Nemesis: Resident Evil III

Chapter Twenty Nine: No Survivors

Jill had fallen asleep almost immediately after resting her head on his shoulder, allowing Carlos some time to think about everything that was going on, especially the part about how she had claimed that Umbrella was responsible for what was happening to the city. A big corporation like that certainly had the funding to do all kinds of unethical research into crazy shit that the young man would never think of, but then again… if the company was responsible, then why send in a military unit to rescue civilians?

Could it have all been some bizarre accident that caused the people to become zombies, like a chemical spill or something? Carlos might have believed that, right up until seeing that monster that had been chasing Jill all over Raccoon City… no way in hell that thing was created by accident… it had metal stitches across its head, for God's sake. An hour had passed by the time the young woman started to wake up, and he was relieved to see that some of the swelling on her eye had gone down.

"I must've fallen asleep." She yawned while stretching her arms and sitting up. "What time is it?"

"I think it's been about an hour or so." He replied. "Are you feeling any better?"

Jill nodded, remarking that a nap was just what she needed, with most of her fatigue gone even though her head was still throbbing. Still, there had been no noises or any other signs of movement that the young man could hear for the entire time that she slept, but that could have just meant that the rest of his unit was simply on the other side of the clock tower… at least, he hoped. The only way to find out for sure was to go and investigate, since there were clearly no patrols going, so Carlos got up and helped the young woman to her feet, since she was still a little wobbly even though moving around a whole lot better.

Even though nothing had happened on the way into the clock tower's small chapel, that didn't mean that the two of them were safe, so the young man went first, putting his ear against the door to listen for movement, and then opening it after not hearing anything. The temperature outside was starting to drop, and the wind was picking up as well, blowing in through the broken windows across from the destroyed grand piano while Jill zipped up her leather jacket… before turning a little red in the face after finally noticing that her belt was undone.

"Are you okay, Jill?" Carlos asked, watching her.

Her hands fumbled a bit while she did it up, and now her breathing became more rapid while avoiding eye contact with him. The young man had seen this same behavior with soldiers in a few different countries, usually after a really bad battle, or having to do something that they were ashamed of… either way, it was some really bad memories that were going through the young woman's mind, judging by how quick she was to keep walking forward after fixing herself. Carlos was about to ask her again if she was okay, but was interrupted when one of the soldiers hanging over the broken window frame suddenly groaned while starting to get up.

"Jill, look out!" The young man yelled, raising his rifle and firing a single shot into the back of the zombie's head, making it fall back down. "Oh shit, behind you!"

The young woman cried out in surprise, looking down and pulling her leg back just as the infected man who had been lying on the wreckage of the grand piano reached out to grab her ankle… only to lift her leg up and bring her boot down on the side of its skull as hard as she could with a sickening squish! All of the other dead soldiers in the room were starting to reanimate, but thankfully most of their bodies were so broken by whatever killed them, that they could do little more than groan while reaching almost pathetically toward the two humans.

Some of the others that weren't so damaged, however, were now getting to their feet or starting to crawl across the tile floor, and as much as Carlos wanted to just run away, he couldn't bear the thought of leaving his comrades to suffer like that. So he slung the rifle over his shoulder, took the pistol out from behind his back, and aimed at the first one crawling toward his feet. Bang! Bang! Light and noise filled the room as the young man shot that one in the head first, and couldn't help thinking how much easier it was to kill zombies after they had a few broken bones.

Was it a waste of pistol bullets? Maybe, but it was worth it to end the suffering of his fellow soldiers, and now after a few more shots, the path was clear for the two of them to return to the main hall. As they passed through the wrecked dining room and back through the room they had entered, heading toward the door on the opposite side, Carlos realized that Jill was not the only one who was being hit hard by what was happening around them. He had been on different battlefields since childhood, but he had never seen his comrades get wiped out like this before, not by fucking zombies… nor had he ever had to execute them, himself.

Again, there was nothing that could be heard as he put his ear to the door that was just past the carpeted staircase, but just to be safe the young man motioned for the young woman to stand back while he opened it into what looked like a library… at least, once upon a time. Like the dining room and piano hall, this place had been torn to shreds, with the rows and rows of carefully collected and organized books now lying scattered across the floor, with most of the bookcases having either fallen over or been broken next to them.

