Chapter 9:
The dark chilly parking garage felt both safe and vulnerable as the one girl sat with the other laid over her lap on the concrete floor. Claire reached down and gently brushed her friend's hair away from her sleeping face. Veronica was still out, but she looked ok; minus the welt starting to form on the side of her temple. That bastard must've hit hard, the young biker thought.
"I'll make sure to give him a matching one," she muttered angrily.
She tried waking her a few more times but got nothing. Deciding to wait this out, Claire sighed and just sat there holding her newfound friend in her lap. There was the sound of the whir of a generator that made her jump in surprise, then the lights around them began to turn on.
The doors that used to have red lights above them were now green. Whatever the guy did, he must have unlocked them. With no imminent danger in sight, Claire took this moment to get her thoughts together on what the hell had just happened. She screwed up and had let her guard down.
Veronica was used as a hostage, they both got pistol-whipped pretty fucking hard, and worst of all…Sherry had gotten kidnapped. The poor girl. Claire's guilt hurt worse than her actual wounds did. She reached up to her cheek to softly touch the sensitive spot where she had gotten hit. It was sore, that's for sure, but nothing she couldn't handle.
She may have been in a few fights before, so she was used to taking a few hits, but this sucked. Veronica must've taken the brunt of it. Seeing that happen made Claire's blood boil. She may not have known her companion for long, but she had grown close to her. How can you not after a night like this?
Glancing down, she couldn't help but think to herself that Veronica was pretty while asleep. Her long eyelashes were fanned out against her cheeks over slightly dried tear stains. She softly brushed her fingers over the skin soothingly, wiping them away. To her surprise, there was a beauty mark dotted there on her face that she had never even noticed before.
She already knew this but Veronica was cuter up close. Her lips were slightly open and rested in a small pout as she breathed. They were slightly chapped but still looked soft. If things were different, Claire could find herself-.
"Mm..." The girl in her lap began to stir, her shut eyes scrunching as she slowly regained consciousness.
"Vee! Can you hear me?" Claire asked worriedly. Veronica's eyes opened only to shut again.
"Ugh! My head!" she groaned, a hand coming up to the spot where she got hit. It felt like she got run over by a train with how much her head hurt. The throbbing was almost too much, but, finally, she opened her eyes. She was relieved to see Claire looking down at her in worry. Her pretty face almost made the pain bearable.
"Claire? Wha-what happened?" Then she noticed the fresh cut at the corner of her lips and a flood of memories came back to her. She gasped and sat up, whipping her head around for trouble. "Sherry! Where is she!? Agh!" She immediately stopped moving and grasped at her throbbing head.
"Whoa! Take it easy. You took that hit pretty hard," Claire calmly responded while pulling Veronica back to lay on her lap. "How many fingers am I holding up?" she asked while holding up two fingers.
"Just two."
"Good. You'll be fine until we can find an actual working hospital. Your head's just gonna hurt for a while." Veronica slightly shook her head, immediately regretting it, but persisted.
"Where's Sherry, Claire?!" Veronica asked worriedly. She could live with a headache, but she couldn't live with letting that little girl get hurt. Claire gritted her teeth in anger and turned her head, avoiding eye contact with her.
"That asshole took her. I couldn't get free in time and I don't know where they went. I should've been better about this! I shouldn't have let my guard down and now because I did, Sherry is gone and you got hurt!" Claire shook her head as the feelings started to rise from inside her. "God, I'm so sorry, Vee!"
Veronica could see the guilt on Claire's face, and while she also felt the same, they needed to keep a level head. It hurt to watch Claire blame herself especially when the blame was shared. She reached up and cupped her cheek, gently turning her gaze to hers. Claire swallowed audibly before sighing.
"It's not just your fault! I should've been more careful too. But that doesn't matter anymore. We're going to get out of here and we're gonna get her back, ok?" she reassured softly. Said girl reached up to put her hand on Veronica's and leaned into her touch. This was new. They didn't know what this meant, but it was definitely new.
"Yeah. Ok."
"When I find that guy, I'm cutting off his dick!" Veronica jokes, to lighten the mood, even if only a little, but she was also all too serious. It seemed to work as Claire cracked a small smile.
"Not before I do," the young college girl giggled. The other joined in while dropping her hand back down. She was feeling better already.
"Together then."
