It's Now or Never
An original Resident Evil fiction written by: Xenogears
The following is an original story using elements from the game series, Resident Evil, created by Capcom. Any Resident Evil likeliness, similarities or direct takes are used without permission. Anything relating to anyone, whether alive or dead, is purely coincidental, and unintended.
Chapter Three:
Around Town
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October 10, 2002
Skokie, Illinois
Skokie Public Library
1:07 PM, raining
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They bolted though the front doors of the library and kept on running, ignoring the few zombies that had suddenly appeared from seemingly out of nowhere on the streets, and taking no heed to the now light drizzle that the pouring rain had calmed down to. Stopping about halfway for a few seconds to catch their breath, they sprinted on again at double speed, not bothering to stop again until they reached Niles West High School's front doors. Breathing hard, they took a look around before they stepped in.
As they could already see, the glass doors that were normally quite sturdy were now either off their hinges, or outright shattered. Still-dripping blood dribbled down from one of the shards of glass of the shattered doors, adding to the already ominous feeling that was shared between the teens. The security desk just ten or so yards from the door was abandoned, which assured them that something was indeed wrong.
"We're...going to need something...to protect ourselves," Peter said in between gasping breaths.
"Come on," Matt answered him in a voice. "I think...I got something in my car."
They jogged over to the student parking lot, where Matt's blue, four-door Ford Focus was waiting. Most of the other students thought he was crazy for leaving the car in the parking lot most of the time, but Matt preferred taking the bus with Ji Hae and the others. Besides, it was always nice to have backup transportation in case something went wrong at school. Something like now.
Popping open the trunk, he handed his steel pipe over to Peter. He dug though a duffel bag until he came out with a shinai, a fencing sword made of strips of hard bamboo tied together with a wooden handle. There was another shinai in the bag, which he gave to Kevin. Rarely did Matt ever drive his car, mainly to save money on gas. He would most often leave it at school in the parking lot and take the bus to and from school.
"Why are you giving me the pipe?" Peter asked. "It's a hell of a lot harder than that thing."
Holding the bamboo sword at his side, Matt answered in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone, "That's because the shinai is lighter and less bulky than the pipe. If it's swung right, it can still crack someone's neck. Fortunately, I know just how to do that."
Peter shrugged his shoulders, and took in a deep breath. "Let's go. We got to see if there's anyone left."
Matt and Kevin nodded in agreement, and walked in step with Peter, until Matt broke the stride with a start. "Ji Hae!" were his only words. Without saying another word to the others, he sprinted ahead and into the school, despite Kevin and Peter's cries to wait up. Upon entering the main front hallway, he frantically spun his head to the left, right, and forward.
'Okay, Matt. Think. Where is she now? It's a little past one, at mods 22-24...' Matt thought, looking down one hallway to the next. There were no zombies in sight, but he knew that they were inside this school somewhere. They just had to be. Grinding his teeth together, he squeezed his eyes shut in concentration. 'Think, dammit!'
After perhaps a second more, realization hit him. 'Orchestra!'
It was then that his friends caught up with him. "Don't run off like that, man," Kevin admonished him. "It's too dangerous to split up."
Without even apologizing, Matt went on. "We have to go find Ji Hae! She's at Orchestra! Come on!"
His friends had no objections. Not only did they know that they couldn't persuade him, but they did care for Ji Hae. Not as much as Matt did of course, but they still thought of her as a close friend. Taking a moment to reflect on some old memories, Kevin thought back on their first day that they had all met her in the fourth grade. She had been smart, yes, but overly shy. He remembered that he, Peter and Kevin were the first to approach her besides the teachers and make her a friend. Coming back to reality, he rounded a corner with the others. Dashing down the hall, they entered the auditorium through the back entrance, taking a look around. No one, not even a single one of those zombie were around.
"Ji Hae--!" Matt called out. "Where are you!"
They were given no answer. So, Matt proceeded to lead them behind the stage and down the Music Hall, where the band and orchestra usually rehearsed. Opening the door that was used by the orchestra to rehearse, Matt had to blink several times to make sure that he was seeing straight. The sight before them was as if a hurricane had struck. Chairs, music stands, instruments lying on the floor, damaged. Then there were the few bodies left of the players. All of them were torn open in some way, some only had halves of them left, missing limbs, all well beyond dead. The three teens had to turn their heads at the sight, but were forced to walk by. Matt swallowed the bile slowly beginning to rise in his throat and forced himself look over the carnage to see if Ji Hae was included in the body count. To his immense relief, she wasn't there.
Walking further into the room, they came into some sort of storage area, with large cabinets and boxes stacked on top of one another. The lighting was adequate, but it was a bit cold, despite the heating that the school enjoyed.
"Ji Hae!" Matt called out with his hands cupped over his mouth. "Where are you!"
Even as his friends covered their ears from the loudness of his voice, there was nothing. So they began to walk around the room, looking behind crates, even in them, but they found no trace of her.
"Dammit!" Matt exclaimed as he smashed his fist down into a crate. The impact splintered the crate a bit, but it did not break. "Where the hell is she?"
