Art came awake with a startle and immediately hit his forehead on the desk he had apparently been hiding under.
Falling heavily to the ground he grabbed his aching head with both hands and released a groan.
Something from the other side of the desk answered in kind before it dragged itself closer to the desk, it was a long suffering thing filled with pain and confusion, Arthur froze.
Usually Art wasn't scared of strange noises when it wasn't even dark yet but, given what he had just been through, long suffering moans and shuffling did not paint a pretty picture for his imagination.
A white hand with purple spots of accumulated, rotting blood burst from the gap between the desk and the floor grabbing his blue shirt with unexpected strength before attempting to drag it towards an open mouth biting at the air like a rabid dog.
Art most certainly did not scream like a little girl, his adrenaline shooting through the roof, as he managed to twist away from the zombie's grip and scramble back until his head hit the wall, that would be stupid and atract more zombies.
Eyes the size of saucers Art watched as the former police officer tried to squeeze his entire head through a gap barely big enough for his hands, wich were still grasping towards his body, unfortunately the desk wasn't bolted to the floor and the zombie started to lift it and slowly draw itself closer… yeah fuck that.
With strength drawn from desperation, and the absolute certainty that this thing wasn't human anymore, he started to stomp on the zombie's hand and arm as fast as he could.
The first stomp did nothing, neither did the next 5 but, by the time the monster managed to completely pass the desk it had both arms broken and was missing quite a few teeth.
It still wasn't dead… well it was but it was still moving.
Rage gave way to fear as the crippled beast threw itself towards his chest, Art still managed to keep the beast away with his legs but the zombie quickly started to bite through his shoe.
With another 'manly roar of rage' Arthur rolled away from the creature and got back on his feet running awa… making a strategic retreat towards the opposite side of the room and throwing the window wide open.
On the street another six zombies turned towards the noise, three average males already starting to root at the extremities, a fat woman and a mother with a little boy who couldn't have been more than 10.
"Fuck!" closing the window he locked it and turned back towards the immediate problem, the zombie had managed to push itself back on its feet and release another moan before fixing him with its cold, dead eyes "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
Noticing the gun on his hip he fumbled to draw it before pointing and pressing the trigger, nothing happened.
Shit, was it empty?
Pressing the release he noticed the clip was full then cursed himself and unlocked the safety before laughing like a maniac and filling the monster full of lead… or at least he tried.
From the ten bullets he completely missed 4, shoot another 5 on the zombie's chest and only one barely clipped its temple taking a piece of flesh and at most a chip of bone "Goddamn aim disadvantage!"
Grabbing a computer monitor, one of those old, heavy ones, he swung it at the monster's head when it lunged at him, sending it sprawling back to the ground.
Screaming he lifted the broken monitor overhead and brained the still struggling beast, accentuating every blow with a word "WHY! WONT! YOU! FUCKING! DIE!"
Huffing and exhausted, he let the remains of the computer drop down over the dead zombie whose head had just become minced meat, a sense of satisfaction filling his chest.
The window exploded in a shower of glass as an undead Boxer fell inside, missing half of its fur and filled with shards of glass the dog barked at him before attacking.
"You've got to be kid…" Art started to complain before the huge dog hit his chest and rode him down to the ground driving the air out of his lungs, he still managed to protect his neck but the dog's teeth sank deep into his arm and his gun had gone flying.
In a burst of frenetic rage the dog started to ravage Arthur's right arm as he attempted to push it away.
Turning his head aside to avoid the blood from his own arm Arthur saw a second gun on the dead policemen.
With only one hand it took him some time to grab the gun and release it's safety lock earning himself a couple more painful bites, with tears in his eyes he pressed the gun to the dog's head and pulled the trigger blowing its brains out in a shower of meat and bone.
With a scream of pain Arthur pushed the body aside and cradled his arm against his chest hyperventilating for a few seconds before what had actually happened hit him
"Holy shit I'm bitten" turning aside he threw up away from the bodies and pushed himself up "I'm bitten by a motherfucking zombie goddamnit!"
A new groan from outside caused him to shoot at the window another five times, only one of them actually making it outside and dropping one of the approaching zombies, it wasn't the one he had aimed for but Arthur still could barely believe it, then the zombie got back up missing half its lower jaw and Arthur threw the damn gun to the wall with a scream of frustration.
