Chapter 2. "Confusion."
Claire and Annie sat together and listened to the rain outside after they closed the diner at last. The various customers left in their cars, and the traveler did not bother to say good night to the waitresses.
The young women shared the same car and went home. The drive was in relative silence while Annie did her best to not succumb to her doziness. She did fall asleep for several minutes for the duration of the drive. The engine turned off once the car reached their home, and the lack of mechanical motion helped Annie wake up.
Their living room was cozy and well lit- a fire crackled in the chimney in front of them. The rain droplets drifted down the windows to make the outside look disorienting, and the glow of lights seem brighter.
"Pretty rare for us to get the same shift," Claire muttered while she put the car keys on a coffee table in the living room.
"You know Claire, sometimes I feel like you're avoiding me," Annie stated and prompted a surprised look from Claire. "Come on, tell me what's in your mind," Annie added while laying back on the couch.
Claire closed her eyes, allowing her heart to relax. "You know I love you, right, Annie?" Claire leaned forward from her seat. "It's just I'm not feeling too good."
"Is it about Sherry?" Annie rested her forearms above her eyes. Usually, some people confused the gesture to avoid conversation. However, Claire knew Annie long enough. It was a gesture to help Annie focus on the discussion.
The name alone brought Claire pain, although she is good with masking her expressions, the pounding of her heart would give her away, it was too loud. "Yeah, I still remember her face. I didn't want to leave her, it was just that… I had no choice; I had to find Chris and make sure he was okay." Claire recalled the moments she met the little girl.
"Easy, easy - I'm not a zombie, it's okay..." Claire said and hold onto Sherry's hand tightly.
The tone in Claire's voice was warm and gentle. "Easy, I'm not going to hurt you, you're safe now."
Sherry finally raised her head to look at Claire.
Claire's eyes were soft with concern and sympathy. Right there, Sherry stopped trying to get away and felt the hot tears trickle down her face, without hesitation, she hugged her and sobbed quietly, feeling Claire's hand gently rubbing her hair. "It's alright."
Annie pulled herself to a sitting position, "Darling, I'm sure she'll understand."
Claire rolled her eyes and looked away. "Yeah, right."
"Look, she might feel sad, angry, or probably both." Annie continued. "But she'll understand, let it go please, you will reunite with her again. Then you can amend your relationship when it feels right for both of you."
'Friends.' The word played in her mind, deep down, Claire wondered how Sherry looks now. According to Claire's rough estimate, Sherry should be about twenty years old.
Claire chuckled and spoke at last. "I heard she's in training to be an agent." She didn't know what specific agency or what kind of skills she was being taught. So it wouldn't be impossible for her to assume that Sherry could join the DSO.
Annie's lips curled into a smile. "See, it is like she is following yours and Leon's steps; by working on the field."
"I guess you're right," Claire replied. From the start of the conversation, Claire might as well come off with one of the topics that have been bugging her. "I worry about our time here. So what I'm thinking about finding another job for me someday."
Annie's eyes widened in shock, for it was the first time Claire spoke about something else. "What, are you going to leave me alone in this business?"
Claire happily waved her hand in front of her face as if to brush that assumption away. "No, no, not right now. Just listen, I feel like a waitress is not who I am, I admit I love cooking, but it's not my true passion."
Claire spent a moment to let her thought settle for a moment. Once it did, Annie just responded with a nod.
"I understand. I tell you what, there's a guy who came to the diner. How about the two of you have some coffee and talk about work and passion?" Annie said with a wink.
Claire shook her head in disbelieve. "You just can't help it, can you?"
Annie laughed a little loud at the look in her face. "I love to tease you." Annie sighed and looked at Claire. "Do what you think is best."
A loud sound of glass crashing interrupted them. "What is that?" Annie made her way to the window then looked out for the source.
"Is everything alright in there?" Claire asked.
"I do not know I cannot see anything."
The more eerie sound appeared, it looks like it's coming from their neighbor. Claire felt something within her heart, a feeling she knew all too well, and it is not welcome.
"No, I must be paranoid. There is nothing out there."
...
Hunk walked in the dimly lit street and adjusted the coat collar.
