Nemesis: Resident Evil III
Chapter Twenty Eight: The Clock Tower
Like most of the older, historical buildings around Raccoon City, such as the police station, St. Michael Clock Tower was a beautifully designed structure. Obviously, the most predominant was the massive clock itself, the tower of which was taller than every other building in the city, but the inside of the place was just as marvelous to see. Having lived in Raccoon City for a long time, this was not Jill's first visit to the place, although last time had back in 1995 during the hunt for yet another killer.
At the time the northern part of the city was in the grip of fear, when several prostitutes were found murdered, and the local press certainly didn't help when they started referring to him as Raccoon City's very own Jack the Ripper. Yes, prostitution was illegal in the city, as with everywhere else in the United States except for Nevada for some reason, but that didn't stop desperate young woman from getting busted by the police for it every now and then, nor did it stop depraved sickos from preying on them.
Jill was fresh out of the police academy then, nothing but a rookie with even less experience than when she had been used as bait to catch the college killer about half a year later, so she had been both thrilled and terrified about her very first time going undercover. It was like Lieutenant Liquid had picked her for sting operations the moment he laid eyes on her, and at his request, the young woman soon found herself in a short skirt, blue tube top, and knee-high boots, walking the streets near the clock tower like any other working girl.
Long story short, the killer was a woman whose husband had cheated on her with a prostitute or something, and had tried to use a stun-gun on her after offering to share her umbrella when it was raining in the courtyard. The self-defense weapon had stopped working for some reason, though, allowing Jill to punch her into unconsciousness instead of getting knocked out herself, and being called a hero by the Mayor for the arrest. The young woman later found out that Tobias had been planning to bring her into Homicide Division if she hadn't been picked up for STARS by Captain Marini.
"I don't think it's locked." Carlos said, interrupting her thoughts. "Help me pull the door."
The heavy wooden door opened outward, and certainly took both of them to move, but then they were bathed in the warm yellow light from the three large chandeliers that illuminated the tower's main hall. The marble floor was so shiny that it was almost like a mirror as they walked into the room, the elaborately carved stone walls and stained glass windows both there and along the second floor walkway making it feel like a grand cathedral, complete with a thick red carpet that ran from the front door all the way up the stone staircase across from them.
Besides the staircase leading to the walkway, there was a door to the far left and far right, providing access to the rest of the tower's first floor, but it was strange… Mikhail had said that the rest of the UBCS unit was going to be there, but Jill didn't see a single soldier, nor did she hear anyone. Even if the others were in another part of the tower, a military unit would have had someone watching the front door, but at first glance this place seemed just as abandoned as the police station when she and Brad had gone inside.
Someone had been there, though, since the long tables that usually sat right in front and the doors with informational brochures and flyers for upcoming events, were now turned on their sides, stacked together behind the staircase like some kind of makeshift wall. No soldiers hiding behind it, though, only a rifle on the floor with some shell casings nearby… and some blood splattered across the nearby support pillar like something had crashed into it… and then fallen into the larger amount of dried blood that was pooled up on the floor.
"It looks like they were attacked." The young man commented, looking at the scene. "That rifle doesn't look like one of ours, though."
He was right, and after helping her to sit down in the chair that had been overturned, Jill was able to pick up the weapon, an AR-15, and see that it was definitely not like the ones that they were carrying. For once, the Umbrella issued M4's were made by Springfield Armory, while the AR-15 had the stamp of being repurposed by the Kendo Brothers… right next to the engraved RPD emblem that meant it was for police use only, just like the one on the grip of her 9mm pistol.
"What the hell is a police rifle doing out here?" She asked, looking around the area again. "Do you think some of the rescue teams made it this far?"
The fact that there was no one with the weapon, as well as all the blood, made this seem like too much to hope for, but maybe it meant that there were still others somewhere inside the building, RPD or no. Carlos took the remaining bullets out of it, and used them to refill his own magazines since the two rifles used the same ammo, and then Jill needed to be helped to her feet again, before they decided to investigate the door that was closest to them.
"Hello?" The young man called, his voice echoing throughout the room. "Is anybody here? You know I'm human because I'm talking right now, so come out."
