7 Chapter 7: Rest’s Respite

Jill spun around on the floor, her kick throwing Ethan off her with unexpected strength. She stood up, backing away, frantically searching for a weapon but finding nothing. Reluctantly, she raised her hands in defense.

"Who the hell are you?" Jill demanded, her face twisted in a deep frown, taking in the eerie silence around them, realizing they were alone.

Ethan raised his hands in surrender. "Calm down. I'm Agent Ethan Hunter. I was assigned to extract you from this town. Looks like that mission just hit a dead end though."

"What?" Jill's frown deepened, but suddenly, she clutched her head as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Her senses seemed strangely heightened.

"You all right?" Ethan asked calmly. "It's disorienting, isn't it? Don't worry; it'll pass."

"What... did you do to me?" Jill growled, inspecting her altered skin and feeling a gnawing hunger deep within her, a primal urge to consume and evolve.

"I saved you from being fully infected," Ethan sighed. "I think you're like me, though in a different way."

"You think I'm like you? What does that even mean?"

"It's a long story. That thing inside you will probably explain it, little by little. It's instinctual."

"You're not making any sense."

Ethan chuckled lightly. "I know. I don't fully understand what happened to me either. But for now, you have to trust me. We need to get back to the others."

"The others?" Jill glanced at her squad's gear, fully equipped with guns. "Where are they?"

"You know where they are," Ethan cryptically replied. "Or, more accurately, you can sense where they are."

Jill could only raise her brow at Ethan's words, this stranger in front of her, she just met him technically, but she feels deep in her heart that she could trust him for some reason, and she wasn't usually like that. Instinctively, she could smell them, Chris, Barry, and the others, their trails more specifically. "I'm like a dog now?"

"Well, I wouldn't put it quite that way," Ethan shrugged. "But come on, another wave of those infected must be closing in."

"What's our plan, then?" Jill inquired, striding past him and grabbing an assault rifle, fully loaded.

"We kill them, of course," Ethan replied, ascending the stairs. "You need to consume; you look pretty weak right now."

"I'm perfectly fine," she scoffed.

Ethan chuckled. "Trust me, once you see them, your instincts will take over."

Jill frowned again. Every word this man spoke made no sense. Yet, that inexplicable trust in the back of her mind told her she could rely on him. She inhaled the scent of her comrades, Chris, Barry, and the others. "Lead the way, then."

—

Ethan and Jill emerged from the underground chamber, navigating through the rubble and shattered walls of the building. The woman surveyed the area; it seemed the man was right. A horde of infected surrounded the place, drawn by the noise and scent of potential prey.

"What the hell happened here?" Jill asked.

"Those monsters chasing all of you found their way here," Ethan replied, leaping down from a mound of rubble and continuing to move forward.

"Monsters? You know about them?" Jill raised an eyebrow.

"I fought one. Well, sort of," Ethan muttered, hopping up onto the rubble again and pressing on.

Jill followed suit, and from their vantage point, it was clear that jumping down again would expose them to the ravenous infected. But Jill's instincts had other plans.

A single thought surged through her consciousness, and her muscles reacted. 'Consume,' it whispered, and Ethan's words came to life. Jill feels like her body moved on its own, yet she also feels that she's the one who's doing all this. Tendrils shot up from her hands, and it penetrated all the infected below. The biomass of those monsters were absorbed by Jill, leaving no trace.

The tendrils retracted into her body, and she collapsed to the ground, overwhelmed by the ecstasy of consumption.

"W-What the hell..." Jill stammered, staring at her own hands. Her eyes darted towards Ethan, anger etched across her face. She charged towards him, grabbing his shirt, their faces inches apart. "I'll ask again, what the fuck did you do to me?!"

"And I'll say it again. I saved you, Agent Valentine," Ethan sighed. "It was that or you'd become one of those things you just consumed."

Jill was about to grab Ethan's face, but when her skin touched his, a flurry of foreign thoughts invaded her mind. The man in front of her was nervous that her face was too close, he's never been this close to a pretty girl like her before.

"Jesus," Jill stepped back, realizing she had just read his thoughts. "Really, in this situation?"

"Yeah, you weren't supposed to see that…" Ethan also stepped away, cursing himself for his stray thoughts. "Let's not touch each other again; that could be a problem. Look, the important thing is that you're alive. Agent Redfield would appreciate that, I'm sure. He probably thinks we're both dead by now. Let's give him one hell of a surprise, shall we?"

"Both of us?" Jill raised an eyebrow. "Why would Chris think you're dead?"

Ethan sighed. "You know, a few seconds ago, I said we shouldn't touch each other. I think I want to take that statement back."

"What? Why?"

Ethan cleared his throat, reaching for Jill's hand. "Here, may I? I'll show you something."

Jill hesitated, but that inner feeling nudged her to trust him. "All right..."

She took his hand, and controlled thoughts flowed into her mind. Ethan was showing her memories of his death and resurrection.

Jill jerked her hand away. "Jesus Christ, you died?"

"And I don't know how I came back to life, so yeah," Ethan chuckled nervously.

"This doesn't make any sense at all," Jill muttered. "Let's just find the others and regroup. Maybe get the hell out of this place."

"Wait, Jill, can I call you that?" Ethan said, and the woman nodded. "Do you have an instinct telling you to head to that facility?"

Jill was initially puzzled but then turned in the direction of the research facility. She felt it, an unexplainable urge.

"What's in there?" she asked.

"The source of all this, I guess," Ethan shrugged. "But for us, it's a substantial prey..."

"Let's find the others first," Jill shook her head. "Then we can discuss our next move."

"Well alright…"