Chapter Two: Unknown Adversaries

E.J. slowly opened the door that led to the receptionist area. As he cautiously swept from side to side with his M-8 carbine machine gun, he held up a hand and motioned for the others to move forward. As everyone moved into their immediate flanking positions, one of the men glanced around and swore softly.

"Jesus Christ..." he muttered, as he realized that there was a long streak of partially dried blood on the floor. The other men were looking around the small reception area as well, and Branson let out a small gulping noise, almost as if he was about to throw up.

I stepped up behind the kid and grabbed him roughly by the shoulder. At the movement, Branson's head snapped around to look at me.

"Don't throw up. You'll only give them a new scent to follow. Believe me. Keep it down." I let go of him, and silently walked up to E.J.'s position, before taking a knee beside him.

The street was deserted completely, not a sign of life or movement anywhere. E.J. seemed to be trying to decide a course of action. While he took his time, I stood up and walked to the door and peered outside. Nothing was moving for the time being, but that in no way meant those undead monsters weren't there. I'd done this before- I knew they were around someplace.

E.J. shuffled up to where I stood at the door and looked at me.

"What do you think?" He asked. I looked at him and then glanced back outside the door.

"We'll have to get out onto the street. It'll probably be more than a hundred of those damn things out there, and we wouldn't stand a chance if we try to engage them directly."

E.J. nodded. At least he agreed with me on something. I had an idea, but it wasn't a great one. We would have to defilade between the streets and back alleys. It was a risky feat, but if those things weren't on any of the major streets as I figured them to be, we would be better off. Anything in an alley could be fought off, but in a wide open area, we would be dead. I looked at E.J. and it was almost like he read my mind at that moment.

"We need someone to scout, huh?" He said. I nodded, then slid the charging bolt back on my AR88 semi-automatic machine gun. Time to make a package run.

"Keep the guys here. I'm going to go up the street a bit. Lock this door after I go out, and get everyone behind something solid. If I encounter a problem, I'll try to solve it out there- but who knows what'll happen." I told him.

E.J. offered me an extra ammunition magazine, but I gave it back. He would need every bullet, just as we all would.

I unlocked the door and silently out of the building. I heard the lock click behind me, at least E.J. was being careful. There was a smell of heavily rotting meat and smoke in the air. It was sickening to me. As I walked up the sidewalk with my machine gun pointed forward, I saw the body of a young woman lying partially on the sidewalk with her legs in the street. As I passed by the body, I took a chance and glanced at her quickly.

The young woman had been beautiful at one time, I could tell. She had blonde hair, and green eyes. That was all I could tell. Her nose was gone, as well as her lips. They had been devoured. Her blouse had been ripped open and I could see the many bite marks and worse that ran from her throat to her torso. Her right breast was exposed, the other had been partially devoured. I felt a twinge of sympathy for her- she couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen. Her chest was fully exposed, and a large pool of blood was around her body, running into the street.

I got down on one knee, slung the machine gun over my shoulder- and took the pistol from the holster. The girl was dead, but I didn't want to take a chance. I screwed the silencer on and put it against the corpse's forehead. Squeezing the trigger, I looked around to make sure that I hadn't attracted any unwanted attention. Nothing yet. That was a good sign. I holstered the pistol and unslung the machine gun again to continue working my way up the street.

I approached the ruined intersection and surveyed each direction. Nothing seemed to be moving at the time, but I knew that even if those undead citizens weren't there, that didn't mean something else wasn't there either.

Across the street from me, I saw the body of a young boy, also partially devoured- when I looked a little bit farther, I saw his mother. They must've been trying to escape the barrage of hungry monsters but never made it. Neither body looked as if it was reanimating itself, hopefully I was far enough away from them if they did come back to life.

As I did my scout patrol up the sidewalk, I looked around at all the different things that made me realize just how much control the Umbrella Corporation had exerted over everything. The company logo was damn near on everything. Realizing that small effect made me sick to the stomach. Right now, I was battling for my own life in a mess that the company itself had started. I'd be lying to you if I said that I understand why they did what they did. Umbrella was made up of unflinching individuals- people who would sooner let you die than try to save your life. I wouldn't have been surprised if this new incident turned out to be another of their observational tests to see to the stability of the particular viral strain. Hell, they did it in Raccoon City- why not do it again someplace else?

Reaching my appointed target, the crossing signal display- I did a sharp combat turn, reversing my position. I was doing everything I could do so as not to become a member of the rising dead. The machine gun was ready to fire, my finger never left the trigger once. I started my way back down the street, going back to the building where the rest of the team was waiting for my signal to move forward. Moving back the way I came, there was only a single thought in my mind.

Damn them all for putting me back into this situation.

It was right before I reached the building that I knew something was wrong. I heard someone start shouting- the sharp sounds of machine gun bursts filled the air. As I watched, the glass in the front of the building shattered and I knew then that something had happened. The bullets were flying furiously, and I broke into a full run back to the building. Just as I got close enough, I heard someone shouting again and then more machine guns firing. I watched as a sudden explosion ripped through the front of the building, knocking me to the ground in disbelief.

Glass, debris, pieces of brick and mortar fell to the ground around me. I covered up as best I could, and when I looked up- the entire front ot the building was gone...demolished. I picked myself up from the ground and ran down the street as fast as I could- but when I reached the front of the building, I couldn't believe what I saw.

The bodies of the team members were strewn across the floor, some burned and blackened because of the explosion. None were moving, and I realized that the headless body beside my boot was E.J.'s. Their weapons were all damaged, nothing remained useable.

I quickly made rounds to all the bodies of the men that I could find, collecting whatever usable equipment that I could find. Just as I knelt over one of the bodies, I heard a slight thump behind me. Without any hesitation, I hurled myself away from the body and did a combat roll on the ground- coming up with the machine gun locked on target at the sound.

Branson's face widened and he looked terrified. He quickly threw his hands up in the arm.

"Wait! Hold your fire! I'm alive!" He said, jumping back.

I was still kneeling on the ground, the machine gun aimed directly at him. I let out a slow breath and lowered the gun. Branson looked at me, and I stood up.

"What in the FUCK happened back here?" I demanded. Branson looked at me, fear in his eyes.

"Those things you told us about...they found us..." He said. I shook my head angrily.

We were screwed now...and this was just the beginning.