Chapter 8

September 29th- 2133:

Megan walked into the living room carrying a can of cold beer in each hand. Doug gave her a funny look.

"Yeah, sure, why not. I'm still on duty, but I doubt anyone is gonna call the cops. Oh wait!" he began sarcastically, "I AM the cops! It's not as if someone's going to see me and go 'hey! Call the po... Oh hang on...'. In fact, while we're at it, let's take up smoking as well. Not much point to clean living anymore." He opened his can of beer and took a large swig of it. "You know, if you close your eyes, it's as though the last week's events never happened, like everything is fine. David is still alive, Brad's head is one piece, I'm ticketing speeding drivers and living in my nice quiet apartment." Megan didn't know what to say, Doug's personality had begun to change. "I wonder how much over time pay I'll get? And the rent's due tomorrow... At least this month I have an excuse for it being late" he laughed to himself before drinking some more beer.

"Now you're starting to worry me" Megan told him as Doug slumped a little more into the sofa.

"Sorry" he sighed. "It's been a crazy week." Megan stood up and began to fumble with the magazine pouch on her belt that she had been fiddling with for days. Moaning at how it was constantly digging into her side.

"Look" Doug smiled as he stood up. "You're right handed, yeah?" He undid the velcro loop and moved it to her left hand side. "Put it on the opposite side, so when you shoot, you can keep your gun on the target and reload." He stood behind her and helped her to point the gun at the wall. He then told her to release the magazine and held the gun up while she reloaded.

"That makes everything so much easier" Megan laughed.

"It's one of the first things they teach you at the academy" Doug replied, before sitting down. Megan sat down next to him, wearing the same clothes she had been given by Kendo the previous morning. Doug made himself comfortable on the sofa and closed his eyes to get some sleep, while Megan rested her head on his shoulder. Doug didn't know anything about it. He was too far gone. All he wanted to do was sleep, and in this little fortress the U.B.C.S had created, they felt safe and slept without worrying what was outside.

September 30th- 1218:

Doug and Megan woke up to the sound of things being moved around.

"Time to leave" Mac informed them. "Time to get out of here." Doug couldn't believe it. He had overslept again. It was as if he was still a student and waking up on a neighbouring floor's kitchen table, as he had done when he was at R.C.U. Getting the hell out of here was his plan, and he needed to be around to conduct it.

"Okay" He told Mac. "Get everybody together, I'll be out in a second." He looked down at his left shoulder, confused as to why Megan was gone. She was coming down the stairs with the four children, accompanied by Samantha.

"Last one to the school bus is a rotten egg!" She teased as the children ran out the front door. They were quiet, but still playing along. Even the fifteen year old girl that was one of the 'minors'. James was another, and two more young children were in the group, as well as six adults. Unfortunately, none of them were related. Doug slowly got up, feeling the blood rush to his head as he stepped outside into another sunny day. As they began to load up the school bus, someone was spotted running up the road.

"Matt!" Owen exclaimed. "You made it!" Owen approached them and bent over panting with his hands on his knees.

"Yeah, but I have company. Those things will be with us soon. Do what you have to do and get the hell out of here." He told them. Doug hurried the last of the people onto the bus and told them to sit separate from each other, urging anybody to point out anything out of the ordinary.

If they were infected, they would have shown signs of it by now The voice inside his head told him. He couldn't risk it, not now. Not when they were so close. The chorus of the undead appeared to be growing closer, and it was time to make their move. After a check to make sure everybody carried their wallets upon them so they could begin setting themselves up in Stoneville when they arrived, the four U.B.C.S members and Doug had a meeting.

"Okay, your only instructions are to drive and not stop" Doug explained. "If you come across a road block. Stop and try to sort it out. Do not under any circumstances let anyone off that bus. You got that?" The U.B.C.S. Members nodded, now in a change of clothes they had taken from a nearby house. "Is this everyone? Good." Mac took the driver's seat while Owen and Matt sat immediately behind him. Doug and Scott stood in the street as the bus started its engine. As it did so, they saw the zombies coming.

"We must have made too much noise" Doug informed Scott, and told him to jump in the patrol car.

"What do you want us to do?" Matt called to them. Doug rolled down his window and leaned out.

"Just drive!" He shouted back. "I'll distract these guys for you!" Megan was then seen jumping off the bus as Doug turned on the lights to the patrol car and approached his wound down window.

