Cottage Grove, Oregon

2:35 PM.

July 26, 2015

Claire

Claire hadn't had a good vacation in a long time. She wanted to just go down to Mexico that was the plan. She had six weeks paid vacation. What more could a girl ask for? She was riding her harley, the same one she had ridden into Raccoon City, Minnesota on, that fateful day so many years ago. With a lot more outbreaks even just mini outbreaks caused by warlords in third world countries or weapons dealers who had sold Bioweapons to warlords to use on enemies, she and the people she worked for had been plenty busy.

She pulled to a gas station. She went inside and paid twenty. She was still not used to the idea that people pump gas for you in this state. She was coming from Seattle Washington. It had been about a five hour drive from King County to here. After filling up she got back on. The radio was playing The Rooster by Alice N Chains. Since Claire was a huge Grunge fan and loved Rock above all other genres, she was content with that. She observed her surroundings. There had been a Burger King an Arby's and a McDonalds and even a place called Carl's Jr.

She wasn't hungry right now. She had observed what a place this was. It was mostly a rural area. She had never seen so many covered bridges in one place so it was living up to its nickname. She finally pulled up to a motel. She had been driving a while and wanted to get some rest. She walked up to the inn keeper and asked, "Yeah can I have a room please?"

He said, "$40," She paid him and he handed her a room key. "There's ice and you got all the major channels plus a few HBO channels. Enjoy,"

She headed into the room deciding she needed to sleep. She unpacked her suitcase. She had a few spare changes of clothes, a biker outfit, her work outfit, her rodeo outfit, and a pair of blue jeans and a let me live vest. She also had a Handgun. An M911. She checked out the phone book deciding she would order a didn't want to go out again so she decided to order two. One sausage and one Canadian bacon, breadtsicks and marinara sauce as well as buffalo wings and a 2 lieter of Coca Cola.

They told her it would be there in 30 minutes. She got off the phone but stared down at it. She wanted to call Chris and see how he was doing. She worried about him a lot especially because of Piers and how she had told Piers to take care of him and he ended up dying. He may not have been as seasoned as Barry was at killing B.O.W's but he had been a good agent and now with him dead she had to worry about his back being watched even though she knew Jill and Sheva were looking out for him she still couldn't help but wonder how he was. The sound of a knock at the door startled her and she stood up moving towards the door with her Handgun in one hand. She looked through the peep hole noticing that the hole was black. Claire's heart began to pound, nervous as she knew that couldn't have been the delivery boy or girl just yet and nobody but the manager should have known she she was. She put the pistol to the door the barrel against it ready to fir a shot through it if necessary. Claire ducked down squatting with the pistol still in the same spot in case anybody tried to shoot her through the door.

"Who are you?" She demanded, challenging trying to not show fear. "Claire...it's me."

Claire recognized the voice opening the door dropping the gun on the bed. She opened the door. "Moira...! How did you know I'd be here?" She told her, "I was just driving through and I thought I recognized your Harley but I wasn't sure so I stopped in asking if somebody that looked like you was here."

Claire's eyes flashed with interest as she invited the younger brunette in. "Oh? I'm surprised he told you," Moira smirked. "I told him we old were partners...looking to reunite," The two women laughed at that and hugged. "God...I guess Barry told you that story."

"I figured you'd be in Mexico by now, Claire. What made you stop in this shit hole of a town?"

She said, "I was just tired. Thought i'd try some of the local food."

"Well I can get out of here if you need your beauty sleep I get it," Claire smiled, "No it's okay! Stick around I could use the company. Plus if you're hungry I ordered pizza,"

Moira smiled. "My favorite!"

She looked at the younger woman and asked, "So, you talk to your dad lately?" She nodded. "Yeah. You know we're cool. We have been ever since well...you know..."

Claire nodded. "How about the little girl? Natalia?" Moira sat down in one of the chairs. "She's been having some mental problems. Has been ever since we escaped that hell hole. It's pretty normal though after the trauma she went through both from losing her parents and on top of that being kidnapped by Alex Wesker and seeing her as a B.O.W. that's enough to damage any little kid."

