Chapter Six: Rooftop


There were maybe fifteen geeks on Main Street now. Three of them were still picking off on the remains of officer Flagg, while another five were gorging themselves on what was the Davis twins' mother next to her blaring vehicle. There were about five more banging on the Burgess family's door where Juno could hear the furious barking of their german-shepherd from the other side. She could spot another geek inside of the house (it was Mrs. Morrison, a single parent of three kids after her husband took off two years ago and the mother of one of her kids, Pipi) directly across the street peering out the window and banging halfheartedly against the glass with her head. Juno allowed herself a moment of grief to pass through her heart for the loss of human life before her, but mourning the walking dead wasn't going to bring them back nor was it going to keep her kids safe nor herself.

She quickly maneuvered through the garden beds she'd built to the right back corner of the building and climbing on top of the wall as carefully and as quietly she could before jumping onto Mr. Arnold's rooftop. Juno stilled momentarily before carefully looking over to see if the geeks had noticed her activities. All clear, but she didn't let herself relax in her victory. She quickly checked on the chains baring the rooftop doors shut before making her way to the other side of roof to see the distance between Mr. Arnold's roof and the building next to it. The distance was about the same as the one between her own building, but the main difference seemed to be that the rooftop of the Rec Center didn't have roof access at all. Juno allowed a triumphant smile to bloom on her face. The building on the other side of the Rec was another house with a slanted roof, making the roofs of the three buildings a safe zone and great place to eradicate some geeks from the sky.

"I'm on the roof now, it seems that the geeks aren't really thinking of looking up right now, so they haven't spotted me. I'm on Mr. Arnold's roof right now, but I'm going get onto the Rec's roof now before I start taking them out. Don't reply until I give the all-clear. Over." she whispered into her walkie before climbing over the wall and jumping onto the Rec's roof.

Juno quickly set herself up to look over the roof's edge and got into position. Peering into the scope, she quickly aimed onto the head of the nearest geek to her before turning the safety off and pulling the trigger. The body crumpled onto the ground, it's fellow geeks barely acknowledging its now permanent death. She quickly dispatched four more geeks in the same manner. The living-dead were now looking around more curiously for their silent attacker, getting more and more excited at the possibility of another meal. Juno didn't let their excited groans frighten her, she'd have plenty of time to freak the fuck out later in the privacy of her apartment, and instead focused. She decided to take out the geeks that had been banging on the Burgess' front door. No one was going to be snacking on a dog on her watch if she could help it. Five more down.

A geek that she hadn't seen before, stumbled out from around the Burgess house, it was a kid. Ten-year-old Harrison Burgess was covered in blood and was hobbling around on a bum ankle, his head resting on his shoulder languidly as small groans emitted from his torn throat.

Fuck.

Harrison was a good, if mischievous kid. Before they'd gotten their dog Baxter, he used to follow her around asking to pet her dogs when she'd take them out for their walks. His once pretty and lively brown eyes were clouded over in death. Juno bit her lower lip hard before resolutely aiming at his head through her scope and firing. One more down. She quickly fired the gun three more times at the heads of curious geeks. Three more down, two more to go. She shot down Mr. Arnold just as he turned to look up at her before dispatching the other geek next to him. Juno allowed a shaky breath to escape from her lips. She rubbed the few stray tears that had escaped from her away with the back of her sleeve, peering through the scope again to surveil the now geek free street. The geek that was once Mrs. Morrison was still in her house, but Juno wasn't planning on shooting the thing through the window if she could avoid it. The house could be used for housing in the future, but it'd be useless in the winter without a window to help shelter its inhabitants from the cold.

She couldn't spot anything except for the now still corpses on the ground. Mrs. Davis' corpse stirred from its crumpled position on the ground and began dragging her body on the concrete, small groans escaping her throat. Juno put down the geek before it could even make it halfway to the rest of Flagg's body. She sighed before bringing her walkie up to her face.

"All clear. See anything, Kathy? Over."

The walkie crackled for a second before Kathy's relieved voice filled the air, "You're a real good shot, ya know? I ain't seein' anythin' on the screens 'ight now. The fron' is clear, but I see movement in the back. Can' see what it is though. Over."

"I'm good back here, over." Ashley sounded more relaxed now that the main threat seemed to be gone but her voice still betrayed a small tremor relaying some fear of whatever was in the back.

"Alright, I'll check out the back. It might a racoon or Nixie the Morgon's cat. I saw her prowling around there yesterday. Let me know if anything changes in five minutes. Over."

