Neither Jess nor Leon slept long. They got up early and walked out of the building. There was no one around.
"Do you want this back?" asked Jess talking about his jacket.
"Nah, it's a little cold out here. You keep it safe for me," he said.
She blushed, and smiled. They walked on, heading north towards the road, thankfully not running into much. That was until they turned the corner to face their escape route.
Just as they were beginning to feel freedom, they heard to low growl of something very large behind them. Slowly, they turned to lay eyes upon the B.O.W. They slowly backed away, keeping their eyes on the creature who was for the moment, busy disemboweling what used to be a dog. Throwing what was left of the rotten hunk of meat to the side, it locked its gaze on the two of them.
"Run. NOT in a straight line," Jess whispered to him seconds before she took off to the left, then to the right.
Leon went the opposite way, first taking a right, then a left. The B.O.W. was confused for only a second before it made its move. With one giant leap, it landed heavily only feet from both of them. They turned and both fled down an alleyway, too skinny for the B.O.W. until it decided to plow through the brick walls in order to make way.
They ducked into a building and blocked the door with a partially tipped over bookcase. They knew it wouldn't stop the B.O.W. but it gave them a chance to find places to hide.
Leon pulled out the bazooka that he'd found at the police station. He had two shots left. Jess climbed inside an empty locker and shut it. Leon crouched behind a desk. They waited for the arrival of the inevitable crash of the crumbling brick wall. When it came, Leon rested the bazooka on the desk top and fired a shot at the creature. At the last second, it jumped and the round barely clipped it in the side. It roared in anger and flew at Leon, who ducked the blow. The B.O.W. went sailing over him and crashed into the wall on the other side.
Jess jumped out of the locker and ran toward the hole that the creature had left, with Leon close behind. The crossed a large lot and stopped on the other side. They turned and looked as the B.O.W. headed straight for them.
Leon got down on one knee and aimed. He pulled the trigger and the round met the B.O.W. head on at about the middle of the lot. The blast knocked both of them back, but they were ready and both were soon up again.
"Well, I guess that finishes it," Leon said.
"Yeah, now let's get out of here," Jess answered him.
They made their way out of the lot and back onto the road they had been on. Suddenly, they heard a plane flying overhead. They looked up to see a jet drop a bomb on the other side of the city.
"Get down!" Leon yelled pushing her to the ground.
He lay on top of her, shielding her body just as the bomb went off in a deafening explosion. The ground shook for a moment before everything went silent again.
"Let's go, there'll be another one coming around soon," said Leon. They ran down the road and stopped as they came up on an ATV lot.
"Can you ride?" he asked turning to her.
Jess grinned. "Hell yeah! I'll be right back."
She ran into the dealership building and looked around. She saw what she was looking for and ran over to it. She broke open the little box that was mounted to the wall and picked up two keys from the hundreds that fell out. She ran back to where Leon was standing and knelt down as another bomb exploded on yet another part of the city.
"Here," she shouted, throwing him one of the keys. They each started up a four-wheeler, set them to fifth gear and rode off.
They shot at the occasional zombie that stepped in their way but didn't have too much trouble with any of the creatures as they drove along the road and out of Norrel.
They heard more jets and went faster. The explosions came soon after the sounds of the jets overhead and threatened to knock them off their four-wheelers. They drove up to the area where the rocks had blocked the road, shifted down to second gear and drove on.
The rocks were piled up high. The pile rose nearly twenty feet from the original level of the road. They stopped when they made it to the top of the hill and got off of their four-wheelers. Leon was parked about fifteen feet ahead of Jess. They watched what was left of the city burn away.
The last jet flew over and dropped its bomb on the part of Norrel closest to them. They turned and ducked as it went off.
They got up and walked to their four-wheelers. Unexpectedly, the portion of rock that Jess was standing on and a large section above it gave way and began sliding downhill.
Rocks came down on her as she fell and landed painfully on the rocks below. She saw the four-wheeler come sliding down towards her, accompanied by more rocks before she blacked out.
28
"Jess!" Leon yelled.
He waited for a reply and when none came, he climbed down the rocks to where he had last seen her. It didn't take long before he found her; partly pinned underneath her four-wheeler and the rocks.
He pulled the rocks away and then lifted the four-wheeler off of her. She was still alive but was unconscious. He picked her up and carried her back to his four-wheeler and drove off the mound of rocks so they wouldn't have to worry about another slide. He drove down the road for a little while, then parked on the side of the road, took Jess down and began patching her up.
She had many deep cuts and bruises all over her body and a broken left wrist. Leon knew that she might have more injuries but had no way of knowing. He propped her up with the two backpacks that they had, made a small fire and waited for her to wake up.