One Night in Raccoon College

They walked into the new hallway, if they continued going further than it would lead to them entering the main stadium area, Scott could hear the undead's moaning from behind the double doors at the end of the hall. To the left, there was a large metal door with a 'caution electricity' warning sign on it. The door had an electric lock on it and a fingerprint scanner. "How are we going to get through this?" Scott asked.

"I remember seeing one of them in a lab coat behind is, maybe he has a key card on him," Emily suggested. They walked back down the hallway and found in the middle of all of the gore the undead man whose once white lab coat was now coated in blood.

"What about the fingerprint scanner?" Scott asked. Emily looked at him and then at the knife at the end of her rifle. They assumed the scanner would need a thumb but didn't know if it would need another finger, so Emily got to the gruesome task of cutting off every finger. The knife was dull after so much use so cutting off the fingers was difficult. After Emily finished with one hand Scott stepped in and offered to do the other hand, he didn't want to make her do all of the disgusting work. They wrapped the fingers in pieces of cloth cut away from the scientist's shirt. They made it back to the scanner and got it to unlock with the first thumb and index finger that they tried to use, they didn't need to butcher the man's body as much as they did. They kept the fingers that unlocked the door in case they would need them later and dropped the rest of them.

They stepped into yet another hallway, this one didn't have as much polish as the rest of the stadium had, it was made of rough concrete. As they walked down it they could hear the increasing hum of machinery. When they opened the double doors the hum multiplied but for all of the machinery that they saw it was pretty quiet. The hallway opened up on the top walkways of the large room that was sunken down several floors into the ground. Walkways stretched across the room at different levels and passed in the gaps between the large machines. Scott scanned the walkways and the ground floor, but he didn't see any signs of the undead moving about around here. The walkway that they were on hugged the wall and at the far corners of the room, it had stairs that lead down. They walked down the metal walkway and started down the stairs. Scott found an odd comfort in the machinery of the place, the constant hum and how sterile it was compared to the hallway that they had just come from allowed Scott to pretend for a moment that outside of this room his college was being overrun with monsters and probably the entire student body and faculty were now shambling undead.

They made it to the ground floor and started to move around the narrow paths in between the machinery. The machinery had Umbrella's emblem on it and seeing that Scott couldn't ignore why they are down here and the nightmare that was happening around them. Almost directly below the doorway that they had used to enter the room, they found a room with the main control panel visible through some thick glass. They entered the room and stared down at the array of knobs, buttons, and levers. Scott once again had hoped that it would have been as easy as finding a big button labeled emergency shut off. This time Scott's wish was granted, when off to the side of the large control panel was a boxed in panel with the words 'Emergency Shut Off.' Scott was relieved to see that it would be that easy to shut the power down, but wondered how Umbrella could have such poor containment on the nightmares that they were making yet somehow be safe with their power supply.

Emily and Scott took five minutes to rest and prepare themselves for what was going to come next. They went back over the route that they were going to have to take. They had around fifteen minutes to get out of the stadium, make it to Hannah's car, and drive out of the campus. They didn't have any plans after that, Raccoon city could be safe by now if the police managed to contain the infection, but the undead could also be spreading around there as well. All they knew was that they had to get out of the campus.

Emily placed her hand on one side of the lever. "Are you ready?" She asked.

Scott put his hand on the other side, their fingers overlapped in the middle. "As much as I am going to be," Scott confessed. Emily leaned in and kissed Scott deeply with what could very well be the last kiss of their life. Together they pulled the lever down. The machinery's hum died down in a whine, some parts rattled around inside of it and the lights shut off. There was a moment of intense darkness and then the emergency lights kicked in, turning the world red with their dull glow. Time was ticking, they turned and started to run. By the time they made it up the three floors of stairs and back to the door that they had entered in Scott was already breathing heavily. Scott wished that he had spent more time working out and doing cardio. He had always thought when he saw joggers running around that they looked kind of dumb, he would have taken all of that back if he could catch his breath and the stitch in his side would just go away. Emily was in better shape than Scott, and even though she could have she didn't outpace him. Scott forced himself to move faster so that he didn't slow her down too much. They raced back through the carnage with Emily in front so that they could pass through the bodies easier without having to bump into each other. When they were halfway through the bodies one of them suddenly reached out and happened to grab Emily by her ankle. She cried out and fell from the sudden halt in her momentum. The undead started to try and drag itself towards Emily's leg. Using his momentum Scott kicked the creature right in the head. There was a snapping sound and the attacker's head snapped to an unnatural angle and she let go of Emily's ankle.

"Are you ok?" Scott asked as he helped Emily up.

