Extra Ordinary

Chapter Two - 'You're Bloody And Wounded, You're Fine'

As every second passed, my dislike for Elizabeth started to grow and I found myself scowling.

I wish I had realised sooner just how stupid this whole thing was. I didn't see why she couldn't ask me to do this tomorrow, it would've been a much safer and logical option. Really. Where I lived wasn't exactly one of the safest areas in the city of San Fransisco, the nights seemed longer, creepier, and I wished for nothing more in this moment than for the city to have an active superhero who could watch over, well, me.

The grocery store was not too far away from where I was, but I had already started to accept the fact that this night may be the night I die. I was aware I was being a tad over dramatic but I'd be more of an idiot not to be, the streets were crawling with shady and creepy walkers now that they knew we were absent of a hero and I'd just gotten about three heart attacks passing people.

I didn't want to believe I was entirely helpless though, I had taken more than a few self defence classes when I was younger- but when you're in the moment, you don't have time to think of a quick and easy strategy to get out of trouble. So in retrospect, I was mostly helpless.

Deciding I'd rather be a complete wimp than continue to go out to buy groceries, I took all of my pride and decided to dump it before I span on the heels of my sneakers and went back in the direction towards home. Elizabeth's just going to have to deal with not having food until tomorrow. I'm not willing to risk anything further tonight, the grocery store wasn't too far, yet home wasn't either.

Tyler would bark in laughter if I told him my thought process.

As I walk back, I start to hear something. The more steps I took towards home, the louder the agonising grunting and groaning got.

Zombie?

Any sane person would've picked up the pace and ran home without looking back in this scenario, sane- I was not. Curiosity had gotten the best of me and the closer I got towards whomever was in distress, my steps slowed until I was only a foot further from full view of the alleyway.

I stopped to listen for a moment. I didn't know what I was really waiting to hear, but I waited anyway.

"I can hear you breathing, you know." A rather masculine voice from the alleyway said, taking me by surprise. From the sound of his voice, he seemed to be in both pain and slight amusement.

I stilled and held myself from breathing to prevent any more sound, a god awful trait of mine was how loudly I breathed- ridiculous, yes, but people really get annoyed about it. It would take too much mental effort to control though so they'd just have to make do with how I breathed. Tyler never seemed to mind this, which I was thankful for. But here I stood, being called out by a man in the alleyway grunting and groaning like a revived corpse. Couldn't he had said something else? Like, 'I know you're there.'

At this point, I was unsure who the creeper in this situation might've been. The man making noises or the one who decided to listen. I considered my options; stepping into viewing of the man to possibly help him, staying against the wall or better yet, run. After a moment of silently debating with myself, I decided to go with an alternative option of combing them all. "Uh, I heard your groaning and stuff. Are you okay? Do you need me to call the-"

The man cussed quietly to himself, I stop talking mid sentence as I suspect he wants to interject, "No. There's no need to call anyone...I'll be fine." He said, sounding as if he were wincing as he talked. I considered the possibilities that the man could be a danger to me if I did step forward, but from the sounds of it, I would be the one with an upper hand.