Chapter Eight
TIME: DATE RECORD ANOMALY\Date unknown.
Raccoon City, USA, North American Continent, Earth.
Former Headquarter City of the Umbrella Corporation.
Alice sat on the remains of a wrecked Volkswagon as Neo recounted his tale of the past weeks. Cam and Reaver awoke, and spun their weapons up at Alice, who snapped hers up in response. Neo held up a hand, explaining she was on their side. Guns lowered, but paranoia made them sit cautiously next to Neo. A finger on their triggers at all times.
Alice and Cam listened intently to Neo's recounting of his terrifying adventures. From his escape to the futuristic Hive, (which Alice, after hearing Neo mention, perked up slightly with greater interest), his reassignment into Umbrella Corporation's elite army, the loss of his squad to the zombie horde of New Mombassa, his meeting of Cam, and the nuclear destruction of New Mombassa.
Neo took a deep breath and sat down on wreckage, as Cam continued the tale, of her involvement with the Organization, what had happened to Raccoon City, and why they were sent here. Alice listened just as intently to Cam, and did not ask for her to repeat anything, nor did she blink at Cam once as she told her story. Neo noticed that Alice's attention seemed to be divided, as if she was listening for two or three other things as Cam spoke.
Reaver was completely and utterly silent, sitting cross-legged on a tire, his Rocket Launcher at his side. His gaze, however, never wavered off of Alice. As Cam finished minutes later, Alice smiled. "Funny, isn't it?" She asked, directing the question at Neo.
"I worked for Umbrella Corporation too, Head of Security, just like you, at one of the Hives."
Neo was alarmed. Reaver, held an "I-wanna-blast-you-now" look below his helmeted-face. Cam did not seem at all surprised or concerned at all at this revelation. Alice just smiled again. "But, also like you, I have no love for them. They did something to me…something that made me…"
Neo nodded. "I understand. You are indeed stronger, or faster, than anyone I've ever seen. Even the Spartans." Reaver looked at Neo with a momentary surprise, but he agreed.
"'Spartans'?"
"In our time, there was a great, disastrous war, one that almost wiped humanity out. In 2525, our government, the UNSC made contact with an alien conglomerate called the Covenant. Before we even encountered them, our government was on the verge of rebellion and internal collapse. So, they implemented the Spartan-II Project, and abducted 75 children that they felt were genetically superior then everyone else." He said the word 'superior' with great disdain.
"They put them through years of the toughest training in the known universe, and genetically altered them. Only half of them survived the process." Neo paused, letting what he just said sink in.
"For the next twenty years, the Spartans fought against the Covenant, beating them in every single ground battle. The Spartans were a mythological figure to the men and women of the service, especially to my unit. By the war's end, only one was alive." Neo thought back to that day on Alpha Halo, less than a year ago.
The Guardian leapt up into the air, its energy sword activated and dived right at Neo. He raised his assault rifle, and pressed the trigger. Click. He looked at the ammo counter, which read '00'. Neo took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and felt his life flash before him. The taste of sweat and blood lingered fresh on his lips.
The Guardian let out a roar, but not one of victory, but of pain. Neo opened his eyes to see dozens of bullet holes in the Guardians chest. The energy sword fell from its hand. Neo held up a hand to shield the reflected light from his eyes as a green-armored figure, easily two meters tall towered over him.
It saluted. "Master Chief SPARTAN-117, reporting, Lieutenant."
Alice said nothing while Neo spoke, and nothing after he finished. The poor bastards have it almost as hard as we, I, do, she thought. A brush of movement behind Alice alerted her, and she swung out her pistol. Neo, Cam, and Reaver, heard nothing, however, but they pulled out their guns not at the movement, but at Alice.
After realizing that she was responding to a threat, the trio lowered their guns and fanned out around Alice, pointing their deadly weapons all-around them. The movement of fur, feet, hatchets, wrecked cars being toppled over, and the occasional howl was what Alice heard as Neo decided to speak once more.
"So what the hell are you doing here?" He asked.
