Familiar Evil (ZnT/Resident Evil)
Chapter 22: Fuel the Fear
[~][~]
September 28th, 1998, 8:00 PM
Raccoon City, Arklay County, United States of America
With the sun key in hand, and the south hallway door completely shattered beyond repair, Saito and Louise found that it was much easier to navigate their way upstairs to Doctor Pruitt. That didn't calm their nerves much, though, particularly when a pair of zombies had wandered down the stairs towards them, attracted by the sounds they had made when they were killing the licker. Both were put down quickly with a few shots to the head, but their presence served as a reminder of their precarious situation. The sun door didn't offer much protection, but it was still at least something of a barrier that could keep the zombies out from the main hall, which seemed to be their only real refuge in the library. At least for now. With Raccoon City continuing to deteriorate, Saito supposed it was only a matter of time until their refuge became untenable. Hopefully, whatever plan of escape Doctor Pruitt had come up with would get them out of there before that would come to pass.
A flash of lightning, followed by a loud crack of thunder, heralded their arrival as they stepped onto the second floor. The overhead lights which had once filled this place of learning with warmth were long dead, with shards of glass and shattered lightbulbs littering the old, tacky geometric patterned carpet. Saito ignored it in favor of using his flashlight to guide his and Louise's way forward, his right hand raised upward and holding his Glock. Right behind him was Louise, both of her hands clutching her Cheetah tightly, her eyes darting to each window as they passed them.
"We need to find something to board up these windows," Louise suddenly suggested as they rounded a corner, where they immediately noticed a lone zombie shambling around at the far end of the corridor. Seeing as how it wasn't an immediate threat, and they had spent much of their ammunition killing the licker, they decided to ignore it for now and keep going.
Saito briefly thought over Louise's proposal, then nodded and said, "Yeah, we should. Especially the ones downstairs. There might be some boards laying around that we can hammer in, or we can try breaking apart the wooden furniture."
Louise nodded in agreement, even if she didn't quite know where they'd get the supplies needed to erect those barricades. Neither did Saito, but he figured that was a problem that could be solved later. For now, they needed to meet with Doctor Pruitt, and hopefully find a way out of the hellhole that used to be his home.
Upon arriving at the door to the library's personnel offices, they quickly noticed a few things. One, the door had the sun key logo on its face; two, there were three eaten bodies crowded around the door, one belonging to a child and the others their presumed parents, with their positions indicating that they had been desperately trying to get inside before the zombies got them; and three, there was a box of 9mm rounds alongside a potted green herb on a table at the end of the hall. Louise quickly fished out the sun key to unlock the door, while Saito made his way to the supplies and scavenged them. There was a corpse slumped over on the corner, which made him pause for a moment. Particularly since it looked different than most others he had seen. The skin was more shrunk in, and its nails were elongated, almost to the point of claws. But the body itself was peppered with bullet holes, including some in the head, and it was completely burnt to a crisp. A strong smell of kerosene permeated the air around the body, and the wallpaper surrounding it was scorched black.
Someone had killed this zombie, then burnt the body afterwards, which miraculously hadn't spread to burn down the entire library. The only question was why. He didn't have any answers, but hopefully Doctor Pruitt would. Saito was shaken from his musing when Louise finally unlocked the door, and he quickly grabbed the supplies and made his way back over. As he did, the zombie they had ignored earlier finally noticed them and was now making its way to them, its arms outstretched and releasing a low moan.
Without missing a beat, Saito aimed his Glock and fired a single shot, which penetrated the zombie's skull through the eye. It fell backwards onto the ground, and to make sure it stayed dead he walked over and stomped its skull in as hard as he could. A loud crack echoed as the skull fractured, but as it was still intact he did it again. This time the skull partially caved in, but he still wasn't satisfied. Finally, with one final grunt of exertion, he slammed his foot down, crushing the skull completely and reducing it to a gory red paste.
Part of him felt he should be disgusted at himself for doing such a brutal act, but the rest was simply numb to it all at this point. The only way to truly keep a zombie dead was to completely destroy the brain, and with this zombie so close to the only other living person nearby, he couldn't leave it to chance. That being said, his foot did throb slightly in pain. As it turned out, skulls were hard, and curb stomping one into paste hurt. Not only that, but his shoe was now covered in blood, squished brain, and bone fragments. At that moment, Saito decided that, unless he happened to find some heavy, steel-toed boots, he wasn't going to do that again unless he hadn't any other choice.
Luckily, his foot wasn't too injured, and he was able to rejoin Louise without so much as a limp. As they pushed open the door, Louise gently called out, "Doctor Pruitt? Are you in here?"
At first, they didn't hear a sound aside from the creaking of the door as they closed it behind them. Once inside, they quickly scanned the room. In contrast to the rest of the library, the personnel offices seemed remarkably intact. The lights were even still on. Several cubicles lined the west side of the wall, while the right appeared to have served as a makeshift break area, complete with water cooler and a coffee machine. A cup of joe sounded heavenly right about now, and from the look on Louise's face even she was tempted. Although it had taken her a bit to come around to the taste, Louise had come to decide that coffee was one of Earth's greatest pleasures. But, as much as they wanted it, now wasn't the time. And on second thought, they couldn't risk the water in the machine being contaminated anyway.
"Doctor Pruitt? It's us; you're safe now," Saito called out again as he and Louise briefly split apart to cover more ground, taking the opportunity to quickly grab some more handgun ammunition he spotted on a desk. When he again received no response, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he was half ready to call it and simply leave. But then they heard a loud click as a door was unlocked, and as it creaked open, he saw who he could only imagine was Doctor Pruitt.
"Are you sure it's safe? I heard gunshots," Doctor Pruitt timidly asked, only barely peeking out behind the slight gap between the door and its frame.
Saito quickly nodded, and told the clearly terrified woman, "It's safe. We had to kill a zombie outside, but it's dead now. I made sure of it."
He pointed to his bloodstained tennis shoe in emphasis as Louise rejoined him. Doctor Pruitt stared at them for a bit longer, then closed the door again. A moment later, they heard more clicks as things were unlocked and objects pushed aside, finally allowing Doctor Pruitt to fully open the door.
"Thank the Virgin Mary," Doctor Cecilia Pruitt said as she exited her personal office to join them in the exterior room, allowing Saito and Louise to look at her in full. She was an elderly woman, in her late sixties or early seventies at most. Her bunched up hair was an aged grey, her pale skin wrinkled and blemished with liver spots. She was wearing an old red and black librarian's dress, and clutched tightly in her right hand was a wooden cane. Behind her, Saito could see a small revolver on her desk, but he paid it no heed.
"Doctor Pruitt, my name is Saito," Saito finally introduced himself now that they didn't have to worry about anyone listening in, then pointed towards Louise, "and this is my friend, Louise."
Doctor Pruitt smiled at them both, then her eyes widened slightly in recognition before she chuckled warmly and said, "Wait, I recognize you."
"You do?" Louise asked, her voice suddenly on edge, causing Doctor Pruitt to shrink back slightly in fear.
"No, no! It's just… I don't see a lot of people with long, bright pink hair. Especially ones who came by practically every day. It caught my attention, is all," Pruitt admitted, which calmed Louise slightly. With the tension somewhat lessened, Doctor Pruitt then asked, "Is…is that a problem? That I recognize you?"
Louise stared at her for a moment, then sighed and said, "No, it's not. Sorry, it's just… How aware of the situation are you?"
"Not much, I'm afraid," Pruitt admitted while shaking her head. "Only that the dead have risen from the grave and the Army's getting overwhelmed trying to get everyone out. Why?"
"Have you encountered anyone working for Umbrella?" Saito asked, and Pruitt nodded.
"Yes, actually. There was a squad of mercenaries working for the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service helping the Army before they got overrun," she answered. "They were rough around the edges, but seemed like good people genuinely trying to help. Why?"
