Vye furrowed her brows.
So much was happening.
The echoes of gunfire—screaming—and general destruction pressed down on her like a ton of bricks.
It was all she could hear, just… noise. Shattering and shouting and shooting.
It was pretty fucking unbearable.
She watched as Mishka slipped and dangled from the edge of the shelf, but she had jumped several rows away by then and was at a terrible angle. Vye shouted in concern, before huffing a relieved breath as Adam managed to down the creature at her feet.
Suddenly, the group of corpses changed their direction, their discolored eyes bulging and mouths gaping, like a pack of dogs distracted with a toy. They hustled and bustled around on the ground below, turning in the direction of the redhead, bumping into each other with unintelligible grunts and bouncing off the display shelves, sending Vye rocking and rolling on her heels to regain her balance.
Frustrated and annoyed, Vye swung the shotgun around and extended her arm, bringing the muzzle right down to their foreheads. She blasted two rounds through their heads like melons.
Just then, the ceiling nearby crumbled and gave way, and Vye was much taken aback when a man popped his head inside.
"Holy CRAP!" she shouted, startled.
The rope was almost within grabbing distance, just one row over and down a little. But the bodies of the undead filed all along the walkway between them.
Vye crouched down and dug in her pocket, retrieving one of the boxes of batteries she had swiped on her way in the store. Unraveling the cloth she used as a glove off one hand, she held either end together to fashion a sort of sling. She placed a small handful of batteries in the little cradle, found the weight satisfactory, and began twirling it above her head to gain momentum before whipping it down.
The lash successfully ruptured the softened skull of one of the rotting corpses, and she repeated the process several times until the aisle was clear and she was scant of breath.
The man had said that more people were working on clearing the outside, but now at least the area immediately surrounding the rope was clear if the others made a go for it.
She leaped across the divide and stepped into the halo of light that shone through the hole in the ceiling. She gave the rope a tentative tug and shouted to the others, "Can you make it?!"