Raccoon City, Welcome To Hell

[Carla Valenti]

Police Sergeant Carla Valenti was walking down the front steps of the Raccoon Police Department (RPD) building, and looking around. It was September 23rd, 1998. The day that would change Raccoon City forever. Looking down at her RPD uniform, the woman sighed. Another day for her, another day just trying to keep the people in the city safe. Continuing forward, the woman walked through the front gate of the department and out onto the sidewalk. Turning to her right, she walked a little ways down the sidewalk before turning again to the right, now walking down the driveway to the RPD's garage.

Several radio communications were coming and going through her Motorola Police Radio, and not a single one was directed at her. Carla walked into the garage through an open door where a single officer stood on guard duty, making sure no-one walked in without permission. Entering the large garage, she walked to vehicle stall #3 and approached a marked Ford Taurus. Pulling a key from her belt, she unlocked the door and got in. After starting the vehicle up, she drove out of the garage, and out onto Ennerdale Street. The car moved slowly after catching up with traffic, and kept a constant pace with it. The radio was still buzzing with orders from dispatch, but all being directed at other units. Carla's specific patrol route today would simply take her up and down from Raccoon Park to Raccoon High School. It was a straight-forward patrol assignment, pretty easy and boring. The woman demanded more dangerous duty, but the police chief shrugged her off, saying she hadn't proved her worth yet. Little did Carla know, today would be the first over the next week where she'd prove her worth.

[Agasa Hiroshi]

The light from the hotel room in Raccoon City just crept in through the windows, just enough to wake Agasa up. With a heavy groan, he wiped his eyes and put on his glasses. Just because he won a trip to Raccoon City doesn't mean that he could spend the day resting.

"Hmmm... tiredness is not the thing I wanted to do," Agasa began to mutter to himself as he did as most people do when they get up: get dressed, brush your teeth, wash your face... things like that. As soon as he was well fed from the restaurant downstairs, Agasa was officially outside the hotel. That hotel was just near Raccoon Park and Agasa thought that it would do him some good if he walked there. Not because Haibara wanted him to exercise, but the fact that the hotel building itself was stuffy. He hated that.

"Now, for some peace and quiet," Agasa began as he strolled down the paths of Raccoon Park. Little did he know that someone was waiting, waiting for Agasa to be mugged. Evidence: the group was huddled in a corner, watching over Agasa. One of them motioned to come forward and put their clumsy little plan into action.

"Ah, now..." Agasa began, but he felt something from his pocket being taken. With a cry, Agasa was surprised that something like that would happen to him, of all people.

"Help! Help! Someone stole my wallet! I think!" he cried out as he checked his pockets, anything to find any traces of his wallet. Yep. His wallet is gone.

[Carla Valenti]

"Unit #3," Came over Carla's radio, and she began listening. "We've got reports coming in from your patrol route. Something's happening over at Raccoon Park. Report on arrival and provide a Sitrep."

Carla grabbed the cars radio, and said into it, "Roger, Unit #3 en route."

The lights on the police car flashed on, and she began passing through the other cars in traffic. It only took her a moment to reach Raccoon Park, and she was the disturbance immediately. Grabbing the radio, she said quickly, "It's the hoodies again, requesting backup. Seems they got a tourist's wallet."

At that, she opened the door of the police car's door and slammed it shut behind her, taking off into the park. The man spouting that his wallet MAY have been stolen didn't comfort the woman. "Calm down, sir," she said, "Which way and how many?"

[Agasa Hiroshi]

"Well, it was so fast! I think that rascal may have gone further into the garden, near the fountain," Agasa began as he tried to calm down from the incident that just occurred a few moments ago. "The rascal was behind me when he took it. And furthermore, I don't know how many people," he added as he tried to shake his head, in an effort to calm himself down.

Meanwhile...

The group of four who stole Agasa's wallet were grinning with glee. They found his money and it's a reasonable amount of money to go and buy some booze and a pack of cigarettes, if they wanted to. They were at the fountain, and they grabbed as much money as they could, including his credit cards or anything that didn't have Agasa's ugly mug-shot photo on it. Then, they dumped it in the water. Then, the four people hurried off, causing a lot of concern for people that the foursome was acting rather strangely.

Back to the place where Agasa was...

"Yes, I'm quite sure that he went towards the fountain," Agasa said as soon as he was completely calm. He could remember a small amount of detail, but it wasn't enough to catch any perpetrator of any sort.

"He was wearing black, along with a black ski mask," he added as he hoped that the officer who came to his aid might be able to fill in the blanks.

[Carla Valenti]

Carla nodded. "Go over to my car," she said, before placing her hand over her gun holster, and began moving into the park, quickly at a jogging pace. She arrived at the fountain, seeing a wallet down in the water. Turning, she looked around. Some people were looking at her. An elderly couple walked over.

