Chapter 10: To freedom and back
Being frustrated enough, Ricky forcefully threw the items from the green shelve, making them sprawl around on the floor. It was hard enough to look through the shelve since the dim lighting made it impossible to see anything through the shadows obscuring the shelves' surfaces. Cans of spray paint, insecticide, lost and found items such as marbles, useless keys and other junk fell on the floor with clanks echoing from them. So far, he and Kevin had come up with nothing for David to seal this crack they had been talking about.
"I swear to God it'll take forever to find some roll of tape from this place!" Ricky growled.
"Calm down Ricky, it's not like that train's gonna take us out of the city." Kevin replied, more calmly than his younger mercenary friend, at least he thought Ricky had to be younger. Judging from the more youthful exterior features, he couldn't be any older than at least twenty-five.
"I have two good reasons to be pissed." Ricky retorted, sticking up his index finger, "First up, we're trying to find something small which is almost impossible to find in some ruffled up storage room for lost and found items and all this other junk." then accompanied with his middle finger. "And second, there's giant fleas trying to kill us and take more bullets than zombies." Ricky replied.
Kevin shrugged and continued rummaging through the red shelves, throwing some useless junk backwards with his hands' movements. Ricky could only sigh and decided reluctant mindedly to search the other green shelve right next to the one he rummaged through just a few minutes ago, but this one had a heavy looking metallic container in front of it, so searching the lowest shelves was not going to happen since it looked too heavy for him to push. He climbed onto the container and began looking through the untidy top row shelves. There was the same sort of metallic junk and trash, but something however did catch his eyes. On the top shelve was a green plastic box with "12-gauge" written on it. He took the box and opened the plastic lid on it, finding it to be full of shotgun shells. Those could prove useful for Josh, so he began scooping the ammunition out of the box and stuffing them into one of his pockets, which were luckily not spewing with items quite yet.
Kevin was onto the last red shelve there was and started searching by first pushing some useless junk off that tremendous pile formed in it. The movement made dust fly which caused the R.P.D officer to cough a few times and made his eyes itch. As he was getting back to rummaging, his eyes spotted something black and round on the floor. He knelt down, letting out one more cough in the process and picked up the object. If his eyes weren't deceiving him, he was sure to be holding a cardboard roll with black, plastic material wrapped around it, or to put it more simply, a roll of black vinyl tape.
"We're in luck man." Kevin turned grinning towards Ricky as he held up the roll of vinyl tape as if it was the most incredible thing he'd seen.
"Alright!" Ricky shot his arm upwards with happiness. "I'm so happy I could almost hug ya." He laughed as he hopped off the container he was on.
"Please don't." Kevin replied, chuckling a little now that he mood had lifted a little. "Now let's get this to David so he can fix the pipe." Kevin added pocketing the tape roll.
"I hear you." Ricky replied and followed Kevin out of the storage room into the damp hallway.
-
Back in the lower level, David, Jim, Mark and George weren't as fortunate. After turning the power on and searching the small stuffy room with a really dim lighting, two small fleas had barged in through the ventilation shaft. They began hopping around, attempting to feed off one of the four humans. David was quickest to react by trying to shoot one of them with his handgun, but after four shots his Beretta M92S had gone empty and was now trying to defend himself with a combat knife he found earlier. Mark had landed one shot on one of the fleas, but in return the giant insect kept hopping around him, trying to land on the bulky man. Jim kept running around the room yelling in terror as his handgun had run out of bullets and reloading without a clip would leave him as an easy victim. George tried staying calm as he tried taking aim at the flea that was chasing Jim, but being only skilled as a surgeon, not a sharpshooter like Kevin or Ricky. Jim cried even louder as the flea clung onto his right forearm. This signaled David to rush towards Jim and almost as if automatically grab Jim's arm with his free hand, lift it up a little and stabbing the flea through its thorax with precise accuracy. The wounded flea dropped, tearing a bit of fabric from Jim's jacket along with it onto the floor and met its demise from a heavy stomp delivered by the young plumber. Mark on the other hand just thought up a brilliant idea on how to get rid of the flea harassing him. He held out his hand as he backed away from the flea, remembering his jacket is lightly armored from the inside, so it might hold off against the flea's sucker. The flea with a mighty leap clung itself on the security guard's arm, but then Mark brought up his handgun and almost jammed it onto the flea and pulled the trigger, sending hot lead through the flea's body. The flea fell on the hard stone floor and also got stomped.
