Surrounded
2.
"Jesus Christ!" Browning said as he swerved the truck, a giant figure having just run in front of it.
The truck almost hopped on two wheels as it hit the sidewalk on the opposite end of the street. The giant figure that had ran out in front suddenly stopped and looked back at the truck, only twenty feet away. Enraged, it lifted up the rocket launcher at its side and shot it at the truck.
"The fuck was that?!" Browning yelled, and he looked out the passenger side window just in time to see the flash of an incoming rocket. Before he could yell for Koch to get down, the truck was hit dead center. Koch was knocked unconscious as his head hit the metal railing along the ceiling. Everything was thrown in disarray in the back of the truck, and a large bulge was now visible within the holding area. The rocket had nearly pierced the armor.
The giant in the black trench coat gritted exposed teeth as it watched the truck flip over, and then turned and resumed its hunt elsewhere.
Koch came to, the blackness slowly illuminating into the confines of the armored truck's canopy. Browning was sitting over him, slapping his cheeks.
"Quit it."
Browning smirked, then his face grew serious again.
"Its midnight, you've been out for almost four hours." He said.
Koch sat up, and his head immediately stung. He held a hand up to his forehead and found it bandaged. He felt a large swelling that started just under his right eyebrow and ran halfway up his forehead. Reaching into a vest pocket he took out a bottle of painkillers he always carried, even under normal conditions.
"The bulk of them passed by a couple hours ago. I managed to move some of our equipment to a building one block away while you were knocked out." Browning said.
"You didn't jack a new vehicle?"
"Without this truck we aren't getting through the barricades."
"The explosives-"
"Every other street after this is blocked with steel. And every main street is suicide now. They're all over the place, we wouldn't make it three blocks on the main road."
Koch swallowed a few pills and put the bottle away. He looked up to the giant bulge protruding in from the interior's right side, which was now the ceiling.
"Somebody shot a RPG at us?"
"Something did… we swerved cause it ran in front of the truck out of nowhere. Looked like a giant man, but its face was all fucked up. It was wearing black." Browning paused, then went on, "We're lucky the RPG didn't hit near the fuel line, we'd have gone up. Anyway…"
"Anyway, lets go." Koch finished for him.
They stood crouched, and Koch lit a cigarette.
"Forget it man, its only gonna make the hike harder."
Koch just waved a hand as he turned and opened the back door. Browning shrugged,
"Give me one then."
Koch smirked and threw Browning the pack of Marlboros, then un-strapped his .357 and stepped out into the night air.
The building Browning had secured was actually a half-completed construction site. Koch just shook his head at it.
"You set us up in the most vulnerable spot of the city."
"Hey, its out of the way."
"Well let's just take what we need and move on. I don't even know why you bothered moving the stuff out of the truck. You probably went looking for that guy didn't you?"
"What guy?" Browning asked. "Oh. Hey, you can't blame me for trying. Would of made a nice trophy for my living room."
Koch picked up his M4 and loaded a 40mm grenade into the attached launcher. Somewhere close, he heard the sound of snapping wood. Browning turned to him, and pointed to the front side of the building. Koch turned to cover the back.
Staring at the open doorway that was supposed to be the ground level's back door, Koch trained his assault rifle on it. Whatever he'd heard didn't sound like a noise a zombie would make. Suddenly, he saw a shadow coming towards the doorway. It was the shadow of something short and stalky, but nimble. It moved with long arms that swung evenly at its sides, and it looked to have unusually long fingers. Whatever it was, it was going to come in any second. Then it stopped just beside the open doorway, behind less than an inch of wood.
Koch was sweating, which made the gash on his forehead pulse. He feared the thing outside might hear his heartbeat. He just remembered he'd forgotten his helmet back in the truck.
Suddenly the creature outside let out a high-pitched shriek. Koch shot right through the wooden wall on full automatic, and the shriek was cut short. He heard something fall down like a heavy sack of leather. Then there were more shrieks. There must have been an entire pack of them.
"What the fuck did you do?!" Browning yelled.
Now shadows were approaching the open doorway at full speed. Koch was already reloading a fresh magazine as he trained his eye on the doorway again. The hole-ridden wall suddenly burst into shards as one of the things broke through it. Koch didn't have time to swear as he held down the trigger and sprayed. He hit one of the things in its head and it kept coming. Suddenly there were three more of them.
---They were reptilian, with faces like every monster Koch had ever imagined as a kid, and the bodies of a gorilla mixed with an alligator. Their claws alone looked to be five inches long and sharp as steel.---
Quickly concentrating the rest of his fire on the first one he'd hit, Koch backed out of the room and yelled to Browning,
"CHECK THE FLANKS, THEY'RE INSIDE!"
"What?!" Browning yelled back, and just as he turned to face the doorway he was covering a green monster built like an orangutan came running inside. He immediately pumped two shots from the Mossberg into it. With a gurgled squeal it stopped in its tracks and slumped over backwards.
Koch unhooked a flashbang from his vest and pulled the pin. But one was already in the room, and it jumped him before he could swing the M4 back up. The thing had him pinned to the ground under what must have been two hundred pounds of leather flesh. It screamed and held one humongous claw over his head, ready to split his face in two. Koch shoved the flashbang into its open maw and punched it in the face. The creature's eyes exploded as the stun grenade went off and blew everything clean out of its cranium. The soldier struggled to push the thing off of him, and already its two kin were in the room with him.
Browning dropped every one of them that came through the doorway, and they were quickly piling up. The Mossberg clicked dry, and he let it fall to his side, and un-slung his FN P90. Two of the creatures suddenly burst through the thin wall in front of him. Browning immediately dropped them with a burst, and they fell screaming and pissing blood out of dozens of holes. Another came through the doorway and jumped through the air shrieking, holding out a razor-lined claw to chop Browning's neck. He instinctively ducked and let the sub-machine gun riddle its back with fire.
Koch held his sliced arm as he slumped against the wall. Three of the creatures lay dead on the floor, each in its own pool of blood. More were coming, he knew. He could hear them fighting to be first in the backdoor within the other room. Forcing himself to stand up, he doubled up against the doorway he was near and un-strapped the Colt Python he knew he should of used in the first place. The first one came into the room and Koch lined up its face with the sights of his handgun. It let out a scream as its head exploded and then another came into the room. He shot in the chest and it fell violently to the floor, painting the ground with spurts of blood. Then another, and a second came into the room, and Koch killing every one of them, but there were always more coming. He quickly ducked into the next room and went about reloading the six-shooter.
Browning held his stomach as he picked out a lodged claw that had gone right through his armor. He wished they had left the ceramic plates in now. "Damnit…" he cursed as another creature got in.
With a gurgling scream, the next one dropped. Koch retreated into the next room, and aimed at the doorway. Suddenly he touched backs with something. He and Browning spun around, handguns in each other's faces. Then came more screams and they turned back to face their respective doorways.
"Like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Browning said between gasping breaths.
"Here come more." Koch replied.
The gunfire continued.
***
Bandaged, fatigued, and nearly limping the two men walked down the alleyway leading out of the construction site building. The one on the left was holding a bleeding wound at his side. The one on the right was carrying an assault rifle slung over his back, and he had several slashes along his arms and sides. They walked down the deserted alleyway without much thought to their safety anymore, as they ignored the moans coming from the buildings beside them. It was early morning, but it resembled the twilight of dusk.
Nothing mattered after their final battle. They knew it had been their last, as they were both now infected with the disease that had destroyed Raccoon City.
--- Not much time left…