Part III
Night had finally settled into the city, everything shrouded in darkness. The patrol car sped through the debris-strewn streets, pushing one-fifty easily, flashing past the zombies and mutations. Jace glanced at Lena from the passenger's seat, giving her a nervous smile. Lena smiled confidently back at him. "Don't worry," she said. "I've done this before. Haven't crashed yet."
Jace chuckled. "Yet? Let's hope you don't crash at all."
"Sure," she said as she veered sharply to the right, the tires screaming on the pavement as the rear end of the car fishtailed, trying to balance out.
Lillith Memorial Hospital was clear on the other side of the city, a long walk if she flipped the car. Jace tried to ignore the fact that they were reaching towards one-sixty-five, and looked away from the speedometer. "Who taught you how to drive, anyway?" he said.
She laughed. "My uncle. He's blind, you know."
For a moment, he looked at her as if she were serious. Then, realizing she was kidding, he laughed too. She turned another corner, running into a man that was standing in the middle of the street, one arm raised in front of him, the other....ugh, the other one lying in the road beside him. He rolled off the bumper and landed face-down on the pavement. "God, what's happened to this city?" Lena murmured.
"Your guess is as good as mine," said Jace. He turned away from the window and looked at her. "So you're on your own here?"
A brief look that Jace didn't recognize flashed by on her delicate features. "Yeah," she said softly. "Everyone else is in New York."
He expected her to go on, but she fell silent. She's lying about something... He dismissed the topic and said, "Been a cop long?"
She seemed a little more at ease with that subject and said, "Two years. I'm still just a rookie, but I love what I do. What about you? What did you do for work before all of this happened?"
"Had a desk job with that pharmaceutical company. Ya know, Umbrella Inc.? Stayed with them for about three years. Job sucked, but the money was great."
"So you were a chemist or something?"
He laughed. "I wish. Nah, I handled the public relations. Anytime somethin' happened that might've been Umbrella's fault, I was their guy. Sent me out to press conferences to quell whatever trouble they'd gotten themselves into. Remember the mansion explosion in the Arklays?"
Lena nodded. It had caused so much excitement in the papers, and managed to stay on the front page for weeks.
"The media claimed that Umbrella should be held responsible," he continued, "seeing as how it was their estate and a few trace chemicals were found in the ash. Then that S.T.A.R.S. group had to join in and started spreading stuff around about secret experiments in the basement. With all sorts of rumors out there, it was a hell of a job to quiet everything down..."
"But was it true? Was it really Umbrella's fault?"
He shrugged. "Not really any of my business. I was paid to keep the company's name unscathed. I wondered, though. There was always something that didn't seem right. Ah, but I just dismissed it, went out there, and before I knew what happened, the blame was thrown back at S.T.A.R.S."
Lena frowned. "So are you the one responsible for having them run out of town?"
"No, no, I don't think so. I just delivered their side of the story. Everything else was either from the press, or Umbrella themselves. It's a shame that that group had to skip town, though."
"I'll say. Chief Irons had a fit. Started rambling 'bout how Umbrella was trying to ruin his town. I swear, I think that guy may be a little..."
"Insane?"
"Yeah. All that crazy art of his, and those random outbursts...I wonder how he was ever appointed Chief of Police."
They were both quiet for a while, the hum of the engine filling in the silence slightly. Jace looked her over again. She really was cute, the kind of girl he would normally go for. Average, not strikingly beautiful, but with enough character to catch your eye and maybe hold it for a while. Stop it!, he scolded himself. Get your mind on something else...and look out the window!
Jace tore his gaze from her and returned to worrying about flipping the car.
Lillith Memorial Hospital stood tall and dark in the chilly night, the windows boarded up, and the main entrance blocked. Eight floors that harbored the dead, but only a few would hold what they needed. The wind whistled through the surrounding trees, intermingling with the far-off howls of wild animals, and the sad moans of the Raccoon City citizens. The hospital, though, was silent.
