"Raise your guns!" Levi shouted, looking at the creatures scrambling towards the barriers. Their clumsy bodies tripping over the objects that littered the hallway.
"Wait until you see the whites of their eyes," Levi said, the others grips tightening, clutching their trembling weapons.
"Closer!" Levi said, the creatures inch closer, more and more pouring around the corner.
"Closer! Make sure to aim for the head!" he shouted, the details of their faces now clear as they were meters from the barrier.
"Fire!" he said, pulling the trigger, causing one to fall to the floor as gunshots began to sound. The bullets hitting the creatures as they smashed into the barricade. Killing a few as most bullets flew past the clambering bodies that thrashed and scratched at the makeshift barricade.
Levi fired with brutal efficiency. Within a few seconds, he'd managed to dispatch four. Their bodies slumped before the barrier slowing the ones behind. But the barricade creaked as their combined weight pressed against it, making Levi shout, "Move to the next barricade."
Making the others run from the crumbling barrier. Levi remained for the longest, letting out a few more shots, taking out a few more before the barricade crumbled. The creatures overran the wall and poured through as Levi ran behind the next barricade.
"Continue firing," he shouted, jolting the others back into action, his eyes counting the near twenty remaining. Even after they'd killed twelve, it was more than he anticipated, but it was manageable.
The crazed beings slammed into the second barricade, stretching towards the group. Snarling with their blooded mouths as their saliva spat out. Hit by the saliva, Levi wiped it with disgust as he shot the perpetrator, making it slump to the floor. But the increasing number of bodies again pushed the barricade to its limit as it looked ready to fall apart.
But it did its job and allowed them to thin their numbers. There was around twelve left. "Get back towards the cells. I'll take care of the rest." Levi shouted before they ran towards the cells. Leaving Levi, who continued to fire until his pistol clicked, and he chucked it to the floor.
And moved from the barricade towards the more open processing room. While pulling his sword from its sheath and pointing it towards the creatures that began rushing towards him through the hole they had forced open in the barricade.
The first came towards Levi with much vigour, its eyes hungry. But Levi sidestepped as he swang his blade with practised ease, taking its head from its neck in a single movement–its body slumping to the ground.
Soon a group converged on him, with Levi manoeuvring using the narrow hallway entrance to slow the creatures. Swinging his blade, beheading another before swivelling from the doorway, avoiding a lunging creature that fell. And turned back, stamping his foot on its head, as he looked towards the last, taking another graceful swing that removed yet another head from its body.
Yet, he had no reprieve as he grasped the body of his last kill and threw it towards the incoming group with surprising ease. Knocking one to the floor and impeding another.
He pounced on their weakness, slipping his blade in a single thrust into the head of the fallen creature and kicking the unsteady one knocking it back into another, making them both fall to the floor.
Another moved forwards and tripped over the two strewn bodies, its head slamming onto the floor before Levi as he stomped down onto its vulnerable head, a sickening crunch sounding out. A coppery smell of blood, mixing with the rotting tang that the creature emanated.
The last group of three converged towards him, one tripping over the bodies strewn onto the floor, while the other two smashed over the bodies and lunged towards Levi in unison. Levi pulled his body back when one overextended, his elbow crisply hitting into its head, causing a crack to sound out as it fell to the floor—at the same time, ducking under the second, tripping it, while he moved past.
The ones that had fallen together earlier were close to getting up, and he moved forward, his sword beheading the one that was almost on its feet. While his foot kicked the second one, propped on its hands, to the jaw. Causing it to crash to the floor, where his blade slid through its head. Bubbles of pinkish-black liquid coating his blade.
However, he didn't have time to observe, as one creature he'd tripped earlier grabbed towards him, grasping his wrist. Making him drop his blade under its strength as he pushed against the creature preventing its teeth from biting into him. Its immense grip pressed against him, but he held out, and he slammed his foot into the creature's knee, causing its body to buckle.
Allowing him to grab the bowie knife on his belt and plunge it into its skull as it flailed helpless, pinned against the ground. But he had no time to rest, as the last two he'd dropped earlier moved towards him, giving him no time to think as he went through the barrier. Forcing the two through the hole they had opened and swung his knife precisely towards the temple of the first.
