers for the trips alone.

The two STARS officers slowly made their way across both sides of the dining room, weapons raised as they examined everything in sight; and keeping their eyes peeled for the source of the gunshot.

By the time they reached the large fireplace at the other end of the room, they regrouped and gave the area one last look. At first they scanned the walls for any bullet holes, which one would normally expect to find unless a person happened to be struck. In which case, the next thing they would expect to find would be casings, none of which happened to be present anywhere in the room. There was no sign of gunfire whatsoever.

So far nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Save for the small pool of blood next to the fireplace.

"You think it's Barry?" Jill asked as Chris kneeled down to examine it.

"I hope not." Chris answered, wiping the blood from his finger before standing back up. "Doesn't this seem just a bit odd, Jill?" He asked, gesturing towards the rest of the room. "This mansion I mean."

Jill looked around, seemingly giving her answer some thought.

"Well...I suppose it does seem to be a bit out of place." She answered.

A soft chuckle was Chris' response. "My thoughts exactly. I can't imagine anyone who would want to live all the way out here; especially with all the bizarre murders going on in the area."

Nodding, Jill replied, "We haven't found the owner yet though. Maybe it's possible they abandoned the place a while ago?"

"I'd believe that if it weren't for that gunfire we heard earlier. Someone is still here, and if it's the owner then they might be in trouble." Chris said as he turned and made his way for the door at the end of the room. "C'mon, let's check the other rooms."

Jill followed close behind, letting Chris take the lead as he slowly inched the door open.

The moment the two of them entered the hallway, they had managed to catch a glimpse of movement just around the corner at the very end; they exchanged glances and raised their weapons, keeping them at the ready as they approached the corner.

And then...

What sounded like a person's dying gasps forced the two of them to dash ahead.

A loud bang of thunder and light flooded the hallway for just the briefest of seconds as the two STARS officers jumped out behind the corner; just in time for them to make out a man hunched over what appeared to be...

"KENNETH!"

The bloodied STARS Bravo team member was already dead, staring lifelessly up at the ceiling as the man hunched over him chewed away at his torn throat; before ceasing to slowly turn his head, looking over his shoulder at the two STARS officers with a lifeless gaze of his own.

Chris and Jill barely had the time to raise their weapons when the bloodied man swung around and lunged at them.

Gunfire rang out across the hallway, and echoed across several rooms of the mansion; just enough for someone else to take notice.

Elsewhere...

"Did you hear that?"

The question came from Connor as Andrew eyed the direction of the gunshot with a neutral gaze.

It was just one thing after another right now. Between the car engine dying out halfway towards their destination, the fog getting thicker in the middle of the night, losing track of that helicopter as they tried to pursue it through the damn forest.

Those feral dogs though...

Of all the things that had happened in the short span of time since they left the city, it was those dogs that made Andrew feel the most uneasy.

Yet it was how they looked that weighed on his mind.

Their flesh was ripped and torn, bones were exposed and pieces of their bodies were just...missing.

"They shouldn't have even been alive..." Andrew muttered under his breath, not taking his gaze away from the direction of the gunshot.

"What was that?" Connor asked.

Finally, Andrew turned his attention towards his friend, and responded, "They shouldn't have even been alive. Those dogs."

Connor nodded in agreement as he looked back towards the doors that they ran through not but a few mere moments earlier.

"Damn straight there brother. Hell, they looked more like someone put 'em through a damn meatgrinder or some shit." He half-joked. "Little shits sure can run though, I felt like I ran a full marathon with how fast we had to haul ass."

Andrew said nothing, instead he looked around the entire main hall, taking in every little detail as curiosity got the better of him. Whose mansion was this? How long had it been here? And more importantly, why was it out here, isolated in the middle of Raccoon Forest?

Between recent events, those dogs, this mansion and the gunshot they had yet to investigate, Andrew just did not know where to start.

"Bro I can see the gears turnin' in your head."

Looking back, Andrew half-smirked as he asked, "Was I really making it that obvious?"

Connor chuckled. "You always make it obvious bro. Anyway, I think we should take this one step at a time, startin' with that gunshot."

He was right, Andrew figured. It was better to focus on one thing at a time, and that gunshot moments ago would be the logical thing to start with. For all they knew, it could be the mansion's owner trying to fend off one of those feral dogs they themselves just barely escaped from.

