Resident Evil: End Game
Chapter 10
The first thoughts that ran through Maria's head as the girl before her spoke of what was to come were ones of confusion and slight humor. Had the girl just said that there were creatures that only feasted on flesh coming to Birchenville? Sure, they could be real creatures, like rabid dogs or something along those lines... But then again, she shouldn't jump to conclusions. Blinking, Maria looked down at the girl and cocked her head a little bit, frowning in curiousity. "Pardon?" she whispered softly.
"I said there are zombies coming to town, miss," the girl said solemnly, narrowing her eyes a little bit and preparing for what would come next. She knew what people would think about her if she began to talk about thing that shouldn't exist...they would think she was crazy, but it was the truth. If they didn't believe her, she would drag them into Topeka and let them see for themselves.
In response to that, Maria blinked, then slowly began to laugh. Her eyes squinted together for a moment, and when she opened them again Rowan could see the humor in her eyes. She had to hold her stomach because she was laughing so hard...laughing almost as much as the cameraman beside her was. The man was clutching the camcorder in his hands, but he had to grip onto it tightly in order to keep ahold of it and not drop it. His shoulders were shaking, and his face was beginning to turn bright red.
*Great...now these people think I'm a friggin' nutcase.*
Maria stopped her laughing and froze for a moment, then looked down at her with concern on her face. She knelt down on one knee and stared into her eyes for a moment before she spoke in a small voice that was still shaking from the chuickles that erupted from her mouth. "Don't you think you're too old to believe in monsters?"
Anger rose inside Rowan, and she recoiled for a moment, shaking it away before staring at the reporter and glaring at her with a rage-filled glance. "If you don't believe me," she snapped suddenly, closing her eyes and growling, "call Topeka, or better yet, Manitou. See if you can even get through to them!"
"There's a psychiatrist right down the street...why don't you let me take you there?"
"Listen, lady, I'm telling you-"
"There are no such things as monsters, kid! Grow up!"
"You think I'm crazy?!"
"Lemme see...YES!"
"You wanna go see for yourself? Go to Topeka! Or Manitou, for that matter!" Rowan was steaming now, and her cheeks were a bright red. "Look at the damned bus! All those people are from Topeka...they fled!!"
"You're a bus hijacker, too?"
"What?! N-"
Rowan froze suddenly, and her eyes darted to the sky. She had heard buzzing a few moment ago, and figured that a fly had zoomed past her head and circled it for a while, although she didn't see it. However, that buzz, she realized, was faint and distant, as if it were coming from someplace far away...and it was growing louder by the minute...or second. And as the volume of the buzzing grew, a figure began to appear in the sky, enlarging as it came closer to them. Rowan could only make out a long, slender brown body, and she could see huge wings upon its back, beating so fast that they seemed to be almost invisible...
A chill was sent up her spine. If that was a bug, either it could grow really huge...or...
"Shit...," she murmered softly, and she turned to face the reporter, who was now looking up at the figure in the sky, with a look of curiousity upon her face. The cameraman was staring as well, and the people that once lived in Topeka that sat in the bus began to look back frantically, wanting to know what it was that eveyrbody was staring at. Derek blinked at them, then turned to Rowan, shrugging his shoulders and mouthing 'What's going on?' to her, for he couldn't see the giant insect heading towards them at what seemed to be a very fast speed. Rowan knew that staying in one place would be suicide...they had to get out of there. Perhaps this creature was infected with one of Umbrella's viruses, and maybe it wasn't, but she wouldn't take the chance. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face the reporter and the cameraman, clearing her throat a little bit to gain their attention.
"Do you believe me now?" she hissed coldly, but a shocked look appeared on her face when the two people appeared to be uninterested in what she was saying.
"What, that?" the cameraman asked, pointing one finger up in the air and directing it to the bug that was heading towards them. "It's what we call an insect, lady. There's no monsters around here...stop watching those late shows, alright?"
