I remember coming to, awakening to the sound of rain. At first, I saw nothing but blackness but it gradually faded to light shortly after. I saw the rough outline of someone looking over me.
"Hey, come on, amigo," he said with a slight Spanish accent, "time to get up."
"Uhhhh …" I groaned. The light was becoming to bright for my sleepy eyes to handle.
"Come on, this ain't no time to be sleeping around, yah?" I felt a light tap on my cheek. Then the memories came flooding back. The zombie infested police station, Billy pointing his gun at my face, the wild car ride with that monster attacking us and then the crash … it all came flooding back, too much for my brain to handle all at once. I rose quickly screaming my lungs out, afraid of what I would be waking up to. The man who I saw looking over me came into focus now. He had an olive complexion and short dark brown hair that grew down the back of his head and short banks that tickled his hazel brown eyes. He jumped back, raising his hands, showing me that he meant no harm, although he was ironically dressed as a soldier of some kind. He had a dark green vest on with all sorts of ammunition hanging out of its multiple pockets. He also wore khaki colored pants over black combat boots. Such an aggressive exterior mixed with his almost easy-going tone sort of confused me more than scared me.
"W…where the hell am I?" I asked, looking around for any signs of fire, structural damage or blood. There was none. What I had previously thought was fire, was revealed to be nothing but candles lining the walls of the room. I was lying in a church pew, the touch of its cold polished wood surface sending chills up and down my spine.
"In the clock tower church," the guy replied. "I found you lying in the middle of the street. You were bleeding pretty bad but breathing at least. So I took you in and patched you up." He pointed to my head. I touched it, feeling the bandages wrapped tightly around it, stopping anymore blood from coming out.
"Thanks," I admitted, more than I was willing to.
"What happened to you?" he asked with genuine concern ringing in his voice.
"It was a car crash," I said. "There was somebody else with me. Billy. Did you see him?"
The man shook his head. "All I found was you, amigo." Billy Coen … that damn bastard left me to die in the middle of a zombie infested city. Well I couldn't expect anything more from a convict. I mentally kicked myself for trusting him in the first place. "We should go look for your friend."
"Leave him out there," I said harshly without wasting another thought on him. "I hope he gets eaten."
"Whoa, you guys get into a fight or something?"
"Let's just say I trusted the wrong person. So … what are you doing here dressed like that? Maybe you guys are the backup the government sent to save all the civilians from the city, right?"
"Not really," he said, shaking his head. "The name's Carlos Oliveira." He extended his hand.
"Kenneth Feng," I replied, "but please call me Kenny."
"No, I'm not some S.W.A.T. member or anything. I'm a member of a group called the U.B.C.S. - the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service."
"A military member sent in by Umbrella?"
"Yup."
"The pharmaceutical company actually has their own army?! What the hell is this world coming to? I guess Billy was right."
"Hey listen, it's good to see you've come around and all, but I gotta get going," Carlos said turning around.
"What? Hold on, where are you headed?"
"You see that girl over there?" He nodded in the direction behind me. I turned around to look at what he was referring to, seeing a young girl lying peacefully on the altar. She had a milky complexion and light brown hair that brushed against her shoulders. That's when I noticed the wound in her right shoulder. It looked infected or something, being all blue around the edges and a little of red mixed with black at the center. It looked like she was pierced with something. She had a good body and she wasn't ashamed of it at all, wearing this little light blue tube top and a black miniskirt with knee high boots. "Looks like a hooker," I said out loud, without even realizing it.
"That's Jill," Carlos explained.
"Wait a sec … Jill?" No, there was no way it could've been Jill, little Miss. "Chase Your Dreams!" But as I got closer to her, I instantly recognized her face. It was none other than Jill Valentine, one of the S.T.A.R.S. members from the police station.
"We're trying to get out of this place alive but she was attacked yesterday by some kind of monster," Carlos said.
"Jill…"
"You know her?" Carlos asked, looking at me strangely.
"She works with me at the precinct. But I thought Jill already left for Europe. What's going on? Why is she here? And did I just call her a hooker?!" I felt bad instantly.
"We'll figure that out later. Right now, we have to take care of her."
"Yeah, that gaping wound in her shoulder looks pretty bad. What kind of a monster was it? Did it have a long tongue and these huge claws and no skin?" I raised my arms over my head and stuck my tongue out trying to mimic the monster's actions.
Carlos gave me a funny look. "No, it was a huge humanoid with no pupils or lips and gaping human teeth. It had a black trench coat and held a rocket launcher in one arm."
"Fuck …" So there were worse things out there than that creature that attacked me and Billy. As I continued on this escape plan, I found less and less hope to make it out alive. It would've been nice to think that I could make it out all on my own, but realistically, what could I do? I needed to stick to somebody to get me outta this place, somebody with combat experience. "So about Jill," I said, motioning over to her, "how are you going to help her?"
