Part One
The Release
Sam Bracknell walked into the mall, trying to orient himself in the unfamiliar territory. The mall was huge. It took up probably an eighth of a mile and two stories. Sam bitterly recalled how he was dragged here. It was his friend's idea. Sam only agreed because he wanted to see if he could lure some girl into his car, get her into his place and take her for the "grand" tour. At least, he thought it was grand. Sam wasn't sure how they would see it.
Sam smiled and looked around.
Sam walked up to the girl in the pink and tapped her on her shoulder. He allowed her time to turn to face him, then put on a smile. "Hi there," he said, throwing all of his energy into his courage. "I couldn't help but notice you –"
Her lips turned up in a sneer. "What a pity," she cut him off. "So you force this on me as well? As fun as it may be for you noticing me, it's pure terror for me to be required to take note of you."
Sam was thrown for a loop by the rush of words. He was still struggling to process a few of them. "Perhaps," he blindly persisted, "we started off wrong. I usually don't use pickup lines. See, I think they're –"
"You don't?" asked the girl. "Then how do you expect to get any at all? Your looks? Your intellect?" Her eyes widened with histrionic realization. "Oh, you *don't* get any."
Sam wasn't sure of what to do, but he kept talking. "I'm Sam Bracknell." He extended his hand to her. She sneered at his hand. Sam took it back and pocketed it.
"I see," she said slowly. "Perhaps it's best if you leave. I wouldn't want to call security to remove you. The less people that have to touch you, the better."
Sam cleared his throat and walked away.
-
The vans appeared over the horizon, coming in from the interstates leading south from Raccoon City. After crossing the city limit into Tristan, the two cars slowed to a normal speed, entering the city streets. No one knew the horrors they contained. No one could tell the plague they would implant on the small town. The only one who knew the full plan of Umbrella's attack was the woman in the driver's seat of the lead van: Orchida Dannings.
"Um . . .boss? Where are we going again?" asked a confused voice on the other side of the CB radio.
Orchida lifted her radio speaker impatiently to her mouth and sighed. "Just follow me. And where is that damn truck?"
There was a crackle of radio static. "I . . .I'm lost." It was the driver of the delivery truck.
Orchida closed her fingers around the speaker. "Where the hell are you?"
The confused voice spoke again. "Todd, it's good to hear your voice again, man."
"You too, Brett," Todd replied. "Mrs. Dannings, I'm at the mall now. But it's not what you said it would look like . . ."
Orchida growled. "You stupid ****. Are you still in Raccoon?"
"Yes ma'am," the man stated, indignant.
Brett was laughing. Orchida knew this was not something to laugh at. "The prearranged mall is in Tristan. Not in Raccoon!"
Todd was silent. There was the sound of a car starting under his voice. "Oh. I'll be there in two minutes."
Orchida pounded the steering wheel and hurled the speaker into the passenger seat. She hesitated before allowing herself to lose control and scream the name of all the minor gods of Rome, thinking about serenity and peace. She allowed the world to fade away, seeing grand fields of grass, endless flower fields, redwoods thrusting from saplings, stretching to the sky, reaching across the aeons, into the frontier of the future and watched space black out. Then, when the light returned, she had it. She had her dream. She had the lost vials of the Spencer T-Virus. It was in her hands, in was in her arm – it was in her blood.
Orchida shivered in mindless ecstasy. She was so close.
-
Sam Bracknell was beginning to think that the mall was a waste of time. He had never been so bored in his life. Aside from the cold people that surrounded him, Sam also hated the merchandise. Spiderman action figures were all around him. Sony advertisements screamed in his ear. Blinding neon displays glowed from every corner of the store. Sam shuddered. America land of the freed from tyranny, now oppressed by the media. Sam wished the entire gamut of society would leave him alone. Sam walked up the stairs and watched the people on the escalator pass him by. He clamped his jaws together. They were going faster than him. Sam sped up and ran to the next floor.
He didn't care if it was pointless, Sam just wanted to run.
Story of my life.
Sam continued running, his eyes fixed on the people on the moving stairway as he left them behind. He smiled to himself, then felt a person slam into his chest. Sam flipped over the body and landed face up on the floor. Sam lay there for a second, then quickly got up. The man he ran into was gathering his things. Sam walked up to him and took one of the papers he was collecting. When the man snatched it from him, Sam glanced at the top right corner. The insignia was made up of two colors, red and white. Black letters below it read "Umbrella." Sam's air caught in his throat.
