Dante contemplated for a moment, and then finally shook his head again. “Well, I got an idea,” he said, and smirked before repeating Ace’s words back to him, “but you aren’t going to like it.”
CHAPTER THREE
“You gotta be fucking shitting me, dude,” Ace blurted, staring wide-eyed at the police station across the street.
They knelt under cover, staying out of sight just in case the QXR guys came rolling by.
“Look at the parking lot,” Dante said quietly. “Plenty of police cars, and chances are they’re going to have the keys locked up in there. Plus, they might have some weapons, which we could really use right now.”
Ace scrubbed his hands down his face. “Yeah, all right,” he finally agreed. “Let’s get this over with.”
They looked both ways and then broke from cover, rushing across the street to the station. They paused at the front, looking through the swinging doors that were unlocked. There were some dried bloodstains on the window.
“I don’t remember that from before,” Ace muttered.
Dante chewed his lip. “Me either,” he agreed.
They slipped inside, on guard in case of an attack. They reached the front lobby before working their way back to the control room just off of the main area.
Dante checked the monitors, seeing the cells where Brandt and the other officer had been locked up. Dante shook his head at the sight of a dozen zombies crowded around it.
“Didn’t take those things very long to find ‘em,” Dante muttered.
“Good, that son of a bitch deserves to feel scared,” Ace declared.
Dante looked over the monitors, checking all of the hallways and finding them clear, with all the zombie activity in the back cell area. “You have any idea where the weapon lockup is?” he asked.
Ace shook his head before looking on the wall by the desk. There was a printout of a map of the building, though there wasn’t a listing for an armory.
“Gotta be the supply room, don’t it?” the redneck asked, tapping his finger over the listing for a supply room.
“Even if it isn’t, can’t hurt to check it out,” Dante replied with a shrug. “Come on.”
They headed down the hallway towards the storage room, taking special care at every intersection and office door to make sure there weren’t any stragglers hanging about.
Finally they made it to the back hallway that led to the storage area, finding one lone zombie lingering towards the back. Not wanting the noise of firing a gun, Dante looked around, spotting a fire extinguisher on the wall.
He removed it from the moorings and readied it, and he and Ace shared a nod before creeping forward.
The zombie was transfixed on its reflection in the storage room glass, occasionally attacking it like a confused cat when it moved. The duo moved quietly and were able to get right close to it without the ghoul knowing they were there.
Dante smacked it in the side of the head with the extinguisher, sending it to the ground in a heap. He slammed the heavy unit down into its head a few more times, just to be sure.
As he did so, Ace kept his gun aimed, watching down the hallway just to make sure they didn’t attract any attention. Nothing appeared, and he relaxed.
“We’re good,” he said, lowering his gun.
Dante nodded, setting down the extinguisher. “Then let’s get our stuff and get on our way,” he said, and reached for the door handle. He pushed it down and pulled, but the door was locked. He tried a few more times and then grunted in frustration when he realized there was an electronic keypad next to the door.
“Damn,” he said.
Ace grinned and knocked on the glass panel of the door. “Don't worry, I’m pretty sure we can get in,” he said.
Dante shook his head. “You can try, but I doubt it,” he replied.
Ace smirked as he picked up the bloody fire extinguisher. He readied it before slamming the big red metal container into the glass. It reverberated up his arms, and he poured every bit of power he had into it. He smacked it a few more times before stopping, bewildered.
“Well, shit,” he muttered.
Dante pressed his face against the glass, straining to see what was inside. The light was off, but there was a small skylight at the top of the wall, illuminating the room just enough to show off some SWAT type equipment.
“Looks like it’s the room we need,” he said, “which explains why that glass is going to be unbreakable with what we have.”
Ace sighed. “Well, what the fuck are we gonna do, then?” he asked.
Dante took a deep breath and then fixed the redneck with a look that spoke volumes. That look said I’m sorry, and we don’t have a choice.
Ace groaned, shoulder slumping. “Goddammit, we gotta go save that asshole Brandt, don’t we?” he whined.
“If anybody is going to know how to get in there, it’s going to be him,” Dante said.
“Well, I’ve already lost my new dirt bike, so this is par for the course today,” Ace grumbled. “Come on, let’s do it.”
The duo headed down the hallway towards the cells and paused at the supply room doors where they’d been ambushed by Brandt and his men a few days prior. Dante headed into one, rummaging around for anything that could be useful against an army of zombies. Nothing in the room was going to help them out in any significant way, as it was all office type stuff.
“Well, maybe we could paper cut ‘em to death?” Ace joked, picking up a stack of printer paper.
Dante didn’t respond, still looking around and spotting a wooden-handled mop in the corner. He walked over to it and gave it a forceful kick, snapping it in two. He tossed the new spear over to Ace.
“You think you can take those things out with that?” he asked.
The redneck inspected it for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, maybe one, before they tackle me.”
Dante headed back to the corner
