Chapter 29: Alone
EDWARD
After getting about a block away from Elmherst, I felt the fear hit me of being outside the walls. Even though I couldn't see any of the dead, the sense of being surrounded by them was disturbing. There were just too many places that they could be hiding.
We had very little to go on in our search for Eleazar, Peter, Irina, and Charlotte. All I had was their general direction and that they were about twenty minutes ahead of us.
Emmett and I followed the main route through town because we hoped that they would be looking for supplies which would be easier to find in shopping centres than in houses. However, after a couple of hours of searching, we hadn't seen any sign of them. The stress and worry were getting to me, causing my head to feel like it was vibrating with an incessant hum.
We didn't talk, focusing only on keeping aware of our surroundings and moving as quietly as possible. We'd considered driving. Emmett had taught me on one of the cars that was still worked in our community. I was pretty good now, but we still decided against it because the engine would attract the dead and probably scare the four of them as they might think that James was coming after them.
Again, I questioned what I was doing as we got further and further away from our home. I barely knew Eleazar and Peter. All I knew about them was that, like Jasper and me, they'd been against James. They'd tried to protect the families and the women of the camp from James and his guards. Then, when Garrett was killed and James took over, Peter and Eleazar tried to stand up to him but they were overpowered by the guards and almost killed. So, when the camp fell apart and the dead were overwhelming the living, they were a few of the people that we helped escape.
I'd felt so torn as I perched in the tree looking at the four of them struggle to catch their breaths. The fear they felt as they stared at their surroundings was clearly visible. None of them looked very healthy. They were all thin and looked like it had been a long time since they'd had any rest. I felt sorry for them because they were good people and there weren't that many of us left. That was what had led me to think about bringing them into the community. The people that were left without safety didn't stay good for long. The new world made them cut-throat in their fight for survival or it drove them mad. Take Jasper for an example. From what I'd learned from Alice over the months of living next door to them, before the dead had begun to rise, Jasper had been a gentle person. His father and brothers had been assholes, but Jasper himself had been kind. However, this new world had driven him crazy and made him ruthless. The only reason that the same thing hadn't happened to me was because of Bella. I shuddered, remembering the dark days after leaving Jasper and before finding Bella. I'd turned off my humanity and just become a killing machine. It scared me to think about who or what I'd be now if I'd never met her.
I lived with my family in comfort and safety while good people were just on the other side of the wall in danger of losing their lives and souls. Could we really ignore them?
In the past, I would have said yes, absolutely. My family's safety was more important than anything else. However, a conversation with Chris a week earlier had caused my opinion to waver. We'd all been at Esme's house and she was finally opening up and telling us about her past for the first time. Esme was a very private person, so we hung on her every word when she finally began to talk. My heart broke for her when she talked about Carlisle. The love she felt for him was clear on her face and in the way she traced his features in the one photo she had of him.
But before any of us could say anything, Chris freaked out and I had to take him out of the house. It hurt sometimes to be around him. At first, I was resistant in my role as big brother. He reminded me too much of my sister, but it got easier over time until I came to love the little boy.
The conversation played over in my head as Emmett and I crept down the street.
"What's going on buddy?" I asked, trying to break through his crying fit.
Instead of saying anything, Chris fought harder in my arms, kicking and screaming.
"Buddy. Use your words. Why are you so upset?" I asked, calmly.
"Bad! Bad!," he yelled, hitting me.
It was clear that I wasn't going to be able to get through to him this way. He was hell-bent on fighting his way out of my arms. So, to keep him from running away from me, I opened up one of the cars nearby and plunked him down in the backseat, closing the door behind us.
"What's bad, Chris?" I asked, a little louder as he continued to yell.
"Nice people… go away!" Chris wailed, his voice hoarse from screaming.
Since we'd first met him, Chris had started talking more, but he still spoke in half sentences some times.
"Who? Come on, buddy. Talk to me," I said, again.
By this time, Chris' tantrum was ramping down and he was sniffling and rubbing at his eyes.
"Nice people… go away…" he said again.
"Who, Chris?" I asked, starting to feel alarmed when I realized that he may be talking about Carlisle since he'd had the tantrum after seeing his picture.
"Nice man… he take care of me… Gone," he said.
My breath caught in my throat when he practically confirmed what I was thinking.
"Chris… is he still…?" I didn't know how to ask if Carlisle was alive.
"He go away… Bad people take him…" Chris said and then dissolved into tears.
With that conversation echoing in my head, I'd made the final decision to search for Peter, Eleazar, Charlotte, and Irina. It was hard, especially when Bella was against it. I'd never told her about my conversation with Chris. I didn't know why. I guess it was because I didn't want to take away the hope that she and the others had that Carlisle would come for Esme, especially when I didn't really know whether he was dead.
However, I almost caved when she walked away from me.
She was so angry in her fear.
