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Post by NotAvailable on Feb 8, 2012 7:36:54 GMT -5
This lock smithing shop is one of the few, unappreciated, small businesses of Raccoon City despite it's popularity for novelty locks and puzzles. The walls are lined with all sorts of tools necessary to create your lock, safes, puzzle boxes and a key cutting machine found in the front of the store.
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Ion
Zombie Hunter
[Fine]
Posts: 275
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Post by Ion on Feb 27, 2012 21:18:23 GMT -5
[Rich and Anna are now at Tumblers Today]
The pair walked along the narrow back alley where shops cramped close together sold toys, fireworks, Chinese food and the like. The asphalt was wet with runoff and between the two survivors and the ground was a thin layer of trash. Richard and Anna walked carefully along, eyes and ears alert. There wasn't any blood or bodies like they've seen everywhere else and it was beginning to become unsettling.
Richard looked up at the two buildings they stood between. Lines of clothes and cloth draped the sky above them, blocking out nearly all light. Suddenly there'd been a clank of trashcans, one of them tipped over, knocking the other one over in the process.
Anna had yelped and pointed her sidearm at whatever it was that had done it. Scampering out from between the cans had been, what looked like, a Raccoon. Anna lowered her handgun, sighing relieved.
"Oh thank God..." she muttered. The creature hissed at them and started running directly at the pair, a noticeably large chunk of it's fur and flesh missing. "Oh sh*t!" she yelped again, shooting at it and killing it before it could pounce off the ground.
"Ffff*ck..." Richard dragged out the swear, his heart beating quickly over such a little thing. "That little thing was gonna give me a heart attack, I swear."
The officer looked around the alleyway for anymore...predators. "Well it could be worse. It could have been a giant, mutated, snake," she responded, shuddering.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Well the S.T.A.R.S. team mentioned in the reports that they'd went rounds with a giant f*cking snake in that mansion. And they also said there were f*cking zombies. So ya know..."
"Now you've got me paranoid, great. So where is this locksmith so we can get off the street anyway?"
Anna pointed at a nearby shop.
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Post by NotAvailable on Feb 27, 2012 21:32:41 GMT -5
When the pair neared the shop, Anna had peered inside the small window to see a dark store. She'd squinted her eyes a little, trying to see if there'd been anyone or anything inside, unfortunately it was too dark. She'd sighed and pulled back, looking back and fourth at both ends of the alleyway. Pulling at the door handle, she'd found it locked but the store's shutters weren't up.
"Alright, well, it's locked," she began, pulling the shotgun off of her shoulder. "It's good thing I have a universal key to locked doors, right here in my grasp," she told Rich, slamming the butt of the shotgun into the window of the door. She'd continued to smash the remaining glass out before reaching through it, searching for the lock.
Finding it, rather quickly, she'd unlocked the door and pushed it open. Moving further inside, she'd went on ahead of Rich, slinging the shotgun over her shoulder again. She'd went for her handgun on her hip, unholstering it with one hand and grabbing at her flashlight with the other.
She'd turned the light on, shining it around the shop at the many locks and keys that graced it's walls. "Not trying to be negative Nancy here but if we don't find your keys here...then we'll probably have to take it upon ourselves to head to the RPD and I really don't want that," she said, pointing the light at the man's face.
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Ion
Zombie Hunter
[Fine]
Posts: 275
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Post by Ion on Feb 27, 2012 22:24:34 GMT -5
"One thing at a time. If we don't find them we have to get back to your apartment and try and find your cousin. If we don't, we'll still have a safe place to sleep for the night, then we can figure things out tomorrow..."
Rich walked inside the shop and flicked the lights on with his shoulder. Plastic fixtures lining the roof hummed and began to glow after a few seconds. Anna glanced upward at the lights before switching her flashlight off and clipping it back to her belt. "Well the school isn't too far from here, so I wanted to check that place out before we head back to the Apartments,"she said, walking off to the back of the store.
"Right right, how did I forget that was the plan. Must be the raccoon. Scared me so bad my mind's still trying to cope," Rich muttered as he started scanning the shelves for anything that could help.
There were a bunch of blank keys of different styles, some doorknobs, safes... nothing that could help him though. He lingered on a section that showed an array of novelty locks. They weren't any help, but they looked interesting. Medallions with different animals and corresponding slots. A pretty thick brochure listed the merits of novelty locks against traditional. On the cover were such bullet points as: -Lockpick-proof! -Conversation starter! -Decorative!
"What's with all these novelty locks? They seem to be pushing them pretty hard on customers," Richard called out to Anna.
"I don't know. Raccoon is weird like that. I mean, you should see the precinct, there's statues and some weird puzzle lock thing in the Chief's office...well that's the rumor anyway," her voice responded from the back room. "Actually there was this one time I was talking with my friend, Paola in the second floor West wing....I leaned on one of these trojan statues and it slid up against the wall and made this bigger statue click. It was really weird," she explained, nonchalantly.
"Makes me glad I don't pay taxes," Rich muttered as he moved down the rows towards the back of the shop.
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Post by NotAvailable on Feb 27, 2012 22:49:15 GMT -5
Anna had been digging around through some old boxes in the back, hoping to find some sets of handcuffs since there didn't seem to be any displayed outside. She'd sighed and closed up one of the packages she'd shuffled through, turning to look across the room when she'd suddenly stopped, staring down at an old mattress and something alarming. She'd walked over, kneeling down to pick it up and wandered on back outside where he'd been checking out more of the stock on the walls.
