Adam Luck - Hahaha! I'm glad I've done something unique in multiple categories that rarely anyone you've known has ever done. I'm surprised, really, because Simmons was particularly involved with Raccoon City's demise and has had quite a history with Ada even before 1998. I guess most people tend to forget RE6 has a vast amount of lore that offers much for the series in general. It's such an underrated game IMO. Still remember when RE5, RE6, Operation Raccoon City, and Black Ops II were among the very first PS3 games I've ever owned back in 2012.
Perseus has a reason to be involved. In this crossover, Kravchenko is their leader and he brought them up with Umbrella. This was all said and implied in the previous story, but I do understand your memory issues because I have them all the time as well. I even have a folder filled with a bunch of notepad files, reminding me of some key points about my stories, and even how many shots or bullets each character has as I go. XD
And thanks! I tried my best in combining both CoD and RE universes as seamlessly as possible. It's not perfect by any means, but I'm glad you like it!
Oh, and I didn't do the whole Halloween thing on purpose. It just so happened to fall on a Monday lol. I don't celebrate it personally, but I guess it was a nice way to end the month with a good'ol upload of a chapter containing a psychopath. XD

Recommended BGM:

1. Resident Evil 2 (1998) - Drove the Passengers to be the Living Dead

2. Resident Evil 2 (1998) & Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - The Front Hall

3. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - (SPOILER) Watch for BOLD TEXT below

Chapter 6

There was a distant explosion that left the pair feeling as though they had entered an ensuing warzone, but none of the nineteen-year-olds didn't have time to speak to one another when something was spotted ahead of them - too preoccupied with trying to understand and process what they were looking at, their firearms trained at a howling creature.

A nimble, dark shape had jumped on top of the van in front of them, and David and Claire froze at the sight of a large figure staring back at them. The thing began to do a guttural growl, its teeth dripping a rather dark, thick substance at what they could only assume was blood. It may have been a Doberman once, but the flaps of skin hanging from its abdomen and exposed muscle all around its limbs suggested that it too had been infected by whatever disease had caused dead people to start rising from their graves. It didn't just look dead - it looked biologically destroyed, mutated into a fictional canine beast none of them had ever seen in their lives. Its body was covered in a crazy wet patchwork of fur and bloody tissue, looking far worse than the work of a Frankenstein monster's pet, its only left eye bulging out as a result of its decomposing face.

A dog… big dog… No, a monster, just like the rest of them.

David felt his hands sweat profusely, his gun slippery as his heart pounded loudly in fear, thinking how could something have the potential to create monsters like the ones they had faced and the beast in front of them, now being joined by a second, dark ragged figure. It had to be a nightmare. Things like that could not exist. It just couldn't. But the terrible reality they had caught themselves in did not lie to him. The evidence was there, right in front of them, and if he or Claire did not do something about it, they were going to be eaten alive by not just the cannibal monsters around the city, but by whatever kind of hellhounds were watching their every move as they slowly stepped back.

Their conflict with the undead people in the city had been one of the worst things they'd experienced in their lives, but so shocking, that they barely had time to really grasp what the unknown disease was really capable of.

The growls had turned into hellish whines of hunger, somehow causing David to remember his childhood pet named, Mickey, a shaggy black and white Husky that was given to him as a gift from his father to compensate for his absence during his time in the military. He remembered how much he loved him - and quickly understood that these dogs were once the pets of some of the infected individuals in the city, probably having been gifted to them as well. Seeing someone's pets having turned into something as vile as those beasts, all he knew was that whatever created the feral animals in front of them, it was an absolute abomination even by nature's standards.

The understanding had come and gone inside his mind in an instant and without warning, both of the wild animals began their jump down to the ground and started rushing toward the pair.

"FIRE!" David commanded loudly, not having realized how panicky his voice blasted in the silence between them.

Claire did not hold back and began firing her weapon at the closest creature gaining less distance between them as David followed with the next one that was slightly farther away but was seemingly more focused on him rather than Claire herself. The gunshots were so unanimously loud inside the alley, that none of them could no longer hear the wails of the zombies that were still trying their best to get out through the closed gate behind them.

The first shot on the closest dog missed, hitting beneath its agile feet, but the second one caused it to collapse as soon as it struck its left eyeball. Dark blood splattered, leaving nothing inside the eye socket as its head began to drip a small puddle of its own blood.

The dog that kept its focus on David took the first shot in its exposed ribcage, bone fragments and loose tissue blown to the ground and yet it barely faltered, its bloodshot gaze still fixed on him with full ferocity as it sprinted after him. With a quick snarl, the animal began to leap almost instantaneously, its decaying jaws wide open. It was fast, but David's quick survival instincts kicked in, and in a single shot to where its heart would be, the dog staggered back with a high-pitched whine of pain - but it quickly stood back up, almost as if the shots were just a mere nuisance to it. Its wound was bleeding a dark, thick ichorous substance and yet the canine did not care.

