Here's a little update, for you as much for me. Frankly, after putting this on the back burner for so long, I'd forgotten a bit of the plot. Please forgive the sloppy, factual-typewriting, and the next installment will be up sometime next week. Thanks for reading!
The story so far…
Cindy Lennox awakens in a long deserted tenement building. One other person is in the room with her, a handsome doctor who had occasionally come into the bar Cindy worked at as a waitress. Dr. George Hamilton is busy working with some chemicals.
The two are disrupted by the appearance of Jim Chapman, who spills the chemicals George was working on. Cindy quickly intervenes before angry words can be spoken. The three head down to meet with the other two survivors. One, a young college student named Yoko Suzuki, and Mark Wilkens, a security guard and war veteran. Mark has assumed the role of leader for the group. Jim looks up to him with a great amount of respect.
The group discusses possible paths out of the city. Compassionate Cindy asks about the other survivors from the bar, the ones who had gone off on their own. Bob, Mark's best friend and coworker, turned and was killed by Mark's own hand. Will, the bartender who'd had a crush on Cindy, died at the hands of a zombie. David King, a quiet and mysterious plumber, vanished on his own in the confusion. Kevin Ryman took the rest of the survivors and decided he was best equipped to lead them. It is clear Cindy doesn't think very highly of Kevin's competence. Alyssa Ashcroft, a reporter for the Raccoon City Free Press, decides to go with him rather than follow Mark and the others.
Jim outlines the subway system, but is afraid animals might be infected too. George suggests the hospital, because of its backup generator and medical supplies. Mark and the others decide this is the best course of action and begin to prepare.
Cindy is sitting on the rooftop, alone, speculating on the direness of their situation. George soon joins her, and the too share a laugh when they hint at their old lives. Meeting back downstairs with the others, Yoko enters from another part of the rooftop. She reveals that the zombies don't seem to respond to visual stimulus. Mark, enraged by her unsolicited experimentation, yells loudly, which attracts a group of zombies that break through the barricade downstairs. The group hears gunfire from Jim down below. George tells the group to move ahead, which Cindy does reluctantly.
Jim demonstrates an amazing degree of accuracy with his handgun, but fires many needless rounds. A zombie gains the upper hand on him on the stairs, and George shoves a heavy appliance off the ledge onto the creature, destroying the entire staircase. The two rush to meet back up with the others, despite Jim's suggestion they stay in the tenement with the stairs destroyed.
Mark has led Cindy and Yoko to the back of the building where they hide from the roving groups of zombies in the streets. Despite it being daytime, the zombies seem to fail to see the trio. They are suddenly joined by George and Jim; Jim makes a loud racket coming down, but more importantly, George cuts himself, the scent of his blood luring over the increasing zombie hordes. The group find themselves trapped at the base, when Jim astonishingly takes a coin from his pocket, and tosses it into the air. Catching it, Jim draws his handgun and begins to fire blindly. Somehow, however, every single one of his bullets find their mark, thinning the pack considerably. He leads them away from the thickest area, which happens to be the path to the hospital.
Running blindly, the group ends up at a local garage (the one from RE3). Yoko and Jim begin to talk, and Jim reveals how he got his special coin in the first place. Finding the garage deserted, the group sets to their tasks. George begins to remix his chemicals, while Cindy collects supplies and Yoko tries to fix the broken communications equipment. Mark sets up a temporary barricade at the door while Jim rummages through the desk.
Jim suddenly exclaims when he finds a work order for a repair on the city tram (again, from RE3). If it's operational, they can all take it out of the city. However, there's no assurance it has been fixed, and that area is a dead end where they could all be trapped.
Nonetheless, the group decides to chance it, accompanied by George's freshly made chemical bombs. Moving through the darkness, Cindy begins to feel concern for the others, particularly Mark, who hasn't slept since the whole thing began two days earlier. But Yoko begins to struggle, her mind uncharacteristically weakening as well. It is only then that they all realize the only possible way to clean up a disaster is to nuke the area. Meaning the already small clock was ticking. But in the backs of their minds, most are wondering why the strike hasn't come yet. Wasn't the government concerned with the outbreak escaping the city limits? The group stops to rest in the wooded park area by city hall, when Yoko drops another bombshell on them: Umbrella is behind it all. No one wants to believe her at first. Why would a pharmaceutical/cosmetics company that employs most of the city want to destroy it?
