DISCLAIMER: I do not legally own the rights to New York. All rights belong to CAPCOM, but I do own my OCs.

"Embrace reality even if it burns you."- Pierre Bergé

Resident Evil: Escape from Raccoon

Chapter 1: Home No More

~Arklay County Road~

Rain poured hard across Arklay County that night, but amidst the darkness of the country, a pair of headlights could be seen lighting up the way, along with a pair of wipers wiping off the rain that came down upon the windshield to a dark blue 1998 Toyota Corolla. Inside, the car was neat and clean, despite it appearing fairly used.

The driver appeared to be a young male in his mid-twenties wearing an unzipped black jacket with a white shirt underneath, dark blue jeans with a black belt with a silver buckle around the waist, and black casual shoes with white soles and laces over white socks. The driver himself had fairly pale skin and short black hair combed back and gelled, and dark blue eyes, which were fixed upon the road ahead as he spoke into an old model 1998 phone in his right ear while listening to 'Go All The Way' by Raspberries on low volume on his radio.

"Yeah... Things just didn't work out back in New York. Four years down the drain just like that." he sighed as he listened to person on the other side of the phone speak back to him before replying. "I know what you mean, Sam. Well, at least the eviction finally pushed me to come back home after all this time."

As he listened to other guy on the phone with him, Sam, talk back, he took a glance off the road and at the passenger seat next to him, seeing his black duffel back with white straps unzipped, revealing what appeared to be photos of himself in various costumes and poses for acting auditions. He shook his head and let out a slight chuckle before looking back at the road again, nodding his head. "Yeah. I should've listened to you, Sam. You were right. The acting business is much tougher than I thought, but if I've just gotten that role on Broadway, I probably wouldn't be hitting myself over the head right about now."

He shook his head as he listened to Sam babble more, then rolled his eyes, and finally nodded. "True. Raccoon's Theater would hire me, but you know they're all gonna laugh when they see me come back. I told them I was gonna make it big and not stick around that dump. That they'll be seeing me in the movies one of these days." he shook his head and sighed at that memory. "But at least they got me started, and they always said I could come back. I just know it's gonna be humiliating when I do."

But as he listened to Sam talk back, there was static coming out of the phone, surprising the driver as he looked to see the connection was low now. "Oh boy..." he put the phone back in his ear and spoke as Sam talked. "Hey, Sam, listen... I'm losing connection. I'll call you back when I'm in Raccoon, okay? Okay...?!" but he heard nothing in response, for the phone's connection was completely lost, making him sigh in disbelief as he hung up and threw the phone onto the passenger seat. "Great... Just great..."

He tried turning the volume up on the radio, but wasn't getting any service from any stations either, so he couldn't listen to any music anymore. Knowing he wasn't going to get anything, he turned it off and just eyed the road ahead some more. "Well, it's just you now, Zach. Just you and your thoughts." he said out loud to himself, revealing himself to be named Zach. "Let's go over everything, just because... You're on your way to see your parents back home, them being unaware that you're coming, and going to surprise them with the news that your acting career pretty much hit a dead zone, so you're moving back to start over and blah blah blah..."

He sighed again in disappointed at his own words and shook his head. "How did I let it come to this?"

Just then, he heard a beep coming from the car's fuel gauge, indicating that it was near empty. "Yikes... I better get some gas" he stated as he looked out his windows before spotting a sign that indicated a gas station a mile ahead, making him smile. "Heh... Well ain't that convenient."

With the gas station not too far ahead, Zach sped up his car a little to get their faster, but as he did so, he was unaware that the headlights of his car had attracting some attention out in the dark fields of Arklay County. From the looks of it, there were people out in the fields, slowly walking in the direction they saw the car going while making strange moaning sounds.

~Arklay County Roads, Mizoil Gas Station~

Before long, Zach pulled up to the gas station a mile later, putting his car in park near one of the gas pumps, while one was occupied by a dark green jeep. Upon parking, he stepped out and swiped his card to get the gas pumping before inserting the pump into the gas tank, then waited as it filled up, whistling an old cartoon tune he liked. However, he couldn't help but notice nobody was around but him, causing him to seize his fun whistling and grew a little concern.

"Well that's odd." he said as he looked back at the unmanned jeep. "Is there no one here?" he walked around the gas pump and looked around some more, but when he looked down, his eyes went wide in shock as he saw a trail of blood and footprints in said blood trail around the gas station and towards the small store building itself. "What the hell...?"

As he was in shock, suddenly, his shifted his attention towards the building nearby when he heard something drop and break inside. Unsure of what was going on, he ventured towards the building, but did it cautiously. It wasn't long until he got to the door and slowly opened it, getting a glimpse of the inside. "Whoa... What happened in here?" he asked as he noticed everything in the store was all wrecked, and blood almost everywhere he looked, but mostly on the floor, causing him to cover his mouth to prevent himself from hurling. "Oh god... What is all of this?"

