September 24, 1998.
8:00 a.m.
Huo Xiu hadn’t slept in a full day.
Fortunately, he didn’t feel tired.
Being a Tyrant had turned out to be extremely useful in that regard.
For now, the outbreak remained concentrated in northern Raccoon City.
The southern districts had not collapsed, public order remained relatively stable, and both the hospitals and police were functioning with surprising efficiency.
The hospitals had received the Daylight vaccine he prepared in advance, while the police now understood the zombies’ primary weakness.
With that information, their response should be far more effective than it had been originally—and far less likely to disintegrate overnight.
The subway’s greatest threat had been the mutated fleas emerging from the wastewater treatment plant and the nests they created.
Huo Xiu had already exterminated them two days earlier, meaning they could no longer interfere with subway operations.
Once the tracks and routing were properly configured, trains could begin carrying survivors out.
The subway had plenty of cars.
If things went well, they could evacuate far more people than the handful who escaped together in the original Resident Evil 3 events.
“Carlos, how are things on your end?” Huo Xiu contacted Carlos over the radio.
He had rescued Mayor Warren’s daughter almost in passing and left her at the police station under Marvin and Deputy Chief Raymond’s protection.
With most of the R.P.D.
still intact, the zombies couldn’t even force their way through the station entrance.
After the hospital confirmed that contaminated water could transmit the infection, the officers had also begun stockpiling bottled water.
“Definitely not good.
I’m in the south right now.
The virus hasn’t spread this far yet, but people still don’t understand how dangerous this is.
Most of them think we’re dealing with some ordinary infectious disease.” Mikhail’s voice joined the channel a moment later.
“Then focus on the ones willing to leave.
We don’t have time to waste arguing.
I’m working on getting the subway running again.
Nicholai went looking for the other squads.
If we can regroup with them, it’ll take some pressure off the rest of us.” As a former soldier, Mikhail had no patience for stubborn civilians who rejected rescue and then expected rescuers to argue them into accepting it.
If they refused to believe the warning, fine.
He would spend his time on people who wanted help.
His unit had come to save lives, only to be accused of joking or exaggerating before they could even explain the situation.
The city was rapidly becoming indistinguishable from a battlefield, and on a battlefield there was no room for people who ignored intelligence because it made them uncomfortable.
“Take care of yourself.
If I remember right, once the first subway train departs, the line has to be reconnected and reset before another can leave, and departures follow a fixed schedule.
It might be better to load one full group of survivors, confirm they’re safely away, and only then prepare the second run.” At least electricity wasn’t a concern.
Raccoon City had never suffered a major power shortage during the outbreak, and the power plant was still operating.
Umbrella had no intention of sabotaging it.
Huo Xiu’s priority was simply making sure the train didn’t leave prematurely.
Better to get one group out safely first than risk losing everyone while waiting for a perfect load.
“All right.
Then move, kid.
I hope you actually find some survivors.
Nicholai says he’s near the hospital.
He can escort some of the civilians sheltering there to the subway and have them wait for evacuation.” The hospital…
Hunters shouldn’t have reached it yet, and Umbrella hadn’t deployed any new ones.
So for the moment, it ought to remain reasonably safe.
Apparently Nicholai was capable of doing something useful now and then—as long as helping people didn’t conflict with his own interests.
“Understood.” Huo Xiu already knew where to look next.
There was at least one place where he could be certain people were gathered: J’s Bar.
He had visited two days earlier and seen Kevin drinking there.
It was also where the group at the center of the Outbreak incident first came together.
Reaching it would take some time; Raccoon City was larger than it seemed on a game map, and running from the northern districts to the south was no short trip.
At least he was finally aboveground instead of wandering through sewers.
“My friend, thank you for saving us.” As Huo Xiu passed the Raccoon Police Department, a blond officer gave him a formal salute.
Huo Xiu knew immediately who he was: Deputy Chief Raymond Douglas, the man who, in the original course of events, would die heroically at nine that evening during the demolition operation.
Raymond’s gratitude was completely sincere.
When the S.P.F.
officer returned with his report, Raymond’s worst suspicions became reality.
With Chief Irons absent, he could no longer allow the department to sit idle waiting for orders.