More bodies, too, looking like the same sort of thing happened to these guys as the ones in the piano room; bullet holes riddling the walls, and the bodies left in twisted, unnatural positions with extreme damage as if they had been beaten to death instead of bitten. Biggest difference in this ransacked library, though, was that there were civilians lying amongst them, and even a couple police officers. Weapons were scattered on the floor as well, but these were mostly empty, as if they had gotten more shots off before getting overwhelmed by what could have only been Jill's ex-boyfriend.

"More RPD issue weapons." The young woman said, this time picking up a shotgun that had an extremely bent barrel. "AR-15 rifles, M-1100 shotguns, and… and .45 caliber revolvers? The RPD doesn't even issue these anymore, since everyone switched to the 9mm, but they're stamped just like the others. Where the hell did these come from?"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Not wanting to take any chances on any of these people coming back to life as zombies, the two of them took out their pistols, and put a bullet in the heads of everyone who was lying there, both to give the victim's peace, and also to avoid another undead ambush like what nearly happened in the piano room. Luckily, there were enough bullets left in the dead soldiers' weapons to replenish what they used for it, but at least there was a tiny bit of good news, in that there was no suicide victim in the room beyond the library.

With the choice of two doors that could be explored from this point, Jill chose the one on the right, a simple wooden one that opened up into what might have been someone's living room back in the old days. It consisted of a small wooden sofa and ceramic coffee table, some dusty old photographs on the ledge of the bay window, and even an old chess set sitting on a smaller table right next to the fireplace. Unlike the library, this place hadn't been touched in a long time, nor had the old bedroom through the open doorway next to the sofa.

Nothing in there but a really big, but uncomfortable as hell looking bed with some end tables… although Carlos did stare at the bed for a few seconds while having a pretty vivid fantasy about himself and the young woman being underneath the heavy blankets… and the two of them being too much for the squeaky old springs to handle. Apparently, Jill didn't have the same hesitation, since when the young man finally snapped out of it, she was already headed back into the library, so he followed her back into the scene of the… massacre, catching up to her just as she was reaching the other door, this one marked STORAGE.

"This is where they keep all the spare parts for the big clock." The young woman said before listening at the door. "The only thing past that is the back door, so if there's anyone left alive in here, this is where they will be."

"All right, we'll be careful this time." Carlos replied, thinking that if there was anyone around, they would have heard the gunshots a minute ago. "I'll go in first."

He already knew that there was no one inside before listening at the door and then pushing it open, at least no one alive, that is. The entire UBCS unit that was supposed to be holding the clock tower had been wiped out, as had all of the civilian survivors that they managed to rescue, and inside the storage room was nothing but a bunch of old statues, a really sturdy looking wooden back door, and… and a bunch of ID cards laid out on top of a large crate? Yeah, just like it appeared, there were a dozen drivers licenses laid out on top of the partially open crate, probably in an attempt to log in all the civilians for evacuation… hold on, one of them was different.

"Hey, Jill, take a look at this." Carlos said, picking up the card. "Bradley Vickers, Raccoon City Police Department, Special Tactics and Rescue Service. Hey, that's what STARS stands for, right? Is this guy one of yours?"

"Let me see that." She replied, snatching it from his hand. "Yeah, this is Brad's card, remember, the one I told you I was at the police station with? But he said he took a cable car and… oh, my God, I think I know what happened to the people here. Brad must have come here to be evacuated, and this was where he first met that monster… do you think it killed everyone here because it was after him, and they got in the way?"

It was possible, but at that moment the young man's attention was brought to the partially open crate that all the ID cards were sitting on, mostly with the words stamped onto the side that read:

LIEUTENANT TOBIAS A. LIQUID

RACCOON CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT

TASK FORCE ARKLAY

Upon asking her what Task Force Arklay was, Jill stood frozen for a second, only to startle Carlos with her sudden movement so badly that he couldn't help gasping when she pulled open the crate's lid, knocking the ID cards onto the hardwood floor. Inside the crate were more of the weapons and ammo that the two of them had seen scattered around the dead soldiers and civilians. There were .45 revolvers, M-1100 shotguns, AR-15 rifles, and something else, too… it looked like there was a second layer underneath that hadn't been disturbed yet, so either the UBCS guys hadn't noticed it… or they were interrupted by Jill's stalker before they could.

"I think this is all the stuff that Tobias requisitioned for his task force last spring." The young woman explained as they worked together to uncover the second layer of supplies. "Oh, my God, Carlos, look at this stuff!"