Adam Luck - Thanks again, man! Really happy you're enjoying it!
As for Woods, he woke up from his coma just a little over two months after the events of the Mansion Incident. RE1 takes place on July 24th/25th, but in this crossover, it's a day before those dates since like I said previously, RE0 never really took place. I just simply never felt like RE0 followed the timeline correctly leading up to RE1 itself. I love Rebecca in RE0, don't get me wrong, but her character literally regresses back to being the scared type of girl once more, and we never even hear from Billy ever again.
The events of RE2 take place in between RE3's main events (Sept. 29th). RE3's first half takes place twenty-four hours before RE2 (Sept. 28th). RE3's latter half takes place two days after RE2 (Oct. 1st). At least that's how it went in the original games. In the remakes, the days are the same, but the exact times are slightly different.
And thanks for the praise! I'm really not an expert in romance at all since I've personally had no experience with it, except watching drama/romance-related content and well, seeing various people in my life go through hook-ups and break-ups. Still, I'm glad you've enjoyed my half-baked try nonetheless. XD I can't guarantee anything, but if their relationship really goes somewhere, I will make them an official pairing. If not, there's always another chance, maybe even by the end of Code Veronica. ;)

Recommended BGM:

1. Resident Evil 2 (1998) & (Remake) - Raccoon City

2. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) - The Beginning of Nightmare

3. Resident Evil 2 (1998) - Left Alone?

Chapter 4

David and Claire hurried down the street, the zombies kept trickling out into the open as the fire behind them raged, having turned itself into a dinner alarm bell for the walking corpses that shuffled out and about. They were relentless, but their performance was entirely slow, making it easier to dodge them without firing a single shot. However, it made it even more difficult when countless of them were still coming from within the dark corners of the infested streets.

"Over here!" David pointed to an alleyway near them. "We need to get inside or we'll get quickly surrounded!"

"Alright!" Claire nodded as she quickly backed away from an incoming group of five zombies that blocked the way forward to a left on the street and followed after David. She figured that if the sound of the wreck itself was calling out to the shambling creatures, going inside a building nearby would at least give them enough room to catch their breaths before heading back out another way through.

Claire had been feeling terrified, her body shaking unconsciously in fear, but seeing that she at least had someone with her meant that her overall chances of survival were higher than if she were to have been alone all by herself. And that someone just so happens to be another relative of the STARS, which made her feel even more relieved that she wasn't the only one in the city looking for a family member from the missing squad.

Please, Chris… be safe somewhere.

"Damn it! It won't open!" David's panicked voice yanked Claire out of her brief thoughts. However, as he turned around to look back at her, he quickly snapped in terror as he aimed his Glock in her general direction. "BEHIND YOU!"

Instinctively, Claire turned her head back and let out a brief sharp yelp of horror as she fell on the ground, her eyes widened as she immediately aimed her Browning towards the staggering cataract-eyed man, who was just one step away from reaching her before it was quickly dispatched by David with a gunshot to its head in between the eyes and knocked over to the ground in a large thud.

Another zombie was right behind him; a bulky man in a ripped green T-shirt, blood all over his maggot-infested face, and Claire shot him in the chest three times, the gun almost jerking out of her right-hand grip before another shot directly in his face killed it with ease. Half of his withered left face almost disappeared in a burst of dark streaming blood from his shattered skull. Maggots landed on the blood-covered concrete ground disgustingly as a response to the booming shot the zombie had received.

Three shots in the chest and they feel nothing…

…c'mon now, they're zombies for crying out loud! Headshots are the way to go, just as movies and horror stories go on about the topic.

Claire felt a hand over her arm. David quickly helped her stand up.

"You okay?" He asked out of concern. "Remember, these things go out quickly with a—"

"—Shot in the head. Got it," Claire finished his sentence. She then turned her head around before putting her full attention on the zombies that were less than ten feet away from them. "And thanks."

As the pair backtracked their steps closer to the open street once again, they tried keeping their distance away from the incoming group of zombies on their right. David and Claire turned back to face the inferno on their left for a brief moment and saw that there were even more of them coming out from the wreckage itself. Across the street, more were coming from other various dark corners behind parked vehicles and the next barricade that blocked off further access to the street ahead on their right.

