V - A Cold Day in Hell
-Day 611-
"Easy in, easy out," said Bobby. "We get what we need and we leave– that means food, water, medicine."
Lincoln, Clyde, Liam, Zach, Ronnie Anne, and Tabby nodded their heads.
"Relax, we got this," said Lynn.
Bobby and the rest of the children quickly scanned the perimeter of the store before they caught the roamers' attention inside. They dispatched the roamers and then proceeded to loot the store.
The group felt more rushed as they finally attempted to loot the small city of Bangor. No more looting and relaxing in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.
Near the Penobscot River, Becky led Dana, Wavehead, Luan, Benny, and Hana through the abandoned residential homes to loot for supplies. The streets were littered with trash while some power lines hung low into the sidewalks. Hana's RV outshined the dusty cars in the road.
On the other side of the river, George led Vonda, Lucy, Jason, and two Houlton civilians– James and Jenny– through small shops near the riverbank. A bridge stood not more than two blocks away.
All the groups in Bangor partook in a massive supply-run as the surrounding towns of Houlton were drained of supplies.
Bobby and Ronnie Anne stood behind each other's backs as they moved from one aisle to another. Lincoln and Tabby stayed close as they navigated through the dark floor with their flashlights. Lynn and Clyde stepped across the viscid tiles on the floor as they passed over two corpses.
"Ahead, three roamers," said Clyde.
"I got it," said Lynn. "Stay back."
Clyde kept the flashlight on Lynn's new targets as she pulled out her arrows. She ran up to them and shoved each arrow through their eye sockets before taking them back.
"Maybe, I can take on the next couple roamers?" asked Clyde.
Lynn picked up her arrows.
"No way."
"Lynn, you killed all of the roamers we encountered ever since we arrived in the city!" complained Clyde. "Is there something going on?"
"Fine, I'll let you call dibs next time we see the lamebrains. Though, try not to get too close to them."
"How else will I kill them?"
"You're right, you should let me handle 'em."
"Seriously, Lynn?"
Bobby and Ronnie Anne shined their flashlights at the two bickering adolescents.
"Will you two shut up?" exclaimed Ronnie Anne. "We can hear you from the other side of the store!"
Footsteps pounded near the four survivors. Ronnie Anne raised her knife as Lincoln and Tabby stopped walking.
"Oh, it's just YOU two," sighed Ronnie Anne.
"What, you thought we were the biters?" said Tabby.
"Whatever. We're done here, right, Bobby?"
Bobby made a thumbs-up. He motioned the group to follow him out of the store and enter another one, ready to fill up their backpacks.
Luan used Luna's crowbar once again to fight off the roamers in the road. Lucky for her, the roamers' bodies have been decaying for more than a year, making it easier for her crowbar to smash their skulls.
Benny sliced the roamers one by one while Hana watched him. She then stepped up and turned the corner of her eyes so they caught sight of Luan and Benny's attentive faces.
"Look. Learn," said Hana.
Hana tilted her sword sideways and ran up to a roamer, delivering an uppercut in the form of a blade. She then moved to the two roamers behind and slashed her sword to the right, slicing their heads in half.
"Maybe if I had my katana, I could do that," said Luan.
"Here," said Hana, handing Luan her own sword. "Go ahead."
Luan and Benny copied Hana, though they weren't able to slice the heads of two roamers at the same manner that Hana did.
"Hold handle like this," Hana told Benny. "Luan. Use momentum."
"Is it really the right time to learn this now?" exclaimed Benny.
Hana elbowed a roamer and smacked it out of her way with a crowbar. Her head responded affirmatively to Benny as the roamers lurked closer.
Becky and Dana swung their machetes around, sending a slash of blood into the air while corpses dropped. A gust of wind blew their hair in their faces, blocking their vision.
Wavehead paced himself back inch by inch as while the roamers approached him. When they were at a close distance, he thrusted his trench knife with four knuckle slots straight into their eye sockets.
The group caught their breath as they found themselves proud of taking out a small group of roamers.
Then, they all heard the dreaded roar of rotor blades.The Super Huey helicopter hovered over the city, catching the attention of all three groups in the city. It also caught the attention of the roamers wandering the city.