"You're welcome." David said to Jim, referring to him saving Jim from the flea.
"Well, thanks man. I owe you one." Jim said jerking his thumb up. Afterwards Jim emptied out his handgun's clip and started fitting nine millimeter rounds into it, but he ran out after fitting six. "Uh, anyone got any spares?"
"Here." Mark handed Jim a new clip they had found from the employees' lounge. "Two clips are better than one." Mark then dug for some spare ammunition for Jim's emptier clip. "Take this too."
David remained quiet as he fitted ammunition into his handgun, looking around his surroundings at the same time. Like mentioned earlier, the small room they were in was the station's generator room. Just left from to the door was a rusted metallic shelve and about five feet adjacent from it was the generator's activation terminal with a vent between them where the fleas had entered through. From the right began a series of metal net fencing with a large generator placed inside of it and there was a small opening on the fencing in case of having to do maintenance to the generator. As soon as they had activated it, the large machine was letting out a loud humming sound. Opposite that was another rusty door which they had no idea of where it lead.
"Do you guys suppose Kevin and Ricky are having any luck in finding something to seal that pipe?" George asked while placing a fully loaded clip back into his burst handgun.
"Dunno." Mark replied shrugging. "Let's just hope they didn't run into any trouble…"
The door they used to enter the generator room creaked open suddenly, startling the others and making Jim jump up and make him aim towards the door with his handgun.
"Whoa! Easy Jim, it's just us!" Kevin said a tad surprised with his hands up with his Colt 45 automatic handgun in his right hand's grasp. Ricky stood out in the hallway looking behind him to make sure there was nothing there.
Jim groaned from embarrassment when he lowered his gun. "Don't scare us like that man." He wined.
"Did you find anything?" Mark asked.
"Bingo." Kevin dug out the tape roll from his pocket and flashed it to his four fellow survivors.
George went over to Kevin and said, "Good job there Kevin." and patted the officer on the shoulder.
"Yea man," Jim nodded. "Now let's go fix the pipe and we can turn on the sprinklers."
"Alright, then let's move out. We can't keep Josh and the girls waiting too long." Kevin said and signaled everyone to follow. "Let's move it."
Everyone else followed Kevin into another darkened staircase that was closer to the generator room than the one that was closer to the entrance door to the current set corridors the group of survivors was in at the moment. As they descended down the tiny staircase, the soles of their shoes made a sound of hard rubber hitting metallic stairs and they were immediately back to walking on concrete. The dark hallway they were lead smelt humid to the ones who hadn't been there yet. They finally made out a white door in the darkness.
"Through here." Kevin opened the door and took a step into the room, scanning the area for threats. "Looks clear." He signaled everyone to follow him. As Jim was about to enter, his foot hit something on the grounds, which sounded like a coin falling. Curiously he knelt down and began feeling the floor until his hands touched something cold, wet and metallic. Upon closer inspection it looked like some sort of coin imitation of a man's face. Jim pocketed the found emblem and followed everyone else.
The group entered the room, also dark with only a few flickering lights making it able to see. This room had a large pipe running from an up ahead water tank into the wall with a bronze brown terminal with an octagonal hole in it. Just like everyone had said, the pipe had been cracked from its surface, meaning if they had turned on the sprinklers, the water would have come gushing out and wouldn't reach the sprinklers in the platform. Kevin took out the tape roll and held it out to David.
"You know what to do." Kevin said nodding to David.
David took the full roll of tape and nodded. He took a look at the hole on the pipe. It was a vertical rupture, about thirty centimeters long and around fifteen or so centimeters wide. David pulled out some of the vinyl tape from the roll and stuck it above the hole and cut the piece off with his knife. The others waited patiently for David to finish fixing the pipe. They concentrated on their surroundings; everything was quiet, except for the tearing noise caused by David. A few minutes were spent in silence until came the sound of wood or something similar hitting the floor.
"I'm done." David spoke, standing back from his work. David had stuck the entire roll of vinyl tape onto the pipe with strips of them covering the crack and more strips placed atop the strips to ensure it wouldn't leak much.
"Now what do we do?" George asked.
"See that?" Kevin pointed at the large tank. "We just use the valve handle to let the water out."
