Ekinar: Thank you for the critique. You are right about me being overly detailed at times, at least I was back when I wrote all that material. Remember, I wrote this over the course of ten years, dropping it now and again and coming back a bit more talented. When I wrote the previous chapters, I did so in roughly 2012. It was another me, basically, compared to my current writing style. You will see the progression as the chapters go on, I'm sure, I have since moved away from an abundance of details, learned that less is more, but my writing style at the time was to paint a hugely detailed picture for people of what I saw, and build off that. Play with what was there. I was literally watching a playthrough of the entire original game step by step on YouTube to recreate the environments faithfully. I was much more methodical and plodding about how I did things.
I had no desire to erase all my old material and effort and start from scratch, so I am constantly editing it and trying to bring it up to speed, fix it, and add new things and take others out. Per your feedback and another reviewer's, I have deleted a good amount of things I didn't find important in this chapter, tried to cut down at least, but might not have to your satisfaction. I can't please everyone. It is not my intent to bore you or anyone... though Downtown and Uptown were something of a slog in the game anyways, and it clearly is on the characters in this story, so it sort of fits. A story sadly can't be exciting and engaging for everyone all the time, I think, it needs room to breath and build up to the action and events and conversations through details. If I just had nothing but action and interaction it would be a short story without any room for the depth I am trying to create. I weave the POV characters thoughts with their environment for that reason, and as I did so I started to really get a feel for their characters, living behind their eyes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
I have characters repeat themselves a bit at times mentally, because that's what people in their situation might do. They are in an apocalyptic scenario, sometimes alone, trying to survive with nobody to talk to at times, trapped in their heads, troubled. Though rest assured, the characters will mostly be together from this chapter forward. They definitely work better when they are together and not all separated, working off each other, though some separations will happen here and there. But I am very glad you are enjoying the story overall, understand what I am trying to accomplish with HUNK and this story, the challenge of making him a fleshed out character, but still the mysterious badass we know and love. And I hope you will continue to like it. The story hasn't even gotten to the meat of it yet, really. Much more to come. As for the Chekov's guns, expect many more of them hanging on the wall and to go off at some point ;). Just try to bear with me.
Triclopes: Much of your critique corresponds with the reviewer above, so I won't make another big explanation here, just the points you raise that they didn't. If you're going to skip through parts of my story just to get to the exciting parts, it's out of my hands, I don't recommend it, but it's up to you. This story will have highs and lows and not always be exciting. A story needs to breath and expand. I can't maintain everyone's attention span or please everyone, because everyone has different tastes and attention levels. Some people like the more detailed approach, others don't. My writing style has developed greatly over the years, in different stages. Hopefully you will find more of my work attention maintaining going forward. As for character thoughts, I used to do that in my original version of this story, characters thinking to themselves in thought dialogue separate of the paragraphs. I fell out of love with that method, and prefer weaving their thoughts into the paragraphs because it's from their eyes, what they are seeing and reacting to, blending it together, environment and the people perceiving it.
Though I appreciate the feedback, and that you do understand and like what I'm trying to do with this story, warts and all. HUNK has been a particularly tough, complicated nut to crack, compared to the other characters. My understanding of him grew as the story went on, his interactions and time with the other characters. I hope I don't blow it at some point, as I reveal a bit more about him in time. Not every little thing, but I want you to at least know by the end of the story why he is what he is. Who he is deep down. With great awesomeness comes great trauma. As for him and Jill's relationship, it is complicated as all hell for numerous reasons, for both of them, but is vital to the story and the two of them, their bond will continue to develop steadily. She is definitely intrigued with him, because he has her in a conflicted state of resentment and attraction. The man is carrying a Virus that could cause a brand new outbreak, kill who knows how many people, but he also saved her life. Is protecting her, and seems to have something more hiding under that mask. The Leon/Ada dynamic but on steroids. Or the G-Virus, for that matter. And HUNK and Nikolai will have it out at some point ;). There are many slow burn plots in this story. As much as I want to just get to them, the journey is important, and makes when it gets to the events more worthwhile.
Akira-Hayama: HUNK is a mess, in a good way. Even with the story complete, understanding him a fair bit, he's still a bit confusing to me. Basically I'm trying to unthaw a man made of ice, find the humanity within, and Jill and even Carlos to an extent will warm and chip away at that iceberg. As well as the circumstances he is in. So many things dragging his mind, weighing on him. Also to reveal how he ended up the way he is, frozen within. He has a great deal of trauma and emotional stagnation to work through, baggage, and that's not even getting into the company's actively toxic influence on his life, which I will get into later. Let's just say there is HUNK as he is on the battlefield during a mission, and there is HUNK when he is at Umbrella, between missions. I had no desire to portray the Umbrella Chronicles/minigame version of the man only, the pure enigma of badass, cold blooded and nothing more. That is awesome and works in minigames, not so much in storytelling. Making him a true part of the RE universe. Nothing will be the same for him after this story, won't just be back to Umbrella business as usual. At least not within.
evolution-500: The Countess/Comtesse = Paris Facility Director Christine Henri, HUNK's boss. Doctor Radames = A certain young genius on HUNK's support team, his viral and medical expert/adviser. The doctor currently assigned to him. She'll show up at some point. Another character I wanted to flesh out a bit. Many characters like that will pop up, where I think they fit.
Jed I. Knight: Would be nice if HUNK became a "face" of the series... but I've long ago given up on HUNK ever getting his due as a character canonically from Capcom. He is for remakes of the Fourth Survivor and minigames only, sadly. It was the original motivation for me to write this story in the first place, to create something where he finally did. Time will tell if I succeed. But at least unlike Capcom, I am making the attempt.
zenqqy115 and xxSnowixx: Thank you very much. And don't worry, poor HUNK is going to get some rest at some point. Poor man's been going almost non stop for eight days. Just be careful what you wish for, though.
Thank you all for your reviews/critiques, as ever. So I was wrong. This will be my longest chapter yet, though with much more going on with it. Been playing Resident Evil 3 quite a bit, picking and choosing things I like. I will say, Remake Jill should have been dead, maimed or crippled a thousand times over from the Nemesis during cutscenes. They went way too invincible action hero with her. And while I add a bit more action to her than the original here, I think I balanced it more realistically instead of things exploding every five minutes. I don't like it attacking her at her apartment, prefer the slower build and atmosphere of the original. The developers of the remake couldn't be patient with the Nemesis, let him build a foreboding presence offscreen first, just had to throw him in as much as possible. And the bastards made her leave her iconic Samurai Edge behind in her apartment! Unforgivable. And that's not even getting into getting rid of her iconic outfit, altered personality and the many changes to Carlos. Still a fun enough game though overall with a number of things I enjoy. Whenever I get to a detail I added in my story, I'm tempted to yell at the TV, like the whole monsters bursting out of stomachs/body horror emphasis. Not that that was a very original idea of mine. Still. Anyways, back to the many arduous trials of our long suffering heroine. Hope you enjoy this more than she does.
September 28th, 1998, 8:23 PM
City Hall, Downtown, Raccoon City
Jill double timed it back to the three points street within the City Hall... and thankfully encountered nothing on the way. They had been through earlier, passing the Japanese restaurant outside the train yard... and along the way took note of the corpses of the zombies she had taken down before. As well as the one the masked agent had before she could. And remembering the bickering between the two vastly different men over tofu... which drew a slight smile to her lips... but it was one quickly replaced with a look of concentration. She ran along the stone walkway of the area, passing the start of the gardens... but instead of taking the eastern walkway back to the City Hall's main gates she took the one to the north, up some steps, her boots pattering. At last she reached the metal gate leading out to the street the Stagla Gas Station occupied.
She could glimpse only a very small part of the area beyond the gate, a crashed red jeep against the adjacent wall with broken glass spilled everywhere, and some more blue, steel police barricades cutting off access to the main street to the east. Good... it was unlikely any zombies in the area would get much in the way of reinforcements... but then again, most things she predicted in this climate rarely came true, with a nasty surprise waiting around every corner. Jill leveled her rifle in front of herself, and reaching over, grasped the gate handle and pushed it open, stepping through, but leaving it ajar. Unlike with being in a building, there was little to no point closing things up behind herself out here. Instead she stepped out onto the pavement beside the crashed car, eyed the sturdy barricades once more, and then looked down towards the western side of the road towards the gas station... not entirely surprised by what she saw there.
The crashed car beside her was far from the only one... they were everywhere around the area. There were at least two cars and a bus crashed down on the far end of the gas station, in front of the gas pumps and another in front of and to the side of the one she stood next to. The bright blue neon sign of the gas station shone down from above, mixing with the light of of the street lights and cars headlights in the area, rendering the use of her flashlight pointless for the moment.
Fortunately all the crashed vehicles were parked in such a way that they formed a convenient pathway up to the pumps, past them, and over towards the main door of the station. Very fortunate for her, the last thing she needed were further impediments as she ran the treacherous gauntlet of Downtown and Uptown Raccoon City. Most unfortunately, but not surprisingly, there were impediments... just not in the form of the terrain. Sure enough, there were more zombies shuffling on the walkway, at least several from where she stood and could glimpse... though she was certain there were more closer to the main door. They were so preoccupied doing what they did when they weren't feasting on unfortunate victims, that they didn't even notice as she rose the rifle to her shoulder and peered down the sights, switching the ammunition mode to single shot.
There was no point wasting even a round... like explosives, every one would come in handy, and if properly skilled, only one would be necessary. One of the many reasons things had gone to hell when the U.B.C.S. and SWAT had made their stand on Main Street... they thought firing full automatic into a crowd of zombies was going to get results. Foolish. She still wasn't entirely sure how they had messed things up so bad. Chaos, panic and fear... and stupidity, could have been the only answers to her question. Jill had told Irons, had told everybody who would listen, to aim for the heads... so few even bothered taking it to heart, to fatal results. Then again, given Irons had to be on the Umbrella payroll, she didn't doubt he had kept the information to himself. Unsurprising, from the man who would cancel a program that had been one of Raccoon City's best chances of survival... the bastard.
She was still bitter over it, and him, how badly he had screwed over the Spencer Mansion survivors... even now in the midst of this hell. Especially now in the midst of this hell his incompetence and information withholding was partly responsible for. Part of her wanted to go find and teach him a lesson... wherever he was hiding out, back at the precinct or otherwise. Drag his ass out into the streets to meet his new citizens. But he was someone else's problem now. With any luck, he'd get his comeuppance, or still be here when the missile arrived. If the innocent had to suffer, what kind of messed up world would it be if the guilty didn't as well? Jill's blue eyes narrowed hard down the sights of the rifle, and she held her breath, lining up the shot... before she took it, taking off the top of a former bus driver's head. It exploded up into the air, sending red and grey matter everywhere, the back of his skull coming off, and he collapsed where he stood, twitching, but nothing more. This shot was all it took to alert the others to her presence, their moans intensifying, heads turning in her direction as they began to shuffle down the street, raising their arms slowly.
She wasn't afraid of zombies... at least as much, compared to most when they had showed up in Raccoon City. Not since the mansion. They were stupid... could be out fought and out thought, once you got past their initial appearance... or any surprises they managed. They were most dangerous in numbers, or in tight quarters or darkness... but if you stayed cool, you could usually manage. She liked to think that if it had only been zombies, and not the mutated creatures the T-Virus could create, the city could have contained the outbreak... but she had more than a few doubts about that. People just hadn't been ready for something out of horror movies to come to life before their very eyes. The insanity of it all. Nor had they had her training and experiences. For better and for worse. Still holding her breath, Jill shot down another pair of them, before her sights moved to the fourth one... and her heart fell in her chest, eyes growing a little distant. It was a child... a little girl from the look of it, her vacant face starting to rot... whoever she had been was quite gone, Jill knew... but no matter how much she told herself it, it made things no easier. Nothing could. She saw another girl's tear streaked face again... looking back at her in an air duct... Sherry. The child she had failed. Jill had to force the memory of the girl away again and concentrate. She squeezed the trigger, before she couldn't, and put the girl's remains out of their misery.
The four bodies were littered along the pathway, but she could hear yet more moans coming from further on. Probably another few, it didn't look like there was a concentrated infestation or horde here, undoubtedly thanks to all the piled up cars, as well as the barricades. Barricades, car piles and debris were a curse and a blessing in this city. Otherwise, there would have been a great deal of trouble. As she went along, pacing down the pathway, Jill took the time to peer into every car, to glimpse if any of the creatures were inside... she wasn't about to have another burst open a door on her and take her by surprise. Really, the only way a zombie could be scary, when you had the means and know how to deal with them. There was one, trapped inside it's car, thanks to the seat belt... Jill could barely make out the details of the moaning, snarling former young woman within, but it didn't matter.
Jill shot through the window, shattering it and spraying the creature's blood against the opposite window. She went motionless against the restraints, head slumping forward, mouth hanging open and eyes staring accusingly... like those of the little girl's body Jill stepped around. She had to focus on her vicinity, so she blocked out the horror as best she could, glimpsing a rather burly former black mechanic in a pair of dirty overalls beside the gas pumps, it's hands running over the pumps. She rose the rifle, but stopped herself, couldn't take the risk of hitting the tanks... instead she focused her sights on a small group of five assorted zombies lurching around the corner of the pumps and towards her. Jill shot down the two in front, whose bodies staggered back and knocked the others aside or to the ground, slowing them down even more than they already were... an effective tactic for dealing with such creatures. Buying precious time.
As they stumbled among themselves moaning, Jill stepped slowly closer, shooting one through the mouth that had started crawling towards her, another that fell against the side of the gas station... and then the third, that had regained it's balance and focus on her. She executed them, one after another, and then stood back away from the pumps, waiting for the former mechanic to get away from it and get closer to her. When it was a safe distance from the gas lines, she blew it's head off, and with it's death she had eliminated every creature in the vicinity, and saw through her objective of securing the gas station. Her rifle's barrel smoked slightly in the cold night, and she studied the bodies, the blood leaking from each in pools. It had been a simple objective... and if HUNK hadn't assigned her two, entrusted her with such a responsibility, she knew she would be standing around here waiting for quite awhile. Feeling useless. With that out of the way, it meant she needed to make her way on to more dangerous territory... Uptown, to the Umbrella offices.
On to Nikolai , the horde of zombies and mutations along the way... and potentially, on to their Pursuer. She had been looking over her shoulder since it's arrival... her paranoia increased a ten fold, but so far there hadn't been a sign of it since the apartment building... and that by it's self had been enough. The Corporal had seen it around... there was no doubt it was looking for her either right here Downtown, or in Uptown. Neither one boded well for her... it knew too well where to look... it had been made far too intelligent... Umbrella's goal, of course. It was a huge step up from the Tyrant prototype at the Mansion... and that by it's self had been horrifying enough to haunt her nightmares, and restless dreams. Hell... it all haunted her, there were no exceptions... but this thing?
It was nothing she would have dreamed she would encounter, even after the Mansion. She had hoped and prayed the monsters had all died there... now all she could do was hope and pray it would die here as well, even knowing the futility of such hope. Not wanting to set herself up for disappointment She shook her head, trying to refocus, and knew she needed to get on to the oil additive before Nikolai got his hands on it... but first thing was first, she wanted to be sure they could even get inside the gas station, when it came time to regroup there. The problem was the metal shutters pulled down over every window and the main door. Jill navigated her way through the pathway, stepping around vehicles, around the gas pumps and over a long thick blue cord stretching along the ground, undoubtedly going inside the building... disappearing underneath another car... a crashed Delorean, of all things, with an American flag draped over it's top.
Jill, knocking aside bits of glass and other debris in her path as she ran, finally made it to one last wrecked car, red as the jeep, off to the side of the main shutter entrance to the gas station. She came to a stop in front of the shutter, running a hand absently over the cool metal, cool as the breeze on her bared shoulders. She glanced down at the bottom of the shutter, which was secured far too well into place... there would be no lifting it, at least under the circumstances... fortunately, she noted, there was a method of opening the door. A method none of the creatures would be capable of doing, lacking hand to eye coordination... it was rather ingenious and simple at the same time really.
A rusty metal hex edged crank was stuck in the wall beside the shutter... and Jill grasped the handle firmly. While she was here, she may as well get the shutter up, and buy them some time when they regrouped... it would only take a moment or two. Jill put the rifle strap back on her shoulder, gripping the crank in both hands, and muscles in both arms straining, she began to rotate it slowly. There was the shifting of metal as the door began to lift a few inches with every rotation. Unfortunately, after the third rotation, the handle snapped off in her palms, the shutter slamming back down into place... and Jill studied the handle with annoyance for a few moments, before throwing it aside onto the pavement. She eyed the remaining bit of the crank sticking in the doorway, and she remembered the wrench in her possession that HUNK had given her... she nearly retrieved it, but stopped herself.
This whole thing had the potential to take her awhile to see through, and she didn't know if it would even work... there was no sense bothering right now. In hindsight, it would be more logical to do so after she had retrieved the oil additive, and after she met up with the others here. That way if her idea failed, she would have back up plans, courtesy of them and their help. She made a mental note to hold on to the wrench after she used it on the fire hydrant... a task she knew she needed to get on with already. Unslinging her rifle again, she eyed the crank's remains one more time, and got on with it, running back down the pathway, over the bodies and towards the gate she had left open. Fortunately on the way back to the three point road again, there were no surprises waiting for her... at least for the moment. The area, being more of a back road and alley than anything, meant the bulk of the hordes outside had no real way in, and even if they did, clearly they could only trickle in.
The chaos had only been good for one thing, cutting off the streets... and even then that worked both for and against any survivors. It meant sticking to narrow places you could be easily cornered... but overall, Jill could say with ease she preferred it to running among thousands of the monsters. She had no desire to gain a high vantage point and glimpse them all. Just being down at street level was bad enough. Upon reaching the three point road, she took the past to the east, glimpsing the main gate to City Hall in the distance, knowing the road beyond was close. She ran down the narrow pathway, the only sound in her ears that of her breathing, and the tapping of her boots on the stone surface, interrupted now and again by the scattered boards of wood she stepped on. She was about three fourths the way down the path to the entrance, when a metal door off to the side, the same one she remembered she had considered using her lock pick on, burst open suddenly and loudly, familiar moans ringing through the night.
She just barely avoided the door slamming into her, as a trio of former City Hall staff members started to shuffle through it, glazed over, rotting eyes glimpsing her somehow, hands stretching out to grasp her. She reacted at once without thinking, raising the rifle for the first one's head and shooting it, sending it tumbling back into the others, but unfortunately not knocking them all backwards in a row. As a good shotgun blast would have undoubtedly accomplished. Standing on the spot, holding her breath again, she shot the other two down through the heads as they recovered, and the bunch lay twitching in a pile in front of the door. Rather than stepping inside to the next area, this other section of the courtyard the door had been cutting off, she waited some more, hearing a fourth moan... and as a former man stepped around the left corner of the stone wall, she shot it through the side of the head without a moments hesitation. The moans in the immediate vicinity, unlike those in the distance, falling silent.
Jill peered down among all the twitching bodies... but did not step over them and through the door. She didn't like walking on corpses, and there was no way to get inside without doing so, considering the pile they had all fallen in. It went back to a bad experience at the manor, where one had grabbed her leg... she had only just managed to kick it off and curb stomp it to true death. It made her weary of such things... but she seriously doubted anything of importance was in the small section of the courtyard... and she had far more important things to be doing with her time than checking. She was no scavenger right now... and Carlos seemed to serve that function well of the team. Maybe on the way back. For now, she continued back along the narrow passage without bothering to look back at the corpses, the sealed entrance way to City Hall's courtyard nearing. Although Jill had an idea that the weird, extravagant lock device on the outside of the door worked both ways, that she wouldn't be able to open it without the proper gems, even from within, she wanted to at least give it a try. Beat having to scale that wall another two times, in the state her leg was in.
It was a pipe dream... she knew, even as she grasped the door handle and tried, and failed, to pull it open. Of course not... that would make things far easier for her... which could never happen in this town. Her tax money had paid for the bastard, greedy Mayor's lavish, gem encrusted lock, among other things. Now it worked against her further. Instead she was reduced to scrambling back up onto the stone pedestal she had climbed down on to, beside the wall, and slinging her rifle again, she jumped forward, grabbing it and pulling and swinging herself up and over. She did it all at once, ignoring the pain burning in her leg... the slower she went over the wall, the longer she would merely draw the pain out. She landed on the subsequent pedestal on the other side of the road, and climbed down in front of the City Hall entrance, breathing harder, her jaw tightening as the stinging ran through her leg and makeshift bandage. She made another note, to apply more healing spray to the wounds on her leg, when possible. She remembered HUNK tending to her leg, his unusually gentle manner... the military grade bandages he had applied, along with fastening her sweater around it to be safe. No droplets of blood were visible on the sweater... the military adhesive had worked well at least, so far. She thought back to the apartment, their exchange, when he had taken care of her... and more than before, felt concern for him. Wondered how the strange, intriguing Umbrella Agent was fairing.
Better than her at least, hopefully.
Jill winced as she recovered herself from the exertion, peering around her surroundings again in the meantime, looking over at the gem panel they had all avoided figuring out. It felt good to be back on the street, and somewhere they had all passed through and mostly secured... to be back in the open a bit. Confined alleys were not her thing... not if she had a choice. Jill glanced over to the barricade and piled up cars in front of Warren Street, and to the body of the officer she had searched earlier... Merkel, she remembered. And then down to the door they had all gone through that led to the alleys around the restaurant... the Shopping District lined with stores. Only now, said door was ajar, and the zombie that had been left trying to break through it had been gunned down by HUNK or Carlos, the others of the alley also visible in the distance.
Having recovered herself enough, Jill began to move again, walking quickly as opposed to running... she'd save that for when she truly had to. Leaving the front gates to City Hall behind. Her boots tapped over the lid of a sewer manhole in front of the barricade, and she moved on, amid the shell casings around the door she stepped through. In this case, stepping on the corpse was unavoidable in such a narrow space... but it didn't have much of a head left on it's shoulders anyways, so she had nothing to worry about. She stepped over it, and limped on down to the next pile of bodies outside the storeroom she had peeked inside earlier. Like other bodies she'd encountered, the tell tale broken neck on one was obvious, as well as one she herself had kicked to death. She scrambled past them quickly as possible, and continued on, glad the remainder of the path of the Shopping District's alley was not strewn with bodies, merely debris and glass... the usual, really. She made her way past the stairwell leading up into the Grill 13 restaurant, and instead around the corner past the cafe across from it, and down towards the closed glass door at the far end.
She stepped over another sewer manhole... albeit this one less a manhole and more of a grate... too small to even fit through. Reaching the door, she popped it open, running out of the shopping district and into the water feature area close to the main restaurant entrance, where HUNK and her had entered this section of the city from. Close to the movie theater. Aside from a few more scattered bodies from earlier, there were no more creatures around, this section at least. Thankfully the rotting bodies were further on... not in front of the closed metal door off to the side of the path, to the maintenance area, her destination. She ignored the yellow and black warning stripes on the front of the door... they were mandatory in construction type zones, and this place was no different. So long as there were no electrical warnings, she didn't really care.
Still, there weren't any warning signs about the true threats within the city... and not having been in this maintenance area yet, but knowing the simple layout... there was no telling what could be inside waiting for her. Her magazine in the rifle was still half full, but she was ready to draw her sidearms if need be, if reloading in time wasn't possible. Breathing a little harder, she pressed her ear against the cool metal doorway, hoping to hear anything preparing to have her for dinner within, any potential ambush... but all she heard was a hum, courtesy no doubt of the equipment that had been left on in the area. She drew back from the door, took another deep breath, and without hesitating, without warning, she grabbed the handle, opened it slightly, and kicked the door open the rest of the way. Slamming it against the wall as she burst into the well lit metal walkway, rifle at the ready, eyes swiveling every which way.
As it turned out, there was no threat waiting for her on the other side... at least none that hadn't already been taken care of. And yet, that was of little comfort, considering the sights she took in... enough to make her pause on the walkway, and not bother closing the door behind herself. She lowered her rifle, lips parting slightly, eyes widening a bit. She wasn't entirely shocked by what she saw... she'd seen too damn much already, and yet she could never repress the shiver that ran down her spine when she saw a new mutation, courtesy of Umbrella's favorite virus. It was some dark fleshed... hairy, multi limbed... thing, with a pool of green liquid underneath it flowing every which way... red muscle visible beneath it's cracked outer flesh... covered in bullet holes. It had been blasted mostly to pieces, by brass M4 cases laying around the walkway, and had shriveled up into a pile. It's appearance was not entirely different from one of the wall crawling Lickers... but even more horribly mutated.
