Kingdom Come – The Ashes of Paradise
Chapter 3
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
—William Shakespeare
July 19 – 11:30 AM
Mark stopped the car a block from the police station, in the center of the street, and cursed. They'd passed a number of the moaning, stumbling zombie-creatures on their drive here, and had been unable to go at all on the expressway, covered with stopped cars and crawling people. But, they'd made it; the police station was in view.
And there were at least a dozen people outside the station, all stumbling around in that strange, mindless manner that was becoming so familiar to the three in the car. Mark counted seven in police uniforms, and three he thought he recognized from earlier today, though he couldn't be sure from here.
"Now what?" Jason asked quietly.
"Now we go and get Barbara." Mark responded, tugging open that black bag of his, pulling things out. He glanced back to Jodie. "Can you fire a handgun?"
The blond girl nodded faintly, her hands playing with the silver cross necklace she wore around her neck, peering out at the monsters. "Yeah...my Dad took me to the firing rang a few times."
"Good, here." He handed her a .45 and three clips, taking a few moments to show her how to load it. "Aim for their heads, but if you can't, just fire till they fall down." He grinned reassuringly at her. "I'd leave you here, but I think we'll need all the help we can get." The girl nodded in response, though she looked quite scared, staring at the gun in her hands.
A few moments later, the rest of the bag was revealed. Mark had his pistol in his holster, and was holding a 12-gauge shotgun in his hand, a belt of ammo around his waist, and the black bag over his shoulder. Jason had a magnum and several clips, as well as his pistol.
"See, I told you something wasn't right." Mark said with a sigh as they stepped out of the car. Jason shrugged.
"I never disagreed." He checked his gun, the blond getting out behind him. "Shall we?"
Nothing more was said, and the three advanced, Mark and Jason in front and Jodie several feet behind them, watching the crowd ahead nervously. When they got within twenty or so yards of the zombies, the crowd began to turn, heading towards them, arms held out, feet dragging. Most of the police officer-zombies had nasty injuries, bites and scraps, and Mark could see that he recognized several of them.
"Jason...those are our people." He said quietly.
"I know. It doesn't matter now." The other man raised his gun, the magnum, and fired, taking off the top half of the closest zombie, an officer named Ronald Sanders, in a spray of blood and brains and sending him tumbling onto his back, twitching. A moment later, all three were firing, Jason systematically removing the upper torsos and heads of the approaching creatures, while Mark and Jodie picked off the rest with shotgun and pistols rounds. After several minutes, they had cleared out the area in front of the station.
"Not bad, Kid." Jason grinned at Jodie, who smiled weakly, clenching her hands and the pistol to her stomach. She was shaking, staring at the bodies around them. Jason put his arm around her gently, and pried the pistol from her fingers, trying to calm her down. She leaned into his chest, and started to cry.
"I didn't...I haven't...I've never even seen a dead body before today..." She whispered, and he rubbed her head gently. He had a feeling she'd seen plenty more before this was over, but he didn't say that, just taking a few minutes to calm her down.
Meanwhile, Mark was checking the bodies over, tugging clips out of the pockets and holsters of the police officers, looking at their faces carefully, figuring out who was who. He stood, sighing, and came over to Jason and Jodie.
"Westerson, Marten, Regernal, Bradly, Thomas and Smith. At least, those are the only ones I could identify." Jason nodded, sighing. Damn it all. What was going on?
After Jodie had calmed down, they all reloaded their weapons, looking up at the station nervously. "We have to go in. But there were a lot of people in there earlier..." Jason said as he took two steps up the steps, eyeing the large green doors. After a long moment of silence, the other two followed him and they headed inside.
July 19, 2:45 PM
Anna was still holding her bear tightly as she walked along the center avenue of Insbruck, a tiny strip of a town made possible by the local Umbrella plant. There were two stores, a bank, a barber and few homes situated inside the town. She'd wrapped her jacket around her waist after a few minutes of walking, and the zipper had been clicking against the ground for a while now, so she'd started walking to that beat. And into the closer of the two stores, Mr. Roland's thrift and grocery shop. He was an old friend of her parents, and he could tell her what was going on.
"Mr. Roland?" She called out as she stepped inside. She'd seen one or two people since she'd got into town, though they had been swaying and funny looking, and she'd figured they were drunks. Mama had always told her to stay away from drunks, so she'd run away from them.
