Resident Evil:
The Whole Story.
Chapter Twenty-Eight.
"I am telling you, I'm sure that I heard something." Forest said as he gazed into the darkness of the forest, his flashlight cutting through the dim but only revealing the branches of trees and the will grass that had never been cut. "It almost sounded like gunfire."
"I heard it too." Edward said as he moved to stand next to Forest, his face seemed to always have a scowl permanently fixed to it and right now it seemed to be even more intense than usual. "It sounded like a fully automatic weapon, an assault rifle or maybe a submachine gun."
"Do you think that it belonged to one of these guys? I mean, this is a military jeep right?" Rebecca asked as she came to stand next to them, peering into the darkness. It suddenly occurred to her that this really did seem like something out of a scary move. She honestly expected something to come bursting out of the woods and scream right into her face.
That would almost be preferable to what was at her back, the stench still made her gag and if she turned around then she was fairly certain that she would lose her breakfast, lunch and dinner. And she was not going to let that happen, if it did then she would never be able to live it down.
She would always be known as the newbie who couldn't handle it, and she didn't want that. She didn't want anything like that, she couldn't fall apart on her first mission. She took a few deep breaths and tried to get the image out of her face but no matter how hard she tried, how tightly she closed her eyes, what she had seen had been one of the worst things she had ever seen in her life.
She knew that her job wasn't exactly going to be a picnic and the possibility of losing her lunch was always going to be there but this was beyond anything of what she could have expected, not in her worst nightmares could have imagined that. She was certain that it would haunt her for weeks to come. It would probably never leave her.
One of the men were laying in the jeep draped over the driver's side door, it's front had been wreaked harshly by the tree that it had collided against at what Rebecca could only assume had been at full speed, and his throat had been torn up by something, whatever it had been had made a mess of his neck as there was no skin left, simply a gaping hole.
A large shard of glass ran straight through his head, the once clear surface turned black due to the dark blood that had now turned black. It was a horrible way to die, she could tell that just by looking at the body. Kenneth had been examining the body for a bit and managed to determine that he had died from the throat wound rather from anything to do with the car wreck. He also said the bites didn't seemed to be human which seemed to rule out any connection to the cannibals.
As horrible as the body in the jeep was to look at it was nothing compared to what lay near the jeep, it had been what Rebecca had tripped on which had lead to them discovering the jeep in the first place. It was another man but he was in much worse shape than his friend, his face was torn in places and Rebecca could see that a few tiny shards of glass had embedded themselves into his skin.
His eyes were empty. His eyes were just...gone, something had picked his sockets clean. Not just the eyes them self but all the gore behind the eyes only leave two black, empty holes. It almost make it's face look like a cheep mask, almost at the very least. That wasn't truly the worst of it, she honestly wasn't sure what was. The back of his head had been blown out, he had been shot.
It was a terrible thing to think but she hoped he had been shot before all the rest of this had happened to him. A shot to the back of the head was less painful then anything else that had happened to him before this. His legs were twisted at different angles which must of happened when he had been thrown from the jeep. There were clumps of grass in his hands and dirt under his fingernails and dragging trails behind his body and Kenneth told them that suggested that he had been trying to drag himself away from the jeep.
Chunks of flesh had been torn from his body but Kenneth had been unable to identify the bite marks, they definitely were not human but they didn't belong to any wolf or dog that he had ever seen. Rebecca wasn't the forensics officer but as the medic she was expected to assist him and for the little amount of time she had been able to hold down her lunch to help him with examining the body, she found that the bite marks seemed odd to her as well. They almost looked like dozens of little puncture marks that had been clustered together.
She had never seen anything like it, and Kenneth was completely lost as to what they could be as well. So, on top of investigating cannibals, being inside a crashing helicopter and facing what horror movie directors could only wish that they could recreate, they also had another mystery to pile on top of all of that.
Her first mission, so far could be considered to be a failure. Rebecca let out a sigh, half hoping that none of her team mates had heard that before she turned around to face the jeep and walked back over to it. Taking care not to trip over the bodies or to disturb Kenneth's work. He was still examining the bodies with an intense look on his face, clearly hoping that they would reveal some clue as what had happened to them, who had done it to him.
