State of Decay✔️

Chapter 08: Take Shelter

Darkness was definitely coming now. Obviously he'd been wrong about the sunset. How could he forget something so mundane? Marcus found these thoughts and more racing through his head as he sat in the passenger's seat of a beat up old pickup and stared at a ruined bridge. The only way out of this godforsaken nightmare. The only way off of Mount Tanner. Maya was sitting quietly next to him, Ed still in the backseat, as silent as ever.

"You okay back there, Ed?" Marcus asked quietly.

"Yeah," Ed murmured. "I'm doing just fine, pal."

"Obviously, we'll have to climb down," Maya said suddenly, killing the engine and stepping out of the truck.

Marcus began to get out as well, realizing that she was right, but then he noticed something: she'd left the keys in the ignition. "You aren't going to take these?" he asked.

"No. Won't do us any good. Might do someone else some good," Maya replied.

Marcus sighed. "Well, you gotta take them out of the ignition. Leaving them in there will run the battery dead," he said, pulling them out and putting them on the dashboard.

"Oh...yeah, I guess you're right," she murmured, her self-possession briefly misplaced. She seemed to straighten up a bit, pulled out her pistol. "Come on."

Marcus turned and helped Ed out of the back of the truck. He checked the makeshift compress he'd made over the wound and frowned at how much blood was there. What could be done? They had to get to the church, get Ed into a bed of some sort. All this moving around couldn't be good. Marcus glanced towards the bridge and saw that Maya was already ahead of them, moving over to the right side of the bridge. Worrying that she'd leave them behind, he set off, looking back over his shoulder to make sure his friend was keeping up with him.

Ed still seemed to have decent mobility, but he was quiet and seemed a little distant. Blood loss and shock, probably. This was no place for a man in his condition, but again, what choice did they have? By the time the pair caught up with Maya, she had discovered something.

"Look," she said, crouching, pointing. "A ladder. We can climb down, cross the creek and climb back up. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes."

She went first. Marcus watched her narrow face disappear from view, then went down after her. As soon as he was a little ways down, Ed joined them. The trio made their way down the old, rusty ladder that had been lashed onto the side of a cliff face with bolts and determination. Marcus wondered how old it was, what the chances of it falling were, when was the last time it had been serviced...not exactly great thoughts at the moment.

He heard a small sound from below and glanced down. Maya had stepped off the ladder, and she was staring at something, not moving...Marcus followed her gaze and, for a second, was frozen in place with sheer terror. Then Ed stepped on his hand.

"Ow!" he whispered harshly.

"Why'd you stop?!" Ed replied.

"Shut up!" Marcus snapped. "Ed, look, down the creek..."

Ed stopped moving, shut up and saw. Further down the creek, maybe fifty feet away, were a cluster of zombies, about a dozen or so. They were walking away, grouped together, moaning and groaning in a gentle chorus. Marcus finished climbing down as quickly and quietly as he could, and came to stand next to Maya.

"Why are they grouped together like that?" she whispered.

"Herd mentality? Echoes of their former lives?" Marcus murmured in reply. "Either way, what does it matter? Let's go in the opposite direction."

Maya shook her head and pointed. "No, look."

Another ladder had been lashed to the nearest rock face on the opposite side. Unfortunately, the nearest flat rock face was about thirty feet away...in the direction of the zombies. Ed finished with the ladder and was brought up to speed on the situation by way of Marcus pointing. It took Ed a minute to figure it out in the dying light, but he let out a low groan of frustration and fear.