Surviving A Nightmare
Chapter 3: Griffin/The Disk
Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil, Capcom does.
'....'=thoughts
"...."=speaking
"Ugh...what in the hell is that smell?"
"It's your breath. Now keep quiet." We had been crawling through the school's ventilation system for over two hours now, occasionally stopping to glance down into a classroom to see if it was clear. Thankfully, we were able to find a couple sets of keys...the only bad thing was we had to search the corpses of our assistant principal and a janitor to find them. Along with the keys, we took their two-way radios, thinking they would be useful if we would ever have to separate.
Now, we stand in the large office where Ms. Kathy and Mrs. Lorraine, the two school secretaries, could usually be seen typing on their computers or managing the school's absentee list. But, not anymore, for there on the floor lie what little remains of them. Damnit, this sucks. Sure, Ms. Kathy was always a complete bitch, but no one deserves to die like that. Only the people responsible for what is going on, and then, that's if people are even to blame for this.
I walk past the two corpses over to the telephone on Ms. Kathy's desk, not wanting to hope too much that maybe, just maybe...the phone's were still working.
Yet, what little hope I have is quickly diminished as I slowly place the receiver back down on the desk, not bothering to hang it up. No one could get through anyway. The phone lines are dead, meaning we are completely on our own.
I turn around and slowly shake my head, not letting my gaze meet Shane's, who was even more disappointed than I. He slowly leaned back against the wall and slid down into a crouch, and ran his hands through his lanky brown hair. "Now what do we do?"
"I don't know..." Why is it that people automatically assume that I know what to do? Heh, wait...that's because I do know.
I plop down into a near-by chair, and lean back so that I am staring up at the ceiling. Occasionallly, cracks of thunder could be heard as we sat there in the small office. Even if it was somewhat illuminated by the emergency lights, it was still pretty dark in some areas, which only helped in creating one hell of a creapy enviroment. Not exactly the best place to think and strategize if you ask me. But, it was devoid of undead, for which both Shane and I are greatful.
Sitting there, I continued to plan out our next move. We had to find weapons, that was our number one priorety at the moment. We simply couldn't dodge every single creature out there. Next, if at all possible, we had to search for other surivors. Not only here, but in other places as well. Then we get the hell out of this place.
I stood up from my seat and switched on my flashlight. "I'm going to have a look in Ms. Wilson and Mr. Roy's office. Stay here."
"Alright."
Heading out of the small aclove, I stopped in the middle of the office's small hallway and looked to my left before heading in that direction. As I walked past the teacher's lounge, I caught a glimpse of something small and silver on the floor next to one of the vending machines. Not being able to subdue my curiousity, I brought the beam of the flashlight down upon the small object.
"What the...?"
Crouching down, I recognized it to be some kind of coin. It was atleast the size of a fifty cent piece, yet, it had an engraving of some sort of mythical creature, a griffin, from what I could tell. I knew just enough about such things from when we studied ancient folklore in English.
Feeling as if it may come in handy later on, I slip it inside one of my pockets and stand up again.
After leaving the lounge, I finally entered Ms. Wilson's office. Boxes filled with graduation items lined the wall to my right, while to my left, shelves held many trophies earned by the school's girls basketball team, the team she coached, of course. In front of me stood her desk, where papers were scattered and cluttered. That was just...weird. Usually her office was very neat and tidy, which made a lot of people wonder if she was a perfectionist.
I walk around and move her chair out of my way. Raising the flashlight up, I let the beam roam over many of the papers. 'Looks as if someone was...searching for something.' I silently contemplate to myself. 'But what...?'
Reaching down with my free hand, I open all the desk drawers in hope of finding something of use. Of course, no luck. It's not like she's going to keep a pistol or something in her desk, it's a school for Christ's sake.
After finished up my search with Ms. Wilson's office, I move on to our principal's, Mr. Roy's, office. As I step inside, I move the flashlight's beam across the room to do a quick scan of everything, making sure that there wasn't anything around that could jump out and bite my ass.
I have to say, the man wasn't much for decorations. There was simply one large bookshelf that contained a few books, school manuals and rulebooks, and a couple of trophies given to him by the school board. His desk was neatly polished and devoid of any kind of loose paper. Yet, as I walked over to it, I noticed a small red light on the wall where one of his college degrees usually hung.
"Hmm...what do you have that's worth hiding?" I said to no one in particular as I walk over to the panel, and immediately smile, for I am greeted by the sight of a small, circular, coin rest. Smiling, I look closely and see that there's an image similar to the one on the coin I'd picked up in the teacher's lounge. Well, looks like I know who that coin was f
I reach into my pocket and pull out the coin, flipping it over in the beam of the light, and take notice of the six-digit code on the back of it. "112085." That must be the access code required after inserting the coin.
I place the coin in it's rest, and immediately the small light goes from red to green while each key on the numerical keypad is now illuminated by an eerie green light. Slowly, I type in the numbers 112085. Upon doing so the green light turns blue and the entire panel quickly swings out like a safe door, only to reveal a metallic three and a half inch floppy disk that could be used in any ordinay computer.
I grab the disk and look it over. "Well, a lot of good this does." I had to have power before I could use a computer. Simply because the school's backup generator didn't supply enough power to run the computer's, simply because they weren't necessary. But still, there had to be a reason why such a simple floppy disk was kept in a hidden place.
I closed the small safe and removed the coin, just incase it was needed again in the future, and placed it and the disk into one of the small compartments of my backpack. I was going to have to find a laptop, unless someone managed to restore power to the school..or well, most likely the entire town. But, deep down, I had a feeling that there wouldn't be anyone to do that. That, we were all that was left, with the exception of a few others who were holed up somewhere.
Like us...