Life After Death

Chapter 32

Vivian's POV:

I slept quite well for the most part, despite the racket the wind made thrashing against the windows, pulling the rain along with it, which sounded like bullets half the time, and I wondered every now and then whether the window would shatter any moment. Not quite as well as Jade though, who seemed like she could sleep through absolutely anything at the moment. I also knew it wasn't actually that bad, but everything is so much louder in the middle of the night, especially when you just want to fall asleep already.

By the morning though, the winds had died down almost completely. Apparently, a freak thing. There was some damage here and there, but mainly just things being blown and strewn across the grass and paths. But it didn't take much damage for the Lurkers to have found their way inside, Crawlers to be specific, as a piece of barbed wire atop the fencing had come loose and was dangling.

"Huh, none of the wires have ever come down before. It must've come loose."

Lurker's wise, there was only a few, and being so many of us prepared and outside, they were easy enough to help Aanya and Theo kill without even making a mess of it.

"They were most probably drawn to the place with the noise of things falling over, and without their flimsy limbs being torn apart in the metal wire, it would have been a breeze climbing up and over," Aanya explained, as me and Jace picked up some of the fallen plant pots.

"We'll help you fix that thing," I offered, seeing as we were all perfectly able to do so, gesturing to the fence, "Before any more find their way inside."

"Okay, thanks, that would be great."

The others all seemed fine and willing to help too, and with so many of us it seemed a waste to not go out there. Especially since there would probably be more Lurkers wandering around the fences, if Crawlers had heard the rackets.

Which there was. Not many, thankfully, but more than had been inside. We didn't take any of the trucks, it seemed pointless creating more noise. Especially since if there was any trouble there was help just the other side of the wall, and the people in watchtowers. Plus, being a big group of, at least 13 of us, there wasn't much worry about being ambushed and caught off guard.

Austin came too, once Jade had explained what we were doing after he saw us all filing out, he seemed almost eager to come along and help out. So, that's exactly what he was doing.

"We have five ladders, that should be enough to hold up this section," Aanya said, taking one for herself.

Me, Nathaniel, Whitney, and Austin took the other four, the rest of the group stood around beneath, both ready to pass anything up, and get rid of any potentially approaching Lurkers that may appear.

The job seemed easy enough, other than the fact the gloves we had brought didn't seem to be thick enough in all places, and we would randomly get jabbed by the metal.

"At least we know it does its job correctly," Nathaniel laughed holding two of his fingers together after he'd caught them right down the middle.

It wasn't just for the sharp jabs we were glad of remembering the gloves, but also how the wire was very stained and coated in Lurker insides or dangling with pieces of flesh attached on odd patches. Clearly where others had tried to climb through too.

Once Aanya had re-attached his end with the help of Whitney - Nathaniel keeping the thing balanced in the middle, it was Austin and mines turn. He had positioned himself on the very end, so I held it tight and in position for him, so it wouldn't wobble.

"Are you sure that's on right?" I asked him, as he said he was finished.

"Yes," He replied bluntly, shooting me a look which I may have imagined to be more hostile than it was.