Disclaimer: Everything that I don't own belongs (obviously) to its original
owners. Zander Scotts is owned by Ashley (Sporty-Girl), and Gregory Tomlin
is owned by KJ. Kenny Bailey is owned by William. All other characters are
owned by me, as is anything I create for the purpose of enhancing this
story (unless otherwise stated). Daniel Anderson is owned by me.
Author's Notes: Wow, Chapter 4 already. It seems like just yesterday I was only starting this fic. I guess these things just take on a life of their own. Oh well. This is the big knock-down drag-out fight chapter, and is definitely going to be the longest chapter yet. Enough of my rambling, it's time to get down to business.
Operation Falling S.T.A.R.S.
Chapter Four: Locked and Loaded
Somewhere over the Midwestern United States
Boeing 757 Northwest Airlines Flight 729
February 15, 2001 3:20 PM
"Would you get off of me?" Matt whispered, elbowing Mark in the side. Mark had fallen asleep with his head on Matt's shoulder, something which Matt had just become aware of. "Go back to your seat." Mark just gave him a dirty look before retaking his seat two rows behind Matt. Just as Matt was preparing to go back to sleep, Paul plopped in the seat next to him.
"Thanks a lot man, I was trying to get up here for the last fifteen minutes," Paul said, as Matt replied by starring at him. "What?"
"I've been trying to get a little sleep for the last fifteen minutes," Matt replied with a hint of anger in his voice which quickly evaporated. "It doesn't matter; we'll be on the ground in less than a half- hour. What do you need?"
"I think you need to have a talk with Zander. It's his first mission, and I've got a feeling he's going to be a liability," Paul replied. "He didn't even bring any heavy weapons. Just those pansy pistols of his," Paul continued, bringing his voice down to a whisper while mentioning the weapons.
"What's he brought for the mission?" Matt asked with a hint of concern. After encountering the Tyrant, he had done his best to secure large-caliber weapons for the three teams going to Seattle with him.
"Two Colt 1911A .45 cal. pistols and a Desert Eagle AE .50 cal. pistol," Paul answered.
"That's it?" Matt asked incredulously. "Okay, there's nothing we can do about that right now. Send him up when you go back to your seat," Matt replied with a slight sigh. He was more than a little curious as to why Zander had brought such light weaponry, especially after the briefing concerning the amounts of punishment it was theorized Umbrella's monsters could take.
"Hey Zander," Matt said as Paul went back to his seat, and Zander took the un-occupied seat next to Matt.
"Hi Matt, you ready for the mission?" he asked.
"Yeah. In fact, it's the mission I want to talk to you about. This is your first one, isn't it?" he asked as Zander nodded in the affirmative. "Okay. There are a few pointers I want to give you. If you follow them, you should come out alive. I say should because once you're in the field there's no such thing as a guarantee. Trust me when I say I learned that lesson the hard way. The first thing you need to do is lose the pistols. When we encountered the Tyrant in Afghanistan, it laughed at our F-1100s and two frag grenades. The pistols of yours are probably going to do more damage to it if you throw them than by shooting them at it," Matt said as Zander gave a slightly embarrassed look.
"But for the other creatures we found out about from the researchers, they sound like they'll be more susceptible to my pistols. Besides, I'm no good with heavy weapons. They tried to put me on a SAW in basic, and I couldn't hit a thing. Even with the M-16 during marksman trials I barely passed," he replied. "The only weapons I've ever been good with are shotguns and pistols, and I don't have a shotgun."
"Okay, we'll get you set up once we land. In the mean time, I also want to talk to you about being just a tad bit over trusting. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong about trust. In this business, knowing who to trust is one of the most important things we have. The inverse of this is trusting the wrong person, and getting burned. That's happened to me more than once since I've joined the SOC. In fact, I don't know of anyone in the organization that hasn't been burned by somebody. Your problem is that you believe what people tell you at face value. With the prospect of having parts of the government infiltrated by Umbrella, it's more important now than ever before to be sure of the nature of orders, and of the loyalty of our organization. In fact, I've got a bad feeling that the SOC is going to be shattered before Umbrella's finished. Just listen to your own instincts and trust them. They won't ever steer you wrong. Don't worry about this mission; it's going to be a cake walk. Now when you go back, make sure everyone's awake and ready to get off the plane as soon as the doors are opened. Thanks for coming up," Matt said as Zander gave him a slight smile.
"Thanks a lot Matt. I won't let you guys down out there."
'I know you won't kid,' Matt thought to himself. 'He's got more potential than anyone I've seen in a long time. He just has to learn how to apply it. If he can make it through a few missions and gets some experience, he'll be a force to recon with in the SOC. Now let's get down and to our vehicles without anyone asking any questions.'
"Attention passengers, this is your Captain speaking," the Captain announced, interrupting Matt's chain of thoughts. "We'll be on the ground in Seattle in about ten minutes. Current conditions are pretty poor. Temperature is 42 degrees Fahrenheit with a chance for rain at 70 percent. Visibility is low, and the sky is overcast. We'll be arriving at about 3:27 local time after a slight delay in taking off. At this time, I'd like to ask all flight personnel to take their seats and prepare to land. Thank you."
The last few minutes of the flight were uneventful. The Captain taxied the plane to gate D-3, and after several agonizing minutes of waiting, the doors swung open. Matt grabbed his two bags, and was the second person off the plane behind Paul. Immediately, he was hit with a blast of cold air, and was glad he had brought warm clothing with him. The other seven members of the SOC operation filed off the plane, as Matt counted to make sure they were all there.
"We've got three vehicles reserved with the rental agency," he said after they had all departed the plane. "Sam, Greg, you two come with me. Since you're team leaders, you're driving. Adam, Mark, keep everybody else out of trouble." The three team leaders left their bags with the others, and walked over to the rental desk, where a semi-interested clerk was waiting.
"I'd like to pick up the vehicles we reserved," Matt said as the clerk looked up.
"Name please?" she asked.
"Hugh Roberts," Matt said, giving one of his many aliases. The clerk punched the name into her computer and confirmed that three vehicles were reserved in his name.
"Here are the keys," she said passing them over. "Your vehicles are on level B-2 in the parking garage at the South end of the airport. Enjoy your stay in Seattle," she mumbled, going back to playing a game of Solitaire on her computer. Matt gave one key to Sam and the other to Greg before walking back to where Mark was waiting with Paul and Zack.
"Adam went with the others to round up some food," Mark said before Matt could even ask what had happened to them. Just as Mark finished the statement, Matt saw them returning with several bags of food.
"Thanks a lot guys," he said taking a bag from Adam before he over- balanced and fell over. Each one had carried three bags back, and all of the bags were almost overflowing with a variety of subs, pizzas and bottles of various sodas. "Don't hurt yourselves carrying so much stuff," he added.
"Don't worry, all that government training finally came in handy for something," Adam joked. The others helped relieve their friends of the extra food bags, while Matt again gathered them together. "We've got three SUVs reserved for us in the southern-most parking garage at level B-2. According to the map located back there," Matt said while pointing to a small kiosk about fifty feet behind him, "We have to get to the wing that has the 'A' gates in them. We can take a horizontal escalator there. It's located about two hundred feet ahead, around the corner to the left. After that, it's just standing still and letting the machine work. Once we get the cars, the first place we're going is to the FedEx office. There's some stuff I have to pick up."
"Like what? We brought everything we needed," Mark said.
"Wrong. We only have two clips of ammo each and no explosives. I didn't want to bring them on the plane and risk an accident. Once we pick up the stuff, we're going to find somewhere to stay. Then we'll start looking for Barry," Matt concluded as they began walking for the cars.
"I love these things," Paul said as he stepped on the escalator. They reached the end of the escalator and followed Matt to the parking garage exit at gate A. They decided to take the stairs down to level 2, and quickly located their SUVs.
"I call the black one," Paul said as he raced for the first of the three vehicles.
"Paul, they're all black," Mark said as the rest of the SOC teams reached the vehicles.
"Each team gets a vehicle," Matt said as Greg and Sam opened the trunks of their cars. "Take these too," he said while he tossed them handheld radios. "We'll use these to communicate in case we get separated. Synchronize your watches, it's 3:41 local time right," he began "now. We hit the FedEx office and get the rest of our gear, then find accommodations. Stick together; I don't want us to get lost out here. Let's roll." All three teams entered their SUVs and followed Matt as he led them out.
"Does anyone else think it's strange that the streets are empty?" Greg asked over the radio.
"It must be because of the riots," Matt said. "We're gonna want to avoid those areas of the city. I snagged a copy of yesterday's USA Today while we were in Minnesota. The National Guard's been called out, and the streets where the rioters are have been thoroughly trashed. There's a curfew out, so we're gonna have to stick to the shadows if we go out at night or out of our cars."
"Of course Burton had to pick here of all places to hide," Mark added stating the obvious.
"Okay, we want to take the next left, and then stay on that road for a half mile. The office should be on the right at a street corner. We'll find a place to park and get everyone out," Matt said over the radio. "We've got so much stuff to get it's going to take everyone's help. Paul and Adam, stay with the SUVs and make sure they're there when we get back. We'll get the stuff, and split it up at the hotel." They all made the turn just before the light changed to red, and arrived at the office without incident. There were empty parking spaces all over the place, since it seemed that everyone was staying off the roads to avoid the riots.
"Let's get the stuff and get out of here. Something about this place is giving me the creeps," Zack said.
"Other than the fact that we're operating on U.S. soil against a pharmaceutical company with the power to destroy the world looking for a person who may shoot us on sight? It's probably just the riots. Maybe some tear gas blew down the street from somewhere else in the city," Mark said. "Not to be a downer though."
"Enough chatter, let's just get the stuff and go. I'll be much happier when we get to the hotel and get the mission started," Greg said as most of the others nodded. They walked up the stairs and entered office, which was empty just like the streets. Only one person was working behind the counter, and he was more interested in watching scenes of the rioting on Fox News.
"I'd like to pick up several packages," Matt said, walking right up to him.
"Name please," the man asked as he turned off the T.V. momentarily.
"Andrew Shepard," Matt replied using another of his identities.
"Mind coming back to get them?" he asked. "I'm the only one on shift right now, and it'll take forever for me to get all of the stuff."
"No problem," Matt replied as the others followed him to the back room. They found their packages and secured several carts to wheel them out to their vehicles.
"So, what do you guys need all of this stuff for?" the clerk asked.
"I'm only allowed to say that it's for the U.S. delegation at the WTO meeting," Matt replied. "We're here to make sure it arrives safely."
"Good enough for me," the clerk replied. "Have a nice day, and be careful. They're shut down a bunch of streets leading to the conference center due to heavy rioting and looting. I can't see why a mob of people would go out and trash the stores people spent their hard-earned money on," the clerk continued, this time more to himself as he turned the T.V. back on. Suddenly Adam ran into the office.
"We've got to get a move on guys, we just heard on the radio that there's a mob heading our way," he said, helping the others wheel the stuff to their SUVs. Matt jumped into the driver's seat just in time to watch an angry mob round the corner two blocks in front of him. He started the engine as Mark slammed the trunk shut and Paul jumped into the passenger seat. Mark dove into the back seat, and grabbed a grenade out of the back.
"What is that?" Matt asked, as Mark rolled down his window.
"Never know when you could use a tear gas grenade," Mark replied as he pulled the pin and leaned out the window. He threw the grenade down the street where it landed and bounced towards the crowd, dispensing its contents in front of them. The front rows of the mob began running in all directions trying to escape the gas that was causing them to cry uncontrollably. Matt looked over his shoulder and saw that both Sam and Greg had their vehicles ready to go, and called over the radio, "U-turn. Let's get out of here!"
"Roger that. We're gonna have to get out of the city," Sam spoke over the radio.
"Why's that?" Matt asked.
"Just heard it over the radio. All of the hotels in the city have been locked down. We're not going anywhere in here," Sam replied.
"Okay. We're going to need an alternate base of operations. Mark, get on that map and find me somewhere to stay," Matt said.
"Way ahead of you boss," Greg said over the radio. "We found a hotel in Shoreline. If someone has a cell phone, we could call ahead and get somewhere to stay. It's in a direction which takes us away from the mob, so it sounds like a good option to me," he concluded.
"I've got a phone," Sam said over the radio. "Give me a number and Adam will get on the line with them."
"Okay, we've got a Sheridan Hotel, the number is 555-5624," Greg read off. "Get enough rooms to fit 9 people."
"Jesus!" Matt yelled, swerving out of the way of a patch of fire that popped up in front of his car. He glanced off to his right and saw a few people who appeared to be gang members throwing Molotov cocktails at nothing specifically, just enjoying the fact that the police were unavailable to stop them.
"I've got something for you, you little turds," Matt heard someone say over the radio. He saw something fly out of the window of team 3's SUV, and explode on the ground.
"I see you guys brought a gas grenade too," Matt said over the radio.
"One? When we heard there were riots Adam grabbed a friggin case of 'em and passed em out. We didn't get a chance to give you guys any, so we were surprised to see you have some," Sam said over the radio as Mark gave a groan.
"So I wasted a very expensive grenade to cover you guys and YOU HAD A FRIGGIN CASE FULL OF THEM!" he yelled as he grabbed the radio from Matt. All that could be heard in reply was laughing from Sam's car, and some mumbled curses from Mark.
"Mark, just take one of theirs when we stop," Matt said calming Mark down a bit.
"Looks like we want to take the next left. It should be straight ahead of us about fifteen or twenty miles. Haven't heard anything on the radio involving the area we'll be traveling on so I assume it's secure," Greg said over the radio as Matt cut the wheel sharply to the left.
