R.P.D. hide and seek

Leon ran like hell to get back to the west wing. At full speed he was able to outrun Mr.X, however, he would be tired and get slow, while the enemy would not. What’s worse, the west hallway was infested with lickers now. Had he moved too fast, the lickers would hear him and start to feast on him. Had he moved too slow, Mr.X would catch up and smash him into pieces. He could even hear the footsteps slowly approaching.

The door of the hallway was punched open and all the lickers in the area were attracted to the sound. He knew that was Mr.X. However, contrary to what he hoped, the lickers didn’t even attempt to slice it, but obediently moved to the side for it to come through.

What the hell? They considered it as one of their own? The moment Leon came to this realization, he started to run. The lickers behind him, hearing the clicking sounds from the floor, screamed and dashed at him.

Standing in front of the records room, which had the only club-signed door he knew, Leon threw a flash grenade at the hallway and covered his eyes. Upon its detonation, a large flash of white light and a loud, piercing sound were created, while all the lickers within the blast radius were stunned.

The footsteps in the hallway stopped, too, which brought him enough time to unlock the club door and hid inside. He immediately noticed the mechanic jack handle on the desk, along with a hand grenade.

“Thank God it’s here.” He joyfully picked up the handle and played with it in his hand.

What responded his praise was the sudden intrusion of Mr.X. Almost got a heart attack, Leon threw the grenade in panic. The explosion caused the records shelf to collapse on Mr.X and immobilized it. Multiple lickers also swarmed into the room to check out the loud noise, which gave him a perfect chance to sneak away.

After escaping the room, he locked the club door behind him. However, he got no time to rest as Mr.X, already recovered from the explosion, easily crushed the wall with its fist. Terrified, he kept running through the hallway and hid inside the dark-room, again.

Funny that Mr.X didn't try to break in here. Leon could hear its footsteps outside, circling around before leaving. He wondered why, but there's no time for him to find out. I've got enough puzzles, he thought.

Through the hallway of the second floor he managed to get in the library. He lowered the bookshelf with the handle, and formed a platform on the third floor by aligning them. But before he could climb up the ladder, Mr.X charged into the room and immediately targeted him.

"Give me a break!" Frustrated, he fired the shotgun and the shell blasted right on it's face. There was no sign of visible damage, yet Mr.X was stunned and knelt on the floor.

Leon quickly climbed up and rushed all the way into the clock tower. There, he found the spare electric part in a box, which could perfectly fit in the panel in the jail. He breathed a sigh of relief when he finally made a significant progress.

Yet, when he was about to leave, he heard the horrific footsteps just outside. Instinctively he rolled to the side, happened to dodge the powerful punch from Mr.X that destroyed the door.

"Jesus Christ..." He barely got up and distanced himself from Mr.X before it smashed on the floor.

Luckily, there was enough room in the clock tower for him to evade its attacks and managed to escape. He straight up ran to the other side of the hallway, unlocked the door to the east storage room and dashed all the way back to the parking garage.

He wheezed heavily while holding his ankles. The long run was making him exhausted, but at least there was only one step away from leaving this hell.

He returned to the jail to fix the panel. Ben's headless corpse was still lying in the cell, which confirmed that the infected wouldn't turn if they were decapitated.

After rerouting the power, he lowered the glass and attained the parking garage key card, along with a bloodstained memo and a recorder on the bed.

The writing on the memo was a scrawl. The memo revealed the knowledge Ben had on, not only the vampires infesting the city, but also an ultimate bioweapon, with the codename “Tyrant”, developed by whoever behind this incident. Ben believed that they’ve ordered this “Tyrant” to wipe out the witnesses. Surviving the previous encounters, Leon found it hard to not connect Mr.X with this “Tyrant”.

Confirming the existence of a killing machine was worrying enough, however, after he pressed the play button on the recorder, the content of the recording was far more disturbing.

That doesn't explain the rumors about the orphanage. I-I just find it way too coincidental Umbrella's one of the benefactors. That was Ben talking.

You told me this interview was about the new scholarship Umbrella set up. A mature but a bit anxious female voice came in.

Come on, Annette. Nobody cares about this. They want to know about the G-Virus, and the-

Where did you hear about this? The female, Annette, asked with anger.

And the rumors that vampires are real and they are actually lurking under the city, to be more precisely, in your underground lab. So Ben knew all of this before it happened.

This interview is over.

_Bitch. _The recording ended with Ben cursing.

So there were rumors about the vampires days earlier. Leon thought confusedly, as both Jacob and Marvin told him that everything went wrong just tonight. The infection must’ve been spreading for a few days now, just nobody believed it would be a citywide disaster, or someone has been covering it up until they couldn’t anymore.

This must be what Ada wanted, the information about the corruption behind the city. It must be delivered to her. Leon grabbed the recorder, hoping that would be enough for Ada’s investigation, and left. However, the trembling footsteps once again triggered the fear in him.

Mr.X was standing in the corridor, blocking his only way out. Leon checked his surroundings while the unstoppable Mr.X came towards him to finish its job, and he found a handle that could open the east corridor. By going that way, he outran Mr.X and safely returned to the parking garage.

Just when Leon was planning his next move, Mr.X crushed the wall and stood right in front of him. Without any time to react, he was lifted up by the Tyrant and was being choked. With the growing pressure on his throat, he could almost feel his soul leaving the body.

It was at this moment a SWAT van turned on its headlights, attracting their attention. The van accelerated and crushed Mr.X into the wall, and saved Leon in the process. Leon, still laying on the ground, coughed badly for the suffocation, while the lady elegantly stepped off the driver seat in her high heels.

“Ada?!” Leon was pleasantly surprised.

“This is getting old...” Ada walked away from the van, not before annoyingly pointing at the pathetic cop on the ground, “Saving your ass. That’s twice.”

“I didn’t realize you were keeping score.” Leon swiftly got up and followed her.

“Look, this isn’t a game!” Ada exclaimed impatiently. But before she could add something, Mr.X has recovered from the crush and started to move the van.

“You gotta be kidding me.” Leon pulled out his gun, though he knew it wouldn’t help.

“Nothing dies down here.” Ada shook her head and pressed the button, detonating the explosives behind the van. Fortunate for them, Mr.X went completely silent in the flame. Leon was shocked but also happy to see his nightmare end.

“I take it you have the key card?”

“Yeah, and this...” He threw the recorder at her, which she caught, “I was hoping you could explain what’s on it.”

“Maybe...After I hear it.” She nodded, with an imperceptible smile on her face, “Let’s get out of here.”

Leon took a deep breath and, after inserting the key card into the panel, successfully opened the gate. The path to leave the station was right in front of him. While praying for Claire and Sherry’s safety, he followed Ada into the never-ending rain.