Walking down the hallway that supported the chemistry labs, Stephanie felt more nervous than she ever had before.
Of course I'm nervous. We're stranded in the city, we're running low on ammo, and cannibalistic monsters stalk us. It can't possibly get any worse…
She shuddered, thinking about those files that Miranda showed her and the others. Whatever doubts she had before, they were gone now, because it was definite proof of Umbrella's involvement.
She skirted another hall, gripping her Beretta in her trembling right hand, her flashlight in her left. It appeared safe…
…but so did the plant, she thought sourly. The vile memory made her break into a cold sweat, the mere thought putting her into a near-immediate state of panic. She managed to swallow her fear as she opened the door into her literature classroom. It was clear.
Whew…
She lowered the 9mm, simultaneously relieved and depressed by the stillness of the room and the bodies of her fellow classmates. Her classroom friends, all of them, were dead.
There's nothing I can do about it now, except get out of the city and expose Umbrella for the bastards that they are!
She sighed, knowing that she had to search the rest of the building. There was no time for grieving now, but she would try to find time later…
…assuming there is a later.
She closed the door, ready to leave—
—when she froze, seeing the form in front of her. Pieces of information were being fed to her brain, bit by bit.
Blonde hair…black clothes…claws…
The woman was walking past the building. Stephanie stood still, being careful not to make any sudden moves.
Please don't see me, please don't see me…
After a long while, the woman left. Stephanie was finally able to breathe again. She slowly reached for her radio.
"Miranda?"
"Yeah, Steph?"
She gulped. "That woman's outside the school."
"W-what?"
"Yeah. We need to barricade this building immediately."
"I agree. I'll tell the others."
Stephanie clipped her radio to her belt and went back the way she came, completely freaked.
If that woman had seen me, I'd be dead already—
Stephanie froze again, all thoughts about the woman blown away by what was above her.
It appeared to be human, once, but now it was definitely a monster. It was naked, its appearance making it look like a skinned lizard. Its skin was blood-red, and its brain was exposed. However, it also had a long tongue that easily touched the floor not ten feet below it.
Stephanie recognized it from the files, and also from Urkburrow; she'd killed several of them before.
It's a Licker…
The Licker roared, and jumped from the ceiling. Its tongue flailed about in front of her.
It's blind, but its sense of sound is heightened…
Steph let out a mild scream, and the Licker heard it. The creature jumped again—
—but was brought down quickly, its brain blown apart. Stephanie then turned around to see Alex walking next to her with his .357 drawn.
"You okay?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yeah. Uh, this corridor's pretty much secured, I guess."
Alex smiled. "Everyone else is finished, too. Come on, let's go."
Stephanie followed Alex back to the main hall, vaguely wondering if that woman would be back. Considering what Alex told her, she hoped to God she didn't.
Everyone was dead tired, so Jimmy voted for a nice, long rest. Of course, no one objected, so they grabbed whatever they could find for sleeping and went to different classrooms. That way, they could all have their privacy.
He and Steph were the only two without a room. As he went to his, Steph touched his shoulder.
"Do you mind if I bunk up with you tonight?"
Jimmy was surprised, not sure what to say. He always had problems with women, and it was showing right now.
He managed to find his voice. "Y-Yeah…sure."
"Are you alright, Jimmy?" she asked, her tone gentle.
At that moment, Jimmy Frost felt younger than he ever did. Stephanie's tone of voice was bringing back memories of his parents, just before their separation, and it was all five years ago. It was almost like her mother's voice.
"Yeah."
Oh, Mom…
Three weeks ago, his dad said that his mother fell down her stairs and injured her neck. There were also reports of brain damage. She was being put into intensive care.
The mere thought of losing her made him almost cry right there.
I should've been there to help her…
"Jimmy?" Steph asked, that same gentle tone in her voice. "Are you sure you're okay?"
This time, Jimmy shook his head. "I was just thinking about my mother. She…she fell down her stairs three weeks ago. She hurt her neck and there was also brain damage. She's in intensive care, and she's always in and out of consciousness, but I don't know if she'll pull through in the end."
Steph sighed. "I know what it's like…to feel the pain that losing a mother would cause."
It was Jimmy's turn to touch her shoulder. "I'm gonna make it out, not just for myself, but for my mom. I'll see her once I get out."
"I'll come with you," Steph said. "I've got nowhere else to go."
Jimmy nodded. "Deal."
They both stared at each other's eyes for a long time…and for the first time since the outbreak, something clicked between them. He knew it like he knew his own name. They went into the room and closed the door.
I love her. And so does she…
Nothing else mattered. What did matter was that they were together, and they were going to survive, and now, it would also be for each other…because he loved her.
For some reason, Jacob couldn't sleep. He had too much on his mind.
Why? Why did Umbrella not help us out? Why did they let this catastrophe happen!
