-17)
Holy fucking shit…
Alan had seen many things these last few days, things that would have driven a man with a weaker spirit insane, but now…hell… he wasn't even sure if he was not going nuts already.
That thing out there was nothing like a zombie, it was about one and a half times bigger then a normal human, and surely of the same width.
It wore black cloths on every part of his body, except its head, which was very similar to the face of Freddie Krueger. Only that good old Freddie never had such an empty expression and not such teeth. Its only eye was just blank white and nothing in them made Alan believe that it was even using it.
Plus on top of all this there were these oversized teeth, on of those was as big as a shotgun shell and they were of a glowing white. With no lips existing in his face it looked like its was grinning all the time, even when it was growling something.
"Sssttaarrraass", the thing exclaimed loud enough for hearing it inside the station.
"We have to help. She will be killed", Toni, who unfortunately got rid of her paralysis said.
This "she" was a young women, maybe around 25, with a black mini-skirt and a blue tank-top. Her brown hair was dirty and indicated, that she was surviving in the city for quite some time.
But now her luck's run out…
Really, she was dodging that monster in a very professional manner, she might have been some kind of athletic or, which was more likely, she was with the city's SWAT, or whatever they had here. The way she handled her nine-millimeter was not botchy at all.
She fired one round after another into that monster, but it wasn't even slowing down.
"Come on, we have to do something!!", Toni repeated.
Two and a half days in hell and she still was playing hero, didn't she learn anything?
"No…we'll only die for nothing."
"Nothing? That is a human out there!! We have to help!!"
"Do you EVER think before acting? Did you count how many bullets she fired into that thing? No? Well, I did!! thirty-seven, girl. We don't nearly have that many rounds left and that thing is still fucking standing."
"But…", she started and then looked to the floor. She finally seemed to understand. At least until the next person in need was crying for help. There was no way she would ever stop being the do-gooder, but at least for now she would not get both of them killed.
"Look!!", she suddenly said and her face got even paler. He quickly looked through the window and saw the best thing that could have happened.
The monster in the black coat stumbled backwards holding his gigantic shoulder with his gigantic hand while several liters of a violet bloody fluid sprayed out of a seemingly big wound. It tripped over his own feet and then fell heavily to the ground.
Was it really dead? Alan could not believe in that, from the forty-one bullets that hit it, not one was effective until the last? That was unrealistic.
The women however did not seem to care checking if that thing was really dead, she only had eyes for a dead body lying next to the gate. It was guy in a yellow vest, maybe her lover of something.
His face, or what was left of it, was not a nice view, but the women only seemed to check the guys pockets until she found something and turned to the entrance.
"Hide!!", Alan ordered while already dragging the girl behind a pile of wooden boards, which had obviously been used for barricading.
"What are you doing? She is a human and good with the gun, she could help us", Toni contradicted.
"Yeah, likewise she could kill us to get our ammo and weapons. Believe it or not, not everyone in this city is a hero."
She seemed to want to reply another foolish thing, but he quickly covered her mouth with his hand when the door flew open. They quickly hid behind the boards.
The women ran inside and quickly passed the fountain on her way towards the reception-desk. While Alan slowly took his hand from Toni's mouth, the fact that she did not already bite his palm still surprising him, the women did something with the computer.
Carefully controlling his breathing, he watched the women hacking something into the keyboard until she seemingly was done and picked up her berretta.
He noticed how silently the women was moving through the lobby, how concentrated she was while checking her surroundings and he understood that she was obviously very well trained, even better then the average SWAT.
While she disappeared through a door, Alan really liked to know where she learned that stuff. She had to have done a training that was very similar to his own, maybe she was like him? Maybe from an earlier generation of the camp.
"She is with S.T.A.R.S., I just remembered the picture of the suspended S.T.A.R.S. that went through the papers when this cannibal-cult thing ended or …started you might say. She was on it."
"It sure seems your celebrities are better educated then those in the 'apple."
She looked at him puzzled, obviously not having the slightest idea of what he was talking about. "No celebrities, dumbass. S.T.A.R.S.! That's short for Special Tactics And Rescue Serv…", she paused for a second, "…you made a joke, didn't you?"
He did not reply anything while he started to walk towards the computer that the women had been using.
Her face lit up for a second. "You really made a joke just now, right?"
How happy she became just because she found this tiny bit of sarcasm in his speech, now she wouldn't stop teasing him with it.
"She looked into protected files, which you need a keycard for. But maybe we can find a map of this place in here. It's really huge and we can't trust that Rick will come here."
"Come on… say it. Say: "I made a joke and am proud of it", please."
He exhaled slowly, rubbing his eyes with index finger and thumb. "Enough, girl! We really have no time for your stupid acts, now help me find a goddamn…get down!!!"
Alan, a person who had not felt fear for a very long time, felt how all his blood left his face when he saw something coming at the entrance door.
The door was nearly pulverized when something broke through and stopped in front of the fountain. It was the black-clad monster the women had been fighting with and its eyes immediately locked on Alan and Toni.
