When I Die

Ch.17

Perry

The screams and gunshots were loud, but the thumping of my heart against my ribs seemed to be much louder. As we emerged into the chaos, my anxiety grew worse.

Who would do this to our home? We never hurt anyone and The army was constantly bringing in new families.

I followed close behind Keith, afraid of what would happen if I didn't. I could handle the biters, but people? Keith lead me further into our camp and the horrors just kept coming. Lifeless Body right after lifeless body.

The hallways were lined with bloody handprints and scraps of ripped clothes. The contents of jars laid amongst the broken glass. My lunch almost made a reappearance as we stepped over a clump of hair still attached to the scalp.

Open doors revealed biters hovering over what once was a human. The intestines of our friends wrapped around their rotten fingers. I kept my eyes trained on the back of Keith's head. I wasn't sure how much more I could handle.

"Where are we going?" I whispered, trying to be weary of our surroundings. Keith didn't respond but instead kept tugging me along, right until we were outside of his room. He fumbled around in his pockets until he pulled out a key.

I was quickly shoved into the room and within seconds the table was pushed against the door and he was raiding his cabinets. 

"Is now really the right time for a snack?" I asked, my anxiety still at an all time high. My hands were sweating profusely and my breathing felt as though it may never slow down.  I was panting like a dog on a hot sunny day.

"I stashed equipment around my room." He motioned towards his bed and I nodded. Underneath of his mattress was an overabundance of knives, daggers, and hatchets. Where the fuck did he get this stuff? How the hell did he not get caught?

We went through every nook and cranny in the room. There were several firearms and hand held weapons stored. His closet had body armor such as chest plates and other weird protection I had never seen before.

I sighed and sat on his bed, the sheets were a mess and a bra laid on the floor next to it. Gross. I had almost forgotten amidst  the chaos that Keith, was in fact, a man-whore.

I watched as he fastened the straps on his body armor. Keith was prepared, too prepared. How did he know to do this stuff? How did he know this wouldn't last? Something wasn't adding up.

He must've noticed my staring as he looked up at me and slowly walked over to the bed. Keith put his hands on either of my knees and spread them, crouching between them. Despite my overwhelming hatred for him, the butterflies still flew. 

"Love, I know you're mad at me. I know it's been a rough few weeks, but do you think you can be mad at me later?" He flashed his signature half-assed smile and I nodded, "I'll try."

He stood up and placed a soft kiss on my forehead before returning to the make-shift armory on the table. He retrieved another chest plate and returned to my side. His warm hands encased mine, lifting them up. He gently slid the vest down my arms and over my torso. It was almost sweet how gentle he was being. 

I'm not sure how long we were in his room before we were fully equipped and crawling out of his window. 

Each room in the camp had a set of windows. They were high enough off of the ground to prevent biters from breaking in but low enough to let fresh air and sunlight in. While that seemed like a blessing when we first arrived, I was cursing it now. Id let a biter break into my room before forcing myself to jump from 10 feet above the ground.

"Stop being a wuss, Perry." Keith snapped at me from the ground. He made everything look so damn easy.

I held my breath and closed my eyes. If I die to fricken gravity in an apocalypse, I'm going to be pissed. I pushed off with my palms and braced for impact. The wind briefly brushed over me but I was on the ground, somehow on both feet, in a matter of seconds.

"Good girl," Keith grabbed my hand and ushered me to the farthest wall in camp. It was a '1' on the danger scale. This meant that it was rarely guarded and only had barbed wire. 

I followed Keith to a section of the wall that had a pile of scrap wood, "Why are we over here?" I whispered and looked behind me. I hadn't realized that the screams had stopped. That can't be good.

He hushed me as he quietly moved each and individual piece of wood. It didn't take me long to catch on and I started to help him move the wood. Underneath of the eyesore of a pile, was a hole. 

My guess is that Keith or some other psycho dug it as an escape plan. I had never even considered coming up with one. Maybe I should have read more books or watched more movies about this stuff.

The man-whore hopped down into the hole and extended his hand to me. I just jumped out of a 10 foot high window, does he think I need to hold his hand to jump 3 feet?

Well, he is absolutely correct. I grabbed his hand and jumped down into the hole. It was a tunnel big enough to walk in, if you're hunched over. It seemed to go on for a few miles. My back and knees were screaming in pain the entire time.

Once we reached the end, Keith stopped and hushed me once more. I wasn't even talking. We stood in silence for what felt like forever before he finally nodded at an opening up ahead. There was a grate at the end, were we in a sewage tunnel? Gross. 

Keith pushed on the grate and it popped out. I winced waiting for the crash of it hitting the concrete on the outside, but it never happened. He had lifted it out of its frame and onto the ground. What a smart boy, too bad his junk influences him most of the time. 

The tunnel lead to some kind of junkyard. There wasn't much of an indicator as to where we were except the city skyline was still in view.

"This is an abandoned junkyard. Hasn't been in use for years." Keith explained to me in his normal voice. I suppose we aren't whispering anymore, which i was grateful for. Its hard to find tea nowadays.

"How do you know that?" I asked as he lead me deeper into the junkyard. We passed numerous cars that looked to be in good shape. Well, they were intact anyway.

"Guy at the camp told me. He's the one who made the tunnel." Keith grabbed my hand and dragged me between cars and around piles of scrap metal. The gorilla grip he had on my hand was sure to leave a bruise.

I wanted to pry more. Did the guy just tell him about this? I doubt it. Everyone was nice but also private. I didn't even know the last name of any of those people. 

As I opened my mouth to ask, Keith stopped abruptly and put his finger up to his lips, signaling me to not ask my burning questions. We crouched behind a broken down 1972 station wagon. The once imaginably beautiful red paint was now chipped and rusted. 

I looked around in an attempt to see what Keith was seeing. I nearly gave up and asked what this was about but then I heard voices.

I immediately felt happy, maybe this was a check point? A place to regroup in an event like today. My gut was screaming that I was wrong.

A woman with beach blonde hair emerged, next to her was a man with black hair holding a rifle. The pair was dressed in pitch black clothing and military grade boots. Did I miss the memo on attire for the apocalypse? They should've emailed.

Keith tightened his grip on my hand and got close to my ear, "Those two are part of the group who infiltrated camp." My gut was right once again. 

The pair was too far to hear anything they were saying. The girl was facing away from us but she kept shifting her weight between feet. My guess was that she was antsy or nervous about something. The man reminded me of Keith. He seemed to be on high alert and was constantly looking around at their surroundings. 

A few times I was sure that he saw us but from the lack of bullets in the station wagon, and in us, Id say he didn't.

"What do we do?" I whispered as lowly as possible. Keith ignored my question and kept his gaze locked onto the two. 

They talked for what felt like an century before they began walking towards us. My heart sunk once I finally saw the girls face.

I knew the beach blonde hair looked familiar, but the crystal blue eyes confirmed it. 

Sam.