Chapter 3

"What have you got inside this thing?" asked the annoying pest on his backseat.

"Medicine and some other handguns with bullets" Arthur answered with a sigh, he was tired of answering question after question while the little girl never shifted her gun's aim too far from his body.

"Why didn't you have some food in here?" Arthur was starting to ask himself the same thing, he was hungry.

"We aren't gonna be here long enough to need food" he mumbled while grabbing a protein bar from one of his pockets, he may not have grabbed food supplies but he wasn't stupid enough to leave without at least some snacks to bribe the kids.

"Why?"

"Because we're leaving Racoon city soon"

"You absulutly sure you aren't stupid?"

"Yes Sophia I'm sure"

"Cuz the city exit is the other way you know?" she said, and pointed back over her shoulder and right at Jason's face.

"Can I have a snack?" the other kid asked, ignoring the finger pointing at his forehead, he didn't even blink when Arthur ran over a zombie causing everyone to jump on their seats.

"Here" Arthur handed him the remaining protein bar before the kid turned into another pain the the ass, the thing wasn't doing anything for his hunger anyway "And I know Sophia but we can't leave that way the city is in quarantine, there's a secret passage below the police department we can take to get out"

Arthur smiled when the little girl stopped asking questions but, after 15 seconds of her staring right at him unblinkingly he started getting nervous, was he already turning? "What?"

"Are you on drugs?"

"UGH!" he banged his head on the steering wheel twice then focused back on the street before they crash "yes but they're only painkillers"

"Cuz there aren't supposed to be secret passages in real life you know" she told him as if lecturing him on a grand truth, then narrowed her eyes "you sure you're not hallucinating?"

"Well there aren't supposed to be zombies in real life too but here we are!"

"Geeze you didn't need to shout" the girl sat back on her seat and pouted for a minute or two but Arthur didn't fall for it, the little devil was trying to play him.

Finally convinced he wasn't going to say anything Sophia lost her interest and instead started to mess with the handguns on his pack, reloading the clips and checking the safety with competency, it gave Arthur shivers.

Finally Arthur had to press on the break at the sight of the mass of zombies trying to pass through a closed gate and a building with a helicopter crashed through it.

"Alright, here we are" he said loudly, trying to appear confident.

"Here?!" the little girl nearly screamed and even Jason's eyes seemed to be too wide

"Don't worry about the zombies, they're harmless"

"Harmless!"

"Well not harmless but they're slow and stupid we just have to not get cornered" he had managed to stop far away enough that no zombie had noticed him yet over their loud moaning despite the noise they were making "just don't start shooting here and they won't attack us"

"Alright, I can do this, I can do this" the little girl started to breath faster and faster while Arthur got out of the still working car and opening the back seat "Come on Jason don't worry, the bad things won't get you while I'm here"

"I'm scared" the little boy whispered and Arthur messed up his hair before pulling him out of the car and throwing away the snacks' packaging

"Come on you're a brave guy, I'm gonna bash some bad things and Sophia's gonna take care of you and everything's gonna be safe" Looking over the window he found Sophia still pumping herself up "Come on tomboy time to get out"

"Eww don't call me that… wait what's a tomboy?" the girl got down, her gun not pointing his way for the first time but that may be because it was busy waiving from zombie to zombie.

"Alright, before we start there's some things I gotta tell you first" Arthur attempted to crouch down to their level but stopped midway, he wasn't sure he could get back up without embarrassment so he just messed up her hair and laid against the pickup.

"Ok, first leave the zombies to me, don't try to shot them unless one of you is about to get bitten or die"

"But you can get bitten?" Jason questioned

"I have the vaccine, remember?" he lied "anyway don't interrupt, try not to make noise from now on quiet words okay, whispering like we're playing ninja"

Sophia rolled her eyes at him but Jason nodded timidly

"Second, more of those long tongue monsters may be inside the district but don't worry" he hurried to say as he saw sophia's face go white "I found out their weakness, they don't have eyes or noses you see, they can't find you if you don't make any noise and don't come close to them so watch out for the things but ignore them, as long as you don't come too close they won't attack"

"Are… are you sure?"

