DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in this story but the distortion of the facts, and I'm not making any $$ off it. I may have gotten the timetable for these events completely screwed up, so plz tell me if that's the case so I can fix it sometime. I made Chris and Brad share a locker, because in RE2 the key you get off zombie Brad (sniff) gives you an outfit that clearly wouldn't have been his, but looks like something Chris or Joseph might have worn. So I just made it Chris' (the one where you can shoot with one hand). See you Again!

"COUTINUING CANNIBAL ATTACKS OUTSIDE OF RACCOON CITY," Jill Valentine read out loud as she looked at the paper's headline. "Jesus," she said angrily. "They should just send us in." She crumpled the Raccoon City Times and threw it onto Chris Redfield's desk. "Read that."

Her teammate carefully uncrumpled the newspaper, something she watched with curiosity. For such a messy guy, she thought, he sure does devote a lot of attention to weird little details.

Chris' eyes flicked back and forth across the columns of the page, and she watched as his expression became more and more perturbed. "Another two people mutilated," he breathed. "I don't see why Irons or Wesker doesn't just let us go check it out." He set the Times down on his cluttered workdesk and leaned back in his chair, propping his legs up on a small available section of the desk area. "It's like they're afraid to or something. But the local boys in blue can't even calm anybody down at this point. Too many bizarre deaths, too many lives cut short out there...."

Jill pictured the woods at the base of the nearby Arklay Mountains. They were filled with pines and rocky boulders tucked under the tall trees. A few loose rivers, charted on maps but commited to memory by a lot of locals, like Joseph. She smiled. Give the guy a gun and some matches, set him loose out there, and he could survive for how ever many years. Even if he ran out of bullets.

The thought pulled her thoughts together, made her reflect on her team. The unit she belonged to, S.T.A.R.S., was a specialized section of the Police Dept. here in Raccoon. It stood for Special Tactics and Rescue Service, and was split into two teams. ALPHA, her division, the side where all the fighting knowledge and firepower was (although everyone on her team also specialized in some kind of technology as well), and BRAVO, the Science half, which was the scouting team. The only go-between for both teams, really, was Richard Aiken, the radio guy, swapping sides to go with whoever needed him. He was the only communications expert S.T.A.R.S. had, but like all of them, he was the best of the best. She mind rolled over the rest of her teammates in BRAVO.

Kennith Sullivan was a nice, quiet black guy. He came from some rougher neiborhoods so he was good at close-quarters fighting. He didn't say a lot, but when he did it was either funny or summed up a point pretty well. He was a former Army Ranger, at least for a little while, but now he was S.T.A.R.S. chemist, although she agreed with him that it was a little weird to have one. Wesker, S.T.A.R.S. leader, had promoted him recently and a little agressively, threatening his job security elsewhere if he didn't join up. Undoubtedly, Ken was a great chemist, but he really sucked at anything besides close-quarters combat.

Enrico Marini was a big burly Italian guy who was in command of the BRAVO Team. He could be a little strict and pretty tough, but he was always watching out for the well-being of those under his command. Jill swiveled in her chair a little. He felt a little threatened by Chris and Barry. Jill guessed it had something to do with his job security.

Forest Speyer was a good friend of Chris'. He was from the deep south, with a southern drawl that mangled his words to her. He wore leather around all the time, had long hair and more tatooes than she could count. But he was professional when he needed to be and was such a great sniper, not to mention fun to be around, that he had everyone's respect.

Ed Dewey was the chopper pilot and a nice plain guy. Well, pretty normal all around, but a great pilot, she'd give him that. He was part Irish and every year she'd tease him about the "Kiss me, I'm Irish," hype but overall he was an average guy you could get along well with.

Richard Aiken was a really warm guy who'd help anyone out of they needed it. He was an incredible communications expert and joked around when he wasn't working his ass off not only for both S.T.A.R.S. teams but for the rest of R.P.D. as well. He was from the country and like to hunt a little, but of late he hadn't had any down-time because he was getting a new BRAVO recruit settled: Rebecca Chambers.

Jill hadn't really met Rebecca except in passing, but what struck her every time was how young and fresh she looked, how everytime Jill wondered how a kid like her could be this "medical genius" everyone on high had spoken of. Rebecca seemed a little shy, timid, eager to live up to her teammates own accomplishments. Jill, like the rest of the team, felt a little protective of her, although most of that feeling was within BRAVO itself.

