TWENTY-SIX
WHEN NICHOLAI SAW JILL STEP HESITANTLY
through the door into treatment operations, he immediately
slipped back out of view, through the security side
door and into a large, empty corridor that led to the
chemical tank room. A fierce joy took hold of him as
he eased the door closed, feelings of vindication and
self-affirmation lifting his spirits high.
After he'd found Foster's data disk, he'd set up his
laptop to combine files. That's when he'd seen the
warning from H.Q. Not much of a surprise, it had been
one of several possible outcomes projected, but it had
further depressed him. A part of him had still wanted to
get closure with Jill and Carlos, for what they had done
to him, and he'd even been considering a final look
around before calling for pickup. There was no time for
that with missiles coming, and he'd been on his way to
place the call when he'd heard footsteps.
She's here, I was right about her and now she's here!
He had to be right, or whatever fates were working
in Raccoon wouldn't have sent her. He could see now
that everything that had happened since he'd arrived in
Raccoon had been predestined. Fate, testing him,
sending him gifts and then pulling them away, to see
what he would do. It all made perfect sense, and now
there was a ticking clock, he had to get out, and here
she was.
I won't fail. I've succeeded so far, and that's why this
synchronicity has occurred. So that I can reestablish
the control I command before I return to civilization.
He could ask her about Carlos and Mikhail, he could
question her thoroughly ... and if there was time, he
could dominate her in a more pleasurable fashion, a
farewell that he could reflect back upon for years to
come.
Nicholai quickly moved behind the door, his bootsteps
echoing in the roomwide corridor, rifle ready.
He'd earned this, and he was going to get exactly what
he deserved.
Jill walked into some kind of operations room, her
senses on high alert as she looked across the open
space, decorated in classic Umbrella laboratory style -
- blank, cold, cement walls, metal railings that separated
the bi-level room in an absolutely functional way, nothing
bright or colorful in sight.
Unless blood counts... Dried splashes of it stained
the floor all around the low worktable that dominated
the room. Probably not Nicholai's work, unlike the
corpse she'd found in the office next to the room with
the broken steam pipes. A short man in his mid-30s,
shot in the face, his body still warm. She had no doubt
that Nicholai was close, and she found herself almost
hoping she'd run into him soon, just so she could stand
down, not have to look over her shoulder with every
step.
She didn't see anything resembling a key card or a
radio in the room, so she decided to move on - she
could head through the side door in the nook to her left
or go down. Side door, she decided, on the off chance
that Nicholai had headed that way; so far, she'd been
through every room she could get into on the second
floor and didn't want to go downstairs and risk letting
him get behind her.
She walked to the door, wondering again what had
been done with the bodies of those who had died in the
facility. She'd seen plenty of blood and fluid stains, but
only a handful of corpses.
Maybe they were dumped downstairs..., she thought,
pulling the security door open and sweeping left to right
with the Beretta. A corridor as big as a room, with a
small offshoot at the back wall that headed right. Totally
empty. She stepped inside ... or Umbrella ordered
everything cleaned up so their employees didn't have to
spend the crisis stepping over their dead coworkers...
"Freeze, bitch," Nicholai said from behind her, roughly
jamming the barrel of his rifle into her lower back. "But
drop your weapon first, if you wouldn't mind."
A sarcastic rephrasing of what she'd said to him in
the park, and she couldn't miss the thread of almost
hysterical glee in his voice. She'd been careless, and
she was going to die for it.
"Okay, okay," she said, letting the 9mm slip from her
fingers and clatter to the floor. She still had the grenade
gun on her back, but it was useless - in the time it
would take her to unstrap the thing, he could empty a
mag into her and have a chance to reload.
'Turn around slowly and back away, hands clasped
in front of you. Like you're praying."
Jill did what he wanted, backing across the room
until her back touched the wall, more afraid than she
wanted to admit when she saw the constantly twitching
smile, and the way his eyes rolled from side to side.
He's gone over. Whatever was wrong with him to
start, being in Raccoon sparked it into a full-blown
psychosis. The way he looked her up and down filled
her with a different kind of fear. She knew of several
effective ways to stop a rapist's attack, but that was
assuming she was still able-bodied enough to fight, and
she doubted very much that Nicholai would approach
her without firing a few well-placed shots first.
