Flashback
...
They were finally out of the city, but this didn't feel quite like a victory, even from inside the log cabin. The zombies didn't end with the city, they infested the forests and mountains around Racoon City too.
How was the government supposed to contain something like that? Alyssa would give her left arm to know what they were planning, what they were telling the public right now. She had the inside scoop, but part of a good story was knowing your angle. Readers had to be fed something in just the right way to get the right reaction.
Obviously people would be shocked, devastated. But what would they think was the cause – disease, natural disaster, terrorist attack? If the government was trying to cover up the truth, then what Alyssa wanted from the public was outrage and a thirst for justice. The right story could deliver that. She could ask the questions that Umbrella would be forced to answer.
Inside the cabin, a small fire was burning, giving the survivors some warmth and allowing them to eat a little hot food for a change.
There was only one bed, which Mark was sleeping in. He had refused initially, but everyone else had insisted since he was so much older. It hadn't stopped Jim from flopping onto it next to him and falling right to sleep. For such a scare-baby, he sure did doze off easily.
Cindy was curled up on the floor with her head on the doctor's shoulder, Kevin watching over them like some guardian angel from his position in a hard-backed wooden chair.
David was sat on the opposite side of the room, toying with his knife as he eyed the door.
Alyssa moved over to where Yoko was studying the photos. Indulging her curiosity while the others sat on their asses – sometimes she thought Yoko was a girl after own heart. The student was pretty mousy, but she was clever, resourceful and tenacious. That was the sort of thing Alyssa admired, especially when it was wrapped up in a delicious little mystery waiting to be solved. One day she would find out everything Yoko knew about the Umbrella Corp.
"Who do you think they are?" Yoko asked.
"Some old fart and his wife, looks like," Alyssa said. She cast an eye over the photos and noticed a common denominator – there were medical uniforms in every one. "Maybe one of the doctors kept this cabin up here. I guess it would make for some good outdoor weekends – rock climbing, caving and that sort of thing. Did you ask George if he knows him?"
She glanced over at the doctor as he engaged Kevin in quiet conversation. "No. I didn't want to bother him."
Alyssa rolled her eyes and took the photo over to him, waving it in his face and interrupting their conversation. "This guy look familiar to you?"
George frowned. He took the photo, studying it.
"Why George, Kevin, how are you guys doing?" Kevin said sarcastically. "We're great, Alyssa, how about you?"
"Give me a break, we've been living in each other's pockets the past few days. I know how you are, you know how I am. Whatever."
"I just thought you might want to have a heart-to-heart," he said with a boyish grin. "Get to know each other a little better."
She smirked. "I'm sure if I did want to get to know you better, it wouldn't be with everyone watching." Alyssa glanced back at the frowning doctor. "No dice?"
"I have seen him before, I'm sure. Come to think of it, it may have been in one of your newspaper articles. Do you remember, about the hospital in the Arklay Mountains that was being investigated for gross negligence and malpractice?"
"We sent some boys up there to look into it," Kevin added, leaning forward with an arm across his knee. "Nothing ever came of it though. The place was weird, sure, kind of like an asylum, but nobody found anything criminal."
Alyssa racked her memory, sure that this meant something to her. She could recall researching that hospital with her friend Kurt. He'd never gotten to share the story, since he'd been mauled by a bear up in the woods, or so the medical authorities said. After that, she had just sort of... dropped the story.
"Nothing to say?" Kevin asked. "That's not like you."
"Bite me," she snapped, snatching the photo from George and placing it back on the dresser.
Why was that hospital bothering her so much? Why couldn't she remember even visiting it, or the fact it was up in these mountains in the first place? She was going to give herself a headache.
Yoko laid a gentle hand on her arm. "Are you okay?"
Alyssa glanced at her, and asked quietly, "What does your amnesia feel like? How do you feel when you try to remember what Umbrella did?"
The other woman looked away, embarrassed. She didn't like trying to dredge up the memories, even though she knew she needed to. There was nothing to gain from pushing it down deep. "Frightened," she whispered. "I just feel frightened when I try to remember."
Alyssa closed her eyes, focusing on the hospital. She didn't feel frightened when she tried to remember it. She didn't really feel anything, just sick and like she didn't want to remember. It was like her conscious mind was clashing with her subconscious.
"The memories are just gone," Yoko continued. "It feels a little like trying to remember a dream, but I can't be sure what's real and what isn't." She peered at Alyssa in curiosity. "Did something happen to you too?"
