Kingdom Evil Remake 2.
Chapter Five: Zombie Encounter (Part Two)
Previously in the last chapter.
"I was, but I changed my mind after hearing that sound. I'm not leaving here until I figure out what it was." A determined look appeared on Sora's face when he said this. It could either be a Heartless wreaking havoc in the convenience store or the officer to the abandon police car. "Are you with me, Claire?"
Claire bit her lip, unsure what to say or do. She was conflicted. A part of her wanted to convince Sora about leaving the gas station and the sudden sound in the convenience store behind to have him travel with her to search for Chris in Raccoon City, which would make them become more closer to each other. But another part of Claire wanted to investigate the convenience store with Sora and see what made the sound.
'What should I do?' Claire thought desperately as she tried to come to a decision. 'Should I just try to convince Sora about leaving the gas station and the sudden sound behind to have him travel with me to search for Chris in Raccoon City or should I accompany him inside the convenience store to see what made that sound? Damn it, why can't life choices be any easy to decide?!'
In the end, though, Claire decided to put her search for Chris in Raccoon City on hold for a bit and accompany Sora, her new friend, inside the convenience store to see what made that sound. "I'm with you, Sora."
"Then let's go."
With that said, Sora and Claire made their way towards the convenience store, unaware they are about to witness a horrifying scene, unaware their normal lives as normal people, though special in Sora's case, are going to change drastically…and unaware they are about to enter a survival nightmare.
(In the Present; With Sora and Claire)
Just when Sora and Claire had reached the entrance of the convenience store and about to enter through the door to head inside, the latter suddenly stopped in her tracks, promoting the former to do the same upon noticing this, a confused and concerned look appearing on his face. Why did Claire stopped moving?
"What's the matter, Claire?" Sora asked, still retaining the confused and concerned look on his face as he stared at Claire. "Why did you stopped moving? Is something wrong?"
"No, no, everything's fine, Sora," Claire reassured, easing the concerned feeling Sora felt but was still confused about why the brown-hair woman stopped moving. "It's just I realized something important, something I should've asked you before we started making our way towards the store. Do you have a weapon or a gun to defend yourself from whatever's inside in case we get attacked? I don't want you get to hurt."
"Oh," Sora's confused look changed into a surprised one after hearing the question. He didn't expect Claire to asked him if he had a weapon or a gun to defend himself from whatever's inside the convenience store. But at least he now knows why she stopped walking a moment ago. It's because she wanted to know if Sora had a weapon or a gun to defend himself from the source who created that sound.
Hearing the genuine concern in Claire's voice made Sora gain the warm feeling in his heart once again before he quickly dismissed it to answer her question. "I actually do have a weapon to defend myself, Claire, it's rather special like myself. But the appearance can be odd and peculiar. You might become surprised and shocked at the same time once you see it. Not to mention, there's an ancient history about the weapon, which I will promise to explain after we get done investigating the sound."
The answer Claire received from Sora made her suspicious but intrigued at the same time. This weapon of his was special like him but the appearance is peculiar and there's ancient history about it? She hoped to listen to the history part as it sounds interesting and quite a story. "I'll hold you onto the ancient history explanation about your special weapon later. Though, I only wanted to know if you have a weapon or a gun to defend yourself from harm."
"I do. In fact, I'll just go ahead and show you."
Sora held out his hand and summoned the Kingdom Key Keyblade, much to Claire's extreme shock and stunned disbelief as she gaped heavily at it, along with the summoning action. Never in her life had she witness something that should be very much impossible for normal people to do, which is summoning weapons like magic. She also had never seen such an extremely odd and peculiar weapon before. It looked like a sword but shaped like a key.
"H-h-h-how did you do that?" Claire asked with stutter in her voice as she continued to gape heavily at the Keyblade in Sora's hand, wondering what it's called. "And what is that weird-looking sword thing?"
"Like I said, Claire, I will explain everything about my weapon later," Sora promised as he dismissed the Keyblade from his hand, extremely shocking Claire even more than before. "Right now, I want to investigate the sound inside the store. So, let's get moving." Without another word and wasting time, Sora pushed open the convenience store's entrance and head inside with a still shocked Claire right behind him.
