I was twenty. I wish I could tell you I was the ultimate survivor, that I was trained in some martial art, that I was an expert in hand to hand combat, but I wasn't. There were hundreds, no, thousands of people better qualified to survive. But they didn't. I did.
My name is Jason.
And I survived Raccoon City.
It started in May, the murders. To be honest, no one paid attention at first. Historians like to write that from the first report, Raccoon City was gripped in fear. But, we weren't. The city grew large in a couple of years. Fuck, the old hospital out in the woods had to be shut down so a new one could be built closer. Our S.T.A.R.S. unit was created because of how large the city had become.
But, anyways, the murders continued. Sometimes it was dogs, other times it was human, for whatever reason, people were found with bites missing, or blood would be found with no one else near it. It really just depends.
Anyways, you know when people started to get freaked out? When the rest of the country got spooked, that's when. When other news casters started to follow it, our local channels started airing it 24/7. Of course, it was interesting. No one knew who was in the weird cult, who wasn't, it was like the red scare all over again. You went out at night, you might as well be dead, because no one would have anything to do with you then.
Should I mention that bottled water was popular? Kind of important. I mean, we learned later that the city water got infected, but, during that time, people became obsessed with two things in Raccoon City. Pokemon, and flavored water. Hell, both of those saved me I don't know how many times, but I'll get to that later.
But no one knew it was zombies, and who the fuck would? That shit is, like, fake, y'know? Or at least it was. Like alligators in the sewers, just myths, legends, and made a good movie. We didn't know about the Spencer Estate, and why would we? There were Umbrella plants in lots of places across town, and pharmacies, and factories. Umbrella toasters, computers, cough syrup, all that shit, was built here, and then bought here. You know, I thought they outlawed that shit during the whole 49'ers thing.
I see your face, how it bunched up. You don't like my cussing? Well fuck you man! I have the right to say whatever the fuck I want for this! Do you think a soldier can keep it nice and civil when they talk about the war zone? Huh? Well, it wasn't a war zone, it was hell. It lasted from the 1st of September, to the 1st of October. Yeah, I know, you want to correct me, tell me I am lying "de files say de infection started on de 24th" well, don't say nothing. You weren't fucking there, I was!
It was on the first that we first started getting new guys in the hospital, and more Jane and john does were being shipped in in body bags. Yeah, we didn't know at the time what was making people sick, and half the staff was sick with it too. Rats, fleas, they were all infected. And they were biting the homeless, who would find their way to the hospital. I was an intern at the hospital, taking classes at RCU. What was I taking? What do you fucking think, dipshit? Bio-chem! I wanted to be a doctor, but more than that, I wanted to be a big wig at Umbrella. They were always scoping the college for its best and brightest, and they were heavy at around May.
Can you believe it? "Cannibals disease" Right here, in RC? Oh, all of us doctors in training were jumping for joy. We had all the time, all the patients, and fresh supplies of people right at our doors. As I said, the homeless were sick, did they go to the hospital? No, they swung by our dorms, giving us blood tests, letting us examine them. I did it a couple of times, but not like Jarvis.
Jarvis? Oh, he probably died. But, he had an apartment to his self, and he would let the fuckers in, keep them till they died. Then, he would take them somewhere, lay them down, and call the hospital.
It was a good gig. We weren't making much headway, but we were closer to a cure then anyone else, infact, my work contributed to the cure. Sunshine, Devil, I fucking forget what they called it.
When I found the cure, I went to the hospital, like a dumb ass! I expected to walk in there, lay down my findings, and get... What? Praise? Money? In steads, I had my research taken from me, and kicked out.
You wanna know what I saw though? While I was there, I saw a guy, strapped to one of those wheelie things, I forget what they call them, and being pulled in to the room. Now, the emergency room, people were inside that bitch, in the chairs, back against the walls, laying and sitting on the floor. Some of them were fresh, just gotten sick. Others were aggressive, itchy, flesh a odd color, about the middle of the stage.
Then there were the turners. That's what we survivors called them. They were angry, hungry, and retarded. You can change that to stupid or mentally challenged for your book, but they were!
When I was doing the experiments, I only dealed with one turner. Mental retardation comes with it. Y'know? They just get stupider and stupider. Stupider isn't a word, is it? Allwell, you get my point.
