“Jill, can you let me go now?”
At the moment, Luo Guang was lying flat on the ground, while Jill was sitting on his waist.
Jill did not get up.
She pointed the empty Glock 17—its slide locked back on an empty chamber—at Luo Guang’s chest, while her other hand gripped his clothes, her pretty face close enough to his that their eyes were almost touching.
“The look on your face just now was seriously asking to get punched.”
After saying that, Jill shoved Luo Guang hard, used the push to stand up, and picked up the shotgun from the ground.
Luo Guang gave a helpless smile and got to his feet.
“That was the only way to fool Nikolai.
And was that why you were throwing punches at my face just now?”
Bang.
Clack.
Bang.
Clack.
“What did you say?” Jill turned her head and asked him.
After picking up the shotgun, Jill aimed it at Nikolai’s head—whether he was dead or not—and blasted him twice.
It was pretty obvious that Jill truly hated Nikolai.
“…Nothing.” Seeing that Nikolai’s face was now utterly unrecognizable, Luo Guang decided to surrender immediately.
He gathered up the weapons he had thrown aside, then helped Jill pick up her grenade launcher as well.
Walking over to her, he handed it back.
He also took a glance at Nikolai’s pistol.
It was an SP1998, apparently still in the experimental stage and not yet on the market—probably something Umbrella had specially prepared for him.
Since it used 9mm just like his own weapons, Luo Guang still decided to stick with what he was used to.
He only took Nikolai’s magazines, planning to unload the rounds somewhere safe later.
Looking at Luo Guang collecting equipment, Jill asked, “What’s your plan now?”
“I escaped by helicopter with three police officers.
Nemesis shot the helicopter down.
All three of them are injured, and for now I’ve got them stashed in a room.
I’m going to see whether I can find a car and take them to Raccoon University to try our luck.
There’s a medical school there, it’s close to the edge of the city, and it’s also one of the military evacuation points.”
Luo Guang answered without hesitation.
“In that case, it was my rescue signal that dragged you into this.” Jill gave a bitter smile.
While rummaging through Nikolai’s body for intelligence or useful items, Luo Guang casually grabbed the grenades off him—only for Jill to snatch them away the very next second.
“You owed me that,” Jill said.
“Fine.” Luo Guang felt that in taking down Nikolai, his contribution had clearly been the biggest one, but he was not stupid enough to argue with Jill over it, so he just kept searching.
…
They did not spend much more time there.
A few minutes later, Luo Guang and Jill had finished searching and cleaning up.
Luo Guang gave up the MP5 he had “borrowed” from David.
He had found some more 5.56 rounds in the military crate where he got the M4A1, so he topped off all his 5.56 magazines instead.
After that, he and Jill found some gasoline and burned Nikolai’s body to make sure he would not get back up.
Then Jill followed Luo Guang back to the room where Marvin and the others had been left.
Knock…
knock-knock.
Luo Guang tapped the agreed signal against the door.
Not long after, Marvin opened it while holding his right side.
“You’re awake?” Luo Guang asked politely.
After all, if Marvin had not woken up, he would not have seen the note Luo Guang left behind or understood the knock signal.
The moment Jill stepped in behind Luo Guang, though, she blurted out in shock:
“Marvin?!”
“Jill?!
You’re alive.” Though pain was shooting through his whole body, Marvin’s mood brightened immediately when he saw Jill alive.
For the moment, he did not even bother answering Luo Guang.
Truthfully speaking, Marvin felt guilty toward Jill and the other S.T.A.R.S.
survivors.
He—and countless other people in Raccoon City—had all been fooled by Umbrella’s propaganda campaign.
No one had believed the truth the surviving S.T.A.R.S.
members brought back from the Mansion Incident.
Then the biohazard broke out, and the police, lacking the experience and guidance of the S.T.A.R.S.
members who had already faced these horrors, suffered catastrophic losses.
Seeing that Marvin was not paying attention to him, Luo Guang simply headed into the living room on his own to check on the other two.
Both Elliot and David were awake too, but neither looked good.
Elliot’s left arm was broken, and David seemed to have suffered a head injury, with strips of torn cloth tied around it.
Still, both of their injured areas had been fitted with makeshift splints—probably improvised by Marvin using whatever he had found in the room.
“Looks rough,” Luo Guang said.
“It is,” Elliot answered with a bitter smile.
“But the fact that we can still walk and run already counts as lucky compared to Rick.”
When Elliot had first awakened, neither Rick nor Luo Guang had been there, but Luo Guang had left a note behind, so Elliot naturally understood what must have happened to the pilot.
Not long after, Marvin and Jill also came into the living room, and the five of them gathered together to discuss what to do next.
Luo Guang used the opportunity to reveal to Marvin and the others that he was an Umbrella intelligence agent.
The point was to lay the groundwork for the things he planned to say next.
The three policemen were deeply shocked, but after thinking of all the help Luo Guang had given them at the R.P.D.—and with Jill vouching for him—they did not show any hostility.
“It’s already the evening of the 29th now, almost ten o’clock.”
