The forest was cloaked as the wind shook the leafy trees overhead. A lone soldier checked the magazine of his rifle with steady hands, pausing to listen to the crackling voice emerging from his radio.

"We need both targets eliminated. Reinforcements delayed, you're on your own out there, over."

The soldier's jaw clenched briefly before he vanished into the shadows, moving swift and silent through the trees. As he left, the blurred background came into focus, revealing a large brown bear lying motionless on the forest floor, its mouth torn open and mangled. Dark blood stained its fur and the surrounding undergrowth. Clearly the work of high-caliber rounds.

The soldier was alone now, isolated in enemy territory. He had his orders, but success would rely on his training, instincts and mental fortitude. Pausing behind a broad tree trunk, he scanned the area, seeing nothing, he moved on, placing each boot with care to avoid snapping twigs or rustling leaves.

The musty smell of old books permeated the air of the abandoned library. Billy and Rebecca crept cautiously between the tall, dusty bookshelves, their footsteps muffled by moth-eaten carpets. Shadows danced across the peeling wallpaper as their flashlights swept the room. Amidst the mess of scattered books and overturned furniture, the body of a zombie collapsed, a gunshot wound to the center of its forehead. The sound of the body hitting the ground echoed through the nearby rooms.

Billy's voice was hushed, but urgent. "Did you kill everyone?"

Rebecca replied matter-of-factly, "Affirmative."

Doubt crossed Billy's face. "Are you sure?"

"Yes Billy, I am," Rebecca stated with cool confidence.

Billy paused, peering down a dark hallway. "This door should lead to the main room."

Rebecca held out a hand, halting him. "Let's take a look first."

Billy let out an impatient huff. "Are you going to start reading now?"

Rebecca shot him an annoyed look. "Aren't you interested in what this place is? What's going on here?"

Billy shook his head dismissively. "I'm a little more interested in not getting chewed up."

Behind Billy's back, Rebecca childishly stuck her tongue out at him. She turned her attention to the shelves, trailing her fingers along the weathered spines of Plato, Hemingway, and Dickens.

Her eyes lit up as she recognized a few titles. "The Art of War, The Book of Five Rings, Meditations."

Billy tapped his foot. "Finished?"

Rebecca scowled at his flippant attitude. "Right, I'm talking to a rock."

"Sun Tzu, Musashi, Aurelius," Billy listed off smugly. "I'm going to go ahead." He disappeared into the dark hallway.

Rebecca called after him indignantly, "W-well they're very well known books, even a child would know who wrote them!"

Billy's distant voice echoed back. "I notice."

"Agh!" Rebecca growled in frustration. She rushed to catch up with him.

The grand hall was cavernous, with vaulted ceilings that made every footstep echo. Stairs wound up along the walls, leading to a balcony that encircled the room. Several elevators stood side by side against the far wall, their brass doors and retro finishes hinting at decades gone by.

Billy's gaze landed on an oil painting hanging above the stairs. It depicted an elderly man with steely eyes, his chest decorated with military medals. "Do you know this guy?" Billy asked.

"James Marcus," Rebecca replied without missing a beat. "One of Umbrella's founders. He's shied away from the spotlight lately."

Billy considered the information, hands on his hips as his eyes continued roving over their surroundings. "So we're stuck in some shady old dude's lab?"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"The files I read described this place more as a training facility for military and scientists." Rebecca's voiced echoed slightly in the cavernous space. "But honestly, I'm not sure."

Billy huffed out a cynical laugh. "Well, that doesn't change our current situation."

Their footsteps reverberated off the walls as they ascended the staircase. The ancient elevator creaked and groaned when they stepped inside, cables sparking as it juddered into motion.

"Billy..." Rebecca ventured tentatively.

"What?"

"Doesn't it seem like there should be more people around?"

Billy crossed his arms, leaning against the vibrating wall of the elevator. "Maybe they got away." But his noncommittal tone betrayed his doubt.

"Yeah..." Rebecca murmured. "Maybe."

With a ding, the elevator ground to a halt and the doors rattled open.

Billy's eyes widened in alarm. "Shit."

The infirmary was a chaotic scene of death and undeath. Dozens of zombies filled the room, some still clad in blood-spattered medical gowns while others wore tattered patient robes. As one, their heads swiveled to stare with milky eyes at the two humans who had invaded their domain.

