Raccoon City
Raccoon City, Pennsylvania
September 26, 2018 –
Aftermoon Delight
He somehow held onto his gun even as Claire shouted, "LEON!"
The water was so loud that it made her sound far away.
He tried to fight against the squid's grip but it was monstrous. The suckers attached to his throat and attempted to rip his flesh off with the force. Leon felt his face turn purple and the small echo of two shots.
He was falling into Claire's arms in a handful of seconds and she jerked him under the door as the water shoved them like angry hands into the room beyond.
They were all screaming, smashing the door down as the water surged against the metal and threw Leon back with the force of it.
He got caught in the leaking water and was rushed across the room to smash into the far wall.
Alex was hitting the emergency drainage system switch on the wall beside the door. It opened up a drain in the center of the floor in four places as she shouted, "It will divert the water to the bilge overflow to the moat outside the zoo! It won't last forever but what choice do we have!?"
None.
Not a single thing.
Claire jerked Leon to his feet and they burst out of the pretty aquarium into the open air of the east concourse. There was a horrible moment of fear as they waited to see if the water would find them here but the drainage system was doing its job for the moment - there was nothing but breeze and crickets and soft thunder in the distance.
Around them, all the evidence of a children's zoo existed. It was a habitat filled with adorable goats - that were no longer adorable. They were gutted and rotting, dead and devoured, torn apart and dripping. Where once children had petted and fed bottles, now only death remained. The rocks they'd pranced and jump from were splashed with blood, the hay was still thick with it in places like sludge.
In a small pile near the exhibit door, two small bodies lay on their faces. Their matching yellow windbreakers were torn and flapping in the wind, turned scarlet with blood. The first one was missing an arm and the side of its throat. The second was half lost under the carcasses of two goats as if something had eaten into the child as an afterthought.
Claire whispered, "I don't know if I'll ever sleep again."
Would any of them?
Alex breathed, "The-the shed-it's that way."
The small little shed was easily accessed. It was simple enough to snack the cheap lock with the butt of his gun. Leon cleared the area and let Alex go in to start the generators.
From inside, Alex remarked, "I don't know what happens when the power comes back on. It could alert anything to the fact that we're here. We're gonna be on borrowed time with the lights on and the music and the activity. The whole city might start heading this way."
Jesus. He hadn't thought about that. In response, he suggested, "Anyway to just push power to the grid by the tram?"
Alex glanced at the controls in the tiny shed. It was carefully laid out in the pamphlet attached to the computer.
In case of emergency:
Activate the following protocol
Note - Power restored to substations last.
First - provide power to emergency functions to continue animal restrictions.
Second - provide power to the security office for further evacuation and containment response.
Alex turned the power to the restriction grid as instructed. There was a POP and BUZZ of power coming on somewhere close by. She diverted power to the security office beside the shed and it crackled musically as it lit up like a beacon.
Musingly, she said, "I think I just activated emergency things at the moment. Should just light up locks and doors and escape routes as well as securing the exhibits."
Leon nodded and gestured with his head to the office. They moved toward it and he opened the door, glancing inside. Empty - in a bad way. The elephant gun and the sniper rifle? Gone.
He muttered, "Damn." And stepped back out to join them in the dark.
The very least of things he'd found was three Kevlar vests hanging on the wall. Each girl put one on without complaining. He had a pocketful of .700 ammo for the damn gun if they ever found it. However, he hadn't found a single leftover round for the sniper rifle that was also missing.
He started to remark on it and Alex said, "We'll have to cut through the swamp exhibit to get back now. I'm so sorry. It was one of the first places we sealed off when the zoo started going down on power. Without the electrified fences, anything in there is free to roam."
Claire blinked twice and remarked, "What's in there?"
Alex answered, "It's modeled after the Lousiana swamp. To teach visitors about conservation in the Louisiana Swamp, we use animal exhibits—from black bears to blue crabs, from water snakes to red foxes—educational presentations, and graphics in some...but live animals where we can. It also serves as an outdoor classroom for school children. It was made to educate. With alligator feedings, activities and up-close encounters, both children and adults can enjoy a total immersion experience into an unusual and beautiful environment."
She spoke like she was reciting a pamphlet on it. She probably was. But it meant that whatever was loose in there was really, really, really loose.
Cindy encouraged, "Maybe they were behind the fences when you fired them up?"
Leon laughed, sarcastically, "You known our luck to be good so far?" His voice was hoarse from the squid that had choked him.
Claire brushed a thumb over his neck and the mark there stayed. Not dirt; bruising. He glanced at her in surprise and she whispered, "Sorry...just...sorry. I had to get a good shot."
He shook his head, "You saved my life. Apology not accepted."
He turned toward the farthest archway. A small metal gate beckoned them into the: DELIGHTS OF THE BAYOU! A HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE WHERE YOU ARE THE STAR!
