I had never imagined I'd be stuck in an empty apartment building with zombies for neighbors, but here I was, sitting on a rooftop watching what once were people walking down what used to be a nice street. It's been quiet for the past two days, food hasn't been an issue so far since the infection spread too fast for looters to even be a topic of discussion. We quickly learned that if you didn't make too much noise then you'd be relatively safe from the zombies. I still thought our situation was less than ideal, we didn't even know if there were any safe places left outside the city.

I tried checking my phone when I had the time but without any signal all I could do was read the messages Chloe had left for me while I was preoccupied with the collapse of civilization. I had mixed emotions while reading the text messages, I had no idea if she was doing okay, but hopefully she had time to evacuate and get far away from this mess. That was looking less and less likely the more I read through her messages.

Hey Zoey, I know I couldn't stop you from leaving… But I think I should have tried harder…

If you're reading this you need to turn back. Please. People are starting to panic here, and we're being told to stay indoors.

I felt a tug of guilt as I kept reading, I didn't want her to put the weight of my situation on her shoulders. I wanted to be able to tell her she had no reason to blame herself for any of this.

Hey, you should be in the city by now, I hope you and your family are safe. You can't stay there, it's getting pretty bad all over Pennsylvania.

They're here. I have to go for now, please stay alive.

That's all I had received before I lost signal, I hope "they" refers to something more friendly than zombies. Shaking my head in frustration I decided to just turn off my phone for now since it could probably be useful down the line, plus dwelling on these thoughts were just gonna drive me crazy.

Observing the zombies wandering outside was oddly calming, they moved around like they were looking for something they dropped. Sometimes they did things that confused me, not all of them acted exactly the same, once I'd spotted one having a coughing fit which was so bad it eventually keeled over and died. Another just started screaming while looking up at the sky, it was loud enough to attract a small group of infected which started attacking it. Even though the zombies all acted somewhat similar, the fact that they could still surprise me was worrying at the very least. I hoped these surprises weren't too extreme, it's bad enough that they're so fast, if they became too unpredictable I would probably just give up on the spot.

I heard a soft knock from the door leading to the rooftop, I figured it was Bill coming to order me around. Instead I saw Louis partially opening the door and checking on me, this surprised me a bit since it seemed like he had been keeping his distance from me for the past few days. He actually tried comforting me when I had my mental breakdown two days ago, which I thanked him for by shoving him away and telling him to leave me the hell alone.

Not my proudest moment. I knew he meant well but honestly I'm more comfortable dealing with my personal problems on my own. I still helped them secure the building and block the entrances, but other than that I've avoided idle chit chat and have mostly kept to myself so far.

"You mind if I join you?" I kept looking down from the rooftop at the monsters below, but I nodded and didn't push him away this time.

He joined me at the edge of the roof, he looked a little concerned when he saw the amount of zombies around us, but he decided to sit next to me on the raised end of the roof.

He sat down and sighed as though he'd just gotten done with a hard day's work.

"Beautiful day isn't it?" He said while looking at the destroyed city, "I mean relatively speaking."

I knew he was just attempting to lighten the mood, and I appreciated him for that. I just didn't have the energy to joke around like usual, but I haven't talked much since we've been in this apartment so I decided I'd go along with this."I just wish I could enjoy it. How are we supposed to move on from this even if we do escape?"

Louis smiled as I finally started making conversation, "I know everything seems hopeless right now, but we're alive! That's reason enough for me to believe we can have a future, because we're living proof that there could be others like us out there, we just need to find them and work together to undo this mess."

I snickered in response to his statement, I didn't know why but the way Louis spoke with such certainty reminded me of Chloe. She would always come through for me when I needed her, she was always that little ray of sunshine who weaponized her positivity against me. It was almost like even if she wasn't here her influence was showing in the positivity of others. The thought put a smile to my face and started to make me believe what Louis was saying, even if it didn't seem like it now I couldn't deny that there had to be some safe place out there with others like us. If there was such a place it'd be the most likely place to find Chloe, I had to believe in the possibility that she could be safe... as unlikely as it was.

