A/N: After drinking too much Amp and finding it hard to go to sleep, I've found myself with enough time to get this chapter out almost two days earlier than what I was expecting. And since we're finally dipping into the storyline from the games, I was more than happy to get it posted ASAP.

If you have read the books like I have, then you will find a lot of the elements come from them with a good amount of changes to fit the fact that there is someone else tagging along with the main cast. So prepare yourselves for things to be a little different here and there.

Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil

Chapter 6:

"Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." - Stephen King

July 23, 1998 (Arklay Forest - 20 Miles Outside Raccoon City)

The vibrations and thumping of the rotor blades of the helicopter thrummed loudly through the troop compartment. The occupants sat in tense silence, the atmosphere solumn as they readied themselves for the mission.

Rebecca sat in her spot as she tried to make herself as calm as those around her. Though a sliver of fear coursed through her as she recalled all the murders that had taken place in the last couple of weeks. It was a bad situation made worse by the fact that so many people had gone missing or torn to shreds.

And now here she was, with the rest of Bravo Team being sent out to locate anything they could that would lead to the ones responsible for them.

Her green eyes turned to the one sitting on her right. The lone member of Alpha Team that had been sent with them to help them on their assignment. He sat as still as he could with the chopper moving about through the gusts of wind in the air, arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed looking as though he were asleep even though she knew he was doing his own form of meditation.

Preparing himself for their assignment in his own way and gathering his wits for what they would face when they touched down.

She always found it interesting that he would do this every so often. Ethan explained to her that he learned this for whenever his thoughts became too much for him to handle all at once. It allowed him to sort them in anyway that he needed and helped him think more clearly. It sounded like a useful skill, and had considered asking him to teach it to her at some point.

Ethan cracked an eye open and looked her way, a smile forming on his face as he caught her staring which made her blush and avert her eyes. The situation involving her relationship with Alpha's profiler was still in the back of her mind, though she was pushing it down for the sake of the mission for the time being.

Rebecca would be lying if she said she didn't want something more with him. Every moment they were together made her feel happier than she ever remembered being. But her fear and doubt from her inexperience with dating was holding her back, making her feel uneasy about taking the next step when it came to what she had with Ethan.

But he wasn't pressuring her in anyway and allowing her to deal with this at her own pace. Her heart warmed at the sentiment behind it all and she was thankful that he was giving her all the time she needed.

The medic's thoughts were interrupted when she saw a flash of lightning from the dark clouds in the distance. A storm was brewing over the forest and they were flying toward it the closer they got to their destination.

BOOM!

A small explosion vibrated through the helicopter, a rumbling whining sound could be heard through the compartment as the air was filled with the smell of burnt metal and ozone while the craft pitched one way and dropped.

"What the hell happened!?" Enrico shouted over all the noise as they continued to lose altitude.

Kevin Dooley, Bravo's pilot, grabbed the controls and did everything in his power to keep the copter level. "Engine failure! Going in for an emergency landing!" he called over his shoulder while Edward helped him get the vessel closer to the ground without crashing.

Ethan grabbed one of the overhead handles, wrapping his other arm around Rebecca's waist and securing her to his side. Jaw clenched as he felt the copter start to spin. The sound of tree branches snapping echoed over the engines death-rattle before everything came to a halt with a shuddering crash.

Everything became silent, everyone took a moment to get their bearings back as Enrico spoke out into the cabin. "Everyone okay?" A chorus of acknowledgements sounded off from everyone before the leader of Bravo Team turned to the pilot, "Nice flying Kev." he said clapping the man on the shoulder.

"Gotta be one hell of a pilot to keep this thing from becoming a ball of fire and twisted metal." said Ethan sending the pilot a nod.

"Years of training and practice, kid." replied Kevin as he hit a few switches on the console before him. "Everything electrical is fried. Must have been lightning. It wasn't directly, but close enough to do some damage. Beacon's out too."

"Can it be repaired?" asked Enrico.