"Almost overshot the intersection there chief," Matt muttered to himself, obviously unhappy with his slow reactions. Of course ever since the run in with the gang members, they had been traveling down the streets at a speed almost double the limit. Matt knew any further encounters would be bad, especially since the front car, the car that he was driving, had no more non-lethal defenses left.
They made it to the city limits without incident, and began to look for a sign for Shoreline so they could turn off the highway. After five minutes, Paul spotted the sign and Matt took a right to reach the off-ramp. It was relatively easy for them to find the Sheridan after that, and Matt pulled the SUV into the parking lot.
"We're gonna need to stop at a Wal-Mart before we leave and get something," he said as he gestured to the scorch marks on the side of the car.
"Good thing you picked black," Greg said, "It helps reduce the visible scorching."
"Looks like he almost got you guys," Adam said as he gazed at the damage the car had taken from the Molotov.
"We made it out of there. That's good enough for me," Mark said as Sam nodded.
"Okay, let's get our stuff into the hotel and get some rooms. After you get your stuff settled, meet in my room. We'll go over what to do from there," Matt said as he grabbed his duffel bag and one of the cases of ammunition he had shipped out. Everyone grabbed their stuff, and followed Matt into the lobby.
"Is it just me or is everything out here deserted?" Paul asked, getting a few scattered laughs from the others.
"I've got a feeling it might have to do with the riots and Seattle being basically locked down. It's definitely going to make our search for Burton that much harder," Matt said.
"Of course there's always the possibility that he isn't in Seattle," Sam said. "I mean, if we couldn't get somewhere to stay, I doubt he could too."
"He could've been here to see someone, and just stayed with them," Greg said, pointing out the obvious.
"That's likely," Matt said. "We're going to have to either find somewhere to leave our cars, or limit our searches to daytime. We could spend the nights searching the surrounding areas, in case he is out of the city." He walked up to the counter, and seeing that no one was there rang the bell for service.
"Hi. Welcome to the Sheridan Hotel. How many rooms would you like," the clerk asked after Matt rang the bell.
"Five please," he replied.
"How many nights will you be staying?" she asked.
"Three," Matt replied.
"Okay, let's see. $100 per room per night, five rooms, which will come out to," she began as Greg interrupted.
"About $1,500."
"Good enough for me," she responded as Matt pulled a manila envelope from his bag and began counting off hundred dollar bills. He handed over fifteen, and got the keys to the rooms and handed them out.
"I'll take the room by myself. You guys figure out who's rooming with whom. Meet in my room when you're ready," he said as he brought his stuff to the elevators. Since their rooms were on the fifth floor, he didn't feel like walking.
"What room are you in Matt?" Sam asked.
"512," Matt replied looking down at his key.
"Okay. We'll be there ASAP," Sam replied as Matt nodded.
"Take your time. We're not going to accomplish much tonight I think," Matt replied. The elevator arrived at the ground floor, and he stepped in with Paul, Mark and Zack. They rode up to the fifth floor, and Matt walked down the hallway until he reached his room. He put his stuff down and slid his keycard through the slot. He popped the door open and dragged his stuff in, and immediately shut the door behind him. He opened up first his duffel bag and pulled out his body armor, helmet, and F-1100. He put the rifle in the top drawer of the far left dresser, and the armor in the drawer beneath it. He put the helmet in the closet, and then began to put spare changes of clothes in the dresser. After he unpacked the duffel bag, he put it in the closet so that it was covering up the helmet from prying eyes. He then went to work on the case containing ammunition, until he heard a knock at the door.
"Come on in," he said as he walked over and opened the door.
"We're all here," Sam replied as they filed in and sat on the beds and the chairs for the table in the room.
"The first thing we need to take care of is weapons. I need to know exactly what everyone has," Matt said. "So I can distribute some of this ammunition."
"We're way ahead of you boss," Mark said as he pulled out a list. "Everything's on here except what you have, because no one's sure what you've got here."
"I have a few things to add actually," Matt said. "I brought some extra things in case we get into trouble."
"What, pray tell?" Adam asked with a hint of curiosity.
"We'll get to that later. Okay, Mark you're good. You've got your F- 1100 and Paul has his. You both have your Desert Eagles, so that'll take care of you. Take the top box in the upper right left-side dresser drawer. It's got twenty two 7.62mm magazines, ten shotgun magazines, and twelve pistol magazines. I know you guys brought two full magazines for your F- 1100s and pistols, so that should give you guys two full field loads each. Greg, we'll take care of you now. I know you've got your SPAS-12, and a P- 90. You've also got your Scorpion. There should be a box in the lower left dresser drawer with 9mm ammo for the Scorpion and 5.7 mm rounds for the P- 90. I'm going to give your SPAS-12 to Zack, because he's only got three pistols." Matt said as Greg interrupted.
"I'm going to need a second primary weapon, and Zack's going to need shells," he said as Matt smiled.
"Don't worry," he said as he pulled out a long plastic case from the bottom of his FedEx box. "I have plenty of shotgun shells. For your second primary weapon, I assume you're familiar with a Cobra Auto Grenade Launcher."
"Twelve round revolver-style magazine, standard model comes with laser sights and a folding stock," Greg replied.
"Three speed loaders, chambered in 40mm. I've got eighty four shells for you. Thirty high explosive, ten liquid nitrogen, ten napalm, fifteen armor piercing, and fifteen cluster rounds," Matt replied.
"You're short four there chief," Paul replied with a smirk.
"Not supposed to have these," Matt said pulling out four shiny cylinders.
"What are they?" Greg asked.
"White Phosphorous," Matt replied as Greg's face lit up.
"Excellent. That'll make a Tyrant's day miserable." Paul was still looking on in a daze so Greg clarified, "White Phosphorous has been banned from use by the U.S. military. It'll stick to anything and burns. Nothing can extinguish it, and it'll burn underwater."
"Holy crap!" Paul yelled, "That'll do a job on one of those mothers."
"You better believe it. Just so you guys know, I don't have those rounds, and you never saw them. I went through a lot of hassle to get them, so make 'em count. Sam, what do you and Adam have in the way of guns?" Matt asked.
"I've got an F-1100 and two Glock .40 cal. pistols," Sam answered.
"I've got a Remington Auto Shotgun in 12 gauge and two MAC-11s," Adam replied. "I've got two field loads for the MACs, so don't worry about ammo for them. I don't have anything for the Remington though."
"Take Zack and get the big box in the middle drawer on the right-side dresser," Matt said as they did.
"This'll do nicely," Adam said as he pulled out a 100-shell box of 12 gauge shells.
"That'll get you five 20-round magazines for the Remington. There are plenty of boxes in there for you two. I believe a field load is twenty magazines, right?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, that's 800 shells each for two field loads, or a total of sixteen boxes between the two of us," Adam answered. "Looks like you've got more than enough here."
"Yep, so if you guys want to take some extra mags too I won't stop you. I've got my F-1100 and Desert Eagle, with my own ammo already taken care of. I have 6 armor piercing mags and 6 regulars since I'm a little short on cash and those AP rounds are friggin expensive," Matt said moving on. "Zack, how are you fixed for pistol ammo?"
"I've got two mags for the Desert Eagle and 4 for the Colt .45s," Zack replied.
"Okay, there's ammo for the Colts in the case in your room, should be a smaller box labeled .45 cal. Full Metal Jacketed," Matt said. "The Desert Eagle ammo is in the box below the one Mark pulled out."
"Thanks a lot Matt," Zack said as he pulled out the box with the Desert Eagle ammo in it and took twelve clips. He sat back down as Matt continued looking down the list.
"I'd like to go over what I brought for the whole unit to use. You already know about the Cobra, and the shells which are in Paul's case. There're grenades in the case with Sam, and some C-4 in Greg's box. I've got more three Remington Auto Shotguns and two more Cobras for anyone who wants to take some extra firepower. I've also got a half-dozen MAC-11s and four Colt .45s if you need side arms. There's more Cobra ammo in with Mark, and ammo for the MACs and Colts there too. In fact, I think I'm gonna snag one of those extra MACs. Zack's got more shotgun shells, and Adam's got two AK-47s and ammo for them. If we need anything else, we could probably hit one of the near-by gun shops for it. That's about it for the stuff in my case. Everything else is split up between you guys." Matt said as he crossed off several items on his list. "Added together with the tear gas you guys brought," he continued as Mark's face went red, "Of which you owe Mark a grenade, we should have enough to deal with anything in the city. Now how about you Ken?" Matt asked.
"I've got," he began as somebody ran past their door screaming.
"ZOMBIES! OH GOD!" the person, obviously a she from the pitch of the scream, yelled. Matt was the first one out the door, and caught up with her at the end of the hallway.
"Ma'am, please calm down," he said as she began to sob uncontrollably. "Now you said there are zombies. Could you tell us where you saw them please?"
"They, they, oh God it was horrible," she replied as she began to shake. "In the lobby, they broke the door down and started killing people. Someone knocked me into the elevator, and it just started going up. I don't remember hitting any buttons or anything, it just opened up here. We're all going to die!"
"She's in shock," Mark whispered to Matt as he nodded. "Ma'am, please go to your room and lock the door. You should be safe in there. Take this just in case," Mark said handing her a Beretta with two clips of ammo.
"Th- Thank you," she got out before walking back to the elevator and numbly pushing the button to go up.
"Where'd you get the Beretta?" Matt asked.
"I've got three more. They're at the bottom of your list," Mark replied.
"We're going to need them. Load up, looks like we're going hunting," Matt said as he turned to address the whole group. "Take as much ammo as you can carry. I don't know how long we'll be out for. Right now finding Barry is going to be shifted down to a secondary objective. I want to secure this hotel, and start looking for survivors. Team 1 and I will take the lobby and first floor. Team 2 will secure floors 3 and 4, and Team 3 will take floors 1 and 2. Greg, clear out 2 first, then help us with the first floor. Before we do anything, I'm going down to the first floor to take a look."
"Don't believe her?" Sam asked pointing towards the elevator.
"I don't want to take the risk of revealing our presence unnecessarily. Mark, give me a Beretta and two clips. If I'm not back in ten minutes, get to your assigned floors and save the civilians. Let's get a move on," Matt ordered as Mark handed him a Beretta with ammo. He walked over to the elevator, and pushed the call button. The doors swung open as he walked in and pushed the button for the first floor. He slammed a clip into the Beretta and pulled back the slide as the doors closed and the elevator began to descend.
'Why does the music in these things always suck?' he asked himself. He smirked, and then lost all sign of facial expression as he put on his game face. The elevator stopped and the doors swung open showing an abandoned front lobby. Matt stepped out and swung the Beretta across the lobby, scanning it for threats. Immediately he noticed that the front door and windows were smashed, and that there was a foul stench in the air. He noticed a body slumped over the front counter, and carefully approached.
"Whoa!" he yelled as he noticed that the body wasn't alone. Three zombies were eating the legs of the corpse, not noticing him at first. They suddenly stopped eating the corpse, and all gazed at him at the same time, seeming to sense fresh food. Matt ran back to the elevator and pushed the call button as the zombies, joined by several more from the direction of the first floor rooms, began to approach.
"Time to get out of here," he said stepping into the elevator after making sure there wasn't an undead surprise waiting for him. As he pushed the buttons first for the 5th floor and then for the doors to close, he brought the Beretta up and fired three shots into the closest zombie. It stumbled twice, but continued to advance. He aimed slightly higher and fired again, striking the zombie right above its left temple. The zombie fell to the ground, and remained still. The doors began to close as Matt fired shots at two other zombies. Both dropped after well-aimed headshots, and the doors finally closed. The elevator began to rise as Matt hit the clip ejector, checking how much ammo remained in the Beretta's first magazine.
"Three shots," he muttered to himself as he pulled out the fresh clip and slapped it in. The elevator arrived at the fifth floor, and Matt stepped out to see that thankfully there were no members of the living dead waiting for him. He walked down to his room and saw that the others were all gathered and waiting for his return.
"We've got zombies," Matt said as he opened up the dresser drawers with his F-1100, Desert Eagle, body armor and ammo. "Let me go get my combat suit," he said as the others walked out into the hallway. Matt quickly pulled on the jet black combat suit, complete with web belt and Nomex fireproof gloves. The remainder of the suit was also fire-resistant, giving Matt a bit of protection from extreme heat. It was made up of a heat- treated ballistic nylon, giving the wearer a limited amount of protection from shrapnel and other projectiles. He pulled on his combat vest, and began securing clips of ammo to it. He put the Desert Eagle in his hip holster, and grabbed his helmet out of the closet. He slapped a shotgun magazine into its cradle in his F-1100 and followed it up with a standard magazine of 7.62 mm rounds and slung the rifle's sling over his shoulder. He put his helmet on but left the blast shield up, so he could talk to everyone without having to set turn on his tactical radio and run down its batteries needlessly and walked out into the hallway.
"Here you go boss," Mark said after Matt stepped out, tossing him four grenades which Matt clipped on to his web belt. He glanced down to see his favorite combination of two frag grenades, a high explosive grenade, and a smoke grenade.
"Listen up," he said calling all of them together. "We've got zombies. The first floor is fully infested. I got three of 'em but there's more down there. The front entrance has been completely destroyed, and anything could be coming in while we're up here talking. Team 2; do a quick search of floors 3 and 4, then get down to the first floor. That'll be our rendezvous point. We'll decide what to do after the hotel is secure."
"At least on the plus side if Barry's anywhere in the area this'll bring him out," Adam said, "Making our mission easier."
"And on the minus side, someone from Umbrella is here too. Zombies don't just pop out of thin air. Be on your guard, we don't know what else is in the city. Keep to the stairs, and aim for their heads. It's the only thing that can put them down for good," Matt said as he pushed the door open. Everyone else formed up behind him, and branched off when they descended to their assigned floors. Finally only Matt, Mark and Paul were left standing at the door leading to the first floor.
