THE CRIMSON STONE
CHAPTER 3
"Where are we going?" Charlie asked as she was practically dragged by Leon from one hiding spot to another. His grasp on her wrist, never ease.
"Can you keep it down please? I don't want them to see us, incase you haven't notice." Leon whispered harshly.
"Well maybe if you answered my question earlier, I wouldn't be such a fuss." Charlie replied back in a harsher tone.
"Sorry, then. But please be good so I can save you." He apologized curtly, so that he can shut her up.
Surprisingly, it worked. His sudden apology surprised Charlie. She never said a word since and begun sprinting with him more confidently.
Unfortunately, as they made a sharp turn to one of the deserted streets, the same pack of zombie which they outrun earlier, spotted them. And as usual, they sprinted towards them at a hell of a speed.
Their actions alone knocked the breath out of Charlie. In her mind, she was so petrified and already foreseeing her death. She knew one of her fears is being chased head on. She can't run fast. She knew she was a slow runner. She wasn't going to survive this!
Before she could predict her death any further, Leon grabbed her by the arm and started running to an intersection of the street. It was hard for Charlie to keep up with Leon's pace. No way, her lame, out of shape legs can match his long lean and muscular (she guessed) legs. But fear enough got her adrenaline running wildly so her running was faster than ever before. They turned left into an alley way.
Suddenly Leon stopped as they reached a fire escape of the building their running next to a little too abruptly which caused Charlie the bump into him from behind. Hard.
"OOuf! Hey, why are we stopping?" Her words came out ragged between gasps. Charlie bent down to rest her hands on her knees.
"Quick! I'll give you a boost since the ladder is up. Go up there, to the rooftop and take cover. I'll come back later." Leon said urgently.
"But what about you?" She asked.
"Just go. I'll tell you later." Leon replied offering his hand to give her a boost.
Without wasting any time, Charlie quickly followed his orders.
Leon quickly continued sprinting the second Charlie was up. "RUN! Before they see you!" He shouted as he ran, distracting the hoard of zombies away from Charlie. He knew that Charlie wouldn't be able to run with him all the way. So, he needs to get rid of this ridiculous fast zombies first before coming back to get her.
He had to cross several obstacles in the way as he ran. They were many crashed cars upon the quiet street. The only sound came from Leon's boot as he ran and the hoard of mindless zombies not far behind him. The situation looked so much the same as the Raccoon City incident eight years ago. It was as if he was relieving his nightmare.
At the end of the street he could see a movie theatre across the road. If he could lead the zombies into the theatre and finish them off with a hand grenade, would be perfect. Considering the fact that the inside of movie theatres are mostly covered with soft materials to absorb the sound of the explosion. Therefore, it will decrease the chances of attracting other zombies toward Leon as he escape.
Leon sprinted across the road and entered the theatre. In it, he quickly took cover behind the candy bar. As he neared it, a straw box suddenly flew right at his face, but he was quick to dodge it.
"Stand back!" a man shouted as he held the cash register above his head, ready to throw it next.
"Sir, calm down. I'm not infected by the virus these zombies carry with them." Leon explained smoothly.
The middle-age man about late forties relaxed, and lowered the cash register. The sound of moaning was then heard and Leon pulled the man down under the counter.
"I need you to be quiet as I deal with this. Cover your ears if you have to and follow my lead so we can escape this." Leon whispered urgently.
The man nodded in agreement.
It was silent now, nothing but the sound of those deathly moaning and growling. Leon peered at the zombies from the side of the counter. They're in the main lobby now. But how does he get them to go into one of the movie halls.
He searched the area for something. A metal pop corn scooper lay next to him. Leon grabbed it and readied himself to throw it into one of the opened doors leading into one of the halls. With a fast and accurate throw, the scooper flew into the air and while still in mid-air; Leon shot it to cause noise to attract the zombies. Luckily, it worked! Soon the whole lot of the zombies went pouring into hall 2, hungry for their next victim.
Leon quickly rushed out of his hiding spot once all of them were in and sprinted towards the hall door with a grenade in hand. He pulled the pin and threw it as far back of the movie hall. Leon then quickly closed the door and blocked it off with a 'no smoking' metal sign just in time before the grenade exploded. The door rattled wildly in front of Leon as the explosion went off. And the moaning stopped. Silenced.
"Finally," Leon muttered under his breath.
Leon signaled for the man to run out the door. And soon they were both sprinting out of the movie theatre and went as far away from there, back towards the deserted street Leon came from. They found a pawn shop at the end of the street, and went in.
