Chapter One
Another Outbreak
‘The city of Raccoon City has been peaceful for the last few weeks. No body has had to worry about unnatural things going on. Looks like everything’s back to normal and everybody is safe to go outside. In other ne—‘ Ren flipped off the television in her room, drew the curtains over her windows and locked her room door. She was one of the many survivors of the recent outbreak that occurred a few weeks ago. She had been afraid and honestly, she still was. What was on the news could’ve been fabricated so that everything seemed normal, but no one knew for sure that they were safe in Raccoon City. The experimenting was still going on, she just knew it was. With whatever they’re saying, Ren couldn’t trust them anymore. She started to trust her own instincts after the first outbreak when she was a little younger.
Ren walked to the front of her mirror and took her hair down, she was also getting rid of the make-up that she put on that morning. Ren hadn’t really been much on appearance, though her new, best friend, Maya, got her into the habit of putting the stuff on. Ren got rid of the last of the eye liner she had on and went over to her dresser, pulling open one of the drawers and picking out her lingerie that she would wear for that night.
Ren jumped as the phone suddenly rang. She dropped whatever she had in her hands, back into the drawer, walked over to her end table and wearily picked up the receiver and placed it against her ear as she sat down on her bed.
“H-hello?” Ren greeted, being a little more cautious than she usually was.
“Hey, Len-san!” came the familiar, chirpy Japanese accent of Ren’s best friend, Maya. Ren mentally sighed in relief to hear her friend’s voice and not a dead line that she usually heard once a day when her she picked her phone up.
“Did you hear the news today?” Maya asked. Before Ren got a chance to answer, Maya continued to talk, “they were talking about how this outbreak has ended, what is that about?” Ren’s body froze as her friend brought up the outbreak subject. She suddenly remembered that Maya was a brand new student in the college and had no knowledge of the Raccoon City outbreak.
“It’s… a little hard to explain, Maya…” Ren replied, her voice shaking as she spoke into the receiver, “though… a while back, there was this company called Umbrella. They had legalized projects going on to create new vaccinations.”
“New vaccinations? For what?” Maya asked, a little confused to what Ren was saying to her. Ren sighed and continued, “I’m honestly not sure about that, though I was told… when I was a little younger, that something went wrong and that everybody working in a place called ‘The Hive,’ died.”
“That’s gotta suck real bad. Though, what happened after this?” Maya questioned, getting a little excited about the new information that she was receiving.
“Y-you may not believe me, though… everybody that died… came back as the undead. Zombies basically.” Ren replied, her fists shaking. A single bang came at the door and Ren dropped the phone. Instinctively she went to her dresser drawer and pulled out her small 38-Special. She cautiously walked to the door and reached out to open it. The door burst open before Ren could get her hand on the handle and she fell over backwards and was looking at something she feared would someday happen to her. She opened her mouth in fear as she stared at the body in front of her.
The decayed corpse walked towards her, drool dripping from his half-gone jaw and his white eyes staring at her. Ren’s hands were paralyzed as she looked up into the wretched face that stared back at her. Ren’s breathing was deep and rapid, though however many times she did her best to suppress her fear in that moment and time, it always came back. Ren backed up as the corpse shuffled it’s way towards her.
The zombie finally lunged for her and Ren crawled out of the way as quickly as she could. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage and she kept her gun tightly in her grasp but couldn’t bring herself to shoot. Another decayed body walked into her small apartment room and moaned for Ren’s blood. As the new gruesome body lunged for Ren, she brought her hands up and shot her gun, straight through the undead woman’s head. The body fell in front of her and the other zombie lunged for Ren, when she looked up she was face-to-face to the zombie and out of instinct, she screamed.
Ren was almost entirely paralyzed in fear, her whole body shook as the body’s hands scratched at her wrists. Long, bloody marks were there instantly and the stinging pain of it all made Ren sick to her stomach. Everytime Ren kicked herself back, the zombie would slide with her, hanging onto her hand. It was surprising how strong they could hold on to something even though they were dead.
Ren brought her hand up that held the gun and tried to aim it at the decayed, eyeless head. Her hand shook and tears were forming in her eyes from both fear and the amount of burning pain that was now increasing in her arms. She fired her gun again and hit the head in the center, Ren’s breathing was still rapid and she became sick from the infection that was received after she had been scratched. Sweat broke out and shortly after, she fainted onto the floor.
Maya’s Complex
“Len-san? Len-san!? Are you there?” Maya asked, a little alarmed as to what happened on the other end. She heard Ren drop the phone and was wondering what was going on with her best friend. A gunshot was heard and a few seconds after that, Maya heard a scream on the other end of the phone line. Instantly, Maya slammed her phone on the charger, got her coat and ran out of her dorm to her friend’s apartment. Her boots clopped against the hard streets as she made her way to Ren’s apartment. She saw two figures walking, they looked as if they were limping. Maya shook her head and kept running, ‘I cannot stop for anything… my best friend is probably hurt now and I have to get to her house a quickly as possible…’ Maya thought to herself as she panted.
