Harvest Moon: Resident Evil 2

Chapter One: A New World

Danny rushed through foliage and trees alike. It must have been around four to five in the morning. His face had many cuts and scars upon it, his clothes smeared with blood, fresh and dry. He looked dead tired, as he had been running for days on end from a horror he could not speak of.

Turning his head, he looked behind himself to check if he was still being followed. When he turned back around, it was too late to avoid the cliff he was running towards. Shooting straight off it, he fell only a few feet before hitting land again.

The said cliff was not a large one. Getting up, Danny brushed himself off and looked around.

He appeared to have landed in some kind of farmland. He spied a large fenced field, where Cows and Sheep either slept or grazed quietly. To the side, there was a large farm house, a stable, and a chicken coop. Beside the coop was a small pond. Danny stumbled over to the pond, and dunked his head into it. It felt very refreshing.

A light went on above the farm's front door. It quietly opened, and a man stepped out. He wore a rather green cap backwards, with a single bang of his brown hair stuck out. He wore a basic farming outfit, and it seemed he had been up for a while. In his hands he held a shotgun.

"I know you're out there, shitbag! Get over here with your hands up!"

Danny raised his head slowly. He hadn't meant to be so loud. Slowly, he raised his hands and stood, walking slowly towards the man. He was obviously a farmer, like him.

Once he got a good look at Danny in the moonlight, the man dropped his gun.

"Holy shit… are you okay? I didn't mean to be –"

"It's okay," Danny panted, coming closer. "I need help. Something really bad's happened."

The man still hadn't gotten over Danny's appearance.

"Are you hurt? Come inside, I'll patch you up."

"No, just listen to me, I came from another town –"

"Jack?" came a female voice from inside the house, sounding tired. "What's going on? Who are you talking to?"

The farmer turned as his wife came out. She wore a blue dress, and had long, black hair. She blinked as if she couldn't see well.

"It's okay, Maria," Jack assured her. "Someone's just come along –"

But after seeing Danny for herself, Maria could see that everything was not okay.

"Who the hell is that? Why is he covered in…!"

Jack grabbed ahold of her and stared into her eyes solemnly.

"Just get inside and stay with Josh," he said urgently.

Maria nodded, casting one last frightened look at Danny before going back inside. Jack stood as if in thought for a few seconds before picking up the shotgun from the ground and turning back to Danny.

"Look, we're all awake here, so let's just go inside, and you can tell me –"

"Please!" Danny pleaded. "Just listen to me! I've been through something terrible! People are dead!"

After a few shuffled footsteps were heard, Maria poked her head back outside the door, now wearing black square glasses.

"Dead?" she repeated.

Jack looked around.

"Come now. You must get inside."

Before Danny could say any more, he was ushered inside by the farmer, while Maria closed the door behind them.

Danny was seated at a square wooden table, which had a cloth over it. Jack sat at the opposite end, watching him closely. Maria stood by, holding a small boy beside her.

"Is that your… kid?" asked Danny, looking at the scared child.

"Yes," Jack answered in a way that made him seem calm. "Now, listen, you've obviously been through a bad experience. If you explain it slowly, we'll get the Mayor and he can help you out."

"You don't understand," Danny said, still gasping for air after all that running. "Nobody can help me unless they've got a gun."

There was an uneasy silence.

"Jack," Maria spoke up nervously. "Do you think that maybe this guy is crazy?"

"What!" Danny said, raising his voice. The boy hugged his mother tightly.

"Mommy, I'm scared!" he squealed.

"It's okay, Josh," Maria cooed, glaring at Danny while picking up the boy. "Here, why don't you go into the kitchen and play with your ball? Mommy and Daddy have to talk with this man. Okay?"

Putting the boy down, she let him grab his toy and silently enter the next room before turning on Danny.

"Don't scare our child like that!" she snapped.

"Honey," Jack muttered. "Maybe we should let him speak first."