Edward began rifling through the electronics, in addition to being the co-pilot he was also the team mechanic. "I'll do what I can, but if Kev says it's toast. It's probably toast." he admitted.

The squad leader blew out a breath and nodded, "I managed to send a transmission back to base before we were hit, though I don't know if it got through. Alpha Team will have our last known coordinates, if they don't get them and we don't check in after a while they'll come looking for us."

He grabbed the handle cabin door and pulled it open. "Everybody out, let's see where we landed."

Everyone stepped out of the downed chopper and into the humid night air. Ethan looked up at the sky, knowing that with this level of humidity and moisture in the air, along with the smell of wet dirt in the distance meant that a storm was coming.

'Perfect atmosphere for what's coming.' he thought to himself as he drew his Samurai Edge and his flashlight. Crossing his left hand over his right so that the beam of light was parallel with the barrel of his handgun as it cut through the darkness.

"Think we made enough noise?" Rebecca asked coming up next to him drawing her own weapon and flashlight.

"I'm pretty sure we made one hell of an entrance." he said smirking her way, causing the medic to roll her eyes as Enrico addressed the whole group.

"Alright everyone, let's fan out and investigate the surrounding area. Kev, stay with the copter. The rest of you, stay close. I want this area secured." The others clicked on their flashlights, multiple beams of light tearing through the shadows as they all fanned out with weapons drawn as they searched the surrounding foliage for anything out of the ordinary.

Ethan swept his guns barrel from side to side, his eyes scanning for movement while his ears strained to pick up anything among the trees. A small fog bank started to roll in along the forest floor lowering visibility, a clap of thunder rolled from somewhere farther into the mountains capturing his attention for a second before he focused on the matter at hand.

He knew what was out here. And the fact that he knew was causing an unsettling feeling to form in his gut. Pushing the feeling aside, he allowed his mind to overpower his emotions so that he would remain focused on his environment.

Calculating a possible attack from any angle, the distance between him and the others and how long it would take for them to converge on a threat should one appear.

The whole squad kept at least a two meter distance between each other so they were within speaking distance. Forest and Edward were on his right, Rebecca on his left with Enrico, Kenneth and Richard on his other side. It was a standard search-sweep maneuver used by most police forces when investigating. And the profiler knew it was only a matter of time before-

"Captain! Over here!" Rebecca called out causing all beams of light to center at her and what she had been looking at.

Laying on its roof was a dark-green military style jeep with 'MP' painted on the door. Two bodies could be seen among the wreckage, both wearing military gear. One pinned beneath the jeep itself, the other thrown a few meters away.

The squad converged on the scene and began to look everything over. Ethan knelt down by the body that was pinned under the jeep. The neck and upper half of the man looked like it had been torn into by a meat grinder, blood splattered across the dirt and the vehicle's interior.

It was obvious that this wasn't done from the accident.

Using the jeep as leverage to stand up, Ethan cringed and pulled his hand away to see a warm, clear slime coating his palm. It reeked like musk and stagnant water which meant that whatever left it behind was either aquatic in nature..."Or a damn leech." he muttered under his breath.

"You think they're from Ragithon?" asked Richard as Bravo secured the site.

"It's the closest base, but look at the insignia. They're jarheads. Could be from Donnell." replied Enrico.

"Captain!" Rebecca called out. An open briefcase on the ground before her and a clipboard with information in her hand. " 'Court order for transportation...prisoner William Coen, ex-lieutenant, twenty-six years old. Court-martialed and sentenced to death, July 22nd. Prisoner is to be transferred to the Ragithon base for execution.' " she read off before Edward took the clipboard to read for himself.

"Those poor soldiers." he growled in anger. "They were just doing their jobs, and that scum murdered them and escaped."

"I don't think it was him." all the members of Bravo Team looked at Ethan as he crouched by the second body. "Unless he's part of the assholes we came out here to look for." he pointed at the soldier's torn open throat. "These guys were killed in the same fashion as the victims of the 'cannibal murders'."

