Note! I'm so sorry about these late updates. I've been in one hell of a writing rut. I'm hoping that I'll get more writing done with these next couple of weeks.

Chapter 6:

"I'm going to check over there, and you can check these desks here," Veronica suggested. Claire nodded in agreement before both girls went their separate ways. The first thing Veronica noticed on her side was a medical bag hanging on a hook on the wall. Digging through she found some medical supplies including some pain pills, which she relayed to Claire. Placing them in her pouch, she knew they would be handy sometime during the night.

Amongst the many desks, they both had found a gunpowder can, a first aid spray, some fire grenade rounds, a flash grenade, but still nothing on Chris. That is, till Claire noticed a paper sitting on a cart next to a trophy case. Picking it up, she recognized the messily scrawled name at the bottom of the page.

"Veronica! Leon left us a note!" she called. The other girl jogged over as Claire read aloud.

"'Claire,

I hope you get this. This place is crawling with monsters, and your brother's not here. Just get out of here as soon as you can. I really hope that you guys are safe. - Leon'" She pursed her lips in thought all the while realizing that Chris was most likely gone. She didn't know if that made her feel better or worse. "Hope you're safe too, Leon."

"Well," Veronica paused unsure of what to say at first, "At least he's ok. This is good news, right?"

"Yeah. Sure is," Claire huffed softly as she set the note back down. Deciding to move on with their exploration of the room, she turned her head towards the gated-off section to her left. Both girls peeked through the gate and saw a mini machine gun hanging on a gun rack near some lockers. "Oh hell yeah! We need to get that!" Veronica gave the door a tug but it didn't budge.

"And how do we do that?"

"Must be locked down electronically if this door is any indication. There's gotta be a way to get it open." The other girl looked around and saw the working computer sitting not too far away.

"Maybe that computer can open it! It's the only one on," Veronica pointed out on the nearby desk. They both walked over where she clicked a few buttons on the keyboard. At first, it looked like it was working as it was processing her command but quickly denied any access. "We need some sort of identification code to be allowed to open it." She raked her mind for any codes she may have come across, but none came to mind. This was going to be hard to find.

"Great. Just another thing to look for," Claire huffed as she turned to continue searching.

Veronica could feel the frustration coming from the other girl, even if she understood why. The news on Chris from Leon should've done something to ease her mind, but it wasn't the clear-cut answer that Claire needed. If anything, it still didn't answer the one question she had. Where is Chris?! She reached over to lightly place her hand on the other girl's arm.

"Hey!" Claire stopped before she could even take a step. "We're going to get through this and we're going to find what we need," she tried reassuring her. "Gotta stay positive!" Claire was surprised by this. She realized that she was being read like a book so she took in a deep breath to calm down before nodding

"You're right. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it! We got this!" Claire smiled a smile that Veronica couldn't help but feel a flutter in her chest at.

"I'm sure glad to have a gal pal that has her head on straight. I would probably be an emotional mess without you," she joked.

"I don't believe that," Veronica giggled. "I think you would've done fine regardless."

"Oh yeah? Why do you think that?" That was an easy question to answer.

"You've got some mad courage, Claire! You might shoot out your feelings, but you would survive nonetheless." Claire chuckled before finally walking again.

"Well, I'm glad you think so!"

Following right behind her, the girls walked into the captain's office and took a look over the small room. There was a large wooden desk covered in books and paperwork sitting in front of some cabinets and a wall decorated with important plaques. The most noticeable thing, however, was the large mural on the wall. In big letters, it read 'S.T.A.R.S. Raccoon Police Department' with images of stars in the middle.

"'Special Tactics and Rescue Service'," Veronica read the title just beneath it. "What exactly did they do?" she asked while Claire walked behind the desk. She glanced up at the mural before facing the other to explain.

"To be honest, I often tuned Chris out when he got into his boring spiels but what I did get was that 'as an elite special forces division here at the department, they dealt with anti-terrorism and urban crime within the city'," she recounted off of her memory. "I have to remember all of that in case of some sort of emergency where I would need to call him."

"I can see that. Anti-terrorism, huh? Seems like a really big deal here." Claire nodded before noticing something sitting on one of the cabinets at the corner of her eye. It was a framed photo that looked like the one she had at home.

"It was!" she replied while picking it up to look at. She smiled seeing the familiar faces, including her brother. "I remember the boring ceremonies and all of the long hours Chris and his team put into it. It even got into the newspaper!" Her smile faded as she recalled the past few months. "But it all fell apart."