But this guy, he wasn't just turned, he was a rotting corpse. The smell, is weird. It was the smell of decomposition, but it was different. It was like rotting flesh and fruit. It was enough to make me vomit.
They never used my cure. Did you know that? Umbrella had payed many doctors to not work on a cure, others weren't smart enough. Full credit went to some other doctor, who found it right before his own passing. Fucking Carlos. Glad he saved that S.T.A.R.S. lady though.
And did anyone ever apologize to them? They tried to tell the world, Rebecca, Jill, Barry, Chris... They came forward, with crumpled files.
"Enough people for a hoax." Irons said. You know what they said? They said that those four were caught by the cultest, like everyone else, and then drugged, unlike the other S.T.A.R.S. team members, who were all killed, they somehow escaped, and then forged stories and accounts, about some weird virus and some odd monsters.
I mean, think about it, is that not the dumbest thing you have ever heard? Murders and illness ravage the city, there's a big explosion out in the forest, people trained to be better than the CIA are killed, and here come four people, with PROOF of what's going on, with stories of how people died, and they are laughed at, discharged, and made a laughing stock! I was fascinated with them...
Especially Rebecca. Don't give me that look! I know, I'm the leader of her fan club, have a website to her, and I have talked to her many times in person. She was the inspiration to all of us! not even 19, and she was out of Med School, and working for S.T.A.R.S.!
Did you know she almost didn't have to go through all that? Literally, a couple of months field work, and she would have been in Chicago at the S.T.A.R.S. biology lab. Just a couple of months field work, and then she wouldn't have to ever hold a gun again.
And that's why I love her. Before that, she had never even held a gun, really. And now, she is, like, the best!
You know she still has her S.T.A.R.S. gun? She didn't need to get hers replicated, like Chris did. Jill has hers, Barry donated his to the Raccoon City Memorial place, and got another one, and Rebecca still has hers.
Samurai Edge. One of the best hand guns ever. You read Claire's report? Shame what happened to Kendo. I am a gun man now because of him.
Am I wasting time? Sorry. Nervous, I guess. I never really had to go into great detail till now. Have I skipped anything? Nope? All well.
So, we were gathered, against our will, and taken to the hospital. We were medical students, they said, and we were going to make an oath to help the sick, so why not start now.
Yeah, you know what that was? No one wanted this job anymore. Everyone who was still working there was either infected, or on the verge of a breakdown.
No one wanted to volunteer at the hospital, they were either already sick, or afraid of getting sicked, so, we were put together.
That lasted for, fuck, a week? We didn't know what we were doing, some of us disappeared at night, or just got out of town. Cindy, she dropped out, started working at J's bar.
I was a biochemist in training. I was needed in the lab, and I had samples. Fuck I had samples. But the blood, came in all forms. From fresh, to congealed.
It was my third time getting congealed blood, and I was pissed. I went up to Cindy, she was a RN at the time, and I said "Cindy, why is this blood like this? We need fresh stuff." Back then, I hated cussing. Well, she shook her head, and pointed to a room. "He's right in there." She said in the calmest voice. She was a great nurse and a great barmaid. She was so nice to talk to, and pretty too.
So, I went in. At first, he was just lying there. Like all the other crazies, he smelled, no, REEKED of death. His eyes were white, and he was inactive. Atleast, they are until they notice you. Zombies, Zombie dogs, which we found out were called Cerberus, and Lickers... fuck Lickers, man. But all of them have one thing in common. They don't see you, they won't attack you.
I approached him, held up his chart, it mad this clicking noise as it got off the side of the bed. That got his attention. He started moving, fighting his restraints.
I wasn't looking at him, and I didn't have to. As soon as he started struggling, that moan escaped his lips, I was out of that room with a trail of urine behind me.
That moan? Yeah, don't ask me ever again to try and replicate it. Remember back in 06 when that one girl shot a man in the head, because he moaned like a zombie, and it brought back memories. I felt sorry for her. The years of government aided therapy and we still snap.
Of course, they didn't want us to have guns, either. You know how hard I had to fight to get my gun license? We had to work hard. They were afraid what we would do with one, after what we had to go through.
But guess what, how the fuck do you think we survived that shit? With bare hands and rocks? No! Kendo was handing out guns, and the people of Raccoon City hunted, and had guns. People laugh at Americans, say we are all nothing but Gun tot'en rednecks. Well, God bless the fucking U.S.A. If it weren't for my next door neighbor, I wouldn't be standing here.