The zombies outside weren't fast, they shambled towards him dragging themselves like old men so he just stood there cradling his bleeding arm and breathing hard for a few seconds before he got his thoughts in order.
"Alright… huff… alright its not the end of the fucking world" Arthur whispered while looking around the room "I already died once after all, this is nothing big, its nothing"
Having recovered a little he moved fast, grabbing his own gun and putting it in its holster. He also grabbed the guard's weapon and stuffed it in the back of his pants.
He searched the policemen as fast as he could, finding another two bullet clips and a large knife which he kept in his hand.
When the first zombie started to vault over the window Arthur abandoned everything else and left the room slamming the door behind him, he immediately searched the room for more zombies before locking the door and dragging a chair to jam the door shut.
Pulling up a new chair he sat down and released a breath. He was in some kind of living room with some stairs going towards a second floor and another open door leading to the kitchen, a woman's corpse laid over a pool of blood unmoving but Arthur wasn't going to trust that.
After a few more deep breaths he gathered his courage and grabbed a fire poker from beside the fireplace, approaching slowly he poked the corpse on the leg twice before coming closer.
Looking down at the slightly overweight housewife he stared at her empty face for what felt like an hour before lifting the poker and driving it as hard as he could into her head.
He missed.
Two blows and ten minutes later he was back in his chair, poker laid beside his leg, his good hand trembling while his wounded arm held tightly against his belly, his eyes only leaving the empty stairs to glance at the locked door every now and then.
"Now what?" Arthur had searched the house lower floor for any other zombies or corpses, then cased the place for anything useful before putting it all on top of the table "what the hell kind of zombie world did I end up in"
On top of the table were nine cans of food, an entire bag of various medical itens, a revolver with a case of bullets, a metal bar thicker than his poker and a well made letter opener, Arthur thought would pierce a zombie's skull fairly easily.
Taking off his police jacket and pulling up the sleeve above the elbow he inspected the wounds, it was far less than he had first expected despite the pain, only three times had the beast's fangs pierced deeply into the meat of Arthurs' arm and none of them hit anything vital, all other wounds were superficial scratches made from the dog's thrashing about, it seems his jacket had protected him somewhat.
Finding some disinfectant he cleaned the dried blood and then bandaged the worst offenses.
Now that he had a clean mind he realized there's no real need to panic, not yet, perhaps not ever, it's not like death here would be the end.
Depending on what kind of zombie infection this was he could turn anytime now but it could also take two to three weeks or even be completely fine and only those killed would turn there was no way to know.
Suddenly he laughed out loud and grabbed his discarded jacket searching for the police department shield, it would at least tell him which city he was in.
"Crap" he said as the big yellow shield laid there above his supplies, it both told him a lot and not "Goddamnit all those alternate universes!"
Racoon city wasn't the absolutely worst place to find yourself during a zombie apocalypse but it was pretty close, the most infuriating thing is the fact he still didn't know if he was looking at a post apocalyptic world like in the movies or isolated cases of bioterrorism like in the games.
Depending on which one it was carrying around all those supplies may be a very dangerous risk or an absolute necessity.
"Fuck it, this is the T-virus, i'm probably not making it longer than a few days anyway" sweeping the food supplies away he put everything else in the medical pack including two of the guns and the poker leaving only the iron bar and a newly recharged glock outside "Now what would I do with only a day of life left?"
Arthur found himself oddly relieved, once he accepted he would most likely not survive to find a cure it became easy to decide his path, Rob wanted amusement, zombies wanted food, he wanted to have fun in a video game world, the answer was simple.
He would go out with a bang.
Still there was no need to be stupid about it, death may not be permanent for him but even a dog bite still hurt like hell and, temporary or not, dying without putting up a fight just didn't sit well with him.
Armed with the crowbar and with the gun at ready Arthur went up the stairs to find only empty rooms but at least they had a balcony from which he could observe the streets.
Racoon city is both dirty and small, its streets are narrow and filled with abandoned cars and wandering zombies, too many for him to escape from, the dead may be slow but they were pretty good at swarming and too numerous worse, Arthur saw at least another two dogs just from where he was standing.
Inside one of the bedrooms he found and turned on a small radio in hopes of learning something new while trying to come up with a plan only to hear half a recording sending people into the Racoon city police station.