"Yeah, good idea. Jamie?" Andrew turned to the only other individual in the main hall.

After catching their breath from their recent escape, Jamie had been very silent, more so than he usually was. In fact, Andrew had only just begun to notice that Jamie too was staring off into space, slowly taking in every detail of the main hall much like did.

But the look on his face was not the look of someone who was relieved to have escaped with his life. His expression was completely neutral as he quietly looked around the main hall of the mansion; yet for just the briefest of seconds, Andrew caught a full glimpse of Jamie's stare as he briefly looked in his direction, and he swore he saw a subtle sign of familiarity in his eyes.

It unnerved him.

"Yo Jamie!"

The loud tone of Connor clearly broke Jamie from his thoughts as he finally turned and acknowledged their presence.

"We're gonna go investigate that gunshot. You comin' with?"

Andrew studied the change in Jamie's expression; the look in his eyes went from neutral to, looking somewhat reluctant...and something else. He could not figure out what exactly, yet it was enough to arouse his suspicion.

Jamie then turned his back to the two of them, and said, "I think we should split up actually."

Silence followed as Andrew exchanged looks with Connor, who gave him a confused glance before turning back to his brother. "You sure bro? I mean I'm pretty sure that gunshot came from somewhere over there." He said, gesturing towards the doors on the left side of the stairs.

A wave of his hand, and Jamie said, "I'm sure. Besides, we'll be able to cover more ground more efficiently. Maybe even find more people."

Before Andrew could object, Connor beat him to it. "Alright bro, if you're sure." He said, seemingly having no objections to Jamie's idea, much to Andrew's frustration, though he kept it to himself. "Me and Andy'll check out that gunshot. If anything happens, we all meet up back here in the main hall. That sound good?"

"Sounds good." Was all Jamie said.

Connor then patted Andrew on the shoulder before moving on, gesturing for him to follow.

He did not follow however, instead he stood in place, doing nothing, saying nothing. He simply waited until Connor had entered into the next room, out of earshot before finally breaking his silence the moment the doors closed behind his friend.

"What's going on in that head of yours, Jamie?"

Jamie turned around and looked at him with that neutral stare he had earlier.

Andrew matched his neutral stare with one of his own.

A brief silence followed for a few seconds before Jamie finally answered. "I'm thinking."

"Thinking about what?" Andrew asked.

Neither of them looked away from the other, in fact, Jamie's stare hardened somewhat at Andrew's response; almost as if he was annoyed that Andrew was prying for answers. Answers that he seemed like he did not want to give, for whatever reason.

"I'm thinking about how you of all people managed to come up with not one, but two braindead ideas that have now gotten us into a tight situation." Jamie answered with a frown. "Let's not forget about those savage mutts out there that looked like they were hellbent on ripping us apart, which by the way, they almost did."

Andrew flinched slightly, backing off when he realised Jamie had a point.

Indeed, it was his idea to drive all the way out here to see if they could find the new facility Kyle was moving to; perhaps even a sign of the Ecliptic Express and whether or not it potentially broke down like Jamie previously suggested.

Because of those ideas, they ended up stranded halfway towards their destination and eventually ended up running for their lives; in their attempt to pursue the helicopter whose pilot Andrew thought could give them a hand.

It was most certainly not one of his best ideas, not one of his brightest either; in fact his recent suggestions most definitely were some of the worst he had made as of late. Normally Andrew was full of good and smart ideas, but tonight ended up being one of the rare cases where he got too overconfident in his own smarts; and now it ended up biting not just him, but all of them in the ass.

"I'll admit...I may have miscalculated somewhat." Andrew confessed with a shrug.

"No shit," Jamie responded with a harsh glare. "And you can go fuck yourself if you think for a second that I'm gonna disclose any of my own ideas to you after the colossal fuck ups you've made tonight. Don't fucking try and get into my head again."

With that, Jamie turned and started taking his leave, making his way towards the stairs.

Andrew was going to call out and stop him, before stopping himself. He repeated Jamie's words to himself in his head and, as much as it annoyed him to admit it, his friend was right. Tonight's mistakes were a huge blunder on his part and as a result, he forfeited all rights to be quarrelsome with his friend, who admittedly did try to warn him.

Tonight's blunder was all on him, and as he watched Jamie disappear on his way up the stairs; he swore to himself that he would make every effort possible to rectify the situation.

"But first...that gunshot," He thought out loud. "Better move now, Connor's probably wondering what the hell's taking me so long."

