In the panic following Umbrella's cruel decision to seal every survivor within the city—a city burning because of their doing, Peyton got knocked to the ground and sprained his ankle. Jill quickly grabbed him, pulled one of his arms across her shoulders, and easily supported half of his body weight, taking it off the injury so they could high-tail it out of there before any more live ammunition was fired into the crowd. It could've been worse. When that zombie lurched forward and tried to bite him, it could've clamped down on a part of his leg that wasn't protected by his combat boot. He could've been infected. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

Jill didn't have a concrete plan yet, she just knew that it ended with Umbrella paying for all of this. And that now, the most important thing was finding some shelter. They needed a breather. At the moment, she was practically dragging Peyton down the street as he limped beside her, their new reporter friend trailing a bit behind because she was taking the time to film the zombies shambling around in the distance. She had called herself Terri and started tagging along with them entirely unprompted. That was fine, of course. She was unarmed, and Jill and Peyton weren't.

Jill could vaguely recall seeing Terri's white blazer beside her when she shot the zombie at the gate. Jill supposed that if she were a civilian, she'd also want to stick by people who knew how to handle the threat at hand. Somewhat, at least.

"Inside." Jill steered Peyton toward the church. "Let's get under cover."

The two of them slowly pushed open the doors, their standard-issue Beretta 92Fs drawn. Terri backed up so that her shot was framed better.

The nave appeared empty and mostly untouched. Aside from some candles burning at both ends of the large space, it was dark. Freshly lit candles meant that someone had been here recently. Or that they were still here...

"You have to get out!"

They all whipped around, finding themselves staring down the barrel of a revolver. The person aiming it at them was a sweat-drenched guy in a button-down. His eyes were so wide that they threatened to pop out of his skull. Jill and Peyton pointed their own guns in response.

"This is my place. I'm hiding here!"

"It's big enough for all of us," Terri argued.

The man pulled back the hammer and aimed straight at her. "Don't tell me what—!"

"Okay, cool it." The weapon was swung toward Peyton. "Put the gun down."

The man didn't move.

"Put. The gun. Down."

Hesitantly, he lowered it with shaky hands.

Peyton turned to Terri. "And you, take it easy. Everyone is on edge right now. Don't wanna piss off the wrong person."

Thunder boomed in the distance.

"Do me a favor?"

Rain's front was pressed against Alice's back, her thighs bracketing her hips, and her arms firmly wrapped around her waist. "Yeah?"

"Clear us a path. I don't feel like taking the long way around."

"You've got it." One of Rain's arms left Alice's waist. She pulled her pistol out and fired into the group of undead blocking the road. A zombie fell as a bullet struck it in the head. Rain was an excellent shot, quickly taking out enough of them for Alice to be able to pass through. Promptly increasing her speed, Alice guided their borrowed motorcycle down the corpse-ridden path. "I thought this was supposed to be one of the less affected areas."

"It is."

Lightning cracked across the sky.

"So, does the Raccoon City Police Department have any comment on what those things are?"

Jill lit herself a cigarette and popped the top back on her Zippo, taking a long drag before answering Terri's question. "No, but they know. I showed up after an investigation in Arklay with more than half of my goddamn teammates dead. I told the chief everything. Vickers and Chambers—you've probably seen their names in the headlines too," Terri nodded, but Jill didn't seem to be paying attention, "they backed it all up, and that bastard didn't even seem affected by the news. He called it all wild accusations and had us suspended, but I know what we saw. I couldn't forget it if I tried, and I could tell you exactly what—"

CReaK...

Everybody stilled. Jill and Petyon shared a look. "I'll check it out," she told him, unholstering her gun once again and heading further into the church.

CReak...

The sound led her toward the back.

CLANG!

She spun to face the corridor on her right. There was nothing there.

...creak...

She quietly continued onward, now certain of where to look: The room at the end of the hall.

The door was slightly ajar. She carefully opened it the rest of the way and swept the space with her eyes. It had wood-paneled walls and floors. Books, religious paraphernalia, and leather upholstered furniture filled the space. She locked onto a figure occupying a chair in front of the fireplace.

"...Are you alright?" She started to approach but didn't dare to lower her weapon yet.

No reply. The figure tilted their head slightly.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

"What are you doing here?"

Jill tightened her finger on the trigger, finding a member of the church standing beside her. She looked between him and the person in the chair. "What's wrong?"

"It's my sister. She's not well."

"Maybe I can help."

The man stared at her, mouth hanging slightly open as though he wasn't sure what to say. Eventually, he settled on a simple "no" and put himself between Jill and his sister.

A low growl sounded.

"Step aside." Jill lightly pushed him out of the way and rounded the chair. She was immediately horrified.

"Just get out!"

The man's sister was bound to her seat with wire, which was cutting into her wrists. She had undoubtedly already succumbed to the virus and was desperately attempting to break free, watching Jill hungrily and gnashing her teeth. She shot the man a look of disbelief and disgust, trying to back away.

