Chapter 35
When Jill made it back to the other production room, she found Carlos on the floor, cradling himself in pain. He looked up in disbelief when he saw Jill limp through the door and tried to sit up, but he was wracked with pain and returned to the fetal position. Jill limped over to him and then slumped to the floor.
“Are you ... are you okay?” he gasped, eyes flicking back to the doors. “What happened? Where is ... that thing?”
“It’s dead,” Jill sighed. “At least I think it is.”
“Well, that’s good news,” Carlos said with a chuckle.
“How about you?” Jill asked.
“I think ... I think I have some broken ribs.”
“I guess you got lucky, then.”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“You want to get out of here?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
Jill helped Carlos to his feet, but he was doubled over in pain. Jill’s leg was throbbing in pain as well and felt like it was swollen, so she couldn’t help him walk. They went down the hallway, each of them barely able to move at all. Carlos gripped his midsection and gritted his teeth, trying to avoid any sudden movements, to keep any broken ribs from puncturing his vital organs. Jill walked with one leg, leaning against the wall to stay upright. She couldn’t move her leg at the knee anymore.
They went down a rear hallway lined with trash bins, and exited the building to discover an inner courtyard between two sections of the building, leading out to the street. And sitting in the middle of the yard was a small black helicopter, with room for two.
Carlos smiled weakly, his forehead covered in a sheen of sweat. “I don’t think I can believe we’re gonna get out of here,” he said.
“Do you know how to fly that thing?” Jill asked.
“Yeah,” Carlos said with a shrug. “I guess I do.”
“You guess?”
“Do you know how to fly one?”
“No,” Jill said.
“Well, I know more than you do, so I guess I’ll have to fly it.”
“Sounds good to me.”
When the helicopter was airborne, Jill leaned against the door and pressed her forehead against the plexiglass, breathing her final sigh of relief. The city dwindled below them, and Carlos flew the helicopter south at Jill’s suggestion.
They hovered over burned out buildings, massive traffic jams, and crowds of the undead meandering in huge mobs throughout the downtown area. Thousands upon thousands of zombies congregated there, although Jill knew she would never learn why.
Everyone she knew in Raccoon City was now dead. Except for Chris and Rebecca, the other two members of the S.T.A.R.S. units. But everyone else, her neighbors, her friends, her coworkers, the people who changed the oil in her car, the people who bagged her groceries, the people she talked to at the bank. They were all dead, the entire city was one huge morgue. She looked down on the crowds of zombies, unable to even feel any sympathy for them. She was just too tired, too weak, and too wounded to summon any feelings for the thousands of victims of the infection.
She survived, somehow, but she was one of only a few. How many others made it out? A few hundred? Hunk, the Umbrella soldier, had told her that less than two hundred people survived.
What would happen next? People would find out about this, but what would happen when they did? How could anyone process suffering and horror on this level? How could anyone understand an atrocity on this scale? Jill had lived through it, and even she had trouble comprehending it all.
“Jill?” Carlos asked.
“Yeah?”
“So what do we do next? Once we get out of here, I mean?”
“I have no idea.”
“You know that Umbrella is gonna find us, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“They probably got troops surrounding the whole city. I mean, they have to maintain a perimeter, right? To make sure none of the zombies get out. So somebody is gonna see us try to fly away, and they aren’t gonna let us.”
“Are you saying they’re going to shoot us down?”
“No, I don’t think so. If we try to escape them, they probably will. They can’t risk anyone that’s infected to leave the city, right?”
“No, they can’t.”
“So what do you want to do when they find us?”
Jill shook her head and looked back out the window. “Just tell them the truth, I guess.”
The helicopter continued on its course, passing over abandoned neighborhoods and more deserted residential areas. Soon, they were passing over more spread out areas, as the city gave way to wilderness. Carlos tilted the stick up as they approached the edge of the Arklay Mountains.
Jill cast one last, sorrowful glance back at the city. In silence, they left Raccoon City behind. It would be the last time Jill would ever see it.