Chapter 19

XIX. Refuge

June 29, 2013

Tall Oaks, USA

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT that something so simple could turn out so wrong...? Definitely nobody. No one has ever prepared for the worst nightmare that ensued. We were never given the chance to fight back...

The glass window shattered as I jumped over it, shielding my eyes from the debris. After successfully landing on my feet, I made a run in the deserted hallways; the only sound I was hearing were my ragged breaths, Phyllis' complaints and the moans and grunts coming closer. They're gaining on us. I tried to run a bit faster although I was getting worn out. We have to lose them somehow...

"Shit! They're right behind us!" I heard Phyllis curse.

From the distance, I could make out a double doors with the sign that said 'Le Café'.

"This way!"

I kicked the door open and hastily shut it behind me then pushed against it so that the infected wouldn't get past. I let out a shriek when I felt them try to budge through the doors. Phyllis quickly scoured the area to find something we could use as a barricade for the doors.

"Phyllis! Hurry up!" I called out. I can't hold them out much longer!

"On it!" Phyllis came back along with a metal lamp stand and immediately barricaded the double doors. I collapsed on the floor and tried to catch my breath, relieved that we're safe for the time being.

Phyllis kicked the door in annoyance, "This day just keeps on getting better and better..." She chuckled sarcastically as she panted, her hands resting on her knees.

"Yeah..." I mumbled, shaking my head and standing up to scan the area for a weapon we can use. By the corner lied two corpses hugging each other, as if they were a couple. The guy died protecting the girl, I assume. What a pity...

The power was out a few moments ago and the only source of sight was the light of the moon from the large window on the side of the room. I think this room was a simulation of a lobby of a hotel for the tourism students. As I rummage through the cabinets, I heard a soft blast of a gun that made the scratching and the moans outside the doors to cease. Phyllis and I, without a word, quickly ducked under the front desk and remained quiet as I listened for the gun shots get rapid and louder until it stopped. The next thing I heard were the rattling of the doors as if someone was trying to open it.

I took a deep breath and tried to focus on my sense of hearing, and I found out that there were two people talking, more like arguing. I could identify a couple of men and a woman, more or less.

Aggressive knocks on the door was followed by the cries of a man, "Liz? Are you there? It's your father, Lizzy!" He was shushed by his companions, as he was drawing unwanted attention. Phyllis and I shared a knowing look, and I shook my head. It was part of our training not to act by instincts and being rash like most people would do in these kinds of situations. It's better not to push our luck because every move could mean the difference between life and death.

I flinched when I heard the doors pound, as if it was being kicked to force it open. Oh God, why are they so persistent? Phyllis called for my attention but I only shushed her until the door finally forced open and then multiple footsteps followed.

"Liz?" An older man's voice called out.

"They're dead..." Another male voice said, must have been referring to the corpses we found earlier. "Why are they banging on the door when no one was even here? Normally, they would have wandered around..." He wondered aloud.

"Maybe they died just recently." A woman's voice guessed.

"She's not here." The older man said with a shaking voice, "Where could my daughter be..."

"Don't give up. I'm sure we'll find her."

The older man coughed violently that it's quite alarming. I winced at the sound. He wheezed some air as if he was having trouble breathing.

"Come on, let's go." The woman's voice was distant, as if she was already outside the room. "Leon!" She called out once again.

I listened to their footsteps of retreat until I felt their presence gone. But still, we remained under the reception desk for a few more moments to make sure. Then we slowly stood up and trudged toward the double doors that was now broken and forced wide open. Now that the survivors are gone, and I'm not fighting for our lives as of the moment, my mind was given the room to think.

"Who are those people? They have guns." Phyllis wondered, "Secret Service?"

I shrugged, "That's not the question we should be asking." I turned to face her, "Why now? It's like it was planned..."

"Obviously." Phyllis commented as she walked out of the room, sighing. I followed her, unsure of the thought either.

The outbreak occurred suddenly, as it should, because if I had known that this would happen, I wouldn't have driven Phyllis here in the first place. The perpetuator's target is obviously the President because assassinating him now is the perfect time than any. But what was the motive?

