CHAPTER FOUR

"Shit!" screamed Jill as the flames slowly began to die away.

"Is everybody all right?" asked Chris from somewhere in the distance.

"I'm fine." said Claire.

"Same here." replied Lance.

"I think I twisted my ankle, but I should be okay." Jill applied pressure to her left ankle as Chris found his way towards her.

"Let me give you a hand." Jill reached for Chris' outstretched arm and he pulled her up.

"Thanks."

"Any idea where we are, Lance?" asked Claire brushing the dirt off of her jeans.

"I'm not sure, but I think we're a few blocks away from the high school. It's about a twenty to thirty minute walk to my house from there, and there's no telling what we'll run into."

"Or who." Jill added, still remembering Wesker's reappearance. She turned her attention towards Chris. "You okay, you know, about," she trailed off.

"Huh? Oh, that, I'll be fine, but that's not important right now; we have to make it to Lance's house, and we also have to find a way out of the city." Chris gestured for Lance to move on, "Lead the way."

"Let's see," Lance looked around and observed the area, Jill following his eyes.

There were no signs of zombies, but turmoil had still occurred on the street; cars were turn on there sides and parked in the middle of lawns, peoples mail was scattered everywhere, and there wasn't a sign of any life whatsoever.

Just like it was in Raccoon, but then the creatures had appeared: the zombies, the dogs, the licker like creatures, and then him.

Jill quickly shook the thought of the beast that had tried to kill all S.T.A.R.S. members, the Nemesis. An attack from that kind of monstrosity was the absolute last thing that she wanted to think of.

"This way." Jill leaned against Chris as they followed Lance.

**************

"How's the mission going, Albert?"

"Mission complete." Wesker said proudly into his cell phone.

"So soon? good. I do believe that you deserve a bit of a bonus for your outstanding work."

"Thank you, sir."

**************

Bang!

The shot rang through the misty night air.

"That should take care of the lock." said Chris lowering his Colt.

Sure enough, the lock had been destroyed, and the park was now free for them to roam. The park marked the center of the town, and was the biggest area throughout.

Not the most entertaining place to go, of course . . .

As Lance took the first step into the park, vague memories of a few years ago passed. It was here he met some of his best friends, and apparently, it was here he would lose some.

Get over it, already. You've gone through a lot, just ignore it, at least until you survive this hellhole.

"Which way?" asked Jill.

"Down that path, it's practically a direct route to my house."

The four walked down the path, passing benches, broken street lights, park toys, and bodies.

A few more gates passed and they had made it through the park, and surprisingly, not a single zombie.

"There it is!" screamed Lance in ecstasy.

Running towards the house Lance seemed to forget the others, joy running through his system.

Click. Click.

The door was locked.

Lance quickly dashed towards one of the windows, and absentmindedly picked up a rock and through it at the window, shattering it to pieces.

Mom's going to kill me!

"Lance, wait up!" said Claire.

Not hearing Claire, Lance climbed through the broken window. The living room was just as he remembered it, couch, table, even that annoying plant in the corner.

"Mom! I'm home."

No reply.

Through the kitchen and into her bedroom, there was still no sign of Lance's mother.

"Mom?" cried Lance.

"Lance." said Jill. "She's not here, we have to go."

"No!"

"Lance, there's no point in staying, I've tried the phones, their all dead, and we have to get out of the city, it's not safe here."

"You're right." Lance hung his head in dismay.

**************

"Are you alright?" asked Claire.

"I'm fine." Chris looked his sister in the eye, and smiled, her beauty and innocence reminded him of all that they've been through, and how glad he was to be with her once more.

"She's not there." said Jill, walking next to Lance.

"I know it's not much, but, I'm sorry." said Claire.

"Thanks."

"We have to get moving. Staying here is not safe, we have to get out of the city."

"I say we find the police station, perhaps they have a helicopter there, or even an emergency phone or something."

"Good idea, Jill. Lance, which way?" asked Chris.

"Well, we'd have to go back through the park, and make a left in the split."

"Sounds like a plan."

Back through the streets, and through a few more gates, and they were back at the split.

"It's a bit too quite." said Claire, nervous as ever.

The emptiness seemed to seep into her systems, literally scaring the shit out of her; from what she's seen on the news and in papers, and even what she heard on the radio, left her under the impression that North Brunswick would be crawling with the undead.

No pun intended, of course.

The thought brought the hint of a smile on her face.

But don't forget that not even the police or swat teams could eliminate the creatures, so, unfortunately, they have to be here.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." said Lance, and from the look on his face, Claire could tell that he, too, was thinking of that horrifying day they had seen the city on the news.

Just then, as if on cue, one of the dead bodies arose, only not like any zombies that Claire had seen before; it hadn't used it's arms--

--it just sort of, stood up!

"Shit!" screamed Jill.

"It's one of super zombies!" shouted Chris, raising his gun.

Holy shit! Chris and Jill told me about those, the dead zombies that come back stronger than ever.

Claire raised her gun, not wanting to see if the stories were true.

"Ugh!" the creature ran towards Claire.

"Duck!" cried Chris.

Claire quickly dove for the ground, firing as it ran past, missing her by inches; two shots to the head.

"Rahh!" the monster screamed again--

--wait a second!

It wasn't the monster screaming at all, it was another creature, from behind, a more of a reptilian creature.

A hunter.

The hunter raised one of it's large arms and swung at the zombie, it's head practically bursting on impact. The creature arched it's back and howled a massive roar.

"Fire!" screamed Jill.

Bang! Bang!

The shots seemed to ricochet off of the beast, not stopping it at all.

"Why isn't it dying!?" cried Lance.

Claire looked over to her brother as the monster advanced near him, and something spectacular caught her eye.

"Chris! The grenades, use one!"

Claire aimed for the hunter's head, to try and distract it to give Chris some time to pull the pin and run.

"Watch out!" cried Chris as he raced to get as far away from the grenade as possible.

KA-BOOM!

Claire saw the explosion right before her eyes, and was just far enough to feel the heat of the fire.

Once the area was cleared, she was pleased to see that her idea had indeed worked, and the creature was gone.

"That was a close one." said Lance.

"Yeah," agreed Jill, "let's just hope that wasn't one of many."

"Which?" asked Lance.

"Both, now that you mention it."