Chapter Two

Connor immediately felt a sense of dread. Raccoon wasn't the largest city on the map sure, but it wasn't some quiet little mountain town anymore either. The Umbrella pharmaceutical corporation had done a lot for this little town. Living not far from Raccoon he often read news about the city in his local newspaper. The town he lived in was pretty uneventful and so most of the interesting news came from Raccoon. About twenty years ago Umbrella had moved into Raccoon city and in that time their company had expanded dramatically, expanding the city along with it. They were often involved in money raising events and the business that they brought to the city meant that Raccoon's economy was booming. However since this was no longer a small mountain community, he expected there to be a little more activity on the streets. Sure it was 10:00pm and the general populous would be at home right about now, but there would still be some people about, at least the odd person walking around. But there was nothing, there weren't even many lights on in the buildings. He was driving through the centre of town, he had expected there to be some people out for the night but there wasn't.

Maybe everyone is at some sort of event.

He didn't know that much about what Raccoon city was like after dark. He'd only ever visited twice before, and both times were during the day; however he'd gotten enough of a feel for the town to know that it would have some kind of nightlife. As he rode further into town he became more and more confused, why were there no lights coming from any of the buildings? Why were even the bars deserted? Something didn't add up. He stopped just before he reached the centre of town. He imagined that anyone watching could read the expression of confusion on his face like a book.

Where is everyone? What happened here? Maybe this is why Stacy wanted me to come here; there must be something bad happening…some kind of citywide emergency, but what?

The thoughts worked their way through his head for a while as he continued on foot. He was still wearing his gun belt, as he hadn't even bothered to change before hopping on his bike after hearing Stacy's message. He decided things were a little too sinister and un-holstered his weapon. He walked with it in one hand, not looking like he was nervous, though he felt it. Turning a corner he noticed that the street was a mess. Not just a mess with litter but a true god awful disturbing mess. He couldn't quite tell what had happened here, but the police car with its door open and side window smashed didn't give him any good feelings.

Must have come under fire, perhaps a gang riot or something.

He decided to check the car to see if he could figure out what had happened. Making his way down the street he began to notice more evidence of the destruction. The street was littered with glass and torn pieces of clothing, trashcans were knocked over there were what looked like shotgun blasts in the walls of some of the buildings. Whatever had happened here it was bad. As he got closer to the car he noticed that there were legs sticking out from underneath the door. He ran up to the car to find a dead cop lying face down in the driver's seat with his legs hanging out of the open door. Instinctively he checked for a pulse. The cop's skin feeling cold as he realised that he was dead, but there was something else, his skin felt clammy. He didn't think much of it however as his mind was racing with too many other questions. Who had done this, where were the other cops. He tried the radio in the car. As best he could tell it was working but there was no answer. Either it was broken or there was no one at the station monitoring it.

This must be big if there's no one monitoring the police band.

There was a weapon on the back seat, a Beretta. He picked it up deciding it was better than the piece of shit that he had. Being from a small town his department wasn't the most well funded, and standard issue sidearm was a Browning HP. It was effective but he felt better with the Beretta. And if he did run into the gang of thugs that did all this, having two weapons was always better than one. He searched the corpse of the cop and found a single clip for the Beretta. He pocketed it and left the car where it was. It was time to find out what had happened in this town. By now he was sure that there had been some kind of gang riot and that Stacy had called him in fear for her life.

If those bastards have hurt her there will be hell to pay!

