Ivan was in the middle of a beautiful dream, one where he had a beauty on each arm, blissfully content.
Just as he turned to kiss the rouge on one beauty’s lips.
Bang!
A gunshot shattered the skull of the woman at his side.
Ivan’s consciousness was ripped away with it, and he opened his eyes.
The stench of gunpowder mingled with rot, flooding into his utterly defenseless brain.
“Urgh-” Ivan retched despite himself.
“Get down!” A command laced with obvious urgency broke against his ears.
Ivan had only just come to, his mind still a tangled mush.
Hearing someone tell him to duck, he obeyed on reflex.
Crack!
A bullet tore out of the barrel.
Thwack!
It struck the target to Ivan’s left, and dark, foul-smelling blood splattered across the train window, leaving behind a mark called death.
Footsteps sounded through the carriage as silence returned.
“Are you all right?” The concerned greeting at his ear jolted Ivan from his daze.
He didn’t answer right away; instead he quickly shook his head.
For some reason, ever since he’d woken up, his head had felt impossibly heavy, his thoughts as sluggish as an alarm clock on a winter morning-you know it should be ringing, but it just lingers there, only grudgingly letting out a single “beep” long after it should have.
“Are you okay?
You’re not hurt?
What exactly happened here?
And also…” A string of questions, carried on the girl’s tone of curiosity and concern, drifted softly into Ivan’s ears.
The warm current of her breath tickled him.
Ivan scratched his ear and turned toward the source of the voice without thinking.
Short brown hair, a Western face pale and smooth as jade, filled his vision.
Those emerald eyes reflected his own face back at him.
It wasn’t that Ivan was looking closely-it was that the girl was simply too close.
Their faces were maybe ten centimeters apart, no wonder his ear had felt ticklish a moment ago.
And yet that delicately featured face, with its fresh, girlish air, struck Ivan as somehow familiar.
“You are…?” Ivan asked before he could stop himself.
At his words, the girl lifted her hands from her knees, straightened up, and a proud curve tugged at the corner of her mouth.
“Rebecca Chambers, medic for the Bravo Team of the S.T.A.R.S.
unit, Raccoon City Police Department.” “And you?
What’s your name, and why are you here?” Ivan didn’t catch the second half of what Rebecca said.
“Rebecca?
Rebecca…” He was about to raise a hand to his chin and chew over the name Rebecca.
Just then a hand snatched his arm, cutting the motion short.
“Your hands are covered in tainted blood.
Better not touch your mouth.” Ivan’s puzzled expression earned a sigh from Rebecca.
“Haah…” She figured he had most likely been shaken by everything that had happened earlier-you could see it in the fog in his eyes, the blankness on his handsome face.
He looked like the kind of guy someone could lure away with a couple of pieces of candy.
“Stop thinking about it.
Just stick with me for now-I’ll take you back to Raccoon City.” With that, Rebecca grabbed Ivan’s hand.
He didn’t resist, rising from the floor with the pull of her grip.
Once he was steady, Ivan glanced around.
All about him were corpses in suits and polished shoes.
Two of them lay at his feet, each with a bullet hole in the head.
The one on the right was actually a man!
Remembering the scene from his dream, Ivan couldn’t suppress a shudder.
Thank goodness Rebecca had saved his good name.
Seeing Ivan’s pupils shrink, his eyes fixed dumbly on the corpse on the floor.
Rebecca quickly clapped a hand over her mouth-she couldn’t let him catch her snickering, that would be far too rude.
After staring for a moment, Ivan drew his gaze back.
Jolted by the incident, his mind cleared a little once more.
(Rebecca…
train…) But the clarity vanished again just as fast.
Forget continuing to think-just getting his brain to stir at all was a struggle.
Pat- Rebecca’s hand settled on Ivan’s shoulder.
She looked into the lightless eyes and blinked.
“Don’t be sad, everything’s going to be okay.
