Chapter 26
At the rate he was going, Leon was never going to make it to the police station. He didn’t know if he was going to make it another ten blocks. For the moment, he hid inside a car repair shop, crouched down behind a huge toolbox, trying to catch his breath. It wasn’t the best place to hide, since the main garage doors were wide open and he couldn’t get them closed, but at least he was momentarily out of sight.
Out in front of the repair shop, half a dozen zombies meandered around the sidewalk, like normal pedestrians waiting for a bus. Leon had enough bullets to take them out, but he wasn’t about to waste his precious bullets unless he had to. There were two cars parked outside, but when Leon did a quick search of the office, he didn’t find any keys.
He needed a vehicle. Unfortunately, hot-wiring a car wasn’t as simple as movies made it seem, and Leon didn’t know how to anyway. The keys to the cars outside were probably in a zombie’s pocket, but that zombie might not even be nearby. Leon was tempted to kill the zombies and check all their pockets, just to make sure, but he couldn’t bring himself to waste his ammo just yet.
When he got sick of hiding, he crept around the repair shop and exited out the back door. The zombies saw him when he sprinted across the narrow parking lot, but were too far away to be a threat. The next street over was lined with two-story buildings, with commercial businesses on the ground floor and apartments above. There was a bank and a diner, but Leon didn’t think either place would be safe. Maybe the bank would be, if he could get into the vault and close the door behind him. Then he could die of thirst in a couple days. He wasn’t sure if that would be worse than becoming a zombie.
He didn’t want to just hide, though. What he wanted was to locate some other survivors. There absolutely had to be living people somewhere in the city; he refused to believe that everyone else in Raccoon City had succumbed to the zombie disease. He ran over to a line of cars parked along the curb and tried all the doors. He found one that was unlocked, but of course the keys weren’t inside.
His head jerked up when he suddenly heard a the pop of gunfire somewhere nearby. But it wasn’t M4 gunfire he heard this time, it sounded like pistol shots. It was hard to tell how far away it was, but it had to be less than a few blocks. He began moving in the direction of the sound, when more gunfire erupted, this time definitely a machine gun of some kind, and he broke out into a run.
He made it to the next intersection and stopped in his tracks when he saw the huge crowd of zombies about half a block away down the other street. A city bus lay on its side right in the middle of the street, and a surging mob of zombies congregated along the sidewalk, pushing at the front door of one of a building in the middle of the block. The gunfire came from there.
There was no way Leon could get to the front door, so it looked like his only option was the back way again. He crossed the street and kept going until he reached the alley along the back side of the row of buildings. The alley was narrow and dark, in the shadow of the buildings on each side. There were a few dumpsters and piles of garbage. There was also a bicycle chained to a concrete post, but Leon doubted the owner would ever return for it.
He headed down the alley, Desert Eagle drawn. He made it halfway down the street before he realized he didn’t know which door was the right one. He heard shouting and more gunshots, very close by.
The door nearest him flew open and he swung his gun up by reflex, backing away. He had no idea what might come through the door.
A young woman burst through the doorway and halted in surprise when she saw Leon’s gun pointed at her. Her face was frozen in a look of fear and desperation, loose strands of her brown hair dangling in front of her wide open eyes. She stared at Leon, frozen in shock.
“Get down!” Leon shouted.
The woman did not have to be told twice. She dove to the ground and Leon pulled the trigger, striking two zombies coming up behind her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back to her feet.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said quickly.
Already, more zombies were coming through the doorway, stepping over their dead companions and stumbling into the alley. Leon and the woman ran down the alley far down to the other end of the street.
“Please tell me you have a car,” the woman said, out of breath.
“Sorry, hate to disappoint you,” Leon responded.
They exited the alley and found themselves on the next street over. It was littered with abandoned cars, one of them a burned-out husk. The street was lined with more two-story buildings, and most of their front doors were either broken down or left hanging open. A few scattered zombies in the middle of the traffic jam came shuffling towards them. Together, they ran down the street until they were clear of the zombies, at least for the moment.