Jace and Lena climbed out of the black-and-white, and for a moment, they just gazed at it, wondering where to start, and what they would find. Would there be survivors? Or just hordes of zombies waiting for fresh blood? Lena shivered and held the magnum tighter in her grip. Throughout this whole scenario she had managed to keep herself safe without coming into contact with an actual zombie. She didn't know how she would feel once she actually shot one. She'd never even shot a normal human being before.
She looked over at Jace, and he flashed her a grin. "Ready?" he asked.
Lena nodded, and together they headed towards the barricaded front entrance. She regretted not pressing for any bigger weapons. Sure, she had the magnum that she had managed to confiscate from that psychotic drunk earlier, but what did Jace have? A puny 9 millimeter.
"Wait," she said, pausing and running back to the patrol car. "There might be something..."
She trailed off as she popped the trunk, and, lo and behold, she discovered a Remington shotgun and a box of shells. This should make up for lousy planning.
Lena jogged back to Jace and handed him the weapon and munitions. "Here. This should work a lot better than that Beretta."
Jace looked the gun over, and tucked the shells into a pocket. "Thanks," he said, and they continued up the dark, cement path, keeping themselves ready for any sudden ambush.
An overturned ambulance and other discarded vehicles blocked the front doors indefinitely. Lena sighed, tapping her gun thoughtfully against her thigh. "So what do we do?" she asked. "How can we get through this?"
Glancing around, Jace said, "A backdoor."
"Right. We're just gonna wander around and happen to find a back door that's been conveniently missed when they were sealing this place tighter than Fort Knox."
He rolled his eyes. "And you said I was cynical."
Jace started forward, keeping the shotgun ready to blast the first thing that moved, disappearing around the side of the building without so much as a glance back to her. Lena frowned. Even though she had only met him an hour ago, she had already managed to pick up on his less-attractive traits. Not really a kidding kinda guy, she reflected. Of course, I can worry about that later. If we get out of this alive I'll have plenty of time to nit-pick.
Checking the rounds in her gun, Lena followed.
As if the darkness wasn't enough, there had to be a nauseating smell accompanying it. Sarah Carpenter crawled out from beneath the bed she had been hiding under for the last hour or so and brushed the dust off of her already-messy clothes. Faintly, she remembered how her mother used to get upset at her whenever she got the slightest bit dirty. I buy you nice clothes and then you go out and get them all messed up! she would say. Honestly Sarah, I don't understand you sometimes.
But it had been awhile since her mother had scolded her. In fact, it had been awhile since she had even seen her mother. The last Sarah knew was that she was somewhere inside the hospital. Her father had taken them all there in the middle of the night. He seemed really upset about something, and in the confusion of the events, Sarah had gotten separated from her parents. She didn't know how long it had been since then, but she wanted to leave this awful place quick. There were strange people walking around, killing other people, and then there were the even-stranger monsters that seemed to be everywhere. Red lizards that crawled on the ceilings. One of them had chased her into this room, where she thought it would be safe to hide under the bed. After a while, Sarah eventually cried herself to sleep.
Shuffling cautiously on rubbery legs, Sarah crept over to the door through which she had entered the room, reaching for the knob when something occurred to her. Here she was alone in a nightmare, fourteen years old, and she was about to go back out into the hall where the monsters were probably waiting for her. Shouldn't she at least have a weapon of some sort?
Sarah looked around the dark room. When she had first entered she hadn't bothered to look closely at her surroundings. She saw the bed and instantly took cover. But now the she didn't feel as hurried, she realized that the room she was in probably wasn't the safest. A large row of windows ran across the back of the room, allowing moonlight to flow through, illuminating nearly everything inside. As the wind fought against the panes of glass, Sarah could tell they weren't that strong; they shook visibly and rattled like the bones of a skeleton.
Birds...
Big, black birds swooped and glided on the breezes, hovering near the windows as if searching for a weak pane. One of the ugly birds flittered against the glass, scratching at it with its talons. Two more soon tried the same thing, but bounced from the window when they found it wasn't accomplishing anything. Sarah cocked her head to one side as she noticed how peculiar their flight patterns were, it was almost as if they were grouping together into one big mass of birds, hovering close to the window...and that's when panic slapped her in the face. No, no they can't do that. They won't do that--
CRASH!
