Chapter Thirteen
Peter liked the place, sure it was small, lacked a jukebox and had a small selection of in-house games. He didn't care, as long as he could get a drink then this place might as well be the storeroom in the firehouse basement. After about fifteen minutes wondering Uptown Raccoon he had stumbled upon the"Bar Black Jack".
"Bartender, A Budwieser please." Peter panned his eyes around thr room as he waited for his drink.
"Here you go sir, that will be fifteen Dollars eighty." Peter delved into his wallet and pulled out the appropriate cash. He took a slurp of his ice-cold beer and set it down on the bar.
"Nice place you got here, how long have you been open?" The bartender moved over to talk to Peter while drying drinks glasses.
"Two years now, the place still hasn't got all of the stuff I want in it yet."
"Big plans huh? you should meet Egon."
"Egon? what is it, some sort of computer software?" Peter looked at the bartender an a small grin crossed his face.
"you could say that." The sound of a door closing behind him gained Peter's mild intrest. The bartender also looked up from his job.
"Hey buddy, are you okay? You look like a truck ran you over." Peter bolted upright and looked at the newcomer again. The bartender was right, he looked like he'd been run over. And another thing peter noticed that he looked just like that guy who had bitten the cop earlier. Peter started to judge how far away the door was and how quickly the guy was moving.
"Buddy, either buy a drink or get out of my bar!" The bartender's hand went beneath the polished surface of the bar.
The man shuffled next to the patron at the end of the bar, sized him up an began the job of eating his left shoulder. The bar patron screemed in pain and collapsed to the floor clucthing his shoulder. The scream seemed to break a spell over the place as other bar patrons started to abandon their drinks and leave. However the man had now found more intresting sources of food and started to attack the patrons heading for the front door. The bartender, having had enough of this trouble maker who had started this fight in his bar, raised a Remington shotgun and pointed it at the guy's chest.
"Buddy, if you don't stop that shit I'm going to shoot you!" The guy made little effort to register the bartender's warning.
"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you!" the bartender pulled the trigger and the shot crashed into the guy's chest...and continued through his torso until it became embedded in the wall behind him, shorting out part of a neon sign.
"What the Hell?!" The bartender raised the gun again, but was not sure whether to fire again or not.
"Bartender, is there another exit to this place?" Peter was moving behind the bar.
"Just through there." The bartender pointed with his free hand to the door behind him.
"It leads straight out into a back alley." Peter opened the door and was about to step through when he turned back to face the bartender.
"What are you waiting for?" The bartender, gun still pointed at the man who was making a lunch of his customers, turned and grinned at Peter.
"No-one takes my bar without a fight. Now get out of here and call for help." Peter, absentmindedly began to run and try find a payphone, he finally found one next to a grocer's. Dialling 911he heard the usual clicks as the connection was made.
"Raccoon City Police Department, how may I direct your call?" the famale voice of the operator said through the phone.
"You've got to hurry there's a fight at Bar Black Jack."
"Is anybody injured?"
"Yes, two people have severe bite wounds and there's another guy who's trying to handle the situation himself."
"Thankyou for your call, a unit will be dispatched as soon as possible."
"But wait he's...." the dial tone replaced the operator's voice.
"Damn!" Peter slammed the phone back into it's cradle and tried to get an idea of where he was, either way he had to get back to the Police Department.
***
The easy part was already done, Winston had been able to get the fire-axe out of it's glass case. The hard part was using it with-out the dead cop biting him in the process. Winston raised the axe defensibly and started to edge himself along the back wall of the Autopsy Room.
"Mr. Zeddmore be careful, if he bites you then you'll become infected like him." Dr. Stern was now starting to clime up onto the stainless steel counter.
"Not unless I have anything to do with it, I'm going to try slow him down with this axe. On my mark...one...two..." The double doors of the Autopsy room a few feet away from Dr. Stern suddenly burst open as a security guard rushed in, gun in hand.
"It's about time, what took you so long." Dr. Stern was visably angry.
"Sorry Dr. Stern but we we having a few problems upstairs."
"Three!" Winston swung the axe and it connected with Officer Phillips' hip, and continued to pluge into him until it nearly cut him in half. The force of the swing managed to off ballance Officer Phillips' and he collapsed to the floor. As Winston started to cross the floor, Officer Phillips' grabbed his boot.