No one answered her call, and she was starting to get worried. What if no one was here either? And the town was full of drunks and all her friends would be gone. No, she couldn't think like that. Mr. Roland would be here, and he'd know what was going on.
"Hello? Anyone here?" She headed instinctively down the first isle, following the pattern her and her mother did when they went shopping. She grabbed an apple and bit into it as she looked around. She could hear noises, coming from the back, but she wasn't sure what they could be.
By the time she reached the end of the aisle she had finished the apple, tossing the core in a trashcan nearby. Mr. Roland always let her eat the fruit when she was here, said she needed it to grow strong.
She stopped dead when she stepped into the big space at the end of the store that usually held meats and fish. Over by the meat counter there was someone sprawled out on the tiles, and two people were bent over them. She couldn't make out the people really, but the red apron on the sprawled man looked like Mr. Roland's.
"Mr. Roland?" She ran towards the three, sliding to a stop a few feet away. There was a puddle of something around him, something red.
"Blood!" She squealed, staring at it. The two figures that were leaning over Mr. Roland stood slowly. A man and a woman, she saw, their faces covered in the blood that was on the floor, their arms swinging loosely at their sides, and their eyes were white and colorless. She thought she recognized the woman as Miss. Jamison, a clerk in the store, and she had no idea who the man was.
Anna stared at them for a few moments, unsure what was going on, but she could tell that Mr. Roland, if that was him, didn't appear to be moving. "Um...Hi?" She took a few nervous steps backwards, as they shambled towards her. "Um...I'm sorry if I interrupted anything." She bumped into a display of soda bottles and went tumbling, a number of two liter bottles rolling of the shelves, towards the two frightening people. The first tripped over a bottle and went sprawling, the other a moment later.
She heard the sickening crack as the second slammed her head into the ground, and yet started to move as though nothing had happened. What was going on? Anna scurried back on her hands and feet and stood, clutching at her bear tightly and turning to run down the aisle.
She flew through the empty checkout area and out the sliding doors, into the middle of street before she stopped. The drunken people from before were still around, shambling down the street, only suddenly they had an entirely new meaning. They were like the people in the store! Two of them were turning towards her, one dragging his leg behind him like a monster in that movie her cousin had made her watch.
A zombie.
Glancing around frantically, the young girl saw that there didn't seem to be anyone in the bank, so she took off towards it, slipping inside and tugging the door shut quickly, then plopping down onto the floor, clenching her bear in her lap and trying not to cry. Mr. Roland had been hurt, everyone was stumbling around like zombies, and there was blood all over the place.
And she still hadn't found her parents.
July 19 – 12:10 PM
The receptionist's desk inside the police station was remarkably empty, considering what had been outside. A single zombie, a stumbling young woman with a nasty wound in her side, was dispatched by two quick shots from Jason.
"Maybe Henry got away." Mark said hopefully, indicating the opened panel in the desk where the secretary would have been.
"Lets hope so." Jason was heading over towards the door into the main room.
"Where is everybody?" Jodie asked quietly, glancing around. She'd expected an army of undead cops to come charging them the moment they had come inside.
"Probably in the squad room and the offices. Brace yourselves." The two came up behind Jason as he said this. A signal to Mark, who raised his shotgun, as Jason kicked the door open and stepped aside. Mark stepped forward, firing twice quickly through the doorway, and then three more times when he got inside. Then he stepped back out, tugging out shells to refill his weapon.
"Got four of them. There are three more." He forced a weak smile. He was not going to think of names, anymore. These were just monsters, not people he knew.
"You didn't see the chief, did you?" Jason asked as he stepped forward, pistol held ready, Jodie a few paces behind. As Mark shook his head, the other two stepped up to the door and inside quickly, weapons held at eye level, scanning the room.
There were actually four left moving, one crawling towards them between the desks, his torso riddled with holes from the scatter of the shotgun, but apparently not quite dead yet. The other three, two dressed as patrol officers and the last in the bright, showy clothes of a pimp, his mustache still visible through the blood on his face, turned and came stumbling towards them.
"The one on the ground!" Jason yelled to Jodie as he swiveled and began firing on the closest walker. Four shots took down the first, and three the second, while three from Jodie stopped the one on the ground. Jason took his time on the last, halfway across the room, and it went down with two quick shots to the forehead.
"Clear!" He shouted back to the door, and Mark stepped in, shotgun resting on his shoulder. He was grinning faintly, almost...smugly. "What?"
