Jenny asks, “What you looking for Peter?”. I replied, “The climbing gear and the harpoon gun, I cant seem to find it and I’m sure I left it in here!”. She replies, “Oh!” “What do you mean by Oh!” I reply. She says, “I took it out and put it in the supply room, I did not know we going to need it again so soon”. I reply “Well, we have to go get it and you have to come with me and Eric stay with Holden please, I have a plan but we need the harpoon gun and the climbing gear if we want to get out of this mess”. Jenny and I climb back down into the fire department and ran to the supply room we open the door and we hear the Reapers smashing in the windows of the fire department. Jenny shouts, “I got it lets go”. We ran into the locker room, and I shout! “Jenny help me move the lockers away from the shower room door”. Jenny asks, “So, what's the plan?” I replied, “The Reapers have an army out there, but we have our army in here, I just need to let them out as soon as you on that ladder”. She replies, “That's crazy!”
We push the lockers away from the shower room door and I hand Jenny the harpoon gun and climbing gear and I told her to climb. She asks, “What about you, Peter?” I replied, “Someone needs to open the shower room door and it has to be me if I don’t make it please take care of Eric for me and try to take him to our house”. Jenny replies, “But, Peter we need you”. I yell, “Jenny climb”. I hear someone shout, “Guys! Come, let us go get them and that traitor Holden, They are back there, I just heard shouting”. I see Jenny crying and climbing the ladder to the rooftop, I turn and open the door of the shower room the dead come tumbling out. I see all the dead co-workers that dead firefighter wrote about in his letter to his dear wife and I run and climb in one of the lockers laying open on the ground and close the locker door. I hear the growling and roaring of the dead as I lay still in the locker hoping that the door doesn’t open they walk against the locker and I heard voices shouting, “Turn back its a trap” and the screams of men as they get ripped apart by the dead. The growling goes on and on and I lay with my eyes shut sweating through my clothes and I get scared of the sounds of the screams this locker is my only lifeline I just have to wait it out and hope Eric and the others get to the other building. After a while, the growls begin to tin out and fade and the screams have stopped just a few growls here and there. I lift the door slightly open slowly and see a few of the dead still walking around in the locker room and look if I can get a clear run to the ladder, I slowly close it again to not make a sound. I lay there and think of a plan to get out of the locker and run to the ladder and I hear Jenny’s voice shouting, “Pete, Pete are you still alive?”. I’m thinking what the hell is she doing she is going to draw them to the ladder, I have to run now she is still shouting.
I lift the door slightly open slowly again and look if the dead is still near the locker I’m laying in and I quickly jump out one comes towards me and I kick him back the others are coming left to right from me from all side. I run with them around the locker room to get a clear way to the ladder some of them are crawling on the ground, I jump over them and run for the ladder and jump on to the ladder and I climb out of breath to get to the top. I get to the skylight and climb on to the roof, Eric runs to me and gives me a hug saying, “You said you never going to leave me Pete and you almost did”. Thor walks around me in a circle and smells my pants, Holden says, “That was crazy, I would have rather run towards the Reapers”. Jenny looks at me with a disappointing look on her face and looks away. I walk our to her and explain why I had to do what I did and if the Reapers got hold of us we would have been in a bad place.
She just nodded and said, “Okay Peter”, Holden crawls over to the front of the roof to check things out if the Reapers are still around. Holden says, “Psssst, Peter look over here it looks like your plan did the trick”. I told Jenny, we going to talk again and crawled next to Holden. We look over into the yard of the fire department and see the dead attacking the Reapers, some Reapers that were killed bodies begin to twitch and stand up joining them in attacking the Reapers while they flee for there lives. I see a tall person fighting off some of the dead, Eric says to Holden “That Reaper is huge, His like a giant”. Holden replies, “He's the one that scared me when he came down the stairs when I was in the cell, please turn and run away when you see him coming, he is the most ruthless of them all”.
