Chapter Three: Jack

The world had stopped. Real time had frozen. Like the way the air seems to freeze during the winter, so it bites at your face and nips at your nose. Like the way a pond freezes over in December, leaving nothing but a thin layer of ice to separate you and the hypothermia that waits beneath its mirrored surface. The air had frozen, the world had stopped spinning, time had ceased to exist, leaving nothing but him and that pair of big, brown eyes looking back at him.

"It's ok," he said, reaching out toward the last bit of this world that wasn't frozen. The last bit of this world that mattered. "It's ok."

His little sister looked up at him with wide, brown eyes. She was scared. She was terrified. He couldn't blame her, so was he. He glanced down at the fifty foot drop below, the only thing to break a fall being the steal crossbeams and metal cords that crisscrossed across the multiple levels of the construction site. He looked back at Emma.

"Don't look down. Just…look at me."

"Jack, I'm scared."

His heart broke. He'd never heard her this scared before. In that moment, nothing matter. Not this still, immobile world, not the drop, not his own life. In that moment, there was one thing he was sure of. He had to get her out of here. He had to make sure she was safe.

"I know, I know," he said, trying to keep his own fear out of his voice. "But, you're gonna be alright. Ah—"

A sudden gust of wind swept by, huge and powerful. It whipped around them both, pulling at their hair, clawing at their clothes, trying to rip them away from their perches and send them tumbling below. The steal structure of what would've been a building moaned and creaked against the wind, its past few months of maintenance forgotten in the epidemic of the HSE virus.

It'd seemed like a good idea at the time. Climbing the abandoned construction site and using it for shelter against the sickies. That's what they'd been calling them, the infected. "Sickies." Emma's word choice, of course, but Jack was the one that had decided to roll with it.

Ever since leaving their foster house, almost a month ago, the two had kept to the main roads for the most part. The open space had a more secure feeling as opposed to the backroads covered by foliage that gave too much cover for looters or sickies to sneak up or hide behind. Following the big roads, lead them into big cities. Not too big of cities, because they knew by that point that the main cities were dangerous. But relatively small cities, like the one they'd come into last night, sometime after crossing the Maine border into Vermont. They'd scavenged for supplies from the blown out and abandoned shops and homes before deciding to settle down for the night.

Neither of them had ever been taught to drive, and Jack was terrified to try to learn and risk getting into an accident with his sister as riding shotgun. So that only left their only open option to walk out of the Northern part of the country before winter hit in a few months. By the time they made it into the city, both were exhausted. At their wits end while running on empty fuel tanks. Neither had the strength to stay up and watch guard while the other slept.

It was then that the two came across the abandoned construction site. It was a plot of land that was all dirt and steel. A framework of metal support and cross beams made a life-sized Jenga game that reached towards the sky. It was unfinished. A skeleton of a structure, devoid of any walls or flooring that would've made it whole.

It was Jack that had the ingenious idea to camp out on one of the unfinished upper levels. As far as either of them knew, sickies couldn't climb. Either their muscles were too degenerated, or their minds too far gone to figure out the mechanics. And even if they could, there was no way they'd be able to reach fifty feet.

Working quickly, Jack had managed to start up one of the cranes still left on site. With a good deal of tinkering, he was able to line up the end of the crane with a crossbeam on one of the unfinished floors close to the top of the structure. After turning the crane off, the two scampered up the arm to the floor-less level of the skeletal structure. They settled down, making sure to tie themselves to support beams with scavenged nylon rope so they wouldn't fall off in their sleep.

No worry of any sickies taking them by surprise. No lookouts necessary. Both could get a good night's rest. So, it really had been a great idea. At the time.

Right now, though, looking back, it had been a terrible idea. The worst idea yet.

The two had woken to a cacophony of rattling and clanging. They woke, fuzzy minded and slightly confused. It took Jack all of three seconds to remember where they were and why they were there. It took him all of twelve to look down and comprehend what he was seeing. It was the infected.

