Chapter 9

"What can you tell me about these men, Chambers?" Captain Marini asked as they looked through the next train compartment for any useful information.

"They were already dead when we shot them," Rebecca reported as she pulled the gloves off of her hands and tossed them to the ground beside the body she had been examining. "I'm not sure what would cause that, but I wouldn't let them get too close."

"Understood," the captain replied. "Bravo, you copy that?"

"Understood boss/Wilco/Acknowledged," came the responses from the rest of the team.

"Anyone find any information on this section of the train?" Captain Marini asked as he looked at the locked door in front of him.

"Yeah, I found a file folder that says something about this train being called the Ecliptic Express," Richard Aiken reported. "It's destination is some sort of training center in the Arklay mountains."

"Well, this train is still accelerating, we should probably make our way to the engine and see if we can slow it down," Kenneth said as he looked out the window and saw how much speed they were picking up.

"Richard, where's your breaching tools?" the Bravo Team captain asked. "I need this door open."

"We going loud or louder sir?" Richard asked with a broad grin on his face as he unslung his pack.

"I want my eardrums intact, and make sure that you've got enough to get through to the next door," Marini ordered. "We don't know if we'll need the rest of the explosives or not."

"Copy," Richard said as he grabbed a trio of breaching shells and loaded them in the place of his slugs. "Breaching!" He yelled as he fired at where the door's hinges were. "Cover me, reloading!"

"Covering!" Forest replied as he covered Richard while the Marine and the captain breached the next room. "Clear!/Clear!" the twin voices called as Kenneth and Rebecca moved in behind them while Richard and Forest covered the rear of the formation.

"How many cars were there on the train?" Captain Marini asked as he moved through the train car with Coen and stacked up on the next doorway.

"Not sure," Chambers replied as she set up behind Coen. "I think there might be two or three more before we reach the engine compartment."

"On you," Captain Marini told Coen as he twisted the door handle to the next room and threw it open.

"There's more of them in here!" Coen yelled as he fired at the head of one of the half-dozen shambling figure in the car.

"Moving," Chambers said as she moved to take the second position in the room, firing her MP5 at the next figure.

The six of them tore through the shambling figures and moved on forward to the next car.

"We need to stop this train," Marini said. "If we hit something going at this speed the train will derail and it'll take us all with it."

"This is the smaller mansion complex," I said as we pushed open the slightly rusted gate. "For a given definition of smaller anyway."

"Well, I'm ready to get into shelter before it really starts to storm," Edward said as we reached the main entrance. "Door's already open, you want point?"

"Might as well," I replied as I nudged the door open and pushed into the entrance before moving in to clear out the hard corners.

"No one's in the main entrance," I said as Edward followed closely behind. "Moving into the next area."

The two of us moved forward, and when we reached the next doorway we stopped moving and listened.

Hearing what sounded like a voice, the two of us looked at each other and signaled for silent movement before quietly opening the door and pushing through.

"Hold your fire!" A female voice seemed to order as we held a small group of what looked like paramilitary forces at gunpoint. "They're not zekes," the female spat on the ground before lowering her smg and looking us in the eye. "Who are you, and what are you doing in an unauthorized area?"

I just looked at Edward and gave a small nod.

"Officer Edward Dewey, Raccoon City Police Department," he said with a nod towards the symbol on his shoulder patch. "We were sent to investigate some murders when our chopper crashed. Figured this was safer than being in the woods at night in the rain."

"Heh," one of the guys scoffed. "Safer isn't exactly what I would call it."

"Stow it J.D," the woman ordered. "We're down to just the four of us because the rest of our team thought they could handle this on their own."

"Who are you guys?" I asked as I lowered my rifle slightly. "You look paramilitray, but not a part of any unit I've ever met."

"UBCS," J.D ripped off a patch and tossed it to us. "We're called in to rescue people when Umbrella HQ thinks the situation is unsafe."

"I'm Rain," the female introduced herself. "That's J.D, Kaplan, and Natalia. There's an underground facility here, and we were sent to help rescue some civilians who were trapped down there."

"Well, we're kinda stuck in this mansion until that storm lightens up a bit," Edward said as he lowered his weapon the rest of the way. "Want us to tag along? Mark's a medic and someone down there might need medical attention."

"Honestly," Rain looked at J.D and Kaplan for a second before the two of them nodded. "Yeah, we could use the help. But keep in mind, there are some things that we aren't allowed to talk about."

"I have some questions that I'm going to need answered first," I said before I agreed. "You said before that we weren't "zekes". What did you mean by that?"

"We inserted to this op via train," Rain said as she sagged against a nearby wal. "We thought it would be a milk-run but then one of our guys got attacked by some sort of massive bug thing," She shut her eyes for a second. "Then, about an hour later he attacked and killed our lead and ended up wounding three others ."

"Eight on your team?" I asked for clarification. "What happened to the other two?"

"We left them behind on the train for now," J.D chimed in. "Figured that was the safest place for them while we carried out the rest of the mission," he shrugged. "Besides, doc was one of the ones that was injured so we thought she could patch them both up."

"Alright," I said after I had taken a few moments to muse it over. "But I want to to look me in the eyes and tell me that you're not going to stab us in the back once we're down there."

"We'll have your back for as long as you have ours," Rain replied as she met my eyes. "I'm going to be trusting my team with someone that I don't know. You just keep us patched up and watch our backs."

"Alright," I nodded. "You got yourself a deal," I reached out and we shook hands "Now let's go check this facility out."