Chapter 6

I noticed something was wrong when Will set down the glass he had been cleaning and went to see what was wrong with a customer that had just come in. I half-turned in my seat, and saw some man standing in front of Will. Something looked off, though I didn't have enough time to figure out what it was. When Will leaned forward, repeating his question, the man lunged at him, grabbing Will and biting into his throat. People started getting up, screaming, and I jumped to my feet as well. Will shoved the guy off of him, pushing him out the door. He slammed the door shut before falling back with a hand over his throat. Blood poured out of his torn throat, dripping from between his fingers and down his hand and arm. I rushed to his side, hoping there would be something I could do for him. Unfortunately, there wasn't.

"Damn it," I muttered. I looked at the floor, angry at the fact that I couldn't save my friend.

"Get away from there, idiot." David grabbed my arm, pulling me to my feet and away from Will. "You can't do anything. Come on."

David pulled me past everyone else, through a door at the back of the bar and up the stairs. He pulled me around the second floor for a few minutes before finally stopping. He kicked open another door, and proceeded to pull me up those stairs as well. Screams were echoing from downstairs, only to be cut off. I could only imagine what was happening to the people we had left down there.

"David! Where are you bringing me?" I tried to yank my hand away from his, but failed. Miserably. David's grip on my wrist was too strong.

"You see another way out?"

He had a point. Of course, there wasn't anything above except for the roof. And there probably wasn't anywhere to go from there. So, I was a little confused. We stopped moving once we reached the roof, and I looked out over the rest of the city. The undead were wandering the streets, and some could even be seen wandering in some of the buildings. David had wandered off, hopefully in search of somewhere we could go from here. I turned from the view and went farther onto the roof of the bar. David's hand closed around my wrist and pulled me to a half-broken wire fence on the side of the roof.

"We can go through here, jump across the gap to the next building, and go through there."

I stared at David, not sure I wanted to believe him.

"Just do it."

He pushed me up through the broken fence. I paused a moment before doing as he said. I stopped at the edge of the building and looked across to the other roof. Footsteps approached me, and I spun around to find David a few feet away.

"I'm not jumping across that."

"Kevin,-"

I shook my head.

"Fine. I'll go first," David said.

He pushed past me and gauged the distance before stepping back and doing a running jump off the edge. He made it to the other side perfectly fine. A moan sounded behind me, and I turned to see that some of the zombies had managed to make their way up to our position. I looked back at where David was, patiently waiting for me to follow.

"Get your ass over here."

I mimicked David, but wasn't quite as lucky as he was. I landed all right, tipped over, and fell off the roof. Lucky for me, David felt the need to grab me before I plummeted to my death. We hurried across the roof to the door that led into the building. It was locked, but David simply kicked the door down and pulled me along behind him.

"I can do things on my own. I'm a cop, remember?" I spoke up, a little irritated with him.

"I'm used to being on my own." The two of us hurried down the stairs and into a hallway. The moans of the undead got louder and David turned to me. "Got a gun?"

I smiled, pulling it from where I kept it. David motioned for me to go first. I stepped forward carefully, watching out for the zombies. I could hear David following me, which made me somewhat nervous. His footsteps were different from a zombie's, which seemed to be the offspring of dragging and stepping. I jumped back, heart pounding, when there was a slam against the door immediately to my left. I pointed my gun at the door. My finger was on the trigger, ready to pull back if needed. My whole body was tense though my breathing had remained calm. David came to stand next to me. I felt his hand on my arm, gently pushing it down.

"Don't jump at every little thing, Kevin. You'll wear yourself out," he said.

I nodded and he pushed me ahead of himself again. Calming myself, I once again set about leading the way. I was a cop- they're suposed to lead civilians through dangerous areas. Of course, my companion wasn't exactly a civilian. He was probably- no, definitely- more dangerous than I was. But still, it was my duty, and I wanted to stick to it. So I stayed in front of the professional killer through the entire building. Not a single zombie was wandering the halls, surprisingly. The front door to the apartment buiding opened without trouble, though I had expected more zombies on the street.

"Come on," David said. He pulled me down the street and onto a backroad.

As we ran between the two buildings, I could hear the zombies finally coming up behind us. Part of me was relieved. Another part of me told me that I should be terrified. There were zombies behind us, and I was trusting my life to a killer. A wooden gate came up in front of us. Since it was on the backroad, I knew it wouldn't be that thick. It would still take a bit to get through, but...

"What are we going to do? We can't just jump it. And it's probably chained," I said as I ran next to David.

"Then we just break it down."

David grabbed me and, before I could protest, threw me through the door. I lay amid the ruins of the door, dazed. David came to stand over me.

"Asshole. What the hell was that for?" I asked, holding my head.

"You're fine."

David pulled me to my feet. I had disagree with him- clearly he hadn't been thrown full-force through a wooden door onto pavement before.

"I am not fine. That fucking hurt," I said.

David pulled me down the rest of the backroad. The zombies continued following us and before long we came across something that could help us. There, parked in the street, was a gas truck. David ran over and turned the valve on the back of it. Gas leaked out of it and onto the ground. David pushed me back away from it, pulled a lighter out of his pocket, and set fire to it. Realizing what was going to happen, I dove into the canal behind us. David followed. There was an explosion as we climbed out of the water and into the sewer.