Zombiestuck- Not Okay

Chapter 23

Dirk

A couple hours of pathetic attempts at conversation later, the sun had finally lit up the streets to a point where it would be safe enough to continue on to the forest. We ate what was left of our food and headed out.

But once we got through the first two crowds of zombies, we realized that we had a big problem.

"How are there so many?!" Jane shouted.

"I don't know; this is like twice as much as I saw earlier!"

We were barely getting any space to rest in between hordes of undead. Everywhere I turned there was another one lunging at me from who knows where. No matter how many I killed, more and more seemed to take their place. If this was some bizarre "what's supposed to happen" videogame crap, whoever was planning it really wanted us to die.

"Jane!" I cried out before getting slammed into a brick wall. I looked up and saw a ladder leading to the roof, so I started fighting off more zombies as I inched my way to the left so I could grab it. Somehow I managed to climb on and wave to Jane halfway up the building.

By the time I reached the top I felt the ladder shake from Jane jumping on to it. I watched nervously over the edge to make sure she got up. "Are you okay?" I asked.

She bent over panting and squinted at me through the beams of sun that just happened to hit the exact place we were standing. "Yeah... just... wow," she said.

I sat at the edge of the building and swung my legs over the side as I watched the crowd of undead in the street below. I rested my katana on the cement behind me. "Hand me that?"

She held up her gun with a puzzled look on her face. I nodded and she walked over to give it to me. I pointed it at a zombie and pulled the trigger, watching it fall on top of the others around it. The crowd was so thick that I had to hit one of them.

I kept shooting while Jane asked me where we should go next. "Well we could probably try climbing buildings until we get to an alley that's too wide... Maybe there'll be less of them as we get closer to the forest," I said. She nodded and sat down next to me.

"We have time for a little break though first." She grabbed the gun from my hand and I let go.

"You know I could probably thin out the crowd a little if you would give that back."

She didn't respond. I knew what she was thinking though. She didn't want a break for herself, she just wanted to try and get me out of my habit of taking out my problems on the zombies, even though they literally were the problem. I just sat there staring at the undead below, until Jane directed my vision towards the sky. "Stop focusing on everything you don't like," she said.

What did she want me to do, stare at the pretty clouds or something? "You're such an idealist," I said. But I guess I sort of understood what she was trying to say. Everything in the sky was so peaceful. The sun shone its shimmering rays through the clouds floating absentmindedly by and draped light on all the buildings faintly visible in the distance. It was like the complete opposite of what was going on down below. And right now I didn't really have a reason to be dwelling on that when all it brought me was agony and there was something so much better right in front of me.

"Call me whatever you want. The way I think works, and that's all that matters," she said.

"And what way is that?" I asked.

"Well, we both know that we can't just stop the zombie apocalypse. And there's a lot of things we can't stop in life, but we still manage to be happy anyway, right? So who says we can't do that with this? I figure there's good stuff and bad stuff around us all the time. And it doesn't matter how small the good stuff is, it can distract us from the bad stuff! So why not focus on the good stuff? All it will do is make us feel better. And if we feel better, we might even be able to hold up better against the bad stuff when we can't avoid it" she explained with a small smile.

"Huh." I stood up and walked in a circle to get a full view of the sky, pausing a moment to gaze at the still-visible moon behind me. "Maybe I'll try that."

Her face lit up. "Ready to go?" I asked. She gave me an annoyed look. "Just because I don't want to have to sit on a hot roof all day!" I added quickly. I didn't want her to think what she just said had gone to waste.

"Sure." She stood up and I grabbed my katana, this time not so eager to get fighting. "You better be serious, though. I don't know how much longer I can take you being so grumpy," she said.

"I'm getting there," I told her. And I really believed it. It would take a while, but maybe I could get over everything that had happened. And maybe if I could, everything would turn out okay.

But about an hour later, I found myself surrounded again with zombies pushing my aching body left and right as I persistently tried to fight them off. There should have been a pile of bodies building up around me, but instead every zombie I fought seemed to disappear once I turned my back and be replaced by another. Jane was too short to be seen above the crowd, but the sound of her shooting undead assured me that she was fine. I thought I heard more gunshots than could have come from one person, but I shrugged it off because I was too busy trying to save myself. Besides, it was probably nothing.

I was trying to get closer to the small gap between mobs that I had seen from the top of a building before we had to get down. But the more I fought, the more zombies appeared, and I was getting nowhere. They grabbed at me from every direction, and it took most of my energy to shove off the ones that were able to reach me instead of keeping them away from me in the first place. I was panicking. There was no way I could make it, I had to find some way inside.

I spotted a building that I thought we could get into, but I had to let Jane know. Wait... where was she? I suddenly realized that I wasn't hearing gunshots anymore. "Jane!" I called. No answer. Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no...

While I was distracted, a zombie slammed into me. I stumbled backwards into another one. It grabbed me by the back of my shirt, sending me down to the ground with it. I finally heard Jane's gunshots again, but by now I had far worse problems. I had to drop my katana to shove off the zombies clambering towards me, but it was barely working. I managed to get up to my knees, but one of them had my left arm locked in its abnormally strong grip and was practically crushing my wrist. I pulled forward and struggled to reach towards my katana so I could grab it and free myself, but before I could-

Crack.

Pain shot up my arm as I felt the bone in my wrist snap. A loud scream rang out through the street, and it took me a second to realize that it was mine. I could hear Jane shouting my name but all I could focus on was the immense pain in my hand. More zombies were coming at me. I managed to grab my katana so I could try to take them out, but I knew that if I tried to pull my hand away from the zombie behind me it would only hurt worse. It was pulling my arm up, and I fell limp knowing that struggling wouldn't do anything to help.

I finally managed to stand up and I was about to turn around and take care of the zombie holding me captive when I suddenly felt another searing pain just above my already broken wrist.

No. I knew exactly what it was.

Nausea began creeping up the back of my throat. I tore my hand away from the zombie and fell to the ground again screaming in agony. The combined pain of my aching muscles and my wrist was too much. My vision was blurring. I kept hearing Jane shouting my name and something that sounded like... A chainsaw? But my brain didn't process it. I could no longer tell what was going on.

Zombies surrounded me and blood was everywhere. There was so much that I couldn't tell where I was bleeding from anymore. This is it, I thought. This time I'm really going to die.

Jane's voice was getting closer and closer. But it was too late. I had given up. Everything went black.

A/N: Well that happened. Now I realize that this is literally the worst chapter to go on hiatus after (and I already have every chapter after this written, so I would know), but I'm going to a convention this weekend so I won't be able to post. The next chapter should be up either Sunday or Monday (most likely Sunday).

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