𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦

✮15. Hail Dylan✮

It felt like my whole body entered a state of shock when I heard Dylan's voice. I was relieved, scared and desperate for him to come and get me out of this mess. Somehow, it also gave me extra strength to push back the door for longer. A second later, I found my voice screaming, "I'M HERE!" The undead were putting even more force on to the door and I felt my muscles slowly turning into jelly. What was taking him so long? Off in a distance, I started hearing screams and gun shots. Ironic how Yara and I came here to take refuge, but this place proved the deadliest of all. 

The growls of the undead became louder and louder and I felt my body becoming weaker by the second. I gave it one final push and thankfully just then, Dylan's footsteps got closer and at last, there he was. With a rifle in his hand. I was not going to ask any questions about where he got it from because my mind was a bit preoccupied from the life and death situation I was going through. 

"I can't ho-ld on a-ny longer", I panted, now exhausted. Dylan supported the door with me, trying to push it back. A few seconds passed when he slowly rose up and looked through the door's window and immediately got back down, seemingly jump scared by one of the undead. "Ok, so there are three undead in there", he said. There were only two, I wondered, when my heart took a leap. The woman crying, they had got her too. How could I have missed her screams, I mean she must have been screaming, right? Did she die because of me? 

"DIANA!", and with that roar from Dylan, I shook my thoughts away. "Ok look, here's what we'll do",  he began, "On the count of three, we'll both run either side of this building. As soon as the door opens and hey come out, I'll try and shoot at them, alright?" It sounded risky but we had no choice. "Just in case they come towards you, take this knife in my front pocket. See if you can reach it", he gestured towards his jeans' front pocket. I put more force on the door with my back and reached into his pocket for the knife, thankfully he was close enough. 

"Ok, on the count of three, alright?" He asked, I nodded. 

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

Dylan and I both instantly got up and have one final push to the door before almost leaping to our respective sides. I practically dove to my right with the knife in my hand. I quickly looked back and saw one of the undead running towards me, Dr. Shekar. Guess he wanted revenge. I struggled to get up but found my balance soon. As he was running towards me, I saw the other two running towards Dylan who had already got up and was pointing the gun at them. Just as Shekar leaped on me, I heard three shots of bullets. I thrust my knife right into Shekar's head while pushing his body away from me. He let out one last roar and fell onto the ground. Unfortunately, his blood splattered all over the right of my face. I felt disgusting.

I looked up at Dylan, who was standing by two bodies of the doctors. The next thing I knew, I was dragging my feet over to Dylan and gave him a tight hug, which he happily accepted. We both pulled away after a few seconds and looked around at the damage. 

"Well, shit", I said. "Uh uh", he breathed.   

As though I had selective hearing, I realised the screams and roars coming from a distance, back at the base. "What the hell is happening?", I questioned him. "I'll explain everything on the way, we have to go back", he said. 

I told him to wait and went back inside to get the gun Shekar had caused me to drop. We both started on our journey back and Dylan started, "Remember the doctors we had come across? They told us they weren't bitten but turns out they were. As soon as I reached back and tried sounding an alarm, people started screaming in one of the sleeping areas. Soon enough, a lot of people started pouring out running from the undead. It's chaos back there. I wanted to find James and Cam and your friend but of course, I had to help you first. I found a dead guard and that's where I got this gun from in the first place."

We were getting closer and closer to the base, which meant the screams and shouting got louder and louder. "What time is it?" I asked him. "3:25", he said looking at his watch which now had a broken frame. I hadn't realised that so much time at passed since Dylan and I first left the base. "The rescue is gonna happen at 4, we still have enough time to gather the survivors and leave for the dock where our ship will come", I declared. 

Dylan didn't reply. "What?", I asked in a stern voice. "Is the rescue even gonna happen? I mean what if the ship was alerted about the conditions here?", he countered. He wasn't wrong. "What other choice do we have? Let's first find our friends and then form a solid plan." 

Our friends. Yara, James and Cameron. I hadn't even had time to process what they were probably going through. Dylan said that it was chaos back there and he was there just for the beginning of it. What could have happened now?

I could not bare the thought of them getting hurt. Yara and James were my only family now, along with Dylan. I couldn't forget Cam too. The howls, the cries, the roars were piercing my ears. What if one of those cries were of Cam? That howl of James? That roar of Yara?

"We have to be quicker", I said to Dylan and he complied. Our footsteps started getting faster and we were sprinting towards the base, not saying a word to each other. The base finally came into my field of vision and my ears fully perceiving every sound heard.

God, what had we walked into?