Decimation (Ianthony Apocalypse AU)

day ten

chompers seen: somewhere around five hundred

chompers killed: 0

near-death experiences: 3

human deaths witnessed: 2             

friends left behind: 4

When I awoke the next morning, I, for the first time in well over a week, actually felt somewhat refreshed.

After arriving in the city, we wandered around for a few minutes and saw absolutely no one. Not a single person, or chomper, or animal. It was as if a tornado had blew threw and taken away every organism in its path.

I rolled over on the incredibly stiff and dusty mattress we'd found in the basement of the abandoned warehouse, groaning. After blinking awake and yawning, my vision cleared enough to realize that I was the last one awake.

The rest of the group converged in the corner, all eating packaged crackers and taking small sips of our ever-dwindling water. I stood up, groggily walking over.

"Jesus, man, I thought you were gonna sleep until next week," Jonah remarked when he saw me, handing me a quarter-full water bottle.

"If it weren't for Ken's snoring all night, I probably would have," I joked, smirking. Ken didn't seem amused. I was still convinced he hated me.

"So now that everyone's finally up," Lizzy began, shooting me a joking glare, "What's the plan for today?"

Ken shrugged. "Walk around and scope things out, I guess. Pray we find some friendly folks willing to take us into a camp or something."

"What if we don't find one?" Anthony bit his lip. "We stay here, in this old dusty warehouse, or hit another city?"

"Honestly?" Ken stood up straight. "I was assuming we'd find our next move the second we stepped food in the city. I have no idea what's next."

~

It had to be well over eighty degrees outside. There wasn't a single cloud in sight, and after walking just down the block I was sweating profusely.

I was terrified, without a doubt. Knowing there was a mob of hundreds of chompers right behind us and God knows what ahead, we were basically screwed everywhere we turned.

"We can't go for too long," Martha said out of nowhere. "It's way too hot to make a journey across the city."

"If this heat keeps up, we'll have to start travelling at night." Henry shrugged.

"You crazy?" Ken shook his head. "You really wanna be out in the dark with a bunch of flesh-eating-"

Ken stopped suddenly, throwing his arms out as a signal for us to follow. He took a small step forward, then peered around the corner into a small alleyway between a Burger King and a Walgreens.

He stared for a second, and I heard it then. Footsteps, and a soft chatter.

Ken inched back, his face contorting into the typical trying-to-figure-out-a-plan-in-just-a-few-seconds grimace. Run away and hide somewhere, or confront these people and risk being killed but possibly finding somewhere to stay for a while?

He looked to all of us, and the voices grew louder. It sounded like two or three men with pretty deep voices. They laughed, which meant one of two things: they were either happy and friendly or insane and ready to kill someone.

If we were going to run, we were too late. The noise grew louder and louder, until suddenly two men emerged from the alley.

Their conversation halted and their eyes fixed on our little group; they instantly raised their rifles at us.