Resident Evil

Jungle leaves rushed by as a young woman in a security uniform tried to evade an unseen pursuer. Rain was pouring down as the largest storms of the year slammed into the small island in the Atlantic. Blond hair hung out of the back of her security helmet soaked with a combination of rain and sweat. She had long since left her weapon and ammunition behind choosing instead to rely on speed to escape. Bushes and low hanging trees rustled as her pursuer gained ground. As she ran the sound of her boots running over dirt and leaves turned into rock as she emerged from the jungle. She ran along the rocky cliff until she came to a drop off into the raging sea. She turned around just as her pursuer came out of the jungle. Its hairless body rippled with exposed muscle as it advanced, its razor sharp teeth glistened with thick drool in the pale light cast by the moon overhead. Pale yellow eyes gazed hungrily at the pray it had cornered. The woman was looking side to side for a way out but soon came to a horrifying conclusion, she was trapped. As she looked at what could only have once been a dog, static came across her earpiece.

"Laura are you ok? I've lost your video feed," a woman's voice said.

"Kat I'm a little busy here."

"Listen those damn things have whipped out every security member around the building. The only thing standing between them and me and the R&D guys is a few fences and one-eighth inch of aluminum."

"I have my own problems at the moment."

"You are a lot of help."

More static came over the earpiece and the line went dead.

"Sorry Kat."

The dog lowered its head as it barred its fangs and rushed right at her. Lara looked one more time for an escape. She had two choices, Death by evisceration by this monstrosity or death by drowning in the ocean. Seeing as being eaten sounded like the worst way to die she turned and jumped. It was a forty-foot drop into the freezing ocean water below; she hit hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs even through her Kevlar armor. As her armor pulled her under the water her only thought was not of survival but of Kat back at the islands complex. She knew that Kat didn't stand a chance unless help arrived and soon.

Kathryn took the headset off of her head and threw it to the ground cursing Laura. She slowly looked around the room at the worried faces of the men ad women that were huddled in the center of the room. Only a handful of the islands researchers had made it to the communication building after the creatures started showing up all around the island.

In the first few days of the creatures presents on the island several researchers were found dead during the night. The islands top security officials ruled the cause of death as animal attacks. However the islands mortician claimed that the bite marks were not constant with any animals, they looked to be human. In all of the cases the victims died due to massive blood loss. In response to the attacks the head of security James McArthur ordered a strict curfew for the whole island. Anyone caught outside would be arrested, no questions asked. It didn't do any good, more and more people started going missing. Some of them showed up dead, others were never seen again.

Yeah and now this, Kathryn thought. as if things weren't bad enough the whole place is starting to smell like shit.

Several of the people in the room had seen the creatures up close, close enough to get a description. They all claimed that the creatures were human, although it looked like they had some kind of skin disease, Leprosy perhaps. And the smell, they were rotting alive. A young girl that worked in the security labs cafeteria was brought in with several bite wounds to her arms and neck. She claimed that she saw her boyfriend just out side the fences, when she ran up to him he lunged at her taking several chunks out of her skin before she got away. She began to run a high fever in under and hour and soon after that she was cold to the touch. The medical examiner said that it was from the loss of blood that she was getting cold. He could not explain why she was beginning to smell like rotting flesh, like those things.

Kathryn sat back down at the radio station and laid her head on the counsel. I what am I supposed to do?

After a moment of thought she placed the headset back on and turned to an emergency frequency.

"This is Umbrella island located five miles North-East off of Bar Harbor we have an emergency does anybody hear me? Anybody at all?"

The call came in in the middle of the night, a hostage situation at an all night dinner. The STARS team was dispatched immediately. The team arrived just as the gunmen picked up a young teen girl off the floor. Karen Jenkins was shot in the back of the head just to show that the men were not messing around. Her friends screamed and cried as her body hit the ground in an already growing pool of blood. Captain Ralph Robbins ordered his team into position relieving the patrol men. A throw phone was tossed to the door to make an attempt at establishing contact with the men inside.

