"Oh god, please don't shoot," I pleaded, holding my hands up, showing very clearly that I had nothing on me. Plus, my yellow T-shirt hanging over a loose pair of black shorts made it nearly impossible for me to hide any weapons. Hopefully this guy could see that - or maybe he was one of those crazies that turned mental after realizing the state that Raccoon City was in.
There was an audible click from the handgun that was pointed at my face, a sign that gun had been put back on safety mode. Nonetheless, the scary looking man didn't remove the weapon from it's point blank range. "Who are you?" he asked in a gruff, authoritative voice. "Why are you snooping around in the S.T.A.R.S. office?"
"I … I was just bored, y'know?" I stammered. "Looking for some valuable reading material!"
"A likely story," he said sarcastically, "in the middle of a ghost town. In this kind of situation, there are more important things to do than read. That is of course, unless you're some spy sent in by Umbrella!"
"What the fuck?!" I cried out. "A pharmaceutical company sending in spies?!" I didn't want to mock this guy but let's get serious here. Umbrella produced nothing in Raccoon City except for drugs and the odd household cleaning item. Suggesting that they would sent in spies was ludicrous. "Yes, they sent me in to make sure the zombies weren't downing their bottles of Aspirin."
"Do you think you're funny?!" The safety went off again and I kept my hands up, in fact I raised them a little higher this time around.
"I'm sorry!" I said right away. "I'm not a spy. I work here at the precinct for work experience so I can graduate in two years!" A funny look crossed the man's face and he removed the gun, letting out a slight chuckle.
"That's more like it," he said, tucking the handgun into his belt buckle.
"Now tell me who you are," I demanded, clutching my chest in relief.
"I'm not sure if that's such a good idea, especially when you're working in a police station."
"Well what are you doing here?" I asked.
"I'm looking for a friend," he replied, "who goes by the name of Rebecca Chambers. She saved my life once and now I'm here to do the same for her."
"Becky?!" I cried out in instant recognition of the name. "Yeah I've heard of her. She's a friend of mine."
"Good, then can you tell me where she is?!"
"Sorry," I said shaking my head. "Becky left for Europe as far as I know. She left Raccoon long before all this started. You can relax, she's safe."
The man thought for a second, taking in the new information that seemed to surprise him a little. Then he let out a sign and kicked the table leg, making me jump in my seat a little. "I came all the way into this fucked up town for nothing!" he cried in frustration.
"Hey, look on the bright side," I said, "at least you get to help me and Leon get outta here."
"Sure, who's Leon?"
"Some cop," I replied. "It's his first day today. What a welcome, huh?"
"You think I'm gonna join forces with a cop?" the man asked me as if I was crazy. "If anything, it's those bozos that are after me."
"I think in this kind of situation, it would be a little different. And if keeping away from the cops takes priority over staying alive in this hellhole, then you sure came to the wrong place."
The man looked at me and smirked. "You got a lip, kid," he said. "You wanna know who I am? I gotta have your word first."
"Scouts honor," I replied.
"Billy Coen." I didn't make a sound. The name didn't ring a bell at all. "Yeah, didn't think you'd know or care. Point is, I'm friends with Rebecca. Back in her first mission, the girl saved my life."
"Hold on a sec," I said, motioning for him to pause. "Becky's first mission had something to do with the mansion incident three months ago in the Arklay Mountains. She said something about a criminal that …" I stopped. Suddenly it started making sense to me. This guy must've been that criminal, after all, he wanted to keep away from the cops. "You're …"
"That's right," he said, his fingers wrapping easily around my neck. "Now that you know, I trust I have your word not to squeal this to that rookie cop you're talking about."
"Hey, it's more important to me to stay alive at this point," I said through little gasps. "Sides, I gave my word, didn't I?" He let me go.
"I don't trust you," he said. "All he's gotta do is rub a lollipop in your face and you'd probably leak the information in two seconds. You're coming with me." He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me up with a surprisingly strong arm. "You know how to use a gun?" he asked.
