I’d only taken a couple of steps when he grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. “Why are you acting like such an ungrateful bitch all of a sudden?” The sneer on his face was a look I’d never seen from him before. I glanced around to see if anyone had noticed us, but they hadn’t.
“I suggest you let me go. Now. Unless you want trouble.”
Justin’s face changed immediately as he adjusted his mask. He reminded me of a friend I’d had once. She was my very best friend for a time, before I started to notice how controlling and manipulative she was. She never made it obvious. It was always in the little ways you wouldn’t notice unless you were paying attention. It wasn’t until her own mask started to slip that I finally saw her for the monster she was. Lucky girl that I was, another monster had latched itself to me.
“I’m so sorry, Emmy. I’m just so worried about you. With everything going on, I’m not sure you’re thinking clearly,” Justin replied as his hand dropped to his side.
“I’m thinking just fine,” I replied coldly. “And if you touch me again, Nico will be the least of your worries. I’ll fucking cut your hands off.” Now he was trying to fucking gaslight me into thinking I was the crazy one?
I walked away from him, and this time he didn’t try to grab me. “Mami, we’ll get you and Papi up the fire escape first, and then pass the bags up to you.”
“I don’t like that boy,” Papi announced, keeping his voice low enough so he wasn’t overheard.
“Neither do I,” I replied. “Just ignore him.”
“I still don’t see why I need to leave my bike. We could carry it up with us,” Justin complained.
I rolled my eyes while everyone else ignored him. If the idiot wanted to try to carry his bicycle up the fire escape and across the rooftops, he was on his own.
A low whistle caught my attention, and I looked toward the sound to see Luis waving for the group to come to him. “This is the best one I’ve found,” he said when the group drew closer.
“Right, Mr. and Mrs. Rodrigues, you go up first,” Nico ordered as we all hovered at the mouth of the alley, watching the corner for the first sign of zombies. Papi climbed the ladder first, then turned to help Mami onto the platform. Once she was up, Luis passed the bags to them.
“Just leave them there and keep climbing. We’ll grab them on our way by,” Luis said.
“The bike could come in handy. I just need someone to help me carry it,” Justin said again. We all continued to ignore him as Liz went up the ladder next, with Darla and Lani waiting to climb up after her.
CRASH
I jumped at the sudden loud clanging sound, as did everyone else. I looked over to see Justin holding a crowbar near the dumpster. His hand was raised, ready to hit the dumpster again. “So you can hear,” Justin scoffed. “I wasn’t sure since nobody was listening to me.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Miguel growled. The sounds of feral growls reached our ears, and we all looked onin horror as the horde of zombies came around the corner like Justin had just rang the dinner bell. In a way, he had.
“Son of a bitch,” I hissed. “Everyone up the fire escape! Now!”
The alley we were in had metal gates screwed into the brick buildings on either side, so we quickly shut them. It wouldn’t hold the zombies back for long, but it might give us enough time to get away.
Nico stomped toward Justin angrily, and Justin cowered at his approach, holding the crowbar in both hands in front of his face in defense. Nico ripped the crowbar from his hands. “Make sure Higgins gets up the fire escape, and then follow him up. Leave the fucking bike and be glad I’m letting you come with us still. Make a fucking sound and I’ll break your fucking leg and leave you in the alley as zombie bait.” Nico came back with the crowbar and jammed it into the gate to hold it closed. As the zombies hit the gate, I saw the crowbar start to bow slightly. No, it wasn’t going to hold them back for long.
“Em, get going,” Luis ordered.
“I can help!” I argued.
“Woman!” Nico yelled. “For once in your life, do as you are told and get that tight ass up the fucking fire escape, or I will put you over my knee later.”
I rolled my eyes at his threat but complied with their order—bossy assholes. “Everyone spread out,” I said as I climbed onto the cramped platform. They all moved further up the escape, leaving only me near the ladder. I watched anxiously as Luis abandoned the gate first and scrambled up beside me. Miguel was next, leaving Nico to try and hold the gate on his own.
“It’s not going to hold. Nico needs to get the fuck out of there,” I murmured.
“Come on, Nic!” Luis shouted.
Nico waited until Miguel reached the ladder to push away from the gate. He had only made it five steps before it crashedopen, and zombies spilled into the alley. Miguel scrambled up the ladder and immediately flopped to his stomach and reached his hand down for Nico to grab. When he reached the ladder, Nico jumped, clasping forearms with Miguel and then Luis as they helped pull him up the ladder and out of the hungry zombies’ grasp.
The fire escape began to shake as the zombies clawed at the ladder and each other in an attempt to reach us. “We need to pull the ladder!” I shouted as I stood and kicked the release. Usually, the ladder would have sprung up, but there were too many zombies holding on to it. Together, the four of us pulled on the ladder, and after some struggle and a heart-stopping moment where Miguel almost tumbled off, we managed to get the ladder raised.
“That was close,” Miguel gasped as we all sat back to catch our breath.
“Too fucking close,” Nico growled. “I’m going to kill your boy toy if he does that again.”