"We already tried that," Maria said.

"Then let's try again!"

They both looked at Danny, waiting for him to speak.

"It… it wasn't that long ago," Danny began. "In… Forget-me-not Valley… that's where I came from…"

"Forget Valley?" Jack interrupted. "That getaway resort?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah…"

"Sorry for interrupting," Jack apologized. "Uh, go on?"

Danny swallowed before continuing. "Anyway… there… something… happened… I'm not sure how… but… people began… dying… I can't remember if… no… I can't…"

Jack and Maria exchanged glances.

"…go on…" Jack said again, his features tensing.

Danny continued. "They turned into… some kind of… monster… they went cannibalistic… my helper died… I don't know what became of my dog… everyone… was killed."

"Jack, maybe we should get him to help –"

"They turned into something unimaginable," Danny ranted as if crazy. "They were human, but they seemed… dead… and… soon, after that, it got bad.

"Even stranger monsters spawned… out of the ground… Forget Valley must have been plagued by something… I only wish I knew what…"

"Jack," Maria said again. "He's crazy. I'm calling someone."

Jack stood as Maria headed for the door, and stopped her.

"We'll deal with this. Trust me."

The sun had started to come up. Danny must have lost his grip on the time, as he wasn't expecting it to happen for another hour.

"What time is it?" he asked.

Jack checked the bedside clock. "Almost six thirty. Do you need a rest? I know one thing, you'll need a shower, with all that blood on you."

Maria sighed. "I'll go and check on Josh."

She left into the kitchen, closing the door quietly.

Jack sat back down, again watching Danny at the other side of the table.

"So… how did you end up here?"

Danny sat back in his chair, feeling rather cold on that Spring morning.

"Well," he said. "After I fled the town, I ended up in the big city that was across the mountains from Forget Mountains. I forget… what are they called?"

"Arklay Mountains?" answered Jack unknowingly.

"Large range of mountains, if you ask me," Danny mumbled. "Anyway, the city… it was plagued, too. But the funny thing, nobody was there. No dead people. No bullet holes, or bullets whatsoever… no bodies… there sure was plenty of blood, though."

Jack nodded slowly, starting to feel paranoid.

"And while I'm looking around, I suddenly hear this inhuman scream," Danny said. "Out of nowhere, it rings out, and I lose all nerve and run. Before I know it, I'm in the woods, and I'm running like hell for at least two days. With some resting, of course. But whenever I would, I'd hear that scream again… oh, God… that unearthly scream…"

He rested his head on the table, covering his ears with his hands.

"I feel like that damn thing's been following me… that, and the rest of those dead bastards… I fled from them, after all, and those… beasts that were with them."

There was a sudden knock on the door. They both jumped, Danny nearly soiling himself. Quickly, Jack got up and answered the door carefully. Recognizing the visitor, he relaxed.

"Kai," he greeted. "How are you? Do you need… anything? Say, you're here a bit early, aren't you?"

"A little," Kai admitted, knowing that he came around only during the Summer. "Spring's almost over, so I thought I'd drop in earlier and check in on everybody. Nothing wrong with that, eh?"

"I wouldn't say so," Jack responded. "So, what's been going on for you?"

"Well," Kai rummaged through a backpack he had been carrying. "I found some good fruits up in the mountains while on my way here. I tried them while resting, they're pretty good. They look like shit, but inside they're golden. Want one?"

Jack observed the strange colored fruit. It almost looked like a apple, except it was an orange-ish green.

"No thanks, I'm not hungry right now," he answered after a while. "Maybe later. See you around?"

"Certainly," Kai said cheerfully. "Perhaps later we can catch up."

After he walked away, Jack closed the door.

"Well, listen," he said. "Nothing's gonna happen here. You're safe in Flower Bud Village. We can make sure of that. Now, come with me, we're gonna wash all that crap off you and clean that clothing of yours. Then you can relax. It's all over."

Little did he know that it wasn't…