Resident Evil
by Snow Tigra and Chibi Shi-Chan
Part 12
As the elevator slowed to a stop on the top floor all
guns were loaded and aimed at the door, the entire
group holding their breaths as the metal doors slid
open. The tension built to a new high and then
dropped as they were greeted with the sight of a
completely empty rooftop. A couple of them blinked in
belief, no way!
The scene around them seemed completely out of place
after the horror they'd just stepped out of. The
blanket of night was beginning to fold away as the
smallest hint of sunlight crossed over the horizon,
far past the terriforming project. They were treated
to a landscape of brightly colored plants of every
shape and size. The sight was only slightly marred by
the thick vines which curled out of the forest and
covered the ground in a green carpet. The remnants of
their crashed shuttle were no where in sight.
Trowa lowered his gun and stepped completely out of
the elevator, his green eyes scanning the roof
closely. After a long moment he completely lowered
his gun and turned to the others, shrugging. It was
completely clear.
The rest eased out of the elevator and relaxed
immensely. Quatre watched with worried eyes as Heero
staggered out of the elevator, his grip on Duo
loosening just slightly.
"Maybe you two should rest for a while, carrying him
has got to be making you tired," the blond suggested.
Heero nodded silently and knelt down, setting Duo
lightly on the ground, then leaning up against the
outside elevator wall with him. Heero let his eyes
drift shut for a while as he assessed his condition.
He was not in perfect health but he also wasn't
getting any worse. Currently he was just growing weak
and his throat hurt, but other then that he was fine.
Opening his eyes he glanced to Duo.
Duo sat next to him, his body still trembling. He
wasn't getting any better. Heero noted with some
alarm that Duo's skin had taken on a sickly green tint
and his eyes were now a dull purple, looking very hazy
and unfocused. Not good!
Quatre knelt down beside both of them and felt both
their foreheads. "Damn, Heero's got it too."
Noin and Zechs turned to look at the two boys and Noin
frowned deeply. "This isn't good. We need to get
them treated right away, or they're gonna turn out
like everything else in this place."
Both sets of eyes widened. "Like...those things?" Duo
choked out.
Noin and Zechs both nodded.
Duo groaned and closed his eyes, holding his stomach
as he felt sick. "Promise you'll shoot me before that
happens."
"Baka," Heero coughed out. "You're not going to turn
into one of those things."
Duo frowned but didn't argue, instead he opted to let
Heero believe what he wanted to. However, he had
every intention of shooting himself if he got any
worse, he was not going to become a fucking zombie.
"Trowa?"
Quatre left Noin and Zechs to look over the two and
joined his love at the edge of the roof, where he was
scanning the area below.
"It's hard to believe there's nothing up here," Trowa
murmured quietly.
Wufei nodded his agreement as he scanned the lower
building tops from a few feet away. "Quatre, any idea
how long we have until Sally shows up?"
"Nope, she didn't say."
Wufei sighed and glanced back at them. "Then I guess
we just sit up here and sweat from the paranoia,
because I don't see anything over here."
"All clear here too," Trowa agreed.
Quatre joined the other two in patrolling the edge of
the roof top, every once in a while his eyes
flickering to the sky. Where was Sally? He knew they
were safe currently but they needed to get off this
planet before anything else had time to go wrong, and
before Duo got any worse. He was really worried about
Duo and Heero, really worried that they might not live
through this mission.
Behind him Heero struggled to his feet and moved to
the unguarded side of the roof, his face set in a
determined expression despite his obvious pain.
"Heero, you should rest," Zechs suggested.
"No, I need to keep moving."
Zechs opened his mouth to protest again but was cut
off by Heero's intense glare. The tall blond man
sighed softly and nodded, returning to where Noin was
trying to calm Duo.
On the other side of the roof, Trowa paused and
frowned, leaning farther over the edge. He could have
sworn he heard something but there were still no signs
below. Frowning even more he stepped back from the
edge and glanced to the others, catching Heero's eye.
Heero stopped patrolling his edge and started to walk
over.
There was little warning before they saw the large
hand clamp onto the side of the building. How Trowa
missing it he'd never know, but events after that were
a little too fast for him to grasp.
The thick muscled hand grabbed on the side of the
building and pulled itself onto the roof at an amazing
speed. But the next thing Trowa knew he'd been
knocked to the ground from behind and he instinctivly
dropped into a roll, rolling far away from the
creature. He jumped to his feet, gun read, in time to
see the large creature dive forward and slam Heero
against the ground.
Heero had knocked him out of the way!
