How many people live in this town?
These streets are swarming with flesh zombies. I’ve been following Clarissa to
get to the police station, but every place we go seems to be crowded with the undead.
“Let’s take a shortcut through the
grand hotel,” Clarissa says as she points at the large hotel in front of us.
Since I don’t know any other better
ways, I follow her into the hotel where we sit down and take a breather. This
place has been boarded up and reinforced with furniture in certain entrances,
so someone was definitely here. The lights aren’t on, so I’m assuming this
place doesn’t have any power. There are signs of fighting with blood in certain
places but no bodies, which is worrying. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to see
dead bodies as much as I wanted to in my life before.
“We should get moving. Those things
will be melding with one another to break down the doors and I don’t want to be
around to see that abomination,” I say as I get up.
“He’s right. Let’s move,” Clarrisa
says as she follows after me.
“Do you know the way out of here to
get to the station?”
“Yeah. It’s a straightforward path.”
“It doesn’t look like it’ll be with
all of the junk in the hallways.”
“I can find a way around it. My
friends and I always used to play hide and seek in this place when we were kids,
so I know this place inside and out. I even know the little secret areas like
the ones where the janitors kept their pinups of women. There was one photo
that I found that was a ‘questionable’ photo let’s say of one of the employees.”
“That’s good to know.”
“So how did a cop like you get a
job that landed you in our humble little town?”
“I got an email then traveled down
here for the job. It’s not an exciting story.”
“What job did you get?”
“Guard duty.”
“For who?”
“Why does it matter, and why do you
keep asking?”
“There’s no reason to keep quiet
because those things know where we are, and I’d like to know more about you
since you seem to be an interesting fella.”
We hear noises that sound like
walking that makes us jump.
“You two can flirt later. Guns up,”
Tony says.
We get closer to the noises until
we see what’s causing it. Apparently, someone left a birdcage near a barricade
and it’s been knocking down some of the luggage that’s blocking the hallway. We
let out a sigh of relief.
“We should take this little guy with
us. He could warn us when danger arrives.,” Clarrisa says as she grabs the bird’s
cage.
“Why do you even ask when you just
do it?” Tony asks.
“Who said I asked?”
We then enter a large dining hall
with various kinds of supplies in it. Gas, food, makeshift weapons, and some
guns are strewn about everywhere. It looks like the people here left in a hurry
and took what they could. They didn’t leave any explosives, but the gas will be
useful when the zombies get in. Tony and the other guy are eating what they can
while Clarrisa is feeding the bird and herself.
“Do you want something, Mr. Morte?
This may be your only chance to eat something,” Clarrisa says to me.
“I’m good.”
Even though I am hungry, I probably
shouldn’t show them my face.
“What? Don’t want to show us your
face or are you trying to be a big man?”
“No, I’m just not hungry. Besides,
we can’t sit down for long.”
“You can’t take a quick bit of
something? Maybe you’re wearing that gas mask for some other reason we don’t know.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Do you think the air
is infected?”
“I don’t think it is.”
Curaga never mentioned part of the
cure affecting the air, so it shouldn’t be airborne in any way. Clarrisa walks
over to me and stares me down with a smile.
“Stop messing around,” Tony says.
“Shut up,” Clarrisa commands him.
“If Morte wants to keep his
secrets, let him. We’re going to leave him soon anyway.”
“His secrets are why I want to know
more about him.” Clarrisa starts to take off my mask, but I grab her hand. She
then pulls her pistol on me. “If you don’t let me see your face, then I will
show you that the flesh will be the least of your worries.”
Not wanting to cause any trouble, I
let her take off my mask. Everyone looks at me, including the bird for some
reason.
“Do you know him? Because I sure as
hell don’t,” Tony says.
“No, I don’t. He does look handsome
for an old man though,” Clarissa says while putting my mask back on.
Thank you, God, no one knows who I
am.
“I’m flattered, now can you stop
messing around?”
“What? Don’t like a pretty girl getting
close to you?”
The bird starts flying around in its
cage seconds before a loud bang is made outside the hall. They’re in. Heavy
footsteps walk through the hallway and stop outside the hall. We all have our
guns up as we stand in the center of the room in case we get flanked from
behind. The footsteps then cease for a couple seconds before what’s making them
breaks through the wall.
It’s a large zombie with bones around
every part of its body except for the bottom part of its face and its chest. We
open fire on the creature as it charges at us. Bullets don’t slow it down, and
I’ve already run out of grenade launcher ammo, so we dodge out of the way. It
appears that it’s down for now as it’s slumped on the corner of the wall. I
have to burn this thing somehow before it comes back worse than before.
“It’s not going to be dead for
long. Help me burn it. Let’s move!” I say as I quickly run over to it.
