"This way, this way!"

Feet pounding. Growling. Racing breaths. Rapid heartbeats.

"Get in!"

Door slams, bodies hit the wood.

"Find something to block it!"

"Here! Naruto, help me!"

Scraping on the floor. Heavy wooden desk presses into the door.

"Are you bit!? ARE YOU BIT!?"

seven steps to death

Sasuke collapses to the floor, cursing. "You cut me with your damn knife, dumbass!" He growls. He presses his palm into the bleeding wound.

Sakura pulls her bow over her head and lays it on the floor. "Let me see it." Sakura kneels down beside him, reaching out to touch it.

"Back the fuck off!" He wrenches away from her probing hands.

"Sasuke, let her look." Kakashi, ever the voice of reason, grinds out through hastened breaths.

"Guys, are we safe in here?" Naruto questions, panicked. "This is only an office building; I don't think it was made to protect against the walkers."

"It's going to have to hold until we find a way out!" Sakura snaps, pushing Sasuke's sleeve up to get a look at the cut. She shoves her bangs out of her face and reaches into her pack, thanking whatever cruel god out there that she went through enough medical school to perform sutures.

"Sakura, it's fine!" He begins to pull away from her.

"Stop being impossible! Let me at least clean it!" She snarls. "Kakashi, Naruto, can you begin to look for any way out of here?" Naruto hits a salute.

"Yessir!" He snips. She shoots a fierce glare at him before returning to Sasuke's arm. He winces as she presses a cloth she had previously soaked in rubbing alcohol against the cut, wiping gently. He clicks the safety of his beretta on before laying it on the floor next to him.

"We need to get out of here. Quickly." She says, pulling back from him. "That'll have to do for now until we get somewhere safe." She gets to her feet, taking her bow with her. She slings it over her back and begins to search the room. The door shakes behind her. Her breath catches nervously, but the door holds against the barrage of walkers.

Sakura hears Sasuke shuffle to his feet and the scrape of metal on tile floor from his gun. She pulls open a drawer, finding a box of bandaids. "Sasuke, come here, please." She rifles through the bandaid box, finding the largest size. She holds it up to the cut on his arm. "Good enough." She mumbles to herself, and with trembling fingers, peels it open and places the bandaid over the cut. Sasuke catches her hand in one of his.

"You're shaking." He states. She stares at her hand. "Breathe." She takes a deep breath, in, out.

In.

Out.

"Guys, I found a way to the roof!" Naruto exclaims from somewhere else in the building. Sakura winces at how loud his shout is, and the walkers pound against the door more forcefully in answer. Sasuke releases her hand, meeting her eyes.

"Go check what he's on about, I'll keep going through this shit." Sakura nods and jogs in the direction of the blonde's voice.

"Naruto?" She calls, walking by an elevator shaft.

"Up here!" Naruto suddenly drops down from above. Sakura jumps back, fingering her knife on instinct. "We can climb up through the elevator shaft up to the roof." Sakura bites her lip.

"No stairs?" She asks. He shakes his head.

"Must be in a different room." He shrugs. "It's better than hiding behind a door reinforced with a desk. Kakashi is already up there." Sakura nods.

"I'll go get Sas—"

"Fuck!" Sasuke comes barreling into the room. "They tore a hole in the door!" She meets Naruto's eyes and nods.

"Help me up." She steps into the elevator shaft and looks up at the panel that has been moved to open up the compartment. Naruto bends, holding out his hands. Sakura steps into them and pushes up, scrabbling for purchase on the elevator floor. She scrambles up and crawls away from the opening and holds her hand down.

Naruto is the next up, and she hears a loud crack. "What was that?" She calls just as she hears Sasuke's gun fire.

"Shit!" Naruto curses and holds his hand down. "Sasuke, come on!" Sasuke leaps up, grabbing onto the edge of the hole and Naruto's hand. The horrible hissing from the walkers comes closer, and Sakura grabs onto Sasuke's arm, helping Naruto pull him up.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Sasuke yells. The muscles in his arms flex as he slowly pulls himself up.

"We're not going to make it!" Sakura grits, pulling as hard as she can. Kakashi suddenly appears, grabbing the collar of Sasuke's shirt and pulls him hard into the elevator. The walkers appear below the hole not a second after Sasuke backs away from the hole.

"This isn't the roof, Naruto." Sakura says, glancing around at another room of cubicles.

"No, but there are floor length windows that lead out to the roof." Kakashi answers, helping her to her feet. The office area is vacant; papers are scattered across the floor, and blood is ominously spread across a wall.

"Is this place clear?" She asks, making her way towards the windows.

"Yes. There was one walker wandering around up here, but Naruto took care of it." Kakashi replies, squeezing past her and leading the three of them out through a broken window. "Watch your step." Broken glass crunches underneath her tennis shoes. The hot, late summer sun beats down on them, and Sakura squints her eyes.

"There's our car." Kakashi points two blocks down where the silver minivan sits. Sakura looks down at the street below them.

"We could jump." Naruto offers. Sakura whirls on him.

"We'd break an ankle! And then how the hell are we going to run!?"

"It's not that far. We're only on the second story!"

"Easy for you to say, Mr. I Do Parkour In My Free Time!" She snaps.

