Resident Evil: Nights 2 R3member

Chapter 6: Under The Umbrella

         Chapter 6: Under The Umbrella
 
   When you get to work the office is just bustling. Your co-workers are making waves and you have no idea what is happening. You ask around like what is going on and you manage to get the scoop. There is a new presence of military coming to Raccoon City courtesy of Umbrella. You get even more confused and look for the Chief. You find him in the break room getting what looks to be his 5th cup of joe. His hands are shaky, he's mildly sweating, and he's got a bunch of ripped up sugar packets on the counter top. You ask him what is the reason behind the military and PMCS in Umbrella. Though sadly he doesn't know either. Hence why he is getting any if all available reporters to investigate. You can't tell him about your private investigation so you just keep quiet and move on with your day. As you get to your desk you go online and begin your research for more info on Umbrellas Upbringing. Other than the information you already know. The pharmaceutical company seems to have a clean rap in its history. After you've looked over these you can't help but feel like it's a little too perfect.

   The stories are too good to be true. Like it's been hand selected and make no sense. The Umbrella Corporation was a multinational conglomerate with subsidiaries active in a variety of industries from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Umbrella had influence in the production and sale of cosmetics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, industrial machine production, consumer products, health foods, the transportation industry and tourism. No matter how hard you tried to dig you just got the same thing. Why would someone hire you and Claire to investigate this company. It just doesn't add up. Before you finish your thought you get a call on your phone and you see it's an unknown number. You answer the call and you hear and exhausted woman on the other line. At first you hesitate to ask who it is but then the other person on the line answers "Hello?" "It's me Claire!" You respond with a worried answer. "Look it's really bad and I don't have enough time to explain." The reception begins to get shoddy and you can barely hear her. "Umbrell-" *Chhhh* "Not Sa-" *Chhhh* "Get away!" *Chhh*. The phone connection fails and you hear the dial tone. You get confused and try to call it back. But it immediately goes to dial tone again. Feeling unsettled you continue to dig to put your mind away from it. What happened to Claire, what's going on? So many question floods your mind and continue on.

   The office begins to thin out as time goes on and you see less and less of your co-workers. The rain hitting the window next to you begins to fade as white noise as you get tired. Getting up from your desk you go to get a cup of coffee and lean up against the counter. Holding your mug whilst waiting for it to cool down. You take a sip of your drink. The nights in Raccoon City seem to just meld together and are surprised by so much time passing by. It's still burning in the back of your head what you could barely hear from Claire. The only words you could make out was Umbrella. Now the voice in the back of your head comes back once again. "CoNtInUe DoWn ThIs PaTh AnD yOu WiLl DiE!" You snap back to reality and accidentally drop your mug. Making a mess in the break room. The coffee spill scatters on the floor and you quickly go to pick up the pieces. When you finish cleaning up you think that you should go home and rest. Before you leave the office, get to the door and are stopped by your boss. Chief pulls you aside and asks "Hey you doing alright?" You tell him you're alright but he still holds your arm. "Listen kid." "Take it from me, don't overwork yourself and take a moment to breathe." You take his sincere advise and make your way to the outside. You realize you forgot your umbrella. You stand under the banister and watch a s the rain kicks up. You debate on running to your apartment and try to hype yourself up. Once you get the courage you make a run for it. Immediately the cold air and wind hits your skin. The icy feeling envelops your body and and dampen your clothes. Though as the wind hits your skin you realized you bit off more than you can chew. Taking refuge under a small roof. You wait it out again, this time colder and now soaking wet from the rain. You contemplate on whether you should've just waited instead of running. You see a woman with a red umbrella. Her heels clacking against the sidewalk as she moves until she stops. She looks to you and says "Need some cover?" You immediately accept seeing that you are freezing and want to get home soon. The woman chuckles and says "Here let me." The woman takes off her beige trench coat and scarf and helps cover you. You see the woman wearing a silky black shirt, wearing black leather pants and red shades. Her short black hair and red lipstick tells you she's got that 'high life living' feeling from her or the over the top attitude 'prima donna vibe.' Her skin is smooth and consistent skin tone.

   Her voice is smooth and sophisticated. "You live far?" She says. You tell her where you live and says. "Convenient." She then walks with you to your apartment building. The woman stays quiet for the most part and you try to start a conversation. Everytime you try though she just answers in short burst and or silence. The tension of her wanting to be secret becomes so strong that the moment you make it to your apartment you sigh in relief. The woman looks to you and says, "Hmph am I too boring for you?" You look surprised and act like you were just glad to be home. Entering the building you don't see Barry at all. Seems like he went to bed early. The woman follows you in and asks you where room 305. The moment you hear those numbers you realize that it is Jill's Room. You tense up a little and act cool once she looks to you. You tell her that you know for a fact that it isn't occupied by anyone. Though as soon as you say so, the woman looks to you perturbed. "What do you mean?" You try to ask her why she's looking into the room and she just says "That's Classified." Immediately you get the sense that she is not normal. Quickly you hand her the clothes. And try to get to the computer to hide Jill's information. The lady holds the clothes and says "Listen you just need to lead me to the room and that'll be it." You quickly go to the computer and delete as much s you can whilst distracting the woman as she walks around looking for a hanger. Before she could turn around and you finish up. Barry comes back from the back and asks what you are doing. You try to act like it's normal for you to log in via the computer, and turn away from the woman and wink twice to Barry. Barry looks confused until you use your eyes and warn him of a suspicious person. He picks it up and plays along. "Ahh yes, my apologies." He chuckles "It seems time has made a fool of me again lass." You take the last remaining data and delete it as fast as you can. Once you finished, you then tell Barry about how Room 305 is vacant. He nods in agreement and says "Ay the Room is being fumigated and cleaned after someone committed suicide in it." You look horrified but you know that if it is extreme enough the person would go away. The woman looks determined and is insisting that she goes to the room. Though Barry manages to get her out by informing her of the safety precautions and other legal things.

   Once she leaves you thank Barry for getting her put of here. "Anytime lass. The last thing I need is anyones exes or psychos mess with my tenants." You giggle and say that you highly doubt that. Thankfully you get to the apartment and take your clothes off and turn the shower on. You help get rid of the freezing cold and feel refreshed. You change to your pajamas and get to bed. Laying there you think about the woman and her interest to Jill's Apartment. The more you think of what happened today the more your head hurts. Quite literally this entire day has been full of bad omens and more questions left unanswered. Nevertheless you close your eyes and try to sleep.

   Darkness envelopes you again. Deep within your slumber the voice comes back once again. "HoW lOnG wIlL yOu KeEp ThIs Up?" It swirls around you like a black infection. The voice has been showing itself a lot more recently and badgering you. You shout at the entity and tell it to shut up and leave you alone. It only laughs and gets louder to drown you out. You start to try to run away from it but they just follow you in this endless void of nothingness. The sound of puddles splashing as you run with every step. "Why are you running from me?" You stop to turn around to the familiar voice. Jill manifests behind you. Her face struck with fear. She gets entangled by black tentacles and slowly sinks into the floor. "HELP!" "HELP ME!" The sound of black booze consuming her and entering her mouth as she so desperately tries to stay afloat. You make your way back to her but cant seem to get her out. On the other side however, in the reflection. You see yourself. Covered in black ink and vines. The twisted version of you is pushing her down. Try as you might you only seem to be pushing her deeper. In a blink of an eye you see that you were never lifting her up, rather you were the one pushing her down. The horror in Jill's eyes stain you as you look upon her one last time.

       Thus ends Chapter 6: Under The Umbrella.