Then, it hit him.
Umbrella knew about this, but they wanted to keep this secret. But I can't let them get away with it!
He had to figure out who could be a material witness to this disaster. It had to be someone who knew all about virology—
Wait a minute…Stan should know something—
Oh, shit!
Jacob almost forgot about Urban back at the hospital. He got out of his bed and broke into a sprint towards the door.
I should've went back sooner…
He hopped inside the Corvette and sped away. He managed to dodge several zombies on the way. The roads were also surprisingly clear.
Stan…I hope you're okay…
About ten minutes later, he arrived at the hospital, which was completely clear of zombies. He jumped out and ran to the fire escape ladder that he used before, his revolver drawn.
When he got inside the office, there was no one in sight. The only thing different was the blood all over the place. The blood pack cooler was open and empty as well.
He walked out of the room—
—and saw Urban and his wife on the floor, dead.
Oh, no…
Jacob fell to his knees as he examined the bodies. There were numerous bite marks all over them, and they also looked pale and shriveled.
They've been drained of their blood, but by what?
A wet sound, behind him. Jacob turned his head—
—and shouted, staring at the things crawling toward him.
What the hell?
Leeches, and big ones too. He got off the floor and aimed the revolver. He managed to pick off four them before his weapon clicked empty. He then ran back into the office and went down the ladder. As he got back to the car, he reloaded his gun, completely freaked.
I was too late…
He started the engine and headed back to the school.
God! Those things were huge!
He was so shocked at the things that killed Stan and his wife that he almost didn't see the monster until it was too late.
He slammed on the brakes and was staring at it. It was leaping out of the storm drain, the grate crumpled from its exit, and then diving into the street as if it were nothing more than water.
Oh, my—
It appeared yet again. Jacob grabbed his shotgun and fired. The shot went wide as the creature dived into the pavement again.
Uh-uh. I'm outta here!
He got back in the car and drove away as fast as he could.
Miranda woke up to see Jacob walking back to his room. He looked pale and almost ready to throw up.
What's wrong with him?
She knocked on his door.
"Jacob? Are you okay?"
A pause, and then he opened the door.
"Oh, Miranda. I'm not in the mood to talk right now."
He began to close the door, but Miranda held it open.
"Jacob, something happened to you. I can see it in your eyes. Don't hide it."
Jacob sighed. "I tried to find Dr. Urban. I…I was too late…"
"Urban? I was trying to find him too a few days ago while my—"
Miranda trailed off. She pretty much assumed that he had the idea about what happened to her.
"So…I guess we just rest, I guess."
She nodded. After all, they all needed to regain their strength. The whole week had finally taken its toll on everybody.
"Well, good night, Jacob."
"Good night, Miranda."
Jacob closed his door and locked it. Miranda walked back to her room as well.
I hope he'll be all right…
She went in her room and went to sleep.
Ronald was dreaming about Mary when he woke up, his eyes wide.
Mary…
He slowly pushed himself up. He pulled a photo out of his suit vest. It was the two of them at Disneyland, two months before they got married.
Mary, you were so happy then…
He remembered the time when they climbed Magic Mountain together. They demanded that they'd climb it without ropes. So they did just that. When they almost reached the top, she'd lost her grip and almost fell to her death. Thankfully, Ronald had caught her before it was too late. It was afterwards that he'd proposed to her. She had immediately agreed to his request.
Two months later, they had gotten married. They had shared ten wonderful years of marriage together and they had a single daughter to call their own. By now, she would be eight years old.
Cheryl…I hope you're okay.
Last time he heard, Cheryl was still doing well in Latham, keeping her grades up and being well behaved. However, someone had picked a fight with her, and she ended up with a black eye and a few scrapes. It could've been a hell of a lot worse.
Ronald's eyes became even wider. The school Cheryl was attending was founded by Umbrella, and it was Umbrella who got him his job as a bodyguard for the mayor.
That means if they find out how much I know about them, they'll kill her…and anyone else who's with her. I can't let them; she's all I got left.
Ronald nodded grimly to himself. If he ever got out of the city, and insured that Cheryl was safe, Umbrella would be going down, hard.
She woke up, again.
The survivors were resting in a large building: a school, according to her memories. Now, all she needed to do was isolate her target from the group, then kill the target.
It was what she was born to do.
As she walked past a police station, something was moving behind her. She turned around to see a human still alive, wearing a vest and shorts, armed with a handgun. The woman was going into the station's back entrance. As she ran, several of the carriers were in pursuit. But the woman was too quick for them.
The gates closed and the carriers were incapable of opening them. With that, she just continued on her way.
Pavel was starting to get tired from doing night watch for the past two hours.
Unable to stand for one more second, he started to walk back inside when he heard something, a soft, beeping sound.
What is that?
