Ochre and Magenta stalked the street, both keeping an eye out for zombies but Ochre had figured that they'd probably be back at the RPD cordons finding a larger supply of fresh meat.
They passed a couple of zombies that had been left behind, Magenta fired off a shot that went straight through the nearest zombie's head. Both were conservative about using their guns, they both knew they were running out of rounds. They seemed to be in one of the city's high streets, assorted clothes shops displaying the latest fashions were now left abandoned and street signs blinked on and off.
Magenta suddenly stopped, transfixed by one of the stores; it took Ochre a moment to realise his partner had stopped. He skidded and turned round.
"Pat?" he called, Magenta was looking very pleased about something.
Magenta pointed at the giant sign above the window: 'Kendo's Gun Shop'. With a large grin spread over his face, he announced, "I think it's time for a minor act of vandalism."
The window suddenly smashed and shattered spreading glass all over the shop floor and the street outside as a brick was hurled through it.
"That wasn't minor," Ochre said.
"We can apologise later," said Magenta as he climbed through the empty window, careful not to cut himself on any of the large spikes of glass sticking out.
Ochre waited, keeping guard for any signs of movement. He quickly glanced inside to see Magenta eyeing up all the various weapons.
"Here! You'll like this one!" Magenta called, he tossed out a shotgun. Ochre quickly reached out and caught it before it fell to the floor. "There's so much good stuff in here," he shouted from inside the store. Ochre leaned back on the door. He looked at the lock and turned the handle, to his surprise the door happily swung open, Ochre stepped in.
He saw Magenta trying to grab spare ammo for the shotgun, for himself he'd picked up a pair of semi-automatics. Ochre examined a sword hanging on display, he lifted it from its holding place out of curiosity and felt the weight of it in his hands. It was heavier than he expected but he could still hold it in one hand.
"Going for the close combat approach eh?" Magenta chided, he had found a bottle of wine and took it off the shelf, remembering the easy process for making a Molotov cocktail.
"I'm sure the owner won't be happy when he comes back," Ochre announced.
"Oh quit worrying, we could always pay him back later," Magenta said as he headed behind the counter to see if spare ammo for the semis was hidden somewhere by the owner. He stopped, seeing a body lying sprawled over the floor. "Umm… Rick?" he squeaked, then stooped over to examine the body. It wasn't moving and he reached out his hand about to poke the body for any signs of life.
The body suddenly jerked up and tried to bite Magenta's outstretched hand.
He quickly retreated and got up. The newly animated zombie grabbed his foot and tried to bite through the soles of his shoes.
Magenta kicked his foot forward and hit the zombie off. It pulled itself up to attack him again, Ochre levelled the shotgun and fired. The zombie's head exploded and the body fell limp to the ground. Magenta was left sprayed with a veneer of thick red paste.
"Well that got him," Ochre said. Then from upstairs they heard other creatures stirring, aroused by the sound of the gunshot. From the backroom came a horrible shuffling of slowly approaching steps. "We should get out of here," Ochre exclaimed, both he and Magenta ran for the exit as the zombies started to appear from all sides.
The RPD had been doing their best to keep the outbreak from spreading any further, but no matter how hard they tried there didn't seem to be an end to the mass of zombies.
One RPD officer left his post to relay to Captain Grey.
"Sir, they're starting to break through."
"But we only just put up this set of defences, we haven't had time to build anymore."
"That doesn't change the fact they'll be through any minute now."
Grey tried to think, they were running out of options. "Ok, send some men off to start making another barricade. Keep falling back as they start to get through."
"Yes sir." He rushed off to relay the orders to his comrades.
Grey started supervising the operation. There were no new developments from Scarlet, and Blue, Ochre and Magenta who had gone missing. With just him to organise the defences the effort had become disorganised. Reports on the radio kept shouting for new orders as they were slowly being pushed back.
"Barry! I need you to help set up these new defences," Grey shouted. Barry was the only remaining STARS member left following the disappearance of Bravo Team. They'd heard nothing from Blue for the last half hour. Something must have gone badly wrong. They both started to lift some boards to use for a new barricade when Barry stopped.
"I can hear something," Barry said, and Grey pulled out his gun. There was a noise coming from the buildings, something in the pipes.
"Keep going," he shouted, as he crept towards the large pipe outlet. He could hear something crawling inside. He kept his gun trained on the entrance; the echoes from inside were getting closer. A head poked itself out and when it saw the gun it quickly retreated back inside.
"Don't shoot!" it shouted, Grey lowered the gun and looked inside, it was a girl, Rebecca from Bravo team. He gave her his hand and helped her out as she stumbled to her feet.
"What are you doing here?"
"We got attacked, there was some giant monster that killed everyone."
Great, that's all we need, Grey thought. "Is there anybody else?"
"No, I'm the only one who made it out," she admitted.
"Do you know what happened to Captain Blue?"
"No, I think he might have escaped."
"We can only hope…" Grey looked at her, she didn't seem like she was quite fit to help put up defences. "You were Bravo team's medic weren't you?" She nodded. "We've got a lot of people who've been wounded. Do you think you're up for helping Dr. Fawn with treating anyone that's been injured?"
"Yes, I think so…"
"Ok then." He told her where the long line of medical tents had been set out, and headed back to the barricade. His thoughts were wondering about what had happened to Captain Blue.
Claire pulled back the curtain of the room slightly, looking out onto the street below. She sat perched on the windowsill. They'd stumbled into an apartment building and Claire had managed to bash down one of the doors. So now they were simply camping out, waiting for some sort of development. Claire was sure that if she listened out she could hear gunshots, but they were so far away and distorted she wasn't quite sure if that was really what she was hearing, or if her mind was beginning to create some false hope of a resistance. So far there hadn't been any signs of a rescue operation, and the streets outside were crawling with zombies. None of them had managed to catch on to where they were. Claire looked down at the screen on her mobile phone, the battery was slowly running out. She hadn't managed to reach Chris, guessing he must not be back yet. She'd not been able to reach the emergency services, either all the lines were busy or the power had been cut.
The light from outside cast streaking uncomfortable shadows onto the wall, distorting the landscape of the room, making it seem dangerous and unsettling. She couldn't relax or fall asleep even though fatigue crept through the muscles in her body. The apartment had previously belonged to a family, the walls were painted in soft warming covers and photos of a man, a woman and child had been hurriedly forgotten in a rushed attempt to escape.
She looked at Sherry, who was lying on the sofa. They'd found some spare sheets in the bedroom and spread them over the sofa. None of them felt comfortable at sleeping in a possible dead person's bed. Claire had been lying next to Sherry, but a constant nagging had prompted her to get up and check the world outside.
"Claire?" A weak voice called to her. Claire got up seeing that Sherry was worried about her sudden disappearance.
"I'm right here." She sat back on the sofa and comforted her.
"I can't sleep," Sherry said from under the warmth of her sheets.
"I know…" Claire replied. She stood up and headed to the kitchen "Maybe we can get a glass of milk or something?"
She opened the fridge, and was surprised to find it still full, apparently no one had thought to take food supplies when they had vacated their house. She poured out a glass of milk for Sherry but was looking for something a bit stronger for herself. She cast another glance outside the window, it seemed that was becoming a bit of a habit. But this time she could see some movement. Someone was running down the streets, she rushed back into the living room and forced the window open.
