Chapter One

Connor felt the wind sweep past him, Icy and painful as it struck his face at high speed. Taking his bike to Raccoon wasn't the ideal choice, but a friend of his had borrowed his car to take his family away for the weekend and Connor had also loaned his only helmet to his friend Jeff, who'd wanted to take his new girlfriend riding on his bike. So now Connor found himself risking life and limb, doing 65 on a bike without his helmet. Ordinarily he would never had risked it, but Stacey's message had been so worrying, so unusual and panicked that he'd jumped straight onto his bike and headed to Raccoon.

He'd come home from a long day at work when he'd found her message on his machine. He had dealt with his share of stress already that day, chasing down petty criminals wasn't the ideal way to spend a hot afternoon, and even though he was in pretty good shape, the late summer heat had taken its toll on him. As much as he hated the paperwork that came with being an officer, there were days when he wished for it. Still in his uniform, he was speeding down an apparently deserted road. He'd passed only one other rider on his way; he was speeding and only caught a glimpse of the rider, a woman wearing pink. No leathers, looked like he wasn't the only one riding dangerously that night, at least she would have a chance of surviving a head injury if she suffered a crash. He cursed himself again for not having a helmet; he was quite a cautious person and couldn't shake the thought of crashing without protection from his mind.

Finally Connor saw the road sign he'd been waiting for:

RACCOON CITY NEXT EXIT

He was almost there. He thought again about the message he had found waiting from him when he'd arrived home. Stacey's voice had sounded terrified and desperate; she had pleaded for him to come to Raccoon. The first thing he did was try to call her back, however he got only busy signals from the land lines, he tried her on her cell phone but it just kept ringing. Something bad was happening to Stacy, he didn't know what but he could feel that she was in some kind of danger. Her panicked tone had told him that.

Amy was lying in the dark, hiding. She was hoping they couldn't find their way into the house. In all the panic of what was happening in the city, she'd found herself trapped inside some strangers' house. She'd been there for at least a day now, she wasn't exactly sure though, it could have been almost two days. The power had been cut off, at least to this block, and there hadn't been a single battery powered clock in the house. After she'd finally found the courage to sleep she'd lost track of the time. When she'd woken, the sounds that she had been hearing from the central business district not too far away had all but disappeared. Before she had slept she'd been hearing gunfire, screaming, explosions and commotion. But now all she heard was the occasional sound that she could neither identify nor place.

She decided that perhaps now was the time to go outside. She knew they would be out there, but with any luck the lack of sound meant that they were either mostly dead or that they were spread out into other parts of town. At least she could be sure that the quiet meant that the dangers posed by the police attacks were over. In the panic of trying to find safety she'd run directly into the line of fire of five police officers and was very lucky she hadn't gotten shot. One of the officers had realised that she was just a frightened girl looking for cover and ordered his fellow officers to hold their fire while he got her out of harms way. She hadn't stayed with the officers long as she could see they were being over powered, so she'd made a run for it, that's was when she'd found herself in the darkened house she was now struggling to leave.

She forced herself to the front door, and looked through the spy hole. She couldn't see any movement; however she could see the result of the fire fights that had taken place. The street was a mess, broken glass and wreckage dominated the area. It was obvious the police had lost the battle, but she tried not to think about it. She focused on the fact that there was no movement outside besides the few fires that burned. She cautiously opened the door and leaned her head outside, trying to get a fuller view of the area that she couldn't get through the spy hole. Everything was still, and she decided that although it certainly wasn't safe, she couldn't stay where she was forever and needed to find someone who may be able to help her.

But you aren't going to get anywhere just staring outside

She walked into the street, neglecting to close the door behind her, she didn't really think it was necessary and besides, she needed somewhere safe to run to should anything bad suddenly happen. The road ahead was eerily desolate. Nothing, not even papers blowing. It seemed that even the wind had died along with all of those people. As she turned onto Gordon Street she saw them; dozens of them, bodies, lying in the street. They were cops mostly. Uniformed officers were lying on the hoods of cars and on the pavement, there was the odd civilian, although some of them seemed like they could have been detectives in civilian clothes. Deep sadness and a rush of guilt swept over Amy.

How could this have happened, these were people with lives and now look at them…

She briefly considered returning back to the house, just so that she wouldn't have to look at the carnage anymore, it wasn't that death bothered her that much, it was more the thought that these people were once the civilians of the town where she had lived since she was five. Now these people who had families, and friends were dead, as if suddenly someone had decided that their existence wasn't important enough and decided to end it. These people didn't deserve this.

Amy walked a couple more blocks into town until she came to the elementary school. Maybe there were survivors in there, it was a community-gathering place for town meetings and it did seem quite likely; at least until she noticed that the doors had been chained up. They must have been locked when this whole incident started. Amy's hope faded again and she decided to continue on. The cold loneliness of the night was giving her a chill, but she knew that if she didn't find someone alive soon that she wouldn't be able to carry on. The hopelessness of a deserted city filled with death didn't leave her with a sense of well-being, and she knew that the longer she stayed out in the open, the more likely they were to appear. Just as she pushed that thought from her mind, she heard it.

-CRASH-

She turned, flung her body 180 degrees to see what had caused the sound.

Maybe it's a surv - maybe it's one of them!

Then she saw the cause of the noise, her horror suddenly increased by a factor of ten and she knew that she had to get away. They had found her. And they were coming for her.