Chapter Fourteen
Both Ray and Egon had heard the explosions, and were now staring out of the second floor windows. In the distance two columns of smoke could be seen rising into the evening sky over Uptown Raccoon. Ray gasped as a small explosion went off close to the RPD and a third column of smoke joined the othe two. Egon switched on the modified PKE meter. Ray we've got a problem." Ray moved over to see the display of the PKE meter.
"By my calculations, the number of signatures has gone up by ten percent in the past two hours."
"And this means?" Ray asked the vital question.
"It means that these creatures are either moving to this area, spreading the disease on a large scale. Or both." The sounds of breaking glass and shouting caught their attention as a cop in a torn uniform climbed the stairs and joined them.
"Dr. Spengler, Dr. Stantz. I've been sent to escort you two to a safer location."
"Dr. Stantz and myself will remain here, we have to wait for our colleagues to return."
"Dr. Spengler with all due respect, they'd be lucky if they were able to get through the courtyard alive." Egon and Ray exchanged a worried expression.
"What do you mean?" Ray asked.
"I mean that the Police Department is being attacked."
"Attacked by what?" The cop glanced out of the window.
"Them." Egon and Ray looked out of the window to see a blockade set up outside the main entrace. there were civilians crowding the entrance, but they were attacking the Police.
"What are those people doing? attacking the Police won't solve anything."
"That's just the thing Dr. Spengler, those people don't seem to be doing anything other than attacking my fellow officers. And that's not just all, they've managed to get down the side of the building and are coming through the windows near the Meeting Room, we've been able to control them, but they've killed five people." Ray looked out the window to the street beyond, he could see a couple of cops moving blue road barriers across the intersection of Ennerdale and Warren. A fountain erupted from a smashed fire hydrant. A large explosion erupted down the street from the blockade when several cars had piled up and the fuel line had ignited.
"To sum it up Dr. Spengler, it's a war zone down there." The three men stared out of the windows as Raccoon City began to fall into chaos, as it began to burn.
***
It looked like a scene from George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead". And fankly, there was nothing to prove otherwise. Winston, Dr. Stern and the Guard had got up from the basement to find the hospital Waiting Room in several stages of chaos. He had soon found out that the trouble the guards had been having earlier was spreading.
"Good God!" the guard exclaimed. A guard with a bloodsplattered uniform walked up to report the situation to Dr. Stern.
"Dr. Stern, we've be inundated, we've had so many people coming in that they're having to do triage in the corridors, we've lost five doctors including Dr. Stromm. Most of the nurses are too afraid to go near the patients after one nurse had three of her fingers bitten off." Winston stared at the room more closely, there was blood everywhere and most of the waiting room furniture was disorganised. Either from being moved to perform triage or from people falling into them.
"Evacuate the hospital, get as many healthy people out as possible, if you find anybody who isn't suffering from the virus then eveacuate them as well. The guard moved off into the chaos. Another doctor started to cross the room to speak to Dr. Stern.
"Dr. Stern..." The doctor slipped in a puddle of blood and collapsed to the floor. A body covered in a sheet nearby garbbed at his ankle and started to sit up.
"Aaagghh! get it off me, get it off me! The doctor scrambled and tried kicking the zombie's hand as it pulled the doctor's ankle closer. The doctor managed to land a blow on the back of the zombie's rotting hand, and the zombie's wrist made a sickening "Crack" as the bone broke. The doctor scrambled free as the zombie let out a moan of anger at having lost a meal.
"Get out of here, find a safe place to hide. We're evacuating the hospital." The doctor vanished off in the direction of the main doors. Winston, Dr. Stern and the guard followed a few minutes later. As soon as they got outside they saw the doctor running wildly down the street past the park. A station-wagon turned the corner wildly and started to zig-zag across the street. The doctor tried to jump out of the way but was caught in the chest as the car's hood slammed into him.
"Oh." he managed to gasp before the car, and his body slammed into the fence bordering the hospital. Winston turned to look along the street that ran parallel with the back of the park, a smashed Mini blocked the way. Even if it hadn't there was an overturned bus slowly burning further down the street. Taking the only clear route, Winston, Dr. Stern and the guard ran along a side-street that bordered the clock tower. Raccoon Station was coming into view as an explosion behind them threw them off track. Several cars had piled up outside the entrace to Raccoon Park. The way back was now blocked.
"Comeon guys, if we can get to the cablecar station we can use the cable car to take us down City Hall, from there we can make it on foot to the RPD. His two companions agreed and they started to make their way through the streets towards the cablecar station.
***
He couldn't believe it, he had managed to make it to the main gate and had found out that he couldn't get in, he had watched the massacre as the cops tried to defend the Police Department, thankfully they'd stopped the zombies from entering the building, but had died in the effort. He had decided to try find another way in and so had climbed over the police blockade, and had dodged at leat half a dozen zombies to get onto the road behind the RPD.