He and Stacy had grown up together, at least until they were eight years old. Stacy had moved to Racoon with her parents then, and since they had been such good friends they had always kept in touch. Stacy's parents had come back to visit many times and Conner was always pleased to see her. When they became teenagers, Stacy had come to visit on her own many times, and now that they were adults they saw each other every couple of months. They had even dabbed in a brief romantic relationship during their hormone ridden teenage years, but soon realised that they made better friends than lovers, especially with the distance between them. However they were still very close and Conner felt a loyalty to her that he'd never felt with anyone else. Whenever she needed anything, he would be willing to be there for her. He continued down the street until he came to the end. Dead end. He was about to turn back until he noticed a dark alley that led through to the other side. It must lead onto one of the main roads in town he thought. It seemed like the best choice so he moved forward. The streets were still deadly silent, and he figured that if the gang had moved onto another part of town, then why were people still hiding. Surely the stillness would have lead them out of their houses to assess the damage. Something still didn't add up and his gang theory was starting to look a little less plausible. Then when he emerged from the dark alley he realised that his theory was completely off the mark—

--JESUS!—

It was a war zone. It couldn't have been a gang of thugs; it would have had to have been an army. The place was devastated. There were smashed cars, police vehicles set up into barricades, broken glass and rubble all over the street. And the bodies. There were bodies everywhere, cops, civilians, women. No gang could have instituted such brutality. Many of the bodies had horrific injuries. Very few if any of them seemed to have gunshot wounds, most looked as though they had been knifed or beaten to death. Many of them looked to have huge wounds with flesh missing from them.

Connor felt his stomach churn as the realisation of it all sank in. He checked several of the bodies; none of them were alive. Suddenly he felt a great pity for the poor souls here. It was then that he first began to feel that he was in real danger. After all, if the people who did this were still here, then he could be joining these poor victims. At that thought he sprang back up onto his feet, holding his newly acquired Beretta in both hands close to his chest. He checked it again to make sure it was fully loaded, not wanted to find himself pinned down and having to reload. He moved further down the street, cautiously, making sure to check every alley and turn in the road before he moved past them; the last thing he wanted were any surprises.

His chest felt tight and tense as he turned the corner. Still strafing slowly he tried desperately to clear his mind of all the questions that were flooding his thoughts. If something did suddenly happen he didn't want to be caught off guard dwelling on questions that he didn't have the answers to, he wanted to be alert. Then a scream, followed by moaning. The scream had obviously been a woman, but the moans seemed to be men.

Maybe the people who did this.

Connor broke into a sprint, but something caught him out of the corner of his eye before he could get a hundred feet away. The bodies, they were moving.

Alive!

It seemed implausible, but perhaps some of them had survived. Then he realised that they couldn't have. One of the bodies stood up and revealed that much of its face was missing, not only that but it had a huge hole in its chest. It had taken at least two shotgun blasts, but was walking is if it no longer felt the pain. The shot in the chest should have killed him, but he was still moving forward. Connor then noticed that many of the other survivors were sporting other obviously fatal injuries, yet they were still alive too. He began to suspect that each of them had died, but were now moving. It didn't take him too long to put two and two together—

-Zombies! No that's not possible.

He dismissed the theory almost immediately as preposterous and ludicrous. But he couldn't deny the facts that stood in front of him, walking toward him with a glazed look their eyes. His first instinct was to shoot, but then his training took over.

"Hold it right there, I'm a police officer. Lay down on the ground with your hands behind your head or I will open fire!"

The people didn't listen to him, they kept moving toward him. "This is your last chance, stop where you are or I will be forced to shoot!"

Still no response. He decided to open fire on the largest man who was the closest to him. One shot straight into the mans shoulder, but he barely moved. The force of the impact had an effect on him, but the man seemed to feel no pain. Connor himself had once been shot with a 9mm bullet, and so knew from personal experience that if the blow didn't knock you down, then the pain of it would. However the man barely flinched. He shot again, this time aiming perfectly at the mans heart. The shot tore through his chest but still, no effect on him.

They ARE zombies!

As much as he couldn't believe it, it was true. These people were dead but were still moving. Coming for him, just like in the movies. It was then in a flash of thought that he realised what had been going on in Raccoon, and what had caused Stacy to make that phone call to him.

Stacy, I hope she's all right!