"Think... think, damn it... think." I whispered.

Something clicked in my mind. The little detail...

"Phyllis," I called out, "Do you have any idea of what the President will do?"

"No, the schedule just said that the President will only host a seminar for the students."

"What's it about?"

"No idea."

I remembered the one-sided conversation I had with Phyllis on the phone and the car ride to Tall Oaks. I was lending a single ear about her babbling about how great of a man President Adam Benford is, that he served in the military, his achievements and she was very eager to hear his speech.

Speech...?

Detail. What detail? Something insignificant? Something important?

Think... think, Cheryl... damn it, what was it?

Something... something... something that was supposed to be said?

My mind clicked another notch. The President will hold a seminar and confess something that might be long overdue. So whoever's behind this bioterrorist attack could be someone close to the President, someone holding a power at a great degree, too, then that means... if the truth comes out, whatever it was, it would greatly affect their standing in the society... possibly the world, so they resorted to a desperate measure, this.

I wonder if the President is still alive? There are a lot of Secret Service agents scattered in the university so it is very likely that he managed to escape. But the virus spread in gas form and we barely made it out without inhaling any of it. But if he didn't make it...

I jumped when I felt someone's hand on my shoulder, breaking my focus. I turned to Phyllis who was looking at me intently.

"Looks like the coast is clear now. We have to get a move on."

"Right. But first we need to find something we could use as a weapon."

Phyllis smirked, "I got that covered. There are guns in my dorm."

My mouth opened in surprise, "What? How did you manage to sneak that in the security scanner?"

"I have my ways." She said with a proud smile, "The parts are hidden in different sections in my room so that no one would suspect a thing."

According to Phyllis, the dorms are located at the western building. We will have to pass through the heart of the campus which was the courtyard that connected the four buildings. We're currently located at the northern building which consists of the reception venue, student areas, clubs and such. We would have to bypass through the reception again, the lecture hall, classrooms to reach the courtyard and then make our way to the dorms. That should be easy... easier said than done. Hell, the lecture hall and classrooms could be infested with infected by now.

When we returned to the party venue, it was dark due to the power outage, we would be walking technically blind if it weren't for the burning chandelier that blocked the access to the staircase on the second floor.

"This way," Phyllis stopped to a succeeding door right past the hazard. So far, there aren't any infected that wandered the area. That's what's making me even more anxious. Phyllis might have been feeling the same because she flinched when a spark of lightning flashed. She slowly opened the door leading to the school building and found no hostiles around inside. We also found the door to the next room already ajar, and I quickly examined the paintings and historical books enclosed in a glass. It was like a mini museum of some sort. We took the succeeding door leading to the hallway and found the exit by the end of the corridor blocked.

"Great." Phyllis said, walking to stop by to examine the dead elevator. She punched on the switch but to no avail, "Do you fancy the stairs?"

I shrugged, not having much of a choice. Phyllis led the way to the corridor that has been blocked by a box and pushed it out of the way. We shimmied through and proceeded by the end of the corridor and cut through the staircase leading down. As soon as we have reached the underground parking lot, Phyllis immediately stopped and hid against the wall. I took a peek at the parking lot and saw the infected swarming the car that has been ringing its alarm for God knows how long.

Oh God... now what?

"Do you see that door by the exterior ramp?" Phyllis asked, pointing through the crowd of infected. "We'll have to sneak right past them. Remember our training?"

"How could I forget?" I rolled my eyes, which made Phyllis smile.

"Just making sure."

"Cover my six."

I observed the infected's movements, and waited for them to turn their backs on us. I took the lead and quickly moved to hide against the car, with Phyllis being my shadow. From time to time, we would advance by the barred exterior ramp, which was full of infected from the street level that was triggered by the loud sound of car alarm.

I was immediately alarmed by the sound of Phyllis' surprised shriek. An infected lunged at her and she was struggling not to make a noise to alert the others surrounding. I rushed to her aid and kicked the zombie on the torso, releasing Phyllis from its iron grip.

