Broken glass crunched underfoot as he picked his way through the devastated main hall of what had once been an office building. The buttstock snug against his shoulder, Jake slowly moved across the room, leading with his shotgun and scanning the space with his eyes.
Everywhere he looked, he saw piles of debris. Off to his right, he spotted an elevator. The door was missing, and through the opening could be seen the empty shaft. On the side of the hall opposite the entrance were the stairs leading up—at least, what was left of them. Most of the steps had long since disintegrated into crumbs, making the stairs unusable. As far as Jake could tell, there wasn’t any way to get to the upper floors. However, there were several doorways branching off to other sections of the first floor.
Except for the glass shards crunching under his boots, the hall remained eerily quiet. He carefully surveyed his surroundings, searching for enemies, but couldn’t find any. The mutants he’d come here to kill must be lurking somewhere in the other rooms on the first floor. Jake headed for one of the doorways, and when he was halfway across the hall, he thought he caught a faint unfamiliar sound. He immediately froze, gripping his weapon tighter and looking around. The sound came again somewhere from his right. He glanced that way and saw there was a large hole in the ceiling. Pieces of concrete and rebar lay under the ragged hole. Wet, smacking sounds kept coming from behind the pile of debris.
Heart thumping in chest, he began to circle the mound of rubble, pointing his shotgun at what might be hiding behind it. He moved in a slow and careful way so as not to warn whatever was making those wet, unsettling sounds about his approach. Finally, the creature came into view. It was another ex-human walker. Facing away from him, the mutant was sitting on the ground, holding something in its clawed hands and munching on it. As Jake took another step to the walker, he gagged when he realized what it was eating. Before the walker in a pool of blood lay the body of another survivor, and the mutant was gnawing on a lower arm torn from the body.
Jake fought back the urge to retch as he leveled his weapon on the vile creature. His index finger curled around the trigger and squeezed it. The blast of the shotgun struck the mutant in the back, hurling the creature forward. Since Jake stood only a few yards from the mutant, all the pellets hit their target, killing the walker instantly.
Racking another shell into the chamber, Jake spun around, scanning the hall for more enemies. The ceiling had caved in in several places, creating mounds of rubble underneath the holes. More mutants could be hidden from view behind the debris. Jake’s gaze darted between the piles of rubble, not sure where the next mutant could pop up from next. As it turned out, the danger came from an altogether different direction. He heard a screeching scream behind him and spun around in time to see another walker appear from one of the doorways. A second later, another scream came from a corridor off to his left. Then he heard yet another creature yell, and then another, and another. More and more mutants were converging on the hall from other sections of the first floor.
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Jake turned to face the mutant that was the closest to him, tracking its movements with the muzzle of his weapon. He lined his iron sights on the creature as it moved toward him on all fours like a rabid dog. Pausing briefly, it bent its limbs at the knees before propelling itself forward with the explosive force of a coiled spring. Jake pointed his weapon at the mutant sailing through the air toward him and pulled the trigger. The blast of the shotgun caught the mutant in midair, hurling it backward with great force.
Two mutants down, thirteen more to go. At least, Jake hoped there wouldn’t be any additional creatures in the building. The evil creatures closed in on him from various directions, coming out of different doorways and corridors. The only way that was free of them lay behind him, so Jake began to back up, moving toward the entrance. The mutants came after him, some of them moving like humans while others scurried on all fours like dogs. The latter moved faster than walkers, and their anatomy seemed to be altered as well, which led Jake to believe they were a different breed of ex-human mutants. Their backs were hunched, and both their hind legs and forelegs looked almost the same, ending in long curved claws. Those creatures seemed to be unable to walk on two legs like humans.
However, at the moment, he didn’t have time to take out his PDA and scan these new mutants for further information about them.
Jake shot another four-legged mutant that was about to jump at him. While he tried to keep his cool, Jake was getting nervous, which spoiled his aim. Some of the pellets hit the mutant, but the rest missed their target completely. He pumped his shotgun and finished the wounded creature with a second shot. He had only two shells in his weapon now. He fired at another four-legged monster, killing this one with a single shot. These creatures on all fours moved faster and were more agile than regular walkers. Luckily, there seemed to be only two of them left, and they both currently lagged behind the walkers. The latter moved pretty fast but didn’t exactly run, moving in a clumsy, stumbling way as if there was something wrong with their legs.
Jake used this opportunity to top off his shotgun, taking shells out of his jacket pockets and shoving them into the loading port. By the time he finished, the last two four-legged mutants had gotten in front of the walkers. Before he could aim at them, the two of them simultaneously leaped forward. Jake hastily squeezed a shot, slightly injuring one of them. The wounded creature brushed against his side, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor. The two creatures landed behind him at the entrance to the building, effectively cutting off his escape route. Jake didn’t know if this was their plan all along or not, but he sure as hell hoped they weren’t that smart. If they could strategize how best to take down their prey, they would prove to be way more dangerous opponents than he’d initially thought.
It wasn’t the right time to ponder the matter, though. Two of the walkers had already reached him. He blew a huge hole in the chest of one of them, but when he shifted his aim to the second mutant, it lashed out at his hands holding the weapon. Jake yelped in pain when the sharp claws raked his flesh. The mutants ripped the shotgun from his grip. Weakened by the injury he sustained, Jake was unable to prevent his weapon from being wrestled away from him.
Seeing that he no longer had the powerful shotgun in his bleeding hands, the rest of the mutants appeared to sense the advantage. They quickened their pace, closing in on Jake from all directions.