Chapter 9: The Bridge

Val stood over Thomas’s lifeless body for a long while.

The Glock in her hand still trembled slightly. Her breath came in shallow bursts as she tried to will the weight off her chest—but it remained, heavy and immovable.

Outside, the groaning grew louder. The undead had swarmed toward the noise, pressing themselves against the solid steel shutters that protected the garage-like entrance of the shop. The heavy metal groaned beneath the pressure.

They’d hold for a while—but how long could they really stay here? she thought.

How much food and water did this place even have? Had the family brought any with them when they fled here? Could they bunker down in a machine shop with a child and no reliable supplies?

The math didn’t add up.

She holstered her weapon and began scanning the room, forcing herself back into motion. The shop was packed with large industrial machines—hulking things she didn’t recognize. Tools and mechanical materials lined the walls on pegboards and shelves.

On the far shelf closest to the stairs, Val caught sight of something that stood out—a gleaming redwood-handled hilt, tucked inside a blackened leather sheath, sitting prominently on a display stand.

She approached, retrieved it, and slowly unsheathed the blade.

It was a straight dagger, maybe twelve inches in length. Though she wasn’t an expert in bladed weapons, the intricate, decorative engravings etched along the steel were clearly the work of a skilled craftsman. The edge, freshly honed.

Perhaps something Thomas had made himself?

She unclipped her belt, looped the sheath through, and secured it at her hip. The cold weight of it was oddly comforting.

Val gave the blade at her side a brief, respectful look—then turned toward the stairs.

No more stalling.

Time to face the family of the man she had just killed.

Halfway up the stairs, Val’s legs began to burn. Her body was crashing—she needed food, even if her stomach hadn’t caught up to the hunger yet. Not after what she’d just done. As she neared the top of the stairs, the moans outside grew louder, leaking into the building through the balcony door she had shattered on her jump in.

As Val reached the second floor, a flicker of movement caught her eye—far off in the distance through the shattered balcony door. She squinted into the fog. There it was again—quick, low, and hard to track. Too far and too dark to make out what it was. Her pulse quickened. Cautious but compelled, she began to lumber down the dim, darkened hallway to investigate.

Again. Again. And again—Val saw it. Blurs in the fog, too quick for the eye to pin down. What was it? Birds? Moonlight refracting through the mist?

Still, she advanced.

The moans were growing louder with each step, pressing in like a rising tide. Too loud, a quiet voice in the back of her mind warned.

A few meters from the door, it hit her.

They weren’t birds.

They were bodies—undead—falling from the rooftop she leapt from.

Val moved faster now, dread rising with every step—until she saw it: fingers curling over the iron balcony railing, clawing at empty air.

How? The thought struck her like ice water. Panic surged in her throat.

Bolting now to the shattered door, she stepped out into the fog-drenched night.

And then she saw it.

Above her, a stream of undead was walking blindly off the rooftop she had leapt from—tumbling like broken dolls onto a heaving mound of corpses.

The pile stood at least twenty feet high, writhing like a sea of rot—a living mass of the dead, shifting and swelling with each new impact from above.

Worse, the horde from the street had begun to climb it. One by one, they dragged themselves upward, clawing over limbs and torsos, creating a grotesque monument of bone and flesh—an unholy bridge rising toward their next victims.

Val backed away in disbelief as the first undead began to reach over the balcony railing, fingers twitching with blind hunger.

She gathered herself, turned, and ran.

Bursting back into the second-floor room, she slammed the door behind her. Inside, Ellie and Sam sat at the table, both sobbing, their grief thick in the air.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Val wanted to fall to her knees, to ask for forgiveness, to let the weight of it all finally catch up to her. But there was no time.

She ran to them.

“Ellie!” Val said, breathless. “Is there another exit?”

“What?” Ellie blinked up at her, stunned, voice caught between sobbing and confusion.

“Ellie—we have to go. Now!” Val dropped to one knee beside her. “How do we get to the roof?”

“The storage room next to us—down the hall,” Ellie said quickly, wiping her eyes. “It has a ladder up.”

“The door by the balcony?” Val asked sharply.

“Yes…”

“Get up.” Val grabbed her arm. “We have to leave—now. They’re coming.”

“But… Thomas?” Ellie’s voice cracked.

“He’s gone,” Val said, her voice firm but trembling. “There’s no time.”

She turned to Sam, then back to Ellie. “For Sam, Ellie. Please—we have to move. Now!”

Ellie finally took Sam’s trembling hand and followed Val toward the hallway, her movements hesitant—like her mind hadn’t fully caught up to the danger around them.

“It’s going to get loud,” Val warned as she drew her pistol by the door, her voice low but urgent. “Just keep moving. Stay two feet behind me. When I pass the storage room door, you open it and go. Head straight for the ladder—I’ll be right behind you.”

As Val opened the door, an undead man dressed in a tattered suit lunged through the frame—as if it had been waiting for her.

Name Business Man Occupation Undead Health 100% Gear Tattered Clothes

“Dangit!” she gasped, narrowly dodging its grasp.

She pivoted, slammed her boot into the side of its knee, and fired a single round into its skull as it staggered. The corpse dropped instantly.

Ellie and Sam screamed behind her, but there was no time to comfort them.

“Follow—now!”

Val stepped into the hallway, quickly spotting five more undead already inside. She raised her weapon and fired—three shots, three hits. Each one crumpled in turn.

Name Unidentified Undead ×5 Occupation Undead Health 100% Gear Tattered Clothes

She advanced quickly, firing two more rounds at a fourth target. One shot hit low, tearing into the dead woman’s cheek, the other went into the mist behind her. Val closed the distance, exhaled, and sent two precise rounds through the heads of the final two.

At the far end of the hallway, two more had begun to climb over the balcony railing.

Val didn’t hesitate.

She sprinted forward and shoved them both off before they could find their balance, their bodies vanishing into the sea of rot below.

She didn’t look down.

Spinning back toward the hallway, she saw Ellie and Sam slip into the storage room. Val followed close behind.

The storage room was small and cluttered, filled with stacks of old boxes and forgotten machinery. In the far corner, an iron ladder stretched up to a ceiling hatch. Ellie and Sam were already climbing, their feet clanging against the rungs as they ascended in a rush. At the top, Ellie fumbled with the latch, then pushed the hatch open and hoisted herself through.

Val gave the room a quick scan. Along the wall near the door stood a tall stack of weathered wood boards—dry, splintered, and propped haphazardly. She rushed over and grabbed the longest one she could find just as the first pounding began to rattle the door.

“Ellie!” Val called up. “Pull this up!”

Ellie and Sam reappeared through the hatch, reaching down as Val shoved the board up toward her. Together, they hauled it through the opening onto the roof.

Val gave the room one last look as the hinges on the door began to bend, the screams of the horde in the hallway now deafening. She climbed the ladder, heart pounding, and pulled the hatch shut behind her.

End of Chapter Stats

Name Val Occupation Combat Medical Technician (CMT) Health 30% Hunger 70% Thirst 96% Gear Light Clothing, Flashlight, Handcuffs, Lighter Backpack 2 Water Bottles, 3 Granola Bars Weapons Glock 17, Taser, Engraved Dagger Ammo 9mm – 42 rounds Skills Battlefield Medicine, Standard Weapons Trained Kills 11

Name Ellie Occupation Unknown Health 100% Gear Light Clothing

Name Sam Occupation None Health 100% Gear Light Clothing

Name Business Man (Terminated) Occupation Undead Health 0% Gear Tattered Clothes

Name Unidentified Undead ×5 (Terminated) Occupation Undead Health 0% Gear Tattered Clothes