'While avoiding the blasts of flame, we proceeded through the smoke-encased hotel. We now know the true meaning of "Hell"'~Rotor Wilkins.
The group was running down an ally, trying to escape the zombies, only to keep running into more by various allies, and after many routes, the gang saw an opening that would lead them to a courtyard, and then after entering they closed the gate.
"Man, *pant* that was close, I thought we were dead", Ash said.
"*pant* *pant* I should have stayed in better shape, I don't think I can take more of this", Rotor said.
"Well we appear to be in a courtyard, and since we can't go through that gate, we should probably head into the building, hopefully there's a phone in there", Sally said.
"Who are we gonna call? This city's gone to hell I don't think we'll get that much help, the only help we have is some idiot cop", Espio said.
"Hey! I resent that!" Sonic shouted.
"Enough! Look our chances of getting help are slim, but they're chances we have to take, I think it's worth the risk", Mighty said.
"Well it can't be that bad in there", Ash said.
At that moment, there was an explosion inside the hotel, and everyone glared at Ash.
"What? I didn't cause the Goddamn explosion", Ash said.
"I gotta go check it out", Sonic said and went into the room where the explosion was.
"Careful going in there, if the fire doesn't kill you, the smoke can", Rotor said and followed, soon everyone else did.
Everyone looked inside and saw that the explosion came from the boiler, they also saw the bodies of some firemen.
"Oh no, those poor guys", Tikal said.
Rotor noticed their dog tags, so he picked them up, he looked at them and was reminded of war and his dead comrades, who's memories are retained by their dog tags.
They all noticed a radio on the body of a fireman and they listened to it.
"......go.......front lobby.......rescue........hurry", the radio said.
"The front lobby? How do we get there?" Sonic asked.
"Maybe the door up there", Espio said, pointing at the door at the top of the ladder", Espio said.
"I think we need to go through the side door outside, that is on the first floor", Rotor said.
"But this way will take us toward the lobby", Espio said.
"I still think the other one is easier", Rotor said.
"Fine, I'll go check up there, you check the other way, all with me come, all with him go", Espio said.
"I don't think we should split up", Tikal said.
"We don't have much of a choice at the moment, if anything we'll meet back here", Sonic said.
"I'm going with Rotor", Ash said.
"So will I", Mighty said.
"Me too", Amy said.
"Fine, I guess Sally and Tikal are joining me and Espio", Sonic said.
"Fine, now hurry up", Espio said and the other 3 climbed the ladder while everyone else went to the courtyard and went through the room.
Team Espio went through the door at the top of the ladder and walked around the hallway, with fire emerging everywhere.
"Shit, this place went to hell, literally", Sonic said.
Espio led them to a room that wasn't full of fire and they saw a window, then saw the balcony and saw another balcony that didn't look like it was on fire.
"We can try getting over there", Espio said.
"How do we do that? Super Jump?" Sonic asked.
"There's a ledge, if we're careful enough-", Espio was interrupted by Sonic, "Ok we're Raccoon City Civilians, not James Bond and Co", Sonic said.
"You have a better idea?" Espio said.
"...................Fine, but if we die, I'm blaming you", Sonic said.
"Oh no, how horrible", Espio said sarcastically.
They got on the Balcony and started crossing the ledge.
Sally went first, and she made it across just fine, Tikal then followed, despite her nervousness, she made it across without falling to the parade of zombies below her.
Sonic went next and moved slowly to the other side, being careful not to look down, as he moved, a chip of the ledge broke and he nearly lost his balance, almost giving Tikal a heart attack, but he made it across ok.
Espio started to cross, he crossed cautiously and maintained a serious poker face, but little did he know, a crow was coming over to him.
"Shit! Espio watch out!" Sonic said and shot the bird as it flew towards Espio's head.
"Jesus! Careful!" Espio said and moved.
"My name's not Jesus, and is that how you address someone who saved your life?", Sonic asked.
"Lets just hurry on out of here", Espio said.
