Survive & Survive

Steve felt his skin vibrating, his blood pumping being heard from behind his ears, the adrenaline drowning his nerves. Clyde gave a sigh as he reached and pulled Steve to his feet, as he comments.

"Come on, kid. Yes. It's scary the first time, but we don't have time to go over it all. Can you stand?", Clyde would glance around giving their surroundings a once ago as he waited for Steve's response. Steve felt numb for a moment, but it quickly left him. He knew he can't mold over what had just happened. He did not actually think anything would happen. what a childish and selfish thought to conjure up, at such a scary and real moment. Steve shakes his head some to feel the skin rush blood back in as he replies.

"Yes... I'll be fine," Steve says as he then removes the magazine from the machine gun and reaches for his pocket. He only felt two solid rectangles left, already. Steve remembers how he lends half of his weaponry to Clyde and sighs upsettingly, as he then reloads his gun.

Clyde nods before aiming out of eyeshot passed the barn wall and would show a perfect example of suppressive fire. Clyde tugs the trigger shortly letting only a few bullets echo the simulated farm. Steve runs to Clyde as he sees the creature he was firing at was another decaying monster. It falls to the ground with several bullet exit wounds being advertised at the back of its head. Clyde lowers his gun. "Well, good," Clyde starts. "Stay on my six while I reach the sniper's nest. They should've heard your wasted bullets, so they'll start comin' any second, now."

Steve walks up to him from behind. He understood that the bottom side of a clock is a six. Is that what he meant? Clyde looked behind him, to see Steve focusing the same direction he was. Clyde rolls his eyes, as he then grabs the top of Steve's head, and rotates it to look behind them. Steve felt somewhat frustrated and wanted to focus upfront, not wanting to walk backwards to follow Clyde.

Steve noticed how they were walking a straight B line passing the fire pit, passing all of the cabins, and next to the locked church. The moment they would reach the fire pit, they would start to appear, almost out nowhere. At the corner of every corner, a zombie or two would start waddling and walking their way, desperately trying to get the warm bodies that have huddled themselves for better ground. Steve could not tell which one was closer or further. They all would travel along the same speed, gradually slipping up closer to them.

Steve just chose a dying body and shot at it. He tried to do it similarly to how Clyde had done it. The vibration of the gun rattling in his hands was not as bad, and he actually got the head. Steve did not feel that worried. For some odd reason, he had felt as if things were not as bad as they looked. They still had a straight path to the lookout tower. Things were going to be fine. That was when he bumped into Clyde who had stopped his progression to the tower. he starts shooting up ahead, beyond Steve's line of vision.

Clyde barks, "SHIT!!." Steve continues to shoot down more and more bodies. The more and more he killed, the more and more it felt so useless. Why did he and Clyde stop? Why are they not going to the tower when they are so close? The rush of adrenaline all slipped back to him again. His heart started racing faster and harder than before. He felt like he was about to puke, pass out, or die from sheer fear. Maybe all of the above!

They were getting closer! They began to move faster too. Steve felt himself slipping into the pit of fear. The monsters were too close for comfort now. They were at least within arm's length. A choice had to be made here, and now, they will die. Steve forced himself to gain a sudden rush of determination. He will not let this be the last time Steve will fight. He just got back to being alive. There are people who care and like him, here in this torn down warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Dying here will ruin it all. Ada will be disappointing. James will never get over his fear of Steve. Jason would find this all as a waste of effort, and Steve would not be able to see Yumi again.

No more standing!! Steve turns, facing Clyde, Breaking formation, and unloads half of his clip to the body that was practically directly in front of Clyde, before shoving him to the inside of the simple tower entrance. No door or anything, simply just a door-less entrance that shows a square room that has a wooden ladder to the right of them. Steve runs in and continues to shove Clyde up the ladder. Clyde makes a bunch of irritating sounds but eventually climbs without needing to be shoved. Steve looks back to see three to four walking corpses start to rush in. Steve's eyes widen as he felt like he was about to die. Might as well go down kicking and screaming. He aims his Gun and unloads the rest of his clip into the heads of the groaning men. Their heads would instantly be pelted with dots and holes, splattering brains, bone, and muscles all over the walls.

The four bodies then fell, revealing five more standing corpses behind them. Steve no longer had ammunition inside the gun. His expectations to feel the kick of the gun were upsettingly replaced with nothing. The trigger would not even click, it was locked up. He turns, hoping to see Clyde reaching the top but was barely even halfway up the ladder. Clyde was too low to let Steve get any higher than the reaches of the clingy walking decay behind them. Steve was desperately thinking of solutions or a way to get around Clyde. A few feet above Steve's reach were windows surrounding the walls of the stone tower. If he could jump to one of those, Steve could possibly just be able to jump to a part of the ladder above Clyde.

Steve had no option to make other than to try. If he fails he will rather quickly be devoured by the undead hoard, but if he is successful, he will be above Clyde or direction on Clyde's back. This very much felt more like an ultimatum to Steve.

Now or never.

Do or die.

Steve studies at the spacious gaps several feet above him. These windows had no glass for them so grabbing ahold of them to heft himself away from the undead should not be too difficult, however, it was impossible to tell. He bent down. His crimson eyes locked at the ledge of the window. This needs to be a high jump otherwise it will fail. His muscles numbingly clench and push up. His legs lift, hefting up into the air. Steve's arms desperately wanting to grasp hold of the windows ledge. It was getting close. Closer and closer with every moment caught in time. He felt the pit in his chest sink harder. Not because of the looming fear, but because of the sudden whiplash he had from jumping so hard. Every single muscle in his body felt tense as he reached the window. Then he kept rising...

