Outnumbered

[Allie's POV]

Vic opened the door from our apartment, shining a dim flashlight down the hallway. Blood was splattered at the end of the hallway with a bloody corpse resting under the painted wall. I could feel my mouth wanting to drop to the ground.

I grasped Hayden's tiny body with my arm, my other hand gripping a knife in my sweaty palm. My heart was pounding in my ears. At any second, I could die. I was putting myself in danger, let alone my daughter as well. I didn't want her to be hurt.

I had to make sure Hayden would stay quiet so I told her to stay quiet because monsters could get us if she made one peep.

"Stay close behind me, okay?" Vic whispered over his shoulder.

I stayed quiet and I nodded my head.

This was do or die.

[Vic's POV]

We started walking down the hallway of the apartment building. We had 8 flights of stair cases to go down. We had to do this quick and fast, but how? I had no idea how many zombies were out there. I hoped that I had enough ammo to take these mother fuckers out.

We turned the corner to go down the staircase of the building. A huge 7 was written on the wall, and we made our way down the steps. We walked down 5 more things of stairs without any trouble.

But I suddenly heard growling. I stopped dead in my tracks. I felt someone behind me bump into me in the back and I flashed the flashlight to the stair case. We had 3 more to walk down, but something was down there.

I held my hand onto Allie and I could hear her whimpering. I could feel her starting to shake. I flashed my flashlight to her and I could see her eyes filling up with tears.

"Allie baby, calm down, okay? Stay quiet." I whispered quietly. She nodded her head, fixing the blanket over Hayden's head and adjusted her grip on her as well. She held the knife in her hand.

"When we get to the main floor, I need you to stay here, okay? These floors are clear by the looks of it. I need to clear the floor before you and Hayden to come in. Then, we'll make a run for it. Don't scream, for the love of God, don't scream. We're going to protect you. I love you so much, okay?" I reminded her. She turned around planting her lips on mine quickly and I heard a noise.

I flashed my light back to the staircase to see a creature making it's way to over to the steps, it's head dangling to the side. It was a male, glowing yellow eyes and blood coated around his mouth. He was dead alright, but he was still alive in a non-human way.

The zombie lunged at us and Tony ran up to it, rising his knife up in the air and stabbing it in the skull. The zombie went tumbling down the stairs and I held Allie from behind, her whimpering getting louder.

Tony flashed his light down the steps and he started to step back. "GET BACK, GET BACK! THERE'S A BUNCH COMING!" He yelled, holding onto his snapback and taking his knife and getting ready to come in for the kill.

Allie ran to the back of the staircase, clutching Hayden to death while I pointed my pistol directly at the zombies that were making their way up the stairs. One by one I shot them down. Tony helped by stabbing 4 of them in the head, one almost grabbing a hold of him.There was about 7 of them and somehow we managed to take them down.

My heart was pounding and I walked over to Allie, grabbing her hand. "We have 2 more flights, we can do this alright?"

Allie made no noise and she followed me. We walked around the dead bodies down to the final main floor. My forehead was dripping sweat and my hands were getting slippery from my sweaty palms.

This was it. We all stepped in front of the door and I put my ear to the door. I heard silence. I didn't hear any of them at all. I heard no moans of any sort. Tony was panting like crazy, and he took a sip of his water and placed it back in his bag.

I looked over at Tony and I nodded my head for the go. He pushed a couple bodies out of the doorway and I opened the door slowly. I saw three zombies who were looking out the window, their clothes withered and their skin turning a dark purple. They were groaning and slurring their moans and I pointed my pistol directly at the female, pulling the trigger causing her head to fly backwards and she collapsed to the ground.

I signaled for Tony to help and Tony ran out into the main lobby, jumping over the desk and taking his knife and stabbing one of the males in the head, taking it down.

I looked around to see if there were any zombies coming our way and I felt like we were okay to go outside.

"Alright, we're going to make a run for the car. It's across the street. No matter if they're running towards us, you get in the fucking car and we'll go as fast as we can. We're going to stop along the way to the cabin to get food, but we'll worry about that later. We need to get going." I said firmly. This was the game plan.

Tony's eyes widened and I looked at him. He looked pale, as if he saw a ghost. "Tony, you okay?"

Tony raised his knife. "VIC, LOOK OUT, BEHIND YOU!"

I turned around to see at least 4 zombies coming in my direction and I started to walk backwards, lifting my pistol at my the female's forehead, pressing the trigger and her body fell backwards stopping the other zombies from trying to get me.

I tripped on a cord and I fell backwards onto my back. My pistol went flying under the desk and I started to drag my body over there as fast as I could. A male zombie was coming in my direction, it's fingers clawing at me. I was the next meal.

I heard Allie scream and I heard footsteps running over to me. I covered my face as the zombie collapsed it's dead rotting body on top of me, and before it could rip me apart I felt blood splattering onto my shirt. I opened my eyes to see Allie stabbing the zombie in the skull multiple times, she was screaming as she did it, releasing all of her anger onto the body.

Blood splattered all over her face and she stood up, breathing heavily. I shoved the dead body off of me and I stood up, and Allie fell into my arms, hysterically crying. "I...I don't wanna kill Vic, I don't wanna do this to anyone."

