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“10k, don’t move.” Addy shouts as 10k steps onto the bridge behind her.
10k freezes, gripping the railing of the rickety wooden bridge they’re crossing. Mack is already at the other side, Addy nearly there, and 10k halfway across. He told them they should find a different way across. The bridge looked so unstable, a slat falling theatrically into the river below. But Mack insisted they needed to get across, and there wasn’t another bridge for two miles.
“One of the ropes just snapped, there’s too much weight on it.” Addy says calmly. 10k’s breathing picks up. “Hopefully when I step off it’ll stop breaking.”
“Hopefully?” 10k yells at her.
“Well, either way you won’t have to worry about it in about thirty seconds.” Addy takes a deep breath.
She steps forward, and another one of the ropes snaps, making the bridge tilt and sway. Despite his dignity, 10k shrieks and clings to the railing.
“Fuck!” Addy yells. She jumps from the bridge and into Mack’s arms, onto solid ground. “10k, get off of there!”
“How?” 10k yells back.
He’s fifty yards from the edge of the bridge, he can’t just jump off. Going back isn’t really an option either - he’s halfway across already. Panic claws up the back of his throat and his legs start to shake. He doesn’t want to fall to his death.
“Run and jump!” Mack shouts. “Run as far as you can and jump when the bridge breaks, I’ll catch you.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” 10k feels the bridge tilt further. There isn't a better option. “Do you promise you’ll catch me?”
“I’ll try my goddamn best.” Mack swears. “Come on, man.”
10k takes a deep breath, then another. He hears something snap behind him, and he runs. The boards break and tumble down beneath him, the distant splash of them hitting the rushing water beneath him ringing in his ears. Then he jumps, knowing he isn’t close enough to the edge to make it but knowing he has to try anyway.
He misses the ledge by inches, scrambling at the dirt bank. Cold water closes over his head, and he doesn't manage to get a breath in before he is being thrown around at the bottom of the river. His arms and legs catch on the dull rocks, battering them and making it impossible for him to push himself up. He is turned over so many times by the current that he can't tell up from down.
10k is going to drown. He's going to die in this river and be washed out to sea and no one will ever find him. Fish food, a skeleton at the bottom of the ocean.
Doc suggested once that there were Zs at the bottom of every body of water. They don't need to breathe, they just keep walking aimlessly to nowhere. Some of them must have wandered into the sea, hiding down there, untraceable. If they ever did cure the infection, rid the world above the surface of every single zombie, there would still be untold numbers under the water, just waiting to crawl back up onto the beach and eat people.
Maybe 10k will be one of them.
Just as he decides to open his mouth, let the water in and have it be over with, two sets of hands wrap around his arms and haul him upwards onto the bank. Mack and Addy fall over backwards, 10k in between them as his face collides with the dirt. They all lie on the grass, breathing heavily as they process that somehow, they all survived that.
“What the fuck.” Mack pants, summing up 10k's feelings on the matter.
“We lived.” Addy says, throwing up her hands unenthusiastically. “Hooray.”
"I’m never walking across a fucking bridge again.” 10k mumbles.