Twenty-Two

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With a grim look you trudged through the forest, while the dirty snow crunched under your boots. It was cold, so cold that your bad mood became even worse.

With a glance at the clock, you realized that it was seven minutes until you and Chris would meet again. At the thought and his face in your mind's eye, anger suddenly burned within you.

With a scream, you spun around, raised your fist, and hit a tree with all your might. The rotten, frozen wood crunched and screamed under the force of the blow and shattered.

Your hand sank into the tree trunk, sharp and pointed pieces of wood dug into your hand, through your glove. It hurt briefly, but the rage quickly made the pain go away.

The desire to strike again arose in you, but before you could strike again, a noise suddenly caught your attention. It sounded like a branch breaking under the weight of a human.

A low growl suddenly sounded and the stench of decaying flesh was in the air.

Cautiously, you glanced over your shoulder.

Your hands held the rifle tightly, one finger already on the trigger, ready to pull. Slowly, very slowly, you turned around, so slowly that it took what felt like an eternity. With your back pressed against the tree, your eyes looked around.

In the forest everything seemed quiet, no animals were to be heard and it was like extinct.

Suddenly there was that growling again. It sounded animalistic, but also human. As if a human had gotten rabies.

Carefully you raised the rifle and fired a shot into the forest.

Nothing reacted. The bullet hit a tree, tore some bare branches and finally disappeared in the snow before your eyes.

You breathed a sigh of relief. But suddenly a strange feeling gripped you. It was like a cold shiver that crept down your spine.

Something dripped on your shoulder. It was saliva. Saliva mixed with blood.

Startled, you jerked your head up, a cloudless blue sky opened up before your eyes.

A shadow moved in the bare treetop. Suddenly someone giggled. Then something jumped toward you.

It all happened so fast, you didn't have time to take the rifle and shoot. The strange creature yanked you to the ground, the safety belt on the rifle snapped, and the gun was thrown away.

A big hand hit you in the face, the feeling of skin tearing filled your cheek. A sharp pain ran through your body as the hand struck again.

This time it didn't hit your head, but your chest. Fortunately for you, the bulletproof vest was also strong enough to withstand the claws of a monster.

With a loud laugh, the creature now sat over you, its face disfigured by scars and bumps. It was a man, at least what was left of him.

Its teeth were crooked and filthy, and its eyes had taken on a red hue, as if sunlight hurt it. The skin had turned black, or rather gray as ash. It was rotting on his bones.

With a pained face, you dodged another blow. The feeling of warm blood dripping down your face to your neck crept over your skin. Panting heavily, you grabbed his neck and compacted to snap the monster's neck.

But it was fast and stronger than you thought. While it screamed and laughed disgusting stinking blood dripped from its mouth.

With terrifying ease, the monster grabbed your neck, sharp claws digging into your flesh, making it burn like fire.

With a scream you tried to throw the creature off, but the claws dug deeper into you and threatened to tear your neck apart. Shaking and screaming in pain, your hand reached for your leg.

Your fingers managed to grasp the handle of the pistol, you yanked the weapon up and fired a shot.

The bullet hit right in one eye. Blood splashed up and covered the snow and you with stinking stains. With a final growl, the monster fell on top of you.

You couldn't feel the weight at that moment, your breath was going much too fast and you could hardly breathe. The air burned in your lungs, everywhere was the feeling of blood sticking to your skin.

Breathing heavily, you rolled onto your side, away from the monster. The desire to vomit filled your mouth.

Hastily you crawled to the tree, clutching your rifle and pressing your back against it. The feeling of the hard tree behind you hurt. It was almost like a wall pressing against you, as if it wanted to break your spine.

Breathing heavily, you stared at the corpse lying in the snow in front of you. Black blood was slowly colouring the snow. It smelled of rotten flesh and death. Even worse, he smelled like a human.

The way his dead eyes were wide open, staring at you, was something that came straight from a nightmare.

It had been long, since you've killed.

But why was it so hard all of a sudden?

No, it wasn't hard. It was surprising. You were not used to it anymore. But it would change. You were sure you would get used to it again. This was just a monster. It meant nothing.

Everything hurt. There was a ringing in your ears. It was so loud and shrill that you couldn't hear anything else. Your body felt numb.

The feeling of blood on your skin brought back memories. Cruel memories.

Suddenly you were shaking. A trembling breath left your lips as you closed your eyes and tried to silence the memories. Tears were already filling your eyes.

But suddenly a noise sounded.

"(Y/N)?", Chris's voice was like a knife cutting through the darkness.

It was so clear and distinct that the ringing stopped.

You grabbed your chest.

"I'm still alive.", you laughed, but your words trembled.

"I heard gunshots. Are you all right?"

"Hm. Yeah, I think so.", slowly you pulled yourself up the tree to get back on your feet. "There's nothing here. I'll be back."

For a moment he was silent.

"The box is with me.", he finally said with a strange undertone. "Will you come and help me?"

"Yes.", you were breathing heavily. "Yes, I'll be right there."

Chris Redfield x ReaderWhere stories live. Discover now