Chapter 4: Sheffield's Story Hallsworth looked out the door of his chopper and watched the buildings of Raccoon City pass underneath him. He gripped his assault rifle and bit his lip. He wasn't looking forward to landing. He knew she wouldn't be there, which meant that he and his team would have to trek across the city to find her. That meant they'd be killing and getting killed.
He didn't mind killing. He had done his fair share of it to get this job. He just respected the members of his team and didn't to see any of them fall to the T-virus.
"I have visual on the LZ. ETA, thirty seconds." said the pilot.
"Let's get ready people." said Hallsworth getting out of his seat and standing in front of the six men. He surveyed them, reviewing their names in his head.
The one closest to him was named Frenchie, a nickname given to him by his piers because he refused to tell anyone his name. The next one down was Sandler. He had a reputation for being the most ruthless man in Umbrella's security force. After him was Jaques, who had quite a bit of experience with the T-virus and its effects. Then in the very back was Trina. She never said a word, but was very efficient at killing and doing her job. On the other side of him was Davis, who like Jaques, had a lot of experience with the T-virus. The last member of the team was the most lethal, aside from Hallsworth. He was next in the line of command for field officers which meant that if Hallsworth was killed or retired, he would take over. His name was Price and he and Hallsworth were really good friends.
The chopper started to decelerate and came to a hover about three feet off the ground. Hallsworth was the first off, followed by Price, Davis, Trina, Jaques, Sandler, and finally Frenchie. Hallsworth turned and signaled the pilot to take off. The pilot did a half salute and the chopper ascended into the sky.
"Alright guys, sights on, fan out, make sure the area is secure. You know how it goes. Aim for the head, and only the head." he said as he pulled down a red scope over his right eye. The rest of the team did the same and fanned out. They had landed in a small parking lot surrounded by police cars and semi's.
Their black armor looked out of place, and they were packing way to much firepower for what looked like a simple mission. Hallsworth knew it was never that easy though. He had been working for Umbrella for twenty-five years and knew that they should always plan for every scenario when they went on a mission.
Trina signaled to him that all was clear and the rest of the team returned to the landing site and grouped around Hallsworth.
"Alright," he stated as he laid down a map on the pavement. "According to Intel, Dr. Ashford's daughter was lost somewhere around here." he said circling his finger around a spot downtown. "We should be able to walk there and be at the site within the hour." he finished. "There is also an Umbrella field security outpost here." he pointed to another spot on the map further up the street. "Command lost contact with it but they said there should be truck there we could use. It will also be our evac point." he paused and folded up the map. "Any questions?"
"Why didn't they just drop us there?" asked Frenchie.
"They wouldn't tell me. All they said was that it was too hot." replied Hallsworth in a somewhat irritated tone. He wasn't mad at Frenchie, just the people at command. He hated not knowing every detail about a mission. That meant there was a possibility to have a 'complication' and complications nearly always meant that people would die.
"Sir, if this is going to be an easy mission, why did you not tell us to pack light?" asked Trina.
"Because I doubt she'll be there." he replied. "I know Angela and she is way to smart to stay in one place, if she is still alive that is." Three shots rang out and the whole team looked around to see what it was.
A zombie toppled to the ground and Sandler lowered his gun.
"Sorry. Continue." he said dismissively.
"Anything else?" asked Hallsworth. The team remained quiet. "Alright, let's move." The team turned and waited for Hallsworth to lead them toward their objective.
"We should go to your house and check on your family." remarked Nathan. Sarah looked at him as if he were stupid.
"I don't think we should. They are probably dead." she said with a little sadness in her voice.
He knew she was probably right, but he felt that she would need closure, if not now, then later.
"It won't hurt to at least check." She looked down and nodded her head.
"Your probably right." she said. "It's just up ahead, turn left on Juno drive." Sheffield did as she said and followed her directions to her house.
Nathan got out of the car and motioned for Sarah to stay where she was. He readied his gun and moved toward the house they were in front of. He kept a close eye on the dead neighbors roaming around their yards. One of them sensed him and started to make its way toward him.
He knew if he shot it then the others would hear it and he wouldn't be able to take them all on. He slung the MP5 around his shoulder and drew his eight inch combat knife. The zombie got within range and in one swift movement sliced the top of its head off. It thudded to the ground minus half a head. He re-sheathed his knife and made his way to the door. Nathan gripped his gun, and pulled it fro his shoulder before kicking in the door.
