Instinctively, his calloused hand reached for hers and held it tightly. He anchored himself to Tina, who he could feel shaking in his grasp, and gave the most subtle of tugs on her arm. Without moving his head, green eyes found brown and offered a look that said "follow me". Sam's sneakers scuffed loudly against the ground as he backed them towards the brick siding of the school. Every move, every fidget, seemed terrifying as the mass of the walking dead stirred around them, a wall of unintelligible sounds and dead, lifeless eyes.

Sam could feel his heart beating in his ears and he swore the walkers could hear it too. The fear of their impending attack made it that much harder to be collected in his efforts to find some way out of this, but he still had to try. Twisting and turning his head in every direction, looking for anything that could be of use, he never once allowed himself to release the hold he had on Tina's hand. He could barely look at her though knowing the terror he felt was twice that for Tina.

Like a beacon from heaven, Sam's eyes finally settled on an option – really they're only option – located at the other end of the building. Slightly rusted but still mostly intact, his sights narrowed in on the fire escape ladder that led to the roof. His mouth felt suddenly very dry and he swallowed down the lump in his throat before gathering the courage to turn and face his friend.

"Follow me," he instructed in a voice so low, it could hardly be considered even a whisper. "Whatever you do, don't stop running."

Heart pounding hard against his ribcage and ears drumming with the sound of its beating, Sam swore it may just be the last thing he would ever hear. Still, the fear of getting caught by these monsters was far less terrifying than the thought of them standing there helplessly while they were picked apart, piece by piece.

"3…"

A deep breath in.

"2…"

One last backwards glance at Tina.

"1…."

A deep breath out.

"Go!"

His feet, agile from the countless number of football drills, carried Sam across the worn pavement of the sidewalk as they hugged the perimeter of the building. He could hear Tina's labored breaths close behind him as they took off, quite literally running for their lives. The sound that followed them made Sam's stomach hurt and his feet trip up a bit; the noises of the mass of bodies moving towards their newest, and fleeing, prey. The shuffling of slow feet, the groaning of hungry predators and the continuing beat of his heart pounding in his ears, almost seeming like it was going to deafen him.

They were so close, the ladder becoming larger and larger as they approached. For a second, Sam swore he just might have smiled. But as quickly as the hope came, it faded at the sight of what stumbled around the corner right by the bottom of the ladder. The new group of walkers were straight in their path and Sam nearly tripped himself slowing down enough to not catch the attention of them as well – but it was too late.

Scrambling, they had a choice to make. With their escape route blocked, Sam looked to Tina for some indication of what to do as the walkers pressed from all sides, but she was as lost as he was. The blood in his veins ran cold in an instant and his heart, which had been pounding so irritably loud before, seemed to skip and nearly stop as the gravity of the situation settled in.

"Hey, you ugly pieces of shit!" He was startled by the disembodied voice that seemingly came from the heavens. Frantic, Sam looked upwards to find its source but found nothing but a cloudy mid-day sky ready to drop rain on the small town of Lima below it. "I said HEY!" The voice was strangely familiar but Sam couldn't put a finger on it and wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him.

Neck craning to find out what on Earth was happening, his eyes caught sight of something hurling into the crowd of walkers that were, until now, closing in on Sam and Tina. The creatures took notice of the voice and the object, looking eerily similar to Sam as they stared upwards in confusion, and followed the projection of the flying objects, pulling away from Sam and Tina.

Suddenly, it looked like a massive hail storm above them, and what seemed like dozens of objects started to fly across the clouded sky. Sam soon came to realize the projectiles were not hail at all, not even close. No, they were baseballs and footballs and lacrosse balls, all being hurled from the roof straight above them.

With surprising quickness, Sam knew what to do next. Recapturing Tina's hand, he took off again towards the ladder while the walkers were distracted by the sports equipment raining down on them. Someone was safely on that roof and Sam was determined to get himself and Tina up there with them. The walkers, now far more concerned with the objects attacking them than the people running close by, paid no mind to Sam and Tina as they finally approached the ladder.

Grabbing hold of the highest rung he could, Sam hoisted himself upwards and motioned for Tina to follow. As he turned to offer her his hand once again, stretching it downwards, he saw Tina, terror-stricken and seemingly glued to the spot on the ground. Her delicate skin was paler than he'd ever seen and her brown eyes were flooded with tears, staring at something before her. It wasn't until Sam turned to see what it was she had stopped for that he almost collapsed off of the ladder completely.

Had he not seen the name embroidered on his letterman jacket, Sam would've never believed the lifeless thing advancing on Tina was – or rather, used to be – Mike Chang. He looked nothing like the guy Sam remembered and so much like him at the same time. He felt suddenly dizzy and fought to keep his composure, his limbs feeling like jelly beneath him. Unable to take more than one look at Mike, he forced himself to rip his gaze away from what used to be his best friend and grabbed Tina without another moment of hesitation, feeling the muscles in his back tweak and tense as he pulled her upwards with all of his strength onto the ladder against her will.

"Tina, we have to climb!" His instructions were lost on her as her tear-filled eyes stared incredulously down at the sight of her boyfriend. He wanted more than anything to hold her right then and there, to comfort her in that moment, but he knew what he had to do. "CLIMB!" He barked the order so loud, it seemed to snap Tina from the trance she'd been lost in. Wearily, she nodded and began her ascent upwards, turning backwards every now and again to look at Mike as he grappled at the ladder rungs, though unable to successfully climb it. Every shake of the ladder, every disgruntled moan from Mike, was like a stab in the heart to Sam; he couldn't imagine what it felt like to the girl climbing in front of him.

As Tina pulled herself to the top of the building, he heard her collapse immediately, her sobs far too sorrowful for him to stomach. As he followed in suit, toned arms pulling his heavy body onto the safety of the roof, Sam had no time to break down alongside her because he was being embraced. Too tall to be Tina, he forced himself to pull away to see who had such a grip on him.

And that was when the tears came.