Chapter 1: The Calm Before The Storm
1 day before the Raccoon City incident
Security Guard Malcolm Reynolds stood up out of his bunk and shrugged on his jacket. The usual RPD emblem was slightly faded on the back and one or two buttons had come off but Malcolm didn't care. He pulled on his blue combat trousers and fastened his belt. Malcolm didn't have a clue why they were called combat trousers because in his two years at the Raccoon City Police Department he hadn't seen much combat. Probably the most exciting thing he had done so far was help take down a group of drug dealers and all that entailed was him standing in the back ranks pointing his 9mm at one of the dealers and shouting a few insults in his face, his Sergeant got to actually take one of the guys out when he tried to stab Malcolm with a knife but Malcolm wished he could have taken the villain down himself.
"Anyway that's all in the past now", Malcolm thought to himself as he pulled on his scuffed black boots. Once he had tied the laces and put his combat knife in his sheath, he left his bunk and locked the door. His room-mate Alan Carmack was out on duty at the minute patrolling the sprawling metropolis that was Raccoon City. Alan and Malcolm had known each other for as long as Malcolm could remember and they had been the best of friends. Alan was probably the cleverest person in the whole RPD save for the Sarge and people respected him for his courage and valour in almost every situation be it physical or mental. Alan might be the cleverest of the Security but Malcolm was the best marksman with the quickest reflexes. On his first day in the force he had managed to take out eighteen out of the twenty targets on the 9mm shooting range, the best score since the Sarge had joined.
Malcolm and Alan were in the same unit as the Sarge which was lucky for them because every recruit had a sense of safety if they were on a mission with the Sarge because after all, he was their leader and they would listen to his commands and execute them with determination and accuracy. Malcolm entered the armoury and looked at the roster, today his job was to check out some apparent rat problems in the southeast residential district of Raccoon City. Malcolm groaned to himself, if it was a rat problem why didn't they just bring in pest control and let them gas the rodents out or something.
Malcolm walked over to the weapons counter, smiled at his other friend Mark Stevenson who handed him his trusty 9mm, Malcolm also took four magazines and stuffed them in his trouser pocket, they'd have to stay there for now until he took out his combat vest later. Why he had to take a 9mm handgun with him and a combat vest to take care of an old ladies rat problem was beyond him but it was a legal requirement that all personnel had to carry a firearm and wear a combat vest at all times. It was annoying but the rules or guidelines or whatever the hell they were had been written by Head Director Albert Wesker of the Umbrella Corporation and no-one messed with Wesker.
Malcolm signed himself as on duty on the roster and left the armoury, rolling his eyes at Mark as he did as if to say why am I doing this. Malcolm walked to the locker room next and took his combat vest out of his locker, he put it over his head and fastened the two clips on either side of his body. He then put his four 9mm magazines into his top left and top right pockets before re-locking his locker and exiting the building. Malcolm opened the door of his police car and turned on the engine, he then reversed carefully out of the car park, being extremely careful not to hit the Sarge's new Mercedes. Free of the peril of the Mercedes, Malcolm turned out of the RPD parking lot and headed towards the residential district.
When he finally arrived at his destination, he got out of his car and approached the house, a few children who were playing football on the street backed away at his approach obviously startled by the gun he was carrying in his shoulder holster. Malcolm walked onto the porch and knocked on the red chipped door. The door looked incredibly old and Malcolm assumed that the inhabitant would be of equal age to the door but he was surprised when a 20 year old or so man opened it.
"Hello sir my name is Officer Malcolm Reynolds from the Raccoon Police Department, I'm here because you reported a rat problem"
The man eyed Malcolm suspiciously and Malcolm thought he would have the door slammed in his face but the man instead spoke to him in a pleasant voice.
"Thank you for coming officer, it's been a problem for a while now you see we have a manhole behind our house which has been quite recently rusted away by the rain we've been having here and I think the rats are coming from there. I hope you don't mind if you have a quick look down there just to make sure there's not a nest or anything."
"Of course I bloody mind" Malcolm thought to himself, "Why the hell would I want to go down a stinking manhole just because your afraid of a few rats"
But of course he knew he couldn't say that to the man no matter how much he wanted to. Malcolm nodded and walked round to the back of the house.
