"Over here! HELP!"
While running towards the town hall, T-Dawg became annoyed at the man yelling at them from the rooftop since it's resulting in more walkers moving towards them.
"Shut up!" T-Dawg yelled and threw his hammer on the ground. He took a knee and he pulled his rifle strap, bringing his hunting rifle from his back to the front.
He took aim, and fired!
Bang!
Andrea had run ahead of them and saw a walker's head ahead of her being blown into pieces.
The sound of the gunshot made the nearby walkers pause in their tracks and slowly turn around. Spotting fresh meat, tens of zombies started letting out more aggressive moans like an engine revving up and made their way over to where Andrea and the others were .
Andrea paused in her tracks and swung her sword from the left and split a walker's head into two. She took a couple of steps back to prevent herself from getting surrounded.
"Whoa, this thing is really sharp!" Andrea exclaimed as she wasn't expecting that the sword would slice through its head like butter.
Nolan and the girls had caught up to T-Dawg and joined him as they ran after Andrea.
"Watch out!" T-Dawg yelled as he placed all his entire weight onto his shoulder and slammed it to the walker trying to attack Andrea from behind.
Like a puppet with its strings cut off, the walker was sent flying for a couple of meters before it fell down on the ground, motionless.
"Thanks!" Andrea gave T-Dawg a quick glance before turning her attention to the others. "Spread out and watch our backs. Let's start kiting them."
"H-hey, over here!"
"Hey!!"
Andrea and the others' arrival had started to attract more walkers towards them, and the noises they were making made the situation even dire for them, but it brought a small breathing room to the people trapped inside since their ruckus had attracted at least a quarter of the horde and maybe even more.
The survivor on the rooftop was at first confused about what they were doing, but his eyes quickly lit up in excitement and hope when he finally noticed that there's now an open space on the right side of the building.
He frantically started looking for something around him, but there was nothing useful around. He thought of something and quickly made his way back inside and started taking down the curtains and started tying them up together.
"Hang in there everyone. I'm almost finished with preparations, just give me five more minutes!" Tom told his friends when he ran past them by the staircase with a pile of curtains in his hands.
"What are you doing?!" One of them yelled in question when he saw the things he was carrying
Tom paused in his tracks and turned around. "I'm making a rope. There's also people outside helping us. So, just hold on a bit more while I try to make a rope for us to escape to!"
"Go! Don't mind us, we can still hold on!" Their leader shouted in response as he kicked a walker down the stairs, resulting in a domino effect where almost every walker ascending the stairs fell down.
But it was just a brief respite in their dire situation since the walkers behind them just trampled on them and kept pushing forward.
"Hold on!"
Tom immediately ran towards the other windows and took the curtains down and tied them up. When an appropriate length was finally achieved, Tom quickly ran back to the rooftop.
He tied one end of the curtain rope around two pipes and threw the other end over to the edge.
Tom looked down over the edge and was satisfied with his calculations. "Nice!"
He quickly turned around and was just about to reach for the door when it suddenly flew open with a bang as his companions came running out of the door one by one before the last of them quickly closed the door behind him.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Soon, the sound of walkers from the other side of the door rang, and the repeated banging on the door started while the others held the door and got one of their pipes to hold the door in place.
"What happened?" Tom came up to them with worry, but also felt relieved to see that everyone was accounted for with no one left behind.
Their leader came to him and walked along the rope he made, then stood over the edge. "Marcus slipped on the floor. They almost got him, but we got him on time. Though we saved him, it also caused the formation to fall apart since everyone got rattled because of what happened to him."
The man looked towards the distance and spotted the people that Tom was talking about. "Is that them?"
"Yeah."
The man turned to him and gave him a pat on his shoulder. "Good work man. I'll go down first to secure the perimeter, then follow after me."
"Be careful down there, Jack." Tom reminded him.
Jack just smiled at him before he slowly descended down the building through the makeshift rope.
Thump!
He looked up and saw Tom giving him the clear signal. He softly landed on the ground and immediately ducked down behind an abandoned police vehicle.
