“See?
There’s no point digging your heels in.
Supplies are limited.
Getting out early is obviously the better choice.” Huo Xiu knew perfectly well who had refused to evacuate and why.
This should be Ada’s contact—the H.C.F.
operative involved in her mission.
H.C.F., the organization backing Wesker, had hired Ada to obtain a G-Virus sample, and this unnamed informant was supposed to meet her at the Apple Inn.
In the original course of events, he simply ran out of luck.
Supplies dwindled before Ada arrived, and he ultimately killed himself alone in the room.
What convinced Huo Xiu of the man’s identity was his refusal to emerge even after Huo Xiu announced himself as Umbrella personnel.
A huge portion of Raccoon City’s population worked for Umbrella and therefore trusted the company almost instinctively.
Anyone who remained hidden after hearing that name either belonged to a force hostile to Umbrella or had a mission important enough to avoid company personnel.
Someone fitting both conditions was almost certainly the unfortunate, nameless contact Ada had been sent to meet.
“…Give me a minute.
I need to send a message.” Perhaps the man finally realized that if Umbrella had already found this location, hiding in the room served no purpose.
Or perhaps he simply decided that surviving long enough to make contact mattered more than stubbornly remaining at the original rendezvous.
A voice finally came through the door.
Inside, the informant used his communicator to contact Ada and changed their meeting point to the outskirts beyond Raccoon City’s urban limits.
Then he opened the door and joined the other survivors.
He was a middle-aged man in a neatly tailored suit, still remarkably well dressed for the circumstances.
His handgun had ammunition left, but the equipment he carried clearly would not have kept him alive indefinitely.
“Let’s go.” Huo Xiu led the survivors toward Raccoon Central Station.
A group this size could actually provide a respectable amount of mutual protection.
They could watch one another’s blind spots, and nearly everyone had some kind of weapon.
Apparently Robert had deliberately left the gun shop accessible when he departed.
He must have taken Huo Xiu’s earlier warning seriously and chosen not to lock the exterior doors, so ordinary people would have something with which to defend themselves if the cannibal disease really did erupt.
Judging by the armed civilians around him, that decision had already saved lives.
On the way to Central Station, they passed police cars, checkpoints, and barricades established along major streets.
Armed officers guarded the approaches toward the station, forming lines capable of holding back smaller concentrations of zombies.
Raymond really is reliable.
Huo Xiu had mentioned the idea once, and the man had implemented it almost immediately.
With the police involved, clearing routes became dramatically faster.
For the first time in hours, Huo Xiu could relax slightly instead of watching every survivor every second for fear someone might be bitten.
“Carlos, what’s your status?” Huo Xiu spoke into the radio again.
Carlos answered almost immediately.
“I’ve got another group of survivors and we’re heading to Central Station now.
The cops have been a huge help, and so has this S.T.A.R.S.
guy named Brad.
He looks pretty timid, but he’s actually dependable.
Soon as he heard we were helping civilians evacuate, he volunteered without even thinking twice.” Brad.
S.T.A.R.S.
was still an elite police unit.
Brad’s nerves might be weaker than those of the other members, but someone who qualified for an elite tactical team in the first place was never going to be a complete coward.
With the full support of the R.P.D.
behind the evacuation, Huo Xiu felt a degree of reassurance he hadn’t expected.
“All right, got it.
How are things on your end, old man?” Huo Xiu entered Central Station as he spoke.
The zombies inside were scattered and sparse, perhaps because relatively few people had been present when the outbreak reached the station.
Either way, the open platforms were easy to secure with the combined firepower of Huo Xiu and the armed survivors.
The police might have cleared the area earlier as well, which saved them considerable trouble.
“What, you’re worried about me now?
Relax, brat.
The rail control center is intact.
I’ve already rerouted the line.
Give me another hour or two and we can send the train out!” Carlos arrived soon afterward with another group.
The subway doors opened and survivors filed inside.
The Apple Inn really was a large hotel.
Even after some guests had transformed during the initial outbreak and others had succumbed later, the remaining residents filled two entire cars.
Carlos’s group packed a third.
The first evacuation train was already crowded.
“You want to rest?
I talked it over with the captain.
If we’re getting worn down, he said we can rotate shifts.” Carlos was being sincere.
Everyone got tired eventually.