Maya ran past the two people only to have them lunge at her. She was scared and confused at the same time till she saw what was going on. There, hanging onto her, were two decayed bodies. Maya’s face screwed up in horror as she saw them latch on to her. She kicked her feet just to get the creatures back. With each staggering kick she gave to getting rid of whatever was holding onto her legs, she backed up until she was against a car. Maya looked over at the passenger side door window and smashed it open in fear, she didn’t care whether or not it was hers, she just wanted to get the decayed and soulless bodies off of her legs.
Maya opened the glove box and luckily, she found a tire iron. Maya took the small, black tire iron and swung it at the gruesome, decayed heads then finally got the idea to just skewer their heads with the tip of the ‘weapon’ she now wielded. The iron went through the zombies’ heads with a crunching noise and instantly they both fell limp on the ground. The Japanese girl stood there, taking in deep breaths and tried to register what just happened. Her gray eyes were fixated on the truly dead bodies at her feet. That’s when she felt a burning, stinging sensation all across her legs. Maya looked down to see scratches on her legs from the bodies hanging onto her. Maya’s pants were ripped and stained with her blood. The black-haired girl didn’t really think much of the scratches that she now had… though she didn’t know what they did to her after a certain amount of time. The Japanese girl took the tire iron from one of the heads and looked both behind her and in front to make sure there were no more corpses coming after her.
Maya continued to run to her friend’s house, weapon held tightly in her grasp, the blood from the zombie dripping from the tip. She ignored the steadily increasing pain in her legs and kept running till she was at her destination and her lungs were inflating and deflating with every gasp of air she took. After Maya got her breath to a normal speed, she dashed inside the apartment and into Ren’s room. What she saw made her gasp in both shock and in horror.
Ren was lying on the floor, her 38-Special in her grasp. The two bodies also laid there, unmoving. Both had a single hole through the head. Maya instantly kneeled by her friend’s side and placed both her index and middle fingers on Ren’s neck, Maya was checking for a pulse. Thankfully for the both of them, it was there, beating steadily.
“Len-san? Can you hear me at all?” Maya asked, looking back at the bodies to make sure that they wouldn’t just come back up at lunge at them or crawl towards them. The Japanese girl reverted her attention back to Ren who’s eyes fluttered open.
S.T.A.R.S. Department
“Hey, Nate, Chad, I’m going to be leaving now. You two take care of night duty…” came another S.T.A.R.S. member’s request as he left for the night. Chad sat back in his chair with his arms behind his head and cigarette in his mouth, “yeah, whatever… just go on and get out of here.” Chad replied, pulling his hat over his head. The door opened then closed, Nathaniel looked over at his partner and sighed.
“Don’t you ever take anything seriously?” Nathaniel asked, turning his attention to the many screens in front of him then looking down to the unfinished paperwork. Chad sat back up and took his hat off, “well, considering that we haven’t had an outbreak for about a moth of time and that we’ve gotten absolutely no calls, there’s really no reason for me to be serious about anything,” the blond replied then added, “anyways… any word from that guy at the weapon shop? He said that he’d have us our new guns instead of our crappy, little Mac-Tens.”
“He didn’t call to tell us whether or not he got the company our new weapons are in… what are you making a big deal of that for? It’s not like you want to shoot a gun, you’d rather throw ‘big bang’ fireworks and end the damn thing right then and there.” Nate scoffed, picking up a pencil and filling in some of the required spaces on the paperwork he had strewn in front of him. Chad kicked his feet back up and rested them on the table top, “feh, you and me being partners since we both joined, it’s only be natural you’d want to say that to me.” Chad replied, puffing on his cigarette. He looked up at the multiple screens and noticed a door hanging off its hinges with reddish streaks on it. Chad sat back up and placed his hands onto the top of the control panel.
“Hey, are you seeing what I’m seeing here? That isn’t natural…” Chad said, being a little more serious than he was just a few seconds ago. Nathaniel looked up at the screen that Chad implied and furrowed his brow in thought, “could be either a break in or…” the African-American S.T.A.R.S member gritted his teeth as he was about to say what he really didn’t want to say.
“’Or’ what? Speak up!” Chad exclaimed, now worried to what his partner may be thinking at the time.
“Or it can be something we all hate and dread… another Outbreak…” Nate replied, pounding his fist on the table. Chad looked a little enthusiastic, “alright! A little ware and tear, whammy and a BANG!” Chad shouted, throwing his fist into the air, he had wanted to go out with the others when the last outbreak occurred, though he was still a trainee and they put both he and the other new recruits into a protective base that the undead couldn’t get to.
“Will you grow up, you overgrown kid!” Nathaniel snapped, getting up from his seat, taking his gun and loading a brand new magazine of bullets into the butt of his Mac-10. Chad scoffed and loaded his own Mac-10 with a new clip and placed it into his holster.
