Urban Survival: Chapter 2 (re-writen)

The two brutish looking Ayra walked off towards the ramp to the next level of the parking garage; weapons at the ready.

Fal snatched the rifle out of Max’s hand and threw it to the ground were the metal of the gun clattered on the concrete.

“Fal, why are you sending those two Jokers to take care of it?” The Ayra in the skull armor asked. “Their stupid and clumsy, they’ll probably attract more of those things.”

Max could not help but notice how the Ayra’s voice sounded like he had an Australian accent, which he found… strange. Nevertheless, listening to what the skull armored Ayra had said, Max looked at the two Ayra walking up the ramp. One thing that he noticed first was their rifles. Neither of them was silenced and this worried Max, a lot.

“Fal, or whatever your name is, he’s right,” Max said nodding towards the Ayra who now disappeared through the opening in the ceiling. “They have unsuppressed firearms. If they shoot at that thing, others are bound to hear it. They could attract a murder.”

Fal jabbed the barrel of his gun harder into Max’s chin, “I’m going to murder you if you don’t shut up!”

Max flinched as the cold metal barrel dug into his skin. Aeila appeared as if she was going to say something but she was interrupted by two loud screams and loud bursts of gunfire. The four of them looked around.

The two brutish Ayra fell through a hole in the ceiling where the concrete had given way to the weather and landed in a heap. They quickly scrambled to their feet aiming their rifles up and through the hole. Max could hear their loud and heavy breathing.

“What happened?” Fal asked yelling at the two oafs.

“It just… snuck up on us,” the large one cried.

“How the hell did it sneak up on you in the light?”

They didn’t answer but instead let off a few more rounds through the hole. The shots rang and echoed off the buildings in the city.

Fal only now realized how loud they actually were and yelled, “Stop shooting!”

The two Ayra ceased fire and backed away from the hole. The smaller of the two backed up into the open wall that faced the street. All was quiet, too quiet.

Unexpectedly hands grabbed the Ayra from behind clawing at the Ayra’s armor. The Ayra screamed as a pale and angry head tried to gnaw through his helmet. As the angry and hungry zombie clawed at the Ayra’s chest, it hit something that started beeping.

“Get off of me!” the helpless Ayra cried.

The Ayra finally managed to pull away from the zombies clutches. The zombie however kept hold of the beeping object, which had detached from the Ayra’s armor, and began to gnaw on that instead.

“Get down!” Fal yelled pulling Max to the ground with him.

The Ayra all dove for cover as the beeping continued. Max threw his hands over his head and tensed up. The beeping stopped abruptly and all seemed deathly quiet.

The whole of the parking garage shook as the device in the zombies mouth exploded, sending flames and shrapnel everywhere. What was left of the zombie toppled to the streets below. Pieces of concrete fell scattering on the ground around Max.

He looked at where the explosion had taken place and accessed the damage. Dust hung heavy in the air and caused them all to cough and wheeze. There was now no longer a wall or floor within a six foot radius of where the detonation had taken place.
“Holy crap!”

The female Ayra, Aeila, was the first to get up. She ran over to check on the Ayra who had been attacked by the zombie, but he waved her off pushing himself up off the floor. As everyone slowly got to their feet, a horrible shriek rang out from the streets.

Fal ran over to the wall where Max had originally climbed over and peered out onto the street, “Oh no…”

Zombies were running at the parking garage from every corner of the street, there were hundreds of them.

“Told you so,” the skull armored Ayra mocked.

Fal turned and glared at the Ayra, “Shut up! Let’s get out of here.”

He then began to sprint toward the ramp and towards the upper levels of the garage. The others followed, Max was about to follow until he watched the zombie up in the level above jump out of the hole and attack Aeila.

The momentum of the zombie threw them both over the edge and through the hole in the floor the explosion had made. Aeila barely managed to grab onto the edge of the hole but was able to keep her grip.

Aeila cried out for help but the other Ayra kept running, ignoring her. The zombie that had attacked her clung onto her legs clawing at her armor, trying to find a way to tear at her flesh. Max saw that the other Ayra were just going to leave her there to die.