"Where do they keep coming from?!" David yelled out in surprise as he held his gun pointed in various directions, his expression showing a sense of hopelessness and Claire could tell he was progressively feeling just as scared as she was, if not, possibly more.

Through the blind state of fear and paranoia, she finally found an opening for them that'd lead them directly to a gunshop, if memory didn't serve her wrong. She had only been in Raccoon for a casual cruise a few times, but she remembered that Chris kept telling her to look into the gunshop that was just a block or two away from the police station. Having never been in the gunshop before, she still thought it would've been their only place for safety in the meantime, and if possible, to stockpile anything they needed; guns, ammo, duffle bags, anything that could be used as a weapon or extra storage space.

"This way!" Claire called out for their next move. "There should be a gunshop up ahead!"

"Go!" David yelled out in response as he shot one zombie in front of him that was dangerously close to him. "I'm right behind you!"

Claire began a full sprint through the small, narrow space between a set of parked cars and the group of zombies that aimlessly staggered closely to her, failing to grab her as she swiftly passed by them, their stench so toxic that Claire had to hold her breath for a brief moment before putting enough distance away from them. As she looked back to see David, he was seen shoving a zombie that had taken a grip on his right shoulder over his jacket, the zombie almost having sunk its teeth in as Claire stiffened up slightly at the thought of the possibility becoming real for a split-second.

"I'm alright!" David shouted, noticing the shocked look on Claire's face at the close call he had. "Get inside! There's too many of them coming!"

Claire nodded and once she took a quick closer look at the sign above, it read, "Gun Shop Kendo". Without another glance back, before she decided to enter the gunshop, a scream of terror was quickly heard inside the store.

"NO! DIE! AHHHH!"

"Someone needs our help inside!" Claire quickly yelled back at David, who was still catching up to her location.

She quickly opened the door before David could say anything else and what she saw was just as disturbing, if not worse, than what she'd seen at Emmy's.

Oh my God! He… he's being eaten ALIVE!

Claire froze in shock, her face showered with a horrified expression. There was a zombie that had overpowered someone inside the store and Claire had arrived just in time to see the man's guts being ripped out with the zombie's skeletal bare hands, his intestines being consumed as the man on the ground gave one last cry for help before his screams were cut short by a guttural sound of intense shock before finally becoming limp and unmoving. Claire had her weapon aimed at the zombie's head, the finger already on the trigger but the sight itself was just too jarring and repulsive for her to even be able to begin processing anything that her widened eyes were seeing.

Claire began fighting a mental battle with the fear that had been trying to take over her actions and as soon as she heard David arriving inside, slamming the door behind him, Claire shot the feasting zombie in its left temple, blood splattering across the dirty grey carpet as its corpse landed on its side, a dark pool of red liquid forming underneath its head. The zombie still held onto the dead guy's intestines, its face was frozen in a lifeless expression of deathly hunger.

As David took a moment to catch his breath, Claire walked slowly towards the dead guy's corpse and crouched next to him as she examined his paralyzed agonizing face closely, now recognizing him to be Robert Kendo, the owner of the gunshop itself. She had seen him in a few pictures that Chris and Barry had shown her before and told her all about the contributions the Kendo brothers had done for the STARS and that Robert owned a local gunshop nearby, while his brother, Joseph, owned another shop in San Francisco.

Besides the large gaping wound that revealed Kendo's exposed gory insides on his abdomen, he had a small-sized bite wound on his left shoulder, suggesting he might've already been bitten before he met his awful end.

"I…" she paused in complete disbelief and distraught before being able to continue what she needed to say, "I can't… believe this." She couldn't believe that things around Raccoon had gotten this worse. The odds of them surviving this nightmare were already dwindling for every second they stayed in the city, and she had already begun to wonder whether or not they were gonna make it out of here alive by now.

