Beyond the Walls

Think!!

Before commencing the plan, back in the room, everyone is busy preparing themselves for tonight for their agreed plan.

Lucas has reservations about this plan. It has been bugging him, because it is a plan where one will put faith in another and they all just met each other a few hours ago. No one can truly know what one can be capable of.

He is right. What he fears most is happening right before his eyes.

In front of him, his partner, the girl with too many piercings, is in the front line bashing undead heads like she is hitting something soft and jelly. Lucas has his job to catch the falling undead to minimize the sound. They collected one Keycard, fortunately, it was killed this morning, but it’s keycard wasn’t able to be taken from the body.

He saw seconds ago that Aaron from the other side killed another target. Feeling a little positive, Lucas likes the pace, it hasn’t been five minutes yet and they already collected two.

Something compelled him to look again at the other team’s direction and there he witnessed what he fears most in this team.

‘No!’ His body moved before he could think of the best solution.

Brandy will push Aaron.

While Lucas started running towards them, he had a momentarily flashback.

“What are you thinking?” Aaron had asked him. He is quite a sensitive man. That’s the impression Lucas gets after talking for a while to him.

“I am scared.” Lucas finally admitted it out loud.

“We all are. We all do our best to get by in this s**t hole.” He said it and looked behind them. Elijah is like a chick following the girl with many piercings around the room with stupid face. Hiraya is nursing Penelope, Brandy is sleeping grumpily and Unica is biting her nails in nervousness.

Lucas was not the only one who was dealing with the games.

“Get all the rest you can, we will need that smart brain of yours tonight.” Aaron pat his shoulder and somehow, Lucas felt warm and a little less scared knowing he is not alone.

But…

It was all an illusion. He shouldn’t have shrugged that feeling of uncomfortness. He is right. What he fears most happening right before his eyes.

Betrayal.

One more step and he is reaching Brandy. Brandy pushed Aaron but maybe he felt Lucas charging at him and his momentum to push Aaron was decreased.

Lucas descended on top of Brandy.

“YOU! What the hell are you doing?!” Gritting his teeth while clenching his collar, Lucas hated this man.

Brandy punched Lucas to his side and threw him. He crawled away and put a distance on them before drawing his gun and pointing it at them.

“Stay back.” He said it in a low voice.

Aaron and Lucas didn’t move as Brandy looked around, they already attracted some undead.

“I will kill you.” Aaron said.

“Hope you survive this, first. I am going ahead.” Brandy spit on the ground and started sprinting towards the gate.

*Smash smash smash

Aaron bashed the head of the undead that was surrounding them.

Lucas knows he can’t follow Brandy. That gate won’t hold if a horde will squeeze to it. Hiraya and the others will be attacked.

“This way.” Lucas said and headed towards the opposite way where he came from. There are quite a number following them, they can’t lead it to the girl.

As they run, the number of undead noticing their presence is increasing also. It was a relief that undead are slow to move because they are only responding to sounds only. With multiple undeads dragging themselves towards Lucas and Aaron, others are also being attracted.

Aaron smashes undeads from left to side while Lucas just pushes them out of the way.

“s**t!” Lucas can’t help but curse their damned situation. This is what they are trying to avoid.

With a gathering of undead in the entrance gate, their main escape route was cut off.

*Click click

That is until a flickering light caught their peripheral vision, beyond the light is Elijah waving his hand. He somehow ended up in the audience seat again.

“We circle once more and get up there.” Lucas said and Aaron agreed as he broke the skull of undead in front of them.

They circled around and as they nearing the end, there was no way one could go up there without any help.

Aaron sprints past Lucas and holds his hands together on top of his bended knee.

“Go ahead.” He said with a determined face.

Lucas bit his lip so there is no time to contemplate. He ran as fast as he could and stepped into Aaron’s hand and Aaron lifted him up on momentum. Lucas ran into the wall and Elijah helped him up.

He didn’t waste time and offered his hand down to Aaron but all he received was a smile.