Claire was concerned. "What happened to her? What's she been doing? I remember when I talked to you guys last you said that she was reading some books that were a little too adult, right?"

Moira nodded. "Yeah that's the creepy thing. Dad looked into it and found that the author she was reading was the same one that bitch Alex was quoting the whole time and posting quotes from all over the fucking place," Claire frowned. "Poor girl...she is traumatized...I know the first time I ever saw zombies I had nightmares for months. There was no outbreak between then and Rockfort Island as far as I know but for a while every time I went to sleep I kept thinking one of those things was out there somewhere. Now that I've survived three outbreaks...I keep thinking one of these days i'll end up being right...that they'll be waiting for me some time."

Moira shook her head. "Don't sweat it, Claire. Barry...I mean dad and your brother are taking care of that. Best they can, right?"

Claire frowned. "Yeah...but Chris almost lost his life over in China. He wasn't doin so good when he lost his team.."

"Well shit does anybody? Those guys are like soldiers in a war...only normal wars don't involve enemy soldiers that have rotting flesh and invisible bugs."

There was a knock at the door. Claire was glad it was here. She stood up to pay for the food.

Seatac, Washington

July 26, 2014

Chris

The sun was bright above them as they moved through the city. This seaport town which was a suburb of Seattle and the name itself was a derivative and a mixture of Seattle and Tacoma Washington. The virus had been unleashed near city hall. A terrorist had released the C virus on the city and the United States government was uncertain which group was behind it but they wanted to stop it before it could spread out and destroy the city. Despite being a much smaller city it was where people from Seattle used for an airport and flights to and from the state for the most part was at the Seatac airport. The vehicle pulled to a stop. There was back to back traffic people were trying to get out of the city.

The government had decided to call the BSAA in this time rather than try and have the police and military try to tackle it like in previous outbreaks. Chris looked over his team. Rebecca Chambers was there and she had been a member of the BSAA since 2006. Sheva was part of his team too and had requested to be. He was glad to have his old partner back with him. Jill Valentine was there and he had been glad she had come back to work after Kijuju. He wished she had been with him in Edonia and in China. Somehow he felt having her moral support might have made things easier.

He also had Kieth and Quint. They had been somewhat amateurs during the Queen Zenobia all though Kieth had been a much faster learner but over the years they both had become more experienced and were considered veterans of their own now. Barry was running his own team too and he would be meeting them there. Chris looked at the newer recruits. They weren't new per say they had been in China fighting the infection but they were new to him. He hadn't served with him.

There was Agent Montoyo "Boxer" Chavez. He was Mexican American, originally hailing from Compton, California, he stood about five foot nine with a short haircut and a muscular build and almond shaped dark eyes. He was their computer hacker. He was thirty years old. Then there was Agent Jane Malone. A Caucasian woman with neck length red hair and green eyes standing at five foot seven, petite in figure. She was thirty six years old and had grown up in Hartford, Connecticut. She was their pilot. Second only to Chris in flying skills but she would be the one flying them where they needed to go.

There was Cameron Mackenzie, an African American standing at five foot ten, with dark skin and curly hair and glasses. He was thin but athletic, twenty two years old, fresh out of training, and Notre Dame before that though he hailed from Gary, Indiana. He was practically a rookie, distinguished only by his service in Lanshiang the previous year despite his age. He was their mechanic, having come from three generations of mechanics.

Next there was Thomas Reiner. He was a Caucasian male of about six feet with dark blonde hair and steel gray eyes his hair a military flat top. He was a veteran of the BSAA,having been one of the first to join the SOU despite not being one of original eleven. He had served in Iraq & Afghanistan for six years in the Army before joining the BSAA. He had fifty confirmed kills from his military service. He was their demolitions expert. He was originally from Hells Kitchen, New York. Before that he had worked restaurants and bars. He was thirty nine.

Next there was Raven Nezii. She was of Navajo descent, her hair jet black with dark brown skin and black hair which she kept in two braids under her combat helmet, her eyes were brown and she stood at five foot six. She was on the more curvy side but not overweight for if she had been she would not have passed to make it onto a team had she been over her weight requirement. She was from Flagstaff, Arizona and was twenty five years old. She was their Sniper and all though all the other agents were good at this too she had scored highest in accuracy. At least the best of these five new recruits.

