He was thinking the whole time he was running how he could have been with Nathalie right now, lifting crates, letting her compliment him, maybe could have even gotten a nice warm hug from her after his job was done.
Once his ears stopped ringing, the fear of his companions running alongside him shockingly seemed to out way his own. Probably because he was always in a flustered state, a real emergency just couldn't get him to the same level as everyone else.
He knew he was in real mortal danger, he could feel it, but even as he followed the others into a narrow alleyway, avoiding slipping on the icy pavement he had no idea how to process his situation.
"Girls! In the garbage disposal, now!" Adam roared up ahead, pointing at the rusty blue container with his metal baseball bat. Alyce was the fastest and wasted no time, she was short but that didn't stop her from throwing her upper half over the rim, kicking wildly as she tried to scuttle her way inside. Following closely behind her flailing legs, Georgia nimbly swung her leg over the side letting Adam grab her other leg, lifting her so she could tip inside, landing with a metallic thump against the bottom. Adam then quickly tipped the lid on top, crashing it shut.
"Alright! keep fucking calm!" He shouted at the rest of the group, unsure which direction they should face to defend themselves.
"Huddle up you dumb fuck's!" He screamed at the seventeen guys, as they fought about who would end up in the middle.
David stood passively amongst them, hands by his sides not fighting at all, still confused on how to process the encroaching threat.
The bickering soon came to an abrupt end, along with David's trance, hearing a series of pain-ridden screams behind him howling with the cold air blowing down the alleyway.
Turning around, all he could see was Bert's massive backpack blocking his view.
Leaning to the side, between the gap of huddled guys he could see one lonesome infected staggering at the entrance, its piercing shinny white globes for eyes was all that held his attention. The bright color containing the only semblance of life left within its rotting corpse. The way it convulsed, twitching awkwardly, looked like the thing would fall over dead any second.
Staring at its open mouth gaze, others soon came from around the corner standing alongside it, stopping to shudder, as if bothered by the cold.
David knew why the girls had to be protected, though his concern was with himself and how this quiet huddle of scared guys would help. His knowledge of them was limited to what he had learned just yesterday, only adding to his dread at all the possibilities they could soon unleash upon him.
"A mere eight minutes outside the perimeter and I'm already dead?" He muttered in almost disbelief at the escalation of events.
He thought perhaps that maybe the crushing silence meant the infected were blind, unable to see what was right in front of them. Whatever the case was, they were equally as silent now, edging closer meticulously like curious animals. No facial muscles left. no expressions to read. Without their broken shrieks, they just seemed confused, looking like failed sculptures of sorts, purposeless and eerily calm.
Breaking line of sight from their opened mouthed glances, down to their legs, it was clear why outrunning them was next to impossible. Bloated but densely muscled, far too big to fit any shoe or to comfortably fit any pants without large ripped holes, making them look noticeably disproportionate in comparison to their skinner upper halves. Even if this was your first time seeing them you would realize running would not be favorable to you.
A gentle nudge from someone behind broke David out of his stare ahead. A man in a noisy puffy yellow coat and red wooly beany held a baseball bat, miming to pass it out from the center.
David gripped the cold bat with a firm but shaky squeeze, passing it ahead to a ready and waiting Bert, who eagerly wrenched it from his hand. He could see others around him doing the same with similar melee-based weapons, passing them forward in an orderly manner. None of this was filling David's optimism, they were ridiculously outnumbered and the idea that the plan seemed to revolve around striking them with blunt instruments was all but convincing him he was dead already.
"Can they see us?" He whispered, in a nervous state to no one in particular.
A short silence followed the end of David's barely audible question.
"Yes," replied a random frustrated voice through his teeth somewhere behind him. David was not trying to push his luck but he knew himself well enough to know when he was beginning to shut down.
He was fully realized now, all the senses had calmed themselves back to normal, the weight of his body, the smell of the air and the distinctive sound of dry infected bones clicking, echoing off the grimy alleyway walls, replacing the ringing of his ears.
All of this brought him back down to reality, starting to imagine the many ways he could reach imminent death. If he didn't try to at least understand what was happening around him, those thoughts would become crippling, preventing him from running or fighting.
His palms were sweaty now, shaking, understanding ahead of his own mind that this was it, do or die. He peeked his head out to the side once more, meeting the white glazed eyes staring back at the group, a cold shiver down David's spine was present, now knowing that those white marbles were working just fine.
'Weapon, I need a weapon', he thought, standing amongst armed men, each ready to fight.
While he struggled to control his breathing, the rest focused, waiting patiently for their opportunity to arise. David had not been noticing that the infecteds attention was split between them and the rusted garbage disposal, its hazed look swinging back and forth from the group in an dumb obvious fashion, giving clear indication that the moment was fast approaching.
Huddles of the two factions were now less than a few meters apart from each other, and had the finer details of their rotting bodies coming fully into view.
A large slit from their sternum to the low abdomen was the one unifying trait, other than their eyes, that they shared between all of them. A familiar amount of purple bruising traced the edges of the wound with a slight one inch gap harboring a dim green glow at its center, the light also shifted like they had murky green water suspended in their stomachs, clear movement underneath the rotting skin could be seen and David needed no guesses as to what it was that lurked in between.
Repulsed by the sight, David finally became aware that the first infected was heavily enticed towards the disposal unit, approaching it with careful diligence. There was one final slow haunting glance off to its side, aimed at the group before mechanically cranking its head back around. David could not see well due to his angle but he did hear a short hollow metallic thud, followed by similar residual noises against the metal.
Whatever was happening, it caused the other infected behind it to congregate closer to the disposal, giving similar glare's to the group as they hobbled in an almost formal manner over to their rotten associate.
David felt a shuffle from his group, slowly turning to face the garbage disposal as the infecteds numbers amassed significantly to one side, from this new angle he caught a neon green glimmer out ahead.
It was starting to make sense to him now, they were far more interested in the scent of the girls than them.
Tentacles were wet, clinging all around the unit with one infected even crouched on top, letting its glowing appendages run all over the lid. While the metal creaked, seemingly from all of the heavy pressing into its sides, the horde was showing less and less interest in the tightly huddled group, more so concerned about finding their own slot around the squeaky container. A couple of loud shrieks could be heard along with some violent shuffling as some were left unhappy on the outside, squabbling amongst themselves.
David watched as his view suddenly became much clearer. Members were slowly beginning to fan out at Adam's silent instruction, spreading relatively evenly, forming an almost semicircle behind the preoccupied infected, who buckled and slightly shunted the metal container frustratedly. David froze briefly for a time, unsure of where he should move to. Watching the freshly salivating infected begin to rattle the disposal more aggressively, almost covering the entirety of its rusted surface completely from view.
He knew now he felt most comfortable behind Berts large frame.
