Sweat beaded off her brow and fell into her eyes, stinging her newly formed corneas. The woman merely shrugged her shoulders as if such a thing was a minor nuisance. And, in comparison, it was. Alone in the middle of the night with nothing but the laughing faces of twinkling stars and the impassive concrete of the buildings on either side of her to witness her death, the woman stood with her feet planted and her arms shaking as they held a large iron bar out before her in defense. Her gooey pink hair fell to her shoulders, and her normally pastel pink flesh was flushed magenta almost matching the hue of her purple sweater. Her sock-less feet sweated inside her black sneakers, and the uncomfortable sensation only heightened her anxiety.
She stood at the end of an alleyway cornered by oozing monsters dripping highly acidic green goo from their many holey orifices. The woman had watched the beasts use that acid to paralyze their prey with pain before they devoured and then infected them. In her mind's eye, she envisioned how the multiple infected bites hollowed out to giant gaping wounds. The first few hours of infection were the worst as the skin of the infected grew greenish and the wound's crying blood transitioned to weeping acidic puss. The woman compared this type of "birth" to her own birth a few hours before. Though hers had been painful as well, she much preferred the outcome of hers.
The monsters, knowing their prey was trapped, slowed their running pace to a menacing stalk. They fanned out to instinctively block all ways of escape, filling the holes in their defense with sheer numbers. The woman looked around the alleyway for any chance of escape. She looked desperately at the approaching monsters to the huge crumbling cement walls caging her on either side to the brick building that ended the alley. It seemed hopeless. But, suddenly, objects in the scene around her began to stand out as if her brain had chosen them as pieces to fit into a rather difficult puzzle. A few feet behind the first row of monsters was a rusted and partially broken ladder that led up to the top of the concrete building. Next to her was debris and an old, dented garbage container. The second monster to the left in the second row had an exaggerated limp and a crooked leg. If she timed it perfectly, she could take advantage of the monster's weakness.
The woman switched the iron bar to one hand, and then grabbed the garbage can in the other. Using as much strength as she could muster in her newborn biceps, she drug the can out in front of her. The monsters instinctively reacted to her upsurge in activity, and began to rush her. The woman barely had time to kick the heavy container into the first row of monsters before they swarmed her.
With the first row out of the way, she looped the iron bar under the broken legged monster's good leg and pulled, throwing the beast off balance. It struggled to remain upright, but the woman did not waste time. With a mighty surge of power, the woman delivered an unexpectedly intense roundhouse kick to the monster's chest that sent it flying into the main crowd of monsters. The woman swung her pink hair from her face and quickly evaluated the progression of her plan.
The weak monster stalled more of the main crowd of monsters than she had dared hope. Only two monsters had been separated from the main group and stood between the ladder and herself. Building up momentum, she ran at the two monsters and before the first beast fell to the ground, the second one had already been smashed into the concrete wall by her heavy iron bar.
The path to the ladder had opened up now. She barely spared her weapon a glance when she tossed it to the side and scrambled sporadically up the broken ladder. She knew without looking that her bar was being eaten up by the monster's acidic secretions and thus was useless. As it was, she was struggling to climb the ladder and would not have been able to carry her iron bar even if it was perfectly sound. Despite this, her plan had worked perfectly even though she was left weaponless.
After she had scrambled over the edge of the roof, the woman turned to look down at the chaos she had caused. The monsters had reorganized themselves but still stumbled around in confusion. Only a few looked at the ladder she had quickly ascended, and only one attempted, and failed, to climb it. She knew if she lingered they would eventually spread out around the building and unconsciously block her escape, but her limbs were shaking from exhaustion. Her pink hair was gummed up around her face and was making her eyes itch, and her tight legged jeans were sticking uncomfortably to her skin. If she was to take advantage of the opportunity she had catalyzed, she needed a moment to regain her strength.
The woman ungracefully slumped against the roof access door of the building, but her legs could not hold her weight. She fell to her bottom, bruising her tailbone in the process. However, she was too exhausted to cry out; she merely winced. She then pulled the string from her sweatshirt and used it to tie back her infuriatingly haggard hair. Afterwards, she simply hung her head between her knees and wished for a glass of water.
She was startled awake by the ringing sound of metal slapping against concrete. The sound continued several times before she could move. Panic seared through her chest, and the woman scrambled over to the edge of the building to make sure she had not squandered her hard won advantage. Thankfully, most of the monsters were still milling about in confusion in the alley. The sound she had heard she contributed to the monster laying gracelessly with limbs flung outward and moaning in pain. The creature had tried to climb the ladder unsuccessfully.
Satisfied that she had been asleep for only a moment, she began to walk the perimeter of the roof to scope out a possible path. Night had fully descended, but the bright moon allowed her to easily see all around her. She felt restful and hopeful and only a little bit dehydrated. Her memory easily recalled a perfect image of the man and child she was pursuing. They would have camped next to a water source, as they had obviously lost their supplies while fleeing from the zombie like creatures. Then she remembered the icy footsteps she had noticed earlier leading out of the city.