The inside of the convenience store was extremely dark, due to the lights being out, making it hard for Sora and Claire to see anything. Not to mention, it was completely empty without a single person inside, not even the attendant who should usually be behind the counter, and eerily quiet. The very last part reminded Sora of the old mansion in Twilight Town, causing a slight shiver to run down his spine. He quickly pushed the said shiver away to focus on the situation at hand.
"Hello? Is there anyone here?" Sora called out in the completely empty convenience store, earning a bonk to the head by Claire, who had managed to recovered herself from seeing the Keyblade, the summoning action and the dismissive action a moment ago. "Ow! What was that for, Claire?"
"For doing such a stupid decision," Claire scolded lightly at the now pouting spiky brunette who was rubbing the spot where she hit him on the head. "Seriously, Sora, why would you call out and reveal your presence? That's not only dumb but gives whoever's inside time to set up an silent ambushed."
"Sorry, I just wanted to know if there's any anyone here."
Seeing the pout look on Sora's face was enough to make Claire stop scolding him and release a sigh but gain a small smile. To be honest, the pout looked so extremely adorable on him. He may be a teenager, but he can act like a excited little kid. "Just promise me to never call out and reveal your presence again, okay?"
"Don't worry, Claire, I won't do it again," Sora promised once again, thankful Claire stopped scolding him.
"Good, now come on. We got a sound to investigate."
After Claire picked up a lit flashlight that was on the ground for some strange reason, both she and Sora got a look at their surroundings. The interior of the convenience store was a bit of a mess; a few utensils from the shelves were scattered around or knocked over and there was a few blood splatters on the ground, some covering the shelves. There had clearly been a struggle.
But seeing the blood splatters on the ground made Sora and Claire nervous. They are both thinking the exact same thing.
What could've caused the blood splatters to appear?
More importantly, who could've done such an awful dreadful thing?
Pushing their nervousness aside after seeing the blood splatters, Sora and Claire began exploring the inside of the convenience store. They stayed extremely close to each other as they didn't want either of them to be far away – Claire refused point-blank to let Sora be on his own in the store, regardless he had that strange weapon to defend himself. She did not know he had the same thoughts as her, but it regards her being on her own instead – and move with carefulness and cautiousness, ready to strike or shoot at anything that deemed dangerous.
At some point during the exploration, Sora and Claire heard the faint sounds of struggling in the backroom, along with a pained breathing near them. The sounds caused them to stop in their tracks.
"Claire, do you hear that?" Sora asked quietly, referring to the pained breathing near him and Claire. He also heard the faint sounds of struggling but he was focusing on the pained breathing,
"Yeah," Claire replied quietly as well, also hearing the pained breathing near her and Sora. "I hear it too, Sora."
The two teenagers looked at each other for a moment before speeding towards the source of the pained breathing. After arriving, their eyes widened from what they were seeing.
Sitting on the floor and against the wall was the gas station's attendant who was a plump, bald head middle-aged man. He wore a short-sleeved blue shirt, black slacks and brown shoes. He was currently holding onto the left side of his neck with his left hand, which seemed to be bleeding.
"Are you alright, sir?!" Claire exclaimed, rushing over with Sora right behind her and kneeling next to the plump man. Looking closely, they could see a fatal wound on his neck with blood leaking out profusely, causing them to become grim and horrified. "Shit! This is really bad! This guy needs medical attention quick, otherwise he's going to die from blood loss!"
"Here, Claire, let me heal him," Sora stated seriously, pushing his grim and horror aside as best he could as he summoned the Keyblade to his hand and pointed it at the plump man. Claire, who had become horrified at the action he just did, was about to stop him from doing something completely stupid when he suddenly did an amazing action with the weapon. "Cure."
Claire watched in awe, amazement and fascination as a magical green leaf appeared over the attendant's head and a soft green glow washing over his entire body. It was truly beautiful to look at. However, the beautiful scene didn't last long as the soft green glow, along the magical green leaf, disappeared a moment later, much to her great disappointment. Claire wanted to keep staring at the scene forever, damn it!
