Chapter 15

(Battle Pt. 2)

Desi’s Point of View

One, two, three, and side swipe. Another zombie fell to the side, it’s head falling gracelessly from it’s shoulders as my machete sliced clean through it. One, two, three, and jump. I leapt over a dead body as it crumpled in my path. One, two, three, and don’t die. It was almost like we were dancing the tango. That is, if the tango included dodging severed limbs and slicing apart zombies. Also, the tango was supposed to be fun. Fighting for our lives definitely did not make my list of top ten favorite pastimes.

Rochester might have been a lovely city once, bustling with life and activity. It had been full of children running and playing without a care in the world, young adults chasing their dreams as they navigated their new independence, and older couples watching their families grow around them with every passing year. But now it was just a wasteland of abandoned homes, destroyed buildings, and mutilated bodies.

I had known the whole time that most of the human race was dead or zombified, but it never really sank in until now. I hadn’t seen this many dead bodies before, not even if I combined all of the ones we’d seen-- and fought-- over the past few months. Granted, we always went through small towns, or stayed on the main highways, but I still thought there were a lot of them. Now, seeing all of these zombified children, adults, and elders, reality hit home. We were alone. Humanity was almost extinct.

Well, I mean, it really only felt like we were alone. If we made it to the safe house in the middle of this city, we would actually see other human beings. Living, breathing humans who were not trying to kill us, or eat us. Seriously, how nice would it be to get to relax for once?  We wouldn’t have to worry about dying all the time, or finding food, or finding a place to bathe once in awhile. Everyone was ecstatic to be so close to actual food, and running water. Hell, even I was happy about that! The only problem was that I wasn’t sure how much we could trust the people in this ‘safe house.’

What sick, twisted government would make survivors fight for their lives for a chance at safety? Those ers were the ones who made the zombie virus in the first place. It was their fault we were in this mess, and we were paying the price while they were sitting pretty behind their huge, zombie-proof walls, sipping tea and eating cookies like a bunch of little es. I would bet my life that the scientists that created the virus are in one of these safe houses. There wasn't a doubt about it.

It wasn't fair. Why did they get guaranteed safety over us? What made them so damn important? They should have to atone for their crimes. I wanted nothing more than to give them a gun and plant them in an random city. Then I would set their zombified family and friends loose on them, and they would finally understand the true horror of what they'd put us through.

Yes, I was sure that not everybody in the government was like this, but it was always wise not to go on blind faith. If I trusted everyone I came across, I probably would have died long ago. Unfortunately for me, I was traveling with three trusting idiots. They all trusted too easily. I preferred the “trust no one” motto. Jungkook wasn't as bad as Taehyung and Hoseok, but still. When we finally met those government officials, I knew I would have to do everything I could to protect these three from any harm.

The sound of Hoseok cursing broke me out of my thoughts.

“. It looks like we’re going to have company up ahead. The closer we get to the safe house, the bigger the packs of zombies are. The whole street is blocked off up ahead. Any ideas?”

Jungkook, Taehyung and I began looking around for an alternate route. All four of us split up for about a minute and went in four different directions. Unfortunately, every alley I scouted had large groups of zombies choking the already narrow passages. There was no way to get by that many of them without drawing a hell of a lot of attention to ourselves. A few zombies would have been fine, because then we could have just killed them with our knives. But these big groups of zombies meant guns, and gunfire was the one thing that would surely get us noticed out here.

The last alley I checked was just the same. There was nothing on my end. I just had to hope that the boys had found something. I snuck back to where we were supposed to meet, in the dead end alley next to a burnt out husk of an old restaurant. Taehyung and Hoseok were already there, hiding behind a dumpster. I slid in next to them and put my back against the wall.

“Every alley I checked is blocked off. There's too many of them to get through without guns,” I said. Hoseok cursed and Taehyung frowned, looking seriously disturbed. “Did you guys find anything?” I asked. Both of them shook their heads.

“No. Everywhere is the same-- totally blocked off. There’s just no way to get to the safe house. We’re so close, but so far!” Taehyung whispered loudly, waving his hands in frustration. I shushed him. I didn’t want to be caught because of Taehyung’s loud mouth. Just then, Jungkook jogged over to where we were hiding. He crouched in front of us, his expression uncertain. He glanced over his shoulder before he looked back at us and lucked his lips nervously.

