Turtle Doves | Joel Miller

Chapter Eighteen

Joel and I slide furniture in front of the stairway to buy us some more time for when the infected get in. Luckily for us, this place looks like it used to be some sort of apartment building. The main floor was the lobby and there are about three other rooms on the second floor.

We've put a couch and a dresser in front of the stairs, which should buy us a minute tops. But it's better than nothing. Joel crouches on the ground and tosses me a box of ammunition from his bag. My fumbling fingers reload my weapon, the sound of my heartbeat and rushed breaths infiltrate my ears.

Joel jumps back to his feet and starts pacing around the rooms, looking for something that could save us. My eyes analyze the rooms as well, and I find myself in the kitchen. Rummaging through the cabinets I find a half-full bottle of vodka. With a fresh idea I find the bedroom and tear off a piece of the sheets. Joel brushes past me as I enter the bedroom, a deep scowl on his face.

"Hey." I call his attention and hold up the material and bottle in my hand.

"Not enough time to get drunk before they get in." He smarts off.

"No, fucking listen." I say and he stops pacing around. With angry eyes he looks at me as I twist the top of the bottle off and shove the material into the opening. It clicks in his mind what I'm suggesting and he nods.

"Could work." He says and bites the skin on his lips. My eyes drift back to the window and I notice telltale black bars outside of it. My finger points to the window,

"There's a fucking fire escape." I breathe, unsure of how I didn't notice that when the building was first pointed out. Though at the time, we weren't looking for a way out of the building, but a quiet way in. Joel rushes to the window and shoves it open with one strong pull.

Glass smashes downstairs and the infected screams echo in the apartment building. Joel practically throws me out of the window onto the escape before he joins me.

"Gotta light?" I ask, hand held out expectantly. He fishes out his lighter and places it roughly in my hand. The material catches the flame easily. The infected start entering the building, and I drop the bottle right in the middle of the crowd before too many get in.

A large flame erupts from the crowd, setting fire to many of them. Flame is passed from one infected to the other quickly, and soon enough almost the entire crowd of them is set ablaze. Bodies hit the ground like flies, the fire killing them quickly.

"Come on." Joel nudges me forward. My eyes are torn from the flaming corpses and I focus on going up the stairs to the roof.

The fire escape is rather unstable, but it's good enough to get us up onto the roof without incident. As soon as we reach the roof the two of us distance ourselves and regroup individually. The sounds of the infected that remain echo below us.

From Joel's demeanor I can tell he's angry. And truthfully, he has every right to be mad. This was all my fault after all. Guilt seeps into me and I look over the edge of the roof out into the town. The town looks like every other town nowadays; run down and dirty. Though, something odd catches my attention, and I squint to see what it is.

Beyond the semi truck that opened from the tripwire, I see thin glints of light placed in strategic increments. More tripwires, and some look like they've been tripped as well. It wasn't the gunfire that called them all, it was the infected that was let out by me that opened more traps. Had I not set off the first wire, we definitely would have set off at least one other; they're almost invisible, especially in the night.

"Look at this." I keep my voice low enough so the infected can't hear me, but loud enough that Joel can. He picks up his gaze from the ground and slowly walks over, squinting in the low light to see what I'm pointing at.