SAVE THE LAST ONE PART 1

There are two kinds of horrendous smells that always seem to linger around the longest. One was the stench of rot from a corpse and the other was the muster and suffocating smell of cigarette smoke. Daryl noticed the smell immediately while walking by this particular car parked in the highway graveyard. The addicting but sometimes muster smell of tobacco.

Daryl turned his light against the grimy windows and peered inside. After not being able to see past the gunk, he decided to open the car door and rummage through what was inside.

"You looking for something?" Dale called down to him from the top of the RV.

"Yeah. A pack." Daryl answered back without looking up at him.

"Of what?"

"Cigarettes. Tasha gave me her last one, so now I gotta look for some to give back," he said.

Dale cocked a brow and looked generally surprised that Daryl would even do something like that, but at the same time, this revelation was quite nice to know. "That's pretty nice of you," Dale commented. "Find anything?"

Daryl groaned after a moment of a fruitless search. "No. Not…wait a minute." he stopped and suddenly climbed further into the car and came out a second later with something in hand. It was a full pack of cigarettes, and not only that, it was the expensive Treasurer brand that Natasha jokingly asked for back at the CDC.

Even in the dark, Dale could clearly see the makings of a smile on Daryl's face. "Son of a gun," he muttered in awe.

"Looks like the guy who used these was a posh bitch." Daryl scoffed while tossing the pack in the air.

Shane, Natasha, and Otis ran fast and far down the narrow school hallways with the sound of their heavy footsteps being drowned out by the intense groans and gurgles that came from directly behind them. Natasha turned her head for only a second but saw the dead in hot pursuit. Limping and tripping over each other but still managing to keep a steady pace.

"Nat!" Shane shouted while coming to a dead halt.

Nearly running into him, Natasha finally saw what made them all come full stop. Their escape route. Their exit was in front of them, but it had chains coiled tightly around the door handles. Stopping them from getting out and trapping them like rats.

"In here! In here!" Shane ushered everyone to follow and ran into the gym room beside them.

The gymnasium was a large open space that didn't have an exit but did have bleachers that were high enough off the ground to keep them away from the jaws of the dead. They all ran for the bleachers and started to climb up. Natasha was the first to make it up with much grace and little difficulty. After that, she turned around and helped Shane and Otis up in the nick of time. She pulled them both away from the edge just as the Walkers began to crowd around at the bottom, looking like a bunch of hungry piranhas.

"No better trapped in here than we were out there, huh!" Natasha shouted over the loud growls.

Shane raised his light and shinned it up towards the windows to their left. "Those windows, what's on the other side?"

"About a 20-foot drop with nothing to catch you, maybe some bushes, then the athletic field," Otis answered back.

"Sounds promising," Natasha said. "We'll need time to get up there though and jump out."

"Not me. Maybe you two," Otis chimed in.

"Hey hey hey," Shane growled out. He didn't even want to entertain the thought.

"Come on, man, look at me." Otis insisted while gesturing down to his large body. "You really think I can squeeze through one of them tiny windows? They'd be all over us. Look, we lay down some fire to get a head start. You stay here. I hop down and draw them away. That gives you the chance to get up the bleachers and out a window."

"And where do you go?"

Otis took Shane's light and shined it to the other side of the gym where another door was. "Locker room down those steps."

"Looks like a good way to get trapped," Shane said worryingly.

Natasha spoke up. "Otis, you sure about that?"

"It's got windows, and more my size. I get out through one, I double back, we meet up out on the field." Otis then took his bag off and handed it over for Natasha to take.

"You're a crazy son of a bitch, you know that," Shane said.

Otis took in a deep breath and turned his attention down to the hungry swarm below. Just listening to their gurgling and growls was nauseating to hear. He didn't want to jump down, truthfully. And looking at their rotten teeth diminished his confidence every second he just stood there. "Just trying to do right for that boy."

Shane nodded his head and got his weapon ready. "You take three shots, and you go. After that Nat and I will fire. We'll lay down a cover for you. We'll get you a lead."

"All right."

Holding his breath and bracing himself, Otis raised his shaky arm and aimed. He fired three rounds into the horde, and after clearing somewhat of a path, he jumped off the bleachers. He couldn't bring himself to land correctly though and crumbled to the ground with a small cry of pain.

Natasha flinched at the sound of his heavy body hitting the floor. By the looks of it, she guessed he must've twisted something in his legs because of the way he landed. "Otis, you have to get up now!" she shouted down at him while raising her pistol and firing at one of the Walkers trying to crawl over to him. "Get up now, man!"

As Natasha and Shane laid down cover fire for him, Otis got up as fast as he could and started limping towards the locker room. After he was gone, along with most of the horde, they were finally able to jump off the bleachers and run up the stairs to the windows. While climbing the stairs, Natasha glanced back. She saw at least two Walkers who had noticed them and stayed behind.

"Shane, break the window. Come on!" she shouted while pulling out her knife and plunging it into the head of a Walker. After retracting her knife, she shoved its body against the Walker behind it and knocked them both down.

Shane raised the butt of his shotgun and busted out the glass from the window. He stuck his head through the hole and looked down. He saw that it was a decent-sized drop, but also thought it would be fine if he landed right.

"Nat, how do I jump out without totally breaking my legs," he called back.

"Keep your knees slightly bent and don't land stiff," she said eagerly and turned back to him.

Shane nodded his head and seemed to be somewhat assured by that. The first thing he did was throw his gun and their bags out the window. Following that, he sat on the ledge for a few moments, breathing heavily while trying to hype himself up. After a few breaths, he pushed himself off the edge, hitting the ground with a hard thud that made his body shudder and his head throb. While it wasn't the most graceful thing, it wasn't all that painful either. He knew he could still walk. Which also meant he could still run too.

It was now Natasha's turn. She hurried over to the window and peeked out for only a second to check the distance. Once seeing it was clear, she hiked her leg up onto the ledge and squeezed her petite body through the small hole. She rotated herself fully around and let her body hang loosely over the edge with only her hands holding her up. Natasha was about to let go when something inside the school grabbed her and held on tight. Natasha gasped and looked up, seeing the jaws of a Walker right in her face, snapping its teeth viciously.

Natasha's small shriek alerted Shane enough for him to flinch. He looked back up to the window and saw Natasha in the grasp of a Walker trying to bite her. He could see that she was trying to get herself free but couldn't because of the way she was suspended out the window.

"Nat!" he cried out.

Shane instinctively reached for his pistol at his side and aimed it up. He waited for an opening before firing a single round up at them. It flew past Natasha and struck the head of the Walker, making it release her immediately. Natasha gasped sharply when she felt her body begin to free fall and approach the ground at an alarming rate.