Rebecca's face ran through more flavors of disgust than a spoiled milk taste test.
Thick strands of drool hung off her bangs and tactical collar. She reached up to touch her cheek, hesitant as hell. A heavy string of warm saliva stretched between her glove and skin like some cursed cobweb from a haunted house attraction.
Her mouth opened and closed like a dying fish while her brain scrambled to process being violated by a mutant dog's tongue.
"W-what the hell is wrong with you?" she sputtered, stumbling backward.
She wiped her face with her uniform sleeve. This supposedly brilliant tactical maneuver just spread the biohazard around, mixing fresh dog slobber with drying mystery jizz and plaster dust.
A real 900 IQ move there, medic.
"Ugh, absolutely disgusting," she groaned.
She leaned over and spat repeatedly onto the concrete. Without a single coherent thought in her traumatized skull, she brought her gloved hand up to aggressively wipe her tongue. She dragged the fabric across her lips before her exhausted brain finally caught up.
Her tactical glove was currently soaked in the exact same cocktail of bodily fluids she was trying to eradicate. While she didn't know that cocktail was the same, but it didn't stop her from feeling the disgust of two slimy liquids in her mouth.
Her entire composure just collapsed into the gutter.
She had just wiped that disgusting bio-sludge right back into her own mouth.
Oh no. Oh no no no.
The look on her face could only be described as someone who had just discovered a new circle of hell specifically designed for their personal suffering.
Alex sat quietly on his haunches a few feet away and began licking between his front claws. Completely unbothered by her ongoing psychological crisis. His exposed tailbone swept back and forth across the floor in a steady rhythm.
Watching the rookie medic have a complete meltdown over a little spit was premium entertainment. He knew damn well she wasn't going to shoot him because she was way too nice for that bullshit, and he had just saved her ass from her undead coworker anyway.
Also, he was adorable. Look at him. Just a good boy sitting here minding his own business.
Rebecca's hand dropped to her Beretta. She brought the barrel up and aimed it at the center of his mutilated face.
"D-do not move," she ordered, voice shaking like a paint mixer.
Alex paused his grooming just long enough to glance at the barrel. He let out a soft huff through his skinless snout and immediately went back to cleaning his paws.
He dragged his massive tongue between his toes with wet and obnoxious schlurping sounds. One of his hind legs even started doing that involuntary scratch-kick routine against the floorboards to really sell the harmless puppy aesthetic.
She already had her chance to pull the trigger and she choked. He was currently putting on a masterclass performance of a good boy who just happened to look like a skinned biological nightmare, and she was buying every single share of it.
The stock market of bullshit was thriving.
"Are you... are you seriously ignoring me right now?"
He switched to licking his other paw and gave her the exact same dismissive treatment. His bony tail wagged just a little faster to mock her.
She stared at him while her brain buffered like a shitty dial-up connection. Pointing a loaded firearm at a terrifying monster while it casually groomed itself was completely wrecking her tactical conditioning.
The S.T.A.R.S. training manual had not prepared her for this level of disrespect.
"You don't even care that I'm pointing a gun at you," she murmured, lowering the weapon slightly.
She started breathing exclusively through her mouth. Smart move considering Alex currently smelled like a poorly ventilated slaughterhouse that had lost power during a July heatwave. Her eyes moved over his hulking frame. The exposed shoulder muscles. The visible ribcage. The heavily torn hide.
"You're covered in God knows what," she rambled, taking another step back. "You've got open tissue everywhere, your spit is all over my face, and I have zero idea what kind of... of space-AIDS you're carrying."
She aggressively scrubbed her lips with the extreme corner of her sleeve, desperately hoping that specific square inch of fabric was free of cross-contamination.
Spoiler alert: it absolutely wasn't.
"I swear, if I catch mutant dog rabies from this..."
Keeping one nervous eye locked on the giant beast, she reached down to her utility belt and dug a small antiseptic packet out of her med pouch. She tore the wrapper open with her teeth and spat the plastic out before freezing completely.
She remembered what exactly had just been inside her mouth moments prior.
Her face went through a full Shakespearean tragedy in record time.
"That was stupid... that was so stupid," she whimpered.
She spat on the floor again and scrubbed her mouth raw with the chemical wipe like she was actively trying to delete the last thirty seconds from existence.
Unfortunately for her, the universe didn't offer refunds on trauma.
Alex finished cleaning his paws and let out a massive yawn. He proudly showed off his full collection of jagged teeth before flopping over onto his side and scratching behind his ear with a hind leg.
She had no idea how hard he had to work to look like a normal pet enjoying a lazy afternoon. Just a regular dog doing regular dog stuff. Absolutely nothing weird going on.
This was method acting at its finest.
Rebecca tossed the ruined wipe aside and grabbed a pill bottle from her pouch.