Mark was way ahead of Kevin as the robust man went up next to the tank and knelt down. Getting back up he was holding a red device that looked like a steering wheel or a large valve handle. He attached to handle into the octagonal hole on the pump's terminal. He gripped the cold metal tighter and with a silent grunt, he turned the handle to the right, producing an ear piercing chafe screech. He turned it again, this time turning it more than the last time and the screech died down. After a few seconds the tank began to let out a sound similar to a toilet flushing. The vinyl tape seal created by David began to bulge a little and the sound of flowing water entered the small room. Everyone watched eagerly at the vinyl tape mass, wondering would it hold or burst at any moment. David counted in his mind… ten seconds… fifteen seconds… twenty… twenty-five… thirty…
"It's holding." He sighed from relief.
With that ensured, the other survivors eased off. Now the sprinkler system would start at any moment and they could get the hell away from the subway.
"C'mon guys. Let's get outta this shit hole." Kevin spoke up and turned to walk towards the door.
Upon touching the knob, the door shook in its hinges, making Kevin jump back from surprise. The door shook again with a hard pound as if something was throwing itself onto the door. A mourning moan sounded from beyond the door as it got pounded once again. Hearing the same moan everyone had heard hundreds of times during this whole ordeal simplified it. A zombie was trying to get inside.
"How the hell'd that get here!" Mark wondered frustrated. "We killed every zombie we saw down here."
"You sure?" Ricky asked. "Are you certain even in that dark hallway? I for one couldn't see almost anything in that blackness."
"But why didn't it moan earlier then?" Mark wondered.
"Maybe it's a fresh one." George conjectured. "Suppose someone was down here and was eaten not too long before we got here and the corpse simply got back up."
"Makes sense to me." Ricky agreed. "Okay, George, you up to using your handgun's burst mechanism?"
"I know how we can get rid of it without wasting ammunition." George mentioned. The good doctor dug something out of his pocket. He produced a pistol like white object with a large barrel. It seemed similar to a tranquilizer gun. He then reached under his suit's coat and after searching for something, placed a white oval object into this strange gun. "Go ahead and let it in." George said rather calmly as he aimed his strange gun at the door.
Kevin went over to the door and placed his hand around the door handle. The cop breathed hard to calm himself as he readied his hand to turn the knob. His breathing quickened and he turned the knob and instantly darted backwards. The door was swung open with a lone zombie barging in with its arms outstretched. This zombie was wearing the same kind of uniform as Jim. This person's entire midsection was torn open with straps of skin, tissue and intestines hanging limply down form it. His skin was a normal color except in the parts where blood had obscured it and this zombie's head wasn't covered in blood, except for a tiny portion of its neck. Though the survivors didn't get much of a look as George fired with his strange gun and the zombie was pushed back by the shot's impact. The undead person instantly fell on its back with a wet thud and didn't even twitch. Rick instantly felt impressed while the others seemed to act as if that was nothing new. Ricky just had to congratulate the good doctor for this.
"Nice head shot." He smirked. "For a doctor you're pretty good at this."
"That wasn't a head shot. I aimed at its midsection." George replied casually.
"What are you implying?" Ricky asked, suddenly bewildered. "How could a zombie fall dead from one shot in the midsection!" Ricky just had to be. He and surely everyone else knew that zombies could only be killed by a headshot or spinal injury. And now this doctor claims he killed one with one shot to the midsection with some strange gun he'd never seen before. "What the hell kinda gun is that anyway!"
"Ah. This is an ampoule shooter." George replied and let Ricky take a much better look at it. "This fires many types of medicinal pills created from herbs and such. Also I can use it to fire anti-virus pills that somehow have the ability to dispose of zombies when exposed to it."
Ricky's jaw and eyes widened slightly after hearing this. He first figured George was just a kind doctor, but it turns out this guy carried around something that spelled instant doom to zombies.
"Anti-virus pills can do that?" Ricky asked.
"Oh. You've heard of them?" George asked.
"Yea, we were supplied with them to give to civilians who were infected in hopes of slowing down their infection rate. That way we could have gotten them the anti-virus vaccine with more hopes of it working." Ricky explained.
"Hey wait. There really is a cure!" Jim asked.
"We were injected with it before the mission started. My team's medic had some of them, only he died and the vaccines were lost." Ricky further explained.
