was happening all around us.
'Is it better than mine usually are?'
'Me going up to Eliza and asking her nicely if we could leave would be better than most of yours.' BT retorted. He then glanced down quickly; he was standing on a storm drain.
'Are you kidding me?' I stage whispered.
'Tommy made sure that we would be in this general vicinity.' Tracy said. She had heard the entire conversation between Eliza and myself and wanted to make sure that I remembered where my allegiances were.
'Can you get that thing up?' I asked BT.
'My leg is busted, not my arms. Close in around me.'
We gathered into a tight group, which wasn't difficult considering we were almost in a Rugby scrum as it was.
No bad guys noticed, they were too busy elsewhere, as BT clanged the cover off to the side.
'In, in, in.' BT said, grabbing Travis and dropping him down the hole.
Next, Justin handed Henry down to Travis, then helped his grandmother and Nicole down. He himself then followed, with Tommy clambering down after him.
'Tracy, go.' I said as I saw her indecision.
'You're not going to do anything foolish are you?'
'Me?' I said innocently shaking my head. 'Get in. You too, BT.'
'Talbot?' BT asked skeptically.
'It's cool, get in, we're running out of time.' The battle would end sooner rather than later, and whichever side won, the Talbots & Co. would still lose. I had no intention of doing anything. This was one situation I wanted to be as far removed from as possible. I waited impatiently as BT wriggled his way through the narrow opening. I nearly stepped on his head in my haste to leave this place. I was halfway in the hole when Eliza's eyes locked onto mine. The pull of her was hypnotic. I wanted to be with her, to die miserably by her hand. My left foot came up a rung.
Distantly below me I heard BT exclaim, 'What the hell are you doing Tommy, there's not enough room on this ladder for the both of us.'
And then a moment later I felt Tommy's hand on my calf, warmth spreading from his touch. Eliza's hold was shattered. I flipped her the bird, and ducked out of sight. Her screech of rage could have broken glass.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - JOURNAL ENTRY 18 - 
We were in the sewers for fifteen minutes before the sound of gunfire finally and mercifully stopped. But that wasn't technically a good thing. Either Eliza had wrested control over the zombies and now her minions were in hot pursuit, or the zombies had won out and they were in cold blooded pursuit.
'Wish I had my scooter,' BT complained.
'Oh, you like it now,' I puffed behind him. We had been keeping a pretty steady pace and it was wearing us all down.
'Not now, Talbot,' BT said through clenched teeth. I could tell he was in immense pain and still I struggled to keep up with him.
'This reminds me of Bilbo.'
'I KNOW you didn't just call me a dildo.' BT said, pausing to look back over his shoulder.
'Do I look insane? Don't answer that. I meant Bilbo Baggins when he was under that Orc mountain to get that one ring. He thought he was going to be lost forever in those caverns.'
'Comforting thought, Talbot. Any chance you could keep it to yourself?' my wife said from further up.
Justin's lighter was barely a flicker against the pressing darkness but when it flittered out the darkness became complete. I could almost imagine an army of orcs creeping up behind us. Was that worse than the alternative?
'Sorry.' Justin said. 'Burning the hell out of my fingers.' We could hear him sucking on his burnt digits in an attempt to take the heat away. I kept thinking about where his fingers had been before he put them in his mouth. Old habits die hard.
'You better be careful with that lighter,' BT said. Justin looked back questioningly. 'That dog of yours has some super heated ass air and I've got a feeling its combustible.'
'That's pretty funny BT, but all the same Justin you should heed his words. Alright let's take five. Everyone get as comfortable as you can, let's just catch our breaths.' Superfluous words to say the least. Panting made conversation impossible. I walked back ten or so paces from the pack to get away from the extraneous noise and truly try to hear if anything besides sewer rats were behind us, although that kind of scared the shit out of me too.
I took deep breaths, waiting long pauses in between exhales, to have as little ambient noise around me as possible. What happened next was not something any of us were expecting. The ground began to vibrate. First it was as soft as a cat jumping off a chair and then it began to shake as violently as an elephant taking a spin on a trampoline.
'Talbot?' BT yelled out questioningly.
'Sounds like Eliza.' I replied.
'What is she doing?' Carol asked. The break neck pace was having the most effect on her, she had been game so far but she wouldn't be able to do this much longer. Even the fear in her voice was muted.
'Sounds like she's leaving.' Travis said with hope.
'It does at that.' I added, not so hopefully.
'Mike.' Carol started her question. 'Why did the zombies attack those men? Shouldn't the pendants have prevented that?'
'Normally yeah, but I think it's clear now whose blood is in those vials, and when the shot interrupted her control, the pendants became decorative jewelry.'
Carol absently fingered the pendant she wore, wondering if wearing the blood of one's enemy around her neck was even worth it now.
We rested a minute or two more before the slow, steady stench of zombies caught up to me. I looked back in the direction we had come. I couldn't see anything, but one doesn't need the sense of sight to know when zombies are getting too close. 'Time to go,' I said, catching back up to the group.
'Mike, we just sat down and my mother is exhausted,' Tracy said irritably.
I didn't say anything. I didn't have to. The smell passed me on by and traveled up to the rest of the suddenly not-so-weary travelers.
'Are they under the control of Eliza?' Nicole asked.
'Does it matter?' Justin replied.
BT helped Carol up. 'I'll help her BT, you get in the middle.' Justin's lighter lit back up just in time for me to see the questioning glance on BT's face. 'I don't trust you.' I told him.
'What are you talking about, man?' BT asked.
'Oh I can see you doing some stupid heroic thing because you can't keep up and you're going to sacrifice yourself for the good of the many or some such crap.'
'What? Do you think you have the market cornered on stupid heroic crap? I can pull off my own stupid moves you know.'
'Can both of you please get your big inflated diva egos in gear?' Tracy said.
'She called you a diva.' I said pointing to BT.
'Now I know why Paul and Alex went their own way.' BT mumbled. 'Who knew? I should have joined them.' His muttered comments kept going long after we started anew.
Our pace had taken a significant downturn. The five minutes of rest had done us more harm than good. Lactic acid had enough time to build up in the dormant muscles. Carol and BT were both struggling. Carol, I could assist. Helping BT with anything short of a tow truck wasn't going to work.
Something was getting close. There was the occasional clatter of a bottle being kicked or the sound of a foot splashing into a puddle. There were no arcs of light from flashlights cutting through the tunnel. That was of small
