Pots and pans cnked across the tile floor as Dern searches for new weapons, Bernadina was busy picking a bag, settling on a hefty kitchen bag she topples it over and dumps out all the extra utensils and dishware.

  Charlene was on her knees, her head stuffed under the cabinets joining in, seeking to bolster their defenses.

  Dern began setting whatever he found, knives, tenderizer hammers, even a few meat pokers. Charlene set in a few of her own finds, most notably a rge curved pizza knife that was longer than her arm.

  Her beaming expression made it apparent she was quite proud of her findings.

  “I'll pack.” Bernadina said, she gnced at Dern “Find anything we can eat or drink and let's regroup.”

  “You're so pretty.” Dern replies, almost talking over the end of her sentence. His wide eyes were dreamy as he stared at the loose strands of messy hair that fell across her face.

  Bernadina scoffed, her cheeks flushing “Focus Dern.” She gently scolded him.

  He simply gave her a knowing smile before trotting off for a final sweep for supplies. Charlene watched with a grin of her own, but it also made her feel a bit lonely. She missed Creed.

  Her eyes drifted to the hallway, the rge double doors had round windows, and through the pstic inserts she saw movement.

  “Bern…” her voice trailed quietly, head cocking in confusion.

  Bernadina hardly had a moment to look up before the doors swung open and a small mob of undead piled inside.

  Charlene screamed. She leapt back and quickly pawed at the counter for a weapon. Yelping when she nicked her fingertip on a bde.

  Before Bernadina could defend herself, Dern charged forward, his thick shoe smmed against the side of the shambling corpses, giving them a brief second to arm themselves.

  “Creed!” Charlene cries out, her eyes scanning the oncoming crowd.

  Swiftly they held up their arms and cut down the first few staggering Cress. They saw more. They heard an encroaching stampede.

  “Fuck!” Dern excims as Bernadina looks around frantically. She dashed to the side as Charlene struck down another undead but the crowd seemed to just grow, pushing them further back into the kitchen.

  “Over here!” Bernadina calls, holding the push bar to the kitchen back door.

  Dern brightened up at the sight of her at the door and dashed to follow. Charlene snatched the bag of knives before spinning, gncing at Bernadina’s backs as she follows, running after the both of them.

  The air brushes over their bare skin as they step out into the chaos of the city, they were in a back alley connected to the line of adjacent restaurants, heavy duty dumpsters and greasy pipes, only a few feet to their right was a rge chain link fence blocking the edge of the alleyways.

  Charlene gasps as the undead noticed them. They threw their broken bodies into the fence, peeling their skin back as they desperately tried to force themselves through the segmentations. Docked lips exposed gnashing teeth, shing tongues trying to get a taste of the survivors.

  The concrete below them was stained and dirty, and then the gss above them sprinkled down, the few loose shards shattering just off of Dern's right.

  Charlene cries out as a body spttered against the ground beside her, the heavily damaged Cress cwed at their feet, body too broken to move closer. Dern snatched Bernadette’s toned arm and ran, it took Charlene a few brief seconds to follow, distraught with the undead encroaching.I'mChipped fingers scratched at the sole of her shoes, she watched green vines struggle out from under the gore of the broken ribcage, moving towards her.

  The call of the undead snapped her out of her daze and she followed after the couple.

  The streets were filled with the undead and the sound of engines, a motorcycle engine. Hobbling forward they ended up in the middle of the street.

  A rge pack of undead had followed the fleeing vehicle, the back of the mob began to lose interest in the bike and with three more humans standing in the street their targets shifted.

  Charlene startled at the sound of smming. She looked up to the gss sky bridge and saw Monet spping the gss. Creed behind her with Debra in hand as Waylon struck the oncoming Cress.

  “Monet! Baby!” Charlene cries out so happy to see two of her loved ones alive.

  “Charlene!” Creed dashed towards the gss to see her, he excimed a shallow yelp when he saw the shambling corpses begin to encircle them.

  Looking up and down the street they saw the lines of stores and restaurants. Cafes, stores.

  Charlene couldn't hear their voices but she frantically gestures towards a car dealership down the road.

  Monet gave her a thumbs up but Charlene pointed at her in horror, an undead charged at her, smming into the gss as Creed yanked her out of the way at the st second.The gss cracked, sending broken lines down the bridge.

  Creed gave Charlene a final, pleading look, before he and Monet scooped up Debra and ran further down the bridge.

  Charlene looks back at the couple, watching as their sharp kitchen knives tore through the pliable rot of the Cress.

  “We'll get a car and drive the fuck out of here.” Charlene instructed as she began to trot towards the dealership.

  Streets were spttered with greying stains and abandoned debris, and the abundance of undead. Shome had been struck by the fleeing bike leaving them with broken limbs dragging against the concrete.

  “I'll lead.” Dern grit his teeth, keeping Bernadina behind him.

  His chef's knife slid almost effortlessly inside the rotted socket of an infected, and as he sliced again he managed to sever a head or two. He gagged nearly every time, blinking so the tears didn't blur his vision.

  Bernadina kept close, almost clinging to his back as she shoved and stabbed at any Cress that managed to get close.

  Charlene excimed, stumbling back as a crawling torso snatching at her feet. Tripping with a pained grunt she hit the concrete. “Get off!” She shouted, turning her head hoping to see Creed there to rescue her. She watched as another undead closed the gap between her and the couple, cutting off her sight of Bernadina.

  “Come back!” She begged, kicking her foot into the shaved off cartige of the undead's nose, its lips split, leaking a thick greenish fluid.

