Burning Up

Into the Fire

The area directly surrounding the quarantine zone appeared dead empty.

Alice slowed to a crawl. Further down the curve of the road, there was a tall chain link fence topped with barbed wire. A pair of security cameras were set up on poles on either side of its gate. Past the fence, there were three decent-sized tents with Umbrella logos plastered on, and a wall not unlike the one that was set up around Raccoon City.

She pulled off the road and behind the large sign welcoming people to the city. When she got out of the car and went around to the trunk, Rain followed after, finding her taking out the sniper rifle that she apparently "stole off some guy at a Wisconsin facility". She raised it and peered through the scope. "That tent on the far end must be where they have all their surveillance stuff."

Rain didn't need to be given the scope to know that. She could clearly make out the wires running along the ground despite the distance.

"I can disable the cameras and get both gates open for us," Alice held the rifle out to her, "if you can cover me. And drive the car through."

That sounded easy enough to Rain. She accepted the weapon, shouldering its two-point sling. She made use of the tactical belt from her old uniform, slipping a Glock and a few magazines into it while Alice equipped her own weapons and pulled her bandana up over her face.

Once they were both ready, she started setting off in the direction of the gate. Rain got busy giving herself a decent vantage point by climbing up the supporting beams on the back of the city sign, perching herself at the top of it. She made sure to hook one of her legs securely around the light shining down over its front, and the other onto one of those support beams to not risk falling off. It was far from an ideal position for shooting, especially for this type of firearm, but she was confident in her ability to maintain the position. By the time she was situated, Alice was already over at the gate and was working on the lock. The cameras were busted.

...It was funny. Although Alice had a silencer equipped, Rain figured she still ought to have heard the faint sound of her shooting them. Maybe she wasn't paying enough attention. Too focused on not breaking any bones. Climbing things wasn't exactly her area of expertise, after all. It was guns. She shifted the rifle to her front and stood by.

When the lock was successfully picked, Alice extended an arm in her direction, keeping her hand raised, fingers extended, and joined together. She was asking if Rain was ready.

Rain couldn't help but raise a curious eyebrow. She found it interesting that Alice chose to use a military hand signal rather than... say, a simple thumbs-up. There was no reason for a former security officer to know those. But hey, it wasn't as if Rain was privy to any careers Alice might've had before that... Hell, she didn't even know how old Alice was exactly. Rain figured she was maybe two or three years older than her, but she didn't know for certain.

That was pretty strange, actually. Rain felt close to Alice. She definitely knew a lot of things about her—even small things you'd only pick up on by paying close attention to another person—so why were big, basic things like her damn age not included in there?

Rain shook her head a little. She could ask later. She returned the hand signal.

Alice cracked the gate open and stepped on through, unsheathing her baton as she approached the surveillance tent. Just as she reached the entrance, a guard attempted to come out, likely to see what was wrong with the gate cameras. Not wasting a second, Alice swung her weapon at the visor of his helmet, shattering it and sending him stumbling back into the tent. She promptly forced her way in.

It didn't take long before the commotion began to draw guards out of the adjacent tents. Rain moved her pointer finger from the trigger guard to the trigger itself, aiming straight at the first guy's chest before pulling it. He hit the ground. She quickly brought the bolt handle back with practiced ease, ejecting the empty casing before firing again and dropping the next person. She repeated this process nine more times until all the dark-suited Umbrella personnel were motionless.