"Don't go being some kind of hero now" She scolded. Doug just simply told her that these people needed all the time they could get since they didn't know what was blocking the road ahead and simply ordered her back on the bus. Megan ran back to it and jumped on, the doors closing behind her.

"Those zombies are gonna keep following us out of town" Doug said worriedly as he put on his seatbelt. "We're gonna have to lead them back towards the centre of the city and then make our getaway. The bus waited for the signal to go, and as the zombies got closer, Doug poked his gun out of his window and fired three shots into the air to get the zombies to follow him, with Scott leaning out of his window to shoot the people who were on the bus before them who had recently risen as zombies. The group following them picked up speed and started to get closer. Mac saw that as a cue and the bus started to move, while Doug turned on the lights and sirens before setting off on a slow crawl in first gear, letting the clutch take the car. The children sat at the back of the bus looked in horror as Doug turned off down a side street while the bus carried straight on.

"Sam!" James called to her. "Where's the policeman going?" Sam, Megan and Matt headed for the back of the bus and watched as the police cruiser turned left, with the zombies following.

"Mac, stop just here! We need to know if we're being followed!" Mac brought the bus to a very slow pace and when it was determined that the large group of about a hundred zombies had all followed the police car, they carried on their way to escape.

"What the hell does he think he's doing?" Megan thought aloud.

"Doing his job" Samantha sighed, and they both took their seats. The bus was well prepared for the drive that lay ahead. Four of the people on it were competent with firearms, they had food, water and military grade weapons, as well as a selection of books and board games to keep them occupied should they need to go somewhere other than Stoneville. More for the children than anything. The civilians on board were silent. They were just silently praying that they would get out of town in one piece. They felt safe, since the U.B.C.S had taken them to safety and kept them fed and watered, as well as doing a great job of looking after the children. The arrival of Doug and Megan cemented their determination to escape, and were promised an evacuation. Now, they were getting that evacuation. On a more open residential street, Mac was able to open the taps a little more, and gave the bus a burst of speed, going well over the speed limit for these roads.

"Aren't you going a little quick? Owen asked him.

"Nah" Mac laughed. "I won't get a ticket, the only cop in town is already occupied." The bus handled surprisingly well in the corners, probably due to the fact it wasn't fully laden like it would be on a school day, and with the lack of traffic, Mac was almost able to take a 'racing line' through the corners to keep his speed up.

"How much further to Downtown?" Scott asked, looking behind him every so often to make sure their stalkers were still there.

"Six miles" Doug replied, both hands on the wheel and keeping his eyes completely focused on the road ahead. "Although it'll be more of a zigzag affair since most of the roads are blocked with crashed cars." Scott reached for his belt and produced something that would keep those things following them occupied: A fragmentation grenade.

"Good idea" Doug praised him. "We'll head towards the clock tower and drop it out the window. Hopefully it'll take a few of them with it." They were currently driving along one of the main thoroughfares to Raccoon Street, where Matt had been hiding in the hotel. Although side streets were having to be taken as some of the streets were so littered with debris such as broken glass, something Doug didn't want to drive on in case the tires burst, and although he liked cars and knew his way around them, he wasn't too handy with a jack when he had hundreds of undead civilians breathing down his back.

"Shit... I think we may have attracted more of them." Scott said with concern as he looked out the back window.

"Highway 17- Right!" Mac exclaimed with glee as he slowed for a tight bend. The lights were on red, but he didn't really care. No police to watch him, and even if there was a camera on top that snapped red light runners, the city wasn't going to last long enough for the state government to issue him with a ticket. Running the lights and rounding a crashed car with the bus's poor turning circle, he floored it onto the highway, a single carriageway road which was used as a route to Stoneville before the interstates were built during President Eisenhower's tenure as president.

"Thanks for that information Mac" Megan said sarcastically. "But can we save the history lessons until AFTER we're out of here?" The bus picked up speed, now doing over fifty miles an hour. In his always wanting to crack a joke type of personality, Mac mentioned something quietly about a bomb being armed as he crossed the 50mph barrier. Samantha responded by giving him a crack... over the head. This wasn't the time for jokes. They couldn't get complacent now, even though the city limits were still three miles away. Once they passed the army barricades, they were free. Mac wanted to go faster, but he didn't feel safe going over 55mph with the children on board, and even though he was cracking jokes, it was either they all got out alive, or none of them got out alive. The road was dead straight from here, and the three miles to the city limits were quickly eaten up. As they approached the city limits, Mac braked hard. The US Army must have put up a barricade, but it wasn't even manned. Maybe they had just set it up and abandoned it. Most of the Army was in Kosovo after all...