"Are you okay?" I asked urgently to which she nodded her head swiftly.

"Yeah, thanks." She ran to the building manager's office and this time, I covered her six. Thankfully, there are no infected inside the room. We came across a control room of some sort which showed a lot of surveillance footage from different locations in the university. But what caught our attention was the footage of a man and a woman inside a narrow corridor fighting off a horde of infected entering the windows.

"That's the staff building. They might have breached the security trying to retrieve the keycard to the security gate." Phyllis said, then suddenly she started hastily typing and messing with the controls.

"What are you doing?"

"Doing them a favor."

I frowned, taking in the new gained information. I didn't know that Phyllis knows how to work with the computers. I watched the people on the monitor fight for their life as my frown deepen. They are an expert in handling guns and even have combat experience. They're veterans! Could they be from the Secret Service?

The man glanced at the camera, as if sensing our presence. He rushed to the succeeding door. Phyllis just released the lock without breaking a sweat.

"Where did you learn that?"

"From my boyfriend." Phyllis walked out of the room and out to the lecture hall. From the door, I can already hear the distant grunts and moans of the virus carriers. I frowned again at Phyllis, and saw her eyebrows furrowed, making her have a striking resemblance to Piers.

"You never told me you had a boyfriend." I mumbled.

"Yeah, well, I never told my parents either."

"Oh. Why not?"

"They're hardly even around for me to tell the news."

Well, to be fair, I neglected to tell her that I already married her cousin. The wedding band on my ring finger is yet to be noticed and I can't blame her because we're in a life and death situation in here. I don't think this information is important right now. We should focus on getting out of here first.

There were a lot of infected scavenging the deserted halls, and we were forced to take measures of engaging contact with them. I sneaked behind an infected then firmly took his head and pulled it back, then brought my knee on his back, instantly snapping his neck. The sound of cartilage cracking made me wince, as I turned to Phyllis who did same job just fine. There are about four infected in the hallway and we took each one down using our newly learned martial arts. When we passed by the disorganized classrooms, I noticed Phyllis' expression fell.

"This was a good university." She commented.

"Yeah... and good people, too, I bet."

After taking on the long flight of stairs down, we finally arrived at a wide open area: the courtyard. The crows fled from their post as we walked right past them, and what caught my attention was the barred security gate by the distance. The duo from earlier might have already escaped because the security scanner was making too much unwanted attention. Of course, the infected was drawn to the sound so I can only imagine how many are swarming that place.

"We can't escape through the security gate, that's for sure." I said.

Phyllis agreed, "We'll have to find another way out. Come on, let's go."

Phyllis led the way to the west side building, taking out one infected that didn't seem to care about the noise. When we arrived at the entrance of the dorms, we faced another problem. The door is locked. Given the fact that the dormitory is private and exclusive for the students, the ingress being locked seems to be par for the course. But could it be?

"It locked. Fuck!" Phyllis exclaimed then kicked the door in frustration.

"Be quiet." I said, kneeling down to be eye level with the doorknob. I examined it and came with the thought that there's no harm in trying to pick the lock. I raked my fingers through my ponytail and took out two bobby pins.

I took a deep breath, trying to recall what Piers taught me a long time ago about picking locks in case of emergency. Well, this is an emergency though. Taking out one bobby pin, I removed the rounded tip from the straight side using my fingernails. Then I pulled it apart and roughly straightened it as such. I inserted it into the keyhole and applied enough pressure to bend the end of the pin into the hook. Okay, that looks good... and now for the tension wrench.

The tension wrench has the shape of an "L" and this makes it a little hard to form in a single bend. I placed the closed end of the second bobby pin into the keyhole and firmly applied pressure downward until the pin bent about 90 degrees.

"Cheryl, you have to hurry now. They've spotted us!" Phyllis warned.

"I'm on it."

I applied enough pressure on the lock and turned it a few times, feeling vibration and little sounds indicating I'm hitting the right spots. Just a few more...

"Got it!"

