The Police Station District 14 stood like a tomb of brick and shattered glass. The main street was still a slow river of Walkers, but the station, thanks to the surrounding area appearing to have been cleared by a previous confrontation, seemed quiet.
The lights were still on, barely illuminating the entrance and part of the adjacent buildings.
Zane moved first, hugging the wall, both machetes ready. The group stuck close to him, moving in a line, trying to make the least amount of noise possible even the children could feel the danger and kept silent.
"Here we go," Zane whispered, approaching the shattered main door. "No one touches anything. No one makes noise. If there are weapons inside, they could attract more."
The interior was a mess of overturned desks, papers soaked in a dark red substance, and the metallic smell of blood. It was empty. The police had either fought the horde and lost, or simply fled to rescue their own families.
"To the armory," Zane hissed, pointing to the back. "It should be a steel door. Liam, you and I look for the keys or the combination. Chloe, you and Sarah, stay here with the children, behind the desks."
Mark, leaning on his makeshift crutch, nodded, his face pale but determined.
Zane, Liam, and the two remaining healthy men, Tomás and David, headed toward the back. The other two men were younger and visibly terrified, but they knew the weapons were their only hope.
"There it is! Armored door," Liam whispered.
Zane inspected it. Locked. He searched the bodies of the fallen police officers, finding some magazines, but no master key.
"We have to find the keys or the combination safe. Split up and search fast. If we take too long, the street horde will find us," Zane ordered.
Liam and Zane checked the chief's office; Tomás and David stayed to search the fallen bodies in the main lobby.
While Zane found 9mm ammo and a couple of bulletproof vests, he heard a muffled scream coming from the lobby.
"Damn it!" Zane ran back, leaving Liam behind.
What he saw was a bloody mess. David and Tomás hadn't realized a Walker was trapped under a desk. When they moved it, the zombie broke free.
Tomás was on the floor, screaming, as the Walker clung to his face, biting him. David, in a panic, tried to hit it with a chair, failing pathetically.
Zane arrived in an instant. A machete entered the zombie's nape, exiting through its mouth. The body fell lifelessly onto Tomás, who was still screaming. Zane's hands swiftly decapitated Tomás.
"Bitten! Bitten!" David screamed, terrified, looking at the blood on the floor.
The commotion was too much. From a broken ventilation shaft in the ceiling, shuffling feet were heard. Three Walkers dropped to the floor with a thump.
"Liam! Chloe! Get over here!" Zane yelled, knowing the silence was broken.
Liam came running. The three Walkers were right in the line of sight of the side office where the women and children were.
Sarah ran out with a pocket knife. Another woman, Elena, tried to push past her to shield her child. Panic seized the group.
Zane dealt with the three zombies quickly, beheading them before they could take a significant step. But the noise had already caused fatal damage.
Elena had frozen in the middle of the lobby. David, trying to flee the scene, shoved her into a dark corner where two more zombies, which had crawled through a gap in the wall, were waiting for her.
There was no time for heroism. Zane only heard a strangled scream and the sound of tearing before silence, full of gasps, returned.
"The key!" Liam shouted, pointing to Tomás's inert hand.
Zane crouched and found a large keychain. He ran to the armory, inserted the key, and turned it. CLACK!
The armory was a deadly paradise. Shelves were packed with shotguns, rifle magazines, boxes of ammo, and grenades. For Zane, it was a waste of weight. His current body wouldn't handle firearms well. But for the others, it was life even the children would become helpful if they could fire a weapon; at this point, any hand that could hold a gun was valuable.
"Fast! Mark, Sarah, come and load up," Zane ordered.
Mark hobbled in and saw the weapons. His eyes widened with hope. Chloe and Sarah entered, their eyes fixed on the lethal wealth.
While the group—which had now lost two men and one woman—loaded everything they could carry, Zane went with Liam to the armored windows, looking out onto the street.
"We can't carry all this walking. We'll get torn apart," Liam said, a shotgun in his hand and the terror of what had just happened etched on his face.
"We need wheels. Something heavy," Zane said, scanning the exterior.
And then he saw them. They were in the station's back parking lot, blocked by a rubble fence, but intact.
A couple of armored prisoner transport vans and two armored SWAT SUVs. Perfect. Slow, but invulnerable.
"Liam, you and I find the vehicle keys. The rest, keep loading. And fast. This won't last," Zane ordered.
They returned inside. The group was exhausted, but the sight of the weapons had given them new energy.
"Mark," Zane said. "Are the vehicle keys kept anywhere specific?"
"Normally, on a board behind the reception desk," Mark replied. "But with the chaos..."
"I got it!" shouted Chloe, who had been checking the reception area. She held a box full of labeled keys.
Zane grabbed a large handful. "Liam, let's go test them. Mark, I need you for the radio. If we find the vans, you guide us."
Zane and Liam went out. The ten remaining survivors now had hope and an arsenal. All that was left was the escape.