They waited for a minute or so, with only silence to greet them once the echoes died down, and then the young woman used her free arm to keep her rifle ready as Carlos opened the door. Inside was a historical dining room that had once been used to hold the first political meetings back when Raccoon City was a much smaller place… decades before Umbrella moved in and breathed life into the small mid-western town. Everything had been perfectly preserved from the last meeting some fifty years ago; the large, solid oak table and chairs, the faded black and white photographs on the fireplace mantle, everything with the exception of the room's chandelier, which had been concerted to use small lightbulbs instead of candles.
At least, that's how it was the last time she was there, and now the place literally looked like a tornado had come through, with the table smashed in half, some of the chairs overturned or broken, and lots of bullet holes peppering the white colored walls. Only a little blood, though, next to an abandoned pistol like the one that Nikolai carried, but it used 9mm ammo, so Jill used it to refill her clips. Something bad had happened inside this room, looking like something big had come charging through, with the humans retreating through the far door, since all the bullet holes were on the side of the room closest to them.
Clearly, this was the right way to go, since the door into the next room had been broken into pieces that littered the ceramic tile within… and now at least the young woman had some idea of what happened to the soldiers that were supposed to be there. Half a dozen of them were inside the next room, lying dead with their bodies in twisted, unnatural positions as if whatever charged through there had simply destroyed them and moved on. A few were slumped halfway over the frame of the broken windows, while another looked like he had been body-slammed right through what had once been the beautiful grand piano that was played for gatherings at the tower's small chapel.
"Dios en el cielo." The young man whispered, keeping Jill held tightly against him. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say it looks like your ex-boyfriend came through here."
"I don't know, maybe." The young woman replied, needing to be held up by him when her leg started to give out. "The chapel door's still intact… come on… I need to rest a minute."
She didn't like being a burden, and tried to simply tough it out, but now that Mikhail's morphine was wearing off, the extent of Jill's injuries were catching up to her again. Her left eye was swollen more than halfway shut, it was still a little hard to breathe from being choked, and the young woman could still feel it where Nikolai had punched her in the stomach with those brass knuckles. All that on top of the fatigue from, well… everything, was making it hard for her to even hold the rifle on her own, and Carlos was practically carrying her by the time they reached the door to the chapel.
This part of the tower was just as well preserved as the main hall had been, the rows of wooden pews untouched by the combat outside, and the small alter at the front of the room set up with its cloth and holy relics just like she remembered it… with the exception of the single UBCS soldier sitting up against the far wall, crouched up like he had been hiding behind the last pew… pistol in his hand, and blood splattered on the wall behind him from what was probably a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Jill disapproved of suicide more than anything, not that she could really blame the people trapped in these situations, like the frightened soldier right there on the floor, and the man she and Chris Redfield had seen hanging by the neck at the Spencer Estate. Nothing that could be done for either of them by the time anyone found them, and it didn't exactly help her confidence that they could survive this ordeal to see people taking that way out.
What the hiding man did have, though, was a fully supplied medical pouch, complete with a cold-press that Carlos retrieved after helping her sit down on the pew, taking a moment to do the sign of the cross for his fallen comrade, and then making Jill sigh with relief when he placed it onto her swollen eye. The young man gave her another shot of morphine as well, hoping that she wouldn't get addicted to it like he had seen happen to a lot of soldiers, and then the young woman leaned onto him, putting her head on his shoulder to keep the cold-press in place while his arms went around her.
Was there a chance that the young man would get the wrong idea from this? Sure, but at the moment Jill didn't really care; she just wanted to be held for a while, and the fact that Carlos was attractive with big arms was just a bonus. After surviving the Spencer Estate last summer, she had believed that nothing could ever be that horrible again, but Raccoon City was so much worse, and not just because of the Pursuer.
It was because the whole time at the mansion, she had known that all she had to do was call Brad for pickup, and then they could go back to Raccoon City where everything was normal… but now instead of being some isolated building, it was the whole damn city. Thousands of people had fallen victim to the T-Virus because of Umbrella's greed, and if the soldiers in the clock tower were gone, then how were they supposed to signal for evacuation like Mikhail had planned?
"Everything's gonna be okay, novia." The young man said, stroking her hair. "You'll see… Mikhail killed your ex-boyfriend, I'm sure of it, and I'm gonna keep you safe until we get out of here… I promise."
"Just hold me for a little while." Jill replied, burying her face more deeply into his shoulder. "Just hold me."