“Where did you come from?” the woman asked, stopping to gasp for breath. She leaned over and put her wrists on her knees, because her hands were full. She carried guns in each hand, a Beretta in one and a Mac-10 machine pistol in the other. She was about the same age as Leon, if he had to guess, with strong blue eyes and brown hair tied in a ponytail.
“I heard shooting,” he said with a shrug. “So I came to investigate.”
“Pretty brave of you, given the circumstances.”
“Yeah, well,” Leon said. “I’m looking for other survivors. I’m trying to find someone who knows what’s going on around here.”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“I just arrived in town about an hour ago and it was already like this.”
The woman shook her head. “Looks like we’re in the same boat, then. Did you drive through the roadblock too?”
“No, I took the back roads through the mountains. They have the highway blocked?”
“Yeah, there’s soldiers keeping anyone from entering the city. But they aren’t Army soldiers, I can tell you that.”
“I think they work for Umbrella,” Leon said. “They’re in the city too, trying to fight off the zombies. I ran into some of them earlier.”
“Okay,” the woman said, standing back up straight, having caught her breath. “Listen, my name’s Claire. I don’t know if it’s safe, but I’m going to try to get to the police station to look for my brother.”
“My name’s Leon. Nice to meet you. The police station sounds like a good idea. I was thinking about going there myself, but I’m afraid I’m a bit lost.”
“I know the way,” Claire said. “It’s not even that far from here.”
“Sounds great,” Leon said. “But first, why don’t you hand me that Mac-10? I think I might be able to handle it better.”
Claire gave him a disapproving look. “What, just cause I’m a woman, you think I don’t know how to handle a gun?”
“Have you ever fired a Mac-10 before?”
“Well, no,” Claire admitted.
“Then hand it over,” Leon said. He took out his Glock from his back pocket and held it out for her. “Here, I’ll trade you.”
“Deal,” Claire said.
They traded guns and Claire pointed back over Leon’s shoulder. “We’d better get moving. Here they come.”
Leon turned and saw a crowd of zombies coming slowly down the street. There were a hundred of them, easily. More zombies than they had bullets to shoot them with.
“You know where we’re going,” Leon said. “Lead the way.”
Claire ran down the street with Leon close behind. They ran down the middle of the street, to avoid any zombies that might come unexpectedly from doorways along the sidewalk. They passed more wrecked cars, more dead bodies, and more zombies wandering loose in the streets.
“So what do you know about what’s happening here?” Leon asked.
“Not much,” Claire said. “This disease, or whatever it is, started affecting people early this morning. I think they must have blocked the roads after it first began to spread.”
“Any idea how
it infected so many people at once?”
“I don’t have a clue.”
“How much longer to the police station?”
“Not far. Maybe two miles.”
Leon laughed, although there wasn’t much humor in it. “Well, that’s not far at all. Do you think we’ll actually make it there?”
“No, not really,” Claire admitted, and slowed her pace. “Wait a minute, you said you just came here an hour ago? You must have driven here, so what happened to your car?”
“Someone stole it, believe it or not,” Leon said. “Stupid, I know. What about your car?”
“I ride a motorcycle. I wasn’t looking where I was going and drove into an open manhole.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t get hurt,” Leon said seriously.
Up in the street ahead of them was another crowd of zombies, maybe only fifty of them meandering around the avenue. Leon could see a burning car behind them, sending a trail of flickering flames up into the sky. Together, they stared at the crowd of zombies, who were paying attention to the burning car.
“Jesus,” Claire whispered to herself. “What are we going to do?”
“We have to find a car,” Leon said. “Hopefully one with the keys still in it.”
There was a guttural growl behind them, and Leon spun around to see a large dog coming in their direction. It looked like a German Shepherd or a Husky, but it was hard to tell because the dog’s head and face were smeared with gore, and its fur all around its throat was wet with blood. The dog lowered down and growled again. It was a sickening, wet sound.
