Yassa looked up, quite pleased to see that those rushing towards him to kill the two of them were growing fewer in number. When Ellie got the last shot fired off, the rooftop looked like a war had happened, which in a way it had, but at the same time he also was thinking in the back of his mind how all of this had gone so badly in less than a few seconds.
He raced over, leaving Pete on the ladder, and slammed the door shut sliding as many of the Turned in front of it as he could, trying to make damn sure they would be safe on either side of the roof until the time came that they were ready to reassess where they were at and take the next step. The door began getting slammed from the inside. Yassa took one of the Turned and slid its arm through where a bar might go across to keep it shut normally. He pulled a zip tie around its wrist to the side, hoping it would be enough to keep them from getting onto the roof. He also looked back, seeing Pete no longer frozen but still absolutely terrified making his way across the ladder reluctantly, knowing options were limited, that they all sucked, and that if he wanted to live, he was either going to have to step up or pray somebody took pity on him and delivered him safely to the base.
Yassa had no lack of faith that his six was covered and yelled, “You get your ass up and run. We are almost there; do you understand me?”
Pete said, “I can’t, I can’t!”
“You will or you’re fucking dead. Get your ass moving, now.”
There was a motivation that ringed in his ears. You move, or you die, or you fall, but it's up to you, and Yassa couldn’t do anything else about it. Pete dug deep, unhappy about this and swung his leg up pushing up to his hands and knees and then to his feet.
When Pete made it across the ladder, he stood up, testing his legs to make sure that they were still working. He was already a pale kid and the fact that he had been inside for the better part of a year did little to help that fact but even he had the smallest amount of color in his complexion and as of right now he would pass for a corpse without any issues. Yassa walked up and was going to ask the boy if he was okay but felt he probably already knew that answer. Pete, to Yassa’s surprise, looked up and in less than a second's notice wrapped his arms around the grizzly man, burying his head in his shoulder, and begin crying uncontrollably like a man who definitely seemed to appreciate the gift of life or continuance of life that was bestowed upon him. He was not ignorant enough to think that Yassa did not have a great deal to do with him still breathing and not be coming one of those freaks.
Yassa was not necessarily the touchy type but could tell this kid was doing everything in his power not to absolutely lose his shit and go bananas. He patted him on the back and whispered, “Everything's cool man, we crossed, we're going to go across again and then we're going to get the fuck out of here. You're going to love the base, it's like here but without zombies, really tall buildings and has a bunch of tanks and guns and shit you can blow these things up with.”
Pete let go, stepping back a foot saying, “That doesn't sound anything like Drake. What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Are you no longer thinking about how close you were to dying and becoming a zombie shish kabob?”
Pete nodded, using a shirt to wipe his eyes and Yassa said, “Then I've done my job.”
The two watched as the rest of the group made it across one by one. Joey had faith that it was going to keep him from falling but Joe still made Joey hang back and let him go first. He wasn't sure which of them were heavier, but sending a kid with Down’s syndrome and letting him be the guinea pig he was pretty sure would be a one-way ticket to Hell. When everyone had made it to the opposite side of the ladder, Joey and Joe took a grip of it pulling it across, thinking if the Turned realized they could go up to the roof Ellie and everyone were on, that they would be in the exact same predicament as they had just gotten themselves out of. Not a single one of them wanted to have to do anything like that again... like, in their entire life.
Ellie walked by, patting Pete on the back, and said, “Hey, at least you're
