infection | D. Dixon

chapter six

amy

"Quick! Get that shelf!" Daryl yelled over the loud groaning of the dead. He was pushing his whole-body weight against the door, but the dead were pushing harder.

Hurriedly, I complied and pushed the heavy bookshelf across the room and up against the door where the dead were fighting to sink their teeth into their meal. Across the room, departed were pressing themselves against the window, threatening to break it down.

"We're trapped!" Daryl yelled, throwing his bag onto the floor. "Get ready for a fight."

I looked around at the small office we were stuck in. Above the small desk with pictures of a middle-class family was a small grate that connected to the air conditioner. "Daryl." I said, climbing up onto the desk. "If I can use this vent to climb up to an empty floor I can get outside and distract them!" I said, using my father's knife to remove the screws.

"You must be five kinds of crazy!" he yelled at me, pulling me down off of the desk, knocking over the picture frame.

I looked up at him with wide eyes. "You're the one who is crazy if you think we can fight off all of those!" I retorted, pointing to the window where a departed had broken its face trying to push its way inside.

Daryl's face remained hard. "I'm not letting you go out there alone." He said.

I looked up at the vent. "You're too broad to fit. I'll be able to move in the vent better." I said, climbing back up on the desk. The window had started to split now, and I knew I didn't have much time. "It'll be fine." I said, pushing myself into the small opening on the wall.

Inside the vent was a tight squeeze, but I followed my way through the vent to the air duct where the two floors connected. I pushed myself through until I reached the opening to another office.

I peeked out into the hallway. All the departed were busy trying to get into the office I left Daryl in, so I took my chance and ran for the sealed staircase.

I was out of breath now, but the image of Daryl getting eaten alive kept me pushing forward.

The roof was free of departed, and just like I thought, the space between the two buildings was small enough to jump through. "Please let this work." I whispered. I moved back and started to run, hurling myself over the edge of the building.

As I hit the cement roof of the other side I felt my skin tear open all over my body. My hands, knees, and face were now dripping with blood. Air escaped my lungs as I tried my hardest to roll over and make my way towards the fire escape, but I had to coddle myself first.

The fire escape was empty when I finally pulled myself over to it. I ran all the way down and onto the street. There were few working cars left, but I managed to find one that might have an alarm and set it off.

Once the alarm had begun to ring the departed all over the buildings began piling their way out onto the street to see what was making the noise. I waited until they were close enough to see me and began to run.

"C'mon you ugly sons of bitches!" I yelled, beginning to lead them around the streets. I was stabbing and shooting as I went, making a much noise as possible. I circled the first block before going back. A departed tried to cut me off, I stabbed it with my knife and it dropped to the ground.

I pulled out my second clip of bullets and loaded them into the gun while running. I spun and emptied the clip into the heads of the ones closest to me.

I stabbed the closest departed and started to lead the departed back around the block, occasionally stabbing a few. After three rounds around the block and about thirty to forty dead departed, I was out of ammo.