...'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you baby
And I don't want to miss a thing...
Dark brown eyes stared up at his old apartment's ceiling. Alan Abernathy sighed. He was bored out of his fucking mind. The retired S.W.A.T officer was lying on his back on his old bed while listening to the radio play Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing".
He's been stuck in Raccoon City ever since the whole shit with the Cannibal Disease started. He helped some friends of his set up a party for the rookie a week before he was supposed to leave but then 'cannibals' started running around the damn city. He decided to help out but was pulled out four days ago by Irons. Said it wasn't his business anymore. He would've refused if the bastard didn't have the Mayor's backing. Fucking asswipe.
Right as he was about to leave for New York, Raccoon City started a quarantine. No one gets in or out. It went on for a couple of days before people started rioting. Bad enough they had the whole cannibal disease going, now people started putting the city into a blender of fucking chaos. Looting. Shootings. Break-ins. Too much for R.P.D to handle. At least he had Alice leave for New York earlier than him. She wouldn't have to witness any of this fucking shit.
Suddenly, someone started banging on his front door incessantly and the former S.W.A.T sat up with a groan. Picking up a white shirt off the ground and a pair of jeans, he quickly put them on before grabbing the M19 from under his pillow and tucked it in behind his pants.
"Alright. Alright. I'm coming. Don't get your panties in a twist."
Alan opened the door and a teenaged boy burst past him. Quickly huddling himself in the corner of the room.
"Hey! What the hell, kid?"
"T-They're coming!"
The teenager curled himself into a ball and began rocking himself while muttering something too soft for the retired S.W.A.T to hear. Alan was about to ask the teen to leave but heard gunshots followed by woman's scream down the corridor. The former cop ran outside just in time to see a man tear open a woman's throat with his mouth. The two fell down and the man started eating the woman's corpse.
"Hey!" Alan yelled as he took out his pistol and aimed at the man "Hands in the air, motherfucker!"
The man stopped and looked up at Alan before growling. Now that he got a good look at it, he realized the man looked like the ones infected by the cannibal disease. It slowly stood up and limped towards Alan who slowly stepped back. There was no use trying to reason with them so he might as well take him down.
"Drop dead, asshole."
Alan pulled the trigger and shot the man. Managing to put four holes in the infected's head before it fell backwards. The former cop then walked over to it and fired two more rounds into it's head just to make sure. He saw a lot of good men make the mistake of not making sure the infected were really dead and pay the heavy price for it. He was sure as hell won't be making the same mistake. The former cop then walked over to the woman and dropped to one knee before examining the body.
Throat was torn out. Probably bled to death after the infected started eating the rest of her. He looked to her hand and saw a SLS 60 before reaching for it. The woman's eyes snapped open and grabbed his wrist. She moved to bite it but he quickly put the last bullet of his gun into her head.
Alan quickly jumped back to his feet and made his way back over to his room. Once inside, he saw his window was open and the teen was gone.
"Huh. Kid left. Hope he didn't steal anything."
Alan made his way over to the window and his eyes widened in shock as the whole city was in total chaos. Cars crashed into each other or into telephone poles while people were running around screaming as infected chased after them. He could even hear some explosions in the distance. There were some R.P.D officers trying to contain it and fired their weapons at the infected but they were barely impeding the infecteds' movements.
"I gotta help them."
The former cop quickly ran to the locker next to his bed and opened it, revealing a desert tan colored tactical vest hooked on the wall of the locker. The vest has seven pouches. Five for mags and two for any other miscellaneous equipment. It also has a scabbard for his combat knife as well as a holster for a pistol on the chest. On top of the vest was a shelf where a pair of matching, black, fingerless gloves and a drop leg holster were lying on it.
Grabbing his gear, he quickly put them on as well as a pair of running shoes before dropping to his knees on the side of the bed and pulled out a case from underneath it. Opening the case revealed magazines for his M19 and a JMB Hp3 pistol with a laser sight attachment as well as a tactical belt with mag pouches for his second side arm.
After completing his gear, Alan made his way outside and walked over to the rusty old fashioned elevator before sliding the door open. He walked inside and pressed the button for ground floor and waited as the elevator made it's descent to it's destination. While waiting, the former cop started to wonder how R.P.D was fairing but considering the current state of the city, it has him worried. At least they made sure the rookie wouldn't be coming here anytime soon.