I wasn't an idiot. I knew what we were doing was dangerous, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I had to do this or I would always regret it.
Emmett and I were now in a long corridor of abandoned businesses once serving the busy streets of Camden. We were surrounded with stores like JC Penney, Wallgreens, and even Nordstrom. My ears hummed and my head ached as the shopping centres loomed over me, ominous with their broken windows and darkened interiors.
Were the dead lying in wait inside these shells of buildings? Was James?
Suddenly, a car alarm went off in the distance followed soon after by gunfire. Emmett rushed towards me and pointed ahead to what looked like Target about a block away.
I motioned towards one of the side streets indicating that we should come up behind the building in order to check it out. We had to be careful because it might very well be the four of them, but we couldn't rule out that it was James' gang.
Silently, we made our way through an alleyway and worked our way around the building. We stepped carefully, avoiding as much as possible the glass from broken windows and other trash that could make noise.
As we got closer, the gunfire became louder but it was now accompanied by voices.
"Peter! To the left!" a man shouted in panic.
At the sound of their voices, Emmett and I moved a little faster. As we came around the corner, I saw immediately what had happened. Some kind of emergency centre had been set up in the Target parking lot. RVs and Red Cross vehicles were parked haphazardly in the center. Clearly, the four of them had tried to search the Red Cross vehicle for medical supplies, like any survivors would. However, they never considered the fact that someone would have locked it and set the alarm. That was something none of us were used to. Most people abandoned their cars without locking them, when the dead began to attack. But a Red Cross van would have important supplies that many emergency care workers would have had the presence of mind to protect even during a zombie attack. I could see that the driver's side window was smashed out which had clearly set off the car alarm. Now the blaring wail of the alarm was attracting the dead.
Eleazar, Peter, Irina, and Charlotte were trapped on top of an RV that was parked next to the Red Cross vehicle. There was a mob of dead around them, practically climbing over each other to get at fresh meat. The dead were growing in number and were now piling on top of each other approaching closer and closer to the top as the four of them fired into the mob. They were good shots, but they barely had room to move on top of the RV and the pile continued to grow as each limp corpse made another stepping stone for the rest of the dead. Emmett stood at my side, staring at the scene unfolding in front of us, just as much in horror as I was. One of the dead reached the top and faster than I thought possible, grabbed ahold of Peter's arm knocking his gun out of his hand. With a horrified cry, Charlotte reached for him, but Irina stepped in front of her and shot the zombie grappling with Peter. However, while Irina was busy shooting the dead man, a mangled corpse reached its sinewy arm over the top and yanked her off the RV.
"No!" Emmett yelled, whipping his shotgun off his shoulder and firing before I had the chance to do anything.
Actually, I'd become frozen the minute I saw what was about to happen. But seeing some of the dead turn in Emmett's direction, I snapped out of it and ran after him, firing at the dead as well.
With a cry of rage, Peter grabbed his gun off the roof and started shooting into the throng of moaning dead that were quickly drowning out Irina's screams.
Eleazar looked in our direction in shock when Emmett and I started shooting. He was the safest distance away from the dead, so he had time to recognize that we were there. His eyes widened momentarily before he pointed to a nearby truck and shouted, "Drive it over here!"
"EMMETT!" I yelled, trying to get his attention, but he was shooting and yelling at the dead in anger.
With one last agonized look, I ran for the truck and prayed it had keys in it.
Throwing open the door, I jumped inside and nearly cried out with relief at the key still in the ignition. Turning it, the truck roared to life with little trouble. It was a miracle that no one had siphoned the gas, but I didn't have time to be thankful. Shoving it into drive, the tires squealed on pavement as I flew towards Emmett.
"GET IN!" I shouted.
Emmett didn't hesitate as he jumped inside.
Before he'd even shut the door, I spun the wheel so that I could pull in along side of the RV.
Emmett had only just managed to dislodge a rotting man that was hanging half inside the vehicle and slam the door when I hit the mob of dead. The wind-shield cracked as they thumped against the hood of the truck and then slammed against the window. However, I could still see a little through the zombie muck on the wind-shield and past a dead woman's head that was mashed against the wind-shield. I aimed the truck towards the RV and prayed that I didn't collide headlong into it. I needed to be close enough to it for the three of them to jump off the RV onto the cap that covered the bed of the truck.
Suddenly, the truck jerked to the side as I slammed the driver's side into something. This was followed by a high-pitched shriek as the truck grinded against the side of the RV.
"Go! Go!" someone shouted from above after three loud thumps sounded out above us.
Without hesitation, I wrenched the wheel to the side and tried to get us out of the mob.
The dead clung to the hood of the vehicle and were crushed under the front wheels of the truck as we forced our way through them.
Finally, I glimpsed an end to the mob over the head of the dead that were still hanging on.
With a moan of relief, we burst through, causing the truck's wheels to spin wildly without the dead grinding underneath of them.
