There was no where left to run. Both entrances of the alleyway were clogged with zombies. They got stuck between the walls as they tried to push past, and at times caused a rotting limb to snap off. 10K knew that their chances of escape were slim, but when weren't they? Today was a bad day to be running. As his feet met the concrete, his head pounded. The alley was swaying but he couldn't stop running. Not now.
Warren paused at a half lowered fire escape, cutting the head off of a zombie tangled in the bars.
"10k, you first." She said, nodded her head at it as she turned around to fend off the first few. He placed his hands on the lowest bar he could reach and jumped, using the boost to pull himself up. He climbed as fast as he could and then leaned over the edge of the building. Doc was halfway up the ladder, but Addy was barely on, leaving Vasquez and Warren stuck defending her from the approaching crowd of Z's.
Warren was good with her blade, but not good enough to fend off so many at once. And with no where to run, Vasquez wouldn't have enough time to switch from his emptied gun to a knife. 10k aimed his rifle and fired. The first one fell, knocking it's nieghbor to the ground. The two didn't get up and managed to stumble the next two Z's to make their way through the bottle-necked alley. Warren quickly dispated those two, creating a small barrier of bodies that gave enough space for Vasquez to boost Warren up. She climbed quickly, but blocked his view of Vasquez.
Vasquez blurred, his image not discernable from the walls or Z's. 10k held his rifle steady anyways and waited. When the image cleared, he was climbing the ladder, a hulking behemoth of a zombie grasping onto his pant leg. He kicked and 10k fired, the bullet lodging itself into the wall beside the zombie. He fired again, and the buller found it's mark. Finally free, Vasquez climbed up and as he pulled himself onto the roof, 10k leaned back.
His head swayed again and he lost balance. The distance between the ground and his face was increasing, and then a strong hand grasped onto the rifle strap. 10k fell back into a pair of strong hands. He steadied himself as Vasquez looked at him questioningly.
"You missed." He didn't get a chance to say anything else as Doc pushed him out of the way.
"You okay, kid?" Doc asked, handing him his bottle of water. "Drink somethin'. You might be dehydrated."
10k nodded and took a half-swig. "Thanks."
Warren exchanged a look with Vasquez, who nodded before she spoke. "All right. Just be careful. We're gonna travel by roof-top until we lose the papparazzi back there and then we'll find some more supplies. We can't leave until we've got more water at least."
"Cool with me." Addy replied, retying her boot lace before standing up. She twirled the Z-whacker in her hand absent mindedly.
10k ignored his headache and stood up. "Let's go."
OoOoO
Crossing roofs were harder than he had expected. A few were close enough to jump, or actually touched one another, but most had a span of ten or more feet. Their current plan was to either send somebody over by foot to attach a line, or to try to attach their homemade grappling hook to something on the other side. Since he was the lightest, 10k had the honor of going over first.
He watched as the hook caught on the base of a sattilite dish. Warren tugged the rope and then gestured to it. "Looks good. Go ahead."
10k nodded and pulled his gloves back on. Carefully, he grasped the rope with both hands and tugged downward. Pretty taut. He took a deep breath and slid off of the roof. There was the brief moment of freefall and then he was steady. He continued across without looking down. He could already hear the moans of the Z's below; he didn't need to see it too.
His head throbbed again painfully, as his hearing grew fuzzy. His grip slackened for a moment. He refocused and pulled himself the rest of the way across. His chest hurt and he couldn't breathe, but he sat up anyways and tied the rope in a sturdy knot before letting himself rest against the ledge of the building.
A Z stumbled out of the roof access, the door half off it's hinges. His hair was matted with blood, and the green pallor of his skin was strangely tinted by it. 10k reached for his gun and lifted it, only to find that the action required more strength than he had.
"He didn't shoot it. Hurry up!" Addy yelled from somewhere behind him. Her voice was the last thing he heard before he succumbed to the pain.
OoOoO
When 10k woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he wasn't wearing a shirt. And it was hot. Unbearably hot. He kicked off the blankets and tried to sit up. Doc pushed his back down.
"Stay down, kid." He pulled the blanket back over him. "You've probably got a fever. Not that I'll know until someone finds a first aid kit." He muttered.
10k's head felt like it was stuffed in cotton, but he tried to get the point across anyways. "I'm h-h-hot." He kicked at the covers again.
"Yeah, well that's what fever's will do to ya. Now keep it on and go back to sleep. We can't go anywhere until you get better."
OoOoO
Warren stood by the left of the door, back pressed to the wall. She held her blade with steady hands and nodded. Vasquez turned the knob and kicked the door. Three undead children, no older than eight charged at him. Warren shook her head as she sliced one of them in half, small torso sliding off of the knife like butter. The second child, a small girl in pigtails, tried to grab his leg and failed, falling to the ground.
"Hate seeing children like this." Vasquez muttered before piking it.
The third had turned to Addy, whose lip quivered at the sight of the boy. He looked almost alive in his rigor mortis. He might have been turned only a few days prior. Addy still hadn't moved to raise her Z-whacker as he approached.
Warren shook her head and stabbed him, blood spilling onto his ragged blue onesie. "If y'all two can't handle the kids, then you open the door and I'll mercy 'em. But whatever you do, you can't let 'em get to you. We've got 10k to worry about. Not dead kids."
Vasquez nodded. Addy frowned. "He just...looked like my brother. That's all."
Warren placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's fine. Now let's find the nurse's office."
The school was full of windows, but it didn't change that the interior hallways were dark and full of gaping open doors. Even though the school was located in the city, it wasn't looted which made finding medicine a possibility and not just a hope. Too bad it was full of dead elementary kids too.
Warren led them as they turned into another hallway, deeper into the school. The light from the windows didn't reach that deep, and it was as if day had switched to night. She frowned. They had long run out of batteries for flashlights, even though they were used sparingly. They had nothing.
"Guess we're going in blind." Addy said with a shrug. She tightened her grip on her Z-whacker. "After you."
Vasquez snorted and pulled his rifle from his waistband. Warren gave him the look. "Only if we really need it. Promise."
Warren sighed. "Fine." They walked on.
Drawings of happy families with smiling were still tacked to the walls, signed with names written in thick crayon. The ABC's hung crooked, X and Z fallen half to the ground, plastered to the wall by the dried blood that seemed to be splattered randomly around the hall. It was almost like a spiral, but with nothing on the ceiling. Addy slowed and pressed her hand to the wall. She shrieked as it came away wet.
Vasquez and Warren turned around, as something scurried behind them through the classrooms. They turned again.
"What was that?" Vasquez asked as Addy wiped her hand back on the wall.
"The same thing that covered the wall in blood. Let's hurry up before it shows up." Warren replied as they approached another doorway.
The door was knocked off of it's hinges, tilted at an angle that left it stuck in the doorway. Addy peered in.
"Hello?" Nothing moved inside. She shrugged. "All clear."
A cold, black hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. She spread her legs and grabbed onto the doorframe. Warren and Vasquez grabbed her legs a second too late as she lost her grip and was pulled into the darkness, her screams lingering in the air.
"Damn it."
OoOoO