CH15 - The lucky ones

[Lyon's POV]

'Well, I guess it was a good thing I didn't bring mom's car with me.' I think to myself while staring at the sight in front of us. Behind us was the small exit we had taken to finally get out of that school, while morale did go up as we had finally left it behind, the sight in front of us just served to raise the anxiety of the three people behind me.

The streets and even a few portions of the pavement had been blocked with crashed cars. A few of the more mangled ones had blood dripping from their doors, a telltale sign of the fates of the car's passenger. Would it be us who were to be considered lucky as we are still alive or the people inside those cars who never had to need to survive and endure the current state of the world of the living?

I shake away these useless thoughts of mine and think back to the plans I had formulated last night. Ren's house was five streets to our north and three streets to the left if we were lucky enough to have nothing standing in our way. I doubt that's the case though so we'll inevitably have to make a few detours here and there.

I started walking to our destination while carefully observing the areas around me, the previously pristine streets and shops were now decorated with unmoving corpses of a few people here and there while the glass and the fronts of the shops I and Alyssa visited in the past were now destroyed. Possibly by the forceful entry of these zombies during their hunt for food, though there is a possibility that these were human raiders, I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to actually try to do that in this layer.

We stuck as close to the pavement as possible, there were a few occasions though wherein we had to go through cram spaces in the streets out of necessity due to some cars deciding that parking or crashing themselves into street lamps was a great idea. We managed to reach the northwestern corner pillar of the school fence after 20 minutes of walking past and around obstacles on the pavement only to then be presented with what would be our first large hurdle, and we haven't even gone past one street yet.

On the other side of the road to our front stood a large shambling horde of zombies, I squint my eyes and try to find the reason as to why there would be a large collection of them here, rising high above the zombie's heads was a metal wire fence and a few street barricades. They were most likely placed there in an attempt to keep the zombies on this side of the street but it seems like it failed considering how one corner of the metal wire fence and barricade had a large gap in between them.

'Damn, we haven't even gotten past one street and we're already boxed in.' I silently complain to myself while looking around the streets for a detour we could take. If this street was barricaded like this, then it wouldn't be too far off to guess that the other streets that led to the north were like this as well. We'll just have to try our luck and keep going left until we find a street that's less packed full of zombies.

I cross the street to my left and continued walking there, completely ignoring how a few carcasses of animals like dogs, birds, and cats were close to the zombified but stuck bodies of zombies inside cars due to the seatbelts they were wearing as they were bit and turned into what they are now. We continue walking for around 15 minutes until we finally reach another crossing lane, I look to my right and find the same situation as we had seen on the previous northern crossing which meant we'd need to keep going again.

We passed a few shops again that had now laid empty of any sign of life while our eyes wandered around, checking the current state of the outside world and comparing it to how it looked in our past, one that everyone had taken for granted as they had grown used to the normalcy of their day to day lives. It took about 10 minutes for us to reach the crossing lane this time, I look to my right and find fewer zombies in this barricade which meant we can start heading north from here.

'10 zombies, large spaces in between each one. We should be able to go around each one and pass safely as long as none of us are clumsy enough to bump into one of them' I think to myself while looking back at my companions who stood close to me. I cross the street and stood close to the building while glancing at the zombies in front of us. We were closer to the barricade now, that close proximity revealed to me how narrow the gap in this barricade was which meant it'd be a tight fit for us, we can pass through but that would mean that our space for errors had been greatly narrowed.

It wasn't like we had much leeway anyway so I decided to try our luck here and squeeze through the large gaps in between the zombies so we could reach the narrow exit that the barricade was giving to us. The zombies were shambling around so we had to be extra careful while walking past them, this action alone took about ten minutes as we were now standing in front of the barricade's gap with the zombies behind us.

'It's a narrow fit but we should be able to get past the barricade using it' I think to myself before attempting to squeeze through it while the others watch. I manage to squeeze through it but I noticed that my bag had almost bumped into the wire fence so I decided to stand close to the gap the others would be using as well to help them get through. Alyssa was the second person to go through the gap after me, she manages to get through it without any close mishaps as I did.

For some reason, Ren decided that it was the best time right now to act like a gentleman and decided to let Chisato go through the gap first which she manages to do which means only Ren was left on the other side with the zombies. He moves closer to the gap and I make the mistake of looking away for a few seconds as I suddenly hear the sound of leather bumping into the wire fence, creating a sound close to what you'd hear from a tambourine.

