The Outbreak
By Ken Howes
Jill Valentine looked out the window of her car at the three story Victorian house that loomed in front of her. It was an old, but well kept house. It was completely dark, and there were no signs of the people that had called for help. Valentine had never been frightened by anything, but she did tend to get eerie feelings, and this house certainly gave her one. She knew that even in the day, the might have given her the feeling, it just wasn't right.
Jill was part of the Rockton police department, not that she was very proud of it. Rockton was a small urban center in the middle of Iowa. Meaning she was in a city in the middle of nowhere. She had gotten the job only a few months ago, when the FBI had rejected her and she was able to find an opening in the RPD. The job wasn't very exciting, even in a small city, it mostly consisted of answer calls to people out in the suburbs who had thought they had seen a cat burglar but it was only really just a cat. But at least she was part of the cities S.W.A.T. team, which is one of the jobs she had wanted to get in the FBI.
Jill sighed as she got out of her old Lexus. She looked at herself and shook her head. She certainly wasn't dressed to go answer calls. She was dressed in a blue tube top and in high cut dark green shorts, with only a sweatshirt tied around her waist to shield her legs against the cool breeze. Well serves them right for making me answer a call on my way home. She tucked her 9mm Beretta in between her sweatshirt and shorts and then strode up towards the old house.
Jill wasn't a "normal person" as she would put it; she rarely socialized outside the workforce and had few non professional friends. The only person she felt any type of closeness to was her partner Chris Redfield. The two were closer than most partners were, and Jill was glad to have his friendship, and nothing else she had to constantly remind others, in her lonely life. But that was the way she liked it, she wasn't much for social outings and never had been. While her class mates had been out partying or at the big game in high school and college, Jill had been in her room studying, researching weapons and tactics, or practicing martial arts in a nearby dojo.
She had her eyes set on being a field agent in the FBI ever since middle school and she became even more determined to obtain the job when her mother (an FBI agent) had been killed during a drug sting. Jill had devoted every moment of her life towards that goal since then, but wasn't close enough. Or that's what the FBI had told her.
So now Jill spent her Friday nights following strict schedule, getting Chinese take out on the way home from work, watching a few hours of stand up comedy, and then she would unlock her gun closet and clean and service every single weapon. She had an extensive collection of legal firearms, and not all were exactly legal, but Jill felt she had to familiarize herself with such weapons. Then on her day off on Saturday she would spar with Chris during the morning and then the two would go to the shooting range and practice all afternoon. Then Jill would go back to her house and once again practice more martial arts. Then she would be ready for the dull work that awaited her during the work week.
But now that schedule was interrupted, and the take out was getting cold in the car. Jill regretted answering the call saying she would check it out off duty, but she couldn't go back and tell them to send someone over, it would take too long. So she walked up the creaking steps and rang the door bell. She stood there for a minute but there was no answer. Damn prank calls, she thought. The then opened the flimsy white screen door and knocked on the door. It opened when her fist hit the door.
Well, I might as well check to make sure everything is alright, she thought. Jill walked through the door and the darkness seemed to reach around her and swallow her whole.
"Hello?" Jill said loudly, and heard her voice echo through the dark hall, "RPD, we got a call about some type of a disturbance, is anyone here?"
No answer.
She was standing in a pitch black hallway; she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face. She heard creaking noises above from the ceiling, was there somebody upstairs? First she needed light.
Jill looked for a light switch and found one, it was wet. She flipped it up, but no light came on. She walked further into the hall and heard herself step in a puddle. Was there a leak of some sort? Why hadn't anyone cleaned it up? Jill groped the walls with her hands searching for a light switch for the hallway. The walls were wet as well, there must be some type of pipe broken above the ceiling, she thought. Cautiously Jill drew her Beretta and turned on the small flashlight that was mounted underneath the barrel.
The walls and floor were splashed with crimson blood.
Damn.
Jill's adrenaline immediately kicked in. Without thinking of going to the car to call for backup she slowly walked up the stairs, with her gun at the ready. The stairs creaked and groaned as she ascended up into the darkness, with only the small light to guide her way. When she reached the top she found herself looking at three doors. There was a wet crunching noise and grunting coming from the door to her right. She cautiously looked in and saw a man hunched over a body. There was blood everywhere. The man seemed to be going over the body with his hands. Jill was then gasped when she watched the man through his face into the chest and starts to devour the insides.
Jill gasped a little too loudly. The mans head shot up and turned around to look for the source of the noise. He spotted Jill's shape in door way and hissed.
"Freeze! RPD!" She shouted, leveling her gun at him. The light revealed his face which was deformed and covered in blood and gore.
Instead of putting his hands up to surrender the man screamed and ran at her. Jill cried out and shot him in the chest, but he still ran towards her. Jill then shot him in the kneecap, but he still ran at her. When he reached Jill he grabbed onto her shoulders and tried to bite her neck. Jill clubbed him in the head with the butt of her pistol and threw him away. The man stumbled and fell down the flight of stairs with followed by a sickening THUD when he hit the bottom.
What the hell just happened? Jill asked herself. That guy took two shots and kept on coming at me. She then pointed her gun down at the stairwell, where the man had landed. But there was no body. It was like he had just gotten up and walked away. Which means he could be anywhere in the downstairs of the house.
Jill knew what she had to do, she had to get out of the house and get to her car to call for backup and where there was a pump action shotgun. But in order to do that, she would have to go through the hallway where she would be prone to ambush from the man. Jill took a deep breath and slowly walked down the stairs.
Trying to make as little sound as possible, Jill descended, her heart pounding fast and loud. She listened as hard as she could for the sounds of movement. But all she heard were the sounds of an old house. The flashlight on her Beretta only lit up the bottom of the staircase, and she only hoped that something wasn't waiting up against the wall of the hallway for when she walked out of the stairwell. Just then Jill heard a snarl and the shuffling of feet running on the wood floor. Where had it come from? Was it in the hallway? Was her hunter going to be waiting in the darkness behind her? Or was he going to be blocking her exit? These questions were racing through her mind when she reached the bottom of the stairs; she then took a deep breath and jumped out into the hallway, pointing the gun down towards the door.
Clear.
The she whirled around to face the opposite direction where the hall trailed off.
Clear.
Jill then realized she had been holding her breath the entire time she had been walking down the stairs and let it out and quietly made her way towards the door. But then she heard what sounded like a small voice crying for help. It was very faint, but she could hear where it was coming from. It was coming from the inside of the room at the end of the hallway. If there was someone in danger, she couldn't leave. Not now. Jill then turned away from the exit and started towards the end of the hallway. She then noticed that there was another room that branched off from the hallway, going towards the right. She would have to go past that entrance to get to the end of the hallway. She would have to be careful. She slowly walked towards the end of the hall and stopped right before she got to the entrance of the other room. She pressed herself up against the wall and listened for sounds of movement. There were none, so she swung herself around and pointed the Beretta inside and shone the flashlight in the room. But she didn't get a glimpse of the inside of the room. All the flashlight revealed was the bloodied face of the killer. His eyes were a burning red and his mouth opened to reveal disgusting teeth when he hissed at her. They were face to face, for a moment moved.
Then Jill did. She fired off a shot into his torso and ran. She didn't want to stick around to see if it stopped him. It didn't, she heard him tearing down the hallway after her, snarling and hissing the entire way. She felt one of the mans hands brush her back when he tried to grab her. There was another five feet left to the door when Jill dove inside and slammed the door shut on the man with her feet. She then stood up and locked it. She heard him pounding against the door with all his weight. Jill hoped it would hold.
Jill then whirled around when she heard shouts coming from the other side of the room. Shining her flashlight towards the source, she saw a closet. Cautiously moving towards it she opened the door and pointed her gun inside, ready to shoot. Inside was a little girl, she was crying.
"Oh thank god," Jill said.
"Don't hurt me!" The girl cried out.
"It's alright honey," Jill said taking her into her arms, "I'm a police officer."
"That's what I thought when I heard the shooting, So I started yelling for help, even though mommy said I wasn't aloud to make any noise," The girl said, "But I was afraid you might have been killed by daddy, just like he killed my mommy, and that he was coming for me next." The girl then started to sob.
"Don't worry, everything is going be alright…what is your name?" Jill asked soothingly looking at the girl. She looked about 8 and had short blonde hair and was wearing a blue skirt and a red shirt. She had the type of angelic face that would melt any sane person's heart, and now that she was crying, it was just heartbreaking to see.
"Sherry," the girl said through sniffles, "Sherry Burkin."
"Well Sherry, my name is Jill Valentine."
"Like the holiday?" Sherry asked, looking up at her.
Jill gave her a small smile, "Yeah, just like the holiday."
Sherry then looked over at the door that was being marauded by blows from the man outside in the hall, "You didn't kill daddy did you?"
"No…" Jill started to say, but then Sherry interrupted.
"That's because his experiments in the basement."
"What are you talking about?" Jill asked, hoping to find out why she hadn't been able to stop the man who was presumably her father with her Beretta.
"Well daddy has a lab downstairs in our basement; it's full of scientific stuff ad I'm not aloud to go in there. But I heard daddy talking to mommy like he was really excited about something he had made downstairs. It was some type of virus, or at least that's what I think I heard them talking about. But then that night he was in his lab and…and he changed. He turned into a monster. Mommy hid me in here and then had him chase her so he wouldn't find me. I heard her yelling, is she dead?"
Jill felt horrible that she had to tell this girl that her mother died, but she wouldn't lie to the poor girl, "Yes Sherry…I'm so sorry."
Sherry sobbed and hugged Jill, burrowing her head into Jill's shoulder.
"Don't worry sweetie, everything is going to be okay now," Jill said reassuringly.
Just as she said that the door splintered open, revealing the deformed Mr. Burkin. Sherry saw her crazed father and screamed. Jill threw Sherry into the corner and was beginning to level her gun at him when he slammed into her. Jill saw the Beretta fall from her grasp and skid across the floor. She fell to the floor with the madman on top of her. She kicked him in the stomach and sent him careening into a window, just as he hit the window she grabbed her handgun off the floor and shot him in chest. Sherry's father flew out of the window and into the night.
Jill ran and looked out the window, it was a five foot drop to the ground, but there was no body. Mr. Burkin had vanished into the dead of night. Jill sighed, thank god that was over.
THUNK! Jill hammered another nail into the piece of wood that was bracing the door to her apartment. There were screams coming from the windows. She reached for another one as she heard random gunshots. THUNK! She heard Sherry whimpering from inside the living room as she stared at the chaos that was ensuing outside. Cars crashed, explosions shook the building, death came on swift wings on all who were trying to flee. THUNK! More than two thirds of Rockton's populace was infected or dead. And it was all her fault, she could have prevented it Jill thought morbidly. If she had only shot Burkin in the head and not the chest when he fell out the window, nobody would have had to die.
It was two weeks after her first encounter with an infected; well that's what they were calling them anyway. After a crime team had come to the sight with Chris when they got the call from Jill, she and Sherry had gone to the station. Sherry Burkin was questioned and it was found out that she had no living relatives, so Jill had immediately volunteered to take custody of the young girl until things could be worked out. She had taken quite a liking to Sherry and was glad for the usual company, a break from her normal life. But these past two weeks had been anything but normal.
William Burkin had been infected with a contagious virus that was transmitted through a bite, and within a short amount of time, one would become what he was, the living dead. They could only be killed with massive trauma to the head, or shot in the head. Jill preferred the second option herself. Once Burkin had escaped into the suburbs he had prayed on families as they slept, and within three days the outskirts of the city were crawling with the infected. People took shelter in the city, built barricades across the streets. But they found there way in. They always did. There was no help from the government, they had strictly quarantined a 50 mile radius surrounding the city, anyone who tried to escape was taken into custody. So now the surviving citizens or Rockton were trapped with the infected. And now Jill was preparing her final defense against them. She was barricading her doorway. Readying herself to make a final stand.
THUNK! Jill stepped back to admire her handiwork. That should be able to hold them for sometime. She then stepped into the living room and sat next to Sherry, who was watching the chaos outside the apartment building. People were being eaten alive by the infected. They tried to flee from the wave of clawing arms and gnashing teeth, but were cut off by another. There was no escape. Jill put an arm around Sherry to reassure her.
"Don't worry Sher, we'll be ok."
"But look at everyone outside, they're all dying. How will we be alright when everyone else isn't?" Sherry asked.
She was remarkable perceptive for an eight year old Jill thought, "Because we have these." Jill said pointing to the guns laid out on the coffee table in front of the couch.
The night before, Jill had taken every gun she possessed out of her closet and used every modification kit she had until she had numerous automatic (and highly illegal) weapons. There was an Mp5 submachine gun with high capacity magazines, a Jackhammer automatic shotgun, two 45. Caliber handguns, her Beretta, a 50. Caliber Desert eagle, flash bang grenades and Jill's pride and joy a fully customized M4 Automatic Rifle with a 12-gauge pump action shotgun underneath the barrel. It was large and formidable arsenal that was suitable for her last stand.
Jill was about to say something else to Sherry when she heard her phone ring. She was surprised the phone lines were still in operation but wasn't going to question why.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Jill. It's Chris."
"Chris! Thank god you're safe, when we got cut off from each other three days ago I feared the worst."
"So did I. Look you need to get to the police station. We've made a formidable defense here, and it looks like we'll be able to hold out for a while. Can you get here?"
"Chris in case you haven't noticed there's a war going on outside, and our side is losing. There's too many infected for us to move anywhere."
"But damn it Jill. If you stay where you are you'll be trapped! You'll die if you stay there any longer."
"It's eight blocks to the Precinct. There would be a small chance that I could make it," Jill then spoke quietly, "But I won't be able to make it with Sherry. She wouldn't last long at all."
"Look there's a group of soldiers who were helping evacuate people, and then they were going to bring a truckload of supplies here to beef up our defenses. They're about three blocks away. The last I heard they got bogged down and are now holed up in a café. Their being commanded by some guy named Carlos. If you can find them you'll have a better chance."
Before Jill could reply she heard banging on her door. She walked with the cordless phone over towards the window. The fighting in the streets had stopped, corpses were strewn everywhere. The infected were now going into the buildings to devour those inside. Jill looked down and saw a group of about fifteen run into the entrance of her building. There was hissing and snarling coming from outside the door.
"Chris they're outside my door. I can give it a try, but not yet. I have to do something first." She said angrily, with that she hung up the phone.
Chris Redfield looked at the receiver of his cell phone with his dark hazel eyes for a moment. He was standing on top of the precincts roof where he could watch the battle ensue in the streets. There was already a large group of infected pounding on the gates to the precincts courtyard. Chris put the cell phone back in his pocket and sat down.
"She's pissed."
"This is the safety, you move it this way so you can shoot. Then you line up the little line in between the sights, and then you aim for the head. When you run out of ammunition you hit this button, and the clip comes out. You put a new one in and cock it like this. Got it?" Jill asked, after she explained to Sherry how to use the Beretta.
Sherry nodded nervously, "Ok good, now go into the kitchen and go out of the window onto the fire escape, I'll be there in a few minutes, but if you hear me tell you to leave. You leave, alright?"
She nodded again. Jill hugged her, and the bent down and kissed her on the cheek.
"Don't worry, we're gonna get out of here Sherry."
She then shooed her to the kitchen and walked over to the coffee table. Jill surveyed the guns, then herself. She thought she was appropriately dressed for the occasion. She was wearing her combat boots with loose fitting heavy black pants and a leather jacket that said RPD on the back. She had the collar of the jacket up to protect her neck, because that's where they went for first, the neck.
Jill put on a dual shoulder holster with extra magazines for her 45.s underneath the jacket. She stuffed her pockets full of shotgun shells and extra magazines. Jill then put the Desert Eagle, flash bangs and more ammunition for the M4 and shotgun mount in it. She then zipped it up and put the bag and the M4 in the kitchen, she would save those things for when they tried to go through the streets.
The banging was getting louder and more ferocious, she could hear the hissing and snarling of the infected from outside the door. Any moment now, and they would break through the door to her apartment. Jill strode over to the coffee table, mad as hell, and picked up the Mp5, she put the strap over her shoulder and then picked up the Jackhammer. It was time those things go what was coming for them, she thought angrily. She got in a position in front of the door and set the Jackhammer at her feet and inserted a high capacity magazine into the Mp5.
BANG! The boards were coming loose.
"You made a big god damn mistake picking this apartment!" She shouted to the monsters outside.
Cha-ching, she pulled back the charging pin.
BANG! The door started to come off its hinges.
"Fine! You want some, fuck you, come get some!"
BANG! The door fell and the zombies swarmed inside.
Jill, holding the Mp5 at her shoulder, opened up on them as soon as the door had fallen. The 9mm rounds cut through their skulls and out the other side. Three fell even before they could get inside, but more come after them. Jill held down the trigger as the sub machine gun fired round after round into the mass of tortured looking figures. The zombies came at her thirsting for her flesh. But Jill would have none of it. She would be damned if any of those things got their mouths on her.
