Chapter 7

Artie darted through the forest. Somehow, he had become between the dogs and his fellow members. They had gotten into the mansion, and the dogs rushed behind them.

"WAIT!!!" Artie's call went unheard as Barry and Wesker shut the doors.

The rotting hounds were scratching against the wood. Artie stopped and watched as the dogs continued to rip away at the wood.

"What am I gonna do?" he said to himself.

After about a minute, the dogs stopped and turned around to see him standing there. He stood frozen, and started to step back slowly.

All four growled viciously. One of the dogs dashed forward, and Artie lifted his gun and fired right through the dogs head, spilling blood everywhere.

Facing the mansion, he ran to the right. The three remaining dogs followed. He rounded a corner to the eastern side of the house, dogs in pursuit. There were several windows to his left.

He turned around to shoot, but as he did, he stopped and looked through one of the windows to see Jill and Barry walking in a hallway.

Two of the dogs switched their route towards the windows. Just as it almost looked as if they were going to run into the wall, they leapt into the air and crashed through two separate windows.

The last dog was still after him. He fired about five shots, missing them as he started to run again and heard gunshots from behind him inside the house.

He continued to run as he heard the creature's footsteps gaining behind him. He turned around to see the beast a few feet away. He dove and rolled away to the side as it leapt in to the air at him. He got up and turned around to meet eye to eye with the rotting creature. It growled and didn't move it's eyes off of it's prey. Artie stood there helpless. He looked down at his gun to see the slide locked back. The magazine was empty. By the time he could even reach into his pouch, the dog would be on top of him. It was over.

Suddenly, it was blown ten feet away by a deafening gunshot. Artie looked around to see where it came from.

"HEY, UP HERE!" Artie turned around to see Forest Speyer standing in a terrace on the second floor, waving his sniper rifle.

"FOREST!" Artie shouted out, happy to see that one of the Bravos were okay. His smile faded as Forest pointed the rifle at him, and fired.

Artie flinched as the shot went right past his ear. He turned around to see a man's head explode. As the headless man fell to the ground, he noticed that it had the same decaying skin as the dogs. They heard more growls in the woods.

"Get up here, quick!" Forest yelled. Artie ran to the balcony.
He climbed up a lattice covering the lower part of the wall, then Forest reached over and helped him up onto the terrace.

Artie came over and landed on his back. Then he sat up, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Thanks man, I owe you one," he said.

"I couldn't let a comrade fall," Forest began. "I had just stepped out here when I heard some gunshots, so I came over to see what was going on. You're lucky I did."

Artie noticed Forest's grenade launcher leaning next to a chair.

"Yeah, thanks again," Artie remarked. "By the way, where's the rest of your team?"

"Edward is dead," Forest began. "Kenneth should be in the west wing somewhere. Both Richard and I were attacked by a huge venomous snake. He was bitten in the shoulder and was poisoned. Rebecca is aiding him. Enrico just called on my radio a few minutes ago, saying that he found a way into some underground caves, and Kevin should still be with the chopper."

"Kevin's dead," Artie stated. "Joseph found him in the chopper, slumped over. Then, we were attacked by the dogs and-"

Artie hesitated and looked down, upset. "He didn't make it," he continued.

There was a sudden squawking sound coming from the trees.

"Wait," Forest put his hand up and looked around. Artie heard it as well and did the same.

"What is that?" he asked.

"We better get out of here," Forest replied. Artie nodded. Forest picked up the launcher and they started to walk along the terrace.

They heard the squawks again and got their guns ready. Then, they heard the flapping of wings behind them. They turned around to see about a dozen crows closing in on them.

"Run!" Forest yelled. They dashed toward a door in the corner. The birds were gaining.

Forest got to the door first and opened it.

"Come on!" he yelled over the loud sound of their wings. Artie ran in and they closed the door to hear the sound of beaks crashing against the wood.

They went through another door at the end of a short hallway and found themselves on the second floor of the main hall.

"WESKER!!!!" They heard a voice yell out.

They looked over the landing to see Chris, Jill, and Barry on the first floor.

"Guys!" Artie called out to them. The three of them turned and looked up at him.

"Forest!" Barry called back.

"Artie?" Chris asked. "How did you get in? I thought we lost you."

The five members met on the central staircase.

"It's all thanks to Forest," Artie explained. "If it wasn't for him, you would've lost me."

"Well, I'm happy you're okay," Jill said.

"Did anyone see Kenneth?" Forest asked.

"Yeah, he's dead," Chris answered. "He was eaten by a zombie-looking thing."

"What about Wesker?" Forest questioned.

"Oh," Barry replied. "He told us to investigate those rooms down here, while he secured this hall and when we got back, he was gone. I think we should all search for him separately. I'll go investigate the dining room. Jill, search the hallway we were just in. Chris, take this door."

Barry pointed to a door at the top of the central staircase.

"Artie, go with Forest through the door to the east on the second floor," he continued.

Everybody nodded and headed in their separate directions.