Familiar Hauntings
Chapter Three
Bobbye was thankful she had been outside. It gave her room to run from the people she used to know, the people that were now trying to kill her. She was normally quite rational when it came to most things, but she wondered to herself how one is to remain rational when all her friends die, only to pick themselves back up and stumble after her. Her friends were no longer the people that she had befriended through tennis, class, or a friendly game of pool. These people had committed horrible acts right in front of her eyes. Her jogging partner, Miranda, had walked up to her boyfriend from behind, and put her hands around him in an intimate embrace, only to have him tear off one of her appendages and turn on Miranda herself, silencing her only by tearing her throat out. Bobbye shivered with the memory of only an hour or so ago. The way his eyes were devoid of life, and how he was unaffected by her shrill screams, shattering the humid air. Bobbye couldn't say anything. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped at the ensuing gore. And then she ran. She ran with no destination in particular, if only to tire herself so she wouldn't have the energy to fear anymore. She finally ended up at the Centennial Square, where she hoped her friends would soon meet her. Her blood froze in her veins as she thought of her friends turning into one of those creatures. Would they come after her? Would she die the same way Miranda did? It didn't seem possible for her to meet a fate like that. But at least she was outside. If she had been in one of the dorms, it probably would have been much worse. Hundreds of these people in such a small area. No way anyone could have made it out.
She wondered where they were when it began. Her friends.
"Eric wouldn't die like the rest of these people had, would he? He's really smart; he probably got away before things got really bad. Demi's pretty small, but she's strong-willed. Maybe she's still okay."
Bobbye shook her head, sadly.
"Demi is probably dead. Unless Devon went to get her. He probably got Lori first though. But Devon is sort of the heroic type around the people that are close to him. Which means if he's with either of them, he could be dead. That means that Demi or Lori probably would be too."
She leaned on a statue of the founder of the university, and rested her elbow on it. He put her hand on the side of her head, and looked around her cautiously before closing her eyes.
"What if they're all dead? What would I do then? There's no way I can make it out of here alone, I know that much. Maybe someone's still out there. Maybe someone can find me."
Almost as in response, she opened her eyes and saw two figures walking towards her. She tensed, ready to run again, but one of the figures excitedly put her hand into the air and waved it around wildly. She strained to see the girl's face in the distance, but it appeared to be Bethani's small figure. As the two girls walked under a lamplight, she saw the orange American Eagle shirt Bethani was wearing, and the red leather biker's jacket that belonged to Claire. She returned the wave to the two girls.
Bobbye smiled.
****
"What do you mean it's not in your orders!?" a very exasperated Eric, still dressed in a plain white shirt and sleep sweats, yelled to a nearby camouflaged soldier. Eric was on the perimeter of the campus, a mere fifteen feet away from a few of the numerous white trucks that circled the school. However, the drawn M-16s of a group of soldiers prohibited him from getting any closer.
"You heard us the first time, sir!" The masked soldier held the gun steadily sighted on Eric's chest.
"Would you at least tell me what's going on, then? What's with dead people wandering around my campus?!"
"That's confidential, sir." The soldier began to grow tired of the questions.
"Well, at least help us get rid of them!"
"Sir, I've already told you, it's not in our orders!" The soldier pulled the safety off the gun, and Eric heard it audibly click. "If you don't leave now, I'll open fire. Sir."
Eric stared coldly at the man, before the bold words of the firearms caused him to slowly back away. Without saying another word, Eric turned his back on the men, and slowly walked away. He half expected the men to open fire on him for the trouble.
"Who are these guys?"
Now at a loss for what to do, he began to jog towards the Centennial Square.
****
Despite the situation and horror at hand, it was quite a happy reunion. Everyone hugged and expressed their joys that they were okay. Claire was firm and silent, as she normally was, but was still visibly joyful that her friends were still alive. She had looked at Devon's bat he carried, and saw the coagulating blood covering much of it. She raised her eyebrows, quite impressed with how he had fought the zombies. However, she had seen Lori's shoulder, and while she wasn't positive how it had been hurt, the answer was obvious.
Lori and Bethani cried together. Each held the other, and not many words were expressed, only the remains of residual adrenaline. Lori had told the group what she and Devon had gone through escaping the dormitory, and what had happened to her shoulder. It appeared Claire had wanted to tell her something, but refrained.
