They walked down the streets to the station in less than ten minutes. The town was deserted for the time being. They entered the station slowly, watching out for an ambush of some kind. The four of them walked down the halls. All the terrorists that had been in previous possession of the building were dead. They could tell that something very large had come through and killed them.
They walked into the armory and took all the ammunition they could find. The armory was a small stone room stocked from floor to ceiling with shelves full of ammo and guns. They decided to take some bigger guns just in case they ran into anything else that was bigger than the zombies or even the lickers, picking up extra bags to carry it all. They walked out of the room and continued on.
Suddenly they heard a loud crash and the roar of some enormous and deadly creature that none of them wished to meet. They ran out the door but before they could get outside the police gates, they were cut off by a creature Jess had only seen once before on a previous mission, a B.O.W.
It was large, fourteen feet tall, standing on two legs. Its four massive, bloody arms ended in five four-foot long claws, sharp enough to shred even the thickest of metals. Its rotting flesh shook with every bellow it uttered.
The four of them stopped in their tracks and before any of them could move a muscle, the creature jumped at them and thrust its huge claws through Brad's chest. He screamed in pain, and then fell silent. The creature tossed him to the side, and quickly jumped away when it realized that one of his "targets" was getting out a large weapon.
"Brad! NO!" screamed Sarah, running to him. Jess followed and hugged Sarah to her, trying to comfort her. Brad was dead. Jess closed her eyes against her own tears.
"Sarah? Sarah, we have to leave now. We don't want it coming back," Jess said looking into Sarah's eyes.
"I'm not leaving," said Sarah stubbornly.
"Sarah, he wouldn't have wanted you to die as well. He'd want you to come with us, to save yourself. Now come on. Please," said Jess, bringing Sarah to her feet.
"Fine," Sarah whispered.
They took some supplies off of Brad that they would need, and then stopped a moment to look upon their departed friend. They moved on when they heard the roaring of the creature that had killed him getting closer and closer.
25
Back in Leon's hideout, they checked everything they had gotten at the police station. Leon checked his watch.
"We don't have much time left. My agency will be sending bombs this way soon. I'm guessing we have little more than ten hours before things start to light up," he said.
"We could try to get around whatever is blocking the road. It would be a really long walk back to Fairbanks but we'd get there eventually," said Jess. Sarah just nodded her head in agreement and sat down at the table.
They spent the night in the hideout and got up early, packing their things to leave. They walked to the nearest grocery store and took some breakfast, eating silently in the isle. They finished quickly and decided to make a new plan of escape.
"We can just hike out of here like we originally planned. Except that would take forever and Rowley has our samples. We really should try to get them back before we leave," said Jess. "That is if he's still in town."
"I think it would be best to just leave. I highly doubt that he's still around anyway I don't think this will be our last chance to get him but it might be our last chance to get out of here," said Leon.
"Alright, well, the sooner we leave, the better," said Jess getting up. They walked into the streets headed west to go around a large part of the road that was blocked off by a car collision.
Suddenly, a gas station exploded behind them, sending fireballs and plumes of smoke into the air. The three of them ran behind a building as a burning tire crashed to the ground where they had been standing before. They ran down the road to escape the fire and falling debris, but were cut off when they ran into a large mob of zombies.
Jess looked behind them. The fire was spreading amazingly fast through the closely nit buildings like it would through a dry grass field. They wouldn't have enough time or ammo to shoot all the zombies before one or the other overtook them. She looked to the side as Leon and Sarah began shooting at the oncoming horde. She noticed a door to one of the buildings that hung slightly open. It was a little uncertain but it was their only way out.
"Hey guys, we need to go through here and hope there's another door on the other side that we can get to and go through before the fire gets to this building," she said running for the door.
The other two followed her and shut the door behind them. It was some kind of business building. They ran through the offices and found another door on the other side as Jess had hoped. Jess reached it ahead of the others and tried it. It was boarded up from the other side.
"No!" Jess yelled, punching at the wall. She looked around and heard the others coming up behind her. She noticed a window down the hall from the door. She checked outside, nothing. She unlocked it and opened it just as she began to smell smoke.
"Come on guys, through here," she said climbing up.
The smoke alarms went off as they jumped through and ran down the alley. They quickly crossed through part of town and stopped to cool down a bit. The sun shone for about ten minutes but was soon covered by large dark grey clouds. It started raining only a few moments later.
"The rain should help with the fire," said Sarah.
"Yeah, with the fire out, it'll make travel around and out of the town easier," said Jess.
They rested for a moment before getting up and moving on. Jess and Leon walked side by side with Sarah trailing close behind. They quietly walked down the deserted sunlit streets. A slight breeze blew loose papers and trash across the roads and down alleys. The fire that burned half of the town roared with life, the smoke giving out a smoggy atmosphere. Smaller fires crackled and popped as the rain began to put them out. Nothing else moved. The group could hear the moans of far off creatures but nothing close.