It was then that a sound emerged from one of the cabinets that they had not checked. Cautiously, they approached it. Indeed, the sound came from here. After what happened with Craig back at the library, Matt had decided that he would be prepared. Standing on either side of the door were Kevin and Peter who gave him a nod to open the cabinet door. And so, placing his hands on the handles, he flung them open, and let out a war cry as he nearly brought his shinai down on the person hunched into a fetal position inside. Realizing almost instantly that it was Ji Hae, Matt stopped his bamboo sword in mid-flight, just inches from her head. He let the shinai drop to the ground, he bent down to Ji Hae.
"Ji Hae?" He asked her in the most comforting voice he could muster. "Are you okay?"
Bringing her head up from her fetal position, Ji Hae looked up at Matt with tearstained eyes. After making sure he was real, she clung to him, letting fresh tears flow. Matt held her close and said nothing, waiting for her to stop. When she had regained a bit of her composure some time later, she sat back and took a deep, shaky breath.
"Matt," she started. "Thank God you're okay. It...it was horrible..." Pausing again, she went on, "I was there! Mrs. Singer, the principal burst through the doors and, and, and, she…she ate Mr. Koch. She ate him! Then, she turned to me and…and…I ran for the back. The others tried to follow me, but they couldn't get themselves locked behind something, I guess. I heard them all…die. Eaten alive by those…things. T-they kept banging on my door, but they couldn't open it. They, they, they left after a long time…God Matt, it was awful!"
She held back her sobs, but two tears escaped her eyes. She wiped her eyes and snorted her nose once or twice, then went on again. "But...thankfully, you're okay. Where were you?"
"Me?" Matt answered a bit sheepishly. "Well, Kevin, Craig, Peter and I, we kinda, uh, sneaked out of school."
"Kevin, Peter and Craig? Where are they?"
"Right here," Peter said, coming out from his side of the cabinet. "Kevin's over there."
"And Craig?"
Matt, Kevin and Peter lowered their heads as one. Ji Hae cocked her head to the side. "What's wrong, guys?" she asked tentatively.
"Craig," Kevin said, letting out a long breath. "You see..."
And so, Kevin related their tale of how they had managed to sneak out of school, and get to the library. He then went on to tell of their first encounter with the zombies, and how they had found Craig, quite dead. After he had finished, a solemn silence filled the air as the four recollected and gathered their thoughts and feelings.
"Craig...he's...dead?" Ji Hae asked slowly.
"I'm...yeah..." Matt replied in a shaky voice. Matt then buried his face in one hand, and began to cry silently, something that Kevin and Peter did as well: just that they had the decency to look the other way. Ji Hae, who wasn't as close to Craig as the three teens, could only look on in shock at the knowledge of his death, and that she had never seen any of them cry before. Ji Hae reached her hand out for Matt, but he brushed her off with his other hand. "Just...please.…"
But she didn't give up. Instead, she played the part of the comforter, holding his head to her chest. Perhaps it was this position on her bosom that made Matt accept her touch, but it seemed that it didn't matter to him. He still cried silently into her purple knit sweater, wrapping his hand behind her back. All the while, Ji Hae was just as patient with him as he was with her earlier, even holding him as close to her as she could, brushing the back of his head with her hand. After a good long while, Matt had recollected himself and bravely pulled himself up into a standing position. His eyes bloodshot, he tried his best to look strong.
"We'd better get going," Peter said as he rubbed his eyes, his voice still a little hoarse. "We're surrounded by those things after all. Won't take 'em long to find us."
Kevin and Matt nodded. "Right," Matt answered, then turned to Ji Hae. "Now listen, Ji Hae. I don't care if you see anyone you recognize. If they're walking like those monsters, and looking like them, then they are one of them. They're no longer human; they're the walking dead."
Ji Hae hesitated, but nodded her head in response.
"How about any of your other friends?" Kevin asked.
Ji Hae gave the same sad expression that the boys had expressed earlier. "They're one of them, most likely. All of my other friends' classes are on the first floor by now, so..."
"We understand," Matt said, giving Ji Hae his hand as she rose to her feet. He managed to flash her a real smile. "For now, let's just worry about getting out of here alive."
Ji Hae looked him directly in his red, puffy eyes and let a small smile show on her lips.
'So he really does care for me a lot,' she thought. 'He could have just not even come looking for me to save himself, but now I think I'm seeing more of who he really is.'
Gathering their wits about them, the young teens rose from the floor and walked out of the auditorium, and into the main hallway. At the intersection of the Main Lobby and the Auditorium they stood thinking about their next course of action. The front entrance was a few yards down their left, so it would be easy to just slip away then and there, but Matt, Kevin, Peter and Ji Hae wanted to see if they could find any other people that would be alive. So, they decided to take the path in front of them that would lead them to the Oakton Lobby. However the lobby was nothing more than a mess of overturned tables and chairs, broken soda and snack machines and broken glass. The doors that were in this lobby were broken and shattered too, leading them to the obvious conclusion that the zombies had entered the building from more than one direction. Judging from this amount of destruction, it was a wonder why they hadn't encountered any more zombies. While they did not dwell on it long, they were thankful for it, whatever the reason.