It was rather large... probably man sized when it had been alive and intact... and had human blood caked around where it's mouth likely was... if that was a mouth. Blank, open, fly-like eyes. It was clearly a mutated insect of sorts, or some variation of pest... but for all she knew it was a combination of species, the extent of the T-Virus's mutations unaccountable for. She saw human in it... insect... fly, spider and frog... or maybe she was reading too deeply into the mutation. All she knew was that she didn't want to encounter a live one... even knowing the likelihood it would be her turn to do so. In her experience, where there was one, there were more. It's gore was dripping from the wall and ceiling as well, but only slightly, most of it on the floor by now... and slowly, very reluctantly, she took another few steps forward, until she was in front of the thing. It didn't twitch or do anything... but she did step into the range of it's foul, hideous scent... either coming from the creature it's self, the green drying blood, or both. Hitting her in an instant. It was enough to make her hand shoot up to her face and pinch her nose closed, eyes watering a bit.
"Ugh..."
Jill was no stranger to less than pleasant smells in the town as of late, rot and death most of all... she was more than sure she was apart of it by now, regardless of the recent shower she'd had. There was the disgusting scent of rot from the corpses, the smoke... there was even the scent of a sewer hanging around HUNK's armored outfit. None of it compared to this one. She hurried on past it, gagging slightly, avoiding it's blood puddle, and down the steps further into the maintenance area... but she stopped again, this time on the last step. Laying down against the wall in front of her was a dead mechanic, shot through the helmet, a trickle of red flowing from the wound... and far more flowing from the back of his head. His skin was deathly pale, thin and emaciated, as though he had been drained... and he had some strange wounds on his neck, as though it had been savaged... but it wasn't worth considering. What was worth considering was the other body... clad in a green and black uniform, and trepidation ran through Jill as she stepped past the body and ran over to the fallen soldier, heart pounding.
The U.B.C.S. mercenary lay just past the mechanic, in between two separate walkways going in different directions, and Jill stood over the man, peering down into his agonized eyes and horrified expression. As bad as the sight was, and as bad as she felt for feeling what she did... she felt relief, when she realized the soldier in question was not the deceased body of the Corporal. This one wore the same beret as the Captain... and had been shot through the head at some point recently. The same telltale wounds upon his neck as the first one. More interestingly, Jill noted, there were two sets of bloody boot prints, one heading down the corridor, on the walkway she stood and disappeared around the corner... the other of course led off to the right of the body, to the other walkway. She knew that the one going straight led to the substation, while the other shared her current destination... to the construction site. There was no corner off to the right, rather, the quite visible boot prints, illuminated by the lights lining the maintenance area, led to another metal door.
She took one last pitying look at the fallen soldier, avoiding the puddle under him. Having noted the missing dog tags on his neck, that she had considered recovering, she forced herself to continue on, and momentarily block out the obscene nature of the scene she was slowly moving away from. For which she was grateful. Both the U.B.C.S. mercenary and the multi limbed thing stood out on the forefront of her mind, blocking out even the Pursuer, for the moment. The Pursuer was a constant threat... this was a new one. New mutations... just what they all needed to deal with, just now. And things like that after only a few days since the outbreak. Were it not for the missile on the way, what would the city's monsters look like in a week? There was no telling, with the T-Virus. Or the G-Virus now in play, for that matter. Only focusing on her goal, the oil additive, could shut out the images... so she grasped that particular image and held on to it. Reaching the door, she opened this one slowly, and peeked out to find corpses, quite a few of them, littering the construction site... and none of them moving. Jill began to push open the door, to find something embedding against it, something heavy... so she exerted more effort, pushing whatever it was out of the way.
Stepping back outside and closing the door... she wasn't startled by what it was... yet another zombie corpse, it's neck broken. Really, he left such a trail of corpses in his wake, it would be simple enough to find him if he got lost. Just follow the snapped necks. As grim as the situation and sights were, it made her smirk slightly for a moment. Off to the right hand side of the door, the rest of the narrow road was barricaded with a car and debris, sandbags, even a tipped wheelbarrow... but the left was another story, fortunately. She followed the trail of bodies, stepping around them or over, studying each along the path. It was a combination of different take downs... some shot through the head, some with broken necks... but regardless, there was nothing left. None of the bodies even twitching... it was recent, but not right away recent. A police car, she glimpsed, had crashed into a pet shop, dividing the road and cutting off access down towards the substation... the passenger door was open, the windows shattered. A dead former police officer on the ground in front of it, head blown apart... but Jill paid little attention to this, in comparison to the other sight, around the right corner of the street.
A large pile of bodies, not scattered but all together, lay motionless and bloody in front of a massive police barricade, that cut off access entirely to the parking area beyond it. There were shell casings everywhere, courtesy of both an M4 and high calibre pistol of some sort... and there among the bodies she glimpsed another U.B.C.S. uniformed man, covered in bite wounds. It had been one hell of a last stand. The entire place looked like it had been a war zone. Jill moved in closer, peering down at the man's face, noting that like the other body, it had been shot through the head... this time it looked fresher than the other corpse, like it had been shot before the transformation symptoms had set in. Where there had been pure agony on the other man's face... this one's was lined with wide eyed terror, hand still on his empty rifle. Reluctant as she was to get closer, she did, peering down at the man.
There were a few magazines of ammunition visible on his vest, in open pouches... and Jill took the time to recover them from the man, tucking them away in her own belt. Her eyes began to rise, when she spotted something metallic and shiny under the street lights... a necklace, dog tags, which unlike the other mercenary, had not been recovered. Part of Jill just wanted to leave and get back underway... but another part, one with some foolish honor, couldn't stand to see him laying there with them still attached... Umbrella or not, whoever he was, if he had friends and a family, they deserved to know. She could pass them along to Carlos the next time they met up. She wished she could have been here when it had all been going on... maybe she would have been quick enough to save him, so such tag recovery would not become a necessity in the first place. All she could do was take them... but... she wasn't about to touch his neck, covered in infected blood, with her bare hands. Instead, she withdrew her combat knife from the front pocket, and tucking it under the chain, broke it, and scooped it up, taking the time to examine it's writing.
W, Hudson, A08/TQ1.0.41776E3
She opened a spare pocket among her pouches, and let it slide down the knife and inside. It hadn't been soaked in blood, but she didn't want a droplet on her that wasn't her own. Closing the pouch again and tucking away her knife, she stepped away from the pile of bodies, eyes moving over to the door of the parking garage offices beside the barricade... which more bloody boot prints led to, as a matter of fact. Hefting her rifle, she moved carefully, slowly, towards it, took the handle and pushed it open, stepping inside and closing it on all the street carnage with a snap. The office was a cool temperature and actually the first inviting room she had seen in some time... probably because, apart from the bloody boot marks staining the floor and drying, there wasn't a single trace of anything related to the hell going on outside. It simply looked like an small office space where everyone had dropped what they were doing and left.
It was well lit, a fan blew cool air within... hell, there was even a little tree in the corner, close to a storage container. She looked over to the right hand side of the office as she moved into the midst of the room, to find a pair of desks... neither really cluttered... it simply looked like a day to day office. There was another type writer on the desk closest to the door she had entered, with only one word on it... 'Save' of all things. Weird... but she'd seen weirder. She took the time to catch her breath, not feeling as great a rush to leave here as she did pretty much everywhere else. But she knew she had things to do, and now wasn't the time to stop and gather her thoughts. Jill moved on to the far end, following the boot prints, and reached the next door, grasping it and pushing it open firmly, stepping through, and, out of habit while inside a building, closing it behind her. The clattering of the metal echoing through the entire self contained parking garage for a few moments, before dissipating.
In the midst of the echo, Jill thought she heard some kind of low murmur of a voice in the distance. Before she could make out any of what was being said, the voice fell silent... leaving the parking garage silent as a grave. The right hand side of the garage was closed, the main door sealed, thankfully... but off to the left, the pathway among the hastily and messily parked cars was where the voice had come from. Slowly Jill moved along the concrete floor, still unconsciously following the path of the bloody foot prints, her boots tapping hard on the surface of the floor, echoing as the door had done. She had just stepped past a parked car and motorcycle close to the office, when she glimpsed the hood of the next car, and paused. The front window was smashed... but more importantly, a mutilated dog lay in a puddle of blood on the hood, the top of it's skull removed.
A head shot, and a rather accurate one... she had no doubt it was an infected dog, based on not only it's rotted flesh, but the rabid foam dripping from it's mouth and running into the blood, which leaked and dripped down over the edge of the car and onto the pavement. Jill glanced at it a little grimly, and she resumed following the boot prints, walking up to a rather large white van parked in the middle of the garage with it's back doors popped open, and a ramp placed down in front of it, and stepping around it, into the more open area of the garage. She did so, to find two sights awaiting her... the first was directly in front of her, just past a red corvette cutting off a view around the next corner... but the detail in question was more than visible. A second hound lay dead... on the pavement this time, and not merely in a pool of it's own blood... nor was only the top of it's head shot off.
The dog had been beaten to a pulp, it's head no longer resembling one, pieces of skull and brain matter, and flesh and blood lodged into the floor, it's jaw snapped right off. A great deal of strength had gone into violently beating the hound to death... and it was not simply rotted and mutilated like the other one... it was all over the place. Jill nearly retched at the sight, but through sheer effort, eyes a little wider, she forced herself to remain calm, within and without. Where before the boot prints had been dried or drying, and clearly running out of blood, a fresh trail started again through the dog's remains, and over to the corner of the garage, where she glimpsed the second sight waiting her. A familiar armored form stood tinkering under the hood of another van, helmeted head low, actions smooth and casual. As though little else in the unraveling world outside the garage mattered to him. For all she knew, maybe it didn't.
Her eyes dipped lower, off to the side beside his blood covered boots, and she saw something else... an object like a metal cylindrical suit case, with a small puddle of the dog's blood forming underneath it. It had been a white case formerly, it's bottom half stained red now... and she knew at once what had been done. Directly beside this case was an accumulator, built like a miniature power generator, a long blue cord running out of it and up into and charging the van's engine. Hunk's gloved hands were carefully removing the clamp of the power cable, before he turned, and at last made relative eye contact with her. The lenses of his mask did at least... but for all she knew his eyes were elsewhere. He didn't say a word to her, or acknowledge her presence on his own beyond that, rather he knelt beside the accumulator and removed the other end of the power cable plugged into it, before rising again, coiling up the cord up like a snake around his arm.
As he did this, Jill unconsciously looked again between the mutilated dog, and his reflective red lenses, the uncomfortable silence going on... and he didn't look liable to take charge of the situation and break it. He looked quite comfortable as he was, and Jill was aware how she was making herself look by glancing at the body. Recognizing this, and feeling the need to address their meetup, Jill spoke up instead, her calm tone carrying out through the garage and speaking to him, her blue eyes not wavering off his red lenses.
"I see you have your task taken care of, already."
Jill observed, eyeing the cord he was wrapping around his arm, then over to the open doors of the white van, noting a pair of metal boxes within that looked quite sturdy. She looked back over into his lenses again. She considered it for a moment... but the power cable was not at the forefront of her concerns... rather, what had happened with the dog. She could glimpse no bite wounds or injuries on Hunk... but it wasn't physical problems she was as concerned about in regards to him. It was the cold emotional distance he seemed to maintain unhealthily to everything around him. His manner was solid, steady, and she couldn't see him breaking. She liked his stolidness... but such strengths often came at a cost. And she felt concern for him. He looked like he'd seen too much to break... and maybe that was the most alarming thing of all. Not everyone and everything could be strong all the time. She went on, knowing damn well he'd noticed her looking at the remains... so she didn't bother trying to mask such looks.
"Are you ok, Hunk? I mean...-
"Never better."
His cool, muffled tone answered at once, cutting her off sharply... but not unkindly, as the Sergeant had been. There was nothing invested into his words... it seemed almost the obligatory robotic response... something programmed into him, which synced right up with how he had been behaving since they met. Mostly. She knew that one who kept as much concealed as he did, meant there was a lot more going on within than most. He kept everything short and to the point... and yet somehow, from the subtle characteristics of his manner and stance, he seemed a little... tired? It must have been that... what he'd done in the last few days, the encounter with the Pursuer... even the toughest had their limits. What were his?
"Yourself?"
"I'm fine..."
Jill returned immediately, shunting aside her pondering for a moment... she drew a smile at him, hoping he would buy her exaggeration about herself. She was anything but fine... but he didn't need to know that. He had enough on his plate anyways. There could be no weak links on their team... and even with the Tyrant on her trail, she was not about to become one... she'd pull her weight and more, to make up for her injuries, and anything else. If Hunk was tired, she was exhausted... living through the entire outbreak... beginning her final escape from the city, all the creatures out to get them... she was operating on not merely skill, but adrenaline and luck at this point. Yes, she was damn capable of doing what she was doing, better than most... but a lot of it came down to luck and circumstance as well. That she hadn't been ambushed and infected yet was testament enough. Still... she didn't like exaggerating too much... and he deserved the truth... a bit of it, even if he couldn't much be bothered to share any himself. She went on, studying his slightly sluggish form sympathetically.
"Just a little tired, but that's fine, nothing out of the usual. I was just passing through to the Umbrella offices, didn't think I'd see you in here. I'm glad you're ok."
"What else would I be?"
Jill started to reply to this... but froze herself, her voice on the matter going a little blank. It seemed almost silly, in retrospect, her words... and she had no real answer for him. He was more than capable of taking care of himself... part of her was wondering why he was keeping the rest of them around, considering both his skills and allegiance to Umbrella. It wasn't exactly a move she had been expecting... but it spoke volumes more to his intelligence and pragmatism than anything else. She was going out on a limb even giving him an ounce of trust... she had no clue what his plans were, or what was going on in that head. For all she knew, once she helped him out of the city with his... G-Virus, he would eliminate her. Either receiving orders to do so, or taking the initiative himself. Go back on his word to her... she was just a civilian, after all. She had heard the murmurs of a voice that could only come from him... undoubtedly talking on the radio to his contact... 'Nighthawk'. Who was to say he hadn't just received such an order from the higher ups? He had the potential for cruelty... and for mercy... that much was clear.
This was a man who was in favor of destroying the city and leaving survivors to die... who carried a virus sample that could cause another outbreak. But he was also the man who had carried her out of a burning apartment with the undead on their heels, when he had stood to gain nothing from it. Contradictions... that made the faceless man infuriating and attractive. She knew better than to brood much over such things, despite how hard it was to not... she would cross that bridge when she came to it. Yet she couldn't help but sense an honor to him, within that unemotional, sharply tuned mind... like part of him was not a pawn of Umbrella, but acting and thinking for it's self. He wouldn't have saved her back at that apartment, regardless of his intentions in doing so, otherwise. At least, she didn't believe so. She peered back at him in silence for a time... and he made full eye contact back at her, seemingly rising up a bit and peering back defiantly. Not confirming any of her suspicions one way or another. She recognized, it was time for her to be moving on, regardless of her wish not to... as ever, she had to ignore her emotional impulses in the field as best she could, and focus on the task at hand. She was the first one to break the silence, again... not really expecting him to do so. He had said all he needed saying back at the train station, clearly. For all she knew he was silently telling her to leave. Get on with her tasks he had given her. Well... she could do that much.
"I should be on my way, then, if you don't need anything. The sooner the better."
Jill informed him, inclining her head respectfully and keeping the rifle at her midsection, cradled in both hands. She carefully stepped around both the red corvette and the infected hound's splattered remains, and stepping around the subsequent corner, down towards the door on the far end to the next street outside the garage. She turned back to face him as she walked away, not taking her eyes off his retreating form...and he stared right back the entire time, not turning back to his work quite yet. The action was telling by it's self... for a man who seemed to care only about getting his mission done... there were those glimpses where he didn't act like it. She rose her voice a little more, so it could echo down to him as she neared the door.
"I'll see you and Carlos at the gas station in a little while. If you get there first, which will probably be the case, I cleared the area already, so it should make things a little simpler. Good luck."
"And to yourself, Valentine."
Beyond that, the motionless armored and masked figure said no more. An impulse came to her... a childish one, perhaps... hence why she couldn't go through with it. Jill started to speak again... about to ask him if he wanted her to stay... for them to go to the Umbrella offices together. She wanted to tell him she felt safer with him... but stopped herself, looking at the floor for a few seconds instead. Feeling stupid. He seemed intent on cutting short their communication, not getting closer to her... opening up about himself... so they could get back to their tasks. Separately. For now, Jill recognized, she could draw no further information out of him. That was fine... she hadn't expected much, now of all times. All that remained was for her to continue what she had been doing. Looking only a moment longer at him, she retreated towards the back exit door, feeling her neck and face flush, feeling his watchful eyes follow. She turned back around, hand meeting the cool metal handle and pushing it open, stepping through and out of the confined garage, and back into the streets, now into the streets of Uptown. Closing the door behind herself, she breathed the welcome, cold air that cooled down her face, she was alone again. Relatively. Being back on the narrow back streets of the city meant she wouldn't be on her own for long... if the things out there could be counted as company. Jill forced aside what had passed between her and the strange masked man in the parking garage, and got back to work.
The road, a parking area situated close beside the garage, on the same property, awaited her... as cluttered as any other road in the city. Off to the right hand side of the road, the section had been predictably barricaded off, considering it ran up towards the other barricade she had found the fallen U.B.C.S. mercenary laying at. She stepped out from under the roof of the garage, and into the middle of the road, peering down it from where she stood. A crashed mid town bus, in unison with several other smashed cars it was propped up on, took up the majority of the road between the buildings, cutting most of it off from view. She saw enough however, in spite of a distant crashed convertible in her path, and off to the side of that, a yellow taxicab that had smashed into the side of a barricaded store. An object that could only have been it's former driver sticking through the windshield and laying face down on the start of the hood.
Beyond the convertible, Jill glimpsed her next destination, a cast iron rusted gate with a door on it among the bars. She was ready to get back underway, and began moving quickly down the left side of the street. She was no further than half way past the crashed bus, when she was startled by a sudden bursting sound, and froze as seemingly every window on her side of the bus exploded, showering her in glass. Instinctively, she rose her arms over her face just in time, and felt the stinging of pain as the shards rained down upon her, just as they had her shoulders way back at the apartment. Jill breathed in a pained breath, but once the showering stopped, she ignored it, didn't even bother looking, particularly when she heard the familiar cawing of crows.
Ordinarily, this wouldn't have bothered her... she had once taken to feeding the city's crows when she had been a girl. Crows and the ducks at Raccoon Park... and had done so now and again as a woman. It was another story for these particular crows... feeding them was the last thing on her mind. Bread crumbs wouldn't cut it for these infected creatures. Their eyes were glazed over and dead, black feathers missing in some places, replaced by rotting bare flesh, and virus infected blood dripping from their beaks. Jill rose her rifle and backed up against the brick wall of the garage as they circled the air in front of her, taking aim, in spite of the pounding of her heart in her ears... or more likely, because of it... because she wanted to keep it capable of beating.
She flipped the switch on the M4 to full auto, and began spraying into their midst as they all circled together, decimating their number, bodies dropping from the air. Their various parts exploded under the hail of gunfire, remains firing every which way as they screeched, landing in small bloody piles of remains and feathers on the pavement around the bus, some in front of Jill directly. Then, she heard it, a familiar telltale clicking as her ammunition in the magazine ran out. There was only one of the birds left by this point, but one was more than enough to end everything... no matter the size of the infected creature, or appearance, none could be underestimated. Jill drew the dagger knife from her sheath and slashed it across the air just in time as the thing flew in at her, striking dead on across it's thin throat and decapitating it, sending an outward spray of blood on the knife and pavement, as it dropped, still twitching for a few moments, like most of the other birds... before they stopped one after another.
Jill was panting hard as the blood dripped from the knife, her brush with death beyond alarming... and slowly, she wiped the blade off on the ground and sheathed it. Where she had been cold before, sweat now formed on her back, unpleasant heat rose through her. That had been too close... and another surprise. All it would have taken was one peck, if she had missed. She peered down at the corpses of the birds... they may have been a surprise, but they were no longer entirely one to her, and certainly weren't new. She'd encountered infected birds as far back as the mansion... they were one more thing that haunted her sleep, of course... their horrible cawing and ravenous appetites. Of all the T-Virus infected creatures, it was their potential that possibly frightened her the most. What would happen if they took flight and spread around the country? Taking the virus with them. All she could hope was that the fresh corpses kept them all here, until the bombardment. It had probably been the same case at the Spencer Mansion, when it had self destructed. otherwise the outbreak surely would have popped up soon and in other states.
She recalled what Rebecca had told her in detail about what had occurred with Bravo Team... how most of them had been split up at the mansion, no different from Alpha Team. It had been Barry and Jill who found his grotesque remains later... and from the wounds it had been clear that a swarm of birds had mutilated and infected Forest. Although she had not been as close to him as some of the others... it was a grisly fate nobody deserved. None of them had in the slightest. She'd recovered his grenade launcher, at the least, and had put it to good use in the mansion. He had reanimated then... rising up from his slumped over position, and had begun to moan hungrily... the man he had once been long gone.
Fortunately, if it could be called fortunate, her and Barry had put him to rest once he had reanimated. The only thing they could do for him. Jill sighed and shook away the flashing images of that particular occasion during the Arklay incident, returning to the present, peering down at the dead crows. Part of what returned her was the stinging of both of her arms... and sure enough, she found several random slashes and cuts on each from the glass. Jill winced. Just wonderful, exactly what she needed at a time like this, more open wounds in a diseased environment, whether they were deep ones or not. Blood trickled down her arms, and she took the time to wipe it off on her sweater around her leg, staining it a bit. She took a moment to reach into Rebecca's white medical bag, retrieve the First Aid Spray bottle and spray a tiny amount to each cut, tucking it away and closing the bag again. She'd have to treat all her wounds some more later at the train. For now, she continued on, turning and stepping over the remains, moving on down the street, passing the bus, her boots crunching over the glass.
Remembering the state of her rifle, she ejected a magazine, tossed it off to the side among the debris and overturned cars, and popped in a fresh one, holding the rifle closer in both hands, by the grip and under-barrel of the grenade launcher. Fortunately the street was well enough lit that her flashlight still wasn't a necessity yet, and she kept her eyes constantly pealed for any more birds or infected. She ran past the convertible, nearing both the gate, and the crashed taxi cab... and sure enough, her suspicions were confirmed... the cab's driver lay broken atop the hood, neck bent at an unnatural angle, eyes wide with fright and peering over at Jill, as though transfixed. Her lips thinned, and she gave the body a sympathetic look, before turning back to the gate.
Off to the left hand side of the gate, the road continued... or would have, if not for another convenient barricade and car pile up, past which she was incapable of seeing beyond. It almost felt like the city didn't want her to go anywhere but a predetermined path. Or maybe many of the barricades and pile ups were done on purpose, to create a relatively safe zone in this hell. But it was all for the best, given the moans she heard beyond the barricades. Reaching the gate she pushed it open, it's old bars creaking, and she stepped into the narrow straight alley beyond, slamming the gate behind her and raising the rifle to her shoulders, peering down the sights and stepping slowly on. The ambush by the crows and the zombies before that, had been enough to shake her tiring senses, and keep her alert and awake against all costs. She knew she was going to need this adrenaline in the areas beyond. Knowing she was drawing closer towards the R.P.D. Again.
The long alley between a store and apartment, as it turned out, was not too cluttered... a rare thing as of late, and was as well lit as the street, with an overhead light post. Illuminating a bunch of graffiti and posters along a great deal of brick wall section to her right, showing off several local bands and various other advertisements for shops in the area. She jogged lightly past a couple metal barrels and a propped up yellow and black striped warning post, peering down ahead... knowing full well what lay in this particular alley. She stopped when she reached the next rusted iron door, leading off to the right and to an adjacent alley... and she didn't bother stepping through, not yet at least. There was a reason this alley was important, and not merely due to it being the pathway to the Umbrella Sales Office. Just off to the side of the door was a chain link fence gate, with another door that had been left wide open and just past it, at the far end of the alley were a series of pipes connected to the buildings.
A fire hydrant. Running down to these pipes, Jill came to a stop again before them, spotting among them what she had been seeking. A long coiled up white fire hose was connected to one of the pipes, with a panel that read Hydrant on the wall beside it. A red light glowed freely on said panel, denoting that it wasn't currently activated. This was it... she'd already known about this area and it's contents, looking at the map had been unnecessary. The hose was not long enough to cover the distance between here and the fire in front of the Umbrella Sales Office... but fortunately, she knew, there was another close enough to operate the hose from. She slung her rifle over her right shoulder and gave the coiled hose a pull, but it was too securely fastened in place by several bolts... hence the wrench HUNK had given her. She drew it from her belt and applied it to the first fastened bolt locking down the hose, and began to crank.
One bolt after another, very gradually, the fire hose began to loosen, and she unscrewed it from the piping, tucking away her wrench again and lifting up the hose as water dripped from it and the pipe. It wasn't too heavy, but it was cumbersome, restricted her movement slightly. She stuck her arm through the hole in the center and slid it up onto her left shoulder, ignoring the stinging as it scraped a few cuts. Fortunately it was coiled tightly enough not to take up much width on her arm, and she unslung the rifle again, turning on the spot and heading back down to the rusted door. She glanced down at the wrench she had put back in her belt... she knew full well she still needed it, and she wasn't about to take that chance with tools.
