Chapter 3

The nightmare begins

It took us roughly half an hour to get up the path. I was tired out, but my adrenaline had gone sky-high after hearing the monster scream. I shook slightly and moved on.

Kaie was at the front, with me in the middle and Kotarou behind me. It was a simple solution to make up for my inexperience.

"What's that?"

Kaie suddenly pointed at something red, not far away from where we were. The red moved about and flickered, and the smell of something burning made its way to our noses.

"Let's investigate!"

We all dashed towards the red until we saw it was a fire. A jeep had been overturned, the driver killed beneath the car. I looked left and right to try and see if I could see whatever did this, but I couldn't see anything in the dark.

"Grrr…."

I turned around at the sound. It sounded like a dog growling, but I couldn't see anything else around here.

"Ugh… this stinks"

Kotarou held her nose shut as she looked around.

"What's up?"

"It stinks of decay"

"Decay?"

"Yeah. Like rotting bodies"

I turned pale. I couldn't see anything but I could feel the colour drain from my face. I walked towards the sound when I saw something in the grass.

"Hey, Kaie, take a look-"

And I was suddenly on my back, pushed backwards several meters. Something was on top of me, and I couldn't get it off. It felt wet, sticky, and smelled horrible.

Bang!

The thing whimpered, poured blood and jumped backwards. I pushed myself up and removed my shotgun, getting ready to take this thing out.

"It's a… dog"

Kotarou lowered her handgun and went to walk forwards as it pounced again-

And I fired my shotgun, the round echoing for miles. I ejected the shell and aimed again, but I had hit it the first time: the side of the beast was red, blood oozing out like a fountain. It won't be getting up after this.

"Yuuichi… Why… Why couldn't I feel anything from it? It felt… Dead"

I shook my head. I didn't have the answers she was looking for. We turned around again…

"Grr"

And the dog had gotten back up, shaking off the wound to its side. My eyes opened wide. This cannot be happening.

The dog slowly made its way towards up, entering the light produced by the flame.

The dog was disgusting: bits of flesh hung off its body like vines, and it's teeth were yellow. It growled once more and pushed itself down to pounce.

"Dog, stop!"

Kotarou tried to talk to it but it was no use: the dog dashed forwards again. I opened fire on the dog but this time it wouldn't go down: It just stopped in its tracks, shaking the bullet wounds off. It should be dead by the first shot, but I soon ran empty.

"Yuuichi! This way!"

Kotarou grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the way of the dog: we dashed forwards, sprinting. I dropped the shotgun for extra speed, and Kotarou and Kaie took turns turning around and firing. They were both soon out of ammo, so they dropped their weapons and started running. They quickly overtook me, and slammed into a pair of large double doors-

Attached to a mansion.

I dived into the mansion, the two dogs throwing the doors shut and bolting them. We were panting and were tired out. What just happened?

"Wow… What a mansion"

I pushed myself up and walked forwards, slowly. Kaie was in awe of the massive house.

"Is… this Umbrella's mansion"

"That'd be correct"

We all looked up quickly to see none other than Kuu standing on a balcony above us. She smiled and jumped down, walking towards us. She was wearing a red, skin tight dress with stockings.

"Why are you here?"

"Well, Risa had a breakdown so I was tasked with finding you lot. I heard that you had been coming towards the mountains, so I hid out here until you arrived to hide from the dogs"

It sounded plausible enough. I stepped forwards along the lush red carpet.

The room we were in was massive: it was double story with a large chandelier hanging over the front door. There were 3 doors on the bottom floor and three above.

"Hey Kuu, have you seen a man named Albert Wesker whilst waiting here?"

"Oh, the man with the glasses?"

I saw Kotarou's ears pick up.

"That's him! So he's here"

Kotarou ran towards the stairs.

"Let's split up, and when we find him, meet back here"

Kotarou went up the stairs, took a right and ran through a large door. I sighed.

"Shouldn't we work together as a team?"

"I think we should. Let's stick together for now Yuuichi"

Kuu smiled and jumped back up.

"I'll make sure Kotarou stays safe"

She followed after her, walking towards the door. Once they were both gone, we sighed.

"This just went from bad to worse"

"Yeah, it did. At least I have my radio, so we can contact Kotarou or HQ if we need backup. Let's start from the first floor, shall we?"

I nodded. We moved towards a set of double doors, pushing them open-

To reveal a dining room. The room was long and double story. A large grandfather clock clicked away at the far end, and a fire was lit in the fireplace. A wooden plaque was stationed above it. The table was set for roughly 30 people.

"Wow…"

Kaie licked his lips at the thought of food but moved on. We took separate sides of the table, looking around and checking it out.

"Yuuichi!"

Kaie jogged over to the fireplace, and I walked over.

"Blood… I hope this isn't the captains blood… Yuuichi, see if you can find any other clues, I want to examine this for a while"

I nodded and turned to my right: a single door led out of the room. I slowly opened it and stepped into a hallway. It went right and left, with a small box to the left. I walked to the right, checking the doors: they were all locked, so I went to the box.

Crunch, slurp.

I removed my handgun and stepped around the corner-

To see a man eating another, gorging on his insides. Blood sprayed from the man's insides onto the floor and couch. I took a step backwards as the man stood up, groaning.

He looked disgusting: his face was pure pale, like a zombie. His eyes were jet white, with no pupils. He raised his arms and part of his body fell to the floor with a thud. It took me a few seconds to realise that this must be one of the deranged people. I shook my head and dashed back towards the dining room.

"Kaie!"

"What is it?"