The high capacity mag held 80 rounds, as opposed to the normal 30. But only after 20 seconds of fighting it had run out. Jill didn't have much time to reload, her opponents were entering the room faster than the she could kill them. She cast aside the empty magazine and inserted another. One of the zombies got too close before she could pull back the charging pin, so she dealt it a lethal blow to the face with the butt of the gun. She then resumed firing into the doorway.
Five more ran at her, snapping their jaws and stretching their arms towards her in anticipation. Jill sprayed the Mp5 in a wide arc catching one in the head, two in the chest one in the throat, and missing the last completely. Jill got ready to shoot at one of the survivors when one came at her from the side and grabbed her arm. Instinctively Jill held down the trigger as she tried to pry the zombie off of her. She almost gagged at the smell of its dead flesh. She let go of the Mp5 with her left arm and reached around the things head and pulled back viscously, snapping its neck. The infected fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. Jill then aimed at another but heard a click when she pulled he trigger, the magazine was empty. She reached for another but it when she was starting to reload a zombie hit her arm and she dropped it.
Jill turned to the zombie and took the Mp5 off of her and swung that butt of the weapon into its disgusting face. There was a sickening crack and then Jill saw she had broken its jaw. But it still came at her. Casting the Mp5 aside, Jill kicked the Jackhammer shotgun up into the zombie's chest and then grabbed it out of the air. She then let loose a lethal barrage of clouds of projectiles into every zombie in the room. The Jackhammer jerked up in down as she cried out in anger. Then when the last shell was spent, not a single zombie in the room moved.
"Don't you ever think about breaking into my house again!" Jill shouted to the unmoving corpses.
Jill then heard more zombies coming up the stairwell. It was time to go. Jill ran into the kitchen and locked the door just as more infected ran into the room. I have maybe twenty seconds before they break down the door, she thought. Thinking quickly Jill ran over to the stove and using all the strength moved it away from the wall revealing the gas line. She disconnected it and then an audible hiss was emitted from the line. Now it's really time to go Jill thought. She looked and saw Sherry looking at her wondering what to do.
"Go!" Jill shouted, "Go down!"
Sherry scampered down the fire escape and onto the street. Jill grabbed the M4 and the duffle bag and fished her hand around it and came back up with a flash bang. The kitchen door shattered open and zombies poured inside. Jill pulled the pin of the flash bang and threw it into the corner were the gas line was. With zombies right behind her, Jill dove out the window and over the fire escape. The flash bang exploded and the room erupted in fire right behind her. Jill plummeted over the side of the fire escape and down onto the top of a car, nearly landing on Sherry.
There was no time to catch their breath, they had to reach the café where the army guys were at. Jill swung the strap of the M4 over her head and took the lead, making sure Sherry was right beside her. Jill switched on the flashlight attachment and they jogged off down the street, leaving Jill's smoking apartment behind them.
It's just three blocks to them, Jill thought, determined to make it. Zombies ran at them from all sides, but were gunned down by Jill's M4. There were no concentrated efforts made to attack them, just random (yet still deadly) encounters. Jill was surprised to see that there were still people alive fighting in the streets.
"There's safety at the precinct!" She shouted as she and Sherry ran past them, "Go to the police station! It's safe there!"
But nobody followed them, either because they didn't hear, or they were too caught up in their individual battles to care. But then Jill saw that five people were running behind them.
"It's safe at the police station?" One of them, an older looking man, asked.
"Yes, but we have to get through these streets as quickly as possible," Jill replied.
Making sure that Sherry was at her side, Jill did her best to protect the others that had joined the group. Jill moved along at a jog, firing her weapon as she went. They tried to keep to the middle of the street to prevent zombies from jumping out at them from store fronts.
People were fighting for their lives everywhere. At one point they saw a group of six people who were standing on top of a bus flinging Molotov cocktails down onto the groups of infected that were bellow them. But even when lit aflame the things still attacked. There was no stopping them, the zombies were relentless and would only stop until they had gotten the human flesh they desired so much or had been killed.
Jill looked ahead and saw that they had to turn at the next corner. She was about to tell the others when a zombie burst out into the open and took a swung at her. Jill's M4 was knocked out of her hand and fell to her side. In reply to the zombies blow, Jill landed a round house kick into its stomach and then another into its head, a fatal blow. Jill retrieved the M4 from her side and got Sherry who had stayed behind to make sure Jill would be alright, and ran after the others, shouting to make a left at the next corner.
Then when the group had rounded the corner, they ran straight into a pack of the infected citizens of Rockton. Jill swung her M4 and opened fire into the group, but there were far too many for her to handle. The zombies ran straight at them, surrounding two of the members of the group that had just joined Jill and Sherry and tearing them from limb to limb, eating them alive. Jill cringed at the screams that turned to sickening gargling noises.
"Jill hurry! This way" Sherry shouted to Jill and ran into a dark alley.
Jill and the three others ran down the alley after Sherry, but the zombies still pursued them. Jill turned and watched one of the others trip and fall. She didn't see what happened to her, but heard her screams of pain echo through the alley. Jill turned ahead to see a zombie lash out from a doorway that lead into the alley at Sherry.
"NO!" Jill yelled and fired towards the monster.
The M4 rounds cut through the zombie's legs and it fell to the floor unable to walk. Sherry looked at it, and then ran past the crawling monstrosity. Jill followed as did the middle aged man behind her, but when the woman behind him tried to pass the crawling zombie, it bit into her ankle. She fell to the ground with a moan. The middle aged man turned around and went to help her.
Jill and Sherry ran out of the alleyway through a gate and turned to close it behind them but stopped when they saw the man trying to help the woman hobble towards the exit. But they were too slow; the pursuing zombies caught up with them and devoured them both even as they still tried to reach the gate.
Horrified, Jill shot and locked the gate, and ran out into the street without looking back. She looked at the street sign and saw that they only had about a block and a half to the café. She grabbed Sherry's arm and they both ran down the middle of the street, trying to stay away from spots where they could be ambushed. Jill shot as she ran, trying to aim as steadily as she could.
Many of the buildings they passed were ablaze, fires caused by their owners in last stands against the hordes of zombies. They also ran past buildings that were still under siege, with the zombies too concentrated on the prizes inside the buildings to notice Jill and Sherry run past them. The streets were full of debris and signs of ongoing battles within the very places people had lived and worked for their entire lives. While running through those chaotic streets with a terror stricken 8-year old girl, the gravity of the situation finally hit Jill head on. This wasn't her own personal battle anymore. An entire city had been turned into a war zone within a few days.
Then the two girls finally reached the corner onto the street where the café was. Jill cautiously looked out from the corner. There was a military flatbed truck in the middle of the street, but with no driver or passengers. In the back there were crates stacked one atop the other. Jill then saw on the side opposite from her, a group of about 50 zombies attacking the café. The sound of automatic weapons erupted from the inside. Jill also saw on the corner opposite to her there was an alleyway that lead to the back of the café. She hoped there wouldn't be anyone with an itchy trigger finger guarding the back.
"Sherry, follow me, we're going into that alley," Jill whispered.
Sherry nodded, and then Jill dashed across the street towards the alley. Once Jill got to the entrance, she stopped and looked inside. It was pitch black so she switched on the flashlight attachment to her M4. She looked around, nothing. She then ran towards the back door to the café. She tried the doorway. It was locked. Deciding she had nothing to do, she knocked on it in a pattern so they would know it wasn't just a zombie banging on the door. There was a sound of a deadbolt being undone, and then the door opened slowly.
"We're humans." Jill said towards the door.
"Very well, how many?" A young Latin voice answered.
"Two, myself and a young girl. Are you Carlos?"
The door opened and the young man ushered him in, by the dim light inside Jill could see that he had a military haircut and was about her height, he had the look of a man who you could trust, once he closed the door, he turned to face them, "Yeah, Staff Sergeant Carlos Olivera, and who are you?"
"I'm Jill Valentine, RPD SWAT, and my young friend is-"
"Sherry Burkin," Sherry said.
"How do you know my name?" Carlos asked Jill.
"Chris Redfield told me it, he said that you and your team was pinned down here, and that if we were going to try to make it to the precinct we should do it with you."
"Well for one, I would like to think of it as taking a rest instead of being pinned down," Carlos said with a smirk, "And Chris was damn right. The next three blocks to the station are swarming with zombies. It's not a good situation at all. We were just about to try to get to the transport again. We had to abandon it in the first place because we just ran into a whole damn wall of the suckers, couldn't get through of them and I lost about half my team before we holed up in this café. We've been here for about an hour or so, the zombies have kind of thinned out to look for prey that doesn't fight as much."
They then walked into the main room of the café where there were twelve soldiers with their personal weapons aimed out of the windows, firing into the zombies, trying to keep them from getting into the windows. The floor was covered in empty shells from the M4's and two M249 machine guns. There wasn't much talking coming from the men, only when they shouted out targets, did they speak.
"Everyone this is Jill, and the little one is Sherry, they're coming with us." Carlos said to the group.
There were a few grunts from the men of approval, but that was it, for all they knew the two newcomers would be dead as soon as they got outside. Then one of the men stood up and walked over to Carlos.
"Girls this is Corporal Dohner, he's my second in command."
Dohner nodded to the two girls and then turned to speak to Carlos.
"Are we ready to roll?" He asked.
"Yeah, I want us all to go out the back, we'll close the door behind us, and move as fast as possible. Then when we're out, we're gonna sneak around the zombies, We'll do the usual formation this time except I want the two girls to ride up front with Sharps, you can escort the truck on foot with me and the rest of the team."
"Excuse me," Jill interrupted, "I would feel a lot better if Dohner road in the front of the truck with Sherry. I can hold my own with the rest of your team."
Carlos looked at her with surprise, "What kind of weapon do you have?" Jill handed him her M4 and he looked it over, "You know your stuff, just know that we're not gonna show you any slack, you listen to me and the rest of the team, and we'll listen to you. Clear?"
Jill nodded.
"Alright, you have enough ammo for that weapon? Good, All right it's time to move out. Let's go everyone! Fall back to the back of the café! Out the door. Go! Go! Go!"
The soldiers stood up as one and slowly fell back into the corridor leading towards the back entrance. Carlos was the first one out the back door, followed by Jill and Sherry. The three ran ahead to the end of the alley and out to the corner. The zombies were now pouring into the café. Back in the alley, the last of the soldiers shut the door right before one of the zombies could lash out at him and ran towards the rest of his team.
Jill, Carlos, and Sherry were joined by the rest of the soldiers and then Carlos told them their positions, "Sharps, I want you to run out to the truck on my go and start it as soon as you get in. Dohner, I want you and Sherry right behind him, get in the cab and cover him. I want everyone in the positions they held, Jill you'll be up front with me covering the right side. Everyone good?"
"Yes sir." They all replied, even Jill.
"Well lets move it. Nobody shoot until its absolutely necessary, we might get away without them noticing."
Everyone got ready to run out into the street.
"Go!"
Jill dashed out into the street, watching Sherry, who was holding Dohner's hand run into the cab of the truck. Jill then focused on the mob of zombies that was only fifteen feet away from the truck. Once she got into her position she got down on one knee and got ready to fire when she was ordered to.
The truck started up with a loud grumble. The zombies turned around to see what the source of the noise was.
"Oh crap! Fire! Fire at will!" Carlos shouted to the soldiers.
They all opened up on the group as the truck started to pull away. The zombies started to pursue them, but one of the soldiers threw a grenade at them. It detonated sending body parts everywhere. So much for making a clean getaway, Jill thought grimly. She then started to trot along next to the truck, with her weapon up at her shoulder at the ready. There was firing from the two machine gunners at the rear of the truck who were mopping up the remainders of the zombies who were running out of the café. Jill fired off a couple of rounds into the head of a zombie that ran out of a storefront towards her. So far it wasn't too hard.
Sensing her thoughts Carlos shouted, "It's gonna get a lot worse Ms. Valentine, so stay sharp!"
Not wanting Carlos to lose faith in her Jill spotted an infected that had rounded the corner, which was about 100 yards away. She fired twice, hitting in once in the shoulder and the other time in the forehead. Jill looked over at Carlos who nodded in approval. Then in the dim light she saw a group of zombies about three hundred yards down the street from them, there must have been almost two hundred of them!
Jill reached into her backpack and pulled out a night vision scope, which she mounted onto the top of the M4. She then flicked on the night vision, and took aim, trying to thin the zombies down some from afar. Carlos was trying to do the same, but instead of trying to do it through skillfully placed head shots; he loaded the grenade launcher that was mounted underneath the barrel of his M4. He fired into the middle of the group and was rewarded with a satisfying explosion that sent zombies flying. But now they had noticed the truck and those transporting it.
"Get ready for some close combat!" Carlos shouted, "I want my two heavies up here right now!"
A soldier carrying one of the team's M249 Squad Automatic Weapons ran up beside her and opened fire into the crowd. The shots were nowhere as nearly skillfully placed as Jill's were, but the amount of firepower was enough to slow down somewhat, who were now running straight at them. Jill had switched from the full automatic setting on her M4 to the 3-round burst set, trying to conserve ammo, and take more accurate shots, which was easier with out the gun bucking in her hand from shooting a full clip into the crowd.
"Two Blocks! Two Blocks until we reach the precincts main gate! Dohner! Radio them and tell them to get ready for us!" Carlos shouted, the zombies were now only one hundred yards away.
Jill made sure the internal magazine of her shotgun attachment was full, and unzipped her jacket so she could reach her two 45.'s. She looked through her scope at the zombies with hatred. She shot one after another, pausing only to retarget or reload or retarget.
Carlos was getting worried; he wasn't sure if the truck would be able to pass through that large a group. And would it be possible for those on foot to get through the wave? No. He would have to order them up into the back of the truck and try to get through at high speed. It would be the only way.
"Alright I want everyone to get into the back of the truck, once everyone is inside, I want you to run through this mess as fast as you can? Got it Sharps?"
Sharps nodded and one by one the soldiers who were furthest back started to jump inside of the back of the truck as it still moved. Jill realized that she would be one of the last ones in the back, but that wouldn't be a problem. She looked forward to the fight at hand.
But before even half of them could get into the back of the truck, the zombies hit them. When the zombies were within 10 feet Jill opened fire onto the crowd using the full automatic setting. When the magazine ran out, she started firing well placed shots from the shotgun and watched with satisfaction as the zombies heads were nearly torn off by the force of the 12 gauge shotgun. Then once that had ran out she dropped the M4 and let it hang at her side as she pulled out her 45.'s. Using each to fire at a different target she coolie shot two zombies in their heads as they ran at her from different sides. But despite the fact that she was holding her own against the wave of zombies, she knew there was no way she would be able to keep it up for much longer.
Carlos had the same feeling. He had used up his last M4 clip and was now using his FN Five-Seven sidearm. He would just place it up to the head of any zombie that came close enough and squeeze the trigger. He looked behind him and saw that some zombies were getting past him, but most of his men had gotten into the back, and the others were now making their way, and cleaning up the zombies that got by him and the soldier with the M249 next to him. Then the two of them started to fall back towards the back of the truck; Carlos only hoped the others on the right side of the truck were doing the same.
Jill swung the 45.in her right hand into the skull of a zombie that had rushed at her. Even before it started to fall, she had begun to reload both of the handguns. Once both were loaded she heard a cry; three zombies brought down the soldier next to her. Looking over at Jill he threw the big machine gun towards her. She then saw a wave of zombies pass her going towards the end of the truck. She wouldn't be able to get back there. And everyone else was already in the back, or she guessed they were. Without a second thought Jill hefted the big machine gun off the ground, pulled herself onto the hood of the truck and stood up.
"Go!" She shouted to Sharps.
Sharps floored it and Jill watched as the front of the truck collided into the mass of zombies, sending many under the wheels, creating a rather bumpy ride. Deciding it was better to stay lower Jill got down on one knee and pulled back the charging handle of the M249. Then she held the down the trigger and swept it back and forth in front of the truck, creating a less dense path to follow.
In the back of the truck, things were getting more and more intense. Zombies kept on boarding the truck and causing the Carlos and his soldiers to try desperately to keep up with the tide and hold their position. One was pulled off the back by no less than four zombies as they fell off together. Carlos wanted to stop the truck, but it was no use. The man would be more dead then alive within ten seconds. Carlos took a discarded M4 and shot what was left of the magazine into a zombie who was clinging onto the side. God damn, he thought, where the hell was Jill?
Dohner was too trying to keep up with the amount of zombies that kept on trying to get at him through his window. One had already taken his M4 with it, so now he was using Sharps' while Sharps was using his own side arm. He then heard the sound of metal screeching and he saw one of the zombies tearing his door off its hinges. Dohner tried to shoot it in the head, but the magazine of the rifle was empty. He got his sidearm out and shot it in the head. It fell off the truck, taking the door with it. Then another zombie reached inside and grabbed him. Dohner cried out and shot it, but was panicking and forgot to aim at the head. The zombie pulled Dohner out into the street and once both had hit the ground, hands grabbed and teeth bit at him from all angles. Corporal Dohner gave out a cry, but no noise escaped, his throat was being devoured.
"Jesus Christ," Sharps said in shock, and now he had run out of ammunition and there were no other weapons in the cab.