"You know Louis, I've been wondering." Louis looked at me with curiosity, "I've been wondering how we seem to be the only people who've been unaffected by this whole pandemic, I mean I doubt every person here was just bitten you know? How did so many people turn in such a short time?"

I didn't ask him expecting to get all the answers, but maybe he knew something that could help me put the pieces together.

"I don't know anything about how this all started, but I've seen people turn, people who I know have not been anywhere near those things." Louis frowned as he recalled the events in his head, "It happened so fast… makes the people you love turn on you against their will…" He looked down at the wandering infected and sighed.

I looked down too, I wasn't the only one suffering right now. The world didn't center around me and the others knew it… but they still let me pout like a child regardless.

"Hey Louis?..."

"Hmm?" He looked up at me once again.

"How are you able to stay so positive? I mean you've lost people too haven't you? Doesn't that get to you sometimes?"

Louis chuckled at the question, this time he looked up while he responded. "You remind me of someone I knew really well… a long ass time ago."

"What? Who?" For a second I was taken aback by the fact that we reminded each other of people we knew, until I heard his answer.

"Me." Louis looked at the confused expression I had on my face and laughed. "I mean me when I was younger!" He looked at me again, when he saw me still making the same face he started laughing even harder.

When he was done laughing he sighed and looked up again, "If you think I'm too positive you should have met my mother, she made sure that if I wasn't smiling enough she'd give me a reason to." He wiped a tear from his eye, I didn't know whether it was a result of him laughing so much or the memory of his family, "I wasn't the most athletic kid... or the funniest, I would always find things to beat me down. Then one day I asked my mother, 'How can I be happy when I don't even believe I'm deserving of it?'" Louis started smiling as he continued, "She told me that it's all about my perspective on life, 'Many people have it so much worse than we do, you have a roof over your head, food on the table, and a family who loves you.' I know it might not be enough for some people, but to me and my family it was just a matter of appreciating the gifts we had and not letting the negative stand out when there's so much to be proud of."

I blinked a couple times,"But those things you listed… it's not like we really have any of those anymore." I realized what I said might have been a little too harsh, but Louis didn't seem to mind.

"Well let's see… We have this whole apartment as shelter, plenty of food in storage, and in terms of family… I might not have that, but I've made some new friends who I can trust, so it isn't all bad." Louis had a look of accomplishment, he'd successfully twisted my negativity into a more positive outlook, even if it was a stretch I appreciated his enthusiasm. I let myself smile for once, I suppose that meant Louis had won.

Our conversation was suddenly cut short by Bill coming out to the roof. He looked on edge as he bluntly stated, "We're gonna have to go for a supply run."

Bill beckoned for us to follow him inside as he explained what he was talking about. "We have plenty of food and water, the canned stuff we found in here could last us a couple weeks if we're smart." Bill went quiet as he did some calculations in his head, obviously the old man was losing his train of thought.

Louis and I looked at each other in confusion, eventually I was the one who bit the bullet and questioned Bill, "So why do you want to look for supplies exactly?"

Bill looked irritated as usual, "Well we may have food, but we're severely lacking in the weapons department. We can handle small groups of those things with what we're equipped with now, but if we encounter another group as big as the one from two days ago we'll be up a creek."

Bill's logic made sense to me so I didn't argue with him there, but I still wasn't sure what his plan was. Louis chimed in like he could read my mind, "That makes sense and all Bill, but how exactly do you plan on finding weapons? I don't remember seeing any gun stores in the area when we came in."

"I've been living here long enough to know Holly Street wasn't exactly considered a safe street at night." Bill answered in an exasperated tone, "We passed by two liquor stores and a grocery store on our way here, I'd be willing to bet at least one of the owners has a gun stashed somewhere to defend their stores."

I scratched my head, I didn't know if we should be risking our lives for guns that probably weren't even there, but I would feel like less of a sitting duck if we were armed with more than a pistol and some makeshift clubs made of chair legs. "I guess we don't really have a choice, but do you have a plan that involves us getting in and out with our limbs intact?"

That's when I witnessed the most disturbing thing I've seen since this apocalypse started, Bill smiling.