The bell above the door tinkled as they entered the shop. It was empty.
"Quick, cover the glass window so that they can't see us," Leon said to the man as he headed to the back room to check if it's clear of zombies or not. The back room was clear, so Leon locked and blocked the only back door.
"How can I ever repay you for your help," the man said as Leon entered the front of the shop.
"No problem. But listen, there's a girl I left of earlier. I need to go get her. Can you manage for yourself while I'm gone?"
"Yeah, sure I guess with these" the man said as he took out two guns from a drawer.
"And by the way, I'm Jeff Acker," the man introduced himself.
"Leon S. Kennedy," Leon said as he exited the shop.
Back at Charlie…
Charlie watched as Leon ran away with the hoard of zombies close behind him. She was almost on top of the fire escape. Knowing that a zombie will spot her any moment now just by standing there, she tried to lift open the window behind her.
"Ugh, damn it's stuck," she muttered under her breath as she attempted to open the window.
There's no other way, she has to get in from the rooftop. So she continued up the fire escape and vaulted over the small gate on top.
The rooftop was gratefully deserted. The place was completely littered. Beer bottles were everywhere. It looked like someone threw a party.
Suddenly, from the corner of Charlie's eyes she saw a leg twitched from behind an overthrown sofa. Charlie quickly took cover behind a trash can. Or at least she tried to since she tripped on the way and knocked down the trash can instead.
"Oh, no." she squeaked as she landed.
Moaning was then heard and no sooner than that, the zombie crawled out from behind the sofa and stood up revealing that she was a girl in a tank top and a mini skirt. Within minutes, she was already ready to attack.
Without wasting time, Charlie got up and ran away from her. The zombie, who ran really fast managed to knock down Charlie as she ran and toppled on top of her. She fell right on her back at the edge of the rooftop. One push is all it takes to kill her as she falls down the eight level building.
The zombie's head was just inches away from Charlie's head. She was desperately struggling to avoid the zombie from biting her.
"Aargh! Get off me!" Charlie screamed as she used every ounce of her strength to kick the zombie off of her.
She managed to do just that and the sound of bones broken could be heard as the zombie hit the pavement below. Charlie quickly got up and shuddered as she looked at the scene.
"Gross." She said
She then headed towards the door leading to the staircase. Unfortunately, another zombie sprang from behind the door, and knocked her down. The zombie barely grabbed her neck but instead scratched it. This time, she managed to shove it to the side. She ran to one of the corners of the rooftop, a plan forming in her mind as she ran.
The zombie too got up, and chased Charlie to the corner where she did a sharp U-turn and took out her BB gun. The zombie who tried to copy her move only managed a subtle brake and turned around to face her.
The second it turned around, Charlie shot it twice right in the eye. It staggered backwards and Charlie quickly ran to it, giving a firm kick on the chest which sent it falling down the corner of the building.
Back to Leon…
THUD, THUD, THUD, were the sound of Leon's boots as he ran back to the fire escape he left Charlie at. He just hoped that she was fine. After all he only left her for almost fifteen minutes, top. As he reached the fire escape, he quickly climbed the few set of stairs to the top.
With his gun raised in front of him, he was ready for any surprise attack. He started searching for Charlie. The place looked pretty deserted. But who knows, anything can be lurking around here. He walked further to the front as he eyed the torn sofa suspiciously. Slowly he maneuvered himself to the side of it so that he can get a clear shot. As he was about to do so, something moved.
"HA!" Charlie shouted as both of them aimed at each other's face in unison. Leon was first to lower his gun.
"Hey, easy there kid," he said.
"Oh, Leon. Thank god it's you." Charlie said as she too lowered her gun.
"Are you okay?" Leon asked as he crouched down next to her.
Leon eyed her neck. There were really red scratch marks on her neck. Charlie noticed where he was looking and defensively covered her neck.
"Oh this, this is nothing. Two zombies attacked me, and one of them got the liberty to leave a mark," she replied.
"And where are they? I don't see any bodies lying around here."
"I could only managed to throw them off the building,"
"Good job," Leon said as he got up and offered a hand.
Charlie took his hand and started to keep her gun back in her backpack.
"Where did you get that?"
"Oh, this? It's my trusty BB gun. I won it at a BB gun championship. But it doesn't kill any zombies though. Just kind of slow them down."
"So, you can handle a gun well?"
"I guess,"
"Let's go, I found a survivor."
They both started heading towards the fire escape.