However, I'd only just gained control of the vehicle when I slammed on the breaks in terror at what I saw in front of us.
They were coming from the shadows of apartment buildings and stores. They were all shapes and sizes and stages of rot as they emerged from doorways and windows and alleys to fill the street, drawn by the noise and smell of a fresh meal.
In that horror-filled moment, I realized the vibrating hum that I'd thought was in my head, was actually the moaning of the dead which on mass turned into a steady drone.
"We're screwed… We're so fucking screwed…" Emmett moaned.
Spinning the wheel, I turned away from the mass of dead that were gathering in front of us, not caring at this point whether the three on top were able to hold on.
Gunning the gas, I headed in the opposite direction of the dead, hoping that they were not coming from that direction as well.
However, my hopes were dashed when I saw that another mob of zombies was coming at us from that way as well. The zombies in front of us were still a ways off, but the herd behind us was considerably closer. I looked frantically around, trying to find an escape route. In the side mirror, I saw that a street called Cooper drive was still accessible between two smashed cars, but the chance of getting there was quickly disappearing. Slamming my foot down on the gas and spinning the wheel, I whipped us in the direction of the only available exit.
"Jesus, Edward! We're not going to fit!" Emmett hissed, grabbing a hold of the handle above his door.
I didn't have time to talk. I knew there was a very real possibility that we were not going to make it, but we had no choice.
In the rear-view mirror, I saw that somehow Eleazar, Peter, and Charlotte had made it into the covered bed of the truck. Peter was staring at me in wide-eyed horror while Eleazar and Charlotte were looking towards the quickly approaching dead coming up behind us.
The moaning noises coming from all directions was like the buzzing of thousands of hornets which made it hard for me to even think. All that was in my mind was that we had to make it to the side street.
I didn't let up on the gas as we flew towards the two crashed cars and the chance for freedom.
We almost made it through unscathed. The front end made it between the two cars, but I overcorrected when a piece of metal bumper was in my way, causing the back end of the truck to slam against one of the cars.
I felt rather than heard something crack under us and then a grinding noise as we continued to move forward. But I ignored it as I pushed harder on the gas, trying to put some distance between us and the largest herd of zombies that I'd ever seen as the two groups merged into one.
"Shit, Edward. Is the truck going to make it?" Emmett asked, worriedly.
"We better hope it does. They're too close behind us to stop and look for another," I responded through gritted teeth.
"Head towards the Camden exit," Emmett said, looking behind us worriedly.
I nodded and turned left which put us in the direction of the nearest exit.
We'd come into the city through this way almost a year ago, so we knew that the street was probably still clear of crashed vehicles.
With less vehicles on the road, we were able to pull ahead of the herd but I could still see them in the rear-view mirror which meant they could see us too.
"We can't go home," Emmett said, firmly.
"What?" I asked, shocked.
"We can't go home," he said with conviction. "We can't lead the dead back there."
"We should set off the flare, then," I said.
"No!" he gasped in horror. "Rose and Bella will come looking for us. It wouldn't matter whether Jasper told them it was too dangerous. You know they wouldn't listen."
I nodded, my heart beating wildly at the thought of Bella searching the zombie-infested streets.
It was nearing the end of the first day which meant that we had one more day to get away from the herd, but also make sure that it was heading away from our home. If we didn't make it back tomorrow, Bella would assume the worst.
We'd been driving for over an hour when we realized that the truck wasn't going to last much longer. Sparks were flying up from the rear left wheel and the control that I had over the steering wheel was getting harder and harder which was slowing us down considerably.
"We have to stop somewhere," Emmett said, looking in the rear-view mirror again. The herd behind us was getting close as it relentlessly followed us.
I was starting to lose hope that we'd be able to get back to our family with the wall of dead between us.
"Where can we stop? That herd could take down any building we hide out in," I said.
I looked around us, hoping to find some kind of refuge. We were in an industrial area that was made up mostly of large fields with factories jutting up out of them like large grey monuments.
"We'll have to go into one of those factories and hope that there is some kind of industrial truck that we can drive," Emmett said, his eyes scanning the area worriedly.
"I think that's a cement factory over there," he said, pointing to the right. "At least it looks like a cement factory."
It was our only hope at this point because ahead of us seemed like nothing but open fields.
"Okay," I said, inhaling deeply and then exhaling. "Let's do this."
We didn't have time to find a road, so I drove us right into the open field, plowing towards the factory.
I heard the three of them bouncing around in the back of the truck, but I couldn't spare them a thought as I tried to get us as close to the factor as possible.
When the truck died, half-way through the field, I jumped out and waited for the other four to join me.
"Edward… oh my god…" Eleazar gasped. "What are we doing?"
"The truck is done. We have to find a place where we can get another vehicle," I said, hurriedly looking at the approaching herd. "Come on."