"Over here!" she shouted, waving to the figure. "There's a fire exit round the side."
She headed to the door. Sherry got up from the sofa.
"Claire?"
"Stay there Sherry, I'll be back in a minute." And she disappeared down the corridor. She reached the end of the hall and opened the door. A sudden rush of cold air waved over her as she looked down the balcony. She lowered the ladder and the figure leaped and grabbed hold of it, several of the zombies following reached for him. Claire lowered herself as much as she could and tried to kick the zombies off. The person raised themselves up onto the platform and they both reached for the ladder and pulled it back up, stopping any other zombies from climbing up after them. The figure collapsed on the balcony and tried to regain his breath. Claire looked and saw he was a blue uniformed officer with blonde hair. Claire helped him get to his feet and led him up the stairway. They headed back to the apartment.
"What are you, part of the police force?" she asked.
"No," he panted, "I'm part of Spectrum, my name's Captain Blue."
"I'm Claire and this is Sherry," she introduced herself when they entered the apartment. Captain Blue gave a friendly nod and Claire went over to check the window again. "Now they know we're here it's probably not safe to stay too long." She turned back to the Captain. "Do you know a place we can get to?"
"No, I was separated from my team. I got lost, I probably wouldn't have made it if you hadn't found me."
"What were you doing in amongst those things?"
"We were trying to infiltrate the Umbrella laboratory. We think the answer to this infestation might lie there, but on our way we got attacked. Do you know where it is?"
"No, I don't know my way around at all, I came here hoping to meet my brother, but now…"
"I know where the lab is," Sherry interrupted.
"You do?" Blue asked.
"Yes, my mommy and daddy work there."
"Do you think you can show us the way?"
"I think so…"
Claire crouched down to her.
"If we go there, we might be able to see your mommy and daddy again."
Sherry nodded.
"Yes, I can show you how to get there."
Scarlet
and Jill headed down the corridor. They could hear shuffling footsteps but
couldn't tell where from. They both advanced cautiously, there was something
standing by the end of the corridor.
One of the zombies hovered by the stairs, it hadn't spotted them yet. Jill was unsure whether to fire in case it attracted more of them. Scarlet aimed the crossbow and fired a bolt at its head. It silently flew through the air and lodged itself in its chest. The zombie looked down and grunted at the arrow sticking out of it, slowly turning to see where it had come from. This time the bolt went through its head and it fell in a heap on the floor.
Scarlet and Jill continued on, at the top of the stairs they heard three more of them milling around.
"There must have been an outbreak here too," Jill whispered.
"Let's try another route," Scarlet suggested. They headed towards a door and Jill pulled out a lock pick, using it with an expert hand. The lock clicked open and they were able to enter the room.
It was some sort of office, inside was an empty desk a couple of personal photos placed around it in order to brighten up the gloomy spirit of the room. It was strewn with different research papers, all related to unusual scientific processes.
"We might find something here," Scarlet suggested and they both started to go through the files. Jill found a couple of notes and diary entries but nothing that really helped. She picked up a large brown envelope that hadn't been opened. She tore into it to see what was inside. Two electronic cards fell out onto the table. She examined the letter that lined the wall of the envelope, skimming through its contents to get to the important part of the information;
In this we enclose the new updated key card to access the lower mansion's laboratory. A spare has also been included should this one be lost. Please put it in a safe place where no one can find…
"Scarlet, I've found something."
"What?"
She held up the cards. "It seems these can get us into some lab somewhere here in this mansion."
She gave one of them to him.
"There might be blueprints of this mansion somewhere in this office. Let's see if we can find any," Scarlet suggested.
Jill nodded and went to check the drawers while Captain Scarlet finished checking the files on the desk. He came across something held in a blue file, Tyrant-virus final research notes.
He flicked through all the pages, filled with complex medical schematics.
"This is it," Scarlet realised, "this is all the research on that virus."
His cap microphone dropped from its place.
"Captain Scarlet?"
"Dr. Fawn, we have some new information for you."
At Raccoon City a makeshift line of medical tents had been set up to treat any wounded. Dr. Fawn was helping supervise the operation along with Dr. Klein, the scientist Scarlet and Alpha team had rescued, both were trying to find any way to cure the virus. Fawn's epaulettes flashed red and he put his cap back on to hear what his comrade had to say.
"Captain Scarlet?"
"Dr. Fawn, we have some new information for you. We have all the finished research notes for the virus."
"That's brilliant, if you can read the information out to me I might be able to start work on an vaccine."
Scarlet flicked through the pages finding the chapter where the data on the construction of the virus started. He began reading aloud the information on the page. He could imagine Dr. Fawn going over the notes in his head, trying to make sense of it all.
Annette stood in the Umbrella laboratory's weapons testing room. This one held conventional weapons as opposed to biological ones and the room had always stuck out from the rest of the facility. On mounted shelves were different types of experimental guns, bulky heavy instruments of death. Different rounds lay in a display on the workbench. Standard rounds, smoke rounds, and then the more vicious types: incendiary, acidic and explosive. But these all lay undisturbed looking forgotten and rejected as Annette was busying herself with something much smaller but just as deadly.
On her arm she strapped a brace, a small device placed just under her hand, holding a small hypodermic syringe. She flicked her wrist back and the needle sprang out from its hiding place. Satisfied at its performance she slowly pushed the needle back into its concealed position, the small amount of G-virus washing around inside.
She pulled up her sleeve and the device completely disappeared under the folds of her lab coat.
Blue peered round the corner, in the distance he could see the Umbrella laboratory, but the same crowd of zombies he'd spotted when he was with Bravo Team were still crowding round the facility, the ones which hadn't moved on much further since the outbreak started.
"How are we going to get in there?" Claire asked. Blue pointed to another smaller building.
"According to our reconnaissance that way also acts as another entrance to the lab. It's not as crowded as the main entrance." He turned round to face them. "I'll go in first and draw the creatures' attention. You two try to get straight to the lab."
Claire nodded, and picked up Sherry. Blue took one last look around the corner before they headed out.
"Ok… go!"
They both ran, Blue fired at the zombies dropping as many as he could. He took a stance and fired as Claire ran past heading to the door. Some of the zombies still followed her, she pulled her knife and stabbed one in the head. Her knife was lodged so she kicked the zombie off and it fell back onto the other ones crowding around her. She ran towards the door, shouldered into it finding it closed. She reached for the handle, but it was locked.
"Dammit!" Claire shouted. Sherry wriggled out of her grasp.
"I can open it." Sherry took off a necklace and placed it in a concealed slot in the door, it started to open and Claire pushed Sherry in.
"Captain! Come on!" she shouted back. Blue was slowly being surrounded, though he managed to keep his distance as he paced over to the door, not noticing as one zombie came behind him and bit into his arm. Blue screamed and fired a shot straight at the zombie's head. He clutched his arm as he headed back to Claire. He went through the door into the facility and Claire shut the door behind him.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
"Yeah, fine." He examined the wound. It was a vicious bite which went deeper than he previously thought. "Just a scratch."