He didn't want to be the star. He wanted the S.T.A.R.S. to show up and take over the whole show. He didn't want to be here at all. He wanted to go home, Netflix and chill, and watch reruns of The Office. He was over being a hero. He clearly sucked at it anyway.
He really just wanted to go home and change his mind about his life. Maybe Jessica would take him back if he begged. Maybe this was the last time he ever listened to his instincts for adventure.
Forget adventure - he was going to become a stay at home Dad.
Leon pushed open the gate into the delights of the bayou, feeling like he was potentially opening a pathway to hell.
The first thing they noticed was the smell; stagnant and sharp, it cloyingly filled the nostrils and made Cindy gag a little. There was nothing quite like water turned swampy. The good news? They didn't immediately end up fist fighting crocodiles or something.
The bad? The water had overtaken the sidewalk and they splashed as they walked. After two steps, Leon grabbed Claire and threw her against the wall. "WAIT!"
His shout made them all jump, but he was so pale, they didn't argue - they just waited.
He grabbed the edge of the concrete platform beside him and boosted up, reaching his hands down to the women one at a time to hoist them up with him. Whey they were gathered in a small huddle on the tiny platform, he said quietly, "The fences are one. The water has infiltrated. We can't guarantee we won't all electrocute if we get in it."
Geez. Claire shook her head, sharply, "Lord. What now?"
Alex remarked, quietly, "The fence only puts out enough amps to shock them. It shouldn't kill."
Leon returned, "The current kills you. A 220-volt shock will hurt just as much as a 10,000-volt shock, as long as the current or amps are the same. Amps are what kills."
Claire was quiet for a moment before she added, "Electric fence energizers put out high voltage of around 8,000 volts, but very low amperage around 120 milliamps."
She blinked when everyone looked at her and filled the silence with an explanation, "My brother owns forty acres in Montana, inherited from our parents when they passed. We had horses and sheep up there. We knew about electric fence and safety. We'll be fine."
To prove it, Claire stepped down into the shallow water. Everyone flinched, waiting for her to start doing some kind of electrocution dance. They waited for her body to jerk and jump and twitch.
Instead, she just moved forward in the stagnant swamp.
Reluctantly, the rest of them began to follow her.
The swamp was full of bugs. They circled nastily around in little whirlwinds of gross buzzing. They annoyingly lodged in the hair and near the eyes as they walked. Some kind of bird called into the air - a musical lilting sound. A whippoorwill? Who knew?
Was that a real bird?
Claire smirked to herself as they trudged through dirty water. She started to crack a joke and noticed that Leon was keeping pace with her, but that he looked like he might be trying to chew his face. She waited a moment, touched his elbow, and was surprised when he jerked her hand away.
Quietly, she queried, "What?"
He shook his head, moving ahead of her. Claire joined his side again, grabbing his arm. When he tried to pull away, she kept hold, "What, Leon? What?"
He finally stopped, looked down at her hand and then back at her face, and spat, "What if you were wrong? You don't think, Claire...you just...do what you want. You'd be dead now. And you call me an idiot?"
A moment passed. Cindy stopped, wincing with sympathy for Claire. Alex looked concerned about the moment herself, but she was glancing into the darkness past the fences. "Guys? This is soooo not the time."
She was right. Naturally. But Leon jerked his arm away again and start moving. Claire lagged a bit, shaking her head. "...I wasn't wrong." She said it quietly, softly, almost apologetically.
Leon shook his head and took the lead, leaving her behind him.
This time, she didn't try to catch up. Cindy and Alex ranged around her, with girl sympathy. Claire mused, softly, "Was I wrong?"
Cindy shrugged but said nothing. Alex cajoled, "...a little. You were a little wrong. If he was right, you'd be dead now. He was trying to protect us all I think. You just...leaped in the water."
Cindy, again, said nothing.
Well, Claire thought, that was it. She was officially: "leaps without thinking" girl. Even her other gal pals here agreed. She was officially lumped in with stupid girls. A little offended, Claire remarked, "I was sure we'd be fine. Why is that so hard to believe?"
Cindy shook her head, "Not hard to believe. But you couldn't know for sure, Claire. You were guessing."
"Ok. So what? I was reasonably sure I was right. What's the chances any of us lives through this thing anyway, Cindy? Honestly? So what if I'm the first one down? Better electrocuted than eaten alive."
Jesus. The truth of that resonated so badly that Alex actually sniffled. Feeling bad about that, Claire looped an arm over her shoulders. "I'm sorry. I'm being an asshole because I'm actually sorry I scared everyone. I didn't mean that."
She did. But no reason to be a bitch about it.
She let go of Alex, "I'll apologize to Leon."
She was kinda getting good at that. Lord, was this all they did? Survive, run, fight, apologize. What else was there? She was starting to lose hope here.