Quietly, Pavel walked towards the source. It was coming from inside the building. He turned left to see one of the computer rooms with the door open.
He stepped inside—
—and saw Alex on one of the terminals, completely absorbed in what he was reading.
"What's wrong?" Alex said.
Pavel was stunned.
How did he know I was here?
"Nothin'. What are you looking at?"
Alex motioned for Pavel to come closer. It appeared to be web documents about obituaries. He also had a second link containing reports from local hospitals.
"I've been looking at autopsy reports regarding those missing hikers in the mountains. If we can come up with an exact timeline, we can present investigators with a more believable package of evidence. But we still need physical proof of what happened here."
Pavel blinked. "What do you mean?"
Alex sighed. "We need an unused sample of the virus. If we can get that, we can nail Umbrella completely."
If there was a chance of Pavel thinking Alex was crazy of suggesting it, he didn't see it. Instead, it was the best idea they had.
"Well…where do we look?"
"That's what I can't figure out. I mean, it's not while we're gonna find it at your run-of-the-mill pharmacy."
Pavel knew exactly what Alex was going with this, and he didn't like it one bit.
"We're going to a lab, aren't we?"
Alex nodded. "Yeah. We don't really have a choice, and Amy did tell me a little while ago that her dad had a small lab in the museum. It's worth checking out."
He got up from his seat and printed off the reports, a grim look on his face.
"But we don't really know if he's still alive. The only thing we can do is rest up for now."
"Agreed," Pavel said.
They left the lab and headed to their rooms.
Alex walked down the corridor leading to the garage, his revolver drawn.
I wonder…
He opened the door, and there were two buses parked. He checked both of them, and they were fueled and had an oil change just recently.
Huh?
He heard a noise from behind the second bus. He looked past it to see Jimmy underneath, his tool kit set next to him.
"Jimmy?" he asked.
He stopped working and lifted himself out.
"Alex. Shouldn't you be asleep?"
Alex shook his head as he holstered his weapon. "I couldn't. I keep having dreams, but they feel so real."
"Really? Anyway, I think we can use these buses to get outta here. All we gotta do is reinforce them and then take out any zombies that climb aboard."
Alex crossed his arms. "And what about the monsters?"
"Well…I'm sure we can take care of them."
"Right…"
Jimmy frowned, then went back to work. "It's gonna take me a while to get these things ready to go."
"Got it. Well, good luck, Jimmy."
Jimmy nodded. "Thanks."
As Alex left the garage, he was thinking about those dreams again.
What do they mean?
He tried to think back about his most recent one:
It was raining, and he was alone on the road. His knapsack was starting to feel heavy on his shoulders and he knelt down to catch his breath. It was also cold, really cold.
Then, someone was walking up to him. It was a woman, barely in her teens. Her hair was blonde and she had this creepy look on her face.
"What do you want?" he had asked.
The girl was just smiling, and then she grabbed him by his shirt collar. She was actually lifting him up without any effort.
"I want you…to die!"
She threw him in front of a moving car. He thought he was dead, but for some reason, he wasn't. He was just mildly bruised.
"No!" she had screamed. With that, she vanished.
He was just confused about what was happening that he almost didn't notice the driver exit the car. She was in her early thirties.
"Are you okay?"
He nodded. "Yeah…"
The woman smiled. "My name's Amanda, and I'm the one who saved you, Alex."
Alex opened his eyes, and they widened.
Amanda…I remember her. She got me out of that lab, the one where my parents were murdered. She was too late in stopping the experiment on me, but she still saved my life. That was all…thirteen years ago, and after that, I was put in the orphanage.
Now he knew why Miranda was so familiar. It was because they were friends back then, long before now.
When we were fifteen, her uncle adopted her, and when I turned seventeen, I left the orphanage and then I ran into Amanda again. She was with me for the past four years, teaching me everything she knew: about the experiments with the parasitic organisms, the scientist who did them, and the subjects themselves…the Symbionts. I'm one of them now, and I believe Miranda is, too. It explains why I also know what I know about Umbrella's creatures.
Alex walked back to his room, his memory now fully restored and his determination stronger.
Miranda opened her eyes to a knock on her door. At that moment, Alex walked in with a smile on his face.
"Morning, cop. Did you sleep well?"
She raised an eyebrow. "What time is it?"
"October 2nd, 1:30 AM. Come on, Jimmy's got a surprise for us."
Miranda yawned and got to her feet. She followed Alex to the garage. When they got there, Miranda's eyes went wide, all traces of exhaustion erased.
"Whoa…"
They used to be school buses, but they were completely armored and the seats were all gone, save for the drivers' chairs. She saw Jimmy hop out of one of them.
"All aboard!"
With that, Alex, Amy, Ronald, and Stephanie went in the second bus, while Miranda and the others took the first.
"Alex, do you copy?" Miranda said over her radio.
