Earth Abides, Chapter 6 by patricia51

(Out of the Frying Pan)

(Umbrella Medical Facility, Raccoon City)

"Reloading," yelled Jake Ryan. Lots of practice saw the security team leader release the empty magazine from his MP5 and snap in another without looking and in record time. He hit the bolt release and opened fire again. Four members of his team on his right and left stretched across the corridor, their own weapons firing. He spared a moment to look over his shoulder. Four others waited about fifty feet back, ready to take over. He caught sight of the expedition leader just past them.

"Angie," he bellowed, "get the hell out of here!" He measured the distance between him and his people and the things coming down the hallway. "Squad fallback."

Angie bit her lips even as she responded to her friend's command. Jake and his front line spun and ran, passing between the ready foursome who began shooting as soon as the first group was past. Angie knew Jake and the others would turn and set up yet another line and allow the ones firing now to fall back. That way someone would always be covering the retreating personnel.

She saw one of the creatures hesitate and fall as nine-millimeter bullets shattered its head. Almost instantly the press behind it poured over the body, tearing it to pieces in their frenzy to get at the humans. She cast a look down the hall. Light streamed through the doors leading to the outside where the helos would be waiting. Would they make it? Rebecca yanked her arm.

"Run Angie!"

Angie ran.

(Two days earlier)

The two helos gently settled to the concrete. Dust flew wildly in the air, early masking Jake and the members of the security team who had landed earlier. The remainder of the team piled out and spread out in all directions. The aircraft lifted away, circled until the dust settled somewhat and Angie was able to take a look herself and get a more detailed report from Jake. Then on her command the aircraft headed back to the team's base camp where they would shut down but remain on standby.

Once the sound of the choppers had faded the team began to move towards today's objective: the Umbrella Corporation hospital complex that Alice had awoken in after she had been seized after escaping the Hive. She had not had time to do anything but get out of the seemingly empty facility but she had always been convinced that it was there that Matt Addison had been transformed in the creature known as Nemesis.

The team slipped through the shattered doors. Monitoring had already confirmed that the radiation levels had dropped to normal but two members carried meters and continually monitored them. Working in pairs the security element checked each room. Most were empty, not even showing signs that they had ever been occupied. A few were fitted out as offices. Quick examination of found files told them nothing of importance as they worked their way down a long hallway towards the center of the complex.

Following the directions Alice had given Angie the group retraced the route she had once escaped by when she had woke up here. They finally found a suite that matched Alice's description. Very little remained. The observation window she had pounded on was cracked and several pieces had fallen to shatter on the floor. The door hung drunkenly from one hinge. Over the bed the wires and tubes still hung down where Alice had torn them from her body.

Amid the broken monitors and overturned desks in the observation room a couple of still reasonably sound looking computers were found. Kevin Lynch, the team's resident computer guru carefully removed the hard drives for later study since of course there was no power available to check them there.

"They look alright," he told Angie. "No obvious signs of damage. When we get back to the base camp I'll take a look."

Angie debated pulling back and heading for the mansion that served as the entrance to the Hive. But it was on the other side of Raccoon City. They would either have to walk quite a way or summon the choppers again. And neither really appealed to her. So they kept exploring.

The further they went the more obvious were the signs of damage and decay. The roof was missing in places and wall had been shattered. Nature, finally on the rebound after years of suffering from the world wide effects of the T-Virus, had begun to reclaim the complex. Just to be certain Angie had Rebecca study the encroaching vines and vegetation. The biochemist assured her that everything was normal; there were no signs of anything like Plant 42 she and Angie's father had encountered in the Spencer Mansion.

For safety they had circled the outer part of the complex and found nothing. Fortunately nothing meant no undead. Unfortunately it meant no information or even machinery worth studying or salvaging. Most had been destroyed in the bombing or the fires that must have raged after that. In fact it was rather surprising that this much was still standing.

Still they kept their guard up. No one was left alone at any time. Headset radios kept everyone in touch. Now they penetrated into the very heart of the complex. There was still a lot of damage and even more growth so they picked their way carefully until they came to a still sealed steel security door. The power was out but Kevin ran a bypass with his laptop. Jake set a couple of watchers to guard the rear and then positioned his other people to cover the door. He and another young man grasped the door and prepared to pull.