"Broad-spectrum antibiotics," she muttered while popping the cap off. "Probably completely useless against whatever the hell you are, but I guess it beats dying of sepsis."
She dry-swallowed two pills and grimaced as they scraped down her throat. She gave her mouth one final wipe against her shoulder.
Everything tasted like absolute monster spit now.
Her whole night was just one continuous downward spiral of poor life choices and biological hazards.
Shifting her attention away from the indecent dog, her gaze drifted past Alex to where Billy's body lay slumped against the broken crates.
The harsh reality of the situation settled over her.
Billy Coen was dead.
She approached his body with slow steps. Her eyes constantly flicked between the corpse and the mutant dog, terrified that Alex might suddenly remember his primal instincts.
"B-Billy?" she whispered.
Nothing happened because corpses generally tended to shut up.
She crouched beside him and pressed two trembling fingers against his wrist anyway, desperately hoping for a medical miracle. She waited for a few agonizing seconds before her mouth pressed into a thin line.
Please no.
Alex rolled back onto his stomach and let his tail go completely still. Even a degenerate monster dog knew this wasn't the right moment for his comedic bullshit.
She sat there with the body for a long while. Her hand curled into a tight fist on her knee before slowly uncurling. Billy had been alive and talking to her just moments ago. It felt like she had simply blinked and he was gone.
He had helped her survive the initial nightmare on the train. Even though he was a convicted criminal and a highly arrogant jerk, he was also a living human being. He had been her only backup on this godforsaken mountain.
Now he was just another casualty.
She stared at his ruined face while trying to force her brain to make sense of it.
"What happened to you?" she whispered quietly.
There was no answer. Just Billy's clouded eyes staring blankly at the wreckage. Rebecca's throat tightened painfully as tears threatened to spill over her eyelashes. She aggressively blinked them back and forced her breathing to steady.
She was completely alone now. Trapped in a subterranean hellhole with no backup and no clear extraction point. She had no idea if anyone else from Bravo Team was even still breathing.
But she was Rebecca Chambers, and she refused to fall apart. No matter how terrifying the situation became, she had to stay strong and face the nightmare head-on.
She reached forward and grabbed the silver chain resting around Billy's torn neck. She hesitated for a brief second before pulling the dog tags free. She wiped the blood off the metal and read his name one last time before carefully tucking the chain into a secure pocket on her tactical vest.
Keeping these safe was the very least she could do.
She reached over and grabbed the shotgun to drag it out from under a busted crate. She checked the chamber with practiced efficiency. The weapon was scratched and dented from the derailment, but the action was still functional. She scavenged whatever loose shells and magazines she could find off Billy's belt, loaded the weapon, and slung the shotgun across her back.
When she finally turned around, Alex was sitting up straight again. His tail going in a slow and steady rhythm.
"You... well, you saved me," she said quietly.
His tail gave an enthusiastic sweep across the dust.
"You also licked my entire face like a... like a biohazard mop."
He offered another happy wag.
Her eye twitched. "You're still very much one of those terrifying infected things, and I really should shoot you right now."
He tilted his head to the side. Fully committing to the universal look of a friendly dumb dog who definitely didn't understand complex English sentences but totally understood the good vibes.
Peak performance. Oscar-worthy, really.
She let out a long breath. "I can't believe I'm doing this."
There was an old saying that you couldn't punch a smiling face. While the half-rotted visage of the giant hound wasn't exactly smiling, she simply couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger on the thing that just saved her life.
She forced herself to look away.
She looked down the tunnel where the train had derailed.
The Ecliptic Express had completely smashed itself inside the transit tunnel, folding its carriages like accordions against the rock walls. The exit leading back out to the Arklay Mountains was a wall of twisted metal and burning luggage. Even if she managed to climb through the wreckage, the tracks outside were undoubtedly crawling with more infected.
She pulled her radio from her shoulder strap and keyed the mic. "T-this is Chambers... Anyone copy?"
Static hissed in her ear.
"Bravo Team, this is Rebecca Chambers. Please respond."
More static.
Her shoulders dropped. "Of course."
The universe was really committed to making her suffer tonight.
She looked down the tunnel heading deeper underground. Flickering emergency lights cast shadows over concrete tiles and rusted pipes. She started talking herself through the situation out loud, desperate to hear a human voice even if it was her own.
The back exit was blocked, her radio was dead, and Billy was gone. She had limited ammo and no idea where this tunnel ended.
Her tired eyes landed on the mutant dog.
"And then there's... whatever you are."
A sharp metallic clatter echoed from the burning wreckage behind them.
Rebecca spun around with her Beretta raised.
Alex was already moving. He placed his body directly between Rebecca and the noise. His lips peeled back to expose his teeth as a low growl built up in his chest.