She glanced to her left, down a narrow hall that dead
ended at a closed door. Won't make it, try to talk to him.
"I thought you just wanted to get out of the city," she
said neutrally, not sure what tack to use. She'd always
heard that crazy people should be humored, but she
couldn't see that it was going to make much of a difference;
Nicholai meant to kill her, period.
He casually walked toward her, smiling his trembling
smile. Thunder rumbled overhead, a distant
sound. "I want to get out now, now that I have all the
information. I killed all of the others for theirs, the
Watchdogs. Umbrella is going to have to deal with me,
and only me, and I'm going to be extremely wealthy.
It's all balanced out, and now that you're here, my success
is assured."
In spite of herself, Jill was curious. "Why me?"
Nicholai moved closer but stayed a safe distance
away. "Because you took the antidote," he said in a
matter-of-fact tone. "Carlos stole it at your bidding,
don't try to deny it. Tell me, are you working on
your own initiative, or were you sent to interfere
with my plans? How much do Carlos and Mikhail
know?"
Christ, what do I say to that? Again thunder muttered
overhead, and Jill found herself distracted by it,
too confused by Nicholai's bizarre reasoning to answer
him right away. Strange, that they could hear it through
the heavily insulated ceiling...
... not as strange as thinking about the weather at a
time like this. She had to say something, to at least try
and prolong her life; as long as she was breathing, there
was a chance.
"Why should I tell you anything? You're going to kill
me anyway," she said, as though there was something
to tell.
Nicholai's smile faltered, and then he brightened
again, nodding. "You're right, I am." He aimed the rifle
at her left knee and licked his lips. "But not before we
get to know each other a little better, I think we have
enough time..."
Crash!
Jill fell backwards, sure she'd been hit, but he didn't
fire, it was thunder -
- and the ceiling was falling, part of it, chunks of
drywall and concrete raining down as Nicholai
screamed, firing wildly...
... and disappeared.
Nicholai had her within his control, she was going to
bleed and cry and he would be victorious, he had won...
... and then the ceiling gave way, debris crashing
over him and something giant and cold and hard
wrapped around the back of his neck. Nicholai fired,
screaming, A witch, she's...
... and he was yanked up into the dark by the massive,
icy thing, a hand, Jill's shocked face the last thing
he saw before the fingers tightened, before a cold and
living rope coiled around his waist. The hand and rope
pulled in opposite directions, and Nicholai felt his
bones crack, skin and muscle stretching as blood filled
his mouth, screaming -
- this is wrong I control stop -
- and he was torn in half, and he knew no more.
Jill could only see part of what happened, but it was
enough. As a river of blood poured over the hole's
ragged edge, splashing to the floor, she heard the rumbling
growl of the Nemesis and saw a tentacle snake
down through the steaming red gush, searching...
She didn't dare run beneath it. She turned and ran
down the offshoot, scrabbling for the grenade gun, her
only weapon...
... bam, she hit the heavy door and was through, into
a dark and echoing abyss, a wave of stench hitting her
like a slap. She slammed the door closed and reached
for the only light she could see, a glowing red square in
a panel next to the entrance.
It was a light switch, and as rows of fluorescent bars
fluttered on, she saw and understood two things simultaneously.
The dead Umbrella workers had been dumped
here in a huge pile, the source of the incredible odor
and there were no other doors. She was trapped and had
a single load of buckshot with which to defend herself.
Oh man, think, think...
Outside, she heard the Nemesis howl the only word it
knew, the terrible cry encouraging her to move, to do
something. She ran for the tremendous mound of corpses,
the only thing in the giant U-shaped chamber that wasn't
bolted to the floor. Maybe one of them had a weapon.
The segmented metal floor rang hollowly beneath
her feet, telling her where she was - some kind of
garbage dumping room, the floor obviously capable of
opening up to drop waste into some unknown below,
vats of chemicals, a Dumpster, the sewers. Didn't matter,
because she had no idea how to operate such a system;
all she cared about at the moment was finding
something she could use against the Nemesis.
The dead people were all in advanced stages of
decay, thick, hot, gaseous waves of stink radiating from
the darkening, bloated bodies, the pile almost as high
as her chin. Jill couldn't afford to be particular; she
dropped the grenade gun and immediately started to
paw at the corpses, lifting sticky lab coats, jamming her
hands into pockets that squished beneath her flying fingers.
