Part 3 Getting Off The Roof - Revised

Some time during the night I heard a banging noise. My eyes went immediately to the trap door. It wasn't moving and the sound seem to come from behind me. There was a slight breeze going on yet I took nothing for granted. My gun was in my hand before I even realized it, and I was up on my feet turning towards the sound as soon as it was made again. I froze waiting. Dead or alive if any shape moved in the darkness that I could see, it was going to get shot. The noise repeated itself and cautiously I moved laterally to try and bring it in view. Nothing.

I kept the barrel of the pistol pointed at the rooftop, it'd be bad for an accident to happen. I hated to use my flashlight, especially in the dark with zombies about, even if I was on a roof, it was not a smart move. I decided not to use it. I decided to take a chance and spoke low but clearly. “If you're alive, you're about to get shot so better say a few words to keep on breathing.” There was a pause and then the sound was made once more. The barrel of my gun now faced the direction of the noise, I was inwardly relieved that it didn't shake or waiver, because I was caught in a gut tightening grip of fear. If the zombies had found a way up onto the roof then I'd be having to make a hasty exit and leave my stuff behind and possibly face more on the ground in the total darkness. Not a good thing at all.

Normally I find an abandoned tractor trailer rig with a sleeper cab and check it for anything inside and use that as a place to crash for the night, the doors locked and windows rolled up, what was also good about them is that most sleepers have curtains that go all the way around the windows to give the driver a darker place to sleep, so I'm relatively safe for the night. Only once did I wake up in the morning and found myself in the middle of a migrating herd. With the height of the cab and the curtains, I was lucky not to been spotted when I peeked out the window. Scared the crap out of me to be sure, but I managed to move quietly inside and wait it out. Part of me was tempted to lay on the horn to see if I could scare them... but that was the kid in me. Luckily, the adult in me said shut up and keep my hands on my weapons and I listened to the voice of maturity. In about half an hour the herd moved on. I took a little extra time inside to cook a freeze dried breakfast and then waited even a little more to be sure there wasn't any stragglers lagging behind. However tonight, I had to sleep in the open, which meant more risk of exposure. During these times I don't sleep as heavily as I would in a truck-sleeper unit. Tonight was definitely one of those times.

Since nothing answered my challenge with neither a growl or a trembling voice asking me not to shoot, it had to be something that broke loose and was banging now and again thanks to the breeze. I had to find it so that the noise wouldn't excite the zombies inside or out. Since the plague, the world had gotten deathly quiet, pun intended. No highway or road noise buzz that everyone had grown accustomed to. Now only natural (and un-natural) sounds could be heard. Some folks I've talked to, said hearing deer or even mice as they make their way through the woods, or along the miles of now abandoned roads freaks them out more than the sound of shuffling zombies. I try to reassure them that they'll grow accustomed to it and in doing so will aid in their survival. That soon, they'll be able to distinguish between a raccoon searching for food and a zombie making it's way to your campsite.

Moving around I managed to find that a metal cover of the air-conditioning unit, I was using for a lean-to, had broken free and was indeed being banged around by the breeze. I took out my leatherman and blessed the maker of the device, and went to work on the screw that was holding it to the unit's frame. Once free, I set the cover down and peeked inside. A mouse nest and some scat was the only thing that didn't belong. I noticed as well some time ago that my eyes had learned how to become accustomed to low-light conditions. Tonight there was a partial moon and a few clouds. Man-kind, I reflected, was adapting. I was glad that it was a first generation and not a gradual adaptation passed on from parent to child. It meant that any children born to this generation of survivors, and their children will be far more efficient in detecting danger than their predecessors.

I went back to where my sleep roll was, holstered my weapon, and instead of lying back down, I dug down inside my pack for a head-lamp that had a red led in it. I put it on and clicked it to the red LED. Zombies would see it, but not as quickly as they would a white light. I shone it around the entire roof and quietly walked around the edges, occasionally shining it down and lighting up a zombie shambling below. I covered the light with my hand and ducked down whenever the zombie showed a hint of looking upwards. If they spotted me then they would stubbornly hang around until something else made them move on.

In the distance I could see zombies, in twos and threes ambling off away from the store and back towards the freeway. Perhaps these would too, eventually. I walked over to the trap-door and gave a listen. No such luck, they were still milling around, growling as they bumped into one another but hanging around hoping that their prey would be stupid enough to try and come down that way. No such luck you dead bastards, I thought to myself. I rapped on the metal cover of the trap-door with my knuckles twice.