"Of course I'll look for you sir" Malcolm said wincing as he slid himself inside the manhole cover, he gripped the ladder that went down into it with both hands and he slowly started to descend. Malcolm motioned for the man to go and Malcolm descended into darkness. Malcolm reached the bottom and stood up, his arms were aching slightly after the long climb down and he turned on the small flashlight that was attached to his combat vest. Malcolm drew his 9mm and looked at his surroundings, he knew there was nothing to be afraid of down here, apart from the smell maybe but he felt safer with his trusty 9mm in his hand. Malcolm saw a tunnel stretching far ahead of him, he slowly walked along, constantly vigilant just as the Sarge had taught him. Everything was fine for the first ten paces or so but then Malcolm thought he heard a noise behind him, he turned on the spot but there was nothing there. A small bead of sweat dropped from his forehead as he carried on walking. Malcolm saw something on the floor in front of him, he bent down and picked it up. The object appeared to be an empty needle of some kind. Whatever substance that was in it was now gone and on the side of the needle in the faint torchlight, Malcolm saw a blue T engraved into the side and underneath that the words Umbrella Corporation.
Malcolm didn't quite know what to make of this but since it was empty and he thought no harm could come of it so he put it back down on the ground. Malcolm carried on walking down the tunnel keeping his wits about him, he felt incredibly nervous walking down this tunnel but he didn't no why. A rustle came from behind him and he turned around to see that a pack of about five or six rats had come out of one of the sewer pipes. Malcolm's eyes widened at the sheer size of the rodents, he had never seen rats that big before and it didn't seem physically possible for a rat to be that big in the first place let alone a pack of them. Malcolm turned the safety off of his 9mm and aimed at one of the rats.
"If it comes any closer I'm gonna shoot the bugger" Malcolm thought to himself as the nearest rat turned to face him. Malcolm pulled the trigger, one bullet came out of the barrel of the gun and impacted on the rats neck. The rat apparently not dead now started running towards Malcolm. Malcolm couldn't believe what should have been a fatal wound to the neck only briefly fazed the rat, so he instantly fired another four shots into it and the rat slumped over on one side, Malcolm kicked it in disgust and then remembered that were at least four other rats there. Malcolm turned cautiously around and slowly walked back towards the pipe the rats had come out of and to his astonishment they were gone. Malcolm assumed they fled because he had killed one of their pack and he'd like to keep his mind thinking that.
Malcolm ran back to the ladder he had climbed down no less than half an hour before and to his astonishment the man was still there lying on a deckchair reading the newspaper, "Raccoon City Times" The man nearly leapt out of his seat when he saw Malcolm half drenched in sweat clamber out of the manhole cover and onto the grass.
"Well" said Malcolm, reloading his 9mm and putting it back in its holster, "your rat problems been taken care of I don't think they'll be coming back in a while if, they were rats"
The man seemed confused at Malcolm's statement but instead of quizzing him as to what he saw down there, the man helped him up and gave him a bite to eat before he left to head back to RPD HQ. Malcolm couldn't stop thinking about the giant seemingly mutant rats that had infected the sewers and as he walked back into the RPD building he almost knocked into the receptionist on her way home for her lunch break. Malcolm snapped out of his thoughts as he was briefly consumed by her beauty before going straight back to thinking about giant rats. Malcolm handed in his 9mm and combat vest before going into the mess hall for lunch, he sat down next to his pals Mark and Alan and after a few jokes about women and the like his mind was put at ease and he was convinced he was probably seeing things because after all it was awfully dark down there and he knew that if he mentioned he had seen giant rats to the other guys he would be laughed at and classed as delusional.
After lunch Malcolm went back to his bunk, he unlocked the door and went inside. His buddy Alan wasn't in there so he lay down on the bed and started reading his favourite book at the moment Black Hawk Down. In the three weeks he had been reading it he now only had five pages left, before the end and he really wanted to read the end before his next shift. Just as he got past the first sentence Alan burst into the room, his police jacket soaked with blood.
Malcolm immediately jumped out of his bunk and helped Alan walk over to his seat.
"What the hell happened to you" Malcolm asked as Alan wiped a mountain of sweat off of his forehead.
"I don't know" he said, "I was just doing my patrol when a big group of citizens started growling and shambling towards me, I didn't know what to do I couldn't open fire but I couldn't just let them senselessly attack me either"
Malcolm inspected Alan's combat vest and saw that he had something that looked like a bite mark on his arm, but it was hard to tell as his whole arm and most of his chest was soaked with blood. "So…what happened" Malcolm queried not being able to tear himself away from the wound on his partners arm.
