Chapter Three: A New Face

The infected swarmed us from every crack and corner around. Mutations hopped from the roofs to the ground screaming and screeching. Sounds I would never forget. Acie quickly raised his gun to shoot, but my reflexes caught him. Shootig would just pull more of the mutations. I turned him in the direction facing south of us and bolted.

"Run!" I demanded.

The others didn't hesitate as they quickly followed. However, the moment we started running, the mutations began chasing. The sound of their exposed muscle amd claws smacked against the pavement made us run faster than I ever had before. We had no time to check doors or breach a building with those things trailing so closely. All we could do was run. Run far and fast. Run. It was like a bodily instinct took over and my mind started pacing with the words.

"Run. Breath. Run. Breath."

We rounded a corner tp find more infected blocking our path. It seemed like there were no paths to take. No trails to use. No way out. I ordered my team to hold and defend. I figured we would die. We raised our rifles and waited for them to follow after us, but they seemed to have stopped. Not a single one of them rounded that corner. We could still hear them screaming, but couldn't see them. It was strange.

"Hold.." I mumbled.

Our barrels pointed over and over to find them. My attention then switched to the other infected, who were shambling toward us. It seemed more than fifty must had been there and the moans they made were completely unnerving. Their white pupils made them feel lifeless. They were not people anymore. They were the living dead. The screaming from the mutations stopped suddenly as if they were never there. We searched but didn't see a single one, so we focused our rifles to the infected behind us.

"Fire!" I yelled as a barrage of bullets filled the street.

Body shots didn't affect them at all. Chunks of tissue flew off them but they kept coming. My magazine ran out causing me to pause, reload, and then continue firing. Nothing still happened until a stray bullet fired off from a gun behind us pierced the skull of an infected, killing it instantly. I turned around to find a red haired man standing behind us. He was dressed in a R.C.P.D uniform and didn't look to be over the age of twenty. The first survivor we had seen and instead of us saving him, he's saving us.

"THE HEAD! AIM FOR THE HEAD!" He yelled.

He moved toward us and joined the firing line we had made then continued to shoot. This "kid" seemed to know how to take them down. He would be useful to us. I had to keep him alive. We began aiming for the head, which worked dropping the infected left and right effectively clearing the alley around us.

With the infected gone, it was a sigh of relief that we had acually survived like that, but i couldn't help myself in thinking.

"Where did the rest of Beta team go?".

We had to find them, or what was left of them for whatever family they had. That was just another task added to the list, for now, figure out who this kid was.

Before I could even look over to him, Garlan had him on the ground with his pistol to his head.

"Who are you!?" He damanded.

"Why were you out here? Who do you work for?!".

I had to intervine before he really started to get pushy. Knowing him, that would have ended with the poor childs life being taken. I pulled Garlan away and commanded he lower his weapons. Being his surperior, he abliged. I turned back to the officer and helped him up asking what his name was.

"Calvin." He retorted. "Calvin Brooks. I'm a rookie for the Raccoon City Police Department. Just recently graduated. Didn't think my first days on the job would have killing infected civilians I swore to protect. Who are you guys?" He asked notcicing our badges. "SWAT? Military? Special Forces?" He added.

I paused for a moment then quickly replied. "U.S Special Op, Squad 332."

"Uh-huh. So. What's going on here?" He asked while reloading his pistol.

He seemed to have beleived it enough but at the same time seemed suspicious. This young man may have been smarter thatn I previously thought. Most would just accept that answer and get the hell away, not ask for more information.

"A virus outbreak. Classified intel." Acie quickly replied.

I was too focused on how the man held himself. He reminded me alot of myself at that age.

"A virus? Yeah, anyone with a brain could see that. What's going on underneath, is what I meant. Why is it turning people rabid? And creating mutant insects?"

This caught us off gaurd. "Mutant...Insects?" I replied.

"Yeah. Didn't you not see the pods down at the library? Some kind of bug has been trapping people in cacoons and then taking them there. Did you guys just get here or something?"

Calvin became confused by this. Did he beleive we were here all along? Maybe he thought that we arrived on day one? I didn't know, so I had to ask.

"Was there anyone else with this type of gear here before we showed up?"

He looked off to a tall building closer to the left of the city.

"Yeah, they are in that building. Said that they aren't taking survivors and that anyone who shows up gets shot. I had a buddy on the force go there to check it out. He never came back so I guess they weren't lying."

This boggled my mind. The only Umbrella corps soldiers stationed here were the ones that were hired to protect the scientists like Shumer. Commucation with those groups went out as soon as this started though.

"Officer Calvin. Why aren't you out helping set up barricades and police lines with the others?" Garlan asked.

"Well, because this side of the city has gone dark. No radio chatter whatsoever. Most officers here are either dead or infected. I hooked up with a group of survivors and decided to help them as much as I could. The reason i'm out here is because an old man in the group needs insulin and I was the only canidate with a vehicle strong enough to plow through infected. I was actually heading there right now before heard screaming from back here. Figured i'd do my job and see if anyone needed help."

Calvin. A good kid. A spitting image of what I should have been. Thoughts of my past started to stir again. I had to hastily suppress them by asking.

"Insulin. You were heading to a pharmacy? Which one?"

He turned and pointed down the alley where he appeared from.

"Arklay Pharmaceuticals. Why? Did you need to go there?" He replied.