One of the hostages was tethered to a rope and sent out for the phone. With contact established the STARS team readied their assault. As Captain Jenkins talked with the men Ex-Special forces member and weapons expert Andy Brown passed out HK mp5s to the three other members that manned the forward assault group, the other two were issued the standard Beretta 9mm. Barbra Tiers and Alexia Grant formed the rear entry and diversion team. Their mission was simple; install an explosive charge on the back door of the building that led into the kitchen area. On the signal they were to detonate the explosives hopefully distracting the men from the front of the building giving the forward assault team the opportunity to strike. Barbra and Alexia quickly made their way through the parking lot and reached the back of the building. Alexia was the teams' explosive technician her favorite part of her job was seeing anything she placed her explosives on blown to bits. She quickly placed the small charge of C-4 to the door knob and hid behind a nearby dumpster and awaited the order.

Andy and the other members of the team edged into place at the corner of the building away from the windows and signaled Captain Robbins that they were ready. And he gave the order.

It was over in a matter of seconds, Alexia blew the charge on the back door and the forward assault team moved in. The diversion worked, the gunmen had their heads turned as Andy and the others broke through the large windowed with a single shot from an MP5. There was a moment of silence as the surprised gum men saw the STARS members flooding into the building before gunfire broke out. The gun men began shooting wildly at the STARS members only to have their weapons return fire. Barbra and Alexia rushed through the kitchen passed the body of a cook and into the main lobby with their weapons raised.

"We are all clear here sir," Andy said over the STARS radio. "The gun men are dead."

The rest of the night was filled with the usual debriefing and paperwork and before anyone knew it the sun was beginning to rise. Andy was sitting at his desk cleaning his weapon and listening to the local rock station when static came over the emergency radio.

"…lla Island…miles North…Bar…Emergency…hear me?..."

"Elisa can you clean that up?" Robbins asked.

Elisa began turning knobs and flicking switches on the radio until a woman's voice could faintly be heard amidst the static.

"This is Umbrella island located five miles North-East of off the coast of Maine we have an emergency does anybody hear me? Anybody at all?"

"I hear you Umbrella Island, this Elisa Sands of the Bangor STARS team what is your emergency?"

"Oh thank God, we are under attack or something. Several people on the island have been killed and we are surrounded." Kathryn said.

Robbins walked over to the radio station and leaned against the desk and listened as Kathryn explained what had been happening around the island over the last few days.

"It's a prank call Cap." Elisa said. "People don't eat other people."

Robbins picked up the microphone and pushed the talk button.

"This is Captain Robbins of the STAR team, this frequency is reserved for emergency's only."

"Gee thanks for the heads up." Kathryn said. "I'm not fucking around here, We have one woman badly injured here we need help."

"Ok fine you have a casualty," Robbins said sounding as if he was getting annoyed. "I'll put in a call with harbor rescue and get a medical chopper over to your location."

"It's not just a medical emerg…"

"I'm sighing off."

Before Kathryn could get another word in Robbins shut down the radio station and walked back to his desk and began shuffling through some miscellaneous papers. The other members of the team sat in silence looking at their leader rather puzzled. Sure it seamed like a prank call, but he shut off the radio.

"Sir what about the medical emergency?" Barbra asked.

"Put in a call with Harbor Rescue."

"Yes sir." Elisa said turning the radio back on.

Just as Elisa was finishing with the call to Harbor Rescue the other STAR members were beginning their shifts. Harry McMaster was the Bravo team leader and rather well named. He was covered in hair from head to toe. Many of the other officers in the building took to calling him Yeti after seeing him at the station's Christmas party in swim trunks. In a matter of speaking he liked the name, said it mad him sound fierce, or something like that. He was the outgoing sort, always laughing about something. Is voice was always heard in a room of people. All of the STARS liked him, Except Robbins.

Hey Robbins," He said. "heard about the hostage situation. Sounds like you handled it rather well."
"I did my job. Excuse me, my team and I are tired we're heading home."