The helicopter slowed down and hovered in the air, filling the air with nerve-wracking vibrations.
"Look!" yelled Luan. "Not again…"
"Oh my god…" murmured Dana.Hana nudged Luan with her crowbar and grabbed her katana back. She then raised it and pointed it towards the city.
"No!" exclaimed Benny. "We're not fighting them! Run!"
Becky shook her head and motioned her group to follow her. The thunder of the herd returned. The roamers in the inner city were riled up from the helicopter in the air.
"Where we go?" asked Hana, her face forming droplets of sweat.
"Away from the chopper! We're going back home!" shouted Benny.
The helicopter moved faster.
"The chopper is going home!" yelled Luan. "Our home!"
"Just keep going!" shouted Becky. "Just go!"
The herd tore through the streets and homes, knocking down mailboxes and bumping into cars. The wind grew stronger as the gray clouds commenced the blizzard that the groups would face.
Tabby shivered as she held out her hands. Snowflakes pelted themselves onto her palms and into the skin of the other survivors.
Clyde shivered, prompting Lynn to hand him her scarf. Lincoln wore his winter hat on his head while Tabby placed her earmuffs. Ronnie Anne used her hood to cover her head while Bobby searched for the keys to Vanzilla.
"We can't stay here much longer," said Bobby. "Can't drive with all the snow."
"We're going now?" asked Lynn. "We didn't even rummage through those shops!"
"I don't think we have the time," said Bobby. "Plus, the roamers are attracted to sound. That helicopter and the herd that will come might be a pain to deal with too."
Bobby's group followed him to Vanzilla, taking up the back seats as they enter it. Bobby started the engine and turned on his walkie-talkie.
"This is Bobby. We're inside Vanzilla. We're heading back to Houlton. Anyone hear?"
"This is Becky! We have a... herd... on our tail! Go! Now!"
Bobby placed his walkie-talkie down. He stepped on the gas pedal and drove Vanzilla ahead into the highway. The group passed by the potential stores and buildings they could've looted until all they noticed were trees.
The distance between Becky's group and the herd were further apart than when they first saw them, but more roamers joined in the chase.
Dana held her machete with her left hand and her silenced M9 on her right. She, along with Becky and Wavehead resorted to using their sidearms to kill the dangerous roamers.
"Swarm ahead!" yelled Benny.
"Stop!" ordered Becky.
"What do we do?" exclaimed Dana.
Becky frantically moved her head around. The river prevented them from moving to the right, the herd behind them meant they couldn't backtrack, and the swarms ahead prevented them from running any further ahead in the road, leaving them only one choice.
"To the left!" yelled Becky.
"Damn, that's where the city's at!" gasped Benny.
Becky and her group fought off the aggressive wanderers in the road, melee-style, before they entered the streets once considered busy.
The dry trees allowed the group to see which streets harbored roamers. The group passed by these streets and headed towards another intersection. Becky shouted orders along the way.
"To the right! Left! Keep going ahead! Keep going! Right! Left!"
The group didn't know how many blocks they were from escaping the city. It could've been five blocks, though they knew it had to be more than that.
The group then found themselves in an intersection where roamers were scattered in all roads.
"Where to now?" asked Dana.
"The right! Fight 'em off!" ordered Becky.
Becky shot the two closest roamers, missing a shot in the head, while the rest of the group ran in. Hana sliced her way to the left while Benny cleared the other side. Dana and Wavehead mimicked Becky and unleashed their bullets at the group of roamers in the middle.
"Fuck!" yelled Becky as she turned around. "These roamers are following our asses! Push ahead!"
Luan stayed close to the sidewalk and cars, beating the roamers into the metal bodies and windows.
"Luan! This way! Is safest!" whispered Hana.
Hana ran into an alleyway near the left intersection. Luan called after her but Hana ignored her. She looked around and then chased her.
"Hana! Come back…!" she shouted.
Becky found Hana and Luan running away. She then looked ahead into a less roamer-infested road and realized that they weren't too far from safety.
"Benny!" shouted Becky. "Take this walkie-talkie and find George's group! Find 'em somewhere! I'll go look for Hana!"
"Should we wait for you?" he asked.
