Traversing the darkness of the subway system was the most anxiety inducing thing I've had to do in my life. I think it was the complete lack of… anything down here that made me feel the most nervous. No fire, no zombies, just us and the dead bodies.

I regretted giving Louis the flashlight, because at this point anything could jump out at me from the shadows and there'd be nothing I could do about it. I could almost imagine the monsters lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce on me, and the fact that I wouldn't know about it until it was too late made it a hundred times worse.

And then there was the crying… when we first heard it we didn't know what to think. It took us a minute to build up the courage to move in its direction, we really had no choice since the quickest path to the hospital was that way. I think what bothered us the most about it was that there was nothing else down here but us and that, even if it was a live human crying down here the fact that she was down here in the dark with nothing but a bunch of eviscerated bodies was terrifying. It was something straight out of a horror film.

We pushed on despite our uncontrollable shaking, I think Bill was the most composed out of the three of us, he was tough for sure but still human nonetheless. As he pushed forward he couldn't hide how hesitantly he was moving, me and Louis stayed close behind him. I kept one hand on Louis's shoulder so I wouldn't lose him in the darkness, that was why I could tell he was the most afraid out of the three of us. Louis was shaking so much I started to wonder what he would do if he wasn't holding the flashlight. He kept pointing the thing left and right at the slightest sound, not that I wasn't jumping at the sounds too, but I was more concerned with the one sound in front of us.

Every step I made was completely reliant on Louis and Bill, since I couldn't see my own feet I had to pray I wasn't going to step on a human head or something. I did my best to follow their footsteps but felt something crunch underneath my feet. It took all my willpower not to shriek in fear, I had to cover my mouth and close my eyes to calm myself down.

"Guys how much farther?" I whispered.

Louis jumped at the sound of my voice but shrugged his shaking shoulders, Bill didn't turn around and kept his focus on what was in front of him. "Hard to tell," was all he said. I guess it was understandable since we've been walking in almost complete darkness, plus this crying must have been throwing him off.

Suddenly Louis yelped in a panic, "AGH!" He pointed his flashlight towards his left and had his finger on the trigger of his pistol. I almost screamed in fear but held my tongue, and even though I couldn't see Bill right now his flashlight was pointed in the same direction as Louis's. The old man's light was shaking just as much as Louis's was, maybe I had overestimated his calmness, he was just as terrified as the rest of us.

Louis had pointed his light at a pile of rubble blocking the tunnel to our left, other than the rubble the tunnel looked completely barren of anything else. "What in the goddamn HELL is wrong with you!" Bill scolded Louis as he got right in his face, "Do you want every zombie down here to notice us?!"

Louis couldn't keep himself from stuttering, "B-but I swear I heard something-"

"It doesn't matter if you make noise and bring them all to us! Just shut the hell up and keep moving, I'm done with this horseshit."

Louis wanted to interject but Bill was on the move again, he looked pretty defeated so I tried to comfort him, "Hey." I whispered to Louis, "If there is something back there I'm sure it'll attack Bill first since he's the smelliest."

Louis didn't seem amused by this, "I swear I heard something Zoey, it wasn't just that though… Haven't you been getting the feeling that we're being watched?"

I sort of understood his feeling, however there wasn't really anything we could do about that even if we were being watched, and I still didn't want him to panic or anything. "If something was watching us don't you think it would have attacked us by now?" I kept trying to make my voice sound nonchalant but I was a terrible liar, "Besides they'd be more attracted to that loud ass crying than us right?"

"I get the feeling they're afraid of it too." The way Louis said that gave me chills, "Remember how they acted in the apartment when we fell, they don't always attack right away… it's almost like they feel fear just as much as us."

What he said didn't sit well with me, but before it could fully sink in Bill stopped in his tracks, Louis almost bumped into him. The old man shined his light to the left at what looked like a maintenance door, "There, that'll lead us to the surface."

I felt Louis breathe a sigh of relief, the door must have looked like the gates of heaven to him. After walking in darkness for this long I couldn't blame him for wanting to get out of here as soon as possible.

