1 | Contagion [Leon Kennedy]

Chapter One

Chapter One | Nowhere To Run

【September 28, 8:00 p.m. - Raccoon City】

"THIS PANDEMIC HAS SPREAD faster than any disease in modern history—"

        Click!

        "Angry mobs roam the city, burning buildings—"

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        "Authorities are bracing for more rioting tonight—"

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        "A citywide emergency has been declared—"

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        ". . . The CDC has quarantined the lower mid-west region of the USA."

        Click!

        Flipping from channel to channel, you stared dully at the small television situated in the corner of the studio apartment. The drone of the police sirens in the distant atmosphere caused you to slightly turn up the volume.

        Five days ago, something terrible happened in Raccoon City. It was still happening, unfolding like some poisonous flower, and the only hope now was to wait for someone outside to take notice.

        When the first few cases had been reported, no one had connected them with the S.T.A.R.S. stories about the Spencer estate. Several people had been attacked in the late spring and early summer—surely the work of some deranged killer.

        After all, the RPD would catch him in no time.

        It wasn't until the Raccoon Police Department had put up roadblocks on Umbrella orders, three days earlier, that people had started paying attention.

        You didn't know how they were managing to keep people out of the city, but they were—nothing shipped in, no mail service, and the outside lines were cut.

        Citizens trying to leave town were turned back, and told nothing about why.

        You tossed a potato chip into your mouth as you switched to a channel showing an episode of The X-Files. Your eyes shifted from the TV screen and onto your sister slumped over her desk, her snores echoing throughout the room.

        Jill had fallen asleep at her desk and you didn't want to wake her up. Ever since the mansion incident, she had difficulty sleeping.

        Who could blame her?

        If you saw the unspeakable horrors she witnessed, you would too.

        Her doctor had prescribed sleeping pills along with antidepressants, but the medicine did little to be of help.

        It didn't help that you were under surveillance 24/7. Guys across the street watched you constantly. You had no idea if they were Irons' men or Umbrella's.

        Either way, there was no real difference.

        You knew what they were trying to do.

        They wanted to tear Jill down, torment her into compliance . . . and it seemed to be working. Jill was barely sleeping and eating.

        You decided to leave your dorm at Raccoon University to stay with Jill and assist her in her investigation of the whereabouts of Umbrella's underground facility.

        You knew Jill wouldn't let them win. She was strong and determined to get out of the city and find a way to make them accountable for their actions. But considering what was going on outside, Jill thought she should be out there, she should be doing more to save citizens.