Last but not least was Warren Kravic. He was a Caucasian male standing at five foot eight with a shaved head and sad brown eyes. He had a deep scar on his right cheek that carried to his ear which he had received in combat in China against a J'avo. He was from Nova Scotia originally and had been a police officer there, working the beat for three years but had joined the BSAA due to having never been to another city. He was thirty years old.

Agent Chavez offered his hand to Chris and said, "Sir it's a pleasure to get to serve under you. You're a hero all over the world in every branch. You saved the world twice and most people don't even realize it. You you saved everybody."

Chris looked at him and said, "I hear you're all some of the best agents we have. I'm not gonna say that's not true because I don't know you but I'm not going to say it is either because I've worked with the best we have."

He beckoned to his half of the BSAA those he already knew. "You all survived Lanshiang. That's no small thing. But so did I. I started the BSAA. Me and Jill Valentine, here. We survived the Queen Zenobia we survived Raccoon City we survived Kijuju. I lost my entire team in Edonia. Except for Agent Nivans. We survived and we got revenge on Ada Wong. He saved the world just as much as I did. More than I did. None of us would be alive if he hadnt sacrificed himself I wouldn't have made it back from China. If i wasn't for what he did none of us would be here."

He looked at Boxer and then at the others. "Piers was the best. These people near me are the ones that are the best to me. Don't get me wrong I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure every one of you survives but a lot of times with bio terrorist outbreaks things don't go as planned."

He sighed. "So i'll give you all a chance to prove me wrong. Welcome aboard," He shook Chavez's hands. "Thank you sir."

Jill leaned in and whispered, "You don't have to be so hard on all of them. They survived China and not even i was part of that."

"I know that, Jill but none of us are guaranteed to survive. Not me, not you. China was a bad situation and I almost died but I've got years of experience behind me. Surviving one bio terrorist incident isn't enough on its own. You have a lot of background with this too. That's why you're as strong as me. Maybe even stronger. To survive all the way and see this thing through to the end they have to be like us."

Sheva nudged him saying, "Sure but who says they aren't? They could all be just like you but at their own ages."

Jill added, "They already survived one of the worst bioterrorist incidents in history and it makes every other incident you and I lived through look like a walk in the park. Their experience now would be equal to what mine was in Raccoon City when I went back for the other STARS members or you when you went to go find your sister. Not as much as we both have now but still prepared enough to know what you're dealing with."

"We'll see. For now let's focus on the mission at hand."

They headed into the city. They began to head towards what was the South Center Mall. Being a city that was a bit out of Seattle but was just a freeway ride away but small in population the mall was a major attraction especially for teenagers out here that needed something to do out here. If Seattle was like the older more stuck up brother and Tacoma was a younger rebellious brother, Seatac was a balance between the two not really either one too young to yet have a feel of its own.

Chris readied his weapon. They all had the same kind of Assault Rifle and standard sidearm but each BSAA agent was allowed to have another weapon, a vanity weapon as Jill liked to call it, that they preferred. They each had an M4-A3 as their assault rifles and they had a Glock 18 as a sidearm. Chris had a scope mounted on the Assault Rifle. On top of that he carried an AA-12 shotgun. Jill had a Spas 12 Shotgun as her vanity weapon. Rebecca had a .357 Desert Eagle and an M203 Grenade Launcher mounted on her rifle. Sheva carried a Dragonuv Sniper Rifle. Quint carried a Benelli M3 while Keith had a .50 Desert Eagle.

There were still a large number of parked cars outside. Just as much as there would be on any normal day at the mall.BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! They heard several gunshots ring out and Chris was alert raising his Rifle towards the muzzle flash. A man staggered forward carrying a beretta but fell face down on the ground. Chris carefully approached him, the Rifle carefully drawn on him in case he might try anything.

Chris noticed serious gashes in the man's jet black hair. The guy wasn't more than five foot six in height. Jill ordered the newer BSAA agents, "Stay alert! Try and find what he was shooting at!" Rebecca knelt down at the man's kept her sidearm close by in case he reanimated as a carrier. His head had been split open by several bludgeon wounds. She checked his pulse. "He's dead."

