Death After Death (#2)

Chapter Fifteen

JJ stirred from his deep slumber, groggily dragging his tender body into an upright position and rewarding himself with a much-needed stretch.  

The unrelenting thumping at the door was still ever-present, but wasn't loud enough to drown out the chirpy tweets or the birds outside.

"How long did I sleep?" half exclaimed, half yawned.

"A long-ass time," Max chuckled as he tucked into an old energy bar.

"Why didn't you wake me for my watch?"

"Meh, I couldn't sleep anyway with the cast of Stomp out there, plus, I think you needed the rest more than me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" JJ laughed, taking the remark as an insult.

"Let's just say youth isn't a guarantee of fitness," Max teased.

JJ scoffed, "And I suppose you're in peak condition?"

"I wasn't before all this," Max admitted, vaguely waving his hands around their surroundings. "Let's just say I've done a lot of running, and a lot of fighting since."

"Always so mysterious."

Max smiled and winked, he wasn't ready to share his entire backstory. Not yet anyway.

"Have you had any ideas about how to get the fuck out of here?" JJ asked, as he too gorged on some light breakfast from Max's backpack.

"Nothing good," Max admitted. "The way I see it, there's only three ways out."

"Do tell," JJ urged.

"You're not going to like them," Max grinned.

"Yeah, well, we have to get out of here somehow."

"True. Okay, route one is through that door," Max explained, shooting a thumb towards the wardrobe behind them. "That way has its obvious flaws."

"Yeah I think we'll move on to route two?"

"Route two is through that window. I had a quick look earlier, it's quite a drop, I'm not sure how able we'd be to run after the landing."

"We could tie some sheets together, clamber down them prison escape style?" JJ suggested.

"Yeah, I considered that, but take a gander out there," Max said, nodding towards the one large window, through which the morning sun was just about shining.

JJ stumbled towards the light, mouth full of stale, cardboard tasting energy bar. He pressed his forehead against the cool glass, and scanned his eyes across the garden below. A swarm of clickers had gathered, surrounding the house on every angle.

It wasn't just children anymore, obviously word had spread of the ready meal, sealed behind these four walls.

"All the noise and commotion seemed to attract a load more. They just kept arriving through the night," Max said, almost a little nonchalantly.

"Okay, I'm seeing a few cons with route two as well. What was route three?" JJ asked in an almost pleading manor.

"Route three is a little...unorthodox," Max clarified.

"Go on..." JJ said suspiciously.

"Well, we need to get out of this room, right? But we also need to avoid the clicker buffet down there. So, we need a distraction of some kind..."

"Just spit it out, Max."

"Open up the cabinet over there."

JJ did as he was told, flicking open a nearby liquor cabinet with one finger. It was fully stocked, rum, gin, wine, vodka, whisky, the lot.