Bobbye was for the most part silent, only speaking to say what had happened to her, and of the untimely demise of her friend, Miranda. Never one to show much emotion, Bobbye held many of the fears and feelings inside, which was something she had always done. The way she had figured, this situation would be no different.
However, Devon didn't share in much of the rejoicing. He was being eaten by his own worry inside for Demi. She still wasn't back, and the lump in his throat grew larger each minute that passed. The other members were asking where Eric was, as well as Demi, but while Devon was worried about Eric as well, he was pretty sure that he'd be fine. But Demi, however…that was a different story, and Devon felt like he was about to fall apart. He only prayed that Eric was with her. His heart dropped when Eric arrived--without Demi.
"Eric!" Lori cried and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her too, if only half-heartedly. He had been emotionally spent, and the dark bags under his eyes accentuated this.
"Hey Lori," he said, genuinely relieved, even if his voice wouldn't allow him to express it completely. "I'm glad you're safe."
"I take it you haven't seen Demi, Eric?" Devon's voice was passing, yet urgent. In response, Eric shifted uneasily.
"You mean she's not here?"
"No, I…I uh, was hoping she was with…you."
His face sank as he heard the recent news. "Oh man…"
Devon knew that Eric had liked her as well, but figured that if she had to either be alone or with Eric, he wanted her with Eric. Devon nodded silently, and spoke. "Then I'm going to McCulloch to find her."
"No, Devon, it's nuts in the dorms. Don't even try." Bethani demanded.
"I've got to…I can't let her…die."
"Devon," Claire's voice was monotone and devoid of emotion, as if she didn't even know the young man she was speaking to. "If she's in there, she's dead. I'm telling you. You can't hold out in the dorms for long. These things sense out living people."
"What am I supposed to do? Maybe she's still in her room! I can help her!" He yelled to her.
"If she was in her room, then she's dead now!" Claire yelled back at him, slightly annoyed at his lack of logical reasoning. She softened a little before continuing. "Okay, now listen. Demi's a really smart girl. She knows how to look out for herself. I think there's a chance that she's okay. I mean that. You just have to listen to me on this. I've…" She hesitated, knowing she was about to bring up the stabbing pains of her past. "I've been though this…before."
Eric's eyes widened, as did the others'. "You what?! What do you mean, you've done this before?"
She closed her eyes to stop all the memories flooding back at once. "I've dealt with zombies and all this stuff before."
"What happened…?" Beth said softly, mortified that this had happened on more than one occasion.
"Well, do you all remember the nuclear meltdown of that secret facility in Raccoon City?"
"Yeah," Devon cut his eyes, unsure as to what she was getting at.
"Well, that was no nuclear meltdown. More like a nuclear assault by our own country."
"Our own country bombed our own city?" Bobbye stared in disbelief. "How do you know this?"
"Because I was there." For the first time since her arrival at school, Claire began to break the defenses she had built around herself, finally allowing her friends to see her for what she really was.
"You're kidding." Eric's eyebrows raised, and he stumbled through his next words. "W, well, what-what happened down there?"
"This happened." She said plainly. "Zombies were originally created by two specific viruses, the T-Virus, and the G-Virus. The G-Virus was the successor to the T-Virus, due to the fact that it had a faster mutation rate than the T-Virus. These viruses were the ones that caused the downfall of that town."
Bethani shook her head in disbelief.
"The government figured the only way to cover up the huge outbreak was to destroy the entire town. I had escaped just prior to that on a train with a cop named Leon Kennedy and a little girl named Sherry Burkin. Afterwards, I had investigated the company behind the outbreak, Umbrella Incorporated."
Bobbye chuckled slightly, "Figures. Should have known that company didn't get as rich as it is with only selling plant fertilizer and test tubes."
"After working on the S.T.A.R.S. team with a few select people, and my brother Chris, I was captured and taken to an island of Umbrella's. Their past followed them there, too, and the entire place was overrun by zombies and all sorts of other mutations of the virus."
"Wow, Claire…I'm really sorry." Lori's tone was soft and sympathetic. However, Claire made no effort to notice.
