章 59: A Good Day to Kill

A man was walking down the road with a handgun in his hand. The cold night breeze and the occasional cry of the undead didn't falter his steps at all as he arrived in front of a building's entrance. It was the Continental Hotel. His gaze moved toward one of the open windows where he saw the muzzle of a sniper rifle.

Bang!

The muzzle flashed and a bullet went past him, fluttering his long hair. John Wick didn't even blink as he knew that the target wasn't him, but a leaping hound that was trying to bit him. The zombie canine let out a dry whimper as its brain shattered into pieces. The shooter was an old man with old military clothing and a cigarette lit In his mouth. He would sometimes rub his shrapnel filled knee, once in a while, to ease the pain. It was an old wound he got from the Vietnam War.

"Hmm... it seems my skill hasn't rotted yet." muttered, Bill.

The vicinity of the Continental was clear of moving zombies, although one or two corpses were lying around on the ground. Emma Farlene directly welcomed him in the lobby. John had been missing and out of contact for a few days, she was worried that something bad happened to him.

"Thank God, you're fine. Is everything all right?" asked Emma. She hugged him softly and let go of him after she knew that he was fine without wound to be worried about.

"What a peculiar question to ask at the moment," said John, smiling. Emma realized what he meant and replied with her own smile. Nothing is fine if the world was under a zombie invasion. He then continued, "It seems you guys are holding on just fine."

"Oh please, everyone here is a professional. Killing mindless zombies wasn't a problem for us. But I have to admit, the scale of the tragedy seemed to be too huge to handle." said Emma, holding her cheek with a complicated expression.

"Yeah, I suggest that you pack up tomorrow and leave this damned city," said John.

Emma was startled by the sudden urge by John, if it was just zombie attacks, isn't it too excessive to leave the Branch? She wanted to ask more of it from him, but John continued before she could even say a word.

"The Simmons family is intending to get involved if Umbrella couldn't handle it," said John, walking toward the elevator.

"The Simmons? How did you know about them?" The existence of the Simmons Family was a deep secret that only those that held the highest position in a certain field would know. As an owner of a Hotel's Branch, Emma was warned to not get into trouble with them by the High Table. So she knew a tad little bit about them.

"I told you, I'm quitting my job after this." The elevator arrived and John went inside. Emma finally had an idea of who John was working for all this time, and why Vanessa hated his job.

"What are they going to do?" asked Emma.

John didn't answer it right away. He was also perplexed on how to answer it, not because he didn't know, but because the answer was too unbelievable for him as well. He then said, "I don't know when, but if Umbrella couldn't handle it by themselves, Raccoon City would be erased from the map."

The door then closed, leaving the dumbfounded Emma in the lobby.

======

I sat on one of the chairs inside the room. From a few beds inside, I could gather that it must have been a resting place for police officers on night duty. The only sound I could hear was the gulping of my throat and the sweat beads that fell on the floor.

There were only four of us in this room. Chris, who I could finally meet again. Sherry, who seemed to be so worried about me earlier that she couldn't sleep at all. And Claire, who was leaning on the wall with both of her arm crossed.

Claire asked, "So? Who's going to talk?"

Being honest was the main point in this conversation. There was no need to do a mundane thing as trying to evade the question. Besides, from the moment we sat in front of each other, I knew that she already got some information about me and my power. There was no need to worry about my own family about it. But, if I was going to fall, why not drag someone else as well?

"It was Chris's idea!" I said while pointing my finger at Chris's face, making him my scapegoat. It did have an effect as Claire's cold stare moved from me to Chris's side.

"What!? You traitor, you shouldn't sell out your uncle this early!" grumbled, Chris. He also was trying to evade Claire's penetrating gaze.

"Aunt Claire, Chris said you would be a pain in the a— I mean bottom if you know about it," I said, re-fueling the burning stove.

Chris then protested, "Hey...! I never said that... Well, she would, but I didn't say anything about a—"

Pak! Pak!