"Well a few of them were behind me as well and before I realized what was happening one of them had bitten me in the arm"
"Right, I think your better off going to the infirmary" Malcolm said helping his buddy up and supporting him on his shoulder and walking towards the door.
After Malcolm had gotten back from taking his buddy to the infirmary, he went back into his room his thoughts once again wrapped around the mutant rats in the sewer. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice his book "Black Hawk Down" lying on the floor. He tripped over it as he closed the door and he fell backwards smashing his head on his bunk as he fell. Everything went dark as Malcolm fell into unconsciousness.
Malcolm woke, and according to his watch, it had been nearly five hours after he had fallen. It seemed that Alan hadn't returned from the infirmary either or else he would have seen Malcolm on the floor and would have helped him up. Malcolm decided it was time to go and look for his friend, he stood up rubbed his head and left the room walking down the corridor.Instantly he knew that something was wrong here, it was too quiet for a busy, bustling Police station. Only hours before he had heard the cheery speech of his comrades in the mess hall and the laughter of some other officers but now that was absent Malcolm felt alone in the dark corridor. He moved his hand towards his holster for comfort but then he remembered that he had already given his holster along with his pistol into Mark at the armoury.
Malcolm proceeded down the dark corridor and took a left turn towards the infirmary. He opened the main operating door and saw three bodies slumped over the operating table. Malcolm approached the body of the one that looked like his friend Alan and touched him on the shoulder. Alan didn't move, Malcolm checked the other two bodies, presumably doctors from the infirmary but they too did not stir to Malcolm's touch.
"What the hell happened here" Malcolm thought to himself looking around the operating theatre, tools and equipment were strewn all over the floor and small stains of blood were on the walls. The double doors through which Malcolm had walked through were bent and the windows on the top of them were smashed, bits of glass littered across the floor. Malcolm saw that the lights were flickering and the water pipes that went under the sink were broken, water spraying everywhere. Malcolm pinched himself sharply on the arm hoping he was dreaming but in the back of his mind he knew that this was no dream.
Malcolm walked over to one of the counters which stored medicine and doctor's tools and that was when Malcolm noticed a photograph on its side, he picked it up and stared at the picture inside the frame, it was a picture of the two doctors whose bodies lay before him, graduating from college and receiving their rewards for studying and getting a high grade in medicinal and health care studies. As he looked in the frame he thought he saw one of the doctors bodies move in the reflection of the glass frame. He turned round instantly on the spot and saw that the body hadn't moved, Malcolm calmed himself down and promised himself he'd find out what the hell had happened here.
Malcolm walked back towards the doors of the operating theatre and this time he knew saw one of the bodies move with his own eyes, he walked over to it and gave a sharp kick with his foot, the body rolled over and the eyes of the doctor opened. Malcolm looked into them and saw they were milky white, this was not normal. Malcolm slowly backed away from the body as it rose and stood up on its feet. Malcolm picked up a scalpel from the nearby counter and feebly pointed it towards the shambling body of the un-dead doctor.
"Freeze" Malcolm shouted pointing the end of the scalpel at the doctor.
"If you come any closer I'll stab you!" Malcolm said and that was when he saw a bite mark on the doctors neck that looked almost identical to the one which Alan had on his arm. All of a sudden Malcolm knew or at least thought he knew what had happened to these doctors. Alan had told Malcolm that the people in the residential district were shambling and this described exactly the movement of the doctor coming towards him now. It seemed like Alan had contracted some sort of illness from his bite which turned him aggressive and almost mutated towards others. The doctor drew closer still and Malcolm knew that unless he did something to stop the doctor, he too would be bitten and would more than likely turn into one of these disgusting creatures.
The doctor lunged at Malcolm gripping him so he couldn't move, Malcolm lifted his left arm and just as the doctor was about to bite him in the neck, he drove the scalpel deep into it's head. He withdrew the blade, taking bits of blood and brain matter with it before slamming it into the doctors throat. The doctor slumped over onto its front before shaking a little, there was no movement after that.