Shit! Guess they're just as undead as the others, huh?

Before the creature had the chance to leap in an impossible jump again, it had now been shot down with a bullet straight into its head, finally putting it down for good as it spasmed on the ground for a short moment, no longer cheating death to come back to its feet again.

"Always aim for the head, remember?" Said Claire almost teasingly as she walked to his position beside him, her voice still hinting at the fear both of them had been feeling inside.

David tilted his head to his right, looking right at her as he let out a soft, but nervous smile. "Didn't realize you were keeping score."

Claire kept her own gaze down at the limp bodies they had to deal with not long ago, seemingly thinking just how much of a close call they'd been having lately. She later turned her head to her left, staring back at David almost with a look of disbelief, not of the dogs themselves, but at what he had just told her.

"And I didn't realize you were the playful type," she replied almost stoically. "Come on, let's go before those zombies behind us break through somehow."

David tore his gaze away from her and began making his way toward the van, feeling somewhat ashamed of himself for even trying to pull out some jokes with her.

I don't even know why I keep trying. Harper does it all the time and despite knowing how terrible that ends up, you're still trying to do the same. Good work, David. Now Claire might think you're just some asshole who jokes about everything. Way to go...

He was about to open his mouth to say something in return before the chain link fence gate finally gave in and immediately burst into a slam against the fence itself. Multiple zombies had now begun to take over the alley behind them, all of them shuffling forward as they wailed almost in unison.

"Damn!" David blurted out in surprise as he looked back at the wave of zombies that were coming out from the basketball court itself. "Here, hop on my shoulders," he said quickly as he crouched down near the white van. "I'll push you up."

Claire got to work instantly and she put one foot over his right shoulder and the other on his left. Even though she was in shape and looked almost weightless, the weight put on his shoulders felt as though he was lifting several pairs of heavy dumbbells at once. The crushing pressure was intense, but he held himself together. All he focused his mind on was for Claire to get on top and give him a hand to reach over as the zombies began to close their distance faster than they were anticipating.

"There!" Claire shouted as she climbed on top, relieving him of the weight he wasn't too happy being unprepared for. Her voice faded away across the other direction of the van on top before she turned back around and put out a hand for him. "Grab my hand, quickly!"

Ignoring the aches on the broad shoulders he had amassed over his teenage years, he reached out for Claire's arm without much of a jump, and with all of Claire's might, she pulled him over with both hands, feeling the intense weight of David's body as he tried helping himself up, pushing himself with a kick in a zombie's decomposing face as he climbed over the edge of the van.

"Go!" He said as he was now beginning to stand up on top of the van itself, "Jump on the other side!"

Claire nodded. She began sliding down the windshield, landing herself on the ground without much effort afterward. David followed and did the same, but as he walked over the top of the van, he somehow triggered the alarm system of the vehicle itself, startling them both. Instinctively, he knew they had almost no time to spare any longer.

"That went well," he said sarcastically as he looked back at the van and again to the way out of the alleyway. "Think we should get moving."

"You think?" Claire retorted before pointing the way leading to the police station. "On the left. Let's go!"

The pair began a full sprint and once they were out of the alley, many of the wandering creatures had begun to crawl out of many spaces, particularly from a crashed shuttle bus in front. Some of them began sliding their bodies outward through the broken windows, slashing their brittle corpses along the way, but felt no pain as thick blood drooled out of their ghastly wounds. Several of them were covered in rot and grime, while others were still actively burning in the flames of the bonfires that have been created by the nearby wreckage and fallen barricades throughout the street around them. Many of the crashed vehicles were RPD patrol cars and most of the cries of hunger were made by zombies that were formerly cops, quickly erasing any hopes that the RPD was a safe haven for them to have a rest from the unimaginable horrors across the city.

A group of three more of the wailing ghouls was walking directly from the gate that they needed to go through. Claire quickly shot one of the undead lipless cops directly above the ridge of their broken nose, instantly putting them down, while David took aim and shot the other two undead officers that were still actively burning, their skin completely covered in third-degree burns, the horrible stench causing both of them to gag as they passed and went through the gate. Claire got through first and David made sure to lock the gate by sliding the metal bar in place. Not that it really mattered since the blaring alarm of the van that was in the alley was still attracting the attention of the creatures directly towards it, most of them oblivious to them having already entered the grounds of the police station.

"It's like a fucking horror movie!" David gasped as he sat on the ground for a quick rest, ejecting the empty magazine in his gun, and began to reload it with a new one.

"But you don't have to do this many stunts in a horror movie!" Claire countered while she leaned against the large stone wall, separating the RPD and the buildings next to it. "But at least we're here now. Hopefully, Leon had already made it inside."

David nodded back in agreement. "Yeah, and maybe we could find someone inside that could tell us what the hell happened around here."