Together we rushed towards the factory, but ruts in the grass and tangled weeds slowed us down.
Finally, we reached a chain link fence with its barbed-wire fencing still standing. I looked in desperation for a hole in the mesh of metal and saw a few feet down from us that someone had tunnelled under the fence.
We fought our way through the hole which was overgrown with vines and leaves and then hurried into the parking lot.
The parking lot was littered with broken glass and empty beer bottles which were probably from teenagers who'd come down here to drink. Every few hundred yards there were downed electricity poles, their wires broken and blowing in the wind.
As we got closer to the factory, I saw stacks of cement pipes all around it that I recognized as the kind of things used as culverts under highways. As a young boy, my friends and I would play hide and seek in them. Now, they were places that the dead could be hiding.
However, I didn't have time to worry about it as I searched the parking lot for any industrial truck. When I didn't see any, I practically sobbed in fear. We were dead if we didn't find anything in or behind the factory.
Through the large broken windows, we could see giant presses still suspended in the air mid-stroke from when the electricity cut out. But I couldn't see any dead which I was thankful for.
Moving around behind the building I felt a wave of relief when I saw four industrial sized dump trucks. They were practically like tanks with their large wheels and sturdy frames.
I didn't have time to say anything, but instead hurried towards the nearest one, hoping that there would be a key in the ignition. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the others rushing towards the other trucks with the same thought in mind.
Throwing open the door, I climbed inside but realized quickly there were no keys anywhere in the cab.
Desperately, I climbed down out of the truck and looked towards the others who were standing in front of me with the same look of despair.
"There has to be an office in the factory," Eleazar said. "The keys could be there."
We ran towards the factory and threw open the side door.
I could hear the dead now as they approached. They would reach us very soon.
It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the dark. There was a haze in the air from the cement dust that we'd kicked up when we entered the building which made my eyes feel gritty and I scrubbed at them with the sleeve of my shirt.
Emmett and Peter had become adjusted to our surroundings more quickly and hissed, "Over here."
Following their voices, I hurried over to them.
A series of doors spanned across the wall. Any one of them could be an office, so each of us took one door and kicked in the ones that were locked.
Frantically, I searched the office for any sign of keys. Coming up empty, I rushed out and into another office.
The sound of the dead was becoming thunderous and I heard the tell-tale thumps and scratching against the side of the buildings that meant at least some of the dead had reached the factory.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit…" Eleazar muttered as we rushed past each other.
"Got'em!" Emmett shouted over the roar of the dead.
We rushed out to meet him in the center of the factory floor.
"It's too late," Peter stated, flatly. "There's no getting to the trucks now. The dead are already here."
He was right. The sounds of the dead were all around us.
Charlotte let out a sob.
Anger stirred in me at the situation I'd put us in. We should have kept driving.
It couldn't end this way. I had to get back to Bella.
"Fuck that…" I snapped, causing the others to focus their attention on me.
"We're not dying this way," I said.
Looking up, I saw a catwalk above us.
"We need to get higher up," I stated, looking for the stairs.
Across the room, I saw the metal staircase stretching up two floors and linking with the bridge that crossed over top of us.
Gesturing towards it, we broke into a run and climbed frantically up the stairs.
Some of the dead had made it in through the broken windows and more were tumbling in after them. Soon, the cement casings around the windows were crumbling with the weight of the dead pressed up against them.
"Now what…" Peter snapped. "We're trapped up here, Edward."
I stared around us wildly, looking for what I'd hoped would be up here.
At the other end of the bridge I saw a door which I hoped led up to the roof.
"The roof… This way," I said.
The rest followed us as Emmett and I slammed my shoulder against the door. With the combined weight, the door buckled and we spilled out onto the tarred roof.
Now, out in the open, the roar of the dead was unbearable.
"Look for a fire escape!" I shouted above the dull roar of moans.
Each of us ran to different sides of the building, looking over to see if there was any fire escape down the side of the building.
"Over here!" Charlotte shouted.
When we made it to her side, I sighed in relief to see the top of a set of stairs that would lead us to the ground, but my relief was short-lived. The building was literally surrounded by what looked like two hundred or more dead.
"Well, boys and girls… We are completely fucked," Peter said, looking down at the sea of moving bodies.
I staggered back from the wall feeling a hole open up in my chest with the knowledge that this was how my life was going to end. We had no way of getting down safely. We could try to wait them out, but the dead never got tired or bored. The only way a zombie herd would lose interest in us is if something else caught their attention. Out in the middle of a field with nothing around us, the chance of that happening was slim.
I looked up at the sky and saw that it was approaching dusk. I wondered what Bella was doing at that moment. Was she thinking about me? Worrying? What would happen to her when she realized that we weren't coming back?
I was pulled out of my thoughts when Emmett nudged my shoulder and gestured towards the shaded area of the door that led back into the factory.
