Fighting for Survival

Chapter 16

   I covered my mouth as soon as the zombies began to run to the tree. And by run I mean run. Juliette and the brothers hurried to climb to higher branches while I was stuck on a tree branch at the lowest level. Oh, whoops.. I said I again on accident. Oh well!   
   Anyways, the tree was quickly surrounded by zombies, and the four were stuck in a terrible situation once again.
   Anna, being as clumsy as she was, got her shoelace stuck on a surprisingly strong twig. When she reached out to grab a branch for support, one of the walking, rotting corpses jumped high enough to almost snap off Anna's arm. She shrieks at the clack of it's yellow teeth and quickly pulls her arm back. Eyes wide, she yells up to the three (that practically abandoned her at this point.)
   "Hey! Why are you guys leaving me?!" Anna shrieks again as it lunges again. Hurriedly, she unhooks her shoelace and scrambles up the tree to the others. "What the heckle dorfs-" Juliette loudly shushes her. "Yeah, so much for quiet.." Anna mumbles, crossing her arms.
   Henry shakes his head. "Ok, but what are we gonna do about being trapped again-?" Anna cuts him off by whisper yelling.
   "And there being jumping ones! It nearly snapped my head off, I swear-!" Henry cuts Anna off this time by putting his hand over her mouth again. So by repetition, Anna licks is hand as he pulls it away, grimacing. "Put your hand over my mouth again, I dare ya, I swear on me mums grave, I'll beat yer arse into the ground I tell ye mate." Juliette and Henry sigh, shaking their heads.
   Meanwhile, Wade scanned the area for a way to get out of their predicament. In the far distance, a grouping of homes were visible through the tree branches. Sighing, he looks down to the three, who were now trying to poke at a zombie with a broken branch like it was a dead bird. He calls down to his friends, "Hey I think I found a way to get out." The three's heads snap up immediately to look at him. Dropping the branch,(which a zombie had gotten it's jaws on) they climb up the tree and to Wade, looking at where he was pointing.
   "Do you think it's safe? If we got the attention of this many zombies, then surely there's more nearby." Henry brought up a fair point. The rest of us just shrug.
   "I think rooftops are better than unstable branches and leaves blocking our way." Juliette whispers. Anna nods violently in agreement. "But is there trees close enough to the roofs that we can jump over to it safely?"
   "We aren't gonna to be able to jump as easily onto the roofs as you guys did with the shed.. We'll probably have to jump down and sprint it or something. If it's cleared out enough, that is." Henry points out. Anna starts climbing to the next tree, next to Owen, leaving Juliette and Henry to bicker. The two quietly shout after them, "Hey!"

   Hanna laughs nervously. "Hah, good joke. Zombies can't run, dumb ass. Stop pulling my leg, it's rude. Respect your elder!" She cackles triumphantly.
   Reese shakes her head, "I'm not joking, Hanna, Come look." She waves the other girl over and pulls back the blanket that has blocked their view of the outside. Peeking through the corner of the window, Reese continues, "See that one, the one with no injuries and longer blonde hair? Look at it really closely." Hanna's eye widen slightly.
   "Oh my god.. but zombies can't run! They never do in books or movies or shows!" She raises her voice.
   "Well, you're looking at a runner." The girls let the blanket fall back into place as Reese shakes her head. "Welp, let's search the house more, shall we? There could be stuff I missed." The two stand up properly and grab their preferred weapons.
Hanna heads upstairs with her knives and Reese heads to the basement with her bo staff. Creeping slowly up the stairs, Hanna stays alert for anything Reese had missed on her first sweep through the home. She hadn't checked the basement, so Hanna worried for her shorter friend. While checking a disheveled office room, she notices a barricaded door Reese had missed doing her first run through.
Creeping up to the door, she rests her ear on it to listen in. Knocking lightly on it, she curses quietly when she hears groans. "I thought she had gotten everything upstairs.." Quickly shoving the barricade out of the way, she readies one of her knives and opens the door. Inside, a zombie on a makeshift noose hung. She sighs.
"I wonder if this was because of choice or murder.." Hanna shakes her head and cuts the noose down, laying a small towel/blanket over their head. Scanning the corpse, Hanna tilts her head in confusion at the mutilated legs. "W.P, huh..? Wonder what that's for."
As Reese creeps down to the basement, the first thing she notices is a cleaver in the wall leading down the stairs. Shivering, she tugs it out, and tosses it on a stair, continuing on. The second thing she notices is a closed baby gate at the end of the stairs and growls. Bo staff in hand, she finally reaches a point in the walls where she can see what's all down there.
On the bloodied cement floor were sleeping bags, backpacks, pillows, and weapons upon weapons. Knives, hatchets, a bow and some arrows, you name it. That floor probably had it. Along with the items, quite a few zombies, including a dog, lurked around.
'So a camp, huh.' She thought, creeping down as quietly as possible. 'And it seems some animals can turn too..' Caught up in thinking, Reese accidentally knocks her bo staff against the wall, catching the attention of all the zombies. "Uh oh.."
A few minutes later, the zombies were dealt with and Reese was exhausted. Scanning the area for more useful things besides the weapons, she spots 'W.P' written on the wall in blood, a dead body that didn't seem to have turned underneath it. Humming in defeat, she heads back upstairs to meet with Hanna.
"Find anything?" Hanna asks as they appear on the first floor, but both go silent as they see each other's bloody clothes.
Reese replies snarkily, "I don't think I cleared out the house very well. Know anyone with the initials W.P? Me either."

R.I.P
W.P suicide zombie
W.P basement camp
Pupper