After taking a small break, realizing that more zombies could come to their location, they continued their way inside the RPD's grassy land on the right, seeing that the lights of the RPD were well-lit enough to see that the RPD grounds were littered with so many dead bodies just about every corner of the way. David and Claire's expressions were etched with a terrifying dread of shock and dismay. Most of them had been dead by either being eaten, shot to death, or by raw blunt force trauma.

However, one of the dead bodies caught David's attention in particular. As he walked closer and crouched to see the yellow vest of a body that was sprawled against the small iron fence, separating the lined-up trees around, there was a familiar logo that he remembered having seen before on a picture of Woods and his father in their cop uniforms.

It's… he's STARS…

He quickly gasped in shock, feeling even more afraid of the potential fates of his father, uncle, and Claire's brother. The dead body's face seemed almost completely eviscerated as if something had impaled him through the mouth and the back of his head. Whether or not he had turned into a zombie was still in question, but it also seemed like there were several bloody bullet holes across his chest and head.

"Claire, look," he called out, still having his gaze fixed on the dead man's soulless expression. When Claire walked closer to him to see what was going on, he then pointed to the logo on the corpse's bloodied vest. "This guy used to be STARS…"

Claire let out a sharp, but low gasp, her face suddenly converting itself into an embodiment of intense worry. "If… he was STARS, could that mean—?"

"No!" David quickly objected loudly as he stood up immediately and turned his attention to her, his tone firm and filled with defiance. "We don't know what happen to the others. Maybe he…" he switched his gaze between the dead yellow-vested STARS and back at Claire for a quick moment, "He might've been the only one left in the city. Your brother, my uncle, and my father, they… they could all be out by now. Yeah… like they most likely could've…" He couldn't find anything else to say. He wasn't even feeling sure whether or not their relatives were all safe from the nightmare that Raccoon had become. However, the dead body of a STARS member had made him face the potential reality that maybe his father and uncle could very well be…

Godammit! No! They can't be! They've been missing for weeks. Months! They had to have gone elsewhere. They had to be.

"Hey," Claire's soft voice led him back to his own self-awareness. She put a hand gently on his right arm for a brief moment as she continued, "No one's saying everybody else from STARS is dead."

She didn't sound entirely confident, but David knew she was right, sensing some determination from her presence to search for more answers. Even if Leon had told him the vague information about his uncle's death, no one in the public eye knew exactly why or how he even died, and all of a sudden, they all officially disappeared off the face of the earth around the same time that it happened. For all they knew, they could've gone into hiding, and Frank might've faked his own death to do just that as well, possibly to further investigate what they discovered in the Arklay Mountains. It seemed like a smart move, considering he was formerly a CIA agent.

But that still doesn't explain why dad didn't do the same. And if he did, why hadn't they…

…no. I have to find out more.

"You're right," he finally said, trying to make himself sound more confident than what he was actually feeling inside. "Let's get inside the building and look for answers as we try searching for Leon."

"Right on with you," she responded, nodding.

As the duo headed to the front of the station, there was the sound of a helicopter coming closer to their position, the rotors growing louder as they did.

"Is that..."

"Maybe a rescue team?" David guessed, remembering what they heard on the radio from the gun shop. "But where could it—?"

There was a loud crash from somewhere near the building, brick and wood breaking as a subtle rumble were felt on the ground, leaving both of them wondering if the chopper had either thrown something inside or hit itself against the building. After a short moment, the chopper was seen high above the dark sky as it sped away from the building itself, and a flock of crows was seen flying high above in the air, all of them having been startled by the crashing sound itself.

"Creepy sight, huh?" David muttered, his skin crawling at the sudden thought of an infamous superstition of disease and death relating to crows themselves. Though as much as he wasn't the superstitious type, he couldn't help but think about how accurately it applied to the whole city around them.

"Tell me about it," Claire responded gloomily, looking back at David. "What do you think that helicopter was all about? Didn't look like any rescue team I've ever seen."

David tilted his head back to Claire's gaze, already feeling on edge about entering the RPD itself, but tried to keep himself as calm as possible, trying to make it less obvious to her. "Not sure, but I think it's time we investigate further inside."

Claire nodded and the duo traveled across the whole facade of the station until they finally arrived at the center of the front courtyard, the building itself having been adorned by two flags that were hanging limply underneath the bright lights around. The main gates to the courtyard were blocked off by a shotgun acting as a deadbolt on the other side. Even if they wanted to get out of the station through the front gates, it was nearly impossible as there were even more zombies trying to break through in vain.

Taking a further grasp of the front of the RPD building, however, they saw that the main doors leading inside the station have been almost entirely destroyed by some sort of blast. The doors were hanging loosely by their hinges on the sides with pieces of burnt wood and metal becoming more apparent as they neared the building.

"What the hell happened here?" David asked, looking extremely puzzled as to why the entrance to the station had been almost entirely destroyed.

Claire shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe someone tried to break in somehow?"

