Will POV

There's a sense of exhiliration and anxiety that flares up when looking at delapidated buildings and empty cars.
You know instantly that your life is in danger but you don't know by what or from who. The first days seemed exciting, almost like a video game - you run, you hide and you survive. Only surviving is not living.

But I'll take what I can get.

The sun hadn't peaked up over the horizon yet but I could tell it was morning by the stifling heat. I felt like I was breathing in steam as we jumped from one roof to another in a dangerously sluggish manner. My limbs felt like sacks filled with sand and my throat was burning from thirst. Matt seemed to be doing rather well - but no surprise there, he is athletic. Lucian and I, on the other hand, were struggling.

I still had reservations about Lucian. Valarie picked him up and I trust her judge of character but I didn't like the way Logan acted around him. Logan was embarrassed of me. That's fine, I reminded myself. I have greater concerns than puppy love.

"Stop, just stop", Lucian huffed out.

Matt had already jumped over to the next roof - more like climbed seeing as the other roof was higher than this one. Not all buildings are the same height. He jumped down, back onto the roof Lucian and I were in as we huffed out our lungs. I was more discreet but Lucian didn't care and was showing every possible sign of exhaustion.

This is fine too, I reminded myself.

"Let's just wait a little, we still have time before daylight", I said hopefully.

Lucian just pointed at me in a bent over position, signalling his agreement. Matt simply sat down, next to me. Rather close, but I liked it. I knew that he knew that I liked it. Something like that.

It was a glorious battle in my mind, one that would go down in history. Do I let Matt close enough to hurt me again, or do I stick around for the next sweet promise? Logic quickly retaliated by calling the entire notion obsolete. We're actively looking for danger - looking in the eyes of death - in order to evade it. Yet, here I am, pondering if the man I like likes me just as much. The steady hum that flowed through us was electrifying.

Terrifying.

However, we made no advance to enlarge the contact. In the present situation, this was enough. I leaned back against the railing we were sitting against - resting my back and looked up at the rolling in thunderstorm. Grateful for the possible relief from the heat and the idea that we could refill our water bottles. The clouds looked like abstract paintings in the pink light of the morning sun. Like poems written in colours by God.

"Okay, we can go now", Lucian said.

He had caught his breath, so I stood up, Matt going after Lucian as we jumped to the next roof. We had already cleared four blocks - moving in a semi circle from the office building Valarie and the others were held up in.

The strategy was simple: search for the horde in a semicircle of increasing size from the starting point. However, that particular building stood proudly at the edge of town. Hence the need to search in such a shape. The occasion - and strategy - demanded that we move down the street in order to get to the opposite building.

Our weary bodies were instantly shocked back to a taut, energized state by the adrenaline; as if they had been hooked to a car battery. Even after Lucian's intel - the prospect of empty streets - a descent to the ground was always a catalyst for panic. Would the roaming horde of Cannibals cross paths with us? Would we be spotted by looters? What danger awaited us on the ground?

Fear could have paralysed us but in all honesty we were too tired to be scared.

I proceeded calmly to the fire escape, trying to keep my eyes ahead of me. The rusted metal groaned ever so slightly and I swallowed my thick paranoia. The lack of maintenance had made the fire escape rusted and unstable. My mischievous eyes wandered down to the far away ground - almost taunting me. We were rather high up. I didn't want to carry on climbing down the tired, rusted stairs. But I had no choice as Lucian started climbing down as well. The metal groaned again and my muscles tensed. I've come too far to die from structural deterioration.

I hurried down the ladder and again my scheming eyes wondered. They landed on what looked like a swarm of insects far into the distance. Only the insects weren't moving, they remained far off. Too far to make out any individual one. My desperate brain tried to find a pattern to explain what I was seeing. There, far, far away, were what looked like people jumping out of windows and rushing back in to the adjacent building.

The horde!

Just from my position I'd say they spanned about two streets. A full corner of a block maybe five miles away. I hissed in pain as Lucian stood on my hand. He looked down at me and grimaced, "Sorry, but get moving." We hurried down the long ladder and I exhaled a held in breath the second my feet got the ground.