The figure in the sky grew larger as the distance between them and it decreased. Rowan cast a glance up at it, staring at it for a moment with a look of uncertainty upon her face before she looked back to the two people, shaking her head and speaking again. "Do you really wanna take the chance?" she shot at them again, fear radiating from her in high doses as the creature came closer. If the two people didn't trust her now, she would have to get back on the bus and flee into Birchenville, as well as look for a radio station of some sort. Birchenville was a rather large city, dwarfed only by Topeka, and it had a few television stations, as well as radio ones.
"Look, kid," Maria cut in again, her eyes narrowing with every single word she said. "There's no such things as monsters."
And that was when the creature, its speed increasing with each beat of its wings, began to arch its back and fly diagonally, its snout, which they could now see was long and very thin, as well as extremely sharp, pointed at them. The wings were now a blur because of the fast beating, and for a moment the creature seemed to be only a streak in the sky. It was at that same moment that the boss of the electric company began to stir from his unconcious state. The man began to sit upright and rubbed his head slightly, taking in a deep breath and looking down, a blush forming on his chunky little cheeks as he realized he had soiled himself from the fear of getting run over by the bus that now sat less than an inch before him. He looked up again, and slowly began to stand up, rubbing his bald head as if to stroke his hair, and he began to waddle towards the reporter, the cameraman, and the young girl. His small potbelly jiggled a little as he walked, and his pale white shirt and denim jeans stuck to his body as he walked towards them, the heat and humidity that lingered in the air apparantly getting to him. He was, however, unaware of the danger he was about to face, and he was also unaware of a huge bug flying directly towards them...or, more precisdely, towards *him*.
He was down on the ground before he could even blink.
In the minute it had taken the boss to recuperate, the giant bug had grown closer to them, and when the man began to walk, it was less than five feet away. Now, it was on top of him, holding down the screaming victim with its two pairs of long, thin, black, and hairy legs, while it used its last two similar legs to support its backside. With a low, rumbling hiss, the creature rose its head into the sky, letting the tip of its needle-nose glisten temporarily in the sun before it brought it down and plunged it into the man's belly. The man's screams intensified, and that caused the beast to tensen a little and apply more pressure to the needle that was its snout, as well as hold him down more because the man was trying to pull away. For a moment, a low, sickening sucking sound filled the air, and the man's body began to grow paler as his life force was drained from him.
Maria's face screwed up, and she began to scream shrilly, causing the giant bug to recoil a little, although it never stopped draining the still-moving man, and causing Rowan to wince from the sound. The cameraman almost dropped the television camera he was holding, although he looked like he was about to drop, and Maria's screams were joined by the frantic shouts of the people who were on the bus. Their faces were pale and frightened, while some of them looked on in silent horror, not opening their mouths but glaring with fear attatched to their faces. Derek also stared, his mouth agape in a low gasp. Rowan, in the meanwhile, smiled a little bit to herself.
*I'm not crazy...they see that now. Perhaps, we can get things moving a little faster, starting by ging to a broadcast station of some sort.*
She turned for a moment to look back at Maria and the cameraman, and was reminded of her past when she saw the horror clear on their faces. They looked like her when she watched her school be infested with the undead....they looked like her when she saw her friends killed before her eyes...
"What the *fuck* is going on here?!" the cameraman, Jack, shouted out in fright. His eyes were as wide as saucers now, and his grip on the camera was growing slippery with the perspiration that began to form on his hands. He shifted the camera in his hands to get a better grip on it, then looked to Rowan with beared teeth that were gritted in frustration. "Want answers, kid... What the *FUCK* is that thing?!"
"I warned you," Rowan snapped, shaking her head. She looked up at Jack for a moment, then to Maria. She sighed, then began to back up towards the bus, motioning for them to follow and wincing at the shrill sounds of everyone's screams. She could hear Sherry and Celica beginning to shout for everyone to calm down and be quiet, although only a few did so. "Get in...We've gotta get to a broadcast station, and you're gonna lead us to it."
