5. Emergency Landing
Five minutes prior to 'Escape…'
Rebecca was sitting next to her superior, Richard Aiken. She was staring into eternity, thinking about the grotesque murders in the suburbs of Raccoon City. She hadn't been living in Raccoon too long because of her recent transfer from Rhode Island. She had just begun her life as a S.T.A.R.S. member.
Her parents were elsewhere, living their lives as she did hers. She was an only child, growing up without friends because of her high intelligence. She always figured that kids didn't like to play with her or teased her because she was smarter than them and that they were afraid that she would have shunned them away with her intelligence. And humans do not like it when they find someone smarter than them; they find it almost insulting in a way, especially the lower intellects. But she didn't care much; she had science in her life.
Growing up was pretty difficult for Miss Rebecca Chambers, especially in high school…She had never had a boyfriend in her entire life, sure she's always been infatuated with boys or men alike, but she never really shared a relationship with them, and she was still a virgin, which only lowered her self-esteem, feeling almost "left out."
But now she had a job, as a medic and possibly biochemist if one was ever needed. She held this place in a little organization called S.T.A.R.S. where she had a new family and a new man whom she had liked…Chris Redfield, the top marksman in the team…
She had sort of dazed off staring out into the empty dark sky, thinking of stupid little petty things like why she had never had a boyfriend or had sex yet or whatever…she figured that she was never really, she found herself to be more mature than others her age…hell, she was only eighteen years old and already in S.T.A.R.S. as their medic and probably-needed biochemist.
Rebecca was still gazing into the abyss when she started feeling a rumble under her seat...the entire helicopter was rattling under her, and then all around her. She turned to look at Edward to see if he knew what was going on, but he was as shocked and surprised as she was.
What the hell's going on? She questioned herself as the rattling grew more rapid. "Edward!" she exclaimed as she slid to her right against the window, soon finding herself being smashed by Edward.
Then…
BANG! BOOM!
Something behind them had some how explode amidst the air!
Rebecca coughed as the heavy bodies of her comrades smashed into her. She gasped for precious air, but it wasn't coming to her much…
Goddamn they're heavy!
She tried pushing them off of her but gravity was against her, the helicopter went swooping down towards the forest grounds at a high rate, they were literally being smashed down onto each other, poor Rebecca's skeleton would be crushed in no time even before they hit the forest grounds.
Rebecca let out a soft groan as the weight of her fellow comrades pinned her up against the window even more—was their pilot not doing anything at all to help them? But now wasn't a very good time for her to be stressing out her brain, she felt as though she was about to be concussed by the massive build of her teammates.
Rebecca tried squinting around to see if anything serious had happened to any of her teammates yet, and she was shocked to see, although relieved, that no one had yet encountered any serious injuries such as gashes from the glass shards or a major bump on the head from all the tossing around within the cabin. She couldn't take this abuse anymore, but there was nothing that she herself could not do.
Sparks were flying; the engine was roaring, smoke flumed from the stern of the 'copter, Rebecca did not know how long it would be now before they crashed into the thick forest below them. What happened to the helicopter? How could this have happened so suddenly? Richard checked and rechecked the engine before taking off, so how could this have happened?
Stop thinking, she thought, you're only making your headache worse! The helicopter had just made another swerve, causing the contents and people inside it to roll and flip and crash over onto the starboard. This was absolutely hell for the poor rookie, it was her first time on the job as a S.T.A.R.S. member and she's already being thrown around like a rag doll. Rebecca strained her ears to hear for a signal to tell them that they were going to be fine, even though she doubted this very much and on every level.
"RICHARD!" she heard herself screaming at the top of her lungs as she went colliding into the metal doors that led to the cockpit. "EDWARD! ENRICO!" she didn't know why she was screaming their names, and she knew perfectly well that there was no way that they could help her now, what with the plummeting of their helicopter, but someone did respond to her call, it was Enrico Marini, captain of the Bravo team.
"Rebecca! I need you to try and get back to the seat! And once you do, hurry and buckle yourself in, TIGHT! We can't have anyone breaking their necks ten minutes into the mission! You hear me?!"
Rebecca, who was on her back, being pushed down by gravity onto the metal doors simply gave him a weak nod and tried getting up. She turned around to her right and saw that Kenneth was there, already reaching up for Richard's arm, who was already buckled safely into his seat. Rebecca turned back to only find that Enrico was reaching out for her now, buckled in his seat as well.
