Ch. 3: Meeting Jill

Jill Valentine stifled a yawn as she pulled into the hospital parking lot. Green, glowing digital lines formed 6:38 AM and stared at her from the vehicle's digital clock, which meant she'd been awake almost an hour now. After Bravo team deployed, Captain Wesker ordered Joseph to man the STARS radio for the graveyard shift and to alert Alpha team if anything went wrong, while the rest of the team was to rest and be ready in case of an emergency. Jill had woken a couple of hours earlier so she could relieve Joseph an hour ahead of his shift. Joseph had welcomed her into the office with tired cheer before her plans were derailed when Neil Carlsen arrived to deliver a report.

As Jill stepped out of the police car, she glanced over the building, wondering which room was Kevin's. Joseph's annoyance with Carsen's interruption had melted away when the news was delivered. Kevin, Bravo Team's pilot, was heavily wounded. Not just wounded, but he was on death's doorstep. All Carsen could explain was Kevin had arrived at the edge of town with two unknown teenagers and had collapsed due to a large cut in his chest. Worse, there was no sign of the rest of Bravo Team. Suffice to say, the few tidbits they had only provoked questions upon questions.

The confused thoughts whirling around Jill's mind were silenced after stepping into the hospital. Raymond, one of Raccoon's finest, was in the entry hall waiting for her. "Officer Valentine," the blond cop greeted her with a curt nod. A hospital staff member stood next to him but left before Jill could speak with him.

She returned the nod, focusing on her co-worker. "Officer Douglas, how are you?"

"I've been better." He pointed up. "The two you're looking for are upstairs on the third floor. Room 302."

Jill's confusion intensified, along with her fear. "I thought I was here for Kevin?" she inquired, her voice just above a whisper.

The taller cop slowly shook his head. "Not anymore. I just got the news. Kevin passed away two minutes ago. They weren't able to get him the blood transfusion in time."

Her lungs balked at the news, and Jill had to remind them to continue performing their function. Faces of Bravo team flashed by her: Enrico, Forest, Richard, Edward, Kenneth, and the new girl, Rebecca. All of them were now stranded in the middle of a forest with cannibalistic murderers. Her eyes flashed to the ceiling as she thought about Kevin's temporary companions. With a near-physical effort, she pulled her thoughts away from the hostile forest and back to the safety of the hospital. "What did the two teenagers tell you?"

"Nothing."

The Alpha team member shot the cop a distressed look. "Nothing?" Are they dying too?

Raymond shook his head. "A few minutes before you arrived, the female suffered from a heat stroke and was admitted as a patient. She's still unconscious, and the male refuses to speak with me. He said he'd only talk to someone from STARS."

As relieved as Jill was that her only two witnesses weren't in critical condition, this newest info only added to her perplexion. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Don't know. I ordered him to hand over his wallet, but he's not carrying any identification beyond an Alabama's Learner's Permit."

Jill quirked an eyebrow. "Alabama?"

"I can't make any sense of it either," Raymond admitted, "His name is Bruce Hammonds the Third, while the female is Katelyn Camp."

She took a moment to memorize the names, even as she felt the mystery growing stranger and stranger the more she learned. As much as she wanted to meet them, she had one last reluctant question. "What happened to Kevin?" she asked quietly.

Raymond sighed before he pulled out a small notebook. He flipped to the last page before he explained matter-of-factly. "What killed him was a large laceration into his chest. Had someone staunch the bleeding from the get-go, he might have survived. Unfortunately, he and the other two were seen running out of the forest, and the physical activity only accelerated his blood loss." He put away the notebook, while keeping a close and concerned eye on her.

Jill knew Kevin wasn't a medic, but as a law enforcement officer who had seen some fights, he should've known better than to be moving around with a serious wound. What kind of danger would've sent him into a dead sprint? "I see," she murmured.

"That's not all of it," he warned her. He hesitated before he continued. "Three of his left fingers were broken, and something caused numerous, shallow cuts along his left arm. Upon closer inspection, they found tiny bits of glass buried in the wounds."

Jill mulled over the input as she struggled to identify what could have caused it. "Any evidence he was attacked by someone with a broken bottle?" she half-guessed, disturbed by the possibilities.

Raymond shook his head. "Unconfirmed. Your guess is as good as mine. Those teens probably know, but you seem to be the only one who might get Bruce to open up."

"If all he wants is to talk to someone with STARS, then I should have no problem," Jill predicted optimistically, hiding her doubts behind a small, determined look. "Room 302, you said?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I'll be here when you're finished."

She said farewell to the officer before journeying up the hospital floors.