This mishap causes both me and the zombies on the other side to spring into action as I put my hand on the leather handle on top of his bag and pull him to this side of the barricade while the zombies begin rushing toward our direction. I position myself in front of the barricade and successfully push it back into its sealing position with the help of Alyssa and Chisato while Ren remained seated on the ground, possibly shocked over his close call with death.

All three of us sit back down on the ground as that slight bit of adrenaline finally wears off. Our rest doesn't last long though as we start to hear the agitated screeches of the zombies on the other side who remained adamant about trying to get a piece of Ren as their breakfast. We stand up and move towards Ren who I pull back up to his feet before slightly shaking him so I could get him out of his stupor.

"Oy, Earth to Ren, wake up we need to go." I tell Ren who nods to me while still being slightly out of focus. All of a sudden screeches coming from our north enter our ears, causing us to look at the source. Rushing in our direction was no less than 20 zombies, I look around in an attempt to find somewhere we could hide in. Directly to our left was an alleyway in the middle of a cupcake shop and what could be an apartment.

I start running towards the alleyway with the others close behind me, I glance at the exit of the alleyway and see those same zombies now rushing toward the barricade we were previously standing near to, bumping into the wire fence but failing to push it as the force coming from the zombies on the other side prevented it. I look around the alleyway and find a dumpster and an apartment ladder that was a bit too high to reach with our feet and hands alone.

'We can use the dumpster to get up the apartments using the ladder or we could just wait until all of the zombies have reached the barricade before silently slipping away.' I think to myself while looking at my companions who stood around waiting for what we were supposed to do. I decided against going up the apartments since it was still too early to just pause in our travels. I walk towards the exit of the alleyway and wait for 3 minutes with the others close behind me.

We had gone past two streets to the left already which meant that Ren's apartment should be one street to the left and five streets to the north. I take out one of the stranger's phones from my bag and slide my finger across the screen, prompting it to open as it reveals a wallpaper of the owner's family. Directly above it was the number 8:06, I look to the top right of the screen and learn that the phone I was holding was the one that only had 49%.

The phone with a faulty battery had died last night while I was asleep so I decided to just abandon it back at the maintenance shed. I hide the phone in my pockets and glance at the barricade and the road we'd be going through to reach the next street to our north. There weren't any zombies heading in our direction anymore so I slipped out of the alleyway with the others as quietly as possible while glancing behind us every now and again.

The roads going up north were the same as before with the exception being that there weren't any more barricades that could inhibit us from moving forward. Unfortunately, what replaced those blockades of steel were blockades of human bodies, both moving and unmoving. We managed to pass the first and second streets north but a horde of zombies was blocking the third northern street.

We would've been able to just turn left or right but both directions were unfortunately filled with a large mass of cars that prevented us from going through it. With nothing we could do, we decided to backtrack our steps and turn left back at the second northern street's crossing lane. This portion of our travels took about thirty minutes since we had to spend fifteen minutes of it to backtrack.

We turned left and continued walking down the pavement or the road itself, depending on whether or not there were any obstacles but around 15 minutes later, we finally reached the crossing lane. Our current position right now was directly south by three blocks of Ren's apartment, good thing most of the malls in this city were at the eastern blocks of the urban sector, or else we'd be encountering a vast sea of zombies instead of the kind we've been dealing with.

We turned right after reaching the crossing lane and passed a few apartments that had windows that kept tarpaulins that had messages or writings that were begging for help. We weren't heartless people but it wasn't like we could help them in any way so we just passed by them without a second thought. We are students, not the police or the army, thus we had no obligation to risk our lives or go out of the way for a bunch of strangers.

We reached the third northern street's crossing lane after 20 minutes and find the street to our right still blockaded with the same mass of cars that we had noticed earlier on the other side. The same could not be said for the northern street which we were going to take though so there was no need to make any detours this time. I wasn't familiar with this portion of the city both in this and the previous timeline so somebody else needed to take point.

"Ren, you're the one most familiar with these, I need you to take point this time." I whispered to Ren before receiving a nod of affirmation as he looks back at everyone before facing forward. We reached the fourth northern street's crossing lane around 15 minutes after Ren began leading but the sight that had greeted us was an entire block of buildings going up in flames which forced us to decide on what route to take.

"Lyon, do we go left or right, or do we try to force our way through?" Ren asks me while I think about the pros and cons of just forcing our way through. In the end, I decided against trying to force our way through the fire. It may be the faster route but it would bring too many unpredictable variables into play that I'd rather avoid. We decided to turn left but only when we reached the crossing lane there did Ren suddenly inform us of the structure of the streets.