She paused before the door, something else catching her eye before she could open it up... a strange plague above the door that she couldn't ever recall seeing... not that she was actually down here much in he life before the mansion. The plaque resembled a shield's coat of arms with an actual shield in the center, and two lions on either side of it... with the word 'Capcom' written below it, all of it illuminated by a pair of lights. Jill had never heard of them, and didn't particularly care about the name... it was merely how out of place the plaque was that she bothered stopping in the first place. Another company Mayor Warren had been taking money from? Giving up tax payer funds to build something for them? It wouldn't have surprised her. She looked below it, back to the door, and burst through, closing it behind her, eyes darting about the next area, this adjacent alley. It was more narrow than the first, and had a bunch of piping and grates and windows along either side of the buildings... but it was none of this that caught her attention and made her pause again for a moment.
At the far end, she glimpsed what had been a tidily brown haired young man in that ever familiar green and black uniform with light pants, sitting against the wall slumped, with a tipped over garbage can beside him. His fate was obvious, considering both the pistol in one hand, the puddle of blood at his feet, and the one sliding down the wall behind his head. His legs were spread apart at an unnatural angle, tan pants tattered... and she stepped a little closer, noting his face and the side of his head was starting to rot. In the hand opposite the one holding his gun, it held a little black book... and Jill noted the discarded pen laying in the blood. She began to move closer and closer, curiosity building... when just around the corner in this zig zagging well lit alley... she heard it, and froze, heart rising in her chest. An inhuman buzzing... the clicking of feet, or something sliding along pavement.
Without considering what it was, she hugged her back against the wall's corner, standing on some sewer grating, and slowly, very slowly, began to peek her eyes around it... and they widened at what they saw. The thing back in the maintenance area... or rather, one of it's hideous kind. It was entirely illuminated, every little feature about it, by a light at it's side... beyond it she saw the next turn of the corner, the last one she would have to make in this alley... but by then, what lay beyond was the last thing on her mind as her priority shifted once more. There it was... some mutated excuse for an arthropod, or some such thing. Multi limbed like the one before it, but these limbs, hell, all of it, very much intact. The only difference between this one and the last was the state of it's condition, this one not having a wound on it. No... that wasn't the only difference, she recognized. It wasn't quite exactly the same... that much became obvious as the seconds ticked by, in which it remained where it was, huddled on the ground near the subsequent corner, as though waiting for prey to run around it.
It was a little bigger than the other had been, she believed... and possessed not one sunken insectoid head like the body she'd seen... but two, each with a pair of long thin mandibles for feeding, and milky white dead eyes. Other than that... it was a spitting image of the other thing, the coarse gross hair lining it's outer skin... the red muscle visible underneath, the number of legs and arms... and the differences were trivial in the end... all that mattered was the threat it posed. Jill had not seen anything entirely like this... and she didn't know all it's abilities. She had to play this one safe as possible... this was the only way to the sales office, this path, and she wasn't about to let the thing impede her progress, not after this much she had done. They could be killed, that was all that mattered... and if either Oliveira or Hunk could kill them, then she sure as hell could.
Jill had killed enough mutations in her life, why not add another variation of them to her busy schedule?
She peered down her sights, eyes narrowing, and lips thinning. She wasn't sure how many rounds it would take, but she was about to find out roughly. She kept the ammunition switched to full auto... and assured she had a good aim at it's back, she opened fire, her rifle roaring through the night as it sprayed the thing from behind with lead. It shrieked, squirting the same green fluid from earlier out of every bullet hole it collected... but it reacted with a speed she hadn't anticipated something of it's size having, whipping around to face her, it stood up on two thick, frog-like legs like a person, something that threw her off at once. But rather than running after her, right away at least, it paused as her rounds sunk into it and ripped apart it's flesh, buzzing loudly. It's heads lurched backwards, like it was convulsing, before shooting forward, spraying out a thick globule of gunk in her direction.
She swore and stopped firing, diving backwards away from the corner, just as the green substance splatted against it, and would have gotten her if she'd been a second late. The spit bubbled and smoked as it made contact with the brick of the wall, and began to slide down it... either an acid or poison, or both, of sorts, undoubtedly. But something formed on the patch where it had spat... a small about of some... organic material. Biomass... in an earthen tone, with something like veins forming and pulsing beneath it. What the hell was it supposed to be? Jill didn't have time to study it further. She landed in a heap on the pavement and gravel of the alley, wincing in pain, and scrambling back up to her feet again as quickly as she could, backing away some more, limping more than anything, away from the U.B.C.S. mercenary's body, and back towards the door she had come through. She stopped at the far end, breathing hard, eyes flashing every which way as she heard the skittering of it's feet and limbs moving on the pavement... and she prepared herself to see it pass around the corner. It did exactly that... just not in the way she thought it was going to.
It skittered around the corner... of the building, no longer on the ground it was climbing and sticking like a spider to the wall, a few meters off the ground. Buzzing and bleeding it's foul fluids as it moved rapidly along the wall towards her position, no doubt to pounce on top of her and drain her. Jill was having no such thing. Heart pounding furiously, she clenched her teeth and sprayed it with another volley of rounds, shooting it off the wall, where it landed in a squirming heap a few feet in front of her, still trying, in spite of it all, to rise and attack again, mandibles whipping every which way, eyes meeting Jill's own and twitching. Jill held her ground, and, having blown off a couple of the legs clinging to the wall, she blew off each of it's heads next, just in time, as it started to form another glob of spit to throw at her. It's heads exploded all over the walls and ground, staining it... that familiar nasty smell returning to Jill's nose from all it's gore... but under the circumstances, she was in no place to care, the adrenaline coursing through her entire being.
She had about half a magazine left as it twitched... and while she could have simply let it die on it's own, already being in it's death throes, that wasn't good enough to her. Baring her teeth, anger washing over her, she emptied the rest of it all over the creatures body, blowing off the rest of it's limbs and opening it right up down the middle. It was only when the gun clicked several times, that she managed to stop, to force herself to, breathing harder than before. Her sudden anger was not merely because it had tried to kill her... it was everything. It had frightened her, even now after all this time she was afraid of them all... right down to the zombies. It had no place existing... and yet, it did, and had caused this much destruction. Everything about it offended her... she hated the fucking thing more than anything else.
She had no doubt the dead mercenary at the far end of the passage had chosen suicide over letting this thing get to him... the sane response. Jill stood watching the thing die... feeling pleasure for doing so, and she didn't regret it in the least. To hell with the thing. Perhaps, she recalled, this same reason had been the cause for HUNK bludgeoning a creature to death when he could have shot it... even if such an emotional act seemed uncharacteristic of him. It had felt... good, killing this abomination. Not even it's foul smell could spoil her accomplishment. She waited another couple minutes after it's limbs stopped twitching... and she knew it was time to move on. Unfortunately, given the narrowness of the alley, it now occupied her path... but thankfully she had shot it apart enough that it was easily maneuverable over.
After reloading again, Jill ran forward once she caught her breath, jumping over it's remains, avoiding them entirely, holding her breath in the presence of the smell. When she landed, she ignored the pain it shot up her leg, and she moved away from the insectoid remains... stopping instead by another rotting body, that of the dead U.B.C.S. mercenary. She breathed quietly, eyes moving between the blank expression on his face, and the sidearm in his hand... then over to the small black book in his hand. Lips thinning a little, she slung her rifle and crouched low in front of the body, taking the time to recover a couple spare pistol magazines, before reaching over to the book and prying it from his cold dead, gloved hand, and standing back up, peering at the body again. Slowly, her eyes dipped to the book... and opening it, she found it to be the mercenary's diary. She read it in silence... or at least as silent as the city could get out here, with the moans ringing in the distance, and every nook and cranny hiding another horrifying surprise. The passages were neither numerous nor overly elaborate... rather, they were punctual, to the point... yet revealing. She flipped forward to the final three entries.
September 1st:
Following six months of intensive training, my body's edge has returned. They have been long months, but worthwhile. I am myself again. Ready to do my duty.
I was a good soldier, but they ordered my execution with no reason given. I was tortured and forced to give a false confession. I tried to endure it, but could not. I wasn't strong enough, and gave in, in the end.
But on the morning of my execution, a miracle happened. The company has helped me out, giving me a second lease on life. Now, my training completed, I begin my life again a Private within the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service.
September 15th
I ended my vacation short and returned to the HQ office. It looks like my U.B.C.S. unit's been called into action. Thank God for the timing, I welcome a mission worthy of me to sitting idly by.
Umbrella maintains it's own paramilitary unit to counter corporate terrorism and V.I.P. abduction. In addition, they have nightmen who specialize in handling problems caused by illegal products. I'm currently a member of the latter.
Evidently there has been an incident in an American city called Raccoon City. A radiation spill of some sorts, that has the town's citizens behaving strangely, with incidents of violence being reported at Raccoon General Hospital. We are being mobilized to the Leviathan, where we will receive further instructions.
September 28th
Dawn's here, but we're still slogging through this nightmare. There are no provisions of any kind here. The undead and monstrous mutations walk the streets feeding upon the flesh of the living. The battles are numerous and pitched. The bulk of us hold Central Street Station, at least the last I heard, but I am cut off from them with no hope of reaching their position. The company has lied to us about the nature of the threat. I wonder about how much else. This is not the work of radiation, but of a virus... I have seen the results first hand.
I now realize that given the choice again, I would rather have been executed. Death Row was a heavenly asylum compared to this place. Death would have been instant and certain, with no cause for fear beyond that. Now I realize that there are things worse than death. And I dare not dwell among them any longer. A world run by Umbrella. This city is them. Distilled to their purest essence.
I've chosen to pull the trigger myself, in the hope that my dead body won't come back to life. The least I can do, all things considered. One final duty. To whom it may concern reading these contents, consider this my resignation letter to the company. My contract and debts null and void, and I die free.
Jill read through it several times, in little time at all... and paused, again looking at the deceased man... and despite it all, what she had just gone through, everything... she felt pity for him. She didn't know him, who he truly was as a person, and never would... how his life had been before all this... but she didn't truly care. He was another victim of Umbrella, swallowed alive, by a hell on earth posing for a city. Still holding the book, her eyes fell to his neck, like the others, and she noted the dog tag... which she crouched again for, pulling it off his neck and examining it, not bothering to cut it off, since none of the blood was on his neck.
B, Carmine, 83B186-22AO3-SF.
Whoever he was, he had not deserved the fate he had got... and Jill tucked both the tags and his words away into her pouch. Even if he had died, his account would not. She intended to hold on to it, as long as she could. Every little bit was important, not merely as evidence... but because when the bombing commenced, everything that he was would be reduced to ash. But not these. It was in her power to prevent as much. She stood upright, cradling the fire hose on her shoulder, and considered the words she had read. So... that was how Umbrella did it. Recruited condemned men, guilty or otherwise, and took ownership of their lives, to be thrown away at their leisure. It was no different than how the government often treated it's soldiers in every war... expendable in the name of their own selfish interests.
Was every former member a criminal? Or was there a variety, mercenary, ex soldiers, and other such kinds of people they recruited? It was... interesting... and gave her another curious question. What had been Carlos before his recruiting? He seemed too much of a friendly, energetic young man to be a hardened criminal... how had Umbrella gotten him? It was yet another question in need of answering... and another that would have to wait. There was one last detail in the diary that made her wonder... what paramilitary unit had Umbrella been referring to? The same outfit Hunk belonged to, Umbrella Security Service? Or had Private Carmine been referring to different classes of U.B.C.S. mercenaries? Like, two different specialists? There wasn't enough detail there to pin down a solid answer, but it made her wonder a great deal.
Hunk was undoubtedly black ops in some way, not a public member of Umbrella... and counter corporate terrorism, or V.I.P abduction didn't seem altogether outside of his abilities, if it came to it. She remembered what he had said about having orders to take Doctor Birkin alive. Sounded like spy work alright. Maybe it was so... she had no way of knowing, and he was less likely to answer questions about his past and and the aspects of his occupation than Carlos was. She appreciated a bit more insight on how Umbrella thought... and this had been a decent amount, in spite of how well she already knew the company. The whole time, her eyes studied the blank ones of the man... and although she wasn't sure what she believed... if there was an afterlife, to all this... she hoped he was faring well, wherever that was.
She unslung her M4 and cradled it close against her chest, before turning and leaving it all behind until her return, walking away from the mercenary and the foul smelling thing she had ventilated. As she did so, Jill heard a familiar gunshot ring out in the distance from somewhere far behind her, towards Downtown... pausing and looking back over her shoulder. It had probably been HUNK... but for what purpose? Only one gunshot too, from his strange pistol. Had she missed something? Even if she had... what was he doing coming out after her? The curious thought made her smile a tiny bit, touched by the concern she doubted he would ever admit. Assuming she wasn't just assuming. Whatever the case, she had an objective and couldn't go back to check with him about it. Maybe later. Finally she looked back ahead and continued.
Thankfully, the cool air of the night replaced the mutation's odor in little time at all, and before long it was gone as she passed the first blood patches she had made shooting the thing, and stepped around the corner. Bound for the final door in the zig zagging alley, and to the cross of the Fission and Ennerdale Streets. She remembered this area from what felt like a life time ago, how bad the state of it was, when she had begun her escape from her apartment... and she wasn't exactly longing to get back out in the open. Yes the streets would be mostly cut off, and it wasn't exactly a main street... but it was bigger than any other she'd been on in awhile, and as such, more of the creatures were concentrated there. It had been there that the horde that followed Brad up to the R.P.D. building had formed, after the Pursuer had killed Brad... there was no telling how many of them were still out there after all this time.
She drew in a low steadying breath, and opened the door, stepping through and closing it again. At once, she glimpsed the road to her immediate left... hell, felt it, considering it comprised of the wreckage of several turned over and on fire cars. The building to her immediate right was a gallery of sorts with a parked car and flipped over motorcycle, and a neon sign and lights shone down amidst all the firelight and street lights from another building ahead of her past the tightly packed car cluttered road. She knew the street better than most... had stood on it earlier... so many times before the outbreak. She looked over the distant horde and still spraying fire hydrant and to the familiar front entrance, metal gates and towering building and clock tower of the Raccoon Police Department. Considering the state it had been left in, she was grateful not to have to return to that place. Memories of Brad, the Pursuer, Hunk, Marvin and Sherry threatened. From her angle she couldn't see the apartment building she and Hunk had fought the Pursuer in... but saw some smoke in the sky near the department.
First thing was first, however, the very thing that caught her attention sooner than her hellish surroundings did. A moan rang out, followed by several others, as the first one, standing on the road in front of the fiery barricade caught sight of her, and began it's usual shuffling. Thank God there weren't as many here as there had been earlier that she'd had to narrowly avoid... Brad had lured the bulk of them down to the gates of the department, leaving her area relatively secure by comparison. She took aim and shot it through the center of the head, stepping further out into the road, ignoring the heat of the fires, and taking a better look at the divided streets, what awaited her. There were far more cars and buses blocking the road down there than there were where she stood, though none of them on fire... and she spotted her next destination ahead, an alley situated between a coffee shop and the local book store, the neon light signs on each seemingly illuminating her path down there. But then there was the matter of the things barring her access to the alley, and to the fire she had to put out... or rather, mostly barring her access.
Six more undead creatures were shuffling up the road past the cars and book store towards her. And while she had the feeling she could zig zag around them with ease and run into the alley without having to fight them, she also knew she would have to come back this way, and was not about to put off something she could deal with now. It'd make things far easier when she returned. Raising her rifle again, she took aim at the closest one, not ten meters from her, and shot it down, before one after another doing the same to the others in the area, each collapsing into writhing heaps, before gradually stopping their twitching. While she had taken down these initial snarling infected, she had no doubt more would return if she stayed where she was, and in greater numbers and variety, likely to have heard her gun shots. The last thing she wanted was to be caught on the road not only by the horde of zombies far down the road, but any dogs or mutations lurking in the vicinity.
If the multi limbed thing back there had been any indication, it was that danger awaited her at every corner, no matter where she went... not that the Pursuer hadn't already kicked that message home into her head. After taking care of the zombies, she ran down the midst of the cluttered road, knocking over garbage strewn about, and passing all the cars and bodies in the area between the road and alley. She ran around the side of the coffee shop and into the alleyway, forcing herself not to limp at the building pain in her leg, and she glimpsed another cast iron gate door just ahead, pushing it open and leaving the road behind, for the moment. She closed it with a snap behind her and finally paused, to study the long forked alley ahead, veering off in two separate directions.
She'd been here before on the way to the department... and the remains of two dogs she had shot through the heads remained, still rotting, the blood around them drying. She passed them and began to walk slowly, carefully ahead, passing a storage room she didn't bother looking inside... she didn't have to, she'd scavenged it earlier., Gradually, she came to a pause at the end of the alley, just before the fork in the pathway. Sure enough, the entire section of pathway to the Umbrella Sales Office was still blocked off by the raging fire, just as HUNK had said, and just as she already had known from running through this area in a hurry. The flames flickered and leap, washing it's brilliant light over the alleyway... and she knew there was no other way of getting around it, than the way she had prepared for. On the other hand, the pathway to the left of the forked alley was free and clear, devoid of any flames, in part due to a fence dividing both sections from each other, a dumpster residing at the far end of this interior section against a brick wall.
She recalled that down the safer fire devoid path, continuing on would take her back to some barricaded back passages and private yards, until reaching the Bar Black Jack, and beyond it, the warehouse she had found earlier after she'd set out from her apartment. She recalled the terror on the only other survivor's face... the man who had gotten to the warehouse before her, Mr Rosso, having lost his daughter to the monsters. She'd tried to help him as best she could, wanted to take him with her, but in the end he hadn't had the nerve for such an undertaking, opting to lock himself up somewhere secure... or rather, somewhere he had believed secure.
Now was as good a time as any to go back for him, tell him she had found other survivors, soldiers, who could protect him. They could take him with them to safety and escape at the clock tower, once they had gotten the cable car going again. All that time in the container would have probably worn down the poor, panicked man's defiance by now. HUNK's orders regarding helping civilians be damned. She was not one of his subordinates, beholden to his authority, but an invaluable partner. He himself had said so, back at the apartment, when she had discovered his true mission. Had spared his life. She intended to keep the promise she had vowed to herself over Mr Rosso. He was the only one left stuck out here that she knew of. Robert had probably abandoned the Kendo Gun Shop with his daughter Emma by now... the last time they'd spoken during the outbreak he had told her he had arrangements already for escaping. Promised to see he again when they got out. That just left Mr Rosso. She would take a detour on the way to her goal... it wouldn't take long, the warehouse was close. With a breath she turned and moved hurriedly towards the residential alley, turning down it and reaching the collapsed blue barricade of before... the corpses of the zombies remaining where they had been cluttered around it.
Racing through the area, keeping her guard up, she reached the dumpster alley beyond, leading to the back door of Bar Black Jack. She passed it by instead, heading down an adjacent alley to Boutique Street... reaching it she navigated the road to the Y shaped alley, beyond that to the Boulevard... and at last to the back alley of the Warehouse. Through it all she came across all the bodies of those she'd killed on the way... but mercifully, no more creatures in the area since. She knew it wouldn't be the case if not for all the wreckage and barricades along the way. She could hear their moans beyond it all, saw their shapes now and again as she hurried by... but they were unable to reach her. She took in all the sights again, remembering it all... what she'd gone through already before encountering the Tyrant... before Hunk had ambushed her at the station. It was well and truly a ghost town, in these areas. Desolate. As she had never seen any part of Uptown or Downtown before the outbreak. Finally she reached the back alley of the warehouse, racing up along the clear path, the door to the warehouse in the distance, feeling her heart beating quicker. Daring to hope. Reaching the door... she drew in a low breath, reaching for it, readying her rifle, and opening it, stepping through and looking down to the container at the far end of the warehouse interior.
What she saw made her heart plummet.
"Oh... God no..."
At some point... Mr Rosso it seemed had realized she was right after all. He'd unlocked the container and moved out of it... into the waiting zombies that had broken into the warehouse. The door Jill had originally come from when leaving her apartment had been broken down... and four of the tattered, rotting creatures were gathered around and feasting on Mr Rosso's familiar, blood soaked corpse. So focused on their meal they didn't notice Jill enter from the back of the warehouse.
Jill was surprised to find a heated rage didn't overtake her. Instead she felt ice in her veins... a cold, calm hatred towards them... and she took the time to move down the walkway and around, down the steps to the main floor of the warehouse. Within moments, she reached the container where they feasted in front of... even meters away they didn't see her. Raising the rifle to her shoulder, she took aim and introduced herself to them... and did the only thing she could do for poor Mr Rosso now. She aimed and fired the rifle four times, at the backs and sides of their heads, dropping them all around Mr Rosso's remains one by one. Four roars echoed throughout the warehouse, her jaw tightened as she focused on the zombies. Skulls burst and broke, blood and brain matter pouring free from each round... and the fell twitching. The moans and slurping of flesh falling silent. Her eyes settling on his body among the dead monsters.
"I'm sorry..."
Only then did she slowly lower the rifle, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. She felt a raw helplessness again. She was too late to save Mr Rosso... if only he had listened to her from the start... maybe he would have made it. Or maybe she would have failed to protect him. He hadn't trusted her... and he'd chosen certain death instead. As Sherry may have been by now. Two of the many she had failed... as she had Brad. As she had so many others during the outbreak. She grimly moved over the five blood soaked bodies, around them, and went to the storage container, looking inside. Climbing up into it when she saw it was secure. Mostly junk inside, cardboard boxes and a single light... but she found a piece of paper on a lying out in the open within, a pen beside it... going to it, she picked it up from the floor and looked it over. Reading it in silence. One final note... from the man himself.
Dario's Memo
I can't help but wonder if anyone will read these words, but writing them will help me maintain my sanity if nothing else. After I've become a meal for those undead monsters, will the G.I.s responsible for sealing off the town laugh upon discovering my corpse? I won't be able to blame them, how pathetic and cowardly I will look sealed away here.
So is this how it's supposed to end? I don't want to die. I'm just not ready. It wasn't supposed to be this way. This nightmare.
My wife, daughter, mother... my entire family has been killed. Every reason I had to keep going is gone now. There was so much more we were supposed to do together. We had so many good years left. But thanks to that damn disease, none of that matters anymore. Right now, my life is the only important thing left. That's all that matters. I need to live... for them. Need to keep going... I need to try. Maybe someone will find me. Someone else.
I never would have pictured my end to be like this. I had so much left to do. Rather than becoming a salesman, I should have tried my hand at being a novelist. It's what I've always wanted, but my mother would only tell me you have a long way to go. Why did I ever listen to her? I should have chose my own path. I made the wrong decision... so many of them for so long.
My latest mistake will probably be my final one.
Why didn't I listen to that young Valentine woman? She was armed, had been a police officer, offered me a way out when nobody else did. I yelled at her and I froze up... now I rot here, as surely as those monsters are out there. I shouldn't have snapped at her like that... I should have went with her... helped her. Now it's too late. I'm so sorry. On the outside chance you are reading this... you were right. I hope you succeed where I didn't. I hope you escape from this nightmare. I hope you find someone else who won't disappoint you the way I have. That you will save them the way I didn't let you save me.
This looks like the end for the great Dario Rosso, would be novelist extraordinaire. Cut down before his prime. Cut down by himself.
Jill felt her heart sink further in her chest at his words... his apology to her. His name was Dario... and he had been an aspiring novelist. With a family. He had lost them all. She read it again... pondering it, looking between it and the dead novelist. She hoped he was with his family again, now... somewhere far better than this hell on earth. Then she folded up the note and tucked it away into her pouch with the rest she had found earlier. All she could take of him with her. Turning, she climbed out of the container, returning to the bodies and around them. There was nothing more she could do here... back where she had started. He was right. There were others now, who needed her as much as he had... who she could still help. Who could help her. Hunk's masked face returned to her mind, and Carlos with his grin... the injured old Captain... even the coldly sneering Nikolai. With them in mind, she made her way away from the storage container, back through the warehouse and up to the platform leading to the rear alleyway.
Reaching the door, she froze at it for a moment... feeling the urge to look back at Dario again. She fought it, resisted it... her eyes growing cold. What was done, was done. She had tried... it hadn't been enough, but it was all she could have done. She couldn't keep torturing herself... even as she knew she inevitably would again. Dario Rosso's life had mattered, no matter how briefly she had known him, and under such circumstances. She would remember Mr Rosso... and take what had happened with her, to the end. To her last escape. Bursting through the door and back out into the alley, she slammed it shut behind her... the echo dying away, as the screams and moans of the past days would not. Leaving the warehouse behind for a final time. With that, raising her rifle again, she double timed it all the way back to where she had started... losing herself in the run, focusing on her surroundings the entire way and blocking out what had happened at the warehouse. The pain in her leg was welcome for the first time... distracting her. Eventually reaching the fire strewn alleyway again where she had started. Pausing there at last to catch her breath, and recover from the failed detour, to consider it a little longer.
