There's no light,

There's no sound,

Hard to breathe when you're underground.

Can you hear me now?

-Hollywood Undead

Hear Me Now

I sighed, "Way to close." I muttered and slumped back.

Leon nodded, "Agreed."

"What now? Where will Miles and the kids go?" Minami asked as she checked her equipment. From what it seemed like from my angle, nothing was hurt.

"There has to be some place that wasn't hit…" I muttered.

"The likelihood of that being true is almost impossible." Leon sighed.

For a while, we were silent. While I comforted Melora and Michael, who were still in panic mode, when we missed death by a mere few inches, Minami directed them to Raccoon City. Something inside me twisted in fear and anxiety. We were going into the center of this storm. What just happened would probably be much more frequent inside the city limits, not to mention the amount of infected would increase exponentially. It'd be like swimming in the vast ocean with a bleeding limb, surrounded by hungry, ravenous sharks.

I smoothed my bangs out of my face and rubbed my arm. I wasn't sitting in a proper seat, so I had fallen backwards and landed on it when we sped forward. That's gonna leave a nice bruise… Thankfully, neither Melora nor Michael had gotten hurt. Minami had smacked her head on something, causing it to trickle blood. From what I could tell, it wasn't serious. Nothing that couldn't be bandaged.

Speaking of… I had taken a small first aid kit with me and attached it to my belt. I motioned for her to come here and began to wipe the small trail of blood off of her face.

"Thanks, Liz." She said, using my old nickname.

"No problem." I said and inspected the source of blood. "It's just a cut, from the looks of it, nothing was fractured…" I mumbled.

"You're a doctor?" Leon asked. It wasn't mockery, he seemed honestly interested.

"I majored in the medical field. Another semester and I could've been a nurse." I responded.

I quickly bandaged the small wound and put the supplies away.

"So that's how you caught on quickly." He said. It wasn't a question.

I nodded, "Yep." Was all I said.

Miles stopped the van and looked at us, "We are entering the abyss." He turned so he could see us.

In front of the van, was a large green sign, 'Welcome to Raccoon City', I bit my lip. "What about you and the kids?" I asked him.

He shrugged, "I can always go with you guys and the kids could stay with Minami."

"That could work. I'd need to be stationed in the forest, or somewhere desolate." She pulled her long artificial red hair into a ponytail. "We don't need any of those things clawing at the doors."

"She's right. Miles, do you remember how to shoot a gun?" Leon asked him.

"Vaguely."

"This is the dangerous end, right?" He said and handed him a handgun, Miles rolled his eyes. "Elizabeth, here." He handed me a handgun.

"What are you gonna use?" I asked.

"Until I find something, I may have to use hand-to-hand combat techniques." He replied.

"Wait, you could easily get bitten." I didn't know why I had gotten worried so suddenly. In fact, it shocked me. Maybe because it'd suck to see a fellow human being turn into one of those things again…

He shook his head, "I'll be fine. Miles, drive through there, that way Minami can set up."

Miles did as he was told and drove through a mass of trees. It would be a shock to the Gods, themselves if any infected had made it this far. We drove further into the forests of Raccoon City until Minami told us to stop.

"We should be good from here." She said.

"How do we get into the city?" Miles asked.

"Walking, perhaps." I answered.

Miles loaded his gun, "Lovely." He muttered. I nodded and put my gun in the extra garter Minami had brought.

It was already mid-day by the time we were walking into the city limits, and the stench of rotting corpses had really gotten to me. I nearly threw up and leaned on a nearby tree. Leon looked at me, "Are you alright, Elizabeth?"

I nodded, "The… smell. I'm sorry. I-It just got to me." I coughed.

He nodded, "The smells of these things do get to us at times."

"I'll be fine." I reassured him.

We continued on, and eventually, my body got used to the scent. It was awful, like rotted meat, rust, and vinegar. I fought the urge to gag several times. I sighed; it was probably going to get a lot worse from here out.

Leon stopped, "So far so good." This worried me. It was like the eye of the hurricane, the calm before the storm. I gulped and held my gun, "There's one." Leon pointed forward. But it wasn't just one. No, there were more than a dozen! Several were already staggering their way towards us.

Unfazed by this, he shot one square between the eyes, "The easiest way to kill them –for good- is to shoot them in the head." Again, he shot another.

I aimed, and fired, feeling a small kick-back as the bullet shot out of the gun and into the skull of an infected woman.

"Good shot, Lizzie." Miles said quietly.

"Thanks." I replied. But now, I was slightly confused. Did we have even the slightest idea as to where the facility was? "Leon, where to?" I asked.

Leon pressed into a small device in his ear, "Minami, what street do we take?"

"William. Then take a right to head onto 31st Street." I heard Minami's voice from the other line.

Clever girl. She was probably watching over us from the security cameras. I smiled slightly; I could always count on her to lead us the right way.

"You heard her, let's move out!" Miles said a little too enthusiastically. This caught the attention of several more infected. "Oops…" he muttered.

"Damn it, Miles." I sighed and took three more of them out, but they just kept coming. "Um, we should probably hurry."

Leon nodded in agreement and began running, with Miles and me following. Before any of us knew it, we were being chased by a never-ending horde of undead. I quickly felt pavement meet my body and a sharp pain where I landed on the bruise.

I suddenly felt someone picking me up, "Can you walk?" I heard Leon ask.

