[The banging in the room intensified before a distinctive *Bang!* erupted followed by a soft, almost inaudible metallic clicking, silencing the noise. Yet even as the offscreen execution occurred, the two reporters merely glanced over before looking back at the camera.
"H-hey… did you see anything off about that person?"
"U-uh… no, I didn't… does this mean what I think it means?"
"No! Stop thinking along those lines."
"You don't even know what I was going to say!"
"Well, you were probably thinking that they were one of them, weren't you? It's a horrifying revelation to think about."
"W-well, yeah, but we need to say something about it. Do you think it was just a random, crazed lunatic who decided that this was the time for a murdering rampage?"
"We can't really rule it out, can we? Sam and Jim didn't die out there for nothing. Maybe you might be right, at the very least, whoever is tuned in right now should now have the knowledge that not every human should be considered "safe.""
"Those dead and indifferent eyes really give me the heebie-jeebies."
"At least they didn't die for nothing, we've got first-hand footage that came from the field and footage of a new potential variant. Everyone we-"
*Thoom* *Thoom*
Two thunderous bangs rang out in the room and even stopped who I assume was the "main" host from speaking. I noticed the fear in his actions. Dry gulping, a slight tremble in his arms, and the way his eyes seemed to sink back in his head a little as he looked off screen.
Soon, he readjusted and tried to speak to the camera again, but-
*THOOM!*
"Arghh!!"
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
Gunshots rang out in the background, and faint screams could be heard as well. It wasn't long before the shots stopped, whether it be from the lack of bullets or that the wielders had been slaughtered, I didn't know.
Whichever it was, I knew it wasn't a good outcome, such as them taking down the creature. Our two hosts had been frozen the entire time, but once the shots stopped, the main host turned to the other and grabbed him by his shoulders.
"S-stop looking!! We have to go! Come on! There's still an emergency exit nearby!"
The secondary host was unresponsive as he stared past the cameras, but there was something that soon got his attention… *Smack!* The main host had given him a backhanded slap. By this time, others were starting to rush past the set, and I could see several others run past the set.
"Come on! Let's go now!"
Together they went around the set, and almost the very moment they left, the camera tumbled down. Even through the now cracked and blurry lens several silhouettes ran past, but these ones were those mimics, one that moved by had a massive upper build that seemed to bulge with muscles, it kinda looked like a tank from left for dead. A number of them that ran past tripped on cabling, and soon the screen switched to a screen that said the feed was cut.]
"Well, it looks like we might not be able to rely on the news anymore."
She looked up from the phone, and it looked like the world we were in was finally setting in for her. As for me, well, I guess I did just blow off the head of something humanoid. I might just have had that slightly psychotic side to me, or maybe it just hasn't set in for me.
God, I hope it's not the latter and I have a mental breakdown at some point.
"W-what should we do now?" She looked shaken up and a bit pitiful.
'Did she really not know that it was happening around the world, or just not to this extent?'
I gave her shoulder another rub for comfort as I looked her in the eyes.
"I'm going to continue looking for Robert. Will you come with me?"
"D-does that mean you'll leave me behind if I say no?"
"Why do you have to twist my words like this?"
"Fu~ fu~ I'm just teasing you, of course I'll come along with my hero. Say, why do you want to find this Robert of yours so much anyway?"
"He's ex-military, well, it's not like that really unique in this plant, but I feel like if anyone would survive, then it would be him. He was a member of a spec ops unit, though he's told me numerous stories of himself on duty. Of course, he couldn't tell me anything classified, though. He was a communications specialist, and they did guerrilla warfare.
There's another guy who was a nuclear technician during the Cold War, but he should be retired. I do know a nuclear technician who still works here, though; he could be anywhere."
"How much farther is this security office?"
"If we keep walking this way, then… 3 minutes. Hey, don't you think it's weird how quiet this place is, though?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you remember much of the tour you took?"
"Yeah."
"Would you say there were a lot of people around? A single group tour typically has 20 or so people. Most areas you walked by had several times that didn't it?"
"Hmm… it is odd. Shouldn't there be dozens of them roaming around everywhere we go? Even earlier, those two had only attracted a small group. I wonder what happened to the group that attacked me in the cafeteria. Now that I think about it I wonder why those mimics didn't take the rest of the bodies? There were still dozens of bodies around."
"I was wondering that before, too, but just thinking about it like this won't give us any answers."
As we neared the office, we started noticing bodies sprawled across the floor and pools of blood that, if added together, might actually make a pool, though granted it may only be a kiddie pool. A pool was a pool, regardless, even kiddie pools hold at least 30 gallons.