The living room beyond was in disarray. The couch was turned over, the lamps were in pieces on the floor, and several windows were smashed. Sheffield immediately knew that things didn't look good for the family. He cautiously stepped into the house, sweeping his gun around.
He slowly moved into the room and across into the kitchen. Things were just a chaotic in there as they were in the living room. Sheffield dumbly lowered his gun and turned around to see just how stupid he was. A male zombie, whom he presumed to be Sarah's dad, bared his teeth and lunged at him. Sheffield put his hands up and caught his face. They tumbled back and fell to the ground.
Sheffield was amazed at the strength he had for the fact that he was dead, or had been at least. He opened and closed his mouth trying to bite him. Sheffield was doing all her could to hold him back. He finally got a good grip on his head and twisted his head. Nathan heard bones crack and the resistance stopped.
He pushed the newly dead body off him and got up. He retrieved his gun and swore at himself for being so dumb. Sheffield made his way down the hall making sure he wouldn't get caught off guard. When he got to the last room in the hall, he found the door barricaded with a large piece of furniture.
Nathan carefully moved the large shelf out of the way and opened the door with one hand while keeping his gun up in the other. A female zombie immediately came at him and he fired a single round blowing brain matter and blood all over the wall.
Nathan regretted doing that because he knew it was Sarah's mother. He looked around the room and heard a squishing sound, realizing that a large chunk of flesh was missing from Sarah's mother's leg. The bone could be seen and she had very little thigh left.
The hunched over form of a small boy was sitting on the ground with his back to Sheffield. His heart sank at the sight of this young boy eating his mother. Sheffield stepped into the room and crushed a piece of glass with his heavy boot.
The sound caught Sarah's brother's attention and he turned his head and looked at Nathan with his dead eyes. He hated to do it, but he knew he had to. He raised his MP5 and aimed. The boy got up and Sheffield closed his eyes, pulled the trigger and heard the body hit the ground.
He exhaled sharply and backed out of the room without opening his eyes. Nathan walked back down the hall, and slung his gun over his shoulder. He walked back out to the car and got in the drivers seat without a word.
He just sat there for a moment under the eye of Sarah. She waited for a minute before speaking, knowing that he was considering something.
"Where they in there?" she asked, almost in a whisper. He nodded his head, but had a grave look on his face. "They're dead aren't they?" Sheffield didn't move. Sarah looked away and tried to fight back tears.
"Don't fight it. I understand." he said, also in a whisper. Tears fell down her cheeks and she let out a sob. "Let it out." he said. She stopped.
"No. Not now, not yet." she said wiping tears from her eyes and cheeks.
"Sarah, it's not good to keep it in." She looked at him and he knew it was futile to argue. Sheffield sighed. "Is there anything you need before we go?" he asked.
"No." she replied shortly. "I am hungry though."
"Okay. Where can we go?"
"There's a McDonald's just up the street." Sheffield nodded and started the car.
He wished that she would cry, but he knew why she wouldn't. She felt that she needed to keep it in until they got out of here so she would have a fighting spirit. She knew she wouldn't survive keeping the scared little girl thing going.
Nathan hit the gas and they took off toward the McDonald's. He turned onto the main street and pulled into the parking lot of the fast food place. They got out and Sheffield went into the building first. He looked around and shot the few zombies that were in it. Sarah also had her gun ready but put it in her back pocket.
Sheffield shouldered his gun and hopped over the counter. He looked around and found a few hamburgers on the warmer. They were wrapped and ready to eat. He grabbed them and hopped back over the counter to join Sarah.
He presented the three hamburgers to her and she took the one of her choice. They went over to a table that was relatively far away from the bodies and sat down. Sarah started unwrapping her burger and it was then that Nathan realized he was very hungry. He had not eaten much breakfast that morning because they had told them to gear up and get ready to ship out before he had a chance to eat.
His stomach grumbled and Sarah heard it.
"You're hungry. Eat." she said in a motherly way. Sheffield smiled and took a bite. He swallowed.
"I haven't anything today." he said. "They told us to get geared up and ready to ship out before I had a chance to have any breakfast." he said without thinking.
"Where were you going?" She asked, and took another bite of her sandwich.
"Somewhere in New Mexico. Wasn't that long a ride actually. Santego is only like one-hundred miles from Black Mesa."
