AN: Beta Reader for this chapter was the one, the only...JDUBZ!

Chapter 9: Shopping

May 11, 2015

4:27pm

A light breeze rustled the tall grass growing in the backyard of an abandoned house. It's smashed windows had jagged ends of glass, stained red with blood. The backdoor was nonexistent, a broken pile of deformed wood, just inside of the house.

Inside the broken house, past the furniture that was torn and tossed aside, and resting on a kitchen table, covered with blood, stood a small mobile radio.

Through the static that it spewed, a voice spoke out.

"Across the globe, the infection continues to spread. It is accounted that over 68% of the world's population had already been infected with the, now known, Mortuus Virus within the first two weeks."

A man stepped into the house through the back door, a hammer in his hand, and opened a door to one of the rooms.

"Los Angeles, San Francisco, and most of California has fallen. Of the United States as a whole, the Midwestern and Southeastern are devoid of any non-infected areas. Northeastern states, excluding Maryland, are currently being quarantined as to avoid any infected from getting in."

Another person, with a metal bat, followed closely behind the man and went into a different room.

"As of the Western part, temporary Safe Zones have been set up by CEDA as of two days ago to temporarily keep survivors until they are ready to be transported to the Northeastern states."

The two intruders meet each other at the back door and decide to check the rest of the house together.

"All airports are currently closed, in hopes of stopping the spread from worsening. However, it is said that individuals with personal aircrafts have been using their own to travel long distances. In an attempt to keep order, all planes or helicopters NOT part of the US Armed Forces that are in use will be handled with quickly and efficiently."

The two men stepped into the kitchen and inspected the radio.

"So far, there have been 15 casualties involving the use of personal aircrafts. Officials say, and I quote, 'They are measures that need to be taken under such a serious and overwhelming situation. During times like these, we must do anything and everything to suppress the situation to prevent it from growing into a bigger problem than it already is.'"

The first man lit a cigarette and and said to the other, "Subaru, remind me that we should pick that up on the way back. It'll be useful to catch up on what we've been missing while surviving this shit storm."

Quarke took a long drag of the cigarette and exhaled the smoke.

Subaru turned the radio off and said to Quarke, "I still don't think you should be smoking during times like these. Shouldn't your health be the first thing you worry about?" Quarke had apparently been a smoker in his youth, but quit when his wife made him when she was pregnant with the twins. Now he had taken it up again as a way to relieve stress.

Quarke flicked the ashes onto the floor and chuckled a bit, "The first thing I'm worrying about is my daughters. To hell with me," he finished off the cigarette with one more long drag and held it in before exhaling, "My only purpose now is to make sure they stay alive and make it to safety."

Subaru nodded, understanding fully that he would give anything to keep Rem and Ram safe. He would do the same, for them, and especially for Emilia.

Quarke threw the cigarette to the tile floor and smashed it with his shoes. He looked at Subaru with a friendly smile and asked knowingly, "Speaking of which, what are we doing here again?"

Subaru clapped his hands and said, "Right, searching for clothes and medicine." Two important things they currently needed.

"Then let's get lookin'!"

Subaru and Quarke scavenged the house for supplies. They were able to get through it without any incidences with the undead.

However, the fruits of their labor proved to be very little. The previous occupants of the house only had clothing in Quarke's size and no medication that they needed. It seemed that they would need to search another house.

Jumping the fence in the backyard to go to another house, Subaru pointed out, "We could go to the Wilsons' house. I heard the husband is a pharmacist, so maybe he'll have what we need."

Quarke tried to jump the wooden fence. He almost hurt himself when the wood snapped. "Oh!" He stared at the piece of snapped wood in his hand. Grabbing onto the top of the ply of wood, he snapped it from its place. "That makes this much easier." Saying that, he started removing more of the fence.

As Quarke worked, he went off from what Subaru said, "Well, Wilson was a pharmacist, but with what's been going on I don't think that's the case anymore." He removed yet another plank of wood, making a gap big enough for him to fit through. "Also, I don't think someone like him is just gonna be carrying Zanamivir around. I can see him carrying normal over-the-counter meds, but we need something stronger. Something like Ibuprofen won't be enough."

