3 | We Who Survive the Apocalypse | ✅

Chapter 18 - Past

Then another gunshot slices the air as the crowd's noise dwindles out. The other runner falls to the ground.

Gross-Beard stands in surprise, shouting, "What the hell is going on?" Before he, too, is shot in the head and falls, lifeless, to the ground.

The guards with me and Seth leap up, flying to the body of their leader as zombies lose interest in Doyle and scatter, stumbling into the panicked crowd and chowing down amid screams and snarls.

More gunshots ring out, people and zombies alike falling to the ground. I find the flash of the barrel as it shoots atop a building just behind a row of seats. 

Rogan.

A glance at the field reveals Pirate barreling into the midst of the chaos, pouncing on a zombie and crushing its skull with his massive jaws.

"Come on," I grunt as I lift Seth to his feet. He leans heavily on me, too weak to stand on his own, and I try to hurry as I lead him away from the chaos, into the darkness where it will be easier to escape the zombies.

I have to get Seth out of here. He can't do it himself. But every part of me wants to go help Doyle, but I have to remember, he can help himself. And he has Rogan and Pirate helping him. Seth only has me.

As we leave the light, Seth speaks weakly. "...Need to...find Izzy...."

"I'll look for her," I promise him, "I just need to get you out of here first."

I know he's hurt bad since he doesn't protest, but instead allows me to practically carry him further.

And then someone jumps out in front of us.

I nearly drop him in shock, managing not to cry out despite my surprise.

"Hey, guys!" 

Izzy.

"What? How?" I gasp, my eyes now adjusted to the dark enough to make out her features.

She shrugs. "I killed the bastard. I pretended to fall, grabbed a stick, and stabbed him in the eye." She shrugs again. "Then I broke his neck for good measure and hid the body in a washing machine. Easy."

She seems to notice Seth's condition for the first time while I marvel a how she can talk about murder so nonchalantly.

"Jesus, what happened to you?" She asks him, but he only groans.

And how to you even fit a body in a washing machine?

I regain my focus. "Help me get him out of here," I tell her, and she takes his other arm.

As we walk in the direction she says is the 'wimpy fence near the woods', she asks, "Where are the others?"

"Kat, Hudson, and Mara took off earlier. I think they got away. Doyle got taken. He's back there," I jerk my head toward the lights.

"Oh yeah, their 'fun zone'," she says, "I got so good at beating their zombies they got bored with me real quick."

"They..." I look over at her, "...they made you fight zombies?"

"Yeah. It wasn't too bad compared to other stuff - oh, here's the fence," she changes the subject very quickly, giving Seth's full weight to me and going over to a sagging, chain-link fence.

"That is a wimpy fence." I'm not going to make her talk about anything she doesn't want to.

"Told you. Here, bring him, he can get through here," she waves me forward, lifting up the chain-link enough to create a thin gap between the ground and the fence.

"Seth, can you crawl through that?" I ask him, and he nods. "Okay, I'm putting you down now." I gently lower him to the ground in front of the gap, and ever so slowly he scoots on his belly to the woods on the other side.

"You next," Izzy says, but I shake my head. 

She nods in understanding and joins Seth on the other side. As they head off into the woods, she turns back and says, "You find him, Wynne. And then get the hell out."

"Try to find the others," I tell her, before turning away and jogging back toward where I'd last seen Doyle.

I hope she can find them. And I hope I can find him. I hope it's not all over.

+++++

What is happening??!! THREE UPDATES??!!! IN ONE DAY??!!! Oh my god! 

I told you to start hoarding toilet paper.

Because....

Winter is coming.