David held the grip of his gun even more tightly as he raised it, his finger already on the trigger as he tried to control the overwhelming feeling of uncertainty inside his already panicked mind.

"Stay sharp," he said almost in a low voice as they began to slowly climb up the small set of stairs

Claire kept herself beside him, holding her weapon firmly as her hands began to slightly tremble at the thought of what could be waiting for them inside the station.

They had now entered the grand old lobby of the RPD, seeing no signs of life anywhere at all. David had never seen the inside of the police station before, but Claire knew it was almost just the same as she remembered it when she last visited the place, except with some of the added equipment and small-sized mobile curtains for treating the injured with some added privacy. There was evidence left behind that there had been a proper shelter for people around the city once, but now it all looked unused and partially destroyed, some were even covered in spots of dried blood. Whether they were as a result of the wounded being treated or people being killed or eaten alive, they could not tell.

"Hello?" David's voice was low but reverberated intensely across the enormous, mansion-looking station, echoing back to him in a whisper.

Even though he knew in the back of his mind that no one would answer him back other than his own echo, he was mostly astounded by the architecture of the station itself. There wasn't anything like it, and it couldn't even compare to the one he went to in San Jose once, which was bigger in its own right, but its design wasn't as exotic as Raccoon's. There were three floors inside, each of them classically styled in oak and marble design. There was a stone statue of a woman raising a large flag further up the hall ahead, sandwiched between two large staircases leading to the second floor. The RPD seal was set on the floor in front of the receptionist's desk, which was located between a ramp on either side. However, some of the tiles near the painted seal were partially destroyed, giving out more evidence of the fact that something terrible must've happened inside the station. Not to mention the fact that more newspapers, books, and police reports were all scattered on the ground, some of them even burnt. There were also bloody footprints going aimlessly in every direction.

"Anybody here?!" Claire followed up with her voice being slightly louder, but once again, no answer from anyone other than her own echo resonating back to her in a loud whisper.

The profounding silence inside the huge chamber sent the duo a feeling of uneasiness as they stepped down into the center of the grand hall, their footsteps echoing loudly as though every generated sound inside the building was haunted somehow, whispering back at them in a subtle tempest of great disturbance. There was a phone on the desk just below the counter hidden from plain sight. Claire immediately decided to pick up the receiver and cradled it between her head and shoulders as she began tapping at the cold buttons with her fingertips desperately.

"Anything?" David asked, despite feeling that he already knew the answer before she even bothered touching the phone itself.

Claire slowly put the phone down, looking down at the buttons grimly before shaking her head at him. "Not a single dial tone."

Great. Just what we needed…

At least it was able to explain why no one was able to pick up the phone from Raccoon. It seemed like the entire phone lines were cut, except the ones that were near the outskirts of the city, which made David slightly surprised, considering the circumstances. David turned to face each of the ramps and the multiple doors that were on his left and right, thinking to himself for a moment.

"Where to now?" He said out loud as he lowered his weapon pointing to the ground with his right hand while rubbing the back of his head with the other. "Leon could be anywhere and if we wanna find any survivors, it's gonna be a pain to search every nook and cranny around this place."

Claire shrugged as she walked closer to him, her gaze stuck on the grand environment around them. "I've visited this place a few times before but never seen the entire layout of the station so your guess is as good as mine. It's almost an entire city block's worth of ground to cover so that should be fun."

Sighing, David turned his attention back to the enormous hall, still feeling puzzled. He desperately wanted to look not just for Leon, but anyone who may still be hiding somewhere. The door to his left looked like a great start as the wooden sign above said, "Waiting Room A".

Doubt Leon entered the station through there though. Where could the back door of this place be anyway?

"I just remembered something," Claire said suddenly. David turned his head to face her, and she looked like there was a spark of light that shined all over her worried expression. "There's a parking garage in the back where Leon might've headed. I'm not too sure how to get there from here, but if we find it, we could bump into him along the way."

David nodded. "Alright, then you should do the honors and pick the place to start exploring."

Before Claire had a chance to do anything in return, they heard a strange noise inside the second door to the northwest side of their position. The noise sounded as though someone had knocked over something to the ground while hitting something metallic at the same time.

Both of them turned to the source of the noise and without a single word or sound, David started motioning his head in the direction it came from and signaled Claire to slowly move their way up the left ramp. The sign above the door began to show itself clearly, which read, "West Office." David moved first towards the door and once he was met with a silent nod from Claire, he slowly turned the knob with his left hand and carefully pushed the door open as he held his Glock raised with the other. Claire aimed her weapon directly at the door, in case anything were to come out to them in surprise.

By the time David pushed the door all the way, there was nothing to be seen at first sight, other than a cluttered mess. With his firearm now pointing aimlessly at the seemingly vacant room, Claire followed behind him and both of them saw that the zombies they'd seen had made a huge mess inside as well.