The chair was nothing more than two slabs of plastic held together by four wooden poles. Although he was only seventeen, Bruce's tall size meant the back-rest only reached his lower back. Sunlight warmed his back as he faced away from the window, his eyes focused on Dr. Hamilton as he checked Katelyn's vitals one more time. The brunette was now in a hospital gown as she rested in the bed with an IV hooked to her left arm. Bruce would like to think she was comfortable underneath the sheets, but the edges of her lips were twisted downward. Her closed eyes seemed ready to cry.

On the other hand, Hamilton operated with an upbeat, caring precision that warred with Katelyn's overt melancholy. George's lips twitched with a ready smile hidden just beneath the surface. His bagged eyes were bright with optimism as he scanned the machine hooked to his newest patient. Bruce wasn't sure if the doctor was naturally this buoyant, or if it was just for Bruce's sake. The smile broke through as the older gentleman turned his gaze on Bruce after consulting his clipboard. "You have nothing to worry about. She's stable and will make a quick recovery before you know it."

"Thanks," Bruce muttered as he sank into his chair, the recent events weighing him down.

"My shift will be ending shortly, but I'll have someone keep an eye on you two in case anything else comes up," Doctor Hamilton said. Bruce nodded, thankful to have found such a helpful person in this ominous city.

With his services at an end, George headed to the door with a cheerful, "Good-bye" thrown over his shoulder. As the doctor reached the door, it opened for him as a fourth figure entered the room, a young woman with short brown hair and in a RPD uniform. Bruce nearly wrote her off as another cop to try to get him to talk when he noticed the STARS emblem on the uniform's shoulder. She studied Bruce and Katelyn as she closed the door behind her.

"Excuse me, can I help you?" Hamilton asked as he paused before her.

The STARS member focused on the doctor. "My name is Jill Valentine. I'm an officer with the STARS task force and was told that my presence was requested here."

Bruce scrambled out of his chair, blurting out. "I did, I have a message from Captain Enrico!" Hamilton took a step to the side as Bruce hurried over to them. The words were about to spill out of his mouth when Bruce remembered where he was. "I need to talk to you alone, somewhere else."

Officer Valentine stared at him quizzically. "Is there a reason you can't tell me right here and now?"

As much as he wanted to believe that Doctor Hamilton wasn't one of the bad guys, Bruce had seen enough movies to know that just because someone was friendly didn't mean they weren't on the other side. Plus, while he didn't remember too much, he knew Umbrella practically owned the town. Who knew if this room was bugged? "It's only for STARS. Can we talk..." He went through a list of possible locations likely to be free from Umbrella before he realized how would he could even tell. "... on the roof?"

He wished Valentine would stop staring at him like he'd grown a second head. "I suppose that's fine," she eventually replied before turning to the doctor. "Can you give me the directions?"

"Of course, officer," the doctor answered; his efficacious manner strong. He gave them detailed directions before taking his leave.

Jill took the lead as the pair of them ascended to the top of the hospital. As they walked, Bruce thought about how this particular conversation was going to go. I've got to make her believe me. So, how much should I tell her? Do I skip the zombies and the monsters and just tell her where to meet the others? Or should I tell her everything so that she knows what to expect? Bruce didn't get long to ponder his predicament as the two of them stepped out onto the flat rooftop. Immediately, winds shoved at him as they raced over the building. Despite the ferocity of last night's thunderstorm, the only evidence of its existence was a damp blanket covering the city that was under attack by an active sun shining in a clear sky. Bruce remembered being caught at the beginning of it, only a few minutes into it did they discover the train that took them to the training facility. He subconsciously took another look at the vast Raccoon forest, which bordered the city on three sides, marking the city as a peninsula in a sea of trees. And it's filled with monsters which will end up here.

"Bruce Hammonds the Third."

Unlike some others, Bruce didn't mind being 'The Third'. He liked the title, but caught the signal and his attention focused back on Officer Valentine. As he looked at her, he wished he could have been relieved that she was the STARS officer to arrive. He didn't know the details, but he knew enough to know she was one of the good guys. But good or not, she didn't have any reasons to believe him. The confused frown on her face was a clear signal that this was a meeting she wasn't looking forward to either. "You said you had a message from Captain Enrico?" she reminded him.

Bruce vigorously nodded his head. "Yeah. He needs Alpha Team to meet him at a location in the forest. He's discovered an illegal biological weapons lab owned by Umbrella, and he needs help with the investigation."

An uncomfortable pause followed.

"That's quite the claim," Jill began, her face melting into professional neutrality. "Can you tell me what is Enrico's last name?" Jill finally asked.

With a small, noiseless mental pop, Bruce lost all hope of convincing her. "No, I can't." He struggled to come up with anything that might help him. Nothing was going as he wanted it to. He wasn't supposed to be the spokesman - that was supposed to be Kevin's or even Tim's job. Bruce was the quiet one at school; he didn't like standing out. "But I also met Rebecca and Edward," he blurted before throwing out a brief description of their appearances.

After he finished, Jill continued her questions, her voice carefully neutral. "Where are they?"

