They spent the night in the clinic room safely. Jess woke up to the sound of something hissing or, rather, breathing in the room next to theirs.
She listened a minute, grabbed her gun and got up. Sarah looked at Jess who motioned for her to stay in the room. "I'll be right back," she whispered to her.
She hugged the doorframe of the next room with her back and then quickly moved inside, pointing her gun in front of her. She was careful to avoid the scattered items on the floor, so as not to give away her position. She slowly walked past the large, overturned bed that was blocking her view of the majority of the room.
She came around the corner and caught her breath as a very large, ugly creature came into her sights. It was pure muscle, with no skin. It was rotting and covered in blood. It looked almost like an overgrown sloth, being about five feet long. At the end of all four legs, it had razor sharp claws (that would allow it to climb concrete walls with ease) nearly three feet in length. It had a tongue reaching up to twelve feet away that was as sharp as its claws. As it turned toward her, she could make out its grey, dead eyes; a Licker.
Jess darted out of the room at full speed. She slammed the door behind her and looked for something to bar it. She heard the creature breathing in the room, coming closer and closer.
"We have to go," Jess yelled to the others, grabbing her pack. "There's a Licker in here."
In less than five seconds, the five of them were out of the clinic, huddled behind a tin shed.
"Okay, where do we go now?" asked Brad.
"We need to find a safe place to hide for now," Jess said. "We'll make a plan of action later."
"I've got a hideout around here. It's a bit of a long walk. It's underground though, so we should be safe," said Leon.
"Lead the way," said Jess.
They followed Leon down the street and onto a path through the woods. The dark misty atmosphere put all of them on edge as they quickly moved on. They stopped when they heard the snap of a significantly sized tree. They could hear the growling and clicking teeth of a very large creature from behind. At first Jess thought that the Licker had followed them but when she turned around, she was thoroughly surprised. They all froze in place as their eyes fell upon something that looked as though it had once been a grizzly bear.
What little patches of fur left on its mangled body, were covered in blood. Its throat had been torn out, leaving almost nothing but muscle, vocal cords and the spinal column. It raked its huge claws along the tree it had knocked down and continued growling.
Jess slowly backed up, watching as the bear-creature stood on its hind legs, reaching its full ten foot height. The four of them, as Benny was not in possession of a gun, had time to fire off a round each before it charged. They took off running down the path, and then broke off of it, back towards the city. Weaving in and out of the brush and branches of fallen trees, they quickly lost each other in the mayhem.
Jess was aware of Sarah following close behind and Benny behind her. They couldn't hear anything of the men and the bear-creature. Still they dared not slow down and stopped only when they reached the edge of the woods. They caught their breath and began searching for the other two.
In the air, there was a feeling of tense fear. They knew they were being watched. From where, was the question.
"We have to go back. We don't know where they are and well, we didn't hear anything to indicate that they didn't make it," said Jess.
"Screw them, I am not going back in there, are you crazy?" Benny whisper-shouted.
"Leon is the only one who can get us to where we were going to the beginning. If we don't find him, getting out of here will be a lot harder," Jess said.
"Besides, I go nowhere without Brad," Sarah shot at him.
Jess and Sarah made their way back into the woods, and cursing, Benny followed. They made their way through the trees and eventually found the path once more. They followed it and eventually came up on the men.
"There you are, are you guys okay?" asked Jess.
"Yeah, we're good, you guys?" Leon answered.
"Good. Let's get out of h-" Jess was interrupted by the agitated grunting and huffing of the bear-creature behind them. They took off running, down the path, with it close behind them. Benny tripped on a fallen log and before any of them had time to turn and help him up, the bear-creature was on him. He screamed once, and was dead. The remaining group continued running along the path for about twenty minutes and came off the path on the other side of town.
Zombies were everywhere. The team's supply of ammo was running out. By the time they arrived, Brad was out and Sarah had one clip left. Only Jess and Leon had a "safe" amount remaining.
"Here Brad, take some of mine. You too Sarah," said Jess, handing them some of her extra ammo.
The room they were in was small and old. It had a large table with two chairs in the middle of it and a few shelves along the walls holding a radio and box after box of things; Jess didn't know what. There was one small light that hung above the table. The floor was cold dirt.
Leon crossed the room and picked up the radio. He put it down after a moment, "broken. If my superiors don't hear from me soon, they'll assume that my mission failed and will send out an order to blow up the city," he said.
"Just like Raccoon and every other city that has had an outbreak," said Jess sitting at the table. Leon gave her a strange look for a moment, then focused on what was being said. "They have pretty effectively blocked off the main entrance to the city. Getting out any other way will be pretty difficult."
"Hey, maybe for now at least, we could walk down to the police station to get more ammo. I'm sure they'll have some," said Brad.
"Sure, I'm up for it. How about it?" said Sarah.
"Sure," came the monotonous replies.