"She's been infected with the T-Virus - the same virus that turned all these people into zombies, you know?" Carlos said, hanging his head down in shame. "I couldn't save her."
"Then what the hell are you doing staying around her?!" I cried. "She could turn into one of those zombies any minute!" I knew it was cold to say that about someone who had been a positive influence at the work place, but truth was truth. She was going to turn into a zombie.
"There's still a chance I can help her," Carlos said. "There may be a vaccine somewhere in the hospital that's run by Umbrella. It's right across the street from the back exit. I don't know if we can find it, but it's definitely worth a look."
"How long has she been like this?"
"She was attacked yesterday evening," Carlos said. "I've tried getting into the hospital but I'm stuck here cause of my lack in ammunition."
"I can help you get in," I offered. "I've got a magazine in my pocket."
"No!" Carlos said, reacting to the offer more so than responding. "You're too young to be put in a situation like this!"
"But I came this far all by myself -"
"It's against my morals to endanger a child. I won't have it, and that's final!"
* * *
"I don't know how you managed to talk me into letting you come along," Carlos said, shaking his head as he pushed a giant brass bell out of the way so that the old fashioned wooden door could open.
"Hey, if we're gonna make it out of this place alive, then we're gonna have to work together," I reminded him. "I'll go check out the basement of the hospital where they store the vaccines."
Carlos shook his head. "They wouldn't have the vaccine made and ready to be injected," he explained. "If they did, it would be subject to theft and something like that is worth a lot. But don't worry, amigo, I've got the recipe."
"What?! How would you know how to make the vaccine?" Carlos reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of crumpled papers. "We've found various files along the way on our adventure. You don't wanna know the details, man; it's a long story. You got a gun on you?"
I tapped the pocket of my pants and nodded my head. "Right here."
"You know how to shoot?"
"If I didn't, I wouldn't have made it this far, right?" I know it was a flat out lie, I hadn't had the opportunity to use the gun yet, but hey, I wasn't gonna make myself look pathetic in front of an army guy. He looked suspiciously at me for a moment and then smiled and said, "Yah … I mean … right! Come on then, let's go." Okay, so I hoped I was a better shooter than I was a liar.
We stepped out into the open air, hearing the howling of the wind. It was kind of creepy, as if it was singing our death theme or something. There was a slight drizzle coming from above, as if the gods were trying to wash away the evil that resided in the city but to no avail. Water splashed against our shoulders and made our hair go limp and hang in our eyes. We headed out of the clock tower building and turned left. It appeared that there was a road that led straight to the hospital. There were a few zombies blocking our path, though. That was when my heart just froze. I hadn't been face to face with one of the undead before. Thinking back to when I first attempted to escape the city, there was always something separating me and the creatures, whether it had been the hood of the car, or the glass of the windows. It made me nervous to see them standing right there, coming after me whenever they wanted. And I guess they wanted me now because I saw about three or four of them heading our way, their gross decaying feet scraping across the cold wet pavement.
Carlos opened fire on them as if it were nothing, treating them like they were nothing but a bunch of walking, decaying corpses. I guess that's what they were. It was just hard to imagine that behind every moaning, groaning, disgusting zombie, there was once a human with a family, friends, a human that once had a life as equally complex, if not more, than my own.
"The hell are you standing around for?!" Carlos screamed at me over the deafening hail of bullets shooting from his hand gun. "Start shooting!"
"I …" I didn't want to, but if I didn't, they'd be all over me in a second. Remembering what Leon told me, I held the gun steady with two trembling hands, squeezed my right eye shut, and pointed the barrel at the chest of the closest zombie, squeezing it hard and tight towards myself. The resulting explosion of the shooting bullet forced me backwards a little but I was able to regain my balance without much effort.
My first instinct was to pause and absorb what I had just done - killing one of those things - but there wasn't any time. The more we took down, it seemed, three would take their place.
"They can smell us," Carlos said. "The wind is carrying our scent. We're a walking feast for those things." The horde of zombies gained momentum. Soon, we found ourselves running out of bullets. I couldn't believe that I'd used up that entire magazine that I found in the cop car. "We gotta get back inside!" Carlos screamed. "Come on!"
I began running right behind him. The zombies were slow - they would've never caught up to us, but another second being outside with them didn't appeal to me one bit. I hung a right, turning into the corridor that led to the back door of the clock tower, just a few feet behind Carlos. Apparently, a few feet wasn't enough because just as I made the turn, I felt a pair of cold, wet hands grip my shoulders tightly, giving me a strong pull, yanking me off my feet. My back hit the cement hard from the momentum I gained from running and falling. The moans of the zombies got closer but there was already on top of me. I closed my eyes and prayed that it would be quick.