They did what they were told without any hesitation, and began to head towards the bus, squeezing in and trying to fit inwith the rest of the group that was on the bus. The camera was barely able to squeeze thorugh the doors, but osmehow they were able to pull it in. Rowan smiled a little, and turned to face the monster, who now stood over the limp body of the electric company's boss.
The man was completely drained of any internal fluids in only a matter of minutes. His skin, once rosy and fattening, was now dry and wrinkled, and well as white as a sheet. His eyes which had been brimmed with fear only a little while ago had already begun to sink into his head, and his fingers began to twitch a little.
*He used to live a normal life, I bet,* Rowan thought slowly to herself. *He probably had a wife and a couple of kids...Good job, too. And now he's reduced to a shadow of his former self.*
Other than the saddened thoughts that had begun to scribble across Rowan's mind, she was not worried about this man. He was changing already, but even though he would become a zombie, he would be powerless. Rowan knew that this man would probably not be able to get up to hunt for food...he would most likely crawl, although barely, for without any blood, any body movement was almost impossible. Even now, his mouth began to open and close in silent moans, and his sinking eyes began to roll a little in his head. His feet twitched with powerlessly, and a thick stench of decay began to rise from his body. No, she wasn't worried about him coming to eat her.
She was worried about the giant bug that was standing before her, its legs outstretched, its wings beginning to flap quickly.
It was once a mosquito, Rowan realized as she studied the features of the body. Its body was long and thin, and was a deep tan color. The abdomen however was no longer thin...it was bright red, storing the six pints of blood it had just drained from the man that lay limply behind it. Its wings were thick and strongly built, and the veins that went through them was pumping an ominous green liquid into them... The green liquid was its blood, although it shared the same color as the T-Virus. There were three long, hairy, and black legs on either side of its body, and they arched backwards a little as the segmented portions of the feet grew closer to the end. The many-faceted eyes of this creature were an obsidian black in color, yet dull and lifeless. The snout, or the needle, was now tipped with blood, and Rowan suddenly blinked when she heard the light gnashing of teeth. The mosquito rose its head a bit to get a better look at her, and she could make out the tiny mouth that was embedded where the head and the needle met. This mouth was filled with two circular rows of tiny little fangs, and two large, muscular mandibles emerged from the mouth, twitching a little as if to beckon her to come closer. She stared at the mouth for a moment,then looked up to watch as the mosquito began to lurch forward and towards her.
Screams began to sound from the bus, but Rowan ignored them. She gritted her teeth a little in agitation, and began to reach for her jeans pocket, searching for the Colt Python she had stuffed in there during the bus ride from Topeka to Birchenville. When she clasped onto the handle and pulled it out, the metal glistened in the sunlight.
It caught the eyes of the mosquito, and Rowan could swear that she saw anticipation written in those eyes. Confusion dawned in her mind, but it lasted for only a second. The beast lunged for her rather quickly, its legs reaching out to grab her, its needle-nose rising into the air and posing to strike. It was only when the creature pounced on her and pushed her to the ground that she remembered that mosquitos were attracted to light, just as moths were.
More screams were emitted into the air, and Rowan began to fumble with the gun in her hands. Wincing a little and watching as the mosquito lowered its needle to her neck, she began to raise the barrel of the gun. When the tip of the needle was about an inch away from her skin, the barrel of the gun was placed onto the giant bug's chest.
With a loud *bang*, blobs of green began to fly into the air, then fall and hit the street. The mosquito gave a low hiss as this happened and suddenly began to pull backwards, the teeth in its small mouth gnashing with both rage and hunger. With a low growl, it quickly lowered its mouth towards Rowan's neck.
There was another gunshot, and red blood began to pool on the ground. Rowan became still for a moment, as did the mosquito...and suddenly, everyone on the bus began to fear that she had shot herself, that she was dead...
