Chapter One: Wanted, Dead or Alive
Leon Kennedy looked behind him, seeing the black smoke from the destroyed Umbrella lab hang over the soon-to-be demolished Raccoon City like a veil of death. Surely, Umbrella wouldn't be able to cover that up so swiftly, but it was probably no doubt that they already had their cleanup crews in place. He looked toward the front again, seeing the driver and the young medic staring ahead at the lonely road, and from the looks of it, lonely for miles. No one said anything for a few minutes, giving the exhausted three a slight calm. Their homes, lives, and families were all affected by Umbrella's bumbling.
Finally, the driver broke the silence, his crisp British accent cutting through the atmosphere in the vehicle.
"Where are my manners? My name is David Trapp, from the S.T.A.R.S. Exeter branch in Maine." Leon and Claire exchanged looks.
"S.T.A.R.S?" Leon asked surprisingly.
"Yup," the young girl said, her voice cheery. "I'm Rebecca Chambers, S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team, Raccoon City…or what's left of it." Now Claire spoke up.
"So you're the one that's left!" Claire exclaimed, perhaps a little too loudly, for Sherry was beginning to stir. She moaned softly, then snuggled back alongside Claire.
"The only Bravo Team member left…true." Rebecca looked a little saddened by this fact, as true as it was.
"Leon Kennedy, rookie from the Raccoon City Police Department. First day on the job…and already I want a raise." A nervous chuckle escaped him.
"Exciting first day, I would imagine," David replied. "Not everyday you escape a necropolis." His tone turned serious. "Any other survivors that you know of?"
Leon bowed his head. "Not that I know of, sir."
"Please," David said congenially. "Call me David. No need for formalities."
"David it is, then." The well-built man next to Leon reached out his hand in a handshake offering. "John Andrews, also from the Exeter S.T.A.R.S." Leon responded in proper method and forced himself a grin.
"Claire Redfield," Claire said finally. Leon noted a look of surprise, a flicker of movement in David's eyes, as if suddenly placing two and two together. Rebecca's eyes also showed a sudden curiosity.
"Would you…happen to know Chris Redfield?" The young Rebecca asked.
"He is my older brother. I came into this town looking for him," Claire said quietly. Then a sudden realization hit her. "You know my brother?"
"We worked at the same precinct." Rebecca said quietly. "He helped me escape the Spencer estate in the Arklay Mountains, a little outside Raccoon City."
"Where is he? Where is Chris?" Claire asked with a growing impatience.
David raised one hand, as if quieting the younger Redfield. "Patience, my dear. Let's not rush too blindly into things, not after the ordeal you three just went through. All will be told in due time, Claire."
Claire looked as if she was on the verge of tears. "Just answer me one thing."
David looked at her from the rearview mirror. "Yes?"
Claire bit her lip. "Is…he safe?"
David's eyes registered an emotion of the positive. "No need to worry. He's safe."
"Thank you," she whispered.
Thank God…you're alive.
"Well, that's some good news." Leon said.
"Who's the girl?" Rebecca asked, referring to the soundly sleeping Sherry.
"Sherry Birkin," Leon answered, "daughter of the scientist who created this whole fiasco, William Birkin, creator of the G-Virus."
Rebecca's eyes widened in amazement. "You mean the William Birkin? One of the top Umbrella scientists?"
"The one and only," Leon answered.
"And what of her parents?" John asked.
"Both dead." Claire said solemnly.
"How?" Rebecca asked.
"Umbrella wanted William's yet untested G-Virus for their own maniacal means. William refused to give it to them, for it represented his life's work. So they decided to take it by force—wounding William critically and taking his G-Virus. Left with one vial, the dying William injected himself and became a hulking monster, transforming into a tentacled aberration. As a result, he killed his own wife. During our escape, he managed to climb on board, tripping the self-destruct. We escaped, and he was destroyed when the train detonated," Leon said, recalling the events of late.