"Gee, how romantic!" Both of them blushed at the notion even if it was only a joke. Thank god for low lighting.
"Well, with a few scented candles and some mood music, it could be," Veronica cheekily smiled. Claire snorted at that as she shook her head. Suddenly a small realization hit the brunette. "Wait...did you just call me Vee?" Claire blinked at her for a moment then smiled shyly, a nervous hand reaching up to scratch nervously at the back of her neck.
"I may have given you a small nickname. I was going to ask you if it was ok, but I guess it just slipped out when things went to shit."
"It's more than ok!" Veronica grinned. "Simple, but I like it! It's better than anything that I could possibly come up with for you...Not without being extremely corny." Claire burst into a fit of giggles at that.
"Oh, I would love to hear one if you tried!" Veronica took a moment to think about it and easily found one, but the look on her face showed that she was embarrassed by it.
"No, no you sure as shit don't!"
"C'mon, just one!"
"I don't know. The only one that could come to mind is pretty bad."
"Pleeeeaaase?" Claire pleaded with a batting of her eyelashes. Veronica snorted before giving in with a small huff.
"Alright, but I'm totally not using it for you...It's Claire-bear." Claire bit her lip to stifle her laughter and looked away as soon as the name left Veronica's lips. "See! I told you!"
"No, no!" Claire cleared her throat, but the amused smile on her face never dropped. "It's cute!"
"I couldn't think of anything else! Ah!" she winced after moving her head a little too fast in her excitement. She took a moment to let the throbbing subside before continuing. "Your name isn't long enough to shorten like you did with mine. And for some reason, it reminded me of that little kid's show, Care Bears…mainly 'cause it rhymes."
"Hey! I'll have you know that I loved that show when I was eight. I consider that a compliment."
"Well, considering how much you care for others, I suppose it fits then." Claire giggled.
"Maybe not for our current situation, but if we get out of this alive, I wouldn't stop you from using it."
"Then I will! You have no escape once I do. I will bother you with it till the end of time," Veronica grinned cheekily.
"Ah, I seem to have made a poor decision then."
The girls burst into well-needed laughter. After all the seriousness of everything they've been through so far, a good laugh was a must for their morale. It seemed to help as the laughter died down and Veronica felt well enough to get their journey started. After all, Sherry needed their help. They were wasting too much time as it was.
"It's too late for you. You're only lucky now since we're in a zombie apocalypse." Then she began to try and sit up, all while fighting the raging headache in her brain. "Here, help me up."
"Are you sure? We can wait a few more minutes."
"I'm fine. We've got to hurry and get out of here to save Sherry!"
Claire seemed to debate this in her head for a second before nodding in agreement. She reached down and helped Veronica sit up fully before standing up to pull her to her feet. The injured girl groaned in pain for a moment before remembering something. Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out the small vial of pain pills and took some to help with the headache. It was better than nothing.
"So how do we get out of here?" Veronica wondered aloud.
"The gate seems to be the only way. Keycard first, then that asshole gets what's coming to him," Claire responded, words full of anger.
"Well, he had one. Maybe there's more lying around?" They both began to carefully wander the garage for anything that could help. Nothing seemed to do the job. The door on the far side by the manhole they crawled out of was locked.
"None of these cars are open and frankly, I don't see any keycards inside them," Claire responded as she peeked into a random car.
"I'm not having any luck either. I'd rather not set off any alarms and get any more attention...especially now that lickers are a thing."
Veronica turned a corner around a car and found herself facing two doors on opposite sides of each other with green lights above them. She remembered seeing them when looking at the machine earlier, but she was positive they were closed with red lights above them. However, one of them was now propped open with a light coming from the inside. That's new!
"Claire! Over here!"
Claire jogged over and looked over the doors. Deciding to take the open door path, she took out her gun and led the way. Walking down a small set of stairs, they walked in and down a concrete hallway. At the end of it, they were surprised to see a door with a pink diamond insignia, a table with a couple of magazines on it, and an elevator.
"Must be where that guy came from…" Claire noted. Veronica nodded in agreement as she walked over to the diamond door. Tugging on the handle, she found it locked. Figures.
"That...bastard is the police chief!?" Claire scoffed in shock. Veronica turned in disbelief to find Claire glancing over a June issue of a local magazine.
"I'm sorry, what?!"