"On three," Matt said as he activated his radio and slid the black- tinted bulletproof shield over his face. Mark and Paul followed suit, as Matt held up three fingers. He kicked the door open as Mark and Paul entered the lobby and swept their F-1100s across the room. It was almost exactly as it had been except for the three bodies lying on the floor near the elevator.
"I'm not seeing anything here boss," Mark said as he shrugged.
"That's what happened to me before. Then I walked over to the body on the counter and, HEY!" he yelled as he noticed that the body formerly slumped over the counter was gone. "It's gone," he continued. He walked over to the desk like he had before, and noticed that the body was nowhere to be found. Suddenly he heard a scratching sound coming from the door separating the front lobby from the remainder of the first floor.
"I'm going to open the door. Mark, Paul be ready to shoot any zombies on the other end," Matt ordered as he grabbed the handle to the door. Mark and Paul took their positions about ten feet from the door, and leveled their rifles at it. Matt pulled the door open and saw the remainder of the body from the desk drag itself towards them. Mark went to shoot it but before he could, Paul fired into its skull completely destroying its head. Matt turned, and saw that several other zombies were entering the room from the destroyed front entrance. He began to fire, aiming carefully to make sure that he hit the zombies in the head as Mark and Paul followed suit. Matt kicked the door closed to make sure they weren't attacked from behind while they dealt with the new threat entering from off the streets.
"This is Team 1," he called over his radio. "We have contact in the front lobby. Area is contained; Sam, Greg, give me a status report."
"Team 2 has found zero zombies on the 4th floor and is moving to secure floor 3," Sam called over the radio.
"Floor 2 is secure," Greg called. "Moving to support you."
"Expect hostiles near the vicinity of the staircase doors," Matt warned.
"Thanks for the warning," Greg replied. "You might want to take cover," he added as the door opened slightly and a gloved hand with a grenade in it appeared.
"Fire in the hole!" Matt called as Greg pulled the pin and rolled the frag grenade into the room. They all took cover behind the counter as the grenade exploded. Matt stood up and waved to Team 3 as they entered the room, and made a beeline for the counter. He brought his F-1100 up and shot two zombies as they tried to get up off the ground after the grenade knocked them down. He scored a headshot on his first round on one zombie, and hit the second one with a shotgun blast, finishing them off.
"What's the situation?" Greg asked after they had arrived.
"Lobby is clear," Mark called out as they all stood up.
"Okay, let's clear out the rest of the first floor. Paul, stay here with Ken and keep the lobby open. Everyone else, secure the first floor. When Sam's team gets down here, send them in after us," Matt said to Paul as he nodded. Ken was busily loading a magazine to one of Matt's Remington Auto Shotguns from a box of shells that Matt had purchased. It was clear that he hadn't had time to finish getting the weapon loaded before Matt had returned, and had been too busy to afterwards. He was also fairly nervous by the way he was fumbling with the shells before loading the shotgun.
"What's wrong Ken?" Matt asked, walking over to him.
"I really don't like killing human beings," he replied shaking his head. "I know these people are already gone, but I still can't help it. I'm a computer expert, not a warrior."
"Look, I can understand that you don't like to shoot people, and I can't ask you to like it. But you're going to have to fight here in order to survive. I don't think these people are going to mind you shooting them, they'd probably be glad to be put out of their misery. If this happened to me, I'd expect any of you to take me out, and I'm sure you all would want the same thing," Matt said. "Now let's get a move on, in case there're any survivors down here."
"On three, pop the door again," Matt said as the team stacked up behind him and Mark. Mark stepped over to the left side of the door, grabbed the handle, and pulled it open. Matt charged into the hallway, and saw that other than the headless body on the floor it was empty. He gingerly stepped over it, and began knocking on doors and checking to see if any swung open. Several non-infected people, as far as he could tell, exited and began asking questions which usually ended when they saw the body on the floor.
"You people need to get into the lobby," Greg said pointing them in that general direction.
"Who are you?" one person asked.
"We're here to evacuate you. There's been some kind of viral outbreak," Matt said pointing to the headless zombie. "It's exactly like the one in Raccoon. You need to get to the lobby while we find any other survivors." Matt continued down until he reached the end of the hallway.
"How many doors did we get no response at?" he asked.
"Ten," Mark replied, having kept count at Matt's request. Sam led Team 2 over to where Matt had gathered the others with him, as he gave them new orders.
"We're going to kick the doors in, and see if anyone else is alive. Knock first then bust in," he ordered. "Be ready in case there're zombies, or any bioweapons." They spread out down the hallway, two per room. Matt kicked open the closest door, and cautiously entered. There wasn't anyone in the main room, as he knocked on the closed bathroom door. As he entered, he saw that there was a body lying on the floor. He approached carefully, until the body began to rise. Matt could tell by the way the person's arm was literally hanging from his shoulder that he was no longer alive, and fired a double blast from his shotgun at point-blank range. The zombie disintegrated under the volley, as Matt turned to leave the room.
"So far we haven't found anyone," Mark said over the radio as Matt and Greg walked back into the hallway. "Six rooms down, four to go." Suddenly, Matt heard yelling coming from the lobby.
"Leave the rest of them," he called over the radio as they started to run towards the lobby. He saw another group of zombies trying to get at the civilians who were cowering behind the counter. Paul and Ken were holding them back, but only barely. Matt took out two zombies who were within five feet of the counter, as the others ran to assist Paul and Ken. He saw Ken using his shotgun like a wild man, dropping any zombie that came close or twitched more than a few times. He gave an inward smile before something outside caught his eye.
'What in the name of God is that?' he asked to himself as he saw some sort of four-legged creature perched not on the ground, but hanging off of the front wall of the hotel. It crawled in as the others were preoccupied with the zombies, and began to approach the civilians.
"Oh no you don't," he said as he pelted the creature with fire. It dropped off the ceiling, and did something unexpected. It shot out its tongue towards one of the civilians, nearly hitting him. Matt took the opportunity to shot the creature in its exposed brain, spattering its head all over the wall. He glanced up to see that the remaining zombies had been dispatched by the others.
"What are we going to do with these people?" Matt heard Sam ask over the radio as he looked at them. There were at least twenty of them, more than they'd be able to fit in the SUVs. Matt took several seconds to consider his options before coming to what he thought was an acceptable conclusion.
"Call the SOC; tell them about the outbreak up here. Get some helicopters here to get the civilians to safety. We've got to find out where the Umbrella team is, and make sure they don't spread any more viruses. The government is probably going to have to nuke the town, and we don't want to be here when it happens. I can't believe Umbrella would do this," Matt said as he reloaded his F-1100.
"Listen up," he said raising the helmet shield so he could talk to the civilians as well. "We're going to get some helicopters to airlift you out. Wait for them on the roof. Knock on the doors on the upper floors and tell them the same thing. Help will be here soon." Matt added.
"What are these things? Why are they here?" one brave person asked, standing up.
"I have no idea," Matt lied, knowing he couldn't tell these people the truth. They slowly got up, and walked to the stairs to spread his message about their salvation. "Anyone who needs more ammo or wants more weapons go get them now. I'll stay here and watch the lobby. Somebody bring me back an Auto Shotgun, please." Everyone but Mark went up to get more stuff.
"I'm good boss. Didn't even get a chance to shoot anything, and I've already got another weapon," he said as he unslung one of the AK-47s that Matt had purchased. "Always liked this gun."
"I really have a bad feeling about this place. I can't help but feel that this outbreak was as much our fault as Umbrella's," Matt said as he sat down on the counter. "I mean, this is too much of a coincidence. First we hear that Barry's here, then the virus spreads. I wonder if it was meant to target us," he told his friend. "Why does this make me think that we might have a sell-out in our government?"
"Maybe because, somewhere, there is one. I don't like this either Matt; there are too many things that are happening to make this coincidence. Now let's get on the horn to the SOC and get these people out of here," Mark replied. Matt walked over to the payphone that was miraculously still working, and dialed a special contact number for the SOC headquarters.
"May I ask who's calling, please?" the person who answered the phone asked.
"Andrew Hopkins for the Assistant Director, please. It's an emergency," Matt replied. The name he had used was one of several specially set up for emergency uses when contacting the SOC.
"This is Williams," came a somewhat-older sounding voice a few seconds later.
"Assistant Director, this is Ryan. We've got a big problem in Shoreline, Washington. There's been a release of one of Umbrella's viruses, and it's been confirmed. I think one of their teams is here, looking for one of the Raccoon S.T.A.R.S. survivors. We're currently at a Sheridan Hotel in the city, with a group of civilians who need evacuation."
"Slow down son, I'm heading towards the command center right now. What do you need in the way of support?" the Assistant Director asked, as Matt could tell for the first time that he was using a cell phone.
"I'll need helicopters to get these people off of the roof of the hotel, for starters. I'm also going to need the city barricaded, and if the infection is severe enough, a nuclear weapon," Matt replied as Williams sighed.
"You want to implement the Raccoon Directive, then?" he asked.
"If the situation cannot be contained, yes sir. Just like we talked about."
"I can't believe we're going to have to nuke another U.S. city," Williams said, mostly to himself. "You'll have whatever you need. Just get out safely, and find that Umbrella team."
"Yes sir," Matt said before hanging up the phone. The elevator had just returned from the 5th floor with the other SOC members on it, as Greg tossed Matt the Auto Shotgun. He checked and saw that the magazine was already loaded, and strapped it onto his back. He walked over to Greg, who had grabbed another twenty seven magazines. Matt secured them wherever he had room, and saw that Sam and Paul had grabbed the extra grenade launchers. Ken took the remaining AK-47, and a MAC-11 to go along with his Glock and Remington. That reminded Matt that he had a MAC too, and he pulled it out of his backpack and placed it in a holster on his left hip.
"Before we do anything, we have to get those last four rooms," Matt said as Sam nodded.
"There are only four rooms left. We can have them done in less than five minutes," he replied. They walked back over to the hallway and began to check the remaining rooms. Matt was slightly disappointed to find nothing in the first room, since he had a feeling someone else was alive here.
"Last room," Greg warned over the radio as he and Matt took up positions outside.
"Anyone in here?" Matt asked as he pounded on the door. No one replied, so he backed up and kicked the door open. What greeted him wasn't a pretty sight.
"Oh man" Greg said as he caught a glimpse of the mutilated bodies. Matt walked over and checked each for signs of life before turning away.
"We can't let them come back," he said as he pulled out his Beretta. He put a shot in to each of the corpses, ensuring they wouldn't come back as undead. "Let's check the bathroom."
"On three," Greg said giving a countdown with his left hand while his right gripped the door knob. Matt's F-1100 was leveled at the door ready for anything. The door swung open to reveal two small children, one older boy and one younger-looking girl, hiding in the bathroom.
"Two survivors here!" Matt yelled as he walked into the room. He motioned for the kids to follow him outside, as he tried to keep them from seeing the bodies in the corner of the room.
"Who are you?" one of them asked.
"We're here to," Matt began unsure how to phrase it, "rescue as many people as we can."
"What happened to our parents?" the boy asked.
"I'm sorry," Matt replied as he led them out into the hallway.
"Do you two know the way up to the roof?" he asked them as they walked past the zombie corpse in the hallway, hoping to distract them from it.
"I think so," the boy replied taking his sister by the hand and leading her to the stairs.
"They'll get out," Mark said as he put his hand on Matt's shoulder.
"They shouldn't have to experience this stuff," Matt replied. "We've got more work to do. There have to be more survivors in this city. We've got to find them. I've got a hunch that we're going to want to be at the police station."
"Why there?" Sam asked.
"It's probably the safest place in the city now. While I was reading reports collected from survivors from Raccoon, it seemed that at one point or another most of them at least thought about heading there," Matt replied. "It's a fairly safe bet. Even if there aren't many civilians there, we can co-ordinate with any of the surviving cops. The extra firepower would be nice. Now how are we going to get there?"
"I wouldn't advise using the SUVs. They're in a safe location right now, and by moving them we could put them at risk to taking damage or being destroyed. If we lose them, we might be in trouble," Greg said as most of the others nodded.
"Okay. While I was looking at the map to find the hotel, I also found out the police station is three blocks up the road and two over on the intersection of Maple and Red Streets. If we book it, we can be there in a few minutes," Adam said as he looked at Matt to make the final decision.
"We're burning daylight people," Matt said even though it was already pushing 9:00 PM. "Let's get to that station. Team 3, cover our rear. Team 2, cover our flanks. We'll take point. If you see something shout it out, or if it isn't friendly, shoot it. I want to be there in less than five minutes." Matt took the point and was the first one out on the street. He looked up and down it, and saw the burning wrecks of cars all over the place. There was a slight odor in the air, carrying the smells of death with it. They immediately took off running up the street, with their weapons sweeping in all possible directions an attack could come from. Matt caught a glimpse of another of the creatures with long tongues, before it ate six rounds to the upper body from Mark's F-1100. He heard several shotgun blasts fired, but didn't stop or turn to look. They reached the turn they had to make, and Matt waved on the others to count and make sure they were all there. Once he saw they were all there, he sped up until he was back at the front, just in time to see the front doors of the police station. His heart fell as he saw a pack of zombies in front of it, pounding at the doors.
"Greg, take 'em down," Matt said waving Greg forward with his Grenade Launcher. He snapped the chamber closed, and took careful aim at the zombies.
"Fire in the hole," he muttered squeezing the trigger. The zombies were tossed all over by the explosion, giving them a window to reach the door. Matt waved the others forward, and took off running for the door. Any zombie that moved was quickly dispatched, as they reached the front door. Matt turned the knob and pushed the door, but it only opened a few inches.
