Nemesis: Resident Evil III

Chapter Ten: The Pursuer

"Jill, come on!" Brad yelled with terror in his voice as he pulled on her arm. "Jill, run! Run!"

Even though it was now walking toward them, it was a good distance away, and the shadow of the building made it so that the young woman couldn't get a good look. Something about this ominous figure frightened her, though, enough so that when the pilot grabbed her hand and literally pulled her along with all his strength, she didn't have a problem following along. Suddenly a powerful, monstrous roar echoed all around them, and even though Jill was no longer facing the figure, she could hear that it was running after them.

Thud-thud-thud, its heavy footsteps slammed into the pavement, sounding like it was gaining on them even though the two of them were now sprinting as fast as they could toward the gate of the police station's courtyard. Part of her wanted to look back and see clearly what it was that Brad was so afraid of, but as its thundering footsteps continued to get closer, the young woman decided that it was better to just run away… especially since all they had to defend themselves with were their two pistols.

Screech! The barred metal gate in front of the RPD was unlocked, thank God, and gave way enough for them to squeeze through even though the hinges were getting heavily rusted from lack of maintenance, but the pilot didn't stop running just yet. Keeping his grip on Jill's hand, he seemed to run even faster across the stone pavers of the courtyard, so much that it was hard for her to keep her balance as they made a bee-line toward the heavy front doors.

SMASH! The two of them were just passing underneath the archway where a tattered blue flag with the RPD emblem was blowing in the light wind, when it sounded like the barred metal gate behind them was knocked completely off its hinges, making a second, smaller crash when it hit the ground. Those hard footsteps hadn't even been slowed down by the obstacle, and the thing chasing them was now close enough for the young woman to hear it growling as she yanked open the police station's front door.

Diving through, and then slamming it shut just before the hulking figure reached them, Jill reached over to the side and pulled down the old fashioned wooden bar that locked itself down into the handles of the double doors so that they couldn't be opened form the outside, and now all they could do was hope that it would hold. Back when this place had been a museum, before all the renovations turned it into a police department, the front doors and their locking bar had been more of a display piece, but the bar itself was beam that was almost as thick as a telephone pole, so it should have been able to stand up to damn near anything.

Bam! Suddenly the doors were struck by what sounded like a battering ram, making them push inward just a bit, and causing the two of them to jump a little. The beam creaked and shook from the following blow… and the next one… and the next one, and it even sounded like it was cracking just a little… but it held. Now Jill and Brad were just standing there, waiting and watching to see what was going to happen next, and then the unseen figure roared hard enough to shake the small windows above the door.

"Sstarss." That awful, inhuman voice said again, this time sounding almost frustrated as its heavy footsteps moved away.

Now everything was silent again, with neither of them moved for the longest time, until Jill realized that he was still holding her hand, and pulled it away. Well, they had made it to the RPD, and that… whatever the hell it was that had been chasing them couldn't get in for now, but that didn't mean that they were safe. Even though they had avoided whatever horror was waiting outside, this was still Raccoon City, and it was entirely possible for the police station to be just as dangerous as it was on the streets.

The main hall didn't seem too bad though, at least form first glance; the upper floor walkways that wrapped around the long rectangular chamber showing no signs of activity, nor was there any movement on the first floor near the large decorative statue or near the reception desk near the back wall. In fact, this whole place looked pretty much untouched by the chaos outside, and if that was true throughout the rest of the precinct as well, then all they had to do was get to the STARS office and call for help, and then… maybe just wait on the rooftop heliport for rescue or whatever.

"You said… you said it wasn't real." Brad whimpered, his hands starting to shake as he backed up toward the nearby wall. "You told me I imagined the whole thing, but… but he's real, Jill… he's real, and… oh, my God, I really left them there to die!"

"Brad, stop, you have to calm down." The young woman whispered urgently while walking up to him. "Maybe if we're real quiet, that thing out there will give up and move on like all the other monsters."