'Jill'

Jill stared wide-eyed at the remains of the man who attacked them.

It all happened so quick, she did not even know where to start.

One second the man was feasting on the flesh of their comrade Kenneth, the next he lunged at them in the blink of an eye; moving faster than they could have possibly expected for someone who looked so...worn down.

She had raised her weapon in self-defence but the man had knocked her gun from her hands and was on her in an instant; his teeth never got anywhere near her however thanks to the timely intervention of Chris.

A single shot from her partner's gun to the man's head and he was stopped completely in his tracks.

Jill had to wipe some of the blood off of her after Chris helped her back to her feet, but she could see in his eyes that he looked just as shocked as she was.

"Chris...you..."

Her partner glanced at her before she could say anything more, clearly he was relieved that she was okay; but at the same time, he looked very conflicted over the lethal measures he resorted to.

"He...he killed Kenneth. I didn't want to kill him but he was on you so fast and I just...reacted."

At the mention of their comrade, Jill turned and approached the corpse of Kenneth, kneeling down next to him; his eyes were still open, staring lifelessly up at the ceiling. Jill sighed and brought her hand to his face, closing his eyes herself.

"Poor Kenneth..." She muttered sadly.

"What the hell is going on in this place?" Chris asked as he examined the remains of their attacker. "And what was wrong with this guy? That look in his eyes, and the way his own flesh was cracked and rotting, even the exposed bones...it was almost as if he was already..."

When Chris did not finish his sentence, Jill took her eyes off of Kenneth and directed her gaze back towards her partner. "Almost as if he was already what?" She asked.

"Already dead." Chris answered. "He looked like he was already dead."

Jill just stared at him, unsure of what to say.

They both just remained silent, taking a moment to get their bearings, with the occasional glance at the remains of Kenneth.

Eventually, Chris spoke up again.

"We should report this to Wesker." He said, turning to his partner. "Let's go."

Jill nodded in agreement. "Got it."

Without another word, both of them turned to leave and made their way back to the dining room.

After the encounter with the dead man just moments ago, it was no surprise that upon entry, Jill and Chris instantly found themselves raising their weapons at two individuals who were literally just a few feet from where they entered.

"WHOA! DON'T SHOOT!"

Elsewhere...

"What kind of gas station isn't open this far out? Seriously, what the fuck?"

Alex just shrugged, keeping pace with Scott as the two of them walked their way back to the car. They had reached the gas station sooner than they had expected to, thankfully, but in typical fashion or maybe it was just their luck, it was closed. Scott had even banged on the door multiple times, checked the back entrance and the like, but no one was home.

To say both of them, mostly Scott of course, were annoyed would be an understatement.

"These things are sent to test you, Scott. Nothing we can do about it." Alex replied, feeling the frustration, but keeping himself calm and composed otherwise.

Of course, Scott was his own version of calm and composed. While he was not outright furious, shouting and screaming to the heavens, the silent rage on his face was all but apparent.

"Guess we're gonna have to come up with a new plan then." Scott replied.

Alex tilted his head a little, contemplating it. "Eh, maybe. I think the smart thing would be to maybe wait until morning when it's light out. Would be a lot safer, and hell hopefully by morning the fog will have lifted."

His friend nodded in agreement. "Yeah sounds fair. One of us can stay up, keep watch in case anyone happens to drive by. Guess that'll be me."

Entertaining the thought of debating the matter, Alex ultimately decided against it. Scott would actually be the most suitable choice for keeping watch, after all he stayed up many nights before during his time in the army.

Soon enough, they had finally made it back to the car.

While they were not expecting to return to the sound of conversation or music turned up to the max, it seemed a lot more eerily silent than before.

"Hey! We're back! And sorry to say boys, the gas station was closed. We're gonna have to improvise." Alex called out loudly, quieting down his voice the closer he got to the car.

When no reply came, Alex furrowed his brows and quickened his pace, stopping to look inside the car once he reached it. "Guys?"

To his mild surprise, no one was inside the car. It was completely empty, save for a stray bag of chips that they had clearly forgotten to throw away.

Scott was checking from the other side, looking around with a suspicious frown on his face.

"Andrew? Jamie? Connor?" Alex called out, looking around the fog covered roadway. "I swear to god if you assholes are gonna try and jump out and scare us!"

Again, no reply came.