"Excuse me," the old woman said, the man directly behind her seemingly her husband, "If you're looking for the kids that did that, they headed over there," she pointed in the direction they'd run, and Carla nodded with a small smile. "Thanks for the help, ma'am," she said, before taking off down the path that had been specified a moment ago. The hand returned to being over the holster, she continued moving. The Motorola radio that hung over her shoulder gave a static buzz before coming to life. "Backup officers have arrived at Raccoon Park," said the dispatcher, "Officers arriving at North and East ends. They're moving into the park."

After hearing that, Carla ran forward faster, hoping she could catch the kids before the other officers showed up. It would look good if she could arrest multiple perps on her own. The woman ran up into a clearing, and began looking in all directions for the suspects.

[Agasa Hiroshi]

Agasa, who had no idea what was going on, did as the officer told her: go to the car. He walked over there, but he had no idea that something was about to happen. Soon. It was a small hint, but he dismissed it at the time. He thought that he saw a zombie that came towards him, but he adjusted his glasses and that image... was gone. Agasa breathed a sigh of relief: note to self... never watch movies in the middle of the night. Especially of the horror-genre type. Ran had scolded him once for watching such ghastly things at night, but Agasa had forgotten again.

Meanwhile, back to those pesky kids...

The four thieves who were running from the police had no-where else to run. It was Karma, and Karma alone who punish those who steal from the innocent. One of them who took Agasa's wallet, a girl as a matter of fact, tripped over on one of those hidden nature things and made her slip forward and into the dirt. With a grunt, those police officers caught them before she could get up again. With a sigh, she put her hands up in the air, the evidence of the money in her hands floating onto her lap in the process.

"Okay, okay... I get it! I'll come to the station, damnnit!" she swore as the officers held her in custody before that officer known as Carla arrived on the scene.

[Carla Valenti]

Carla saw two RPD patrol officers taking one of the suspects into custody, and she flew past them, in pursuit of the others. "Bring her to the south side," she said, passing the officers, "Her victim is there." The woman kept her hand placed on her holster, and ignored her radio when it squawked about officers catching up with the suspect she'd already passed. "Suspects still at large within the park," she said, continuing along. Smiling, she began to see the three ahead. And she knew the park well. Well enough to know they were headed straight into a corner.

[Agasa Hiroshi]

With a disgruntled grunt, the girl was being dragged towards Agasa with a loss of fuss. She kept on saying, "Don't pull me so hard!" and "That hurts!" half the time. As soon as that girl was standing in front of Agasa, face to face... he looked at her and blinked. She had the motherly aura of Ran and yet... there was something about her that made him feel uneasy. As though she didn't want to be sociable with anyone. And that made Agasa cringe.

"So, young lady... do you have my wallet?" he asked as the girl rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah... at the damn fountain. What else do you think it is? In heaven?" she retorted as the two police officers held her still.

"Alright, young lady," one of the officers began, "That's enough from you," the other added as they put her into the police car, secure and locked. For the meanwhile, Agasa hoped that the other four would be caught, soon.

On the other side of the park...

The other three were cornered. With a hiss, they tried some inventive way to escape... but they're no Kaito Kid. They couldn't escape. Therefore, they were trapped. And therefore... the officers managed to surround the trio in time. Disappointed with their latest 'heist', the three surrendered. So much for a quick getaway.

"Damn. Looks like we have to plan a lot better than that," one of them began as the other two snorted.

"Oh, now look who's talking," the second of the trio began as the third elbowed the second thief in the stomach. Ouch.

"Shut up! I didn't know this was about to happen! I didn't know he was going to squeal like a pig!" the third thief began as it became into an eventual argument. No fist-fighting as many people see in the cartoons on Saturday Mornings, but an argument all the same.

[Carla Valenti]

Carla was the first officer to arrive on the three, and she was them beginning to act out against each other. "Easy kids!" She shouted. "Get on your knees and place your hands behind your heads, interlocking your fingers!" Even though they were kids, Carla kept her hands on her gun. She knew the trouble kids could cause, even in happy little Raccoon City. "Nice and easy," she said, talking them down from the battle.

[Agasa Hiroshi]

They did as Carla bid for them to do, giving each other the death glare of a thousand death glares that would last them a lifetime. The three of them were arrested on the spot. They were silent as everything police procedural was done to them, just in case if they were holding something that might endanger them.

On the south side of Raccoon Park, Agasa waited patiently for the officer to come back with the remaining three. He took a deep breath and thought about the dream about zombies for some reason. He didn't know why or what, but he kept on saying to himself that it was only his imagination. He knew that zombies weren't real and never were, as Shinichi had told him, once. And he knew that the famous Ace detective was right. No such thing as monsters.

[Carla Valenti]

Carla smiled and moved ahead as the kids complied, only to be passed by several traffic officers who'd arrived moments ago. They quickly moved on the kids and took them into custody. Sighing, the woman turned, and began jogging back across the park.

