The number of abandoned cars started getting thicker as we got toward the edge of town, but the zombies continued to thin out. We could finally see what we were after in the distance, but it was not so easy as we were hoping for. "Shit shit shit!" John could see the fences blocking the roads from about a quarter mile away. "Let's try to get around." He kept on driving, but each time he reached another exit it was more of the same. Cars blocked the road up to gates where a mass of civilians could be seen trying to make their escape. "Come on there has to be a place where they haven't barricaded it yet!" John was getting more frantic by the minute, and it was starting to wear off on all of us. "Fuck!" John slammed on the brakes. "This is why I wanted to hurry..."

"There's a military base right outside of town isn't there?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's why I knew they were coming." He held onto the steering wheel at ten and two, hunched over.

"My point is, maybe we never had a chance of getting out of here so easily." It wasn't the most optimistic tone, but we couldn't just keep sitting there. "What do we do now?"

John crushed his eyelids together while he thought. "Ok, I guess we're going to have to go through the blockade like everyone else." He started looking through all of the mirrors and windows. "Anyone see any of those things out there?" We each checked the surroundings of the car and sounded off as we couldn't find any. "Ok good let's go." He grabbed the shotgun again before he stepped out of the car. I got out and opened the door for Elizabeth and Will to get out, while John popped the trunk of his cruiser.

I walked around to see what he was doing. "Looking for something?"

He was struggling with the busted trunk, but he managed to pry it open. "I had a couple of boxes of shells somewhere in here. I think most of them fell out in the wreck though. There!" He pulled up a box of shotgun shells and opened the top. He loaded his gun one shell at a time, then started patting himself down, checking to see if his pockets had room. "Screw it." He took handfuls of cartridges and shoved them in any place where he could fit them. He grabbed a box of pistol ammo and did the same. "Is everybody ready?" He asked, getting nods from the group. "Good... let's get moving."

We started walking toward the quarantine screening area. It was about a quarter mile off, but we couldn't get the car any closer due to the gridlock before us. We were moving slow, as none of us wanted to find ourselves surprised by a set of hungry teeth jumping out in the night. "We just had to stop, didn't we...?" John was asking himself rhetorically. Other people were walking with us, or I should say by us. We were all heading to the same place, but as we got closer fewer people were rushing past and a small group was following us directly. I think the sight of a police officer with a gun was giving people a sense of comfort in a night that held so many terrors. We were about half way there when someone up at the road block had the bright idea to use a megaphone to address the people.

"If you'll all remain calm and come through the checkpoint in an orderly fashion this will go a lot faster." I heard the voice boom down the street, and it was followed by the sounds of moaning behind us. I turned back to see where the sound was coming from, and we could see them coming out of the woodworks. Panic set into the crowd of people and they began to rush toward the gate up ahead. John got pushed over by someone. Elizabeth and I stopped to help him up. The majority of the people had passed us by when we had gotten him to his feet, which put us between the zombies and the crowd.

We ran toward the gate as fast as we could but there were at least a hundred or two people blocking the path. They were pushing against the chain link fence, trying to get free. When we had caught up with the main group I turned around to see what was coming when the man on the megaphone piped up again. "If you don't stop pushing we can't get you through."

But fear had gripped the crowd. "They're right behind us!" they yelled and screamed. I could see a horde of zombies amassing. It wasn't a small one either. The sound of the loudspeaker was drawing them all right to the crowd, and we were still caught in the middle.

"There's no way." I said to myself before raising my voice so that our group could hear me. "There's no way we can get through the gate before they reach us!" A few of the faster ones were drawing close, and I don't know whether it was my words or just the sight of them that caused the crowd to go into a frenzy, but they began forcing the gate.

"If you don't stop we are going to have to take extreme measures to ensure quarantine procedures!" We heard the megaphone blared again.

"We can't stay here!" Elizabeth yelled.

She was right, there was nothing we could do to defend ourselves against that many, and there was just no way they were going to let all of us through the gates in time. "She's right!" I said following up on her words.