That fear died away when Rowan lifted one leg to kick the body of the shocked mosquito off of her body. The lower abdomen of the mosquito was blown apart, and tattered pieces of the membrane dangled from it as it they were torn pieces of clothing. Rowan groaned and quickly began to stand up, just in time to watch as the bug began to twitch and stand upright, using its front two legs to support the body, but the girl was faster. With one sharp kick, the bug was back on the ground, and Rowan moved her foot onto the beast's segmented neck. While the mosquito began to squeal with dislike, the girl rose the gun into the air, then aimed it.
Then fired.
The mosquito became limp, and the area were the head once was began to drip with neon green goo. Flesh of the beast was scattered around the area...and the legs of the giant insect began to twitch. The wings vibrated and began to flap, but it didn't lift off of the ground.
Rowan gritted her teeth at the sight, holding back the bile that began to rise in her throat and turning to face the bus. She looked up and began to grin widely when she saw Sherry cheering her on, and saw Celica, Derek, Greg, and Shiva beginning to join her. A sigh escaped the girl's throat as she approached the bus, stumbling through the doorway clumsily and climbing the stairs before taking a left turn, and promptly collpasing in an empty seat. Derek looked back with a wide grin on his face before turning back to the steering wheel and reaching for the key still shoved in the ignition, turning it and letting the engine run for a few seconds before his feet hit the gas, letting the bus lurch forward. Rowan smiled to herself a little, not from happiness, as she really wasn't happy. She was smiling because she and a couple of her friends wouldn't be the only survivors.
No. After they got the broadcasting station and warned everyone, after Rowan would call her cellphone number in hopes of getting ahold of her friends and aunt, after Derek, Celica, and Greg would try to contact their family, more p[eople would be survivors. And more people would know about Umbrella. This time, there would be many witnesses to the incidents, and no more people would think they were drunk and had hallucinations, or that there was a deadly gang. This time, the survivors would all say the same thing...that Umbrella was the cause for every thing, every *damn* thing.
Finally, after so many years of fighting the evil corporation, after so many days of falling apart and crying over what the company did to everyone, Umbrella would be going down for good.
And even as these thoughts began to form in Rowan's mind, even as the group of people who once lived in Topeka began to relax a little, nobody noticed the shadow of a single man who began to treck after them.
Chapter 10
The first thoughts that ran through Maria's head as the girl before her spoke of what was to come were ones of confusion and slight humor. Had the girl just said that there were creatures that only feasted on flesh coming to Birchenville? Sure, they could be real creatures, like rabid dogs or something along those lines... But then again, she shouldn't jump to conclusions. Blinking, Maria looked down at the girl and cocked her head a little bit, frowning in curiousity. "Pardon?" she whispered softly.
"I said there are zombies coming to town, miss," the girl said solemnly, narrowing her eyes a little bit and preparing for what would come next. She knew what people would think about her if she began to talk about thing that shouldn't exist...they would think she was crazy, but it was the truth. If they didn't believe her, she would drag them into Topeka and let them see for themselves.
In response to that, Maria blinked, then slowly began to laugh. Her eyes squinted together for a moment, and when she opened them again Rowan could see the humor in her eyes. She had to hold her stomach because she was laughing so hard...laughing almost as much as the cameraman beside her was. The man was clutching the camcorder in his hands, but he had to grip onto it tightly in order to keep ahold of it and not drop it. His shoulders were shaking, and his face was beginning to turn bright red.
*Great...now these people think I'm a friggin' nutcase.*
Maria stopped her laughing and froze for a moment, then looked down at her with concern on her face. She knelt down on one knee and stared into her eyes for a moment before she spoke in a small voice that was still shaking from the chuickles that erupted from her mouth. "Don't you think you're too old to believe in monsters?"
Anger rose inside Rowan, and she recoiled for a moment, shaking it away before staring at the reporter and glaring at her with a rage-filled glance. "If you don't believe me," she snapped suddenly, closing her eyes and growling, "call Topeka, or better yet, Manitou. See if you can even get through to them!"
"There's a psychiatrist right down the street...why don't you let me take you there?"
"Listen, lady, I'm telling you-"
"There are no such things as monsters, kid! Grow up!"
"You think I'm crazy?!"
"Lemme see...YES!"
