Chapter 11:

When Claire peeked into the room, she expected the Licker to be on the floor. It wasn't till a hiss brought her attention up to the ceiling. She had forgotten that they could do that. It still unsettled her. With the same tactic as the garage, the girls made quick work of killing the monster. However, it took a few more hits than usual before going down, whittling Veronica's fire grenade ammo down to only a couple of rounds left.

They walked back into the now safe room and finally looked over the mess without the worry of danger. The mirror was broken through, but now it allowed access into the next room. Worked for them since they didn't have the key to that one anyway.

"So what was it you said that you found?" Veronica asked. Claire held up a strange-looking box with buttons on it. Curiously, she pushed a button causing it to beep loudly and one of the lights on it glowed up.

"This thing was just sitting on a box over there. I don't know what it is, but it looks kooky."

"Hm, can I see?" Claire nodded then handed it over.

She tinkered around with the buttons for a minute and found it kind of fun to do. It was like a puzzle and she was in some fucked up mystery game. There seemed to be a pattern to it. After a minute, the lights were all lit and the box beeped a short song before it opened itself.

"Oh! It opens!" Pulling the lid up, she found a small white square button. "What's this for?"

"Anything that needs a button? Wait, didn't we have something like that somewhere?" It took Veronica a minute before remembering.

"Right! The keypad in the safety deposit room!"

"Nice! We can use this and maybe find another one of these combination locks. They probably have the other button."

She pocketed the thing while Claire climbed over the wall to the other room. It didn't have much besides a table with some listening equipment and some shelving. It had only one dead body in it and it was slumped on the bookshelf next to the door. It must have been reaching for the exit but didn't quite make it. After nudging at it a little, they realized it was really dead.

At its feet, however, they found another can of gunpowder to take. There was also a note on a filing cabinet that had the code to the safe on the second floor. A note for it was quickly made before the girls left. From there, they made their way back upstairs even going up to the third floor. They knew the door leading to their destination was just above them and in reach.

It was very dark ascending up to a dusty mess of a room. Tools and cleaning supplies were scattered near the railing by the stairs, including boards that they took note of for later. The floor was coated in a layer of dust and dirt that tracked every step they made. Breathing in, it felt like an attic.

There were a couple of lockers against two of the walls and searching them they found more handgun ammo and a flash grenade. Claire let Veronica take it since she had two on her plus a regular grenade. There were also two doors in the room, just opposite each other.

Opening the one closer to the stairs, they found the storage room where the lock part would be found. As the door creaked open, they could hear the moans and groans of zombies from somewhere in the room. Nothing can ever be easy, huh?

The room was dimly lit with a single working light that shined in one spot. There was a door just across the way that would lead to the third floor in the main hall. That would be the way towards the clock tower like they needed. Another door to their left had a heart insignia on it much to their surprise. This key really was getting handy!

The pair carefully walked in, peering through the shelves of boxes to find their targets. They got near the heart door and found two zombies just standing around, groaning to themselves. Claire was lucky enough to sneak behind one to take out with her knife, but the other caught on quickly to their attack. Veronica already had her gun aimed before Claire ducked out of the way, allowing the other to shoot the zombie down.

"Nice shooting! You're almost as pro as me," Claire grinned while giving Veronica a gentle shoulder bump. Veronica couldn't help the blush from her praise as she watched Claire open the heart door.

"Do I get a reward if I do?" she joked but also tried so desperately to flirt. But she felt embarrassed as soon as the words left her mouth. It didn't sound right and boy howdy was she rusty at this. Conscious flirting was tough, but with also where they were, it was kinda weird. What is wrong with me?!

Claire didn't seem to mind, however. She merely looked back at her with a smug grin before peeking into the room she had unlocked. After making sure it was safe, she walked back over to the other, stopping just before her. Veronica nearly choked on her spit at the close proximity but didn't move. Her heart began thudding like crazy in her chest as Claire reached over to play with the hem of her plaid button-down.

"Well," she paused, eyes flitting up to meet Veronica's, "maybe. I suppose a date to the movies would suffice, right?" Veronica swallowed nervously. "Maybe even some dinner, then maybe, I don't know…a pro shooter deserves a kiss."

If steam could come out of her ears, Veronica was a train getting ready to blow. Images of this exact scenario made her melt a little on the inside. Claire almost looked like she was about to make do with the promise, but she pulled away all too quickly.