"Claire…" David's smooth voice caused her to feel a slight moment of relief that there was still someone left alive for her to talk to. "You should stay back. Whatever disease these zombies carry, it brings the dead back alive faster than you'd think."

Claire slowly stood up, still looking at the ghastly, gaping wound of Kendo's abdomen, his guts and ribcage exposed before turning her head back at David, her piercing gaze now directly meeting his.

"And… how do you know so much about this?" She inquired.

David frowned, his gaze now lost to the empty space around them. "Before I met up with Leon by chance, I was at the Mizoil Gas Station near the city limits. Heard some noises inside and when I decided to check it out, not only did I see someone already bitten but…"

Claire could tell he was having trouble trying to tell her what he may have witnessed and quickly intervened, trying to make him spare the details about it.

"Hey…" she said softly. "You don't have to tell me if you feel—"

"I saw a sheriff getting attacked by one of them," he continued quickly, his eyes now fixed on her with a gloomy expression. "The guy got his neck bitten off in a huge chunk and he... —he turned into one of them in just less than a few minutes. It was awful! Like how the hell could you explain that to anyone who—!"

One of the zombies outside began tapping on the door, their wails making the pair's skin crawl as they quickly realized that they should hurry in finding some nine-millimeter ammunition for their guns as fast as possible. It was only a matter of time before every other creature gather around and somehow make their way inside by raw brute force.

David ran a few steps to the stool across from them and grabbed two flimsy drawstring nylon backpacks, emptying whatever personal belongings were stored inside before tossing one at Claire.

"Look for any weapons and ammo," he said hurriedly. "Anything essential to help us survive this hellhole."

Claire nodded and she quickly went to work as she looked around the back counters and gun racks, while David looked inside some of the metal drawers underneath an empty case of a rifle on the left side of the store. Hidden on the ground in plain sight, however, he found a dropped short-barreled Remington 870, which had four shells loaded in, with one already spent. Just beside him was a radio sitting on a small tabletop that suddenly came back to life and a message was heard loudly by a male speaker as the duo searched desperately for any more guns or ammo.

"For anyone listening to this channel, evacuate to the Raccoon Police Station immediately. Repeat. Evacuate to the Raccoon Police Station immediately. An emergency evacuation around the vicinity has been initiated and a rescue team is on its way."

As much as they wanted to hope otherwise, David and Claire didn't think that the message being broadcasted was live but rather recorded, just like the announcement they heard on their way here as no one alive has been seen anywhere in the city, besides the undead walking around.

Through their search, they realized that all the shelves inside the store has been ransacked and the few other guns that were still inside were all strung up with steel cable, making them completely inaccessible. The cases and steel boxes that Claire had found were mostly emptied out, leaving nothing but traces of spent bullets and shells scattered all over the counters and floor. However, all that she found were two boxes of a dozen shells for a shotgun that she did not have.

"Found us a handful of magazines!" David called out as he finished putting some on the countertop that seemed to fit perfectly for the Browning HP that Claire had with her. There were at least five of them that he'd found, while he seemingly held several more for his Glock 19 inside of his own bag. He then proceeded to put what seemed to be a Remington inside a compact holster.

Oh, he found a shotgun too. Guess I should give these to him.

As Claire began to run to David's location, the zombies outside started to gather and bang on the large window glass panels on the facade of the shop, their bloodied bodies aimlessly scrawling all over the glass, while a few others tried pushing their way in with their rancid decayed hands over the large windows.

"Jesus! They're all trying to get in!" Claire quavered, swallowing in nervousness as she gave the boxes of shells to David and proceeded to open her own bag and began shoveling the magazines David had found for her.

As soon as David put on the shotgun holster he'd found for the Remington and loaded in a shell before putting the shotgun away, the large windows finally gave in to the growing amount of pressure as they suddenly burst into large pieces, glass shattering in a loud echo as the zombies that had been following them outside began entering the shop. Some of them have fallen to the ground while others trampled over the fallen bodies. The cries and wails of hunger overcame the fading echo of the shattered glass on the ground as they slowly began shuffling their way through, frail arms raised in front to reach out for their meal of the night.