When we finally arrived inside the dorms, I locked the door again behind me. No infected should have been wandering in here because the door was locked, unless there was a back entrance somewhere. The dark long hallways had an eerie feel to it, as if at any moment, some monster might jump on us.

According to Phyllis, the building is divided into two parts, the first and second floors are the girls' dormitory while the third and fourth floors are the boys' dormitory. Phyllis' room is located at the second floor, and as we ventured around the area, I heard a loud thud coming from inside the ceiling, as if it was crawling at a fast pace that it's making the ceiling screech and dust particles fell from the ceiling. We ignored it and picked up the pace and took the flight of circular stairs leading to the second level of the building. The place was squeaky clean, as if this was the only place that hasn't been breached by the outbreak. Phyllis stopped by a door that was labeled G207. She fished for her key card in her back pocket and wasted no time in opening her room and shut it close behind us. She plopped her body on her well-made bed and heaved a deep sigh. I took a seat on the swivel chair by the study table beside the bed. After just a few moments, she stood up and sauntered through the room, coming back with a combat knife in hand. She removed the bed case then slashed through the mattress, taking out a gun part. There are also parts hidden in the ceiling, kitchen, bathroom, bookshelves, and even a space under the tiled floors. She came back with the gun parts, urging me to help her assemble it. The guns she got are a Glock 26 and a Beretta Nano which are both designed for concealed carry.

I took the fully loaded Glock 26, the only two extra magazines and counted each bullet. We both have 14 shots in each magazine meaning that we only have a total of 28 shots per gun. We'll just have to make it count. She handed me a shoulder and leg harness where the gun should be, a portable flashlight that is inserted in the ear, a radio that is used for transmission and a combat knife.

"You're better at close range combat than me." She uttered.

After gearing up, we talked about how to plot our escape in the university. Phyllis said that there's an emergency exit by the end of the hall on the first floor which leads to a long, narrow white corridor out to the street level on back of the university. However, the problem would be the chained fences preventing the students from using it to go in and out.

"That might be our only chance." I said, to which she agreed.

We were a little braver now that we have a weapon against the infected. We bypassed through the emergency exit just as planned but we paused when a loud crashing sound filled the whole building. Debris that fell from the ceiling blocked the access from the other side of the hall, and a figure that caused the damage emerged from the ceiling. We pointed our flashlights at it to reveal its grotesque form.

"What the hell is that?" Phyllis asked in horror.

The BOW, which had limbs of a human, dispersed gas from its body that's full of lumps of flesh that was sagged and rotten. Its head that was torn apart from any recognition of its past identity, the blood and some kind of liquid, that looked like mixture of slime and pus was oozing out from its open head. The creature let out a shrilling giggle of some sort, seemingly delighted at the sight of fresh meat and was eager to infect...

To infect...

"I think that's the creature that started this hell." I pointed my gun at the creature, shooting it once and just as I thought, more gas erupted from its body. "We can't be out here. We have to go. Now."

Phyllis nodded, "Roger."

The creature started charging towards us while at the same time releasing more toxic gas. Phyllis and I made a run for the emergency exit and through the long corridor until we are out in the open. We found the chained fences and Phyllis made no effort in shooting down the lock, kicking it open as the creature was only right behind us. We continued to run without any destination until we found a parked car in the distance.

"Get in the car!" Phyllis said, and out of panic she slipped in the driver's seat. I was about to argue but I heard the distant shriek of the creature so I had no choice but to let Phyllis drive.

"Where's the key? Where's the fucking key?!" She exclaimed, checking the visor and found no key there. I checked the glove compartment but to no avail. I looked at the rear view mirror and saw the creature right behind us.

"Close the windows! Quick!"

The car pounded along with a sound of an deafening angry cry of a monster. Phyllis was constantly cursing at everything, which was a habit when she's in a panic.

"Fuck the key! I'm gonna hot-wire this thing!"

