Nemesis: Resident Evil III

Chapter Twenty Six: The Beast Below

So far it seemed like the Pursuer had lost her trail, allowing Jill to breathe a little easier as she exited the construction site through the fence on the other side, crossing the street while making her way back toward The Arcade Shops plaza. A few more of the buildings had caught fire, thanks to the burning zombies that had been stumbling into walls and doors for the past few hours, but now the sun was only minutes away from setting completely, so the fires and all the street lights that still worked were necessary for her to see the way forward.

Many of the infected people that had been shambling around the plaza a few hours ago had fallen, some from being set on fire when the Grill 13 exploded, and others after being attacked by other zombies in a sort of feeding frenzy. This was none of Jill's business, though, her only thoughts being that she needed to get back to Carlos and Mikhail before that monster located her again, but… maybe the injuries that she had sustained from fighting Nikolai were greater than she thought… because it was getting difficult to walk.

"Come on, Jill." She whispered to herself, her head still throbbing from being hit with that phone, as she stumbled forward. "Come on, girl… you can do this… just a little farther."

One of her eyes was starting to swell up, and it was still a little hard to breathe, both from being hit with those brass knuckles and choked with that phone cord... God, her head was throbbing, and now the young woman's legs were beginning to shake. Her head was bleeding when she touched it with her hand, maybe from the phone, or possibly from the glass bottle, didn't matter… what mattered was how much trouble she was starting to have walking, like all her adrenaline was wearing off, causing her to crash and… wait a minute, why was that that street light over there shaking?

In fact, now everything around her was starting to rumble, as if it wasn't her legs that were wobbling, but the very street that she was walking on. These tremors intensified, the young woman now hearing every sound as cracks started to form in the concrete, and now even the nearby zombies started to notice it, groaning with what sounded like surprise as some of them were knocked off their feet. What was this, an Earthquake? Raccoon City was set in the middle of the United States, nowhere near and fault lines like what California had, but that knowledge didn't stop the ground between her and the pharmacy from shaking… and then she saw some of the zombies simply vanish… and then more… and more…

"Oh, shit!" Jill exclaimed as she realized what was happening. "Shit, shit, shit!"

Starting when part of the pharmacy collapsed, and then continuing with the zombies that were farthest away from her, the street seemed to be collapsing in a straight line as if a sinkhole had suddenly formed… and it was coming right toward her. Turning away from it and starting to run, the young woman found that it was even harder now to keep her balance, able to do nothing but cry out in fear when the ground literally vanished out from under her.

Falling… looking up as the last rays of dim red light vanished from the sky, and then having the wind knocked out of her when she landed on pieces of broken concrete about fifteen feet below. Sitting up as quickly as she could, and scooting backwards against an old brick wall, the glow from some of the streetlights up above allowed her to see that she was in a sewer tunnel. A lot of the infected people had fallen down there with her as well, but… something was wrong, since they were groaning and rasping excitedly while something made a kind of screeching-hissing sound in the darkness ahead.

This tunnel must have run from the pharmacy over this way, which meant that there had to be a way out up ahead, as the walls were too high and smooth for the young woman to climb, but she needed more light if she was going to survive long enough to find it. Thankfully, Jill had noticed earlier that there was a flashlight mounted on each of the soldiers' rifles, so she corrected the jam that had saved her life, and turned on the surprisingly bright beam.

Now she was able to see that the tunnel passed through a widened chamber up ahead, at least what was left of it, and also what it was that had all the zombies so excited. There was something else down there in the sewers with them, several somethings that were bigger than the infected people, and looked more like giant insects as they reared up and tackled their prey to the ground, stabbing them with pointed legs and tearing into them with large open mandibles.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going to happen once there were no more zombies for the insects to feed on, so the young woman groaned in pain as she pulled herself to her feet, now limping a little while starting to make her way through the tunnel into what was left of the central chamber, but then gasping when one of the insects jumped into her path. Raising her rifle and taking aim before it did to her what it had done to the others, she was surprised when the beast shrieked upon having the light shined on it, and now the insect jumped back as if in extreme pain.

"Get the fuck away from me!" Jill warned, staying quiet while moving the light to keep it blinded. "Get back!"