"Well, I eventually got off that island, too, and headed back to Europe to finish my investigation. We eventually destroyed the Headquarters of Umbrella, but not before finding that there are at least three other branches of Umbrella, all capable of working independently. One in Chicago, Illinois, one in London, and another in Brazil."
"So," Devon concluded, "I'm assuming it's the Chicago branch doing all this to the campus, right?"
"I would think so."
"But," Devon said, slowly. "Is there any cure for these people? I mean, the G-Virus has been around awhile, right?"
"Well," she said pessimistically, "The G-Virus has a cure, but I'm not sure that this is the G-Virus. As fast as it affected these people, I'm thinking it may be the variation on it."
"Which is?" Bobbye implied.
"Well, there's not an actual name for it, yet. It's been known as the Delta Virus though."
"What's that?" Lori asked.
"It's a drastic mutation of the G-Virus. That's really all you need to know. That, and there's no cure for it at the moment."
"But that still doesn't explain why they picked to release it on this school!" Devon's thoughts began to wander back to Demi, and he began to grow uneasy again.
"I don't really know," Claire said quietly. "Maybe they want me, or someone else in the school, I'm not sure. It could just be an experiment to see the virus outside of the laboratory. There's no telling."
Eric was about to speak again, when the sounds of breaking glass began to sound from Anderson Hall. The group of friends turned their attention to its direction, and saw numerous zombies pouring out of one of the room windows.
"Oh no!" Bethani cried.
"They're going to be everywhere before long." The lump in Devon's throat got larger. "I've got to find Demi. I have to." Desperation began to seep into his tone. "Please understand, please. I…I have to find her. I wouldn't be able to take it if she was…" He couldn't finish as his eyes started to sting.
"I'll look, too." Eric said, as Devon gave him a sharp look, to which Eric returned. The rivalry was still there between the two of them, even in light of the dire circumstances.
"Don't check the dorms, I'm telling you." Claire stood by her argument with Devon earlier. "You'll die in there, especially with only a baseball bat as a weapon. They'll overwhelm you."
Devon was quiet for a long while, as his mind raced furiously to think of where else she might be.
"I'll look for her in the art hall." Eric said, knowing that it was the closet building to her dorm. He would find her before Devon did. He wouldn't lose to him with such high values at stake.
Devon clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth. "Then I'll take the Computer building. Who wants to come with me?"
"I will," Lori said quickly. "You already got me out of Anderson, I'll keep my luck with you."
"I'll go with Eric." Bobbye stated in a very plain, all-business tone. To Bobbye, this was just another game, like in tennis or basketball. The only difference was the stakes were higher.
"I'll stay with you, Claire." Bethani clung to her like a small child with a new object of affection. "I'll go wherever you go."
"No," Claire replied, to Beth's shock. "I do my best work when I don't have to worry about anyone else.
"Are you sure that's safe, Claire?" Devon grew concerned at the thought of one of his close friends braving the campus alone.
"I have this, I'll be okay." She help up her fifteen round semi-automatic pistol, which seemed to glow in the light of a nearby lamppost.
"Well," Eric commented dryly, "I was going to ask why you would have a gun at school earlier, but I guess you've already answered that."
"I never leave home without it." She seemed eager to begin. Eric thought maybe a bit too eager. "Well, I'm headed to the police station to look for you guys some ammunition to fight with. A word of warning to you all. If you come across any more zombies, run." She glanced at Devon. "Don't be stupid and try to fight them, just run. They're strong, but slow." She started to walk away from the group, towards the small police station on the corner of campus. "Be careful," she said, not bothering to turn around, "I want to see all of you again."
The remaining friends watched her for a while, before talking amongst themselves again.
"Well, I'll go with you then, Devon." Bethani looked at him with her big brown eyes. They were the same eyes that Devon always had a hard time turning down. Those eyes always seemed to get their way.
"I don't mind, Beth. Come on."
"Well," Eric smirked at Devon, "we'll find her. Don't worry about that."
"We'll see." Devon stared at him for a few seconds, before turning around and beginning to walk to the Computer Building. Eric began to do the same, before Devon's voice caught his attention. "Hey Eric, meet me outside the Art Building in half an hour from now. One-fifteen. Okay?"
"Sure," he shrugged before he and Bobbye began to walk away. The other three left as well, hoping it wasn't the last time that they'd see their friends.
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