Finding Simon Wright's Camera

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 12, Post Number 300

-Outside Silent Cemetery, midnight-

Wearing her casual outfit with brown boots and blue backpack, Lucia had also brought Shining Light with her. The pistol sat in its holster on her right hip as she walked towards the cemetery gates. She was here tonight on behalf of her client Simon Wright and she was here to retrieve a camera of his that he had dropped somewhere in Silent Cemetery.

According to Simon, last night he had entered the cemetery to investigate rumors of elevated zombie activity when he was forced to flee for his life due to an unusually large number of zombies chasing him plus zombie dogs that had joined the chase close to the exit. In his haste to escape he dropped his camera somewhere in the cemetery... he could not remember exactly where it had been dropped because he was understandably focused on getting out alive instead of remembering where he had dropped his camera. Since Lucia had worked for him before, he had hired her for the job. Now it was up to her to find it and bring it back to him no matter what condition it was in. He had specified that he would accept it whether it was intact or broken... the film within the camera was what he was really after.

Before she had set out for the cemetery Lucia had asked Simon what he had meant by "elevated zombie activity." His answer was that he counted over three dozen zombies out and about in the cemetery plus an unknown number of zombie dogs that had chased him to the gates. Having been forewarned, Lucia had brought Shining Light but had left Lumie at home because she would not have the luxury of carrying both him and Shining Light. She would need both hands to aim the pistol when going up against zombie dogs because they moved a lot faster than human zombies and precision was important because she might get only one shot before the dogs closed to biting range.

Lucia approached the gate, pulled Shining Light from its holster, and opened the gate with her left hand, then slipped in and closed the gate behind her.

-Inside Silent Cemetery-

Lucia turned around and found herself facing three zombies who had taken notice of her almost immediately. She quickly raised Shining Light in a two-handed shooting grip and aimed for the head of the first zombie, a female zombie wearing a yellowed wedding dress missing her right eye. Lucia fired once and brought it down with a hole to the forehead. She turned to aim at the next zombie, a man wearing a tattered black tuxedo with only one shoe on. She shot him in the forehead too and he fell backwards, landing on his back never to rise again.

The third zombie, a young man dressed in a black tuxedo with the skin from around his lips missing, shambled towards Lucia with both arms raised. She quickly aimed for him and shot him in the forehead. He paused in place and looked at her, then fell forward and landed on his face. Now that all three zombies were dead Lucia had a bit of time to look for the camera. She looked all along the path leading to the gate and looked down each row of tombstones, but she could not find it in this area.

Lucia knew that she would have to go deeper in the cemetery to find the camera, so she began moving forward with Shining Light at the ready. All of the zombies she had shot remained still and she passed by them without trouble. She traveled down the path until she reached a fork in the road. Just like last time her choices were limited to going left or going right.

Lucia looked down each path for a clue that could point her in the right direction. To the left she saw nothing but burial vaults and zombies shambling about. To her right she saw the glowing Lacrima lanterns in the same patch of cemetery where she had met Lumie. Neither side offered any clues, but then Lucia thought about what Simon had told her about the zombies and took a glance at the left side again.

There were at least ten zombies in sight, which probably meant that the zombies clustered on the left path were the same ones that had chased Simon out of Silent Cemetery.

Lucia had no evidence to support that hypothesis because Simon had mentioned elevated zombie activity in the cemetery and there were quite a few burial vaults where the zombies could have come from, but it was worth a shot. If she went down the left path, killed all the zombies in her way, and did not find the camera, it would only be a minor inconvenience. If she went down the left path, killed all the zombies in her way, and happened to find the camera, Lucia could pick it up and begin the long trip back to Magnolia Town. It was worth a try just for the off chance that she could be right.

With her mind made up, Lucia turned left and began walking down the path that led to a section of cemetery lined with burial vaults and zombies shambling about aimlessly. Or they were shambling about aimlessly before they somehow detected Lucia and raised their arms, then shambled towards her with their milky white eyes fixed on her. The blonde stopped in place, raised Shining Light in a two-handed shooting grip, and prepared to eliminate the zombies in her path.

[Post Word Count: 936]
[Total Word Count: 936/5,000]

-Silent Cemetery, five minutes later-

Once Lucia stopped shooting she had killed fourteen zombies. Ten had shambled towards her when she first set foot on the left path and an additional four had shambled out of hiding places behind burial vaults. None of the zombies had managed to get within five meters of her before being dispatched with a single shot to the head apiece. Edgar of Hargeon Handguns was not lying to her when he claimed that it could harm supernatural targets and she was glad that he did not lie to her to make a sale. Lucia appreciated the stopping power Shining Light had to offer against ghosts and zombies, both of which tended to go down in one well-aimed shot.