All of a sudden the man stepped into view, groaning. I stepped backwards, terrified.

"It's a monster!"

Kaie raised his handgun and fired, twice. The man fell to the floor with a loud thud. We were both panting.

"I'm sorry… I should have done something"

"It's fine: let's head back to the main hall and report in"

I nodded and we ran back towards the main hall, pushing it open.

EYES OF KOTAROU

I couldn't believe that the captain would come here without telling us! I was furious!

The door I went through lead into a "U" shaped corridor. The carpet and walls were red, albeit different shades. I tried the first door, but it was locked with a symbol of armour beneath the handle. The second door had a symbol of a helmet. I sighed: I wasn't very good at puzzles. This was not going to be fun.

I heard the door I had come through open, so I went back around to see Kuu standing there. She smiled at me and walked past.

"Come on Kotarou, we need to find your captain and meet the others"

I agreed and we moved on. The next room we entered was sort of like a bedroom without a bed. It had bookshelves lined up, a chessboard in the centre and other meaningless bits scattered around.

"Oh, a lighter"

Kuu picked up the golden lighter and pushed it into her fanny pack. I only just realised she was carrying a handgun: a Browning HP, a 13 round semi-automatic handgun capable of firing 9mm rounds and the powerful .45 acp.

"Where did you get the gun?"

"I found it in a vase, funnily enough, on the second floor"

It bothered me a little that she was carrying a gun, but it seemed that we'd need all the firepower we can get after a battle with those demon dogs.

I stood still for a second, recalling the event again. It was easily the scariest moment of my life, and police training would never have taught me how to deal with something like that.

"Demon dogs…"

The words escaped my mouth unintentionally. Kuu turned around to face me, tilting her head.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Let's go"

Kuu smiled at me and we walked out of the room-

BANG!

We both instinctively ducked. What was that?

"A gunshot?"

It was highly possible. Were Yuuichi and Kaie in danger?

Without thinking I went to dash back towards them before stopping. Kaie is a police dog and Yuuichi is a good human. They should be fine.

"Let's go Kuu; we need to get out of here quickly"

I say that… And yet I was praying for their safety.

EYES OF MIKAN

Why did this hurt so much?

Kuu had left the house out the window, and Risa had fallen asleep on the bed, crying. We couldn't do anything. It hurt, like invisible strings pulling at my little doggy heart. Why wouldn't Yuuichi tell us what was happening? Why wouldn't he pick up his phone?

"Silivie…. Let's go after him"

I hadn't meant to speak like that: I was told to wait here… I should….

Pictures of my old master flashed through my mind: "Just wait here, I'll be right back"

But she never came back….

I grabbed my jacket and made my way to the front door. I couldn't drive a car, nor did I know about these "trains" that humans ride: the loud, noisy and smelly machines.

I slowly opened the door: It was cold now, being night-time. I started to shake slightly. I hadn't been anywhere on my own since that day last year. It was daunting.

Suddenly, Silvie put her hand on my shoulder. She was in her faux fur coat that matched her perfectly. She smiled at me and licked my check slightly. She could tell I was scared but she wasn't going to leave me.

"Let's go"

She was usually very quiet, very reserved, but right now she was on fire: her eyes displayed her trust and want to get Yuuichi back at all costs.

We dashed down the stairs, Kana, dashing out after us. We were already long gone by the time she had gotten down.

"Now where?"

We had run all the way to the police station: but now where? We had no idea where to go. Looking down, Silvie pushed the gate to the station open. Yuuichi said police stations were open 24 hours per day in case something happened. Well, this is certainly something.

We walked into the grand building, but something was off. The doors were unlocked but the place was desolated. Lights shone down on the big blue emblem at the bottom of the small flight of stairs, but the place felt…

Dead.

We walked forwards, our footsteps echoing in the large room. We walked slowly up to the reception desk, but nobody was there.

All of a sudden people burst out of the doors to our side, rushing into the main room. We jumped in unison and ran into a corner, watching. Men and women holding something large: it was big and made bigger noises. It hurt our ears. Flashes appeared at the end of their big things, jerking roughly in their hands. Blood splattered from the other men walking through the door, except these men looked… strange.

They raised their arms even though they were being hurt. It didn't make any sense. One opened his mouth and groaned, then suddenly-

BANG

The top half of his head came clean off, leaving only the jaw attached to the body. My own body froze. They had just killed that man! Weren't they supposed to be police?!

I suddenly felt very sick. I wanted nothing more than to feel Yuuichi hug me. I wanted Yuuichi…

Silvie was crouched down next to me, looking at the floor. Her pale face was even more slightly pale.

"Mikan… Now what…"

I had no idea. What do we do know?

EYES OF YUUICHI

We waited in the main hall for little over 15 minutes. Nobody else had appeared. Kaie and I were going over what we knew from the briefing. We kept going in circles.

In our desperation, we had searched the room roughly 10 times: around the outside, under the stairs and the second floor. Strangely enough, there were two metal doors behind the stairs, but they were locked. We sat down, sipping at Kaie's canteen. We ended up emptying it.

"What do we now?"

"I have no idea…"

We both looked at the blue doors to the left of us. We were sitting on the stairs.

"Think we could use the front door to call for help?"

"I wouldn't recommend it"

I sighed and looked down, before standing up, holding my hand out to Kaie.

"We're not going to get anywhere like this. Come on, let's start searching. I tried the doors off of the dining hall, they were locked"

Kaie nodded to me and, for what must have been the 5th time, checked his handgun. Our nightmare had only just begun. Little did we know what was happening back home…