Chapter 22
“I got up this morning and didn’t know anything was wrong,” Robert Kendo said, leaning against a glass display case full of pistols. “I spent the night here at the shop cause I was up late last night doing some custom work for a customer. I got a little cot in the back room that I sleep on sometimes. Anyways, everything was fine this morning, far as I could tell.”
Claire held a cup of coffee steadily in her hands, sitting on a low wooden stool. It was reheated coffee from the day before, but Kendo didn’t have much else to offer her, and she drank it gratefully. If Kendo hadn’t come after her, she’d be dead right now, and she knew it.
“I went across the street to pick up a newspaper and get some breakfast,” Kendo continued, “and I kind of noticed that there were a few sick people around. A couple guys at the bus stop were saying how they both felt sick. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I came back to the shop and was listening to the radio, when all of a sudden, the radio just goes dead.”
“What time did that happen?” Claire asked.
Kendo shrugged and rubbed his bristly beard. “I guess around seven this morning. I was still here in the store, just fiddling around, you know. Then I heard the screaming outside.”
He paused and his face became grave. He picked up a revolver off the display case and held it in his hands, as if for comfort. “I ran out there to see what was going on, and there was this guy just ... he was attacking this poor girl right in the street. And not just him, there were two other people just going crazy. I heard folks screaming all around.”
“Did you try to call the police?”
“Sure, I did. But the phones were dead, too.”
“So what did you do?”
“I shot a few of them, in self-defense, you know. But it didn’t kill them. You have to shoot them in the head to really kill them. I mean it’s crazy, right? You saw what they were like, didn’t you?”
Claire closed her eyes, the vision of mutilated bodies still fresh in her mind, and the sight of walking corpses a very near memory. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I saw them.”
“They’re the walking dead,” Kendo said emphatically. “Zombies, right? That’s the only name for them.”
He shook his head and leaned heavily against the display case, looking toward the front of the store. There was a large front window, but he a tall curtain was pulled across it so no one could see inside. He glared at the curtain and lowered his head.
“Anyways, I holed myself up in here once things got real bad. I heard screaming and car crashes and all sorts of stuff, all morning long. I didn’t know what else I could do. I didn’t want to leave, cause I didn’t know if there was anyplace safe to go. Plus, I got weapons here, and probably enough food and water to last me a couple days at least.”
“Do you have any idea how the disease spread so fast?” Claire asked.
“No,” Kendo said. “I don’t know. But I know that if one of them zombies bites you, then you’ll turn into a zombie too. That’s why I asked you if you got bit.”
Claire sighed and sipped her coffee, even though it was getting cold. For the moment, she didn’t know what else to do. She wasn’t about to go back outside any time soon, she was sure of that. She didn’t think she’d make it ten blocks before one of the roving crowds of zombies caught her.
“There was a young guy,” Kendo said, as if to himself. “Name was Paul. He worked at the gas station across the street. He got bit and ... and I let him stay here in the store. I wrapped up his arm and he stayed here for a little bit. But he ... he got sick real fast. And I just knew that he was gonna turn into one of them, you know?”
“You don’t have to tell me this,” Claire said.
“I had to kill him.”
“It’s okay. You did what you had to do.”
Kendo fidgeted with the pistol. “I mean, I knew him. Talked to him a few times at the gas station. But he was gonna turn into a zombie, like all those others. I mean, I had to put him out of his misery, right?”
Claire got up and set the coffee aside. She walked up to Kendo and put her hands on the pistol as it trembled in his grip. He looked toward the front window, shaking his head, his eyes frightened.
“Listen,” Claire said. “I know you didn’t have a choice. You can’t feel guilty about it. I’m sure that if Paul had the chance, he would have told you to shoot him before he changed into … into one of those things. You did the right thing.”
She didn’t know if Kendo believed her, but he seemed to calm down a bit. There were probably dozens of people in the city who had faced a similar choice, Claire had no doubt. Kendo was probably lucky that the man he killed was only a passing acquaintance. Claire wondered how many husbands and wives were forced to kill their spouses rather than watch them turn into zombies. How many parents were forced to kill their own children to spare them such a fate? If given the choice to die or become undead, Claire also had no doubt that the infected people would have welcomed a quick death.
Her thoughts strayed to her brother. How many people in the city were still alive, hiding, as Claire and Kendo were, in their homes or some other safe location? There were hundreds and hundreds of zombies in the streets. Claire couldn’t imagine that there were all that many survivors, given the massive extent of the epidemic. How many people had escaped infection?
One percent? Raccoon City probably had a population of somewhere around 100,000 residents, so maybe 1,000 survivors? Claire did not like those odds.
What were the chances that Chris was still alive? If the disease struck randomly, then the odds were not good to begin with. But even if he somehow avoided infection, Claire knew that Chris was not the kind of person who would cower in his house and wait to be rescued. He would be out trying to save people or fight off the huge crowds of zombies, putting himself right in harm’s way. And if one bite could turn you into a zombie, then Claire wondered if there was even a chance Chris was still alive.
Unless Chris had already left the city, which was a possibility. His cryptic phone message didn’t say so, but Claire hoped it was true. She could only pray that Chris left Raccoon City before the infection broke out.
“Do you think we’re gonna get out of here alive?” Kendo asked.
“I know there are soldiers in the city,” Claire said. “And if they’re here, then they’re trying to kill off the infected people. They must be looking for survivors.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I heard shooting a few times a little bit before I found you. You think that they can kill them all?”