John yelled back. "I'm all ears kid!"

"We charge back the way we came and cut down an alley. There's no way you can kill them all before they get here, but maybe we can fight through a few to get away!"

He looked at the crowd, and then to the zombies that were getting closer and closer. "It's better than staying here! Let's move!" Elizabeth and I were ready to go, but Will hadn't been paying attention. He was at the back of the crowd still trying to force his way toward the gate.

Elizabeth grabbed Will by the arm. "Come on Will we have to go!" John was already starting to make his move till I stopped him. He turned around quickly and grabbed Will alongside Elizabeth jerking him free and getting his attention.

"If we stay here we die!" John yelled in Will's face. "We have to go now!"

Will was shaken but quickly fell in line with the plan. We began running from the crowd with John leading the way. When we had gotten about ten feet from the first zombie he readied his shotgun and tore its face off. He started moving again, but slower so he could reach in his pocket and feed the gun another shell. When he had finished he got back up to speed. Three more of them were between us and the first alley we could reach, and the shotgun made short work of them. John took his time reloading after each shot. I couldn't blame him there was no telling what was around the corner. And when we made the turn it was dark, not so much that we couldn't see what was just before us, but enough that we couldn't find the end. There were curbs lining the alleyway. It must have been used as some kind of parking area judging from the meters in the sidewalk, but other than that there was little more than the walls of the businesses with a reinforced door here and there. John dispatched another two zombies as we made our way forward.

It was a dead end. A brick wall rose higher than any of us could climb, even with each other's help. When we turned back we found that our little plan had been just a little too late. We saw the zombies walking in the entrance. They had been attracted by the gunshots, and they were coming.

"What are you waiting for? Kill them!" Will yelled at John.

"Shooting might just bring more our way, and I don't have enough ammo to kill them all."

"We can't just stay here, we have to at least fight back!" Will was right, but John was too. Neither option gave us a chance at survival. That's when I saw it, just a simple drain in the gutter. It wasn't very big, but it got me thinking. I looked around and sure enough on the cement beside it was a manhole cover.

"Maybe I can get this open." I stamped down on it to point it out.

"Not without that... you know that tool they use? Those things aren't light!" John replied focusing on the zombies heading our way.

I got down on the ground and began climbing into the drain. "I meant from the inside."

By the time John looked at me my legs were already halfway inside. "That might work... are you really skinny enough to fit in there?"

I was trying my best to shimmy my way in, it wasn't hard at first, but my chest was a tight fit. It hurt, scratching me terribly, but it wasn't as though I had a choice. When I got my chest free I fell the rest of the way. I had hit my head against the top on the way in though. In the dark, I rubbed the spot where I had hit, till I was brought back to my senses by the sound of John firing again.

"Hurry up Mark! We're in real trouble up here!" John said.

I reached around in the blackness till I found a rebar ladder that had been built into the side. I could see just a point of light peering through the small opening in the manhole cover. I climbed the ladder up to it, only to find it practically immovable. My arms were useless, I just couldn't get it to budge that way. I climbed higher so I could use my legs and push at it with the top of my back. When I had given it just about all of the strength I could muster I felt it pop free.

"Good work! Help me move this." I heard Elizabeth say above me. I started climbing back down. I stopped to look up and saw both Elizabeth and Will moving the cover. The sound of it scraping against the concrete echoed in the tunnel that I was in, but not nearly as loud as the gunshots John was still firing.

When the path was free they climbed down too. It wasn't very deep inside, maybe six feet tall at best, and there wasn't a lot of room either. We watched John step into the light of the hole and make his way in. He handed the gun down. "Someone take this!" Will grabbed it and John began moving the cover to seal the hole. "These things really are heavy." He grunted as he pulled it back into place. It fell back into its slot with a metallic clunk.

That's when we heard the loudspeaker for the last time. "Open fire." The sounds of gunshots and screams filled the night as they fired on the crowd to maintain the quarantine.

"Oh my..." Elizabeth covered her mouth, or at least I imagined she did, there wasn't enough light to tell for sure.