Tony was fired his last shell and dug into his pockets to find the box of shells he had. He shuffled them around and plugged them into the shotgun, one by one until he had eight shots.

CLICK! CLACK!

Rob looked around and saw that most of the lizards were dead and relaxed some. "Bout time..." He said looking up at the roof, to make sure none drop in on them.

Chad put his 226 away and pulled out his HK5K once more. He had two clips left and they didn't need to fend off any longer for him to resort to his secondary weapon. The lizards were thinning out, thankfully.

"Chad! Look out!"

SSSSSSSSSCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIII!

Chad's ear absorbed the sound of one of the lizards. Time seemed to shift into slow motion. Chad turned and it was right there, cocking back for a deathblow. Chad pulled up his arms in defense around his face, but felt the claws rip right through his flak jacket and into his side. The pain hit him like a sack of bricks. He doubled over onto the ground in pain, favoring his right side, below his ribs. He wasn't dead...yet, but thought he would be soon until he heard shots hit the lizard that dealt him the blow. He felt someone pick him up to his feet.

"Come on!" Josh said to him, supporting Chad's weight. Josh dragged him back into the kitchen area. "Just relax," Josh said to him with worry filling his voice. "We'll handle the rest."

Chad's life was temporally saved for now, thanks to the quick actions of Josh. He would have never thought an untrained civilian would be able to handle being in a horrific situation like this. Chad could feel the blood leaking out of his side. "Fuckin...hell..." pain shot up his side as the bus rocked some. "Ahhh..."

Tony took aim at the ceiling as he heard thumps. He bucked seven shots, but no luck. Suddenly one fell from the window and was face to face with him. "Shit!" Tony said as he stumbled back some. He pulled the trigger, even when he was unsteady.

BOOM!

The shotgun bucked in his hands, almost sending Tony onto his ass. "Whoa!" He yelled, catching his footing. The blast decapitated the lizard and blew it's brain matter onto the ceiling. Tony looked to his left and saw another hanging from the window, trying to get in. Tony took aim, but was out. "Oh fuck..." He reached into his pants and tried to pull a shell out of the box. He started to fumble with it. "Reload! My twelve!" He yelled out, expecting one of his team to help him.

BOOM!

The lizard was sent back into the streets. Tony looked over to see the creatures killer and saw Drew. "Good man..." Tony said as he finally got the first shell into the shotgun.

The battle lasted for another ten seconds and suddenly silence fell upon the bus. The sound of the bus engine shifting to the next higher gear was the most beautiful sound that everyone probably heard, after a war like battle for their survival.

Rob looked around as the civilians put their guards down. He wouldn't yell at them about it, but if you were a soldier, you wouldn't need getting yelled at. If you put your guard down in the calm of a situation, deserve to die. Suicide as a soldier would call it.

Greg scanned the area for and ones hidden. Some could be hanging off the bus, somewhere they didn't see. He juked in and out toward the windows, aiming to see if any were still hiding. "Clear!.

Tony scanned his area. Nothing was left of the lizard men, but their headless bodies and blood left everywhere. "Clear!"

"Clear!" Rob called, ten seconds after Tony, making sure his area was clear.

Chad looked at everyone and smiled. No one was harmed, but him. He didn't care that he was, he just wanted to protect the civilians. Chad was cold sometimes, but he cared more about the people, than the mission.

Kirsten stepped out of the room with Michael right behind her. Her hand was on the handle of the 9mm she was packing in her holster. "Are they all gone?" She asked as she looked around.

"I think so..." Chad said, looking at her.

SSSSSSSSSCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIII!

One of the lizard men busted through the bathroom door and looked around for prey. Chad's eyes grew wide. The team raised there guns...

"AHHHHHH!" Kirsten screamed as her and Michael unloaded their handguns into the creature. Kirsten pumped a few more rounds into the dying creature when it hit the ground, making sure it wouldn't be back up to kill ever again.

"I think that's the last of them." Drew said as he looked on with everyone at the lizard dying.

"Yeah, he's right." Tony said in a relieving way, as he reloaded his shotgun.

