Mechanical Animals: Resident Evil 4

10

The gas chamber was a suffocating nightmare, the air thick with a noxious haze that burned Rose's throat and stung her eyes. Each breath felt like a struggle, and panic swelled like a balloon in her chest. The acrid smoke that clawed at Rose's throat and burned her lungs. She struggled to breathe, each shallow inhale feeling like a jagged knife cutting deeper into her chest. She stumbled through the dim, flickering light, her vision blurring as she fought to stay conscious. "Ada!" Rose rasped, choking on the fumes. She could barely make out the figure moving through the haze, but she knew it was her because they'd been thrown in there together.

Her hands desperately searched for a way out, but the steel door had been bolted shut and the space between the door and the frame had been sealed. "I can't...can't believe you're...working with them," she ground out each word, wincing as the pepper-like spray tore at her throat. Her vision was going in and out and she couldn't get enough air.

"I work for who pays me the most," Ada replied, her voice as rough as Rose's. "You know that."

"You could have j-just ki-killed...m-m-me," Rose stammered as her legs gave out and she slid down the wall to sit on the floor, her head lulling dangerously. But she had to know. "You...wouldn't...be...i-in h-here...wh-why?" She fell into another round of harsh coughs.

"I...have my reasons," Ada breathed, stumbling around. She was just a silhouette to Rose, and she couldn't figure out what Ada was doing, but it didn't matter. She didn't have the strength to go on. It didn't matter, though. If she lived or died. The DSO would just send someone else. Someone stronger, and these bastards would not win.

She didn't know what happened. Her eyes closed, and she could feel her chest slowing in its rise and fall. It was strange, feeling yourself dying. Her lungs were constricting, begging for air as she suffocated, and she had to close her eyes because the gas was so thick she couldn't see anyway. Trying just caused her eyes to dry out and sting. Better to just shut them and greet death in darkness.

There was nothing in death. At least, nothing that she could tell about. There was no bright light. No warm voice to guide her on to heaven or hell. She was alone, and even that feeling was starting to fade away. The ability to think was ebbing away. Words jumbling into meaningless sounds until even that faded.

And then she felt a rush of air going up her nose and in her mouth and she sat up, her eyes springing open back to the present. She choked on the air and someone was holding her upright. Her eyes darted around the small office space. A desk with papers and files were messily thrown about. Books discarded everywhere. Something was on her face.

Her hands instinctively went to bat the plastic away, but the same hands that were holding her up yanked her wrist away and a woman was whispering in her ear. "It's alright. Breathe in and out slowly."

The voice was soothing. Smooth like velvet and comforted her. She knew that voice...what was her name? Rose followed her instructions, inhaling deeply through her nose and exhaling slowly out her mouth until she had a grip of herself. She turned and met the slanted brown eyes of her rescuer. She calmly lowered the oxygen mask and this time the woman let her. "Ada?" She asked, her voice a croak.

Yes, that was right. Her name was Ada. They'd been trapped together. Because Ada, her enemy, had chosen to save her life instead of end it.

"What's your endgame?" She asked, her voice still raw. Ada lowered her own gas mask again and threw it to the side, straightening herself out and standing up from where she'd been crouched beside Rose.

"Survive and I might tell you someday." Ada began walking towards the door.

"Wait!"