"Back door! Hurry!" David shouted out in a panic, and Claire stopped at nothing to follow him almost right behind his back.

Taking a quick look back, Claire saw another horrible truth about what David had witnessed in the gas station he had been in.

No… How— how can it even be possible!?

In the center of the shop where she had witnessed Kendo eaten alive, his body had become reanimated by whatever disease the zombies carried and began a wet crawl in their direction, leaving a dark, crimson trail of blood and chunks of his own guts. His face had become pale, blue eyes had cataracted, and his expression turned from an agonized painful death to a sudden display of the same deathly hunger Claire has seen on the zombies themselves. His guttural moans left a faded recognizable spine-chilling trace of what his former voice used to be as a human right before he had died of severe blood loss and organ failure.

Without a chance to give her proper respects to the man who helped Chris, Barry, and the rest of STARS with gun maintenance, she hastily continued to the back door, slipped through, and slammed it behind her, guilt almost haunting her as she tried to put those saddening thoughts behind.

"What the hell is wrong with this town?!" She yelled out in complete disgust, quivering at the running image of Kendo's dead body coming back alive as she leaned against the metallic door for a small moment. "How could this ever happen?!"

David shrugged as he slowly shook his head empathetically, looking back at a shocked Claire, seeing as though she had seen the face of death itself.

"I…" he hesitated for a moment, feeling anxious and uncertain about the things that are yet to come. "I don't know…"

"Is something rotting?" Claire suddenly whispered loudly, her face now contorted in disgust with the smell around them as she turned to look at David's mirrored expression. "Oh, God it reeks!"

David looked back around, scanning the environment. They were now standing in a narrow alley that led to an open path to their left. Garbage bags were carelessly thrown almost on every dark corner of the way around overflowing garbage cans and recycling bins, putting out a reeking mildewed smell that combined the scent of both the decaying zombies and the garbage itself. Some of the fallen bags had their contents spilled; cracked cups, greasy plastic food wraps, soda cans, and different types of food wastes in the form of scraps and thick, red and brown liquids.

"Seems like people never kept this place sanitized," David commented, putting up an arm between his mouth and nose, not being able to stand the smell any longer as he slowly passed the corner leading to a right. "I hope we are going in the right direction from here."

"Y-yeah," said Claire in a muffled voice, covering her nose and mouth with her left hand. "This should lead us around the front of the station if I remember correctly."

David turned his gaze back at Claire, curiously. "You've been here, before?"

"I used to visit my brother almost once every month," she explained, slowly putting her left hand now onto the grip of her gun. "Out of all those times, I took a few cruises around the city so I am somewhat familiar with a few blocks around the station."

"Good," David nodded, turning his head back in front of them as he lowered his arm back in place, his hands slightly trembling in fear as he held the Glock tightly in his grip. "Then let's be careful around here."

So far, both of them had been quite lucky. None of them had endured any type of bite or infection of any kind, and the duo hoped that their fortune kept their streak going for as much as it could - and, God willing, they could find some sort of safe haven inside the station before…

…a pair of zombies had landed their bodies on the other side against the chain link fence of a zombie-infested basketball court, moaning and wailing over the inaccessible passing fresh meats that were nearby. The stink of the bloodied and red-sored zombies was almost lost to the combined stench of the air still lingering around them.

"Guessing they got the hots for you, huh?" David joked as he tilted his head to the side to look at Claire in the corner of his eye, grinning slightly.

"Ugh… shut up," she replied back in annoyance as she rolled her eyes at him.

She didn't want to admit it, but deep down, she thought it was somewhat funny and ironic anyway, seemingly as though just about any zombie around really wanted to get at her since arriving at Emmy's. It wasn't a funny thought in itself, but even if the joke was directed toward her, hearing David have some sense of humor in the middle of a zombie apocalypse really made her feel like he wasn't the type to be acting like a total fearless guy and then running away from their problems whenever possible, something she hated about guys since her last boyfriend in high school.

And David really doesn't seem to be like one who would meet the "every man for himself" quota either…

…but that's exactly what you said about your last boyfriend and look how that ended up for you.

