Sixteen Ain't So Sweet

Chapter Five: Out of the Oil and into the Pan

"Fuck...! I knew those damn things...were gonna...come out...!" I screamed -mostly spluttered; my wheezing breaths grating on my own ears and I couldn't help the strangled coughs that forced their way from my raw throat. A trickle of wetness dribbled down my chin before I felt and tasted the blood on my tongue, my nose feeling flu-like and stuffy. Shit, of all damn times to have an intense, virus induced coughing fit.

"Shit... Lia! Stay back as far as you can, I'll try and lure them away!" I couldn't reply as my burning, heavy body suddenly dropped to the ground knees first, the intensity of my hacking aching my bones and flecking the floor with blobs of crimson. My stomach twisted with nausea, poison in my veins and eyes watering from the burn of not being able to properly breathe. I completely lost focus of everything around me, my ears ringing loud and shrill, blocking out the gunshots and screeches of the lizard-looking creatures Jill fought.

"Oh? It looks like you're finally succumbing to the final stages, Lia. I wonder if you'll get the vaccine in time -the clock's ticking; tick, tock, tick tock!" Zoe appeared, giggling in my ear, somehow clear despite how deaf I currently felt. I felt my eyelids slip closed, pressure in my head and chest building far too much, and the distant feeling of my skull smacking against the ground, before I fell into a black void.

x-ResidentEvil-x

"Lia?" I felt like I was underwater again, whoever was calling my name sounding warped and garbled, my brain feeling disorientated. "Lia! Oh, God..." Was that Jill..? Why did she.. was she panicking..? My senses were slow to boot back into gear, and I could just about feel something pressing against my shoulder as she muttered to herself -or was she speaking to me? I wasn't sure.

With extreme effort I attempted to crack my eyes open, my eyelids feeling like they were glued together but managed to pry them apart a slit, hissing at the harsh glare of ceiling lights. Everything was so blurry, a mesh of sepia-toned hues and greys. "Lia..?" My ears made a pop and I groaned hoarsely, a splitting headache making itself known and rolling nausea in my stomach. "Fight it... Fight it, Lia. I'm not letting you turn into one of them!" Something wet hit my cheek and I jerked, squinting up at my sister's face as she slowly came into focus, though everything stayed in classic-like tones.

"J...ill..?" My voice was a croaky rasp and I lifted a hand to rub at my throat, only to pause and stare at my limb in confusion. Raised blackish -or what I guessed was black- veins lined the pale, greyed skin of my hand, trailing up my wrist and up my forearm, and with shaking fingers, I finally touched my throat -feeling the same raised veins there, too.

A warm hand gently grabbed mine and pulled it away from my neck, my eyes meeting Jill's tear-filled ones while a cold feeling of shock washed over me. "We'll get you through this. I swear." She shifted me upright slowly and carefully, until I felt my chest pressing against something warm and hands tucking under my thighs; feeling myself being lifted, hair tickling my nose. "I got the antigen sample -don't give up on me now, kid. We'll get you that vaccine even if I have to fight the devil himself." I could only manage to nod against her shoulder as she stood, hiking me higher on her back, my fuzzy brain just about able to make coherent thought -with both her hands currently holding me up on her back, how would she defend herself?

"Don't worry, everything's dead. I had.. I had to leave you somewhere safe, just for a few minutes, to get the sample. I panicked and... I'm sorry.." She sniffed once and didn't make a sound afterwards, instead she walked through a set of doors hissing open and carried me up a set of stairs without much effort at all.

"I..forgive..you.." I whispered so quietly I wasn't sure she heard, but she tightened her grip on my thighs as she trekked down a familiar blood-splattered hall; the crimson now a dark rust colour from my weird change in vision. My bloody mess of an X on the wall next to the door sprang a flutter of hope in my chest -now we could make the vaccine.