Chapter: "Escape Under Fire and Hope"
The destroyed streets of Raccoon City seemed to swallow the convoy at every turn. The vehicles jolted through debris and gravel, while columns of smoke marked the gray sky like tombstones of a world that was falling apart.
Inside the main armored vehicle, Angela Ashford tried to control her tears. The children rescued from the school slept, exhausted, hugging each other. Angela looked around, but her heart was elsewhere, until the door to the rear compartment opened.
Dr. Charles Ashford, the man behind part of Umbrella's genetic engineering, climbed into the vehicle. He was older, haggard, but his eyes searched for only one thing: his daughter.
Angela ran to him, and the hug they exchanged was a knot of pain and relief.
"I thought you..." her voice trailed off. "I thought you were dead."
Ashford held her daughter's face, his eyes brimming with tears.
— I promised I would protect you… and I will keep that promise. — He kissed her forehead before looking at Daniel. — Thank you. For her. For everyone.
Daniel nodded, his features firm, but his eyes betrayed the weight of his decisions.
The radio crackled, Claire's voice sounded urgent:
— Next stop: Central Hospital. We need the medicine before we leave the city.
**Central Hospital: Blood, Loss, and Survival**
The convoy stopped two blocks from the hospital, the half-destroyed building covered in shattered windows and makeshift barricades. The sign hung crooked, the health symbol now a distorted reminder of the chaos.
— Tactical pattern — Daniel ordered. — Alice, surveillance drones. Jill, Leon, with me. Marcos and Lucas, external cover. Ashford, stay with the children.
The air there stank of rotting flesh. Each footstep echoed through the corridors, covered in dried blood, overturned stretchers, and scattered papers.
"Zombies, 20 meters ahead," Alice warned over the comm, while her drones transmitted thermal images.
Moving silently, Daniel and Leon took down the first infected with silent shots. The group advanced between destroyed wards to the central pharmacy, but something was wrong. The emergency doors were broken.
"This place has been invaded before," Jill muttered.
Claire and Alice were filling backpacks with antibiotics, anesthetics, and suture kits when the guttural roar erupted through the corridors.
A hungry horde.
"Defensive position!" Daniel shouted.
The combat was brutal. Zombies threw themselves against improvised barricades, while Jill and Leon covered the entrances. Daniel fired with surgical precision, protecting Claire while she gathered more supplies.
But they soon realized: among the horde, there were "runners" — agile, fast zombies that climbed the walls.
"Elite contact!" Alice warned.
One of them almost reached Angela, but Ashford threw himself at the monster, firing his pistol. The creature's head exploded, splattering putrid blood.
On the floor, an injured boy cried. Daniel held him.
"Check every wound! No scratches or bites that go unnoticed!"
The protocol was strict. Alice scanned with the drone, analyzing vital signs. Angela helped to staunch the wounds, her face determined despite her fear.
"Superficial cut, no infection," Alice confirmed.
More supplies were gathered: IV bags, morphine, antivirals. Time was running out.
In the hallways, corpses lay piled up, and blood dripped through the cracks in the floor. A zombie nurse still wore her crooked badge, her eyes empty of soul.
"We're almost done," Claire said.
Suddenly, from the upper floor, human screams.
"There are survivors!" Angela exclaimed.
Daniel hesitated. Every second there was a risk.
"Jill, with me. Leon, cover. Claire and Alice, evacuate with the supplies."
They climbed the emergency stairs, the rusty iron creaking. They found two nurses and a doctor locked in a room, surrounded by improvised barricades.
"We came to get you out of here," Daniel said, opening the door.
The doctor was shaking.
"Zombies everywhere… and… some mutants. They… they're not human anymore."
The group went down, facing more infected. Jill tore down the corridors, while Daniel eliminated threats from behind.
The hospital looked like a mausoleum, but they left with the survivors, the medicine and the conviction that, even among the rubble, there was still life.
**Next Stop: Electronics Distribution Center**
The convoy sped along, with Angela hugging her father, tears and hope mingling.
"We're together. We'll get through this," she said.
Daniel, in the lead, gazed out over the ruined city. They had medicine, supplies… and their next mission: strategic technology looting.
But at the Distribution Center, something even worse awaited: Umbrella.
The night was falling red as blood. And the resistance was only just beginning.
s, we are strong."
The convoy sped through the ruined streets. Hope burned in everyone's eyes. And Daniel knew: this was just the beginning.