"We'll see," she sang teasingly.

Veronica couldn't move even as Claire walked into the next room. Her feet were glued to the floor, unable to do anything, but let her mind reel. She was way too gay for this. It was only a few moments before Claire walked back out with a box in hand.

"Found the part!"

Veronica finally shook herself from her trance as she watched Claire open the box to reveal the electronic part that they needed. It was a small square that looked like the other pieces in the lock downstairs. She stuffed it into her pouch and gave Veronica both an extra knife she had found and a smile before walking away to search the room. Veronica sighed softly to herself before turning to look around at the other side.

In their findings, there were some fire grenades, a blue herb, and to Veronica's surprise, a giant gear. It was sat in the middle of the room atop boxes in a small alcove of shelves. She picked it up to examine.

"What could this be used for?" Veronica asked. Claire merely shrugged.

"Who knows, but it could be important. But it's too big to carry, so let's just leave it for now." Veronica nodded as she placed it back down. She was still floating in the clouds a little, but she was coming back down to earth. They had a mission to do, and flirting can wait till they were out of there.

With one part in hand, they decided to go ahead with the next part of their plan. The clocktower. It was just beyond the other door in the room and across the hall. Easy, right?

"Are you kidding me?" Claire groaned, a hand twisting the doorknob.

"What?"

"This door is locked!"

"Are you serious?!" She tried to give it a try and felt the lock on the other side stop the door. "Damn! I told you not to jinx us."

"Yeah, ok so that was my bad, I'll admit. But what do we do now?" Claire asked while leaning back against the wall. They took out their map and began looking over it again.

"We'll have to go the long way by going through the library. While we're on that side, we can also go to the linen room since we have that key," Veronica mapped out.

"Sounds like a plan, but how do we get over there?" Veronica hummed as she wondered the same thing.

"We haven't gone through the other door to the balcony. Maybe there's a way we can climb down."

The duo walked out and went through the other door on their floor. They were met with the small balcony area and rain coming down like never before. It was mostly empty space save for two tables with chairs on the opposite side. On one of the tables was a blue herb, so they took it.

To their left, there was a ladder that led down to an outside area of the station. An easy path down, awesome! The courtyard was bathed in the orange glow of the helicopter fire that had happened earlier. This must be the other side that they couldn't reach before. Claire shined her light on the ladder and nodded.

"I'll go first!" she said loudly over the roar of the rain.

The ladder creaked intensely under their weight, but nothing happened. It made Veronica wonder if the thing was gonna break any time soon. The courtyard was big and they were happy the fire helped with seeing in the dark.

However, despite the nice warmth it also gave off, the fire needed to be put out if they had any chance of getting back into the station. From what they can tell, the fences surrounding them were too high and too slippery to climb their way out of there either. Not without breaking a foot.

There was a mechanism on the wall near them that had a lever and, at the top, it was connected to some pipes. Veronica could see that one of the pipes was hanging just over the fire. She pulled the lever down curiously and watched as, instead, Claire next to her got even more soaking wet by a rush of water. There was a busted pipe just above her that the lever was also connected to and it seemed to be the one that was in use.

"Ah!" Claire gasped as she stepped back in surprise. Veronica couldn't stop the snort from coming out of her mouth.

"Sorry! You ok?" she asked. Claire sputtered while wiping away the water from her face.

"Yeah, it's not like I wasn't wet already."

"Safe to say that you're right!" Veronica looked back up to the pipe and followed it with her eyes to see it disappear over the building. "Well, we might be able to take out that fire if we can find out how to reroute the water." Veronica glanced around and saw a set of stairs leading down at the other side of the courtyard. "Where does that go?"

"I think the map said that the boiler room was that way," Claire responded.

They quickly made their way over to the stairs and could see the said room across the yard. As they were walking down, a growl from under them caught them by surprise. Then another, who heard the commotion came stumbling out from behind a wall near the boiler room. The duo made quick work of getting rid of them before finally making it across. To their dismay, however, the door was boarded up.

"Shit," Claire muttered before reaching up to tug on the wood. They were absolutely nailed in. "Now what?"

Veronica glanced around at the many pipes along the wall next to them to see if she could find the one they needed. Low and behold, it was connected to a mechanism that had a lever on it. It showed which way the water was being routed.

