Time for the fourth chapter.

And yes, I know that the first four chapters have all started with "the". I hope that's not a problem.

Maybe the fifth one will start with "the" as well. I do not know.

In this chapter...well, you might have guessed already, but we're going to meet Brian Irons. He's scary enough to put a zombie to shame. But at least you don't have to worry about him giving you the T-Virus.

Still, he's probably the most dangerous man in Raccoon City.

Chapter 4: The Police Chief

As Claire gathered supplies (and met a few police officers who were scared out of their wits), she heard a scream.

It was coming directly from the chief's office.

She immediately went to investigate.

"Is everything alright in there?" asked Claire. She figured she should help as many survivors as she could, though she felt that time was of the essence.

She got the feeling there might be a zombie inside, so she loaded her pistol to be safe.

You could never be too careful in terrible situations like these.

However, while there was a dead body, there were no zombies.

But she was surprised to see who it was.

"Is that the mayor's daughter?" asked Claire.

Sometimes she wished she looked like that. Katherine Warren was quite attractive, to say the very least.

But Chris told her that looks weren't everything, and she was fine the way she looked.

Claire found that to be sweet.

Suddenly, someone answered her question.

"Yes, it is." answered Brian Irons.

He was sitting at his desk, and was holding a gun.

Claire noticed how many animals he had stuffed.

Seemed he had a habit of hunting them.

Brian Irons quickly put the gun away.

Apparently he was worried that zombies would wander into his office and try to eat him for lunch...which wasn't unjustified given how many of them there were.

"Police chief Irons! You're alive!" exclaimed Claire.

"Yes...though to be honest, I don't think I have much longer to live." explained Brian Irons. Not with the situation as bad as it was.

He was worried that he had been infected with the T-Virus.

However, he did not have a fever. And he did not feel hungry.

Though it probably had to do with the gourmet meals he ate.

"I'm not throwing in the towel yet personally. Though I do wonder if there's a way out of this city." noted the brunette lady. Getting into the city was one thing, but getting out was another.

"Hopefully the military can take care of this. They should be here by tomorrow. How could this happen to my beautiful town?" asked the man.

"Your guess is as good as mine." noted Claire.

Perhaps Umbrella shouldn't be making contagious viruses. Did they even design a cure?

"The mayor's daughter was bitten by one of those monsters that are gathering outside. I had no choice but to put a bullet through her head. Otherwise she would have become one of them." explained Brian.

Claire noted she should aim for the head.

"Can you leave me alone for the time being? I need to gather my thoughts."

Considering that Claire was creeped out by him, she found that to be a generous offer.

She decided to take her leave.

Though for some strange reason, she got the feeling the mayor's daughter hadn't been bitten by a zombie.

Why did she think that?

Suddenly, she encountered someone she did not expect to see.

"Chris!" exclaimed Claire.

"Claire!" shouted Chris.

The two of them embraced.

"What are you doing here?" asked Chris's sister. Did he not know about the zombies? If she were him she would stay the hell away from Raccoon City.

"I figured I should go check on you. I've done research on Umbrella and found out they were making a G-virus." explained the member of STARS.

"Is this what's making all these zombies?" questioned Claire.

"No, that's the T-Virus. If it was, things would be a lot worse." noted Chris.

"Worse than they are now? I find that hard to believe." spoke Chris's younger sister.

"When I heard that there was a fever going around, I had to check to see if you were alright. I knew that a fever preceded the T-Virus, and figured it might not be a coincidence. Though even I'm not sure how the virus spread throughout the city." explained the white man.

He had read the keeper's diary and had learned the symptoms of the infection. The diary had chilled him to the core.

"Did it somehow get into our water supply?" asked Claire. A handful of zombies couldn't create a city-wide pandemic, but contaminating the water supply might.

Chris paused for a moment.

"That's actually a good theory." noted the RCPD member. Perhaps the T-Virus HAD gotten into the city's water supply.

