SAVE THE LAST ONE PART 2

Natasha's legs struck the rock-hard ground and crumbled beneath her in an instant. After that, her back slammed onto the floor and all the air in her lungs began to evaporate. She laid motionless and completely sprawled out on the ground with every part of her nerves feeling like they'd been set ablaze. Her legs were in agony and her throat felt like it was closing up while also trying desperately to get air back into her lungs.

"Nat! Nat, can you hear me? Hey!" Shane called but it was like she couldn't even hear him. He crouched down next to her and decided to wait until she could catch her breath. "Nothing's broken, right?"

After struggling to breathe for a couple of minutes, Natasha finally began to hack and gasp for air. She rolled over onto her side and took in deep breaths before looking down at her legs and running her hand over her knees, flinching slightly at the electric pain.

"No. They're not," she said in a steadier tone. Natasha sat up slowly and gestured for Shane to help her. "Come on. We don't have time to just sit around."

"I hear that. Here, I got you." Shane slung Natasha's bag over his shoulder before reaching down and pulling the woman to her throbbing legs.

"I can walk pretty alright," she said.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Natasha nodded before turning her head up to the sound of three shots being fired in the distance. "Otis, probably. Come on."

Shane picked up his weapon and began to head towards the athletics field with Natasha limping behind him slowly. They made sure to tread carefully, and even though they were no longer inside the school, the outside wasn't any better either. The field was still crawling with the walking dead. Leaving little room for escape and error.

Shane raised his shotgun and fired at a Walker that took notice of them, and once the body was down, he and Natasha walked out from around the corner into nothing but a field of Walkers. They were everywhere and blocked all the available exits.

Natasha pulled on Shane's shirt and forced him to back up until their backs were pressed against a wall. She peeked her eyes up at him and could see him nearing exhaustion, and honestly, she wasn't far behind either.

Shane raised the barrel of his shotgun at the two Walkers in front of them but wasn't the one to pull the trigger and put them down. Two hollow shots pierced their heads, and once the bodies dropped, they saw that it was Otis standing a couple of feet away with his rifle raised.

Shane let out a breath of relief. "Man, I thought I lost you!" he exclaimed while rushing over.

"That was my last rifle round," Otis said while taking back his bag.

"Mine too."

"Take this for now," Natasha called out while handing Otis her other pistol. "It only has one magazine.

Otis gave her an appreciated nod while taking the pistol.

"Nat, give me your arm," Shane said but didn't even wait for a response. He pulled her arm towards him and wrapped it around his shoulder, hoping to carry some of her weight so it didn't have to be put on her bad legs.

"What happened?" Otis asked after noticing she was now limping.

"She was attacked at the window and ended up falling out of it instead. Busted her legs pretty badly," Shane answered.

"I'm fine. Let's just get out of here already," Natasha growled out as sweat beaded down the side of her face.

"How the hell are we even going to do that?" Shane insisted while looking back at the dead who were still in hot pursuit.

"Got to get back to the street, double back to the truck," Otis explained shortly to them.

Natasha turned to him and looked almost distraught to hear how much further they had to go. "That's practically a freaking hike for you and me, buddy. Not with our legs."

"There's no other plan. We gotta try."

"How many rounds do we all have left?" Shane asked them.

Otis looked down at the pistol he was just given and released the magazine to check. "Ten. You?" he said while snapping it back into place.

"Three," Natasha chimed in begrudgingly.

Shane answered next. "Five and one in the pipe."

That was nineteen bullets between the three of them, which clearly wasn't enough to take down the horde. They were limping away as fast as they could while also simultaneously firing back at the Walkers. Shane and Otis let out a couple of rounds while Natasha released two, which means she only had one round left.

Despite Natasha's best efforts, Shane could see that she was having difficulty keeping up. He saw the pain in her watery eyes, and she tensed up with every step they took, which immediately led him to suspect that she was lying about the severity of the fall. Obviously, she was trying everything she could to conceal the pain behind her clenched teeth.

As Shane looked back, he saw Otis struggling as well. He was starting to fall behind but continued to fire back at the dead, but honestly...the sound of gunfire was beginning to make Shane's head spin. Even Natasha's petite and light body was starting to feel incredibly heavy to him.