"...Hmm I think I remember that from the game" Arthur whispered to himself while stuffing a few more medicaments into the package, he was quickly becoming certain he wouldn't make it out of the neighbor on stealth alone "not sure I want to go towards that clusterfuck but…"
Finally having turned the entire house inside out Arthur tied some pans and cutlery on the ceiling fan, spread oil, alcohol and even a gallon of gasoline he found all over both floors and pulled every piece of furniture he could to block the stairs before starting to make a racket as loudly as he could.
Spying from the balcony Arthur watched as what must have been hundreds of undead made their way towards his refuge, a couple of dogs made it first but they were unable to make it through the furniture, then the former humans started to funnel inside the house one or two at a time until he could hear a wave of moans and groans as well as banging and breaking wood coming from downstairs.
Lighting up a match he threw it on a pool of alcohol and nodded in satisfaction as the flames spread, then Arthur went to the balcony again and, after throwing down a half dozen roof tiles, managed to get a good enough grip to pull himself up to the roof.
Releasing a hearty laugh at how easy the feat felt he gave thanks to the Peak Body feat and slung the bag on his shoulders and looked from side to side trying to judge which one was better.
On the neighbor he had spawned the houses were all pressed together with almost no yard, taking a deep breath Arthur started running and jumped.
He almost didn't make it but managed to get his entire upper body on the roof of the other house, grabbing frantically he threw some more roof tiles away but managed to pull himself up again.
The second jump turned out to be easier and he made the third one without even stumbling quickly leaving the massing zombies behind, soon he could barely see a confused or crippled undead wandering around and he found himself unable to jump again, the separation between houses too wide for him to make it.
Time to get back down to the floor.
Looking carefully around the house he saw no zombie and decided to come down on top off an old car, Arthur briefly considered doing a superhero landing but thought better of it, the car may still work and he prefered not to break his knees.
The careful jump still jarred him and sent a spike of pain on his leg but didn't break anything, the car was actually open and he found a key inside but the battery was empty, the owner having left the lights on.
Getting out of the car he saw a slow zombie approaching him, arms stretched out towards his tasty flesh and mouth hanging open, it's rotten tongue flailing about.
Carefully looking around Arthur circled the zombie until the undead had trouble following him, then he grabbed his iron bar with both hands and swung it like a baseball bat smashing its skull, he almost dropped his arms when he noticed the zombie was still alive so he circled again and swung another two times fully destroying its brain and moved on.
Reaching the next street Arthur found out he was still far away from the police department, he didn't like his chances of making it eleven kilometers on a zombie infested city and, after being contaminated, he knew he wouldn't make it if he tried to find a cure outside the city.
He had to at least try.
Braining lone zombies became routine as he checked the abandoned cars for one that both worked and still had its keys since being a nerd did not lend itself to knowing how to hotwire any vehicle.
Arthur finally managed to turn on an old pickup, the thing was big, old and made a lot of noise but it was working, pulling it out of the driveway he prepared to drive towards the department when he caught sight of a little head poking timidly from behind a window on the fourth floor of a building across the street before quickly hiding.
Arthur narrowed his eyes, zombies did not hide.
Pulling up the break he left the car with a sight and readied himself, the little head was staring at him again so he tried waving at it but it was either some new kind of mutated or too scared to show up because it ducked again and did not return.
"Guess i'm gonna have to go inside"
It was surprising how threatening a simple building entrance could be, full of dark corners, litter and broken glass and splashes of blood dirtied the walls, the door was closed but its glass was broken it wasn't even dark yet and the place gave him the creeps.
Grabbing the top off a trash can Arthur wielded it in front of himself on his left hand like a shield and rested his weapon on his shoulder before slowly opening the door to reveal a long and poorly illuminated corridor filled with trash and mostly closed doors.
Closing the door behind him Arthur jammed it locked with the fire poker and started advancing while considering how he would do this.
The corridor was narrow enough that no more than two zombies could come at him and he had a shield, plus he started to notice he was strong, very strong and fit he could deal with a dozen dumb zombies if he wasn't swarmed or terrified.
Decision taken he banged the makeshift shield three times and waited, soon something started banging behind two of the closed doors and a zombie woman with broken legs crawled from one of the open ones moaning and dragging itself towards him, he bashed its brains without trouble.
