Chapter Four
Shadow Dancing
"Shit."
Claire ran after the creature as quickly as she could. When she reached the end of the train, it was about to catch up to the girl from earlier. She shot it in the back with her pistol, redirecting its attention towards her. The girl took that opportunity to open fire on the creature. Claire walked away, knowing that the creature wouldn't survive long. It gave out a scream that told her it was dead.
"As anticlimactic as that was, damn, she's durable," the girl commented. Claire held back a chuckle. She walked opposite of the guns into an open room. There was a bottle of pain pills with the words "For Zoey" written in blue permanent marker. The smell was still there, so the girl's friends couldn't have been too far ahead. She put the bottle in her duffle bag, looking out the doorway.
"That's totally not creepy," the girl said sarcastically. Claire giggled softly.
"Great. Next, I'll see two little girls saying "Come play with us, Zoey"." Claire burst into laughter at the comment. The girl shivered in response. She picked up the hunting rifle and shoved the note into her pocket. She went up a short flight of stairs and came to a room filled with zombies. Claire followed closely behind. She watched the girl pick off the zombies slowly, strangely not even noticing her. When she finally moved, Claire walked behind her, making sure that nothing came at them.
'I'm really beginning to hate stairs,' Claire thought after the fourth flight of stairs.
"Now I see why Francis and Bill hate stairs so much," Zoey commented. Claire grinned at the remark, biting her lip to keep herself from laughing. She had actually passed Zoey by taking a different route, although she kept herself close enough to hear the girl. Claire looked back at her. She looked a little winded from the constant movement. Neither of them had taken time to rest. It seemed like days since they had seen the cloudy sky. She passed a desk and left directly for the door. Claire was ecstatic to see the dreary clouds even if it was for a short time. Zombies were all around her. She quickly found a decent vantage point and began to shoot all of the zombies in sight.
When Zoey came outside, Claire noticed the one thing she never wanted to see in the given situation: a large muscled zombie, almost reminiscent of William Birkin. It roared and ran strait for Zoey. Zoey noticed this and ran for her life. Claire gave her cover fire until Zoey had gotten inside of the pawn shop. She jumped into the window, knocking an infected out of the way. Once Zoey had made it inside of the safe house, Claire slammed the door shut. She quickly climbed outside of the store through the window as the tank ran in. The girl screamed in fear. The creature pounded at the safe house door, desperately trying to get at Zoey.
Claire pulled out her shotgun and held the trigger, pouring a decent amount of lead into it. It turned its attention towards her. She could now hear Zoey crying. Somehow, that was all the motivation she needed. She ran backwards, constantly pouring lead into the monster. She only stopped to pull out a Molotov. She lit the rag and threw the deadly concoction at the monster. It ran up to her, desperately trying to get a hit in. Claire, being much smaller, was able to dodge the creature, causing it to hit itself. She ran back to her vantage point, switching her shotgun out for her pistols. The creature ran at her, fling cars as if they were small rocks. Claire lined up her sights and open fired. The monster punched her off of the dumpster. She fell down hard against the ground. She looked up at the monster as it attempted to smash her into the ground. She held up her guns and pulled the triggers as many times as she could. The creature fell to the ground with a loud thud.
Claire sighed, feeling an overwhelming sense of pain as she did. She looked at her side and noticed a sharp fragment buried deep into it.
"Damn it!" she growled. She pulled the fragment out with a stifled cry of pain. She put one of her pistols away so she could put pressure on the wound. She stood up slowly, cringing in pain. Her ankle had suffered damage, but it only felt like a sprain. Her gut, however, may as well have been torn to shreds inside of her. The pain was unbearable. Claire limped a couple steps before coughing up something.
'That's never good…' she thought. She looked down at the substance and frowned. It was blood. Fortunately, she knew how to take care of the wound. She limped over to the safe house, trying to ignore her pain. She managed to open the door with only a little noise. She was surprised to see a pair med kits lying around. She closed the door and locked it. She noticed Zoey sleeping peacefully on the cold floor. She sighed and picked her up. Her body protested loudly against the action, causing Claire to cringe. She set Zoey down on a couch, which was surprisingly still intact. She smiled slightly before coughing up more blood. She crawled over to the med kits and began to tend to her wounds.
"Damn, this hurts," she grumbled. She clutched her side in pain. She pulled her jacket and shirt away from the wound. She checked her ribs and realized that one of them was probably broken.
"What I wouldn't give for one of those green herbs right about now…" she sighed. Claire remembered how much better she felt every time she had cleaned her wounds with one of them. She wrapped herself up in some gauze and propped herself up in the corner. She held her ankle and looked it over. It was already beginning to swell up. A small yawn escaped her lips. She decided to deal with it in the morning, falling quickly into a deep sleep.