Alyssa gave an irritable sigh. "I have no damn clue. I'm trying to remember about this hospital, and I'm just drawing a blank. I'm sure I went there at some point, I wrote a goddamn news article on it. But just a few minutes ago, I didn't even remember that."
"That sounds familiar."
That was what she was worried about – what if she was in deeper with Umbrella's story than she thought? These monsters roaming the mountains couldn't be a coincidence, and it would make sense for them to have a facility outside of the city for testing. George had claimed that his hospital had nothing to do with Umbrella, but what if the one out here had? Was that why she couldn't remember, because she had forgotten in the same way Yoko had? Alyssa hated having no answers to her questions.
The next morning proved as strange as the night before. Pale, thin light was just starting to filter through the cabin's curtains when an old man turned up. Alyssa immediately recognised him from the photos as one of the medical staff, and presumably the owner of the cabin.
He offered to lead them through the mountains, but wouldn't answer any of her questions when she asked him about the hospital. Without even waiting for an answer, he left the cabin and Alyssa made to follow.
"What are you doing?" Mark asked. "You honestly going to follow that guy?"
"Why not? He has answers and it's about time we got them."
"Answers about what?" Kevin exclaimed. "The guy's a nut! We need to find our way out of this forest and somewhere safe, not go following him."
"What if he really does want to help guide us through the forest?" Cindy asked with her usual sunny optimism.
"Yeah," Jim groused. "Help guide us to some secluded place so he can kill us and eat us. How do we know he ain't got the virus? He could be one of them. Just because most of them ain't that smart doesn't mean there aren't ones that can use their brains. Smells like a trap to me."
"He has a point," Kevin said, and the others nodded.
"Screw the lot of you then," Alyssa snapped.
She pushed past them and headed for the door, ignoring the calls to stop. There was nothing she hated more than secrets. The others might be content to ignore the truth and run off with their tails between their legs, but they didn't have that blankness sitting in their heads, teasing them.
There was something in this forest – in that hospital – that meant something to her, and that old man knew what it was.
Movement caught the corner of her eye, and she took off at a run into the forest. There were paths here from when hikers had once roamed the hills, but the murders had put a stop to that. Alyssa wasn't afraid of any murderer – she has just faced an entire city full of murderous lunatics.
Something moved just out of sight up ahead, and she followed. If this was the old man, he wasn't making it easy to follow him. She had a niggling sense that maybe the others were right about this, maybe it was a trap. That didn't mean she could stop. What kind of reporter would she be if she gave up on discovering the truth?
As she lost the old man again, she stopped for breath, glancing around at her surroundings.
She could be anywhere. All around were just trees, bushes and grass. Even the way she had come from was a tangle of unused paths and skeletal trees. A chill walked up her spine.
"Alyssa!"
She couldn't help feeling a sense of relief at that came with hearing that gravelly voice. Not that she was going to show it. Alyssa put an expression of lazy irritation on her face as she turned to regard David and Yoko.
As they neared, she noticed how annoyed the plumber seemed to be, whilst the student was looking anxious. No one else was around. Maybe they hadn't cared enough to come after her.
"What the hell was that?" David snapped. "I thought you were smarter than that, but instead you run off like an idiot."
"Am I the only one around here with a pair of balls?" she shot back. "We have a chance to find out what was happening at that hospital, and you all want to run away!"
"Who cares what they did at that fucking hospital?" he growled.
"I do! Something was happening there, something that's connected to Umbrella, I'm sure of it. We might find answers there, we might find that cure we've been looking for!"
"If they have a cure, why the hell would this forest be swarming with zombies?"
That stalled her. "What?" She had known they were moving around out here, but she hadn't actually seen any.
"We got separated from the others when the zombies attacked," Yoko explained. No wonder the woman looked so uneasy. "They weren't like the ones in Raccoon City. They seemed sort of... deformed, with plants growing out of them. That isn't anything I remember Umbrella doing."
Alyssa sighed. She wanted to find that damn hospital, but what if the others were in trouble? She wasn't sure she could live with herself if that dumbass Kevin went and got himself killed coming to find her. "Any ideas how we actually get back and find them?"
The other two looked around, realising for the first time that they were lost too. It was as though the forest itself moved around so that people lost their bearings. Considering that the zombies were apparently part plant, she supposed that wasn't too unlikely.
David glanced upwards. "I'll see if I can get a better view from up there."