Without the information carried back by the officer Huo Xiu had saved, the R.P.D.
would have continued responding under riot-control protocols and suffered far greater losses.
That officer’s report identified the “rioters” for what they really were and let the police change tactics almost immediately.
Once officers began firing directly into the head, the attackers finally slowed—and then stopped.
The thought still chilled Raymond.
What if the warning had arrived later?
What if that officer had never been rescued?
They might have learned the truth only by piling up civilian and police corpses until the pattern became impossible to ignore.
Raymond had every reason to be grateful to Huo Xiu.
“No need to thank me.
This is my mission too.
We’re planning to evacuate civilians using the subway.
If you can direct survivors toward the stations, it’ll make things much easier.” Huo Xiu waved off the gratitude.
He was only doing what he had come here to do.
What he didn’t know was whether Umbrella would still deploy T-103s against the police station now that the R.P.D.
remained mostly intact.
The station’s armory did contain heavy weapons; they simply had little reason to bring them out under normal circumstances.
In terms of efficiency, coordinating with the R.P.D.
was obviously the best option.
No matter how powerful Huo Xiu was, one person could protect only so many civilians at once.
The police were different.
With patrol cars clearing routes and armed officers who understood how to kill the infected, they could rescue a substantial number of people.
Raymond nodded.
At this point, evacuation was no longer optional.
The scale of the crisis had surpassed anything the R.P.D.
had ever faced.
No previous case had spread so far, so quickly.
“The situation is deteriorating.
The northern district is completely gone, and most of the northwest has fallen too.
Even with barricades and knowledge of the infected’s weakness, they’re still pushing south.
At nine tonight, I plan to take every officer willing to come with me to Ennerdale Street.
We’ll rig the area with explosives, draw as many infected there as possible, and wipe them out in one concentrated blast.
If it works, it should relieve some pressure on the survivors.” Raymond explained the plan calmly, though never before in his life had he felt death standing quite this close.
Those things were not human.
They were nothing like drug-crazed suspects or ordinary violent offenders.
A single bite could kill you—or worse, turn you into one of them.
Raymond would rather die outright than become that kind of monster.
Whether Umbrella was truly responsible could be investigated after the city survived the immediate crisis.
“Take care of yourself.
You’re a good cop.
Didn’t your chief mention during his speech the other day that the department has a rookie arriving in four or five days?
Better stay alive long enough to give the kid a proper welcome.
It’d be pretty miserable if his first day on the job started in a nightmare like this.” Maybe Leon won’t have to stand there staring at a welcome banner and a note this time.
In the original timeline, two battles had inflicted the R.P.D.’s worst losses: the Ennerdale Street operation and the defense of the police station the day before Leon and Claire arrived.
Together they effectively destroyed the department, leaving only an infected Marvin and officers Elliot and David among the few still inside when the final collapse came.
Even then, David ultimately died to a Licker, and Elliot never made it out either.
But now the department had advance warning.
Things shouldn’t have to become that catastrophic.
For the moment, Huo Xiu decided to return to his temporary lodging at the Apple Inn.
He had been staying there since arriving in Raccoon City, and he had no idea how many guests were already infected.
When he reached the hotel, however, the situation wasn’t quite as bad as he’d imagined.
Most surviving guests had locked their doors and windows.
The zombies, predictably, had no concept of cooperation and lacked the coordination to break through reinforced doors efficiently.
Desperate for food, they had turned instead on the most abundant living—or formerly living—things around them: one another.
Throughout the hotel, zombies were feeding on zombies.
Corpses littered the floors, while many of the infected still standing had turned red, either from being drenched in blood or from changes occurring in their own bodies.
With sufficient nutrition, T-Virus zombies could undergo further mutation toward the Licker stage.
These red-skinned zombies were partway through that progression.
Not that Huo Xiu was afraid of Lickers either.
He casually crushed the skulls of the agitated red zombies and cleared the hotel floor by floor.
At last, the maddening groans stopped.
Huo Xiu then used the Apple Inn’s internal announcement system to identify himself as an Umbrella rescue operative.
The surviving guests gradually emerged from their rooms—everyone except the occupants of one.