Nemesis: Resident Evil III

Chapter Seven: Maintenance Access

For a couple minutes Carlos and the others just stood there, shocked by the reality of what had just happened; not only was Raccoon City apparently completely overrun by zombies, but minutes… only minutes after getting bitten by one of them, Murphy had… oh man, Murphy had become one of them. The transformation had been over before the young man had even been able to understand what was happening to his comrade, and then with a single pull of the trigger, it was all over.

Unfortunately, even though Murphy wasn't going to be eating anyone's brains or whatever any time soon, the gunshot seemed to have agitated the zombies that were standing near the front windows of the pharmacy. Now clawing and pounding on the locked door and windows, they growled and groaned, which caused the ones that were further out in the street to come over and investigate the noise. Soon there were a dozen of them smacking at the windows, while the ones still in the alley were once again pounding on the back door as well.

"We cannot stay here, Mikhail." Nikolai warned, keeping his pistol ready. "Doors might be secure, but is only matter of time before cheap American windows break."

"I fear you are right, my friend." The Captain replied, taking a sorrowful look at the body. "We divide Murphy's ammo and equipment… quickly, we must escape this place."

As much as it hurt to have to go through his friend's pockets and help distribute his gear, Carlos knew that it was necessary if any of them wanted to get out of Raccoon City alive. Too bad there was no way for them to signal the other units for reinforcements, but the man carrying the radio equipment had been one of the first to fall during the zombie ambush, and the one carrying the backup radio had gotten killed during that mad rush toward the alley. As nice as it would have been for everyone to have their own radio, such a thing just wasn't practical… shit, he might as well have wished for everyone to be able to afford one of those brand new Nokia 5110 Cellular Telephones… yeah right.

Nikolai had lost his rifle during the charge, so the Lieutenant was given Murphy's rifle, and all of them divided the extra ammo for both it and his pistol. All right, so now that everyone was fully armed… how in the hell were they going to get out of there? There were a dozen zombies at the front doors, and at least that many back where they had come in, so what were they going to do, simply shoot their way out and hope for the best? Carlos tried to be an optimist most of the time, but he really didn't want to go through a repeat of the last time they tried to run through a zombie horde.

"What if we go up?" Nikolai suggested, pointing his finger toward the ceiling. "Buildings in Raccoon City are so close together, we climb up onto rooftop, and leap our way to safety, da?"

"Is possible, but we would be trapped if rooftops run out." Mikhail said after thinking for a minute. "Olivera, search for more exits; try to find access door into next building, then zombies will lose us."

The two Russians remained in front with their weapons aimed at the zombies who were still banging on the windows, which was probably a good thing in case they broke through. Now that they knew to shoot the monsters in the head, the three of them had a better chance of defending themselves, but the craziest part of all of this was how quickly they were becoming used to what was happening. I mean, this was some loco, Dawn of the Dead shit going on in Raccoon City, and if things like this happened in America all the time, then… then Carlos decided that he didn't want to move to this country any more.

Okay, gotta stay focused, the young man told himself as he searched around the perimeter of the building, looking behind conspicuous shelves and large promotional posters, hoping to find a door that would get them into the next building. No luck so far, though, and judging by how hard the monsters outside were trying to get in, they didn't have much time. In a last ditch effort to find a way through, the young man pulled open the door to the janitor's closet in the back corner, and gasped when he found, not a door into the next building, but something else that might help them escape undetected.

"Captain, Lieutenant, I found something!" He called out, leaning out the door. "I think we can use…

Crash! His words were interrupted by the glass finally giving into the pressure being applied by the zombies, resulting in several of them literally falling head first into the pharmacy along with a shower of broken shards. The front and back doors of the place were still holding, but that didn't matter, since even more zombies were now throwing themselves in, crawling over and seeming to be fighting to get in front of the others. Mikhail must have remembered that the monsters sometimes even attacked their own wounded, because he fired a few precise shots at their legs with his rifle, giving the three of them a little more time to escape, when the zombies did just that.

"Whatever you found, use quickly!" The Captain shouted as he and Nikolai ran toward the janitor's closet. "We've got to get… oh… of course, had to be this."

More and more zombies were pouring in through the broken windows, like fire ants falling from a disturbed part of the mound to attack an intruder, and with no other options, Nikolai pulled the closet door shut once all three of them were inside. Now they really did have no other choice but then to use Carlos's idea: A small maintenance access hatch in the back corner of the closet… maintenance, as in… an easy way to reach all the pipes and conduits that ran down inside the sewer system.

