There were quite a few zombies in the yard, wandering among the cars. Some were here when they ran after the survivors. Others, however, had no time to reach their own cars. The latter could be easily identified by the covering of dirt.
- Are you sure you're up to it? We are not going to take the risk of helping you, because in narrow yards it is better not to slow down, otherwise we can be blocked. We're not driving a tank, and cars tend to slip.
- I'm not sure about anything. But now that I've made up my mind, I don't see any point in deviating from the original plan. Mary, will you at least change your mind?
- No! Either I go with you or...
- I see, do not continue - I nodded. - Well, the entrance is right in front of us. Ready?
- Yes!" she said cheerfully.
We ran quickly up the block. On the way, I shot one of the zombies in the head. I had to let it get close so there were only a few steps between us. I didn't see any point in wasting bullets on a moving and swaying target. I held the baton in my other hand, not really hoping for its effectiveness. After all, I didn't have enough time to give each dead man several blows. But I held it ready, just in case. Just in case.
In fact, that case arose as soon as we opened the door to the block. An old man, whom I had often seen in the yard repairing his old bicycle, rushed at me. I don't know how I reacted, but I managed to get my baton under his mouth, pull his bloody face away and shoot him in the temple.
The zombies outside reacted immediately to the sound and rushed in our direction. The men seemed to be trying to distract them by shooting out of the windows. But it was as if they knew which prey was more realistic, so they paid no attention to them.
- Upstairs!!! - I shouted, realizing that I couldn't close the door to the block because of the old man's body.
I lived on the fifth floor of an eleven-storey building, so our only hope was that there were no other zombies on the landing. When I got to the desired floor, I put the key in the lock and was distracted by a teenager coming down from the upper floors. He moved jerkily, so I didn't expect to hit him in the head. Instead, I found the simplest solution. Dodging his bite, I grabbed him by his shirt and trousers and threw him down the stairs.
Meanwhile, Mary opened the door and called for me to come in. And in a few moments, I was inside. Then I heard a lot of banging on the other side of the door. I was starting to get used to that.
- And why did I go to get these fucking keys?' - I breathed out, - Mary, are you OK?
- I'm alive and relatively unharmed, - she also took a breath, - just banged my knee.
- Well, thank God.
The first thing I did was finding my car keys and going out onto the balcony to see exactly where I'd parked my wheels. I remembered, of course, but it was still necessary to assess the situation around my car.
What I saw both pleased and displeased me. On the one hand, there was no one near the car, and on the other, most of the zombies in the yard were now clustered around the entrance of my block. In principle, it was possible to move to the Neighbour's block and walk quietly to the car. It was a difficult task, but it could be done. But we needed a plan.
There were basically two options: either we could try to get on the roof and through it to the neighboring block. That could be, if there was a passageway; or we could try to climb over the balconies. I wondered how good Mary was at climbing.
- Matt, are you going to eat? You have food in the fridge, I can cook something. I need something to keep me occupied. Otherwise, I'll go crazy.
- Do something. Meanwhile, I'll figure out how we're going to get back outside.
I decided to try the roof first. I had to kill all the zombies in the stairwell for it. Oh, how much easier it would have been if I'd managed to close the front door of the block. I had no idea how many dead people I'd have to fight my way through.
They had given me a Glok with eight rounds in it, two of which I already used. There were 17 more in the box. Ideally, I'd be able to take out twenty-three more zombies. However, I didn't think my shooting would be that effective. So, I needed to create a situation where it would be difficult for them to reach me and easy for me to shoot. I had to think.
- Mary, how's your shooting?
- I can't. I've never held a gun before. What's the matter?
The girl didn't seem to care about the situation we were in. It was as if she knew I could do all job for myself, and her task was just not to interfere.
- That's not good. What about climbing? For example, try climbing over to the neighboring balcony.
- Well, - she replied, going to see where she'd have to climb. - I don't know, I can try, but it's scary, to be honest. And what if there is a zombie on the other balcony? I'll freak out and go straight down.
- Yeah, I get it. All right, we're going to do this a bit differently.