Saito supposed that matched up with what Becca Woolett said about the UBCS, then he frowned and revealed, "Because Umbrella was responsible for all this. The zombies, the monsters? It's their fault, and some of their mercenaries have been hunting Louise and I across this city ever since it started. They killed my parents trying to get her."
Doctor Pruitt's eyes widened, and she muttered, "What? No, that can't… Why would…?"
"They tracked us down at the mall thanks to our radios and nearly killed Saito," Louise added. "That's why we didn't say our names earlier. They could still be listening, and if they find out where I am, they'll come straight here."
Doctor Pruitt's breathing quickened, and she looked to be on the verge of a panic attack. Then she forced herself to breathe in and out slowly, and after a few moments she said, "I'm… I'm so terribly sorry. Please, come inside. We can go over everything in there."
Saito and Louise nodded, then followed the elderly woman inside. Closing the door behind them, which they noticed had nearly half a dozen locks bolted onto it in a manner that screamed it was recent and haphazard, the trio sat down at Doctor Pruitt's desk. There, Saito and Louise began to explain everything they had experienced and learned since the start of the zombie apocalypse. The attack in Saito's apartment, them finding Echo-Six and learning about the supposed evac center at the library. They described their disastrous attempted shortcut through the mall, their harrowing encounter with the deranged Doctor Kenner, and their trek through the zoo and sewer. Throughout it all, Doctor Pruitt sat silently, smoking more and more cigarettes in an effort to calm her nerves.
"When we finally arrived to find the library already overrun last night, we collapsed in the breakroom downstairs," Louise began to conclude their tale. "We only woke up a few hours ago, and after our clothes were cleaned we began exploring and trying to scavenge for any leftover supplies. That's when we came across the licker, and then you called us after we killed it."
Doctor Pruitt was silent as she finished her latest cigarette, and as she snuffed it out in the ashtray, she said, "Mary and Joseph, I can't even begin to imagine what you two have gone through. I'm so sorry."
"Don't be," Saito told her, then leaned forward, trying not to cough from the growing cloud of secondhand smoke. "What happened here?"
The chief librarian let out a sigh as she pulled out yet another cigarette. After igniting the end with her flip-lighter, she let out a puff of smoke before answering, "I was already at work when the outbreak started. At first, none of us knew what was going on. No one did. But by nightfall, the entire city was in chaos. The Army and UBCS arrived not long afterwards, ushering people inside while setting up defenses. They were using the roof as an air pad to evacuate people, and they started almost immediately. I lost count of how many people came through. But they were focusing on getting families and children out first, and not everyone was clean. They tried to treat whoever they could. Many just got put down like rabid animals."
She took another long drag of her cigarette, then continued, "For the first day, we thought we were safe and that we were going to escape. But the zombies just kept coming. There were too many people trying to flee, and the helicopters started taking longer and longer to come back. I don't know exactly how it happened but…last night it all fell apart. The zombies broke through and…killed everyone. I'm the only one left."
Saito's face fell, then he gently replied, "I'm so sorry."
"How did you survive?" Louise asked, and Doctor Pruitt gestured to the room around her.
"When everything started falling apart, I locked myself in here," she confirmed. "I didn't let anyone else in. I…I couldn't risk it."
His thoughts immediately went towards the dead bodies outside the office, and he couldn't help but frown at the implications. From the corner of his eye, Louise did as well. Based off what Doctor Pruitt had described, she focused solely on protecting herself when everything went to Hell, which at the very least resulted in the death of a young family when she could've opened the door and let them inside to safety. It was an act he could only describe as utter cowardice. But, then again, he wasn't in her position. Maybe there truly wasn't any time to let them in, and he had to admit that he'd focus on saving himself and Louise right now over anyone else. Still, the fact that she didn't even claim to try didn't sit right with him.
Louise let out a sigh and shook her head, then said, "Well then, now that we're on the same page, I suppose we should focus on what to do next. Doctor Pruitt, you told us you had a plan to get out of here? Mind sharing it?"
"Right, right. Of course," the librarian said, then turned around in her chair and laid her hand atop an old, bulky ham radio set from the 1960s. She began to explain, "As I told you both earlier, my grandson gave me this ham radio as a gift. He's very much into it and thought I would enjoy it. It worked at first, and we'd talk to each other over it a few times. But, a few years back, it stopped working, and I never got it fixed. After that, it was just a piece of decoration, but when the Army arrived and turned the library into a small fortress, one of their engineers took a look at it. He told me that the radio was actually in great shape despite its age, and only needed a few parts to be repaired."
"And those parts would be?" Saito asked as he leaned forward, as did Louise.
"It just needs some replacement fuses," Doctor Pruitt confirmed. "In hindsight, it's embarrassing it took until now to figure that out. Aside from that, the radio is in perfect order, aside from the missing microphone and cords."
"Hmm, replacing some fuses doesn't sound too difficult," Saito admitted, thinking back to when he helped his dad replace fuses in their apartment and family car. Neither of them were by any means electricians, but it was a simple enough task in his opinion. He then looked back up at Doctor Pruitt and asked, "Do you know where we can find any fuses and the cords?"
"I stored the cords and microphone downstairs in the basement when the radio broke," Doctor Pruitt answered. "They should still be there. As for fuses, that's a bit more complicated. Normally, they'd be down there, too, but the day this damned outbreak hit, the electricity went out at the greenhouse. The repairmen took the box of fuses out there to fix it, and never came back."
Louise nodded, then said, "So, we need to get the cords for the radio downstairs in the basement, and we need to go out to the greenhouse to get the fuses. That doesn't sound too difficult. Is there anything else that we need?"
"Yes, there is one more thing," Doctor Pruitt confirmed. "The Army set up a gas generator on the roof to make sure that the radio antenna they set up would remain powered even if the city's power grid failed. That generator ran out of gas hours ago, and without it, the radio is worthless. We wouldn't be able to get a signal, much less get one out ourselves."
That was certainly a problem, Saito had to admit. But, at least on the surface, it was a problem easily fixed. Pointing his arm vaguely behind him, he declared, "There's a Stagla station not too far from here. We can probably swing over and grab some gasoline for the generator."
"You mean go outside?" Doctor Pruitt fearfully asked, and Saito nodded.
"We'd have to go outside anyway to get to the greenhouse. The only difference is that one route goes into the forest and the other goes into the city," Louise pointed out. "Frankly, I'm not certain which one is worse. But that's not the important question. The important question is which one do we tackle first?"
Saito hummed as he tapped his chin in thought. On the one hand, getting the cords sounded like the easiest task. All they had to do was go downstairs to the basement, rummage around the rooms and find the box of cords they needed. Getting that knocked out of the way would mean they wouldn't have to worry about it. But, on the other hand, it might make more sense to try and get the harder objectives done first, either getting the gas or fuses. It certainly helped that the rain had somewhat died down a bit ever since they started talking to Doctor Pruitt, so if they wanted to go outside now might be the time. Then, of course, there was the M3 shotgun he wanted to get out of that Humvee, which Louise might've found the key for.
He then nodded to himself and suggested, "I think we should knock getting the gas out of the way."
"You sure?" Louise asked while raising an eyebrow. "I would've gone after the cords."
"With the storm outside lightened up a bit for now, we might not get a better chance, if I'm being honest," Saito told her. "Besides, we were going out there again anyway to see if that key you found can open the Humvee. Might as well kill two birds with one stone."
Louise thought for a moment, her face scrunched in consideration, then she nodded and replied, "That makes sense. Alright, so we'll go outside, get the shotgun and gas, then come back and get the cords before heading towards the greenhouse."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Saito said as he stood up from his seat, Louise right behind him. As they prepared to exit the office, he turned to look at Doctor Pruitt and added, "Doctor, you stay here. We'll let you know when we get what we need."
"Fine by me," she replied, then reached into a drawer on her desk and pulled out two Army radios. Handing them to the teenagers, she added, "Before you go, take these. They're Army radios. I know you two are scared of Umbrella tracking you down, and I'd wager that these are more secure than the walkie-talkies you were using earlier."
