Authors Notes: I recently got my e-mail account hacked by my best friends vengeful ex-boyfriend, so any mails sent to my old account I didn't get to see. My new account is defiance_88@hotmail.com and it SHOULD say that on my profile, so please contact me by that if there are any fans out there ^-^'

*Please note that some lines of dialogue are different from the original gaming content*

Ben lay in his rotting bed, slightly drunk, broke, and ignorant. He was supposed to be on a job right now, but. SHIT! He was supposed to be on a job right now!!! He jumped up and fell over a few stacks of C.D's, before landing on the carpet (or at least what could be called a carpet) writhed around, got to his feet, and jumped out the door. - - He forgot his camera- "Fuck the camera!" He said in reply, and practically had to throw himself down the stairs. The elevator didn't work anymore for some unknown reason (he swore that It was something to do with Brian Irons, that fat bastard. He didn't like Ben one bit) and tossed himself down 31 floors of stairs, ran into a few little kids and knocked them flying, and on the last floor, tripped and landed in a puddle that took up the entire width of the isle. He was very, in fact, horrifically late for the interview that was in the media room of the R.P.D, which itself was several blocks from here, and he was told by his boss that 'Police Chief Irons' (the fat bastard) had a very important announcement to make. "God Dammit, I'm gonna get fired again!!" Ben got fired at his old job in L.A and he had only been in the quiet city of Raccoon for about four months, but he had missed just about every important announcement, every public event, and everything else of any interest to anyone in this city, and he was in RACCOON for God's sake! Nothing ever damn happened in Raccoon, well, except for the whole 'cannibal murderous' thing, and that has 'so called' been cleared up. It started to happen just as he came into the city, and two months later, the S.T.A.R.S where sent in, but most of them died in a chemical fire at a mansion lab that was the gangs hideout. But, although the rest of the media had accepted what Irons (the fat bastard) had to say about the whole thing being a disgusting accident, he had been told by a few who where close to the surviving members of S.T.A.R.S that there was a lot more going on than what met they eye. He heard of experiments on a genetic level and the cannibals where accidentally subjected to it. "GOD DAMMIT!!! Taxi!!!!!!" He screamed as the taxi flew past him. That was it. There was only one thing for it. He began to run, lopsidedly, but it was running all the same. He would get there at least, and the damn taxi drivers could smell a broke from a mile away, so he wasn't going to get a ride and good God he couldn't walk all the way there AND be a fairly 'early' sort of late at the same time.