Despite the hole already being big enough, Subaru helped by kicking planks off. Upon hearing Quarke, Subaru asked, "Wait, so you never anticipated us finding it in the first place? Then why waste time searching for it?"

Quarke went through the makeshift hole in the fence. "Because, you never know. The flu's very common to begin with. So someone may have some."

"Shouldn't we be going to a pharmacy then?" The thought of going out into the city scared Subaru, but he knew they weren't gonna find the medication Ram needed randomly searching houses.

Quarke looked at the house they were standing behind and put his hands to hip hips, "You think so?" He exhaled, "It's just, the city is probably crawling with those things. We're lucky there's not many in the neighborhood compared to there."

Two weeks ago, when the horde of walkers stormed through the street, killing and tearing the flesh from anyone who was unprepared, they had hung around for a while before moving on. They didn't seem to have a sense of where to go, just that they had to move and search for….food. Resulting them to spread out and wander aimlessly across town and the neighborhood.

Subaru hit the back door of the house hard with the bat multiple times, "I think getting to a pharmacy is our best course of action here. If we don't, Ram is just gonna get worse and we won't be able to move anywhere if she's bed ridden."

When Quarke heard a noise from within the house he said, "I was thinking the same thing, but I don't know where we'd go. We know next to nothing about what's been happening out there other than what that radio said."

For the past weeks, all five of them have stayed in the basement of the house. For now, Rem, Ram, and Emilia stayed there while Subaru and Quarke had assigned themselves as to the ones to scavenge houses for food, water, and anything that would be useful. They stuck only to this street so they didn't venture too far off from the house in case they ran into a problem too large for them to handle. The problem was the looming danger that still clung thickly in the air whenever they opened the door to a new house.

Subaru had a laid back look, saying to Quarke in a cocky manner, "Well, we've got the radio with us now so we'll just need to listen for where Safe Zones will pop up and we make our way there."

At that moment, a walker had walked up to the back door from within the house upon hearing the banging and voices. The two men heard as the walker began to frantically bang on the door.

Quarke nodded, "A Safe Zone would be perfect for my daughters and your girlfriend. That way, we'll know for sure they'll be safe."

Subaru blushed, "Emilia's not my girlfriend! She's…...a friend." He looked away to hide his embarrassed look.

Quarke chuckled for a bit, "Maybe she doesn't feel the same, but you obviously like her." He glanced at the door that was shaking violently. "Hey, that one's making too much noise. Anywho, it's your turn."

"RRRRRAAAGGGHHH!"

Still flustered, Subaru said with attitude, "Yeah, yeah." He opened the door and let the walker swing into open air. Holding the bat in a bunting position, Subaru hit the walker in the face, sending to take a few steps back. Raising the bat above him, he brought it down hard on top of the walker's head.

5:44pm

"You gonna need help?"

"Son, I was in the LAPD. I think I know how to climb a wall."

"Alrighty then." With this, Subaru removed his backpack and threw it over the brick wall that led to the alleyway that Subaru had taken on his way to LA. Next, he threw over his metal bat, making a loud clanging noise as it hit the concrete floor. The sudden loud noise caused Quarke to jump suddenly.

Agitated, he said sarcastically, "Damn it, Subaru. Could you make it any louder?"

"Well," Subaru backed up and ran at the wall, kicking o to its surface to launch himself higher. Grunting, he was able to pull himself up to the top of the wall and sit. "It's not like I'm trying."

Quarke did the same as Subaru and said, "Well, you sure as hell are doing a damn good job at this 'not trying' thing if it means making a lot of noise."

Subaru smiled and dropped down onto the other side, "That's my specialty." He dusted his shirt and put the backpack on. When Quarke dropped down , Subaru asked, "So what pharmacy are we going to?" He felt they needed to have a plan instead of getting into the city and figuring it out amongst so many walkers.

"There's that CVS on Figueroa, but if that doesn't work there's always the Walgreens and Rite Aid just down Seventh."

"How long is that gonna take?"

Quarke put on his backpack and looked at the falling sun, "Well, if we move fast we may be able to get back before the sun sets."

