Day 07: Decisions

“They have this building surrounded.” Cristian announced once David and Liz rejoined them in the lobby.

“What? How? We were being careful,” Liz replied, taking a peek out of the windows to confirm what she’d heard.

“My guess: it’s the same thing that happened when we went to the fire station and corner clinic. Someone is doing this,” Cristian replied. “There is no other explanation.”

“Who would cause a horde of zombies to come after us? Why?” she continued, trying to figure out how they would get out of this mass of undead.

“Have you not been paying attention? The world is a different place these days. Any number of survivor factions could be after us to loot our stash. It’s a competition for survival. If you don’t beat the others to the last remaining can of peaches then prepare for war.”

“Cristian’s right,” David finally spoke. “I was going to bring it up at the next meeting but I’ve had my suspicions about that as well. It doesn’t make sense that every time one of our groups heads out, we’re met with an unexpected horde. Something is leading them to us.”

Nina whimpered thinking about having to go up against not only the dead but the living as well. Liz pulled her closer against her side. “Well there’s nothing we can do about it right now,” she said. “We need to focus on getting out of here first.”

“They move so fast now. They run! They’re not as sluggish as they used to be. Something is changing these things and it’s making survival more difficult! We can’t outrun them forever,” Cristian said.

“What about a distraction?” Nina suggested. “We can make a lot of noise on one side and get them to go there and run out to the truck on the other.”

“That could absolutely work,” David agreed. “Good thinking!”

“Now the question is: who’s going to be the bait while the others get to the trucks?” Cristian asked.

“I’ll do it,” David said, tossing the truck keys to Cristian. “You just better get to me in time.”

“Will do.”

Everyone got into position to move. David grabbed a large, two by four from a pile of discarded wood and started banging it along the windows and walls as he ran toward the opposite side of the building. It didn’t take long for the horde to hear him and slowly, they began meandering down the street, clawing at the walls as they followed.

“Let’s go.” Liz, Nina, Lucky and Cristian rushed quickly to their truck as David rounded the other side.

David made it outside through a side exit and slipped between the back bumpers of a few stopped vehicles as he waited for the others. Cautiously, he peered out onto a vehicle-choked street, crawling with hundreds of undead. The great thing about the gridlock was that he could wait until the zombies were far enough away and make a break for it toward the main road, crouching low and using the vehicles for cover.

Looking around, he saw a back alley, heading south toward the front of the theater. He guessed he’d be able to follow it back to where they’d parked. As he ducked down between cars and made his way to the alley, he saw that the sky to the distant east was filled with rising columns of dark smoke and a reddish-orange glow. Many buildings on the east side of the city were burning.

Immediately, his mind raced with the thought of the BCM being the cause behind their recent brush with the undead. It would have been child’s play for a roving band of militants to organize a feat of this sort. Pushing the thought to the back of his mind for now, David made it into the alleyway without alerting the throngs of monsters and slowly made his way forward, darting between loading docks and dumpsters, and hiding behind abandoned delivery trucks and piles of old pallets whenever the creatures got too close.

At length, he arrived in the back alley of the block with the theater on it. Carefully, making his way through the narrow lane, he spotted the backside of a building with heavy bars across the lower windows and what must have once been a solid steel door up a short block of steps. Now, however, the door hung open—riddled with shotgun blasts and bullet holes. Dead bodies lay on the sidewalk in front of the business and others burned in a nearby dumpster.

Pinching his nose, he choked back the desire to hurl as the stench of decaying bodies hit his senses. From the corner of his eye, he spotted his ride and waved them forward. And just as he was about to rush out into the street to meet them, he saw it. A flash at first before the person stood more erect and came into view.

The BioCore Militia was here! Their eyes met simultaneously and David felt his heart skip a beat. Surrounded by zombies, he didn’t want to risk firing his weapon and drawing the entire horde on him. The militant, however, didn’t seem to have that issue and they both knew it.

Beads of sweat gathered on his brow as David drew in a deep breath. He needed to make a run for it before the man alerted the fiendish mob. Everything happened in a matter of moments. He started running and heard a shot fire behind him. Hundreds of slavering, rotting bodies turned. He had only seconds to make it out of the alley alive.

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