The elevator shuddered as it reached the ground floor of the building and already Alan was met with a gruesome sight. Two infected were going into town on one man, taking chunks out of his abdomen while another infected was eating a child's arm. A fourth infected was actually a S.W.A.T officer and was limping towards him. Alan saw the slung LE 5 Submachine Gun with a Red Dot Sight on the infected cop and quickly shot it in the knee twice.
The infected cop fell to one knee and Alan didn't waste time unsheathing his knife and snatching the S.W.A.T's helmet off before stabbing it repeatedly on the head. Leaving the knife on the infected's temple, he took off the SMG from it and checked if it's loaded before firing at the two zombies, killing them before turning to the third infected who was now limping towards him.
Alan grabbed a spare mag from the dead S.W.A.T's vest and reloaded the gun before putting twenty holes in the infected's chest and five to it's head before said head exploded. Grabbing the spare mags from the dead S.W.A.T, Alan reloaded the SMG and ran out of the building.
Once outside, he saw that the R.P.D officers were overrun but there was someone else shooting at the infected. Alan looked to see a woman firing an Assault Rifle at the infected. Unbeknownst to her, an infected was creeping up behind her and Alan quickly aimed his gun at the infected then pulled the trigger. Hitting the infected in the chest made it stagger back and Alan walked over to the woman while firing his weapon. Said woman looked over to him and aimed her weapon at Alan and he stopped in his tracks.
"Out of the way!"
Alan dodged to the side just a an infected tried to grab him from behind. The woman tore through the infected before refocusing on the group of infected moving towards her. Once Alan reached her, he turned his attention to the remaining infected the woman was shooting at and fired his weapon at them as well.
"Who the hell are you?" The woman asked before quickly switching to her side arm to shoot an infected that got too close "Nevermind. We'll talk later. Right now I need to cover the civilians until they reach Kite Bros Station."
"Why?"
The two pulled back and took cover behind an abandoned squad car. Alan mounted his gun on the roof of the car while the woman crouched and reloaded her weapon before mounting her rifle on the hood.
"Whatever's left of my platoon converted some subway cars into shelter. We got Redstone Street station locked down and my job was to gather civilians and lead them there."
"Platoon? Are you military?" Alan asked as he shot off a leg from each of the three infected moving towards them resulting in them crawling on the road.
The woman didn't reply but she did unlatched a grenade from her vest and pulled the pin before throwing it at the group of infected. The grenade exploded, taking out the group and any infected in or close to the blast radius. Now that they were somewhat safe, Alan reloaded his weapon and the woman mirrored his actions before turning to face him.
"I'm not military. I'm with the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service or U.B.C.S. When this shitstorm hit, Umbrella sent us in to perform search and rescue operations around the city. My platoon was supposed to secure Downtown and make a safe zone but we got overwhelmed. We took whatever civilians we could rescue and holed up in the subway."
"So why are you out here then?"
"Like I said. My platoon leader sent me and another guy to rescue more civilians. We got separated and I ended up here. Sucks that he brought the rocket launcher with him too. By the way. Thanks for saving my ass back there." She motioned her head at the infected that tried to attack her from behind "Didn't even know it was there 'til you started shooting them."
"You shot the one behind me. That makes us even." Alan replied as he stared at the pillars of smoke from the distance before looking at the woman "The name's Alan. Alan Abernathy. You?"
"Sara Parker. Look. I'm down to my last mag but we got more ammo back at the subway station. You can come if you'd like."
"Lead the way."
While the two made their way to Kite Bros Railway station on Redstone Street with a small number of civilians, a certain S.T.A.R.S operative just got chased, beaten and kicked out of her apartment building by Mr. Tall, Dark and Tentacle.
~Line Break~
Sara Parker led the path down to the subway as Alan followed closely behind. She didn't know who but some idioy decided to close the shutter and they had to take another route through.
The U.B.C.S Medic wore a black, tight-fitting, short-sleeved shirt underneath an olive drab tactical vest with multiple pouches for ammunition and grenades as well as a sheath for her combat knife. She wore a pair of tiger stripe camouflage pants tucked inside a pair of black military boots and a set of black tactical knee pads with the addition of a drop leg holster which had her G18 handgun secured in it and a radio that was clipped to her belt.