***

Ben burst through the doors of the R.P.D lobby with idiotic grace and tiredly sprinted up to the stand-in receptionist, a cop he knew fairly well named Marvin Branagh. "DUDE!!" "What?" "DUDE! Did I miss anything???" "Hmmm. Well, let's see. THE WHOLE FUCKING THING!" "Shit, dude!! I'm gonna get fired!!" "No, you won't. He didn't say much. Only 'blah blah blah, S.T.A.R.S are this, S.T.A.R.S are that. It was a big waste of media time.'" "Thank God Irons is an asshole!!"- -It echoed and everyone heard, including a shadowy figure on the third floor balcony. A fat shadow. "Uh oh." Said Branagh; quickly shuffling some papers and moving clear out of the way. "Shit dude."- -"Bertolucci!" Hollered the fat stinking figure that was Brian Irons Ben cringed." Whaaaat?" "Join me in the S.T.A.R.S office now!" He grunted, and stormed off. Everyone gave him blank stares that suddenly dissolved into grins when they heard Irons slam the door closed. "Someone's gonna die" Said someone. "Shut up, man." Said Branagh, moving to Ben's defence. " You'd all be shitting yourselves if Irons ever got that pissed with you!" Everyone shut up. "Thanks man." Ben thought to himself. "Now I'M fucking shitting myself." He slowly and forlornly skittered off into the labyrinth of the R.P.D. The S.T.A.R.S office was frigging miles from there. And Ben was tired, his feet hurt, he was peeved, and he was worried that if Irons laid into him, he'd say something that would get him locked up for the night to cool off. - - He saw a man in the corridor he was walking down. The corridor was cold and sterile and all the noises from the rest of the R.P.D where non- existent. The R.P.D building had originally been a library, so soundproofing inside the walls was a good idea, then. Now, it was creepy. The windows caught the light at angles that left way too many shadows to hide in. Ben hated going any further than the lobby of the R.P.D because that's where things got . disturbing. And now this man. his skin was all bruised and bleeding and he was scratching at it like mad. The man was a cop, to boot. "Shit, dude!" Said Ben, and instantly the man hid his arms under his long sleeved shirt. "Are you okay??" "Itchy." Wailed the man "So. itchy. Please, make it go away." He got up and started to slowly limp towards Ben. "It won't stop!! Give me pain; give me suffering, but no! No more itching!!" "." Ben wanted to go up and help the guy but he found that he couldn't move out of fear. but fear of what?? " .Are you okay???" Ben repeated. "My . my skin is coming off .." Ben, as you would expect, didn't quite know how to react to that remark but something about the way that guy was walking just sent icy shivers up his spine. Now that Bens attention had been drawn to it, the mans skin was indeed peeling and dropping off to reveal the rotting tissue was hiding strange lumpy patches. ".!" "Irons won't even fucking give me leave!!!" The man sank back into the floor and peeled off a huge lump of skin, moulding and oozing with a pussy blood. He looked at it for a while, curiosity and for a moment, a glance of daring on his face, and then he plunged it into his bruised mouth hungrily, lapping at his fingers, his own blood dripping down his cheeks. He chewed wetly and almost thirstily and when he finally swallowed, a look of pure ecstasy became his face, his features creased in a smile. "Tasty." He managed to blurt out with a mouthful of gore. "It makes the itchy go away." Ben felt a sudden bolt of fear shoot through him when he saw the sudden look of realisation on the mans face as he stared at Ben with that. that look on his face. He didn't even seem Human anymore. "SHIT!" Screamed Ben, and he ran past the man as fast as his bony legs could carry him. The man moaned and reached out at him, but in his pain induced daze missed him totally. Ben slammed the door behind him and didn't stop running until he got back to the S.T.A.R.S office, slamming the door firmly behind him. Irons looked back at Ben, and laughed at the fear in his eyes. "Not so tough now, are you, reporter boy!" He laughed evilly. "It's not that!" He yelled " There was this dude down stair with his skin coming off and then he ate the skin and then he tried to get me!!! It was a fucking zombie, man! Like in those movies!!" Ben struggled for breath. Irons fell silent. His look was truly unnerving. He was still and silent, but his eyes. his eyes showed more to Ben than his words ever could, and Ben felt more terrified from Irons than he had with the zombie man. "You know what he is, don't you?" Stammered Ben. Irons looked threateningly into Ben's eyes as though those two disgusting pupils were screaming at him not to enquire any further, but Ben dared to, just to see what would happen. " Those 'zombie like creatures' the S.T.A.R.S reported. those are the same things!! And you look like you knew this shit was going down!!"- -"That's enough, Bertolucci!!" He barked. "You obviously didn't sleep well last night!" "Dude, what the fuck are you talking about?" "On one's going to believe you, Bertolucci." He said with a sadistic tone in his voice. "So you might as well go home now." "I'll let as many people know as possible!!" Yelled Ben "That zombies are running around in the R.P.D? Like anyone will believe that." Irons was right. Ben could argue all day but it wouldn't change the fact that absolutely no one would believe him; the same thing happened to the S.T.A.R.S. There was really nothing else he could do or say, but turn around and go back.
Ben took the long way round back to the lobby, because he didn't want to find out whether the zombie man had been waiting for him or not. The question was, what to do now? He had no idea of anything anymore; he was one inch away from getting fired and to top it off, he thought he was going nuts. "Fuck this." Said Ben. He kicked the door open that lead to the lobby, only to find. to find. - That it was almost totally empty. Normally, the R.P.D lobby would be full of life and full of people who shared his sentiments for the rest of the building, but only Marvin and a few others who where eating donuts where around the desk area. "What the hell???" He said. "The west barricade has been broken through." Said one of the cops. ". By what?" The mans' face was pail. "Fucking zombies." -"Zombie-like creatures." Interrupted Marvin "They are reported to be wearing civilian clothing, too. The probability of those creatures being in the city thus is very great." "SHIT!!!!" Hollered Ben "One of those thing is in the corridor past the file room!!" "What??" "He was all bruised up and bleeding and he said he was itching and he tore up a lump of flesh and ate the piece of shit and then he gave me this really weird look and fucking went for me!" Ben took a deep breath. "Where is he, man??" "God - I told you!!! He's in the corridor next to the file room!!! The blue one!" Marvin reached under the desk and pulled out his favourite silver plated .25 calibre handgun and slung the holster over his shoulder. He loaded the gun and looked gravely at Ben and the other cop with the donut. "Is that really necessary??" asked Ben. "You know Redfield, don't you?" "He's with the S.T.A.R.S, right? I know one of his pals, David Ford and he told me all this stuff to do with zombies and Captain Wesker being a shit- head and one biiig muthafucker of a monster." "Did he tell you that it was all because of a simple T-Virus leak in a lab?" "No, he just kept telling me about zombies and stuff." "Think about it. A surrounding area to a lab became infected, creating zombie-like creatures out of the scientists that worked there, then the same thing happens here, in a city that is practically run by Umbrella." ".There's a lab near by??" "Bingo. I never thought of it before, but now, everything that didn't makes sense, every odd little thing that has happened over the last two months has fallen into place just like that!" He walked over to the donut-eating cop. "Neil, remember the guy in the sewers a few days ago?" " Yeah, what about him?" "You recovered C4 and a detonator that he left behind! He was obviously trying to blow it up!" -"Think it was William?" Interrupted Ben. The both fell silent "William?" "Yeah. I swiped some papers from the Chief's office 'few days ago. William was this guy going on to Irons in this fax about a 'G-virus' and there being his lab under the city." Ben leisurely ate a donut, unaware he was divulging a vital piece to the puzzle whilst the other two stood in awe. "He's all like 'I'm gonna get promoted to the executive board when I give this to Umbrella' but as it goes on, mail after mail his tune really changes and he ends up all like 'I'm not giving my life's work to anyone.' He said he put a shit load of money in Irons' account so he can dispose of the S.T.A.R.S in a manner that 'appeared purely accidental'. Said there where gonna be spies after him, too. Cool, hu?" There was a long pause. - "Ben, do you realise how crucial that piece of info is to the rest of this mystery??? That guy William was trying to blow up the route to his lab so the spies couldn't get the G-virus. And now, it looks like the T-virus is about. Maybe payback?" "Or a struggle that went wrong." Ben said, again accidentally flaunting a deductive skill no one ever knew he had. "Ben, you are a fucking genius!!!" "Strange. I'm often told that I'm a jack-ass." "Ignore everything that everyone has ever said because I love you, Bertolucci!!" "Not really I hope." "Well obviously." He headed over to the double doors that lead to the corridor with the zombie. "With my gun and your brain, this could work out!" "Yeah. whatever." Ben commented. Marvin was unnervingly enthusiastic. Ben knew that if you always expected failure then you would never be disappointed and he was a prime example why; a jinx would no doubt be on those words. -"Hey, what about me??" Whined Neil Carlsen, dropping his donut. "I'm the friggin' Sergeant here!"