"I just remembered. I still have my temporary pass for the weapons room. Remember, the chief gave me a seven day one before that sting day before yesterday." He held up a thin blue plastic card, twirling it between his fingers with a laugh. "You guys go find Barbara. I'm going to go and put this baby to some use." He started towards the back of the room.
"Good idea. Be careful!" Jason called after his friend and partner with a faint smile. Good thing Mark never remembered to return anything.
"Hey, it's me." The shotgun waved absently back, another faint laugh. "I'm always careful." He shoved the door to the rest of the station open, shotgun held ready, and was gone.
Jason frowned for a moment, watching the door. "Come on," A forced smile to Jodie, turning towards the side door, which was slightly ajar, and heading over, checking his clip as he went. Never hurt to be careful
The corridor outside of the desks was long, clean, and empty, and Jason couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but the echoing of their shoes in a corridor normally filled with voices was extremely disconcerting.
"Okay, the communications room is through this next door and down the hall. Barbara was talking about there being people banging on the windows, so the zombies are probably still out there. Here's what we'll do. I'll kick the door open and go in firing. You cover me, and come in after twenty seconds. Got it?" The young woman nodded faintly, holding up her gun in an attempt to look fierce, but it didn't pierce her frightened eyes.
"If the chief is still alive, I'm going to owe him a fortune in doorknobs..." Jason couldn't help but grin as he slammed his heavy boot into the wood just next to the knob, then again, shattering the wood, the door swinging open, as he raised his pistol, clasped in both hands.
There was a zombie directly in front of him, perhaps five feet inside the door, and he took it down with a single shot to the forehead. Another stumbled into view, and two shots to the temple sent it crashing against the wall.
"In I go." He stepped inside and spun left, the door blocking the right for the moment. Two more of the shuffling dead were a few paces away, and he dispatched them quickly, then stepped aside for Jodie to come in, shoving the door out of the way.
The COM room was twenty feet up the hallway, and between the two survivors and that door were six more of the shambling, bleeding folks. Jason grinned to Jodie and held out his hand. "Let me see your gun for a second." She handed it over with a shrug. He wanted to show off, though he'd never admit it.
A pistol in both hands he proceeded to stride down the hall, quickly and efficiently taking the creatures down, two falling from a single shot from each pistol, and the rest with a variety of chest and neck hits. When he reached the COM door, he turned back to Jodie and grinned, waving her to him. "I must admit, that was remarkably refreshing," he handed her gun back with a grin, and she just shook her head.
"Boys..." Blond hair bobbed around as she said this, and coming from someone who was seventeen, it wasn't exactly a nice thing to say.
"What?" Jason's indignant look and puzzled face made Jodie laugh, shaking her head more.
"Nothing, nothing. Come on, in the room." Jason stepped back, gun held ready, as Jodie tugged the door open, stepping behind it.
The COM room was cluttered and disorganized, radio headphones and papers and the giant switchboard taking up most the space. And in the corner, curled up in a ball, a small redheaded woman, arms curled around her knees, was sobbing quietly. Jason holstered his pistol and went over to her, leaving Jodie to stand watch.
"Barbs? Barbara...its Jason." He laid his hand gently on her shoulder and she gave a little start, lifting her swollen brown eyes to peer at him for a moment, blinking.
"J...Jason? You came...you came!" She almost leapt at him, arms wrapping around his chest, knocking them both back against the wall, her head buried in his shirt as she started sobbing again. "Oh thank God...I was so frightened." The young officer patted her back and smiled, quite surprised. Barbara was always so calm and collected on the radio, reporting murders and fires and deaths, but she'd never really faced any of those conflicts herself.
"It's okay Barbara, you'll be safe now." Well, as safe as any of them were, now. "But we have to get out of here. So you're going to need to calm down. Mark is going to meet us in the squad room. We wouldn't want to be late." He gently pushed her to her knees and stood to help her up. She looked at the ground for a few moments, and then nodded, grabbing at his hand.
"You guys...you wont change, like the rest, will you?" She glanced between Jason and Jodie nervously, trying to fix her hair and rubbing at her eyes.
"I hope not, Barbara. I really hope not. I don't know what causes people to change though, so we'll have to see. Come on, there is no point worrying about it now." He patted her on the shoulder and then moved towards Jodie and the door. The young blond had been watching them both quietly, and she smiled at Barbara now.