  Her gaze flicked upwards hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of Creed but what she saw was a horde. Most of them were running forward, in the direction the four fled, the few stragglers took notice of survivors on the street. Ramming themselves into the cracked gss of the sky bridge until the panel shattered. Undead tumbled from the breakage and hit the concrete with multiple sickening thuds.

  Her eyes went wide and she suddenly screamed as a hand gripped her shoulder, she was yanked to her feet and was met with Bernadina scolding expression.

  “Get moving!” Bernadina excimed as she pulled Charlene back towards Dern, who had kicked down another undead, stabbing down into the eye socket.

  They scrambled towards the thin alleyway that led towards the dealership, they wanted to avoid the mass of undead that clogged the streets. Dashing forward they dodged or toppled over Cress that got too close.The wind tangled their hair and chilled their cheeks as they ran for their lives.

  The growls followed them, when they saw a fence Dern quickly shoved down bags of trash and helped boost Bernadina up onto it, Charlene sliced the chest of the closest Cress but it didn't deter the creature who desperately reached towards her.

  Bernadina nded on the other side of the fence and drove her shoe down into a waiting Cress, her knife quickly finishing it with surprising strength.

  Charlene tosses the bag of weapons to Dern, the thick material preventing him from being cut, and he in the same motion unches the bag over the fence. Bernadina snatched the bag up and threw it over her shoulder.

  Dern braces himself as Charlene moved next, climbing over him to jump the fence in a swift and smooth action.Dern had to finish off a few encroaching Cress before he could follow, Bernadina gasped, watching him but remaining silent, not wanting to distract him.

  She was practically frozen with fear. Charlene was behind her, defending, there were a lot less undead in the alleyways but there were still too many for Charlene's liking.

  The sounds of shattering gss and angry growls filled the city as undead threw themselves off of buildings and through windows to drag their broken bodies towards them.

  Dern leapt onto the dumpster and climbed over the fence, kicking at the hands that grasped for his shoes, Bernadina stabbed through the chain links trying to reach any of Dern's pursuers.

  He nded with a grunt beside her and the three quickly began running again.

  Soles of shoes pounded against the cracked concrete as the three sprinted to the T junction of the alley, Dern was in front, he was aiming to go left, towards the dealership. Shoving undead to the left or tripping them for Bernadina to finish. Charlene held the rear and couldn't stop herself from looking back.

  The fence bulged, close to caving under the onsught of pressure. The Cress pressed their bodies against the barrier with mindless hunger, the front began getting trampled as more undead followed, the feral way they moved showed no dexterity, only sheer need as they scrambled over one another attempting to climb the fence.

  Charlene felt her heart drop as the links snapped. Her head turned back to the couple just in time to see them turn, she followed, they were at the back of a long motel now, the st building until the street, the dealership just on the other side.

  The dealership held many broken cars, many crashed into one another as others seemed to share their ideas of snagging a vehicle. From the looks of it there were still lots of cars, she just hoped one of them still worked.

  Dern jumped over a toppled trash can and eyes the building in front of him. The dealership was a short but sleek looking building, it looked somewhat out of pce being a stark white, or it was before it was damaged and stained, compared to the brown bricks and warm pster that made up most of the surrounding buildings.

  Hearts pounding and feet stomping they charged forward.

  A scream caused Dern to stumble. Motel windows gave out raining down jagged pieces of gss, the sharp shards tore into Charlene's dirtied skin before she was crushed under the weight of falling undead.

  “Charlene!” Dern shouted, he skid, slowing to back peddle towards her.

  Bernadina pushed into him, her arm blocking his retreat as she kept him back. He was already too te, teeth tore into the unmoving bulk of Charlene's form, she was gone.

  Dern felt bile in his throat and tears in his eyes. Guilt tore into him as he allowed Bernadina to drag him forward towards the dealership.

  Dern gasped, huffing out “No.” Over and over again.

  The shade of the alleyway gave way to the sunny main street, a few undead splotched the road but the bulk of the horde was in the camp, or following anything else that moved.

  Bernadina had her arm wrapped around Dern's waist as he stumbled, trying to focus again. Bernadina wasn't letting any detail get past her. She was moving fast enough to dodge the listless undead on the streets as they quickly crossed the road.

  They leapt over the sidewalk and dashed to the dealership, running past broken into cars and towards the smashed window of the show room.

  The floor was slick under them but they didn't see any immediate movement, Bernadina quickly dragged Dern into one of the many back offices and gently shut the door, hiding from sight.

  The office was a small room that salesmen would finish up deals in, Bernadina tossed the bag of knives onto the desk, not caring about the papers or knickknacks.

  The silence was broken as Dern crumbled. “She was so nice!” Dern excimed, tears now running down his cheeks.

  Bernadina reached out and pulled his face close, letting him soak the shoulder of her jacket “Shh.” She gently soothes, but also reminds him to stay quiet, Dern follows easily as Bernadina sat him down and held him.

  She strokes his hair softly, his chest rocking with sobbing breaths as he struggled to keep himself quiet. “We'll regroup with the others and drive out of the city.” Bernadina says, her voice low and soothing even if she herself didn't believe it, she just wanted to comfort Dern. He sniffled and shook his head but Bernadina continued “It's going to be okay Dern.” and with her voice so soft Dern couldn't help but believe her.

  He hiccupped. Trying to speak through his cries “They're going to bme us, what if they don't let us drive with them?” Dern huffs, working himself up again, Bernadina felt his shaking intensify and she held him tighter.

  “No matter what we'll be okay.” Bernadina replied. Staring at the bnk wall behind him. Her expression never betraying the range of emotions coalescing in her chest.