Code Veronica - By S. D. Perry Page 0,16
the cocksure Steve would have left anyone standing if he had gone into the cabin, and she probably would have heard the shots...
... unless they got him first.
Claire didn't like it, but the grim reality of her situation was mat she couldn't afford to waste the ammo to find out. She'd follow the path, see where that led and if she couldn't find him then, he was on his own. She wanted to do the right thing, but she also felt pretty strongly about saving her own ass; she had to get back to Paris, to Chris and the others, which she certainly couldn't do if she blew her ammo and ended up being someone's lunch. She moved back along the porch, all of her senses on high as she neared the end of the building. She hadn't forgotten about the zombie dog or dogs, and listened for the patter of claws against dirt, for the heavy panting that she remembered from her previous experience in Raccoon. The damp, chill night was quiet, a shivering breeze sweeping lightly through the yard, the only breathing she heard her own. A quick glance around the corner of the cabin; noth-ing, only a man's body lying half in and half out of the building's crawl space, some five meters away. Another ten past that and the path turned right again, much to Claire's relief - she'd seen that leg of the trail through the locked gate, and it had been empty then.
So he must have gone through that door, the one on the west wall... It was also a relief to know something, to know anything certain when it came to Umbrella. She started down the path, thinking about what it would take to convince the macho teen to stay with her. Maybe if she told him about Raccoon, explained that she'd had some practice with Umbrella disasters... Claire was just about to step over the lone corpse's upper body when it moved. She jumped back, her semi pointed at the man's bloody head, her heart hammering - and she realized that he was dead, that someone or something in the shadows of the crawl space was pulling him inside by his legs, a strong and steady series of jerks...
... like a dog backing up with something heavy in its jaws.
She didn't think anything after that, instinctively leap - ing over the dead man and sprinting away, aware that the dog - if that's what it was - wouldn't be preoccupied for - ever. The realization that it had been less than a meter away lent her speed as she took the corner, her boots slap - ping against the wet, hard packed earth, her arms pump - ing. Zombies were slow, uncoordinated; the dogs that both she and Leon had run across were vicious and lightning quick. Even armed, she wasn't interested in facing off with one of them, a single bite and she'd be infected, too. Arrroooooo! The gurgling howl came from farther away than the crawl space, from somewhere back in the front part of the yard. Shit, how many... Didn't matter, she was almost there, her salvation ahead on the left. Not daring to look back, she didn't slow down a step until she reached the door, grabbed the handle and shoved. It opened easily, and since she didn't see anything with teeth directly in front of her, she jumped in and slammed the door be - hind her...... only to hear the multiple wails of zombies, to smell the feverish rot of the dying virus carriers even as some - thing crashed into the door at her back and began to claw at it, growling like some feral monster. How many dogs, how many zombies? The thought flashed through her panicked mind, the need to conserve ammo deeply ingrained after Raccoon, and what if I'm about to hit a dead end? She almost turned back in spite of the risk, until she saw where the zombies were. The passage she'd entered was thick with gloom, but she could see several stumbling men locked in a caged area to her left, all of them pretty far gone. One of them was beating on the mesh door, its nearly skeletal hands hanging with ribbons of damaged tissue, oblivious to the pain of its disintegrating body.
Must be the kennel...
Claire took a few steps farther in, focusing worriedly on the simple and somewhat flimsy lock holding the door