Familiar Hauntings
Chapter Nine
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"Oh my God…" Claire trailed off as she peered into the side windows of the entrance to the Biology Building. There were easily fifty to sixty zombies swarming the place, and with all of them in there, the chances of Bobbye and herself finding the lab were zero.
"Why do you think they're all in this area, Claire?" Bobbye cautiously moved her head around behind her friend's to get a better view of the scene.
Claire shook her head. "I'm…not sure, really. Maybe there's…" Claire stopped in mid-sentence, and corrected herself. "I don't know. Truth is, we wouldn't stand a chance with just handguns in there."
Bobbye was slow to reply. "…Well, we have to do something…it's not exactly like we have a whole lot of time to get down there, you know."
Claire bit her lip nervously, "Yeah, I know. Well, maybe we can get in through a side door, or an emergency exit…The main room is a no go for sure."
By this time, a few of the zombies on the inside had sought out Claire and Bobbye. They awkwardly stumbled to the door, and beat on the plexi-glass windows. The girls stood their ground, calmly watching the bloodthirsty creatures that were only a few feet away.
"…You know, the word 'stupid' shouldn't be taken lightly with these guys, comrade. This is a whole new ballpark of stupid." Bobbye motioned to the main doors, only ten feet to her left, then looked back to the incessantly pounding zombies.
Claire stared into their rotting faces a bit longer. "Let's go, we don't have a whole lot of time."
****
"Is it clear to go outside?" Demi was huddled behind a cautious Devon as the two slowly walked out of the medical waiting room, into the main hall of the student resources center. The area appeared to be desolate for the most part, save for a few zombies wandering around outside. The couple slowly walked through the room, nearing the staircases leading to the recreation center and the dean's office. A wary Devon peered down the stairs they had run up only a short while ago. That seemed like another life to him now.
"Where is it?"
Devon frowned before chopping his words. "It's…I think…I think it's gone."
Demi gripped his lacerated arm instinctively, which made Devon yell out in pain. This scared Demi, who also screamed. "I'm sorry!" She cried to him.
"It's okay…really," he said as the pain burrowed deep into his body, "but you really could let go if you wanted to help me out."
Demi hadn't realized that she had only gripped tighter when she screamed, much to Devon's dismay. She smiled sheepishly at him. "Sorry." She loosed her death grip on his wounded arm.
"I wonder if the others are still upstairs," wondered Devon as he painfully rubbed his throbbing bicep.
"I wouldn't think so," Demi had said. "That was a while ago. They're probably long gone."
"Yeah…"
"But," Demi interjected, "I think I might know where they might be!"
Devon shifted his glance to her out of the corner of his eye before quickly darting them back to the zombies wandering outside the front of the entrance. "Where?"
"Well, earlier, I was talking to Claire about how I thought everyone might have gotten infected in the first place. I told her that it might be in the food, and that we should check out the café sometime."
He looked over to the double doors of the cafeteria. "Okay," he said finally, "it's better than nothing."
With that, the two of them walked through the café doors, to find a few stray zombies wandering around slashed and overturned tables.
"Wow, that monster must have made his way through here…"
"Yeah," Devon agreed. "He seemed to be a bit angry at that." His gaze turned to a few zombies with deep slash wounds running across their bodies. Some of them were completely beheaded. His eyes found a zombie that had been completely cut in half at the waist, yet was somehow still moving around on its broken arms.
Devon walked to the entrance of the kitchen, and used the master key on the lock. The metal door creaked open slowly.
"Claire?" Demi called out softly. Gaining more confidence, she repeated herself, louder this time. "Claire!"
Nothing.
"They're not here…" She said. Devon could sense the disappointment in her voice.
"It's okay, Dem. We'll find them. Although I'm not sure we'll find much else here. I doubt Umbrella would just leave stuff lying around the kitchen."
"So," Demi inquired, "now where?"
"Well," Devon paused to think about the next course of action. "I think we should--"
He was cut off by a very loud, sharp gunshot.
"What was that?" Demi cried.
"I don't know, but it's close!" Devon grabbed her hand. "Come on!" The two then ran towards the sound of the blast.
****
"Mr. Jansen, sir!" A soldier with a pair of binoculars around his neck strided to the man in the three-piece suit, and stiffly saluted him. We've appeared to spot a couple of survivors nearing the north door of the Biology Building. One of them appears to be Claire Redfield, sir."
Karl Jansen suddenly became intrigued with what the young soldier had said.
"Are you sure?"
"Take a look for yourself, sir." The soldier gave the binoculars to the wide-jawed man.
"I'll be damned." In his sight was Claire Redfield, along with another girl, sneaking into the back entrance of the Biology Building. He saw two bright flashes of light erupt from her hand as she shot the lock off the back door, and heard the sound of gunshot nearly a second later. Suddenly, a much louder blast sounded across the campus, scaring Claire, the girl, and Jansen, all at the same time.
"And just what the hell was that?" Jansen scanned the area, seeking to find the source of the disturbance.
"I would believe it to be that soldier with the special orders to secure the campus, sir."
Jansen lowered the binoculars, and glared angrily at the soldier. "Who?!"
"Well…" The soldier swallowed painfully before regaining the courage to speak. "He told me that authorities had sent him to secure the condition on the grounds, sir."