***

Ben made sure he was defiantly at the back of the line before entering the corridor where he saw the man. The man had been at the other end, but Ben had seen enough 'Day of the Dead' movies to know that zombies had a horrible habit of leaping out from behind doors and through windows to eat their victims, but he was sorely disappointed when nothing happened. Marvin got ready with the gun "Are you sure he's here?" "He was at the other end." Whispered Ben. "Why are you whispering? If the zombie was here, it would come for us weather we talked or not." "Thanks for fucking cheering me up, asshole!" He hissed. Branagh moved quicker and held the gun much tighter, and behind him, almost in conga line formation, were Neil and then Ben, practically gripping onto each other seeking courage in the other mans bravery and being greatly disappointed. Ben held his breath as they rounded the corner, and this time was not disappointed by what they saw. Bloody handprints where strewn all over the walls in the area where the man had once been. "What the hell happened here??" Said Branagh. "Shh!!" Said Ben. "Listen.." A soft noise could be heard, only just, but heard all the same. It was a sloshing noise and then suddenly a soft grunt. The grunt helped with the estimation of where the noise was coming from; behind the small stack of boxes that the man had been leaning against, and as they slowly approached the pile, they saw a sight indeed. It was the man, and he was eating from a pile of dark flesh, tinted in blood shaded light and dark, in all consistencies. The man leant down and buried his face in the pile of gore in human formation again and almost lustfully filled his mouth with as much of the sticky sweet substance as possible and chewed it down as quickly as it could, only so that it could eat from the corpse more. "Holy crap" Thought Ben "That could've been me.!" "Freeze!" Yelled Branagh. The zombie stopped eating and finished his mouthful. It gulped slowly and almost deliberately creating tension between the three men. It turned its head slowly, and it looked at them with cataract eyes. "Dude," Said Ben "a zombie. I can tolerate this. By tolerate, I mean I would rather lie in the middle of a lions den dressed as a pork chop while basting myself in tasty tasty barbecue sauce while calling the biggest lions momma a slut." "Well shit." The zombie shambled to its knees wobbling slightly and classically raised its arms towards the source of it's yearning: Them. Branagh immediately opened fire on the monster and hit it twice square in the temple. It exploded in a shower of blood and bone and it fell back onto the floor, lying next to it's victim- -Who started to twitch. "God." Said Ben, feeling sick. It started to get up but before it had a chance to see them, Marvin put it down. "We've gotta go back to the lobby and put out a signal to all units." Branagh said with desperation in his voice. "Then we'll sweep the building for more survivors and get the heck out!" -"Wait!!" Yelled Neil. "What about that new guy who's coming in for the nightshift?!" "If we're still in the R.P.D at that time, then we'll go look for him, but the chances are that by that time, the city will be so far gone that I genuinely doubt he'll get as far as the R.P.D" "The units sent out will no doubt deal with that threat." Said Neil. "No, they can't. The bodies of your dead comrades coming after you. do you really think they can deal with such a situation??" -"And those zombies won't be the only things running around out there if there was an accident at a lab close by." Ben said with a deathly tone in his voice.

***

Ben felt a rush of relief when he saw how many other officers had the same idea as them when they got to the lobby. There was only about eight or so, but they all seemed relived that others had made it to the lobby. The second they got back in, the other officers threw boards up against the door and nailed it shut. "What the hell are you doing???" Said Branagh. "There's something running around in there." Said one. " A Creature with a lance like tough. It killed three of our men." "But we just came from there!" Said Branagh "And I passed through there about ten minuets ago when Irons called me up!" "Then you where very lucky indeed. Those three went in just after you did." "Shit." Ben sat down on the floor. "That's twice I've nearly been killed."- -A loud scream echoed through the building, then gun fire, then nothing.-
Everyone fell silent, trying to hear for any more clues as to where the man was, but it was eerily silent. Not a sound. The gunfire didn't start up again. "We've got to get out of here." Whimpered Neil. "We've got to send out an S.O.S or at least warn any others." Branagh marched over to the desk and tapped at the P.C a few times. He swiped it with a blue key card and then punched in a few more codes- -"Crap." He yelled. "The communication equipment is down!" "We can go to the S.T.A.R.S office and use the shit there." Piped up the officer, who Ben had just recognised as Elliot Edward, friends with his pal David Ford. "We can't. Everything's all out. We can't send messages, only receive them." "Then what do we do?" "We get out." Said Marvin. "Grab your guns, people. We're gonna kill us some zombies." -Someone taped Ben on the shoulder- -"HOLY CRAP!!" He screamed, and the man behind him nearly died of shock. "Asshole!" He yelled. Ben turned around to see it was David Ford, only his best pal! -"D.J! You piece of shit!" "You moron!" "Geek!" "Freak!" "Loser!" "Cop!" David paused, then laughed. They both laughed. "Though you where zombie meat for sure!" "I actually nearly was! I saw this guy just as he changed." "So what the hell is going down now?" "We're gonna get out of here." "How?" The other officers listened in, remembering Bens' uncanny detective skills. "Well, I guess through the sewers, because this freaky mad scientist guy didn't want R.P.D members going down there and it leads to a chemical plant or something, so I guess it would be logical to assume there is a method of escape there, cuz that's just what Irons and that William guy didn't seem to want us to find out." -"Ben!" Called Branagh "You're a genius!" "Will you stop calling me that?!? People might hear." He turned to David. "And if I'm so fucking smart, then how come I don't know how to get there, hu?" -"We just go the same way I did;" Said Neil " Through the manhole in the kennel area." "The door's locked with the heart key." Said Branagh. "There are two, and one is in the West office, I know that for sure." "Then lets get there!"
The object seemed very simple; the door to the west office was in the R.P.D lobby, all they had to do was go in there, grab the key, go through the East office and unlock the door. If only it was that simple.
They where expecting an easy ride, so it caught the cops totally off guard when the second they entered the room, they where leapt on by zombies. Guns instantly were ablaze, firing into the air, mainly. The zombies grabbed the first two that entered the room and dragged them off to a secluded corner where they tore into them ravenously as their partners fired in all directions, hitting friend and foe alike.
Ben would never forget those first screams, the first of many he would hear echoing throughout the R.P.D on this night, including his own and at that moment, he knew he wouldn't get out of this alive.
Ben darted back as he was unarmed and didn't want to get in the way of a stray bullet, as well as the desire of not wanting to battle the undead with bare hands. Those two cops probably thought they could handle a zombie, too and they where armed.
Branagh and they others dived into the room shooting straight this time and trying vainly to save their friends, only to become the ones needing to be saved. Ben ushered back further and further, hearing guns and screams. He had no idea what to do, but all he knew was that his friend was in there. . On the other hand, if he went into the East office and kicked that damn door in rather than go on a wild goose chase for the key, then he would get out of the city before things got really bad. -David jumped out of the room breaking him out of considering treachery. "D.J!" Called Ben, feeling guilt because of his disgusting thoughts. "God, what's happening!?" "It's . Two of them are dead and Branagh is down." "Shit." Ben rushed over to the room. He looked in and saw that tables had been stacked up around the door for cover. Blood was sprayed all up the walls, and more disturbingly, handprints were dragged across the walls in a path leading to the pile of corpse in the corner of the room. Leaning against the lockers with a nasty bite mark in his stomach was Marvin, his face creased in pain. "I'm okay." He breathed. "Get they key!" He didn't look okay. "We don't know where it is!" Said David. Branagh sighed and hauled himself up, painfully. Even Ben winced at the expression on Marvin's face. He staggered over to the office section and on the desk, shimmering almost innocently, was a key with a heart emblaze upon the top. "Take this to the East office." He said, gasping from his wounds. A few other officers offered to help him up, but he nobly pushed them away. Ben would've taken the help, but then again, Ben had never been in a situation like this. It made him wonder. if his time ever came, would he be so selfless? Branagh slumped down. "I'm tired." He said, closing his eyes. "Leave me here." "What about the others?" Said David. The 'others' where officers whom had been injured so badly, they couldn't move very far. "We can't carry them." "I'll lock all the doors when your out." He said. "The injured can stay in the evidence room next door until you come with reinforcements." "Sounds good." Said David. " I have the diamond key with me; I'll lock the door on the way out and a guy can lock the other door from the inside. We'll head for the operation room and work out what we're going to do there." "It's getting late." Said Edward "The patrols haven't come back. We only sent out the armed unit and some of the foot patrols said they'd meet them there." "That rookie that's coming." Said Ben "D.J, you said he would've been in the armed unit? . Lucky son of a bitch, if he had come this morning to look around first." They all fell silent for a moment. I made them realise just how much things had changed in one day. None of them gave it a second thought, they just did it; went out with the intension to survive. David led them as they moved on, leaving their comrades behind. Ben had a feeling deep inside that that would be the last time he would ever see Branagh and it left him with a horrid feeling deep within his gut. It was nearing ten o'clock and they had no idea of what to do, except that the operation room had enough resources for them to plan an appropriate approach to the next issue of getting out of here when the doors where locked and the bottom door was barricaded.