Since leaving her apartment, before running into Hunk and Sherry at the Raccoon Police Department, Mr Rosso and Brad had been the only survivors she had encountered who had lasted some time... and they didn't remain so for very long. There had been others along the way... but she'd been too late to save them... only finding them after the creatures had got them. All she had been able to do was avenge them... as little a difference as that made. Now Mr Rosso was avenged... for what that was worth, and Brad was not. Brad was more direct blood on her hands. She had frozen in fear, when he had needed her most. She doubted anything she did could make up for that.
All these memories came bubbling back to the surface of her thoughts while she was stopped and recovering, trying to distract her again... when she needed to shunt them out and focus. She had delayed long enough. She was here for another reason. First thing was first, the fire. Her eyes turned over to the side of the wall, just before the start of the two separate directions the alley had been divided into... and she spotted it, a fire hydrant. Not a classic red one set in the ground, but connected to some piping in the building it was attached to, just like the one before.
A red glowing light shone back at her as she approached it, and slinging the rifle, she removed the coiled, long hose, and attached the bottom end to it, uncoiling the tube, and securing the hose firmly into place. Assured it wouldn't leak, she tapped a button on the hydrant and activated it to full power, a green light replacing the red, and she heard and felt the water flow through and lengthen the uncoiled tube, but not spill forth out the end. She took the end of the hose and moved over closer towards the fire, looking down at the nozzle to a switch on it, and she pulled it forward. The reaction was instantaneous, a powerful flowing burst of water shooting out of it, with such force she had to hold on firmly with both hands and dig her boots in. She concentrated the jet-like blast upon the base of the fire, spraying into it's midst, smoke instantly starting to rise as it made contact, and she started moving the hose around, spraying different sections of the blaze. Gradually, quite gradually, the flames began to die down, but Jill took the time to douse every single one, until all that remained was the soaked, smoking charred blackness of the alley path towards the sales office, every ember having gone out.
At last, Jill pulled back the switch on the hose, and the flow of the water slowed gradually, and stopped altogether. From where she stood, in front of the remains of the fire, Jill looked back at the fire hydrant, still very much green... but she saw no real point going through all the effort of switching it off and detaching the hose again... it had served it's purpose. Instead she dropped it down at her feet, unslung her rifle, and continued on down the smoky pathway. Past the small fence dividing the alley's sections, a pair of wooden pallets propped against a wall, some piping running along the walls into the apartment close to the sales office, and on to the metal door beyond it. She grasped the door handle slowly... but rather than bursting through and closing it sharply behind herself, she opened and entered slowly.
Fortunately the door wasn't in such a bad condition that it creaked and gave her position away. Instead, she stepped into a dark alley between two apartment buildings. As it turned out such a precaution was unnecessary, not a single creature of any kind residing in the path down towards the offices. There was only a little light on each ends of the alley, and other than an overturned garbage can, there wasn't much cluttering the area. She glanced at either side of the buildings, spotting cast iron balconies on both buildings, leading into a no doubt infested location. Still, with a quiet breath, she activated the flashlight on her shoulder strap, illuminating the corridor to be sure she wasn't walking into an ambush. She resumed her light jog all the way down it's narrow route, until she reached the next door... which she knew full well led to the outer patio section of the sales office. It was here she'd need to be on her guard especially... an office meant lots of employees, or rather former employees, provided of course Umbrella hadn't evacuated them.
Umbrella looked out for it's own. Only if they were of some value, of course. All came down to the bottom line.
Either way, there was no telling what threat might be waiting for her, where Umbrella was concerned, even after all this time she couldn't predict their moves... just those of their more simple creations. She grasped the handle, and opened it no more than an inch, pressing her ear to the door, rifle at the ready... and sure enough, a sound filtered into her ears that told her damn well that her caution was merited. That familiar low, inhuman buzzing, and clacking of feet sliding on cement. She opened the door another couple inches, just enough to peer down the corridor... and was not surprised in the least to find another one of the two headed, insectoid mutations waiting for her there. She rose her rifle, aiming through the crack in the door, seeing little point in presenting herself as a target to it's foul toxic spit. She took aim at it's heads, opening fire in bursts before it could spot her and take action, the shell casings dropping around her. Round after round penetrated through each head and out the other slide, slamming down into it's body and sticking.
It uttered another buzzing screech, too distracted by pain to focus in on her firing position, it's foul blood flying every which way around it. It went into a frenzied panic, spinning around on the spot looking for her, and began spitting more of it's smoking, bile gunk from each mouth, spraying it at different sections of the corridor, but nowhere near Jill's position, fortunately. Biomass forming wherever the spit settled. This time, she didn't waste her whole magazine on the thing... when it was clear the thing was dying, she ceased fire, the roar of her rifle dying off, an echo in the night, and through the crack in the door, she studied the result of her firing. Both of the thing's heads had been mostly blown apart, and several other rounds had penetrated through the center mass of it's body... and it lay twitching in the puddling gunk underneath it, mandible-like tongues still moving about slightly, it's toxic spit leaking out and down it's tongues slowly.
And as it died she spotted a corpse of a civilian in a corner nearby. She took a moment to inspect it... to find it's skull had been breached. Not by a bullet... but something else entirely. And that wasn't the only horrific thing about it. Sticky saliva and the biomass were adhered to it's body, cocooning it's figure against the wall. It's midsection was open, intestines and ribcage visible among the blood and meat, as though something had squirmed free. It's skull cavity had been broken open as well... and the brains within scooped out. Or slurped out. She didn't want to think about the mental image that gave her, of the two headed mutation atop the poor bastard. The aftermath alone was bad enough. Another difference between it and the mutated corpse she had found in the maintenance area. This thing ate brains, cocooned it's victim... that thing had gone for the throat... for blood or something else. And then there was it's midsection. She didn't want to think about that part. She kept her distance from the corpse, looking back to the mutation again as it died.
Jill waited a few moments for it to stop twitching... but she still didn't step through, keeping her ear pealed, she heard another buzzing sound, further in the distance... there was at least one more, down the hall towards the entrance of the Umbrella offices... she focused on this as best she could, ignoring the repugnant scent of the hairy thing she had blown away against the outer wall of the offices. Unfortunately, there was no corner she could take cover in front of, just outside the door... forcing her to draw in a breath and open it all the way. The blind covered windows of the office's wall greeted her, leaving her incapable of glimpsing what might be inside waiting for her, and she stepped out into the center of the patio, glancing over to the right, to the area beside the door. As usual, any access further down that way was cut off by a wall of cluttered objects that resembled a makeshift barricade, including plywood boards, a desk and warning obstacle of sorts.
The roof had even caved down on this section, leaving travel this route an impossibility. She turned back to the left side of the patio, towards the sounds, peering down the farthest side of it. She couldn't glimpse any creature, either on the walls or ceiling climbing... she'd have been able to hear that sound a mile away... but she did catch sight of all the debris piled up against the farthest wall, including a large metal barricade like the ones out on the street that hadn't gotten to be set up. A bunch of closed metal shutters and a locked metal grating door comprised of bars that seemed to lead into some building connected to the sales offices... probably one of the city's many apartment buildings. It certainly seemed like an Umbrella move... hiding their assets in plain sight.
Few would think to venture down here, unless they knew where they were going. Then again, Umbrella had a public image, and she saw the commercials all the time... so either way, being obvious or subtle, seemed to satisfy them. She didn't continue down the corridor, not yet... she didn't like the clicking and buzzing sounds emanating from down there. She knew it entirely likely the thing was waiting for her around the corner in front of the main entrance... and she wasn't about to let it get the drop on her, pounce and drain her all in one go. Instead, moving away from the other creature's remains, she took a kneeling position in the center of the corridor, raising her rifle down her shoulder and peering through the sights, waiting patiently for it to come to her.
Surprisingly... or perhaps not so surprisingly given the blood thirsty nature of these things... it didn't take long for her to wait. Now and again she saw a limb poke out from behind the corner, an arm or leg... even a hairy corner of it's body, but still she didn't fire... a shot to one of its limbs would not be fatal enough for her tastes, so she held her ground, and continued waiting. At last, very slowly, it peaked around the corner... but to Jill's surprise, this one only had one head, and different features. Ah, it was another of the kind she'd stumbled upon dead in the maintenance area. Unfortunately, this second's pause was all it took for the beast to catch side of her, buzz louder and rush around the corner towards her. She readjusted her sights immediately and began spraying the thing's front as it leap up on two feet, the force slowing and propelling it back slightly. At once, she aimed and fired for it's head, followed by it's legs as it bounded closer... and before it could complete it's attempt to pounce, said legs gave out from under it's large form, and it collapsed, crippled, still trying to drag it's self along with it's claws, not yet even realizing it was dead.
For good measure, she shot off both it's front hands, leaving it with it's mutilated, insectoid head face down in it's own fluids. Another thing she had been anticipating for, but it hadn't done, was spitting... it was entirely possible that this was a sub species of the mutation, and was incapable of doing so. Either that, or based on it's slightly smaller size and lighter hue, it was not yet fully developed. Or maybe these ones simply didn't, while the ones that fed on the brains did. Some quirk of the mutations. Either way, she counted it as a blessing. The spit alone was probably more of a risk than it actually getting it's claws, jaws and mandible tongue into a victim. It was as close to lucky as she could get, under the circumstances. She had been about ready to roll out of the way or dive backwards... provided she was fast enough. She watched it squirm in it's liquids awhile longer, taking the time to eject another spent magazine, and pop in a new one.
At the rate she was burning through ammunition, even after scavenging from U.B.C.S. corpses, she'd have to restock back on the train. Still, she was almost certain she had enough left to last her the trip back, as long as there were as few complications as possible. After rising to her feet and reloading, she switched the ammunition toggle to single shot, and rose the rifle again, stepping around the fallen creature, holding her breath near it's remains, especially given the lack of air circulation, and at last finding herself in front of the Umbrella Sales Offices entrance. Like the path beside the prior door, the path off to the side of the entrance was cut short by another barricade similar to the other makeshift one, though including an official R.P.D. warning sign, a trolley or two, and a thick blue tarp obscuring a great deal of the area beyond. Likely cutting off access to the road beyond, and any more infected or mutations.
Jill at last knew she could breath. Take a second. She had made it.
"Finally..."
Lowering the rifle slightly, she caught her breath, glad to be slightly away from the insectoid creature's bodies. Her eyes moved on, studied the office's front door, and she made not a sound... and heard nothing else in the area. The place was so enclosed that even the usual moans in the distance of the streets were no longer as audible... that by it's self was refreshing. She thought back to Hunk's words outside the train, the task he had given her. Somewhere within was an oil additive they needed to escape... but finding it was unlikely to be the problem... the problem was the person probably already inside. The other survivor from the U.B.C.S. and one Hunk seemed to know and distrusted immensely. Although Jill herself could not entirely trust Hunk... she had been able to depend on him this last while, and he had at least given her a reason to do so.
This man on the other hand, this Sergeant Zinoviev, was another story. Something about him had given her the creeps, the way he had looked at her... and then there was the matter of his rudeness, and Hunk's own warnings. Hunk, working for Umbrella, would know things about him, far better than she did... and all in all the situation was not a pleasant one... not that it had ever been one to begin with. She'd go in, and whether he was there or not, she'd recover the oil additive. And if he was there, she'd talk to him, and she'd handle him as she had others... it wouldn't be difficult. It wasn't him she was afraid of... or even who he might have been working for... the only thing that gave her pause was the ends he might have been working towards.
HUNK's end goal was bad enough... recovery and extraction of another destructive bioweapon, a brand new virus. If he of all people didn't like or trust the Sergeant, what he was working toward... it spoke great volumes. If it came to it, she'd have to find out herself, either through him, or asking Hunk further questions, pressing him harder than before. She had promised to have it out with him further, that the subject of the G-Virus wasn't closed... but there was just too much to do right now. Maybe when they reached the clock tower. For now, all she could do was continue on... and she did, grasping the bar handle and pushing it and the door forward, stepping on to an awaiting welcome mat, and into the rather warm, well lit and inviting office. There was even a little potted tree in the corner... and nothing appeared to be trashed, like most the rest of the city. Turning off her flashlight again, she closed the door behind herself with a snap, rifle held loosely and casually when she found nothing waiting for her, to her relief.
Or so she thought. Dared to hope. If only for an instant before reality returned, crushing that hope.
"WAIT!"
Two powerful gunshots rang out immediately, cutting off the man's scream and falling into silence, the echo of the rounds filling the entire office. Briefly freezing Jill on the spot, eyes widening... a survivor, and a voice that she hadn't heard before. She gripped her rifle firmly and rose it again, bursting into a run, ignoring again all the pain it caused, and she tore out of the entrance way of the sales office, running out into the main floor of the office. She had no time to tread carefully, someone needed her.
Jill navigated through the office passing both the blind covered window from earlier, as well as the desks, and she peered down ahead, around the corner of a shelf, where the gunshots had emanated from. She could hear someone breathing around it... maybe she wasn't too late. She weaved around the desks, and when she passed the corner, she stopped where she was, eyes widening a little as she took in the sight before her. Again, that green uniform, black armored vest and metal kneepads with tan pants... and again, red pooling around the body of the former man who wore it all. She was too late.
"Oh God..."
He had been shot twice through the head, staining the rolled up balaclava he wore... his brains splattered against a filing cabinet behind him. The mercenary lay, quite dead, on the floor in front of a desk. He wasn't alone, nor was his the only green and black U.B.C.S. uniform in the room. A silver haired man, all too familiar, and quite alive, stood over the body, next to another window with the blinds closed, looking down at it, the telltale sidearm slid back into his holster. He held a closed laptop down at his side as he peered down at the body as a predator might, and then he crouched down beside it onto his knee, still studying his former compatriots form... the result of his handiwork. His eyes were cold and distant, uncaring and unsympathetic for what he had just done, and Jill had to refrain from gagging at the disgusting result of what had been done.
She felt a coldness of her own swirl through her, an indignation... the man who had been killed was a young one, and he had begged not to be slaughtered... what had this son of a bitch done instead? The exact opposite. She didn't care how pale his face was... or the signs of T-Virus rot... he hadn't asked to be killed. He had still been alive. Murder was murder. Slowly, her rifle was redirected, aiming it at the room's only only living occupant. Her eyes swiveled between the murdered young man and the older Russian Sergeant, and her aghast tone filtered out at once towards him.
"What the fuck were you thinking?!", Jill demanded of him harshly, attempting to steady the anger circulating from within. The instinct to gun him down herself. "Why did you kill him?!"
"I had no choice. He was about to turn into a zombie.", Sergeant Nikolai Zinoviev responded, deep accent quite casual and distant as the look on his face. At last he looked over towards her from where he crouched over the body, acknowledging her presence. He glanced at the rifle pointed his way without a hint of concern. "It would have been a threat, so... I eliminated it."
With that thin justification, Nikolai propped up the laptop on his knee, opened it up, and began typing something onto it at once, occasionally looking back at Jill, or the body it's self. This utter relaxed response, in the wake of killing a live man infuriated Jill to no end, who, although had a million things to say, had trouble getting them out. She found herself struggling with an impulse that nearly overtook her. She was tempted to pull the trigger and shoot him, for the detached manner he possessed, in murdering the young man. But, she could not find it in herself to do as much... not because he didn't deserve it, but because she had a mission to accomplish... and above all, because she wasn't like him. He wasn't pointing a weapon at her in return, yet. At last, she lowered the rifle slightly but kept it ready, found a few more words, and managed to bring them out of her lungs, in spite of the horror she felt.
"Infected or not he was still conscious and didn't want to be shot!"
"He was as good as dead.", Nikolai replied simply, calmly, dismissing her with a slight shrug between typing and peering over at her. His hardened, cold eyes looked a little amused, as though he was speaking to a child, as it had been back on the train. And this condescension only made it harder for Jill to keep control of herself. "And it took fewer bullets to kill him now than it would have if he had transformed."
"Excuse me?"
Jill was briefly dumbfounded by the self justification the Sergeant feigned. That in it's self was the most bullshit, deranged reasoning she had ever heard, she was sure. It took only one bullet to kill zombies, if you were good enough. Although she was disgusted with this Sergeant, she had no doubt he was capable of killing zombies with ease, given how long he had survived thus far. Did he really expect her to buy this? He hadn't used a single shot... he'd shot the man twice in the face. He'd wasted ammunition doing something unnecessarily cruel, instead of saving it doing something merciful.
"One wonders how you were able to join S.T.A.R.S.", Nikolai's voice observed absently, eyes studying the laptop screen closely. Not hiding the ghost of a smile he wore. Mocking her. "With such a fragile nature and weak stomach for the necessities. I suppose they were looking to fill a government mandated gender quota. Small wonder most of you got yourselves killed on your first assignment, and Irons shut the rest of you down in embarrassment."
"You smug son of a bitch! You don't know a goddamn thing about what happened up in those mountains!"
"You'd be surprised what I know, girl."
Her anger swirled further, increasing steadily, outraged at both the murder, and the attempt to treat her like she was stupid or naive. The insult to her fallen team. Implying her weakness. She nearly rose the rifle again... but in the midst of her heated emotions, she again found it difficult to respond to what he had done. Even if Mr Rosso, back at the warehouse, had been infected, conscious and alive, she would not have shot him... or anyone, if they didn't want to be. This young man hadn't wanted to die... and had deserved every precious second of life he could get. Instead, this sadistic bully had robbed him of that, seeing fit to take away his rights. Jill struggled to come up with something to say, something cutting, and proper... but before she could do so, his cold eyes flickered lazily away from the screen again and right back up to her, that same amused smirk evident from before. He beat her to the punch, low, accented tone addressing her presence at last. Going on.
"So, what brings you by, bleeding heart? Last I checked, we all had our separate tasks to be accomplishing. You should be hiding safely at the gas station, about now, while we do something useful. Actually pull our weight. Don't tell me you missed my company."
"Not a goddamn chance.", Jill shot back at once impulsively, hand tightening on the handle of her rifle. She drew in a slow, steadying breath, and continued, trying to regain her cool. Swallow his insults. "I'd sooner spend time with the horde out there."
"You might yet. What is a little girl doing with a gun bigger than she? It must have been Corporal Oliveira, ever eager to impress a lady. Or what he thinks passes for one, not realizing her eyes linger elsewhere.", Nikolai smirked right back at her cold look, still typing away freely. He stopped only for a moment, looking as though he was considering something within, then went on. Tone no less sly then before. "Or perhaps it was your Mr Death, for that matter. Don't tell me, let me guess... he put you up to this, to check up on me. Make sure I was doing my job, didn't he?"
Jill started to shoot something else right back, to tell him he was goddamn right, and where he could go stick that laptop of his. But she froze herself on the spot, remembering what Hunk had told her about revealing information to the man in front of her. She hated it, hated herself for going along with it, had so much she wanted to say... but ultimately, she held her tongue for the moment, and simply stared, unblinking, right back at the son of a bitch. She couldn't give him more information than she already had as she suspected, he took her silence as all the answer he needed.
"Ah... silence. That's enough confirmation there, girl. I should have known he would resort to such measures... he never did trust me."
"Can't imagine why."
"I'm more impressed with his cleverness than I am irritated with him. How smart of him to send the smitten girl with the target on her back to watch me... to employ her as his personal spy. That way, if your friend in the coat comes to get you, he will take out the both of us... two birds with one stone, if you will. And even if it does not, then he will definitely retrieve the oil additive with the both of us working together. Have to hand it to him, I'd do the same thing. He moves his chess pieces well. The danger your presence poses outweighs, by far, your usefulness. Sending you away is the smart thing to do... particularly considering the soft spot he clearly possesses for you. You weaken him, just being around. And here I almost thought he no longer had a man's desires. Blondes have usually been his type. No doubt the... er... uniform helped you there. Of course you can always dye."
On that note, Nikolai offered her a very slight, very knowing wink. Eyes gleaming with mocking knowledge. Jill's eyes widened a bit at this, lips parting, and she looked away from the disgusting man, and the implications he rose about Hunk. Both implications. Feeling a warmth creeping up the back of her neck, touching her face slightly. As horrible as some of his actions were, the U.S.S. Agent had more honor than this mercenary filth ever would. And yet... it stabbed her like a knife, his words, filling her with doubt, uncertainty, as had no doubt been his intent to accomplish. She didn't truly know Hunk... and if he would use her like this, keep her away from the group, so the Pursuer only posed a threat to her, and not to the rest of them. He had assured her they would kill the Tyrant, together... had given his word, had asked her to trust him. She wanted to... dear God she did. She wanted someone she could trust, in a place like this.
Despite wanting this, more than ever, she wished she could have overheard his words to his Umbrella contact, back at the parking garage... part of her just didn't know. She couldn't fully trust Hunk, and couldn't trust this Sergeant in the least. Nikolai had a look of satisfaction on his cruel features, pleased to have gotten to her... to have sown doubt and uncertainty... and she again felt the impulse to shoot him for it, for his fear tactics. The other implication... was one she herself had had an inkling about before, since they had met. At least... since the apartment. A supposed... soft spot. She shook her head... she couldn't ponder that one right now, while she was filled with turmoil. She couldn't get into those complicated feelings. Instead, she turned back to peer at his features, and found both her voice and her words, tone cold and steady, unmoved by what he had just done.
"Regardless of his intentions, it's a damn good thing he sent me. You'd have screwed things up for us one way or another... clearly he needed someone competent enough to handle it. That's me. I make mistakes like the next person, but I'm not some kind of murderer, shooting unarmed men in cold blood. Using the mental gymnastics of a sociopath to excuse it. Now, I've had enough of your bullshit. Where the hell is the oil additive?"
"Ah... there's some fire in you. I like that. But you are correct... time is wasting. Tick tock. It's already night... the S.T.A.R.S. are out, and falling quite rapidly."
Nikolai smirked more deeply, expression all too knowing with the words, before turning entirely away from her. Back at the lap top screen, typing something rather rapidly. Before Jill could speak up again, confront him, he spoke absently, visibly detaching himself from the situation, not having had much care for it one way or another, clearly.
"What you seek is in a chemical storage room, just past the desks... quite locked, I'm afraid. You'll have to figure out the password yourself. I'd start by looking for scraps of paper lying around here, left over from the abandoning of this place. By all means, go ahead. I won't stop you. As a matter of fact, when you get done, I would be more than glad to escort you back to the gas station. I'm sure we'll have plenty to discuss along the way. As a gentleman, I would so hate to see such a helpless lady without someone to protect her. Happy hunting, Officer Valentine."
Jill wasn't so sure he wouldn't, but with that, Nikolai didn't bother looking up at her again, no matter how long Jill stood there staring at the bastard. He was back to his own little world, whatever he was up to... and as far as Jill was concerned, he could stay there and rot. She was incensed by his insults to her team, his hints at her incompetence... the same thing he had done back at the train... and it took all her effort not to shout at him. To keep the argument going. Demand he tell her what he knew. She looked back over to the body of the young soldier... and while she wanted to go over and recover his dog tags as she had the others, she in no way wanted to get closer to the Sergeant peering over the body like a vulture. Hell, she didn't even want to turn her back fully on the man or be anywhere near him... especially not after this, and when she had to take the coward back to Hunk... so she didn't. She'd recover the tags later, after she retrieved the oil additive.
She regretted not finding the courage to ask HUNK to come with her.
In the meantime, as much as she hated just getting on with it as though nothing had just happened... she had no choice but to do so. She looked around the area of the sales office around her, and her eyes caught onto another filing cabinet, just off to the side of the desks the dead U.B.C.S. soldier lay before, and close to a green chalk board covered in writing. It was opened slightly, and it looked like someone had been rummaging through it... she could spot a piece of paper poking out of it. So, slinging her rifle, she went over to it, stepping into the radius of a fan blowing cool air from atop the cabinet, shifting her bangs slightly. Reaching into the cabinet, she pulled it free, eyes narrowing as she silently read the document carefully.
Order Sheet
Under careful study, it has been determined the Liquid Medicine named VT-J98 is suitable to cultivate the NE-T type Virus further. Therefore, with our testing operations expanding, at this critical juncture we need to order additional quantities of it. Unfortunately, Director Henri has been preoccupied of late. She cannot be counted on and time is too pressing to go by the usual channels.
We are taking the initiative in her stead. For the good of the company. The Board of Directors will thank us when we succeed in our project's breakthrough.
Her favorite lapdog has set out on another mission. His watchful eyes are trained elsewhere, so there is nothing to be concerned about with this being traced back, or reprisals. Send another shipment of the medicine through the Colonel's connections at Charles de Gaulle Airport with all due haste.
Yours In Gratitude, Senior Fellow Frankl.
Umbrella Europe, Paris Facility, Loire Village, Sixth Laboratory.
It was a business fax of sorts, relating to chemicals and Umbrella, of course. While it made her wonder, particularly about this so called NE-T virus they spoke of, it gave her no information to work with in regards to the oil additive. Jill's lips thinned as she reread it... she didn't like it. Umbrella Europe? If it truly was the European branch of Umbrella... it made her think about Chris again, out there on his own in the fight against Umbrella, while she struggled to escape this hell. She wished more than ever that she could have gone with him to Europe, abandoned it all... but her conscience had not allowed her to do so. Someone had needed to stay behind, and tend to the area the virus had first infested, recover all possible information and warn and save everyone she possibly could. She didn't know how he was doing out there... or if he was even alive, but she was sure he was ok. He had more than the means and skills to survive... they both did. The mansion was proof enough. She just hoped by the time she had got out of here, Chris had uncovered some leads for them to see through. She had faith in her partner.
