[4-14] The Town

[Albert Wesker]

The fact that the building was on fire was, contrary to what it might have been in any normal and reasonably sane situation, a very good sign. It was a sign that there was someone in there, someone alive and with enough wits left about them to use fire as a weapon. And that meant a survivor. Which, hopefully for Abner's sake, also meant this woman, Christa, he was so certain was still alive, would be said survivor. "If there are survivors in there," he started to say, earning a scowl from Abner which he pointedly ignored, "it's likely they've barricaded the way in after themselves. I don't doubt the town's residents have taken care of that in one way or another, but on the off chance they haven't..."

"We could always try knocking," Abner muttered under his breath. "Look, something as simple as a blocked door isn't gonna slow us down. Not after all the shit we just crawled through to get here."

It was true enough, without a doubt. If they could be stymied by something as mundane as a barred door, even in the sorry condition they were in, they would be a sorry excuse for survivors, indeed. Trent wasn't liable to be of much help against even such an easy to overcome obstacle, given his own state at the moment. He could be excused from the equation without any hindrance, really. But...a former soldier and a literal war machine, brought low by a locked door? It would be a comically tragic tale, if there would've been anyone left alive after the fact to relate it.

For a few merciful moments, their trek to the building in question was clear, the ghoulish hordes all behind them and skirting around the buildings they had gone over, or off somewhere else, dealing with anything else that caught their interest. And, most probable, in the library they were marching straight toward.

"Anyone else get the feeling we're....I dunno, walking into a trap, or something?" Trent suddenly spoke up, earning a confused stare from the former stormtrooper and a blank look from the soldier navi. "I-I mean...." the secondary quickly tried to put his frazzled thoughts in order. "It's just...bunch of locations you never really want to go to, in situations like these, y'know? Military bases, the sewers, hospitals..." He looked up at the burning section of the library's upper level. "....libraries."

"You been watchin' too many zombie movies," Abner muttered, shaking his head.

Colonel just stared at the young secondary without saying a word, until Trent just looked down, seeming embarrassed to have even brought it up.

"And besides all that...if it was a trap," Abner went on. "...then whoever set it would probably end up getting caught in it themselves, unless they had another way out of the building."

"Not impossible," Colonel supplied immediately. "Service exits, or underground storage with exits to the outside." His eyes flicked to the upper levels. "....or a window, if they were desperate." That earned a snort of derision from the once-stormtrooper, and a draining of the color from the young syntech employee's face, likely as he imagined making such a jump.

"Yeah...a window. Right. Need to be pretty desperate, and more than a little crazy, to resort to that. It'd be a hell of a drop, from the eighth floor."

Colonel actually went silent, calculating that as he tromped closer to the building. "If it came down to it, I could make such a drop without serious damage," he commented simply.

"Right...of course you could." That Abner was rolling his eyes was evident in even his tone.

Trent had taken the initiative this time, and hurried on ahead to reach the building. He made his way slowly along one of the walls, looking for any sign of a door. It wasn't hard to tell there wasn't any such thing on the wall they first approached, but rounding one corner, they struck proverbial paydirt: a loading dock, the heavy steel shutters still down and intact. Dented and tarnished with all manner of blood and other assorted unpleasant fluids and stains, but intact and, hopefully, still locked.

"Well, look at that...we got us a way in." Striding on up to join the secondary, the human prime looked up at it. "Praise be to the probable ostentatious inventory probably shipped here," he remarked. "Gimme a hand here, would ya?" he jerked a thumb up at the panel to open the shutters. With an exertion of effort, the young secondary was hoisted up so he could reach the panel. But when he smacked the big green 'OPEN' button, there was no response. No sign of movement, of the shutters even thinking about opening. No electronic hum of power, or even warning blare to alert an error somewhere, or something in the way of them opening. Just nothing. "Ah, shit...figures the damn thing would be broken...."

"What do we do now? Find another door?" Trent looked from Abner to Colonel, where his eyes went wide. "W-Whoa, what are you--?!"