Alice smiled and let out a brief chuckle as she holstered her pistol and pulled out a pair of Uzis. "I was looking for a way out of here when I got separated from my group."
"Don't you think we should go looking for them?" Cam asked, activating her M6D pistol's custom flashlight. She aimed the light down an alleyway in front of her, and to Reaver's left. Nothing yet, she thought. That's good.
Alice pulled out two clips and inserted them in the Uzis. "I don't care what happens to them, or you." She said, with a click, emphasizing her statement. With a load moan came hundreds of…creatures. There is no other word to describe the non-humanly bunch of creatures as disfigured, dismembered, and skeletal ex-members of the human race came lumbering at Alice, Reaver, Neo, and Cam.
Behind this bunch were dozens of lickers, mutant dogs, with blood dripping down their muzzles as they savored and devoured their latest catch. A hoot rang through the air, and a trio of zombie owls swooped down and released a cry that struck fear into Cam. She shot wildly into the air at the three owls. Twelve shots rang true, and clipped the wings of the owls, and with one last call, they fell to the ground and died.
Cam ejected the clip and inserted another, but was too busy to notice the old man, half his face, an arm, and a section of his chest missing, exposing the rib cage underneath. He moaned, and reached up to Cam, and opened his decaying jaws. Reaver, however, noticed the man, and before Cam could shriek, he emptied a round into the other half of the man's face. It penetrated cleanly through the skull, and ejected the last of the cranial matter onto the alleyway behind Cam.
She nodded a thanks to Reaver, and spun around, firing into a group of children that were clawing their way to her. A licker leapt into the air, and pounced onto Neo, and let its tongue out and around Neo's neck. His pistol dropped and skidded a meter away. He tried to push the licker off his body with his feet, or at least get the tongue that was slowly sucking the life out of Neo off him, but the monster was too strong.
The licker opened up its massive jaw and prepared to bite into Neo with its large fangs, as the Neo felt the last of his life slowly slip away.
So this is how it ends, huh? What a way to go….
Bang! Bang! Bang! A staccato of automatic fire sounded, and with a roar, the licker died, releasing its hold on Neo. He pushed the dead creature of his body, gasped, and then took a deep breath. He looked around for his pistol, found it, and scrambled up onto his feet.
He turned to the source of the automatic symphony, and saw Alice literally mowing down zombie after zombie after zombie. When she emptied her two clips, she simply ejected them, let the Uzis hang off her shoulder straps, and promptly kicked a zombie, a decaying old man, and right in the teeth. There was a loud, wet crack, as her foot connected, and the man toppled over.
Neo didn't have time to watch the rest of Alice's fight, as a group of zombies surrounded the ODST, moaning for his flesh and blood. Teeth and jaws ready to fulfill that moan. He raised his pistol and killed all of them with a bullet to the head.
Within a few minutes, all the zombies were dead. With the exception of a few startled wits and moments that would bring the ODST trio nightmares for the rest of their lives, the group was intact. Neo reloaded his handgun, and took a deep sigh. "What now?" he asked the other three warriors.
Alice spoke before Reaver could open his mouth. "I have someone to find, my primary mission, that way I can get out of here."
Reaver turned to face Alice. "I say we should go find her friends. The more firepower we have, the better off we will be on our mission."
Alice's eyes flared red. "I don't care what you have to say."
Reaver was taken aback, and prepared to issue an equally blunt statement, but Neo raised his hands. Even through his helmet's air filters, he could smell the blood and decay of the zombie corpses, and their human victims. "I agree with Reaver. Although you have considerable skills, Alice, we will need the extra firepower. That way we can have a greater chance of finding whoever-"
"Angela Ashford," Alice interjected.
Neo paused. "This Angela Ashford, then we can take out the temporal field surrounding the city, rescue any other survivors-"
"Which is likely to be none."
Neo felt his temper rise, but he tried to remain none. "But we are ordered to look anyway. After we have fulfilled these objectives, then we can leave the city. Agreed?"