I was getting pretty tired of this subway too, but I had my doubts about whether we should leave. "Do we really want to go up when there are no zombies down here?" I hated what I was about to suggest, but I was just trying to think about efficiency and safety for once instead of letting my feelings dictate what we did. "Maybe we should stay down here… I mean isn't that better than having to take the risk that the horde will find us?"

Bill nodded as though he had been thinking the same thing, "Just throwing the option out there, I don't want to stay down here if ol' chicken shit can't keep it together." He said while gesturing towards Louis who looked offended by the both of us.

"I know I heard something, everything about this subway has been all kinds of screwed up." Louis waved his hands in exasperation causing the light to dance on the ceiling, "There's something bad down here with us, and it's so dangerous even the other zombies know to stay away from this place."

He was really against us staying here. I didn't want to force Louis to keep walking through the tunnel with us, but we'd be no better off up there if we got caught by them again. Bill spoke up before I could, "If that's what you really think the best idea is son then we'll go along with you."

I noticed he wasn't patronizing Louis when he said that, it was really the best call Bill could make, we all needed to be at our best. If Louis was too unfocused down here it would be a detriment if we did encounter any zombies. Splitting up was out of the question too since all three of us could barely hold back a horde for more than five minutes, our best bet at fighting back would always be our numbers.

Louis winced when Bill said it was up to him to make the call, I didn't know what was going through his mind but I could see a hint of guilt on his face. "It's two against one, you really think I can't walk through a tunnel after everything we've seen?"

"No one's saying that." I said to Louis, "I'm really okay with whatever you choose."

"Bill literally just said what both of you were thinking, you guys think I'm too much of a coward." Louis sighed, "Listen I understand our situation and I'm not going to let our safety be jeopardized by a dark tunnel, if we do find a fucked up super-zombie down here we'll just deal with it like the rest."

Bill nodded in approval as Louis marched past him deeper into the subway. I stayed silent as I followed Louis, I never realized how much I lacked social skills until I met Louis. It had always been easy to talk to Chloe since she knew how anti-social I was when she met me, it had also helped that my survival didn't depend on the amount of friends I had. Walking through this tunnel I couldn't think of anything to say to Louis other than another stupid joke. I walked through the tunnel lost in thought, it seemed like thinking about my own personal faults was enough to make me forget about the terror of the tunnel I was in. Who knew weaponizing my own self doubt could keep my mind a million miles away from my fear.

It didn't take long for the sounds of crying to snap me back to reality as they started getting louder. The tunnel we were walking through was narrower than before, now when we shined our lights ahead of us it illuminated the whole tunnel leaving no blind spots. At least we didn't have to worry about anything jumping at us from the side, unfortunately the narrow tunnel also made the crying echo louder, almost like the sound was bouncing around us from all sides. It was unbearable at this point, almost like the source was right on top of us. I've felt nearly blind throughout this whole expedition, I haven't been able to see more than what Louis's light had allowed me to see for what felt like an hour. This loud ass crying just knocked out another one of my senses, I couldn't hear anything other than the weeping which was bouncing around in my skull. I felt helpless, I wouldn't be able to see or hear an attacker coming until I could feel them breathing down my neck. I turned around every now and then but saw nothing but a dark void, since Louis and Bill were so fixated by what was crying ahead of us they refused to point the light behind them out of fear of an attack from the front. I was trapped in my own head at this point, every time I looked forward my back got the chills like someone was watching me from behind, I would then immediately turn to look behind me again only to be met with more darkness, unable to confirm nor deny my fears. It was getting to me at this point, the noise in my ears and the fear that every time I turned around a set of eyes would be looking back at me from the darkness, oh god what if Louis had heard something stalking us? The tunnel felt like it was closing in on me… I need to get out of here now! Someone please shut that goddamn thing up, my head feels like it's going to explode!

After a few minutes of me slowly dying inside the guys stopped, we had come to a crossroads, and we were not alone this time. We were greeted by a mountain of bodies blocking the right path of the tracks, the sight was both terrifying and fascinating, but our fascination was instantly abandoned once we saw the infected. When I say infected I mean one singular infected, it was sitting at the base of the mound of corpses. At first I couldn't tell what it was doing, all I knew was that it definitely wasn't the source of the crying. Louis and Bill stood to the left of me also confused by what they were seeing.

