Chapter Four: The Friend For Life
The mutations poured into the doorway as we opened fire. Left and right they fell onto the floor with more filling their place. It seemed to be an endless stream of creatures ready and willing to rip us to pieces.
"..The end" I pictured.
I didnt want to die there. I didnt want to see my life flash before my eyes as those beasts ripped at me. It seemed inevitable though. It seemed we were going to die. One of the creatures lunged at me from the pile of bodies and time began to slow down again. The beast's mouth opened agape and its razor teeth were inches from my face.
"...Im sorry." I thought.
"MOVE!" Someone screamed from behind us as a bullet whizzed by my helmet striking the creature causing it to crash to the ground.
I quickly glanced over my shoulder to see the remaining soldiers of Beta team firing off at the creatures from behind us. The one that saved me ran in front of me bracing himself dead on with the horde while the other two lifted Acie up and helped him out the back door.
I turned to Garlan and yelled.
"Come on! Here's our chance! lets go!"
Without hesitation, he bolted through the door leaving Calvin behind with me. I pushed his shoulder back and we both followed through the door. Gunfire continued to ring out though as I looked up to see Brad approaching the doorway.
"Come on, B!" I ordered.
He stood in the doorway for a moment then looked down at his sensor. I could see over his shoulder that one of the Beta team members had already been taken down and the other was being swarmed. Brad quickly ripped his ID off and threw it on the ground saying.
"Now's YOUR chance, sir. Get Acie out of here."
Within a blink of time, he slammed the door shut as i heard the screams of pain from inside the room. I ran to the door and tried to bash through it, tears welling in my eyes, but to no avail. The big steel door wouldn't budge. I stood for a moment listening. Nothing. Nothing but silence.
"That fucking idiot..." Garlan muttered.
"Wha-..Why would he do that?"
My hands started to shake as I fell to my knees.
"...to buy us time...for Acie." I replied.
I pressed my hand against the door.
Thoughts started to flourish through my head all at once. Memories. Ideals. Mantras. As I looked back up, my gloved hand was now the size of a small bare child's. The door was no longer steel and the alleyway faded around me. I had no equipment on either. The world seemed to shift around me. Startled, I stood to my feet and checked around me. No one. Nothing but plains and open farm. A memory I had. This was a farm. Chills went down my spine.
"What is this?..." I spoke softly and the world around me echoed the words.
"Why am-" I was cut off by a scream coming from inside the house.
I turned to see a ember black door with a fiery red handle jolting around. I could hear terrible crying from behind it. I remembered this. The door banged and banged with more screaming. I quickly ran up to it and grabbed the handle, but immediately let go due to the burn it gave me. I couldn't open the door so I moved to the windows. Nothing but black smoke filled the house. I tried to break it but it wouldn't shatter! I started to panic as this felt more and more vivid. My breathing ramped in height and my nerves shot out of me. I couldn't help these people.
"...elijah..." I heard from behind the door.
My eyes widened in fear and my body stiffened. Multiple voices then began to ring out.
"...Elijah...help me...ElijahElijahElijah help me..." They screamed.
The continued growing louder and louder almost deafening me bringing me down to my knees. I covered my ears from the shrill voices but they just kept coming.
"ElijahELIJAHELIJAHELIJAHELIJAH!"
They screamed louder bringing blood from my ears and eyes. I felt like my head was going to explode from preassure as I looked up to see burning claws protruding from the door. I wanted to get up and run but couldn't. The sound was too strong. Too powerful. Too deafening. A blackened hand stretched itself from the door to right above my head. The long arm looked as if it had splinters of glass and bone sticking out of it. The voices grew louder somehow as it reached down to my face. The molten hot fingers singed my brown hair and burned my skin. All I could do was look into the palm. A solid white eye appeared for a moment and looked down at me. The veins began pulsating blood through the iris lighting the pupil up in a fiery crimson. The hand reached down to my face and looked directly into my eyes. Terror would not explain how I felt. True horror was nothing compared to this. All i could do was wait for it to move. My hands were now covered in blood as it closed the eye back. With the eye gone, the noises stopped too creating an even stronger silence.
"...why..." I heard as a razor like mouth appeared from the palm shoving itself into my face.
"STAY AWAY!..." I woke screaming in the back of an ambulance. My breathing was rapid and my heart felt like it was about to rupture. Acie laid next to me on a stretcher with Garlan sitting next to both of us.
"Fuck!..You're up! J, Take it easy man alright?! Everything is gonna be okay." He said helping me up.
My head was throbbing hard as I sat up. I rubbed my eyes then noticed most of my gear was taken off of me. All of our gear was gone except for our sidearms, sensors, and radios. We looked to be dressed only in our issued BDUs. I turned to Garlan and asked.
"What happened?"
He finished monitoring my sensor then replied.
"Well, after Brad had closed the door behind us, the mutations began climbing over the roof calling in more infected. Calvin grabbed Acie and I threw you over my shoulder. We quickly shambled to the nearest building which happened to have a this ambulance out front, we hopped in and luckily the keys were in it. Needless to say, we are about ten blocks away from where that store was. Calvin said this is close to where his group was, so that's where we are heading now."
"...Brad." I thought.
He sacrificed himself for us. For Acie. That country boy did what he did to keep us alive to help others or finish this mission. I will never know. The still ambulance began to rock a bit startling me.
