Those Who Survive

Moving Forward Part One

This chapter ended up being twice as long as my normal updates, so I've split it in two. Enjoy.

...

"If I fall, if I don't die I'll probably break something.." Felix chuckles awkwardly, "So, uh, someone put me out of my misery if that happens, okay? Please? I don't want those freaks to eat me alive.."

"You won't fall," Mark assures him, "As long as you're careful."

Felix frowns, "Right.."

"You don't have to go first, if it'll make you feel better." Ken adds.

Felix sighs and shakes his head, "Sure, whatever. How are we doing this? This place isn't a normal house, so there's no easy roof railing to climb on and the fire escapes are not on our side of the building."

"It's not like we have a map layout of the building, Felix." Sean sighs, "I'll go first, show you how it's done, okay?"

"Okay.." Felix frowns, looking at his friend wearily. Without another word Sean moves over to the window and opens it. He leans out, looking down. The street is heavily littered with the infected, but they haven't noticed him yet. He turns and looks up, the side of the building is rigid, little holes in the brick facing. It's not going to be easy, but it can be done. He's the lightest of them, so it's better that he goes first. He leans back into the room and turns to his friends, "I'll go first, I have an idea to make this easier after I'm on the next floor."

Sean puts a hand up, signifying them to wait before he dashes into the bedroom. Ken follows him curiously, "What are you going to do?"

"Well, scaling the building isn't going to be easy, at all and I didn't see any windows open on the floor above so I'm gonna have to break a window to get in." Sean explains as he strips the sheet off the bed, "If I fall, it's probably over for me, so I want to negate that as much as possible."

Ken nods, picking up Oliver off the bed, "Makes sense."

"I can do it, and I can be careful, I just want to make it easier for the rest of you to follow me up, especially you with the baby." Sean states, pulling his knife and cutting the sheet in half. He then helps Ken wrap one half of the sheet around himself, securing Oliver inside.

"I was planning to do something like this anyway." Ken chuckles and Sean smiles.

They go back into the living room, Sean wrapping the rest of the sheet around his shoulders. He goes back to the window and starts climbing out as slowly and carefully as he can. It isn't easy and it takes too much time, but Sean is able to climb up to the nearest window. He carefully retrieves his knife from his back pocket and with one swift motion, it shatters the bottom half of the window. Sean leans away and covers his face as the glass falls. He curses as he sees he didn't break the whole window out.

After trying again, he's able to break the rest of the glass. He puts his knife back in his pocket and uses the sheet he's carried with him to get the rest of the glass on the bottom of the window before pulling himself inside. He stands and looks around. He's standing in a bathroom. Sean brandishes his knife and slowly opens the bathroom door, peering out into the hallway. He doesn't see anything so he listens. Nothing. He sighs in relief and walks back to the window he came in through. He unravels the rest of the sheet from his shoulders and throws it down over the window as a rope for his friends.

He ties the rest of his side to the toilet as best he can before returning to the window and calling for his friends to climb up. Nate is first, and he moves slow, but he's able to get up nonetheless. Sean helps him through the window, careful of the few shards of glass that still stick to the top of the window. Nate leaves the bathroom to scope the place out and Sean calls down for the next. One after another, Felix, Mark, and then Ken with Oliver safely cradled to his chest climb up and into the bathroom. Sean pulls the sheet back into the room fully and then follows his friends into the rest of the apartment.

They ransack the place for supplies before drawing their weapons and stepping into the hallway. There's a few infected wandering around and the group quickly makes a beeline for the stairs to avoid being seen by the few down the hall. The stairwell is clear, so they continue their way to the roof. The roof door is unlocked and they're bathed in the early evening light as they emerge onto the rooftop. It's still bright out, but that won't last more than a few hours at most.

Mark points out the fire escapes and they all inspect them before regrouping at the center of the roof. Ken looks around at the surrounding town. They definitely can't stay here, and getting out of town won't be easy, especially without a vehicle of some sort. They talk amongst themselves for a few minutes as Ken and Nate try to come up with a plan for getting out of town before the sun sets and they'll be running blind. Mark pulls Sean aside lightly and Sean raises an eyebrow at him.

"So.. What was that about not wanting to be called Jack anymore?" Mark asks lightly.

Sean shrugs, "That's just.. Not me anymore, you know? That world, that time.. It's all gone, and so is JackSepticEye. So is Pewdiepie and Markiplier. We're not youtubers anymore, we're just.. Survivors, people. So.. I just want to be Sean now."

Mark nods, an understanding look in his eyes, "I get it. There's nothing wrong with feeling like that."

Sean just nods and moves past him to see if Ken has come up with anything yet. Mark sighs and Felix looks over at him curiously. Mark shakes his head, and Felix smiles lightly. Mark returns the smile then he and Felix join the others to hear about how they're getting out of here now.