After giving everyone a moment to digest his identity, Luo Guang laid out the same plan he had already told Jill.
“The evacuation point at Raccoon University is still there?” Elliot asked.
“I don’t know that for sure,” Luo Guang admitted.
“But from where we are now, if we follow Raccoon Avenue, we can get to the university.
Keep going past that and you reach the road out of the city.”
Marvin, meanwhile, asked about something else entirely.
“Is the vaccine business real?”
“Based on the information I received, there’s also a doctor named Nathaniel Bard at Raccoon General Hospital working on a vaccine, and he’s already succeeded in making one.
It sounds like he’s only one final step away.”
Luo Guang went on, “But all of that is outdated information now.
The reason I’m choosing to head toward Raccoon University is that even if we don’t find the people there, we can still follow that route and get out of Raccoon City.
“Also, U.B.C.S.
personnel have already headed to Raccoon General Hospital on a rescue mission.”
Luo Guang did not say anything about Raccoon City being scheduled to be nuked.
Even with his identity as an Umbrella intelligence operative, no one at this point would believe that the U.S.
government would really drop a nuclear weapon on its own soil.
“U.B.C.S.?
Carlos?” Jill cut in.
“When I left the subway station, Carlos didn’t seem to board the train either.
He’d gone off on some secret mission.”
From the way Jill said it, it sounded like she had not boarded the train either.
Luo Guang did not know whether that train had ultimately escaped and avoided being destroyed by Nemesis, but regardless, he had no intention of changing plans and heading back to the Central Street subway station in hopes of another departure.
“Maybe.
I only know U.B.C.S.
had such a mission.
I don’t know who was assigned to it, and I don’t know the objective either.” Luo Guang never spoke in absolutes.
“Too bad I lost my radio somewhere earlier.
Otherwise, I could’ve tried contacting Carlos.” Jill shook her head with some regret.
“The radio in my bag is still there.
Captain Viktor gave it to me.” Luo Guang took out the radio he had never used even once and handed it to Jill.
“Use this.
Though I doubt Carlos would tell you much if it really is a secret mission.”
“Thanks.” Seeing that Luo Guang still had another radio clipped at his waist, Jill did not stand on ceremony.
She accepted it.
Even if she could not reach Carlos, she could still use it to keep in contact with Luo Guang, Marvin, and the others.
After that, they all synchronized their radio channels.
Marvin thought Luo Guang’s plan was reasonable enough.
He had no better idea himself, so he looked toward Elliot and David.
Both men shook their heads.
They had no objections either.
“In that case, let’s rest for half an hour first.
Depending on the situation, we can extend it to an hour,” Marvin suggested.
Everyone had been through too much, and if there was a chance to rest safely, then resting was clearly the smart move.
“Fine.”
No one objected, and everyone started looking for a place to settle down.
Elliot and David stayed in the living room to rest.
Marvin got up and went into the kitchen to search for food.
Unlike Luo Guang, who had eaten in this house without paying a cent, Marvin still left some cash behind in the kitchen.
Then Jill grabbed Luo Guang by the arm and dragged him into a bedroom.
Do not misunderstand.
Jill had only picked a separate room at random.
Any room would do as long as it was not the bathroom.
“Luo, there are some things I need to talk to you about,” Jill said while pulling him along.
“I’ve got things I want to say too,” Luo Guang replied.
Though the things he wanted to say did not actually require avoiding Marvin and the others.
“Then you first.” Jill sat down on a vanity chair and gestured for him to speak.
“Brad’s gone.
Marvin and the others buried him back at the station.” Luo Guang did not beat around the bush.
He told her directly what had happened to Brad.
“I see…” Jill had not expected the first thing Luo Guang wanted to talk about to be Brad’s death.
She had to pause a moment before she could answer.
“Yeah.
Sorry for your loss.” That was all Luo Guang could really say.
The mood at the moment was not suited to lengthy words of comfort, and Jill was not the sort of person who needed polite condolences.
“Hah…” Jill let out a long breath.
Once she had steadied herself, she said, “Luo, listen.
There are some things I need to tell you.”
Originally, Jill had only meant to say things briefly and get to the point, but after hearing about Brad, she decided to start all the way back at the moment she and Luo Guang first split up at the S.T.A.R.S.
safe house.
Luo Guang was a good listener.
So he sat down at the edge of the bed and quietly listened as Jill told her story.
The first time they split up, things had gone exactly as Luo Guang expected: Jill had gone back to help Brad fight Nemesis.
After that, the battle moved from the safe house out onto the street, and the two of them fled together to a parking lot.
Then came the part where Brad, in a rare burst of courage, rammed Nemesis with a car and temporarily crushed it against a wall.
After that, the two of them split up to escape in different directions, but once Nemesis shoved the vehicle aside, it chose to pursue Jill—which led directly into the moment when Jill ran into Luo Guang again.
After they split up the second time, Jill continued carrying out the mission to restore the power.
She survived one life-threatening situation after another before finally managing to restore electricity and reset the automatic driving system in the subway control office.
“After that, I started heading back to the subway station.
