by Wilde, J. M.
A flash of white light caught my eye, bringing my attention to something on the water in the distance. The morning sun was shining on it, reflecting off of it in a way that made it look like a mirage, but I knew it was no illusion.
“It’s here,” I whispered, unable to find my voice. “It’s here!” I repeated louder so everyone could hear me.
Lea and Richard jumped off the couches and stood next to me at the window, spotting it instantly, while Ash ran from the kitchen.
We stared silently as the ship sailed further and further into the harbour, in awe at the magnificent sight of it.
“There’s more than one!” Lea said as two more appeared behind it. I thought I could see at least five more ships along the horizon, but they were too far away to make out clearly.
“Time to go,” I said with a relieved smile. But I knew the real relief would come the moment I watched Australia fade into the distance as we sailed away. I used that image to push me forward, for we still had one more challenge to get through before we were safe.
We grabbed our weapons and ran downstairs. Having studied the streets from the window, we knew we had to turn right out of the restaurant, go to end of the street, turn left and run as fast as we could to the wharf. I pushed the stairwell door open and entered the restaurant, heading straight to the window to make sure the street was clear.
I peered through the crack in the boards just as Eleanor had done the day before, only to see that the street was still overrun with zombies. “Shit!”
The zombies that had converged on us in the street had dispersed, but not enough for us to make it out safely.
“What is it?” Lea asked before peering through the crack herself, answering her own question. “How the hell are we gonna get outta here?”
I looked around the restaurant, trying to find another way out. I turned to Richard. “Is there a back door here?”
“Yes,” he said before running into the kitchen. We followed him, but by the time we had caught up he was slamming the back door shut and turning to us with a pale face. “They’re out there, too. In the alleyway. They’re everywhere.”
“What do we do?” Ash asked, hopelessness all over her face.
A sudden flash of insight hit me. “Is the roof accessible?”
Richard scratched his head. “I don’t know, we’ve never been up there. Why?”
“What if we throw something off it ...” I started, making up my plan as I went along. “Something that would lead the zombies away from the front door and distract them long enough for us to get out.”
“It’s worth a try,” Lea said.
Five minutes later, we were pushing the door to the roof open and running to the edge and leaning over the concrete barrier.
I stared down at the zombies directly beneath us. “This could work.”
“We just need to find something to throw down there to distract them,” Lea thought aloud. “Is there any meat left in the restaurant kitchen? That would distract them for sure.”
“We ate it all within the first week,” Ash said.
We watched the stragglers wander aimlessly around the street, some just standing still, staring at nothing.
“I have an idea,” Lea said. “But you might not like it.”
“I’m open to anything if it gets us out of here,” Richard said.
“We all know zombies crave meat, human flesh ...” she paused, watching Ash for a reaction. Her hesitance to continue clued me in on her plan, and I hoped the others would be on board with it. “We could use Eleanor’s body as bait.”
Ash cringed at the idea, but nodded reluctantly. “If we have to.”
“It might be our only choice,” said Richard.
The four of us solemnly walked down to the fourth floor to retrieve Eleanor. A heavy woman, it would take all of us to carry her back up to the rooftop. Ash and I each lifted an arm while Lea and Richard carried her by the legs.
“Ready?” Richard asked. “Okay, one ... two ... three ... Lift.”
A groan escaped my lips as I lifted, and I tried not to notice how Eleanor’s head swung abnormally, disjointed from her body. We each struggled to hold her weight and navigate the steps and turns simultaneously, making the climb agonizingly slow. I suspected we each felt a lot of guilt over what we were about to do, so I avoided eye contact, not wanting to make the experience any more uncomfortable than it already was.
By the time we pushed the rooftop door open for the second time, we were dripping with sweat. The sun had well and truly risen, and looking out over the water I could see the boats had disappeared behind the buildings in front us, meaning they were close to docking. We were running out of time.
We pushed forward, carrying Eleanor the last few steps to the barrier and exerting our last ounces of strength to lift her onto the edge. We positioned her right on the corner of the building, ensuring she would land as far away from the front door as possible.
“Ready?” I asked, placing my hands against her cold body, prepared to push.
“Ready,” they said in unison.
I took in a deep breath. “Forgive us, Eleanor.” Together, we pushed her off the edge and watched her fall through the air before hitting the ground with a disturbing crack. At least a dozen nearby zombies ran to her immediately, their hungry screeches alerting the rest, who quickly followed.
“Let’s go,” I said as I turned around, only to realize we were not alone on that roof. I let out a gasp, causing Lea to turn around to see what I was staring at. When she saw them, she froze just as I had, staring hopelessly at the zombies coming our way. They were climbing over an arched concrete slab that separated our building from the one behind it, which I could see had a rooftop bar – and business must have been good the day of the outbreak, judging by how many zombies were climbing onto our roof to get us. They blocked the door, trapping us between them and a sixty-foot drop. Not wasting a single second, I looked at our surroundings, searching for another way out. Ours was just one in a long row of attached buildings, all roughly the same height, giving us a level surface to run.
“We’ll have to run across the rooftops,” I whispered. “Go!”
