Oblivion {n.h.}

Chapter 50.

*CONTINUING IN JACKSON'S POINT OF VIEW*

"No no no no no!" Perrie yells, scribbling the last few words as she looks around at all of the dead who join us quickly.

Reed has pulled two trucks on either side of us, a similar situation to this same spot what feels like decades ago.

Outside of the storage unit the dead come at us even faster than before, most people running to the ammunition truck if not already in it.

Carly and Perrie by my side, we run to the truck, everyone seeming to already be in except Thomas, Kyle, and Liam, including Perrie, Carly, and I.

Lydia and Allison sit up front with Steven, who starts the truck and revs the engine as a warning for us to speed it up.

"OPEN THE DOOR!" I slam on the side, hitting Allison's window loudly. Walkers come on either side quickly, making me have to pull myself up onto the roof Carly and Kyle in tow behind me.

Perrie shoots at walkers violently, Thomas and Liam standing back to back while they shoot similarly to Perrie.

"THEY'RE GONNA LEAVE!" Carly shouts in my ear, making it ring as I look at all of the dead who reach at me from below, and there was only one clear way to go.

Steven rolls down his window beside me, cocking his shotgun, his bullet making way right into Reed's chest from where he stands on top of his walker trap. Reed's falls feet to the ground off of his compartment, and doesn't move again.

A ladder hangs on the side of the storage unit building, just far enough to where I think I could jump to it.

"CAR, I NEED YOU TO TRUST ME WITH THIS OKAY?" I yell into Carly's ear over the loud noise of the dead and the engines roaring.

"What?!" She calls back, just as loud, and I anxiously grab her by the hips and bring my mouth closed to her ear once again.

"IM GONNA THROW YOU TO THAT LADDER! CLIMB UP AND ILL JUMP NEXT, KYLE BEHIND ME."

"Are you crazy!?" Carly screams back at me , her eyebrows furrowing and her face turning as pink as her cheeks and nose from the cold.

Without any warning then, I tighten the grip of my fingers on my companion's waist and push as she jumps to the ladder out in front of her, my strength adding to her own force.

She goes flying and barely makes it to the ladder, several walkers grabbing and reaching for her feet, which they cannot get.

Carly climbs up reluctantly, and I take no time to get in my turn, hopping as far as I ever have before back in Track season of school. The ladder creaks, landing just as Carly did seconds before, and I turn to wait for Kyle.

He jumps out far, and grabs the ladder, it creaking twice as loud this time, and have of it snaps off of the wall, it's rusty metal not being able to stand the weight of the three of us.

"Grab my hand!" I call to the younger boy, just as the next handle of the ladder breaks, and Kyle goes falling to the ground below.

The fear fills his face, wide eyes staring up at me before he hits the ground.

I reach down to grab his hand as he falls, missing by only a few inches, the boy falling down towards all of the hungry dead people beneath him.

They bite into his neck and stomach forcefully, ripping at his face and limbs, Carly screaming in agony beside me.

I cry out also, desperately looking for Perrie and the other two boys, neither in sight, along with the ammunition truck. Even Reed was no longer piling walkers out toward us.

Just Carly, the dead, and I now.

"Come on, this way." I put my hand on her back, leading her the way I've seen before, a piece of sturdy wood across the buildings, someone probably using them before now.

The snow most heavy up high, my feet sink in as I walk, and I try not to just fall and give up then, knowing that no one is coming back for us any time soon.

We reach the other side of a building, this one piled in so much snow it's hard to walk through. A blue tent sits in the corner of the roof, zipped open and light sleeping bag is in sight from the opening.

Carly chatters her teeth beside where I walk, mostly from fear, it not even being that cold with all of the running we've done tonight.

I shakily walk to the tent on the roof, and I wipe my nose from where it runs down over my upper lip. Moving the flap that's zipped all the way open, I climb inside of the blue igloo, a lantern and a journal sitting in the small corner.

The morning is fully in tow when the sky turns an even lighter grey than before, the snow stopping fully, and if anything, melting away for the moment.

Carly stands outside of the tent, her legs visibly shivering as she crosses her arms and looks out over the snow-covered city.

The journal was small and worn, a black leather cover with white words that read 'Allison' over the front.

I open the pages and flick through several of them, sketches and notes about people and where they are, what they looked like, and what they were like.

"They're not coming back, right?" Carly asks me, interrupting the silence of the large city after a while.

I collect Allison's journal and step out of the tent weakly, and I can see where the interstate gets off from where the building sets on the horizon, and if I wasn't hallucinating, the ammunition truck speeds away, long gone from us now.

"I don't think so." I reply, not telling Carly I might have just seen the truck, knowing she's right in the first place. "Danielle might, but they aren't."

She rubs her arms and sniffles slightly, "Where?"

I don't understand her question at first, only wanting to get out of this shit-hole of a city.

"Out of here." I reply, my answer, probably the same one to anything she could have asked. The horizon of plains and trees in the distance, that being the only thing on my mind now.

It must be about eight now, and I have to admit I was hungry. Eating five star meals for a while doesn't exactly help the crave, but feeds it.

Carly tries to make small talk as we finally reach the edge of the city, and for once I actually miss those rants and chaotic fights on what to do with the group; and my heart lurches at the thought of never seeing those people again.

Running toward the plains, there is only one place on my mind;

Lewes, England.