Subject: [UW!] A woodland retreat

From: "Macaw" tomt@f1.net.au

Date: Wed, 01 September 1999 02:49 AM EDT

Message-id: <37cccbf3@wsydnap.rpi.net.au>

Heather stared at the city. Then she looked back out the other window. She

saw trees, a splattered skunk...she looked back at the city and sighed.

Raccoon looked for all the world like a miniature New York. And Heather

hated congested cities riddled with alleyways, instead preferring the wide

open streets of Sydney, her hometown.

"Are we staying in Raccoon?" Heather asked her father, who was covered in a

layer of brochures and maps.

"No. There's a small resort in the northwest of the city, built where a

mansion used to be before it was destroyed in an explosion."

"Really?" Heather was surprised. "What happened?"

"Here, read this if you want to know about it." her father handed her a

small booklet entitled 'Raccoon City - Urban Myths'.

"Umbrella?"

"A pharmaceutical company..."

"Well, we're here." announced Heather's mother. Heather stared. WELCOME TO

RACCOON RETREAT, a sign read. Behind it was the reception. To the side was

the driveway and past that, a garden. Behind the garden the cabins started,

hidden from view by the thin line of forest trees that was between them and

the little garden.

"Hello. You're the Scotts?" a young woman smiled from behind the counter in

the reception.

"Yep."

"Cabin 16. Are you paying now?"

The receptionist and Heather's parents had a long conversation about rates

and taxes while Heather wandered through a door into the grocery/gift shop

(store for you Americans!) and began to browse through the books. She found

one on the mansion that had previously stood on the site, and pulled a

crumpled note out of her pocket.

"Just this, please." she told the man behind the counter. He nodded.

"Nine-ninety-five, girlie." he replied. Heather snorted as she handed over

the money. Girlie? she thought. I think not!

Cabin 16 was pleasant. The pool was nearby. Heather could see the city and

the mountains through her bedroom window.

Later, lying in bed, Heather thought about home. About the wide open

spaces, the trees, birds....It was so different. Here guns were bought like

candy. There they were restricted.

Here there were no wild parrots. There they were as common as sparrows.

It was so different here...so different.

A window shattered, close by. Heather jerked awake. She ran to her bedroom

door and recoiled. The front door was open, the other bedroom empty.

Screams echoed through the resort.

"Oh God." Heather muttered. She ran back into her room and pulled on warm

clothes, jeans, jacket. Grabbed money, asthma treatment, backpack,

supplies. Then, as an afterthought, she shoved a kitchen knife - large -

into her backpack and stepped outside.

You ike? Please comment. More soon.

Tom