Meanwhile (a short Crawler story)

Chapter 1

I jolted awake, as distant screeches carried through the crisp night air. For some reason, every time I heard that chilling noise, I remembered Riley. And I heard it very often.

The last time I saw her, she was torn apart by Raven, who I had only known for a few days. I never wanted to see that much blood again.

Quickly, I sat up on my knees to look over the edge of the roof, which had raised concrete railings. I could not see any Crawlers moving in the dark, but that didn't mean much. The screech of a hungry Crawler carried for miles, and if the wind was in their favor, it was us it was hunting.

With a shaky sigh, I crawled on my hands and knees over to my nearest friend. I gently shook Savannah's shoulder, while whispering urgently, "Savannah. Savannah! We have a problem!"

She awoke with a grumble of frustration, slowly blinking sleep away, she glared at me like I had just slapped her, "What is it Megan..."

My tone was urgent, but remained silent, lest we attract any Crawlers that might be closer by, "I heard a screech a bit away, I think we have to move. It sounded like it was hunting..."

The muscular girl deepened her glare before rolling onto her side away from me, "Crawlers screech all the time. How do you know it wasn't just fighting with another one."

"Savannah..." I resigned myself to letting her be for now, bugging her wasn't going to get us moving. We had been out in the city for months at this point, ever since we left the cabin. Somehow Amber, Savannah, and Mika still didn't seem to be too worried about far off Crawlers even after all this time. It was really starting to piss me off.

I quickly approached Daniel, who was asleep leaning against the concrete railing. I didn't even need to reach out to wake him up, just the sounds of my approaching footsteps were enough to make him stir, being conditioned to focus on any odd noises to survive  unlike the three girls. My old friend blinked at me, half blind in the dim lighting without his glasses, "Meg?"

I nodded, kneeling down beside him, "I heard screeches somewhere in the city, back the way we came earlier. I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling they're hunting us."

His eyes widened, one hand grasping his shotgun, "You're serious?"

"You know I wouldn't joke about something like this. We need to get moving."

He nodded firmly. I went to wake some of the others while he fished around in his backpack for his glasses, if we were going to be firing at Crawlers or running from them, being nearsighted was the last thing he needed.

I scanned the rooftop. The thing likely hadn't been cleaned for years by the ammount of grime and moss up here when we found it. This place was the safest we had found for a group of eight people in the infested city. I had no idea what kind of building this used to be, but it was a single story with a large, flat rooftop, surrounded by larger buildings forming somewhat of a wall around us, separated only by the parking lot below that coukd have maybe held ten cars.

Before I could wake the others myself, something beat me to it. A splitting screech shook the very air in such a way it made my ears ring and I could have sworn my vision grew hazy. The predatory cry forced everyone out of their sleep, dazed and confused. I spun around, tripping and landing on my back, and was met with the sight of five Crawlers standing atop the neighboring buildings. With another war cry, the five launched themselves at us, descending upon their prey.

Screams rang out, from myself and the others as we scrambled to gather what little we had and escape the rooftop. We had to climb a ladder to get up here, so there was no fast way down other than to jump. Maybe it was possible to jump off a one story building and escape unharmed, but I sure as hell didn't know how, and we didn't have any time to think of one.

The first Crawler was faster than the rest, it had sprung off the dusty pavement below and latched onto the concrete ledge, pulling itself up. The moment its head came into sight, it was blown backwards with a spray of dark blood as a bullet shot through its skull. I whipped my head around to see Travis frantically reloading his old handgun, as Amber and Mika decended the ladder.

I bolted towards the small hatch down, and was appalled at their leisurely pace, I screamed down at the pair, "Could you go any slower?! This is life or death, bitch!"

Amber stopped climbing down to glare up at me, I really could not care less. I grabbed her shoulder and wrenched her off the ladder, tossing her down as she shrieked. She landed heavily on the tile floor, and wailed in pain. She had been part way down, and she was known for being a dramatic priss. Her sister had already reached the floor, clearing me to frantically climb down, at nearly three times their ridiculous speed.

More screeching and gunshots could be heard above, from three separate guns, and four separate Crawlers. Jasmine, unarmed as she was, jumped down the ladder before I had even gotten to the floor. I just barely caught her by her hood to keep her from face planting, which would no doubt make her bleed in some fashion, only serving to aggro the Crawlers further.

Still enraged, I jumped down and yanked Amber up from the floor. For the last months she hadn't ever given a shit about all of us dying, including herself. It was as if she either thought Crawlers weren't as bad as we knew they were, or she truly thought she was untouchable. Slapping her across the face, I screamed at her in a somewhat urgent tone, "Your incessant bitching is literally going to kill all of us! Pull your head out of your ass and get moving!"

As if on que, like the Crawlers above were trying to prove such a point as well, a thud was heard just outside the door to the building. Mika screamed at the window, Jasmine would have, had she not been retching. I simply stood frozen in abject horror.

From the rooftop, a body had been thrown. A spray of blood splattered against the outside of the wall, now dripping down the glass. I didn't want to look closer, but my body moved before my mind, forcing me to walk towards the window. It was as if time had gone still. Nothing seemed to move, even the cacophony of gunshots and screeches above seemed muffled.

Laying on the pavement, steadily flooding the sidewalk with blood, which rolled down the gutter into the storm drain along the edge of the parking lot, was the body of Savannah, missing her entire left arm and part of her neck, and with glassy, empty eyes staring upward, as the color drained from her face.