The distance to the flare was eaten up in a matter of minutes. Branches and thorns tore at the bare skin as Wallace dashed through the woods. Whether it was because of the driving force to catch these murderers or the loss of Officer Patty, Captain Wallace got to the location the flare was shot at quickly. What he saw when he got there was not promising.
"What happened?" Are you two okay?" asked Wallace
After being in the gleaming moonlight for a while, hearing a sudden voice caused the two ladies to jump, but after realizing it was their captain, they breathed a sigh of relief.
"Officer Bridget was struck in the arm, Captain. We've managed to get the bleeding stopped, but her upper arm is completely crushed." Said Officer Sarah.
"Captain I'm alright, I can still fight!" Argued Officer Bridget.
Taking a glance at Officer Bridget he could tell the words were just fighting words. The pale face and sweat beading her eyebrows were more than enough to see something was wrong. That's if you ignore the completely limp arm at her side and the flashes of pain that streaked her face when it was moved.
"No, I can't have you going in injures like this. You will remain here and be the relay officer. If my time keeping is right reinforcements should get here in 15 minutes. At that time, you'll fire flares every 5 minutes until they show up or you run out. Understood?"
"But Captain!"
"No buts! We've already lost one tonight, I can't have you die too." Choked Wallace
At hearing the shocking words, realization flashed across their face. "Wait, where is Officer Patty?" asked Sarah.
Audible teeth grinding could be heard from their captain.
"Officer Patty and I were ambushed by the killer. I'm assuming it to be Johansson due to the killer being male." The stillness of the night felt even heavier now, "Their mutt attacked me, while the killer snuck up behind Officer Patty and bashed his head in. After a brief struggle with the beast and putting it down, Officer Patty saved my life by shooting the murderer before he could bash my head in with three shots to the chest. The damage to his skull though was too much and he ended up…well Officer Patty saved my life and took the life of Johansson.
A brief silence followed after the story. Each officer in their emotions wrestling with the news the just heard or just relived.
With a grimace on her face Officer Bridget broke the silence, "It seems to me that we need to get this last bastard and honor Officer Patty and the others who lost their lives."
Small smiles formed on their faces at the idea of getting the last one. With their plan set in motion Captain Wallace gave his only flares to Officer Bridget and got caught up on the situation they were in.
It turns out that the final person apparently wasn't alone. The two officers had happened upon them and saw what assumed to be a hostage without a mask. Once spotted both people fled. With a fast decision to make they followed the masked man because they knew he for sure was one of the killers. After a high-speed chase through the woods they had almost caught up with them when the man turned around and attacked Officer Bridget dealing damage to her arm. It wasn't without reward though because Officer Sarah had put a bullet through the man's leg.
Before she could do any more damage, he threw himself into the bushes and crawled away. Unsure if the other person was a hostage or another unknown killer the two decided to use the flare and inform the other team of their location. The last thing they heard though was the slamming of a door not too far from here.
With the information gathered Officer Sarah and Captain Wallace began to make their way to the last known point of interest, while Officer Bridget counted down the time which ticked by ever so slow.
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"You weren't kidding when you said you heard a door slam were you." murmured Wallace.
In front of the duo was a massive decrepit wooden mansion. Three stories tall with two massive pillars at the main entrance. Covered in moldy vines the entire place gave off an almost haunted feeling. It didn't help that the rest of place had rotten wood, and shattered windows. All together it was a place that aspiring ghost hunters would love to explore and put in their handbook.
"Captain, I know we are chasing them but maybe it would be better if we didn't go in there. What if we waited for reinforcements?" Sarah said warily.
Grunting in agreement, Wallace knew it was a less than desirable outcome. Putting on a brave face he checked his weapons one last time. Especially his shotgun. It wasn't often that he got to use it. A smooth double barrel shotgun made with an ebony handle and dual silver barrels; it was a beauty of a weapon. Made in the same manner as the revolver it had its own name engraved in the side of it. The name engraved was "light".
"Let's go. We can't give them even another 15 minutes to escape." Step by step the two reached the main door. "I'll go in first, follow behind me and if you see anybody take aim but don't shoot. The extra person could be either a hostage or another killer."
Instead of slowly entering like most people normally would, that didn't really suit Captain Wallace. He instead lifted one beefy leg and bashed the door down in one solid kick. Walking into the building his eyes scanned looking for any potential threats. After noticing there weren't any, he motioned to Officer Sarah to follow him.
