Chapter song: Wicked Ones- Dorothy
I stood at the edge of a city, staring into it, listening for any nearby cranks and only continuing into the built up area once I deemed it safe. My gun was in my holster and my knives in theirs with my machete firmly strapped to my back as I began climbing up a building. The stairs were basically in ruins so I had to parkour up, being careful not to cut myself on glass pointing out or metal rods which I can only assume once made the building stand safely. I threw my bag up onto the roof before pulling myself up through a hole, taking a short minute to take in the view of the city before slouching down, leaning on concreate wall of the roof, taking my bottle from my bag, taking a couple small sips before placing the cap back on it, replacing the bottle in my hands for my binos, standing up and looking over the city, looking for any signs of life, food or water. I stopped, taking the binos from my eyes, looking over the city. It's crazy to think what this place used to be. I mean, this would've been buzzing with life a decade ago, and now it was literally crumbling as I stood in it. I groaned loudly as I heard the moaning of cranks behind me. I could see them making their way towards me, speeding up by the second. I didn't take another second to watch them, grabbing my bag, shoving the binos inside before quickly zipping it up, throwing the straps over my shoulders, tightening them before tying the loose straps around my chest, securing the bag very tightly to me, I took a couple steps away from the ledge of the skyscraper, I had about 5 seconds before they reached me, so, without any hesitation, I ran. I could feel the hands of one of the cranks briefly grabbing me as I took off, pushing myself off the ledge, free falling for a second before landing on another building a bit lower down, rolling before getting back to my feet. I didn't stop there, I had to keep going. This building had actual stairs so I decided to try my luck on the ground, quickly running down the stairs, pausing at the bottom to catch my breath for a second before stepping out, right into another group of cranks. Great.
I had almost lost the entire group, just two more. The last two were significantly faster than the others, to the point were I was so tired I could almost feel myself slow down. These fuckers weren't like the Walking Dead zombies I was hoping for and it was really making my life significantly more difficult. I saw my escape, a long cul-de-sac, at the end: a wall. Not low enough for the cranks to get past, not too high for me to get over. I pushed my body past its limits, running faster than ever, positioning myself at an angle and running up onto the side wall, jumping straight to the opposite one before grabbing the edge of the wall, allowing myself to hang for a second, looking down on the cranks below me as they tried reaching up to me, failing miserably. I looked down the other side, making sure there were no more awaiting cranks before I jumped down, landing heavily on my hands and feet, standing up quickly.
I was beyond tired and as night fell I knew I had to get out of the city but from what I could see and hear, cranks were already around every corner; that's when I saw it. Right beneath my feet: a manhole cover. I smiled to myself, pulling the cover from the ground, positioning it in such a way I could cover it back up once I jumped down. I threw my bag down first, taking out the flashlight and putting in my mouth, climbing down into the sewers, closing up the cover as I jumped down. It was pretty eerie down here, my flashlight only illuminating so much of the sewers and every steps I took through the shallow water, my footsteps bounced off the walls, at least I would hear if something was coming. It didn't really take long for the circular, wet corridors to end and the sewer to actually open out into a much larger area. I slumped down by one of the walls, finally allowing myself to relax a little bit, admiring the graffiti which completely covered the walls around me.
I must've fallen asleep for a minute but I awoke to distant shouting. At first I assumed it was cranks, but as I slowly creeped my way closer, it sounded like people. They sounded panicked though, so I put one and one together and assumed there were cranks nearby. I walked carefully, light on my feet to make as little noise as possible. I held my gun up with one hand, my torch in the other, illuminating the passage in front of me. I froze when I finally saw who was making the shouting, two people. One boy, he didn't look any older than me, then a girl, maybe a year or so older? There couldn't have been much in it. I looked further down the hallway, masses of cranks coming out of the vines in the walls, looking like they had been trapped down here for months, dormant, waiting for an unexpecting passer like these two to come walking down. Their faces panicked as one of the cranks walked towards them and I watched as they stumbled back,
"Hey watch out!" I shouted, startling the two slightly as they hadn't clocked my appearance. I shot twice, hitting the crank both times, watching as it fell to the floor,
"Okay let's go, let's go!" The guy shouted, edging the girl towards me as the cranks began running at us. I didn't have time to think, I turned on my heels, running after the two. I lost my group two years ago and had been alone since, I wasn't sure if it was my instincts which made me follow them but sure enough, I found myself running after them, finding it fairly easy to catch up. As we rounded one final corner, I could finally see the light outside, I pushed myself harder, now running in front of the two, skidding on the ground as I realised where we were,
"Woah woah woah stop!" I yelled, putting my hand out to stop the two from running off a literal cliff,
"Here, go up here" the guy suggested as the sound of cranks indicated they were close. I swung myself round, running up a small dirt track which lead to a building which had already collapsed. It looked sketchy as hell but we didn't really have much of a choice, there were way too many cranks. I ran into the building first, planning out a route as the other two caught up,
"Follow me" I told them, grabbing onto a nearby beam, pulling myself up quickly, floor by floor. I could tell the two were struggling more than me but I didn't have time to stop and help them, I was trying to make a path,
"You guys okay?" I managed to ask, stopping for a second as I found some stairs which were still in tact,
"Just about" The guy said as the two caught up to me,
"You two go in front, I'll follow" I said, gesturing the two up. We continued running up the stairs when I heard a crank getting a little too close. I looked down to see my worst fear. One of the fuckers were parkouring their way up to us, and quickly,
"Oh woah woah!" The guy yelled as the crank reached up, stupidly trying to get to the boy. I pulled the machete from my back, slicing the crank along the chest before firmly placing my foot on it, shoving it back, watching as it fell back down the stairs, taking out another incoming crank and hitting the two of them on a sharp metal beam poking out.
"Holy shit" I heard one of them mutter and I placed the machete back in my holster on my back,
"Keep going" I instructed, pointing one forwards. The girl went first, followed by the guy, then me. We only went up a couple more floors when it happened. I didn't see it exactly but I think the girl grabbed onto something loose, falling down onto a window with a deadly drop below her, I subconsciously gasped as the glass began cracking upon impact,
"Brenda!" the guy yelled, "You okay?"
"Yeah!" She groaned back, not fully aware of the situation which was playing in front of us. I saw the colour draining from her face as she looked down, seeing the drop below her, I could even hear her breathe picking up, getting faster by the second. I looked at the guy before taking a deep breathe, sliding down towards her, catching myself on a nearby piece of the building, the guy doing to same.
"You gotta stay still okay?" I told her, watching as it cracked even more as she tried standing up. I reached out to her but was too far, she tried grabbing my hand but it was no use,
"hey guys watch it!" The guy yelled as a crank stood at the top of the room, not hesitating in the slightest before literally jumping down, landing on top of the poor girl. I went to reach for my gun but stopped, their movement was too unpredictable, I could easily shoot her or the window by accident, it wasn't worth the risk.
"Hey! get closer to her, I'm gonna break the window, you just have to hold on okay?" I yelled over to the guy, who immediately jumped further down, grabbing onto the girl with one hand and part of the building with the other. I grabbed an old, broken pc once he had a firm grip on her and chucked it, making sure it landed on the glass as hard as it could. It must've been hard enough because sure enough, the window shattered, and the girl dangled in the air for a couple seconds before the boy pulled her up.
word count: 1712
total word count: 2472
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the scorch runner
FanfictionY/n L/n is only 18 but lives each day as if it's her last... and that's because by all means it could be. She managed to escape Wicked once, but will she be able to do it again? An organisation built to destroy her generation to find themselves a cu...