"Not with this blizzard growing stronger! Just go! We got an RV back over there! Go! Go!"
Benny nodded.
Becky ran to the left intersection and into an alleyway. She found Luan many yards away, and decided to keep chasing her.
"Alright, let's keep going ahead!" shouted Benny.
Dana and Wavehead were the only ones who nodded causing Benny to realize that Luan was gone. He gasped as he figured that Luan chased Hana along with Becky.
"Let's go, Benny!" said Dana.
"Yeah, c'mon man!" said Wavehead, stabbing a roamer approaching Benny.
Benny ran ahead into the road, left to wonder about the fate of the three young women.
The gray clouds dumped even more snow and beefed up its wind speeds. George, Vonda, Lucy, Jason, James, and Jenny struggled to fight the roamers near the river.
"We gotta go to the bridge!" shouted George.
"It's like last time," gulped Vonda, as she tightened her quiver. "Herd."
"As long as we stay together we'll be fine," said Jason.
A crow sat on top of a traffic light. George and his group ran past the intersection under the crow. The crow then looked at the incoming herd and remained on top of the traffic light, glancing at the roamers' faces. It looked further into the horizon and was met with hundreds of faces, all rotten and decayed, spooking it away.
George unholstered his gun and used his left arm to cover his face from the wind. A roamer tried to grab him, but he shot it point-blank. Its blood flew into the wind, spraying into the clothes of Vonda, Lucy, Jason, James, and Jenny.
Vonda shook the blood off of her bow and smacked a roamer into the frosty grass. She grabbed Jenny's arm and led her through the cold storm.
Lucy didn't react from the blood on her shirt. She was shivering from the cold that brought back some bad memories.
Jason wiped some of the blood off his hoodie and unsheathed his machete and pulled down his hood to see more clearly. A roamer tried to grab him from behind, but he slacked it's head vertically going down to it's chest and kicked it to the ground.
Jenny shivered as a reaction to the blood rather than the wind. She never had blood stain her clothes before so this was new yet horrifying to her.
James only ever felt deer blood on his favorite jacket. However, unlike his wife, the cold nipped away at his skin.
George and the others arrived at the bridge from where they came from, but it was now riddled with roamers. The herd congested the bridge on the city side, making it almost impossible for George and his group to cross.
"Let's find another way!" yelled Jenny.
"Our car is on the other side!" shouted George. "We gotta get there!"
"How?" asked James.
"Like this," said Vonda, pulling an arrow from her quiver.
She drew back her bow and loosed her arrow. A gust of wind blew it off the narrow bridge.
"Whoops," said Vonda. "Not like that."
She pulled another arrow from her quiver and held it with her right hand as she held her bow with her left. She then ran to the closest roamer and whacked it with her bow before she knelt down and stabbed it inside its eye socket.
"No, no, that's so gross, I can't do that!" exclaimed Jenny.
"Not only that," said James, "What about our safety? I don't wanna get bit."
"You're wearing a leather jacket!" said George. "You'll be fine! Just go for their damn head and watch your back!"
"No, I can't!" said Jenny. "Can't I just stay back and use my gun? I can–"
"And what happens when you run out of ammo?"
The roamers faced Vonda and the rest of the group. She stepped back and yelled for help.
"We'll be there!" yelled George before facing James and Jenny. "We need all the manpower we can get!"
"That means all of us need to fight," said Jason. "So grabbed weapons and get ready to fight these roamers."
"I can't," whimpered Jenny. "I'm not like you two or Lori. I don't know how to fight against a group of those things!"
"Listen to me you two. Do you think Lori was always the tough badass she is now? No! She was like you– went through less shit than you two. Just a 17-year-old teenager enjoying a normal life before the world around her turned to hell."
"Well… if she could do it…" muttered James.
He stepped up with a pistol and a knife. Jenny nodded her head and faced the swarm of roamers at the end of the bridge.
"First, we thin the herd!" said George. "Vee! Stay back!"
"You too Lucy," said Jason.
George, Jason, James, and Jenny aimed at the swarm with their sidearms. The swarm growled and stumbled in their direction. The roamers bumped into a tanker truck, many small cars, a van, and other vehicles in the bridge. They scattered about, making some of the roamers clear targets.
