By far my favorite chapter to write in the Apocalyse Series. I hope you all enjoy it.
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"There's a real possibility that it's bad down there. We need to make sure we stay tight and we stay alert. We don't want anyone becoming dinner." Tim tells the group as we load up.
"There could be hundreds." I tell everyone. "It's imperative that we be extremely careful, I can't stress that enough. I can keep you from changing if you get bitten or scratched but not eaten." I say in a serious tone. I don't want to lose anyone on this trip. Personally, I think the smaller the crowd that goes down the better, but Tim thinks it'll be best if we all go.
"Are we ready?" Tim asks and everyone nods.
"Kyla you're not going." I tell my sister as she starts to walk with us.
"What!?" She half screams at me. "Ashley you can't be serious? We've been over this, I'm not a kid anymore!"
"No, you aren't and I get that. But you're the only family I have left and I would feel a hell of a lot more comfortable if I didn't have to worry about your safety. I can't discuss this with you, Ky. You're not going and that's final." I tell her with a shrug and head shake.
"This is bull!" Kyla yells and sits down on the floor. Everyone stares back between the pair of us. It's like this is a constant thing between Kyla and I. I know everyone is tired of hearing it but with no parents around Kyla's safety falls on me and if it comes down to her being liking me or her being mad at me but safe. We all know which I'll choose.
"We ready now?" Tim turns to me and asks softly.
"Yeah." I reply nodding. I take another look at Kyla before the rest of the group walks off. Tim, Aiden, Glen, Arthur, Carmen, Spencer, Angel and myself are the chosen ones to enterthe basement.
"She's gonna realize that you're only doing this to protect her." Angel comes up next to me and says.
I turn and look at her. "You two are getting close." I raise a brow and say.
Her eyes go wide when she realizes what I'm implying. "No." She shakes her head. "I mean, Kyla is..." She stops and clears her throat. "Um... I wouldn't...she's your sister and quite frankly you frighten me so I would talk to you first before I um..." She pauses and swallows thickly. "I just wouldn't." She settles on, averting her gaze to the floor before walking away quickly.
"You scared her." Spencer chuckles beside me.
"I was just kidding with her." I turn to my girlfriend and say trying to hold back a laugh. If Angel likes Kyla, and Kyla likes Angel then that's definitely one thing I wouldn't stand in the way of. Angel seems like a nice enough girl. And maybe she'd be able to talk some sense into my crazy sister.
"Is Kyla even..." Spencer trails off and looks at me.
"I don't know." I shrug. "We've never really had that talk before." I say as we enter the stairwell and head down to the basement. The darkness creeps up on us the further we go down. The lighting from the windows dissipating with each step further down. Everyone takes out their flashlights as we reach the basement door.
"It's locked." Tim says from the front of the group.
"I got it." I say and make my way up to the door. Spencer close by my side. I take my tools from my pocket and pick the lock in no time. I stand up and back away as Tim puts his hand on the handle. Looking at each of us to determine if we're ready or not. When his eyes reach mine, I give him a firm nod which he returns and pulls the door open. My gun immediately shoots up, as well as my flashlight, pointing into the dark doorway. I'm the first to enter the hall that leads to the area of the basement where the generators are. The stench that hits my nose is indescribable.
"Something's definitely dead down here." Someone says behind me but I'm too focused to concentrate on who said it. As we walk further into the darkness, our flashlight's only illuminating the small area it's pointed in, an uneasy feeling comes over me. I can't explain it, but I knew something bad was about to happen.
"Everyone stop." I whisper as I come to a halt. Spencer bumps into the back of me and everyone else behind her does the same.
"Why have we stopped?" I deep voice, maybe Arthur or Tim asks.
"Something's not right." I say and shake my head. Pointing my flashlight in every direction.
"What is it, Ash?" Spencer whispers behind me.
"I don't know." I reply, still shining my light around. "We need to get these lights turned on now." I tell her, trying to keep my voice level. "Let's go." I say moving forward again, this time at a quicker pace. A few left's and right's later we're at the generator room. "Spencer shine the light on this handle." I say getting my tools out of my pocket to pick the lock. Like the basement door it takes me no time at all. Once everyone is inside the door closes behind us.
