Run, runner 5

Distraction

"Raise the gates!" came Sam's voice over the head gear, the gates began the normal warning sounds drawing all nearby zombies directly to the main gate. Which really isn't the best of ideas despite the covering fire, it was still a hazard that was going to make the job harder... not that it needed to be much harder.

"Oh... oh, that's not supposed to happen! The gates are stuck! Can every see the gates are stuck? Do we have an engineer?" Sam calls through the headset, sighing I stretch and get up off my designated cot, putting aside Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban that I borrowed from Jack and Eugene. Slipping my feet into my runners and lacing them up I move around the shared space that is for the runners, I brush my hair and pull it back into a ponytail knowing that in a second I will most likely be called to the gate being a new runner who hasn't been out on the field much these past few days, as I was leaving my shared space I sling the backpack that Sam gave to me on my second training mission. It was the old runner 5, Alice Dempsey... the person I was to replace.

"Runners this is an emergency the gates are stuck and we are open for attack, the following runners are to report the main gate immediately for lure and distract! Runners 2, 3, 5 8 go, go...go!" Runner 7 called over the loudspeakers, picking my speed up so I was jogging, almost at the gate I hear Sam address me over the intercom.

"Um... runner 5 we need you to go right now runner 5. We are pairing you up with runner 8."

"Yeah Sam, I'm on my now, be there in a sec." I reply back, as I reach the gate I see a runner dressed in a red shirt and black leggings with red sneakers, her blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail that reached the base of her neck. Runner 8 was easily a head taller than me and was well built. As I approached runner 8 turned towards me and ended up coughing really hard, she holds out a hand for me to shake.

"Sorry about that. Hey there! I'm runner 8, Sarah Smith, how are you doing? Ready to head out and misdirect some zoms?" Sarah seemed very happy and bubbly, and overall very nice, I was looking forward to getting to know her better.

"Sure, why not?" I reply with the best smile I could muster at the thought of intentionally getting zombies to chase me, scared the ever living daylights out of me.
"No time for chit-chat! Take one of the noise makers from the locker," I grab a strap with a red beacon on the back and hold it up.

"That's right strap it on your back, go out and run around distract the zombies while we fix the gate! Go... run!" Nodding to Sarah, I slip the beacon on my back and clipping it together I turn and run out the gates and into the open field littered with corpses in varying stages of decomposition. Sarah picks up her pace to match mine to switch on the beacon and continues to run beside me.

We run for a few minutes until Abel is well and truly behind us. "Ok! Abel Township we are clear, nice steady pace. About 10 of the zoms on our tail. It's all going well. How you guys holding up?" looking back over my shoulder I can agree with Sarah's estimation. Roughly 10 zombies follow behind us, some are missing their internal organs after being ripped open, and others have lost limbs, eyes and their faces. Sarah, noticing my distraction of the zombies taps my arms and nods ahead as Sam starts to reply.

"Yeah not that so well here runner 8, we kinda... uh... motors are shot they are telling me up looks like something got in and chewed it up..." Sam replies confused, I understood why something chewed it up?

"Chewed it up?" I ask perplexed at the situation. However, Sarah starts to cough and cuts off whatever Sam's reply was going to be.

"Sorry about that, bad chest cold, so do you guys want more time?"

"Yeah the longer you can keep the zoms away the better"

"Got that, we're gonna have a great day out here me and my buddy runner 5." Sarah begins to cough again, it doesn't sound good, I begin to worry about her.