Then another zombie reached inside through the open doorway, it tried to grab at Sherry, but the girl calmly reached into the back of her pants and revealed a black Beretta, Sherry shot the thing right between the eyes and pushed it out with her feet.
"Nice shot," Sharps said, amazed at what he had just witnessed.
"Thanks," Sherry said quietly.
Jill Valentine was having one hell of a ride. The M249 had run out of ammunition so she was now trying to shoot as many zombies as she could with her M4, which now, was on its last clip. When that had run out Jill reached into her backpack and revealed the 50 Caliber Desert Eagle. She aimed the barrel at one of the zombies that was trying to climb up the hood and shot it in the head. It's head exploded on impact with the bullet. Cool, Jill thought. Another zombie climbed atop the hood and she shot it in the chest, the infected flew off the roof from the force of the bullet.
Sharps looked at a street sign and realized that the entrance to the police station would at the next block. He hoped there were still people alive in the back of the truck, and gunned it.
Jill held on for dear life when the truck turned, she was almost thrown off the hood, but managed to cling on. Up ahead she saw the gate to the entrance of the precinct, there behind it stood what looked to be thirty officers in riot gear all holding off the zombies with ballistic shields. The truck rolled through the open gate and all the soldiers hopped out of the back and started to clear all areas of the truck under the direction of Carlos.
Jill stumbled off the hood and into the awaiting arms of Chris Redfield. She had never been happier to see him. They embraced each other and then Jill ran around the cab to where Sherry was. Helping the girl out they were lead into the precinct by Chris. The station had radioed in to the military and the government had put an evacuation procedure into effect, or that's what they had heard. Jill heard the thumping of rotors overhead. The cavalry was coming in, she thought. Exhausted she and Sherry sat down in front of a statue of a police officer standing proudly, almost as if looking over the procedures going on in the courtyard.
Jill had read the description before, it read, "God Helps Those Who Help Themselves," something the RPD officers liked to tell people who they were trying to help get back on the right path.
But now it had a new meaning to Jill. God knew she had helped herself, and God knew Sherry had helped herself as well. Now with the sounds of helicopters coming in to evacuate them, it looked like God was doing his part of the bargain.
Then Chris came back over to Jill and Sherry and said, "Alright guys, looks like the helicopters are circling overhead, come with us, we're going to call one of them down and have you and some other survivors airlifted outta here."
"Wait, what about you?" Jill asked.
"I'm going to stay here with the rest of our officers and coordinate the evacuation until the military sends in some more backup. The equipment and supplies that SergeantOlivera brought us should help greatly."
Jill tried to protest that she would stay as well, but Chris would have none of it. Chris led them through the entrance to the precinct. Once they passed through the main doors they were in the great hall. The Rockton Precinct was unlike any other. It had many works of art and seemed more like a town hall or mansion than a conventional police station. In the center of the great hall there was a fountain, the statue within the fountain was a woman drawing water. There were two slanted walkways that lead around the fountain and up to the main desk. Jill looked up and noticed that the fire escape ladder that lead up to the second level walkway was lowered. There were two walkways above the main floor. The second floor walkway went around the entire great hall and connected the library to the offices on the opposite side. The Third floor walkway was much shorter and just connected the entrance to the Steeple room (which had stairs that lead to the roof) to the second floor of the library.
The great hall was abuzz with activity. Officers and civilians were running back and forth boarding up windows and preparing defenses. Chris led them through a door that branched off from the main hall, they went through several hallways, some had their windows barricaded, and others were in the process of being boarded up. They then climbed a flight of stairs and walked through a hallway until they were at the SWAT office, it was also where the shortwave radio was kept. When they entered they saw several grim looking faces and heard someone yelling at the other person on the other line.
"What do you mean you won't evacuate anyone!?" The man operating the radio shouted angrily, who Jill recognized as the young Irish American officer Malloy.
"We have orders to keep the entire city under strict quarantine. Nobody is to be evacuated. A biohazard team is being assembled and will arrive in a while. Once they have given us the all clear that none that none within the area are infected, we'll send in an evacuation team." The voice over the radio replied.
"This is crap!" Malloy yelled, "How are we supposed to last that long!? Right now we have thousands of zombies approaching our position, the city has been completely overrun, and for all we know, we're the last pocket of resistance, every single zombie will be homing in on our position in the next few hours! We wont be able to hold them all off!"
"We sent a team in on a truck with equipment to help you hold out for the time being. Have they arrived?"
Malloy gave a heavy sigh, "Yes, they just arrived; they've taken casualties, even with their help I'm not sure how long we can hold."
"Then we'll send more equipment. We'll airdrop it from a chopper onto the roof of the precinct. Do you have any specific requests?"
Malloy thought for a moment, and then began to rattle off things they would need in order to last until they were cleared to be evacuated, others also added requests, and by the end there was a very long list. Jill watched this whole thing take place, but she wasn't sure that, even with all the equipment that was being delivered, if they had enough manpower. Chris then opted to take them down the hall to the library, where a command center and base of operations was being put together.
The floor of the library was a jungle of wires, all leading from a power source to the sixteen computers that had been placed about the room. There were a number of maps strewn around the tables with several men pouring over them. In one corner there was also a makeshift armory where weapons were being stored for easy access.
Also in the room were Carlos and his soldiers setting up what looked like a large console in the middle of the library. While Chris went to find out if they could keep Sherry in the room safely, Jill walked over to Carlos to find out what the console was.
"It's going to be the heart of this place's security when we're finished setting it up," Carlos replied when Jill asked him, "We're placing sensors on every single door, window, grate, any type of entrance. If a zombie passes by it, we'll know about it. This way we won't have to keep men constantly patrolling the boarded up windows and barricaded doors. It also prevents them from breaking through without us knowing. We've uploaded the schematics to the station onto the console and when a sensor is tripped, it will display its position and an estimated number of possible intruders. We're also setting up portable cameras around the outside of the building, that way we'll know we're their numbers are concentrated the most, telling us where we should reinforce our barricades and the like."
"It sounds like you're getting ready a siege," Jill said.
"That's exactly what this is."
"Did you know that we wouldn't be able to be evacuated?" Jill asked quickly.
"What?" Carlos asked, surprised.
"Did you know that they wouldn't evacuate anyone from here before they send in a biohazard team?"
"What are you talking about?"
"We just heard over the radio that until the officials send in a biohazard team and deems everyone uninfected, we won't be evacuated."
"That's ludicrous," Carlos whispered, shocked, "Do they know how many of those damn zombies are roaming the street, heading towards us?"
"Apparently not, are you saying you didn't know anything about this?"
"No, I can assure you I didn't. My orders were to reinforce security to the precinct to hold just long enough for an evacuation. I had no idea they would pull something this stupid."
"Well I guess we just aren't that important."
"So it would seem," Carlos said with a sigh, "But I can assure you that my men and I will stick by your side until the end, you have my word. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to assembling the security system that just may very well be the difference between life and death."
After Carlos walked back to the console, Chris came back over to Jill with Sherry, "Alright they said that right now, the safest place for her is here," Chris said, "Just as long as she doesn't get in the way."
"I'm not gonna get in the way, I promise Jill," Sherry said pleadingly.
"I know Sherry, but if you need anything don't be afraid to ask any of the nice men and women in here. Also please do not leave this room without anyone going with you. It's very dangerous outside, and I don't want to lose you," Jill replied.
"Don't worry Jill, I'll stay right here."
"Alright well now Chris and I have to go help with things, but you're going to stay here."
"Sure, I don't want to go outside anyway, it's scary."
The two girls hugged and said goodbye, then Jill and Chris walked out onto the second floor walkway over the great hall. Things were being brought up front to prepare the two big doors to be boarded up and blocked if the courtyard was overrun. At the security towards the back of the hall there were scores of weapons being piled up, being prepared to defend the hall if necessary.
Jill hopped over the railing and gripped the rungs of the fire ladder, and climbed down behind the security desk, Chris followed her in the same fashion and the two then walked past the dozen men that were fortifying the great hall and out to the courtyard.
There were about twenty men in the courtyard trying to keep the gate secure, and hold off the zombies while doing so. It was very difficult to do so as well, with the weight of so many undead up against the gate and their arms reaching through to grab any who came near. Men in riot gear pressed up against the rungs and tried to keep the gate from collapsing. A few had climbed atop the large wall that surrounded the rest of the courtyard and were firing into the crowd.
One of the men at the gate shouted, "Someone hurry and tell the people in the great hall that we cannot hold much longer!
Chris gave Jill a leg up onto the ten foot high concrete wall and once she had climbed atop she helped pull him up. The two now had a better view of the entire scene.
"How long do you suppose this is going to hold?" Chris asked.
"Not very long, there might be maybe fifteen minutes tops before they break through the gate. But we need to give the people in the great hall as much time as possible to prepare defenses."
"Alright so we'll try to keep these bastards off the gate," Chris said.
"That's the idea."
Chris looked at his 9mm handgun, "Damn, all I have is my sidearm; I should've gotten a shotgun from inside."
"Go inside, tell the people in the hall what is going on, and then get some more people to keep these things off the gate; you should try getting Carlos and his men to bring out some of the heavy weapons the brought."
"Alright, but what are you going to do?" Chris asked.
"Hold them off until you get back," Jill said simply, loading a new clip into her M4, "Now hurry."
Without another word Chris hopped off the wall and ran inside to get help. Jill and the several other men atop the wall began to shoot into the crowd, to help keep the heat off the gate, but it wasn't enough. The gate was about to be breached.
Chris ran inside and yelled to the men inside the great hall, "The gate is going to collapse! Hurry up and get the barricades in place! We need reinforcements, bring out the heavy weapons!"
Men started yelling and running about, trying to use what little time they had to their advantage. At that moment Police Chief Irons walked out of one of the corridors to Chris.
"What's up Chris?" Irons asked.
"The gate is going to be breached," Chris said breathlessly, "They need help to hold the zombies off until we can fortify the great hall."
Irons quickly spoke into his radio, "We need anyone who doesn't have an important duty to report to the courtyard to defend the gate, tell them to equip with shotguns, Molotov's, rifles, and any weapon they can carry. We need them right away, now make it happen."
"Yes sir," the voice on the other line said.
Within thirty seconds men began to rush out of the three doors that lead to the great hall and down the fire ladder from the second floor all heading out to the courtyard, including Carlos and four of his soldiers.
The men reached the courtyard just before the gate was breached. The men piled out and began to load their weapons and take up defensive positions. The gate was at its breaking point, and the men holding it could not take much more.
"Everyone fall back to us!" Irons yelled with Chris at his side, "Abandon the gate! Off the walls!" He shouted to Jill and the men atop the wall.
Jill jumped off the wall and hit the ground hard, she rolled so she wouldn't take too much impact, and began to run towards the group of defenders that had just arrived. Those at the gate did not fare as well. As soon as they started to run the gate burst open, and zombies began to pour into the courtyard after them. The zombies leaped on top of them and began a feeding frenzy. Only seven men from the gate reached the protective line of defenders.
"Open fire!" Irons yelled.
The guns in the courtyard all spoke as one, creating an impenetrable wall of moving steel that shot into the onslaught of zombies. Carlos and his soldiers began to fire off grenades, causing body parts and debris to fly into the air. But the numbers were too strong, for every zombie that was killed; ten more came to take its place. Jill and Carlos fought beside each other, creating a lethal combination of accuracy and firepower. Jill had her M4 set on semi automatic, and was quickly moving from one target to target, producing headshot after headshot. Then the zombies reached the line of defenders, and the organized defense collapsed and became a group of individual battles with groups of two and three humans fighting groups of five to seven zombies.
As soon as the zombies reached them, Jill switched to her shotgun attachment and began to dispatch any zombie that came within range. She fought back to back with Carlos, who had his sidearm out and was pushing the barrel up to zombies foreheads and firing, to ensure a headshot. As soon as her M4 ran out, Jill let it hang from her side and unsheathed a long sharp combat knife from her ankle. One zombie lunged at her and she plunged it right into the top of its head. Another attacked but Jill slipped underneath its reaching arms and swung the knife into the back of its skull. The impact hurt Jill's hand, but she managed to pull the blade out before the zombie pulled it out of her hand when it fell to the ground.
Beside her Carlos was using his strength to push the zombies back, and when the opportunity arose, break their necks. All around him there was chaos, people were beginning to fall back through the door of the great hall, creating a defensive line there, to clean up any zombies that tried to get through. He shouted to his men to fall back to the door. He then saw one of them get pounced on by a zombie when he was running back. The soldier fell to the ground with a scream as two more zombies began to feed on his insides. Carlos wanted to run and aid the man, but it was too late, he had already been bitten, and he could not leave Jill.
"Let's start to fall back!" Carlos yelled to Jill.
Jill, who saw others running back towards the big double doors, said "Alright, but lets be careful about it."
Slowly and methodically the two began to make their way back, covering each others back, and making sure no zombie was able to get a shot in on them. But then Jill paused for a moment. She thought she heard something over the cries, gunshots, and the moans of the zombies.
"What is it?" Carlos asked.
"I can hear a truck!" Jill yelled.
Carlos strained his ears to listen, yes, he heard it as well. The loud diesel engine was audible, even over all the noise in the courtyard. It got louder and louder, then the truck came into view. A big 18 wheeler shot through the gate to the courtyard and tried to turn towards the entrance of the precinct, but the turn was too sharp and the big truck turned over onto its side and slid across on its side and rammed into the side of the station. A dull thump was emitted from the impact, but nothing more.
Jill saw movement from the inside of the cab, there was someone still alive inside of it!
"Cover me!" She shouted to Carlos, "We need to get the person inside of the cab to safety!"
"Alright, be careful though! They could be infected!"
Jill nodded in acknowledgement and took off towards the overturned truck with Carlos behind here, shooting any zombies in her path. When she reached the cab she pulled herself up onto the top of it. Carlos stood on the ground, and shot at any zombie that came near. Jill tried to pull the door open, but it was jammed. Putting all her strength into it, Jill tried again, and with a groan the door slowly opened. She peered inside and saw two people, a young man and a young woman inside.
"Are you okay?" Jill asked, reaching for her gun just in case.
"We're alright, just a little shook up," the man said, "Could you help us out of this thing?"
"Sure give me your hand," Jill said, reaching down.
She pulled the girl out first and then was about to reach down for the man when she heard Carlos yell, "Jill, can I come up there too?"
Jill looked down and saw the zombies were swarming towards Carlos, "Jesus!" She yelled, and grabbed Carlos and pulled him onto the side of the overturned truck cab.
"Looks like they closed off the doors," Carlos pointed out.
Jill looked and saw that he was right, the defenders had fallen back into the great hall, and had sealed the entrance. Now how are we going to get back inside, she thought hopelessly.
Then there was the sound of glass breaking, and the man inside the cab started to yell for help. Jill and Carlos saw that the zombies were trying to get to him through the trucks window, and quickly reached inside and hoisted him out before he was devoured. Then the four people climbed off the cab onto the trucks overturned container, which was much safer and higher up.
"So, who are you?" Jill asked the young woman and the man, who she saw, was wearing an RPD uniform.
"Well, my name is Claire," the girl started off.
"Claire, Claire Redfield?" Jill asked surprised.
"Well, yes, how do you know that?" Claire asked, more surprised than Jill.
"I'm partners with your brother, he's told me quite a bit about you."
"Oh, you must be Jill then, Chris has mentioned you a few times over the phone, is…is he still alive?"
"Yes, he's inside the station, much safer than us I suppose." Jill said lightly.
Claire looked like a great weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, and gave a sigh of relief, "I came to Rockton to make sure he was ok, when he told me what was happening before the phone lines were cut, I knew I had to come and be at his side through the worst of this."
"That's very noble of you, I'm sure Chris will be happy to see you."
Carlos had been watching the young man while the girls had been talking, and decided to approach him. He stood about 6 feet high and had a slight build, his short wavy hair matched his light brown eyes, and his stance made him seem like he could take charge of a situation easily, but was quiet about it.
"What's your name?" Carlos asked the young man.
"Leon, how about you?" he replied.
"Carlos."
"You in the service?" Leon asked Carlos, eyeing his fatigues.
"Yeah, we brought a truck with equipment to help bolster the precincts defenses."
"Really, what part of the service are you in?"
"Well…" Carlos said hesitating.
"Top Secret eh?" Leon said, see Carlos hesitate.
"Not exactly, just…not well known."
"Ah, I see. Well what do those who know about it call it?"
"The UBCS. Unconventional Biohazard Countermeasure Service."
"Nice, what do you do?"
"Well, we respond to cases like this," Carlos replied.
"There are more outbreaks like these?" Leon asked, surprised.
"Yes, but none have been as big as these, and we've been able to keep all of them isolated. We go into the infected area and clear it out. We've got both a high mortality and success rate, so the government continues to pump its finest soldiers and specialists into it, more meat for the grinder I suppose."
Leon stared down at the zombies who were trying to climb up on top of the overturned container, then looked back at Carlos, "What were you in before you went into the UBCS?"
"Delta Force"
"Wow, that's pretty high up the ladder in the Special Forces, what brought you out of it and into the UBCS?"