Although he had, had his differences with the Ayra he would sooner save one, than let those creatures kill one. He ran over to the edge of the hole and stuck out his left hand to offer his help. Aeila gladly took it for she was struggling to keep her grasp on the cold concrete and the thrashing zombie on her legs was making things twice as difficult.

Although her visor was dark and Max could not see her face, he could sense how terrified she was. Pulling her up until her elbow was over the ledge, Max drew his pistol. He pointed it at Aeila and her eyes grew wide with more fear.

“Duck!”

Aeila quickly ducked her head and Max pulled the trigger. The bullet hit its mark; it ripped through the forehead of the zombie assailant. The zombie’s expression went from anger to blank as its limbs went limp and the zombie crashed to floor below.

Max helped Aeila the rest of the way up onto the solid ground.

“Why did you help me?” Aeila asked, breathing heavily.

“Now is not the time, we’ve got to go!”

Aeila looked at out at the street. The zombies were now upon the garage and beginning to climb the walls of the building. “Right sorry, come on!”

She dragged Max towards the ramp to the next level and he followed quickly. They ran through each level until they reached the roof level. As they ran through the opening to the roof Max could feel the rain patter against his helmet again. He had gotten used to the dry shelter of the parking garage, so the rain almost stung as it hit his bare skin.

As they set foot on the roof, the first thing he noticed was that Fal and the other Ayra were not there. Aeila lead Max to one of the sides of the building. The side was facing a twenty-story building, and he noticed that there was a large makeshift bridge. The bridge extended from the twenty-story building to the parking garages roof. Aeila stepped onto it but stopped when Max did.

“Come on!”

“What is this place?” Max asked, hesitant to go into the building.

Aeila turned back and grabbed Max’s arm, pulling him onto the bridge, “It’s a safe house. Now come on!”

Max was still hesitant on whether or not he should follow the Ayra, but a loud screech from the zombies pursuing them made him think again. He decided it was better to live than to be ripped to pieces by the angry zombies, so he followed Aeila.

The bridge was ancored to a room in the building where the windows had been cleared, leading to a single door guarded by two Ayra soldiers. Once Aeila and Max had reach the end of the bridge, and set foot into the room there was a loud creaking noise and the bridge began to rise. It worked like a medieval drawbridge; two large cables reached down from higher up in the building and connected to either side of the bridge at the end. These cables pulled the bridge up and away from the parking garage.

Max could see from around the bridge, as it came to a stop flat against the building, the zombies come sprinting into view. Hundreds of them came pouring out onto the roof of the parking garage and even as they reached the edge of the building, the zombies behind them continued forward shoving the zombies in the front over the edge and flailing to their doom.

Behind him, he heard the only door in the room open and he turned around. An arrogant looking Ayra walked through staring at Max. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and his short brown hair looked ragged. He looked like a human without the helmet and was probably in his late thirties, early forties in human years. The pistol he carried looked rustic and old.

More Ayra soldiers walked past him from behind and went behind Max; two of the soldiers grabbed his arms and restrained him.

“Jaq, he’s alright, he saved my life.” Aeila pleaded with the arrogant looking Ayra.

Jaq shook his head, “Aeila, it doesn’t matter. He’s human, we can’t trust him!”

“Sir, I didn’t come here to fight! I came here to survive!” Max told the so-called Jaq.

Jaq struck Max across the face with his handgun. Starbursts erupted in Max’s skull and his vision began to blur. He would have fallen over if it were not for the two Ayra holding him up from behind.

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear anything you have to say,” Jaq said. Grabbing Max by his cheeks and forcing Max to look him in the eyes and continued, “Lucky for you I can’t afford to let you go. You know where we live.”

Violently letting Max’s cheeks go, he stepped back. Aeila continued to plea for Max but Jaq ignored her. He motioned to the soldiers holding Max, but before Max could peer behind him, more starbursts erupted in his skull and his vision went black.

(sequel to Urban Survival: Chapter 1 (re-writen))