Just then, he turned around when he heard a footstep, seeing an Arklay County police officer slowly making his way towards him. "Officer!" Zach exclaimed, slightly relieved as he smiled. "Thank goodness you're here. Something really bad must've happened in ther-."

But as Zach indicated what happened in the store, his eyes went wide as noticed something was wrong with the officer. His body, specifically his face, looked like it was rotting, and his eyes were white and barely showing the pupil and iris, but the most dominant part was the bite mark and exposed flesh on his neck. "Uh... Officer...?" Zach asked he heard moaning sounds coming from the officer, taking a step back as he saw him still coming at him. "Are you okay, sir...?"

But at that moment, the officer let out a horrible shriek as he threw himself and his arms forward at Zach, surprising him as he attempted to take a bite out of his neck, but Zach quickly fought back. "Agh! G-Get off of me!" he shouted as he did his best to fight back, but slipped under the weight of the officer and forced down to the ground on his back, still trying to keep the officer from biting his neck. He struggled as he was caught right in the doorway, not having much room to throw the officer off to the sides. "Dammit...! Get off!"

Using all his might, Zach pushed the officer up enough to sit up just enough to finally throw him off, then quickly stood back up and panted as his heart was racing. "What the fuck, man?!" he shouted as the officer got back up and continued to moan as he came at Zach again, but this time Zach had room to back up and get some distance. "Holy shit... Get away from me!"

But the officer didn't listen and kept coming, causing Zach's anxiety to spike as he breathed in and out like crazy before spotting a broke off iron pipe on the ground and quickly picked it up, threatening to swing it. "Stay back! Don't make me hurt you!" he warned, but the officer still kept coming as he threw his arms out at Zach, causing Zach to shake his head. "Don't make me do this..."

Then, just like before, the officer threw himself at Zach again with another horrible shriek, but this time Zach was ready as he swung the pipe hard right at the officer's face, causing him to stammer into the wall of the store and smash his head into it. Seeing this, Zach covered his mouth and tried not to hurl as the blood and the officer's body fell to the ground, not a sound to be heard from him anymore. "Oh my god..." he said as he dropped the pipe and slowly approached the officer's lifeless body. "I really hope I don't get arrested for this."

Upon nearing the officer's body, he got down on one knee and turned him over slightly to get a good look at the damage, seeing that his head was indeed smashed in on the upper half. "Jesus Christ... I tried to warn him. Why didn't he listen?" he asked before noticing the sheriff's badge on the officer's uniform, along with his name tag. "Daniel Cortini. This guy's the sheriff around here?"

He shook his head, baffled by everything that he has seen and witnessed from the sheriff's actions. "What the hell is going on around here?" he asked, but quickly changed focus as he stood up and looked over his shoulder when he heard loud moaning sounds coming from afar, seeing various people coming his direction from the dark fields across the road. Had it not been for the light of the moon, he would never have noticed them, but now that he has, he couldn't help but say, "What the fuck?!"

He had no clue as to where these people came from, but he knew they were just like the sheriff that attacked him a moment ago, for their fleshes looked like they were rotting away too, and they all had the same eyes too. Having no idea what was going on, Zach shook his head and backed up till his back was against the store. "What's going on here?!" he shouted as these people continued their advance towards him and the gas station.

Before long, Zach was almost completely surrounded as these rotting people kept coming and coming. Zach wanted to panic, but did his best not to, even as his anxiety was just about through the roof if it wasn't already. "What do I do? What do I do?" he asked himself as he looked around, hoping to find something that could help him, but all he spotted was his car. "If I can just get to my car." he then looked down at the sheriff's dead body and noticed he had his gun on him in his holster belt and quickly took it out. "I'm just gonna...borrow this, sheriff."

With the rotting people almost upon him, Zach took a quick look at the sheriff's gun, a M1911 pistol, and found that it was fully loaded. It didn't take him long until he aimed the gun right at the incoming people and took a couple steps towards them. "I'm warning you...! I'll shoot! I know how!" he warned, but they kept coming, and once a couple of them were close enough, they tried thrusting themselves right at Zach, but Zach quickly pulled that trigger and shot them back, but they were still up and continued to come for him.

Surprised, he shot a couple more times, forcing them back again, but this time he took a chance and ran for his car while they were stunned. He shot a few more times at any of the rotting people that got too close to him until he made it to his car, quickly opening the driver door and shut it. He fastened that seat belt, turned on the engine, and stepped on the gas, moving his car forward like it was stolen, turning it as hard as he could to get away from the store, knocking a few rotting individuals out of his way and made it onto the road. He ignored the speed limit as he drove like crazy, all while the rotting people he left behind pursued him slowly down the road, passing a welcome sign to Raccoon City, home to the Umbrella Corporation it said.