It shrieked every time the light shined on it, getting louder each time, and moving a lot less gracefully now as it was driven back… but then it happened. CRASH! Something big slammed right into the wall next to the insect, causing a brief rain of dirt and bricks before a gigantic mouth opened, nearly swallowing the insect whole as it continued on through the other side of the tunnel, making an equally large hole as it moved on.

The young woman just stood there, paralyzed by the shock of what she had just seen; its body was long and tubular, sort of like a worm or a centipede, and when it had opened its mouth, the jaw which at first had been held together like a kind of drill-bit, split into four segments, each with row upon row of sharp teeth. CRASH! Tearing into another segment of the tunnel, this tunneling abomination scooped up insects and zombies alike, crushing them to death in its powerful jaws while making yet another hole in the wall... and it was only a matter of time before it came for her.

So she ran, using the rifle's flashlight to blind any of the insects that noticed her, and not worrying too much about the few remaining zombies, since they were all being preyed upon by one thing or another. CRASH! This time directly behind her, the young woman moved as fast as she could with her hurt leg, stumbling out of the chamber, and into a partially collapsed tunnel where a manhole cover had fallen, revealing a ladder in the glow of the streetlights. A roar echoed against the walls as she heard it getting closer, moving much faster than she was, and opening its jaws to scoop up the insects that were chasing her as well.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, and leaping the last couple feet up onto the ladder, Jill's knees hit against the metal rungs as she climbed as fast as she could, only to nearly get knocked off when something powerful struck the part beneath her. Wham! Some of the bolts came loose as the tunneling beast destroyed the lower half of the ladder, collapsing more of the street as it dug a new tunnel further on, but thankfully it was not in the same direction that the young woman needed to go as she pulled herself back up onto the surface.

Hopefully the streetlights would be enough to keep the remaining insects from escaping long enough for her to get back to the cable car… oh, thank God, Central Station was just across the City Hall courtyard from there. Leaving what remained of The Arcade Shops far behind as she stumbled across the grassy, hedge-filled courtyard, Jill found herself getting out of breath quickly, having to lean on every light pole and tree that she passed in order to keep from falling over; the toll of all her injuries seeming to all be catching up to her at once, intensifying as she got closer to the cable car.

"Friendly… friendly coming…" She tried to call out, leaning against the locked door and taking in a deep breath. "Carlos!"

She could hear the sound of some muffled footsteps quickly approaching, and then some light from above when the door was opened, and she found herself collapsing to the floor inside. It was Carlos who picked her up, first dragging her the rest of the way inside, and then scooping her up into his arms while Mikhail, who was moving around a hell of a lot better since last time she had seen him, locked the door.

"Jill, what happened?!" The young man exclaimed, setting her down on the same bench where the Captain had been before. "Are you all right?! Where's Nikolai?!"

"We have to go!" Jill replied weakly, her head rolling to the side from fatigue. "Nikolai's dead… that monster… power's on, we… we gotta go right now!"

She decided not to tell them about what the Lieutenant had tried to do, nor about the quarter of a million dollar price that Umbrella put on her head… heh, not like she could have been very articulate right then even if she wanted to go into detail. Carlos understood the important parts, making a comment about her ex-boyfriend being a real asshole while Mikhail went over and hit the cable car's starter switch. This time the electrical motor came to life, running through an automated systems check before all the indicator lights turned green.

"Looks like we are ready to go." The Captain said, coming over to Jill and taking something out of his pouch. "Olivera, get us moving, I give tough little lady morphine to stop pain."

The feeling of relief that the young woman felt once Carlos went into the front car and the whole transit shook as they finally started moving, was matched only by how wonderful everything felt when Mikhail gave her a large shot of morphine. It took a few seconds for the drug to start working, and then there was a warm feeling of relief as the pain went from unbearable to making her no longer feel like she was going to pass out… God, she was glad to be moving out of the downtown area.

"You are good girl, Jill Valentine." The Captain said while stroking her hair. "Now we regroup with other units at clock tower, and get out of city once we ring bell for helicopter, da? You just rest, brave girl, Olivera and I will… what the hell is that?"

Thud-thud-thud-thud! Even through the pain and the morphine, Jill recognized the swift and heavy footsteps of the Pursuer as it ran, unseen through the darkness behind the speeding cable car. Then it appeared, not running, but leaping through the air… the monster's full weight and body flying right toward the rear window as if it was about to…

CRASH!