The long, gloomy room was barely lit with a couple of lights shining inside a smaller office and one in the center of a big group of desks, all of them with papers and documents scattered everywhere with specks of dried blood all over. Just near the lonely light in the center were some ceiling decorations of a party that may have been interrupted by the outbreak itself and a banner that read, "Welcome Leon!".

Must've been Leon's welcoming party. What a surprise they brought you, huh?

Within the silence inside, there was a sound of shallow breathing somewhere close to them. David took out his flashlight and began aiming the shining beam to his left where they heard the source of the sound.

"Oh, Jesus…"

It was a survivor, a cop that was sitting against the lockers, his legs splayed, almost as though they seemed to have given up on supporting the weight of his body any longer. In response to David's voice and the light shining on his face, he blankly aimed his weapon in both his and Claire's direction - and then he quickly lowered it afterward, seemingly having almost no energy to keep his arm raised any longer than a brief second. His midsection around his abdomen had a chunk of his flesh missing, his hands bloody as he held one hand over his oozing wound, grunting in pain for the effort he pulled into raising his arm weakly. The dark features of the cop were contorted with immense agony.

David and Claire walked closer to him and both of them crouched on his left and right side, with David leaving the flashlight to shine on the ceiling above them in order to keep up a decently lit area to meet each other's gazes more clearly.

"Hey, man, hang in there," he began to say reassuringly, although he knew from the looks of it, the cop wasn't looking as though he was gonna make it out alive. He even felt the horrible agony that was emanating from the beat cop's aura. "Are you really the only officer left in the station?"

"Who… are you?" the cop whispered weakly, not bothering to look at any of them directly.

None of them knew who the cop was, but it was likely that he might've known something about what has been going around the city in the past months leading up to the mess they were now all in.

"David Mason," he said softly.

"And I'm Claire. Claire Redfield," Claire followed up with their introduction. "We're looking for my brother, Chris, and his father and uncle, Alex Mason and Frank Woods. Do you have any clue as to what happened?"

The cop turned to face Claire, almost with a sudden glare of surprise that had given him just enough energy to speak more clearly. "You really Chris' sister?"

"Yes," she said almost quickly. "Do you know what really happened to him and the others?"

The cop turned to face David on his left, gazing at him thoroughly as he seemingly studied his chiseled features in the dim light.

"You look a lot like your father," he said finally before he began to cough weakly as a small bubble of blood formed at the corner of his mouth, and then he continued as he looked down at his own wound. "Name's… Marvin Branagh. We lost contact with them… over the past month. Chris, Frank, and Alex… Every last surviving STARS member has disappeared. We… should've listened to them…"

David felt his gut tightening up into a painful knot, now having more questions than ever before.

What about the dead guy in the yellow vest outside the building? Was he still around working for the RPD or was he the only STARS member left in the city?

"Then… what can you tell us about—?"

"Two months ago," Marvin rasped, interrupting the question as he began to slowly switch gazes between the pair. "There was this… incident…involving these… cannibal murders… or as you may have seen them… zombie-like creatures… located in a mansion on the outskirts of this… —city."

David wanted to tell him to be still, to save his strength, but even through his own guilt, he did not stop him, and neither did he see Claire do the same as well. However, Marvin still seemed determined to continue telling them everything he knew, even if it was costing all of his remaining strength.

"Chris, Alex, and the other… STARS members… discovered that… Umbrella… was behind everything. They all risked their own lives to reveal the truth… but no one… believed them. And not long after that— all this… started to happen."

David was having a hard time believing any of it, and he could see Claire's face was also filled with disbelief as well. His uncle had mentioned that Raccoon City had Umbrella as one of its benefactors for its overall boom over the years and that they had some sort of facilities running all around town. As he did his own research on Umbrella all those months ago, David also found out that a lot of things, particularly the latest medicines used in San Jose State University, were all funded and provided by Umbrella themselves.

…And if they had facilities headquartered here for their company, maybe some sort of chemical or viral leak had happened near the mansion or something. Would explain the disappearances and "cannibal murders" since then…

All of this was running rampant inside of his mind in a split second, and then Marvin grunted suddenly once again as he began coughing in great succession, the sound falling even weaker than the last.

"Hang in there, Marvin," Claire said out of concern as she picked up a hidden blue T-shirt of a cop's uniform from a partially opened locker, folded it quickly, and began placing it over his oozing wound as a makeshift bandage. "We should get you quickly to a hospital or doctor."

Marvin closed his eyes shut, the pain becoming too much for him to handle any longer as he began to take out a big medal coin from his back pocket and handed it over to Claire. He then began to speak again in a wheezing gasp, his head hanging almost limply over his chest.

"Take it…" he struggled. " Should get you started in getting yourselves… out of here… Put it on the statue… main hall… It'll lead you safely… to the back of the station…"

The resignation in Marvin's voice was painful to hear. David knew they couldn't just leave him here to die, and as much as he wanted to save him, there was no guarantee that there would be anyone left alive at the hospital, let alone a doctor nearby to treat him, if at all. He didn't even know how far the hospital was from the police station, but even with all of this in mind, he felt numb, unable to figure out what was their next move other than just leaving him behind.