Chris asked, "Is he bitten?" Sheva asked in a softer tone, "Is there any way we can help him?" She looked at him and said, "I don't think so. I can try but this is a pretty bad gash. Help me turn him around."

Sheva was about to but Chris pushed him over with his feet. Sheva scolded, "Chris! Show some respect!" Chris said without shame, "i'm not taking any chances just in case he was bitten or got infected some way."

The man was Asian American. His chin was bloodied too and he had a pointy jaw. He had blood on his face too and Sheva checked his handgun. The magazine was empty.

They heard a shout and a dark figure ran towards them carrying a crowbar. Agent Malone wasted no time, firing her Rifle which she had on semi automatic she took out one of the things knee caps causing it to drop on the other. It growled still coming and she let him have a single shot to the forehead. They heard several running steps and the other BSAA agents opened fire with Rifles. Four more carriers hit the ground taking rounds. Chris readied his Handgun for the next one in sight. "Be sure to conserve Rifle ammo! You're going to need it!"

Agent Mackenzie drew down on another one of them and he fired five shots hitting one in the stomach. The thing fell to the ground and he brought his foot down on his skull hard as he could. Jill got her Genesis out and examined one of the corpses. "These things are called Afflicted! Try shining your lights on them!" Rebecca did as she asked pointing her flashlight at them but it didn't slow the one coming towards her and the thing grabbed her attempting to bite her. She drove her knee into its groin forcing it back. She fired her Glock into it, hitting it with two head shots one in the forehead and a second between the eyes.

"Didn't work...are these ones different?"

Several more were coming and Jill withdrew her own firearm and began squeezing off rounds. Four hit one near her, this one had been a woman and the rounds hit her in the chest. The next got it in the throat. A sixth went into its head. Another was coming at them with a hatchet. She quickly put two in its knee cap and one in its head. She encountered about eight more and she fired off the rest of her magazine. They reached the entrance to see that it was barricaded off. Chris thought he could see survivors inside.

"Agent Nezii! Kravic! I need you two to check another entrance the one nearest to us!" Raven nodded. "Yes sir! I had some family who moed to Seattle a few years ago so we've been to this mall before."

The two agents began to head offend Jill looked at two more agents. "Cameron, Jane, can you two go the opposite way? This place is supposed to have three entrances."

Quiet asked his Captain, "Why can't we just blow the barricades out with charges to get in? We know there's survivors, so how about it?" Keith corrected his team mate and old partner, "We can't do that you idiot! If there are survivors in there they're trying tokeep these things out and blowing down their barricades is going to let these things in. Shit, Quint! Three o'clock!"

Keith retrieved his pistol shooting a female carrier in the forehead that was charging at his friend with a metal pipe. Quint readied his Assault Riflew dropping several more of those things while Keith kept them covered from the other side. Jill had reloaded her sidearm and was firing at the group of eight zombies hitting three of them with shots to the head. Another she dropped with four rounds to the chest the hollow points leaving deep bloody wounds in the entrance. The zombie was a man in a brown coat and a gray sweater, black jeans and brown work boots. Jill pounced down on his chest with both knees finishing the gray skinned carrier off.

"Hey guys we can;t get in without taking out the barricades! I can see some survivors in there but I see zombies too."

Chris suggested, "All right. Then we go to plan B. We'll all go to the roof top and blast our way down into the mall."

With that the team members all began to rapell up the side of the building. They began to set up C4 charges as soon as they got to the top. "All right stand clear.."

With that they blew the charges and blasted a major hole in the roof. Luckily there was no zombies up here and he hoped that the had not caused an rubble to collapse on anybody inside. They began to lower themselves down on the rope. They stayed alert searching the mall. It looked like your average mall there was a food court, clothing, jewelry stores, a tattoo parlor, a video game store, and a book store and that was just what they could see from there. Just then, Quint panicked as he saw just how many zombies there were. It was a whole crowd of them. "Fuck! There's too many of them, guys!" Several were coming at them and he fired dropping three with his Assault Rifle hitting them with head shots.