"How do we turn them on?" Aiden asks. I shine the light on him then shine my light to a power switch on the wall that says 'on.' "Oh." He says then smiles and goes over to flip the switch. The generators make a loud sound as they begin to power on.
"Hit the light switch on the wall over there." I shine my light to a switch on the wall. Glen starts to make his way over to it.
"I guess the basement wasn't overrun after all." Glen says as he flips the switch. Immediately, we notice two things. One we're surrounded, this room is smack dab in the middle of the basement and there are zombies at every single window. And two, it's probably been months since any of them have eaten so they look extra hungry.
"How are we gonna get outta here?" Carmen asks with wide eyes, turning back to me. The zombies are banging on the glass and it won't be long before they gain access. We need to figure something out and fast.
"Ashley!" Aiden shouts when I don't answer.
"Give me a second!" I shout back. Racking my brain for something, anything that would help us out of this situation. There's only one solution.
"We've gotta fight our way out." Spencer answers for me.
"There's too many." Arthur says looking around.
"There's no other way out." I speak up. "We have to."
"This is insane, someone's gonna die trying to fight through a herd this size." Glen says.
"We're gonna have to kill them all."
"What!?" Carmen questions.
"The only way to keep these generators running is to put gas in them, there's no way we can do that if every time we need to come down here we have to fight off a herd of zombies." I try to explain.
"These aren't gas generators, Ashley." Angel says bending down next to one. "That's a propane tank." She points to a big tank in the corner.
"How many days does that give us?" Tim asks.
"I don't know." I shrug and shake my head. Think Ashley think. "Um...they have a life expectancy of about five hundred hours maybe, but add in the size of the building and other factors maybe ten days. But we've have to go around this whole building again and make sure every single light and everything else is unplugged. Anything that can generate power has to be off." I tell him and he nods.
"We're gonna fight our way through these zombies..." Tim starts and everyone opens their mouths to protest but he cuts them off. "We're gonna just kill as many as we need to so we can get out of here, then we're gonna barricade that basement door. Nothing should be able to get out. But first we need to make it out of her alive. Everyone got that?" Tim says to the group and even though no one wants to, everyone agrees anyway.
"We need a distraction." Spencer speaks up. "Something to pull them away from in front of the door." She adds. Everyone looks around, thinking of a distraction.
"I have this." Angel says reaching into her backpack. She pulls out a flash bang.
"Where'd you get this?" I ask taking it from her.
"From my step-dad's things." She says and shrugs.
"Will that work?" Tim asks.
"Possibly." I nod. "I'm gonna have to break a window over there though." I say pointing to a window furthest away from the door.
"Do it." He nods.
"Everyone get down and cover your ears, it's gonna be loud and may disorient you for a second but the sound will pull them in this direction, we'll only have a few seconds before they figure it out so move fast and have your weapons ready to use." I tell everyone. They all drop down on the floor near the door, the zombies continue to bang on the glass as I walk over to the window and pull the pin, I shoot the window, shattering it, sending the zombies into a frenzy. I toss the flash bang grenade out the window down a hall and drop to the ground. Less than a second later it explodes, the sound shakes the ground and leaves a deafening ringing in my ears. But I know I don't have time to waste. I have to get my group to safety. Everyone counts on me for that. The plan works as the zombies all head towards the sound.
The group jumps up, quickly opening the door and making a run for it. I'm right on their heels. My back to them as I prepare myself for the hoard of zombies that will be heading my way once they realize their dinner is getting away. We're running as fast as we can but it doesn't seem to be fast enough, the zombies have gained on us and now we have no choice but to fight. I raise my weapon, firing my entire clip into the crowd of zombies – hitting at least fifteen.
"Go!" I shout to the rest of the group as some stop and shoot at the zombies. I need them to get out of here. I need to know that everyone is okay. I drop the empty clip from my gun and reload another one faster than a half a second.
"We're not leaving you." Angel shouts back to me. I feel someone come up next to me on both sides. Angel on my left, Tim on my right. We continue to fire off rounds as we back our way up to the stairwell. I'm hoping the rest of the group is already there.
"Ashley, I'm right here." Spencer says behind me. Like I needed that distraction.
