Resident Evil Recall: Operation Arklay

Episode Ten: The Trap Is Sprung

Part One

Emergency Landing Site, Arklay Village, 11:30 PM…

With Proske on his way back to Raccoon City with the injured Ashwood, and everyone else on the team either incarcerated or resting, Detective Carver still had to take care of her stolen RPD Helicopter before she could get any rest of her own. So getting a ride with two Deputies, she headed back out toward the open field where the emergency landing had been performed. Being used to the constant lights of the city, it was strange to see how dark everything was, and there were only a couple of street lights in Arklay Village, none of which were near where she needed to go.

"Thanks for giving me a ride, guys." She said with a slight yawn. "This shouldn't take too long."

"Don't worry about it." Deputy Gumb replied. "Me and Lynch got five more hours till shift change anyway."

"Yeah, and it's usually the longest part." Deputy Lynch added. "So we should thank you for giving us a way to pass the time, because believe it or not… not much happens out here."

It made her feel a little better to not be inconveniencing them, as did knowing that her actions had probably saved Officer Ashwood's life, but she doubted that Chief Irons would feel the same way. Saving Ashwood would probably let her avoid jail time, but at the end of the day she had disobeyed orders and stolen a police helicopter. Yeah, it was a pretty safe bet that she was going to lose her badge over this one, but hey, maybe Arklay County would hire her.

"So what is it you gotta do out here?" Lynch asked as they turned off the main road.

"First I have to report the crash to the RPD." Carver explained. "Then I have to lock down the chopper as best I can, and put up police tape around it, and such. I know there's not much point to the second part, but in my situation, it's probably best that I don't break any more rules."

All three of them got a half-hearted laugh out of this, but it didn't last, and as much as she tried to be calm, Carver was scared. It had taken a lot of hard work for her to work her way up through the RPD into her current position, and now she was about to lose it. The job, the pay, the pension, all of it was about to go down the drain, even though what she had done was the right thing. On the other hand, if she had done nothing than Ashwood might not have survived, so the only good news in this was that at least she was going to be able to sleep at night.

The rest of the ride was silent as they moved closer to the landing site, and then a yellow flickering light appeared in the distance. As they approached it, she considered that it was maybe the yellow flashers of a County vehicle, but then she realized that it was not. The three of them gasped when they got close enough to see that it was the helicopter; the vehicle completely engulfed in flames, burning so brightly and hot that there was nothing they could do as they stopped and got out of the car.

"What the hell happened?!" Carver yelled as they kept their distance. "There wasn't even any fuel in the tanks!"

"I'll call it in." Gumb said while moving back toward the car. "Someone must've…

The Deputy suddenly stopped talking, his words replaced by a startled gasp, and the others turned toward him as Gumb clutched his chest. He made a kind of rasping sound, and stumbled for a second before falling onto his back, and in the yellow light, Carver saw what looked like blood running between his fingers. She and Lynch ran toward him, but then the other Deputy made the same kind of gasping sound as he was thrown forward. Lynch landed on his face, and when Carver saw the wound on his back, she dove for cover behind the car.

Her Detective training was taking over as she drew her pistol, but the knowledge gained from her deductions didn't make her feel any better. Obviously Gumb and Lynch had been shot, and by a silenced weapon, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that they had been hit from different directions, meaning that there was not one, but at least two shooters. Hopefully the shadow of the car would prevent them from getting a shot, but the light produced by the burning chopper created shadows everywhere, making it impossible for her to tell where the shooters were.

"Calm down, Carver." She whispered to herself. "Okay, logic… two shooters, can't see them because of shadows… use that."

The shooters couldn't use Night Vision this close to something as bright as a fire, so she assumed, and hoped that she shadows would cover her if she tried to escape. However, the moment she tried to move, she heard the sound of a silenced weapon, and sparks flew as her pistol was shot out of her hand. She groaned in pain as she held her burned hand, and then Carver looked back to see a figure standing over her.