Peter and Charlotte were huddled on the ground in the shade, while Eleazar was leaning up against the wall.
"What are our options?" Peter was asking Eleazar as we approached.
Eleazar was shaking his head, looking off in the distance.
When we reached them, Eleazar looked at us bleakly.
"I'm so sorry that we dragged you into this Edward. You're screwed now just like the rest of us because you tried to help. You and your friend…"
"My name's Emmett," Emmett said.
Eleazar gave a nod of acknowledgement.
"I'm Eleazar and this is Peter and Charlotte," he said gesturing towards the other two.
"We're screwed. You all know that right. What's the fucking point of pleasantries when this is the beginning of the end?" Peter snarled.
The sound of despair in his voice only compounded my own.
I slid to the ground next to Eleazar and dragged my backpack off my shoulders.
I had my shotgun, an axe, and two knives, but none of it would be of any help against the mass of dead below us.
I hauled out my bottle of water and took a sip of it before noticing that three of them were watching me hungrily.
"Do you have any food?" Charlotte asked. "We haven't eaten in a while."
I opened my backpack and pulled out the supplies that Emmett had gathered for our journey.
Some survival packs were tucked inside made by Bella or Rosalie. I almost smiled at the sight. My girl was always prepared for anything. She always made sure that we had packs of supplies organized in case we needed them. Each pack contained just the right variety of food to give us energy and keep us healthy.
Looking up again, I handed out one of the packs to the three of them.
Emmett noticed the look on my face and sat down next to me.
"We can't give up," he said.
"What can we do?" I asked, bleakly. "We're surrounded."
"There has to be a way, man," Emmett said. "It's not like we haven't been cornered by the dead before."
It was then that a memory hit me of the time we'd wiped out the dead that had poured out of the church in our community. We'd camouflaged ourselves by covering each other in zombie rot.
It might just give us a fighting chance to get out of this mess.
"I think I have a plan…" I said to the others.
It was too late for us to put our plan in motion that night, so after eating from the survival packs we tried to sleep.
It was almost impossible with the zombie noise to get any rest until I took rolled up pieces of tissue and stuck them in my ears. It didn't take away the sound, but muffled it enough that I could sleep.
Emmett volunteered to take first watch, so I used my backpack as a pillow and tried to rest.
I didn't expect to fall asleep, but either exhaustion or stunned shock made me lapse into a restless dream.
I was chasing a giggling Bella through the house. She was fast, but I was faster. As she feinted left and then right, I pounced on her, tumbling us both to the ground in the upstairs hallway.
I burrowed my face in her neck with a growl, causing her to scream as I nipped at the skin there.
"You're my prey," I growled fiercely. "I'm going to make you my next meal."
"Take it to your room, horn dogs!" Rose called out in annoyoance from downstairs.
This caused me to laugh, but I still kept Bella pinned under me.
Even though we were just playing, as Bella wiggled under me to get free, my playful nips and licks were soon losing their playful edge and turning into something else entirely.
It seemed like Bella was picking up on the change in mood too. She was no longer struggling against me, but instead pulling me closer and rubbing against me in ways that caused my breath to hitch.
Kissing her firmly, I pushed myself against her. Lucky for me in our playful wrestling, Bella had wrapped her legs around my back, giving me access to the place I needed most.
Bella shuddered under me, causing me to sigh and push against her again. I couldn't get enough of her. Her body was on my mind night and day. It took all of my will power to not constantly drag her to our room and have my way with her.
Our kisses were becoming more heated as we pushed and pulled at each other, neither one of us aware of our surroundings.
Suddenly, freezing cold water poured down on top of me. I flinched away from the cold rolling off of Bella, which caused me to slam my head against the wall.
I looked up to see Rosalie standing over us with a smirk on her face and a bucket in her hands.
"Lesson learned boys and girls. Do not make out in the hallway."
Bella sat up laughing hysterically, water trickling down her neck.
She reached out and pulled me towards her, rubbing my temple that had collided with the wall and then kissing it.
"God, I love you so much," she said with a grin.
She'd never been more beautiful.
My annoyance forgotten, I jumped to my feet and dragged her up with me.
With another growl, I threw her over my shoulder and strode into our room, slamming the door behind us.
"Edward… Edward… Wake up…"
"Bella?" I asked groggily reaching towards the left side of the bed for her.
"Come on, Ed. It's time to get up. We've got to get going."
My mind snapped back into focus when I realized that it wasn't a voice I recognized.
My eyes flew open and I sat up straight.
It was daylight and instead of being in my room I was on the factory's rooftop.
Crouched before me was Eleazar, looking hesitant.
"Sorry… I'm up. I'm up," I said, pushing myself to my feet and joining the others who were standing by the rooftop edge near the fire escape.
"Are you sure?" Charlotte asked, looking at Emmett. "Are you sure it will mask our scent?"
