Broken || Chapter 03

《°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°》

《°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°》

The next two weeks consisted of Jill sleeping and getting daily visits by her caregiver. The first few days, she couldn't even lift the spoon, or hold the tray, and Melanie had to feed her by hand. By the second week, she was able to talk regularly, finding it not to be difficult at all. The younger woman knocked at the door, causing Jill to turn her in that direction. She forced a small smile on her face as Melanie walked inside the room and Jill noticed she had a wheelchair being pushed towards the bed. Jill blinked down at the white and grey chair once it was placed right beside where she sat on the bed.

"Good afternoon, Miss Valentine," the other woman greeted as she stepped beside the wheelchair to place a hand on Jill's shoulder.

"Good afternoon," she replied, not ten as much as she had in the past.

"Can you guess what we're going to do today?"

Jill smirked up at her, a brow rose, "I'm going to be put in the wheelchair, aren't I?"

Melanie nodded, "Yup!"

"Good. I'm tired of sitting in this bed all day. I can't wait to move around," she stated as she began to take the covers off from her lower body.

Melanie got a good grip of her before she lifted Jill from the bed and put her into the chair. Both women nodded once the task was over and Melanie instructed Jill on how to use it. Soon after, Jill was moving about the room with ease, grinning a bit at being off and away from the bed. After a few moments, she turned to the other woman, feeling the wonderful, yet painful burn in her arms. She was breathing hard and was frustrated and ashamed at how exhausted she was after a few minutes. Then again, she was still recovering from her fall and she hadn't moved much, besides turning her upper body and head, before she received the wheelchair. Melanie immediately walked over to her, asking, "Are you alright?"

Jill nodded as she responded, a bit breathless, "Yeah... It'll just take time for me to get used to moving around again."

Melanie was already in the process of pushing her back to the bed. Jill frowned a bit as she knew her nurse was going to make her get back into the bed. However against it as Jill was, her body was all for laying down and sleeping some more after it's workout. Grunting a bit as she lifted herself out of the wheelchair, Jill lifted her legs up onto the mattress and with Melanie's help, she lay back down into a comfortable position. Jill couldn't hear what the young woman had told her due to already feeling herself fall into a deep sleep.

She and the rest of the S.T.A.R.S. team had landed a bit away from the Arklay Mountains. Captain Wesker had briefed the group about  Alpha Team having crashed somewhere as well as there being strange sightings of cannibalism having happened around the area and they were sent to investigate. The group had slowly walked towards a small clearing and Jill had glanced around. The night was still young, the full moon was high in the sky, and as the dark grey clouds had drifted in front of it, it caused the scenery around her to look rather frightening. Hearing the command to look around from their captain, the twenty year old began to cautiously look around. It didn't take her long when she found a horrifying sight in front her. A group of dogs had surrounded a body and they were eating it. That wasn't what shocked her the most. When the moonlight poured down over them, she could see that the rottweilers had chunks of flesh missing. One of them caught her scent and it turned to her, causing her to freeze in place. Its eyes were completely white and the flesh around its mouth was completely gone. It growled at her, catching the other four dogs' attention. They all slowly padded toward her, each growling with their heads down. When the first finally began running toward her, it leapt up in the air and Jill had lifted her gun too late. Thinking quickly, she covered her face with her arms and tripped over her feet to back away. A gun shot ran in the small clearing and Jill looked up, seeing the dog had been shot and had landed a few feet away from her. Her mouth was open with shock and she turned her head when someone called to her.

It was Chris.

He had already reached her by the time her brain had ed the attack and he pulled her to her feet. Jill had opened her mouth to thank him but was cut off when another one of the dogs had jumped towards the two comrades. Jill shoved Chris out of the way and managed to side step the undead canine's attack. Jill had only been able to get a glance of its appearance, it had a missing eye as well as its right ear, and a ray of bullets was shot towards the two. Two of the dogs went down quickly and Jill heard Wesker's voice yell at them, "Come on! This way!"