"You wanna go see for yourself? Go to Topeka! Or Manitou, for that matter!" Rowan was steaming now, and her cheeks were a bright red. "Look at the damned bus! All those people are from Topeka...they fled!!"
"You're a bus hijacker, too?"
"What?! N-"
Rowan froze suddenly, and her eyes darted to the sky. She had heard buzzing a few moment ago, and figured that a fly had zoomed past her head and circled it for a while, although she didn't see it. However, that buzz, she realized, was faint and distant, as if it were coming from someplace far away...and it was growing louder by the minute...or second. And as the volume of the buzzing grew, a figure began to appear in the sky, enlarging as it came closer to them. Rowan could only make out a long, slender brown body, and she could see huge wings upon its back, beating so fast that they seemed to be almost invisible...
A chill was sent up her spine. If that was a bug, either it could grow really huge...or...
"Shit...," she murmered softly, and she turned to face the reporter, who was now looking up at the figure in the sky, with a look of curiousity upon her face. The cameraman was staring as well, and the people that once lived in Topeka that sat in the bus began to look back frantically, wanting to know what it was that eveyrbody was staring at. Derek blinked at them, then turned to Rowan, shrugging his shoulders and mouthing 'What's going on?' to her, for he couldn't see the giant insect heading towards them at what seemed to be a very fast speed. Rowan knew that staying in one place would be suicide...they had to get out of there. Perhaps this creature was infected with one of Umbrella's viruses, and maybe it wasn't, but she wouldn't take the chance. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face the reporter and the cameraman, clearing her throat a little bit to gain their attention.
"Do you believe me now?" she hissed coldly, but a shocked look appeared on her face when the two people appeared to be uninterested in what she was saying.
"What, that?" the cameraman asked, pointing one finger up in the air and directing it to the bug that was heading towards them. "It's what we call an insect, lady. There's no monsters around here...stop watching those late shows, alright?"
The figure in the sky grew larger as the distance between them and it decreased. Rowan cast a glance up at it, staring at it for a moment with a look of uncertainty upon her face before she looked back to the two people, shaking her head and speaking again. "Do you really wanna take the chance?" she shot at them again, fear radiating from her in high doses as the creature came closer. If the two people didn't trust her now, she would have to get back on the bus and flee into Birchenville, as well as look for a radio station of some sort. Birchenville was a rather large city, dwarfed only by Topeka, and it had a few television stations, as well as radio ones.
"Look, kid," Maria cut in again, her eyes narrowing with every single word she said. "There's no such things as monsters."
And that was when the creature, its speed increasing with each beat of its wings, began to arch its back and fly diagonally, its snout, which they could now see was long and very thin, as well as extremely sharp, pointed at them. The wings were now a blur because of the fast beating, and for a moment the creature seemed to be only a streak in the sky. It was at that same moment that the boss of the electric company began to stir from his unconcious state. The man began to sit upright and rubbed his head slightly, taking in a deep breath and looking down, a blush forming on his chunky little cheeks as he realized he had soiled himself from the fear of getting run over by the bus that now sat less than an inch before him. He looked up again, and slowly began to stand up, rubbing his bald head as if to stroke his hair, and he began to waddle towards the reporter, the cameraman, and the young girl. His small potbelly jiggled a little as he walked, and his pale white shirt and denim jeans stuck to his body as he walked towards them, the heat and humidity that lingered in the air apparantly getting to him. He was, however, unaware of the danger he was about to face, and he was also unaware of a huge bug flying directly towards them...or, more precisdely, towards *him*.
He was down on the ground before he could even blink.
In the minute it had taken the boss to recuperate, the giant bug had grown closer to them, and when the man began to walk, it was less than five feet away. Now, it was on top of him, holding down the screaming victim with its two pairs of long, thin, black, and hairy legs, while it used its last two similar legs to support its backside. With a low, rumbling hiss, the creature rose its head into the sky, letting the tip of its needle-nose glisten temporarily in the sun before it brought it down and plunged it into the man's belly. The man's screams intensified, and that caused the beast to tensen a little and apply more pressure to the needle that was its snout, as well as hold him down more because the man was trying to pull away. For a moment, a low, sickening sucking sound filled the air, and the man's body began to grow paler as his life force was drained from him.