"What's going on?" A middle aged civilian asked from his seat, after the bus had come to a complete stop. "Why have we stopped?" Mac opened the doors and the three U.B.C.S members got off, along with Megan.

"There's a blockade we need to clear to get out of the city" She explained, trying to keep everybody calm. We'll be moving in no time. Megan and Owen stood guard while Mac and Matt moved one of the barriers, which had been covered in barbed wire.

"We'd better leave this open so Doug can get his car through" Megan suggested, and they moved the bus through slowly. Once through, Mac floored it once more, and they were now free...

Doug was forced to take an alternative route. Instead of heading towards the clock tower, he had to take a left onto Warren Street. The group behind him had grown in size, and now he had trapped them about two hundred yards from the police station. He came to a stop just before the junction of Flower Street, close to where he first met Megan.

"God..." Matt gasped as he saw the chaos that was continuing. "It's all completely hopeless out here..."

"Yep.." Doug replied, and asked for the hand grenade. He was seeing his town for the last time. Twenty three years he has lived here, and now he was having to say goodbye to everything and everyone he ever knew. The police station's clock tower clearly visible from where they were. He checked his driver side wing mirror and rolled down the window. This had to be timed to perfection. He planned to cook the grenade so that it exploded at least two seconds after dropping it. Drop it to early and it wouldn't explode in the centre of the group. Drop it too late and he'd end up taking the car, and themselves, with it.

"That's an M67 frag grenade. The US Army uses it" Scott told him. "It's got a fuse time of four seconds... Do you even know how to use one of those things?" Doug rolled down the window and told Scott that if he had another one on him, he'd best equip it now. The zombies got closer and closer, to the point where they were almost breathing down upon them. Doug pulled the pin out, and so did Scott on his, and they hung their arms out the window. Doug out the left in his dominant hand, Scott on the right passenger side with his dominant hand.

"Ready?" Doug asked. Scott nodded. Doug moved the gearbox from neutral into drive, and they released the safety in unison, cooking the grenade...

"NOW!" He ordered, and as soon as the grenade was clear, Doug slammed his right foot down on the accelerator. There was a minute amount of wheel spin as the car pulled away due to it being an automatic and the clutch snapping in intantly. The grenades went off, taking out a sizeable amount of the undead, whilst also blowing the back window of the car out, and the glass leaving a nasty cut on the back of Doug's head, the blood tickling the back of his head as it trickled down his neck onto his uniform.

"Shit!" Scott exclaimed. "Are you alright?" Doug put his hand on the back of his head and noticed there was quite a bit of blood there.

"I've got more important things on my list of priorities right now to worry about a little cut on the back of my head. Just buckle up and hold on!" Scott was able to get a good look at the cut. It wasn't a small one. It was pretty nasty, but Doug was determined to get both of them to safety. If this was before the 27th, he would have simply headed for the police station, knowing Rebecca kept a whole stock of medical equipment within the S.T.A.R.S office, but he didn't want to know anymore. He had to get out of here. A beautifully executed power slide onto Flower Street left what was left of the zombies firmly out of his grasp. Knowing that Doug had eluded them for the last time, they turned and began to head towards the police station...

Scott was getting a lesson in why Doug was the best driver within the R.P.D. It was creepy to watch, but Doug's head twitched along with his eyes as he scanned the road ahead for hazards, as well as checking his mirrors. He was losing blood pretty quickly, and looked to be in a lot of pain, as evidenced by the grimacing and the look in his eyes. At the next intersection with Good Street, Doug took another hard right.

"Hey, could you check the glove box?" Scott opened it.

"There's a first aid kit inside" he observed.

"See if there's anything in there to stop the bleeding." Scott rummaged around in the kit and the glove box itself and found a S.T.A.R.S sweatband that was the only thing that could really be used right now, as trying to pick out the glass from the back of Doug's head and apply a bandage while he was driving wasn't really a good idea. As he attempted to apply pressure, Scott grimaced in pain and briefly lost control, nearly slamming into a lamp post.

"I'll hang on" He grimaced. "We'll soon be out..."

