City of the Dead

Chapter Seventeen

Every few minutes, Sherry heard gunshots or screams. She couldn’t tell where they came from, if they were near or far. She just closed her eyes and tried not to hear them, tried not to hear the sounds of people dying. But people were dying everywhere, and she could not stop hearing their final screams or their final shots.

She didn’t know what happened to Mr. Tyson or the rest of the people from school. Even little Joshua, who had been so afraid, was gone now. Sherry had no idea where he was, or if he was even alive. Sherry was all by herself now.

They didn’t made it all the way to the police station in Mr. Tyson’s minivan. The roads were blocked with cars and dead people, so they ran on foot for the last few blocks. There were so many people, both alive and dead. Crazy people just roamed the streets, attacking anyone who got near them. Sherry never ran so fast in her entire life.

By the time they reached the police station, the young girl Natalie and one of the other students were gone. Sherry didn’t know what happened to them, if they were attacked or if they fell down and couldn’t catch up in time. Mr. Tyson looked back the way they came and just kept pushing forward, leaving them behind.

They didn’t go in the front door, they found a side entrance and managed to push through the crowd of people in order to get inside. Sherry held onto Joshua’s hand and pulled him through after her. Mr. Tyson called to them to follow him, but the crowd was so tight that Sherry soon lost sight of him in the mass of bodies. She tried to go forward, but she wasn’t strong enough to push through the crowd of adults, who barely seemed to notice her.

Joshua cried hysterically, and Sherry and the other girl tried to calm him down. They waited in the cramped hallway for a while, and Sherry wasn’t really sure what happened after that. There was screaming and suddenly the entire crowd surged forward. In the shifting crowd, Sherry lost Joshua’s hand.

She didn’t have any choice. If she tried to stay where she was, the crowd would just trample right over her. So she ran, pushed by the flowing mob. And then the people around her screamed and the crowd seemed to just evaporate. Sherry scrambled away as two people in the crowd went insane. She ran for it as gunshots echoed in the corridor and more screams followed. She felt like her ear drums were going to break, the screaming was so loud.

She didn’t really remember how she got away from the crowd. She just ran through the scattering mob as people ran in every direction. She saw more insane people, their bloody mouths and glaring eyes burned into her mind. There were bodies everywhere, and blood on the walls. Sherry just ran. She didn’t even know where to.

Now, she was sitting on the floor in a cramped, stuffy little storage room on the second floor, surrounded by cheap metal bookcases stuffed with folders and notes and other paperwork. A naked yellow bulb hung from the ceiling, and the room smelled like dust and mildew. Sherry sat in the corner, her arms wrapped around her legs, trying not to make any noise at all. She was hungry and needed very badly to go to the bathroom, but she was afraid to move. According to the clock on the wall, she had been hiding there for more than three hours.

She tried not to think about Joshua and the rest of them. She hoped that they were all okay, but deep down she knew they weren’t. There were so many crazy people running around, she didn’t know how anyone could have gotten away. The only reason she managed to escape was because she was small enough to avoid notice. There were so many adults around that all the crazy people noticed them first. Sherry slipped among them without drawing attention to herself. But if she stopped running, they probably would have attacked her too.

Sherry had to stay silent. If there were any crazy people out in the hallway, they would hear her and come after her, she was sure of it. The door was just a cheap metal door like a screen door, and it would not stop them if they wanted in.

But how long would she have to stay there? She couldn’t wait there forever.

There had to be help on the way. The National Guard was probably in Raccoon City right now, killing off all the crazy people and coming for the survivors. They had to be. Sherry locked onto that thought and just waited for them to come into the police station and rescue her.

But she hoped they got there fast.

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