Dead or Alive

Chapter 13

I looked behind me and noticed Kristie and Theo staring with wide eyes at the scene unfolding before them. I walked up to them and placed my hands on their shoulders.

"Listen to me. You're going to make it through this. Just stay close to the rest of the group, and do exactly as we tell you. You need to stay calm and keep your wits about you. If you do those things, you'll be fine," I said, trying to calm them down.

The twins looked at each other, turned to me, and nodded their heads. I turned back around and saw that the herd was significantly closer now.

"Scarlett, do you mind protecting the kids if the Lurkers get through our defenses?" I asked.

"Yeah. That's fine," she said.

We all raised our guns and waited for Alan to give us the signal to begin shooting. Once Alan gave us the signal, we all began shooting every Lurker we could see. I noticed that a small cluster of Lurkers had managed to get to the wall.

"Some have already gotten to the wall! Shoot them before they break through!" I called over the sound of the gunshots.

A couple of people began shooting the Lurkers at the wall, while some of them kept shooting the ones that were advancing closer. Fifteen minutes of shooting later, we heard a loud crash coming from down below.

A Lurker had gotten through the wall.

"The wall has been breached! Shoot them while we get some people down there to repair it!" I called.

The others began shooting the Lurkers that were beginning to come through the massive hole in the wall. I grabbed my walkie-talkie and spoke into it.

"The wall has been breached. I repeat: the wall has been breached. We need people down on the West side to repair it. We will cover you from the rooftop. Anyone else, I recommend that you prepare for evacuation just in case. Over."

I heard multiple responses come back from the walkie-talkie. About five people were coming to repair the massive hole in the wall.

"Alright! We have people coming out to repair the wall. Protect them at any cost! These are your friends, allies, and co-workers. Keep them safe!" I ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am!" Everyone chorused. 

I resumed shooting the Lurkers that continuously flooded through the hole in the wall. After a while, I noticed that the people coming to repair the wall were now outside and running to the hole. We all began shooting the Lurkers, trying to keep them from killing our workers. I looked and saw a bullet fly and hit one of the workers in the shoulder.

"Hey! Watch where you're aiming! Shoot the Lurkers, not the people who are trying to help us!" I ordered.

No one spoke up.

I rolled my eyes and turned my glance back to the hole. I noticed that the workers that were there a few moments ago, weren't there now.

"What happened? Did they run?" I asked Alan.

"No. They all died," he responded.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"Tell everyone inside to evacuate from the planned site. We will stay up here until we run out of ammo," Alan answered.

"That won't be too long," I replied. "I'm already out."

Everyone agreed that they were out of ammo too.

"Fine. Order them to meet in my office. Tell them that we'll be there in a minute or two," Alan said.

I repeated the orders into the walkie-talkie and we all ran downstairs into Alan's office. When we got there, no one was waiting for us.

"Where is everyone?" I asked.

"I don't know! Maybe they haven't gotten here yet!" Aaron answered.

"What do we do, Alan?" I asked.

"We have to leave them. We can't risk everyone at once," He explained.

"Alright, so how do we get into the tunnel?" Scarlett asked.

As soon as the words left Scarlett's mouth, groans from walkers could be heard approaching quickly. Brendon ran over to the door and began leaning against it to keep it shut. Alan rushed over to the sofa that was sitting in the corner of the room and began pulling it out of the corner.

"Amala! Help me move this!" He called.

I ran over and grabbed the other arm of the sofa. Once the sofa was out of the corner, we saw that there was a trapdoor where the sofa once was. I bent down and tried to open it. I noticed that a key was needed to unlock it.

"Alan, we need a key to open it!" I called.

"Guys, I don't know how much longer I can hold this door shut!" Brendon yelled, the door almost opening from the force of the Lurkers.

Alan opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a rather large ring of keys. He flipped through multiple keys before landing on the last one. He ran over and handed the key to me. I put the key into the lock and twisted it. The trapdoor was unlocked. I pulled the trapdoor open so we could all climb down a rickety-looking rope ladder.

"Alright, it's open! Everyone down the ladder!" I yelled.

Everyone began climbing down the ladder. I stood at the top waiting for Brendon. As soon as Brendon stepped away from the door, Lurkers began pouring into the office. Since Brendon didn't get too far away from the door, Lurkers grabbed him and began biting him. Brendon's screams echoed throughout the office. I stood there in shock for what felt like forever until I heard Aaron's voice come up from the tunnel.

"Amala! Get down here!"

I suddenly snapped out of it and climbed down the ladder, pulling the trapdoor closed behind me. I jumped down the last few steps of the ladder and landed next to Aaron and Scarlett. Scarlett pulled me into a hug as she cried into my shoulder. 

"I-Is he r-really g-gone?" she asked, sobbing. 

"I'm sorry, but he is," I said, rubbing her back soothingly.

Scarlett pulled away from the hug about thirty seconds later and began wiping her eyes. I looked around and saw that the tunnel was very dark.

"It's kinda dark down here, Alan," I said.

"I have a lantern and some matches down around here somewhere," Alan mumbled, feeling along the ground for the lantern.

Suddenly a light was spotted out of the corner of my eye. I look over and saw Alan holding the now-lit lantern.

"Alright, let's go." Alan said.