Resident Evil:
The Whole Story.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Noah Taylor sighed heavily as he read through the documents in his hands before tilting his glasses up to rub at his eyes, it had been a long night and all he wanted to do was sleep and forget about everything for a while but he still had so much work to do and even when he arrived at his destination he wouldn't be able to go to sleep.
Umbrella was sending him to Lathem to deal with a problem, a woman named Helen Simpson was trying to sue the company because she believed their brand of nitro-glycerine tablets that she took for her heart condition had actually caused her to have a heart attack.
It was ridiculous of course, there had been plenty of trials and the drugs were proven to be completely effective to help mange the condition, the woman was only looking for money. As one of the best lawyers Umbrella had it would be easy for him to get the woman to not press the suit and even if she did go through with it Noah was more than certain that he would be able to win the case but that didn't change the face that he was still being dragged around all over.
With another heavy sigh Noah placed his documents back into the black briefcase that was at his feet and turned his head too look outside the window, watching the Arklay Mountain wilderness roll by the train that was taking him to Lathem
The Ecliptic Express was a train that ran through the entire Arklay region and the train and the train line had been funded and constructed by Umbrella, meaning that while it was technically open to the public, though they would need a lot of money to buy a ticket, it was more of a private train for Umbrella executives.
It was an overnight journey to Lathem from Raccoon and the train went straight through the forest.
That was part of the reason he had not been looking forward to the journey, being a fairly high up member in the company meant that he was more than aware of the...less than legal business practices of Umbrella, and it didn't take him much effort to connect the dots and realise what was behind the murders and disappearances happening in the mountains.
He was aware that he was safe enough in the train but it didn't make him feel any better about being so close to danger, as soon as he had wrapped up the case he was going to head back to the office in Chicago and let whatever happen here run it's course, upper management would take care of everything.
A loud rumble of thunder made him very nearly jump out of his seat, he glanced up and saw that there were dark storm clouds gathering. A storm would soon burst through, honestly it was utterly ridiculous how everything seemed to be setting up to a cliché horror movie setting.
Noah was honestly surprised that he didn't hear a booming old man's voice shouting. "It was a dark and stormy night and none on the train know of the danger and horrors that awaited them."
He needed a damn drink. Or twelve.
With a heavy sigh he stood up and began to walk down the car to reach the sliding door which would lead to the dining car, he walked into the car and sat down at the bar that was on his left.
"Scotch. And leave the bottle." He told the bartender who nodded, turned and picked up a bottle of scotch and placed it back on the bar along with a glass.
Noah poured some of the scotch into the glass and drunk it down, he filled it again and again and as he drank he began to find his stress draining away. It always did after some scotch.
After he had finished off at least half the bottle he had decided that he had probably had enough, he was going to head to his cabin. If he went to sleep now then he would wake up at least not as drunk and hopefully not hungover and be able to do his job.
He half walked-half stumbled down the car and as he did so he picked up snippets of conversation from the others in the dining car.
"You think so too? I don't think that upper management will-"
"I heard that senate was planning on passing a bill, the company won't-"
"I haven't heard from John in a while. You don't think that-"
Noah stumbled to the door that lead into the car which housed the private cabins, there were only six cabins and only those who had important business were able to get one, others had to sleep in their seats, and slid it open.
As soon as he stepped into the car the entire train sharply jolted and the lights flickered, if not for a table that was near the door that he used to support himself then Noah would have fallen to the floor and he didn't want to deal with being bruised in the morning when he woke up.
He honestly didn't care what had caused the train to jolt, all he wanted to do was go to bed. He stepped in front of his cabin door and fished his key out of his pocket. It took him for a few tries to get the key out and slid it in to the lock, with a twist he unlocked the door and stepped inside.
As soon as he did the key slipped out of his hands.
For a moment he wondered if he had fallen asleep in the corridor and he was dreaming but deep down he knew that he wasn't.
The large window in his room was broken, glass littering the floor and the red curtains billowing in the wind being caused from the speed of the train.
But that wasn't what caused him to stop. What caused him to stop was what he could only assume had broken the window.
A man. Seeming to be in his sixties or maybe even his seventies and dressed in a white lab coat and what looked like a business suit underneath, his clothes were filthy and he wore no shoes.
They stared at one another for a moment, just a moment as Noah noticed movement on the floor.
Leeches. Fat, black leeches slithering towards him. And they were coming from the man, falling off him like pieces of flesh and sliding down the inside of his pants leg.
He had to go. Had to run. Stop the train. Get off the train and run.
He turned and half stumbled and half ran away, he ran through the dining car and didn't stop even as people turned to look at him. Just as he pulled the door open and was about to run through into the next car he heard the screams.
It was following him.
He ran into the next car and down the aisle, not stopping as people stood up and began to shout.
He was half way down the car when something hit him so hard that he fell down to the floor and he writhed in pain, he wasn't sure but he thought that his back had been broken. The screams were all around him.
He felt the leeches crawling on him and beginning to feast him, he tried to scream but it didn't do any good. Just before his vision went black he saw the man stepping over him.
A few minutes later, the Ecliptic Express grinded to a half and then everything was silent.
End of Chapter Twenty-Two
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