"Now!" exclaimed George.
The three adults and teenager fired onto the scattered roamers. George dropped the roamers one by one, each shot striking their skulls.
Jason shots nailed the roamers, hitting every one of their skulls, without missing a single roamer.
James– not as accurate as George– was able to get some shots on the undead skulls. Blood flew out from the back of their head as they collapsed to the ground.
Jenny– less accurate than her husband– missed many headshots. Some of their bodies were stained by bullet holes, but they continued prowling towards the group.
"Shit!" yelled Jenny. "No more ammo!"
"I'm out too!" shouted James.
"I'm also out," said Jason.
"Same. We use our knives now," said George.
Vonda joined the group and lunged towards the roamers, smacking them with her bow before stabbing them with her arrows.
Lucy pulled out her shovel and ran towards the roamers, smashed and stabbed them with her shovel.
Jason walked towards four roamers with his machete and slacked two roamers heads off at once. The other two roamers approached him, he pushed one of them to the ground and stabbed the other one through the mouth, he twisted his machete into reverse grip and finished off the other roamer on the ground.
Jenny held out her knife with an unsteady motion and found a roamer approaching her. She whimpered as she drove the knife into its head. She then pulled it out and watched the roamer fall into the bumper of a car.
After watching his wife take out a roamer, James stepped up towards two roamers and stabbed each one through their eye sockets. Another roamer approached behind him, grabbing his arms. Its nails were unable to penetrate.
Vonda whacked the roamer away from James, causing it to stumble across the bridge. The roamer, unable to power through the wind, was blown off the bridge.
"Guys!" exclaimed Vonda. "Just smack them and they'll fall right off the bridge!"
"That's right," said George. "No muscles in their damn bodies."
George went ahead and kicked a roamer in its stomach, sending it to the edge of the bridge. The roamer growled loudly as the wind bullied it against the guard rail. Then, an ice blast blew it off the bridge, causing it to fall to the freezing river below.
The group ran across the bridge, finishing off the roamers between the vehicles with a stab to the brain. The roamers found by the edge of the bridge were pushed off by the group.
George and his group fought through the last few roamers when they finally reached the end of the bridge.
"The car– do you remember where you parked it?" asked James.
"I do," said George. "Follow me."
George's walkie-talkie crackled.
"Guys, where are you?" said Benny. "We need help!"
"Damn," muttered George. "We gotta help them out first."
The wipers struggled to move the snow away from the windshields of Vanzilla. They got stuck in the middle of the windshield and failed to provide vision for Bobby.
Bobby left the heater on inside the van for the children and exited the van to clean the windshield.
Using the stock of a rifle, he wiped the snow off of the windshield. He then noticed that the snow quickly took over the windshield as the blizzard grew stronger.
Man, how do I fix this thing?, thought Bobby. Wait. Aha!
Bobby opened the hood in the bumper of Vanzilla and checked the engine. He then checked the windshield wipers and removed them in order to lubricate them.
"The wind's getting real strong," said Tabby. "Look at the trees."
The children stared out into the woods before the snow covered up the windows.
Bobby placed the windshield wipers back into their place and closed the hood of the van. Next, he entered Vanzilla and shifted the gear stick to drive. He pressed the gas pedal, but only heard a groan come from the wheel.
"We're stuck, aren't we?" asked Lynn.
"No, not yet," replied Bobby, frantically pressing the pedal. "Not yet, no, no– we're stuck!"
The children groaned. Lynn sighed in defeat.
"No surprise there," said Lynn. "This metal box's a piece of junk. C'mon, we can walk from here on."
"I don't think the closest town is that close," said Bobby. "Medway's gotta be miles away."
"You hear that?" asked Lynn.
Bobby shook his head.
"That's the march of the dead. They'll keep marchin' and marchin' and marchin'… and before we know it… we're dead meat. Literally as your girlfriend would say. Don't you wanna go back home to her?"
"Okay, fine. Come on, guys. We're walking from here on."
The children groaned and exited the vehicle. The wind grew softer, but its strong gusts grew increasingly frequent. Vanzilla stood in the road while snow piled up on its wheels. The last few snowflakes dropped on the van before the snowfall stopped. Now, the wind was the real test.
