The 0714 Files: File #1 Inferno (Remake 2)

Chapter 2

I got my things together and left quickly. I suppose that's rather easy though when the thing I need most is my apartment key. Besides the cab fare money in my wallet, the fake ID inside from Umbrella is mostly useless. My car and parking garage card were left at home as I decided to walk to work today, like an imbecile I feel now.

Rita stormed from Raymond's office in a huff not long after Raymond's phone rang. Her arms were crossed and her face carried a terse look before telling me to be safe on the way home as I made my way to the side office. The others were concerned themselves when I popped in long enough to assure Marvin I'd be in early and would finish the report. They were talking quietly; Raymond was off the phone now. Telling them something about how Irons is now ordering a disbursement of ammo throughout the station to avoid... "terrorism."

I couldn't figure out what he meant by that if I tried.

My apartment's a block or two away thankfully. Conveniently close to the station, a few blocks away is a small park too. As I begin my short walk though, I begin regretting not taking my car this morning. Goosebumps prick on my back and arms. Something is not right in this city. Going home tonight does not feel as safe as this morning when I walked in.

I stay alert with a hand hovering over my gun the entire walk. Only moving it away upon entering the apartment building's lobby. Barely dodging a family barging through the door, watching as they run down the street, luggage and kids in tow. Where they load their car upon reaching it in a frenzy, before climbing in and flooring it out of sight.

I enter the building, observing how the white walls and mosaic tiled floor are dusty and flecked with dirt. PO boxes are locked up to my right while a wilting, potted fern sits on the main desk.

The front door shuts then and I nod at my landlord, Adam, standing by an open door to his office. He nods back and goes into his room at the sound of a phone ringing. He's in his early forties, with curly brown hair, and a short beard. A smile is generally on his always tired face. When I'd first moved in, he'd told me as he gave me the keys and showed me the apartment about how he'd moved here from Glasgow with his family as a child. How they'd had no money, but through hard work when he got older, he'd planted his feet into real estate and eventually bought the current building I'm living in. The only thing he'd not been able to learn though, he'd joked, is how to speak with an English accent.

It was a story I was impressed to hear, even if from an overtly bubbly stranger I'd just met. I felt distant though as I in turn lied to him how I was moving into town from somewhere out west. Having found employment through S.T.A.R.S. after getting kicked out of the army at twenty. "Too stubborn for them, huh?" he'd asked in a thick Scottish accent before laughing as I told it.

I'd smiled, finding the comment was true in some way. Just not towards what he believed, "Yeah, I guess so."

He isn't the type to hang out by the door like that though. And that family was fleeing too, what's going on?

I head for the stairwell as he returns, "Patricia," Adam announces, I was bracing for it. Stopping just before I'm out of sight and gritting my teeth. Two months after receiving that name and hearing it over and over. I've come to loathe it. Along with another name Umbrella assigned me... "I received a notice there's an evacuation of this area, lass. The building has to be emptied as soon as possible."

My annoyance at the fake name is forgotten then. Holy shit... It's only been a half hour at most since I clocked out for the night. What's happened since then?

Another person might've asked what should they do with their belongings. With the livelihood they're being ordered to practically abandon. I was already going to abandon what little I own tomorrow anyways; the concern just isn't there. And though he seems perplexed, like he expected more to be said from me. My only response is, "Thank you for telling me." Then I'm ducking away, a heavy knot having appeared in my stomach.