Saito wasn't going to ask how she got them, so instead he gratefully nodded and replaced his old radio with the new one. Changing the channel to what he could only hope was a secure frequency, he and Louise nodded goodbye to the elderly woman who saw them out and closed the door behind them. A moment later, a series of locks sounded as she once again sealed herself inside.
[~]
Before leaving the relative safety of the office, Saito and Louise made sure to restock their spent magazines with fresh ammunition. It didn't take too long, as they only had to consider their handguns and didn't have to worry about zombies or some other unholy horror trying to eat them. Once they were done, they began making their way out of the library, Louise locking the office door behind them. The last thing they wanted was for a zombie to attack Doctor Pruitt because they carelessly kept the door unlocked. Sure, she had a revolver to protect herself, but that was no guarantee that she'd actually be safe nor that she was anything close to a good shot. It was better to keep her out of danger rather than leave the possibility open.
Luckily, it appeared that the library was devoid of zombies, at least for the moment. Whether that was because Saito and Louise had killed all the ones inside or there were others they missed didn't really matter to them. What did was painstakingly deconstructing the makeshift barricade they had erected to block the front door when they first arrived. Saito knew ahead of time that they'd have to do that if they ever wanted to go back outside and get that M3 shotgun, but he had underestimated just how difficult it would be. He and Louise had to make sure that each piece they pulled out wouldn't cause the entire structure to collapse on top of them like a Jenga tower. At least they didn't have to worry about any immediate danger, so they could focus entirely on the task at hand.
Finally, the two teenagers managed to clear away the barricade enough so that they could actually get to the door and open it. Once outside, they quickly looked around to see if there were any threats nearby. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any, so they exited the building and closed the thick double door behind them.
"Alright, so the gas station is just down the road that way," Saito announced, pointing his arm towards the street right in front of the library. While the rain and darkness made it difficult to see it clearly, not helped at all by the maze of debris, abandoned vehicles, and barricades lining the road, he was able to see the Stagla gas station at the end of it. It appeared that the lights were still on, which would hopefully make it easier to get what they needed.
Louise was able to see the gas station too, then asked, "How are we going to get the fuel and bring it here?"
That was actually a good question, one that Saito didn't really have an answer for. After thinking for a moment, he suggested, "We can probably try to find a hose of some kind and siphon the gas out of any nearby tanks if we can't get the pumps working. As for getting it here…either we find some fuel canisters, or we put it into bottles."
He'd rather put the gas into a canister if he had to be honest. Trying to put the gasoline into a plastic milk jug or glass bottle opened up way too many opportunities for something to go wrong. Liquid residue from whatever was inside the container beforehand could contaminate the gasoline, which would inevitably cause the gas-powered generator to break and turn into nothing more than a heavy brick. Not only that, he doubted that a plastic carton would be able to handle having gasoline in it to begin with. The plastic could be eaten away. Saito wasn't entirely certain if that was actually the case, but he didn't want to risk it.
Then again, if they couldn't find a gas canister, they'd have to make do with what they could get. If that meant having to gamble that the generator would last long enough with contaminated fuel to do what they needed, they'd have no other choice but to do so. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
Shaking his head, Saito shifted his attention towards the locked Humvee then said, "First thing's first, let's see if that key you found will open it."
Louise nodded, then pulled out the key fob, pointed it towards the locked military vehicle, and pressed the unlock button. Saito held his breath as her thumb pressed down, both hoping that it would actually work, allowing them to get to the invaluable treasures held inside, and praying that it wouldn't activate some alarm and attract a horde. Thankfully, instead of an alarm all they heard was a click as the Humvee unlocked, causing Saito and Louise to release the breaths they were both holding.
Walking at a brisk pace, Saito got to the Humvee first and reached for the handle. Actually pulling the thick metal door open took more effort than he would've anticipated. But, then again, most of the cars he'd ever ridden in weren't made to be bulletproof, so he supposed it only made sense that the doors would be heavier. With a grunt of exertion, he opened the door fully, and was immediately hit by the stench of decay from the decomposing body inside. It wasn't anything he wasn't used to at this point, so he ignored it as he climbed inside to scour the vehicle for anything of use.
The first thing he did was retrieve the Benelli M3 shotgun from the soldier's cold, dead hands. Despite having long since grown numb to the presence of death at this point, he had to admit that prying the shotgun off the body made him feel somewhat uncomfortable. Especially since doing so forced him to get fairly close to the man's blown out head. He tried to ignore it, and eventually was able to remove it from the dead man's hand.
Climbing back out of the vehicle, he immediately pulled back the charging handle slightly to check and see if it was loaded, where he immediately saw a single shell in the chamber with another in the tube waiting to take its place. Nodding to himself, Saito clicked on the safety and hoisted the shotgun's strap over his shoulder, then climbed back inside to scour for any ammunition. At the same time, he heard Louise open the Humvee's trunk, undoubtedly planning to do the same thing.
"Saito, we're in luck!" she happily announced as Saito found some ammunition tins filled with boxes of shotgun shells, rifle bullets, pistol rounds and more. "There's some canisters in here, and a hose!"
"Anything in them?" Saito asked as he peeked his head out to look at Louise holding up two steel canisters, both of them painted a bright red.
But Louise sadly shook her head then answered, "No, they're empty."
"Of course it wouldn't be that easy," Saito grumbled. "They must've used the gas already in there to power the generator in the first place."
"I was thinking that, too," Louise replied as she placed her backpack on the ground and slid one of the canisters into the main pocket. It was a tight fit, but she was able to get it to work. She then walked over to grab Saito's offered backpack and did the same before leaving it next to the Humvee's tire.
Climbing out of the Humvee again, this time carrying the ammo tin, Saito placed it on the ground before sifting through the contents. Thankfully, the ammunition wasn't loosely piled into the tins. Instead, they were still neatly organized into ammunition boxes, each one filled to different capacities. There was a wide variety. Twelve-gauge shotgun shells, 9mm Parabellum and .380 pistol rounds, 5.56 and 7.62 NATO bullets. There were even some flashbangs and fragmentation grenades, all of which they could use. Pulling out a twelve-gauge shell, he inserted it into the M3's tube. When he tried to do it a second time, though, he met resistance and found that he couldn't. Realizing that the tube had reached full capacity, Saito put the shotgun to the side and tried not to think about what the only spent shell was used for. It wasn't hard to figure that out, though.
To keep his mind occupied, he started pulling out the boxes of ammunition and organizing them by type. Keeping the shotgun shells and 9mm Parabellum for himself, he slid the boxes of 5.56 NATO and .380 rounds to Louise, where she immediately began opening them to restock her Mini-14 and Cheetah. He also split the flashbangs and grenades between the both of them. That left the 7.62 NATO, which neither of them had an immediate use for. Without a weapon chambered in that caliber, the rounds were dead weight, and if he was being honest he was already almost filled to capacity. At the same time, though, he couldn't throw them away just in case as they could be used later, much like Louise when she initially grabbed the .380 bullets then found her Cheetah afterwards.
Nodding to himself, Saito gathered up the 7.62 NATO rounds then said, "I'm going to put these in the storage chest inside."
"Sounds good. I'll wait out here," Louise replied, swapping out her pistol for her rifle then taking cover at the top of the stairs next to the library door.
Moving at a light jog, Saito pushed through the library doors to get back inside, then immediately made his way towards the break room. Once inside, he opened the storage chest then deposited the unusable rifle rounds inside. He also took the opportunity to deposit his now obsolete Ithaca 37 shotgun. Despite his earlier words, Saito found it somewhat melancholic to actually discard the weapon which had saved both his and Louise's lives countless times over the past few days.
"Heh, I guess this is what Louise meant by getting attached," Saito chuckled to himself, then gently placed the empty weapon inside. He then said, "Thanks. Hopefully you'll be able to help someone else like you helped me and Louise."