Making it collapse, the second following shortly behind falling over its corpse. Allowing Levi to bludgeon its head with his foot until it went still.
When he backed away, his eyes stared around the hallway, watching to see whether he'd missed anything, only to relax, his breathing the only sound audible in the bloody hallway.
Seeing everything seemed safe, he moved between the bodies and reached towards his sword, grasping it. Before he looked over the bodies in the hallway and began stabbing each corpse and any still struggling heads–ensuring that nothing unexpected happened.
When he'd finished, he slumped against the wall and sat amongst the corpses. Running his hand through his hair, his hands stained in the familiar colour of blood. His body releasing a sigh as he relaxed, his eye meeting the two inmates who'd stayed and watched by the door, Garett and Ricky, he believed.
Levi smiled, and they recoiled at his smile, giving him strained looks in response.
He swept his hand back through his hair once more as he heaved himself up onto his feet and said to the two men that looked at him with trepidation, "Get the rest. After I recover, we're leaving." Causing the two men to give stiff nods as they moved through the double doors, leaving Levi to stare down the corridor–Where he could hear the sound of muffled footsteps moving closer.
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They weren't the creatures. They were much too heavy-footed to move so cautious. So he looked with interest towards the corridor and saw the visage of several officers. Looking with shock as they saw Levi standing among the bodies, a sword in his hand, body red with blood.
They moved closer, and Levi met the eyes of the officer closest to him, a man with a forlorn demeanour, who said, "Did you do all this?" his wide eyes scanning the various corpses shot, mutilated or beheaded.
"Well, I can't take all the credit, but a fair few of them were my work," Levi responded, placing his sword within its sheath. The man stared back incredulously while the other officer's eyes darted at him in discomfort.
Another more portly man, with the figure of a man that enjoyed his food, spoke up after crouching and observing a body. "That's some impressive bladework. Names Mccluskey, you have my thanks for helping us out."
Levi nodded, "I helped myself out. The fact that I helped you was a happy coincidence."
Mccluskey's face brightened at his words but didn't follow up when he saw several people emerge from the cell blocks. His eyes tightened at the weapons but relaxed when he saw the small group of officers. They stiffly positioned themselves near Levi, their hands motioning near their guns. A single hand from Levi made them stop, besides Eddie, who had to receive a glare from Levi before he stopped fidgeting.
"Bernie! Vaguez! You're alive. I'm glad to see somebody alive besides us." the forlorn officer said, walking over and hugging the two officers.
"Same…" Bernard responded, his voice muted, making the officer squint in difficulty. When he saw the distant look in the man's eyes, he looked away after giving him a reassuring shoulder grasp—turning towards Vaguez, noting his pale complexion.
"Vaguez, you okay, you don't look so good?" the officer said, appraising Vaguez.
"I'm fine, Louis... I'll be fine soon," Vaguez responded, while the group of officers muttered to each other, causing Levi to look at them with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh god, he's bitten… He'll turn…" they whispered among each other, but Levi's sharp hearing managed to overhear. His eyes looked towards the bite wound on Vaguez and recalled the bite marks on the dead creatures earlier.
"Maybe we can wait until he dies and then finish him off…" they whispered. At this point, Levi'd heard enough and spoke up.
"Enough with the whispering, if you've got a problem, out with it. Or we'll start having a problem." Levi's cold tone, breaking the officers hushed whispering. The stout man, Mccluskey, looked at him with impatience before looking at the blood covering his body and calming down, saying. "Has Vaguez been bitten?"
Receiving a nod from Levi, who looked at the Vaguez, who paled at the question.
"He's dead. He'll turn into one of those things. Demons, undead, cannibals, monsters, whatever you want to call them. He'll turn into one. He's infected." Mccluskey said, the man's words dropping like a peal of thunder as everybody turned towards the officer, who began backing away.
Levi looked away and thought for a second before looking at the Vaguez terrified look and saying to Mccluskey, "Are you certain he's gonna become one of them?"
"We don't know for sure, but every man you see on the floor was a bitten officer," Mccluskey responded, making Levi stare at the corpses on the floor. "But they all became ill and died. Not a single officer has survived a bite." his face pale as he almost shrieked at Levi.
