Surviving a Nightmare
Chapter 5: Few Survivors/Finding an escape route.
Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil, Capcom does.
A/N: Don't let the title fool you folks. Just because it says "Finding an escape route" doesn't mean this fic is anywhere near completion.
I watched the zombies head cave in as the bullet exited the back of it's skull. Blood and brain matter fell to the floor with a *squish* while it's body fell limp onto the floor.
I had been pretty effective in dodging what menaces I'd come across so far, only having to take down a few of the monsters. Thankfully, the only thing I'd had to face so far was zombies. I hadn't seen anymore of those..tongue monsters since my last encounter near the entrance.
So far, I haven't encountered a single survivor. I've already checked the English, Math, Science, hell, I've searched all the areas, except for the gymnasium and it's locker rooms. Although, I am now beginning to think that we're the only ones left. Which, even for me, is a depressing thought.
Entering the gymnasium through one of the side doors, I find that it's empty. Kind of strange, considering all the other departments I've been in were atleast occupied by a few zombies. But then, I can't complain. The less ammo I have to use, the better.
Seeing that the basketball court, and the bleachers on the second floor were clear, I turned to my left and proceeded to check the boy's locker room. As soon as I heard the moans of the undead coming from the inside, I immediately abandoned the thought of entering. Now, onto the girl's locker room.
Jogging across the gym floor to the other side of the large building, I turned down a small off-shoot, stopping once I reached the door that opened up into the locker room. All was quiet. So, with Beretta in hand, I slowly eased the door open with my left hand. Taking slow steps forward, I let the door close behind me. Satisfied that there was no emminate danger, I holstered the Beretta and began to walk forward. But before I could even take another step, I suddenly felt something hard and solid painfully graze the side of my head.
Stumbling back against the door, I brought a hand up to where the object had struck me. "Fuck!" It stung whenever I touched it, and as I looked down at my hand I realized that I was bleeding. Shaking my head slowly, trying to clear my head, I looked up and blinked, thinking that the sight before me was a hallucination caused by the blow I had just taken. But, after a few blinks, I realized that the person standing in front of me was the one who'd hit me.
"Oh no...I'm sorry! I thought that you were one of those monsters..", they immediately dropped their weapon, which I soon recognized as a broken piece of wood.
'How could they possibly mistake me for a fucking zombie?' I thought. Moaning slightly, the dizziness I still felt making me somewhat nauscious, I slid down to the floor with my back still leaning against the door. They must've used a fucking two-by-four or something close to it, because it surely hurt like hell. And from what I can guess, if I would have been a zombie, my head would be rolling around on the floor right now.
Looking up once again, I saw a woman walking in my direction. It was the physical education teacher, Mrs. Weston. She looked as thought she'd had more than a few run-ins with zombies. Her shoulder length blond hair had blood stains in it, as well as her clothes. Perhaps she did decapitate a few zombies with that board. She certainly knew how to use it. I probably would have been dead now if she hadn't just grazed the side of my head with it...and then it wasn't even that much of a grazing.
She knelt down beside me, a first aid kit in hand. Her hands were shaking, along with the rest of her body, from what I could tell. Can't say I blame her, really. This was enough to give anyone the jitters. Except me, apparently.
Looking away so she could have better access to the wound, I noticed that she wasn't the only one hiding in here. Near a set of lockers in the back of the room, a group of seven other surivivors were hiding. I took a moment to recall who they were: Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Johnson's wife; Mr. Whitney, the art teacher; Abigail Dufour, a writer for the school newspaper; Leon Bordwell, a jock; a good buddy of mine, Adam Stevenson; and then, there was the Peirce sisters, Kasey and Frances.
"Oww..dammit!" Wincing, I jerked my gaze away from them and back to Mrs. Weston. In her hands she held a gauze and some peroxide to clean the wound with. "That hurts, you know?"
"Keep still, I'm almost finished." She sent a "Listen to me, or I'll hit you with the board again." look. I shut up and turned the wound back to her, clamping my jaw shut tightly and biting down.
After a few minutes of torture, she finished putting a bandage on it, thankfully it didn't need stitches. But my head still hurt like hell. Mrs. Weston might be small, but what she lacked in height, she certainly made up for in strength.
My head throbbed even more as I tried to stand up, but yet, I ignored it. I could rest later. Once I got these people back to the library with the others.
The rest of the survivors had moved forward, and were now either sitting on a bench or on the floor across from where I was standing, using the door as a form of support until the pain ebbed enough so I could stand without it's help. I constantly looked from person to person. I might have known who they were, but I'd never socialized with them in the past, excpet for Adam and Kasey. Everyone else had always taunted me and my friends. Oh well, now wasn't exactly the best time to think about getting revenge...unless one of them asked for it.
The pain finally disipated enough so I could stand up straight. As I did so, I turned to Mrs. Weston, who was sitting on the bench with the others. "Have all of you been in here since this morning?"
"Yes. We were having an FCA officers meeting when they...attacked. " She whispered the last word. My guess was that not all of the officers had made it, and had fallen victim to some zombies.
"I see...", pausing for a moment, I unholstered the Beretta and checked the clip. It had 7 rounds remaining, plus the one in the chamber. "There are other survivors in the library. Right now it's the safest place to be."
"How many are there?"