"Bout damn time too!" Rob said with joy as he tossed the last of his cigarette. "For a minute there it seemed to be raining fucking freaks." Rob checked his ammo for his Uzi and he had about a half of clip left in the gun and one spare clip.

Kirsten ran up to Chad and saw the wound. "Oh my god...Chad!" It was a serious wound, that he could bleed out from if not treated soon. "I saw a First Aid kit in the bathroom, I'll be right back!" She ran off to grab it.

Michael looked at the bleeding soldier. "Are you going to be alright?" He asked timidly.

Chad laid back and forced up a smile. The pain was calming down in his side, but it still burned. "I'll be alright kid, just a flesh wound. A small scratch, nothin' to worry about." Putting false hope into the kid, lying to him about his real situation. "You were a little soldier yourself back there, buddy." Chad said with a smile.

Michael smiled, "You think?" he said, with a happy tone in his voice.

"Yeah, I'd have you on my team in a mission if I could." Chad said. "The boy must have played a lot of arcade shooters to handle a gun like that." Chad thought to himself.

Michael's smile grew. "Thanks!." Michael ran off to the front of the bus to see if his dad was ok.

Kirsten rushed back in and looked at the wound. "It really got you good..." She said as she placed a drenched rag of rubbing alcohol on the wound.

Chad's side lit up on a Christmas tree of pain. He seethed in pain. "Ahhh..." He pulled his long sleeved fatigue coat off. He removed his vest next and set it next to him.

"Are you going to keep the vest off?" She asked

"Hell no...It saved me from having the right side of my stomach ripped off." Chad replied in pain. He already knew that he could possibly be infected. Those creatures could carry the same virus that the zombies carry. How would he tell everyone...He looked into Kirsten's eyes and wondered how he would tell her.

Kirsten cleaned the wound up good and put a gaze patch on it. She tapped the end of some wrapping bandage on the gaze, then proceeded to wrap Chad's stomach. She felt him wince in pain as she wrapped it tight to stop the bleeding. "Take it easy. It could start bleeding again if you move too much." She warned.

Greg stepped up and looked at the wound. "Damn...you going to be ok?"

Chad looked up at Greg. "You know it soldier, they ain't killing me from a little cut like this." Maybe they did know already. Not wanting to make Chad's situation seemed doomed.

"The area is clear." Greg told him as he looked back. "He's going to turn into one of those things...He's been hurt by one of them. If his theory is correct, than he doesn't have a chance in hell to make it out alive." Greg's mind told him. Greg didn't want to say anything at this point.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rob walked up to the two band members with a smile one his face. "I still can't believe it..." he said as he sat on the other side of Drew. "You guys are still alive. That's amazing.Then again, I wouldn't expect any less from you guys." Rob looked around for the other two members of the band, but couldn't find them. "Where's the rest of the band? Shouldn't they be with you guys."

"Yeah..." Josh said, his voice changing as his eyes looked down to the floor. "They should."

"We lost them throughout the night..." Drew said, not trying to let Josh hurt himself mentally anymore by explaining it. "Adam died at the show, and Zack died at the hotel."

Rob's facial expression dropped and so did his heart. "You mean…damn..." he said stunned. He couldn't believe it and didn't want to. His anger was raging now. He pounded one of his fists into the palm of his other hand. "Son of a bitch! I can't fucking believe that! Now I'm going to have to kill twice as many of these fuckers!" He was there when Adam was killed and he could have helped the band out then. Maybe the Hunter brothers would be together still if he helped them.

"Looks like me and you are on the same page, Rob..." Josh said, his voice emotionless. Rob looked at Josh and felt his pain.

Silence...

"How do you think your leader is going to be?" Josh finally asked, looking up at Rob.

Rob looked back at Chad who sat in the very back being bandaged by Kirsten and Greg. "Don't worry about him. He'll be up kicking zombie ass with the best of them in a few minutes." The possible thought of Chad becoming one of the living dead wasn't in his head. He didn't think that, that would happen.

"I think I'm going to go talk with him." Josh said, standing up. "I still have to thank him for saving my life."