The war machine's answer was heralded by the gleaming barrel of the massive cannon he'd last used against the beast that chased them into town, pointing right at the loading bay shutters. "Knocking."

With an exasperated groan from the former stormtrooper and a yelp from the young syntech secondary, they both broke off to either side, clearing the way, and a second later, there was a heavy, echoing woosh, a terrific thudding boom, and the steel shutters were gone amid a blaze of fire and shrapnel, throwing up a huge cloud of dust, and sending bits and pieces of rubble raining down over the immediate area.

"How about a little warning, next time?!" Abner grunted, waving away the dust from in front of his face.

"We're in a hurry," was all the response the soldier navi gave as he dismissed the massive tank gun, striding toward the now-open portal into the library. The floor of the loading dock was nearly his head height, but he hopped up without any apparent effort, vanishing into the swirling clouds of dust and smoke his entrance had made. "We shouldn't stand around. That was like sounding a dinner bell for the ones already chasing us."

A renewal in the intensity of the howls and inhuman shrieks of the deformed townspeople in pursuit served to follow his statement, and the distinct thud of another of the impossibly agile, powerful jumping undead ghouls landed in the new patch of gravel and steel, leering hungrily at the two humans still outside.

"Yeah, yeah, message received, HAL," Abner grumbled, lifting his rifle as he jerked toward the loading dock with his head. "Trent, get on up there. I'll buy you a couple seconds." The young secondary needed no second bidding, and scrambled crazily, hauling himself bodily up onto the floor of the loading bay, wheezing pitifully as he finally made it up, and hurriedly crawling away from the edge as he regained his feet and dashing headlong into the darkness beyond the swirling mists of debris.

A trio of quick shots staggered the Hunter, leaving it reeling, and Abner turned about, clambering up onto the loading dock. He gained his feet again and spun around just in time to see the hunched form of the Hunter already hurling itself through the air. "Shit!" He brought up his arms to brace for the expected impact, only to hear a dull, faintly metallic thunk instead, and find the ghoul grasped by the face in a huge, metal mitt.

Colonel's hand slowly closed with greater force around the withered skin of the Hunter's face, the heat coursing through his systems slowly starting a faint sizzle as the mostly-dried blood and moisture of fog on the creature's flesh started to burn off. An audible screech of protesting servos later saw the ghoul's head crushed to a viscous pulp, shards of bone and ruined grey matter splattering out through metal fingers, steaming and hissing as it dripped to the floor below. Listlessly, the war machine kicked the now headless corpse out of the loading bay, and lifted his re-activated saber, turning his eyes toward the roof.

Abner looked more than a little confused, following the cybernetic warrior's gaze. "The hell are you doing now?"

"Blocking off pursuit."

Before any protest could be made, the emerald blade struck out, carving a stroke of green lightning across the roof and shearing through it, sending a shower of rubble crashing down. Brick, wood, metal, and all manner of wiring and supports within the wall slowly collapsed and splintered, cascading down to fill in the gap. It wasn't pretty -- and it damn sure wasn't quiet; anyone for half a mile around probably heard the racket it made -- but it did quite effectively block any chance of pursuit from that direction.

".....you're fucking insane," the former stormtrooper flatly stated, waving another cloud of grimy air away from his face.

"What...what the hell was all that?!" Trent practically whined, slowly shuffling over to rejoin them. "They can't get in that way now, but anything already in here knows where we are now!"

The kid certainly wasn't wrong. "We can worry about that when we--"

He never got to finish, as the floor under them gave an alarming shift, a low rumble permeating the room.

Abner looked to be well beyond exasperated at this point. "....what. Was that."

A dull groan of splintering rock answered him, and the ground, spreading away from the collapsed wall in a fan shape, cracked and crumbled, falling away in a cascade of splintered foundation and ruined flooring, taking the three hapless survivors with it.

1672 words, according to on-site wordcounter.