⚠️ Caution
This chapter includes some more disturbing content than the rest. I am honestly surprised I wrote it so dark.
I marked the rawest part with ⚠️ both start and end. You will not miss any plot twists if you choose to skip :D
enjoy~ ( the music above is supposed to be played at the start of the chapter ;))
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Oh, how I wished animals were safe from the virus, that they couldn't get it or be affected by it. I'd fancy anything else than this sick horror play.
I wanted this cataclysm to be a nightmare. But desire isn't enough in this world.
As soon as that white metal door opened, I saw what was going on. Everything around me blurred except the two in front of me. Nothing else mattered at the moment, not even what Carlos was thinking. Not even what he was seeing or doing.
Logan lay dying as he had promised, but Nicholai had gone overboard. WAY over moral borders.
There is red. Something red on the wall, on the equipment, on the slick steel floor and red oozing out of Logan. There is red in Trooper's beautiful white fur.
⚠️
Trooper, who had turned into one of them. He had really been infected by the virus. The infection had been spreading from his erupted eye. The one I had earlier tried to dis-infect.
Trooper, who was... devouring Logan's organs. And Logan, who was barely conscious when Carlos and I walked into the laboratory. His stomach was ripped open along with the black shirt he had been wearing. Intestines hanging out like a dissected frog in biology class. There wasn't much time until he'd bleed out.
He was slumped on the other side of the room. Hands unmoving, and feet messed up. Mouth full of blood and nose bleeding out too.
I gasped in a bite of air. Unable to breathe like a fish on land.
It truly made me sick, sick to my soul. There is no other way of describing what it felt like. To see, or smell or feel this moment.
⚠️
I watched as Trooper directed at the two of us. Trooper bared his stained teeth at us. His eyes rapid, dead and nothing like the fluff ball I knew. Trooper growled, face distorting to someone different. He twitched.
But he didn't charge at us.
Instead, Trooper whimpered. His eyes dilated for a split second. He called for mercy, for help.
"He's still there," I whispered to no one but myself. Unaware of the trembling hands and completely colour drained face. Unaware that Carlos tried to reach my consciousness several times.
Carlos lifted his hand on my right shoulder, calling me: " Lady lost their way? There's nothing we can do except relieve them from the pain. It's not your fault." He had successfully reached my end of the line.
I swiped Carlos's warm hand off of me. It was a shift and precise move.
"But it is my fault! I'm the one who caused all of this!" I yelled with my whole chest. My voice calmed down to just a whisper. " I made a deal with the devil..." I sniffed.
Trooper snarled again. I looked into his eyes, them turning rapid again. A big cold shiver ran down my back, and I almost dropped the gun that was so tightly between my fingers.
I knew this time, Trooper wasn't going to stop.
Carlos desperately told me to do it. That he was going to respect my old wish to spare Trooper. " You can't erase the past, but you can do what's right now. End his suffering," Carlos calmly stated as if it was just another job to him. Well, it basically was.
But to me, it was much more.
Trooper sprinted to action, running across the slick floor. His paws leaving bloody prints, fur swinging as his infected body manoeuvred between the tables. He quickly crossed the space between us.
I blinked my eyes profusely to get better aim over the blurry tears. My finger squeezed the trigger. A single gunshot rang across the walls.
At the same time, blood splattered out of Troopers left side. Trooper's feet took a false step, and he fell to the ground. A solid thump sound followed. He wasn't getting up anymore. Instead, we heard a few weak whimpers.
" I'm so sorry, boy," I apologized. I walked over to him and kneeled next to the big dog.
Blood was quickly pooling to the ground. The metallic liquid reflected my face as I stayed quietly next to the tail-wagger. I hesitated at first, but I ended up petting Trooper.
His fur was just as fluffy as a cloud. I lifted my hand to his head, scratching behind ears, combing the coat between and running my fingers over his black nose. Trooper stared me to my soul but never did anything threatening.
