Shakahnna Warren gasped while waking up, the redhead finding herself lying on her left side as she next sat up painfully.

Looking around, she saw that much of her RPD uniform was torn due to bite marks, both her blood and that of her attackers covering her shirt and trousers. She instinctively looked for her department-issue Beretta, and then remembered that the weapon was empty. After all, she had emptied the entire clip on the last wave of monsters who had been converging on the last three survivors at Raccoon General Hospital, before using her mystical shields to protect those two men and one woman, till she was overcome herself.

The last sound in her ears was that of the last three of the fourteen survivors being ripped apart by the seemingly endless horde of zombies, as she herself was killed by the monsters.

Sitting up on the bloodied floor, Shakahnna laughed out loud, surrounded by the bodies of the fourteen survivors she had led to the hospital, in addition to the approximately three dozen zombies who were also dead. She kept laughing for several moments, before she spat out blood, the projectile crimson bursting out of her mouth and spilling on the floor several feet away.

The rookie cop struggled to stand up, slipping on the spilled blood beneath her feet, before she maintained her balance. She saw the Beretta pistol nearby, and was so distressed at having been resurrected after her latest death that she ignored it, walking past the weapon and staggering towards the hospital exit. Appearing not unlike the zombies that she had been incapacitating all night, she reached the door, and stepped out of it, greeting the warm breeze outside, though she barely noticed it.

Once in the hospital parking lot, Shakahnna began proceeding towards the RPD headquarters, though she didn't fully remember how far that was. Hoping she recalled the directions to the main Police base correctly, a distant part of her mind thought that she should've known better than to lead the fourteen survivors into Raccoon General Hospital, as they had seen that the shutters weren't even down over the first-floor windows. That should've been an indication that the hospital and its staff didn't even have the chance to bring the security doors down after the outbreak, and that the building was fully infested due to hundreds of infected people having been ill there earlier.

The result was that Raccoon General Hospital was the most dangerous part of the entire city, ironically, and she and her fourteen followers were quickly overwhelmed once in the lobby. Any retreat had been made impossible very rapidly, and the rookie cop had died along with everyone else, only to return to life.

She wasn't sure what she was thinking at the moment, staggering further away from the infested hospital behind her, and ignoring the handful of zombies that walked towards her. Instead, she had an image of finding her boyfriend at the RPD, and things had to improve then. She needed to be with him, the pain so bad she couldn't stop from crying. Big wet streaks running down her face, wondering if she had been infected or maybe coming back to life had a certain allocation and she was close now to zero. Dead forever and never coming back, spitting another ball of bloodied flem from between her lips.

Shakahnna forced herself further, gently pushing away a zombie that tried to reach her.

Surely, things at the RPD would be better. They had to be.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Somewhere in the back of Jill Valentine's mind, she cursed the person who had designed the tube top she was wearing. The blue fabric itched continuously, aggravating her further as she was currently having an argument with a man who was about a decade older than her.

A short while ago, the RPD officer and her female companion had spotted what the latter insisted wasn't real, the civilian going on and on about how it was a mirage because such a miracle couldn't exist where they were. Fortunately for her, Valentine had gripped the pink-dressed blonde woman with the shoulder-length hair by her wrist and dragged her to the location that was about half a mile away, where they had seen a transport helicopter seemingly landing.

Keeping her left fingers wrapped around the civilians wrist, and her right grip on the handle of her Samurai Edge, the cop kept proceeding towards the spot, knowing that what her follower said couldn't be true. Clearly suffering from exhaustion and panic, and probably dehydration too, the blonde woman insisted that God no longer existed and thus an event such as a helicopter ride out of here couldn't happen. She repeated that it had to be a mirage, and that she and Valentine had both been delirious about the same thing, and tried to pull away from the brunette's grip.

She was ignored, Valentine dragging her several streets as she protested, the cop knowing that what they had seen was no hallucination, but hoping that she wouldn't come up against resistance when it came to putting her companion into the chopper. After all, the helicopter could've been there to evacuate people who were deemed to be more valuable than others by whatever idiot was in charge somewhere, with more expendable individuals like herself and the civilian being told to just die. If that had happened, then the STARS officer wondered if she was ready for a stand-off against several other people, who would've been most likely armed, when she had no one providing support for herself.

Fortunately, the pair reached a parking lot, and a large helicopter with two guards armed with automatic assault rifles was indeed there. The brunette momentarily wondered what the acronym UBCS stood for, but had to ignore that thought, guessing that any place that machine was flying to would've been better than where they were now.