That was BRAVO allright, she thought. But what about her own division, APLHA? She smiled. She would never say it, but she thought of the people in ALPHA as her family, her best friends.

First there was Barry Burten, a sort of father figure to her. And not just to her, to the whole team. He'd helped her and Chris and Brad and Joseph all get into S.T.A.R.S. in the first place, and for that they were all grateful. He was a family man at heart, and yet, paradoxically, he was such a lover of firearms it was a little off-putting.

Joseph Frost was a native of Raccoon, and could find anywhere you wanted to go, even something as small as a specific stream or a specific gas station within a good many miles. He joked around a lot and was the teams vehicle expert. The others called him "Curious George," because he always checked over everything twice. And, without fail, no matter what the outfit he wore, he was always wearing his trademark red bandana. He was pretty young, young enough that the senior members hadn't lost their protective tendancy over him like was now being felt towards Rebecca.

Brad Vickers was a sweetheart, a quiet guy who was always a little nervous about dying out on the field. He took a lot of friendly ribbing because of this, such as his nickname "Chickenheart," but you'd be hard-pressed to find another hacker with his level of skill. He had been shy for a long time, but the ice was finally starting to break and he was hanging out with them more. He was also a pretty good chopper pilot, although Chris was, some people said, better qualified.

Chris. A tough-willed guy who disobeyed orders when it made sense to do so or went against his own moral convictions. He talked about his little sister a lot, maybe because she was all he had, but Jill didn't mind to listen. He was a real good pilot, a little bit of a hotshot even, but it was hard to underestimate his skill in that field. He was the best pilot in the R.P.D., with Brad and then Ed following. However, he'd been kicked out of the Air Force for insubordination after refusing to leave a man behind. Barry had set him up with S.T.A.R.S., but Wesker was still concerned about his record so he made him the Marksman. But more than that, she liked him a little.

Wesker; Albert Wesker. The "cool guy" who never took off his sun glasses, who always had perfect hair, who always wore black and had a curt reply ready. A lot of the team trusted him, but Jill could feel that neither Chris nor Brad did, along with her. Never trust anyone who's perfect, because they don't exist. Something was wrong.

The fax on Enrico's desk suddenly started buzzing, snapping her back to the small S.T.A.R.S. office. She watched paper fill the tray, and asked Chris suddenly: "Where is everybody?"

Chris turned to look at her, a semi-surprised look on his face. She'd just gotten there a few minutes ago. She'd passed Joseph on her way to the office but no one else. "Joseph and Barry went to the P.D.'s library to look up the floor plan for something. Brad went to get something to eat but told me he'd be in the debriefing room if I needed him. Wesker's breifing the BRAVO Team on the helipad."

"What? Breifing them? They're sending them in? With this kind of carnage? ALPHA should definitely go in first!" Jill's voice reverberated with shock. Out of habit she tugged at the bottom of her blue tee, which read "princess gew gew gaa gaa" in lowercase techno letters. Her jeans were a little worn out but it didn't matter. Chris, she noticed suddenly, was wearing his green army pants and white shirt that he wore under his S.T.A.R.S. outfit. "You're wearing--we're on alert? You didn't tell me."

"That's what I meant when I said they should send us out; us being the ALPHA Team. I didn't think to tell you about the alert, sorry, Jill. But your own uniform doesn't require any special bits and pieces to wear under it, right? Not like mine or Joseph's or something."

"That's true, I guess. We really should go in first. I'm worried now, they're not our fighting unit...What if they get hurt?"

"They're professionals, Jill. They're gonna go kick some serious cannibal ass and haul those bastards back on a spit. C'mon, it's no big deal. We probably won't even go in at all."

"Maybe. Damn it, I'll never be late again..." she was cut short as Joseph and Barry strided into the room.

"I couldn't believe they didn't have the map for the area," Barry said. "I could've sworn they did last week. It's like they're hiding it or something."

"Maybe you misremembered?" Joseph suggested, passing up the oppurtunity to make any more old age jokes about Barry. Barry was only thirty-eight, but he had been with S.T.A.R.S. for fifteen years and was the oldest on the team.

"I don't think so. But maybe. Has BRAVO left yet?" Barry asked Chris, beginning to put some books he had been looking through in the office back on their shelves.

