Blood Soaked Arrows (On Hold)

(28) Finding Each Other

I wasn’t reckless as I retraced my steps, but I wasn’t as cautious as I normally was either. If I happened to run into a Walker or two as I ran towards the sound of gunfire, I didn’t bother taking it out. The alley I was in curved towards the street and from what I could see it was filled with Walkers, way too many for me to take care of quickly and efficiently.

More gunfire rang out and each new shot got another Walker’s attention. Gunfire and the screams of the Dead now filled the once quiet town. All the noise was making me anxious. Just thinking about all the countless Walker’s Daryl had to be facing now made me absolutely terrified.

I blew through the alley and skidded around a corner onto the street. The street was consumed by this giant mass of Walker’s, it was suicide to even think about navigating through it, so it was probably a good thing that I didn’t think about it. My shoulders bumped into the Geeks as I forced my way through them. I felt the skin on my arms and neck being peeled away by their hungry grasps. My shirt was being tugged every-which-way and a few times I felt a seam rip. I felt their spit and breath on the back of my arms but still I refused to stop.

Despite all of the attacks and crowdedness I was under a lot of the Walkers didn’t even notice me until after I had passed them. For the ones that did notice me I was forced to either outmaneuver them or let them take a chuck out of my skin. All of these bodies made it impossible to defend myself and drawing out a weapon would bring even more attention to myself and I could barely handle what I attracted right now.

It felt like an eternity before I was in rang of the gunfire. In the distance I could see the Walkers circling around their food and I almost cried. I neared the side of the Tavern that I had passed earlier and instantly dove through one of the windows. Glass shredded what untouched skin I had left. I left out a cry of pain as shards of glass dug into my arms and side once I roughly fell against the ground.

Walkers were trying to crawl their way through the window I had just come from, leaving me no time to check my injuries. Reaching into my bag I grabbed out my nail gun and started shooting at the worthless sons ‘a bitches. Using my feet I pushed myself farther away from the window and kept going until my back hit the bar. I kept unloading my nails into their distorted faces until I had a small opening.

Using what little time I had I lifted myself up against a stool and then used it to help me get up on the bar. Moving around was more painful than I could handle and it was really affecting my time. Walkers were already piling back up against the window and even more were being drawn to the sound of my nail gun. Hopefully my quick wit would save my ass like it normally did, which I was betting on.

Rolling off of the bar I landed ungracefully on my feet and reached for a bottle of alcohol. Taking an old dish cloth from the countertop, I popped open the bottle and shoved it in until it was soaking. It wasn’t a Molotov cocktail but it was going to have to do. Setting it on the bar I ran as quickly as I could to the kitchen that I had seen when I ran threw it earlier. When I saw the gas tank underneath one of the stoves I let out a little ‘thank you’ and dragged it back to the bar. I quickly untwisted the nozzle until a loud hissing noise sounded then plopped it on its’ side and kicked it over to the windows.

Already the Walkers were sliding into the bar but luckily they were stupid and had no clue what I was up to. Reaching into my pack I yanked out a lighter and lit my cocktail before throwing it to the hissing tank. As soon as the bottle landed fire spread across the floor and not even a second later the flames ignited the tank. The blast was bigger than I had planned, so massive in fact that it threw me across the room.

The impact from my body slamming into the back wall made my eyes fog with black smudges while the rest of me was consumed with agonizing pain. My body was literally thrown from the wall to the ground before I could even catch my breath and whatever air I had left was knocked out of me. I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t move, or even breathe for that matter so when I realized that my ears were still ringing from the blast it was the least of my worries.