#2
"Promise her," he advised, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder and in Evelyn's direction. "She's the one you want to-"
"Quiet, there's something out there!" said Evelyn, a hint of panic in her voice cracking her usual equanimity.
The entire group fell completely silent. Levi and Evelyn hardly dared to breathe, and the only sound in their ears was that of their respective heartbeats. Evelyn leaned against the window and peered out into the verdant and dense forestry, trying to catch any shapes moving in the distance. Nothing.
"Are you sure?" asked Levi, feeling increasingly on edge. "Evelyn!"
She did not respond. The shadow of fear on her face said more than a thousand words could and she immediately ducked down, signalling for everyone else to hide. Levi swiftly locked the door and pressed his back against it, looking down at his crouching companion with complete bemusement and concern. He had no idea what she had seen but he had almost always trusted her judgement. Slowly but surely, he begin to hear the same sounds that she had warned them of. The faintest echoes of moaning and groaning were carried to his ears; it was the signature death knell of the walkers. The sounds began to get louder with each passing second and, soon enough, it had drowned out the euphony of the birds in the tree tops.
"Where are they?" he whispered to Evelyn.
"They're far away but I can still see them, they're heading right he-"
"In here!" came a desperate voice directly outside the cabin.
Levi felt a powerful slam on the door behind him and could not stop himself from doubling over from the door's impact against the back of his head. He whipped around and pressed his shoulder hard against it as Evelyn slid to the floor and pressed herself against the wall so that no one could see her if they were to look in through the window.
"I can't open it!" shrieked the voice.
"Keep pushing it, I know you can do it!" said another voice, more high-pitched than the first one.
"I can't, it's locked! There's-someone-inside!" said the older girl, each word interspersed with a slam against the door.
"Please, just leave, don't make me do this..." thought Levi, his heart still pounding madly against his chest.
The sounds of the walker herd were becoming deafening. He could hear every little detail; the scraping of their feet against the detritus strewn across the forest floor, the vicious gnashing of their teeth and that horrible snarling sound they made when closing in on a victim.
For some reason, he knew that the two survivors would not or could not attempt to escape. The fear in their voices had been accompanied by utter exhaustion and it seemed that they could no longer run. Even now, he could hear both of them panting, suggesting that the herd of walkers had chased them for miles. A hunt with such alarming dedication and bloodthirst suggested that the herd itself must be comprised of at least a hundred walkers... and those hundred ravenous walkers were now converging on the fragile log house that they were now trapped in.
Considering the dire circumstances, Levi was unable to rack his brains enough to see beyond a binary choice. The first option was to let the stragglers in, try to hold off the walker herd and find a way out together. The second option, ostensibly more sinister, was to allow the undead to feast on the girls outside and use the distraction to escape through a back window.
His mind was not equipped to deal with such a great burden, especially not such a sudden one. What was truly more evil? He felt that the clear 'moral' choice was to allow the girls inside and attempt to protect them, but what if that led to the death of the rest of them? Wouldn't it be more evil to let them in and endanger the lives of the rest of the group? He had to decide whether or not the risk was worth it and was completely sundered in half by the choices presented to him. This entire situation was too much for him.
He gazed down at Evelyn and felt his heart sink to see that she seemed to be as troubled as he was, indecision etched into her face. Finding no recourse in her, his frantic eyes swivelled towards Scarlet and Samantha, silently begging them to help him.