Chapter Three
Connor was knocked flat by the force of the woman. She had run right into him, probably running from something. He then saw what she had been running from, a zombie that was moving towards them. At first the woman was struggling against him, but after a few seconds she seemed to just give up. He lifted her off him—
"Get up! We need to get up now"
The woman looked at him, she looked scared, but at the same time confused. She was seemingly surprised to see him and looked like she had as many thoughts running through her head as he did.
"Come on, we have to go!"
It took her a few seconds, but she finally heeded his words and scrambled to her feet.
"This way…", he said, pointing in the opposite direction of the one he'd just came from. He grabbed the girl by the wrist and pulled her along with him. She didn't put up any sort of a fight; he assumed that, like him, she was just glad to have found someone else alive.
Together they ran down the street and when Connor noticed an open door in a corner store he led the girl into it. He wasn't positive that it was safe but decided that it was their best option as they couldn't keep running around the streets with all of those zombies out there. Connor went inside first, gesturing to the girl that she should wait outside while he checked it out. He held the Beretta pointing toward the ground but in a fashion that he'd be ready to aim it in a split second. He leaned his head through the door and quickly scouted the area inside. There were several aisles in the store and the main counter with the cash register and a small magazine rack. Unless there was a zombie hiding quietly behind the counter the place seemed secure.
Connor gestured back to the young girl to follow him into the store. He held open the door for her and once he was inside he closed it firmly and bolted it. He turned to see the girl walking slowly toward the cash register.
"Wait, there may be something behind there!"
He tucked the Beretta into his belt and moved in front of her. Slowly and cautiously he leaned over the counter.
"Clear"
"Do you have to keep acting like that?" She looked at him with scrutiny.
"Acting like what?" He looked at her properly for the first time, realising only after he had spoken just how young she was. She could only be 19 or 20. He was only 25 himself, but had his years of police training to fall back on. She was probably fresh out of high school. It was this sudden realisation of her age that stopped him from speaking to her like she was some panicky citizen, he realised that being so young, this situation was probably taking an even bigger toll her than it would on the average civilian.
And she's probably been through this since the beginning; it's bound to adversely affect anyone. Cut her some slack
"Acting like some army commando or something. You're just a cop."
She still had that scrutinising tone in her voice, but Connor decided to take his own advice and give her a wide berth.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to. Its just I don't really know what to do. This isn't the average situation." He thought that maybe admitting that he didn't know what he was doing would help to establish a connection between them. He knew he was going to have to build some trust between them if they were going to survive this mess, and in his experience, admitting ones flaws tended to create a feeling of trust.
"Do you have any idea what's going on? How long has the city been like this?" He didn't want to pressure her for answers but the desire to know what was going on was strong and the more he knew about the situation, the better equipped he would be to handle it.
"I'm not sure, a couple of days I think, maybe three" She looked at him intently, obviously finding a survivor was a huge relief for her, it would have to be if things had been bad for three days.
"What's your name?"
"Amy." She sounded like she was starting to open up to him. She had obviously been through a terrible ordeal, but was holding up remarkably well considering.
"My name's Connor. I'm not a Raccoon police officer; I arrived in town only twenty minutes ago. Do you know anything about what happened here?"
Amy looked up at Connor. He was a sturdy looking man, not exactly a veteran cop, but still several years older then she was. She sensed that he was telling the truth.
Why would he lie? He probably came into town for a visit. But then why is he in uniform?
"It started like I said, a few days ago. I can't be exactly sure because I've lost track of time." She felt flustered. She was still very unsure of her situation, she didn't want to feel like she was breaking down, and luckily, finding Connor had made her feel a whole lot better.
"I don't know how it started exactly, it just seemed to get so out of control so quickly. I think it started with a huge commotion right in the centre of town. I wasn't there so I don't know exactly what the commotion was, but I heard rumours that a lot of the police were called in to try and contain it." Amy tried hard to sound composed, but the fear was still evident in her voice and she didn't want to sound like a panicky little girl.