Blue led the way down the corridor, Claire keeping a watch on Sherry. They entered onto a large gantry way overlooking the main laboratory. Below they could see the broken capsules and several zombies, most of them dressed in ragged lab coats, wandering around the lab.
Ahead of them someone cautiously stepped out of the shadows. Blue trained his gun on the person approaching them.
"Oh thank God you're here!" she called, Blue could see it was a woman dressed in a lab coat, with short blonde hair. "Something terrible happened."
"What happened?" Blue asked as she walked closer towards, he lowered his gun but still didn't feel comfortable enough to put it away just yet.
The woman almost trembled as she related the events.
"I'm not sure, all the systems malfunctioned and all the experiments were released… oh my God … they killed everyone!"
"Mommy?" a small voice interrupted.
"Oh Sherry!" She looked down and finally noticed the small figure hiding behind Claire. She bent down and hugged her daughter. "I'm so glad you're ok."
"I missed you mommy…"
"Do you know exactly what happened to cause the outbreak?" Blue asked. Annette thought for a moment.
"All the laboratory's systems are operated from the central control room. But it's been locked since the start of the outbreak, I think my husband was in there."
"Right, we better get up there and see if we can gain access to it," Blue announced. He led the way down the gantry. Annette got up and directed them, Sherry hung onto her hand. She immediately began telling her mother about everything that had happened to her, she seemed so excited by the sudden emergence of her mother that she spoke at breakneck speed and it was quite hard to tell what she was actually saying.
Claire followed behind, glad that in all this madness she'd at least managed to make one happy ending possible, though there was a part of her which couldn't help but feel disturbed by the slightly vacant expression in Annette's eyes. Didn't she care that her daughter was safe? Maybe after everything that had happened she was caught in a state of disbelief, it all hadn't quite registered yet.
Annette put her hand on Sherry's shoulder and something disturbed Claire, there was a small, almost inaudible snikt, and she briefly saw something in Annette's hands.
"Captain Blue!" she shouted as she reached forward and pulled Sherry away from her mother.
The Spectrum Captain turned round just as Annette pulled a gun on him. She shot off a few rounds as he ducked for cover.
Whilst she was busy with Captain Blue, Claire had grabbed Sherry's arm and quickly ran away from the firefight.
Annette turned briefly to see Claire and Sherry run off, she'd deal with them in just a second. For now she turned her attention back to Captain Blue.
He fired a couple of shots at her from his own handgun, he kept low, trying to move further down the walkway. At the moment he was too exposed, Annette's shots nearly hit him as he dived for cover again. Blue headed off to the corner and clung to the shadows, he kept as still as he could.
"You can't escape, Spectrum!" Annette cried out. Her eyes scanned the dark hallway, searching for any sense of movement. She briefly ducked under a set of the pipes that came down low from the ceiling.
Blue slowly raised his gun, aiming for the pipes above her head. He fired one shot and the pipeline burst, spraying Annette with a cloud of hot steam. She screamed and Blue made his getaway, she briefly saw him passing, and fired a few random shots. They all missed their target. Annette got up, a look of frustration strewn across her face, but it soon disappeared. Now the Spectrum officer had gone Annette turned back up the gantry way, and headed in pursuit of Claire and her daughter.
Claire desperately rushed towards the exit, she could just about see the stairway in the low light.
"Claire! Slow down!" Sherry shouted. Claire knew the seven year old couldn't keep up with her pace, but she couldn't slow down. Not when she started to hear the gunshots fly past her head.
"What's wrong with mommy?" Sherry cried. Claire had already guessed. She must be one of those things Blue mentioned, but how was she going to tell Sherry that her mother was just some empty vessel?
They reached the stairs to the fire exit, she could feel them shake under her footsteps. Several bolts came loose as they endured the battering having not been used for months.
Suddenly one of the stairs came loose and Sherry slipped out of Claire's grasp. She turned and reached for her.
"Sherry!" she called. Another shot whizzed past her head and she crawled up the stairs to hide behind one of the beams limply holding the stairs up.
Annette slowly approached Sherry, her gun held ready.
"Mommy? What's wrong with you?" Sherry's voice shook, and tears fell down her face. She couldn't understand the transformation that had overcome her mother. Annette stared down at her and put the gun to her head.
"Mommy…?"
She pulled the trigger; just as she did Blue pushed Sherry out of the way. The force of the bullet sent him flying back. He lay on the floor, clutching the bullet wound in his shoulder. Annette walked over to him, her eyes filled with hatred for the Spectrum officer.
"You're already infected but the G-virus is much different from the T-virus, we haven't able to stabilise its reactions yet." She brandished the needle on her arm and reached over to inject him. "It would be interesting to see what sort of mutation it could provoke in you."
Claire jumped down from the stairway and slammed into Annette. The two rolled across the floor, Claire's back slammed into the walkway railings. She gave out a quick groan then realised Annette was holding the needle above her chest. Claire grabbed her hand and tried to push her back. But the Mysteron slowly pushed further and further down.
Annette was pulled back by Blue, he threw the Mysteron agent against the wall, and pointed his handgun at her chest. He panted heavily, feeling a twinge of pain in his shoulder. He glanced at Sherry and became uncertain as to whether he could pull the trigger.
Annette simply laughed.
"It doesn't matter anyway. Before you arrived here I set the system's self-destruct sequence."
"What?" Blue gasped.
"The virus has already infected the city, your efforts have failed. The destruction of Raccoon City is assured."
Blue stared in disbelief, he simply threw the Mysteron to the floor and Claire ran to his side.
"We've got to get out of here!" he shouted, he led the charge as they hastily headed towards the exit.
They all ran as fast as they could. Now warning lights and klaxons were going off over their heads. Blue could see the exit up just ahead. The blast doors were starting to close. He reached forward and pushed them open as much as he could, Sherry ran through.
Claire had nearly reached the door when Annette grabbed her hair and pulled her back. Blue let go of the doors and rushed towards Claire. He grabbed Annette and pushed her off Claire, they squeezed through as the doors closed. Blue saw the Mysteron try to reach them just as the doors slammed shut.
The doors slammed in Annette's face. She halted, she had failed. She turned round and rested on the door. Around her the lab had collapsed into a state of chaos as the final countdown for the self-destruct had begun.
'Self destruct sequence in two minutes'
She slowly walked back to the observation deck, William’s body was waiting for her when she arrived. She walked over to the body and sat beside it. The CCTV screens flicked off one by one replaced by constant static, the white noise became louder to her than the warning lights that kept going off, becoming louder and more frantic as the countdown narrowed.
'Self destruct sequence in one minute'
She stared forward at the floor, curled up in a little ball.
'Self destruct sequence in thirty seconds'
She turned towards William, she hadn't seen him so calm in months. The muscles in his body had relaxed and the look of anguish that had been strewn across his face when he died had finally disappeared.
‘Ten… nine…eight…'
She reached her hand towards his, wrapping them together one last time.
From across the other side of town Captain Ochre and Captain Magenta heard the explosion.
"What was that?" Magenta asked.
"Don't know, but I'm willing to bet one of our guys had something to do with it."
They were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps echoing from an alleyway. They were constant enough not to be a zombie, but too large to be human, as if someone was wearing a pair of Doc Martins with five inch steel soles.