Richard and Enrico were both checking the jeep itself, Richard checking around the driver's seat and the backseat while Enrico was checking in the trunk. Rebecca moved around to the passenger side door of the jeep and shinned her light, the upholstery of the seat had been ripped which she could only assume was due to the glass of the window smashing. Her flashlight reflected on the tiny slivers of glass.
She turned her attention to the glove box and reached out to touch it, as soon as her hand came into contact however she pulled it back with a cry of revulsion. The glove box seemed to be coated in something cold, wet, thick and slimy and when she focused her light back on to the glove compartment she could that whatever it was it was coated thickly, almost like strawberry jam on a piece of toast.
But whatever it was, it was not strawberry jam. It was see through. It reminded her of gelatine that had not been flavoured though not quite as thick at that as this was still running. A hand came down on her shoulder and she let out another gasp before she spun around to face Richard who offered her an apologetic smile.
"You really do have to stop doing that." She said as she placed her hand on her chest as she tried to get her breathing under control, when she felt the slime squishing against her chest she let out a groan that was equal parts disgust and frustration as she pulled her hand away, most of the slime had gone to her vest but a few threads insisted on clinging to the surface of her glove.
As soon as they got back home she wasn't going to stop washing her hands for at least a week. She didn't expect that working for a police task group was going to be glamorous work, she hadn't signed up to be an Angel. But honestly, this was just disgusting.
"Sorry, I'll work on it. I promise. Are you okay? I think you made enough noise just now to wake the dead." She didn't know why, but Richard's words sent a chill down her spine. When she had been a child her father always let her stay up late when horror movies had come on late and one of her favourites had always been Night of the living dead.
Her mother had never like that her father had always let her watch it, never mind the fact that it was a horror movie but also for the fact that it was always on late at night and most of those nights were school nights. But as a kid she had never really cared, she had always thought that her mother was being so unfair to her. She was smart for a girl her age, everyone always said it. She could handle a scary movie.
And if she stayed up late that night then she would simply go to bed early the next night, it was easy.
Of course looking back on the movie now, it had terrified her more than words could say. Just something about the way the living dead had moved had been enough to scare her back then. Of course, looking back on it after reading dozens of medical textbooks now she knew that it was actually quite an accurate depiction of how a living corpse would move, if such a thing could ever exist.
Their bodies had been rotting for days before they got up and walked, their joints would be stiff with rigamortis. They wouldn't be able to move in anything faster than a slow lumber.
But at the time, as a little girl, she had not been thinking of any that. She had thought that the reason that the zombies had moved like that was because they knew that their victory was an inevitability, that they would catch up with the heroes and eat them until their was nothing left. There was no reason for them to hurry.
Rebecca noticed that Richard was staring at her and looked like he was about to start clicking his fingers in front of her face to try and snap her out of her thoughts. She felt a flush creeping up her neck and let out a nervous little laugh. "Sorry about that, I was just thinking that would be typical wouldn't it? Crashing in a helicopter into a forest full of zombies? It seems quite apt for the day we've had."
"See? That's the way to do it. Never try and take all of it too seriously otherwise you'll lose your mind with worrying." Richard offered her that grin again and Rebecca returned it with what she hoped was a more confident one of the one that she had been sporting before. "Any way, what's with the scream that would make Jaime Lee blush?"
"It was not a scream, it was a gasp. If that." Rebecca said with a scoff and she looked back down at her hand, Richard shone his light down at it and Rebecca wiggled her fingers. "I have no idea what this is but the glove compartment is smothered with it."
"Whatever it is there's some in the boot as well, and under the tires." They both turned to face Enrico who was looking at them both with concern and what resembled uncertainty brewing in his dark eyes. "I have no idea what this is but do whatever you can not to get it on your skin."
"Okay, but with permission sir can I try and get into the glove compartment? There might be something in there to help us find out what happened here." Rebecca asked, Enrico looked uncertain for a few moments but after those had passed he let out a slow nod and Rebecca turned her attention back on to the glove box.
She didn't truly fancy the idea of touching it again with her hands even with her gloves on, she glanced around the forest and saw a large stick near by. She leaned down and picked it up and jammed the thin end at the slit at the top of the compartment. She began to push down on the wide end and Richard came to help her, it took some effort but finally the hatch came off, hanging limply from the hinges.