"Yeah. Turns out the guy is not only the chief of police but is a well-respected hero of the community!" Claire said walking over to show Veronica the article. Just like she said, a picture of the man that had just kidnapped Sherry was on the page suited up in police garb while standing over a podium. She glanced up at Claire in shock.
"And you didn't know?!"
"I never met the guy! He was always busy when I would visit and I was never fully introduced. Chris always thought the guy was an asshole, despite being his boss." Veronica hummed as her eyes flitted over the words on the page and she couldn't believe what she was reading.
"Charity work, orphanage donations, support for abused women, art preservation, animal conservation; this can't be the same guy!" She reached up to the sore spot on her head. "There's no way!"
"Clearly he's putting up some kind of persona 'cause these two guys are totally different people. Support for abused women my ass,' Claire grumbled before tossing the magazine back on the table. "It's weird. For being chief, he didn't even flinch when I 'casually mentioned' that my brother worked for S.T.A.R.S."
"Really? That doesn't seem right. And what does he want with Sherry?!"
"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about it."
"Me too. I've watched too much 'Dateline' to not."
The same terrifying realization went through both of their minds as they quickly turned to jog over to the elevator. There was no time to waste. However, once they pressed the button, nothing happened. Claire looked at a piece of paper taped to the side of the elevator. 'Express elevator to Chief's Office. Not for general use.'
"Well, this looks like it's the right way to go. If he's chief, then he definitely has to have more keycards lying around. But how do we get this damn thing to work?" she wondered. Veronica pursed her lips in thought before peeking over at the large window next to the diamond door. She walked over and peered inside to see a lever.
"That must be the power!" she exclaimed then looked over at the door. "We just need the key!"
"Do you think it's down here? It'll be hard to get back up to the station if it's not."
"The only thing we can do is try and check. There was another door and who knows what's beyond that."
"I did find a map on the wall over there. Let's find out." Claire unfolded the map and lifted it up to the light for the both of them to see. It was to this level of the police station called B1, aka a basement level. "So it looks like this room is the elevator controls room, but it's only a small part of this level.
"Great for us," Veronica noted. There was a hell of a lot more to this place than they thought. There was not only the parking lot, but a jail, a firing range, a morgue, a generator room, and a kennel. This place is huge!
"But we can't get into the jail, so we have the other rooms on this side to go through. Let's hope this key is lying around here somewhere or we're going to have to do some serious climbing."
"Yeah, but we have to be careful. With that Mr. X looking asshole stalking around, who knows where he'll be." Claire snorted.
"Mr. X?"
"Yeah, I don't know. It seemed to suit that big, grey ugly looking ass motherfucker in my head," she grumbled. Claire chuckled as she folded the map back up and packed it with the other pages.
"At least now he has a name. So, Mr. X, it is!"
"Great. Now that we named him, can we take him home and keep him?" Veronica joked.
"Unless you know how to take care of a seven-foot hulk that's trying to kill us, I'm gonna have to say no...He'll probably just make a mess."
The girls snorted at that as they walked out and back into the lot. Turning to the only other open door, they peeked through the small window to see that it was very dark inside with only a dim red emergency light lit near the floor in the hallway. They carefully walked in and immediately tensed at the sound of something being knocked over just down the hall to their right.
Shining a light down, they could barely make out the hind legs of a licker clinging to the far end wall. Veronica gulped and looked around for any more of them. Luckily for them, there didn't seem to be any in eyesight and there was also a door not too far off on their left. She tapped Claire's shoulder and pointed it out to her. Both girls slowly and quietly made their way over and into the room, finding themselves in the firing range.
Clearly, the electricity wasn't working on this side of the floor as they shined their flashlights in every corner of the darkroom. In the actual range, they could see two dead officers lying on the floor, unmoving. They decided not to take any chances and crept through the room quietly. On a table across from the shooting booths, was a yellow metal box and a piece of paper. It said that inside the box was a broken key to a patrol car, but the buttons on it still worked.
They carefully opened the box and took out a bent car key. The paper said the buttons still worked, so maybe they could find something helpful in the car. A keycard might even be in there! That's if it was in the lot at all. Moving on, they found two doors at a bend in the room. One door led to the range, while another was locked with the pink diamond insignia. Well, now we really need this key!