"I was out on a mission with my delta team in some middle eastern town, we were taking down a weapons dealer I believe. But when we got into the town, it was dead. No one was left alive, the entire town had been infected."
"Infected?"
"Yeah, there must have been an outbreak a day before, because that's when we last received intelligence. But we had no idea what was going on, we lost at least half our men before we realized what the hell was going on. We barricaded ourselves on the second floor of a building and called in for reinforcements, they sent the UBCS. They cleaned through the entire town. After witnessing what happened to the town, I promised myself I would devote my life to containing those types of atrocities, so I put in for the UBCS, they took me, and here I am. So what about you? What's your story?"
Leon looked down and said, "Well there's not much to tell, I just got transferred to Raccoon CityPolice Department and I when I arrived here, the place was chaos. I arrived on the outskirts of the city and found Claire fighting for her life, I saved her and we teamed up. We've been on the run constantly, trying to make our way here. We finally had a break when we found this big rig that we're standing on abandoned. But it was hell getting here. Those things were climbing all over, and it was damned hard to maneuver, I'm surprised we even made it."
"Well, you must be a good fighter to have gotten this far, tell you what, I'll let you hang around me and my guys," Carlos said.
Leon grinned and brushed his hair out of his eyes, "Thanks sir," he replied.
"No need to call me sir," Carlos said laughing, "Now what do you say about finding a way back inside?"
"Sounds good to me."
But even before they could begin to come up with a plan a long rope fell to the center of the container from the top of the precinct. All four of them looked up and saw Chris grinning from the roof.
"Thought you guys might need help!" he shouted down.
"Chris!" Claire yelled happily.
"Claire?" Chris said surprised, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I came to make sure you were all right!"
"Yeah, and I'm the one who's rescuing you!" Chris yelled back down, "Now climb up the rope so I can go back inside! I've got other things to do besides pulling you guys out of all the messes you get into!"
"Ladies first," Leon said, motioning to Jill and Claire.
Claire pulled her long brown hair back, so it wouldn't get in her way, and climbed up the rope hand over hand. Jill followed after her, wrapping her legs around the rope to prevent her from falling if her grip loosened. Jill tried not to concentrate on the sea of ghouls beneath her. The zombies, seeing their prey escaping, began to get excited and tried desperately to get up on top of the container. They also began to start to climb on top of each other, putting themselves within reach.
"Oh Christ," Carlos said, seeing the zombies climbing atop the container, "Do you have a weapon?" he asked Leon.
Leon gave him a wide grin and produced two 45. pistols from inside his jacket, "Never leave home without one," he said.
"Good, wait until Jill is high enough for you to climb out of reach from them, then go, I'll do the same with you."
"If you say so," Leon said, who then turned and aimed one of the 45.'s at a zombie who was running towards them, he shot it twice, once in the neck, and then scoring a headshot the second time, "But it looks like you'll need me until then."
They stood back to back, and started to calmly shoot any zombie that looked as if they were going to gain a footing on the container. Seeing what was happening, Jill climbed as quickly as she could, until Leon had enough space to climb up. He saw it and yelled to Carlos that he was going up the rope. Leon began to climb, but kept on glancing back down to make sure Carlos wasn't being over run. When Carlos had enough room to climb, Leon shouted to him. Carlos acknowledged him and was about to start climbing when three zombies grabbed a hold of him. Carlos was able to dodge their snapping jaws, but couldn't get free of their grasp. Seeing the situation, Leon wrapped his legs around the rope and let go with his hands so he was now pointed at the ground, but had a firm grip on the rope with his legs. He pulled out the 45. pistols from their holsters and opened fire on the zombies, being careful not to hit Carlos. Once all three were down and Carlos was free of their grasp, Leon swung himself back up and quickly climbed the rest of the way up. Where Chris was there, ready to pull him over the side.
Carlos looked at Leon when Chris pulled him onto the roof and said, "Do you have any idea how close you were to shooting me?"
"Well, yeah but…" Leon started to say before Carlos cut him off.
"It was a reckless thing to do, you could have killed me," He said glaring, but then grinned, "And I would expect you to do the same damn thing if it ever happened again. You're a good shot, and I'm glad you are, or else I would've been dinner."
Leon breathed a sigh of relief, glad to know he wasn't going to be reprimanded by his new friend.
Chris looked at the four people he had just pulled up on top of the roof and motioned towards the door, "Now if you folks wouldn't mind, it seems like we're going to have quite a job ahead of us. This building is now under siege, it's going to remain that way up until we're pulled out."
The five companions walked through the door and into the Steeple room and walked down the stairs leading towards the third floor walkway.
"When do you think the biohazard team is going to come Carlos?" Claire asked.
"Well, I don't have a clue, up until Jill told me about it, I thought me and my guys were the biohazard team. Nobody told me about a separate unit. Although I have heard of one," he said as he walked down the stairs.
"What about it?" Chris asked.
"Well, they focus more on the science aspect of the virus, or whatever that causes the outbreaks, and they're a lot smaller and inconspicuous than the UBCS. I've only heard stories though."
"Well, how do they go?" Jill questioned him, seeing a dark look on his face.
"I've heard that they go in and kill all the survivors of an outbreak to prevent any type of infection from slipping away. They also do it to keep stories from getting out."
"But they wouldn't be able to cover up something as big as this would they?" Claire asked, getting worried.
"Have you ever heard of a zombie outbreak before?" Carlos replied.
"Well, no" Claire replied.
"That's because none officially exist. Every single person that has come in contact with a zombie has been paid off, or 'persuaded' that it never happened."
"But why? Why can't anyone know about it?" Claire asked.
"Because," Carlos explained, "What do you think would happen if the world knew that the dead walking the earth was not something out of the ordinary, almost a regular occurrence. People would panic. There would be anarchy in the streets as people began to create fortresses to withstand an outbreak. The United Nations has unanimously agreed to keep the outbreaks secret, no matter what the cost."
"It happens that often?" Chris said.
"Yes, there is a reported outbreak at least every month. They have scaled from involving only five zombies, to over one thousand. This is one of the largest outbreaks I've been to. I'm surprised that they didn't give me more men, unless they are going to be coming in with the biohazard team. I'm not sure. All I know is, the number of outbreaks have been escalating, and I have feeling that some day. Some day soon, we won't be the dominate life force on this world. Our dead, will be our hunters."
Everyone was silent when they walked out onto the third floor walkway towards the door that lead to the second floor of the library. There were a dozen men in the great hall barricading the big double doors and preparing a defense, should the zombies break through. The moans of the zombies came through the broken, boarded up windows. What if every day life was like this? Jill wondered. What if we are destined to be defending our homes for everyday for the rest of our lives? The thought was too horrible for Jill to bear.
Chris lead them back into the library where the walked down the stairs and into the command center. There Chief Irons was waiting for them.
"Well I'm glad you're all alright, you must be the new guy," Irons said looking at Leon.
"Yes sir, sorry I'm a little late," Leon replied.
"Well, I'm happy you made it, and you must be Chris' little sister, Claire."
"Yup, that's me," Claire said.
"Well I'm glad to have you two aboard, we're going to need all the help we can get. Right now we're trying to figure out what we can do if those zombies break into the great hall. If we lose the entrance, we'll be screwed. Everyone will get separated, and the zombies will knock us off, one by one."
"I suppose we could block off the two walkways around the fountain," Chris suggested.
"Yes, but that would just push us back. We need to know what to do to push them back out of the hall, so we can secure it again." Irons said.
"We could just stand on the second and third floor walkways and pick them off one by one," Jill said.
"Yes but what is going to push them back?"
"What if we used riot shields?" Carlos suggested.
"What do you mean?" Irons asked, intrigued.
"Well, you do have riot gear correct?" Carlos asked.
"Yes, we used it to fend of the zombies when your truck came through the gate."
"Well, what if we make 2 lines of men with riot gear, including the shields."
"But our shields aren't big enough to cover our guys entire body, they only cover the head and the midsection."
"Well, that's alright because I put in a request for about sixty heavy ballistic shields for the things that are going to be airdropped. I think we'll need about forty of them for two rows to cover the hall from side to side. We can place the remainders in strategic places, in case we need one or two during a break in."
As Carlos was speaking, the loud thumping of a helicopter could be heard overhead, and the lookout reported to Chief Irons over the radio, "Sir, the first airdrop is commencing, it looks like…four helicopters are coming in overhead," There was a pause, "Alright sir, they're telling me to stay back from the helicopters while they unload the supplies, or else they will be forced to open fire. It looks like they're serious, so I'm gonna' stay back until they're gone."
"Alright you be careful," Irons said.
"Looks like they're serious about this one," Leon said darkly, "I wonder if they'll ever let us leave this place alive."
"Don't talk like that," Chris said quickly, seeing concern on the others faces, "They just don't want the infection to spread, once they know we aren't infected I'm sure they will send us on our way." Chris thought for a moment and then looked at Carlos, "Has it been like this before though?"
Carlos hesitated for a moment and then spoke, "Well, no, actually it hasn't. This is a much larger case, but in every outbreak I've been to we always evacuated the survivors as soon as possible and then tested them for traces of the virus."
"So why should this be any different?" Jill asked, feeling like Carlos was holding something back, "Why isn't the government doing what they've done in the past?"
"Well…as soon as we saw our first infected person in this area, we knew this was a totally different ballgame. These aren't ordinary zombies. Your everyday zombie can't move fast at all, doesn't have the ability to jump, and has less strength than the average male. But these, these are different, I'm not sure how, but the virus…Solanum I believe its called, has evolved and is now creating much more efficient killing machines. These zombies move much faster, can jump quite high, and have improved strength. I mean it tore the door off our truck!"
"The lab," Jill said simply.
"What?" Carlos asked.
"Sherry's father, Mr. Burkin, he was working in his lab in the basement of their house. When I went there to investigate a strange disturbance, I found him as a zombie. He escaped and he spread the virus."
"So you think he may have been altering the virus?" Claire asked.
"It's possible," Carlos said, "Now I've had a bit of training in biological warfare and I do know that the government is genetically altering viruses to serve their purposes better. I also know that they tend to prefer small companies or work alone scientists, so no one will suspect the treachery that is going on in our own country. Mr. Burkin may have been altering the virus for the military. But if we are to believe that, we must also believe…oh god."
"What?" Jill asked, seeing a look of horror on his face.
"Please, you must tell me quickly, when you saw Mr. Burkin infected, did you see his eyes?"
"Only for a second, but what does that have to do with anything?" Jill asked, confused.
"Please you need to tell me," Carlos pleaded, "What color were his eyes?"
"Oh, I wouldn't forget that," Jill said matter-of-factly, "they were a deep burning red, like there was a fire behind them."
Carlos took a deep breath in and then sat down on a crate full of weapons, "Then it is as I feared."
"What is it?" Chief Irons asked.
"I believe Mr. Burkin injected the virus into himself to test it," Carlos answered.
"But why? Wouldn't he know that it would consume him?"
"Of course, but he may have had a way to stop the infection before it consumed him. But the problem is, studies have shown if one directly injects the virus into their bloodstream it has, well…different effects."
"What do you mean different effects?" Jill asked.
"The subject mutates, much more than an average zombie. And if he injected this new strand of the virus, well, there's no telling what the effect would be."
"You seem to know a lot about this Carlos," Jill said, "A lot more than a normal soldier would."
"Yes, you're right," Carlos said with a sigh, "The reason I know so much about the mutation is I've come up against one before. We investigated an outbreak in one of the labs that was doing research on the virus. My entire team was wiped out by this new creature. I had never seen anything like it, it was much more intelligent, larger, stronger, viscous, and dangerous than any other zombie. I was able to kill it, but that didn't bring back my men," Carlos said angrily.
"I'm sorry," Jill said, "I didn't mean to bring up old memories."
"Don't worry about it."
"Well hopefully we'll get out of here before this new threat arrives," Chief Irons said, "Now with the arrival of supplies I suggest we set up an effective defense, and then wait this thing out. So I want some of you to go up to the roof and help bring the things that were airlifted down here, we'll sort everything out and place it effectively. I'd also like two of you to go down to the Great Hall and check out how our guys are doing with the barricade."
"I'll go," Jill said.
"Me too," Claire said.
"Alright, everyone else, assist with that equipment."
"Chief, I'm going to take my men and make sure all of our defenses are in place, and check out how the motion sensors and cameras are functioning," Carlos said.
"Alright, if you have any problems or run across anything unusual, contact us here."
"Sure thing," Carlos said, "Alright guys," he said to his 8 remaining men, "Let's move out, except you Rico," Corporal Rico was the teams tech expert, "I want you to stay over the console, and check how our sensors are working when we test them."
"No problemo Sarge," Rico said.
Carlos led his men out the door into the hallway away from the library to begin patrolling the area. Chris lead Leon and six other officers up towards the roof while Claire and Jill walked out onto the second floor walkway. Chief Irons looked around at the remaining seven people in the command center/library.
"Alright I want you to give me a list of everything we have, starting with manpower," he said to one of his officers. It was time to get things organized.
"So what do you when you're not coming to rescue your brother?" Jill asked Claire as they walked along the walkway.
"Well I'm in college right now, so not much besides study," Claire said lightly.
"What are you studying?" Jill asked, making conversation.
"You know, I'm not actually sure," The two girls laughed for a moment and then began to climb down the fire ladder.
"I'm impressed that you made it all this way Claire," Jill said when they both reached the bottom, "Not many people would have been able to fight their way through a city of zombies, or done it willingly."
"Well I needed to make sure Chris was alright, sometimes he just goes off and does something stupid."
"Oh, I know all about that," Jill said smiling.
Claire turned to look at Jill, "If not many people could have gotten through a city of zombies, how did you get here? Chris mentioned to me over the phone that he was worried because you were in your apartment and that you wouldn't be able to fight your way through the streets."
"Well, I would have been able to on my own, but not with Sherry. I was lucky to have found Carlos."
"You're too modest Jill. I can read people easily, it's a gift. And I know that there's something special about you. There's a certain type of fierceness about you that I've never seen in a person. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I'm glad you're on our side."
Jill just shrugged, and the two girls went to the barricade to talk to the officers who were still trying to figure out ways to reinforce the doors, that were already covered with wooden boards.
"Ok, that sensor is working just fine, I picked you up as soon as you laid your hand on the window," Carlos heard over his radio, "The next sensor is halfway down the hall. Oh ok, I can see Stratt setting it off now, yeah that one is good too."
"Ok, looks like the windows on the east wing are all secure," Carlos said to Rico.
"Yeah, next I want you to cross the Great Hall and go over to the west wing, there are a few windows in that area that I want you to put sensors on."
"Copy that, you want me to set up any more of the mini-cams that you gave me?"
There was a pause for a moment, and then, "Uh, yeah I'd like you to set one up over the door when you exit the hallway."
Carlos tossed one of the mini-cams to Private Shepard, who walked over the doorway and inserted it just over the doorframe, "How's that?" he asked.
"Damn it, tell Shepard to check the camera the next time he puts one up, the picture is upside down!"
Shepard heard this over the radio and chuckled for a moment, before flipping the camera over right-side up, "That's better," Rico replied.
"Alright squad, let's get a move on," Carlos said to his men, who were busying themselves with checking the structural integrity of the boarded up windows.
Carlos led the UBCS team out into the great hall where he saw Jill and Claire talking to the several officers who were working on the barricade. Carlos smiled at Jill when he passed and walked through the door that led into the offices of the west wing. There were several RPD officers inside, they greeted the soldiers then went back to taking any commodities from the offices to the library, the idea was to stay off the first floor as much as possible. They walked through the offices and then were in a dark hallway. There were three windows, all were boarded up.
"Ok, we're in the hall, and I can see the windows," Carlos.
"Alright, I need you to place motion sensors on each window sill, and…how about a mini-cam on top of each doorframe?"
"Sounds good." Carlos said. He then motioned for three of his men to secure the motion sensors on the windows.
While they did that, he and Private Steeple secured mini-cams atop of each doorframe. The three remaining soldiers checked the doors at the end of the hallway. One led to a room where there was a staircase that led to the basement floor of the precinct, and the other led outside to a barred in area where there was an outside stairway that lead to the second floor.
"Sir," Sergeant Price said to Carlos, "We have two sets of stairs, one is outside and leads to the second floor and the other leads to the lower floor. What do we do about those?"
Carlos thought for a moment, then radioed in to Rico in the command center, "Rico, we have 2 stairways branching off from this hallway. Tell me, is there any other way into the basement?"
"No, I think that's your only way down, it leads to the parking garage, and the armory."
"Alright, and the one that leads up to the second floor, are there any other ways to the second floor besides this one and the two we use?"
There was a short pause and then, "Negative Sir, there are only three ways up to the second floor."
Carlos thought for a minute and then radioed back to Rico, "Alright, cross of the outside stairs as a way to reach the second floor, also inform Chief Irons that we're going to destroy the stairs on the outside, and place motion sensors and a camera on the stairway leading to the basement. Once we finish here, we're going to move down into the basement and make sure it's secure."
"Copy that, the outside stairs are being destroyed. Contact me when you know the condition of the basement."
"Will do. Olivera, out." Carlos said, before giving instructions to their demolitions expert, Clark to destroy the stairs.