The number of bodies that were ahead was staggering.
"You think this is why there haven't been many of them around?"
I looked a little closer at the bodies before I responded.
"Yeah, you see this?"
I pointed at the bodies closest to us, more specifically, the holes on their bodies. They only appeared on the front side of the bodies.
"They've… been shot, they've all been shot, in fact, most of these bodies are riddled with holes."
"Yeah, the noise must've attracted them all. But the amount of bullets they used isn't right for the average security guard; this must be our in-house "SWAT" team."
As we walked through, Abby let go of my arm as she tried her best to avoid stepping in any of the puddles or getting too messy. I, on the other hand, didn't care; almost every other step soaked the bottom of my boots in blood.
It's not like I didn't give it any thought, as I didn't move too quickly to avoid splashes. After we passed the fiftieth or so body, bullet casings were starting to become apparent. A piece of brass here and there slowly became dozens, and even looked like there was a couple hundred or so in a few lined-up piles before there was a large break.
After what seemed like an endless repeat of bodies, brass, and blood, we could see the security office. The trail of the 3 elements first took me by shock and disbelief, but even that feeling gets numb. The walk was a full five minutes, but towards the latter half, the bodies and pools became sparse as well. In the end, Abby's shoes didn't get a speck of blood as she even wanted me to carry her through the parts where she couldn't even step on the bodies to avoid blood.
I felt like at that point it wasn't worth it to keep clean, but looking back, maybe it was just another way for physical contact. In fact, I was still carrying her. I tried to get her off right after, but she wouldn't budge.
I shifted my head up, and a pillow-like sensation graced the top of my head, but I still couldn't see her face; instead, what met my sight was a couple of curvy mounds. I might have asked her to get off once, but this kept me from saying it twice. Almost immediately after I had asked once, she started "resting" them atop my head.
I guess she might have gotten my subtle message as she soon got off.
"Well, since we're so close, I guess I'll get off… for now."
I had lost a nice warm sensation, but it brought me back to reality. Right off the bat, I could see that some of the glass windows of the security office were shattered and a number of bullet holes poked through the ones still standing. Two of the shattered windows were covered in blood that ran down the outside from the bloody shards of glass that remained, and presumably on the other side as well.
I tightened the grip I had on my spear and cautiously walked forward. The bodies that had just begun to thin out once again gathered near the openings.
When we made it over, I peeked through the shattered window and saw the scene that painted the room. There were bodies all around the inside, but some of them had uniforms that resembled security. Two of them had the same clothes as the ones in the cafeteria, but the last one on his side was covered in tactical gear, a ballistic vest, helmet, kneepads, and gloves. The only thing was that the helmet was caved in too heavily to put on any more, and the vest torn apart by various punctures and slashes, in fact, a mimic's bladed arm was still embedded into his torso. Perhaps the man died, but was avenged immediately afterwards.
Believing that there might still be some useful supplies, I carefully pulled myself through the window, and Abby followed closely behind. I checked the geared guy first, and I took his gloves and knee pads. Both pieces fit on quite nicely, if I do say so.
I found his weapon a little way away. It looked like a UMP, but the mag was missing even the ones on his chest rig were gone as well, but at least the weapon came with a strap so I didn't have to hold it the entire time and upon closer inspection I noticed the HK engraved into the chamber.
'So it's authentic? It's not just a clone model.'
I checked the two guards and both had an empty magazine nearby their corpses, but their pistols weren't too far away.I checked both and miraculously they had a decent amount of bullets still untouched. Racking one of the slides I soon found out why.
The bullets for the first pistol hadn't even been chambered yet. That meant the mag of 17 should be full. As for the other one, I slowly pulled the slide back to see that there was a round for this one. I released the slide and rechambered round as I turned around to Abby scrounging around nearby drawers and unopened containers.
I ejected the mag to check that it had 15 left before inserting it back in. We now had a total of 5+17+15 = 37 rounds and 3 handguns, though we had no use for a third. I ejected that full mag of 17 and stored it in one of the empty slots made specifically for pistol magazines.
As I approached she must've found something as she brought it up to her face. She looked proud of herself as she turned around to face me. But as I was just about to say something her face turned to surprise for a split second before she lunged at me.
*Tat*
The sound of something plastic hit the ground as her hands wrapped around me. With her momentum of a few steps she tackled me to the floor just as the sound of glass shattering occurred. One of the few unbroken windows was now shattered as well and the shards of glass were raining down on us.