Two humanoid shapes lurched out of the fiery debris. Passengers who had gotten way too close to the ruptured fuel lines and were currently still actively burning. Their skin bubbled and popped under the heat. One of the burning zombies let out a wet gargling shriek the second its dead eyes locked onto Rebecca.
Alex didn't wait around for tactical instructions.
He launched himself forward and caught the first crispy bastard right by the throat. He clamped his jaws shut and gave one violent twist to completely rip the flaming head off its shoulders with a sickening crunch.
The second burning corpse lunged at his flank. Alex dodged and caught the zombie's leg in his mouth. He bit down hard and cleanly separated the limb at the knee. The creature collapsed onto the concrete, and Alex immediately finished it off by driving his jaws straight through the top of its charred skull.
The entire brutal engagement lasted maybe five seconds tops.
Personal best for the murder pup.
Alex's biological absorption kicked in the very second his teeth broke through the infected flesh. The biomass and blood soaked directly into him through his skin and gumline like a sponge hitting water. By the time he let the headless corpses hit the floor and turned back to face Rebecca, his muzzle was completely clean.
Not a single drop of fresh blood or charred meat anywhere on his fur.
Free protein and a little crispy barbecue was a deal he would never pass up.
He trotted back over to Rebecca and sat down directly in front of her, tail sweeping across the floorboards.
Good boy. Such a good boy.
Rebecca was staring at him with her gun still raised, though she had clearly forgotten she was even holding it. Her eyes were wide with a mixture of awe and lingering terror. She had just watched a bioweapon systematically dismantle two infected hosts in seconds, and somehow the beast didn't have a single drop of blood on its jaws.
Where did it even go? Did he... did he just absorb them?
She lowered the Beretta very slowly, hands trembling.
"Okay... um, that was..." She took a shaky breath. "Thank you."
He wagged his tail harder and fully leaned into the praise.
Rebecca turned her back to him for a brief second to scan the tunnel ahead, making sure the noise hadn't attracted more wandering corpses.
Alex simply couldn't resist the golden opportunity presented directly in front of him.
He took one silent step forward, leaned his head out, and dragged his wide rough tongue directly up the center of her left butt cheek.
A loud, wet schlorp echoed in the quiet tunnel.
"EEP!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs.
Rebecca jumped nearly a foot into the air. She spun around so fast she nearly tripped over her own boots. Her face burned bright red as she desperately clamped a hand over her violated cheek.
What just happened?!
Her mind completely short-circuited.
The dog had just licked her butt. The giant terrifying flesh-eating monster had snuck up behind her and purposefully licked her butt like a... like a massive perverted creep!
"D-don't do that!" she squeaked while pointing an accusatory finger at his face. "Do not sneak up behind me and... and do that! That's completely inappropriate!"
Alex simply sat back down and tilted his head. He gave her a look of pure innocence while his tail wagged happily.
What could he say, the man was a connoisseur of the tactical dump truck. He had standards. He had taste. He had priorities.
And right now, his priority was messing with the uptight rookie medic.
Rebecca rubbed her temples while trying to physically massage the absurdity out of her brain. She was terrified of this creature. It was strong enough to rip a human head off with a casual flick of its neck, and it was entirely unpredictable. One wrong move, and she could be its next meal.
But as she stared down the foreboding transit tunnel, the horrible truth finally settled into her bones.
She was a rookie medic with limited combat experience, dwindling ammunition, and a serious concussion. If she walked down that corridor alone, she was almost certainly going to die a horrible death.
This horrifying butt-licking belly-rub-demanding monster was genuinely her best chance at surviving the night.
The realization was somehow even more traumatic than the actual butt-licking incident.
She seemed to wrestle with her pride for a long moment before reaching into her utility pouch. She pulled out a small foil-wrapped ration biscuit.
"Alright, l-listen to me," she said while crouching down slowly and making sure to keep a safe distance. "I need to get deeper into this place. I have to find a way out."
She unwrapped the dry biscuit and held it out tentatively in her palm, hand shaking from pure nerves.
"You're strong. And fast. And for some bizarre reason, you haven't tried to eat me yet." She swallowed hard and locked eyes with the beast. "So, if you help me get through this tunnel safely... I'll give you this biscuit. Do we have a deal?"
Alex stared at the pathetic excuse for a snack in her hand.
A single dry military ration biscuit.
The audacity.
He had just saved her life twice, provided premium entertainment, and even offered free belly rub opportunities, and this was his compensation? A biscuit that probably tasted like compressed sadness and war crimes?
But well, free food was free food.
And god be damned he would kill for something that wasn't rotting flesh.
[To Be Continued]
A/N: Just noticed that I hadn't posted any Rebecca Pics here.