The man took his last paper and ran from the scene of the accident. Sam was one of the ones who believed the S.T.A.R.S. report on Umbrella. And seeing one of their filthy employees made him anxious.
"Quite a spill you took, little guy." The voice said.
Sam turned, seeing Derek's soft gaze falling from above him. The varsity football player smiled warmly, and gave Sam a hug. Sam shifted in Derek's arms. He never understood why Derek was such a hugger. He wasn't gay. He just hugged everyone. Maybe it was that he wanted to get as close to the girls as he could, se he evened out the behavior to the boys as well to avoid detection. Maybe . . .
"Hey! I'm talking to you," Derek said. He shook Sam back to reality. "Boy, why you always zone out like that?"
"Sorry. I was just thinking."
"About how you'll kill off all the world powers and give the free world to yourself?"
"Shut up!" Sam snapped. "That's not how an anarchy works!"
Derek rolled his eyes. "Please don't start. I'm sorry I prodded you."
"And I accept your apology. Don't mock a great mind, Derek."
Derek walked Sam over to the Starbucks. "Well . . . anyhow," he changed the subject. "You gotta see this. There's a shirt in The Gap that says, 'Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitty'."
"There's the thought of the day." Sam rolled his eyes.
-
Glass broke as the first B.O.W. made its entrance. The green monster arched through the sky below the window and landed in the midst of a group of people. A head fell to the floor beside him a second later, the frozen eyes staring in horror. The MA-120 Hunter's reptilian irises glistened as its banal drives registered hunger and the presence of a surfeit of food. His powerful maw opened and let out a chilling shriek. The group screamed and tried to run, but the Hunter was upon the next in a second, slashing his leg near the hip, opening a vital artery, triggering a death sentence. The second closest had stumbled over the body and now crawled away. The hunter focused on this victim and ran to it, throwing up its muscular arm into the man's midsection. The man gagged and felt as his stomach left his body, torn out by the Hunter's razor-ed hand.
The boy watched his gutted brother gasp in surprise, then bend over to churn out pools of gore. He was the furthest away from the beast and made a run for it. He heard another shattering of glass and watched everything go black as a tick lump of muscles landed on him. Pinned to the floor, the boy turned his head to look at the monster above him. The eyeless beast towered over him, its disgusting exposed brain dripping with slick mucous, the exposed reeking muscle, the thick ivory claws, and the four-foot tongue that protruded from its mouth. The child watched in petrified fascination as the long tongue unfurled and drove into his face.
-
The cry of the RE-3 Licker echoed across into the mall's upstairs. Sam and Derek exchanged glances and walked over to the ledge to investigate the area below them. When the girl's scream burned in the air, they began running. Derek was first there and Sam slowed when he saw his reaction. Derek's entire body slumped over, his jaw dropping, his hands falling to his side. Sam wasn't sure he wanted to see what was happening.
More screams filed the air and Sam pulled himself to look. There were actual creatures – monsters – below them. One type of them looked like a dog, but dogs never were skinned and burnt. The other looked like a reptilian gorilla. When it slashed the limbs off of a crying woman, Sam knew that it was more deadly than it seemed. The next one was a thin mutated-spider looking creature. Its long lanky arms each were tipped by a sharp claw, which it dug into the ceiling, allowing it to walk even upside down.
Derek stuttered. "It – it's coming for us."
Derek stood still after his sentence and blinked his eyes vacantly. Sam was sure that Derek was running faster than he was in his head, but Derek still didn't move. Sam grabbed his arm and pulled him away. "Let's get out of here!" He screamed. Derek jerked to life and ran.
"Quick," said Sam. "The gun shop!"
-
Outside, Orchida stood by the building. The building had been surrounded by a thick wall and sealed shut. The only openings were through those windows and the front door. She looked to the door. Seven armed men stood guard, their MP5's aimed, ready to destroy anything living or semi-living that came through.
Orchida smiled. "Another five minutes and we enter," she told her men.
Brett looked nervous. He fidgeted with his trigger. Umbrella hadn't done anything like this before. When he was enlisted as a guard, he was told that he was only to stand by the doors and keep everyone out. Now, it was the same case. Only this time, he wondered what was happening on the other side of the doors. Inhuman shrieks and pitiful screams echoed from beyond that door. He stared at the doors, which had been covered over by a sheet of butcher paper to keep the "things" from seeing them, wondering. He kept fingering the MP5. Why did he need such a big gun? What was in there?