"Absolutely, that's how I killed the other one, I distracted it with another noise so don't panic if you see another one, just be very quiet and ignore it. Can you do that?" both of them nodded so he continued "Third, once inside the district only trust two people, one of them is a blond policemen called Leon and another is a pretty lady called Claire ok, don't trust anyone else"

"Not even the other policemen?" Jason asked confusedly and Arthur nodded emphatically.

"Not even other policemen, they're all fake policemen you understand me, they're strangers"

"Okay"

"What's your problem with the other policemen?" Sophia whispered away from Jason

"Most are dead and the police captain went mad, he couldn't handle the pressure"

"Dad always said old man Irons was a pussy" Arthur cringed but at least the girl believed him.

Jamming the accelerator Arthur released the break and briefly watched as the pickup started to gain speed towards the zombie crowd, it was kind of a meaningless gesture with how many there were but it made him smile so that was enough.

Circling through the streets proved to be easier than expected, a lot of the zombies around had already been killed and many others seemed to be focused on the front gate, the few that remained were easily avoided with a little stealth.

Arthur Saw another three Lickers, two eating the remains of some unlucky zombie and another just hanging upside down unmoving, probably waiting for prey to approach, but the kids didn't even notice them.

Hearing a noise all three of them ducked behind a large van as a helicopter flew overhead drawing the attention of the closest Licker and forcing him to hurry, the noise was loud enough to start gathering a large mob.

"Come on!" he whispered letting the shotgun hang from his shoulder and lifting Jason with his good arm, damn he was fit, no way could he still be moving with his old body "Don't make any noise now"

"Then stop talking!" Sophia whispered back, her usual snark substituted with barely contained fear.

Having circled to the back of the building he managed to catch sight of the police helipad where the helicopter was coming down, a single man was waiting for it, holding a huge rifle over his chest, the huge symbol of the umbrella corporation at it's side.

"Hey over here!" screamed Sophia climbing over the front of the van and waving her arms over her head "We're still alive here!"

"Fuck me what did I just tell you!" dropping the boy on his ass Arthur wrapped his arm around the girl's mid drift pulling her down from the hood

"What the fuck are you doing they're right there!"

"They're also fucking umbrella!" he whispered back while pressing her to the floor "Killing you is the best they could do"

Preteen contained he peeked over the car to see the umbrella operative watching him through the scope of his rifle, he ducked back when a bullet pierced the hood of the car.

After the shoot the girl stopped struggling and Jason curled up on his side in the fetal position rocking slowly, he still kept his head down for a full minute while making sure no zombie was coming to get an easy meal.

"He shot me!" the girl said with a trembling voice.

"Correction, he shot me, I don't think he even had the time to shot you"

"That bitch! Why the fuck did he shot me!"

"Sophia they're umbrella" he said and finally released the girl while pressing his aching ribs, sudden movement did not agree with his broken bones "I'm convinced those idiots only do two things, plan to cause genocide and cover up acidentally causing genocide"

All of them had to take another minute to regain themselves before Sophia helped him get up outside the view of the helipad and moving through an alley.

"Alright we can still make it" Arthur was pretty sure there wasn't any more murderous umbrella agent roaming about.

"Are you inside, that crazy guy just shot us, i'm not going there!"

"The crazy guy is also leaving soon don't worry, the police station should be almost empty now"

As they start to make their way inside they could hear the helicopter taking off and all three peek at the building to see dozens of lickers climbing towards the noise while a horde of zombies flooded the building.

"Alright let's go" Arthur tried to pull her along but the girl snatched her arm and backed away, turning around he saw her hiding Jason behind herself and aiming at his head.

"No!" Sophia whispered "We're not going in there!"

Behind his back a zombie crossed the street ignoring them, too focused on the noise coming from the station, then another and another.

Hiding in the alley Arthur kept looking between the station and the couple of children then he took a step towards the girl, she retreated, he threw up a lot of blood on the floor.