The path had led him to an old bridge in the town, and he didn't have any choice other than to cross it. The shock of his weight upon it had shaken the bridge. How long was it since anyone had passed it? Its stonework felt like it was ready to crumble under his feet. At the corner of his eye and necessary observation, it obviously weakened with age, and to his horror, he saw a crack snap open right across its width, not five feet behind him. The pitch-black jagged lines soon widened, and the masonry on either side of it began to fall, tumbling crazily down into the dark abyss.
As Hunk watched, time itself seemed to slow down. There was no longer any retreat. He immediately realized what was going to happen. Turning, he started to sprint, summoning every muscle in his straining body to this one last effort. He ran across the bridge to the other side, the structure fracturing and plummeting behind him. He could feel the stonework plunging away just as his heels left it.
Then, at last, his chest practically splitting with the effort of breathing, he lay down on the ground, unable to think or do anything, he listened to the sounds of the stones of the bridge as it fell into the torrent below, he judged the sounds, until there was nothing, no sound at all but the wind mixed with the rain.
'The damn bridge was ready to give away just like that?' Hunk shook his head and frowned in bubbling annoyance. Being so close to the area to carry out the contract, the mercenary opened a bag holding a gasmask. He took a minute for him to latch the straps in place and the remainder of his equipment. After five minutes, Hunk was fully kitted to take on the world. The duffle bag was folded then stuffed into a spare pocket.
Gradually, Hunk's calmed his breathing to level it out. There were some aches in his muscles, forgotten in the hard moment. The mercenary did not prep himself for to do some kind of quick pace running. His left leg throbbed as the cold wind and rain soothed it somewhat.
'It's the price for wanting to be a ghost.' Hunk thought to himself, rolled onto his stomach, and did a quick push-up to get on his feet.
Like a dark shadow, he made his way through the dirt path, with no light to give away his location. According to his PDA, the house he needs to go up-ahead, he was told the man could be awake and watching over his office. The client gave Hunk permission to kill the target if he had to.
The road narrowed before him, he could see shadows moving about near the houses. 'Why people are still awake at this hour?'
He came closer to the empty place, there in the ground he saw shards of glass on the ground. The farther north he walked, the heavier his heart became, and he felt something was not right. Only the fire of the quest kept him on the path.
The target's house appeared before him; it was a two-story house with a large front yard closed with a fence. The grass outside appeared to be well maintained. Slowly he took out his grappling hook gun and aimed straight to the top of the wall. 'Alright, Mr. Martin, you're about to have a surprised visitor.'
He let go of the trigger and jumped on the wall, and straight down to the front yard by rolling forward than standing.
No lights were coming from inside the house. For a moment, the mercenary studied the layout of the house and made his way around. He bent down in front of the door and start tugging on the lock with a lock pick. It took him only a few seconds, and the lock latched open. 'Bingo.'
Quietly Hunk made his way inside. The house seems ample and well-cleaned like a manor. The stairs are right in front of him, on the left side, he could see the kitchen overlooks the living room. Most of the living space has a view of the two-story wall of windows that looks out to a private garden. And there was a Scandinavian-designed fireplace.
The mercenary went through the stairs, walking as slow as possible to not make any sound. The hall upstairs was decorated with flowers in the middle. He saw a half-opened the door right in the end. 'Mister Martin must be waiting for me!' he came closer to the door.
Hunk took his combat knife from the chest pocket and pushed the door with his index finger.
The office inside was dim-lit; it had bookshelves on both sides, and he could see a figure sitting on the desk... Like always, his knife shined in the light of candles as he came closer to the chair before he could reach it. His eyes noticed flies gathered all around him.
Swiftly he turned the chair around and prepared his knife, but what he saw made him freeze for a moment. Speechless. The man was dead, and his face looked squashed to the inside.
Feeling anger boil within him, he kicked the chair, creating a loud noise. A sound of familiar moan followed.
Hunk brought his wrist close to his mouth and pressed the button. "What the hell is going here? Answer me!?" His voice was cold and dangerous.
The answer came after a few seconds. "Yeah, something vicious is spreading around here Mister Death, you better deal with it."
"What!? This is not part of the contract." Venom laced Hunk's words.
"You have no choice."
Hunk heaved a long angry sigh and coldly retorted. "You better hope we don't see each other when this is over."
Loud laughter was all the answer Hunk got from him. Though he was out of time. The zombies were right outside the door of the office. From his rear pocket, Hunk drew his pistol.
"Get out of my way."
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this.
Special thanks to The95will