"We need to meet Mark, so come on. I'll tell you what happened to me. Since it sounds we have similar stories." The teenager put her arm gently around Barbara's shoulders and led her from the room.
July 19 – 12:15 PM
Mark slumped back against the wall near the door to the weapons locker, reloading his shotgun slowly, taking a moment to relax. He'd plowed through a good ten zombies between the squad room and here, and it really wasn't fun to shoot people he'd once worked with. He still hadn't seen a few faces he'd expected to. The desk-boy, the Chief...He hoped they made it somehow.
He flicked up the barrel of the shotgun once the last shell was in, and let it swing down to his side on the shoulder harness. A moment, to draw the thin, flimsy blue passcard from his pocket, looking at it quietly; damn thing had better work.
A few steps took him to the card reader, and he studied it for a moment, considering. "Here goes nothing..." He swished the card through the reader quickly, closing his eyes.
Beep.
Beep.
Silence. The red light on the panel didn't change, and Mark kicked the door irritably, sighing. Damn it. He flicked the card between his fingers slowly, looking at it. The damn thing was supposed to still work! All those weapons, tucked in there. He had to get in there.
Come on, come on...He swished the card through again, praying. Beep...Beep...Nothing.
"Gah!" He spun around, moaning, when there was a rather loud buzzer, the light turned green and the door flicked open.
"Yessssss!" tucking the card back into his pocket with a grin, he stuck his foot in the crack of the door, tugging the Remington shotgun around in his hands, and then yanking the door open. "Home free now!"
He stepped through the door and came face to face with the barrel of a rather nasty looking colt .45. "Holy!" Stumbling backwards, he slammed into the doorframe and almost dropped to his knees.
"Mark? Mark!" A meaty hand grabbed his shoulder to steady him and then tugged him completely into the room, letting the door swish shut behind him. A large grin, a large man, and a large gun quickly put the pieces together in the young officers head.
"...Chief? You're alive? We all figured you'd gotten killed with the rest...I was afraid I'd have to shoot you." Mark said quietly, grinning, staring at his boss. That was a nice surprise...
"So Barbara did manage to get the word out." The large man smiled, scratching at his arm with the muzzle of his gun. "There were five other cars out on patrol, along with yours, so we can expect a few more of the officers to show up. I..." He shook his head, leaning against one of the weapon racks. "We got caught by surprise...two of the perps brought in this morning turned into monsters, and then a couple of the officers...no one knew what was happening, and by the time we figured it out...Well, it was too late. I made it in here, barely."
As the chief talked, Mark walked around, checking the equipment racks quietly. "Ah...well, it's happening all over the city, Chief, so don't feel bad. Jason and Jodie, a woman we picked up, went to look for Barbara...but I haven't seen any other survivors in here." He tugged down a number of the large black bags from the back of the room, dropping them onto the floor and opening one quickly. "The way I figure it, whatever is happening has probably infected most of the city. And we should probably try and get out, gathering up survivors as we go." He headed over to one of the racks, carrying the open bag, and began tugging weapons down into it. A couple of rifles, three shotguns, a number of officer-issue Glock handguns, four magnums, and a single sub-machine gun.
"Well, I think we should wait a while, see if any of the other cars show up...And search the cells for the prisoners, because they were locked in, so a few might still be...alive and uninfected." The chief took a hint from Mark, grabbing up another of the bags and tugging open the ammo locker, stuffing boxes of free-ammo, clips, and various other armaments.
"Chief...you didn't tell me we had these." Mark had tugged open the second weapon locker, and found a row of grenade launchers, resting above a large drawer of rounds for them. He tugged two of them down and stuffed them into another bag, then the rest, and followed them up with as many rounds as he could stuff into it.
"Yeah, well...you aren't exactly the most responsible of the officers, Mark. Besides, what do you need a grenade launcher for?" He zipped up the ammo bag, tossing it on the floor, then grabbed up another and began putting whatever he could find in it. Smoke grenades, a bullhorn, a collection of the knives sometimes issued to undercover officers, and a number of handheld radios.
"Well...I can't really argue with that...but still, cool weaponry needs to be shared, chief. I'm very disappointed in you." Mark grinned, zipping closed the two bags he had, shouldering one and lifting the other in his free hand. "We should go meet Jason and the others though...hopefully they found Barbara."