***

"The doors are barricaded and the other way is the way we came, and we can't go back there." Said Neil. Neil had somehow got it into his head that the best leader for the operation would be him, seeing as he was highly ranked than the rest of him. Ben grunted. It was his idea to leave through the swears. "I assume that we should go through the swears to a rumoured secret laboratory that no doubt has an escape route leading to outside the city limits." "Damn." Whispered Ben " I deserve the fucking royalties." David laughed, but didn't take his eyes away from his clipboard. Ben quickly lost interest in the speech and turned his attention to whatever David was writing. "D.J" He whispered. "What you doin'?" "Writing an operation report." He said. "Just incase anyone stops by and doesn't know how to get out." "No one's gonna get this far, not with the door barricaded." "What if those creatures brake through?" "Then if anyone's near, they won't survive if the creatures can do that."
Ben lent over his shoulder and read the first few lines;

-Operation Report- September 26th The Raccoon City Police Dept. was unexpectedly attacked by zombies

"Well duh" Though Ben "Whoever finds this would have loooong since worked that one out"

Many have been injured. Even more killed. During the attack, our communication equipment was destroyed and we are no longer in contact with the outside. We have decided to carry out an operation with the intent of rescuing any possible survivors, as well as to prevent this disaster from spreading beyond Raccoon City. The details are as follows:

That was as far as he had gotten. "D.J, how are we gonna prevent the spread? We couldn't prevent the city from being taken, so how are we gonna prevent a damn spread? "I'm hoping that we find a way." "And I was hoping that I didn't get fired a while ago but it looks like I don't have to worry about that now." "What's your point, Ben?" Said David, peering at him through his specs with an irritated look in his eyes. "My point" He began, making it up as he went along " my point. is that this morning, I was worried about my job, I was lying in my bed with nothing to do, bored out of my mind. I had no plans for today except to be on time for that last report by Irons, and spend the rest of the day drinking lots of coffee in the R.P.D lobby." "I'm still missing the point to this little speech." "The point is that with the city like this, nothing is going to go to plan, no matter how professionally you try to handle this, those zombies ain't gonna play fair and let us the gallant heroes escape in one piece." "Do you have any better ideas?" Barked David as he continued with his writing. "Yeah. We lay low until the army gets here, that's the only course of action that I can think of that won't get our asses chewed into zombie meat." David stared at Ben. "Maybe you're right, but this way, at least we die doing the right thing, and not hiding cowardly waiting for a false hope to take us under it's wing. If we want to get out of here alive, then we have to do it ourselves!" "I knew you'd say that!" He yelled. Everyone stopped. "This isn't some story where the good guys never get beat cos they 'did the right thing'. This is real life where you take your consequences to the grave, and if there's one thing I've learnt in life, it's that the good guy always die and it's better to be safe than dead." Ben got up and stormed over to the cupboard in the corner of the room. He slammed the door shut heavily, locking the door.
Ben pulled up a chair from one of the many that was stacked up in this storage room and sat heavily down on it. "Asshole." He muttered. Ben hated it when his friends didn't listen to him, mainly because he didn't have very many so he couldn't lose them, but he had a horrid habit of it. His best friend was a bottle of any form of strong drink. "I could do with one now." Ben let his eyes wander the room. At first, it appeared that there wasn't much on display, but when he looked tings over again, this room was very curious indeed. There were suits of armour behind the stack of chairs and axes hung up on the walls. The centre of everything was a fireplace, which was very odd indeed. Why would a fireplace be in a storage room?? Ben got out of his seat and looked at the fireplace. It appeared to be in working order, kindling was in there and everything. The thing that was strangest was that over it hung a picture. It was of a naked figure with a bag over her head, hung by the neck and dead. "'A sacrifice to the hell fire'" He read. He looked down at the fireplace and wondered. A lot of puzzles like this where in the mansion in the forest where the lab the S.T.A.R.S encountered the zombies was connected to, and he had found out on the Internet that the R.P.D was designed by the same person. and this building, from the evidence, seemed to collect to a lab too.
Ben checked his pockets, but he didn't have a lighter on him. "Ahhh, fucking.."- -There was a banging coming from outside- Ben froze and the sounds from the operation room outside ceased, too. Ben's heart stopped when a low moan rose from someplace in the R.P.D- -BANG!-
The banging was on the operation door. -Thud thud- -KROOOM-
The door was bashed in and a hail of gunfire was heard. Ben couldn't see what was going on, and didn't want to. He crouched into a corner and listened to the firefight, and to his sickening horror, in amongst the cries and pleads for help, he heard David. -Bang-bang-bang-
There was a terrible hammering on the storage room door. Ben grabbed a pole off of the floor and stood, arming himself with it, shaking from the fearful concept of having to defend himself against the living dead. "Ben!" Came a voice, a voice just outside the door. It was David. He was banging on the door. "Ben!!! Open the door!!! Please!!!" Ben didn't move. "PLEASE BEN!!! Please!!! I dropped my gun!!!!" David's voice became suddenly extremely desperate and almost screaming. "GOD PLEASE!!!!! THEY'RE COMING!!!" His voice almost became weeping "Please, Ben.. Please. open the door, Ben. OPEN THE"- -His voice stopped and his screaming began.-
Ben crushed himself up into the corner, crying. "David???" He called, but all her heard were the gurgled screams of his best friend, the friend he had just let die because he was too scared.- -But he wasn't dead yet! There was still a chance.-
Ben rushed over to the door, undid the bolts, and turned the knob, and almost instantly after he had done as such, the door burst open, and Ben was flung onto the floor of the room and they spilled in, two zombie, stained in blood, gasping for fresh meat. Ben knew he was going to die for this mistake, and didn't move from where he lay- -BAM-
The first zombie's head exploded, shortly followed by the seconds and the two corpses fell onto their, hopefully, final resting place. "D.J!!!" Cried Ben in a sudden flow of relief, but that soon faded when he saw that it wasn't his best friend, that it was Elliot Edward. "David didn't make it." He said. "He was banging on the door but you obviously didn't hear him." "Yeah, obviously." "Unlucky for him. Come on out, the bastards are all gone." "How many are left?" ". Just you me, and two others and they're pretty bad." ".Shit." "Chill man." He said. "I'm starting to like your idea of hanging out until the army gets here. I know a place where we can hide out. The dark rooms' door is always kept closed and those creatures don't have enough intelligence to open the doors." "But they can smash them through." "Lets not think about that now." "What about the wounded in the evidence room? Maybe we should pick them up; we're low on men." "Their wounds where so bad that they're probably turned by now." "Marvin was better than most!" "He hasn't got long." "So then it's settled" Said Ben, getting up. "Dark room it is." Ben was almost too keen to get out of there, which wasn't surprising. "What do we do with the other two?" "Bring them with, I assume." Elliot looked towards the two broken figures sitting on the desks. The place looked like a full-scale war had broke out.