September 30th- 1650:

The other survivors had found a lay by at the side of Highway 17 at the top of a hill overlooking the city, roughy ten miles from the Army erected barricade. The road was quite twisty and was reported to be dangerous just past their position, while the road back into down still had its twist and turns, just not as twisty or dangerous and provided the once spectacular view of the city. The lay by was often used as an observation point, and the lay by could have easily been used as a car park. It was the last image of Raccoon City's large tourist industry.

"I'm not leaving this spot until that cop car comes over the crest of that hill" The middle aged survivor announced. Megan was standing to one side of him, while Mac stood on the other side holding his rifle.

"Yeah, me neither" She told him, with Mac also agreeing. Mac climbed back onto the bus to make sure the children were okay. The teenage survivor and Samantha were doing a great job of keeping them occupied while other survivors relished in the smell of the fresh air, and not the smell of decaying corpses that had filled the streets of downtown Raccoon City.

"I hope that cop shows up so I can thank him for what he's done along with those other guys" He said sadly, a tear running down his cheek as he saw the fires burning across his home town, with the people who once inhabited it- police officers, paramedics, firemen, lawyers, accountants and housewives amongst the thousands of others who wandered the streets aimlessly.

"Me too Stephen" she replied. I've only known him a couple of days, but it feels like I've known him forever. I'm glad I met him, even if we met in the weirdest of circumstances." She briefly explained their meeting and how he helped her to find safety. "Even though he's the only cop left, he's still helping people, even if it means he could get killed..." Samantha appeared and stood with Megan as Stephen left for a lie down.

"Still nothing? He's been gone far too long... But I think we all know that..." Megan put her head in her hands and felt herself beginning to cry. Samantha put her arm around her and tried to comfort her. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean what you thought..."
"It's not that" She said, wiping away a tear. "It's just everything I've been through in the last couple of months. You know the S.T.A.R.S team that went out to the Arklay Mountains a couple of months ago? I lost my brother out there, and now all this..." Samantha didn't know what to say, so she just held Megan for a while while she cried. Samantha couldn't hold back the tears either. She may have had a messy break up with Doug, but she was worried sick about him. He had been gone far too long. It had been nearly four hours.

Twenty minutes later. Megan was sat on the long nosed bonnet of the bus, watching Raccoon City. The sun had begun to set, and once it was behind the Arklay Mountains, the sky would be a dark orange. Once the sky had turn from blue to orange, she knew time would be running out for Doug... That is if he was still alive... Megan loved the sunsets in this part of the country, especially at this time of night when the sky was this kind of blue-orange. The children were getting some exercise with the U.B.C.S, the adults were talking on the bus and Megan just couldn't do any of that. She was waiting for her friend to show up.

That was when she heard something and thought she saw something ahead. It sounded like an engine, and what she saw looked like red and blue flashing lights. She stood on the bonnet for a better view. And what she thought she saw was proved to be real.

"They're here!" She called out. Everyone gathered near the bus to get a look as the police car came over the crest of the hill at almost top speed, slamming its brakes on as it got near it before doing a U-turn and parking up next to the evacuation transport, facing back towards Raccoon City. Scott got out the passenger seat first, while Doug was slower to get out. The back of his head was a dark red, there was blood running down the side of his face and he looked to be in a lot of pain.

"Glad to see you in one piece" Mac and the other U.B.C.S members smiled, shaking hands and congratulating Scott.

"It's him you need to be worried about" he pointed at Doug, who was sitting on the bonnet of the patrol car. Stephen and Megan ran over to him.

"What the hell happened?" She asked.

"An explosion near the police station blew out the rear window" Scott explained. "The glass has cut him pretty bad." Scott reached back into the car and pulled out the first aid kit.
"Is anyone a doctor?" Scott asked. Luckily, Stephen was a navy medic in Vietnam, working on the aircraft carriers. Using the tweezers contained in the medical kit, Stephen was able to pull out the larger pieces of glass, which was designed in such a way that it shattered into lots of large pieces rather than even more smaller pieces, so that small slivers of glass wouldn't get into head wounds such as Doug's. Doug was in a lot of pain, and looked in a state of shock. Stephen applied the bandage to his head to contain the bleeding and they moved him to the bus.

"We'll put him on the back seat so he has somewhere to rest" Stephen explained. The U.B.C.S soldiers placed him on the back seat and used a pile of jackets and anything soft they had taken from the house in the event of a stop over to keep him comfortable, as well as placing a picnic blanket over the top of him. They really had thought of everything. Mac later went to the police car to inspect the damage and began cleaning it up. During his inspection of the vehicle, he came across something truly terrifying.

