𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦

✮16. Battle of Stalingrad-esque✮

It took me a solid few seconds to fathom what was before me. A part of me still thought this whole thing was a dream; that my alarm to go off at 7:00 A.M. like it usually did and that I would wake up to Yara fussing over which gym set to wear. To my discomfort however, this was reality. This was my life.

I think Dylan underestimated the word chaos, which he used to describe to me what was going on here. Imagine hell. This was hell. 

The air was filled with the deafening clash of screams, the guttural growls of the undead, and the desperate thudding of feet against the ground. I wished that I was deaf just for this moment because my eardrums were ringing with the same frequency of a woman's scream, as she was being ripped apart in front of me, about 10 feet away. That was the first thing my eyes perceived. Unfortunately, they perceived a lot more than just that.

The multiple tents, makeshift shafts and poles were almost all falling apart and on the ground. The watchtower, still standing somehow, had three guards trying to shoot at the undead. Alarms were going off, which were of no use now since everyone was well aware of the situation. People were shuffling, bodies lay in pools of blood everywhere you looked. Nobody knew where to go, only to run- run faster than the person next to them. I saw the undead fall from the guards' bullets, and rise from the corpses scattered. 

The creatures ran frantically after their prey, with some having twisted limbs but all with eyes full of hunger. My vision narrowed to man being lunged at by another, who bit into his neck while the man, helpless lay screaming for death. 

I looked over at Dylan who had a glint of fear in his eyes. I couldn't blame him, mine probably reflected the same. He turned to me and was about to say something when I saw an undead running towards him, her arms reaching forward. "LOOK OUT", I screamed, just in time for him to turn back. I reacted quickly by reloading my gun and shooting her right in her head. Had I been a second late, God knows what would have happened. He gave me a nod of appreciation and said, "Thanks."

"Considering what just happened, I don't think it's a good idea we split up. Let's find our friends together and then we'll head to the watchtower", I instructed Dylan. He gave me a thumbs up and I began leading the way through the Battle of Stalingrad. 

We ran quickly, Dylan a few feet behind me, looking around and yelling their names as loudly as we could. We kept our guns pointed, as to be ready for any undead that came for us and as expected, we did have a few run-ins. As we were nearing one of the tents that somehow was still standing, an undead rushed at me out of nowhere, making the gun fly out of my hand. I fell to the ground with the undead on top of me, growling at attempting to bite into my face. I was resisting it by pressing it away from me. 

My eyes began to study this once-a-man when Dylan kicked him off my body and shot at it. He gave me a hand and as I got up, I looked down the man lying with his back turned. He had dirty blonde hair, now smothered with dirt and crimson blood. Panic rose in my body, thinking that his man was James.

I picked up my gun, stooped to his level and slowly started turning his head. "Ana what are you doing?", Dylan inquires in a hurried voice. As his face came into view, I breathed a sigh of relief and got up, taking a few steps back. "I thought he...I thought he was James", I told Dylan. He took a deep breath, gave my arm a tight squeeze and said, "We should keep moving."

We hadn't realised how huge the base camp was until we had to scour through the whole place. My voice was growing hoarse and my eyes were getting tired, probably the same with Dylan. Yet there was no sign of our friends. We had many instances with the undead in short period of time. One was laying on the ground and caught on to Dylan's backpack, another lunged at my arm and a woman came running towards us for help, who was being chased by two of them. Luckily, we managed not to get bit. As we were running, we heard our names being called. "DIANA! DYLAN!"

We stopped in our tracks and started looking around to see who it was and my gut was right, it was the voice of James. We saw him and Cam standing by one of the med tents, almost about to fall. Dylan and I ran upto the tent. Dylan, who reached before me, gave Cam and James that arm-hug thing that guys give. As much as it gave my heart relief seeing them both, it filled it with terror seeing that Yara wasn't there. 

"Where's Yara?", I inquired. James and Cam gave each other a look and Cam said, "We don't know. A few minutes after you guys left, I saw Yara getting up to go to the washroom and that's when this whole thing started. James and I tried finding her everywhere but we had to hide up in here 'cause of the undead."

"Time?", I asked Dylan. "3:43."

"Ok, here's the plan. James and Cameron, you both run down to the pier in case the rescue comes. Dylan and I will go and find Yara and meet you there ok? We don't have any means of communication so it's better we split into teams."

Everyone nodded but James said, "I want to find Yara too so how about Dylan and Cam go down to the dock and I come with you." "Ya, sounds good to me." With that, we all took off, team one into the turmoil again and team two towards the dock. 

"Stay close, Diana and don't worry, we'll find her", James reassured. I gave him a quick smile but didn't relay the one thought I had in my mind.

She's out there, but so are they.