"That's what!" she pointed out.

She jogged over and flicked the switch, hearing a bubbling sound coming from it. The duo looked at each other before running back to the pipe lever. With a pull of the lever, water now cascaded down onto the fire instead of on them. The flames were quickly extinguished leaving them in a cold darkness.

"Nice thinking, gal pal!" Claire said while giving her a pat on the shoulder.

After picking up some ammo from a nearby bench that they had noticed, they walked inside. They coughed at the onslaught of smoke so they left the door open behind them to let it filter out. After a few moments, it had cleared.

Carefully walking through the hallway, they rounded another corner that led to the helicopter. They were about to discuss ways of passing the giant machinery when they were rudely interrupted. As they approached it, the vehicle began to suddenly move as something on the other side began to pick up via the tail.

They froze and watched as Mr. X shoved the copter into the wall with ease. The metal of the vehicle was crushed in its hands and the fact that he pushed this vehicle through the wall like it was butter was frightening to witness. This really put into perspective how strong the fucker was and that was more terrifying than they realized. It had cleared the path through, but now he stood in the way of them and the rest of the building.

"Son of a bitch!" Claire shouted before running back the way they came, Veronica following close behind. The footsteps shook the floor beneath them as they made it outside and shut the door behind them.

"This fucker doesn't know when to quit! What do we do!?"

"We have to get past it somehow!"

"How?!" The footsteps were reaching the door.

"I'll throw a grenade at it, then we can run past it."

The door slammed open against the wall with a loud bang as the giant bent down to get through the doorway. Seeing the pair, he stalked towards them while Claire grabbed a flash grenade from her waist and pulled the pin.

"Shut your eyes!" she shouted.

She threw the grenade at the giant's feet and they both shielded their eyes. The grenade went off causing it to stop and try to recover its eyesight. While it was distracted, the young couple ran past him and into the hallway. Not too far behind, they could hear the monster following them.

"Ok…better move it."

"Alright, then what's our next move?" Veronica asked between pants, her legs on fire from all of the running.

"The library like you said! But I think we should hide this fucker out first," Claire suggested just as they made it to the main hall. They took a small pause at the lion statue to make a plan.

"Fine by me, but where?"

"Didn't you say we had the key to the linen room?"

"Yeah?"

"We might be able to hide out there. I don't think we can pull another safe room trick this time around. I can't tell if this thing can lear-," Claire was interrupted by the sound of the waiting room door opening. She couldn't tell if it was just her tunneled vision, but it seemed to Veronica that X was walking faster after them. Like it was mad that they had dodged it for this long.

"Worth a shot!" Veronica agreed while grabbing Claire's wrist.

They both ran across the floor to the library then through the unicorn statue room to the linen room. Veronica quickly unlocked the door, but before she could even process what was happening, she was being pushed inside. She turned in time to see Claire about to shut the door; thunderous footsteps had made their way to the room next to them. How did he catch up to us so quickly!?

"Wait!"

"Hide! There's no time! I'm going to lead him away," she whispered before closing the door. The sound of her footsteps running away from the room indicated she was gone. Her heart dropped as she realized what the other was doing. Son of a…

"But-!" she immediately hushed herself by the sound of the door next to her opening. She covered her mouth as she backed away from the door.

Mr. X had stopped and was listening for them. She whipped her head around and looked for someplace to hide. It was a small room with washer-dryer units inside it. Folded-up linens sat on racks, as well as a blue gunpowder can and, to their surprise, another one of those button locks that they opened down in the interrogation room. It was randomly sitting on top of a dryer. But she made no move to grab any of it.

It wasn't much, so she did the one thing she could think of. She quietly grabbed two of the sheets then sat in the corner. If she was in a linen room, she was going to make herself look like laundry. She draped one over her feet and crumpled it up, then draped the other over her head. Then she pulled a flash grenade out just in case.

Just as she had it in hand, the door to the room opened. She could hear the leather of Mr. X's coat swish as he moved inside. Her heartbeat was going crazy in her chest, so much so, she was afraid it could hear it. He must have heard the slightest movement of her trying to hide. This was all the more terrifying now knowing that this thing could actually crush their heads in.

