It was then that something flashed past her eyes and knocked back the figure that was behind her. She paused her in her tracks and looked around her quickly with a frown. However, she couldn't find anyone in the darkness. When she looked over to the slumped figure of the huge shadow, Akira hissed at her quietly, "Run!"
This time, Willow didn't dawdle and hurriedly made her way through the alleyways once more. Unlike the rural areas, the alley ways in the urban area were a little more narrow and occassional shops ran along the sides.
With a scowl, Willow looked around spying upon the light reflected off of the smooth surfaces of glass and metal. That's when she saw the broken down convenience store and quickly jumped through the broken window.
After getting in, she noticed the tattered manner the shop was left in with the food scattered about and some crushed other some parts looked to have been ransacked by a large fight or something.
The lights weren't on and the place was covered in a faint, indescribable smell. Willow frowned, but went to find a place to take shelter. It was only after finding a place under the clerk desk that she realized those people had stopped chasing after her. With a frown, she raised a brow before asking the cat, "Do you hear them?"
"What do you see me as?" Akira snapped at her sarcastically, "A dog?"
"You already have better hearing than me." Willow reasoned.
The cat sighed, "I don't hear anything. But, you should get out of here fast. Something about this place doesn't seem right."
"Doesn't seem right?" Willow raised a brow before she noticed something flashing in the corner of her view. She turned quickly and saw that it was a VCR player. Willow's eyes widen in surprise, "They still use that?"
"What?" Akira called out to her in confusion as she cautiously peeked out from under table.
Without answering, Willow reached out and quickly found the extract button as she withdrew the tape from the VCR machine. She immediately ducked back under the table as she quietly examined the condition of the tape, which was unscathed amongst all the chaos. Akira, having watched the entire process glanced over to her curiously, "Do you think it will work?"
"There's only one way to find out, of course." Willow breathed a sigh and stuffed the tape back into her bag with a frown, "More importantly, did you see who set off that beam of light just now?"
"No." Akira responded with a frown, "But that can't have been a high technology."
"Why do you say that?" Willow inquired with a raised brow, "You can sense magic?"
"Since when does a corpse smells like a dry mummified corpse?" Akira responded with a scowl, "That body back there can't have been simple."
And he says he isn't a dog.
Though she wanted to sigh, Akira's words left her rather intrigued. A dry mummified corpse?
However, the snow in the north takes longer to melt, so why would there be a dry corpse? Akira was right. This doesn't sound like something a military soldier could do, but who knows how far technological weapons have become.
Curiously, she turned to take a look around the area now that she realized it was actually safe enough to leave the spot. Seeing that the place was abandoned, she decided to look around for some supplies.It was only by searching that Willow suddenly came across a strange bundle of grotesque flesh on the ground in the back of the rows of aisles.
It wasn't just one either.
There was another only a few feet away from the other laying on the corner. It was then that she saw the bit of white gleam from a bulge of the rotten flesh under the light of her new flashlight. She froze with wide eyes as she realized what she was seeing. These were corpses.
One looked like a businessman with his suit still on and the other looked to have been the missing clerk with the uniform and apron. The skin was torn apart from their faces and limbs while one was missing an eye.
For once, she wanted to scream and vomit as the answer to that awful stench came to light. It was then that she recalled the figures moving about the streets and the words of the soldiers. Was there some sort of zombie apocalypse occurring in China too?
Despite what she had thought, she realized that it just wasn't the answer. She recalled the events that occurred in America. There had been a zombie apocalypse there as well, but the government had already quarantined the place and newspaper stated that those who had been bitten to death had become zombies as well.
She recalled the image she had seen during her entomology class back in College and recalled that a corpse of a creature with flesh will first experience blotting as the insects began to make use of it. Yet, these corpses had yet to blot and has a few flies swarming around them. It was then that she noticed a door the body of the businessman was blocking.
Barely recognizing the words, she could somewhat understand that it was a room for the staff. She looked to the two bodies once more and the dried black blood smeared on the pale tile floor before them. She took out her wet rag and placed it under her mask hoping to mask some of the disgusting smell a little before motioning for Akira to stay on the watch.
Thankfully, the fox knew what she was getting at and left the area. Willow refastened her white gloves on her hands and began to go through the apron of the dead clerk. She soon found his wallet, ID Card, cell phone and a set of keys.
Turns out the man was a manager of the place and with a frown took out the money and ID Card. She could make use of the money and the keys while she could gather information about the people from their phones.
However, she can't really make much use of the ID Card. Yet, it would be good to return these cards to the remaining family of the individual should those people still be alive.
After gathering the belongings of these people, Willow proceeded to push the body away from the doorway and used the sets of keys one by one to unlock it. This went on from about ten minutes going through probably a set of ten or fifteen keys before she could from across the correct key. Realizing this, she slid the key out of the metal band and unlocked the door.
However, when she opened it easily, she wasn't prepared as the stench of the dead grew stronger in there and nearly knocked Willow off her feet with a punch in the mind. Akira hissed, "What the hell are you doing?! It stinks!"
However, Willow didn't say anything as her eyes only narrowed in suspicions. the interior of the place was a mess and dead bodies lay on the floor piled over the others or in the corner. The interior was smaller by half the size of the store and had some equipments and materials.
The lights were still on, but she bet their electricity were about to run out eventually since there should've been an electricity bill attached to this place. Willow frowned as she noticed how the bodies had already deflated to the point that flies and cockroaches had already attached themselves onto the bodies only to scatter the moment she opened the door.
This time, she scowled and bit back the urge to scream. Instead, she froze in place as her next steps in her plan quickly evaporated during her shock. What was she going to do again?
She stood there looking around the place before she felt something jump onto her shoulder. Surprised, she jumped and the heavy bundle nearly fell off her shoulder as she heaved a sigh of relief, "Aki..."
"What were you going to do again?" The cat asked her.
Reminded of the reason why she opened the door, she could feel the rest of the steps she wanted to do quickly flooded back to her mind. Looking through the open doorway, Willow steeled herself for the worst scenario and entered the room.
Probably not wanting her to waste more time, Akira kept by her side unyielding towards her words of assurance. The scene inside wasn't pleasing no doubt, but there weren't as many dead people as they feared.
She went inside and found that all the bodies have already decomposed and could hardly move at all. The sight would make anyone want to hurl, but Willow was already prepared the moment she saw the initial image of the dead bodies.
With her gloves, she moved the bodies aside hoping to find some remainder of clues to what had been going on in the store that caused such an occurrence. It was then that she saw the some of the bodies also had a bit of flesh torn off of them. The wounds were covered with remaining maggots and the shape were hardly distinguishable.
With a frown, Willow could only toss aside the bodies and move onto what she hoped to find. However, in her mind, she already had a clue, albiet a very vague idea.
.....
It was about an hour before she left with a slightly heavier duffel bag. Due to this Akira was forced to come out and walk instead, much to his dismay. After going through the alley ways, Willow quietly returned to the scene of the attack and hid in the shadows of the alleyway.
However, strangely, the coast was clear this time, so she reached out and checked on the man that had tried to pounce of her earlier. Luckily, the body was still on the ground, though toasted and stank.
The body was heavy as she put on her gloves and dragged it away from the streets. By the time she had dragged the body out of the streets and back into the alley way, Akira was hissing at her, "What in the world are you doing?!"
Willow scowled, "I'll tell you later. First, help me carry this body somewhere."