With a loud bang the MP5 went off. Brett looked at his smoking barrel and hid his head in his hand.
-
Sam ran towards the gun shop, relief on his face. All he needed was a chance to fight back. Give me a SIGPro. Oh, God Give me a SIGPro.
Behind him, Derek had regained his courage and was running at his full speed again. The Tristan Alpha's running back passed Sam by and closed in on the shop. Sam looked away from Derek and back to the shop. The pale shopkeeper was pulling down the metal gate.
Sam cursed and ran faster. He had to get there in time!
Brett took a final sprint and slid under the grate just as it shut. Sam slammed into the metal bars and stared at his friend. Then it clicked in his mind. What was the rush to close the gate? Sam spun around, seeing a half-rotted Doberman pincher in midair, jaws wide, ten inches away from him. Sam wouldn't have the time to scream.
The blast of the shotgun went off by Sam's head. The Doberman exploded into a shower of coagulated blood. Sam closed his eyes and waited. After a moment, Sam wiped the bits of Doberman from his brow and turned to the keeper. "Open the gate!" Sam pleaded.
"Nu-uh. Those beasts aren't coming in here!"
"They'll kill him," Derek reasoned. "Open it."
The shopkeeper stood his ground. "No. If you aren't killed first, you can get in through the back way. It's after the bathrooms and the door that says Authorized Personnel Only."
Sam looked behind him to the chaos. "Give me a gun, put it on his tab."
The man nodded and walked backwards to the counter. "Bastard," Derek muttered quietly.
The keeper handed Sam a Samurai Edge and gripped his hand when he handed it to him. "Good luck. Live by the gun."
Sam nodded and pulled the gun away. Brett's eyes bulged with sudden fear. "Sam! Look out!" Sam whirled around and saw the Hunter before him. He ran for room, but the hunter was too fast. It slashed at his leg. Sam jumped the attack and ran faster, colliding with the metal overlook. Sam teetered for a second, then fell over the railing, freefalling to the ground level floor of the mall, splashing into the fountain.
END
of Part One
The Release
Sam Bracknell walked into the mall, trying to orient himself in the unfamiliar territory. The mall was huge. It took up probably an eighth of a mile and two stories. Sam bitterly recalled how he was dragged here. It was his friend's idea. Sam only agreed because he wanted to see if he could lure some girl into his car, get her into his place and take her for the "grand" tour. At least, he thought it was grand. Sam wasn't sure how they would see it.
Sam smiled and looked around.
Sam walked up to the girl in the pink and tapped her on her shoulder. He allowed her time to turn to face him, then put on a smile. "Hi there," he said, throwing all of his energy into his courage. "I couldn't help but notice you –"
Her lips turned up in a sneer. "What a pity," she cut him off. "So you force this on me as well? As fun as it may be for you noticing me, it's pure terror for me to be required to take note of you."
Sam was thrown for a loop by the rush of words. He was still struggling to process a few of them. "Perhaps," he blindly persisted, "we started off wrong. I usually don't use pickup lines. See, I think they're –"
"You don't?" asked the girl. "Then how do you expect to get any at all? Your looks? Your intellect?" Her eyes widened with histrionic realization. "Oh, you *don't* get any."
Sam wasn't sure of what to do, but he kept talking. "I'm Sam Bracknell." He extended his hand to her. She sneered at his hand. Sam took it back and pocketed it.
"I see," she said slowly. "Perhaps it's best if you leave. I wouldn't want to call security to remove you. The less people that have to touch you, the better."
Sam cleared his throat and walked away.
-
The vans appeared over the horizon, coming in from the interstates leading south from Raccoon City. After crossing the city limit into Tristan, the two cars slowed to a normal speed, entering the city streets. No one knew the horrors they contained. No one could tell the plague they would implant on the small town. The only one who knew the full plan of Umbrella's attack was the woman in the driver's seat of the lead van: Orchida Dannings.
"Um . . .boss? Where are we going again?" asked a confused voice on the other side of the CB radio.
Orchida lifted her radio speaker impatiently to her mouth and sighed. "Just follow me. And where is that damn truck?"
There was a crackle of radio static. "I . . .I'm lost." It was the driver of the delivery truck.
