After weaving around who knew how many zombies, Leon and Alan Han finally reached a narrow alley sloping downward.
“Everyone…
has turned into zombies…”
Leon’s expression darkened.
He was starting to worry about the coworkers at the police station he had not even met yet.
“Sorry, Leon.
It looks like a huge disaster hit this place.
I can’t even imagine what we’re going to run into next.”
Alan Han was completely unarmed now, and he felt utterly unsafe.
Even if he knew the plot, it did not seem to help much right now.
There was no way he could say to a zombie, “Hey, you’re not even part of this, so could you just die already?”
Leon kept moving forward on guard.
Hearing that, he turned and gave Alan Han a wry smile.
“Let’s hope our luck isn’t that bad.”
After turning a corner, the two of them finally walked out of the alley.
The first thing they saw was an imposing building with a strong artistic style, almost like a church, with the letters R.P.D.
on it.
So this was the police station.
Pretty grand.
It had not been easy getting here.
Though leaving later probably would not be easy either.
“Ah, we finally made it.”
Raccoon City Police Station.
Leon kept his gun trained on the zombies wandering near the station as he moved forward side by side with Alan Han.
After circling around the zombies, Leon opened the unlocked iron gate.
Once Alan Han stepped inside, Leon shut it and locked it.
Watching the zombies gradually gather outside, all blocked by the gate and unable to get in, both of them let out a breath.
Alan Han followed Leon into the police station, and the first thing he saw inside was a huge statue.
“Is anyone here?”
Leon called out a few times, but no one answered.
Alan Han looked around the lobby.
There did not seem to be any immediate danger, so he walked over to the statue.
Sure enough, there were three empty slots on it where something had originally been embedded.
I thought the game was exaggerating, but someone actually built something like this.
And it’s even an escape route.
Oh right, this is a world based on the game.
Never mind then.
Leon casually picked up an unopened box of bullets from the reception desk and stuffed it into his pocket, then looked over at the nearby terminal.
The screen still displayed the letters R.P.D.
After a bit of fiddling, Leon successfully pulled up the main screen and found several surveillance feeds.
“Why isn’t there anyone here?”
Alan Han walked over to Leon and glanced at the monitor.
Every scene on it looked familiar.
I’ve died in every one of those places.
In the game.
“Looks like we’re going exploring, Leon.”
Leon was just about to answer when he noticed, on one of the monitors in the lower right corner, a police officer being chased by a zombie.
“This is bad.”
Leon watched the feed showing the officer’s area.
The officer seemed to be heading for a specific place on purpose.
When he reached the spot beneath the camera, he deliberately stopped and held up the notebook in his hand for the camera to see.
“Marvin.
Are you there?
I found a way out.
It’s right here!”
As he spoke, the zombie had already gotten close.
The officer quickly drew his gun and fired a shot into its body, but the zombie still lunged at him.
The officer shoved it away with all his strength, but his balance was still thrown off, and he staggered backward.
“Requesting backup.
East Corridor.”
After that, the officer limped away, disappearing from the camera’s view.
Alan Han and Leon exchanged a look, and Leon immediately pulled up the map.
“We need to find that guy.”
Alan Han looked at the location of the East Corridor and took a deep breath.
Just accept it.
Maybe all those hours of gaming will at least keep me from pissing myself in fear.
Alan Han and Leon walked to the iron gate blocking the way to the East Corridor.
Leon pulled down the switch, and the gate slowly rose, but the power seemed insufficient.
It only lifted enough to leave a gap just wide enough to crawl through.
Leon said nothing and went through first.
Hearing him react from the other side, Alan Han lowered himself and got ready to follow.
But…
when he saw the thick, sticky blood smeared across the floor, Alan Han held his breath and suddenly wanted very badly to stay in the lobby.
He had no choice but to cover his entire hand with his sleeve and inch his way inside bit by bit.
Once he stood up, Alan Han looked at his filthy sleeve in disgust.
Then he saw Leon holding a flashlight and shining it into the pitch-black darkness ahead, waiting for him to catch up.