Jansen stared coldly into the trembling man's eyes. "And you used your judgement to allow him on instead of my own…"
"Sir, I assumed you didn't want to be bothered--"
Jansen yelled right into the man's face. "Would you just shut up?! Now, thanks to your keen 'judgement,' we now have an outside hazard working in our operation! It could be a S.T.A.R.S. member, for all we know! Jesus!" Jansen pulled his handgun from his concealed side holster, and aimed it at the horrified soldier's chest. "You've been relieved of your duty, soldier, due to lack of judgement, and frankly, just pissing the hell out of me." Jansen pulled the trigger, killing the man instantly. He quickly re-holstered the sidearm, and briskly walked to one of the numerous white vans. And picked up the radio microphone from the console. "We have a Code-2. I repeat: a Code-2 has been authorized. Squad "Charlie", meet at vehicle zero-one-five immediately." He threw the radio mike into the chair, and walked into the back of the van, picking up a magnum handgun, and an M-16, along with extra bullets and clips.
"I'm going to resolve this myself," he thought, as the squad began to materialize. Soldiers kept coming, until there were roughly twenty-five of them standing at attention in front of Karl Jansen.
"Men, we have at our hands a potentially hazardous situation. A recently discharged soldier has made the misjudgment of allowing an outside force of unknown origin onto the campus. We have no information regarding this individual, not even a physical description. Confront anyone living with extreme prejudice. Also, it has come to my knowledge that our forces have not neutralized Claire Redfield. Our mission is to eliminate both subjects before they can cause any damage to our actions. I will accompany you. Who is in charge here?"
A man hesitantly raised his hand. "I am, sir."
What's your name?"
"Tanner, sir. John Tanner."
Jansen walked over to the man, laying a hand on his shoulder. "John Tanner is no longer your authority. I am. You listen to me at all times. If you do not follow orders, you will be killed. Understood?"
A collective 'yes sir' filled the air.
"Alright, let's go."
****
More shots split the silence. Demi and Devon ran out of the student center, guns drawn and ready for whatever might come their way.
"There!" Demi pointed to a silhouette of a person under a large oak tree backing away from five or six frantic zombies. The figure raised a shotgun in front of it, and fired, simultaneously killing all its opposition with one shot. The figure lowered its weapon, and stared down at the bleeding undead crumpled on the ground.
"Hey!" Devon yelled. He waved his hand high above his head to the mysterious person. In response, the person called back.
"Devon?"
Devon frowned, and absently put his hand back by his side. "Is that…?"
"What is it?" Demi asked nervously.
Devon didn't respond, but began to make his way through the sporadically placed zombies, firing a round at each of their heads. He heard the figure talk again.
"Damn, it is you."
"Jim?!" Devon made out the glowing end of his cigarette in the darkness, a major characteristic of his friend.
"Yep, that's me."
"Jim Bowman?!" Demi cried, somewhat bewildered.
Devon walked up to Bowman, and slapped him on the arm, almost unable to hide his excitement. "Wow, Jim! It's definitely been a while. What are you doing here?"
Bowman raised his hands at his sides, allowing Devon to see all the weapons he had brought with him. "What the hell does it look like? I'm saving your ass, that's what I'm doing."
"Oh." Devon simply said. "Thanks."
"Here." Jim handed Devon a large shotgun still slung across his shoulder. "This should be a little better than that damn pea-shooter you've been carrying around."
"Wow. Great." He admired his new weapon in between cautiously glancing towards the zombies beginning to stumble over to the group.
"And for the lady…" Bowman handed the M-16 he had swiped from the soldiers to Demi. She swallowed nervously at the firepower she was holding. "Well," Jim told her, "go on, try it out." He then pointed to a group of seven zombies beginning to make their way over.
"Jim, don't make her-" Devon was interrupted by the camouflaged man.
"Try it out, Demi."
She nervously held the machine gun at her side, as she had seen it done in movies, and fired at the group. The gun wildly flipped upward in a spray of gunfire, and it recoiled out of her hand, she screamed and jumped back as the gun hit the ground. Bowman smirked.
"You jerk, Bowman!" Demi yelled at him.
"Ah, shut up girl, it builds character."
"Come on, Jim." Devon raised the shotgun, finishing off the rest of the zombies coming their way. He turned to look back at Jim, as he pumped the shotgun. "How did you know?"
"I have my ways…" Jim trailed off, not quite wanting to tell Devon how he had known about the incident.
"Did the media start covering what was going on?"
"No, the media has no clue what's going on, outside of military lining the school. Of course, the military knows it's not their troops. Only the civilians are ignorant."
Devon looked around again nervously, before continuing the conversation. "So, that's how you know what's been going on? You being in the Air Force?"
"Nope." It was a simple answer that just irritated Devon to no end. Bowman had always done him that way.
"Well?" Devon growled, "You don't know what's going on then?"
"No, I do."
"What, then."
Jim sighed, giving in to Devon's persistence. "Okay. I've been keeping Umbrella under surveillance for God knows how long. They're a lot like organized crime. Everyone in the government not callaborating with them suspects they're doing stuff, but no one can quite prove anything. They don't want to risk blowing their chances of bringing them down, so we wanted to catch them in the act. I hacked into their database, the old one at least, and I found out about their previous incidents. Even some of the government bastards are in with them, so I'm not sure who's clean and who's not."
"Jim…Who exactly do you work for?"
"Well, I can't tell you that right now, Devon. I would…But you know."
"Thanks for coming, Jim." Demi said, smiling. She felt even safer with two of her old friends with her, even if Jim wasn't a normal description of a 'friend.'
"Okay Devon. Here's what's going to happen." Jim was dead serious as he spoke. "We're going to kill stuff. We're going to kill a lot of stuff." Devon started smiling as Jim spoke. "And when all that stuff is dead, we're going to find more stuff to kill. Anyone else dressed like me, kill them."
Devon frowned. "What? I can't kill other soldiers."
"They're not normal soldiers, they're with Umbrella. If they knew what I was here for, then they'd kill me too."
"Why are you here? Jim?" Demi began to grow a bit uneasy.
"You'll find out soon enough."
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