It sounded like the Sixth Laboratory was making a power play behind their boss's back. The Colonel referred to was likely Colonel Vladimir... she didn't know much of him, her investigation had mostly been elsewhere, but he was said to be the commander and founder of the U.B.C.S. Likely had other positions to in the company, that was merely his official one. If he was their commander, where the hell was he while his men died? She had never heard of 'Director Henri'... but supposed it was another name on her list she could look up after all this. Chris might know, from all his time in Europe. And perhaps the identity of her so called... 'lapdog'. This was good information she could work with, down the line. A head start, even now.
Jill pulled out a small stack of documents related to this business fax, previous ones, which she absently skimmed through, including one filed from Raccoon General Hospital, of all places. From one 'Dr Nathaniel Bard'. She spotted familiar and rather telling words, like Umbrella, NEST, and Vaccination Trials... at the last one, she wanted to stop and read it all, but couldn't for two reasons. One, the oil additive still needed securing... and two, she could spot Nikolai watching her from the corner of her eye and his. She could feel the heat of his gaze... and wasn't about to stay near him any longer than she had to be. Her back to him. Instead, she opted to fold them all up and tuck them out of sight in her pouch... she would read them all later, when she got a chance. And bring it to Hunk's attention, if need be. Maybe he knew more about the documents, and the names involved. If he was liable to share anything more with her. She glanced back over to Nikolai, whose cold smirk had only deepened, and her eyes narrowed with annoyance.
Jill stepped away from this filing cabinet area that was hidden off to the side of the main office space, and she moved out of his sight, thankfully, returning to the area all the cluttered desks were concentrated. She glanced back over to the doorway to the entrance she had come through, and more than ever wanted to go back outside, and return to the gas station... she wished she could, but couldn't return home empty handed. She looked over towards the eastern wall of the office, taking note of what she hadn't when she had run inside the sales office, another door. Though unlike the one at the entrance this one was a closed and locked automated metal door, no doubt to the chemical storage room, a danger sign imprinted on to it. A red light on it's keypad flickered, indicating it was indeed sealed. She didn't bother walking over there, Instead, she started her search through the office, looking among the desks, each of them, pushing things off and making plenty of noise, not much caring.
She broke a cup, pushed some chairs out of the way and threw aside irrelevant TPS reports. But she did pause when she saw a framed picture, of a young woman, an employee no doubt, with her husband and children... her family. Jill studied it for a long moment, picking it up as she did so. She didn't know the woman who worked at the offices... what she did for Umbrella, whether she had ruined any lives, or been a good person... but she did hope the woman's children were ok, that they had all made it out of the city before the outbreak had worsened. Just as she hoped the Birkin's daughter would somehow get away. By now, Jill believed she knew the name of Sherry's mother. Remembered. Annette, according to article about her in The Raccoon Press. Jill had cut out the article... in her investigations. But then, she had just been another Umbrella scientist to Jill.
The details had been purposefully scant on the seemingly kindly, blonde woman in a lab coat, her connection to the Umbrella funded Raccoon City Orphanage... and there had been no mention of her husband. She had been visiting the children of the orphanage for scientific discussions, according to the article. All of the pieces seemed to be coming together now, in hindsight. No doubt the humanitarianism had been a facade. On her part and Irons', who had been the main public benefactor in charge of the orphanage... she remembered all the good press he had received for it. She wondered how much it had cost Umbrella to buy his soul, and when it had started. If he even had on left by that point. The sick bitch had probably been experimenting on the children at the orphanage. Taking them down to NEST for her husband and her to use a guinea pigs. As bad as her husband. They had belonged together.
How could two thoroughly evil people create a child like Sherry?
Family... even mad scientists had them, it seemed. Jill wished she could have afforded the same luxury... but all that seemed to lie in her future was the giant shadow of Umbrella. And all she had left was her dad... such as he was. Relatively safe where he resided. Maybe one day, when it was all over, if she survived it. Though honestly, what man in their right mind would want someone as damaged and fucked up as she was? As she would especially be, after all this? She released a slight, bitter laugh, shaking her head. What a cruel joke Umbrella had made of her life... a life that could have been normal and happy. Where she had finally found contentment and purpose... only for the rug to be pulled out from under her at the Arklay Mountains.
Jill set back the picture frame in it's original spot, and resumed her search. She was there for perhaps fifteen minutes searching, when, turning her attention over to the area the security door was. In the section of the office in front of it, six desks had been pulled together, close to a dry erase white marker board over against the wall, each of them as cluttered as the rest... ad she began studying them. Fortunately, it didn't take long to find any results... on the surface of the desk closest to her lay another report, quite different from the others she had been studying, beside a television remote. She scooped up the report in her hands, and she began to pore over it at once, lips moving as she read it quietly. There was far more to this one than the order sheet... and considering the title, it made a great deal of sense.
Manager's Report
Before you begin your new position, please allow me to give you some advice. Some of the medicine in the storage room are unstable and their quality will deteriorate under changing temperatures or humidity. Therefore, you must remember to keep the temperature the same in the storage room at all times. You should personally check it everyday. Although the computer checks it around the clock, a machine is not perfect. Try and remember that a machine is no more than a tool to be used by people. You must check all personnel coming and going to the storage room.
Many dangerous drugs are stored there, if any of them are missing you have a serious problem on your hands. The door to the storage room is always locked, but when you let personnel into it, you will need to have them hand in their documents. And above all else, remember that if you find anything suspicious, contact your boss immediately. If you forget the password to lock the door, try and remember that is is a word that everyone is familiar with. Don't forget that once a new product is shipped, the password will be updated again. You can always enter the password from the terminal of the PC for administration.
Jill read it a couple more times, taking in all the information, before setting it aside again with a sigh. Terrific... it was 'guess the password' time. Precisely what she needed, on top of everything else wrong. Her eyes turned to the closest computer on the desks, the desk over from the one holding the report, and she reluctantly took the seat in front of it... she was probably going to be there awhile, there was no sense not getting comfortable as possible. Her leg was killing her, the longer she stood around, and what little relief it could get was bound to pay off inevitably. She tapped the ON button on the PC and it slowly began to boot up... before bringing her to the main screen full of icons on the administration computer. She searched among them, then, spotting one titled 'Security System', she clicked it a couple times, and watched as a few images of the security door and it's layout came up, and the text rolled up before her on the illuminated screen.
Umbrella Security System
First Class
Medical Storage Room:
Security Authorization
Current Status: Locked
Please enter password and then press the RETURN key.
Enter Password:
She studied the screen, for a time, lost in her own consideration... it could have been anything, the password. A word everyone was familiar with... it left far too many possibilities open, and she could have ended up in front of that screen for hours, with no results. The only way she had, the only option, was to get started, and hope for the best. First thing was first, the most obvious word. She moved her hands over to the keyboard and typed in 'Umbrella', feeling a little foolish doing it, before hitting the Return key as prompted. Only to receive, quite predictably, another message, and one she knew she'd be seeing a lot of.
'Incorrect Password, Please Try Again'.
She shook her head slowly, and thought of another... it had to be Umbrella related, the password... nothing else would make sense. She typed in a name, next... 'Spencer'. President of the company... the sick old bastard was known of by every employee in the company, and particularly by Jill... having stumbled blindly through the first testing grounds for the T-Virus that had been his mansion. She didn't know where the maniac was hiding... but if Chris didn't find him before Jill did, they would find him together one day... of that she had vowed after the mansion incident. The man responsible, for the most part, for all of this. She typed it in, part of her almost believing, or hoping, that it would be the answer, and that the security door would respond... it didn't, of course, and remained as locked as ever.
Jill tried 'Marcus' next... then 'Ashford', other prominent names she had researched connected to Umbrella. The other founding members... the Ashford family had been simple to find details on, where it had been exceedingly difficult to find anything on Marcus. Rebecca had steered Jill in the right direction on him... had told her about the Ecliptic Express... Marcus's assassination a decade prior... the leeches... and brief return from the grave. In a manner of speaking. Rebecca had told her a great deal, one hell of a journey she'd had to undertake alone. What she had managed to survive even before the Spencer Mansion... but Jill couldn't help but think the girl had been holding back some of the details. It was fine... she wasn't sure how she was going to explain all this to the others either. Least of all HUNK. Each of the names were incorrect. She tried 'Arklay' next, the mountains... again, everyone around here knew about them, even before the incident there... they were apart of the town's history.
Again, no such luck.
She remained at the monitor for some time, trying everything she could think of... she even tried a name of the head of NEST... Sherry's father, Hunk had informed her details of. Creator of the Golgotha sample HUNK now carried, and insane enough to inject himself with such a creation... to cause all this. As usual,it didn't work. Neither did the word 'Tyrant', which in hindsight made sense... this was not a bioweapons facility, the employees probably had no idea what B.O.W.S. were. They simply managed simple day to day business. She was close to giving up, at the end of her rope... about ready to whip out her grenade launcher and shoot the sole shell through the door... but she could not risk potentially damaging anything within the storage area... she had no idea the positioning of things within.
Instead, sighing, she buried her face in her hand, pinching the bridge of her nose tiredly. Maybe she had been wrong about agreeing to come here and do this for Hunk. Maybe her pride had gotten the better of her, her desire to pull more than her own weight. Securing the gas station and it's contents would have been enough, as well as defending it while the others procured their own pieces to the train. Hell, she almost wished she was back out there in the streets fighting the zombies and mutations... at least it wasn't boring. She hadn't been there too long, and already she couldn't bear the place... how anyone took office jobs, she'd never understand. Yet, it was the typing sounds of Nikolai, out of sight, that brought her back, as well as the image of the young man's corpse. That was enough to remind her why she had taken up this task.
She tapped her fingers absently on the surface of the desk, staring back at the screen, and then sideways. Back to the report she had read, studying it from the side... but all of a sudden, she stopped tapping when she spotted it. Not the report, or the words in it... but the black television remote sitting on the desk along side it. She looked between the television remote, and over to the corner of the ceiling, to the side of the chemical storage door... spotting the TV set, and her thoughts began to reform. Of course... it had been right in front of her, and she hadn't truly thought about it.
She had believed the password would be something more complicated... but maybe, just maybe... she was wrong. She rose from the seat, wincing slightly at the pain, and took up the remote, aiming it over at the television set in the corner and switching it on. Part of her expected the broadcasting channel to be knocked out... but even if it was, it didn't matter... for a commercial played continuously on a loop on this particular set, as was undoubtedly the intention of the manager. A medicine commercial, with a beautiful young blonde woman in a white dress walking on camera and smiling as soothing music of sorts played. The Umbrella logo shone in the bottom left corner of the screen. In the back ground of the young woman, was both a relaxing, serene forest, as well as some boxes and bottles of the medicine floating around her on the screen. It wasn't so much the commercial Jill paid attention to, she had seen it on television with all the other Umbrella medicine commercials a thousand times, as it was the words, bold ones in blue and red text.
The Common Cure
Safsprin
IN STORE NOW
It was a simple, straightforward commercial. Better than the blonde bimbo in a swimsuit and stockings they used for the Aqua Cure commercials and billboards, at least. Umbrella's media department knew how to pander to just about everyone with their products.
Well, it was certainly worth a try. At this point she was about ready to start guessing colors. She went back over to the desk after switching off the television and tossing aside the remote, and moved her fingers to the keyboard again. She typed in the password, holding her breath, and hit the Return key another time... and... eureka. It worked. The text on the computer went blank, replaced by more of it rolling over the screen, all of which Jill took in.
Password: Confirmed
Room Access: Confirmed
Deactivating Lock.
Please Wait...
Current Status: Unlocked.
As the computer accepted the password, Jill uttered a low breath at this, and shook her head, actually smiling, relieved to be done with it. She heard a sound then from ahead, emanating from the security door, and she looked up past the desk over to it. There was a beep, and the red glowing light on the door keypad turned blue. Then there was a clicking as the locks within the door retracted, and the blue glow turned green, leaving the door accessible. She chuckled a little, a rare laugh from her, and drew back from the computer and desk, leaving it on just in case. There was no reaction from Nikolai, save his continued typing... and she wasn't about to go talk to him about it. She was already dreading the trip back to the gas station with him. She stepped around the desks, the white marker board and the television that had saved her, and she moved quickly to the door, gripping the handle and popping the door open, stepping inside a narrow corridor.
Rather than drawing her rifle in this more confined space, she drew her Samurai Edge from it's holster and activated her flashlight, closing the door behind herself as she peered down it. It felt good holding her sidearm again. It may not have possessed the firepower of the rifle, she acknowledged, holding it in both hands and aiming ahead of herself coolly, keeping an ear pealed... but she was more used to it by far than any other weapon at her disposal. That, and she was gradually running lower on ammunition for the rifle, with only a couple magazines for it left... her pistol ammunition on the other hand was plentiful.
As it turned out, the area was longer than she had thought, and there were no chemicals directly behind the door. If she had wanted to, she probably could have blown down the door with her grenade launcher... but again, she hadn't known... and she supposed it would have been a waste anyways, no matter how satisfying. The corridor was quite dimly lit... nothing her flashlight couldn't take care of, but it was more the unwelcoming sensation of the place that bothered her. A pair of railings led down either side of the hall... and part way down, against the wall she spotted a steam pipe of sorts. A small jet of the stuff smoking out of it, like a kettle, but not too powerfully.
She continued along, boots tapping on the tiled floor along the way, glimpsing the corner at the far end, and making her path there. Upon reaching the corner, she didn't pass around it at once, rather paused beside it, spotting a second steam pipe ahead, and she rose her gun, listening over the sounds of the steam. When she heard nothing more above it, no all too familiar moans, she whirled around the corner, aiming her pistol and shining her light around it... to little avail. There was nothing around the corner, besides the end of the corridor, and two separate stacks with three rows of chemicals and medicine containers of the storage room. There were some warning and no smoking signs on the far wall... and it was even well lit in here, negating her flashlight, but she didn't bother turning it off. Instead, she lowered the pistol down to her side and stepped forward slowly, looking among the rows of chemicals, jars and boxes lining the walls shelves.
She looked among each of the labels, starting with the right hand wall... and although she didn't find the oil additive among these particular chemicals, she did spot some jars of gun powder. Always handy, of course. Unfortunately, she was already carrying quite a bit as it was, and adding the three jars would only make things difficult... not in regards to weight, but to maneuverability. As such, she left them and everything else on those three rows where they were, and started with the left hand shelf instead, searching from top to bottom. As it turned out, quite unsurprisingly, the oil additive, in a small orange plastic container that looked like it should be holding bleach instead of oil, was among the last items among the rows, at the far end, down near a stack of boxes.
She grabbed it by the handle and examined it closely, entirely satisfied, now that she had her hands at last upon her item. There was only one contained of it here, she noted... making it a damn good thing Hunk had sent her here to recover it. In case this Nikolai had had any ideas about sabotaging their efforts, or making off with it for his own uses. At this point, she wouldn't put it past him to do so... for all she knew, he had already gathered up all the necessary items to get the train going, and was intending to use this one as the final piece, and make off with the train while the rest of them were searching for their own parts. Probably even shoot Captain Viktor, considering the ease with which he had executed the young mercenary. No, she couldn't trust Hunk entirely... but she could trust him a damn sight more than she could the Russian... and that was saying something. Hunk was rightly cautious... but what Nikolai had brought up about him continued to bother her, fill her with an unpleasant feeling. Was he just using her, in the end? Manipulating her as a spy, using her to recover the parts?
It seemed there always had to be something aimed to fill her with doubt, in spite of what he had done, saving her life back there. To what ends had he done it? She wished she could just pick one... to trust him, or not trust him... one or the other, but it was both, at this point. Nikolai was the immediate danger, and she'd have to watch herself on the journey back through the city with him... but in the end, Hunk could well prove to be the ultimate danger to her. Even with the Pursuer on her trail, it's goal was clear and relentless, eliminating her... but it was incapable of manipulating her... the same could be said of nobody else. At this point, she was starting to trust Carlos the most, a straight forward, simple young man. Although he was a bit immature for her tastes, and not possessing the particular interest in him as he might have in her... she did not believe him capable of deceit or betrayal.
There was no coldness to him, or a calculating nature... all he wanted to do was survive and help others, like her. Whereas the others had different goals, and each of which could potentially harm many people in their way. All she could do was what she had been doing... not turn her back to either of them, and watch them carefully, and wait. For now, she couldn't waste any more time. She tucked away the oil additive into Rebecca's medical bag and closing it up again, tightening the strap and securing it into place. Then turned on her boot heel and made her way out of the chemical storage room and back to the corridor, stepping around the corner slowly, gun still comfortably at her side. She was no more than a few steps down the hall, when a man's scream rang out in the distance, muffled from the door she had closed behind her, but unmistakable.
Nikolai.
She rose her pistol and was about to charge down the hall and back out into the sales office to investigate, when ahead of her, the door burst open with a bang. In stumbled in a large group of the the familiar, rotting and shuffling forms she was so used to seeing. As their moans echoed through the corridor, and they caught sight of her, she knew her break from the monsters had been too long. Their arrival long overdue. Jill took careful aim, and shot two of them in the head from down the hall, no small feat with a pistol from this distance. But the next several rounds merely slammed into some of their bodies, barely slowing them down in the least, as they continued inexorably towards her. She stopped firing as they neared the steam pipe, and glancing at it, the small trail of steam emanating from it, the idea occurred to her and she went through with it at once.
"Time I let off some steam anyways..."
She aimed at it, and waited a few seconds for the group to reach it, and when they did so, she put a round through it. The bullet hole caused a large powerful jet of hot steam to shoot out of it and scorch some of the creatures closest to it, driving them backwards from the momentum, stumbling among each other, moans echoing through the entire corridor. With them distracted, Jill moved up the hall closer to them, standing behind the jet of steam and using it as a momentary barrier, taking the time to aim through it and gun down a couple more of the creatures. Unfortunately, the jet of steam ran short pretty quickly, and a former young woman, barely past being a teenager, lunged forward towards Jill, blonde hair whipping every which way. Jill dodged out of the way of the creature's grip, and while it was disorientated, she kicked it squarely in the stomach. It may not have driven any wind from her, but it did drive her back against the wall, where Jill kept her pinned, aiming the pistol up at her face and shooting her through it, the spray coming out against the wall behind her and dripping down it. Staining Jill's boot. The body twitched, but still Jill held it in place, turning the gun on the spot back down the corridor, where the other zombies were reorganized. No more than a few meters from her by now.
Holding her breath, taking careful aim, she shot the closest one through the head, then the next and the next, bodies dropping all over the corridor and littering it. She let them each get a little closer, one after another, ensuring each head shot counted. It wasn't easy, the way they shambled and moved about. By the time she was done killing every infected in the corridor, she had emptied the entire magazine, and still she could hear moans from out of sight, from back in the sales office. She ejected the spent magazine and drew another magazine and slid it into place, locking and loading it. There was no telling how many of them were in the offices... how had they gotten in? The place had been secure... at least from her initial survey. The last thing she needed was a horde slowing her down now that she actually had her hands on the oil additive. Jill lowered her boot from the dead creature she had been pinning, and it slid to the floor with the others, no longer twitching, as several of them were still doing.
Jill navigated around each corpse still twitching, not particularly wanting to risk one of them grabbing her by the leg, but the others she was assured were quite dead she walked right over top of. The blood was thick in the corridor, her boots nearly sliding on it, and she made her way past the steam pipe, and down towards the opened door. She paused beside the corner, raising her pistol in both hands again and listening closely... still there were the moans, yet no sounds from Nikolai , other than the scream earlier. But, there was another sound... that of flesh being devoured... a muffled slurping she was far too used to hearing. Drawing in another breath, she span around the corner, stepping through the door-frame, intent on clearing the area. She took but a moment to survey the condition of the room, and the threats... the first ones she saw was a trio just past the desks, relatively spread about the room. They moaned and began shuffling in her direction the moment they caught the sight of her... but for the moment, they were not her immediate threat.
Just off to the left side of the door, a couple zombies in equally rotted condition, one in a tattered tan sweater, the other in a shredded green shirt, rose their arms and staggered towards her. If she hadn't reacted at once, they would have been right on top of her and ate her alive. She shot the first one through the forehead and kicked it out of the way, where it slammed among the desks, turning over reports and breaking one of the computers, and the other moved forward to get her, unfettered by the other's demise. It tried to grab her when it got in close, but again she ducked out of the way, and she shot it through the back of the skull... and before it even hit the ground she spun on her heel and took aim at the other three. Another trio of timed, calculated rapports echoing through the entire sales office, leaving the barrel of her gun smoking.
"Eat it you bastards..."
They too fell among the desks, slamming into the floor and bleeding profusely... one of them, whose brain she missed, attempted to crawl towards her, it's mutilated face peering blankly up at her, jaw snapping open and closed, it's moans unceasing. She was about to finish the job with her pistol... but instead opted for another way, walking over to it, and she slammed her heel down on the back of it's neck, breaking it with ease. It's face was pressed down into the floor, head bent at an unnatural angle... and she released her boot from it with contempt. Most of the room was secure, but there was still the tell tale slurping and feasting on flesh, coming from Nikolai's former position, off behind the filing cabinets, just out of her sight. Her heart sank a bit in her chest, as she rounded the desks, stepped over the other bodies and passed the administration PC she had used before... and she paused at the corner of the filing cabinets. Eyes narrowing, she spun around the corner, to find four of the infected huddled together, sure enough, eating a corpse they were obscuring her view of.
Without the slightest hesitation, she walked up quickly behind them. Although each was too distracted with their meal to notice her, the earlier rapports of her Beretta not shaking them away from this feast. She shot each of the four through the back of the head, one after another as she had the ones at the warehouse, her expression cold and calm as she did so, not frightened by the creatures, but angered. Though she'd stopped fearing these things, in most circumstances... they made her furious, more often than not. Even as the gunshots echoed in what remained of their ears, still, they didn't even so much as look up at her. The blood and flesh caking their mouths and teeth, dripping down their shriveled, rotting lips. When the were all at last truly dead, Jill began gradually kicking them aside out of the way, to study the body they had been feasting on... and, to her surprise, it was not the one she had expected it to be.
This body wore the green and black uniform, yes... but it had been shot twice through the head, before these things had begun their feast. The young mercenary, from earlier, with oozing, savage bite wounds out of each of his limbs. But if he was there, then why wasn't Nikolai? It had been his screams. Jill's eyes moved over the floor past the young, partially devoured man, noting all the glass shards on the ground, as well as the shattered remains of the window and blinds.
"Where the hell did he go?"
She stepped over to the window carefully, past the small pile of bodies, and looked out it into the night, into the patio around the sales office. Over on this side of the office, she saw past the makeshift barricades, and out into the streets, where the creatures had come from. She could glimpse more of them in the distance, part of the horde, but they could not spot her from her current position. There were trails and spatters of red blood trickled along the pathway and road out into the main street. Still she saw no second body belonging to the Sergeant, or any groups of them together feasting on the other body, instead they all stood limply, shuffling around, their usual dazed selves. She pondered it for some time... and the best she could come up with was that he had been dragged off. Likely not from the zombies, but from one of the mutations.
Zombies didn't drag people very far, preferring to feast on them on the spot, or close to the spot... one of the fast, powerful mutations on the other hand? For all she knew he had been dragged up to the rooftops by a Licker or one of the insectoid creatures, and was being eaten alive already... or whatever else such things did to their victims. She heard nothing but the whistling of the wind, the distant moans of the hordes... neither confirming or denying her theory. Jill felt odd, in light of what had just happened... not long before, she had been tempted to kill the Sergeant herself... but now she felt, what? Pity? Unpleasantness? As horrible as he had been, and part of him most certainly deserved what he got... he had also... not deserved it entirely. It was hard to say anyone deserved what the mutations did to them. He had been a very strange, calculated, cruel man, one she didn't trust or like in the least... but, nevertheless she had come around that corner and shot the creatures she had thought feasting on him. She had still been willing to help him, when it was too late.
"Did what I could. More than he would have for me. Not my fault."
Why? Why did she bother with people like him, trying to help the people who didn't deserve an ounce of her effort? Even as they mocked her, tried to make her out to be weak or foolish. She had no clue... it had been that same part of her that had kept her in Raccoon City, attempting to warn Chief Irons, and anyone else she could, about what the situation was becoming, and how to remedy it. Despite the futility. It was in her nature to help the ungrateful and the grateful, no matter how much she preferred the latter. It was why she was a cop anyways, of course... but she wished she could turn that side of herself off for awhile, especially towards the Russian bastard. Part of it was that she had failed her mission slightly... she was supposed to escort him back to the gas station, as much as she hadn't been looking forward to that. She doubted Hunk would mind much in the least at the news of the Sergeant's demise... Carlos was likely to be another story, having spent the last couple days fighting and working at the man's side.