Pens and pencils, soggy packs of cigarettes, loose
change - a key card, probably the very one she'd been
looking for, Wonderful, isn't that just...
BOOM! BOOM!
Giant fists hammered at the door, echoing in the
large chamber. The door was going to give in seconds,
she'd have to go with what she had. No way she could
kill it, but she could try to get around it.
Tucking the key card into the top of her left boot, she
grabbed the gun and ran back toward the door, thinking
that Nicholai had at least left her with a good idea, least
he could do, the crazy bastard...
Jill took a position next to the door, close to where it
would swing back upon opening. She didn't stand directly
behind it, the plan kind of fell to shit if she ended
up crushed.
BOOM, and the door flew open, slamming into the
wall inches from where she stood, the Nemesis storming
in, arms and tentacles spread wide as it howled for
blood.
It's changing, getting bigger...
Jill aimed at its already mangled lower back and fired,
the load tearing into its flesh from less than ten feet away.
Screaming, the creature stumbled forward, and before
it could stand up straight again, Jill was through
the door and gone, praying that she'd have time to call
for help and get away before it found her again. She
pounded through the corridor, snatched up the Beretta,
and sped into the next room, out into the hallway.
At least time to call; she may not survive to meet rescue,
but Carlos still could, God willing.
There was only one helicopter, but it was in excellent
shape, fueled and ready to fly. If he could find Jill, Carlos
thought they might make it after all.
He sat in the pilot's seat, looking over the controls,
running over the basics as best he could remember.
He'd been taught by another mere with no formal training,
and it had been a while, but he was pretty sure he
could pull it off. The 'copter was an older two seater
with a hover ceiling of about 4,000 feet, range, maybe
200 miles. He still didn't know what some of the
switches and buttons did on the control panels, but he
didn't need to, to get the thing airborne. The cyclic
control stick moved the bird forward, back, and sideways.
The collective control altered the thrust, controlling
height.
Carlos checked his watch and was unhappily startled to
see mat twenty minutes had passed since he'd heard the
announcement about the missiles. He'd spent a few minutes
checking the helicopter, and there'd been a couple of
zombies roaming around in the yard he'd had to shoot...
Didn't matter. They now had between twenty and
forty minutes, tops. The facility compound was too big,
he'd never be able to cover it all in time -
- so use the goddamn radio, dumbass!
Carlos reached for the headset, amazed that he hadn't
thought of it, promising himself that he would smack
himself silly for the oversight later, when he had time.
Assuming there was a later.
"Hello, this is Carlos Oliveira with Umbrella, I am in
Raccoon City, copy? There are still people alive here. If
you can hear me, you have to stop the missile launch.
Hello? Copy?"
No way to know if someone was getting his signal.
Umbrella probably had a block on all outgoing transmissions,
he'd just have to try and...
"Carlos? Is that you, over?"
Jill!
He felt weak with relief as her voice crackled into
his ear, perhaps the sweetest sound he'd ever heard.
"Yes! Jill, I found a helicopter, we have to get out of
here, now! Where are you, over?"
"In a radio room, at the Umbrella facility - what did
you say about a missile launch, over?"
She was so close! Carlos laughed, We're outta here,
it's over! "The feds are gonna blow up the city in like
half an hour, at dawn, but it's okay, we're ready to
fly - do you see that ladder in the middle of the room?
Over."
"Yeah, it's - they're going to blow up Raccoon, are
you sure?" She sounded totally bewildered and forgot
to use radio protocol.
We don't have time for this!
"Jill, I'm positive. Listen to me - go down the ladder
and start running, you'll end up where I am, there's
nowhere else to go. Through a cement room to the exit
sign, then outside, then through this huge warehouse -
- there's some kind of a power generator in there, you'll
have to run around some equipment. The back door
will be at about ... eleven o'clock from the front, got
it? I'll be on the other side. And you better bust ass to
get here, no dicking around."
There was the slightest pause, and Carlos could hear
the tight smile in her voice when she responded. "Dicking
around you wish. On my way, over and out."
Grinning, Carlos powered up the 'copter as the deep,
navy blue sky began to lighten, preparing for dawn.
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