What are we supposed to do? We can't just leave him like this…

"No," he blurted out sharply. "Don't be ridiculous. If you think we are just gonna leave you here and—"

He felt an immediate firm hand on his arm. Marvin raised his head slowly and opened his eyes, his fierce gaze entirely fixed on his own with a sudden rush of energy filling his pained expression.

"Please, David!" He raised his voice at him with a volume superseding anything he had said before, still holding onto his arm as firmly as possible. "Just go!" He began groaning in pain, struggling to find the last of his strength to say what he wanted to say. "It's too late for me… We all know how this is going to end… Just… Save yourselves… so you and Claire… can have a chance to see your families… again." He finally let go of his arm and was now unmoving as his shallow breathing became even lighter, looking back down at his own wounded abdomen, and then closing his eyes shut again.

David felt a sudden rush of sadness and guilt flooding all over him. He admired his selflessness, but somehow, it just didn't feel right, and he wondered if he could do the same if he were in his position. Claire looked back at him in the dim light of the room, slowly raising her shoulders as she shook her head, telling him there was really nothing they could do for him at this point.

At least he told us who was responsible for causing the zombie outbreak…

…but what about Uncle Woods? Is he really…?

David turned his head back at Marvin, feeling desperate about knowing his potential fate. "Hey, is it true that Frank is actually… dead?"

There was no immediate answer. His head was still hanging limply, though he couldn't tell whether or not he was still breathing. He began to put a hand on his left shoulder, feeling the sickly, cold ragged shirt that was almost all covered in dried spots of blood. Fearing that he might've passed out, he spoke again.

"Hey. Marvin. Marvin!"

Claire decided to put two fingers over his neck to look for a pulse, and David merely looked at her, feeling afraid that he may never know the whereabouts of his uncle ever again. Almost immediately, she slowly pulled her hand away from him, looking back at David grimly.

"He's… gone," she uttered gloomily as she stared back at the folded shirt Marvin held, his hand no longer putting any pressure against the red, fleshy wound. After a moment, she turned back to face him, looking at him puzzled. "Why did you ask him if Frank is dead? Did you hear any rumors or…?"

David sighed inwardly as he picked up his flashlight and slowly stood up, feeling like someone had shoved a knife into him, and began twisting it endlessly. He wasn't even sure if Frank was really dead as much as he wasn't sure whether or not his father or even Chris was also dead or alive as well.

"Before we saw you down the road, Leon told me that he read an old newspaper article mentioning that…" he felt like saying anything related to his uncle dying would mean that he had no faith or trust in him, but unfortunately, it was looking as though it was starting to become true and David could almost feel like he wanted to burst into tears over something he had no confirmation about. He kept himself together emotionally, blinking his eyes rapidly for a short moment before he continued on, "He told me that my uncle was among the casualties listed, that he passed away at the hospital due to some injuries related to a forest fire. Honestly, I think it's a load of bullshit. He survived four years as a POW once. Four whole years while everyone, including my father, thought he died! And you're gonna tell me some forest fire killed him?" He quickly shook his head in defiance as he put a loose hand on his lower hip, looking back down grimly at Marvin's corpse. "I just can't bring myself to believe it… I simply just can't."

He immediately tried to focus on their current situation after letting his inner conflict express itself towards Claire, outright refusing to believe that Frank was dead. As he further looked into Marvin's body, he knew that sooner or later, he was going to turn, just like the sheriff and the gunshop owner previously. As he held his Glock firmly in his right hand, he slowly began to raise and aim directly at his head, his grip shaking almost uncontrollably at the thought that what if he ends up finding his uncle's corpse, turned into one of the ghastly creatures, and…

…he felt a small poke from something beside him, his gaze switched to the medallion with a maiden carved on one side of the large coin.

"I'll do it," Claire muttered almost in a whisper as she held the coin out for David to grab. "Just… let me take it from here."

David looked back at her for a short moment, frowning before switching his attention back to Marvin's limp head on the ground, his Glock still aiming at him with one hand. After some hesitation, he forced himself to shoot his dead corpse, and without much of a flinch, he pulled the trigger, and an instant flash of light lit up the room for a split second, the sound of gunfire ringing loudly within their ears. Marvin's shaven head bumped against the lockers almost brutally as his body immediately toppled to its side in response to the heavy blow in the head, now forming a pool of blood on the littered ground.

David lowed his weapon slowly, trying to stop himself from thinking he would have to do the same to his uncle or even his father, and before Claire could say another word to him, he began to walk out of the room, fighting off any remaining flood of mixed emotions that had been at war for taking control over his own actions.

From the wrecked rooftop, Leon heard another chopper hovering about just as he had touched the knob of the door in front of him. Backing away, he looked around above the dark sky, looking for a flying aircraft and whether or not it was another rescue team that had been called for backup or something of similar nature.