Now that the zombies were dead Lucia began walking down the left path past the burial vaults, carefully avoiding the downed zombies in case they were not quite dead. She was wearing a long skirt and the garment was long enough for a "downed" zombie to reach up and grab as she passed by. She needed to work on getting some pants to replace the long skirt for jobs, but she would have to do that the next time she was in Capital Crocus and felt like taking a trip to the mall.

Lucia walked down the path until it took a turn right. The blonde stopped in the middle of the path and saw that she would be headed into a gated section of the cemetery. Its layout was similar to the area where she had met Lumie and it even had glowing Lacrima lanterns placed on top of the tombstones to light the way. That was good because she had left Lumie at home and needed some light. Taking a deep breath, Lucia walked towards the open gate and passed into the gated section of the cemetery.

-Inside the gated section-

Lucia walked down the path and could not help but to feel cold despite wearing a long-sleeved shirt. She looked at the tombstones and noticed that a few of the graves to the right of the entrance were open. The blonde wished she had not seen the open graves because the unpleasant thoughts came back to her.

She did not belong in the world of the living.

Her time had come and gone.

She should go rejoin her family in the afterlife.

Lucia shook off those unpleasant and intrusive thoughts and looked away from the graves, looking instead down the path that lay ahead of her. She began walking again while keeping an eye out for Simon's camera and watching for those zombie dogs Simon had warned her about. She had not seen or heard them yet, but just because she did not see them did not mean that they were not out there. She would have to be careful as she looked for the camera lying somewhere in the cemetery.

-Deeper in Silent Cemetery, twenty minutes later-

Lucia found herself walking down a well-worn path with burial vaults on both sides. The doors remained closed, but the blonde remained wary. If the vaults opened to discharge their undead occupants while she was in the middle of the path she would have to run for her life before the sheer number of zombies overwhelmed her. So far the vaults were remaining closed, but there was no guarantee they would remain that way for long.

Lucia looked down the path and spotted a gleaming object roughly thirty meters away from her present position. The object was too far away to be properly identified, but something on it was gleaming. Maybe it was the lens of the camera, but Lucia would not know for certain until she walked over to the object in question and picked it up. Deciding to take a risk and proceed further down the path while the coast was clear, Lucia briskly walked down the path and listened out for zombies as she approached the gleaming object.

Lucia had just walked ten of the thirty meters without encountering any opposition when she heard howling from somewhere nearby and froze in place. She had just heard the zombie dogs, but she could not tell from where exactly the howling came and thus did not know which direction to face. They could either be somewhere in front of her or somewhere behind her. The blonde cautiously walked forward another two meters and paused when she heard the howling again. She listened carefully and this time she had a slightly better idea of where the dogs were... they were somewhere in front of her.

Lucia cautiously walked forward another meter and saw three shapes that were low to the ground standing at the far end of the path where the object was lying. She stopped and aimed Shining Light at one of the shapes. She heard sniffing sounds, then heard barking and growling. Those noises confirmed what Lucia had suspected... she had just found the zombie dogs that Simon had warned her about.

Lucia saw one of the shapes start running towards her and she carefully aimed for it, then squeezed the trigger. A shot rang out and hit the dog in the chest, causing it to yelp as it fell backwards and killing it in a single shot. The other two dogs growled and charged at her before she could react, but the blonde soon regained her focus and aimed at the dog to the left. She aimed for its chest and squeezed the trigger, hitting it in the right shoulder and causing it to jump back with a pained yelp. She had not killed it, but she had badly hurt it.

The other dog continued to run at Lucia as fast as its legs could carry it and got to within ten meters of her. Lucia aimed at its chest and fired, hitting it in the left shoulder. She quickly aimed for its chest while it recovered and fired again, hitting it in the chest this time and killing it with the second shot. The third dog, having recovered from the wounding shot to its right shoulder, resumed its charge at Lucia but only traveled two meters before she fired again and killed it with a shot to the chest.

Now that the trio of dogs were dead Lucia resumed walking towards the gleaming object. She had only walked four meters when she heard howling in the distance, which meant that more dogs were out there. They had likely heard the sound of Shining Light being fired multiple times and were looking for the source. From the sound of it Lucia did not have much time before they arrived, so she broke into a jog to reach the object before more zombie dogs showed up.