"Loud and clear, Miranda. Let's bust out of town!"
The garage doors opened, and there were zombies all around them.
"Holy crap! There's so damn many of them!" Amy gasped.
"There's no way we can take 'em all out," Pavel grimly stated.
"Then let's just punch through," Jimmy said. "It's time to do or die!"
"I hear ya, Jimmy," Jacob smiled. "Let's kick some ass!"
The two makeshift arks peeled out. Around them, zombies moaned, frustrated by their inability to get their prey. Suddenly, their bus rocked to one side.
What?
Miranda looked to her left and saw three of them clinging to the wall with skeletal hands. She grabbed her 9mm and fired, sending three shots into the first carrier's brain. Jimmy grabbed his Browning and emptied the clip, taking out the other two. She noticed four Lickers aboard the other bus behind them.
"Ronald! Four Lickers above you!"
"I've got it!" Stephanie shouted.
She heard two rifle bursts and a grenade blast over the radio. Pavel looked past the wire mesh and saw the burnt remains of the creatures.
"Hold on!" Jacob shouted from the driver's seat. Miranda, Pavel, and Jimmy looked ahead to see a roadblock in their way.
"Everybody, hang on!" she shouted into the radio.
Jacob managed to break through the barrier, but then the bus was tipping from side to side.
"I can't hold it!" he screamed, and the bus fell to its side. Seconds later, the second bus followed suit. The last thing Miranda saw before they crashed was the silhouette of a building.
Ronald's head was hurting. He slowly opened his eyes and saw he was upside down. He unbuckled his seat belt and fell on his head.
Ouch!
He shook his already injured head and stood up on the steering wheel. He noticed that Alex and Stephanie were both unconscious, and Amy was nowhere to be seen.
"Alex? Steph?" he asked.
At the sound of his voice, they woke up with similar headaches.
"Ron? What happened?" Steph groaned.
"I don't know. Let me check." He grabbed his radio and clicked the button.
"Miranda, Jacob, come in."
Silence. He waited a couple of minutes and tried again. There was still silence.
Alex was pale. "We gotta find them!"
Ronald nodded. "Right. Let's load up and get out."
They all managed to get up and looked around for their equipment. After finding it, they counted out the numbers: Alex had four clips worth for his Beretta, twenty-two .357 bullets, and four grenade shells. Stephanie still had three clips for her 9mm, fifty-four rifle rounds, and three grenades. Ronald was down to sixteen rounds for his revolver and thirty-six rounds for the VP70.
One by one, they climbed out of the bus and spotted the second instantly. They ran and banged on the door.
"Miranda!" Alex shouted.
A pause, and then a faint reply.
"In here…"
They tore the door open and saw Miranda nursing a dislocated ankle. She gritted her teeth as she moved it back into place. Except for her, there was no one else moving.
"Where are the others?" Steph asked.
Miranda looked to her left with a tear on her face. They looked in the same direction and saw Jacob in the driver's seat, his neck twisted.
Steph gasped. "Jacob!"
She went inside, and felt for a pulse. There was none.
"He's dead…" her voice quivered.
Alex ran out of the bus, shouting. "Why! Are we not all supposed to get out of here alive!"
They heard a noise from behind them. Alex raised his Magnum, ready to fire—
—when Jimmy emerged from a pile of debris. He sighed with relief.
"Steph! Ron! Miranda! It's Jimmy! He's still alive!"
They all got out and went to help him. Two of Jimmy's ribs were bruised and his left arm was broken. The left side of his face even had a scar. Other than that, he was okay. They quickly tended to his injuries. They also noticed Pavel's unmoving corpse.
"What happened?" Steph asked.
"Pavel and I were thrown out of the bus when we crashed," Jimmy explained as he took off his torn vest, dumping the shotgun shells into his pouch. "He died almost instantly."
He pulled out Pavel's weapons and ammo and gave them to Stephanie.
"Where's Jacob and Amy?"
Alex's head lowered. "Jacob's dead. I don't know where Amy is."
Just as he said it, Amy showed up behind them all, next to the building where they crashed.
"Well, we made it," she said, in an almost casual tune.
Ronald was furious. "What are you so calm about! Two of our team are dead, and you just happen to show up when we all thought you died too!"
Amy frowned. "Well, sorry you feel that way. By the way, haven't you noticed where we are?"
She pointed to a sign. It read: Raccoon Museum of Arts and Sciences.
They were all dumbfounded. They crashed, and yet they made it to where they had to go.
They all still had their weapons and ammunition. They headed up the stairs, but then Ronald went and grabbed Jacob's shotgun and ammo as well as his backpack. He then closed his glazed, unseeing eyes.
"We made it, man," he whispered. "Thanks…"
He held the pack and shotgun over his shoulder and rejoined the others, Ronald silently praying that they were better off inside than out.
