Huge claws clicked as the monster slowly made its way down the door and to the wooden floor below. All four survivors backed away slowly, with David in the front brandishing the shotgun at the monster. Accidentally, David let off a shot, missing the creature by a vast distance. The creature hunched back on its hind legs, its back arching like a cat ready to pounce. Instead of pouncing, its tongue shot out lightning quick, slashing at David's leg. A small puddle of blood formed below; where David's leg was slashed open by the creature's razor sharp tongue.
David's face went ashen, the blood quickly draining from his face; he looked as if he might pass out at any time. Mark snapped back into his senses, grabbing the shotgun from David's hands and aiming at the creature. A single shot, followed by the pump of the shotgun and another shot rang out in succession. Brain and other organic matter sprayed the wall behind and consequently the door too. The creature let out an ear-shattering shriek as it flipped on its back and twitched violently in quick jerking spasms.
David leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. "Am…am I infected?" His voice was sullen and hollow.
"David, we don't even know how the infection is spread, that thing may not even be able to spread it, and it may not even be a carrier." George tried to sound optimistic, but in the course of his studies, he knew that in all likelihood, David was infected and with a new disease like this, there probably wasn't much they could do. George put his hand on David's shoulder. "Even if you do get infected, we can find a cure, I know we can."
His words were riddled with lies and half-truths, but none rivaled George's bedside manner. David put on the best grin he could muster and, with Mark's help staggered back onto his feet. "Thanks Doc." David gave George a pat on his shoulder before taking the shotgun back from Mark.
"Do you need something for that?" George asked, pointing to his wound.
"Nah, it's only a flesh wound."
George took his answer without pause and walked up to the door. Fishing around in his pocket, George took out the silver key he had gotten from the safe in the other room. It fit perfectly into the lock, when turned the tumblers fell into place and there was a tiny click as the door unlocked.
Outside, the hallway was lit ablaze, but like the rest of the building was burning slowly. To their left the hallway continued around, past pockets of fire still vying for life, and to their right, the hallway ended with a door leading to what looked like the courtyard they had come from.
"This must be where the others came in at." Cindy said, looking out the window. Mark nodded and walked up to the door to look outside. When he was satisfied that it was in fact where the others had come in at, he came back. George frowned, not sure, what they had gained from going the way they had gone, except that Cindy almost died, his leg was injured, and David could now potentially be infected and could die. An overwhelming sense of guilt flushed through his system, it was his fault that they had come this way, it was his fault that they all could've died or could die yet for suggesting that they take both routes.
"Everyone, I'm truly sorry that we had gone that way for nothing, I wish I had never put you all in harm's way." George didn't really believe his words, he wasn't the one who almost died, he wasn't the one who was infected, possibly infected he corrected himself. He sighed, waiting for the blame to come, waiting for them to yell at him, hit him. Nothing came.
"Look, we couldn't have known there was nothing from that way, we looked and found nothing, except that key of course." David was the one who spoke up. "We just have to find the others now, that's all."
David started down the hallway without letting George interject, until he came to a stop before some wooden planks placed haphazardly on the floor, covering a gaping hole. Fire boiled up through the spaces in the wood planks, possibly other planks that had been burned away. Intellectually, George couldn't help but wonder if there was any other way past this hole; he wondered if there was any other way to get to the other side of the hall. Finding nothing else that could get them across, George had to consent to the validity of the option.
Mark was the first to go this time. He tested the boards to make sure they could hold his girth. The planks seemed sturdy enough to hold him, so he ran across when the flames had died down. George was the next to go, having an easy time getting across, and was closely followed by Cindy. As David went to cross the planks, they started to bent and crack. David wobbled, trying to steady his balance on the planks as they twisted and shook under his weight. They must've just given out after the others had
used them; they had taken all they could take. Mark's hand thrust out and took hold of David's wrist yanking him off the planks just before they collapsed to the ground below.
"Alright come on." David didn't take time to panic or catch his breath; he was beyond the surprises of life-and-death. He brushed past Mark and continued down the hall, stopping only to shoot a zombie with the shotgun. They walked through the hall, ignoring the doors and found themselves facing a set of stairs. "I guess the only way is to go up."
"Seems about right." Mark chimed in as he followed David up the stairs. The stairs creaked under foot as they ascended, walking first to the second floor. The second floor seemed bare, a few rooms, but significantly less than the first floor. Most of the doors led to rooms, but two were different, one led to a set of stairs leading to the third floor and the first and the other was, the security room. "Probably our best bet is in here."
Mark was the first into the security room, passing through the doorway and walking up to the computer monitors. Having experience in security, Mark tried to look through the records, but found them illegible due to poor bookkeeping. He cursed as he threw the books back on the table. David was looking through the door on the other side of the room.
"Hey, hey, hey. Take a look at this. It seems the others were already here." David said as he moved to the side showing them the entire hallway they had come into from the fire escape. "Must've unlocked the door and gone down stairs."
"Yeah, they're either lost, or have found something useful." George said absent mindedly, staring at a statue in the back. "Why is there a statue in this room?"
"Not too sure, never seen a statue in any other security room, though." Mark said, walking up to George and standing next to him. George moved past the table in the middle of the room and up to the statue, rubbing the empty hole where something used to fit. He took a cursory glance around the room before his eyes rested on the bookcase next to him. "Something is wrong with this."
Mark took in the bookcase and then onto the ground. "Scuff marks, its been moved."
Mark leaned against the bookcase and started to push it, it slid easily on the tiled floor. As he moved it, the shape of a door began to become clear. The bookcase hit the wall next to the statue, completely revealing the doorway behind the bookcase. "What'd you make of that?" Mark asked, backing away so all could see.
"I suppose it's like a quick escape route, probably for the security officers in case of…some sort of attack?" George was purely speculating, but with the recent alarms against terrorist attacks everyone in Raccoon City was preparing for the worst, he supposed this was the inn's way of preparing. "I guess the guards wanted a way out and they got it, I'll bet it leads back to the lobby though. We need to find a way to open it, and if logic tells us, it probably has something to do with the statue. Something must need to fit in there."
George looked around, but no one gave him anything else to work with. He traced the hole with his index finger before turning to the others. "We have to find whatever goes in here."
"And how do you propose we find that?" David asked, skeptical.
"We just have to…look for it, that's all we can do." George said, hoping that they'd agree this was their only chance.
"I don't know about just lookin', but these papers might mean somethin'. They say that somethin' was moved to a room on the third floor, it might be a place to start." Mark said, putting the papers back on the table. George thought it was a long shot, but it was worth a try, they didn't have much to go on and the building was still on fire.
"So, the third floor it is." George said as he took one final look at the statue that either would hold their salvation or would waste enough time to get them all killed in this God forsaken place.