Chapter 3: Heights

The next thing I knew, I was being pulled up by Harry as a horde of Stalkers tried to claw at us. Tyler was cupping a pale hand against his gash as he ran behind, making pained groans with each step. The croaking, guttural sounds of the creatures behind us rose, churning my insides. Harry's hand was grasping mine as we rushed to the double doors at the end of the hallway--the ones that led to the lab.

"Inside!" Harry opened the door and pushed me through, Tyler following with blood gushing from his wound and dripping into small droplets on the floor. Harry shot down a few Stalkers as I looked towards Tyler. He leaned against the cold, metal countertop of the lab table, his face slightly pale from the loss of blood.

Harry closed the door behind him and moved a heavy equipment table in front of it to keep the flesh eaters at bay. The Stalkers pounded against the door, their croaking and moaning sounding desperate to tear our flesh apart.

I tore my eyes away from Tyler to search for any type of gauze or bandage to patch up his arm. I began to sift through each cabinet as both boys tried to regain their breaths. The room smelled of mold with hints of stale disinfectant here and there. I would've felt a lot better if my brother was here with us.

"Where the fuck did those things come from?" Tyler gasped out. I crouched down to scavenge the lower cabinets, pushing aside empty glass containers or cotton swabs. I don't like being cooped up in the lab with two Hunters, especially when both of them had threatened to kill me. My mind wandered to whether or not Tom was alive and I wished beyond hope that he was still walking around the other side of the hospital, searching for me.

"I don't know, but I bet your stupid shouting attracted them," Harry said. With a sigh he asked,"How's your arm?"

"Hurts like a bitch. I guess I won't be making the trip home, huh?" Tyler let out a bitter chuckle and I smirked when I found a roll of gauze. It was stained here and there with brown spots, but it was something and Tyler better not complain or I was going to shove the whole roll in his mouth.

I tore off a sliver of the white tape and stood up, fingering the woolen gauze as I made my way back to the two. "Here. Use this to slow the bleeding." I said and handed the balled up strip to him. Tyler looked over to me, his blood seeped through his fingers and a glare in his blue eyes. His hood was pushed back to reveal a mat of blond hair flowing down to his shoulders and swiping across his forehead. He was handsome as well if you got past the perverted, mean exterior.

"How fortunate." He said sarcastically and ripped the strip away from my hands to press to his bite. He grunted and winced when he placed it, the blood easily staining the dirtied bandage. The banging on the doors didn't cease, making this situation even worse as the croaking drifted through the cracks in the doors, counting down the minutes we had left in here.

"They're not going to let up," Harry said, his eyes on the doors. He ran his hand through his curls once more before turning to me."So, I suggest you grab your shit and I'll find us a way out of here. Tyler, you stay put."

"Like I have a fucking choice." Tyler grunted and held the gauze to his left arm. I didn't move as I touched my bag, shifting from one foot to the other. I can't just get up and leave Tom. Thalia was counting on me and if I came back without him, she was going to be so heart broken."You got hearing problems? You heard. Move!" Tyler stared at me and I moved my eyes to Harry who was looking through the windows, probably seeing how high up we were.

"I can't leave." I said and that had Harry's head turn in my direction. "Not just yet." The way his green eyes searched my face, lastly landing on my eyes, had me tense. It was such an intimidating look that it had me cast my grey ones to the floor.

"Why not?" Harry asked, moving away from the windows to have his attention fully on me. His green eyes were shadowed, but I knew they were filled with curiosity as to why I was hesitant about leaving. Would that be a bad idea or should I just tell them I wasn't alone. I'll go with the latter.

"I-I didn't come here by myself," I said and both of them looked at each other before turning their eyes back to me. "I was with my brother. He went to go and distract the Clickers so I could come and find the lab."

"Clickers? You have names for these things?" Tyler asked with a snort, but he grimaced when a new wave of blood stained his gauze strip.

"If he hasn't found you, he's probably dead." Harry said. No sympathy or worry engraved his voice as he spoke and I wanted to punch him again for his monotone voice.

"And what if he's not? What if he's still alive and he's looking for me?" I asked, my nostrils flaring with annoyance and anger. If looks could kill, Harry would be dead in a pool of his own blood this very instance.

