Chapter 3: You have once again entered the world of survival horror. Good luck.

It was during the early hours of morning, that I awoke, plagued by countless questions; the most prominent one being why me?

Why had I been pulled into this situation? I was a mere rookie-cop, fantasizing about a life in a small town, doing what I could to maintain a sense of morality and peace. Yet someone had decided to make me a resident in something incredibly evil. As much as I would like to hope, I knew it was more than coincidence. Madington knew it.

Five years ago, when I decided I wanted to become a cop, life was seen as being simple and routine, driving me to seek an existence that I could be happy contributing to. I thought "What the hell, why not. I'll apply!" and everything would be simple.

I can still, even five years later, hear the pleading words of friends and parents alike; why a cop?

Why do something so risky?

My parents never understood. Could never understand that I wanted something, anything more than living in a big city, blending into the background. Sure, becoming a cop meant that I would have to deal with some pretty harsh shit, but it would be worth it... at least I thought it would. Besides, crime in a small town pales in comparison to crime in a city.

But now… I'm starting to regret my career choice. In fact, I'm starting to regret the whole thing.

The Academy had been a breeze and I excelled at most things, my teachers even complimenting me, telling me I would make them proud. It all seems so surreal now, like a faded dream, lost over the years.

It was strange, catching every lucky break a person could catch, down to an assignment that I would be happy with. That, plus Chief Madington's lack of expense, instilled me with a paranoia of something best described as conspiracy.

I looked at Devan's face as he slept on top of me, taking in his peacefulness and forgetting about all the pain and suffering I had witnessed over the past couple days. I zoned out for a few minutes more in his visage.

But something more troubled me. Why did I leave the city?

Devan.

I stirred uneasily at the thought and felt Dev shift his weight, slowly waking.

"Nathan, you awake?"

I stroked the top of his head lightly with my fingers, gently running them through his hair. "Yeah, I've been up for a bit."

He rubbed his eyes then met my gaze, a slight grin touching his face. With little effort, he leaned close and kissed me softly, his palm on my cheek. "What's wrong?"

Even with the euphoria of his gentle touch, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more to my parents' deaths and our current predicament.

"Something is bothering you, isn't it?"

It took a moment for the question to register. "Yeah, my parents. There's something I've missed."

An idea formed in my mind, a hunch. "Devan, I have to get up for a moment and check something."

Reluctantly, he shifted his weight, allowing me to stand and I walked over to the computer, a word zipping around my mind.

Employees.

The computer had been left on all night and I sat down in front of it. With a quick motion, I selected the Employee heading and leaned back, waiting.

A screen popped up. A list.

Scanning the names, I paused. Madington was there; Turkraft, my instructor at the Academy…but my heart truly skipped a beat when I discovered that my father's name was among them.

My father? Working for those assholes who had taken my life away and without any sense of remorse?

It ate away at my mind to believe that my father would knowingly participate in this nightmare, but it was laid out right in front of me.

My father had never mentioned anything about his work, or that he worked at all for that matter and now things were starting to fit into place.

There was a sudden loud thump, downstairs in the living room and I met Dev's shocked look.

"What the fuck was that?"

We put our boots on and grabbed our weapons, moving slowly towards the door as the thumping continued. It was followed by the sound of breaking glass and I unlocked the door and opened it, slipping silently into the hall with Dev heading towards the staircase.

The footsteps could be heard and I froze as a shadow fell across the far wall.

Devan calmly wrapped his hand around my wrist and pulled me into the bedroom where we hid behind the door, waiting for the thing to appear.

A shadow was cast across the room as the figure stood in the doorway, preparing to enter. I could hear the breathing, shallow and with a hollow sound to it. The end of a machine gun came into view and I realized that it was a person, rather than some walking biohazard.

Slowly, I stepped into view, my hands in the air and met the line of sight of the soldier, dressed in black fatigues and wearing a helmet and gas mask. On the soldier's shoulder, was the Umbrella logo.

I was about to speak, but decided against it, as the barrel of the large gun was pointed directly at me, unmoving. Finally I gathered the nerve to speak. "I'm Officer Silver, RCM-" …he cut me off.

"Quiet!"

Devan was still hiding behind the door and it seemed that the soldier had no clue that I wasn't alone, ushering me out of the room and downstairs, following me close behind with the weapon trained on me.

Halfway down the staircase, Devan had crept up behind the soldier and slammed the butt of his gun on the base of the man's neck, knocking him to the side with a heavy thud against the wall. I quickly spun when I heard the impact and snatched the heavy weapon from the soldier's grip and pointed it back as the black clad mercenary regained their balance.

"I think it's time you answered a few questions."

There was a loud crash downstairs, followed by a tapping sound that did little to drown out the raspy, laboured breathing of the tongued creature.

Without warning, it appeared at the base of the staircase, screeching like metal fingernails on a chalkboard as it prepared to lunge.