From there, they took the nearby staircase to the second floor to look in one of the biggest parts of the school, the IRC. The IRC, short for Information Resource Center, was just a fancy name for a school library. As they walked down the halls, they could see down at the far south end of the halls that there were figures shuffling toward the science wing. While they couldn't see them clearly, they were certain that the figures were the undead. Thankfully, they were going in the opposite direction of the teens.
"Let's hurry this up," Kevin said. "We don't know when one of those things could pop up."
They entered the IRC cautiously, with Peter at vanguard point position. They slowly walked forward, forming a protective shield around the unarmed Ji Hae. The IRC was in surprisingly good shape, looking as if it hadn't been touched at all. Even the odd smell of blood and rotting flesh that now floated throughout the school wasn't apparent in the IRC. They were almost about to think that they were alone in the room when they heard a low, hungry moan. Looking to their left, they found two of the hideous zombies who looked like they were once former students stumbling for them, trying to get around the long row of computers that separated the living from the undead. Using the machines as a barrier between them, the three armed teens rushed up to the creatures and swung their weapons at their assailants' heads.
With Kevin and Matt on one of them, there was a sharp snap as their shinai connected with its neck and head at opposite sides and the zombie crumpled to the floor, lifeless. Peter on the other hand only needed to give a good swing at the head of the creature with his steel pipe, creating a wet crunch as its skull caved in. Suddenly, the side door behind Peter burst open and another zombie came shuffling out. His friends shouted an alarm at him just as he sidestepped. As the zombie stumbled forward, he smashed his pipe into the back of the undead's kneecaps, dropping it to the floor. Raising his pipe high above his head, he brought it down on the zombie's cranium, splashing the white walls and garishly tan carpet with crimson brain matter.
As the undead lay motionless on the floor, no longer a threat, Kevin called out, "Hey! Anyone here?"
His reply was a loud chorus of moans from the far end of the library. The three young men raised their weapons and waited for the threat to show. Seconds later, they could see countless zombies stumbling or crawling toward them from the far end of the IRC. Most of them were coming out from behind the bookcases. Looking behind them, they could see that there were also some approaching them from behind the front desk.
"Guys...?" Ji Hae nervously asked, cowering in fear.
"Well, uh," Kevin stuttered at the sight before him, turning his head this way and that, trying to decide upon a course of action. "Run!"
Turning on their heels, they ran for the doors, just barely avoiding the undead from behind the front desk. Springing into the front hall, the teens whipped their heads from right to left. From the science wing to the south, the shuffling figures that they had seen earlier were now a massive group of thirty or more zombies, shoving over each other just to get to them. To the north, the social sciences hall, there was a clear path. Their choice was clear.
Wordlessly taking the lead once more, Matt led the teens down the hall, breaking into a sprint. As he reached the staircase at the far end of the hallway, however, he saw another group of undead lurching at them from down the stairs. From the third floor, more zombies stumbled down the staircase, intending to make them their next meal. Backing out of the doorless stairwell, Matt spun around, intending to use the rear second floor hallway to get to the front entrance, and thus to safety. He turned just in time to see yet another pack of undead burst though the door leading to the rear stairwell.
There was only one option left. Turning to room 2116 to his immediate right, he placed his hand on the doorknob and thankfully found that it turned. Pushing the others inside, he slammed the door shut, and they went to work barricading themselves in the room. Because of the undead so close to the stairwell, they barely had time to push a file cabinet and a desk against the door.
Stepping back to inspect their work, they found that, considering the massive amount of zombies they were faced with, they only had so much time before the undead would come bursting through the door.
"What are we gonna do?" Kevin asked frantically, his voice panting from the overload of adrenaline coursing through his veins. "That ain't going to hold too long..."
Matt looked around for options. First, he considered himself lucky that there were no zombies in the room they were in. Second, he saw that the windows were boarded up, mysteriously. Behind him, there was a door to a separate another little room inside the classroom.
"In there!" Matt exclaimed.
Peter, who was first, flung open the door, and ushered the others in. The windows in here weren't boarded up at all, thankfully. Getting to work immediately, Peter and Matt went to work on prying one of the windows open, while Ji Hae and Kevin worked on the other.
'Come on, you piece of shit!' Peter's mind shouted. 'Open...open...! Open! OPEN!'
Perhaps it was that thinking, or maybe it was the sound of their barricade being broken through. Whatever it was that gave Peter and Matt the burst of strength they needed to open the window, it came, giving them a much-needed escape route.
Matt pushed Ji Hae through the window first, followed by Peter, then Kevin. Upon Matt's turn, the door behind him burst open, and the zombies began to fill into the crowded space. Matt jumped for the window, slamming his stomach on the windowsill. It hurt, but the only thing on his mind was survival, so he managed to repel the pain and squeeze himself through the window.
He gave a sudden yelp as he felt his foot being grabbed by one of the zombies behind him. His friends, already seeing this, grabbed onto him and pulled for all they were worth.
'I'm not gonna die!' Matt thought desperately, trying to kick off the monsters grabbing onto his leg. 'I'm not gonna DIE!'
