Chapter 8: The City Overtaken

September 25th 3:00 pm

We were in shock as soon as we left the Wal-Mart. The city had not a single bit of peace and order remaining. Zombies had seemed to more than double in number, and as soon as we left the Wal-Mart, we were met with a pack of 3 Cerberus dogs. One charged first, and the other 2 followed a second after. With our new arsenal of guns and ammo, we quickly disposed of them. I took out the first Cerberus dog with a strong bludgeon in the head with my pipe wrench. Jacob took out the other two with her handgun. After that, I saw a police officer running down the street, followed by a licker. Before we could shoot the licker, it knocked the man down and bit out a chunk of his neck. It looked to us, but found sub-machine gunfire instead.

As we put away our guns, we looked around at the increased chaos. We saw rising smoke in the distance from some burning building, and there were cars destroyed completely, sometimes turned over. We walked cautiously around, and we met many zombies. One nearly caught us off guard as it was laying seemingly dead on the ground, but I decided to make sure of that with my pipe wrench. My magnum came in handy when we were attacked by a hunter, and I nearly got cut. As Jacob and I moved through the long street, we noticed that more creatures were starting to appear. As we came to an intersection, we heard loud moaning.

Looking to the sides, it seemed that we were surrounded. Two gigantic groups of zombies, each masss perhaps hosting over 100 zombies, walked towards us from both sides of the intersecting street. Shouting to Jacob, I ran quickly through the street to try and get distance between me and the intersection. Then, as we became more distant to the zombies, we sat on the ruins of a car and breathed. Then, as we looked behind us at the distant zombies, we noticed that crimson-headed zombies were running beyond the merged groups of zombies and were about 60 feet from us. There were 8 crimson heads, and as I got out my sub-machine gun and fired with one hand, I took down 4 of the crimson heads. I smashed the other through the head with a pipe wrench, and Jacob took out the others with the handgun and the bat.

Other crimson heads began to run from the group, and as we turned around to run, we saw that another wall of creatures, now including a few lickers, slowly moved towards us. We were surrounded, and there was nothing we could do. Then, I saw an open door to a close building only about 30 feet away. Jacob and I ran inside, then slammed the door shut and locked it. It was a nearly destroyed apartment building, and much debris covered the lobby. We began pushing it to the door, and eventually, there was so much debris that only a small window of light pierced the pile. I pressed buttons on the elevator, and found that the power was out.

There we were, stranded in a small hotel lobby with no exit- one of them surely leading to our deaths. I slumped down on the ground, and heard bangs from behind the door. Then, Jacob shouted to me to look through the small window through the debris pile, and I got up, looking through. I saw the area deserted, with no zombies or other creatures, but with overturned cars and glass shattered everywhere. Zombies, lickers, crimson heads, hunters, and many other creatures lay dead on the ground, red and burnt. I heard moans, but only from very, very far away. Slowly, we moved debris out and walked through the door.

We saw that none of the creatures were faking, and were all dead.

''Stay back, stay back!'' an unknown voice shouted from behind a car, and a small projectile was flung over the car. I knew what it was- a grenade. I pushed Jacob into the door, and ran in, locking it. The grenade exploded outside, ringing our ears for a few seconds.

Walking out of the door, I shouted.

''We're not monsters, stop throwing grenades! We mean no harm!'' I shouted to the man, and I heard heavy panting from his position.

''I'm so sorry, I thought you were creatures. Who are-'' He said, before being cut off by something.

Walking slowly behind the car with a magnum in my hand, I found the man's body on the ground, a bleeding hole through his face. Behind him, I saw Nemesis, a tentacle covered in blood waving in the air and returning to Nemesis' hand. He looked up from the body to see me, and began walking towards me slowly. I backed away, then ran towards the hotel. Looking behind me, I saw that he was following. I got my magnum and shot him, but missed. Firing again, I scored a shot to his foot. He fell down, and I got my shotgun, pumping 3 shells into him. I thought he was dead, and shouted back to Jacob to come on so we could reach the tram.

