Chapter Fourteen
1279 Words
"Keep up, kid!" Max screamed over his shoulder.
"You know...what...funnily enough, I'm...running...as fast...as I f*****g can!" JJ wheezed between panted breaths.
The scampering surge of clickers was gaining by the second; the noise of baby teeth clinking together like maracas, creating a song of death.
"We can't...outrun these things...Max!"
"I know, I know, any bright ideas?"
"Not choosing to...come with you?" JJ joked, allowing himself to let out one stifled laugh before returning to his fit of rasps.
The undead wave eased a few inches closer, its current threatening to drag JJ into a depth of agonising pain. They had to make a move soon, or surrender to their inevitably excruciating fate.
"Get up here next to me and help me find the weakest looking door?" Max yelled, scanning the houses on the right side of the street.
JJ let out a wail of pain and effort before appearing on Max's shoulder, and scouting the left side as instructed.
"What's the plan?" he asked hopefully.
"I'm going to run at a door, really really hard."
"Subtle," JJ panted.
"Sorry, were you expecting some Houdini type s**t? I've got...about fifty clickers trying to take a chunk out my arse at the moment, it's...a tad hard to concentrate!"
"Hey...just as long as...you're the one hitting the door...I'm down!"
"Just remember, you're the first thing up on the menu if the f*****g thing doesn't smash open!" Max grinned.
JJ creased up at the morbid joke, momentarily forgetting the severe and immediate danger they were in.
"Black wooden door, three houses down on my side!" he exclaimed, snapping back to the present.
"Okay! Pick up the speed, we need as much of a head start as possible, I don't think these fuckers get tired!" Max cried as he kicked his legs up another gear they didn't have.
The lactic acid up and down his thighs was burning white hot, and the muscles in his claves felt like they were ready to snap like a guitar string at any moment. He pushed himself further and faster than he ever felt possible as he hurtled towards the house, barely staying upright as he collided with the door.
The next few seconds seemed to drag by in slow motion, perhaps because Max was very aware that they could be his last.
A series of metallic pops rang through his ears as the old, rusted hinges flew from their perches in the slightly rotten wooden frame. The door splintered on impact, almost imploding in on itself under the weight of the flying fully-grown man.
Max crash landed in a mix of creaking wood and destruction, with fine splinters imbedding into his skin like needles. The door, carrying Max with it, slid a few feet along the hallway, finally coming to rest at the base of a rickety staircase.
There was little energy left in his aching body, with every movement met with screams of reluctant agony from every joint and muscle. Luckily JJ was close behind, and plucked Max up by the arms as he tore into the house.
"Up here!" Max screeched, fighting every urgent impulse in his body to collapse as he clambered up the stairs.
He hoped the steps would slow the clickers down, or at least restrict them to a single-filed assault. The only problem was finding an exit.
The two exhausted bodies bundled through the first door at the summit, rushed by the sounds of clicker feet scraping against the steps below.
JJ slammed the door shut behind them, and as he turned around, Max was already heaving a hefty wardrobe towards the barrier between them and the dead.
JJ rushed to the far side of the towering mahogany furniture and pushed with the last remaining life in his weary body, finally collapsing as it slotted in place against the door frame.
They both sat, panting, with their backs against the wardrobe, just as the first of the clickers slammed into the door behind.
The heavy wooden bulk shifted slightly on impact, but the early indications suggested it would hold, for now anyway.
"Great, so now we're stuck upstairs, in a house full of dead children. Amazing," JJ groaned.
"Could be worse, could be getting eaten in a house by dead children," Max offered.
"True," JJ admitted. "But how the f**k do we get down from here?"
"That sounds like a later problem," Max panted, retrieving some much-needed water from his pack.
"A later problem? How much later?" JJ scoffed, guzzling down the rest of the water after Max was done.
They both exhaled in a refreshed sigh.
"Who knows, but I'm sure future Max and JJ will figure it out," Max chuckled.
JJ couldn't help but laugh too, "Future Max and JJ are fucked."
"I'm afraid so."
The minutes passed by as both Max and JJ fought to regain their breath and rest their broken bodies, all to the beating chorus of clicker against wood.
"Why did you lead the corpses away that day in the pub?" JJ eventually asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you didn't know us, at all. You wandered into a pub, had a knife put to your throat, and a gun poin-"
"An empty gun," Max added.
"Okay, yes, an empty gun, but Daws wasn't to know that. And after everything, you still risked your life to save us, four total strangers...why?"
"I don't know kid, it was just the right thing to do."
"Since when do people ever do the right thing? Hell, they didn't even before the world went to s**t, they sure don't know. Why did you, in that moment?"
"Because, you and Karl were someone's sons, Dawson was someone's daughter or partner, Rodney was...well f**k knows what plant that one spawned from, but you were all something to someone, that's why," Max explained.
JJ nodded along with the logic, "Well, thank you. I don't think many people would have done the same, I can't say for certain that I would have."
"Oh, please!" Max sneered. "Of course you would have, look at today! There was a ninety percent chance of me dying out there, but you came anyway."
"Yeah, I probably got that number down to a nice seventy," JJ grinned.
Max snickered, "Hey, I'll take those odds."
"Bet you'd rather Karl and the others be here though, right?"
"You seem to think that you're second fiddle to your brother, kinda in his shadow a bit, you know that's not true right?" Max asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
"Well, Karl has always been a loud-mouth, it's hard to keep up. I've always just gone along with it, followed him wherever he goes. I take the piss out of him, but he was always far more popular in school, and in the foster homes actually, guess I'm just used to that."
"That's just dumb kids' stuff, trust me. Don't get me wrong, I like Karl, he's tough, brave, loyal to a fault, but you didn't see him run to my side today, did you?"
"I guess not," JJ admitted.
"You're both great kids, and I get that your twins, but you're allowed to be you, that's all."
JJ took in the advice in silence, but it was clearly appreciated.
He was really popular at school?" Max queried cheekily.
JJ sniggered, "Yeah, he always had a tonne of mates and girls chasing him wherever he went, why?"
"Kids nowadays just baffle me," Max explained. "If I had a daughter and she brought home that cocky s**t, I'd put him in his place faster than he could handle."
"I don't doubt that at all! What about me?"
Max was lost for a second. 'If I had a daughter'. He did have a daughter, and he let her down.
"Nah, you'd be alright."
"Thanks, Max."
"I'd still put you in your place though," Max jibed.
He would give anything to be able to do any of that Dad stuff. He would do anything just to have Lizzie back.
"Get some rest kid," Max said. "I'll take first watch."
- Writer
