Chapter Five! At Last! * Evil laughter*
This chapter is dedicated to many people, Jeremy, Rick * my love *, Cass (M8! My pre-reader!) Sakura * Happy Birthday! * And Brad *Why the hell haven't you called? * YAY!
Okay, this chapter focuses mostly on the Raccoon City Storyline, involving some new Chars. Let us assume, that for the moment Wesker is still in Paris, drowning his sorrows in Alcohol.
Wesker: I RESENT THAT! I DO NOT DRINK- on weekdays.
Author- * cough * anyway…thanks for being so cooperative-the reasons for doing this will become clear shortly. This story is going to be LONG.
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"And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer
me first to go and bury my father.
But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead."
-Matthew 8:21-22
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Raccoon City Police Dept
Breakroom.
The story that her new comrades told her was frightening.
The lady of Grace Institution was founded back in the eighteen hundreds by a group of government doctors looking to treat, and hopefully cure the criminally insane. Later, it became a basic mental hospital, where people of all walks of life were treated…
Until the 1950s.
Then, a Doctor Markin had taken over the Research Staff. Dr. Markin had theories, odd theories-about brain development among the insane and those who suffered from debilitating mental disorders. With a staff of highly trained and specially selected doctors (Chosen for their own apathy to these people's conditions) Dr. Markin began to experiment-and he began to kill.
Cover-ups were all the rage back then, so the staff of the hospital locked all the employees and patients down in the basement-along with the insane Dr. Markin, and…burned them alive.
"Jesus." Lisa said surprised, "Like something out of a horror movie."
"It gets better." Enrico said, "After they burned Markin alive the staff abandoned the hospital, seeking the safety of the town-and were never seen again."
"Now you're messing with me." Lisa frowned at all of them, even Jessica, who was focusing intently on yet another donut, "That's cheesy, and really mean. Why would that happen to someone?"
"Nobody knows." Enrico said, "You should ask Vickers…his granddad was one of the people who went out looking for them."
The last statement was said with perfect sincerity, What the hell have I gotten myself into? Lisa thought as she studied them all carefully. Neither Burton, Chambers, nor Marini appeared to find it amusing in the slightest.
"Well…maybe they got eaten!"
"Maybe."
Lisa turned around.
A Pantheon God stood in the doorway, tall, semi-long dark brown hair-and a muscular figure that put even the well-done men in the room to shame. Lisa's breath caught in her throat for a few moments, before the god's voice drew her down to earth.
"Hi, I'm Vickers, you must be the fresh blood around here."
"Blood-yes-I am-me-is-I-woo." Lisa bowed her head, "Please excuse me." Oh man! Oh man how stupid is I…
Kyle Vickers nodded, smiling warmly at the newest recruit as she bolted from the room, then glancing back at the rest of his fellow RPD employees.
"She's cute." Kyle winked, "Despite the fact that she's a bit strange."
Enrico laughed, "She thinks we're the strange ones."
"You haven't seen my son anywhere have you?"
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RPD-Request area.
Night was deepening outside when Lisa made her way to the front. Pale shafts of moon build imaginary walls upon the floor as she stepped out and stood, staring at the stars.
Why'd I freak out like that? She shook her head.
"Miss? Do you work here?"
Lisa looked up. A large black man leaned foreward out of the darkness, wearing a security uniform. He looked haggard, slightly overworked by something on his conscious that didn't sit right with him…
"Yes…I'm-well I work for STARS…"
"Listen, as long as you work for the police, that's all I care about." The man moved towards her more fully, his tiny eyes fearful, "I'm Mark…you may not remember me but I found the body of that woman-"
"Oh! If you've got anything else to say you can take it up with the detectives in charge of the case-" surely there would be an overwhelming amount of paperwork to take care of if she handled this sort of thing-
"Not about that." Mark shook his head, "I-Listen this guy came up to me, accosted me really, in Joes."
