Chapter 7
September 29th, 1998
The morale amongst the surviving members of the Raccoon City Police Department was extremely low. They all sat in the operations room, slowly feeling the hope fade away.
Jason winced as the thought of David's suicide flooded his mind. He looked around the room at his fellow officers, desperately trying to shove those horrible images out of his mind.
George sat in the back of the room, a look of fatigue on his bearded face. There was no more jokes from him, no more hearty, fatherly chuckles emanating from him. He had become a shell of his former self ever since David's death, the only thing on his mind survival. Anna had an affirming arm around Martinez's shoulder, who was really looking worse for wear. Jason didn't know how long the infection rate spread among victims, but judging from what he had seen and her pale, weak appearance, she didn't have long. Elliot stood in the front of the room, arms folded across his chest in deep concentration.
Ever since the out-break had first started, he seemed to be the leader of their survival. There had been times where he butted heads with Meyer and George, but that was all over now. Meyer was dead and George was far too shell-shocked to lead anything. Right now he stood with an air of confidence and security, though Jason wondered how much of it was real or just bravado.
"Okay people, I'm going to keep this short and sweet. We lost a lot of officers coming into this situation, and at the moment we have to assume that none of the survivors made it...there's no one left to protect..." Elliot said in a soft but confident tone. "We have to look after our-selves now, look after each other..."
The survivors...
When Jason, Elliot, and George made their way back into the main hall, they found Anna and Martinez ashen faced and shivering. When they searched the perimeter, they discovered the mauled bodies of several of the survivors, killed by the creatures with the elongated tongues. The rest of the survivors ran through the entrance and into the night, they could be any-where. Elliot was right: there was no-one left to protect but our-selves and each other. He felt ashamed thinking that because he knew it was his moral and civic duty to serve and protect, but he knew that it was the cold truth.
"I recommend a plan of action; a plan of escape." Elliot said. He reached into his pocket and produced a map of the precinct. Judging from its white coloring and texture this must have been a copy of the renovated station. He placed it on the chalk-board and continued.
"The streets are still way to dangerous to navigate, and with the road-blocks and debris scattered about every-where, we won't make it far no how. That's why I think the safest way out of the precinct would be going through the sewers..."
Jason felt a cold stab of fear in his body. The sewers? Is he crazy? No-one protested, they just sat there, whether listening intently or lost in their own musings unknown.
"Now, normally, the easiest way to reach the sewers through the station would be to access the man-hole through the kennel, but with all of the zombies and those...those other things roaming the halls that wouldn't be such a hot idea, but there's a short-cut."
Elliot planted his finger on the entrance to the station and ran his finger along the side.
"Once we leave the precinct, we take a right through the court-yard and to the underpass beneath the main entrance. There's a ventilation hole there that leads right into the parking garage. From there, we make our way into the holding cells, and to the kennel."
Jason admired Elliot's resourcefulness, even if he wasn't so keen on traveling through the sewers.
"Are there any objections?"Elliot demanded. Again, Nobody raised concern.
"Good. I want a full count of supplies and ammo. No use going into this if we're not prepared."
After checking ammo, supplies, and cleaning weapons, Elliot beckoned for them to move out. Anna protested, stating that it would be better to get some rest and wait until morning.
"All I'm saying is that I think it will be a good idea to wait until morning. We can't go out there, especially in the condition that Penelope is----------"
Elliot cut her off. "Don't use Martinez as your smoke screen. If you're scared, I don't blame you. I'm scared, we're all scared, but we have to get out of here as soon as possible. Those things are flooding the station and if we stay here we're just waiting to die."
Anna's face blushed and she stared down at the floor with a look of shame in her eyes.
"Don't worry about me Anna..." Martinez piped up. Jason felt concern when he heard the slight slur in her voice. "Like I said, I want to see this through to the end."
"Alright...let's head out. I'll take point." Elliot ordered.
They filed out of the operations room. Sixteen police officers dwindled down to five trying to run for their lives. This was their last escape. Jason was putting all of his fate into Elliot, they just had to make it out of this alive.
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The five police officers made their way through the set of teal double doors and out into the night air of Raccoon City. Thankfully, the creatures with the pink tongues had disappeared. Jason took a giant whiff of the semi fresh air. The fresh scents of late Autumn mingled with the smell of rotten flesh and smoke. How long has it been since I've stepped foot outside? Three days? Four days? Jason didn't know. The days seemed to bleed together ever since they first arrived at the station.
The street beyond the precincts gates were a mess. Remains of vehicles and other junk littered the road. Jason could make out the top of a fire engine implanted right through a building about a block away. Perhaps what was most frightening was the hordes of zombies that hung around beyond the precincts gates. Upon seeing them they threw their bodies up against the steel bars, mercilessly crying for blood. Jason instinctively raised his weapon to fire but was stopped but Elliot.
"They can't hurt us. Come on, we have to get moving."
They followed Elliot around the precincts court-yard and down into the underpass beneath the entrance. Elliot had David's Mossberg held high, ready to blast anything that leaped out at them, but he never had the chance to. They gathered beneath the underpass. Pale moonlight illuminated the outline of a small ventilation shaft set into the stone wall. It was still enough light to see but Jason found him-self wishing that they had bought flash-lights.