She'd quietly approached him from behind and grabbed the item's hand, placing it on his shoulder. "Richard...." she said quietly.
"Wha-AHH SH*T!" Rich yelled out, falling backwards into a string of keys. Anna burst out laughing, still holding the thing up in her arms. She'd crept in closer to him, moving the thing's head around.
"Richard! My love!" she said, reaching it's arm out to him. It turned out to be a creepy blow up doll she'd found in the back room. A specific...sort of doll that even she had to admit, was frightening and gross at the same time.
"Oh my God, get that sh*t away from me! Ugh, why are you doing this? I thought we were friends!" Rich sputtered out as she continued touching it's hands against his face.
"Friends?! I thought I meant more to you! Muah, muah, muah muah muah muah! Kiss me, you fool!" Anna said, threatening to force it's creepy face and opened...mouth... on the man.
"No way, that things got like, mouth herpes or something, I don't know, just get it away from me!" Rich yelled out, continuing to struggle helplessly against it.
Suddenly there'd been a string of gunshots coming from outside the shop. Anna immediately threw the doll aside, crouching down behind the counters. She'd looked up over it momentarily, helping Rich up a little.
"The hell was that...?" she began when she'd noticed what looked like a man in an orange-yellow vest sprint passed the windows. Somewhere behind him, there'd been a massive figure in what looked like a trench coat. It stopped halfway through, glancing inside the shop. It's face had been anything but human.
"Sssstaaaaarrrrssss....." it said, atleast, that's what it sounded like to the officer. Her heart raced and her face paled as she swallowed hard and held her breath.
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Ion
Zombie Hunter
[Fine]
Posts: 275
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Post by Ion on Feb 27, 2012 23:28:07 GMT -5
The gunshots made the the air in the shop suddenly heavy. Anna quickly moved herself and Rich into cover behind the counter of the store. Rich caught a glimpse of a man running past the store, figuring him for the gunman. But what of the target...?
Deep breathing, groaning really was the answer. Rich had it initially figured for a zombie, but it sounded like a big one. A really big one. Loud, thundering footsteps resounded outside the door. Rich looked out of the corner of the counter, just barely catching a glimpse of it.
A tall, trenchcoat clad abomination stood just outside the door. It's skin was missing and it's teeth were bared. One of it's eyes seemed sewn shut or something.
"Sssstaaaaarrrrssss....." it groaned out.
Holy sh*t, did that thing just talk!? was Richard's first thought. After a second that had seemed like an eternity, the lumbering behemoth trudged off, groaning in it's deep, unreal tone.
"Is it-is it gone?" Rich whispered over to Anna.
Anna eventually got up and climbed over the counter, carefully wandering over to the window, gun drawn. She'd peered outside and gulped. "Y-Yeah...it's gone now..."
"Alright, alright, what was... what do you think that was?" Rich said, getting up and walking up besides Anna.
"I don't f*cking know...maybe it's the thing that crashed into the Raccoon Press? Looked like it..." she said, keeping a look out for it.
"It f*cking talked," Rich said and looked over at her.
"You heard that too? It sounded like it said, "Stars"..." she trailed off before pausing momentarily. She'd looked back at Rich, terrified. "Wait..."
"Wait what?"
"That thing that we saw crashing into the news place. It fell from a capsule attached to that Umbrella chopper. There were like, four more of those capsules being charted around, did you see?" she asked.
"Yeah, and you think that thing came from one of those capsules? Like some kind of Canned Horrible Monster Umbrella's planning on selling to bored parents or something?"
The officer opened her mouth to respond, squinting her eyes, then just stopped. "Uh...what?"
"A Canned Horrible Umbrella Monster. A CHUM. He's a CHUM. Anyway, it didn't seem too interested in us, so we shouldn't be too interested in him either. Cold shoulder works both ways and I vote we should just get as far away from it as our feet can carry," Rich ranted.
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Post by NotAvailable on Feb 28, 2012 0:01:08 GMT -5
Anna frowned and looked back out the window before opening the door. "Well, there aren't any keys here for your cuffs, go figure. We should get to the school before that thing comes back," she told him. As she walked out of the shop, she'd grinned.
"Oh wait, we gotta bring your girlfriend. She might get lonely here by herself. She was so shocked to see you, did ya notice? Her mouth was agape."
"She's always shocked to see me. She's shocked to see everyone. She was shocked when she was late, but it wasn't even a shocker, because she's always late, because she's a f*cking doll. Course it might have been the realization that she's a doll that made her that way, who am I to comment on someone else's perception of their existience, yadda yadda, existiential bullsh*t."
"Wow," Anna merely said, walking on out of the shop.
When they were back outside, she'd wandered in the opposite direction of where the monster had gone, purposely. It'd prolong the route to the school, but it was safer that way.
The two were mudding up their boots when something suddenly landed on Rich's face.
"OhmyGodgetitoffmeAURRGH!!!" he shouted, flailing his body around and tripping over his own feet. He'd stumbled forward, slamming into Anna, who also stumbled back and hit her shoulder into the alley wall beside her.
"What?! What's wrong?!" she yelled back, aiming her sidearm at him and then suddenly lowering it. "Uhh Rich...?"
Richard struggled for a few more seconds before stopping and standing still. Anna pulled the dirty blanket off his head and dropped it aside.
"Yeah uh, lets get a move on," Rich muttered.
Anna smiled and patted his shoulder. "Right."
[Rich and Anna have left the Locksmith's.]
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