Could be a second chopper looking for more survivors. But… where the hell is it?

The aircraft was still heard relatively close, and as soon as Leon ran closer to the wreckage of the first 'copter, he saw the flying bird coming closer above the RPD building. Feeling like there was still some hope left after the incident that happened not so long ago, he waited patiently at the rooftop's center.

However, something didn't feel right about it…

…the chopper had stopped mid-way just above the general east side of the building. The vehicle, in particular, did not have a searchlight of its own, but after his eyes began to adjust to the darkness of the sky above, he saw there was a giant container hanging just below the 'copter. Seconds later, a cylindrical-shaped object was ejected from the container itself, crashing down inside the building in a thunderous echoing sound as the station once again shook from another violent impact, causing a group of crows to be flying away as a result of the intense crashing noise.

What the—? Did they send in supplies? Some food or medicine? …Guns maybe?

…And why did the crows decide it was now in their best interest to flee instead of when the first crash happened?

Leon was simply out of ideas and the sight itself quickly reminded him of the death that had overcome the city around him, sending shivers down his spine. What was clear to him now, however, was that the chopper no longer decided to stay in the immediate vicinity and swiftly flew away somewhere northeast.

Deciding not to play detective any longer, he instantly began to make his way towards the door, and out of the blue, he began to develop a sense of something sinister and ominous; something he couldn't exactly explain to himself why he felt the way he did, other than being in a place where the dead can be considered alive.

Once he opened it carefully, there was a faint scent of decay flowing out of the corridor. Just as he entered the room and closed the door behind him, a sudden sound of intense footsteps began to echo inside. Cracks from the wooden floor could be felt and heard as Leon froze in place…

…someone was walking, someone huge and heavy, the footsteps slowly growing louder with each thundering step, the sounds steady and deliberate.

Leon instinctively thought that it must be a survivor, probably looking for the canister of supplies that was dropped down inside the station. If it really was a survivor, they were probably huge in weight.

There's no way it could be a zombie walking as a normal person would.

Feeling some joy that there was someone else left alive other than himself, he jogged through the corridor past the turn. There was a lot of broken glass on the floor. The dim moonlight shined almost brightly inside the already darkened corridor, save for a couple of lights that were still in working order, and before Leon could take another step on his way to the next corner of the snaking corridor, his body suddenly felt an intense jolt of paralyzation…

…and a tall, shadowy man had revealed himself to him. He was much taller than your average person, his bulk huge and proportionate, dressed in a long army-green trench coat that could only fit perfectly for his unique size. He wore a thick, utility belt around his waist, and even though he couldn't see any weapons on him, Leon could feel the violent nature radiating off of him in invisible, intense waves that drove his senses to develop an overpowering feeling of wrongness all around. Through the darkness, he could still make out the shining baldness of his hairless white head, the evil blurred face looking back at him as though he wanted to declare war against him. Without a single doubt in his mind, he knew he was a monster, an unnatural predator, a twisted, corrupt man, who looked anything but friendly. The bloodlust in his white red eyes fixated on him, fists the size of human heads clenched as his thick, black gloves folded loudly… (BGM #3 'T'-A)

No way am I going to arrest someone like him! Shoot him! NOW!

Leon aimed his custom magnum, but stopped himself for a quick moment, thinking that if he were to make the terrible mistake to shoot him once, he could very well end up getting himself killed…

…and all it took was one massive step from his thick, oversized legs before it followed up with the sound of wood breaking underneath in response to his tremendous weight. Leon's heart began to pound in a fast, thundering rhythm that he could not hold back the agonizing fear any longer, panic already setting in like a blinding haze as the white cloud of smoke that was still lingering around the giant Frankenstein monster.

"Jesus Christ!"

Leon could barely hear his own panicked voice as he squeezed the trigger as hard as he could, once, twice, and then he saw the visible impacts. A tear in his collarbone was quickly met with a brief spray of dark blood as the shot pierced a flap of his clothing from whatever label it had behind him. The other shot sliced almost right through its left cheek…

…and yet he took another massive step, completely ignoring the fact that he had been shot twice on what should've been fatal shots, his stern expression unchanged over his rough, unmoving features, fists still clenched as they moved in rhythm to seek a target, seek to murder; to crush someone alive…

SHIT!

The realization was clear to him; the monster wasn't going down easily, not even with his powerful customized Desert Eagle. He needed something more powerful, something else that could take him down in one shot for good. However, he had nothing else in his arsenal, other than the fact that he only had four more shots to spare, four more bullets to hope that it would be enough to at least slow him down somehow, to get him out of the way before he could end up pursuing more survivors, or worse, Claire and David, who might already be inside the station by now.