Rebecca took her flashlight and shone the light into the compartment, she could already see that there were some papers inside but most of them were damp with the same slime. Some were limp and were completely illegible now but some had been shielded from the worst of it.
She reached in, trying to stop herself from shivering as a large glob of slime landed on to her sleeve and soaked though it, chilling her skin and her bones. When she got back to the city she was going to run a bath so hot that dragons would burn in it and she would rub herself raw. She took hold of a piece of paper that had not been ruined, though it was still damp around the corners, and she held it up so Richard could shine his light on it.
As she read from the paper she was vaguely aware of the other members of the team gathering around them, the sound of the boots crunching down on the grass in the silence was almost deafening. "What did you find?" Enrico asked as he stood next to Richard and stared at the paper.
"It looks like a transfer notice, this was a military transfer. A prison one. Hang on." Rebecca had to squint at the paper as some of the smile was now running down it and smearing some of the papers. "William Steven Coen. Age; thirty years old, Height; six feet, four inches. Rank; Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corp; Ethnicity; Caucasian. Black hair with blue eyes. Distinguishing features; large tribal tattoo on left arm which spells out Motherlove."
"Second Lieutenant Coen was being transferred to Ragthon Army Base, for...for execution." Rebecca breathed out as she read those words over again, just to make sure that she hadn't misread them. Edward walked over to her side and ripped the piece of paper out of her hands and scowled down at it.
"Ragthon Army Base is five miles west of Harvardville, that's on the other side of the mountains." Enrico pointed out as he crossed his arms, deep in his own thoughts. "They must have come from Arklay Army Base. Poor bastards, came all this way out and they'll never get to go home again."
"Second Lieutenant Coen was due to be executed due to the murders of fifty-seven people. Fifty-three members of an African village and four members of his own squad, the commanding officer of his unit among them." Edward read out, his anger growing and becoming more noticeable with every word that he spoke.
He glanced at the two bodies and her crumpled the piece of paper in his hand when he clenched it in to a fist. "Well, they can increase that body count to fifty-nine. That son of a bitch, these were good men who were just doing their jobs and he murdered them and escape."
"I found their dog tags." Kennath held both pairs up by their chains. "It isn't much and it isn't what they deserve, but when we get back to Raccoon we cane inform Arklay and they can make sure that these two get a proper burial."
Edward nodded but it was clear that he was still not at all happy, Kenneth let out a sigh and glanced back at the bodies. "The only thing is I'm not sure that Coen did this, I mean okay he's clearly a murderer but those marks...I'm not sure what made them but I am damn sure that no human could have."
"Whatever could have made those marks could have made them after they were dead, you said so yourself. The bite mark on the driver's throat? That could have been made by him. He could've leaned forward and given him a chomp and when Coen was free he could've used on of their guns to finish the other one off." Edward crossed his arms and stood firm. "One of their sidearms is missing."
"Maybe, but the wound of his throat, the bite marks look like canine teeth to me and while Coen may have the shot the other one that doesn't explain what all of this slime is. Come on Ed, you have to admit that a lot of stuff really doesn't make a lot of sense here."
"At any rate it really doesn't matter." Enrico spoke up and everyone turned to give him their full attention, it was kind of amazing to Rebecca how much deference the rest of Bravo team showed him, when the captain spoke up you listened. She wondered if it was the same for Captain Wesker and Alpha team.
She imagined that it was, though she guessed that he commanded more through fear than he did respect. The man was like a statue, never showing any emotions but that just made him all the more terrifying. She never liked being in the same room with him for too long, he terrified her.
"All we need to know for sure is that there is an armed mass murderer in these woods, and right now searching for him is the top priority." Enrico took out his radio and spoke in to it. "Kevin, it's me. How are the repairs coming along?"
It took for few moments but eventually there a reply, the signal wasn't the best and so Kevin's voice came out quite weak but if Rebecca strained her ears then she could just about hear him. "It's not looking to good at the second boss, there's no way that this bird is getting back in the air. Not with just me working on it."