Chris and Jill didn't think twice before they began to run towards their savior. Even after she ran past him, Chris a bit in front of her, she could still hear a few more gunshots behind her. Once the gunshots went quiet, she could hear the blonde catching up with them. Jill had glanced backwards, seeing that the pack of dogs had tripled as they ran towards the group of three. The woman briefly wondered if the others had made it and as she looked forward, seeing the outline of a large mansion, and let out a loud yelp as her foot got caught on a large rock. She fell to the ground with a grunt and quickly pushed herself up onto her elbows. It hadn't been too much longer before she felt a large hand grip her upper arm and roughly yanked her up to her feet.

"Get up, Jill, and keep running!" Wesker commanded, a bit breathless, and she did as he told without really thinking.

Chris shouted back over his shoulder, "I see a mansion! We're almost there!"

The three had made it to the porch and Barry had soon ed them, having opened the door for the small group. They were able to make it into the building, Wesker having slammed the door shut moments after. Jill doubled over, placing her hands on her knees, and it took her a few moments to catch her breath. From behind her, she heard Barry ask, "What is this place...?"

Wesker had replied to him, glancing around, "Not quite your ordinary house, that's for sure."

Jill straightened up and turned to her captain, her brown brows furrowed in confusion, "Hey, Wesker, where's Chris?"

She had darted past the tall male, her hand already on the door handle, but his quick, harsh command stopped her from opening the door, "Jill, no!"

The young S.T.A.R.S. member had spun around to face him, seeing that he had turned a bit to face her.

"You don't want to go back out there," he continued.

A worried frown formed on her lips she took a few steps toward him and she started to argue, "But we've got to find—"

Her argument was cut short when the sound of gunshots came from the room to their left. The group turned their attention to the wooden beside the large staircase.

Barry spoke up first immediately afterwards, "What was that?"

"Chris...?" Wesker wondered aloud.

Jill had taken a step towards the door, muttered a low, "No..." to herself.

With his normal, calm tone, their captain spoke up after a few moments, "Jill, go and investigate."

Barry had turned to the two other people, "I'm going with her." He took a few steps towards them and continued, as if he needed to explain his reasoning for going with her, "Chris and I go back a long way."

"Alright. You two go. I'll secure this area," the blonde stated and as the duo walked towards the door, he added, "Stay sharp!"

Barry shoved the door open and Jill followed him inside, both aiming their guns in different directions. It was a large dining room. The tiled floor below them was white and at the other side of the room was a large fireplace. In front of the two was a long, wooden dining table, and Berry slowly moved forward, going to one side of the table, while Jill moved to the opposite side of him. At the other end of the table, right in front of the fireplace, was a puddle of dark red liquid. The older male had knelt by it, his eyes narrowed as he inspected it. His eyes widened a bit just as Jill had walked to stand by him.

"It's blood," he answered the question she was going to ask. "Let's just hope it isn't one of our comrades'..."

"Or Chris's," she added and the two looked at one another.

Their attention was soon removed from the puddle on the floor and focused onto the wooden door to the right of the fireplace. Jill had started to walk towards it, Barry had pulled his gun out and aimed towards the door, and it was slammed open. A bald man stumbled inside, making incoherent sounds, and he turned to face Jill. Her breath caught in her throat at his appearance within the well-lit room. His skin was pale in color, almost grey, his lips were missing, and his eyes were completely white.

Just like the dogs.

The man had made it to Jill and gripped her arm and shoulder. In reflex, she immediately began trying to push him off and when he began to try to bite at her neck and face, she leaned away from him. In a panic, she yelled for Barry's help, which came no sooner than he had started to bite at her again. Two shots came from his gun and the strange man was shoved onto the floor. Jill huffed as she quickly walked to stand beside her friend, keeping her eyes on the twitching body.

The two shared a glance and Jill thanked him.

"What the hell is wrong with this guy...?" The older man muttered to himself, looking as frightened as his young companion did. He took a few steps closer to the downed man and the corpse finally stopped twitching.

Jill awoke with a start, beads of sweat covered her body. Her heart was racing and her breath came in hitched gasps at the memory of her first mission as a S.T.A.R.S. member. She ran a hand down her face and looked around her room. It was dark and she couldn't see much of anything. When she was sure no zombie was going to jump at her from the darkness and eat her, she finally rested her head back against the pillow. It had been years since Jill had a nightmare about the Arklay Mountains mission...

Taking deep breaths, the woman closed her eyes.

It took her nearly two hours to fall back asleep.

《°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°》

#albertwesker