Surviving World War Z

Emerzo Peters- Hero of Fortress Pokk

Chapter Two

A close call

Disclaimer- The book World War Z does not belong to me. I am simply writing about the book that I love so much. Max Brooks Rocks!!

TOLD BY:

Emerzo Peters

The accident itself was accredited to Harold's older brother, Tin. But since he was the one who had rescued everyone along with his brother, the people decided to blame it on bad luck.

The sound came on the morning of the eighth day. Most people were still under their covers when Harold appeared abruptly beside me. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and looked at him questioningly.

"Come with me, I think we're in a bit of trouble here," Harold pulled me to my feet end guided me down the stairs of the southern warehouse where we currently were. I asked him where we were going, and he turned to me and said "Down."

He showed me a door at the far end of the downstairs area, and opened it quietly. There were some concrete steps leading down into the darkness.

"This is the basement of the warehouse. I think Tin may have knocked gas pipe loose. Help us seal the leak." He pointed to a narrow pipe that was knocked loose from the wall. A barley audible hsssssss was coming from this opening, and I saw Tin, ponytail and all standing next to it looking at it curiously.

"There's a bolt missing," He stated simply without looking at me. Then he pointed to the area along the other wall. "You start over there. With the three of us looking, we should be able to find it."

So I got down on my hands and knees looking for the tiny metal object. I found it hard to distinguish anything from the floor because it was covered in thick layers of dirt and dust accumulated over several years of no cleaning. I searched in the crook of the wall where it met the floor with no success, so then I spread out along the center of the floor. The three of us searched for several minutes, until Tin shouted "FOUND IT!"

He stood up, brushed off his pants, and placed the bolt back in its place. It took him a while to screw it in sufficiently, and then the three of us made our way to the stairs.

"Why were you two down here anyway? We don't even use the gas lines, why bother replacing that bolt?"

"Just in case there is a fire or something. We don't want any accidents." Tin said as he slipped on one of the topmost stairs and knocked a chuck of it off. The stone was so old it had begun to deteriorate. The stone skipped down the stairs in a shower of sparks.

"Oh, shit!" Harold grabbed the both of us by the collar, and threw the door shut just in time. An enormous explosion rocked the entire warehouse. It caused a minor earthquake. Not enough to move anything around or knock anything down, but enough to wake the angry people.

"The hell?"

"What was that?"

The three of us ignored the shouts of the people, and slowly opened the door again. Black smoke billowed up from the room below. Tin held his breath, and went back down to examine the damage. He reappeared almost immediately.

"We're safe, the explosion only hit the stairs and the ceiling. The pipes are all intact. There isn't any real damage."

"Thank god! What should we tell the others?" I asked.

"The truth. I'll leave that to Harold." And with that he ran from the warehouse, to who-knows-where.

Harold grumbled and climbed the stairs to the second level, which was occupied by many awake people.

"Hey everyone, I was just checking the basement for any supplies and whatnot, when Tin kind of knocked a pipe loose. Anyway, That explosion didn't hurt anyone or anything, so go back to sleep." Harold then walked back down the stairs and I followed.

"Did you find any supplies?" I asked curiously as the two of us made our way outside, looking for Tin. We could barely make out the low rumble of the zombies past the many crates and the open area.

"Nope, but I found something even better." Harold pulled out a piece of paper that looked very old.

"What is it?"

"It's a treasure map."

"What?"

"Well, more of instructions on where to dig. It's the location of my uncle's secret stash of marbles."

"Marbles?"

"He collected them. And he has a hollow under a rock somewhere around the outer wall where he put them."

"Oh, I see. Are you going to dig for them?"

"Yeah! And then we can do whatever it is you can do with marbles."

"Okay…"

Harold seemed to be a bit more enthusiastic then I was, so I was glad when we found Tin and we could change the subject.

Tin was beating his fist against the inner wall. He turned when saw us and asked:

"How long are we going to be trapped here?"

"I think that isn't a question we should ask. Ever. Let's just concentrate on the here and now. It has only been a week and a day, Tin. We have food for another five or six months if we stay with our current two-meal strategy. And we have planted crops too. We'll be fine."

"I was going to marry her, Harold. How could this happen? My life was supposed to be getting better. And yet here we end up."

Tin was talking about his girlfriend of nine months. He had been planning to propose on her birthday, next Saturday. Tin couldn't have rescued her, she was from farther south, and that was where the zombies had come from. All he had was hope.

"Will the army even save us? What can we do? I don't know if I have it in me, Harold, Emerzo. If you'll give me some time alone…"

"Fine. But don't you dare give up, or I will sucker punch you so hard, you won't be able to stand up straight for a month. C'mon Emerzo." Harold strode away with his hands in his pockets. I took a last look at Tin, who had seated himself with his back against the fence, and then followed suit. After we had walked back to the occupied warehouse, Harold turned to me and said:

"Stay strong mi amigo. It's my gardening shift." He then walked off to gather his equipment for the garden.

I decided that I might as well go hang out with Hannah. I found her talking to Z'ria on the upper level. They eyed me curiously.

"Where were you?"

"Around. How are you holding up?"

"I'll be fine, as long as I have my new friends around." She nudged Z'ria and I. "Where has Tom gone off to?"

"Here I am!" He appeared quickly behind us. "I was looking at the zombies from the roof."

"Tom! Don't do that! You could attract more! We still need to get rid of the ones we have, right Emerzo?"

"Uhh… That would be good, I suppose"

"Tin told me earlier that he was making a plan. Do you know what it is?"

"No?" What plan? I haven't heard anything!

"Neither do I. Who's up for a round of Obstacle Race?"

"We are!" Said Z'ria and Tom at once. They rushed down the stairs.

Hannah turned back to me "Are you coming?"

"Yeah," I said. Everything ought to sort itself out