Resident Evil: Underworld Read Free

heart skipped a beat. She turned, looked out the back with the others and saw that one of the cars had barreled into a roadwork barricade—a barricade they’d probably come within a second or two of bashing into themselves. She caught just a glimpse of a crumpled hood, of broken windows and a stream of oily smoke, and then the second sedan was blocking her view, shrieking around the corner and continuing the chase.
    “Sorry ’bout that,” John called back to them, sounding anything but; he seemed wired with adrenaline-pumped glee.
    In the few weeks since she and Leon had joined up with the fugitive ex-S.T.A.R.S., she’d discovered that John would make jokes about anything. It was simultaneously his most endearing and most annoying trait.
    “Everyone alright?” David asked, and Claire nodded, saw Rebecca do the same.
    “Took a whack but I’m okay,” Leon said, rubbing his arm with a pained expression. “But I don’t think—”
    BAM!
    Whatever Leon didn’t think was cut off by the powerful blast that slammed into the back of the van. Still most of a block away, the sedan’s passenger had fired a shotgun at them; a few inches higher and the pellets would have come in through the window.
    “John, change of plans,” David called as the van swerved, his cool, authoritative voice rising over the noise of the screaming engines. “We’re in their sights—”
    Before he could finish, John took a hard left. Rebecca fell backwards, nearly crashing into Claire. The van was now headed down a quiet suburban street.
    “Hold on to your butts,” John called over his shoulder.
    Chill night air whipped through the van, dark houses flying by as John picked up speed. Leon and David were already reloading, crouched behind the metal half-door. Claire exchanged a look with Rebecca, who looked as unhappy about their situation as she felt. Rebecca Chambers was ex-S.T.A.R.S., she’d worked with Claire’s brother, Chris, as well as undertaking a recent Umbrella operation with David and John, also ex-S.T.A.R.S.—but the young woman had been trained as a medic with a background in biochemistry. Marksmanship wasn’t her forte—even Claire was a better shot—and she was the only person in the van who hadn’t had any real training…
    …unless you count surviving Raccoon.
    Claire shuddered involuntarily as John took a hard right, veering wide around a parked truck, the sedan gaining ground. Raccoon City; the scratches and bruises on Claire’s body hadn’t even faded yet, and she knew that Leon’s shoulder was still giving him pain—
    BAM!
    Another shotgun blast from behind, but it went wide and high.
    This time…
    “Change of plans,” David said, his crisp British accent calming, like the voice of reason and logic in the midst of chaos. It was no wonder he’d been a S.T.A.R.S. captain.
    “Everyone brace for an impact. John, just past your next turn, bring us to a stop. Hit and run, alright?”
    David brought his knees up, wedging his feet against the van’s wall. “They want us so badly, let them have us.”
    Claire slid over and pushed her feet against the back of the passenger seat, knees bent and head down. Rebecca moved closer to David, and Leon sidled back so that his head was close to Claire’s. They locked gazes and Leon smiled faintly.
    “This is nothin’,” he said, and in spite of her fear, Claire found herself smiling back at him. After making it through the madness of Raccoon City, skirting the murderous Umbrella creatures and crazed humans— not to mention their extremely narrow escape from explosive death when Umbrella’s secret facilities blew up—compared to all that, a simple car wreck was like a Sunday picnic.
    Yeah, just keep telling yourself that, her mind whispered, and then she didn’t think anything at all, because the van was swerving around a corner and John was pumping the brakes and they were about to get hit by about a ton and a half of fast moving metal and glass.
    * * *
    David