"Shouldn't I be giving the orders?" The chief asked with a grin, hoisting the other two bags in one hand, holding his magnum in the other. "You're right though. Off we go." He shoved the door open and stepped out into the hallway.
July 19 – 12:35 PM
Jason, Jodie and Barbara were all siting in the squad room, waiting for Mark to return. The two woman were seated at one of the desks, speaking in whispers, relating their stories, while Jason paced back and forth slowly next to the desk he and Mark had so recently occupied.
"Where is he?" He asked for the seventh or so time, pausing to peer at the door across the room, frowning. As he did so, it swung open, and Mark stepped out, followed by the chief.
"Mark...Chief!" Jason grinned broadly, looking between the two of them for a moment. "I'm...glad you're both okay." Jodie smiled at the two of them, and Barbara leapt from her chair to tackle the chief in a quick hug.
"Oh thank god, you're both okay." She grinned; red hair flopping around as she hugged Mark too, and then stepped back, trying to compose herself.
"We got what we came for, Jason." Mark patted the two bags, and the chief nodded, standing a few feet behind him, grinning faintly. The chubby man was quite happy, it seemed, to have a few officers still standing. "We should load up the car and bring it over to the doors...and wait a few minutes, see if anyone else shows up." The other man nodded, walking over to them quietly, looking through the bags for a moment.
"Woah, grenade launchers!" He tugged one out, looking at it.
"That's what I said." Mark grinned, and then closed up the bags again after Jason had put the launcher back. "Come on, we'll go get the car, the chief can watch the girls." He waved to Barb and Jodie, and then lifted up his two bags again as Jason took the two from the chief, and they headed for the door.
July 19, 3:45 PM
Once she'd gone through the entire bank, sneaking behind the counter, even though Mom had told her never to go back there, but it wasn't like anyone was around to stop her. Anna returned to the main room and sat down on the big fluffy chair near the door, curling up. There didn't seem to be anyone in the building, except for one of the drunk stumbling zombie people locked in an office. She didn't really have any idea what to do, now. She'd assumed that someone in town would know where her parents were, or what happened to the plant, and she would have been back home by now with Mrs. Williams or Mr. Arlon, sitting in the living room and watching Television till her parents came home.
But now...
There were several of the creatures outside, wandering around the street, pounding into doors and windows, or just standing still, swaying back and forth slowly. She thought she recognized a few of them, having little else to think about. The one closest to the door could have been Mr. Howard, the bus driver, and the lady outside the supermarket could have been Mrs. Jenkins, the owner of the bar. Tandy Jenkins, Mrs. Jenkins daughter, was one of Anna's friends, and had been on the bus yesterday.
She'd actually walked past Tandy's house on the way to town, but it hadn't occurred to her to stop. Now that she thought about it, the lights had been on...maybe someone was in there. She could go and find out, anyway. It would be better then just sitting in here. And from watching the people outside, they certainly weren't very quick; she could outrun them easily enough. And just sitting here wasn't accomplishing anything...
Pushing out of the chair she padded over to the window and looked out. There didn't seem to be any of the zombies to close to the door, just one, maybe five feet away. Her backpack, which she had been dragging around behind her, was tugged up onto her shoulders, and she clenched her bear tightly. If she was going to do this, now was the time...
Fifteen seconds and two deep breaths later she was out the door and running, the one nearby zombie stumbling towards her, much to slow, as she took a long loop around two of the others and then headed straight for the road back towards her home, as fast as she could.
July 19th, 4:10 PM
Anna had walked the last ten minutes or so to Tandy's house, having not seen any of the zombie people since she had gotten away from the town. It seemed like they were moving towards the town, or else were trapped inside the houses. She'd seen a number of people stumbling past windows on her way here.
She climbed the steps outside of her friend's house slowly, a simple white and blue suburban two-story. She rapped on the door quietly, shuffling her feet a little, and waited. For a minute or two, there was nothing...and then quiet voice called from the other side of the door.
"W-who's there...?"
"Tandy? It's me, Anna...let me in!" She leaned heavily against the door, hair tumbling across her face lightly. "Please."
"Anna...?" For a few moments, nothing, and then the door swung open. Framed in the semi-darkness of the entrance was a small girl, a few inches shorter then Anna, clenching a blanket around her shoulders, brown hair matted, eyes wet with tears.