Captain Ochre looked out from beyond the cover, seeing a giant creature step out of the alleyway. He quickly pulled back hoping it hadn't seen him.
"What is it?" Magenta asked.
"Something really big," Ochre said. Magenta went to take a peek and Ochre pulled him back, "It's heading towards the RPD cordon. If that thing gets there there's no way they could fight it off."
"We've got to do something," Magenta whispered; he looked thoughtful for a second then suddenly proclaimed, "Wait! I've got an idea!"
He jumped out of the cover into plain view of the Nemesis.
"What are you doing?" Ochre shouted.
"You head back to the outpost! I'll keep him busy," Magenta shouted back.
He ran towards the giant monster waving his arms.
"HEY! Over here!" The creature made a low growling sound and ran after him.
Captain Magenta ran back, he was glad that even if this thing was powerful at least it was quite thick. The two of them disappeared off into the city streets.
Ochre stared in disbelief, he stood up and gripped the shotgun. He ran back towards the outpost. Good luck, he thought, though he wasn't quite sure what to make of his friend's stupidity.
For the last few hours Colonel White had been reviewing the progress of Raccoon City. The large screen gave him the best view of how the defence was going, he could see how the forces were slowly being pushed back. Lieutenant Green had been reviewing the radio messages, most of them were panicked and painted a picture of a city falling into chaos.
It seemed the problem with this enemy was that there didn't have to be many of them to quickly spread, they'd had lots of patrols suddenly dropping off the map completely just after they'd reported in with a single member being bitten.
"Lieutenant Green, see if you can contact the Umbrella Corporation, they must have prepared something for an eventuality like this."
Colonel White continued looking through the various reports that had come in, following Blue, Magenta and Ochre's disappearance in the city. The effort had slowly become more disorganised and the RPD forces were slowly being whittled down. There had been some vague reports about the state of the Umbrella complex in the heart of the city, but there hadn't been any solid confirmation of its fate.
"Anything to report?" White turned back to Green.
"Just one thing." Green checked through the computer printout. "The corporation set up an organisation called the 'Biohazard Countermeasure Service', it seems they're most likely to know how to combat this sort of threat."
"Get a line with them Lieutenant," White announced, "the forces in the city need all the help they can get."
Chris pushed open the door, and they found themselves in the main hall of the mansion. From the top floor Chris could see the main entrance, a set of old oak panelled doors, from the entrance following all the way up the stairs a long red carpet was laid out. As they descended the stairs Chris surveyed the hall, there were two doors on either side of the hall as well as the main entrance.
"Damn, this place is huge," Joseph complained.
"We'll split up, you two take the east wing, I'll take the west," Wesker ordered.
"What about Scarlet's orders?" Chris reminded him.
"We'll never be able to search the whole mansion with all three of us sticking together, this will be more efficient."
"If you say so."
Wesker headed to a set of blue double doors on the right side. Chris and Joe took the door on the left, they continued down the corridor to a miniature gallery. Scenic pictures hung in frames and in the middle of the room there was a large marble statue of a woman holding a vase.
"Well nothing here," Chris noted. Joseph went to check behind a curtain that led to a small storage room.
He peeked inside; there was a body on sprawled on the floor. As Joseph looked at it the body started to get up and crawl towards him. He retreated out and shut the curtain.
"Find anything?" Chris asked.
"Nope, let's move on."
There was another exit. Chris opened the door and went through first; it led to an empty hallway with a long set of windows that allowed them to see outside the mansion. They both crept along, still on edge. Chris headed towards the door at the end of the corridor. Joseph went to examine the windows, he could hardly see outside, squinting he pressed his face to the glass.
"Hey, I think I can see something moving." That thing burst through the windows and leapt on top of Joseph. He screamed as a set of savage teeth and claws dug into his body.
Chris turned round at the screaming; he saw a dog, a large Doberman attacking Joseph. Large shards of glass stuck out of its body but it didn't seem to care. He fired his gun but it ran out of bullets and disappointingly clicked. He ran over to Joseph when two more dogs burst through the window, one joined in with ripping Joseph apart, the other seemed more happy with the idea of having Chris to itself.
He shuffled backwards, reaching for the door somewhere behind him, but keeping his eyes on the zombie dog.
In the file room Jill and Scarlet had heard a set of screams, they both turned round.
"What was that?"
"It sounded like Joseph," Jill said, she edged towards the door.
"I'll go." Scarlet stepped forward. "Stay here and finish relaying all the virus information to Dr. Fawn."
He took off his cap and passed it to her, she nodded and took off her beret. She found Scarlet's cap a bit too big, but she started to pick up from where Scarlet had left off.
Scarlet grabbed the crossbow as he went past and headed out into the mansion.
At the Spectrum barricade the gunfire hadn't stopped. The police were tired but they kept going, they knew the consequences of what would happen if they stopped. The zombies had already managed to break through several barricades and now the RPD were hastily trying to put up barricades made of anything: boxes, old wooden panels, so long as the zombies didn't get through.
"Conserve your ammo!" Captain Grey shouted, aiming his handgun and managing to shoot one approaching zombie in the head. "Make every shot count."
He fired another shot, missed and aimed again. All the shots were getting sloppy, the forces were too highly strung out. They'd been defending these posts for hours on end. And the wave of zombies never seemed to stop, it was the sheer weight of their numbers that had destroyed the barricades and pushed them back so far.
"Cloudbase to Captain Grey." A call came through.
"Grey here."
"How's the effort going Captain?"
"Not too good Colonel, we keep getting pushed back but we can't seem to make a dent in them."
"Reinforcements will be arriving to help you any minute."
"SIG." No sooner had his cap microphone gone back into place than a helicopter swooped over his head. The sight of the Umbrella logo on the side made him slightly worried.
A band of soldiers began descended from the helicopters, dark coloured military vests. They were a mix-matched set of men, their faces chiselled and hardened; they looked more like mercenaries than a proper military service.
"Who are you?" Grey asked as one of the soldiers stepped out of the helicopter. The newcomer spoke with a thick South American accent.
"My name's Carlos, we're the Umbrella Bio-hazard Containment Service, here to help."
"What took you so long?"
"None of our operatives in the city bothered to phone and ask us for assistance."
"That's probably because they're all dead."
"Yeah, that would probably do it." Grey couldn't quite believe this man was in command; he was far too casual to be in a position of authority.
"I'm in charge of this squad." A Russian officer stepped forward. "Your Colonel was very persuasive with our superiors. He says that we are all to follow your orders."
"We need as many squads as you can get to start fighting back against these zombies."
The Russian officer started barking orders to his troops who reluctantly obeyed.
"Everybody get into positions! Prepare to repel hostiles!"
Scarlet headed down the stairway to the mansion's main hall. He looked at the set of doors on either side and decided to follow the way to the east, that seemed to be the direction the scream had come from.
He rushed through the corridors, coming to the gallery. He could hear crunching and chewing sounds coming from the other side of the door. He slowly reached for the handle, his hand hovering over his gun. When he opened the door several of the dogs turned and leaped at the chance of fresh meat. Scarlet hurriedly slammed the door as he heard one of the dogs slam against it.