Honestly I thought Bill had finally lost it this time, he told us that we had the best chance of collecting the weapons if we could draw the infected away from the stores. I just wish he'd found a way to do that which didn't involve all of us risking our lives on a hunch.

As we waited for Louis to get into position me and Bill stood at the ready by the door. Even though I've known Bill a little longer than Louis I still felt like he was a total stranger, Bill never initiated a conversation unless it was survival related, I just wished I could at least get a read on him. I didn't know if I should be trying to get familiar with everyone in our little group, it seemed like the smart thing to do on paper since these were the people I'd be risking my life with from now on. On the other hand it's doubtful to assume all of us would make it long without someone getting overrun, making it all the harder to watch them go. I thought of this for a bit until I noticed how quiet it was outside.

The air of silence was interrupted by the sound of an explosion echoing down the street, that was our cue. Hopefully Louis would be able to make it back without too much trouble, that just left the hard part for me and Bill. I sighed as I pulled out my pistol, "Let's get this done quick old man, I don't want to be out there any longer than I have to." Bill nodded in agreement and followed me out into the alley.

So far it looked like Bill's plan was going off without a hitch, every zombie in the area was preoccupied with the commotion Louis had caused. The alley was completely empty except for a few abandoned cars, I headed left and kept my guard up in case we ran into any deaf zombies. I winced as we passed by my broken car, maybe if I had been smarter we would have been able to make it out of the city and found somewhere safer. I figured it would be more beneficial to my dwindling sanity if I didn't focus too much on that thought.

Bill looked out onto the street and made a motion with his hand giving the all clear, he was in front despite the fact that I was the only one with a gun right now, hopefully I wouldn't need to fire it during this run. The first place we wanted to check was the liquor store that was immediately to the right of the alley, thankfully the door was open so we quickly slipped inside before we could be spotted by any unsavory locals.

The inside of the building wasn't too trashed, especially considering it was the fucking apocalypse. Bill and I were able to find some medical supplies in a back room along with a baseball bat on one of the shelves, it wasn't much but anything was better than a chair leg as a weapon. Me and Bill went to the front of the store and crouched under the windows, the last two stores were across the street, we were going to have to hustle if we wanted to make it before the zombies dispersed again. I hopped over the broken window and made my way to the other side of the street, we made it into the liquor store without any trouble, but once we were inside I could hear that we weren't the only ones inside. "Careful Bill, we've got company."

"Okay, best to keep quiet. Only use that gun as a last resort." Bill raised the baseball bat and moved ahead of me. The liquor store was bigger than most average one's I'd seen, there were about four rows of shelves and the employees only room was at the opposite end of the store behind the register. I was about to suggest we just play it safe and skip to the next store but Bill was already heading through one of the aisles.

"Shit." I muttered to myself, I didn't like the idea of charging in blindly when we had no idea how many zombies were in here with us.

We waded through broken glass and spilled drinks towards the register, now that we were closer to the employees room I could clearly hear what the noise I had heard was, something was groaning in pain on the other side of the door. Bill paused in front of the door and signaled for me to wait as he listened for a second, then slowly he pushed the door open. There was hardly any light in the small room, but I could see the shadow of a figure facing the wall and shaking profusely. As Bill approached the thing I noticed what looked like a gun and a large bag on the floor next to the figure, excitedly I took a step towards it before I could notice the broken glass on the floor. The sound of the glass cracking shattered the quiet tension in the room, as the shadowy entity turned in confusion I lunged for the light switch and illuminated the shadow.

The thing standing in front of us was clearly not human, it was definitely a zombie but this one had strange scratch marks on its face. They seemed to be self inflicted since its nails were bloody and the scratch marks looked to be recent. The thing shrieked and recoiled from the bright lights illuminating the room so suddenly.

"Goddamnit kid!" Bill growled, at the sound of his voice the zombie turned its attention to him and lunged aggressively. Bill was ready for this though as he pushed the creature back with a quick shove, this seemed to catch the thing off guard and it fell on its back.

Bill moved in for the kill but something caught me off guard. The face of the zombie had shifted from rabid anger to fear, it quickly got to its feet and grabbed its face in pain. I could hear it wailing in pain for a brief moment as it backed up, Bill looked as shocked as I did when we heard what it did next.