"It worked for us last time. We were able to take out about fifty zombies. We'll need to cover ourselves completely."
Peter was nodding vigorously.
"Let's eat something and then we'll begin," Emmett said, crouching down to open his backpack.
Hauling out the food that he'd stashed inside, he handed a little bit to each person.
"Thank god for Bella and her survival skills," he said with a sad smile.
"Is she a doctor?" Charlotte asked.
"No. She's just smart and knows how to survive," Emmett said, looking intently at me.
"She's got a good variety of food in these packs. Carlisle always said that we had to have variety in our diet or else we'd all get sick," Eleazar said.
"Carlisle?" Emmett and I asked at the same time.
The three of them stared at us in surprise.
"Yeah… Do you know him?" Peter asked.
"We've never met but someone we care about has been waiting for him," I said, being purposefully vague. I still didn't trust these people.
Eleazar looked at us in surprise.
"Is it Esme? Carlisle talked about her all the time. He was desperate to get to her," he said.
"Is he still alive?" I asked, nervously.
"He was, the last time we saw him. James is keeping him close. He even locks him up at night. He knows that a doctor is probably the most valuable commodity to have these days," Peter said.
As we finished up our food, Peter stood up and said, "Okay. Let's do this. Eleazar and I can grab one of them from the factory."
"We'll need at least two," I said, standing up as well.
"Okay. Let's go," Eleazar said, striding towards the rooftop entrance.
Pulling open the door, the stench of dead flesh was nearly overpowering which was saying a lot. We were practically desensitized to it on most occasions. But with my nerves being on edge, my senses were in hyper-drive which unfortunately included my sense of smell.
Stepping inside, I was shocked to see that the entire first floor of the factory was full of the dead. They were packed in so tight that their movements were more like swaying back and forth rather than walking.
"So, how do we do this?" Eleazar asked, looking worriedly down the steep stairs. Only one of us could go down at a time which meant that it was up to that person to kill it and drag it backwards.
"I'll go," Peter said, hauling out his axe. "Have your guns ready in case I get into trouble."
With my gun loaded and safety off, I watched Peter carefully edge down the stairs getting closer to a tall gangly zombie that was trying and failing to climb the stairs.
With a downward swipe of his axe, Peter almost took the dead man's head completely off its body.
The dead man fell forward and Peter grabbed it under the arms and began dragging it up the stairs.
The minute he started moving, more of the dead began to drag themselves up the stairs after him. When I felt like they were too close to Peter for comfort, I used my scope to shoot the closest one to him in the head.
Peter didn't even react to the bullet taking out the dead woman, instead his backwards walk up the stairs got faster.
When he reached the safety of the catwalk, Charlotte helped him pull the corpse out the door and onto the roof.
I decided to get the next one. With my axe in hand, I carefully walked down the stairs. The dead woman in front of me was easy to take down. However, the zombies that were behind her were stronger and faster.
As fast as I could, I stepped backwards, dragging the dead woman with me.
However, the bloated corpse of a man was quickly approaching me.
Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me.
"Keep moving. I'll take out those that come too close," Eleazar said.
The barrel of his shotgun came over my shoulder and began firing at the dead man and then the others behind him.
I kept my steps steady, not wanting to fall or trip Eleazar who was keeping pace with me.
When we finally reached the landing, Eleazar grabbed the dead woman and slung her over his shoulder as I continued to shoot at the dead that seemed to be making it higher and higher up the staircase. Once the rest of them were out the door, I followed behind them, slamming the door and leaning against it. We needed something to brace against it if we had any hope of it staying shut long enough for us to escape.
Having already thought of that, I saw that Peter, Emmett, and Charlotte were rolling one of the cement pipes that was on the roof towards the door. It was taking all three of them to push the cement cylinder so once it was pressed up against the door, I knew that the likelihood of the dead pushing their way through was pretty low for the time being.
For a moment we were all frozen as we looked at the reverberating door that thrummed with the dead beating themselves against it.
"So, I guess the fire exit is our only escape now," Emmett said. "Well, let's get chopping people."
Emmett raised his axe high into the air and brought it down again and again on the zombie. When the black blood began pouring out of it, Emmett dropped to his knees and without even flinching started smearing it through his hair and over his face, making sure to keep it away from his eyes and mouth.
Eleazar, Charlotte, and Peter stared at him in horror for a few seconds until a loud moan and thump came from behind the door.
Falling to their knees, they followed Emmett's lead and started the same process of covering themselves in zombie gore.
I started in on the other zombie, coating myself in its gore and then waited for the others to help me get my back. I didn't want to risk any of my scent coming through the camouflage.
When we were finally finished, each of us looked like Carrie from Steven Kings novel. It might have been funny if it weren't for the dead that surrounded us.
"Well, it's now or never," Eleazar said, turning towards the fire escape and then just standing at the top.
We all joined him, looking down at the sea of dead below us.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" he asked me.
