Chapter Two: New Allies, New Threats.

Jill Valentine's eyes darted around the five-strong group of soldiers surrounding her, she didn't quite know if she could trust these guys just yet, even though they'd just saved her from being feasted on by the flesh eaters that now littered the floor around them.

"So...What's the plan then?" She asked, looking towards the apparent leader of the group, judging by his beret.

"Raccoon City park, you are familiar with it yes?" The beret-sporting soldier asked, "Our mission is to make a brief tour of the city, rescuing as many civilians as possible, once our time limit is up, we head back there for evacuation"

"Right...And who the hell are all of you?"

"I am Mikhail Genovaef, and this is my team: Murphy Seeker, Tyrell Patrick, Carlos Oliveira and my brother Nicholai..."

Jill studied her new companions as Mikhail pointed them out, Murphy was obviously the youngest, and seemed to be the most unnerved at the whole situation surrounding him. Tyrell looked to be one of the older members of the team, younger than Mikhail and Nicholai, yet older than Carlos and Murphy. Carlos looked to be around the same age as Jill, but he seemed like the cockiest of the team, a confident smirk across his face, and an assault rifle slung around his shoulder. Then there was the Genovaef brothers, two contrasting siblings, Mikhail determined to help anyone around him, Nicholai looking cold and distant from the others, keeping to himself and inspecting the corpses strewn across the floor.

To the surprise of the group, a scream sounded over Murphy's radio...

"Somebody come in please!!!" Somebody then called.

Mikhail ran over and grabbed the radio off of his squad member.

"Come in! Identify yourself!" He commanded.

"This is...of C-Squad!" The person on the other end replied through static, "We need backup!...Attacked...Not human!...Trenchcoat!...No!, Don't come near me!...NO!!!!"

Static befell the device, and a look of surprise/disbelief fell upon the group.

"So what do we do boss?" Tyrell asked.

Mikhail sighed and looked at his colleague.

"We mourn the passing of our comrades, and carry on..."

Murphy's radio flared back into life, this time without the sense of danger, instead the sence of urgency...

"Calling all squads! Calling all squads! Return to Raccoon park immedeately, the rescue mission has been abandoned!"

"Come on men!" Mikhail ordered, reloading his weapon and leading them all away from the area that was now the deathbed for many former Raccoon citizens.

The streets leading to the park were strewn with the undead, all of them focussed on the group of six, who decided to make a break for the rescue chopper instead of engage in combat.

"What do you think that was that got C-Squad?" Murphy asked while avoiding the obstacles in his path.

"No idea, don't really want to know...Anything seems possible now..." Tyrell replied, before shoulder barging one undead to the floor and jumping over them as they lay on the floor.

Mikhail stopped in his tracks, causing the others to as well.

"What's up Sir?" Carlos enquired.

"Listen...It's the helicopter, we have to hurry!" Mikhail replied, begining to run again.

"Why do you think the mission was pulled off so soon?" Jill called, hanging at the back of the group.

"Who knows, all that matters is getting to the extraction point, focus on that, not unimportant things!" Nicholai answered, running literally over a toppled zombie, seemingly not caring that it was once a human being.

Then they saw them: The park gates laying there on the floor, battered down by a huge group of the zombies that everyone dreaded equally. Passing through would be impossible, made all the more tragic as their helicopter was sitting right there, just past them.

Murphy's radio flared to life again, the young soldier answered almost immediately.

"Hello?!" He almost shouted, looking around for any possible contacts in the area.

"I'm sorry guys, this is the escape chopper, we've got to abandon the area immedeately, we can't stay any longer for obvious reasons...You're on your own!" Said the voice on the other end, turning out to be the pilot, who took off into the sky with the survivors of Raccoon.

"Wait!" Called the group, suddenly realising that their shouts were attracting the massive group in front of them.

Slowly they started to advance, and slowly the group started to back up.

"On my call..." Mikhail whispered "Run!"

"Where to?" Carlos asked.

"Anywhere but here!" Jill replied on Mikhail's behalf.

"I'm with her!" Tyrell added.

"Go!!" Mikhail then ordered, turning on his heels and running.