Jill had her Handgun out as a zombie in a red flannel jacket with a receding hairline, blood caked around its chin, milky eyes, red teeth, a ghastly wound on his neck, and blood on his under shirt came at her. She fired two shots at his left knee and drove the blade into his temple. Keith remarked, "There's too many of them! We got plenty of ammo but all of us combined can't take that many of them!" He said just before a zombie grabbed him and attempted to bite him, a female. He wrestled with it. Rebecca was aiming at it and was going to fire but the way they kept moving as they wouldn't stand still made it hard to shoot for fear of hitting her team mate. He got it off with a punch and grabbed his pistol hitting the thing in its skull with the sidearm. It staggered back and he fired directly into its forehead the bang hitting the man in the forehead.

Chris saw several going for Mackenzie who was wrestling them off. He managed to slam one of them down like a wrestler before backing up. Chris fired hitting a large male zombie that was just behind him, catching the man with rounds in the back, three, four five slugs tore into the man and Cameron gave it a kick. "Thanks Captain..." He said almost breathless.

They tried to put some distance between themselves and the zombies as an awful lot of them were coming towards them. Raven pulled the pin on a grenade and chucked it at a group of at least fifteen of them, spitting the pin from her mouth. BOOM!

The blast was deafening and it left a ringing in Chris's ears, as the sounds of pistol and Assault Rifles went off. She had taken out four zombies, while wounding three others. Chavez finished off the three she had wounded. They fell back towards the escalators. "All right guys, listen we have enough ammo for our given objective but we don't have enough to fight a crowd. So I'm making a ruling on this now. Don't shoot unless you have to. A lot of these things are faster than the zombies from Racoon City I'm sure you know that but if they don't know you're there you can get by them. Most of these are slow and stupid. But make no mistake they're still dangerous so use discretion. If you have a few of them coming after you, use your knife. If there's a group of them use your guns but we're not here to put down every zombie we're here to find any survivors there are and get thm to safety. Right now we're just here to access the situation."

Chavez nodded. "Orale. Only when cornered. Got it."

Kravic added, "We still have hand to hand training."

Jill instructed the team too. "Remember we won't be able to save everybody. I'm sorry but it's the truth. The terrorists responsible are most likely still here and that's what we're here to find out. That's our main objective. We'll help who we can but right now we're first on the scene. There should be members of the Seatac Police Department still alive too. These are are men and women putting their lives on the line to help all these people same as us. We still have to stop The Family and that comes first but if you can help anybody you should."

They searched the second floor and Chris was troubled to see several carriers. Boxer, Raven, Jane and Thomas moved in on them. The four SOU agents routed them with combos of attacks from hitting them with Rifles, knives and various hand to hand combat moves. Thomas kicked a male zombie of Asian American descent, wearing a black puffy coat and blue jeans, in the left knee following up with a kick to the solar plexus. He readied his knife and brought it down on the zombie stabbing it as hard as he could. Raven stabbed one five times bringing it down and she moved behind him following up with a stab to the back the blade getting the carrier in its left shoulder blade. She then wrapped her legs around the zombie's head as she jumped up and slammed it to the floor snapping its neck. Jill observed with a smirk, "Took that out of my playbook."

Raven returned the smile. Chavez meanwhile, was teaming with Cameron, both of them ducking under the zombies lunges. Cameron had a zombie come at him and he ducked under. The young agent grabbed the zombie by one leg and flipped him over the balcony. Chavez saw some of the Afflicted and as they charged at him he managed to duck one who came at him swinging a crowbar. He followed up with a hard left hook to the face and the thing staggered back. Montoyo then took the crowbar from the enemy and swung it at its head. He followed up with a second cracking its skill open. Jane was wrestling with one of them but had dropped her knife. She had to get her sidearm to keep from being bitten as the Afflicted were now among the regular zombies. She fired three shots into its stomach. It staggered back and she kicked it in the groin. It went back and she fired hitting the thing in the nose. "I'm sorry..." She breathed. "I had to use it."