The herd continued walking in the road, following a Humvee. The roamers growled as they struggled to move their legs in the snow. The wind also made their steps slower as it caused their legs to sway when it was in the air.
Back in Bangor, George, Jason, Vonda, Lucy, James, and Jenny ran into the city, finding stray roamers in the road. The wind blew snow in all directions as freezing fog set in, disguising the survivors and the roamers.
"It's getting hard to see out here!" yelled James. "Are you sure we're going the right way?"
"The TV shop is there!" yelled George. "I think that's Benny!"
Vonda's hair flew all around her face, blocking her view. She didn't notice an approaching roamer to her left.
James and Jenny powered through the wind and arrived at the TV shop with George, Jason, and Lucy. They met with Benny and Wavehead.
"Where are the others?" asked George. "Wait– Vonda!"
The roamer stretched its arm through the white wind and reached for Vonda. When it did, Vonda turned to him and gasped, unable to react quickly.
The roamer tried to walk forward. However, Dana came from behind and slashed the roamer out of Vonda's arms.
"There's Dana," said Benny. "Becky and Luan had to look for Hana. Not sure where they are, though."
Vonda's hair flew all around her face, blocking her view. She didn't notice an approaching roamer to her left.
James and Jenny powered through the wind and arrived at the TV shop with George. They met with Benny and Wavehead.
"Where are the others?" asked George. "Wait– Vonda!"
The roamer stretched its arm through the white wind and reached for Vonda. When it did, Vonda turned to him and gasped, unable to react quickly.
The roamer tried to walk forward. However, Dana came from behind and slashed the roamer out of Vonda's arms.
"There's Dana," said Benny. "Becky and Luan had to look for Hana. Not sure where they are, though."
Dana and Vonda met up with the rest of the group. George and Jason grabbed Vonda and hugged her, exhaling a large puff of winter breath.
"Okay," sighed George. "Let's go back to my car! We're leaving!"
George took charge and led the rest of the group out of the TV shop. The wind continued its punishment and blew the snow into the faces of the survivors.
"It shouldn't be too far," said George. "And– oh, damn."
Another swarm of roamers blocked the intersection that held the car on the other end. More swarms from each road of the intersection glared at the group who caught their attention.
"We can't fight these four swarms!" yelled Dana.
"We're not going to!" yelled Benny. "This building! Let's go through it!"
George looked at the rest of the group and nodded. Benny opened the door and turned on his flashlight. He then motioned the group to enter. Before the roamers arrived, he closed the door and barricaded it with a drawer he found.
Benny pointed his flashlight at the corner of the room and yelled softly. The flashlight revealed a living corpse– a roamer– but with missing lower limbs.
"Crawlers!" yelled Benny. "Oh my god, it's crawling."
The crawler dragged his guts across the floor while pulling itself with its arms. Its torn abdomen muscles flapped and hung around while its golden glowing eyes looked above at the survivors.
Jenny vomited onto the floor, James shivered, Dana scrunched up her face, and Wavehead pinched his nose. George looked away while Benny thrusted the sword into the roamer's head.
Suddenly the windows of the building cracked. The roamers swung their hands at the window and lunged their heads forward with their mouths open and teeth ready to bite.
The group looked around and found themselves surrounded by the cracked windows and heard thuds against the walls.
"We have to go out the back door!" exclaimed Dana.
"Where is it!" cried Jenny.
"Follow me!" said Benny.
Benny ran out of the lobby room and into the halls of the building. The group followed Benny along the hallways, hearing growls inside some of the rooms.
The windows shattered and allowed the roamers the enter inside the building and search for the survivors. They growled and followed the light coming from the hallways.
"They're right behind us!" shrieked Dana.
"I can't see in this shithole!" yelled Benny. "There's something over there!"
Benny pointed his flashlight at the floor and found an exit sign pointing to his right. He smiled and waved his hands towards himself, motioning the group to follow his way out of the building.
The roamers filled the hallways and found the group. They ran towards a door at the end of the hall as the roamers prowled towards the group, hungering for flesh.
Benny pulled the door handle then pushed, but the door would not open.
"The snow," whispered Benny.
