Chapter 5:
With a new gameplan in mind, the two survivors were about to head back the way they came, when Claire saw something at the corner of her eye. Just as they reached the door, she looked over and noticed a yellow tin box sitting on a nearby table. She stopped Veronica before she could open the door then jogged over to pick it up. It rattled in her hand loudly with something rolling around inside. She opened it and revealed it to be another roll of film, this time labeled as 'Lion Statue'.
"Wait, as in…" Veronica began in realization.
"Yeah, I think so! This might be our missing puzzle piece!" Claire said while putting it into her pouch.
"How fucking lucky is that?! Just another reason to head over that way!" Claire hummed in agreement.
"Should we clear out the library first? There might be important stuff inside there!"
"Yeah, that's a good idea! From what I spotted, I only saw two standing zombies, so this should be a piece of cake."
They carefully walked into the library and glanced around for their targets. One of the zombies finally noticed them from the other side of the room and began hobbling over hungrily. With guns drawn, Claire easily took that one down while Veronica went to take care of the other one. It was still too busy munching on a corpse so it was an easy kill for her. With no sign of any more zombies, they began their search of the first floor.
There was a section of movable bookshelves that stood under the broken floorboards of the second floor. One of them was propped up by a jack with no lever, making moving it impossible. Just moving the shelves was a struggle since they weighed so much. To Veronica's surprise, however, she had found a box of ammo for herself hidden behind one of them.
"Nice," she muttered as she reloaded her gun. She glanced up at the broken floorboards above her then at the shelves themselves. "Y'know, these shelves could make a great bridge here if we found the jack," she said just as Claire came back from searching the other side of the room.
"I suppose so, but why do that when there is a perfectly good walkway over there," she pointed out with a playful smile. Veronica giggled then shrugged.
"I don't know. It's just a thought!"
"Well, it's a good idea if we do find the jack, but until then, we can just use what's available!"
"Fair point. Did you find anything?"
"Just a knife off of one of the bodies, but I did find this really weird book," Claire replied while handing it over for Veronica to look at. It was a red stone book with a strange indent on the side.
"Super weird! It looks like something slots into it."
"Maybe it'll be useful for something?"
"Maybe. You never really know in a place like this. Let's just hold onto it for now, I guess."
"Ok, did you find anything?"
"Just some ammo, but nothing else really."
"Then this place is clear. I'm just going to go unlock the door over there real quick then we can head back to the safe room."
Veronica nodded in agreement and followed Claire over to the spade door. Just as she was unlocking it, however, a zombie that was lying slumped against the wall suddenly lurched at them with a growl. It surprised them quite a bit since they thought it was actually dead. Veronica grabbed her gun at lightning speed and shot it down before it could even stand up.
"Whoa! Nice job!" Claire breathed. "You're getting better at this!"
"Thanks," Veronica replied a little breathless at her own actions. I suppose I am.
"Door's unlocked now," Claire said before slowly opening it to peek out. Just like the map said, it did lead out to the main hall. Glancing around, she could still hear distant thudding from somewhere in the department, but she couldn't pinpoint where. Looking across the way, she noticed something sitting at the top of the staircase. "Oh! Veronica look! It's the lion statue!"
"Holy shit! The final medallion!"
"Let's hurry and get this final clue, then we can get the hell out of here!"
They turned and headed up the stairs to retrace their steps back to the safe room. There Veronica did some quick work on the new film then looked at how the old one was doing. At this point, enough time had passed for the picture to be developed.
Taking it out into the other room to look at it in a better light, they found it to portray a photo of a marble statue of a king. In one of his hands was a scepter with a bright red jewel at the top of the staff and in the other was a book. Something about it seemed familiar until Veronica gasped in realization.
"The book!" she exclaimed while grabbing their recent find from the table they had set it on. She compared it to the photo and found her thoughts to be correct. "This book is supposed to be a part of this statue!"
"Well, I'll be damned! It turned out to be something after all. So then is it a broken piece?"
"I don't know. It doesn't look like it's broken in the traditional sense, but my gut says that this could be really important if we put it back! I mean, why have a locked up photo of it, if it wasn't?"
"That's very true. And considering the number of statue puzzles we already have to solve, I wouldn't be surprised if it's another. We just have to find it before we leave. Good thinking Veronica!" The said girl grinned, proud at her achievement before setting the book back down on the table.
"We can come back for it when we need it since it's a bit big to carry!" she said before digging through her pouch.
For the next few minutes, the two survivors organized their pouches better since they were getting full. They left some things on the table for later or deemed useless while also making new ammo with any gunpowder cans that they had found. They also took note of the things that they had seen and added it to both the notebook and the map. With a better system between the two, they finally made their way back up to the second floor. Only this time, they finally went into the men's locker room.