In her hands was the CQBR Assault Rifle with a Red Dot Sight attached to it as well as a flashlight and a foregrip. The state-of-the-art Assault Rifle was issued to all U.B.C.S field personnel and, if what she heard was true, they were also supplied to US Special Forces. Heh. Umbrella gave them good training, weapons and gear yet platoon was nearly wiped out in a matter of seconds? It's a miracle some of them even survived within the first few hours.
The two took the stairs leading down to the subway cars and Sara made her way over to the ammo crate. She grabbed nine spare mags for her primary and five for her side arm. Once finished, she nodded at Alan and walked inside the open subway car where Captain Mikhail Victor was holding the large wound on his abdomen. Sara quickly knelt down next to him and examined the wound.
"Jesus, sir. You got fucked up."
"Eh. At least they didn't bite, huh? Hehe." Mikhail winced in pain before looking up at Alan "And who might you be? You're too armed to be a civilian."
"Alan Abernathy." Alan replied "S.W.A.T. I just retired two weeks ago and was planning to move to New York. Stayed for a week to help some friends and look where that got me. Stuck in a city full of freaks trying to eat me. But enough about me. How's your day been going?"
Mikhail barked out a laugh while Sara took out a medkit from underneath the seat and opened it before taking out a First-aid Spray and using it on the Captain's wound.
"That should hold you fix you up, sir."
"I've been through worse. Have you met my ex-wife?"
Sara shook her head before throwing the empty spray can away and grabbing her rifle. The mercenary stood up and looked at the Captain.
"Orders, sir?"
"We wait for the others to return. Then we'll see about getting this train working."
"Working? Something wrong with the train?"
It was Sara who answered the S.W.A.T.
"Main power was out when we got here. We managed to get the generators up and running but it's not enough to get the trains moving."
"We think the substation might have shut down the power to the subway but there's something strange going on over there and we kept our distance." Mikhail continued "If we can get power back to the trains, we can get the civilians out of here. It'll be a way in and out of the city. With this, we can evacuate them safely. Away from the infected. Maybe even get some military here."
"Good plan." Alan nodded "Anything I can do to help?"
"Hmm." Mikhail hummed before nodding over at Sara "You can help Parker secure a perimeter topside on Main Avenue."
"Main Avenue? Leads right to the substation. Yeah. I can do that. Anything else?"
"We have a spare rifle on that weapons crate over there." Mikhail pointed at said crate outside the subway car "There's more ammo on the floor above us."
"Thank you, sir."
"Considering how many of us are left, no one is needing that one. Feel free to restock while you're at it."
Alan nodded before walking out and heading over to the crate. Sara watched him go before facing her Captain.
"Sir, any word from the rest of the guys?"
"I haven't been able to contact Murphy from quite some time."
"You think he's dead?"
"Maybe. I had Nicholai look for him."
Sara furrowed her brow at that.
"Nicholai? You know Murph hates that asshole."
"He was the closest. Besides, Tyrell is with him. He'll keep Nicholai in line. Hopefully."
"Whatever you say, sir."
"And Carlos?"
"We got separated but he can take care of himself."
Mikhail grunted in return.
Nodding to the Captain, Sara walked out of the subway car and saw Alan checking out his new weapon. The retired cop loaded a fresh mag inside the CQBR and racked the charging handle before slinging the weapon around him. The Assault Rifle he was holding was void of any attachments other than the foregrip. Alan took out the magazine and checked the bullets inside before slapping it back in and looked at Sara.
"I like this gun."
"Of course you do." Sara motioned her head to the stairs "C'mon. We got infected topside that we have to clear out. I'll take point."
"Understood."
The duo made their way up to the floor above and reached a table surrounded by crates of supplies. Sara walked over to one supply crate and opened it to reveal ammo boxes. Each filled with bullets, hand grenades and flash grenades. She took three hand grenades and two flash grenades before looking at Alan.
"Help yourself with some ammo and grenades. I'll be waiting by the shutter. Don't take too long."
"I won't."
Sara nodded before walking away and heading over to the shutter. She opened one of her pouches and took out a pack of cigarettes. She took one and placed it between her lips before taking out a lighter from her back pocket and lighting the cigarette. She waited there for a few minutes before Alan walked over to her and saw the cigarette.
"Got another?"
Sara took the cigarette from her lips and handed it to Alan.
"You can have half."
"Thanks."