Although, Claire wondered why she herself hadn't become a zombie. Perhaps some people had resistance to the infection.

Now that she thought of it, she preferred soda over drinking water.

Sure, she bathed regularly...but perhaps the T-Virus needed to be ingested.

Nearby, Leon noticed that for some strange reason there seemed to be a helicopter in the police precinct.

From the looks of it, it had crashed straight into the building. It was fortunate that it hadn't hit anyone.

If Chris and Jill had seen it, they would most likely be reminded of the BRAVO Team. Unfortunately, while their pilot was braver than Brad was, their helicopter had been sabotaged.

He wondered how it had crashed.

Had it run out of fuel?

Had there been an engine failure?

On closer inspection, it seemed something had thrown a car into it, judging from the tire tracks.

But he didn't think zombies were strong enough to do that.

If they had that kind of strength, they probably would have used it against him by now.

What had exactly caused the helicopter to crash?

A few hours earlier...

"Yeah! Take that, undead freaks!" exclaimed one of the officers as he shot the zombies on the streets from above.

As none of the zombies were capable of flight, shooting them from above was a great idea.

They had a hard time finding the keys, but they found them eventually.

But why exactly had Brian Irons hid the keys to the chopper?

Was he worried that a rookie cop would go on a joyride?

Now that thought of it, he had hired one recently.

Well, the important thing was they managed to find them.

Already, they had cleared a city block.

With some luck, they would be able to kill a good amount of zombies, making survival all the easier.

Perhaps the military wouldn't need to be called to handle the situation.

But at that very moment, Mr. X showed up.

He immediately recognized the helicopter as a police vehicle, and decided he was going to kill the pilots.

He picked up a car, much to their surprise.

He then threw it at the helicopter, as they were still questioning how they could lift the vehicle.

Needless to say, having a car crash into their copter didn't end well.

Looking around, Leon discovered that the police station used to be an art museum.

He wondered why the mayor had decided to make that change.

Perhaps the chief had a taste in arts?

Some of these paintings seemed to have been bought recently.

It was a shame that the city was probably going to be nuked (assuming not even the military could keep things under control), because some of these artworks looked pretty valuable.

However, as he went down the hall, they gradually began to become more and more disturbing.

For example, one of the paintings involved a man having his head cut off.

It was...gory.

Though given that he had encountered the walking dead, he wasn't shaken too much.

But still, why would Brian Irons want to buy that?

Meanwhile, Frank realized that things were getting worse outside.

There were red-colored zombies outside that seemed far more aggressive than normal zombies. It seemed their blood pressure had drastically increased somehow.

There were even a few with exposed brains.

Who knew what would appear next?

RCPD was starting to look less like a safe haven and more like a death trap.

They needed to find a safe route out from the precinct, and fast.

Fortunately, it seemed Sherry found an escape route.

It led directly to the sewers.

She was a brilliant girl.

However, they recalled that there was a monster lurking down there.

If it found them, chances are they would be attacked.

Still, it seemed like their safest option. They couldn't simply go outside. They would run out of bullets and be overwhelmed.

So down the sewers they went.

At Raccoon City jail...

"Can you help me? I'm looking for information about Umbrella...specifically, the G Virus." explained Ada Wong.

Hopefully she would be paid a lot of money for it. She wasn't risking her life for nothing.

She wss standing outside the cell of Ben Bertolucci, who was locked away for knowing too much.

Her employers would be very happy if she came back with a G virus sample...unless of course, she had been infected with the G Virus like William Birkin had been.

Though to be honest, it might be a hassle just coming back to them alive.

"You don't want to do that. I tried looking into Umbrella and I got arrested." answered Ben.

How many viruses did Umbrella make anyway? He wasn't sure how they were making reptile soldiers.

"You were looking for a scoop?" asked Wong.

"Yes." answered the reporter.

Outside the jail, Frank felt a sense of deja vu.