"Yeah, I think I am--Shit!" Emily said as Scott pulled her to her feet and she tried to put weight on her foot. Her eyes watered up, "I think my ankle is sprained." Scott could see her start to feel defeated at how much further they had to go.

"Come on, we can still make it," Scott stepped beside her and she leaned against him for support. It was difficult racing through the hallway with all of the bodies that threatened to trip them, the pools of blood that made each step slick and having to watch the bodies to make sure that none of the dead undead decided to reanimate again somehow. They made it past the bodies without any more of them attacking them and started to make better time down the empty hallway. The stitch in Scott's side got worse from supporting Emily as they hobble ran towards the entrance. Scott saw an emergency exit emerge ahead of them at the end of the curve. The exit was about thirty feet away from the doors that lead to the campus police station. Scott and Emily were about 80 feet away from the doors. The undead had made it into the hallway from the station. They heard Emily and Scott's footsteps and let out their moans as they turned towards them. It was a race to get to the door before the undead. They had passed a couple other emergency exits behind them, but once opened an alarm would sound so Scott couldn't have peaked through them to see if there was any undead outside of them, while the hallway was confined, it had allowed them a safe passage in between the undead that were trapped inside of the stadium and the ones that swarmed around outside. If the undead beat them to the door then Scott doubted that they would have enough time to double back and risk taking one of the other emergency exits.

Emily and Scott made it to emergency doors just a few feet ahead of the undead. Scott knew how full the front of the stadium was with them, but there wasn't any time for caution and they slammed into the push bars of the emergency exit. An alarm started to go off at the door. The sidewalk and road around the entrance to the Stadium were full of the undead. They turned at the sound of the alarm and started to converge towards them. The dead in the hall were just a few steps behind them so Scott and Emily started moving. There were slight gaps in between the undead that they were able to pass through, but those gaps were ever shifting and closing as the undead ambled around and headed towards them with outstretched arms. Fingers brushed against them and clutched at clothing as they barely made it through the undead. When they were halfway between the stadium and the parking lot the safe pocket that they were about to enter suddenly closed up. Scott raised his pistol and shot one of the undead in the head. Hannah straightened up and shot two more of the undead with her rifle, cutting a small opening for them. As they passed through it more of the undead started to swarm them as the sounds of gunshots proved too loud for the undead to ignore. The swarm was too close for them to risk using their melee weapons so they had to keep on using their guns to clear a path through the undead. They barely managed to reach the first column of cars without being swarmed. They passed a few cars and then paused in the small moment of safety the had. Scott pulled the box of bullets from Emily's backpack and gave them to her so that she could reload. Scott watched behind him as the dead started to funnel one by one into the narrow gap between the cars. Through the undead Scott saw something that made his skin crawl and despite his burning lungs and protesting body, he wanted to start running again. The stadium doors had unlocked and hundreds of the undead were spilling out of it, heading towards the sound of the gunshots, towards them.

"Ready," Emily grunted and they started to race down the parking lot. There was only a few undead near the cars, and with small bursts of speed, they were able to make it past them without having to fight. Almost ten minutes had passed by the time they made it out of the parking lot. The numbers of the undead wandering around the campus were nothing compared to what they had just run through and they were able to easily make it past them as they lumbered towards Scott and Emily. "There is my car!" Emily said pointing towards the small parking lot near the sorority houses. The lot was about 300 feet away. With safety in sight, Scott felt a burst of energy flowing through his body. They were about halfway there when Scott heard the sound of claws clicking on the road. Scott turned and saw three of the undead dogs racing towards them in a 'v' formation, the one in front was nearly twice as big as the two that were flanking it and its fur was more grey then black. The dogs paused for a moment, growled, howled, and then darted after them.

Scott knew that they wouldn't be able to make it to Emily's car before the dogs made it to them. Scott and Emily stepped apart and aimed their weapons after the hellhounds and fired. Scott's first shot missed the fast moving targets and clipped into one of the flanking dogs in the top of the front leg. The dog yelped out in pain and tumbled over as the front leg gave out. Even coming from a beast that was trying to kill him the sound heart Scott's heart to hear. The gun clicked empty as Scott turned the gun at the bigger target. Emily's first shot hit the other flanking dog right through the chest, it too went down in a tumble. The mastiff continued its rush towards them, Emily shot again but her bullet only winged the creature. Scott dropped his handgun and readied to swing. The large hellhound lunged up at Emily. Emily braced the rifle against her and managed to get it up between her and the beast as it launched its nearly 200lbs body towards her. Emily's bayonet punctured into the beast's chest as the force of it knocked her down to the ground. Emily landed so that the rifle was braced against the ground and she held the hellhound at bay as it tried to press down and sink its teeth into her. Emily's arms trembled from holding the gun upright and her grip got slick with blood. Emily pulled her trigger two more times, firing bullets directly into the dog but they seemed to do no damage.