Ben tried not to let his gaze meet with the body of D.J as he stepped over it.- -It grabbed his leg.- "Ben!" It stuttered, gore burbled out of his mouth. He was chocking to death on his own blood. He had huge lumps out of him all over the place and his clothes where dyed in his own blood. His body was just an unrecognisable bleeding mass. His eyes where full of hurt and fear and he wanted to ask Ben. "Why.?" He gasped, but his chokes suddenly stopped and his head rolled to one side. He was dead. He died with his eyes open. "You could've done nothing." Said Elliot Edward, but Ben knew he could've... Seeing his best friend die like that.. Something inside Ben just. stopped working. "Guys!!" Hollered Edward "We're gonna lay low for a while, in the dark room!" "Fuck that" Said one, weakly "We laid low for one hour and this is what happened to us." "But it's all we have left!" "EVERYONE'S DEAD!" Yelled the other. His words echoed for a few moments as the reality sunk in. Ben looked down at his hands. "D.J would still be around." He thought. "We'd be around still. He'd be with me." Ben started to cry. The thought of D.J standing next to him crushed his heart. He pictured his smiling face, saying, "Ben, I'm surprised that a sneaky little rat-man bastard like yourself would've survived this far!" Ben looked down at David and fell to his knees, fishing around in the pile of mess for his back, and desperately squeezed him into his chest.- -Something metal fell to the ground.- Ben stopped crying and turned his attention to it, slowly. It was a key ring, a rusty metal-blue keying with a single key. Ben slowly picked it up and read the inscription aloud. "'R.P.D cell three.'" "What?" Ben stuffed the key quickly into his pocket. "Nothing." "D.J was a good guy." He said in an attempt to soothe Ben, but Ben didn't want to listen to what he had to say. The key. D.J knew he would be safe in a cell, so was he planning on ditching them later on, or did he stay with them because. because.he cared.- -Ben killed that trail of thought right there before it got out of hand. He tried to convince himself that David was planning to leave them in a situation, because it pained Ben to think that he would have any other intension. Elliot Edward opened the doors to the corridor that eventually lead to the Dark room and stopped right there. "Shit!!" He gasped. The windows all along the walls had been smashed through. Someone, they had no idea who, had tried to board them up, but his fate was made very clear by the smudged bloody hand prints that smeared along one of the boards and along the window Payne. "Don't get near the windows." Warned Ed. "We're not following you two." Said one of the wounded cops. "The others won't die in vain and we"- -"Come off the crap!" Ed barked. "We'll all be through if we don't stand down!!" "Sir." Muttered one. He lifted his top to reveal a disgusting tear along his side. "I'm." He paused " .Sir." "You can stay behind." Ed said with a slight (And I mean slight) sympathetic edge "Moving around with a gash like that wouldn't help anyone" the sympathy died, suddenly. "But make sure that if it gets real bad, you eat a bullet before you change." He marched from the room and Ben rushed to keep up, but was hit by the doors as they swung back onto him. -DONK!-
Ben landed on the floor. "HEY, ELLIOT!!! WAIT UP!!!" Ben scrambled to his feet, but looked back at the other two. "Stay cool you two, hu?" He rushed after the officer. "That man needs a downsize in ego" Thought Ben "So HE needs a downsize in ego?!" barked back a part of him. "You let your best fucking friend die because you was too scared and you say Edward has an ego?! Look at you! Even I wouldn't save you if you where on deaths door and you chose David Ford to die over you" "Shut up!" Ben spat " I don't need the third fucking degree from you too!" "Bertolucci!" Called back Ed "Who ya talking to?" "No one!" "Talking to yourself, eh? That's the first sign you're going nuts"
Ben didn't call back. He was seriously wondering . Maybe insanity was they way to go. It would protect him. "Protect you? Lets see you protect yourself from those zombies like you pitted David against!" "I." "You what?? 'You're sooo sorry! Oh I'm so sorry for killing you David! Thanks for not using that ol' dieing breath to fucking shooting me up the ass with your handgun!'" "I don't care about D.J!" He muttered to himself. "That's better. In real life, you don't get anywhere by caring about others. If you're not sorry then you don't have to feel that you did wrong and thinking of anything else in a situation like this will get you killed.. Just use this to help you." "That's not all of it." "What, you're gonna use Ed until he dies too??" "He's not going to die!" -"Who aint!?" "You, Ed!" "Good." Elliot kicked the door open at the end of the corridor and flashed his gun about the room. "CLEAR!" He called back. Ben ran into the corridor that held the doorways to the Dark room and the Evidence room, (the door that had been locked from the inside) and also the stairs to the second floor. Ben ran over to the dark room door and waited for Ed. Ed jumped into the room, almost comically in Ben's opinion. "CLEAR!" He yelled into Ben's ear. "Ow! Fuck, man! It's only us two! Do you have to yell like that? You'll attract attention!" "From what?!" "The zombies! We're like a beacon to those things so yelling like a moron won't help anyone!" "No need to shout." "Man, you are one asshole, hu?" Ben pushed past the officer into the small room. It was no bigger than the storage room; apart from this one had a red glow coming from a doorway at the end of it. "What's through there?" "That's where photos are developed." Ben got up and stomped over to the room, looking down it and sneering "What, that little shoe box of a room? Back at L.A.P.D, the dark room there was twice the size of this entire room!" The room was mainly an offshoot office. It had a typewriter, a few ink ribbons and office crap all over the desk in the focus of the room. There was a large set of metallic draws with a translucent cupboard overhead. Photo materials where stored in it. Ben assumed the same for the large chest in the corner. "This is a mess!" Said Ben. "Irons' fundings." He shook his head in mock-shame. "Too stingy to hire cleaners." "Now is not the time to fuck around." Ed said. "That or I can't be bothered at the moment. God Dammit, man! Your best friend just died out there!!" "I don't see how that is my problem.." "God, you're sick." Said Ed, sinking into the economically made office chair posed in front of the typewriter. "Not one hundred percent in the head." He muttered to himself and began to type away. "What the hell are you doing now?" "Writing an operation report." Ben turned away. "A follow up from D..J's?" "Yeah." He said, now absorbed in his work. A few seconds passed. "Well!" Said Ben, breaking the silence. "I'll go nap. I didn't get any sleep last night an' I'm not too sure if I'm dreaming this all or not." "Believe me" He murmured "This is real life, alright." He started to smile "'with consequences you take to the grave'" he said repeating Bens' remark to D.J Ben snorted and shuffled over to the dark room area of the small room. Ben liked the light of the room, because it soothed his slightly scarred senses. The hum of the electric lights was lulling and the close walls and strange, artificial odour of various developing chemicals lulled him gradually to sleep.