"Yo Scott!" he called. "Check this out man!" Scott poked his head into the back of the car and noticed something embedded in the back of Doug's headrest. It was a large piece of glass, very sharp to the touch and it missed the back of Doug's head by inches. Neither soldier could believe it. He came so close to death once again but escaped it, although they agreed that no one should know about it. They were free now, it didn't matter anymore.

With Doug in the state he was in no one particularly wanted to get on the move, even though Doug probably needed stitches in the back of his head. Instead they set up a camp fire to keep them warm and ate the last of the food they had, with enough left over for breakfast if they needed it. They were a close knit community, and it was admirable that they had managed to keep calm and collected in that kind of situation, waiting for transport that never came, and instead having to put their lives in the hands of a single police officer and some hired mercenaries from the antagonistic corporation that started this in the first place.

October 1st, 0557:

Doug groaned as he rolled his head to one side. Megan got up from a nearby seat, having been up all night to watch over him, despite Samantha and Mac also offering to watch over him. Everyone was asleep, so Megan got down on her knees next to him.

"Hey" she whispered in a friendly way. "How're you feeling?" Doug's eyes were barely open.

"Cold... Sick..." He then stopped as he tried to open his eyes. "Can I get some fresh air?" Megan slowly helped him into a sitting position and carefully lifted him to his feet, making their way slowly out of the bus, where Mac was outside on guard duty.

"Get some sleep" Megan smiled at him. "We'll take it from here." Mac nodded and headed back into the bus for a couple of hours sleep. Doug and Megan stood watching the fires still burning in Raccoon City. It was now practically a ghost town.

"It's been a rough ride, but it's now over" Doug said with relief. Megan could only agree. Although they were safe now, she was still sad. All those people. The people who had laughed when Chris and the others had returned from the mountains telling people about how Umbrella had started all this and had a secret lab in the mountains and their virus had caused the bizarre murders... These were the same people now wandering the streets of Raccoon City, victims to the Umbrella Corporation's dreams of the perfect weapon. Megan could still remember the day Chris and Jill showed up at her apartment to tell her what had happened to Forest. After all, it wasn't something she could just forget. She didn't want to believe them, but she knew Chris as he was best friends with Forest and Chris wasn't the type to make these sorts of things up. He never believed in ghosts or zombies or anything from horror movies. And the way they explained it... They couldn't have made it up... It all sounded to plausible. Doug had his wallet with him. He always carried it in case he was unable to return to the police station to eat the packed lunch he made for himself every morning and had to get something on the go. He put a quarter into the telescope and was able to get a good look at the city, even if they were about ten miles away. The major buildings of the city could be seen, with the police station acting as the centrepiece. It was easily recognisable with the clock tower on top of it and how grand it was. If Doug zoomed in far enough, he was just able to make out the window he had dived out of as if he was a stuntman in a bad horror movie. After a couple of minutes, the shutters came down, ending what would be his final view of his home town, as they heard the soundtrack to this horror movie's final scene.

"What's that noise?" Megan asked, and the pair started looking around to see what was making it. The noise was a mixture of a rumble with a high pitched whine over the top, the engineering version of a soprano singing over a bass choir. Whatever it was, it was nearby, and at the rate the noise was getting louder, it was approaching at some speed. As they looked around at where they thought the sound was coming from, they saw some red and green lights approaching the city from the north east... directly behind them.

"Look!" Megan exclaimed, pointing at what was making the noise.

It wasn't just one either, there were many. Eight or nine maybe, but when it looked like they had all come out of the clouds, more of them appeared.

"What a magnificent sight" Doug smiled. Even though the end was near, the sight of what they were brought a tear to his eye. Doug was like that though: He was very engineering inclined, even though his first love was history. He preferred a jet turbine to a mobile phone, or a bridge to a microchip. This was a sight that he would remember for the rest of his life. He wished he could take a picture, but all he could do was watch. Megan took hold of Doug's hand as the objects flew over their heads at around fifteen thousand feet.

"Hey! Wake up! You've gotta see this!" Mac called to everyone in the bus. The others had been roused by the noise and got up to have a look, all of them staring at the sky, white vapour trails appearing as the hot exhaust gases met the cold air. The survivors stood behind the protective barrier that stopped people falling down the steep incline of the hill. They were stood behind Doug and Megan, but still had a great view.