Panicking again as she feared she had lost the trail during her frantic escape, she began searching for the telltale glint of light. Then she saw what she was looking for to the south of her: glittering footsteps sparkling like stars on the concrete sidewalk. She began to plot the fastest and safest rout to the trail. There was a brick building in between her and the street the footsteps traveled down. There was a five foot gap and a ten foot drop between the buildings, and she anticipated a sixty-five percent chance of injury if she attempted the jump. Her only other options were back down the ladder, which would be suicide, or travelling in the opposite direction she needed across more closely and safely placed buildings and then circling back around to the trail. The sky was already lightening to a navy blue, and the safer rout would take hours giving the man and child more of a head start than ever. The icy trail would melt as soon as the sun rose, making time an essential factor.
Sighing in resignation, the woman shrugged her shoulders and took an athletic stance towards the leap she had to make. She closed her eyes and cleared her mind of any thought but success and began to run. One sneaker after another slapped the concrete roof, slowly at first but faster and faster. Her legs extended to their limits; she felt her muscles and joints stretching and contracting as her legs carried her across the roof. Then, she was at the edge, and she was going too fast to stop. Suddenly, she was flying through the air, and time stopped for her as she floated across the star studded sky. In that brief moment that seemed to last a lifetime, she thought of all the years she had spent essentially stuck in the prison of her own body. A smile began to spread across her lips.
Then she landed. Her ankle twisted as it clipped the edge of the building, and she was sent spiraling through the air. Her shoulder hit the ground first, and her breath exploded out of her, leaving her breathless. She saw alternately the sky and concrete as she tumbled across the roof. She finally came to a stop when her body clothes-lined on a pole. For a moment, she could only gasp like a fish out of water, then the moment passed. Groaning, she stood up gingerly. Her ankle was sore, but she could put her weight on it. She had rashes and scrapes and a few purple bruises, but nothing too serious. She limped over to the roof access door and wrenched it open despite the grunts and yells of the rusted pistons. Bellow her, a black abyss grabbed at her, daring her to descend into the blackness.
As she traveled down the stairs, she could see nothing. The blackness was so absolute she could not even see the faint glow of pink flesh when she held her hands in front of her. She descended each step by touch as she slid her back against the wall and carefully placed each foot in the right direction, slightly wincing when her injured ankle had to carry her weight. She made the journey noiselessly, only breaking the silence when she kicked an aluminum can on accident. The can fell down the stairs with a cacophony of singing metal, and she waited, too afraid to breathe, for the sound of a reanimated monster. In answer, a loud, curious groan issued from somewhere on the building's floor. Quickly but even more carefully, she descended the last two levels double speed.
Outside, the sky was smoky blue and the stars glimmered faintly. Straight ahead of her was an intersection, and the icy trail traveled parallel to her until it turned south at the intersection. Limping, she trotted as quickly as possible in the direction of the tracks.
The sun rose within the hour, and she could see the ice slowly turning into small puddles. She desperately began to run despite the pain in her ankle. She was relieved when she got out of the city and saw real footprints in the muddy ditch. Her pace slowed then as she could easily follow the man and small girl footprints through the woods and overgrown countryside. After an hour, she came to a small campsite with the fire pit still smoking. She had found their camp from the night before. A small stream gurgled close by, so the woman took a break to wash grit from her face and drink the clear water. She then submerged her swollen ankle into the cool stream, and laid on her back.
She awoke when the sun was exactly midway on its path across the sky. Carefully putting on her sneaker, she stood and found the trail again. As she traveled through the forest, she partially sated her growling stomach with ripe, juicy, and fragrant berries. A few hours had passed before she came to a clearing. Ahead, a cluster of small farm houses mostly crumbled to their foundations and overgrown with young trees stood like guardians on top a green hill. The tracks left in the soft forest floor disappeared in the tall grass, but she knew where they had gone from the childish laughter ringing over the wind.
She quickly walked up to the houses despite the uneven ground and long grass snagging her injured ankle. The first structure she came to was a large barn with holes in the roof. Inside came the giggles of the girl and the laughter of the man as they played hide and seek on the rusted farm equipment. The woman's heart leaped. She tried to sneak around to the barn's opening to watch the two from afar as she was suddenly uncertain, but her weak ankle tripped her and she fell against the tin wall of the barn. The noise echoed through the suddenly quiet air.
The woman tried to struggle to her feet and hide, but it was too late. Suddenly, the white haired wizard king sprung out in front of her. His crazed white eyes glared out at her, and he lifted his arms. With a flash of light, ice sprung from his fingertips and encased her body. The cold crept up her legs then her stomach, neck until it crawled over her eyes. Then, she knew no more.