Maria's face screwed up, and she began to scream shrilly, causing the giant bug to recoil a little, although it never stopped draining the still-moving man, and causing Rowan to wince from the sound. The cameraman almost dropped the television camera he was holding, although he looked like he was about to drop, and Maria's screams were joined by the frantic shouts of the people who were on the bus. Their faces were pale and frightened, while some of them looked on in silent horror, not opening their mouths but glaring with fear attatched to their faces. Derek also stared, his mouth agape in a low gasp. Rowan, in the meanwhile, smiled a little bit to herself.
*I'm not crazy...they see that now. Perhaps, we can get things moving a little faster, starting by ging to a broadcast station of some sort.*
She turned for a moment to look back at Maria and the cameraman, and was reminded of her past when she saw the horror clear on their faces. They looked like her when she watched her school be infested with the undead....they looked like her when she saw her friends killed before her eyes...
"What the *fuck* is going on here?!" the cameraman, Jack, shouted out in fright. His eyes were as wide as saucers now, and his grip on the camera was growing slippery with the perspiration that began to form on his hands. He shifted the camera in his hands to get a better grip on it, then looked to Rowan with beared teeth that were gritted in frustration. "Want answers, kid... What the *FUCK* is that thing?!"
"I warned you," Rowan snapped, shaking her head. She looked up at Jack for a moment, then to Maria. She sighed, then began to back up towards the bus, motioning for them to follow and wincing at the shrill sounds of everyone's screams. She could hear Sherry and Celica beginning to shout for everyone to calm down and be quiet, although only a few did so. "Get in...We've gotta get to a broadcast station, and you're gonna lead us to it."
They did what they were told without any hesitation, and began to head towards the bus, squeezing in and trying to fit inwith the rest of the group that was on the bus. The camera was barely able to squeeze thorugh the doors, but osmehow they were able to pull it in. Rowan smiled a little, and turned to face the monster, who now stood over the limp body of the electric company's boss.
The man was completely drained of any internal fluids in only a matter of minutes. His skin, once rosy and fattening, was now dry and wrinkled, and well as white as a sheet. His eyes which had been brimmed with fear only a little while ago had already begun to sink into his head, and his fingers began to twitch a little.
*He used to live a normal life, I bet,* Rowan thought slowly to herself. *He probably had a wife and a couple of kids...Good job, too. And now he's reduced to a shadow of his former self.*
Other than the saddened thoughts that had begun to scribble across Rowan's mind, she was not worried about this man. He was changing already, but even though he would become a zombie, he would be powerless. Rowan knew that this man would probably not be able to get up to hunt for food...he would most likely crawl, although barely, for without any blood, any body movement was almost impossible. Even now, his mouth began to open and close in silent moans, and his sinking eyes began to roll a little in his head. His feet twitched with powerlessly, and a thick stench of decay began to rise from his body. No, she wasn't worried about him coming to eat her.
She was worried about the giant bug that was standing before her, its legs outstretched, its wings beginning to flap quickly.
It was once a mosquito, Rowan realized as she studied the features of the body. Its body was long and thin, and was a deep tan color. The abdomen however was no longer thin...it was bright red, storing the six pints of blood it had just drained from the man that lay limply behind it. Its wings were thick and strongly built, and the veins that went through them was pumping an ominous green liquid into them... The green liquid was its blood, although it shared the same color as the T-Virus. There were three long, hairy, and black legs on either side of its body, and they arched backwards a little as the segmented portions of the feet grew closer to the end. The many-faceted eyes of this creature were an obsidian black in color, yet dull and lifeless. The snout, or the needle, was now tipped with blood, and Rowan suddenly blinked when she heard the light gnashing of teeth. The mosquito rose its head a bit to get a better look at her, and she could make out the tiny mouth that was embedded where the head and the needle met. This mouth was filled with two circular rows of tiny little fangs, and two large, muscular mandibles emerged from the mouth, twitching a little as if to beckon her to come closer. She stared at the mouth for a moment,then looked up to watch as the mosquito began to lurch forward and towards her.
