Chapter 30
She was close, the prey was close. The creature could not smell her or detect her, but somehow it knew. It could feel her presence nearby, like a heat-seeking missile homing in on its target.
The creature loped down the pitch black corridor, in a long-abandoned underground maintenance tunnel beneath the streets of Raccoon City. It ran with two legs and one arm in a lopsided gait, its whole torso twisted, its other arm like a massive growth on the side of its body. Its fingers ended in claws like massive razor blades. A shining, blinking eyeball decorated its upper arm, the vertical pupil dilated. Filthy tatters of clothing hung on its body, the remains of a white lab coat and black trousers.
The creature was not complete. It was still growing, still evolving. The G-virus coursing through its veins was still mutating and changing its monstrous body, continually altering his DNA to suit its needs. The creature would continue to grow and mutate as time went on, becoming less and less like the human being it had once been.
Sensing a change in the tunnel ahead, the creature stopped and swung its bestial head to the left and right, streams of saliva dripping from its open mouth. There was a stairway ahead, leading up to a building on the surface. An old building, one that connected to these old tunnels.
With a growl and a lurch of its massive body, the creature ran down the corridor and to the stairs, jumping up them several at a time, its claws digging into the crumbling walls as it climbed.
An old, rusted metal door was at the top of the stairs. The creature did not slow down, it slammed right into the door, ripping it from its frame with a screech of metal. It crashed into a dark, empty room lined with dust and grime. Lifting its head as if smelling the foul air, the creature felt its prey nearby. She was just ahead, it could almost smell her now.
With a roar, the creature flung itself at the wall of the tiny room, smashing through with ease. The wall was not an original part of the building’s basement, it was cheaply made from boards of wood and drywall, built decades ago. It crumbled like sheets of styrofoam. The creature broke through to another room, but this one was illuminated by a few tiny yellow light bulbs. Crowded shelves of machinery and car parts were along the walls. The floor was slimy with oil and clumps of old sawdust.
The creature crashed through the room and out into the main garage area underneath the Raccoon City police station. The large parking area was home to a few police cars, some of which were in for repairs, their hoods raised and tires lifted up on jacks. The parking area and garage led to a ramp at the other end of the room, which headed up to a street behind the police station. Right now, huge metal doors were lowered across the ramp, blocking the entrance to keep out the hordes of undead in the streets.
It would not be long now. The embryo growing inside the creature would soon be implanted into the prey, the female with shared genetic material. Since the G-virus bonded with the host’s DNA, it needed another host with the same DNA, and there was only one such host. And she was close now, so close.
It would not be long now.