Claire carefully went in first to find a small locker room connected to another with shower stalls. They could hear water still running from the shower heads and the warm steam that filled the room was a nice reprieve from the rest of the cold station floors. There was a busted water heater standing in the entrance to the showers, but it looked like someone had lowered the pressure to keep it from exploding.
They carefully searched the lockers to find one padlocked while another had some fire grenade rounds in it. Unfortunately for Claire, she opened one only to get a dead body to fall onto her. She screamed in surprise as it fell against her then crumpled onto the ground fully dead. Veronica turned from her own locker so quick at the sound, her weapon drawn to protect the other.
Claire panted as she calmed herself, both girls realizing it was not a zombie. Her cheeks were pink in embarrassment when she realized Veronica had seen the whole ordeal. The other girl, however, sighed in relief as she withdrew her gun.
"Are you ok?"
"Y-yeah! I'm fine, it just caught me by surprise!" she said with a small kick to the corpse. Veronica bit her lip to keep herself from giggling as she walked over to flash her light into the locker. Blood had coated the inside clearly showing that the dead man had been in there for quite a while.
"Holy shit."
"What happened to him?"
"I have no idea, but honestly, I'm not sure if I want to find out," Veronica said before walking back to her searching spot. While she did that, Claire took a look at the padlocked locker. The combination consisted of three letters and after trying a couple of times, she gave up and turned her head to the other girl.
"Hey, did we find any codes around here?" she asked. Veronica took out her little book and flipped through it before nodding.
"Yeah! Try CAP." Claire turned the dials to the combination causing the lock to click open. She thanked the brunette before opening the locker. Inside it was some more fire grenade rounds, which if they could find the keycard to the grenade launcher downstairs, they could definitely use them.
"What's this?" Veronica asked from the other side of the room. Claire turned to find Veronica holding a fancy blue box. Walking over, they both inspected it to find red jewels adorning the top with seemingly one missing right in the middle.
"Looks fancy!"
"Yeah, but why is it in a locker room?" She gave it a shake and heard something inside it move. "Something's inside." She tried prying the lid open but was met with resistance. "Must be locked."
"Well, until we find whatever that opens it, let's just leave it here." Veronica nodded and set it back on the towel rack she found it on. As she was about to turn away, she noticed a flyer on the wall. Reading through it, she hummed. "What is it?"
"This says that there are portable safes being used around the station and it explains how to open them. If we find one, there are lights that light up when the buttons on it are pressed in a certain sequence."
"If there's something useful in them, we might as well open them. Just something else to keep an eye out for."
"Mhm. The list goes on and on."
Considering the locker room thoroughly searched, they finally began to move forward in hopes of finding something to aid them in getting to the S.T.A.R.S. office. And they were about to get their wish. Looking into the shower area, the stalls lined one side of the room while sinks lined the other. One of the stalls had indeed been left on, water flooding both the bathroom and down the drain.
On the far side of the room, the wall had a giant hole in it, similar to the one on the third floor. It had looked like something had busted through it. Whatever it was, it was something they had to make sure to avoid, but also thank. They gaped at its size in absolute surprise that there was an opening allowing them to actually move forward with ease.
"Ya' know, I was joking when I said that we might find a secret door, but this will work just fine!" Veronica grinned happily at the other. Claire mirrored it and led the way through, carefully maneuvering over broken wall bits.
Walking past it, they found themselves in what was probably the female's shower and locker room. As they entered the locker portion, they saw a man sitting on one of the benches hunched over. Carefully, they walked past it, but only for it to fall forward, crumpling onto the ground. It spooked them causing them to jump back in preparation for it getting up. They waited a moment, but it never did. In one of the lockers, they were lucky to find a canister of gunpowder, but nothing else.
Now, this was going to be new territory, so the two of them took out their weapons and slowly walked in. It was a dark hallway, lit only by the light above the door that they stood under and a light lying on the ground somewhere down the hall. There was a broken window blowing in the cold night air and the downpour of rain, drenching the floorboards. Shining a flashlight, they noticed on a couch nearby that there were some more fire rounds. To say they were set, was an understatement. Now if they only had the gun.
There were a couple of dead bodies lying around and blood was splattered everywhere, but no walking zombies that they could currently see. In the center of the hallway, they were most shocked to find a dead licker lying on the floor. A bullet hole the size of a shotgun blast in the face was a big indicator of its death.
"Holy shit! You can actually kill them?!" Veronica hissed, too scared to talk any louder than a whisper.
"The brain must be a weak spot. If I didn't know any better, I think this would be Leon's handwork." Claire glanced up at the nearby door and shined her light on the plaque next to it. "The S.T.A.R.S. office! C'mon!"