The U.B.C.S Medic waited for Alan to finish the cigarette before walking over to the half closed shutter and crouching down to peek outside. From what she could see, there were at least seven in front of the station. Probably more down the road. She told Alan what she saw and the former cop told her to ready her rifle. Alan walked over to the shutter and placed his hands underneath it then looked over his shoulder at Sara.
"On three. You start shooting."
"Got it. Ready when you are."
"Alright. One... Two... Three!"
Alan let out a grunt as he lifted the shutter and Sara fired her weapon at the closest infected, tearing it's head apart with bullets before walking outside. Meanwhile, Alan held the shutter open before unholstering the Hp3 on his chest and firing at the infected close to him. Four bullets to the head and the infected fell forward towards him and Alan moved away, letting it fall on the ground before kicking underneath the shutter.
The former cop raised the shutter high before dropping it down on the infected, crushing it's head like a watermelon. He then quickly turned around and unloaded five bullets into another infected's head. The zombie fell down and Alan lifted his foot before crushing the zombie's head.
Sara slammed the butt of her rifle across an infected, forcing it to turn around. She leaned on it's back and backpedalled while shooting at the two infected limping towards her. She killed one of the infected before her gun ran dry and she reloaded but the zombie she was leaning on tripped and fell forward. Sara fell back on top of the infected's back and caused her to drop the fresh mag on the ground. She looked up to see the other zombie lunge at her.
"Fuck!"
She rolled off of the infected she was lying on and unholstered her G18 just as the infected fell on top of the other. Sara aimed her handgun at the two and pulled the trigger. It took ten shots to the head to kill them and four more to make sure they were dead-dead.
Sara got up her feet just in time to see a zombie grab Alan from the left and pin him to the ground.
The former cop kept the infected back with his left arm before taking out the M19 from his drop leg holster and fired five shots to the infected's abdomen before shoving the gun into it's mouth and pulled the trigger. Splattering it's brains across the sidewalk.
Alan stood up and faced another zombie before shooting it in the head. Causing the zombie to fall onto it's back on the ground and the former made his way over to the infected before crushing it's head with his foot. Alan looked at his bloodied shoe in disgust before walking towards Sara.
"I'm gonna need a new pair of shoes after this."
"If you survive that is." Sara remarked as she loaded fresh mags into her rifle and pistol.
"What?" Alan reloaded his weapons as well "Can't I be a little bit optimistic in the apocalypse?"
His eyes found themselves on the two zombies that Sara killed and laughed.
"Guess even zombies need to get some, right?"
Sara saw where he was looking at and snorted before jokingly punched him in the arm.
"Fuck you."
"Flattered but I don't think a zombie apocalypse is a good time for that, don't you think?"
The U.B.C.S Medic shook her head before noticing the tattoo peeking underneath Alan's sleeve.
"Hey. What's that you got under there?" Sara pointed at Alan's shoulder.
Said man looked to where she was pointing at and raised his right sleeve to reveal the 75th Ranger Regiment's DUI tattoo. Sara let out an impressed hum.
"So in addition to being a S.W.A.T, you were a Ranger too. Impressive."
"I was in 1st Battalion during Desert Storm then was transferred to 3rd Battalion in '93. I retired after... "
Alan sighed and shoom his head.
"After my ex dropped off her four year-old daughter in my friend's doorstep. She had specific instructions that the kid would go to me. So I went back home to take care of the kid. We stayed here in RC for five years. We were supposed to move to NYC some weeks ago but you know the story."
"You stayed to help some friends and you got caught in the quarantine. What about your kid?"
"My friend took her to New York before the quarantine hit. I didn't want Alice to catch the cannibal disease so I had him take her to New York while I stayed behind to pack up my things and help some friends set up a party for the station's rookie. That's at least another soul saved from this mess."
"What do you mean?"
"Marvin and the others called the rookie and told him to stay away from Raccoon. If he's smart, he would stay far away from this hellhole."
Sara looked at the burning cars on Main Avenue and couldn't help but agree. After everything that's happened since this cannibal disease outbreak hit, the rookie cop was saved from getting caught in the middle of all this shit. After taking a break for a few minutes, they made their way towards the alleyway to secure the area.