"Alright… huff… alright" he gasped, his mind becoming clearer for a second "We're not going in there"

Lifting his good arm to show he wasn't doing anything threatening Arthur circled the girl and slowly sat down, his stomach was killing him with hunger and the painkillers had stopped working.

Goddamnit what was he doing, he was being so fucking stupid.

"What are you gonna do?" Sophia asked while still protecting the other kid from him, making sure they were both out of his grasp.

"Just let me think a little alright?"

Ok, everything till now pointed to this being the resident evil from the games, what did he remember from the games?

Arthur had played the original Resident Evil so he had already forgotten all but the broadest of details nothing like dates or the names of all but the main characters, he had remembered there was a secret passage on the police department on the second game and had grabbed on to the detail for dear life but did it even leave the city in the first place? Didn't Leon and Claire leave through a train on the NEST?

He decided to think about one thing at a time who was still in the city at this time anyway, Leon, Claire, Ada Wong… Jill Valentine from the third game should still be here too.. and Sherril but the little girl would be useless, Fuck Nemesis and G should still be in the city too.

Wait, didn't someone make a cure for the T-virus in the central hospital on the third game? Jill was even infected or something, she also escaped with a helicopter in the end.

They got inside one of the vehicles and Arthur stayed there thinking until the sun had gone down, both kids seemed content to wait on the back seat and eat the remaining snacks, finally Arthur asked.

"What day is it anyway?"

"30 of septhember" she answered with her mouth full.

Alright shit, Racoon city should be destroyed on October first or something right, they didn't have much time then…

"What hospitals are there in this city?"

"Why do you want to know?" She asked suspiciously but Jason just answered,

"Mom always took me to Saint John" yeah not that one, Arthur raised an eyebrow towards the girl.

"Fine, there's the the Racoon city university hospital, the S.A.U, the Spencer memorial…"

"That one, where is it?" He briefly remembers a NEST being built below a Spencer something hospital on Resident evil 3, this must be it.

"It's close to the clock tower to the north"

Alright operation Leon was a burst, the police department was overrun and, while he remember something about a path towards the nest in the sewers there's no way he's going to take two kids there with mutated animals crawling around.

Operation avoid Nemesis it is them.

"Alright, we're going to the hospital, we just have to find a car"

"I can hot wire the car if you want?"

"Why the hell do you know how to hot wire a car" He complained "do you ever reach the pedals?"

"My brother taught me!" she announced proudly, and then remembered who she was talking about and grumbled "Fucking zombies"

Later that night they were parked in another alley with a look towards the hospital having only made a short stop to loot an abandoned house for more food and drink, abandoning the food supplies having turned out to not be such a smart decision after all.

At first Arthur had wanted to charge right into the hospital but then common sense returned and he remembered it was a main location for a survival horror game, no way was it left empty or with just average zombies so he hid, told the kids let the kids take a nap, and started snacking on some rare meat while watching the entrance, he knew someone would have to leave the place before long.

He was compulsively biting a piece of meat when he caught sight of a military man approaching a side entrance, weapons ready, narrowing his eyes he noticed the umbrella logo on their chest and froze trying to not attract their attention.

He entered the hospital almost at a run not even noticing as a beast looking somewhere between a man and a crocodile jumped down attracted by the noise, a few minutes later a second umbrella operative appeared gunning down the monster fairly easily and followed the first inside.

Sophia jumped awake drawing her huge revolver but Arthur managed to stop her before she attracted any attention

"Shhh!" he calmed them both down "Don't worry we aren't in danger, there were some things on the hospital but they haven't found us yet"

"Is he another those unbrella fuckers?"

"Yep so keep quiet"

"I hope he get eaten"

"I'm more partial towards a draw myself, it would make things easier" Arthur decided to wait at least half an hour for the trained men to clear the hospital before he followed them in search of a cure when he started hearing some more firing from inside.

Ducking down he put his arm back and squeezed both Jason's and Sophia's hands as the noise attracted more and more zombies towards the hospital, they were moving slowly and still far away but he started to get nervous.