"Then he'll be dead soon, so I advise you to use this short time wisely to collect the supplies you need." With that Harry turned back to the windows, opening each one and letting in cool breezes from the night. I stared at him in disbelief, my body shaking with faint anger. Tyler was staring at me and a small smile was on his face.

"You're cute when you're angry." He said and I threw the rest of the gauze roll at him, having him chuckle and catch it easily. I hope he becomes a cannibalistic freak and spend his days in agonizing darkness. One moment he's a total ass and the next he's trying to sweet talk me. Bipolar much?

I walked around the lab, collecting a few things: more gauze, stitching materials, scalpels, and even a numbing cream that was stashed in the back of a supply cabinet. Harry seemed to be a virus corrupting my mind at the moment. He was so selfish and I should probably expect that from a Hunter, but that didn't mean he wasn't human. He must have had a sibling or someone he lost during all of this. He should know that family is important and I was not going to leave without Tom. His green eyes, plump lips, and dark, curly hair were the only attractive things about him. His whole personality and cold exterior were ugly features compared to those.

"I think I found a way," Harry said, his head leaning out the window to look down. "Do you have a fear of heights?" He looked to me, a smirk on his face as he walked over to his friend.

"I do." Tyler groaned, raising his left hand as the other still held the soaked gauze. Harry chuckled as he patted his shoulder.

"You'll be fine," His green eyes looked back to me. "You, Outsider, will go last."

"How do you know I won't run away?" I asked, raising my eyebrows, but Harry's smile made me bite my lip.

"You'd rather take a chance with those fuckers?" He nodded to the door that was being pressed ferociously by the Stalkers. I sighed, knowing he was right--I wouldn't even dare to try and fight for myself against a whole pack.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere without my brother." I said through gritted teeth, but he just shrugged off my comment and made his way to the middle window, the shutters blowing lightly. Tyler grunted as he pushed himself off the table to make his way to the window. He had pulled off a new, clean strip to place against his bite wound, but it instantly became drenched. The Stalkers were a little quieter, but their croaking sounds still echoed through the lab. "Are you listening?" I walked to him, trying to make the angry fire burning inside me visible through my eyes, but he didn't even flinch back.

"I've tried to, but tuning you out seems like a better idea." Harry shrugged, pulling out a cord of rope from his pocket. I narrowed my eyes at his comment. Harry took off his long, Hunter's coat, wearing a plain, black T-shirt underneath with a dog tag hanging from around his neck. My eyes trailed down his muscled arms to notice a few tattoos inked on his skin. The way his shirt clung to his torso showed how lean he was and I could make out defined muscles underneath. "You going to stare at me all day or are you going to hold this?" I looked back up to see Harry holding onto a long rope that hooked around his waist

Tyler chuckled as I resisted the physical urge to slap the blond and went to hold the rope--Tyler grabbing the end of it. Harry sighed out as he leaned out of the window to where the town sat, desolate and quiet. "You better not drop me. I'm putting my faith into you which is probably a bad decision." He said to me.

"I'll watch her." Tyler said and Harry nodded before quickly stepping out.

"When I reach the right floor, I'll tie this rope around something sturdy, then I'll call out to you." The both of us nodded and with our confirmation, Harry began to descend down the side of the building. It took every ounce of my sanity to not let go and to be rid of him. If I dropped my hold, I could probably take Tyler. He was injured and was going through a slow Infection change, so strength was not his greatest aspiration at the moment.

"If you drop him--" Tyler started.

"I won't fucking drop him," I grunted as I let some rope go for Harry to keep moving. "No matter how much I want to." Tyler laughed at the last part.

"So, why did you need to come here? Someone you love in danger of dying or what?" Tyler asked, making me want to bash his head against the window sill. He's just a nosy son of a bitch.

"I have my reasons." I said, letting more rope go. I slid a little from being distracted, but I regained my posture easily. "Why are you here?" Behind me, the doors were still being prodded at by the Stalkers, letting us know they were not going to give up so easily and that scared me. They were going to use their dead strength to rip us apart if we didn't leave the room.

