Kyle lowered his shoulder and dove at the knees of the oncoming woman. She snarled and snapped, but his cut block took her out. She tumbled over the edge of the roof and hit the flower pot on the way down. It didn’t take her but a moment to be up again, but Kyle had new threats already climbing out of the window. Two to be exact. One was a small kid, who he recognized as a friend of Anna’s brother, the name eluded him. His face was scratched and his left eye hung out of his socket. Despite the hanging eye, the same animalistic snarl creased his lips.
The second threat fell next to the boy, a older woman, her skin tight against her bones made her look like a skeleton and when she stood up, a hunch back made her look shorter than she had been, but as the moonlight shone onto her face, he realized she was partially decomposed. Sunken eyes, missing teeth and puffs of scraggly grey hair hung across her skull. She didn’t growl and charged.
A shrill chill wanted to burst from his lungs as the woman had an aura of terror that he hadn’t felt before. His limbs seemed to tighten at the mere sight of her.
“Kyle, come on!” Anna’s voice shocked him and he took three quick steps toward the woman. His fists clenched, his heart racing, but his legs felt like a pair of chain balls were tied to them. Turning toward the edge of the roof, he swallowed the dryness in his throat, and focused on Anna. A growl behind him gave him an extra boost of adrenaline. He bolted, his legs pumping like the pistons in a V-8 engine. The end of the roof came faster than he expected and he leapt.
A sensation of weightlessness overcame him as he reached for Anna’s hand. The bracelet he gave her for her seventeenth birth glimmered in the light and he made that his target. Her eyes widened as he soared through the air. Everything seemed to slow down around him as the air whistled through his ears. No growling, no fear, just pure adrenaline, like when he would do a big jump on a dirt bike.
The next thing he knew, Anna hand him, she grunted, like… he wouldn’t say it, and then he swung out over the mass of bodies beneath him. Fingertips scratched along the bottom of his sneakers and for a moment he thought he was dropping, but then the reaching hands faded beneath him. He swung up, reached out with his free hand, gripped the branch and she let go. He slammed into the branch, heard it groan and nearly lost his grip as fear seized him.
The bark bit into his fingers, and blood flowed as the branch scratched him. A moment later he managed to come back to earth, the groans and realization hit him like a surprise dodge ball and he pulled himself onto the branch. Sweating and panting, he straddled the branch, turned to Anna who beamed. He owed her his life and would never be able to repay her enough. The first thought that ran through his head burst from his lips, “I love you.”
She answered with a shy smile. “I love you too.”
A burst of gunfire erupted down the street and they both looked at each other with surprise. Almost immediately the swarm of undead started to shuffle their way toward the new sounds.
A rumbling engine zipped down the street toward the swarm and through the leaves; Kyle saw a custom Honda with two guys with guns hanging out of the back windows. Burst of fire followed the sounds of them shooting the undead. The first few fell, but soon more came out of the shadows. They soon surrounded the cocky gangsters and from behind the driver’s window, the driver seemed to be struggling with something in the car. Then blood burst against the inside of the window and the two gangsters out of the back window poured out of the backseat directly into the oncoming swarm.
Two more shots and they went down in choking screams. Slurping and crunching followed as the thugs screams died down. It would only take the twenty creatures moments to pick them clean.
Kyle turned to Anna, but she must have read his mind as she shimmied her way down the tree toward the back yard. The creatures were temporarily distracted and he hurried after her.
They landed safely into the back yard, the sweet smell of roses filled his nose and he hugged her in the center of her parent’s flower garden. At that moment nothing could have felt better.
“We can’t stay here.” She said after a moment of silence.
“Let’s get to a place with electricity, find out what’s going on.” Kyle said and looked over the options. Darkness oozed from every corner and growls closed in from what seemed like every direction.
“Your house?” She asked. Fear must have choked her because tears filled her eyes.
He grabbed her for another embrace and whispered into her ear. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
A warm tear splashed against his arm and he kissed her cheek.
Shuffling had already turned toward the house again and they had to make a choice. Which way to go.
Which way should Kyle and Anna go?
1.) Over the fence into their neighbors yard?
2.) Over the back of Anna’ fence into the alley and the fastest way away from her house?
3.) Wait it out in the flower garden hoping that the creatures wouldn’t find them?
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