PROLOGUE OF A NIGHTMARE
It was September 28th, 1998 Fred Hanson had just finished his shift at the RPD. He was just about to clock out when Kevin Ryman got his attention. "Hey Fred, I'm grabbin a drink at Jacks, wanna join?" Nah, I cant, I've got another long shift tomorrow, maybe next time man.
Fred waved at Kevin as he walked out the front entrance. As he got in his car he remembered he forgot to move the van in the parking lot. Irons had informed him that it was blocking the cell block area, "eah, ill move it tomorrow", he shrugged.
During the drive home, the CB radio was chattering non stop with reports of riots. "what the hell is going on tonight" I asked myself, But contemplated on it no further, deciding to let the next shift at the station deal with it.
As soon as I got home I removed my gear and plopped myself on the couch to watch some TV, an emergency broadcast popped up on the channel stating that all civilians remain in their homes with the doors and windows locked. Before I could comment my radio started chattering. "ALL OFFICERS ARE TO REPORT BACK TO THE STATION! I REPEAT ALL OFFICERS ARE TO REPORT BACK TO THE STATION!
"God dammit, as soon as I get home, I should've known this would happen." I grabbed my gear and sprinted to the car, put the key in the ignition, flicked on the sirens, and sped off to the station.
Immediately after turning the CB radio on, there were reports of riots all over the city. "My god, its getting worse." I pushed the pedal up to 90. "I've got to hurry".
Entering through the front was impossible, the rioters were everywhere, "maybe if I tried the underground parking lot." I decided to move in on foot, a sneaky approach was better than alerting them all to my presence. I popped the trunk and grabbed the 12 gauge, it only had 6 shells so I'd better not waste them. I strapped it to my back and began my approach.
As I drew closer to the parking lot I noticed the security gate was closed, "good thing I still remember the code to the key panel." I entered the 7 digit code and the gate began to rise, but it was louder than I expected, and the sound alerted the nearby rioters, as soon as I got in I closed the gate. I looked back and there were already 10 of them coming down the ramp. I unholstered my service revolver, a 357. Colt Python, it had 6 rounds in the chamber, and I had 5 spare speed loaders. I then continued to the B1 corridor, there was an officer standing by the generator room. "Hey, what's going on?" he didn't respond. "HEY! YOU DEAF?" he proceeded to turn around. "Oh my god". The entire front of his uniform was soaked in blood, and his lower jaw was missing. He began shuffling towards me, I readied my gun, "STOP, DON'T MOVE!" He continued to stumble towards me, "I WILL USE FORCE", once again my command fell upon deaf ears. He was close enough for me to smell the putrid odor irradiating from his body."GUAH! WHATS THAT SMELL? He was less than 10 feet away from me, I had to do something now. I cocked the hammer, and pulled the trigger, the gun jerked and then half of his face was smeared on the wall. I lowered the gun and nearly puked my guts out when I saw the maggots pouring from what was left of his skull. I pressed forward and tried to remove that image from my head, I found a stairwell leading up to the 1st floor.
It led to a hallway on the north side of the prescient, there were several windows on the left side of the hallway, a couple of them were shattered, I moved cautiously down the hallway, I was about half way through and my instincts were telling me I wasn't alone, I slowly reached for the 12 gauge and spun around, there was no one there. As I let out a sigh of relief, I saw a droplet of blood fall from the ceiling, then another, my heart began to pound, I slowly looked up, and my brain couldn't piece together what I was seeing, its skin had been ripped apart by its muscle mass, its brain was protruding around its head, and it had razor sharp claws which it was using to crawl on the ceiling. It began to breathe loudly and then it leaped to the ground, I quickly raised the shotgun and fired, but it dodged and leaped on the wall, it then reared its head back and whipped its tongue at me like a frog striking at a fly. There was enough force behind the strike to put me on my ass, it then leaped again right in front of me, I raised the shotgun and without even thinking I pulled the trigger, blowing the creature away, it let out a loud hiss and then nothing, its body lay motionless. I cocked the shotgun and kept it aimed at the creatures torso, after realizing it was dead I slowly lowered the shotgun and continued to the conference room.
As I entered I immediately noticed a downed officer on the other side of the hallway I ran over to check his status but as soon as I saw the gaping hole in his throat I knew the answer. I then turned my attention to the row of desks and the double doors on the opposite side, I began to proceed toward the doors when I saw several figures stumbling in the dark. As soon as they were aware of my presence they began stumbling towards me, I took a deep breath, retrieved my revolver, and one by one I put them out of their misery. I reloaded my revolver and proceeded through the doors.
The room split in two paths, to the left there was a single door leading to the main hall, and to the right there was a horde of creatures ready to greet me with open arms.
Upon entering the main hall, I was greeted with Marvin, Kevin, and a few other officers.
"Fred! You're ok, thank god."
"Marvin, what the hell is going on?"
Marvin began to explain about the cannibal monsters, and that the police station was under attack.
"Basically in simple words, we're up shit creek without a paddle", interrupted Kevin.
"That about raps it up, we've managed to hold off the attackers, but we're sustaining heavy casualties, we currently have all the injured in the lobby area, and the morgue is overflowing with corpses. I sent Mike to retrieve some ammo from the armory but apparently the generator in the B1 levels is down so we can't get the electronic lock open."
Kevin replied sarcastically, "Besides we don't even know where the goddamn keycard is"
"Do we have enough ammo to hold off until daybreak?"
"No, we've probably got enough to hold off for a few more hours, but by daybreak we'll all be walking corpses."
"OK then, well what in the hell are we going to do?"
"I've been looking over an old blue print of this place from way back when it was a museum, and apparently there's a ventilation shaft that runs underneath the station, but it's so narrow, I don't think any of us could fit through it."