"This street doesn't have any points where we can turn right, the same could be said for the eastern street before though so we'll just have to pray that the streets here aren't blocked." Ren explains to us. This meant that we'd be passing Ren's street by one block entirely which means we'd have to turn south after going right on the next crossing lane.

We reached halfway through the street when we encountered a horde of about 20 zombies that were just wandering about the street while weakly bumping into the abandoned cars. We couldn't just go around them though as the streets were too narrow for us to just dodge them. I had three plans, the first one was luck based and time consuming while the second one would be more or less a joke, but one I would be more than willing to do if needed, and the last one would be risky and exhausting

I would need to elaborate this to the others so I looked around the area we were currently in for any building we could go inside of so we can talk freely. There were two options, a little two-story café that had its door left open, or an apartment two buildings to its right that had its door dislodged from its hinges. The third plan would involve high rooftops so I decided that the better option of the two would be the apartment.

I move to the front of the group and start making my way towards the door, going around the various abandoned cars as quietly as possible as a few of them still had their zombified passengers inside. I take out the stranger's phone from my pocket and turn on its flashlight option, I point it at the hallways first to confirm whether or not it's clear before flashing it at the wall in an attempt to find the light switch.

The light switch was a bit further inside the hallway on the left side of the wall. I flick it open as the lightbulb in the middle of the hallway comes to life, bringing with it light and the knowledge that electricity was still working in the city, at least in this specific building since I couldn't rule out the possibility that it had a generator somewhere inside this building.

"Ok, I have three propositions for how we'd get past the zombies. One, we can go the crossing lane two blocks east of here and try to go through there, this will consume more time though." I explain to them while thinking of the pros and cons of this proposition.

"The best-case scenario would be that we find the streets not filled with those things outside and we reach the crossing lane there, turn left and go south from there to reach Ren's house. The worst-case scenario is that we can't use that street too which means we'd have wasted at least half an hour just getting there" I informed them while looking outside from the hallway, thinking of a way to tell them my second proposition without getting downright refused to.

"My second proposition... is that I use the same luring method I did back at the northern building. I sneak close to the horde and -" I tell them, only to get my genius plan interrupted before I could even start explaining it.

"No, what's the third proposition?" Alyssa asks, completely disregarding how she had interrupted me while the other two just snicker at me. I kneel on the ground and tighten the soles of my boots in preparation for the third plan.

"We go to the rooftop of this apartment, throw our bags to the next rooftop over and jump from here to there. We repeat this process until we either run out of jumpable roofs or until we reach a building that's outside of the vicinity of the horde." I explain to them before standing up, waiting for their verdict to come while I glance outside for any problematic movement from the horde.

"Let's try doing the first proposition first, if that fails then we can go through with the third plan." Alyssa asks everyone, the other two nod while I just shrug since I'd be fine with whichever one they decide on. With the changes to our procedure finalized, I walk out of the building with the others close behind me. We reach the crossing lane and start backtracking to reach the fourth northern street's crossing lane.

Alyssa runs up to walk beside me, carrying an expression abstractly cold enough to even catch Chisato and Ren's attention. I glance to my side every now and again, waiting for Alyssa to spout out whatever reason she could have to break formation and walk beside me.

"You... do you have a death wish? Why would you even consider doing the second proposition when there's a whole horde of them in front of us?" Alyssa asks me in a quiet voice without looking at me since she has to carefully check what she's about to step on or walk to so that there aren't any mishaps.

"I've already considered all the risks with that plan you know... it isn't like we're boxed in the same way we were back in that hallway. I knew you guys weren't going to let me do the second plan anyway so I just added it in as a joke." I explain to her while my eyes wander around as I take in the familiar view of destroyed shops, abandoned cars, and bloodied streets.

"It wasn't a funny joke Lyon, it was a risky plan that might just end up harming you with a single mistake or unforeseen variable." Alyssa answers back, a slight bit of satisfaction mixed in with worry evident in her tone over how I treated the second plan from the beginning, a mere joke.

"Oh, then I guess you'll just have to stay close beside me to make sure I don't make any stupid decisions." I teasingly reply to Alyssa's answer while holding her hand with my own. I glance to my side and notice her face dusted with a mix of red and pink due to embarrassment as she slightly fidgets the hem of her skirt with the hand that held my bokken while her other hand's grip on mine strengthened. I turn my gaze back in front of me, ignoring how the other two behind us were just watching our lewd handholding.

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A/N: I found trying to make different obstacles and problems for each street they took so it isn't too repetitive difficult, and I think I managed to do that much at least... hopefully.