"It worked before…" was all I could say. I couldn't tell him I was a hundred percent sure because I wasn't.
"I'll take the lead," Emmett said and then with a deep sigh began the steep descent to the ground.
I decided to be the last person because I wanted to be able to use my gun to protect Emmett if things went wrong.
Our descent was painfully slow. The dead were attracted by movement, sound, and scent, so the more we moved the higher the chance that the dead would be interested in us. The stairs also squeaked which stirred up the dead. The steps were rusted and not well-maintained so we had to be careful. There were many places where the steps were broken or the railing had been snapped, leaving sharp metal edges.
When Emmett reached the ground, he hesitated a moment before slipping into the mob. Holding my breath, I watched him ever so carefully push his way through the dead.
Seeing that things were going smoothly for Emmett, Peter, then Charlotte, and finally Eleazar began working their way through the moving bodies.
I'd just reached the bottom of the stairs and was about to start making my way through the crowd when one large zombie lumbered forward, knocking the ones closest to me down. Two of them collided with me, pushing me backwards against the stairs. A sharp pain scraped across my stomach as some of the broken pieces of metal from the railing raked across me.
I stifled the hiss of pain that wanted to bubble out of me.
I took a couple of steps back up the stairs to see what damage had been done. For a moment, I thought I'd come out of it unscathed, but then I saw a spot of blood begin to blossom across the front of my shirt.
My heart started thundering wildly in my chest as I turned away from the dead and carefully pulled up my shirt. A large cut had opened across my stomach from the jagged piece of metal and it was bleeding a lot.
The moaning behind me became more ferocious as the dead began to smell my blood on the wind.
I decided to make a run for it back up the stairs to get away from the dead but before I had a chance to make a move. A meaty hand grabbed a hold of my arm and yanked me backwards.
I stumbled back almost falling, but I righted myself at the last second and started swinging my axe that I'd pulled from my belt. Hands, heads, arms fell at my feet as I tried to fight my way out of them.
I heard Emmett call my name in the distance, but he was too far away to help me. I dodged to the left as a small dead child lunged towards me, aiming itself towards my stomach where the blood was quickly spreading. However, I stumbled and fell backwards with a dead woman on top of me.
"Edward! No!" I heard Emmett shout, but he was still too far away.
I couldn't answer as a second dead fell forward onto me, its teeth snapping at my face. With my axe handle, I forced the dead man's mouth away from me and pushed up with all my might trying to worm my way out of the mass of arms and legs. Wiggling backwards, I fought and slashed at the dead that were looming over me until I felt my back press up against something hard.
In one terror-filled second, I realized that I was cornered.
Looking around frantically, I searched for an escape while trying to avoid any lunges and grabs from the dead.
To my right was a stack of culvert pipes.
With a great sweeping arc of my axe, I cut down the dead that were nearest me and crawled towards the culvert.
As I pushed my way through brambles and sticks that had somehow found their way into the pipe, I realized with some relief that it was big enough for me to crawl into with some room around me, but it wasn't much.
Looking backwards, I saw that the dead were already following me inside. Three of the dead were wiggling their way towards me, squeezed together as they fought to get to me.
Using my large knife, I jabbed at them, killing one, then another, and another. Their bodies filled the hole, blocking their end from the other dead searching for me.
The tunnel became considerably darker inside, suddenly, which made me realize that more were coming for me from the other end.
It was a child and a woman that were dragging themselves through the pipe towards me. Each one's mouths were hanging open drool and blood dripping from their gums as they hungered for me.
Fighting against my instincts to run away, I crawled towards them and stabbed the two of them as well.
Now I was stuck in the middle of the culvert with both ends of the pipe blocked by dead and more outside surrounding me.
I was completely and utterly fucked.
"Edward!" I heard Emmett call out again, a little closer, but still too far away for me to get his attention.
"Please Edward! Please answer me!" he shouted, desperation in his voice.
In yelling for me, Emmett was stirring up the dead which could get him killed. But I knew that I would have done the same thing for him.
I tried to yell back to him, but I knew that my voice was too muffled by the cement for him to hear me.
I began to crawl towards one end of the culvert planning on fighting my way out. But as I approached the end, the zombies that I'd killed shifted a little as the ones outside pushed to get in.
I didn't have a hope in hell of fighting my way out.
My stomach and shirt were sticky with blood and I knew that I was losing a lot of blood. Soon, it was going to weaken me to the point of passing out.
Pulling off my shirt, I tried to staunch the flow of blood with it. Holding it tight against my body, I tried desperately to think of a plan.
Emmett called my name a few more times, but he was getting fainter as he moved in another direction looking for me.
Soon, he's going to think I'm dead, I thought bleakly.
Pulling my shirt away from my stomach, I saw that the blood was still pouring out of me.
I had to do something about it if I had any chance of getting out of here.