Sora had expected the fatal wound on the plump man's neck, along with the blood, to vanish after casting the healing spell. However, to his surprise and confusion, the healing spell didn't seem to work at all. The fatal wound was still there with blood leaking out profusely and it didn't even shrink. It's still the same size as it was.
Sora decided to cast the healing spell again to see if it will work this time, but he got the same results as the first time. Now starting to become worried like when he couldn't contact his friends on the Gummiphone, he began casting healing after healing spells in desperation to try at least make the fatal wound shrink, but no matter how many healing spells he casts, the result were always the same thing. Claire watched all of this in concern.
"Claire, something's wrong," Sora stated a moment later, giving up on casting another healing spell on the plump man and dismissing the Keyblade. "My healing spells aren't working on this guy at all."
"Did you cast the spell wrong or something, Sora?" Claire asked, wondering if Sora cast the spell wrong. It didn't seem like he did since he cast a lot more.
"No, I cast the spells right. There's just something…different about this wound, which is preventing the guy from getting healed." It was true, this wound is different than other wounds. It didn't want to heal, shrink or vanished; it just wanted to stay on the plump man's neck.
Something was different and wrong about the wound.
It was then Sora and Claire noticed the plump man had his right arm raised up while keeping his left hand on the fatal wound on his neck and pointing at something, promoting them to look over at the direction he's pointing. It was an open metal door that leads into the backroom of the convenience store. Sora and Claire didn't need a genius to tell them the plump man wanted them to enter the backroom.
The two teenagers looked at each other, nodded their heads and entered through the metal door that leads into the backroom, not before giving the plump man a worried look. Like the convenience store, the backroom was completely, but it had a right hallway with another door at the end, which stood ajar like the abandoned police car parked in the driveway. There was also a light bulb above the door, providing some bits of light.
Sora and Claire had walked a few steps forward in the backroom when suddenly, the door they entered through closed with a bang before the locking mechanism triggered, indicating they are locked in with no way out. They paused for a few moments before the realization sucked into their heads.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Sora exclaimed, turning back towards the door with Claire and placed both hands on it. "Why did you lock us in?! Also, why are you moving around?! You're going to make your wound bleed more than before!"
"Open the door now!" Claire shouted, banging on the door with her free fist. She's still holding the lit flashlight in her left hand. "Seriously, dude?! What the hell?!"
After a few moments of banging on the door, which is still locked, and shouting at the plump man to reopen it, a highly annoyed Sora and Claire gave up and resumed walking in the dark hallway, not before both gave the metal door one last bang.
The faint sounds of struggling from before became louder and louder as Sora and Claire got closer to the end of the hallway where the ajar door is, making them stop in their tracks, wiped the annoyance for the plump man who locked them in the backroom away and gain unnerved expressions on their faces. They unconsciously draw their weapons and held them upwards in a protective manner. Sora and Claire have a feeling they were going to need the weapons the moment they enter through the door where the now loud sounds of struggling could be heard on the other side.
For a while, Sora and Claire hesitated near the ajar door, not sure if they should head in or just wait out in the backroom. They have a really bad feeling something was going to happen once they walk through the door. In the end, though, they decided to just walk through the door since standing around wasn't going to solve anything but waste time.
Sora and Claire steeled themselves for whatever they're about to encounter on the other side before slowly and cautiously edging the ajar door to open. The latter held up the lit flashlight to illuminate light once it was opened wide enough.
The door Sora and Claire opened led them into a medium-sized office, which was completely dark like the store and the hallway. There was barely enough room to move around, due to the numerous stacked shelves with many supplies, but there were some pathways to walk through. However, they didn't notice this as they were busy staring at the source responsible for the loud sounds of struggling, maybe even the sound of breaking glass they heard earlier.
On the other side of the medium-sized office, two individuals were struggling against each other. The first individual was a man who happens to be the officer of the abandoned police car parked in the gas station's driveway. He wore a short-sleeve light brown shirt with a badge on the right sleeve, black slacks and black shoes. He was busy shoving the second individual against the wall.