That was when Jill's foot hit something. A dead body. And a horribly mauled one at that. Blood was pooled all around the hardwood at her feet, interspersed with chunks of human meat. "You're feeding her...?" She shook her head. "You're sick. You're not helping her by doing that. She's..."

"Just-just leave us alone."

With a particularly loud snarl, the man's sister broke free of her binds. Jill instinctively raised her pistol, which prompted the man to try and take it from her. She wrenched herself free from his grasp without much issue, but it was already too late. His sister latched on and tore his throat right open. Cursing, Jill fired two rounds into her.

"Hey, slow down a sec."

Alice complied, easing up on the throttle.

"Do you see that over there? By the church?"

It was far too dark for her to make out much of anything from so far away. "No? What am I meant to be looking at?"

"There. On the roof. Those things are familiar."

She strained her eyes. "Rain, I can't see anything."

"Right fucking there. They're like... people, but without skin. I think. And they're on all fours." The memory was blurred and broken, but Rain knew she had seen creatures like them before.

Alice came to a complete stop. No skin. All fours. "I think I know what you're talking about." She had been hoping that the one they saw down in the Hive was a special case. Apparently not. "Those are lickers."

"Lickers, huh? They're going around the back now."

They drove closer, circling a bit more toward the other side of the building. A horde of infected was crowded around the closed-off entrance. Alice could finally make out the monsters.

"Everyone really wants inside," she observed, watching as the lickers crawled into the belfry. "I think we might've just come across our first group of survivors. We need to find a way in."

"Well, the doors are obviously a no-go."

Alice considered using one of the windows, but how would they get close enough to reach one while still avoiding all those zombies? There had to be a way up...

Her gaze landed on a wrecked car hauler truck, which happened to be lined up with a large stained glass window. It would make a decent ramp.

"Would you be mad if I tried something kind of crazy?"

Jill had already encountered a lot of bloodthirsty bioweapons up in that mansion in Arklay, but these were new. "I'm gonna need more ammo. I'm out."

"I'm out too."

"Shit."

Once Jill had rejoined the others, she was promptly boxed in along with them. There were three. Three monsters crawling on the ceiling above them, one of which had already killed the sweaty guy. Jill managed to snag his revolver, but even with the extra weapon, she and Peyton hadn't done enough damage to kill any of the things.

If the banging outside the doors was any indication, they had some unwelcome guests trying to force their way in as well. The current outlook wasn't great, but Jill wasn't one to give up.

"Y'all hear that?" Peyton whispered.

"Our impending doom? Yeah, kind of hard to miss," Terri replied, her voice rising slightly in terror toward the end of her sentence.

"Shhh." He raised a finger to his lips. "Not that."

Jill heard it. It sounded like an engine.

One of the creatures jumped down and landed in the center aisle, the noise drawing its attention as well.

Light flared from behind the other side of the stained glass, quickly growing brighter.

The rumbling became louder.

A black Harley crashed through the window, sending shards of colored glass everywhere. After making a relatively smooth landing, they all watched as the driver plowed straight into the monster, knocking it into the pews. The bike then came to a swerving stop, leaving tire tracks in its wake, and the person riding pillion promptly shot one of the hanging light fixtures so that it fell, crushing the beast beneath it for good measure. The almighty crash sent the remaining monsters skittering about, fully in attack mode.

Both strangers dismounted their ride.

Terri squeezed her way between Jill and Peyton so she could get a better shot. Despite being near hysterics minutes prior, she now seemed rather eager about having the opportunity to film this.

The shorter of the pair entered a stand-off with one of the creatures. Although she wasn't growling or moving on all fours like it was, she managed to emulate its energy disturbingly well, behaving like a predatory animal waiting for the right moment to strike. When it lunged, she kicked a pew. As it slid, the back of the bench clipped the monster's legs, causing it to sharply flip forward and smash its jaw against the floor. The woman struck, repeatedly bringing her heel down on its head.

At the same time, her friend was calmly firing her pistol at the other monster. It darted all around, avoiding most of her shots. When it leaped closer and landed on a table, she purposefully stopped tracing its path with her weapon, instead firing at the anchor points of two chains helping to hold up a massive crucifix. The stone around the anchor points crumbled and just as the monster tried to close the rest of the distance between them, the cross toppled over, pinning it down.

Aside from the continued attempts of the horde outside trying to enter, things became quiet.

Still yet to acknowledge the presence of Jill, Peyton, and Terri, the taller woman reloaded her gun and moved to stand beside her friend. When she got a look at her red-stained foot and what she had done, she asked under her breath, "Did you want to save your bullets, or...?"

Her friend only grunted in response, visibly tense as she tapped the toe of her boot on the floor in an attempt to get the gore off. The taller woman placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, voice dropping so low that Jill could no longer make out what she was saying.

"I'm sorry, what the fuck was all that?" Jill walked closer. "Who are you people?"