'September 28th, daylight...'
Jill sat on the bed in Chris' apartment, listening to police sirens, screams and gunfire. She would've turned on the TV to see if any progress has been made in containing the T-Virus, but she already knew the monsters had taken out the studios. The radio was basically a no-go as well...it seemed Raccoon City was paying for putting so much trust into Umbrella. She scoffed to herself.
I guess they'll have to believe me now.
She shook her head and shuddered at a lifeless moan that came distantly from outside Chris' door. She looked around Chris' bedroom, at the clothes in his floor. Her eyes went from there to the dresser, cluttered with knick-knacks and random articles of clothing. Her eyes then met the mirror and she began to study her reflection from the bed. Her short brown hair was tucked behind her ears, and she was dressed up in a blue tube top and a black mini skirt. It wasn't her usual attire, she had worn a black blazer to match the skirt when she resigned at RPD. Chief Irons had been exceptionally grouchy towards her as usual, and she had no issues telling him where he could stick her job.
Of course, she had worn heels when she had gone in to Irons, but she had quickly traded them with a pair of knee high motorcycle boots. It wasn't quite her clothes that bothered her, though...it was her face.
Her face, usually cheerful and bright, was dull from loneliness and concern. It had been over a month since Chris walked away from her at the airport, since she had seen him, or even kissed him. She had been with him so much, she was nearly lost when he wasn't there to make her smile. She had stayed at his apartment so much, because for all she knew it was essentially all she had left of Chris. All of his possessions were here, his clothes...his bed smelled like him. It was comforting to Jill to at least be able to smell him. It reminded her of the way things used to be, before zombies and conspiracies and death. She desperately wished things had turned out differently.
When she hadn't been thinking of Chris, she was worrying about what was happening in the city. The cannibal murders were occuring in the city, and within a week of the first incident in the city the Army was called in with the National Guard. Another day and the entire city was quarantined, and in the next two days Raccoon City had lost nearly the entire police force, swat team and any trained medical professional to the rest of the mutated citizens and creations of Umbrella's. Communications went down next, and that's where Jill stood.
She sighed, wondering what Chris and Barry would make of this. At first, she had felt angry with them because this scenario had always been plausible. Why hadn't they prepared for this? She shook her head slightly, wondering if she was slowly losing her mind. She couldn't possibly be mad at them for not being able to predict the future. However, her chances of survival would be better if she had someone to work with. After all, if it weren't for Barry, Chris, and Richard, she wouldn't be alive. She wanted to be angry, she wanted to scream, she wanted to cry...but she couldn't muster an emotion.
She closed her eyes, attempting to focus and understand the situation clearly. If she was going to survive, she would need more than a handgun and a clip of ammunition. She would also need better firepower, possibly a lockpick, and a plan. As she began to form the first steps of her escape, she began to felt the first emotion she had felt in a while: anger. She thought it was the word escape that got to her.
With the dull sensation of hatred in the pit of her stomach, she muttered to herself.
"This is my last escape. From here, it will be Umbrella that does the running."
She heard an explosion, and deducted that it must have been a grenade. She had also been hearing automatic weapons firing. She had made the assumption that there were a few National Guard or Army personnel alive. She wanted to find the gunfire, team up with them and make it out alive, but she wanted to stay in Chris' apartment a bit longer. She had the sinking feeling that this would be the last time she would ever be here.
So instead of setting out to escape before a greater danger arises, she sat on Chris' bed, smelling him for one last time. She reached over at the white sweatshirt that was on the bed. It belonged to Chris, and had a small S.T.A.R.S. insignia embroidered on the left side, with 'Redfield' under it. She pressed it to her face, smelling it. She then tied it around her waist gingerly, thinking that Chris would appreciate her bringing him something that would remind him of the past, and that she might need it for warmth later.
She sat back down on the bed, and reached over to the Beretta sitting on the bedspread. She picked it up, and checked the clip. She then chambered a round, and held the gun in her hand. The last time she had held a gun it was that night...
She blinked. That was all in the past. It was time for her to survive a new nightmare.
She stood up from Chris' bed, and walked into the living room. She turned around and looked around one last time, as if to say goodbye. She walked out of the door, and closed it behind her. As her boots hit the floor in the hallway, she listened to see if any carriers were nearby. She walked slowly past the other doors, making her way down the stairs. As she took a breath, she smelled the tainted scent of propane. She could hear hissing in one of the apartments, along with a low moan. She took another step and heard the shuffle of five carriers shambling toward her. She grimaced at their faces, flesh sloughing off with dried blood. It looked like one of them was missing an eye as well. She knew that there were too many of them, and that she had to get away from there as fast as she could--without shooting. Doing so would cause at least the first level of the apartment building to explode.
She ran in the opposite direction, down the hallway to an emergency exit. She was cut off, however, when about seven more carriers had caught whiff of her scent. The others had seemed to catch up with her, and she was trapped between the two groups of zombies. She backed up to a window, watching the two groups close in on her. Making a hasty decision and praying it didn't kill her, she took a few steps away from the window, and ran towards it, firing a shot at her closest threat while jumping out the window. There was an extremely loud explosion, and Jill felt the searing heat hit her back as it propelled her into the street. She hit the pavement hard, knocking the breath out of her and making her drop her gun. For a second Jill lay there in the pavement, feeling foolish for doing such a destructive thing to Chris' apartment building. However, if she hadn't she wouldn't be alive...it seemed a fair trade. The ghastly moaning of yet another mutated citizen brought Jill to her senses, and she picked herself up off of the pavement. She watched one of the zombies gimp towards her, his leg severely mangled, most likely from one of the cerebruses. She looked to the ground, trying to find her gun. She picked it up and aimed quickly, shooting it in the head.
She watched the creature twitch on the ground as she listend to the guttural moans of more carriers behind her through the ringing from the explosion.
"Damn it, Redfield." She sighed. "You'd better be alive."
Alright, so it wasn't necessarily closure, but we already know what happens, now don't we? I had a blast writing this story, and I really appreciate all of your reviews and ideas.
Since no one caught the RE1 reference from the previous chapter, it's actually when Jill finds her black midriff shirt. When you unlock the extra costumes, one of them is Jill in a black midriff shirt with grey jeans. So there you have it!
As for my next story...I haven't got a title for it yet, but I'm going to run with Scholar JVG's suggestion of doing a pre-mansion story involving my favorite characters Chris and Jill (flirtation is PROMISED). I haven't worked out a title yet, but I have many ideas as to what will be going on in the story. If you're interested in keeping track of it (especially you, faithful reviewers!) or if you have something you'd like to be incorporated in the story, I encourage you to add me to your Author alert list so that you'll be able to watch for it.
This was my first fan fiction, and I'm very glad it was received as well as it was. Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, and stick around for more from Drew Skye!