Int. Inside Warehouse (Night) October 23, 2025, 8:35 PM
The duo stood in front of the message, a creepy silence settling between them as Blake observed the message. Gabriel noticed a deep frown on Blake's face as he kept looking upon the message. Blake's eyes weren't blinking, as if he was stuck in a trance. Gabriel gave him a moment as he looked at the desk the body was sitting behind; dried blood coated the white papers, sticking some of them together. Putting his gun away, Gabriel set down the flashlight, going through his pocket to put on rubber gloves. Picking back up the flashlight with his right hand, Gabriel started going through the papers, doing his best to find any relevant information.
Gabriel came across a picture of Blake sitting on a bench. The photo was in black and white, and the blood covered the rest. It was dated October 1st of this year; it was hard to tell what time it was because the damage was in the photo. Other documents listed names of victims who died, and there were more than the six bodies they had found.
"Blake, I need you to come take a look at this," Gabriel stressed, shining the light at Blake. Blake, dazed, looked momentarily left as he stumbled over towards Gabriel.
After a moment, he stood next to Gabriel, looking down at the files on the desk, looking right at the photo first. Blake quickly picked it up, his hand shaking as he looked it over. "I remember this day; I was just meeting up with Mark."
Gabriel cocked his head in interest. "Mark, as in the snitch I met earlier, right?"
"Yeah," Blake nodded in agreement. "He was complaining about something. I think he said some guy was following and came to me for help. I told him that he was too paranoid and to lay low. That nothin' bad was going to happen."
Gabriel didn't have a chance to respond as a heavy object slammed into his chest, knocking him down to the ground.
BOOM!
"Jesus, what the fuck is that?" Blake cried, his Boston accent coming out heavy in his shock.
Gabriel's flashlight rolled across the ground as he struggled to hold back the thing on top of him. Gabriel recognized that it was a corpse from earlier, somehow attacking him with all of its might. Maggots dripped onto his clothing; half-eaten flesh dangled from the head of the corpse. Gabriel struggled with all his might; the dead body was unnaturally strong for how decayed it actually was.
"DAMMIT, BLAKE! HELP!" Gabriel shouted out, sweat pouring down his face as he struggled to stop the corpse from biting his neck.
The Zombie leaned back; a loud sound, akin to nails on a chalkboard, roared from its mouth. "Graaah!!!"
The sudden noise slightly dazed Gabriel, allowing enough leverage for the zombie to swing its head down, butting him in the face. Stars flashed in front of Gabriel's vision; his entire strength seemingly zapped from the pain, his broken nose spraying blood, gushing out blood on the corpse's face. Sudden tears in his eyes blurred his vision, but he saw a chair flying above his face, hitting the corpse off his body.
"Jesus, kid, you look a mess. Let's get you out of here," Blake grimaced as he gazed down at the blood over Gabriel's clothes. Blake reached down, grabbing Gabriel by the back of his jacket, forcefully dragging him onto his feet.
Gabriel, still dazed, went along with the force, flashlight left behind as they quickly made their way back to the entrance. Gabriel, with blood dripping down his face, and Blake, made their way to the entrance, the moonlight shining through the glass, but not offering any solace. The door that Blake kicked was put back; the hinges and the door itself looked brand new, like it was just installed. The door had a thick chain wrapped around the handle with a lock around it. Gabriel, the dazed feeling he had from the hit finally straightening up, began wiping any maggots off his body. Unzipping his jacket, Gabriel ripped a part of his shirt, using it to wipe his face clear, including the tears that were in his eyes. Then he ripped the piece into two smaller pieces to plug his nose that was still dripping blood on the floor.
Blake, ignoring what Gabriel was doing, approached the door. "Shit, shit!" he muttered loud enough for Gabriel to hear. He tried his best to move the door, even to break the lock off, but nothing happened. "FUCK!" With one last kick to the door, Blake gave up.
Gabriel approached the door; he let out a huge sigh. "Reanimated corpses and magically fixing doors it's like some shit out of a movie."
"Don't start on some voodoo type shit, Rook," Blake replied, his face having a stormy expression as he looked at the ceiling.
Gabriel looked annoyed at Blake, his nose twitching. "Seriously? Voodoo out of all things? Couldn't you just say magic, right?"
Blake just shrugged, turning to face Gabriel. "Just thought your kind understands voodoo better than just plain magic."
Gabriel glared at Blake, doing his best to not let his anger get the best of him. "This is why I hated working with you in the first place. You're always saying and doing shit that you know will push people to the edge."
"News flash, the world is a crappy place, Rook, and I did my best to be respectful to ya," Blake growled. "Now, I might have said some shit you didn't agree with, but I always made sure you were more than welcome. So sorry I don't live in this bubble of a fucking perfect world you live in."
Gabriel just stared at Blake, his mouth opening and closing. It took Gabriel a moment of thinking before words finally came out. "Making me feel welcome working with a racist dick, or was it when you planted a knife on someone then told me to be quiet?" he stated, his tone venomous. Gabriel's eyes grew big; reaching for his sidearm, he quickly raised it in the direction of Blake.
