I tried to look behind, but my neck bones were frozen with fright. And from the place, I was standing I could not afford even the slightest mistake.
"Lucy!" Leah's voice was sharp, urgent. "Jump, now!"
That is when I heard it.
The sound. That gurgle. Wet, guttural, close along with a stench that resembled rotted lungs. My skin prickled and the hair on my hand stood straight up.
The railing under my feet was cold and slick with dew, but my palms were slicker with sweat. My knees trembled so violently I thought I might just collapse before I could jump. The drop beneath me wasn't impossible, but the ground looked like it would split my bones if I fell wrong.
No. Please, no.
I had to.
My scream stuck in my throat. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I felt my body paralyse on that glass railing as I realised how impossible that 4 ft seemed to cross and there was nothing else left except for wait to...
BAM.
The gunshot cracked through the night. My ears rang, the railing shuddered under my grip, and the creature's head snapped backward, exploding in a spray of black. The body slumped, folding onto the tiles like discarded meat.
Leah stood across the gap, smoke curling from the barrel of her pistol. Her face was a mix of terror and fury.
"Move, !" she screamed. Her voice wasn't just scared—it was desperate. "Unless you want me to waste more bullets saving your sorry ass!"
That jolted me out of paralysis. I pushed off the railing.
The jump felt endless. My stomach did a somersault as I flew through the air, arms flailing. Surprisingly, I landed on my feet with no signs of jump except a little redness at the end of the toes. Amaya' s hand shot out, steadying me even though I was quite ok.
Axel gave me a supportive smile, probably the only time I had ever seen me smiling . I only just realised how handsome he actually was. His arm was already curled protectively around Amaya, who clung to him like he was the only solid thing left in the world.
We scrambled inside the second balcony's room. This in contrast to the party hall was a compact dark place filled with a number of boxes of different sizes. There was hardly any light except from the hallway light in the common corridor.
Leah slammed the lock of the balcony after checking the glass. It was sturdier and thicker than the one Cashandra had broken. Amaya , meanwhile, dragged a dresser across the main door which blocked the entire hallway light, throwing us on complete darkness. Axel jammed a chair under the handle after stubbing Leah's toe with it resulting in me learnimg a new curse word.
We all sat down against a larger box, peacefully but in complete darkness. Even the breathing sounds were completely audible in such an atmosphere.
I tried to press my ear against the wall to hear the commotion on the other side. Surely, some would have survived and still be hiding in the bathroom, waitimg to be rescued just like us.
The pounding started almost immediately.
Thud. Thud. THUD.
It was light at first, as if someone was knocking on the door. I almost thought it was our team members and went to olen the door but thankfully, Leah managed to drag me out of it.
The intensity increased by the second. The creatures were dragging their bodies on the floor making those wet gurgling noises, their numbers increasing by the second as they tried to get in.
The glass shuddered with each blow. First a few fists. Then more. Soon it was a frenzy, a rhythm of bone and flesh slamming against the frame. Groans rose, the gurgle of ruined throats mixing with shrill, eager screeches. Nails scraped against the glass, a sound that set my teeth on edge.
CRACK.
A crack appeared across the glass of the balcony.
Cashandra again.
"Isn't that a bit too much for fancying you ?" , I yelled at her, who started scratching the glass at a faster speed.
Did zombies probably understand human language ?
We heard a window pane break somewhere to our left. Amaya whimpered, her hands flying to her ears. Axel pulled her against his chest, murmuring something I couldn't hear over the noise. His eyes flicked toward Leah and me, a silent acknowledgment: we're in a deep mess.
"They're not stopping," I whispered, as the relentless pounding continued on even after what felt like an eternity. I had thought that the zombies would go away after realising no one was there.
"No kidding," Axel muttered. Sweat trickled down the side of his face, and his face was flushed red because of the blood.
"They're—" I swallowed, my throat tight. "They're not even trying the other rooms. It's like they know we're in here."
Leah's hand found my arm.. "Don't. Don't start thinking like that."
Her voice was steady, but I felt her fingers tremble against my skin.
"If you spiral, you'll break," she said quietly, just for me. "And I'm not letting you break."
Her words were sharp, fierce, but that tremor in her tone scared me more than the pounding did.
Leah didn't get scared. Not when Mom was in coma for 2 months. Not even when she had found herself in the hospital with a knife in her head. If she was cracking, what chance did I have?
"Maybe it's Cashandra ", I said, looking at her greenish face pressed against the glass. It was intensely dark all around us.
