Cut Off

Page quickly unhooks her zipline belt as the wire starts to fall down. As she takes the belt off her radio goes off.

"Page, you alright?" Jacob's voice asks from the radio. She grabs her radio to respond.

"Yeah," She can see Jacob walk up to the edge of the roof he's on, peering down at the street.

"Alright...we need to find some place to meet up, this building's entrance appears to be blocked off by a crash,"

"How far are the docks?"

"All the way on the other side of the city. I don't think that's a good idea, it's best if we can regroup asap. These zombies are practically impossible for you to kill with just your pistol, and that bull, wherever it is, seems dead set on stomping us into the ground,"

"Well, neither of us can just sit still and wait for the other one,"

"...Fine, we'll meet at the shipyard. See that tall building over there with the glowing red antenna?"

Page looks over the sea of buildings, and far off past Jacob she can just barely make out a glowing red light.

"Y-Yeah I see it,"

"That's the direction the shipyard is in. Try your best to check in with me, I'll try to see if I can provide any cover fire for any zombies coming-Behind you!"

Page quickly turns around, bringing up her gun, only to see the door to the stairs closing.

"What was it?"

"A person,"

"A survivor?"

"Not likely, they're probably one of the two people who were in my office, be careful,"

"I-I will,"

Page puts her radio back on her belt before she cautiously approaches the entrance to the stairs, readying her gun as she places a hand on the handle. She swings open the door, drawing her gun to no one. She runs into the stairwell and up to the railing as she hears footsteps echoing through the whole place. She sees a door on the floor below her moving which is soon followed by the sound of a door closing.

They might have the stuff from Jacob's computer. But, he said finding a way off should be our priority.

Page stand there for a solid minute, deciding what she should do. She heads down the stairs and walks up to the door the person had ran through. She opens the door, bringing up her gun to another empty area. Walking inside she enters what must be a large waiting room, a desk far off to her left, a large wall sitting behind it with a pair of double doors to the right of the desk. Some fancy looking chairs sit along the sides of the room near the desk, along with some potted plants. The ground is made of shiny tiles that are a golden color, so polished they reflect the ceiling. Some blood trails go towards the double doors.

She's about to go back into the stairwell when she hears gunshots coming from a door to her left. The door suddenly bursts open, a man in a black shirt, light brown pants and dark brown boots emerging from a janitor's closet. They have a chest holster and a leg holster. Page is completely caught off guard, staring at the man with a look of utter bafflement. The man is also caught off guard as he stares right back at her like someone who just tried to sneak into their house in the middle of the night but got caught.

Before she can bring up her gun the man grabs something from his belt, throwing it up into the air and starting to run past her.

"Wait-!" Page exclaims.

Right before the thing goes off Page realizes its a flash grenade. As a bright flash fills the room, Page just manages to cover her eyes with her arms, the bang from the flash making her ears ring. While she's recovering, the man takes the opportunity to head back into the stairwell.

Page stumbles a bit as she rubs her eyes and ears. Her eyes readjusting and the ringing going away, she hears shallow breathing. She brings up her gun as a grey zombie comes walking out of the closet the man was in. Seeing what it is, she puts her gun down and quickly heads for the stairwell, grabbing her radio.

"I found the person," Page say, "But they used a flash bang and escaped," She closes the door to the hall before making her way back down to the eighth floor.

"Did you get a good look at them?"

"Yeah. A man, probably early forties, black shirt, brown pants and boots. I swear I've seen his face somewhere…he looks like...Derek Simmons…" She stops in her tracks just before she's about to open the door to the eighth floor.

"Derek Simmons? The guy responsible for the president's death all those years ago?"

"Y-Yeah...but it can't be him...he died during the outbreak in China,"

"Well whoever they are, they clearly don't want us to know," Page enters the hall on the eighth floor, before she realizes something.

"What's the best way out of the police station? The fronts barricaded, and I'd rather not go down the fire escape to see the bull waiting for me,"

"There's a parking garage across the street, it's connected to the station by an underground tunnel, but that also barricades which activate alongside the front's barricades. You'll have to get to the security room down on the first floor and use an unlock card, the boss always kept it in his office on the ninth floor. Top left drawer of his desk, a hidden compartment under all the papers,"

"Got it,"

Page turns back around and opens the door to the stairwell. As she goes to head back up to the ninth floor a body comes falling down, making her jump a bit. She leans over the railing and sees the body land on the concrete floor way below with a hefty thud, splatting into a pool of blood, organs, and body parts. She glances up to see no one else in the stairwell. She slowly makes her way back up the stairs, ready to shoot anything that might be waiting for her. Nothing else and no one else is in the stairwell with her.

