บท 16: Brace yourself
(Ray)
After driving up the basement ramp, Ray took a sharp left then climbed up another ramp to finally make it to the Upper Ground level. He could see a few Deathless in the vicinity but nothing compared to the horde he saw in the basement.
He pulled out his phone from his pocket and unlocked it. He then handed it over to Meghan and asked her to call Rody and tell him to get ready for his climb down.
Ray then drove over to D Block and took a right in order to go around the building.
"Ahh, so that's the problem." He said when they reached behind the D Block apartments.
He now saw why Rody couldn't climb down on his own. There was a dead body right below Rody's balcony and a couple of Deathless were hunched over it, devouring every bit of flesh they could sink their teeth into. Ray stopped the car a few feet from them. They were so engrossed in their meal that they didn't pay the car any attention. The two of them waited for a short while before they saw Rody appear on his balcony with a big black bag around his shoulders and a hammer in one of his hands.
"There he is!" Meghan announced, "Well, he certainly looks prepared."
"Yes he does." Ray agreed, "Now we just need to do our part so he can climb down without much of a problem."
"We're going to lure a bunch of flesh-eating monsters and intentionally get them to chase us around the apartment, huh? Sounds like fun!"
Ray smiled ironically, "At least we're in a car." He commented, "It's far less risky than being on foot."
"That's true but still…"
"Alright, put your seatbelt on. I have a feeling this might get a little bumpy."
Ray waited until Meghan pulled the seatbelt and fastened it before he took his foot off the brake. He then slammed his palm into the middle of the steering wheel as the car's horn blared loudly. He held his hand there for several seconds to get the attention of the Deathless in front of them.
Sure enough, the loud trumpeting of the horn seemed to be disruptive enough for them to stop eating their meal and focus on the car instead. The Deathless rose to their feet and slowly started tottering towards them. One of them was missing both its legs and crawled after them by dragging its body along the concrete. Thankfully, none of them were very fast.
Ray put the car in reverse and turned around to see through the back window. He then pressed down on the accelerator slowly as the car started inching backwards.
"Why are we going in reverse?" Meghan asked.
"Because Rody just needs a few seconds to climb down. Now that we're luring them towards us, we can just drive forward and swerve past them to pick him up the moment he lands. If we went forward then we'd have to take a full circle of D Block."
"Wow," Meghan said, "How are you even able to think such things so fast. My mind is just blank right now. Were you some kind of child Prodigy?"
Ray gave her an annoyed look but didn't retort back.
The Deathless continued to follow the car mindlessly as they neared the neighboring C Block building. Ray kept shifting his view back and forth, making sure that the path behind them was clear and that the Deathless chasing them were at a safe enough distance from the car. When Ray turned back next, he saw another group of them coming up on their rear end.
"Uh-oh," Ray said, "We're kinda getting closed in. Where the heck is Rody? He should have made it down by now."
Meghan ducked her head down and looked up through the windshield.
"He's almost there." She replied, "He's made it to the first floor balcony. Why isn't he just jumping down? Oh…"
"Oh?" Ray asked, "What oh? What's wrong?"
"We didn't lure all of them. Look! A Deathless is standing right underneath him. He's kinda stuck there."
Ray looked up and sure enough, he saw Rody standing on the edge of the first floor balcony with a horribly mangled woman right below, desperately clawing at the air in an attempt to reach him. In his effort to lure the Deathless away, Ray completely forgot to check if all of them were following the car or not. The whole purpose of what they were doing was to ensure that Rody had a safe opportunity to get down. But now Rody was trapped up on the balcony while they were slowly getting surrounded by Deathless from both sides.
Ray silently cursed himself for being so careless. He should have had an eye on Rody too. Now he would need to do something fast before they got boxed in.
He shifted the gear to drive and stepped on the accelerator. The car shot forward, heading straight for the oncoming group of Deathless. Just before the car made contact, Ray jerked the steering wheel to the right and immediately to the left, dodging them by a hair.
"Oh shit!" Meghan shouted as she flinched, anticipating a crash. "Ray, slow down!"
Ray wasn't listening. He was mad at himself for the miscalculation he had made. If Meghan hadn't spotted Rody then their whole plan would have gone horribly wrong. If something had happened to either one of them, it would have been his fault.
They arrived near D Block much faster than they had pulled away from it, owing to the speed at which Ray was going. Though they were only a few feet away, he still wasn't slowing down. Instead, he made a beeline for the Deathless standing beneath the balcony.
"Oh my god, Ray! Are you crazy? What are you doing?" Meghan yelled in exasperation.
"Brace yourself!" Ray said quickly.
When they were mere inches away from the woman, Ray slammed down the brakes while Meghan leaned back in her seat and put both hands in front of her face to prepare for the collision.
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