Aftermath

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Chapter Two

Somehow, Jill Valentine managed to fall asleep. She dreamed that she was drowning in a choppy sea scattered with floating debris and decomposing bodies. As she tried to stay afloat, gagging on the foul water, something kept pulling her legs down to force her down. All the while the sky seemed to roar, deafening her.

She snapped out of it, lurching forward with a gasp, her hands grasping at her chest. Carlos Oliveira, seated in the pilot’s chair beside her, looked concerned but said nothing. Jill took a few deep breaths and slumped back in her seat. The load roaring in her dream was nothing but the sound of the helicopter.

Her head lolled to the side as she glanced out the window at the line of trees rushing by underneath them. They were still flying low over the Arklay Forest; Jill realized she must have only dozed off for a few minutes, if it was even that long. She sighed wearily, closing her eyes again, although she doubted she would drowse off again so soon.

“You okay?” Carlos asked.

Jill nodded.

She was lying, of course. She wasn’t okay. She was dead tired, half-starved, and her leg throbbed in pain every time she moved it. She was far from okay. But she was alive and on her way to someplace safe. Or at least she hoped so. Under the circumstances, she was doing fantastic.

“You sure you’re okay?” Carlos asked. “You feel alright?”

“Yes,” Jill said. “I feel wonderful.”

“Okay. You just got real quiet all of a sudden. And you fell asleep, I think. I just got worried that … well, you know.”

“I’m fine,” she said more clearly. “Just tired. How about you?”

“It hurts to breath,” Carlos said with a weak smile. “Other than that I’m just great.”

Carlos most likely had several broken ribs. At least, Jill hoped that’s all it was. If one of his ribs punctured an internal organ, he could be bleeding internally or be suffering from worse injuries. But Jill guessed that he would be in more pain if that was the case. Either way, they both needed medical attention as soon as possible. How they would get it might cause a problem, but Jill was prepared to have Carlos fly the helicopter straight to the nearest hospital if that’s what they had to do. Once they got out of the forest, would have a better idea of where they were.

She wondered if the local cities around Raccoon Cities had any idea at all about what was happening just a few miles away. Surely, they must know something was wrong, since Umbrella blocked all the roads into and out of the city.

Were the Raccoon City survivors being treated at local hospitals? Jill doubted it. Umbrella was probably shipping them off to distant locations for treatment to try to keep a lid on things. Jill knew there were other survivors. The Umbrella soldier named Hunk told her so, but he gave her no clue about exactly what was being done with them. They were probably being separated and interrogated to find out what they knew, and then tricked or coerced into believing whatever lies Umbrella was telling to spin this disaster in the best possible light.

How were they going to explain it all? How could they explain the destruction of an entire city and the deaths of almost all its residents? Jill tried to imagine what they were going to blame it on. A terrorist attack? Some kind of ecological disaster? A meltdown at a nuclear power plant, perhaps? Raccoon didn’t have a nuclear power plant, but Jill didn’t think facts like that would get in the way of Umbrella’s cover story.

In any case, she would soon find out.

She sighed again and glanced over at Carlos to say something, when she caught movement outside the helicopter, something black against the dark blue sky.

“Carlos!” she cried, pointing.

A blinding light began to flash outside, filling the cabin with light, and Carlos lifted his hand to shield his eyes. Jill fumbled at the control panel for the radio switch.

“ – immediately!” the radio screamed when she found the switch. “Do not attempt to escape! You will follow us to the landing zone! If you do not comply, we will shoot you out of the sky! Repeat, change your course immediately! Do not attempt to escape!”

Carlos activated the radio on his flight helmet. “Okay! Okay!” he shouted. “Fine, we’ll follow you! Don’t shoot us!”

Jill looked around and saw that they were surrounded by other helicopters now, at least four of them flying in formation around them. And they weren’t simple commercial two-seaters like the one she was in, they were full attack choppers with mounted machine guns which were currently aimed at them.

“Looks like they found us,” she said, looking worriedly at the choppers. They came out of nowhere, and could have shot them down in an instant if they wanted to.

“I told you the whole city was surrounded,” Carlos said, moving the stick sideways to direct the helicopter in a new direction. They angled left and followed their escort of attack choppers.