Enrico bite his lip but was clearly doing his best to make sure that the frustration was not showing on his face as he once again spoke into the radio. "How about the radio? Any luck there?"
"Going a bit better but still probably going to be a while, the problem is that I don't know what is actually wrong with it. If I can give you my honest opinion then I think that we are probably going to bunk down in the helicopter for the night until Alpha team comes and get us."
"Alright, listen to me we've got a problem. There's an armed killer in the woods, stay in the helicopter and keep all of the doors locked and make sure that the safety of your gun if off. I would never normally say this but with this one we can't afford to take any chances."
"Got it boss, don't worry I'll keep an eye out. Over and out." Enrico placed his radio back and turned to face the rest of the team.
"Right, everyone listen up. Standard search protocol, use the jeep as a meeting point and we spread out. I don't want anyone going off on their own. Richard, you come with me. Forest, I want you to go with Kenneth and Edward, you and Rebecca can go together as well."
Rebecca didn't say anything out loud but in her head she was cursing, she knew that it wasn't professional but of all her teammates she liked Edward the least. She didn't disrespect him but she hadn't been able to speak to him about anything. Still, she was not going to say a thing about it. It wasn't professional and there were far more important things to worry about than having a crappy partner who barely talked.
But what did make her speak out was the thought that popped into her head. "Sir, I'm sorry. I don't mean to question your decisions but I do have to ask. What about the investigation, we can't just abandon it."
"We aren't, if any of us stumble on to the estate then I want that team to stay there and radio the rest of us. We will spend another hour searching for Coen and if we haven't found him then we just have to accept that's he gotten away. But at least for now we have to try and catch up with him." Enrico replied and Rebecca nodded to signify that she understood, and she knew he was right.
After making sure that all of their radios were working and that their flashlights were functioning, they each picked a direction and began to walk deeper into the forest.
For the next twenty minutes the only noise that Rebecca heard was the sound of Edwards and her own breath and footsteps, it was odd but there didn't even seem to be any animals. There were no owls hooting in the trees and there were no wolves howling in the distance, Rebecca didn't know if she had ever heard a quiet like it before in her entire life.
She briefly wondered about asking Edward if he thought that the rifle they had heard had anything to do with Coen but she decided against it, for one it could reveal their position to Coen or one of the cannibals and she knew that Edward would just give her one of those one word answers. He was almost impossible to talk to even when it was something relevant to the mission.
Rebecca suddenly saw something through the trees and she brought her light up to bare on it so she could see what it actually way, the light revealed a flash of red metal and she quickly reached out to tap Edward on the shoulder and when he turned to look at her she pointed through the trees. Edward frowned deeply and began to march over to the trees, Rebecca following after him.
As they walked through the trees what lay before them became clearer and clearer. It was a train, made of red metal and stretching for a while in both directions. It was too dark for Rebecca to see how many cars there were but she got the feeling that there were a few of them. "What's a train doing all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?"
"There's a few train lines that go through the mountains but most of them are freighters or haulers, not many passenger trains. I think that this might be Umbrella's private train line." Edward suddenly stood up and walked further down the train until he came to where some large white letters were printed, when he shone his light on to them Rebecca could see the words printed on the side. "Ecliptic Express." And underneath that were the words. "Property of the Umbrella Corporation."
"Why didn't this get called in? I mean, who knows how long this thing has been out here and it doesn't look cheep." It looked like one of those high class luxury trains she had read about in her history books back in school, the ones you couldn't even dream of getting a ticket on unless you were making millions and millions. "No way Umbrella would just leave it out here, and what about the passengers?"
"I don't know. Look, that windows cracked." Edward focused his flashlight on the window of the door that lead into the car and Rebecca saw that it was cracked, like something had hit it with such forced that it began to turn into a spider web pattern. She wasn't sure what could have done that but if it was a person then they must have broken their hand doing it.
"I'm going to tell Enrico." Edward unclipped his radio from his belt and was about to hit the call button when suddenly a low moan filled the air. It sounded like someone was in pain and something about it struck Rebecca as unnervingly familiar. It was muffled as the noise was coming from inside of the train. Edward stood there, his mouth hanging open and his finger hovering over the call button.