Walking into the gun range, they carefully walked up to the two corpses and decided not to take any chances. Since they weren't waking up, Veronica and Claire used their knives to stab the heads, knowing for sure that they would be dead. Veronica sighed out in relief once done.
"I think we'll be ok in here," she whispered.
"Yeah, but I'm gonna keep it low till I know those lickers out there won't hear us," Claire replied while sheathing her knife. Veronica nodded in agreement then began looking around to see if any ammo was left behind. While no gun ammo was apparent, there were a few fire grenade rounds lying around.
"So, I know I may be stalling, but I say we go use the key and see if there are any cars we can get in," she suggested.
"Maybe we won't even need to go through licker territory," Claire noted as they walked over to the exit.
Once again, they carefully made their way out into the hallway and back to the lot without incident. Knowing they were safe, Claire took out the key they found and pressed the unlock button. A car beeped loudly in the room causing both girls to flinch and look around nervously. When nothing happened, they followed the sound to find the vehicle that they unlocked. Tucked in a corner, they found a random police car with its lights blinking and the trunk popped open.
"Please let there be a keycard. Please," Veronica pleaded to whatever forces out there may be listening. But it was upon deaf ears as they looked through the car and found no keycard. They did however find a new gun in its holster hiding in the trunk.
"Nice! A JMB Hp3 handgun!" Claire said while inspecting it. "Oo! And it has a laser pointer aim assist." She held it out to Veronica, who just looked at the gun fanatic in confusion. "This gun is perfect for you, newbie."
"Are you sure? I mean you still only have one gun."
"Here's the thing, I'd rather you fire this one than the one I gave you earlier. This will reload faster and still take the ammo you're already using. I'll take the old one in case I need a backup. It is my gun after all. Just load it up fully for me, and then we can trade."
Veronica agreed and did as she asked before handing it over. Claire gave her a few pointers on how to use it before strapping themselves up. It was slightly heavier than the one Claire had given her, but she did like the laser pointer. Not to mention, it didn't take a thousand years to reload.
"Alright, well, we can't stall anymore. We have to go through the kennel," Claire sighed. Veronica groaned, hating the plan with all of her being. "I know, I know. I don't want to either, but this car was a bust. Let's do this quickly and quietly."
They made their way back to the door and crept quietly into the hall. Turning the corner, they could still see the licker's feet planted on the wall. Veronica swallowed nervously as they got closer and closer, hoping to god that they would just sneak past it. Her heart was thumping in her chest, enough where she was worried it could hear her. As they neared the end, however, it hissed loudly and scurried away.
Veronica felt her soul leave her body at the sudden movement but tried to keep it cool. The girls took this as a good sign, so they got to the corner and peered around the bend. It had disappeared, but they stayed quiet as they approached the door to the kennel. It was a good thing too, 'cause as soon as they got near, they could hear the munching and tearing of flesh along the hissing of lickers on the inside.
Claire looked to the makeshift barricade that was blocking the other path forward in hopes that maybe she could climb it without making a scene, but could not find one. She did see, however, a blue plant on the ground near it. Without speaking, she pointed to it so that Veronica would notice. Taking the hint, said girl took out the crumpled-up page she tore from the book from her pocket and read over it again.
She nodded as she figured out that the plant was indeed a blue herb. Then she quickly went over to take a few leaves just in case. She tossed the paper away, not really needing it anymore since she took in what she needed. Despite the new find, the two girls were now in a conundrum. The room they need to get through sounded like it was filled with lickers. Even opening the door in front of them too carelessly could alert those things.
Claire looked to Veronica's nervous form then to the door before deciding on taking a quick look inside. She waved for the other to stick to the wall beside the door then quietly grasped the doorknob. Veronica's heart dropped as she watched with bated breath as Claire opened the door just a crack.
Peeking in, the biker could make out a single licker feasting on some sort of carcass, but she could hear another snarling somewhere near the back. With how the room was built, their sounds echoed to sound like there was more than that. From the looks of things, thank god there wasn't. Carefully she closed the door then waved Veronica closer. Once she was close enough, Claire leaned over to her ear.
"I'm gonna open the door, you aim and hit that thing with one fire round, then I'll close it and we just stay quiet. Ok?" she whispered.
