Faster, I told myself as I ran across the rooftops, my spoils from savaging the apartment building heavy in my backpack, weighing me down. I hadn't expected so many of the deaders to be inside, for them to break down the doors and chase me so quickly; it was like they were getting faster now!
I upped my pace, sailing over the broken down chairs and tables that had once been part of someone's patio in this shitty city that had once been called L.A.
Yeesh my muscles burned; you'd think I'd be more used to running at this point.
I cursed, staggering as my foot hung on a fallen clothes line. I caught my balance before I fell through the shattered skylight, my hands pressing against the edge. I flinched as I felt glass cut through my palm, but I didn't have time to worry about it.
Not with the intense amount of moans I could hear behind me.
I glanced back, my brown hair flashing in front of my eyes as I saw the zombies finally break through the roof door, the sound loud and painful to my ears as it crashed against the concrete roof, probably drawing the monsters from miles around.
Well this was wonderful.
I scrambled hastily to my feet, seeing the edge of the roof drawing near.
I could do this.
I would have to jump across if I hoped to make it, and I wasn't sure if I had enough speed to do it.
I would have to try regardless; a death by falling would be more pleasant then being torn apart.
I have to make it, I thought desperately as I ran along the rooftop, hearing their moans and yowls getting louder. I could see something moving along the rooftop across from mine, but my brain didn't have time to be afraid of it as I jumped, reaching desperately for the other side.
Please let me make it!
I hit the side of the building, but slipped. I yelped, dangling, my fingers clinging to the roof, the brick cutting them as I started to lose my grip. the blood from my hand started to drip down my arm, making rivulets against my skin.
Oh god, this was it. I had went through all of this for nothing!
I clenched my fingers along the edge, but my fingers were slipping ---.
This was how I died?
I'd figured I'd go out in a better way then this!
Well, at least I'll be with my family.
Chase would never forgive me for not coming back, though.
I winced, feeling my remaining hand start to slip, and then I was falling, my heart stuttering for a few seconds.
Oh no!
A strong wrist suddenly closed over mine, and I raised my head in panic, seeing hazel eyes meeting mine, a guy looking down at me.
"I got you," he gasped, his other hand closing around my arm.
His grip was painful as he pulled me over the ledge, and I looked back, seeing the deaders were still staggering toward us, falling off the roof in intervals when they leaned too far, their grasping fingers just itching for fresh meat.
I tried to catch my breath, the guy still gripping tightly onto me as we sat on the roof, though his grip now had gentled as he looked at my injuries.
I looked over at him.
His hair was black and shaggy around his face, and tattoos covered most of the skin I could see from his torn black t shirt that I think had once promoted some band. He had several lip piercings. Bruises covered his open skin like they did mine.
"Thanks," I finally wheezed, and he glanced up at me.
"No problem. Your hand is pretty bad," he frowned, and I pulled it away from him to look myself.
I'd had worse.
"It'll be fine. I don't have time to worry about it," I muttered, staggering to my feet.
You met survivors now and again, but it was becoming more rare as the human population started to dwindle off, either from starvation and disease, or just being torn to shreds by the deaders, as my boyfriend had chosen to call them.
The guy stood, and I blinked at his massive height.
Dude was like a bean pole.
He was slim, and looked kind of scary now that I got a good look at him.
"Thanks for grabbing me," I said after a moment, suddenly wary. What if he tried to loot me now? I'd had that happen one too many times before, and I really needed the supplies I'd gathered for Chase.
"I wouldn't have let you fall." He shook his head, and then offered one tatted hand. "I'm Chris, by the way."
I hesitated, then shook slowly with my good hand.
No point in being rude, right?
"Um, Kelsey."
Chris stepped to the edge of the roof. "You wouldn't happen to know a way off this roof, would you? The fire escape broke on my way up."
Oh shit.
I hurried to the edge, but he was right; I could see the crumpled iron in the alleyway, deaders tripping over it as they mulled aimlessly.
That had been my only plan. Other then escaping, it was hard to plan too far ahead.
"There has to be a way off," I muttered, gazing around.
The building we were on top of was at a corner, and the one I'd jumped from was the closest one around. So unless we suddenly grew wings and could fly across the street, we were majorly fucked.