"Great, I know some survivalists in New York who'd pay to do this." He now stood atop a crashed RPD squad car and held onto a nearby lamppost to use as an lookout post. The street was emptyish, there was a small crowd of zombies near a set of stores on an intersection, but it looked like the gate was closer to him. Shielding his eyes from the squadcar's sirenlights he jumped down to the sidewalk and started running for the gate. The gate lead into a small loading are behind the Police Department, it turned out this was the entrance to the underground parking garage. This was obvious because there were a couple of black and white squadcars parked near the shutter.
"Freeze!" Peter turned to see a man dressed in a cop's uniform.
"Woah don't shoot, I'm one of the good guys!" The cop lowered his gun a little.
"Are you injured?" The cop still had to be careful.
"No."
"Good, that means I don't have to shoot you." Peter walked over to the cop.
"I'm Lt. Viota, I'm suprised you were able to make it this far without being bitten." The cop shook hands with Peter.
"Peter Venkman, thanks for not shooting." The cop's expression turned to suprise.
"Peter Venkman, as in Dr. Peter Venkman of the Ghostbusters?"
"I see my reputation preceeds me." Lt. Viota and Peter started walking towards a maintenence shed that was a shortcut to the detectives' offices.
"Wow, what are you doing in Raccoon?"
"I was here with my partners investigation reports of monsters seen in the area. But soon things changed." Another explosion went off in the distance. The sky was now in the dying stages of evening.
Those things are everywhere, do you know if Officer Spencer's charges are still alive?"
"You mean those scientists he's with are from your team? the last I heard was that they were in the second floor corridor. But a man had been sent up to escort them to a safer part of the building." Climbing a set of stairs to a helipad, they started to work their way through the laberyth of corridors to the East Offices on the ground floor. Peter gave the back of Lt. Viota's head a puzzled look as the lieutenant started humming the theme tune from the Ghostbusters movie. They finally entered the main part of the offices a few minutes later as a group of officers and detectives chatted nervously. Lt. Viota walked over to a coffee machine.
"Want a cup?" Lt. Viota asked Peter.
"After the stuff I've seen I might need a few." Lt. Viota chuckled a little at Peter's joke and poured some coffee into a coffeecup with a picture of a Ingram '98 and the title "Patlabor" in large white letters. He then poured some coffee into a standard RPD cup with the station logo on the side and handed it to Peter.
"Thanks."
Both Ray and Egon had heard the explosions, and were now staring out of the second floor windows. In the distance two columns of smoke could be seen rising into the evening sky over Uptown Raccoon. Ray gasped as a small explosion went off close to the RPD and a third column of smoke joined the othe two. Egon switched on the modified PKE meter. Ray we've got a problem." Ray moved over to see the display of the PKE meter.
"By my calculations, the number of signatures has gone up by ten percent in the past two hours."
"And this means?" Ray asked the vital question.
"It means that these creatures are either moving to this area, spreading the disease on a large scale. Or both." The sounds of breaking glass and shouting caught their attention as a cop in a torn uniform climbed the stairs and joined them.
"Dr. Spengler, Dr. Stantz. I've been sent to escort you two to a safer location."
"Dr. Stantz and myself will remain here, we have to wait for our colleagues to return."
"Dr. Spengler with all due respect, they'd be lucky if they were able to get through the courtyard alive." Egon and Ray exchanged a worried expression.
"What do you mean?" Ray asked.
"I mean that the Police Department is being attacked."
"Attacked by what?" The cop glanced out of the window.
"Them." Egon and Ray looked out of the window to see a blockade set up outside the main entrace. there were civilians crowding the entrance, but they were attacking the Police.
"What are those people doing? attacking the Police won't solve anything."
"That's just the thing Dr. Spengler, those people don't seem to be doing anything other than attacking my fellow officers. And that's not just all, they've managed to get down the side of the building and are coming through the windows near the Meeting Room, we've been able to control them, but they've killed five people." Ray looked out the window to the street beyond, he could see a couple of cops moving blue road barriers across the intersection of Ennerdale and Warren. A fountain erupted from a smashed fire hydrant. A large explosion erupted down the street from the blockade when several cars had piled up and the fuel line had ignited.
"To sum it up Dr. Spengler, it's a war zone down there." The three men stared out of the windows as Raccoon City began to fall into chaos, as it began to burn.
***
It looked like a scene from George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead". And fankly, there was nothing to prove otherwise. Winston, Dr. Stern and the Guard had got up from the basement to find the hospital Waiting Room in several stages of chaos. He had soon found out that the trouble the guards had been having earlier was spreading.
"Good God!" the guard exclaimed. A guard with a bloodsplattered uniform walked up to report the situation to Dr. Stern.