Veronica understood then took out the grenade launcher to prepare it. Once ready, she nodded and stood in front of the door. Claire grabbed the knob again and carefully opened the door enough for Veronica to aim. Once it was in sight, she pulled the trigger, causing a fire grenade to hit it and explode into flames on impact. Claire took the moment it began screeching to shut the door then pulled the other girl to wall away from it.
They heard one of those things scurry across the floor to slash at the wall where they fired, but they were safe with how thick they were. The sound of the long claws scratching along the concrete made Veronica's toes curl in fear; knowing how much damage that thing could make on flesh. It took them a moment to hear it finally go away before deciding it was safe to check inside again. On the floor where they shot at the one, was a licker splayed out, dead. and crispy. Yes! Just one more to go!
The other had made its way to the other side of the room to cling to the wall. Veronica hated the idea that sprouted in her head, but she had to try. She swallowed nervously before reloading her gun and slowly stepping inside. Claire watched in shock as the other tried to get a clearer shot by walking towards the monster as silently as possible. Veronica was so focused on keeping her aim that she didn't see the tin can on the floor. The clang it made when she kicked it made everything in the room freeze.
The licker screeched and leaped toward the sound and suddenly time was moving in slow motion. Veronica gasped as she stepped back, but instead of running, she got the courage to aim her gun and pulled the trigger. The flame round hit the monster, propelling it back and onto the floor in flames, then time was normal again. It writhed and screamed in pain and even tried to get back onto its legs, but was stopped by another grenade before it could. It gave one last hiss before succumbing to its injuries. The room was quiet save for Veronica's panting as it hit her how close to death she really was.
"Vee!" Claire ran in, eyes full of worry and also, something else.
"I'm ok!... I'm ok."
"That was…pretty fucking badass!" Veronica turned to her in surprise. Claire had this excited look on her face.
"Really?"
"You had a licker flying at you, and instead of running, you shot it mid-air! Of course, it was!"
"I guess if you say it like that. Just like skeet shooting, right?" she shakily joked as she reloaded her gun. She took in a deep breath then exhaled. "But that was fucking scary. Those fuckers are not pretty coming at you." A hand gently rubbed at her arm in comfort.
"I bet. I wasn't sure what you were about to do and that made me really nervous watching. You should've given me a warning," she paused then softly smiled. "I don't know whether to scold you or kiss you for the whole ordeal."
That made Veronica blink in surprise and her world slowed down again as her thoughts raced. Did she actually say that?! And…did she mean it? The blush on Claire's cheeks almost seemed to answer. Veronica could feel the heat bloom across her own.
"I-I…If I didn't know any better, Claire, I would think you were flirting with me," she mumbled, eyes falling to the ground in embarrassment. The younger girl squeezed the arm that she was still holding causing the other to look up.
"Well…maybe I am," she said with a wink before walking away towards the other side of the room. Veronica stood there in mild shock as she took that in, totally taken off guard. Her heart was pounding and she could've sworn there was steam coming out of her ears. She could feel her body grow hot and her mind was going off the rails.
When she said that Claire was flirting with her, she was entirely joking. She didn't expect her to actually reciprocate! She may have questioned whether they have been flirting throughout the night, but she wasn't sure. She only hoped. Her saying it out loud made it so real. And, oh, how she wanted it to be. Oh, this is bad!
While she was thinking, Claire had reached a corner to peek around to check for danger, then turned to realize that her gal pal wasn't following right behind her. She sighed softly before clearing her throat to catch the other's attention.
"Hey! You coming?"
Veronica blinked back to reality at being called then remembered that they had a job to do. This would have to be a conversation they would finish later. Swallowing nervously, she walked over to the other with her gun in hand and nodded. What she didn't know was that Claire's face was just as pink as hers.
Finally looking around without the worries of danger, they took in the room and their surroundings. Besides the carnage of dead dogs and lickers, there was a wall of dog cages stacked to one side. The doors to all of them were wide open, which kept them on high alert. They were able to find some high-grade gunpowder lying around before continuing.
The room in connection to the kennel held a bunch of storage shelves holding giant bags of what could possibly be dog food till it reached a door. Past it was a continuation of the hallway that was blockaded, leading to another fork.
According to the map, the door right in front of them was the morgue, while the other way led to the generator room. However, that way seemed to be blocked by a giant metal gate, so they decided they would check the morgue first. It seemed almost counterintuitive to go into a room made for the dead, but there could be something useful inside.