March on the orphanage

The man who kidnapped Sherry warned Claire that she would need to trade the pendant she was holding for Sherry's safety. With fury burning inside her, Claire hurries to the orphanage the man told her about. She would make him pay.

Chapter 6 - Howls Of The “G”

Claire and Sam walked on the street quietly. All that they could hear was the rain. They wanted to follow the main street to get to the orphanage, however, they soon noticed that the road before them was under repair. Sam was quite familiar with this area and rerouted by going through the alley beside the gun shop. But, with the hope of finding some ammo, Claire suggested that they took a look at the shop first.

“Looks like it’s been ransacked.” The door wasn’t locked so Claire walked inside freely. There was actually nothing left in the shop but empty boxes. The shopkeeper was nowhere to be seen, too.

“Hey, Claire, look what I found!” Sam excitedly pointed something at the corner of the room, not long before running towards it.

Claire looked at the thing that Sam just picked up, and noticed that it was a modified crossbow. It could fire three bolt at a time and deal significant damage in close range.

“Most people would like to use rifles to hunt these days...” Claire was surprised at the shopkeeper’s taste for weapons.

“A friend of mine used to take us to the Arklay mountains to hunt on vacations. I actually have learned to use one of these back then.” Sam grabbed the bolts scattered on the ground and tried hard to draw the bow gun, “Um...Yes! Got it!”

“Well, I’m counting on you now, Sam.” Claire smiled.

“I won’t let you down, Claire.”

Minutes later the girls returned to the street and got around the shop by going through the alley. They climbed up the stairs and immediately got a better view. The Umbrella pharmaceutical factory was standing silently in the northwest, while the orphanage was shining brightly in the north. The only obstacle between the orphanage and them, was a basketball court infested with infected dogs.

The good news was, Claire found a handful of spare gunpowder in the gun shop and crafted several acid rounds. A direct hit was enough to completely melt down a vampire dog. She fired outside the court to eliminate the dogs one by one, and finally cleared the path for them to get into the front yard of the orphanage.

This was supposed to be a playground for the kids, yet, the three empty graveyards at the side of the building gave Claire bad feelings. According to Sam, the orphanage was closed a few days ago, and the children were transported to somewhere else, presumably another Umbrella facility.

They went in the building from the front door. Lights were blazing in every room but it was dead silent.

“Hello? I have the pendant!” Claire tried to call that bastard but got no answer.

She randomly picked up a book on the table and realized that it was a diary of one of the children. The content was disturbing as it implied that the teachers and doctors in the orphanage were conducting **** experiments on the children here. Sam gasped in horror after she read that too.

“Oh, my god...Steph...Did she tell me to leave the city because she found out about this?” Sam quivered at the thought of what her sister had been into, “Is Umbrella...behind this incident?”

“We don’t know that yet. But surely they’ve been up to something. Come on, let’s keep going.” Claire was upset to this, too. But her priority was to find Sherry and she couldn’t afford to spend her time on exposing the secrets of a big company now.

They decided to search the first floor first, and went into the corridor that could lead them to the director’s room. Claire was holding the submachine gun and carefully walking through the corridor, while Sam was guarding the rear. At the next corner, Claire was jumped by chief Irons.

“Ah!” Both girls screamed at the same time.

Irons grabbed Claire’s shoulder tightly, however, with the left half of his face melted down he groaned painfully. Fearing that Claire might get hurt, Sam immediately aimed at the man with the bow gun. Suddenly, Irons opened his red right eye and stared at Sam, instantly paralyzed her with a mind controlling blast. Sam was trying her best to fight it, but slowly the bow gun was pointing towards Claire.

“Oh god...” Claire fired the submachine gun the moment she realized that he was turned. But with her hands being held down, she couldn’t shoot his head, and the firepower was not enough to push him away.

“Your fault!” Irons gritted his fangs and tried to approach her neck, “Took too long! Now, I’m...going to...”

“What...happened...” Claire kept struggling but it was mostly in vain.

Just when Claire was about to be bitten, Irons was struck with an intense pain. He screamed and backed off, kneeling down on the floor while scratching his chest with his claw-like hands. Sam broke free from the mind control, however, she dropped the bow gun due to the sudden numbness of her hands.

“Damn you, William! AH!” Irons cried in pain.

A giant, fanged and tentacled parasite burst out his chest and howled piercingly. Claire was still shocked at the scene, while the parasite jumped out of the corpse of Irons and charged towards Sam behind her. Sam was bending down and tried to pick up the bow gun, when she saw a horrific monster jumped on her.

“Ahhh!” Sitting on the floor in panic, Sam swung the cutter knife at the parasite, and fortunately hit it, leaving a deep cut on its head.

Before Claire could shoot at it, the monster quickly ran away and disappeared around the corner. She minded the surroundings more than ever, and walked towards Sam to help her up.

“What...what the hell is that thing!” Sam nearly fell down again when Claire let go her hand, as she has not recovered from the horror yet.

“That bastard said ‘William’...I don’t know who that was.” Claire checked the corner and couldn’t find any trace of that monster, “Let’s be more careful.”

“Right...” Sam slowly went ahead with the bow gun.

After Sam safely walking past him, Irons woke up just in time and grabbed Claire’s leg. She knew that vampires wouldn’t die easily with their head intact, but Irons being “alive” with a big hole on his chest still made her feel shocked. However, she’s more prepared this time so she managed to shake him off before he could bite her leg. However, she accidentally kicked on the broken bookshelf next to them, and it collapsed and buried Irons.

“Fuck...” Claire pulled out the grenade launcher and loaded an acid round. Vampire or not, she would kill this bastard here, once and for all. Had the bookshelf protected him, she would have done that by now.

“Claire, I’ll help you!” Sam aimed at the man with the bow gun.

“No! Sam, you go ahead and find Sherry! Leave him to me.” Claire was not playing the hero here. She’s immune to the vampire’s mind control ability, but if Sam stayed here, there was a possibility that she would once again fall to Irons’ gaze. Things would get worse if it ever came to that.

“But...I can’t leave you behind!” Sam was shaking when she spoke. The thought of abandoning her friend was consuming her, “I don’t want to run away anymore! You told me that, didn’t you?”

Irons was regaining his strength every second to lift the bookshelf. Claire was conflicted, but there wasn’t much time for her to be.