Closing the chest behind him, Saito quickly made his way back outside to Louise. Slipping his backpack over his shoulders, Saito pulled out his newly obtained semi-auto shotgun and held it tightly in his hands. Despite holding twice as many shells, the weapon was actually lighter than his old shotgun. He supposed that was due to the polymer construction rather than using actual wood and steel. Not that he was complaining. Still, now that they got the weapons and supplies they wanted out of the car, it was time to focus on their actual objective.
"Come on, let's go," Saito said, then he and Louise began making their way down the street towards the Stagla gas station. Raccoon City grew darker the further they moved away from the library, the darkness hanging over all of them like a guillotine. The rain and heavy gusts of wind howling through the empty and silent buildings didn't help matters. It created a spooky feeling, one he didn't want to be in longer than he absolutely had to.
As they maneuvered around the remains of a crashed helicopter, the pilot's body hanging out of the cockpit window, Saito kept his eyes peeled for any sign of danger. So far, he couldn't see anything, but that could've just been because the street lights were dead. Freeing up his left hand, he pulled out his flashlight and clicked it on, and immediately winced. The street was absolutely covered in signs of battle. Shattered glass, spent bullet casings, and copious amounts of blood. Weren't any bodies, though, and Saito didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"I don't like this," Louise whispered, hugging her rifle close.
"Yeah, neither do I," Saito agreed, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Stay close to me, and keep your eyes and ears peeled."
Louise nodded in agreement, then they continued moving once more. Using the light of the Stagla station as a lighthouse, the pair of teenagers continued pushing their way forward. The beam from Saito's flashlight cut through the darkness, allowing them to move past anything blocking their way. But Saito kept his attention focused on the alleyways surrounding them, figuring that would be where potential threats would make themselves known. So far, he hadn't seen anything, but that didn't mean he could rest on his laurels and ignore them.
He couldn't help but briefly pause, though, when he and Louise passed by a large construction lot. It was really more of a large, deep, multilayered pit lined with concrete and filled with half-finished rebar columns, scaffolding, and the partially constructed second and third floor platforms, but the meaning was the same. He and Louise had passed by it a few times on their way to the library before everything went to Hell, but until now they never really paid it much attention. It probably helped that inside the pit were still-active floodlights illuminating the whole thing. Inside the pit were piles of steel pipes, excavators, and various bits of construction equipment, as well as the shambling bodies and inert corpses of what used to be the construction crew and anyone unfortunate enough to try and take shelter there. There was even a cement truck, its back end pointed towards the lowermost point.
He didn't know what they were building, only that it was probably going to be tall enough to warrant a deep foundation, but he didn't really care about that. What he did care about was making sure the zombies down there didn't try to come up to them via the metal stairs installed along the edge of the lot. Thankfully, it didn't appear that the zombies noticed them, and so he and Louise ignored them and pressed forward towards the gas station.
"Saito, I've been thinking," Louise began to whisper as they approached a wire barricade, forcing them to cut through a nearby alleyway to get around it.
"What about?" Saito asked, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as they entered a more claustrophobic environment.
"Just that, well…Now that we have somewhat of an escape plan, what do we do when we get out of here?"
Saito had been thinking about that, too, and immediately answered, "Well, first thing's first, we hand over all the evidence we've found to the authorities and give them anything they need to rake Umbrella over the coals. Testimonies and stuff. They can't be allowed to get away with this."
"I don't think we need to worry about that," Louise admitted, then more quietly asked, "but…what about after? Where will we go?"
That was a more difficult question, and Saito sighed then admitted, "I honestly don't know. Weren't you going to try and find a way back to Terre?"
"I don't know if that's even possible," Louise answered while shaking her head. "I'm going to try, but…I don't know if I can, and even then, I don't know what's going to be there waiting for me."
Saito looked at Louise with sad eyes, recognizing the familial struggles she'd described going through back home. Before he could say anything, though, she quickly asked, "What about your family? Would you be able to live with them?"
There was a hopeful look on Louise's face, but it fell when Saito sadly shook his head and confirmed, "I'm afraid that's not possible. All of my extended family lived in Japan, and…they're not around anymore. Not that there were a lot of us to begin with."
Louise's eyes widened, having never heard Saito talk about his extended family before, then she quietly asked, "What happened?"
"Well, my dad was an only child, and my mom had an older brother," Saito began to explain. "I never knew her parents, though. Not really. Her father died of lung cancer just before I was born, and her mother had an aneurysm a few years later when I was just a toddler. As for my uncle, he would often come around, and it was always so fun seeing him. But he also liked to drink and ask my mom for money. They'd usually argue about it over the phone, and sometimes it got…intense. Then, one day, he had a bit too much, went on a drive and…accidentally drove his car right off the side of a cliff. That was…eight years ago."
"Founder, I'm… I'm so sorry. I didn't know," Louise said. "What about your father's parents?"
Saito couldn't help but let out a soft smile as warm memories of his other grandparents came to the forefront, then he answered, "Well, Fumio-chan and Kahori-chan…they were great. We'd visit them every year for Christmas in Kobe. They'd always make some anpan, little sweet rolls filled with bean paste, and some purin. During the summers, we'd go out and get mochi ice cream. They loved mochi; they even named their Shiba Inu 'Mochi.'"
Saito's smile then fell as he revealed, "But, three years ago…there was an earthquake in the Hanshin region. It was bad, so bad that the JSDF called my mom back into service just so she could help as a rescue pilot. Kobe was the hardest hit. Killed over six-thousand people, more than half in Kobe alone…my grandparents among them."
Louise was silent as a tear trailed down Saito's face, then he wiped it away and revealed, "So, yeah… My parents were all I had left. That and you, I suppose."
She continued to remain silent, then Louise suddenly wrapped Saito in a quick hug. The boy was surprised by this, but returned the affectionate gesture regardless. When she broke away, Louise declared, "I'm going to get us out of here, Saito. I promise."
Saito looked at her for a moment, then smiled. They both knew there was no guarantee she'd be able to, nor that they'd survive long enough to get to that point, but frankly it was better to hope for something than to give into despair. He supposed that was why they kept going, in a way. If they stopped and sat down to really think about their situation, about the impossible odds stacked against them…they might not get back up. So, instead, they kept moving, desperately reaching out and grabbing any chance to get out of this alive.
Before Saito could say or think of anything else, they suddenly heard a bark along with the rushing of feet. His eyes widened, and Saito immediately aimed his flashlight down the alleyway where he saw a pack of zombie dogs sprinting towards them, their jaws slobbering in anticipation of digging into fresh meat. Louise quickly pushed away from Saito and was already aiming her rifle towards the undead canines, but Saito was faster. Raising his shotgun with both hands to his shoulder, Saito pulled the trigger, popping the head of the first canine with buckshot. The second shot only grazed the other, but without needing to pump the semiautomatic he was able to follow it up quickly with a third to put it down. By this point, Louise had joined in firing her rifle, and together they were able to put down the dogs before they were able to get close.
Breathing heavily, Saito looked at his shotgun and counted the number of shells he spent during the latest encounter, seeing six laying on the ground at his feet. Taking a few more moments to calm himself down, Saito inserted six new shells into the magazine tube, then declared, "Well…glad I grabbed this thing."
Louise nodded in agreement, then together the pair moved further down the alleyway towards the gas station.
[~]
Thankfully, the rest of their excursion was relatively uneventful. A few zombies and undead dogs had crossed their path, but each were swiftly put down or avoided by the pair before moving on through the alleyway. There were a few times, though, that Saito and Louise had to cut through an abandoned building to continue moving forward, whether due to a locked gate, a wall of debris too large or unstable to safely climb over, or simply too many zombies that they'd prefer to avoid. Whenever they came across any useful supplies, they made sure to grab them. It was mostly a few loose bullets and the odd herb, although Saito did manage to find an intact wooden baseball bat to replace his old, broken one. The body of the person it belonged to had unfortunately been mangled beyond recognition.
"We're here," Saito announced as they finally exited the alleyway right beside the Stagla station.