We wouldn't be able to tell a civilian our mission, but we could use him seeing how dangerous this area is, so I lied to him.

"Yes, we needed to bring a cache of medical supplies to the hospital. We were the only logical choices. Too dangerous for civilians."

"Hmm. I heard that place was overrun, nice to see its doing good. Alright. If you want, I can accompany you. An extra gun could be usefull."

I nodded in agreement and relief that he had fell for that. Maybe he was just a civilian. Anyway, we reloaded our rifles, turned down the alley, and began walking to the goal we had set. Acie marhced behind me as he asked.

"So, Officer Calvin. How many more survivors are there with you?"

"Well. we have a few people. An old man and his daughter. A young woman who won't speak to anyone. A couple others. Boy, will they be glad to see you guys though. Everyone there won't stop talking about when the army will show up to evacuate them. I told them about that broken down building where the other guys like you were, but they thought it could be bandits or something. Too dangerous."

We exited the alley and connected back to the street where a few infecteed lingered about. Nothing we couldn't handle. Busted up cars littered the asphalt and fires sprung up from them.

"See that building over there? That's Arklay. We gotte get there." Calvin pointed out even though we had already knew that.

We had to keep our sharade up though.

"Alright. Stay out of sight and out of mind of any infected. It's easiest to do this quietly." I ordered as we began down the street.

Acie walked up next Calvin and asked.

"Did you have any doctors in the group? Any high ranking officials?"

"Nope. None that I know of. Just a bunch of misfits that somehow made it to a safe spot. Well, safer spot." He replied.

"Okay, did your group try to conta-"

He stopped. His walking stopped. His talking stopped. He just went silent which caused all of us to turn around. He looked stiff like a statue and his rifle fell from his grasp. I watched it go down then noticed movement in his leg. All of a sudden, a tongue burst through it causing his leg to sever from his body to the ground. This caused him to scream out and fall as well.

I quickly ran over to him and pulled out my cartarizer as the other three began shooting at the mutations that followed us. They didn't leave. They set up and ambush. They are intelligent. Time began to slow down as the screams of my friends and the whizzing of bullets rang through my ears. I pressed the cartarizer on and it immediatley heated up to a bright orange. I then pressed it against his artery as hard as I could. He struggled for a minute and begged me to stop the pain. To kill him. He struggled and screamed but innevitabley passed out. I quickly threw his helmet off to check his breathing, which was fine.

I looked down at my friend with the blonde locks being coevered by the pool of blood and mud underneath him. I didn't know him very well but the thought of losing him devestated me. I wouldn't let him die. I couldn't bear with the thought that this man would die on my watch. Die under my command. That some mother and father would lose their son because of my poor judgement. I would not let him die. I checked the sensor hooked to him and the light flashed a bright red. Then it began to slow to a solid yellow. His vitals read shock but were switching back to stable and the bleeding stopped. One more minute of blood loss and he would have bled out. If not for the fast timing, he would have died. Reality then started to drift back as time sped up again. I could hear Garlan's voice and his hand smack the back of my helmet. I turned to see him firing off the rounds of his magazine then looking down at me.

"Come ON!" He yelled.

"We HAvE To GO!".

I shook my head and stabled my nerves enough to get up to my feet pulling Acie up with me. I threw his arm over my shoulder and switched my focus on the numerous mutations that were charging right at us. With Acie on one arm and my rifle in my other hand, I began walking to the nearest sturdy looking door motioning my men to follow me. Brad, who had apparantly been injured himself, threw down his rifle to help me carry Acie into the building we headed for. Calvin followed then Garlan who hastily slammed the door closed behind us.

The front of the stoor had barred windows and looked like some kind of gunshop. Both Calvin and Garlan braced themselves against the door as the rest of the creatures tried bashing themselves through the barred windows. Without hesitation, I laid Acie onto the floor where Brad was watching over him then turned my rifle barrel to the windows and opened fire. I shot off every round of one clip, then the next, and then the next until I was empty. I seemed to have killed one with every shot but still more kept coming. They beat at the door pushing the two blocking it further and further off of it with every nudge.

"Elijah! We have to Run!" Garlan demanded.

We could run. We could turn arounf through that door and leave Acie. That's what Garlan wanted.

"He's deadweight, J! We have to go!" He yelled.

"I WILL NOT LEAVE HIM! WE STAY AND FIGHT!" I ordered, furious from the thought that he would want to run.

He would have never done that before. Garlan had changed since we were just kids in the force. He changed worse than I did.

"FIGHT!? ARE YOU INSANE!?" He retorted as they beat them away from the door little by little.

"YES! IF WE FUNNEL THEM THEN WE CAN KILL THEM! BRAD, EQUIP YOUR SIDEARM AND STAND UP. WHEN I SAY 1, OPEN. THAT. DOOR!"

"FUCK! ALRIGHT!" Garlan screamed.

I propped up shoulder to shoulder with Brad and took aim at the door.

"You sure you wanna do this, sir!?" Brad asked.

"We have to. For Acie! He would have done it for us!"

Time began to slow again as I watched in frame by frame motion. In a calm voice, I ordered.

"3!"

The grip around my pistol became sweaty.

"2!"

The sounds of their bodies hitting the window echoed through the building.

"1!"

My heart beat stilled as they opened the door. I could see piles of the fleashy creatures pour inside.

"FIRE"

I yelled as I began to empty my magazine.