Shaking the embarrassing thoughts out of the way, she continued forward, walking just behind David on his right side as she looked down at the ground in front of them and saw at least a couple of slumped dead bodies. One of them was a short red-haired woman in blue shorts and a red top, her body sitting against the wall with her head hanging down, while the other was a man wearing a police officer uniform, lying face down with both arms sprawled on top of a fallen recycle bin.

Up ahead towards the end was a parked van, blocking access through the shortcut that led directly to the front of the RPD building a block over. However, with a piggyback and a helping hand, both of them could climb over the van and go through, saving themselves the trouble of having to do a painful detour through the infested basketball court.

"Want a piggyback?" David inquired as he pointed toward the van that blocked their route.

"Read my mind," Claire replied back, nodding.

Leon… I hope to see you there alive.

One zombie after another, and Leon only had a full magazine of six bullets left to spare. After slapping in the last magazine he had left, he decided the best course of action would be to simply dodge and weave around the growing horde of zombies that were walking all around the destroyed street.

Impossible! Dead people can't eat or walk, but here we are.

Any second longer and you're gonna be entirely surrounded. Move!

His running footsteps began clattering through the fallen debris made of glass shards, broken pieces of metal, and fallen newspapers all across the entire asphalt. The view of the street ahead looked apocalyptic but the burning wreckage behind him seemed like a gateway to hell itself. The cries and moans of the ghouls themselves kept his speed high, so much that in trying to sort out everything that had happened around the street, he almost ran right past the police station, which was just around the corner.

He had only been in the RPD building a few times before, mostly for interviews and meetings he had to attend in order to sign up for the RPD forces. He was familiar with the back parking lot's layout, which also led directly inside the parking garage, but the gate was closed and locked in place. He was not at all familiar with the hostile cannibals roaming around, however. The easy part was navigating around them and heading inside the equipment shed that led through a small courtyard - a recreation yard mostly used for officers to be hanging out outside the station during their lunch hours. The hard part was paying attention to all of his surroundings as by the time he had been walking out into the yard, an undead woman had almost caught him by surprise on his left side.

The eagerness on her wails to grab him by the uniform was unnerving enough, one arm hanging limply while the other was stretched out in front with a gore-encrusted hand, reaching out for him. As he backed away from the decaying woman, he had almost fallen victim to yet another male zombie, a tall fellow officer that had managed to squeeze a part of his uniform, but was unsuccessful as his grip became quickly lost in a slimy, wet sound. Leon let out a sudden gasp of shock, the feel of the creature's gross hands giving him the jumpscare of his life as he stumbled away from both zombies. They were slow, but that didn't mean they weren't dangerous either.

In the L-shaped yard, there was only a right turn ahead. As he went further into the station's grounds, there were at least three bodies of various officers near the dead-end, all of them dead in pools of their own blood. Leon didn't want to imagine what happened to the poor officers, but he was going to make sure that their deaths won't be in vain if there were survivors still inside the police station…

…like Claire Redfield and David Mason for example. Hopefully, they made it to the station and if not, I could at least pray that they are still on their way here.

If that thought wasn't motivation enough to move towards the stairs leading up to the roof on the railing beside him, the sounds of a distant chopper had begun to create a loud whirling noise all around the environment.

If that's what I think it is…

…then a rescue is on its way to the rooftop.

Leon hurried towards the stairs, the steps too small to almost fall off and slip down, but he took rather large ones, not caring whether or not he'd fall off the stairs by pure joy and astonishment at the sound of whipping wind suddenly pounding rhythmically above his head and shoulders. He immediately froze and looked up from near the last couple of steps left, seeing the giant flying vehicle hovering into view, half of it lost in shadow. It was just above the ancient water tower, not knowing whether or not it had just taken off or if it was actually coming to rescue a group of survivors.

Either way, Leon didn't care enough. He wanted to get the pilot's attention somehow, have them land, and let them know that once he, David, and Claire reunite, the pilot could send them out of the city, and as an officer of the law, he'd stay behind and help any other hapless citizens trapped in the station. The situation in Raccoon City had become a lot worse than he initially thought and sending the pair away would at least give him some sense of relief, knowing they'd be safe from harm's way.