"No. At least, I haven't seen Wesker come back here. Hey, Joseph, what time is it?" There was a clock in the S.T.A.R.S. office, but it always seemed to be off by a different time every day. And there weren't any windows.

"In Army jargon or plain English?" Joseph asked, meaning did he want something-hundred hours or something o'clock.

"Plain English. My brain's totally fried right now."

"It's about ten o'clock. After hours." Joseph flipped through some book on his desk at the back of the room, near the records shelves and the information gathering center. "I guess BRAVO will be leaving soon."

Brad walked in. "Hey," he said quietly. "BRAVO's chopper is taking off."

"OK, well, I guess I'm right."

Jill sat up in her chair and looked around. Everyone in ALPHA was here but Wesker. Oh well, that was fine with her. But she suddenly realized how hungry she actually was. She looked around, not wanting to go alone. "Joseph, are you hungry? Or Chris?"

"I am," Joseph said, dropping the book onto his desk.

"I haven't eaten yet today," Chris admitted. "Let's go to a snack machine or something."

"Don't go to the one outside the Western Offices," Brad said. "It's screwed up."


Jill was feeling ancy as soon as it hit eleven o'clock at night. Everyone had been sitting around, doing they're own things, but she could feel the tension building. Could it really take that long for BRAVO to get itself over there and in gear? They were only going to the base of the mountains about thirty miles away. She swivled in her chair again, something she recognized as a bad habit. She pulled her S.T.A.R.S. beret over her head. It was the only part of her uniform she was wearing. She looked around at what everyone was doing.

Barry was checking the ammo in each of his assorted guns. His eyes were fixed on what he was doing, his brow furrowed in concentration. She snickered under her breath. One track mind.

Brad was monitoring BRAVO's helicopter progress. How could they still be flying?? Maybe the equipment was getting weird. She heard the steady beep of the machinery, a sign everything was OK. So far. Brad had some earphones but was only pressing the outside of one to his head. If anything happened it wouldn't be the beeps that warned him but a radio message, which was a different part of the information center.

Chris was looking over numerous reports central to the cannibal murders. Jill was a little fascinated by this, as Chris sometimes tended to run in without a plan. For him to be flipping through pages full of official weasel-talk and vague honesty, trying to understand who these sickos could possibly be, was something almost as unusual as the tension in the office, usually such a place of togetherness. She smiled. She liked that part of S.T.A.R.S.-nearly everyone was friends in some way or other.

Joseph, she realized, was praying. He was getting worried about his friends in BRAVO Team, since he had only recently been promoted to ALPHA. He was really close to everyone in that team, in some ways part of their team more than ALPHA. He held a small silver cross on a chain around his neck delicately, like how you might hold a child's hand. But then, Joseph was good with kids. She shrugged, realizing she was too tired to think about all this.

Wesker wasn't here. No one knew where he was, which added considerably to the tension. She figeted, clawed at her aching shoulders. Damn. By the time we get going, I'm going to be so stiff I'll be forzen in the back of the chopper.

Suddenly the door swung open, and Wesker stood in the doorway. He walked over to his desk and sat down. "They should be landing soon," he said to the ALPHAs. Brad confirmed it from across the room. "Yeah, Ed says they're going in for a land-HOLY SHIT!"

Jill jumped out of her chair. Barry thought for a second he would acidentally pull the trigger of his Magnum. Joseph stopped in mid-prayer. Chris dropped the reports in a scattered heap and Wesker adjusted his sunglasses. "What is it, Vickers?"

"They're losing altitude--they're having engine trouble! Assuming crash positions. I hear you, Ed. What's you position?" As Brad spoke into a headset he had put on, Jill listened to fuzzy voices coming from the other end. She could just make out Enrico saying something, probably ordering them to sit here or there for better chances of survival. She wasn't listening to what Ed was saying. "I hear you, I copy that--I--Ed?? ED?? DEWEY? CAN YOU--" a skizzing sound from across the line. Brad sat still for a second. Jill was aware that there was a collective holding of breath, except from Wesker's direction. Then Brad said in a monotone voice, "Radio contact lost, sir." He turned to face Wesker with a weird sort of calm. Jill realized that she was wearing the same expression, but Joseph looked a little hysterical. "Will they be okay?" he was asking no one in particular.