Rob watched Josh walk toward the back. Josh Hunter was a soldier himself in Rob's eyes. Another Chad Winn if you could say, from the leadership skills he's shown. Rob reached into his fatigues and pulled out his pack of Newports. "He lost his brother, huh?" He asked, taking a much more serious tone as he lit up a cigarette. "I feel just shitty now. I know it may not mean much to him or you, but I feel like I've now lost my own brother. Kinda weird isn't it?" He exhaled. "I mean, I've never met any of you guys before. Sure, I've seen in you in concert, but I've never held a full conversation with you. Still, I guess I've connected with you guys cause of your music. I don't know how else to explain it." Rob said as he looked out the window at the horrid scene of the New Racoon City.

Drew nodded. "It's tough, tough for everyone. But you know what? It's even worse for Josh. For awhile I was worried it had effected him mentally. You know, made him forget what was reality and what wasn't. I'm kinda worried for his sanity."

"That's a tough thing to hold onto." Rob agreed, looking down at Drew. "Especially with things the way they are now. I mean, look at it out there. It's fucking devastation. Zombies and other creatures like those damn lizard men." He paused, taking a generous drag of the cigarette held by his lips. "How did the others die?" He had to know, he didn't want to keep guessing of all the horrific ways a person could die in this city. Ten million ways to die, choose one.

Drew sighed. "Adam…one of the zombies attacked him right on stage. It tore out his fucking neck. We managed to get him back to the dressing room, but he died in there before we could get any real help. And Zack, he was killed by those lizard things we just fought."

"We had thought we could get to the hotel and be safe there. Only thing was, when we got close to the hotel, those things came out of nowhere, jumping down from the rooftops." Rob nodded, knowing how it was when his team first encountered the monsters. "We got to the front door, but they wouldn't open. Someone must have cut the power or something. I thought we were done for, but we found a entrance on the side that lead to the kitchen. We made a rush for it with those things hot on our heels."

"I don't know exactly what happened then because I was towards the front of the group," Drew continued. "All I know is that I made it into the kitchen with little trouble. Then I turned around and I saw Zack standing there, struggling with one of the demons. He had his shotgun jammed against its throat and was fighting to keep its claws off of him. I remember that the whole left side of his jacket had been shredded, and I remember seeing the blood that pooled down to the ground."

Rob said nothing; he only fixed Drew with a serious stare, absorbing every detail of the story. Even his cigarette was forgotten, being held loosely by his hand. He couldn't believe someone he enjoyed to hear so much on CD died in a horrible way.

"Zack yelled at Josh, telling him to go on and leave him, but Josh didn't want to. He moved forward to help his brother, but if he did that, he would have died too. Do you understand that? They both would have died if I didn't do something, so I did the only thing I could do. I grabbed Josh and started pulling him back. I was too weak to do it by myself, but Steve helped me out. Together we dragged Josh kicking and screaming into the kitchen, leaving Zack alone to fend off those things."

Rob heard Drew's voice quiver and tears stream from his eyes. "That's what I've been having to get off my chest for so long. Josh blames himself for letting Zack die, but in truth, it was me. If I hadn't pulled Josh in like I had, they would have both died. He had nothing to do with it; it was really me who abandoned Zack."

"It was a tough decision..." Rob said, trying to offer the smallest bit of comfort to the bassist. "But I think you did the right thing. It's not always the prettiest of decisions, but it would have been worse if you lost both of the Hunter brothers."

"You mean that?" Drew asked, trying to regain control of himself.

"Yeah, I really do."

"You know the only good news that could come from that?" Drew asked, wiping away the tears that still clung to his eyes. "Zack managed to kill everyone single one of the damn lizards. When we left the hotel, we saw him and the bodies around him. He went down fighting."

"A true fucking hero, that's for sure." Rob said.

"Yeah...So you're a fan, huh?" Drew asked, changing the subject on something they both loved.

Rob smiled, now being able to talk to one of his favorite band's members. "You know it. I own both of your CD's. I've been to a few of your concerts too. I love your guys' stuff. It's fucking incredible."

