.nine.
Zac, Ava, and Isaac stood there silently. The only sound was that of Taylor’s sobs. It was weird how quiet the dead could be. In fact, none of them heard the walking corpses creeping up to the building until their crippled fingers were tapping at the window panes.
“We have got to get out of here,” Zac announced as the constant rapping on the walls became louder.
“Let’s pack this stuff up and head out the back door,” Ava told them grabbing an empty backpack off of a metal rack.
“Good idea,” Isaac agreed.
Zac began helping too until he noticed that Taylor was still sitting on the floor with his wife’s body in his arms.
“Wait a minute,” he suddenly realized something critical. “Taylor, get up right now. If Natalie is dead she will come back as one of them, right?”
Ava and Isaac stopped what they were doing and turned to the couple on the ground. Taylor stared up at them red-eyed and still weeping senselessly. He held his hand up to protect poor Natalie’s body.
“I don’t care if she becomes one of those things!” he yelled. “You don’t touch her, stay away from her!”
“Woah,” Ava backed up in defense. “Your brother has lost it, man.”
“She would’ve turned by now,” Isaac stated. “I don’t think getting shot counts. From what I’ve seen you have to be bitten or contract the virus via bodily fluids.”
“Thank you, Dr. Hanson,” Zac smirked and then bent down beside his brother. “Look, I know this is hard, Tay, but we have to go now. We have to leave her behind.”
“No, Zac! I will stay and die with her! I’m the one that shot her I deserve to be eaten alive by those things!”
“No you don’t.”
“It’s my fault, Zac!” Taylor cried. “You don’t understand!”
“What is there to understand? You accidentally shot her it wasn’t like- ” Zac began but was instantly cut off.
“She was pregnant!” Taylor exclaimed. “I didn’t just kill her I killed our unborn child too. It’s over, Zac. I’m through with life and God and all of this bullshit.”
“Oh, Tay” Zac replied wrapping his arms around his brother. “I’m so sorry, man. I didn’t know.”
“That’s no reason to act like this though. You have your whole life ahead of you,” Isaac said seriously. “You have the band, you have us. We can get through this.”
The room was quiet once again accept for the army of undead outside. Taylor wiped his face off and picked Natalie up. Carrying her in his arms, he put her down in the back stock room and shut the door.
“We will come back for her right? When this all blows over?” he asked, his features suddenly becoming childlike and vulnerable.
Isaac put a hand on his shoulder. “Of course, bro.”
With that, Ava chimed in. “I’m really sorry. I don’t know you guys very well, but I can see the love you all share for one another. If ya lose everything, you always got one thing and that’s family.”
She glanced down at the ground sadly. That was the first time any of them had seen her break her tough exterior. Ava was overwhelmed with anxiety about returning home. Would her family still be there? Would they be ok? She hoped she wouldn’t be too late.
“Are you all right?” Zac asked her sympathetically.
Ava nodded and picked up a shotgun. “Let’s go. Everyone grab something!”
All three boys stuffed guns, bullets, and other weapons in backpacks and followed Ava to the back door. She pointed the shot gun and motioned for Zac to open the door.
Slowly, he turned the knob and opened it. Ava slid the end of the gun out waiting for something to attack.
Abruptly, the door was pulled open by three zombies while a handful more came trudging towards them.
The group tried knocking the zombies back and shooting them so they could shut the door again, but the plan failed and they were overtaken with the undead corpses. Ava had a thought out of the blue and pulled everyone towards the stock room where Natalie’s body still hid.
“There’s a ladder to the roof in here.” She told them as Isaac shut and locked the stock room door. “We can climb up and try to climb back down the fire escape.”
Taylor stood there staring at Natalie as the other three began making their way to the roof. He couldn’t make his feet move as he tried to memorize her face.
“Taylor!” Zac called out to him. “Tay, come on!
Pounding on the door caused Taylor to jump and he snapped out of the trance. One zombie had busted a hole though the wood and was trying to pry it apart piece by piece with its bare hands.
Hurriedly, they all made it to the roof and covered the mini trap door with boxes and garbage cans. Ava and Zac were the first to make it to the fire escape ladder.
Their hearts fell as they saw the crowd of zombies at the bottom waiting for their dinner to come down. Every which way they turned the building was surrounded. They were trapped on the roof.
Zac’s pulse raced as he and Ava stared at each other. Isaac and Taylor caught up to them and figured out the bad news.
The door to the roof was suddenly shaking as the zombies had begun to knock off the stuff holding it down.
“There’s no way out!” Taylor exclaimed. “We’re doomed. You should’ve left me down there!”
“Don’t start that again,” Isaac warned him looking around for an alternative.
“Over there!” Zac pointed to about five military tanks rumbling down the street.
The massive, green tanks barreled over bodies and crushed zombies under steel wheels. More gigantic trucks drove behind them with the words “U.S. Army” painted on the side. Soldiers were aiming their guns at the zombies from little slots cut into the sides of the trucks.
“We have to get to those trucks!” Ava declared the boys eagerly agreeing.
“How do you propose we do that, Wonder Woman?” Taylor asked somewhat sarcastically.
Ava frowned and rolled her eyes trying to ignore his attitude. She figured she would cut him some slack due to recent events.
“Think we could jump that?” Zac wondered motioning towards the opposite wall that was at least five feet from the building next to it.
Isaac and Ava looked down at the crevice between the gun store and the wig store beside it. Looks of desperation crossed their faces.
“Probably not,” Ava said before running over to the door on the roof and restacking the objects back on top of it.
“Here, let’s try this!” Isaac exclaimed picking up a long piece of discarded lumber that could possibly be five feet long.
Everyone’s eyes lit up hopefully. Isaac and Zac carefully lifted the board and set it down creating a bridge between the two buildings. There was hope yet. They just might make it out of this alive.