"hey jake, ya see that?"
"see what? i can't see anything out here, danny."
danny waved his hands wildly in the air, as if that would clear away the darkness surrounding the two teens and give jake a clearer vision of whatever it was he was indicating. jake continued to look confused and eventually gave up; his hands fell back down against the tops of his thighs, now curling into fists. 

danny hissed, "that," before pointing just to the right of where they were crouched behind the bush.
"oh." jake saw it, saw that it was far off but still gaining distance as it stumbled-walked towards them. it had to a coincidence, though, that it just happened to be wandering aimlessly towards them: there was no way that that...thing could actually know for sure that they were here.
"it couldn't have seen us," danny quietly whispered--just in case. he looked at jake hopelessly, silently asking for everything to be okay.
"i don't like it." jake whispered back and danny dropped his gaze. 

"oh," he mumbled. "yeah. me neither.' he fell back on his ass, drawing his legs together so he was sitting indian style, not caring that the dew soaked grass was quickly being absorbed by the thin cotton of his track pants. he never even noticed, not until after they had stood and danny had jokingly asked if he had pissed his pants. his hands were curling, uncurling, curling, in his lap, his brow creased, trying to think. he lifted his head up suddenly, sensing movement, and let out a soft exhale of breath before turning to face his friend--through a small gap in the bush he could see two of those things heading in their direction.
"hey dan?"
"hm?" danny replied, turning to stare at jake. his eyes were cloudy, not quite focused on jake.
"there's another one now. i think we should go-"
"shh!" jake hissed, standing up quickly, but ducking his head down so it wasn't visible over the top of the bush--it was a tall fucking bush, he thought, as he pulled at the back of jake's t-shirt, tugging until he earned a response from the older boy. 

"what the hell?" danny grumbled, sounding annoyed, but he was already standing-ducking like jake. jake was staring at his friend intently, just able to see the outline of danny's face. he couldn't see the features but it was easy enough to guess what the other boy was thinking or feeling. "we should go," jake whispered, pulling out of dan's grip. "c'mon."
danny nodded slowly, staring at the monster coming their way--far away but still it was heading towards them--and then danny followed jake as he snuck away from their hiding spot--
"looks like you pissed your pants, danny-boy" jake said jokingly as they passed under a dimly glowing streetlamp, both still ducked down low enough that anything out there couldn't see them unless they were right at the bush, looking over...or coming around behind them.

they found an abandoned warehouse a few blocks away. it seemed vacant but they knew they had to double-check. just in case.
"top," jake said immediately. "we can look out, see if anything's outside...and get ready if they come in."
"yeah," danny agreed.
"looks like there are a couple staircases going up, and an elevator...elevators’s probably fucking useless, though. gotta board up. keep them out--as much as possible anyway," jake continued, looking the building up and down.
danny nodded in agreement. he wasn't sure how they were going to do any of that, not at the moment, but they could figure something out. they had to if they wanted to survive whatever the hell it was they were now in a fight against.

at the top they found the elevator had gotten stuck somewhere between the first and third floors.
"we still need to board it up?" danny questioned and jake went to the hole in the wall, stuck his head in, looked down, looked up, and came back out. "nah, looks secure. unless those things can climb better than they can walk."

there were two doors that would need to be dealt with, right away. they were both tired--neither having slept in at least two days since this whole disaster had started--but they didn't want to sleep until they felt secure in their surroundings. they searched the entire area and found two old oil drums. there wasn't a whole lot left behind and they figured that the oil drums would hold better than a couple wooden boards. one of the stairwells still had a door intact and they left that one alone. they rolled the oil drums over to the second one, stacking them one on top of the other as close to the gaping rectangular hole as they could get without knocking them down the stairs.
"here's hoping they're not strong enough to move those," danny mumbled.
"even if they can, we'll hear 'em...we'll be ready."

they sat down at the opposite side of the room, facing the doorway. the blocked stairwell was off to their side, but they weren’t as worried about that one because the oil drums seemed stronger--safer--than a piece of wood.
"you tired?" jake asked.
"no," danny lied. he was tired but he was also too scared to go to sleep. he knew jake's answer would be the same so he didn't bother repeating the question to his friend.

after a few minutes of relative silence danny whispered, "i went to my mom's...before--before i went to your place. the place was a mess. there was. uh, there was blood everywhere. i don't think she's still alive. or, uh, alive-alive." danny swallowed hard, trying not to cry at thoughts of his mother becoming one of those things wandering around outside.

jake didn't know what to say so he grabbed danny maybe a little too roughly and pulled him into a tight hug. "it's gonna be okay," he mumbled into danny's neck. "your mom'll be fine. she's gotta be. we're all gonna be fine."
"yeah. jesus christ jake, what the hell happened out there?"
jake shrugged, pulling back a bit but still keeping his arm wrapped around danny. "some kinda disease, maybe...i don't know. and i hate to say what i think it is."