Anna smiles softly at her friend, as reassuringly as she could, considering how scared she herself was. "Tandy...I...uhm...can you come out and play?" She giggled, clenching her bear. What a...silly thing to ask! Yet she asked every time she was here...She blushed brightly, and her friend actually laughed, softly, stepping back.
"I don't think that's such a good idea. Quick, come inside." Anna nodded, stepping through the doorway quickly. The living room wasn't very well lit, just the light from the almost-blocked window and a bit from the kitchen. Tandy had apparently, taking to sleeping out here, though, because next to a rather battered looking brown couch someone had constructed a small cushion fort, with a coffee table as one wall, and the couch as the other, and the sides both cushions. There were blankets and pillows and a large stuffed crocodile inside.
"You're parents aren't here either...?" Anna asked quietly, turning to her friend, who just shook her head once, sniffling.
"I...after the bus dropped me off...no one was here...so I went looking for Mr. Thomas...but no one was at his house, and..." Tandy shrugged her shoulders a little and walked over to her fort, moving aside one of the ends and sitting down on top of the blankets.
"So you built a pillow fort...?" Anna smiled softly, sitting down next to her, giving her a little hug. "Have you seen anyone at all?" She tried to distract the other girl, and herself.
"There were a few people...early today and yesterday, wandering around the streets. They kind of looked sick. I didn't go talk to them." Anne nodded at the girl's response.
"I saw a few of them too. You did the right thing. Are you hungry?" She stood again, tugging Tandy up with her. "Come on. We'll make something to eat. It'll be fun!" Anne had always been mature for her age...and now she took it upon herself to cheer her friend up, hard as that might seem.
An hour later found them sitting on the front steps of Tandy's house, and though neither girl had managed to cheer up, they were at least no longer hungry. They hadn't seen any of the stumbling, zombie-like people they'd once called neighbors and friends, and Anna was beginning to think they were the only people who hadn't been affected by whatever was going on.
And there was still no sign of her parents.
"Tandy...we can't stay here."
"W...what?" Her friend's eyes grew wide, turning to stare at her. "But what about our parents? They should be home soon...." Tandy wrung her hands in her lap, unsure what else to say.
"It's been two days, Tandy. If they could come home, they would have. Something must be wrong." Pushes to her feet, Anna turned and tugged the front door open. "So come on. We'll pack you a bag and go see if we can find anyone."
Tandy, sniffling, nodded, standing slowly and padding inside.
It took them twenty minutes to gather up a backpack with everything Tandy would need, including the little laptop her father had given her. Nothing amazing, but they didn't want to leave it behind. Anna was waiting in the living room for her with the TV on, once the other girl had finally settled into the idea. Tandy came out, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, her backpack over her shoulders. "I'm ready..."
Anna smiled, pushing to her feet and heading over to her. "Good! We should head back towards town...maybe some of the people are back to normal." She was lying, really...she didn't think they'd be back to normal...not after all the blood she saw. Still, it couldn't hurt to keep Tandy hopeful.
"Do you hear something?" Tandy asked quietly, glancing towards the front door, as Anna tugged on her own backpack.
"Not really. You're just imagining things, come on." Anna grinned, heading over to the front door and tugged it open, stepping outside.
And stopped dead.
Stumbling around the street, very slowly moving away from town, was a group of the creatures. She thought she recognized a few, some of them were definitely the same people she'd seen in town. Had they followed her? They had to leave, but they couldn't go out there. What now?
A gasp from Tandy, standing just behind and beside her, woke her from her mental reverie.
"What do we do?"
"We could run. They're slow and they get in each others ways." Anna tried to sound sure of herself, but the quiet moans from the stumbling creatures was unnerving.
"I don't think I can run, Anna." Slowly, Tandy stepped back into the house, away from the door, hands clenching at her stomach nervously. "I'm to scared."
Anna didn't move for a few moments, watching the creatures outside, but when two of the closest ones turned and began moving towards them, she quickly stepped back inside and shut the door. "Well, we can't go that way now."
Tandy frowned at her, then began sobbing again. "I'm sorry...I should've run. I'm so sorry."
"Hey, stop that!" Giving her friend a shake, Anna went over to the window, peeking outside. "We'll figure something out." She tugged off her backpack, setting it on the floor, and after a moment, Tandy sat down next to her.
Outside, several of the people had begun moving towards Tandy's house, the first one reaching the door after a few moments, slapping its hands against it with a wet, meaty sound. As that noise continued, over and over, Tandy brought her hands to her ears, again starting to sob, and crawled away from the window.