Standing up, he walked around the front of the jeep and saw a large dent in the bumper and blood splatter on it. Shining his light back on the dirt road that the men had been going down, he saw large divots in the ground that could only be caused by applying the breaks quickly.

"What do you got Ethan?" asked Enrico.

The Alpha team rookie nodded to himself, "We're looking at a freak accident that turned bloody. These guys were transporting their prisoner, something was in the road when they were coming this way and they tried to stop." he shined his light on the bumper and showed them. "They hit whatever it was, lost control and flipped the jeep." his light shined down on the ground at their feet where imprints in the dirt that looked like dog tracks were visible.

"Looks like a pack of dogs found them, four...maybe five total. Tore into the poor bastards giving Coen time to escape into the woods. But what's troubling is that there was someone else here with the dogs."

Kenneth looked at the scene before going back to the profiler, "How do you know?"

Ethan knelt down next to the corpse pinned under the jeep and held up the arm where a bite mark was clearly visible. A human bite mark. "You sure it wasn't Coen?" asked Edward.

Taking the information from the mechanic, the teen read through it quickly before looking back at him. "I doubt someone whose been a dedicated soldier for seven years would turn cannibal. Though I can't say for sure why he was being transferred for execution."

"Regardless," Enrico said getting everyone's attention. "We may have an escaped killer on our hands. Let's separate and survey the immediate area, see if we can't locate Lieutenant Coen or whatever got to these men. Keep your guard up, and report back in fifteen minutes."

Getting nods all around, and after checking their radios to make sure they were on, the team split up and began searching the woods.

X

The darkness was bad, but the silence was even worse. It was almost as if every single sound made was amplified several times.

Yet despite this, Rebecca kept moving forward. 9mm and flashlight leading her through the forest as she continued to look for any sign of what had caused the accident back on the dirt road, or the missing prisoner that had been there at one point.

It had been about four minutes since they all separated, and she couldn't help but feel nervous a trickle of fear shoot up her spine at being alone with no one watching her back.'

A sound from a nearby shrub made her spin around and aim for it. The light from her flashlight catching the last of the movement, the leaves shaking and the beam trembling along with them. Rebecca took a step closer, swallowing dryly and counting back from ten. When nothing else happened she relaxed slightly realizing that whatever it was had gone.

She checked her watch and saw that another minute had passed when she heard a twig snap a few feet behind her. Whirling around, her handgun up high causing the one who was approaching her to freeze. "Easy, Becs. It's me." Ethan said with his hands up in a form of surrender.

Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her weapon. "What are you doing here?" she asked as her fellow rookie took another two steps forward.

"Thought I heard something over this way, and I found you." he said with a shrug as he shined his own flashlight along the trees around them. "Still haven't found any sign of anything. And the radio silence we've had means no one else has found anything either. Though I doubt we're going to find much out..." the traveler trailed off when he caught sight of something in the trees not ten meters away.

Moving that way, his flashlight reflecting off of a metal wall. Moving the beam, he caught sight of windows, wheels, a door... "A train." Rebecca said following behind him as they stopped in front of the car before them.

Ethan mentally smirked when he read 'Ecliptic Express' on the side of the two story, five car train ahead of him. He knew where to look for it, which was why he had kept Rebecca within his peripheral vision the whole time they all had 'separated'. Staying silent as he watched out for her as well as himself the farther into the woods they went.

"Ethan, I think there are people inside." Rebecca whispered while shining her own light on one of the broken windows and finding a shadow slumped over in one of the seats within. "Do you think the prisoner is in there?"

The older teen shrugged and felt a drop of water land on his almost bare scalp, looking up at the dark skies as more rain began to fall around them. "Come on, we won't know for sure until we check it out." he said walking toward the door leading inside.

Slipping his flashlight back in its pocket, he grabbed the handle. Weapon ready as he glanced back at Rebecca who had her own weapon up. She nodded at him, letting him know she was ready as he pulled the door to the side. The metal grinding softly as it slid along the tracks into the wall and allowing them access.