Orchida closed her fingers around the speaker. "Where the hell are you?"
The confused voice spoke again. "Todd, it's good to hear your voice again, man."
"You too, Brett," Todd replied. "Mrs. Dannings, I'm at the mall now. But it's not what you said it would look like . . ."
Orchida growled. "You stupid ****. Are you still in Raccoon?"
"Yes ma'am," the man stated, indignant.
Brett was laughing. Orchida knew this was not something to laugh at. "The prearranged mall is in Tristan. Not in Raccoon!"
Todd was silent. There was the sound of a car starting under his voice. "Oh. I'll be there in two minutes."
Orchida pounded the steering wheel and hurled the speaker into the passenger seat. She hesitated before allowing herself to lose control and scream the name of all the minor gods of Rome, thinking about serenity and peace. She allowed the world to fade away, seeing grand fields of grass, endless flower fields, redwoods thrusting from saplings, stretching to the sky, reaching across the aeons, into the frontier of the future and watched space black out. Then, when the light returned, she had it. She had her dream. She had the lost vials of the Spencer T-Virus. It was in her hands, in was in her arm – it was in her blood.
Orchida shivered in mindless ecstasy. She was so close.
-
Sam Bracknell was beginning to think that the mall was a waste of time. He had never been so bored in his life. Aside from the cold people that surrounded him, Sam also hated the merchandise. Spiderman action figures were all around him. Sony advertisements screamed in his ear. Blinding neon displays glowed from every corner of the store. Sam shuddered. America land of the freed from tyranny, now oppressed by the media. Sam wished the entire gamut of society would leave him alone. Sam walked up the stairs and watched the people on the escalator pass him by. He clamped his jaws together. They were going faster than him. Sam sped up and ran to the next floor.
He didn't care if it was pointless, Sam just wanted to run.
Story of my life.
Sam continued running, his eyes fixed on the people on the moving stairway as he left them behind. He smiled to himself, then felt a person slam into his chest. Sam flipped over the body and landed face up on the floor. Sam lay there for a second, then quickly got up. The man he ran into was gathering his things. Sam walked up to him and took one of the papers he was collecting. When the man snatched it from him, Sam glanced at the top right corner. The insignia was made up of two colors, red and white. Black letters below it read "Umbrella." Sam's air caught in his throat.
The man took his last paper and ran from the scene of the accident. Sam was one of the ones who believed the S.T.A.R.S. report on Umbrella. And seeing one of their filthy employees made him anxious.
"Quite a spill you took, little guy." The voice said.
Sam turned, seeing Derek's soft gaze falling from above him. The varsity football player smiled warmly, and gave Sam a hug. Sam shifted in Derek's arms. He never understood why Derek was such a hugger. He wasn't gay. He just hugged everyone. Maybe it was that he wanted to get as close to the girls as he could, se he evened out the behavior to the boys as well to avoid detection. Maybe . . .
"Hey! I'm talking to you," Derek said. He shook Sam back to reality. "Boy, why you always zone out like that?"
"Sorry. I was just thinking."
"About how you'll kill off all the world powers and give the free world to yourself?"
"Shut up!" Sam snapped. "That's not how an anarchy works!"
Derek rolled his eyes. "Please don't start. I'm sorry I prodded you."
"And I accept your apology. Don't mock a great mind, Derek."
Derek walked Sam over to the Starbucks. "Well . . . anyhow," he changed the subject. "You gotta see this. There's a shirt in The Gap that says, 'Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitty'."
"There's the thought of the day." Sam rolled his eyes.
-
Glass broke as the first B.O.W. made its entrance. The green monster arched through the sky below the window and landed in the midst of a group of people. A head fell to the floor beside him a second later, the frozen eyes staring in horror. The MA-120 Hunter's reptilian irises glistened as its banal drives registered hunger and the presence of a surfeit of food. His powerful maw opened and let out a chilling shriek. The group screamed and tried to run, but the Hunter was upon the next in a second, slashing his leg near the hip, opening a vital artery, triggering a death sentence. The second closest had stumbled over the body and now crawled away. The hunter focused on this victim and ran to it, throwing up its muscular arm into the man's midsection. The man gagged and felt as his stomach left his body, torn out by the Hunter's razor-ed hand.
