Hello everybody! Here's a new chapter for you all to read. Sorry that it's taken me a little over a month to update this story. My vacation from college was anything but that. I was called in to work a lot which then drained a lot of my free time. As such, I had no time to really work on this. But now I have a little bit of time, and it's enough to get this posted for you all to read. Yay for me!

On a better note, school will be starting back up for me next week. As such, that means my stories might coming by a bit slower again. Sorry in advance if that happens. Still, I'm sure you all know how important college is. So much to do for classes in three weeks worth of time. Hardly seems practical, but the real world is always full of professions where you have to rush things. Kind of makes you wonder why we live in such a fast paced society? Kind of makes things inconvenient, don't you think?

Of course, the people have pretty much made things so complicated that we have to go to college and learn as much of it as we can if we hope to keep up. I still say that high school doesn't do a very good job preparing us for college. I'm sure I've said this before, but high school keeps a constant relaxed pace with work even during senior year. They should start introducing a hastened pace if they plan on preparing us for college. Seriously, the three-month period to learn everything for one class took me off guard when I started three years ago. That was definitely not a good way to start off my college.

Anyway, that's enough with my rants. I really don't think any of you are even interested in this much less read my author's notes. Still, it feels nice to write it down. It really makes me feel like I'm connecting with the readers rather than just shoving new chapters down your throats. Some connection with the readers is better than none at all, right?

So yeah, I'll just shut up now and leave you all to read this new chapter. That and I should probably get to bed since it's like three-thirty in the morning over here where I'm at. Seriously, this late at night seems to be the only time I have to write my stories these days.

Please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto the next story that you want to read. They are always very helpful to me in dictating how I can make my writing better. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories on this site everybody!

And just as a side note, I am currently making my own story with my own characters. It's a book I'm hoping to finish and publish in the near future. I posted the first chapter on fiction press in order to see what the readers think about it. If you want to see what it's about, just head over to fiction press. My account on there is the same as this but with a 1 added at the end of it. It's titled , Miles, if you're interested. Thanks again for taking interest in my writing. See you all in the near future!

Chapter 14: Separate Ways B-2: A Better Understanding

"…Any idea how long we've been stuck up here, Eli?" Greg asked in a bored tone while picking at some gravel stuck in the grooves of his shoes. The two teens had been stuck on the house roof for a while now and were quickly growing bored with their situation. Clearly, this was not what either of them had planned when they came here and they were tired of just sitting around doing nothing. "Never thought I'd be saying this, but all that moaning they're doing is starting to get real annoying."

"Well, ten minutes of listening to the same thing can do that to you," Eli merely replied with a sigh as he stole a quick glance at his watch. "I can't believe I'm saying this myself, but this is becoming more boring than it is scary. Even those zombies don't seem so scary anymore after listening to them for this long. You'd think that they'd get bored and leave after figuring out they can't reach us."

"Well, you definitely got to give them points for being so persistent," the black haired teen said with a shrug. "I guess it's in their nature to either catch their prey or trap them and either wait for them to come back out or give up. If we weren't in plain view, then I'm sure they'd have already given up on us. I just wish they didn't choose now to be so annoyingly persistent in making us their meal."

"Trust me; these things are like dogs. They're always going to be hungry no matter how much they eat. I wouldn't be surprised if that's their only reason for existing. If they catch sight of anything other than themselves moving, then they're going after it until they either catch or lose sight of it. That means every minute that we manage to eek out is another minute that we're fighting to survive. I'd probably start worrying a bit the moment I see one of them actually not wanting to make us their new meal."

"Uh, and seeing people get eaten by other people turned into monsters isn't something to worry about? You make it sound like that we've been living like this for a long time. Then again, you always were able to adapt quickly to new environments. I shouldn't be this surprised you've already considered this normal."

Instead of answering, the bald teen merely shrugged off his backpack and dug into it for something. A second later, he took out a pair of black binoculars and brought them up to his eyes. Whatever he was looking at was something Greg could only guess at.

"What, are you watching out for a rescue helicopter or something? Come on, buddy; I think they'd have done something like that already. Although I really wouldn't mind getting onto an evac chopper now."