"An orphan child. What do we do with her?" John asked.
"For now," David began, "she comes back with us. She's been through more trials in these recent days than anyone could fathom."
"If you don't mind, David, but where are we going?"
"Exeter, Maine." David said. "It'll take us a while, so sit tight."
Leon slumped back in his seat, looking out the window next to him, seeing the flat land roll by. He looked behind him once again, and saw now the same black billowing smoke, receding, shrinking into the horizon. Today would be the last day that Raccoon City would see daylight. The car rolled merrily along the long, open stretch of highway, the only car for miles around. With the knowledge that Chris was, in fact, safe, at a location unknown to her, she placed her head on Leon's tattered uniform, closed her eyes, and headed off into slumber.
Warning. The self-destruct sequence has been activated. Repeat: the self-destruct sequence has been activated. All personnel should evacuate immediately.
"Shit!" An angry Jill Valentine yelled in the disposal room. She just got done dispatching another one of Umbrella's bio-freaks, Nemesis. Looking around for that asshole UBCS Nikolai, the Umbrella supervisor, she cautiously stepped toward the door when she suddenly the room seemed to have come to life as sirens blared, machinery whirred, and she could hear the sounds of platforms moving.
The disposal's been activated…
In the disposal room, the partition suddenly gave way, and countless bodies began falling into the decomposition fluid, including the lifeless body of Nemesis. The mass of tissue and sinew sank slowly to the bottom, amidst the myriad corpses.
Her heart racing, Jill spied a door that needed an Umbrella key card. Using the one she found from a dead scientist in the disposal room, she waved it frantically in front of the reader. The signal light emitted a confirming beep, the light changing to green, followed by the sound of a click as the lock mechanism released. All around her, she could hear that calm female voice announcing evacuation. As the dull metallic door slid open, she was greeted by three naked zombies, the decayed carrion alerted to her presence. With quick response, the "gangrene gang" turned in her direction, moaning, arms outstretched, wanting the sweet liquid of her lively blood. With one quick shot from her Beretta, she downed the first zombie with a bullet through the head, the rotted flesh splaying. To conserve ammo, she ran headlong for the door at the end of the narrow hall, brushing past the virus carriers, but not before she took an inhale of putrefied flesh. Opening the door handle, she entered the room and quickly closed the door behind her. She leaned against the door for a quick moment, noticing an eerie silence throughout the room. From her observation, it appeared that she was in some sort of communication room, a radio room, judging from the radio equipment nearby. Lying on a soundboard to her right was a grenade gun loaded with a few grenades.
Odd place for a grenade gun…
Directly in front of her was a ladder, with a platform covering the entrance. Walking to it, she made out no way of opening it mechanically. As a result, her assumption was probably that it was electronically locked. A beeping sound cut through the abnormal silence, making Jill jump.
Someone sending over a transmission?
Looking at the switch underneath the flashing red light, she flicked it and suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"…if anyone can read me, please respond!"
"Carlos!" Jill breathed a sigh of relief.
He's still alive…
"Jill! Listen to me. The city is about to become ground zero. The feds are going to launch a missile at first light and wipe out the entire city! Where are you?"
"I'm in the radio room—" Suddenly Carlos' words clicked. "What?! They're going to obliterate the city? Who gave the order?"
"The military. Umbrella. Umbrella wants to destroy all evidence." Carlos said resigned.
You have got to be shitting me! Fucking corporate assholes. They'll do anything to cover their "accident" up—even go so far as to destroy over a hundred thousand civilian lives!
"Bastards! No time to waste. Where are you?" Jill asked, her mind heavy with dread.
"I'm at the warehouse, near your position. I found us a ride out of here. See that radar next to you?"
Sure enough, there was a tiny radar detector next to the soundboard. "Yeah, I see it."