Claire touched his back again and said, "Hey...look...I'm sorry I scared you."
He opened his mouth to respond...and shoved her instead. It was so unexpected that she didn't do anything but land on her ass in the water and skid. He shoved her so hard it literally took her breath away.
She hit the water, sent up a plume of it around her as if she'd just cannonballed into a swimming pool, and couldn't do anything but gasp for air.
He also saved her life.
The alligator got him instead.
Horrified, she watched it take him to the ground in a snarling snap of jaws and claws. It had leaped over the fence beside them from the rock pile where it was hanging out in the dark. It stunk of old mold and rot. Alex and Cindy helped her up in the ensuing madness.
Claire shouted, "RUN TO THE DOOR! GO!"
And they did that without being told twice.
The alligator and Leon were gone. It had taken him down to skid over the walkway, under the edge of the rock wall behind him, and into the swampy water. He was gone, submerged, lost. The fence here was torn and sparking. Useless. Something had torn it down in an attempt to escape.
Claire waded into the water, finding it waste deep and freezing. It was brave and stupid to do it, but she'd be damned if she let him die to save her. The panic, the terror, the horror of that...it stole her breath and left her dizzy.
"LEON!" She shouted it, desperate. Stupid, she knew, to shout. But she couldn't see anything in the dark.
She could hear though. She heard the boom of his gun. She watched birds take flight in a cawing mess of anger. She heard it go off again. Too far away. Too far. She caught her boot on something in the water and jerked in anger, thwarted from getting to the direction of the gunshot.
The thing in the water came loose and floated up, up, up and she was face to face with the half-eaten countenance of someone long dead.
It had one eye. It had one ear. It had claw marks over it's ripped out throat. It was male once, maybe, and had long hair. But the other half of its head was ravaged and torn away.
Alligators?
The chattering sound beside her said maybe not. She was snout to face now with a red fox.
Well, it had once been that anyway. It made some kind of fox chatter noise at her and bared its dripping teeth. Rotten. It was dripping with infection. It was dying where it stood. It was already dead and risen to make her join it. Undead fox - looking to feed.
She was frozen as it snarled and dove for her face.
An inch from her nose it was blasted out of the air. A fucking risky shot. Dangerous. It whizzed so close to her cheek that she felt it split skin and burn. The fox yelped and was thrown back over the rock, literally shot in midair. The hot wash of her blood spilled down her cheek.
She lifted her hand to it, staring at the blood on her fingers in horror.
Hers?
She touched her ear and realized the bullet had graced that too. He'd shot the damn thing out of the sky over her shoulder, and grazed her face. She turned her head and found him coming through the waist-high water. He seemed so far away. He hadn't hit her. He'd killed the fox. It was a HELLUVA shot.
He wasn't coming alone.
Behind him, three alligators had joined the party. They were giving chase, and the corpse of their comrade floated belly-up in the water where he'd left it. He was bleeding from his forehead somewhere. He was missing his bulletproof vest. His shirt was ripped on the left shoulder, but the skin looked flawless beneath.
He shouted, "RUN, CLAIRE!"
But she was frozen.
Her feet would NOT move. She was frozen there. The second she knew it was shock, she felt her lips with her tongue. Cold. Damnit.
She was going to get them both killed. She staggered but didn't go down. He reached her and she almost did then. She almost collapsed against him. But instead, he jerked her up with his hands fisted in her jacket. "Help me, Claire! You hear me!? HELP ME!"
Right in her face. He shouted so loud it echoed.
She took the gun from his hands he was thrusting at her. She took it as he scooped her against him. No thought here. None of that. She latched around him like a child and let him carry her.
He slogged through the water with her legs around his waist and she aimed over his shoulder, watching the alligators barrel toward them. He shouted, "SHOOT, CLAIRE!"
Right. Shoot.
She did. She fired right into the snarling jaws of the one closest to them. It ate a bullet, whipped its bleeding face around, and knocked its brothers away in the process. She felt like a champ. Her hands weren't so cold anymore.
She put two more in the next set of jaws that dove for them and he hit the sidewalk again.
He could have set her down - but he didn't. He just ran for it. She clutched around him, putting her face against his neck.
The alligators, literally, snapped at his heels and she shot one in the eye that tried to take his calf. It threw blood as it recoiled, tossing its head in agony.
She was a good shot. She'd said that she was, Leon mused, but here was the proof. Even under stress, even half mired in shock - Claire didn't miss.
But there weren't enough bullets in that gun to keep them alive at this point. They were dead anyway. He simply wasn't fast enough to outrun a mutated alligator.
What was the expression? A "croc" of shit? Apparently, it was more like an alligator of one.
But they'd go down fighting, he thought, as he kicked the snarling jaws of the next one that tried to get him from the side. They'd go down fighting.
At this point, it was all they had left anyway.