"For the first few hours, I thought I was safe here. Of course, it was only after some consideration that I realized I wasn't. How could I ever be safe in this 'safe house;' a place where all the noise is gone and the streets are nowhere to me? Since when did taking an Umbrella into the gale solve anything? Well, I digress... For now I leave this not for whosoever may come across it. With heavy-handed words, and an equally heavy heart, I set out again in search of that escape I simply deserve. -Rebecca Chambers" -- Stuck. And how? Only a week after the Spencer Mansion incident, surveying the area, I am lucky enough to find myself stranded... again! Needless to say, I wonder now why I ever came back. This kind of situation is unique. Survival and escape are the only two options. Yes, of my own accord, ... I returned. I'm so stupid. Yes, aren't I? Sitting her on the roof of this grand hotel, watching this town churn, burn; spurn... all the rest of those rhyming words. I should have stayed in school. S.T.A.R.S.... Wonderful. So wonderful. ... Just the wrong place at the wrong time, like the rest of those lost heroes. I compare myself to a hero... amusing. I don't really have a name now... Rebecca Chambers is only the silhouette of who I was. S.T.A.R.S. rookie. Nobody. Nothing. ... Yet I have survived. To think that I am nothing... ...nonsense. Let's go, now. Get up and do something. Move, legs. Back up over the ledge. Stand. Get up. Go. -- Rebecca stood shakily. As a cry shot over the city, her hand rose to shield her eyes against the setting sun. The wind, the odds... more, all against her. She gathered her equipment from the air conditioning unit, and sighed at the current state. The knife, strapped on. The medkit, packed in. Her Beretta M92FS cocked and in-hand. What now? Where to? She tossed the gun from hand to hand impatiently, intently thinking on her situation. Going gung-ho would not work. Might get surrounded in the streets. No map, no way. ... but this hotel... a step ladder just down to the right provided a route down to the alley below. A stank odor rose up from the streets, and she could hear myriad footsteps in the alley. She didn't want to know anything more. What of the emergency stairs inside the building? She had not run into anything on her way up, and there were no awkward noises in there. But so many doors could hide so many dangers, and just because they were empty a few moments ago does not mean they would be now. Additionally, the stairs would lead right into the street anyhow. The ladder was the only sure way, now. Gathering up as much courage as she could muster, Rebecca holstered her pistol and swung herself around the ladder. Going down to the next level... why go down? Ah, but she had to... what good could an idle wish to keep on higher ground do if the higher ground held nothing for you? Clank, clank, clank; down the ladder to the third floor. There was a closed window, looking to have been recently cleaned. She smiled lightly at this. Maybe... but inside the room a glimmer caught her attention. A watch... a hand... a body, hanging from the ceiling. A hand reached up to cover her mouth, a small cry released. Poor woman. ... but why was she still swinging? She must have been dead for some time by now, and... Some clutter spilled off the bed inside the room, and the floor thudded in response. Rebecca tensed. Something inside... multiple pairs of eyes popped up in the darkened corners of the hotel room. Rebecca didn't want to stay and see, and preparing herself for the fall, she removed her feet from the rung and slid down the ladder to the ground. She pointedly ignored whatever was in the rest of the windows. Had whatever been in the first been a sign of things to come, she wished she could not see. Down in the alley, she found no signs of recent life. Devoid even of those tainted freaks. A quick scan revealed the alley to be little more than just that; some orange crates sent up a definite stink, but that was about it. To the left a dumpster was at the end of some kind of corridor, perhaps an underground parking complex for the hotel. The corridor appeared to curve left, but to her right, the street was blocked off with k-rails. No cars would be exiting here today. Not that any cars would be going anywhere in this town. The acrid scent of rotten flesh wafted down the alley. She did not stay to investigate.