Alright so I am one helluva slacker but you better believe I will deliver on this request Anna. This is the one being posted, there's no being fickle, no indecision, no going back. Good Lord I hope this is worth the wait.
This place was nice.
That was the first impression Leon got as he stepped into his new job. He was late, he knew that, he did, which meant anyone ready to help him settle into this 3-4 story monster of a precinct would be doing something more important than waiting on him. Blue eyes dropped from the intricate stained glass windows lining the main hall as he descended a few steps passed some women leaving the precinct. The floor was tiled to replicate the badge the officers of the Raccoon Police Department sported. A statue with a fountain at its feet was right in front of the emblem set into the floor.
He was starting to feel a little overwhelmed with all this square footage and grandeur. Though the main hall was grays, whites and wood everything had upscale class to it. Taking a breath, he skirted the fountain to head to the front desk up one of the two inclines framing the fountain. An older woman losing the brown in her neatly done hair looked at him as he approached.
"Are you mister Kennedy?" She called as he drew up to the counter.
"Yes ma'am, can you tell me if Officer Branagh is available?" She smiled at his question.
"He headed back to his office in the eastern offices, it's that door over on the right when you came in." She said guiding him with a finger pointed at a door near the multi-doored entrance. "I hear you're late mister Kennedy, you should take this and get in there, he was pretty aggravated when you didn't show for ten minutes." She warned him as she grabbed a blue key card with a white stripe on it. Leon's face lit up as he took the card from her, "I have some explaining to do about that, thank you miss...?" He said with a question at the end.
She smiled kindly at him, "Janette, good luck joining the force mister Kennedy." She waved him off as he left for the door she had pointed him towards.
For all the old architecture it surprised him again that he was using a key card to get in to the east lobby. Stepping through the door was like going into another world. The grandeur fell away in a wash of blue on the walls and white tiles intermingled with unpleasant lite brown ones. Posters with information and wanted persons hung on the wall next to two large blue doors. The pull handles were a polished brass that brought the hall back up a notch from the standard fair. The door swung open easily letting him in to a large room with many desks lined with books, files and binders. Several men and women were doting the large office some wearing semi-formal attire while a couple wore uniforms similar to the one he was wearing. He closed the door behind him and walked over to the men in blue that had acknowledged his entrance.
"Can you point me towards Officer Branagh's office?"
The taller man on his left nodded, "Over there in the back, you must be the new kid. Better have one helluva tale for missing out on Marvin's greeting." He said in a gravelly voice that didn't quite match his clean shaven, blond ponytail look he had.
"Right." Leon passed by and headed toward the two doors in the back. By the shape of the room it was clear that the open door on the left was the only solitary office so he wouldn't need to bother with the other door. He knocked twice as he came to the doorway. A dark skinned man with a close shaven haircut looked up from his computer. "Leon Kennedy? Mind explaining where you were nearly an hour ago?"
His tone was stern.
If he was less of a man he would have cracked under that look his superior gave him.
"I was on the north bound, sir. A three car accident happened while I was heading this way, ha, nearly ended up being the fourth. I stopped to help until the paramedics and Officer... Elliot? arrived to take care of everyone." He explained, feeling his heart rate jump at the remembrance. Alarm and an inspecting sweep showed in the other man's eyes as he stood up. "Better excuse than I expected. Good to see you made it in then Kennedy." Marvin said with a clap to his padded shoulder.
Leon nodded, "Close call aside I'm ready to work." This put a smile on Branagh's face. "Good, this is a big building to be introduced to so we better get on it." Leon nodded and they headed out of the small space and backtracked to the main hall. Branagh lead him to the door just left of the giant front desk before stopping at the door with a sour look. "Hey. Wait here a minute." He said as he grabbed the door's knob. Leon wasn't sure what the look was about but he nodded while Branagh slipped inside. He wasn't made to wait long, just enough time to look back and spy Janette and her coworker eyeing him before the door opened fully and Marvin waved him in.
"Let's get you set up." Leon followed him into another office of some kind with roll top desks and another solitary office in the back on the left. They walked over to a short chubby man that looked to be in his forties, "Ralf, need the set of keys and that ID card we had made for Kennedy." Marvin explained with a few hand gestures. Ralf opened one of the drawers in his desk and pulled out a bag with Leon's initials written large in pen on it. "All yours Marvin." The bag was dropped in Marvin's worn hand before he stepped away and lead Leon back out into the main hall. Marvin fished the ring of keys from the bag and offered them to Leon. "These will get you into the doors around here, and don't be fooled- this precinct may look nice but once you get passed the Main hall it's designed to keep officer and criminal alike inside."