His friends' combined strength, coupled with Matt's kicking, left the zombies with only a worn-out running sneaker, and not the flesh they hungered for. Matt was sent falling back with his friends onto the roof of the main office below them. Moans and wails of frustration could be heard escaping from their throats as the zombies attempted to crawl through the window themselves.
"Ah, who needed that old shoe anyway?" Matt chuckled ruefully. Despite his slight smile, his limbs were trembling slightly with his brief brush with death.
"Screw that," Peter exclaimed as he ran toward the edge of the building. Taking a quick look over, he called back to the others: "We have to get down! There's grass below, if you aim yourself right. Come on!"
Peter leapt off the ledge, and fell one story below. Soon afterwards, there was Peter's grunt after he hit the ground. Matt was next, jumping off, and breaking into a somersault roll as he hit the grass. Kevin attempted the same, but landed wrong and ended up rolling unto the cement. Largely unhurt, he still grimaced a bit. Were this not a situation of this magnitude, Matt and Peter would have laughed at their friend.
Ji Hae was last, but she hesitated at the edge, not so sure of herself. Matt knew that she had hated heights ever since she was little, but even in a situation like this.…
"Jump, Ji Hae!" Matt shouted.
"B-but—"
"No 'buts'! I'll catch you! Trust me!" just as he finished his sentence, Ji Hae whipped her head behind her to see the first of the undead to crawl out the window and onto the roof. "Come on, Ji Hae! Jump!"
Ji Hae froze for a few moments, watching the zombies begin to crawl out the window, one by one. She had nothing to defend herself with and she doubted that her strength could take them down. She had no time. Hesitating not a moment more, she closed her eyes and took a leap of faith off the roof, finding herself on top of someone once she landed. Opening her eyes, she realized it was Matt. She rolled off him as soon as she found that her impact had knocked both of them to the ground, and hastily apologized.
Peter took up the lead and directed them to the student parking lot, heading for Matt's car. By now, the undead—both adults and their fellow classmates—were cascading out of any opening they could find through the glass windows and doors of the school. As they looked toward the large field used by P.E classes, the teens could see innumerous amounts of the moaning, drooling, rotting things stumbling over toward the parking lot. Worst yet, the undead who were already in the parking lot had noticed the humans and starting their walking, stumbling gait toward them. The ones piling out from the main auditorium entrance were starting to come for them now as well. They piled into the car in a frantic mess. Matt was the last one, still digging out his keys even as he slipped behind the wheel. He slammed the door and his key ring accidentally tumbled from his nervous fingers. "Shit!"
Ji Hae pounded on the back of his seat. "They're coming!"
Matt reached under his seat, groping for the keys. He blocked out all of the other sounds—Ji Hae's pounding, Peter's swearing, Kevin's mumbling, even the ever-closer moans—and concentrated just on getting the keys back in hand. His calmness helped: his finger brushed the familiar cold metal and he snatched them up, finding the ignition key almost by instinct. He jammed it into the steering column and started the engine. The car screeched into gear, and they sped away from the school at top speed.
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"Downtown Skokie", corner of Oakton St. and Lincoln Ave.
Atop parking garage of Bank One
1:24 PM, cloudy
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Peter stood overlooking the downtown area—if it could even be called that—of Skokie, leaning with both his elbows on the concrete railing. Surprisingly, despite their close proximity to the school and library (which Peter could see from here), there weren't many zombies in this area, and if those below came anywhere near them, they had Matt's nearby car to escape in. This four-story parking lot was the second highest point in all of Skokie, next to the roof of the Searle office building not far away. Here, Peter and his friends would sit, joke around, plan pranks, lie on the concrete and stare at the sky, and otherwise do aimless things to pass the time and forget about the world.
So why did this usually mind-clearing place suddenly seem not-so-mind-clearing?
Peter couldn't suppress a smirk. Of course he knew the answer. 'Hello! Flesh-eating monsters infest the whole damn town—and most likely, the surrounding area—! What world are you in, Safian?'
"So what are we going to do now?" He could hear Ji Hae ask.
"Good question," Kevin answered. "I mean, just look at things! Everything has gone to hell! Chances are, we're the only ones, at least in our age group, that are still alive. With the exception of that speeding car we haven't seen anyone else around."
"We can check up on our parents," Matt offered. "Well, your parents anyway."
"'Our' parents?" Kevin asked.
"Yeah. My Dad's at the Police station right now, and since that's probably the safest place to be, I think he's okay. Who I'm really worried about is my Master."
"Ah, Master Ito, eh?"
Matt nodded. Master Jun Ito ran a Kenjutsu/Jujitsu dojo near the Skokie/Evanston border. Matt had been there for the past seven years of his life, and had gained a great deal of respect for his master, going so far as to call him his "second father."
"Peter?" Ji Hae asked, and they all turned to the young man.
"Well, I'm not expecting my dad to be home," Peter answered. "Probably still working at Searle Labs, and they've most likely got that place locked up tighter than a virgin's-you-know-what." Suddenly, a wide, toothy grin spread across Peter's face. "But, I might be able to find one of my Dad's guns."
"Great idea," Matt said, then turned to his girlfriend. "Ji Hae?"
