City Of The Dead By S.D. Perry
City Of The Damned
Chased out of Raccoon City, the remaining members of the S.T.A.R.S. unit, Chris, Jill, and Barry have found their homes trashed after the incident at the Spencer Mansion. Umbrella Corporation, looking to cover up the accident at their underground labs that turned employees into the undead, the pharmaceutical company that owned much of Raccoon City instead pinned the incident on the local police department and then had driven them underground in the third installment of the Resident Evil novels City Of The Dead, by S.D. Perry.
Unable to make contact with anyone about what was happening in fear of putting them in danger, each member had taken what they could from their homes, lied or ignored their families and quietly slipped away hoping to formulate a plan to take down Umbrella from the shadows when they least suspected.
After the mansion incident, the containment of the monsters created in the bio-weapons division had spilled into the general population and the now nearly everyone had been turned or was being hunted by carnivorous populace.
In response to no S.T.A.R.S., Chief Brian Irons, recently off the Umbrella payroll, had put up a good front for the public hiring in several new police officers; all the while knowing that it would do no good for what was left of Raccoon City.
In only a month, it had fallen.
There was no way to fight the Umbrella Corporation as the pharmaceutical conglomerate ran every business in town and by way of bribes owned the media and police department. Although a few local reporters were on to the scoop about the police chief being in the pocket of Umbrella, it was no use as they couldn't actually run the story. Not that there was a readership even left as within a months time, most of the population had either become the walking dead or food for the horde.
Reporting For Duty
First official day on the job, and it wasn't going so well for Leon Kennedy.
First the rookie officer was running horribly late getting to the station before roll call as he had lost track of time and then decided to get a burger on the way into town after unpacking some of his new apartment.
He had been to the station a few times for interviews and knew he had less then an hour to arrive but with evening traffic at a mysterious lull, the amount of people walking on the roads seemed to slow Leon down.
For awhile he saw no one, then a couple waddling as if they were drunk. Then another few people shuffling.
Suddenly he noticed someone down in the road in front of him, and slammed on the brakes of the jeep only to realize as he had stepped out the woman seemed to have already been killed by someone or something.
As he investigated further, she seemed to have been gnawed upon.
The shuffling people worked closer and Leon could see the state of their clothing and bloodless faces. Some were missing part of their flesh, some of their limbs.
Jumping back into the jeep he scrambled up the road until he reached a dinner where he came across the first living person he had seen in some time, a young woman that had come to town to find her brother, a S.T.A.R.S. member that had been out of touch for the last month and wasn't responding to her calls.
Not sure what they were experiencing, Leon and Claire, grabbed a police car and headed off towards the station only to be separated by an accident. Sending her ahead to what seemed like safety even though most of the police force seemed to be pacing before it reaching their bloodied hands towards the two, Leon went on the lookout for survivors and supplies as Claire hurried inside.
Sherry hoped her parents were still alive. Her mother had sent her ahead to the police station after a phone call from the lab. Sherry had waited but they never arrived for her. The people that were here though had mostly died in the first two days, unable to keep away from the monsters that attacked, or killed themselves to keep from seeing it all. Able to stuff herself into a vent shaft, the girl waited for some sort of salvation.
A Spy
It was easy enough to play the role as she had done a million times before.
The money would be worth it.
Ada Wong had everything she needed for the mission supplied before today. Her key ring was filled with the solution to all the door locks at the police station, she had the tools she needed to get into the sewer system to make her way to the Umbrella labs.
The only thing she didn't have was the information from the reporter that was looking to out Irons and Umbrella.
Ada had briefly dated a man at Umbrella long enough to learn log in and some intel and she used this guise as a girlfriend looking for a man long lost in the chaos.
It was easy enough.
Ada hadn't planned for the rookie cop with the beautiful eyes and charming smile that was just too friendly. He just wanted to help.
He saw her as a damsel in distress no matter how assertive she was in her role and he bought her story hook line and sinker about trying to find a boyfriend.
That hadn't been enough to keep Leon off her case, but she felt a little afraid of the monsters so a little brawn could go a long way.
Chief Irons knew that Umbrella was after him. They had sent that spy, that girl to watch him. He wasn't going down like this. So he waiting in his office for them to smoke him out with the remains of the last person that was dumb enough to put their trust in him, the mayors daughter. She didn't look much different after the color left her face and he had pushed her intestines back inside. She would clean up nicely and be the gem of the taxidermist collection he had amassed in the police station
Something Worse
Zombies were one thing, Sherry had told Claire, but there were things far worse, those inside out people for one that they called the Lickers. There was also the hulking behemoth that Sherry kept running from, fortunately escaping every time into the vents before he could swing at her.
He was something called a Tyrant, something her parents had worked on.
Sherry was dismayed that her parents had worked on monsters as their research and here it was destroying all that she loved.
There was something else that lurked, one side of the body, still a man the other something else with extra eyeballs and an over-sized arm that reached for her in the darkness.
Whatever that was, she and Claire did her best to keep away from.
The Final Escape
Just as the other installments in the fictional series, City Of The Dead stays very close to the source material of the famous video game playing some scene word for word.
The separate quests of Ada, Leon, Claire, and what is left of the S.T.A.R.S. team play out in the same time, which coincidentally just as the source material- the next book will as well with Jill's attempts to leave Raccoon City before it is nuked.
Those familiar to the games and franchise will love the novelization done in a manner that doesn't feel like the rehashing of something fans have embedded in their heads already from hours of screen time and it feels fresh enough for those not already engaged in the series to have a sense of what is going on.
