章節 47: City of Chaos

As Ada nears the city, she starts to notice how much more, alive, it suddenly looks. Far off in the distance she can see buildings glowing orange from growing flames and screams echoing throughout the streets as hordes of people run. They all run in random directions, none of them knowing where to go or what to do. Some people have hideous bite marks on them, blood staining their clothes. They don't run far before they start slowing down and falling to the ground dead.

Reminds me of China.

Ada drives past all the people, some skimming the side of her car and some even being ran over. As she approaches an intersection, several cars come barreling at her. As she crosses the intersection she sees a truck coming from the right, and it's not stopping. Ada quickly grabs the briefcase as she pulls out her hookshot, shooting at a nearby balcony. She goes flying out seconds before the truck hits her car and keeps going. Her car is pushed to the other side of the intersection and starts to spin, crashing into the oncoming traffic. They all crash into each other, making an impenetrable barricade blocking the way forward.

"So much for an easy mission," Ada mutters to herself as she stares down at the messy scene below, "Hopefully he doesn't have insurance," Ada turns her attention to the balcony she's on, looking up at all the ones above her. She stands against the railing, leaning back a bit as she aims up at another balcony higher up. She shoots the hookshot latches onto one five stories above her. She pulls on the trigger, using the extra momentum to jump off the balcony she's on and out towards the streets. As she flies up, there's an eruption of flames from the floor she's going to.

Someone screaming in agony comes running out, their whole body engulfed in flames. The railing does nothing to stop them from running off the edge as they merely run into it and the momentum pushes them forward, plummeting towards Ada. She quickly kicks a railing in front of her, pushing herself off to the right, just barely avoiding the corpse comet as it shoots past her to the ground below, feeling the immense heat of the flames as it passes by her, mere inches between them.

Ada reaches her target balcony, taking a small breather once her feet are on solid ground again. She heads back to the edge of the balcony, shooting the roof of the building this time. Reaching the top she gets a full view of the chaos ensuing down in the streets. It's almost impossible to tell whose infected and whose not. Cars crashing into each other can occasionally be heard. She checks her phone's gps to find the location of the police station. It's very far, but in a straight line from where she is luckily. She walks to the other side of the roof, the next building's roof only a few feet away. She suddenly gets a message from Luther.

"The police chief wasn't at his office when the outbreak started, he sent an SOS. You need to bring him to his office safe and sound, then you can give him his, gift. His location has been sent to you,"

Ada checks her gps, a red blinking dot a few intersections forward. She quickly takes off, jumping over the gap and to the next building. She runs from rooftop to rooftop, using her hookshot to cross the streets whenever she comes across them. After crossing two streets she nears the SOS signal. It's coming from a large city park down below, several gunshots coming from it. Several street lights sitting among trees illuminate the grassy ground and dirt trails, along with a group of police huddled together and shooting at the approaching zombies. Some streamers and tables covered with food and gifts suggest some sort of celebration had been going on.

It doesn't take long for Ada to spot the chief Romero. Among all the police in uniform is a man in a blue button up long sleeve and black dress pants.

I don't know how far the station is from here, so I'll need to make sure we have a mode of safe transportation…

Quickly looking around she spots a large gas truck parked at the edge of the park, surrounded by zombies.

Ada jumps off the roof of the building she's on, turning around and shooting the roof as she descends. As she nears the street, she slows herself down, stopping a few stories just over the infested streets. She opens up a nearby window and gets into the building, making her way through the deserted halls to the stairwell. Most of the doors are swung open, showing the contents of each apartment. In the corner of her right eye she can see a corpse on the ground in one of the rooms.

Several footsteps can be heard in the stairwell as she enters it, glancing up to see several panicked people running down the flights of stairs in a mass panic. She hurries down the stairs to the bottom floor, a scream quickly coming from the entrance. Reaching the entrance hall, she sees a zombie sinking its teeth into the shoulder of an unfortunate man. Ada pulls out her handgun from her shoulder holster and shoots the zombie in the head.

The zombie goes limp, it's sudden dead weight causing the man to fall down to the ground. As Ada heads for the exit, the man starts to convulse as the virus infects his body. She shoots him in the head as she walks by, his body going limp. Heading out into the street, she sees just how fast the infection has spread only a few people running among the growing sea of zombies. Several zombies stand in the way between her and the park, but lucky there's a streetlight on the other side at the park's edge. She quickly shoots it and holds her finger by the trigger as the zombies take notice of her, stumbling their way towards her.

Seeing an opening to the right, Ada runs a few feet in that direction before pulling the trigger, the force pulling her to the other side of the street. Halfway across the street, her feet are lifted off the ground as she approaches the streetlight. As she nears the other end of the street she detaches her hookshot, landing in the park with a hefty thud. The group of police and bystanders are far off in the center of the park, struggling to keep the relentless onslaught of zombies at bay.

Romero seems to be away from the group, by a large playground, on his phone, angry and distressed. Ada sneaks around behind bushes and trees to avoid being seen by zombies and people alike, making her to Romero. Upon seeing her, Romero finishes his conversation.

"About damn time," He complains as he meets her halfway, gunshots and people crying in fear filling the air, "My men aren't going to keep the zombies distracted for much longer, so, how do we get out of here?"