She looks at the door to the ninth floor, the door wide open.

Did that zombie, open the door? And then...fall over the railing?

She glances back down at the bottom of the stairwell before walking into the ninth floor waiting room. Making her way to the double doors on the far end she walks by the desk, and sees the corpse of a woman on the ground behind it. Her throat is cut open, blood staining the tile around her. Some of the blood is still fresh, it couldn't have happened too long ago. She hears muffled coughing coming from the other side of the double doors.

She brings up her gun once more, a sinking feeling in her gut as she presses a hand on the cold metal handle on the door. She opens the door and aims at someone sitting at a large desk. A man with blood splattered on his right arm which is larger than his left, a single, long, sharp, claw where his hand had once been. The man looks to be in his fifties, in a dirty, now blood stained and partly torn dark blue suit. Some veins around his right eye are shown through his skin, which is green around the area of the veins. Another long appendage made of skinless, slightly green, muscle is sticking out of his back. A giant scythe with smaller fragmented edges on it is attached to the very end of the appendage.

"Who are you?" The man asks aggressively as he stands up, slightly hunched over, "You're working with that lying bastard Luther aren't you!?" The man suddenly shouts, and in a violent rage, he jumps over the desk towards Page, the appendage on his back reeling back to slash at her. She quickly does a rolling jump to the side, the man landing where she was with a hard thud, the giant claw digging into the ground with ease. Page quickly stands up, shooting at the monster as she backs up. He uses his scythe to protect his head as he walks towards Page.

She aims for his legs and shoots them. He falls to one knee from the pain. He raises his right arm, the limb on his back moving in sync with it. Page takes the chance to shoot him in the head, causing him to swing early. She has to jump to the side once more as the limb swings at her, stretching a couple feet and breaking the ground right next to where she had been. The guy places his left hand on his face as he recovers from the pain, the bullet in his head falling out as his body fills up the wound. Page takes the chance to shoot him two more times in the face. The man gets up, stumbling backwards. Before she can shoot him in the head again he shields it with his scythe once more.

The man suddenly heads to the other side of the office, and uses his scythe to tear off a vent cover on the ceiling, unfazed by Page's shots to his back. He jumps up with inhuman strength, grabbing the bottom of the vent and crawling up into it and out of sight.

Page hurries over to the desk as she hears something moving through the vents. She sees a picture in a frame on the desk, its the guy that just went into the vents. Opening the top left drawer, she throws papers out of the way and sees a small cut out in the bottom. Pulling it off reveals a card. She puts it in her pocket and hurries out of the office, the sounds from the vents fading away as the creature moving inside them gets away.

"Jacob," She says into her radio as she hears for the stairwell, keeping an eye on the vent openings on the walls, "I found your boss. He's heavily mutated and moving through the vents right now,"

"As if I didn't hate Romero enough as a normal person…" Jacob replies in an annoyed, agitated tone, "Try to stay near windows facing the building across the intersection, I'll see if I can't help you if he shows his face, I've been dying to shoot it for awhile now,"

"I'll try, I'm heading to the first floor right now,"

Page gets halfway down the stairs, reaching the door to the fifth floor when she hears a door upstairs open up. She glances up the stairwell, seeing someone else above her looking up. She recognizes their black shirt and holster, and quickly hurries down the stairs. As she rushes down the steps she can hear them heading down the stairs after her.

Reaching the first floor, Page enters a short hall leading to a large lobby, two zombies roaming about, metal shutters blocking the front door and all the windows. Heading to the front of the lobby where a large desk sits, She sees a door to a room labeled, "Security". As she hurries over to it, something can be heard in the vents following her. She goes to open the door, but it's locked. She turns around, seeing that the zombie by the front doors is in a security guard outfit. The other zombie is a couple feet away from the security guard one, both of them walking towards her.

Hoping the key isn't on the zombie, she hurries over to the desk, a vent sitting right above it. She starts scanning the desk counters, keeping one eye on the vent above as the sounds from above get louder.