It didn't take a genius to tell how bad the situation was getting for them. While they were losing ground, the horde was gaining it. If Shane had to guess, then he would say they only had minutes until the Walkers were on top of them.

Game over.

They weren't going to make it.

At least...not all of them.

"Down to my last one," Otis called back to them.

"I got two more," Shane said but then abruptly halted. He turned his gaze down to Natasha and muttered his words out in a haunting whisper. "I'm sorry."

Natasha looked at his face and instantly felt a chill of ice run down her spine. Her mind went into a frenzy and her body moved at the same time Shane did. He raised his pistol like he was going to shoot her, but Natasha was faster and quickly shoved his hand out of the way, just as he pulled the trigger and released a shot into the hollow night.

"Otis! Otis, get out of here!" Natasha cried out with a shrill voice as she struggled to keep Shane's gun arm away. "Shane, stop it! Please!"

Otis looked completely bewildered at the abrupt turn in events and didn't even know what to think.

Shane struggled momentarily with Natasha before leaning his head back and slamming his forehead right into her face. Natasha's face cringed up as blood began to trickle down her nose, and the moment she released him, Shane shoved her away and raised his pistol to Otis. Otis didn't even have time to react before Shane pulled the trigger and used his last bullet to shoot him in the leg.

Once Otis was down and agonizing on the floor, Shane hurried over to him and tried to rip his bag off. Otis tried his best to fight back though and wrestled with the crazed man for a bit, grabbing a fistful of his hair and not letting go.

"Let go of me! Let go!" Shane shouted madly with deranged and wild eyes.

After a couple solid kicks into Otis's wounded leg, Shane managed to rip himself free. He stumbled away from Otis with his bag in hand, but as he turned around to leave, he nearly walked straight into Natasha's knife that she swung at him. Shane jumped to the side to avoid the knife before grabbing her arm, twisting the weapon out of hand, and quickly trapping her in a tight headlock.

"Shane! Sha-!" Natasha croaked out while kicking wildly to try and get herself free. She pulled at his arms when she began to feel them tighten around her neck, stopping her from breathing. "Sha...ne!"

While Shane struggled with Natasha, he looked back just in time to see the horde swarm onto Otis. They bit into his flesh and began to tear and eat him alive as the man screamed in agony and pure horror. In that brief moment, it quickly dawned on Shane that he didn't have time to kill Natasha anymore. The horde was already here.

Just as she was beginning to lose the fight and stop struggling, Shane threw Natasha back onto the floor and kicked her crudely in the stomach a couple of times with his heavy and thick boots. After making sure she wasn't going to get back up, Shane quickly picked up everyone's bags and began to run back to the truck, leaving Natasha and Otis behind.

"You...you…" Natasha growled darkly with intense hatred heating up her gun-metal eyes. "You...motherfucker!"

Redness seeped into Natasha's vision as she scraped her fingers across the pavement. All noises around her instantly vanished though the moment she felt cold steel against her hand, and when she gripped it tightly, she realized it was her pistol she dropped when Shane first attacked her.

Blazing with anger and inconsolable rage, Natasha picked herself off the ground and raised her pistol to Shane's distant figure. She could see him clearly even in the dark. He was perfectly aligned in her crosshairs and still very much in range, but as Natasha's finger slowly began to press down on the trigger, her hearing rapidly returned to the sound of Otis's agonized screams. Natasha flinched at the sound before snapping her head over her shoulder to the horror show behind her. She could somewhat see him. See flesh being ripped apart and exposed muscles being stretched until snapping in two. There was just so much blood it was hard to make out if it was even him anymore.

Natasha looked back at Shane and saw him getting further and further away, then back at Otis who was slowly being devoured alive. She looked between the two a couple more times before clenching her teeth and turning her pistol down to Otis. She pulled the trigger and released her last round straight through his head, cutting his screams of pain short and ending his torment.

Natasha stared silently at the horde as her limbs hung loosely at her sides. They were really nothing but a bunch of gluttonous pigs that were now completely ignoring her. Too busy chewing on their new meal to even realize she was standing only a couple of feet away. Thinking about it, this was probably the safest she had been since arriving at the school. Which was truly a disgusting thought.

As Natasha huffed, she holstered her last remaining pistol and sheathed her knife. After taking a deep breath, she turned around and hobbled away from the school. However, the scornful and intense look in her eyes remained.