Scott was quietly examining the car and the road around it for any signs of foul play, but so far it seemed like nothing was out of the ordinary, save for their friends' absence of course.

"GUYS!"

Once more, there was no response, and Alex himself was starting to slowly lose his composure. "Where the hell are they?"

While he was looking around for any signs of their friends, Alex glanced over and took notice of Scott who was kneeled down examining the ground; surely he was not looking for footmarks, right? There was nothing on the roadway that could have allowed them to leave any, so the chances of him finding anything were almost zero.

Almost implying there was still a chance of course. Scott was a brilliant tracker at least, and if anyone could notice something out of the ordinary, it would be him.

Alex stood by in silence, contemplating what could have happened to them while Scott was slowly moving around, examining parts of the ground. There were already a bunch of thoughts going through his head, some of which was what he was going to do or say once they found them.

'Well the first thing I'm gonna do is beat the shit out of 'em for fucking off instead of waiting for us to get back.' He thought to himself. 'As if things weren't bad enough with Bryan and Danny not having come back yet, and now those three jackasses have went and disappeared.'

He then brought his hands up to his face and groaned out loud. "Ugh! What else could possibly go wrong tonight?!"

"Alex! Over here!"

Hearing Scott calling him over prompted Alex to rush to his friend's side immediately, finding him kneeling at the end side of the roadway near the forest.

Scott looked up at him as he approached and gestured to the ground with a hand, placing it over several specific tracks. "Three pairs of footprints, and they're heading into the forest."

Alex let out a long sigh, facepalming at the revelation they both seemed to be coming to.

"Why in the absolute hell would they go into the forest? Especially at this time of night, with the fog and shit?"

Shrugging, Scott stood back up and glanced at said forest with a neutral glare. "Dunno, unless something happened." He then turned back to Alex. "What's the plan then?"

"Well...I guess we're gonna have to go and find them." Alex said reluctantly. "In the Raccoon Forest...FUCK! We're gonna have to go after them in the Raccoon Forest!"

Scott kept a neutral frown on his face as he replied. "Thinking about those cannibalistic murders we read about in the papers?"

Alex groaned again. "UGH! I'M GONNA KILL 'EM!"

"Don't worry, I got a spare gun in the car. We'll both be able to defend ourselves if we have to." Scott said, surprisingly being the more calm of the two right now.

"Here's hoping it doesn't come to that." Alex said as his friend went to the back of the car, opening it and retrieving said gun. "Fucking hell man, I can't believe this. We came all the way out here to find Bryan and Danny and now we have to put that on hold to find those fucking morons. In the middle of the night too!"

Alex ceased his ranting when he heard Scott grunt, prompting him to call out, "You okay over there?"

"I'm good. Just a pain in the ass digging through all of this junk. Seriously we should've cleared this thing out ages ago, it's a fucking mess." Scott called back.

Once he closed the trunk, he made his way back over, twirling the gun around his finger for a few seconds before tossing it to Alex, who almost failed to catch it. "Heads up next time would be nice."

"Whatever. There's a full mag in there, and we got several more, just in case." Scott replied.

"In case what?" Alex asked.

Scott looked back at him, brow raised. "In case we need them."

"Ah..."

After giving his weapon a look over, Alex made his way towards the forest, eyeing it with a mixed look of nervousness and frustration.

"Having second thoughts?" Scott asked as he stood next to him.

Alex glanced at him slightly, noting the calm frown on his friend's face.

"...Nope."

He then turned back to the forest. Between the endless darkness between the trees, the fog and the foreboding feeling he knew was washing over both of them; he was actually surprised he was not having second thoughts, for now.

"Okay then. Into the darkness we go."

With that, they both entered the Raccoon Forest, prepared to tackle whatever horrors it would throw at them.

Or so they thought.

Author's Notes

After finally managing to finish writing this Chapter, I'm starting to, indeed, lean more towards seeking out some co-writers because I'm already far behind as it is; and it would honestly help me catch up and make up for lost time if I had some other authors to work on separate chapters. The only solace I can take in my slow as fuck progress is that maybe, just maybe, more Remakes of other games will be done and made before I get to said entries. Assuming the frustration doesn't kill me first of course.

Anyway, as usual, sorry for the ridiculously long wait, I know I pretty much sound like a broken record at this point but, eh, it is what it is. When you've got life and other projects taking up your time and attention, can't really do shit about it.