"Aw shit man…" Jim stomped.
"Huh? What's the matter with you all of a sudden?" Ricky asked.
"Oh… we didn't tell you about it." Kevin spoke up, rubbing the back of his head.
"Wait… you mean that…" Ricky just couldn't believe what he was thinking.
"Yes, we're afraid so." George looked gloomily downwards. "We're infected."
"Holy shit!" Ricky gasped. "I knew we should have tried to save the vaccines! Aw fuck! I could have saved some people but…"
"Ricky calm down. We're cool." Mark shook the young mercenary. "We now know for sure there's a cure and now we can find one eventually."
"Yea," Kevin agreed full heartedly. "Umbrella has tons of hideouts in town so we just might find this vaccine eventually."
"But how'd you know about the pills and the vaccine?" Ricky asked suspiciously.
"Yoko told us. She even found a report to prove it a few days ago when we were inside an underground Umbrella facility." George replied.
"Oh…" Ricky blinked a few times afterwards. "That explains a lot." Ricky began digging through one of his chest pouches. He took out a push-through strap with eight anti-virus pills in it. "You guys will need these more than I do now."
"I think you should give those to Josh and Helene. They're surely infected just like we are since they were using Raccoon's water." Kevin suggested.
"Oh you don't need to worry." Ricky shook his head briefly. "Josh is from out of town. He arrived just yesterday."
"What about Helene?" Kevin solemnly asked.
Ricky's eyes widened after hearing that. "Damn, forgot about her…"
"Don't fret my friend. Since we now surely know there's a cure, you should use these on Helene. You don't need to worry about us since I've got lots." George said optimistically.
"Good point." Ricky admitted. He now had the job to get everyone out of the city limits and to help them get the anti-virus vaccine to ensure they will live.
"We should get going and not waste time bickering." Kevin cut in. "Agreed?"
"True." Ricky nodded. "Let's get outta here."
"And about time too." Jim muttered.
-
Josh continued pacing around in the lobby with his handgun and crowbar at the ready. So far nothing new had happened. Helene had recovered from her panicky state and was silently sitting by the stairs' safety railing with Cindy. Yoko carried on leaning onto the support beam and Alyssa had taken out a booklet and was writing something down. If Josh remembered correctly, Alyssa was a reporter, so was she writing something about this incident? If she could blow this thing wide open Umbrella would be in so much trouble it would make Hitler's or Stalin's crimes look like a street scuffle. Josh's ears instantly picked up some sort of noise.
"Hey guys!" Josh got everyone's attentions. "Ya hear that?"
"Hmm?" Cindy's head rose up slightly. Her ears began picking up a new sound. It sounded like the hissing of raining water like from a shower. Cindy stood up and took a peek down from the protection railing into the dark stairway heading down to the train platform. "It sounds like showers." She spoke.
"The others must have fixed the sprinkler system." Yoko said, standing up straight from the support beam.
"They did it…" Josh sighed. A small, almost not noticeable smile formed on Josh's lips. "We can leave this hell-hole of a subway for good."
"And good riddance too." Helene retorted.
"Let's not get too hasty all of a sudden." Cindy said. "We should wait for everyone and then we can leave."
"Of course," Josh nodded in agreement. "It's not like we're in that much of a hurry."
"I just want them to hurry it up." Helene said, her voice sounding so much uneasy than before. This attracted some uncomfortable glances from Josh and Cindy.
"Are you feeling alright Helene?" Cindy asked concerned.
"No…" Helene retorted quietly. Her expression had darkened with a few un-kept strands of her black hair shadowing her face. "I want out of here. I want to live." She said meekly.
Cindy kneeled slightly so that she was in Helene's head level and supported herself by pressing her arms to her knees. "We know how you feel Helene. I'm sure we'll all make it out of here alive." She placed a reassuring hand on Helene's shoulder.
Helene remained silent. She turned away from Cindy and took support from the stairs' safety railing and continued looking down.
"I guess she finally snapped." Alyssa sighed quietly.
"Don't say it out loud Alyssa." Yoko warned. "You could hurt her and we don't need that."
Alyssa murmured and crossed her arms and he foot began tapping on the concrete floor of the lobby. They had been waiting surely over an hour and now one of them was starting to snap. She had the mind to be pissed when Kevin and the rest got back. The door that everyone had gone through suddenly opened.