Before crossing the street, he and Louise carefully looked around for any sign of danger. From what they could tell, this gas station had seen plenty of action over the past few days. Alongside the piles of trash and loose papers were scores of wrecked and burnt cars that lined the street, forming a small maze of barriers that corralled anything that tried to go through it. Several light poles had been knocked over, with a few broken power lines laying on the ground. They'd have to make sure to avoid those at all costs, particularly since many of the lights in this area were still on. The gas station itself was relatively intact, if clearly looted and having seen better days. But one of the pillars holding up the canopy had been struck by a car. The vehicle itself had completely crumpled, the hood folded around the remains of the pillar, and the driver's broken body was halfway out the shattered windshield. The canopy had a dangerous tilt, and from what Saito could see, the only reason why it hadn't already collapsed was because the car itself was serving as a makeshift brace. One strong hit and the entire structure would fall in on itself.
At the far end of the street, there was a swarm of zombies illuminated from behind by a burning apartment building, but thankfully they were held back by a weighed-down wire fence barricade. A few RPD squad cars and an APC were next to it and other potential access points. At one point, they might've served as security for the scores of people attempting to flee the undead hordes. But that time had long since passed. Now they only served as a reminder of the losses suffered here, a point emphasized by the few dozen bodies they saw laying scattered on the street, some of whom were being feasted upon by the zombies nearby.
"Come on, let's get the gas then get the hell out of here," Saito said as he clutched his shotgun tightly.
"Right," Louise nodded as she did the same with her rifle.
Together, she and Saito carefully exited the tight and cramped alleyway for the wide and relatively open street. Careful to keep an eye on the zombies immediately in sight as well as for any that could be hiding, they moved through the maze of abandoned vehicles towards the gas station. They moved at a brisk pace, wanting to get to their objective as fast as possible. After all, the longer they stayed out in the city, the more likely it would be that they'd either get caught in the storm, which was beginning to pick back up, or they'd get overwhelmed as the horde of zombies roaming through the city came back here. Saito suspected that the only reason why they had such relatively few encounters with the undead during their excursion was because the zombies had already moved through this area in search of live prey. It was certainly a welcome development – less zombies meant more safety – but they couldn't count on that forever.
Luckily, he and Louise managed to get through the maze of cars unscathed. A zombie hiding underneath a car had reached out and grabbed Louise's leg in an effort to bite into her, but the cords they had wrapped around their wrists and ankles prevented any serious damage. Louise had promptly shot the abomination in the back of the head with her Cheetah, popping it like a balloon and ending the threat. But that unfortunately caught the attention of the other zombies nearby, who dropped what they were doing and began making their way towards them. Bracing her rifle against her shoulder, Louise began putting them down as best she could. But without a scope and at this range, most of her bullets unfortunately missed her intended target, either hitting their chests instead of their heads or simply not hitting them at all. Once they got too close, Saito promptly put them down with his shotgun.
"I really need to get a scope for this thing," Louise muttered as she swapped her spent magazine for a fresh one.
"Hopefully we'll find one," Saito replied as he inserted shells into his shotgun's magazine tube.
With the coast clear for now, Saito and Louise stowed their long arms behind their backs and made their way towards the gasoline pumps. Most of them sported signs of damage, ranging from bullet holes and torn hoses to some being completely knocked over. For obvious reasons, those were unusable for their purposes. Thankfully, one was still intact, so the pair focused on it. But as they kneeled beside the pump and took out their gas canisters and hose, a new problem suddenly revealed itself.
"Saito, do you know how to work this thing?" Louise asked.
"Of course, we just gotta…," Saito paused then thought over their current situation before cursing, "Damn it."
"So you don't know how to use it?"
"No, I do. The problem is that we can't just take the gas straight from the pump," Saito replied, then pointed towards it, where they saw several buttons that displayed the type of gasoline on sale as well as slots to insert dollar bills or credit cards for payment. The Umbrella Corporation's logo was proudly displayed on the top right corner, but the pair ignored that.
"In order for that pump to turn on and let you get the gas, you have to pay for it first. Either by paying at the pump or at the cash register. Normally right now, no one would give a shit about paying for gas when the world's ending. But these machines are designed that way, and I don't know how to work the cash register and turn it on in there."
Louise frowned and looked more closely at the gas pump before saying, "I see. So, we need to somehow 'pay' for the gas before we can get it."
"Yeah, it's complete bullshit," Saito muttered while shaking his head before standing up. "Luckily, this one accepts dollar bills. So, if we look around, we might be able to find some money and slide it in. Let's—"
"Actually," Louise suddenly interrupted as her eyes widened and she frantically began looking through her backpack, "we are in luck!"
A moment later, Louise fished out the wallet she had recovered back in the library, and from it revealed a single hundred dollar bill that she proudly waved in front of them.
"I kept this because I thought we might need it to start a fire or something," she explained to her friend. "This should work, right?"
Saito stared at her for a moment, then chuckled and said, "You know what, I'll take it. For a minute there, I was worried we were going to have to kill nearby zombies and go through their pockets for loose change."
"Gods, killing zombies to get money and treasure for things we need. Could you imagine?" Louise added, and despite themselves, they couldn't help but laugh. Once their laughter died down, she then adopted a more serious expression and looked closely at the pump before asking, "Do we know what type of fuel the generator needs? I'm seeing several on sale."
Saito mumbled under his breath in thought, then admitted, "I don't know. Let me ask."
Pulling out the Army radio that Dr. Pruitt had given them, Saito pressed the call button and spoke into the transceiver, "Dr. Pruitt, do you know what kind of gasoline the generator needs?"
They didn't get a response at first, but a moment later the elderly librarian's voice came through as she answered, "I'm not exactly sure, but I think the soldiers mentioned diesel."
Saito supposed that made sense. A lot of generators were powered by diesel engines, particularly in the Army. Since the generator was set up by the Army, that added further credence to the claim. Nodding to himself, he looked at the pump again, and saw that it thankfully did have a diesel pump.
"Thanks. We're getting the diesel now," Saito said, then shut off the radio and pocketed it. Even if the signal was more secure than the walkie-talkies they were using earlier, he'd rather not stay on a relatively open channel as much as possible in case Umbrella just so happened to be listening in.
Taking the crumpled hundred dollar bill from Louise, Saito moved towards the slot and started trying to straighten it out and unfolding the corners. He then said, "Check inside the store. There might be some food and supplies we can use. See if you can't find any glass bottles as well. We might be able to make some molotovs with the extra fuel."
"Got it," Louise replied, pulling out her Cheetah before making her way inside the gas station.
As she went through the broken doors, she heard Saito grumble in frustration as the pump rejected the dollar bill. She couldn't help but chuckle at the familiar scene, her thoughts drifting back to a happier time when she witnessed Saito and others deal with the exact same issue over and over again at various vending machines in the mall. Of course, back then the only thing at stake was whether they'd get a soda can or a bag of chips, but it was somewhat comforting that even after all this death, decay, and destruction, there was still at least a semblance of the life she had come to enjoy here.
Although the exterior of the gas station was illuminated, the interior was a different story. Only a single overhead light was flickering on and off near the refrigerated section. The rest were completely destroyed, with a few fluorescent tubes hanging down from the ceiling and only barely held up by loose wires. Trails of blood stained the tile floor, with one ending at a half-eaten body slumped over by a now empty shelf. Louise decided to stay clear of it just in case the body wasn't actually dead and began moving through the aisles, trying to see if there was anything left they could scavenge. They had enough water back at the library, but more was always welcome, as was food.
Unfortunately, all she was able to find were a few cans of wet dog food. Eating that certainly didn't sound appetizing at all, but she reluctantly stowed the cans into her backpack anyway, what would've been an unspeakable indignity to even contemplate before this barely even registering to her now. In this environment, beggars couldn't be choosers, and eating literal dog food was better than no food at all. It would have to be a last resort, though. From what she understood, dog food wasn't meant to be consumed by humans. Hence the name.