The dog didn't whimper anymore as I was at his side. Then slowly, his milky chocolate eyes closed. "Goodbye, friend," I said with a subdued voice.
Carlos scurried to Logan's side. He snatched a white torn fabric on the way, covering Logan's exposed stomach with it. The cloth began quickly to stain with crimson. Carlos pulled Logan to sit up more comfortably.
I came to Logan's side too. Lowering myself to hold his uncomfortably cold hand. He began to speak. " I-I feel so cold," Logan stuttered, those green eyes moving to meet mine.
His blood-red lips spoke words that broke me. " Th-tell Zev I love him... A-and I never meant to... to leave him alone," Logan's voice was barely above a whisper at this point. Word's sounding slurred due to the liquid in his throat.
Tears threatened to fall again. I sniffed, trying to stop my runny nose. The feeling of guilt too heavy on my heart. " Don't say that. It's going to be fine," I lied with a wavering voice. Lies, I can't save you.
The corners of Logan's lips turned upwards, smiling. It was his last smile as the green eyes stilled, staring into nothingness.
" What a way to go. To smile till the end," Carlos piped up after being quiet for so long. He paid his respects to Logan and Trooper, doing a small cross across his chest.
I wiped my salty cheeks with my hoodie sleeve. Hands sticky with specific something.
" You know, he didn't feel any pain in the end. He was in shock. Someone shot his knees," Carlos tried to relieve some pain from my shoulders. Only it made me feel worse.
I gathered the strength to answer him. " It was Nicholai. Nicholai organized this funeral," I spoke, looking at Carlos and nothing at the same time. Getting up from the ground, I assembled myself to continue.
" I have a lot of explaining to do..."
After a good half hour of me talking.
I had described most of the details to Carlos, who tried so hard to contain his reactions. He was furious at me for hiding such things behind his back.
" Why didn't you tell me!? Can you not trust any of us? Or do you prefer to put lives at risk by not telling anyone?" Carlos angrily rattled, pacing across the room. His voice was stern, full of authority as he tried to piece this all together.
I stared at the loading override key at the other side of the laboratory, facing the consequences of my choices.
" I didn't want to stress you out more. I trust you, with my full heart," I despairingly tried to redeem the shreds of trust left between us. But it seemed like there was no returning back to what was before.
My shoulder was throbbing again, making it hard to focus on the raging man beside me. I clutched the bandage that Carlos wrapped around it.
"Well, I can't exactly believe you and your words now, can I?" Carlos stated, anger clouding his mind. He realized what he had said, but too late. Nothing but a flash of hurt ran across my eyes.
"Understandable," I blatantly said. " But even so, there's one more thing I was about to tell you," I said with a blank voice, given up on pursuing Carlos. I sighed. Was I really about to tell him the fate of my biological dad? Yes, I was.
" My biological father works for Umbrella. I don't know his fate if he's even here. Make what you want with that," I gave Carlos a sad look, knowing I can say goodbye to our future.
Carlos just nobbed. Seemed like he didn't care, knowing I wasn't in contact with the person. Carlos leaned against the wall next to the override key. The computer beeped, signalling the download was ready.
" Is there anything specific he was working with?" Carlos asked out of the blue, eyes focused on the override key.
" The memory is hazy, but I remember seeing one of those toad monsters in his work files," I informed Carlos. I scratched my neck.
The atmosphere was grim, harsh and thorny around the two of us. I wanted to apologize, but how could I? What do I apologize for? Sorry I didn't tell you of a deal that involved the lives of other people. It sounds so fake to me.
But it seemed like I wasn't the only one who felt like apologizing. Carlos met my eyes with regret and curiosity. " It's better if we go solo for now. Take time away from each other," Carlos crossed his arms, waiting for me to answer the request.
I found myself agreeing faster than I could think. Was it really a good idea to go alone in a zombie-infested bioweapon facility?
Carlos took the override key and left faster than I anticipated. I was left alone in the room. My posture slumped, and I held my head in my hands. Mind driving all over the place with record speed.
