Resident Evil: Unloved [ENG]

Chapter 12

It took all the experience accumulated in Raccoon City to avoid running into unpleasant encounters along the way, passing through narrow alleys behind seemingly abandoned houses left in ruins.

Some even appeared to be still inhabited:

Rhonda was able to inform the other survivors, passing by one of them, that she had just heard a man laughing heartily inside....

Distorted laughter, almost like the kind you hear on the radio or telephone. This meant that there was nothing left for the inhabitants to do:

Most must have become like those nurses Vince had to deal with at the Hospital. All the more reason on Liz's part to let the other three comrades pass crouching, always taking advantage of the cover offered by the streets in the middle of the dwellings:

Passing in the middle of the street, in plain sight, was the same as wishing to be hit by one of those shooters, or devoured by the hideous four-legged figures that deliberately ambled by.

It seemed, however, that the winged monsters had gone elsewhere:

All the way through the small town, they did not hear a single flutter of wings from them.

Lucky for them, to be sure, especially when they heard, after a half-hour spent playing hide-and-seek, the faint roar of a stream just ahead:

They had found the river of which the old man spoke.

"By following this watercourse, we will be at the church in no time." Vince reassured them, observing the watercourse:

It appeared to divide the town in half and was several meters wide. Attempting to cross it on foot would have been dangerous, given the strength of the stream.

The only way would have been to use a bridge, but their concern was another:

Follow that stream until they reach the cemetery.

"All too easy... Just keep your eyes open, and it's done." Liz commented.

"I don't think we'll have to fear any sudden surprises." retorted Vince; "The old man said that monsters avoid waterways..."

"What are they? Vampires?" asked Rhonda.

"No, and neither are ghouls." replied JR; "Surely, they are something we have never seen."

"The herbivorous and carnivorous creatures of the Savannah are always in a state of alertness when they drink at the riverbank... there's likely to be something dangerous around here." added O'Connell, remembering a documentary she had once seen.

"Maybe they are afraid of getting wet?" asked Rhonda, continuing to walk along the river bank.

"The old man spoke of a Condemnation. Something that evokes fears." replied Archer, preceding her only a few feet.

"Whatever it is, we'd better get moving. I don't like being here at the mercy of those behemoths running around the county." Jonny retorted, standing behind them.

Then, the budding young cameraman noticed something on the surface of the water:

Something was causing that unusually murky water to bubble up, similar to what would be found in some swamp.

"I... would stay away from the water..." he muttered immediately afterward, as if the instinct of some primal fear had caught him off guard.

Fear became almost terror when he saw the water not only boiling...

But also turning black, as if so many microorganisms were covering in that spot. "There's something in the water!" he shouted immediately afterward, pointing his finger at that spot as if to defend himself...