Still Alive

CH16: Maggie & David

As the jarring sound of the vehicle's alarm continues to ring across the neighborhood and as the vicious populace set their sights on the source of the disturbance, Maggie's group knows they can no longer stay hidden.

All around them, the nearby infected have started to close in and they know that more will be coming, enticed by the dinner bell that is the blaring alarm.

They have to move.

In a flash, Maggie hastily crawls out from her side of the car while David does the same on the other side. Once Maggie is back on her feet, she does not waste time. She rushes toward the nearest infected and hacks through its head with her machete.

"Addie!" she yells behind her, pushing the now lifeless body of the infected onto a second one and kicking the pair to the ground. "Hurry!"

The child manages to crawl out from their hiding place, but her bag gets caught on the underside of the car. In her panic, Adele tries to pull it free, not noticing the infected woman creeping up behind her.

But before the woman could cause harm, David roughly pulls it back and lands his axe square on the top of her head. By the time he pulls his weapon out and the woman falls to the ground, Adele has freed her bag.

"Run!" David shouts, pulling the child along with him.

And they do. David and Adele dash towards Maggie who is busy plowing through the infected encircling them from the front.

With adrenaline pumping through their body and with the deafening sound of the car alarm ringing in their ears, Maggie and David cut down the infected that get in their way, swinging their blades at every adversary and spattering the pavement and their clothes with thick dark blood and entrails. They maintain their position on either side of Adele who now grips her metal bat tightly in her hands, eyes looking wildly at the carnage and the predators all around her.

But it never ends. More keep coming.

"David! Where?" Maggie asks, urgency and panic in her voice.

"There!" David exclaims, pointing to the alley running between the patisserie and coffee house on the other side of the street.

Some of the infected block their way, but thanks to their trusty weapons, they eventually make it to the alley. They sprint through the narrow path, with David in the lead, passing decomposing bodies, piles of trash, and discarded junk lining the sides. They hear the infected's moans and growls grow fainter behind them as they speed away from the noise of Eastwood Road and are thankful that, at least in that alley, they had only managed to run into three of the locals.

But they soon realize that it is too early to thank their stars.

As they near the end of the alley, Maggie suddenly trips and falls hard on the damp ground. The impact knocks the machete out of her hand and sends it clattering away beyond her reach. Wincing in pain, she looks behind her to see what has caused her fall only to find an infected crawling on the ground and gripping one of her ankles.

Immediately, Maggie rolls onto her back and kicks its face, desperate to shake herself from its grasp, but it holds on and attempts to take a bite of her shoe.

"Maggie!" she hears Adele scream in the background.

Before Maggie can process the child's call, Adele suddenly appears right beside the infected and, raising her weapon high in the air, pummels its head in with the metal baseball bat. The infected's blood splatters on their clothes once, twice, thrice as Adele continues her assault.

By the time David reaches his companions, the infected has stopped moving.

"Nice work, Adele," David says as he helps Maggie up and returns the machete to her.