Claire Redfield was exhausted as she stumbled into the building. Out of ammo and no where else to run, she managed to find shelter in the one structure that wasn't overrun with the infected. She hastily barricaded the door with several pieces of furniture, but she knew that the horde of infected would only be denied entrance for a few minutes before their force of sheer numbers breached the barrier. Moments later, she could hear the first group of zombies pounding at the door.

Stumbling into the dark interior of the structure, it soon became apparent to Claire that she had entered a building that was once a holy place of worship. Religious iconography adorned the walls and light filtered through the remnants of windows that were once decorated in the style of stained glass. She also realized why this particular building was free of zombies. Something moved in the darkness, but it wasn't the infected. Triggered by the sounds of Claire's footsteps, long snake-like forms began dropping from the ceiling of the church while others rose up from the floor. The church was crawling with monster plants. What were once common flora these were plants infected by the same t-virus that brought humanity to its knees. Transformed into huge carnivorous plants with limited mobility, they were almost as much of a threat as the infected humans and animals.

The sound of wood being smashed behind her made Claire spin around. Several zombies had broken through and were rapidly advancing. "This is how it ends", she thought to herself bitterly. After escaping so many life-threatening situations, her luck had finally dried up. She reached into a pouch on her utility belt and pulled out her last weapon. It was a small pocket knife and she knew it'd be useless against the infected. She would fight desperately but in a few minutes it'd be over. The zombies would tear her limp body limb from limb and feast upon her flesh.

A thought suddenly entered her mind: the infected do not prey on each other and this was true for any organism infected with the t-virus, including plants. She had never seen an infected plant hunt and consume an infected human or vice versa. Perhaps it was design element of the virus, engineered to improve its chances of survival and propagation. It didn't matter why, thought Claire. She was going to execute one last desperate plan.

She sprinted towards one of the plants, the zombies following close behind. "If I can get inside the plant, the zombies might stop their pursuit. I'll figure out the rest from there." Claire knew the chances of success were infinitely small. She had no idea how long she would survive inside the plant before its digestive system would kick into action. She'd seen the end results of what these plants would do to unlucky prey, its acidic digestive fluids rendering the bodies of captured prey into a sludge.

The monstrous plant towered over Claire and she paused wondering how she'd get inside. She wouldn't have to contemplate her situation very long. The vine-like tendrils whipped towards her and quickly wrapped around her arms. The plant lifted her body into the air and positioned her over the mouth-like opening of its main body. To her surprise, smaller tendrils began pulling and tearing at her clothing. She swung her legs and struggled but it was useless. Her lower body was soon completely exposed as she felt herself being lowered into the plant. Tendrils wrapped around her legs and slithered over her skin, moving up her thighs.

The mouth of the plant began to close around her waist and she could feel the interior of the plant pushing and squeezing against her body. She could feel liquid begin oozing onto her skin and it felt warm. Claire knew her window of escape was rapidly closing.

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This is my half of an art trade with my friend, Coldrush

Needless to say, he's a big fan of Resident Evil!

You can see Coldbrush's half of the trade here: http://aryion.com/g4/view/302306

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