Stepping over the threshold, the first thing that greeted Ethan was the smell of rot and decay. The second was the sight of blood, a lot of it. Caking the dark wood and expensively carpeted floor, the seats and even the wallpapered walls and windows making the empty car look like a slaughter-house.

But no bodies.

"What happened here?" wondered Rebecca as she observed everything. She reached toward the back of a nearby seat and came away with wet blood on the tips of her fingers. "It's still fresh, whatever it was happened recently."

Ethan's gaze swept across every shadow in the low-lit cabin making sure that nothing would jump out at them before locking on to the door leading to the next car. Reaching up with his left hand, he pulled his combat knife out and held it upside-down against the grip of his Beretta as he approached the door.

Deep, calming breaths steadied his aim and heart rate as he pulled the door open. Bile rising his throat as the horrid smell of dead flesh slammed into him like a sledgehammer. A combination of rotten meat, copper and shit that brought water to his eyes and caused his nose to burn slightly.

Swallowing, he stepped into the car sweeping his weapon around for anything hostile. Rebecca right behind him as the door slid closed automatically when they were through.

Like he had expected, this cabin had bodies. Counting five total in the various seats on either side of the empty isle. Hearing a small gasp from the young woman behind him, Ethan treaded forward slowly just as the sound of whispering was heard through the silence.

"Identify yourself!" Rebecca called out nearly making the traveler jump at how loud she was. She sent him an apologetic look when he looked her way before they focused on the empty and silent car. Halfway up the aisle, they saw the source of the noise.

A tiny transistor radio tuned into an AM station on the floor next to a body that was leaning against the window on their left.

Ethan looked at the corpse, face grey, eyes rolled into the back of his head with a vicious slash across his throat that exposed the inside of his neck. He had to fight down the urge to burrow his blade into the things temple before it rose back up, but he'd look like a lunatic to the young medic that was reaching for the radio at their feet.

Instead he waited, eyes locked on the body as Rebecca stood back up and switched the device off...that's when he saw it.

A slight twitch of the jaw, then the head shifted a bit to the right before the body slowly started to stand up. "Rebecca..." he said in a serious tone, raising his weapon as a deep groan filled with misery and hunger came from the corpse as it faced them.

Face dripping with blood and slime, the undead man raised his arms and began to shuffle toward them.

Rebecca dropped the radio in her hands at the horrific sight before hearing more movement to her left. Looking back where they had come, two more corpses had risen and were shuffling their way. Pale and slack-faced, clothes torn and bloodied with chunks of flesh missing from their arms and neck. One of them had skin missing from his face revealing too many teeth. Their eyes filmed over white like a blind man, yet they continued to stumble toward the rookies.

Raising her weapon, the medic was about to issue a warning when a gunshot behind her made her jump and look back at Ethan.

The first man collapsed to the ground with a hole through his right eyes socket. The profiler turned, weapon still up and barrel smoking from the first shot and fired again. This round drilling through the forehead of the walking corpse wearing a train attendant's uniform.

A groan came from the remaining undead's throat as it's partner dropped to the ground like a sack of hammers. Tripping over the body and collapsing face-first on to the floor. Ethan didn't give it a chance to stand up and shot it through the top of the head and splattering dark blood and rotten grey matter across the floor.

The cabin fell silent once more as he lowered his weapon. "What did you do that for?!" Rebecca demanded. "They were alive! Sick! Why would you-" she stopped when her fellow rookie knelt down and dabbed his finger in the pool of blood coming out of the body he had shot. Coming back up and showing it to her.

"See that?" he asked as she examined the blood closely. Her green eyes widening when she saw what he was trying to show her. The fluid was watery, but had hardened pieces within it meaning that it was in the process of evaporating within the body. "Blood doesn't do that until after you're dead. Those guys, they weren't breathing, they had mortal wounds and were still up and around."

The medic swallowed, "That's...not possible. Zombies aren't real." she tried to reason.

Ethan wiped his fingers on a nearby seat and looked down at the corpses. "Then what would you call them?" he asked motioning toward the bodies. "I'm not saying I believe it either, (Bullshit) but it's the only thing that makes sense at the moment."