"What happened?" Claire glanced up at her and sighed.

"It was honestly a whirlwind when it happened. I still don't know all the details, but Chris called me a few months ago crazy upset about a mission that he had gone on. He was really vague in telling me anything, but I just assumed he wasn't allowed to. He said he called me 'cause he missed me and needed to hear my voice. That he had a really close call and a lot of his teammates didn't make it." Veronica walked over and decided to sit on the side of the desk while listening to give her feet a break.

"A few days after that, I got a call from a fellow member, Barry, saying that S.T.A.R.S. was disbanded. No one would tell me why or how, and no one was allowed to tell me what really happened on that mission. Confidentiality and all that. But clearly, something did and Chris had stopped calling at that point so I couldn't ask him. I had planned to come visit to see him, but my summer classes got in the way."

She looked back down at the picture then handed it over to Veronica for her to look at. It was a picture of two rows of officers in tactical gear standing in front of a helicopter. The front row was kneeling on one knee so that the upper row was easily shown. All but two of them were holding guns as they all smiled for the camera. She pointed to a young man on the bottom row that was knelt right in the middle. He was wearing a green vest with a knife strapped to it and his smile looked very similar to Claire's.

"That's Chris!"

"I can see the resemblance," Veronica lightheartedly jokes, but it was also true. While he did have his own features that were more masculine, she could tell that they were siblings. Apparently looks run in the family. Claire giggled then pointed to the lady kneeling next to him.

"And that's Jill. Pretty, right?"

Pretty was an understatement. Jill was gorgeous with dark hair tucked into the beret on her head. It was no wonder that Claire had a crush on her. Now that she was posed with a gun in a team of mainly guys, she could see how anyone could fall for a badass like that. "I honestly hoped that they would bring S.T.A.R.S back since Chris loved being a part of it, but I never heard from anyone that it did."

Veronica nodded before looking over the rest of the members. She could see why he would love it. They all looked like an amazing team and probably good friends. But despite the friendly smiles on their faces, they all looked like they were professionals, and that thought depressed her.

"This is a big team. How many of them died?" she asked. Claire frowned as she looked out of the office windows to the outside desks.

"When I got the invite from the R.P.D. about the mass officer funeral, they were planning, I counted seven members. Five of them, including Chris and Jill, were the only ones who made it." Veronica whipped her head up in shock at that answer.

"Seven?! Out of twelve?"

"Yeah. To say that I was shocked was a major understatement."

"No kidding! What happened to them on that mission!?"

"I don't really know, but I did hear some rumors."

"Like what? If you don't mind me asking." Claire leaned against the cabinets and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Well, what I had heard was that all of S.T.A.R.S. went up to the mountains to investigate the cannibal attacks that had been happening in the city recently. Like, the whole team."

"Wait, I heard about those attacks! They were on the news even back at my place!"

"Really? It's gotten that big?" Claire asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah! I mean, the stories are crazy. It's not every day you hear about people getting eaten ali-," she trailed off as her own words sunk in. "Oh my god!"

"What?"

"Cannibals."

"Yeah, and?"

"Don't you see? This zombie thing has been happening before the outbreak even started!" Claire thought about it for a second before her face lit up in realization.

"Oh my god! You're right! It has to be. The news reports said that the bodies looked like they had been bitten out of. But how come the spread didn't happen sooner? Those attacks happened months ago!" Veronica took a moment to think about it before things began to slot into place in her mind on a theory. Watching many mystery movies will do that to you.

"Claire, what else did those rumors say?" Claire blinked in surprise at the question before answering.

"Well, apparently there might have been this big explosion up there that killed off most of the team. But that's all I could get out of people. Again all rumors. Why?" The other girl paused.

"A huge explosion?" she paused as things began to connect. "This might sound crazy but what if those rumors were true?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't just make zombies out of nowhere. Based on every zombie movie I have seen, that takes time and effort and science...or dark magic, but I'm going to say that's not the case here." Claire seemed to see where this was going.

"Science...As in they were testing this virus up there for experiments."

"It has to be. It's far enough away from the city to keep it from spreading while still being able to watch how it worked on the few people that lived there." Claire nodded in understanding before her face lit up in worry.

"So then, if that's the case, then maybe Chris and the team found what they were looking for."

