Chương 21: Ratted Out
"Don't tell me that…" Jacob starts to say as he shines his light past the zombie and to the bridge behind. The set of double doors are closed, "...Great, the doors to the bridge are locked,"
"And, that has the keys…" Page finishes Jacob's thoughts as she keeps her light on the grey zombie which takes notice of them and starts stumbling toward them, its shallow breathing unnerving to their ears.
Jacob aims his gun at the grey zombie's head, and fires, the bullet hitting it dead center in its forehead. The sound of the gun echoes through the whole floor, a soon the thud of the grey zombie hitting the floor. They start to hear the sounds of zombies moaning down below.
"Best hurry," Jacob says as he walks up to the grey zombie, Page quickly following. As they approach the grey zombie the hole in the back of its head is already fully head, "Are you fucking-" The grey zombie suddenly lunges at Jacob trying to grab his legs but he's too far away. Jacob shoots it in the head several times before it can move any closer to them. Jacob quickly puts his gun away and pulls out his knife, slashing the things next as its head starts to regenerate.
Cutting the head off, the body starts to shake about violently. Jacob flips the body over so its front is facing up. The thing starts to flail its arms about, but Jacob quickly grabs them to stop them from moving. Blood and some weird dull yellow liquid starts to gush out from the neck as another head starts to form.
"Grab the keys!" Jacob yells at Page, whose been watching in utter shock the whole time.
"R-Right!"
Page quickly grabs the keys from the shirt pocket, the head already halfway made. As the two run for the bridge door, they see several zombies starting to reach the top of the stairs. She jams the key into the lock and turns it, shoving the door open with her shoulder. After Jacob runs through she takes the key out and as she's closing the door, sees the grey zombie on the floor already getting up again, the new head fully grown. She slams the door shut and locks it from their side.
"Page, I'm gonna need your help," Jacob says before he starts shooting at more zombies in their path. Page turns to see five zombies all on the bridge. She quickly puts the keys in her pocket before bringing up her gun. They quickly send the zombies to the ground, and not taking any chances they book it to the other side of the bridge and entering the next building. Shining their lights, they see the floor has a large circle shaped hole in the middle, a railing made of glass panels going around it, and another hole in the ceiling above. Several fast food shops line the outer edge of the floor, giving it a circular shape. Several bodies lay in blood stained chains, heads laying on the tables, others to the side in an unnatural posture.
Some zombies are on the other side of the floor walking around aimlessly. Very dim moonlight shines from above through the hole in the ceiling. There's stairs and an elevator on the far left side, luckily only a couple zombies are in their way. Making their way through all the tables they manage to easily avoid the zombies which try to chase after their prey. Making their way to the stairs they hear the sound of something moving inside the elevator. Page goes to walk over to it but Jacob stops her.
"If there were humans in there, the zombies here would all be huddled in front of the doors, come on," Jacob states.
She rejoins him and they make their way down the stairs, their footsteps echoing throughout the building. As they reach a corner in the stairs where they make a u-turn, Page and Jacob make sure to stay on the outer part of it, their guns ready in case a zombie may be waiting around the corner. The second floor looks almost exactly the same, minus the different fast food places lining the walls. As they step down onto the second floor they see a zombie crawling on the floor to their left as several small things are grabbing onto its legs which are almost entirely gone.
Shining their light on it, they see the things are rats, which all scamper away and disappear into one of the fast food places.
"Should we run now?" Page asks as she glances at Jacob.
"...Let's just, turn off our lights and go this way," Jacob says as he starts walking to the right side of the food court. Their lights off, they can just barely make out the silhouettes of objects and things thanks to the moonlight from the ceiling. They're extra careful to make sure not to bump into anything, and stepping as lightly as possible. They pass by a table where the torn up remains of a zombie remains, its exposed muscle and organs filling the air around it with the stomach churning stench of raw meat and wet rats. Flies are buzzing around it. Page and Jacob have to hold their breath as they hurry past it.
They're relieved when they make it to the stairs, hurrying down them to distance themselves from the rats. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, they turn their lights back on to see the first floor of the building is a long wide hallway, with several stores lining both sides. Only a couple zombies are walking in the hallway, most of the shops having zombies walking around in them.
"We're gonna have to travel through the streets, my office is only a couple buildings down, we should be able to just run for it, depending on the traffic,"
Page nods in response as they make their way down the hall to the exit. They can see a car on fire in the street through the glass front doors. As they pass by a store with its door closed, zombies inside take notice and start pressing up against the glass. Halfway through the hall Page and Jacob stop at the sound of glass breaking. They turn around to see zombies falling out through the window displays of one of the stores. Before they can react, the sound of hundreds of tiny scampering feet can be heard coming from the floor above.