The good news was that the two male guards who were about her age quickly ushered the two women towards the helicopter, seemingly willing to give them a ride out of here. One of the sentries also took his position among the evacuees inside the chopper, his job apparently being one where he was to escort the civilians to safety, while the other soldier remained outside.

The bad news was that the pilot pointed out that they were too heavy to fly with both women, and only one of them could get on. That caused the civilian in pink to lock eyes with Valentine, and the former burst into tears when the cop smirked, courteously bowed her torso forward, pressing the handgun against her own stomach, while pointing into the inside of the machine with her free hand. The officer's companion wasn't taking her up on the invitation, though, as the blonde woman sobbed further and hugged Valentine as tightly as she could. She eventually separated from the brunette at the cop's friendly insistence, being told that the helicopter had to leave but Valentine promising that they would see each other again.

The civilian separated her torso from Valentine's frame, but kept her two hands gripping the cop's shoulders as the two woman stared at each other. Still crying, the blonde female energetically shook her head, refusing to leave without her friend, and causing protests to be heard from the male guard who was impatiently waiting to escort the approximately forty people out. So Valentine inhaled as she holstered her handgun, held her breath, and proceeded to pick her companion up. Placing her left hand underneath the blonde woman's back, and her right behind the latter's knees, she carried her to the helicopter and placed her into the last free seat. It was amid her further protests that the sentry used the seatbelt to fasten the woman in pink to her chair. Then, still on his feet, he gave the go-ahead sign to the pilot by pointing his right index finger towards the helicopter ceiling and made the gesture of a circle with it.

Which led to the pilot protesting, saying something about how he still wasn't flying if the mutt was there.

And that had led Valentine to the situation she was in now, having a verbal argument with a man who was several years her senior, while he remained seated in the cockpit, and she was on her feet outside of the helicopter. Her face being only two feet away from his, separated via the clear glass, she bit her tongue while ignoring the annoying itch that the blue tube top was causing her to feel, while repeatedly using her free hands to make sure that damn black miniskirt wasn't too high around her hips.

Sighs were heard from the two younger UBCS men, both the one in the helicopter and the one outside of it, in addition to moans of exhaustion and a couple of civilians who were desperate to leave crying. She screamed at the pilot, and he yelled back at the cop, the topic of their argument being that he refused to fly due to one of the boys in the chopper refusing to let go of his Dalmatian puppy, the young canine nervously sitting in its owner's lap as the heated debate continued.

"Lady, I _told_ you!", the pilot protested further, "Orders are clear! No goddamn animals!".

"For pete's sake, it's only a tiny thing!", she griped, "Give the kind a break!".

"ORDERS ARE FUCKING ORDERS!", he barked back at her, before looking over his shoulder addressing his two colleagues in a calmer fashion, "Guys, get the mutt outta here already!".

He turned his attention back in front, and saw Valentine pointing her RPD badge and STARS identification at him through the glass.

"Do what I say", she evenly commanded.

Too bad he only scoffed at her action.

"Toots, whatever authority you _think_ you had disappeared the minute the freaks showed up", he calmly replied, before looking over his shoulder again, "Is the mutt out of my chopper yet?".

"Then you _really_ want to argue with me and delay this evac over one animal?", she questioned, putting her badge and identification away.

He locked eyes with her through the glass, and she heard him moan to himself, before he finally sighed and started the engine, readying to fly vertically up.

Valentine stepped away from the ever-increasing speed of the rotorblades, as did the second UBCS guard, and the brunette smiled at the blonde woman in pink who was still keeping her gaze on the cop. The brunette waved as the helicopter was airborne, and her companion waved back as she was lifted up into the air.

"I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN!", the officer yelled out as the chopper rose higher into the sky, and quickly ascended, before flying towards its destination.

It was only when the noise and wind from the machine was distant that Valentine heard herself swearing.

"What's the matter?", the UBCS guard who had remained behind asked, walking casually towards her while his assault rifle remained in his hands.

"Just occurred to me that I never got her name", the brunette thought out loud.

"Oh, well, that sucks", he sniggered, appearing a bit too relaxed for the environment he was in, "Anyway, come on there, brave little lady. You shouldn't stay out here by your lonesome. Ricky there, that's the pilot you like so much, won't be back for another hour".