The dog jumped up and bounded toward them, snarling and snapping its jaws. Claire screamed and Leon backed up, aiming his gun. He pulled the trigger when the dog was barely fifteen feet away, and the bullet blew straight through its skull. The dog let out a whimpering yelp and flopped to the sidewalk, tumbling to a stop right in front of them.
“Oh my God,” Claire said, lifting a trembling hand to her face. “Look at it.”
“Yeah,” Leon muttered.
The fur and skin on the dog’s face was peeling right off the muscle, like paint peeling off an old wall. The blood all over the dog’s face was not from something the dog had killed, it was from the dog itself. Leon nudged the dog’s shoulder with his foot, and the fur and skin wiped away like wet paper, exposing muscle and tissue underneath.
“It’s got to be the same thing,” Leon said. “The disease affects dogs too.”
“We have to get out of here,” Claire said, grabbing his arm. The zombies down the street heard the gunshot and were now walking towards them.
Down the street, there was a large gas station on the corner. Sitting in the parking lot beside the gas pumps was a tanker truck, with long black hoses already hooked up to pump gasoline from the truck into the gasoline tanks underground. And parked along the side of the convenience store were two cars.
They ran down the street, with a crowd of zombies following slowly behind them. When they reached the convenience store, Claire shouted, “What are you doing? We can’t hide in here!”
“No, but we can get a car,” Leon explained, pushing through the doors.
Almost as soon as they were inside, a zombie stood up abruptly from behind some shelves of snack chips and candy. It was an older man wearing a dress shirt that was soaked with blood. He groaned and staggered forward, and Leon shot him in the head.
Claire stood in the doorway and looked nervously back at the crowd of zombies. “Come on, what are you looking for?”
Leon crouched down and reached into the man’s pockets. “I’m looking for his car keys. One of those cars outside has got to be his.” But he didn’t find anything when he searched the body.
“Maybe that guy lives next door and just walked here,” Claire said. “We don’t have time for this! We have to get moving!”
Another zombie rose from behind the cash register. It was a young man wearing a shirt with the gas station logo on it. He was the clerk, and his throat was ripped out, most likely by the zombie lying at Leon’s feet.
“We’ll get moving faster if we have a car,” Leon said. He shot the clerk as well and ran over to the body, but there were no keys in his pockets there either. “Damn it!” he shouted in frustration. “Those keys have got to be somewhere!”
By now the crowd of zombies was just across the street, and some of them were already in the gas station parking lot. The crowd picked up a few stragglers on the way, increasing its size. They numbered about sixty now, coming closer every second. Claire stood uncertainly in the gas station doorway, nervously holding her Glock, unsure whether or not to start shooting.
“I’m leaving you here!” she shouted. “I’m not waiting!”
“Here!” Leon cried, grabbing the clerk’s jacket from off the back of a chair in the supervisor’s office behind the desk. A set of keys were in the jacket pocket.
They ran outside and over to the two cars parked beside the store. Leon tried the keys in the first car and the door opened. He jumped inside and unlocked the other door, allowing Claire to get into the passenger seat. The engine roared to life when he started the ignition.
“Alright, time to go,” Leon said, putting the car into reverse. He looked behind the car as he started to back up.
A zombie slammed its bloody hands on the trunk and scratched at the rear window. There were already half a dozen zombies behind the car, grabbing at the windows, trying to reach the people inside.
“Let’s go!” Claire screamed
Leon pressed his foot on the gas and the tires screeched as the car sped backwards. The other zombies fumbled after the car, but the zombie behind them fell onto the trunk and was taken for a short ride. Leon slammed the rear of the car right into the tanker truck parked there, smashing the zombie right against it. The car broke the hose off the pump and suddenly, gasoline began splashing from the broken valve, spraying like water from a garden hose.