Anyways, when I slammed that door shut, it was loud. All the other zombies, on our floor heard it, and started to move in their rooms.
That was when Georg Hamilton stepped in.
He was a great man, going through a bad divorce. But, he loved his work. He told us that the people were dying, there hearts stopped beating and yet they moved, and that there was no cure yet. We had two choices. Stay, or run.
Didn't have to tell me twice. Didn't even change. I was gone.
Now, this is the part people ask me, why didn't I leave town.
The answer, I didn't know it would get this bad. None of us did. The press had been blacked out because of Umbrella, the phone lines outside the city had been cut by umbrella. We thought the rest of the world knew, and for all we knew, the government was going to come in at any moment, taking the sick in white vans, to take them somewhere else.
So, I was at home. Not at the dorms, at home. You probably ask, if I had already developed a cure, why didn't I make copies of the notes? Or work from memory?
And I say fuck you. I developed a theory of a cure. Doesn't sound as impressive, does it? A cure, of fuck yeah, a theory, that makes people yawn. But a theory was the best we had at the time, and not only did I not have a copy, I also didn't retain it to memory. I had time, money, and the rest of the medical students, all coming together, sharing notes, all that shit. What did I have at the hospital? A lab, alone, most of the machines were cutting edge, and people think "Oh, then just push a button."
Fuck you. Every machine has a manual, and every manual has to be read, or you wast time, money, power, and rights to that machine. Like a video game, you spend time reading the manual, you start of with an easier time then the guy who didn't know B was to shoot.
Umbrella gave the BEST equipment to the hospital, but gave us stuff that was out dated, or barely with the times. They wanted to see what we could do with the minimal of things, and depending what we could do, they could see if they should be watching us.
Anyways, I was constantly busy thinking about my cure. At home, at the hospital, no matter where I was, I was thinking.
But when they said we could leave, I figured I could go to my parents house on Ivy street, they had got out of town to stay with my fathers father till things got better, and I figured, I had a key, everything I had in the dorm could be moved. I got into my jeep, got my things and then left.
See, we had all the time to get out of the city, what helped us sleep at night was that this was a big deal, or so we thought, and that our police were some of the best, or so we thought.
But no. there was a media black out. As far as the rest of the world knew, the cultist had died, or been arrested, and Raccoon city was safe again.
And we weren't, but we thought that out police would be there. They had new uniforms in, and they were trained to be better than before, to take up the slack that was created when our S.T.A.R.S. division was shut down.
My parents were gone, and I had the place to myself. I think that was why I didn't know at first. The college had been shut down, students could stay, but classes were canceled, and with no hospital, I was free. The time spent at the hospital would be converted to credits, and I have a pre-winter break.
I played video games, drank, and slept. As mentioned, Pokemon was BIG that year, hell, it just came out, and I was hooked. Hadn't got to play for most of the month because of college and the hospital.
I spent the whole night playing, or, atleast till about two, fell asleep, then woke up around eleven the next day.
Now, it was September 24th the day before, when shit got bad. That was the day, as if it was planned, everything started moving. The monsters out in the forest moved into the city, the zombies in the hospital got free.
They converged to three places. Sutton Street, the hospital, and the police.
Sutton St. was where the bars and such were at. Things were getting tough, people were getting worried, and they needed to drink. Yoko, Kevin, Alyssa, David, all of them, they were ALL there that night. They split up, and still made it out together. They are on magazines, and everything.
But, I digress. People were there, zombies like people. Hospitals had people by the hundreds, there was a football game that night, and there were more people in town then usual because of that. Yeah, the roads were empty every other night, but oh fuck we can't miss our football.
So, that was where the zombies went. First the football field, where they tried to keep them out, but were eventually overrun, zombies broke out of their binds and such at the hospital, and they began coming and going through there, and then Sutton street was hit next. People went from there to the hospital, where they were killed and eaten, or became zombies from their wounds, or went to the police station, where they were locked out, and devoured or turned.
I was in a good place. Zombies were attacking the inside of the city, I was near the outside.
When I woke up the next morning, I was thirsty. I got up, went to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and got out some bottle water, that was strawberry flavored. I drank it, put new batteries in my game boy, and looked outside.
That was when I saw how hell can be created over the course of one night.
That was when I saw my first zombie.
And that was the moment he noticed me.
