Chapter 28

Carlos kicked in the metal shutters leading into the next building, and they each proceeded cautiously. Alice listened.. Silence. But although it was common for the undead to moan for the living, she knew that Umbrella was advancing faster than she may realize. After all, they were able to overtake Hannah so quickly. She probably figured that the noises behind the door was someone trapped. Strange that she got away.. or so she claimed.

Rodney was at Amelia's side, he noticing her tensity, and equally as tense. Strange that Alice wasn't as tense. Alice knew it was a common reaction as an Evolved to be more alert, but did Amelia sense something that Alice didn't?

"Maybe I'm just getting old," Alice said aloud, mistakenly.

"What do you mean?" Jill asked

Alice looked to them, who were staring at her, and laughed. "Oops. Just thinking out loud. I'm just wondering if Amelia's senses are better than mine."

"Better than a prototype? Doubtful," Carlos said.

Amelia stopped suddenly. "Something just occurred to me!" she shouted.

Alice covered Amelia's mouth, and they all listened intently for movement. Amelia's eyes were wild.

"What's wrong?" Hannah asked.

"If the Nemesis project were to come after us, what if they programmed it to come after infected members?"

"So it would come after you and I?" Alice asked.

"That's what happened last time," Jill said. "It attacked zombies, but more specifically, it went after those who were infected. It didn't attack Alice until later when it detected her. She's infected, whether she's a zombie or not."

"I thought you told me not to call them that," Carlos scoffed.

Hannah wasn't listening to their conversation, but rather, what Amelia brought up: that it went after the infected. What if that thing went after her? Was this thing really so powerful? She didn't want to find out first hand.

"Hannah? You okay?" Rodney asked, shaking her after placing his hand on her shoulder. She was shaken back into reality.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine. Just thinking."

Suddenly, something down the hall, in the darkness, hissed. It sounded distant, yet far. Silence fell upon them immediately.

"What was that?" Jill whispered.

They readied their weapons, and heard as something clicked against the walls, with either nails or padding. It hissed again.

"Problem with the ventilation, maybe?" Rodney suggested.

Alice looked around. She had improved senses, including night vision, and scanned the halls, but couldn't detect anything. Amelia had her gun raised, her eyes wide, her arm shaking. She fingered the trigger and pulled it after a few seconds.

Silence.

After the shattering discharge of the pistol, it echoed through the halls. They all looked to Amelia, and she slowly lowered her gun. Carlos retrieved a small flashlight from his side pocket, and ventured further down the dark hall. They followed closely behind. He was able to catch a glimpse of what Amelia had fired at.

"That looks familiar," Jill said quietly.

"You haven't had to deal with them twice," Alice replied. She noticed deep claw marks in the sheet rock walls that trailed to the floor below. It's long, three-foot long tongue was flopped from it's mouth, lying in a pool of it's own fluids, a single bullet lodged into it's head. It resembled a dog with long talons, it's muscle and flesh revealed.

"We called them Lickers," Jill told them. "In Raccoon, Alice and I had to deal with them in a Cathedral. If it hadn't been for her, I would probably be dead."

"It seems that it wasn't my senses that saved you this time," Alice said, looking to Amelia.

Amelia's eyes were still rather wide, as though she couldn't believe that she had noticed it, and the others couldn't. Maybe it was true. Maybe she wasn't who she seemed, and perhaps, even changed.

"That wasn't anything like.. Nemesis, was it?" Hannah asked.

"No, Nemesis can be programmed. These things just kill. They don't kill to eat, I don't believe," Carlos said.

"But why else would they?" Rodney asked.

"Who knows? We don't even know what they are," Jill replied.

Alice gasped lightly. "Video cameras."

"What?"

"If there are any video cameras hanging from the wall, we need to take them out," Alice informed them. "Umbrella can program them to hunt us down and send in their new Hunter species."

Jill was silent at first. "Like those in the original Raccoon City?"

Alice nodded. "They're mutated amphibians that run on two legs and have large talons. If we can shoot out all the cameras, then our risk of them coming is minimal to none, but if any of us are separated against these, our survival will be minimal to none. I'm not exaggerating when I say how fast they can move."

"Are there any other threats we need to know as of now?" Rodney asked.

Yeah, Hannah thought, me.