I almost threw up when it turned its head toward us. It didn't completely turn to look at us, it turned its head just enough for one of its eyes to lock onto our movement. The first thing we noticed was the flesh hanging from its mouth, its whole face was covered in red splotches like a toddler who was eating spaghetti in the messiest way possible.

"Is it… eating?" Louis said in disbelief.

It was now that I realized I haven't ever really seen one of these things actually eat a person, at worst they bit people, but even then the thing in front of us wasn't just eating… it was almost like it couldn't stop itself. The groans of pain were one giveaway, every time it stuffed its mouth it would make a sound almost like it was forcing itself to take every bite. The second giveaway was its enormous belly, it was disgustingly huge, I almost couldn't look.

"Why is it not attacking?" Bill whispered, I almost didn't hear him over the crying still echoing from the left path of the tunnel.

"I don't know, do you think we should kill it?" I asked the two guys.

Bill considered this before shaking his head. "Look at that damn thing, I don't think it can even move in that state." Bill gagged as the monster took another bite of flesh, "Let's just move while it's preoccupied."

"It's looking right at us." Louis reminded Bill, "I don't know if we should be walking through here knowing that's behind us."

"We shouldn't risk attracting any nearby zombies, I'll bring up the rear son, you two just keep moving while I watch our backs."

Louis looked hesitant but decided against arguing, he kept moving on while Bill kept the flashlight pointed at the thing. I swear it's eyes tracked us as we moved until it was barely visible behind us. The short encounter was enough to multiply our fear of this subway tenfold. My only solace was the fact that Bill was now keeping a close eye behind us.

"Just a little farther," Bill assured us. "We should be close to the hospital by now."

Thank god, I couldn't stand being down here for another second. Nothing about this place was normal, everything we've seen has been enough to make the surface look like a paradise. Every step was one step closer to the hospital, as long as we made it there our problems would almost be over. Except every step is also one step closer to the source of the crying my inner voice whispered. 'Shut up' I told myself… okay, now I really needed to get out of here for my sanity's sake.

We walked through the left path of the subway tracks, eventually it took us to another station like the one on Holly Street. The path opening up almost gave me a sense of relief, it was still dark but at least this was the station that was closest to the hospital. I walked ahead with Louis who was shining his light into the abandoned subway cars as he passed them. I then realized that something wasn't right.

"Uh guys?" I whispered to the others, "The crying… it stopped."

Bill and Louis stopped in their tracks, apparently they were just noticing how quiet it had gotten when the tunnel opened up. Even though the crying had stopped it had left a ringing in my ears like the sounds still haven't sompletely left my brain. Bill looked almost grateful when he noticed, "I hope that's a good thing."

Louis had a different expression on his face, his brow furrowed and he stayed on high alert and he wasn't sharing why. I personally saw it as a blessing from the universe itself, at least one of my senses worked like normal again! I could almost hug the two men who were standing beside me, but maybe it wasn't appropriate to celebrate until we could see the sky again. Bill walked over to a map hanging near the benches of the station to get a better idea of where we should go next. I kept following Louis who was making a sweep of the area to make sure we were at least zombie free.

"Look." Louis muttered. He pointed his light towards a corner of the room where bodies lined the walls.

"More slashed corpses," I whispered. "Look, there's marks on the walls too…"

Louis moved his light slightly above the corpses, streaks of red lines marked the walls above the dead bodies, something else seemed off too. I could see the amount of bodies grow in number towards the left, like there had been a struggle… but every infected had been attacking the same target. I almost couldn't make it out since Louis's light was focused on the bodies, but the apex of the corpses seemed to align at the entrance of a room, the bodies around the door looked more recently deceased than the others. The door looked broken down, maybe whatever had been fighting off the zombies had made its last stand in there? I was about to ask Louis to point the light inside the room before Bill interrupted me.

"Holy mother of… get back here you two!" Bill cried out in the darkness.

Me and Louis wasted no time rushing to the old man who we found on the ground pointing his light at the tunnel we had just come through.