"What do you propose we do _till_ then?", Valentine asked while withdrawing her handgun and checking to ensure that it was full of ammunition, not noticing that the smirk on his face widened when he heard her question.

"I got some friends of mine we should go meet", the young man quickly suggested in a more serious tone when she looked into his face again, "Assuming you want some company, that is".

"Being with them beats being alone for you?", she inquired while they were facing each other.

"Mikhail and Nicholai are good men, yeah", he stated "They're heading a platoon not far from here, canvassing the city for survivors to bring to evac positions".

"Then lead the way", she pointed out of this parking lot with her free hand, and he did, marching ahead of her, weapon at the ready.

"Name's Carlos, by the way", he pointed his free right hand in her direction for an instant, "Carlos Oliveira".

"Good to make your acquaintance", she shook his hand as they headed out into the darkness, "Jill Valentine".

"_Pleasure_", the smiling young man almost purred as they continued walking ahead.

"So where did that thing with my nameless friend in it go?", the cop asked while pointing towards the sky with her free hand.

"Helicopter's headed to Grandville", the guard explained, visually inspecting the area around them, "When their mayor got news of the federal efforts in your city, he insisted that his city be used to house the refugees. Quite a swell guy, he was. He actually spoke to us before we lifted out of Grandville to come here".

It was only then that she noticed the Umbrella symbol on the back of his jacket, above the letters UBCS again.

At another time and another place, there would've been room for tact.

Oliveira wasn't sure whether to talk about what was bothering him about all the death and carnage he'd witnessed so far, or to let his mind wander with the attractive woman he just came across. Surely, if this did turn out to be the last night that they were alive, was there a possibility she was thinking the same as him?

He smirked. Not like the lack of condoms would've been a problem if this was their last night alive.

His smirk faded when he felt the barrel of her Samurai Edge pressing against the side of his skull. Something about the pressure she was using to push the weapon against his head, and the resolute indignation he could see on her face out of the corner of his eye, quickly told him she wasn't feeling flirty.

"Now, Carlos", Valentine mentioned while keeping her weapon against his skull while the pair stopped walking, "You _seem_ like a nice guy, and I just saw you do something quite noble by staying behind. Those are the only reasons I'm still talking to you instead of putting a bullet in your head, got it?".

"Uh, yeah, yeahyeahyeah", he quickly nodded his head, knowing very well that he had no chance of using his assault rifle against her before she pulled the trigger, and the tone of her voice indicated she would do just that if he tried to fight back, "Um, look, if you're not into having some fun just now, or if you don't drive stick, I get it. It's cool. If blondie was your girlfriend back there, I didn't mean to...".

"What?", she interrupted, "Shut up!".

She reached forth and took the assault rifle out of his hands, dropping the larger weapon on the ground as she kept her handgun aimed at his head.

"Now, just be a good boy and tell me what the _fuck_ Umbrella is doing here", Valentine ordered.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"It's not going too badly, darling", Brian Irons put a strained smile on his face while keeping his sidearm in his right grip, aimed at the floor, "With any luck, we can keep holding on to this building as a safe haven till help arrives".

While having been physically tired a few hours ago, to the point where his body stopped aching some time back and he was operating his limbs without paying attention to their discomfort any more, he felt that all this strain was still worth it. Speaking to Joanne Warren, the middle-aged Police chief reassured her that he and the rest of the officers were gaining the upper hand against the monsters. She gave him a beautiful smile while she was seated on his desk, and breathed a sigh of relief while placing her criss-crossed palms over her own heart.

"Thank you, Brian", the blonde woman who was in her early 20's replied, "Can't tell you how good it feels to hear that".

"Having you be safe and sound makes this all worth it, believe me", he smiled back, feeling relieved himself once he knew she was alright.

"Sooo...", Joanne grinned while lowering her arms by her sides and placing her palms on the surface of the desk, "How long do you reckon before this nightmare is over and we're going back to normal in Raccoon City? I can't wait to meet up with my friends for cappuccino again and tell them all about this, and about how brave you were".

"Just doing my job, Joanne, honey", he chuckled while approaching her seated position on his desk, "But we don't know _when_ this will all clear up. Till then, I need you to stay here until we get the all-clear from outside".

He was expecting her to say something that was nice to hear, instead he only received a cacophony of noise pollution as a woman's voice almost screamed to get his attention from the left.