When I looked back, Nemesis was standing up, clenching his fists. He punched me, but I ducked, and fell to the ground. Then I looked back to see Jacob with his AK-47, and he began to fire. His shots hit Nemesis in the face, neck, and chest, and I stumbled back next to him, shooting his head with a magnum. We stopped firing, and Nemesis stumbled up, mumbling something, and fell to the floor, obviously unconscious. I congratulated Jacob, and kicked Nemesis in the face. We ran behind the car and took some grenades belonging to the dead man.

Across the street was the Racoon City Police Department, and we entered the gates. Inside was a crushed car with shattered glass around, and at the far end of the courtyard, a double-door leading to the building. We entered, finding the doors unlocked. There was a huge main hall with a secretary desk at the end, and small herbs at the side of the room. Walking through, we saw several rooms, such as a office room, a locker room, and a hall, but no creatures. Finally, we went up some stairs and saw a dark figure run through the corridor and into a room.

I followed slowly with a magnum, and opened the door slowly, seeing a large room with offices and a radio station at the end. At the station was a woman in her late teens with a red and black shirt, carrying two sub-machine guns. She turned around to see us there, and stood up, a look of confusion in her face.

''Wait, who are you two? How did you get here?'' she asked, a look of confusion on her face.

''My name is Jacob Venne, and this here is a friend of mine, Marcello Toleman. We're trying to find some more guns before we move on, and try to get out of the city.'' Jacob said

''Get out of the city? Well, that will be quite difficult for two twelve-year-old boys. And by the way, I think you have more than enough guns.'' She said, grinning and looking at the guns on our backs and belts. ''Anyway, I think we should stick together to help eachother get out of this mess. Oh, and by the way, my name is Claire Redfield.''

''Yeah, but first, we want to know what YOU are doing here.'' I asked

''I was here looking for my brother, Chris Redfield, when the outbreak began. I'm here right now, looking for some kind of radio to contact the outside world, and get some help. Unfortunately, it appears that I do not have the codes to send transmissions, only to get them.'' She said, sighing. ''So, there's nothing to do here. Follow me and we'll get out of this city through the south gate.''

''That won't work, we already got a better plan, which will lead us through the Umbrella Research Facility to the Outskirts of Raccoon City. It's a fullproof plan… unless we can't find the tram. In which case, we go through a secret place we found on an Umbrella map.'' I said, pondering my options.

''Well then, I see that's a good idea. I will follow you, now lets go.'' Claire said, leaving the room.

We all went down the stairs, and Claire shot down a licker up on the ceiling that was planning to ambush us. We began to run so that we'd move faster, and eventually we reached the main hall of the Police Department. We walked out of it, and then, we heard loud moans. I looked left, to see a swarm of hunters, perhaps over 30, running around the street, and they suddenly looked at us. An overturned truck blocked the other way from the street, and we ran towards it.

''Damn it, what is it with these hunters?'' Jacob shouted

We put our backs to the truck, and Jacob got out an AK-47 in one hand, a bat in the other. Claire took out her sub-machine guns, and I held a shotgun firmly. Claire looked behind us and saw a pile of bodies. She thought for a second, while the hunters moved towards us slowly, and then came up with an idea. Claire told us to grab the bodies and pile them up, and started piling. Me and Jacob did the same, but slightly encumbered by the guns. Then, the hunters screeched and ran towards us. By the time they got close, the bodies were piled up and Claire climbed up to the top of the truck. But me and Jacob had no time, and we began shooting. Jacob got many hunters with his AK-47, and I fired away with my shotgun. They got closer, and soon a circle was around us.

Then Jacob reached into his pack, and threw a small potato-shaped projectile a foot behind the farthest hunter. It was a grenade. The explosion tore through the hole of hunters, and we ran through, shooting aimlessly behind us at the hunters. We looked around one last time, and by the time we did, Claire had gotten safely to the other side of the truck and only 4 hunters remained. They were easily killed by my shotgun.