"Sorry it took so long guys." Kevin said as he appeared.
"About time too, Kevin!" Alyssa piped-up with a scowl.
"What's up with you?" Kevin asked walking up to the reporter with a surprised expression. "You seem more pissed than usual."
"Yes, it seems so." Alyssa replied grouchily. "We've been waiting here for over an hour and Helene's already about to crack." Alyssa jerked her index finger towards Helene who was looking down into the darkness of the platforms' staircase.
"Don't be putting the blame on us." George intervened. "I'd save that blame rather on those fleas than us."
"Yea, that's right." Mark agreed full-heartedly. "Just try going up against them yourself, why don't cha."
"Yea, quit yo bitching Alyssa. We were trying to save our asses there too." Jim joined in the quarrel.
"Hey, guys." Ricky came in between the entire skirmish. "Let's not fight amongst ourselves at this time. Let's just get outta here."
"I agree." George replied with a simple nod. "We should leave now before anything else happens."
"I'll deal with you later Alyssa." Kevin said to the agitated reporter who answered by looking away from the officer. "All aboard cause the next train is leaving for any place but this!" Kevin called out to everyone.
The survivors gathered around, all except for Helene. Josh looked at her, gazing down towards the staircase, her black hair shadowing most of the side of her head. Josh, feeling bad towards his newfound Japanese friend, went over to her and leaned over a little over the railing to look at Helene's face. Helene's eyes showed an expression of pure sorrow, agony and even rage, for her teeth were bared, gritted together tightly as she looked down at a necklace she had dug out from under her shirt. The necklace was made from a black leather string with a golden plate attached to it with a Japanese letter engraved into it. Her hands held it delicately as if it was very fragile, but then her palm close around it and she squeezed it, at the same time her eyes releasing tears.
"…I hate them…" She sniffed. More tears flowed down her delicate face and they shut tight. "I hate Umbrella!" She sniffed even harder. "They took my family away from me! And they hurt all those innocent people!" She sniffled as her eyes opened slightly.
"Helene…" Josh sighed. He almost felt as if he'd cry too. Never in his life had he seen anyone so sad, in so much agony of losing all her loved ones. It was all Umbrella's fault this happened. Josh now hated that company as much as everyone else in this room with him did. They were to be brought to justice for their crimes. "Helene, we'll stop Umbrella." Josh spoke with a determined tone. "We'll get back for every life they took away, including your family."
Helene stopped sobbing almost instantly after hearing Josh's bold statement. She turned her head towards Josh, the surrounding area of her eyes having reddened. Josh stood there casually eyeing at the girl's face. In an instant, Helene threw herself towards Josh and wrapped her arms around him. This startled Josh and made some of the people watching this glance in surprise. Josh at first felt embarrassed, but then felt comfortable for some reason unknown to him.
"Josh… let's get out of here…" Helene whispered. "I want out of this mess…"
Josh patted Helene on the shoulder with reassurance. A small smile formed on Josh's lips and he said, "Let's go."
"Man I knew it." Ricky said to no one in particular.
"Knew what?" Yoko asked.
"That they dig each other." Ricky smirked.
Kevin walked up to Josh and Helene. Helene released Josh from her hug and stroke away her tears as the cop approached them.
"Ready to get the hell outta here?" He asked, placing a hand on his hip.
"With pleasure." Josh nodded.
"Okay then." Kevin glanced back towards the other survivors who stood there eagerly. "We're leaving right now."
The survivors gathered and went down into the dark staircase. Upon reaching the platform level, a humid smell wafted into everyone's nostrils. The platform was drenched in water, a few puddles formed here and there and the once burning wreckage was now a smoldering pile of charred, deformed mass of metal. Despite the joyous feeling from getting the hell out of that godforsaken subway infested with oversized bugs. In fact, Josh remembered seeing only about four zombies in the entire place, but there was the possibility that everyone else had seen more of them in the corridors of the subway staffs' quarters. Dealing with zombies as a matter of fact was almost a luxury compared to the giant flea he and the girls fought not too long ago.
"Last call for any place but this hell hole!" Jim facetiously shouted. "All aboard."