He put his foot onto a knot in a thick tree and pushed himself up. With remarkable efficiency, he hauled himself up the tree, moving from branch to branch with ease. Alyssa couldn't pretend that was something that ever appealed to her. She liked her exercise to be clean and a little civilised. "The view's not bad from down here," she commented as she watched his movement from below, unable to resist teasing a little. "Don't you agree, Yoko?" The student looked determinedly in the opposite direction.
"See anything?" Alyssa asked when he'd gotten precariously high. She peered up into the tree and saw him crouched on fork in the trunk.
"There's a mist rolling in," he replied. "We're going to have a hell of a time finding anything."
"Great."
"We should go," Yoko urged. "If we wait until the mist arrives, we'll end up going round in circles until they catch us again."
David made his way down the tree quickly, and the moment he touched the ground, Alyssa set off at a jog.
She had no idea what direction she was going in, but away seemed like a good idea. At least if they kept ahead of the mist they would be able to see better.
No zombies accosted them, but strange noises drifted out from the forest, especially from the fog. Every so often she thought she was catching sight of a creature moving in the trees, or maybe something stalking them. The question suddenly came to her that maybe those random murders in the mountains hadn't been the work of a psychopath. All this time she had thought the virus in the city had spread outward, but what if it had started here instead?
First, they needed to find their allies. She wasn't too worried about them – Kevin was a good shot, Mark was tough as nails, and Cindy was in her element up here in the woods. She had restocked most of her herbs and was the one to find them edible plants for last night's dinner. Even the pompous old doctor had turned out to have a lot of knowledge on the wilderness and survival skills. As for Jim, well there had to be some reason that guy was still alive.
It made sense to stick together though. As much as she didn't like to admit it, Alyssa's allies had seen her through some tight situations. And she had gotten a little attached to them.
"Fuck, is that what I think it is?" David muttered.
The decrepit roof of a building loomed over the treetops ahead. Between them and it lay a tattered rope bridge that crossed a deep gorge. Alyssa put one foot on it and bounced the bridge up and down. It swayed, making creaking noises, but it held.
She immediately made to cross.
"You're going in there?" David asked, incredulous. "The place has 'bad idea' written all over it."
"Then go," she said simply, before heading onto the bridge.
He swore a string of words that would make Cindy blush from her head to her toes, but he still followed. Whatever she had done to earn the guy's loyalty, it had stuck fast. Yoko gave a sigh that was barely audible over the river at the base of the gorge, but she followed too.
As the hospital came into full view, Alyssa was hit with an overwhelming wave of nausea. It rose up in her gut so powerfully she hunched over on her knees, hawking into the grass.
"Alyssa!" She felt a tender hand on her back as David helped her back to her feet.
"Did you remember something?" Yoko asked, quiet but intense.
"I…" She did remember. Months ago, she had come here with Kurt. A brief memory slid into her head… faces in the window as she approached, ashen and sickly. The doctor emerged from the doorway with a huge smile on his face. The whole place had felt wrong…
"I remember this place. There was something sinister going on with the patients."
"I can believe it," David muttered, glancing up at the wreck of a building. Some huge fungal plant was sprawled across one side of the hospital. "What's with the triffid?"
"That wasn't there when I came the first time."
"Maybe that's why it closed down," Yoko suggested. "Or maybe it happened afterwards, when whatever was in the hospital was left to contaminate the forest."
More and more Alyssa got the feeling that something horrible had happened here. Somehow she had forgotten it, maybe through post-traumatic stress, or more sinister means.
She steeled her nerves and headed for the rusted door at the base of the hospital.
Alyssa pushed it, and the metal squealed as it was forced open. The smell of putrefying vegetation swam out. She entered gun-first, pointing the muzzle into the grey light. The place seemed derelict but she was taking no chances. Those plant zombies could easily have spawned here, especially with that huge growth on the side of the building.
The corridors were filled with dust motes and plant spores. The walls had spidery cracks running through them, making Alyssa wonder if the building was actually structurally sound.
They made their way through the ground floor, checking the reception for any signs of patient records. Rotting cupboards and filing cabinets lined the back wall. "C'mon, there could be info in here about what was going on."
"I doubt they'd just leave that lying around," David said.
"They might if they had to abandon it in a hurry, or if they thought this place was safe." Alyssa pulled out a couple of folders and started flicking through one. "After the cops already came out here once, maybe they thought they wouldn't be investigated again." There was just information on someone with a degenerative disease who died. She cast the useless folder aside and picked up another. "Damn it, I just wish I could remember coming here!"