"AAArrrrrrghhhhhhhhh!"

I covered my ears, the sound of the infected screaming filled the store up with noise so suddenly it caused Bill to hesitate while lowering the bat for a brief moment, unfortunately it was at this moment the zombie seemed to regain its bearings as it charged towards Bill once again, reaching a hand to grab at his throat. Without thinking I pulled out my pistol.

BANG.

A clean headshot. The sound of the bullet echoed through the street, without a doubt any living thing within a kilometer of us could hear the exchange that just transpired. You could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed, I knew we were due for some company and rushed for the gun and the bag. Bill looked like he wanted to either scold me or thank me but came to the conclusion that getting the hell out of here was more important at the moment.

There was an exit door at the back of the store which connected the building to an unloading facility. Since I didn't feel like dying today I rushed through with Bill and we made our way back to the apartment.

It took a lot of patience and sneaking around but eventually we had made it back to the alley without disturbing the locals who started swarming the store with terrifying numbers. If the buildings next door didn't all connect to each other I was sure we'd be goners.

After that little supply run our apartment looked as welcoming as the gates of heaven. I rushed to the door and gave the secret knock to let Louis know we were back.

Bill rolled his eyes while I knocked. "I don't know why you insisted on using a secret knock." Bill let out a short sigh, "The only other things that could come through that door won't be so polite as to knock on that door before entering."

I scowled at him but didn't retort, I was about to start worrying about Louis taking too long but sighed with relief when the door started to open. My relief turned to concern when I saw his bandaged right arm.

I gasped as I recalled what usually happened to people with wounds like that. "Oh my god what happened?! You stuck to the rooftops didn't you?" He shouldn't have run into any infected at all, we searched the rooftops beforehand just in case, it didn't make any sense.

Bill walked right up to him and I half expected him to push him out the door and lock it, but all I saw a hint of worry on his face under his usual scowl.

"Tell me what happened."

Louis grimaced before motioning for us to follow him upstairs, Bill walked up with him while I stayed behind to block off the door. The alley was empty for now since the infected usually stayed in one large group whenever there was a big commotion, but I didn't want to risk any stragglers finding their way into our little alley.

I made the barricade as quick as I could so I could catch up with the other two, but the work ended up taking around 10 minutes. My brain was rattled at the thought of what Bill would do if Louis was somehow bitten, we can't just give up anytime someone sustains a minor injury, there had to be a way to prevent infection. But as hopeful as I wanted to be, the 300,000 infected people in the city was a concerning counterpoint to my argument.

When I finally got to the roof I spotted the men a couple feet away sitting on the two plastic lawn chairs we had set up on the roof, they seemed to have just finished a thoughtful discussion as I noticed the both of them had their brows furrowed as they sat in a 'The Thinker' position.

"Uhh guys?" I broke their concentration with my voice, Louis looked less worried now that I could get a better read on his expression so I was hoping he wasn't bitten after all.

"Zoey do you remember that zombie we encountered in the liquor store?" I was a little surprised Bill was the first to respond but his question was something we needed to discuss I supposed, he continued "Did its behavior seem a little strange to you?"

"I mean obviously, we were both pretty freaked out when it started to scream." I scratched my head as I tried to wrap my head around the situation, "But I've seen others do the same thing, I don't think it's something to be too worried about"

"That's not what I meant kid." Bill's frown somehow sunk even further than usual, "The way it acted didn't stand out in other ways?"

I think I understood what he was getting at, the scream really wasn't what disturbed me now that I think about it. "It's face… It almost looked afraid of us."

Bill nodded, "It makes me wonder if those things are actually dead, no monster would fear for its life like that."

The thought gave me chills, no wonder the zombies seemed to show so many unique traits, but if they aren't dead… Does that mean we should be changing our strategies accordingly? Or do we just not think about it? They may be too far gone to save, I've seen zombies with no arms attack with the same ferocity as the others back at the hospital, I didn't even want to think about what that thing could be going through if there was a conscious human beneath the rage...