The survivors entered the subway car, the illuminated inside making the atmosphere feel less dreadful than outside. Jim began working on the controls while everyone else took a seat. Now they were one step ahead from escaping Raccoon City if the train would happen to send them to a less hazardous surrounding, or close to some place like the airport for instance where they could hitch a ride on a plane or a chopper to get out. But they couldn't do that just yet, not Kevin and his friends who had been running around the chaos enchanted city for a several days now. They had to find the anti-virus to cure themselves of the T-virus infection. Ricky's information had provided them with some light, giving them hope to save themselves. Everyone patiently waited for Jim to start the tram. He turned the ignition key and turned the start lever, afterwards pushing some other buttons. Instantly the hissing of the breaks being turned off came and the tram came to life.
"Finally…" Josh thought. "We're outta here." He rested his head on the backrest of the bench row and shut his eyes in order to rest before he had to continue running…
The train nudged forward sharply, causing everyone to rock the opposite direction. Josh lifted hi head back from the backrest and looked out the window right behind him. The tram seemed to be functional, but for some reason it wasn't moving.
"Don't tell me this thing malfunctioned." Alyssa groaned frustrated.
"Don't ask. I don't know anything about train mechanics." Kevin replied. He stood up from the bench and looked towards Jim who was checking out the controls. "Any ideas Jim?"
"Not sure…" Jim said bluntly. "As if we're being pulled back."
"What'd ya mean?" Mark asked the young man.
"Could it be that…" Josh spoke glancing towards the back of the train.
"What's on your mind kid?" Ricky asked, leaning closer towards Josh.
"Isn't there a car linked to this tram?" Josh asked audibly.
"I guess it's possible. It's so dim I couldn't tell." Ricky replied. "And the since the tunnel behind us is caved in, isn't there a chance the weight of the collapsed ceiling's keeping the train from rolling?" He said with a despondent tone.
"Let's check it out guys. This is the only tram there is and if we don't get it moving, we're stuck here for good." Kevin said urgently. He got up from the mildly cushioned bench and hurried out of the tram. He looked back inside with some of the others survivors only getting off their seats since Kevin himself left so fast the others had barely any time to react. "Ya coming?"
The crew of diverse survivors got out of the tram and followed Kevin to the back of the train. Kevin was looking right at the mouth of the tunnel, of in fact, what used to be the mouth of the tunnel. A large amount of rocks had collapsed down from the tunnel's roof and seemed to have been glued together by some strange excretion. Kevin touched the substance with his gloved hand, his fingers not being able to penetrate it. He then poked the substance with more force, but his fingers still didn't penetrate it. This substance felt as hard as cement. It was no wonder the tram wasn't moving since he car it was coupled to was practically glued into the collapsed tunnel.
"What the hell is this shit?" Kevin asked puzzled.
Ricky took a closer look at the substance. Despite the dim lighting, he could tell it was the same stuff he and Alyssa saw in the opposite tunnel.
"This must be that same stuff me and Alyssa saw in the exit tunnel." Ricky conjectured. "Did those fleas do this?"
"If they made something like this, there must be hundreds of them." Kevin replied uneasily. "Or they're bigger than what we've seen up to now."
"If we start the train we should escape unharmed." George spoke calmly. "We'd just need to uncouple this car from the tram."
Josh heard clearly what the doctor said. He walked over to the car coupling and began searching it for a button or switch to uncouple them, unfortunately he didn't find anything. The coupling was just decoratively worded metal with two hole-like indentations in them.
"How the fuck do you break these apart!" Josh asked bewildered. "And my crowbar won't bend this anytime soon."
"Hey, let's ask Jim. He knows more about this place than anyone else." Cindy suggested.
"That's right." Kevin turned to the train conductor. "Jim, any idea how the uncoupling works?"
"Yea. We just tick the finders' emblems in those holes." Jim jerked a finger towards the coupling.
"Finder's emblems?" David wondered. "Any idea where those are?"
"I got one right here man." Jim ruffled his jacket's pocket and dug out the emblem he had found in the dark underground hallway.
"Great. But where's the other one?" Alyssa asked grumpily.
"How should I know?" Jim shrugged innocently. "Hey it's not my fault all this shit started and they got lost."
"We have to find that other emblem." Ricky said urgently. "If we don't, we're stuck here for good and as good as dead."