Juno got up her feet and stretched, her gun once more slinging over her shoulder) before jumping onto the Arnold's roof and then onto her own. She peered over the back of the building, keeping an eye out for any geeks when she saw movement coming from behind the wild blackberry bushes on the other side of the fenced playground. She quickly brought her gun up and peered into the scope, a scared face poked out. A living boy shakily walked out from the bush, shushing the little girl gripping onto his shirt behind him. It was the older Morrison siblings, Xander and Mavis. Juno exhaled shakily in relief. The twelve and eight-year-old, respectively, seemed to be unharmed if not scared shitless by the events occurring outside. They must have been up in Creek Park (a small jungle gym up on of forested hill not too far from the preschool) and spotted the massacre from where they'd been playing and were now coming back to see if anyone was left alive. They stayed at the beginning of the underbrush not daring to come out in the open, whispering furiously to one another in what she could only assume was a vicious argument on what to do next.

She quickly scanned their surroundings for more geeks, not wanting the two kids to get bit or eaten alive in front of her. "We got a situation. Over." she demanded on her walkie.

"What's wrong? Over" Kathy responded immediately.

"I can see Xander and Mavis in the back of the preschool hiding in the bushes, they're alive, don't look too injured either. But they are scared shitless and I think we got to bring them in. Over."

"Shit." Kathy cursed, "Ya see any dead ones? Over."

"Nope. But I can't go get them right now. I can provide aerial support from up here but if I get on the ground, I'll lose sight of them and any possible threats over."

"Shee-it." Kathy cursed again, "Ashley do ya think you can go grab 'em? Over."

"I-I don't know." the woman responded shakily, "Someone's gonna have ta be in charge of the gate while I get 'em in... Are ya sure ya don't see anythin' Juno? Over."

"I'm sure, I got all of the dead in the front. Morgon's went on vacation so their house is empty, so that areas cleared. I haven't seen Hank in the front, so he might be a geek... but he won't be able to do anything to you with his bum legs. And I took out all of the corpses out front. I'll have your back outside. Over."

"Alright." Ashely crackled over the walkie, "Alright I'll do it. Give me a minute, Marcy's gonna have ta help me. Over."

Juno kept her eye on the kids as she waited for her coworkers to get outside, they seemed to have stopped arguing and were now just wrapping each other up in their arms. She could see Mavis crying softly into her brother's shirt while Xander patted her back softly while pointing at the preschool. A wry smile tugged at the corner of her lip. Alexander was one smart cookie; he'd already figured that his best chance was to get into the daycare than go walking blindly onto the street without protection. She took the moment to reload her gun and count her remaining bullets. Unless a giant group of forty geeks made an appearance (an extremely unlikely event considering that the majority of the island's residents were most likely on the mainland), she would be fine.

Suddenly she could see Marcy and Ashley dashing down the ramp and to the first gate, Ashley opened it while Marcy stayed behind ready to lock it up in case a geek got in. Ashley practically skipped as she shimmied through the tight spot, between covered gate and Juno's giant truck, until the redhead got to the gate closing the driveway. She unlocked it, making the kids look at the gate in hope as Ashley opened the gate and commanded them to get in.

She could see a geek, Kateri Caddo's older brother (a tween that had once proclaimed himself to be a gamer extraordinaire) stumbling in the bush after them. A quick headshot later the geek crumpled as Ashley and the kids ran in.

"Ashley! Close the gate!" Juno shouted; in her fear, the woman had forgotten to lock the entrance into the driveway. With her scope in front of her, she spotted three more geeks stumbling through the underbrush because of the noise. One of them was Mr. Caddo and the others were two more kids (Jenny and Mark, she'd been their babysitter once upon a time). Juno quickly dispatched them.

"Fuck!" Ashley shouted as she turned around to lock it up. The kids were already inside of the playground with Marcy. As soon as Ashely had the gate chained up she ran through the second gate while Marcy locked it.


Words 1891


(Terri Hooker: Thanks for reviewing! Same! Over time I have developed a soft spot for Merle, so I'm more than happy to give him a bigger role through my writing.)

(apegasaurus: Thanks! Juno is pretty badass!)

(Guest1: Gracias! Me encanta saber que gente de otro paises pueden difrutar lo que yo escribo!)

(Guest2: Que beuno que te gusto!)

(Beachgirl25: Thanks for the awesome review! That was a good idea for Hank and Merle, and I think I'm definitely going to implement that! I can't wait to watch the videos you recommended because you always give me the most wonderful ideas and advice! I love the idea of an island town working together to protect each other from the zombie apocalypse, which is why I spent a lot of time researching potential areas in Georgia that could work... Of course, that was when I fell in love with LaGrange Georgia and is why even in my other fic, Esme's town is also there. I have a Pinterest page for this story too where I highlighted in google maps where Pogonip is and what the characters all look like, I'll add the link to my profile page if you guys are interested! I wish my house was more eco-friendly but that's pretty hard for my family to do when we live so close to the city. We do what we can, we have a garden and we have a compost area, we recycle, we reuse cardboard boxes/bags/bottles... but I would love to live in a place like the one you described... but I also wouldn't be able to give up wifi either, I can't live without fanfiction or writing. LOL.)