Joes, was the local pub. Supposedly, being accosted in a local pub in a town like raccoon by a man was abnormal.
"Did he threaten you?" There's got to be a lot of paperwork for this too… STARS handled search and rescue, an over-emphasized version of The SWAT team. Did they handle things like this?
"No, but…" Mark seemed unsure.
Lisa smiled reassuringly, "Sir…we all want to do the right thing. Why don't you just tell me? I'm sure it was all an innocent misunderstanding."
Mark sighed, "See…I don't think it was. This guy came up and said he was the husband of the woman who got shot-and he wanted to find the kids who helped me get her into the hospital…"
Lisa frowned, "Kids?"
"We got kind of close." Mark shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets, "Anyway, I gave him their address-the boy and girl anyway, I don't know what happened to the other girl."
"You had no right to do that." This could be uglier then I thought. She should probably go and get an officer on duty, "Listen, go inside and talk to the Sergeant on shift okay? Tell him what you told me…and we'll see what we can do."
"Miss?"
Lisa turned away from the stars, "Yes?"
"He said…he worked for Umbrella."
Umbrella.
Lisa shook her head and pushed images of John from her mind. He had been the real reason why she'd left the army, gone on to find a different job trying to get as far away from them as she could…
"Its work to better mankind." He said. Yeah right. Bettering mankind by bringing the dead back to life…as if that would work. Lisa suspected that it wouldn't last very long anyway, nitrogen in the atmosphere would break down the decomposing flesh soon enough, so only the spirit would remain…
What a horrible thought!
She took a few cautious steps away from the solid, steady yellow glow of the police station and sat down on a bench, completely ignoring the black car that carefully turned the curb and gently eased into the night.
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Within the car-
"Are you sure we're doing the right thing?"
The woman, obviously the one in charge, sighed, "Look Ben, if you aren't willing to do whatever it takes for our profession then what kind of a reporter are you?"
"You got that from your parents Alyssa." Ben Bertolucci said accusingly, "Damn environment hating Umbrella freaks."
Alyssa resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at her boyfriend, afraid that it might be used for far dirtier means then simply acknowledging his pure unadulterated stupidity.
"But following this guy…"
"Look! He saw the woman get shot! He called it in! He must know something…and the man in the bar…"
Ben shuddered, although he seemed timid, he'd put the collective wrath of god into the both of them. She brushed her long blond hair from her eyes and pulled off near a local apartment building, where she and her boyfriend lived.
"If you're sure."
"CHRIST!" Alyssa got out of the car and stomped through the still active headlights to Ben's side, "Will you stop worrying? It's within the rights of journalistic integrity. Now shut up and come on up to bed…darling." Her voice took on seductive tones.
Ben pushed the fourth amendment out of his mind and studied his girlfriend intently, "Time for a Special report…"
Alyssa grinned, "Shall we go deep under cover?"
Ben grinned and laughed softly, "Oh…most definitely."
Alyssa took him by his tie, leading him quietly down the street and through the door of their apartment building-Hill House 61775.
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The Raccoon City Hospital.
Cafeteria.
JD had already decided to take everything that Daniela said with a grain of salt.
"So…supposedly the ghosts of the people who died in the fire still haunt this place." She held out her hands wide and grinned, "Isn't that awesome?"
Spirits of the damned wandering about…no…not really…
"Dr. Markin sounds like Birkin." JD laughed harshly, "I still can't believe he asked me to stay and keep his wife safe." He took another swig of the brown liquid that passed for coffee, "I'm a computer analyst for Christ sake…I work with computers."
"No future in it." Daniela' eyes narrowed as she dropped her coke on the counter, "Absolutely none. Who's going to want to use something that will require such technical knowledge?"
"I would." JD said offended, "And anyway it does more then just keep records." Although most of his job did involve CPU development and Database construction, JD also oversaw a lot of the data gathering with the scientists…
"I still say it's fishy." Daniela said, "People loose touch with old things…everything has to be new and different. Why can't things stay the same?"