With that said Robbins and his team walked out of the STAR room and headed for the time clock.

As she always did when ending a shift Barbra headed for home to grab a beer and a shower. Growing up in San Diego California one of the last things Barbra thought she would be in life was a STAR member. She was just out of Collage and looking forward to a carrier in law enforcement but instead she enlisted into the US Marines and served out her enlistment as a supply control Sergeant. It was during the second Iraq war that she saw her first bit of action. She was on a routine convoy to re-supply a group of Marines in Tikrit when her convoy was ambushed by the local insurgents. After an IED disabled her vehicle she and her squad were left running for cover. In the time it took the Convoy to send a rescue Barbra and her squad had defended their position from several attacks. After that Barbra had volunteered for every mission that had any chance of being attacked. One of her combat buddies made the comment that the combat was in her blood and if she didn't get it often she might just haul off and die.

After her separation with the Marine's she was recruited into the Main STARS team and quickly fell in love with the adrenalin rushes. There was something about rushing "Balls" first into a fire fight that she loved. Maybe she had a death wish, or she was just crazy, either was she fit right in with the other STARS members. She was always looking forward to the next mission. Where ever and what ever it may be, she was ready.

After being cut off from the STARS office Kathryn started walking around the room trying to think of a way off the island. She knew that the Harbor rescue team would be unprepared for the things walking around the island and felt a bit sorry for them. Though maybe if they didn't check in the STARS would come and investigate their disappearance. Or maybe they would send the Marines, Coastguard, Army, kids with slingshots anything. Looking around the room Kathryn saw the looks of everyone's faces. They had heard the transmission from the STARS office and knew they were in trouble. The young girl that was brought in with bite marks had died just moments ago and her body was moved into a corner of the building. The mortician said she must have died from the shock and that it was a real shame, she was so lovely.

"What are we going to do now ma'am?" One of the researchers asked.

Kathryn shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I wish I knew. I guess we'll just have to wait for a rescue."

"Umm miss." One of the women in the room said raising her hand. "I hate to trouble you but I think Katie just moved."

"Who?"

"The girl that was bitten."

"How could she move? She's dead."

Several people moved away from the body with a horrified look on their faces. The girl was moving, in fact she was trying to stand up. The mortician stepped towards her to look her over, he could have made a mistake saying she was dead. The girl got to her feet and swayed side to side like she was intoxicated or drugged. As the room looked on the mortician reached out to check for a pulse but before he could touch her she lunged for him. Her eyes were completely white and dead looking, she was drooling and from the smell she was rotting, she was one of those things. The mortician drew back as she came at him, he stepped back quickly trying to get away and stumbled over a blanket that was crumbled on the ground. Before he could regain his balance she was on him pushing him to the ground trying to bite at him. The man wrestled with her doing his best to keep her from sinking her teeth into his arms and neck. As some of the men in the room grabbed anything they could to get her off of him the mortician brought his leg up to her chest and kicked her off with enough force to send her into the wall and crumble to the ground. He got up and balled up his fists and was ready to fight.

The girl got back to her feet and began staggering towards him again. Five of the men in the room surround the girl with brooms and mops to keep her from getting to anyone else in the room. Once she was close to the mortician again she lunged with her arms outstretched to grab at him again. This time the mortician reached out with his own hands and wrapped his large hands around her head and lifted the hardly ninety pound girl off of the ground and twisted her head back and forth until she stopped fighting and let her fall to the ground in a lifeless heap.

"Bite at me." He said and kicked the lifeless body. "Toss her out side."

The men surrounding him picked up the body and carried her to the door and threw her out as the mortician went to a chair and sat down looking rather tired.

"That was some show." Kathryn said walking up next to him.

"Former UFC contender."

They laughed for a moment before Kathryn looked at him rather seriously.

"Was she dead or not."

"I'm sure she was."

"Oh joy its Night of the Living Dead."

She went back over to the radio and clicked it back to the emergency frequency and listened to the static as the rain continued to cascade down on the aluminum roof and against the windows.