They all burst out of the safe room with guns ablaze. A charger began rush towards the group but Ellis quickly shot him down. The group then rushed down the street picking off zombies one by one. The group eventually turned down an alley,
"It should be faster this way!" Francis yelled.
All of a sudden, the distinctive distant cries of the horde came down the opposite end of the alley.
"Oh shit!" Nick yelled.
"It's alright, I got you guys covered!" Louis said as he pulled out a pipe bomb and lit the fuse. He threw it into the horde as its loud beeping drew in the horde. Eventually the bomb exploded and sent body parts flying everywhere, blood etched into the brick walls.
"Man, the horde is way too thick for us to travel!" Coach said with an exhausted voice.
"That's why we always travel at night." Bill said, "Daylight draws them out."
Another wave came towards the group, they shot ruthlessly at them.
"I've never seen so many!" Rochelle said.
"The next safe house we find, we'll stay in till night time." Zoey said.
"Where is there another safe room?" Rochelle asked.
"There!" Ellis pointed, it was in an apartment complex down the street but a demolished building obstructed their way.
"Were going to have to climb the fire escapes." Nick said.
A hunter's screech could be heard in the distance along with more zombies.
"We better make it fast." Francis said.
The group began to climb the fire escape with haste, killing zombies that attempted to pursue them on the way up. The group eventually reached the top.
"This ought to slow them down." Zoey said as she smashed a Molotov cocktail against the opening of the fire escape, sending the zombies to their incinerated death.
"Kind of ironic huh? FIRE escape?" Zoey said.
Ellis chuckled, "You're funny girl."
Zoey gave him a soft smile, "Thanks."
"C'mon you two, we got to move!" Coach yelled behind.
"I guess we better go." Zoey said, Ellis nodded.
Everyone jumped across the gap between the buildings. Just as Ellis was ready to jump he heard the snare of a smoker's tongue followed by Zoey's screaming.
"Help!" Zoey screamed as the smoker dragged her away.
"Oh shit! Zoey!" Ellis yelled as he ran towards her.
The smoker pulled her up to him and was ready to claw down on her just before Ellis shot the smoker through the head, causing him to collapse, taking Zoey with him.
Ellis jumped at the ledge at caught Zoey's hand just before she fell. Her eyes were still closed, expecting to hit the hard ground below.
"Its okay baby girl, I got you." Ellis said as helped Zoey up.
Zoey got back on her feet and stood at the ledge.
"Come on lets go." Ellis said, and with that, the couple made their way to the rest of the group.
"You okay, Zoey?" Rochelle asked her.
"Yeah, thanks to Ellis." Zoey said as she smiled at him.
"It's my pleasure Miss." Ellis said as he smiled back.
The group ran through the vacant building, back down onto the street, past the demolished building.
"We're home free from this point on!" Coach yelled with glee.
Then a strange pounding came from the distance.
"That isn't what I think it is?" Nick said.
"You better believe it, we got a tank." Bill said.
With that, a towering, angry tank came through the vacant building, thrashing wildly and throwing stone.
The group began to shoot at him mercilessly, reloading with haste and a few brave ones (Francis and Ellis) hacking at him with their fire axes and machetes. The tank began to wear down but wouldn't stop. He tore up a chunk of concrete out of the ground and hurled in towards Bill and Rochelle's direction.
"Look out!" Bill said as he dove into Rochelle, successfully saving her life.
But the tank approached them, Rochelle got up as fast as she could but the tank was too quick and hit her, sending her flying into the window of an old dress shop, sending broken glass flying everywhere.
"Rochelle!" Francis yelled.
"Oh shit Ro!" Coach yelled.
The tank finally gave his last moments of breath and collapsed onto the torn asphalt, riddled with bullet casings.
Francis ran into the shop and picked up Rochelle and laid her down on the sales counter, the rest of the group followed in.
"Is she okay?" Louis asked?
Francis felt her pulse, it was still, she was dead.
"No…" Francis said quietly.
Francis began to perform CPR on her, "Come on damn it! I'm not losing you Rochelle!"
Nick placed his chest paddles onto the counter, "Try these, they should work."
Francis quickly took off Rochelle's shirt and charged the defibrillator.
"Clear!" He shouted and he brought the paddles down on her chest, sending electric currents through her body.
"Clear!" He shouted again. This continued one more time, it proved fruitless.
"I'm sorry Francis." Zoey said.
"Damn Ro, you were a nice girl." Coach said.
"I'm sure going to miss you Ro." Nick said.
The group began to walk out, sullen by their loss when they heard coughing coming from in the store.
"You guys weren't thinking about leaving me were you?" Rochelle asked.
They all turned back, Rochelle sat up on the counter, weak but alive.
"Rochelle! Holy shit, it's Christmas!" Ellis yelled.
Everyone rushed back into the store, helping Rochelle down from the counter. Rochelle stood fragilely on the ground, putting her shirt back on.
"How are you feeling?" Louis asked.
"Like I've been hit by a truck." Rochelle said with a small tired laugh.
"C'mon now, we need to get to that safe house before another one of those huge bastards come and you have to shock the hell out of me." Rochelle said with a stronger laugh.
Everyone gave laughs of relief.
The group ran up into the apartment/safe house and quickly barred the door.
"Are you sure you're okay Rochelle?" Francis asked.
"Yeah, it wasn't the impact that did it, it was the shock, I didn't expect it, probably gave me a damn heart attack." Rochelle said.
She was right, she suffered only a three scrapes, two cuts and five bruises.
"You should still get some rest, it's only 12:49 right now and we probably won't be out till about 10 o'clock." Francis said with concern.
Rochelle nodded, "Okay."
Rochelle got up and began walking into the bedroom before she stopped and turned around, "Aren't you coming?" She said.
Francis widened his eyes, "Umm…yeah." He said. He followed her into the bedroom.
Zoey sat on a bed in a separate bedroom, ready to rest up for the night when Ellis came in.
"Oh hey." Zoey said with pleasure.
"Hey." Ellis said as he sat down next to her.
"I wanted to thank you for saving my life." Zoey said.
Ellis shook his head, "Don't worry about it, it's what friends do for each other."
Zoey smiled, "Yeah, I would do the same for you."
Ellis leaned in and kissed her. Zoey didn't refuse, she wrapped her arms around him, Ellis got up for a second, "Wait I got to do something first."
Ellis got up to close the door when he saw Nick standing there.
"Oh fu…hey Nick." Ellis said
"Ellis, it's fine, I'm like 17 years older than her." Nick said.
"Oh…thanks Nick." Ellis said, deeply uncomfortable with the conversation.
Ellis closed the door and locked it.
"Where were we?" Ellis said as he took off his shirt, revealing his ripped chest.
"Right here." Zoey said as she kissed Ellis as he undid her belt, dropping her pants to the floor.
Ellis laid down her on the bed and began to slide off his pants as Zoey took off her shirt showing her fit, slim body. Their moment of passion seemed never ending, it was too good to end.