Rise of the Dead

Chapter 19: The Air Vent

"You never know what's coming for you." ~ Eric Roth

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"RUN!" I shout, the only thought my whirling mind can form in the fear and chaos. 

We all sprint back along the pavement and around the corner of the café, adrenaline coursing through my veins. If I choose another route we can still make it to the weapons shop undetected and hopefully losing the infected on the way. My heart hammers against my chest and my breath comes out in ragged huffs, sending spirals of mist into the air.

We run down numerous cluttered alleyways with the infected still following, we all push onwards, our lungs burning; eventually, we start to lose them. As we jump over another fence I see two zombies coming towards us, their necks cracking as their heads twitch. I grab two bloodstained knives from my bag and throw them at the zombies, both fall to the ground and we jump over them- still running with the zombies dragging behind.

We make it to a side street behind the weapons shop and were faced with another problem, there's only one door and it's just our luck it's out the front of the shop with the flesh-eating horde of zombies. A string of curse words escape from Nicholas' mouth and our faces all mirror his choice of words. I tug my hair in frustration and walk backwards, scanning the side of the building. My eyes fixate on an air vent that can only lead inside, covered by a checked metal hatch.

"Josh," I exclaim abruptly, "can I have a hand up?" I ask and he nods putting his hands out to take my weight, I step up carefully and pull the metal grate away from the wall with a groan, before treading back down. I talk quickly but I think the group follows, the words flowing out in a jumbled mess that made a whole lot more sense in my whirling mind. 

"Right, we all need to gather as many boxes as we can and stack them up to make steps into the vent, then I will climb in first and you all follow leaving Josh until last. It's impossible for any of them to be in there so we'll be safe, I promise. When I finally get to the end I will make sure the shop looks clear before Toby, who I need to be behind me, lowers me into the shop. I will lock all the doors and shut the windows before any of you are allowed down, ok? I'm not budging on this. You have to promise me that if I get attacked and there's nothing you can do then you have to run away, don't waste your life. It's not worth it understand?" I say and they all flinch sadly, some holding a few looks of defiance on their dirty faces.

"When you're in knock over the steps so they can't follow and close this behind you," I say in a hushed voice and hand the metal grate to him with shaking hands. Something that doesn't go unnoticed by Josh as he grimaces and stares at me in concern.

"Ok got it," Josh replies, " wait, Madeline?" he calls out and I turn back around silently. He presses his lips to mine and then quickly breaks away, "I love you," he whispers and I smile.

"I love you too," I whisper back before walking up the boxes the group have piled up.

I crawl into the tight metal vent and shuffle forward hearing the others close behind, after about two minutes I reach the end and look down, scrutinising the shop below. I push the plastic in front of me and it drops to the floor with a thud, opening up an entrance to the shop.

"It looks clear lower me down," I say to Toby and he grabs my wrist lowering me to the floor slowly. Suddenly a zombie jumps out from one of the isles, thrashing towards me and I scream out in terror. "PULL ME UP! PULL ME UP!" I shout at Toby but as much as he tries with injured his hand he can't grip me and I slowly begin to slip towards the hungry infected below.

The others cry out in panic, unable to help him with the air vents so tightly fitted, leaving no room to move past, even though, I can still hear Josh shouting my name frantically.