Wesker appeared and fired several rounds through the door, they heard a yelp and one of the dogs thumped to the floor, though another one was scratching at the door.
"What happened?" Wesker asked.
"Those things got Joseph."
"What about Chris?"
"I don't know." Scarlet stood up, "Where did those things come from?"
"They must have been guard dogs that got infected."
"There must be more of them outside." The thought worried Scarlet, they left and headed back to the hall. When they entered Scarlet turned to confront Wesker.
"Where were you?"
"I was checking the rest of the mansion when I heard the noise."
"This is precisely why I ordered you to stay together."
"I thought we'd find out more if we split up."
"And now at least one of your team members is dead."
"But I did manage to find something."
Scarlet looked at him. "What?"
"Come, I'll show you. I think you'll find it quite interesting."
Wesker led the way through the double blue doors on the other side into the dining room, and continued to lead him down a long stretch of corridors.
Leon crawled out of the building's remains. He'd seen some movement a while ago and had been doggedly trying to reach any other survivors.
But when he got there all he found was a set of burning remains. Around the broken helicopter were the remains of several bodies, most of them bent and twisted in unnatural positions. He tried to avoid them and walked over to the helicopter to see if he could salvage anything.
He reached into the cockpit, several ammo boxes and med-packs were held in the helicopter. A lot of them had been damaged in the explosion, but he managed to find several first aid sprays and some bullets for his handgun.
Behind him some of the bodies started to stir as a spark of life entered them once more. The faceless body of Richard Aiken pulled himself up, alerted to the sound of the police officer rummaging through the helicopter. Kenneth started to crawl towards him; his spine was broken and he had to drag his body. Enrico the Captain led the charge, being the closest to the helicopter.
Leon looked around a little more, noticing something rather big propped up against the helicopter wall. He reached for it and picked out the rocket launcher. He slung it over his shoulder.
He turned round to leave and was alerted to the presence of the zombies; he pulled out his handgun deciding the rocket launcher would be a bit too much. He shot at them but the body armour deflected the shots and they carried on, desperate to reach him. He gave up, placing the gun back in its holster and, pulling the rocket launcher round, he charged, bashing Richard down with it.
The zombies only staggered at the attack, somehow these ones were tougher, more determined. They crowded around Leon. The captain reached for him and he swung the launcher at his face, but he'd forgotten about Kenneth, who had finally reached him. It grabbed Leon's foot and started to bite through his soles. He kicked desperately to get it off though the others were ready again to attack.
"Move out of the way!" someone shouted. Leon saw a man in a bright pink uniform sprinting towards him. Leon brought the rocket launcher down on Kenneth's head and it finally let go. As Richard and Enrico reached out for him he ducked in between them. The pink man ran past the zombies and a giant creature in a black trench coat stomped after him, crushing Kenneth's head under its boot. It threw its arm out at Richard and Enrico, sending them flying. Their spines crushed as they collided with a stone wall.
The pink man rushed down the street and the creature followed after him. Leon stood in amongst the remains, trying to figure out what had just happened.
The effort to stop the zombies was finally showing some improvement; the UBCS troops had brought lots of heavy artillery with them and had quickly gone about dispatching the zombies. Grey had been coordinating the movements along with the UBCS commander. But ahead of them were still hordes of zombies eager to get through.
"Sir, I can see a survivor," one of the RPD sentries called.
"What, in amongst all that?" Grey asked.
"Yes sir."
"Well they're on their own. There's no way we can get a rescue force in there."
"He's Spectrum, sir."
"What?" he shouted.
"He seems to be doing quite well on his own, sir." Grey looked over the makeshift barricade, it was Ochre. The zombies were starting to crowd around him having realised a more immediate food source was available. However there was quite a wide circle around him.
Ochre fired the shotgun at the nearest set of zombies, then pulled his sword out from his belt and started cutting at them, a set of clear swings managing to decapitate several at a time. He held the shotgun in one hand and fired again, blowing the heads off two zombies at the same time. He put away the sword and hurriedly reloaded the shotgun. One zombie came up from behind and grabbed him by the shoulders. Ochre fell back splitting the zombie's head open on the sidewalk.
Some zombies lurched forward thinking that their prize would be easier to obtain now it was off balance, but Ochre had finished reloading the shotgun. He fired again and the blast blew the legs off several more. He got up barging past the zombies that tried to grab him.
He headed towards the barricade, leaping onto an upturned car and jumping onto a fire escape from one of the surrounding buildings. He made his way down into the street past the fortifications where Grey was leading the RPD.
"Rick! You son of a gun!" Grey called.
"Brad, good to see you too!" he replied patting him on the shoulder.
"What's going on? Where's Pat?"
"…I think he's doing ok," Ochre replied.
"Any sign of Blue?"
"No, what about Scarlet and Alpha team?"
"We've heard nothing from them," Grey said solemnly.
"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be fine," Ochre said. "Right now we've got bigger things to worry about."
"There seems to be something through here." Wesker pointed to a steel headed door, it didn't match the layout of the archaic mansion one bit. The door was sealed but a card reader was positioned on the side.
Scarlet pulled out the card from his pocket and looked at the lock; he slowly ran the card down the side of the reader and a little light on the top flashed green. The locks hissed open.
"Shall we go in?" Wesker suggested. Scarlet wasn't sure, those doors had probably been closed for a reason, but Wesker ventured forth and pushed it open. It was some sort of lab, too small to be the main lab for the centre of the operations, although different capsules seemed to suggest it was more of a containment area.
Captain Scarlet looked at the gantry way above him, and could have sworn he heard some movement coming from there. But his attention was diverted to the sounds coming from further down the room. Different from the moans of the zombies, these were high-pitched shrieks like some sort of violent animal. And they grew louder and more excited with every step the two took towards them.
"Not scared are you Captain?" Wesker asked. He carried on a few steps ahead of him from where he'd stopped to check the noise from the gantry way.
"No, it's not that."
The walls seemed to be lined with cages, big enough to fit a person but it seemed to have previously held some other type of occupant. Wesker had found a control panel, he pushed a button and the room was illuminated. Scarlet could now see the creatures that were held in the cages. Giant lizard like creatures as large as him, with curved arched backs, a long set of claws extending from each of their fingers.
"What are these things?" The Captain looked into the cages of the strange beasts.
"They're called Hunters," Wesker replied, a thin smile spreading across his face, "they're designed to be the ultimate killers. Fast, agile, completely different from those shuffling failed experiments we've met so far."
"You seem to know an awful lot about them." Scarlet turned to face him. Wesker turned his head round. The green lighting from the incubation tubes made his face look oddly sick. He lowered his glasses and for just a moment, Scarlet could swear his eyes looked red.
"I wonder what would happen if we let them loose about the place?" He reached over to the lock of the creatures' cages.
"What are you doing?" Scarlet called out. Wesker slid the lock open; immediately one of the creatures lunged at him, driving its long claws straight through his body and lifting him up off his feet as blood spilled from his mouth. Scarlet pulled out his crossbow and a bolt went clean through the first Hunter's skull. But instantaneously there was another one to take its place. He narrowly avoided injury as the creature tore at his throat, leaving a deep gouge in the wall where it struck. He levelled his bow again and fired wildly, hitting the Hunter but the arrows didn't drive in far enough to kill it. It reached its claws forward and drove them into Captain Scarlet's chest. He gasped as the air left his body. He reached forward and shot it square in the head. They both slumped to the floor at the same time.