With the aisles picked clean, she began combing the refrigerated section for anything of use. She was able to find a few glass bottles of beer, which she promptly popped open with some effort and a bottle opener from a nearby shelf before dumping the contents on the floor. While she was no stranger to drinking alcohol, mostly wine, getting drunk was absolutely not an option right now, and they needed the bottles to make the firebombs. Once she gathered enough, she bundled them up in her arms before making her way back out to Saito, careful not to drop them. As she approached, she saw that Saito had finally gotten the pump to accept the money and was already filling the gas canister.
"Saito, I found these," she told him as she carefully placed the bottles on the ground.
"Perfect," Saito replied as he switched the hose to the other canister. "Let me fill this one up first. See if you can't find some cloth to stuff down the bottlenecks."
Louise nodded, figuring that shouldn't be too difficult, although ripping out strips of a t-shirt from a zombie was more than a little macabre. But she persevered, making sure the zombie was dead with a few chops of her hatchet before using the blade to carefully cut out the strips she needed. Once she was done gathering the cloth, she made her way back over to Saito and patiently waited for him to finish filling up the second canister. She put the first filled one into her backpack and lifted it onto her shoulders to test the weight, and immediately grimaced. It was far more than she was used to, but luckily all she had to do was ferry it to the library. Once there, it was just a short flight of stairs and then they'd be done with it.
Once Saito was finished filling up the second canister, he placed it into his backpack as well before moving onto the bottles. Actually getting the fuel in proved to be more difficult than the canisters thanks to the small neck, but luckily they were able to use the hose Louise had found in the Humvee to make it easier. All they had to do was attach one end to the fuel pump and cram the other into the glass bottle. It was a tight fit and some of the diesel spilled out onto the concrete, but they made it work.
The pair worked in silence, Louise keeping watch with her rifle on standby just in case anything showed up. She kept her attention focused on the horde behind the police barricade, wary of it breaking down at any moment. Some of the zombies had noticed them and were slamming their bodies against the wire fence, but so far they hadn't had any luck breaking it down. Louise was more than okay with that, but she kept her eye on them regardless.
"Alright, I think we're done," Saito declared as he finished up filling the last of the glass bottles. Placing the fuel pump back into the slot, he and Louise stuffed the pieces of cloth into the openings and tied them to keep the firebombs sealed before placing them in side pockets of their backpacks.
"Good, let's get—" Louise began, only to be interrupted by a loud metallic crash coming from a nearby alleyway, as though a trashcan had been knocked over.
The pair immediately shot their attention towards the noise, aiming their long guns towards the opening. Her heart rate began to quicken and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She and Saito began to spread out, covering the alleyway opening from different angles and making sure not to catch each other in their line of fire. Soon, she was able to hear frantic footsteps. Something was running towards them, but she had no idea what. Could be more dogs or a new type of zombie they hadn't run into before.
It wasn't long before a humanoid silhouette came into view, running as fast as it could towards the light. Louise was about to shout a warning when the figure finally exited the alley, where she saw that it was a man wearing a bloodstained Army BDU. Wrapped around his chest was a bandolier holding various 40mm grenades, and in his hands was a standalone M203 grenade launcher. His head was completely turned around, the soldier focused entirely on what was behind him, as though he was running from something and didn't care about what was in front of him. It was only when he entered the light that he finally saw the two teenagers, and she was stricken by the utter terror on his face. But he quickly tripped and fell hard onto the ground, allowing more of his injuries to be seen.
"Oh my God," Saito mumbled before immediately sprinting towards the fallen soldier. Looking around, he glanced towards the gas station before lifting the man up by his shoulders.
"Louise, cover me!" Saito ordered as he started dragging the man to safety into the gas station. Louise stood in front, her rifle raised and aimed towards the alleyway as she covered them. Once they were inside, they placed the man in a backroom, seating him on a chair before grabbing some first aid spray.
"Hold still," Saito gently said as he started administering first aid, with Louise crumpling up some herbs to feed him.
But the soldier, whose nametag read 'Jenkins,' tried waving them off before mumbling, "You kids need to run. It's not safe…."
"Don't waste your energy. Here, eat this," Louise rebuked while trying to hand him a bottle of water and the herbs.
Jenkins looked at them for a moment as Saito opened up the man's shirt, grimacing at the massive bruises and cuts on his torso. Louise blanched as well, not sure if the herbs and first aid spray would be enough, but forced the weak man to ingest the herbs and water anyway. As the man chewed and swallowed, she saw that some of the less severe injuries immediately began to seal shut and fade away. But the deeper wounds remained.
Greedily downing the water bottle, Jenkins wiped the excess away from his lips before saying, "Thank…thank you."
"It's okay," Saito said, kneeling in front of the terrified man. "What happened? What were you running from? Zombies?"
The soldier, breathing heavily and clutching his grenade launcher like a lifeline, looked around as though something could come out of nowhere before answering, "I don't fucking know. My squad and I…we were escorting civilians to the evac center. We were putting down those zombies left and right, then that…that thing showed up."
"Thing?" Louise repeated before briefly glancing at Saito. "What thing?"
Still breathing heavily and on the cusp of a panic attack, Jenkins continued, "Command called it a Tyrant. It was this big, hulking monstrosity that just came out of nowhere. We threw everything we had at it. Bullets, grenades. Sarge even tried ramming it with the Humvee, and it just walked it off! All we did was slow it down!"
Jenkins was hyperventilating now, declaring, "I heard it kill the others. I…I had to run, but it started coming after me. It's still after me, I know it! We have to get out of here!"
"Calm down, calm down," Saito tried to tell the man, but he wasn't listening. Jenkins was now completely gripped by utter panic, unable to process anything other than the terror he'd been running from.
Despite having not seen this 'Tyrant' in person, Louise couldn't help but feel the fear as well. The last group of American soldiers she came across were Echo-Six, and judging by the uniform this man appeared to be part of the same special ops unit that they were. If a single creature was able to wipe out an entire squad of soldiers while shrugging off that much firepower, then just what in Hel was it? It couldn't be a normal zombie. The only thing she could think of was that it was a BOW of some kind, but that could mean anything. Part of her also remembered what January Van Sant told them back at Dr. Kenner's lab, about how the T-Virus stood for the Tyrant Virus. Were the two related?
Before she could ask any questions, though, they suddenly began to hear heavy footsteps approaching them from outside. Everyone fell quiet, including Jenkins who muttered, "Oh God… It's here. I brought it right to you…I should go. I'll lead it away and-!"
He stood up from the chair and backed himself against the opposite wall from where the sounds were coming from, his body tensed and ready to bolt. But right before he could, a massive, thick arm suddenly shot straight through the concrete next to him, grabbing Jenkins' head and pinning it against the wall. The poor man screamed in terror and agony, clawing at the arm in a desperate attempt to free himself while Saito and Louise could only step back in shock, uselessly aiming their handguns towards the arm. Soon they started to hear the cracking of bone as Jenkins' screams grew louder and more agonizing, then the back of his skull completely caved in. The soldier's body went still, and the arm dropped his corpse like a sack of potatoes before retracting.
The two teenagers stared at the hole, their hearts racing, then Saito muttered, "Run."
Without wasting a second, the pair turned around and sprinted as fast as they could out of the gas station. As they did, they heard footsteps coming around the building, and as they exited the broken doors, they finally saw what could only be the Tyrant rounding the corner. At first glance, it looked like a man wearing a thick, oily black coat and fedora. But underneath the light, and upon closer inspection, they could see the uncanny differences. The Tyrant was over eight feet tall, it's entire frame covered by a matching coat, gloves, and boots. Only the face was exposed, revealing pale eyes that bored down on them as well as a warped face that looked as though it had been crudely molded out of grey clay to vaguely resemble a man's features. There wasn't a single emotion or thought behind its eyes, but as it locked in on Saito and Louise, they immediately knew it had chosen them as its next target.
