Thunder crackled across the sky, over the dark city of Ravenholm. Dark shapes rained onto the city, crashing through roofs and shattering the streets.
Christine, eyes large, ran to the window. Headcrabs were already crawling from the cylindrical tubes that had barraged the alleys; these were unlike the ones she had seen before. Most had four long, spider-like limbs, and were missing the jaw-like face seen on the normal headcrabs. Once they fell to the pavement, they fled with amazing speed. One headcrab caught a man fleeing for cover; it launched itself on his face and began to suck. He screamed, trying to tug it off, and fell to his knees. Instantly, four other creatures were on him.
There was a crunch from the room next door, and then a pop. Christine ran to the closet, and kicked open one of the supply boxes. Grabbing an SMG, she rolled over the bed and threw open the door with a fluidity that surprised herself. Without thinking, her free hand snapped to the briefcase beside the door.
In the hall, Jeff Royle was firing his own SMG into his apartment room. Smoke fogged the hallway, and debris covered the floor. Christine, holding her MP-7 submachine gun in one hand, and the briefcase in the other, watched uncertainly as a black headcrab appeared in the doorway to Jeff's apartment. It leapt at him, but he kicked it away and loaded it with bullets.
"Head down the stairs!" He shouted at her once he caught sight of her. Christine turned and took the steps two at a time, with Jeff following closely. In the lobby, they found Monet knelt over a woman, with a fast headcrab locked tightly to her face. The woman was still struggling, but sagged as Christine stepped forward. Monet unholstered a .357 Magnum and fired it into the dead citizen's headcrab. It gave a low screech as it died.
"Damn . . ." The old lady said quietly, standing up. "Oh, you two," she muttered, catching sight of the two newcomers. "We're in deep here, y'know. Our best chance is to get to the town center, where the rest of the town should be." The chatter of distant gunfire filled the silence.
"But if we do that," Jeff argued, "Then we'll be trapped in the center. We'll all be killed!"
Monet took a step toward him, and Christine thought she saw a sliver of movement in the crates behind her. "Listen here, you idiot. As long as there aren't zombies, and only headcrabs, we'll be safe in numbers. Leon just wants us to stick together, and you'd better listen to him. He was in the seven-hour war, y'know."
They held a glaring match, and Christine saw the movement again. Suddenly, a fast headcrab leapt from the crates and locked itself on Monet's head. She grappled it, and with surprising speed, swung the creature around and into the wall. It went limp.
Jeff, mouth agape, followed her as Monet stepped out into the streets. Christine went after them, holding the briefcase like a shield.
"Shoot any potential zombies you see," Monet said. "And keep an eye out for these damned headcrabs."
Taking her words to heart, the other two followed the squad leader through the alleys. After a few minutes of running through Ravenholm, they arrived on main street. They turned towards the city center, just in time to see several thin, skeletal monsters cross a line of mines set up to defend the town center. The mines went off, and the tenement walls collapsed in on the street. There was a cheering from beyond the new wall.
Christine took a quick glance around. Behind them was the church, and beyond that, the coal mines. A long cry split the air, followed by the moans of the wakening zombies.
Monet hesitated. "Okay, we'll go around that. I'll take point; cover my back."
They followed her as she ducked into a side alley and proceeded toward the town center again. Twice, she fired the .357, and twice Jeff and Christine stepped over a bleeding zombie corpse. They encountered no more of the skeletal things that had been destroyed by the mines, and soon arrived at the town center, with the remaining rebels. Leon was standing amongst the medics and the wounded; the soldiers were ushering citizens into a secured tenement building.
Monet approached Leon, and Jeff stalked off, muttering. Christine stared off into the distance, toward the moon, and saw dark shapes scampering over the far buildings. Screams of citizens trapped in buildings and alleys stopped after a few minutes, replaced only by an occasional alien screech or the low groan of a zombie.
Exhausted, Christine sat down cross-legged by a fire, and opened up the briefcase. She pulled out the papers, and inspected the first one. It showed her name, birth date, and had a black smudge over "rank", and "serial number". At the bottom of the list of information was "MIA".
She set the papers back down, pulled out the Desert Eagle, and wedged the SMG in. Christine began to close it, but suddenly caught sight of a trigger located at the bottom of the briefcase. She pulled it, and the other side of the case popped open. Inside was some sort of black leather suit. Laughing at what was obviously a joke from whoever had dumped the briefcase with her, she shoved the full-body garment back into its slot.
Something screeched, much closer to the town center. There was some muttering from the assembled resistance soldiers. Christine stood up, and joined Monet, Leon, and Noriko.
"We should head towards the train yards. There are already some soldiers at the depot on the other side of the coal mine," Noriko was saying.
Leon agreed, saying, "That's right, and they have contact to New Little Odessa and Lighthouse Point there. We may be able to call in reinforcements."
Monet shook her head. "There's no salvaging this city. Have you seen Father Grigori?"
"No," Leon said sadly. "He's disappeared."
Monet laughed shortly, "That old man won't be dead, I can assure ya. He's a survivor."
One of the resistance soldiers jogged up. "All the citizens are safe. We've barricaded the doors to their sleeping quarters, and have men guarding them."
Noriko nodded. "Get the wounded in there, and barricade them up too. We'll need to stay here for the night, and head out tomorrow morning, at first light."
Leon and Monet looked doubtful. "Can we hold them off that long?" Leon asked.
"I doubt the zombies will be able to get inside. Plus, we'll have guards . . . guarding all night long."
"Okay," Leon submitted. Monet still looked ready to argue, but kept her mouth shut. They trotted off towards the selected tenement, while the remaining resistance soldiers began to carry the wounded inside. Christine followed the party, wondering absently where Jeff had got to.