***

Ben awoke. He had no idea where he was at first, but the smell brought his senses back. He didn't dare move or breath when he remembered what had torn him from his dreamless sleep. It was a sound of a gunshot. He couldn't remember weather he had heard it, or weather it was the beginnings of a dream, but he didn't move. He just listened. -Movement, a wriggling sound- -He heard someone cough, someone cough up blood. He recognised that same sound from the dieing breaths of his best friend and it knifed through his heart to hear it again. The coughing ended with a gargling cry, muted in pain, and then all the writhing noises stopped, but when the writhing noises stopped, another sound began. -It was laughing- -Someone chuckled. Ben recognised that perverted sound and he squeezed his eyes shut, praying to God that he had gone mad and was hearing things, but no such luck, when the chuckling changed into word "Beautiful! A wonderful pose, Elliot!" Ben nearly died when he heard those words. It was Chief Irons. Ben didn't dare go to check if Ed was still alive, he would just listen. "Died with your eyes wide in terror, staring at me. To think of what you must have felt when you realised that you where dieing by your Chief's gun. The irony of the most trusted man in Raccoon killing you. Yes, it is really quite funny, isn't it? You're coming with me, my friend." Ben heard more movement, as he knew Irons lifted the body up onto his shoulders. "I wonder if the mayors daughter is still alive? I let her go just so I could enjoy hunting her down later, you see." Who the hell was he talking to?? "What to do, what to do." and he paused ". I wonder if any of the Birkin's are still alive? Sherry. I think I've heard something in the ducts since the attacks happened." Irons paused. "And the female Birkin. What was her name again? Annette. isn't it?" His voice became very low "Her husband.. Her husband was the one who did this to my beautiful town! He and his monsters! Those monsters have overrun my city!!!" His voice changed into a sickly tone. It made Ben feel sick. "She will pay for her husbands crimes." Ben heard Irons leave the room, closing the door gently behind him. Ben gradually looked at the papers he had swiped from Irons only a week or so ago. 'Birkin' was the signature at the bottom. 'William Birkin', and from Irons deluded rambling, it seemed that Ben's original hypothesis was correct, that the Birkin's where to blame.
But what could he do about it? What's done is done and cannot be undone and there was no way he would be able to get to the surviving members of the Birkin family; they where reclusive enough even before all this shit started going down. The man Neil Carlsen saw in the swears had to have been William trying to destroy the entrance to his lab. he noticeably didn't succeed, as this chemical leak was some kind of accident. No corporation would poison an entire city on purpose, the cover up would be a nightmare; too many risks, And Raccoon was a city which Umbrella had built from a quiet mountain town to this city with an immense population and most of them where employed by Umbrella, not as zombie making scientist, but as pharmacists, in beauty stores, and anything pharmacutirical. (Which must have been why no one in Raccoon was willing to listen to what the S.T.A.R.S had found.) Losing it was going to make them hurt a little. "Serves them right, the assholes." Thought Ben "They built it up to a perfect place for them to hide operations and it was taken away from them. The mansion lab spill didn't have such a wide area of infection as this one, meaning that wherever the lab was, it was huge , but they hid it well enough so that no one has found it, even now.." Ben took the key from his pocket. He knew there the prison cells were very sturdy indeed (Irons often put him in there, just to scare him off any juicy case) and those zombies didn't have the intelligence to pick the lock, and they sure as hell couldn't batter in the cell; "And Irons isn't the type to think I'd get that far." and Ben didn't want to end up like Ed, getting hunted down by Irons like the Birkins soon would be. Presuming they where still alive. "God Dammit as if zombies and monsters weren't enough, we've got a psycho police chief hunting down any god damn mother fucker he can find!!" " I hate Racoon City." Muttered Ben, finally plucking up the courage to get up off his ass and do something. The only thing he could do was to go down to the cells and lock himself up until the army get here. The R.P.D would be the first place someone like that would check out. Hopefully.

