Chapter 4

-Author's Note- I have finally decided to update. I apologize for taking so bloody long. (Let me know if there's any errors so I can make sure to give it a thorough read-through first).

The sun had finally appeared above the horizon. I was still wide awake and hadn't got a wince of sleep. I was sitting at the edge of the tree house, but I avoided meeting the vacant eyes of the zombies below, it creeped me out to watch them try to desperately claw their way up the tree. I wondered how Nicole had fallen over the edge but was able to grab onto the ledge just in the nick of time. How could someone be so damned stupid? Why would she wander to the edge. She probably got curious so she leaned out far to look down at the killers below. Sometimes I thought we would be better off without her, but Terry cared about her too much.

Kenneth woke up, at the crack of dawn, and looked sleepily around, focusing his dazed eyes on me. I gave him a weak smile. Rubbing at his eyes, he got up and went over to where I sat.

"Let me guess, you've been up all night?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, but I really don't mind. Not that tired."

"You've got bags under your eyes and you've hardly slept at all, so don't give me that."

The annoyance in his voice made me look up at him. "Well, I find it extremely difficult to pass out when there's a bunch of dead, decaying people below us trying to eat us alive."

"Yeah, but we all managed. You should be use to it, we spent enough time in that mall with zombies all around us."

"Yeah, but, come on. We were in a secure mall with un-breakable doors and windows. We're in a tree house. You really think we're safe? What's the point of sleeping when you know you're just going to die any day now, or any minute." I turned to look out at the zombies clawing and trampling each other, all anxious to get near the tree.

Kenneth's brows furrowed and he looked back at the sleeping bodies spread out around the cramped tree house.

"I think we should go back down," I said after a brief moment of silence. I knew saying this would stun him.

He looked down at me in bewilderment. "Come again?"

"I think we should go back down," I put emphasis on the word down.

"Back down there? You're fucking kidding me, Ana. How the hell would we be able to accomplish that? We'd be eaten alive within seconds."

I thought about that, and I knew even before I told him of my plan that we would be taking a huge risk. But I was all for it. "I know that it's extremely risky, but we might as well. What have we really got to lose…"

"Our lives. And me, my dignity."

I stood up in rage. "Who gives a fuck about your dignity? Do you honestly think we'll survive up here, in a stuffy little tree house in a tree that's about to collapse, with a few coolers of food? I highly doubt that, Kenneth. It's common sense."

He sighed inwardly. "I know, don't you think I've been worrying about that constantly? I know we'll die either way, we'll starve to death up here. But Hell with it, I'd choose starving to death over getting eaten alive any day."

I knew it wasn't going to be an easy task persuading him to agree with me. And I knew for sure I didn't want to venture down below myself, not to mention Kenneth would never allow it. But he wasn't seeing it my way, wasn't using his sense, and I certainly didn't want to wait to die up here.

"You're not thinking straight. You're not thinking about our future! If we stay up here, we're basically giving death an invitation. I'd rather starve to death too, I suppose, than be eaten alive. But that's going to happen if we stay up here anyways. I heard those zombies banging into the tree, trying to knock it over. They're smarter than we think.

"Come on, Ken, think about it. What if we succeed? What if we get down there safely? And we've got loaded guns, so that's a plus. We'll forget about this tree house, we'll move to another city, start fresh, try out hardest to put all this in the past, if that's possible. You won't regret it."

"Alright… We throw the rope over, climb down- and then what? There's millions of zombies down there, they cover every inch of the land surrounding us. We'll never be able to outrun them. Sure, we've got loaded guns, but we don't have that many bullets, not enough at all. We'll have to constantly keep reloading and we can't afford to do that."

He certainly had several good points, definitely. But I still thought that we had a chance. Either way we were going to die, didn't he understand that? We might as well let it come quickly instead of dreading it for weeks.

"I know that… you're right. But it's worth a try. Please, I thought you'd, of all people, would understand and would want to give it a shot. You're a brave guy, and I sure as hell wouldn't be able to do it without your help. Please? I promise you won't regret trying it."

He took a deep breath before exhaling. "I don't know… I sure know we won't be able to do it. But what the Hell? I guess we can give it a go. And Ana, don't tell me I won't regret this. Because I will. Will I ever…"

I'd regret it too. I knew as soon as we throw the rope over the side and prepare ourselves, that I would regret ever trying to convince Kenneth into the whole mess. I agreed with everything Ken pointed out, but I had to follow my gut feeling.