Sixteen Ain't So Sweet

Chapter Three - Night, Night

"Carlos, come in. Carlos? Dammit, guess we're out of range..." I ignored her even as she shifted my weight, and I noticed then the small limp in her stride. My sister really was strong, being able to survive this whole shit-show, see countless people die, and still have the heart to worry about her troublemaker of a little sister. It sent a fresh wave of tears rolling down my cheeks. Her arm tightened slightly around my side as though sensing my thoughts, careful of my injuries.

"I won't let anything happen to you, kiddo. I promise." I could only nod, knowing that if I opened my mouth, I'd only cry harder.

x-ResidentEvil-x

Fresh, cool night air hit our faces just as an inhuman roar echoed behind us, my heart leaping in my throat. "That fucker's still alive. We can't stay here." Jill breathed, taking us down a small set of steps to jog on flat ground by the river. By now I could walk on my own, the pain in my leg subsided to a dull ache, but Jill still worried about the open wound on my back -I dread to think what it looked like, I didn't even want to look at what exactly she pulled from it. "Don't leave my side for any reason, got it, Lia?"

"I won't." I replied immediately, voice hoarse. The initial plan was to make it to the clock tower, see if we could get through to Carlos and meet up with him there and hopefully see to our injuries.

My fingers clutched Jill's handgun while we ran towards the bridge, our feet just landing on the top step when the subway we'd been in moments before exploded in an eruption of flames, the burning form of the monstrosity running out, fighting off the fire encasing its body and stumbling over the rail into the river.

Jill scoffed, "Bitch can't even swim." She carried on over the bridge, my footsteps following hers in sync, when she brought a radio up to her lips.

"Carlos! Respond!" I left her to it, keeping an ear out on what was said while my sore eyes rested solely on the splashing water, not trusting that it'd just drown and that would be it.

"Yeah, what's up?" I heard Jill sigh in remorse, her gaze flickering to me before looking down at the ground. "We didn't make it. The train derailed."

"Derailed? Was anyone hurt?" His response was immediate, that hero side of him shining through even on the radio. It made my lips twitch a little in a small, sad smile.

"Everybody... Everybody's dead. Mikhail... Zoe.. Everybody." My mouth parted but no words came out, and instead I swallowed back the lump forming in my throat and willed the tears away.

"Shit... What about Lia -is your sister okay?" Jill looked over at me and I shrugged numbly; as physically okay as I could be after all the shit that's gone on, and then to lose my best friend in a matter of hours, I probably wasn't mentally. I couldn't help but blame myself for her death, and that's something I know I'll carry with me no matter what Jill or anyone else said to tell me otherwise.

"She's hurt but alive, 'okay' I'm not sure about, but she's here with me and that's all I can ask for, really." She racked a hand through her hair, an angry snarl twisting her lips. "Nicholai left us to die." The line was silent for a millisecond before Carlos replied, shock coating his voice, "Wait, what?"

From the corner of my eye I saw the water splashing frantically, my pulse racing once again as I caught Jill's attention. "Jill!" She turned, eyeing the water and muttering a "What the fuck?" before the monster, more massive than before, launched from the water, my scream cut off as Jill snatched my arm and threw us to the ground, just as it collided into the side of the bridge.

"It's back! Run!" We scrambled to our feet, hearing Carlos on the other end of the radio shout out "Jill? Jill, what happened?!" as we ran, the thing hot on our heels.