"Anyone, open the door!" he shouted as he turned to see several dogs charging down the street from the opposite direction they had come from. "Kill 'em all!" he added as he began to fire at the zombified dogs. They fell in pieces as the flurry of rounds cascaded over them. He heard the door open fully, and turned to see two cops standing there with shotguns at the ready.
"Fall back, into the building," Matt ordered as he backed into the station, ceasing fire as to not hit any friendlies. They all managed to make it into the station, while the officers pushed the heavy doors closed. The other SOC commandos split between covering them and helping to move the various barricades back into position. When they had finished, Matt gave a sigh of relief.
"Who are you?" the first cop asked.
"I'm not allowed to say," Matt replied. "But we're here to help you."
"Funny, that's what the other group said," the officer replied. "In fact, they said that there might be another group like them coming. That the other group was responsible for the outbreak," he added pointing the shotgun at Matt.
"We didn't do that. I'm Agent Donaldson, with the FBI. Here," he said taking a badge and id out of one of the pockets of his suit. "Who was the other group?" he asked as the officer scanned the badge.
"They were from Umbrella. They were looking for a bunch of terrorists from SKY or SUN, or some team like that. Said they had spread the virus here to show their support for the Taliban," the officer replied handing his badge back.
"They're lying. Umbrella was responsible for the virus. The S.T.A.R.S. member they were looking for was helping to fight against him. We have to find that team. Do you know where they are, or how many were with them?" Matt asked as he began reloading his weapons.
"The last I heard, they were checking the second floor for the S.T.A.R.S. guy. He had been helping us hold off the zombies, but disappeared a little afterwards. He's definitely in the building though. I counted five of them. All I know for sure is that there are fewer of them than there are of you," the cop replied.
"Alright. Can you guys hold the lobby?" Matt asked. "There'll be an evac helicopter here soon. We have to get that team."
"Give 'em a shot for us," the second cop said. "We've got the front. Go get them."
"Where'd you get the badge?" Mark whispered when the cops were out of earshot.
"Around," Matt replied with a slight laugh. "We're going upstairs," he added, pointing to the spiral staircase in the rear of the lobby. "Team 1 will take the left side, Team 2 will take the right, and Team 3 will be the reserve. Give a shout if you find the Umbrella team, or Barry. Ken, we're going to need you down here monitoring the security cameras. We've got to move people." They ran up the stairs, splitting off into their assigned areas. Ken ran over to the security desk, and began to patch in to the various cameras throughout the building, specifically the ones on the second floor.
"Stay close," Matt said as he tightened the grip on his F-1100. They crept down the hall, straining for anything that could help them find Barry. Suddenly, a series of gunshots erupted from one of the rooms to the front. Matt heard several automatic weapons, and a booming revolver, he guessed, replying.
"Move it!" he yelled as they ran down the hall. "This is Team 1. We may have confirmed the locations of both Barry and the Umbrella team. Get over here Greg."
"On our way," he replied as the now shorthand team ran to support Matt's team. Matt continued down the hall until a heavy slug exited one of the rooms, making a large splinter in the door. Matt stopped, and got down on his knees. He peeked in through the keyhole, and saw something that he immediately disliked. There were four Umbrella commandos in the room, peppering an overturned couch with automatic fire. Suddenly, they stopped shooting.
"Come out with your hands up, Burton," one of the commandos said.
"No," what Matt guessed was Barry said, adding a shot from a revolver to the statement.
"Here's what we're going to do," he whispered. "Does anyone have a flashbang?"
"You better believe it boss," Mark said removing the grenade from his belt. Team 3 arrived, as Matt took the grenade.
"As soon as I toss the grenade, take out the Umbrella goons. Take them alive if possible. I want to find out where the missing man is," Matt said as he cracked the door open. He pulled the pin on the grenade as the others looked away, and rolled it into the room. He managed to close the door just before the flashbang went off, and quickly pulled it open and charged into the room.
"Clear," he called out as he kicked an M4 carbine away from one of the downed troopers. The remaining soldiers were similarly disarmed, as Matt pointed his rifle at the head of one of them.
"Where's your leader?" he asked as Barry poked his head up, revolver at the ready.
"I'm in charge," the Umbrella soldier said.
"Where's the fifth person?" Matt asked as the soldier laughed.
"The traitor? He's been taken care of," the man replied giving a slight laugh. Matt smacked him in the face with his F-1100, and threw him back to the ground.
"Where is he?" he asked again, starting to lose patience.
"In a supply closet at the end of the hallway. He lost his nerve, and decided not to carry out our orders," the soldier replied.
"What orders?" Matt asked.
"To destroy Seattle."
"Mr. Burton, are you okay?" Matt asked, turning his attention from the Umbrella commando to the ex- S.T.A.R.S. member.
"Fine. Who are you?" he asked.
"My name is Matthew Ryan, commander of the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Operations Command Team 1. Dan, go to the supply closet and bring the defector here please," he added.
"You got it Matt," Dan replied as he put his rifle back over his shoulder and pulled out a MAC-11.
"Guys, you better get moving. You've got incoming of the big, gray and ugly type. Get down here to the lobby fast," came Ken's voice over the radio.
"Move it people!" Matt yelled as he lifted one of the captured Umbrella soldiers on to his feet. "Run for the lobby if you want to live," he said to the soldier who promptly took off as fast as he could. "Get to the lobby!" he added as the others took off down the hallway. Matt brought up the rear, right behind Barry. They made it back to the staircase just in time to see a Tyrant charging down the hallway opposite them. They ran down as fast as they could, as Greg pulled out a brick of C-4. He stuck it to the staircase, and waited for the Tyrant to step on it. The others reached the bottom as the Tyrant stepped on to the stairs. Greg waited until it was right next to the C-4 before triggering it, and dropping the Tyrant down to the floor.
"Give me a fire wall," Matt called out as a stream of grenades landed in front of the Tyrant. A blazing inferno popped into existence in front of it, searing the top layers of its flesh.
"Greg, bust out the White Phosphorous," Matt said looking over his shoulder. Greg popped out two high explosive rounds, and replaced them with two of the White Phosphorous rounds Matt had given him earlier. He brought the launcher up to his shoulder and clicked the laser sight on. The small red dot settled right on the Tyrant's torso as Greg squeezed the trigger.
"Take cover," he said as he fired the round. It struck the Tyrant, and immediately began to burn through its flesh. The Tyrant bellowed, enraged, and began to charge through the firewall, cooking off even more of its flesh.
"Number two," Greg said pulling the trigger again. This round burst on the Tyrant's left leg, burning through the flesh and starting to char the bone beneath. The Tyrant screamed, and collapsed to one knee.
"Fire at will!" Matt yelled as the SOC teams unloaded on the Tyrant. Ken skidded up next to Matt, and began to fire his shotgun at the Tyrant. Every shot that hit it blew off chunks of flesh, until the monster finally went down. It was still burning, but no longer moving.
"Let's make sure it doesn't come back," Sam said as he cautiously approached the Tyrant's corpse. He leveled his F-1100 at its head, and fired off a double blast from the shotgun attachment. Its thick skull cracked open, and more blood flew from the fresh wounds. Sam emptied the remainder of his clip into the Tyrant's head, until it was nothing more than an unrecognizable mass.
"Adios," he said as he pulled the pin on a high explosive grenade, and rolled it towards the corpse. It stopped right next to it, and detonated, causing even more damage to the remainder of the mangled weapon.
"It's gone," Matt said as he reloaded his rifle. "Until the helicopters get here, we keep that thing under watch. I don't want it coming back to life on us."
"Dude, we turned it into fish food. There's no way its coming back," Paul said as he gave Mark a high-five. "That thing ate more than its fair share of lead."
"How many people are in here?" Matt asked as the two cops again walked over.
"There're twenty people in the parking garage. There's also fifteen cops down there," the first one replied.
"We're evacuating everyone. Do you have a phone I can use?" Matt asked as the officer pointed him towards the security desk. He picked up the phone, heard the dial tone, and called the SOC. This time, the Assistant Director picked up the phone.
"Ryan, we've got a National Guard regiment surrounding the city and preparing to enter it. The rescue helicopters already made it to the hotel, and are ready to extract your team and any other survivors. When the National Guard unit pulls out, we have two F-117/As orbiting prepared to level the city."
"We've got 38 more survivors at the police station who need to be airlifted out as well. We'll be waiting on the roof," Matt said.
"They'll be there in fifteen minutes, after they unload the other survivors. In the mean time, find a nice safe spot to wait," Williams replied.
"Yes sir," Matt said as he hung up the phone. "Evac's coming in fifteen minutes," he called to everyone in the lobby.
"Finally," Mark said as he lifted the shield on his helmet.
"Hey guys," Dan called out as he walked into the lobby, "Look who I found." He had the Umbrella soldier with him, and walked over to the group.
"Why you," Barry began as he rushed the Umbrella agent.
"Easy fella, he's a friendly," Sam said as he and Mark restrained him from killing the defector.
"Who are you?" Matt asked, "And why did they put you in the closet?"
"My name's Robert, but when I was in Umbrella my codename was Hunk. They put me in there because I finally had enough of doing Umbrella's bidding. I tried to stop them from spreading the viruses, but as you can tell I wasn't successful. We had been tracking Mr. Burton since we arrived two days ago, and finally located him in Shoreline. That was when everything went wrong."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Shoreline, Washington USA
Outside Howard Johnson Hotel
February 15, 2001 3:00 PM
"This is Pierce. We've located the target and are pursuing him," came the voice from the driver of the black van.
"We can't take him in public," Hunk said as Pierce shifted the van into gear and pulled out in pursuit of the pickup truck containing Barry Burton.
"I know. We'll wait for him to stop somewhere and then release the viruses," he replied as he looked back at the other three soldiers in the van.
"I could take him right now," one of them muttered looking through the scope of a PSG-1 sniper rifle.
"If you have the shot, take it," Pierce said as the van rolled to a stop at a red light.
"Just a few more seconds," the sniper replied settling the crosshairs on Burton's head. Just as he squeezed the trigger, the light changed to green and the pickup accelerated. The bullet struck the driver's side mirror instead of Barry's head. He immediately floored the accelerator, shooting ahead of the pursuing van.
"Let him go," Hunk said as the van began to accelerate. Instead of following his orders, Pierce continued to follow the pickup as it turned onto a side street. The van took the turn wide, and shot up onto two wheels as Pierce struggled to bring it back under control. It settled back down, as the undercarriage smacked the ground hard. The van skidded to a stop as Barry's pickup continued down the road.
"We lost him because of you," Pierce said pulling out a pistol and pointing it at Hunk.
"I told you not to chase him. You're the one who lost control of the van," Hunk replied snatching the pistol out of Pierce's hands.
"It doesn't matter. There's one way to draw him out for sure," Pierce said as he rolled down his window.
"What are you doing?" Hunk asked as Pierce threw a vial out onto the street where it shattered. By the time it landed he had already started to drive again, and had the window rolled back up.
"Eliminating our target," he replied. "Burton will almost certainly go to the police station after the infection begins to spread through the city. We can ambush him there."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"After that, we arrived here. The virus had spread remarkably fast, and zombies had already begun to roam the streets. Once we were inside, they others lured me upstairs where they confronted me about my plans to leave the company. As you can see, they won the fight and as far as I can remember knocked me out and threw me in the closet. I woke up to find that the door was locked shut, and I had been disarmed. Unfortunately for them, they missed something important," Hunk said as he pulled a vial containing a green-colored liquid out from a pouch in his pants.
"That isn't what I think it is, is it?" Matt asked as Hunk passed the vial over. It was clearly labeled with a large 'T' on the side and lid.
"Yes. A vial of live T-virus," Hunk replied with a faint smile. "Some hard evidence to use against Umbrella."
"Helicopters are here," Mark said as he walked away from the front of the lobby.
"Can you two get the people in the garage?" Matt asked the two cops.
"We're all over it. You guys did enough to take out ugly over there," the second one replied pointing his shotgun in the direction of the felled Tyrant.
"Our work here is done," Matt said as he walked towards the elevator. "Time to go home people. Mr. Burton, would you be so kind as to provide us the benefit of your company on the helicopter?"
"Um, okay," he replied after a slight pause. "Why are you so interested in me?"
"We need all of you," Matt replied. "Your knowledge of Umbrella and their bioweapons is going to be priceless. Without it, the SOC is basically operating blindly against Umbrella. We need the info you have on their leaders, personnel, ongoing weapons projects, everything." Matt hesitated before adding, "You might give us a fighting chance."
* * * * * * * *
Well, that's chapter 4 in the bag. It just about doubled the length of my story to this point. Another 12,000 words closer to my goal of obtaining a membership in the '100,000 Word Club.' I'm a little disappointed that I only got 3 characters for this section, but that's okay. There'll be plenty of opportunities later on for volunteers. Then again, upping the rating and length are probably going to help draw in some more readers.
My thanks go out to everyone who's reviewed this story so far, and everyone who contributed characters. Without you, this chapter would've sucked a lot more. Still, I really don't like the way it turned out. I shouldn't have started writing it before I had received all of the characters I was going to. You can tell when I got a character by how early it appears in the chapter (Dan Anderson was created today; I just went back a little and threw him in). Enough of my rambling, you aren't paying your internet and electric bills for this crap.
Next chapter: Big plot twist coming up. Shoreline is nuked, as the SOC finds out just how much influence Umbrella is able to exert on the U.S. Government. Several hard choices are going to have to be made, and sacrifices are going to be demanded. Also, the failure of his soldiers to eliminate Barry and the SOC teams is going to prompt Spencer to begin looking at drastic solutions to his problems. All of this and more will be found in Chapter 5- Hero's Resolve.
