Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Zz… George, we need reinforcements. Class W-2 walkers — they caught us off guard, and this place isn't suitable for combat."
After giving his report, Jason gripped his modified P90 and kept firing at the walkers behind them. He was worried, but not about his own safety — his concern was for everyone else, terrified that someone might get hurt or, worse, infected.
Many of the people here would already be dead if not for his intervention, and now death could come for them at any moment if they weren't careful. Worst of all, he knew this — he knew he shouldn't have brought Amy and those women who couldn't even kill a walker without trembling.
If there was anyone to blame, it was him. He was the one who decided to come to North Carolina, and now everyone was here because of that decision.
Being the last to run down the stairs, Jason could hear Rick's voice — followed by more gunfire.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Looking back, Jason realized the lower stairwell was full of walkers. That much was obvious — they had taken an unexplored route and ran straight into a horde.
"Damn it! Where are all these walkers coming from?"
"They're wearing suits — they can't die from a bite!"
But there was no time to argue. Right after Rick's shout, a burst of gunfire echoed, cutting down a large number of walkers in the stairwell. Then, changing direction, the group began heading up instead of down.
They had gained some time thanks to Jason holding off the walkers at the exit, but when he saw Rick coming back, he knew there were more coming.
Without hesitation, he roared and charged up the stairs!
"Don't stop!"
After holding his ground as long as he could, Jason pushed forward while reloading, shoving aside any walkers that hadn't been killed. His armor protected him from any kind of bite.
A dozen people followed behind him in desperation. With their lives on the line, every single one of them was burning with the will to survive, managing to take two or three steps at a time. When they reached the first floor, the group of walkers that had been trapped behind the sealed door Jason had closed earlier suddenly burst through it.
The dense mass of walkers piled up, one over another, rushing up the stairs. Their speed was terrifyingly fast, but that same speed caused them to stumble every few steps — a fatal flaw on the staircase.
Every now and then, a walker tripped on the steps and was immediately crushed by the ones behind it. In seconds, their bodies were reduced to minced flesh under the feet of the others, who continued their relentless chase upward.
After all the walkers from the dining hall had left, one corpse lay motionless in a dark corner of a room. Its body had been completely devoured, yet its mouth still opened and closed occasionally, trying to rise.
It couldn't stand, having lost all its muscles, but as it slowly turned its head, a necklace hanging from its neck caught the faint light — a pendant shaped like half a heart, identical to the one they'd found earlier.
"Hurry up!"
"Come on, everyone!"
"Hoo… hoo… hoo…"
"No… I can't… I'm exhausted…"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jason, who had originally been leading the way, now moved to the back — helping the two girls who would've been dead if they'd stopped running.
Running up more than ten floors wasn't something anyone could do easily. Most people were gasping for air after four or five floors. By the time they reached the top, nearly everyone was bent over, hands on their knees, gasping heavily.
Jason was breathing hard too, but he was still in better shape than the rest. Glenn pushed open the rooftop door, and everyone poured out.
Bang!
The rooftop door was metal — luckily, it had a handle that stuck out on the outside.
"Spread out! Find something to barricade the door!"
"Zz… George, we're on the roof of the second building. Keep the RV ready — we need to get the hell out of here."
Everyone panted heavily as they looked around, but the rooftop was completely bare — not a single thing in sight.
At that moment, Rick suddenly had an idea. Quickly, he removed his belt, tied it tightly around the door, then tore a strip of fabric from his shirt and secured it around his pants.
Then he stared at the door and said uncertainly, "This should hold… right?"
Glenn, standing nearby, glanced at the fabric belt around his waist. "Don't worry, your pants won't fall down."
Everyone else looked at him wordlessly, and Abraham even burst out laughing.
Ignoring them, Jason walked across the rooftop and surveyed the surroundings. The building was twenty stories tall — over eighty meters high. Looking down, everything below looked tiny. Anyone with common sense knew that falling from here meant certain death.