"So you don't know then?" Levi said, staring at the rotund officer.
"What? Did you not hear me? Everyone bit died! Not one survived!" the man said, flailing his arms towards Levi.
"But can you tell me with 100% certainty that Vaguez will die? Can you swear it on your own life?" Levi responded, ignoring the man's theatrics, as he moved into the man's personal space and stared down at him.
"No…" Mccluskey responded as he looked away, refusing to meet Levi's eyes.
"But from what you said, his chances aren't high," Levi added, making the man nod in agreement. "How long did it take for the 'dead' men to change into these 'undead'?" Levi asked, making the man think before the other officer; Louis responded.
"A few hours. Some as quick as a few minutes." making Levi nod towards him before glancing over everyone in the room as he said.
"A few minutes?" asked Levi, surprise on his face.
"Some of the boys who responded earlier said the infected revived as quick as they died," Louis responded with a grim look.
"Regardless, you won't be killing Vaguez. Not until he succumbs to whatever infection this is. That or he begs to die. It's as simple as that. Any complaints." Levi stated, his placid eyes watching everybody, but nobody refuted him. Receiving a few nods of acceptance.
Nobody dared to complain, though Levi could still see the dissent in Mccluskey's eyes, he paid it no mind. The man was no threat.
"Now, then officers, could you kindly tell me what's happening?" Levi asked, but nobody felt as if it was a question.
"Things have gone to hell," officer Louis said, his eyes despairing. "The last I heard, they drafted the military to take over, but things have already spiralled out of control."
"That bad, huh?" Levi sighed, making Louis nod the other officers similarly despondent.
"The state governor called a state of emergency a few hours ago telling people to wait for rescue or evacuate to military-controlled zones such as high schools, universities and hospitals. Places like that," he responded, shocking the inmates who couldn't believe things developed to this point so quick.
Levi thought for a moment before asking, "How safe is the city?" getting a blinking look from Louis, who said.
"Some places are worse than others. As long as your not jumping into hospitals or other hotspots, you'll be fine. The riots and the looting are the biggest problems. People aren't thinking right. Everyone is panicking. You need to be careful and avoid the worst of the riots." getting an approving look from Levi as he continued.
"Though it's not only the rioters you'll have to watch out for. We aren't softhanded with rioters in the best of times. Anyone in the area, we will presume, is part of the riot. Especially now, most officers don't even want to be out trying to calm people and stopping property damage." Louis continued.
"Hell, if I were out there, I'd start making plans on leaving the city soon. We were the first responders. We've seen how fast this thing has grown. I'd want to grab my family and slip away in the quiet of the night. Hell, some of our officers didn't report for duty this morning after the cases yesterday." Louis added, meeting Levi's gaze.
"How long has this been going on without the people knowing," Levi asked, his gaze sweeping the officers.
"Give or take two or three days. We had the first reports on the morning of the 25th. We followed orders to try and keep it quiet and try and contain it. But it began popping up everywhere..." Louis responded, his hand moving towards a pack of cigarettes in his pocket.
He offered Levi one, which he refused, before lighting one with trembling hands.
"We didn't want people to panic y'know. Most of us didn't know shit anyway. Nobody knew how to deal with this." Louis said, unbuttoning his top button, rubbing his neck caked in sweat.
"We tried. We weren't suppressing it on purpose. We first responders gotta have lost the most trying to keep a lid on this. We fucking tried, goddammit." Louis said, transitioning into a shout as he thumped his hand against the wall.
"I know. Nobodies blaming you." Levi said, placing his hand on Louis' shoulder.
"I just... Protected. Even Johnson..." Louis said, his voice becoming fainter as tears began to pour from the man.
"You've performed your duty. Nobody can fault you. I thank you for that," Levi said, releasing the man who broke down before him, the rest looking on in discomfort.
"You know. I released the doors as a distraction... You shouldn't be thanking me. I should be thanking you. So to make it up, be careful around the refugee zones. These things… They're bound to arise in such populated areas. If you go there, be careful." getting a smile from Levi, who said.
"You don't need to worry. I'm always careful."