After a while, even the giant Reaper had to turn and flee cause the numbers of the dead were growing that even as strong as he was had to run. The Mistress looked up at the roofs and point to the roof of the fire department maybe she saw us she talk to some of the Reapers, she pushes one of them forward and points to the car we arrived in at the fire department, she hands him what seems to be a homemade bomb. We hear a loud shout and the Mistress says, “Go now!”. He runs towards the car pass the dead some of the dead turns and walks towards him, he throws the bomb into the car and gets attacked on his way back, a few disappeared in an ally way. We step back and run for cover, I run to Eric to keep his ears close the bomb goes off and shakes the foundations of the building, flames shoot up to the roof and we see smoke everywhere. Jenny says, “Maybe, they saw us we have to get out of here”. Eric replies, “Jenny relax we were careful and we are laying on our stomachs the entire time, they could never have seen us”. “Jenny, Eric is right about that, they could never have seen us” I replied. Holden says, “Right now she is just guessing, they want us to lose our cool and panic, that's one of the tactics she uses to make people afraid”. “Well, the first thing we should do is get off this roof as soon as they are gone, we have to work together if we going to do this there can't be any mistakes” I replied. Holden says, “We could have taken the car, but it's up in flames now”. I reply, “That car was the first thing my dad bought when he retired”. Jenny replies, “Sorry! to hear that Peter”. We look over the edge of the roof as they go away, the Mistress and the last of the Reapers, it seems that she doesn’t like losing even if she has to get everyone killed or eaten.
I said to Holden and Jenny to go check if we can get down the roof ladder that leads into the yard or the ladder that goes down from the skylight into the fire department and to see if it's clear. Jenny replies, “Peter! there are still too many of the dead roaming around in the fire department”. I ask, “Holden! What about in the yard, is it okay to go down there”. Holden replies, “No! Its a no go down here, we surrounded by the dead they all around the yard”. Eric says, “Pete, we can use the climbing gear and slide over the same way we got Holden over here and use the smoke as a cover so that they can't see us”. I replied, “Yes, you right Eric we just have to keep Thor from barking when we slide over”. I tied the rope to the harpoon gun and shoot it over to the roof of the building Holden was on. “Well, who is going first,” Jenny asks.
I replied, “Wait we need to keep Thor from barking, I don’t want them to know what we up to and once they realize we not in the fire department anymore, we will be long gone”. Holden says, “Peter why don’t you just tie his mouth with a rope, we can take it off again once we clear”. I take the rope from my backpack and cut a piece of rope with my hunting knife, I tie the rope around his mouth and then his head, I stroke his head gently and he gave me that awkward like what are you doing. I look at Thor and say, “I know you don’t like this boy but I have to do it and I don’t want to leave you behind”. Holden picks up some of the bags and tie it around his waist and slides over to the other building. I said, “Eric you are next, just do what Holden did and be quiet”. We pull the harness back and Eric puts it on and he slides over, Holden reels him in so that he doesn’t look down. Jenny takes the rest of the bags and tie around her and slides over I put Thor in the harness and they pull him over. I untie the rope on my end and roll it up to swing over Eric, Holden and Jenny look frightened of what I’m about to do, I tie the rope around my waist and swing over through the smoke. I slam against the side of the building they are on a few meters from the ground, I’m hanging unconscious and hear them shout softly. Jenny says, “Peter wake up,
are you okay?” Holden says, “Come on Peter we need to go”.
I wake up and pull myself up the roof Holden reaches out his hand and says, “Never do that again, you could have died”. I replied, “We need all the rope, what if we come across a place with twice the distance that we just slide over and we not going to get rope just lying around”. We pick up the bags and look around and down alongside the alleyway of the building we standing on, to see if we can spot a clear way to travel. Jenny says, “We can't go that way some of the Reapers when down there”. I replied, “Okay, let's go the opposite way” and we about to climb down the roof ladder then a voice says, “Holden, Holden you think you going to just walk away, just like that?”
11 day five: a show of faith
We look at Holden as his face begins to change from happy to sad in a few seconds and with our backs turned to the voice, we don’t know who it is. The voice said again, “Do you think we are going to just let you go? Your life belongs to us”. Holden opens his mouth and says, “Please I beg you, the people I’m with know nothing, let them go and just take me”. The voice says, “Do you think its that easy? No, no you don’t make demands here. We will give them the same chance we gave you and your friend”. I see the tears forming in Holden’s eyes when he says, “It was me, kill me. How was I supposed to know that they were going to kill him and why did you not send Kai with him? Why me?” The voice begins to laugh and says, “Turn around now and don’t make any sudden movements”.