"Woah, Rook, wtf?" Blake began, his cocky tone turned to worry as he put his hands in the air.
Gabriel quickly let off two shots, interrupting Blake's sentence as he fired past his head. The bullet fell into the corpse that Blake had knocked off Gabriel before. Gabriel ran past Blake, who had his eyes closed and was grabbing his ears due to the noise of the gun, to check on the corpse to make sure it was dead this time. The half-eaten corpse had black blood pouring out of the two bullet wounds from the head. The smell of decaying flesh was potent in the air.
"Clear, suspect down!" Gabriel shouted, making sure that Blake could hear.
Blake stumbled over towards Gabriel, looking down at him kneeling near the body. "Next time, warn me before drawing on me again," Blake whined as he dug in his ear.
Gabriel stood up, putting his gun away, keeping a mental count that there were eight bullets left in the magazine. "Next time we have a reanimated corpse attacking you, I'll make sure to let it bite you first before doing anything to help," he joked.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Rook," Blake replied. Stepping closer, he kicked it a couple of times before nodding that it was dead. "An ugly son of a bitch, ain't it."
Gabriel cocked his head to the side, looking at Blake before looking back at the corpse. "Honestly, can't tell the difference between you two; it's almost as if you guys are cousins."
"Haha, so funny I forgot to laugh. You should leave the jokes to me," Blake snorted.
Gabriel just shrugged, turning his back on Blake; he checked out the door once again. So far, his mind has been blown open by the two things that have happened so far. He doesn't want to think that magic could actually exist; maybe it was something more in science, like a failed cure mutating a body. Gabriel shook his head, reaching into his pocket to pull out his cell phone. While the screen was cracked, the touchscreen still worked; sadly, it had no service.
Gabriel let out a heavy sigh before turning back towards Blake. "Do you have any service on your phone?" he asked.
Blake reached into his right jacket pocket, finding it empty. Moving faster, he checked all of his pockets, finding nothing but his car keys. "So, bad news: I left my phone in the car," he nervously chuckled.
"Of course you did," Gabriel muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "The only thing we can try to do is push forward to see if we can find another exit somewhere else in the building."
"Or we could," started Blake, but Gabriel ignored him as he walked off back into the room where the corpse was. "Or you could just ignore me; that's fine, too," he muttered to himself.
Gabriel quickly walked into the room and picked up his flashlight that was still on. He made sure to grab a handful of the papers on the desk, folding them and putting them into his front left pocket. Doing his best to rush, he wants to hurry up and escape the building before anything else creepy happens. Going back into the main hallway, he noticed Blake looking at the body once again.
"Let's go!" Gabriel called out to Blake. Not waiting for a reply, he took out his sidearm and began making his way forward, further into the factory.
Gabriel was thankful for the shine of the flashlight; moving away from the entrance and the little moonlight, they became quickly enveloped by darkness. He quickly heard a shuffling behind him before a second flashlight joined him in illuminating the surroundings. Walking past the help desk area was a long, drawn-out hallway with an area pointing towards the warehouse. Another pointing left towards the loading area. Gabriel made the choice of going further into the factory since getting answers is more important.
Blake didn't say anything as they passed multiple empty offices that held nothing but dried blood. Each smelled like the first office they passed earlier, like decaying flesh, though the duo found no bodies at all. Gabriel didn't let the lack of evidence get to him; once they can leave, hopefully he can get DNA from the blood. Just the sound of them breathing and slowly moving forward is all that was heard. The sounds of the rats stopping all together made for an eerie atmosphere.
Gabriel, now reaching the end of the hallway, made a right, going further into the building. A feeling as if something was calling him kept him moving forward, even if he truly wanted to run away.
"Not to try and boss ya around, Rook, but why didn't you try to find an exit out towards the loading bay?" Blake whispered, keeping his tone low.
Gabriel quickly replied, "Just a gut feeling we might find what we need to push the case further."
"Hmm, I see," Blake said before quieting down.
Now halfway through the hall in front of Gabriel were two giant metal doors with a small glass window that was dirty. The entire building has been nothing but a dirty, rat-infested building that seems like it has been abandoned for years. Reaching the door, Gabriel took a deep breath, not pausing for a second before pushing open the door. The door had a wire attached to it that snapped as soon as it was opened. Gabriel heard the snap but realized it was too late to do anything. Lights above them flickered to life, showing off the entire warehouse. Giant shelves had products on them; multiple pallet trucks lay overturned. In the middle of the giant room lay a word that Gabriel couldn't see from the distance.
Gabriel yelled out to Blake, "Be careful; I might have triggered a trap."
"Come on, at this point if some shit was going to happen, it would let us keep moving forward and get your damn evidence," Blake replied. "Place gives me the creeps."
"Yeah, yeah," Gabriel said as he kept walking.
Unbeknownst to the duo, figures were hiding behind giant shelves, yellow eyes watching them walk around.