Calm Before The Storm

Chapter Eighteen

Jill Valentine sat on the edge of her bed, holding a photograph in her hand. It was taken the summer before, at the annual RCPD Fourth of July barbecue. It showed the entire S.T.A.R.S. team all grouped together, mugging for the camera.

Jill liked the picture because one person was missing. Wesker, always the unsociable one, did not attend the party and so was not included in the group photo. For that, Jill was grateful. But everyone else was there, except for Rebecca, since she had not joined the team yet. In the photo, Jill was crouched down in the front row in between Brad Vickers and Ken Sullivan. Next to them knelt Ed Dewey and Joseph Frost. Standing up behind them were Barry Burton, Chris Redfield, Richard Aiken, Forrest Speyer, and Enrico Marini.

They were all smiling and happy, and Jill tried to even remember how she had felt back then, long before she had entered the living nightmare in the Arklay Mountains. In the photo, Kenneth’s hand was behind her head, giving her bunny ears. Barry had a cold beer in his hand, his other arm resting on Chris’ shoulder. Joseph was giving two big thumbs up. Enrico was laughing, a cigar in his hands. Forrest was sticking his tongue out.

Jill sighed and placed the picture back on the pile of photographs she was taking with her when she left. Her car was already packed with clothes, books, and as many other necessities as she could fit inside. All that was left were the small personal possessions and mementos that she had all around the apartment. She spent most of the evening gathering up all the stray photographs, notes, gifts, collectibles, and various knick-knacks that she’d accumulated over the years. But every time she saw one, she sat down and daydreamed about it, so it took much longer than she planned.

It was already almost three o’clock in the morning. Jill sighed and packed up the pile of photographs and other personal effects. She filled up two small bags with items and set them by the front door to be taken out tomorrow when she left.

Her furniture, appliances, and most of her electronics would stay behind. She would leave no forwarding address with her landlord either. Everything left in the apartment when she left would just be abandoned here.

She walked over to her bedroom window and crossed her arms. The street outside her apartment building was silent as the grave at this time of night. Streetlights shined down on empty pavement. There was no sound at all, as the other residents of her building were all asleep. Jill felt like she was the only person in the whole city who was still awake.

She had lived in Raccoon City for almost seven years, long enough to call the city home, but not long enough to feel like it was really an important part of her life. She was from New York state originally, and her parents still lived in Albany. Raccoon City was just the city she lived in now, so she didn’t feel sad to leave for any sentimental reasons.

But she wondered what would happen to the city after she left. Whatever horrible disease infected the people at the lab was surely contagious, but would it somehow make its way to the city, as Chris suspected? Would all of Raccoon City be infected with the disease, turning the entire populace into a roving mass of undead zombies? Jill found it hard to imagine such a scenario.

Even if some zombies, or other infected creatures, made it into the city and infected some people, it would only be a tiny percentage of the population. Soon, the police would be able to quarantine the affected parts of the city. If things got too intense for the local authorities, the National Guard could be called in. It would be very bad and lots of innocent people would die, but Jill could not imagine it getting worse than that.

The zombies were slow and mindless, they could not possibly overrun a determined counteroffensive against them. Once the police realized the danger, they would send every available officer to the affected neighborhoods and just start shooting every infected person they saw. Anyone else would be evacuated long before the disease spread to other sections of the city. Again, there would be numerous casualties, but Jill could not see the zombies completely infecting the entire city. Hundreds would die, but the city would not be destroyed. There was simply no way for the disease to spread at such a rate that the entire city would be infected.

Jill had to believe that. To accept the possibility that something far worse could happen might weigh too much on her conscience.

She wandered into the living room and poured her last glass of wine. The bottle, empty now, was left on the end table. Jill curled up on the couch and pulled a blanket over her. She laid her head down on a pillow and thought about her final day in Raccoon City. She figured she would wake up around noon and leave soon after that. She would be at her parents’ house by tomorrow night. There was nothing to hold her back now.

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