Snippet #2216001

Simon's journey was overly long. It had been on foot, yes, but it was solitary and taxing. Food was scarce, and Simon avoided the zombies at all costs due to his lack of an efficient weapon. If only he had chemicals from the hospital, or a silenced firearm, or anything of the like. Unfortunately, all he had was his knife, arguably his most useful tool for tasks other than combat. Simon approached Black Falls, watching it for signs of something odd. Maybe the zombies were more intelligent than they appeared and lived here. Hopefully not, and even then, Simon realized that they could be communicated with if they were zombies. He heard someone speaking to him as he looked upwards to the voice. It was a guard on one of the gates.

"Who are you? You're awfully well dressed. Almost like a government person, but only one guy got off from that helicopter. Eh, whatever. Come on in, but there is not much to offer. Expect those clothes to degrade pretty quickly here." The guard then opened the gate slightly. Enough for Simon to duck under. Within, the throngs of civilization were a little underwhelming. This seemed to be a small town even before the plague. Now, it was reduced in splendor even further. It did not matter, though. This was more than Simon hoped for. Unfortunately, the sound of gunshots in the distance alerted Simon. Guns often complicated matters, and may end up making Simon's goals more difficult. Simon ignored the sad gazes of the people, and moved towards the other gate. Society still lived on in them, but it was still sad. As Simon approached the location of the gunshots, he paid attention to them. He could hear some people yelling. He could discern 2 males, one that sounded somewhat more gruff to Simon. The other was a woman. The gun fire stopped, then. After a few more moments of walking past the mesh of cars, Simon heard something that made his blood run cold.

The yellow, humanoid shape in the distance seemed to be the source. Simon began running back to the gate as soon as he heard the noise. He had seen one of those things before, and the scream proved his point as to what it was. Those things should only be sneaked up on. Otherwise, they could cripple anything in their sight. Simon had seen creatures in water become lacerated into several messy pieces due to that noise. Hell was that noise. Human yelling and gunfire seemed to be coming closer now, as well as several car alarms. The ringing in his ears was to great to make out what they were saying, though. Maybe it was the people from earlier, who he had wished to see. As Simon made it safely into the town, he waited a moment to catch his breath, place ripped up tissue paper from his pocket into his ears as a slight buffer against the sound, then climbed the gate. The guardsmen was too distracted to see Simon climb. Simon wanted to see what was going on. What came next was unexpected.

"Would you quit that?" Jess yelled at him, "Seriously I don't think this is the time, that man might die!"

"You meaning we can pick this up later?" the man called down.

"No! I - are you kidding me right now? Don't make me go up there and tear your eyes out because I will!"

Simon was glad to hear this. He almost forgot to have a little comedy in everything. Then he noticed the guard's grin vanish as he looked down to the hat and body of the tower. Simon looked as well. The result was seeing a woman climbing to the guard's position alarmingly quickly. Simon saw a man at the gate as well, and another a little ways back. They were probably the ones who he saw, other than the woman. He decided to stay where he was, and guard the guard, or the girl to prevent either from dying. It would be better to keep as many people alive as possible, to maximize the effectiveness of these people in the future.