"I'm not sure if I like those odds." Getting stuck at night wasn't a fun thing to go through where walkers were out and about. Subaru knew more than anybody about how terrifying that was.

6:07pm

Quarke and Subaru hid behind a car as a mass of walkers aimlessly walked the littered city streets just a few feet from them.

Subaru peeked through the car windows to see the walkers shuffling around with no purpose. They acted differently from how they did two weeks ago. It seemed that the ones with sight had grown to be more alert of their surroundings. They had developed somewhat of a memory.

What scared Subaru the most was that they seemed to redevelop the ability to open doors. It was two days ago when Subaru witnessed a walker jerk it's hand onto a door knob and twist it in it's palm. The walker turned the knob counter-clockwise and didn't end up opening the door, but it proved that they were changing for worse. The question Subaru was scared of the answer was; Just how smart were they going to get?

The only difference the blind walkers had gone through was a change in sensitivity. Now anything would set them off; a cough, a word, any sound that wasn't another walker.

Looking panicked, Subaru said as quietly as possible, "What do we do now? There's a lot more than we thought there would be."

Quarke was also surprised at the sheer numbers of walkers. He began patting down his pockets, "Ummmm…." As quietly as he could, he began removing his backpack.

Subaru watched with wide eyes, "OK, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. We should just let Ram get better on her own. We'll give her some meds so her fever reduces and then we could make our move then."

Quarke started sifting through his backpack, "Running is not an option here, Subaru. If we go on the move while my daughter is sick, she might get us sick as well. And if we're all sick we'll be weaker in a fight." He pulled out a short stream of firecrackers, "This is the best option for us."

"Weren't you the one that didn't want to come here in the first place?"

"Yes, but that was before I realized how improbable it was that we would find Zanamivir in the common household."

Quarke pulled out his lighter while Subaru looked at the flame, "You think this'll work?"

Quarke held the flame close to the fuse, "I have to hope it works."

We are going to die here.

Subaru looked at Quarke, "If we die because of this, I'm blaming you afterwards."

Quarke chuckled.

No, really. I am.

Lighting the fuse, Quarke said to Subaru, "Remember…...Zanamivir."

Subaru said frantically, "I got it, I got it. Just throw the damn thing."

Stepping away from the car, Quarke threw the bundle of firecrackers as far as he could. They landed on the hood of a car and started snapping loudly. Contrasting greatly compared to the quiet sounds of groaning from the walkers.

The violent banging and popping of the fireworks set off the car alarm it sat on. The deafening alarm echoed between the city buildings attracting any walker that heard it.

A loud thundering of footsteps washed past skyscrapers and made their way towards the sounds of the alarm. In addition to the snapping firecrackers, the blaring car alarm, and the sound of fast approaching footsteps, came the screeching and yelling of a horde of walkers. Dozens upon dozens of walkers poured from the streets and alleys, sprinting to the car that yelled it's location.

Quarke and Subaru held their ground, shaking with fear at the thought of having that size of a horde on them. Thundering footsteps echoed past on the other side of the car they hid behind. Some even climbed onto the car and ran their way over it, but none of the walkers saw them, thankfully. Their desperate roars were disturbing and animalistic.

When the sound of footsteps stopped, Quarke and Subaru pecked through the car windows and saw the large mass of walkers crowding the car. The sound of shattering glass and bending metal sounded over the moaning of the walkers.

The sight made Subaru and Quarke want to forget about their mission and leave, but they needed the medication if they wanted to ensure making it to safety.

Beads of sweat ran down Quarke's forehead as he looked at the crowd. He gulped and turned to Subaru, "Now's the time. Come one, let's move."

With determination, Quarke bravely ran from behind the car, keeping low to the ground as he quickly made his way to the other side of the street. He had made it to the other side and hid behind a newspaper dispenser when he turned back around to see Subaru still behind the car.

Quarke looked back at the mass of walkers still distracted by the alarm. Using only hand motions, he motioned for Subaru to quickly follow.

From behind the car, Subaru witnessed Quarke edge him on, "Fuck my life…" he followed Quarke's example of running with bent knees. When he reached Quarke, he said, panting from the stress, "What now?"