Turns out the sickies weren't as helpless as originally thought. They were climbing. Spider-manning their way up the same crane Jack and Emma had shimmied their way up last night. The sickies' random and jerking movements were causing the crane arm to jump and move about, knocking it into the metal of the steel structure to make the clanking noises that had woken Jack and Emma up. Jack figured they must've been at it for a while, considering how close they were to the tip of the crane.

Jack had cut through the ropes holding him and his sister to the structure and had them running along their beam in the opposite direction of the sickies in under a minute. That crane had been their only way down, and now it was crawling with sickies. They needed to find another way out, all while still avoiding the infected that had now made it to the top of the crane and were now shambling their way across the support beams of the would-be building.

Jack had been charging along the beams and cross bearings, pulling his sister along by the hand, when there was a sudden shriek of tearing metal. He felt the flooring beneath his feet tilt upwards as he let go of his sister's hand, not wanting to drag her down if he was going to fall.

The beam they'd been running along had broken right under Jack's feet, the welding on it having not been finished thanks to the building's abandonment during the the mass panic of the epidemic. Metal screamed and tore and Jack fell forward, hands scrambling for purchase as his feet slipped on air. He managed to wrap his arms and legs around the beam as it swung downwards, the world around him spinning as he thought for sure he was going to fall. And then, it stopped. The screeching stopped and the world stopped tilting. One end of the beam was still connected to another crossbeam in front of him, leaving him dangling on one end of a giant, up-side-down letter L. Jack's heart was pounding, face pressed against cold metal as his breathing raced. He'd thought he was going to die. He'd thought that that was it.

"Jack!"

He looked up to find his sister at the edge of the broken beam behind him. Only she wasn't looking at him. She was looking behind her. The sickies were catching up. One or two were dangerously close to the end of the beam Emma was still standing on. The panic he'd felt when he was falling came back in full force. He couldn't let them get to her.

He glanced up. The cross beam that his was still attached to was intact and horizontal. He managed to shimmy his way up his dangling piece of steel beam and climb upright onto the unbroken one. He looked back to find his sister on the other side of the gap, the distance between them too far to reach across.

And that was how they'd ended up here. Two orphans, stranded on either edge of a broken beam with nothing but six feet of open air between them.

"Emma, look at me," he said. "You're not gonna fall. We—"

He glanced down, his mind racing. He needed a way to calm her down. She was panicking. Sickies continued to march their way across the steel structure of the building towards her.

"We're gonna have a little fun, instead," he said.

"No, we're not!" she screamed, tears threatening.

Emma's feet shuffled, taking tiny steps back from the jagged edge of the beam as she looked back over her shoulder. She was moving further away from him. A sickie had managed to climb onto the end of her beam.

"Would I trick you?" He cracked a grin, gritting his teeth together to keep them from chattering. He couldn't let her see how scared he was.

"Yes! You always play tricks!"

Jack couldn't help but laugh. She had him, there.

"Alright. Well, not-not this time," he said his voice low, doing his best to keep her calm while his own heart raced. Another sickie joined the first. "I promise, I promise. You're gonna be fine. You have to believe in me. You wanna play a game?" he asked.

She looked back at him. Good. That had got her attention.

"We'll play hop-scotch," he continued. "Like we used to everyday back home."

He saw her lips twitch upwards, her fear suspended momentarily. She gave a tiny nod. Relief flooded him. He had a way of getting her to move.

"Ok, just on the count of three, you have to jump," he coaxed. She nodded.

The beam she was standing on had begun to tremble as more sickies piled on the other end.

"One."

He glanced behind her. One or two sickies had fallen off the beam, but it wasn't enough. A hoard was making its way towards them. He could hear growling and shuffling as they moved further along the beam.

"Two."

They were getting closer and closer. They were almost on top of her. He toed the edge of his own beam, hands stretched out, ready to catch her.

"Three!"

She jumped. A sickie lunged and swiped at her ankle. There was a scream and Jack was grabbing at empty air. The swipe had thrown Emma off balance. She only made it half way to him.

The last bit of this world that wasn't frozen. The last bit of this world that mattered. And it fell to shatter into a million pieces on the pavement below.