"What is it Bill?!" Louis asked, "Where are they?!" He pointed his flashlight around us wildly as he searched for whatever Bill had seen. I knelt by Bill and noticed his arm as he pointed the flashlight, it was shaking like crazy and his eyes focused on the tunnel we had just come from. I rationalized that he must have let his stress get to him, after such a long walk with nothing attacking us he must have seen a shadow or something. There was no way he saw an infected, me and Louis would have seen it by now, that or it would be on Bill right now tearing him to shreds.

I put a hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him down. "Are you sure you saw something Bill?" I asked him.

Bill wouldn't stop looking at the tunnel, but he took a deep breath before saying, "It was standing right there, looking at me from around the corner… and the second I pointed my light at the thing it hid behind the corner."

Needless to say shivers ran down my spine when he said that, no matter how hard I tried writing it off as a hallucination I couldn't stop imagining something watching us from around the corner. I steeled my nerves and picked up Bill's flashlight. Before I could stand it was Bill's turn to grab my arm. "Watch out kid," He mumbled, "Something's not right about it."

I had my rifle ready, I shoved Louis who had been frantically scanning the room. I nodded my head towards the tunnel and he calmed down enough to give a weak thumbs up. I moved in such a way that I could see through the tunnel but I was also far enough away to not be grabbed if something was indeed lurking around the corner. I took slow steps never looking away from the tunnel, eventually taking my last step and jumping on the tracks. Nothing was there.

"Oh thank goodne-'' Louis was cut off by the sound of feet on water to his left. Quickly I shined my light on a puddle next to the subway car, I could see it rippling as though something had just disturbed it. Next I heard running on top of the subway cars, I just barely caught the back of a shadowy figure before it jumped to the car behind it. It almost looked like someone doing parkour. I had never seen a zombie move like that before, me and Louis couldn't compose ourselves enough to track the movement of the monster with our flashlights, Bill quickly joined our side as he got his pistol ready, it would be really useful if he had his shotgun right now but he had used up all the ammo in our previous encounter with the horde. I wanted to pass my hunting rifle to him but I was so terrified I couldn't focus on anything but keeping track of the thing in the room with us.

"It's t-too fast!" Louis cried out in a panic.

"It feels like there's more than one!" I shouted. It was so fast we would turn around and shine a light on it but right as it disappeared behind a car we would hear it behind us again. No… it was definitely impossible… I focused my senses as Louis kept tracking the thing, I needed to calm down enough to get a clear shot.

After I took a breath I pulled my rifle out and aimed it at the last place I saw the thing… silence…. I didn't stop aiming, I just needed to wait for my chance to get a perfect shot. The others stopped too, I could hear the blood rushing to my head as everyone held their breath. If I could just hear where it was I could take a shot…

I felt something light on my shoulder. I glanced at Bill who was to my left, he hadn't touched me, so what the hell… I felt it again, it was rubble. My eyes widened in realization as I whipped my flashlight directly above us. I was met with the eyes of two infected crawling above us on the ceiling. Each of them had red bloodshot eyes which they covered behind their hands as soon as I shone my light on them. Bill took a step back when he saw them, since he wasn't looking where he was stepping he caught his boot on the subway track and fell on his back, hitting his head on the pavement. As he fell backwards I took my eyes off the two creatures above us for just a second, they must have noticed we were distracted and dropped from the ceiling directly in front of Louis. He barely had time to react as the zombies growled at him, baring their unnaturally sharp teeth. Louis fired a shot from his pistol which hit one of them on the shoulder, the impact was enough to knock it backwards into one of the subway cars. The second one screamed and dashed towards him with insane speed, it closed the gap between them in less than a second, using all of its force it slammed him against the wall and started slashing at my friend with its claws as Louis desperately fought it off.