Please Read & Review this story. I'm continuing the story anyway the review front turns out, but it'll be a little more developed with a few character submissions (thank you to everyone who did again, you don't have to submit more; this is to people who haven't yet). Get the characters in please!
Author's Notes: Wow, Chapter 4 already. It seems like just yesterday I was only starting this fic. I guess these things just take on a life of their own. Oh well. This is the big knock-down drag-out fight chapter, and is definitely going to be the longest chapter yet. Enough of my rambling, it's time to get down to business.
Operation Falling S.T.A.R.S.
Chapter Four: Locked and Loaded
Somewhere over the Midwestern United States
Boeing 757 Northwest Airlines Flight 729
February 15, 2001 3:20 PM
"Would you get off of me?" Matt whispered, elbowing Mark in the side. Mark had fallen asleep with his head on Matt's shoulder, something which Matt had just become aware of. "Go back to your seat." Mark just gave him a dirty look before retaking his seat two rows behind Matt. Just as Matt was preparing to go back to sleep, Paul plopped in the seat next to him.
"Thanks a lot man, I was trying to get up here for the last fifteen minutes," Paul said, as Matt replied by starring at him. "What?"
"I've been trying to get a little sleep for the last fifteen minutes," Matt replied with a hint of anger in his voice which quickly evaporated. "It doesn't matter; we'll be on the ground in less than a half- hour. What do you need?"
"I think you need to have a talk with Zander. It's his first mission, and I've got a feeling he's going to be a liability," Paul replied. "He didn't even bring any heavy weapons. Just those pansy pistols of his," Paul continued, bringing his voice down to a whisper while mentioning the weapons.
"What's he brought for the mission?" Matt asked with a hint of concern. After encountering the Tyrant, he had done his best to secure large-caliber weapons for the three teams going to Seattle with him.
"Two Colt 1911A .45 cal. pistols and a Desert Eagle AE .50 cal. pistol," Paul answered.
"That's it?" Matt asked incredulously. "Okay, there's nothing we can do about that right now. Send him up when you go back to your seat," Matt replied with a slight sigh. He was more than a little curious as to why Zander had brought such light weaponry, especially after the briefing concerning the amounts of punishment it was theorized Umbrella's monsters could take.
"Hey Zander," Matt said as Paul went back to his seat, and Zander took the un-occupied seat next to Matt.
"Hi Matt, you ready for the mission?" he asked.
"Yeah. In fact, it's the mission I want to talk to you about. This is your first one, isn't it?" he asked as Zander nodded in the affirmative. "Okay. There are a few pointers I want to give you. If you follow them, you should come out alive. I say should because once you're in the field there's no such thing as a guarantee. Trust me when I say I learned that lesson the hard way. The first thing you need to do is lose the pistols. When we encountered the Tyrant in Afghanistan, it laughed at our F-1100s and two frag grenades. The pistols of yours are probably going to do more damage to it if you throw them than by shooting them at it," Matt said as Zander gave a slightly embarrassed look.
"But for the other creatures we found out about from the researchers, they sound like they'll be more susceptible to my pistols. Besides, I'm no good with heavy weapons. They tried to put me on a SAW in basic, and I couldn't hit a thing. Even with the M-16 during marksman trials I barely passed," he replied. "The only weapons I've ever been good with are shotguns and pistols, and I don't have a shotgun."
"Okay, we'll get you set up once we land. In the mean time, I also want to talk to you about being just a tad bit over trusting. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong about trust. In this business, knowing who to trust is one of the most important things we have. The inverse of this is trusting the wrong person, and getting burned. That's happened to me more than once since I've joined the SOC. In fact, I don't know of anyone in the organization that hasn't been burned by somebody. Your problem is that you believe what people tell you at face value. With the prospect of having parts of the government infiltrated by Umbrella, it's more important now than ever before to be sure of the nature of orders, and of the loyalty of our organization. In fact, I've got a bad feeling that the SOC is going to be shattered before Umbrella's finished. Just listen to your own instincts and trust them. They won't ever steer you wrong. Don't worry about this mission; it's going to be a cake walk. Now when you go back, make sure everyone's awake and ready to get off the plane as soon as the doors are opened. Thanks for coming up," Matt said as Zander gave him a slight smile.
"Thanks a lot Matt. I won't let you guys down out there."
'I know you won't kid,' Matt thought to himself. 'He's got more potential than anyone I've seen in a long time. He just has to learn how to apply it. If he can make it through a few missions and gets some experience, he'll be a force to recon with in the SOC. Now let's get down and to our vehicles without anyone asking any questions.'
"Attention passengers, this is your Captain speaking," the Captain announced, interrupting Matt's chain of thoughts. "We'll be on the ground in Seattle in about ten minutes. Current conditions are pretty poor. Temperature is 42 degrees Fahrenheit with a chance for rain at 70 percent. Visibility is low, and the sky is overcast. We'll be arriving at about 3:27 local time after a slight delay in taking off. At this time, I'd like to ask all flight personnel to take their seats and prepare to land. Thank you."
The last few minutes of the flight were uneventful. The Captain taxied the plane to gate D-3, and after several agonizing minutes of waiting, the doors swung open. Matt grabbed his two bags, and was the second person off the plane behind Paul. Immediately, he was hit with a blast of cold air, and was glad he had brought warm clothing with him. The other seven members of the SOC operation filed off the plane, as Matt counted to make sure they were all there.
"We've got three vehicles reserved with the rental agency," he said after they had all departed the plane. "Sam, Greg, you two come with me. Since you're team leaders, you're driving. Adam, Mark, keep everybody else out of trouble." The three team leaders left their bags with the others, and walked over to the rental desk, where a semi-interested clerk was waiting.
"I'd like to pick up the vehicles we reserved," Matt said as the clerk looked up.
"Name please?" she asked.
"Hugh Roberts," Matt said, giving one of his many aliases. The clerk punched the name into her computer and confirmed that three vehicles were reserved in his name.
"Here are the keys," she said passing them over. "Your vehicles are on level B-2 in the parking garage at the South end of the airport. Enjoy your stay in Seattle," she mumbled, going back to playing a game of Solitaire on her computer. Matt gave one key to Sam and the other to Greg before walking back to where Mark was waiting with Paul and Zack.
"Adam went with the others to round up some food," Mark said before Matt could even ask what had happened to them. Just as Mark finished the statement, Matt saw them returning with several bags of food.
"Thanks a lot guys," he said taking a bag from Adam before he over- balanced and fell over. Each one had carried three bags back, and all of the bags were almost overflowing with a variety of subs, pizzas and bottles of various sodas. "Don't hurt yourselves carrying so much stuff," he added.
"Don't worry, all that government training finally came in handy for something," Adam joked. The others helped relieve their friends of the extra food bags, while Matt again gathered them together. "We've got three SUVs reserved for us in the southern-most parking garage at level B-2. According to the map located back there," Matt said while pointing to a small kiosk about fifty feet behind him, "We have to get to the wing that has the 'A' gates in them. We can take a horizontal escalator there. It's located about two hundred feet ahead, around the corner to the left. After that, it's just standing still and letting the machine work. Once we get the cars, the first place we're going is to the FedEx office. There's some stuff I have to pick up."
"Like what? We brought everything we needed," Mark said.
"Wrong. We only have two clips of ammo each and no explosives. I didn't want to bring them on the plane and risk an accident. Once we pick up the stuff, we're going to find somewhere to stay. Then we'll start looking for Barry," Matt concluded as they began walking for the cars.
"I love these things," Paul said as he stepped on the escalator. They reached the end of the escalator and followed Matt to the parking garage exit at gate A. They decided to take the stairs down to level 2, and quickly located their SUVs.
"I call the black one," Paul said as he raced for the first of the three vehicles.
"Paul, they're all black," Mark said as the rest of the SOC teams reached the vehicles.
"Each team gets a vehicle," Matt said as Greg and Sam opened the trunks of their cars. "Take these too," he said while he tossed them handheld radios. "We'll use these to communicate in case we get separated. Synchronize your watches, it's 3:41 local time right," he began "now. We hit the FedEx office and get the rest of our gear, then find accommodations. Stick together; I don't want us to get lost out here. Let's roll." All three teams entered their SUVs and followed Matt as he led them out.
"Does anyone else think it's strange that the streets are empty?" Greg asked over the radio.
"It must be because of the riots," Matt said. "We're gonna want to avoid those areas of the city. I snagged a copy of yesterday's USA Today while we were in Minnesota. The National Guard's been called out, and the streets where the rioters are have been thoroughly trashed. There's a curfew out, so we're gonna have to stick to the shadows if we go out at night or out of our cars."
"Of course Burton had to pick here of all places to hide," Mark added stating the obvious.
"Okay, we want to take the next left, and then stay on that road for a half mile. The office should be on the right at a street corner. We'll find a place to park and get everyone out," Matt said over the radio. "We've got so much stuff to get it's going to take everyone's help. Paul and Adam, stay with the SUVs and make sure they're there when we get back. We'll get the stuff, and split it up at the hotel." They all made the turn just before the light changed to red, and arrived at the office without incident. There were empty parking spaces all over the place, since it seemed that everyone was staying off the roads to avoid the riots.
"Let's get the stuff and get out of here. Something about this place is giving me the creeps," Zack said.
"Other than the fact that we're operating on U.S. soil against a pharmaceutical company with the power to destroy the world looking for a person who may shoot us on sight? It's probably just the riots. Maybe some tear gas blew down the street from somewhere else in the city," Mark said. "Not to be a downer though."
"Enough chatter, let's just get the stuff and go. I'll be much happier when we get to the hotel and get the mission started," Greg said as most of the others nodded. They walked up the stairs and entered office, which was empty just like the streets. Only one person was working behind the counter, and he was more interested in watching scenes of the rioting on Fox News.
"I'd like to pick up several packages," Matt said, walking right up to him.
"Name please," the man asked as he turned off the T.V. momentarily.
"Andrew Shepard," Matt replied using another of his identities.
"Mind coming back to get them?" he asked. "I'm the only one on shift right now, and it'll take forever for me to get all of the stuff."
"No problem," Matt replied as the others followed him to the back room. They found their packages and secured several carts to wheel them out to their vehicles.
"So, what do you guys need all of this stuff for?" the clerk asked.
"I'm only allowed to say that it's for the U.S. delegation at the WTO meeting," Matt replied. "We're here to make sure it arrives safely."
"Good enough for me," the clerk replied. "Have a nice day, and be careful. They're shut down a bunch of streets leading to the conference center due to heavy rioting and looting. I can't see why a mob of people would go out and trash the stores people spent their hard-earned money on," the clerk continued, this time more to himself as he turned the T.V. back on. Suddenly Adam ran into the office.
"We've got to get a move on guys, we just heard on the radio that there's a mob heading our way," he said, helping the others wheel the stuff to their SUVs. Matt jumped into the driver's seat just in time to watch an angry mob round the corner two blocks in front of him. He started the engine as Mark slammed the trunk shut and Paul jumped into the passenger seat. Mark dove into the back seat, and grabbed a grenade out of the back.
"What is that?" Matt asked, as Mark rolled down his window.
"Never know when you could use a tear gas grenade," Mark replied as he pulled the pin and leaned out the window. He threw the grenade down the street where it landed and bounced towards the crowd, dispensing its contents in front of them. The front rows of the mob began running in all directions trying to escape the gas that was causing them to cry uncontrollably. Matt looked over his shoulder and saw that both Sam and Greg had their vehicles ready to go, and called over the radio, "U-turn. Let's get out of here!"
"Roger that. We're gonna have to get out of the city," Sam spoke over the radio.
"Why's that?" Matt asked.
"Just heard it over the radio. All of the hotels in the city have been locked down. We're not going anywhere in here," Sam replied.
"Okay. We're going to need an alternate base of operations. Mark, get on that map and find me somewhere to stay," Matt said.
"Way ahead of you boss," Greg said over the radio. "We found a hotel in Shoreline. If someone has a cell phone, we could call ahead and get somewhere to stay. It's in a direction which takes us away from the mob, so it sounds like a good option to me," he concluded.
"I've got a phone," Sam said over the radio. "Give me a number and Adam will get on the line with them."
"Okay, we've got a Sheridan Hotel, the number is 555-5624," Greg read off. "Get enough rooms to fit 9 people."
"Jesus!" Matt yelled, swerving out of the way of a patch of fire that popped up in front of his car. He glanced off to his right and saw a few people who appeared to be gang members throwing Molotov cocktails at nothing specifically, just enjoying the fact that the police were unavailable to stop them.
"I've got something for you, you little turds," Matt heard someone say over the radio. He saw something fly out of the window of team 3's SUV, and explode on the ground.
"I see you guys brought a gas grenade too," Matt said over the radio.
"One? When we heard there were riots Adam grabbed a friggin case of 'em and passed em out. We didn't get a chance to give you guys any, so we were surprised to see you have some," Sam said over the radio as Mark gave a groan.
"So I wasted a very expensive grenade to cover you guys and YOU HAD A FRIGGIN CASE FULL OF THEM!" he yelled as he grabbed the radio from Matt. All that could be heard in reply was laughing from Sam's car, and some mumbled curses from Mark.
"Mark, just take one of theirs when we stop," Matt said calming Mark down a bit.
"Looks like we want to take the next left. It should be straight ahead of us about fifteen or twenty miles. Haven't heard anything on the radio involving the area we'll be traveling on so I assume it's secure," Greg said over the radio as Matt cut the wheel sharply to the left.
"Almost overshot the intersection there chief," Matt muttered to himself, obviously unhappy with his slow reactions. Of course ever since the run in with the gang members, they had been traveling down the streets at a speed almost double the limit. Matt knew any further encounters would be bad, especially since the front car, the car that he was driving, had no more non-lethal defenses left.