"We have to get in there! Someone could be hurt!" Rebecca began to move towards the door but before she could reach out and take the handle Edward reached out and clamped his wrist around her arm. "Let go of me, we've got to get in there right now!"
"We can't just run into a situation where we have no idea what is happening. We need to call Enrico and assess the situation before we make decisions that could get people killed." Edward spoke and while Rebecca knew that he was making sense and they needed to inform the others, that same moan filled the air and before she truly knew what was doing she pulled away and ran for the door.
She could hear Edward calling after her but she didn't stop, she reached out and grabbed the handle of the car door and slid it to the side. It was a passenger car with rows of seats, there was no one in side of the car but she had heard the moan, she knew she had because Edward had heard it to. Suddenly the moan filled the air again and it was coming from the car to her left.
She turned and ran to the door and she could hear Edward following behind her, she supposed that this would not look good when it came to reports but at the moment none of that mattered to her. What mattered to her was that someone was injured and they needed her help and she was not going to leave them alone, no matter the cost. Edward could write whatever he wanted in his report.
Rebecca slid the door to the next car open and ran inside but as she took a few steps inside she stood, standing right in front of her was a woman dressed in a blue pantsuit with long brown hair was standing with her back to her, her left arm was hanging limply at her side and Rebecca wondered if it had fallen out of it's socket, the woman was swaying side to side on her feet, almost like she was drunk and Rebecca wondered if she had a concussion.
"Ma'am? Are you alright? Don't worry, I'm a member of the Special Tactics and Rescue Service. We're here to help." She stepped closer and reached out to place her hand gently on the shoulder of her uninjured arm. "My name's Rebecca, if you're injured it's alright. I'm a medic, I can help. Can you sit down for me?"
"Rebecca..." Edward spoke out from behind her but she barely heard him with her attention fully focused on the woman in front of her, she seemed to be in a deep shock.
"Edward, please not now." She didn't have time to deal with him scolding her like she was a little girl, sure she defied a senior officer but she had done so to help a wounded civilian and he could yell at her once she was certain that the woman, and any other people on this train, were in stable condition. "Ma'am, could you please turn around and look at me? I need to assess what sort of situation you're in."
The woman began to turn but she was so slow and she was almost stumbling, she had to wonder if the woman was even completely aware of what was happening to her at the moment. She could simply be so shocked that her entire body was on autopilot and that concerned her. A gentle touch would be needed here as it was never great to bring them out of such a state in a harsh way.
When the woman was finally facing her, Rebecca's breath caught in her throat.
One of her eyes was gone, all that was left was a crater of pus and rotting flesh. Her other eye was a solid white marble, half of her jaw was exposed. The skin and flesh on the right side of her face had just been stripped away until there was nothing left to cover it. She let out another moan and Rebecca realised, finally, that it wasn't a moan of pain.
It was one of hunger.
Rebecca and the woman stared at one another for she didn't know how long, but suddenly the woman lunged at her and Rebecca let out a shriek as she brought up her hands and tried to push the mutilated woman away from her. For someone that should have passed out due to the sheer pain she must have been in, the woman had a firm grip as her cold hands clamped around her upper arms.
She tried to lean in to her to clamp her teeth around her neck but Rebecca fought back but soon her strength began to fail her and her arms began to ache from the effort of holding her back. For just a moment, as the woman began to lean towards her neck, Rebecca realised that she was going to die. There was nothing that she could do, all the strength seemed to have drained out of her and if she let go to reach for her gun then she would sink her teeth into her neck and end her life.
Just as what little strength she had left was about to fail her Edward, who she had almost had forgotten had existed, rushed up and grabbed the woman by hair and threw her into a row of seats, bringing a overhead net of luggage down with her as she fell. Rebecca stared at where she fell, she had no idea what just happened but she could feel her hands shaking and she thought that she was going to be sick.
When Edward turned around to face her he grabbed her by the shoulders and for a moment she thought that he was going to throw her as well even though she knew how ridiculous that thought was. For a brief moment she thought she saw something that might been concern in his eyes but if she had then it was goon as soon as she had seen it, to be replaced with a steely blue wall. "Are you hurt?"