I held my index finger against my lips, signalling for the others to keep quiet. I knew I was being paranoid and that we were too far away from the horde for any of them to hear us but rather safe than sorry.

I brought Matt closer so his ear was by my mouth. The proximity made my ears hot and made my ever fast paced heart work harder. I noticed the goosebumps on the back of Matt's neck as I whispered, "I found the horde. Follow me."
Matt relayed the message to Lucian I wasn't particularly happy about, but I preoccupied my thoughts as we made it to the top of the next building.
From what I saw up on the fire escape, the Cannibals were clearing buildings heading North, so we made sure to stay on the west side heading toward them.

The closer we got the quieter it seemed to get. Doom seemed to hang above my head, illuminated by the scorching early morning sunlight. I stopped abruptly as we got to the second last building of the corner. We would soon be above the horde and I was struggling to breathe. Anxiety huddled up inside me, getting comfortable. I did not want to go any further. I doubled over, gasping in air.
I felt a rough hand rub up and down my back, "Shhh, calm down, we'll be okay", Matt whispered ever so slightly. His hot breath fanned the hair out of my eyes and I focussed on his breathing.

I soon regained my composure - albeit with a mantra of 'If I die, I die.' I felt embarrassed by my sudden outburst and snuck a glance at Lucian who was nonchalantly peaking over the edge of the building, the terror on his face made no attempt at being subtle. We were surrounded by Cannibals and the only way out was the way we came, which might soon also disappear.

Carefully we leapt to the last roof and we were met with the overwhelming sight of dozens of Cannibals. Some sprinted into the building opposite ours while others remained outside...twitching rapidly. From this distance I would say they were having a seizure but that wasn't the case - it simply looked that way. The one I was observing, an obese man was shaking all over as his head snapped side to side - almost as if he were searching for something. His hands would get stuck in random positions and his jaw would snap every now and then. I couldn't peel my eyes off of the sight - a scientist's wet dream.

Matt tapped my shoulder and I reluctantly looked away, he pointed at a body lying on the rooftop. I instantly withdrew a knife and cautiously approached the body.

It was a dead Cannibal, but an extraordinary one at that. It was lying on its left - its left ear exposed. And out of that exposed ear was what appeared to be a mushroom. The cannibal had some sort of white fuzz on its skin, but without the proper equipment I would never know what the fuzz was. The stalk of the mushroom was a subtle brown while the fruiting body was white. Similar to the colour of the fuzz covering the Cannibal's skin...

I looked around the roof, there was a trail of blood leading to the stairs further into the building. The death of this cannibal was a gunshot wound to the head. I returned to the edge of the rooftop to survey the other Cannibals. A lot of them were awkwardly - and frighteningly - twitching. Their heads whipping around. I squinted to get a better view, Matt tapped my shoulder again and handed me a pair of binoculars.

Smart.

I took a closer look and noticed a different between the twitching Cannibals and the ones that were searching the building's. The twitching Cannibals had growths out of their ears, similar to the growth out of the Cannibal's ear right here on the rooftop.

I got a sickening and excruciating feeling in my gut. Something wasn't right. I looked back to the dead Cannibal on the roof. Lucian was poking it with one of his arrows.
Frantically I tried to put the pieces together, what was I missing?

I stepped closer to the dead Cannibal after handing Matt back his binoculars.

Then I saw the mushroom twitch.

I rushed over as fast as I could have and shoved Lucian to the floor. I stripped off my coat and threw it over the body. Just as my coat landed on the dead Cannibal, there was a gushing sound like that of a strong wind and the cost lifted slightly. I grabbed Matt and Lucian as we ran over and jumped to the next building.

Matt tugged my arm, causing me to stop. He looked at me with wide eyes and I returned the look.

"What just happened?"

The words got caught in my mouth but I spat them out anyway, "They're spores. The Cannibals are giving off spores. A-and I don't know if we just got infected."