***

Ben didn't have the heart key, but someone had unlocked the door... It was a relief and a big worry to Ben. When he came into the East office, he saw two cops lying on the floor, still alive, but only a few minuets away from turning, and Ben had already seen that one guy turn, he didn't want those to start while he was feverishly trying to kick in the door.
The East office had to have been the creepiest room yet, the winding pathways between desks and the constant hum the overhead fans, whisking around the smell of rotting flesh that had gradually permeated the R.P.D since that first scream that echoed through the corridors. Since Ben picked up that key and went on his own little trek to the basement jail cells, he had heard several gunshots; some near, some far. The farther the better. Ben didn't want to have to convince a terrified cop with a sub machine gun that he wasn't a zombie.
"More broken windows." He thought to himself when he entered the corridor after entering the heart key door. This one was as narrow as the one outside the operation room. Ben pressed himself up against the wall and edged over to the stairs, not wanting to remotely risk getting pulled through the window by whatever the hell was out their waiting. Ben dived down the stairs into the dark alley that held more off-limits R.P.D material; the morgue, the weapons storage, no doubt ransacked by now. Past the parking lot at the end and you would be on your way to the kennels and prison cells. All the same, Ben didn't hurry. He rounded each corner as carefully as possible and didn't let his hopes up too much when he saw the neon lit Parking sign. Those zombies had to hone in on something. The less he let his fear control him, the less attention he would attract, but he couldn't stop it totally. In his gut he felt the smoulder of terror, subtle and constant. No matter how much he tried to dull the panic, that ache was always there, and had been ever since the cop with the itchy skin first realised that he didn't have to consume his own skin to make it go away.
Ben pushed the door open and peered in. He didn't release the door until he was confident there was nothing in there and entered slowly. The wide- open space was refreshing, the cars, mainly squad cars, were stacked up on, whatever the hell those metal bracers were used for.
Ben was relived to see that the entrance to the cells was clear, and it was literally plane sailing beyond that point. Just one more corridor to traverse and he would be there, so you can imagine how irritated he felt after all his endevors that the cells were closed with an electronic lock he didn't have the code for. "D.J Would've known about the lock, he mentioned it in the operation report I caught a glimpse of before I marched off." Ben wasn't about to hang around guessing codes, and the gate looked sturdy, so, using a chair that was next to the lock, he rammed its leg into the panel, and once it smacked open, Ben crushed the circuitry as hard as he could, repeatedly until the green light blinked red. Ben put the chair down with a sigh and tried the gate, and to his relief, it opened straight up. "Thank you God." He muttered under his breath and ran into the cell room, forcing the key into the lock, slipping a handful of times with his overflowing sense of relief and sweaty hands. He slammed the door behind him, the resounding noise of cell door boomed throughout Bens brain. Terror seeped out of his system when he realised; "I'm safe. I'm safe in here. None of those zombies can get me in here!" Ben smiled, and then let out a little laugh. "Let's see 'em get me in here." Ben sat on one of the cell beds, which was more of a plank hanging off the wall, and lay down on his side, facing the strange smelling wall. "I'm safe."
Ben slowly fell into a light does, before finally allowing himself to fall asleep.