"It's too bad their computers are ruined," Yoko said, looking at a machine that was half covered in mildew.
"Hey, hey, look at this!" Alyssa said, spreading a couple of folders across a mouldy desk. "Notice a connection here?"
David stared at the patient files with a frown, and Yoko gasped. "'Intense appetite,'" she read, looking down the list of repeated entries.
"That sounds familiar," David said. "So their patients turned into zombies long before they did in the city... or they were testing it here."
"You remember Umbrella ever mentioning a place like this?"Alyssa asked Yoko.
"No, I–"
"YARGH!"
The three of them jumped as the door was flung open with a kick, smacking into a table on the far wall and cracking it. The blade of an axe preceded its owner into the room, and their hands shot straight for their guns.
A bulky, shirtless man in a dark cowl moved into the room. He was breathing heavily and grunting, sounding almost rabid. His head turned slightly, spotting them. The madman hefted the axe and charged.
Yoko threw herself out of his path and crawled away, whilst Alyssa dodged to the side. She brought up her gun as she moved, firing a few shots into his back. Yoko and David followed suit, emptying their guns into him. Who the hell brought an axe to a gun fight?
The madman roared, swiping his axe round in an arc. Alyssa skittered backwards to avoid it, feeling a little nervous now. They must have shot him a dozen times, why was he still moving?
David must have been wondering the same thing, because he closed in behind while the axeman was focused on Alyssa, and levelled his gun against the back of the man's head. Just before he pulled the trigger, the axeman smacked him in the gut with the butt of the axe. The axeman wheeled around to finish David as he doubled over, winded.
Alyssa leapt at him. Yoko's bullets were barely tickling him, but Alyssa could distract him to let the others get away. She punched him in the back of the head, and the axeman stumbled before he could swing. She kicked at him as he staggered to keep him off balance, and David quickly moved out of the way.
They had their guns on him again now, and the axeman howled in rage – or was it pain – as he jerked his head like some frothing dog and charged from the room.
It wasn't until the footsteps had receded that any of them decided to speak.
"Are you okay?" Yoko asked David.
"Yeah. Closer call than I'd like. Either of you notice the gunshot wounds? No blood."
Alyssa realised he was right. How could she not have noticed that crucial detail in the heat of the moment? She supposed it could be because she had never shot a person before. Watching movies wasn't the same as shooting someone in real life, and until now, it had just been zombies and mutated monsters.
"Do you think he's infected with the virus too?" she asked them. "He sure fits the zombie MO – fucking crazy and impervious to bullets. I'm sure we got him in the head at least once though, how could he possibly survive that? And what's he doing here?" She paused thoughtfully. "Maybe he's the one who caused the outbreak here. And committed the murders in the mountains!" Did that mean he was also the one who had killed Kurt? The reports said her friend had been mauled, but maybe that was to cover up the true cause of death.
"I don't care what he is," David said. "It was stupid to come here. Time we left."
"What?" Alyssa exclaimed. "But we've only just skimmed the surface on what happened here! I can't go now."
"We know enough," David snapped. "The virus got out. People died. One turned into an axe murderer. The end. There's nothing else here for us."
"There is for me! There's a great big gaping hole in my memory, and I need to know what happened to me here!"
"You think you're the only one with that problem?" He jabbed a finger at Yoko, who looked like she wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground. "You don't see us running around Umbrella labs on Yoko's whims. There's nothing to gain by staying here. Unless you want to be killed by an axe murderer?"
"You know what? Fine. If you want to run away then get the hell on with it." She exhaled angrily. "I'll do this on my own."
He narrowed his eyes at her, as though he was trying to discern her sincerity. Alyssa just stared him down, arms folded and expression haughty.
"Fine." He turned away. "Yoko, are you coming?"
The student hesitated, looking from one to the other with a troubled expression.
"You don't have to stay," Alyssa said, trying to sound as unconcerned as possible.
She tried not to betray the hurt she felt as the pair of them turned from her and left the room. A moment later, she heard the grating of the front door and she knew they had honestly abandoned her. Anger warred with pain, and she decided to smother both. The truth was more important, and she needed to discover it.
Avoiding the axeman was the priority as she explored the hospital stealthily.
It was clear the whole place was a wreck, yet she had a strange feeling of nostalgia as she moved through the corridors and hospital rooms. With each new place, she was able to build a better picture of what she had seen here.