Captain Magenta quickly learned that despite the Nemesis's big bulk and size, it was surprisingly fast. It had managed to keep pace with him and nearly caught him a few times. Luckily there was an advantage to being smallerand able to fit through holes and doorways the creature couldn't, even if it did usually just knock them down after he'd gone through.
Magenta ran into a large industrial building and pushed open the doors to find an abandoned factory; there were lots of conveyor belts and stairs leading to different routes and levels. Perfect.
He ran up the stairs until he reached a position where the creature shouldn't be able to find when it followed.
Magenta crouched down and pulled out a lighter, desperately trying to light the Molotov; a brief spark would light then flick out of existence.
"Come on, come on, come on…"
The paper finally caught light.
"Yes!"
Then Nemesis grabbed his head and slowly lifted him up. Magenta dropped the makeshift bomb and kicked out, trying to get free. On the creature's hand he saw a tentacle start to slither out from under its skin.
Then someone rushed over and threw the Molotov at Nemesis's head. It burst into flames letting out a low pained roar, dropping the Spectrum officer unexpectedly to the floor.
"Come on! Get up!" Someone tugged him by his uniform; he scrambled to his feet and followed someone in a blue uniform with blonde hair.
"Captain Blue?" The person turned round, he was much younger than Blue and his hair was a lot longer. It wasn't a Spectrum uniform he was wearing; it was an RPD uniform.
"No, my name's Leon." They both ran down the stairs trying to get away from the Nemesis monster. They could hear its footsteps clunking on the rails behind them.
"So, who are you, Captain Bright Pink?"
"I'm Captain Magenta."
"Isn't that the same thing?"
They both hid behind one of the large machines, the Nemesis surveyed its surroundings, it seemed to lose interest in them and walked back onto the streets.
"Where's it going?" Leon whispered.
"It's following its original goal. It's going to the RPD cordon to stop any resistance."
"We've got to stop it," Leon said. Magenta picked up his twin semis.
"Right, let's go."
Chris was on the gantry way, he saw Captain Scarlet fighting off one of the creatures. There were still two more of them left; he crouched down and levelled the rifle, hitting another one right between the eyes. The last one shrieked and was alerted to where the gunshot had been fired. In one bound it leaped up onto the gantry way, landing a few feet away from Chris. He stumbled backwards surprised by its speed. He hurriedly tried to reload the rifle, but the cartridge slipped from his hands. He reached out for more in his pocket and loaded it in, the Hunter screamed and leaped towards him. He fired just as the creature was above him. It fell limp on top of him and he struggled to push it off. It fell over the side with a large thump.
Chris jumped down from the gantry way, landing on the body of one of the fallen Hunters. It wasn't exactly the softest thing to land on but it was still better than the metal floor. He didn't hold any hope for the Spectrum Officer. He'd arrived just in time to see the Captain get attacked by the creatures. He already knew there was no way he could have survived. He went over to check on Wesker.
"Albert?" He had always hated it when he was called by his first name. The captain's glasses had fallen off and his eyes had rolled up under his eyelids. Chris had just realised the severity of Wesker's wound, the claw had driven in even deeper than Scarlet's. Chris slowly got up, he hadn't been able to save either of them. The only thing he could do now was to find Jill and escape with her.
"Are you alright?" Chris turned round with a start. He was amazed to see Scarlet slowly getting up onto his feet.
"You're alive?" The words came out of his mouth, failing to hide his disbelief.
"I'm fine, it's just a scratch." The Captain smiled, a very fake artificial smile that he'd forced upon himself, trying to hide how much the Hunter's attack still hurt. It would still be a while before he recovered completely. He forced himself to get up; the baffled expression still hadn't left Chris's face.
Ochre was ordering the UBCS and the RPD into various positions.
"Take any of the heavy artillery you can find!" he kept on shouting, while examining all the weapons the UBCS had brought with them. Rifles, automatics, sub-machine guns, but he didn't feel any of them would be good enough.
"You sure this isn't all a bit much?" Captain Grey asked.
"I know it's not." Ochre stopped and filled his shotgun with ammo until it was completely full. "I've seen what it looks like, I know even this isn't going to stop it. We either need something really big or we need to completely bombard it."
Ochre took a place up with the UBCS and RPD on sentry, waiting by the barricade and checking their new weapons. Occasionally one would fire off a shot at an approaching zombie, but with the combined efforts of the UBCS they'd managed to beat back the worst of the infestation.
"Sir, we have a visual," a Russian UBCS officer shouted. Ochre came over to look. Approaching the cordon from the city streets was a large figure draped in black. Even from this far away Ochre could make out it wasn't completely human.
"Everybody get ready! Open fire on my mark!" He levelled his own shotgun. A heavy silence fell over the forces as they all watched the creature through their gun scopes, waiting for it to get closer.
It broke out into a run, Ochre gave the order.
"Open fire!" A barrage of gunfire opened up, the bullets seemed to lodge themselves in the creature's body but it wasn't affected.
"Grenades!" The UBCS mercenaries chucked a line of grenades but Nemesis just walked through the explosions, only its trench coat was slightly singed.
"Damn!" Ochre muttered. "Fall back!"
The officers hurriedly got up but the creature had reached the blockade, it broke down the makeshift walls and started dispatching any officers that hadn't managed to get clear.
Ochre fired the shotgun, the blast disappeared into its chest. It turned round noticing Ochre. It gave one of its low growls.
"SPECTRUM!"
And ran towards the officer, lashing at anyone that got in its way. Ochre hurried backwards, firing off as many shots as he could. He pumped back the slide on the gun and fired again. It wasn't working, a tentacle protruded from its hand and it came within range of the Spectrum captain.
A missile collided with its body and the creature stumbled back, Ochre whipped round to see Magenta and Leon on the roof of the building. The police officer held a rocket launcher in his hands.
"Looks like we got here just in time," Leon commented, but the burning remains of Nemesis started getting up again.
From the smoking remains the creature started to get up, pulled itself up and roared. Parts of its body started to pull itself back together, the tentacles started to rewrap around its body. Its skin started bulging, growths started stretching the skin across its back, the rest of its burnt and singed body was exposed as its coat had been burnt off.
"We're going to need a bigger explosion," Magenta sighed.
Nemesis's arm shot out and threw a chunk of masonry at the roof towards Magenta and Leon. The roof collapsed under them and the police officer fell to the ground, Magenta just managed to catch his hand.
"Someone stop it from getting the rocket launcher!" Ochre shouted. Grey looked on– if a launcher couldn't stop it then what could? He ran back towards the munitions trucks. UBCS operatives were trying to unload the ammunition and dispense it out as quickly as possible.
"What else have you got in those trucks?" Grey shouted.
"We got grenades, missiles and a hell-load of semtex."
"Don't unload any of that, leave it where it is!"
"What?"
Grey grabbed an assault rifle, and ran back to the battle. He fired as many shots off at Nemesis as he could, aiming purely for its head. It didn't seem to damage it but it caught the creature's attention, its exposed muscles pulsing as it charged forward. Grey broke back into a run and headed back to the truck.