"Not a problem sir, I' can probably take it down with a small satchel charge. You want me to keep the gate that surrounds it intact though right?"
"Yeah, I don't want it any easier for the zombies to get in."
"Sure it'll only take me a minute."
Chris Redfield grunted as he lifted a crate off the ground and started to walk towards the entrance to the steeple room. There were plenty of crates of things they were going to need strewn about the rooftop. Every now and then another cargo helicopter would fly over the roof and its crew would hold the men on the rooftop at gunpoint while they unloaded. Chris and his fellow officers had gotten used to it. There had been some brief talk of killing the helicopter crews and taking the helicopters to escape, but Chris had put a stop to that. Besides, they would most likely be shot down when they tried to escape the quarantine zone.
"God damn these ballistic shields are heavy," Leon said to Chris as he walked by, struggling to keep two of the big heavy metal shields under each arm.
"No kidding, but they'll be worth it when those things break into the hall."
"You think they will?" Leon asked.
"Yeah, it's pretty much inevitable," Chris said as they walked into the steeple room and down the stairs.
"Yeah but we should be able to hold them off until we can escape," Leon said confidently.
"Don't underestimate them," Chris said, "You heard what Sergeant Olivera said, this is an entire new type of zombie, nobody knows how to deal with them, not even he does!"
"He seems pretty confident though," Leon argued.
"Yeah about the zombies, but what about that other thing, the thing Mr. Burkin turned into?"
"We'll deal with that when we get to it…" Leon paused as they walked out into the third floor walkway of the great hall, "I'm just saying you shouldn't be so pessimistic about the situation."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Chris said with a sigh, "It's just that I've been in this damn station for almost a week! Now we've lost the courtyard and every zombie in the city is going to be coming down on top of us pretty soon. And on top of that, the government won't evacuate us because they think we could spread the virus!"
"Well…I see your point, but don't act like this in front of anyone else, bad morale spreads real fast."
"I'm sorry,' Chris said apologetically, "I just had to vent, I'm alright now."
"Don't sweat it," Leon said lightly, and then with a grunt, moved into the Library to find out where the shields were supposed to go.
Chris stood for a moment by himself, still holding the large crate atop his shoulder before he decided how ridiculous he was acting. Leon, the rookie cop, had just corrected him, Chris, a eight year veteran of the force, in his attitude. . He was supposed to be a leader! Well, he just would have to keep his emotions in check from now on he decided. With that settled, he too walked into library with his crate of supplies.
"You're Chris' little sister?' Sherry asked Claire inside the library.
"Yup, you got it," Claire replied.
"And you came to make sure he was alright?" She asked.
"Yeah, I couldn't let him do all of this all alone," Claire said.
"I wish I had a sister like you, but I never had one, and now…my family is all gone," Sherry said sadly.
Claire was saddened by Sherry's words, but also amazed at how strong the child was. She had lost her mother and her father in the past few days, and the world she grew up in was now gone, and yet she kept herself together.
After they had finished helping with the reinforcements of the main doors, Jill had asked Claire to go check on Sherry and see how she was holding up while she went to see how the UBCS team was doing. Claire had wanted to talk to the little girl anyway and get to know her better, so she was more than happy to go.
"I'm glad that Jill took me to where she lived," Sherry said, "She's really nice."
"That she is," Claire agreed.
"When the zombies broke in, she stopped them from getting us, and she also saved Carlos and the men with him when they were on the truck," Sherry started to say, "When we had to drive past all the monsters, she jumped on the front of the truck and shot the ones that were in the way."
Claire nodded, listening intently. But then she saw a bulge in the side of Sherry's pants and thought it was in the shape of a gun.
"Sherry, is that a gun you have there?" Claire asked.
"Oh this?" Sherry asked, pulling out Jill's Beretta, "Yeah Jill showed me how to use it."
"And she can use it quite well," CorporalNance said walking over to where Rico was sitting at the security console, "She saved my life when we were in the truck coming here. She didn't even hesitate, it was kind of scary."
"Wow," Claire said, then walked over to wearNance was standing, "Corporal Nance right?"
"Yeah, that's me, wellI have to go check in with theSergeant," he turned toRico, "Keep things under watch man," and walked out the door.
Rico, turned around to face Claire and Sherry and said, "I feel impolite for not introducing myself, I'm Corporal Rico,the UBCS' electronic wizard, but I can also be pretty handy in a fight as Sergeant Olivera will tell you. You're Redfield's sister right?"
"Yeah, the names Claire," she said extending her hand.
"Pleased to meet your acquantence Claire,"Rico said shaking it.
Sherry walked up in between them, "What's on this big screen?" she asked pointing at the console.
"Well this computer is going to tell me where the zombies break in, and those videos you see around the sides are coming from camera's that we've placed around the building. No zombie is going to get in here without me knowing it."
"That's pretty amazing," Claire said.
"No kidding, it's the latest in security technology, but it's really not that hard to operate. Look I'll even show you,"Rico took Sherry in his lap and began to show them how he used the console to raise the sensitivity of the motion sensors and change the type of modes the mini-cams were in. Sherry watched the colors change as Rico, with a few clicks of his mouse, changed the viewing mode of the mini-cams from normal to infa-red to night vision.
When he was about to show them more, the radio next to the console began to speak, "Rico, Olivera, we're in the basement and the perimeter looks secure, except the big door to the garage is raised, there's about thirty feet down that's closed but I'm not sure how long it's going to last."
"Alright, I need you to secure that door, and make it fast, if we lose the garage you may have to seal off the basement."
"Roger that, do you know where the controls for the door are?" Carlos asked.
"They're in the security booth on the west side of the garage."
"I see it, I'll contact you when we're secure and begin setting up the equipment."
"Copy that,Rico out."
The zombies banging on the outside gate were getting riled up by the presence of the soldiers. The gate itself didn't look like it was going to hold. Carlos saw the hinges start to come apart.
"Price get to those controls right now!" Carlos shouted.
Sergeant Price sprinted towards the security booth just as the gate came apart.
"Defensive positions!" Carlos cried out, and the UBCS team scattered across the garage, finding positions that would give them a clear field of fire, and something to put in between them and the zombies.
Price reached the controls from the door, and activated them. The door began to slide down, but it was too slow. Knowing he could do no more good, Price ran out from the booth and took up a position next to Carlos. Zombies ran underneath the closing door into the squads field of fire. The soldiers fired at will, gunning down the zombies as they entered. But within a few moments the garage was swarming with zombies. Carlos and his men evaded the zombies gnashing teeth and reaching arms as they took snapshots at their heads. Carlos and Price supported each other, moving in perfect cohesion. One would call out threats as the other gunned them down. Carlos saw one of his men, he thought it was Steeple, up against the wall trying to reload when he was overwhelmed by the zombies and fell to the floor as the zombies devoured him as he screamed and writhed about on the floor.
"Damn, Steeple is down!" Carlos shouted to Price.
"We can't help him sir!" Price shouted back over the noise as he swung his M4 in a wide arc around him, "He's already gone!"
Carlos looked frantically around for the rest of his men, and saw some were falling back towards the entrance to the garage, he quickly improvised a plan and shouted to Price "To the entrance! We'll hold them there!"
Price nodded and sprinted back towards the door where 3 other UBCS soldiers, Corporal Nance and Privates Stratt and Ramirez, were keeping the zombies from getting even further into the precinct. Price ducked and dodged through the zombies that were in his way. Carlos was right behind him, swinging the but of his rifle into the head of any of the infected that attacked him. Carlos tripped over the foot of a zombie and slide to the floor. He rolled to his right side as a zombie swung its fists down, missing him by inches. Carlos got to his feet and began running towards the door again. One zombie stood in front of him, Carlos tried firing his M4 at it, but the clip was empty. Thinking quickly, Carlos ran straight at it, and then jumped to the ground, sliding on his back through its legs. While sliding underneath, Carlos pulled his sidearm from its tactical holster on his leg. Surprised, the zombie turned to see Carlos behind it on the ground with a 45. Handgun pointed at it. Carlos squeezed the trigger three times, scoring two headshots and then jumped to his feet.
"Hold them here!" Carlos shouted, "Give them everything that you've got!"
The five soldiers stood in front of the doorway in a tight semicircle, pouring automatic fire into the garage. The door leading to the outside finally closed shut, but now there scores of zombies trapped inside with UBCS team. The parking garage was now crawling with the undead. But the five soldiers remained, giving it their all to try to clear the garage.
Carlos was about to call for reinforcements when he felt someone place their hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw Jill and five RPD officers all toting shotguns while Jill carried her modified M4.
"I was looking for you and heard gunfire!" She shouted over the firing of the soldiers M4 s and hissing zombies, "I brought some help!"
"Alright, form a second line behind us! My guys, take a knee!" Carlos shouted.
The soldiers all got down on one knee as the RPD officers and Jill stood over them and they all began firing into the crowd. The zombies were now rushing at them as one. The force was near overwhelming, but the defenders stood their ground against the onslaught. Bodies were beginning to pile up only a foot away from where Jill stood.
"Price! Stratt! Use your frags!" Carlos yelled.
Sergeant Price and Private Stratt both pulled frag-grenades from their combat harnesses and tossed them into different parts of the crowd. The result were two satisfying yet subtle explosions. The fragments from the grenades tore into the zombies around them. The defenders chances had just increased. Jill swung her M4 from target to target, letting out a short three round burst at head level then moving onto another target without checking the result. The zombies began to thin out slowly and the defenders moved further into the garage, beginning to mop up the remainders of what was a formidable force.
Carlos heard saw what looked like 10 zombies near the security booth at the far end of the garage trying to break in. He and Price took careful aim and took them down one by one. Once they all lay on the ground, dead for a second time, they could see the inside of the booth. Inside was one of the UBCS soldiers, Corporal Wiley, seeing it was clear outside he ran out to where Carlos and Price were.
"Me and North got separated," Wiley said breathlessly, "They were all around us, so made a break for the security booth but… but North got taken down right before he got inside. Once I saw him go down, I just closed the door," he said with a pained voice.
"It's alright corporal," Carlos said, "You couldn't have helped him once he was bitten."
There were a couple shotgun blasts as the RPD officers found another live zombie, but then the garage was completely silent. Then the sound of zombies banging on the garage door echoed through the complex. Carlos went over to where Private North's body was and began searching it for ammo and equipment, Price did the same with Steeple's body.
Jill walked over and to Carlos, "I'm…I'm sorry about your men Carlos," she said.
"Don't worry about it," he said darkly, "I'm used to seeing my men die. Once you get into the UBCS you need to get used to it real fast or else you won't last a minute in an outbreak. The things I've seen…you'll never really understand how bad it is until you see it yourself. Have you ever seen your commanding officer take a gun to his head because he knew that within a half hour he would be among the walking dead? Have you ever had to turn away and run when one of your best friends is being eaten alive? No? Well you will, and you need to get used to it. Because we're going to be here for a while, and people are going to die." Jill didn't know what to say, "Look," Carlos said, "I know you had good intentions, and I appreciate it. These were good men, two of the best, but they knew that the UBCS has the highest mortality rate out of all the services, and they knowingly took the risk, as did I. I know one day my luck is going to run out, I know that one day I might be the one who is left behind, but until then I'm going to keep fighting for the living."
Before Jill could reply, Rico's voice could be heard over the radio saying, "Sergeant? Are you alright? Is anyone there?"
"Yeah Rico, I'm ok. We've secured the parking garage, but we lost Steeple and North."
"Damn, well alright I'm going to need you to start putting up the mini-cams and the motion sensors. I want two sensors on the garage door, and two mini-cams in the garage, then I want you to put a sensor on every door in the basement, and give us some views of the hallways down there with the minis alright?"
"I gotcha, but why do you want to put sensors on the garage door? I think it's solid enough to stop the zombies from breaking through."
"I'm not worried about the zombies getting through there, I'm thinking about two other things."
"Really, I'd like to know what."
"Well first of all, the biohazard team."
"Do you really think they would force an entry through there?"
"They damn well could, but it's the second that I'm more worried about."
"And that is?"
"That…that mutated zombie you were talking about, the one Mr. Burkin may have turned into."
"Well, I'm not even sure if he did, and if so what's the chance of him coming here?"
"Sir, we may possibly be the only group of humans left in the city, if so, then every single zombie in the area is going to be coming here. Including the mutated one. Also with its superior strength and size, it could get through all the defenses we set up, including the garage door."
"Alright, I understand, but I hope it gets here after we leave."
"Rico out."
"Alright, Nance, Ramirez, and Price, I want you guys to place mini-cams along the hallway and in some of the rooms. Wiley and Stratt, you guys are with me, we're setting up in here. Jill, take your guys to the armory and see if there's anything useful left in there."
Everyone went their separate ways and began to work on securing the basement. Price began walking up and down the hallway talking over the radio to Rico getting the mini-cams set up. Jill and her officers found some body armor, a few handguns and some cases of shotgun shells, but nothing more. Carlos was busy checking every single detail to the defenses, and finally when he thought everything was secure, he ordered everyone upstairs and Rico activated all the motion sensors. Nothing was going to be moving around the basement without him noticing it.
Rico sat back in the rolling chair he had brought up from the offices downstairs and began to relax. All the equipment was in place, so now all he had to do was to watch the console. He watched the UBCS team and the RPD officers walk up the basement stairs and into the west wing.
"Chief?" he called out across the library to where Chief Irons and a few of his officers were making defense plans, "You wanted me to inform you when we had all of the equipment in place. And well, it's done."
"All the entrances are covered?" Irons asked.
"Yes sir," Rico replied, sure of himself.
"Do you think it would be safe if we had everyone up here for a meeting?"
"Well…I suppose so sir, but no more than fifteen minutes. I mean I can watch over all the entrances with this console, but its always best to have people on the site."
"Alright, thanks Corporal."
"Not a problem, want me to call back the UBCS team?"
"I would appreciate it."
Leon lowered another ballistic shield down to the bottom floor where a officer untied it and put it in the stack next to the check in desk. He had decided that all the carrying was unnecessary and had scrounged some Kevlar rope from the SWAT lockers and had rigged up a pulley system and was now lowering down ballistic shields and crates of ammo and weapons to the officers on the floor of the great hall. Claire and Chris were both bringing things for him to lower down that were to be distributed amongst the bottom floor.
Just as he was attaching the rope to a crate of grenades he heard over his radio the voice of one of the officers in the command center say, "Everyone in the facility is to report to the command center immediately for a mandatory meeting, do not worry about security it will be covered for the short time you are absent from your posts."
Shrugging, Leon left the crate and walked around the walkway into the Library where people were beginning to assemble by a large screen. He stood next to Claire who was busy trying to keep Sherry entertained by showing her how to field strip Jill's Beretta. Leon remembered Claire telling him when they first met that she was around handguns long enough to be an expert on them. Watching her reassemble the Beretta in a matter of seconds, he didn't doubt it.
The library was becoming crowded, what with all the RPD officers now crowding inside and the meeting was about to begin when the double doors leading off to the hallway opened and the UBCS team walked in with several RPD officers. Leon noticed two of the soldiers were missing, but decided not to ask questions. He watched as Jill, Carlos, and Sergeant Price stood off to the side, quietly discussing something.
Leon turned around and walked over to where Rico was still at the console, the two had met earlier and had immediately gotten along, "Still watching the monitor?" Leon asked.
"You know it," he said with a smile, "My job is to baby-sit this little gem for the rest of the mission, it gets a little boring, but sometimes Sergeant Olivera will give me a break and have one of the other guys watch it. I really do miss going on patrols with the rest of the guys."
"Yeah but you're at less of a risk," Leon pointed out.
"That's true, but I really didn't take a spot in the UBCS for the safety you know? I expected to be part of the combat team. Sometimes I am, but usually when we're in a fixed spot, I handle the security aspect, along with the coordination of the mission. I guess you could say that sometimes I'm more in charge than the Sergeant. And he knows it, but he doesn't mind, he listens to everything I say and takes it into mind."
"He sounds like quite a leader," Leon said.
"Oh he is, none like him, they really should have bumped him to Lieutenant by now, and I guess they will after this mission, seeing how he's been acting Lieutenant since ours bought the farm on the way in."
He was about to say more when the lights dimmed and a large display was projected up onto a wall screen and Chief Irons began to speak, "Alright everyone I'm going to make this fast, we need to hold out until the biohazard team arrives to clear us for evacuation and reinforce our position. So far there has been only a few instances of zombies breaking into the precinct, all have been minor, and all have been eliminated and the positions they broke through, reinforced.
"But right now there are thousands of zombies outside our front door, trying to break in. The doors to the great hall have been barricaded, but they will not hold. It's only a matter of time before the zombies destroy our defenses and pour into the great hall. We could cut and barricade ourselves in here, but then what? We won't have any other place to go. No, we make a stand in the great hall. We lay everything out for them. With the help of the UBCS team we have been able to create a plan to push the zombies back out of the great hall and allow us to repair the doors, and put in their place a much more efficient barricade.
