Raccoon Times, August 26, 1998
MAYOR ANNOUNCES 'KEEP CITY SAFE' PLAN
RACCOON CITY—On the front steps of City Hall, Mayor Michael Warren announced in a press conference yesterday afternoon that the City Council will be hiring at least ten new police officers to join the Raccoon police, in response to the continued suspension of the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S.), in effect since the brutal murders that plagued Raccoon earlier this summer. Joined by Police Chief Brian Irons and all of Raccoon's Council members, Warren assured the gathered citizens and reporters that Raccoon City will once again be a safe community in which to live and work, and that the investigation into the eleven "cannibal" murders and three fatal wild-animal attacks is far from closed.
"Jesus Christ. Jesus fucking christ what the hell is he thinking?!"
Alyssa Ashcroft thumped the crinkled front page of the Raccoon City Times's broadsheet spread onto the barrel J's Bar used for a table. The massive empty casque stung the back of the paper with splinters, and her steak sizzled the first bite paused an inch from her face. Her laptop was a few inches from her food, her paper, a few inches from that, and she refused to take that first bite.
"Ohh no. Don't you dare."
She was cut off before any action she even wanted to take by Will's arm grabbing her empty cup to refill it.
"What do you mean, Will?" she huffed, tucking some of her admittedly, mussed and disheveled blonde hair behind her ear. She'd high tailed there, the minute Tom called her and said he had the headline that day. She had been at that press conference, ready and willing to rip Irons a new asshole about the missing girls case he'd shoved under his slimy boot, but the minute he announced more cops in the already powder keg city...
"You have that look you get, Ashcroft when you're about to get the entire RPD at our doorstep."
Alyssa listened to a sudden hoot from the crowded bar. The college game was on and bets were being taken by the regulars. She'd stick around if she didn't have something to do tonight.
"I got it. Is Cindy working tonight?"
"Nah. She said she was feeling under the weather. It's going around I tell you. My sister called me saying that some kids she's working with got chicken pox or something."
"Ugh. Thanks, Will. I'll keep it friendly just for you."
Finally, she took a bite as Will retreated back behind the counter. J's bar was a busy place after hours. The curfew had been lifted in light of Irons's new plan, and she hadn't seen it this busy in the last year. The shelves were stocked, the island counter in the middle of the place packed with people watching the television at various levels of intoxication.
She fit in with the crowd tonight, in a black puffy coat, loose athletic pants, and a tank, one of her hands already wrapped for what looked like a fight.
Alyssa looked across from her, at the only empty seat left in the house, and pretended to thump the newspaper to an invisible Kurt.
"Can you believe this?" she mumbled, to no one.











