rooney knew that things had been bad for three days. she’d holed herself up in an air vent in house 103. she’d run there after gathering her and aspen’s things from their room. she’d thought about fighting the horde, but once she saw the size of it she knew that wouldn’t be possible. not with the current size it was. so she’d fled into the house crawled inside one of the air vents. she’d taken a can medley vegetables on her way out of the house, and one half-filled water bottle. she hadn’t had time for anything else. now that she’d been in the fucking air vent for three days, she regretted it. even though there hadn’t been time for anything else, it seemed stupid to have not searched for more water. she’d drained the vegetables of their liquid, so that had helped some. but even still after taking time between drinks, she’d run out of water early in the second morning.
in the room, moaning and shuffling about. there were only a few so there was no doubt that she could take them, but she wasn’t going to be stupid about it. letting her drive for hydration overtake her common sense would only end in her getting bit. so she waited a few minutes, checking to make sure a larger group wasn’t going to come in the room at any second. when they didn’t, she grabbed her bag and weapon and slowly inched her way out of the vent. it took them only a moment to notice that she was there, and alive. and by the time they started to approach her, she’d stabbed them right on the top of the skull. peering around the room, she looked for any sign of water. no one had left a water bottle around so she moved to exit the room, checking around the corner before actually exiting.
in a room down the hall she found a water bottle that was, again, half empty. almost as though the person had been mod drink when they sat it down. the cap wasn’t even on correctly. rooney took a deep drink and set out to find more. she placed that bottle in her bag and left the room. groans came from the end of the hallway and she knew she’d been found. originally she’d wanted to go down that end in hopes of having easier access out, but it wasn’t looking good. leaving the undead alive might only cause them more grief in the end so she used her trench knife to finish that one too. but as the body slid to the ground at her feet, that’s when she got a look at the massive crowd now shuffling around the corner towards her. rooney knew her only means of escape at this point was the window inside the bedroom. she’d climb up and get herself to the roof. with her muscles a bit refreshed from the drink she’d taken, she pushed herself up. the window sill was deep enough that she could balance there for a moment before further pulling herself into the roof.
her hands and face were covered in zombie blood, sticky as she pulled herself up onto the rooftop ledge. as she came up she quickly realized that she wasn’t alone, there was another woman there. phoebe, she recalled. “don’t shoot, i’m alive.” she stated in a hoarse voice, collapsing onto the roof to catch her breath.
immediately seeing the girl, phoebe let her rifle point downwards as she carefully crept closer to hoist the girl into a better position. one hand lingered on the girl’s shoulder, ensuring that she wouldn’t topple off of the slope of the roof.
“are you bitten.” dark eyes roamed her figure, searching for any sign of blood, any possible sign of infection. “are you hurt?” they would smell blood- like sharks, and phoebe didn’t want to see what they would do in order to reach the two.