Going through multiple traumatic events in a day wasn't helpful for my mental health at all.
I took my grey backpack off my back. I rummaged it for my favourite soda can. ( I had taken some with me from the convenience store.) I opened the fizzy drink and slowly sipped it empty. I savoured the sweet taste before throwing the empty can across the room.
" This place is about to be fried anyway. I can do what I want," I reasoned with no one.
Slowly the reality of the situation sunk in. We're definitely going to die. If not the zombies, then the missile strike is going to kill us. On top of that, I was going to die alone, underground in a damned Umbrella workplace.
My palms were sweating, breathing shallow. The panic of being alone started to settle in the base of my stomach. I held myself and shook my head. " NO! I need to focus on the vaccine. It's our only hope. For everyone," I tried to reassure myself more and more. It's easy to play the role of an unselfish fool.
I got up, slung on my backpack and checked my ammo. Then I left the room too.
"Maybe I should follow where Carlos headed," I muttered, not knowing where I was heading. I crept around the second floor before going down the stairs to the first floor.
The override key was in place, and the door was open for me to enter. I popped my head in the room to find it full of the pale things we encountered in the storage hall. The one kind of zombies that regenerate themselves.
"Maybe it's better I go somewhere else. Carlos can handle that," I backed away. Then I heard walking down the hall. The footsteps were fast and precise, no way it could have been a zombie.
I slipped behind the safe room door to hide. I squatted down in the right corner of the room, not knowing who the person was. My gut told me it was Nicholai, but I couldn't be sure. I hid for a moment, counting seconds to have a thought of when the mystery person would pass my location.
I looked outside the door and caught a glimpse of Nicholai's physique. I was right. My gut was right.
I looked around and found out he had stolen the override key from its slot by the door. As far as I knew, Carlos was now trapped inside there, somewhere. So I needed to get the flash drive back from Nicholai.
I started to follow the hired gun through the halls. I was quite a lot behind him, but I saw him enter a secret door. I slipped in just before it closed.
A completely new environment opened up to me. I had to restrain myself from making any sound. There were no zombies inside these halls. They were completely spotless. It was still the metal walls and numbers on doors, but they seemed to be for higher-level staff. People like Dr Bard.
I scurried to follow Nicholai's trail. We entered two more doors before Nicholai looked behind him.
" Is there someone?" He asked, holding his gun up for precaution. Lucky for me, I hid behind two sets of boxes. Pretty funny, a mercenary is asking if someone is there.
Then I heard his footsteps leave. I peeked my head to look where he went and followed again.
Soon we were wandering the halls. Counting the numbers on the doors didn't help anymore, as I felt utterly lost. Seemed like Nicholai was leading me around on purpose. That he had figured someone was following him and wanted to lose them.
I dropped on the way, having lost the man in the puzzle that was NEST 2.
"Oh duck." I wanted to curse so bad. I lost my objective completely.
Soon the speakers of this place turned on, and quite a familiar voice flowed through. It irked me to no end. " I can see you, Miss Lyn. Your attempt to tail me was pretty comical. You hear I view everything happening here. Your friend Carlos is running circles that I have made. Soon you'll be doing the same, but not before I get what's mine. Give me the blood sample," Nicholai rambled on and on over the speaker.
By the time he had finished, I had figured where the cameras were on this hall. Not to mention I knew where Nicholai was. In the monitor room or security room, whichever you prefer to call it.
I shot the camera in my hall with the gun in my hand. Not even spearing a glimpse when pulling the trigger.
I glanced around the hall for a way to escape the eyes of the cameras. Then it hit me. The wents usually don't have security unless you're playing five nights at Freddy's. I just needed to get inside them.
I walked along the wall, feeling for a weak spot and looking for a grid. Eventually, there was a removable panel that I shot open.
I crawled in and continued forward, hoping to find something. It was dusty, cramped and crawling hurt my shoulder more than I could handle.
Over time I had conventionally found my way to the disposal centre.