Cam and Reaver nodded. After a moment's contemplation, Alice hefted a shotgun, one of her various weapons she still possessed, that was still smoking from recent use. She considered, and even looked like she was going to point the shotgun at Neo, and blow his head clean off then and there, but she didn't. She simply hefted it onto her shoulder, and nodded, with a smile on her face. "Alright, Admiral Wannabe, we'll play it your way."
Alice motioned with her shotgun. "Lead on," and she gave a mock salute. Neo glanced at Reaver, and if his helmet were off, Neo would have seen Reaver's eyebrows rise at that very moment.
Neo did as Alice suggested, holstered his pistol, and pulled out his battle rifle, and lead the way into oblivion.
Major "Able" Cain stood with hands clasped on a railing, as he watched the latest Umbrella soldiers disembark from the sleek black helicopter. The troops quickly scrambled away from the helicopter, as the technicians onboard lowered multi-megaton crates and dropped them from the rear-mounted crane with delicate precision.
They each landed with a resounding thud that sent nearby dust and dirt flying into the air. The technicians, entering precise alphanumeric codes into the receivers on the sides of the crates, slowly opened each. Inside one was a creature similar to the one Neo encountered in New Mombassa, but with more antiquated weapons.
Nemesis, thought Cain, the pinnacle of Umbrella research and development. Evolved from the deadly Tyrant project. Augmented with superior weaponry, and armor, and a built in computer interface that can be remotely controlled by our scientists, it is the ultimate military machine.
With a smirk on his face, he watched the other crates being opened up. One of the many other super secret projects undertaken by Umbrella Corporation was the development of battle armor. Battle armor similar to that of the MJOLNIR Mark V used by the Spartans 500 years later, but Umbrella did not know of that. Still, what was being opened up in the ten other crates was most likely even more advanced than the MJOLNIR.
The Nightshade Project, continued Cain, mentally, the most-advanced piece of military hardware, anywhere on Earth. Using a series of reactive circuits and polymers, the suit is interactive with the user, and is so reactive; that the user feels like the suit is their skin. Armed with a rapid-fire pulse laser, and a smaller version of the same on the claw of the suit, as well as a high-energy mortar and rocket launcher on the suit, it can take on any ground force single-handed.
He smirked. As evidenced by the Nightshade, and Nemesis Projects, that even after the T-Virus, the boys at Umbrella R&D still had plenty of creative juice left. The mere military value alone of each project would yield countless trillions in government contracts for the Umbrella Corporation. But that wasn't Umbrella's primary concern, nor was it Cain's.
Soon, our labs will have mastered the physics of Faster-than-Light travel, and we will be on the road to global, and galactic domination. Even now, the Umbrella shipyards were busy secretly churning out warships for interstellar use. Cain reviewed the reports frequently, and according to the techies, the battlecruiser Luna was 80 operational, and would be fully online in a matter of months, maybe weeks, at best.
A brilliant flash filled the sky, and Cain was temporally blinded. He put his hand up to his eyes to shield them from the intense luminous flash. After a few brief moments, the flash subsided, and Cain lowered his hands from his face. He still couldn't see, but after blinking rapidly for a few seconds, Cain was able to see, albeit groggily.
What the hell! Thought the major. He mentally reviewed the list of Umbrella's secret projects, which was probably the only explanation why such a flash occurred. It took him a few minutes, as the list was rather extensive. Ah, dammit. One of our mutant creatures must have activated the time distortion field at the Raccoon Hive. He was quite aware that the T-Virus was released into the city. In fact, that was the reason why he was there. Umbrella felt the best way to test their new pet projects was against their other pet projects.
However, the activation of the time distortion field was going to complicate things greatly. It was never activated before, and in fact, developed because of ancient alien artifact found in the Atlantic. That artifact baffled Umbrella's top scientists for months, until they finally released it had gravity, and time-bending properties. It also released a lot of radiation, and even the top executives at Umbrella were reluctant to use it.
But all things had a use, and Umbrella Corporation hated not making advances, and so they placed it here, in Raccoon City. Cain looked up into the midnight sky, and judging from the fine filament that surrounded the city now, the field must be working. Now if it is working correctly, or not, we shall see. He also noticed three fiery streaks against the sky, and a lot more activity in the sky than was normal. Seems it does.