Adrenaline fueled his body into a state of pure survival mode, and he pointed at the creature's heart, if he even had one, and pulled the trigger repeatedly as he stepped back, the thundering blasts overcoming the loud footsteps of the humanoid in front of him. The gun jerked almost violently in his hands as the recoil made it difficult to adjust his aim correctly while he tried to name the crazy abomination inside his mind.

Frankenstein's monster, Terminator, Trenchy…

Whatever he was, all four .50 AE rounds managed to finally take some effect on him. The creature's green trench coat had been riddled with bullet holes, but no blood poured down like the zombies he had shot before. However, he saw the silent towering humanoid had begun to stagger back and slowly crouched down to a full stop, as though the shots had drained most of the energy he had left to keep walking in his direction, and before he knew it, the creature finally collapsed to the ground in a powerful jolt, seemingly dead.

Is… that it? Is he actually dead?!

Leon kept his gaze fixated on the collapsed giant, the emptied gun still aimed at the motionless body, not daring himself to move any closer to it until he was sure enough that it was actually dead. For something that looked as powerful and inhuman as the thing in front of him, he didn't necessarily think so. The dead body of the woman he found in the middle of the highway was capable of coming back to life as a zombie, grabbing at his boot suddenly with so much strength. Who's to say that Trenchy couldn't do the same to him? Plus, he looked like a soulless machine, a silent, demonic assassin that could ignore pain… or even embrace it.

Just like the masked psycho from the Halloween movies...

"I can't be bothered with this shit anymore…" Leon whispered to himself. He then began to think about the things that had happened recently.

First, the zombies, then a car accident, followed up with another accident with a rescue chopper, and now this? Who— what the hell was it? Was he the one that came crashing down from the second chopper to do what; kill every officer left alive in the building? Every other living thing, zombie or not? Some kind of twisted clean-up operation?

He was in a world of confusion. Nothing had been making any sense anymore, and the more he stayed in the city, the more he started to think that the STARS were right about their public statements all along…

…and what if they had sent Trenchy to silence every surviving cop from revealing anything that's happened across Raccoon? Just like how they might've had Frank Woods killed, which caused every other STARS member to go into hiding following up with his potential assassination…

He finally aimed his gun down, still looking back at the creature he had now been calling "Trenchy" and saw that it didn't look as though it had been breathing any longer. Its muscular body was still frozen, its half-revealing face on its side looking as though it had met the touch of death itself.

Leon holstered his now-useless gun and took the courage to take a few steps closer to the fallen humanoid creature, determined to go right past him and search the station for any other survivors as he thought that by helping each other out, their odds of survival would increase dramatically.

However, he now had no ammo to use and he was in desperate need to go looking for some around the building somewhere.

The armory in the basement! Gotta be some other weapons I could use as well, assuming there's still anything left for me to find…

If his mental map of the police department didn't fail him from the sleepless studies he had of the place, there should be an exit nearby that'd lead to a fire escape and down into the detectives' room on the first floor, which had another door that'd lead straight into the basement.

And if— when I find Claire, David, or any other survivors along the way, I could warn them about Trenchy, just in case if—

Leon felt a deep impact against his entire torso, sending him rolling over the ground in a painful turn as he hit himself against the wall of the corner he had first passed previously. Trenchy had punched him away swiftly and powerfully as it slowly stood back up menacingly. Leon tried to gasp for air desperately as he coughed and felt like he was about to pass out from the impact he had received both directly in his chest, and against his back.

He's… still alive?!

He knew he shouldn't have been surprised, but the creature really did seem like he was dead, yet somehow, he was now back to the soulless machine as he was previously, blocking his way and now intending to do what it was interrupted to do beforehand; to kill him.

As Leon struggled to stand back up, looking at the towering creature right in front of him, he saw both of his giant hands raising up, closing them into large fists as it prepared for an imminent attack…

…and with a sudden mighty swing, he crashed his fists through the air as Leon immediately ducked to his side into a small opening, his long arms whipping, and with the powerful momentum, it thundered loudly against the material of the wall where Leon had been cornered just before. The huge impact had managed to bury his fists almost deep inside wood and plaster, reaching more than halfway through his arms.

Shit! That wall could've been me into mashed potatoes!

No longer looking at his back, Leon sprinted away, moving through the shattered glass as he turned to the following corner, past an officer's dead body he didn't bother identifying who it was and went straight into the first door he saw on his left. Immediately, he jumped over the rails on the other side, landing on a small patch of grassy land that absorbed most of his fall. His legs hurt with the impact to the ground, but the aches were neglected by his body through the use of adrenaline and he kept going. He could hear Trenchy already having jerked his hands free and began the unmistakable muted sounds of huge steps to his location; to pursue him at all costs.

What in God's name is that thing anyway?!

As he entered the detectives' room, he could see many dead bodies littered on the ground, most of which were dead from shots in their heads, but Leon decided not to waste time inspecting them any further. He turned to his right and ran for the opened shutter leading to a door with a heart etched in front, desperately hoping that he could lose his tail somewhere in the basement along the way.