One Night in Raccoon College

"Come on, these things are attracted to noise, there had to be some things in here that we can use to create some distractions," Scott said.

Emily followed him inside. The room only had a couple of lights on so most of it was drenched in shadows. Most of the supplies were locked up, but they did find sets of beakers and flasks stored in the cabinets underneath each work area. They filled up four flasks with ammonia and they each put a flask into both of the netted water bottle pockets to the sides of their backpacks. Then Emily wrapped up two small bundles of glass tubes in paper towels and put it in the smaller pockets in the front of their bags. Scott wondered if the sound of shattering glass would be enough to distract the undead like the music had. He probably couldn't use it if the dead could somehow see him, but if they used them while hiding then he was certain they could use it to clear their path of any undead.

They left the lab and snuck towards the exit of the building. As they got closer they started to hear several sets of claws clicking on tile shuffling around behind them and they were getting closer. They started to walk quickly towards the exit, not wanting to run and draw even more attention to themselves. They reached a 'T' junction where if they turned down the main length of it they would be at the exit door, but if they went forward it would lead back into the other side of the building. They heard another set of claws clicking from further down that hallway along with behind them. Scott didn't expect them to have to use this so soon but he was glad that he had thought of grabbing it. Scott grabbed one of the flasks from the side of his bag and started to pour the ammonia onto the ground. He thought for a moment about rationing out the bottle, but he also didn't want to not use enough and allow the long-tongued monsters to still be able to track him. Since the creature he had seen didn't seem to have any visible eyes, Scott was certain that they tracked their prey with either sound or like a snake by using their tongue to sense around him. The ammonia should hopefully disrupt the creature's senses and make it harder for them to follow them.

Scott asked Emily to walk a little down the hall and then come back as he finished pouring the bottle and then put the empty bottle back into its pocket. Together they quickly walked down the hall and then pushed through the double doors that lead back outside.

Sticking to the buildings and shadows they managed to work their way across campus without any of the undead noticing them. As they got closer the amount of the undead increased and it became increasingly difficult to make it through without being noticed by them. They were pinned down in the mini-mart/coffee shop that was right across a small road from the stadiums parking lot. A lot of undead wandered and loitered in between the rows of parked cars, forming a barrier that they couldn't break through unless they had amazing luck and stealth. They waited for ten nerve-racking minutes for the perfect time to go, but the dead moved and didn't move in such random patterns that every time it looked like they might be able to make it, they undead would shift again and block off their path. They were hidden for now in the shop, but eventually, something was bound to notice them through the large glass windows, which would also make it easy for the monsters of the night to get in at them. Emily went behind the counter and started to look through the supplies. She came back with a handful of egg timers, Scott loved how she thought. After another couple of minutes at the window they finally they saw the best shifting of the undead that would allow them to make it through and they left.

They crouch ran across the road, praying that nothing would see them. They made it to the first row of parked cars, the parking lot ran perpendicular to the stadium, allowing them to see up the lanes towards their destination, and also see the undead wandering around that blocked their path. They started to move down the narrow lane of space in between the rows of cars facing each other. A couple of times they had to stop and wait or backtrack in order to avoid the undead, causing what would normally be a five-minute stroll into a fifteen minute stressful game of hide and seek that was starting to take its toll on Scott's nerves.

They made it to the last set of cars and were pinned down, while the dead had wandered mostly on their own or in small groups throughout the parking lot, they congregated in greater numbers right in front of the stadium's entrance. Inside through the heavy glass they could see a mass of the undead moving about, they were packed in there shoulder to shoulder, it was almost hypnotic seeing them move around like that. The security office was near the entrance into the stadium directly in front of them, it was a little outcropping of a building that almost went right up to the parking lot. Scott and Emily hunkered down and tried to think of ways that they could get past the undead. Emily pulled the egg timers out of her pocket. "It's a good thing that I have these," she said. She offered to backtrack and set off the egg timers a couple of rows away from them so that most of the dead would clear out of their way. Scott offered to do it instead, he didn't want Emily to have to risk it but she insisted since it was her idea. Scott offered to trade weapons with her, it would be easier for her to sneak if she didn't have to carry the rifle with her. She agreed and they did.

Scott cradled the rifle and watched Emily sneak back up between the cars and then she disappeared behind a car about halfway back. Scott prayed that she would be ok and that he wouldn't hear a gunshot. Emily was gone for five minutes, and then ten. Scott thought about sneaking back to try and find her, to do anything other than just sitting still, he felt so helpless, but he knew that it would be a bad idea to do that. Emily knew where he was, if he moved from here then they would have to search for each other while also avoiding the undead. Another five minutes passed and Scott was about to go looking for her, logic be damaged, when Emily emerged from behind a car from the opposite side of where she had gone off to set the egg timers. "Sorry it took so long, I got stuck back there for a few minutes, luckily I gave the timer a few extra minutes. It should be going off soon," Emily said. A moment later the timers started to rattle off in the distance. Slowly the undead started towards the sound. At first, just a couple started to head towards it, but then more of them started to turn and walk towards the timers. Of around fifty, only five of the undead seemed to not be drawn away by the noise. Scott was hoping all of them would have left, but that seemed like pretty good numbers to him. Of those five only a couple of them were near the doors that lead into the security office.