As I prepared to shoot, I carefully slid the lock on the front door. The zombies started banging on it, but they didn't know how to open the door. Then I started to put up an improvised barricade. I started with two bedside tables, and put plates for barbell and kettlebells in it, which I used to do exercises every morning. I reinforced this construction with a table placed on its side. The legs were fixed to the wall with the same bedside tables. And then I used all the heavy things I had in my flat.
It took me almost four hours to build a solid structure.
- Mary, lock yourself in the back room. If everything doesn't go to plan, it'll be easier for me to know you're safe. Stay by the door and be ready to meet me.
- Are you sure? - she asked in a worried tone. - Should we try to climb over the balcony?
- it's no use locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.
The plan was simple. Behind the barricade, I built a small pedestal to be above the zombies. From this platform I would shoot them. The most important thing was that my construction would not collapse under the first onslaught.
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I pressed the handle with the mop and started to push the door. But the other side desperately resisted and pushed it back.
- Oh, shit! Are you going to eat me or what? - I was outraged.
I had to wait another two hours for the zombies to calm down and, judging by the sounds coming from the entrance, move away from the door.
- So, Mary, second try?
- How about tomorrow? It's getting dark outside.
- You know, you're right. Let's see what you've cooked.
After eating and talking to Alice for about an hour, I was about to go to bed. My wife's family were comfortably settled in a distant village. They had set up a patrol and every morning they made the rounds of all the available houses. After all, most of the villagers were elderly, and someone might have a heart attack and turn into a zombie while everyone slept. The precedent had already been set. So now everyone locked all the available doors tightly and, in the morning, they did the rounds and took roll call. At least I didn't have to worry about their safety at that moment.
I made the bed for Mary in my bedroom and moved to the couch in the living room. To be honest, I forgot that it folded out. I had only done it once when I bought it from the furniture store.
But that night Mary came over to my place and we just had crazy sex. Just like that, without any words. It obviously didn't mean anything to either of us. It was like we were releasing all the stress and despair we'd built up over the days. And it's the kind of days that makes everyone feel the loneliest. And everyone deals with that loneliness in their own way.
The next day I went back to my plan. Trying not to make too much noise, I climbed on the chair, quickly pressed the handle and immediately pushed the door open.
What a success! After a few seconds I heard the beating again from the other side, but one zombie was still sticking his head through the opening. And when his "colleagues" pushed on the door, they pushed his head in, making him a perfect target.
Shot. And the body of the first dead man began to sink to the floor. And his place was taken by the next one, who had already managed to get into the apartment. Another shot, and there were two of them. That's when I first felt the pressure on my barricade. And ahead of me, I had time to notice a very bad picture for us: the whole stairwell was swarming with zombies. Could it be that everyone who had crowded the block was now at my door? This really sucked. This really, really sucked.
After firing six shots, I started to reload the gun. My hands were trembling, and I had to hold the barricade with my back. But I felt I could do it in about fifty seconds. After that, I quickly jumped on the chair and started killing zombies again. So far, the perfect plan of "one shot, one dead" worked well. But I had to figure out how to get this mountain of corpses out of the way. And there was at least a dozen more walkers crowding the stairs.
As I reloaded the gun, I began to think frantically. There were only six bullets left, and the zombies were obviously outnumbered. And I wanted to save at least a few shots. But I didn't have time to think. The next corpse started climbing up the pile in my direction.
That's when I missed my first shot, because my nerves were a bit shaky. When I had two shots left, I abandoned the position I couldn't hold anyway and ran into the room. There was an idea to work a bit with a baton, but in a narrow corridor it is not possible to swing it. And you have to hit with all you might, otherwise you won't get through his head.
- I couldn't, - I said regretfully, quickly pushing the couch against the closed door.
- So, will we try to climb over?
I nodded and headed for the balcony. The corridor was unexpectedly quiet. Maybe because the dead hadn't had time to climb over the pile of corpses yet.
After a few knocks on the windows of the neighboring balconies, we realized that they were also "waiting" for us. So, the only option was to go downstairs.