"Quiet! I don't care whose idea it is," said Claire, hitting both of our foreheads with a rolled magazine to make us stop bickering. A sigh came out of her. She said, "Okay, I know you have a reason for why you hide it from me and I won't ask. But, you should have told me about it anyway. Do you know how disappointed I was when I found out about it from someone else?"

"I'm sorry." I apologized, rather meekly. Leaving her in the blind might be unfair, but still, I might have to keep hiding it if she didn't find out about it early on.

"Okay, you can rest for tonight. If you have a plan tomorrow, whatever it is, just let us know so that we don't have to worry about you," said Claire, ending the interrogation. We also had a little bit of talk before we go to bed. Chris was the only one that stays awake and left the room once we all went to bed.

At 4 AM, I had a sudden urge to pee. The bathroom was in another room, so I had to walk out tippy-toe because Claire and Sherry were still sleeping. Even then, The Police Station was still busy during the day.

I checked the green bar, and it was raised to 27℅, another two thousand people just become living dead in a few hours. My stomach feels cramped, but I just ignore it for now. SHIELD, RPD, and the U.S. Army were doing their best to suppress it and looking for survivors. I need to focus on resting for now and regain my strength so that I could go wild tomorrow.

"Ahh... the lack of ammunition might be a problem, should I raid the army?"

After I flushed the drain down, I went back to the room, however, I met someone unexpected in the corridor. Michael, my classmate. His eyes looked empty as he stares out of the window. He looked haggard, just like other survivors that were rescued when they were on the brink of death. I wonder how my other classmates doing right now, I hope they could survive this tragedy and get evacuated as soon as possible.

I turned into Stealth and walked past him, he couldn't even notice my footstep. But, I heard his small voice, calling for his dead father. What would he think, if he knew that the one to put a bullet inside his father's head was me? Those thoughts circled my mind. Is it a way for me to feel guilty? I helplessly sighed and went to sleep.

======

September, 27th, Raccoon City. 7 AM.

Daylight shone through the window and onto my dace. The gray ceilings filled with little nets of spiders greeted my vision. I heard a song from a small music box somewhere outside my room. It was quite calming, I wondered what the title is. A pancake and fruit juice would have made this morning perfect, but we couldn't ask for the impossible right? Not when a pack of zombies littered the road, trying to get into the Police Station.

I could still hear the occasional gunshots around the city, and some poor civilian's screaming in the distance. I slapped my face to wake me up, turning my cheeks red after a few slapping.

After I washed my face and went back to the room, a call came in from the intercom. It was Nick Fury. He told me that he need help in getting the subways to work. The power plant that provided the subway with electricity was being overrun by biologically mutated arachnid who made hive from rotten flesh of their prey.

"Alright, I'll be there in a sec," I replied, turning off the intercom. A notification bar appeared, notifying me that I already got the Mission. The rewards were still the same, a bunch of EXP and mercenary points.

But then, I realized I wasn't alone. Behind me, Sherry was looking at me with worries. She asked, "Are you going to go now?"

I nodded at her question, not knowing how to explain it.

"You're not going to back down if I asked you to not go, aren't you?"

I helplessly smiled at her, and replied, "Yes..."

She was fidgeting, contemplating to either stop me or not. She just closed her eyes and hold her pinky finger in front of me. I was confused about how to respond, but then she said, "Then... promise me. You will be back, safe, and sound."

I smiled helplessly and wrapped my tiny pinky finger on hers. I replied, "I will."

However, I was flustered when she suddenly hugged me. "She... Sherry?"

"I meant it. Just come back if it gets dangerous. I don't want anything bad happens to you." I was touched by her words and wanted to stroke her, but she suddenly released it and I embarrassingly put away my hand. She was confused about why my face getting red, but I ignored it and turned around.

"I have to go now. Tell Claire that I'm sorry for not telling her what or where I'm going today. I will be back before it gets dark to check on you guys." I said.