"The sewers?" The Lieutenant asked, scoffing. "The boy has led us to the sewers? That is just wonderful with city the way it is."

"Is better than staying here." Mikhail replied, holding the door closed when the knob started to rattle. "You two get hatch open quickly… and then I suggest breathing through mouths instead of noses."

Between himself and Nikolai, Carlos was able to pull open the rusty, creaking metal hatch, which clearly hadn't been used in a while. What waited for them down below was a metal ladder that quickly became invisible in the waiting darkness, but like the Captain said, it was better than staying there with the zombies. The Lieutenant went down first, and the young man was about to follow him, when he saw something else that gave him an idea. That idea came in the form of a large can of oil that was probably used for maintaining the air conditioning or something.

"Captain, come on!" Carlos yelled, pulling off the lid. "I'll use this to slow them down!"

Mikhail nodded, and then let go of the door, sprinting over to the hatch just as the door was thrown open by the zombies… and the young man threw the contents of the oil can all across the floor at the same time. Unlike the carpeted store outside, this floor was bare tile, and the oil spread out perfectly across… right into the path of the oncoming monsters. Thump! Whump! As soon as the monsters' feet came into contact with the dark brown substance, they all started to slip and slide, crashing to the floor since they lacked the human motor control needed to keep their balance.

In most cases, Carlos would have taken time to laugh at them and gloat a little, but instead he followed the Captain down the ladder, and pulling the hatch closed behind himself, plunging the three of them into complete darkness. Thankfully, everyone had a flashlight mounted onto the end of their rifles, and as soon as the young man reached the damp floor of the tunnel below the pharmacy, all three flashlights were more than enough to illuminate the passageway.

Except for the heavily muffled sound of those monsters still falling all over themselves in the pharmacy above, everything was quiet now, but the underground passageway went in two directions, and none of them knew Raccoon City enough to know which way was best. They still had their compasses, though, so at least they would know what direction they were going. The tunnel was made of a concrete floor and ceiling, while the walls were cinder block, and although there were caged light fixtures present, none of them had power going to them.

The place didn't smell nearly as bad as some of the sewers that Carlos had to travel through during his life for… unimportant reasons, it was more like wet mold and dust from lack of use, although water could be heard running strongly inside some of the large metal pipes nearby. Well, whichever way they went, they couldn't just stand there waiting for the zombies to figure out how to open the hatch, if that was even possible, and come down after them.

"Come, we go… this way." The Captain said after making a seemingly random decision. "Nikolai, with me, Olivera, you watch rear."

With Mikhail and his Lieutenant facing front, and the young man looking backwards, they started moving down the tunnel headed in a generally north direction, and hopefully it would lead them to a place that was more secure while they figured out their next move. A soft echo was resounded throughout the passageway with each step that they took, but so far it seemed that the zombies had been unable to figure out the metal hatch back at the pharmacy, and with the way the sewer tunnels kept branching out, it was unlikely that the monsters would find them, even if they did get the hatch open.

No, the zombies probably gave up after a few minutes of not seeing them any longer, since that was what happened at certain parts of Dawn of the Dead. Sure, Carlos's knowledge of the undead was not exactly scientific, but he had been right about shooting them in the head, so who was to say that the rest of that movie wasn't true, as well? Of course, the zombie movies hardly ever explained where the monsters actually came from… not that it really mattered at this point.

"Shhh, stop moving, no noise." The Captain suddenly whispered, putting out his arm to stop Nikolai. "Hold still, don't breathe… listen… hear that?"

As ordered, all three of them held perfectly still, not moving their flashlights, nor even breathing unless it was essential. Now they listened, with the young man hearing the flow of water from another nearby pipe, but nothing else for several seconds, and Carlos was about to ask what Mikhail what he thought he heard so that he would have a better idea what to listen for, when the answer came on its own in the form of click… click… click…

The sound was very slow and deliberate, but with all the echoes that the slightest noise generated, it was nearly impossible to figure out where it was coming from. One thing was for sure, though, it wasn't being generated from inside of the pipes, nor was it coming from the darkened light fixtures. It stopped when Carlos moved his foot to get a better ready stance, as if whatever was causing it was worried about being discovered, but started again after a few seconds of silence.

"Get ready, men." Mikhail whispered, just barely loud enough to be heard. "We are not alone down here."