Numerical Apocalypse

five

A horde of pale creatures swarmed towards us, stopping me short.

I stepped back, my shoulders colliding with something solid.

"Oof," said Lena.

"Sorry," I panted, looking around.

Theo pointed at the fence around the pavement. "There. If we can get on top of the fence and into the tree, I don't think they can climb.

A sudden boom rocked the ground.

I lost my balance. Theo grabbed my and Lena's arms and hauled us towards the fence.

"What in the world did you make?" I whispered watching the tongues of flame reach towards the sky from the school building.

"Greek fire," he replied.

I stopped climbing the chain links to stare at him. "What?"

Theo shrugged. "I told you, I don't know what I made, just that it was really explosive."

"Greek fire," Lena murmured from below us. "That's-"

I gasped at the approaching zombies. "Focus!"

Lena casually looked behind her, then screamed and started climbing in earnest.

"Hahahahaha I almost died," she gulped, clinging to the fence.

Theo straddled the top of the fence, ducking in between the barbed wire coils. "You think?"

The growls of the mutant creatures grew louder, and they started climbing on top of each other to get to us.

Lena was struggling over the barbed wire.

"Ouch." She caught her elbow on a spine. "That hurt."

Theo glared at her. "Oh, you think?" He held up his forearm, showing numerous scratches through rips in his grey hoodie.

Lena gasped, stopping her ascent again.

I pushed her foot. "Go, go! I'm gonna get flipping eaten!"

Right as a clammy hand clasped around my ankle, Theo grabbed my wrist and pulled me up.

Supporting myself with my other hand, I balanced on the top of the fence and kicked the zombie creatures away.

"Okay," Lena panted. "Now what?"

Theo pointed to the tree branch next to him, which suddenly seemed miles away.

I gulped. "Okay..."

Lena looked the tree up and down, then wobbled to a standing position. "This is where I die, guys."

Theo rolled his eyes. "You're not gonna-"

"You never know!" Lena shut her eyes and reached for the branch. "Before I die, I have to confess-"

Her hands landed firmly on the branch. "-that I never actually finished-"

Knowing what she was going to say, I swiveled around precariously to clap a hand over her mouth. "You're holding the branch."

"Oh." Lena's green eyes popped open. She strained to pull herself up, dangling in midair for a moment, then crawled onto the branch, hugging the trunk of the tree.

Theo eyed the translucent hands reaching towards us. "You wanna go first, or...."

"You obviously want to go first." I gestured for him to grab the branch.

He cracked a smile. "Then I would be disobeying the ever-mighty 'ladies first' rule."

"Not if I get eaten first, you wouldn't be." I mirrored his smile to hide my inner anxiety.