Bruce winced. "Rebecca was supposed to come back with us, but she decided to go after Enrico and help him. Edward...Edward's dead."

His answer caused her features to harden. "How?"

For better or for worse, he hadn't been there when Edward died. All he saw were Billy and Daniel carrying his body down into the basement. Nobody explained to him what killed Edward, and, at the time, he didn't really want to know either. That's when Bruce gave up and decided to start from when they found the train. He avoided how they got into the forest and could tell Jill noticed that missing piece too, but he continued on how they got from the train to the training facility. He thought he was making some progress when he explained how Kevin was hurt in the crash, and she unconsciously nodded in agreement with his explanation. Unfortunately, once he got to the part where he was left behind, he had precious little to tell her, and it was only when it was time to escape was he directly part of the action. He told her about the final battle with the giant, but didn't like the strange look she was giving him. He explained how the party had split up, Daniel, Enrico, Jessica, and Rebecca leaving the others to investigate the Umbrella labs, and the instructions Captain Enrico left behind along with a list of coordinates to the labs for Alpha team to follow. The encounter with the axe man brought her back toward her side as she nodded with the facts he presented to her. When he finished his recounting, he ended it with a plea. "Please, you have to help them. Even if you don't believe anything else, please believe me when I say they need help!"

Jill studied him for another moment, her face still clear of discernible emotion. "...can I have the coordinates you referenced?"

Yes! Bruce immediately shoved his hands into his pockets for the critical piece of paper. His hands found his skinny wallet, his useless cell phone, some clinking change... His eyes widen with horror when he remembered where that slip of paper was. "Tim had it. I'm so stupid! I should've grabbed it while I could." Even as he said the words, a shiver of fear rolled through him at the thought of looking through his dead cousin's pockets. His gaze shifted to the forest, his thoughts being pulled into darker, bloodier places.

Jill sighed before she rested a hand on his shoulder. "I think you had more important things on your mind."

He looked back at her with a glimmer of hope. "You believe me?"

The hesitation crossing her sympathetic face wasn't reassuring. "You're asking me to take a lot on faith, Bruce. Some of the things you've told me have some evidence, but a lot of it doesn't have anything backing it up beyond what you tell me. And, Bruce, it bothers me when you don't tell me how you and your friends ended up in a quarantined forest." She paused in open invitation.

Bruce stared guiltily at the city, watching a couple of crows fly over the park. The sounds of the city were now in full swing as Raccoon woke up to another day. How can I possibly explain that!? He wished Daniel or Jessica was here. He only heard their cover story once when explaining it to Kevin back all the way at the beginning of last night. Bits and pieces of it lingered in the corners of his mind, but wouldn't it be worse to offer a broken explanation than none at all?

A moment passed before Jill pressed on. "I'm willing to believe that the others are in trouble. I'm even willing to believe that you had an encounter with the cannibal murderers STARS is investigating. If there's anything you can tell me about where STARS Bravo team and your friends have gone, it'd mean we'd get there faster."

As soured as his mood was by the loss of family, his eyes snapped toward the forest. "It was off to the right from the training facility when we were coming here. So, it's somewhere..." He frowned. "Did anybody notice an explosion last night?" When Jill shook her head, he tried to find a smoke cloud or a fire, some kind of indicator of where the training facility was before it exploded. The forest did not oblige, content to keep its secrets. "Well, we were coming this way," he said as he pointed in the general direction of travel. "It was to the right of that."

"Anything else?" she gently prodded as she analyzed the meager tidbit.

"Ummm, wait! The railroad tracks weren't far away from the crash site, so if you found the copter, that could help you find the training facility and the labs." He looked at her with dismal hope. "Right?"

Officer Valentine nodded. "Yes, if what you told me is true-"

"It is!" he insisted, his voice raising a couple octaves in desperation.

"Then that would help." She glanced at Raccoon Forest before she removed her hand from his shoulder. "If that's all you can tell me, then we should get going."

Bruce raised a worried eyebrow. "Go?"

"Yes, I need to contact the rest of Alpha team, and I need you to take you to the police station, in case you remember anything that might help us," she casually explained.

The brown-haired teen took one look down through the hospital and pictured men in dark suits with Umbrella's logo on their coats abducting Katelyn. His gaze darted towards to Jill. "I think I should stay here," he replied vehemently.

His negative response took the STARS by surprise. "You're not injured," she reminded him, her tone controlled and sympathetic. "You can be of greater help to your friends if you come with me."

He shook his head. "I know you don't believe me that Umbrella is behind all of this, but they are! If they found out that Katelyn came from one of their secret bases, they'd kill her or abduct her! I've got to stay and keep an eye on her." He saw the reluctance in her eyes and did the first thing that came to his mind. He dropped to his knees. "I'm begging you!"

Jill sighed as she studied him, weighing unseen options before she made her decision.