Irons' eyes snapped open and shut several times, the chief feeling surprised as Joanne disappeared from the view in front of him. He turned his face to the left, and saw that she had re-appeared there, standing next to the metal table that was on the side of the office opposite that of his desk. Having previously been sitting on one of the two chairs that were around the table, Joanne had gotten increasingly worried over the last few minutes, and became even more alarmed when Irons returned to his office just now.

That was because the older man had started talking to no one in particular while addressing the area around his desk, ignoring Joanne while she tried to speak to him, and noticed that he didn't seem to hear her. She eventually panicked so much that she stood from the chair and approached him, raising her voice to get his attention. He finally seemed to hear her, turning his face in her direction, though appearing surprised that she was standing next to him, fear obvious on her features.

"Sorry, uncle Brian", the younger woman mentioned in a regular tone while clutching the handgun that officer Warren had given her before leaving her here, "You just didn't seem to hear me. Are you OK?".

"Yes, yes, of course", he shook his head, looking at her, seeming surprised again at her appearance, and then staring at his empty desk, and then back at her again, "Why do you ask?".

"What was all that screaming downstairs?", Joanne inquired next, "And the shooting? Is it getting worse?".

She guessed that the situation wasn't improving while more yells and gunfire were emanating from the lobby downstairs, but even that horrible situation suddenly didn't appear as worrying as what she was looking at now. Rather than give her a quick report of the situation, whether good or bad, Irons smiled at her again, causing the nervous woman to wonder what he was so happy about.

He turned his attention back to his desk, and began talking about plans to one day spend a relaxing afternoon being introduced to her friends at one of the city's many espresso bars, assuming her young friends wouldn't mind being seen alongside someone of his age.

Joanne went from nervous to fully scared while watching the older man speak to no one in particular about how this event caused him to appreciate his life and the people that he loved. She watched him waiting for several seconds, and then continuing the conversation with the person who wasn't on his desk, going on about how it was very nice of Joanne to insist that he was the best part of her life whether her friends liked it or not.

The alarmed young woman swallowed a lump in her throat, not being able to figure out what was happening to the Police chief, but further yells from outside this office told her that whatever safety she may have had here was probably gone.

Leaving the older man to continue his delusional conversation with the desk, the blonde woman tensed her right fingers around the grip of the handgun and slowly walked out of the office. She had to tell someone about how the chief wasn't acting right, and maybe other officers here would be able to help.

Sneaking out of the office and closing the door behind her, she proceeded towards the right of the second-floor corridor she was in, past the office that belonged to Irons' secretary. Hearing the gunfire and panic from the lobby with even more clarity, she was breathing with difficulty while proceeding past the hardwood floor.

She stopped when she finally saw an officer at the end of this particular hallway, about thirty yards ahead, as the older uniformed man was coming towards her and passing a row of closed windows that looked out into the night air. She remembered this man's name being George Scott, as officer Scott had been sporadically visiting Irons' office all night to give reports about how things were going in the lobby. Alongside receiving new orders from the chief, Scott had been nice enough to ask the blonde woman earlier if there was anything she needed, and when she thanked him for the offer and said there wasn't, he had asked that she let him know if she changed her mind.

"George!", she waved towards him with her free left hand, "Thank God!".

"What's the matter, Joanne?", the older cop asked while the two individuals were walking towards each other.

"I need to talk to you! It's, well it's about Uncle Brian...", Joanne told him as the distance between them became shorter.

"What about the...", was all the man got to utter before glass exploded into the corridor via the windows from outside.

The cop screamed and withdrew his handgun as several dozen crows flew into the hallway, mercilessly pecking at his head and torso as they swarmed around him. He fired his weapon blindly as blood appeared on him while the infected animals didn't slow their attacks. Despite his efforts, it only took the onslaught of crows a few seconds to use their beaks to gouge out his eyes and tear at the veins in his arms and neck, causing Scott to collapse on the floor amid his own blood.

Joanne screamed in horror as the armada of aggressive crows continued eating at the male cop's corpse, the scene in front of her appearing as if a large black cloud was hovering over Scott's remains. A distant part of her mind told her to not make so much noise, unless she wanted to risk the monsters to notice her too, so she used her left palm to forcefully shut her own mouth.

Unfortunately, it was too late as half the crows who were feasting on the older man's carcass quickly flew towards her, attacking her in turn. She raised the weapon and had enough time to fire one bullet into the flying mass of black feathers that angrily sped in her direction. She managed to kill one of the crows before dozens of others ripped into her flesh with their beaks, and Joanne only had time for one more scream before she was mauled as quickly and efficiently as the cop had been.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

It didn't matter to him that he found her dying body only a few yards away from George Scott's remains, not caring about the dead cop as he carried her bloodied form back to his office and let her rest on the surface of the desk.

