Valkyrie's Lament

Chapter 25

Red Light Green Light III

Jasper was looking down on his watch, counting the seconds until the next red light. They both stepped out of the elevator on the second floor. “We got five minutes before it turns, but we got another problem that we need to solve first.”

“That is?”

“Did you forget? The zombies on the first floor?”

“Ah.” It suddenly dawned on her. The sleep that had drained her more than it help recuperate her energy and it occupied most of her mind. She completely forgot what had happened last night.

“You forgot? That must have been one amazing sleep.” Jasper was in complete disbelief.

“I wouldn’t be saying it was amazing….” Remembering the last night dream was mind numbing, and she didn’t want to experience it again.

“Well, it doesn’t matter now does it? I do have a plan on getting out of here.”

“That would be?”

“Jump off on the second floor.”

“Excuse me?” Silver thought that she heard wrong.

“It’s really simple, we’ll tie a rope to help us scale down. I found a room that is the furthest away from the zombies, so it’s even better.” Jasper stated excitedly. He was on his tiptoes rocking back and forth. Any moment now, Silver thought he would jump up and down excitedly like a child getting a candy.

“Lead the way.” Silver motioned him forward. She wondered if he really planned to jump out the building like he stated.

“Okay~” Jasper power walked towards their destination. He opened the door, letting her pass through.

Silver noticed the room was smaller than all the room that she had seen so far. The room reminded her of a storage room. Amy, Sophia, and Jamie was present, startled from the sudden burst of intrusion.

“Is everything ready?” Jasper asked. He walked over to check the knot that they formed around the large cabinet that were leaning against the wall. They had tightly tied the rope around it so it wouldn't fall. “How is it out there?”

“There is a few zombies roaming around, but so far we haven’t seen any new ones.”  Sofia spoke. She was diligently watching from the windows for any new reactions.

“I’ll go down there and clear out the one’s on the floor. This will give us some time for all of us to get down and make a run for the next building.” Jasper was already wrapping himself around the rope, he opened the window, and push himself out the window. Silver was a bit surprised that he actually did what he said, and she saw him climbing down.

The small amount of zombies that were present started to collect together into one group. Each of them sluggishly moving towards them with their hands reaching towards Jasper.

Jasper unhook himself and fell straight on top of the zombies, the moment he landed he attacked. Silver eyes became wide, startled by his brave jump into the swarm of Zombies. She almost fell out the window to stop him, but caught herself. His hands were quick, knocking back each zombie with one hit. It didn’t take him more than thirty seconds to completely get rid of the small horde of zombies.

Silver quickly took the makeshift rope, wrapped it around herself, and scaled down. When she got a good half way, she jumped down and let go of the rope in her hand. She walked over towards the pile of zombies that Jasper had obliterated impressed by his swift attack. “Not bad.”

“I been better.” Jasper shook his hands to get rid of a slight sting. “From what I could tell, we should be able to move a good distance towards the other buildings.”

The rest slipped down. Amy was the last one who meekly followed like a zombie herself. She was still zoning out, not able to come back to reality.

“Is she going to be okay?” Silver glanced behind her, looking at Amy. “If she’s dead weight she shouldn’t have come.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t leave my mother behind.” Jamie stated with a strained voice. “She’ll follow. I’m sure of it.”

“Well you better be sure, because from now on we’ll be running non-stop.”

It wasn’t that Silver was uncompassionate about the death of their family, it was just that they were more at stake than the two people who died. Plus, she had seen many family dissolve into thin air during the first month. So far they were lucky that the mother and son was still alive, though she didn’t know for how long.

“I hope your right. If she can’t move on to the next building. We’re going to leave you guys behind. Also don’t forget the game is not kind. Either get stronger now or die.”

“You sound a bit insensitive.” Jasper whispered.

“I’m not. Crying for the dead right now will get you killed. It’s best that you do that after you get out of here. The longer we stand idling about we’ll lose this chance to get better items and we’ll be forced to be dragged into the next game. There is no helping that.”

“Yea, still….”

“Like I said. If they can’t cope with it. They should’ve either stay in the building, or tried to head back to the beginning and wait until someone brings the lost tablet.”

“True…” Jasper sighed, he then gave up saying anything else.

Jamie didn’t say anything, he held his mother’s hand, and Silver could tell that this women had gained tremendous amount of age just from everything that had happened to her in the short amount of time.

Silver turned and slowly walked towards the edge, she concealed herself as best as she could behind the dumpster.

“Five seconds.” Jasper whispered next to her. “Three…two…go!”

Silver bolted up and started to run. All the zombies that were present in the street turned their head towards Silver simultaneous, giving her a strange chill. Before they could advance, they all froze in spot, telling her that the lights had turned.

