found to be about an hour before twilight. Apparently, we had slept much longer than usual in Lynin City. Despite the risks of being caught by the zombies after losing track of our time, we still sent out a group.
Maria went with Ben and Lily, while Aria and I scout the other few buildings. Zentyn was actually, shockingly, barely wrecked at all. The buildings were in fairly decent shape (regardless of the tsunamis which were due to hit here, and they probably hit Joryn instead). With ease, we scrounged a good thirty cans- in one of the houses, we found ten all stashed away in a ‘hidden’ compartment!
The time passes quickly as we carry armfuls upon armfuls of cans from houses to base, gradually wandering further and further away from our base. Unbeknownst to us, the bright sun is slowly disappearing from the horizon, leaving shadows around every small corner and darkness in those places which sunlight barely perpetrated anyways. We are oblivious as we happily gathered more and more food, and I smile to watch Maria skipping along the gradually darkening streets.
We are caught on our farthest trip away from the base when the sun finally set. I glance up a second after the sun must’ve set and panicked. Ben follows my gaze and, with one of the quick reactions he’s famous for in her group, bellows, “Drop your food! Grab your weapons!”
He thrusts a small dagger into Maria’s hand and, realizing I am still immobilized, slaps me in the face to alert me.
“We are about to face who-knows-how-many zombies. GET. A. GRIP.”
I’m livid for a few seconds, wanting nothing other than to scream my head off, before calming down. “Thanks.”
But those few seconds of precious time are slipping through my fingers, and with every ticking second the zombies are probably invading the city even further. We’re all sprinting towards the base, and only make it about half of the way to the base when the zombies finally reach the center of the city.
They began throwing themselves at us mercilessly, scrabbling over everything to reach us and hitting everywhere, everything, and everyone they can with their crude weapons to try to damage us (and accidentally slaying a few of their own).
The air is thick with fog, and an onslaught of zombies attacks each of us. I feel a moment of panic and fear for my friends before snapping back into warrior mode. I fought for my life, wildly spinning around when I could to make sure my friends were safe.
I mindlessly attack the zombies swarming me, edging my way closer to the base whenever possible. Aria and Lily are holding their own coolly and methodically (but not quite holding their own well enough to help the rest of us), but Ben struggles to protect both Maria and himself from the murderous zombies.
I begin to realize that there’s no way we can make it into our base without zombies following us in, and zombies in a tunnel would probably make the tunnel collapse. I’m desperately searching all around, looking for somewhere, anywhere, where the zombies couldn’t follow us.
My eyes lock onto a lone tower, with a ladder perilous for humans and probably downright stupid for zombies to climb. I point at the tower when I have a brief reprieve from fighting, and I know Ben and the rest of them realize what my idea is by the way a grim determination comes into their eyes and they try to walk towards the tower whenever possible.
It seems like hours, though in actuality only forty-five minutes, till we reach the water tower. I’m the first one to hoist myself up into the tower by a combination of perseverance, nimbleness, speed, and a little bit of luck.
Then I’m paralyzed by fear, watching as Aria climbs the tower too but praying that the remaining three fighting can make it up.
A few zombies try to climb the ladder, but Aria shoots them down with a small revolver with some incredible accuracy. All I can think of is the safety of