Movement in the back of the cabin made them spin around. Another corpse rose from a seat close to the door and started moving into the aisle. The traveler raised his weapon to shoot when another gun went off, the undead dropped to the floor dead once more.

Rebecca lowered her weapon slowly and turned to her partner, fear very clear in her eyes as she swallowed. "Just to be sure?" she said not sounding very convincing.

The traveler nodded slowly before walking toward the remaining body in the cabin. Taking his knife and driving it into the back of its skull. Pulling the blade free and shaking it off a moment later before sheathing it, "Just to be sure." he agreed as they readied their guns and moved toward the other end of the cabin.

Pulling the sliding door open and moving into the next car which didn't look anything like the passenger car they had just been in.

A long corridor that turned right at the end greeted them. Two doors were on the wall to their right with windows being pelted by the rain outside on their left. Keeping their weapons up, the rookies stepped farther in so that the door could close behind them.

"We should check these rooms, there might be survivors hiding out." Rebecca said over the sound of the rain hitting the outside of the car.

Ethan nodded, "I'll check these ones for anything important, stay within earshot incase something happens." The young woman nodded back as she continued farther down the corridor while her partner checked the first room.

Sneakers making very little noise in the small corridor, Rebecca approached the turn and peered around it. The hallway continued for a couple more feet and turned right again. She followed the path and found another door on his left before another turn.

Finding the door locked, the medic went around the last corner and found a man slumped to the ground against the back wall. The uniform he wore a conductor's outfit that was splattered with blood and had bite marks on his hands and arms.

Rebecca shook her head sadly, she wasn't expecting to see so many dead people on this assignment and felt sick to her stomach the more she saw. Her eyes trailed to the dead man's outstretched hand and saw something clenched within his fist. Curious she bent down to inspect what it was when she heard boots on the wood floor behind her.

Thinking it was Ethan coming her way, she continued her search and pulled a key from the deceased conductor's cold fingers. Looking it over, the medic stood back up and turned; "Did you find anything-" she stopped mid-sentence when she found herself looking down the barrel of a gun.

The one holding the gun stood a head taller than her with long dark hair wearing a grey wife-beater that revealed a tribal tattoo covering one of his arms. Handcuffs dangled from his wrist with one of the cuffs undone as he kept his aim steady. She recognized his face almost immediately.

"Billy. Lieutenant Coen." she said clearly and calmly even though inside she was nervous as she faced the prisoner that had escaped the MP escort that had crashed.

The ex-Lieutenant remained calm, "So, you seem to know me. Been fantasizing about me, have you?" he asked in a laid back manner.

"You were the prisoner being transferred for execution." Rebecca said with a hard edge to her voice. "You were with those soldiers outside." 'Ethan, where are you?' she thought hoping that he would come soon as she tried to ignore the pistol aimed at her right eye.

Billy tilted his head slightly, "Uh-huh, I see. You're with STARS. Well, no offense, honey, but your kind doesn't seem to want me around." he would have said more, but stopped cold when he felt the barrel of another gun pressed to the back of his head.

"Lower your weapon, or your brains will be splattered all over the wall." came a cold voice from over his shoulder.

Cursing under his breath, the soldier lowered his weapon allowing Rebecca to take it from him as he turned around and faced Ethan who kept his aim firmly locked between his eyes. Being a soldier for so long, he knew a bad situation when he saw one. And at that moment, he knew that the young man before him would carry out his threat without hesitation.

"You must be Billy Coen. We found your escort torn to shreds not far from here." said the profiler, his grey-blue eyes locked firmly on Billy's dark ones. Twitching ever so slightly as though he were reading something in the older man's gaze. "You're going to answer some questions, what you tell me will determine whether or not we'll chain you up somewhere while we wait for backup.

Even though he knew full well that Billy was innocent of the charges against him, he had to play things up so that it didn't seem like he had advanced knowledge. And he needed to play his part well if he wanted Rebecca to believe that the ex-Lieutenant wasn't really a criminal.