"I think the commotion just sort of spread out after that, and the police couldn't contain it. I think it's kinda obvious why."
She regretted not being able to give him more information than that. She wanted to be able to help, even though she was still being cautious.
"So you don't actually know what caused this?"
She looked back at him with a look as if to let him know that she had told him everything she knew. He seemed taken aback by her quick attitude adjustment, but she still felt it was a stupid question. After all, how was she supposed to know what had caused the people of Raccoon to become zombies. It was ridiculous enough to think that this situation was really happening, let alone to try and figure out how it started.
"Sorry", she heard Connor say. She looked at him again, trying to not to crack under the strain of the situation. Connor turned away from her and started searching round the store, probably for anything they could use.
Maybe he's just hungry?
The thought almost made her giggle, but she quickly realised that this wasn't the time. And after everything she'd seen, the thought of eating made her very nauseas. The few times she had eaten in the last few days she'd be barely able to swallow, and had only finished a few mouthfuls before giving up.
She stood and watched as Connor inspected several shelves. He didn't actually look very hopeful, which was probably a good thing because all he was coming up with were general groceries that wouldn't be of any use to them; not unless they were going to spread dishwasher liquid on the ground to make the walking dead slip up.
"Anything good?" she hopelessly asked him while turning her head towards the door, just in case.
"No. Didn't expect to find anything really. But I think we could probably use some of the food." Connors reply made Amy gag again. She knew she was hungry, but the thought of eating just sent convulsions up her throat.
"Yeah, I guess." She stared at him a moment, and then asked the question, "So how come you're here? In Racoon I mean".
The look she got in response spoke chapters about the worry that was obviously going through his head. She sensed that he had a very good reason for being here, though she wasn't sure what it could be, and why it could be so important that he hadn't skipped right back out of town as soon as he'd seen what was going on.
"Oh, just visiting an old friend." She immediately got the impression that it wasn't the whole story, and the question about why he was still in his uniform occurred to her again. She thought it was best to leave it though; right now they needed to focus on what was going on around them, not dally in semantics.
Maybe there is something behind the counter we can use
Connor hadn't checked there yet, and it was certainly a more inviting option than just standing there watching him. She was about to move towards the counter when a smell hit her, almost like a smack in the face. A musty, rank odour, an odour she'd gotten used to in the past few days, but that was extremely pungent in the relatively clean atmosphere of the store.
The look on Amy's face told Connor all he needed to know. Before long he knew exactly what was making her so afraid; the smell of death, coming from the back storeroom. Connor knew what it meant; the smell hadn't been there when they'd first entered the store, which meant that whatever was causing it was moving.
Which gives me a pretty good idea what's causing it.
"Stay where you are." He gestured to Amy to stay put, and thankfully she seemed to listen. Connor paced slowly towards the opening which lead to the storeroom. He knew what he was about to face, but knowing what was behind the corner didn't make it any less nerve racking. The circumstances he was dealing with still hadn't sunken in, and he was still finding himself unable to accept the reality of what was going on.
He glanced back at Amy, trying to give her a reassuring look, though he knew that his expression was probably not making her feel any better. He was still looking in her direction when he heard a noise from the storeroom.
--Huuuuuuuuiiiissssssss--
It sounded like a huge snake, except there was a hint of voice in there too. It was much louder than anything the zombies outside had made or he could imagine them being able to make. Connor stopped where he stood, took a deep breath and took another look at Amy before he moved into the storeroom. He had his Beretta held high, his index finger wrapped around the trigger, squeezing it gently. He turned the corner into the dimly lit room and saw nothing. The rear window was open, but there was no way that whatever it was had left because the smell was even more repugnant than he had smelled before.
The room was cast in shadow; the one working light was in the corner of the room closest to the door and didn't do a good job of illuminating the other half of the room. He carefully moved to wards a shadowed corner, half obscured by a shelf packed with boxed, expecting at any second to have a zombie jump out at him. He prepared himself best he could and walked into the shadows.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing, besides a small damp patch on the ground, the corner and in fact the entire room seemed to be completely clear. He was about to leave when he heard it again.