"Using the ballistic shields that we've received, 30 men and women will don riot gear and form two lines across the great hall. Using the large ballistic shields, they will create an impenetrable line. From behind them, we'll have people on the ground floor and the second and third floor walkways engaging the zombies. With the heavy weapons the military has given us, we should be able to push them back out of the hall. Once they're out, we'll barricade the entrance again. I've given everyone a position, they're posted up on the wall. Now are there any questions?" Jill raised her hand, "Yes Sergeant Valentine?"
"What happens if there is a breakthrough somewhere else in the building at the same time?"
"Well that is quite unlikely, but we'll take people away from the defense of the hall and move them into position to eliminate the other breakthrough, we should be alright."
"Chief!" Rico shouted.
"What?" Irons asked.
"It looks like the entrance to the great hall can't take much more. I think we have about less than fifteen minutes until its breached."
There was a pause in the library, everyone wondering what to do, until Chris shouted, "Alright everyone, let's move!"
People began moving around the command center quickly, finding their positions and arming themselves. Carlos volunteered to command the thirty men and women who would be using the ballistic shields. He began to suit up with them in riot gear and found that they were each being issued a shotgun. Jill was put going to behind him on the ground floor with Leon and a group of eleven other officers who would be providing fire from above the ramps towards the back of the hall, where they could see above the two lines of ballistic shield carriers. Chris was with Price and the rest of the UBCS team and sixteen other men and women who would be using automatic rifles, heavy machine guns, and submachine guns to pour a mass of fire, that would be powerful enough to make anything think twice about entering the great hall. Chris would be in overall command of the situation on sight as Chief Irons would oversee the defense from the command center. Claire was with five RPD officers on the third floor walkway. She and three other men were armed with snipers rifles and the two other officers were armed with 40mm grenade launchers.
Jill and Leon were the first to reach the hall, and things didn't look good. Jill ran over to the big double door. The pounding against the doors was becoming louder and she could see that the doors were wielding to the combined strength of the zombies. They were beginning to splinter, and even with all the reinforcement they had done to the doors, they wouldn't last much longer.
"Alright, everyone follow me!" Carlos shouted and lead his contingent out of the library and down the hallway.
The reached the stairs leading to the ground floor of the precinct and stormed down them, their feet pounding heavily against the stairs. They stampeded through the halls, past the boarded up windows and into the great hall. Carlos saw Jill, Leon, and the eleven other officers in a semicircle around the door, weapons at the ready.
"Move!" He shouted to them, as he grabbed one of the huge, heavy ballistic shields from a pile.
Jill's group scattered and ran around the fountain and up the ramps towards the security checkpoint. By this point the two other groups were taking their positions above on the walkways. The sound of metal hitting against metal echoed through the hall as weapons were loaded and charging pins were pulled back as the weapons users raced to their positions. Carlos quickly had his group form two lines that stretched across the entire hall and began to issue orders.
"Shotguns first," he ordered, "On my command, then we charge into them. But wait until my command."
The officers around him nodded grimly, knowing that they were the ones who were at the most risk, but were ready to defend their comrades and themselves. But they took courage from Carlos, who they saw no fear in. Carlos was busy looking over the ballistic shield and was happy to see that the shields slipped over his arm, so it left both hands free to use the pump action shotgun.
The sounds of the zombies outside was now much louder as the zombies were tearing apart the door more and more, "Do not falter!" Carlos shouted to everyone in the hall, "for if we do, we will all die!"
"Let's show them how the living deals an ass kicking!" Jill shouted.
Everyone shouted excitedly in agreement, their adrenaline pumping. Holes began to appear in the doors as zombies thrust their fists through. Claire and the three other snipers began to aim at the zombies through the holes and opened fire, but the four heavy rifles could hardly stem the tide.
The door rattled, the zombies hissed and moaned in anticipation of a kill. But the morale of the humans inside the great hall was anything but fearful, Carlos had whipped his shield bearers into a battle frenzy. They banged their shields onto the ground in unison, the sound echoed through the hall, as people from above shouted in anticipation. Everyone was done with waiting, they were ready for a full out firefight.
Then the door broke. It splintered everywhere as it fell to the floor and zombies ran in snarling, running straight towards Carlos and his shield bearers. Chris and Price ordered their shooters on the second floor to open fire into the crowd as they surged into the great hall. Carlos and his group stood their ground, holding their shields in front of them, waiting for the order to fire.
When the zombies were no more than 10 feet away Carlos shouted, "Fire!"
As one the thirty men and women swung their shields out of the way and fired their shotguns into the rushing crowd of zombies. The volley unleashed a devastating volume of firepower as the small pellets tore through the masses of zombies, leaving many thrashing about the floor without legs.
Not wanting to wait a moment, Carlos screamed, "Charge!" and ran straight into the wave of zombies that was pouring into the building.
He ran straight into three and pushed them back as the rest of the shield bearers did the same until he could do no more. He was about three quarters of the way towards the door when he came to a stop. He could push no more, and neither could anyone else. Now all they had to do was stand their ground until the zombies could be thinned out enough to push out of the hall and into the courtyard.
Claire set her sights on another hissing and snarling face and squeezed the trigger on her rifle. The gun bucked in her arms as it expelled the round and she watched it impact dead center in the zombies head. She pulled back the bolt action and loaded another round in and was about to look through the scope for another target when she saw a grenade streak down from beside her into the center of the mass of zombies, it threw bodies and limbs everywhere. Claire just hoped the officer using it knew not to shoot too close to Carlos and his team.
Chris Redfield was next to Sergeant Price and was shooting an Mp5 sub machine gun into the crowd of zombies on full auto. He didn't have to worry about ammo, because there was plenty of that in a crate next to him. But what did worry him was the amount of zombies that were coming in, there wasn't much he could think of to stop them from getting in, and they were starting to push Carlos' team back around the fountain towards the ramps, and if they got up the ramps, they would be able to get into the halls leading towards the stairs to the library. Then it would be over. They needed to think of something.
Carlos strained to keep pushing forward with his shield, but there was too much weight to fight against. His two lines were slowly falling back towards the ramps. But Carlos thought that, because there was even just a slight slant, they would be able to get an edge on the zombies. Also only maybe four of them could fill up the width of the ramps, so it would be easier to hold them off. Carlos made his decision, and decided that they would have to fall back towards the back of the great hall to mount an effective defense.
Jill and Leon were standing towards the right of one of the ramps and watched in disbelief as the two lines of shield bearers collapsed and ran towards the ramps with the zombies right behind them. The two shot any zombies that were running towards their ramp in an effort to cover those that were making a break for their ramp. The shield bearers stopped halfway up the ramp and stood their ground. As the zombies ran up the ramp towards them, Jill, Leon, and other officers engaged them from the side. The way this was working, Jill thought, we may be able to hold them back long enough for Chris to formulate some type of plan. But then, the situation got even worse.
Rico stared at the live video that was coming from the great hall with Irons and a few other officers looking over his shoulder. He could hear the sounds coming from just outside the library doors, but it seemed all so unreal. He watched as everyone fought a desperate battle, trying to but as much a dent in the number of the zombies as possible. And he wasn't there, Rico thought angrily. But he had his job to do, and everyone needed him here, he thought. But that didn't stop him from being angry at himself for not being there to fight. He was awoken from his thoughts when a window popped up that informed him of a disturbance of the motion sensors in the hallway that lead towards the stairs to the library. He pulled up the window with the video feed from that hallway, and was surprised to see zombies climbing through the windows, one after another. Somehow they had broken through the windows and were filling up the hallway. He showed Chief Irons who quickly called Chris on the radio to inform him of the situation.
"Alright, I'll send some people to contain it," Chris said quickly, and then called Jill on the radio, "Jill there's a breakthrough in the hallway leading to the library stairs, take someone and contain it."
"No problem," Jill said, and then grabbed Leon and ran through the door leading out of the great hall.
They paused for a moment in the room who's door lead to the hall. Jill could hear the zombies in the hall way. She motioned towards the door. Leon nodded in acknowledgement and aimed his assault rifle towards the door. Jill quietly walked to the door and yanked it open. She then ducked out of the way as Leon fired into the hall way on full auto.
When they heard the noise, the zombies rushed towards them, but Leon was able to keep them at bay while Jill got in position to fire into them as well. Jill fired her shotgun attachment into the onrushing zombies. There were about 15 zombies in the hallway, and more were climbing up through the windows. Leon had killed almost half of the ones in the hallway with the first burst he had fired from his FAMAS assault rifle. Now they had used up the element of surprise and zombies were racing through the door. Engaging the zombies in close combat with side-arms, knives, and the butts of their rifles, Jill and Leon were able to dispatch the zombies that were left in the hall.
The two then ran up to the windows and started shooting any zombie, who came close to the window. Jill rushed back and forth, trying to hold of zombies from two windows as Leon did the same with three. They couldn't waste any time reloading their rifles when their current clip had run out, so they switched over to their handguns which they could reload much faster. Thinking quickly, Leon tossed a grenade out each of the windows he was covering. The three explosives detonated, sending clouds of dust and bits of debris in through the windows. Leon used the temporary lull in the fighting to reload his 45. pistols and his FAMAS. Following his example, Jill did the same and reloaded her M4 and its shotgun attachment. While she was doing that she also called in to Rico to send backup
"We need more guys to cover these windows!" she shouted angrily as a zombie reached one of the windows and grabbed her arm, she looked at it like it was a minor annoyance.
"Look, the battle in the hall may have taken a turn for the worse, Chief Irons says he cant take any more people away from Chris, he needs every man he can get," Rico explained.
"Well you better tell Irons that in a few minutes, we're going to be out of ammunition, and then there's going to be zombies knocking on the door of the library, and the people on the ground floor of the great hall will be flanked by the zombies coming from this hallway," she paused for a moment to try to shake the zombie that had grabbed her arm, she finally gave up and shot it in the head with her pistol, "Now tell Irons, we need people. Now!"
There was a momentary lapse in the conversation, then Irons come on the radio, "Valentine, I'm sending five people with ballistic shields over from the great hall, is that enough?"
"Well sir, we could use one or two more guys to help board up these windows again."
"Alright, I'll come down myself and assist you with the repairs."
"Thanks sir. Valentine, out." Jill the turned to look over where Leon was, he had run out of ammunition for his rifle and was now using one handgun at a time, she resumed firing and within 30 seconds, five people in riot gear, clutching the ballistic shields ran in from the direction of the great hall, "Everyone up against a window!" she ordered.
The four men and one woman all pressed their shields up against the windows, cutting the zombies entrance off. Jill then grabbed some two by fours from a pile and started to place them around one of the shields, creating a frame that would keep the shield in place, she then hammered it in and ordered the man holding it to move away. The shield remained in its place. Chief Irons arrived moments later and helped create frames around the shields. As each shield was put in its place, their carrier would rush back towards the battle in the hall. When the last one was put in its place, Jill and Leon rushed back as wall, with Irons following them, he believed he needed to see what was going on with his own eyes.
The situation had gotten worse in the hall, zombies were now trying to climb over the railing, so they would not need to walk up the ramps, so Carlos and several others were running back and forth along, bashing any zombie that climbed up in the head with their shields. The battle had been raging on for nearly thirty minutes, and everyone was becoming tired. Dead bodies littered the entrance to the great hall, but more zombies kept on entering. The death toll was starting to rise for the RPD officers as well. Zombies were getting through the defensive lines and getting a hold of some of the armorless defenders towards the back of the hall. Jill could see on entering, that it would be only a matter of time before they lost the ground floor.
Up on the second floor walkway Chris was trying to improvise a plan. There was no way they could get out of this one, he thought, the enemy had far superior numbers, and his men were getting tired. He then saw a grenade shot go wild that landed only five feet away from one of the shield bearers. The concussion knocked him back some, but the man seemed fine.
Chris looked over at Sergeant Price and shouted, "Did you see that!?"
Price nodded as he fired off two rounds, "Yeah! I didn't know that they could take hits that close."
"We could use that to our advantage!" Chris shouted, an idea coming to his mind.
"You got a plan?" Price asked.
"Maybe!" Chris shouted back, he then called Rico on the radio, "Have someone get to the radio in the SWAT room and to request twenty grenade launchers and grenades for immediate delivery on the roof!"
"Twenty?" Rico asked back surprised.
"Don't ask me about it, just do it!" Chris said, and then went back to engaging the zombies.
Rico relayed the order to one of the men in the command center, and then went back to monitoring the situation in the great hall.
Jill swung the butt in a viscous uppercut into the heads of one of the zombies that was climbing over the top of the railing. There was a sickening crunching sound when it made contact, and the zombie fell to ground. Just then she heard a scream and saw one of the RPD officers being pulled over the side of the railing. The man flailed his arms about, trying to grab a hold of anything, but toppled over the side, and was immediately ripped apart by the gnashing jaws of the zombies. Things were not going well at all.
The zombies were just too many for the defenders, and ammo was running low after forty minutes of continuous shooting. More and more zombies were getting through, and the number of deaths were rising. Chris was pulling people off the walkways and putting them on the ground floor to help the defense. Already Claire was on the ground using her sidearm to engage any zombie that got over the railing.
Their goal was to protect the shield holders, who were still blocking the ramps, because their backs were vulnerable to an unsuspected attack from the rear. But Jill found it difficult to get a shot off without endangering any of Carlos' team. So she ended up swinging the butt of her rifle back and forth, angered that she had been forced into melee combat.
The battle raged on for another ten minutes as the body count began to rise for both sides. But then a chance had arised for the deadlock to be broken. The grenade launchers that Chris had requested, had finally arrived. Price and three RPD officers ran to the roof and brought down the weapons and the ammunition for them. They began to issue them to all the people who were still on the second floor walkway, and with them the order to not fire until told to.
"Carlos!" Chris shouted into his radio.
"Make it fast Chris, we're kind of busy down here," Carlos said back, as a zombie swiped at his face, barely missing.
"We've equipped everyone up here with 40mm grenade launchers, we're going to do a volley fire a close to you as possible. Once we've all fired three rounds, I want you to take every single person on the ground floor and make a charge to the main doors. Am I understood?"
"Yeah, I don't like it, but we can do it."
"Alright, have everyone down there brace for impact," Chris out.
"Everyone prepare for a very big explosion, and charge on my order!" Carlos shouted to all the people on the ground floor.
Jill, Leon, Claire, and all the other remaining people on the ground floor who wasn't protected by riot gear and a ballistic shield, took cover behind and inside the security desk by the back of the hall. They kept on firing over the sides in the direction of the railings, hoping that no zombies would get over in the time they were not there.
"Alright, prepare to fire at the beginning of the ramp, then work your way up towards the entrance. Fire on my mark." Chris said to the men and women who were loading their grenade launchers, he paused for a moment so everyone could take aim, "FIRE!" he shouted, and launched his own grenade.
Twenty-six grenades (the UBCS team used their own launchers) streaked towards the beginning of the ramps and detonated with violence, sending zombies everywhere. Carlos and his team were all thrown back from the shock waves of the explosions, but quickly got to their feet. The second volley came seconds after, throwing zombies who were rushing towards the ramps into the air. The third volley tore through the zombies who were rushing through the entrance.
As soon as the third volley of 40mm grenades detonated, Carlos shouted, "To the entrance! Charge!"
The shield bearers rushed down the ramps, colliding angrily into the few remaining zombies with Jill and the rest of the unarmored defenders right behind them, firing their weapons at anything that still moved. Grenades still streaked through the open front doors out into the courtyard, slowing any zombies that tried to enter. Carlos and the remnants of his team slammed into the zombies that were trying to get through the door. Encouraged by Carlos, the shield carriers, held their ground, finally plugging up the hole in their defense.
Claire and Jill fought side by side, mopping up the remnants of the zombies in the great hall in close quarters combat. The two girls fiercely attacked any zombie they could find, using a combination of hand to hand combat and pistol fire to bring them down. Jill was switching back and forth from her Desert Eagle to her long combat knife, as she ducked and dodged the zombies attacks with incredibly quickness.
Leon was with several officers who were busy bringing components for the new barricade across the decimated hall. The grenade volleys had not done any good to the tile floor, and there were bodies strewn everywhere. Some zombies still moved about on their stomachs, their legs shout out and unable to walk. But they were quickly being dispatched as Jill, Claire, and several other officers walked about, putting a bullet in every single zombies head, weather they were moving or not. Leon grunted as he put the metal plate up against the wall where a woman was welding several together, creating a metal barrier that would be put in the place of the doors.
Chris slid down the ladder and ran about, checking on people, overseeing the cleanup of the hall. He immediately started to organize an effort to clean the bodies from the floor of the great hall, there were hundreds, and if the were allowed to stay in the hall for any longer, disease and decay would run rampant throughout the entire precinct, so the dead were brought out to the roof and thrown off to the far side of the precinct where they would be downwind, then the pile would be doused in gasoline and set aflame.
Carlos breathed a sigh of relief as the steel barrier was finally finished and slid into place. He stepped back and sat down on the steps, able to rest after forty five minutes of continuous melee combat. He set down the ballistic shield and took off his riot helmet, the heavy body armor had made him hot as hell, and smiled when the cool air slipped across his face, which was drenched with sweat.
