The Umbrella Conspiracy - By S. D. Perry Page 0,21

doors, rattling handles and pushing at the heavy wood frames. All were securely locked.

But Chris had to have gone through one of them, there's nowhere else he could have gone.

It didn't make sense, and short of breaking the doors down, there was nothing they could do about it.

We should report this to Wesker, Jill said, and Barry nodded agreement. If they'd stumbled into the hiding place of the killers, they were going to need a plan of attack.

They ran back through the dining room, the stale air a relief after the corridor's reek of blood and decay. They reached the door back to the main hall and hurried through, Barry wondering what the captain would make of all this. It was downright.

Barry stopped short, searching the elegant, empty hall and feeling like the butt of some practical joke that simply wasn't funny.

Wesker was gone.
Chapter Six
Wesker! barry shouted, his deep voice echoing through the chilly room. Captain Wesker!

He jogged toward a row of arches at the back of the hall, calling to Jill over his shoulder as he ran. Don't leave the room!

Jill walked to the stairs, feeling almost dizzy. First Chris, now the captain. They hadn't been gone five minutes and he'd said he was going to stay put. Why would he have left? She looked around for signs of a struggle, a spent cartridge, a spot of blood - there was nothing to indicate what might have happened.

Barry appeared on the other side of the giant staircase, shaking his head and walking slowly to join her. Jill bit her lower lip, frowning.

You think Wesker ran into one of those-things? she asked.

Barry sighed. I don't think the RPD showed and snuck him out. Though if he did run into trouble, we would have heard the shots.

Not necessarily. He could have been ambushed, dragged away...

They stood silently for a moment, thinking. Jill was still a bit shaken from the face-to-face with the walking corpse, but thought she'd accepted the facts pretty well; the woods bordering Raccoon City had become infested with zombies.

After a lifetime of reading trashy novels about serial killers, is a cannibal zombie so hard to swallow?

Somehow it wasn't, and neither were the murderous dogs or the secretly kept estate. There was no question that it all existed. The question was, why? Did the mansion have anything to do with the murders, or had the zombies simply overrun it like they'd overrun Raccoon Forest?

And was that creature the last thing Becky and Pris saw?

She rejected that thought almost violently; thinking about the girls now would be a mistake.

So do we go looking or do we wait? Jill said finally.

Go looking. Ken made it here. The rest of the Bravos could be somewhere in this house. It'd be easy enough to get lost. Chris...

He half-smiled, though Jill could see the worry in his eyes. Chris and Wesker got-side-tracked, but we'll find them. It'd take more than a couple of walking stiffs to cause either of them any grief.

He reached into a pocket in his vest and pulled out something wrapped in a handkerchief, handing it to her. She felt the thin metal objects beneath the light fabric and recognized them instantly.

It's the set you gave me to practice with last month, he said. I figure you'll have better luck with them.

Jill nodded, tucking the lockpicks into her hip pouch. Barry had taken an interest in her former career and she'd given him a few pieces from her old set, several picks and torsion bars. They could come in handy. The small bundle settled on top of something hard and smooth-Trent's computer! In all the excitement, she'd totally forgotten about her strange encounter in the locker room. She opened her mouth to tell Barry, then shut it, remembering Trent's cryptic warning.

I wouldn't mention this conversation to anyone.

Screw that. She'd almost risked it anyway with Chris.

And where is Chris now? Who's to say that Trent's dire consequences haven't already occurred?

Jill realized what she was thinking and had to fight off an urge to laugh at herself. What had happened with Trent probably wasn't even relevant to their predicament, and whether or not she could trust Barry, she knew she didn't trust Trent - still, she decided not to say anything about it, at least until she had a chance to see what the computer held.

I think we should split up, Barry continued.

I know it's dangerous, but we need to cover a lot of ground. We find anybody, we meet back here, use