Said second individual was also a man but his back was facing Sora and Claire, so they couldn't get a look at him. The most strangest thing about him was the fact he kept making loud growling noises like an animal. What kind of person makes such sounds?
"I said hold still!" The officer ordered, letting out effort grunts from shoving the second man against the wall. He was trying to get handcuffs on him but having difficulty doing so because of the struggles.
"Whoa, what's going on?" Sora asked, announcing his presence and entering the medium-sized office.
"Excuse us, officer, is everything alright?" Claire asked the officer, also announcing her presence and entering the room as well.
The officer restraining the second man quickly turned around upon hearing two voices and raised an arm up in a halting manner. "Stay back, kids, I got this."
'Kids?!' Sora and Claire both thought, highly offended and angry at what the officer said to them. 'We're not kids! We're teenagers!'
Unfortunately for the officer, taking his eyes off the second man and presenting a hand up proved to be an extremely grave mistake. The second man took advantage of the officer's distraction by turning around with a loud growl and using a surge of strength to knock him, along with himself, off balance. The two fell on the ground with the officer below who let out a scream and the second man on top of him.
"Hey! You get off him right now!" Sora shouted angrily, walking forward to help the down officer from the second man…only to freeze in pure terror and horror upon seeing something so horrifying, so disgusting and so disturbing that it will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Sora watched with paralyzed-horror as the second man bite into the officer's neck, causing him to release a scream of pain and a gush of blood to spill out, staining the ground. He couldn't tear his wide, horrified bright-azure eyes, nor his completely terrified cold sweat face, which is very deathly pale, away from the goring scene, no matter how much a voice inside him desperately pleads him to do so. He couldn't even move his trembling body from the spot he's frozen in. Sora could only just stand where he was trembling in pure terror and horror as he watched the goring scene.
Sick sounds of flesh being torn and screams of pain filled the medium-sized office as the second man continues to bite into the officer's neck.
"Oh, my god!" Claire gasped in horror as she watch the goring scene in front of her. Her blue eyes were wide with horror, her face was pale like Sora's, but not very deathly pale, and she had a terrible feeling inside her the second man was something that shouldn't be possible or exist at all. She hoped what she just thought about is very wrong.
"Help me…" The dying officer moaned weakly, struggling to get the second man off him, but his actions proved to be fruitless. The second man had a strong grip on him, making it impossible to escape, and he lost a large amount of blood. It didn't take very long for the officer to give his last dying breath as he died from blood loss and getting his neck bitten by the second man.
Not long after the officer died, the second man tore a chunk of flesh away from the neck and began to chew on it nosily, very nearly making both Sora and Claire throw up upon seeing this action. It's utterly disgusting and disturbing.
"C-C-C-C-Claire…" Sora stuttered fearfully, couldn't even properly say a sentence, due to how completely frightened he was at the moment. His Keyblade had long since vanished after seeing the horrifying action the second man did to the previously alive officer. "W-w-w-what i-is t-t-that t-t-t-t-thing?"
A very grim look overcame Claire's features as she looked at the creature who finally noticed hers and Sora's presence. She was having trouble believing what she's seeing as she hoped the terrible feeling inside her had been very wrong. But it seemed fate wasn't on her side at all.
Nonetheless, Claire went to answer Sora's fearful question about what the creature is but raised her gun up to aim at it.
"I'm having trouble believing what I'm seeing, Sora, but that…is no longer a human being. That…is a zombie."
And done! That's the ending of the chapter! Sora has witnessed the horrifying death scene, including the zombie, and already started to lose his innocence. Will he managed to pull himself together and be prepared throughout his horrific journey in Raccoon City with Claire or will he succumb to the horrible images in his head? Only time will tell.
Next chapter will be about Sora and Claire escaping the convenience store, meeting Leon and escaping the gas station. It may be a while until I can write the next chapter since I need to figure out how to start it off, but I should be able come up with an idea.
Anyways, here is a new chapter for you guys to enjoy and I hope you like it.
Write a review if you like this story and enjoy the chapter.
Next Chapter: Losing Innocence.