~Line Break~
Once they cleared the road and alleway of infected, Alan and Sara made their way back to the subway station before seeing someone raise the shutter door and looked to see a woman with messy brown hair walk out. She wore two layers of tank top, blue on top and white underneath, a harness with a holster and flashlight. She also wore a necklace, a pair of black, fingerless gloves and an elbow sleeve on her left arm. Dark, tight-fitting, jeans and black combat boots along with a belt that held a R.P.D badge and some mag pouches as well as a combat knife and a drop leg holster with a G19 handgun secured in it. In her hands was a Samurai Edge pistol which were only issued to members of R.P.D's Special Tactics and Rescue Service
operatives. Seeing the gun, Alan looked up at the woman's face and recognized her immediately.
"Jill?"
"Alan?"
Jill walked over to the two and Alan smirked at seeing the S.T.A.R.S operative.
"Good to see you still alive and kicking, Jill."
"Glad to see you're alright too, Alan."
"Where's Brad? He with you? Maybe we can find him a chopper and get some civvies out of this city."
At the mention of the Alpha Team's pilot, Jill's face turned somber. Alan saw this and narrowed his eyes.
"What happened to Brad?"
"He... He got bit and stayed behind to hold off the infected so I could escape. I... I couldn't do anything."
Alan cursed while Sara grabbed the woman's attention.
"Hey. The name's Sara Parker. U.B.C.S."
"Jill Valentine."
"Nice to meet you. Now. What are you doing here? The survivors are holed up back at the subway. Why aren't you down there?"
Jill crossed her arms as she answered.
"Your Platoon Leader told me about your plans to get the subway running again. He told me that you guys can't do this on your own so I decided to help."
"Thanks. If you're going to the Substation, take that alleyway over there." Sara pointed at said alley.
"Go over to that alley and take a right. There's a small path you can use to get past that roadblock but be careful once you get to the other side. The infected had been banging on that fence for some time now and it's gonna give in soon. We killed some of them but more were popping up and we didn't wanna risk the fence getting breached."
"Alright. Thanks for the help."
"Thank us by getting the power back to the subway." Alan spoke up.
"We're gonna use that train to ferry civilians in and out of the city. We'll stay here and keep this perimeter secured. Maybe you can find some civilians on the way to the substation. Just tell 'em to head to Redstone Street subway station."
"Got it."
Jill nodded at the two before leaving. As the S.T.A.R.S operative walked away, Sara's eyes drifted lower and her mouth slowly formed into a smirk. Alan saw this and looked to where the woman was staring at and chuckled to himself.
"She's got a nice ass."
"Hey! My ass is nice too." The former cop joked.
"Fuck you, Alan."
Sara punched him in the shoulder but she too laughed before the two settled for silence. Watching for any infected and prepared to take them down immediately. Minutes passed by yet they saw no action.
"You know what would be good." Alan began.
"What?" Sara asked but kept an eye out for any movement.
"If we had someone providing overwatch up on the roof."
"Too bad we're short on men."
"Yeah."
"Wanna volunteer?"
"Fuck no."
~Line Break~
An hour had passed and it was already two in the morning. Alan and Sara had taken out a number of infected that got too close and were currently leaning on the wall next to the station's shutter. Smoking cigarettes to pass the time.
Alan blew a puff of smoke before he heard the loud roar in the distance. The former cop got off the wall and looked past the roadblock on the road to see Jill getting chased by something tall and wearing black. His eyes widened when he saw it raise it's hand and a tentacle came out before it wrapped around Jill's ankle and pulled her to the ground.
The creature stood over Jill and moved to punch her but she managed to roll out of the way and up her feet. She made a run for the alleyway and Alan looked over at Sara only to see her closing the shutter until it was halfway shut.
"What are you doing?"
"Valentine's coming here and that thing's following her. If this thing's half open, the three of us can get in fast and shut it before that freak get's here."
"Okay."
Just as he finished nodding, Jill ran out from the alleyway and met up with them. Surprisingly, her pursuer remained watching at the other side of the barricade. Alan narrowed his eyes and aimed his rifle at it.
"What the hell are you waiting for?"
As if it heard him, the creature lowered it's body into a squat before jumping over the fence and landing a few feet in front of them. The asphalt cracking underneath it's boots.
"Get inside!" Alan yelled as he fired his weapon at the creature.
Jill and Sara did so while Alan slowly backed up and kept shooting at the big guy until he spent the whole mag before pulling out a grenade and tossing it under the creature's feet.
He quickly dropped to the ground and rolled underneath the shutter before the two women closed it just as the grenade exploded. The trio let out a sigh of relief before jumping back as the creature punched the shutter and left a large, fist-shaped dent on it. Alan quickly faced Jill.