We turn around with our faces looking down, sweating with fear and discomfort, afraid to look up of what might happen. Holden trembles and his knees shake, he can hardly stand on his own two feet, he leans forward grabbing my shoulder then he goes down on his knees and starts to cry. The voice says, “Go on and follow that fool and get on your knees, don’t look up”. We all go on our knees hoping to get out of the bind we are in. Holden says, “Please”. Then the voice begins to laugh and the tone change and says, “I can do this all day”. Holden says, “I know you”. The voice laughs and giggles and says, “Dude you have to see your face right now priceless, tell me did you pee a little?” Holden yells and says, “Kai you nincompoop how can you do that, you almost gave me a heart attack”. Kai replies, “You must admit, I make an awesome bad guy voice”.
Holden stands up from the ground and wipes the tears and sweat from his face and forehead. Holden then walks up to Kai grab by the chest and says, “What were you thinking, listen you have to let us go and you know what the Mistress would do to me once she finds me”. We remain to kneel because we are confused and don’t know what else to do or whats going on. Holden and Kai look like they could be good friends, but we don’t know him as Holden does. Jenny whisper and ask me, “So Peter what do we do, do we stand up or what? My knees are killing me and a piece of stone is pressing against it”. I replied softly, “I don’t know let us wait and see, take the stone from under your knee and stay on the ground, don’t stand up”. Eric says, “Pete, I have to go pee”. I replied, “Little brother just hold it in, we don’t know if we can stand up and this guy could maybe not be the only Reaper up here with us, plus we don’t know what his motives could be”. Kai hugs Holden and says, “Look, brother, I’m not going to turn you over to the Mistress, she will kill you for what happened or worst give you to the cannibal group, I was thinking of running myself, because of the things that are going on in our group I can't trust anyone”. Holden hugs Kai back and says, “Thank you for understanding brother you don’t know how good it is to know that you are thinking of running too, maybe you should join us we going to the town Peter and his brother are from”. Holden turns to us and says “Stand up my friends this is one of the good Reapers I was telling you about”. Kai says, “Hi guys, I’m Kai nice to meet you guys”. Holden then introduces us to Kai, We then heard a voice shouting, “Kai where are you we moving out soon”. Kai says, “Quick! Hide behind the ventilation shafts before he sees you guys”. Holdens replies, “Okay”. We run quickly and hide as Kai goes to the stairs that lead up to the roof of the building. He says, “Yes, yes I’m coming”. The person approaches Kai and says “I heard a voice up there other than your voice, who was that you talking to?” Kai responds, “Oh! You did? It was nothing dude, just the two-way radio someone just radioed in saying we heading back”. The person says, “That's not what I just heard and my radio is turned on, we on the same frequency, let us go take a look”. Kai replies, “Look, you seriously need to chill out dude, its nothing”. “Move out of my way” the person replies.
I look from behind the ventilation shaft and see the person coming up the stairs and looking around and I look at Eric as he holds Thor tightly close to him, luckily I did tie Thor's mouth close so he would not bark. I whisper, “Eric, keep him leash tight don't let him go”. The person says, “I know, I heard you talking to someone up here and I’m going to find out who it is”. He reaches for his radio puts it to his mouth and says, “Team I need you to turn back, looks like we have a problem”. The person approaches the ventilation shaft our pulses are racing Kai grabs him from behind, hits him against his face and wrestles him to the ground and yells “Run guys run, I got him, I will catch up with you”. We run for the stairs and Kai says, “No! Not that way climb down, some of them might still be around”. Holden says, “Okay, brother thank you”. The person yells, “Holden you traitor, we coming for you”.