[Post Word Count: 1,132]
[Total Word Count: 2,068/5,000]

After hearing the howls of nearby zombie dogs, Lucia decided that she needed to step it up and retrieve the object before they got here, so she kept jogging towards the object lying in the path. Once she reached it she stopped and looked down at the object lying at her feet. It was black and boxy with a black tube that protruded from the front. The howling sounded again.

Lucia needed to hurry up, so she quickly bent down and scooped up the object with her left hand, then began to examine it. Upon closer examination she found that that she was holding a camera, more specifically an old-fashioned camera that used film. She was not sure if the film the camera used was anything special or if it used plain old film, but finding out could wait until later.

The camera did not have a carrying strap, so slinging it on her left shoulder was not an option. The bottom was a bit scuffed from being dropped and the body of the camera showed signs of wear from years of use, but the most important part of the camera was the lens. Lucia turned it towards her and saw that the lens had been broken when it was dropped.

Simon Wright was NOT going to be happy about this.

Still, she had recovered the camera and he had said on the job notice that he wanted the camera back whether it was broken or not. Lucia had completed the retrieval part of the job, so it was time for her to leave. Lucia took off her backpack, opened it up, rearranged the backpack's contents until the camera could fit inside, then closed up the backpack and quickly put it back on. Now that it was safely inside her backpack Lucia could get out of here.

Lucia turned around and began walking briskly to put some distance between herself and the zombie dogs she had heard. If all went well she would be out of here before the new pack of undead canines could arrive. With the camera in her backpack Lucia quickly made her way towards the gate that led towards the exit.

-On the left path, twenty minutes later-

Lucia was now on the path she had taken when she had chosen to go left at the branching path. The blonde did not hear the zombie dogs, but she saw that there were quite a few zombies shambling about in front of her. The burial vaults must have opened shortly after she had passed by earlier. Now she was going to have to deal with their newly released occupants before she could get out of here and that was going to cost her time that she might not have.

Lucia took a deep breath, used a two-handed shooting grip to aim at the old male zombie closest to her, and fired a single shot that punched through its forehead. It fell backwards and landed on the ground, leaving her to deal with about twenty more zombies littering the path. Lucia did not have a whole lot of time to begin with, but now that the zombies in front of her had been alerted to her presence, she was sure that the time she had to escape before the zombie Dobermans caught up with her had decreased even more. It could not be helped... she had to remove the zombies as a threat.

-On the left path, six minutes later-

The last of the zombies had fallen with a bullet hole to its forehead and Lucia stood on the path. The way was now clear, but earlier she thought she had heard barking somewhere in the distance. The dogs had likely heard the commotion and had been put back on her trail by the sound of gunshots. Now that the path was clear Lucia needed to make good her escape from Silent Cemetery... or at least put some distance between her and the dogs so that she could fight them from a more advantageous position when they caught up to her. She still had a ways to go before she reached the front gates of the cemetery and not much time to do it, so she began jogging down the path.

-Ten meters away from the entrance-

Lucia had finally reached the branching path she had taken earlier. Now her choices were to either go right to reach the cemetery gates or go straight to go into the part of the cemetery where she had met Lumie. The choice was an obvious one, but there was one slight problem.

There was a group of twelve zombie dogs standing between her and the exit!

Lucia could only sigh in resignation. Her troubles were compounded when she heard barking coming from behind her. She turned and saw that a large pack of over a dozen dogs was heading for her. She looked straight and saw that the path ahead of her was empty of dogs, but there were at least ten zombies that were active. Lucia sighed again.

If she stood where she was and tried to fight the dogs they would just drag her down and tear her throat out, so she had to come up with another plan. She looked straight ahead and saw the zombies shambling around in the next section. She also noticed the tombstones and had an idea.

If she ran into that section of cemetery and broke the dogs up into smaller groups, she might be able to pick them off one by one when she picked off members of the pack who got too far ahead of their fellows.

There was no guarantee that the plan would work. Despite their decomposition the dogs were pretty fast and they might be able to jump over the tombstones if she sought to use them to break up the large packs into smaller groups. However, trying that idea was a lot better than trying to stand her ground and getting mauled by the two large packs when they surrounded her and brought her down.

Lucia readied herself for what she was about to do and took a deep breath. Once she was ready she immediately sprinted forward. The dogs barked and began to give chase.

Here went nothing.