"I don't think so, I just...What the hell happened?" She might be the rookie but she was certain the people with those sort of injuries wouldn't even be able to stand, let alone attack her. Maybe this was all a dream, maybe when the helicopter had come down she had cracked her head against the wall and all this was some dying dream as she waited for death to come and claim her even as the others tried in vain to wake her. Maybe by now a rescue helicopter had arrived and they were rushing her back to Racoon City.
It was so odd how comforting a thought that actually was.
"I don't know rookie, I really have no idea." Edward muttered as he brought his hand through his hair and though it seemed impossible he almost looked unnerved, all though to be fair Rebecca supposed that anyone would be unnerved when they were faced with someone who by all rights should be a walking corpse. Maybe her scream had woken the dead.
She let out a hysterical giggle but she slapped her hand over her mouth when she saw Edward glare at her. "Sorry, I'm kinda freaking out. I'm okay now. I promise."
"Rookie, it's great to say that but I need you to hold it together." Edward spoke commandingly, it was odd as she normally found how he spoke to her that way kind of condescending, as if he expected her to lose her cool but now that she was actually close to breaking down sobbing and screaming she actually found that tone of voice kind of comforting.
Rebecca took a few deep breaths before she nodded. "I'm okay. I am, I promise. I can hold it together." Maybe if she said that then it would be true, strangely it didn't seem to help much.
Edward nodded. "All right, good. Now listen to me, the first thing that we are going to do is that we are going to get the hell off of this train and we're going to get in touch with the others. I have no idea what is going on here but what I do know is that we can't handle it by ourselves."
Rebecaa nodded and was about to agree when a bone chilling moan shook her to her core, Edward turned around and both of them saw the woman that Edward thrown into the chairs slowly standing up. It wasn't possible, that throw should have broken her back at the very least. Though perhaps she shouldn't have been so surprised, six impossible things seemed to have happened to night.
Almost as if in answer another moan, more strangled that the one the woman let out, filled the air and from in between two other sets of chairs a man dressed in a grey business suit with his throat ripped out stood up, his milky eyes turning to focus on them. It wasn't possible, it just wasn't. It was slimly possible that someone could survive the injuries the woman sustained though they would be in such agony that they would more than likely wish that they were dead but there wasn't any chance of someone surviving their throat being torn out.
More and more began to rise from the seats, like some demented version of whack a mole and each one seemed to have worse injuries than the last, some were missing limbs. It had to be a nightmare, it had to be. There was no way in hell that any of this could be real.
"We have to go. Now." Edward's steely voice snapped her out of her near panic and Rebecca quickly nodded. They both turned and began to stride down the lane towards the door that they had come though, the walking corpses because that was the only thing that they could be even though it was insane, shambling behind them. Edward reached the door before her and pulled it open but whatever he saw made him stop and Rebecca could not see behind him, he was so broad that he filled the entire frame.
He suddenly shot out his arm and slid the door shut so fast that the entire frame shook before he spun around to face her, his face pale and his eyes wide. "We can't go that way." And that was that as Edward pushed past her and drew his gun. "This car doesn't have anyway to get outside so we'll have to fight our way through to the next one. I get the feeling that these guys aren't going to get out of our way if we just ask them real nice."
Rebecca was about to ask him why they couldn't go through the other car when suddenly the frame shook, as if something was beating on it with their hands from the other side. Well, that answered that question. She quickly drew her gun, made sure that her safety was off and went to stand next to Edward.
The nearest of the living corpses was only two steps away from Edward who levelled his gun at her chest, he frowned and pulled the trigger. A part of Rebecca's S.T.A.R.S training had been that she had to get used to firing guns on the range without any ear protectors on. Even with all that training the sound of the bullet leaving Edward's gun still nearly deafened her.
The bullet struck the woman in the stewardess uniform high in the chest, just below her heart, and sent her spinning back into the man behind her. It knocked both of them down and the rest of them shambled over the two on the floor without any thought. Rebecca raised her gun and pulled the trigger, the bullet shot out and struck the next one in the shoulder.
The banging on the door behind them began to increase and Rebecca nearly dropped her gun when she heard the sound of the wood cracking, the door was going to break down and they were going to be caught in between them. It was odd the sort of things that popped into your head when you knew that you were about to die, the most prevalent thing in Rebecca's mind in that moment was she was certain that she had forgotten to turn the microwave off when she left her apartment to come to the police station.