First, I try to move the thing so
that I can burn its flesh since its bone burns, but the fire isn’t burning through
it, and the damn thing is too heavy. Even with the help of the other three, we
can’t move the hulking monster.
“There’s only one option if we want
to prevent this thing from coming back,” I say to the three, “We have to light
up the wall this thing is on with gas, but the fire will probably light the rest
of this place, and I doubt the sprinklers are working.”
“It’s really going to be like that,
huh?” Tony asks as he flips open his lighter.
“That’s what it’s going to have to
be,” Clarrisa says as she pours the gas on the monster.
After Clarrisa is finished pouring
the gas, I light it on fire, and I quickly follow her out of the room. More
sounds that sound like the zombies breaking in are made around the hotel. I make
a short line from the gas can I have to the rest in the hall and light it on
fire.
“Move! Move!” I say as the hotel
begins to burn.
Clarrisa leads us through the halls
of the hotel, some of which are blocked. The zombies start breaking through the
ceilings and walls with some of them armored with bone, others have nothing but
sharp bones on their bodies, and some are just half heads with mouths for
bodies. We shoot these zombies or run away if we can. Suddenly, the hotel
shakes as a loud noise is made.
“What was that?!” Tony frantically asks.
“It doesn’t matter. Keep moving!” I
say as I keep running.
The zombie horde keeps breaking
into the hotel and we keep mowing through them until we reach a dead end.
“Clarrisa?”
“This is the only other way out!”
“Maybe there’s another way.”
The wall behind us is broken down
by a massive monster made of flesh. It’s a mess of faces, bones, eyes, teeth,
mouths, arms, legs, and other body parts are all together in a mesh of horror.
Without saying anything, Tony and I start firing at the atrocity with
everything we got while Clarrisa and the other guy start taking out the luggage
and tables from the barricade. I don’t think my fire bullets will do anything, so
my trump card is out the window. Shooting its eyes, inside its mouth, and its
appendages slows it down a bit, but it isn’t slowing down as much as I want it
to.
Our backs are almost against the wall,
so I start helping clear the barricade by throwing the luggage into the atrocity’s
mouth, which actually chokes it up a bit. No wonder why it shoved it aside. I
didn’t think it mattered, but once all of its mouths are full, it doesn’t
matter anymore. Thankfully, the way is clear now to an exit without a door, so
we just run through it, but the other guy who I don’t know is taken in by one
of its tendrils and eaten whole. We shouldn’t have stopped firing at it. There’s
nothing we can do for him, so I push Tony and Clarrisa outside and away from
the hotel.
“I’m sorry, but he’s gone,” I say
to them.
“It’s still coming after us!” Clarrisa
says as she points at it.
That thing is larger than I think because
it’s leaking out of all the floors of the hotel. Dammit! Is this thing made of
all the zombies in the town?! The three of us shoot at it to slow it down as we
back away. The good news is that the building is burning, which is probably one
of the reasons why it was coming at us so fast. I look around for something to
help us and see a gas station behind us.
I tell the two, “There’s a gas station
behind us. We can use the gas there to make the fire spread faster!”
“I’ll get the gas! Hold it off!”
Tony says as he runs to the gas station.
Clarrisa and I hold off the
atrocity as it tries to stab and grab us with its long tendrils. The fire is
making it weaker, but it’s still putting up quite a fight with all the
appendages it has. It’s like the hotel itself is the monster. Tony comes back
with four canisters of gas, but the atrocity catches him.
“Tony!” Clarissa yells out.
“Don’t worry, chief! I got this!”
Tony pour the gas on the atrocity
and himself and lights both of them on fire. Tony is screaming out in agonizing
pain, but I can tell he is satisfied with his decision with a small smirk on
his burning face. The atrocity doesn’t appear to be dead, but at least it isn’t
moving towards us anymore.
Clarrisa is crying for her friend, so
I try to comfort her by putting my hand on her shoulder while saying, “He’s a
hero, Clarrisa.”
“And I’m proud of him. For a
rookie, you knew what to do when faced with a difficult decision. Now…you’re
going to take me with you.”
“What? No. You don’t want to be with
me. I’ll just be slowing you down since I have to wait at the station.”
“My plan was to escape with those
two but you’re the only one I can go with now.”
“I’m not escaping until I need to
do what I need to at the police station. Just find a car and escape with it
without me. There shouldn’t be many more zombies in the town so you should have
a clear shot out of here.”
“I’m not leaving without you. I’m
the only cop left in this town and I’m not going to leave another one to die.
You’re taking me with you and that’s it.”
“…Fine.”
“Good. I knew you’d see it my way.”
Clarrisa and I walk to the police
station, which I see in the distance. The streets are empty, and the danger appears
to have diminished, but what am I going to do with Clarrisa?
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