Part 16: Almas Muertas

I thought that after the slowness of this story so far I should speed it up a bit so I decided to alter my plan and speed it up faster, I hope you enjoy it. As always I don't own resident evil but I do own Echo.

We moved into the locker after the door was opened enough, the locker opened up into a treasure trove of goodies. "I think we just hit the motherload," I said to Darius in awe.

"Yeah, I'd agree with that," Darius replied as he walked over to a table laden with weapons, I looked up the walls of the locker in sheer awe that this many weapons were in the room, there was everything from AKs to ARs and pistols.

"Grab what you can," I ordered, as I began pulling open any boxes and opening any draws as I could as Darius slung a few guns over his shoulder, I reached into a box and pulled out a case of 5.45 ammunition, "unless you can find some 5.56 millimetre I suggest you don't take any ARs," I told Darius as he slung had way too many guns on him.

"Then what do I grab?" He asked me.

"Anything that won't jam if we get into the shit," I told him sternly.

"Like what?" Darius said obviously panicking.

I ran and grabbed Darius, pinning him to the wall, "you were in the god damn USS you can fucking identify a good gun when you see one," I shouted into his face. I could see the worry getting stronger and stronger within him, "Ah fuck you," I punched him in the gut, causing him to slump to the floor.

"Why are you doing this?" Darius asked me feebly.

"Because you don't even deserve to say you were ex USS!" I told him as I flipped him over and was about to reign down a tonne of shit on him but as I threw my first punch he grabbed my arm and twisted it, throwing me off.

"You don't tell me what I was, am or am going to be," He said as he got up and swung a punch landing it straight in my face knocking me onto one of the tables, "You don't have to right to take the high horse on any of it," He continued as he smashed my head into the table, "What do you have to say?" He asked me.

"It worked!" I said as I burst out laughing.

"Why are you laughing?" Darius demanded as my blood dripped off his hands.

"Because it worked."

"What worked?" Darius shouted at me with extreme anger in his voice.

"That we now have a stone cold USS killer back with us," I told him.

I raised his fist like he was going to punch me but then scooped me up, "You are a sly asshole you know that?" He told me.

"Fuck yeah I do." I went back to searching the room for weapons that I could use, "This scrounging for our own needs ain't working."

"Then what do you suggest?" Darius asked.

"Come with me," I told him as I left the locker.

"Where are we going?"

"Camping." I told him as I sprinted off into the store.

Darius didn't question me as we sprinted through the store to the camping isle, I walked up the isle and grabbed three bags off of the shelf, "Why three?" Darius asked.

"One for ammo, one for clothes and the last for food," I told him as we moved through the shop to find other things we could use, "Darius grab that tent and attach it to the clothes bag," I told him as we continued to move through the store. I found a cooking stove, an old style hexi burner, cubes of white toxic hexamine, I tossed it into the food bag along with some of the cubes I then grabbed several mess tins which also ended up in the food bag. Eventually we ended up circling right back into the gun store where we loaded up the ammo bag with as much ammo as we could find, the 5.45 millimetre I found went straight in along with a what we could find of 5.56 which wasn't a great deal, I picked up some empty magazines for both 5.56 and 5.45 rounds which went into pockets in the sides of the bag along with a couple into my pockets.

"Darius that's enough rounds we need to get a shuffle on grab that NS2000 and that AR-15," I told him as I pulled an AK off the wall, I opened the draws and just placed as many hand guns and handgun magazines and rounds into the ammo bag.

"On it," He replied as he stuffed his trousers with as many shotgun slugs as he could.

"Let's move," I told him as I moved over to the door loading a magazine into the AK, I heard Darius loading the NS2000 with shells as he moved up behind me. I had the ammo bag on my back and Darius had the Food bag with the clothes bag inside it.

Darius tapped me on the shoulder, it was like basic training again, classic down in a hot zone leading to extraction and two USS team leaders working together to get out, the book was written for this exact situation. I relished in this style and from the enthusiasm that I could feel emulating from Darius he was excited to do it too.

I opened up into the store but it was starting to get dark and as the backup generators were packing up, I moved through the store with Darius behind me, I could feel the floor shuddering as the generators were shutting down.

"Hope you're not afraid of the dark," Darius whispered forward to me.

"Please I relish in the dark," I told him. But as I moved further through the store I felt the floor shudder more violently, "That didn't sound good," I said too Darius as I trod carefully through the store but as I took a few more steps forward the lights went out plunging the store into pure darkness.

"Well what now?" Darius asked me through the dark.

"Well we know we were on our way out if we go that way so let's move," I told him as I moved off in the direction of the outside world.

We proceeded forward and the shuddering stopped, as I continued through the store I couldn't see a damn thing but with Darius behind me I felt more protected, however I felt the entire time like I was being stalked by an enemy that I couldn't see and therefore couldn't kill.

As I kept walking I saw a wide gap open up in the floor followed by a terrific eruption of fire which made me jump back, "fuck! Where now?" I said as I looked back at Darius who was now completely visible.

"I suggest running away," Darius said as we took off through the shop, the fire was so great that we could see all through the store.

"What the fuck did that?" I asked him as we ran.

"I have no fucking idea but we ain't waiting around to see," He replied to me.

I didn't argue as we ran through the store, I kept going until I could almost feel the breeze from the outside. But as we ran I could feel something hunting us down like a lion stalking the antelope, I moved through the store trying to pick onto where the stalker was. I could see the outside beaming through the windows of the store I raised my gun to the window and shot it out with a burst of automatic fire. We both threw ourselves out into the street, both raising our guns to the window we had just jumped out of. We expected the stalker to jump out after us but it didn't.

"What the fuck was that?" Darius asked me.

"I'm predicting a BOW from Chicago," I told him.

"None that I've ever heard of," He replied as we walked up the street towards the gas station where Alice and Amy would be waiting.

"Yeah they have been very innovative in their designs in recent years," I told him.

"Shit!" He shouted as we walked.

We kept moving through the streets and I could hear movement in the alleys of the streets nearby, I kept spinning my head to try and identify where the noises were coming from or what was making them. I hear the noise closing in on us.

"Look over there!" Darius shouted at me.

I saw a woman standing there with blood draped all over herself, "Fuck run!" I told Darius as we moved out of the town towards the gas station.

"Fuck! There's hundreds of them!" I heard Darius shout to me.

"Just keep fucking going!" I shouted back at him.

We came up to the gas station on the hill and climbed in the van with Amy and Alice.

"You two bought company I see," Alice said sarcastically.

"Yeah, just drive!" I told her.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter I plan to try and keep up the momentum of the story but we'll see how that goes. Anyway until the next time I hope you enjoyed the chapter please feel free to review and pm for any questions you have or just to say what you thought.