"Yeah, I'm just hoping like some stupidly optimistic idiot that the rescue chopper was late and coming any minute now," Eli sarcastically answered. "Of course I'm not looking for that! What I'm doing is checking out how things are over at the hospital. I was planning on making a quick trip over there to get my hands on some medical supplies once I was done here. After that, I was going to get out of this town before it killed me. However, it looks like I'm going to have to put a damper on that plan for now."

"That reminds me," Greg suddenly said as he threw the collected gravel over the side and stood next to the other. "What were you doing hanging around back at my cousin's house? You were the last person I expected to see there."

"My sentiments exactly on that," the other stated as he let out an amused chuckle. "I was there to see if your cousins were hiding out and join up with them. I've been on my own hiding out at my place for the past couple weeks already. I only decided to come out today I ran out of edible food. It sucks that the electricity's been out for a week or I would've lasted longer by cooking the meat in the fridge. Can't believe it's gone to waste now."

"And what about your grandparents? The last time I came by to visit, you had moved in with them after your parents had to move into a hospital because of health complications. What happened to them?"

"The army came and escorted them to someplace safer. I have no idea where they are, but I honestly don't care too much. The point here is that I've been on my own for the past two weeks in an area I've overheard the army call the dead zone. Figuring it'd be best to be on the move, I've been stocking up on whatever I could get my hands on and looking for people who might be willing to leave this city with me. I managed to meet up with one person, but we decided to split up for the time being so we could collect more supplies. She's right now at Suffern High School searching for people and whatever else she can get her hands on. I was supposed to go to the hospital to look for medicine, but I figured on making a quick side-trip to your cousins' house before that. I figured I'd at least check up on them before leaving town, but I'm sure you saw how that turned out."

"Wow, it sounds like you have a pretty solid plan to work with," Greg replied as he looked at Eli in amazement. "It's definitely better than what I first thought of which was to just run away. It also makes me feel a bit better that you found somebody to team up with. I won't be surprised if hanging out as a group will be the only way for us to survive through this. Being on your own could be the stupidest thing to do now.

"Ironically enough, I also came here so I could see how my cousins were holding up," he added before huffing in amusement. "I thought for sure that they'd stay behind and defend their house no matter what. I'm sure you know that my uncle was a stickler for keeping his family together and defend his home no matter what happened."

"You think I wasn't surprised when I saw the house all empty? I did hear a bit on the news before the electricity was cut that the army was going to escort people from their homes and to their designated safety zones. I wouldn't be surprised if your uncle was convinced by them to leave. I think that'd be the only reason he'd leave his house.

"As for me, I happened to be down in the cellar getting something when they came and escorted my grandparents to wherever it was they took them. I kept myself hidden down there until they were gone. My grandparents already knew how I felt about taking my chances on my own than with the military. I'm still surprised how they actually allowed me to be on their own rather than force me to come with them."

"I guess they felt the same way if they made sure the army didn't catch you. At least you don't have to worry too much about them since they're with other people. Still, I'm hoping that they weren't taken to Suffern High. From previous experience on my part from my high school, it'd probably not be the safest of places to hide out no matter how well they got it protected. Call it a biased opinion if you want, but that's how I feel."

"Something's telling me that a bunch of zombies managed to chase you out if you're telling me that," Eli said amusedly as he put down his binoculars and let them dangle at his side. "Looks like what I figured was right; the military is just wasting their time setting up designated safe zones. They're in no way prepared to handle this crap much less protect us from it. That just made me more worried about my grandparents."

"Actually, all this zombie business kind of took Southfields by surprise," Greg quickly explained. "Nobody in town knew about this, so we were basically on our own then the zombies started attacking. I have no idea what went on with communication, but it seems like we were living in seclusion in Southfields until the trouble came right to us. My only guess is that the connection with other towns was broken if we got no warning about it.

"I have a feeling, though, that this town at least must have had some kind of early warning since the streets didn't look like it was congested with cars," he added as a thoughtful glance passed his face. "If that's true, then I think that means the army here was able to make a better stand against this. There has to at least be one spot here where the people were able to keep the zombies from storming through."