Drew chuckled a little. "I still never get tired of meeting a new fan. What's your favorite song?"

Rob sat back, thinking deeply of what song made him feel like he was on top of the world. "That's a tough one to say. I love them all, but if I had to pick just one, I'd pick Living in Shadows. That song is just fucking epic!"

"I've always liked that one too." Drew agreed. The conversation lightened the minds of the Bassist and Soldier.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony took his seat after reloading all of his weapons. He was glad to relax some, after a battle like that one. "Boy do I have something to tell the fella's back at home." He said to himself. He looked over to his left and saw Christie. "Well, what is a pretty girl like you, doing in a place like this?" Tony said to the girl with a smile.

Christie chuckled some and smiled back. "Surviving." She replied.

"I hear that." Tony said, as he slumped in the seat some. "I'm Tony." He said, offering his hand out to her. She was perfect for his tastes and wish he could ask her out on a date. "Yeah, 'Hey, you wanna go out on a date? I know this great place, full of zombies and lizard monsters!' She would laugh in your face." Tony thought to himself.

Christie kindly took it and shook. "I'm Christie." She felt herself pulled over closer to the soldier and looked at him.

"Don't worry, I'm not a zombie so I don't bite." Tony joked. Christie laughed some and looked back up at him. Tony loved the effect he had on women sometimes and even in a time like this, he needed to loosen up.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chad looked up as he saw Josh make his way over.

"How bad is your side?" Josh said asked as he looked at the patch up job Kirsten did.

"Not too bad.." Chad said. "How's your arm? Looks like you got cut pretty badly." He saw the blood had leaked down his whole arm, but the cut wasn't too bad, seeing that it had already stopped bleeding.

Josh looked at his right bicep. "Ha, that's funny..." Josh remarked. "I didn't even realize I had been cut. Doesn't look to bad though. Even if it was, I don't think I could complain to you, now could I?"

"Still," Kirsten said, "you shouldn't take it too lightly — any cut could become infected." She wasn't going to let him die over an infected cut. "Let me bandage you up."

"I'll be fine," Josh said, declining the offer, but Kirsten wouldn't take no for an answer. She reached to her side and grabbed a med kit lying on the floor. Most of the wrap had been used for Chad, but some still remained. She also grabbed a small bottle of liquid.

"Now, hold still," she said demandingly. "This may sting a bit." She poured some of the antiseptic onto a cloth and pressed it over Josh's cut. The drummer cringed. His eyes started to water, and he gritted his teeth in pain. Finally, she began to wrap his arm with the bandages.

"Seriously, though..." Josh finally said, turning his attention back to Chad. "Don't let this subject come to me. I want to know, how do you honestly feel?"

The soldier sighed. "Hurts less than you'd think..." he said, "but I don't think I'm going to be doing jumping jacks and tap-dancing around anytime soon." Chad chuckled along with Josh after the joke.

Kirsten tightened the bandage on his arm and stepped back.

"Listen, do you two mind if I talk to him alone?" Josh asked, looking at Kirsten and Greg.

"No problem, man..." Greg said, moving towards Tony who stood chatting pleasantly with Christie. Greg knew what it was about...

Kirsten looked up at Josh with a concern look. She hoped that it wasn't anything too serious, but it could be. She slowly moved toward everyone on the front of the bus.

"There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about..." Josh said, sitting next to Chad.

"I'm all ears." Chad said as he sat back, trying to relax some. He looked over at Josh and saw something was wrong in his eyes. "Josh probably knows Chad..." A voice said in his head.

"I don't know how to make this easy on you, but you could be infected, meaning you may turn into one of those zombies out there."

Chad took a small moment to absorb what Josh had said. He sighed, leaning back further in the sofa. "Yeah, I know. I was wondering myself if I should explain that to the rest of you."

"You already know?"

"It was back when I picked up Kirsten at the very beginning of the outbreak..." Chad explained. "I had to kill her friends because they turned into zombies. I saw her friend Carol change right in front of my eyes and I had to bring her down myself. How did you find out?"