JD ignored the growling in his stomach, "I have no idea."
"Well." Daniela folded her hands and leaned the bridge of her nose atop them, "Shall we go up and see your Dr. Birkin now?"
"I guess." JD sighed, "You normally stalk hospital patrons this way?"
Daniela blushed, No, only the cute ones…
"Come on." She led him to a nearby elevator, "Third floor right?"
JD hesitated. The memory of the basement and the calling voices filled his mind with dark shapes and twisted words.
"Yeah…" I hate elevators. "Third floor."
When JD was a child, he'd been riding with his mother in a New York Elevator on vacation. His mother, two boys, a businessman…
The elevator had stopped-leaving the patrons trapped for two days between floors.
Ever since then he'd had an intense fear of claustrophobic spaces. Even being back in his room at the mansion, or down in one of those tiny labs was enough to set him to fits.
"Problem?" Daniela stood in the doorway, expectant.
"No." JD shook his fears away, "Lets go."
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Third Floor-
Outside Annette Birkin's room
"Most of these rooms are kept empty because there aren't enough people to staff all of them." Daniela swept her arm in a great arc, indicating most of the hospital, "That's why they're so eager to hire on assistants-"
"Candystripers."
She bristled. Ever since she'd found out what a Candystriper was she'd hated the term.
"Assistants. Anyway, the hospital has a really tiny staff-just like the police station."
"Whatever." I just want to go home…
JD knocked lightly, "Dr. Birkin?"
No response.
"Annette Birkin? Hey its me…your…" he winced, "Gift? JD Roper? ITS and Systems Development?"
"Let me try." Daniela said, "Dr. Birkin, this is hospital staff, can you please open the door?"
Nothing.
"Now we go in." Daniela eased herself into the room slowly, fighting the urge to run about and panic, "Hello?"
The door opened into the normally cheerful institutional room that they set all their patients in-patient absent.
Oh God. JD froze, Annette Birkin has gone missing, and I'm worm chow-
"Jesus."
Daniela had gone in first, and found Annette curled up next to the toilet-the wound in her side staunched by time. Blood was smeared about her forehead; the toilet remained as it was.
"Dr. Birkin, come on…"
Annette groaned, she shifted her weight to the side. Daniela flushed the toilet out of conscious respect for the woman before her and got to her knees to help her up.
"Dr. Birkin…come on…"
JD saw Daniela come walking out of the bathroom carrying his boss's wife.
"Is she-okay?" his eyes furrowed in concern. Annette Birkin looked like she'd been run over a train carrying napalm, and then chewed upon by dogs.
"I think so…I'll get Katie just to be sure but…Annette? Can you hear me?"
Annette groaned again. She opened her eyes and looked about them in bewilderment.
"Wha-Where-Huh…"
"Do you know where you are?" Daniela had out a small flashlight, "Come on, and lets have you track the light shall we? Come on-"
"Body." Annette coughed, "Body-in the bathroom-" she coughed and a thin trail of blood oozed from the corner of her mouth, "Body…"
JD frowned and jumped quickly from her side to the bathroom. The sink, toilet, and shower were in their usual place, the blank whiteness marred only by a thin smear of Annette's blood on the floor.
"There's no body." JD looked back at her confused, "Are you sure you saw one?"
"Body-hanging." Annette coughed again, reaching a hand up to her mouth horrified, "Oh god…a body in the ceiling, hanging, swinging on a rope…"
"You must have been seeing things." JD concluded, "Dr. Birkin, get some rest-"
"I want to go home." She spoke plainly now, "I don't like it here."
"Not until Katie looks at you." Daniela soothed. She did not address the second issue, only a believer- (These two still obviously skeptics) would have understood.
This room, in this hospital, was the very same place where a man named Leon McGraw had committed suicide by hanging in 1943.
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The Birkin Residence-
William shut out all thoughts of sleep from his mind. He yawned and listened to the droning lull of the TV.