"On three?"

Angie nodded. "One, two, three!"

Kevin tapped the "Enter" key and the locks released. The pair of men tugged the door which swung open slowly on its massive hinges. Everyone held their breath. Flashlights mounted under MP5's had been switched on already and their beams darted through the opening.

And then everyone laughed. For the room beyond was not only empty but the roof was gone and the right hand wall was nothing but tumbled concrete blocks. They searched the area, including the rooms opened up by the collapsed wall. Then they approached a similar door on the far side of the room.

Angie hesitated. Why? Something tugged at her mind.

Angie and K-Mart's mom Alice were the only two people known to have successfully bonded with the T-Virus. The young woman had not acquired the amazing physical attributes Alice had nor were her mental powers on the same level. She could not direct a psychic blast like her Aunt Alice could but she could do other things with her mind. For some reason the virus had made her very aware of undead infected by the same T-Virus. More than that if she concentrated she could control them somewhat. Not for long and not too many but she could force her will on them.

There were other powers. She was a telepath, able to send and receive thoughts to and from people she was familiar with. Especially K-Mart. The pair had practiced until they could communicate over distances up to several miles. In a joking mood once they had discussed acing their final exams by having one sit in the dorm room with the textbook while the other took an exam and swap back and forth as needed. But Angie hadn't needed to cheat to be Valedictorian and K-Mart was absolutely certain that somehow her parents would find out so they skipped the idea.

One power that had come to light during the Umbrella attack on her home town in Alaska was that she couldn't send her mind out like Aunt Alice into space to burn out a satellite chip or across the miles the blow up a helicopter gunship she could erect a mental force field. She needed help to hold that. One classmate, Teddy Duncan, was the only one along who had worked with her during some experimental studies in college. Their bond wasn't as strong as K-Mart or Eliza had with her but they could communicate a little and Angie could draw on the other girl's determination.

None of that was what was making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Rather she was suddenly reminded of her mother talking about landing with the STARS Alpha Team in the Arklay Mountains in their search for both the downed Bravo Squad and the suspected cannibal killers that had been terrorizing Raccoon City.

"We had found the abandoned helo the Bravo's had come in and had fanned out to conduct a sweep to find them," Jill Valentine Redfield had recalled. "I paused for a moment uneasy at something I couldn't put my finger on. Then I realized what it was. The area was completely silent. There was no sound at all; no small animals moving, not even the buzzing of insects. Dead silence. And that was when the shit hit the fan."

THAT was what was bugging her. It was the silence. Rats and other creatures had slowly filtered back in to Raccoon City. Certainly there were plenty of bugs around. But now it was all so quiet. She strained her ears as well as her mind. Was it about to hit it?

Nothing happened. She sighed. Oh well. Next door.

When the team pulled open the next door the reaction by all was immediate, the hair standing up on the back of pretty much everyone's neck and not a few team members shivered involuntarily. The air flowing up through the metal staircase leading down into darkness that was right in front of them was not only cold but it carried the musty odors of things long dead and things that should be dead.

"Well, I think we've found the underworld," commented Rebecca, who gingerly peeked over the railing, her flashlight barely parting the gloom.

"I guess so," replied Angie. "Conference time."

Jake posted sentries, especially at the stairway and then joined Angie, Rebecca, Teddy, Sam and Kevin.

"We need to explore this," Angie said firmly. "It's what we came here for. Exploration and discovery."

"I agree but not everyone goes."

"Divide forces?"

"Half and half, with no more of that happening. Sam holds this place along with part of the security force. She keeps a few others and makes sure there's a clear route back to where we can bring in the helos if needed."

"Which we probably will," sighed Rebecca. "But I'm going with you."

"Uh-huh," agreed Angie. She named a couple of others. "Teddy," turning to the blonde girl, "I need you to stay here with Sam. Radio reception is going to be uncertain. If I have to yell for help or order an evacuation I want a secondary way of doing it."

They agreed on a few hours of rest. Then Angie led half the tem down while a grim-faced Sam secured the area they left, vowing to hold it against everything that might come.

Down, down, down the exploring party went till they were far below Raccoon City. A long corridor stretched left and right at the stairways end. They had passed several doors on different landings along the way. All had been closed and locked and had been carefully checked to make sure they would stay that way.