George qnd Jason joined in the push of the door and tried to move the snow out of the way, but the door still couldn't open all the way.
"I'm thin enough to go through!" said Wavehead. "I'll clear the snow out!"
"Do that!" said George. "Let's keep these roamers off our back!"
"I got this!" said Dana.
She grabbed Wavehead's gun which belonged to D and aimed it at the roamers. She shot the approaching roamers, creating a large flash of light that filled the dark halls.
Wavehead fell to his knees and moved the snow with his arms. He then pulled the door opened and allowed the group to leave the building.
"Thank you very much!" said Jenny.
As soon as George, Jason, Benny, Dana, Vonda, Lucy, Jenny, and James were out, Wavehead closed the door. The group found themselves next to a dumpster, walls with graffiti, and a large fence with a car on the other side.
"That's the car," said George. "Everyone, get on my back and jump across the fence!"
Wavehead placed his back against the door and his hands on the walls to keep the roamers inside. The roamers' hands stuck out of the building, begging to be released.
George lifted Vonda and allowed her to jump on top of the fence. She hung on to the top, then jumped down to the sidewalk, landing on her feet.
Next was Dana, who was lifted to the top of the fence. Next, Benny, then Jason, then Lucy, then Jenny, and then James.
"You coming?" asked George.
"No, just go!" said Wavehead. "I'll go through this alley!"
George nodded and climbed up the fence. He made it to the top and jumped down to the sidewalk where he found the swarms of roamers from the intersection.
"Everyone! Get inside the car!" exclaimed George.
George ran to the driver's seat. Everyone else sat on the back seats, leaving the passenger seat open for Wavehead.
This seating choice made everyone feel uncomfortable, except Jenny who sat by the window on her husband's lap. George made a U-turn and shifted the back passengers around.
Dana sat on Benny's lap and felt a hard object on her bottom. She tried to move herself around before her eyes widened and came to a realization. She looked back and reddened along with Benny before they both looked away uncomfortably.
"It's adrenaline– from earlier," said Benny.
"Yeah– adrenaline– that's right," murmured Dana.
The car headed towards the front of the building, now revealed to be an apartment building.
Wavehead pushed himself out of the door and held his trench knife. He ran along the alleyway and ran to what seemed like a dead end. He looked back and saw the groups of roamers stumbling along the snow.
The snow became stained with black, brown, and red fluids as the roamers stumbled along it, and was blown away by the wind.
Wavehead found another alley to his left and saw a gate at the end of it. He ran towards as the wind relentlessly tormented his body. He stumbled along the alley walls and noticed the graffiti on the wall.
'NO TRESPASSING OR YOUR DEAD' read the graffiti on the wall.
"What about my dead?" Wavehead commented with a sarcastic tone as he shook his head.
He reached the black gate and has yet to see the roamers. The car arrived at the street.
"Hey, over here!" yelled Wavehead. "I can't open this gate!"
Jenny came out of the car and ran to his help.
Jason seeing this now exactly what was going to happen.
"Dana, give me your gun, means out of aimed," said Jason.
"Okay here," said Dana.
She gave him the gun, he got out and went to go help too.
"What is it?" asked Jenny.
"I need to get through this gate!" said Wavehead.
"There's no lock or handle in here. There's a keyhole!"
"Here! Take this knife, jam it in, and–"
Jenny was aghast at the sight of the roamers coming from the alley. Dozens and dozens aimed towards Wavehead and prowled towards him.
Wavehead wondered what Jenny was looking at before he realized the looming threat behind him. He then handed Jenny his knife.
"Hey, listen! Put the knife inside the keyhole and twist it!"
"I'll try to too stall them as best as I can, just get thet gate open!" said Jason.
He aimed the pistol and shot the at roamers killing some off them and shot some in the legs causing them to fall and trip over each other.
Jenny grabbed the knife and hesitated to place the knife inside the keyhole. She continued to stare at the roamers approaching the boy.
"C'mon, don't worry about 'em," said Wavehead. "You can face 'em. You have guts!"
"And I'm folded them off, came on your tougher than you think just open that gate already!"
Jenny nodded terrified. She inserted the knife inside the keyhole and glanced at the roamer. She twisted the knife and she pulled the gate, but the gate wouldn't budge.