The two teenagers immediately opened fire, aiming their handguns towards its exposed face. At this range, most of their bullets hit their target in the abnormally large chest but the coat, which sported extensive damage from its earlier fight against the US Special Forces unit, easily protected the monster from the small caliber rounds. A few managed to hit it in the face, but although they broke through the skin, they didn't get far and after a few steps they were shaken out of the pockmarks.
"Pistols don't work!" Saito shouted as he swapped over to his shotgun and began unloading shell after shell towards the abomination's head. Louise did the same with her rifle, trying to hit the only exposed bit of flesh that they could see. But while the long guns were visibly doing more damage, with Saito even managing to knock off the fedora, all that did was cause the Tyrant to increase its pace, as though the loss of its hat actually angered it. Saito was only barely able to dodge a heavy punch from the Tyrant, which completely broke through the exterior wall of the gas station. But before Saito could get away, the Tyrant turned around faster than he expected, and it promptly grabbed him by his face and lifted him up.
Realizing what it was about to do, Saito did the only thing he could think of and pulled out his knife as fast as he could before stabbing it into its arm. That seemed to have worked as he apparently nicked a tendon and the Tyrant promptly dropped him, and Saito grunted slightly in pain as he fell onto the ground before scrambling away backwards as fast as he. The Tyrant, meanwhile, simply ripped the ka-bar out of its arm and tossed it aside before flexing its fingers, seemingly none the worse for wear. Louise was on him immediately, helping her friend back up while reloading her rifle and continuing to fire at the monster which was approaching them once again. Getting onto his knees, Saito leveled his shotgun which he had miraculously managed to keep a hold of and emptied the rest of the tube. But the combined fire did nothing, and the Tyrant simply walked right towards them as though they weren't doing anything at all.
Her heart racing, Louise pulled out a flashbang, pulled the pin, and shouted, "Cover your ears!"
She tossed the flash grenade and looked away. It landed at the Tyrant's feet, and a moment later it exploded into blinding light and deafening sound. The two teenagers had managed to protect themselves just in time, but the Tyrant wasn't so lucky. It was now stumbling about aimlessly, swinging its arms in a desperate attempt to lash out at whatever disoriented it.
"That's not going to work for long. Run!" Saito declared as Louise helped him up onto his feet.
His prediction proved accurate as the Tyrant stopped stumbling and stood up straight. Turning around towards the two teenagers running for their lives, it grabbed a nearby car and hoisted it overhead. It then threw the heavy vehicle towards the pair, who managed to dive away before it could hit them. The car landed and rolled across the street, barreling right through the barricade leading towards the library like a bowling ball through pins.
"Holy shit!" Saito cursed as he saw the awesome display of strength. But he couldn't gawk for long as the Tyrant was already coming towards them.
Pulling out one of the molotovs they'd just made, Louise ignited it with a flip lighter and tossed the bottle towards it. The glass shattered against the chest and completely covered it from head to toe in diesel, which was promptly ignited by the burning cloth. Despite being set aflame, the Tyrant continued moving towards them, not caring in the slightest as its skin literally started to melt.
"How do you kill this thing?!" Louise screamed in terror, swapping to her pistol in lieu of reloading her rifle.
"I don't know, just keep shooting!" Saito shouted back as he desperately fired his Glock as well. But the bullets were doing nothing, and soon the flames were snuffed out as they ran out of fuel to burn.
The teens were forced to scatter as the Tyrant once again got too close, and as Louise reloaded her handgun and continued to fire, she realized that this was never going to work. They simply didn't have the firepower to put the damn thing down. It seemed as though Saito knew that as well. If they wanted to live, they had to escape, but that posed another problem. Jenkins had clearly been running from this thing for a long time, and it just kept pursuing him relentlessly. Simply turning around and running for their lives wouldn't actually guarantee they'd lose it. If anything, they might accidentally lead it towards the library. They had to trap it, or at the very least slow it down, but how?
Louise's thoughts then drifted back towards the gas station, with its thick metal and concrete canopy that must've weighed several tonnes, which was listing even more dangerously now than it had been they first arrived. Her eyes widened as an idea began to take shape, particularly when she remembered the weapon that Jenkins had on hand.
"Saito, lead him back under the canopy! I have an idea!" Louise ordered as she sprinted back towards the gas station.
"What?!" Saito shouted back, confused as to where Louise was going.
"Just trust me!" she replied, leaping over the shattered remains of the front door and running towards the back room. She nearly slipped along the blood and even slammed against the glass refrigerator doors, shattering it and covering her shoulder in glass that slightly cut her arm, but she ignored it and managed to keep her footing.
Racing into the backroom, she immediately grabbed the M203 and the bandolier wrapped around Jenkins' chest. The weapon itself was lighter than she expected, consisting of the grenade launcher tube connected via rail to a heat shielded barrel, a pistol grip, and a collapsable stock. On top of the heat shield were adjustable sights to help aim the weapon, and on the bottom was a small latch that kept the actual grenade launcher tube closed. Pressing it in, she was able to slide the tube forward then angle the weapon upward, causing the spent grenade casing already inside to slide out and fall onto the ground.
Hearing the sound of frantic gunfire outside as Saito led the Tyrant back to the gas station, Louise pulled out one of the grenades from the pilfered bandolier. It was marked by a red rim along the bottom edge of the grenade shell, and etched onto the side were the words '40mm HE – Direct Impact'. There was also the Umbrella Corporation's logo on it, which added more than a little irony to their current situation, but she ignored it.
Running back outside with the grenade launcher in hand and the bandolier dangling from around her neck, Louise shouted towards Saito, "Get that thing to the middle! When I tell you to, stun it with a flashbang!"
"What are you going to do?!" Saito yelled in response, although he was following Louise's orders regardless as she was the only one who had a semblance of a plan, even if he didn't understand it.
"I'm gonna collapse the building on him!" Louise declared, running past her friend then taking position a short distance opposite the broken support beam. She aimed her grenade launcher towards the Tyrant as Saito, now fully understanding and onboard, did as instructed.
Pulling out a flashbang, he used himself as bait to lure the Tyrant towards the center of the gas station directly underneath the canopy. Once they were in a good enough position, he pulled the pin on the grenade and lightly tossed it at the Tyrant's feet before running away as fast as he could towards Louise. The grenade exploded, and as before the Tyrant began stumbling aimlessly. Once Saito was far enough away, Louise carefully aimed the unfamiliar weapon at the briefly stationary target and fired a grenade towards the Tyrant, managing to hit it in the chest. The high explosive detonated on impact, briefly sending up a small fireball and smoke cloud that obscured the Tyrant. Like Jenkins had told them, even this wasn't enough to seriously injure it, but it at least forced the Tyrant onto a knee.
Reloading her M203 with another HE grenade as the juggernaut seemed to catch its breath, Louise aimed towards the broken pillar's base before firing again. The grenade exploded, shoving the crashed car away and causing the weakened pillar to buckle in on itself. Without this crucial support, the entire canopy completely collapsed, burying the Tyrant under a mountain of steel and concrete.
"Ah-hah! Yes!" Saito shouted in celebration, unable to prevent himself from throwing up his fist victoriously. "Louise, you're a fucking genius!"
Louise smiled as well, but then she saw the mound begin to shake and tremble. Realizing that it would've been too easy for that to have killed the Tyrant, Louise told Saito, "Come on, let's get out of here!"
With that, the two teenagers turned tail and sprinted back towards the library, using the broken gap in the barricade that the Tyrant had made as a shortcut. They refused to look back as the Tyrant continued to struggle, the monster slowly but surely recovering its strength. It may take some time to break free of its impromptu prison, but it eventually would. When it did, it would continue its directive, programmed into it by its masters: Protect Umbrella assets. Ensure no witnesses. Hunt down survivors.
Despite not being programmed to feel emotion, deep down a part of the Tyrant couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of anticipation at the thought of the retribution it would soon deliver upon its current targets.
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Hello, everyone! Happy Memorial Day to all my fellow Americans, and here's the latest chapter of Familiar Evil! Special thanks to NaanContributor and Jesse K for all their help bringing this chapter to life. It does appear that Fanfiction's website is on the fritz again when it comes to email notifications. Hopefully this gets fixed soon, but they should still work on the app.
