Chapter 9: No Time To Mourn
Tears turn into pain. We use this pain to grow and toughen skin. Survival is the goal now... for Marvin. Claire thoughts race. She takes the lead and decides to finish her time in here. They head to the storage room and check around.
"In the back." Ivan points out.
There was a weapon case with a grenade launcher and Combat Shotgun. They insert the keycard and Claire grabs the Grenade Launcher with the ammo provided and Ivan grabs the shotgun.
"Thank you Marvin." They both say.
With their newly found weapons, they head upstairs, into the shower room. Ivan puts the wheel in while Claire checks the lockers. As Claire is looking, she opens a locker with a body in it. Jumping from shock, the body fell on her, completely lifeless. Ivan turns around mid turn to see if she's alright.
She gives a reassuring look. Inside those lockers, she finds ammo for their weapons along with a jewelry box and a RPD mystery box. She pockets both and shows Ivan the jewelry box.
"Weird, looks like the size of the jewel we got."
Ivan takes out the staff and looks at it, comparing both. He notices a switch and flips it. The jewel drops out and lands on his hand. Both surprised, Ivan takes the jewel and inserts it into the box, opening it. Inside was a clue to the statue along with a flash drive.
"Nice! Another clue." Ivan jumps in excitement.
"What's the flash drive for?" Claire questions.
Silence overtakes them before they give up on thinking and just pockets it.
"The steam is gone, we can move ahead." Ivan states.
Claire goes ahead and Ivan's follows. They go through the door at the end of the lockeroom into another hallway. They advance slowly before they hear what sounds to be like heavy breathing and claws scraping against something. Readying their guns, they slowly advance around the corner. To their horrors, a completely red and abnormal monstrosity was clinging to the ceiling, making a screeching noise. Ivan and Claire just stares at it, wondering what the hell it was. Claire clocks her gun when the monster snaps it's head facing the direction of them. It slowly advances. Claire reaches for her grenade launcher before the thing gets too close.
*Clink*
Something dropped behind them when the beast jumped over them and attacked nothing. Startled, Claire and Ivan shoot at it, not knowing what's going on. Fire develops around the creature as a shotgun shot is pumped into his head, the creature falls after a dramatic show. The fire dies down as it reveals the creatures now charcoal black skin.
"Why didn't it go for us?" Ivan asks.
Looking closer at it, Claire notices it has no eyes but just an exposed brain.
"Could it have been blind?" Claire wonders.
With little time to discuss, they turn around and continue forward. They reach a sign labeled "Office" and enter the door near it. Inside, was a room empty of life and filled with paper and electronics things. Ivan goes for the electronical device as Claire explores. Inside, she finds things alongside a battery for something. She pockets it and continues to look around. Ivan fiddles with the computer near the fenced room when it said "Access Denied." Confused, he looks at the monitor and the PC.
"Claire, can I see that hard drive?"
Claire hands over the hard drive and Ivan inserts it into the PC. He tries accessing it for a second time and it granted him access. The door opens and reveals 4 SMG slots. 2 were missing, leaving 2 left. They both take the gun and equip it around their back.
"Pretty handy, huh. Where's the rocket launchers?" Claire cracks a joke and they both laugh as they do one final search across the room.
"We ready?" Claire asks.
Ivan hands over Claire some flame grenades and they both head out. They look to the left to make sure that thing stayed dead. There it laid, lifeless.
"So, we know where the 2 statues are... we just don't know the code?" Claire explains as she discusses with Ivan. They continue down the hallway, prepping their gun for the next room.
"We're good." Claire calls out while Ivan gives a all clear too. They walk past a door labeled Linen Room, but was unable to access it. They continue with the final door at the end of the hallway.
"Heh, library again. We just did a giant circle." Ivan sighs.
"The clue is for the statue up in the room, but we don't have anything to access it with..."
"We could check that hallway again." Claire tells Ivan.
"The one with the bars and zombies?"
"Yeah, that one!" Claire walks through the library, heading down the stairs and at the beginning of the mess.
"Just be aware of the zombies and we're good. I remember seeing a chained door and we have the Chain Cutters."
They begin their descent down the hallway again. A distant click could be heard.
"Shh, walk slowly." Claire whispers.
They begin almost tip toeing down the hallway, to peak a corner with another one of those pink monsters.
"It's another one of those things." Claire points out.
"Jeez, it's on the ceiling too. What do we do?!"
Ivan asks.
*Clink*
A bottle was kicked as a zombie was mindlessly walking through the hallway. The monster cries out and lashes it tongue out at it, piercing it, making the zombie fall to the ground. The scene that just played out gave them enough information to dissect it.
"Try throwing a bottle over there." Claire orders.
Ivan picks up a bottle and chucks it in the corner, the monster snaps it's neck lunging at it. The monster gets up, confused. It begins to circle the environment, testing out what's near it. Claire stands up and walks around the corner.
"Holy shit what are you-?" Ivan whispers worried.
Claire stands right in the vision of the monster, but it didn't react. She slowly walks back.
"It's completely blind. It relies on sound. We can walk past it and not draw any attention from it."
"Are you crazy?" Ivan asks.
"Just follow me." Claire leads the way. They begin slowly walking around the monster, guns in hand. They make it around the monster carefully and it just crawls their, looking confused at the footsteps around it. They were clear of it.
"That worked...?" Ivan asks, confused.
"It relies on hearing apparently. Not a threat if we keep quiet." More groaning could be heard around the corner. They check to see what it was and surprise surprise, a single female cop zombie, just groaning. Luckily, one bullet was all it took for its head to pop. They waste no time and rush through the same double doors.