Flee red

Mel was happy .

Although he didn't know it .

After over a week together , he and the human had begun to work together . Or at least that's how Mel saw it . He had never been with anything alive before , atleast something that stayed alive before he killed it. It was strange for him but in a pleasant way .

At first Lesley would lay on the bed , move his limbs one at a time and other times he'd even sit up . A few days after , he could walk a few steps and by the end of the week , he felt almost completely healed.

He had also learnt to tolerate the zombie, tolerate but not like . Lesley had no misconceptions , the creature that gave him food was a blood thirsty monster . Yes , the fruits had finished up and the zombie had been going out to get him food.

And food for itself.

Two days before , he'd seen it with blood on it's mouth and something like a piece of an intestine in it's hand . A monster , indeed.

Despite it's improved appearance , Lesley had not once let his guard down . His straining efforts to heal quickly were because he didn't want to be in the dangerous situation he was in. The zombie was a threat .

So what if it had left the room when he showed disgust at it eating human flesh ?

It's not like it was being considerate. Right ?

Lesley sat up and stood in the bedroom, looking around the place one last time . Eyeing one particular wall where an oval outline was on the wallpaper . He held his Crux in his right hand and kept eyeing the door . Soon , he thought , and got into a fighting stance by the wall .

The zombie had gone out to eat again , something he did every two days . Lesley had been waiting since yesterday for him to leave , so he could prepare to kill him .

It , he corrected himself , things like that don't deserve human nouns .

Soon enough Lesley heard the slow steps of the undead teenager and his grip tightened . When the zombie walked through the door , Lesley wasted no time .

He shot up and grabbed the zombie's left hand pulling it hard , then he went behind it and bended down it's knees . When it was kneeling on the floor , the Crux was on it's neck in an instant and Lesley was about to decapitate the unnatural thing , when it spoke .

" So...rry ." It said in it's raspy and soft voice , whilst looking at the floor .

" What ? " Lesley asked it .

" Sorr-e . " It said and Lesley clicked his teeth .

" Sorry for what ? " Lesley asked it harshly .

" Sorr-e."

" Ugh ! Why am I wasting my breath ? You barely understand me . You're not human . " Lesley said with a growl . " It's a miracle you didn't kill me . "

" Sorr-e ." Mel said like a broken record .

Lesley groaned and swore inside , before he did the most stupidest thing he had ever done in his life ; he shoved the zombie away and ran out the front door .

Instead of heading down stairs , Lesley went in a direction he knew led upstairs to the roof . He'd scoated the corridors a few days ago , when the zombie went out for food . He'd been worried about running into zombies but strangely there hadn't been any . At least none that he could see , he heard them in the other flats as he passed doors but none were in the corridor .

Lesley used that to his advantage and ran quickly up the stairs to the roof . As soon as he reached the roof door , he rammed into it .

But the bloody thing was locked !

" Shit ." Lesley swore as he tried to force the door open . Unfortunately the door was a steel door with enough strength to stop four men , let alone one teenager .

When Lesley heard footsteps coming from behind , he threw all caution to the wind . Grabbing his Crux with both hands , he cut a round hole where the handle was . The door gave in with it's mechanism destroyed and Lesley forced it open , rushing out onto the roof .

The sky was a light blue with a twinge of orange , a sign of the upcoming evening. For the first time in days , Lesley felt the world breath into his lungs . It was too bad he couldn't enjoy it .

Lesley rushed to the edge of the building , ignoring the holes on the roof unless they were in his way . One side of the roof looked like it had caved in and crushed it's occupants under rubble .

There was nothing else up on the roof , not even a dead body . Which was a very odd thing , especially there in the city of Grenhit . It had a large population of zombies , beyond double of the humans in the safe zone .

Lesley looked down the roof edge and saw a precarious drop that would leave him with a broken leg or worse , dead with a broken neck . He turned around as the zombie came out from the door , Lesley quickly ran to where he glimpsed something promising .

The apartment building had no fire escape but the building next to it did have one . Judging from what Lesley saw as he ran , it was probably three feet away and highly dangerous if he missed or if it collapsed from age .

But he didn't do this just to quit !

With a large leap of faith , or just craziness, Lesley jumped across the two buildings screaming . The fire escape got closer and he felt like he was going to make it .

Then he dropped like a rock .

....

Mel watched the human fall and disappear behind the buildings edge . He went to see if he was dead , feeling a tiny prick in his chest . It was miniscule and irritating like a touch of small toothpick . The feeling had started since the human ran away from him .

Looking over the edge , Mel felt that prickling feeling stab again and again . But when he looked down , the feeling ended . The human was not dead , he'd managed to hold onto the edge of the next buildings fire escape .

He was hanging by his right hand , and looking at Lesley's face , you could tell he was in pain from straining his body . But years of training hadn't been futile , he pulled his left hand up and grabbed a metal bar . Gritting his teeth and using his forearms , he lifted himself up and toppled onto the fire escape landing .

Lesley took deep breaths , and swallowed heavily . He was lucky to be alive . That jump had been farther than he'd thought and it was only his hand that saved him in the end from an otherwise gruesome death .

Slowly his eyes moved to look at the roof of the apartment building, where he saw the zombie again . They looked at each other for a moment , their eyes locked together . Then Lesley broke the connection , got up and looked at the alley below .

It was a steep drop but he didn't have the time to go down using the stairs . He took a breath and jumped over the edge , challenging death yet again and bracing himself for the landing . It was a good one , he did not trip or break a bone . The force of the jump shook his center but he didn't fall down .

Getting up , he looked at the apartment roof one more time and the zombie was still there . Which was odd . Zombies had no sense of fear sometimes but this one knew the jump was dangerous .

" ... e ... "

Lesley frowned as he heard the zombie speak to him , or it at least tried to . The undead monster's voice was too low and soft .

" ...re-e ... "

" What ? " Lesley said softly and the zombie looked at him with a frown .

" Forget it . " Lesley said with a glare and decided to run .

Of course , there were the other zombies to contend with and Lesley knew he couldn't kill them all with his Crux or even if he had his Skillet . But , he'd thought it through ; he'd hide . If survivors could last in the city , then that meant that he could too . Of course that was only if he was in the northern part of the city , where there were fewer zombie hordes . If he was in the southern part of town ...

No ! Lesley told himself , he had to live . He'd make it back home , to Liam , to Martin and to Rick . Nothing would stop him , not even all the zombies in the city .

Lesley reached the alley end and took a peek at the street . Only to have his jaw dropped and his heart stop .

Infront of the apartment was nearly every zombie in Grenhit city .