Sherry wanted to say something but black smoke already wrapped around my body as I turned all of my equipment on and reinforce them. This is the first time I 'transformed' in front of her, making her startled. I jumped through the window, followed by using the fence as my stepping stone, and land on the hard asphalt while taking two katanas mid-air.

"First. Let's do some cleanings." I muttered, watching a pack of zombies turning their heads one by one toward me. The katanas sword gleamed with a peculiar light before it stretched into a line of light and split the closes zombie head in two.

======

The road in front of the police station was being overrun by zombies. Chris and some police officers were busy fending them off behind the metal fence. A blond female officer made a mistake in calculating how far the zombies could reach with his hand before it grabbed the end of her uniform. She was slammed against the bar and the zombie's teeth were going to dig into her shoulder, but then the hand that was holding her uniform released its grip, making her stumble and fell on the ground.

When she looked up, A sword could be seen penetrating the zombie's head and it fell limp on the ground after the sword was pulled. She gathered her ragged breath and stood. What she saw after, was something she would never forget for the rest of her life. A small fleeting shadow was moving so fast in a controllable manner.

"Rita! Are you okay!?" asked her colleague while running toward her.

However, her gaze was still focusing on the phenomenon in front of them. When she felt his presence, Rita muttered, "Kevin... are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"What are you talking about?" That was when he followed her gaze, only to see the same thing that Rita Phillips saw.

They were not the only one that was witnessing it. Every single police officers, including Chris, was astonished. Anywhere the shadow went, heads and limbs would fly and the zombies would fell like a lifeless doll. Five become ten, ten become twenty, and twenty become a hundred.

While the number of observers increased, the number of zombies continued to fall. In a few minutes, every single zombie that was trying to breach into the Police Station was laid on top of each other, forming a small hill, and Edward stood on top of it with both Katanas dripping blood in both hands. The end of the white coat was fluttering, painting the image of a 'last man standing' on a battlefield.

No one could see anything behind that trenchcoat, black armor, and helmet, not even the civilians that peeked from their windows. But deep down, Chris knew that it was Edward who was standing there.

Both shared a glance and nodded to each other before Edward vanish into smokes. This moment was the start of Edward's small legend among the survivors of Raccoon City. A story of a small Angel with guns and swords.

======

An hour after I cleared the road in front of the police station, I arrived near the power plant. I tapped on the intercom and reported, "I'm almost there. Can you brief me on the situation?"

"What took you so long?" asked Nick.

"I need some EXP from killing mobs," I answered truthfully. I continued to walk while talking with him.

"Haha... funny." replied, Nick, sarcastically. He continued, "you need to turn on four different generators to supply the power. They were placed in different places. I don't know where their exact position is, so you need to figure it out by yourself."

"Oh come on, Nick," I complained. "How I would find the generator? I don't even know how it looked."

"Shut up. Just look for a box with a lever, is it that hard!? Does uncle Nick also have to spoon-feed you?" replied Nick Fury, getting impatient, but I noticed a chance to tease him and used it immediately.

"Hey, you're embracing the name. See, not bad right?." I said.

"Shut your pussy ass mouth and get the hell out of there." he realized that he was getting familiar with being called Nick by me, so he snapped.

"Okay, okay. Jesus, you need to chill." I said, teasing Nick's fury. Then, I remembered something and asked, "Last question, how am I going to find this Hive?"

The reply didn't come immediately and I only heard a sound of ruffling paper. It seemed Nick was looking into it, "Oh... no need to look for it. You'll know once you arrive."

I turned around a corner and inquire him, "What do you mean I'll kno— Ohh... never mind."

My word got cut out because I was bewildered by the view in front of me. When I heard about the big rotten flesh hive, I thought it was just a nest the same size as my room. How truly wrong I was. It wasn't a hive, it was a whole new building on top of the power plant's electrical line.

"What the hell did you just put me into."