Before I could muster up some form of answer, he lifted me up and carried me on my back. Guess I didn't have enough time to answer…

We ran quickly, shooting behind us and sometimes in front of us.

"Up ahead!" I heard Miles call, before us was a weapons store.

"Finally! I'm almost out!" I cried. I shot again as Leon carried me, thankful to see that we were outrunning them. Some of the infected had already given up, so far behind. I sighed in relief, "I think we can slow down." I patted his shoulder.

He turned his head to inspect the situation behind us; he nodded and set me down. "You okay?" he asked. I nodded and silently thanked him.

We quickly made our way to the weapons store, seeing that someone already attempted to break in. Whoever they were, they were definitely done for. Trails of blood lead to the alleyway. I shook my head in disgust and pushed the door open, glancing inside. "It's clear." I told Miles and Leon. We walked inside and began searching for what we needed.

"We need to be quick, before the creator of this mess gets the chance to get out." Leon said and grabbed a gun.

I pulled a leather jacket off a hanger; this should offer more protection than my t-shirt. I slid my arms into it; it fit rather well. I kept it unzipped and found another garter to hold a hunting knife. Honestly, I never thought I'd be doing this at twenty one. Hell, I never expected to be doing this at all; fighting off undead and raiding a weapons shop. That's probably not all I'll be doing. I sighed. Something told me that things were gonna get a lot more difficult from now.

"Minami, how many infected are on our path?" Leon asked.

"It could be worse. So far, I count about twenty on the first few streets combined. I suggest you guys hurry before it gets dark."

"She's right. Once night falls, our vision will be limited." I said and reloaded my gun.

He handed me a shotgun. "This has quite a kick, so be careful."

I nodded, "I practiced with shotguns first before I moved up to these." I placed a hand on my gun.

"Good." He replied.

Miles came into view, now wearing a vest, probably holding extra bullets in the pockets. He wore a red piece of fabric around his head and made a deep voice, "Kill all Vampires." He said with a serious face.

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, yeah, Edgar." I dragged him by the tie on his head, "Time to go."

"Okay." He said, stifling a laugh. He loaded his guns real quick and followed us outside.

I heard Minami sigh, "Really, Miles?"

"Are you that surprised, Minami?" I asked.

"Good point, Lizzie. Alright, you have four infected on 31st Street, they should be easy to take out. I suggest you try and refrain from using gunfire unless you become totally surrounded by undead. The sound could draw more."

"What street do we take after 31st?" Leon asked.

"You'll definitely want to avoid Parker Avenue. It's crawling with them. Instead, take another right and go around it on Freemont."

"Got it."

"Good luck."

We'd need it.

Miles cocked his gun, "Remember when Rod and I dressed up as the Frog Brothers for Halloween?"

"That was the year that I went as a female version of Blade. Minami went as a vampire." I couldn't help but laugh. That year, our theme was supposed to be the baddest of badass vampire hunters, but she didn't read my message right.

Leon grabbed a crowbar, "We may want to be quiet now."

We nodded and readied ourselves. Leon ran up and swung the crowbar over an infected man's head. I ran forward and kicked upward, shoving part of the bone in an infected woman's face into her brain. I watched her slump backwards and onto the concrete.

"I see the gymnastics had an effect on you." Miles grinned at me.

I nodded, "It did." I dodged a man's bloodied arm and brought the hilt of the hunting knife into his nose.

Leon killed the last infected on this street and looked around, "I think that's it for now. We should probably hurry on."

It amazed me how much Raccoon City had changed. The bar I went to on my twenty first birthday was here somewhere, and I remembered the city that night, several months ago. It was a normal city, filled with life even at night. The streets were always kept clean and the people were usually kind. Now, blood, wrecked cars, and innocent lives littered the streets of this once pleasant city. I felt a rage boil in me, who in the hell could let something like this happen? Who was heartless and careless enough to create death itself? I clenched my jaw and my fists tightened, wishing dearly to hurt the one who made this.

I pulled my hair up into pigtails, since my hair was too short for a ponytail.

Miles glanced at me, "Are you okay, Lizzie?" he asked.

Leon turned to look at me, but I nodded. "I'm fine." I said quietly. "Let's go."

We continued our path the raise a little bit of our own hell.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Woot. Another chapter done! I can't believe I wrote this in only three days… It's kinda odd, but hey, I'm not complaining. So, tell me what you guys think. I'm eager for constructive criticism and reviews. I thrive on them! (And coffee, tea, sushi, Pocky, and sugary goodness in my veins…) So something that kinda bothers me is that in the movies, they never really say how horrible it must smell. I mean, rotting bodies and blood? That would make me sick! Anyway, who else is like, insanely psyched for Resident Evil: Retribution and ORC? Personally, I don't think the movie will be as good as the games (sometimes Hollywood gets a little carried away with how much money they think they can make) but it's gonna have Leon S. Kennedy in it! It may not be a great movie, but hey, it could further inspire me to write! I just wish my gaming console would work, because I'm dying to play Operation: Raccoon City!

Well, this is PhilosophicalZombie, signing off!

BTW: Don't feel bad for badgering me if I don't get off my ass and write something. Please let me know if you are dying to read chapter 4. Sometimes I feel a bit of Writer's Block, and then all inspiration leaves me for a few months until something triggers it, then I become a writing machine.