Infection - Part I

Chapter 18.

With a grunt, the two men began pushing the shelf to one side. However, with its back being blocked and the two men putting more power into moving the damned thing, the bookshelf began to topple over.

"Shit... shit, James. Move!" Devon shouted as the shelf fell over with a bang.

"Fuck... Fuck, fuck, fuck!" James repeated. "Run...".

Screams of evil came from far away, indicating that the undead was coming.

"Run!" James repeated as Valerie and Devon followed him out of the building.

Looking behind her, Valerie caught a glimpse of the incoming zombies. They emerged from the broken windows of buildings at varying heights.

Valerie, Devon and James followed through the unblocked streets, running past the buildings that were set on fire and whose smoke clouded the streets before them. There were cars, crashed, on either side of them. Some engulfed inflames, others wreaked beyond recognition.

Not long passed before Valerie noticed people rushing out of the broken-down buildings, joining their run. It took her a second look to realise they were alive, terrified just like her. 'There are more of us... Survivors...'. 

Such a thought sent a wave of hope through her body.

After a few more meters, seeing that they ran into another barricaded intersection, the only unbarricaded road was to their right, so that's where James led them. Ahead of them, Valerie saw more people, alive. They were all facing them and seeing them run, she could tell that they grew more panicked before running in the same direction.

"They're coming! Run!" James only confirmed what the people feared the most.

"Where are you going?" one person asked.

"The metro!" James released through his tired breaths.

Slowly, Valerie felt her exhaustion catch up as her legs began to slow down. Turning her head to glance behind, her heart dropped when she saw that the undead were still following them. 'Shit...'.

Looking behind, Devon noted Valerie slowing down, so he slowed to get beside her. "We're nearly there...".

She nodded her head. "I- I can manage...".

Above them, another coverage of clouds took over the skies as small flakes of snow began to fall again. Feeling a flake land on her nose, she quickly used her sleeve to rub it off.

Ahead of them, several hundred meters, he saw a crowd of people running from a road perpendicular to theirs and onto the sidewalk. 

The metro. They've made it.

James looked behind him only to see Valerie further behind him than she used to be. Devon was close to her. "Come on! We're nearly there... I see the metro!". However, when he looked behind the group of them, his gaze was met by the approaching wall of zombies, rushing their way. His heart began pounding against his chest.

Ahead of him, the queue of people wanting to get into the metro only grew bigger as a bottleneck formed by the entrance of the underground station.

"Fuck..." he sighed. He knew that if the crowd wasn't to clear soon, their chances of making it out of the city would be ruled out as unaccomplishable.

However, as they approached the entrance point, the crowd, slowly more and more, managed to rush into the platforms that awaited them below. 

By the time James and his group reached the metro, they managed to find a way to get down the stairs.

Just before his descent, allowing Valerie and Devon to go inside first, James looked behind him only to see that the zombies had nearly reached them.

So turning back and heading further into the station, he managed to regroup with Valerie and Devon who slowly followed the crowd.