The loud voice came over the radio again. “Over the next ridge is a landing zone! You will land immediately once you reach the clearing! I repeat, if you try to escape we will shoot you down! Is that understood?”

“Yes,” Carlos said, “Yes, I understand.”

“So what happens now?” Jill asked no one in particular.

“We land,” Carlos said, “And we hope they don’t shoot us anyway.”

The landing zone was marked with flares and flashlights, and Jill spotted people running around below. It was a wide clearing in the middle of the forest that appeared to run alongside a narrow dirt road. There were a few floodlights illuminating some tents by the trees but the middle of the clearing was dark except for the flares.

Carlos lowered the helicopter toward the clearing and let out a deep sigh of relief when they touched down, the helicopter bumping down roughly on the uneven ground. Dozens of shaking lights flashed in their direction and Jill squinted against the lights, her eyes still accustomed to the darkness. Carlos turned off the engine and the helicopter’s rotors began to slow.

The shaking lights were flashlights attached to the barrels of assault rifles. All around them, armed Umbrella soldiers aimed weapons, and Jill raised her hands just in case. Carlos took off his flight helmet and did the same.

“Get out of the helicopter!” someone bellowed with a megaphone. “Come out and keep your hands in the air! If you make any sudden moves you will be shot!”

Jill pushed open the side door and carefully swung her legs out, wincing in pain. She lowered herself to the ground as gently as possible and leaned against the side of the chopper. Dozens of assault rifles aimed at her, although the men wielding them were concealed, their black uniforms almost invisible in the dark. She felt as if she was surrounded by nothing but a bunch of independent floating lights. She tried to shield her eyes, but she could not even tell how many men there were.

Carlos got out as well and said, “I’m with the UBCF. I’m on your side, guys.”

“We’re not infected,” Jill added importantly. “We haven’t been bitten.”

“I’ll decide that for myself,” came a voice from the darkness. A man pushed his way forward through the armed soldiers and approached. Like them, he wore an Umbrella uniform. With the lights behind him, Jill could not make out any facial features. He was just a dark silhouette.

“We are not infected,” Jill repeated. “But we do need medical attention.”

The man folded his hands behind his back and walked over to Carlos, but he kept his distance. “You were part of the first wave into the city?”

“Yes, sir,” Carlos said with a weak nod.

“Who was your commanding officer?”

“Mikhail Victor.”

The man considered that and then nodded. The soldiers behind him lowered their weapons slightly. “Are you injured?” he asked.

Carlos nodded again. “Yes, sir. It’s my ribs. I think some might be broken.”

“But you are not infected?”

“No, sir.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“We’re sure,” Jill snapped. “If you don’t believe that, then just stick us in solitary or something for a couple of hours.”

“I’m going to do that anyway,” the man said, a trace of humor in his voice. He gestured to the soldiers, who lowered their guns all the way, shining their lights at the ground.

“Here is what we’re going to do,” the man said, looking over at Jill. “You are going to follow me to the other side of this clearing. You will not attempt to run away. You will not even try to touch or contact any of my men. Don’t even talk to them.”

Jill nodded. “I understand. I couldn’t run away even if I wanted to. I can barely move my leg.”

“You are going to be loaded onto a truck. You will be given instructions by the scientists there, and I suggest you follow them to the letter. If you make any suspicious movements or exhibit any signs of infection, you will be shot immediately. I cannot stress how serious we are about this.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“Well, come on then.”

They were led across the clearing, surrounded by the armed soldiers at all times. None of them came closer than about ten feet. Jill and Carlos could not move very fast, with Jill limping heavily on her good leg, and Carlos walking slowly to avoid moving his torso too much. At no time did any of the soldiers point their guns in another direction, the assault rifles were always pointed right at them.

There was a large transport truck parked next to the tents, and the man in charge stopped well short of it. Two other men climbed out of the back, both of them wearing white hazard suits with wide clear helmets, the suits covering every inch of their bodies.

“Please come with us. You need to get into the vehicle,” one of them said.

“We need medical treatment,” Jill said.

“You’ll get it. But not here. We have to take you to a decontamination center first.”

Carlos and Jill both needed help getting into the truck. Inside were two rows of seats facing each other, and a bright light overhead. And they were not alone. There was a middle-aged man already seated in the truck, wearing a dirty gray business suit. His hands were in his lap and he did not look up when Jill and Carlos got in. They were directed to sit as close to the front of the truck as possible. Then the two men in hazard suits got on after them, sitting as close to the back as possible, and armed with assault rifles.