"Just because things look calmer here doesn't mean we were better off at the start of things," the bald teen corrected somewhat bitterly. "I would say that things seemed pretty orderly at the beginning, but things went downhill fast. Like I said earlier, the military wasn't in any way prepared to handle this. With how sudden all this came about, I'm not surprised that Southfields was all panicky. Everybody was thinking more about how to survive this instead of warning other people about this."

After hearing this, Greg merely nodded his head in agreement as he thought about what they just discussed. Suffern was bombarded with zombies two weeks ago. Even when things were fine at first, they quickly became overwhelmed. Like Eli said, the military was in no shape to handle something like this. And if people continued to be more concerned about themselves than others, then nowhere was going to be safe.

It was clear to him now that trying to find a place to stay put was not going to be a great idea. With how everybody was acting when they saw the zombies, the chances of something like this coming to an end soon did not seem possible anymore. Not even the military seemed competent in taking down the monsters. If anything, trying to survive this catastrophe for as long as possible seemed like the only logical choice available now.

"…I guess this means we're all royally screwed at this point," Greg murmured as he let out a deep sigh. "Something tells me that I'm going to be doing a lot of travelling and have lots of sleepless nights in the near future.

"Anyway, do you mind if I backtracked a bit?" he suddenly asked. "I think you said earlier that this place was considered a dead zone. Do you mean that the army thinks the entire town isn't worth protecting anymore?"

"No, they only said that this neighborhood is considered a dead zone," Eli clarified. "I don't know how far this zone of theirs is, but I have a feeling it encompasses both the high school and hospital that are nearby. Those two places were considered safe zones, so I'm guessing the military had them evacuated to somewhere safer. Still, I think that they failed in whatever plan they had since I haven't heard a single gunshot starting a week ago. Like you said just now, this how town probably isn't worth protecting anymore."

"So you're saying that there theoretically shouldn't be any big groups of people left in this neighborhood. Great, Teddy and Billy just had to go to Suffern High so they can look for somebody. They're definitely going to get a rude surprise when they get there. Oh, and we decided to meet up at the hospital when we were done. We just had to unknowingly make things harder for ourselves later, didn't we?"

"Are these two people you just mentioned your friends?" the bald teen asked with an eyebrow raised. "Wow, I never thought you'd be able to properly befriend somebody besides me. Your attitude always had been a bit rough around the edges and made it hard for people to approach you."

"Hey, I changed quite a bit from when we first met. Give me more credit than that, Eli. I'm no longer that little kid who likes to bully people for the heck of it. Now that I think about it, I was being pretty stupid trying to look for others to pick on. I don't know why I thought that was anywhere near fun."

"And how about your opportunistic ways? Are you sure you didn't just team up with them because they could help you survive? You always did like to hang out around people if they have some kind of added benefit to you, myself excluded."

"Why don't we stop talking about random crap and start thinking about how we're going to get out of this mess?" Greg quickly changed subjects as he seemed adamant on avoiding the subject. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of just sitting around on this roof looking like an idiot. There has to be some way we can safely get down from here without having to deal with the sea of death."

"Okay, then how do you suggest we get out of this without getting ourselves killed in the process?" Eli asked as he grinned in amusement at how his flustered friend. "I doubt we can pull off something like that with the sea of monsters down there. And I don't know if you know this, but anybody who so much as gets scratched by these damned monsters turns into one of them. I heard the news say that before the electricity was cut."

"I think I heard one of the officers back in Southfields say something like that. I thought he was just trying to give me a good scare so I would head to somewhere safe. Now that I hear it coming from you, I guess he was telling the truth. You always preferred to be direct whenever it came to the truth. We'll just make sure none of them get close enough to even touch us once we find a way to get down from here.

"And speaking about that, I was thinking that maybe we could find some way to sneak around them by going through the backyard," he continued with his explanation. "While you were busy looking out at whatever it is you were looking at, I noticed that the backyard was pretty empty. If it's really all that safe, then we should be able to make a break for it from there. This house marks the start of Henry Court, so we might be able to hop the fence at a spot where these zombies aren't crowding and get back onto E. Mayer Street. It may not be the greatest of ideas, but it's the best I can come up with."