The four of us launched into a sprint, leaping over the first brick barrier that separated our building from its neighbor.
Jumping over exposed pipes, ducking under electrical wires, and climbing through scaffolding, we were racing across the buildings like they were an urban obstacle course. As I reached the top of the first of four gabled townhouse roofs, I slipped and slid down into the crevice, scraping the skin of my elbows on the tin. Not letting it slow me down, I gritted my teeth and kept going. The sound of our panicked footsteps pounding on the metal drowned out the moans and shrieks of our hunters, but I knew they were still chasing us. I could feel their ravenous eyes on me. The last townhouse was separated from the next building by a tall brick wall with a significant drop on the other side. Lifting ourselves up, we swung our legs over before awkwardly lowering ourselves down as far as we could to make the fall as short as possible. One by one, we let go, dropping onto the next roof, landing on our backsides painfully. Only Ash was still holding on, staring down at the drop fearfully.
“C’mon, Ash!” Lea said.
“You can do it,” I added. “Just let go!”
She was hanging on tight, building up the courage to let go, when a zombie grabbed hold of her arms from the other side of the wall. Ash’s terrified screams bounced off the buildings all around us, but her fear of the zombie was greater than her fear of falling, so she let go of the wall and struggled free, dropping on her side in front of us. She let out another scream as she cradled her arm, and I knew she had broken it. We helped her to her feet and started to run again, aware that the wall would only hold the zombies at bay momentarily.
Richard pointed ahead of us. “There’s a fire escape!”
I looked to where he was pointing to, seeing old fire escape stairs zig-zagging down the side of the next building.
/> But as we got closer, it became obvious that we had one more obstacle to overcome before we could reach it: a laneway ran between the two structures, meaning we had a four-foot gap separating us from our only way down.
“No!” Ash wailed as we approached the edge, holding her shattered arm close to her chest.
I could hear the zombies gaining on us as we skidded to a stop, kicking dustings of loose cement down into the lane beneath us.
Richard held his hands on his head in panic. “We’re trapped.”
Chapter Eleven
“We have to jump it,” I said as I threw my axe across the gap. I was already running a few feet back to do a run-up when I heard it scrape against the roof, waiting for me to meet it there. The opposite building was slightly lower and the roof was flat, giving decent space to land. All I had to do was make the distance. My heart pounded in my chest as I sped towards the edge. I knew if I didn’t take the leap on my first attempt, I would be frozen by fear and the zombies would surely kill me. Ash held her unbroken arm over her eyes as I ran past her, too afraid to watch in case I fell to my death.
Just before I reached the edge, I launched myself off the side of the building, my arms outstretched at my sides. Even though it was only a split-second, I felt like I was airborne for hours, hovering in the uncertainty of my own survival.
I tumbled onto the concrete surface, crying out in pain as my cuts and bruises grazed the roof. Rolling to a stop, I made sure all my bones were intact and the folder was still firmly in my bag. The next thing I knew, Richard was in the air, heading straight for me. I rolled out of the way just as he made impact with the roof, falling onto his side in relief. I looked to Lea, who was holding her machete in fighting position while she told Ash to jump. Ash was hesitating, peering nervously over the gap while Lea prepared to take on the first of at least thirty zombies that were closing in on them.
“Ash!” I called. “Jump! You’ll make it!”
She nodded at me, but even from a distance I could see the unwillingness in her eyes. Lea glanced at her, having the same realization I’d had: Ash wasn’t going to jump.
“Shit!” Lea said before turning to us and waving us out of the way. Richard and I backed away as Lea swung her machete and baseball bat over the gap. They landed with a clang, the bat rolling to a stop at my feet. I watched Lea as she grabbed Ash’s arm and pulled her back, holding her hand tight. The zombies were so close that they had less room to run—they would have to make up for it in the strength of their take-off. Lea started running, pulling Ash along with her. At first I panicked, thinking Ash was going to stop short and let Lea fall, but in the last moments she found her courage. They ran to the edge and leapt into the air, still holding each other’s hands as they flew.
Ash was the first to land, making it safely even though it visibly caused more pain in her arm. Lea wasn’t as lucky. Her foot slipped on the fringe upon landing. I watched in horror as she disappeared down the side of the building, only her fingers clutching to the roof. Richard and I ran to her, lying on our stomachs as we grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up, dragging her onto the roof and as far away from the edge as we could.
“Thanks,” Lea said breathlessly as we lay there, watching the zombies falling off the opposite building, blinded by their lust for us.
Not waiting to catch our breath, we climbed as fast as we could down the fire escape. It rattled and squeaked under our hurried pace, but our time was far too valuable to take it slow. We didn’t know how long our rescuers could wait for us, so we had no time to spare. The rest of our lives depended on us getting across just two more blocks.
I leapt off the ladder, thankful to be back on the ground, and stood flat against the brick of the building, waiting for the others to follow. With a racing heart, I peered around the corner into the street, surveying the area for zombies. In the distance to my left, the horde was still crowded around Eleanor, greedily fighting over her flesh. Immediately to my right was the road that led to Circular Quay. I turned back to Lea, Ash and Richard, and quietly pointed in the direction we needed to go. They nodded, and at my signal, we sprung into action. We sprinted around the corner and down the street towards the water, only to see yet another obstacle in our way.