Testing every door to make sure they wouldn't suddenly open behind him he had to kill another one when one of them wasn't locked but the shield worked well enough and he soon had the first floor cleared, another four to go.
"Anyone alive here!" Arthur shouted before banging his shield again "I'm going to climb up to the forth floor before I leave for the police station if anyone wants to go with me!"
He finally reached the stairs to find a third zombie with broken limbs tumbling down towards him, the thing was already half gone when he took it out of its misery then he turned and screamed "The station has a safe way outside the city if I don't survive"
By the time he reached the third floor Arthur had found zero survivors, had another bite on his lower leg and was shaking his aching arm from zombie slaying, those MC's who destroyed whole hordes of the soulless husks were such bullshit, swinging a crowbar with enough strength to crack skulls was hard work.
He had just banged his shield again when he decided to lay his back against the wall and release the crowbar in order to rest his arm, this was turning out to be easier than he thought.
Then the licker's arm and head burst through the corridor's window it's tongue tasting the air before it squeezed itself inside and fixed him with a sharp toothed smile.
"Holy fuck!" he jumped away from the wall and tried to grab the crowbar but missed and caused it to roll to the floor, looking from the dropped crowbar to the already charging licker Arthur cursed and started sprinting away.
The Licker caught him on the fifth step, its claw smashing on his trash can lid and driving it with the strength of a heavy lifter into his shoulder sending him crashing into the wall
Arthur reacted by sheer reflex rolling away from a second claw slash and putting the lid between himself and the beast while back paddling, the beast's tongue darted over his shield and pierced his chest just bellow his shoulder, he released a scream of pain and then was lifted by the creature and thrown away bouncing off the wall and falling almost 15 meters away from the beast.
In a move of desperation he remembered the beast hunted by sound alone so he used his good arm to throw the lid as hard as he could and hold his breath.
The Lid hit one of the door's handles and bounced all over the corridor making a lot of noise, the licker pounced, flying over Arthur's frozen body and jumping off the walls.
Well damn, perhaps Rob decided to give him that damn plot armor advantage anyway.
Shaking off his surprise at the tactics success Arthur managed to pull out his gun, then he remembered the goddamned Stormtrooper perk, literally goddamned.
Before fear could stop him he pushed himself up and jumped at the Licker's back attempting to hug it and get a point blank shot.
It worked, kind of.
The beast's reflexes were too good and it was already turning the second he started running, a claw slash hit his protective vest and he felt his ribs breaking but he held on for dear life and pressed the pistol to its exposed brain pulling the trigger repeatedly.
The Licker went wild bashing itself on the walls and the floors its tongue twisting dangerously in the air clipping his head once, it wasn't strong enough to crack his skull but he still felt the warm blood flowing down his ear, he screamed and this time it really did sound like a manly scream of rage even if it still came more from fear.
Ten seconds later he noticed he had been repeatedly pulling the trigger on an empty gun, better yet the licker had stopped bashing itself and was trying to move away from him almost pitfully, all its strength gone.
Pushing himself into a sitting position against a wall Arthur looked around, it would be just his luck to kill a licker and get jumped by a weak mob, he spit some blood aside and took an extremely painful breath which left him coughing.
Crawling towards his supply bag he took a couple of painkillers and used some gauze to clean his head and shoulder wound, the head wound was only skin deep but the tongue had gone right through his shoulder and he could barely move the arm below it and not only because of pain, the blow must have damaged something important.
Spitting some more blood, he made a sling for his unresponsive arm and dragged himself back to his feet, a few more seconds of rest and he felt more or less ready to continue so he grabbed his crowbar and made his way to the fourth floor.
Killing the small zombie uselessly bashing himself on the railing was much harder than usual with only one arm but he managed even if he had to take another handful of painkillers, not really caring that they started making his entire body numb.
"Anybody still alive in here?" Arthur screamed before coughing again, then he saw a door close fast.
Making his way to the moving door he slammed his back to the wall and let his body slide down to the floor.
"Alright so there is a survivor here" he started in a conversational tone, no need to scare the kid, fuck he didn't know how to deal with kids "You must be very brave to have survived this long huh?"
There was no answer from the door but he heard a small body lay against it almost eagerly.