“I swear, sometimes I don’t even know why they recruited you!” Nate sighed, taking a few extra magazines and placing them into his pockets, “you might do well to take some more ammo yourself, Chad… after all, it’s the undead we’re going up against. And you are really going to have to be serious, none of this little ‘bang, bang, woot, woot’ shit, alright?” Nate informed Chad. The young S.T.A.R.S. member looked up and sighed, “alright fine, if it’s really going to do better for me, I’ll act like a civilized person.”
“You’d better, if you don’t, you’ll die quicker than most folks out there.” Nate told the blond, opening up the door and stepping outside. Chad went back to the control panel and took a few extra clips for his gun. A sharp ‘thud’ was heard outside the door and Nate started to cuss, “dammit! You damn, dead bitches! Get offa me!” Chad turned towards the door almost immediately and ran out to see a copse grabbing at his partner. Chad looked farther down the hall to advancing, decayed bodies and shot at them before they got any closer. Some would fall then stagger back up, and the others that Chad shot at still continued their limping gait towards the two S.T.A.R.S. members.
“Damn, why won’t you walking pieces of shit die!?” Chad yelled, he now understood why Nathaniel told him to act more grown-up when dealing with the monstrosities that walked towards them, their lust for fresh meat growing as they looked at Chad and Nate.
“I told you that these aren’t your normal type of hostile beings!” Nate yelled at Chad, “do your best to shoot them in the head!” Nathaniel suggested. Chad unlocked his empty clip from the handle of his gun and loaded in a new one, “thanks for the tip, I’ll do my best!”
Nate managed to kick the body that was on him, off. He stood up abruptly, took his gun from his holster and aimed it at the advancing, dead persons.
The Hive
People in white suits with hairnets and face masks on walked down the linoleum halls, most of the workers in a room. In that room, a girl sat on a sheeted table, her blue eyes emotionless and not really staring at anything, though she had a plain yet creepy smile on her face. A man walked in with formal ware on and his hair slightly grayed. He walked up to the table and in front of the girl.
“Hello. My name is Marie,” the girl told the man pleasantly then added with a cock of the head, “my serial code is five, five, eight, seven, zero, one, nine, Mr. Ralph.”
“She reminds me so much of how the real Marie used to be… polite and well mannered…” the man sighed, looking into the emotionless eyes of his cybernetic daughter.
“Mr. Ralph… the android experiment for your daughter seems to be a success.. though the down side is that she doesn’t remember anything but who she is…” a woman in a general experimenting outfit explained to Adam Ralph, head of the vaccination experiments. The woman tapped her clipboard with the tip of her pen and continued, “also, her programming to fight our failed experiment has not been tested… would you like to test it now? Everything that has to be done is ready…”
Adam turned towards his employee and nodded, “if that is what had to be done. I want her to be tip-top shape… I only hope that nothing has gone wrong, it would only pain me more to see my daughter killed once again.” Marie still had a smile on her face as the workers left the room and observed from the out side what was going on. A man looked over to Adam for approval and the man nodded his head. The man touched a button on the control panel and a door opened, allowing a single undead body to stagger in.
Instantly, Marie’s smile faded from her face as she leapt off the table and glared at the body. The corpse moaned and limped towards Marie, it’s arms outstretched. When the zombie got close enough, Marie snagged it by the arm, snapped that out of the bodies socket and balled her fist ready to punch the bodies head clean off.
The body fell as Marie clenched her fists, the android waited for the corpse to get back up so she could finish him. Outside in the observing area, Mr. Ralph was nodding his head, “this is very good, she seems to be indestructible and won’t allow the enemy to get an attack on her. I’m proud of you all…” Mr. Ralph told the workers, he turned and left the room, net even staying to watch Marie crush the head of the zombie with her own hands.
After everything was done, the pleasant smile returned to Marie’s face as if nothing had even happened, “well, how did I do?” she asked, wiping her flesh covered hands on the sheet that sat on the table. The woman in the observation area pressed the green intercom button and replied, “you did well, Marie, good job…”
Marie stood up straight as if she were at attention and replied, “thank you ma’am!” She straightened out the white, medical dress she had on and stayed in her position till she got new orders.
“Marie… come with us to the back… You’re officially ready to be introduced to the real world.” the woman told Marie. The android girl’s face didn’t change, she simply responded with a cheerful, “okay,” and walked out of the room and followed after the woman.
Raccoon Tavern
Kevin stood at the counter of the bar, he was cleaning pint and shot glasses and putting them back up on a shelf. The bar tender’s attention was fixated on the television screen that stood up in the corner of the room. The news was on and was talking about how everything was fine and back to normal in Raccoon City. Kevin hated the outbreaks, the most recent one, his best friend, Cindy died trying to fend off the dead bodies.
‘Cindy…’Kevin thought as he cleaned the last glass he had left. He sighed and turned off the TV then got ready to leave. His small 32-Snub Nose was in it’s holster that he had attached to his belt and a Derringer in his pocket, not really the best place for it, though it fit. Kevin walked out of the tavern and locked the door as he stepped outside. He was tired and wanted to go home immediately.