"Aaagghh! Get off me!" Winston shook his boot free and crossed the room. Officer Phillips tried to pull his extensively damaged body up so he coul chase after his meal.
"Shoot him now! what are you waiting for?" The security guard crossed the room, hesitated a few moments and pulled the trigger. Two bullets flew from the gun, the first missing it's target and crashing into the tile floor. The second one ended in a sickening "crunch" as it penetrated Officer Phillips' skull. The corpse spasmed for a few minutes and then remained still. The guard crouched and began to poke the barrel of his gun into the hole in the skull.
"Don't touch it! The guard pulled his gun away from the hole in the skull and got up. Dr. Stern walked over to the tape recorder.
"Examination suspended until further notice." He clicked the stop button and sat down on the floor, staring at the blood trail. Winston joined the guard in looking at the definately dead zombie.
"I don't think I'll be able to look at another corpse the same way again." Dr. Stern had joined them.
"You'd better get that body burned and fast. We don't know if the virus can spread other than by getting bitten." Dr. Stern walked over to the intercom.
"Send the chemical spill unit down to the Autopsy Room, we've got a mess that needs cleaning up." He placed the intercom handset back in it's cradle.
"Not bad, how long have you been working here?" Winston asked the trainee.
"I only started yesterday." Winston gave a low whistle.
"Bet you never expected to get that kind of experience." The guard shook his head.
"Damn I forgot, Ecto's ready now."
***
"Tonight on TRCN, Raccoon General Hospital has become one of the leading hospitals in the county with the opening of it's new chemical spill unit, shooting S.T.A.R.S.: what has become of the RPD's sepical ops team, and Michelle Porter gives us her excusive news report in the quality of protection offered to us by the RPD's chief Brian Irons.
"Welcome, today Raccoon City General Hospital became one of the county's leading medical facilities after Mayor Michael Warren opened it's new Chemical Spill unit this morning. The hospital received extra funding for the unit after receiving several large donations from Umbrella Inc. During a press conference, Ben Burtulucci of the Raccoon Times raised concern over the large donations.
Amanda Whitney simply said "Umbrella has received so much from the community, that it was about time it gave back to the community." Umbrella have recently featured in the news, after announcing that it would be renovating and upgrading it's facilites throughout Raccoon City. Such upgrades include the construction of a new Sales Office and updation of computer and security software at the Umbrella plant on the outskirts of town." The view changed to a female newsreader.
"Shooting S.T.A.R.S.: that's one of the topics that has received critiscim in recent months, what is happening with the RPD's special ops team? In a interview with Chief of Police Brian Irons, Peter Snow gave us this report." The view changed to a expensively decorated office. Sitting in a large chair behind a large desk was Chief Irons, an un-friendly man who looked like a politician, and had a greasy mustache to match.
"Chief Irons, could you give us any information on the current status of S.T.A.R.S.?" Irons' face darkened for a moment, but brightened as his politician-like charisma took action.
"Currently S.T.A.R.S. are the subject to an investigation by Internal Affairs, we are hoping that this investigation will be ending soon, however as some members will be suffering dissaplinary action, new members will have to recruited." Chief Irons turned down any further questions with the quote "I'm a busy man, I have to ensure this city's Police Department continues to run smoothly."
"After the break, we'll be showing Michelle Porter's special report on the state of Raccoon City's protection." Ray muted the televison during the ad break.
"It's starting to get dark out there and I'm worried, Winston should have arrived by now and so should have Peter." Ray stared out of the ground floor windows and saw the afternoon was slowly turning into evening.
"I'd better radio them incase anything's wrong." Ray pulled out his hand set and set it to the standard frequency.
"This is Ray...this is Ray, guys can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear Ray, i'm on my way back to the RPD, my quiet evening just got noisy."
"Zombie?" Ray asked
"Definately."
"Have you heard from Winston yet?"
"No, I'm out of range down here, and even up at the RPD the signal was strained."
"Okay, see you soon Peter." Ray switched off the radio.
"No word from Winston?" Egon said from across the room.
"No and I'm worried, what if something serious happens and we need to relay information to him but we can't?"
"Then Winston's on his own. But Winston will know what to do, after all he turned us from a buch of inexpereinced scientists into a proper team. He'll be okay." Even though Egon was right, Ray didn't take much comfort from his friend's words.
