The Walking Maze

four

~

Shay

There has to be at least thirty of them, dragging their rotting selves towards us as their sickening gargling noises grow louder and louder. There is no way we could take them all on. It isn't an option.

"There's too many of them. We need to leave," I say sternly and unhook the crowbar from a belt loop of my jeans as everyone quickly stands up from the wooden dining room table, exchanging alarmed looks and grabbing onto any nearby weapons. Thomas stuffs an entire cookie in his mouth- so fast, I might add, that he nearly chokes- and locks the front door.

"Is there another way out of here besides the front door?" Maggie asks the boys when she stands up and grabs her knife from the table. She grabs Glenn's arm and moves as far away from the door as possible, a worried look upon her face.

"Uh..." Minho says, biting his lip in concentration. "There's a window in the bathroom that we could go through, but it's pretty small. It leads straight to the woods."

I hear a Walker pound on the door behind me, and it becomes clear we don't have time to talk anymore. "We'll take it," I say over the gargling noise arising from the Walker's throat, and Minho nods.

He leads us past the kitchen and down the main hallway, which is crowded with leaves, dirt, and all kinds of debris, unlike the previous room. There are a few doorways on both sides, which I'm guessing lead to some of the bedrooms. That gives me an idea. I open one of the doors and reveal a little girl's bedroom.

"Now is not the time to go exploring, Shay!" Glenn shouts, but I just roll my eyes. I enter the girl's room, which I would like to mention, is too pink and girly for my liking. There is a princessy canopy bed and a dollhouse and there are little glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling. I find it revolting, but that's because it reminds me too much about how things used to be before the entire world got flushed down the toilet. There are two dressers, so grab onto the one closest to the door and pull it out of the room quickly. It was a hassle to get it positioned right in the hallway but I manage.

"What the hell are you doing?" Charlotte asks.

"Buying us some time," I respond without looking at her. "Now somebody help me get this thing on its side!"

Thomas nods and pushes past everyone until he gets to me and the dresser, which- if this all worked out- will completely block the hallway. We kneel down and grab the bottom of the dresser. On the count of three, we lift it up and wedge it into the opening and the hallway is blocked off.

Minho opens a door to the right and ushers everyone into the small bathroom and locks the door. I hear Walkers stagger into the main room that we left.

My eyes dart around until they land on said window, which I figure would barely fit a grown man. I've seen fish tanks bigger than that window.

Charlotte kicks it and shatters the glass just as loud bangs from the other side of the door startle everyone in the room. The Walkers are trying to push their way through the hallway.

"Now would be a good time to give me my knife back, Speedy!" Newt shouts as Glenn clears all of the excess glass from the window.

"Speedy? Really?" I scoff and grab the knife from my previously empty sheath. I hand it to him and he nods gratefully.

"Let's get out of here!" Newt yells, and we all take that as our cue to hurry the hell up. One by one, we all start climbing out of the bathroom. Charlotte is first, then Thomas. Maggie goes right before Glenn, and then comes Minho, who takes forever to get through the damn window. Newt and I are the last two, but I let him go first.

I back up to get a running start and jump out the window head-first, landing on the concrete outside.

After that, everything happene so fast that I can't keep track of anything. I hear a loud crash as the door to the bathroom comes down and groan when I realize that my oh-so-brilliant plan with the dresser failed. A load of Walkers spill out of the window after me and I scramble to my feet as Thomas and Maggie beat them down. "Watch out! They're coming around the house!" Charlotte yells. Somewhere in the middle of that, Minho shouts to run.

I try to sprint into the woods, but something catches my sleeve, so I fall backwards and the back of my head smashes into the concrete.

I moan and roll on my side as my vision blurs, and when I try to get up, my legs fail me.

I thought I was done for.

Charlotte

It's pitch black out and I'm stumbling blindly through the woods. I've been following the sound of steady running footsteps for about ten minutes, and I can hear someone following me close behind. It isn't a walker, their gait is normal and steady as well, breathing in an expert pattern.

"I think we can stop now," Minho's voice says from ahead. I slow to a stop and put my hands on my knees, attempting to catch my breath. Running as fast as you can for ten minutes can only take so much out of you.

"I think we lost them," Thomas says.

"Not just the Walkers," I say. "We're missing Glenn, Maggie, Shay, and Newt."

"That's just great," Minho says sarcastically.

"Do you guys know where we are?" I stand up straight, my heart rate having slowed down.

"Not in the slightest," Thomas puts his hands behind his head.

We fall silent, listening to the crickets.

"So . . . Now what?" Thomas asks.

"We find someplace to stay the night," I say.

"And what about food?" Minho runs his fingers through his hair.

I smile for the first time in as long as I can remember. "I got you covered."

~*~

"I used to love these things!" Thomas cries as we sit around the kitchen table of a cabin we found.

I startto divvy out the pop tart packets. "They're hot fudge sundae too."

"My favorite," Thomas and I say at the same time. We laugh for a couple seconds before I stop myself. I'm getting attached. I can't, I think.

"What's wrong?" Thomas asks, taking a bite from his pop tart.

"Nothing, it's just," I take a bite from my own, "I haven't laughed in a long time."

Minho and Thomas look at me with something sad in their eyes. Pity or something. I look down at my pop tart and take another bite.

"So . . . Charlotte . . . " Minho looks at his pop tart sideways before hesitantly taking a bite. Thomas laughs. "What's your story?"

"What does it matter. What's yours?"

Minho takes a deep breath and begins. "Thomas and I were on our own for awhile until we decided to go to our school and see if there was anything useful over there. We met up with Newt and our friends Alby and Chuck over there, and if was just the five of us for awhile. Then, a few months back, little Chuck went missing and Alby got bit . . ." They paused in remembrance. "We were devastated, so we found that house and settled down. We've been there ever since."

I nod. "I'm sorry."

Minho smirks at me. "You're not getting off that easy. Talk."

"I don't want to talk about it."

The silence settles on us again.

"I'm going to go to bed." I climb up the ladder to the loft above the kitchen and settle myself onto the pullout couch bed we discovered.

"What's her problem?" Thomas whispers.

"Heard that." I mumble.

"Sorry." Thomas shouts.

No one says a word after that. We all fall asleep silently, a slight drizzle tapping at the windows.