"I need to know how far the station is from here first," Ada replies, already not liking having to help him.

"A few blocks that way," He says, pointing to the left from where Ada had come from, "My car's totalled, some crazy son of a bitch crashed into it not too long ago,"

"The guy who drove that gas tanker," Ada says as she nods towards it, "Did he happen to be here?"

"Yes, but he was the first to go,"

"Where's his body?"

"Over there by the food," Romero points to a table far off in the park, several zombies around it,"

"Think you can make it to truck by yourself?"

"Of course I can," He replies, crossing his arms, "But without the keys I'll just be a sitting duck,"

"I'll get the keys, just meet me at the truck," Before he has a chance to respond she takes off. Luckily with all the noise being made by the group of people it's not too hard for her to reach where Romero said the truck driver's corpse was. She spots the man, now a zombie, walking around with a grey button up shirt that has blood and food stained all over it. It's impossible to tell where he was bit though as there's no visible sign of any injuries. She shoots him and he falls to the ground, but is still moving, so she shoots him a second time.

The gunshots draw the attention of some nearby zombies. She quickly checks his pockets, no keys in either front pocket. She goes to check the chest pocket on his shirt but he suddenly starts moving again.

What the hell?!

She shoots him again and he stops moving once more. She quickly checks the pocket, it's not there. As she goes to flip him onto his stomach, she notices the bullet hole in his head is filling itself in. She quickly flips him over, checking his back pockets and finally finding the keys, just as he starts to move again. She puts them in her pocket and quickly gets out of there before th zombies surround her. Reaching the edge of the park she sees zombies surrounding the truck, Romero sitting in the driver's seat, glancing around at all the zombies just barely unable to reach the window to bang their fists against it.

Ada hook shots a window sill on a building behind the truck and lands on top of the truck's hood. She empties her clip shooting some zombies on the passenger side and gets in, handing Romero the keys. He jams them into the ignition and starts up the truck, the engine roaring to life and the lights turning on, shining on the zombies in front of them. The sudden loud noise attracts some of the zombies that were in the park and all the nearby ones on the street. Romero presses his foot on the gas and the truck starts moving forward, running over the zombies in front of it with ease.

Reaching an intersection at the corner of the park they make a right, barreling through the undead horde. As they drive down the street Ada receives another message from Luther. It reads, "I need you and your co-worker to separate agent Jacob from agent Page and keep tabs on how they do, here's what they look look like," pictures of them pop up, followed by another message, "Inform your co-worker to meet you at the Atlas station, you're in charge of giving him this information, and keep tabs on him. Let me know if he starts acting up and I'll give him a gift too, but you'll have to take him out,"

I swear, this fucker doesn't even have a plan, he's just making up stuff as he goes. Guess I'll have to meet face to face with whoever this, "old friend" is.

"Meet me at the Atlantis Police Station, I have new orders Luther wants me to give you in person," Ada sends to her co-worker as Romero keeps driving down the street, pushing some crashed car aside. After some time they make a left, the police station and a large parking garage across from it. As Romero presses on the brakes, nothing happens, the truck keeps going.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Romero exclaims.

"What?" Ada asks with a raised eyebrow.

"The damn brakes don't work. He was suppose to have them fixed a week ago," He states irritably as he keeps pressing down on the brakes only for nothing to happen.

"Then just crash it," Ada states as she unbuckles herself.

"What?"

"Just do it. Before we get too far past the station, we can just walk the rest of the way,"

"...Alright, hold on," He replies as he unbuckles himself. They quickly pass up the station, Romero turning the truck towards a nearby mall. As they near the other end of the mall, the truck nearing the wall of it, they jump out. As they land on the ground they hear the truck crash into the building, going into it a good couple of feet before coming to a halt. Ada gets up before some roaming zombies can get to her and hurries to the other side of the truck, where Romero is dusting himself off.

As they run to the police station all the lights in the nearby buildings suddenly go out except for the station. Reaching it they find the doors locked. Romero bangs on the doors, catching the attention of some workers inside who quickly run over and unlock it.

"Put the shutters down," Romero orders as him and Ada enter, heading straight for the elevator.

"Y-Yes sir!" One of the officers nervously replies before running into a nearby room. They get into the elevator and head to the top floor. Ada opens up the briefcase as they near it, pulling out a vial and syringe.

"Here's your gift from Luther," Ada states as she carefully hands it to him, the elevator doors opening up.

"Thanks," Romero replies with an eager smile as he takes what he thinks is the vaccine. As Romero heads for his office, his assistant not at her desk, Ada turns left to the stairs. Approaching it, Romero can hear the sound of someone eating. Approaching the desk he finds his assistant's corpse on the ground, being eaten by a zombie.

Ada hurries down the stairs to the floor below, entering a long hall. She walks by the doors, checking the name plates until she finds the one labeled, "Jacob G." She enters it and pulls out a USB as she walks up to the computer, bending down slightly to use the mouse and keyboard. Plugging it in, she cracks into the computer and starts extracting all the files on it. She stands there, watching the little progress bar slowly fill up. After a few minutes its nearly complete. That's when she hears the door open behind her.

Ada turns around to see Derek Simmons.