"What are they?" one of the female survivors asked as little black objects began to fall from the sky. Doug knew exactly what they were.

B-52 bombers.

They could hear the whistles of the bombs falling, and they certainly heard the sounds they made as they hit the ground, causing the tired children to cover their ears and making one little girl cry as the sound was quite loud. It was like when Doug was at University- How he read about the fighting on the Western Front got so bad that the cannons being fired in Belgium could be heard from the south coast of the United Kingdom. Stephen held onto the girl who was crying while everybody stood with their fingers in their ears. Doug, Megan, Samantha, the remaining U.B.C.S members, James, Stephen, the other three children and two women and four men of ages ranging from seven to fifty watched as their town was wiped off the face of the earth. Each of them silently saying their goodbyes to Raccoon City. When the B-52s had passed over into the dawn, an entire squadron of F-16 Falcons flew over their heads, releasing more bombs into the city. In half an hour, Raccoon City was reduced to a pile of rubble.

"That's it" Scott said aloud. "There's nothing more we can do. We should get to Stoneville." They all agreed and everybody got back on the bus without saying a word. Megan took hold of Doug's hand and they headed back to the bus, before stopping as they were about to get on, telling Matt they'd be on in a minute.

"There's something I want to give you" He told her. Megan was confused. Doug reached down to the hip holster and removed the handgun he had taken from Tim's patrol car and handed it to Megan.

"Forest's gun" He told her. The gun had a magazine in it, but the magazine had been emptied. Megan held the gun in both hands, looking down on it, before putting it in the back of her belt and starting to cry, more now than before. Doug put his arms around her and he held her tight, as well as giving her a comforting kiss on the top of the head. They pulled away from each other and he put a hand on her cheek, gently caressing it.

"Get back on board with the others. I'll see you in Stoneville." Mac had heard him say that.

"What are you going to do? You're not going to stay here are you?" Doug laughed as he shook his head.

"If it's alright with you, I'll give you an escort" He smiled. Mac also shook his head and closed the door before starting up the bus once more. Doug climbed back into the police car and started the engine. He impressed the children by doing a burnout on the gravel and spinning the car around before turning on the lights. As this was a traffic car, he decided to have one last bit of fun. The LED message bar in the back of the car had not been damaged by the explosion, so using the laptop in the car, Doug programmed in a message into it:

"Follow me" He then wound down the window and gave Mac a thumbs up, to which Mac replied with a middle finger gesture. Laughing to himself, they started the forty mile drive to Stoneville, the wind blowing through his hair as it entered through the smashed rear window.

On the way to Stoneville, a group of military jeeps passed them, fully loaded with soldiers. None of them turned round to pursue the survivors, partly due to the police car that was escorting them away at about sixty miles an hour. The soldiers were believed by the survivors to be participating in a clean up operation. Not that there was much to clean up anymore, just a fifty square mile pile of rubble, bodies and broken glass. Doug had never been through this part of the world before. He never had any need to visit Stoneville as it was much smaller than Raccoon City, although it had a very good hospital and a police force that spent a lot of time training with the R.P.D. From what he had heard, it was a nice town, but it did have its run down areas, particularly in the city centre. While driving to Stoneville, still another thirty miles up this road, Doug began to fiddle with the radio, trying to find the S.P.D's frequency. While fiddling with the dial, he was met with a lot of static obscuring a voice. After getting the static to clean up, he was able to hear the voice.

"Doug? Doug? Can you hear me? It's Stephen." Doug grabbed the receiver and pressed the button.

"Sure thing Stephen, I hear you, over."

"From everybody on this bus, from the U.B.C.S to the children, we just want to say thank you. Thank you for putting yourself above and beyond the call of duty to save us from that hell hole."

"Just doing my job Stephen" Doug replied. "But thank you anyway. It's all over now. You can all sleep tonight." Relaxing, getting drunk and having a good night's sleep were far from Doug's mind right now. He just wanted his head seen to, but was too macho to show any signs of weakness in the car and in front of everybody. He was even amazed by his ability to still drive with a throbbing headache. He fiddled with the radio again, and was finally able to get Stoneville's police radio frequency.