"Did your family tell you to keep inside? they must have told you not to let anyone in huh, you did very good" he dozed off for a few seconds but a few knocks on the door woke him up so he took another painful breath and continued "Yeah you did good, but you see its OK now I'm a police officer, your mother must have told you to trust the police"
"She did" came the short, timid answer from a young boy
"Right, I'm with the police so you can let me… cough… inside" the answer took quite some time to come
"Mr Truman wanted to come inside too but mom didn't let him… no"
"Sigh alright… alright… " he thought a little longer "Did Mr Truman say anything when he wanted inside?"
"No"
"That's because he wasn't Mr. Truman he only looked like him but it was a bad thing" he breathed out heavily and shifted his position so it wouldn't hurt his side "you did very well, the bad thing wanted to hurt but it's alright now, I made it go away so you can open the door"
"You could be a bad thing…" the child accused but Arthur could hear the hope in its voice.
"No, no I couldn't" he was starting to become annoyed, thank god he didn't have a young sibling before "The bad things don't talk you know, only humans talk and we are talking"
Another long pause and then Arthur heard the lock being turned again and a small eye peeking at him from an open gap, the child was barely taller than he was while sitting and looked starved, its mouth dry and eyes red from crying "Okay"
"See, I don't look like a bad thing" he smiled, from the cringe on the boy's face he didn't think it looked very good "Are you gonna let me inside?"
"Okay"
Great, the kid had gone monosilabic.
Still the kid closed the door and a few seconds latter he heard him taking out the chain and opening the door again, Arthur tried to get up once but fell back on his ass, then he pushed himself up along the wall and, using the crowbar like a crane, stumbled inside.
"So, what's your name boy" He asked minutes latter as the kid was devouring some of Mr. Truman's food and water, he was in a wonderful mood as he had found an answer to his aim problem, a large shotgun.
Why have to aim at a small target like a head when he can just blow everything away in a general direction?
He knew that wasn't exactly how shotguns worked but he liked to think it was.
"Jay" Still monosilabic it seems
"Just Jay?" he asked while rolling his eyes
"Jayson… Biron"
"Alright Jay, how about you come with me to the police department, there's other policeman there, maybe even your mom"
"Mom isn't there"
"How do you know that huh? maybe she is just waiting for you"
"No" the kid said and started quietly crying again "I saw the bad things take her"
"Shit" how the fuck would he console a child who saw his mother get eaten alive?
In the end Arthur just put a hand on his hair and drew the kid's head into his chest allowing him to cry for a little while "It's alright kid, you were very brave, I'm sure your mother would be very proud of you for holding on this long"
Eating something himself he stretched the muscles on his neck and checked the wound on his shoulder, it wasn't pretty, and decided to make his way towards the station.
Jason stuffed a little school bag with some food and Arthur made him carry the trash can lid as a little shield before they made their way down.
A noise warned him they weren't alone on the third floor so Arthur hid the boy behind himself and held the shotgun as best as he could with only one hand.
"Holy shit you're alive!" said the preteen girl posing over the licker's body with a hand cannon almost longer than her own forearm.
"More or less" Arthur mumbled, just what he needed, a mouthy 13 years old with a gun.
Things just became even better when said gun was pointed with what looked like some proficiency towards his face.
"You're bit" came the shrill accusation "You're gonna become one of them!"
"I'm not gonna become one of them" not any time soon at least "it's ok are you alone?"
"Of course I'm alone, do you see anyone else?" she mouthed but didn't drop the gun's aim "Dad said you're one of them if you're bit"
"And where's your dad?" another adult would be a lot of help right now
"Are you stupid? I just told you I am alone, just my luck I get saved by the stupid one" she kicked the licker with anger then widened her instance and took a breath "Dad decided to eat a bullet after this fucker ate my brother and he got bit while gawking, said it was the smart thing to do"
"I'm not bitten!" Arthur screamed before the tiny little girl blew his head out, then corrected himself when her eyes narrowed at his lie "Alright I was bitten but I'm not gonna turn I took a vaccine!"
"There's a vaccine?"
"Of course there's a vaccine, umbrella wouldn't create a virus without a vaccine!"
"Alright…" the little girl lowered her 50. handgun "but i'm keeping an eye on you… and I'm not giving you my gun!"
"wouldn't dream of it"
And that's how Arthur stuffed another two kids inside his pickup and drove off towards the police station filled with crazy people, lickers and super zombies.