"I'll go first and see if the coast is clear." Elliot offered.
He dropped to his belly and crawled head-first into the shaft. There was a brief silence as he made his way to the other side, then his muffled voice: "all clear."
Anna went second, followed by Martinez, who had to be helped down to the floor, then George. Jason went last, getting down and crawling on the rough concrete. He could see his colleagues legs standing in-front of the shaft. As he made his way out through the other side into the parking garage, he let out a gasp of surprise at what he saw.
Oh my God...
Several bodies lay before them. Jason recognized them as some of the survivors that they had brought into the station what had seemed like years ago. He stared at them with a sinking feeling in his heart.
There were no external wounds on the victims. Their faces bared no sign of suffering either, just a look of serenity. He placed his index and middle finger on the neck of a young man and felt for a pulse, any-thing. After several attempts, he gave up. These people were dead, but what had killed them?
Jason stared around at the others, who were just as confused as him. Suddenly, a shrill alarm ripped through the silence of the parking garage.
"What's going on!?" Anna screamed over the blaring siren.
"I don't know!!" Elliot responded.
"WARNING." A mechanical voice said over the precincts P.A. System. "WARNING."
A burning sensation filled Jason's lungs. The other officers revolted in pain, sputtering and coughing violently. A thin yellowish haze was settling over the parking garage, and Jason knew exactly what had killed these people.
"Gas!" Elliot yelled.
The four police officers ran for the doors that connected to the precincts prisons cells, trying not to breath in the horrible gas that had overtook the parking garage.
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They made it through to the row of prison cells, still trying to catch their breaths from the acrid gas.
"What was that!?" Anna managed to choke out.
"I don't know. Probably the stations new security measures that were used to ward off the zombies." Elliot responded. "Some security measures. The damn thing almost killed us!"
As they continued to collect them-selves, a voice called out from the back of the rows of prison cells.
"Is somebody there? Hello?"
Jason instantly recognized the voice.
"Ben? Is that you?" Jason called.
The five of them made their way to the back of the cells. Ben Bertolucci was sitting on a bed in the last row. He smiled as he saw officer Hamilton.
"Small world, eh?" He said coyly. His slack pony-tail was frazzled in some places and he look exhausted. Still, he resonated the air of optimism that he had when Jason first met him.
"Elliot, this is Ben Bertolucci. He's the one that supplied me with the information about Umbrella."
Elliot walked to the bars and studied the man.
"Bertolucci huh? You were with the survivors when we brought you all to the precinct. Why did you take off like that?"
"Like I told your friend here. I was looking for more evidence that implemented Umbrella in this out-break, something concrete, and I found it..."
Elliot's eyes narrowed. "What kind of evidence?"
Bertolucci reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope.
"I did some sleuthing around Chief Irons office. He wasn't in there, but I did manage to find these interesting letters." He slipped it through the bars into Elliot's out-stretched hand.
Elliot read it, his eyes growing wider and wider with every sentence.
"Christ..." He breathed. "This proves it. Not only was Irons working for Umbrella but Captain Albert Wesker too!"
Jason's jaw dropped. The S.T.A.R.S. were right. It was all just a big cover-up. Wesker and Irons, working with Umbrella the whole time, so many dead...
Bertolucci snatched the letters out of Elliot's hand.
"It's a deep hole, all right." Bertolucci said dryly.
"But one that we're willing to explore. Come on, we're getting out of here through the sewers." Elliot retorted.
Bertolucci shook his head and waved him off.
"No way, I'm not going any-where!"
Elliot was taken aback. "Don't be ridiculous! You just can't stay here!"
"Oh yes I can. It's too dangerous out there."
Elliot stayed resilient in his demand. "Look, I'm not just going to leave you in there to die. Where's the key to this thing?"
Bertolucci pulled a ring of keys from his pocket and jiggled them in front of Elliot. "I ain't going no-where."
"Damn it!" Elliot angrily kicked the bars to his cell.
Bertolucci put the set of keys back into his pocket. "You mean to tell me that it's just the five of you? Where is every-one else?"
Jason could see Elliot's anger disappear into a look of despair. "There is no-one else...all of the other cops and survivors are dead."
A flash of sadness darted across the reporters eyes. "You're shitting me! How did it happen!?"
Elliot ignored his question, still visibly disturbed by the images. "Look, we're getting out of here, you have a choice: you can either come with us or wait until this whole damn precinct becomes over-run and then there'll be no escape."
Bertolucci just shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry man. But like I said, I ain't going no-where."
Elliot motioned for the others to follow him. "Come on, we're leaving."
"Good luck!" Bertolucci called as they exited the cells and entered the kennel. A rusty man-hole lay dormant in the back of the kennel, their destination
"George, give me a hand with this."
Elliot and George struggled to lift the rust eaten lid. Their biceps strained considerably with much force and finally the rewarding sound of steel against stone could be heard. They lifted the heavy manhole lid and was greeted by a horrible stench. What-ever it was, it wasn't the typical smell of sewage waste, no, there was something else...something rotten.
The looks on the other officers face told the same story: no-body wanted to go down there. Only Elliot stared into the dark abyss with a look of curiosity.
"So..." He said coolly. "Who wants to go first?"