"Santego? Black Mesa?" she asked confused. It was then that Sheffield realized that he was revealing top secret information.
"Never mind." he said quickly and stuffed a large bite into his mouth.
"No, you started this, now you finish it." she said. Nathan finished chewing and swallowed.
"I'm actually not supposed to talk about it. I can't."
"There is no one here but me. Everyone is dead." Sheffield considered her words and decided it couldn't hurt to tell her. "Wait a minute. How the hell did you get from New Mexico to here?"
"Alright, I'll tell you, but you have to promise that you won't talk about it ever again. Understand?" She had a triumphant look on her face.
"I promise."
"Okay. This is how my sergeant explained things to me. There is a top secret government installation called Black Mesa Research Facility. They do all kinds of stuff for the government, most of which is teleportation."
"Teleportation? Like Star Trek stuff?"
"I don't know, I don't really understand it. Anyway, apparently there was an experiment scheduled for today and someone messed up the material they were testing. Well, this mistake caused, believe it or not, aliens, actual aliens to start teleporting all over the compound. I was sent in with my entire unit to stop these aliens from spreading." he stopped to see how Sarah would react.
She merely stared at him with a blank look. She waited a moment and seemed to recover.
"And?" Nathan was startled by her lack of disbelief.
"Well, we pretty much turned Black Mesa into a war zone, a battle ground."
"Sounds like you've had a rough day." Now Sheffield could tell she was just humoring him.
"Okay, want me to prove it to you?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Think. From your position in the school, you would hear everything and everyone going in and out of the school, correct?"
"Yeah, that's why I went in there. So I could hear if someone would come to rescue me-"
"Right." Sheffield cut her off, "But you didn't hear me come in did you? I crashed through the ceiling and landed on the ground. But you heard that and came out cause you heard my voice and saw me shoot the zombie."
"No, I have not heard you." Sheffield reached into his vest pocket and pulled out his PDA. He slid it across the table to her.
"Access it. It should still have all the mission and battle read-outs." She eyed him suspiciously and picked up the small computer.
"And how exactly did you get here then?" she asked as she started to look through the files and maps of Black Mesa.
"I'm not exactly sure. I got into a firefight with some guys and I fell into a portal or something. Smashed through the roof and landed where you were."
"Who's this Freeman guy?" she asked. Sheffield sighed.
"Is he alive or dead?"
"It says he's alive, near the blast pit. What does that mean?"
"He's still killing my friends." he said with sadness in his voice. Sarah heard this and she looked up at him.
"You are telling the truth aren't you?" Nathan slightly laughed.
"Yeah. It's hard to believe, I know. Hell, I wouldn't even believe it if I hadn't fought them." She put the PDA down.
"How do I know you're not crazy?"
"I guess you don't." he replied dismissively. "One question for you." She nodded. "Where are we?"
"Raccoon City-" Before she could say the rest, a loud crash scared them both and they looked around to see several zombies start to climb through the window. Nathan knew he was really messing up, he should have thought to look up and make sure nothing was there to threaten them.
Sheffield bolted up and leveled his gun. He opened fire and emptied the clip into their heads. Gore spattered the tables and floor.
He quickly reloaded and yelled at Sarah to go. They went out the opposite door they had come in and realized that they wouldn't get back to the car. Hordes of zombies poured through the broken window and others shattered more.
Sarah opened fire with her pistol pegging a few in the head but Sheffield sprayed into their chests just trying to keep them back. The two of them turned and sprinted out the back door and into another parking lot. The walking dead were coming at them from all angles.
Nathan led Sarah down a small ditch and kept running. The zombies tried to follow them down but clumsily stumbled down and landed on the ground. He reloaded his gun while he was running. They ran under an over pass that extended of the ditch. The two of them ran for at least a mile before Sarah finally begged him to stop.
He could have run for at least another mile but remembered the Sarah wasn't a soldier. He slowed down and stopped and Sarah came up panting. Sheffield took the moment to reload and handed another Beretta clip to his companion.
He started to make his way up the steep concrete ditch. Sarah caught her breath and did her best to follow him. She didn't have the deep grooves her shoes like he did with his combat boots. He got up and helped Sarah up and they surveyed the area around them.
It looked as if they were getting back into civilization. A few cars passed them and drove quickly up the street. Father up the street they could see flashing lights of police cars and what looked like several people moving around them. They looked like they were going faster than the zombies would move and that was a good sign.
They started toward the activity.