Suddenly, a loud bang from the end of the hall caught them both by surprise. Claire! Mr. X hastily walked out and trudged toward the source of the sound. No no no! She didn't relax till she heard the other door open and shut again then the footsteps faded towards other parts of the wing.

Letting out a soft sigh, she laid her head back against the wall behind her. That was another close one. She didn't even want to get up from her hiding spot in case it came back. Despite being relieved at not getting found, her heart was sitting in her gut with how worried she was for her companion. It was clearly chasing after her now. That was what she meant when she ran. What in the world is she going to do?

Suddenly, the sound of the door opening woke her from her thoughts. She didn't dare make a sound or move. Did it come back when she wasn't paying attention? Would she be able to fake it again? Was it another monster?

"Vee?" Claire's voice softly whispered from the doorway. Relief flooded Veronica at the sound of her voice.

"Claire!"

The brunette quickly undraped herself and found Claire closing the door behind her. She looked just as relieved to see Veronica. Hopping up from the floor, Veronica clipped her grenade back on her belt then walked over to her friend.

"I'm so glad you're ok. I knew that-" Claire didn't finish as she was wrapped into a tight hug.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Veronica scolded softly, words muffled in Claire's shoulder. "I was so worried that that thing was going to get you." Arms wound themselves around her to return the hug.

"I…I'm sorry. I had to lead him away from here. There was no time for the both of us to hide. He would've caught us if I hadn't." Veronica slowly pulled away and slightly blushed at the close proximity.

"I know, but still."

"It was all I could think of in the moment. I mean, maybe we should've hid in the S.T.A.R.S. office, but my mind wasn't thinking straight. I thought we had more time than we did. But I got him to leave, didn't I?" Claire weakly smirked as she reached up to brush Veronica's hair away from her face.

"H-how did you get away?"

"I hid in one of the lockers by the showers. He didn't think twice as he passed me and left the room. I think he went downstairs."

"Good thinking, but next time, we don't separate like that. We can do this as long as we stick together."

The younger sighed softly. Veronica was kind of surprised to see the fear on Claire's face. They both had seen what that giant monster could do now. It was all a guess before since they had been able to dodge the thing up to that point. To say, Veronica understood how her companion was feeling, was an understatement.

"To be fair, I thought of it last minute. There was no time since he was right on our asses and I just…I had to keep you safe," she said the last part softly as she cupped Veronica's cheek.

Veronica's knees almost gave out under her. Claire's blue eyes were soft as they gazed into her brown ones. The small gentle gestures and that line was almost overwhelming. She was sure her face was on fire.

There was a moment of silence before Veronica realized the space between them was diminishing. She couldn't help but follow the magnetic pull as they both leaned in. Her heart thumped furiously in her chest as her eyes began to close. Their lips had barely brushed together when, suddenly, the door in the hallway next to them slammed open.

They jumped and pulled apart, heads whipping to the door. Staring it down in silence, Claire reached for her belt, waiting for Mr. X. to bust in. But it didn't. After a moment, it began stomping down the hallway towards the other end then disappeared to continue its search.

Both girls sighed in relief before glancing back at one another. A blush was heavy on their cheeks, but the smile they gave each other was shy. Claire cleared her throat before cupping both of Veronica's cheeks. Then just as quickly, she gave a kiss to both of her cheeks.

"For the road," she said with a wink. Veronica giggled, her heart aflutter in her chest. Even though she desperately wanted Claire's lips on hers, she could wait.

With that said and done, they continued to use the safe time that they had to search the room. Veronica pointed out what she had noticed before and those items seemed to be the only things there. Picking up the button box, Claire shook it to hear something in it.

"Oh! Maybe it's the other button!" Claire said. "Can I give it a try?"

"Go ahead!" She played around with the buttons and solved it in no time at all. Out popped a white button for a keypad, similar to the last one.

"Nice! I got it!"

"Now we can get the rest of the stuff down in the security deposit room now."

After figuring out that Mr. X had moved onto other parts of the station, the duo walked back out into the hallway and began heading back down to the first floor to get the extra supplies. Things still looked the same, but that didn't stop them from being careful while walking around. This proved to be a good thing to do because as they were descending the stairs near the safe room, a loud hiss stopped them in their tracks.