"Dr. Stern, we've be inundated, we've had so many people coming in that they're having to do triage in the corridors, we've lost five doctors including Dr. Stromm. Most of the nurses are too afraid to go near the patients after one nurse had three of her fingers bitten off." Winston stared at the room more closely, there was blood everywhere and most of the waiting room furniture was disorganised. Either from being moved to perform triage or from people falling into them.
"Evacuate the hospital, get as many healthy people out as possible, if you find anybody who isn't suffering from the virus then eveacuate them as well. The guard moved off into the chaos. Another doctor started to cross the room to speak to Dr. Stern.
"Dr. Stern..." The doctor slipped in a puddle of blood and collapsed to the floor. A body covered in a sheet nearby garbbed at his ankle and started to sit up.
"Aaagghh! get it off me, get it off me! The doctor scrambled and tried kicking the zombie's hand as it pulled the doctor's ankle closer. The doctor managed to land a blow on the back of the zombie's rotting hand, and the zombie's wrist made a sickening "Crack" as the bone broke. The doctor scrambled free as the zombie let out a moan of anger at having lost a meal.
"Get out of here, find a safe place to hide. We're evacuating the hospital." The doctor vanished off in the direction of the main doors. Winston, Dr. Stern and the guard followed a few minutes later. As soon as they got outside they saw the doctor running wildly down the street past the park. A station-wagon turned the corner wildly and started to zig-zag across the street. The doctor tried to jump out of the way but was caught in the chest as the car's hood slammed into him.
"Oh." he managed to gasp before the car, and his body slammed into the fence bordering the hospital. Winston turned to look along the street that ran parallel with the back of the park, a smashed Mini blocked the way. Even if it hadn't there was an overturned bus slowly burning further down the street. Taking the only clear route, Winston, Dr. Stern and the guard ran along a side-street that bordered the clock tower. Raccoon Station was coming into view as an explosion behind them threw them off track. Several cars had piled up outside the entrace to Raccoon Park. The way back was now blocked.
"Comeon guys, if we can get to the cablecar station we can use the cable car to take us down City Hall, from there we can make it on foot to the RPD. His two companions agreed and they started to make their way through the streets towards the cablecar station.
***
He couldn't believe it, he had managed to make it to the main gate and had found out that he couldn't get in, he had watched the massacre as the cops tried to defend the Police Department, thankfully they'd stopped the zombies from entering the building, but had died in the effort. He had decided to try find another way in and so had climbed over the police blockade, and had dodged at leat half a dozen zombies to get onto the road behind the RPD.
"Great, I know some survivalists in New York who'd pay to do this." He now stood atop a crashed RPD squad car and held onto a nearby lamppost to use as an lookout post. The street was emptyish, there was a small crowd of zombies near a set of stores on an intersection, but it looked like the gate was closer to him. Shielding his eyes from the squadcar's sirenlights he jumped down to the sidewalk and started running for the gate. The gate lead into a small loading are behind the Police Department, it turned out this was the entrance to the underground parking garage. This was obvious because there were a couple of black and white squadcars parked near the shutter.
"Freeze!" Peter turned to see a man dressed in a cop's uniform.
"Woah don't shoot, I'm one of the good guys!" The cop lowered his gun a little.
"Are you injured?" The cop still had to be careful.
"No."
"Good, that means I don't have to shoot you." Peter walked over to the cop.
"I'm Lt. Viota, I'm suprised you were able to make it this far without being bitten." The cop shook hands with Peter.
"Peter Venkman, thanks for not shooting." The cop's expression turned to suprise.
"Peter Venkman, as in Dr. Peter Venkman of the Ghostbusters?"
"I see my reputation preceeds me." Lt. Viota and Peter started walking towards a maintenence shed that was a shortcut to the detectives' offices.
"Wow, what are you doing in Raccoon?"
"I was here with my partners investigation reports of monsters seen in the area. But soon things changed." Another explosion went off in the distance. The sky was now in the dying stages of evening.
Those things are everywhere, do you know if Officer Spencer's charges are still alive?"
"You mean those scientists he's with are from your team? the last I heard was that they were in the second floor corridor. But a man had been sent up to escort them to a safer part of the building." Climbing a set of stairs to a helipad, they started to work their way through the laberyth of corridors to the East Offices on the ground floor. Peter gave the back of Lt. Viota's head a puzzled look as the lieutenant started humming the theme tune from the Ghostbusters movie. They finally entered the main part of the offices a few minutes later as a group of officers and detectives chatted nervously. Lt. Viota walked over to a coffee machine.
"Want a cup?" Lt. Viota asked Peter.
"After the stuff I've seen I might need a few." Lt. Viota chuckled a little at Peter's joke and poured some coffee into a coffeecup with a picture of a Ingram '98 and the title "Patlabor" in large white letters. He then poured some coffee into a standard RPD cup with the station logo on the side and handed it to Peter.
"Thanks."