And yet, despite the unpleasantness she felt, a small part of her was equally relieved... she didn't want to be watching her back around Nikolai , as she surely would have been. And who knew what he had planned for her before this had happened? For all she knew, he would have tried to kill her on the way, and either make off, or return with the oil additive alone, and claim she had been killed by the horde or another creature. Mixed feelings about the situation, of course... that was all she ever seemed to feel about things, as of late... even towards Umbrella, of all things. Due mostly to Hunk and Carlos, how different they behaved, not seemingly being mere company goons. There was little left here she could do... the Sergeant was gone, leaving only four survivors and one less gun against the horde... or so she currently believed. One of the four was in critical condition, and strong as the others were, there was no telling what condition they were currently in, what creatures they may have run into already.
She couldn't fight to save the dead... but she could fight for those few that were left. That, and she could pay the dead the respect they were due. Jill turned on her heel, looking down into the eyes of the murdered and posthumously devoured young U.B.C.S. mercenary... she'd already seen a lot of people die in her time, but it never really got easier. She knelt low, beside his body, in the same position Nikolai had with his laptop earlier, though her intent much more respectful than his. She grasped the chain around his neck and tugged it off... that made three so far, and likely many more, before the night was done. In the well lit interior of the sales office, her eyes narrowed a little, and she read the tag.
Seeker, Murphy, Private 4414-16274-A-T7-44 USMC
The Marine Corps... she hadn't thought one so young would have his kind of training... but then youth was too often underestimated. She had joined the army young. She believed she was gaining some insight into how Umbrella recruited it's mercenaries... each of the tags she had collected were not the same, but rather, came from different branches of military. So, they did indeed recruit former soldiers of all types for their tasks, and let them hold on to their past, as opposed to making a new set of tags for them. It made sense... Umbrella had little to hide in regards to it's U.B.C.S. branch, an official and legal military branch... there was nothing top secret about them. At least compared to Umbrella Security Service. They took in nearly anyone, offered them a second chance, according to the diary she had found before.
It was cruel and clever. What convicted, jailed man was going to question the company, when given the chance to get back out into the world again, and fight for a cause... or for pleasure? This extra insight only made her all the more curious... where had Nikolai come from before he had been recruited? Where had they all come from? What had they been before all this? Most of her curiosity applied to Hunk, of course. She could at least give a decent guess about the others... but him? Not so much. But, there was another matter... that of the young man's name. Murphy Seeker... Murphy... had she not heard Carlos mention that name before? She didn't quite remember, with how many things were vying for her attention... but she wouldn't be surprised if he had known the man, of course. She'd find out soon enough. She looked down one final time into the young man's blank, helpless eyes, taking a moment to reach down and close them... and she sighed, tucking away the dog tags with the others.
"Semper fi, Private Seeker."
There was nothing more to be done... but at the very least, she was exactly that, done, and could finally regroup with Hunk and Carlos. She didn't like being out here on her own, no matter how well she could do it, already she missed the welcome interior of the train station. Where all the equipment, weapons, barricades and defenses were. If there was one relatively safe place in the city, that was it... for the time being. She hoped the Captain was doing ok on his own there... yet another reason she would have to double time it back. His wounds had looked terrible... and could only have gotten worse in all the time it had taken her to do all this. With the remaining survivors in mind, hoping their number wouldn't dwindle an further, she took up her Beretta again. She looked away from the mercenary and pile of other bodies, stepping past them and around the filing cabinet, back to the main floor of the sales office.
Her eyes turned off in the direction of the main entrance of the office, and she stared moving towards it, noting the other window had been smashed open, revealing the patio up to the entrance. She was tempted to climb out the window, and bypass the sick smelling bodies of the mutations, but with all the glass shards along the window, and the fact it was a high mantle, she couldn't risk injuring her leg any further. Instead she turned away from it and returned to the entrance, stepping onto the welcome mat... but before she could leave, she spotted a human shape out of the corner of her eye, lunging at her from beside the plant pot holding the little tree. She narrowly ducked out of the way of another former woman's reach, as she moaned out hungrily. Jill instinctively aimed a vicious kick to the back of her knee, collapsing her legs out from under her. Raising the Samurai Edge and spraying her brains against the welcome mat before she even got a chance to rise.
That had been a close one, she could admit... often times, the individual ones that unintentionally were concealed were more a threat than an oncoming horde. The element of surprise was often the most dangerous maneuver possible. Brushing aside some of her bangs absently, she stepped over the mat and former woman and gripped the handle... it was back to the less than well lit alleyways for her. Although she was glad to be done with her business at the sales office, she didn't much look forward to that, to everything out there waiting for her. She pulled open the door and stepped out, holding her breath when clean fresh air didn't greet her... rather, the green gore and biomass. She limped past the body, around the corner, and then past the other blown apart multi limbed thing, rushing towards the man made barricade cutting off the alley, and above all, to the door out of the patio.
She moved quickly through it, and into the dark alley, closing the door behind her with a snap, flashlight illuminating the way for her. At last, she stopped holding her breath, and paused, simply savoring the coolness, the refreshing wind. It occurred to her then that she hadn't taken a breather in some time, even back there on the computer terminal, she'd not truly been resting, too stressed over her task and recovering the password to do as much. Now that she was done it, she more than deserved a small one... but not here, in the middle of a dark alley she could get ambushed in. Instead, she made her way down the corridor to the far end, grasping the door handle and pushing through, and returning to the forked alley with the fire hydrant. It was over there she went, past the fence dividing the pathways, a well as the dumpster, and she paused between the fire hose and the fully activated hydrant. She was almost tempted, watching droplets of water drip off the hose, to have some for herself... but more than knew the likelihood said water was already contaminated, being connected to the city reservoir.
Instead, she thankfully had an alternative, the canteen Carlos had given her.
She'd almost forgotten she was even carrying it, at various points in her journey, ignoring her bodily requirements. But not now, and not here where she could take five in relative peace, under the night sky. She withdrew the canteen from her belt, the contents sloshing around a bit within, and she rose it to her lips after removing the lid, taking a long, steady drink from it. The water, although not very cool in temperature, was nevertheless one of the best things her parched throat ever tasted in light of her circumstances. She savored every rejuvenating sip, breathing relaxedly. She looked off towards the gate, down past the fire hydrant, to the crossing streets in front of the police department. Although she couldn't see any movement or activity from where she stood, there was no doubt she would be running into some of it there. Still, for the most part her task was over... the only reason she could afford this break to catch her breath, and even then part of her was cautious about taking it.
She resealed her canteen and tucked it away, then leaned against a brick wall beside the fire hydrant, closing here eyes slightly. Although she couldn't afford to relax entirely, and knew sleep was a ways off... for the moment, she wanted every minute of it to count. She could feel herself growing distant from her surroundings... only to force herself awake... and her senses began to dull again. She was so tired she could sleep standing up, at this rate. She never did find out if she really could or not, for at that moment, as her eyes closed again, and her senses slowed down, she was shook awake by a powerful crash from somewhere in front of her. She jolted forward, raising her Beretta, eyes bulging open, heart all but exploding. It wasn't merely the surprise that made her heart race, or dare not to blink... rather, the horror of what had woken her so sharply. A tremble running through her entirety, goosebumps and hair standing on end... and her gun shook a little, even as she stared at it, aimed at it, flashlight illuminating it like a spot light.
"Oh God no..."
The Tyrant stood entirely upright in all it's terrible foreboding presence atop the dumpster between the forked paths of the alleyway. Having jumped off the apartment building behind it, landed so hard, with so much weight, that it's great boots had completely caved in the lid of the heavy metal trash container. The giant stood like a sentinel, peering down and across to her frozen form, it's own malignant, milky yellow eye as unblinking as hers. It's massive armored black coat rose and fell as it breathed, still embedded with bullets and glass shards, both across it's uniform, and all over it's permanently grinning, mutilated and inhuman husk of a face. Dry purple stains of it's fluids upon that face and uniform-like outfit.
Instinctively she squeezed down on her trigger without bothering to think, emptying the last few bullets in the magazine into her Pursuer, still squeezing the trigger even when it was empty. Most of them hit it's coat, to no real effect, while two others slammed into the side of it's face, one in the cheek, the other it's chin. Not even the force of the shots was enough to stagger or move it... it simply remained standing there, upright, watching her. Twin trails of an obscene fresh purple liquid trickling from each bullet wound and dripping down onto the front of it's coat. The purple hued snake-like tendril attached to it's neck and head pulsed and throbbed, but it was entirely unaffected. It remained grinning back at her, not making the slightest noise as her shock overwhelmed her senses.
Then... it did move, but slowly... tightening a fist down at it's side, and raising the huge arm up, spreading it's palm... and pointing a long index finger at her. Within the palm of it's hand, something pushed it's self to the surface of the flesh and uncoiled it's self. A long slimy, purple tentacle extended out at least a couple feet in front of the Tyrant and began to squirm about, snapping, undoubtedly longing to get her, now more than ever, given it's previous failure. The large bleeding wound that Hunk's sidearm had caused no longer visible in the back of it's hand. Every wound it had received at the apartment had healed over by now. She wondered how many infected it had feasted upon for that. There was no telling the rate at which this thing could repair it's self... or for how long... but she wasn't eager to find out. A sound emerged then... low and muffled, guttural, from the base of the thing's lungs, and cut through the night, overtaking any of the distant moans with ease, aimed at her and her alone. It's maw of a mouth opened, revealing it's thickly swollen, infected gums and full jagged razor-like teeth, and it spoke as it spotted it's prey.
"S.T.A.R.S.!"
Jill was nearly frozen within in fear, by it's sudden presence... but she forced herself to be kick started into a reaction, removing the magazine and popping in a new one.. even knowing how useless the pistol was going to prove against him. She couldn't freeze up as she had before. She had caused enough harm that way. She kept aiming at it, but didn't open fire, mind screaming at her to do something, especially when the tentacle withdrew back into it's hand and it lowered it's arm down to it's side again. The Pursuer stepped off the creaking dumpster, landing heavily down into the forked section of the alleys. It didn't run towards her, simply walked slowly, purposefully, as though knowing it would catch it's prey, no matter how long it took. Knew it would win, in the end.
Flight or flight, the only options Jill had left.
She considered unslinging her rifle... but at the same time, she spotted it at the corner of her perceptions... the fire hose, laying off beside her. She didn't truly know if it would work... but the pressure was set at maximum... and at the very least it could probably buy her some time. Probably. She tucked away her sidearm and ran over to it, heart pounding, and scooped it up... the Pursuer got no more than a few steps, when he found himself on the receiving end of a powerful jet of water, courtesy of the hose. Jill held it tight in both hands, the pressure nearly forcing her back... but she dug her boots into the ground and held fast, her formerly frightened, wide eyes gradually narrowing, a faint smirk forming when her idea was proven right. No matter how mighty the thing was, it growled as the jet of water pressure began forcing it backwards slowly... until gradually, it fell back against the dumpster it had landed on, pinned there and struggling to break out of the torrent. Jill couldn't repress a laugh at the sight, in spite of her terror.
"You didn't seem to like fire very much. Why don't we try water?"
The sight of it struggling heartened and encouraged Jill, melted her dread... at least in that moment. Jill kept the pressure up from afar, her mind attempting to work out rapidly a solution for handling the thing. She couldn't just stand here and hold the hose on it all night... was there anything she could attach it to, to keep it in one place and aimed at him? Jill searched around, to little avail... yes there were things she could place it on, but nothing to clamp it firmly and securely into place... the moment she put the hose on, say, the fence, it would fall right off, and the concentration pinning the Pursuer would falter. Yes Jill felt pleasure keeping the jet of water focused on this growling, murderous thing... but she also knew she couldn't keep it going... so what could she do?
Drop it, and use that extra few seconds it took to recover it's self to start running all the way back to the gas station? Could she even go to the gas station now that it was following her, and either endanger the others or risk it destroying the place? It tore through anything in it's path when it rampaged. She sure as hell couldn't go back to Central Street Station, endanger the train and Captain Viktor. She was infected with something worse than the T-Virus, she realized. She was infected by this thing's pursuit of her, and couldn't be around others while it was near.
Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to consider and put together a plan... as it often did when it arrived, the Pursuer took matters out of her hands, and into it's own. It slowly began to turn away from the blasting water, removing it's malignant eye from her, it's entire coat soaked, the jet of spray now slamming forcefully into it's back. But it managed to hold fast, opened it's titanic arms wide, and placed a massive hand on either side of the dumpster. She watched numbly, still spraying, as the massive figure crouched low in front of the metal container, and Jill heard the dumpster creaking and groaning, a little at first, and then louder, as the pressure of its hands dented the metal. To Jill's shock, the Pursuer began to lift the entire thing up over it's head slowly, standing back upright. It wasn't the weight that made it slow... it lifted it effortlessly... rather the awkwardness of handling something as wide as the dumpster.
Garbage began to spill around freely from the dumpster, falling about the Pursuer... and Jill moved the concentration of the water to the Tyrant's face. Hoping that would deter it, and cause it to stumble and drop the dumpster on it's self... but it merely released a low sputtering growl of annoyance, visibly accomplishing little more than pissing it off further. From where it stood, the water pressure didn't extend long enough to push him over or make him stumble any longer. Glancing between the hose and the hydrant, Jill knew she had pressed it to maximum, couldn't push it up any higher. She didn't want to walk closer towards the Pursuer to increase the concentration... if she did she risked it not falling over, but pressing back against the brick wall behind it, and using that leverage to throw the dumpster down on top of her, no matter how much she sprayed it.
At this point, all she was doing was frustrating and briefly distracting it... but for how much longer she could, she didn't know. She had a damn good idea what it intended to do next to her... she wasn't about to make things any easier on it. She knew what she needed to do... and if she did it properly she would have a brief head start... for what little that would help her. She remembered how quickly it had moved back at the apartment... and simply couldn't say whether or not she could outrun the thing... but it was time to stop thinking, and simply do. Take action. That was who she was... she waited only as long as possible. She probably didn't have enough firepower to slow it down, and if she dropped the hose and took up her rifle, for all she knew the moment she did so the dumpster would be hurtling her way. Turning her into what Barry would foolishly but not inaccurately dub a 'Jill Sandwich'.
She wanted... needed help from the others, Hunk and Carlos, if it was possible... even as she feared endangering them. She was not too proud to admit otherwise. Maybe between the three of them they could show this thing a world of pain... but for now, she needed to move. She simply hoped the obstacles on the way back would be enough to slow it... but she had her doubts. Rather than take up her pistol or rifle, she kept them right were they were, holstered, and threw down the hose, the water jetting around every which way. The second she did so, she burst into a run, her adrenaline going so fast she felt no pain in her leg. She ran down the corridor and over the dogs she had killed earlier, reaching the gate in little time at all. With the jet of water no longer slowing it down, the Pursuer's teeth clenched even harder, incensed eye tracking Jill's movements. Propping the object back behind it's head for some leverage, it threw the dumpster with relative ease down the corridor after her, the dumpster hurtling every which way.
Heart feeling as though it was racing through her chest, Jill frantically pushed the gate between the book and coffee shops open and burst through, back out onto the cluttered, fiery street, the cross sections close to the police department. She was no more than a few steps past the gate, at the mouth of the alley when she heard the dumpster strike home against the gate with a mighty crash, all but making her jump out of her boots with how narrow her brush with death it had been. She looked back for a split second, to find the cast iron gate toppled over, dust and garbage strewn every which way, restricting her vision of the forked alley for the most part... but what she did see beyond, through the haze, was enough to get her running again.
"S.T.A.R.S.!"
A humongous, dark silhouette running towards the broken gate and bent garbage dumpster, prepared to mantle over top each and continue pursuing her. Jill turned again at once and continued, limping around the side of the coffee shop, not bothering to look off to the left down the street towards the police department. She could hear the moans, thick in the air, the staggering of feet through the entire Uptown, converging on her location. All the commotion had gained the attention of the horde in front of the R.P.D. gates... they were leaving it behind again and coming down for her instead... but all she was thinking about was her task. Heart thundering, she ran down the right hand side of the road, back towards the burning car pile up from earlier, and sure enough, several zombies lurched towards her, groaning and attempting to grapple with her.
She narrowly ducked out of their reach... but they joined in on the chase with the Tyrant. Though were taken out of it not long later. Jill reached the subsequent door, back to the zig zagging alley she had encountered the insectoid thing in first, and she started to open the door, already hating herself for bothering to close it earlier... it took precious seconds to open each one... but she also used these seconds to glance back to the street. To find the colossal Tyrant racing out of the broken gate, having managed to get through all the clutter there, and make a bee line towards her. At that very moment, it charged through the midst of a small portion of the gathering horde that was beginning to pursue her as well, growling. Swiping out it's arms and sending them flying like bloody, broken rag dolls beneath the impacts, every one of them impeding it's progress. It was slightly slowed down by just how many of the zombies there were, but remained undeterred. The zombies for the most part ignored the Pursuer as if they could not see it, but did turn in it's direction as the looming shadow fell over them. Only to find themselves truly dead moments later, heads bursting into pulps and limbs snapping.
What zombies the Pursuer didn't barge through, sending some flying off into the fiery barricade to burn, were killed or crippled in other ways. It grabbed a former older rotting man in front of it, lifted it off the ground by it's head and squeezed it's skull, pulverizing it and it's brains into wet meaty chunks, before dropping it's twitching body again. Another pair found the thing's squirming tentacles from each hand jutting through the back and sides of their heads, twisting around and retracting, soaked in blood, back into the Tyrant's hands. Other vicious swipes of it's tendrils sent a group of them flying, clearing much of the Tyrant's path, slamming the infected against nearby cars, smashing windows. Another infected received a powerful punch that sent it through a shop window, and another was ground like paste down into the road under it's boot.
It was pure carnage. They didn't stand a chance. This thing was something else altogether on the food chain of the T-Virus. Despite her horror, both to what was going on, and the threat she was under by this thing, she was finding herself grateful these T-Virus creatures were incapable of teamwork. If they had been, she would have been done for already long ago.
The Tyrant would not be slowed by a second if it could be helped... and it's enraged reactions to the horde made sense in hindsight, considering how violently it had reacted to Hunk getting in it's way. Jill, none too keen to see what else it intended to do to the horde slowing it down, raced through the rusted metal door, slamming it behind her, hoping to only slow it further as she flew up the zig zagging alleyway. Expectedly, no mere door was a deterrent to the thing. Not much on earth seemed to be. She had just turned the next corner, glimpsing both the green puddle of blood, as well as the body of the young mercenary whose diary she had recovered earlier, when the Pursuer let out a mighty roar after her. It's bulk blew through the rusted door with ease, sending it flying down towards Jill. Not only raising dust, but smashing through the sides of the concrete walls of the buildings keeping the gate in place.
Behind it, the scattered remains of the infected were visible, writhing and in bloody pieces, while the intact zombies kept their distance from the Tyrant. The front of it's wet coat splattered and stained with infected blood now, joining in with the bullet marks covering the outfit. Smearing it's malevolently grinning face. Jill turned the corner, racing around it, and down through the foul smelling blood and past the fallen mercenary, and turning the next corner. She could hear the rampaging thing hot on her heels, and where before her eyes had narrowed with anger, they were wide with fright once more. She scrambled over the remains of the multi limbed insectoid she had blown apart earlier, not much caring what she was doing, and she pushed through the door beyond it, reentering the cramped alley she had recovered the fire hose within. She was running so quickly her heart was all but exploding in her chest, lungs burning... she scrambled to keep herself upright and not fall over.
She could hear it's impatient growling, the thundering of it's boots and the blundering noises a thing it's size could only be making, and it broke down yet another door behind her when she closed it, sending it crashing forward and clattering against the alley floor. And yet, when she was about three quarters down towards the gate out of the alley and back to the road outside the parking garage, all of a sudden everything went quiet. She didn't bother looking over her shoulder to see what had happened, whether it had ceased it's pursuit, or something had impeded it. Instead she lunged forward to the next gate, hands grappling with the bars and handle, tugging it open and slamming it shut behind her.
Jill made it back to the road, glimpsing the barricade of cars off to her right, and the crashed taxi into the shop to her left. She ran up the road towards the smashed up overturned bus where she had killed all the crows... heart racing in her ears, pounding rapidly. Jill expected the gate she had shut to break apart behind her, like every door and gate had thus far... but it didn't... the only sounds she heard were the ones she was making, the pattering echo of her boots, the heavy breathing... something had happened to it alright. It was not programmed to be deterred, or to cease a chase. Where the hell had it gone? The only reason they had gotten away from it earlier was because they had blown the fucking thing out a window, from a several story building.
The former officer wasn't about to stop or look around, or question her so called stroke of good luck... but to call it good luck was premature. If it was gone, then it was planning something, and she didn't want to be around when it did what it did best. She raced down towards the bus, forcing herself down towards it. She was no more than half way to it, when a dark shape fell from somewhere high above once more. Her Pursuer landed with a mighty crash not far in front of her, between the bus and the broken car beside it, breaking the concrete under it's boots and splattering the remains of one of the crows. She realized numbly that it had reached the roof of the parking garage and jumped down off it. How it had managed to get ahead of and around her like this, to cut her off with an ambush, Jill wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"What the fuck are you?"
She didn't want to imagine the thing jumping... climbing, building to building... being as agile as it was immovable. Something it's size had no right to be. It's tendrils pulling it along. The thought almost made her scream at how unfair the odds were stacked against her... but she knew there was no other answer for it's actions. Umbrella built it's creations too well. Jill froze on the spot, watching it several yards away. Despite how high it had fallen from, landed... it hadn't lowered it's self down, or experienced any pain. It had jumped down standing upright... landed standing upright... and sure enough, like the killing machine it was... the thing still stood upright, watching her, barring the only path to the parking garage. Her only route to escape. This time, it didn't raise a hand or point at her as it had before, but that familiar haunting word did return to her, the only thing it was capable of saying, bursting out from within. A voice of nightmares and not of this earth, not like anything she had ever known. But one she was coming to.
"S.T.A.R.S.!"
The Pursuer made a half turn on the spot, slowly pivoting, with an unusual amount of grace for a thing it's titanic size. It didn't run down towards her... rather, punched in the window of the crashed car beside it, gripping the frame of the car with one hand, and the other side of the frame with the other, denting it with ease. Jill stood, so very numb, as, like it had with the dumpster, it lifted the remains of the car over it's head with ease, pivoting back on the spot to face her and flash a malicious grin her way. Jill, knowing just how far it could throw, and how fast... wasn't entirely sure she could duck out of the way in time from her position. And even if she did manage to roll out of the way... the moment it threw the car, distracted her, it would be baring down upon her again while she was recovering. It would scoop her off the road with ease by the neck, raise it's hand... and... finish what it had tried to do to her before. With nobody here to save her this time.
No. No. Unacceptable. Never again.
Jill shook her head. She didn't care the odds, or even if she died... but it wouldn't be here, like this, to this thing. If it came to it she'd shoot herself before she let it accomplish it's mission... but in the meantime she would shoot it. To hell with it, and the company... she'd survive as long as she could, no matter how unfair they had stacked the odds. She'd change the odds. Hunk had been right, she noted distantly in her scattered thoughts, lowering down to one knee on the pavement, and starting to unsling her rifle. If it came back a hundred times... they would kill it a hundred times. It was the only way. Defeat was not an option. Not after everything she'd been through. Jill's jaw tightened, and the adrenaline and fear in her was replaced once more by a welcome anger she kept in control. A fire burning in her as she stared defiantly and unblinking back at the mutilated face, feeling nothing other then contempt for it. Raising the rifle to her shoulder, she peered down the sights once more, finger not only on the primary trigger, but her other hand settling on the under-barrel below the rifle.
The former S.T.A.R.S. Officer pumped it hard, locking the 40 mm shell into place within the grenade launcher, finger remaining on the secondary trigger. She recalled her Delta Force training with grenade launchers and other explosive weapons at the range, tilting the barrel up a little in an attempt for more accuracy. When she was satisfied, her frigid blue eyes stared hard at it, features grim and resolved as her voice.
"Open wide, big boy. Time to take your medicine."
It uttered a low growl at her words, and prepared to throw the car at her... likely intelligent enough to recognize the weapon, and threat, that the puny human posed to it in this particular moment. It seemed capable of adaptability... and must have recognized that explosives were capable of both wounding and slowing it down. Only a moment before it could throw the car from over it's head, Jill squeezed the trigger, aiming at it's head, intent on blowing it apart. There was a low thump as the explosive shell went hurtling out the end of the under-barrel, the force driving her arms back a bit. While it didn't go exactly where she had tried to aim it, most unfortunately, she was no less satisfied with the result.