"And the explosion was to kill off any witnesses," Veronica finished theorizing. Claire sagged against the cabinet behind her as she took it all in. She exhaled at such an intense theory and she wasn't sure what to do with it.

"So then, what changed? Why infect the whole city?" Veronica shrugged.

"Honestly, no idea. Either this is a god complex thing or they just didn't care."

"Whatever it is, I don't like them."

"Same here. Let's hope we never run into them!"

"All the more reason to get the hell out of here." Veronica nodded and looked down at the picture once more before setting it down. She hopped off of the desk and was about to search the room, but stopped when she saw the overwhelmed look on Claire's face. She was lost in thought as she stared deeply into the floor.

"Claire? You ok?" The other girl looked up at her and nodded while trying to collect herself.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just trying to process everything." Veronica felt guilty as she realized she overdid things just now. She had forgotten for a moment that Claire was here simply for finding her brother, not solving an elaborate mystery. And with such details that may have led to hurting Chris in a lot of ways, it was intense.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just throw all of that at you," she apologized. "I guess I got a little carried away with my theories and I-."

"No, no! I'm fine. It's just…a lot," Claire interrupted. "I never thought about it all like that. I mean, what you said makes sense! Albeit a little crazy, but considering how fucked everything is now, I wouldn't be surprised if it was true."

"Still…"

"I'm ok, Veronica. Trust me," she said while pushing off the cabinet to walk over. "Here. You can make it up to me by giving me another hug. Could really use one right now," she grinned. Veronica felt herself blush at the request but nodded.

"Sure! Me too."

She leaned in with a giggle and wrapped her arms around the other to squeeze. As they hugged, Veronica noticed that Claire had a subtle perfume on and it smelled lovely. She didn't know how to describe it, but it was undeniably Claire. Fiery and sweet, like sitting next to a bonfire while making smores. It was nice.

The hug was warm and much needed, but they knew that this one couldn't linger like the last one. They still had to get out of the station and survive this outbreak. Pulling apart, they both sighed almost in unison and giggled when they did. Claire pushed her hair back away from her eyes then glanced over at the desk.

"Shall we keep going with our search?" Veronica nodded before both girls began searching the desk drawers. Nothing seemed to be of note in any of the top drawers. Just abandoned paperwork that made no sense and receipts.

"You know," Claire began as they dug through the many random papers, "you're really good at this detective thing you have going on right now! I would've never made any connections like that." Veronica felt the heat rush into her cheeks for probably the hundredth time that night.

"Well, I guess those murder mysteries I watch with my mom are paying off," she responded while tugging at one of the bottom drawers. "Ugh! This drawer is stuck!" Claire crawled over to give it a tug but it didn't budge. She finally noticed a hidden keyhole in the carving pattern of the drawer.

"It's locked. Let's just forget it," she said causing both girls to stand. She turned to give the mural a last look when a piece of paper sitting on the dresser before her caught her eye. Picking it up, she read over the police memo and noticed prominent numbers circled in the corner. "Wait a minute! I got a code for that safe downstairs!"

"Really?" Veronica asked before taking out the small book. "What is it?" Claire then relayed the code for her to write down.

"We'll have to go and check it before we leave."

"Ok. Well, I think that's about everything we could find for now."

"Yeah. Until we can find that code to open that gun locker, this office is done," Veronica replied while walking out of the S.T.A.R.S. office with Claire right behind her. The hallway still looked just as horrible as when they first got there, but nothing had changed. Flashing their light the other way, they noticed blood splatter along the wall, which may have been done by the dead licker on the floor.

"So," Claire began," what was that back there about murder mysteries?" she asked with an amused smile as they began walking down the hall.

"Oh! Me and my mom watch murder mysteries every Sunday. We make it all fancy with teacups and sandwiches even if we're in our pj's. I always try to find out who did it before the end."

"Aw! That's very swe-," Claire was about to say when she was interrupted by the sound of loud thumping. They stopped where they stood and listened.

Shining their lights at the end of the hallway, the thudding came closer and around the bend revealing the culprit. They watched in terror as a giant grey hulk of a man clad in a black leather trench coat began to stalk towards them with thundering footsteps. Its fedora cover head looked at them with a blank expression that was all too familiar. It was the scary man from the camera feed! He was a lot taller than they were actually expecting; definitely more so than they were.

"Jesus...Stay back!" Claire shouted while taking out her gun.