Quarke pulled out his hammer, and said, sounding like he knew exactly what he was doing, "We stay out of sight and head down this street until we hit Seventh. At that corner should be a CVS."

Subaru nodded his head with understanding. "Right, right, and if that doesn't work we've still got Walgreens and Rite Aid."

Quarke gave a thumbs up as he looked around for any walkers. All of them should've been on the car. "That's right." He pulled out his sidearm from his pocket and unloaded the clip, "Make sure you've got it loaded. Don't wanna be in a situation without ammunition."

Good idea.

Subaru pulled the gun he had gotten from Rem out of his pocket. Unloading the clip, he checked the side of it, "I've got 8."

Quarke holstered his gun, "Same." Taking a deep breathe, he looked at Subaru with a nervous smile. "You ready?"

Subaru returned the smile uncertainly, "Ready when you are, Mr, Tenshi."

Chuckling, Quarke put a hand on Subaru's shoulder, "Remind me when you turn 21, I wanna be the one to give you your first beer." He rubbed Subaru's shoulder before pulling his hand away and standing up. "Let's go. Those meds aren't going to find themselves." He held a hand out.

Subaru nodded and took Quarke's hand. Getting pulled to his feet, he gave him a look of both excitement and fear. Holding a hand out, he said, "After you."

Thankfully, the car alarm went on for a while and attracted most of the walkers in the area. That made their plan much simpler.

Occasionally, they hid behind cars, trucks, trash cans, and anything else that would provide them with a place to hide from the eyes of the walkers.

Somewhere along the way, the two had just hidden behind the roof of an overturned truck when a walker stumbled out of the store in front of them. They didn't notice it at first, being occupied with checking on the walkers passing by in the street. The groaning of the walker was what caught each of their attention. They turned around, quickly raising their weapons. The crunching of gravel beneath their shoes caused the walker to jerk its head towards them. It was blind.

He walker began to slowly shuffle in their direction. Subaru was about to swing down onto the walker's head when Quarke put an arm on his chest to stop him. He looked at Subaru and shook his head while holding up a finger to his lips.

Stay quiet? That's what I'm doing!

Subaru looked at him confused and gave his bat a light shake as of saying with no words that he was ready. As a reply, Quarke made a motion of swinging with the bat and made an explosion gesture with his hands. Afterwards, he held up his hammer and pointed to the claw, then put a finger to his lips again.

Then Subaru understood, if he hit the walker with the bat then it would make noise and attract any nearby walkers. However, if Quarke sunk the claw of the hammer into the walker's head, then it would be a silent kill.

Subaru nodded and backed off as Quarke held the hammer high in the air. The walker had stopped walking towards them so he dragged his foot again to get the walker's attention. When it was right in front of him, Quarke brought the hammer down and sunk the claw deep into the brain. Before the walker could fall to the floor, Quarke wrapped his arms around it and slowly laid it down onto the floor as if it were something delicate.

The impact of the hammer did emit a small cracking noise, but nothing loud enough to attract the walkers wandering the streets.

Quarke removed the claw from the walker's skull with a squelching noise. He looked at Subaru and gave a single nod while pointing towards the direction they were headed.

The further they got into town the more walkers appeared. When some would be on their side of the street they would duck into the nearest smashed window from an abandoned store. If it passed by without noticing them then they wouldn't risk doing anything that would make it look on their direction. However, if they did see them then Quarke would quickly finish it off with the hammer and pull the corpse into the building. Their fear was that if they let a walker roar upon noticing them then a whole lot more walkers would come finish them off before they could even come up with an escape plan.

Quarke had just removed his bloody hammer from a walker when Subaru asked how much farther the CVS was. Frankly, all the hiding was taking too long for Subaru comfort for the sun was falling more every time they had to escape the walkers. Subaru checked his watch.

6:46pm.

Quarke swung the hammer to let the blood fly from the head. "The pharmacy is at the next corner. So if all goes smoothly, we'll get there in 5 minutes."

Subaru groaned and said miserably, "Awwwwww, don't say that. Now something bad is gonna happen."