"Louis has a hell of a story too, listen to this." Bill waved his hands as a gesture that he had the floor, Louis sighed while hovering his hand over his bandages, he didn't say anything for a while as if he was collecting his thoughts.

"I think we were naive to assume we had these zombies all figured out… we've been observing the infected for the past two days and even though they didn't act the exact same we could at least understand the extent of their abilities."

I nodded my head as I recalled the times I watched the zombies from the roof, I could tell they were unusual but at the end of the day they were in human bodies which made the threat they possessed tangible at the very least. "Are you saying we missed something else about them? What exactly are you getting at Louis?"

"The whole plan was for me to make a lot of noise while staying on the rooftops safely right? The idea was they couldn't get to me even if they had noticed me up there." He shuddered slightly as he got on to the next part, "Well, most of the zombies did what we predicted… but one of them seemed smarter than the rest, instead of following the pipe bombs we made it looked around for the person throwing the bombs… and it found him."

"But how did it injure you from the street?" I questioned.

"It uhh… it climbed up the building…"

I looked at the two of them waiting for them to start laughing at me, but they looked dead serious. I chuckled nervously, "But that building is four stories tall… not to mention it's, I don't know, a completely flat fucking surface?"

Bill chimed in, he seemed to be skeptical himself but was giving Louis the benefit of the doubt for some reason. "I understand it's hard to believe kid, but what we saw was pretty unusual too, and what would Louis have to gain from horse-shittin' us?"

"Okay, then I'm assuming that came from it too?" I pointed at his injured arm.

Louis looked a little hurt since it seemed like I didn't trust him, but he answered my question regardless. "It attacked me, and it almost got me… but all I got was this nasty cut from falling on some glass. Thankfully it wasn't much stronger than the others and I was able to kill it." Bill squinted at this but didn't speak up, maybe he didn't totally trust all of Louis's story after all.

I wasn't gonna stay silent though, "Show me the cut then, if we can confirm it isn't a bite then there won't be a problem, the last thing we need is unnecessary suspicion." Bill looked impressed, Louis looked like he understood the sentiment at the very least because he nodded while he started to unwrap the bandage.

When he revealed the wound it was a long gash along his left forearm, about three inches long. I sighed with relief when I confirmed it wasn't a bite or a scratch made by a human, I also couldn't help but feel a little guilty for doubting Louis, but I was hoping he understood my doubt. Considering the situation the world was in at the moment it makes sense to be a little weary of common injuries. "I'm glad you're safe Louis, really." He smiled at that and the small ball of tension seemed to subside.

Bill cut in again "I hate to be the downer here but we still need to address the climbing situation, if one of these things can climb a building who's to say more of them won't come and figure out where we are? Clearly they aren't all stupid rabid animals like we thought, but if that intelligence is also paired with superhuman abilities I'm afraid we're up a creek."

"If more of them can climb then no building is safe from them right? What do you guys suggest we do?" Louis asked.

"These things are too dangerous, we can forget about riding this apocalypse out from inside this building, the infected could reveal something too dangerous for any shelter to fend off." Bill added, "Nothing can be ruled out, their abilities could be far beyond human capability."

I agreed, anything that can climb up a 90 degree angle could be capable of far more dangerous feats. I looked over the edge of the building wearily, "We need to get out of this city, that's our only option now."

The next three days were pretty tense, our time was mostly spent watching the zombies and coming up with a plan to get out of the city. Most of our plans came down to us being lucky enough to find an undamaged vehicle that could simultaneously plow through the zombies while also outspeeding them. The infected were spread throughout the streets mostly, but occasionally any noise loud enough for us to hear would also attract the main herd, we definitely wanted to stay away from that. We heard an explosion which seemed to come from the center of the city, where the hospital was, and I was able to watch in fear as the horde passed by our street towards the noise. Once again it looked like their numbers were in the thousands, but only the loudest noises seemed to bring them all out, and the horde passing through had cleared out a good number of the infected wandering in our street as well, so there's the positive side to that I supposed. Oh god Louis's positivity was starting to infect me now, I think I'm gonna throw up.