Alan Han took a steadying breath and forced himself to move forward.
The two of them stepped through something that might have been water or blood and kept pressing forward.
The place was already dim, and now it was soaked in the red glow of the emergency lights.
At a glance, overturned storage cabinets were everywhere.
Just as Alan Han was zoning out and thinking back to the plot from the game, a cabinet door against the wall suddenly burst open, and a zombie lunged straight at him.
“Holy fuck!”
Alan Han was slammed hard to the floor.
The zombie’s foul stench shot up his nose and straight to his skull.
He could clearly feel the sticky blood on the ground smearing across his body, and he could clearly see the blood clots still stuck inside the zombie’s gaping mouth.
Just as the zombie was about to bite into Alan Han’s neck, Leon came up from behind, locked an arm tightly around its neck, and yanked it backward with all his strength, pulling it away from Alan Han.
While struggling with it, Leon barely managed to press the muzzle of his gun against the zombie’s temple.
That familiar deafening gunshot rang out again.
A scorching hot shell casing landed beside Alan Han’s hand and made him jerk in shock.
At last, the zombie went limp.
Leon let go of it and braced both hands against his thighs.
“Whew…
This thing was seriously strong.
Han, are you okay?”
Alan Han was still sprawled on the ground.
Hearing Leon’s voice finally brought him back to himself.
“I’m fine…
Thanks, Leon.”
Leon held out a hand, signaling for Alan Han to take it.
“It’s my duty.
We need to keep moving.”
Alan Han pressed his lips together, shoved aside all the plot-related thoughts in his head, and grabbed Leon’s hand.
Once Alan Han was back on his feet, the two of them paused for a moment before continuing on.
After quite a bit of effort, they finally made it around to the outer side of the East Corridor.
Several police officers’ corpses lay before them.
“Oh God.”
Leon had barely gotten the words out when cries for help suddenly came from behind a closed iron shutter in a nearby room.
“Open the door.
Hurry up and open the door.
Open it now!”
Alan Han ran into the room and rushed over, trying to haul the shutter up.
When he realized he could not move it, he quickly called Leon over to help.
“I’ll help you!”
Leon and Alan Han struggled with all their strength and finally managed to force the door open a narrow crack.
“Grab me.
Hurry, grab me!”
The officer reached out, still clutching a notebook in his hand.
But obviously this was not the time to worry about that.
The two of them grabbed his arm and pulled together, only to realize it was useless.
It was like something enormous was hanging off his back.
They could not move him at all.
And so the two of them could only watch helplessly as something tore the officer to pieces.
Bit by bit, he stopped struggling altogether.
Alan Han failed to hold back his momentum, and he and Leon ended up hauling half the officer’s body inside, nearly stumbling as they did.
“How could this happen…”
Leon rested both hands on the officer’s shoulders, frustration written on his face.
Alan Han, meanwhile, dropped halfway to the floor and stared at the mess of entrails in front of him, nearly throwing up.
But thinking about how there would be even more of this ahead, he forced it back down.
Mostly because his stomach was empty anyway.
Leon picked up the notebook the officer had dropped and read the folded page inside.
It contained drawings of statues and symbols.
Putting that together with what the officer had said earlier, it looked like some kind of guide to escaping.
Leon studied the notebook, thinking it over.
Seeing the notebook suddenly held out in front of him, Alan Han shook his head and took it from Leon.
“We need to find three medallions in this not exactly safe police station.”
Leon sounded less than confident after saying it.
“This isn’t going to be easy.”
Before the two of them could settle on any kind of plan, a zombie in a police uniform burst into the room.
Leon opened fire.
Shell casings flew from the ejection port one after another, and faint blue smoke curled from the muzzle.
In the middle of the fight, he tilted his head and called out to Alan Han.
“Take that officer’s gun.
It won’t be safe up ahead.”
Hearing that, Alan Han crouched beside the officer and found a gun in the mangled flesh.
Well, freshly produced.