Free Web NovelChapter 200: Chapter 200 - Still
MARYBETH’S POV
Iyisha pulled herself through first.
Her arms strained as she dragged her weight up, shoulders clearing the gap before she rolled onto the roof and pushed to her knees. Dust shook loose from the opening and fell back into the darkness below.
"Move," she said, already turning back.
Aljun came next, grabbing the edge and hauling himself up with a grunt. Iyisha caught his arm and pulled, helping him over. He landed hard, boots scraping as he steadied himself.
Marybeth stayed below for a second.
The banging behind them had changed.
Not just hitting anymore.
Cracking.
She looked back.
The front glass—
A fracture split across it, thin at first, then spreading, lines branching under the pressure of bodies slamming against it.
"Shit."
She grabbed the shelf and pulled herself up.
Her boot slipped once, catching the edge wrong. She adjusted and pushed harder, dragging her body through the opening as dust and loose paneling gave way around her.
Behind her—
A sharp crack.
Louder.
The glass was giving.
"Marybeth!" Iyisha shouted as she pulled her up.
She shoved up the rest of the way and rolled onto the roof.
Glass shattered.
A burst of noise echoed up through the building.
Marybeth froze for half a second, breath caught in her chest.
Then she let it out sharp.
Fuck it.
She tilted her head back for a second, staring at the blue sky above. Bright. Clear. Wrong for a place like this.
She wanted adventure.
She got it.
Too late now to think about Hydetown. Too late to turn back.
If Tia Julietta saw her now, she would lose her mind.
Marybeth grinned despite herself.
She pushed up fast.
The roof dipped under her weight, uneven and soft in places, the surface cracked and worn down from years of neglect.
"Careful," Aljun said, eyes on the roof beneath him.
Iyisha had already moved away from the opening, scanning the space ahead.
Aljun followed her.
Marybeth stayed for a second longer.
She crouched and glanced back through the hole.
Hands reached up.
Faces pressed close.
Eyes locked on her.
She grinned.
You are not getting me.
She pushed back from the edge and walked toward them, slower now, testing each step before shifting her weight.
"They are inside the building," Iyisha said, looking toward the front.
Marybeth let out a low whistle. "That is a long way down."
Aljun crouched near the edge, peering over. "If we get hurt on the way down, we are done."
Marybeth pointed toward a small tree just off to the side. "I say we jump to that."
Iyisha glanced at it and almost smiled. "That tree cannot hold all of you."
"Fuck off," Marybeth said, grinning.
Iyisha crouched and pulled a rope from her bag.
Aljun took the end and tied it tight around a rusted air conditioning unit, testing the hold with his weight.
Iyisha watched it, then looked back at them. "We need a distraction."
Her eyes landed on Marybeth.
"Make one."
Marybeth smirked.
There it was again.
That shift in Iyisha.
Less soft.
More sure.
She had been quieter around Malcolm. Out here, leading, deciding, she looked different.
Stronger.
Marybeth studied her for a second.
She almost looked like someone you could trust.
Marybeth huffed a quiet laugh.
"Sure," she said.
She moved back toward the hole and peeked down again.
The walkers had stopped reaching.
They were shifting now, moving slow, scattered across the store floor without direction.
Marybeth watched them for a second.
Walkers were not the problem.
Not alone.
But packed like that, if they boxed you in, it did not matter how slow they were.
You were dead.
She picked up a debris and tossed it down through the hole.
It hit the floor with a dull knock.
A few heads turned.
Not enough.
Marybeth clicked her tongue.
She crouched lower and grabbed another, this time throwing it farther, aiming deeper into the store.
The sound carried better.
More of them shifted.
Bodies dragging toward it.
Still not all.
"Come on," she muttered under her breath.
She looked around and found a loose strip of metal near the broken edge of the roof. She pried it free, the piece bending with a sharp scrape in her hands.
Better.
She moved back to the hole and leaned in farther this time, her head nearly out, one arm braced against the edge.
Too exposed.
Did not matter.
She drew her arm back and hurled the metal with everything she had.
It slammed hard against something inside, loud enough to echo through the whole space.
That did it.
Heads snapped toward the sound.
More of them moved.
Bodies pulled away, dragging toward the far end of the store, and Marybeth watched it spread just long enough to feel something shift under her hand.
It was small at first, a give in the surface that should not have been there, then it dipped more and a sharp crack ran beneath her palm.
"Fuck," she muttered as she pushed back, trying to crawl away, but the concrete split wider and the section under her weight dropped. "Iyisha—" Her hand scraped for the edge and caught nothing. For a second she was there, fingers reaching, then the roof gave completely and she went through.
The fall was short but hard. Her shoulder hit first, then her side, the impact knocking the breath out of her as she rolled across the floor. Sound rushed in all at once, dragging, groaning, too close. She tried to breathe but her chest would not fill, her head ringing as her vision blurred and snapped back into place.
