Chapter 9: The Horde

The sight of a mutilated male corpse running at him in deranged form, as if it were a starving predator, finally snapped him out of it.

Not wanting to take any risks, he climbed over the edge before running to the sidewalk to his right.

While Gray had chosen a path where there were no zombies, he ran as fast as he could, making as few sounds as possible, unsure of what would trigger them. Meanwhile, the other zombie catching up to him was making as much noise as possible.

The moment Gray reached the sidewalk, he leapt at the wall of the nearest building. He shuddered as he increased his pace.

It grazed his back in that split second as it rushed from beneath him, crashing into the wall.

'It caught up with me!?'

[Pause]

Gray literally ran up the wall by pausing the heel of each of his feet with every step. The maneuver could have resulted in him twisting his feet if he failed, but he was much more concerned about the zombie beneath him.

While watching Gray escape, it let out a blood-curdling scream so loud that Gray had no choice but to cover his ears.

As he climbed over the edge of the building, he glanced down, looking at the ground below.

Even in the midst of the sounds of explosions and gunshots going off in the distance, the noise seemed to attract the other zombies around. Taking this into consideration, Gray concluded that they were more focused on what they could see than what they could hear.

It was only after Gray confirmed that no one was climbing the rooftop that he gave a quick check around the rooftop to make sure all was well. He let out a sigh as soon as he was certain that it was true, only to collapse from a throb within his chest a short while later.

He gritted his teeth as he grabbed hold of his shirt. It hurt. With each throb in his heart, he was pounded by unbearable pain.

"ARGH…!". In agony, he groaned as he tried to get up.

It had been long since he had reached his limits. He hadn't slept well for so long. His health was deteriorating.

The more important concern Gray had, however, was how its hand had grazed him before he leapt. To keep from becoming anything like what was shown in movies, he needed to make sure that he had not been scratched.

Gray took off his shirt and checked his back for slashes, despite the pain he was feeling. In the end, it seemed to be a bit torn up all over, but it didn't really appear to be from the zombie, rather it seemed to have been from the sword slashes.

While looking at this, Gray sighed and sank to the ground. The cold rooftop seems to have woken him up as he spent the next few seconds staring at the sky, ignoring the groans of the zombies that were scurrying underneath the building.

While he covered his eyes with his forearms, he thought to himself, "Just a few seconds... Give me a break...".

"The sun is too strong..." He murmured

Gray took a few deep breaths in order to calm his mind. Nevertheless, before he was even aware of it, tears had been streaming down the sides of his eyes.

The tip of his nose grew redder and redder as he muttered the next few words with relief and joy on his lips. "So she hadn't died…"

How long had it been since he had last cried?

Gray remained in the same position for the next few seconds. His heart was filled with a strange feeling; it had been so long since he had felt this way. The feeling was short lived however, as he had to force himself to come back to reality shortly afterwards.

'The voice mail was five days ago. Is there even a chance that she's alive?'

The logical answer was no. That was what Gray had come to terms with and decided on. Yet deep within the confines of his closed heart, there was a hope. There was a glimmer of hope that she was still alive.

Ignorant of how long it had been since the last time he had shed a tear, he wiped away his tears. He noticed a shadow looming over him just as he was about to get up.

When he looked up, his heart sank. The figure of a zombie could be seen falling towards him from the left.

He rolled quickly to the side, barely avoiding the zombie as it dropped beside him.

Once he had completed the roll, another one emerged from the corner of his eye on his right

Gray was left with no choice but to run with all his might.

When he glanced back, he couldn't believe what he saw.

From behind him a horde of zombies began to advance, the sound of the first zombie's scream had attracted many of them. There were so many of them that they piled up on top of one another, climbing one another to reach the very top of the building.

Upon seeing this, Gray ran.

'Oh SH-'

Gray jumped off the edge of the building onto the next one and continued on his way. He ran with his life on the line with no clue as to where he was going.

There were a lot of zombies that didn't jump, but instead plummeted to the ground. A very small fraction of them made it to the building due largely to the momentum they had gathered.

While Gray was running, he didn't bother looking back. He leapt from building to building in order to escape the pursuers.

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Gray stared up at the sky as he panted heavily. His eyes were wide open, glistening in the sunlight as he lost himself in thought.

"I got away from them but…"

He leaned over the top of the building from which he was standing, assessing the situation.

A lot of empty cars were parked on the roads, and some zombies were also roaming the streets. There had recently been a horde of zombies moving through because of another recent explosion.

"New Yorks the worst place to be in a zombie apocalypse"

He was right. The city had a population of 8.4 million people. So far, he had been running around the top of the buildings, surveying the area to see if he could find anything, but he only found zombies in the middle of the city.

The people who were still alive were either nonexistent or confined to their homes. In the city, the large broadcasters displayed blank images, so there was no extra information available.

The hordes were everywhere, and they followed every sound. Gray was extra careful after seeing what one of them could do.

'What do I do now…?' He wondered

He needed medical care, food, sleep, and a shower. Those were his top priorities. And now he has recently added something else to the list, a charger. It was important to him that he discover more about his sister.

Although there was no guarantee that the voice was in fact his sister in the first place, even if it was, why wouldn't she have contacted him in the past if she had been able to?

"Looks like there's no other choice…"

It was a no-brainer for him to take this option. This was extremely risky as he was still unaware of what caused someone to become a zombie.

It was a scavenging operation.