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The girl was gone and the two cops, one in the seat of the helicopter and one under it, were both dead. Two more nameless victims burned to ashes in a steel coffin.
When the copter crashed into the roof it had directly hit a water tank, which ironically did not break, thus the fuel exploded and now half of the roof was burning like hell…literally.
Ben thought that it might be possible to break the tank and extinguish the fire, but it seemed rather pointless, since the department or any of the city wouldn't survive for much longer.
"We need to get inside, Alan and Toni are surely waiting…", Rick said calmly.
Diana was still kneeling in front of the fire, a very sad picture, that really made Ben want to hug her and tell her that everything was going to be alright. She surely had high hopes for that copter, and seeing it now destroyed was shattering.
Slowly walking at her, he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Diana?"
She did not look up, but she opened her mouth. "Yeah…they are waiting…", she whispered.
There was not even a bit of strength in her voice, which was really absurd. Days ago, he had been the little wimp and she'd been the self-assured idol of the girls, now their roles were changed.
While he helped her on her feet he decided, that never again he would allow anyone to hurt this girl, he never again wanted to see her suffer that much. She deserved to be happy.
"You see, once we find those two we'll leave and then everything's gonna be fine again", he silently whispered in her ear.
Her eyes looked up at him, they were glooming from a teary wetness. "You don't really believe that, do you?"
He tried to fake a smile and knew how much he failed at it. "Sure. Once we are out of here, we can start anew, in another city, attend a new school, go to colleague and live…"
She silenced him with a quick, still heavenly, kiss. "…happily ever after, huh? You're cute, Ben", she said afterwards and smiled back.
Ben stared at her with an open mouth, not sure if he was still awake or if he died in the explosion. She did just kiss him. She really did.
Get a grip…she was desperate… she'd have kissed anyone…
But somehow he knew that wasn't true. She was not the type who did such things. Maybe she could really start to like him, maybe they could really start a relationship?
A silent cough behind him made the dreaming boy return to reality, Rick stood behind him, the bamboo stick casually placed on his shoulder. "Don't want to disturb you lovebirds, but we should get inside. We'll attract the zombies here."
Ben immediately felt how his face started glowing red like a traffic light. "We are not…I mean…"
Diana giggled next to him before she walked to the door. "I guess he is right, we'll continue this later Ben", she gave him a big smile and Ben's heart felt lighter immediately. Seeing that she could still smile like that was so good.
"Alright…", Rick rolled his eyes, "…let's see what we got inside."
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Something was totally going wrong with her life.
Being the closest thing to a celebrity this city ever had, Emily Warren had always known to keep up a mask of total happiness. From her earliest youth she had learned how you had to behave in high society, how you had to look to help your father's election and of course how you could manipulate people, especially boys.
In exchange for her hard work she got everything a girl could wish for, she had a platinum credit card, a red sports car and was dating the captain of Raccoon High's football team. A guy called Sam, who was coincidently the son of another important family in Raccoon. He was a total idiot, but, as her father told her, it was profitable to bond with his family, even though she first had to break up that other relationship he had with…whatever her name was.
So, her life was perfect. At least until something went wrong with the city, just when Emily had been skipping classes with some friends in the mall. She had seen the greatest shoes on the planet just when those sick guys appeared.
They had been all stinky and ugly, and even before they attacked, Emily had been sure they meant trouble. While those freaks attacked her friends she had run away.
Out of the mall, out of the shopping district right towards the RPD. She had seen more of those man-eaters walking around, but she had somehow managed to avoid them. At that time it had still been save inside the RPD. The cops, who were also alive at that time, quickly brought her to the seemingly most safe place, Chief Irons' office.
She knew Irons for years, and even though she never liked him, she was glad to have someone with a gun as her personal guardian. Irons was very friendly, he said he would never let those zombies (that was the first time she had heard this word, but Irons was as nice as to explain it to her) lay a finger on her.
Of course the first thing she had done was call her dad in city hall, then at home. He wasn't answering, not even his mobile. Emily really got worried. With those "zombies" running around he could be in trouble.
Luckily, she had Irons to comfort her. He said that her father was most likely in a conference, in which he had always switched his mobile off. That really had explained a lot of things and Emily wanted to belief Irons. When he had offered her to stay for a while, she hadn't been suspicious.
She really trusted the big man and now she was locked in for that. He had lured her into a room next to his office, a room filled with expensive art and even armors, and before she could react he had closed the door and locked it tight.
When she asked why he did that, he would only answer that it was for her own best. What a crap!
She had had to stay in that armor-room for a whole day now. Luckily there was a small refrigerator in another room, which was filled with a few chocolate-bars. Really unhealthy stuff, but without them, she'd be starving already.
Thus she did the only thing she could do: Wait. That day was seemingly endless, but then there was this nice boy, that Marcus.
At first she had been distrustful, but then he told her that he would fetch her very soon and they would be going to where her father was. Even better, he had a medicine that would protect her from becoming sick like the others.
The problem that she was still locked in did not mean much to her anymore. Marcus promised to come right after he took care of something in the RPD until then she would wait.
Her knight would come.