Meanwhile, Rotor and the others walked down a charred and burned hallway.
"This place is fucked up", Ash said.
Amy coughed a little from the smoke.
As they passed through a door, a zombie busted out on fire, Rotor was gonna shoot but saw a concrete piece, then chucked it at the zombie to take it down.
"Hopefully the fire will help kill whatever zombies are in this place", Ash said.
"If there are any at all, they could have died from the explosion", Amy pointed out.
They walked down the area cautiously, if the zombies didn't attack from surprise, fire could, it was a dangerous situation for them.
They went up the stairs and cautiously walked, out of fear that the floor would give away.
"So this is how it ends", Ash said.
"We're not dead yet", Mighty said.
"Yet is the key word", Ash said.
"Shut up Ash", Amy said.
"There's nothing on this floor, the fire is blocking a path, go higher", Rotor said.
"I thought this was supposed to take us lower", Ash said and followed Rotor.
Meanwhile, Team Espio led his team into a hallway that also led them to a security room, they looked around and saw a door and saw the lobby.
"Knew it", Espio said.
"We made it, but I see a problem", Sonic said.
"What?" Espio asked.
"There's no ladder to take us down, and we can't jump otherwise we'll risk a broken leg or something", Sonic said.
"There's a ladder machine there", Espio said, they pushed the button but nothing.
"Goddammit!" Espio shouted.
"Lets just find the power", Sonic said.
They left the room and back to the hallway and walked around, checking doors but only seeing closets until they came to the room.
"Shit, isn't there anything around-" they walked but then fell through the floor and landed on some boxes below.
"Ow shit!" Tikal shouted, much to the surprise of everyone around her, "Um....., it slipped out?" Tikal said nervously.
"Well guess we should explore down here", Sonic said.
They left the room they were currently in and saw a zombie crawling toward them, so Espio grabbed a knife and stabbed it.
They eventually arrived at a Power Room and Espio was able to activate the power.
"Wow, this is taking a lot less time than usual", Espio said.
"We have one problem, how do we get back up?" Sonic asked.
They all returned to the room to see if there was a way up.
"We could stack on top of each other until we reach the top", Sally said.
"Um, how about no, lets stack whatever boxes aren't broken", Espio said.
"Won't they topple?" Sally asked.
"And we won't?", Espio pointed out.
They all started stacking some boxes, and after a few, they get to the second floor and they reached the top and went to the hallway and back to the security room that led them to the lobby. They pressed the button and a ladder took them down to the first floor.
"Made it!" Sonic said.
"We gotta wait for the others", Sally said.
"Right, they better hurry", Sonic said.
Back to Team Rotor, they were on the second floor but it was also blocked by fire, so they went into a room that had a corpse with a hole in her chest.
"Ew, how'd that happen?" Amy asked.
"Nevermind, lets just find an escape route", Amy asked.
"Always with the "look for a way out" type talk", Ash said.
"You know any fucking better idea!?" Amy asked.
"Stop arguing dammit!" Rotor said and hit a wall which caused a hole.
Mighty was intrigued, "Excuse me please", Mighty reared back and tackled the wall and made a bigger hole.
"Wow, he's stronger than he looks", Amy said.
Rotor and Mighty hit the wall a few more times and they went through.
"We made it!" Ash said.
The group went through and they passed to the hallway and were on the other side of the fire.
"Good thing we avoided the fire", Ash said.
At that point, two zombies walked through the fire at the duo.
"HOW THE FUCK IS THAT POSSIBLE!?" Ash shouted.
Rotor shot them both back into the fire and killed them as they burned.
"Lets just move before we see more crazy shit", Ash said.
"Easier said than done", Mighty said.
"Like we haven't heard that half a million times as well", Ash said.
"That's getting annoying", Amy said.
"So is repetitiveness", Ash said.
After arguing a few minutes, they decided to leave when part of the ceiling gave way and nearly crushed them, so they took a nearby staircase and went down and managed to be on the other side of the second floor.