She quickly took out the ignition system wires and there it revealed the bundles of electrical wires. I couldn't focus on what she's doing with the continuous strike of the monster now on the windshield, and seeing it crack, I start to panic until I heard the sound of the car ignition. Phyllis pushed the gas and the car accelerated along with the creature still dangling in the windshield.

"Get off of my fucking windshield!" Phyllis screamed in anger as she made a zigzag on the way, making the creature slip from under the tires and squishing it. She laughed in victory, breathing really heavily as if she had finished a marathon race.

I looked back and saw the creature up and running in a different direction. I leaned back on my seat, heaving a deep sigh in relief.

"We're finally out of the campus..." I breathed out, looking at the view of the university at the distance that was overtaken by the infected.

Phyllis chuckled a little, "Piers is so going to kill me."

"What? Why?"

"I dragged his girlfriend into my mess."

I smiled, "Hey, he's going to kill me, too, you know. I'm the only one who's supportive of you going to a university that's far away from home. That's why I left the phone in the house so that he wouldn't be able to pinpoint my location. Once he finds out that we got involved in a bioterrorist attack, he won't be able to fully focus on his mission—"

"He's going to throw his shit." She cut me off, making me chuckle.

"Yeah, that too."

"Let's just hope that we'll get to live through this for him to kill us."

I reached for the radio and turned it on for the news station. A series of static followed by a choppy voice was my reward of finding a clue on what's going on.

"—reports. The city of Tall Oaks is currently under a bioterrorist attac—ganization called Neo-Umbrella claimed—ponsibility for the atta—"

"Neo-Umbrella?" I spluttered, the only word that I only understood from the report.

"—at this time. The US government are curren—operations to maintain contr—rrent—entire city has been quarantined—there—"

Then the radio stopped working and only static remained. I tried to switch to different stations but all of them displayed static noises. In the end, I turned the radio off in defeat.

"Now what?" Phyllis asked, but I couldn't answer her question as my mind drifted off to the one word that's etched on my mind: Neo-Umbrella.

What's it doing in here? What was Neo-Umbrella trying to accomplish from destroying the city? Is there more to it than just assassinating the President? Is there someplace else that's been experiencing the same imminent fate? I was left with even more questions than answers, and I don't think I'd get any answer at all.

I jumped when a phone rang from the back seat. I shimmied through the narrow space and took the phone on the floor. Mom was on the caller ID. I glanced at Phyllis and she was looking at me through the rear view mirror, and she nodded at me. I pressed the call button and waited for whoever's on the other line to talk first.

"Nancy? Oh thank God you answered! Where are you? Are you okay?"

I swallowed the forming lump on my throat, bracing myself for the disappointment I was about to give to Nancy's mother.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not Nancy..."

"What? Who are you? Where's Nancy? Where's my daughter?" She choked a sob.

"I... I don't know... we just found her phone inside a car."

"Oh God!" She burst into tears, sobbing even harder.

"I'm sorry,"

"No... just..." She cried then took a deep breath, seemingly trying to calm herself down, "We're at a church. It's safe... I thought that I could tell my daughter that but..."

"Where is that church?"

"Tall Oaks Cathedral. A handful of survivors took shelter in here. We're still waiting for help to arrive but... I don't want to leave without my Nancy..." She cried.

I was about to say something when the line clicked dead. The phone had died. I hid Nancy's phone in my back pocket and went back to the passenger's seat.

"Tall Oaks Cathedral," I said, and Phyllis furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Do you know where that is?"

"Yeah, I think so. I think I've gone there when I was little but we can only rely on my memory. Why? What are we going to do in there?"

"According to the mother of the owner's phone, survivors gathered at the cathedral for refuge. The entire city is on lock down and we can't get out of here, at least not right now. What do you think?"

Phyllis thought for a moment, then she shook her head. "I don't think we have much of a choice."

A light drizzle of water fell on the slightly cracked windshield, giving us a sign that it's going to rain soon. I shifted my gaze on the burning streets, Phyllis maneuvering or taking a detour around the burning cars and infected blocking the path. I sighed, then massaged my aching head.

"Tall Oaks Cathedral it is then."