Josh groaned and slumped onto the side of the tram. The weariness and exhaustion had taken a lot out of him and going looking for some emblem just had to get into the picture. That thing could have been anywhere now so they'd probably have to search the entire subway station for it. Not to mention those fleas and zombies that were crawling around down there. Josh's eyes turned away from his fellow survivors towards the end of the platform. He surely would have slipped into his own world of imagination until he spotted two figures hopping right towards them. He couldn't quite make them out, so he began to squint. After around twenty or so seconds of squinting, the figures had gotten too close.
"Ah!" Josh cried and fired with his handgun, his shot missing, but startling the other survivors into looking at his and the flea's direction.
"More of them bastards!" Mark shouted and began aiming at the two cat-sized fleas.
Everyone well armed aimed their weapons at the incoming duo of fleas. Handguns began to fire in rapid succession, a few shots missing, but the fleas' attempts to avoid the hail of bullets failed miserably when both were struck with enough hot lead so that they both fell on the floor dead and twitching.
"We have to find that emblem before we get overrun by those things and run out of ammo." Josh spoke with a determined tone.
"You bet." Kevin agreed. "Okay, we'll cover this place first. Remember to search any place possible, under rocks or benches or even the tracks." He said gravely to the other survivors.
Everyone agreed to their leader's plan and spread out in small groups. As soon as they made it away from the tram, more of those smaller fleas had found their way into the platform. The survivors began using as little firepower possible to get the small pests out of their way. Kevin was able to kick one that was in the middle of a leap and fired at it with his powerful Colt 45. automatic, rendering the flea into a dead pile of chitin and blood. David roughly overturned one of the benches and found nothing except a discarded empty beer bottle and cussed from irritation. Josh, Yoko, Mark and Helene ran as fast as they could towards the end of the platform with a duo of fleas right on their tails. The four survivors quickly became cornered, the fleas quickening their pace to get a drink of fresh human blood. Fortunately Josh still had his Remington, so he as quickly as possible un-strapped it and fired at the closest one, making its now dead body fling down onto the tracks. The other one however got too close and clung onto Josh's chest, its prickly feet stinging through Josh's t-shirt. The youth began to try and pry the oversized insect off of him, but his attempts seemed futile as the flea's legs had a tight grip onto his clothing.
"Help me God dammit!" Josh cried in fright.
Mark took matters into his own hands. He grabbed Josh with one hand by the shoulder and stuck his handgun right onto the flea and fired, the bullet piercing through the insect's body. The flea fell off the teen military fanatic and kicked. Josh began crazily stomping the writhing mutant insect until its body was completely tattered, squashed and oozed bodily fluids.
Ricky unloaded a few arrows into his pursuing fleas directions. He couldn't quite get a good shot in since the tracks' blackness made the small monsters barely recognizable. Ricky then hastily climbed onto the opposite side of the platform and ran for his dear life. He came up to a bench and with a forceful and furious push, turned it over and only found dust and discarded food wrappers. He then continued running from his pursuers.
"Found anything yet!" Kevin yelled towards the ones who had made it to the other side of the platform. He then took aim at an approaching flea and with his precise aiming, took it out with one well placed shot.
"No! And these little buggers aren't making it any easier!" Alyssa replied shouting more exhaustedly. "Fucking hell!" She growled sidestepping from one flea's path.
"Cindy, anything on our side?" Kevin asked the waitress who had stayed on Kevin's side of the platform.
"Not good at all Kevin." Cindy shook her head. "I hope it's on the other side instead of somewhere else."
"Yo guys!" Jim's voice echoed from the opposite platform right where the junked up train had crashed. "I got it!" He waved to the others with both hands, one of them holding a greenish metal object shaped like another face print of an old man, who was one of the Raccoon subways founders back when the person who this face belonged to was alive.
Jim then made a mad dash towards to the tram, one flea almost getting to cling onto him, but it so far only managed to scrape off a piece of fabric from his jacket.
"Guys!" Kevin shouted as loud as he could muster, bringing one hand close to his mouth. "Jim's got the emblem! Forget the fleas and run for your lives!" He informed everyone in the platform. "C'mon Cindy." Kevin grabbed onto her hand and pulled her towards the tram, the waitress almost tripping form Kevin's mighty pull.
"You heard him youngsters." Mark told Josh, Helene and Yoko. "Time to go."