I let out a frustrated groan. A twelve car pile up spanned the entire width of the street, blocking our way to the wharf. Zombies roamed in between the cars like mice in a maze. One by one, they caught our scent and started scrambling over the cars to get to us.
“There!” Lea said as she pointed to a narrow side street just ahead of us. With no way forward and only a horde with a taste for blood behind us, it was our only option. We ran for it, devastated to discover it was a dead end.
“No, no, no!” Ash wailed as we spun around to see the zombies cornering us.
I was not giving up. I wasn’t ready to die, not when we were so close to freedom. I kept running, even though the others told me there was no way out. I reached the end of the alley, looking around for any way through. A slither of light was shining into the alley, and I followed it with a hopeful heart.
At the very end, between two buildings, was a very narrow gap. I inspected it, my eyes lighting up when I caught a glimpse of the sparkling water on the other side of it. It would be a tight squeeze, but we could slide through it. That thin opening held our only ray of light.
“Over here!” I called, not taking my eyes off the harbour, letting the sight of it lift my spirits. Within seconds, Lea, Richard and Ash were squeezing in between the two walls, side-stepping their way through the gap. I slid in behind them, carefully avoiding brushing up against Ash’s injured arm. The last thing I saw before I was face to face with brick was five zombies running down the alley towards me. “Hurry!” I urged, knowing we were moving much too slow, the zombies could be squishing through the gap within seconds. We scrambled along, scratching our skin and snagging our clothes against the rough bricks as we pushed ourselves through. An ear-piercing screech made me jump in fright, and I turned to see a zombie staring at me from the alleyway. The way it looked at me, with eyes of pure evil, sent terror running down my spine. I stared back at it as it tilted its head to the side, watching me curiously, taunting me. It let out another screech before leaping into the gap, the skin of its arms peeling away as it grazed against the wall.
Panic washed over me. I struggled to breathe, the tightness of the space constricting my chest, magnifying my anxiety to extreme levels. Lea took one final step before making it out, with Richard only two steps behind her. “Please hurry!” I begged, pressing my palms against the wall to help push me faster. I was right behind Ash, terrified that the zombie was gaining on us. She whimpered when I accidentally knocked her elbow, but I was too focused on those menacing eyes to care. If Ash didn’t move faster, I would die. I looked back at the zombie, who had lost an arm in its frenzied attempt to reach me. Another one had squeezed into the gap behind it, and I could see countless more wild eyes watching from the alley, all pushing to be the next in line to get through. Just then, Richard stepped out onto the next street. He urged us to hurry as Lea slid her arm in to help. Ash took her hand and screamed in pain as Lea pulled her, knocking her arm against the wall. In just one pull, Ash was out, and Lea reached back in for me. I grabbed her hand, holding onto her wrist, but the zombie was too close. It reached for me, digging its fingers into my arm, its fingernails snapping backwards as they dragged down my skin. I swung my arm up, elbowing it in the chin and knocking it backwards long enough for me to lift my axe. It was awkward to move in such a tight spot, but I managed to hit the zombie with the butt of the axe more than once, crushing its jaw in so it couldn’t bite into me. Other zombies were hot on its tail, and with Lea pulling me, I hurriedly took one last side-step and fell out of the gap and into the street. I watched from the ground as the zombie pushed itself forward, its freshly exposed bones grinding against the walls. It became stuck at the edge and leaned its head out, staring down at me and trying to open and close i
ts disfigured jaw. I slid out of the way and scrambled to my feet, leaving it there to block the others from getting through.
We turned and ran as fast as we could towards the wharf. Three large barges had docked in the bay, two at wharfs and one alongside the walkway—that was the one closest to us. Each barge had a crew of people in biohazard suits, testing survivors. A crowd of survivors like us were on the barge, lining up as they waited to be tested. Smaller rescue boats were speeding back and forth from each barge and out of the harbour, I assumed transporting uninfected survivors from the make-shift floating quarantine to the ship. My heart sank to see how little survivors there were, and I hoped many more had already left for the ship. Trying to distract myself from my exhaustion while I ran, I searched for my friends in the sea of people, but to no avail.
Heavily armed forces surrounded the entire area. Having rolled out rows of barbed wire to create a path to each barge, at least one hundred military officers were on guard, holding shields to protect them from the hordes of zombies getting tangled in the wire. Once stuck in the barbed teeth, soldiers used one hand to hold their shield up while the other stabbed the zombie in the head. Other zombies were being shot by snipers who had been strategically placed on the top of the barges. It was clear that, even in such a short time, a lot of work and planning had gone into our rescue operation.
A soldier guarding the barge entrance pointed at us and waved to one of the snipers, who then turned his gun towards us. I held my hands up defensively as I ran, trying to show him we were innocent, that we weren’t infected, but he held his position. He started firing and I screamed as I heard the bullets flying by my head. But each one missed. I glanced behind me to see three zombies lying on the ground, bullet wounds in their foreheads. The sniper was shooting at them to protect me.