***
Things were not going to plan. His planned route was pretty simple, walk along the main roads upto the RPD, but there had been a number of car accidents along the way and the places were being cordonned off by the Police. Wgat was worse was that he'd tried to go back using the alleys he had got to the bar using, and had found his way barred by a gate held shut by a rope an only burning it would get the gate open. So he had to find another way up to the RPD. He was making his way along Fisson Street when the apartment building across the street burst into flames.
"Woah!" Peter ducked as several windows exploded and showered the street in broken glass and window frames. Once the main blast had finished he got up, and stared at the cloud of smoke slowly rising into the sky above Raccoon.
"Oh boy, things are starting to fall apart." The blast had managed to dislodge a large section of wall which collapsed onto the apartment building next door, spreading the flames. Sirens in the distance told Peter that either the emergency services were on their way, or that they were dealing with other problems. The sound of metal crashing caught his attention, he turned to see a runaway bus mounting the pavement and demolish a signpost. Peter only had a splitsecond to avoid being hit by the bus.
"Ump!" He grunted as he dived to the road, the bus passed inches from his boot and continued on the knock over a lamppost and smash into the corner of a store. The bus made an enormous crash that mingled with breaking glass and tearing metal as the driver's compartment was crushed and part of the ceiling and store front collapsed. Peter shook off broken glass from his shoulder and stared at the bus, there were people inside screaming to be let out. He moved towards the bus. Unknown to any of them, the bus's gas line had been torn on the shredded remains of the base of the lamppost, and a trail of gas spread towards the sparking wires dangling from the torn edge of the lamppost base. It took less than five seconds but seemed to happen in slow motion.
"What the?" A giant spark erupted from the metal tree stump that had been the lamppost, blue and orage flames ignited and spread along the gas line. SOme of the passengers in the rear of the bus noticed and screamed louder, but it was too late. The fire had reached the bus and both bus and store were engulfed in a tremedious explosion. Peter shaded his eyes as the main blast threw seering glass in his direction, when he looked back at the bus there wasn't much that could be seen in the flames, apart from the slowly melting body of the now dead bus.
Peter liked the place, sure it was small, lacked a jukebox and had a small selection of in-house games. He didn't care, as long as he could get a drink then this place might as well be the storeroom in the firehouse basement. After about fifteen minutes wondering Uptown Raccoon he had stumbled upon the"Bar Black Jack".
"Bartender, A Budwieser please." Peter panned his eyes around thr room as he waited for his drink.
"Here you go sir, that will be fifteen Dollars eighty." Peter delved into his wallet and pulled out the appropriate cash. He took a slurp of his ice-cold beer and set it down on the bar.
"Nice place you got here, how long have you been open?" The bartender moved over to talk to Peter while drying drinks glasses.
"Two years now, the place still hasn't got all of the stuff I want in it yet."
"Big plans huh? you should meet Egon."
"Egon? what is it, some sort of computer software?" Peter looked at the bartender an a small grin crossed his face.
"you could say that." The sound of a door closing behind him gained Peter's mild intrest. The bartender also looked up from his job.
"Hey buddy, are you okay? You look like a truck ran you over." Peter bolted upright and looked at the newcomer again. The bartender was right, he looked like he'd been run over. And another thing peter noticed that he looked just like that guy who had bitten the cop earlier. Peter started to judge how far away the door was and how quickly the guy was moving.
"Buddy, either buy a drink or get out of my bar!" The bartender's hand went beneath the polished surface of the bar.
The man shuffled next to the patron at the end of the bar, sized him up an began the job of eating his left shoulder. The bar patron screemed in pain and collapsed to the floor clucthing his shoulder. The scream seemed to break a spell over the place as other bar patrons started to abandon their drinks and leave. However the man had now found more intresting sources of food and started to attack the patrons heading for the front door. The bartender, having had enough of this trouble maker who had started this fight in his bar, raised a Remington shotgun and pointed it at the guy's chest.
"Buddy, if you don't stop that shit I'm going to shoot you!" The guy made little effort to register the bartender's warning.
"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you!" the bartender pulled the trigger and the shot crashed into the guy's chest...and continued through his torso until it became embedded in the wall behind him, shorting out part of a neon sign.
