This Forsaken World

This Forsaken World Chapter 10

This Forsaken World Chapter 10

Sergeant Victor Grimm

As we made our way up the staircase to the second floor, I took time to push a desk in place to block it. We continued this way, blocking the top and bottom of each section until we reached the sixth floor. Looking around, I nodded once in satisfaction.

"Alright, we'll stay here for a while." The entire floor was built like a cafeteria with the works. One wall was taken up by the fridge, dispensers, counter tops and a number of cabinets. The mid floor was home to a dozen tables for employees to eat at and along another wall was a row of velvet covered benches. A doorway to a unisex restroom finished things and I sighed, smiling softly.

While the cushions were covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt, they had to be comfortable. The place was perfect to hold up in for a time, especially if there was some food left. We had wood for a fire, a soft comfortable place to sleep and access to water if it was still hooked up.

I spent more time then before to thoroughly blockade the staircase, even going so far as knocking over the refrigerator and dragging it in place as a makeshift shield.

The effort of both making the place defensible and going up and down stairs was doing a number on my injuries and after the fridge was in place I gave up to the pain and fell to the ground, resting my back against the fridge.

The young girl moved over to my side and took my hand. Looking closer I noticed she was blonde, her hair cut in a short bob, with sparkling blue eyes. I had been unable to see her fully before due to the darkness outside, however now we were up higher in the air beyond the shadow of the wall and the sun was rising in the distance.

"I'm alright, just need to rest. My names Victor, you can call me Vic though, everyone does." I held up my hand.

Gripping it firmly the girl shook my hand and smiled. "Lila. Thank you for saving me sir." The young girl tried to wipe away some dirt from her tear streaked face and I pointed to the cabinets.

"Go check those for a cloth or rag. I'm afraid I cant help you much right now. We need to make sure the water is still hooked up and try to find food. I'll cover the stairs so nobody comes up here." Lila stood up and did as she was asked without hesitation, obviously comforted by having something to do.

I leaned my head back and struggled to fight off the fatigue that was coursing through me. The pain was easing up since I was no longer irritating anything. My ankle was killing me and at this point was so swollen I didn't think I'd be able to get my boot off if I tried. My wrist was better and I could use it fully without too much trouble but my ribs felt like they were stabbing into my internal organs and it was hard to breathe.

It took some time for the girl to return as I stared out the nearest window into the streets below. The lack of residents from earlier had changed as they'd been flushed from there hiding places and things were pure chaos.

Gunshots echoed every so often as surviving Defense Force troopers attempted to fend off the zombies, or perhaps the fanatics were going about there work. I watched as a woman ran full out to avoid a dozen zombie's as they closed in on her. Unfortunately, she took a wrong turn and two zombies leapt at her.

The screams made my stomach churn and I turned away as the infected began to feast on her body. As the girl approached I made sure to keep her from looking out the window.

"So, any luck?" I asked, checking the shotgun and sidearm to make sure they were fully functional and in good working order.

Both weapons were old and had obviously been used a lot, but I was satisfied they would do what I needed them to do. The ammo however was questionable. The shells and bullets were somewhat rusted with obvious corrosion and I was afraid to use them.