Outbreak
Chapter Two: Scouring Raccoon
Light, white and bright burned through the eyes of the lonely figure flat against the hard ground. His back ached, his eyes burned and his ears rang, although he hadn't slept that well in years. His guns were cutting into his back from the back pocket where he kept them and his eyes were drying from crying, even through his sleep.
But he had to move.
His whole body was numb, his hands refused to move and his legs felt as though they were made of lead.
But he had to move.
With an enormous force of will he dragged his body upright, he rolled, crawled, kneeled and scrambled before he was finally able to support himself on his feet. The left side of his head was a sandy brown with gathering dust and his clothes were enveloped in mud. He looked as though he had just been thrown out of the back of a car.
Armand turned towards Raccoon City and smiled, before turning back and leaving. It wouldn't be long now before it had all fallen apart.
In the darkness of the city, decay had already begun.
Blasts rang out, gunfire, explosions, even the occasional blast of a car falling over itself. Near the centre of the city, the police were scrambling with a foe that they had never seen. Heartless, brainless creatures wandered the streets, dragging behind them broken limbs, lost teeth, chunks of flesh that had left them as they simply wandered the streets.
Darkness began to set in above the mobile corpses, they moved along undeterred. Their arms were forwards, heads lolling uselessly on their shoulders and with no real reason to go in any direction but for the fact that they were all following the one in front, which was following the vague scent of cheese.
A blockade had been erected on one of the main city roads. At this the police had chosen to position themselves, cars forming the blockade while they knelt at their windows, pointing theirs guns towards the shadows around the corner. Reports had been mocked once, twice, three times even, but then the police station had found itself being held hostage, which had forced them to spring into action. They moved out into the streets, blasting down anything with a tinge of green to it's skin and now here they were. Police Station clear and about to face something they did not understand.
It was all too easy.
"What the hell is that!!!!!!!!!!!"
Bursting from a nearby manhole cover behind the blockade came six gigantic tarantulas. They scurried forwards, after the taste of fresh flesh. The police turned, shivering at the sight of it before opening fire. They blasted their Assault Rifles at anything moving as the spiders reached the back of the blockade. A car flew over, crashing into others behind it. A blast of goo and several officers were engulfed in a pool that melted the skin. The police kept blasting, diving out of the way of more flying cars until finally there was no movement.
A single officer crept forward, crawling on the ground with his gun in front of him. Five dead spiders lay in a pool of green acid before her. She shivered once more before standing up and looking back towards the blockade.
"Look out!"
One of the men at the blockade felt hands grapple with his throat, he tried to turn but fell in the struggle and remembered no more. Another officer turned and fell, shooting at a moaning creature above him. Fire was returned again, firing through the forgotten lives of those being held by the moving corpses. They kept firing as the female at the back rushed forwards. She dodged around a car, sticking close to the sidewalk before her feet began to burn. She slid along the ground, only half conscious that her feet were melting beneath her. She hit the ground hard, her gun bouncing away. She rolled over and screamed as fangs crunched into her gut.
A retreat was called and the police moved back, firing at the lone surviving spider until it too lay in it's acidic pool before they continued back. They came towards the manhole and stopped. There was a sound inside, scuttling, rapping on the walls with hundreds of hairy legs. They kept running, firing back, trying hard to keep an eye on the manhole. Backup was called for. No response. Again backup was called for, and again there was no response.
At last the creatures stopped coming forwards. The eight surviving policemen and policewomen had their backs against a wall down an alleyway they had found they could hold for a long time. As the noises faded they turned towards the wall, looking for a way to climb up it.
A roar went out, ripping the air in two. The wall cracked and the ears of the survivors burst. They met one more mutant before their time was up. But as they first laid eyes on the single eyed monstrosity before them, they knew it was all over. The city was all but lost.
Armand struggled on, dragging his feet, which didn't seem to want to move. He could still hear faint noises of Raccoon City in his mind. He hated it. His ears had not stopped burning and as his walked he saw mirages before him, a single eye facing him, mounted onto the shoulder of his friend and mentor. No more tears came.
He had managed to reach a small refuelling station for the train, where a few people sat around doing nothing all day, getting paid simply to refuel the train every time it came by. He had chosen not to disturb them, but to explore the area, where he found exactly what he was looking for.
The backup train.
Umbrella's main lab was somewhere in Europe, and this train led towards it, though not directly to it. Therefore, if the train broke down and there was an emergency, another train was required to make sure that whatever was being moved got to it's destination on time. Armand went inside it, still on the tracks somewhere down the way at the back of the station. This is where the main train would usually return, but as long as the first train didn't move he could ride this train all the way to the rendezvous point.
Within the city, another blockade had been erected, this one on the borders of the city. The police had positioned themselves again behind their cars between a corner shop and a post office that faced a crossroads in front of them. Behind the police was one of the only routes out of the city, the main road.
Everybody was jumpy, they were holding their Assault Rifles tightly and pointing them out towards the crossroads. They had their orders, nothing was to get by that did not look human. Most of the townsfolk from the area had also taken up positions in the city. Most had joined the police in the barricade and pointed Assault Rifles or Shotguns out, but there was the occasional nut with a grenade launcher which the police were also trying to keep an eye on. Also, amongst the shop windows and doors were a few people who refused to see their shops go down. They refused to move behind the barricade.
It took a long time for anything to happen, at first it was shadows creeping through the streets, but as soon as something happened, so did everything else.
A scream rent the air, a woman was being bitten nearby, but none could see her. All eyes turned towards the noise, and not to the creeping red monster dashing across the rooftops near the barricade. A manhole exploded and out came three spiders, clicking their teeth angrily at their prey. They leapt forwards and were cut down in a barrage of fire. More spiders came, these from the walls of the buildings, leaping wildly at the barricade, but these two cut shot down in a hail of fire. Now the red creature made it's move.
With an almighty leapt it came forward, straight through the back of the barricade. It swiped with it's claws, hitting heads and decapitating the policemen before they could aim their guns properly. It's tongue lashed out, slicing through the throat of a shotgunner and it leapt again, bringing a great shadow about the barricade. A blast hit it's chest, exploding outwards, ripping it to bits. The man with the grenade launcher reloaded.
It wasn't over, now the zombies found their way to the barricade. The guns began to fire, shooting at every bit of enemy they could find, but more followed behind them. Finally, a zombie broke through, grabbing a policeman by the neck and taking a bite. A chunk of flesh came off as the policeman fell behind his car. The barrage of fire continued, but again, mutants came, this time it was a strange grey-green bug. It climbed up through the manhole and crawled on it's four legs towards the barricade, protected by the zombies being crushed all around it.
The police were unprepared.
The secondary train sped along the tracks, moving quickly towards the rendezvous point as the refuellers screamed at the top of their voices. Armand was on his way.