Rebecca jabbed at the elevator call button repeatedly, anxiety etched across her face. The doors shuddered as they tried to close, but failed to seal completely.

"The elevator doesn't work!" Rebecca yelled, panic creeping into her voice.

"Are you happy now?!" Billy shouted back, his words dripping with irritation. He raised his machine gun and pulled the trigger. The chattering gunfire filled the infirmary with thunderous noise.

"Damn it! It's not working, it's not working!" Rebecca cried in dismay as the elevator remained stubbornly open. The zombies were beginning to surge toward them, arms outstretched hungrily.

Billy hastily reloaded his weapon, slapping a new magazine into place. "Cut that shit and give me a hand here!" he barked.

Rebecca added her own pistol fire to Billy's sweeping machine gun bursts. Zombies crumpled under the combined firepower, collapsing into piles of lifeless meat. Still they kept coming, undaunted by the deaths of their fellow undead. Two managed to get past the barrage of bullets and stumbled into the elevator, their grasping hands raking across Rebecca's arms. She recoiled with a shriek, backpedaling frantically to avoid their snapping jaws.

Billy emptied another magazine into the zombies, the bullets tearing them apart until they lay still in the elevator car. "We're a can of sardines in here, move!" he shouted, booting the corpses out of his way.

The pair moved deeper into the infirmary, guns blazing. The room was filled with the dead, both the long-dead victims of the viral outbreak and the recent dead in the form of soldiers and medical staff. Billy and Rebecca fired controlled pairs into each zombie head that reared up to attack them. Some collapsed after the first shots, while others stubbornly kept dragging themselves across the floor, intent on their prey.

Weaving between gurneys and around broken medical equipment, Billy and Rebecca sprinted down a debris-strewn hallway. A zombie lunged out of a side room, latching onto Billy's gun. They grappled briefly before the creature wrenched the weapon from Billy's grip. It clattered to the floor as Billy wrestled with the zombie.

Rebecca moved to help, but a crawler - a zombie consisting of just a torso and head - grabbed her left boot with surprising strength. She screamed as its teeth closed viciously on the leather. Billy managed to shove his attacker back a few feet before drawing his handgun and pumping four shots into its chest. A final bullet to the head put the zombie down for good.

Rebecca kicked frantically at the crawler gnawing her boot. After several impacts, its skull caved in with a sickening wet crunch. Freed from its grip, Rebecca grabbed her pistol and snapped off two quick headshots to finish it.

The gunfire had attracted more of the undead - a large pack now shambled down the hall toward them. Billy was blocked by the seething mob, unable to reach his dropped weapon.

"Go away! There's too many of them!" he yelled, firing with his handgun into the crowd. The zombies kept coming, heedless of their losses.

Rebecca could hear Billy's shots, but could no longer see him among the ravenous horde. Backpedaling, she remembered Enrico's panicked death. This was just like her nightmare - being overwhelmed and alone against the living dead.

Some of the zombies peeled off and shambled toward Rebecca, arms outstretched. She retreated further down the hall, her heart hammering. A zombie erupted from a nearby body bag, clasping her legs in a viselike grip. She crashed to the floor, losing her grip on her pistol. It skittered away across the tiles.

The body bag zombie flopped onto her, pinning her torso beneath its considerable bulk. She could feel its teeth snapping frenziedly against the thick plastic, inches from her face. Another crawler at her feet started chewing her boot with single-minded ferocity.

Rebecca thrashed in terror beneath the body bag corpse, adrenaline lending her strength. She couldn't reach her pistol, so she grabbed her combat knife instead. Screaming in fury, she stabbed it repeatedly into the zombie's back and neck.

It shuddered under the impacts but kept trying to bite through the plastic wrapping to get to the delicious human beneath. Rebecca kept stabbing, desperate to push it off of her. With a final heave, she dislodged the creature enough to free her other arm. As it flopped back down toward her, she jammed the knife up through the bottom of the bag, into the zombie's eye socket.

Twisting the blade, she pushed it away to give herself room to maneuver. The crawler was still gnawing, but Rebecca had a clear shot now. She reached her handgun and put two rounds through its forehead, blasting its brains across the white tiles.

Shoving the body bag zombie off of her, Rebecca leapt to her feet. She couldn't see Billy, but she could still hear intermittent gunfire under the moans of the dead. Retrieving her knife tightly, Rebecca ran for the nearest door, seeking sanctuary from the ravenous horde.