6:51pm

Subaru turned to Quarke, both of which were standing in front of a CVS. "Whaddayaknow, something bad didn't happen."

Quarke said nothing and stepped forward, towards the building. The lights of the CVS were, not surprisingly, off. The automatic doors slid open when Quarke and Subaru came close to them.

Subaru stayed close to Quarke, keeping an eye on the back to make sure nothing snuck up on them. When Quarke went inside, he followed. As seen from the outside, the entire place was dark.

Quarke whispered to Subaru, "Lights."

On cue, Subaru dug into Quarke's backpack and pulled out two headlamps. Each slipped one on and turned it to the lowest brightness setting so as to stand out as little as possible.

Quarke shined his light across the floor littered with candy, papers, money, and various unimportant items. This place had obviously been ransacked already. "OK, the pharmacy section should be in the back."

Subaru nodded and started walking there. On the way there, he picked up the latest newspaper from the floor and read the title.

Chris Burden dies at 69: artist's light sculpture at LACMA is symbol of L.A.

Subaru chuckled bitterly at the title. It just proved that no one saw the infection coming. It just happened and no one haf any clue of how. They were doomed from the very start.

"Hey, Subaru. You done browsing over there?"

Looking up from the paper, Subaru saw Quarke already at the back of the store and was climbing over a counter to get into the pharmacy area.

Dropping the paper, Subaru jogged over to where Quarke was and slide over the counter to get into the pharmacy. On the way, there was more proof of the store having been ransacked for the floor was littered with junk and many of the shelves were empty.

Quarke was already searching the various shelves for the Zanamivir. While he was shifting over other medication, he said to Subaru, "We're looking for a box, the Zanamivir inhaler itself should look oval-shaped and have a blue and white color to it."

Subaru showed the back of Quarke's head a thumbs up and began to search.

No, no, no, no, no. That's not it. Neither is that. Ooooo….nah.

He threw bottles and boxes, that he had already looked at, to the floor. The small rattling of pills in a bottle was the only thing that broke the silence of the pharmacy. It wasn't until Quarke found what they were looking for did he shout out, "Found it!" He held up a box, that was the size of his hand, triumphantly.

Subaru stopped throwing medication around and approached Quarke with a look of relief, "Thank god. I was hoping we wouldn't have to go further down the street."

Quarke bent down to retrieve more boxes, "Yeah, thanks for that. I don't know how many we'll need, but let's take as many as they've got here and figure out the rest later. All I know is that they're used to prevent and treat influenza so hopefully Ram will be right as rain soon." He opened up his backpack and put in 5 boxes.

Gesturing to Subaru to take off his backpack, Quarke said in a matter-a-fact tone, "I'm not carrying everything, you know."

As Quarke stuffed 4 more boxes into Subaru backpack, he strained his ears to listen for anything out of the ordinary. When nothing came up, he zipped the backpacks closed and handed Subaru his. "Alright, let's get moving. We shouldn't stay here anymore than we need to."

Subaru understood. Putting his backpack back on, he nodded and smiled, "Let's go home."

7:59pm

Subaru stuffed the bat into the mouth of a walker just when it was about to roar and bring more onto him and Quarke. He ran the walker into the wall of the store and pinned it there. The walker began to claw at Subaru with rage, small gurgling coming from it's mouth. Without a second's hesitation, Quarke came in for the kill by shoving the hammer's claw into the head of the walker. Subaru kept the bat in the walker's mouth so he could let it gently fall to the floor.

As of now, they were almost at the end of the street, nearing the car that used to have it alarms on. Once again, they were pinned with the huge crowd of walkers shambling up front and walker behind them. They could back track and use a different street, but then they would have to use their headlamps to see, and that would attract walkers. However, if they somehow made it past the walkers ahead then they wouldn't have to worry about that.

Quarke walked out of the store's front door and stretched. In the area they were in, most of the walkers were still ahead of them, slowly dispersing from the car. With all the other abandoned cars and junk between them and the walkers, seeing them wouldn't be likely.

Subaru followed shortly after removing the bat from the walker's mouth and looked at the orange sky. That was when Quarke said, "Come on, we're burning daylight."