“I’m sure they’ll try to. If they call the National Guard and just sweep through the city, then maybe they can do it. But I know they’re not just going to abandon us. It might take a couple of days, but I think we’ll be safe.”
Kendo sighed heavily. “You really think so?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, that makes me feel better. It really does.”
Claire decided to get Kendo talking about something else, anything to get his mind off the situation outside. She returned to her seat and said, “So, how long have you owned this store?”
“Twelve years,” Kendo said, smiling. “Before this, I worked in a sporting goods store in the gun department. I’ve always been interested in guns, you know? Well, the store went out of business, and I figured I could start my own place, selling weapons and doing custom work. Still in business to this day. Well, till today, anyway.”
“What kind of custom work do you do?”
“Oh, I do special designs for pistols and shotguns, mostly. I do etching, personalizations, that sort of thing. Sometimes I design custom grips, custom holsters. People like to have their guns with a little personal touch, you know? I’ve even done some work for a couple of local cops.”
“My brother is a police officer,” Claire said without thinking, and then frowned to herself, thinking about him again.
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“Really? What’s his name? I know a bunch of the guys on the force.”
“Chris Redfield.”
“Chris is your brother?” Kendo asked with a smile. “That’s great! Chris is a great guy, I know him and Barry. Well,” Kendo’s expression changed suddenly, and he looked at the floor. “I mean, I guess you know about Barry.”
“No,” Claire said. “What do you mean?”
Kendo hesitated and said softly, “Barry died a few days ago. He was killed, I mean.”
Claire jumped up in shock. “Oh my God, what happened?”
“It was all over the news,” Kendo said. “The team went on this mission, and ...”
Suddenly, there was a loud bang on the window, making both of them jump. Kendo staggered back away from the display case, his pistol still in his hands. Claire stepped towards him, staring at the front curtain, her eyes wide. There was another loud bang, as if someone was outside and slamming their hands against the window.
“Oh man,” Kendo said. “It’s got to be the zombies.”
“But they can’t see us,” Claire said desperately. “How do they know we’re in here?”
“Do you think ... do you think they could hear us talking?”
Claire was about to say something when the entire front window shattered, sending a huge sheet of glass down inside the shop, where it exploded into shards of glass. Immediately, bodies tumbled inside, and one of them must have grabbed the curtain. With a tear, the entire curtain was pulled down, and it fluttered to the floor to reveal a huge crowd of zombies outside the shop.
Claire screamed and backed away as Kendo shook his head in dismay and opened fire. His pistol boomed in the small shop, and the first zombie flopped to the floor with a bullet in its head. But there were already a dozen zombies climbing through the window, and more behind them.
Kendo tossed the pistol onto the floor and ran to a wooden cabinet against the wall. He fiddled with the combination lock as Claire frantically picked up the pistol and fired its remaining shots into the crowd. She killed three zombies, but more of them were already coming in and getting to their feet.
“What are you doing?” Claire cried.
Kendo tore open the cabinet and pulled out a compact black submachine gun with a tall handle and a folding metal stock. Claire recognized it as a MAC-10 machine pistol. Kendo snapped a clip into the handle and pulled back the bolt to load a bullet into the chamber. He snagged another pistol off a shelf and stuck it into his belt. As the zombies surged forward, Kendo came out from behind the display case and opened fire.
The gun roared, a bright orange muzzle flash erupting from the barrel. The zombie nearest him fell back, bullets blasting across its chest and face. The Mac-10 rattled like a lawnmower engine spitting fire, and Kendo pushed down to keep the recoil from kicking the gun upward. He gritted his teeth and continued to fire, riddling the zombies with bullets. As he fired, the spent bullet casings ejected from the gun and sailed up over his shoulder.
When the gun finally clicked empty, there were a dozen dead zombies sprawled inside the shop, the floor a gory mass of bodies and blood. But more zombies were already coming inside. Kendo yanked the clip from the gun and grabbed another.
“Are any of these other guns loaded?” Claire shouted.
“Yes, over there!” Kendo shouted back, pointing into the back room. “There’s a couple pistols back there!”
The door smashed open and zombies rushed inside. More of them fell through the shattered window and crawled through the mass of dead as Kendo snapped the new clip into the gun. He edged along the side of the display case and walked backward as he opened fire.
Claire grabbed two Beretta pistols off the table in the back and ran back to help him. Just as Kendo reached the doorway, he stepped right onto some of the spent casings, and his foot slipped out from under him. He fell backwards and smacked the back of his head right against the corner of the doorframe, and collapsed to the ground.
“Kendo!” Claire screamed. She braced herself and opened fire as zombies came forward. She dropped two more as Kendo tried to get up. Claire knelt down and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him up. He slid back and fumbled with the Mac-10.
There were just too many of them. Claire pulled the trigger again and again, but the zombies were like a flood, and within moments they were upon him. Kendo blasted a few of them, but several more swamped him and bit down on his legs and his outstretched arm as he tried to push them away.
“No!” Claire cried.
Kendo shot the zombies at point blank range and then tossed the Mac-10 at Claire’s feet. “Take it!” he shouted. “You’ll need it!”
He pulled out the other pistol in his belt and shot three more zombies. Claire grabbed the gun off the floor and backed away, crying out in fear.
“Go! Just go!” Kendo shouted. “Run for it!”
Claire turned and ran through the back room and to the rear exit. She carried the Mac-10 in one hand, and a pistol in the other. Kendo watched her go, and then as the zombies came upon him one last time, he stuck his pistol into his mouth and pulled the trigger.