The Trouble With Walking

Chapter 2: Under, Over, Around, Below

"Don't move," Lizzie whispered harshly. I was still facing the door I'd just closed to the auditorium. The faint quaking of the outside staircase proved that we were surrounded. I slowly turned around to see Lizzie and Jessie standing close to the railing. There were walkers everywhere. All over the parking lot, there were more than before when Noah and I looked. I cringed when I thought of Noah and his fate. Of everyone's fate that lied behind that door.

Our own luck had seemed to run out. Lizzie's eyes grew wide as a dozen or so zombies made their way towards the stairs. The ones that were already at the bottom started to make their way up. One zombie took a step and its other foot went through the space between the rungs. It fell back and the leg snapped in half. More of them attempted to walk up, but they couldn't. One fell through the space entirely, with its legs dangling below. It was halfway to us, and contiuned to claw and moan in desperation.

At least zombies can't climb stairs.

Fear hammered my heart into my chest as we watched the chaos below. I was looking for a way to escape this trap, but we were stranded. Helpless, I looked at my friends: the ones I would die with. We stood in silence, watching the monsters struggle their way to us. Lizzie sighed sorrowfully as if she had come to terms with her life and the inevitable end. Jessie's face was unreadable. She seemed emotionless, yet she had that pondering look she wears so well. Suddenly, she turned to the both of us.

"The roof!" She exclaimed. Lizzie and I looked at her, puzzled. 

"Look, guys." She motioned to the ledge running just below the platform to the adjoining roof of the cafeteria. The newer part of the lunchroom and the east wing had been added after the original building and had a lower roof. She proceeded to explain how we could balance our way along the ledge to the roof and find another way out. At this point, I would believe in trying to fly away to escape the bloodthirsty corpses still pawing their way past one another. They had managed to pile up at the bottom, creating a mass of bodies as a blockade. There were a lot of broken limbs lying around. 

We began to help Lizzie over the side of the railing to the ledge. She held onto my hand to balance as Jessie coached her steps along the way. She was almost there when we heard a sickening thump. I turned around to see the top half of a zombie dragging itself up the stairs. It was the same one that was stuck in the rungs; its bottom half had fallen off onto the ground. 

"Go Jessie!" I urged her to get on the ledge as well. Lizzie had just made it to the roof. 

"No, after you!' She screamed back.

"I am not going to argue with you about this! GO NOW!" I pushed her into the railing. The zombie was only three stairs down. She looked at me with defiance. It was a good thing she is short because I forcefully helped her over the railing.

"Don't drop me!" She yelled.

"Then get over there!" I yelled back. She resentfully balanced herself on the ledge and held onto my arm. Suddenly I was not upright and my chin bounced against the wall. 

My leg was grasped in the dirty clutches of the half-zombie. It bit down on the sole of my shoe. I heard Jessie and Lizzie scream as I kicked it repeatedly in the face. My heel crushed its nose and it loosened its grip for a moment. It was enough time for me to scramble over the railing. I held on to the metal side until I regained my footing. Jessie was halfway across to the roof, and I was about to turn to follow her when the door began to rattle. I heard the groans on the other side and knew that the zombies inside had heard the ruckus. In fact, there were more monsters crowding the stairs and forming a mass below the ledge. Their arms rose in hungry desire like a forest of decaying limbs. Jessie and I had made it to the roof when the door swung open, letting out more of them. Jessie suddenly made a magnificent leap onto the roof.