I nodded my head. "I've seen it done in the movies a couple of times. It can't be that hard." He rolled his eyes at my pathetic attempt to justify my lack of experience. He pulled an extra one out from his pocket and laid it into my clammy hands. Whoever Billy Coen was, he sure knew what he was doing, coming into the city all stocked up with firearms. "Hold it in your hand like this." He demonstrated for me, both of his hands hugging the butt of the firearm tightly. "Keep your index finger on each hand onto the trigger. And when you want to shoot, just raise your arms at whatever you wanna fire at and pull the trigger."
I aimed the gun at the wall. "Now pull," he ordered. I did as I was told, pulling the trigger with as much strength as my trembling hands could muster. I've never held a gun in my hand before. The shot went off, the recoil knocking me backwards a step. I don't know whether it was the recoil, the resulting bang from the bullet, or the instant hole in the wall that surprised me. Perhaps it was a mix of all three. Billy nodded.
"That's a good enough job. To make it out of this city alive, we're going to need to have heavier weapons."
"How would you know?" I asked. "This will be enough to take out all the zombies in our way. If we conserve ammo, I mean."
"There are crazier things out there than zombies," he said. "Trust me on this one." I didn't know whether to trust a criminal, or the fact that there were 'other' things out there. I hadn't seen anything else besides those rotting undead creatures since the nightmare had started. "I've been down this road with Becky before. Anyway, that was in the past. We've gotta get out of here now before that rookie cop comes back."
"But Leon told me to stay here," I protested. "What if he comes back and I'm gone?"
"Then he'll think you got eaten or something. Who cares? You'd just be another casualty anyway. He sure wouldn't care. If he's a cop, he knows deaths happen all the time in the line of duty."
"I still don't get why you're acting like you know all this stuff. If we all work together …"
"I was an ex-Marine, kid," Billy interrupted. "They teach you these kinds of things. Now let's get out of here before the rookie sees me."
"Hey, don't call me 'kid'" I demanded. "My name is Kenneth Feng, and if you're not gonna call me that, then at least call me Kenny."
Billy just shrugged and began sprinting for the door. "Come on, kid," he said pulling me behind him. This guy was just trying to piss me off. At that point, I knew I should've got with the by-the-book rookie cop.
* * *
Billy and I made it out of the police station without much fuss. There weren't any zombies in the way, oddly enough. I think it had something to do with me pulling the shutters down on the windows. If I made our escape that much easier for us, then I was glad I helped that much. The cold wind assaulted us just as soon as we walked out from the front doors of the station. I rubbed my hands against my upper arms for warmth, but Billy didn't seem affected despite only wearing a wife beater to protect him against the cold.
"We can head down the main road," he said. "The city is planned out like a grid, so the streets all run parallel or perpendicular to one another. If we keep on the main roads, we'll be wide in the open so if anything tries to assault us, we'll see it coming before it's too late."
"Keep in mind the streets are also infected with the undead bodies of Raccoon City," I replied. "We don't have enough bullets to kill them all."
"That's why we take that cop car," Billy said, pointing to a parked police vehicle across the street.
"Like you have the keys."
"I can hotwire the sucker. Come on, let's go." We headed across the street looking both ways not for cars, but for packs of those zombies that wanted to eat our brains fresh from our skulls. Billy smashed the passenger side window open with his gun, reached in through the broken tempered glass and unlocked the door. "Get in," he ordered. He didn't have to tell me twice. I jumped into the vehicle taking in the nice smell of the leather. This car had to be new from the smell. I opened up the gun compartment to look for any extra ammunition for handgun present Billy gave me. There was a magazine for the gun lying in there, but I didn't know how to load it at that point.
"Hey, check this out," I said, holding up the magazine as Billy hopped into the driver's seat.
