The First ~10K~ (book 2)

9.) Free

Jon and I crouched behind a pile of wood. His backpack made a rattling sound, making me hit him. He took off whatever it was and threw it in the road.

"Okay," He whispered, looking at me. "If we stay along this wall, we should be able to get out without and problems."

"But?" I asked, knowing there was a 'but'.

"But," He said. "There's construction going on. A swarm of Z's knocked over one of the support poles to the wall, which makes the wall lean over. If the construction crew doesn't get that fixed, zombies will swarm us."

"Any other option?" I asked.

Jon thought for a minute. "There is, But it's more risky."

"What?"

"We can circle back around to miss the construction crew. The only thing is it'll take us longer to get to the gate, which can be a huge disadvantage." Jon explained.

I knew that a decision had to be made. I knew that between the choices, one would get us caught and the other would get us out with only a small problem.

"Let's keep going this way," I said. "It's the best option we have."

"Yeah, I agree," Jon replied. He peeked over the pole of wood. "Alright, follow me and keep tight."

Jon rolled out from behind the pile of wood. I followed him, sticking to the shadows and keeping my eyes and ears peeled.

"Back!" Jon whisper yelled, putting his hand out in front of him to stop me. We blended into the shadows and watched as a road patroller walked by, smoking.

Jon gave me a nod and we continued, sometimes stopping, and sometimes crawling our way to the hole in the fence.

A loud bang filled the air, along with yells and shouts. More guards ran by us, making us duck deeper into the shadows.

"What was that?" I asked, my heart beating out of my chest.

"I don't know," Jon replied.

He nodded at the hole in the wall. It was smaller than I expected, almost 2 feet wide and a foot tall. It would be a tight fit.

"You go first, I'll be right behind you." Jon said.

I nodded and crawled to the hole, shimmying out of my backpack. I pushed it through the hole before slipping through it. Dirt went down my shirt and stained my jeans, but I managed without too much trouble.

"Okay, I'm through!" I said.

Jon pushed his backpack through and crawled his way through. I helped him up and dusted myself off before looking into the darkness.

We did it.

"Okay, let's be quick," Jon said, putting his backpack back on. "I know a place where we can go for the night. It's not that far."

I nodded and followed him down the dark road.

—

"This is it," Jon said, pointing to a small little house near a river.

"Are you sure it's safe?" I asked.

"It should be. I cleared it out during that run I went on a few days ago." He replied, stepping up the porch steps.

I grabbed his arm, making him stop. "Wait. Let me check."

I walked up the door and banged on it and waited for a few seconds. There was no sounds coming from inside or around the house, so we went inside. It smelled musty and was hot.