From here on you stick with me, don’t wander off, and I’ll get you home safe.” Ivan nodded.
Rebecca pulled back her hand and gave him a thumbs-up.
At that, Ivan grinned sheepishly.
Then Rebecca took the lead with Ivan behind her, the two moving single file to explore the other carriages.
They searched for a while.
Along the way Rebecca took down a few zombies, while Ivan mostly stayed safely at her back, handing over the pistol magazines he’d scavenged on the train whenever she needed them.
He was also quietly studying the way Rebecca fired her weapon, and how she handled things.
Even so, Ivan made plenty of blunders too.
Once he mistook a corpse for a living person, and Rebecca yanked him back in time.
Another time he tried to help her, only to trip over a zombie and tumble to the floor along with it-luckily Rebecca fired a finishing shot before it could turn into a real disaster.
But these little episodes only deepened the trust between them.
Rebecca was no professional psychologist, but from all these details she could tell Ivan had genuinely lost his memory.
As the search wore on, though, Rebecca grew increasingly frustrated.
Her radio was under heavy interference, and she couldn’t reach the other members.
The train was full of corpses risen from the dead.
What was happening elsewhere in the Arklay Mountains, and were the captain and the others safe…
Just then, Ivan, following behind Rebecca, suddenly heard what sounded like something running outside the train.
Then they stopped-right at the window beside the two of them.
On instinct, Ivan seized Rebecca’s arm and hauled her whole body backward.
Shatter- The glass burst inward, and two zombie dogs leapt in through the window, landing exactly where Rebecca had been standing.
Leaning against Ivan’s chest, Rebecca’s heart still hammered.
If not for him, the outcome would have been unthinkable.
Rebecca first gave Ivan a nod and a reassuring look.
Then she pulled away from his chest, raised her weapon, and put a round straight into the dog’s head before her.
Bang!
As an elite of the Raccoon City Police Department’s S.T.A.R.S.
unit, Rebecca’s marksmanship was superb.
One shot, dead center.
The once ferocious zombie dog exploded into gore, dropping instantly, never to rise again.
As for the other, it had failed to check its momentum mid-leap and slammed headfirst into the carriage wall, killing itself outright.
Just to be safe, Rebecca gifted it a free bullet as well.
With that, both zombie dogs were OUT.
Turning back, Rebecca lifted her hand and flashed Ivan a textbook thumbs-up.
“Thanks for that just now.
If you hadn’t acted in time, I’m afraid…” Ivan shook his head with a smile and said gently.
“It’s nothing.
Let’s get properly acquainted-my name’s Ivan, from Raccoon City.” Rebecca’s eyes went wide, an unbidden note of delight creeping into her voice.
“You’ve recovered?” At that, Ivan spread his hands.
“Half and half, I guess.
My head still feels really heavy, but it’s definitely better than before-at least I can remember my own name and know where ‘home’ is.” Rebecca put a hand on Ivan’s shoulder, encouraging him.
“No rush, take it slow.
At least it’s a good sign, isn’t it?” Ivan gave a slight nod.
“You’re right.
So what do we do next?” Rebecca pressed the back of her hand to her chin, making a thinking pose.
“I want to search this train first and see what actually happened.” “Meanwhile, I’ll keep trying the radio to see if I can reach the captain and the others, then play it by ear.
What do you think?” Ivan didn’t answer-he just mimicked Rebecca’s textbook gesture and gave her a thumbs-up.
Rebecca lightly slapped down his thumbs-up and stuck out her tongue.
“Ooh, so cheeky.” Ivan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Just as he was about to say something more.
Thud!
The sound of a heavy object hitting the floor came from around the corner ahead.
The two exchanged a glance.
Rebecca took point with her gun raised, Ivan still behind her, and the two crept cautiously toward the source of the noise.
But once the scene came into view, Rebecca clapped a hand over her mouth, disbelief filling her eyes.