--Huuuuuuuuiiiissssssss—
The unmistakable vocal hiss of some unknown animal. Connor slowly tilted his head to look up at the source of the sound.
"ARRRGH!" Connor screamed as what he saw fell from the ceiling and did a mid-air flip to land right on top of him. Connor felt the impact of the creatures' weight and dropped to the ground. The creature was now on top of him, pinning him down. Connor struggled against it, trying to fight himself away from the creature whose features he couldn't quite put together as a whole. There were flashes of claws, teeth, saliva and moist warm flesh.
Gottagetitoffme!
Connor was struggling as hard as he could but whatever it was, it was far stronger than him. Connor felt something whip across his face, hard and fast it tore at his skin. It took Connor a moment to realise that it was the creatures tongue! Rough and impossibly long, Connor glimpsed the tongue curl back into the creature's fetid mouth. He couldn't comprehend the creature he was battling against, as the struggle continued Connor began to lose hope, the monster would certainly overpower him any second and make its kill. But in the instant that the creature raised its three inch thick claw Connor noticed that its head was soft and spongy, and before the creature could react he jammed the barrel of his Beretta into the side of the monstrosity's jelly-like cranium and pulled the trigger.
--BANG!—
Connor felt a dead weight land on top of him as the huge animal slumped on top of him. For a second Connor just lay there, unable to think, unable to move, with the dead thing lying on top of him, and it wasn't until it started to drip fluid from the large wound in its head that he came back to reality and scrambled out from underneath it.
Amy had heard the commotion from inside the storeroom. Another of those primal hissing sounds, then a thump, a muffled cry from Connor and a slightly silenced gunshot. She hadn't heard anything for a while, at least it seemed like a while, it was probably only a few seconds. She'd been too scared to go in after him when she'd first heard the commotion, and after all, Connor had told her to stay put, who was she to argue. But her fear had now subsided and become worry, not hearing anything from him after a gunshot concerned her and she wanted to be sure she wasn't alone in the world again.
Moving towards the dimness of the storeroom, Amy felt her stomach tighten. The glanced around the corner to see Connor leaning against the back wall, breathing heavily with a horrified look on his face. Lying in front of Connor was a corpse, but not human. The corpse was naked, but also skinless; it was red and wet, very muscular. Its limbs were misshapen compared to human limbs, and came to a long end with several thick, long talons. Amy tried to make sense of what she was looking at, but it only became more difficult when she noticed its head. Immediately she took in that most of its skull was missing, and its brain was actually exposed, it also didn't seem to have any eyes or a nose, just one huge mouth with long pointed teeth. The most reassuring thing she noticed was that poring from the side of its exposed brain was a veritable river of blood.
Dead
She looked again at Connor. He stared back at her, both of them with looks of disbelief in their eyes.
"I know this is a stupid question but are you ok?" She felt stupid for asking but it was all she could think of. It wouldn't have made much sense to ask what it was, she doubted if he, or anybody for that matter would know.
"Yeah, I think…I mean, I will be. Just need to catch my breath."
"Yeah. What happened?" She wanted to know, but at the same time she couldn't help but think that he probably wasn't up for reliving it just yet.
"The damn thing was on the ceiling! I didn't even see it. I walked right underneath and the thing just leapt on me." Connor was flustered, but regaining his composure. Amy thought it best to leave his explanation at that.
"I wonder what the hell it is. I thought the things outside were bad. At least we know it can be killed." Amy helped Connor to his feet and took another look at the creature. She shuddered at the sight of its wet corpse. The smell penetrated her sinuses and she knew they had to leave, it still wasn't safe outside, but it was preferable to staying in there with the smell.
"Let's get out of here." As Connor said it she looked at him and felt a great relief that he was thinking along the same lines as her.
"Yeah. That sounds like a good plan." She was trying to sound cheerful, though she couldn't figure out why; nothing at all about this situation was worth being cheerful about.
