A Rough Escape

[Lukas POV]

'If I knew sneaking out of that cramped bunker would've just earned me another lecture from my brothers I would've never come then.' Lukas groaned in his head as Elias kept pestering the boy for coming with Erik occasionally adding his own two cents.

'Who am I kidding I would've still come.' Lukas thought wryly as his brothers abruptly stopped lecturing once they heard groans from the last room in the house that they were currently cleared for dead folks.

Turning toward Erik who motioned for us to look at him, he quickly whispered some instructions, who made him boss?

"It sounds like only one, from what the man told us, it might be his wife who turned before he left and closed the door to leave her in here, now, the groans sound like it in the back of the room so I'm going to slowly open the door and take care of the biter, I need you two to watch my back, one at the stairs and one in the room in case of any surprises," Erik said with a surprising amount of confidence and finesse

'It seems the end of the world has changed my impulsive older brother.' I thought as I volunteered to watch the stairs, still not quite comfortable with confronting those things he calls biters.

[Erik POV]

Lukas was now in a position to watch the stairs while Elias and I were ready to enter the master bedroom.

Judging from the sound and distance she should be in the back of the room, hopefully, pinned by something, although the odds of that happening are slim a man could still hope right?

Looking toward Elias, I gave him a 'you ready?' look and he nodded back toward me and so we entered.

I slowly and as quietly as possible grabbed the door nob and opened it trying my damndest not to make noise, after successfully getting it fully turned I opened the door.

The door opened with a low squeal that didn't seem to alert the biter thankfully.

Now that the door was open we entered the room, our hiking boots making a soft thump on the floor, we moved closer and closer until I could see the biter clearly, her back turned toward me.

Taking the opportunity I was presented with, I gripped my machete tight and swung vertically down onto her head, the adrenaline in my body allowing my swing to be strong enough to slice through her skull around halfway, immobilizing her and effectively killing her.

Now that the threat was dispatched, Elias and I sighed a breath of relief as we cleared the connecting bathroom and then headed back to the stairs to get Lukas and tell him to start looting the place.

We not only were here for the canned food and water bottles the man had but also any other useful items, among them being some clothes for the various people, although I'm sure most won't be able to fit in them for one reason or another.

Another important thing we needed, was antibiotics and medicine in general, in the apocalypse the last thing you want is a group all succumbing to a basic disease like the flu or some bacterial infection.

[3rd Person POV]

The three brothers started looting the various rooms, rummaging through any and every container, drawer, or dresser as they loaded up their backpacks.

Elias mainly collected the medical supplies since as a senior medical student he knew the most about this stuff.

Lukas mainly focused on clothes and other miscellaneous items as he went through everything he could. He collected clothes, shoes, and even some towels and blankets, he loaded these larger items into a duffle bag he found in the closet of the master bedroom.

While the two were rummaging through the upstairs, Erik was downstairs going through the cabinets and the pantry looking for any nonperishable and just food that wasn't expired in general.

Erik was almost fully done with the cabinets as he opened the last one, only to be met with a large collection of various canned foods.

With a growing smile on his face, Erik found canned soups, fruits, and even some spam which, was barely edible in his opinion but times were desperate.

The three brothers kept looting through the house as they were eventually ready to move out and return to the bunker.

Before they left, however, Erik got the idea to grab some of the knives from the kitchen and try his hand at fashioning them into makeshift spears later down the line.

[Erik POV]

"Are you guys ready to head out?" I asked my brothers as we finished loading things into our bags, Lukas finishing up with closing the needlessly large duffle bag if it wasn't for the fact that we needed the blankets and towels I would've told him to leave them behind.

After getting confirmation from Elias and Lukas, we started our exit from the house, it was around 4 o'clock and we really needed to hurry back so as to not get stuck out here in the middle of the dark.

It had only been a few weeks that they'd been in that bunker but from the looks of things the power lines had already fallen dormant meaning the streets would be as dark as can be.

after one last check to make sure everything was secured, we exited the house through the front door since there weren't any biters that we could see around the entrance.

Once we were out of the house, we quickly ran back into the alley ways and back parts of houses and yards to avoid any large groups of biters on the street.