From the body shape, Carver could tell it was a woman, and she was wearing some kind of combat armor, along with a gas mask. There was a silenced rifle in her hands, aimed steadily at the Detective as two more similarly dressed figures, men with sniper rifles, surrounded Carver on all sides. On the ground, Gumb and Lynch were no longer moving, but it still made the Detective jump when one of the men took out a pistol and made sure they were dead.

"Excellent work, boys, nice and clean." The woman's voice echoed through her mask. "Now subdue the girl, and bring her."

On the woman's orders, the two men put their firearms away, before taking collapsible batons off their belts, and walking toward her while extending them.

Arklay County Sheriff Station, 11:30 PM…

The current situation stunk, but there wasn't much that McGee could do about it from inside a jail cell, so he decided to get some rest, himself. At least being in his own cage gave him a bed he could stretch out on while the others fought over couches and chairs, and apparently Chambers had gotten the same idea as well, since he was also laying down. Hopefully in the morning, they would be able to talk some sense into the County Commissioner, but from his limited interactions with the woman, she didn't seem very reasonable.

So there he was, the great Detective Sergeant Francis McGee, cooling his heels in a small town jail cell after being arrested for what was probably the craziest series of events that he had ever heard of. Laying on his back, staring up at the ceiling with his arms behind his head, the insane happenings at The Arklay Resort kept running through his mind. Reginald's conspiracy to kill them and hide evidence was like something out of a bad 80's action flick, but those people… they were just something else.

McGee remembered every detail of their rotting flesh, glazed-over eyes, and compulsive desire to attack the two of them. There had been no organization, no planning, and no weapons use, even though nearly everything in a place like that could have been used as one. Instead, they had all kind of shambled toward them, groaning and reaching out, all the while trying to bite them, and not reacting to pain with anything more than reflexive groans.

"Hey, kid, you ever see Dawn of the Dead when you were little?" He asked into the next cell. "You know, that movie where the people get trapped in the shopping mall with those guys that all came back from the dead?"

"Yeah, I saw it." Chambers replied with a yawn. "I was just thinking the same thing, too. Those people on the top floor did kinda look like that, didn't they?"

"Zombies, seriously?" Lopez asked as he rolled over on the couch to face them. "Your defense sucks enough with the fire and shooting that guy, but if you start talking about zombies, you won't go to jail. They'll wrap you up in a strait-jacket, and put you in the nut house even faster than they're gonna do to our fearless leader over there."

Liquid looked over at them from his chair, and was about to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass. Apparently some trouble maker had thrown a large rock through one of the windows, but when the rock landed on the floor, McGee realized that it was shaped like a cylinder. It rolled into the center of the room and then there was a hiss as smoke began to shoot out of it, and then everyone jumped to their feet as they realized that it was a grenade.

Two more came in through the windows, quickly filling the whole station with horrible fog, but when McGee dropped down to the floor, he could sort of see what was happening. The Sheriff and Deputy Dennis ran into the room to see what was happening, but then they cried out in surprise as flashes of light from silenced gunfire could be seen behind them in the fog. They were riddled with bullet holes when they fell to where McGee could see them, and then three new people rushed into the room.

He could only see their legs as they moved around, but it looked like a man and two women in black riot armor, running toward Lopez and Liquid. McGee heard the sound of a Beanbag Shotgun going off before Lopez groaned in pain as he was thrown backwards, and the man leapt onto him while both women went after Liquid. There was a flash of light in the fog as Liquid fired two shots with his revolver, and as a result one of the women cried out as she fell to the floor; a visible wound in her hip and shoulder. She was also wearing a gas mask, but this knowledge didn't help them in the end.

The man who leapt onto the stunned Lopez was now beating him in the head and chest with the shotgun, and the other woman must've gotten a hold of Liquid's shock baton, because now sparks and blue light could be seen as the Lieutenant was heard screaming. He fell to the floor a few seconds later, but she kept shocking him, and Lopez was no longer moving either, making it easy for the man to get up and move over to Chambers' cell.

The beanbag was fired again, making Chambers groan as he was thrown backwards into the cell wall, and then the man slowly walked over to McGee's cell, where he slowly aimed the beanbag once again.

"Uh… hi." McGee said as he looked up at him.