Cain called one of the technicians over. "Get me Captain Sterling on the line," he said to the middle-aged man. "Tell him to get the Big Four ready. Get them suited up in the Nightshade armor, and to inspect that disturbance." He pointed up into the sky, where the three streaks were heading for the outskirts of the city.
He pulled out his binoculars as the technician pulled out a radio, and began relaying Major Cain's orders. "Also," continued Cain. "Get one of our special specimens in two of the suits. And ready the Nemesis. It's time we activate Project Alice." The technician nodded, relayed the orders, and walked away. Cain grinned evilly. "Now to put our technology to the test."
A loud scream penetrated the air, and an inhuman roar, as a very large team of Umbrella soldiers restrained two humanlike creatures that might have been human at one point, but were definitely not human. It took a great deal to restrain the monsters from biting the heads off of the Umbrella team, and for the Umbrella team to return the favor, and blast the creatures' heads clean off.
Dozens of technicians rushed over, trying to quickly lock in the creatures in a suit of Nightshade armor. Once they managed to get them in, they released the electronic restraints on the creatures, and sealed up the rest of the suit. With a hiss, the suit was locked, and the monsters secure inside each. They roared with something that sounded like a cat getting run over by a very heavy car, and it's claws scratching into a piece of metallic chalk. Cain had to cover his ears at such a horrendous sound, as its already loud volume was multiplied tenfold by the suit's external communications suite.
The creature let out a final roar, and activated the right-arm pulse laser. It also activated the suit's jump jets, and fried the metal locking on the feet that kept the suit in place. It raised the laser, and fired wildly, flash vaporizing the technicians and a few soldiers instantly. The corpses' ashes were still fresh in the air, as the surviving soldiers ran through the fire caused by the laser, and opened up with their machine guns.
The light rounds pinged off of the armor of the Nightshade. The creature simply activated the suits' mortar, and fired a round. Cain heard dozens of screams as the deck below him was coated in blood, limbs, and tissue. The Nightshade let out another inhuman roar, and activated its jumpjets once more, and flew into the night sky, firing wildly with its laser and mortar.
The other technicians and soldiers that were busy securing the other creature into the second Nightshade suffered similar fates. In a matter of seconds, the Umbrella workers were either a burning heap, or a pile of their own intestines. Their deaths however painful they might have been, were very, very quick.
The creature let off a round of its mortar at an Umbrella ammunition cache, and the cache quickly caught on fire, and exploded. The second Nightshade then followed its brother, and flew into the night.
Cain, unlike his fellow coworkers on the floor below him, was unharmed. He took a breath of air, and a released it in a sigh of relief. The Nemesis, and other Nightshade armor were still unharmed and intact. Cain activated the microphone that was on his left ear. "Get a team down here stat to clean up this mess. Secure the Nemesis, and get the Big Four down here. Have our orbital satellites track those two Nightshades."
The radio crackled static for a moment, but a scratchy voice responded a moment later. "Sir, we've lost contact with our satellite network, as well as all other Umbrella facilities. We are picking up a high level of tachyons that are also interfering with our communications."
Cain quickly lost contact with the man after that statement. He didn't believe he was killed, simply what he stated. The tachyons were interfering with the radio. Umbrella would get their objective completed, no matter the cost, Human or otherwise.
A second team of technicians backed by more troops armed with SMGs, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers came out from the complex doors below Cain. They quickly cleared the deck of the bodies, and resecured the perimeter. The technicians plugged in the hardware for the Nemesis, and with port-i-comps -new inventions by Umbrella not available on the commercial market of course- prepared its software.
The single blue eye on the creature's head opened, then turned red as the initial operating system was loaded onto the creature. Cain knew the real reason why the eye was blue: the Nemesis Project required a human being that had been thoroughly mutated by the T-Virus. Very similar to the experiments needed on its predecessor, the Tyrant.