Even before the pilot started ranting about how persistent the thing chasing him was, and reminding her that it had tracked him there from all the way back at the city clock tower, Jill had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that this thing was different from all the other monsters that she had encountered so far… beginning with the fact that it could talk. Even while facing Tyrant back at the Spencer Estate, the unkillable monster had been just that, a monster that acted like all the other feral beasts who were victims of the T-Virus… but this thing had fucking talked.

"We're trapped in here, Jill!" Brad continued, getting louder in spite of her warnings. "Bullets don't hurt him, nothing does… he's gonna find us, and we're both gonna die!"

Oh Lord, the young woman thought while trying not to get infected by his hysteria herself, if there was ever a time when she needed him to not be Brad Vickers, it was right now. They might have been safe for the moment, but if this chickenhearted jackass kept getting louder like he was, then any infected people inside the police station were going to be drawn right to them. Why, oh why couldn't it have been Chris Redfield or Barry Burton, or even Rebecca Chambers who was with her?

"Brad, listen to me, okay?" She asked, putting her hands on his shoulders. "We are not going to die… that thing can't find us in here, so we're safe, but I really need you to shut the fuck up so that nothing else does, either. Now take a deep breath… and act like a man… so we can get to the radio and tell someone to come and rescue us… okay?"

It took a second, but eventually the pilot nodded, and after a few deep breaths, they were ready to start moving toward the STARS office. Jill didn't like having to tell wimpy guys to act like men in order for them to be brave and worth a damn, since she was able to do both these things while absolutely not being a man herself. Not that she didn't get scared at times, such as one particular incident with giant spiders at the Spencer Estate… but even then she had kept on going, simply because there had been no other choice.

The good news was that the pilot was moving again, but just like he had done in the alley behind the bookstore, Brad was standing so close to her that he was becoming more like a second skin as they walked across the highly shined Terrazzo floor. Power was still going to this place, since the big overhead lights were on, but the water in the decorative fountain was no longer running… which was probably a good thing since again, she didn't know exactly how the virus had spread throughout the city.

Light was coming from the monitor of the reception desk's computer as well, so instead of going right through the wooden side door that would take her toward the STARS office, the young woman went around the large, half circle desk and sat down on the surprisingly comfortable office chair. The information in the machine wasn't exactly helpful, nor did Jill really know her way around a computer, at least not as well as she did when it came to shooting or picking locks, but she was able to pull up a couple things.

Most of it she already knew; the US Army was putting up barricades around the city for quarantine purposes, the Mayor had ordered all public transit to be shut down, and the RPD was engaged in rescue operations throughout the different districts… hopefully some of them had gone better than the one she had been a part of. That was really about it, at least as far as the computer was concerned, so she turned her attention to the desk itself, opening the drawers and looking through the attached filing cabinets to find… nothing.

Okay, there were plenty of reports and files and other things, but as far as bullets or another weapon, it was like the universe was suddenly against her… but hey, at least there wasn't another God damn baseball bat. It was funny, since Raccoon City was in a mostly rural area where everyone in the towns that were outside the city hunted, the young woman had always figured that almost everyone inside the city owned firearms as well, but apparently this was not the case. Maybe if they had, then the zombies wouldn't have taken over as quickly, and the people of the city would have had a chance.

"Brad, we're going to be okay." She said, noticing that the pilot was starting to get nervous again, the way he kept looking all around. "All we have to do is get to the STARS office, and everything will be all right."

"I know that… I know we can call for help." Brad replied, trying to keep himself from shaking as he kept looking back toward the front door. "But, Jill, he's… he's still out there."

A chill went down her spine as she looked over at the barred doors, with the silence of no activity actually making her feel more uneasy while they both listened for the slightest noise, but except for the hum of the computer next to her, there was just nothing. If this thing was really as persistent as the pilot said, and it was specifically targeting STARS members for some reason, then why wasn't it still trying to force its way through the doors? She doubted that it would just wander away like the other monsters, but… but what the hell was it doing out there?