“Just stay seated where you are,” one of them said. The bright light reflected off the front of their helmets, masking their faces, so Jill wasn’t sure which one had spoken. “If you try to move closer to us, we will shoot you. Keep your hands in your lap. If you try to throw anything at us or make any suspicious movements at all, we will shoot you.”

“You are allowed to ask us questions,” the other one said, in a somewhat softer tone. “But we’re afraid that you’ll have to wait until we reach the decontamination center for more information.”

“Aren’t you going to ask us anything?” Jill asked.

“No. You will be questioned at the decontamination center.”

“We aren’t infected,” Carlos said. “What are they going to decontaminate?”

“You might not be carrying the virus, but your clothing or hair might have traces of infected blood on it. We have to make sure that anything on your person is completely removed of any trace of the virus before you are released.”

Jill nodded, suspecting as much. She and Carlos were not infected, but they had fought enough zombies and other creatures that there might be a considerable amount of blood and tissue on their clothes that could spread the disease. Although not infected herself, she might become a veritable Typhoid Mary without even knowing it. She wished the soldiers treated her a bit more humanely, but she really couldn’t blame them. It was a good idea to take no chances.

Jill and Carlos sat next to each other, with the other man seated across from them. He lifted his head a little bit to glance up at Jill, but he did not maintain eye contact long, and his gaze returned to the floor.

As the truck began to roll down the dirt road, Carlos leaned his head against the wall. He gave Jill a wan smile, and she tried to smile back, but it felt forced, so she just sighed and closed her eyes, happy to let the motion of the truck lull her back to sleep.

“What’s your name, man?” Carlos asked the other passenger.

The man did not respond for a moment, and then said softly, “David Hanley.”

“How did you get out?”

“Through the woods,” Hanley said weakly. His black leather shoes were coated with mud and his gray slacks were dirty as well, with muddy spots on the knees. “I tried … I tried to get into the city this morning, but the roads … there was too much traffic and it was so backed up. I managed to … hide in this house, I don’t even know whose house it was.”

Jill interrupted him gently. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“What about … what about you two?” he asked.

“I’m Jill Valentine, I was a police officer.”

“And I’m Carlos. I’m part of the UBCF. You know, the Umbrella soldiers.”

Hanley nodded slowly and looked intently at Jill, keeping his head tilted down. He seemed to be thinking hard about something, and Jill did not have to think too hard to figure out what it was.

“Go ahead,” she said. “You can ask me.”

“You … you were one of the police officers in the news, weren’t you?”

Jill nodded. “Yes, I was.”

One of the Umbrella employees cleared his throat loudly, and Jill turned her head to look in their direction. Both of them pointed their guns in her direction, but she was almost surprised to see that neither of them were actually wielding the rifles properly. They had the guns laying across their laps; they weren’t actually holding them in a position where they could shoot.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to change the subject,” one of them said. Again, Jill could not tell which one was speaking because of their masks.

“Why?” she asked, although she already knew the answer.

They didn’t give her an answer, so she just laughed defeatedly to herself and sat back, leaning her head against the wall. Hanley didn’t say anything else after that, he just stared at his hands. Carlos leaned against Jill and put his hand on her shoulder supportively, but he also remained quiet. The only sounds after that were the uneven bumping of the truck as it drove down the dirt road.

Jill should have known that Umbrella would be on the lookout for her. After the events at the remote lab, they must have been watching out for any of the police officers who were there. A newspaper would tell them the identities of the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members. They sent that monster in the trenchcoat after her, so they knew who she was. All of their soldiers and other employees dealing with the infection probably knew her name and were ordered to keep an eye out for her.

She regretted giving Hanley her name, but she decided it didn’t matter. Umbrella would have figured out who she was anyway. Of course, now she had to worry exactly what they were going to do with her. They had no qualms about sending monsters after her, so what now? Jill had no idea, and she was too tired to worry about it now. She wasn’t sure if she even cared anymore.

After a few minutes, Jill surrendered to the the gentle rocking motion in the truck, and managed to drift off to sleep again. Her dreams were not pleasant.

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