The boy watched his gutted brother gasp in surprise, then bend over to churn out pools of gore. He was the furthest away from the beast and made a run for it. He heard another shattering of glass and watched everything go black as a tick lump of muscles landed on him. Pinned to the floor, the boy turned his head to look at the monster above him. The eyeless beast towered over him, its disgusting exposed brain dripping with slick mucous, the exposed reeking muscle, the thick ivory claws, and the four-foot tongue that protruded from its mouth. The child watched in petrified fascination as the long tongue unfurled and drove into his face.
-
The cry of the RE-3 Licker echoed across into the mall's upstairs. Sam and Derek exchanged glances and walked over to the ledge to investigate the area below them. When the girl's scream burned in the air, they began running. Derek was first there and Sam slowed when he saw his reaction. Derek's entire body slumped over, his jaw dropping, his hands falling to his side. Sam wasn't sure he wanted to see what was happening.
More screams filed the air and Sam pulled himself to look. There were actual creatures – monsters – below them. One type of them looked like a dog, but dogs never were skinned and burnt. The other looked like a reptilian gorilla. When it slashed the limbs off of a crying woman, Sam knew that it was more deadly than it seemed. The next one was a thin mutated-spider looking creature. Its long lanky arms each were tipped by a sharp claw, which it dug into the ceiling, allowing it to walk even upside down.
Derek stuttered. "It – it's coming for us."
Derek stood still after his sentence and blinked his eyes vacantly. Sam was sure that Derek was running faster than he was in his head, but Derek still didn't move. Sam grabbed his arm and pulled him away. "Let's get out of here!" He screamed. Derek jerked to life and ran.
"Quick," said Sam. "The gun shop!"
-
Outside, Orchida stood by the building. The building had been surrounded by a thick wall and sealed shut. The only openings were through those windows and the front door. She looked to the door. Seven armed men stood guard, their MP5's aimed, ready to destroy anything living or semi-living that came through.
Orchida smiled. "Another five minutes and we enter," she told her men.
Brett looked nervous. He fidgeted with his trigger. Umbrella hadn't done anything like this before. When he was enlisted as a guard, he was told that he was only to stand by the doors and keep everyone out. Now, it was the same case. Only this time, he wondered what was happening on the other side of the doors. Inhuman shrieks and pitiful screams echoed from beyond that door. He stared at the doors, which had been covered over by a sheet of butcher paper to keep the "things" from seeing them, wondering. He kept fingering the MP5. Why did he need such a big gun? What was in there?
With a loud bang the MP5 went off. Brett looked at his smoking barrel and hid his head in his hand.
-
Sam ran towards the gun shop, relief on his face. All he needed was a chance to fight back. Give me a SIGPro. Oh, God Give me a SIGPro.
Behind him, Derek had regained his courage and was running at his full speed again. The Tristan Alpha's running back passed Sam by and closed in on the shop. Sam looked away from Derek and back to the shop. The pale shopkeeper was pulling down the metal gate.
Sam cursed and ran faster. He had to get there in time!
Brett took a final sprint and slid under the grate just as it shut. Sam slammed into the metal bars and stared at his friend. Then it clicked in his mind. What was the rush to close the gate? Sam spun around, seeing a half-rotted Doberman pincher in midair, jaws wide, ten inches away from him. Sam wouldn't have the time to scream.
The blast of the shotgun went off by Sam's head. The Doberman exploded into a shower of coagulated blood. Sam closed his eyes and waited. After a moment, Sam wiped the bits of Doberman from his brow and turned to the keeper. "Open the gate!" Sam pleaded.
"Nu-uh. Those beasts aren't coming in here!"
"They'll kill him," Derek reasoned. "Open it."
The shopkeeper stood his ground. "No. If you aren't killed first, you can get in through the back way. It's after the bathrooms and the door that says Authorized Personnel Only."
Sam looked behind him to the chaos. "Give me a gun, put it on his tab."
The man nodded and walked backwards to the counter. "Bastard," Derek muttered quietly.
The keeper handed Sam a Samurai Edge and gripped his hand when he handed it to him. "Good luck. Live by the gun."
Sam nodded and pulled the gun away. Brett's eyes bulged with sudden fear. "Sam! Look out!" Sam whirled around and saw the Hunter before him. He ran for room, but the hunter was too fast. It slashed at his leg. Sam jumped the attack and ran faster, colliding with the metal overlook. Sam teetered for a second, then fell over the railing, freefalling to the ground level floor of the mall, splashing into the fountain.
END
of Part One