The second thing, was something she had seen in a movie. "The head! Go for the head!" Rebecca shouted as she levealed her gun to the forehead of the middle aged, overweight man who stood before them and pulled the trigger. When the bullet made contact his head snapped back and he fell to the floor, he did not move again.
Before Rebecca could take a moment to appreciate her victory however, the next one was upon her and it was so close that her gun was practically lodged into his teeth by the time she pulled the trigger, blowing out the back of his head. Edward began to aim for the head as well, between the two of them they had cleared a path and began to run down the lane to the door of the other car.
And they were just in time as the door to the other car fell to the floor, a flood of living dead surging through with it. Rebecca would not look back, she would not look back. Edward was there first and slid the door open, Rebecca ran in after him and slid the door shut. It wouldn't buy them much time as this door was identical to the one of the other car but it would buy them enough time to get outside and find the others. She had no idea what they were going to tell them.
She turned around and nearly ran into Edward's back and when she leaned over to look around him, she saw why he had stopped. This car was a passenger car with compartments that were clearly meant for passengers who would be able to afford them and he was trying to decide whether or not they should duck into one to see if maybe they could get out through a window.
A loud bang at the door seemed to make his mind up for him and he quickly sized Rebecca's wrist and began to drag her through the slim hallway through the compartments, if nothing else then that might slow the zombies down as they would have to come through it single file. There was another door at the end and they quickly ran through it, sliding it shut behind them.
This was another passenger car and this one at the very least did have a door that lead into the outside, Rebecca could almost smell the fresh air. It would be a much better change of pace from the smell of death and rotting flesh. Before she could take a step towards it however Edward tightened his grip on her wrist and she turned to look down the rest of the cab. What she saw nearly made her scream in despair.
There had to be at least thirty zombies in this cab alone, they didn't have enough bullets. Rebecca didn't keep count but she was certain that she didn't have many left in her clip and she was fairly sure that neither did Edward. They had other clips but by the time they would have reloaded the hoard would be on them. It was over, there was nowhere left to run.
Just as the first zombie stepped closer to them, Edward raised his gun and pulled the trigger. the zombie's head snapped back and rotting grey matter splattered the seats behind her. Rebecca supposed that it was better to go down fighting and so she raised her gun as well.
Suddenly there were two shots and two zombies fell to join their comrade on the floor, the shots had not come from Rebecca nor had they come from Edward who looked just as confused as she felt. "Hey! Up here!" The voice came to the side of Rebecca and she turned to see a staircase, not sure how she had missed that she looked up to see a man dressed in a white shirt and blue pants, holding a pistol.
At the minute, she was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and so ran up the stairs with Edward following after her. The man turned on the stairs and began to run up, this cab had an upper compartment and it seemed to be for dining as several tables stood on either side with white table clothes on top of them with lamps set in the middle. "Okay, we should be safe up here."
"Safe?" Edward scoffed in disgust as he gestured around the train. "We're in a dead end, there's nowhere left to run."
"Not quite, Jarhead." The man said with a frown as he crossed his muscular arms across his chest. "Those people down there, they're dead. I kind of sure you've gathered that, they can push down a door if there's enough of them but they can't climb stairs. Just wait and see."
It almost seemed impossible that after everything that had happened it the past ten minutes that they would be shown any kind of good luck but sure enough, while they could still hear the zombies moaning at the bottom of the stairs, none of them actually tried to come up. The man nodded, looking smug. "There, you see? Now why don't you both sit down and catch your breath. You're safe enough for now."
Rebecca glanced at Edward and just by the look on his face she could see that he had seen the tattoo on his arm as well, they weren't safe. They were trapped on a train with the living dead, and a mass murderer.
End of Chapter Twenty-Eight.
Welp, that's another chapter in the bag and we are finally getting into the meat themselves. Please keep in mind that this is a novelisation and thus a lot will not be the same, this is just my interpretation of the Resident Evil universe and some things will be different as I can not predict the future and thus will not be able to foresee what decisions Capcom will make when it comes to future games.
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Love,
Doctorwhofan12345.