During our time heading back to the bunker, we encountered only a few biters thankfully, all of which we dispatched with a quick swing of our machetes.

As we neared the house with the bunker in its backyard, Elias and I who were in the front of our little "formation" heard Lukas yell from behind us in surprise and fear, quckkly turning around I could see that there was a biter that had grabbed Lukas' duffle bag.

"Shit, leave the bag Lukas we need to get out of here, your yelling most likely attracted the horde out here!" I said in a raised tone throwing caution about our noise level to the wind as we were already being slowly surrounded.

"Come on this way!" Elias said while motioning for us to move through a way that didn't have any dead in it.

As we started to pick up our pace and break out into a full-on sprint, we turned the corner onto the street where the house was and what met us was the sight of a horde that had to have numbered in the hundreds.

"What the hell why is there so many now!" Lukas exclaimed at the sheer size of the horde which eclipsed the original size of the group we met on our way into the neighborhood weeks ago.

"Who cares, let's move!" I said with a sense of hurry in my voice as the shuffling horde moved its way to us.

As we made our way to the house with the bunker, I couldn't help but think what would happen if we led this massive gathering of dead to the bunker and if the door could handle this many of them bearing down on it.

Voicing my worries to Elias through my labored breaths, he also paled at the thought of this many of the biters following us, so, we quickly devised a plan to create as much noise in an area a sufficient distance away.

I of course volunteered since I was the fastest of us. While Lukas may be quick and squirrelly, I still was the better athlete.

"You can't, that's suicide!" Lukas exclaimed picking up on what Elias and I were saying as we ran, already nearing the bunker.

"You two need to go now-" I said as I cut myself off seeing the sight that met us.

Standing a couple of dozen yards away was a group of 20 or so bitters that were just shuffling around the street, hearing our approach and yelling, the biters quickly snapped to attention as they began their slow pursuit of us as well, effectively blocking our way forward.

"For fucks sake!" I yelled in frustration as we slowed down, the two sides of biters inching closer and closer every second.

Quicly thinking of a solution, I looked to the sides trying to find a way to duck into only to see more bitters emerge from the darkness.

'shit, the sun was going down already?' I thought as my mind fell to the only conclusion I came up with, which was to fight our way out.

Thankfully the 20 or so bitters in front of us, now about 20 yards away, were separating from their tight formation leaving areas in between that if we take advantage of we could slip through with only having to take out a few of the biters on our way through. 

Telling my brothers of my plan, although apprehensive they both steeled themselves to get out of this situation.

I was the first to move as I rushed the lead biter and stuck it in the head with my machete at a sideways angle.

Surprisingly I was able to cleanly slice through its head, chalking it up to adrenaline, I quickly moved to the next biter as my brothers followed my lead taking two more themselves, albeit with some difficulty on Lukas' end.

As we made our way through the wave of biters, we dodged and weaved when we could and dispatched any biters we needed to.

Slowly but surely we made it out of the small encirclement and broke out into a sprint once again, as we neared the bunker I gave Elias my bag and told them to go to the bunker as I led the horde away.

As he took the bag I saw him wince for a split second before he took the bag and nodded toward me, motioning for Lukas to follow him.

Once they were close to the bunker, I hollered and yelled toward the horde while through some rocks I found on the ground around me, my efforts seemingly working as the horde turned its attention toward me, with a few stragglers following Elias and Lukas but not enough to warrant any worry.

I ran and ran until I was a good few blocks away from the bunker, the horde following me the entire time for the most part as a few biters here and there broke off for whatever reason.

Although I was exhausted, I knew I needed to get back to the bunker as staying a night out here with this horde around wouldn't be very safe much less a smart idea.

And so, using every last drop of willpower I had left, I pushed myself to make it back to the bunker.

I eventually reached the entrance, as I walked closer to the door, I couldn't help but have an odd feeling before I knew it, I heard a muffled yet still loud bang sound, I quickly went to the door, trying to pry it open which at first didn't work, that is until I heard the click of the lock and it swung open.

Once i was inside the threshold that led to the bunker proper, the scene I came upon shook me to my very core as a sense of pure rage and fury built up.