That was also when the car next to them cut through the deafening silence. There was the smashing of glass, and then the blaring alarm of the car.

Both men looked at the car in confusion and terror. Quarke looked at the once intact windshield, now it had a small, circular hole in it. He jerked around to Subaru and yelled over the loud siren, "It's been shot!"

I'm all the confusion, Subaru didn't hear him over the car's alarm. "What?!"

Pulling Subaru to the front of the car, Quarke pointed out the bullet hole, "It's been shot!"

Shot? So someone set it off on purpose?

That's the thought that ran through his head as the car continued to screech. Someone had shot the car and set off its alarm. But for what reason?

Quarke quickly looked at the bullet hole and determined its direction of origin by checking the glass it cut through. It was shot from above. He looked at the roofs of the buildings and the windows of an apartment building across the street, but nothing stood out. There was nothing showing itself, but it was definitely someone's doing.

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGHHHHH!"

A single roar interrupted the car alarm. Followed immediately by more roars and cries of many walkers.

Quarke and Subaru looked in the direction they were heading towards, but it seemed they would need to find a new route.

The lone roar had come from a male walker that stood over a small group of smashed cars that had hit each other. It's red, angry, bloodshot eyes were resting on the two survivors. It's second roar was lost in the combined efforts from the other walkers that were attracted to the car alarm.

The lone walker jumped from the car and began running towards Quarke and Subaru. Right behind him, a wave of other walkers came pouring across the entire length of the street. The cars were lost under the continuous horde. Their eyes were all trained on the two unlucky survivors, eager to tear them apart.

Quarke pulled out his sidearm and grabbed the paralyzed Subaru by the front of his shirt. He screamed at him as he began tugging him in the opposite direction of the horde, "WE HAVE TO GO! WE HAVE TO GO NOW!"

Subaru got the message and began to move his feet. He did as Quarke had done and pulled out his gun. With a wave of walkers already chasing them, using a gun shouldn't cause any more of a problem.

Subaru ran as fast as he could alongside Quarke, wondering if this was how they were going to die. They would run until they either trapped themselves or the walkers caught up to them when they tired. Each one would mean a grisly painful death.

Fuck, we're dead.

The two men kept running and running, adrenaline rushing through their veins. Before they even made it to the end of the block, Quarke put an arm out to stop Subaru from running any further. Any walker ahead of them was now running at them, having heard the car alarm.

On either side, a wave of walkers were approaching fast. Quarke took aim, prepared to take out as many as he could before they took him out. His dying wish was for his daughters to survive this hell and find refuge somewhere safer. With that thought, he began firing his gun. One, two, three, four.

Subaru looked for anything they could use to hide or escape, but it was useless. The walkers knew where they were, hiding would only lead to death. He looked to the building next to them, hoping to find a solution. It was an apartment building. That's it!

Subaru could only hope that the walkers wouldn't be able to climb. Please let this work!

As Quarke kept firing at the incoming walkers, Subaru ran back to check the alley at the side of the apartment. All he saw was a dirty, dark alleyway with a chain link fence blocking it off halfway. This gave Subaru another idea, but that was soon shot down upon noticing barbed wire circling the top of the fence. Damn it! Why is there not one on both sides?!

It was their last chance to survive, and the walkers were getting closer. They were only about 100 feet from Quarke on each side when Subaru ran past him. He immediately stopped firing and reloaded his gun, yelling at Subaru with confusion, "WHAT'RE YOU DOING?! DON'T RUN TOWARDS THEM!"

Subaru ignored him and continued to run to the end of the apartment building. He stopped and looked the alley separated he the the apartment from the other building. There it is!

Up against the apartment building was a red fire escape. A ladder lead from the ground floor all the way to a platform that was level with that floor's window, and a staircase went up on level to end onto another platform. That pattern reappeared until the very top of the building. This was their ticket out of there.

Without wasting another second, Subaru called out to Quarke to come to him.

With nothing else to lose, Quarke ran to him and saw what he was planning in the alleyway. He laughed happily, "Subaru you fucking genius!" He looked at the approaching horde, now only a mere 50 feet away. His eyes widened in terror as he pushed on Subaru's back, "Move, move, move!"