"What's he doing?" Ochre shouted.
"I know." Leon got up and picked up the rocket launcher. He stumbled, trying to stay conscious following the fall. Ochre helped him stay up on his feet as he levelled the rocket launcher.
Grey kept on firing off shots, the creature charged enraged at him. The tentacles reached out to grab him. Grey backed into the truck as the creature swung at him, tearing off the top half of the truck. He ducked behind cover as Leon fired the rocket launcher.
The shot flew past the creature and collided with the truck. The contents exploded in a mass that engulfed Nemesis in the blast, it vaporised in the heat of the fireball.
Everyone came over to survey the wreckage, weapons still at the ready. Grey could just make out a set of burnt ribs protruding from the wreckage, although the wreckage and the creature's remains seemed to be fused together now.
"Well," he said, "I think that did the trick."
Captain Blue and Claire continued to run through the streets, Claire still holding fiercely onto Sherry. Blue was getting worse by the minute, his face was paling and inside he could feel the virus starting to take hold. He felt it wouldn't be long until he was like the zombies they'd been spending all their time fighting, but so far Claire hadn't mentioned it at all to him.
At the moment they were lost, the exit from the labs had taken them to a different part of the city and none of them knew where they were. They'd just kept on running, zombies coming at them from all sides. Blue lifted up his gun to shoot some more, but he didn't even have that strength in him. He fell to his knees, Claire stopped and headed back to him.
"Come on, you've to get up." He just didn't have enough energy to move. Her eyes swivelled frantically; the zombies were all around them. There wasn't a way out anymore.
A wind kicked up around them, Blue could only just feel it around him.
"Captain look!" Claire shouted.
Above them was an Umbrella helicopter, it flew low over the streets, the machine gun burst into life and started cutting down the zombies around them. One figure leaped from the helicopter, blasting several zombies away with a sub-machine gun as he cleared a way from them to the helicopter.
"Come on, get up. No time to be lazy." The man had a thick South American accent, he kicked Blue and the blonde Spectrum officer started to get up. Claire put Sherry down and helped Blue to his feet, they headed back towards the helicopter as the man with the machine gun kept them covered. They climbed into the helicopter and it took off again.
"Man, you look terrible," the man commented, then he realised why. "Don't worry, they tell me your Doctor's made a breakthrough back at base camp."
'Base camp' had been hastily set up over the last few hours, a long stretch of canvas tents, most of them dedicated to treating wounded individuals. It was set up all around the RPD building; lots of police and ambulance officers were running to and fro. From the view in the helicopter it looked to Blue like a small forest had suddenly sprouted up in the middle of the city.
The moment the helicopter had touched down Grey called for a set of medics and they helped Blue onto a stretcher, pushing it over to one tent, much larger than the rest.
"Doctor?" one of the medics called, "we've got another for you. Apparently it's quite urgent."
Blue saw Dr. Fawn turn round to realise who his new patient was.
"Hello," he greeted Blue. Blue simply nodded, he didn't have the strength for much else.
Dr. Fawn leaned in and checked Blue's wound, both the bite and the bullet wound, then he returned to his work desk and started readying some of his equipment.
"Do you know why Raccoon City was picked to produce practically all of North America's medical products?" Fawn started.
"No…"
"Didn't read the briefing?"
"Well what does it have to do with anything?"
"The vast forest area that surrounds Raccoon City contains a unique set of medicinal herbs that only grow in this area due to the unique conditions of the environment."
Fawn injected Blue with a shot, he grimaced and Fawn continued on. He took a pair of forceps and dug into the bullet wound on Blue's shoulder; Blue grimaced as the Doctor pulled out the bullet and placed it in a nearby dish.
"When Captain Scarlet gave me the data on this virus I was able to whip up a serum that cancels the effect it has on rejuvenating dead cells, but that means the virus won't be 'healing' the injuries you've already obtained, and considering the amount of time you've been walking around with the bite and that bullet in your shoulder that means in your current state you aren't going to recover."
"So, you can't do anything to can save me?"
"Well you see, what I'm mainly going to do is take this green herb and this red herb and mix them together, and in five minutes you'll be completely cured."
Blue blinked and stared up at him. "Are you serious?"
"Of course I'm serious. These herbs can cure anything. It's what young Miss Rebecca Chambers has been using on most of the injured we've been receiving." He stuffed the herb into Blue's mouth and headed towards the tent's exit. "Chew on this and you'll be fine in no time."
Blue tried to speak through a mouth full of herbs. "What if I don't?"
Fawn had already left, Blue was left chewing the herbs around in his mouth, they tasted awful.
Rebecca sighed and put her hand to her head. Ever since getting back to the relay point she'd been dragged off to help tend to the masses of wounded and injured people. She'd been working non-stop tending to and caring for people.
She was starting to get tired. She walked over to the end of the tent and sat down, then the officers brought in another face she thought she'd never see again.
"Brad? You're alive!" she shouted. The nervous pilot looked up and gave her an apologetic smile.
"…yeah." One of the officers helped him over to the nearest medical bed. He could see from the look of complete disbelief on Rebecca's face she was dying to know how he survived.
"I managed to escape from that thing. But I guess I just got lucky and managed to end up back here." He trailed off with a nervous laugh. Rebecca noticed he was shaking, though she reckoned it was probably from shock. She pushed his head back to check for any wounds or bruises he might have picked up.
"Well, it seems you've managed to keep yourself in good condition."
"Thanks…" he muttered. Rebecca stared at him, then got up to check on any other patients more urgently in need of assistance.
"You seem to be fine. All I can recommend is that you get some rest," she said from over her shoulder.
"Yeah, I'll do that…" Brad replied. He relaxed in his chair; as he did a strange voice filled his head, calling out his name.
"This is Captain Black, relaying instructions from the Mysterons. The first attempt to destroy Raccoon City has failed, a second agent will be sent to obtain the virus from the mansion in the Arklay mountains. You know what you must do."
A small smile slithered across Brad's face. He stood up and walked out of the medical tent, unnoticed amongst all the fuss.
Claire sat on the makeshift stretcher inside the canvas tent. Now that it seemed the main worry was over the Spectrum and the RPD forces were concentrating on helping survivors and the wounded. Sherry rested her head on Claire's shoulder. Claire relaxed back in her seat, letting her thoughts unwind for a brief second. Outside she could hear lots of movement, people still wandering about and various authoritative voices barking stock orders. She wondered if she should go and help, she was sure there were still lots of people who needed help.
Someone pulled back the canvas flap and entered the tent. A yellow clad STARS officer gave her a shy smile.
"Hi, my name's Brad. I came to see how you were doing," he introduced himself and walked over. He looked fantastically nervous, and Claire briefly wondered whether it was because he was worried he'd have to deal with some hideous injury she might have obtained or because she was a member of the opposite sex.
"I'm fine," she replied, reclining back in her seat. Sherry began to wake up, Claire looked up at the STARS officer. "I was just wondering… I came here looking for my brother. His name is Chris…"
"Oh yes, I know Chris," he smiled again, but nervously shuffled and tried to avoid making eye contact. "I'm part of his team."