Two more came into view and scuttled to the base of the staircase with their brother, joining in with the beastial symphony as we slowly backed our way up the stairs, Devan ordering the soldier around.

One beast leaped, landing on the steps in front of me, parting its deadly jaws and revealing the massive tongue. Thick saliva gurgled out as it hissed.

I opened fire, surprised by the kick of the weapon, riddling the abomination with a series of bullet wounds and spattering droplets of crimson on the white walls.

With a sickened shriek, cut off by the beasts' death, it collapsed and gave me the opportunity to reach the upper level before the other two things took its place at my heels.

The three of us stood in the hallway, moving back in retreat as a tongue-beast appeared, clinging to the ceiling. I pulled the trigger and spotted the second on the floor, closer than the other, causing me to switch targets.

"Nathan, I can't fire, not enough room!"

Even as Devan said the words, I already knew. The hallway was much too narrow and I was in his line of sight.

The floor-crawler shrieked and spasmed in death, as the other lunged at me from the ceiling, mouth open and the tongue ready to impale. In a panic I ducked, narrowly avoiding the huge talons as the beast passed over me and buried itself into the soldier; tearing at his chest and opening his ribcage with a heavy, wet crunch. Blood poured from the multitude of wounds and it was clear that the man was dead before he hit the ground.

Devan started firing and I spun, punching hole after hole into the hideous creature as it licked the soldier's exposed chest cavity. With the tell-tale shriek, it spasmed one final time before it died and the house once again returned to silence.

"I think it's time we left this place, Nate."

I answered calmly, my gaze never leaving the dead creature while my heart felt like it was trying to lodge itself in my throat. "I'm inclined to agree."

I knelt next to the remains of the soldier and rummaged through his pockets, finding three clips for a standard 9mm and tossed them to Dev as well as two clips for the machine gun, which I pocketed.

After that, it didn't take us much convincing to leave the house, carefully listening for any other signs of danger.

The sun was hotter than the day before, accentuating the smell of decay and I glanced at my watch. Noon.

Lunchtime. Feeding time.

Chilling thoughts entered my mind, but I forced them away, unwilling to allow them to stay to cloud my judgement. At this point, the last thing I needed, the last thing Dev needed, is for me to be preoccupied with cynicism.

"Well Devan, the mine-entrance is that way," I said, pointing off beyond a hill-side. "It shouldn't take us longer than ten or fifteen minutes to reach it."

He nodded, squinting in the bright sun.

It seemed that I was getting used to this. It seemed that we did, could and would overcome anything Umbrella could throw in our faces and more importantly that we had to. We had to stop them from

Of course, I still felt an uneasiness. A feeling that I couldn't shake since we left Spuzzm, but I couldn't place it but left it at the anxiety of losing Amanda.

The walk was easy, tracking through six inches of fine beige dust, which kicked up behind us in a small cloud.

From our vantage point, we could see staggering dark specs all around, undoubtedly the forms of zombies. Occasionally, we could make out other forms, scurrying in shadows. Tongue-creatures. Lickers.

I shuddered with the thought of seeing that gruesome tongue dip into the soldier's chest cavity, wriggling inside like a demonic, red serpent.

Wanting to take my mind off reality, I turned to Devan and put my hand on his arm, still bothered by a feeling of uneasiness that I couldn't shake. "Why did you come into the city?"

Devan seemed shocked as if I wasn't supposed to ask, that I had committed some kind of crime. I didn't look away, instead I pleaded for an answer without saying a word.

He sighed and finally spoke. "After I had gone to Raccoon; after I had written that article, I was approached by men…rich men. They wanted me to help them."

It clicked. "They were from Umbrella…"

Devan nodded solemnly. "Yeah. They told me that I could help them. Your name came up and they sent me to get you."

Anger welled up inside me, hurting my head. I struggled to remain calm, but the reality of Devan's betrayal was too much.

"You're working for them?"

Devan didn't move, didn't blink.

I couldn't deal with this. I turned away from him, disgusted. More so than staring at the gruesome remains of the victims, those poor souls who didn't stand a chance. Tears trickled down my cheeks and I started to walk away quickly.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and stopped, turning to look into Dev's eyes.

"Nathan… I didn't know about all this. They just said they wanted me to make sure you got here."

I felt sincerity in his voice as he spoke and could have sworn he was about to cry as well. "I didn't realize that these… creatures would…" he trailed off.

I understood, at least I wanted to. The fact we had survived, made me want to trust him. The fact that I loved him, made me believe him.

I forced a slight grin, causing him to smile. "Well Devan, what now?"

Devan took my hands in his and chuckled. "Let's get these bastards."

With a new feeling of purpose, we came to the large metal doors to the mine shaft and stepped inside. We were bathed by the dim light of industrial work-lights, hanging from the walls that alerted us that someone had been here recently.

Without hesitation, I walked forward, content in the knowledge that we would face all of this together.