~Arklay County Road, Nearing Raccoon City~

After managing to escape the gas station, Zach was almost to Raccoon City by about a couple miles, but as he drove like hell to get away, his anxiety was still over the roof as he breathed heavily like crazy to calm down. "Oh god... Oh god... That didn't just happen. That didn't just happen. That didn't just happen..." he tried to tell himself, but when he looked over at his passenger seat and saw the gun he took from the dead sheriff, he immediately thought otherwise as he looked back at the road. "Oh holy hell it happened. Why else would I have a fucking gun in my car?!"

But he quickly took deep breaths again to calm down before his anxiety flared up, then tried to make sense of the situation, but unfortunately, he said, "None of this makes sense. What was going on back there? Where did all those people come from? And what happened to them?" he asked himself all these questions, but no answer was coming to mind, not that he knew one anyway. However, in the distance, he could see the lights of Raccoon City not too far ahead now. Upon noticing, a plan started to formulate in his mind. A simple one, but best he could think of.

"Okay, Zachary... Don't panic. Just get into the city and tell the authorities what happened. They'll know what to do." he told himself and nodded, also revealing his full first name. "Yeah... Then go find your folks and tell them what happened. Best plan you can think of. Okay..."

Once he had a plan figured out, he drove pass the city limits sign with the population number of over a hundred thousand. "Also, really got to stop talking to yourself. ...But then again, who better would listen to you than you? Heheh..."

~Raccoon City Streets~

Finally arriving at his destination, Zachary drove down the streets of Raccoon, only to see that it was deserted and torn apart from what looked like an outbreak on an insane level as trash and bodies were found all over the place. Some of these bodies were either skewered, bloody, and even bitten. Other had missing limbs or torn completely in half, all giving Zachary the urge to want to hurl yet again, but he held it back like the other times back at the gas station.

"Oh my god." he said as he turned the car in a different direction, now seeing small fires along the sidewalk, along with more dead bodies and shook his head at the sight. "Jesus... What the hell happened here? This is even worse than back at the gas station."

It didn't take long until Zachary spotted someone walking along the sidewalk with their back turned to him, and wanting to know more, Zach drove the car closer to the stranger and rolled down his window. "Hey, buddy? What's going on here? What happening to the city?" he asked, but the strange turned to him and appeared to be another male individual with rotting flesh, dirty teeth, and white eyes and let out a horrible shriek at the sight of Zach, shocking him to his core. "Holy shit!"

He quickly turned the car away just before the rotting male could grab hold and drove like a madman down the streets, his anxieties flaring up yet again, but more so as he looked around and saw more and more of the some rotting people of both genders coming from all directions on the streets. "Oh god, oh god, oh holy god!" he exclaimed as he noticed their attention on him and kept driving at a fast pace to get away, but it wasn't long until he spotted a road block ahead by other cards and military sand bags in front of them, along with even more rotting people. "Shit!"

Once he spotted what was ahead, he slammed on his breaks and brought his car to a sudden stop, only to have it surrounded by rotting individuals that soon came upon and shook his car as they tried to get at him. "Ah!" he moved away from his window and into the back seat with a hand over his chest as his heart was beating like crazy. "What is happening?! Has the whole city gone crazy or is it just me?!" he asked himself, but let out a shout in fright as the rotting people outside broke through the front windows and attempted to grab him, but couldn't reach.

Yet, despite them unable to reach him, Zach knew he wasn't going to be safe for long in his car. Realizing that, he quickly reached for the gun he took from the dead sheriff, narrowly avoiding being grabbed and quickly kicked open the door on his left, knocking away some of the rotting people and ran out as fast as he could, leaving his car behind, but the rotting individuals on its left side ignored it and decided to purse Zach instead, for they apparently wanted him more.

Not looking back, Zach ran as fast as he could down the now narrow streets, seeing more rotting people ahead, trying to grab him as he passed, but he was quick to evade them. "Shit, oh shit, oh shit!" he exclaimed in fright as he kept running, seeing some rotting individuals eating away at some of the dead bodies around by the looks of it, but stopped when they saw him and let out their horrifying shrieks.

Before long, Zachary came upon another desolate street, but covered his eyes for a second when he saw a much bigger fire burning away at a wrecked police car next to a large tanker truck that had exploded not too long ago by the looks of it. When he noticed them, he shook his head and grit his teeth in fright from everything he's witnessed so far. "What the hell is going on around here?" he asked, but then noticed the a sign indicating that the R.P.D. was up ahead pass the exploded tanker. "Raccoon Police Department. It's not far. I got to get there."