Finally he saw one last man carrying an unconscious woman on his back rush inside and, seconds later, heard a huge explosion.

Someone attempting to save a woman was a safer bet but since he was wearing the same uniform as both umbrella goons he decided to wait some more.

"Isn't that what we're waiting for?" asked Sophie

"What?" his head was hurting and his food had ran out so he may have been angrier than he should have by the way the girl released his hand and flinched "I mean, what was I waiting for again?"

"You told me we were waiting for a good policeman with a sick woman"

Fuck that's right, that was Jill Valentine how could he forget, turning his head he pucked some foul thing on the other seat and cursed under his breath "Fucking headache"

"Yeah you're right sorry" Getting up on the seat he touched the exposed wires like Sophia had shown him and started the car "You can start shooting the zombies once we get down"

"Won't that make too much noise?"

"Not a problem… cough, cough… not a problem anymore" he nodded towards the hospital from where some gunshots could still be heard "they're already making a lot of noise anyway"

Grabbing the driving wheel he could barely stop himself from shooting a few zombies with his shotgun as they approached the car, he wanted to kill them, to smash their heads into pulp and spread it around.

Suddenly he found his wounded right arm grabbing for the shotgun and stoped just staring at the damn thing.

"What the fuck, I thought you couldn't move that arm!"

"I couldn't" he commented still starring, then his muddled brain finally understood "I must have healed some already"

"That's not how healing works!"

"Do I have to talk to you about the zombies again?"

"Stop fighting" begged Jason with a whisper and Arthur stopped, he really wasn't like himself to be fighting with kids right now.

"Don't worry we aren't fighting" he said, messing the kid's hair even more but he couldn't bring himself to smile, Nemesis was still alive and he was turning the chance both kids would survive was slim.

"We aren't" said Sophia confused but amended at his sharp glance "Fine we aren't"

More and more zombies were massing in front of the hospital, banging on the walls or each other, one zombie banged it's head against the glass on his side once, then he smashed it and went right for his throat.

He grabbed the fucker's head and smashed on the door once, twice, then Sophia pressed the revolver to it's bitting mouth and pressed the triger.

The noise was deafening, the effect even more expensive, the entire top of the mutant's head disappeared in a shower of blood, brain and bits of bone.

Arthur grabbed his ears at the sudden pain and cursed loudly for a few seconds, then he noticed a lot of the zombies had turned their way, it was now or never.

Hitting the accelerator and pressing it all the way down he gained some speed for a few meters and then it started draining as he bowled over zombie after zombie sending their bodies flying about with broken limbs, some must have even died, the sight of blood made him simultaneously sick and hungry.

Soon their car smashed through the hospital entrance doors and hit a support pillar jarring them all, Jason was screaming, Sophia was laughing hysterically to try and hide her desire to scream.

"Out of the car, now!" Arthur had to jump seats ignoring the disgusting mess he had spewn on top of it and stepped out the car with far less pain than he thought possible despite his headache "Stay close to me"

He touched the wound on his shoulder and, when he didn't feel much pain, explored the hole with a finger, it barely hurt and he saw the wound no longer went all the way through, equal parts encouraging and worrying.

A hunter burst through a door to his side and charged him so he turned it's way and screamed "Shot it, shot it"

Arthur proceeded to take his own advice but missed the first two shots before the third hit it on the leg causing it to stumble, then Sophia's gun barked twice and it went sprawling, the front of its face gone, he looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"How the fuck do you completly miss at this range with a shotgun!" she berated him while massaging her hurting wrist.

"Want to use another gun?"

"Fuck that, this baby drops them in one shot" then she took her shotting stance and blew another aproaching zombie's head, a second zombie was aproaching from further away and she missed so she lowered the aim and blew two shots on its chest with a grude "Fine!"

Seeing as his little murder machine was on the case and his arms seemed to be working again he let the gun hang free on its sling and pulled his own trusty crowbar from the supply bag, pity he had dropped the lid shield.

Sophia started pulling cartridges from her pockets and reloading her oversized revolver while he searched the lobby, he had started to remember the game now so, when he found a detonator and some explosives he grabbed it and looked it over.