Mainly, so that they won't end up wandering back outside. I discovered that zombies will stay in an area as long as they “think” they might have a shot at getting something to eat. My little raps on the cover re-whetted their appetites which made them want to hang around longer. I wanted them to stay inside the store for as long as possible if I were to make an exit off the roof. Their being inside the building and unable to see me leaving would heighten my chances of getting away clean. Glancing at my watch I estimated that I had at least another couple hours before sunrise and decided to try and get some more rest. I stepped lightly back to my sleeping roll and sat down under the tarp and instead of laying down to sleep, I sat there, in a comfortable lotus position, my legs crossed over each other, trying to work up a plan to get off the roof.

A bird sang and startled me awake. I looked around quickly and quickly remembered where I was. My eyes went to the trap-door once more. It remained as I left it and I relaxed. I looked at my watch and understood that I was more tired than I realized, for I slept about another four hours. I got up to take a leak, wincing at the pins and needles in my legs, since I fell asleep in the position I was sitting in, my back to the AC unit and my legs crossed over one another. I moved over to the closest edge, shaking my legs as I went trying to get the blood flowing back in them again. I took in the surroundings and found that no other additional zombies were about. There were still a few outside milling about, no doubt the ones I saw from last night, and the ones inside were probably still crowded at the base of the ladder. As I un-zipped I had a sudden thought. I walked over to the trap-door, bent and removed the wire that I used to hold it shut and opened it up. The effect was immediate. The growls instantly grew louder and more excited as the sudden light poured in on top of them.

I peered down inside and saw dead hands reaching up in vain at me. I pulled myself out and aimed my stream down on top of them. Soaking the ones closest to the ladder. Again the effect was immediate as the ones in the back surged forward to reach the ones covered in my urine. The wet ones turned and tried to fight off the ones grabbing at them. “Ohh-kay, that's something good to know.” I muttered aloud to myself. Below me it had turned to pandemonium as dead ones fought off their fellow dead to prevent from being eaten. One was being torn apart and being gnawed upon before the piece was dropped to the floor, apparently the sense of taste was not palatable to them. Whether it was the taste of urine or dead flesh or both it didn't matter. What did matter that the odor of my urine attracted them strongly enough to temporarily forget that I was above them, fresh meat.

“Learn something new everyday I guess, even in the land of the dead” I mused as I tucked myself back in zipped back up, then shut the trap-door with a bang, not bothering to tie it shut. I wasn't going to hang around long enough to worry about any potential climbers. I stepped carefully to the side of the building that had the ladder resting on the side.

There was just a single zombie roaming about and it's ears seemed to be picking up on the excitement that's going on inside. It headed over to the back door and began banging on it in a effort to get inside. That wasn't good because the noise may attract the ones inside and they'll eventually push on the door handle/alarm and let them outside. I needed to get that ladder before that happened.

I looked around the building roof for something I could use as a bomb. Thinking that I could drop something on that sucker's head and crush it would buy me time enough to work on getting the ladder up the wall to the roof and at the same time block the back door, hopefully long enough to get me down and out of the area. Everything was bolted to the roof naturally and I tried to remember if my personal inventory included a small socket wrench set or all I had was my leatherman. No, just my leatherman, which would make things slow and ugly, but I figured that if I had to spend another night up here at least I had food and water to make it. But only for one more night. Remember, in the first place, my purpose of going into the store was for supplies.

I walked around looking for anything that wasn't going to be a pain to loosen and not too heavy for me to lift and carry to the area where the back door was. A small cooling unit rested off to one side and probably was my best bet. I went over to it and went to work on it immediately. It was held to the roof by four legs with a single bolt through each foot. Getting the bolts off were at first involved a lot of gripping the leatherman tight as I could and working the head loose, but thankfully once they were loose the bolts came up easy enough that by half way I was able to unscrew them by hand. Thankful for shoddy workmanship I managed to get the unit free in about forty-five minutes.

I wrapped my arms around it and gave it an experimental heft. Ok not too bad, about as much as a bag of concrete mix and just as unwieldy. On the plus side it had sharp corners which, if I dropped the unit right would pierce the zombie's head and crush the brain. I carried the unit over to the edge where the zombie was still pounding on the door. So far, my golden shower still kept the walkers inside busy enough to ignore the pounding on the back door. I wrestled the unit to the raised edge of the roof and quickly took aim and let it go. There was a satisfying crunch noise and the moaning of the zombie and the pounding on the door ceased. I looked over and was happy to see that my aim wasn't too bad. The unit landed on the zombie's back and took it down but rolled the right way and crushed the head enough to put it out of commission. Not so lucky that the body and unit didn't block the back door quite enough to prevent any inside to open it up.

Not wasting time to worry about that. I went over to my pack and dug around and found one of the coils of nylon cordage I lifted off an abandoned Ace Hardware store some time ago. Taking one of the carabiners off my pack, I reached into one of my shirt pockets for a small rubber band that I use to pony tail my hair and used that to hold the gate of the carabiner open. I unraveled the rope and tied a bowline on a bight on one end and hooked the carabiner through that. If I was lucky I could use the carabiner as a hook and grab the cord that was used on the extension ladder and lift it up to the roof enough for me to pull it up by hand the rest of the way.