"Reach, Rebecca!"
Rebecca tried with all her might to fight against the pulling G's, straining her muscles in doing so. She gave out a yelp of pain as she was sure she had pulled a muscle or a tendon, but at the same time Enrico had made a lunge at her and pulled her up, or at least attempting to pull her up. They were inclining at a near ninety-degree now, it would be impossible for her to get up to her seat like this.
"Turn! Turn, turn, turn! Edward!" Enrico roared as if trying to penetrate through the metal doors to catch the ears of Edward Dewey, the pilot.
The next second Rebecca could feel a plummeting force within her; it felt as if her intestines were being churned in all directions. This is not good, Rebecca thought at the back of her head, NOT good whatsoever…
Rebecca was starting to feel a slight sensation that channeled throughout her body as the helicopter went in a sort of dip and then almost back in a near one-eighty-degree landing position. Just then she managed herself to move into her same seat and scrambled to tighten the belt around her waist.
"All clear, captain!" She heard Edward's voice breaking through static from the 'com. "We're now preparing to make an emergency landing on forest grounds, make sure everyone's buckled in safely."
"Aiken, get in there and get Vickers on the line! Tell them we're making an emergency landing in…Well Dewey'll tell you what sector we're in…just get them on line!" Enrico exclaimed, patting a hand on Richard's shoulder.
Richard got up, steadily, and walked on over to the cockpit to radio in Alpha team about their situation. But long before he could actually get in to the cockpit there was a loud CRASH! and BOOM! from below them and to either side of the helicopter. Rebecca then knew, with her head throbbing beyond pain, that they had landed.
Richard fell back, slipping across the steel floor and crashed into the seats in which the rest were sitting. But Richard didn't let his minor injuries inhibit him from getting to the cockpit. He struggled to hi feet and walked, drunkenly, toward the cockpit door and soon disappeared behind it.
"Let's go check out our new environment, people," Enrico said, unlocking and opening the hatch to their left. The first to disappear into the ominous darkness was of course their captain; following him were Kenneth Sullivan and Forest Speyer and then her.
The forest grounds were dark and pretty much empty of all other life. Not even a chirp form crickets could be heard. Everything was simply nonexistent; well that's how it felt to Rebecca. She turned back to have a look-see at the helicopter, a thick plume of black smoke had risen into the night sky.
Now who in their right minds would want to come exploring in these woods? They're freaking thick with trees, she thought, but still…most of the attacks happened in the morning or daylight…but still, it's freaking black in here now!
Rebecca wandered on into the forest, her handgun steady in her hands and ready to fire at the slightest movement around her.
"HEY!"
Rebecca gave out a little yelp and gasped and quickly turned around, one of her teammates sounded distressed. She ran straight through the thick underbrush and dodging thick trees stumps and whole trees altogether to finally find the source of the person who yelled. She then found herself saying, "What is it, Edward?"
Edward looked at her, almost as pale as she was now, and pointed down and what looked like a mass of metal just thrown into the forest. It was a flipped over MP van. Rebecca looked at it in awe and saw what seemed to be a limp MP's body hanging out of the broken window, blood dripping from all sides; his skin was sickly greenish-white, a sort of olive color.
"Oh my God," Rebecca breathed, suddenly taking in a whiff of the horrible rancid stench of the already decaying body.
"Check this out," Edward said, bending over onto the ground and picked up what seemed to be a clipboard. "'Court order for transportation…Prisoner name: Billy Coen…" he handed the clipboard over to Captain Marini, who examined it further.
The report read
Court Order for Transportation
1598A-7635
Prisoner name: Billy Coen
ID Number: D-1036
Former Second Lieutenant, Marine Corps
Age: 26
Height: 5ft. 9in.
Weight: 163 lbs.
Transfer Destination: Regarthon Base
Convicted of First Degree Murder. Court marshaled and sentenced to death by the 0703rd Military Tribunal.
Sentenced to be carried out upon arrival.
Samuel Regan
Commander,
Dunell Marine Base
"Poor soldiers," Rebecca heard Edward whisper under his breath, putting his hand up over his forehead as if he was in grief.
"All right men, we are to split up and search for this man, uh," he looked back at the board, "Billy Coen. You are to report to me if you have a sight of the man, all right? As of now, it would seem that this is of more importance to sentence this man to his rightful place to serve out his sentence…out!"