It only took her a few minutes to arrive back at her car where the tourist was standing. She noticed the girl had been placed into the back of the patrol car she'd arrived in, and nodded approvingly. Pulling her note-pad, she smiled to the man. "I'm sorry for all this trouble," she said, "But I'm going to need your name and contact address while you're in Raccoon so we can get a statement and all that police stuff. Is that alright?"

---

As Carla had asked that question, something stirred in the sewers of Raccoon. Rats that had bitten dead members of an armed group which had attempted to steal a viral sample from a madman were now carrying a viral infection. An infection that their bites of members of staff from a facility down in the sewers had passed to the people they'd bitten. And now the people were biting other people. And an idiot from inside the facility had just opened the door to the outside.

[Agasa Hiroshi]

Agasa nodded as he heard the officer who got the remaining three kids from stealing the old man's pocket. Serves them right, as Agasa noted, to be stirring up trouble like that. He adjusted his glasses as he nodded to her.

"Of course. After all, I did call out for help," Agasa said gently as he felt his heart-beats thumping faster. For no reason. He felt that something was uncomfortable, something he couldn't put his finger on. Agasa didn't know what that feeling was or why he was acting like this, but he did his best to remain calm. Then, he couldn't contain it any further. He felt like an idiot blabbing it out, but... at least it'd stop torturing his mind for now.

"Ma'am? I think there's something wrong here. I don't know what it is, but are there zombies in the city?" he asked, rather quickly that anyone couldn't comprehend what the heck he was talking about. Agasa held his breath as he tried to make his thoughts clear. Meanwhile, the four kids stared at him before they laughed.

"Ha! Zombies? He's nutty as he looks!" one of them mocked him as Agasa sighed deeply. As if they would believe the old man. Perhaps he had one too many horror movies in him. And... if he did ever get back home, he'd stop watching them, including the Gomera series. Well, he thought Gomera was a horror film and put it at that.

[Carla Valenti]

Carla turned to the one child who was in her cruiser and gave a glare, before turning to the other three. "Haul them over to the other side and take them back to the station," she said, before turning back to Agasa. "Are you alright? Should I perhaps get you some water?"

---

The doors opened into the sewers, and below the feet of the officers and civilians in Raccoon Park, something had been put into motion. The survivors of the incident had flooded out into the sewers, trying to run and find escape. Some made their way up to the streets, and quickly got cabs or buses out of the city. Others found themselves lost in the maze of the sewers. Others met the fate no-one should need meet, at the hands of the madman the armed group had been searching for.

[Agasa Hiroshi]

"A glass of water? Uh... no thank you," Agasa said as he sighed, "I'm fine, thank you very much," he said as he heard someone get out of the sewers and head into a cab, ragged from breathing. At this, Agasa wanted to know why that person was running as though there was something serious going on like a plague or something that was going to ruin the city altogether.

"What is going on?" Agasa questioned loudly before that person looked frantically for a cab. Finding that there was none, that unnamed person looked for buses, anything to get out of the city.

"God... get the hell out of here! Get out!" the unnamed person cried out as the person tried to hail for a cab. At this, Agasa had no idea on what was going on until a few more people were running, scratched and bleeding from the injuries obtained from those sewers.

[Carla Valenti]

Carla ran over to the manhole in the street people were coming out of. She uttered a curse out loudly, quickly beginning to pull the people out from the hole. "Come on, lets go!" she said, trying to figure out why people were below ground in the first place. A few other officers who'd been standing around with her came to help, and they all worked together, helping people up and out of the manhole.

But they stopped when the last person who looked same came up, and looked down. The next person in line looked as if he'd been crazed, as well bashed in the head. Part of his skin was missing, and he smelt as if he'd been drunker than life itself. "What the..." was all she managed before stumbling back as it tried to scratch at her. The other officers had done the same. Carla grabbed at her shoulder for her radio. When her hand found it, she began stuttering into the mic, "R-Requesting all available units on the south end of Raccoon Park. Something seriously f***ed up is going on..."
"All available units," came the dispatch reply, "Unit #3 is requesting backup at Raccoon Park. Be advised, unknown circumstance. Provide sitrep on arrival."

Carla stared as the person came up out of the manhole, and seemed to stumble toward her. She pulled her Beretta 92FS handgun, and shouted "STOP!" before hesitating to fire. She began backing up toward the police car, and when she hit it, she remembered there was a danger to everyone around. "Get on your knees and interlock your fingers behind your head!" she shouted, but to no avail. Finally, after aiming for the heart, she pulled the trigger....And nothing happened. Firing one more into it's chest, then moving the aim to it's head, the creature fell as the third shot drilled in. Turning, Carla ran over to the front of her car. "Sir, get in the front passenger seat," she said, pointing to Agasa as she put her gun back in it's holster. She turned to the officers who stood there, guns raised at the man that laid on the ground as another came up. "Secure this scene! And cover that manhole! I'm headed to the station. Alert me when backup arrives." As she finished, Carla opened the drivers side door of the vehicle and sat down behind the steering wheel.