"You ready?" Scott said. He gripped his baseball bat tightly in one hand and his handgun in the other. Scott put the gun's safety on and slid it into the back of his waistband. He felt more comfortable holding the handgun, but he knew if he used it he would bring all of the undead in the parking lot on top of him so he put it away.

"As much as I am going to be," Emily said. They both let out a breath and started to sneak towards the doors. They were about halfway across the street when the first of the undead noticed them. It was a small old woman who still had her handbag around her shoulder somehow even though large chunks had been bitten out of her. She looked towards them and let out that eerie moan and started to reach out towards him as she hobbled over. The other undead around them turned towards the old woman moaning and saw Scott and Emily. The other undead all broke out into a chorus of moans and started to shamble towards them. Emily stepped towards the old woman and jammed her makeshift bayonet into right into where the woman's heart was. It didn't stop her, the old woman kept on coming at them. The other four undead started to head towards them, in just a few moments they would be surrounded. Scott thought sorry and then swung at the old woman. Scott cracked her across the side of the head. Emily pulled back at the same time and she was able to free her weapon. The old woman staggered to the side a little from the force of the blow, but she didn't go down. Scott swung again, this time aiming at the old woman's lower leg that was bearing all of her weight. There was a loud crack as the old woman's ankle shattered and she fell to the ground.

Emily turned in time when one of the next undead reached them. Emily took a moment to aim, and then jammed her bayonet right into the eye of the undead man who approached her. The moan died off and the man collapsed to the ground. So damaging the heart doesn't kill them, but damaging their brain can put them down? Scott thought. The next of the undead approached Emily from the side. Scott stepped up and swung for the undead man's lower leg. The man went down, Scott had to jump back so that the man did not fall on top of him. As the man started to slowly step back up Emily jammed her bayonet down into his eye. Together like that they managed to finish up the other few undead before they got swarmed. The sounds of fighting attracted some of the undead who hadn't been drawn in by the egg timers, and it even made a few of the crowd of the undead heading towards the timers start to turn back towards them. The old lady crawled on the ground and clawed up on Scott's pant legs. Scott cried out for a moment but then silenced himself as he shook his leg free and kicked her in the face.

It felt good seeing how relatively easy it was to take down the undead, but one mistake would cost them their lives, and also Scott's arms are already sore from just taking down five of them. They made it inside and locked the door behind them, but Scott doubted that it would hold long, like most other services buildings the door was made of glass and the front of it was glass paneling in a black frame, great for letting in natural light, but also bad at keeping the undead away.

They walked into the darkened office, eyes scanning for any potential monsters, but it seemed as though there wasn't anything with them at the moment. "We only have a few minutes before they start to break in," Scott said.

"I know," Emily said in a snap as they started looking for how to undo the school's security system so that they could get out. The didn't find anything in the front office area so they went through a door into the back section of the office. Scott knew it wouldn't be that easy, but he wished there was some big switch on the wall that said 'shut down security system.' There wasn't. A moment after they entered the back office section Scott heard the first of the undead start to bang against the glass out front. In the very back of the office, they found the head of the campus police 's office. They went in and started to search through his desk. Almost immediately they started to find memos from Umbrella sent to him. The memos were much more mundane compared to what they had found in Doctor Adam's office, mostly dealing with asking him to report on how the construction of the stadium was going and updates on the security systems that were being put in place.

The pounding on the glass outside was starting to get louder outside as more undread tried to get in. Scott was about to say that they were going to have to get going when he saw a memo that looked unusual. "Look at this," he told Emily and showed her the paper. The memo was dated for yesterday and mentioned how during a power outage the backup power for the electric doors and gates had failed to kick in and the security system had to reboot. During the reboot, the security system had messed up and reopened the locks and gates.

"So if we shut down the power we have a way to get out of here?" Emily asked excitedly.

"Yeah, it looks like it." Scott skimmed the last of the memo. "It says that after the system rebooted fully, about 15 minutes later, the system corrected itself and everything locked back up."

"So, once he shut down the power we will be on a time limit?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," Scott said. He had never been good with deadlines, they filled him with anxiety and fear that he wouldn't meet them so he always got his work done as soon as possible. Possibly having only ten minutes to escape the college only made Scott's anxiety even worse.

"So where is the power for the security system?" Scott asked.

They looked through more of the paperwork and memos, the sound of the undead banging on the glass continued to get even louder. "Here," Emily said and showed Scott a paper. The generators that powered the football stadium, security system, and also the underground lab was located underneath the stadium towards the back of it and in between the stadium and lab. There wasn't specific info to go off of, so that looked like that was the best they were going to get. Ok, Scott thought, all we got to do is run through a stadium of the undead, destroy a hidden power generator, and then run back out through the stadium and then the college and get to Emily's car in time to drive out the gates and put this nightmare as far behind them as possible.

