Dark Meat [Walking Dead]

Chapter Ten

-- Please listen to the song on the side, it's one of my favourites and should be the apocalypse theme XD --

Without realising it until the very last moment, I had unwittingly found myself in the worst possible position considering the circumstances. Now that there are dead people walking around the street below and flooding the levels beneath me, the city has become a whole lot more dangerous than it had been before.

To be honest, I can barely understand myself as to how I actually go in this position. I am preparing to shimmy across a thin rubber line stretching nearly twenty-five metres, suspended fourteen stories above a street swarmed with riled up Walkers.

They'll be at the top of the stair case soon, and will break through the roof down not long after. Oh how I wish I had thought this through more. When I found a medium-sized bike near the highway, I immediately sped into the city, expect the spot through which we normally come was still overrun. Except I hadn't realised that until I was already in the city.

By then, I had already attracted far too much attention from the local Walkers, and so my only real option had been to pedal down the street with all my might. So that is the story of how I came to find myself hanging over the precipice of a life-saving decision.

I glance over the edge of the building's roof and exhale shakily. If I fall, I'll split my skull and die, but if I stay I'll die without a doubt. Plus it will be far more painful. Yet I don't know what's in the building on the other side of this electrical line joining the two. For all I know it too could be teeming with Walkers. Luckily for me, from the looks of it all the buildings surrounding it are close enough to be leapt over to, unlike the one I'm currently standing on.

The sound of white noise sounds for less than a second and I grab the walkie talkie attached to my hip. "Tessa? ...-you hear me? Are y-... the city?" It's hard to distinguish the voice through all the static and Walker moans, but I think it's Shane on the other end. Not unusually, he doesn't seem pleased.

I lick my lips and press the pad of my thumb to the red button at the side. I can hear the sound of the approaching Walkers echo up the staircase and through the rood door, so I'll need to make this quick, because that door's not going to hold them back forever. A small breeze picks up, dragging the foul pungency of the Walkers in the street upwards to me.

"Yeah, 'n' I'm in a bi' o' a situation righ' now, so don' try to talk t'me 'gain. 'Kay?" I know there'll be an incoming lecture, so I flick the walkie talkie off and quickly reattach it to my belt loop. There's a metre high ledge running all along the edge of this rooftop, with the side nearest to me bearing a broad electricity rack. Two rubber-covered power lines, not more than two fingers thick, run from the rack attached to the outside of the ledge all the way to a shorter building across the road.

Although there's a very good chance that the lines won't support my weight, I suppose it's the only real option where surviving is possibility.

Bang! Multiple metallic sounds ring out through the din, snapping me from my absent staring. My head whips up and I glare at the rooftop door. I can hear their agitated snarls and moans, while the lock is already beginning to rattle. It's now or never. Fight or flight. Or rather: flight or die.

Walkers will burst through that rusted door within maybe five minutes. I don't have time to waste, so I quickly flip my bag around so I'm wearing it on my chest and step up onto the ledge. I take out my screwdriver and additional knife, tucking them into the pack for safe keeping and stare down. Throughout the broad street, there are so many Walkers that their shoulders are constantly brushing together. Their moans are like the hum of an ocean, calm and relentless. I don't think most even know there is a meal to be had here, but once one Walker gets riled up, the rest follow in suit.