I held her for a quick second, shushing her and kissing her blood coated cheeks repetitively. I grabbed the sides of her face, looking her in the eyes. "This isn't a democracy anymore, Allie. This is what we're gonna have to do in order to survive."

She whimpered again, tears streaming down the sides of her cheeks. She took her hand and wiped a tear out of her eye and she wrapped her arms around me. "I thought you were going to die, I don't want you to die, I don't know what I'd do without you."

I looked her in the eyes and our lips fell on top of each other and I gave her a kiss to try to calm her down. "I'm here now, okay? We need to hurry." I ran over to the table, Allie's hand in mine and I grabbed my pistol.

"Tony, shut the door leading to the stair case. Push the table in front of it and let's get moving. We need to get going." I ordered, grabbing Hayden from Tony and Tony shoved the door shut, moving the desk in front of the door.

I peaked over at Hayden in her blanket, her brown eyes glowing. "Daddy, you have an ouchie on your face." She said, taking her small pointer finger and pointing to the blood that was on my face from the zombie Allie killed.

I wiped it off of my face, and rubbed it on my pants. "I know babygirl, now you go try to go to sleep okay? We're going bye-bye."

Hayden smiled at me and I tucked the blanket over Hayden's face. I looked over at Tony who put a thumbs up to me and I looked outside to the the city that wasn't lit up anymore. The buildings were black as can be. No lights, no cars outside, only zombies, dragging their limbs around on the ground.

I looked over at Allie and she held her knife in her hand. "Let's go, let's get this part over with."

I put the pistol in my hand and I carried Hayden on my hip. I opened the door leading out of my apartment building. I looked to my left and to my right and the streets were clear. I hurried across the street, turning around to see Allie and Tony not far behind me.

I unlocked my car, my car beeping and the alarm went off and I looked in the distance to see a group of zombies dragging their legs over in our direction. I heard the deep snarls in the back of their throat and I jumped in the car. I looked at Allie who was running to the side of her car and she hopped in, grabbing Hayden and I shut the car door.

Tony hopped in the back and I locked the doors. The zombies were closer now. I saw them growling at us, taking their finger tips and trying to tap on the car to get to our flesh, but I drove off as fast as I could.

Allie held Hayden and I started to hum a little song to try to get the nerves down from all of this.

I drove in 15 minutes of silence. We were heading out of the city to my cabin in northern California that I went to write since I am a musician part time.

Allie held my hand in hers and I looked in the mirror above me, looking at Tony who was looking out the window.

"So where are you from?" I asked him.

Tony's gaze perked to the drivers seat and he cleared his throat. "I live on Bellview Avenue, by the beach. I lived with 2 other guys."

That's weird. I knew someone who lived over there. "My brother lives on the street ironically."

Allie shot a look at me. "He's such an asshole though."

I nodded my head in agreement. "Yeah...I don't talk to him anymore."

Tony tilted his head when I said that. "How come, if you don't mind me asking?"

I kept my gaze on the road in front of me as I spoke. "My brother just isn't a good guy. He's violent and a drug addict. Abused my mother, he threatened her with a gun and he got arrested. We stopped all connections with him. He's tried calling us, but we don't answer. Haven't heard from him since. I didn't want that around my daughter. He's a dangerous fella, I'm telling you."

Tony sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that, man. No one should put a hand on a woman like that."

I nodded. "We don't talk to him at all. It's been 3 years now. He's not allowed the house."

"Who were your roommates?" Allie asked him in curiosity.

"I had a roommate named Jaime. He was a cool dude. Had awesome hair, was awesome at guitar and bass, and he was an overall good guy. When all of this crazy shit went down, he was still in the house. He was hiding and I couldn't find him when the zombies got into our house. I called out for him but he told me to leave him. I heard him scream and I ran out of the house. Mike, Mike is a douche. He smoked in the house when we told him not to. Majorly into weed, but I didn't mind. He left me on the streets to fend for myself. Took my weapons and my knife I carried with me. Still can't believe his punk-ass did that to me." Tony rolled his eyes and I could hear the disgust in his voice.

But Mike...that was my brother's name. Mike. Maybe it was his roommate? I don't know.

I perked up in my seat, my grip on the wheel getting tighter. "Wait...is Mike's last name Fuentes?"

Tony nodded his head. "Yeah, Michael Fuentes...why?" He asked me.

I swallowed hard and I stopped the car at the stop sign and took my time to look out at him. "That's my brother."

Tony's eyes widened and he sat back in his seat. "I...I don't know what to say, man."

I started the car up and Allie's grip on my hand got tighter. She started to shake and I could tell she felt uncomfortable already.

I didn't know what to do. Mike could find Tony somehow, and who knows. If Mike was to find Tony, they could easily plot something against Allie and I for keeping Mike out of the family for as long as we have. This could seriously do some damage to my family and our protection.

What do I do? Kick Tony out of the car and let him fend for himself or do I keep him around? He's a complete stranger. I had no idea what he could do to us or if I could trust him.

Trusting someone you just met is a hard thing to do.