Resident Evil_ Extinction - Keith R. A. DeCandido [31]
“That won’t do it. The only way to harm them is to shoot them in the brain or sever the spinal cord. That’ll short out the impulses the virus is sending to their brains, and they’ll die for real.”
“The fuck? You sayin’ they’re dead?”
Yu-Chin shot her a look. “How the hell do you know all that?”
“Not now,” Jaime said.
“Then soon, Doctor.”
The cops continued to shoot. One managed to get in a head shot, but the other two corpses, including Jim, kept shambling forward.
One shot flew wild and hit Bousquet. A moment later, he got up and started shuffling forward, too.
“Oh, my God,” Yu-Chin said, her pale face growing more ashen behind the Hazmat visor.
Jaime ran back into the tent.
“What’s happening?” Isaacs asked.
“Three of the subjects got loose.” She was looking for, and then eventually found, her nine-millimeter pistol.
Jaime Cerota probably had better range scores than that cop did. Her father had taken her hunting as a kid, along with her two brothers, and she was the only one who ever got anything, a fact that always pissed her older brothers off but made her dad proud.
Her entering medical school had been more of a disappointment, but her salary paid for his new house in Florida after he retired, so he didn’t complain all that much.
“Doctor, you need to—”
Uninterested in what Isaacs thought she needed to do, Jaime exited the tent just as Jim and the other corpse overwhelmed the two cops. Jaime took aim and shot one of them in the head.
Jim was feeding on one of the cops, and the officer’s flailing spoiled Jaime’s shot.
A scream from behind her got her attention. Whirling around, she saw two more corpses coming down the street and also that Bousquet was feeding on Yu-Chin. She shot Bousquet in the head, the nine-millimeter bullet easily plowing through the Hazmat headgear, then did the same for the other two.
Then, after hesitating for only a second, she shot Yu-Chin in the head, too. The bullet was slowed only a bit by the faceplate, which was stronger than the rest of the headgear. True, she wasn’t dead yet, but it was only a matter of time. And Isaacs had wanted her out of the way, and this worked, too.
Cold-blooded, perhaps, but it wasn’t as if Yu-Chin had a chance in hell now.
Three more corpses were coming down the street. Jaime figured that they’d been tugging against the restraints for more than a day now. They didn’t tire, they just kept pushing, and sooner or later, even the strongest material gives in if pressure is applied long enough.
Then a hand touched Jaime’s protected shoulder, and she whirled around, trying to raise the pistol once more, but the corpse of Jim Knable was already on top of her, his mouth craning open. Jaime tried to push him off, but Jim was a lot bigger than she, and he was literally dead weight. They both collapsed to the ground.
Pain cut through her right shoulder as Jim bit down on it, his teeth easily ripping through the Hazmat suit. Jaime imagined she could feel his infected saliva intermixing with her blood.
She kicked upward with her left foot, which got Jim off her. Clambering to her feet, she held up the pistol, supporting it with her left hand, pain slicing through her wounded shoulder, and she shot Jim in the head.
Then she turned around and tried to shoot the others, but she couldn’t hold her arm up any longer.
“Dammit.”
She stumbled back into the tent. “Sir, we’ve lost containment.”
“What? What happened to—”
“Sir, the infected corpses have broken free. I’ve stopped some of them, but there are others that I’ve been unable to terminate. And I’ve been infected, so it’s only a matter of time before I join them.”
“Dr. Cerota, I need you to—”
“Sir, there’s nothing I can do for you now. I’ve reported the breach, and that’s the last duty I can perform for the Umbrella Corporation.” With her left hand—her right was now pretty much useless—she undid the fastenings on her Hazmat suit’s headpiece and removed it. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get the job done, sir.”
Then she put the pistol’s muzzle under her chin and pulled the