My rifle felt heavy in my hands as I tried aiming it at the infected while it attacked Louis, they were struggling so much I didn't think I could land a shot without accidentally hurting Louis. I decided to rush the thing and shoved it off of my friend, he didn't look too badly injured but I didn't have time to check for more than a millisecond. I pushed any other thought to the back of my head and focused on the thing on the ground in front of me, the monster had quickly recovered from being shoved, looking ready to rush me down next. I quickly aimed my rifle but before I pulled the trigger the other infected was back and had pulled me by the arm, its claws pinching me but not breaking through my jacket. With one arm the infected pulled me away from its companion and threw me against the wall of the subway car like I was no heavier than a sack of potatoes, I must have banged my head against the wall pretty hard because my vision looked blurred and my brain felt like mulch. I let go of my gun as I fell on my side disoriented from the fall, I tried getting up but it was too late, in no time at all the thing was on me and was about to take a swipe at my face. I could barely make out movement from the corner of my eye, Bill must have been backing up Louis, but when he saw me he took a shot at the thing that was standing above me. The thing hardly flinched this time and stood its ground even while being shot in the back. Honestly everything was happening so fast I was surprised Bill was even able to hit it. I could see my life flashing before my eyes as the razor sharp claws moved in slow motion towards my face.

Just before it could take a swipe was when we heard it. The crying… it had started again, and it was really close. The infected noticed this immediately and literally froze in place, like an animal its head turned directly towards the source of the sound. It was coming from the room I had noticed earlier, whatever it was seemed to be enough to draw the complete attention of this thing that was seconds away from tearing my face apart. My heart was pounding as the infected backed away slowly and bolted straight for the tunnel, the crying must have been the only thing keeping all of the infected away from this place. It must have been the source of all these dead bodies too if it was enough to scare away such powerful zombies. The other zombie which had been on Louis and Bill was quick to follow its ally, I didn't know if this was some kind of instinct or if they were just smart enough to know this crying was bad news.

The station filled with a sense of dread, like the crying was meant to ward off anything that wanted to come too close. I thought of how rattlesnakes warned people before striking, this thing wanted to be left alone and I was happy to oblige it. I grabbed my flashlight from the floor and found Bill next to Louis nearby, my head was still groggy but I didn't need to ask twice when I saw Bill help Louis to his feet and run out of the station.

The entrance wasn't blocked off at all but was eerily free of infected. I'm sure anything close enough to hear what was going on down here was either ripped apart or knew better than to mess with the things we saw underground. It was still shocking to see the streets so barren, walking out and seeing the sun for the first time in hours was a shock to the system. The sun was rising on a deserted street and the three of us were worn from being on high alert for what felt like hours, fighting off those things took a lot out of us but we didn't stop moving until we couldn't hear the sounds of crying anymore. We followed Bill who knew how to get to the hospital from here. With that we ran from the subway, I'll be damned if I ever decided to go underground again, everything down there had come straight out of hell.

This was not the same city I had driven through a week ago. I couldn't look anywhere without seeing everything covered in rubble and destruction, entire buildings had been knocked down and blocked off some streets entirely. Most of the time we were walking through alleyways and trying to spot infected, but even though we had left the subway behind there was still no sign of any activity. I could see smoke coming from our left, it wasn't far from where we were but we couldn't help but wonder what was going on.

"That's coming from a gas station near that Burger Tank I used to eat at!" Louis exclaimed.

"Maybe the zombies were angry the burgers didn't come with a brain flavored option." I jokingly responded.

Bill kept moving ahead but I could almost feel him rolling his eyes at me, Louis chuckled softly. We were undoubtedly shaken up by what had happened in the subway, but I tried to keep a positive image so the others could put it behind them too. At least it looked like it was working, Bill was back to acting moody and I got a small laugh out of Louis.

Speaking of Louis, I noticed he had been grabbing his left shoulder as he walked. In fact this whole time he's been staying to my left, there was no way that he...

I grabbed his right arm and forced him to face me, there was blood coming from his left shoulder. It was clear now, his white shirt was stained red and he was barely able to hide the pain from his face. How could we have missed it? I cursed audibly which got the attention of Bill, the three of us had stopped in an alleyway so hopefully we could talk without attracting unwanted attention.

"Louis what the hell are you doing walking around with a wound like that?!" I exclaimed.

Louis looked like he wanted to crawl into a box and disappear, he tried to speak but couldn't find the right words, Bill looked like he wanted to say something too but I interrupted him.

"Let me see it." I crossed my arms in exasperation and stared him down, "Louis what happened to that 'trust' you were talking about back at the apartment?" I made air quotes when I said trust. "That's the most important thing in an apocalypse, you can't just be hiding things from us!"