"Go help your brother!" I shout to her.
"No!" She shouts back.
"Do it, Spencer!" I tell her firmly. I hear a huff then footsteps, running footsteps. We all empty our clips and reload. All of us impeccable shots, but there's too many, when we kill ten, twenty more charge us.
"There's too many." Angel says.
"I know, you two need to go." I tell them.
"Not a chance, Ashley." Tim tells me.
"You have a family Tim, think about them." I tell him as he continues to shoot zombies.
"I'm not leaving you behind." He says and I can hear the determination in his voice. Probably thinking back to his military days.
"Fine, we need to run then. I can hold them off for a moment to give you guys a head start."
"What about you?" Tim asks.
"Super speed remember." I turn to him and smile. "Now go." I say to him and Angel. They both give me a look before taking off. I continue to shoot the walkers in the front of the pack. We'll I feel like I've done enough I take off behind them. A left and then a right and another right. I'm almost to the stairs, Angel and Tim only a couple of steps in front of me when I see a white coat appear from a room ahead. "Tim look out!" I shout but it's too late, the white coat grabs Tim and they both hit the ground.
"No!" Angel shouts. When I reach them I see that the Tim is bleeding but the white coat isn't a zombie... he isn't dead at all.
"Dr. Johnson?" I question when he slides from under Tim.
"Ashley!" Angel says in a panicked tone. I turn and see the zombies are close.
"Help me with him." I tell Dr. Johnson and Angel. Dr. Johnson drops the knife he was holding and picks up Tim's feet. We carry him the few feet to the stairwell.
"What happened?" Carmen shouts as we place Tim down. Glen, Aiden and Arthur start barricading the door.
"I thought he was one of them, I didn't... I didn't know." Dr. Johnson shakes his head hysterically as he looks down at a bleeding Tim. Carmen rips Tim's shirt open to get a look at his wound as Tim struggles to breathe on the ground.
"The knife pierced his spleen. I'm gonna have to take it out if I can't repair it." Carmen says, looking up at me.
"You mean operate?" Spencer questions next to me.
"If I don't he'll bleed out." Carmen tells us.
"We need to get him upstairs." I tell the group. Glen, Aiden, and Arthur come lift him once they're done barricading the door.
"I didn't know... I didn't know." Dr. Johnson continues to say over and over. He's an old man, in his late sixties. There's no telling how long he's been stuck down in this basement.
"We're not blaming you, Dr. Johnson." I bend down and tell him. He's a small man, maybe five feet, with gray hair covering his head and chin.
"I didn't know." He says to me again with wide eyes.
"I know." I nod as they begin to carry Tim up the stairs. We get him up to the fifth floor quickly, making our way into an empty room, they sit him on the table as Carmen immediately goes to his side.
"Someone go get Jo." Carmen says and Angel takes off.
"What do you need?" I ask her as she rolls up the sleeves of her shirt.
"Spencer tell Jayden to bring my kit and all the first aid supplies we've scavenged." Spencer runs off without a word. "Tim you're gonna be fine." She turns back to him and says. He hasn't spoken a word but his eyes are saying everything. He's scared and for the first time in a long time, I'm scared too. My blood can't heal this. I can't fix this. There's nothing I can do.
"What do you need?" I ask Carmen again.
"I have scalpel's, alcohol, gauze-"
"What don't you have?" I question.
"Antibiotics, pain meds and...blood." She says and looks at me.
"Do you know what blood type he is?" I ask her and she looks like she's racking her brain to remember.
"Yeah." She nods when she remembers. "AB negative." She says and sighs. "It's the rarest blood type in the world. There's no way we can-"
"That's my blood type." I say and sit down. I know what telling her this means. It's up to me to save him. This all depends on me. " He can have mine." I tell her after a moment.
"Ashley, I have to either repair or remove his spleen, there's no telling how much blood I'll need. This surgery could take-"
"I don't care." I cut her off. "Take as much as you need." I add.
"You could die, Ashley." She says. I take a moment to think about it. What I'd be leaving behind...Kyla... Spencer.
"Do it." I tell her firmly. She stares at me for a moment.
"Okay." She says and nods.