Leon took the shiny silver key-ring from Marvin and did his best to ignore the hint of warning in the other man's words. "The doors around here are into suits?" Leon joked as he inspected the keys and their spade, diamond, club and heart ends. "That they do, let's hope you never need them to deal you a lucky hand." Marvin said with a partial grin. "What are these two small ones for?" Leon asked as he flicked one of the two much smaller keys. Marvin pointed at the one dangling from its own ring separating it from the near identical one along the main ring, "That one can get you into the cabin out back, helps with maintenance but you may never have to use it. They issue it to everyone, even us, I'll take you that way once we cover the first and second floors."
Leon nodded after the explanation, "And this one?" He prompted.
Marvin smiled and stepped passed him, "Let's head out and I'll show you, it's on the way." He explained. Leon swung around and followed his guide down the incline to a set of doors to the west section they hadn't used yet. "Swipe that card Janette gave you." Marvin stated, gesturing at another card reader. Leon did so and they passed through from the busy main hall to some kind of visitors area. Two lines of people were waiting at windows to their right while more sat on a bench against the wall on their left. "This is reception, Lisa and Paul work the desk here. Anyone who comes in usually needs to end up here but they need to check in at the front desk to get in."
Leon nodded, "Makes sense."
Marvin lead them around an interesting wooden structure erected in the center of the waiting area. They passed a counter set up for filling out forms the front windows would pass out and stopped at the back of the room near a simple metal desk in the corner with no chair at it. "Here's one of the places that little key is for." Marvin noted before walking to a door hidden by the back of the counter they had passed. "What's in the desk?" Leon asked. Marvin waved him forward as they left Reception for a hall so quiet Leon could hear the hum of the florescent light bulbs overhead. Once the door was shut Marvin stabbed a thumb back the way they had come, "Might look like it's for more paperwork but that desk has a medical kit inside it. Had an active shooter event back in '85. We've learned to keep ammunition and med kits on hand at just about every corner of this place." Leon told himself he would save that tid-bit for later. He also wondered who would have the balls to raid a precinct of this size for any reason.
They walked the the brown tiled hall at a brisk pace, passing archway after archway that showed the building's beam-work along with several windows. They rounded a corner where a security camera was clinging to the ceiling before coming to a metal door.
"This is our filing room, we have about 5 years worth of records in there, anything farther back gets moved to a site just for records which we will get you the address of for a later date." Marvin said before gesturing to the door's handle.
"Look there."
Leon moved in closer to see the etching of a spade above the handle. Leon looked down at the ring now attached to the belt loop of his uniform. "Ha, spade for the filing room, nice touch." He said with a smirk. Marvin was smiling too as he started walking down the hall again. "I thought with all these locks it would be more secure but what's with all the windows?" Leon wondered as his hand motioned to the windows spaced every five feet or so apart.
"Used to be, back before Raccoon became the city it is today, this was the old library. They really love their windows with their books. We've got eyes on the whole building but they updated the windows with shutters; the apocalypse ever happens? We are ready for it." Marvin explained as they opened a wooden door that brought them into a thin corridor of two varying shades of green. A couple of machines keeping the building up and running were set into the wall on their right while more windows lined the hall to another corner. A set of double doors sporting a redish lacquer and ventilation grates popped out from the green on green of the hall.
Marvin opened one of them and brought Leon into a conference room of sorts. It gave off a classroom vibe to him with all the bulletin boards, papers and posters pinned to the walls and snug green desks sat in front of a podium. The beige on green room even had vending machines in food, drink and smoke assortments. Marvin waved a hand over the empty room, "This is the Operations room, we need to really think on a case we end up in here. Everyone has rights to the floor while in here so you have a thought you think needs to be heard let us know here."
"I'll keep that in mind. We meet here often?"
Marvin shook his head, "Only when cases start runnin' cold, we have a hostage situation that's goin' south or an update in policy around here or the city. Mostly these days this room is for orientation."
