Chapter 24

Alice backed for the door and groped around in the dark. Though the darkness was extreme, she could still see the pallid white and light blue dilation of their eyes and they limped towards her. She's fought these things before, but six of them?

Only a few feet from grabbing her, Amelia swung the door open, and threw Alice two handguns. She caught each in both hands, and then threw the more powerful one to Amelia. "Use it."

"Are you crazy? What if I miss?"

"You have high survival skills like me. Most likely, you won't miss," Alice assured her.

Alice didn't fire, but instead backed out of the open door. She slammed it shut, the hoped the three-inch thick metal door would hold. Within a few seconds, the creatures had made their way over to the door and were pounding at it, demanding to be let in. They moaned for warm, human flesh.

"What were those things?" Amelia cried.

"It's none of your concern. Just know this: it doesn't matter who it is, or the fact that's it's a human. The point is that it will kill you if you don't kill it. They don't have enough will power. Their minds will only crave food, and they will eat anything in their path."

"Even... me? People? Why don't they eat themselves?"

"Their blood is coagulated and cold, pasty. They want warm, thick flesh."

Amelia winced. "But I don't think I can shoot it."

"You're going to have to," Jill said, joining them from the bunkers after hearing the conversation. "Looks like we've got us another Raccoon incident."

"Not just yet," Alice said. "There were only six. Still, if Umbrella finds they haven't rid of us, they may go to desperate measures to do so. They may drop more... or something worse."

"Worse?" Carlos asked, joining them in the cold, tiled hallway. The creatures continued to pound on the door with force.

"Do you remember that thing I fought back in Raccoon? That Neanderthal?" Alice asked.

Amelia said nothing. Jill and Carlos nodded.

"He used to be a person, a good friend," Alice said quietly as she lowered her head. "His intentions weren't to eat people. It was first assigned to eliminate those species, but then its objective was changed to--"

"Kill any STARS members," Jill finished.

Alice nodded. "So he had more willpower. He could control himself to an extent and stopped himself from killing me." She shook her head. "But those things in there... have no will but to eat."

"If Umbrella realized the mistake they made with Project Nemesis, they may see if they can remove the existing consciousness the person has... whoever the victim becomes."

"It most likely won't be anyone we know, so that won't stop it from killing us," Carlos said.

"But it can't hold more than one objective, can it?" Amelia asked. They all looked at her. After a moment of silence, she hesitantly opened her mouth, and continued. "You said its first objective was to rid of those things, and then go after... STARS? Then it can only hold one objective at a certain time, can't it?"

"She's smart," Jill said. "This is true. They may program it to kill STARS, but that would only include Alice, Carlos, and me. It won't go after Amelia and Rodney, however, because it can't be given the command."

"Did someone say my name?" Rodney said, yawning. He jumped when he heard the creature stirring. "What was that?!" he shouted.

"That door won't hold up," Alice informed them. "We'll all need weapons. Follow me."

She went into the next room, the Weapon Storage. Amelia and Alice both had handguns, and figured that was protection enough, considering they both had high survival skills. Jill grabbed an Assault Rifle, while Carlos grabbed a Shotgun. Rodney was handed a set of twin Machine Guns.

"Can you handle those alright?" Carlos asked Rodney.

"I'll be fine," Rodney said, smirking.

"We'll be on stand-by for now," Alice said. "We can just sit and wait. It's not safe enough to run just yet."