He had watched people use C4 on movies countless times but, even with his headache and muddled head he knew now wasn't the time to test if he could do it so he stuffed it on the bag and proceeded to bash the heads of the fallen corpses.

"What're you doing?" Jason asked as he finished mashing the head of a doctor.

"Making sure they won't get up at the worst time kid" he answered while considering what kind of nightmares the kid would have if he survived "Always double tap fallen corpses when dealing with zombies"

Deciding to dispense some Nerd common knowledge Arthur lifted his voice so he could be easily heard "Never approach a fallen body, they're always traps, shot them from range at least once or avoid them if you don't have the ammo"

"Okay"

"Also, never split the group, don't go to the bathroom alone or without checking all the stalls and don't ever, ever ask what could go wrong, I'm convinced there's some asshole god just waiting to hear that and prove you wrong"

"Mom always said there's only one god"

"Yeah about that…" then Arthur paused and thought about it, he had only ever meet Rob so he didn't actually know if there were other gods "nevermind, go stand by Sophia, those bodies are dangerous as I said"

Arthur spent the next five minutes making sure no surprise zombie was gonna bite him in the ankle, approach a corpse as far away from the head as he could, pin it down and bash it's head in, repeat as needed.

Again and again he brutalized the corpses, one even tried to get him but he stepped on its back before it could turn or get up and the thing wasn't strong enough to get free before he used his crowbar, blood splashed all over his pants and some even got into his mouth, it felt great!

"Arthur?" he whirled around grabbing the next abomination by the throat and pulled back his weapon, it was a small one but he could never be too careful, this was fun! "Ak… you fuch… you… fucker"

Arthur dropped the crowbar, released Sophia and retreated, eyes wide, the girl's eyes were filled with tears and she was left coughing her gun forgotten

"Fuck, sorry" He fell to his knees and embranced the girl, she tried to fight it but he craddled her to his chest "Sorry, you're alright, you're gonna be fine"

The girl eventually stopped coughing and grabbed his shirt crying, from his back Jason decided he wanted in on the hug and he laughed, then the girl asked from his chest.

"You didn't take a vaccine did you"

"Yeah I lied" he sighed and held back a cough least he infect her too "I must not have much time left but they have a cure here"

"Are you lying again"

"Ha, i'm not absolutely sure"

"Okay what are you going to do"

"Well the good policemen is still here, they're gonna take care of you even if I finish turning"

"No! we don't need them I can kill the fuckers just fine by myself" Jason noded along with her and he snorted before lifting her gun and handing it back to her.

"Yeah I saw that, but it's much safer with a group"

Releasing the car's wheels Arthur pushed it in front of the broken door while Sophia covered him and made sure it stayed there blocking it, one or two zombies may be able to push themselves through but it would be slow and uncertain.

Making their way through the lobby all three of them started searching the rooms before Jason found one jammed with a bar of steel, it wouldn't stop anyone from entering but zombies wouldn't have the brain to take it out.

Entering the emergency room Arthur hurried the kids inside and closed the door before more zombies appeared.

Searching around the room he frowned, he remembered a black man taking care of Jill while Carlos searched around the hospital for the cure.

Speaking of Jill Valentine the woman was laid fully clothed on top of a bed, she was covered in blood and filth and moaning from pain.

Turning his head sideways Arthur could kind of see she would probably be incredibly hot after a bath and a week of rest and recovery, as it stood she looked like a starved homeless addict, her hair in disarray, signs of having lost weight too quickly and a myriad of bruises, scratches and burns.

"This is supposed to take care of us?" asked Sophia with disdain

"She's more impressive than she currently looks don't worry" he growled, then took a deep breath and started massaging his temples "Sorry about that but it's true, she's gonna be back on her feet soon"

Arthur released his bag and weapon on a chair and then slowly started approaching the pitifully looking Resident Evil main character when the door burst open once again and a desperate guy wielding an automatic rifle started screaming "Freeze! Get away from the woman!"