It always happens when you're in a rush

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

"Come on! We need to go! We need to go!"

"I heard you the first time!"

Two figures ran across an open field, their footsteps pounding on the grass, far louder than anyone would expect. Behind them were the sounds of a lot more footsteps, alongside moans and groans of creatures that they did not want catching them.

"I hate zombies!" Claire yelled. Her red hair whipped back and forth, the braid that she usually used to keep it tied having long since come undone. Blue eyes darted left and right, trying to see if there was anything in front of them that might cut their escape short. Thankfully, all the worst things remained on their heels instead.

"You should!" Vacken responded, his helmet bobbing up and down on his shaven head as they ran. His goatee was flecked with a little bit of dirt and blood. He'd hopefully get a chance to clean that later, when they weren't being chased by the undead and such things became important again. He was looking forward to worrying about such inane things again. He was looking forward to a lot of things, quite literally in some cases. "They suck! And they cheat!" It was the running that angered him. He wasn't going to get into the mechanics of how the undead can run when their bodies should be so decayed and atrophied that it would be impossible. That would require thinking about how little sense it made that they were moving in the first place. Getting stuck on that got you bitten.

They ran as fast as they could. Vacken was glad he'd let Clair convince him to keep up his cardio. When you were dealing with creatures that could sprint at full tilt without tiring, staying a step ahead was extremely important. They started to clear the field, making their way towards what looked like a military base. This was their destination.

"Where's the chopper?!" Claire demanded. "Where the hell is it?!"

"Roof! Roof!" He pointed to the building they were already running towards. At the top was the heli-pad. "Keys are in the ignition already!"

"Why would you do that?"

"Forgot to take them out! Are you complaining now? That's one less second wasted!" Now that they were no longer in the clear field, things were going in their favour. They leapt over obstacles, knocked over any crates or random objects they could. The Zombies wouldn't bother with such things. They'd run through them, and that meant they were tripping over many of those objects, and each other too. That bought them more time. "Go, go, go!" 

They entered the building where the helicopter pad was. Like almost every place they'd been to, it was desolate and barren, with junk strewn about. Vacken took note of a number of knocked over Ashtrays, long and squarish in shape, that you might see in an airport.

"Hello." He said, stopping for what felt like the first time in ages. "You look like just the right size." He hefted it up quickly and ran back to the door, ignoring Claire's yells as she asked what he was doing.

"Locking the door!" He replied to her as he jammed the ashtray stand through both handles of the door. His timing was spot on. The Zombies crashed against the door, but found it didn't give with the extra barricade in the way. Vacken didn't breathe a sigh of relief yet. This was just the start.

"Get to the roof and start her up! I'm going to give us a bit more time!" He looked around for something that would cover the entire door, and noticed a turned-over bookcase. With strength he never knew he had, he shoved it over to the door, covering the entrance. One more thing to slow them down.

Then he ran over to a nearby couch. "Man, I'm so glad they put this here!" It looked like a comfy couch to sit in, but that wouldn't be the purpose he used it for. He started pulling it towards the door as quickly as he could, pushing it to the already barricaded door. The Ashtray stand kept them from opening the door. The bookcase acted as a further barricade, sandwiched between said door and the couch, which would stop the bookcase from being easily moved.

"Hah! Eat that, you undead shits!" He knew he shouldn't waste time gloating, but he couldn't help it. It felt good to finally get one over on these things, even if only a little bit. He could hear them pounding against the door, and thought he could hear the creaking of the ashtray stand, already starting to break as more of them piled up against the door. That didn't matter. It would hold long enough.

He made his way up the stairs, occasionally pushing more objects into key spots. Every second would count, and the longer it took for those monsters to reach them, the more time they had to lift off. He finally reached the roof and used another AshTray stand he'd grabbed to jam the door. This was it.

"Claire! Let's take off!" He jumped into the seat and waited for them to lift off.

.....

And waited.

......

Still waiting.

"....what...what are you....why...?"

"They're not here." She said. He stared at her.

"What...what's not here?"

"The Keys." She said, quiet as a mouse. "The keys aren't here!" Now she was yelling. "Where the hell are they? They aren't in the ignition! They aren't anywhere!"

"What? No!" That was impossible. He knew they were here. "Shit!" He started scrambling about, looking in every single nook and cranny that Claire wouldn't know about.

"It's not here, dammit!" She broke down. How could she not? They were moments away from escaping, and now there were no keys. They were trapped on this roof with an army of cheating-ass running Zombies on their tail. "We're going to die!"

"Claire!" He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Calm down. We don't have time for this." He stared right into her eyes, his brown eyes meeting her green ones. "We have to think."

"Ok." She closed her eyes as she spoke, taking deep breaths. "Ok. Let's think. You were the last one in this thing, and you said you left them here in the ignition, right?"

"Yeah." He said. "And the keys are always meant to be left close to the helicopter, so they can be quickly found in case of emergency." This definitely qualified as an emergency."

"But you're not supposed to leave them in the ignition, right? So, if someone found them, what would they do?" His eyes widened as he listened to her, his mind remembering the procedure for just such a thing. His eyes fell on a box near the door.

"There!" He pointed at the box. "We'd leave them there for the next person to use!" He'd barely finished the sentence, already leaping out of the Helicopter and running back to the door. He could hear pounding on the other side. The damn things were right on their tail, and they'd wasted time. He reached the box and threw it open with far more force than needed.

There they were. He didn't waste any more time, grabbing the keys and running back. Right as he did so, a decayed hand smashed through the door. Soon, more followed. He was sitting back in the chopper as the undead started to bash their way through.

Claire immediately began the start-up process. But it would still take a few seconds. She could see the Zombies starting to break through.

"Focus! I'll buy us a second. He reached under his seat and pulled out the box with the emergency flare gun. As the Helicopter came to life, the monsters at the gate finally made splinters out of said gate. With nothing standing in their way, a sea of undead barreled towards the helicopter. Vacken knew he had one shot. He took it, aiming at the horde and firing the flare gun. It hit one of the creatures dead centre, setting it ablaze, and doing the same to a few others. For the first time, the zombies halted, something about the flames drawing their attention, or maybe some buried instinct about fire that they hadn't yet shaken off.

Then, they did in fact shake it off. It was only a few seconds, but that was still vital. The helicopter had started up enough that it started to lift. Claire realized what was happening, and promptly started moving them away from the approaching Zombies, giving them more distance to travel. They started to pull up, and Vacken fired another flare at the closest Zombie as it approached. But they were still too close.

"Shit! Shit!" Another Zombie leapt at them. It was too fast; he wouldn't get to shoot another flare in time. It got closer, closer, closer....then farther, and farther, and farther....straight down.

Vacken's heart decided it could start again, as he realized that Claire had lifted them off the roof horizontally. The Zombie had fallen short and fallen to its next death.

"Shit. Shit." Vacken's mind was still taking in what had happened. He watched as more Zombies threw themselves off the roof, trying to reach the helicopter as it pulled away from the building and started moving up. "Shit."

"Calm down." He heard Claire say. "Focus. We're ok...somehow."

"Yeah. Yeah." He let it all sink in. "Remind me to just keep the keys on me next time."