They made it to the city limits without incident, and began to look for a sign for Shoreline so they could turn off the highway. After five minutes, Paul spotted the sign and Matt took a right to reach the off-ramp. It was relatively easy for them to find the Sheridan after that, and Matt pulled the SUV into the parking lot.
"We're gonna need to stop at a Wal-Mart before we leave and get something," he said as he gestured to the scorch marks on the side of the car.
"Good thing you picked black," Greg said, "It helps reduce the visible scorching."
"Looks like he almost got you guys," Adam said as he gazed at the damage the car had taken from the Molotov.
"We made it out of there. That's good enough for me," Mark said as Sam nodded.
"Okay, let's get our stuff into the hotel and get some rooms. After you get your stuff settled, meet in my room. We'll go over what to do from there," Matt said as he grabbed his duffel bag and one of the cases of ammunition he had shipped out. Everyone grabbed their stuff, and followed Matt into the lobby.
"Is it just me or is everything out here deserted?" Paul asked, getting a few scattered laughs from the others.
"I've got a feeling it might have to do with the riots and Seattle being basically locked down. It's definitely going to make our search for Burton that much harder," Matt said.
"Of course there's always the possibility that he isn't in Seattle," Sam said. "I mean, if we couldn't get somewhere to stay, I doubt he could too."
"He could've been here to see someone, and just stayed with them," Greg said, pointing out the obvious.
"That's likely," Matt said. "We're going to have to either find somewhere to leave our cars, or limit our searches to daytime. We could spend the nights searching the surrounding areas, in case he is out of the city." He walked up to the counter, and seeing that no one was there rang the bell for service.
"Hi. Welcome to the Sheridan Hotel. How many rooms would you like," the clerk asked after Matt rang the bell.
"Five please," he replied.
"How many nights will you be staying?" she asked.
"Three," Matt replied.
"Okay, let's see. $100 per room per night, five rooms, which will come out to," she began as Greg interrupted.
"About $1,500."
"Good enough for me," she responded as Matt pulled a manila envelope from his bag and began counting off hundred dollar bills. He handed over fifteen, and got the keys to the rooms and handed them out.
"I'll take the room by myself. You guys figure out who's rooming with whom. Meet in my room when you're ready," he said as he brought his stuff to the elevators. Since their rooms were on the fifth floor, he didn't feel like walking.
"What room are you in Matt?" Sam asked.
"512," Matt replied looking down at his key.
"Okay. We'll be there ASAP," Sam replied as Matt nodded.
"Take your time. We're not going to accomplish much tonight I think," Matt replied. The elevator arrived at the ground floor, and he stepped in with Paul, Mark and Zack. They rode up to the fifth floor, and Matt walked down the hallway until he reached his room. He put his stuff down and slid his keycard through the slot. He popped the door open and dragged his stuff in, and immediately shut the door behind him. He opened up first his duffel bag and pulled out his body armor, helmet, and F-1100. He put the rifle in the top drawer of the far left dresser, and the armor in the drawer beneath it. He put the helmet in the closet, and then began to put spare changes of clothes in the dresser. After he unpacked the duffel bag, he put it in the closet so that it was covering up the helmet from prying eyes. He then went to work on the case containing ammunition, until he heard a knock at the door.
"Come on in," he said as he walked over and opened the door.
"We're all here," Sam replied as they filed in and sat on the beds and the chairs for the table in the room.
"The first thing we need to take care of is weapons. I need to know exactly what everyone has," Matt said. "So I can distribute some of this ammunition."
"We're way ahead of you boss," Mark said as he pulled out a list. "Everything's on here except what you have, because no one's sure what you've got here."
"I have a few things to add actually," Matt said. "I brought some extra things in case we get into trouble."
"What, pray tell?" Adam asked with a hint of curiosity.
"We'll get to that later. Okay, Mark you're good. You've got your F- 1100 and Paul has his. You both have your Desert Eagles, so that'll take care of you. Take the top box in the upper right left-side dresser drawer. It's got twenty two 7.62mm magazines, ten shotgun magazines, and twelve pistol magazines. I know you guys brought two full magazines for your F- 1100s and pistols, so that should give you guys two full field loads each. Greg, we'll take care of you now. I know you've got your SPAS-12, and a P- 90. You've also got your Scorpion. There should be a box in the lower left dresser drawer with 9mm ammo for the Scorpion and 5.7 mm rounds for the P- 90. I'm going to give your SPAS-12 to Zack, because he's only got three pistols." Matt said as Greg interrupted.
"I'm going to need a second primary weapon, and Zack's going to need shells," he said as Matt smiled.
"Don't worry," he said as he pulled out a long plastic case from the bottom of his FedEx box. "I have plenty of shotgun shells. For your second primary weapon, I assume you're familiar with a Cobra Auto Grenade Launcher."
"Twelve round revolver-style magazine, standard model comes with laser sights and a folding stock," Greg replied.
"Three speed loaders, chambered in 40mm. I've got eighty four shells for you. Thirty high explosive, ten liquid nitrogen, ten napalm, fifteen armor piercing, and fifteen cluster rounds," Matt replied.
"You're short four there chief," Paul replied with a smirk.
"Not supposed to have these," Matt said pulling out four shiny cylinders.
"What are they?" Greg asked.
"White Phosphorous," Matt replied as Greg's face lit up.
"Excellent. That'll make a Tyrant's day miserable." Paul was still looking on in a daze so Greg clarified, "White Phosphorous has been banned from use by the U.S. military. It'll stick to anything and burns. Nothing can extinguish it, and it'll burn underwater."
"Holy crap!" Paul yelled, "That'll do a job on one of those mothers."
"You better believe it. Just so you guys know, I don't have those rounds, and you never saw them. I went through a lot of hassle to get them, so make 'em count. Sam, what do you and Adam have in the way of guns?" Matt asked.
"I've got an F-1100 and two Glock .40 cal. pistols," Sam answered.
"I've got a Remington Auto Shotgun in 12 gauge and two MAC-11s," Adam replied. "I've got two field loads for the MACs, so don't worry about ammo for them. I don't have anything for the Remington though."
"Take Zack and get the big box in the middle drawer on the right-side dresser," Matt said as they did.
"This'll do nicely," Adam said as he pulled out a 100-shell box of 12 gauge shells.
"That'll get you five 20-round magazines for the Remington. There are plenty of boxes in there for you two. I believe a field load is twenty magazines, right?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, that's 800 shells each for two field loads, or a total of sixteen boxes between the two of us," Adam answered. "Looks like you've got more than enough here."
"Yep, so if you guys want to take some extra mags too I won't stop you. I've got my F-1100 and Desert Eagle, with my own ammo already taken care of. I have 6 armor piercing mags and 6 regulars since I'm a little short on cash and those AP rounds are friggin expensive," Matt said moving on. "Zack, how are you fixed for pistol ammo?"
"I've got two mags for the Desert Eagle and 4 for the Colt .45s," Zack replied.
"Okay, there's ammo for the Colts in the case in your room, should be a smaller box labeled .45 cal. Full Metal Jacketed," Matt said. "The Desert Eagle ammo is in the box below the one Mark pulled out."
"Thanks a lot Matt," Zack said as he pulled out the box with the Desert Eagle ammo in it and took twelve clips. He sat back down as Matt continued looking down the list.
"I'd like to go over what I brought for the whole unit to use. You already know about the Cobra, and the shells which are in Paul's case. There're grenades in the case with Sam, and some C-4 in Greg's box. I've got more three Remington Auto Shotguns and two more Cobras for anyone who wants to take some extra firepower. I've also got a half-dozen MAC-11s and four Colt .45s if you need side arms. There's more Cobra ammo in with Mark, and ammo for the MACs and Colts there too. In fact, I think I'm gonna snag one of those extra MACs. Zack's got more shotgun shells, and Adam's got two AK-47s and ammo for them. If we need anything else, we could probably hit one of the near-by gun shops for it. That's about it for the stuff in my case. Everything else is split up between you guys." Matt said as he crossed off several items on his list. "Added together with the tear gas you guys brought," he continued as Mark's face went red, "Of which you owe Mark a grenade, we should have enough to deal with anything in the city. Now how about you Ken?" Matt asked.
"I've got," he began as somebody ran past their door screaming.
"ZOMBIES! OH GOD!" the person, obviously a she from the pitch of the scream, yelled. Matt was the first one out the door, and caught up with her at the end of the hallway.
"Ma'am, please calm down," he said as she began to sob uncontrollably. "Now you said there are zombies. Could you tell us where you saw them please?"
"They, they, oh God it was horrible," she replied as she began to shake. "In the lobby, they broke the door down and started killing people. Someone knocked me into the elevator, and it just started going up. I don't remember hitting any buttons or anything, it just opened up here. We're all going to die!"
"She's in shock," Mark whispered to Matt as he nodded. "Ma'am, please go to your room and lock the door. You should be safe in there. Take this just in case," Mark said handing her a Beretta with two clips of ammo.
"Th- Thank you," she got out before walking back to the elevator and numbly pushing the button to go up.
"Where'd you get the Beretta?" Matt asked.
"I've got three more. They're at the bottom of your list," Mark replied.
"We're going to need them. Load up, looks like we're going hunting," Matt said as he turned to address the whole group. "Take as much ammo as you can carry. I don't know how long we'll be out for. Right now finding Barry is going to be shifted down to a secondary objective. I want to secure this hotel, and start looking for survivors. Team 1 and I will take the lobby and first floor. Team 2 will secure floors 3 and 4, and Team 3 will take floors 1 and 2. Greg, clear out 2 first, then help us with the first floor. Before we do anything, I'm going down to the first floor to take a look."
"Don't believe her?" Sam asked pointing towards the elevator.
"I don't want to take the risk of revealing our presence unnecessarily. Mark, give me a Beretta and two clips. If I'm not back in ten minutes, get to your assigned floors and save the civilians. Let's get a move on," Matt ordered as Mark handed him a Beretta with ammo. He walked over to the elevator, and pushed the call button. The doors swung open as he walked in and pushed the button for the first floor. He slammed a clip into the Beretta and pulled back the slide as the doors closed and the elevator began to descend.
'Why does the music in these things always suck?' he asked himself. He smirked, and then lost all sign of facial expression as he put on his game face. The elevator stopped and the doors swung open showing an abandoned front lobby. Matt stepped out and swung the Beretta across the lobby, scanning it for threats. Immediately he noticed that the front door and windows were smashed, and that there was a foul stench in the air. He noticed a body slumped over the front counter, and carefully approached.
"Whoa!" he yelled as he noticed that the body wasn't alone. Three zombies were eating the legs of the corpse, not noticing him at first. They suddenly stopped eating the corpse, and all gazed at him at the same time, seeming to sense fresh food. Matt ran back to the elevator and pushed the call button as the zombies, joined by several more from the direction of the first floor rooms, began to approach.
"Time to get out of here," he said stepping into the elevator after making sure there wasn't an undead surprise waiting for him. As he pushed the buttons first for the 5th floor and then for the doors to close, he brought the Beretta up and fired three shots into the closest zombie. It stumbled twice, but continued to advance. He aimed slightly higher and fired again, striking the zombie right above its left temple. The zombie fell to the ground, and remained still. The doors began to close as Matt fired shots at two other zombies. Both dropped after well-aimed headshots, and the doors finally closed. The elevator began to rise as Matt hit the clip ejector, checking how much ammo remained in the Beretta's first magazine.
"Three shots," he muttered to himself as he pulled out the fresh clip and slapped it in. The elevator arrived at the fifth floor, and Matt stepped out to see that thankfully there were no members of the living dead waiting for him. He walked down to his room and saw that the others were all gathered and waiting for his return.
"We've got zombies," Matt said as he opened up the dresser drawers with his F-1100, Desert Eagle, body armor and ammo. "Let me go get my combat suit," he said as the others walked out into the hallway. Matt quickly pulled on the jet black combat suit, complete with web belt and Nomex fireproof gloves. The remainder of the suit was also fire-resistant, giving Matt a bit of protection from extreme heat. It was made up of a heat- treated ballistic nylon, giving the wearer a limited amount of protection from shrapnel and other projectiles. He pulled on his combat vest, and began securing clips of ammo to it. He put the Desert Eagle in his hip holster, and grabbed his helmet out of the closet. He slapped a shotgun magazine into its cradle in his F-1100 and followed it up with a standard magazine of 7.62 mm rounds and slung the rifle's sling over his shoulder. He put his helmet on but left the blast shield up, so he could talk to everyone without having to set turn on his tactical radio and run down its batteries needlessly and walked out into the hallway.
"Here you go boss," Mark said after Matt stepped out, tossing him four grenades which Matt clipped on to his web belt. He glanced down to see his favorite combination of two frag grenades, a high explosive grenade, and a smoke grenade.
"Listen up," he said calling all of them together. "We've got zombies. The first floor is fully infested. I got three of 'em but there's more down there. The front entrance has been completely destroyed, and anything could be coming in while we're up here talking. Team 2; do a quick search of floors 3 and 4, then get down to the first floor. That'll be our rendezvous point. We'll decide what to do after the hotel is secure."
"At least on the plus side if Barry's anywhere in the area this'll bring him out," Adam said, "Making our mission easier."
"And on the minus side, someone from Umbrella is here too. Zombies don't just pop out of thin air. Be on your guard, we don't know what else is in the city. Keep to the stairs, and aim for their heads. It's the only thing that can put them down for good," Matt said as he pushed the door open. Everyone else formed up behind him, and branched off when they descended to their assigned floors. Finally only Matt, Mark and Paul were left standing at the door leading to the first floor.