Screams began to sound from the bus, but Rowan ignored them. She gritted her teeth a little in agitation, and began to reach for her jeans pocket, searching for the Colt Python she had stuffed in there during the bus ride from Topeka to Birchenville. When she clasped onto the handle and pulled it out, the metal glistened in the sunlight.
It caught the eyes of the mosquito, and Rowan could swear that she saw anticipation written in those eyes. Confusion dawned in her mind, but it lasted for only a second. The beast lunged for her rather quickly, its legs reaching out to grab her, its needle-nose rising into the air and posing to strike. It was only when the creature pounced on her and pushed her to the ground that she remembered that mosquitos were attracted to light, just as moths were.
More screams were emitted into the air, and Rowan began to fumble with the gun in her hands. Wincing a little and watching as the mosquito lowered its needle to her neck, she began to raise the barrel of the gun. When the tip of the needle was about an inch away from her skin, the barrel of the gun was placed onto the giant bug's chest.
With a loud *bang*, blobs of green began to fly into the air, then fall and hit the street. The mosquito gave a low hiss as this happened and suddenly began to pull backwards, the teeth in its small mouth gnashing with both rage and hunger. With a low growl, it quickly lowered its mouth towards Rowan's neck.
There was another gunshot, and red blood began to pool on the ground. Rowan became still for a moment, as did the mosquito...and suddenly, everyone on the bus began to fear that she had shot herself, that she was dead...
That fear died away when Rowan lifted one leg to kick the body of the shocked mosquito off of her body. The lower abdomen of the mosquito was blown apart, and tattered pieces of the membrane dangled from it as it they were torn pieces of clothing. Rowan groaned and quickly began to stand up, just in time to watch as the bug began to twitch and stand upright, using its front two legs to support the body, but the girl was faster. With one sharp kick, the bug was back on the ground, and Rowan moved her foot onto the beast's segmented neck. While the mosquito began to squeal with dislike, the girl rose the gun into the air, then aimed it.
Then fired.
The mosquito became limp, and the area were the head once was began to drip with neon green goo. Flesh of the beast was scattered around the area...and the legs of the giant insect began to twitch. The wings vibrated and began to flap, but it didn't lift off of the ground.
Rowan gritted her teeth at the sight, holding back the bile that began to rise in her throat and turning to face the bus. She looked up and began to grin widely when she saw Sherry cheering her on, and saw Celica, Derek, Greg, and Shiva beginning to join her. A sigh escaped the girl's throat as she approached the bus, stumbling through the doorway clumsily and climbing the stairs before taking a left turn, and promptly collpasing in an empty seat. Derek looked back with a wide grin on his face before turning back to the steering wheel and reaching for the key still shoved in the ignition, turning it and letting the engine run for a few seconds before his feet hit the gas, letting the bus lurch forward. Rowan smiled to herself a little, not from happiness, as she really wasn't happy. She was smiling because she and a couple of her friends wouldn't be the only survivors.
No. After they got the broadcasting station and warned everyone, after Rowan would call her cellphone number in hopes of getting ahold of her friends and aunt, after Derek, Celica, and Greg would try to contact their family, more p[eople would be survivors. And more people would know about Umbrella. This time, there would be many witnesses to the incidents, and no more people would think they were drunk and had hallucinations, or that there was a deadly gang. This time, the survivors would all say the same thing...that Umbrella was the cause for every thing, every *damn* thing.
Finally, after so many years of fighting the evil corporation, after so many days of falling apart and crying over what the company did to everyone, Umbrella would be going down for good.
And even as these thoughts began to form in Rowan's mind, even as the group of people who once lived in Topeka began to relax a little, nobody noticed the shadow of a single man who began to treck after them.