Seeing Carlos, Chris ran over to him and said, "Thank you for your help Sergeant, I'm not sure we would have been able to hold the hall."
"Oh I didn't make much of a difference," Carlos said, "But I almost wet myself when you ordered those volleys. The first volley came close as hell. I fell over onto the guy behind me. But I guess I can't complain. It worked after all."
"Yeah, I guess it did."
Carlos stood up and stretched out his muscles and said, "If it's alright with you, I'd like to go talk to my men about how we're going to respond if there's another break in somewhere else in the precinct."
"Well if you need any assistance, me and my people are ready to lend you a hand."
"Well, with all do respect, me and my team were sent here to ensure the safety of any non military combatants and the civilians in the area, that means keeping all of you out of harms way as much as possible. But rest assured Mr. Redfield, we can handle anything short of what happened here."
Chris was about to say something about how he thought his officers could fight just as well when Rico announced over the Radio, "The Biohazard team is on its way, they're going to be landing on the roof within minutes. Chris Redfield, Chief Irons has requested your presence in the command center immediately. Chris excused himself and ran up to the fire ladder onto the second floor walkway and went into the library.
Carlos walked over to where Price and rest of the UBCS team were standing. They were all busying themselves with restocking their supplies of ammo, and cleaning their weapons, making sure that everything was in its place.
"So the Biohazard team is on its way," Carlos said to them, "What do you think?"
"I'm not sure if I like it sir," Price said, "No one notifies us that they're coming in? And all these rumors we've heard, it doesn't suggest anything good about these guys. My personal opinion is that they've realized that there's still a group of us alive in this god forsaken city, and they don't want word of their little project getting out. I think they're coming to execute the survivors and prevent any possibility of the virus spreading further."
Claire, Jill, and Leon walked over when they heard Price talking about this, Carlos looked at them and nodded in approval of Price's idea, "Yeah, I'm thinking about the same thing. Anyone else feel differently?" No one answered, "Well the question is what do we do?"
"Sir," Corporal Wiley said, "Our mission was and still is, to protect the survivors."
"So you're saying we fight our own people?" Price asked.
"Our own people would not execute civilians, besides, why should we think that they won't do the same to us?"
"You're right, we need to plan some sort of escape plan for everyone here."
"Alright but we're boxed in from all sides by the zombies. There's no way out from here, so we have two choices, a bullet in the head, or being eaten alive."
"Well, not necessarily," Jill said, speaking up.
"What do you mean?" Carlos asked.
"Well, it's incredibly dangerous, and I'm not sure of our chances, but they're probably higher than staying here."
"How do we escape?" Carlos asked.
"We get out through the sewers," Jill said quietly.
"The sewers!?" Leon said, "Oh man, no way, if there are any zombies down there, we'll be screwed."
"But we'll be screwed here anyway," Carlos said quickly, "Now how do you propose about doing this?"
"Well there's an entrance to it in the garage, and I know Rico can pull up maps of the sewers to lead us out. Just as long as we watch our backs, we should be able to make it through."
"Alright, I think we're going to need to act on this immediately, the team is going to be here momentarily. Begin to send people down to the garage, I'll get Rico and the others in the command center. And I'll try to slow the death squad down a little bit," Carlos said.
"How are you going to go about doing that?" Jill asked.
"Well we're not going to need the police station anymore are we? Why not hand it over to the zombies."
"I'm coming with you," Jill said quickly.
"No, help everyone get to the parking garage."
"I need to get Sherry, she's going to be scared."
Carlos hesitated for a moment and said, "Alright damn it, but we need to move fast. Everyone else get people down there immediately, but don't start going into the sewer until we confirm the team is hostile. Move out."
Chris, Chief Irons, and several other officers were standing atop the roof of the precinct when they saw two big helicopters fly overhead. Chief Irons waved his arms, signaling to land near them. Chris noticed there was something odd about the helicopters. There were no markings on them at all and they were painted pure black. Chris also saw that on the wing stubs there were several missile pods. He had a bad feeling about this.
Chief Irons ran over to where the first helicopter, "Man, it took you boys long enough, we almost had to…" but before he could finish his sentence, he was cut off by a short burst from a submachine gun, cutting through his shoulder, up through his neck, and into his head.
Chris saw what happened and dove for cover just as a one of the heavy machine guns mounted on the helicopter opened up. The other officers with Chris dove for cover, but one was too slow and was nearly ripped in half by the powerful gun. Chris started to fire at the helicopter with his shotgun, but it was nothing compared to awesome fire power that was being displayed by the government death squad.
As the helicopters chain gun was keeping the officers heads down, the helicopters deployed the soldiers that were inside them, and then quickly took off. The soldiers personal weapons took place of the chain gun, but were just as deadly. Chris and the other officers returned fire with shotguns and pistols, but they were outgunned and outnumbered. Chris scored the first hit, and saw with satisfaction the soldier fall to the ground on his stomach. But few hits were scored against the soldiers, and the RPD officers were being picked off one by one.
Hiding behind part of the roof, Chris quickly tried to alert the people within the police station on his radio, "Jill, Jill, are you there? The governments sent a death squad, you need to get everyone out now, there's no time!"
"I read you Chris, don't worry everyone's down in the parking garage preparing to escape through the sewers at this moment. Where are you?"
"I'm on the roof," Chris winced as a bullet glanced off the floor, only inches from his foot, "They're laying down some heavy fire, and I have officers down, I'll try to hold them off as long as I can."
"No get out of there now!" Jill shouted back over the radio, "Carlos and I are opening the station up to the zombies, get out of there now!"
"Roger that, I'll start pulling people back now, Chris out." Chris then looked around and saw that six of his men were lying on the roof, dead, but two others were only lightly wounded, "Get off the roof now!" Chris shouted to them, "Get to the parking garage, that's where everyone else is!"
The men nodded and ran towards the door, firing their weapons blindly behind them. One was hit in the back and fell to the ground, but the other made it through. Chris tossed his shotgun down, it was out of shells, and pulled out his sidearm. He fired several shots in the direction of the soldiers, he then dashed towards the doorway that lead off the roof. The soldiers opened up, and a bullet clipped him in the leg. He stumbled but was able to throw himself through the door before they could zero in on him.
Chris tumbled down the stairs, legs and arms flailing about, until he landed at the bottom, feeling like he had just jumped off the roof. But he quickly got to his feet and looked for a quick way out. He saw a grating and kicked it open. There was a chute that just went down. He heard the soldiers coming down the stairs and decided he had nothing to lose and jumped down the chute, into the darkness.
Jill, Carlos, Rico, and Sherry moved as quickly as possible through the halls, shooting up the barricades and the boarded up windows. The entire west wing of the precinct was crawling with zombies now as they slammed the door and ran out into the great hall. Jill looked over and saw the makeshift steel barrier.
"Grenades?" She asked Carlos.
"Exactly, but get Sherry near the door."
Jill hurried Sherry over to the door that lead to the east wing of the precinct and had her run inside while Carlos and Rico loaded the grenade launchers of their M4's. They fired in unison, and the 40mm grenades punched right through the barrier, shooting it out into the courtyard. Almost immediately zombies started to rush through. Carlos and Rico ran to the door were Jill was standing, when soldiers from the third floor walkway opened fire on them. As Jill covered them with her M4, Rico and Carlos dashed towards Jill, with zombies right behind them.
They got through the doorway, and slammed the door shut behind them. Not wasting a moment to get to the basement floor. They locked every door behind them, hoping to slow both the soldiers and the zombies. When the ran down the stairs and into the hallway they saw Chris lying on the floor and bleeding from his left leg.
"Oh my god, Chris, what happened?" Jill asked, running over to him with the others.
"I…I took a ride down the chute, he said, pointing towards a grate that had been kicked open." He gasped for breath and stood up, "I'm alright though, just a little shaken. Where's everyone else?"
"They're in the parking garage, waiting for Rico and his directions out of sewers."
"Well since I'm in such high demand, we shouldn't waste any time now should we?" Rico said.
"Right, we need to move, now. We may have slowed them down, but those soldiers are going to be on us real fast," Carlos said.
While Rico and Carlos supported Chris, Jill picked Sherry up in her arms and carried the scared little girl towards the parking garage. When they entered there were only a few people left in the garage, and some where just jumping through the opened manhole. The UBCS team was standing around, weapons at ready, pointing towards the door. They relaxed when they saw their leader rush through.
"You let them leave already?" Carlos asked.
"Well yeah, you said to have them go as soon as possible," Price said.
"But how are they going to find their way out?"
"Oh, well there was this one guy, and he knew the sewers pretty well, ex-sanitation worker or something like that, he knew how to get out, and I thought, why wait?"
Carlos thought for a moment and then said, "Alright, good job, now let's get the hell out of here."
But just as they were about to climb down the manhole, there was a giant crash against the large sliding door of the garage. Then it was hit again, and again, as the thin metal started to bend to the impacts.
"Oh god, it can't be," Carlos whispered.
"What? What is it Carlos?" Jill asked, seeing fear in his eyes.
"The Nemesis."
"What?" Price asked.
"Nemesis," Carlos said, pointing his weapon at the door, "That's the codename they gave anyone who was injected with the virus and mutated."
"Then we need to get the hell out," Leon said, starting towards the manhole.
"Yes, everyone get out now, I'll keep him busy," Carlos said darkly.
"No, we're all leaving, now," Jill said sternly, "Leon and Claire, help Chris down, then help Sherry."
"Look, that thing will follow us, until its killed every single one of us, I'm going to give you as much time as I can, and if possible I'll kill it."
"Sir, I don't even think we have enough time for us to all escape," Price said, looking at the thin metal door, which was coming closer and closer to its breaking point."
"Damn it, everyone take up defensive positions, then when there's an opening get through the manhole, move it!" Carlos shouted.
Claire and Leon ran away from the manhole (which was close to the door) and ran behind a car where Corporals Wiley and Nance were also taking their positions. Price grabbed Sherry and brought her behind a truck. Jill and Carlos took their positions in the center. Tears were beginning to form in the door, as the Nemesis began to slash it with its huge claws.
"Everyone use your grenade launchers on it as soon as you can." Carlos said
There was a mighty roar from the outside, and then the Nemesis broke through. Jill was shocked at what she was looking at. It looked nothing like a normal zombie. It was more than eight feet tall, had long dirty claws, and holes all along its body. Its arms were bulging with muscle and had big long purple veins that were on the outside of it. The Nemesis' skin was a dirty green and brown color, and the stench of decay, emitted from its body. Its head was one of the most disgusting things she had ever seen. There wasn't much of a face yet. Only one of its eyes were visible, and most of the head was taken up by a large mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. There was nothing of the Nemesis that really resembled a human any more, all it was, was five hundred pounds of pure muscle and rage.
"Open fire!" Carlos shouted.
The Nemesis screamed and leaped into the air as the grenades streaked towards it. One caught it in the leg, and another on its side, but the others were aimed two low and shot by harmlessly. It landed and ran towards a car where Claire, Leon, and the two UBCS Corporals were. It swung its big meaty arm at the car, and tossed the car out of its way like it was a toy. Then it swung its other fist towards Rico, and it caught him in the chest and sent him flying across the garage, where he impacted painfully on the floor. It set its sights on Claire next, who was busy peppering it with her sub machine gun. She quickly dove through its legs, as it jabbed its claws down towards her, barely missing. Then with the other hand it swung its claws at Nance, who tried to dodge the blow, but was caught in the upper chest. Nance felt the big claws tear through him and let out a scream of pain. The Nemesis lifted him up, and tossed him aside, carelessly, but Nance was dead before he hit the floor.
Leon had run by when the Nemesis had been focusing on Nance and now he and Claire had a clear path to the manhole. Both jumped in, not bothering to climb down. Leon landed right on top of Claire, pushing her head into the filthy water. She pushed him off, and stood up sputtering.
"Should we wait?" Leon asked.
"We'll head down a ways, then wait there," Claire said, hoping that more would make it.
Carlos and Jill were busy trying to distract the Nemesis so others would be able to escape through the manhole, but it didn't seem interested in them. It was busy going after the other UBCS soldiers. Carlos opened fire on full auto at the Nemesis back as it charged at Privates Stratt, Ramirez, and Wiley. It took a mighty swing at Wiley and backhanded him, and sent him flying across the garage. When Wiley opened his eyes, he found he had landed right next to the manhole. Crawling towards it, he fell down head first, landing painfully at the bottom.
The Nemesis swung clawed hands at Ramirez and cut him in half, sending his torso skidding across the floor. It took another swipe at Stratt dodged, but wasn't fast enough. The razor sharp claws tore through his arm, leaving only a bloody stump in its wake. Stratt fell to the floor moaning in pain. The Nemesis stood over him and roared, and stamped its huge foot down on his head, crushing his skull.
Rico had regained consciousness and stumbled across the garage towards the manhole. The Nemesis saw him trying to escape and ran towards him, pulling back its arm for a mighty swing.
"Rico, move it!" Price shouted, and shot a grenade at the Nemesis.
It caught it in the shoulder, and slowed it, giving Rico he precious seconds he needed to stumble through the manhole. But now the Nemesis was focused on Price and Sherry. It ran towards them, as Price opened fire on it with his M4, it took the bullets with only a minor annoyance. Price dove to the side as it swung its big fists down at him. There was a loud thump on impact. Price yelled to Sherry to run for the manhole, and slowly got to his feet.
"Come on you!" Price yelled angrily, and aimed his M4 at the Nemesis' head and cried out as he fired at it.
With one quick motion the Nemesis lopped off Price's head. The body stood for a moment, the collapsed to the ground, next to the severed head. Then the Nemesis turned towards little Sherry who was running as fast as her legs could carry her towards the manhole. But the Nemesis quickly caught up to her, and grabbed her with one of its mighty hands.
"Jill! Help me!" Sherry cried in a scared voice.
"Sherry! No!" Jill screamed out, and ran up to the Nemesis and began to shoot it at point blank range.
The Nemesis batter her aside angrily and held Sherry up, looking at her. Then it open its other hand, where a thin needle like spike came out. It looked at Sherry and slowly pushed the spike into Sherry's squirming body. The girl screamed and started to spasm.
Carlos reached Jill's side and saw what the Nemesis was doing and said, "Oh god, no. It's infecting her."
The Nemesis tossed Sherry's now limp body aside and looked at Carlos and Jill. It roared angrily, but didn't charge, it was sizing up its opponents. It could tell something was different about these two, and didn't want to rush.
"Take Sherry and get out of here." Carlos ordered Jill, not taking his eyes off the Nemesis.
"But she's infected," Jill said sadly, "There's no hope now, I should help you."
"No," Carlos hissed, "Burkin must have had an antidote in his house."
"What do you mean?"
"If Burkin injected himself with the virus, he must have had an antidote, find the antidote before Sherry turns. Now go!"
Carlos opened fire with his M4 and ran towards the Nemesis. It swung its clawed hands at him, but Carlos moved quickly and dodged each attack. Jill used Carlos' distraction to pick Sherry up and carry her over to the manhole. She turned to see Carlos dive under the Nemesis' legs and jump onto its shoulders, shooting it in the head several times with his sidearm. But then it grabbed him with its big and ripped him off its shoulders. Carlos dropped his empty M4 and pulled a grenade off his belt. The Nemesis pulled him close and was about to take a bight of Carlos with its deadly jaws when Carlos plunged his gloved hand through one of the bloody openings into its stomach, release the grenade, Carlos pulled his hand out, and with his other hand cut through three of the big pulsing purple veins on the Nemesis' arm. It screamed in pain and dropped Carlos. Jill watched as he rolled to the side and the grenade detonated inside the Nemesis' chest.
A big chunk was blown out of its side, and there was a huge gaping hole in its shoulder. But the beast still stood on its two feet and howled in pain. Deciding it was time to leave, the Nemesis ran back out of the garage to the city streets. Carlos, with fire in his eyes, quickly loaded his M4 and took off after it, yelling "I'm not finished with you yet!"
Jill tried calling after him, but there was no stopping him, Carlos would stop at nothing to kill the Nemesis. Jill let Sherry slide out of her arms and down into the manhole and picked up the cover to seal it off. She was about to head down herself, but then she heard running feet, and the door burst open. Soldiers poured through the door that lead into the precinct.
"Freeze! Drop your weapon!" One of them yelled.
Realizing they were the governments death squad, Jill swung the heavy manhole cover up as a shield and squatted down, shooting her M4 with one hand. The soldiers opened fire and Jill dropped into the manhole as the bullets bounced off the cover. Not wasting any time, Jill picked up Sherry and took the pin out of a grenade and placed it at the bottom of the ladder. She then took off down the sewer pipe, hoping to find the others.
Leon, Claire, Chris, Rico, and Wiley were all standing at an intersection of the pipe, hoping that more would come. They heard splashing and Jill calling for them. They yelled back, and they heard more splashing until they saw Jill appear, carrying Sherry's limp body.
"What happened?" Claire asked.
"The Nemesis infected her, Carlos took off after it. Everyone else is dead."
"If she's infected, you've taken a great risk bringing her with you, we'll eventually have to kill her," Leon said.