"I know this looks bad guys but listen to what I have to say before you freak out." Louis slowly opened the tear in his blood soaked shirt and revealed a long claw mark going down his shoulder to his left bicep.

"Oh jesus christ son what the hell." Bill said in disbelief, I was barely able to comprehend what I was seeing as I got flashbacks of my dad and how he ended up after being wounded by an infected. I kept trying to speak but struggled to find words, I couldn't stop thinking about how I was going to lose someone else and there was nothing I could do about it. I covered my face with my hand and looked down as I fought back the urge to tear up or yell at him for hiding an infected wound.

"Wait wait!" Louis cried out when he saw our reactions, "I know this sounds crazy, but I think I'm going to be fine!"

I looked up and frowned when I realized he was being serious. "What the hell are you talking about? Are you saying that didn't come from the infected?"

Louis raised his other arm and pulled back the sleeve of his shirt to reveal his bandaged arm, it was still healing from our supply run back at the apartment. He unwrapped the bandage and showed us the wound. "I know I said this came from a bad fall… but it actually came from an infected which was similar to the ones we fought in the subway."

Bill didn't waste any time walking up to Louis and grabbing his arm, I thought he was going to chew him out but instead he inspected the wound closely. "It does look like the same kind of wound…" Bill's frown almost disappeared for once, "No kidding, but if this is as you say it is… then this is great information!"

I was surprised he was able to overlook the lie so easily, I suppose he had a habit of focusing on the most useful points for our survival, but I wasn't done yet. "Louis, you looked me in the eye and asked me to trust you… how could you just lie like that so easily?"

"I had a hunch Zoey, I told you before I've seen people turn who hadn't been bitten." Louis tried to hide it but I could see the sadness in his face when he said people. "It made me wonder if this disease could be airborne… but that didn't make any sense to me. We've been living so close to ground zero of the infection for so long... "

I could see the gears turning in Bill's head while Louis explained his thoughts. "I've been thinking the same thing as a matter of fact," Bill commented, "There is no way the infection could have spread as fast as it did through bites and scratches, and even if it somehow could that doesn't explain how they were able to overwhelm the military."

"It has to be airborne… and if it's airborne then we're immune." I realized.

Louis nodded, "I had to be sure, and I didn't want to risk telling you and being thrown out before finding out for sure."

I really wanted to be angry, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure even I could reveal a bite like that. Maybe I was being unfair, and it wasn't like we were going to let this argument split the group up, we needed to stick together whether we liked it or not.

Before I could speak my mind there was a loud bang coming from the direction of the black smoke from earlier. The gas station must have been closer than I thought because the sound was really loud, "What the hell was that?" I asked in a panic.

Both Louis and Bill were looking around, probably expecting an attack due to us being so close to the sound. "I don't know but we should move before a horde is on top of us." Bill insisted.

"It almost sounded like a car crash!" Louis said, "Maybe if we found a way to help we could-"

I flicked him on the shoulder, not on his wound but close enough to make him flinch. "If you haven't noticed we aren't in any condition to be running into a crowd of zombies on an assumption!" I pointed at his shoulder which was covered with blood, "Infected or not we need to get that stitched up and I can't think of a better place to go for that than the hospital."

Louis cursed as he tried moving his shoulder, " I guess it'd be unfair to argue." He didn't look happy about it but he abandoned the idea of someone else being in the city with us.

"We gonna move it or not ladies?!" Bill was waving at us to get our attention while jogging in place trying to get us to hurry.

The three of us didn't waste any more time and soon navigated the alleyways towards the hospital entrance. It was a bizarre sight but we made it, the street looked completely different from how I'd seen it a week ago. This part of the street was completely blocked off by a truck on one side and a fallen building on the other, as far as I could tell this alley was the only way to get here without climbing. Me and Bill looked through the alley to make sure the coast was clear as Louis watched our backs. There didn't seem to be any signs of life out here either, even after the loud bang we heard from before the street was free of movement.

"I say we haul ass and rush inside while the coast is clear." Bill whispered.

"We don't know what we'll find inside," I replied, "Remember how many were above us last time we were here? We were one floor beneath hundreds of them without even realizing it!"

