Chapter Text
Blazing, awful lights. The awfully familiar scent of a hospital. Clean and sterile, and something about that seemed wrong.
The lights were bright behind his eyelids, but he forced them to open anyway. Squinting into the sun. Or no, the fluorescent light above him.
“Oh, hey, you’re awake!” Someone said cheerfully beside him, and Bryan flinched so hard he almost fell off the bed.
“Jesus fucking- fuck! Don’t- what the fuck?” he muttered weakly, covering his eyes with his arm.
His arm. Bryan pulled his limb away from his eyes and peeked at it. It was covered in a clean bandage.
No wonder the sterile room seemed so wrong, he had almost forgotten about…
Raccoon City.
“What- what the fuck? Where am I? Am I okay? Who are you?” Bryan asked. His heart felt like it was in his throat, and he fought to push himself up.
Blinking around the room. It was a hospital room, smaller than average but cozy, and not quite as white as he would have expected. The furniture was all a sage green, the white paneled walls had a bottom trim, colored a complimenting blue that went well with the furniture, and… “where the fuck am I??”
He turned towards the direction of the voice. A doctor sat there, next to the bed in one of the sage green chairs. His glasses dangled with one arm from his ear, and Bryan frowned as he examined it.
The doctor frowned back, a hesitant, thoughtful expression rather than a slightly judgy one. “In the hospital. A… private one, if that wasn’t clear. If you’re… wondering about Raccoon City, we’re far away from there. They’re actually planning to turn the whole place into a hole in the ground. ‘Cause uh. We used the antidote on you.”
“You what?”
“Yeah, well. One of our soldiers retrieved it from the ground for us. Were you the one that took out all those smashed ones on the ground, below the skybridge? You really made our jobs a lot easier with that. Well, until you didn’t. I guess. That’s why we used the antidote. I dunno what the T-virus did to you, but you were significantly stronger than any of the other creatures we took out.” The doctor pulled his glasses off his ear and fidgeted with them, looking down at his lap as he did so.
Bryan leaned back against the headboard. “Yeah, I killed those guys,” he whispered. Hearing the roaring splat as the monster hit the ground, the mothers and babies following like rain, exploding into paste. “Why didn’t you kill me?”
“Would you rather have died?”
“Fuck, uh. No, I… no.”
“We used it on you because there was… I mean, there was no one else to give it to. I mean, we could save one measly zombie from its fate, or… you.”
“I was the bigger problem, huh? Fuck. Damn it. I ate all those scientist guys, and I- all I wanted was the antidote,” Bryan whispered. He looked down at where his fingers were tearing into the sheets. He hadn’t even realized he was doing that.
“We’ll get new ones,” the doctor said gently, like he knew what Bryan was thinking. “I think it’s reasonable. You weren’t even in your right mind anyway. Oftentimes, zombies will have a goal. Usually it’s eating or killing, but since you had the goal beforehand, I guess it just kinda… stuck.”
Bryan sighed. “Am I going to jail?”
“What for?”
“For killing all those people? Fuck, I don’t know! I hit that lady with my car, the police officer was going to take me to jail after I delivered my package. He thought I was drunk, but she jumped in front of my car. I killed that dog and broke into that guy’s house and then blew his head clean off, and then I fucking…” he covered his face with his hands, took in a shaky breath and tried not to cry. “I killed so many people… Maxine’s body was right there and I coulda grabbed her keys but it felt like a trap, like one of those fucking… Angler fish? It felt like that. And so I told the guy that I couldn’t find her and he got grabbed and I couldn’t aim for shit and I missed the fucking tentacles and I shot him instead and he got taken, and- and before that, I shot that little girl! Her brains went- went everywhere, and she was just asking for help and I tried to help but she bit me, and-”
“Hey, hey,” the doctor said quietly, and Bryan flinched when the doctor’s hand brushed against his leg. “It’s okay. You’re not going to jail. They weren’t human, not even the little girl. And no one’s gonna blame you for missing your shot, okay? You tried to save him, you did your best.”
“I got that cop killed too,” Bryan whispered through his fingers.
“Ehhh,” the doctor said hesitantly, “he was probably gonna die anyway, don’t worry about it.”
“Can I call my girlfriend?”
“Uuhh,” the doctor said, letting out an awkward laugh. “No. We’re keeping you kinda… classified until we can be sure the antidote worked. Telling her anything about how you are or even where you were would raise too many questions and we don’t have enough answers for anything yet.”
“Bitch, I’m classified?? What the fuck?” Bryan snapped, looking up finally.
The doctor stood. “Shoulda thought about that before you got yourself infected. I don’t know what to say.”
“Fucking asshole, what the fuck do you mean? Fucking shit, do you think I meant to get bit? Jesus fucking christ, you have no idea how shitty my fucking night was. You wouldn’t ever, ever say that if you even knew, asshole. Fucking christ,” Bryan cursed, ripping his hands away from his face to shoot scathing looks at the doctor.
He held up his hands, grimacing. “Sorry. That was rude. I’ve had a long day and I’m still a little bitter. You did take down one of our choppers.”
Bryan frowned. He heard the sheets r-r-rip under his fingers, but he didn’t look down. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s…” the doctor sighed, “it’s really not your fault. I really should be trying to get on your good side anyway, as soon as you're let out of the hospital, you’re coming home with me.”
“Huh?”
“For more quarantine stuff. My partner was infected too. Different mission. I think you’ll get along, he likes swearing too.”
Bryan scoffed, rubbing a hand down his face. “Yeah, okay, whatever.”
The doctor reached for the door, pulling it open. “Uh. I’m Dr. Grace, by the way, but you can just call me Grace. You’re…?”
“Bryan.”
“Okay. Good to meet you Bryan. I’ll see you in a bit, huh?”
Grace swung the door shut before Bryan could answer.
“This fucking sucks,” he muttered to himself. Looking down at the shredded sheets below him. The sterile scent of the room really did feel wrong.