Marvin hummed before guiding Leon back into the narrow corridor. "If it makes you feel better there's no more windows from here to the stairs." He teased as they entered a hall that had the same upscale treatment as the Main hall. Though the walls had that 'one color to hip height then another to the ceiling' pattern the corridors and Operations room had this one was done with marble and granite. The marble lined the top half of the walls in a washed out gray while a green from the previous rooms made a huge stripe along the bottom half. Thick granite tiles paved the floor in a charcoal grey and were polished to a lustrous finish. Leon had no idea what made this section so worth the materials but he could appreciate the columns lining the short hall and the intricate crown molding making designs close to the crevices. Signs hung over head giving information as to what rooms were nearby.
"See that room back there?" Marvin prompted as he point to the lone door at the end of the hall to their right. A sign hung over it stating it was 'Confiscation.' "Confiscation needs the diamond key to get in there. Mostly things go in than come out of there but if the need for a check arises you know where to go." Marvin turned away after that and took them to the bottom of a staircase. It turned halfway up to go deeper into the building. The lavish materials of downstairs were replaced with charcoal laminate flooring and tiled walls in brown and beige. Even with the backscale there were murals set into the wall as it enclosed into a hallway that had Leon stepping up to one.
Each one depicted a time and place at some point in history mostly on other continents. Leon drew his gaze off the mural as footsteps on the linoleum grew louder and he realized it wasn't Marvin.
"Captain Wesker, going home for the evening?" Marvin greeted a man that looked like he had jumped out of one of the murals and dressed in a simple yet effective tactical uniform. He was all hard lines and muscle, standing taller than Leon or Marvin. He was blond with his hair slicked back into an all business do, and strangely, sunglasses even though they were indoors. As he came upon them Leon noted the emblem on his uniform was different.
"Stars?" He wondered aloud.
The man Marvin had introduced as Wesker tipped his head down at the shoulder marking him as one of the special operations team. "Special Tactics and Rescue Services. We function similarly to S.W.A.T. for the local area." A rich voice explained. Leon felt goosebumps skate over his skin, there was something about this Wesker that was thrilling in a way.
"Captain Wesker, this is Leon Kennedy, the newest officer to the force." Marvin introduced with a pat to Leon's shoulder. Those shades went from Marvin to Leon and he felt the other man's eyes inspect every inch of him. He offered a hand that Wesker took hold of and shook firmly.
"Welcome to Raccoon City Officer Kennedy, I am Albert Wesker, the leader for S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team." He greeted just as firmly. "Nice to meet you Captain Wesker." Leon returned as the handshake ended.
"I wish I could say the same but I know you will soon come to find my team and I are here for a reason." There was a pause in his speech as if he thought better of what he would say next. "Before you begin your shift tomorrow come see me in the S.T.A.R.S. office, I have questions for you." He stepped passed them after the request and continued downstairs along the path they had come.
Leon looked after the darkly dressed captain for a time until Marvin snapped his fingers in front of his face. "Earth to Kennedy, we have places to be." Leon flushed and focused back on the direction Wesker had come from. "Right, that was... something?" He mumbled. Marvin nodded, "That Wesker is a strange one alright. Always been real direct from the get-go, wonder what he could want from you?" Leon shrugged, he was new in town so he couldn't guess what the S.T.A.R.S. captain might want.
From that point on the tour was less learning the building and more Leon wondering what tomorrow would be about. At some point Leon tuned back in as they stopped in the back of the large front desk in the Main hall. "Alright, here's where you'll clock in everyday." Marvin stated as they stood by a newer model desktop. The dark man had Leon swipe the ID Ralf had handed them and the computer popped up a message about Kennedy being clocked in before loading the idle screen once again. "Alright, I have forms to fill out and a couple cases to look into. Let's go meet your partner, he should be back by now." Marvin said and lead them out of the front desk. He brought them back to the west office and entered into the room being dark.
The lights snapped on to the whole room stuffed with staff, "SURPRISE!" Leon stared wide eyed at all the new faces. Everyone was smiles and grins with some wearing party hats. Marvin drew him inside to meet his coworkers. "Bit off schedule with you being late Leon but we want to celebrate you joining our precinct! Now with you here we are back to thirty-eight men and women working to serve the people of Raccoon City!" Marvin cheered. Their coworkers followed suit with another round of cheers before everyone surged forward to meet their thirty-eighth member.