They came to another grocery store and walked in. They each took some food off the shelves and sat down to eat lunch.
Jess thought about Brad and when they had first met. It had been the end of Jess and Sarah's junior year in high school. She had seen Sarah and Brad together the whole day and had been really annoyed that her best friend hadn't even bothered to come say "hi" to her.
When she had seen the two of them sitting together at the stream that cut through their schools' property at lunch, she decided to go say "hi" herself. Jess remembered walking up behind them very quietly and screaming "HI!" in their ears about as loud as she could when she was less then a foot behind them. She had startled them very badly and Brad had actually fallen into the stream.
Jess smiled at the memory and finished eating. She stood up and walked around, waiting for the others to finish. She hoped Sarah would be okay. Her and Brad had been inseparable since that day. She walked through the empty isles staring at the dirty, littered floor. She heard someone walking up behind her and turned around.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked her.
"Yeah I'm okay, how about you?" Jess answered.
"I'm okay. I'll be fine. Life goes on right?" Sarah said smiling weakly.
"Well… I guess but you just lost someone who was very close to you. It'll take a while to get over it," said Jess looking at Sarah.
"I know," Sarah answered looking away.
Jess put her arm around Sarah's shoulders and together they walked to where Leon stood waiting. They all picked up their things and walked out into the street once more. As they walked, they were met by increasing numbers of zombies and other creatures. They ran inside a large building to escape their fifth mob and rested.
"We'll spend the night here then," said Jess looking out one of the windows. They walked into a small room that had only one door and no windows. There was a brown sofa and two blue overstuffed chairs. Jess locked the door and they settled down for the night. Sarah fell asleep on the sofa, Jess and Leon slept on the chairs.
26
The next morning, Jess got up early, before Leon or Sarah. She walked out of the room and checked the road. The coast was clear for now. She walked back and sat down in her chair. She listened to the sounds of her companions' breathing.
She got up again and went through her gear. She didn't find anything missing and returned to her chair. Her thoughts went back to Brad and then to Alex. They were both gone now, would anyone else have to die? Who would it be?
"No," she said to herself. "I can't think like that." She sighed, closed her eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.
She woke up to screams, yelling and the sounds of dogs growling and barking in a room down the hall. She noticed that Leon and Sarah weren't in their room as she heard someone start shooting. She jumped up, grabbed her gun and ran out into the hall as both the screaming and the shooting stopped.
When she entered the new room, she was startled to see three zombie-dogs on top of Sarah and two more going after Leon who had run out of bullets. She quickly sent bullets into the brains of all the creatures who had decided to attack her instead.
Jess lowered her gun and ran to Sarah who lay motionless in a large pool of blood. She was dead. "No," said Jess sitting back. She and Sarah had lost Brad and now she had lost Sarah, the one person who ment everything to her.
Jess got back up, made sure that Sarah would rest in peace and walked back to the other room. Leon and Jess gathered their packs and crossed the street into another building, as it was pouring rain outside.
"I'm sorry Jess. We both walked out into different rooms. She was attacked before I ever got to where she was. I shot at them but ran out of ammo. I guess Sarah didn't have her gun on her. I'm sorry," said Leon.
"It's alright, there's nothing more you could have done," whispered Jess in reply. She grabbed Sarah's gun. "Let's go."
She followed Leon through the halls and rooms of the new building. Finally, they walked into a dusty old room and shut the door. There were no windows, let alone anything else inside except a few rags and old blankets. They each laid out a bed for themselves without a word.
Jess sat on her bed and faced the wall. She put her gun down and listened to Leon's movements. She shivered a little, as the room was cold.
For the first time, in a long time, she felt exhausted, depressed and alone. Her friends, the only people she'd had left, were gone forever. Silent tears ran down her cheeks as these thoughts went through her mind. She didn't bother to stop them from coming, wipe them away or even move; she just sat and stared at the wall. Many moments had passed when she heard Leon come up behind her and finally turned to try to hide her face.
Leon took off his jacket, put it over Jess' shoulders and sat down next to her. She hugged his jacket to her body and closed her eyes. It was warm, comforting. Leon reached, touched her chin and turned her head so that her eyes met his. He gently brushed away her tears. He said nothing; there was nothing to say. Their eyes told each other all they needed to hear. They slowly moved closer to one another, closed their eyes and kissed.
Jess stared into his eyes. He stared back at her and smiled. "Good night Jess," he said getting up.
"Good night Leon," she answered. She realized that for a moment, for just that one, great moment, she had forgotten where they were, what was going on, what had happened. She thought about that for a moment longer and smiled. Maybe she hadn't lost the only people she'd had left. She still had Leon.
Jess went to bed too but didn't immediately fall asleep. She thought about Brad and Sarah a while longer, then her thoughts turned to Leon before she finally drifted into a fitful sleep.