The grenade slammed dead center into the Tyrant's broad chest and exploded, driving it's great bulk down into the pavement like a rag doll at the same time the gas tank within the car above exploded. The heavy, fiery remains of the wreckage landing on top of it as it's legs collapsed out from under it, and Jill had to duck low to avoid some of the flying metal debris. It was as though a torch had been lit in a dark room, most of the street illuminated by the blaze. The shell, she recognized, raising her head, standing up, illuminated by the fire, had to have been a high explosive incendiary round of sorts. Maybe Napalm. It had spread the fire much further than usual, in combination with the gas tank... catching even the bus beside it on fire. She had risen a hand at the sheer brilliance of the blaze, but gradually lowered it... finding herself smiling when her eyes adjusted, and laughing again. A swell of warmth that had nothing to do with the blaze pouring through her veins.
She knew such blissful feelings were quite premature... and she started to walk closer to the heat of the blaze. Regardless... it had felt good beyond words. Better than pausing for that drink had been... and better even than it had felt watching the giant son of a bitch hurtle out that apartment building and land on a car below. In that circumstance, she'd had help... and as much as she liked help, this she had accomplished alone... and she felt more powerful than she ever had. Regardless of having had only one shell to spare, wishing she had more... she could not have used it better. She strode slowly, standing tall over the wreckage, peering down over it... unable to glimpse the Pursuer beneath... from this side of the blaze, at least. Fortunately, there was a corner around the fire where the flames were smallest, the spot the Tyrant had removed the car from. Getting a running start, rifle still in hand, she ran forward, jumping up over the flames, around the main bulk of the wreckage, and landing on the other side.
She felt so good that she didn't even care for the pain landing the jump caused her. Instead, she pivoted around, looking back down at the exploded car from behind... and sure enough, from here, among the metal and flames, she saw parts of the Pursuer's upper form squirming under the heavy heap... limbs, and part of it's face was leering up at her. Gnashing it's teeth in rage. Jill rose the rifle wordlessly, switching it to automatic, aimed it into the center and started spraying it with something stronger than the fire hose. She shot a burst into it's middle mass, the near deafening roars echoing through the night, and then a burst in each arm trying to poke out of the wreckage and lift the remains off it's self. The force drove it's arms back down to the pavement, splattering more of that purple gore along the road and twitching... it's whole body twitched under the hail of gunfire. When she was half way through the magazine, she leveled the barrel at what little of it's writhing, enraged face burning among the flames that she could glimpse... and she opened up again, spending the rest of her rounds on it, each one slamming around it's head, embedding, trickles of blood covering it by now as it released another growl.
"Have the right to remain silent. Don't really give a shit if you exercise it or not."
With every shot, Jill's own rage and incensed feelings of indignation increased... every movement and sound it produced made her want to punish it all the more for trying to kill her. It offended her very being, just by existing. Fuck the thing. It could burn and rot. Her triumph was replaced by this anger... she poured out every helpless feeling into her work... her fear and anger towards all the mutations, Umbrella... her confusion and conflicted feelings about Hunk, and about the whole situation in general. Every nagging thought since the Mansion. She shut them all up as she fired, concentrating them out the barrel as surely as the lead and muzzle flashes, enjoying the power she held in her arms... running out of the magazine in no time, still clicking several times before she even realized she had emptied it. She knew she should stop... that she was accomplishing little... she'd already done enough here already as it were... but she couldn't help herself. Did not want to help herself. She just wanted it to suffer, the way she had.
The sweat poured down her forehead and back from standing in the heat this long, but she couldn't be bothered to care. She ejected the magazine, replaced it with another and opened fire again... no longer even aiming anywhere in particular on the thing's body or head, but spraying around and around it's form amid the wreckage, watching the purple liquid within leaking everywhere among the fire. She shot it, not just for herself, and for the violation of her safety, the constant looking over her shoulder this thing had imbued into her, and would continue to cause her to do... but for Brad... for Frost... for every other S.T.A.R.S member Umbrella had murdered... and every one they hadn't. She didn't care for anything other than revenge in that moment, and the toxic yet potent feeling that came with it was marvelous... to be in a position of power over this thing for once.
It was glorious.
It was only when she went through the second magazine, that she recognized the futility, and she ceased slowly, reluctantly, leaving the barrel heated and smoking, the rapports fading into the night. She took a step back, and watched coldly as the sole milky yellow eye in it's head blinked several times back at her, and closed. It stopped twitching moments later and the flames engulfed it's entirety. It's face obscured from her view by the wreckage.
Jill stood panting for quite some time, gasping, shaking at the raw outpouring of emotion, the high and the fallout. She struggled to regain her composure, walking over to the wall beside the back entrance to the parking garage. Pressing her hand against it to steady herself, feeling both the heat of the fire and the cool wind on her form. She'd lost it... had gone into a frenzy she wasn't used to... it had been foolish, dangerous... she could have gotten herself killed losing it... and she didn't regret it. Didn't even regret burning through the entirety of her rifle rounds... she didn't care... she could get more later. Bullets were a more common commodity than hope was... and hope was precisely what she felt in this moment. Everything was falling into place. Little by little, it was falling into place. What she had to do and what she had to be to survive this. She longed to be free of the slog that was Uptown and Downtown... but knew there were hurtles yet to surmount. Probably more beyond either section of town.
She knew she had better start getting used to it.
Jill slowly, wearily slung her empty rifle back over her shoulder and turned round, watching the Tyrant burn. It was a mighty blaze... and between the shell, gas tank, and all the bullets she had poured into it, she didn't see it rising for quite awhile yet. But that was exactly it... she knew it would rise again, and come after her. After them. She had no illusions about that... not anymore. If it was going to stay dead, it would have back at the apartment. It didn't know what death was, it almost seemed... yet, at least. And at least she had slowed it down... likely long enough to regroup with the others, get the train going again and make it to the clock tower, and above all, get out of this mess. If they were quick enough they damn well could do it... could make it. They would.
If she didn't kill the thing, the nuclear strike, or whatever was being used to saturate the city would have to do the job for her. She felt no fear in her heart, in that moment at least... she felt as though nothing could touch her, even knowing otherwise. It was a refreshing feeling, and one she latched on to for that warmth the fire couldn't generate. She was not gloating internally, nor did she think herself invincible because of her feat... but she was damn proud of herself. In the end, that was all that mattered. She felt like a warrior on some battlefield, instead of a cop. She was good at keeping her cool under horrible circumstances... her fellow S.T.A.R.S. often commented on such back in the day... but always she had felt fear in such moments, and was simply good at pretending otherwise. Right now... for the moment, at least... she felt none of the usual muffled terror... nor even anger. That was dying down as well. She felt alive... and every breath she took was sweeter than it had been before.
"Bet you'd prefer the hose now... wouldn't you, you testing tank bastard?"
She watched her Pursuer, the thing nightmares were made of, burn just a little longer, the fire crackling, flames leaping. At last she withdrew both her and Brad's Samurai Edges in both hands, after flicking off the flashlight on her strap. She stepped away from the wall and turned her back on the wreckage of the car and bus caught in their twin blaze, a blaze sweeping on to the other cars the bus was propped up on, turned her back on the Tyrant and continued on, around the corner. To the back door to the parking garage once more. She gripped the handle and stepped inside when she reached it, both pistols down at her side calmly... and she shut out the night behind her, the sounds and the images, the clattering of the door echoing through the entire garage, a space as still and quiet as a grave. It was almost comforting... this silence... the lack of moans, no fire crackling, no sounds in the distance. It was entirely self contained from the nightmare outside.
She moved closer into the midst of the parking garage, spotting the brutalized dog from before, still in it's original gory position... but that wasn't what made her freeze beside the body. A hole in the ground... a rather large one, in the space between the white van with the ramp, and the van over in the corner next to the accumulator. She looked between the hole and cracks in the cement... other than his dried boot prints, Hunk was nowhere to be seen, not just here, but the entire garage. He had closed up the hood of the van behind himself, and as she already knew, the power cable had been collected, and the case he had used to bludgeon the dog was gone. She stepped past the dog's corpse, and over to the edge of the hole, peering down to the bottom of it, kicking a broken off bit of cement down into it.
It fell a long way, clattering against something below. It was a little dark down there, but there was a light source somewhere... she noted a pile of stacked up metal boxes, a sight that made her look back up at the open van, the ramp, to find the van was quite empty now. Something had caused the precariously set boxes to shift and slide down the ramp... odd in it's self... but the bigger question was what in the hell had made this hole? It was as though all the thick layers of cement and brick had been hollowed all the way down, or had collapsed, giving way. She could see piping, and water below... undoubtedly a section of sewer. Thankfully, she had thus far avoided sewers... the surface was bad enough as it were. She rose her head again from peering over the edge, puzzling the matter further. She barely got to when she heard the distant echo of automatic gunfire in the distance... emanating not from outside, but from somewhere in the hole. She crouched down on her knee when the gunfire went silent, and without thinking, called out instinctively, a pulse of fear touching her again.
"Hunk! Are you down there? Is that you?
Jill waited a few moments... and received no response for her efforts, neither from a voice, or any further gunfire. If anyone was down there, it had to be Hunk... Carlos was too busy at the electrical substation or off scavenging to be messing around in the sewers... and from what little she knew about him. And Hunk was no stranger to sewers She called out for him one more time, then stopped and listened closely, straining her ear... to receive the same eerie silence in response. She sighed wearily, rising to her feet again, watching the hole. She didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't about to go down there and find out... nor stay here and twiddle her thumbs, despite her concerns. She looked back over her shoulder to the back door of the garage... between the sewers, or sticking around long enough for the Pursuer barging through that door... she chose neither.
All that mattered right now was getting to the gas station... and if Hunk was truly down there, no matter what was happening, he would concur... and could handle himself, like she could. If he didn't show up, she would go down into that death pit of a sewer herself, find him and haul him out, she resolved. She glanced at the out of place hole one more time, and turned, continuing on past and around the white van and the other assorted cars of the garage. Making her way back to the parking lot office door, stepping through it and back into the office. The cool wind of the fan within greeted her, and she paused for a couple moments in front of it, withdrawing the canteen from her belt and sipping from it again, before screwing it back up and resuming, refreshed. Reaching the door out of the office, she stepped through it, and back into the body cluttered construction site in front the barricade.
She navigated herself among the bodies, careful to keep an eye on them, in case they got the idea of rising again... but fortunately that wasn't the case, the one who had torn through here having done a through enough job. She glanced over to the fallen mercenary from earlier among the bodies, but there was nothing further to scavenge... she'd have to find more rifle rounds. She stepped around the corner, and past the other side of the road the crashed police car was cutting off access to... and she peered back up along the corridor, the tiny road of the back alleys up to the maintenance area. She continued stepping over the many broken bodies until she reached the door, and with no hesitation, pushed her way through, into the maintenance area's walkway.
Jill made it to the end of the walkway, finding herself again on the adjacent one, containing the dead men and the multi limbed mutation, each in the puddles of their own respective blood and gore. She didn't linger in the maintenance area... scrambling up the stairs, avoiding the blood puddles along the way... it wasn't too difficult, there were dry spots everywhere. Though the stench was still, even now, thick in the air from the mutation's blood. She edged her way around the things body and limbs, hopping over some of it's parts and running back down to the entrance to the maintenance area. Pushing it open and slamming the door behind herself, stepping back out into the fresh air of the night, in the water feature area.
"Finally..."
She took an instant to breath. It felt good to be back Downtown... the more distance she could put between herself and Uptown the better. Jill, satisfied the street was secure, continued on down the left side of the road, slipping through the tinted glass door leading into the Shopping District. Navigating through the area rapidly as she could manage.
Reaching the far end of the district, she moved through the exit quickly, stepping out onto the pavement, looking to her left at the main barricade blockading Warren Street. She ran up towards the City Hall gates again, her boots tapping on the steel lid of the sewer manhole in front of the barricades. Reaching the pedestal, she tucked away her pistols in both holsters, climbing up on top of it before turning back towards the wall and raising her arms. She took a step and jumped up against it, arms enveloping the top of the wall, pulling herself over it with relative ease, besides the resumed burning in her leg. She swept her legs up over the wall, eyes narrowing with determination, and she landed on the other side of it, onto another pedestal, before hopping down onto the soft grass, taking a moment to let the burning subside.
When it relaxed a bit and she caught her breath, she withdrew her pistols again, walked back over to the path in front of the locked doors of the City Hall courtyard, and turned on down the corridor, before resuming her former jogging down the path. Passing the door that the dead creatures had burst open on her, stepping over their downed bodies with ease, not even pausing to look within the other section of the courtyard. Nothing mattered right now but securing the gas station once more. She was halfway down the path of the three points street, when just a couple steps ahead of her, glass exploded from within the City Hall building to her right, courtesy of two windows, causing her to raise an arm in front of her face and freeze, heart pounding once more at the shock. The surprise giving the two former employees who had caused the glass to break enough time to fall through them and onto the path in front of her, ambushing her, reaching for her. She cursed and reacted as fast as possible, but not fast enough to shoot either of the things.
One of them grabbed her, gnashing it's infected teeth in front of her face, it's own shriveled and rotted. She grunted and held fast to the spot, pushing it back away from her, struggling with it. She managed to hold it in place, but at the cost of dropping each of her pistols. Somehow, she managed to keep her cool, long enough to withdraw her dagger knife from it's sheath, tilt the zombie's head to the side, and slide the tip of the blade into it's eardrum. As she struggled, over their moans and her grunts, she heard a distant, muffled explosion ring out into the night... but remained quite preoccupied.
With another push, she slid the rest of the blade home within the socket, piercing the brain, the blood pooling in said ear around the knife. The creature's moans fell silent then she twisted the blade out and Jill shoved it towards the other one before it too got a chance to grab her. As it staggered, taken off guard, she kicked it to the ground and pinned it there with her boot on it's neck. It stared up at her, squirming and twitching, eyes dead, yet appetite ravenous as it tried to bite at her boot. Expression cold and angry, at the jump it had put into her, she stabbed it up under the chin with the dagger knife, driving the long blade through it's jaw and up into the brain stem, severing it, twisting, and withdrawing... like it was clockwork.
Jill kept her boot on it's neck just in case, but rose above both fallen twitching bodies... and once assured they would not rise again, Jill recovered her fallen Berettas, tucking away the knife after wiping it off on one of their tattered shirts. Jill didn't wait on the spot, either to catch her breath or ponder what had happened, the explosion she'd heard back from Warren Street. Each could wait. She stepped over them, pistols leveled in front of her, and proceeded more cautiously the rest of the way, keeping here eyes peeled on each row of windows on the City Hall building on either side of the path, just in case. Fortunately, there were no more surprises waiting for her in the area, and she made it to the center of the three points pathway, glancing over to the left path, leading back to the train station... and then to the right the one she needed to proceed through, to the gas station. She jogged briskly down this path once there were no more windows close to her vicinity, picking up the pace, moving up the stone staircase to the metal gate beyond.
Upon reaching it, she pushed it open, moved through to the paved road and closed the gate behind her, her eyes turning back towards the familiar sight, and glowing blue neon sign of the Stagla Gas Station. She studied the piled up cars and bodies scattered around the entire area from earlier, as well as the gas pumps and the path around them up to the main door. She proceeded a bit more cautiously, past a smashed red jeep, eyes moving about, in case any more creatures had entered the area since last time... but fortunately this wasn't the case. As such, she navigated back up the illuminated path, weaving around the bodies, some light posts, the pumps and the cars, boots crushing glass and debris on the way, and passing the metal shutters over the windows, she reached the main shutter on the entrance with the rusted, partially broken crank. At last, she paused on the spot, looking at the shutter, the crank, then over to the gas pumps... she looked all over the area, confirming her thoughts.
Somehow, she had made it back first.
No small feat, considering what she had just been through... not that she knew what they had encountered along the way. Somewhere in the distance among the moans, she realized a car alarm was going off, back towards Uptown. She turned back to the door, slowly shaking her head. What a night it had been already... and it wasn't even over yet. She took the brief pause to tuck away her pistols and remove her canteen again, taking another good drink from it. Now it was the waiting game... and quite honestly, it suited her just fine. Now she had earned the right to stand around awhile. She wiped some sweat from her forehead and sighed, taking another sip, drinking the canteen down to half way, before tucking it away again. She closed her eyes for a moment, then looked back to the rusted, partially broken crank to operate the door, remembering the wrench tucked away in her belt. Jill stood there for a long time, pursing her lips and watching the shutter absently.
There was no sense raising it just yet... the door and wrench wasn't going anywhere... and she wanted to have at least one of the others watching her back before she did so. There was no telling what might have been locked inside. She couldn't hear anything scraping on the other side, or making any noise... but that wasn't enough information to go off of. Yes, she could more than handle whatever it might be by herself... did she want to? No. Besides, she'd done enough alone as of late as it were... and she worked better in unison with a team. Even if said team didn't comprise of S.T.A.R.S... they were still her team, in this situation. Umbrella employees or otherwise.
That had long been Jill's mentality... she could do the lone wolf act if it was a necessity, but never in life had she preferred it. At the mansion it had often been a necessity to be on her own... but only because every other option had been taken out of her hands. This one was securely in her hands, and she wasn't about to give it up. She liked having people she could lean on, who could lean on her. Part of her wondered if the wrench would even work with the door... but she supposed even if it didn't, they could scrap together enough firepower to blast through the shutter, or climb up onto the roof of the gas station and blow a hole in it. Of course, they might have a hell of a time finding more explosives to-
"Unwise to keep your back turned to the road out here. Could have been ambushed, were I the enemy."
Jill's heart spasmed in her chest in alarm, eyes widened and drawing her Samurai Edge she whipped around on the spot, taken off guard by the suddenness of the familiar muffled tone. She found Hunk no more then a few feet behind her, standing still and silent upright, in front of the gas pumps, lenses watching her carefully, TMP held firmly but gently in both hands, not pointed in any real direction. Laser sight shining off to the side. The light of an overhead street lamp illuminated both reflective lenses on his mask, almost making them seem to glow red as he waited patiently for her response. Studying her Beretta silently, unperturbed. Gradually, Jill lowered the Samurai Edge again.
"Good thing you aren't, then. Right?"
He did not reply. Her startled expression remained for another couple moments... she didn't understand how somebody as big and armored as himself, complete with all the gear he carried, was capable of moving so quietly. Creeping up behind her like that. And not for the first time either. She was grateful to have him on her side... and that Umbrella had not managed to create any Tyrant's or B.O.W.'s capable of being as silent as he was. Yet. She studied him for a few moments... his uniform and armor looked a little battered and even dirtier since she had last seen him. That smell of a sewer hung around him, more potent than before... but nevertheless, besides that he seemed no worse for wear. He was a sight for sore eyes already, again. At last she spoke up to him again, slowly shaking her head.
"Hunk... you have to stop sneaking up on a girl like that. Unless you're trying to get yourself shot."
"Worked well enough for me at the department, Valentine."
Jill smiled slightly at that, breathing an audible sigh of relief. Still, as startling as his suddenness had been, she knew it could have been far worse. Too often in movies, particularly horror movies, people thought it a good idea to step up behind an unaware person and grasp them by the shoulder... to often less than pleasant results. Not that any reaction from her would have stopped him. If he had wanted to grab and disarm her again, she knew he could do it effortlessly. Their first encounter had told her that much. Startled as she had been, she preferred this sort of surprise to the combat knife hovering over her heart. She gave him another once over, her gentle voice speaking up again as she studied him with concern.
"Welcome back. Are you ok? I passed through the parking garage again earlier and you weren't there... in your place was a hole in the pavement. Looked like the ground caved in on it's self... it dropped down to the sewer. I thought you might have fallen through... heard gunfire... guess you didn't hear me calling."
"I didn't... and it's a long story. Unnecessary for the moment."
HUNK replied neutrally, with no hesitation, tone unreadable. Jill kept watching his slightly dirtied uniform closely, as well as the muck on his boots, hoping his body language would give something away... and in a way, it did. Where before, back at the garage, he had seemed tired, a bit sluggish and slow in his movements... he now seemed quite alert where he stood upright. He wasn't forcing himself, it seemed, to be awake... he simply was. She also noted that the white metal container he had used to bludgeon the dog to death earlier was missing... probably lost, during whatever it was he had been through. Her curiosity increased a tenfold, if that was even possible to be more so with him... he must have fallen into the sewer... he certainly looked like he had, and wasn't disputing her thought. She watched as he cocked his head a little, looking around the area around the gas station, at the bodies specifically, of the zombies she had dealt with earlier. Then he met her eyes again, and continued, moving them off the topic and back to the mission.
"You have already seen to securing the area. I take it then you also recovered the oil additive?"
"Yes.", Jill nodded simply, looking back down to Rebecca's medical bag, producing the orange container and showing it to him for a moment, before tucking it back out of sight. She shook her head a little as she went on, breathing quietly. "It wasn't easy... and a lot happened on the way and back... ran the gauntlet... but it's over with. That's all that matters. I'm just glad to be back. That you're here."
Jill half expected him to inquire further... no, not half, she fully expected it. She thought he would ask about Nikolai 's absence... even the Pursuer... and was surprised again when he didn't... and perhaps a bit grateful. She didn't know how to tell him what had transpired on her horrendous trip to Uptown... Mr Rosso, Nikolai murdering a U.B.C.S. mercenary... Nikolai on his laptop typing something, Nikolai getting dragged off by the horde, the Pursuer. She wasn't sure where to begin, to say that the Sergeant wouldn't be coming with them. On top of that, in her own mind, what had happened with the Pursuer dominated her thoughts with ease... even if all Hunk cared about was hearing what had happened to Nikolai.
He had all but assigned her to be his spy... and she fully expected him to want results and answers right away, for him to drill her with questions. She was wrong... and he surprised her. Not for the first time, and likely not the last. She wanted to wait... maybe get back to the train, so she could gather her thoughts and tell him... tell Carlos as well what he needed to hear. Part of Jill suspected Hunk knew already that the Sergeant would not be joining them. He knew far more about the cruel U.B.C.S. mercenary than she did. Hunk studied her for a moment, and merely looked past her, and examined the shutter and the rusted crank for a few moments before his muffled tone filtered out of his mask again.
"Of course. Good work completing your objectives, Valentine. I knew you could.", HUNK replied after the pause, stepping away from the pumps and standing at her side, studying the crank, and the part that had fallen off onto the ground, before looking back sideways at her. Jill peered back into his goggles silently, a little taken aback by his distant, yet clear praise. He wasn't the kind of man to dole it out casually. "Are you still in possession of the wrench I gave you?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact.", Jill smiled a bit more, reaching into her belt and revealing the metal tool, keeping it out. She had a clue already what he was driving at, by bringing it up. "It worked just fine unscrewing the fire hose... took awhile, but got the job done. I would have had to find a hardware store otherwise."
"Good. We may need it to get this shutter open. There is no sense merely standing out here waiting for Oliveira. We'll secure the interior of the building in the meantime, as well as the required container of machine oil. If he is not back by then, we shall wait for him.", HUNK informed her, stepping past her and moving up to the front of the shutter, gesturing for her to do the same with the crank. "If he doesn't return within the hour... you will take the other parts back to the train. I will go to the substation myself to recover the fuse, if it proves necessary. You start cranking, and I'll help raise the shutter."
"Sounds like a plan to me.", Jill agreed, inclining her head at once. She stepped over to the crank, kicking aside the rusted handle that had fallen off earlier, and began attaching the wrench to the remaining section of the crank, squeezing down tightly. Little by little, she began to rotate the wrench, straining her muscles, around and around... on the second rotation, there was the scraping of metal as the the shutter rose a few inches... and it did the same on the next rotation and the next, raising it little by little, revealing more and more of the glass door behind the shutter. "Just one more of many obstacles in our way, these shutters. Feels like everything around here is difficult, just for the sake of being difficult."
Hunk said nothing, instead tucking away his TMP into his belt, he crouched in front of the partially risen shutter, placing his hands underneath and bracing it, starting to slowly rise up to his boots and help raise the shutter. Working as a team, it relieved some of the burden off her, over at the crank, each rotation going quicker than the ones preceding it. Before long, with one last turn of the crank, and push from Hunk, his arms risen up above his head, the shutter locked into place out of sight, the whole glass door revealed at last, the glass a little tinted. When it was secured back into place, Jill tucked away the wrench into her belt, and drew her dual Berettas once more, at the same time Hunk readied his TMP.
He looked over at her briefly, meeting her eyes, and she nodded silently at his side. The Umbrella Agent looked back to and grasped the door handle and pushed it open, causing a little bell above the door to ring. Hunk flew inside the gas station shop, barrel sweeping over the perimeter of the front room, moving over into it's midst. Jill stepped in directly after him, her pistols at the ready, but it proved quite unnecessary... the place was clear of any infected, or any sign of creatures. Both Jill and Hunk, standing together in the midst of the well lit shop, gradually lowered their weapons. Continuing to study the place as the door closed behind them.
There wasn't much to it... it was a little cluttered, with a little table pulled close to the center of the room, a couple of it's chairs overturned... in the corner beside the door, Jill spotted a garbage bin and a coffee machine, the neon lights shining back at her, and the glowing buttons. Banners and streamers had been hung overhead in the shop for decorations, and over on the wall behind the table, just above a bulletin board, the word 'WELCOME' had been plastered for the benefit of any entering the store... each of the letters a different bright color.