Huo Xiu had demonstrated abilities far beyond an ordinary person’s, but Carlos still assumed he remained a biological being.
And since they were teammates, of course Carlos was going to look out for him.
“I’m fine.
You rest first.
After the first group leaves and the second wave of survivors gets here, have the captain take his turn.
Nicholai can rest during the third rotation.
I’ll take the last one.
I’m heading back out to find the second group.” Huo Xiu waved away the concern.
He was still overflowing with energy.
It sounded absurd, but he genuinely didn’t feel tired.
A speed ordinary people considered an all-out sprint felt to him more like an easy stroll.
In fact, it wasn’t even his natural walking pace.
If Huo Xiu moved at what his body now considered “normal,” he would leave most humans far behind.
“All right.
Thanks, man.” Carlos had never met anyone quite this relentlessly willing to work.
Gratitude colored his voice.
Mercenaries thrown together for a temporary operation rarely trusted one another at all.
Complete trust was normally reserved for partners who had spent years fighting side by side—and even veterans could betray each other when enough money was involved.
Yet Huo Xiu, a recruit Carlos had met only recently, was willing to let him rest first and put his own break at the very end.
Carlos couldn’t help being impressed.
Huo Xiu himself wasn’t thinking that deeply about it.
He already knew where his second rescue group would be: the people at J’s Bar.
Mikhail said the train needed another hour or two before departure, which was more than enough time to get them out of the bar and still let the first train leave on schedule.
Once Huo Xiu brought them to Central Station, they should be able to wait for the second run.
They would become the next group out of the city.
With that decided, he immediately headed for J’s Bar.
…Kevin Ryman would remember this as the worst day of his life to have skipped work.
He had originally become a police officer because he wanted to right wrongs and make a difference.
Then he entered the real world and discovered that sometimes bad people simply didn’t get punished, no matter how good a cop you were.
What did he receive in return?
Public praise?
Kevin had learned that applause left him feeling empty.
Little by little, his passion for police work faded.
Empty compliments could never intoxicate him the way alcohol—or a woman’s admiration—could.
It wasn’t even the first time he’d blown off a shift.
But who could have imagined the rumors about cannibal disease were actually true?
Kevin glanced at Cindy behind him, then at the barricaded door shuddering beneath repeated impacts.
It could give way at any moment.
Fighting spirit surged back through him.
If he could look cool in front of the woman he loved, maybe dying wouldn’t be the worst way to go.
Of course, if surviving was an option, he definitely preferred that.
“Dumbass.
Even now you’re still thinking about flirting?” A thoroughly drunk Mark glanced toward the windows and took another swallow from his bottle.
“The whole bar’s surrounded by those lunatics.
If we’re getting out, it’ll have to be across the rooftops or underground.
Fight our way through the street?
Unless you’re Superman, forget it.” Drunk or not, Mark was still a veteran, and his assessment was precise.
Their situation was awful.
Firearms only helped so much when the enemy had overwhelming numbers.
Enough ants could kill an elephant—and the things outside were far worse than ants, while none of the people inside were built like elephants.
Then the buckling front door exploded inward under an enormous impact, turning into splinters along with the furniture piled against it.
Huo Xiu stepped through the opening.
Behind him, the zombies that had filled the entrance were reduced to blood and mangled flesh.
Gunfire erupted outside at the same time, red and blue police lights flashing through the windows.
“Don’t panic.
I’m here to get you out.
The police have arrived too.
Proceed to Raccoon Central Station and evacuate in an orderly manner.” Kevin had never felt this much pride in his profession before.
If the police hadn’t arrived when they did, everyone in the bar might genuinely have been finished.
Yet even seeing his fellow officers again wasn’t as shocking as the man who had just walked through the ruined entrance.
“…Whoa.” Kevin lowered his gun.
Never mind that this guy claimed to be here to rescue them.
With strength like that, if he wanted everyone inside dead, they wouldn’t have much say in the matter.
The man’s clothes didn’t even have a scratch on them.
Kevin pointed at Huo Xiu, turned toward Mark, and couldn’t resist the joke.
“There really is a Superman.” Mark spat out a mouthful of liquor and stared at Huo Xiu in disbelief.
The raw power he’d just witnessed shattered not only everything his years in the military had taught him, but most of what he understood about basic science.
After a long silence, the veteran managed only one response.
“…Guess us old guys really can’t keep up with the times.”