***

"You must be Ben, right?" Came an angry voice, waking him up from outside the cell. "Get up, NOW." The man banged on the bars of the cell. Ben moaned. "What's goin' on? I'm trying to sleep here!" Ben rubbed his eyes before looking at the man and smiled. It was a cop, a young one, and he was staring back at Ben ominously. It must have been the new guy that was supposed to be coming in tonight. "Well, whadaya know?" He thought. "He got here in one piece! Ha. How about that." Just as that thought crossed his mind, someone else rounded the corner. It was a woman in a red dress and leggings. She was Asian, and not to mention beautiful. "How the heck did someone like her get this far? All those cops dead and you're telling me some scantily clad woman with a pop gun survived?" "Is this they guy?" The boy said. His voice was low, trying not to direct his anger towards her. She nodded. Ben suddenly realised that the kid probably thought he was a criminal! Ben smiled wider. This could even be fun. "Ben," Said the woman. How the hell did she know his name?? "You told the city officials something. about, what's been going on is this town. What did you tell them?" How the hell did she know that?? That was only after he stole Williams mail a week ago and he hadn't told anyone! Not even D.J. "I don't know what you're talking about." He replied, in an 'I don't care' sort of way. "And even if I did, why would I wanna tell you?" Ben turned away from them, smiling down. "Okay," Said the cop. "I say we leave him there. Does anyone know where they keep the key to this cell??" Ben grinned wide, and not turning to face them, he slipped the key he got from D.J out of his pocket. Spinning it on his finger, he said; "I have it right here officer, but I'm not about to leave this cell." He turned to them, becoming serious for a moment. He didn't want them to suffer the same fate as all the others. "Those zombies aren't the only things running around out there"- -'GRAAAARRRGH'- -As if on cue. Ben felt a shiver go through him; it was as if he knew who made that inhuman roar. "What was that ?!" Demanded the cop, turning his face to the room. Whatever it was, it was very close by and very pissed off. "Like I said," Ben continued calmly, knowing that he was safe and that no monster could get to him. "I'm not leaving this cell, now get out of here before you lead it right to me."- -"I'm not leaving!" Interrupted the boy, catching Ben completely by surprise. "I'm the only cop left alive in this building!" "What?!" They were the only survivors??? "If you want to live, then you'll have to leave with me." Ben slowly smirked, getting a grip again. The kid had a good heart, but. "Look, do you even know how to get out of the city?" He asked. The boy didn't reply. "There's a kennel in the back of the building. Inside that kennel there is a manhole. It'll take you to the sewers, but. it won't be easy."- -"Alright." Said the woman, and she ran off before the rookie cop had a chance to stop her. "Ada! Wait!!" He called. Ben recognised the name. Ada was the name of some guy named John's girlfriend. He was an Umbrella employee at the mansion lab. Ada, she seemed to know what she was doing, maybe it was no accident that she had ended up in here, and now she was after what info he had on the viruses. but that was just his speculation.
The boy took a radio from his utility belt and flicked it on. It beeped, and into it he said. "Claire. Do you read me? We now have access to the back of the parking lot. Can you meet me there?" A voice reply, even younger sounding than him; "I'm on my way." She replied, sound.. She sounded a little depressed, but hell, how wouldn't be? The boy quickly made his way to the kennel, and he shot a look back to Ben. A look that said 'I'm watching you.' Ben smiled and winked back just as he disappeared from view. Ben sighed and sat back down. He hoped they did better than the others had done. there was something about that new rookie that said to Ben that he was going to survive, which was more than he got when he looked at himself. The boy had no way of know just what had happened before his arrival, just how many good men died before Bens very eyes trying to get to where he was now. Ben told him about the kennel as if he were passing on a great knowledge to an heir, a fact that was now useless to him but he hoped the rookie cop would find it infinity useful. In him he saw all the things D.J had said before he died about fighting for what was right. Ben smiled; the boy was kind hearted, maybe not to him, but Ben had a sixth sense for that kind of thing but it just made him wonder what that Ada womans' intensions really were for the boy. was she using him? It reminded him of a more clean cut version of him and D.J.
Ben lay back down on his side, closed his eyes pondering all this- -But they flicked back open again when he heard the slight 'chink' of metal. He jumped up and looked down at the sourced of the noise. It was the key. It had fallen to the door. "Piece of shit!" He muttered, angry at it for giving him such a fright. He kicked it to the corner of the cell, close to the bars. He went to go get it back at first, but it wasn't too close to the bars, only about a ruler length away. Zombies wouldn't have the sense to pick up the key, and even that monster they heard would be more focused on the piece of meat rather than the small lump of metal lying on the floor. Ben lay back down and closed his eyes. Maybe now with all his worries behind him would he get some uninterrupted shuteye. -There was a slight noise, but Ben didn't care what the hell it was. He just wanted to go to sleep. ..- -That was defiantly something. A rattling noise. Ben didn't move at first, until he heard a 'clack' sound. That was the lock being opened. Ben prayed it was the rookie who had come back to check on him and saw the key. Who else could it be? Ben sat up and saw. saw.- -Ben gasped and his heart stopped for just a second-
What was it?! It was holding the key, whatever it was. It had once been a man, it had a face, at least and it was wearing blue jeans and a lab coat that had been torn by the disproportion of it's mutated body. Its right arm was the most disfigured part of his body; it had an eye growing on it for God's sake! Huge twelve-inch bone claws webbed across its fist and bits of fleshy tissue had been forced aside were what it had become now. The perfect maiming weapon.
Its face was slightly disfigured, it's eyes where red, but it was a man, or at least he once was. His jaw was attached to his chest by strands of sticky flesh were keeping its mouth gouged open slightly, revealing once human teeth that were starting to change into piercing daggers and all over his skin was discoloured and bruised from the disproportion of his mutilated body.
Ben crushed himself back into a corner; it started to gradually come toward him. "Get back!" Ben screamed. As if it was going to take note of him.- -Something glistened on its chest as it staggered toward him. It was a laminated personnel tag, and as the beast neared him, it got close enough for Ben to examine it. The picture was of the man, or whatever it was, only in more human stages. The picture was cheerful smiling, a complete change to the . entity that stood, examining him. Ben's eyes widened when he read the name aloud. -"'William Birkin...'"- He read under his breath, but the thing heard him. It's eyes burned into him, threateningly. It was obviously caught off guard by Ben's familiarity with its name. It raised its more human hand to Ben's face, only it wasn't as human as he might have liked. Its centre parted and from it came a tentacle. Ben gasped, and the monster took the opportunity to ram it down deep into his throat and release a lump into Ben's body.- -And it started to claw at him. The lump with many hooking legs thrust itself down into Ben. He vomited as he fell to the ground, but it didn't help him. Ben lay in the pile of bloody vomit and watched the Birkin thing leer down at him, finding humour in Ben's pain, and even the eye on its shoulder opened to look down at its hosts work, too. "Birkin." Gasped Ben to it, throat aching. "It's Irons' fault. I know. If he had done what you told him to then none of this would have happened.You were right about the G-virus. Ain't no one's gonna take it from you." The Birkin creature's third eye closed, and . it seemed to understand Ben. It turned away and exited, and literally seconds later, the rookie cop dashed in. Ada waited by the door, looking back. How could they not have run into it?? They were obviously in the kennel, and if they came along that quickly, they creature would have had no escape. It was a dead end, but it had vanished, vanished into the night from which he created. "BEN! What happened!!?" Cried the rookie, but Ben had no time for small talk. He could feel whatever it was Birkin had put into him start to come out. It obviously didn't like it's new home. At least the freaks in 'Aliens' had a chance to actually work out what was going on. "This... is all chief Irons' fault." He struggled. "A conspiracy, the mansion lab, too. If it wasn't for him, none of this would've happened." Ben pulled out the papers he had stolen from Irons' office, the papers that his killer had written, William Birkin. "God." The rookie spat. "Chief Irons." Birkin had paid Irons to make sure that no one stole his work but all Irons did was just spend the money and didn't hold up his end of the bargain. As a result, a struggle between Birkin and the spies must have happened and a chemical leak ensued. Irons' incompetence had murdered them all. had murdered him.. Ben was almost out of time. He wasn't going to waste his last words in a pitiful cry for help like his own friend D.J had done. The rookie was holding Ben up in a pool of stinking blood and vomit, the look in his eyes was fear; he had no idea what was going on and he couldn't stop it, but Ben frowned dangerously into his eyes, and with his voice and teeth gritted, the growled in pain and seething hatred for Brian Irons; "Get. that. scum... Make. him..pay."
The pain became unbearable and Ben knew it was coming out now and wasn't going to wait. Ben got up and staggered back clutching himself, spasming as sounds echoed from inside him. "My chest!" He exclaimed. "It. IT BURNS!" And no sooner did he say those words, the creature inside him tore its way out, seeking freedom from its gruesome prison. Ben screamed out in pain as he saw his own dark, sticky blood fly through the room, the rookie's face expressed his disgust and terror. If he hadn't been in so much agony, Ben may even have laughed, but this was no laughing matter, because this was his end, it was more painful than he had ever imagined but oddly enough, he wasn't afraid to die anymore. The last thing Ben Bertolucci saw was his own blood splatter on the face of the horrified young rookie cop as his body was torn in half lengthways.