"What the fuck was that thing!?"
"I don't know but that thing fell from the parking garage's rooftop, got a faceful of rocket and it still got up." The S.T.A.R.S operative replied before making her way over to the Kite Bros machine much to the two's confusion.
Jill placed a red jewel and the machine opened a compartment to reveal a hand grenade. She then inserted a blue jewel and the machine opened up again but this time, it revealed a stock and grip for a shotgun. Jill placed the final jewel in and received a hip pouch in return.
Alan and Sara were in disbelief at what just happened in the span of a few minutes. Some big monster with tentacles was chasing after Jill and now a machine pops out fucking gear when you put a jewel in the slots.
Alan wondered what the fuck were the guys in Kite Bros Railway thinking when they made that machine and why put a grenade, a shotgun stock and a hip pouch as a prize. He looked over to Jill and saw her place the M3 Shotgun on the table before looking over her shoulder at the two.
"Is there a toolbox I can use here?"
Alan and Sara looked around despite their obvious confusion at what the S.T.A.R.S Operative was going to do. The U.B.C.S Medic managed to find a red tool box and placed it on the table before asking.
"What are you doing?"
Jill didn't reply and opened up the toolbox before taking out some screws and other tools. She removed the wooden stock of the M3 then replaced it with the stock and grip she got from the machine. Almost done with her work, Jill raised the shotgun and tested the new grip before making slight adjustments to tighten it. Checking again, she nodded in satisfaction and showed the two her work.
"Like it?"
Sara blinked in disbelief but Alan shook his head with a chuckle before looking at Jill.
"You learned that from Kendo?"
"Yeah. Weren't you there when he taught both S.T.A.R.S and S.W.A.T?" Jill asked with a raised brow.
"Might've been a sick day for me." Alan replied sheepishly and Sara snorted at hearing that before looking up at the former cop.
"You missed one helluva class, didn't you?"
"I know. Anyways." Alan looked back at the S.T.A.R.S operative "Is the power back online?"
"Power's back up and I mapped out the train's route."
"Then what are we standing around here for?" Sara made her way over the stairs "Let's get that train running and get these people out of here before tall, dark and ugly gets in."
The other two agreed before the three of them made their way down the subway cars. On the way there, the trio were met by Carlos who informed them that the train needed 30 to 40 minutes to finish maintenance. Just as he finished telling them, Nicholai and Tyrell joined them.
"Nicholai!" Carlos greeted "How's it going out there?"
"The town is crawling with those freaks." The russian mercenary replied "No chance of fighting our way out of this city."
His eyes then landed on Jill who was giving the man a glare that would've made any other man faulter.
"Why is she here?"
"She's helping in getting the trains running."
"She's unreliable! Can't pull the trigger when it counts."
"Hey, take it easy."
Carlos placed a hand on Nicholai's shoulder and gently pushed him back but the man scoffed and shrugged off the man's hand.
"Bad time to start carrying dead weight, friend." Nicholai stated before looking back at Carlos "She'll get you killed."
Without another word, Nicholai stormed passed them and walked down the stairs towards the subway cars. Tyrell gave Jill an apologetic look before following after Nicholai to give his report to the Captain. The four watched them go before Carlos turned to face Jill.
"Sorry about that. Everyone's a little worked up." The rugged U.B.C.S operative apologized.
Hearing this, Sara scoffed.
"Yeah. Everyone but him. Nicholai's an asshole, Oliveira. Don't deny it. You know what happened back in training. Asshole used Murph as a human shield just to score himself a few points over everyone else."
"Murph?" Jill reached into her back pocket and pulled out a small, bloodstained, leather notebook before handing it to Carlos "Do you mean Murphy?"
"Yeah. You know him?" Carlos took the notebook and checked the contents before looking back at Jill "Where'd you get this?"
"I found Murphy on my way to the substation. He was by a garage and had a wound on his hip. He might've been infected. I was about to help him when Nicholai barged in and just shot him in the head." Jill answered bitterly. The scene playing over in her head.
"Fuck." Sara cursed "Never trusted that stupid bastard to begin with. And the Captain ordered him to find Murph."
Alan was silent. Not because he didn't have anything to say but because he heard a loud crash from where they came. He looked to the staircase and saw the large shadow coming down the stairwell, followed by loud thuds. The others heard it as well and quickly aimed their weapons at the stairs while Jill pressed the button to lower the shutter.