Alyssa remembered standing in that office and listening to the doctor insisting that no suspicious activity had ever occurred at the hospital. She and Kurt had been listing off incidents and he had made excuses and covered his hide. Then, someone had screamed – a primal, wailing noise. There had been other shouts, of shock and surprise.
Her feet automatically took her from the office to the hospital room, the same one she had visited when she came here before – 201. Alyssa pushed the door open to reveal an empty room, and wandered inside in a daze.
It hadn't been empty the first time. She remembered the patient, a woman in a nightgown. The woman's skin was a horrible mottled green-grey, her face contorted in some bestial snarl. Worst was her eyes, which were completely deranged and devoid of humanity. One nurse had had her throat ripped out, whilst another had been struggling against the insane patient.
Kurt had leapt forward to help the nurse, and was able to drag the woman from her. Alyssa had pulled her away, supporting the terrified nurse as Kurt wrestled with the patient.
Her eyes involuntarily snapped to the floor by the window, where she had seen the patient overpower Kurt, and sink her teeth into his throat. That was where he had died, she remembered it now. Hospital staff had rushed in and managed to restrain the patient, but it had been too late for Kurt. Alyssa was able to flee the hospital, but by the time the police came, it had all been covered up too cleanly. Her sanity had been called into question, her position at the newspaper threatened. She had locked it all away in her mind.
Alyssa kneaded her eyes with the balls of her hands. She knew the truth now, about her own memories, if nothing else.
A shoe scuffed the tiles behind her, and Alyssa instinctively leapt to the side.
A moment later, an axe blade smashed into the ground, shattering the tiles on the floor. She fired a shot at the axeman, but it was useless. He ignored them just as he had before. Now that she looked, she realised she couldn't even see the marks of where the previous bullets had hit him. How had he healed so quickly?
Alyssa dodged out of the way as he swung again and narrowly avoided getting her head severed. The door, she just needed to get to the door and get the hell out of here.
She cried out as she ducked at the last minute and the axe embedded in the frame. Alyssa fired her gun into the axeman's face, but he kicked her with enough force to send her crashing through the doorway and slamming backwards onto the landing floor. As he wrenched his axe from the doorframe and advanced, she fired as many bullets into him as she could.
He lifted he axe.
A blur barrelled into the side of him, knocking him clear of Alyssa. The axe fell from the madman's hands as he smashed into the junk in the hall. She glanced up, seeing Yoko shooting at him from the top of the stairs, whilst David rolled clear from the tackle.
Alyssa saw the axe on the ground. Without even thinking, she snatched it up, feeling its weight in her hands. She marched forwards with determination as the axeman struggled to his feet.
She lifted the axe.
Alyssa brought it crashing down into his neck. It wedged into the muscle between neck and shoulder, and he roared in pain. The knowledge that it hurt spurred her on. She dragged the blade free, and brought it down again, the axeman crumpling. He sank to his knees as the axe came down a third time.
She continued hacking until he didn't move again.
With the axeman's lifeless body in front of her, the axe suddenly seemed heavy again. She dropped to one knee, laying it on the ground and reaching for the axeman's cowl. It was the final mystery she needed solving.
As the cowl came free, she exhaled heavily. It was the old man, the one who had offered to lead them through the woods. She had realised he worked in the hospital, but now she knew what had happened to him. The woman in the photograph she had seen seemed familiar now too, Alyssa remembered her. She had been a monster when Alyssa saw her, but there was no mistaking it.
Alyssa got to her feet, turning away from the body and looking at her rescuers for the first time. "You came back."
"Good thing we did," David grunted, but the relief was clear on his face.
"We found the others," Yoko said, tucking her gun back into her belt. "They were on the other side of the bridge, but it broke when they tried to join us."
"Guess that means I won't get to hear Kevin gloating anytime soon," Alyssa said.
"He said they had found a path back into town, we could find meet up with them." Yoko looked at her shamefaced, her hands balled up at her sides. "I'm so glad you're safe."
Alyssa didn't stop the smile that came. She and Yoko ended up beaming at each other, David eyeing them with a guarded expression. If anyone knew what it meant to have closure here, then Yoko did. With the gaps in her memories revealed, the mystery could stop eating at her and this place could be left to die.
She dropped an arm around each of their shoulders. "What do you guys say we get the hell out of here? I've had enough of hospitals to last a lifetime."