They were stupid, Anna thought as she watched, for some reason remaining fairly calm in the face of it all. Perhaps seeing them in the grocery store had desensitized her? She'd heard that word on TV somewhere, about violence...maybe it was right. But, they were stupid...the group outside the house was either milling about or else pounding their hands on the heavy oaken door, instead of trying to break a window, or find another way in. It was...mindless.
But that still didn't mean they could get out.
July 19th, 1:15 PM
Mark and Jason made it the car without a hitch, which had annoyed Mark to no end, because he was itching to play with the grenade launcher they'd found.
"Mark, man, calm down. I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunities to blow stuff up before we get out of here." Jason tossed his bag into the back seat and then climbed into the car.
"Yeah, I know. Not sure that's a good thing...but at least it'll be entertaining." Mark slid into the passenger seat and slammed his door shut. "So, we going to just park out front, or should we head down to the garage, see if we can scramble up another ride?"
"Well..." Jason considered for a minute, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. "If we could get one of the S.W.A.T. vans, we'd be safer, but less mobile. I doubt any of those zombie-things can break through a metal side. I'm not so sure about the glass." He started the car, pulling out of the spot slowly and heading towards the station.
"Well, we might as well head back inside and ask the chief and the girls. Its not as thought we're in a horrible rush."
"We should be, you know. We have no idea how we're going to get our next meal, or even if we can get out of the city. We should check as soon as possible." Jason pulled the car to a stop out front.
"Yeah, well, five minutes won't hurt anything." Mark hoisted his pistol as he shoved open his door and stepped out onto the sidewalk.
"I suppose not." Jason slid out on the other side, scanning the street around them. There weren't any of the zombie-types nearby, just one crawling figure almost a block away. "There is one reason to want out of here very, very soon." Jason quipped as he closed his door and turned to face his partner.
"Oh? What's that?" Mark smirked.
"The smell. It's going to absolutely stink here soon." Jason grinned, and then frowned as a shadow passed over his friend. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Mark shifted, turning around to look up...just as something large crashed into the roof of the squad-car, the metal buckling and sinking under impact.
"Holy..." Jason backed away slowly, staring up at the creature that had suddenly blocked off his view entirely.
The creature was about six feet tall, its skin a nasty white-pink color that looked like it melted and ran together in a number of places. Its left arm was deformed and tiny, two or three inches long, almost to the giant, mutated appendage that sprung out of the other shoulder. The hand had smashed through the back window of the car, and was twitching and clenching as it rested against the back seat, a full six or seven inches longer then the rest of the creatures body. The glass had stuck into its flesh in several places, and a reddish-white blood was slowly leaking out around it.
Jason watched in silent fascination as that arm was drawn up into the air, chips of glass raining down off it onto the car and the ground. The fingers flexed slowly, held above the creatures head, shaking off the last of the glass. He thought he heard Mark shouting something, but everything outside of himself and the creature had faded away. He'd never seen anything like this...
Suddenly a spurt of the red-white blood flew out of the creatures chest, and Jason's mind ran back into reality. He heard the second gunshot, and the third, as Mark began taking shots at the creature, plugging holes in that bulbous arm and chest. The creature roared, starting to twirl around towards the gunman, and Jason finally yanked out his pistol, opening fire as well.
It took seventeen shots, between the two of them, before the creature went down, collapsing onto the hood of the car and then sliding to the ground with a wet thud. Jason lowered his pistol, eyes wide...
"What the hell was that?" Mark asked softly, holding his own gun out towards the fallen corpse, watching the giant right arm continue to twitch softly.
"I...I don't know." Jason spoke softly as he came up around the other side, peering down at the creature. It didn't have a head, he noticed, or not much of one...it was small and deformed, like the smaller arm. He reached out, tentatively, and poked it with the muzzle of his gun. "At least it's dead."
"Yeah...but the cars trashed. And there might be more of them. Come on" Mark tugged open the back door, pulling out the two bags of weapons, handing one to Jason as the man came around the back. "It took an entire clip to kill that thing, you know."
"I noticed. I want to know where it came from." Sliding his pistol back into its holster, Jason grabbed up the bag and headed into the station.
"Something like that...almost had to be made."
((Next time, Claire and Leon, as well as back to Jo and her son!))