Far enough, find cover and shoot her…

There was a big oak tree straight ahead. Still run-ning, Nicholai reached out with his right arm and veered left, grabbing the tree and letting his own weight swing him around. As soon as he was safely be-hind the gnarled trunk, he darted a look back, readying the M16 as he spotted her, weaving slowly away from the quake in the opposite direction.

Now you die, you billion dollar bitch

– and the rumbling was suddenly a roar, and a huge fountain of muddy white spewed up from the ground, blocking his shot, trees crashing all around. A strange and horrible bellowing erupted from the fountain, a hissing bass note, and as the pale column twisted five meters into the air and then curved down suddenly, Nicholai realized it was an animal, one that had surely never existed before – the gnashing circle of pointed tusks and teeth that tipped the massive white worm-body were proof enough. It bellowed again, arching, a titan hybrid of maggot and lamprey eel, of waxworm and snake, as big around as a man was tall – and it dove away from Nicholai. Toward Jill Valentine. Nicholai turned and ran away, giggling, cursing Jill and Carlos as he dodged trees in the dark, heading for the plant, laughing as he damned them to everlasting hell. Jill was running, skirting the water's edge, and didn't know it was coming until it crashed to the ground only a few meters behind her. A wash of foul air blew over her, a smell of dirt and wet meat coming from the mouth of the carnivorous worm.

Holy crap!

She ran faster, wanting to get some distance before she dared to look back, one grenade load's not enough, have to run for it… Ahead, the rounded reflecting pool curved, a few benches at the corner, a stand of trees behind them. The ground was rumbling again, but Jill was almost there; if she could get around the corner she should be clear, the man-made pool was lined with cement, the thing would knock itself out if she was lucky…… and the benches and trees in front of her suddenly blew up into the air, raised up on a wave of dirt, the blind, probing worm vomiting soil from its toothed maw as it swept its head toward her. Jesus, it's fast! Jill raised the Beretta she still held tightly and buried two rounds in its bloated underbelly, the worm screaming again, deep and hissing like the roar of an attacking crocodile. Jill spun and took off, heart pounding, already hear-ing and feeling the start of another quake as she grabbed her Beretta. It would get in front of her again, she knew it, she'd never make it around either end of the long pool. Going across would slow her down too much. Think, if you can't run what can you use to stop it, dirt, water, trees, lamps…

Lamps. Several were leaning wildly from the under-ground movements of the mammoth grub, like up-rooted saplings about to fall. Into the pool. No time to plan, she had to get it into the water, she'd have to bait it out. She took a last running step and paused long enough to pivot ninety degrees right, dashing toward the pool. It was damaged, rivulets of scummy water draining from the concrete lip.

It rises up then crashes down, takes it a second or two to raise itself again – A second or two, that's how long she'd have to get out of the water. Assuming she could knock a lamp over with bullets first, and that the monstrous worm would obligingly dive into the pool. Calculating the odds meant she'd have to think, and the ground was already trembling, shaking hard enough to send her to her knees. She fell and slid through a thick layer of grass and mud, and then she was trying to get to her feet and keep the gun dry…… and it was bursting up through the edge of the pool not ten feet to her right, blotting out the cloudy sky in a blast of mud and stone, concrete and water. There was a single lamp between her and the monster, already almost touching the water.

Move!

Jill scrambled backwards, moving faster than she would have thought possible, stopping as she saw that the creature had peaked and was starting to bend over, sheets of water pouring from its swollen form. She opened fire as she rolled up onto her feet, the first shots wild, the third and fourth clanging off the metal post. The worm was coming down, creating a tidal wave of mud as the fifth shot blew out the light. It was going to crush her if she didn't move, close, gonna be close…

Bam! Bam! It was the seventh shot that did it, and the results were spectacular. There was a giant, buzzing pop as Jill threw herself backwards and to the side, the lamp im-mersed in the rapidly draining pool. The semi-gelati-nous flesh of the screaming worm shivered and shook as it raised itself up, twisting in agony. Its pallid skin began to blacken and crisp as an oily, noxious smoke poured out of its throat, the hidden length of its body thrashing up giant sprays of dirt and rock. It bellowed once more, the unearthly sound becoming choked, gur-gling -

– and then it collapsed, dead before it hit the ground, before its outer layer of skin began to curl away, revealing the cooking meat of its innards. Jill staggered to her feet, left hand pressed to her throbbing shoulder as she backed away from the frying worm, the smell of it making her gag repeatedly. She'd actually done it, she'd killed the goddamn thing! A warm swell of triumphant victory surged through her as she breathed in another wave of roasting worm smell, I did it, and then she bent over and vomited her guts out. When there was nothing left to purge, Jill shakily stood up and started walking east again, thinking about her confrontation with Nicholai. He wasn't as good a liar as he thought, and if she'd had only suspicions be-fore, she was now certain that he was extremely bad news. Her plans hadn't changed, but she was going to have to be very careful when she got to the water treatment plant. Nicholai was going to be there, she had no doubt… and if he saw her first, she'd be dead before she knew what hit her.

The roadblock was a massive pileup of cars that had actually been stacked three and four high, stretched be-tween several buildings at the end of a block in a rough semicircle. Carlos could still see the crisscross of greasy treadmarks from whatever piece of heavy machinery had managed the feat, just as he'd spotted them on the last three streets he'd tried. Umbrella and the RPD hadn't been screwing around when they'd sealed the city. He stood in front of the stacked, partly crushed metal wall, experiencing an almost desperate indecision. Go back, try heading north first, then east – or try climbing over one of the precarious barricades, which seemed to have been specifically set up to deter him from finding Jill. That's what it feels like, anyway. All that was north of the clock tower was a big park, but maybe that was the only way to get to the Umbrella facility; he couldn't imagine Jill scaling a wall of cars with a bad shoulder, and crawling through them was too dangerous…… but you're assuming she even made it this far, a nagging little voice whispered. Maybe she's already dead, maybe the Nemesis came for her, orNicholai, or…

Carlos cocked his head to one side, frowning, his thoughts disturbed by a distant sound. Shots? Possibly, but the light mist that was falling was having a dampen-ing effect, distorting and muffling noises. He couldn't even be sure from which direction the sound had come… but he was suddenly even more frantic to find Jill than before.

"After all I went through to get that vaccine, you bet-ter not get yourself killed," he murmured lightly, but it was too close to the truth to be funny. He had to do something, now.

Carlos stared at the wall of cars for another moment, picking what appeared to be the most stable route, over a minivan and two compact cars. He took as deep a breath as he was able to manage, mentally crossed his fingers, and started to climb.