Alan, Carlos and Jill backed up and went inside while Sara covered them. She was about to get in when she heard Jill state that it was her the creature was after. The S.T.A.R.S operative rolled underneath the shutter before it fully closed while Sara stayed with Jill.
"What are you doing? Why didn't you go in?"
"I'm gonna watch your back, Valentine. Two's better than one, right?"
Jill didn't reply but she did look at the creature as it stood menacingly on top of the stairs. Sneering at it, Jill opened her arms and taunted the monster.
"Come on, you creepy-ass stalker! You want S.T.A.R.S? I'll give you S.T.A.R.S!"
"S.T.A.R.S."
Sara was surprised the thing managed to speak even if it was just a growl before the two booked it as the creature gave chase.
"Hey. Hey, wait. Sara. Jill! Damnit!" Carlos cursed before punching the closed shutter.
"Hey." Alan placed a hand on Carlos' shoulder "We can't help them directly but we can help them if we double time the train's maintenance."
"Why?"
"Once they loose that monster, they're gonna head back right here. We need that train up and running by the time they arrive so we can leave before anymore crazy shit like that happens. Clear?"
Carlos looked down with indecision and spared a glance to where Jill and Sara ran off to distract the monster before nodding at Alan.
"Crystal."
"Good. Now let's get that train ready."
Carlos immediately ran down stairs and Alan moved to follow but spared a glance behind him before running down to catch up to th U.B.C.S operative. No time to doubt himself or doubt the others.
'Just focus on getting the train running, Abernathy. They can handle themselves. Just focus on the train. Focus on the train.'
Even as he repeated the mantra in his head, there was still a part of him that was worrying sick for the two. He hoped and, for once, prayed that they escape that freak.
~Line Break~
Sara covered her eyes as the red barrels exploded before seeing the monster fall to it's knees. It dropped something and she could see that it was a case. Sara snatched it before crawling after Jill to the vents.
Jill found an exit and kicked open the vent before dropping down. Sara quickly followed after and the two started running for the door. Jill was the first in and she grabbed the red valve before pulling the heavy door close as Sara ran inside. Together, the two twisted the valve until the door was sealed shut. Hopefully, it would at least keep the crazy fucker away.
Sighing in relief, Sara picked up the case and followed Jill as she went inside a room. It was a small office by the looks of it and there were some lockers by the wall as well as a table. Sara placed the case down while Jill tried to contact the others.
"Carlos, do you copy? Carlos!"
All she got was static.
"Shit. Must be out of range."
"Hey, Jill look at what that big guy dropped."
Jill walked over to the table and saw one of the cases the creature dropped every time she managed to drop him. Sara took whatever was inside the case and held it out in front of her. Jill could see that it was a suppressor and for a handgun too by the looks of it.
Taking her G19 out, which now had extended mags and a Red Dot Sight attached to it, Jill took the offered suppressor and nodded her thanks before attaching it to her pistol.
Sara watched her for a few seconds before looking at the whiteboard on the wall and saw the map taped to it. She tore it off the whiteboard and looked at it.
"Looks like we're over here." Sara showed the map to Jill and pointed to what she was talking about "Manager's Office."
"Hey. What is that?"
Sara looked to where the other woman pointed at and raised a brow in confusion.
"Lab? Why the fuck is there a laboratory in the sewers?"
"Guess we're about to find out."
"Yeah."
Sara folded the map and tucked it inside one of her pouches and checked her weapons and gear.
CQBR? Check.
G18? Check.
Hand Grenades? Check.
Stun Grenades? Check.
Ammo? Check.
Radio? Check.
Medkit? Check.
Cigarette and lighter? Check and check.
Combat Knife. Che-
The U.B.C.S Medic quickly searched her person but couldn't find her combat knife anywhere. She thought back to their escape and concluded that she must've dropped it when the big guy punched the livinh shit out of her.
Sighing, Sara reloaded her weapon. She had wasted a whole mag on the big freak's head and it did nothing. After feeding a new mag into her rifle, Sara slapped the bolt release before looking back at Jill who finished loading her shotgun with shells and the mercenary smirked.
"You keep that for close encounters?"
The corner of Jill's lips twitched at hearing that before turning serious and nodding to the door.
"Let's get out of here."
"On your go, Valentine."