When I took this rig over to the edge I spied that another zombie had made it's way around the back. I elected not to worry about it because it hadn't spotted me and was walking away from the ladder. I stood directly above the ladder and began lowering the carabiner down. Lucky luck, I managed to snag the cord on the first try.

Taking up the slack I spied out of the corner of my eye, that the new arrival out back had finally spied me and was making it's way over to where I was. I pulled up on the ladder and found it was a stuck on something. Cursing I gave it some slack and tugged it again. This time it came free and I began pulling it up. The zombie was now at the ladder and began grabbing at it. “Leave it alone asshole!” I hollered down at it and tugged harder. The walker didn't have a good enough grip on the rungs yet but I wasn't about to give it a chance. I heaved upwards and grabbed as much rope as I could as it rose up the wall. Kicking myself for not putting on gloves at first before trying this stunt, I ignored the stinging that the thin cord was giving my hands as I hauled up the ladder.

The zombie's grabbing motions were more in it's vain attempt to get at me than to prevent the ladder from helping me escape. Finally the ladder's lower rungs were out of that zombie's reach and I managed to get the top rung up high enough for me to reach down and grab it and pull it up the rest of the way. Sweating I let the ladder clatter to the rooftop and I sat down to catch my breath. The zombie below was still growling trying to get up to me.

I removed my pistol and checked the loads and chambered a round and set the safety on and re-holstered the gun. Not wanting to waste anymore time I got up and began packing up my sleeping roll and getting everything placed back inside my pack and shouldered it onto my back and belted around my waist and chest.

I grabbed the scabbard holding my sword and set it between my back and the pack's waist band at a right angle. The sword would be a hindrance when I start going down the ladder, unfortunately I would have to use the pistol to knock down the few zombies, to give me time enough to get the hell out of there. Cursing that I would have to make a run for it and through the woods, one of the things I kicked myself for not doing was checking to see if any of the vehicles were operable enough for me to drive off, much less have their keys in them. Hell, one of the zombies in the area could have been the owner of one of the vehicles and have the keys in their pockets, but I wasn't going to bother to find out which one. I was still learning after all this time.

I moved around the building to find the best place to set the ladder and scrabble down and start booking for the woods nearby and shoot as few zombies as possible. The side with the dumpster and vehicles didn't have any zombies ... yet. It would have to do. I went over to the ladder and lifted it and carried it over to the edge where I intended to go down.

I extended the ladder as much as I could and still tried to keep it as quiet as possible. No sense in attracting the zombie out back around to me until at least I was off the ladder and ready to go. Before lowering the ladder I took a quick peek to the front of the store and saw that it was oddly free of zombies. I didn't want to worry too much about where they were... as long as they weren't around where I planned on going down the building. I hoped that they heard the bastard in the back and were joining him in trying to entice me to come down for breakfast.

I lifted the ladder and rested the foot end down on the raised edge and took a breath and said a quick prayer. I pushed it out far enough, counter-balancing the weight with my own on the top end to keep it off the ground for as long as possible. Finally it was too much and threatened to pick me up with it, as the foot lowered itself down. There was some noise but not too bad. Finally the feet reached the ground and the ladder was at a steeper angle than I would've liked but it was at least going to be stable for my climb down.

Pulling my weapon and removing the safety I swung my feet over the edge and on the highest rung. So far no zombies. I kept my weapon pointed towards the back corner of the building ready to blow the head off the first zombie that showed up. I kept trying to watch three things at once. The front and back corners of the building and my feet on the rung of the ladder. As I neared the last three rungs I hopped off and took a step back. Now I was able to hold my weapon in both hands and walked backwards until I ran into the dumpster. I turned and saw the way ahead of me was clear. I ducked down to give me more cover and just as I did a zombie appeared around the back corner.

I froze in my crouch, keeping my ears open to try and determine which way the zombie would make it's way around the dumpster so I could move around the opposite side. I hoped it would come around the side I was closest on so I could move back and then zip around to one of the vehicles for additional cover. I gave a quick look around, and saw that within reach was an empty plastic soda bottle. I grabbed for it and then tossed it up and over the dumpster towards the front and backed slowly (after a quick peek behind me) and waited for the zombie to appear so I could slip around the side. The ruse worked and the zombie moved over to the where the bottle landed.

As it moved so did I, using the zombie's shuffle to help muffle the sound of my own movements.
As I rounded the corner of the dumpster I felt something bump into me. I spun on my feet and came face to face with a pair of eyes... they were the deepest blue that I've seen in a long time. More importantly they were alive.