“I’m glad this is working, but how long can we keep this up?” Emery asked.
“As long as we have to,” Luis replied. We all crossed successfully to the next building, but as I carried the ladder to the other side, I noticed zombies on the next roof. That would be a problem.
“Maybe we can bait them over the edge?” Darla suggested.
“It’s worth a try,” Luis said.
We all started hooting and hollering, which got the zombies’ attention. There were about fifteen of them on the roof, and soon they were all congregated across from us, but that was as far as they went. They didn’t have the coordination to make it up and over the wall.
“This isn’t working,” I stated. “You all keep their attention. Miguel, with me.” We took the ladder to the opposite end of the building and set it across. “Ok, you hold the ladder, while I cross. I’ll take them out, and then we can help the rest of the group across.”
“Be careful, brother.”
I crossed quickly, and as my feet hit the rooftop, I pulled out my knife. I had plenty of rooftop to work with and no reason Icouldn’t put these fuckers down. My idea was great in theory, solid on paper, unrealistic in practice. I managed to sneak up behind the group and down a few before the others realized I was there. As soon as they did, their interest in the group across the alley died at the prospect of fresh meat. I underestimated how quickly they could overpower me and how fast they could be, especially when they were as hungry as these guys must have been after being stuck up on the roof.
I managed to take a couple more out before they had spread out so much on the roof that I had to climb onto the pigeon coop to escape them. The coop began to shake as they surrounded me, and my stomach sank. This wasn’t good. The coop wouldn’t withstand it for long. I looked around for a way out of this predicament when I saw Emery run toward the ladder.
“No!” I shouted. “Stop her!”
Luis chased after her, but she was too quick. When Miguel reached out to grab her, she sucker punched him in the stomach. Without slowing down, she ran across the ladder, but the force of her steps and the lack of anyone holding on to it caused it to start to slip. Time seemed to slow, and I watched in horror as the ladder began to slide out from under her.
Not her, I pleaded silently. I could handle losing any other member of the group but her. Not Emery.
Emery never showed any sign of worry about falling to her death, only determination to make it across. She tossed her bat ahead of her, dove for the roof, and just made it before the ladder fell out of view.
“Dammit, Emery! Stay back!”
“Shut the hell up, Nic.”
If we survived this, I was going to kill her.
She scooped up her bat and started swinging as zombies began to go after her. It took me a minute to join in the fight because I found myself mesmerized watching her kick zombie ass. She wasfast and scrappy, easily dodging their hands and teeth. Snapping out of it, I jumped off the coop to take out the zombies still focused on me. Together, we cleared the roof, and once we were safe, I dropped my knife, ripped the bat from her grip, and shook her by her shoulders.
“That was fucking stupid, Princess. You could have fucking died!”
“You could have died, too!” Emery yelled back.
“I had it under control!”
“Right,” Emery scoffed. “If that was you having it under control, perhaps someone else should be in charge.”
I growled in frustration and released her before I actually ended up hurting her. I never wanted to hurt Emery, even if it was by accident. Instead, I stomped over to the edge of the roof to check on the ladder.
“It’s toast,” Miguel advised.
I looked at the mangled ladder below with a resigned sigh. There went that plan. It was of no use to us now. Thankfully, the alley was empty. “Ok, new plan. You guys take the fire escape down to the alley. Stay quiet, and we will meet you down there.”
Emery and I jogged over to the other side of our building to take the fire escape down as well, but it wasn’t there. Or rather, it only went up to the third floor.
“Well, that’s a problem,” Emery said. “Looks like we’ll have to go through the building.”
“Shit,” I muttered. She was right. It was our only way off this roof, unless we followed the ladder and took a header. As much as I didn’t want to go into the building, I wanted to live more. I used my knife to pry the door open, and we looked down the dark stairwell with apprehension.
“My cell phone still has power. We can use it as a flashlight,” Emery said as she pulled her phone out.
Mine still worked, so I grabbed it out too. We needed every bit of light we could get our hands on. “Let’s get this over with. We just need to make it to the third floor, then we can try to get to the fire escape.”
The building was silent, and we didn’t speak as we descended. The top floors looked surprisingly untouched compared to the general state of the area. Maybe the people on the roof were the residents from the top floors? When we got to the fourth floor, we discovered why the top floors were deserted. The residents had filled the stairwell with furniture as a barricade to keep anyone, or anything, from coming up.