"Sasuke, do you agree with me!?" Naruto and Sakura both turn on Sasuke. He cocks an eyebrow.

"Hn." He answers non-committedly.

"Sasuke, do you have the ammo we grabbed?" Kakashi asks. Sasuke nods.

"And Sakura, you have the medical supplies?" Kakashi says, turning to her.

"Yep!"

Kakashi thinks for a minute. "Naruto, can you drop down, drive the car over, and then we can drop onto the car?" As he speaks, he pulls the car keys out of his pocket and tosses them to Naruto.

"I get to drive!" He pumps his fist.

"We'll cover you from up here." Kakashi clicks the safety to his carbine off, and Sasuke does the same with his brretta. Naruto edges toward the side of the roof, and then drops off, hitting the ground with a roll. He sprints to the car, dodging the walkers on the street. He jumps into the car, starts it, and floors it, driving it up next to the building.

"Sasuke, you go first." Kakashi motions. Sasuke bends, hangs off the edge of the roof, and drops onto the van. He slides down smoothly, standing in front of the car door with his gun cocked.

"Sakura, go." She creeps up to the ledge, hesitantly moving to sit. She drops down, hitting the roof of the car with a loud thunk. Simultaneously, Sasuke shoots down an approaching walker, a ghastly woman with one eye missing and a jaw gaping unnaturally wide. Sakura is quick to scoot to the side and slide down. Sasuke catches her when she rolls her ankle and stumbles, and opens the car door for her. She jumps in, moving to the far back of the van and unslinging her bow from across her chest. Kakashi isn't far behind, and both he and Sasuke clamber into the car.

"Go Naruto!" Sakura yells. Naruto floors the gas, and Sakura is forced back into her seat with a lurch.

They clear the small city quickly, and once they've hit the open 210 highway, Kakashi leans forward. "Naruto, stop the car. I'm driving." Naruto whines, but pulls the car into a jerky stop and climbs into the passenger seat. Kakashi moves up into the driver's side. He switches the car into drive and pulls forward, driving them out into the open road.

"It's so empty out here," Sakura says, leaning to rest her head on the seat in front of her.

"It's inland California, what do you expect?" Naruto leans around the front seat to look at them.

"Mm," she hums, staring out the window at the barren landscape. The roads are empty besides the odd car they see parked on the side of the road every now and then. Their group has long since picked these cars dry and now has to scout into the smaller cities in the area to get supplies.

Not long after, Kakashi takes the Lake Arrowhead exit, driving the car up the winding road. He turns out onto a dirt path, slowing the car down significantly. He pulls over and shifts the car into park. "Alright, get out of my car," he jokes, opening the driver's side door. Sakura follows Sasuke out the door and closes it behind her, carrying her bow in one hand. After a short walk, they come to the small area that their group lives in.

"We're back!" Naruto exclaims. Akamaru is the first to greet them, the big Great Pyrenees bounding up and licking Naruto's hand. Kakashi carries the big bag of guns that they had managed to raid from a gun store and stashed in the car before the mass attack. He drops it to the ground in the center of the camp, and Sasuke bends down with his pack to get out the ammo. Sakura gently sets her pack down.

Camp is actually something of a generous term to describe their set up. Four tents are set up in a semi-circle just on the edge of the wooded area. Completing the semi-circle is a white kidnapper van that they keep supplies in. Currently, Shino and Choji sit atop the van, keeping watch for walkers or anything else out of the norm. Down a small dirt path, there is a lake that they use for fresh water and, as of recently, fishing. Kiba gets up from where he is sitting over by the tents with Ino and approaches them.

"These are the medical supplies we could grab." She says. "Where is everyone?" She asks.

"Shikamaru, Asuma, and Kurenai went to San Bernardino to get food and gas." Kiba replies as he takes stock of the weapons and ammo they managed to take.

"Do we need food that bad?" Sakura questions. "We could've gotten it down in Redlands." Kiba shrugs. She sighs and sits down against a tree and takes off a shoe. She rubs her ankle, examining it.

"You okay?" Sasuke asks, coming to stand in front of her. She nods, sending him a bright smile.

"Just twisted it coming off the van." She rotates her ankle a few times before pulling her shoe back on. "Are you okay? That was a close call." He nods, rubbing his arm.

"What happened?" Ino asks from where she sits by the tents.

"We just ran into some walkers while we were getting medical supplies." Sakura answers, shrugging. "We took care of it." She turns to Sasuke. "When do you think the others will come back?"

"How would I know?" He replies. "I'm going on a walk." He begins to leave.

"Hey, bastard! Where you going?" Naruto calls.

"None of your business." Sasuke retorts and continues to walk. Naruto visibly droops.

"He's probably going to… to go take care of his manly needs." Naruto mutters. Sakura chuckles.

"Naruto, come here." Naruto settles down next to her. "How are you holding up?" She inquires, meeting his eyes.

"I'm doing great! Y'know, except the whole dead people coming back to life thing…but other than that, no complaints." He grins.

"I mean…do you still think we'll find Hinata?" Naruto's grin fades, and he looks down at his feet.

"Of course we will." Naruto pauses. "We just need to keep looking! She's tough, she won't let these… these walkers get her! She was in medical school with you, she's smarter than those walkers!" He says as if to reassure both of them.

Sakura nods. "Right."