Snippet #2499379

"Shit..." Isaac muttered, for the ump-teenth time. Shamblers seemed to litter the streets as far as his eye could perceive. It reminded him of living in New Orleans. He worked with a group of bikers who had recently entered the area. They were looking to purchase some heavy weaponry; anything that launched a fatal projectile, they wanted it. And he was happy to deliver. New Orleans was busy in the summertime, and the streets could get hard to navigate. But at least, back then, it wasn't a crowd of flesh hungry undead.

"Alright... fuck it, I can do this... I hope." Isaac thought back to all the fire-fights he had ever been in. He had never been this afraid, before. I guess things change when, instead of dodging bullets, you were dodging hands and nails and chomping teeth. The fact that he was having a withdrawal fit wasn't helping much, either. So, he decided to move as stealthily as he could, through a large bit of wreckage that would, hopefully, get him past unseen. Most of the undead seemed to be rather lame-brained, and a lot of them were still trying to make their way towards the sound of the supply drop.

When the shamblers were all in position to not give notice of Isaac, he moved. Crouched, he moved as quickly as he could from the banged up police car he had hidden behind, and stepped behind a bloodied, bullet ridden S.W.A.T. truck. It sounded like a few dead were slowly rummaging around inside, so he decided not to look inside for supplies. Instead, he made his way to a station wagon that was smashed into the front side of the S.W.A.T. vehicle. Isaac took a peek into the window, but saw nothing useful, at first glance. So he continued, waiting for another horde to slowly shift their view to a bird that had landed in the street. The bird began to strip the flesh from a shambler that was just a torso and a snapping head. It tried it's best to snap the bird up into his jaws, but failed, and watched the bird fly off as the others approached. By now, Isaac had gotten to the next vehicle; a bright yellow Hummer, that was missing three of it's tires. There were crusted. bloody hand marks splashed against the side of the vehicle. Ignoring the blood, he peered into the broken window, and saw a hand-gun poking out of a bloody pile of old organs. Slowly, he reached in, hoping to find some ammunition. Unfortunately, the gun was dry, and was probably useless, having been sitting in a mush pile for days. He slunk back, and took a step to the front of the vehicle, and peered over. What he saw caught him off guard.

Someone had gotten themselves trapped on top of a nearby vehicle. A man. Well, a kid, more likely. The guy didn't look much older than eighteen. He looked exasperated, and seemed to be aiming his gun at a shambler's head. Seems like he couldn't pull the trigger, though. It was either someone he knew, at one point, or he was smart enough not to attract the whole damn city.

More than a dozen of the dead-heads were clawing at the man, and were not letting up. They must have been there for hours; some of the walkers had clawed their finger nails off, and one even filed his fingers into bone. Isaac sighed. He didn't know this guy, and didn't know what the man would do if he helped him off of the vehicle. Maybe the man would be grateful. Hell, maybe they could work together. Or, maybe, the man would thank him by shooting him in the head. Or he might try to hold him up. It was a toss up, now, in the age of the end of the world. Now, that is a fucked up thought. Humans are fighting each other, simply because everyday life was interrupted...

"Shit..." Isaac spat, once again, and looked around for a way to distract the shamblers. Maybe some flares, or a car alarm, or...

An emergency siren.

Towards the back of the pack, maybe about forty feet from the shamblers, sat an evac van. It was littered in blood, and in bad shape, but he didn't look to drive it. Atop of the van sat three loudspeakers, that were meant to activate alongside the city's own sirens. It would be loud as hell, and would attract a lot of the creatures... But he could get into one of the buildings nearby for a little while, and the man atop the vehicle, who was still staring down the shamblers and was now mouthing something to himself, could escape. Whether the man would see Isaac or not was none of his concern. Maybe the man would seek him out, or later, vice-versa, but until then, Isaac had to do this quickly.

Sighing, he got himself off of the ground, ignoring the need to break down in a corner and wait out the withdrawal shakes. Still crouched, he kept low, and made his way from behind the Hummer, to a public mailbox nearby. Behind it, was a legless shambler, and he could just barely see it around the corner when he arrived. Isaac sighed, and slowly unsheathed the make-shift 2x4 at his side. Standing for just a moment, he took a swing at the shambler, and the nails of his weapon dug straight into it's skull. The shambler fell silent, and lifeless, against the cold, blue mailbox. Luckily, the group that surrounded the man was much too loud for them to have heard his swing, and they continued to claw at the man. Pulling out the 2x4, with a bit of brain matter still attached, Isaac ducked again, and moved silently across the sidewalk, and came up behind the emergency van. Slowly, he opened the backdoor, preparing himself for a shambler to jump out. Luckily, inside, the van looked normal, relatively speaking. Isaac entered, leaving the door open for a quick escape.

The controls to the overhead loudspeakers seemed to be extremely simple. A small, green button, labeled "Play Recorded Message," was the first to catch his eye on the small panel. Another, directly left of it, was a red button, labeled "Start\Stop Recording." And finally, a third button was to the right. It was blue, and labeled "Emergency Siren." Isaac, sighing again, mentally prepared himself. He counted down... Three... two... one... Click! Isaac pressed the button with a closed fist. Suddenly, the moaning of the undead was completely drowned by an ever-growing, piercing siren. Isaac caught a glimpse of a few of the undead turning to see what was making the noise, as he scrambled backwards to run to safety.

He fell backwards out of the van, and hit the ground on his left shoulder. Ignoring the pain that shot up his arm, he stood quickly, and began to run into the alley way that was not visible to the shamblers on the ground. The sound of the siren was so ear shattering that he doubted there was anyone in the city who hadn't heard it. It was much louder than he expected. Isaac turned at the end of the alleyway, hoping the man had seen him, as now he realized that he needed more help than he could get. Not sure if the man saw him or not, Isaac opened a door labeled, "Employees Only." Isaac slammed the door behind him, and slowly let his body slink down against the door. Before he could see what building he had entered, he realized that running had worn himself out, and the pain from his shoulder, combined with his withdrawals, caused him to close his eyes, and black out, slumped against the cold, metal door.