“Guys, I have a plan, but you’re not going to like it.”

The three of saying exchanged a look. At this point, I'd be willing to do just about anything to get into that safe house. If Jungkook could get us there, I wouldn't complain.

“Any plan is better than no plan. What is it?” Hoseok asked warily.

“Okay, so most of the streets are flooded with zombies, right? All of them are outside, because that's where the best chance of finding food will be. But since most of them are outside, that leaves a lot of the buildings are practically empty,” Jungkook paused and turned to point up at one of the skyscrapers just across the street. From here, it looked completely abandoned, with no sign of movement through the shattered windows and demolished walls. I nodded, already agreeing with whatever plan he had worked up in his devious little brain.

Jungkook looked back at us. “If we can get into the east entrance of that skyscraper, we should be able to exit from the west entrance, which will put us a block or two from the safe house.”

“Not bad,” I admitted. “Stupid, and reckless, but not bad. It's better than nothing.”

Jungkook flashed me a smirk and shrugged like, “What can you do?” I rolled my eyes at him and resisted the urge to smack him.

“We better move now before they block the entrance,” Hoseok said. He leaned forward to peer around the dumpster. The sound of was growing steadily louder. The zombies must've been on the move. Taehyung grabbed Hoseok’s shoulder and peered around at the empty street with wide eyes, then nodded in agreement.

Jungkook rose from his crouch and I followed suit, staying right on his heels as he moved away from our hiding spot. Taehyung and Hoseok followed, doing their best to keep as quiet as possible. Jungkook double checked to make sure the coast was clear, then dashed across the street toward the building entrance. I followed him with my pulse pounding in my ears, and nervousness pooling in my chest.

God, please let this stupid, insane plan work.

We were met with massive glass doors at the front entrance. In fact, it looked like the entire first floor was walled with glass, though not much of it was left intact. Most of it was shattered, or cracked, leaving huge gaping holes in the glass where it would be easy to slip in and out of the building. The ones that weren't broken were smeared with dried blood, and so dusty that I couldn't even catch a glimpse of our reflections. Lovely.

As silently as possible, we stepped through the broken windows, and ducked inside the building.

The interior was shadowed, and dusty, and smelled so bad that I nearly gagged. The place looked like it hadn't been touched in years, but judging from the skeletons rotting on the floor, there had been some kind of massacre here. The room we stepped into looked like a lobby, with a huge, open floor with tiles that night have been white at one point, and a massive reception desk stretched out on the far of the room. Chairs and couches in the waiting areas were overturned and shredded, and the old coffee tables were still littered with decaying newspapers and magazines. Ancient light fixtures dangled from the ceiling, some shattered, and some hardly clinging to the ceiling with bare wires. The place was a wreck.

I put a hand over my nose as I surveyed the room, eyeing the dead body slumped over the desk. A phone hung from her stiff, skeletal fingers, like she was waiting for someone to call.

Jungkook put a hand on my shoulder and I turned to look at him, dragging my attention away from the horror show of a lobby. It wasn't very welcoming if you asked me. Someone really needed to up their decorating skills.

He squeezed my shoulder and nodded his head toward the hallway on the right, silently telling me to follow him that way. I nodded back, and he dropped his hand as he lead the way toward it.

I felt a twinge of unease as we walked through the building. The rooms were all abandoned and silent-- most of them in ruins like the lobby. The whole place just gave me the goddamn creeps. Hell, I almost preferred walking around outside with the zombies. At least then I wasn't holding my breath, freaking out about whether or not a whole mob of them was about to jump out from around the next corner and rip us to pieces.

I tried to keep a close eye on the guys, making sure Taehyung and Hoseok were still behind me, and making sure Jungkook stayed on track and didn't start wandering off. Some days it was like herding cats, but today the situation was too grim for anyone to be playing around much.

We walked past a bank of elevators and the door to a stairwell, which hung open slightly. Red lights glowed from within the stairwell, probably from emergency exit signs. I was surprises that the things still worked, but I didn't feel like questioning it. It was creepy, anywa