Ahead of him, there were walkers around the corner and more walkers several meters from the other side of the car, all of them trying to make their way though inside the town hall.
He looked around him and realized that the abandoned vehicles around them were giving them enough cover. This brought him relief, but another matter also poses a problem.
Jack looked towards the rooftop and started making the following sign language. 'Slowly go down the rope. Do not make a sound or else they will immediately notice us. Also, have someone on the other side of the building and take their attention from here.'
The others responded to him with thumbs up. Soon, they started making their way down the rope with the women going first while Tom took the job of distracting the horde from the other side of the rooftop.
"Hey, over here shit brains!" He yelled right by the edge while dangling his leg as the walkers started mobbing towards him while raising their arms trying to reach him. Tom would look back from time to time to see how many are left with him at the rooftop.
Tom turned towards the person holding the door and gave him the signal to go ahead before him..
The dark-skinned man nodded with graveness on his face before he immediately ran towards the rope, and the bloodied pipe holding back the door slowly started to bend against the weight of the walkers after losing its support.
Tom immediately stood up and dashed towards his escape!
Kablang!!
The door burst wide open and the walkers flooded the rooftop the same time as Tom's head disappeared down by the edge.
The herd, like headless flies, started wandering around the rooftop after losing their prey.
The survivors were lucky.
Jack and the others successfully left the scene with little to no trouble since there were still a few walkers who had managed to notice their little group and started pursuing them.
"Shit, we actually did it!" Tom started laughing while making their escape with the rest.
"Yeah, I thought we were goners." one of the women responded with relief on her face.
Rustle! Rustle! Rustle!
"W-whoa! Hands up and don't move!"
"Who are you?!"
Tom was about to say something to Jack when ahead of them, Andrea and the others suddenly popped out from the treeline to their right. Both groups were startled to encounter each other like this and they immediately raised their weapons against each other.
"Calm down. It's them, the people who helped us." When he recognized them, Tom immediately got in between the two groups and explained the situation.
Besides, it also scared the heck out of him when he saw that every single one of them were armed with a gun while his group only had one shotgun, a pistol and a hunting rifle.
Though still wary of each other, they eventually lowered their guns. Andrea looked at them, then at the herd just tens of meters behind them.
"Come on. This place is not safe."
Soon, the groups merged together and returned to that gas station where they left their vehicle.
"I'm Jack, the de facto leader of this group. Thank you for your help, but who are you and what do you want from us?" Jack went over to Andrea when he saw that they're now safe for the time being and introduced himself. He assumed she was the leader from how she was taking charge the entire time.
"Andrea, don't mention it. Though we indeed have a motive on why we helped you."
The moment those words came out of her mouth, Jack's companions became tense and started looking at them with slight hostility. The same goes for the T-Dawg and the rest as they slowly placed their hands on their guns.
Watching their reactions, Andrea let out a soft chuckle and smiled. "No need to be so tense. We only helped you since we wanted to know if your group are nomads or if you have a base somewhere around here."
"Wh-"
"What does nomads mean? Is that some kind of food or something?"
Jack was about to say something when someone suddenly butted into the conversation. The friendly atmosphere from earlier had disappeared, but Tom's innocent remarks immediately broke the tense air hanging above everyone.
One of their female companions rubbed her temples and glared at him. "Goodness, you're so reliable sometimes that I keep forgetting the fact that you can be quite stupid most of the time."
"Shut up, woman. I'm not stupid. That was a serious question from me." Tom glared back.
Slightly used to it, Jack just closed his eyes to prevent himself from saying anything he won't be able to take back. "Nomads. It means people who do not have a permanent home."
"Oh, that's us then." Tom responded with a silly smile while looking at Andrea.
His companions around him just shook their heads, and either covered their mouth or eyes.
Andrea let out a laugh while watching them. Even T-Dawg and the others were shaking their heads witnessing something that seems to have walked out from a movie.
"I won't beat around the bush with you. Do you want to join us?"
"Sure, why not!"
"Tom, shut up!"
"What!? They're offering!"