Come on. Please be here, don't be on the zombie...Damnit! Nothing…

Before she can look at the security guard zombie, whose only a couple feet away now, she hears the door to the stairwell closing. As she turns to the right of the lobby, the air vent above starts to break. She side steps just in time as Romero comes crashing down from above, the tile below him cracking and breaking. Page turns and runs to distance herself before Romero can swing at her. As she turns back and aims at Romero she sees the guy who looks like Derek Simmons, standing at the end of the hall.

Being a bit busy at the moment, Page keeps most of her attention on Romero, shooting at him as he starts to move towards her.

"Tell me where Luther is!" Romero exclaims.

When he rushes at her and goes to swing, she runs towards the front of the building, barely avoiding his scythe. She sees a ring with keys on the security zombie's belt, and looks to the shutters blocking the windows.

If I can just get the keys and open the shutters, Jacob can help me with this bastard. If I can shoot off its head, I can get the keys.

Page shoots at Romero, shooting him in the legs and causing him to fall to one knee again. She turns to see the zombies are a bit too close. She heads to the desk as she aims at the security zombie. She pulls the trigger only for her gun to click. She quickly pulls her bag up, grabbing some bullets and putting them in the magazine. She nearly drops it as Romero jumps at her. The bottom of her leg gets scratched by the scythe as she runs out of the way.

She fills up the magazine and clicks it into place.

"Tell me-!"

Romero is cut off by gun shots to the face. He stumbles back a bit, Page taking the chance to aim at the security zombie and shooting it in the head. After three shots its head is severely damaged and the zombie falls down to the ground. Page quickly takes out the other zombie and hurries over to the security guard as its head starts to regenerate. It takes a bit of struggling, but she manages to get the key ring off the belt. Romero is still recovering from the head shots. As she runs for the security office, the bullets in his head fall out. There's three keys on the ring. She tries the first key, doesn't fit. Tries the second one. It fits.

Before Page can turn the handle she hears a roar of anger from behind. She turns to see Romero charging at her. As she jumps out of the way a gun fires, hitting Romero in the back of the head and causing him to run into the wall. Page turns to the other side of the lobby, seeing the Derek look alike holding up a pistol, glaring at Romero with a burning hatred.

Romero is a bit dazed from the impact, stumbling back a bit as he recovers from the dizziness.

"That's, it!" He shouts as the limb on his back stabs into one of the zombies. As he turns around, he hurls the zombie at Page. She ducks to avoid it, the Derek look alike shoots at Romero as he picks up the other zombie. Romero hurls it at the Derek look alike, who jumps to the side.

Damnit, he's in front of the door.

Page unloads the rest of her clip into Romero, backing up as he starts to move towards her. Romero takes a small step back, the limb on his back getting ready to strike. As he steps forward the limb comes flying at her. Placing a hand on the desk, she pushes herself up and over to the other side of the desk. Her and the Derek look alike continue to shoot at Romero. Romero starts to hunch over as they continue to shoot at him. The limb on his back starts to grow thicker as his voice starts to have a growl to it.

"You think, you can kill me?!" He shouts as he stands back up, his pupils ovals like a wild animal, his right eye now yellow, "I won't die until I kill Luther with my own two hands!" Romero charges at them. Page steels herself as she readies to do something she remembers seeing Jacob do a long time ago. As he nears them Page starts to run at Romero. As his scythe limb slashes sideways she falls to the floor, sliding under it and past him. The Derek look alike dives to the side, quickly getting up onto his knees and continuing to shoot at Romero, a baffled by what Page just did.

Page hurries to the security room, opening the door and running over to a large red button that sits next to a card reader. She swipes the card through the reader, the button lighting up. Pressing it, she can hear the shutters opening up, along with more gunshots. She hurries back out to see the Derek look alike get slashed in the arm.

Page brings up her gun and shoots the last two bullets in the clip, catching Romero's attention. As she goes to reload Romero starts to move toward her, but as the shutters are almost done opening, something breaks through the window and shoots him in the back.

"Take that you piece of shit!" Jacob's voice yells from Page's radio, "Turn around so I can shoot your face!"

"Jacob?!" Romero says with a look of bafflement and fury, "So you were a spy all along?!" He says as he turns to the windows, running up to them and looking around for Jacob. A gunshot echoes as a bullet hits Romero in the head, causing him to stumble back and cover his face. The bullet quickly falls out, Romero moving back to the window.

"Once I kill your friends, I'm coming for you!" He shouts at the window. His attention is caught once more when Page runs for the stairwell, the Derek look alike quickly following. Romero disappears back into the vents as he goes to chase them.