"This is Hunter territory. A tourist like yourself should know that." He said and I rolled my eyes at his stupid nickname. I felt the rope stop moving and a tug on the other told me Harry had stopped and was probably already at the window on the floor. "I think he's there." Tyler said and dropped the rope. A whistle sounded through the air, making a few crows in a tree down below fly out.

"Don't drop me." Tyler smiled to me as he clipped something around his belt loop and the rope. The bloody gauze on his left arm stuck to him, the blood acting as a glue.

"I'll try my very fucking best." I said and that made him laugh before ducking out through the window like Harry had done. His weight was unbearable, worse than Harry's, as I struggled with the thick rope. I let out a few disgruntled groans, letting the rope go a few times to ease Tyler down more.

The banging against the door caught my attention when I heard a loud squeak fill the room. I turned my head to the side to see the heavy equipment table against the door starting to push away, leaving me hyperventilating as I watch a rotted arm poke through the crack, spores and other fungi protruding from the gashes along the flesh.

"Oh, shit." I gasped and tied the end I had along the beam of the window, making sure the knot was doubled. The table was almost off the door as I backed up against the window. Between the crack in the door, I saw many fungi covered heads peeping through, their croaking sounds raising as their black eyes caught sight of me.

I looked over the window to see Tyler shuffling into another one down below and I took my chance as I crawled out and clung to the rope. I didn't even wait for Harry's calling whistle. Down below was at least a 100 foot drop, ending with a few rusted cars and grungy foliage coating the streets. I could make out some distant shapes moving around among the growing weeds and shrubs, not even taking notice of the action a few feet up.

Heights didn't necessarily scare me, but the thought of dropping right now and dying before getting these supplies back to my camp was the pinpoint of my fear. A loud move from upstairs had me turn my head up. The doors opened, having Stalkers scurry inside with their croaking sounds filling my ears. I scrabbled down the rope, nothing holding me onto it as my heart raced. My hands were raw and even bleeding from the harsh cords, the twisted strings etching parallel marks into my rough palms.

"Hey, Outsider!" I heard a yell from below me and I saw Harry looking up towards where I was. The rope I held onto shook, making me look back to the window to see a Stalker gripping on it and trying to climb down, but it lost its footing and stumbled off, almost knocking me down. "Be careful!"

I gasped as another Stalker body fell down and I moved closer to the side of the building as I shifted down more. This was scarier than that time I went cliff diving with dad and Tom. The jump I did into the cold, blue waters in Mexico terrified me, but I was jumping off a building while a group of ravenous freaks tried to shake me off and get my flesh at the moment, so this definitely took the golden prize home.

The window was only a few short feet away. "Okay." I huffed to myself and dug my feet into the brick sides and climbed down, a Stalker body flying down every so often. I had to do this. For my brother, for Thalia, for myself. If my life ended here, I'd probably be mocked in the afterlife for being crushed by a corpse's body.

Each time a body flew past me, I quickly grasped the rough patches in the walls to secure me from falling, one hand on the rope. My eyes would close and my breaths coming in were sharper than a knife's rugged blade. Please don't fall, please don't fall. These supplies have to get to Anna and Thalia. They needs these.

But, when I looked up again, I saw a dark, flailing object falling towards me, blood flying around it and before I could move aside, the body crashed into me, knocking the wind out of my lungs when it collided. The impact had me scrabbling for the wall, but when my other hand left the rope, I knew I was done for.

I lost my grip on the thick rope, falling into the open, cool air. This was it, I was going to die a humiliating death because I couldn't hold in strong enough. Better than dying by a Hunter's or Infected's clutches, I thought, but is it really? I let out a yell as something grabbed my hand on the way down, making me crash against the wall with a harsh grunt.

"It's okay, I got you." I looked up to see Harry, his green eyes looking down at me, no emotion passing his features as he bit his lip with the struggle to keep me there. "Give me your other hand." He reached out for it and I grunted as I swung myself up, grasping his strong, soft hand--his long, slender fingers wrapping around my wrist as he pulled me up.

I was heaving from a loss of breath when Harry pulled me through the broken window. I collapsed against the tiled floor and my breaths ended in shaky sighs, gulping to retrieve every ounce of clouded air that surrounded me.

