The 0714 Files: File #1 Inferno (Remake 2)

Chapter 42

I thread the bar through the gates in time for the first dog to ram against them unsuccessfully. Then a second follows and I'm backing up quickly as the torrent of ramming continues on in an attempt for them to break down the door. On the other side are cartoon renderings of a red and white polka-dotted giraffe and a blue raccoon with its tongue sticking out. In the daylight with the city working as normal I have no doubt it would've been a cute sight. It looked like maybe even the children here had a hand in painting it. With only a streetlamp casting light on it now, it's seriously creepy.

I hold a hand above my eyes to somewhat block the onslaught of rain. For the umpteenth time tonight, I'm soaked to the bone. It's not like I dried off that much in my time running around the station though. I've run back out into the rain at least three other times since I first arrived in the city; this excursion through the streets to the orphanage Irons hardly directed me to is the longest I've been out.

"I'll get you, you fucker!" what I'd promised him when I cut myself loose and went running after them, only for the gate to close before I could duck under it. I'd grabbed it, shook it, and out of pure frustration to have had Sherry kidnapped by that lunatic, even kicked the gate. An act I regretted because of how much it hurt my foot.

Pivoting on the muddy and waterlogged ground, proceeding onto the cobblestones that are as drenched as I am. I spot the building I'd nearly been killed trying to reach: it looks maybe two stories tall, definitely an older building that I bet was once a house from as early as the 1920's. Judging by the bricks making up the building and the white masonry on the corners and windows. Not to mention the large, round, glass-stained window made of a multitude of different colors with white light shining through.

To the sides of the stone path are the barest traces of a playground for the kids who lived here. A slide to one side, and to the other is a wooden bench that hung from chains and would rock in the air, but one has snapped so it rests half sunken in the ground now. Bottom covered in mud and never to be fixed.

I trudge onwards, not here for the sightseeing. Here to deliver the pendant Sherry had lost in the struggle with Irons and now he wants me to bring it in exchange for her life.

Reaching the double doors of the front entrance, I notice off to the left of the small steps are three gravestones. Maybe once white, but now dingy and faded from years of wear and tear caused by the elements. The doors are more worrisome than those however as they sit wide open. Gouges are in the door, four of them, wide and deep into the wood, splinters on the sides from the destruction. The hairs on my body raise, not just from the chill now. Knowing whatever tore this down is somewhere inside, and I don't want to meet it.

The sight puts me on guard and I aim the SLS forward into the bleak room, "H-hello?" I call, in hopes Irons will come out. I hate that bastard, didn't miss the disgusting way he looked at me as he had me strewn across his lap with a gun to my head and his hand in my hair. Seeing him would provide some relief, of course, seeing Sherry would ultimately put me at ease to know she's safe.

"Chief Irons? I have the pendant!" I yell timidly again. Still no answer and I'm left with the feeling of anxiety yanking at my heart in response. What the hell happened here?

I head into a corridor a door on the left leads to, on guard the entire time as I quietly pad over the decorative rug running the entire expanse of the hallway to the next door at the very end. It sits open much like the previous door, inside it my heart's completely in my throat. A wall of shelves on both sides of the door creates a claustrophobic entryway into the room. A sheet that must've been hung up at some point onto one of the shelves has been pulled, shredded by whomever did so, and straight across from it is a shelf that's been toppled over.