Their blood ran cold as they realized what the sound was as it echoed in the room. Shining a light down the hallway, they could see the faint hind legs of a licker sitting on the floor near the west office door. Claire tapped the brunette on the shoulder, gaining her attention. She put a finger to her lips then pointed to the safe room door, just a few feet away. Considering where the licker was, it should be no problem getting there as long as they stayed quiet.

Veronica swallowed nervously as the pair slowly made their way to the door. Thankfully, the monster didn't even notice their presence, too busy with whatever it was doing. As soon as they were inside, they locked the door and let out a sigh in relief. She leaned against the wall, trying to calm her nerves while Claire paced near the desk in thought.

"God, these fuckers aren't making this easy!" she mumbled angrily. "How's your fire grenades?"

"Only four left. Do you think it would be enough?"

"We gotta try. Time is running out. Mr. X will be back pretty soon. Especially with all the noise we'll be making." Claire turned opened one of the lockers against the wall and pulled out a small metal can that held ink ribbon for the typewriter. "If worst comes to worst, I'll divert its attention away with this. You can do this!"

Veronica nodded then took in a deep breath. Even though this wasn't their first rodeo, encouragement was needed. No doors are gonna save them this time around. They both walked out and peered down the hallway to see the Licker still in the same spot. As they quietly walked closer, they could hear it munching on one of the dead bodies on the floor.

Once close enough, Veronica aimed her gun and shot one round at the monster. It screamed in pain and began to turn towards them, but to buy Veronica some time, Claire threw the can at the opposite wall. With its attention elsewhere, Veronica was able to shoot another one in time for it to finally die.

"Quickly!" Claire said while pulling Veronica towards the Safety Deposit room. They had a limited amount of time before X would show.

Claire put both buttons that they had found into the keypad then Veronica told her the numbers on the lockers. On one side, they found another pouch and some more fire rounds. The other side had some ammo, a can of gunpowder, and a knife.

There was no need to use the room anymore, much to their relief. With what they had found, they could really start making more ammo, but they had no time. X's footsteps were heading in their direction.

"Let's head to the library while we can!" Veronica suggested.

Both girls went running, just in time for X to make it to the West office. With a slight time advantage, they ran up to the second floor and to the library. However, once they got to the top of the library stairs, they were surprised to see a giant hole in the walkway leading to the third floor.

"That wasn't there before!" Veronica whispered in shock.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Claire cried exasperatedly.

Hearing the giant on their tail, the two girls ran across the walkway towards the West storage room. As they ran through, they could hear a loud hiss from somewhere, but they just kept running. They could hear a Licker slide along the wood behind them, missing the mark by a few feet. They were lucky to run out of the area and into the safety of the West wing before it could catch them.

They quickly went to the second floor to hide in the S.T.A.R.S. office, not really wanting a repeat of the linen room. Once X would lose their scent, then it was an easy passage to the library. Things were not going according to plan. Once they got to the S.T.A.R.S office, they stopped running and silently opened the door. They crept into the office and closed the door in hopes of tricking the monster.

They backed away from it and stood by the desks near the other side of the room. Trying to keep their breaths shallow, they listened as the door near the locker room opened and slammed back shut.

Each thump of the footstep echoed loudly in the hallway as it drew closer and closer. Their hearts thumped loudly in their chest as they waited with bated breath, hoping to god that it wouldn't find them. It paused just outside the door for a second, their blood running cold as they watched the door with their guns in hand.

Another second passed before the footsteps began again and made their way down the hall towards the linen room. The door was slammed open then shut again before the footsteps fade away. They waited till they were gone completely before finally relaxing. Veronica sagged against a desk as she put her gun back in her holster.

"This dude is killing me!...No pun intended," she said breathlessly.

"Yeah, you could say that this is my workout for the next few weeks," Claire joked just as tired.

"Ok, but now we gotta do some re-planning. That hole on the library floor wasn't there before! What do we do?" Claire took a moment to think it over.

"Maybe we could make a bridge of some sort?" Then her eyes lit up as she remembered a previous point made out by her gal pal. "Like the shelves! You really are full of smart ideas."

"Oh!" Veronica blushed a little, but it wasn't a bad idea. "But we would need the jack, right? I don't know about you, but I haven't seen it anywhere. Is there anywhere we haven't checked?" The girls took out the map again and looked it over. Claire pointed to one spot.

"The Records room! The only place left in this entire building that we haven't been in. Luckily for us, we have the key!"

"It better be there, or I swear."