"Are you up here by yourself?" I asked, looking at him over my shoulder as he prowled the edge, obviously looking for some way to get to another building.
"I got separated from my group. A horde caught up with us in the subway."
"You shouldn't go down there," I sighed, trying to keep my hand elevated enough to stop the bleeding. "It's worse there then in the streets, and the sounds echo really bad. Deaders can be on you in minutes."
"Deaders?" He glanced over at me, looking amused, and I shrugged.
"Gotta have some humor, right?" I asked, leaning far over to see how low the windows on the building were. If they weren't too bad, I could probably crawl down and drop between them until I reached the street, all ten stories down.
"Huh. You by yourself too?"
I hesitated; I didn't want to tell him I was and then he do something horrible to me. So far I'd avoided the worst of what humanity had left to offer, and I didn't want to admit to a total stranger how vulnerable I was.
"I have a group, I'm just separated," I said cautiously after a moment. "Kinda like you."
Chris sighed.
I raised my head as I heard a sudden whistle, and Chris was abruptly at my side, squinting at the sun as he looked across the street.
He suddenly laughed in relief, waving his arms.
"Is that your group?" I asked, seeing a bunch of dark figures gathered on the opposite rooftop, the street separating us full of the dead and crashed cars; we definitely weren't walking across.
"Yep. We're good," he said in relief.
"How are we good? How the fuck can they get to us from here?"
"You'll see."
Right.
Guy was still hopeful, I snorted, shaking my head.
I glanced down again.
I could probably climb down the gutters, using the windows as leverage as I crawled down. They didn't look like they were spaced too far apart.
"Yo, bitchass, you got any rope?" One of his guys bellowed, and I flinched.
Those idiots were going to draw the deaders right to us!
Chris glanced around the roof, and trotted back to where a clothesline had been set up, stripping it down from the poles and wrapping it around his hand as he looked for a brick. I glanced at the rooftop door, hearing the pounds of the deaders as they tried to get to us.
That door wouldn't hold forever.
And I wasn't about to make the mistake of opening it and seeing if we could fight our way down; we'd never make it.
Chris trotted back to where I stood, the end of the rop tied around a brick. He eyed the distance across the street, then took a step back, whirling the end with the brick like a lasso before he released it, the end sailing through the air.
One of his guys caught it, and they gave whoops.
"Nice," I muttered, shielding my eyes against the sun. "Now what's your genius plan?"
He glared at me.
He stepped over to the edge of the roof where a pipe jutted from the concrete and wrapped the rope hastily around it, tying it in knots and then giving a rough tug on it, seeing if it would hold.
"You wanna go first?" he asked, motioning at the rather dubious looking rope that now stretched from our rooftop to where his guys stood, holding the end tightly after they finished wrapping it around a matching pole.
"No thanks. That looks rather deathtrappy. I'll get down on my own." I nodded, deciding I had better odds with the gutters.
Chris frowned at me, but then just shook his head, testing the rope again as he let all his weight rest on it. It leaned really low, but it looked like it would hold.
"Nice meeting you, Kelsey," he said, giving me a salute.
I half-waved, watching as he started inching along the rope, his hair falling down from his face as his back dangled across ten stories of open street, crashed cars, and ambling deaders.
"Good luck, man," I mumbled, an walked to the edge of the building. I rattled the gutter, but it was still firmly attached to the roof, so I had a definite shot at climbing down safer.
Chris suddenly yelped.
My head jerked over, and I watched as the rope suddenly gave, one of the knots giving out.
"Chris!" his guys cried in worry as he went down one story.
I lunged, my fingers wrapping around the rope as it started to unravel.
I yowled as it burned my hands, my blood covering the length. I pressed my foot against the edge, straining to hold it.
Fuck!
My arms trembled with the effort, but I managed to get a good hold on the rope before he fell the rest of the stories. He looked back at me, his eyes wide, and I glared at him.
"Hurry the fuck up, poke ass!" I shouted at him, my hands stinging and now riddled with rope burn. I glanced behind me anxiously as the rooftop door suddenly bent, loud yowls coming from behind it.
Uh oh.
I looked forward anxiously, seeing him desperately climbing across the rope now, about halfway there.
I looked back again as the door fell inward.
Oh shit.
the zombies saw me immediately, and one gave an awful shriek as she ran at me.
