The end had come and it was terrifying. We would later discover that a foreign element had been introduced into the water table, and whatever it was had spreading quickly. Large swaths of the population were either dying or dead by the end of the first day. But that wasn't the worst of it; not at all. The real problems began after, when all of the dead began coming back.
The number of dead was massive in comparison to the survivors, so much so, that when they began rising up we were completely unprepared and outnumbered.
It was all over the news that morning. By the end of the first day four out of every five people had been infected, and by the following day three out of every four were dead. It was an epidemic, and as a city employee, it was clear what my course of action was; I was to make my way to our offices and wait for instructions from city hall. In times of crises all government employees were required to take on the roll of relief workers.
It took me hours to get downtown. There was a heavy rain out, and the streets were littered with cars and the sick trying to get medical attention. I ended up parking several miles away and traveling the rest of the way on foot. When I got to our offices they were practically empty. All of the other employees were either unable, or unwilling to come in. I went over to my work-station to retrieve my emergency relief kit from under my desk, when I heard a rustling in the back cubicle. I looked over to find, Stephanie, deeply involved in organizing her survival kit. I stood there for a few moments waiting for her to acknowledge me, but she was so focused on the tasks at hand that my arrival had gone completely unnoticed.
She had put her hair up to make sure that it wouldn't get in the way of all of the work that she would be doing. On the surface I understood the severity of our situation, but still, I couldn't help myself. The emotional roller coaster of the past couple of days left me feeling incredibly vulnerable, and in that moment I was susceptible to all forms of stimuli. Just being around her stirred the primal urges within me. My senses devoured every aspect of her being.
She had on a thick grey overcoat, the kind that people wore for cold walks in autumn. Lying out in front of her, on the floor, were all of her supplies. She was on her hands and knees taking inventory of her stock; inspecting each item to make sure that everything was in working order. Her ass stuck out into the air, wagging itself in my direction, tempting me, and I couldn't help but stare. The tights she was wearing were so form fitting that she might as well have been pants-less. Watching her I made a mental note of how plump her cheeks looked, and how her ass was compact, cute, and sexy all at the same time. The fact that it was tiny made it seem innocent and adorable, but their fullness made me hungry. I wanted them, and I wanted to do things to them.
After several minutes she finally came to realize that I had been standing there the whole time, gazing intensely at her. "Oh, hello. How's it going?"
I tried my best to sound casual, "as good as it can be. This is all so crazy, isn't it? An epidemic like this in our life-time. It's so surreal, like something out of the middle ages"
She gave me a bit of a smile. "Yeah, it is...I've been keeping myself busy up here for a couple of hours. Just preparing for the call. They're going to need all the able bodies that they can get, and we need to be ready to move. It's good to see you here, I didn't think anyone else was gonna show up."
At hearing this something clicked inside me. She was so positive, even at it's worst she was such a little trooper; a 4'11" Captain America. "I feel like you're in your natural habitat, you're completely in tune with your survival instincts. I was just gonna sit here and poo on myself."
She laughed, and our eyes caught each other; we maintained eye contact for a couple of seconds longer than I had been prepared for. I was never very good at reading people, but there was something in her look. I could swear that something was going on in her head.
"It's good that you have a sense of humor about this whole ordeal. we're going to need it."
Suddenly there was a huge commotion from the outside. The air was filled with the sound of glass breaking and objects crashing to the ground. Panicked screams came out of the crowds that had gathered in front of our office.
We rushed to the window and saw the impossible, the streets were rapidly filling up with reanimated corpses. We stared in disbelief as they wandered aimlessly looking for anything to eat. That's when I saw something that filled me with dread. A massive crowd entering our building. Our work station's being on the third floor meant that we only had a matter of minutes before they got to us.
"Grab everything and put it into your backpack. NOW!" I took her hand and lead her to the door. Turning the corner I could hear a loud crash and heavy footsteps. They had gotten past the security doors and were making their way up the stairs. I looked at her for a split second before yelling, "COME THIS WAY!" I pulled her along deeper into the back, and kicked open the door to the fire escape.
We exploded into the rain; running as fast as we could down the wet metal steps. I could hear our heavy panting as we tried to make our way down the stairs without slipping or hurting ourselves. When we reached the bottom we proceeded to head out the back alley, but situated at the opening there were dozens more making their way towards us. There was no way we were going to be able to get around them.
We turned back towards the building, and entered through another gate that led to the office parking lot. It was the only place that we could go.
The lot was directly next to the main entrance of the building, and fortunately for us the dead were entirely concerned with entering the facility. Even though the parking lot was completely exposed, what this meant was that we would have the luxury of a little bit of space to maneuver ourselves as long as we didn't draw their attention. I peeked my head around the corner, to survey our surroundings. Going into the street was completely out of the question, our only course of action was to make it to the apartment complex next to the parking lot. There was a low wall and beyond that open balconies that belonged to the condominiums next door.
I took her hands and looked her in the eyes. Her hair was matted and wet from the rain, and her eyes looked big and focused. "Our only chance is to climb on top of one of the cars in the lot to get over the wall and into one of the condo's from the balcony. We have to be quick, and we can't make any loud noises." She shook her head solemnly, and gave me an intense "OK."
I could hear the zombies in the alley getting closer; it was time to move. Still holding her hand, we walked out into the lot and crossed it as discretely as possible. We got to the tallest car that we could find, a city van, and got ready to climb it. We went around the front and got on the hood, so that we could make it to the roof, but the second we set foot on the car, it was like that was the exact moment that the universe saw fit to fuck with us.
The car alarm began blaring, attracting unwanted attention from all of the dead streaming into the building, they began to make their way over to our van. At the exact same moment the zombies that had been coming down the back alley finally broke through the fence and started flooding into the parking lot as well. We were so fucked.
"Hurry!" I yelled. Stealth didn't matter anymore. We jumped to the roof of the van and looked at the wall. Although, we were now higher up, the wall still had a few feet on us, and it would require some climbing. We didn't have the time to figure out the most efficient way to do it. "Steph, running start, and we try to catch the ledge of the wall, and climb over."
"OK" she gasped. I don't know if she was scared or not, but she was a complete professional. She knew what needed to be done, and didn't doubt herself for a second. We both made a run and leapt for the wall.
The impact knocked the wind out of me, but I felt my finger tips gripping the ledge. It hurt so much, but I knew it didn't matter, I needed to pull myself up. I looked to my left, and saw that, Steph was in a similar predicament. She was momentarily stunned, but had recovered much faster than I had. Her feet were struggled frantically to build momentum by running up the wall. Behind us the van was still blaring, but now I could hear the moans and growls of all of the zombies that had surrounded the van as well. I looked down to find a sea of hands coming up beneath me. I began pulling myself up with all my might, but my fingertips were burning so bad, and the rain had made it that much harder. My shoulder blades began to ache, and I could feel myself losing the will to hold. " Maybe it will be quick I thought to myself," as I began to lose hope. Then from the ledge I felt a hand grab my arm. It was Steph, she had made it.
With her help I was able to get myself up high enough so that I could swing my legs on to the ledge and pull myself up. When I finally got my body up, I laid there for a few seconds. I was breathing hard, and I could feel the tears on my face. Steph, stood there trying to maintain her balance, our space was incredibly limited. "Thank you," I choked out. On one side there was a growing number of zombies and on the other side there was a winding stairwell that we could jump to. It would be an at rest jump of three and a half feet. Steph cautiously watched me, "are you ok?, You look like you're gonna die". I gave a nervous laugh. "Ok, let's do it."