They two started to scan the entire bottom floor. Mainly dust and cobwebs filled each room. There weren't any critters though which was quite weird and was pointed out by Captain Wallace. Going room to room they didn't see anything until they found a small spiral staircase leading to the next floor. The dust that had covered the majority of the first floor was scattered with clear footprints and there were drops of blood leading up to the next floor.
"Get ready. They're most likely on this next floor." said Wallace
"mhm" hummed Sarah
Slowly the two made their way up the stairs. Wallace had light's barrel pointed directly upwards ready to unload at any moment. Each step creaked and groaned under their weight. Dust fell from the stair drifted towards the ground. The higher they went the louder the steps wailed.
"[Hmm, there's no way we can be stealthy. The steps gave away any form of that. If I poke my head and they're waiting I could be killed instantly, leaving Sarah by herself. Agh, what a dilemma.]" Wallace thought.
Holding up a fist to stop the duo. Wallace threw out a flurry of signals informing Sarah of his plan to rush the last couple steps and try to catch their opponents off guard in case they were waiting.
After seeing that his partner agreed, Wallace took a deep breath and stormed the last couple steps. The groaning steps changed into cracking noises as each step bore the weight of the giant that Wallace was.
Bursting into the open hallway Wallace eyes flickered taking in every detail. A blood trail lead away from the stairs. Bright moonlight shone through a window. Two silhouettes were outlined by the window. "[Wait!]"
"Freeze! Put your hands up and get on the ground or I will fire." Wallace yelled.
Time seemed to stop as the silvered double barrel shotgun pointed directly at the two silhouettes. A masked man behind what seemed to be a woman holding a knife to her throat, "[A girl. What if it's the boy's sister. Damn it, I should've asked if he had siblings.]"
The three people were in a stand still. Each with muscles taught and ready to move in a blink of an eye. The creaking of steps from behind Wallace broke the tension as Sarah came up the final step.
A flurry of movement broke out with the two silhouettes as the woman risked being split open by the knife to ram the back of her head into the masked man. The knife clattered to the ground and the woman broke free sprinting towards Wallace while screaming hysterically for them to save her.
In that split-second Wallace was caught in the dilemma of whether or not to shoot. Almost angry he could see the masked man escape into a room directly to his right while the woman was still charging towards him.
Sighing he turned his gaze to the woman, about to tell her to stop and put her hands up when he froze. His eyes had adjusted, and he could see the woman's face was completely distorted into a sick smile and in her clutches hands was a large butcher knife pointed directly at his chest.
Fury surfaced on his face as he lifted his previously lowered shotgun and pulled the trigger.
"BOOM!"
The force blew the woman back two meters and ripped holes all through her body and the surrounding walls. Shrapnels of bone embedded in the wall and blood painted the hallway behind Her. The body twitched from time to time as blood started to leak through the floorboards.
"Captain!" Yelled Sarah
Turning around and seeing his partner's horror, Wallace snorted and walked to the woman and picked up the butcher knife, "She was one of them. I'm assuming this is Valarie She was planning to kill me and push me down the stairs in an attempt to crush you. Unluckily, she met me."
Standing up Wallace reloaded his gun and strode down the hallway, "Come on there's still one bastard left."
The two examined the hallway and immediately saw that there were four doors in total. "Quickly get into position on the first two doors and breech in 3, 2, 1!" Wallace commanded.
The old mansion doors didn't survive the strong kicks of the officers and burst open with a cracking of wood. Both rooms had nothing in them except dust and trash.
"Captain, I'll get the next door on the left cover me." Sarah said.
Wallace followed Sarah and watched the door where the man disappeared into as Sarah breached the door behind her. Wallace's heart jumped when he heard a sharp gasp.
"Ca-captain there's more victims."
"How many bodies?" Wallace whispered.
"I count 5 from here, but…none of them have heads!!"
Wallace risked a quick glance and from his position could see two of the headless bodies with blood caking their clothes. The anger in his heart grew even hotter. "[That's it, I'm done with this game.]"
"I'm breaching the final door." Stomping down the hallway a sharp kick blew the rotten door open and off its hinges. Behind it was a modified staircase leading up into the darkness of the third and final floor.