Sarah screamed in terror as a fat crow slammed into the glass with enough force to shatter it completely, shrieking caws as others followed behind it. Panicking, she flailed her arms above her head, slapping one of the birds down just as more of the windows imploded, letting in more of the hideous birds. She screamed again as another crow swooped at her, trying to claw at her ear, but she ducked her head and spun away, glancing around frantically for something to hide herself in.
There. To her left she spotted another door, and without even giving it a second thought she ran for it, praying for safety.
Please please please please please--
She yanked it open and collapsed inside, slamming the door shut behind her.
Gasping for air, noticing for the first time the tears that she had shed, Sarah found that she was in a small supply closet. Blankets, first aid, pillows, and some other items she didn't recognize were all resting neatly on shelves. There was a quick fluttering and scratching at the door, but the crows quickly lost interest in it.
It was back to hiding, and hoping.
The wood groaned and cracked as Lena and Jace worked together to pry the large plank off of one of the windows that was towards the back of the hospital. This had appeared to be the weakest of the planks, and upon Jace's suggestion, they had utilized a lead pipe as a makeshift crowbar.
One end of the wood finally popped up, and the plank swung aside, revealing a window that led to a patient's room. Bringing the pipe up like a baseball bat, Jace swung with all his strength and shattered the glass instantly. After thoroughly clearing a way through, he dropped the pipe and said, "There. That wasn't too hard."
Lena moved forward to climb through, but Jace stopped her. "No. I'll go first, just in case."
Rolling her eyes, she stepped aside. Even though he seemed to be trying to play the protectorate, Lena would've appreciated it if he had let her just go on ahead. After all, she was the cop. Not him.
"After you," she said.
Gracefully, he hoisted himself through the window with one hand, landing in a fighter's stance with the shotgun held ready. After a moment, Lena could hear him moving slowly through the room, probably checking for any hidden surprises. So far, no gun shots, so that was good. But when she heard a door open and close, she froze. Either there was a survivor that had stumbled into the room, or he had just left her.
"Jace?" she whispered hurriedly.
No response.
Oh no he didn't... "Jace?!"
Still no answer.
"JACE!"
"What?!" he whispered back loudly, obviously no more than a few feet away from the window.
Inwardly, she sighed in relief. "What's taking so long?"
He stepped up to the window and offered a hand to help her climb through. "Hey, I don't want to walk right into a deathtrap without making sure I have a small chance first."
Lena ignored the hand and climbed through with the grace of a gymnast, almost putting his entrance to shame. She glanced around the room, listening closely for danger.
Complete silence.
After quickly radioing the sergeant back at the P.D., she whispered,"Well, let's get going," and started forward...tripping over a cord that was lying on the floor. She hit the ground hard, bringing a respirator down with her. BAM!
Her face burning with embarrassment, Lena groaned and picked herself up as Jace tried his best to stifle his laughter. "Damn respirators," he said. "Always sneakin' up on ya when you aren't ready."
"Shut up," she grumbled. "Just shut up..."
"Whatever you say," he laughed. He opened the exiting door a crack, and, after peering out into the hall, held it open for Lena and said, "After you."
Victor sat up straight in his chair upon hearing the strange noises coming from somewhere nearby. Glass breaking?....What just fell?? Is there someone else here?
For a moment, panic gripped him as the thought of more creatures flooding into the hospital ran through his mind. More mindless, flesh-craving monsters that he had to deal with. But what if it wasn't more creatures? What if it were...
Victor gasped and rose quickly from his seat, grabbing for his gun. The agents. The agents had finally come to dispatch him! But how many had been sent? How was he going to protect himself? He couldn't just hide, that'd be cowardly. Maybe he could get rid of them before they got rid of him. Maybe if he was lucky, they wouldn't know the man they were looking for and ambush them. Maybe it wasn't even the agents, it could be survivors from the city looking for shelter...
He shook his head. No, there were a lot of idiots in that town, but no one would be that stupid. Why would anyone think a boarded up old building would be safe? Especially one that was reported to be shut down because of a zombie infestation. No, it had to be the agents. This is the thanks I get after keeping Umbrella's secret! Well, I'm not going down without a fight!