He decided to make a run for it. He ran in the direction of the scream that he'd heard earlier. It had only been a minute or so, but the unreality of the situation seemed to have slowed down time for him. Now however time was picking up, seeming like every second meant the difference between life and death. He hadn't realised before, but the quiet awe that he felt when he entered town had become a panicked terror.

Amy saw them coming for her, and suddenly everything seemed as panicked as it did before she had went into hiding. She still couldn't believe what had happened. When she first realised that they were zombies attacking the police she had scolded herself for thinking something so ridiculous, but as time went on she had begun to realise that she was right. She was being chased by zombies now, and although they didn't move any faster than a slow shuffle, she couldn't control her running. She ran down the street and into a café. She believed she was out of danger and stopped to catch her breath.

A noise from behind the counter caught Amy's attention. She held her breath to listen to the noise to try and work out what it was. In a moment she heard the noise again, a kind of shuffling sound from behind the counter. She looked over the counter to see that there were two zombies sitting up. They'd realised that she'd come in and had smelled the fresh meat. She backed away slowly, and was about to go back outside until she realised that the zombies outside were closing in on the café. Amy had to think quickly, there had to be a way out.

The back entrance!

There had to be a back entrance, she knew that it was necessary for the staff to take out the garbage, but getting there would be the problem. The zombies behind the counter were moving toward her. Without thinking she leapt over the counter kicking one of the zombies in the back knocking it down. She landed and then kicked the other one as it turned back around to get to her. She hopped over the two downed creatures, pushing against the counter and a shelf to boost herself over them. One of them reached for her but its poor coordination caused it to only brush past her leg. Darting for the door she pushed through it and found herself in a small kitchen area. There was a lingering smell of rotting meat coming from somewhere, but she didn't stay to find out where it was coming from. She headed for the door at the other end of the kitchen, hoping that there weren't anymore of the walking corpses in the alley behind the café.

She found herself in a damp alley. She slammed the door behind her and stopped for a moment to catch her breath. Her heart was racing and the adrenaline in her system kept her jittery for a few seconds while she struggled to control her breathing. As she began to regain her composure she glanced around her, trying to figure out what her next move should be. She began to move to end of the alleyway, and back onto the main street. She edged out and saw that she was no safer here than she was before, as she moved further into the street she watched as a group of four flesh eaters turned and started to shuffle their way towards her. She saw that one of them was only as old as she was, 18 or maybe 19; a male wearing a T-shirt and jeans. He was shuffling along with the other three, and would have looked normal if it weren't for the glazed over look in his eyes and the huge gaping wound of missing flesh in where his bicep should have been.

Amy felt pity for him, although she also thought that at least he didn't now have to witness all this horror; assuming that these creatures had no memories of their previous lives and were now mindless killers like they were in the movies. She had seen some bad zombie films in which the cannibals had still kept their minds, but they were nothing compared to the true zombie classics.

But why are you thinking about that right now, you've got to get yourself out of here, to some kind of safety. There must be some survivors somewhere.

She was still locked into her train of thought when she was surprised from behind by something grabbing her. She screamed and flung herself around to see what it was. She'd been so preoccupied with looking at the group of four zombies that she hadn't noticed the one approaching behind her. It was holding on to her clothing, trying desperately to take a bite out of her. She struggled to get away from it. Her heart was pumping faster and faster as she forced the zombie backwards. It stumbled to the floor but still had a good grip on her blouse, it pulled her down with it and she found herself lying on top of the creature as it continued in its attempts to eat her. She was so close that she could smell the rotting of its flesh. She choked on her own bile as she tried feverishly to stop from vomiting. She managed to pull herself up and stumbled backwards falling back to the ground. The zombie sat up and she turned quickly and struggled to her feet, scrambling to get herself into a run so she could escape. She had run only a few yards when she ran into another of the creatures as she turned a corner. She and the thing fell to the ground and she thought that she was about to die as her hope finally began to fade.