the door. Now I heard someone sniffing convulsively, then exhaling with a wheeze and sniffing again. There was no doubt that there was an infected person there, and if they smell healthy people, then this one had little chance of smelling me – the garage was filled with a mixed smell of gasoline and auto chemicals.
I looked hopefully at the hole in the ceiling through which I entered here, but, alas, it was too high, and there was no way to get to it. The only way out of this garage was through the gate and the indifferent one that was waiting for me on the other side.
The gate clicked and wobbled as I pushed the last few turns of the tensioner. The intruder on the other side perked up. Clutching the ax tighter and taking a deep breath with a full chest, stepping back a couple of steps, I exhaled with a shudder and, with all my strength, kicked the gate. Plaster fell from the ceiling as the gates rumbled open, knocking whoever stood behind them to the ground. It was a teenager of about sixteen, dressed in a football uniform and boots. He was not at all embarrassed by what was happening, he both fell and stomped on me on all fours, shaking bloody saliva from his open dirty mouth, without even bothering to get to his feet. His face was deathly pale with blue streaks, multiple bruises and bites were visible all over his body, and his eyes were truly terrifying. These were the eyes of a dead man, greyish-yellow,
– Go away, boy, I'll hurt you! – swinging the ax, I tried to appear as serious as possible, but the teenager continued to shove forward, pushing me to the back wall.
– I'm talking for the last time! Get out! I shouted again, and my voice broke into a treacherous squeal.
– Well, that's it, kid, you asked for it yourself … – I said and, having described an arc, I stuck the ax into the kid's head with a swing. The blood spattered in small splashes in the face and on the clothes. Something jumped in my chest, and a lump rolled up in my throat. The boy's body went limp and sank to the ground, dragging the murder weapon lodged in his skull with it. Restraining the urge to vomit, I put my foot on the dead shoulder and, cracking the skull with a crunch, pulled the ax out of it. Time seemed to stop as I stood over the dead teenager and couldn't bring myself to look away from what I had done. A sound coming from the street snapped me out of my stupor. I walked out of the garage and discovered that it wasn't just this poor fellow who had come to the noise. On both sides of the garage span, about a dozen infected wandered. Some of them noticed me and were already walking towards me. Most of them were slow and clumsy others were a little more active, pushing the first ones away, moving towards their potential prey. A pregnant woman in a once-white skirt and a torn sweater stood out in particular. She, looking from under her brows, walked in my direction, clutching a cobblestone in her hand. Her movements looked more confident than the others, and she walked, trying not to overtake others, letting them go ahead, as if hiding behind their dead bodies.
Of the three passages, only one remained free, and without hesitation I ran into it. I soon realized why the infected didn't come out of this passage – there was a dead end with high two-story garages and a transformer box in the middle, around which a U-turn was made for cars. Looking back, I realized that there was no way back – the infected were inexorably approaching, filling the passage with themselves. My heart was pounding so hard that it was hard for me to hear my thoughts.
I didn’t even understand how I ended up on the roof of the transformer box, and in a minute a crowd of bloodthirsty citizens surrounded it from all sides. Making sure the infected couldn't climb, I lay down on the roof so that I couldn't be seen.
After lying for some time, looking at the sky and listening to the screams of the infected, I regained my breath and came to my senses a little.
Chapter One – Stronghold
The sky before my eyes was clear, and it seemed that I had never seen it so bright and deep blue. Now, in general, all things were perceived differently, especially those that were not particularly appreciated before. Even the chirping of birds and the chirping of insects in the grass was somehow perceived differently and had a special value, as if very soon this would never be heard again.
Despite the fact that around the transformer box, on the roof of which I was lying, looking at the sky, a crowd of stinking gray "ghouls" wandered around, I did not feel their smell. It smelled of wet roofing material, and for some reason I really liked this smell.
I sat down and looked at my watch, it was nearing dinner time. The infected below subsided a little, losing sight of me, but they were not going to leave anywhere – I was still trapped. In the aisle between the garages, through which I came here, there were also three caricatured characters: a fat, skinny and hunchbacked woman with a hand gnawed to the bone. Rolling over on my stomach, I crawled along the perimeter of the roof, studying the situation. On the left side, I found a high staircase, which I did not immediately notice. She led to the roof of a two-story garage, and from there there was a direct road into the forest. This was my only way to salvation, only the descent from this damned roof separated me from the stairs, and then it was necessary to somehow overcome about ten meters of the passage clogged with bloodthirsty citizens.
On the opposite side was a garage with large gates, clearly designed for freight transport. Theoretically, it would be possible to throw something heavy into this gate. The roar should have been strong, and perhaps it would distract the attention of the infected from the stairs. I looked around, but found nothing more suitable for this purpose than my axe.
On the other hand, there was nowhere to hurry, and I could just wait until the infected dispersed out of boredom on their own, and I would have the opportunity to run across to the saving stairs.
I decided that this is how you can wait indefinitely, especially since I have already seen how the infected froze, as if sleeping standing up, waiting for the victim. Therefore, crouching down and trying to avoid being noticed with all my strength, I threw the ax at the large iron gate of the neighboring garage.
The rumble turned out not weak, as I expected. Frightened birds flew up from the trees twenty meters behind the garages, and sounds from below suggested that the infected were beginning to gravitate towards the sound.
I quickly turned back and, putting my backpack on my shoulders, crawled to the left edge, to where I could see the stairs leading to the roof of the neighboring garage. Looking over the edge, I saw that the infected, absurdly pushing, slowly go around the corner of the building, clearing the way for me to escape. You can not hesitate, but also make noise. After waiting until the last infected was out of sight, I prepared to go down.
Carefully leaning over the edge of the roof and trying not to make any noise, I jumped down onto the soft grass and almost sat on my ass, being pulled by the backpack that hung back. Waving my arms, I regained my balance and looked around. The infected did not look in my direction, and I immediately took advantage of this. For some reason, spreading my arms wide and crouching, I crossed the garage courtyard and reached the rescue ladder, and remained unnoticed. It was weakly fixed, so when I began to climb it, the old piece of iron rumbled loudly, attracting the attention of the infected. From the stairs, I saw a pregnant woman with a blood-stained mouth quickly rush towards me. She was followed by the others like the leader of the pack, which made me climb onto the roof like a bullet. At the top, breathing heavily, I looked down, waiting that the pregnant woman would follow me, but this did not happen. She stood and silently looked into my eyes without blinking. The rest of the infected, crowding around her, pulled her hands and moaned. I had a great desire to spit down, but I restrained myself, and, straightening my backpack and tucking my T-shirt into jeans, we went to the forest that separated the garage cooperative from the outskirts of the city.
Even during the day it was unpleasant to be in the forest. Especially after the events that have taken place somno in the last couple of hours, seriously undermined my composure. Trees swayed and creaked in the wind, bushes rustled, and pine cones kept falling to the ground. In every extraneous rustle and movement of nature, I imagined