“Let’s go!” Silver dashed through the crowds. She ran through the heavy crowds of zombies in a zigzag motion. She could hear Jasper following closely behind her with rapid steps.

The closer they got towards their destination, the more emptier the streets were. Silver had to wonder where all the zombies were disappearing too.

“We’re running out of time!” Jasper stated with heavy breathe. “We need to get in the next building now!”

Silver nodded and ran towards the closest building. She forcefully opened the door to let the others in. Jasper headed in first than Sophia, but when Silver searched for the other two, he noticed Amy was running a bit slow and out of breathe. She was seriously lagging behind them.

“Mom! Don’t give up!” Jamie was pulling on her shoulder, trying to help her get towards safety.

“Leave me.” Amy softly worded. Her eyes were dead as if they were no more life.

“No! You have to live. For me. For us!” Jamie desperately shouted. He was tearing up, gritting his tears to run towards their goal, half dragging his mother.

“Their calling me.”

“No their not! Stop saying something so irresponsible! Are you trying to leave me too?!” Jamie shouted in anger. He was now literally dragging his mother towards the door.

Silver cursed. She bolted towards Jamie and Amy. Her hands raised up as she slapped Amy in the face. “Wake up! Your son is calling for you! Are you so weak that you can’t see what you still have left?”

“I-” Amy hands reached up to her face where Silver had hit.

“Your last living child is going to disappear. How would your husband feel if you lose him to because of your selfishness! Wake up!”

Amy eyes were slowly coming back to life. She glanced up towards Jamie with tears in her eyes. Her hand reached up and caressed his chin. “I-I-I’m sorry.” A burst of tears fell down her face.

Jamie was about to hug his mother, when Silver blocked him. “No time. Do it later or we’re all going to die. Did you forget where we are?”

Shocked, Jamie and Amy glanced around dumbfounded. They were in a middle of a large group of frozen zombies. Silver quickly pulled Amy’s arm over her shoulder. “Hurry! We’re not going to make it at this rate!”

They ran without looking back. Every step that they took, Amy became more vigorous in her run, until they finally ran past into the door. Jasper slammed the door, while Sophia and Jamie pushed a heavy table to block t.

“T-thank y-you.” Jamie stuttered. He bowed his head grateful as tears flowed endlessly down his face. “I thought I would lose my only mother as well.”

“The next time you give up on life. I am not going to save you. We don’t have time to stay still.” Silver walked over and repetitively poke him hard in his chest. “Get your mother under control. Choose: stay here and somehow make it back to the front or come a long.”

“I’m really sorry. I’ll do my b-”

“We’ll go with you.” Amy voice cut through clearly between them.

“M-mom?” Jamie was startled by his mother’s sudden answer.

“Are you sure? Not to long ago I thought you gave up on life. You’re not trying to kill yourself again are you?” Silver stopped poking Jamie and placed her hands on her hips. She did not completely believe Amy words, but at the same time she could tell that Amy was slowly reverting back to her old self.

“Yes. I’m sure.” Amy stated with a strong voice. “This is for my son and my husband. I will get the Ancient tablet back with me. This is all I can do for them.”

Silver was contempt at the sudden change of persona between Amy. She could tell her strong spirit was quickly coming back. She looked a lot more younger and vibrant than before. Her voice was unwavering and even her back had straighten showing her dedication.

“You sure?”

“Yes.” Amy nodded and she turned around towards Jamie. “Jamie. I’m sorry that you had to see such a weak mother.” She grabbed a hold of his hands and brought it to her forehead. Closing her eyes, she let out a sigh.

“No, mom. Thank you for living.” Jamie hugged his mother tightly, and gently cried in their embrace.

Silver left them to by themselves and walked over towards Jasper.

“You did something amazing again.” Jasper was leaning against the wall watching.

“What are you talking about? I did nothing like that.”

“Yes, you did. You saved them. Both of them.”

“Hardly, that was all them.”

“You did. Jamie wouldn’t have wanted to keep on living if his mother died you know and not only that you brought Jamie’s mother out of her depression. Without those two factors, they wouldn't even have a single chance to survive in this hell hole.”

“It was all up to them to choose if they wanted to live or die.” Silver waved her hands, brushing aside his compliment. She was getting a bit embarrassed at what he was saying.

“It's true.”

“Anyways, what’s our next window of opportunity?” She quickly changed the subject.

“We need to get out of her in the next three minutes.”

Silver nodded, she carefully walked over towards the uncovered window and peeked out. She peered out to look for any possible movement. With a bam, a hand slammed into the window, startling Silver backwards.

