Chapter 13
Nobody else was in the long room, but all the lights were still on. Normally, all of the rooms were full of caretakers, but none of them were there now. It was very strange.
At the end of the hall, a woman in ragged clothing sat hunched over with her knuckles on the floor, staring ahead and listening carefully, her head tilted. Heavy iron manacles decorated her wrists, with long lengths of chain dragging behind them. The chain used to be attached to a wall, but not anymore. Things were very different now.
Her name was Lisa. She remembered her name, but not much else. Her name was Lisa, and she had lived in the underground rooms for a very long time.
She moved forward hesitantly, the chains behind her making noise as she moved. Her hands were large and caked with blood, but she didn’t care. Blood was something Lisa was very accustomed to. She came to an intersection and paused, looking both ways. This was the first time Lisa had ever gone through the long rooms all by herself. The caretakers never let her leave her room before, but for some reason the caretakers acted different now.
One of her caretakers always wore black glasses. He had been a caretaker for a long time, and Lisa knew his smell. A little while ago, he opened the door to her room and used an object in his hand to make loud noises. When Lisa pulled on her restraints, she was surprised when they came loose. They had never come loose before. It took her some time to realize that was free to move, and when she did, she moved with surprising speed.
But the caretaker who let her go was already gone. She followed his scent to a special kind of door that she couldn’t open. She smashed it with her hands but it would not open for her, and soon she abandoned it.
Why did the caretaker let her go after keeping her stuck in her room for so long? She didn’t know and it didn’t worry her. She didn’t really even know who her caretakers were, but they had always been there, as long as she could remember before her memories got too blurry. For all she knew, she had lived in the underground rooms forever.
It did not take long to find other caretakers in the long rooms, but these ones did not run away from her like they usually did. Maybe some of the caretakers wanted to be friends. Lisa liked having new friends, so she happily grabbed them and took their faces.
Friends visited her sometimes in her room, but they never stayed long. Every time a new friend came, Lisa was happy to see them. Lisa knew that she was too rough with her friends, but she could not help it. Sometimes they fought her, but in the end she always won them over. Even then, they did not stay long.
She liked to take their faces and keep them with her. Lisa wanted their faces so she could always see them and remember who they were, but for some reason she never really could. Even when she kept their faces, she forgot who they were. It was always the same. Her caretakers gave her many friends over the years, but all of them were gone now. Sometimes she took a caretaker as a friend, but not very often.
She had a new friend’s face with her now, pressed against her own. She touched it constantly, to remind herself that it was still there. It belonged to one of the caretakers that Lisa found in the long rooms. When she met him, she knew by the smell that something was wrong with him, but he walked right over to her, so she befriended him and took his face.
There were lots of long rooms, many more than Lisa ever thought could be there. She broke down doors and looked into other small rooms, growing more confident the longer she explored. It was wonderful to finally be free from her room. Now that she was able to go wherever she wanted, she did not want to go back to that room again. She wanted to be free.
Following the smells of the caretakers, she found some special rooms that went upwards at an angle. So she climbed up the rooms and then discovered more long rooms. Lisa found lots of interesting places. There was so much to explore.
She hoped that she might find some more friends soon.
Resident Evil Legends Part Two - The Arklay Outbreak Page 13