"We had another person traveling with us for awhile. He was a security guard at the show, name of Terry Wakefield. I honestly don't think we could have gotten out of there without him. When we trying to leave, he got scratched by a girl. Later in the night, his condition got worse and worse. We managed to get to the hotel…" Chad knew that Josh left out a part of his story. A guilty pause in his voice and something in his eye, told Chad it was something horrible. "When we got there, we put Terry in a room and let him rest. Sometime later he ended up getting up without us knowing. I was away from the rest of the group so I don't know the specifics, but Drew told me he found Terry dead in the elevator. That was when he changed into a zombie and tried to kill Drew. Drew managed to shoot him in the head and that was it."

Chad nodded along and spoke up when Josh was finished. "It's hard to have to kill one of your own loved ones like that. It's even worse seeing them become one of those things."

"Which brings me to my next point..." Josh said. "What do you plan on doing when you start to change?"

"There's only one option as I see it..." Chad said. He looked down to his 226 handgun, set in it's holster. He would rather off himself, than come back. He wondered if those zombies still had the souls of their previous owner trapped in them.

Josh nodded, understanding what he meant. "Hopefully, that time doesn't come for quite some time from now. Terry managed to fight it off for a long time. You could do the same."

"Yeah..." Chad said, with loss of confidence in his voice. "Long enough to see this mission all the way through."

"One last thing..." Josh said. "About this mission, what are you guys doing, really?"

"I think that's better for me to share with your whole group, so I won't have to repeat myself. Anyways, I already told parts to your driver so that he'd change his course."

"So he'd what?" Josh asked, taken aback.

"I thought musician's were supposed to have good ears..." Chad replied with a sly smile on his face. He chuckled lightly a bit so that Josh wouldn't mistake the joke for a real insult. "Yeah, in my condition my team won't last long on the streets. I'd only slow them down. So I talked to your driver, Steve. He seems like a nice fellow and he agreed to take us to our destination. After we're dropped off, your free to continue on your merry way."

"And what about your girl?"

"Whoa...why would he ask about Kir?" Chad was thrown off by the question. He looked up at Josh with a surprise look on his face and then looked down the hall, catching a glimpse of Kirsten. "And what about her?"

"Are you taking her with you?" Josh answered, plainly.

"Of course."

"Do you really think that's the best decision?" Josh retorted, fixing him with a somber look. "She isn't a soldier. She has no more part in your mission than me our anyone else does. She's a civilian. If you'd prefer, she could stay on the bus and we could take her with us."

Chad wasn't going to hear any of this. Kirsten would stay with him, not with untrained civilians. If she was going to die, it would be under his command. "No."

"Just hear me out on this one..." Josh shot back quickly. "I understand you want the best for her. I understand how much you love her, and I know that you're trying to protect her. But, you can't protect her as well if she's going on this dangerous mission with you. She'd get in the way. However, if you let her come with us, we can escape and then she'll be safe. Also, while you're considering this, realize that you may or may not be infected at this point. Do you really want your girlfriend to see you turn into one of them? Is that something you want for her?"

Chad put his right fist into his left hand, leaning forward and letting his elbows rest on his knees. His brows furrowed, a visible sign of his concentration. Finally, he broke the tension.

"Still not going to happen. I want her where I can keep an eye on her. No offense, but you and your group are just civilians with absolutely no weapons training whatsoever." He understood where Josh was coming from, but the soldiers would have evac right in the University.

"I think you're forgetting who saved who back there..." Josh said with a sly smile.

"Yeah, and I appreciate that more than you can ever know, but I also saved you. Remember?" Chad replying back in a sly manor. "Kirsten will be much safer staying with a group of highly trained soldiers," Chad continued. "As for your last point, if I do turn, I'd like a final chance to say goodbye to her. As I'm sure she'd like the same. I appreciate your concern, but we've managed to handle ourselves fine so far and our mission is almost complete anyway. Besides, SOCOM already knows about her and she'll need to be present at the end for the debriefing."