"Hey! Over here!" He shouted as he waved his arms in the air as much as he could. "Right here!"

The loud rotors ate all of his words as the blowing dust swirled across the rooftop. There was almost no chance that the pilot would be able to hear him.

At least they're not going away. Thank God!

An enormous searchlight appeared just underneath in the midsection of the hovering chopper, moving across the rooftop, away from Leon himself.

Leon used one hand to whistle loudly at the pilot, while still waving the other almost frantically with the magnum still in his hand.

The bright searchlight then automatically switched to a specific spot in one direction, almost in the center of the rooftop, and the light revealed an RPD officer, shouting something that he could barely make out. As the spotlight continued to shine on him, he immediately recognized who the man in the uniform was.

Officer Edward? Yeah. Elliot Edward.

He was one of the officers that were there in his interviews, writing things down in their notepads as Lieutenant Branagh asked the questions and he'd answer them diligently in full confidence. Leon didn't know much about him, but he did know enough to say that he was able to also recognize his somewhat raspy voice, although he seemed more panicked than relieved as he held a MAC-11 with a huge suppressor.

"—get over here! Hurry!" Elliot shouted in a desperate attempt to get the pilot to hover down closer.

"I can't set her down!" The pilot said as he spoke through the helicopter's loudspeaker system. "I'll drop you a rope ladder! Grab on to it!"

Leon looked at the surrounding darkness between the spotlight and himself and noticed why the pilot couldn't land and why Elliot had been panicking, and immediately, Leon's sudden rush of relief almost quickly faded away. There were two staggering zombies, getting ever so closely at Elliot as they fell right into view under the direct hit of the searchlight. Leon took a few more steps to reach for a better view and quickly aimed his gun at the two lurching zombies. However, the realization hit him harshly as the Desert Eagle he held had an incredible amount of piercing power with the custom ten-inch barrel, that he could potentially hit Elliot through the zombies themselves, and then began lowering it helplessly as all he could do was hope that Elliot could have enough ammo to shoot them down for good.

The spotlight held itself steady, shining on the horror with intense clarity. Elliot didn't seem to realize how close the zombies were until they were just about to grab him with their extending thin arms.

"Get off me!" He cried out loud enough that Leon was able to understand clearly. Elliot ran back towards the wall that held the water tower above and began shooting his gun as he screamed in terror. "Stay back! Don't come any closer!"

The sound of his automatic weapon was just as loud as the hovering bird above them, even with the suppressor attached to the gun itself. With the combined vibrating noises, Leon could still hear Elliot's screams of panic as he aimed the weapon at the zombies' chest cavity areas.

"THE HEAD!" Leon shouted almost in vain. "SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD!"

His voice was entirely lost in the loud environment around him. There was no way Elliot would be able to hear him, even without the sound of raining bullets, especially if he was in a huge panic state that was seemingly overwhelming any form of rational thought…

…and then there was a sudden change of sound from the chopper above, a strange mechanical sound that quickly turned into a motor scream.

Leon looked back up and saw that as Elliot was being overwhelmed by both zombies in front of him, he somehow managed to hit the giant aircraft without knowing as the vehicle suddenly dove while it began to wildly jerk in a dangerous erratic swing.

Jesus! It's coming down!

The spotlight began to shine in all directions at once, flashing across metal pipes, the concrete floor, and Elliot's struggles against the two monsters that were now tearing at him in force.

It's gonna crash right on top of them!

The blades began to slam against the brick of the elevated roof with a roaring crash and before Leon could even finish moving down the rails for cover, the chopper hadn't finished crashing against the rooftop's wall before a behemoth explosion erupted almost without warning, similar to the loud chemical explosion from the wreckage he, David, and Claire had escaped from. The sky lit up almost in a bright, red glow for a few seconds before it finally dwindled away, turning the sky back into nighttime once again.