The impact of Yoko's warning finally sinking in, they hear a racket from inside: gunfire. They rush to the doors, only to find it partially barricaded from within. The three men push it in, and find dead bodies all about. What is strange, though, is that they find a pair of dead bodies by the barricade, as if they were trying to remove it.
Their reverie is broken by a death cry from above, and a monster that suddenly appears before them (Hunter!). The Hunter charges at them, and Mark's bomb narrowly misses. He tries to dive away, but with all his bulk, the creature gets a swipe in at his leg. Jim fires blindly at the beast, but luck is not on his side this time. The Hunter is about to kill Mark when George grabs an assault rifle from a body and peppers it with bullets. He then tends to Mark's wounds, which appear to be grave. Mark soon passes out.
The women enter the building, and help move Mark to a safer room. Yoko and Jim examine the bodies, looking for bite marks, expecting the bodies to become zombies soon. Meanwhile, Cindy and George attempt to repair the cut in Mark's leg, where one of his major arteries has been severed. After stitching the wound, Cindy takes George to get cleaned up.
Yoko is checking bodies when familiar pieces start to come to her. Somehow, she's seen these soldiers before, months earlier. Their documents, their equipment…it's all startlingly familiar to her. She hides this fact from Jim, who stumbles upon her finding a crucial document. Standing on the high balcony, Yoko realizes something when looking at the bodies. The soldiers were forced into this bad position, and could only have been done so by something coming in behind them. Meaning the Hunters had come in through the roof. Yoko runs up the stairs, and Jim chases her, thinking she's snapped. They come upon two Hunters prowling the area.
George and Cindy share a tender moment in the bathroom, George opening a bit about himself and his past, realizing something in Cindy made him honest. Though it may sound crazy, Cindy has found a degree of happiness in all this madness, finally having goals and plans. George shares some wisdom from his ex wife, and he reveals his own changes over the past few days. They're about to kiss when a vent above them caves in. Realizing the danger, George pushes Cindy away, and faces the Hunter, unarmed. He shoves the Hunter with his patented duck/shove move (R1 + O!), into a bathroom stall, where its claws get stuck in the metal. Cindy, standing on the toilet in the next stall, empties her clip into the Hunter's head, killing it.
Meanwhile, the Hunters outside have discovered Yoko and Jim, and are getting ready to pounce. Yoko reaches for Mark's shotgun, but realizes she hasn't cocked it yet. The monsters are closing quickly, and she knows she doesn't have time to do so. Suddenly, one of George's bombs flies over her head, but it hits a soft spot on the Hunter, bouncing off harmlessly. However, Jim's luck comes through once again, and the bottle shatters on the marble floor, blasting the two Hunters, killing one and stunning the other. Yoko takes the time to jack the rifle, killing the off balance Hunter easily.
The group meets up again in the bathroom, where Cindy is crying. They head downstairs to check on Mark, who is suffering through a terrible nightmare of his time in Vietnam. He isn't aware of when he becomes a zombie, but he immediately attacks Jim. Yoko saves him with some quick thinking, as no one else could do anything. Everyone is curious as to how exactly Mark would change, as he was never bitten by another zombie. Jim notices the wide pool of blood by Mark's body, and the group come to the conclusion that death triggers the zombification, and that they're all probably infected.
Cindy wonders aloud why the bodies outside haven't gone through the same transformation, when the door behind her suddenly buckles under the weight of the creatures. Trapped in the closet, the four survivors decide to try for the roof. They push through the zombie mass, and when reaching the door, they realize there is an automatic lock on the door, meaning any pursuers can easily get through. Cindy grabs one of her hairpins, quickly twisting it into a shape to keep the door locked.
They search the roof and find no more Hunters. Jim is digging through Yoko's back for some ammo, when he accidentally rips something in it. It is a hidden pouch in her bag, and upon closer inspection, he and George find an Umbrella ID card for Yoko. The men confront her about this fact, but she claims to remember nothing. Cindy is eager to give the girl a chance to speak, doing her best to ease the growing tension. Jim especially shows his anger, making no secret of his intense distrust of the girl. They decide to move on and find the Umbrella facility located on the back of Yoko's card despite his objections.
Moving through the streets, the group is surprised to see another survivor (Jill!), but this one on the run from a huge, hulking monster (Nemesis!). Jim's inner thoughts reveal the flipside to his luck, how disaster usually follows "Tails", which was his last toss…
While walking, Yoko suddenly brings up the STARS incident at the Spencer estate, a couple of months back. Everyone now realizes the STARS were being truthful about the monsters, and the conspiracy. The group decides to search the news office for information; they know if they die, the truth of the story must at least be exposed for the world to see.