"On three," Matt said as he activated his radio and slid the black- tinted bulletproof shield over his face. Mark and Paul followed suit, as Matt held up three fingers. He kicked the door open as Mark and Paul entered the lobby and swept their F-1100s across the room. It was almost exactly as it had been except for the three bodies lying on the floor near the elevator.
"I'm not seeing anything here boss," Mark said as he shrugged.
"That's what happened to me before. Then I walked over to the body on the counter and, HEY!" he yelled as he noticed that the body formerly slumped over the counter was gone. "It's gone," he continued. He walked over to the desk like he had before, and noticed that the body was nowhere to be found. Suddenly he heard a scratching sound coming from the door separating the front lobby from the remainder of the first floor.
"I'm going to open the door. Mark, Paul be ready to shoot any zombies on the other end," Matt ordered as he grabbed the handle to the door. Mark and Paul took their positions about ten feet from the door, and leveled their rifles at it. Matt pulled the door open and saw the remainder of the body from the desk drag itself towards them. Mark went to shoot it but before he could, Paul fired into its skull completely destroying its head. Matt turned, and saw that several other zombies were entering the room from the destroyed front entrance. He began to fire, aiming carefully to make sure that he hit the zombies in the head as Mark and Paul followed suit. Matt kicked the door closed to make sure they weren't attacked from behind while they dealt with the new threat entering from off the streets.
"This is Team 1," he called over his radio. "We have contact in the front lobby. Area is contained; Sam, Greg, give me a status report."
"Team 2 has found zero zombies on the 4th floor and is moving to secure floor 3," Sam called over the radio.
"Floor 2 is secure," Greg called. "Moving to support you."
"Expect hostiles near the vicinity of the staircase doors," Matt warned.
"Thanks for the warning," Greg replied. "You might want to take cover," he added as the door opened slightly and a gloved hand with a grenade in it appeared.
"Fire in the hole!" Matt called as Greg pulled the pin and rolled the frag grenade into the room. They all took cover behind the counter as the grenade exploded. Matt stood up and waved to Team 3 as they entered the room, and made a beeline for the counter. He brought his F-1100 up and shot two zombies as they tried to get up off the ground after the grenade knocked them down. He scored a headshot on his first round on one zombie, and hit the second one with a shotgun blast, finishing them off.
"What's the situation?" Greg asked after they had arrived.
"Lobby is clear," Mark called out as they all stood up.
"Okay, let's clear out the rest of the first floor. Paul, stay here with Ken and keep the lobby open. Everyone else, secure the first floor. When Sam's team gets down here, send them in after us," Matt said to Paul as he nodded. Ken was busily loading a magazine to one of Matt's Remington Auto Shotguns from a box of shells that Matt had purchased. It was clear that he hadn't had time to finish getting the weapon loaded before Matt had returned, and had been too busy to afterwards. He was also fairly nervous by the way he was fumbling with the shells before loading the shotgun.
"What's wrong Ken?" Matt asked, walking over to him.
"I really don't like killing human beings," he replied shaking his head. "I know these people are already gone, but I still can't help it. I'm a computer expert, not a warrior."
"Look, I can understand that you don't like to shoot people, and I can't ask you to like it. But you're going to have to fight here in order to survive. I don't think these people are going to mind you shooting them, they'd probably be glad to be put out of their misery. If this happened to me, I'd expect any of you to take me out, and I'm sure you all would want the same thing," Matt said. "Now let's get a move on, in case there're any survivors down here."
"On three, pop the door again," Matt said as the team stacked up behind him and Mark. Mark stepped over to the left side of the door, grabbed the handle, and pulled it open. Matt charged into the hallway, and saw that other than the headless body on the floor it was empty. He gingerly stepped over it, and began knocking on doors and checking to see if any swung open. Several non-infected people, as far as he could tell, exited and began asking questions which usually ended when they saw the body on the floor.
"You people need to get into the lobby," Greg said pointing them in that general direction.
"Who are you?" one person asked.
"We're here to evacuate you. There's been some kind of viral outbreak," Matt said pointing to the headless zombie. "It's exactly like the one in Raccoon. You need to get to the lobby while we find any other survivors." Matt continued down until he reached the end of the hallway.
"How many doors did we get no response at?" he asked.
"Ten," Mark replied, having kept count at Matt's request. Sam led Team 2 over to where Matt had gathered the others with him, as he gave them new orders.
"We're going to kick the doors in, and see if anyone else is alive. Knock first then bust in," he ordered. "Be ready in case there're zombies, or any bioweapons." They spread out down the hallway, two per room. Matt kicked open the closest door, and cautiously entered. There wasn't anyone in the main room, as he knocked on the closed bathroom door. As he entered, he saw that there was a body lying on the floor. He approached carefully, until the body began to rise. Matt could tell by the way the person's arm was literally hanging from his shoulder that he was no longer alive, and fired a double blast from his shotgun at point-blank range. The zombie disintegrated under the volley, as Matt turned to leave the room.
"So far we haven't found anyone," Mark said over the radio as Matt and Greg walked back into the hallway. "Six rooms down, four to go." Suddenly, Matt heard yelling coming from the lobby.
"Leave the rest of them," he called over the radio as they started to run towards the lobby. He saw another group of zombies trying to get at the civilians who were cowering behind the counter. Paul and Ken were holding them back, but only barely. Matt took out two zombies who were within five feet of the counter, as the others ran to assist Paul and Ken. He saw Ken using his shotgun like a wild man, dropping any zombie that came close or twitched more than a few times. He gave an inward smile before something outside caught his eye.
'What in the name of God is that?' he asked to himself as he saw some sort of four-legged creature perched not on the ground, but hanging off of the front wall of the hotel. It crawled in as the others were preoccupied with the zombies, and began to approach the civilians.
"Oh no you don't," he said as he pelted the creature with fire. It dropped off the ceiling, and did something unexpected. It shot out its tongue towards one of the civilians, nearly hitting him. Matt took the opportunity to shot the creature in its exposed brain, spattering its head all over the wall. He glanced up to see that the remaining zombies had been dispatched by the others.
"What are we going to do with these people?" Matt heard Sam ask over the radio as he looked at them. There were at least twenty of them, more than they'd be able to fit in the SUVs. Matt took several seconds to consider his options before coming to what he thought was an acceptable conclusion.
"Call the SOC; tell them about the outbreak up here. Get some helicopters here to get the civilians to safety. We've got to find out where the Umbrella team is, and make sure they don't spread any more viruses. The government is probably going to have to nuke the town, and we don't want to be here when it happens. I can't believe Umbrella would do this," Matt said as he reloaded his F-1100.
"Listen up," he said raising the helmet shield so he could talk to the civilians as well. "We're going to get some helicopters to airlift you out. Wait for them on the roof. Knock on the doors on the upper floors and tell them the same thing. Help will be here soon." Matt added.
"What are these things? Why are they here?" one brave person asked, standing up.
"I have no idea," Matt lied, knowing he couldn't tell these people the truth. They slowly got up, and walked to the stairs to spread his message about their salvation. "Anyone who needs more ammo or wants more weapons go get them now. I'll stay here and watch the lobby. Somebody bring me back an Auto Shotgun, please." Everyone but Mark went up to get more stuff.
"I'm good boss. Didn't even get a chance to shoot anything, and I've already got another weapon," he said as he unslung one of the AK-47s that Matt had purchased. "Always liked this gun."
"I really have a bad feeling about this place. I can't help but feel that this outbreak was as much our fault as Umbrella's," Matt said as he sat down on the counter. "I mean, this is too much of a coincidence. First we hear that Barry's here, then the virus spreads. I wonder if it was meant to target us," he told his friend. "Why does this make me think that we might have a sell-out in our government?"
"Maybe because, somewhere, there is one. I don't like this either Matt; there are too many things that are happening to make this coincidence. Now let's get on the horn to the SOC and get these people out of here," Mark replied. Matt walked over to the payphone that was miraculously still working, and dialed a special contact number for the SOC headquarters.
"May I ask who's calling, please?" the person who answered the phone asked.
"Andrew Hopkins for the Assistant Director, please. It's an emergency," Matt replied. The name he had used was one of several specially set up for emergency uses when contacting the SOC.
"This is Williams," came a somewhat-older sounding voice a few seconds later.
"Assistant Director, this is Ryan. We've got a big problem in Shoreline, Washington. There's been a release of one of Umbrella's viruses, and it's been confirmed. I think one of their teams is here, looking for one of the Raccoon S.T.A.R.S. survivors. We're currently at a Sheridan Hotel in the city, with a group of civilians who need evacuation."
"Slow down son, I'm heading towards the command center right now. What do you need in the way of support?" the Assistant Director asked, as Matt could tell for the first time that he was using a cell phone.
"I'll need helicopters to get these people off of the roof of the hotel, for starters. I'm also going to need the city barricaded, and if the infection is severe enough, a nuclear weapon," Matt replied as Williams sighed.
"You want to implement the Raccoon Directive, then?" he asked.
"If the situation cannot be contained, yes sir. Just like we talked about."
"I can't believe we're going to have to nuke another U.S. city," Williams said, mostly to himself. "You'll have whatever you need. Just get out safely, and find that Umbrella team."
"Yes sir," Matt said before hanging up the phone. The elevator had just returned from the 5th floor with the other SOC members on it, as Greg tossed Matt the Auto Shotgun. He checked and saw that the magazine was already loaded, and strapped it onto his back. He walked over to Greg, who had grabbed another twenty seven magazines. Matt secured them wherever he had room, and saw that Sam and Paul had grabbed the extra grenade launchers. Ken took the remaining AK-47, and a MAC-11 to go along with his Glock and Remington. That reminded Matt that he had a MAC too, and he pulled it out of his backpack and placed it in a holster on his left hip.
"Before we do anything, we have to get those last four rooms," Matt said as Sam nodded.
"There are only four rooms left. We can have them done in less than five minutes," he replied. They walked back over to the hallway and began to check the remaining rooms. Matt was slightly disappointed to find nothing in the first room, since he had a feeling someone else was alive here.
"Last room," Greg warned over the radio as he and Matt took up positions outside.
"Anyone in here?" Matt asked as he pounded on the door. No one replied, so he backed up and kicked the door open. What greeted him wasn't a pretty sight.
"Oh man" Greg said as he caught a glimpse of the mutilated bodies. Matt walked over and checked each for signs of life before turning away.
"We can't let them come back," he said as he pulled out his Beretta. He put a shot in to each of the corpses, ensuring they wouldn't come back as undead. "Let's check the bathroom."
"On three," Greg said giving a countdown with his left hand while his right gripped the door knob. Matt's F-1100 was leveled at the door ready for anything. The door swung open to reveal two small children, one older boy and one younger-looking girl, hiding in the bathroom.
"Two survivors here!" Matt yelled as he walked into the room. He motioned for the kids to follow him outside, as he tried to keep them from seeing the bodies in the corner of the room.
"Who are you?" one of them asked.
"We're here to," Matt began unsure how to phrase it, "rescue as many people as we can."
"What happened to our parents?" the boy asked.
"I'm sorry," Matt replied as he led them out into the hallway.
"Do you two know the way up to the roof?" he asked them as they walked past the zombie corpse in the hallway, hoping to distract them from it.
"I think so," the boy replied taking his sister by the hand and leading her to the stairs.
"They'll get out," Mark said as he put his hand on Matt's shoulder.
"They shouldn't have to experience this stuff," Matt replied. "We've got more work to do. There have to be more survivors in this city. We've got to find them. I've got a hunch that we're going to want to be at the police station."
"Why there?" Sam asked.
"It's probably the safest place in the city now. While I was reading reports collected from survivors from Raccoon, it seemed that at one point or another most of them at least thought about heading there," Matt replied. "It's a fairly safe bet. Even if there aren't many civilians there, we can co-ordinate with any of the surviving cops. The extra firepower would be nice. Now how are we going to get there?"
"I wouldn't advise using the SUVs. They're in a safe location right now, and by moving them we could put them at risk to taking damage or being destroyed. If we lose them, we might be in trouble," Greg said as most of the others nodded.
"Okay. While I was looking at the map to find the hotel, I also found out the police station is three blocks up the road and two over on the intersection of Maple and Red Streets. If we book it, we can be there in a few minutes," Adam said as he looked at Matt to make the final decision.
"We're burning daylight people," Matt said even though it was already pushing 9:00 PM. "Let's get to that station. Team 3, cover our rear. Team 2, cover our flanks. We'll take point. If you see something shout it out, or if it isn't friendly, shoot it. I want to be there in less than five minutes." Matt took the point and was the first one out on the street. He looked up and down it, and saw the burning wrecks of cars all over the place. There was a slight odor in the air, carrying the smells of death with it. They immediately took off running up the street, with their weapons sweeping in all possible directions an attack could come from. Matt caught a glimpse of another of the creatures with long tongues, before it ate six rounds to the upper body from Mark's F-1100. He heard several shotgun blasts fired, but didn't stop or turn to look. They reached the turn they had to make, and Matt waved on the others to count and make sure they were all there. Once he saw they were all there, he sped up until he was back at the front, just in time to see the front doors of the police station. His heart fell as he saw a pack of zombies in front of it, pounding at the doors.
"Greg, take 'em down," Matt said waving Greg forward with his Grenade Launcher. He snapped the chamber closed, and took careful aim at the zombies.
"Fire in the hole," he muttered squeezing the trigger. The zombies were tossed all over by the explosion, giving them a window to reach the door. Matt waved the others forward, and took off running for the door. Any zombie that moved was quickly dispatched, as they reached the front door. Matt turned the knob and pushed the door, but it only opened a few inches.
"Anyone, open the door!" he shouted as he turned to see several dogs charging down the street from the opposite direction they had come from. "Kill 'em all!" he added as he began to fire at the zombified dogs. They fell in pieces as the flurry of rounds cascaded over them. He heard the door open fully, and turned to see two cops standing there with shotguns at the ready.