Everyone ran as fast as they could towards the tram, the few fleas that were still alive attempting to go after them. Yoko was almost getting left behind since she was one of the slowest runners in the group. She yelped as she lost her footing and fell on the hard concrete. She tried to get up as fast as she could, but one of the quicker fleas was almost on tope of her. Josh and Helene looked back to their friend in danger and rushed over towards her. The flea was almost on top of her when Josh went in its way and delivered a ferocious football kick, its force enough to make the flea stumble on the ground. Helene extended her hand out to Yoko and helped her up. The two Japanese girls ran ahead with Josh firing upon the stumbled down flea and attempted to shoot another one that was getting dangerously close, but his gun only let out an audible click. His gun was now empty for the first time.
"Shit!" Josh retorted and made a run for it, Ricky almost coming to his aid.
"Hurry it up kid!" Ricky swung his arm towards Josh.
Josh boosted his speed into his maximum and ran past Ricky. The young mercenary then ran after him towards the tram where Kevin was waiting impatiently.
"About time too!" He retorted. "Get in!"
The three survivors hurried inside the tram and slammed the door shut behind them.
"Okay Jim that's everyone. Let's get going!" Kevin commanded.
"Right, hang on." Jim began fiddling the controls of the tram once again.
Josh and Ricky slumped down onto the benches in exhaustion, panting quickly and sweat dribbling down their foreheads. Kevin stayed on his feet and looked around him. All his friends were seated on the benches, exhausted and sweaty from that last hurdle. But it all paid off since they got the tram in working order. As Kevin could breathe out a sigh of relief, something crashed through the tram's window. The cop could only manage out a yelp when something reached out to him, causing the tram to bob roughly. The cop was yanked out of the tram and leaved everyone else shocked and puzzled.
"Kevin!" Cindy shouted from surprise.
"What the hell was that!" Mark exclaimed looking out the now ruined window. He could make out a large form walking off towards the exit tunnel. "Holy shit! That thing's huge!" He shouted in disbelief.
"We have to go rescue Kevin." Ricky stood up urgently. "He can still be alive."
"I'm going with you." David announced, un-strapping his SPAS 12 shotgun.
"Same here." Mark agreed. "I'm not leaving behind a buddy of mine. Especially since Kevin's been doing such a good job on keeping us alive."
"I'm coming too." Josh stood up, but was forced back onto the bench by a light push from Ricky.
"No!" Ricky retorted. "That thing is not a small fry. Besides I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times, you're not going into battle with something like that!"
"But…" Josh tried to talk back.
"No buts!" Ricky yelled, making Josh wince. "Gimme the shotgun Josh and some shells. Me and David will need them."
Josh sighed, fully understanding Ricky was not going to accept his wishes to help. Reluctantly Josh un-strapped his Remington 870 shotgun and handed it to Ricky and emptied his pockets out of the few shells he had.
"Please Ricky, you have to save Kevin." Cindy pleaded, taking holding onto the mercenary's arm. The sparkle in her eyes told Ricky that Cindy and Kevin must be very good as friends. They might have known each other from maybe school or perhaps Cindy and Kevin had feelings for each other. But whatever that was, he had to promise everyone that Kevin will come out of this mess alive.
"Don't you worry Cindy." Ricky grinned. "Whatever that thing was that took Kevin, it's gonna wish it had thought twice before doin' that."
"Mark," George informed. "Take me burst handgun, it could prove better against that monstrosity." George handed out his Beretta M93R handgun, seeing as how large this new creature was, Mark surely would have needed this powerful sidearm more than he did at the moment.
"Great, thank you kindly." Mark nodded and took the handgun, switching it to burst mode.
"You all stay here while we go conduct the rescue." Ricky declared. "If we're not back in an hour, get outta here."
"Alright, don't get killed out there." Jim replied.
"David, Mark, let's go." Ricky told his two comrades. The three heavily armed survivors walked out of the tram and ran towards the exit tunnel, everyone in the tram watching them get closer and closer to the darkness...
A/N: Whew, twelve pages in one chapter. Pretty good huh? I just wanna announce this story has just about reached the halfway point, but I'm now trying to choose that will this story contain at least 25 or 30 chapters. If you want to tell me your opinion on that, just review this or e-mail me. The next chapter will be underway soon, so expect more Resident Evil goodness. Also summer vacation's almost started so there'll be a lot of updates in the near future. Later.