We run to the roof ladder, I pick up Thor and we start to climb down, as we climb I see the person get loose from Kai’s grip and runs for the stairs. I yelled, “Kai we going west to a little town I’m from it is east from the beach road”. We hear shouting, he is here, he is here, then it stopped. Holden says, “Hey stop! There are some of the dead are approaching don’t make a sound”. They walking pass the roof ladder through the alleyway and towards the way some of the other Reapers went, away from the fire department stumbling over each other walking and scraping against the walls of the buildings, ripping off pieces of their clothes and flesh as the scraping by growling and howling “Aaarguuurrrsss”. Every sound attracts their attention as they look around for movement and their urge to sight a living person or thing to quince the thirst to consume human flesh. There is some yelling and screaming again and it causes them to turn into another alleyway towards the stairs that leads up to the roof that we climbing down from. We waited from them to go around the corner and climb down, then Eric steps on a can and it rolled against the wall one of them turn around and then another one, Thor runs towards them and leads them away disappearing behind a corner.
Some of them are coming towards us and we ran out of the alleyway into the street opposite the fire department building, we run west in the direction of the highway, five blocks away from the fire department. Eric says, “Peter, what about Thor”. I replied, “He will find his way back to us, he knows our smell don’t worry”. Jenny says, “Peter we have enough food and I did pack some of the blankets that were on the beds at the fire department, we just need a place to hold up in”. Holden says, “Hold up guys please my ankle is burning up, cant we rest for a few minutes”. I replied, “I know your ankle is hurting Holden, but we can't just stand here out in the open we are too exposed”. Jenny says, “Let's run up there it looks clear”. I ask, “Where Jenny, which side?”. Jenny points to a church up a hill, we begin to run up the road and I see a figure following us jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Eric asks, “Pete what's that? it looks like something out of one of my comic books”. The figure runs from roof to roof and it looks like it is following every direction we turn there he seems to run. It caught up with us and we hear a voice saying, “Guys wait up”, Holden says, “It’s Kai”. We stop quickly with relief and try to catch our breath, Holden coughs and breathes deeply and says, “Eric don’t ever smoke in your life”. Eric laughs at him, Kai comes sliding of a pole alongside a building and runs to us. Holden says, “Kai you have to stop it with the scaring it’s not funny”. Kai replies, “Oh, you are talking about the roof no this is nothing like tha
t, I told you that I was going to catch up with you guys and we have a problem, we have to get off the streets that guy from the roof got away”. I replied, “So, Kai you telling us they after us?” Kay says, “As we speak so we better hurry up”. Holden says, “Okay, we going to the church up that hill”. Kai says, “That’s Devil territory, I’ve never run into them myself self but dude they say they are a nasty bunch”. Jenny says, “They are Devils, what are they going to do in a church?” Kai says, “Okay, I’m just telling you what I have heard, but it is your funerals”.
We run up the road that leads to the church, we see graffiti on the walls a capital letter “D” with two horns on either side and a pitchfork in the middle of the letter “D”. Kai says, “See I told you guys, this is the Devils territory”. Holden says, “Well, we don’t see anyone around, so we might as well go into the church”. Kai says, “Okay, but don’t say I did not warn you guys, if I see any of those Devils I’m leaving you in the dust, I,m not looking for any trouble. We run further up the road and reach the church steps, I can see Holden is in pain as he rubs his leg, Kai helps Holden and we walk up the steps and went to the church. We walk up to the pillars near the church door and we spot a few figures running in the street. I said, “Quick, guys lets get inside”. We try to push open the church doors, but something is blocking it from the inside. “Let's try around the back” Jenny shouts. We all go around the back of the church, Eric ran ahead and shouts, “In here”. I yell, “Eric, wait! you don’t know what might be in there”. We rush in after Eric, Jenny says, “Eric, Eric where are you?” Eric replies, “SSsssshh, not so loud, they will hear you”. I ask, “Where are you, little brother?” He says, “Down here”. I bend down to go on to my knees and look under the table, I see Eric hiding and pointing towards a glass door, the glass is painted over and a few figures are walking inside the priest office. Eric asks, “Pete, will Thor ever find his way back to us”. I replied, “He will, I can't talk about Thor right now, but I know where ever he is he will try to find us”, and I told Eric to stay under the table and wait until I call him.
No Hope (Book 1): Seven Days Alone Page 6