"Shit!" Page and Jacob exclaim right as they see rats starting to come flooding down the stairs. The two quickly turn around and run down the hall, rushing past zombies that reach out and try to grab them. Despite all the zombies they see out in the street, Page and Jacob hurry out of the building.
"This way!" Jacob says, grabbing Page's hand and turning her to the left. He lets go as they run down the zombie filled streets. Jacob pulls out his knife, slashing at any zombies that get too close to them. They don't even make it to the first intersection when they hear the glass doors of the building they were just in break as the horde of rats come rushing out onto the street, attacking any zombies in their path.
"It's right there!" Jacob shouts, pointing to a building on the right side of the street only a couple yards away. As they make their way through the maze of zombies they reach a clearing where the street is filled with bodies on the ground that have all been trampled. They see the bull from earlier attacking some zombies on the other side of the clearing, the fires giving Page and Jacob a much clearer view of the creature.
It's black fur is now stained with blood from all the zombies its attacked, its horns have smaller horns fracturing off from the main ones. Two small limbs that end with a sharp claw stick out from the bull's jaw, and it has two tails, both ending with sharp scythes made of bones that tear at any zombies approaching it from the back. They realize that the door to the building Jacob's office is in, which is a police station, has its shutters down, blocking the front door. The bull quickly takes notice of them.
"This way!" Jacob exclaims before heading for an alley to the right of the station. As the two run into the alley the bull comes charging at them, running into the building right of the station and getting its horns caught in the brick wall. A ladder leading to a fire escape sits in the alley, some zombies farther down at the end of the alley.
"You go first," Jacob commands as he pulls up his handgun, shooting at the zombies. Page quickly starts climbing, the bull using all its strength to pull its horns out. As Page reaches the top Jacob quickly starts to climb the ladder, the bull breaking free and once more charging at them. Jacob jumps up a couple steps as the bull comes charging, destroying the bottom part of the ladder and its tails nearly hitting Jacob's legs as he climbs onto the fire escape.
They quickly hurry up the fire escape.
"Which floor?" Page asks as they continue to climb the stairs.
"The eighth floor!"
Finally reaching the eighth floor, which is just two stories below the roof, Page opens up a large window and the two go inside. Jacob closes the window behind them as Page looks around. They're in a break room, the lights are all on, the coffee machine filling the room with a much more pleasing scent of steamy hot coffee. The quietness of the place is both soothing and unnerving.
"The station has backup generators," Jacob states as he heads for the door, "So everything in here should still be working," Jacob peeks his head out into the hall before opening the door, Page following. They enter a long hall, several doors lining both sides. As they start walking down the hall, they start to hear muffled voices. The two stop as they near Jacob's office.
"Why are you working with him?" A man's voice asks.
"...I have my reasons, now let's go, we have a job to do," A woman's voice replies firmly. Jacob readies his gun as he moves his hand to the doorknob.
He quickly opens the door, aiming his gun at two people as they run through another door in the room and fires, only to have the click of his gun.
"Fuck, out of bullets!" He exclaims as him and Page run after them. Jacob runs up to the door they entered only for it to be locked. He starts banging against the door with his shoulder and after couple hits forces the door open. He pulls out his knife to an empty office, the window open. The two walk up to the window, Jacob looking out of it. They turn back to the first room when they hear footsteps hurrying down the hall. Page reaches the hall first, seeing two people running down the hall in the direction where she and Jacob had come from. One is a person wearing a black shirt, the other wearing a red shirt.
Page and Jacob chase after once more, the two people running into the break room. As they reach the break room they can hear the sound of a guns being fired, but they sound lighter and more like compressed air being released than a bullet being fired. Entering the break room they find it to be empty, the window also open. Jacob walks up to the window, looking around outside before slamming the window shut and hurrying back out to the hall. Page quickly follows, the two entering his office once more. He bends down slightly and tries to start up his computer.
"Are you fucking-Ah!" Jacob shouts in burning anger as he slams a fist on his desk, "They deleted everything!" He exclaims as he stands back up, tightening his hands into fists. Page sees the computer has a blue screen.
"Do you not have access to the email they sent you stuff through?" Page asks in a calm voice, trying to calm him down.
"No, they deleted it shortly after I went off the grid. I had them downloaded onto a drive and put onto here. I didn't just have emails though, I had data on all of Luther's tests back from Terrasave before I hijacked his computer,"
"If you had stuff like that on there, surely they must have made copies of it before getting rid of the files. We can just get it back from those two right?"
