The Amazon Project

Escape the block

It's almost sundown. We've been running for weeks, moving from town to town until we finally reached the big city. .The city of a million dreams. A place for aspiring artists, actors, musicians and the like. I used to think it was the most beautiful place on earth, not just the city itself but the people in it. The street performers in Central Square, the people smiling and taking pictures in the park, the people selling world foods and handmade crafts from the sidewalks, the people that brought the city to life made it a beautiful place to be. The people who lived and died here. The people who are no longer.

I have so many memories of this place, perfect postcard images float through my mind of how times used to be. How Dad used to take us to Pistachio hut on Central Square at the end of the summer, and let us order the biggest ice cream sundae on the menu. How Mum used to take us to all the old secondhand bookshops and tell us to find books with hand-written inscriptions in the front. Memories like that are all that remain from my old life. It's best not to dwell on the past.

I look around the old staff room where we set up camp for the time being. It's nothing much, but its been shelter for the past few days. It's mainly all offices for Scribe newspaper and magazine, the printing was done in the huge basement floor. I pick up an overturned chair and tuck it under the table and attempt to make the place look more comfy and tidy.

"Grace! We're surrounded and all the ground floor exits are blocked", Summer ran in breathing heavily. "What are we gonna do?", she asked, putting her hands on her hips and looking around trying to catch her breath.

I put my back against the wall and press my head into my hands. How could we be so stupid? We knew this was a bad idea from the start. We take shelter where we can, usually well thought out places unlike this. I don't admit it to Summer, but we were trapped. Brilliant plan hiding in one of the tallest buildings in the city with no way out. If only we could just-

"Wait a minute. Isn't there a helicopter pad on the roof? Can we get to it?", I asked getting up. Most buildings in the city have them, I suppose it's more efficient for the rich.

"I think so, but there's no way we can fly that thing!", she stated shaking her head.

"Don't you worry about that, we need to make it to the roof. There's no way those locks are gonna hold", I say looking down at the street below. It looks like a zombie mosh pit down there, they are literally swarming the streets. There was a time when I would've been afraid to stick my head out of a window twenty stories high, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We've been in the city for days now, biding our time waiting for a clear shot out of here. We're on our way to Elysium, the safe place. Summer and I used to go to school together, but we were never close. She was one of the "popular" girls and I was the freak they pushed in the corner. She was never mean to me when all the others were, she would always apologise after the others walked off. I guess she wasn't as bad as the rest of them. I just liked to keep to myself. I saw no need to keep friends as they all leave you in the end. It's inevitable.

Anyway, the night it all went wrong I ran into Summer at the school. It wasn't far from my home, but I just needed to get away from there and not look back. Like me she had the idea to lock herself in and hide in a familiar place away from the streets infested with Undead. I was running past my old maths class when I heard the crying, I turned round the corner to see Summer standing over the body of what once was Mr Felton, our old science teacher, with a bloody fire axe.

When she saw me, she dropped the axe and burst into tears. I came over and put my hand on her shoulder, we looked down at the once human body. Yep, he'd taken the Amazon Serum. There were marks all up his arms where the needles had been. We didn't need to say anything to know that we were gonna stick together from then on.

I'm snapped out of a memory when Summer calls,"Grace- they're through to the lobby, we need to go". We grabbed our backpacks and ran for the stairs. Rule number one: Always be prepared.

"They're blocked", Summer called back to me. Most of the buildings in the city were destroyed in trying to wipe the place free of the Undead. The military thought they could blast them away with missiles and bombs. How wrong were they?

"Try the fire escape?", I asked. Summer ran and opened the heavy door at the end of the hall, then quickly slammed it shut.

"Yeah... I wouldn't go that way", she replied backing away slowly.

"Why?", I asked curiously, walking closer to her.

"There's about three or four of them down on the landing with a corpse. They're close", she answered shakily. I looked at us both and thought of our options. We could risk it for a chocolate biscuit and maybe get killed by a few flesh eating zombies, or stay here and definitely get eaten by a mob of angry, starved zombies. No brainer really. I reached passed her and opened the door silently. There they were, one flight down. Three Undead crouching over something that probably resembled a body. I look at them sadly, it's hard to believe that they were once like us. Alive.

Just then, a roar erupted from down the corridor. About thirty or so Undead came charging towards us. Jeez, they stank.

"Oh my God", Summer cried.

"We have to move. Now!", I pushed Summer through the door and slammed it shut. I threw a small firework down the landing at the others, that should keep them occupied for now. I ran up the stairs and then stopped to tie the green ribbon in my hair, it was my sisters. She never made it out of the house on the night it all happened. I shook away the memory and caught up with Summer whilst she was trying to open the fire door to the roof.

"It won't open", she said defeatedly.

"What do you mean it won't open? It's a fire escape!".

"Look! It's jammed", she said pushing on the door frantically. I could hear the dozen Undead catching up to us, we had to be quick.

"Step aside". Summer moves out of the way as I kick down the door with my heavy black boots. "There. Done."

"Alright, but I loosened it for you", she replies walking through the door and flipping her hair.

"Yeah, yeah".

We step outside for the first time in days and are greeted with an orange sunset. Man, I wish I still had my camera. I quickly barricade the door for safety, that should give us more time. Luckily, there is a helicopter left. No one had thought to use it in their escape. Summer walks to the edge and peers over the rails.

"They are surrounding the whole block. There's thousands of them", Summer said. I walk over to the helicopter and look for signs of anything wrong. "What if you can't fly it? How are we gonna get out of here?", she asked with tears in her eyes. "What if we never make it?".

I turn around to face her, "Don't you ever think like that. We're not dead yet. We're not one of them. There's still hope".

"But what if-", she started.

"Summer, we can make it. We have a chance to start again", I interrupted.

"Now, get in".

She climbed in and buckled up. "Are you sure you know how to fly that thing?", she asked not quite believing me.

"My dad was an aerospace technician, there were a few things I picked up".

"I don't believe you".

I didn't either, but how hard could it be?