"About twenty of us, maybe a couple more. No one's taken a count as fas as I know."
Her gaze shifted from me, to the gun I was holding, then to the shotgun that hung across my back. "How did you get those?"
"I had to crawl through the ventilation system in order to avoid any of those creatures. Then, I simply took this," I held up the Beretta, "from the dead police officer. Then I stole his keys and got the shotgun from his car."
"..Amazing."
"Ehh..yeah. If you say so. Now let's get out of here." I turned back to the door and opened it up. Sticking my head out, I motioned for them to follow me as I stepped out with the Beretta aimed out in front of me. "Now look, everyone stay close together, and be on guard. There are other things out there besides zombies." I assumed they knew that their fellow classmates, and the entire town of Bunkie, had been turned into flesh-eating monstrosities.
As we walked, the only sounds throughout the entire gymnasium were the squeaking of sneakers across the slick floors of the basketball court, and the occasional thunderclap. From the sound of it, the second wave was about to hit, and I wanted to be back in the library when it did. It didn't help at all when you couldn't hear something sneaking up on you because of the damn weather.
As we stepped outside into the courtyard, familiar moans of hunger could be heard. And they weren't going away either, no, they were approaching. 'Great, just fucking great.' Turning in the direction we had to go, I found the source of the moans. A group of atleast six or seven zombies were staggering in our direction. It'd be best to do a hit-and-run. Hit them all with a couple of shotgun blasts while they were in a group, then run and hop over there bodies. Only thing is, I've noticed that if they're not dead, they'll still try and grab you by the ankle.
Holstering the Beretta, I brought the shotgun around and gripped it tightly, shifting a round into the chamber I started walking towards the crowd of undead. "One they're all down, run like hell. And be sure to stay away from their hands!" I called back to the others.
Once they came within a few feet of us, I aimed the shotgun down at their knees. After waiting a few more seconds, I shot one round into the kneecaps of atleast five of the monsters. As they fell, I quickly let go of the shotgun and proceeded to pull out the Beretta, using it to shoot out the knees of the last two zombies. While those two were falling to the ground, I had already began to run through those that were on the ground, making sure to stay away from their arms.
Just as I'd cleared the menaces, the screams of one of the survivors made me turn around. It was Adam. One of the creatures had taken hold of his ankle and was currently trying to bite him.
Running to Adam's aid, I brought my foot up, and down hard onto the zombies soft and rotten skull. My boots made a slight cruching noise, along with many other rather disgusting sounds as it crushed the skull and brain underneath. 'Heh, it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.'
Picking my foot up, I couldn't help but make a disgusted face. In between the treads, brain tissue and a couple of the monsters teeth were either stuck, or hanging in a sticky mass of blood. Oh well, no time to clean it out. Grabbing Adam by the arm, we quickly ran over to where everyone else was standing. From the looks on their faces, I could tell they thought I was crazy for what I'd just done. I'd rather get a few brains stuck in my boot than waste a bullet on something so easy to get rid of.
Looking back at the pile of incapcitated zombies, I smirked slightly at my own handywork before turning back around and continuing towards the library with the others following close behind.
The library was quiet when we'd finally entered, but when everyone saw that survivors had been found, well, it became quite noisy. Friends reuniting and hugging, talking about how they'd managed to escape from the clutches of the monsters; a real annoyance to someone with a splitting headache. Namely, myself.
Walking over to a corner in the room, I crouched down and leaned back against the wall. The Beretta lay on the floor beside me, along with the SPAS-12. My head felt like someone had taken a meat cleaver and just bashed it repeatedly. Not that I would actually know what that feels like, just guessing. Atleast we'd made it back before the second wave of weather hit. Which, as if on cue, a bright flash of lightning lit up the darkened library, startling a few people. The loud clap of thunder that ensued didn't help either. Atleast it made them shut up a little.
Bringing a hand up, I gently touched the bandaged wound. It didn't hurt as much this time when I touched it. Yet the headache was still the same as before, and it probably wouldn't get any better until I could get some rest...or some aspirin. A lot of aspirin at that.
Continuously I would blink my eyes, trying to stay awake. I couldn't take the chance of falling asleep in case I might have a concussion. Sure, I most likely didn't have one, but still I'd rather not take the chance.
Needing something to do, I stood up and retrieved the laptop I was using earlier, along with my backpack, which held the disk, some shotgun ammo, and the coin I'd found earlier. If I could find the location of the Basement entrance, it could maybe be used as an escape route. I knew for a fact that at the Umbrella Laboratory there was an underground railway that took workers to the next town. That's one thing my parent's did tell me, even if I wasn't supposed to know. Why though? I have no idea. All I know is...I'm thankful for that one piece of information.
Sitting back down in the corner, I switched the computer on. It's screen illuminating the small corner just enough for me a read a few book titles on the shelf next to me.
I placed the disk into the appropriate drive and soon found myself staring at the same set of blueprints from earlier. Staring at the screen, I began to scan the layout of the first floor for some kind of secret door, or area, that might be the entrance. The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary was that, in Mr. Roy's office, there was supposed to be an adjoining room. But, as many times as I've been in there, I've never noticed a second doorway. Grinning, I quickly switched to the set of blue prints for the basement, and there, in the same spot Mr. Roy's office would be, was what appeared to be the entrance.
Looks like I've got more exploring to do...