In front of the main sales desk, a display of three rows of vehicle products were visible... cans of WD 40, cleaning supplies and some other containers with labels she couldn't read from where she was. Behind the shutter of every window in the place, the blinds had already been drawn down quite wisely... and Jill's eyes moved on, to the main counter, which by far was more cluttered with things than the table. There was a big computer and cash register taking up a great deal of space together, to say nothing of some stacks of books, and even some accolades and awards on display that the gas station had won.
Beyond the counter was a metal display case of sorts against the wall, and beside it a shelf with more cleaning supplies, and a great many white binders compiled together, no doubt notes of sorts for the manager, or owner. Some cardboard boxes sat on the top shelf, and a red and white 'For Sale' sign hung crookedly from the tiled ceiling. Further down this wall, on the far end of the Store, a poster hung of a familiar scantily clad blonde woman in a swim suit. The Aqua Cure model, naturally. Jill rolled her eyes and looked on. Just off to the side of the poster was the open door leading to the back room, the garage, a green neon sign indicating as much. She knew the garage to be the most likely place housing the machine oil... and as such, opted to be the one to check there first. She stepped past Hunk and the table, making her way over to the open doorway and the poster. She listened carefully... and hearing nothing stirring within the garage, she then looked back over her shoulder to Hunk, addressing him in the wake of the long silence.
"I'll check the garage and let you know if I find anything", Jill informed him, adjusting the shoulder strap of her emptied rifle and readying her pistols again. "You check here. Sound good?"
"Affirmative."
Exchanging a simple nod with him, he moved over to the vehicle products on display in front of the sales desk. She turned back to the opened doorway of the garage, leveled her guns in front of herself, and rushed inside, scanning the entirety of the garage closely. Again, as before, there were no monsters... and she lowered her pistols, stepping a bit more inside, eyes sweeping every direction. There was by far more space in the garage than there was in the shop... though that only meant there was also more space to be cluttered, as was the case. To her immediate left, a green chalk board hung on the wall covered in writing, as well as a calendar.
There were entire shelves, boxes and trolleys of tires and tools against the walls, as well as the same utensils scattered freely about the room, as though the mechanics here had been in the middle of making over a car, and had dropped everything suddenly. A part of a motorcycle was being worked on... as well as a single red car devoid of tires that had been risen on a blue car lift hoist, about a couple feet up in the air. The moment Jill had entered the room, she had smelled the strong scent of gasoline... and sure enough, a huge puddle ran like a stream around the garage, around the car, and under her boots, which splashed against the liquid. Her eyes went to the side of the car, to the gas tank to find, sure enough, gasoline dripping from underneath it... and laying in the middle of the puddle was a thick electrical cord, attached to a generator over in front of the main sealed shutter door of the garage.
Evidently, said generator was shut off or broken... or otherwise the garage would have exploded a long time ago. Things were looking up... without the gas station, they would have been forced to find another, much further away from the train, probably closer to the main horde. By the time they actually got the oil, it would have been more time saving to just run to the clock tower, risk be damned. Down the side of the garage, closer to the defunct generator were some more stacks of tires, shelves and cabinets one of them lined with buckets of paint.
Jill moved over into the room after surveying it, tucking away her sidearms and beginning to examine every surface in the garage, intent on finding a canister of the oil somewhere... this place seemed the most likely to hold it. She searched among the tools, shifting and kicking things over, studying the rows of every shelf... to no avail. There were all kinds of motor liquids, batteries and cleaners, but not an actual can of oil. Annoyed, Jill nevertheless continued on, and probably would have been there for awhile, were it not for the muffled, authoritative voice coming from the shop that froze her on the spot and took her attention. She looked over in the direction of the door to the shop as she listened carefully to his ever steady tone.
"Valentine. Come back here. I've found what we are looking for."
Good... it was about damn time they found the final piece of the puzzle. There was still a lot to look through in the garage, so she was relieved to be spared the headache of this particular scavenger hunt. Acquiring the oil additive had been enough for her. She stepped away from the shelves and generator, pacing through the puddle of gasoline, past the car and back to the door, standing in it for a moment to study the shop. Hunk stood behind the counter of the shop, behind the register and computer, but was faced away from each, examining the display case she had seen earlier, as well as a panel covered in buttons in front of it. The display case had two clear windows, but from Jill's position she could not see what was within.
After studying the panel for a moment, Hunk looked back up to the clear glass in front of him, drew back the butt of his TMP, and smashed it roughly against the display case. Jill expected the glass to shatter instantly... instead it sort of bounced in it's frame, made a muffled sound... a material far stronger than glass. Hunk didn't strike it a second time, rather tucked the TMP back into his belt and remained in front of it, motionless and examining it carefully... he didn't bother even looking her direction where she stood in the doorway, nor when she walked over to the sales desk, past a couple shelves and stepped behind it, moving to the case and standing at his side, glancing between him, the case and the panel. She looked through the clear window into the storage container, noting that indeed their part, the metal canister of oil, sat within among the many other items occupying the enclosed container. She spoke up then, biting her lip unconsciously, tone soft and low.
"Is everything alright? What's wrong with the case?"
Hunk was silent for a long moment, still as a statue. As though he had not heard her or even really knew she was there. She was about to ask him further questions, when at last he addressed her, still studying the oil.
"Absolutely nothing. It was built too well for it's intended purpose, that's the problem. It's a refrigerated storage container, locked and sealed, keeps the oil a decent temperature. The window isn't glass, and is potentially bulletproof. Even if I try shooting it, there is the risk of hitting the oil within and compromising it and our escape."
"Of course... a simple solution just had to be out of the question, didn't it?"
"Naturally. Not every Gordian knot can simply be cut. Or lock picked, for that matter."
Hunk replied, tone deadpan, and he pointed down to the button covered panel in front of them. Standing closer to it, Jill finally took in the details of it... in the top right corner it had three red buttons, each opaque and not glowing... while in the center of the lock there were four larger, square buttons, all blank and devoid of any coloring. Underneath each of these was a single large fonted green letter, also not glowing, consisting of an A, B, C and D. Jill wasn't sure what kind of locking system this thing was... but already she had a bad feeling about it, that they were going to have a headache on their hands.
"The only solution is operating the electronic lock. It seems to be an algorithm of sorts, where the correct sequence of letters must be chosen. I suppose that means a good deal of trial and error."
"Wonderful."
Jill sighed heavily, shaking her head slowly and brushing her bangs out of her eyes as they fell forward. She ran her fingers along the panel, not touching any of the buttons, more considering which button to go with first. At the very least there were only four of them... it wasn't much, but it was something. They stood together in front of the panel for some time, and now and again Jill glanced in his direction, wondering if he had any other ideas... but if he did, he wasn't giving them away. Finally she spoke up again slowly, eyes narrowing intently on the electrical lock, pursing her lips.
"Well in that case, let's just get this tedious problem out of the way. I swear, it feels like everyone in this town is obsessed with puzzles, with making things more difficult than they have to be. I thought that the Mayor's locking system was ridiculous... guess it extends to more than a few kooky citizens. I mean, what ever happened to a simple lock? Or a combination lock even? I'll never get used to this. Did I ever tell you how many puzzles I had to go through up at the Spencer Mansi-
"Well hello ladies and gentlemen... well, a fine young lady and her dubious gentleman. That a Delorean crashed outside? Could use a time machine outta this mess."
Came an amused, accented voice from behind them, and at the same time both Hunk and Jill withdrew from their talk, and looked over to the source of the arrival. There was another ringing and a clatter as the glass door opened and closed. Jill whirled around on the spot, hand going for her gun, taken off guard and surprised, having been getting into her Mansion story. Hunk merely turned his head back slowly, and together they spotted the familiar uniformed figure standing grinning ear to ear in the doorway, rifle down casually at it's side.
"Sorry I'm late, had to scavenge, and leave a few hungry fans disappointed back there. And when I say a few, I mean a whole goddamn swarm of them. Sucks to be popular. Not sure if they were fans of me, or my brains... but either way, pretty flattering. Looks like you got started without me."
"Carlos!"
Jill muttered wearily, though laughing slightly, relieved both that the interruption had not been from a creature, and that he was still alive. At the rate they were going, the last thing they needed was people dropping like flies. Her heart rate balanced out gradually, recovering from the startling, but in spite of it, she did find herself smiling a little. She had been concerned, about both of them during the entirety of her own trip... a little silly perhaps, they both seemed as capable as she was, or more so in HUNK's case... but she couldn't help herself... she simply worried, always had. Probably why she had found it necessary to create a calm exterior when the time came to worry... most of the time. Even now she worried about Captain Mikhail, and looked forward to being able to head back and check in on him. In spite of how exasperating the young man had been proving to be since she met him, he was dependable, and overall rather kindly... that went a long way in her books. Especially in this situation, and compared to how the antagonistic Sergeant had been.
"There you are. It's good to see you again in one piece, are you alright?"
"Aw, look at this, a nice warm reception. I didn't know you cared."
Carlos joked with the same grin, raising an eyebrow at the young woman behind the counter. Within, however, he had to admit he appreciated the concern. It was damn good to see the both of them again, each relatively no worse for wear. It seemed. He wasn't sure what they had been through out their on their own, but whatever it was couldn't have been much better than his adventure had been. Still, they were damn close now to getting out of Downtown... he could almost taste sweet freedom. He offered Jill a slight wink, and continued, glancing around the store now and again... spotting the coffee machine in the corner, and making a good note about it, wry ideas coming to mind.
"Feel free to give me a nice welcome back kiss anytime you please, Supercop. HUNK, that extends only to her, but if you're up for a manly hug, I won't question your-
"Have you recovered the fuse, Oliveira? Or are you flapping your tongue to divert attention from a likely failure?"
"Ah, there's the HUNK charm I've been missing since I left... knew there was a reason to come back alive", Carlos chuckled slightly, holding up a fingerless gloved hand in a cease fire gesture, reaching up to his vest and flipping open a pouch, producing the trio of interconnected tubes, and holding it up in the light and warmth of the shop's interior for them to see. HUNK's red lenses studied them in his hand, and his smirk deepened a bit. "Yeah yeah yeah, I got it, I got it big guy. Don't blow your own fuse. I'm not going back there for another."
HUNK inclined his head, evidently satisfied with what he had seen, but said nothing more on the matter, withdrawing from the conversation. Turning back to the electrical lock and studying it deeply, starting to press buttons, causing the blank ones to start illuminating red. Testing out the locking mechanism, while the Corporal went on, looking around the interior of the gas station.
"So, what's going on here? You two alright? Wasn't hard to find the place, all I had to do was follow the bodies. Have you got a lead on the oil yet? I could always go siphon some from all the cars out there, if it comes to it. I really don't think we should stick around here longer than we have to."
Jill continued to peer over to the chatty Carlos, smiling a bit back at him, raising and resting a hand up on Hunk's shoulder strap. She took up the reins for Hunk, speaking again a little more light naturedly. Hunk glanced her way again at her touch, meeting her amused eyes, but he did not shake her hand off his shoulder as she thought she might. Rather he treated her as a minor tolerable nuisance, and went back to work... which was just fine to her. She had to admit, Carlos had a mood lightening effect now and again... and overall, it just felt good to be here with both of them again. They were not in the clear by any means, but their chances were better by far... and she hated being alone, especially in the worst possible times.
"We're as fine as we can be, Carlos. Siphoning some oil shouldn't be necessary. The 'big guy' here and I found a canister of oil right here in this case, but we can't get inside."
"Did you try smashing that son of a bitch open? I can handle that part if you guys want. Hell, I found me an extra grenade launcher at the substation, as you can see", Carlos smirked gloatingly, showing off the back up weapon freely, unslinging it and raising it over his head in one hand. Jill had to admit, it was an impressive sight. And was likely to come in handy. "S-Mart's top of the line. Probably find this baby in the sporting goods department. I'm sure she'd be more than enough to open a lock or two. "
"I think we're going to need the oil in one piece, Carlos, and not exploded. Firing a grenade at a display holding propane might not be the best choice, and in the middle of a gas station. Not that another launcher doesn't hurt. It's bulletproof glass and stuck behind a locked electrical algorithm. We might be here a little while sorting it out, hope you don't mind waiting."
"Oh man... don't get me started on electrical machinery puzzles, seriously..."
Carlos moaned dramatically with a deep sigh, slinging both his rifle and grenade launcher, making his way over to the coffee and assorted hot beverages machine in the corner, pushing aside a chair in his way, looking back over his shoulder to her. He tucked the fuse back into it's original pouch, and began to search his vest and pockets for change... he was sure he'd brought some with him... at least enough for a measly cup of coffee. Maybe some hot chocolate or chicken soup, for that matter. He wasn't necessarily a coffee guy, but whatever would help, he would take. It'd be great to sip a hot tasty beverage, and take a seat at the table for awhile... his feet were aching within his boots. He looked between the beverage machine's selections as he rummaged through his pockets, addressing Jill and HUNK, who continued to ignore him, simultaneously.
"You need to get your head examined sending me on that fool's errand, HUNK... and no, don't point out I was the right fool for a fool's errand. I know how your insults work by now. If I don't see another generator, fuse, electric fence or anything related to them ever again, it'll be too soon. When this is over, I might just go to Hawaii or the Caribbean, live on the beach awhile... or some village away from technology, go native. You can come with me if you want, Jill, we could go sunning."
"That bad, huh?"
"You have no idea, Officer Rambo."
"You'd be surprised."
Jill murmured slightly, ignoring his quip, the Tyrant beneath the burning wreckage returning firmly to mind, as well as how long it had taken her, and the fate of the Sergeant and his mercenary victim. She considered bringing it all up to Carlos, particularly the reason for the Sergeant's absence... but there was no hurry to do so... they hadn't even officially finished all their tasks, nor returned to the train. It could wait until either he brought it up, or they were relatively safe again. Still, the images stung at her like a swarm of bees, and closing her eyes for a moment, she shut it all out like a distant intruder, staying in the moment of things.
"And probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"With everything I've seen? At this point if you saw a stampeding T-Virus infected Elephant escape from the Zoo, or a fifty foot Crocodile in the sewers, I'd know you weren't pulling my leg. Now, where the hell did I put that change? HUNK? You got any? Jill? I know you don't exactly have a pocked filled outfit, but you wouldn't happen to have any on you, would- "
His words trailed off, cut short by a low, inhuman echoing moan carrying from off in the distance... not courtesy of the horde... or at least the main horde out in the main streets. Howling on the wind. They were too far away from that infested concentration to be hearing their moans... this, while distant, was a bit closer. The moan, like a whistling wind, fell silent, by which time, Hunk had again turned away from the monitor, and like Jill was peering at the closed glass door Carlos had left, from beyond which the noise was coming. Carlos froze too, in the midst of his change search, eyes widening a little, looking between the door and his two companions a bit nervously, smile gradually fading. No more than another second or two after the moan had fell silent, it came again, a tad closer than the one before, and Carlos spoke up instinctively before the others could, not much thinking about what he was saying, more busy worrying about whether he had been followed, and as such simply pointed out the obvious thing off the top of his head.
"Hey! The zombies are getting restless!"
"I know, I can hear them.", Jill confirmed his words, tone a bit higher, carrying through the shop, her prior amusement fading just as his own was. Slowly Jill's hand retracted from Hunk's shoulder, and down to her Samurai Edge in it's holster, but she didn't remove it just yet, her pulse quickening a little. She traded a look with Hunk, and her other hand went to her hip instinctively. "What's going on out there?"
"Don't worry your pretty head so much Jill. It must be coming from far away... I mean it could be anything, not necessarily that they're on to us. None of them followed me back, I would have seen them. When I'm done getting my drink, I'll go out there and take a look for my-
"Forget your damn drink, Oliveira. There are priorities. Learn them. Stand watch at the door. Now."
"Oof. Sir, yes sir. Back to the grind, then..."
Carlos's voice replied slowly, wearily, not much in a mood to argue with HUNK's cold tone as his gloved hand gestured towards the door. Still, he sighed... there was no end to it all. All he had wanted was a few minutes to sit, a drink, and a moment to recover his thoughts, and give some relief to his aching joints. And he couldn't even get that. He bitterly hit the side of the machine as he started too step away... and to his surprise, he heard a sound within it, as a cup fell into the relieving tray, and the machine activated, pouring a blend of fresh coffee into it, before turning back off. Carlos looked between the miraculous cup and the unreadable HUNK... knowing better than to argue with that silent look. Instead of rejuvenating his senses with the hot beverage, Carlos unslung his rifle and marched his ass back to the door, standing directly in front of it, and peering out over the cluttered area around the gas pumps. Glimpsing, as of yet, nothing in the semi darkness but fallen bullet ridden bodies and wreckage.
"It's all clear from here, for the moment... do you want me to head out and look closer?"
"Negative. Remain where you are until ordered otherwise. We will return to the train after this panel has been figured out."
"Got it, just make it fast, will you? I'm not keen on being potential zombie chow. A Carlos-less world ain't something I intend all the fine young ladies to suffer."
Carlos received no response from the other two at that, and he looked back at them from over his shoulder behind the counter... they were mainly concentrated on operating the panel. Jill looked up now and again at him, and he merely shrugged with a grimace, looking past her... noting a poster of a rather sexy woman in a revealing swim suit and stockings, not too different from the one he'd seen back at the substation. Could have even been the same lady, Miss September. No... better. It was a poster of Umbrella's sexy blonde Aqua Cure lady, no less, from the commercials. If only it wasn't so big, he could have rolled it up and taken it with him when they left. After all the shit he was going through for Umbrella, the least they could do was set him up on a date with her. He looked over to the side of the coffee machine, sighing bitterly again. Between the coffee, the seat, and the view of the poster, it would have been a rather decent break. Of course HUNK would have to see fit as to blow that chance for him. Still... it was important, and Carlos didn't want the creatures sneaking up on them anymore than HUNK did.
The Corporal hoped they would get on with their tinkering already... he'd stood guard on the barricades around the train station long enough already, and that had been enough. Still, he supposed it beat having to solve another puzzle... it could always be worse, that much he knew all too well about. He tore his eyes from the inside of the shop, away from the poster, and forced himself to continue watching the area around the gas station carefully... it wasn't easy, being quite distracted by the beckoning scent of the brewed coffee close by, but somehow he managed it. Keeping his eyes and ears strained off in the distance, standing there for a bit.
Jill, over behind the counter with HUNK noted that all four lights had suddenly illuminated a glowing red and she watched carefully as HUNK pressed the button designated D, and the glowing red light in it vanished... it, as well as the C button beside it, to her confusion. The actual D beneath the square former red button began to glow green, having been activated. She watched as he tapped the glowing A Button next, and the other two red lights faded, leaving all four blank. It was a matter of getting all four illuminated, after selecting a letter... something simple, but annoying. She glanced up at Hunk's lenses, studying the reflections of the panel in them, and was just about to start wrapping her head around the pattern of the illuminating buttons, and HUNK was about to reach for the D button again, when they were interrupted once more suddenly, Hunk's hand freezing in mid air in front of the panel.
"Jill! HUNK!"
The two of them turned as one on the spot behind the counter, with Jill speaking up first, alarmed by the fearful tone of Carlos's voice as he stood, apprehensively, in the doorway, eyes wide and staring at the both of them. The distant moans were no longer so distant, to Jill's own apprehension. And they were no longer alone.
"What's wrong?"
"They're coming!", Carlos exclaimed in panic, peering back at the two of them, gesturing wildly over his shoulder to the door, still startled by the sight he had glimpsed. A shambling horde marching down the narrow road leading into the gas station. He could hear the ever familiar shuffle from outside, and knew they only had a little time left before the creatures descended upon the front of the gas station. His heart was racing in his ears, and by now, he had entirely forgotten about the coffee or anything else. Was it his own fault? Had he been tailed on his way back? He didn't know... but he aimed to correct his mistake if it was the case. A wave of guilt mixed together with his fear, as he shakily continued. "They must have sniffed us out! They know we're here! A whole damn swarm of them!"
"Carlos, calm down...", Jill began soothingly, raising her hands, hoping to relax him with her words, bring him back. In spite of her own quickening pulse. The last thing they needed was a panic to sweep through them and give the monsters an advantage. She spoke the words not only for his benefit, but for her own... she needed to hear them, and they needed to get organized for fending off the monsters outside, no matter what variety and how many of them. The recovery of the oil was immediately vented from her mind, as this new priority took it's place. "We can deal with them together, on the way out. We're almost done over here."
Carlos ignored her, raising his rifle up in the air and cocking it, falling back upon his more soldierly talents, reining in the panic sweeping through him, just barely. It was time to rock and roll, not stand around waiting to die. He spoke up again, a confident smirk touching his lips that had no logical business being there, and he cut off Jill before she could say any more, the smirk falling upon both HUNK and her. It was time to do what he did best... he was tired of playing it cautious... he'd been doing as much for the past while, and it was time to lock and load, to annihilate the freaks outside. No more running away, as he had on that elevator. Their backs were to the wall here.
"No offense Supercop, but fuck that. The best defense is a good offense I always say. Any objections to my playing hero this time?"
"What are you doing?!"
Without waiting to hear what either of them had to say on the matter, Carlos had barged back out the door, raising his rifle and peering through the sights. He was done with falling into line and taking orders... at least in the heat of battle like this, he needed to act now before it was too late for all of them. If they got trapped in the gas station, they were done for. A large group of them had made it past the gate of the three corners street, and having spotted him in the doorway, began to moan louder, more hungrily, and move in his direction. If they wanted him, they'd have to choke on some hot lead before they got their chance. He'd dealt with far worse than them already, and he wasn't about to lose now, this close to escaping this nightmare.
There was no signs of any mutations among them, thankfully, but he glanced at the sides of the buildings around the gas station now and again to be sure. Overall though, he mostly focused on the small, gathering horde, and began to open fire on the ones gathering in front of the gas tanks, spraying them with automatic fire, firing into their midst wildly. He didn't pause to think it through, heart slamming in his ears, and while he did not concentrate on shooting the tanks, the occasional bullet grazed the top of the pumps, sending sparks every which way, joining in with the blood as the occasional zombie head exploded. He felt pumped up, his adrenaline circulating... and despite his fear and the graveness of the scenario, he washed it out with another spray of bullets. He felt like he was in some kind of action movie, and he even laughed a little in between reloading. Watching the bloodied bodies squirm and drop around the area... only to stop, as more and more of the creatures joined the fallen ones, the reinforcements arriving just faster than he could drop them.
"Arnold...", Carlos muttered under his breath, between bouts of gunfire, jaw tightening a little as he took down another pair of creatures, who fell back in the path of some of the others, slowing them down. "Eat your heart out, man. I am the ultimate badass!"
"Carlos!"
"Oliveira! Cease fire and switch to individual shots! Aim! You're hitting the gas pumps!"
When Carlos continued to ignore them, or the deafening roar of his rifle too loud to hear over, Jill reached for her pistol and was about to head outside and join him, relay the order. Before she could HUNK turned fully on the spot and grasped her wrist firmly but gently. Forcing her to look at her reflection in his lenses, he shook his helmeted head grimly, gesturing back to the panel and producing his TMP in the other hand simultaneously. He leaned in a bit closer to Jill so she could hear him, red lenses firmly rested upon her as he spoke up again, tone just as cold as it had been when he'd called to Carlos. But quieter, calm and reserved over the staccato of gunfire and moans intermingling.
"See to the recovery of the oil. I'll get Oliveira to fall in line. We'll cover you, hold them back. Make it quick."
"I'm on it.", Jill agreed rapidly, freezing herself from producing the pistol. Despite her desire to help out directly... they all needed to help out in their own way. Her heart pounded in her chest, fear coiling... but his encouraging hand at her wrist kept most of it at bay. She too leaned in closer to his ear herself and spoke up louder, so she could hear him over the barrage of rounds. "I'll get this done as soon as I can. Just... be careful, Hunk. Both of you. Don't want to... lose you too."
"You won't."
HUNK replied simply and assuredly, turning and releasing her wrist, pressing a hand to the top of the counter and rather nimbly mantling up over top of it. Sweeping his legs over and in the process kicking off both the computer and cash register, slamming them onto the floor with a crash. Some stacks of papers were knocked over too, flying every which way, and as Jill watched him go, she went over and took his original spot in front of the panel. She didn't take her eyes off him, feeling her heart beating quicker in her chest... wishing to, wanting to be out there with them. With him. Helping the agent. Making a difference. Doing what she was best at, protecting others.
Jill knew Hunk could handle himself... as it had been at the parking garage. Didn't need her. All the same... she wanted to join the battle, more than recovering this part, even if it meant their escape. She forced herself to concentrate when he left the gas station, with all the effort she had left. Willing his masked face and touch away from her mind. She heard the moans, gunfire, and his authoritative voice out there... and knew they were depending on her as much as she was them, just in a different way. She wasn't about to disappoint them.
Breathing a deep, steadying breath, Jill forced herself to get back to work.
