Resident Evil: Exodus - The Tale of Elza Walker

Interlude 3

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The sun was already halfway through its downward arc in the sky when a lone little girl appeared on Ennerdale Street in downtown Raccoon City. She walked steadily forward, pausing only to slink into the shadows if a zombie staggered across her path, then resolutely resuming her forward progress. She had either dodged or gone through many dangers to get where she was now, but she was almost there. She couldn't remember exactly how she had gotten there, but this was where her mother had told her to go. Now she was here.

It took a long time for someone to answer her repeated pounding on the front door of the new RPD station. She had been prepared to bolt at the first sign of a zombie answering the door. Instead, it was opened by a tall but portly man wearing brown trousers and a brown vest, with a gun holster under one arm and strapped across his chest like the kind a detective or undercover policeman normally wore under his coat. He bore a faint likeness to the late Chief Clemons in that he was heavyset and had a mustache, but there the likeness ended. Chief Clemons had started to bald, while this man still had a full head of hair. He looked both frightened and crazed at the same time, but his face instantly melted into a mask of almost parental concern once he saw Sherry. Only his eyes retained the look of someone who was not quite all there.

"Why, hello!" the man said pleasantly. "You must be little Sherry Birkin. Your mother called almost five days ago to tell us you were coming to stay with us. Where have you been all this time?"

"I ... I've been lost, I think," Sherry said, "and I've been wandering around, trying to find my way here." She suddenly frowned. "Five days? I must have lost count somehow."

"Did you have trouble with the zombies?"

"Lots," Sherry admitted. "My guards got killed, and I had to do a lot of hiding; but I'm here now, and I guess that's what matters. Where are Mom and Dad?"

The man smiled. "I'll be getting in touch with them as soon as I can, so they'll know you finally made it." There was something weird about his smile, but Sherry couldn't quite place it. "In the meantime, we've got the place all to ourselves. Everyone else is dead. The Outbreak, you know. You can run around all you want, if that's what you'd like to do."

"I just want to take a nap, Mister ...?"

"Irons. Brian Irons is my name, but you can call me Chief Irons. I'm the Chief of the Raccoon Police. Isn't that strange? I'm the chief, but there's no police. Not anymore." He laughed a strange, high-pitched laugh, then looked at Sherry again. That smile of his was beginning to look a bit ghoulish. "I've got a room just off of my office on the third floor," he said, "where you can sleep and not be disturbed. You'll have to pass through the room where I have all of my stuffed animals, though. I hope that doesn't scare you. I stuff animals as a hobby. Did you know that?"

"No, sir," Sherry said quickly. Something was trying to click in her mind, something she thought had once heard others say about this man, but she couldn't remember who it was, much less make the connection. She also didn't like the way Chief Irons was talking, and wanted to get away from him as fast as possible. "I'd like to go to sleep now, if I may."

"Why, certainly," Chief Irons said, "but we'll have to move quickly though my office. I've got a lady friend resting in peace in there. Mustn't be disturbed, and all that." He smiled broadly again, still with that strange light in his eyes, and held out an inviting hand. "Won't you come in?"

Sherry Birkin followed Chief Brian Irons into the new RPD station, and then the door closed behind them.