"Don't worry, J. That's just a few infected that rock the sides a bit when they hear us talk in here." Garlan said pulling a screen off to reveal Calvin in the driver's seat and the other Umbrella soldier sitting in the passenger's side looking at his sensor.
"So, you said that we are blocks away. Where exactly are we?" I replied. "Are we close enough to the objective?" I tried to keep my voice down so that I wouldn't give off any info that Calvin shouldn't know.
"Close enough. Calvin wants us to go with him to the group but I think we need to continue the mission." Garlan replied.
The rocking on the van picked up more.
"Well ye-" I stopped as the Umbrella soldier was immediately drug out the window by a large herd of infected.
"FUCK! THERE ARE MORE THAN WE THOUGHT, GARLAN!" Calvin yelled.
He reached down and started the ambulance as the screams of the soldier being ripped apart echoed through the interior. Another scream. Another taken life. I'm sick of hearing screams. Hearing the last words of people who have families outside of this company. The company that sent us in on what? A suicide mission? Umbrella is ringing more and more bad numbers for me. I'm staring to see that the money isn't worth the price. The ambulance started up as Garlan swung the back doors open. He pulled out his sidearm popping three infected in a matter of seconds. Calvin smashed the pedal down shooting us forward. Infected fell to the ground as we drove off. There must have been twenty or so surrounding us with even more rounding the corner. How could so many of them be so quiet? They're more dangerous than what we previously thought.
"HOLD TIGHT!" Calvin screamed as we swerved around a corner smashing into the windows of a small storefront.
The impact sent me flying to the front almost falling on top of Acie, who was jolted awake by the crash. Garlan fell out the back before we hit. I could see him across the street, but I could also see more infected filing up in front of the back doors. They couldn't clamber over the steps of the ambulance but with them falling over each other they would be on us in seconds. Calvin pushed the door that connected the cab to the back open and asked.
"Everyone alright?! Where is Garlan?!" He dropped down to lift Acie up over his shoulder who was still trying to wake up. He mumbled to us but we couldn't understand a word he said. Garlan however, stood up and stared at us, shook his head no, then ran off in the opposite direction of where we were. I watched as he pushed infected away running down the street. My friend left us. The man I worked with since I worked in the corps. The man that I thought would have my back was no gone with the black of night. My friend the coward. Calvin lifted Acie over the dash then turned back to me. The infected were now grabbing at my ankles as Calvin pulled me over the dash as well. He threw the door shut behind him and lunged over it falling net to me. We both quickly stood up pulling Acie with us.
"We're close the the entrance of the building we are staying in. We get through this building and we should be there." Calvin exclaimed.
I didn't care where we were going. I wanted to get us out so I followed without question. We rushed through a door leading to the back of the store and quickly closed the door behind us. It wouldn't hold them at all but it would give us time to escape. Precious time we desperately needed seeing as they were already in the store before I closed it. We dropped Acie off on a nearby table while Calvin and I searched for a way to pry the backdoor open. It was a large solid steel door much like the one we encountered earlier so no busting through it. I turned to my left to see a large metal rod that looked to fit perfectly where the lock would. I gripped it tight in my hands and wedged the bar against the door causing the doorway around the lock to bust apart. Not the way I imagined it but that still worked. Calvin pulled Acie over his shoulder again and we rushed out the back finding ourselves in a small alley with dead ends all around. The infected crashed through the door behind us making their way through the back towards us.
"There! That building to the right is the one we are in. We can't go through the door though! It would draw to many of them!" Calvin said rushing his words and pointing out where we had to go.
"The fire escape!" I replied. "They wouldn't be able to climb that!"
"Yeah, but how are we gonna get him up?" He replied moving under the ladder.
"...I'll hold...on" Acie mumbled.
We didn't have the time to wait for him to talk more so we just continued on.
"Let me jump off your hands and I'll grab the ladder alright?" I ordered.
Calvin nodded and dropped Acie next to the wall. He rushed over under the ladder and posed himself with his hands sitting out. I mounted his shoulder and kicked off as he pushed up propelling me up just high enough so that i could grab hold. It came crashing down to the concrete slamming me on my back. Calvin quickly rushed to my aid, lifting me up to my feet. I dusted myself off as he picked Acie back up.
"You climb up first. If he falls, I will catch him." I ordered.
The infected then burst through the door grabbing our attention along with the quick aim of my pistol.
"I'll cover you! GO!" I commanded popping off shot after shot.
Left and right they fell causing the ones in the back to stumble over each other. They didn't care though. They were hungry. Calvin, as fast as he could, rushed up the ladder surprisingly keeping Acie on the whole time.
"COME ON!' He yelled from above.
Without hesitation, I bolted up the ladder just barely grazing the head of an infected on the way up. I fell to my back when I hit the top taking in as much air as I possibly could. The infected below us clambered but weren't getting anywhere.
"...Finally...Safe." Calvin huffed. "Now, I guess the insulin will have to wait util tomorrow. You guys don't play around do you? Yeah, you must be the elite. God. This place is hell. But we are safe for now. The groups on the top floor."
He turned to me and smiled holding his hand out. I grabbed it lifting myself up from his weight.
"I tell ya, It's been a crazy day." He opened the window behind us and lifted Acie up again. "So. you ready to meet em?"
