All kinds of threats

Determined to make it out alive, Leon moves swiftly through the police station, just to encounter more and more obstacles in his way. Still, the promise to Marvin, to Claire, keep him going.

Chapter 4 - Face The Fear

Leon opened the last spade door and went into the west office again. He carefully walked into the the deputy office, where he encountered the vampire Neil and the female officer last time. There was nothing but blood on the desk, however, he found a hip pouch in an opened safe. Well, at least he could carry more ammo with it.

The moment he entered the hallway, he noticed that there was blood dripping from the ceiling. Raising his head he saw a skinless monster crawling on top of him. The monster had an exposed brain but no eyes, and has developed a pair of sharp fangs, talons and strong muscles. The most significant feature of it was a long, flexible tongue, which could be used to attack or catch preys. That, was a “licker” mentioned in officer David Ford’s note.

The licker shot its tongue at a corpse on the ground, pierced it and pulled it up for a bite. It savagely drank the remaining blood within it, and threw it away before jumping down. Leon remained completely silent during all this time, despite he was a little shocked by the scene. Even the licker was facing him now, it didn’t seem to notice him, as long as he didn’t make any noise.

He held his breath, quietly moved to the safety deposit room and opened the door as lightly as possible. Luckily, the licker failed to hear him and Leon successfully sneaked into the room. He gasped for air as that was the most terrifying minute in his life, so far. He wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, and started to search the room.

He ran to the weapons locker first and, by using the key card, obtained a W-870 shotgun, along with 4 shotgun shells. This was not a weapon he hoped to have, but one he needed at this time. He saw another David Ford’s note on the table next to him, the content of which was making him uncomfortable.

Marvin, Elliot,

I have avenged Meyer by taking down that monster. Unlike the vampires, bullets can kill that thing, just make sure you destroy its whole brain. They won’t resurrect. However, before it died it scratched my arm with its tongue. I’m feeling the fever now. Those things are infectious, I’m afraid.

Sorry but I can’t take any chances. This is the end for me. If you find this note but not my corpse, beware.

David Ford

Leon put down the note with his shaking hand and looked at the wall behind the table. The dried blood spattered on the wall indicated that office Ford has committed suicide by shooting his own head. But his corpse was nowhere to be found. That could only mean one horrible thing. Once infected, there was no way to prevent oneself from turning, perhaps except for a silver bullet through the head.

The fear of losing control, forever preying on other living humans, made him understand more of Marvin’s last words to him. But he couldn’t let himself consumed by fear. He had to face it.

With another deep breath he kept on searching the room. There were two rows of lockers, in which he found a roll film that could be developed in the dark-room. Must be something important, he thought, and stored it in his pouch. After collecting everything in the room, he loaded the shotgun and was ready to face the monster outside. He couldn’t risk anyone else encountering it.

He slowly opened the door and peeked out. The licker was still wandering on the ground, trying to find something more to drink. Unbeknownst to it, a shotgun barrel was right on top of its brain, just a few centimeters away. Without any hesitation, Leon pulled the trigger and blew half of its head with a pointblank shot.

The licker screamed in pain and tried to turn around to attack whatever was making that loud noise with its claws. However, without half of its brain, it couldn’t pinpoint the source like before, which gave Leon a chance to retreat into the room, so that he could pump a new round. With a second try, the licker’s brain was blown to pieces and it was no more.

“Uh...” It’s not everyday a rookie police officer could see something’s brain matter all over the floor. He covered his mouth as he tried to ease the discomfort.

He didn’t have much time to calm himself down, as he didn’t know how many dangers were still lurking in the shadows. He ran to the dark-room to develop the film and got a photo of the king statue in the art room. Last time he was there, the statue was missing a book in its hand. Another puzzle, huh?

Going up to the third floor again and he still hasn’t found a detonator for the C4 explosive. So once again he entered the library. He instantly froze as he saw a male police officer standing on the opposite side of the floor. Hearing the sound over here, the officer turned around and stared at Leon with his red eyes and a shocked expression.

Can I just meet another living human tonight? Leon gritted his teeth and pointed the Matilda at the vampire.

“Kennedy...Is it?” The vampire murmured while approaching him, “The rookie...”

“What the hell?” Leon slightly lowered the gun in surprise and asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m David.” The officer answered with a smile, “Don’t worry. I might be infected, but I’m still me. Together we could work this out. Did you find the other medallions?”

“No...” Leon was a bit confused at the moment. David...That’s the officer that tried to kill himself before he turned. Was that really possible that the victims could keep their right mind after they turned?

“It’s OK.” David said, while still getting closer, “You must be looking for a detonator. I know there’s one in the chained room of the operations room. With my new found power, I can break the chains easily. Let’s go there.”

“Please stay back, officer.” Leon held his gun more tightly.

“Why? What’s wrong?” David did not stop and come to the realization, “Oh...Is that it? You’re immune to the compulsion, right?”

“What are you talking about?” Leon frowned and remembered that Neil has said something similar in their confrontation.

“It doesn’t matter now.” The distance between them was less than three meters now. David started licking his newly grown fangs, “We’ll know each other better after you become like me. Right now, I just need...”

“Stay back!” He shouted anxiously.

And don’t make my mistake. If you see one of those things, uniform or not, you do not hesitate. Marvin’s words were echoing in his mind. Strangely, that was calming him down.

“Blood!”

Before David could lunge at him, Leon swiftly pointed his pistol at the vampire and fired. A silver bullet shot into David’s mouth and destroyed his brainstem. With a horrifying scream the vampire burnt into ashes in front of Leon. He looked at the dust piling up on the floor and sighed.

How many people has lost to this disaster? How many good people has fallen victim to this disease and become mindless, blood thirsty monsters? How many more would there be? He must find out the ones behind this and make them answer for their crimes. He owed this to Marvin, and to every police officers of the station and every people of the city. But first, he needed to survive all of this.

He went down to the second floor and noticed a book sculpture was lying on the table next to the spade door, which was exactly the one on the photo. It’s a bit heavy but he managed to carry it in the pouch. One of the bookshelf was lifted by a mechanic jack that was missing a handle, but that wasn’t his problem now.

Going through the other door he entered the lounge, where he pleasantly saw the unicorn statue. He opened Elliot’s notebook to check for the symbols combination. The unicorn medallion in here and the maiden medallion upstairs were the only two things preventing him leaving the station.

However, when he confirmed the symbols and the shield of the unicorn statue opened, his eyes widened in surprise.

The unicorn medallion was not there.