There were buildings on both sides — one about forty or fifty meters tall, clearly useless to them.
On the other side was a building about the same height, separated by an alley roughly seven meters wide.
Once everyone calmed down, they realized the desperate situation they were in. If they couldn't find a way off this rooftop, they'd have to face those fast walkers head-on.
Judging by how many had been chasing them, there were easily over two hundred of them.
Forget whether they had enough ammo to take them all down — even if they used melee weapons, only six men in the group were experienced enough to fight. They could probably kill fifty walkers without much trouble, but the rest wouldn't stand a chance. Their deaths would be certain if they chose to fight. They had to find a way out before time ran out.
"Do you have all the walker masks?"
Rick's first thought was to sneak out quietly — after all, they hadn't gained anything valuable from this mission.
"Walker masks won't work on that kind," Jason said grimly. "They're much more aggressive — they'll likely figure us out right away."
"Would that really happen?"
Jason nodded at Rick. He'd heard the reports of casualties in similar situations.
"Well… we left the masks in the RV. We thought we wouldn't need them since we had these suits."
Rick sighed — there wasn't much to say to that. He simply looked at Amy and Andrea, silently reminding them not to repeat that mistake, if they even had a future after this.
Rick walked to the edge of the rooftop and peered down. The height made him dizzy — it was terrifyingly high given their situation.
Daryl leaned in next to him, glancing at the neighboring building, then looked Jason in the eye — who had taken off his mask — and asked, "You think we can jump to the other side? It's seven meters…"
"You're thinking the same thing? I think it's doable — I can make it."
"That's suicide! This isn't the time to play hero!"
The rest of the group, drawn by the conversation, turned to listen. Carol, who had been watching the three of them, clearly overheard and began to speak up as well.
"Jason, there's no need to make such a desperate choice. If you're not sure, let's just open the door and fight."
The first jump would be crucial — if one person made it across, they could secure a rope for everyone else to cross safely. Abraham had the rope, T-Dog carried a huge axe, and Glenn had the first aid backpack.
This was the standard team setup — they never went out without it.
But when Jason heard Carol's words, he shook his head and kept pointing toward the neighboring building.
"Forget about ammo — even if we have enough, you know many will die. If anything unexpected happens after that, we won't be able to recover."
He pointed to the rooftop of the building slightly lower than theirs, just to their left.
"I already calculated it — the gap between the buildings is about seven meters. It's far, yes, but the difference in height gives me an advantage. It's not that hard to make the jump."
"Are you insane? You'll die if you fall!"
Amy couldn't believe it. She regretted everything — it was her carelessness that had led to everyone's current predicament.
"Everyone's trapped because of me… so I should be the one to jump."
Daryl glared at her furiously and shouted, "If we're even thinking about jumping, it's because of your stupid decision to play hero when you're nothing but dead weight! We could've killed the walkers here, but you and your idiot sister would've been the first to die!"
Jason, though he agreed, shook his head and signaled Daryl to stop arguing. "My responsibility is to keep this group safe. You don't need to argue about it."
"But—"
Before Amy could say anything else, Jason motioned to Abraham for the rope.
"Are we really doing this with just these ropes?"
Rick still thought it was too risky, but he couldn't come up with any better idea.
After tying one end of the rope to a metal pipe on the roof and straightening the rest, Jason slowly backed up over twenty meters.
"Abraham, be ready in case that rusted pipe doesn't hold my weight."
"Haha! Don't worry, brother!"
Taking a deep breath, Jason started running. The twenty-meter distance was enough to build maximum speed. As he neared the edge, his right foot hit a ridge on the ledge, and the muscles in his legs tensed violently.
To everyone watching, Jason seemed to launch himself into the air like a projectile, his body soaring high before crashing heavily onto the other building's rooftop.
Everyone held their breath, but to their relief, Jason landed on the far edge without falling. After rolling several times to absorb the momentum, he stood up.
"Damn it… I tore the suit!"