She quickly led them both to the door and dashed inside, too impatient to check carefully for any Licker sounds. Veronica was about to scold her for that but stopped when she noticed Claire's expression dead set at the other side of the room. Following her stare, there was a brown leather jacket hanging on the wall next to a desk, on it was a familiar looking design. Glancing down at the back of Claire's jacket, she found the resemblance and easily made the connection. That was Chris's jacket.
"Chris."
Veronica closed the door behind her as she watched Claire walk over to the other side of the room. Both of them glanced around and easily deemed the small room safe and empty. The walls were a blue color with dark brown wood panels, plaques and flags adorning it in praise of the team's work. There was a small office off to the side meant for the leader of the team and just from glancing in, Veronica could see the giant S.T.A.R.S. mural on the wall. She did notice there was a red herb on the ground, but she decided to pick it up later.
There were many desks sitting neatly against the wall, but everything looked cluttered. It seemed like they were just packing up, then decided to go on a lunch break with how normal it looked compared to the rest of the station. Following Claire, she saw a computer on a desk in front of a barred off section of the room with what looked like a gun behind it. However, she didn't immediately investigate, instead, she watched as Claire walked up to the jacket hanging on the wall.
"Claire?" Said girl took the jacket off of the wall and let her fingers graze over the fabric. She turned to Veronica with shiny, wet eyes while hugging the jacket close to her chest. Veronica was taken aback; Claire looked like she was going to cry. For as long as she had known her that night, Claire always seemed to be such a brave and badass person that could do anything to survive. And now, she looked so vulnerable.
"This is his jacket," she whispered then turned to the chair next to her. "This is his desk...but where is he?"
Veronica almost didn't know what to say, her body frozen stuck where she stood. All that searching and trying so hard to get to this office, and still no sign of Chris. She could already see the frantic scenarios running through Claire's head, including the one she dreaded the most.
Seeing a lone tear fall down Claire's cheek kicked her comforting side into gear. She took a step forward and placed a hand on top of Claire's over the jacket. Her other hand reached up to gently brush the tear away with her thumb.
"Don't cry, Claire," she spoke softly. " We can't lose hope! We still haven't found him, dead or alive. It's possible that he's not even here. M-maybe he's escaped!"
"B-but why wouldn't he call or-or," Claire tried but cut herself off instead. "What if this was all for nothing? What if he's dead?!"
"No! Claire, we still don't know that yet."
"Look around Veronica! Almost everyone here is either a pile of guts or mindless zombies!"
"But we still haven't found him anywhere! There's still a chance! We've made it this far, right? Who's to say that he didn't either?" She glanced around the room and noticed all of the computers. "There's gotta be clues around here in this office! An email or something! We just have to look around some more." She sighed before stepping a tad closer. "Please, don't give up on me now!"
They locked eyes for a moment, and before Veronica had time to react, Claire rushed in to pull her into a hug. It took her a second to finally wrap her arms around her, both holding each other tightly. She could feel Claire nuzzle into her neck while she rubbed her back comfortingly, warmth seeping through the fabric. Her heartbeat sped up for a moment before slowing as she relaxed in Claire's arms. It was like hugging someone she had been friends with for a long time.
It was a moment they couldn't help but melt into, possible feelings to the side. They were stuck in such a terrifying situation that made them truly wonder if they would make it out alive. And if they did, what about everyone else? Like Chris or Leon. To have to go through the chaos of a zombie-infested city with such slim chances of living was truly scary. This hug they shared was desperately needed even with worry on their minds.
"He's the only family I've got! I can't lose him too," Claire sniffled, voice muffled into Veronica's shirt.
"I know, but we'll figure this out. I promise! No matter what happens, we have to keep our hopes up or we're better off dead. We have to make it out of here, if not for us then for them." Claire pulled away with puffy red eyes.
"Do...do you have one too?" Veronica nodded, eyes starting to water a little at the thought of her last encounter with them.
"A sister, Lily. She's 13 years old and she's the most important person in my life. I would do anything for her, just like you would do anything for Chris. So, let's get out of here alive, for them." Claire stared with soft eyes before nodding.
"Yeah, yeah ok. I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I know you're scared, but I've got you and you got me! We're gal pals, right?" she smiled while holding out her pinky to the other. Claire giggled softly while wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Yeah! We are. Thank you, Veronica," she replied while hooking her pinky with the others.
"It's no problem, Claire," she said while dropping their hands. "Let's look around and see if we find anything on Chris. If he's anything like his sister, I'm sure he's fine." Claire smiled before turning to hook the jacket back on the wall.
"Hopefully, as long as he doesn't let his big head get in the way," she joked. Both girls laughed at that before glancing over at the desks next to them. With a nod to each other, Claire searched Chris' desk while Veronica checked the one next to it, both of them sitting on the chairs to give their feet a break for once.