They find the office seemingly deserted, with no barricade, which worries them. The men search upstairs, and surprise Alyssa, who shoots at Jim. Luckily, he dives to the ground in time (R1 + O!). He shares a few choice words with her, and everyone regroups on the second floor.
It becomes clear that Alyssa is rather drunk, and her attitude pretty much puts everyone off. Still, she surprises everyone with some of her observations. She was able to remain alone without a barricade because the building, like most newspaper offices, was soundproofed. Alyssa continues to work on a paper, and she reveals that it is her last story for the Free Press. She also hints at an attraction to George and an instant dislike of Cindy.
Alyssa discovers they have a radio, and decides it's a good time to try it. The only transmission they get is a garbled mess (Carlos from RE3). Everyone but Jim is ready to quit on the radio providing anything of use. Yoko and Alyssa are left in the room, alone, and the two talk about Yoko's past and why Jim doesn't like her. Most notably, though, is Yoko's revelation that she led the group to the news office in the hopes of finding information on her family, not Umbrella, though the two were probably connected. Alyssa reveals her own thoughts on Umbrella, that they are the ones keeping the incident from the public eye. Not only that, but the cynical Alyssa believes Yoko's claims to not remembering anything. The database would be off use, if they could get the backup generator going…Yoko recruits George to help her, leaving Cindy and Alyssa together.
The two women bicker over anything and everything. George accidentally spills a stack of paper by the generator, setting off a spark that becomes a fire when they're gone back upstairs. Yoko is struggling with the antique computer hardware, when George swoops to the rescue. Having worked in low budget hospitals, he's familiar with out of date systems. Just when he gets it back up, the fire alarm sounds.
Jim comes back down from the roof, telling everyone the alarm is ringing outside too, attracting zombies by the dozens to the front door. When debating on an escape route, Yoko decides she's going to stay, to access the database. Surprisingly, Alyssa offers to stay with her, perhaps smelling a story, or showing a genuine affection for the young girl.
Alyssa points the three others towards the window above the alleyway for a way out. Yoko then leads her to the computer terminal. The power begins to flicker, giving them time for one search. The Suzuki name prompts a huge hit list, and they select the first one they find. It's the award of a research grant, and something about a man in sunglasses strikes a chord within her…but the hazy memory is quickly lost.
Smoke begins to fill the room, and Alyssa leads the young girl out into the burning hallway. The two are suddenly attacked by a skinless, long tongued creature (Licker!), who Alyssa temporarily fends off. The entire wing is ablaze now, and Alyssa shoves Yoko down the stairs, who crawls under some flaming wreckage (R1 + O!). Alyssa then directs Yoko to close the shutter, which will kill the fire, but trap Alyssa in there. Torn by indecision, Yoko finally pushes it, when Alyssa does her patented leap back move (R1 + O!) to get down the stairs quickly and escape the two Lickers, barely making it under the shutter in time.
The reporter is badly hurt, bruises and burns covering most of her body. Yoko does her best to tend to the wounds, but wishes George or Cindy were there. Alyssa recovers, and opens a window in the lobby that connects to the alley (RE3 vets have wondered what that little black window in the news office reception was for; now you know!), and the group forms a plan.
Both groups are pinned by the collective zombies by the front. Alyssa reveals her hidden hand, a flash bang grenade she had taken off a dead SWAT officer. Using it to stun the zombies, the groups rush out the front, Yoko using George's last chemical bomb as well.
However, more zombies have come from the commotion, and are blocking the path the groups had planned to take (yet again). A half-conscious Alyssa points them towards the nearest building, a small but new gym facility. The group makes their way through the growing sea of undead. Cindy saves Alyssa with her injured partner duck move (R1+O!), but the group finds the front door locked as the zombies close in.
With Alyssa half dead, Yoko realizes the burden of responsibility falls on her, so she tries to pick the lock. Luckily though, Alyssa awakens, and helps her do it. The group barely makes it inside in time, and find the inside dark and empty. George tends to the injured, and the girls take Alyssa downstairs to the locker room to clean her wounds. Jim and George take the upstairs, confronted by a zombie.
Alyssa is cleaning up in the shower when she hears a strange noise. Thinking it Cindy, she comes out of the shower and is confronted by her own hungry zombie…
To be continued