(Author's note: I will be changing my upload time to Friday/Saturday instead of Monday/Tuesday as my work schedule is changing.)
A yawn stretched her face as Cass took the final turn toward their apartment. Excitement was the only thing keeping her awake at the moment. The last time she'd even seen the apartment it had been empty. Arranging the room to her liking would have to wait until she'd gotten some shut-eye though. Two days of driving hadn't been kind.
A crash up ahead had caused a bunch of people to get out of their cars. With another yawn, she turned onto a side street to find a less crowded place to park the car. Cass could see the apartment in the distance as she ran up an abandoned side street. With a careful look over her shoulder, she continued toward her building. A moan caught her by surprise as a man lurched at her from the shadows. A swift kick caught him in the chest, and he tumbled to the ground.
"Hey! What was that about?!" Cass shouted before the man's movements caught her attention.
The man snarled and leapt at her again, but Cass jumped out of the way. With a cough, he fell to the ground again. Jumping over the man, Cass bolted toward the building. Mobs of men and women fought in the streets. Fires blazed, and Cass could hear the screaming of police officers as they shouted to their comrades. Out of breath, she made it to the apartment complex and stumbled into the elevator. As the door closed, she saw a woman with sickly eyes turn toward her. Slamming the "close door" button, she backed into a corner. For a few precious moments, the button did nothing. The woman stumbled closer, and Cass held her breath. Thankfully, the door closed before the woman could make it into the elevator.
The elevator made creaking sounds as it ascended. Cass focused on catching her breath while it slowly neared her floor. The elevator door opened to a thankfully empty hallway. With shaking hands, she fumbled with the keys before finding the right one. The door opened before she could insert the key, and Jill looked at her worriedly.
"What's going on out there?" Jill asked, clearly watching the news. "We should help."
Cass grabbed onto Jill's arm and said hurriedly, "They're infected! The whole city probably is too! We need to stay here. There's no way we can fight them in the streets."
"So we just hide here?" Jill asked angrily.
"No! Well, for the moment. How are we going to help right now? You know as well as I do that the second you leave here the chief will put you in prison… or worse!"
"Shit…" Jill mumbled but seemed to be in agreement. "Okay… so what can we do? We can't call the police. Irons is probably listening in… So what can we do?"
Jill sounded almost lost, but Cass couldn't see anything that they could do at the moment. However, there might be someone they could call. Dialing his number, Cass thanked the sky when she heard his voice.
"Ben Bertolucci. This is a bad time. Can I call you back later?"
"Later might not be a good time either," Cass replied irritably.
"Oh! Cass! Glad to hear you're safe. Listen, I'm onto something right now. A couple cops might have the info I need to take down Irons."
"Have you checked the news?"
"Uh, no… I've been busy. Is everything alright?"
"You need to get out of town. That disease Umbrella manufactured… I think it's affecting people in the city."
Gunshots fired below them. A knock on the door made Cass turn to Jill. Grabbing a hunting knife, Jill slowly walked up to the door, trying not to make any sounds.
"Holy hell… have you turned on the news? There's a riot at the stadium… Hey, Cass, you still there?"
"Quiet, please," Cass whispered as Jill approached the door.
"I'll call you back in a minute. Gats needs to know about this," Ben said and hung up.
Cass let out a small sigh of frustration before turning her attention back to the door. Jill peeked out the eyehole before relaxing and opening the door. A weary Brad came into the apartment before quickly shutting the door behind himself.
"Sorry," Brad said as he leaned against the door.
"Why did you come here?" Cass asked before Brad put his finger to his lip.
Motioning for them to follow him deeper into the apartment, they followed him into Cass' new room. As Brad locked the door behind them, he spoke in a low voice, "Speak quietly or else they'll know you're here. If they don't see or hear you, they don't know you're there."
"Why did you come here?" Jill asked, crossing her arms. "I thought that you were done with the 'S.T.A.R.S. fiasco'."
"I was… or I tried to be done with it… but that doesn't matter right now. We need to get out of the city. Not right at this moment. I only made it here because I happened to be nearby."
"And needed a place to hide?" Jill asked irritably.
"Chris asked me to at least tell you when something went wrong, and here I am. Now let's work together and figure a way out of this mess."
"Figure a way out? We should be trying to help people," Jill argued, putting a hand on her hip.
"How can we help people when we can't even help ourselves?!"
As Jill and Brad began to argue over what to do next, Cass stared at the phone. Did Ben even have this number? She dialed Elza's number. Straight to her answering machine. Hadn't she said something about a race today?
"Hey, Elza. Please get out of the city while you can. If I don't hear that you're safe by tomorrow… I'll come for you. Just please… please stay safe."
Brad and Jill had stopped arguing. Jill gave her a worried look, and Cass didn't meet her gaze.
"My cousin… she goes to Raccoon University. If she doesn't call back by tomorrow…"
"We'll find her," Jill said convincingly while Brad didn't look so sure.
"Thank you," Cass said with a small smile before she decided to check on Gats.
"Hello," Gats answered warily.
"This is Cass. Are you somewhere safe?"
"Oh, Cass. Yes! That idiot Ben. He realized he didn't have your number after he hung up on you. I'll let him know you called me when he gets here. My area is safe… for the moment. I'm trying to coordinate with my people inside Umbrella, but… I haven't heard back from them. Either Umbrella found out they were selling information, or the chaos we see out here is merely a symptom of a much bigger problem. I don't know which I like less… Ben wants to investigate your old chief more. He believes that will help us take down Umbrella."
"I need to find my cousin. She's at the university… I hope."
"Stay where you are for the night. Perhaps Umbrella will have this covered by morning… although I doubt it. If you plan on going to the university anyway… one of my informants told me about the university having a special lab for Umbrella. And one of their scientists may have been working on a cure. I don't know how successful he was, but perhaps you could check it out for me."
"Of course… provided Umbrella don't make me into Swiss cheese."
"Just between us… I think something has gone very wrong in the Umbrella labs. This doesn't benefit them in any way, so this has to be a mistake. I could be wrong, but… be very careful. Go slow when you need to."
"Yes, Ma'am. Stay safe."
"Same to you, my friend."
Cass hung up the phone and turned to see Jill and Brad giving her a curious look. She explained, "That was… a friend. She's also been investigating Umbrella. She says there's an Umbrella lab at Raccoon University which may have a cure… It might be better if we split up. We wait here until morning and see if Umbrella clears this up. I'll go to the University. Brad can leave the city. And Jill… you can try to help as many people as you can. I know you want to. This way Brad can contact the authorities, I can try to find the cure and Elza, and you can check out the police station and help people get out of here."
Brad seemed mollified with this plan, but Jill looked concerned.
"Are you sure that's what you want to do?"
"Yes. Umbrella will have a harder time stopping us if we all take separate routes, and maybe at least one of us will succeed."
"How positive," Brad murmured before walking over to the couch and collapsing on top of it. "Better get some sleep while we can then."