I can't reach my knife, not while both of my hands are occupied with keeping its teeth out of my face. I shove it forward and dart to the side, the Feral unable to correct its momentum as it slams face-first into the metal door. Dazed, I take my chance to plunge my knife into the back of its head as Dani regains her footing. 

"Come on, I saw the control room this way!" She shouts, grabbing my wrist and dragging me away as the main room quickly starts to fill with infected, who luckily haven't spotted us yet. 

The lights of the main work floor flicker on, several bulbs bursting at the sudden surge of power, but Dani and I press onward towards the broken stairs leading up into the small box-like control room. At some point in the past, someone must have driven a forklift into the side of the stairs, knocking them out of commission, but Dani seems to get an idea and surges forward towards the forklift. She slides onto a knee in a spin, cuffing her hands together as a foothold, and shouts, "Climb up!" 

I waste no time at all as Feral's begin flooding into the work floor, stepping into her hands, and she thrusts me upwards, nearly rocketing me over the lift instead, but I manage to keep my footing and land on top. Luckily for her, Dani is much taller than I am and needs little assistance in reaching the top of the machine, but the infected are getting closer. 

Drawing my bow, I take a deep breath and lay cover fire for her as six Feral's manage to get within lunging distance of her. She clambers up as the last of the closest infected hits the ground, but more and more just keep coming in to replace them. 

Dani leaps from the lift and onto the balcony above us, dragging herself up in one quick movement, but as soon as I turn to do the same, one of the Feral's get's a lucky grab on me, and I stumble. 

Dani turns to help me up just in time to see the Feral sink its teeth into my pants, and I scream in agony as searing hot pain shoots up my leg. I manage to kick it off my leg and hobble to my feet as the infected in the room congregate towards us. 

"Jump, damn it!" Dani exclaims, leaning down to grab me. I leap with all the strength I can muster and seize her hand, and she pulls, using my momentum to easily haul me upwards, and we all but tumble into the control room, slamming the door shut behind us, panting and once again out of breath. 

"That's twice now that you've saved my ass," I gasp, sliding down the door to sit against it as the infected below us reach with all their might to grab us. 

"Let me see your leg," Dani demands, ignoring my words. 

I nudge her away, gesturing to the control panel. "I'm fine, just get the machines up and running."

"Let me see your fucking leg, Cass!" She slaps my hand away, her eyes wild in panic as she rolls up my bloody pant leg as gingerly as she can in the hurried state she's in, then freezes when she sees just how much blood there is. 

The upper section of my boot had protected my flesh from the bite, the bite itself leaving nothing but a minor bruise, but the blood oozes from the massive now agitated scab that healed over the puncture marks where I had stepped in a bear trap two weeks ago. The spikes from the trap had encased my entire foot, nearly snapping my ankle in two, but caused more bleeding than anything else. 

Dani stares at it for a moment. "You..." She glances up at me for a heartbeat, stunned, but shakes the expression away and takes out her knife. She rips a strip of her flannel off and begins to tie it around the reopened wound, her eyebrows knit in concentration, and all I can do is watch, shifting uncomfortably as she does what she can with what little she has. 

Her fingers brush against my skin, and I absolutely loathe every single goosebump that pops up on my arms at her gentle touch. 

Oh my god, brain, shut up! We don't have time for this shit!

As pain shoots through me, I groan, my leg jumping involuntarily when she ties the cloth around the wound. 

"Sorry..." she mutters, wiping her hands on her pants as she hauls herself up. 

"'s fine," I breathe, forcing myself to stand as well and ignoring the burning sensation in my legs. "Let's get those machines up and running before the others get overwhelmed." 

While Dani messes around with the control panel, flipping switches, and pushing buttons, I watch through the foggy windows of the room that overlook the main floor. More and more infected pool inside, running this way and that, trying to figure out who rang the dinner bell, and the Banshee is nowhere to be seen, though I can hear it screaming and crashing about somewhere where we left it. 

"Where can we go from here?" Dani asks once everything is turned on. 

"This way," I gesture to the catwalk where more windows are situated in the wall. "There's an overhang just below these; it should put us almost directly above the boys."

"Do you think they're alright?" Her voice is quiet, her face scrunched with worry, and she's looking at me as though I have all of the answers. 

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. The Banshee was covered in enough fresh blood to be concerning, but I also know that they're notorious for attacking other infected as well. There's also the possibility that the infected had gotten through the fence inside the storage building, but I shake the thought from my mind. 

"They're fine," I assure her, hoping she can't hear the doubt in my tone. "We should get moving before the Feral's figure out where we are, though." 

She nods and follows as I lead the way out of the control room and down the catwalk towards the windows, both of us making sure our weapons don't bump against anything this time. We manage to find a broken window and climb onto the overhang, and we both breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of Josh, Sparrow, and Matt emerging from the storage building. 

"Up here!" I shout, and all three of their heads whip about until they spot us, giving whoops of glee at our success. They bolt inside as Dani and I shimmy our way down one of the support posts, being careful not to make too much sound and draw all of the infected back outside. 

"Cassandra," Dani says, giving me pause. I glance back at her, a little worried when she seems to be debating her next words. She sighs, scratching her neck, and speaks without looking at me. "Thanks for saving my ass back there." 

I can't help but chuckle at her, shaking my head at the fact that she had to work herself up to thank me. "Well, duh," I tease. "We're a team, right?"

She eyes me, the gears turning in her head obvious as she slowly nods. "I guess we are," she replies. "Don't get comfortable with that idea, though. I still don't trust you." 

I roll my eyes with a grin. "Whatever you say, you idiot." 

She grumbles something under her breath as we approach the boys driving out of the storage with a new trailer hitched to the back of the truck. 

Josh rolls the window down as we approach, looking like he's been worrying the entire time we were gone. "Are you two alright? What happened in there?"

Dani waves him off as she climbs into the bed of the truck, helping me up as well. "We're fine, we locked the Banshee in the basement, and the infected are busy trying to find us in the building," she replies. 

Josh breathes a sigh of relief as Sparrow drives the truck away from the infested lumberyard. Dani fusses over my leg as we ride down the road back towards camp, and it takes everything I have not to brush her off. It's kind of cute how she worries.

My mind busy's itself with the infected back at the lumberyard, however. There was a lot when I was there last, but there were at least three times more today. The worrisome part is the Banshee, as well. They don't usually come this far out into the country, and an icy pit forms in my stomach. 

Driving through the trees closer to camp, I can't help but notice that there are several more bodies on the side of the road now than there were when we were leaving. 

"Stop the truck," I call into the cab, the smoke rising in front of us, turning my blood to ice. "Stop the truck!"

The gates have been broken down, and before us lies chaos.