Read Resident Evil Legends Part Six - Escape From Raccoon City Page 25

  Chapter 24

  Nicholai ran down the dark path and out of the trees, laughing to himself as he hurried up toward some large boulders that marked the back end of the park. Just beyond the rocky area were some large sewer pipes that led into the city sewers. When he had planned his final exit several days before, Nicholai learned that there was no way directly out of the park from this direction. The north edge of the park ended in a sheer rock wall about twelve feet high. The only way out was through the sewer pipes.

  He jumped across some smaller rocks and stopped at the top of a larger half-buried boulder. He turned to see Jill appear from out of the trees, and chuckled as he took out his pistol. He fired a few shots and watched her dive for cover, laughing as he did so.

  He could have killed her then, using the field of boulders as the perfect place for an ambush, hiding in the shadows until she ran by, and then gunning her down. But Nicholai was beginning to enjoy the chase. And the woman Jill was an amusing adversary, much more persistent and cunning that he had initially given her credit for. Either that or she was just incredibly lucky, but Nicholai was leaning toward the former. She was a fighter, and Nicholai was excited to have a worthy opponent coming after him.

  His personal conquests of late were against much weaker adversaries. It was almost a shame that Jill would have to die, but perhaps Nicholai could enjoy himself before it was time to pull the trigger. After all, the missile strike was not scheduled for another few hours. He might have the chance to really take his time with her.

  He fired off a few more shots to keep Jill on her toes, and tossed away the empty pistol. Jumping down off the rocks, he ran in between them and made his way farther back. With little light to guide his way, the field of boulders was like a maze of huge, looming shadows. If he hadn’t already planned his route far in advance, he probably could not have found his way to the sewer pipes.

  He ran up a slight incline and across a rocky outcropping, making his way along the poorly-marked path through the rocks. When he finally reached the edge of the park, he climbed up to the ledge along the wall. Above him was a thick iron fence that lined the top of the wall, a place where visitors gathered to get a scenic view of the entire park. Light posts lined the outlook, illuminating the area directly below the wall.

  Nicholai heard someone coming and instinctively ducked down as gunshots rang out. He didn’t know where Jill was shooting from, she could easily see him because he was standing out in the open, almost directly under the lights. Instead of returning fire, he ran as fast as he could along the ledge until he reached the sewer opening.

  The pipe was five feet wide, not quite wide enough for Nicholai to walk through comfortably, so he ducked down and hurried inside. More gunshots, and this time he heard them clang off the thick metal edge of the pipe.

  There was a metal fence welded inside the pipe to keep people out, but there was also a hinged door with a padlock to allow maintenance and utilities workers to enter if they needed to. The padlock was unlatched, however, as Nicholai had already unlocked it much earlier. He pushed open the fence door and it squeaked on rusty hinges. The inside of the pipe was absolutely pitch dark, but Nicholai knew the way.

  He hunched down as he ran, the barrel of his Carbine scraping against the roof of the pipe, his boots splashing through the stagnant water at the bottom. He held his hand out as he ran, feeling along the side of the pipe. Jill would expect him to hide in the darkness in order to kill her, so she would hesitate before coming in after him, which gave him a little more time.

  His hand struck the edge of a metal ladder that headed up to a manhole cover on the street above. But Nicholai kept going until he found a second ladder farther down the pipe, and quickly climbed up in complete darkness. When he reached the top of the ladder, he pushed up on the metal door and peeked out into an open concrete yard. One side was bordered by a tall wooden fence and the other side led out to a parking lot next to a huge rectangular gray building.

  Directly above him was a streetlight, illuminating the area, shining light down past him and into the sewer pipe. Jill would surely see it, but Nicholai left the metal doors open as he climbed out.

  The huge gray building had no windows, and only a simple sign in black lettering that read “Cavanaugh Chemical Disposal.” The fence blocked view of the building from the street, and the open lot in front was empty, as Nicholai expected.

  He walked out into the lot, taking his assault rifle down from his shoulder and aiming it in front of him. Around the side of the building was a parking lot, currently empty, and across from that was a chain-link fence that held out an army of zombies. There were hundreds of them packed along the street, and as soon as they noticed Nicholai walking toward them, they began to moan and grab at the fence. The smell of death wafted across the parking lot and Nicholai breathed through his mouth because the stench was so overpowering.

  Unfortunately, those zombies blocked his escape route. There was no way he could get through that many undead. There had to be a way through the building to get to the empty lot on the other side, so he went to one of the side doors to the building and tested it, before shooting out the lock and kicking the door open.

  But before he went inside, he walked over to the fence. Part of the fence was a long gate that swung open so cars could drive into the parking lot, but right now the gate portion was closed and locked. Nicholai shot out the lock and chuckled to himself as the zombies surged forward and began to push the gate open. Hundreds of zombies flooded through the gate and into the parking lot.

  Nicholai ran back to the doors and entered the building.