The restraints of the Nemesis were released, and the ammunition was loaded onto the Nemesis's weapons. Cain chose that particular moment to descend from his lookout. The Nemesis was not a very pretty sight, looking like something out of a children's horror story. It had a green face, with one open eye, and the other stitched close. Its mouth sported massive teeth that were in a perpetual frown, but the teeth were also perpetually barred.
Major Cain was a tall person, but the Nemesis was easily three or four heads taller than he. Even if the major were in one of the Nightshade power armor, the Nemesis would still dwarf him. "Objectives," growled the creature. A technician typed in a series of commands and nodded to the Major as he approached the Nemesis.
"Primary objective: kill all S.T.AR.S. members in the city," said the Major coolly. "And any interference you encounter."
"S.TA.R.S.," the Nemesis growled. "Primary objective recognized."
"Secondary objective," continued the major, "locate and terminate Project Alice."
"Secondary objective recognized."
The major glanced over the Nemesis once more, and nodded back to the tech. "That will be all, load him on the plane, and drop him at the Umbrella building over the former Hive."
"Yes, sir," responded the technician. He motioned for the other techs to assist him in repackaging the Nemesis, and its weapons. Major Cain smiled. Today was going to be a bad day for Umbrella's enemies.
Carlos Olivera cursed. It was a bad night indeed for the former Umbrella operative left for dead by his employers. If I live through this, thought Olivera, as he shot a zombie square in the right eye with his heavy pistol, I really need a vacation. He jumped over a wrecked Ford and pulled the trigger of his pistol. Click.
"Dammit, I really need a long vacation," he said aloud as he ejected the spent clip of the pistol, and not bothering to slam a new one home, hastily holstered it, and grabbed his assault rifle that was dangling around his shoulder. He fired a quick burst from the rifle at the oncoming zombies, and dropped a few of them from lucky headshots.
He wished he still had a few extra grenades left over, that way he could take care of the few hundred or so zombies running, -well not literally running, but chasing after him nonetheless- at him, moaning for his blood, and just about what else it was that zombies ate.
It didn't really matter to Carlos, so long as he managed to get out of the godforsaken city in one piece. He fired a few more bursts over his shoulder as he kept on running down one of the many wrecked streets of the living dead city of Raccoon City.
After the brilliant flash and ambush, Alice wasn't the only one who got separated. Carlos got separated from Jill and LJ in the brief firefight, and now it seemed like the whole freaking city was after him. Like Alice, he didn't really care what happened to the others, just that he survived.
His only chance for such survival was to find Angela Ashford, where she was believed to be at the Raccoon City Middle School, and get the hell out of there.
If he ran into Alice and the others –alive that is- at the school, then that would be good.
The rifle clicked empty, and he cursed as he ejected the clip from the rifle. He replaced the clip, and kept on running. Tonight was definitely not a good night for ex-Sergeant Carlos Olivera.
Jill Valentine wasn't fairing any better. The ex-S.T.A.R.S. member had a steady supply of ammunition for her Desert Eagle, and a steady supply of targets as well. She fired a round into the head of a middle-aged woman with tangled blond hair. The women dropped to the bloody pavement of 32nd Street with a thud.
What happened next almost made Jill lose her lunch, as the women's head rolled off her shoulders and into the zombie horde. One zombie picked up the women's head, and took a chunk out of it. Jill dropped the zombie with a round, and dropped to one knee, and took out five more.
She replaced the clip of her pistol, turned, and ran. What looked like a mutant baboon jumped out of an Italian restaurant, with bloodstained claws at Jill. She screeched, and fired a round at its head. It took the round, fell to the ground, paused, and jumped back into the air at Jill, its mouth chattering in a primitive tongue.
She fired a trio of rounds at it, turned and ran, and fired three more shots at it. She looked up into the sky, and noticed three streaks fly over her. At first she thought they were meteorites, but then she noticed the metal parachutes detach off of them.
Great, Jill thought, more guests, most likely courtesy of the Umbrella Corporation.
Behind the trio of metallic streaks, a much, much larger one followed them, and behind that, dozens of smaller ones. She almost froze when she saw next, when two pairs of jumping armor, semi-reminiscent of the medieval era knights, were firing lasers while they flew around building after building just a few hundred meters away.