He kept gaining elevation. Rising higher and higher almost passing the window completely. Steve's eye widened as he forced instincts into works, landing his feet on where he thought his hands would hold to pull himself up. Steve's shoes were bending to his heels as he gripped the sides of the window to regain his balance in this uncomfortable position he put himself in. He turns clumsily to see the numbers of the undead was getting larger by the second. The whole ground was being trampled by the feet of the dead. Steve then sees Clyde had gotten a bit higher than what he was before.

Might as well try this again, now that I know I can do this, Steve thought to himself as his knees bend and he kicks off once more. almost like it was elegant, Steve lept from the window to a higher part of the ladder, above Clyde. Steve's hands grip the sides of the wooden, white-painted ladder as his feet get placed comfortably on the pegs of the ladder.

Steve glanced down to see the horde of zombies growling and crying out desperately reaching for the two beating hearts on the ladder, too primitive to understand how to climb the ladder. Clyde had his eyes glancing around underneath himself as well, looking to see if Steve had died underneath him. Clyde then looks up to see Steve above when he was moments ago, under Clyde. Clyde gave a look of confusion and disbelief. Steve simply gives a grin and then continued to climb. Clyde shakes the impossible away and does the same.

Steve reached the top. He stands on this six by six watchtower. a small wooden table to a corner and that is it up here. He stood there, wondering what Clyde had meant when he said "sniper's nest" There is no rifle or gun up here so what could he had meant?

As he stood there and think of what to do next, Clyde reaches the top, panting and gasping hard, trying to fill his lungs and let blood in his body travel more calmly. Clyde's eye stared at Steve as he rested on his knees, hands on his knees, head hung low, his hair giving his glare a bit of askew to seeing Steve clearly. "...How", Clyde starts as he kept gasping in cold dusty air. "how did... you do that, back there?" his voice had displayed hatred, confusion, and distrust.

Steve's thoughts were cut to Clyde's upsetting attention. Steve looked back at the noticeably exhausted adult. Steve was wondering why he was trying to catch his breath so badly. Steve barely had felt his heart to even beat harder after entering the tower. Steve was wondering if he had a stronger endurance and faster metabolism because of this virus. Steve remembered how he has used to skip gym because he knew he was not athletic in the slightest. A sad scrawny diminished boy with nothing. Truly useless in athleticism. It all felt different now. Steve had only noticed this because he had a perspective outside of his own. Steve should have been tired. Exhausted even, but he feels relatively unscathed after this rather terrifying dilemma.

Clyde kept his glare at Steve, expecting an answer now, but Steve might not really have an answer worth giving since Steve is possibly just as much in the blue, Clyde was. Steve gave an uncaring shrug as he looked away unsure how to even respond, "I'm taking all of this in one moment at a time. I have no clue how I am capable of doing what I did", Steve glanced at his hand and noticed a few recognizable wrinkles, but other than that, it looked like a hand he has never really used. "Everything has changed and I don't even know what to do or how to act with what this body seems to provide me. Back then..." he paused and looked at Clyde. Clyde had at some point sat down, leaning his back on the solid stone-like railing that this cold watchtower provided, but his glare had not wavered in the slightest. Clyde was clearly listening. Steve scoffed finding the person he is talking to as a pointless chat that will not cause any solutions. "Why am I even saying this to you?" Steve said finding humor in this sad excuse of a talk they were having.

"We're passing time... Talk", Clyde demanded, Sharply to Steve. whether Clyde wanted to know more about Steve or to simply wanted an answer for Steve being able to leap several meters above Clyde when he nearly reached a quarter of the way up the long ladder

Steve was confused on why Clyde was willing to listen, but took this opportunity to vent out some things he has had on his back. "Back then, before all of this, I was just some scrawny kid trying to talk to a cute girl in school. Studying for my next test. Waiting for the next Pink Floyd album to jam out in my bedroom..." Clyde laughs softly to that last statement finding his childishness amusing, somewhat.

Clyde was starting to understand why Steve is so mind numbingly boring to him. "What you're saying, is that you were so normal back then, and this gap between then and now, is so complicated that you feel like a completely different person than how you were, before.. Right?"

Steve was somewhat confused at how perfectly worded that was. "... That's exactly what's wrong.. I still FEEL like a kid, but I know I need to be something better. More mature. More grounded.." Steve stood up and looked over the ledge to see a small pack of decaying bodies waddling and reach up to them. Clyde watches him and sighs.

"Listen kid, when I went into basic training for the military those months went by after the first few weeks. It was so fast, I barely remember anything in the last week's of training. Everything was instincts by then and when I got shipped over seas and was on enemy grounds... even though I was trained for all of it.. It didn't change my overwhelming fear of failing and dying. Then and there. Just a number of the pile. I had to retrace my steps of what I did to make basic training, so easy, and after embracing what I had discovered, it was easy to survive." Clyde leaned back and closed his eyes, trying to relax with the echoes of growling cries beneath them.

Steve looked at him, shocked he can even try to rest at a time like this "W-... What did you discover?" Steve asked.

Clyde peaked one eye open to look at Steve to see him fascinated to know what could help him. A life lesson that Clyde had that could benefit Steve. Clyde figured he might as well let him in on the simple motto he follows, "Never overthink your actions or what actions you should make. In the moment of life and death, sometimes you NEED to ACT before you THINK." Steve just looked at Clyde waiting for the next part of his motto, then realized that was it.

"Oh... Oh, ok." Steve was taken back, unsure if anything Clyde had just said could really help Steve.

It allowed Steve to realize that Clyde is not exactly leader material, which could explain why they are stuck at the moment, with zombies underneath them all around, wanting to eat them. It seemed as if this situation needed a plan but, Steve was scared if he could really even plan anything smart enough to get both of them out of this situation.