A familiar face from earlier and his partner were up front, the man with ponytail extended his hand, "Great to have a full roster again Leon my name is Ashton Doss." Leon shook the man's hand. "I'm his partner Mary Kissenger. We work the morning shift." A stern looking brunette woman said.
"Nice to meet you both."
They split off from the group after greeting him as another duo stepped up. Leon was introduced to a good thirty people by the time everyone was leaving or standing about chatting with one another. The last person Leon met was the man he would be partnering with in the field. The military cut and friendly brown eyes were the same as the man that had shown up at the scene of the crash earlier this morning.
"It's you, huh, nice to formally meet you partner. My name is Elliot Edward." They shook before a man named George came over with a cake. "Let's cut the cake! Leon give it a cut!" He called with enthusiasm.
Clearly this was what George had come for.
He handed Leon a serrated knife and held a rectangular cake out for the young man to cut. Leon smiled as he read 'Welcome Officer Kennedy' in loopy frosting before cutting into the cake and severing a piece. It was served on to a plate and passed off to those that hadn't returned to work until the cake was half gone and you couldn't make out what it said. Though he enjoyed the gesture Leon wasn't eating his slice as he was left with Elliot and a man named Jerry. His partner was carrying on a conversation with the other man about the call this morning. "Hey partner, not hungry?" Elliot inquired. Leon looked down at the thick slab of frosted bread.
"I wasn't expecting a party." Leon admitted.
Elliot smiled and bumped his shoulder. "They called you in a day early, just enjoy the fact there's cake and your getting paid to eat it." He said with a laugh.
Leon nodded, something he had been doing plenty of today. "Very right-" He stopped as the main hall door opened and two new faces came into the investigation room. "Samples are back, it's in the forest!" An African American man dressed in a S.T.A.R.S uniform announced. Everyone in the office sobered at the news. Leon swallowed, in the forest? What was? A young lady a foot shorter than her teammate stepped forward.
"Chief Irons is going to meet with the press tomorrow about what we need to do. Mister Haythem is asking everyone to gather in the operations room for a plan to guide the people through this once the news is reported." She called with a hand clenched against her chest.
Leon was surprised someone so young was in the police department let alone S.T.A.R.S.
By her attire he could guess she was the medical officer for the team. Elliot finished his cake off, "Alright, guess you get some action today, and here I was hoping it was nothing." He grunted as he sat the plate and fork on a nearby desk. Leon sat the uneaten slice beside it as they all filed out and headed to the large room he had gotten to know earlier. Every desk was filled with a body with others standing in the back once a man dressed in a tailored vest stalked into the room and up to stand behind the podium. A lean man with glasses and a clipboard posted up to his right.
"Bad news everyone. What we imagined is the case. All the hospital reports and lab tests are back in, we have an outbreak on our hands." The shorter mustache sporting man said to everyone. "What are we dealing with Chief?" Neil piped up. Brian glanced over at the younger officer. "Rebecca says it's a case of EVD or Ebola. Now if anyone isn't aware it's spread by animals, meaning we can get this under control and keep it that way for the CDC to handle." He said casting a look over the room.
"All officers not currently dispatched will be assigned with their partners to check the rural residents we have on file in the outlying area. You see any sick or dead animals call it in, don't touch 'em and don't risk yourselves. We need to make sure no one is hunting our local mammals, thankfully not many can carry EVD but clearly some were infected and they're sharing the problem." Irons groused.
"How did it get here to the states?" Neil asked. Chief Irons looked grimly at the podium before him. "From the threats Umbrella received my secretary tells me this wasn't an accident... We may be dealing with a terrorist cell right here in our own mountains folks." The stout man stated as he looked at each face looking to him for information.
"Well, what the fuck? Are they just looking to cause some pain in the U.S.?" An older officer by the named of David snapped.
The smartly dressed man to Irons' right spoke up. "At this moment we don't know the reasons behind this release of an epidemic scale virus. We do know however that Umbrella received communications twice in the last month and refused the demands this third party was demanding." Haythem stated. Leon shifted in the back having chosen to stand instead of sit. Talk about first day on the job, nearly in a car accident and now some virus was taking over the nearby rural residents? He wasn't trained for this kind of issue but he was sure their special task force was here for this big problem.
