Author's Note: Here's the last bit of 'background section' before we get to jump back into the main story. It's somewhat short so there's not a lot for me to say. I do hope you all are still enjoying this story, and I do appreciate feedback. Actually, I appreciate feedback more than anything. Good or bad, I don't care. Let me know what I can improve upon, or let me know that you enjoy reading this story. Support and technique tips are always nice.
SEPTEMBER 26
After sleeping for what only seemed like a few minutes, Veronica was startled awake by a loud, deep banging noise that echoed throughout the previously quiet library. Shortly after coming back into consciousness, she heard someone shouting. The chatter and motions of various other survivors soon mixed in with the cacophony of noises.
"We need everyone to stay calm! We are doing our best to hold off the creatures from the front of the precinct." She thought that the voice sounded familiar, and upon opening her eyes, she found Marvin standing on a balcony above, addressing everyone. Glancing to her side, she found that Robert, Kyle and Kathy had already left. "I'll be honest, I'm not sure if we can push them back, or how much longer we'll be able to hold them off. We are setting up an escape route in the back of the station for those of you who would prefer to take your chances on your own."
Amidst the crowd, one man yelled up, "What should we do? Stay or go?"
Marvin shook his head and took a step away from the railing. Perhaps he had said something, but Veronica didn't hear him. Instead, she broke her attention away from his direction and stood up. When she saw an opening through the mass of rampaging, chaotic survivors, she ran towards the stairs that led up to where Marvin stood.
"What happened?" she asked, not even bothering to see if he recognized her from two days ago.
"You need to hurry and either head upstairs to a more secure location, or get to the back and escape." He paused and lowered his head, almost in disbelief that it had finally come to this. "The horde outside broke through our outer barricades, and to make matters worse, some people who had been bitten slipped in under our notice and turned this morning. Things aren't looking good."
Veronica turned to leave, not particularly fond of the idea of staying in the station. If things were as bad as Marvin led her to believe, what little hope she had for the building fell apart. However, against her better judgment she stopped and faced the officer once again. "You can come with us, you know. You don't have to stay here." If he had been anyone else, she probably wouldn't have bothered to waste her breath in saying that, but part of her respected him from he did when they first met, for being able to take charge and do what had to be done, even if it meant killing,
"I know." The two words were simply enough in nature and almost completely foolish from a survivalist standpoint. Perhaps they both realized that the station would be lost. In the end, he would commit himself to fighting against the odds, and Veronica wanted to admire him for such bravery and commitment, but she couldn't. Instead, she turned and left him to his fate, without offering another word.
Despite the unneeded complexity of the layout of the station, Veronica did manage to wind her way through corridors of panicking people, and eventually reentered the heart of Raccoon City. Despite the sun's morning glow touching her skin, it did absolutely nothing to raise her spirits. She found herself standing at the back of a large mass of survivors that had gathered behind a gate in the back of the precinct. An officer with a megaphone stood at the front and began to speak as she attempted to push her way through the crowd.
"When we open the gates, we need you all to move quickly while we keep the monsters back. It's suggested that you make your way for the city limits or to high ground so that rescue helicopters may find you easier." In the end, there wasn't too much for him to say. He was about to release a large number of ill qualified survivors back into the city, most of which would find themselves dead within the hour.
Silence fell upon the crowd after the officer finished speaking and his fellow policemen began to unlock the gate. It was the calm before the storm, the last moments any of those individuals would have resembling safety. Eventually, the gate opened and just as Veronica caught sight of Kyle, the mass of survivors tore past her as if she didn't even exist. Before she knew it, the crowd began to knock her back and forth like a ragdoll until she finally fell to the ground. Upon giving up in her attempts to get back on her feet, it was all Veronica could do but block her face from the trampling feet of the crazed survivors and scream out random obscenities as they rushed over her.
When the worst of it past, Veronica wobbled to her feet, happy that her cause of death in a zombie outbreak wasn't 'trampled by a bunch of inconsiderate jackasses.'
Only one man stayed behind, and he approached the young woman as she dusted off her clothes and checked to see that her weapons were still secured to her person. "They, Kyle and that young girl, were talking about going to that fire station on 15th Avenue before sunset."
"They left without you?" Veronica said aloud in disbelief, ignoring the fact that they had most likely been swept up with the crowd in a similar fashion to her.
The officer with the megaphone cut off Robert's response. "If you two are leaving, you need to hurry so that we can close the gate!"
Without another word, Robert and Veronica ran through the open gate. The last they ever heard of the police station was of that gate closing and gunfire echoing through the air.