They were already turning.
Faces lifted, eyes locking onto her one by one, too many, too close.
"Marybeth." Iyisha shouted somewhere above.
Marybeth pushed herself up, her arm shaking as she forced her weight onto it, her grip tightening around the machete. She tried to stand but her foot slipped and she dropped back to one knee, breath coming sharp now.
"Shit..."
One broke from the cluster, then another, and they started closing in.
There was nowhere to go. She looked once, quick, searching for anything, any gap, any space to move, but there was nothing, just bodies shifting and pressing in around her.
Her chest tightened.
This was it.
A breath left her, almost a laugh, thin and wrong.
"Yeah..." she muttered, tightening her grip. "Figures. Reya, you better be waiting for me on the other side."
The first one reached her, arm stretching forward, skin hanging loose, fingers twitching as it leaned in. Marybeth did not move back. She raised the blade and met it.
"Come on then. If I’m going down, I’ll take you down with me."
More pressed in behind it, closing the space tighter, the air thick with the smell of rot as she held her ground. Iyisha’s voice cut through from above, sharp, calling her name, but Marybeth did not look up.
The hand came closer, close enough to see the cracks in its skin, the dark packed under its nails, the way its jaw hung open as it reached.
"Ugly bitch," she spat as she kicked it back.
One side fell, bodies tipping into each other, but the rest stepped over them, closing the gap again like nothing happened.
She reached for her gun.
Her fingers wrapped around it tight.
She checked.
Ten.
She raised it and fired.
Nine.
Eight. She heard gunshots from above.
Seven.
Iyisha was shouting above, trying to reach her.
Six.
Five.
Four.
The space did not open.
Three.
Fuck it. There’s no way saving of them her. She’s fuckin dying.
Two.
Her breathing steadied.
One.
Marybeth let out a short breath and lifted the gun to her head. The last one was for her.
"You won’t get me," she said, the grin still there but thinner now, barely holding.
Her hands shook.
Not from fear.
From the weight of it.
Her jaw tightened as she pressed the barrel harder against her temple, eyes flicking once across the faces closing in, the bodies pushing over each other just to reach her.
Her throat tightened.
A memory hit her without warning.
Reya laughing.
Reya running ahead.
Reya turning back to look at her.
Marybeth swallowed hard.
"Wait for me," she breathed, quieter now, like she did not want anyone else to hear it.
Her finger tightened.
Not fast.
Slow.
Like she was forcing herself to finish it.
Her lips parted slightly, breath catching halfway.
Then pushing through.
And for a second everything slowed, the movement dragging, stretching, like the world itself was holding her there, making her feel every part of it.
The smell.
The heat.
The bodies closing in.
The sound of her own breath.
Her finger pressed—
"Stop."
The one in front of her froze, mouth open wide, eyes locked on her.
Marybeth’s finger stopped.
Not by choice.
It just—
stopped.
The air shifted.
Everything in front of her held.
All of them.
Still.
Bang.
The gunshot cracked and she flinched, her head snapping up.
Aljun was firing from above.
"Stop!" she shouted, sharper now.
He froze.
Marybeth looked past him.
Iyisha.
Standing there.
Unmoving.
Eyes wide.
Locked on her.
Marybeth’s chest rose, breath uneven now, something cold running through her spine.
She is doing it again.
"Get her down," Marybeth said, voice tight. "Slow."
Aljun blinked, still trying to catch up. "What’s happening?"
"Just listen," she snapped.
The moment held.
Then one twitched.
Marybeth stilled again, watching.
Another shifted.
Then they turned.
Not toward her.
Away.
Bodies dragged away, shuffling out of the store, quiet, no groaning, no pull, just leaving.
"What the fuck..." Aljun muttered, but it came out thinner this time, almost swallowed.
He didn’t move right away.
He just stood there, staring at them, at the way they turned and walked like nothing was there anymore.
"That’s not..." he shook his head slightly. "That’s not right."
Marybeth didn’t answer.
Her eyes stayed on Iyisha.
"She’s out of it," she said. "Lower her."
Aljun looked at her, then back at Iyisha.
Something in his face shifted.
Fear.
"What happened to her?" he asked, quieter now. "What the fuck just happened?"
"I’ll tell you later."
He hesitated.
Then moved.
Slow.
Like he wasn’t sure touching her was a good idea.
His hand hovered for a second before it landed on her arm.
Iyisha gasped.
Air tore into her lungs like she had been held under too long.
Aljun flinched back.
"Jesus—"
Marybeth’s grip on the gun loosened.
Her hand dropped slightly, like it had forgotten what it was about to do.
Her chest rose hard.
Air finally filling.
Her eyes flicked once to the walkers still leaving.
Still not turning back.
Then to Iyisha.
A short breath left her, shaky now.
Something between a laugh and disbelief.
"Let’s go back," she said.