I was keeping watch, but Louis called me over to the little planning area Bill had set up in the middle of the roof. He had a table set up with a tarp over it to shield us from the rain as we planned, he had it set up on the roof so we could keep watch while not being too far from the others as they planned. I walked over to Bill as Louis took watch for a while, Bill had set the contents of the gun bag on the table which consisted of some pistols and a shotgun, along with a small pile of ammunition for both. He sat with his arms crossed as he looked over the resources on the table.

"Three pistols, and a shotgun..." Bill mumbled to himself as I sat down across from him.

"Umm, so have you finally come up with something Bill?" I knew our chances of finding a reliable way out of the city were slim, but we still had to try before we were caught off guard.

Bill looked as frustrated as ever, "If we could make a big enough racket to attract all of those monsters it would be possible, but it's too risky without a guarantee that we'll find a vehicle that could get us out of here."

This is how it's been for the past few days, we've just been going in circles repeating the same ideas. But it seemed impossible to wad through these things without making enough noise to get them all over us, hell even one gunshot inside a store was like a beacon of noise to the infected, if crossing a street to find some guns was so risky you can forget about searching the city for a car that'll even run properly.

I was about to suggest we go for it since we had no other options before Louis started calling for us excitedly. "Guys?... Guys look!" He was looking into the distance at something, something above the rooftops. Bill and I rushed over to get a good look at what he was yelling about, I spotted it the second I looked over from the same spot Louis was at. A helicopter. Was I dreaming? A goddamn helicopter was coming towards our building! Did they know we were here?

Louis and I jumped and waved our arms around desperately trying to get the chopper to spot us, right as it looked like it was going to see us it passed us by without stopping. The pilot was sending a message through his speaker, I could barely make it out but I heard one name clearly 'Mercy Hospital'. As we helplessly watched it fly away my stomach tightened with worry and tension, it didn't see us, but now we might have some information we can act on.

"Damnit!" Louis shouted. "How did he not… Is he blind?!"

Bill lit a cigarette, he looked at me and we came to a silent agreement. We were getting on that chopper, all three of us, fate has just given us the hope we needed. Just one small push in the right direction was enough for me to take action. I patted Louis on the back and gave him a look of reassurance, one that said we weren't screwed just yet.

Louis looked towards the helicopter disappearing into the distance, he stood up straight and turned to me with a look of amusement slowly replacing his disappointment. "Look at you trying to cheer me up now." He teased.

I started to laugh as the irony finally hit me, even Bill let out a soft chuckle. The three of us finally had a big weight lifted off our shoulders, we weren't out of the woods yet, but we had a better chance now than we did a minute ago.

Our moment was cut off by the sound of squealing tires, we looked down the street and saw two military vehicles driving recklessly. They seemed to be following the direction the helicopter went, probably trying to catch up to it and hitch a ride out of the city. The one in the front zoomed past our building and disappeared once it passed the corner, however the other one was very unstable for some reason. As it was about to pass us like the other vehicle it made a sharp turn to the right, slamming right into a building… our building.

"What in the hell!" Louis shouted as the whole building shook, when we looked down we saw the back half of the vehicle and a huge hole in the front of the building. The worst part was that the vehicles weren't alone, down the street we saw a huge mob running towards the building following the noise. I didn't know if they were after the helicopter initially or just the military vehicles, but either way this meant we had to take action NOW. When I said we needed a push this wasn't what I had in mind, we couldn't even have one fucking second of positivity before the universe had to shit all over it, I turned to the others but Bill wasn't standing next to us anymore.

I looked around to see him already loading the weapons up with ammo and getting our supplies ready. "Got a plan for this old man?" I shouted over the sounds of the infected already entering the building. Clearly there was no sneaking away from this situation like at the liquor store.

Bill pumped his shotgun and had a sadistic grin on his face, "When you're in a battlefield you never have time to come up with a plan when you're ambushed." The sounds of the infected started rapidly coming up the stairs, needless to say there were a lot of them on their way. Louis grabbed a bat and a pistol, I grabbed a second pistol and the three of us watched the door to the roof… ready to face whatever tried coming through. Bill continued talking as we braced ourselves, "I've always been good at improvising though… so why don't you two just sit back while I get to work."