Just then they saw a herd of zombies coming towards them. Chris groaned, "Shit!" They began to retreat to where they could, firing their Assault Rifles. Chris managed to take out five. He strapped the rifle back around himself and got his handgun back out plus the combat knife. "Fall back! There's too many of them!" Cried Sheva. The crowd started rushing them and they were trying to fight through the horde. Chris could see Chavez next to Raven both of them swinging their knifes to keep the zombies back. A group of at least twenty five had Kravic cornered. Cameron fired to try and get to them. "Ron, hold on, bro! I'm coming just sit tight!"

A crowd was coming towards Chris, Jill, Sheva, and Rebecca. "There's too many of them!" Cried Rebecca as she fired at several afflicted."Cam! Help me!"

"Captain! We need your help!" Screamed Agent Mackenzie. The sound of Assault Rifle fire sounded off in their ear. They had been separated by the crowd. Chris told them, "Hold on!" Jill stopped him. "Chris, there's nothing we can do there's too many of them!"

All though Rebecca had just taken out four and Sheva picked off three more, there was at least forty or more zombies coming towards the four of them. Even with plenty of ammo there would be no way they could hold off that many before they had to reload and the rest swarmed and devoured them. Sheva beckoned to the other three. "We have no choice! Come on!" They followed the African agent down the hall towards a door with an exit sign. "Hang on guys! Try to get to cover or a vantage point!" They slammed the door shut behind them and it looked like some area where they kept the stocked goods. For now they were clear of any infected. Jill put an arm on his shoulder. "There';s nothing we can do...I'm sure they'll be able to find a way to make it. China was a lot worse than this."

"Yeah but we had the whole city to go through. Here , we're closed off in a mall."

He heard Montoyo say something. "Agent Chavez repeat on your last, copy?" He spoke again but it was scrambled and he heard gunfire. He heard Raven yelling something too followed by automatic fire. "Quint! Keith can you hear me?" He heard no response. "Shit!"

Meanwhile

There was a robbery in progress at the Bank Of America in Cottage Grove. Officer Michael Sanders was en route. He arrived and there were several squad cars as well as SWAT teams. "What's going on here?" He asked as he and his partner got out of the car. The Captain informed him, "Three men, armed with automatics. They're claiming to be part of Anubis, the terrorist group from Iraq but they're American citizens. Negotiator just talked to one of them on the phone. The bastards said they want a fueled airplane at the air field ready to go."

Just then the three men emerged from the bank with duffel bags of money strapped to them. They were wearing ski masks and carried M-16's. They fired at the police officers. They managed to hit two officers with rounds that got one in the armpit, and another was taken out with a head shot. The police took cover but returned fire as well as the SWAT members, and two out of the three were mortally wounded the third was just wounded. One of the men with a fatal wound, reached in his pocket. "STAY DOWN!" Screamed the SWAT team members and they fired rounds bombarding his chest. he dropped what he was holding and it shattered.

Blue smoke erupted from the other dying man cackled as the SWAT and police officers surrounded them. "Do not move! Or we will fire on you!"

The man who was only wounded in the leg grinned as they took his mask off. "Too late...we're all dead anyway..." As the blue smoke began to rise and grown in size.

Are you breathing, no?
Do the wicked see you?
You still breathing?
You're making me known
Are you breathing, no?
Do the wicked see you?
You still breathing?

That's all for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed I ended on a cliff hanger. So Cottage Grove Oregon, is the covered bridge capitol of the state and it was shown in te movie Stand By Me that area where they dodge the train is actually based on a joggers trail the i used to walk every morning when i lived there for six months but it used to be a railroad in the 50's. Figaros is a west coast chain their slogan is right now your mouth is wondering why the nose gets to have all the fun. So you guys know i name the chapters after songs so the lyrics at the end are from songs. I see other authors do it. The last chapter had This Is The End by The Doors. Funny story the first guy i ever smoked a blunt with was a major Jesus freak who thought the world was coming to an end any day now the "Second coming" one time i called him and got his voice mail and that song was his answering machine. I just knew..he didn't have that cause he liked the Doors. It was because he was taking a Doors song out of context to fit with his delusions.

Anyway this time it's Voices by Disturbed

The mall is based on the south center mall in Seatac Washington but also takes inspiration from the mall in Dead Rising. Seatac Wa and Cottage Grove are 5 hours away. Anyway leave me a detailed review,