"...Sure…" He says as he takes deep breaths to relax and think straight, "But it's not our priority at the moment, we need to find a way off this island," He puts the bag on his desk and opens it up, unloading the magazine in his gun, "The shipping yard is our best bet for that,"
As he reloads it Page checks her clip, which is empty. She reloads hers and he grabs a rifle laying against the side of his desk and puts it in the bag before shutting it and draping it over his shoulder again.
"Come on, the amory is just downstairs," Jacob states as he heads for the hall. They make their way downstairs to find a hall going straight and one going to the left. No zombies in sight. As they walk down the hall the sound of their footsteps echoing and the soft buzzing of the lights are the only sounds throughout the whole floor.
"Do you think any of your co-workers survived?"
"I didn't care enough to consider them my co-workers, and I doubt they did. You'd be surprised how many people don't aim for the head when they see a zombie. Then again, with these regenerator zombies, even if they did shoot them in the head, they probably walked up to them only to get bit and infected," He states as they approach a door much more sturdy looking than the others.
He opens the door, aiming his gun into the room before lowering it and continuing in. The room has a wall splitting the room into two halves with a window and desk in the middle of the wall. On the other side of the wall are lockers filled with various guns and other equipment.
They walk to the other side, Jacob grabbing a key from under the desk and unlocking a locker with rifles and scopes. He grabs a scope and some rifle ammo, putting them in the bag.
"Anything here you might need?" He asks as he unlocks another locker and grabs a shotgun and some ammo for it, throwing them into the bag.
"That could be useful," She says pointing to a locker filled with various holsters and small bags.
"I'm gonna use the restroom real quick," Jacob states as he puts the bag and locker key on the desk, "Be right back," And he leaves the room.
Page grabs a small bag that has a strap that goes over your shoulder and grabs the locker key. She opens another locker with various handguns and grabs some ammo, putting it into her bag. As she's about to walk away, she notices a couple magnums in the locker.
I've always wanted to use one. Better safe than sorry.
She grabs a magnum, checking the magazine before putting it in her bag and grabbing a couple extra bullets for it. Jacob comes back and he opens one last locker, inside is a large gun that looks like a bulky rocket launcher, what looks like climbing belts, and radios. Jacob grabs one, putting it on his belt and grabs another one.
"In case something happens and we get separated," Jacob says as he holds it out for her. Page takes the radio, attaching it to her belt as Jacob grabs the gun and two belts.
"What is that?" Page asks.
"Zipline. We can use this to at least get past the next intersection, mind getting those?" Jacob asks pointing to a heavy duty metal tripod, drills at the bottom of the legs.
They make their way back upstairs, but keep going up the stairs and reaching the roof. The roof stands high above with the other buildings, the moonlight shining down above them as clouds of smoke billow up from the streets. As they walk to the edge of the roof they can see all the zombies walking through the streets, looking like nothing more than moving dots down below. Jacob carries the zipline launcher over his shoulder as he faces an intersection to their right.
He kneels down as he aims it at a building on the other side of the intersection. He fires and a hook comes flying out of the launcher, flying through the air. It hits a wall on the roof of the first building across the street, plunging into the bricks firmly, the wire tightening.
"Bring the stand," Jacob says.
Page comes over and places it by Jacob. He lifts the launcher onto the stand, tightening it to is and pressing a button on the side. The drills turn on, digging into the roof below and giving it a firm grasp. He presses another button to raise the stand up so the zipline is higher up, now tilting slightly downward toward the other roof.
Jacob puts on one of the zipline belts and attaches a hook to the zipline.
"Wait for me to detach before coming across, alright?" Jacob asks.
"Alright," Page responds as she starts to put hers on.
Jacob walks to the edge of the roof before pushing himself off, lifting his legs up and sliding along the zipline over the street below. Making it to the other side safely, he detaches his belt, and starts to take it off as Page starts to attach her hook to the zipline. Before she even thinks about going, the sound of a gun shot fills the air as the zipline wire splits in two.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
TIWHimitsu
TIWHimitsu First a bull, then zombies that can regenerate entire heads, then rats, and now this. They just can't catch a break, guess it's a good thing they had that small moment of peace back at the house. Page is going to have to traverse the city on her own or at least until she can reunite with Jacob. But who the HECK was rude enough to break the zipline?! This chapter is longer than normal to make up for only having two chapters published this weekend and also since the next chapter probably won't be done till Wednesday since I'm super busy Tuesdays. Hope you guys are enjoying the story and let me know what you think so far in the comments. :)
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