"Ahh! Please don't kill me … oh god …" I wailed, but my desperate cries were interrupted by a snappy response.
"Shut up, already!" I opened by eyes, realizing I had been covering them with my hands the whole time. Now I was beginning to wish it actually HAD been a zombie that was attacking me. I didn't want any normal person seeing me in such a pathetic state begging for my life. But I guess it was too late at that point.
"Billy!" I cried with surprise, not sure whether to feel more excited to see him or feel embarrassed about my reaction. Remembering what he did to me earlier, leaving me to die alone in the middle of the infested streets of the city, I turned away from him and dusted myself off, giving him the most attitude I could muster. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you, Kenny," he replied, as if it should've been obvious to me.
"Oh, after leaving me for zombie food, I see," I said. I heard him slap his forehead.
"It's not what it looked like," he said, as if he was lying. "There was a woman. She didn't look like a zombie so I decided to go after her and see if she could help. But by the time we got back to the car, you were gone."
"Then what are you doing here now?" I asked.
"We needed to get to the hospital to find something to treat my wounds." I looked at him, noticing for the first time that his right should had a deep looking cut, spilling blood down the rest of the way down his arm.
"Shit," I said regretfully. "I'm sorry. I guess I … didn't notice."
"Forget it, kid," he replied, "but we need to get to the hospital."
"Don't even try it," I advised, "you see that mob of zombies over there?" I pointed in the direction that me and Carlos had just come from.
"They're getting closer."
"Who cares?" I said, throwing my arms up in the air. "Those things are slow as hell. Just take my sock and tie it around your arm so we can soak up some of the blood." I began taking my shoe off.
"Haha, yeah right," Billy laughed, "and infect my wound with your slimy socks? I don't think so, buddy."
"Hey, I'm offering you a solution," I said, putting my shoe back on. "If you don't wanna, then that's not my problem! Our main goal is to get out of this hellhole alive. Get treatment when we return to the real world."
Billy shrugged. "I'd rather do that than get infected with your …"
"Shut up," I said, "let's get going. And where's this woman you were talking about?"
"Oh, Ada? She should be waiting around the Raccoon Park gates." He pointed towards the stairs that were just a few feet away, sporting a large stone archway with the words "Raccoon City Public Park" carved into the arc. "We can climb over the fence on the south end that'll take us back onto the main street. From there, we can walk outta here. We should have enough ammunition to last us."
"Not anymore," I said pulling out my pockets. "I finished off that clip I found in the cop car on the zombies."
"Whatever, we can talk about this later. Let's just get outta here before that horde of zombies gets any closer."
He began tugging me along, but I had to resist, even if it was just a moment. "Hold on, we can't go just yet."
"Why not?"
"There are survivors in that building. There's this guy named Carlos and a co-worker from the police precinct and …"
"I told you, I'm not getting involved with any cops," Billy replied sternly.
"How can you say that given the situation we're in? I think they'd have more important things to worry about than arresting you." I began to protest again, but Billy wouldn't listen, grabbing me by my shirt collar and tugging me along behind him.
* * *
The Raccoon City Park gates opened with a loud, ear piercing squeak of resentment. Standing at the fountain with her back turned to us was a slim woman in a red cocktail dress with black pants underneath. I had to laugh. It was hard to tell what she looked like, but from the way she dressed, I KNEW she was Asian. Don't get me wrong, I'm not racist or anything. I'm Asian myself, and I can recognize another one of my kind even from that distance. Besides, who else would wear a pair of pants underneath a dress? It was a direct reflection of the fashion in Hong Kong!
The woman turned around to face us and instantly, I knew I was right. "What took you so long?" she asked Billy.
"Sorry," Billy replied, "the kid needed a little convincing." He pushed me forward in between the two of them. "Our goal is to get out of the city and we're gonna need all the help we can get. I just refuse to get entangled with the cops."
The woman cocked an eyebrow at him. "Why is this, exactly?"
"Don't worry, he won't tell me either," I answered for Billy. "Nice to meet ya, I'm Kenneth." I extended a hand at her. She hesitantly took my hand in hers and we shared a brief handshake.
"Ada Wong," she replied. "It's hard to believe the both of you haven't gotten infected with the virus yet."
"I had little contact with the zombies when the virus was still contagious," I explained. "The police officers liked to keep me in the receptionist office for my work experience. Nobody infected really got in there so …"
Ada nodded. "I see."
"And what about you? How were you able to escape infection?"
"I just came into town," Ada said. "I'm looking for my boyfriend, John. He's in the city somewhere, I know it."
"How chivalrous," Billy said sarcastically. "Now what do you guys say we quit this useless chatting and get the hell outta this dump?"
"I'm with him," I answered quickly.
We made our way around to the back of the park that was fenced off from the rest of the city. Beyond the chain linked fence, I could see the main street of Raccoon City in the downtown region. It looked empty enough. The street lights were on, casting powerful but concentrated beams of light on the otherwise shadow covered street. With Billy's help, Ada and I were able to get over the fence, using him as a boost. Somehow, the guy managed to scale the fence by himself, jumping down the last few feet to meet us on the other side. Ada and I stared at him in amazement. Noticing our disbelief, Billy just shrugged the effort off like it was nothing.