Leon felt his body still trembling from the rattling effects of the explosion itself as he slowly stood up from the steps in the mid-section of the stairs to the rooftop. As he slowly elevated himself back into the roof once again, Elliot and the two zombies were completely gone, all of them perished alongside the pilot, who crashed right on top of where they once were. He stared at the wreckage in disbelief, not able to process how it happened so fast, that it seemed as though time itself had yet to realize it ever did. The smoking, burning chopper in front of him did not lie about the unrealistic reality that made him drop into a sense filled with hopelessness. An acrid, terrible odor of burnt meat and metal washed over him as a wave of heated air moved across the station's rooftop, the silent atmosphere being bombarded with the sounds of crackling flames and the soft groans of the zombies that were still down in the courtyard.

He glanced down at the two zombies he had left behind, both of which were already trampling on one another, struggling to take a single step on the stairs, the railing only allowing one person at a time to climb over.

Can't climb stairs…good to know.

Leon turned his attention back at the lonely door that led right inside the RPD building and then back at the helicopter wreckage. The only way he could move on is to head inside the door and hope that the flames won't catch up to the rest of the building and start a raging fire that no firefighters may come to help put out…

…which means, anyone entering the station will essentially be walking right into a death trap, overrun with zombies or not. Have to put the fire out somehow.

The water tower!

Leon felt another wave of relief. However, he was already afraid to feel any type of relief as every time he experienced some sort of break, something worse always had to happen. The thought did not stop him from reaching the valve to the water tower that connected just on the other side of a wired fence. Hoping it wouldn't be too hot for him to be standing almost right next to the wreckage, he ran through the fenced gate, happy that it wasn't locked, and turned the valve to apply enough pressure to burst the water tower and have running water wash over the fire that had claimed the lives of both Elliot and the pilot altogether.

The sudden rush of the water itself felt somewhat satisfying, the air next to the brief waterfall cooling off as the flames faded away into nothingness, leaving only a white sizzling smoke with soot spilled almost all across the ground itself.

Okay, now what? If Elliot was still alive, it could mean there are others inside the station, either planning for an escape or looking out for help.

He didn't think he was doing all too bad himself so far. However, if he could potentially find more survivors inside, the chances of them surviving would grow exponentially. And if STARS were still holed up somewhere in the city, there was a small chance they could be inside the station, helping out others despite what the media have said about them.

The cannibal murders… the existence of a man-made virus…it's all starting to add up, doesn't it? Maybe the STARS did figure it all out before the outbreak began, and people turned a blind eye to it…

…but how can anyone believe something like, "A virus exists that turns people into flesh-eating cannibal monsters."? Surely I wouldn't.

It was possible that they might've even faked David's uncle's death in order to cover up something far more sinister that may have happened to him inside the Arklay Forest.

Or maybe, he is actually dead, had him killed to silence him about everything he may have known. After all, he and Alex were known former CIA agents throughout the police department, if the files I read had any sort of truth to them. I really hope I'm the one in the wrong here.

Still, it doesn't explain Claire's brother's disappearance though.

A decision was finally made.

Whether or not he'd find any other survivors inside the building, he had a promise to fulfill, and that was to meet up with David and Claire inside the station. There was no other choice. If he ever decided to leave the city without ever helping anyone in need, he'd be feeling extremely guilty and his conscience would be stained forever. As a police officer, even on his first day regardless of whether or not his superiors were even alive at this point, he had a duty to save anyone he'd come across.

"You got a job to do," he told himself quietly as he walked out of the fenced area that housed the valve for the water pressure. "You can do this." Although he didn't sound quite as confident as he'd liked, at least he still held his unwavering voice that didn't break. He took a deep breath before finally touching the knob of the door to get himself inside and do his duty as an officer of the law.

Author's Note: Thank you all for the favorites and follows! As a small-time writer, I couldn't be any happier with the results, especially after my previous story. Surprisingly, it's still going strong (and probably even more so than ever as this gains more attention), and all I can say is... THANK YOU SO MUCH! You're all the best! :)
Also, don't be shy to leave a review, even if it's a single phrase, whether it's critical, comical, speculative, or anything for that matter. All reviews are appreciated!