Bill rubbed his temples as he recalled what we saw on the second floor of the emergency room. "I was hoping that ruckus from earlier would be enough to lure them out, but maybe that was wishful thinking."

I noticed movement from the corner of my eye as Bill was talking, a sewer grate sitting just a few feet from us seemed to be slightly opened, like something was propping it up from the inside. I moved towards it slowly while Bill watched me like I was crazy. I tried kicking it closed but instead was met with a very surprised sounding scream.

"AHH! Goddamn vampires!" The grate slammed closed and the sounds of cursing came from underneath.

"Holy mother of christ!" Bill exclaimed. "Someone's still alive in this goddamn city!"

Louis rushed by our side when he heard the commotion. "You find any zombies? Cause it's all clear back here-" He jumped back when the grate opened again and a head popped out like a gopher. The clean shaven head of a man was looking in the opposite direction when he looked out, with a red bump on his head straight out of a cartoon. Did he hit his head when the grate slammed shut on him?

He looked around for a couple seconds before he noticed us behind him, "Holy shit." He muttered quietly. "People."

The three of us stared at the strange man like he'd just grown a third eye. Out of everything we'd seen the absolute last thing we expected was a non infected man popping his head out of a sewer grate in front of a most likely zombie filled hospital. The man pulled himself out of the sewer, he was covered in soot and was lugging a couple of huge bags over his shoulder. He was holding an assault rifle which looked straight out of the military, he was wearing a black vest and fingerless gloves along with jeans, he fit the stereotype for a typical biker dude.

The biker raised his gun above his head in surrender, "I come in peace!" He said with earnest.

Louis turned his head to hide the laugh he was trying to stifle, I was more shocked that this guy was able to survive this long, immune or not. Bill walked up to him and snatched his rifle from him, "You're not the brightest are ya son?" Bill remarked.

The biker dude kept raising his hands above his head, "I've been hoping to find someone to partner up with," He rubbed the back of his head tenderly. "Goddamnit, remind me never to walk into a sewer again." He didn't look the least bit concerned that Bill had just took his only means of defending himself, who was this guy?

"You can't just give up your guns like that to total strangers!" I told him, "What if we had just decided to shoot you!?"

The biker kept rubbing the bump on his head, "Not like I could fight three guys with guns pointed at me." He shrugged and went on, "The name's Francis in case you wanted to know."

The other two men gave me a look like they couldn't believe what they were hearing either. Francis stopped standing around when he noticed something on the rooftops above us. "Ahh shit you guys might want to hide." We turned around and saw the smoke from earlier which had gotten a lot thicker.

"You know what caused that?" Louis asked.

"Of course I do, it was me!" Francis proudly jabbed his thumb at his chest.

"But… why?" I had no earthly idea what was going on anymore.

"I'll explain on the way down, but right now we need to take cover before they start going apeshit." Francis already started going down the ladder, I think he was muttering something about his dislike for sewers on the way down.

"Is this guy serious?" I asked Bill.

"We're wasting time, let's just get into the hospital and leave this idiot behind."

The sky lit up the instant we took a step forward, soon followed by an earth shattering BOOM. I felt the ground shake for a moment and almost lost my balance. Was it the gas station? How did Francis know how to rig it to blow up like that?!

I looked around in a daze for a few seconds as my ears were ringing, Louis was shoving me toward the grate while I was standing in confusion. I could barely hear him shouting to get in the sewer, I noticed why while I was seeing double. The windows of the hospital emergency room had completely shattered at the shock of being so close to the huge explosion. Thousands of infected came streaming out like hornets attacking someone who kicked their hive, they noticed the three of us standing around like deer in headlights just waiting to be eaten. They had just started barreling out the door when Bill started rushing down the ladder of the sewer, Louis was pulling my arm trying to lead me down with him. I didn't like the idea of going underground again, but right now we didn't have much choice, and if an idiot like Francis could make it down here alone we should be able to hide down here safely for at least a short while.

I closed the sewer grate right before the infected could get the chance to swipe at my face, that was too close for comfort, but at least they couldn't get in now. Now we found ourselves standing in a dark sewer staring down this biker who seemed to have turned all of our plans upside down.

Francis coughed awkwardly. "Hehe, I guess I should explain myself then huh?"