Annette, his wife was in the hospital. Someone had shot her, why? Humans were so illogical; viruses worked the way they were supposed to. They weren't driven by greed or ambition or lust or feelings of any kind. He hated being a human sometimes; pain was an integral part of being a human and he hated pain.
I wonder what you'd do…dad.
His father had been the same; he was sure of it, but unwilling to show it. At least William had made sure to express his emotions-rather then acting out in violent outbursts upon whoever was nearest. That brought back bad memories of the time he hit Annette…
"I'm not a bad person…" he asked the universe, "Am I?"
The universe being omnipotent and strangely silent, gave no answer.
He wasn't a bad person, he did good things. Things that would help people, his rational behind his work, was that if you could put the fear of something into people so deeply that they wouldn't want to fight anymore…
War would end.
He'd be out of a job, but who the hell cared?
Admit it. His brain cajoled, You're playing god and you like it.
"No I'm not." William glowered at the TV and mentally rebuked himself, "God wouldn't have made something like the T-Virus-"
Then you're playing Satan.
"NO!" he gritted his teeth, "I'm not-I'm-"
Talking to myself. He was a man of science, not mysteries, and not-NOT-insanity.
He had to go to those kids tomorrow, ask them what happened-find out why it happened to his wife and then do something about it.
"I don't like feeling helpless." People touched his property and they died for it. Annette was his property now and…and…
I'm gonna save her. Protect her. Love, honor, cherish, the whole bit. He stuck to his vows stubbornly, like the child he never was, "I will do it!"
He startled the dust bunnies (Both he and Annette's only concession to animals in their household-both hated pets intensely) into leaping from the couch as he fell back into sleep.
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Umbrella HQ.
Ada Wong was speaking to her Contact, the Hospital Doctor. Late night meant nothing in New York; her face was already dotted with the neon ecstasy of a thousand dancing lights.
"The time table has been stepped up?"
"Yes." The woman on the other end of the phone said, "I don't know where Paul is…and I'm starting to become concerned. Searches of the basement have yielded nothing."
"The rooms?"
"There are too many fucking rooms in this place." The woman on the other end snorted, "I have a tiny-ass staff Wong…in case you're forgetting…"
"I'm not forgetting." Ada said sharply, "Just find him and kill him." She chortled to herself, "Umbrella has no idea what we're up to!"
"And Wesker?"
Ada frowned, "Albert Wesker is in Paris at the moment."
An intake of breath from the other end of the line.
"What?" Ada frowned and the dancing neon lights turned dark, "What's the matter?"
"Nothing, I heard something about that-but-"
"But? What?"
"Nothing." The woman on the other end said, "I have to go."
"Okay." Ada sighed, "Call again soon."
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A/N-THE SHORTNESS! Ooooh! That was a fun chapter to write. It's going to get faster, I promise. And coming soon, MORE NEMMY ATTACKS!
*HUGGLES NEMMY*
Nemmy-GRRR! STARS! *Trans: GET OFF MEE! *
Author- but…but…you're so cute! ^_^
Nemmy-GRRR? GRR? STARS? STARS? *Trans: What the fuck have you been smoking? *
Author-Caffeine… good… *drops dead *
Nemmy-GRR. STARS, GRR, STARS, STARS, CANDYSTRIPER-STARS STARS STAR, GRR, GRRR, GROWL SNARL. GROWL SNARL, STARS, CONTEST, GROWL, GROWOL, STARL! GROWL! STARS, STARS- GROWL.
Translation: There she goes again. Anyway-Candy stripers (For those unfamiliar with the term) are hospital employees who assist doctors; handle medical records, and other such things. It used to be half community service, but that ended in the 1960s. Now days, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who actually does that.
About the contest:
Name the five teenagers: JUST NAMES-by answering the question in the last chapter. The author asks that you keep reviewing, or she'll send me to your house to eat you.
Thanx!
Nemmy.