Malcolm had a few brief moments to recover before the other two bodies, one of the other doctor and one of Alan awoke. They stood up and started shambling towards Malcolm. There were two of them and one of him, they might be able to infect him with but one bite but at least he had the advantage of speed. Malcolm picked up the scalpel again and threw it straight at the doctor, the scalpel flew through the air and imbedded itself in the doctors skull but it kept coming towards him. That was when Malcolm remembered that although he had given his 9mm back to Mark at the armoury, he still had his combat knife in its sheath on his belt. Malcolm immediately grabbed it, tearing a small piece of material off the sheath.
He twirled it round in his hand and then stabbed it in the zombie doctors face. He quickly withdrew the knife and stepped away, this time the doctor was finished but Alan was still alive and coming towards him, if you could call Alan's state alive. Malcolm saw his buddy's face and winced, he was about to kill his best friend with the combat knife which Alan had used to save Malcolm a few years before but Malcolm knew that it had to be done, even if it was only to put zombie Alan out of his misery but even for this purpose Malcolm couldn't face doing it to him directly. He looked up at the stretch light on the roof and the two chains connecting it to the ceiling.
Malcolm ran past zombie Alan and climbed up onto the counter, once up he cut the chain nearest him before throwing his knife at the other one. The weak metal snapped instantly at the speed and sharpness of the knife. The heavy light fell from the roof and crushed Alan instantly. Malcolm climbed down from the counter and crouched down next to his former friend, he was about to leave the operating theatre and see what had happened to the rest of the RPD when he saw that Alan still had his 9mm and four magazines. Malcolm took the pistol and magazines before loading one of them into the weapon and putting the spare mags in his pocket, it'd have to do until he found his combat vest.
Malcolm took one last look at Alan's body before leaving the operating theatre. He took a left at the corridor and carried on walking until he came across the entrance to the Armoury. Malcolm slowly opened the door and stepped through. There was no movement and no bodies, Malcolm took his combat vest and then put the pistol mags in his top left and top right pockets. The heavy weaponry was locked in a special weapon rack room next door and that was where Malcolm headed next, he crouched down and went through the remains of the smashed door. Inside all the weapons were either broken or missing but there were some frags still in the box with the pins intact. Malcolm took five frags and put them in a another pocket of his vest, he then took another seven pistol magazines to go with the three he already had.
His next stop was to go to the reception of the RPD headquarters and see if he could find a GPS tracking device that was kept in the safe box area behind the reception counter. If he could acquire one, it could point him towards the nearest RPD convoy or vehicle. He didn't understand how these things worked himself but they sure did come in handy and they helped if an officer was lost or separated from his unit. Malcolm reached the reception without encountering any opposition or any survivors for that matter. He walked round the back of the desk to see the pretty receptionist he had seen earlier on in the day, slashed to pieces so that apart from her pretty face nothing below could be identified. Malcolm opened the door leading to the safe box area and saw that apart from one or two GPS devices and squad car keys there were virtually no items left in the area. Malcolm took a GPS device but then dropped it instantly after seeing something of bigger value and importance sticking out from under a broken, bloodied table. Malcolm reached for it and picked it up, he couldn't believe his luck a working radio.
He tried every channel imaginable in order to try and reach someone, anyone but there was no response just static. Malcolm kept the radio with him anyway just in case he found any survivors and he walked outside of the Raccoon Police Department building. The sight he saw on the outside shocked him. Cars were overturned and flaming, doors bent and windscreens shattered. The sirens on one of the squad cars was flashing silently in the sunlight its speakers broken. The windows of every building were smashed and tonnes of debris and bodies littered the roads and the pavements. Blood stains were everywhere and Malcolm saw himself looking towards the only place that was undamaged…the sky. Dark clouds came from nowhere and heavy rain poured down, trickling down Malcolm's back and soaking it.
Malcolm headed for an alleyway with some shelter and found himself crouched down behind a small mound of debris and crushed bricks. He felt like a tramp, helpless and lost in a big world with nowhere safe to run to, at least he knew his family were safe they had moved out of Raccoon a few weeks before settling down in Florida for a nicer climate and more settled atmosphere. Malcolm gripped his 9mm and stood up, he knew somehow he would have to get past the monstrosities that filled Raccoon City and escape past the perimeter. He didn't know who yet but after what he had just experienced he knew he had to get as far away from Raccoon as possible. As he sat there he thought about his buddy Alan and how he had save Malcolm from that fateful mission...