Standing next to the desk on which she was lying, Brian Irons was addressing Joanne Warren as he held her hand, not paying attention to the bedlam taking place downstairs.

"I've always wanted to protect you", he told her while she was looking back at him as she lay on her back on his desk, "I couldn't imagine it if anything happened to the most important person in my life".

"Brian, it's OK", she reassured him with a smile that immediately made him feel better, "I'm not going anywhere, thanks to you".

"I love you more than anything, darling", the chief added.

"I love you too, Brian", Joanne told him back.

"You know I'd never hurt you, right?", he asked next while still holding her right hand in his left grip, "My sole objective here tonight has been to protect you".

"Of course I know that", she replied while keeping her eyes locked with him, "What a silly question. Brian, I'm not saying I'm not frightened over all the crazy things happening here, but if we go, then we go together, you and me. You're here with me, and nothing else matters".

"We need to make sure you survive, Joanne, darling", the older man continued, infinitely happy that she was reciprocating his feelings, "As you said, nothing matters except you and I making it out of here. Everything else is a distant second".

"Then lead and I'll follow you", the blonde woman assured him, "You're the only one I've ever trusted, you know that. I'm not scared, even here, if you're going to protect me".

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The male RPD officer walked into the chief's office due to being concerned as neither her, nor any of his colleagues downstairs, had seen Brian Irons for some time. The worry was that the Police chief may have been distracted away from the safe haven that was being attempted to be maintained in the lobby, and maybe was attacked by a zombie elsewhere in the building.

Thinking that Irons most likely was not in his office, but wanting to check that area to rule out in his search for the chief, the cop walked into the office without knocking on the closed door leading to it.

"Oh, Jesus!", the younger man exclaimed as he saw that the chief was face-down on the office desk, seemingly having sex with a blonde woman in a white dress who was underneath him, while she was lying on the desk on her back.

Irons only continued his intercourse with the woman, not even seeming to notice that the officer had barged into the large room.

"Sir, I mean, excuse me", the cop uttered, "I didn't mean to intrude".

He walked backwards and out of the office before beginning to close the door behind himself, telling himself that surely this wasn't the right time to be doing what the chief was doing. Even if they were all fighting nonstop, it was no excuse to let the chief's mind wander around an attractive woman he came across. It was unprofessional of him considering that the last of them were looking towards him to be their leader and instead he was balls deep in some slut. A wave of anger and indignation coming in place of the discomfort that he felt.

But just before he was finished closing the door to give Irons and the blonde woman privacy, the cop noticed that the young female underneath the chief was covered in blood. In fact, he paid close attention to her closed eyes and the way she wasn't moving, and soon realized that she was dead. He gasped at the recognition he made.

It was when the office gasped that Irons turned his own face towards the younger cop who stood near the office doorway. A mixture of anger for being interrupted and a desire to protect Joanne prompted the middle-aged man to reach for his sidearm while his predatory eyes were now locked on the younger man's face.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Dumbass Ed!", Irons returned to the sanctuary of his office and updated Joanne about what had happened.

Sitting on the edge of the desk where the blonde woman was lying on her back, he rested his firearm near her feet, while haphazardly drying the blood from both his hands on his trousers.

"Maybe now he'll think twice about walking in on us like a moron and interrupting our time together", he told her, "But you won't _believe_ how long he took to die after I popped two rounds into his heart. I mean, my time _is_ precious, right, darling?".

"Of course it is, Brian", the young lady stated from her horizontal position next to him, "Your time is _our_ time together".

"They're all the same", he angrily told her next, "They're all jealous of what we have. That's why that dumbass Ed hurt you, didn't he?".

"Yes, he did,", Joanne confirmed, nodding her head vigorously "You did the right thing by killing him for my honour".

"I can't trust _any_ of them any more", the older man continued ranting to himself while staring at the office wall now, "I think they all have to die if I'm going to be able to protect you, darling. I need to do _something_ to keep you safe from harm".

She didn't respond this time, only letting him think further to himself as he looked at the beautiful woman next to him. He next visually inspected the painting on the wall that led to the elevator leading from this office to the taxidermy basement that the chief had built, and smiled to himself.