Chapter Three: Tactics.

The shotgun was knocked out of of Jay's hand as the closet door impacted with his wrist. He ducked under the pipe as it swung towards his head and back handed the person to the floor; the pipe skittering under the desk.

Jay pulled the Tanto free of it's sheath and held it against the neck of the person who had tried to play stick ball with his head.

"Now just...," he started to say but that's when he got his first good look at the person he was holding on the ground.

The woman was wearing a dark gray pant suit with a white silk blouse and low heeled shoes; gold hoop earrings were in her ears. As Jay sat staring for a second he noticed other things. Her pant suit had dirt and grass stains on it and her grey eyes were red rimmed from crying; he also notice for some odd that she had another piercing at the top of each earlobe.

"Do you plan on sitting on me all night," she growled at him snapping him out of his trance?

"Oh," was all Jay said as he helped her to her feet and resheathed the Tanto.

The woman barely came to his shoulder. About 5'9", he thought to himself as she ran fingers through short brown hair that barely covered her ears.

"Uh; my names Jay; Jay Krueger," he said. Oh good one, he thought.

"I'm Laura Daniels," she said looking him over. "You're not from around here are you?"

"No, I've been backpacking in the woods for the last couple of weeks."

"You mind if I sit down," she asked?

"No, not at all," Jay replied.

She pulled the commanders chair out from behind the desk and sat down heavily making the chair squeak as it slid a little on it's casters.

Jay went over and picked his shotgun up off of the floor and pulled the lead pipe out from under the desk and set them on top of it; he also noted that the pipe had a bit of dried blood with some hair mixed in with it on one end.

The woman stared down at the desk a little dazedly and didn't say anything.

Jay pulled a ladder back chair from against the wall and turned it around resting his arms on the chair back and sat silently watching her for a moment.

"I don't suppose you know what in the hell's going on around here." Jay asked in a neutral voice and paused for breath? "I mean having two dead guys try and gnaw on you isn't a common occurrence around here is it?"

Without looking up from her thoughtful contemplation of the coffee stains on the desk she quietly said, "it has something to do with Umbrella."

"You mean the big pharmaceutical and chemical company," Jay asked.

"Yes," she said barely above a whisper and then continued in a stronger voice, "some of their men were here earlier and took all the guns and ammo."

Jay cussed and jumped out of the chair nearly knocking it over. He halted in the weapons room. "Damn," he breathed skidding to a halt and almost falling as his feet made contact with the loose ammo rolling around on the floor. The two gun racks and pistol drawer were empty of guns and clips; but the men had been hasty and some ammo had spilled onto the floor. Mostly 9mm and .45 but about two dozen 12-gauge shells and some .44 rounds also littered the floor here and there.

Jay cursed again and checked the bodies of the half-dozen dead officers and found their side arms missing but all of them still had two full clips of either .45 or 9mm ammunition in the pouches on their belts.

Well at least we still have some ammo to work with, he thought and headed back to the commander's office.

The woman looked up at Jay as he came back into the room.

Jay just shook his head and sat down again, "they managed to take every gun in the place," he said.

"What about ammunition," she asked.

Jay sighed and leaned back for a second pursing his lips, "there was quite a bit scattered on the armory floor and the cops each have two full magazines on their belts; but that still only leaves us with two guns," he said making an off hand gesture toward the shotgun laying on the desk.

"Three," she said and layed a S&W .38 on the desks green ink blotter.

"Good; three then," he said eyeing the .38. "Tell you what; you take a shower and change into some clean clothes," he grimace, "you should be able to find some that fit a couple of those dead cops are women and about your size."

"That sounds like a grand idea; I could use one," she said. "What are you going to do in the mean time?"

Jay was leaning the chair back on its front legs, "me; I'm going to gather every useful piece of crap I can find in this place," he said banging the chair back down on all four legs as if to emphasize his point.

She nodded and headed off to the showers; and Jay started by searching the office for equipment.

Half an hour later Jay was hunched over a desk in the small bull pen thumbing shells into a clip from a small pile on the desk. Jay waved her to a chair as she came back from the shower/locker room and finished filling the clip.

Jay looked up finally; the woman did look better after a shower. "Well I've definitely got some good news; we have; including the rounds from my gun; roughly 200 rounds of 9mm ammo, thirty-nine 12-gauge shells of various types, thirty-six rounds of .38 ammo, two dozen rounds of .44, and around sixty rounds of .45; plus six pocket knives and I also found a Colt Combat Commander 9mm in one of the desks for you to use and a SOG Tech combat knife."

Jay paused a moment and looked at her, "how much do you know about guns?"

"I am a member of the Sierra Gun Club and The NRA; plus I target shoot once a week with various guns," she replied.

Jay nodded satisfied, "Oh; I also found two of these," he picked up a fat metal tube and showed it to her.

"What's that," she asked?

"Watch," he said and flicked his wrist to one side; three clicks sounded and the tube was now two feet longer. "Not bad, eh; it's a collapsing baton and a lot easier to carry around than your lead pipe."

"Yes it will be a lot easier," she agreed in a dry voice.

"I also found two radios and flashlights."

"That's good, they might come in handy," she said not realizing how true her words would turn out to be.

Jay looked down at the gear on the spread out rather haphazardly on the desk and looked back up thoughtfully, "give me about fifteen minutes to get everything put together and then we'll get out of here."

"Alright," she replied.

Fifteen minutes later Jay had his web belt buckled back around his waist; the belt was noticeably heavier. He had found two more Glock clips that would fit his gun and a bandolier sling for the shotgun that could hold a dozen shells.

Walking over to Laura he handed her the other web belt he had found.

She took the belt and buckled it on without looking up from a building plan she was studying. Stabbing her finger down on a section of the map she looked at Jay. "There is a passage leading from the basement to the garage," she said.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jay said, "there might be a car we can use."

The sudden shriek of tearing metal and a human scream made them snap their head around in the direction of the holding cells; a second scream sent them running to the observation window in the security door between the two areas.