His men and Jill followed closely, dodging around the vehicles strewn around the area, and once again leaping over the dead bodies, as the helicoptor passed overhead and out of view over the buildings, bringing dismay to them all.

In their hurry to get away, none of them had bothered to think up where to go, leading them to run in a random direction, into the path of another group of flesh eaters, the quick stop caught Murphy unawares and he tumbled to the ground, right at the feet of one of them.

"They like to stay together, don't they?" Nicholai called, pulling Murphy off the ground, then taking the zombie in front of the young soldier down expertly with a stab to the head.

"Yeah, they sure do..." Jill said, kicking one away that lunged at her.

Carlos looked around, noticing his squad were at a complete standstill, fighting off the decaying citizens of the city.

"Screw this!" He called, switching his Assault Rifle to burst mode, "Everybody down!"

Swiftly, everybody crouched down and a bust of three bullets zoomed into each zombie closest to each member.

"We gotta move!" Carlos then said, leading a way down a seemingly empty alley.

"Carlos! Wait!!!" Mikhail shouted, running after him.

"Come on!" Nicholai shouted, leading the way after his teammate and brother.

Tyrell and Murphy didn't need telling twice, and neither did Jill, they all immedeatly dashed in the same direction.

Murphy and Tyrell entered the alley first, Jill straggling a few metres behind, though she tried to keep up, she just couldn't, there was constantly a gap between her and the two young soldiers.

"Guys! Wait up!" She yelled.

"Tyrell!, We gotta wait for her!" Murphy said to his comrade, while still running.

"We can't or we'll lose the others!" Tyrell replied.

A nearby window then shattered to pieces as zombified dogs entered the scene in their numbers, the three suddenly stopped in their tracks, as the snarling, bloodthirsty hounds began to seperate into two groups, ready to attack either side of the gap which hadn't closed up at all.

"Guys, just go, I can look after myself..." Jill said, starting to back up slowly as the dogs continued to move towards her, the clicking of their claws on the ground causing everyone to tremble.

"But..." Tyrell began.

"Just go!, I'll find my way back to you guys!" She replied, running away as fast and agily as she could, Murphy and Tyrell saw no other option but to do the same thing.

"Hows she gonna get back to us?!" Murphy asked, worry in his voice.

"I don't know man, she'll find a way, she looks as though she knows what she's doing..."

While Tyrell had faith in her, Jill didn't seem so certain about her own safety, at a guess, she saw about ten dogs at once when they confronted her, Tyrell and Murphy, about four going after them, the other six singling her out. The strain in her legs was building once again, as it had done before that night many a time, but she couldn't stop for even a second, she knew this in the Arklay Mountains, and she still knew now.

The streets reappeared and Jill sprinted as fast as she could, to put some distance between her and the savage canines behind her, no luck though as they stayed hot on her heels, ready to feast upon her.

She knew she had to retaliate and try to thin the numbers a little, so she took a big risk, stopping in her tracks and firing into them with her handgun, this managed to take out half of them, leaving three adavancing, as her handgun clip ran empty.

"Oh god..." She thought to herself in terror, as she quickly fumbled for a new clip, unable to get the pouch on her side open, "Please don't let this happen..."

The snarls of the three hounds grew more and more vicious, then became a whimper as footsteps sounded from nearby, the dogs scattered in apparent fear...But from what?

Jill looked behind her, and the colour disappeared from her already pale face, for advancing on her was a beast of a figure, clad in a black trenchcoat, standing a good foot over most men, its face emotionless and disfigured, this was no man...

"What are you?!..." Gasped the now petrified Ms. Valentine.

The beast stopped in its tracks, looking directly at her with its one, pupil-less eye.

"S.T.A.R.S..." It said, starting to advance...

Writers Note: Once again, sorry for the delay, I've been totally swamped with other things recently, what with college starting and all, I hope this chapter has been up to standards, If not then I apologise and hope that my next chapter will be better...

Anyway, as you can tell this was a dialogue heavy chapter, seeing as there was a group, but my next one [whenever I write it...It will be done though!] hopefully won't be as dialogue-laden and will possibly start tieing in with my previous fic...

Read and review people! Thanks a lot and if you have any questions, feel free to message me!

-ResiAddict.