At the entrance to Central Street Station, I saw someone trying to get inside.” Jill glanced over at Luo Guang while telling the story.
“That person knew you.”
“?” Luo Guang tilted his head.
He thought it through quickly, then said, “Lin?”
Since arriving in this world, Luo Guang had only met a handful of people, so narrowing it down had not taken long.
The only thing that made him hesitate was the possibility that it might instead be someone the other Luo Guang—the Umbrella employee—had known.
“Yes.
I didn’t expect a guy like you to have even tricked a college girl.” Jill crossed one leg over the other and smiled.
With just a bit of probing, she had learned that the person Lin had arranged to meet at Central Street Station was indeed Luo Guang.
“That’s not what happened.
She’d just lost her brother, so she latched onto a replacement figure without thinking.” Luo Guang answered with a bitter smile.
He was starting to feel like Jill was his natural nemesis.
He had already lost count of how many times he had given that exact helpless smile in front of her.
“That’s not how I see it.” Jill smiled a little more.
“I told her you’d been infected by the zombie virus and were probably dead already.
“Back then I didn’t know about the vaccine, so it doesn’t count as lying.
“Lin already left on the train.
If the two of you get the chance to meet again, you can explain it yourself.”
Jill did not tell Luo Guang that Lin had burst into tears when she heard the news.
“All right.” Luo Guang could only accept it.
This was all karma from the messes he had created himself.
It was exactly as the saying went:
Tell one lie, and you’ll need countless others just to cover it up.
“Luo, there’s one thing I need to ask you, and I want you to answer seriously.” Jill uncrossed her legs and said it in a completely sober tone.
“What is it?” Seeing that she had become serious, Luo Guang also put aside the joking attitude and met her gaze directly.
“What is your real purpose in going to Raccoon University?”
That question was not easy to answer.
Jill watched his face closely and continued:
“You said Raccoon University is a military evacuation point, right?
And at the same time, that Umbrella researcher who defected is also there.
If that’s true, then the most likely scenario would be that the Umbrella researcher would take the vaccine directly to the military and use that to leave Raccoon City.
“So in that case, either the military has already evacuated from Raccoon University while the researcher remains there…
or the vaccine story is fake, the researcher isn’t there, and the military still is.”
Step by step, Jill broke down the flaw in Luo Guang’s story.
“Jill, aren’t you worried that there might not be any evacuation point at Raccoon University at all?” Luo Guang asked, partly to buy time, partly to test the structure of Jill’s reasoning.
“If there weren’t, Marvin would have said so.
The R.P.D.
has worked together with the military before to help evacuate civilians.” Jill answered immediately.
“So?
What’s your answer?”
She gave him no time to think and pressed the point again.
“Mm…
Jill, which possibility do you think it is?”
“Answer me.” Jill’s patience was wearing thin.
She did not think Luo Guang was a bad person, but he was full of mysteries, and that feeling sat very badly with her.
That was why she had dragged him in here now—to get clear answers while she still could.
“All right.” Seeing how resolute she was, Luo Guang decided not to play the riddle game with her.
After arranging the sequence of things in his head, he looked straight into Jill’s eyes and said seriously, “Raccoon University really was a military evacuation point.
But there’s a very high chance it’s already been withdrawn.”
“Very high chance?
Based on what?”
Jill went straight for the heart of it.
“The military also sent people to seize the G-Virus Umbrella was developing.” Luo Guang said only that much, then made Jill promise not to spread anything he was about to say.
Jill nodded.
Her only real target was Umbrella.
Matters involving the government were not something she wanted—or had the ability—to get involved in.
On that point, she understood perfectly well where the line was.
“William Birkin contacted the military and arranged for them to extract him.
But the military moved too slowly.
Umbrella’s rapid-response team, the U.S.S., got there first—and they accidentally shot Dr.
Birkin.
“After that, Dr.
Birkin injected himself with the G-Virus.
The T-Virus he had planned to turn over to the military was accidentally released instead, which ultimately caused the Raccoon City biohazard.”
Luo Guang was summarizing the larger backstory from the games as simply as he could.
“The military doesn’t know all of that.
They still sent special forces in, but things aren’t going well.
They might be wiped out to the last man.”
“I see.” Jill did not dwell on whether Luo Guang’s explanation for the outbreak was true or not.
Instead, she asked, “Then wouldn’t that make it more likely that the military would hold onto an evacuation point like Raccoon University, far from the city center?”
Luo Guang answered by following the line of logic she herself had laid down.
“Because the military is preparing for the worst-case scenario.
Wiping away all the traces.
Umbrella’s traces.
The military’s traces.
The biohazard’s traces.”
The moment Jill heard that, her eyes widened.
“You mean…
Raccoon City could be wiped off the map?”
“Raccoon City is too remote.
And the ground forces sealing the city off are already pulling back.” Luo Guang sighed, letting the implication speak for itself.
Jill could no longer stay seated.
She shot to her feet and grabbed Luo Guang by both shoulders.
“You mean…”
It’s not really mandatory—I’ll eventually upload all the chapters here—but it helps a lot in supporting me and allows me to dedicate more time to it.