"Well, my father and mother are probably still at home, and Dad can most likely take care of them both, so..."
Matt nodded. "Okay, it's settled then. First, I'd like to go see if my master is okay. Kevin, we'll go to your place next to check up on your mother."
"Probably won't be there," Kevin replied. "Searle pulled her out of town on a last-minute business trip or something."
"Then try to find something useful there," Matt went on: "Then, we'll swing over to Peter's. Last, we'll hit Ji Hae's place. Deal?"
Everyone else nodded.
"Good. Now let's go."
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Near Dempster and McCormick St.
Koukushikan Kenjustu/Jujitsu Dojo
1:44 PM, dark clouds
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The first thing that Matt noticed was the doors were intact. Unlocked, but intact. It was a major relief to him.
'Master, please be okay...'
Still, he was prepared for anything save for another pack of zombies. Raising his shinai into a stance, he walked into the dojo, not bothering to remove his shoe. Taking a look around, he found that the dojo was like when he had last been there, the night before. Everything from the pads to the sparring and fencing gear was in place where it should be. Walking over to the sword rack, Matt pulled off a short wooden sword with a plastic blade guard. He lowered his shinai and sheathed it into a belt strap of his jeans, figuring that the small sword could cave in softened skulls better, with a lesser chance of breaking.
"Master Ito?" Matt called out. "It's me, Matt! Master Ito! Are you here?"
He was given no response, so along with his friends walked over to the changing rooms. No one was in there, either. So, going back out into the main dojo, he called out again, "Master Ito!"
This time, there was a noise from the Master's office. Matt couldn't quite make out what it was. So, he called out once more. "Master Ito! Is that you?"
The door to the office slowly creaked open and following it was what looked like a rotting corpse dressed in a black martial arts uniform. Only Kevin, Ji Hae and Matt knew who it was. Master Ito. Even though it looked as if he hadn't been eaten, his skin was still grayish-white, with wrinkling and sagging all over the face and limbs. The eyes were a milky white, clouding over his pupils. His once full head of hair was now half gone. He stumbled forward, with a hungry moan, and raised his arms.
The teens backed up and Matt stuttered, "M-master...?"
Peter raised his steel pipe. "Come on, Matt. Don't get emotional on me now. He's not human anymore. We have to dispose of him."
Peter took a step forward, but Matt shouted out, "No!" and pulled him back. Peter was about to reprimand him when Matt answered, his voice full of sadness, "Let me do it."
He stepped ahead of the others, and faced his former master, who was slowly closing the gap between them. Matt raised the wooden sword and went into an aggressive stance, with the blade held parallel to the left side of his face, the sharp side of the blade facing to the left as well. His legs were split and bent as if he were riding a horse, his breathing controlled. Closing his eyes, he focused his strength into one attack.
He ignored the cries of his friends to act, and kept on concentrating. After his former master had closed half the gap between them, Matt's eyes sprung open, and he let out a screaming war cry as he charged forward.
The blade connected with the neck, and with a spray of blood, the head went flying straight off, hitting the wall with a sickening splunch. Matt had swung with one hand in perfect form, in the perfect spot, with the perfect amount of force. He still stayed in stance, with his arm outstretched. It wasn't until the headless corpse took a few more steps forward and toppled to the floor and spluttering up blood from the stump where the head had once been, that Matt relaxed his stance. He lowered his head, and looked at the wooden blade he held, stained with his former master's blood.
He tossed the blade aside, and forced back tears. He forced himself to take it like a man, trying to convince himself that he was relieving his master from pain. It was that thinking that stopped him from crying right then and there, perhaps only letting a tear or two escape his eyelids.
"You're right, Peter," Matt said in a low voice. "It needed to be done."
Matt took in a deep breath and stood still for a moment more, then let it out and walked calmly into his former master's office. A few moments later, he came out holding a real sword, with a real scabbard held in two of his jeans' belt straps. He was wearing a pair of zori in place of his one remaining shoe.
"This is the dojo sword," he announced proudly. "Since no other student is available to take it, it is only proper that one of his senior students take it, now that its former owner is dead."
The hilt of the sword had black wrappings around it, typical of any katana, leaving white diamond patterns in the areas it did not cover. The blade guard was of a slightly worn silver, with two small holes to the right and left of the blade, and simple patterns etched around them. Matt had been told that the sword was over six hundred years old, when the last of the best swords were made. His master had said that he kept it in such good condition, that it looked like it was new. That, and it was of the dotanuki battle sword class, which was known for, among many things, its durability.
Matt forced a weak smile. "Let's get going."
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Morton Grove, Illinois
MacDonald Residence, Lake St., near Forest Preserve
2:23 PM, drizzling rain
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Kevin led the group into his house. Though Matt and Peter had been there many times before, Kevin still knew the house better than they did. He walked with them into the kitchen, calling out for anyone. No answer. So, he reached into his fridge, and grabbed some milk, and then got some cookies from his pantry, motioning the others to sit down. His house wasn't very big, but still had two floors and a basement. Its walls were of a bleach white, with red plush carpeting. Their living room was connected to their dining room without so much as a doorway separating them.