As if thinking of them were their cue a group of men and the young lady from earlier stood from the desks and assembled at the podium while Chief Irons stepped aside. The young woman from earlier stood at the microphone on the podium to better cast her voice to everyone. "No need to worry everyone, now that we know what we are dealing with we can help the infected and stop this outbreak before it gets out of hand." The room erupted with questions and after a couple hours they had decided a plan.
Everyone heading out to check on the outlying civilians were dressed in protective uniforms and masks to keep them safe from transmission. Leon and Elliot had been paired with Edward and Rebecca of S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team as the civilians they were going out to see lived in a small RV park in a sort of permanent camping ground. The five families were in close proximity to each other giving them the highest chance to be infected from the confirmed case of the Colts a mile from the park.
Elliot lead their party into the woods with Edward as his passenger while Rebecca road with Leon in the following cruiser. The well trodden area around the RVs was quiet as they came upon the park and exited the cruisers. Leon met back up with his partner while Rebecca did the same and the two couples split up to knock on the doors to RVs parked opposite each other. A man came to the door of the S.T.A.R.S. member's camper while Elliot had to knock several more times on the one they were at. Leon loosely followed the conversation ten feet away while the camper they were at remained closed.
"Hello sir, I wanted to know has anyone around here been feeling ill?" Rebecca asked a man twice her age with a ruddy complexion and a mussed tshirt.
"What's with the masks?" The disheveled man grunt as he looked at the Bravo team members then Leon and Elliot across the way.
"We have reports something bad has been going around out here and it's spread from person to person. Do you know if anyone here has had fever, chills, bad headaches, diarrhea or vomiting?" Rebecca inquired.
Leon's attention jerked back to their residence as all of Elliot's rapping urged an 'uurk' noise and a stained moan from the RV they were at. Elliot didn't waste a second in bashing the door in to the point the warped door opened and rushing up the steps to the interior.
"Hey! What are they doing?!" Leon heard shouted from behind them as he moved in to see how bad it was.
The masks turned out to be a godsend once inside as he could see the limp body of a child slumped over a dinning table and a pair of legs along the runner from where Elliot was blocking the isle. "Jesus..." His partner murmured as he crouched down to a woman who was forearms deep in a hot pool of what looked to be her own stomach bile.
Leon's heart clenched seeing the downed woman.
She was clearly suffering from the virus.
He leaned passed his partner to look at the child. A dried puddle of red lay under the boy's cheek and as Leon caressed the small head trying to rouse the slumped body he felt in the limp muscles the kid was already gone. "Ma'am, how long have you been like this?" Elliot asked the still conscious mother. She coughed consistently as his partner helped her onto her side away from the mess. "So hot..." She groaned while her eyes kept rolling away from them each time she tried to look at them.
Leon retreated from the RV. "Edward, Rebecca, we need Officer Dooley just like you thought." Leon called as he stepped off the camper. The young medic had rushed to the door of the camper while Edward explained to the healthy looking neighbor what was happening.
"Are they alive?" She asked, her tone was desperate, willing the mother and son to be alright. Leon's eyes did the talking as his expression was mostly hidden. A woman is still conscious inside but her child... he..." Leon looked away, he stepped aside for her.
Rebecca mounted the steps joining Elliot to ease the woman's pain. Leon called the nearby watchtower to relay a message to the precinct. Elliot and Leon left the Bravo duo to tend to the infected camper while they went door to door. Two unwell faces greeted them while a healthy younger man answered them at the last RV. Elliot delivered the unfortunate news to each occupant of their neighbor's fate with an urge to seek medical help at once. The five campers contained too many to take back to the city in their two cruisers but the Gunners and Henleys opted to drive themselves in the jeep and sedan they respectively owned. Elliot shared the name of the staff that would see to them at the city's hospital while making it clear to the two families going on ahead that they should touch no one and see only the staff specified at the hospital in the city. Officer Dooley arrived half an hour later in the R.P.D.'s chopper that had just enough room to land amongst the campers. Bravo team hustled miss Thorpe and the older son of the Singers into the chopper with the help of stretchers while the Singers and Edward took the chopper into the city.
Leon watched the metal bird shrink to a dot on the horizon before helping Rebecca and Elliot gather the remaining family into their cruisers and heading out.
Yep I offed all the fun of Resident Evil. Gon' be worth it tho'! *ballsupplotandtrashesit* Glad I got that out of the way now we can pair two people up and ignore the whole ebola thing happening around the city. xD