"No, not if I can find a way to the Burkins house, Carlos told me that Dr. Burkin would have had an antidote if he was going to inject the virus into himself. If we can get the antivirus, we can save Sherry."
"Look, you're talking about getting to the suburbs through a sewer system, there's no way we can get there in time," Rico said.
"Well find another way, but we have to start moving now, the biohazard team just entered the garage and opened fire on me when I went into the manhole," Jill said quickly, she paused and an explosion echoed through the sewers, "That would be a grenade I set at the bottom of the ladder, they're trying to get through the sewers."
Without saying another word, everyone started to jog through the ankle high water as Rico lead them consulting his computer to find another way to the Burkin house. They moved as fast as they could, but many of their party were injured, and Leon had to carry Sherry who was still unconscious. They continued for about 15 minutes, twisting and turning through the dark sewers, with only the lights mounted underneath their weapons to guide them. The UBCS team had brought night vision with them but only Wiley's had broken when the Nemesis had thrown him. So Rico opted not to use his, because he would have to have everyone turn their lights off so he could use it properly.
Rico finally had everyone come to a halt where they all crouched down to rest. He pulled up on the small computer that was strapped to his forearm a schematic.
"Alright, I found us a way to get to the Burkins, it isn't that safe but it will be much quicker than traveling on foot. There's a train that operates throughout the city and to the suburbs as part of the city wide transit system. One of the stations is only three blocks from the Burkins house. Right now we are underneath a manhole that will open up right at the front of one of the stations. I checked it all out, and the last place the train stopped was at this station, we were very, very lucky. Now I'm pretty sure the power is still supplied to the electrical tracks, because the power to the precinct was being supplied as well, so we should be alright. I also think I can operate the train, so we should be set, as long as there isn't an overabundance of zombies waiting for us at the station or inside the train we should be alright."
"I'm sorry I'm making you do this, everyone." Jill said,
"Oh shut up," Claire said, "We would do it anyway. And it's not like we have a choice, at the rate we're moving, those soldiers are bound to catch up with us. So it's better we get the hell out of this place."
Everyone nodded in agreement, "Well alright, everyone make sure you've got a loaded weapon. I'll go out first and cover you, Claire, I want you right behind me, Rico you follow, then Leon, you bring Sherry up. The rest of you injured guys, come up as easy as you can," Jill said, and she started up the ladder.
Jill moved the manhole cover off as quietly as she could, and peeked her head out. Dawn was beginning to approach the city, and a sweet soft light was reflecting off the windows on the builds and broken glass that was strewn everywhere on the street. Jill surveyed the street and saw very few zombies, she guessed most had converged on the police precinct. She hoisted herself out and took up a defensive position, covering any zombies in the area, but she didn't shoot yet, shooting would attract more.
Claire climbed up out next, and took a position on the other side. One by one the others climbed out, until everyone was on the street. They were lucky that they hadn't been noticed yet. Slowly and quietly the group moved up the steps to where the station was. Their lucky ran out when they found the door locked. Claire swung the but of her G36C submachine gun into the glass door, causing the noise of shattering glass to echo through the streets.
Jill looked out and saw zombies heads snap up and look over at the source of the noise, "Oh crap, they've made us," Jill hissed, "Run!"
The group ran through the elevated station house and towards the train. Rico reached there first and hit a button next to one of the doors and it hissed open. Everyone ran in as fast as they could. Jill turned and shot at the zombies that were running through the shattered door to the station. Rico ran to the front of the train, and started to operate switches to the train. The door hissed shut just as the first zombie reached the train. Then there was a clicking sound as Rico activated the door locks. Jill looked with disgust at the zombies who were banging on the glass and snapping their jaws hungrily.
Then the train started to pull away from the station and Claire started to chuckle when she zombies fall off the ramp and onto the tracks when the train pulled away. Everyone sat down and started to relax, finally allowed a moment free off fighting. The soothing sound of the train going over tracks lulled several members of the group to sleep, the first sleep they had gotten in more than 24 hours.
But their rest was short lived, Rico shouted back that they were only ten minutes away from their station. Jill stood up and started to collect ammo from everyone.
"What are you doing?" Chris asked.
"I need the ammo, I'm doing this one alone," She said simply.
"Like hell you are," Leon said.
"Look, I can make it from the station to the house myself. I need you guys to hold the train while I get the antidote. Once I'm back we'll high tale it out of here."
"You can't go out there alone, what if you get killed? We won't know what happened to you."
"Alright look, if I'm not back within twenty minutes, get out, because I don't want anyone walking into the same trap I walked into. Besides, most of you are too injured to keep up with me, so look, hold the train, I'll be back. I promise."
"Well you better be quick about it," Claire said in a worried voice, "Sherry is looking worse and worse.
"Don't worry, I'll go as fast as I can. I'll keep in contact with you guys over radio alright?"
"Alright," Rico said, "I'm going to pull the train away from the station once your out, but I won't go anywhere."
"Sounds good to me, just make sure you move it back when I come running back."
"Don't worry, we'll be there."
Claire looked over at Jill and said, "Alright so you're going to do this yourself, and say you do make it back alive with the antidote for Sherry, then what do we do?"
Jill looked around uneasily, "I'm…I'm not sure," she said.
"I've been thinking about that one myself," Rico said to everyone, "And I think, if I call our Captain back at the UBCS headquarters, he'll have someone come in and pull us out."
"No way," Leon said, "They'll end up sending in another team to kill us, we'll just be setting ourselves up."
"No, not my Captain, he doesn't even know what has happened to us, if I call him and tell him what's going on and ask him to not tell anyone higher up the ladder, I think he'll pull the strings to get us out of here. Does anyone have a cell phone? I could use that to call him, seeing how we don't have a long range radio."
"Here, use mine," Claire said.
She handed him the phone and he turned it on, and when he was about to call the train pulled up to the station. Jill stood up and adjusted the backpack she had containing ammo and grenades.
"Well, this is my stop," she said grimly.
"Jill, I can come with you," Leon started to say, but she cut him off.
"No, I have to do this myself, I can't let anyone go with me."
Without another word, she hit the button next to the door and it hissed open, she stepped out of the sleek silver train and walked down the steps of the station.
"I'll call you and tell you about the situation after I speak to my Captain," Rico said after her, then he closed the doors and the train started to move up the tracks a ways.
Jill looked around the street when she walked away from the station, there were no zombies in sight, the place was completely dead of movement. She walked cautiously down the street in the direction of the Burkin's house.
The morning sun illuminated the battled streets, cars were smashed, homes were smoldering, the fires having eaten all they could. Corpses were strewn about lawns as birds and scavengers picked at what little flesh was left. Jill was a little frightened about the lack of zombies inhabiting the area, she figured that most would have gone to the city to hunt what was left of the humans in the area, but there should have been at lease some still around. She was now only a block and a half from the house.
Jill began to jog down the street, still with her trusty M4 rifle at the ready. She rounded a street corner, and saw the Burkins home at the end of the street. She moved quickly, hoping that she would be able to return to the train in time to save Sherry. She finally reached the front lawn and stopped. She looked at he house, this was where it all began, she thought. Now she was going to have to go in once again, past the yellow police tape that still remained in front of the door. Funny, she thought, that this place was still marked off as a crime scene when seeing a person eaten alive was something she had seen many times in the past few days. She took a deep breath and brushed aside the tape and walked through.
This time she was able to find a light switch. The lights in the hallway flickered on, and she saw the dry blood stain up against the wall and along the floor. She cautiously stepped over it and walked towards the door that she believed, led to the basement. Keeping her M4 aimed towards the door with one hand, she quickly opened the door and got ready to fire, but nothing was there, only a cold metal staircase. She found another light switch, and flicked it on. Lights illuminating the staircase went on, and Jill slowly walked down, hoping that nothing was waiting for her in the basement. When she went down, she was amazed at what she saw.
The Berkin's basement looked like a state of the art research center. Computers were stacked up against the wall, there was a lab station, and a clean room where there were vials stacked up against the wall, and a freezer towards the back off the room. Jill saw that papers were strewn about the floor and little shards of glass were sprinkled across the ground. Jill supposed that was what had happened when Mr. Burkin had injected himself with the virus. She walked over to one of the computers, it was still on. She looked through the files that were displayed and was shocked to see that many were on the governmental research that was taking place on the virus called Solanum, or what they called T-Virus, they were trying to develop Solanum into a military weapon. Thinking quickly, Jill found a blank disc and copied all the files on the computer onto it. She pulled this disc out, put it into its case and put it in her backpack.
Jill then walked over to the freezer, hoping Dr. Burkin had a stock of the antidote in there. She opened the heavy glass door up with a hiss as the cool air escaped and stepped inside. She looked up and down rows of small boxes containing vials of different chemicals. Then she found a small stainless steal box with white letters that just said, T-Antivirus, inject only. She opened it and saw five small green tubes, and a syringe, she closed the case and put it in her backpack as well. Jill decided she had spent enough time in the basement.
Jill was walking up the basement stairs when she had a shocking thought. The fact that there were no zombies in the area was nagging her, when she thought of another place there had been no zombies. When the Nemesis had broken into the garage, there should have been a flood of zombies, right behind it, but only the Nemesis had come in. And when Carlos had chased it out of the garage, he had a clear path and had run up into empty streets. So, what if the zombies were scared off by the Nemesis, and what if that happened here as well? That would mean the Nemesis was here, stalking her. The thought was frightening at the very least, but Jill knew that there was no use standing around on the basement stairs, she would be safer out in the open, and she needed to get back to the train as soon as possible.
When she reached the top of the stairs Rico called her on the radio and said, "Alright Jill, this is Rico, it's a done deal, the Captain said he would be sending a helicopter to the nearest evacuation point he could find, which is at a soccer field ten blocks west of you, we're moving there on foot now."
"Alright, that sounds good, I'll be on my way shortly," Jill responded.
"Wait Jill, there's a catch, the military just had a number of air strikes on the city and the suburbs approved. Their plan is to bomb the city from the outside in, they're going to begin their bombing runs within ten minutes."
"Ten minutes!? Alright, if I'm not at the evac point in…eighteen , take off without me."
"Alright, but the evacuation of us is unapproved so there's going to be bombing going all around the area. Keep your head down."
"Copy that , I'm moving out right now, Jill out."
Thinking of nothing else but getting to the evacuation point before the military started their bombing runs, Jill ran down the hallway and out the door. When she broke out onto the porch, she saw the Nemesis standing on the front lawn growling.
"Oh, son of a…" she started to say when the Nemesis cut her off by letting loose a menacing roar.
The wound on its side from when the grenade had detonated inside it was starting to heal, but there was still a large amount of gore and the big chunk of its shoulder was missing. She also noticed that one of its fingers on its right hand was missing. Carlos must have done that, she thought.
Not wasting any time, Jill opened fire and ran towards it, hoping to slip around it. At the same time the Nemesis ran towards her, getting ready to impale her on its long sharp claws. When she was five feet away, she rolled onto the ground, slipping right underneath its outstretched arm. Jill shot a few shotgun blasts into it's back before running towards the road. The Nemesis turned around and was right behind her.
She heard it closing in, and ducked just as one of its clawed hands swung over her head. She ducked again and again, but the Nemesis kept on getting closer and closer. Then when one of the hands swung over her again, she grabbed onto it and was pulled up into the air. She let get and landed on the Nemesis' shoulders. As it blindly grabbed at her, Jill fired a full clip into it's head and jumped off as it roared in pain. It took off after her again, sensing that Jill was tiring, more enraged than before.
Jill knew she wouldn't be able to keep this up for ten blocks, not before the air strikes started to hit. She turned to face the Nemesis and opened fire. It backhanded her and sent her sailing through the air. She impacted on the soft ground with a grunt and struggled to get back up. She heard a high pitched buzzing noise, and saw the Nemesis running towards her, getting ready to finish her off. But then the buzzing noise got louder and Jill turned towards the rode to see a black motorcycle pull up. It's Carlos!, she thought.
Carlos pulled a long tube off his shoulder and aimed it at the Nemesis who was still running towards Jill. He fired off a rocket propelled grenade, and then yelled for Jill to run to him. The rocket streaked through the air and impacted into the Nemesis' chest. The monstrosity was thrown backwards and into the front porch of the Burkin's house.
"You're alive!" Jill said happily, when she got to the motorcycle.
"Damn right I am, I've been hunting this thing across the city, but now I think its time to leave."
"We need to get to the evacuation point," Jill began.
"I know, I talked to Rico before, he said you were here, so I came to pick you up. Now we need to go before he gets up again," Carlos said, looking towards the Nemesis, "Get on."
Jill sat behind Carlos on the seat of the motorcycle and wrapped her arms around his waist, "Don't get any ideas," she warned.
Carlos laughed, "I wouldn't think of it," he then gunned the motorcycle and took off towards the soccer field.
When the had only gone one block, they saw fighters streak overhead, "They've started the air strikes!" Jill shouted, "We're too late!"
"Not yet!" Carlos shouted over the high pitched wine of the motorcycle.
Houses shot past them as he increased their speed, pushing the motorcycle to its max. Then Jill turned around to see the Nemesis charging after them.
"Behind us!" she shouted.
"I see it! See what you can do!"
Jill leg go with one arm and took out her hand gun, turning halfway to aim she started to fire back at the Nemesis, who was sprinting after them. Then one of the houses exploded next to them in flame. A rocket had struck it. From both sides houses started to exploded into blazing infernos as Carlos and Jill shot past them with the Nemesis right behind them. With only three blocks to go, more and more rockets shot down from the sky around them. One shot down right in front of them, and Carlos was barely able to dodge it at the high speed he was going. Jill inserted another magazine into her handgun and turned to fire at the Nemesis again. It was still running after them, and was still keeping up, it was only fifteen behind them!
Heavier missiles started to strike the area around them as they got closer to the field. Jill was firing at the Nemesis from the speeding motorcycle as best she could but the rounds weren't doing much except make the Nemesis angrier. Then all of a sudden a rocket streaked down from the sky and shot through the Nemesis' shoulder and exploded at its feet, throwing it back ten feet. Jill tapped Carlos and motioned to look back. He saw that the Nemesis was gone and nodded, but kept the speed up, trying to reach the evacuation zone before it was too late.
Then the field finally come into view, but there was no helicopter, "No! We're too late!" Jill cried out, then saw that the others were still in the field waiting.
"Damn, it didn't even come!" Carlos shouted angrily.
He slowed the motorcycle down some as they bounced across the field where the others were waiting. Jill jumped off and ran to Sherry, the little girl looked very pale and was cold to the touch. She removed a tube of antidote and put it into the syringe, she injected it into the little girls bloodstream and hoped that the she would pull through. She looked at everyone else's faces, they all looked tired and sorrowful, knowing that without the evacuation, they wouldn't survive the military air strike.
"Well, you made it," Leon said smiling sadly.
"Yeah, but we won't" Claire said angrily.
"No, we're going to get out, we're going to be evacuated," Carlos said.
"How do you know that?" Jill asked in a hard voice.
"Because I know the Captain, he'll get us out."
Jill was about to argue when over the explosions, they heard the thumping rotors of a helicopter. It was big Black Hawk, flying low over the suburbs, dodging the explosions from the air to ground missiles. The group cheered. But then they heard a loud roar and turned to see the Nemesis stumble onto the field.
"Not again," Jill moaned.
The Black Hawk flared above the field and landed. Several soldiers with CAR-15 rifles ran out and started to shoot at the Nemesis. It roared angrily and continued to walk forward, stumbling. The companions all ducked down and ran into the big helicopter. The soldiers followed as one of the crew chiefs opened up on the Nemesis with the big chain gun mounted on the side of the helicopter. The Nemesis fell to its knees in pain, and howled in pain. The Black Hawk pulled up away from the field just as the rockets started to fall into it. Jill looked down and saw the Nemesis disappear in a sea of flame.
"What took you so long?" Carlos asked the pilot.
"Sorry, the Air Force was trying to force us out of the area, we told them we were going in whether they watched out for us or not. They let us through but said they were going to continue their runs and that if we got hit it was our own damn fault."
"Sir, you have no idea how much we are in debt to you."
"Oh think nothing of it," the pilot responded, "This was fun as hell."
Carlos patted him on the shoulder and moved back his seat. Jill was sitting next Sherry's limp form, looking out the window towards the city, watching as the Air Force's bombers flew in low over the city and started to fire rockets into the huge buildings. A building over thirty stories high fell to the ground creating a cloud of debris that temporarily cut the view of the city.
Then Jill saw Sherry's eyes flutter open. She smiled and looked up at Jill.
"Where are we Jill?" She asked remembering only being in the garage hours before.
"We're in a helicopter Sherry, we got out of the city and we're safe."
"So…everything is gonna be ok?" The little girl asked.
Jill looked out the door and saw a street full of zombies burst into flames and said, "Yeah, everything is going to be alright."
The Black Hawk helicopter flew out of the air strike zone and into the safe area, bringing everyone inside to a safe zone, leaving behind the city as bomb after bomb detonated. Buildings fell to the ground, flames licked the air, zombies were torn into pieces. Nothing was left of Rockton, or the outbreak. Nothing proved the zombies existed. No proof, except the disc in Jill Valentines backpack.
