A School Apocalypse

Chapter 11

Edit: February 7th, 2017.

The day I was attacked by Bert, I told Jada my story. She apologized to Parker for lifting him off of his feet from his shirt collar. That girl had more strength than she ever expressed. I was in awe. I had taught her well.

"I really am sorry. . ." She kept repeating.

"It's fine." He would keep saying back. This went on for a few days, until she finally stopped saying sorry and started to reassure herself that he meant it, which he did.

It has been about five weeks since the attack, and these apartments haven't been touched by a single walker. Frankly, I was shocked, and very astonished, but very curious and suspicious as to why none came knocking on our door. It's not like I wasn't glad, I was beyond thrilled, but curiosity did kill the cat.

These past couple weeks have been okay. My ankle is almost healed, everyone's growing stronger, and Parker and Sierra are finally getting along. I couldn't ask for anything better.

Mrs. Greene says that I should be able to try and start to walk in a week or two. And I couldn't be happier about that. I hated having to be on bed rest most of the month; I felt useless, and weak, and I just couldn't handle being in a room full of people and not being able to go for a walk to cool my stove.

We gather at the table for breakfast. I sit across from Parker, with Sierra and Theo on either side of me. We do thankfully still have electricity, so Jada announced that her and Emma wanted to cook pancakes, bacon and eggs for us all. The generators in the basement of the apartment building had emergency back ups, so even when the electricity did get cut, this building had at least two months of electricity and running hot water.

Breakfast is ready, and as soon as Emma places the food on the table, we dig in. This is probably the best meal I have had in months, even if it was pancakes. Pancakes easily has become steak to me; meaning that this was as good as I would probably get, for a long time, anyway.

Once done, we just sat there talking about random things and catch up on how everyone is doing, and later, watch some Netflix. That was still surprisingly here. Maybe some companies haven't shut down yet with the virus. We have been here for over a month, and soon enough when the time comes, we'll need to keep going. The apartments were very nice, with electricity and hot water, but they aren't stable, and can't be protected the slightest if we're overrun by walkers. We all agreed that we needed to leave, so today, we're making our last run in downtown, then taking off.

Everyone this time goes to the grocery store. All except the kids, Emma, Natalie, and I. Since I was still on bed rest and not allowed to go out again since what happened last time, I'm stuck in the apartment until I'm healed. In the meantime, waiting for the crew, we clear all the apartments everyone was staying in, and Emma and Natalie start loading the cars.

About a half hour later, the cars are packed and ready, and so were we. We just need to wait for everyone else. We, people that stayed behind, waited at the main entrance of the apartments, except for me, who double checked everything was gone.

It is getting dark, the sun is setting, and I haven't heard from any of them since they departed around early afternoon. I remain upstairs, sitting down on the futon, waiting for the doors to open and my friends barge in to help me down the four flights of stairs. Sadly, elevators are out of the option. If it stalls, then that's something I do not want to face, and first step of not having that happen, is to avoid taking one.

I hear the car doors slamming, and my heart skips a beat. They're back!

"Alex!" Emma shouts from downstairs.

"Yeah?" I holler back, standing and walking to the door.

"You have to come now!" She says, "leave everything up there behind and lets go!"

What? I'm four flights up! How do they expect me to get down fast? "What happened?" I shout.

"There's walkers everywhere! They're coming our way. We need to leave now, and you need to hurry."

Great. Just when I thought I would be okay.

I try my best to get downstairs as fast as I can go. I get to the bottom of the first staircase, looking out the window. Emma is right. There were walkers scattered everywhere. I'm not sure how, though. And I am definitely not sure why. We were walker-proof for weeks! The only bad thing was, all the cars we had were also scattered. We needed to kill to get our way to them. I continue to hobble down the remaining flights. Once down and outside, I run as fast as my one foot and crutch can bring me, and jump in a random car-away from the majority of walkers-slamming the door behind me. I see a figure in the back seat, but don't bother enough to look at who it is.

I squeal the tires, and the car drives off, with no one looking back.

This is the last we see the apartments.

I drive for a good ten minutes, and the streets are clear as day. I still haven't paid any attention to who was with me, even after we outran the horde, but I know there is only one person in here with me.

A few days ago, we were discussing on where to go in case something like this happened. We agreed we'd head back to Amberley, so that's what I do. And I hope that's where everyone else is going too.

"Alex."

"What." I say, blankly, keeping my eyes on the pitch black road.

"We have to go back,"

"We can't go back! Can't you see? There were hundreds of them. Not sure where they came from, but we needed to get out of there, and so we did. We have to trust our instincts, and pray everyone heads back to Amberley." I growl. I'm not going to admit that I'm not worried. If I hurt anyone, most times that's definitely not my intention, but hey, shit happens, and I am naturally a pretty harsh and rude person. "I know you're right, and you know you're right, but we can't, okay? We just can't." I whisper after a few moments.

She jumps in the front seat, and puts the car in park.

"This isn't what you want, Alex. This is what we need. And what we need for you right now, is to put that shift in reverse and head back."

"I'm-I can't do that. I can't. It's too risky, and if they were left behind, they'd be bitten and trying to kill us in a couple of hours. We can't, I'm sorry, but we just can't." I tell her.

"But we have to-"

"I said we can't, Sierra! If we can't then we can't. That's the end of the story, and I'm sticking to it. If you want to go back, go back by all means. But I'm not, I can't, they'll kill me quicker than you. I'm on crutches, and going back is like making me sleep outside in the mountains with no tent in Bear Country. Sierra you need to think of me right now, my foot isn't healed fully and it would be disastrous if I were to break it again. I won't be risking just my life, it'll be both of us. So, no. I'm not, and I mean not. Going. Back." I rub my temple with my palm. She just doesn't understand. I want to go back, I really, really, do. But if we go back, I have a very high chance of getting killed, and knowing Sierra, she'll come to help me, getting us both killed.

The car goes silent for ages, but reality is speaking saying it's mere minutes.

"Just drive." She sighs.

And I drive off.