[Post Word Count: 1,052]
[Total Word Count: 3,126/5,000]

-Down the right path, in the next section of cemetery-

Lucia sprinted for the open part of cemetery with a lot of rotting dogs chasing her. There were ten active zombies in the area, but they were so spread out that unless she intentionally made contact with them she would be safe from their grasping hands. Still, it was a good idea to take out as many of them as she could so that she did not have to dodge zombies and the dogs. Lucia raised Shining Light in her right hand and aimed at the head of a zombie in black tuxedo and black top hat as she ran. She fired at it while on the move and the first two shots missed, but by some stroke of luck the third shot hit it in the forehead and it fell backwards, clearing the path for the next thirty-five meters.

The zombie dogs were hot on her heels and a few of the especially eager ones outran their fellows, giving Lucia a modest advantage. She ran forward five more meters, then spun around, took a two-handed shooting grip, and aimed for the head of the dog that was closest to her. She aimed and fired, bringing down a dog that had gotten to within two meters of her with a shot through the head. She aimed again and fired at the head of a second dog, killing it too before she was forced to turn and keep running. Lucia turned around and sprinted towards a zombie that was thirty meters from her.

Again Lucia began firing one-handed while on the run in an effort to take down the zombie long before she made contact with it. After three missed shots she decided to hold her fire until she was closer to the zombie, so Lucia kept running until she was ten meters away from it. Once in range she stopped, aimed Shining Light with both hands, and fired at the zombie's head. The old female zombie in a black dress took the bullet to the forehead and did a dramatic 180-degree spin, then faceplanted onto the dirt.

Lucia spun back around to pick off more of the dogs and found that two more of them had outrun the pack, giving her a chance to pick them off before the body of the pack caught up with her. The blonde took careful aim and fired a shot at the head of the first dog from ten meters away. The shot connected and killed it in mid-run, causing it to tumble onto its shoulder and come to a stop on its right side. Lucia aimed at the second dog and fired, but instead of a kill she only inflicted a grazing wound on its left shoulder. With her time nearly up Lucia turned and ran deeper into the section of cemetery where a male zombie in a brown suit waited for her twenty meters away.

Having learned her lesson from the second attempt to fire one-handed while on the move like an action movie hero, Lucia held her fire until she got within five meters of the zombie, then stopped and aimed with both hands. She aimed for the head and fired, taking it down with a shot to the forehead. Lucia turned around and saw the wounded dog from earlier and three more of its fellows running towards her. They were only ten meters away, so she had to act fast.

Lucia raised the pistol, aimed for the head of the wounded dog, and fired. This time the shot was a lethal one. It flew back with a yelp and landed on its back as its fellows continued to run towards Lucia. When the second dog closed to six meters Lucia aimed for its head and fired, grazing the top of its head but failing to make a kill. With no time to make a second shot Lucia turned and ran for it with the still hot on her heels.

Lucia continued to run down the path until she saw that it branched left and had another idea.

If that path was open she could separate the pack even further. If she could lure them into the cemetery deep enough she could double back and run for the cemetery entrance while they were trying to catch up with her. Again it was a risky idea, but it beat standing her ground and fighting a battle she was certain to lose.

Lucia continued to run for the gated section of the cemetery. After what seemed like an eternity of running she finally reached it, but to her horror she found that the path she intended to take was blocked by a horde of approximately forty zombies standing six meters inside the gated area!

"Damn it!" Lucia cursed and skidded to a halt just outside the gate to avoid running into the arms of the waiting horde. So much for that plan. She quickly turned back towards the path and saw the zombie dogs closing in on her, so she needed to come up with another idea fast.

Running out of time and running out of options, Lucia decided that the best idea left to her was to run and weave along the tombstones and hope for the best. She looked to her left and saw a female zombie in a mildewed white dress approaching her. Lucia quickly raised Shining Light in a one-handed grip, aimed for the forehead, and fired. To her surprise she hit the zombie in the forehead and dropped it in a single shot, but she did not have time to celebrate because she still had dogs coming after her.

Lucia ran down the row of tombstones, then weaved between the seventh and eighth tombstones before starting to weave through more tombstones in an effort to break up the dogs so that she would be chased by individuals instead of by a large pack when she got back onto the path. This was going to be a tricky run, but there was no way in Ishgar she would have made it down the path if she had tried running through the middle of the dogs. Lucia had to be careful because there were still a few active zombies in the area and she would not have time to deal with them all while running for the exit.

[Post Word Count: 1,068]
[Total Word Count: 4,194/5,000]

Lucia had made it down four rows of tombstones without incident and stole a glance at the zombie dogs as she jumped over a tombstone. The large pack had broken up into individuals and each dog was operating on its own instead of working as a pack to hem her in, which was good for her because had they been working as a pack she would have been in deep trouble. Lucia had just cleared the tombstone and resumed running when she spotted a dog closing in to her right.