The creature pinning Heero to the ground was the one
they'd spotted chasing Quatre and Duo. The big bald
thing glared at all of them for a second then turned
its attention to the struggling pilot it had trapped
in its grip.
"Heero!" Duo yelled out.
All the boys turned from the noise and saw the
creature, immediately opening fire on it. Luckily
Heero was pinned to the ground and didn't obscure
their shots. But no matter how many bullets they
fired it didn't even flinch, they weren't even
tickling it!
Wufei crouched next to Duo, aiming his gun and firing
straight between the creature's eyes, but the bullet
had about as much success as the others, little to
none. He growled in frustration and reloaded.
Heero struggled under the monster's hold, trying to
reach for his own gun, but he found it had been
knocked out of his hands when he'd been attacked and
was now out of reach. Even with him stretching his
arm as far as he could he still fell short. He was
trapped and he'd be lucky if the thing didn't rip him
apart in the next few seconds.
Then something dripped on his face. Heero blinked and
stared up at the creature with wide eyes. It was
crouched above him and the muscled face was twisted in
pain, but Heero guessed it wasn't from the bullets.
The entire creature's body was trembling and its veins
were pulsating faster. Heero watched in a mix of
amazement and horror as pieces of the outer muscle
began to drop away, hitting the floor around him.
His stomach tightened and he closed his eyes, not
wanting to see the sight. The thing seemed to
practically be melting on top of him! Even with his
eyes closed he could hear the flesh dropping away and
the bones shifting within the body. What was left of
the creature's work uniform ripped away and it let out
a series of very low growls. Heero held his breath,
it was mutating right on top of him.
When he finally opened his eyes again, a second later,
the creature was completely different. What muscle
remained on its body was deep purple mixed with sickly
greens and browns. In many places the bones showed
through and saliva dripped from its mouth, hitting the
floor just beside Heero's head. The creautre had lost
an eye, the other remaining just barely visible in a
swollen socket while the muscle had pulled away from
its teeth, making them seem much larger.
As the thing changed the others kept firing, but
nothing changed. It still wasn't responding to their
attacks and they didn't seem to be hurting it one bit,
despite the fact that their bullets caused its rotting
skin to fall away in large chunks.
In the heat of all the firing Duo had grabbed the gun
from Wufei, sick of the fact that he didn't have
anything to fire with. He didn't care if his vision
was blurry, he refused to just sit there while Heero
was killed by that thing! So instead he grabbed
Wufei's gun and sat there firing, each shot hitting
almost perfectly but causing no effect.
He growled in frustration and stopped shooting. There
had to be a way to stop this thing, but bullets weren't
doing it! Suddenly an idea popped in his head and he
grinned. Holding the gun tightly he slid it across
the floor with all his might, sending it scrapping
right for Heero.
"Heero! Catch!" He yelled.
Heero snapped his head in the direction of Duo and was
able to move one of his arms just enough to grasp onto
the sliding gun. Unfortunately he couldn't grasp it
right to fire it at point blank range, so instead he
grabbed it by the barrel and swung, slamming the butt
of the gun right into the creature's remaining eye.
The eye exploded on impact and blood flowed from the
wound as the creature staggered and his grip on Heero
loosened. In those few crucial seconds Trowa moved
forward, snatching up Heero by the arm and darting
with both of them away from the creature. He knew he
probably ripped Heero's arm out of the socket but
didn't worry about it, an injured arm was worth the
price of living.
Bullets ran out quickly after that, attempting to hold
the creature at bay far enough from all of them. It
moved slower now but still followed the group around
the roof. They were quickly running out of options,
not to mention that three of them now had completely
useless guns, Noin, Zechs and Quatre being the only
ones with ammo, and that was running dangerously low.
"We need help and we need it now!"
Almost as if in answer a bright light shot out and
slammed into the creature, sending it flying backward,
almost off the roof. All heads turned to see Sally's
ship descending behind them.
The shuttle landed on the roof, the doors sliding open
almost instantly. Trowa helped Heero on his feet while
Zechs grabbed Duo, all racing for the ship as fast as
they could move. Behind them the creature stumbled
back to its feet and started toward them.
"Onna! Move!" Wufei yelled as soon as they were all
inside the ship. The doors shut behind them and the
ship turned, lifting away from the compound and into
the sky. Below them the creature grabbed onto the
landing equipment, but its body had rotted too much
and it didn't have enough meat left on its bones to
hold on. The arm was ripped away and the creature
crumbled to the ground as the ship flew off into
space.
All around it vines chose that moment to break through
the roof, covering the platform inside and out. But
no one was there to stop them, the creature was dead
and the group was finally safe.
Well, most of them were.
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