Knowing where he had to go, he wasted no time charging on ahead to get to the police station, but stopped when noticed another rotting individual come around the corner of the exploded police car. This one looked like a big man that wore trucker clothes, all burnt up and barely hanging on to himself as he walked and moaned towards Zachary. The sight of this man shook Zach's head in disbelief as he took a few steps back. "Jesus, buddy... You've seen better days." he stated, also seeing a bite mark on his neck, despite all his burnt up rotting flesh, but as he kept coming closer, Zach, held his gun up and threatened to shoot. "Stay back! Don't make me shoot you!"

But the trucker driver kept coming as his moans got louder, and not wanting to let him get any further, Zachary attempted to shoot, but when he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. He only heard a click sound, surprising him. "What? You gotta be kidding me!" he exclaimed as he knew his gun was out of ammo, but quickly thinking, he turned to the car near him that wasn't badly damage as much as the rest noticed its passenger door was open and opened it wide just as the rotten truck driver got close enough, slamming it into him and caused him to stammer back to he fell on his back, then ran passed him while he could. "Sorry, buddy!"

~Raccoon City Police Department, Outside the Front Entrance~

Narrowly avoiding the rotting people along the streets of Raccoon, Zachary finally made it to front of police station. He scrambled as fast as he could pass the cards that blocked a direct path to the gate, but it wasn't long until he made it. "Thank god. I made it!" he stated as he tried pushing the gate open once he approached it, but found that it wouldn't budge, surprising him. "What? Locked? Seriously?"

Though his anxieties were showing somewhat, he quickly looked around to try to find another way in, but didn't find any other way pass the main gate. "Dammit... Nothing." he told himself as he focused his attention back on the main gate, noticing it was bar locked, and believing it was the only way in, he tried slipping his arm through the gate bars and unlocking it, but was barely able to reach the bar lock's handle. "Gah... Almost...there... Just a...little more..."

But just as he was so close to opening the gate, suddenly, he looked up in surprise as the police department's clock tower internal bell ringed loudly, causing him to bring his arm back and took a couple steps away from the gate. "Was that...the clock tower?" he asked the obvious, but then shifted his head towards the upper level windows to the police station as he faintly heard gun shots being fired inside, then grabbed the gate bars in shock. "Gun shots! Someone's inside!" he shouted as he raddled the bars with his hands. "Hey...! Hey you inside...! Can you hear me...?! Hey...! I'm right outside!"

But instead of his calls for help being answered by whoever was inside the police station, his eyes went wide as he heard more moaning sounds around him. He slowly turned around and saw a horde of rotting people slowly coming towards him, and other coming out from below the wrecked cars all around and stood up, all on the path towards the station, but more so Zach himself, causing him to panic again.

"Oh god... Oh god...!" he exclaimed as noticed them coming from everywhere as he pinned his back against the locked gate. "Shit! The clock bell must've drawn them in!" he again stated the obvious, but knew all too well how true that had to been.

They came closer and closer, getting passed the wrecked cars to get to Zach. He knew he had a gun in his hand, but what was out of ammo, so it was useless to shoot back with. He also knew that getting inside the police station wouldn't save him since the gate was locked and saw no other way in, so that left him with the only option to run, but to where? It seemed like everywhere had these strange rotting people, but by the way they were acting, Zach was starting to doubt they were people at all. He didn't know what to think. All he wanted was to come back home to start over, but instead he stumbled upon something that didn't look like home anymore. Now it was something else. Something horrible.

"God I wish I was back in New York."

TO BE CONTINUED...

And so ends the beginning of a horrifying adventure for Zachary. He's come home, but clearly at the wrong time. Nothing but undead everywhere he looks. Too bad he's yet to realize that. What's going to happen to him now? How's he going to get out of his situation as the undead horde slowly nears him? Found out next time! The answers are to come, and more interesting things as well!

I want to say that I'm so happy to release the first chapter of my first Rated M story. This is my first time using swear words and other M Rated stuff, so I hope I did okay. Feel free to leave your reviews about how I did, or about the story. Whatever you like. Or just fave and/or follow. Doesn't matter to me which you do as long as you liked the opening chapter. Also, if you happen to spot any mistakes, feel free to let me know so I can fix them, but please don't get making a harsh criticism out of it, okay? Other than that, I can't wait to hear from you!

One more thing... If you haven't noticed, I used some moments from the new Resident Evil 2 remake game! Like Daniel Cortini after being killed when Leon and Claire arrived at the Mizoil Gas Station, and the truck driver from the start of the game made a cameo too! Plus the clock tower ringing, just like in the games! As to who was inside the police station, I'll let you decide. Leon or Claire. Doesn't really matter, since this story is about Zachary and his struggle to survive the most tragic moment in Resident Evil history. Keep looking for more stuff used in the game, and until then, see ya around!