"Good, we'll be needing that." He grabbed it out of my hand and stuck it in his pocket. "I'm pretty low on ammo."
"I found it!" I cried. He was about to protest but gave an outward sigh and handed it back to me instead.
"If it means that much to you … I came to this place to save a friend, not be some damn babysitter." He reached into the keyhole right beside the steering wheel and started pick through it with a knife he drew from the ankle of his boot. Wow, this guy seriously thought of bringing everything before entering the city. I wouldn't admit it to him, but I was quite impressed. I guess you can't expect anything less of an ex-Marine.
"Shut up," I retorted. "We're partners, alright? As soon as we get out of this city, you can go ahead and ditch me. I can take care of myself."
"Assuming I don't feed you to the zombies first," he said, starting up the engine with an incredible roared to life, sending the car speeding off into the distance.
Most of the car-ride towards the edge of town was rather silent. Both of us were filled with the hope of making it out of the city alive. There were a few zombies littering the streets with their stench producing bodies and Billy had rammed every single one, grinning as he heard their moans and their bones - or what was left of them - shattering against the hood of the car, their grotesque virus polluted blood splashing against the windshield. Billy turned on the wipers. I had to laugh.
It was like we were playing some kind of game, just as soon as we hit the first zombie. "Super combo!" I cried out, laughing. "You just downed five in one ram. That gives you one hundred points, five for each one."
"Old lady crossing the street!" Billy cried pointing. Sure enough, it was an old lady, her gross, peeling wrinkled skin hanging in pieces off her face. Trust me, she wouldn't have looked much better if she weren't a zombie. She lurched towards the car with a gurgled groan, loud enough to be heard through the windows of the car. We had them closed, not wanting to risk any leaking of zombie guts into the car and infecting us. The car rammed into her hip, breaking it in multiple places. We could hear a series of audible cracks as her body collided with the hood with a wet thump of rotten guts and bones. "Woohoo, fifty points!" he shouted in victory, giving me a high five.
The car suddenly lurched downward, as if something heavy had jumped on it while we were moving. "What the hell was that?" I asked. Billy only shrugged and continued driving. But it was the sound of bone against steel that caused us to jump out of our skins. A long, animal like claw pierced the roof in between our heads and cut the metal open, like a hot blade through butter. I looked through the crack to see some kind of monster looking at us hungrily through the opening. I looked like some kind of human with long clawed arms and short legs. But this thing didn't have skin, just a body consisting of bloodless pink muscle and a tongue longer than its body hanging loosely out of its head like some demonic snake. The brains on the creature were exposed. I could see it pumping with blood and instantly, something told me that was its weak point. I aimed my gun through the crack at the creature as it prepared to strike me with its clawed limb.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Billy shouted and pushed me out of the way, just in time for the claw to come down and make a deep cut in his forearm. "Ah!" he yelped in pain. Immediately, I could feel the spurt of warm blood coming from his arm landing on my face. He pulled his arm back and cradled it, all while trying to drive at the same time.
"Swerve the car!" I said. "Get that fucking thing off us!"
"I'm trying!"
The creature continued to stab its claw through the metal roof of the car as if it was made of aluminum foil. Billy and I were ducking for our lives while the car was swerving madly in and out of both lanes. That's when I noticed it, a thick telephone poll about three feet in diameter rapidly approaching the car.
"What out!" I cried pointing at the pole, but Billy had been too busy with the monster and controlling the car to take note of what I was saying. The police car rammed the pole painfully. I remember my body being thrown forward only to be caught by the seatbelt. Billy disappeared from view in a shower of spraying glass and the trunk of the telephone pole as it came between us neatly slicing the car in two. I heard the high pitched scream of the creature that attacked us cut off abruptly by a wet splat as the telephone pole fell on top of it and the roof of the car. Shortly thereafter, my consciousness fell into the enveloping darkness of night. And no matter how much I fought against it, the warm blood that flowed freely from my body slowly drained all the consciousness out of me.