Wesker stood up from his desk and walked over to where Brad was sitting. He studied the whining machinery for a moment, then walked to the middle of the room and stood in front of Jill's and Chris' desks. Jill was surprised by the near-gentle tone his voice assumed. "Alright, everyone. Get your locker keys out and remain calm. We're going to go in after them if Brad can't regain contact within a half-hour. Fast, fast, let's go. Remain calm. Everyone go!"

Jill jumped up from her desk and grabbed her obscenely ornate locker key with a blue stone set in it. Joseph grabbed his with a gray stone, Barry his with a red stone, and, since Chris and Brad shared a locker (a constant source of complaints from both parties), Chris grabbed the green-stoned key they both used off his own desk. Wesker was already in gear. Either he had changed as soon as the alert had been put out for the S.T.A.R.S. team, or he knew this was coming. Jill knew the second idea was ridicolous, but for some reason she told herself to remember this point.

She, Chris and Brads raced down a set of wooden stairs and into the dark room, where they took out their keys and removed their gear and combat accessories from the two lockers. Jill ran for the changing room that the S.T.A.R.S. and S.W.A.T. Teams used (Author's note: I know there isn't one in the game, but I added one for the sake of common sense. Its not like they hung up a curtain in the S.T.A.R.S. office.) to change. She was done in less than two minutes. In ateam like this, you learned to change fast.

When she got back to the office Joseph was already there, and so was Brad. She watched Curious George hover over Vickers, his face pale, gripping his rosary. "Can't you reach them? Could they have survived?" he would ask, and Brad would answer "I'm trying. It depends where they landed." The cycle repeated itself.

She waited for Chris and Barry to return and didn't bother to wonder where Wesker was. The weapon's Locker in the basement, where she and her teammates would head in a second to retreive their firearms. Then they'd have to go up to the helipad for their own debriefing. She couldn't help it; she began to pace.

And then it was all a blur--she was walking across the precinct with her team to the basement, they got the guns they were allowed to carry, and then they walked all the way up to the helipad. Insane, she thought, She wiped her forehead. Damn hot.

The night air wasn't much consolation since she was strapped in her S.T.A.R.S. combat gear and outfit. She held her beret against her bangs, then pulled it over her eyes. People could read eyes. She didn't want anyone reading her.

She looked around, realized Wesker wasn't there and that they had lost Brad somewhere. But in a second they came through the door to the roof, and she saw that Wesker was holding a small military audio tape and Brad looked scared out of his mind. He looked shattered. He was carrying a small field radio that doubled as a player for the tape. Wesker motioned for everyone to come together in a circle and handed the tape to Brad.

Jill wanted to look up, but she couldn't see Wesker's eyes and he could see hers. So she just listened.

Again, Wesker's voice was almost gentle, yet still clipped. "Alright, everyone. Listen to this tape. It's the last transmission we were able to receive, and we taped it off the equipment. Do not be alarmed. Vickers, play it."

Jill listened to Ed's voice, frantic and sounding like he was on that thin line between sanity and all that was beyond. "This is Dewey. No one was killed in the crash, but we have another another situation. I'm not sure of our position right now. Listen, oh God, these things...Are they-ARGGGGHHGHGHGHHHHHH!!!" Tortured screams emanated from the small radio, Ed's pleading for help, then the sound of something ripping, tearing, the cries slowing to gurgles that stung Jill's ears just to listen. The gurgles becames whines, than stopped. Silence. More tearing. Then "bark, bark....AWOOOOOO!" A dog's barking! So the cannibals were training dogs?

She didn't care. She felt sick listening to someone else die. She'd chalk the look on Brad's face not to his cowardice but the actually of someone's gruesome death. If she could see her own face she'd look away. She didn't want to look at Joseph, afraid she'd see a much different Joseph than what she knew.

She breathed deeply as she listened to Wesker's words. "Alright, we'll be going in after them. This is now a rescue mission, not a strike. Are we clear? We take off now." Clipped gentleness. It was beginning to make her queasy.

She moved towards the helicopter, dragging her gear with her. She looked up now, saw Brad revving up the helicopter. Chris was patting Joseph's shoulder, leading him to the open copter doors. Wesker had no eyes. He only has sunglasses, Jill thought as the helicopter lifted away from the Raccoon City Police Department.



OK, if you've read this far please review! Email me w/ any suggestions at StonesRiver1862@AOL.com. Comments OK 2! Thanx! See you Again!