ResidentEvil-Nemesis [Chapter: 27]

TWENTY-SEVEN

JILL SLID DOWN THE LADDER AND STARTED

running, her mind reeling with the news about Raccoon.

She couldn't imagine what had been going on

outside of the city in past days that the conclusion had

been reached to blast a quarantine site out of existence.

Of course it has to be blown up, they would have

wanted that once they'd collected their data, to make

sure all the evidence is destroyed...

Jill leaped over a sprawled body, then another, and

was at the doors with the exit sign overhead, just as

Carlos had said. She barreled through and was greeted

by wonderfully fresh, cool air, heavy with dew.

Dawn, he said they were launching at dawn. Half an

hour was a generous estimate. Jill ran faster, through a

winding corridor of stacked cars and junk metal, and

there was the warehouse, straight ahead. It was big,

low, and wide, and she was already thinking in hours

when she hit the heavy, steel-reinforced front doors.

Eleven o'clock... She couldn't see the back door

for the giant wall of unidentifiable machinery in the

way, all thick pipes and metal shielding, but Carlos had

said she'd have to run around some equipment. She

veered right...

... and stopped in her tracks, staring at the monstrous

apparatus that Carlos had mistaken for a generator.

It was some kind of a laser cannon, huge,

cylindrical, she'd seen them before but not even half

the size - it was at least ten feet high and twenty long,

and as big around as a table for six. Dozens of cables

led from various outlets to the wall of machinery she

stood next to, and it was aimed approximately at the

front door, making her wonder what the hell they'd

tested it on...

The back door slammed open. Jill reflexively

pointed the Beretta and saw Carlos standing there, the

whining sound of a revving helicopter outside.

"Jill, come on!"

He was obviously glad to see her, but she could read

the urgency in his face, a reminder of what was coming

as the door closed behind him.

She jogged toward him in the sudden silence, shaking

her head. "Sorry, I was surprised is all, that's a laser

cannon, biggest I ever..."

Ka-rash!

Near the ceiling by the front door, a giant mass exploded

out of the wall, disappearing from their sight as

it fell to the floor behind the wall of machinery. Jill had

just an impression of a swollen, bulbous body surrounded

by claws and tentacles, and she knew that

she'd been right about the Nemesis. It was evolving.

A beat later there was another crash. Sparks crackled

and flew from a tall panel next to the entrance, and a

gurgling, warped howl erupted into the room, the cry of

the Nemesis, but horribly mutated, deeper, rougher...

"Come on!" Carlos shouted, and Jill ran to him as he

jerked at the handle on the back door...

... and it didn't open, and Jill noticed the small blinking

lights on the panel next to it and understood that the

Nemesis had shorted out the locking mechanisms.

They were locked in the warehouse with the thing

that had been the S.T.A.R.S. killer, and it was screaming

for blood.