The kitchen however, was. There was a doorway leading to the front room, and another on the other side leading to the dining room. Its floors were checkered black and white, with oak wood cupboards and a large counter in the middle of the kitchen. Under the counter was the dishwasher, a very odd place to have one, indeed. Off to the side rested the ponderosa pine table where they now sat, eating. The kitchen was perhaps the largest room in the house, next to the living room.
"So what do you think we could get, besides food?" Matt asked.
"Well," Kevin answered, thinking for a moment. "My mother always had a Walther. Uncle Walther as she called it..."
"Great!" Peter exclaimed. "Now we finally got some freakin' firepower!"
Matt chuckled. "You seem to forget, my friend, that guns have a little something called ammunition, and if you run out of it, you're screwed."
Peter shot a dark glare to Matt. "I know, jackass."
"Do you have anything else we could use?" Ji Hae asked.
Kevin locked his hands behind his head and began to think. He couldn't really think of anything else that they could use. Food, a gun, a little bit of ammunition for it...nothing much else.
"Nothing really," he replied, reaching a conclusion.
Leaving his friends downstairs, telling them to get something to eat, Kevin walked up the stairs to his mother's room. Placing his hand on the doorknob, he hesitated, recalling memories. He had never known his father and from what he had heard from his mother, he wouldn't like to meet him either. He had lived with his mother all his life, without any siblings or close relatives in immediate contact. He had heard that he had a half-sister, but he had never met her.
Kevin shook his head. 'Shouldn't worry about Mom now,' he thought. 'She's probably safe, off wherever she is. Let's just worry about you and your friends' hides.'
He turned the knob and entered his mother's room. It was very plain, with only the barest of necessities. A bed, nightstand, dresser with mirror, closet, curtains, carpeting over hardwood floors. He went over to the dresser and opened the top drawer, searching for the brown lacquer box that housed the handgun. His mother had bought it a few years ago, explaining that 'you never know when you might need one'. He gave his mother a silent thanks for purchasing the firearm. Now it finally looked like it was going to be put to good use.
Finding the box with the gun and four extra magazines, he placed them all into his pants pockets. As he walked out of his mother's room to rejoin his friends, he made a mental note to ask Peter to show him how to use a gun properly.
'After all, I only know how to pull the trigger.'
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Skokie, Illinois
Safian residence, Hull st.
2:57 PM, clearing skies
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Just like Kevin's house, Peter's was desolate. Though it was more lavishly decorated—due to Peter's father having a more high-paying position than Kevin's mother—it was just as quiet. Peter wasted no time in climbing the stairs with his friends to the attic, where his father kept his guns. True, most of them were antiques that could never be used, but he knew that among his father's guns there was a K-BAR Marine Edition combat knife, .38 Special and a Mossberg M500 police-style shotgun.
Upon entering the attic, he found that it had already been raided. Trunks and boxes that weren't normally open were, papers were scattered about and, most depressing of all, his father's gun collection had been messed with. He found the K-BAR—which he proceeded to connect to his belt—but a large combat knife wasn't exactly what he was looking for. He was about to curse, when he saw something on the ground. It was black and sleek with a medium-sized metal tube, sitting below the gun collection that was displayed on the wall. It was the Mossberg M500 police edition, with a note taped to the barrel with duct tape. Ripping off the tape, he read the note.
"Peter,
If you're looking for this, chances are that all has gone to hell, and then some. Feel free to take this and anything else you want. There are some shells (both 00 buck and deer slugs) in the ammo drawer, but you won't find much (chew me out later for not buying any more shells after that last target practice). Keep your pager on you. I'll contact you when I can. Be strong, soldier.
-Dad"
Peter crumpled the note in his hand, and he went for the ammo drawer. In it, he found various spent casings of various calibers and gauges. Among them, he found two small boxes full of shotgun shells. Propping up the shotgun, he loaded the 00 buck into the gun, and placed the extra shells with their boxes in his pockets. By his count, he only had eighteen of them—twleve 00 buck and five deer slugs—but it was enough to make him happy.
Standing up, he pumped his shotgun and gave a wide grin.
"Let's go kick some undead ass," he said.
The others couldn't help but to shake their heads at their friend.
"Do you have any idea how utterly ridiculous you look right now?" Kevin berated him.
Peter propped the shotgun on his shoulder and struck a pose in response. His grin turned into a smile of a madman. Ji Hae giggled, and Kevin and Matt gave an exasperated sigh. He was obviously getting some kind of a kick out of this.
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Morton Grove, Illinois
Park residence, Lincolnshire condominiums, corner of Main St. and Lehigh Ave.
3:29 PM, sparse clouds
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The door in the lobby was open, so they were granted immediate access to the building. On the fourth floor, they found Ji Hae's door to be wide open as well. Cautiously, they stepped into the apartment, one after another. The living room to their right and the kitchen to their left were decorated and embellished quite nicely, but were far from looking rich. They stepped onto the blue carpeting and into the dining room, not sure what to expect.
'Are they even here?' Ji Hae thought. 'I really—'
Her thoughts were cut short at the sound of a gunshot. She felt herself hit the floor from Matt pushing her, and then felt him grab her and run into the kitchen. She hid behind a wall with the others.