Subaru couldn't have understood any clearer and ran to the ladder. When he and Quarke reached it, the first wave of walkers had hit the alley's walls and were now sprinting towards them. Their collective roar of hunger and anger and the sheer size of the horde would make any man beg for mercy.

Subaru leapt onto the metal bars and quickly began climbing them as Quarke emptied his entire clip into the oncoming wave. The walkers in the front fell to the floor, each with a bullet in their head. Subaru made it to the platform when Quarke holstered his empty gun and began to climb.

A skinnier walker separated itself from the others by sprinting faster than any of them. Snapping it's jaws, the walker ran at the ladder and lunged at Quarke's legs. The walker's hands caught hold of one of his feet and began tugging on it.

The sudden jerk made Quarke almost lose his grip on the bars. He tried to kick at the walker's hands, but it wouldn't let go. He started to panic when the walker opened its mouth to bite his leg. He cocked back his other leg and kicked the walker in the face. Even this didn't stop it from tugging on him. The constant pulling and tugging prevented him from climbing any further. As he fending off the walker he cried in alarm, "Subaru!"

Subaru had already heard the commotion and was aiming his gun at the walker. He'd never really shot a gun before other than the ones in his previous loop so he didn't know how his aim was.

The horde came closer. And when they did, Quarke would be a goner. Subaru had to take the shot. Closing an eye, he looked down the small sight and aimed at the walker's head. He pulled the trigger, but the bullet soared over the walker and hit a trash bag.

Quarke continued to kick at the walker, trying to say as calmly as he could, "Breathe, Subaru! Take a deep breath!"

The walker heard Quarke and roared in anger, "RRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Take a deep breath?

Subaru thought it was the stereotypical advice people give in movies, but if Quarke, a cop, was advising it in real life then it must work. Taking a deep breath, he aimed lower at the walker's chest. Like before, the bullet soared higher than he aimed for and hit the walker in the collarbone. The force knocked the walker back a little and made it lose it's grip, but it came back and re-lunged at Quarke's foot.

One more chance. The other walkers were practically on Quarke. All they had to do was grab onto him and pull him down. Subaru had to save him from this and bring him home. Without even taking a deep breath, Subaru carefully aimed at the walker's neck and fired. The walker's head jerked back and it's hands fell from Quarke's foot. The body of the walker disappeared under the crowd of hunger crowd.

Quarke immediately climbed the ladder and threw himself onto the platform. Panting, he looked down through the holes in the platform and watched the walkers crowd around the ladder and reach up at him, as if hoping to grab him from down there. There so many of them that the walkers filled the entire alleyway and even flowed out into the street.

Quarke got to his feet and smiled at Subaru, graciously saying, "Thanks, Subaru. Without your quick thinking, I don't think we would have gotten out of that one alive."

Now over the previous rush, Subaru put his hands to his knees, "Yeah, whaddaya know, I did it."

"Hehehe, keep pulling miracles like that off and we'll survive this thing, no sweat."

Subaru leaned back and put his hands to his hips, "I guess….I guess I can be that guy." Little did Quarke know, Subaru was the type of person to know when danger was coming. But getting to know it came with a price of Subaru having to die first and remember it during his reset.

With that, the two men climbed the stairs and reached the top of the building. Tiny rocks crunched beneath their shoes as they walked to the opposite side of the building. From the top, they could see the roofs of the other buildings they were next to, but other than that the skyscrapers still rose four times higher as they were.

In the sky, the first few stars began to show themselves. It was getting late.

On the other side of the apartment building was the alleyway that Subaru had looked through earlier. The gap between the two roofs was wide, about 8 feet. Subaru looked at the ground fearfully, regretting his plan.

Quarke pulled out a walkie talkie that he had found in someone's house, the other one was at his house. He pressed a button and spoke into the device, "Rem?"

He waited until he heard her response, "Yes, Father?"

Over the moaning of countless walkers and Subaru's unhappy sigh of discomfort after looking into the chasm, he said nonchalantly, "We're gonna be a tad bit late."