She did freeze when she heard the blood-curling roar that emanated from the duo. Suddenly, the baboon-like creature knocked her down. She fiddled around for her pistol, while struggling to keep the baboon from biting her, its canines begging for the arterial area of her neck.
She found it, and with a chuckle, fired the rest of the clip into the stomach and head of the baboon. The baboon's chattering stopped, and she kicked the corpse off of her body.
"Dammit," she cursed. "And this was my favorite tube top too." She was referring to the blood and guts that had spattered all over her light blue tube top, black shorts, and knee-high boots.
She dug around for a towel in her handbag, and wiped off the blood. She discarded the soiled towel, and reloaded her pistol. She looked back behind her, the zombie horde still pursuing her, but also, still very far away. She looked at the road sign that read 35th Street.
Well, at least I'm a helluva lot closer to Angela.
Above her, another light filled the sky, but not the brilliant flash from before, but the artificial lighting of an Umbrella Corporation heavy chopper.
"I really need to quit smokin'," remarked Jill, as she readied her pistol, and ran down 35th Street.
"What the hell was that?" asked Neo, as a second bright flash filled the sky.
Alice shrugged. "Seems like another one of those flashes that we've come to associate with complete and utter weirdness." More streaks filled the sky. "And company."
"Quite the party today, huh?" asked Cam.
"How far away from the school are we?" Neo asked Alice.
Alice grinned. "You're the leader, not me, why you asking?"
Neo shrugged. "You've been here in this city longer than I. You know the way around."
Alice laughed. "Well, at least you don't have too big of an ego like most guys I know. It's not far from here. We should be there in a few minutes."
"Good," Reaver said, "I'm-" he was cut off as a streak larger than the others flashed above. "What the hell is that?"
"I don't want to find out," Cam said. "Come on, we need to keep moving."
Neo and Reaver nodded, as Alice continued her march forward.
Lloyd Jefferson Wayne wasn't thrilled at all being alone. All he had were two custom pistols, and that shit wasn't gonna be enough to keep him alive from all the fighting and undead monsters that was the current population of Raccoon City. "Damn, LJ, what shit have ya got yourself into now?" The black man asked himself.
He had run away at top speed when the group got ambushed, and now he found himself wandering down a deserted street with equally deserted cars. Ahead of him was a wrecked out building that seemed unlocked. "Oh shit, yes! A place to crash!" He crouched down and slowly walked forward to the shack. He swore he heard gunfire nearby, and it wouldn't do him any good to get mistaken for a zombie by some trigger-happy dude.
Unbeknownst to him, a S.T.A.R.S. agent sporting a cowboy-style hat and sniper rifle with a ton of beer was perched up at the wrecked letters on the roof of the wrecked building. He spotted the black man in his scopes, lined him up in his sniper rifle and…
Bang! Nailed the zombie bitch that was sneaking up behind LJ, ready to take a bite out of him. "I got the power…" the sniper chuckled, ejecting the spend round from his sniper, and loading another. He laughed again, and took a swig of beer.
LJ blinked for a moment, wondering if he was dead or alive, and realized the latter, spotted the sniper and ran out from the wrecked car. "Thanks man! I owe you one!" He ran inside the building, and casually walked around the corner of the building…
And right into a dozen guns of various type: ranging from SMGs, to pistols, to a full-fledged shotgun, "Damn! Maybe I was safer outside!" LJ remarked, holding his hands up. "You get them guns outta my damn face now, ya hear?" The officers, realizing he wasn't a zombie, did as the black man asked.
An elderly man with graying hair turned to one of the officers behind him, and pulled out a shotgun for LJ. LJ smirked, "Motherfucker please. Look," he said, pulling out his two golden pistols for everyone to see, "my shit, is custom." The elderly man just gave a laugh, and tossed the shotgun back behind him to one of the officers. LJ laughed along with the officer.
"Sir!" shouted one of the S.T.A.R.S agents. "Look!"