Claire would have jumped at him had she not thought the sudden movement would have given him a heart attack "Really? Do you know where he is?"
"Of course," he said, "he's right here in the base. I can take you to see him if you'd like."
"Yes… please." Claire stood up and got ready to follow Brad, but when she went to move something was tugging at her arm. "Sherry?"
"Claire, don't go." Claire crouched down next to Sherry and stroked her head.
"Don't worry, I'll be back. I'm just going with this man to see my brother. But I'll come back for you."
She hugged Sherry and stood up, following Brad outside the tent. She could see there were still a lot of Spectrum officers still organising the RPD and UBCS. There were a lot of tents set up, most of them seemed to be filled with people being given medical attention. But the grey Spectrum captain seemed to be getting the effort under control.
"It's just this way," Brad called to her. Claire followed behind him as they turned round the corner of the police station. It was more deserted here as the recovery effort was on the other side of the building. As they continued down the street Claire started to notice the slow decline of military presence.
"Are you sure this is the right way? It seems to me… Ow." She stopped because she felt a brief sting in her arm. But she didn't see what she could have cut herself on. Then she saw Brad sneak something back into his jacket.
"What was that?" she said, clutching her arm.
"What?" he said, seemingly in almost complete surprise.
"What did you just do?"
"Why? Is something wrong?" he said trying calmly to approach her.
"Get the hell away from me!" she said stumbling backward. She suddenly found herself losing her balance. She clutched her head, she was starting to feel dizzy.
"Are you feeling ok? Come here let me see."
"No!" She swiped her arms at him, not sure whether she'd hit him or not. Her head started to spin. She clamped her eyes shut, tried to focus her thoughts. It wasn't working.
"What the hell did you do to me?"
She suddenly collapsed; Brad caught her before she hit the floor. He looked at her unconscious form resting in his arms.
"What's going on?" Brad turned to see the Police officer from earlier approaching them. He put on his best concerned voice.
"I don't know, she just fainted. It must be everything that's happened."
"Do you want me to help?" Leon asked. Brad nervously laughed and picked up Claire in his arms.
"No, I can handle it. I think she needs to get to a hospital straight away." He walked away but Leon still tagged alongside him.
"I'll still help if I can."
"Shouldn't you be helping treat the survivors?" Brad turned around and asked him.
"Well, I just thought…"
"Captain Grey's orders were for everyone to stay and help. I can handle one person by myself. Having two people would be wasting resources," he said, his polite smile slowly fading. Leon didn't like it but eventually he conceded.
"I guess you're right…" And he turned round and walked back to the camp, keeping a watch on Brad as he headed towards the helicopter pad.
Brad slowly approached a Spectrum helicopter, which was standing stationary on the helicopter pad. The pilot looked out to see the STARS pilot carrying a girl.
"You've got to help me. This woman needs immediate medical attention. I have to get her to a hospital right away," Brad said. The pilot was surprised at the sheer amount of worry that was coming from the STARS officer.
"I'm sorry I can't do that. Orders are that no one is allowed to leave unless they've got a full load of passengers. Grey wants to ship out as many people as possible at a time, we can't waste time taking just one person."
"But I got special authority from Grey. This one's urgent," Brad protested, growing more anxious by the second.
"I haven't heard anything. Just a minute, I'll contact him and check…" The pilot reached over to the helicopter's onboard microphone. Brad pulled out a silenced pistol and pulled the trigger. The pilot lurched forward and fell lifeless onto the control panel. Brad reached forward and unbuckled his seatbelt before pushing the pilot over. He clambered in and placed the unconscious form of Claire on the passenger seat. He quickly began the helicopter's start up sequence and the motor came to life. Slowly he began to lift the helicopter up into the air. Below various people, RPD and Spectrum ran around surprised by the helicopter's unprecedented take off. Several messages asking why he'd taken off and ordering him to land immediately came through the radio. Brad didn't reply. He brought the helicopter round taking it out of range before anybody thought to try and stop him or shoot the helicopter down. In just a couple of minutes it had disappeared into the night sky.
Behind Jill the door to the safe room opened. She reached for her gun but relaxed when she saw who it was.
"Chris! Scarlet! You're ok!" she called. Scarlet entered but Chris hovered at the doorway. A shadow had descended over his face. "I found out about this hidden lab facility, there's a secret entrance leading to a complex underneath the mansion."
"We should check there then, finding that place might be key to stopping the Mysterons."
"Right, I'll show you." They headed towards the exit to find Chris pointing his gun at Scarlet.
"Chris, are you ok?" Jill asked.
"Who are you working for?" Chris rushed at Scarlet and slammed him into the wall, forcing his gun to his head. "You're with Umbrella aren't you? Did they send you to destroy all the evidence, is that it?"
"Chris! Calm down!" Jill shouted.
"The dog cages outside. I saw them; they were closed when we arrived. So that means someone opened them after we got here! But when that failed you released those lizard things to deal with us!"
"I didn't release anything, it was Wesker who opened the Hunters' cages."
"Why would he do that? Why would he kill himself?"
"I don't know but it's the truth."
"Chris, you're getting paranoid," Jill interrupted. Chris grabbed Scarlet and forced him down on to the floor, still keeping the gun trained on his head.
"He died Jill! I saw it! One of those creatures managed to kill Wesker and he just got back up again!" Chris pushed the gun further into Scarlet's head. "You're working for them aren't you? You've got the same thing in you as those creatures outside!"
"I'm only trying to stop the Mysterons." Scarlet glared up at him.
"You keep mentioning these things but I haven't seen them, all I've seen is goddamn zombies. So I'm going to deal with you the way I've dealt with all of them so far."
"Chris! Don't!" Jill shouted, but he wasn't listening.
"Jill, you and I both know the only way to be sure… is to shoot them in the head!"
"Chris! NO!" Her cry was drowned out by the sound of the gunshot which echoed through the hall. The single shell cartridge fell and chinked on the ground, and the hall was filled with the soft thump of a body falling to the floor.
Chris stood there looking down at the body, it wasn't moving. It just registered with him that he'd ended a human life.
He turned to Jill; her hand hovered over her mouth. He got up and walked towards her.
"Jill, I…" He reached out his arms.
"Don't touch me!" She backed away. Chris hovered, not knowing what to do. She walked over to the door, "I think I can hear someone…"
"Jill…" Chris called, she continued on. She carefully reached the door and pushed it open slightly. The gun in her hand was now shaking but she knew it wasn't the zombies that had frightened her so much.
She tried to push it all away and focus on the footsteps outside, they weren't slow and dragged out like the zombies she'd seen. These were a set of regimented steps, heavy boots clumping in time keeping up a precise pace. As she heard them go past she peeked her head through the door and saw a quick flash of blonde hair.
She threw the door open.
"WESKER? Is that you?" she cried. But she saw instantly that it wasn't Wesker. The figure slowly turned round to face Jill.
"…Joseph?" she said in disbelief. It was him, still wearing his red bandana and dark grey STARS uniform, and a grenade launcher slung over his shoulder. There weren't any signs of scratches or blood. He stopped in his tracks, and slowly turned to face her.
"Jill, I've been looking for you."
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