"I can't really turn you down at this point, can I?" said Billy knowing he wasn't getting out of this one.

Ethan lowered his weapon and holstered it before grabbing the older man's wrist. Finding his pulse point and pressing down on it so he felt the steady rhythm beneath his fingers. Locking eyes with the prisoner once more before he started. "Is your name William Coen?"

"Yes." answered Billy without hesitation.

Nodding, the teen asked his next question. "Are you 26 years old?"

"Yes"

"Were you a Lieutenant in the US military?"

"Yes."

'Got the base pulse.' Ethan thought to himself as he prepared for the real interrogation. "Were you on transfer for execution?"

Billy cringed very slightly, but answered anyway. "Yes."

"Did you kill those men after the jeep crashed?"

"No."

His pulse remained the same, no acceleration meaning he was telling the truth. "Who did?"

"A bunch of dogs, they didn't look right and came at us from all sides. I wanted to help them, but they were already getting torn apart before I had a chance to. So I ran." replied the soldier.

Ethan saw some movement around his eyes, he felt regret watching the marines getting slaughtered. "Have you killed while in the line of duty?"

"Yes."

'Now for the atom-bomb.' the traveler thought as he prepared himself. "Were you responsible for the deaths of 23 innocent people on your last assignment?"

Rebecca's mouth dropped open and she paled slightly. Shooting a glance at the ex-Lieutenant who stood motionless for several long seconds before answering. "No." His voice strong, full of conviction no matter what.

For the longest time nothing happened, the two men stood there for a while. Ethan's eyes narrowing a bit as he searched Billy's face for a few moments before letting out a slow breath. Releasing the older man's wrist before reaching into his belt and taking out a handcuff key and undoing the restraints completely. "I believe you." he said simply before tossing the cuffs away.

"Ethan! Are you crazy?!" Rebecca screamed while Billy rubbed his wrist, in a daze at what had just happened.

"Relax, Rebecca. The Lieutenant here passed his test with flying colors." said the profiler casually. "Why do you think I was put on Alpha Team as a profiler? I can tell when someone lies to me, I've been trained to find out such things when faced with a suspect."

The medic was still uneasy as she looked at the man next to her, his weapon still in her grasp safely out of his reach.

"If you need further proof, Becs. Do you honestly think that a veteran soldier who has been in the military almost a decade couldn't take on two rookie police officers? Especially when he got the drop on one of them?" Ethan asked bluntly. "If he was suppose to be some kind of cold blooded killer, he would have taken us out, took our supplies and fled in no time at all."

Billy chuckled, "Caught on to that, did you?"

The older rookie nodded, "I take it you've seen the little horrors that have been going on around here?" he asked looking at the body Rebecca had looked over and making sure it hadn't gotten up while they were talking.

"Yeah, I don't know what the hells been happening. But," he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and produced a small diary. "I found this among some of the luggage I had gone through. It talks about some kind of virus and a lab somewhere here in the forest."

Taking the little book, Ethan looked through the pages and saw the mentioning of the T-Virus and the lab facilities that were on the other end of the tracks. Handing it to Rebecca who read it over more closely, "We'll probably get through this much easier if we work together. There's strength in numbers, and none of us are sure of what's happening around here.

"I know what you mean, and you're right. It beats going through all this alone, at least as a group we might stand a chance." Billy agreed. "What about the rest of your team? I doubt you two came alone."

The traveler thought about it for a moment, "We'll worry about that later, first let's try to establish a secure location so we can radio in our findings."

Rebecca finished reading the entries in the diary and looked up at Ethan with an unreadable expression. "This could explain what we've seen so far." she said referring to the book in her hand before dropping her voice to a whisper. "Are you sure we can trust him? I don't doubt your skills, I just need to be sure." she sent a glance toward Billy who watched them curiously.

"I'm sure, Becs. We can trust him, just trust me on this one." came the reply.

The medic sighed before looking up at him, "Alright, but if he tries anything and I will shoot him." She looked toward the soldier and glared, "Understand?"