Leon put the car back into gear and drove the car right through the growing crowd of zombies, knocking some of them out of the way and running two of them over. The car bumped over the bodies and skidded out of the parking lot to the street. Claire screamed and grabbed the dashboard for support as the car spun sideways and peeled out as it drove away.
“Man, that was too close,” Leon said, glancing in the rear view mirror.
There was a flash of light, and then the entire gas station exploded in a massive ball of swirling fire. Flames burst out in every direction like a shockwave, and a ball of fire spread upward and out like a mushroom cloud. The convenience store was engulfed in fire and blew apart like a house of cards, flaming debris flying everywhere.
“Holy shit!” Leon shouted, slamming on the brakes. He and Claire turned around to see the massive tower of flame dissipate in the sky, turning to a dense column of choking black smoke. The entire gas station was now a blazing inferno. There were no zombies to be seen.
“Jesus, the gasoline must have ignited,” Claire said in shock.
“I don’t believe it,” Leon said.
After watching the flames for a few moments, Claire faced forward in her seat and wearily patted Leon’s arm. “Come on,” she said. “We have to get to the police station, remember?”
They drove off, leaving the wreckage of the gas station behind them, still able to see the rising tower of smoke. Leon carefully drove the car through several jammed intersections, driving up onto the sidewalk and across front lawns a few times. Claire gave him directions and within a few minutes they were almost to their destination.
“Do you think it will be safe there?” Leon asked.
“Who knows? But I have to find my brother. He’s a cop, so that’s the best place to start looking.”
Leon turned the wheel and drove the car halfway down the street before coming to a stop when he saw the police station up ahead. He could see dead bodies littered around the long front steps and near the wide open f
ront doors. Even the front windows were completely smashed out, and as the car sat in the street, two zombies wandered along the steps.
Leon looked up at the windows on the second and third floors, but no one was there. If there were survivors inside, he would expect to see people looking out the windows to signal for help.
“I guess that answers that question,” he said. “When people started turning into zombies, everyone probably came here for help. I guess I’m not surprised.”
“There might be people alive inside,” Claire said firmly.
“Maybe,” Leon agreed. “But we’d have to fight our way through who knows how many zombies to find them. Do you really want to risk that?”
“I came here to look for my brother Chris, and I’m not leaving until I know for certain that he isn’t here. If you don’t want to come with me, then that’s fine.”
“I didn’t say that. I just want you to realize the danger you’re putting yourself in.”
Claire put her hand on the door handle. “I’m going to look for Chris. Come with me or stay here, it’s your choice.”
She looked at him, waiting for an answer. When he didn’t give her one, she opened the door and got out. The street was empty for the moment, but the two zombies on the police station steps noticed her when she closed the car door.
She carried a Beretta and a Glock, and maybe twenty bullets total. Ten times that many zombies would be waiting for her inside the police station. Leon was sure of it. But he wasn’t going to call Claire stupid or foolish for trying. He had already put himself in harm’s way more than once today, and he wasn’t even looking for a family member.
He opened his door and stepped out, leaving the car running.
“Claire, stop for a second.”
“I’m going to look for him, Leon,” Claire snapped.
He held up his hands to fend her off. “I understand that, but walking in the front door is probably the worst possible thing you could do. That’s where the zombies probably broke in, and most of them will be right on the first floor. Let’s go around the building and try to find another way in.”
“Okay,” Claire said, sounding relieved. She was trying to muster up the courage to go in the front door, so Leon’s suggestion was a welcome alternative. “We could try the fire escape.”
“Alright,” Leon said. He closed the door and walked around to Claire’s side. He had his Desert Eagle, and the Mac-10 barrel currently tucked through his belt, where it hung at his side.
“Are you sure you want to come with me?” Claire asked, looking toward the desolate building, where an army of zombies most certainly waited for them.
“I don’t have anywhere else to be just now,” Leon said.