The Art of Death Vol I

Chapter 23

...The next day...

We started coming up with a plan to save Elias.  I was to create a distraction and Naomi would come from behind on the rooftops.  Apparently, she was also good at parkour.  Me and her would set out to look for more supplies today.  We would take them down tomorrow if we could find what we needed. She made a list of what we needed; which was basically: wine and rags to make a Molotov Cocktail, so we could set the place on fire, more ammo as well, portable first aid kits for each of us, and if we could, find a bullet proof vest.  We decided to look for the equipment for the Molotov Cocktail first.

We left her place and headed down the alley.  I looked around, and surprisingly, all the beasts that attacked yesterday where gone.  We went up the street a little to see a horrifying scene.  There were corpses of not only people, but horses too.  Weirdly, there was no Beast in sight, which was a relief.

"Is this part of what happened yesterday?" Naomi asked me.

"Yes..." I answered, "It was.  It was horrifying.  I'm actually surprised I made it out alive."

"Thank god," She replied back.  Thank god. Hah, nice one.  The existence of God was never real.  If there was a god, why would he let this whole world go to hell in a hand basket? If he did, it's like he handed over the keys to Satan and told him to run this hell hole from now on.  That didn't happen though, because there is no god.  In my eyes, at least. 

We stopped and we looted the corpses of the horses and the people.  We found some ammo for the handgun and shotgun.  Naomi found a hunting rifle that was loaded.  She took it.  Since I already had two guns, she needed one.  I also found a torch lighter in one of the dead guy's backpacks.  I lit it once to make sure it worked.

We kept going.  She wanted to go to the right where I was yesterday.  I told her no, because that's where I came from and we went left.  We passed by many monuments, and even more casinos and bars.  This must've been Main Street. We looked around at the many different buildings, and I saw a police station dead ahead.  We walked further, and the road kept going where it would make a fork in a road to go right or left with the station in the middle.  I checked the time: 8:30 AM.  Still early yet.  We peered inside of the police station and there was a lobby with a few doors, a main desk, and even a fountain in the middle.  The fountain had a statue of what looked like a winged angel in the middle of it.  It looked somewhat damaged, with pieces of it fallen off.  We went and opened the doors, with both our handguns drawn.

There was nothing in sight waiting for us on the other side.  We walked down the steps that led to the main lobby.  We looked around and I decided to check the fountain.  Upon further inspection, there was a dead, rotting corpse in it.  I wasn't sure if it would reanimate into a Beast or not; it depended.  See, with the Virus spreading from a Beast to a human, it takes ten seconds for them to turn.  If they are killed by one, they reanimate anywhere from twelve-forty-eight hours later.  I wasn't sure when the person died, or even how it died, but I wasn't going to stick around waiting to find out.

We walked to the computer and we both looked through drawers and shelves for anything we could use.  She found a few handgun bullets.  I found a couple handgun bullets.  Still not enough.  We decided to check one of the few doors we saw from the outside.  There was four if I counted right.  We went up to the first one and it opened with ease; no key required.  The room was bright from sunlight dripping in from the windows.  This looked like the offices where police did their work.  There were a few computers, desks, the normal stuff.  We filed through each desk and she found more handgun ammo; I found more shotgun ammo.  I looked on one more desk to find a computer still working and still on; which was shocking to me.  This must still run on solar panels.  I sat down at the computer, and looked at it for a second to figure out how it worked.  Then, like magic, the computer automatically opened a file for me.  It was a journal, with a few pages it said:

"October 5th, 2097,
Supplies are low.  Food rations low.  Morale is low.  Oh god, what will we do to survive.  Those things, outside, waiting for us to come out and eat all of us.  The military hasn't been here in weeks since their efforts have proven futile.  The military has collapsed, according to my sources... The people are rioting outside, and being ripped apart as food for those things.

Fuck.

What will we do?

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October 19th, 2097,

Food is at our lowest.  People are dying in here, and, slowly, one by one killing themselves.  We put them in the autopsy room so they didn't decompose quickly since it was cooler in there.  Shit.  We are fucked.  Only 6 people left counting me.  What will happen to me?

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October 31st, 2097,

Two people left, including me.  Happy fucking Halloween.  Is it a fucking holiday if the whole damn world looks like a haunted house?  Fuck!  Only about three days' worth of food left for the each of us.  The fucking things are at our doorstep waiting for us to come out... I can't, and won't...

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November 1st, 2097,

The other person let themselves outside.  They let the things in, and I locked myself in this office, while they are banging on the door to get in.

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November 3rd, 2097,

The food is gone. I have no choices but to off myself... If you find my body, it's in the autopsy room, where I most likely shot myself.  Oh, and the keys to the autopsy room is in the evidence room across the hall, next to the Jail.  I left some stuff in one of the body bags in the autopsy room.  This is Sheriff Lance, signing out.
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Fuck.  This man shot himself.  I couldn't blame him for backing out, as it seemed like he would rather die instead of changing into one of those things.  Jesus Christ.  I hope I never get bit and have to go through that.  I would rather die than turn into one of those things.  I wondered though, what if those things did, in fact, still have a conscience?   What if the people that were turned into to the Beasts were still alive inside and knew what they were doing, but didn't have control over themselves?

"Naomi, you should look at this," I called her over.  I let her sit down where the chair was, and scanned the still running computer screen.

"Guess we better get going to the Evidence Room then," She told me. I shook my head in agreement, and we entered the Evidence Room.  There was hardly anything there for the Evidence room.  It was oddly empty.  A few drawers proven otherwise for bullets and such... Other than that, nothing.  Well, besides the keys to the Autopsy Room.  We walked over to it, put the key in, and opened it up.  On the other side, we were both hit with a blast of cold air, and instantly the room was colder.  The room wasn't that big.  We saw a few tables with a few people on them.  I didn't pay much attention to it.  Until I saw an old corpse in the corner.  By now it was a just bones, but looking closer to it, the corpse was in a clothing of a police officer. 

I looked down to see a gun.  I picked it up, and took the ammo.  It was obviously the police officer from the notes on the computer.  We looked around and saw a body bag not far in the other corner.  I grabbed it and opened it.  What was in the bag was a nice surprise.  We found a wine bottle.  He was probably drinking it to numb the pain before dying.  I put it in my bag.  I also found some lighter fluid in there, some ammo for all of our weapons, and a key which said: Jail.  I assumed it was a key to the other door, which was the jail for the police station.  We looked around for a bit then left.

We went up to the next door, and it opened without hesitation with the key.  We went inside with the sun peering in the windows again.  We saw a few jail cells with more corpses, and some rats scattering around.  We looked around, and found a duffel bag sitting in the chair at the far end.  We looked inside. It was clothing, some canned food, and a grenade.  I put them all in my bag, and we left the jail part.  We still need more stuff in order to rescue Elias, but so far so good.  We went back out and I looked at the water fountain quickly, then noticed something odd.

The corpse that was in there was gone.