"Who's there!" Came the forceful shout from the other side of the apartment. "You're obviously not one of those things!"
Ji Hae recognized the voice instantly. "Daddy!" She called out.
"Ji Hae?" The voice asked, softer this time. "Is that you?"
"Neh!"
Ji Hae ran from the kitchen into the bedroom hallway of the apartment, finding her father and mother standing there with looks of relief on their faces. She ran into her father's arms and they embraced each other for all they were worth.
"It's so good to see you're alright," her father, Dae Jung, said in their native language. "I feared the worst..."
"It's alright, Daddy," Ji Hae responded in the same tongue. "Matt, Peter and Kevin protected me."
"Really?" Her mother, Eun Bi said, embracing her daughter as well.
"Yes. They risked their lives by coming back to the school when they could have left to save themselves."
Releasing their daughter, Ji Hae's parents looked at the young men before them. "I apologize about trying to shoot you," Ji Hae's father said, indicating his USP .45 Tactical handgun. "But I couldn't really tell if you were one of them or not."
"Uh, no problem, I guess..." Matt replied.
There was a short silence as Dae Jung looked over the young men. "I must thank you," he said. "You have no idea how much our daughter means to us. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you."
"You should thank Matt for going after Ji Hae," Peter said. "He's the one that went off running her. If it weren't for him, we might have forgotten about her."
Ji Hae's mother nodded. "Thank you then, Matt."
Looking at her father, Ji Hae told him in Korean, "See? I told you he was a good person."
Her father only 'humped' in response. After more pleasantries and greetings, the group situated themselves on the furniture, with the exception of Mr. Park, who was pacing up and down the room.
"I have little ammunition, just enough for my wife and myself," he began. "You have guns as well, it seems, so that must account for something. I say that since it's the safest, and most likely ammunition-stocked location in the town, we head for the Skokie Police Department Station. They should have more supplies and perhaps even some help."
Finishing his pacing around the room, he turned to the young men. "Are you in?"
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Skokie, Illinois
Skokie Police Department Headquarters, Main/Keeler Avenues
3:35 PM, darkening
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Everything that they could see in the lobby was ransacked. Dead, mutilated bodies of officers and civilians alike were strewn about the floor, along with dirt, grime and spent ammunition and shell casings. Potted plants were uprooted and strewn about the floor, and behind the reception desk, into the back rooms, things didn't look too peachy. Kevin, normally a thinker, didn't want to imagine what the second floor above him looked like.
Dae Jung and his wife, Eun Bi, walked toward the desk, handguns drawn. Working like a SWAT team, they used head signals and gestures to signal when it was okay to proceed, and never relaxed their guard. As the others watched this spectacle, Kevin voiced his thoughts to Matt.
"Hey," he told his friend in a hushed voice. "Do you suppose there's something else going on here?"
Matt frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Just look at that! And why did they take Ji Hae with us?"
"Well, if you think about it, taking her along would make sure that she'd be safe. After all, with our numbers it would be safer for her to come along. As for this, who knows? Who cares?"
This time, it was Kevin's turn to frown. "I care."
As they proceeded behind the reception desk, the young men withdrew their weapons. At the sound of a throaty moan from behind a computer desk near Matt, he spun to face the rising zombie and wasted no time in swinging his blade in an arc, lopping off its head with a clean slice. The stump where the head had once been spurted blood then collapsed to the floor with the rest of the body. Matt gave a small grin of triumph. The blade was sharper than he had once thought.
'Guess they call it the "blade that cuts through torsos" for a reason,' he thought.
He gave a head nod to the others to signal it was okay, then continued on. Finding the door behind the reception desk empty, they turned around and regrouped in the lobby.
Dae Jung read a map on the wall, said something to his wife to which she nodded, and then said, "Looks like the weapons storage is just down the hallway past this door," he motioned to the door that led deeper into the station. "That's our next destination."
Giving a nod in understanding, the teens followed behind him. Dae Jung opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He wished that he hadn't.
Before him were a group of those undead creatures, far too many for him to shoot alone. It was then that he saw the young man, Peter, step ahead of him and fire off a shell from his shotgun. The buckshot that spread like a cone from the nozzle of his barrel forced back the group and took down two or three, giving Kevin and Eun Bi the time they needed to finish off the others.
Peter slung the shotgun over his shoulder and gave a wide grin. "Easy as pie, eh, Mr. Park?"
Dae Jung just gave a "humph" as a response.
'What's up with him?' Peter thought. 'Jeez, sor—ry.'
They continued down the hall, spotting a gray metal door at the end of the hall that could be none other than the weapon storage.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
At once, they spun and faced the noise. Behind the door to their left came the sound of gunshots. Even though they were muffled, Eun Bi could plainly tell what kind of caliber they were.
"Nine millimeter," she said to no one in particular. "And it sounds like they were desperate shots—fired off in rapid succession."
Dae Jung nodded grimly. "Indeed."
