Darnell To The Rescue

Alicia was reaching her tipping point with Michael. Michael had been reacting incredibly sluggish to everything that had happened up to this point. There was a horde of cannibalistic, deranged men trying to feast on the flesh of anything walking, and the only thing protecting Michael and Alicia was a makeshift barrier. And Alicia felt like she was the only one trying to survive. She put her back to the barrier and tried to push into it, giving them more time for help to arrive. She had to yell at Michael before he contributed to the effort.

"Jesus, Michael, you're going to get us both killed like this!" Alicia shouted at Michael, as their bodies shook back and forth from the onslaught on the door.

"What do you want me to do? Everything keeps happening so fast!" Michael retorted.

"I want you to act like you're not seven years old!"

"I'm sorry, okay! I- I can't think… There's no way this is real right?"

"It's as real as the burning in my legs trying to keep this door closed!"

The two grunted, pushing with all their might. They had no idea how long they'd been holding this door closed by now.

"I want to kill them. I want to kill all of them." Michael said sternly.

"And how will you do it Michael? With a textbook?"

"I don't care. I just want all of them to die." he choked on his words as he spoke.

Alicia looked over at Michael and tears were streaming down his face. Remembering what transpired not even ten minutes earlier, he had every right to feel that way. She knew if she saw someone she cared about be attacked like that, she'd want revenge too. But those emotions would get them killed. She had to discourage it as much as possible.

"You think those are the terrorists from the alert?" Alicia gritted.

"Probably. Another reason they deserve to die." Michael responded.

"If they are, then that means help is on the way, right?"

"I guess so."

"So then someone else will take care of 'em, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then let's hold out until then, Michael!"

"Fine. Let's hold out."

Suddenly, the entire barrier slid forward, nearly sweeping Michael and Alicia off of their feet. The two panicked as their butts nearly hit the floor, but they both managed to catch themselves. They jumped up to push the barrier again, but it was too late. One of the men outside had just enough time to shove their arm through the door. Alicia yelled at Michael, "Push the barrier!" He listened to her, and with his heart racing and his legs already burning, he willed himself to push the barrier with all his might. Alicia hurriedly grabbed a textbook off the floor and slammed it into the man's hand as hard as she could. It faltered, but it didn't give up. She tried again. Nothing this time. "C'mon!" she yelled at it, and threw the book at the hand. She didn't wait to see if it would have an effect, instead she grabbed one of their pencils and attempted to stab it. Alicia barely made a scratch. She looked around the room, there weren't many options left. Michael grunted, implying that she should hurry. That did not help her panic in the slightest.

Her eyes darted all over the room, hoping that some tool would just magically appear to save them. But there was nothing. At some point, her eyes weren't even searching anymore, they were just scurrying around like wild rabbits in a prairie. There was another creak of the door and the barrier altogether. Alicia spun around and now one of the mens' arms was fully through the door up to his shoulder.

The man screeched and roared as he continued to force his way in. Michael screamed, "Alicia!"

"I know!" Alicia shouted.

"RAAAHH," the man boomed.

DINK, the window went. The window? Alicia turned to the window of Michael's room, and outside was Darnell, waving in. All of her uncertainty of what to do next was flushed away. She immediately ran over to the window, unlocked it, and swung it wide open for Darnell to jump in. Without even a second wasted, Darnell dashed through the room with determination in his eyes and a wrench in his hand. He immediately charged the man in the crack of the door and shoved the wrench directly into his face. With a loud crack, the man went flying back far enough for the door to be completely shut again.

Michael immediately collapsed to the floor, gasping for air. Darnell looked back and forth between them with his eyes still narrowed, "Are yall okay?" he said sternly. As Darnell finished his sentence, he was ambushed by a tight hug from Alicia. "Oh my god, thank you!" she cried, pressing her face into his chest. Darnell put his arm around Alicia's waist, responding, "Yeah, yeah, it's no problem." He gently pulled her away so he could help up Michael.

"C'mon we g-" Darnell was interrupted by a giant bang on the door that caught all of their attention. Then continued, "Yeah we gotta go."

The three moved to the window to escape. Darnell and Michael let Alicia go first. She poked her head out of the window and there was a ladder stretching up to it. At the bottom of the ladder was Vanessa waving her down. One by one, they all climbed out of the window, with Darnell being the last. Darnell shut the window on his way out and climbed down to the ground with the rest of them.

"Thank you guys so much," Michael said, still catching his breath.

"Now where are we going?" said Vanessa.

Darnell pointed behind them towards Michael's backyard, signifying they needed to get out of sight first. The four of them jumped over the fence without any difficulty. After getting behind cover, Michael and Alicia started to relax, but their rest was cut off the moment it began.

"Now we head to Tristan's." Darnell commanded them. He began walking over to the far side of the backyard.

"Wait, Tristan is in danger too?" Michael called out to Darnell.

Darnell spun around with his finger on his lips, his eyebrows were narrowed.

"Oh-" Michael realized his mistake. None of them moved for a minute. A long minute. Then Darnell signaled the coast was clear. They all huddled together so they could lower their voices.

"Are the terrorists in Tristan's side of the neighborhood too?" whispered Alicia.

"Those ain't terrorists." Darnell replied.

"So… there's no terrorist attack?" Michael went.

"I wish that's all it was." Darnell shook his head, swinging his wrench in a spiral.

Michael and Alicia looked at each other, both with confusion and worry in their faces, then back to Darnell. "So what is it?" Alicia said.

Darnell looked both of them in the eye, then stated, "Pretty sure it's the apocalypse."