The Power and the Glory

Book 3 Chapter XVIII: On the Rampage

Warning: contains zombie-related gore.

Is this the way it ends now?
How could I not see this coming?
The message that it sends now
Sounds exactly like a closing door
-- Death Note (musical), The Way It Ends

For ten minutes after looking out the window Kitri could do nothing but cower behind her bedroom door, expecting at any minute to hear the crowd break through her front door. Nothing happened. At last she gathered her wits together enough to think the situation through.

The town-house didn't have a back door. It did have a balcony overlooking the courtyard below. The kitchen opened out onto it. And the courtyard had a gate that opened onto the street behind. Maybe, just maybe, the crowd hadn't gotten round there yet. If she was quick she could climb down from the balcony and make her escape that way.

Kitri hunted through her house for a rope. Surely somewhere in the whole place there was something she could use to climb down?

After a fruitless search she had to admit defeat. Unless she wanted to tear down the curtains and tie them to the balcony railings, there was nothing she could use.

What about my belts? she thought.

She ran to the wardrobe and examined all of her belts. None of them were long, but they were sturdy and in relatively good condition. She sat down and experimented with buckling one belt to another. Then she fastened them around the knob of a closed door and pulled with all her might.

The door didn't budge. Neither did the belts. This plan looked more and more plausible.

Kitri attached two more belts to the makeshift rope. She laid it out on the floor and examined it critically. Was it long enough yet?

She dragged it through the house and out onto the balcony. Apart from a few distant screams the town had gone eerily quiet. Maybe the crowd had moved on. She spared a minute to shudder for the unsuspecting people wherever they had moved on to. Quickly she tied the belt around the railing. The end of the last belt reached the ground. Carefully she climbed over the railing and grabbed hold of the belt.

I hope this doesn't break.

A horrible vision of falling and breaking her leg filled her mind. How would she ever get help?

Kitri gritted her teeth. She let go of the balcony and clambered down the belt at a speed she'd never thought she was capable of. Only when her feet were safely on solid ground did she let out the breath she'd been holding.

Now for the gate.

It was locked from the inside. At the top there was a space she could see over. Kitri climbed up and peered out through there. Her heart stopped.

The street was full of a blood-stained crowd. None of them were moving. None of them were making any noise. They stood fixed in place like statues.

Is it safe to go out there?

She jumped down and looked around for a stone. When she found one she climbed back up and dropped it through the space. Thump. All of the crowd's heads swivelled round. As one they began to shamble towards the sound.

Kitri dropped to the ground and raced back to the belt. She clambered up in even faster than she'd come down it. Under the circumstances she had no time to think clearly. The crowd might break through the gate. If they found the belt they might climb up it too and then she'd be trapped in her house.

There was a statue of the goddess Abihira -- how ironic, Kitri thought bitterly as she remembered who was responsible for all of this -- carved into the wall beside the balcony. Its head was close enough to the roof for someone standing on it to haul themselves up. Kitri climbed onto the statue. A crash at the gate suggested the crowd were trying to break in. She had no time to worry about how high she was or what would happen if she fell. The gate was already starting to creak ominously. She grabbed hold of the edge of the roof. With a jump and a heave she managed to get her upper body mostly onto the roof. From there it was easy to wriggle up the slates until she was fully on it.