October 1st- 0845

'Welcome To Stoneville Colorado' the colourful sign displayed as they entered Stoneville city limits. Two police cars were waiting just past the sign and escorted the survivors to a hotel that the mayor of Stoneville had set up to house the survivors. They were shown in by the police officers and shown to individual rooms. They had heard about what had happened in Raccoon City from R.P.D officers who had arrived days before, and all of Stoneville's hotels were turned into hospices so the survivors had somewhere to stay, as well as spare hospital beds and the free will of the townspeople. Doug however drove straight to hospital with Megan, who then took the police car to get the rear window fixed. Given the week's experiences, he wanted to keep that car.

Two hours later he was sitting up on a hospital bed having had stitches applied to his head and having the rest of his body checked since he didn't really have time to properly evaluate his injuries after his window stunt, as well as having been provided with a change of clothes. Samantha came to visit, having bought a change of clothes with the city council's compliments.

"How's the head?" she asked as Doug sat up with his legs dangling over the side.

"Pain's gone" Doug replied. "I also got a shower too. I forgot what hot water felt like. Burnt a little bit though, but they wanted my hair to be clean before they stuck a new bandage on. What about you? Are you alright?"

"I have a job now" Samantha said happily. "The department store next to the police station, it's also where I got these clothes." She gestured to her body, now clad in a new pair of blue jeans, a pair of trainers and a red sweater. Doug was now in a pair of jeans and a pair of black Converse shoes with a black casual button up shirt on, as well as a black casual jacket hanging on a coat hanger. Samantha leaned in and kissed Doug on the cheek. "I'm glad you're okay" she smiled at him before leaving. As she did so, Megan walked in, also in a pair of jeans and wearing a red blouse with a casual jacket and trainers.

"Hey you" Doug laughed as he got to his feet. "Get everything you need?" Megan nodded happily as she felt like everything was once again perfect. The nurse came in to see Doug, and even she had a smile on her face.

"You're good to go now officer." Doug stood up and grabbed his jacket, slipping it on over his shirt. "Try to enjoy the rest of your day, and don't try any hero stuff for a while." Feeling stiff, Doug thanked the nurses and left the hospital with Megan walking beside him. Despite the physical and mental scars brought on by the whole ordeal, they knew that the only way they could go was forward, and they couldn't have been in a better town. While Stoneville wasn't exactly the bustling city Raccoon City used to be, it was the perfect town for them to relax in and for them to get themselves back on their feet.

"So that's basically it" Mr Endsleigh concluded his story as he looked at the clock, having to rush the ending since the bell was about to ring, signalling the end of the day and the term. "That's one account of one of the biggest disasters in US history."

"How do you know all this?" the same pupil who had asked him whether or not it was a police uniform queried. "Do you live next door to this guy or something?" Doug shook his head with his eyes rolled back. His class was clever, but they hadn't worked it out.

"Of course I know him" He laughed. "He's me!" On the desk was a name tag that officers wore on their uniforms as identifying marks that was stuck with velcro onto the S.P.F uniforms, and proper badges for regular officers. It was a little faded and frayed, but it was still readable. Doug applied it to the uniform, completing it. The name tag reading 'Endsleigh'. The class didn't say a word, not knowing that their teacher was once a Raccoon City police officer, the town that had since been rebuilt at a great cost by the government, and by some miracle being around the same size it had been when it was destroyed, maybe bigger. The bell rang, but instead of jumping out of their seats, the class stayed still.

"What happened to the rest of the people who got out?" One pupil asked. "What about Samantha, Megan and Elliot?" Doug sat on his desk.

"That'll have to wait" He told them. "You'd better all go home. Enjoy your Easter break." The class put their desks back where they had got them from and left, leaving Doug alone in his classroom with his old, battered and bloodied uniform. Reaching into another drawer on his desk he got out his mobile phone and rang his wife. The phone rang a few times before a woman on the other end picked it up.

"Hey Meg" Doug said cheerfully. "I'm going to head out to the supermarket for some things. What time are you off duty tonight?" After the phone call, Doug grabbed his jacket, laptop and car keys and left the room, turning the lights off on his way out. The uniform was to spend the Easter break in the dark room, something symbolic to Doug, as it meant he was shutting that part of his life out, and moving forward with his new one. He was one of the lucky ones, and as the sun shone over the Arklay Mountains, his job as teacher teaching people about war and the destruction of civilisations gave him one feeling that only he felt.

The feeling that it was great to be alive.