Ch 10

Day-1

Time- 3:30pm

Alex and Catherine were now moving through the somber forest along with a huge number of people coming after them with their feet shuffling through detritus. They could see some fallen trees ahead of them with few of their branches separated and the region surrounding them was covered with brown leaves. They could hear the wind whistling around disturbing the leaves, creaking of the branches, churring of the insects and rustling of animals rooting in underbrush. They could also smell wild herbs and flowers along with the earthy smell.

"Let's rest here for some time! I am too exhausted to go any further!"said Catherine to Alex who was holder her hands and her shoulder helping her in moving forward.

"Okay! we can rest here for a while but not for long. Those monsters are not much behind." Said Alex.

Saying this, Alex helped her move few steps sidewise to under a tree and made her sit there on the ground covered with leaves with her back supporting the tree.

He himself sat beside her and rested his head on her shoulder. Their condition was getting worse because of extreme thirst and hunger and as they were continuously running for a long time trying to save their lives, their bodies had started giving them severe pain.

"I need water! I need water! Or I will die of thirst!" Said Catherine suffering from dehydration.

"Just a little longer love! We'll get water somewhere! We rest here for some time and regain some strength and then we'll move ahead. Hopefully we will get something!" Alex said holder her hands in his.

"When will all this end! It is getting unbearable for me now. Please save me love! I don't want to leave you ever!"said Catherine holding Alex with tears coming out of her eyes.

"Don't worry love! Everything will be fine! I'm always with you! I'll never let any harm come to you ever!" Alex said bringing her closer to him and wiping her tears with his hands.

But the truth was that he himself didn't know the reason behind this apocalypse and when this all thing was going to be over, if it was!

Time- 4:45pm

Seeing those monsters storming into the building, both the friends were filled with terror. Tom immediately picked up the baseball bat and the bag full of food items hanging it over his left shoulder and called out Harry.

"How could the front gate break so quickly?" Said Tom screaming.

"Run! Run!" He shouted and started running upstairs.

"We are going to die. Nobody can save us now. They have entered into the building." Harry screamed while running upstairs following Tom.

"Just Run!"

Earlier the front gate of the building was weakened and few cracks were developed in it by the wildly running mob trying to get inside the building because of which the gate could not withstand the continuous and forceful striking and thumping by those blood craving monsters. Now, they were storming inside the building screaming violently to rip off whatever or whoever comes their way. Most of the rooms of the building were locked from inside so they began rushing upstairs while some of them stayed back striking and growling at the gates trying to break in. When the people sitting by the corners of the stairs heard the loud thudding sound and with that, those loud screaming and grunting noises of those monstrous creatures breaking in, they saw their death coming and they too started moving upwards as fast as they could. When the people within the locked room realised that those monsters have broken in, they were horrified. Of some of the rooms, people stayed back thinking those monsters could not break through their wooden door despite knowing that those monsters broke in through the main gate while people in the other rooms were so filled with horror the moment they realised Zombies had broken in, they thought that those monstrous brutes would break through their room-doors too and thus they opened their room-doors and started running upstairs towards the open terrace trying to save their lives.

Tom and Harry were on the 4th floor running towards the open terrace with baseball bats in their hands and bag of food items over Tom's shoulder. There was complete chaos everywhere. The sound of people screaming on top of their voice and asking for help was spread all around. Both the friends were running breathlessly when a middle-aged man behind them stumbled on the stairs while running and fell over fracturing his right leg.

The man started crying in pain and and not being able to stand up on his feet, he began shouting for help. Harry looked at Tom as in asking for what should they do. The other terrified people were running for their lives trying to get upstairs from lower levels. The crying man was asking for help sitting in distress in the middle of the stairs.

"Please help! Please! They are coming! They will kill me! Please help me!"begged the man.

Harry instantaneously climbed down few steps and reached upto the wounded man. Harry bent, put the man's left hand around and over his shoulder and helped him stand up on his feet. But the man was still unable to walk upwards on his own and needed someone's support. Tom was few steps up from there and looking over them when a huge crowd came from downstairs running wildly. Harry was helping the man climb the stairs when the crowd came rushing and struck them. Both of them fell on the stairs by the sudden and wild push.

Tom screamed "Get up Harry and Run!", when he saw those blood craving Zombies coming violently after the crowd from below. Harry had got his one leg injured by the sudden thrust felling on the stairs and was struggling to stand up on his feet amid the crowd going upstairs. The middle-aged man too had gotten severe injuries aside from the fractured leg and was again lying on the floor helplessly crying for help.

Tom held the side railings of the stairs with one hand strongly letting pass the rushing crowd from side and slowly climbing down steps trying to reach to Harry. When he was almost there, he left the railings and stretched his hand towards Harry telling him to catch his hand who was struggling to get on his feet. Harry stretched his hand in the direction of Tom and got a hold of his grip. Tom pulled his hand back making Harry stand up on his feet and kept pulling him to get upstairs. The Man on the floor screamed as loud as he could and begged "Please help me too Sir! Please!" But as Tom was helping Harry getting up who too was hurt, and it was not possible for Tom to get down the stairs once again and help the Man. Besides, that very moment, they spotted few zombies almost reaching that crying Man, growling and outstretching their hands dripping in blood along with heavily shaking their bodies on either side and moving violently towards the wounded Man. They had no choice left but to leave that Man there and move further upwards or else they too would have fallen prey to those blood craving monsters.