They backed away with guns drawn, but he didn't look like he was an easy kill. In fact, he was anything but; a shot from Claire's gun proved that. Her bullet hit the giant's head but it didn't even leave a mark. The girls realized that this was pointless. Veronica grabbed Claire's arm and pulled her to go.

"Claire! Run!" she cried before booking it, the other right following right behind. They ran back through the locker room and towards the staircase. The giant's loud footsteps grew louder with every step as it tried to go after them. "What do we do?"

"We need somewhere to hide! Somewhere we can make a game plan!"

"Safe room's our only bet." The footsteps were getting closer.

"Safe room it is!" With that said, they flew down the stairs then crept quietly into the safe room once they hit the bottom floor. While Claire shut the door, Veronica ran over to kill the lights so that they wouldn't be found. Then she pulled Claire over to the darkroom to hide in case it somehow made it inside. There they waited with bated breath as they heard each step going down the staircase. It was amazing how loud they were, but terrifying if that thing ever caught up to them. They could only hope it wouldn't get in.

Finally, the giant made it to the first floor, the ground vibrating ever so slightly beneath their feet. They looked over at the wall and followed the noise as it made its way down the hallway. It seemed to pause somewhere close enough to make them question if it could hear their breathing from a room away. But it didn't seem to be the case as the footsteps continued. The sound of a door opening and shutting was what made them finally relax, but they didn't want to chance anything with being too loud.

"Claire...what the fuck do we do?!" Veronica whispered in fear. The other girl reached over to take the brunette's hand in hers and squeezed tightly. Veronica couldn't help but lace their fingers together, trying to keep herself from spiraling. Things were not looking good and Claire was the only thing that made her feel any type of ok.

"I don't know. That thing was basically invincible. None of my bullets did anything to it!"

"This is bad. Like really bad."

"No shit. What does it even want?"

"Who cares!? He clearly doesn't like us. At this point, we should just avoid it."

"Do you think it's possible?"

"Well-," she was interrupted by a loud thud in a room somewhere on the upper floors above them. "At least we know how to find him."

"A good thing if we want to strategize getting around without it finding us. It's also pretty slow. I think outrunning it and hiding is our best bet."

"Agreed...So what do we do now?" Claire stopped to think for a hot minute when the sight of the developing pictures caught her eye. That's when she remembered about the film.

"We can start with this lion medallion. Is the picture ready?"

Veronica went over to check and nodded. Bringing it out for them to see, she shined her flashlight over it to reveal the code they needed for the lion statue. With the two medallions already in hand, all they needed was this last one and then they could leave. That's if this worked.

"If we can pinpoint where that giant is, we could work out a path to the main hall. We get to that statue and put in the medallions then we get the hell out of here," Veronica suggested.

"That's a good plan, but we have another problem."

"Which is?"

"I hate to be that person, but we should really find the keycard for that grenade launcher." Veronica groaned as she remembered the almost forgotten gun in the Safety Deposit Room.

"Are you sure we should?"

"Look, I don't want us to stay any longer than we have to either, but we really need that gun. Considering that we're dealing with more than just zombies now, we should really take it." Veronica tried to think up something to reason with Claire, but she was right. Regular guns aren't going to cut it anymore if things continued with how they were looking. She sighed softly before nodding in agreement.

"Ok. It seems like we've searched everywhere on this side of the station for that keycard, so we have to get across to the other side without being seen. We need time getting used to our surroundings since we haven't been over there yet."

"Right."

They set this new game plan in motion the next time they heard the giant's footsteps nearby. It sounded like it was a floor above them heading to the S.T.A.R.S. office and past that. They decided to go the same path hoping that he would always be a room away to let them keep track of him. By the time they made it to the S.T.A.R.S. hallway, he was already in the library and still hadn't noticed them yet.

Once they got to where the unicorn statue was, they listened for some sort of indication of where he could be traveling. A door opened then closed allowing them in without issue. While walking to the spade door, they could hear his footsteps up on the third floor where the woman statue was. This was their chance! Quickly but quietly they walked out into the main hall and across to the lion statue to get the medallion.

"Should we put them in now?" Veronica asked while stashing the new disc into her pouch.

"No, not yet. We should put them in right when we leave. I don't know what'll happen when we do."

Veronica nodded in understanding while following Claire to the East Wing of the station. It was still a relief to hear the footsteps in the distance, far away from where they were. They just might be able to pull this off!