CONTAMINATE

28. View from the Attic

Gareth sped by several houses towards the edge of BCDC premises, standing still in the artificial darkness of the underground night. He and the girls passed by s house with fence broken the ground, as well as the mailbox, blocking the path. Jamie suddenly held on to Gareth's arm on the steering wheel.

"Gareth wait! Look up the attic!"

There, silhouetted in the small attic window was the figure of a girl, flailing both her arms in the air, the right one holding a white linen sheet, ensuring that anyone who saw her would not mistake her for the undead. Smart move, Gareth thought.

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It has been several days since the horde attacked Claire's home, killing both her parents and trapping Claire in the attic. She went by eating leftover crackers and drinking water from a container left in the bathroom just beneath her attic bedroom. By now, the rest of the population of BCDC were either dead or has become one of the mindless, walking dead. Some of the undead has gathered in their backyard and Claire took that opportunity to study them through her small attic window.

The undead were slow-moving, not as agile as humans are. There were those who were sightless, either since before death or because their death itself was so horrid and phisically violent that the eyes were gouged out or some other physical traumatic injuries happened. So they use their smell and hearing to detect if there are food (live people) nearby as well as its location. If you are careful and fast enough, and there are not too many of them, I could easily ran past them. But run where? Are there still people alive in this underground world? Claire felt that she was the only living person left underground. But she never lost hope. Hope. That somewhere in the above world, normal people still continue their everyday lives. That these monsters, who have no brain activity of that an intelligent being, could not penetrate the real world. She spent almost the entire day glued to her small window.

Until she saw them.

A moving vehicle coming from the left end of the street, running just fast enoigh to avoid being caught in the midst of monsters.

Claire felt a surge of hope. She wanted to scream but quickly changed her mind for the monsters might hear her. Blindly, she waved her hands over her head, silently praying that the people driving what appeared to be a Jeep would see her and come rescue her. She waved and waved until both her hands were aching. She put back both her arms down, and slumped down on the floor. Before she fell sitting down, she caught a movement from the street out of her peripheral vision. She slowly peeked back outside and to her utter joy, a man and a woman emerged from the vehicle with pointed weapons sticking them through the heads of the undead and they fell totally lifeless to the ground.

If she were to pass through her attic window, it would be too high for her to jump. She must pass through her parents' bedroom so her fall would just be a few meters. Gathering her last remaining courage as well as energy, Claire got her long umbrella with a pointed end and opened the door of her attic room.