The sound of glass breaking sounded out from the front room. They stepped out of the office and headed towards a hallway that leads to an entrance that allowed the police to enter and leave the stadium without having to walk around to the main entrance. The door opened up into another hallway that was a service hallway for the stadium. The hallway seemed to curve around the stadium, they could have gone towards the main entrance but turned down the curve that leads towards the back. Spaced about every fifty or so steps were doors that lead into other service hallways which would probably lead into the main area of the stadium, like the spokes of a wheel. They peeked into the windows set into the doors, the first hallways that they peaked in were overflowing with the undead, but the further into the stadium they went the less dead they saw in the spokes. They were lucky that the doors needed a key card to unlock when going this way, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to move so far so easily. Maybe this would be easier to pull off then he had thought.

They were close to the back of the stadium when they took a step and saw down the curve a group of the undead that somehow got in. They were packed into the hallway. "What should we do?" Emily asked.

"We could go around, but the other side could be just as bad or even worse," Scott said.

"And the undead could have followed us through the police entry into the stadium," Emily pointed out. With a sigh, they started to prepare themselves mentally for what they had to do. There was too many for them to use their bullets on them, and also they didn't think that it would be a good idea to fire off their guns in this hallway anyways, the sound would carry so much in here. Scott remembered a scene from his favorite anime Rurouni Kenshin and let Emily know what he thought could work. They agreed and walked about halfway down the hall, and then Scott butted his bat lightly against the wall to get their attention. They undead nearest them all started and turn towards them, then some of the undead behind them did too, but luckily not all of the horde in the hallway seemed to sense them instantly.

The dead turned and started to move towards them like a sluggish wave. Even though they were all moving slower than a when they were alive, differences in leg length, positioning to the rest of the wave, and amount of damage that had suffered lead to some of the undead slowly pulling in front of the others with each shambling step. Emily and Scott kept on backing up, keeping their distance from the undead while continuously glancing behind them to make sure that no undead were going to catch them unaware from behind. After walking back about twenty steps a group of five of the undead were starting to pull a few feet ahead of the rest of the wave. Scott and Emily started to step forward slowly to meet their attackers. When they closed the distance Emily stepped forward and jammed her makeshift bayonet into the throat of the first one. The blade caught in the undead man's spinal cord. He continued to walk forward and Emily pushed with her weapon. The blade pushed through and the undead man crumpled to the round. The next undead stepped forward in the second it took for Emily to pull her blade free. Scott didn't hold back and swung as hard as he could, clipping the next undead, a blood-soaked middle-aged woman, right across the temple. There was a metallic thud and crunch and then she went down. They took turns attacking, when one didn't finish an undead off with their first attack the other would be there, either to finish that one off if there was time or to attack the next one coming after them. They slowly backed up as they fought, every couple of back steps taking out another of the undead horde. The sounds of them fighting continued to attract the undead towards them as the moved back down the hallway. Sometimes the undead would approach them in a larger group so they would have to move back more in order to separate them out, but for the most part, the undead trickled into them in close pairs and trios.

With this strategy, they were able to reduce the advantage that the undead had with their numbers, but they just kept on coming, as they killed ten, and then twenty of them. Scott's arms were trembling and with each swing, it was getting harder to swing again. Scott's and Emily's attacks started to be less and less effective, taking both of them more often to finish off their opponent. They had to start disengaging and walking away from the horde to catch their breath. Scott kept on counting in his head each time they killed another one, 31, 32,33, he was so exhausted, he got tunnel vision and just kept on telling himself just kill one more, and then one more after that, 45,46,47. Scott kept on glancing down the hall, wishing that when he looked up that it would finally be cleared, but it wasn't. Scott started to become desensitized to the blood, gore, and horrors of the undead dying by his hand, they stopped being former people, and just became obstacles for him to overcome. Sweat stung his eyes and blood kept on coating his glasses, making it hard for him to see. Scott lost track of time, when he finally looked up and saw that there was no more of the undead advancing towards him he glanced down at his watch and saw that nearly thirty minutes had passed.

Emily and Scott took a step away from the last body and then collapsed to the ground, they were both drenched in sweat and had to catch their breath. They were covered in specs of blood, Scott wanted to be horrified at this, being covered in someone's blood would be bad at even the best of times, but it was even worse right now considering that the blood came from dead bodies who could be full of the infection. Scott's aluminum bat was severely dented and coated in multiple layers of blood after being used to bash in so many skulls.

After resting for a couple of minutes Scott stood up and then helped Emily up. They walked back through the carnage that Scott couldn't believe that they had caused. They walked slowly, trying their best to not step on their bodies. Scott kept his eyes on the ground watching the hopefully now dead around them, ready to swing down on any of them if he needed to. He held the bat limply at his side, his arms burned so much that he worried he wouldn't be able to swing it again if he needed to. They walked in a stunned silence and reached the back section of the hallway where the undead had congregated. There was a door that was propped open, that was how they had gotten in.