Lucia raised her pistol and fired down at it on the move, hitting it in the right shoulder but failing to even slow it down. Lucia kept running and narrowly avoided its pounce attempt, but she felt its body brush the back of her skirt as she kept running. She really needed to find some good pants once this job was over.

The blonde kept running and weaving around the tombstones until she spotted a zombie in a black burial suit and monocle over its left eye two rows ahead of her. It turned and raised its arms and began shambling towards her. Lucia ran through a gap in the tombstones, then stopped and quickly raised her pistol in a two-handed grip. She aimed for the forehead and fired, killing it in one shot. It had just hit the ground when Lucia resumed running and weaving around, narrowly dodging another zombie dog attack that came from her left.

Lucia saw that the dogs were sufficiently split up, so once she reached the twelfth row of tombstones she immediately ran down it towards the main path, sprinting past a female zombie in a black dress on the thirteenth row that moaned impotently as it reached for her even though she was well out of grabbing range. She got back onto the main path and ran for the exit as fast as she could go. She ran as fast as she could go and soon left the section of cemetery where she had met Lumie behind.

-Near the entrance-

Once she got back to the area near the entrance Lucia took a sharp left turn and hurried down the main path. She could hear the dogs barking not too far behind her, so she did not have time to delay. She ran for the double gates and reached them in record time. She hurriedly grabbed the left gate with her left hand, pulled it open, slipped through the gap, and pushed the gate closed with her body.

-Outside Silent Cemetery-

Moments after closing the gate she felt a sharp impact and heard barking. She had just barely made it ahead of the dogs. Lucia took a few steps back and aimed for the gate in case the dogs somehow broke through, but the iron gates held. After a minute or two of slamming against the gate and barking the dogs seemed to have given up because she heard no more noise from inside the cemetery. Lucia was not going to open the gate and check.

Once the dogs had given up on having her for a snack Lucia took a few deep breaths and began walking away from the cemetery. That was a close call. Now she needed to get back to Magnolia Town and give Simon Wright his camera so that she could get paid. It was going to be a long way back to Magnolia Town, so she had better get going.

-Magnolia Town, Simon Wright's house, ten hours later-

"Hello Miss Winchester! I see that you made it back safely! How was your trip?" Simon asked her as she stood in the foyer of his house after he had let her in moments ago.

"Rough." Lucia answered laconically. She looked like she was about ready to drop from exhaustion, which she really was. Simon took the hint and did not ask further, instead changing the subject.

"Did you happen to find my camera in Silent Cemetery?" Simon asked Lucia. Lucia wordlessly took off her backpack, set it on the ground, opened it up, and took out the camera. She presented it to Simon with both hands.

"Here it is, Mr. Wright." Lucia said to him. His face lit up and he took it from her. He began examining the camera and frowned when he saw the condition of the lens.

"The lens is broken. I feared that that had happened, but it's no big deal. I can easily replace it because I have a friend in Capital Crocus who runs a camera shop that stocks parts for old-fashioned cameras. I'll just pay them a visit and get a new lens, then I'll have them check the internal components to make sure they're working too." Simon told Lucia that the broken lens was only a minor inconvenience and that it could be replaced. Lucia was glad to hear that. She would have hated to learn that she had given Simon his camera back only for it to be totally useless to him because it was damaged beyond repair.

Simon walked out of the foyer for a moment and disappeared into a back room, then returned holding a bag of Jewels. He handed them to Lucia and smiled.

"Thank you for finding this camera for me, Miss Winchester. I've carried it on many investigations and I'd hate to have lost it permanently." Simon thanked her for going to great lengths to recover his camera.

"It's no problem, Mr. Wright. And I hope that you can get something useful off of the film when it's developed." Lucia said to him. He smiled again.

"I hope so too, Miss Winchester. I almost paid for the photo opportunity with my life, so I hope that I got at least one good shot on film. I'll find out soon enough." He said to her. Now that her job was finally complete it was time for her to go. She picked her backpack up off the floor, closed it up, and put the backpack on her shoulders.

"Good luck with your camera, Mr. Wright." Lucia wished him.

"I'll let you know if I need your help with anything else, Miss Winchester. And thanks again!" Simon said to her. With that Lucia turned around, opened the door, and closed it behind her. She then began to walk towards the nearest hotel. She was too tired to make the walk to Talonia, so she would just crash in a hotel for the day and set out for Talonia tomorrow morning.

[Post Word Count: 1,092]
[Total Word Count: 5,286/5,000]