Almost there, we are already at the park where the museum resides. The place smells different, more natural but the scent of the wet asphalt remains. The rain keeps on falling.
We don’t need to run anymore, the Lieutenant yells orders sending teams to arterial streets so we can use them as kill boxes when the undead and monsters come. There’s enough space here for the helicopters to land, we will just have to move some cars around.
The men started doing just that, breaking car windows, moving the hand brakes and pushing them around. The cars would be brought up to one of the streets and used to mount barricades.
The Lieutenant ordered my squad to enter the museum and get the relics.
To say the building was old would be an understatement, it’s colonial architecture was characteristic of the golden era of rubber extraction this region lived through. Albeit not as luxurious or attention stealing as some other buildings in this city it still has a very nice charm to it. It’s actually quite simple in it’s design, a red rectangle with a lot of white stone windows. Each window has white rails on the outside part, the windows are large enough to act as doors and there’s a lot of them, every part of the wall is adorned with them with little space between one another.
This used to be the police headquarters in the city, but as the city grew and turned into a metropolis a new building far away from downtown and all the traffic was chosen, this old building then turned into a museum, old relics from the internals wars in Brazil are housed here alongside many other things, our priorities are the war relics the rest is a bonus.
Five men are going in, and my fireteam's leader, an old Half-indian, orders us to stack up on the main entrance.
The old blackish wooden doors and a small garden are our environment for now.
We check our armor, old canvas and nylon pieces tied to our arms, which will save our lifes in case one of the zombies gets too close we also have the same pieces on our necks, we keep it to a minimum because the average temperature here is too high and no one wants to become a sweat slime, couple that with our rain-coats and we should be one step above vulnerable.
The leader used one hand to push the door open and aimed his IA2 with the other.
We all moved in together, the place was dark and the smell of old wood and carpet was strong, the interior itself was anachronistic, a corridor with a short set of stairs connected the entrance to the halls, red carpet showed the way.
We moved on with guns aimed through it, reaching the first floor’s hall, the place was filled with old objects, but the floor was dominated by a gigantic collection of old coins that were spread around multiple rooms all were placed inside a table with a glass case on-top, a small note alongside each coin denoted the year and story behind it.
This was all and useless to us, the real objective was in the rooms of the western wing and second floor, the Police museum, everything from uniforms, guns and of course The relics.
I moved alongside Luis, one of the riflemen and a long-time friend of mine towards the stairs in the eastern wing away from the rest of the squad.
“Why aren’t we going with the rest of the guys? we’re gonna get our asses chewed for this, y’kno?” Luis said while we made our way.
“Trust the plan, ok trust me, you’re always so pessimistic and always talkin shit ‘bout my plans but when did they ever blow, eh bro?” I said, with a smile reminding my friend of my good track-record.
We took the stairs, the sound of falling rain reverberated from outside.
We reached the second story, another old wooden floor, white stone walls. With glass cases and mannequins everywhere some posters and informatives pinned on the walls added color to the place.
The sound of boots coming from the other side of the building intermingled with the vibration of the rain.
“Ok, look for it, keep your eyes open for a silver laurel crown and a silver and golden embroidered national flag.” I said, while moving about and looking for the two relics.
Shots were heard from outside, at first just one or two here and there, but it soon evolved into a full blown firing.
“Shit Matias, let’s get this shit before we run out of time” Luis said, his voice was anxious and panicky, his posture remained the same until we were both alerted by a crashing sound coming from one of the rooms.
A dog ran out of one of the corridors towards the hall, a caramel mutt. It was visibly startled, when it saw me and Luis it began to growl at me.
I approached it, it began to get more aggressive, barking at me.
“Matias you crazy, get the fuck away from it, it could be infected or some shit” Luis said, pointing his FAL at the Caramel mutt.
The dog lunged forward and bit my arm. It’s teeth didn’t pierce my flesh thanks to the canvas protection, but it crushed my arm, causing pain and eliciting a growl from me.
“Don’t shoot him!” I yelled to Luis who had his finger on the trigger and was aiming at the dog.
The dog had an angry expression while it tried to trash my arm.
I began to pat it’s head, slowly the angry expression began to evaporate. Soon after the poor dog began whimpering and licking my arm, angry no more.
“See? it’s just a scared doggy” I said to Luis, who began lowering his rifle.
The dog stopped licking my arm, barked and moved towards the corridor and then stopped and looked at me as if motioning me to follow him.
I followed the dog, the little guy jumped trying to reach my hand and get my attention. After the attention was given the dog then moved down a corridor that didn’t connect to another hall. The corridor was badly illuminated; it was an old service passage with a bathroom and some storage rooms.
He moved up to one of the closed wooden doors and started rasping it with his claws.
Luis followed me, although reluctantly.
I tried to open the door, it was locked and didn’t budge.
“Luis, you said you wanted to breach last time we did this, so go ahead” I said to Luis after making sure it opened to the inside, Luis responded with a sigh.
I moved back pulling the dog to me and away from the door.
Luis moved back a few steps, his heavy backpack visibly weighing him down.
He kicked the door, close to the doorknob, the door budged but it wasn’t enough to open it.
“One more time” I said, the dog was enthusiastic.
Luis kicked it again and the door opened, hitting against a wall and making a lot of noise.
The small room was well illuminated by a big window. The room was pristine as if it was being kept diligently ever since this whole thing started.
The room was empty safe for a white mannequin wearing a old rugged and worn police uniform, a silver laurel crown on his head and his right hand holding a republican flag standard, the mannequin was behind a glass box, the glass box was spotless and well cared for despite all the hell that happened.
“Is that it?” Luis questioned upon looking at the symbols of dirty glory.
“Yes, yes it is” I said, mouth open while looking at the glass display.
“Let’s get this out of here and get the fuck out of downtown, radio in with the guys” I proclaimed to Luis while i prepared to strike the glass display with the butt of my rifle. The dog was keeping his distance, he knew what would happen when i striked the glass, it seems.