Pulling my backpack towards me, I searched through the supplies that Emmett had packed. With relief, I found a first aid kit. Pulling out a couple of bandages, I realized that they wouldn't be thick enough to staunch the flow of blood.
With a feeling of uneasiness, I realized that I probably needed stitches. With the wound closed, I'd be able to use the bandages to cover it.
I looked through the rest of the first aid kit and found what I was looking for. A needle and thread.
With a great amount of dread, I took out the antiseptic wipes and peroxide and began my preparations.
Stitching up your own wound is a very different experience from doing it to someone else. The method is the same, sterilizing and threading the needle, but the minute it sinks into your skin it becomes something completely different. It took all of my strength to continue hurting myself over and over again. Instinctually, we are made with the fight or flight instinct when faced with pain. With every new jab of the needle, I had to fight the need to scream which only served to make me feel dizzy and queasy. My hands had begun to shake after the third stitch which made it even harder to push the needle through my skin. My vision began to blur which was a bad sign. I couldn't faint. I'd die for sure if I let that happen. Shaking my head, I painstakingly, worked my way across the cut one stitch at a time until finally I'd reached the end.
Barely keeping it together, I weakly unwrapped the bandages and spread them across the wound, sticking them firmly in place over it.
With the work done, I laid down on my back, trying to regain focus but instead drifted into unconsciousness.
"What do you think our future is going to be like?" Bella asked me in the dark.
I kept her tight against me, ignoring our sweat dampened skin. I would never have thought that I'd be a cuddler, but after making love to Bella I couldn't resist.
"Well, the way things are going Rosalie and Emmett are going to pop out a shit-load of kids, so we'll have our hands full," I said with a chuckle.
"I'm serious," she said, swatting my chest. "Do you think we'll always live here? Will things ever go back to normal?"
"Babe, things are never going to go back to the way things were," I said, kissing her temple. "The world we knew is over."
It hurt saying it out loud, but it was the truth.
"But I promise you that no matter what happens, we'll still have this. We'll still have each other. And I think I'm happy with that. You're my life, Bella," I said, softly.
I heard Bella sigh as she placed a soft kiss on my chest.
"I never would have thought that I'd find the love of my life at the age of 18…" I said.
"Me either," she responded, holding me tight.
I awoke with a start. For a moment, I didn't know where I was. It was pitch black, but I could tell that I wasn't in my room. The smell of rot and cement dust was thick in the air and it was these smells and the sounds of the dead outside that brought reality back to me.
I bolted upright.
How long had I been unconscious?
I felt around me for my backpack, looking for my flash-light.
Finally, finding it in the recesses of my bag, I hauled it out and clicked it on.
Both ends of the pipe were still filled with the dead, but unlike before there was no daylight pushing its way in through the cracks.
I must have been out for hours, I thought in fear. Emmett has probably left thinking I'm dead.
Now with my wound stitched and covered, I had the chance of getting out of this mess. Taking out my water bottle, I proceeded to wash away any of my blood that had smeared itself on my chest and sides. Once, I was sure that I'd gotten it all, I looked at my shirt. There was no way that I could wear it. It was covered in my blood which would attract the dead like flies to honey. My head, neck and arms were still covered with zombie blood, but my bare chest was not. Crawling towards the end of the culvert, I started cutting at one of the dead and using its blood to cover my chest. I tried as best as I could to get my back, but I hoped with my backpack covering it, the dead would not smell me.
Slowly, I started pushing the dead out of the culvert. One by one they fell out with a thump. The number of dead had gone down a lot, but there were still enough of them, milling around searching for any sign of the living. I carefully climbed out of the culvert and then stood very still. One by one the dead stopped and turned in my direction. Frozen in fear, I could do nothing, but stand there and wait for their next move.
Almost as if they were one entity, the dead started pushing their way past me and towards the culvert. I realized at that moment, that they smelled my bloody shirt that I'd left inside the pipe.
Not waiting for them to lose their focus, I pushed my way through them, searching for any signs of Emmett above the mob.
It was too dark to see anything, so I had to get higher. Carefully, I climbed back up the ladder of the fire escape. Once up there, I tried to scan the area for any signs of the group, but I couldn't see anything. It was a new moon, so there was no light shining because the faint pinpricks of light coming from the stars was too faint.
I had to wait for daylight.
I couldn't sleep all night, waiting for the sun to come up.
Th minute it was light enough to see, I quickly climbed down the ladder.
Confident with my camouflage, I pushed my way past the dead and towards the trucks.
One of them was missing which meant that the four of them had left.
Then, I noticed a sign written in the dust on one of the wind-shields.
"PLEASE COME HOME."
Rushing towards the truck, I threw open the door and climbed in. My head fell forward against the steering wheel in relief, when I saw that there were keys in the ignition.
A/N: Hi everyone. I hope you liked the chapter. It was an intense one to write.