"Fine," Josh said, throwing his hands back in defeat. "It was just a suggestion anyway. I didn't think you'd actually go for it."

"Do you think its time for the debriefing?" Josh asked, turning to the soldier.

"Now's as good as time as any."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Greg sat alone, hearing the chatter of everyone else. Would they make it to the campus and evac? But if they did, then what about Chad? He's been hurt by one of those lizard things and could turn...It could start all over again somewhere else...He looked over as Josh took a seat and Chad stood looking at everyone.

"Listen up, everyone!" Chad spoke up, his voice regaining the vigor and commanding tone it had earlier. He felt the burning pain in his side every inch he moved and it hurt like hell. "I'm sure some of you guys are wondering just what's going on here?"

"Sure are," Steve called out, still navigating the streets.

"What we're dealing with here is a massive viral outbreak," Chad continued, "courtesy of the Umbrella Corporation."

There was a moment of shocked silence where everyone let that last piece of information sink in.

Steve suddenly started to chuckle, and his chuckling turned into a robust laugh. "Hahaha, yeah, I believe that right away! Are you crazy? Umbrella Corporation! That's a good one!"

Greg shot up from his seat. He was pissed that Steve would act out that way toward Chad. He pulled up his rifle and aimed it at Steve. "Shutup! Don't laugh at him like that! It's the truth!"

Steve's face grew pale, and his eyes darted from the road to the barrel of the long gun. He opened his mouth to try to say he was sorry, but all that came out was gibberish.

"Hey! Don't point that gun at my dad!" Michael yelled, trying to stand up, but Drew managed to keep a solid grip on the adolescent's arm.

"Sit down, Michael!" Drew hissed angrily. "Sit your ass down!"

"Greg, relax..." Chad said calmly. "There's no need to fly off the handle like that. You're a Goddamn soldier, so starting acting like one and stop acting like an asshole. Sit your ass down." Chad could see that Greg was really starting to crack.

Greg took a deep breath and exhaled. He shouldered his gun and sat down. "Sorry..." He muttered out.

"That's better," Chad said, nodding his head with approval. "We're all friends here, no reason to be pointing guns at each other's heads. We have bigger concerns on our hand's. Now like I said, the Umbrella Corporation is responsible for this whole mess."

"But how?" Christie asked. "I'm kind of in the same boat as Steve for this one. Umbrella's the reason this city is running so well .They're the main source of income for almost half of the citizens."

"Yeah," Chad agreed, "and that's what makes the perfect cover for them, but I can assure you it's all true." He reached into a pocket on his fatigues and pulled out a disk. "This is what my team came here for. Stored in this disk's memory is the incriminating evidence needed to prove Umbrella's treachery. My team managed to steal it from a team of soldiers under Umbrella's payroll. Now we're on the homestretch. We just have to take it to the University where we'll rendezvous with another team of soldiers."

"That's it, huh?" Josh asked..

"Yeah. Pretty simple, isn't it?" "Could have been even more simple if these monsters didn't appear." Chad thought.

"How far are we from our destination, sir?" Tony asked.

"Hard to say," Chad answered. "What do you think, Steve?" Calling up to the driver of the bus.

"Couldn't be more than five blocks. We're getting closer."

"Great," Chad said with a smile forming on his lips. "When we finally get there we can—"

Chad's words were interrupted by the sound of gunfire. Before any of the survivors could react, bullets were rained down upon the bus. The glass that remained in the windows was shattered, falling to the ground in a glittering display.

Greg hit the floor, but felt a couple bullets pelt his vest. "Ahhh!" None had punched through, but the pain was still there. He rolled under a table for more protection.

Chad pulled Kirsten under him as bullets rained down from the sky. "Fuck!" He yelled out as a couple bullets nailed his vest and shoulder.

Tony took cover under the nearest table, along with Greg. Tony looked at him with a confused look. He didn't understand what was going on. They were being fired on from an unknown enemy, unless...

Suddenly the bus served violently. Chad felt himself tossed into the air. Everything slowed down and time seemed to nearly stop. "They found us..." He thought as he was thrown into something hard that made his vision black out.