"Fall back, into the building," Matt ordered as he backed into the station, ceasing fire as to not hit any friendlies. They all managed to make it into the station, while the officers pushed the heavy doors closed. The other SOC commandos split between covering them and helping to move the various barricades back into position. When they had finished, Matt gave a sigh of relief.
"Who are you?" the first cop asked.
"I'm not allowed to say," Matt replied. "But we're here to help you."
"Funny, that's what the other group said," the officer replied. "In fact, they said that there might be another group like them coming. That the other group was responsible for the outbreak," he added pointing the shotgun at Matt.
"We didn't do that. I'm Agent Donaldson, with the FBI. Here," he said taking a badge and id out of one of the pockets of his suit. "Who was the other group?" he asked as the officer scanned the badge.
"They were from Umbrella. They were looking for a bunch of terrorists from SKY or SUN, or some team like that. Said they had spread the virus here to show their support for the Taliban," the officer replied handing his badge back.
"They're lying. Umbrella was responsible for the virus. The S.T.A.R.S. member they were looking for was helping to fight against him. We have to find that team. Do you know where they are, or how many were with them?" Matt asked as he began reloading his weapons.
"The last I heard, they were checking the second floor for the S.T.A.R.S. guy. He had been helping us hold off the zombies, but disappeared a little afterwards. He's definitely in the building though. I counted five of them. All I know for sure is that there are fewer of them than there are of you," the cop replied.
"Alright. Can you guys hold the lobby?" Matt asked. "There'll be an evac helicopter here soon. We have to get that team."
"Give 'em a shot for us," the second cop said. "We've got the front. Go get them."
"Where'd you get the badge?" Mark whispered when the cops were out of earshot.
"Around," Matt replied with a slight laugh. "We're going upstairs," he added, pointing to the spiral staircase in the rear of the lobby. "Team 1 will take the left side, Team 2 will take the right, and Team 3 will be the reserve. Give a shout if you find the Umbrella team, or Barry. Ken, we're going to need you down here monitoring the security cameras. We've got to move people." They ran up the stairs, splitting off into their assigned areas. Ken ran over to the security desk, and began to patch in to the various cameras throughout the building, specifically the ones on the second floor.
"Stay close," Matt said as he tightened the grip on his F-1100. They crept down the hall, straining for anything that could help them find Barry. Suddenly, a series of gunshots erupted from one of the rooms to the front. Matt heard several automatic weapons, and a booming revolver, he guessed, replying.
"Move it!" he yelled as they ran down the hall. "This is Team 1. We may have confirmed the locations of both Barry and the Umbrella team. Get over here Greg."
"On our way," he replied as the now shorthand team ran to support Matt's team. Matt continued down the hall until a heavy slug exited one of the rooms, making a large splinter in the door. Matt stopped, and got down on his knees. He peeked in through the keyhole, and saw something that he immediately disliked. There were four Umbrella commandos in the room, peppering an overturned couch with automatic fire. Suddenly, they stopped shooting.
"Come out with your hands up, Burton," one of the commandos said.
"No," what Matt guessed was Barry said, adding a shot from a revolver to the statement.
"Here's what we're going to do," he whispered. "Does anyone have a flashbang?"
"You better believe it boss," Mark said removing the grenade from his belt. Team 3 arrived, as Matt took the grenade.
"As soon as I toss the grenade, take out the Umbrella goons. Take them alive if possible. I want to find out where the missing man is," Matt said as he cracked the door open. He pulled the pin on the grenade as the others looked away, and rolled it into the room. He managed to close the door just before the flashbang went off, and quickly pulled it open and charged into the room.
"Clear," he called out as he kicked an M4 carbine away from one of the downed troopers. The remaining soldiers were similarly disarmed, as Matt pointed his rifle at the head of one of them.
"Where's your leader?" he asked as Barry poked his head up, revolver at the ready.
"I'm in charge," the Umbrella soldier said.
"Where's the fifth person?" Matt asked as the soldier laughed.
"The traitor? He's been taken care of," the man replied giving a slight laugh. Matt smacked him in the face with his F-1100, and threw him back to the ground.
"Where is he?" he asked again, starting to lose patience.
"In a supply closet at the end of the hallway. He lost his nerve, and decided not to carry out our orders," the soldier replied.
"What orders?" Matt asked.
"To destroy Seattle."
"Mr. Burton, are you okay?" Matt asked, turning his attention from the Umbrella commando to the ex- S.T.A.R.S. member.
"Fine. Who are you?" he asked.
"My name is Matthew Ryan, commander of the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Operations Command Team 1. Dan, go to the supply closet and bring the defector here please," he added.
"You got it Matt," Dan replied as he put his rifle back over his shoulder and pulled out a MAC-11.
"Guys, you better get moving. You've got incoming of the big, gray and ugly type. Get down here to the lobby fast," came Ken's voice over the radio.
"Move it people!" Matt yelled as he lifted one of the captured Umbrella soldiers on to his feet. "Run for the lobby if you want to live," he said to the soldier who promptly took off as fast as he could. "Get to the lobby!" he added as the others took off down the hallway. Matt brought up the rear, right behind Barry. They made it back to the staircase just in time to see a Tyrant charging down the hallway opposite them. They ran down as fast as they could, as Greg pulled out a brick of C-4. He stuck it to the staircase, and waited for the Tyrant to step on it. The others reached the bottom as the Tyrant stepped on to the stairs. Greg waited until it was right next to the C-4 before triggering it, and dropping the Tyrant down to the floor.
"Give me a fire wall," Matt called out as a stream of grenades landed in front of the Tyrant. A blazing inferno popped into existence in front of it, searing the top layers of its flesh.
"Greg, bust out the White Phosphorous," Matt said looking over his shoulder. Greg popped out two high explosive rounds, and replaced them with two of the White Phosphorous rounds Matt had given him earlier. He brought the launcher up to his shoulder and clicked the laser sight on. The small red dot settled right on the Tyrant's torso as Greg squeezed the trigger.
"Take cover," he said as he fired the round. It struck the Tyrant, and immediately began to burn through its flesh. The Tyrant bellowed, enraged, and began to charge through the firewall, cooking off even more of its flesh.
"Number two," Greg said pulling the trigger again. This round burst on the Tyrant's left leg, burning through the flesh and starting to char the bone beneath. The Tyrant screamed, and collapsed to one knee.
"Fire at will!" Matt yelled as the SOC teams unloaded on the Tyrant. Ken skidded up next to Matt, and began to fire his shotgun at the Tyrant. Every shot that hit it blew off chunks of flesh, until the monster finally went down. It was still burning, but no longer moving.
"Let's make sure it doesn't come back," Sam said as he cautiously approached the Tyrant's corpse. He leveled his F-1100 at its head, and fired off a double blast from the shotgun attachment. Its thick skull cracked open, and more blood flew from the fresh wounds. Sam emptied the remainder of his clip into the Tyrant's head, until it was nothing more than an unrecognizable mass.
"Adios," he said as he pulled the pin on a high explosive grenade, and rolled it towards the corpse. It stopped right next to it, and detonated, causing even more damage to the remainder of the mangled weapon.
"It's gone," Matt said as he reloaded his rifle. "Until the helicopters get here, we keep that thing under watch. I don't want it coming back to life on us."
"Dude, we turned it into fish food. There's no way its coming back," Paul said as he gave Mark a high-five. "That thing ate more than its fair share of lead."
"How many people are in here?" Matt asked as the two cops again walked over.
"There're twenty people in the parking garage. There's also fifteen cops down there," the first one replied.
"We're evacuating everyone. Do you have a phone I can use?" Matt asked as the officer pointed him towards the security desk. He picked up the phone, heard the dial tone, and called the SOC. This time, the Assistant Director picked up the phone.
"Ryan, we've got a National Guard regiment surrounding the city and preparing to enter it. The rescue helicopters already made it to the hotel, and are ready to extract your team and any other survivors. When the National Guard unit pulls out, we have two F-117/As orbiting prepared to level the city."
"We've got 38 more survivors at the police station who need to be airlifted out as well. We'll be waiting on the roof," Matt said.
"They'll be there in fifteen minutes, after they unload the other survivors. In the mean time, find a nice safe spot to wait," Williams replied.
"Yes sir," Matt said as he hung up the phone. "Evac's coming in fifteen minutes," he called to everyone in the lobby.
"Finally," Mark said as he lifted the shield on his helmet.
"Hey guys," Dan called out as he walked into the lobby, "Look who I found." He had the Umbrella soldier with him, and walked over to the group.
"Why you," Barry began as he rushed the Umbrella agent.
"Easy fella, he's a friendly," Sam said as he and Mark restrained him from killing the defector.
"Who are you?" Matt asked, "And why did they put you in the closet?"
"My name's Robert, but when I was in Umbrella my codename was Hunk. They put me in there because I finally had enough of doing Umbrella's bidding. I tried to stop them from spreading the viruses, but as you can tell I wasn't successful. We had been tracking Mr. Burton since we arrived two days ago, and finally located him in Shoreline. That was when everything went wrong."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Shoreline, Washington USA
Outside Howard Johnson Hotel
February 15, 2001 3:00 PM
"This is Pierce. We've located the target and are pursuing him," came the voice from the driver of the black van.
"We can't take him in public," Hunk said as Pierce shifted the van into gear and pulled out in pursuit of the pickup truck containing Barry Burton.
"I know. We'll wait for him to stop somewhere and then release the viruses," he replied as he looked back at the other three soldiers in the van.
"I could take him right now," one of them muttered looking through the scope of a PSG-1 sniper rifle.
"If you have the shot, take it," Pierce said as the van rolled to a stop at a red light.
"Just a few more seconds," the sniper replied settling the crosshairs on Burton's head. Just as he squeezed the trigger, the light changed to green and the pickup accelerated. The bullet struck the driver's side mirror instead of Barry's head. He immediately floored the accelerator, shooting ahead of the pursuing van.
"Let him go," Hunk said as the van began to accelerate. Instead of following his orders, Pierce continued to follow the pickup as it turned onto a side street. The van took the turn wide, and shot up onto two wheels as Pierce struggled to bring it back under control. It settled back down, as the undercarriage smacked the ground hard. The van skidded to a stop as Barry's pickup continued down the road.
"We lost him because of you," Pierce said pulling out a pistol and pointing it at Hunk.
"I told you not to chase him. You're the one who lost control of the van," Hunk replied snatching the pistol out of Pierce's hands.
"It doesn't matter. There's one way to draw him out for sure," Pierce said as he rolled down his window.
"What are you doing?" Hunk asked as Pierce threw a vial out onto the street where it shattered. By the time it landed he had already started to drive again, and had the window rolled back up.
"Eliminating our target," he replied. "Burton will almost certainly go to the police station after the infection begins to spread through the city. We can ambush him there."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"After that, we arrived here. The virus had spread remarkably fast, and zombies had already begun to roam the streets. Once we were inside, they others lured me upstairs where they confronted me about my plans to leave the company. As you can see, they won the fight and as far as I can remember knocked me out and threw me in the closet. I woke up to find that the door was locked shut, and I had been disarmed. Unfortunately for them, they missed something important," Hunk said as he pulled a vial containing a green-colored liquid out from a pouch in his pants.
"That isn't what I think it is, is it?" Matt asked as Hunk passed the vial over. It was clearly labeled with a large 'T' on the side and lid.
"Yes. A vial of live T-virus," Hunk replied with a faint smile. "Some hard evidence to use against Umbrella."
"Helicopters are here," Mark said as he walked away from the front of the lobby.
"Can you two get the people in the garage?" Matt asked the two cops.
"We're all over it. You guys did enough to take out ugly over there," the second one replied pointing his shotgun in the direction of the felled Tyrant.
"Our work here is done," Matt said as he walked towards the elevator. "Time to go home people. Mr. Burton, would you be so kind as to provide us the benefit of your company on the helicopter?"
"Um, okay," he replied after a slight pause. "Why are you so interested in me?"
"We need all of you," Matt replied. "Your knowledge of Umbrella and their bioweapons is going to be priceless. Without it, the SOC is basically operating blindly against Umbrella. We need the info you have on their leaders, personnel, ongoing weapons projects, everything." Matt hesitated before adding, "You might give us a fighting chance."
* * * * * * * *
Well, that's chapter 4 in the bag. It just about doubled the length of my story to this point. Another 12,000 words closer to my goal of obtaining a membership in the '100,000 Word Club.' I'm a little disappointed that I only got 3 characters for this section, but that's okay. There'll be plenty of opportunities later on for volunteers. Then again, upping the rating and length are probably going to help draw in some more readers.
My thanks go out to everyone who's reviewed this story so far, and everyone who contributed characters. Without you, this chapter would've sucked a lot more. Still, I really don't like the way it turned out. I shouldn't have started writing it before I had received all of the characters I was going to. You can tell when I got a character by how early it appears in the chapter (Dan Anderson was created today; I just went back a little and threw him in). Enough of my rambling, you aren't paying your internet and electric bills for this crap.
Next chapter: Big plot twist coming up. Shoreline is nuked, as the SOC finds out just how much influence Umbrella is able to exert on the U.S. Government. Several hard choices are going to have to be made, and sacrifices are going to be demanded. Also, the failure of his soldiers to eliminate Barry and the SOC teams is going to prompt Spencer to begin looking at drastic solutions to his problems. All of this and more will be found in Chapter 5- Hero's Resolve.
Please Read & Review this story. I'm continuing the story anyway the review front turns out, but it'll be a little more developed with a few character submissions (thank you to everyone who did again, you don't have to submit more; this is to people who haven't yet). Get the characters in please!