"And how do you suggest we get down to the backyard from here, Greg? I did a quick check myself while you were emptying your backpack, and I noticed that there's no way down without risking a broken leg or worse. We may be able to get out of this mess if we do that, but I'm not to risk breaking a bone by jumping off a house roof."

"There has to be something down there that we can use to soften the landing. Maybe a swimming pool or trampoline or even a pile of fallen leaves. Hell, I'll even settle for a pile of garbage if that's what it takes."

"I can come up with something wrong with each of those suggestions, you know?" Eli said while shooting an annoyed look much to Greg's irritation. Autumn hasn't even started yet; I doubt that yard has even started to become covered with leaves. A swimming pool does sound like a good idea, but I don't want to run away from zombies soaking wet since I don't have a change of clothes. Not like we have to worry about that since this house doesn't have one. And trampolines might make our landing worse by the bounce which will then lead to a landing that'll be both awkward and painful. And don't even get me started on using garbage as a landing zone. We might unknowingly be jumping into a pile of sharp things and get impaled to death. Unless you have a plan that doesn't pose added risk of getting injured or becoming sick, I don't want to hear it. If they at least had those wooden things along their wall for their plants to climb up on, then I'd go with that idea."

"Geez, you didn't have to grill me that hard over my suggestions. You could've just said that all of them had flaws that you weren't going to bet on. Would've been better than to go on a long and dejecting rant."

After grumbling a few inaudible words that were probably best left unheard, Greg silently tried to come up with another plan that would get them off the roof. That also included walking along the perimeter of the roof that was on the side of the backyard. After some careful scanning and going through various stages of consideration as shown through his ever changing face, he finally seemed content with an answer as he made his way back to Eli with a happy yet hopeful grin plastered on.

"How about we use one of the storm drains to help us get down from here?" he suggested before pointing towards a section of the roof. "There's one installed along the wall over there. I saw bolts fastening it against the house, so it should be stable enough for climbing. If we can get a good grip on it, then it shouldn't be too much of a problem."

For a few seconds, Eli kept quiet as he seemed to be thinking about what he just heard. Seeing as how he was not immediately objecting to the idea, Greg thought it looked like a good chance that his plan was with little to no flaws. Then again, it could have been that it was really bad and the other was simply trying to come up with something better.

"…I guess that's a plan we can try working with," he admitted before stuffing his binoculars back into his backpack and putting it on. "So long as it doesn't run any risk of getting ourselves hurt, it's better than just staying up here like bait on a fishing pole. We'd better hurry, though, while the fence in the direction of the connecting street is still free. I don't want to be greeted by a random monster."

"Nothing a good whack to the head can't fix," Greg replied as he made his way to the aforementioned storm drain and knelt down beside it. "I'm more worried about slipping and breaking my neck doing this. Still, this is the best idea I can come up with without resorting to jumping into the zombie crowd and letting them break our fall."

"I think we'll save that for when we go crazy and decide to become suicidal maniacs," Eli sarcastically stated as he watched the other carefully scale down the wall. "Just hurry up and get down before they figure out what we're up to and decide to try and cut us off." Thankfully, the descent was quick and was undisturbed by any monsters.

"Alright, your turn," the black haired teen called up as loudly as he could without making too much noise. The last thing they needed was to alert the zombies on their current position. In a couple more seconds, the bald teen was now carefully making his way down the roof. There was a moment where he accidentally lost his footing, but he quickly recovered and reached the ground without further incident.

Without wasting any time, they both made their way towards the fence where their only route of escape waited on the other side. Thankfully, there were occasional small holes in the tall wooden fence which provided them with a view of any potential danger on the other side. Determining that it was as safe as it could be, they both climbed over the fence simultaneously. Unfortunately for them, they happened to land right next to a zombie lying against a part of the fence that was just out of their view.

"Thinking of getting the slip on us?" the bald teen growled before delivering a swift kick to the zombie's head. With a sickening crack, the arm it had barely raised went limp and the coagulated blood painted the fence with its jelly-like dark red coloring. "I don't think so. That'll teach you to try and hide out from unsuspecting people."