"What the Hell?!" The bartender raised the gun again, but was not sure whether to fire again or not.
"Bartender, is there another exit to this place?" Peter was moving behind the bar.
"Just through there." The bartender pointed with his free hand to the door behind him.
"It leads straight out into a back alley." Peter opened the door and was about to step through when he turned back to face the bartender.
"What are you waiting for?" The bartender, gun still pointed at the man who was making a lunch of his customers, turned and grinned at Peter.
"No-one takes my bar without a fight. Now get out of here and call for help." Peter, absentmindedly began to run and try find a payphone, he finally found one next to a grocer's. Dialling 911he heard the usual clicks as the connection was made.
"Raccoon City Police Department, how may I direct your call?" the famale voice of the operator said through the phone.
"You've got to hurry there's a fight at Bar Black Jack."
"Is anybody injured?"
"Yes, two people have severe bite wounds and there's another guy who's trying to handle the situation himself."
"Thankyou for your call, a unit will be dispatched as soon as possible."
"But wait he's...." the dial tone replaced the operator's voice.
"Damn!" Peter slammed the phone back into it's cradle and tried to get an idea of where he was, either way he had to get back to the Police Department.
***
The easy part was already done, Winston had been able to get the fire-axe out of it's glass case. The hard part was using it with-out the dead cop biting him in the process. Winston raised the axe defensibly and started to edge himself along the back wall of the Autopsy Room.
"Mr. Zeddmore be careful, if he bites you then you'll become infected like him." Dr. Stern was now starting to clime up onto the stainless steel counter.
"Not unless I have anything to do with it, I'm going to try slow him down with this axe. On my mark...one...two..." The double doors of the Autopsy room a few feet away from Dr. Stern suddenly burst open as a security guard rushed in, gun in hand.
"It's about time, what took you so long." Dr. Stern was visably angry.
"Sorry Dr. Stern but we we having a few problems upstairs."
"Three!" Winston swung the axe and it connected with Officer Phillips' hip, and continued to pluge into him until it nearly cut him in half. The force of the swing managed to off ballance Officer Phillips' and he collapsed to the floor. As Winston started to cross the floor, Officer Phillips' grabbed his boot.
"Aaagghh! Get off me!" Winston shook his boot free and crossed the room. Officer Phillips tried to pull his extensively damaged body up so he coul chase after his meal.
"Shoot him now! what are you waiting for?" The security guard crossed the room, hesitated a few moments and pulled the trigger. Two bullets flew from the gun, the first missing it's target and crashing into the tile floor. The second one ended in a sickening "crunch" as it penetrated Officer Phillips' skull. The corpse spasmed for a few minutes and then remained still. The guard crouched and began to poke the barrel of his gun into the hole in the skull.
"Don't touch it! The guard pulled his gun away from the hole in the skull and got up. Dr. Stern walked over to the tape recorder.
"Examination suspended until further notice." He clicked the stop button and sat down on the floor, staring at the blood trail. Winston joined the guard in looking at the definately dead zombie.
"I don't think I'll be able to look at another corpse the same way again." Dr. Stern had joined them.
"You'd better get that body burned and fast. We don't know if the virus can spread other than by getting bitten." Dr. Stern walked over to the intercom.
"Send the chemical spill unit down to the Autopsy Room, we've got a mess that needs cleaning up." He placed the intercom handset back in it's cradle.
"Not bad, how long have you been working here?" Winston asked the trainee.
"I only started yesterday." Winston gave a low whistle.
"Bet you never expected to get that kind of experience." The guard shook his head.
"Damn I forgot, Ecto's ready now."
***
"Tonight on TRCN, Raccoon General Hospital has become one of the leading hospitals in the county with the opening of it's new chemical spill unit, shooting S.T.A.R.S.: what has become of the RPD's sepical ops team, and Michelle Porter gives us her excusive news report in the quality of protection offered to us by the RPD's chief Brian Irons.
"Welcome, today Raccoon City General Hospital became one of the county's leading medical facilities after Mayor Michael Warren opened it's new Chemical Spill unit this morning. The hospital received extra funding for the unit after receiving several large donations from Umbrella Inc. During a press conference, Ben Burtulucci of the Raccoon Times raised concern over the large donations.