"Good!" Carlos exclaimed. "Use that to see how far away the missile is from the city. We don't have much time. Go down that ladder and follow the path to the warehouse. There you should be able to get to my position."
"Roger that," Jill confirmed.
"One more thing…" Carlos began.
"What?" Jill asked intuitively.
"Nikolai is still around. Watch out for him. See you soon. Over and out." Carlos ended the transmission, Jill hearing the faint click as he signed off. Grabbing the receiver next to her, she pressed a tiny button and a green radar screen came on, and the word "searching" flashed on the tiny screen. Her ears suddenly picked up a familiar sound…the sound of helicopter blades whirring.
Carlos? No…
The room was quickly filled with the deafening fire of machine guns, the weapons firing full into the radio room. She dove to the floor out of instinct, as machine gun rounds ricocheted off the walls and radio equipment, the tiny metallic rounds hitting the floor, hot from the friction. The glass windows shattered all around her, and Jill was in the midst of flying bullets, glass shards, and smoke. After only a few seconds, the peal of gunfire stopped, and the sounds of the moving chopper filled in the void. With her hands clasped tightly behind her head, she heard a sound of laughter from a certain someone.
"Ms. Valentine, come out. I know you're in there," the all-too-familiar Russian voice of Nikolai said menacingly. Staying down, she knew better than to listen to this murderer.
"It's no use!" He yelled, then let loose once again with another maelstrom of machine gun fire, sparks filling the room. Suddenly the soundboard above Jill exploded in a vast array of sparks, raining down on the bare skin of Jill. A bullet whizzed past her head as one sliced clean through the structure. Quickly, she got up and ran for the exit, when the grenade gun caught her eye. In one quick motion, she grabbed the gun and aimed it at the gray 'copter. At the sight of Jill, he stopped firing and once again spoke.
"You have managed to survive this long," he said, a sneer across his face. "Personally, I am impressed. You've have dodged the Nemesis for this long."
Jill stood firm, unwavering from the madman, the grenade gun ready at a moment's notice. "Why? Why did so many have to die?" She demanded. "Was it because of your so-called higher ups? Is that it?!"
Nikolai let out a cocky chuckle. "In a manner of speaking, yes. Umbrella wants me to collect the combat data from this exercise. They also want those pesky S.T.A.R.S. out of their hair…forever."
"Combat data?! Exercise? Is that what they're calling it? An entire city full of zombies created by their doing for experimental data?"
His gaze stood firm. "Precisely."
"Then why don't you kill me now?" Jill asked.
He laughed once again, that snide laugh which almost made Jill pull that trigger. "I don't need to. This city is going to be obliterated in just a little bit. I have the only escape out of this death trap. You will be incinerated, wiped, just like all the others!"
"Like hell I will!" She pulled the trigger, sending a live grenade through the open window. A look of surprise flashed across his face as the grenade connected with one of the machine guns, exploding it on impact, sending the chopper wobbling. The explosion caught him by surprise and he pushed the button to activate the other gun…but no go. The explosion must have knocked out the workings for the other one.
"You bitch!" Nikolai yelled, furious. "You will burn in hell!" Lowering the gun, Jill took her free hand and flashed him a vulgar gesture. Livid, Nikolai quickly placed the chopper in gear and flew quickly away, screaming curses in Russian as he left.
"Fucker," Jill said, until a siren blared in the radio room. Suddenly a female voice chimed over the public address system: Warning. Missile attack confirmed. Warning. Missile attack confirmed. Emergency level…D. All personnel, evacuate. She pulled out the radar detector and saw the display go red, the word going from "searching" to "caution" as a tiny blip appeared at the outside of the circle grid.
Fuck…it's on it's way.
Jill heard the faint click of an electronic lock being released and she saw the covering for the passage below rise. Wasting no time, she headed down the ladder, only to see yet another trial…the room below was full of lying down, dormant zombies.
Nice trick, playing possum like that. Got to give them credit, though.