"Uh, you kind of just drew the other zombies' attention to us," the other groaned as he saw a few now turning around and making their way towards them. "They probably heard you smashing their friend's head in and are now pissed. I thought we were supposed to just leave without drawing attention to ourselves."

"I'm pretty sure they were going to notice us missing sooner or later, so might as well put this guy out of its misery and show the others how threatening we can be. It should deter them from following us. And if they still do, it's not as though they'll be able to catch up to us when we start running. The best they can do is walk fast before falling over.

"Now let's hurry up and get over to that damned hospital!" he exclaimed before suddenly breaking out into a run. "The place looked pretty empty from here, so I don't think we should have too much trouble finding cover there."

Merely raising an eyebrow at Eli's futile attempt at wanting to send the zombies a message, Greg quickly followed him down the street. Without his hands wrapped around his trusty crowbar, he was forced to simply dodge all the zombies they happened to pass by. He did try to look around for a suitable replacement as he ran but was met only with disappointment. Apart from the regular street trash and the occasional pebble, there was nothing in the streets that suited his needs.

Eli, on the other hand, felt content to ram his shoulders into those that were on their own and send them falling to the ground. It was almost like he was trying to vent his frustrations out on the abominations. At least it was better than leaving them still standing and able to follow them. However, he only did this sparingly as constant use of the move was bound to slow their progress and thus make it harder to shake off the monsters.

Even though they were doing pretty well with the running, the baseball player could not help feeling like just another helpless person without having some kind of weapon in his hands. Hopefully, he will be able to find something useful once they made it to the hospital. And just maybe Teddy and Billy would be there waiting for them when they arrive with Billy's brother in tow. That would definitely be a welcome bit of good news after all the hell they have been through the past couple of days.

Well, that's it for this chapter. Sorry to those of you who were anticipating some kind of action in this chapter. I was kind of wanting to put some in, but the way my writing ended up made it that it was more of an explanation on Eli's part as to what's going on. In the end, we did learn now that the world has most likely gone down the drain at this point. There's no hope of safety anymore and that being on the constant move is going to be their only true way to survive this hell.

Sorry if any of you thought that this was slow. I just wrote whatever came to mind and this popped up. Don't forget that I'm writing this story as it comes along, so I honestly have no idea what's going to happen next. Like you all, I'm anticipating what is going to happen. So don't grill me too hard if this chapter is too slow for some of you.

Please don't forget to leave a review before you leave. They are always very helpful. And now I'll leave you with the outtakes before heading off to bed and getting some much needed sleep! Until the next update to this or any of my other stories on this site everybody!

Outtakes:

Greg: That moaning is really starting to get on my nerves!

Eli: Deal with it. It's not like I can do anything about it.

Greg: Well, can't you do something to kill the boredom?

Eli: ...I guess I can think of a couple of things?

Greg: (Instantly perking up) Like what?

Eli: (Starts to unbutton pants) Jerking off is always a good way to kill time.

Greg: (Stares blankly) Eh, better than nothing. (Gets up and proceeds to unbutton own pants)

\

Greg: What are you doing with the binoculars, Eli?

Eli: None of your business.

Greg: Are you looking for a rescue helicopter?

Eli: I said it's none of your business.

Greg: Then what are you looking for?

Eli: ...Come over here, Greg. (Motions for Greg to come) I think I found something interesting.

Greg: (Immediately runs to Eli's side) What is it?

(Eli then pushes Greg off roof and down to awaiting zombies)

Eli: Finally got him to shut up. (Continues looking through binoculars and ignores screams)

\

Eli: Are you sure this is safe, Greg?

Greg: It's either the storm drain or staying up here for the rest of our lives.

Eli: ...I guess anything's better than that. Just be careful climbing down that thing?

Greg: What's the worst that could happen? (Prepares for descent)

Eli: (Crosses arms) You could fall and break your neck.

Greg: As if that's going to happen. (Makes a misstep and falls to ground with sickening crack)

Eli: (Looks down and sees Greg in disturbing position) You okay, Greg?

(No response)

Eli: ...At least he isn't going to be complaining to me anymore. (Jumps off roof cat-style and walks away)