Saito and Louise finally have a semblance of a plan to escape Raccoon City: repair the radio and call the Army for evac. All they have to do is find some parts and they're good. Too bad Mr. X decided to give it to 'em. We were very happy with how this chapter turned out as we showed Saito and Louise's first encounter with a dreaded Tyrant. As you guys can imagine, Saito and Louise are now going to have to deal with a Tyrant stalking them like Mr. X did in RE2 as they continue trying to accomplish their objectives in the library. At least they have some more firepower to help deal with it: Saito's fancy new semi-auto shotgun and Louise's grenade launcher. We did consider giving her an M79 as is RE tradition, but we figured a standalone M203 was both more likely to be found and easier for Louise to use, among other things.
If any of you have a TV Tropes account, any assistance in updating the page would be greatly appreciated. Up next, we're going back to the Rescue Party for a chapter or two, and going forward you guys can expect that to be the pattern. Two chapters for Saito/Louise, followed by two chapters for the Rescue Party barring the odd third or single depending on the situation.
Now then, to answer your guys' questions:
No, the sequel will not cover the events of Code Veronica. One of our goals here with FE is that we don't step on the toes of the actual RE games, barring a couple changes to facilitate our narrative. We're still in the process of planning out what will happen in the sequel, but it will involve a years-long time skip to at least the mid-to-late 2000s and will be set in Halkegenia.
Please don't press us to update our stories faster. Not only do we have several we're working on simultaneously (four just of my own, and a fifth that I co-write with Jesse K), but we also have our own lives to deal with that always take priority. This is a hobby of ours, and the chapters will come out when they are done.
It did take me seven chapters to get to the outbreak so that I could properly set everything up both in Raccoon City and back in Tristain while also getting the characters and the audience invested in pre-outbreak life in Raccoon City. Funnily enough, it was actually supposed to happen a few chapters earlier. One of the first chapters was going to involve the Hiraga family getting a pistol at the Kendo Gun Shop which would've become Saito's starter pistol when things went to shit. But then my computer crashed, and the entire chapter got corrupted. Luckily, I had already given the first half to my editors, so I was able to save it, but that second half was dropped as I was not interested in rewriting it.
The different flavors of zombie apocalypses have their own strengths and weaknesses, and each one are enjoyable to their own degree. RE is probably my favorite horror franchise, and my goal with this story is to match the tone and feel of the games. I've never played The Last of Us, but that's not really relevant here. Let's keep the focus on Resident Evil and Familiar of Zero.
I've only played the remake of RE3. Same with RE2, so I'm naturally drawing from them significantly. Still, the events of Familiar Evil do not intersect or conflict with those games, so you are free to imagine how they played out in the background.
Glad you enjoyed the story so much! It's always a pleasure to me when someone binges my story in one go. Tells me I'm doing something right. As for your review, one of our goals was making Saito and Louise's relationship far healthier than how it was depicted in canon. Canon FoZ, particularly the anime, got far too invested in making harem comedy bullshit a major selling point, and after a while it just got frustrating at the constant relationship resets. That's something we strive to avoid. We're not opposed completely to the genre, mind you, but only if done well and in a way that fits the characters and setting. Canon FoZ did not and it actively detracted from the overall experience. I also agree that reverse summoning stories are a fantastic way to break Louise out of her comfort zone and cause her to drop her worst character traits. Same with Saito, which naturally leads to a healthier dynamic between the two. It leads to a good role reversal as well. In canon, Saito was the fish-out-of-water/bland audience insert character through which we learn about the world he finds himself in. Here, he's the established local guide/expert, and since Louise is already a well-established character in her own right, it affords Saito the opportunity for him to also be his own character. And yeah, FoZ is fantastic for crossovers as it's tailor made for it, and being able to tie it to literally any world thanks to its backstory is a fantastic tool to use. Glad you're enjoying how I'm balancing everything as well. We put a lot of effort into making sure everything is good on front that. The characters have enough strengths so that they can theoretically make it through, but simultaneously with enough weaknesses and danger present to keep the tension high. As for a boulder punching scene, you'll have to wait and see. But if Saito does, he obviously would go "What would Chris Redfield do?!" before doing it. As RE: Village told us, Chris is infamous for that, with Heisenberg outright calling him a "boulder punching asshole."
On a side note, we all know that the RE5 remake is coming, and if they don't have that scene in there, we riot.
The Rescue Party does still have Louise's journal. Expect passages from it to be read intermittently throughout the story.
All I will say is that no one is safe.
Umbrella learned of Terre's existence due to their observation of Louise. Louise frequently talked about it, and they took note of everything she said.
I don't know if I would actually attempt to explore the harem dynamics of canon in this story. But I am admittedly intrigued by the possibility. The problem, though, is simultaneously that Saito and Louise's relationship dynamic is far different than it was in canon, with them inevitably becoming extremely close due to the horrors of Raccoon City, and the fact that said events won't necessarily prevent the things that actually caused the other girls to fall for Saito to begin with. Yes, the only reason why the harem dynamic in canon was allowed to continue for so long was because Saito and Louise kept having their relationship reset back to zero, which obviously isn't happening here. But that wouldn't prevent the others from theoretically falling for them. Siesta fell for Saito after he, a commoner, both stood up to Guiche, a noble, and even beat him. After helping Louise nurse him back to health, that admiration slowly turned into affection then love. Henrietta fell for Saito after she lost Prince Wales, her cousin and love of her life due to his pride. Combined with the pressures of ruling a kingdom that doesn't respect her, some of whom are outright corrupt and/or traitorous, Saito treating her as just normal girl proved he was someone she could trust. Overtime, that grew into love as well. Kirche was only ever physically attracted to Saito and eventually moved on to pursuing Professor Colbert, which is its own can of worms I'd rather avoid, for obvious reasons. Tiffania fell for Saito because he was her first friend and didn't care at all that she was a half-elf, which subjected her to extreme discrimination both from humans and elves (see Beatrice trying to boil her alive and an elf girl shooting her several times with an airgun in the LNs practically as soon as they met). Tabitha fell for Saito because, even after she betrayed and attempted to kill him on orders of her government, not only did he not kill her, he later committed treason himself along with Louise to save her and her mother, basically becoming the embodiment of the hero Ivaldi from her favorite story. Those circumstances aren't necessarily going to be able to change. If anything, some of them might get pushed up in the timeline. Tabitha fell for Saito quite late compared to the others, but Raccoon City might push that up. Kirche's purely physical attraction might turn into something more legitimate as well. The only real difference is that Saito and Louise would firmly be a package deal, so they'd have to deal with that. Admittedly, the easiest person to potentially include would be Siesta. In the LNs, before Saito and Louise went back to Japan, unable to return, Louise finally relented and was going to allow Siesta to become Saito's mistress so long as Louise was the wife, which Siesta was fine with. A situation could easily develop where, after Raccoon City, Siesta becomes a fulltime attendant to the pair and becomes their emotional rock, which leads to a polyamorous thing. But that is something that would obviously have to be explored later.
Louise getting a gun wand is just fun.
Siesta's great-great-grandfather was just a Zero pilot for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Other than that, he's not connected to anything on the RE side.
I can't give any firm answers as to the future events of this story nor the planned sequel.
The Licker encounter was very fun. Glad you guys enjoyed it so much. Plus, it was a great way to continue highlighting Louise's strength: her intelligence. She is far smarter than Saito is, something he admits to. He's smart as well, obviously, but of the two, Louise is the Brains, and Saito is the Brawn.
Saito and Louise will eventually reunite with other FoZ characters. But the nature of story means that it'll take a while. Until then, they're on their own or with minor OCs and RE cameos to help interact with.
Saito will not be able to curve bullets as a Gandalfr. Him becoming a superhuman mixture of John Wick and Captain America is more than enough.
That's it for now. Let us know what you guys think. We hope you enjoy and see you all next time!