"Twist it all the way!" said Wavehead.
"Hurry, I'm running out of ammo!" said Jason.
Jenny tried twisting it and whimpered as she moved the handle down. She yelled and glanced at the roamers. They were mere feet away from Wavehead.
Jenny pulled the knife out, stepped back, and shook her head.
"No, don't go, yet! You have guts, Jenny! Guts!"
"Oh fuck this!" exclaimed Jason.
Jason grabbed his knife and inserted it into the keyhole and started twisting it.
"Come on damn it open already!"
Dana, Benny, James, Vonda, and George watched as the roamers reached the gate.
"Oh my god," whimpered Jenny. "Oh my god!"
By the time Jason got the gate open and stuck his arm out to grab Wavehead. The roamers lunged towards Wavehead. He grabbed Jason arm as he was pulled out off the gate but the roamers grabbed left arm and bit his hand, wrist, and arm. The groups of roamers pushed against each other and bunch up on each other blocking the entrance while still sinking their teeth Wavehead's arm. Wavehead screamed at the top of his lungs as the roamers kept a firm grip on his left arm.
"Wesley!" cried Dana. "NO!"
The roamers continued to push against each other, as Wavehead's bloodcurdling scream
echoed throughout the sky.
"Jenny help me pull Wavehead these roamers quick!" yelled Jason.
Jenny looked at Jason and Wavehead and found herself unable to help them. She ran back into the car, sitting on the passenger seat with tears on her eyes.
"No, Jenny come back, please!" yelled Jason.
"Ahh! Dude just leave me, there's no point in both of us dying!" exclaimed Wavehead.
"No, I'm not leaving you here, I couldn't save Derrick, but I will save you Wesley!"
Jason stabbed his knife into Wavehead's arm causing him to scream, he cut through the bone as best he could, he was halfway through and pulled the blade out and started cutting even his arm even more and pulling his arm until it came completely off, blood splashed onto Jason the snowy ground and roamers stuck between the gate entrance.
Dana planted her face onto Benny's chest and held him tightly as she sobbed. George and the rest of the group were left speechless.
The roamers devouring Wavehead's severed arm were crushed by the roamers behind them. The young 18-year-old's slowly grew pale and weak while the roamers continue eating what was left of his left arm blended in with the other bodies behind the gates.
Jason quickly put Wavehead over shoulder's and ran to the car. He placed him on floor of the back seat and closed the door behind them.
The small red car drove away with roamers following it. The exhaust from the car was blown away from the wind and dissipated into the air. The car left tracks in the snow and followed those made by Vanzilla. The car eventually made it to the highway, leaving behind Becky, Luan, and Hana.
George took an exit in the highway to avoid the herd that they would've encountered ahead. After a long drive in the road, he went back to the main highway, trying to forget what he saw in the city.
Jason took off his hoodie and ripped off a piece of his t-shirt tied it around Wavehead's stump to stop the bleeding, Jason use the other piece of his t-shirt to clean off the blood on his face.
Finally, he arrived at Medway, where he saw Bobby's group on foot near the motel. As he slowed down, the power of the car's wheels weakened, and eventually, they stopped.
"Damn. Too much snow," said George, breaking the silence in the car. "Let's just leave this here and meet up with the others."
Bobby coughed into his arms and turned towards the engine noise. He smiled and waved as the passengers stepped out of the small car.
Jenny went outside as pale as the snow that she stepped on. James wrapped his arms around her as he coughed away from her. Vonda and Benny stepped out of the car with a desolate Dana, whose eyes were red. And with a barely alive Wavehead. Whose weaken was being carried by Jason.
"Wesley's arm was bitten and cut off, he last so much blood. But Becky… she's gotta be okay… right?"
"Luan's gone too?" asked Lincoln.
Benny nodded.
"I'm sure she'll be fine," he said. "Dana, don't worry. They're all fine."
"And Wesley's going to be okay," said Jason. "I stop the bleeding as much as I could as soon as we get back home will get him proper medical attention, I promise you that he will not die on my watch.
"Let's stay in the motel," said George, "before we freeze our asses out here. When the snow melts, we'll go back home."
The groups moved to the Medway Motel together, fading into the white air.