Half an hour after disabling the M1014, Ryan and Alice had safely cleared a straightforward path through the literal maze of cars until they reached the front entrance of the museum. Up until that point, neither of them had sensed any T-Virus except for themselves and Katie. But now that they were standing at the front entrance, they realized that the place was crawling with zombies, with the sole exception of the front lobby.
"Katie, tell Claire that the parking lot is secured. We've marked the safe route to the entrance with cars with opened hoods. Tell her we're going to go inside the museum now. It's full of zombies, we can sense at least a hundred of them." Alice relayed to Katie as Ryan opened the final car hood and put the supporting rod into place.
"Okay, she wants to know if it's safe to move up yet." Katie replied after giving the newest message from Alice.
"No. If these zombies detect a food source, meaning not me, Alice or you, then they'll start swarming outside and could cause a chain reaction of traps. I've found quite a bit of incendiary and explosive style traps, in addition to a few too many beartraps. This area is basically a minefield, and there is only one safe path. If that path is overrun, then you guys would be trapped. Stay put for now, until we clear out the museum." Ryan explained as he readied his rifle to his shoulder, following Alice inside.
"You take the first floor, I'll take upstairs. When we're finished, come back here and wait." Alice said as she drew her kukris and slung her M3 onto her back. 'No guns unless it's a B.O.W, okay, babe?"
"No problem. See you in a few, Itoshii." Ryan pulled his mask down and gave her a quick kiss before pulling out his katana and shouldering his rifle. He quickly went into one of the adjacent halls, leaving Alice to slowly walk up the main staircase.
Ryan cleared out the first few wings in mere minutes, passing through the remnants of many other exhibits until he found the medival arms and armour exhibit, where his secondary objective awaited; Find more armour for himself.
Thankfully this section was only inhabited by four zombies, one of whom was dragging her legless torso around with one arm. It appeared that her arm and both legs had been cleaved off with a blade, and quite cleanly so. Ryan's blood coated katana, which was also a clean slice hadn't touched that particular zombie... so that meant whatever slashed the cars outside was what cut the limbs from this zombie.
Ryan glanced around the exhibit floor. He was mere feet from the four zombies, but something was making him uneasy. There was another threat in here, waiting in ambush.
Decapitating the four zombies, Ryan scanned the shadows and began to formulate an attack plan. But first, there was a prize to be acquired.
He had just spotted a particular suit of armour; platemail with chainmail at the joints, it wasn't the suit as a whole that caught his eye, it was the shin guards that he wanted. Forget the rest, he wanted the damn boots from it!
Taking his time, Ryan removed the pieces he wanted and carefully buckled them in place on his shins. He then took a glance at the adjacent display hall: Roman Empire. He could sense more zombies in there, so he readied his katana and walked right inside.
"Ryan, how are you doing so far? I'm almost finished in the east wing." Alice relayed to him as he found a particular pair of weapons he knew about; cestus.
"Got my armour, and I got a new weapon." Ryan replied as he fitted the metal gloves onto the back of his hands. Now he might have a chance of doing some damage with a punch, since his hands were now reinforced. "Got about six more zombies left."
"Okay, I'll make my way to you in a minute." Alice replied, which meant that she had only a handful of zombies left to kill.
Ryan sighed and got back to his task of clearing the museum when he got the same feeling like there was something following him, watching him... waiting for the right moment to strike.
Since he was unable to talk, Ryan's first plan would have once been to call out to confirm if the threat was human. If they replied, then he'd strike up a conversation with them... if they weren't... then he'd use the sound of his voice to lure them out into the open.
But now that plan is fucking useless! He was on high alert, searching all around for the thing to show itself... wait a minute, high alert, uneasy feeling... shit!
Ryan looked straight upwards and felt his stomach drop. There wasn't six zombies left for him to kill in this area...
they were the same type of B.O.W that had originally infected him, over three weeks ago!
"Alice, I've got a problem. Remember that thing that originally infected me at the gas station? There's half a dozen of them on the ceiling above me. What are they called?" Ryan asked, keeping his eyes switching between the six creatures crawling around above him, somehow defying gravity.
"Lickers. they're the L-251b B.O.W, weak point is their chests, they have exposed hearts. They use their long tongues for ranged attacks, and claws and bites up close. Stay put, I'm on my way." Alice explained. "What exhibit are you in right now?"
"Roman Empire, near the red chariot. I'm standing in the open." Ryan checked his immediate surroundings, then returned his gaze right back to the Lickers. "I'm really tempted to shoot these fuckers." He added angrily, but didn't bother reaching for his rifle or one of his pistols.
Moments later, Alice came striding into the exhibit hall, looked around for the red chariot, then walked briskly towards Ryan, giving his new leg armour a quick glance.
"I think you can get more metal than that, but that's just my opinion. Now, as for these fuckers..." Alice spoke Telepathically before she looked upwards. "I say we piss them off, and let you..."
Alice's sentence stopped short when the sound of heavy footfalls started pounding from another exhibit hall. Immediately, the Lickers became agitated, flicking their whiplike tongues around as they remained high up on the ceiling.
"Hide?" Alice suggested, already eyeing a nearby spot; the chariot.
"Fucking right!" Ryan replied, dragging her by the wrist into the chariot and throwing a nearby tarp over them, leaving a small opening to spy through.
The footfalls began to approach the entryway, now accompanied by the sound of a heavy metal object being dragged across the smooth floor. The sound of the Lickers above changed to utter silence. Their growls stopped and their tongues stilled as a massive humanoid wearing a strange bloodsoaked apron and a burlap sack over its head came into view, dragging behind it a heavy broadaxe that had a few chains wrapped around it. The blade had dark bloodstains all over it, except for a particularily fresh splatter.
"What the fuck is that thing?" Alice asked, still using Telepathy. "Wait, look! that thing in its hand."
Ryan realized that it was dragging a person, a living person, into the exhibit hall by their hair. However, it appeared that this person was covered in blood, but was unconcious. Their boots dragged across the floor as they were unknowingly being dragged to their demise.
"I found signs of this place being inhabited on the other side, so that brute must have killed that person's partners and for whatever reason, dragged her all the way back here." Alice explained, watching the big thing walk right past the chariot without even a second glance, continuing into the medival exhibit.
'I think I know what it's going to do in there. Come on, follow me. Stick to the shadows." Ryan slowly removed the tarp and lead Alice in pursuit of the big bastard and his hostage.
Following it until they reached an open area, which was clearly the brute's 'lair' judging by the many signs of its presense here; axe marks, scuff marks and cracks adorned the floor and walls, plus a pile of two handed axes from the medival exhibit were laying around. However, most notably was the large wooden frame of a guillotine in the center of the back wall, the heavy blade suspended at the top, clearly heavily used by the brute. The blade was almost black with blood, and Alice finally figured out two things:
Firstly, what it was planning to do with the hostage...
and secondly, what she was going to name it...
"Executioner."
A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, it's leading up to a big fight scene.