From a surface level, the desk was very tidy, showing that whoever worked there was a very good officer. That, and that they loved dogs by the framed picture of one next to the computer monitor. The beret sitting nearby was a cute but interesting choice of uniform to be used, at least to Veronica's knowledge. She picked it up and hummed curiously.
"Are berets a normal thing for S.T.A.R.S. members to wear?" she asked. Claire looked over from searching through a folder.
"Oh, that's Jill's! She used to have really long hair a while back up until recently. I've seen her wear it a few times to keep her hair out of the way by keeping most of it under the cap," she explained. "She must've left it behind."
"Oh! I'm assuming you knew all of the S.T.A.R.S. members, then?"
"Actually, I only know a few! Mainly the members of the Alpha team, since Chris was a part of it, but I did meet a few Bravo members at a couple of barbeques," she smiled fondly at the memory. "Jill was Chris' right-hand partner! They were almost inseparable from how close of friends they became. For a second there, I thought they were going to end up being together, but it never happened!" She paused. "It probably would've broken my heart a few years back since I had the biggest crush on her when we met. She was super pretty and such a badass!"
Veronica froze and caught herself from choking on her own spit. Claire looked over with slightly furrowed eyebrows, noticing the same tension as before. But what she didn't know was that Veronica was screaming internally for joy because that cemented the one thing she wanted to know. This was a dream come true! But that wasn't translating very well, however.
"What's with the face? Is there something wrong with that?"
"N-no! I was-well, I-!" she tried, but Claire wasn't having it.
"Some girls are gay, you know. Like I said before about preferences, mine just happen to be guys and girls," she said, irritation lacing her words. Oh god, she has the totally wrong idea here! "So, if that bothers you, may-"
"It doesn't!" Veronica blurted out, stopping Claire from continuing. She froze before just biting the bullet and saying it. "It doesn't bother me. It never will bother me, because…" she hesitated, fear still instilled in her from the past.
"Because?" Claire raised an eyebrow.
"Because I like both too," she explained slowly. Tension eased off of her shoulders, knowing that she had finally said it. Claire let her words sink in, her eyes widening in realization.
"Wait… you're bisexual too?!" Veronica nodded, still a little uneasy as she had only told a few friends. Her fear was unwarranted as Claire suddenly stood up with the biggest grin, pulling Veronica up along with her. She held the other's hands in hers while jumping excitedly in place. "I can't believe this! Two bisexual disasters surviving a zombie apocalypse together! What a coincidence! Oh, to say that I'm relieved to hear that is an understatement!"
"I, uh, well, me too!" Veronica shyly said in surprise, a smile growing on her face. "It's not every day you meet someone like you!"
"Tell me about it! If you were the opposite, I think we were about to have some major issues with each other. You have no idea how happy I am that you're not!" Claire sighed. Veronica didn't know if it was the fluorescent lights on the ceiling highlighting Claire's excitement, but she could've sworn she was blushing. There was a twinkle in her eyes that she almost didn't catch if wasn't so attentive to the moment.
"Me too," she muttered while trying to keep herself from melting at the sight.
"Why didn't you say anything before?" Veronica hesitated and Claire caught that immediately. "I'm sorry, it's none of my business on whether to know that or not."
"No, no! It's ok. I wanted to, but, honestly, I was kind of scared to say," the brunette replied, squeezing Claire's hands for comfort. "I'm not really out yet to my family, only a few friends. I guess it was just scary to out myself like that."
"So you're still in the closet then."
"Yeah, really deep in. I come from a Hispanic family, and well...," she trailed off.
"Oh, I understand."
"But I still should've said something. I mean… I trust you Claire and you never gave me a vibe that it would be dangerous to tell you. If anything, I wanted to tell you from the start!" Claire seemed taken aback by that, her cheeks now a deeper flush of pink.
"Well, I'm glad you think so! 'Cause I trust you too! But at least we don't have to worry about that anymore, we're out to each other and that'll only strengthen our bond!" They both smiled genuinely at each other, knowing that as friends now, things were going to get better between them.
"It did! I think it's safe to say that we're in this for the long run. I mean, it would be a shame to never see you again after all this survivor bonding." Claire squeezed their hands a last time.
"It would be a shame."
Cute scenarios of being together in a normal setting flooded Veronica's head and she couldn't help but want it so badly. Her heart thumped at imagining them holding hands on a date at the mall, but it was quickly set aside to the corner of her mind. A particularly loud creak from the ceiling pulled her back to where she was and reminded her that she first had to survive the city before anything like that was even possible. She sighed softly before glancing around the room.
"We should keep looking. So far, Jill's desk didn't have much to offer," she started. Claire looked over at Chris's desk and nodded.
"Yeah, same with Chris. No notes, no documents. His computer doesn't even work anymore."
"Figures."