"I might be able to". Replied Rita
Marvin began to examine her, "you just might be able to fit in the vent".
There was no might to it she could definitely fit, her torso was as thin as that Rebecca chick who joined a few months back.
Marvin began explaining that the only way to open up the underground ventilation system was by using the jewel plates on the indentation of the main hall statue.
The remaining surviving officers decided to split up to find the plates.
"I guess I'll go check the B1 area", replied Kevin.
"Alright Fred, you go check the 2nd floor receptionist area"
Before I left I decided to give the shotgun to Kevin, I figured he might need it more than me.
"Here's something a little more powerful than that 45. of yours."
"Thanks bro, but what about you?"
"Don't worry man, I have THIS" (I held up my 357.)
"Alright man, thanks again."
I proceeded to the 2nd floor using the ladder in the main hall, as I reached the top I realized how quiet it actually was, and for the first time I noticed how beautiful the main hall architecture was. "This is no time to be awing in amazement", I told myself. So I slipped back into reality and proceeded to the receptionist area.
The receptionist area was a mess, there was so much clutter in the center of the room I had to move some of it just to get to the other side, I searched everywhere but I couldn't find it, I checked the box by the locker but it only contained a few F-Aid sprays, then I checked around the receptionist desk, nothing there except a type writer and a diary. Then I decided to check the top of the locker, and bingo. Right before my eyes was a plate with a reddish jewel in it. I quickly snatched it up and ran back to the statue in the hall.
It fit perfectly in the indentation, apparently the others found a couple of the plates as well, including mine there were now three plates in the statue.
Marvin caught my attention and asked me to come over to the police terminal, he was looking into a video camera feed.
"Fred, Rita and I have identified two areas where the zombies are entering the station from, one is near the stairwell in the courtyard which leads to the 2nd floor, and the other is the emergency stairwell on the rooftop. I've already sent someone to the courtyard but I need you to secure the roof while we find the rest of these plates."
"Alright I'll head up there now"
As I was heading for the 2nd floor Marvin stopped me. He handed me a shotgun, it was a spas 12 gauge, the RPD recently upgraded to these after many years of using the M870.
"Thanks Marvin"
I climbed to the 2nd floor and cut through the reception office, took a right and proceeded down a long corridor which led to the rooftop. As I was walking down the hall I heard gunfire coming from the courtyard, I peeked out the window and saw an officer firing at the zombies that were trying to scale the gate. A closer look revealed that it was Aaron, he had been with the RPD for several years, and he was a hell of a marksman, almost as good as that Redfield guy from STARS.
The rotting stench knocked me back into reality, I quickly spun around and not 5 feet away was one of them shambling towards me, I raised the shotgun and pulled the trigger, the shot blew the bastard back against the wall, but the kick from the gun was ungodly.
"JESUS! What's this thing loaded with?"
I ejected the shell and noticed they were magnum rounds.
I loaded another shell into the chamber and proceeded to the rooftop. As soon as I opened the door, I awed in amazement at the river of fire that had engulfed much of the courtyard around the rooftop, the heat was intense, and sweat trickled down my forehead.
"KAW, KAW!"
I looked up to notice a flock of crows perched on the water tower, their beady little eyes gazed upon me like a predator watching its prey. I heard a moan, then another, and another, they were coming from the emergency stairwell. I ran over and noticed an army of undead slowly stumbling up the staircase. I panicked and fired the shotgun, after which the crows began to frenzy around me. I tried to swat at them with the gun, but to no avail, they pecked at my ears and tried to get my eyes, I quickly clenched the shotgun, raised it to the air, and fired off a round, after which the flock began to thin out.
I took a deep sigh of relief, but in the struggle I had forgotten about the zombies, I spun around and 4 of them had already reached the top of the stairs. I quickly fired, then fired again, and again, and then click. The shotgun was empty. I tossed the gun and retrieved my revolver, as soon as I did, the door behind me slammed open and 5 of them poured through. I spun around and fired, the first shot went through and hit another. I fired again and again, but the horde from the stairwell was closing in, the revolver ran dry, I quickly flicked the chamber open, ejected the empty cartridges, and reached for another speed loader, I also noticed that I only had three speed loaders left. I unloaded on the zombies at the stairwell, but the horde at the door had already been replaced with another 4 zombies. I reloaded again and fired upon the threats, and before I knew it, I was down to my last speed loader. I fired a few rounds and then the horde stopped coming.
I took a few deep breaths, but then I heard that distinctive whoop, whoop sound, and I immediately knew what it was, a helicopter.
I looked up and it was low enough that I could see the red and white umbrella logo on the side of it. I grabbed my flashlight and started waving it in the air to get its attention.
"HEY! DOWN HERE! HEY!"
The helicopter didn't notice me.
I was screaming and cursing in my head, but it was drowned out by the sudden sharp pain that went through my leg, I looked down to see a crawler sinking its teeth into my ankle. I quickly aimed the revolver and fired, blowing its skull to high heavens.
My ankle was gushing out blood, the pain was so intense that I couldn't walk on it. I slowly limped over to the water tower and put my back against the wall. A voice rang out through the intercom system, it was Marvin.
"LISTEN UP EVERYONE, HELPS ON THE WAY, GET TO THE FRONT LOBBY"
"Great", I thought to myself. There's no way I can make it on this leg.
I opened the chamber on the revolver, there was only 1 bullet left, I grabbed the bullet and examined it.
It was a 357. Hollow Point Round, the umbrella logo was imprinted on the blasting cap. I placed it back into the chamber and flicked it closed. I could see 6 or 7 zombies closing in through the corner of my eye. I slowly cocked the hammer and placed the revolver to my head. I closed my eyes, I could feel their hands grasping me. I pulled the trigger as soon as I felt the sharp pain in my neck.