"Which way?"

Angie and Rebecca conferred.

"That way," the biochemist pointed. "Leads towards the center of the city. If we are going to find any trace of Dr. Birken and his research it would be that way. The other way doesn't seem to point to any particular direction. Neither the Hive nor the Spencer Mansion is that way."

"Okay then."

The team moved deeper into the rabbit warren that the tunnel soon became. Only careful mapping kept them from getting lost. Not only had Umbrella constructed labs and chambers down there but the usual municipal services of storm drains, water works, waste disposal and electrical conduits ran back and forth almost hap-hazardly.

They descended a long ladder onto a concrete and steel walkway than ran alongside a curved walled tunnel most filled with water. A second catwalk was on the other side but they saw no way to cross to it. A metallic clatter came when Jake kicked an expended cartridge. He picked it up and examined it.

"50 caliber Desert Eagle. We must have made it to the area that Leon Kennedy and Ada explored."

"In that case double careful," Angie announced. "They encountered at least one Tyrant down here and there may be more." At the same time she wished that the pair had not been so doggone close-mouthed about their adventures here. She knew part of it was Leon covering for Ada and her actions back when she worked for Umbrella but goodness, she wasn't the only person to have ever done things for that corporation and not all, or even most of them, good.

Two more doors continued them along the tunnel. One of the security team spotted an archway overhead but once again no one was able to find a way up to it.

"Something really smells," commented that same woman.

Angie had been so focused on the journey and making sure they kept careful track of where they were she actually hadn't noticed. But when she did take a whiff she agreed. Then her mind alerted.

"Something's coming!"

"Where?" Those team members who had holstered weapons for one reason or another drew them. Safeties and load chamber indicators were hastily checked.

"Behind us."

All but Jake and one other person looked back. The security pair maintained alertness to their front. So they were the only ones who did not see the black tide begin to pour into view along the barely flowing water."

"What the hell is THAT?"

For a moment Angie was unsure. Then she remembered K-Mart telling about the attack of the crows on Claire's convoy, crows infected by feeding on the undead. This was nearly as bad.

"Rats! It's rats that have become infected," Angie shouted.

"My God there must be thousands. We don't have enough ammo for this."

"Run!" Everyone did.

The individual diseased animals were not that fast but the sheer number of them pushed them closer and closer to Jake and the rear guard since the team had to run in single file along the catwalk. The black tide grew closer and closer. Angie could do nothing to control such a vast number of undead. Frantically they all looked for an exit.

They emerged into a room that spread out to one side but didn't seem to offer any exit. Then over head a door clanged. A light came on, illuminating a steel ladder fastened to one wall. An unfamiliar female voiced shouted.

"Up this way. Hurry!"

Rebecca and Angie were almost thrown up the ladder along with the rest of the specialists. The security team bought a little extra time with a shower of hand grenades, just enough for them to mount the ladder as well. At the top a young woman was gesturing them towards a pierced steel walkway that led to her. Feet pounded on it. The rats couldn't climb but the sheer numbers pushed them towards the humans. Following the unknown individual the team scampered through a solid hatch style door, slammed it behind them and dogged it tight.

A switch was thrown and the room lit up. Angie noted there were several exits including a stairway leading up. She turned to their rescuer; a young woman who looked to be in her late teens.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Angie felt something familiar about the young woman. "I'm Angie. Angela..."

"Ashford?" completed the other girl.

"Well once yes. Now I'm Angela Ashford Valentine Redfield. And you are?"

"I'm Sherry."

A memory popped up, a memory of a couple visiting her father in their house in Raccoon City and their young daughter. Younger than Angie the pair had never-the-less played together and become friends if only for that one day."

"Sherry Birken!"

Somehow it seemed right to hug. They embraced and then parted to look at each other. Almost together they both spoke.

"What are you doing here?"

(To be continued)

(Note: Resident Evil 2 (the game) novelized as "City of the Dead" has Claire adventure along with Leon and Ada. At first I couldn't think of a way to work it in especially as Claire has never mentioned it during my previous stories but I decided she just didn't talk about it much so I am assuming she WAS there and have changed some passages in previous chapters to go along with this.)