Now, Matt couldn't help but to be interested. How the hell could they distinguish one round from another just by its sound? And how could they tell that the shots were probably wild shots? He made a reminder to himself to ask Ji Hae about it later. Proceeding with the others, he entered the room last, after Ji Hae, and took in the sights of the room. It was an office, with rows of disorganized desks, overturned tables, trashcans, and bloodied walls and furniture—obviously from the zombie attack—and not a single person in sight. Not even one of the undead.
Then, from the enclosed office at the far end of the room, a body fell from the office into the room, and hit the floor with a thud. Someone was obviously in there, and they were alive. Dae Jung took up the lead again and cautiously proceeded forward, motioning the others to come too, just as quietly. He stopped just before the office door, which had had its glass window shattered and was almost broken off its hinges.
Taking a deep breath, he spun into the office, his USP ready, his finger ready to pull the trigger.
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Beta-readers: F. Buckley, K. O'Laughlin
Editors: MayumiH, F. Buckley
Draft: 1/3/03 (1:38 AM)
Final: Unknown
Final ver. 2: 9/16/05 (4:27 PM)
Comments: Okay, first, let me say something about the katana that Matt got. Yeah, you might want to call it eye-rollingly fanboyish or something, but if there's one weapon that I thought was always missing from a Resident Evil game, it was a sword of some sort. I had just so happened to be doing some research on katana, when I found out about the dotanuki and thought, "Hey! I should use that!", and, uh, so I did. Sorry, but I think that the one you can get in the original Silent Hill just does not do them justice.
While a katana may not be as powerful or heavy as a European longsword (most of a longsword's cutting power came from its weight, in fact), it is more than capable of slicing someone open as long as they're not wearing body armor of some sort. When you're against zombies with weakened, rotting flesh, it's almost the perfect close quarters combat weapon you can have. In my humble opinion, at least. Before MayumiH disappeared (an event that saddened me greatly), I remember her saying something to that same effect. She even said that she loved how I put the sword in. So I decided to keep it for the second incarnation of this story.
As to the chapter itself, in the original incarnation, even I was shocked by the amount of action that I had managed to squeeze into the beginning of the chapter. Not a lot of death, I know, but it should hopefully whet some people's appetites for what's to come. There's a scene or two in there that wasn't in the original version (like the second zombie attack on Peter), so I somehow put even more action into it. Anyway, I had fun doing it. It was the parts where I had to write about the teens going around town that really bogged me down and drained me—at least from what I can remember.
Author responses:
AnimaSola: Heh. I was actually plotting Craig's death before I had the ending plotted out in my head. I came up with about three different ways to have him die, but I liked the one with meeting the first zombie the best. Yeah, I took a few cues from Silent Hill when I was writing the description of the town. Funny thing is though, there are days in Skokie that are like that—just with cars passing by and a few people walking the streets. It's creepy as hell. Yeah, the Mr. Koch (pronounced: Koh-k—think, "cook")/Mrs. Singer thing was a flash of inspiration of an overworked brain. I figuratively pulled it right out of my ass and had it typed up in about five minutes. XD
Finally, yes, Skokie is a real place. It is a northern suburb of Chicago, where both many Russians and many Jews settled after WWII. From what I remember about it, it's a nice little town. Boring, though. At least the schools are really good and the tax base is nice. It's home to one of—or I think that it's THE—biggest mall in Illinois, Old Orchard. As you can imagine, the township is really banking on the area near their border with Wilmete, where most of their commerce is centered (ironically enough, Niles North is right across the street from Old Orchard). I haven't been there in two years though, so some things may have changed since then.
Peter: Cottage Grove, Oregon? Never heard of it. Dunno if I can write about it if I've never seen the place. There most likely will be sex (guess between who)in this story, but it won't be between any RE characters that we know of. As I have stated before, this is an original Resident Evil fanfiction. The characters that we know in the games do not exist in this story. Or, if they do, they're far away. And there's already a Peter in the story: Peter Safian, one of Matt's friends. He's not a brotha last time I checked (and by that, I assume that you mean black?). Doesn't have a girlfriend (at least, one that's mentioned in this story). So, there you go. He does play a major part in the story later on, though.
Tinkies: Why thank you. I do think that this is perhaps some of the best writing that I've done—after like the third draft, anyway. This is probably the best explanation that I'm going to give of the town; now it's on to the individual locations and the action scenes which I oh so love to write. So yes, that means that there will be as much action in this as I can think of.
SilverSpoons: Wow. You're about the first person to tell me that you didn't mind Craig dying. Most everyone else that I've shown it to (MayumiH and my mother included), were all like "Why did you kill him off?" I could only shrug and say, "Because I felt like it?" True, it did kind of feel like I had him created for a plot device to introduce the zombie horde (well, him and Officer Provus, anyway), but I don't feel bad about it. And yes, thank you for the compliments on descriptions and stuff...but I'm not that good a writer. At best, I think of myself as average as far as things go on the fanfiction scale. You're free to agree or disagree with that one.
And an apology to all: I messed up on the map URL. Here it is. Just remove all the spaces, put in the second forwardslash and the colon and you should get to the album. Look for Map2: that's the Now or Never map.
h t t p /photobucket . com / albums / v 234 / Rasputin Man ?
(Author comments completed: 9/15/05, 11:51 AM)