Billy gave her a mock-salute, "You got it.

Before anything else could be said, one of the windows back where they had came shattered and a loud Thump! was heard on the floor. All three of them had their weapons up and ran back to the first turn to see what had happened.

Rounding the corner, Rebecca gasped in horror. "Edward!"

Bravo's mechanic laid on the floor among scattered glass and didn't respond. A large, opened wound on his right shoulder, his face grey with shock and gaze bleary and unfocused. Every visible part of his body was covered in bruises and cuts, several looking like vicious bites.

The young medic was on her knees pulling out her medical pack, pulling out gauze patches and pressing them to his bleeding shoulder. "Are you alright?! What happened?!" she said trying to treat his injuries. The amount of blood stained on his clothes looked as though he had already lost several pints.

Edward rolled his head toward her, eyes blinking slowly as though he were trying to stay awake. "Worse than...we...can't..." he wheezed out.

Ethan knelt down on his other side and gripped the man's hand while Rebecca applied more pressure to the wound. Billy hung back and looked on silently. "Edward, what happened out there?" the older rookie asked. He could tell the man was fading fast, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

The mechanic slowly rolled his head to the other side, "...forest...full of zombies...and monsters..." Whatever else he was going to say was cut off when more glass shattered and two dark shapes leapt into the car.

They landed, sliding on the wooden floor a moment before regaining their footing before turning toward the group.

Dogs. They were big dogs, resembling Dobermans at one point, but not anymore. Teeth bared dripping saliva and blood, flaps of skin and muscle hanging from their hunches like someone had taken cheese graters to them. Their eyes filmed with red looking more like hounds from hell than someone's pet.

Ethan didn't waste a second, his handgun registered once and the dog on the left dropped to the ground with half its head obliterated. The second dog bent its hunches and launched forward, a second gunshot rang out and it was knocked back when the round struck it in the chest.

Billy reaimed and fired another shot that blew the top half of the creature's head clean off. If flailed for a moment like a dying fish before going completely still.

Threat averted for the time being, the two men turned back to Rebecca who had her fingers pressed to Edward's neck. The steady flow of blood from his shoulder had all but stopped as he gazed at the floor with half-open eyes, chest completely still.

When she took her hand back, Rebecca sat back on her heels. "I'm sorry." she whispered. Tears in the corner of her eyes that she refused to let fall because of the current situation. A hand on her shoulder made her look up to see Ethan looking down at her sadly.

"You did the best you could, Becs. He'd understand that." he said gently.

The young medic released a shuttering breath before standing back up. Nodding at her fellow rookie to let him know she was thankful. The traveler nodding back before looking down at Edward's body. Raising his Samurai Edge, he aimed for the man's head.

"What are you doing?" Rebecca asked shocked at what he was doing.

"If this thing involves that virus we read about in the diary Billy found, than we can safely assume that it's transferred through fluids of infected subjects." Ethan said keeping his voice calm as he motioned to the bites on the deceased veteran STARS. "I don't think we want him coming back as one of those things. Walking around without a soul. It goes against everything about nature and he deserves better than that."

Several tense seconds passed before the young woman understood what he was saying, "Okay." she said taking a deep breath and drawing her own weapon. "I'll do it. He was on my team."

Ethan lowered his gun and stepped away while Rebecca took aim. Her hand shaking slightly knowing that she was forced to put down one of her friends before he was reanimated. Remembering his goofy smile when he called her 'Kiddo' as her finger tightened on the trigger. "Be at peace, Edward." she said softly.

Bam!

A/N: And I'm going to break here for the time being. The first step into one hell of a long journey. But everyone has their breaking point, and even though Rebecca and Billy are there now with him, how long before all the horror and death starts to get to Ethan.

All of this and more will be answered next time.

(P.S. To my Infamous Vampire fans, the next update is coming soon. I'm just trying to bleed the storyline of the fic into the Infamous 2 storyline and it's taking longer than expected. Just keep watch and I'll try to have it up in a couple of days.)