"Ok, lets check that room", Amy said.
They tried to open it but it was locked, they saw a number code.
"Motherfucker! Always an obstacle!" Ash said.
"I guess we should go and find a code", Mighty said.
"Where are we gonna find a Goddamn code in a burning inn?" Amy asked.
"It's better than standing here and doing nothing Amy", Mighty said.
"Where are we gonna find a code!? It's probably somewhere inaccessible or burned up!" Amy shouted.
"Now these fights are repetitive", Ash said.
"THAT'S IT!" Amy said and tried to strangle Ash but Mighty held her back.
"Ugh this team is so dysfunctional", Rotor said.
"He's just being a pain!" Amy shouted.
"Please fall back Amy, I'm begging you!" Mighty stated.
Amy ignored and advanced more to Ash but then Rotor grabbed her, "Get a hold of yourself Soldier! I know you're in a lot of stress, we are all, but you need to keep it under control, don't let it get to you, we'll escape with our lives, just keep it together", Rotor said.
"...........ok, sorry about that outburst", Amy said.
"Just keep your mental focus, back in my war days I lost too many comrades to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, we're all in this together, we can survive, S.T.A.R.S. proved that fact", Rotor said.
"They were professional....ow!" Ash said while Mighty stomped on his foot.
"Fine, we'll search for a code or another way if we have to", Amy said.
"Or, we can do this", Rotor said and shot the door handle, they went through.
"How come we didn't do that in the past?" Ash asked.
"We don't wanna damage property, but since this place is burning to the ground, it really doesn't matter", Rotor said.
They arrived in the security room and saw a doorway to the lobby and went through, then they saw the other team at the bottom floor.
"There they are", Mighty said.
Sonic looked up, "Hey they made it".
Team Rotor went down the ladder and the 8 Survivors were reunited.
"The exit's over there", Espio said, pointing to a door.
"Yes, we're finally gonna escape with no freaky thing blocking our path", Jim said.
As Espio walked down the hall, a red body sprang down from the vent then a large tongue stuck out and wrapped her tongue around Espio's neck and then chucked him back and through a glass table.
Everyone glared at Ash.
"I don't summon for these things to happen you know", Ash stated.
The girl looked like a crimson zombie, only she had a large tongue that she used to whip the others.
Rotor and Sonic shot her with their guns.
While they were shooting, Espio got up and grabbed some little wrenches and chucked them at the monster.
The monster started whipping everyone repeatedly with her tongue.
"Normally I like getting tongued by a girl but this is ridiculous", Sonic said.
Amy grabbed a pipe and was gonna go whack it but Espio stopped her, "Wait", Espio grabbed a battery from the desk and then taped it to the pipe and turned it into a stun rod., "Use that".
Amy used the stun rod to shock the monster a few times but she was also eventually knocked back, Sonic weakened it with his .45 and Rotor aimed carefully and finished it by shooting it right through the eye.
A few moments after that, a fireman broke the door down, "You made it, get out, hurry!" the fireman shouted, everyone followed his direction and ran through, Rotor approached the fireman, who's dog tag said "Bomb".
"His name is Bomb? Is that a joke?" Sonic said.
Espio shrugged, "Maybe he deals with bombs and explosions", he responded.
"That was close, it's not just the hotel, now the whole city is burning, you were lucky", Bomb said.
"I'm just glad you fellas are safe", Rotor said.
"We've been patrolling the city, trying to help those in need, it's worse than a war zone, the army's been called in, better get out of the city while you can, I have a very bad feeling", Bomb said.
Rotor gave him the tags of the dead firemen and walked to the others.
"You will always be with me", Bomb said and he held the tags and remembered fond memories of his comrades, Rotor noticed that, he was reminded of himself.
Rotor had a lot to think about, 'Cheating death gives you a rush, that's how I was, all pumped up on adrenaline, but it wouldn't last long, I was about to learn the hard way just how difficult escaping would be'.