Scott swung sideways against the dog's skull, crushing into its jaw and unhinging its jaw. Scott was about to swing down at it again when he heard the clicking sound again of a dog running. Scott turned in time to see the dog that Emily had shot in the chest growl as it jumped towards him. Scott swung as hard as he could. The bat connected with the combined momentums across the dogs face. The force of the hit worked its way through Scott's arms and made him feel like he tore something in his muscles. There was a loud thud and crunch as the bat sunk into the dogs head. The hit knocked the dog to the side where it struck the ground and stayed still. Scott turned back towards the undead mastiff and saw how it had gotten closer to getting Emily. Scott gripped the bat tightly and swung down with all his might right onto the top of the dogs head. There was a crunch but the dog didn't go down and kept on trying to get Emily. Scott swung again and again, until finally with his fifth hit the huge dog went limp. Scott helped Emily shove the dog off of her and to the side. She was covered in its blood.

As Scott helped Emily up he heard the clicking sound again. He turned and saw that the dog he had shot was dragging the leg that he had shot and a bone stuck out from one of its back legs as it determinedly made its way towards them. Undead around them were starting to approach them and get closer. The beast got five feet away, howled, and then tried to launch itself at Scott, but it fell back to the ground. They needed to get going before they got swarmed again, and they could have easily outrun the dog, but looking down at it, Scott felt pity. The animal hadn't asked for this to be done to it by Umbrella. It was a victim as much as everyone who had been infected tonight. Scott gripped the baseball bat one last time, and despite how much it pained him to do so he swung down one last time. The dog crumpled to the ground with just one hit.

Scott picked back up his empty handgun and they rushed as fast as their beaten up bodies would let them. They made it to Emily's jeep and she started it. Emily swerved through the undead, driving as fast as she could. They were approaching the gate where the squad car was parked and saw the street lights flicker back on as the emergency generators finally kicked on. The gate started to slowly close. Emily floored it, it was going to be close. Emily ended up just barely passing the gate and had to swerve to avoid hitting the parked squad car and she had to hit her breaks to keep from driving over the side of the road. The gate locked behind them, they had just barely made it out in time. Emily was about to drive away and Scott wanted nothing more for her to do so, but he realized that they couldn't leave yet. "Wait," he said, "Keep the engine running and an eye out." Scott stepped out of the car and looked around, he didn't see any of the hellhounds around but he didn't doubt that they were out there so he knew that he had to make it fast.

Both of the undead police officers had stayed on the outer side of the wall. Scott dispatched both of them easily, the hellhounds had left them in such bad condition that they could barely stand up. Scott picked up the officer's handgun from inside of the security both and since he didn't know what would be useful or not he then unclipped both of their utility belts and threw them over his shoulder. He was surprised by how heavy they were. Scott saw the shotgun in the squad car. He pulled the keys out of the ignition and looked for the key that would unlock the weapon. Scott heard a dog howl out in the woods, it didn't sound far away, and then more started to howl in response. Scott finally got the shotgun unclipped and pulled it free. He motioned for Emily to back up towards him. He put the utility belts and shotgun into the back of her jeep and then turned to unlock the police cars trunk. Howl's started to echo all around Scott as the hellhounds rushed through the woods towards them. Scott opened up the trunk and was surprised when he saw what looked like a black assault rifle in the back along with a couple of boxes of ammo each for the handguns, shotgun, and rifle. Scott heard twigs snapping in the dark woods near the road and brush rustling. Scott threw the boxes of ammo into his backpack along with some survival and emergency equipment that was in the trunk and then with the assault rifle in hand he turned and ran back to the car. As Scott jumped in he heard the clicking sound as five and then ten dogs swarmed from out of the woods onto the road after him. Emily pulled out just as the hellhounds reached them. They chased after them as Emily drove off, more emerged from the trees, there had to at least be thirty of the monsters that came after them.

Scott wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but when he turned on the radio to a news channel it started talking about how much worse the violence was at Raccoon city Stadium and how now the riots had somehow spread to the hospital. Neither one of them said anything, their hope of safety in the city didn't look possible. Dawn was approaching as the sky started to brighten. As they drove around a bend of trees Raccoon city sprawled out in the valley below them. Fires and smoke could be seen in several places throughout the city. Scott unzipped his backpack and started to reload the handguns and then Emily's rifle. Emily clutched at Scott's knee. He paused in his work, squeezed her hand back, and then went back to reloading their weapons. The only way to get out of Raccoon Valley was through Racoon city.