- Matt, I can't do that - Mary squealed when I explained what exactly we had to do.
- I'm afraid we just don't have any other options.
- Let's do it tomorrow then. You need to have a break and I need to gather my thoughts a bit. We've got food, so we should be able to hold out.
I realized that Lisa was now talking about her usual fear, and I did not want to reschedule all again. So, I decided to take a short break and then try to get down to the floor below. To take at least one small step towards the car today.
And I did, but with a bit of a struggle. I managed to make a rope out of the sheets and duvet covers, but it was only enough to go down one floor. I tied it to the balcony railing. There was some concern. I was not a little boy, and such an amateur effort might not be able to support my weight, but I had nothing to lose. There were several zombies roaming the corridor and I, armed with an ordinary police baton, wouldn't be able to cope with them.
I was glad that we could get down this way, but I was faced with another problem. Mary flatly refused to come down after me, saying that, as it turned out, she was afraid of going down the sheet.
- Why didn't you tell me? - I shouted at her from below. - Why did we even discuss this possibility?
- I don't know, she cried. - I just can't do it, that's all.
- Damn it... .....
I had to climb back up to come up with a new plan. Unfortunately, the follow-up would have to be done the next day. Just getting up and down took a lot of time and energy.
- Calm down - I reassured the girl - we'll think of something, don't worry.
- Matt, go away, you have a family! Stop messing with me! - she only cried harder.
We were distracted by a slight nudge at the door from a zombie passing by our room.
- Can we just be quiet? We don't want them banging on the door. Let's eat and then we'll see what we can do.
I managed to talk to Alice tonight. I told her honestly what had happened and why I couldn't leave the flat. Strangely, there was no outburst of jealousy from my wife. Of course, she was upset that I hadn't moved out, but she was pleased that I was still a human being and couldn't just abandon a defenseless girl like that. I decided to keep quiet about the fact that Lisa and I were closer.
They also had the first dead, which they managed to deal with together. Unfortunately, one of them had been bitten. But nobody was sad for long. Those were the times we lived in, you got used to death very quickly.
The feeling of lips and tongue on my cock woke me up this night. And that's when there was a creature right in front of the bedroom door that wanted to eat us.
- Mary, why? - I asked in a whisper, trying to pull her away.
But she insisted.
I had to admit it was the most tender blowjob I'd ever had. She seemed to surrender to the process and was willing to do it for hours. And when I finished, she swallowed it all, moved to my shoulder, whispered "Thank you... for everything" and immediately fell peacefully asleep.
And in the morning, I woke up to a scream from the direction of the open balcony.
- No.... - I couldn't believe what had just happened.
There was a note next to me, and when I picked it up, I read:
"Matt, darling, you have saved me many times before. Let me return the favor. I am now just a burden, without which you have a chance of surviving and returning to your family. I have no desire to continue living in this world anyway. I'm sorry .... and don't feel bad. Yours, Mary".
I walked out onto the balcony on stiff legs and forced myself to look down. Where I saw the broken body of the girl who had become very close to me during this time.
- No...no......NOOOOOOOO!!!!! FUCKING SHIT-!!!! WHY???? !!!! - I screamed and cried, paying no attention to the increasing banging on the door of the room.
Suddenly there was a flash of lightning all over the city, and the last thing I saw was a bright white flash of lightning right in front of me.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a zombie gnawing at my brush. The other one was busy with my leg. Good thing they didn't get my balls.
Wait! Why the hell didn't I feel any pain? And why was I still alive? I quickly shot the two dead guys in the head and put the gun away as I was out of ammo anyway. Next, I looked around the room, where I saw that the door had been forced, but no one else had come in. Not yet anyway.
And then I turned my attention to my arm and was a bit confused by what I saw. There was some kind of energy field around my skin that the dead guys couldn't bite through.
My first thought was that I had definitely died and gone to another world. Maybe I'd have some statistics now. I had read several RPGs when I was younger.
But I could not see any, no matter how hard I tried. But when I looked closely at the energy field, I noticed this inscription:
"Energy defense is 32%. It is time for a recharge."
What the hell is going on here????