Did the zombies have night vision ?
Another crash echoed through the mansion—glass shattering somewhere deeper, wood splintering, bones clattering as the horde forced its way in. The walls seemed to vibrate with it, like the whole house was groaning under their weight.
Amaya pressed her face into Axel's shoulder. "They sound like—like they're laughing."
"Don't listen," Axel said, holding her tighter.
But she wasn't wrong. The moans had shifted, rising in pitch. It sounded too deliberate. Like a choir of hunger.
We were huddled behind a stack of boxes, our backs pressed to the cold metal. The groans at the doorway.
Leah, crouched beside me, muttered, "This doesn't make sense." She pulled out her phone, deep down so the light dod not illuminate much and then flicked the flashlight on. The beam swept across the room—boxes stacked to the ceiling, and everywhere around . She turned the light on the shelves.
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?", Leah said, loudly.
I blinked , looking around and then saw it—slabs of meat, vacuum-packed and stacked in perfect rows. Fat-rimmed cuts of beef frozen solid. Plastic tubs of liver, pale and glistening under the frost. Strings of blood sausages hanging stiff like grotesque ornaments. Bones, clean and heavy with marrow, sealed in bags that glinted in the light.
We weren't hiding in a storeroom. We were sitting in the middle of a deep freezer.
Axel groaned softly. "Oh. Right."
Leah's head whipped around so fast I thought she'd break her neck. "Oh. Right?" she hissed, her voice climbing despite herself.
"We've been huddled in a goddamn freezer this whole time?"
"Look, don't—" Axel rubbed his face. "I just… I knew they kept the good stuff in here, okay?"
"The good stuff?" Leah's whisper grew shriller by the second. "You knew about this the whole time ".
She smacked herself on the head, "Of course you did. You must have planned the stupid party with the nutjob".
"It wasn't stupid!" he shot back, then winced at his own volume. "I mean—hey, you all liked the wings, didn't you?"
Leah buried her face in her hands. "We're going to die surrounded by frozen chicken wings."
"But if we are in a freezer, why isn't it cold ?", I asked, turning towards Leah.
"The light's out", Leah, pointed out the obvious.
"Quiet," Amaya cut in, sharp. She leaned just far enough to peer past the boxes. "They're not… leaving. Look at them."
I risked a glance at the balcony which was filled with them, shoulders bumping, heads jerking, breath hissing in and out in a chorus of hunger. Their bloody eyes weren't on us. Instead, they were fixed on the shelves and on the walls themselves, every inch of space heavy with flesh.
It hit me then, in the back of my throat—the air was saturated with it, a metallic tang that clung to my tongue. It was like the entire room had been marinated in blood.
"They're not after us," I whispered, the words sticking. "They are… after the meat ".
Leah swallowed hard, her phone trembling in her grip. Great , just great. The zombies didn't want us, they just wanted something we were surrounded by. That really cheered me up along with the ever increasing sounds of rattling and screeching. The door was about to give way any moment now.
Leah reloaded her gun, her jaw clenched. "If they break through, we fight. We don't stop until we're out of bullets."
"Awesome," I muttered, voice hollow. "We're outnumbered, under-armed, and trapped. Great odds."
"Shut up," Leah snapped, but her lips twitched. That was her way of telling me she was scared too.
Then it came.
A noise that wasn't the balcony. Wasn't the door.
From behind us.
From the chimney like thing attached to the roof.
"Who the hell builds a chimney in a deep freezer ?", I couldn't help but curse the architect.
Scrape. Scrape. Rattle.
We all froze.
Leah whipped her gun toward the chimney as Ash dripped down stealthily on the floor.
"Please tell me that's not Santa Zombie," Axel muttered slowly.
"Not funny," I hissed.
"Humor helps," Amaya whispered, clutching his arm.
The noise grew louder—scraping, grunting, muffled curses.
"Back away from the chimney!"
My breath caught. It was Dylan. I wasn't entirely sure but I could make it was his voice.
I stumbled backward into Leah, her hand tightening on my wrist. Her gun remained pointed at the chimney, refusing to lower her guard.
Then, with a crash, the grate burst open. A cloud of soot exploded across the room as two figures tumbled out of the chimney, coughing and gasping, covered head to toe in ash.
Dylan and Damien.
Alive.
Relief flooded me, amost like lava surging through every vein of my body . For the first time all night, I smiled and not sarcastically.
Because no matter how bad it got, we weren't alone anymore.