Welcome to Umbrella Chp. 4

Welcome to Umbrella

Chapter 4: Here come the Fuzz

“Here is what we know so far,” Wesker addressed Alpha and Bravo teams. They were seated in the police department’s conference room. The projector behind Wesker showed pictures of the victims.

“All ten o the victims were eaten, which suggests that the same killer or killers were responsible. RPD’s forensic team discovered that the bodies were cannibalized at least partially before death. There were signs of struggle at all the victim’s homes, which suggest a group rather than an individual. S.T.A.R.S was recommended for this task over the R.P.D as the police psychologist theorizes the group responsible may be a psychopathic fringe group or cult. If that is the case, they will be unlikely to cooperate with the police and would likely be hostile.”

At this, Wesker changed the slide. It was a map of Raccoon City, in its alleyway-filled glory. The victim’s houses were circled.

“All the victims lived in the outskirts of Raccoon City, close to the Arklay Mountains. We believe the killers to be holed up somewhere in the forest there. You will head into the forest at 10:00 PM tonight. Oh, and you’ll all be carrying a sidearm each. Nothing else, not even spare ammunition” Wesker finished.

There was a long silence. Kate raised a hand tentatively.

“Do you mean that we’ll all be going into a remote forest at night without any long guns?” she asked.

“Not all of us,” Wesker replied shortly, “Just Bravo team. Also, Sullivan, Speyer and the pilot will have radios to contact us.”

“But they’re mute!” Enrico blurted out.

“Not my problem. Consider this your chance to redeem yourselves of that atrocity an hour ago. S.T.A.R.S… dismissed!”

S.T.A.R.S filed out, with one particular member of Bravo team muttering unladylike curses under her breath. Bravo team waited around outside the equipment locker tapping their feet impatiently as Kevin tried to find the Pawn Plug and shove it back into its port. When that pointless sidetrack was done they busied themselves signing out their Berretta 92FS ‘Samurai’s Edge’ handguns and Kevlar vests. Forrest leaned over the counter towards the clerk and stared at him intently. The clerk got the hint and handed him his grenade launcher.

“How come Forrest gets his grenade launcher? Even normally he wouldn’t use that!” Kate pointed out to Enrico.

“He and the clerk are drinking buddies. He can get his hands on it any mission he wants,” Enrico replied. Kate sighed and joined the queue. She was last in line. As the rest of Bravo team filed out Kate leaned over the counter and sighed, lazily signing her gun out.

“What’s up?” the clerk asked.

“I dunno, I just don’t think I fit in here,” Kate replied. Just because she was bored she stated to inspect her sidearm on the counter. “I mean, I’m nowhere near as good as anyone else and Wesker’s always on my ass about it.”

Thousands of miles away, a teenager sniggered as a double entendre cried out in pain and was suddenly silenced.

The clerk glanced surreptitiously at the door and leaned in conspiratorially. “Listen, I get what you’re saying. Rebecca had a similar problem. I gave her two spare magazines, but I think you deserve something special.”

He ducked under the counter and returned with both hands full. His left held a red box full of 9mm parabellum rounds.  His left held a Heckler and Koch MP5A3. It was a small black German-made submachine gun with iron sights and a retractable shoulder stock. Kate had used one before at the firing range. It weighed around 3 kilos and used the same ammunition her pistol did.

“Official records say it was destroyed in a training accident,” the clerk whispered, “I fixed it up good as new. You stash that in the chopper and Wesker will be none the wiser.”

“Thanks,” Kate smiled and took both the ammo and the submachine gun. As she walked to the Bravo team chopper, MP5 in hand, she could never have suspected that the events in store for her would test her courage and her tolerance for illogical stupidity.