"Hand me the gauze." Harry said to Tyler while I laid back on the ground, palms still scraped from the tough cords of the rope. I looked to see Harry coming to me and kneeling down beside my tired body, pulling at my wrists to examine my hands. "I'll wrap these up, but after this you deal with your own wounds, okay?" When I nodded, he began to wrap the gauze around my palms gently, making sure to not harm me. His dark curls where pushed off his forehead, sweat glistened on his brow as he worked on my hands. For some reason, I wanted to reach up and run a swift hand through the front if his hair, but I kept my arms up as he wrapped them. It would have been an awkward moment for the three of us if I actually did that.

"Oh, God. Why does it matter?" Tyler scoffed. "Bitch has scathed hands while I have a fucking Infected bite. I'll be turning in two days, Harry." He gasped out and grunted in pain.

"All injuries should be treated. No matter how small or non-problematic they are. Every tiny scratch is as important as a large wound." I looked up at Harry's turned down face and really watched him. I haven't heard a Hunter speak so softly or sound so innocent like I did now. They always shouted and said vulgar things to any passing person while adding death by the blow of their machete or shock from their gun. Did any of them ever sound so soft as Harry did right now? Just earlier he was patronizing me and giving me his cold stares that made his eyes turn into the colour of glaciers on the crisp, morning waters of the Artic--chilling and surprising beautiful at the same time. Now, his tone was calm and sincere while his eyes seemed a shade darker, making them look more like two crystallised emeralds.

"Right." Tyler chuckled. "Because tiny cuts result in a terrifying death.

When he finished wrapping my minor injuries, Harry sighed and looked to me. "Better?" He moved my hands so they rested on my stomach, both palms perfectly wrapped in crisscross fashion.

"Yeah. Thanks." I told him. He nodded and stood back up, stuffing the roll of gauze into his pocket.

"Alright, we head down the stairs that are to the right outside of this room. The front doors should be just a floor below us." Harry nodded to us. I stood back up, shaking my head and carefully placing my arms at both sides.

"What about my brother? He could still be alive." I said. At the mention of Tom, Tyler shook his head and stepped toward me, having my feet move back and away from his intimidating stare.

"Fuck your brother. He's dead and won't be coming back. In this world you either die or survive. You want to die? What about those damn supplies you were so intent on finding? If you go searching for him, those supplies will mean shit after your body is rotting in these hallways." His harsh words had my eyes burning with tears, but I didn't let them go for fear of his taunting. Tyler must have seen my struggle to keep them back for he rolled his eyes.

"Tyler, lay back." Harry said and began to walk to the door, gun out and loaded. His friend to turned to him and narrowed his eyes, walking to his friend in long strides.

"Said so yourself, remember? Damn girl needs to learn that survival is a precious thing. Your own life is more important than the lives of others." Tyler didn't have a gauze to his arm anymore, letting the gaping wound show. Muscles and tendons were exposed, blood red and meaty. I wanted to puke from the view, but I restrained myself.

Harry turned back to his friend and glared into them. "Yeah and I shouldn't have. If someone said that about Gemma, I would be upset and probably kill that person," Tyler relaxed at the mention of this mysterious person's name. "What if she had said that about Jim, huh? Wouldn't you be pissed?" Harry raised his eyebrows at the blond boy and knew he had won when Tyler stepped back, head hung low.

"So, we'll look for him?" I asked, coming up and moving a stray curl from my face as I looked up into Harry's eyes. He moved his gaze from his friend to me then back into the quiet, dark hallway.

"I never said that," He sighed. "Even though I don't want to admit it, Tyler is right. Survival is the main thing in this world and worrying about someone else can get you killed. Maybe your brother is already back at your camp when he couldn't find you." At his words I felt comfort, real comfort. Maybe Tom was back at the camp after a desperate search to find me. Maybe he passed by the lab, saw the group of Stalkers and believed me to be dead, so he headed back.

Oh, please let that be the case.

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A/N: Jesus, this chapter was fucking long! I type everything on my phone, so you can imagine how my fingers and wrists feel like.

Tourists-nickname created by Hunters given to people who trespass through Hunter territory.

-Haelixx