"So, what did you find about Umbrella? I assure you that the moment I've got what I need, I'm skipping town. So you won't have to worry about me ending up here too." explained Ada.

"Skipping town would be a pretty good idea. Do you hear the moans outside? They give me the creeps." explained Ben.

Perhaps it wasn't so bad that he was in a secure jail cell after all. At least the zombies didn't know where to look for him.

"Yeah." answered Wong.

"In exchange for this information, could you let me out of here? If you can't do that, could you at least put a bullet through the chief's head?" asked the reporter.

"Put a bullet through his head? Why would I want to become a cop killer?" questioned the fake FBI agent.

"Because during my investigation, I also found out information about Brian Irons. He was taking bribes from Umbrella!" exclaimed Ben.

"He was?" asked Ada.

That would explain why the police never stuck their noses in Umbrella's business. Brian Irons wouldn't start an investigation.

"And I think he's trying to sabotage the police's efforts to save everyone..." explained Ben.

Perhaps he was mad because Umbrella had caused this mess...and was taking it out on everyone else.

"So, are you going to tell me where the G-Virus is?" asked Ada.

"Yes. It's in an Umbrella research facility in the sew-aaaahhh!"

Ben was caught off when Mr. X burst into his cell and grabbed him by the head...and then crushed his skull.

"Damn. I guess Umbrella wanted to silence him permanently." remarked Ada. It seemed simply having him arrested wasn't enough for the company.

Unfortunately for Ada, Mr. X then started banging on the door to Ben's cell to get to her.

There was a reason why Tyrants were kept in cryogenic tanks in suspended animation instead of cages.

And considering he had burst through the wall (which was made of solid bricks), that cell door wasn't going to hold for long.

She would want to leave soon.

But at least she wouldn't have to worry about finding a way to let Ben out.

Meanwhile...

Currently, Mayor Warren was on vacation, oblivious as to what was happening in Raccoon City. He was at the beach.

It was bright and sunny outside...unlike Raccoon City's scary atmosphere.

If he knew what was going on, he would have nightmares forever.

But there he was, sitting on a beach chair while drinking a smoothie in his swim trunks, unaware that Raccoon City was potentially going to be nuked.

Although, he wondered for a moment whether his daughter was doing alright.

He had heard that Brian Irons had been accused of sexual assault in the past.

But surely he wouldn't do that to his daughter, right?

He was sure she would be fine.

Meanwhile...

Unfortunately, as it turned out, his daughter was not safe from Brian Irons at all.

She had been stuffed like all the animals Brian Irons had killed.

Now she was in his secret lair for him to admire, along with the skulls and bones of his previous victims.

Unfortunately, a zombie epidemic could bring out the worst in people, and Brian was no exception.

He wanted everyone in the city to die with him. Even his fellow police officers.

That was why he was hindering his force's efforts to assist the civilians.

It was rather unfortunate that someone had managed to find the keys to one of his helicopters, but since it had crashed it didn't matter too much.

As before, a woman entered Brian's office.

Again, he wondered if it was a zombie.

But considering that a human had wandered into his office earlier, he decided to look before he fired.

Brian Irons noticed how attractive Rebecca Chang was.

Sure, having Katherine Warren to himself would be excellent, but why not have another sexy lady as well?

It seemed too good of an opportunity to pass up.

He whacked Rebecca Chang on the head with a small statuette (which he of course had been able to afford with the money Umbrella gave him), and knocked her out cold.

He then began to drag her back to his office.

Sure, chances are he would die in Raccoon City. Perhaps the military wouldn't be able to rescue him.

But at least he could spend his last few days doing what he did best.

Nearby, Frank wondered what had happened to Rebecca.

He couldn't just leave the city without her.

That felt wrong.

He heard loud footsteps coming from the basement.

They unnerved him.

Who or what was down there?

And I'm leaving things on a cliffhanger.

And yes, the military will arrive on the scene. But considering Raccoon City's zombie population, they probably won't have enough bullets.