My eyes widened.
I glanced back over at Chris, and his eyes met mine for a split second.
I could drop him and climb down right now and be perfectly fine, or I could hold onto the rope and make sure he made it across safe. If he fell from this height to the ground, or even just against the side of the opposite building, he would be severely injured and likely die.
And I wasn't ready to be a murderer.
I turned, wrapping the rope around my already bleeding hand as I cursed, facing the deader as she attacked me. I struggled, but managed to get my hand around her throat and turn, shoving her off the roof.
She howled as she crashed into one of the cars below, it suddenly emitting a piercing alarm.
Great.
I turned, seeing all the dead as they came toward me and knowing I was so dead.
Another one grabbed me, and I kicked at him, sending him sprawling into the others like bowling pins.
I glanced back, seeing Chris was almost there. The weight of the rope was shredding my skin, and I was pretty sure my hand was about to break in half.
I couldn't hold on much longer.
Don't let him fall, I thought to myself, unsure why I was helping a total fucking stranger, other then the fact he'd done the same for me.
I hissed as one of the deaders clawed my face, two of them coming at me.
I screeched as one of them sunk their teeth into my skin.
I struggled, nearly letting go of the rope, but then managed to toss him over the roof, punching the other one in the face, her decaying bones crunching.
I glanced down at my arm, seeing the bites, blood rushing outward.
Fuck.
"Kelsey! Let go! Let go!"
I glanced back, seeing Chris was crawling over the edge of the other rooftop, bellowing at me.
I let go of the rope gratefully.
It swung down uselessly, and I looked back at the zombies, seein them still staggering toward me.
See ya, fuckers.
I whirled, throwing myself over the edge of the building and onto the gutter. I slid down it a few feet, my hands bloody and raw and unable to get a good grip. I flinched, glancing at my arm again.
I made my way down to the ground, glad all the deaders were still mulling in the alley, and then took off across the street toward the opposite alley, knowing it was a short cut towards where Chase and I were holed up.
I tugged on my sleeve, making sure the once pretty blue flannel coverd the mark, my blood seeping through the sleeve.
Everyone always freaked out if they saw it, but the bites didn't have the same effect on me like they did everyone else.
Otherwise my brother would've killed me in the beginning, he the one who had brought it in to our family, infecting our parents and our sister.
But I didn't need to think about that anymore; I just had to survive.
I caught the end of a fire escape where it dangled half-destroyed from the wall, and pulled myself up, glad now for all the years of summer camp and backpacking I'd done with my parents.
Who knew it would come in handy?
I climbed the ladders easily, reaching the top, and popping my head over to check for danger. I climbed over when I saw it was vacant, and turned to look back, seeing Chris and his friends standing on the building over, the roofs very close this time.
I stiffened as they came to my rooftop, Chris's eyes wide as he looked at me.
"Are you okay?" he demanded, rushing toward me. "I thought one got you!"
"Fine," I told him quickly, keeping a good distance between us. I didn't need him getting too close, and then offing me because he thought I was bitten and was gonna become one of the monsters. No one ever believed me when I told them I was immune, and I still had one gun shot wound on my arm where some asshole had thought he would be sweet and off me.
It hadn't ended well for him.
I glanced at the rest of his crew.
They all looked rough.
And really fucking familiar.
I frowned as I looked at them.
"What is it?" one of the shorter ones asked me. "Why is she looking at us like that?"
"Maybe she thinks you're one of the zombies," one with big gauges joked, pinching the other one, who scowled at him.
"Thanks, for that. You could've let go," Chris said after a moment. "You could've just saved yourself."
"I could have," I agreed. "But you helped me, so I was just returning the favor. We're even. Now, you guys have a good day."
"What? Where are you going?"
"My group, remember?" I tossed over my shoulder as I eyed the distance between this roof and the next. "I'm not stupid enough to be on my own."
Not yet, anyway.
"Good luck, you guys!" I called, and then took a running leap, easily closing the distance to the next roof. I didn't bother to look back at them, just kept running, roof hopping until I reached a street that I knew would take me down to the apartment I was holed up in with Chase.
This had become the norm, scratching for supplies and trying not to get eaten alive by the city's newest population.
Just another day in L.A.