On the roof of what once was a part-time motel, part-time hooker shack, Corporal Dan Sanders was in complete shock, and he blinked twice to make sure he wasn't seeing things through his sniper scope. Approaching the building was a 7 or 8-foot tall creature sporting a rocket launcher and fricking huge machine gun and a badass wardrobe. His shock quickly subsided as his training kicked in. Sanders aimed his sniper rifle for the creature's large head, and fired.
The round went through its head, but did little damage to the creature. It simply roared and kept on walking. He fired twice more with similar results. Frustrated, he let out a shout of his own, reloaded his sniper, and fired again, and again, and again, doing no damage to the monster.
It raised its rocket launcher at Sanders, and fired. "Ah, shit," were the last words coming out of Sanders' mouth as he attempted to jump off of the roof, and was blasted away by the rocket.
"What the hell was that?" asked LJ, as the shack shook from the rocket blast.
The dozen S.T.A.R.S. agents and LJ ran up to the front of the building. The S.T.A.R.S. agents were briefly surprised, but they sprung into action, taking refugee behind many of the overturned tables at the front of the shack. LJ just stood in the middle of their formation, guns in his hands, and mouth wide open.
"Fire!" shouted the elderly officer in charge of the team. Mechanical symphony filled the air, as hundreds of rounds flew from the team and right at the creature. Half of the rounds either pinged off of the thick armor, or went straight through it. The massive behemoth lowered its rocket launcher, and raised its machine gun.
It roared and pressed on the automatic's trigger. Hundreds of rounds soared through the night with accurate precision at the S.T.AR.S. agents, but danced by LJ. In seconds, the S.T.A.R.S. agents were dead, with Lloyd Jefferson Wayne, standing in the middle of it all, guns in his hands raised to his ears, crying for his mommy.
As the sound of the automatic's signature died down with the bodies, LJ opened up his eyes and looked around. Sweet Jesus, I'm still alive! But the creature was still there, and it roared once more, its weapon aimed squarely at LJ. "Shit!"
The creature knew no name. It did not remember anything of its previous life. Only its objective: kill all S.T.A.R.S. agents, Alice, and anyone that threatened those objectives. The black man in front armed with two puny pistols, however, did not fill that criteria.
Nemesis 1.0.0
Scanning…
Target acquired.
Analyzing…
At that moment in time, LJ thought it'd be a good idea to be a coward and give up. He dropped his pistols. "Oh man, don't hurt me. I got a wife and two kids, I'm tellin' ya! I haven't done anything! I wouldn't hurt a fly, or a badass dude like you!" The creature roared.
"I'm sorry!" LJ started crying. "Don't hurt me!"
Threat Analysis: Noncombatant.
The Nemesis turned around, and walked off, in search of fresh targets to fulfill its master's orders.
To LJ's disbelief, the badass had stared at him for a moment, and then turned away. Did I really scare him away? LJ thought. When he was certain that the creature had gone away, he picked up his pistols, and ran out of the building, and into the bloodstained streets under the watchful gaze of an equally blood-red moon. It started raining.
"Ah, shit," mumbled LJ, "Can things get any worse?" A distant roar answered his question. LJ just kept running and mumbling expletives.
"Sir?" asked the Umbrella pilot at the controls of the unmarked black Dropship Gamma 018.
Mark McCormick came out of his daze. "Yes, Lieutenant. What is it?"
"We've arrived at Raccoon City."
"Is it the right date?" McCormick inquired.
The pilot consulted a few instruments on his console. "Yes, sir. It is. November 12th, 2004."
McCormick grinned. "Excellent. The men are standing by with the Nemesis, yes?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good."
McCormick inquired no more. The men and women that were with him today were the best. They knew their job, and McCormick knew his. It was time to take care of some unfinished business.
In the massive cleared out hanger of the Pelican behind McCormick, a creature gave a perpetual evil grin. To what it was giving the grin to, or for, no one would be sure. Much less the Umbrella Shock Troopers that had the "pleasure" of being stuck with it.
The creature knew nothing of its previous life. Only the order of its masters, and that was also only one thing: kill the ODST known as Neo, and anyone that got in his way from doing it.