“No. Come up! We can--!” Lucas urged him to take his hand.

“Think of a way out. We need that smart brain of yours” Aaron said and started pushing and busting heads before he ran away.

“NO!” Lucas tried to reach him but Elijah stopped him.

They slid their body down to avoid getting attention from undeads in the audience area.

“Man! Wake up! This is not the time to lose your s**t!” Elijah said, whispering as he shook the stunned Lucas.

Lucas tremblingly looked at Elijah.

“...yes, you are right. I’m sorry.” He said.

Elijah nodded and opened Lucas' hand. “Take this, give us a signal.”

“Us? Where are you going?” Lucas looked at the flashlight in his hand.

“I am going back to help on distracting the undead. Aaron is right. We need that smart brain of yours. So think fast! Ok? You always think of a way out… I believe you.” Elijah said with a nervous smile and left Lucas. He easily went down to the field without any sound.

Lucas already felt useless and weak. Now he is tasked with the burden of saving everyone’s life.

“What should I do?” He said to himself as he watched Elijah tried getting attention from the crowd of undead and ran in the opposite direction. The gate where Hiraya and others are being shaken by another group of undead.

“Think! Lucas! Think!” He hit his head with his wrist.

*Thud thud

Then he sees two undead trying to reach him from below.

“Ah.” He then remembered something. He looked up, there were only a few undead left in this portion of the area. This morning the players nearby were busy killing undead all day.

Lucas slips from the undead and reaches the VIP box. He can’t go to the glass area of the VIP area because it is forward space just like their area.

*Knock knock

Lucas hoped that someone has been watching them and they will know he is human.

*Knock knock

“Please open up. There is something you must know.” Lucas said in a fairly loud voice.

*Creak

The door opened slightly and a man peek at him before letting him in.

“Thank you.” Lucas said as soon as he entered.

There were only four of them left inside. One adult looking and three teenagers or at least in their early twenties. All awake and equipped. Just like them, they have the same items.

“State your business.” Said the man with a beard.

“We will exit the stadium tonight and we need your help.” Lucas stated it straight.

“Why is that?” The only adult asked.

Lucas explained the reason, because by morning there would be more undead than yesterday and it will be harder to move.

“Why move at night?” Another question, Lucas tried not to look impatient as he clenched his molars.

“Undead moves slower at night. Are you going to help us and get your keycard or will you take a chance tomorrow? Against the undead and the other groups?” Lucas knows that there are groups who are like vultures. If anyone gets a hold of the key card the other group will suppress them. It happened several times today.

The group is already half convinced. Lucas throws the last card he has.

“Also…” The plan on how they can keep their key cards from being stolen. It’s risky but what choice does he still have?

Every second felt like hours as the group decided, Lucas finally convinced another group to join him. One of the teenagers went down to the nearest entrance to the field and unlocked the gate slowly.

It was a gate that can’t be opened from the outside of the wide metal hindering your arm to reach the handle. The only way to open it is from the side where the latch’s handle is.

He gave a thumbs up to Lucas and Lucas flickered the light. Nearest and first to take notice of it is Aaron that is running out of stamina. He looks up and sees Lucas' determined eyes as he points to the gate.

Aaron smiled. He then got tripped from a body of undead.

“Damn!” Slowly facing the ground, he knows there is only little distance he has left with the pursuing undead and there are also some undead ahead of him.

He will be surrounded.

*Thud

Half way through the ground he was caught in arms by another.

“Man! * ughhh* You are heavy!” Said Elijah who is also drenched in sweat. He staggered to keep them both on their feet.

Two men went outside the open gate and cleared the path for them. They successfully went inside the gate.

“Come up! Now!” Lucas urgently said.

*Bam bam bam

The lock is not something you can say is durable. One of the teenagers got overwhelmed by such force in the gate he was stunned for a moment.

The gate shook.

Aaron was the first to come up and followed by another teenager.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!!”