"It's the whole ex-Marine thing, you know," he said. He led the way and the three of us started heading down the road. As soon as our feet left the grass and stepped onto the pavement, the ground began to rumble violent. We struggled to maintain our footing but it was to no avail. Ada fell first and I followed shortly thereafter. Billy was still struggling to keep on his feet by the time the ground split into two farther down the road.
I thought it was an earthquake at first at the rate the ground was shaking - like anything worse could happen in the city. But it was no earthquake. I realized this after seeing the giant snakelike creature emerge from the crack of the road. I got a closer look at it and realized it wasn't a snake, but an enormous worm! As it raised its slimy body out from the ground, the street lights illuminated it's faceless head. It three huge protrusions from its head that slowly transformed from slimy white skin, cartilage, and bone at the end. And these pincers were vicious looking, placed around it's head and snapped back and forth with the preciseness of well sharpened knives.
And of the three of us, not surprisingly with my luck sofar, the damn thing came after me. It moved so quickly, it was just a blur. My eyes couldn't even catch it, which was weird especially for something that huge. But something in my head told me to jump and jump I did. I landed painfully on both elbows, hitting the viral ridden pavement. I only realized the pain afterwards because at the time, my body was pumped with adrenaline from a big hybrid of a worm maggot trying to eat me.
Somewhere in the background, I heard gunshots. As I was rolling on the ground, trying to soften the impact from my feeble attempt and a dive out of the way of the worm, I glanced to my right, spotting a gaping hole in the ground. The monster was powerful enough to punch a hole about three feet into the ground through the concrete. "Hurry up and shoot the fucking thing!" I screamed at Billy and Ada.
Ada seemed to have snapped out of some kind of daze and expertly aimed her firearm at the monster. How could she have been so calm at a time like this? Something about her rubbed me the wrong way, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. She seemed to be preoccupied with something going on in her little head all the time. And she hardly spoke either. The little words that her lips produced were always short and straight to the point. I wasn't too fond of this woman. But at this point in time, she was my best friend, expertly aiming and firing her handgun with well timed shots at the giant worm. Billy stood firing just as rapidly as Ada was, but the woman's skills were sharp. Billy, although being an ex-military soldier, showed some experience as well, but his abilities struck me as somewhat rusty. He looked nervous almost, as if he had been out of practice for some time.
Just then the worm turned its attention from me over to Billy. Perhaps it had sensed his nervousness, labeling him as easy prey. Ada continued firing at the monster, but it was useless. It pursued Billy, approaching him with incredible speed. I don't know what came over me, but I felt like I had to do something. I jumped at Billy, tensing my entire body, getting ready for the impact of our colliding forms. I wanted him out of the way. I wouldn't say that I'd sacrifice my life for him, but I can safely say I wasn't even thinking about my own safety.
Something ripped at my thighs. A searing pain slashed through the skin of my quadriceps, cutting through my shirt and skin like a knife through paper. I felt a warm liquid spread from my wound down my leg. And for the second time in a minute, I landed on my elbows. Now the pain was really beginning to settle in.
"What the hell are you doing, you stupid kid?!" Billy screamed. It wasn't the gratitude I was expecting, but I saw the genuine look of concern in his eyes. There were splatters of blood on his face and hands. It must've been my blood.
"Are you alright?" Ada asked running over.
"I'm fine," Billy said, "but you better take a look at Kenny."
"Jesus," Ada said, clasping her chest. "Is that what the monster did?"
"No, I decided slice my leg open just for the heck of it," I replied. "Where's the monster now? I didn't even see it go."
"It went back underground after eating too many bullets," Ada said coolly. "I don't think its dead, though."
"Well if it does, we're ready for it," Billy said, reloading another clip into his magazine with a resounding click. "How are you doing for ammo, Kenny?"
"I don't have any," I said shrugging. "That's why I wasn't exactly firing back at monster … But now after what it's done to me, I don't think I'd mind pumping a few rounds into its ugly head."
"Hey, any of you guys getting hungry?" Billy asked suddenly out of the blue.
Ada and I shook our heads. "No …" she replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Well somebody has to be. I keep hearing some kind of growling noise coming from one of you. Not that I blame you. I mean it's been awhile since I've had anything decent to eat either and …"
"Billy," I said fearfully pointing behind him. "I don't think that's our stomachs you're hearing." Out from the buring wreckage of what looked like a cable car walked this demon straight from hell. It was humanoid, only much taller and bulkier. It wore a huge trench coat that covered most if its body, revealing only the ugly head. Trust me, ugly is an understatement. This thing had no hair, no pupils in its eyes, no nose, and no lips. It looked like the fire had melted off its face. The one feature that stuck out the most was the double row of large teeth. Its right had looked to be a lot larger than the left. But as the thing came closer, I could see that it was an attachment … in fact, it looked like a … ROCKET LAUNCHER!!
Then it mumbled something. "Ssstarsss…"
"N … Nemesis …" Ada said softly, her face frozen in fear.
"What?" I asked turning around to face her. "What the hell is that?!"
Her mouth moved like she was trying to say something. "R … run damn it, you guys, RUN!!!" She finally managed to scream it out. At the same time, the three of us heard the audible click. The Nemesis had raised its arm, the one bearing the rocket launcher and aimed it at us. The next thing I noticed was the plume of smoke that emerged from the rear of the rocket, and that's when I noticed that it was heading straight for us.