Amanda Whitney simply said "Umbrella has received so much from the community, that it was about time it gave back to the community." Umbrella have recently featured in the news, after announcing that it would be renovating and upgrading it's facilites throughout Raccoon City. Such upgrades include the construction of a new Sales Office and updation of computer and security software at the Umbrella plant on the outskirts of town." The view changed to a female newsreader.
"Shooting S.T.A.R.S.: that's one of the topics that has received critiscim in recent months, what is happening with the RPD's special ops team? In a interview with Chief of Police Brian Irons, Peter Snow gave us this report." The view changed to a expensively decorated office. Sitting in a large chair behind a large desk was Chief Irons, an un-friendly man who looked like a politician, and had a greasy mustache to match.
"Chief Irons, could you give us any information on the current status of S.T.A.R.S.?" Irons' face darkened for a moment, but brightened as his politician-like charisma took action.
"Currently S.T.A.R.S. are the subject to an investigation by Internal Affairs, we are hoping that this investigation will be ending soon, however as some members will be suffering dissaplinary action, new members will have to recruited." Chief Irons turned down any further questions with the quote "I'm a busy man, I have to ensure this city's Police Department continues to run smoothly."
"After the break, we'll be showing Michelle Porter's special report on the state of Raccoon City's protection." Ray muted the televison during the ad break.
"It's starting to get dark out there and I'm worried, Winston should have arrived by now and so should have Peter." Ray stared out of the ground floor windows and saw the afternoon was slowly turning into evening.
"I'd better radio them incase anything's wrong." Ray pulled out his hand set and set it to the standard frequency.
"This is Ray...this is Ray, guys can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear Ray, i'm on my way back to the RPD, my quiet evening just got noisy."
"Zombie?" Ray asked
"Definately."
"Have you heard from Winston yet?"
"No, I'm out of range down here, and even up at the RPD the signal was strained."
"Okay, see you soon Peter." Ray switched off the radio.
"No word from Winston?" Egon said from across the room.
"No and I'm worried, what if something serious happens and we need to relay information to him but we can't?"
"Then Winston's on his own. But Winston will know what to do, after all he turned us from a buch of inexpereinced scientists into a proper team. He'll be okay." Even though Egon was right, Ray didn't take much comfort from his friend's words.
***
Things were not going to plan. His planned route was pretty simple, walk along the main roads upto the RPD, but there had been a number of car accidents along the way and the places were being cordonned off by the Police. Wgat was worse was that he'd tried to go back using the alleys he had got to the bar using, and had found his way barred by a gate held shut by a rope an only burning it would get the gate open. So he had to find another way up to the RPD. He was making his way along Fisson Street when the apartment building across the street burst into flames.
"Woah!" Peter ducked as several windows exploded and showered the street in broken glass and window frames. Once the main blast had finished he got up, and stared at the cloud of smoke slowly rising into the sky above Raccoon.
"Oh boy, things are starting to fall apart." The blast had managed to dislodge a large section of wall which collapsed onto the apartment building next door, spreading the flames. Sirens in the distance told Peter that either the emergency services were on their way, or that they were dealing with other problems. The sound of metal crashing caught his attention, he turned to see a runaway bus mounting the pavement and demolish a signpost. Peter only had a splitsecond to avoid being hit by the bus.
"Ump!" He grunted as he dived to the road, the bus passed inches from his boot and continued on the knock over a lamppost and smash into the corner of a store. The bus made an enormous crash that mingled with breaking glass and tearing metal as the driver's compartment was crushed and part of the ceiling and store front collapsed. Peter shook off broken glass from his shoulder and stared at the bus, there were people inside screaming to be let out. He moved towards the bus. Unknown to any of them, the bus's gas line had been torn on the shredded remains of the base of the lamppost, and a trail of gas spread towards the sparking wires dangling from the torn edge of the lamppost base. It took less than five seconds but seemed to happen in slow motion.
"What the?" A giant spark erupted from the metal tree stump that had been the lamppost, blue and orage flames ignited and spread along the gas line. SOme of the passengers in the rear of the bus noticed and screamed louder, but it was too late. The fire had reached the bus and both bus and store were engulfed in a tremedious explosion. Peter shaded his eyes as the main blast threw seering glass in his direction, when he looked back at the bus there wasn't much that could be seen in the flames, apart from the slowly melting body of the now dead bus.