chapter two
The early morning sun shone into Ivory’s eyes, waking her up from her slumber. She groaned and turned away from the sunlight and stuff her face into her makeshift pillow.
After a couple minutes she finally woke up and packed her spare dress into her backpack.
Ivory felt proud of herself for being able to survive yet another night in an apocalypse, another night avoided from becoming one of the undead.
She stepped outside the cave into the sunlight, she could see the scenery much better than she could the previous night.
Birch trees stood tall on the uneven ground, and beams on sunlight made it past the leaves. The scenery looked too much like the place where she would play with her Nadia, Millie and Adam when she had gotten into ravenclaw.
Oh, how she missed how things used to be, she wanted to go back to the life before the apocalypse when she used to sneak out of her dorms with her best friend Vienne at Hogwarts, when she used to have picnics with her family in the forest surrounded with flowers.
There was a small river behind the cave, the water was gushing eastward with highspeed. If Ivory was right, that was the direction of Malfoy manor.
She looked around for something she could use as a raft, something to hold onto so that she doesn’t go tumbling down the river and hit her head on a rock.
She eventually settled for a hollow log and held onto it tightly before stepping into the river and being dragged eastward.
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Ivory opened her eyes on the shore of the river next to her wooden companion and her backpack. She was covered in a few cuts and bruises which were fairly minor.
Her fingertips were wrinkled, and her hair was soaked. Her wet clothes clung on her body and one of her shoes had gotten lost on the way here.
Even if her shoe was gone, thankfully her backpack had made it, even if all the water in her waterbottle was filled with impure water from the river instead of freshwater and her food was all soggy.
At least her gun was intact, other rations could wait. She got up and scanned the scenery for any signs of a manor.
She eventually laid her eyes on a big building which resembled a manor far away.
If Malfoy manor hadn’t been affected she still had a chance to live a life in the company of real, live humans, and not dead corpses who wanted to hunt her as soon as they laid eyes on her.
She began sprinting toward the building, she didn’t care if she felt exhausted and if her body was screaming for rest, she needed to get to safety, she needed a warm bath and a home cooked meal.
As she came closer to the manor, she saw a swarm of zombies surrounding the walls, which hadn’t been there before.
She let out a scream of horror, without any sound as she didn’t dare bring the attention of the undead toward her.
Instead, she climbed a nearby tree with difficulty, there were ants crawling on her limbs but she managed to get to a reasonable height so that she could see the manor clearly.
She saw a man pacing around the balcony, deep in thought and began waving her arms, hoping to get his attention.
Her attempts were in vail as he didn’t notice her, and tears began streaming down her face. She was tired, frustrated and needed a hug. Her body wanted to give up, but the second she falls down that tree, dozens of undead would swarm her and make her one of them.
Another man stepped into the balcony and said something to the one who was pacing up and down. Ivory began swinging her arms and moved as much as she could without making any sound.
The man noticed her and his eyes went wide. He tapped the other man’s shoulder and pointed toward her, they both looked at her gestured for her to wait her.
Hope bloomed in her chest, she would be safe soon. She hugged the tree’s bark in celebration and giggled at her silliness.
She waited for a sign from the two men that they were coming to save her, she then saw them scurrying across the garden with something which resembled a rope in their hands.
They were on top of the walls of the manor. She now noticed the small detail that the wall had a path, just like in many forts.
They talked in signs, they gestured something about throwing the rope to her.
How she would use the rope in her current condition, Ivory didn’t know. Last she checked, she wasn’t Tarzan.
The two men, Abraxas and his father Oscar were now much more recognizable.
They threw her one side of the rope tied the other on a trap door on the floor. Ivory looked down at the swarm of zombies, she had gotten the attention of a few of them.
Bile had risen to her throat as she gulped, feeling the most nervous she had been in a long time.
Holding tight onto the rope, she climbed further up the tree until she was at the appropriate altitude to use the rope as a makeshift zipline.
She tied the rope on the bark of the tree and broke off a branch above her to use as a zipline.
She held onto the branch tightly as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes and let stepped forward, leaving her feet in the air as she slid down the rope.
Most of the zombies had their attention on the girl as she crashed onto the floor at the feet of the two platinum blonde men.
“Ivory!” Abraxas exclaimed helping her to her feet and hugging her tightly, ignoring her drenched state.
“Hello Abraxas” she spoke, trying to match his energy and her lips tugged upward into a soft smile.
The zombies were moaning and groaning on the other side of the wall, but this wall was thankfully tall and thick enough to stop them from entering.
“We should get you freshened up, you look awful.” the older man spoke, his voice stern and sophisticated unlike his son’s.
She obliged as she opened the trap door and made her way down the stairs.
They walked into the mansion, and for the first time in ages she saw a house which was bustling with live humans, instead of braindead corpses.
She got a few awkward stares from people as she made her way upstairs, holding onto Abraxas for support, but most of them were happy to see another person who wasn’t turned braindead.
When they reached her room, Abraxas gave her a small smile as he left after telling her that if she needed anything he would be in his room.
Ivory thanked him and immediately darted for the bathroom and freshened up, and got dressed into a new pair of clothes from the closet and jumped onto the bed.
She felt so much better than she had felt since the zombies had been infected her life.