“You alright?” Jasper was also spooked by the sudden loud sound.

“Yea, seems like there not many outside. We should get ready to leave.” She pushed the table slowly away from the door, while Jasper was pushing against it. The loud grinding metal attracted the other three over, wondering what was going on.

“We’re leaving already?” Sophia asked a bit taken back at how quickly they were going to leave.

“We need to make it to the next building and get closer as quickly as possible.”

“I’m not so sure we’ll all make it at this rate. We need to rest.”

“We’ll rest, but not now.”

“But-”

“We’ll go. I know we’re on a tight schedule.” Amy spoke, cutting Sophia off.

“But we just ran like crazy and now we’re going for another run.” Sophia was trying to appeal to Amy.

“No. We go.” Amy pushed away Sophia’s hand that was trying to stop her.

Sophia gave up and sighed. “Fine.”

“Count to three.” Jasper made eye contact with Silver. Silver nodded as she stood in front of the door with her sword in hand. “Three. Two. One!” Jasper jumped to the side, letting the door open.

Silver swung. A couple of zombies spilled forward, and she cut through them without much trouble.

They rushed out and continued forward through the city, repeating the same strategy over and over again. Which allowed them to make it past five blocks away from their main goal. It was a tiring journey of running and resting constantly. The three who did not have any special improvement done on their body felt their muscles cramp up and their breath shorten from the stressful run.

“We got two minutes!” Jasper yelled as he took a quick look at his watch, while running through the the crowd.

“Jasper on your right!” Silver yelled out.

Jumping out to the right, a dog like zombie ran out from the side with its mouth gaping open. Jasper turned in the last second, twisting out of harm's way. His hands reached out and punched a dog zombie’s head. The dog zombie flew back, and fell stunned on the ground.

“What’s going on? I thought they were supposed to be frozen?!” Sophia was shocked to see dogs zombies still running around when the light was still red.

“I don’t know, but I should’ve expected this.” Silver slashed at the next oncoming dog that came running out from the side. With a simple swing of her sword, the dog was beheaded.

“Keep running! We’re almost there!” Jasper yelled. They ran without any rest, until finally they came towards the final building.

“Gaaah!” Sophia screamed. She was pounced on by a dog from behind. Its snarling teeth snapped at her face and bite into her arms. “Nooo!” She cried out in anguish as she was dragged down onto the ground.

“Sophia?!” Jamie turned around and saw her being attacked. He ran over and kicked the dog on its side. It went flying a good foot away, skidding to a halt.

With a growl, the dog bared its teeth. It got up and bolted towards Jamie. Jamie dropped to the floor just before the dog could snap at his head. He crawled on the ground and pushed himself back up. A deadly struggle of life and death began as he struggled to survive.

Sophia got up, wounded as she hobbled towards the building, it wasn’t even a second later when a giant zombie dog the size of a small car dashed out and snatched her off the ground.

“Sophia!” Jamie yelled. He struggled, using every ounce of stregth he could muster, he pushed the dog zombie off. Getting up, he stomped and kicked at it a couple of times, smashing the skull into the pavement as brain oozed out. Then he desperately ran after her, trying to save her, but the dog snatched her off the ground and ran. It headed straight towards the direction of the final building with Sophia in its jaws. Jamie ran after Sophia in desperation, leaving behind the others.

Jasper called out in shock. The sight of an even larger dog that appeared out of nowhere startled him. “What is that fool doing?! He’s going to get killed!”

Amy who saw everything happened ran after her son in horror. She didn’t wanted to lose him too. “Jamie! Nooo!”

Silver wrinkled her brows, she took a quick look at the building that she was in and the dog that was running away with the Sophia. She didn’t take long to decide to chase after them.

“Silver?!” Jasper called out. Silver bolted past him and followed the three that were quickly disappearing in the distance. He ran after her completely confused. “What are you doing? Aren’t we sticking with the plan?”

“Change of plan. I think those dog will lead us into the building without having to find a way in.”

“Yea, but that also means that we might have to fight any other zombie dogs that are in there!”

“I know.”

They ran past two blocks and up in front of them, they saw the giant dog slip in underneath a stone fence.

“Five seconds before the zombies are going to be mobile!” Jasper was breathing hard, trying hard from collapsing out of breath.

Silver crouched down and dove head first under the large gaping hole. What happened next, completely startled her. She slide down a long winding tunnel that divided into multiple other tunnels. Twisting and turning, her body quickly flipped over to get herself  in a better position as she didn’t want to land hand first.

It felt like hours had passed by when she slip down the tunnel, until finally she was flung out the other end onto white snow covered ground.