It would be fruitless to attempt the tiptoe approach through, so she only had one idea—brazenly run through the dormant death party and hope for the best. Bracing herself, she bolted down the corridor, not caring about what or whom she stepped on where, but in no time at all, she safely made it to the exit door. Suddenly she found herself outside on a dirt path. Stopping to look at the horizon, she could see that the sky was starting to get lighter.
No time…no time…
On all sides of her were crushed cars, parts, and other garbage as she walked quickly down the path. It had ended at a large metal door, illuminated by the light above.
This must be the warehouse that Carlos talked about…
Hesitantly, she opened the door and quickly entered. She took no more than a few steps away when suddenly the ground shook, and something large crashed into the door, creating a huge bulge, and in effect, jamming the door. Looking at the warehouse she entered, she could see tall steel shelving units, twisted, bent and warped beyond repair. Hanging from these were the pale blue figures of people, their eyes rolled into the backs of their heads, mouths forever fixed in an open position, and dark crimson stains over their bodies as their blood dried. Judging from their uniforms, they were a mix of U.S. Military and some of Umbrella's mercenary army, the U.B.C.S. To her left, also lying in a pool of blood was one of Umbrella's creative pets, a form of a Tyrant, its large disproportional heart stopped in death. Moving quickly, she followed the path to her right—and stopped in her tracks. In front of her, she saw a huge object, looking like a generator, but then quickly realized that she had seen this before. From the rail cannon, she noticed the many wires attaching it to the computer control panel next to it.
A rail cannon? What is a rail cannon doing here, of all places?
Moving past the rail cannon, she found what she was looking for—the door to escape, the door to leaving this nightmare behind. A renewed sense of energy filled her tired body, and she ran to the door, turning the handle—
--but to no avail. The door, typically, was locked.
"What?!" Jill screamed in anger. She began to kick the door out of anger.
"No! No! No! Not while I'm this close! Of all the…" Her eyes caught a sign on the door.
In the event of an emergency, power to the door and elevator beyond will be cut for a limited time.
"I don't have all day, damn IT!" She kicked the door again. Nothing. Suddenly her mind began to form an idea.
Maybe if I activate that rail cannon, I can blast my way out of here…
It may have been all for naught, but it was her only hope, her only chance left. Glancing quickly at her radar screen, she noticed it was about 20% of the way there.
Almost out of time…
She made her way quickly to the control panel and pressed a button. A male voice spoke. "Checking…battery." Jill heard three clicks from various points in the warehouse. "Warning. There is not enough power to…activate the system."
Typical. Absolutely typical. Where are the batteries?
Next to her was battery 3. To her left by the exit door was battery 2. Where was the first? Looking around, almost frantically, she retraced her steps back to the double doors where she came in, and almost kicked herself when she saw battery 1 next to the dead Tyrant.
Guessed I overlooked that…
Wasting no time, she pushed the first battery into its reddish chamber. A click was heard, and Jill could faintly hear the computer voice: "Battery…connected." To her surprise, a bulbous blob dropped from the ceiling, and began to mutate.
No…it can't be…no fucking way…
The blob began to sprout tentacles, and began to grow at an exponential rate. Purple fluid shot out of the writing mass as Jill could hear the sick sounds of muscle and sinew stretching, bones locking themselves into place. Jill moved back quickly, and cried out in involuntary disgust as fleshly lumps emerged from the slick, quivering mass. In no time at all, it grew large as viscous fluid seeped from tiny slits in its body. Nemesis, the S.T.A.R.S. killer, survived the disposal pool and now in front of Jill, with one objective: kill Jill. Another sick sound of ripping skin emerged as it grew what may have been limbs, each of them sporting razor sharp claws. It let out a roar, a whiny, ear-splitting feral noise of anger.
It…cannot…be…
How is it, everyone? Like? Don't like? Review, please! I want feedback! Soon, Chapter Two: Unfortunate Event will be posted.