Dead Days

Chapter 23

Once our bags were as full as we could get them, we headed back out through what remained of the door and back into the rain. He led the way through the rain and back to the library. I stayed as close to him as I could; the rain seemed to be coming down even harder as it was much harder to see in front of ourselves. Or it could be that it was getting late. I didn't have an easy or good way of judging what time it was. 

It wasn't much longer until we reached the library. It felt a little strange that the lurkers don't seem to want to attack us. Matt theorized that it was the rain covering our smell. I just went with that as well. 

Carl was ready to let us back in at the door. We headed in and deposited our stuff by the other supplies before heading to a table and laying a map on it. Someone seemed to search the back rooms and found candles as our corner was now as well lit as it could be. 

All of the adults crowded around the table with the map and candles and started debating on our next plan of action. 

I pushed my way through the small crowd of people and towards the map. I studied it for a second. I pointed out an apartment building, "There. It'll be comfier than here and we can stay on one of the higher floors. We can drag extra beds in from other apartments." 

Emily looked at me, "What? Why are you good at hiding from those... things?" 

"Matt and I decided to call them lurkers. And I lived in my apartment building until I started running out of supplies, which was when I meet these guys. They took me in. I was alone."

She gave me a sad look, "Do you want to talk about it?" 

I didn't answer her question. I instead went back to the map, "The trucks bed would be flooded from all this rain, but we don't have another car. We'd probably have to make trips if we can't put anything into the bed."

Carl decided to jump in, "If we decided to hole up there for a while, we'd have to clear the building out of lurkers first. That would take more work than we could handle." 

"It would be good to have a safe place. It seems like we have had bad luck with safe places," Matt added, "plus, Ellie did have a point about the height: it would be difficult for the lurkers to get us." 

The group was quiet as we were thinking it through. Beth finally piped up, "So... Are we just calling them 'lurkers' now?" 

We all nodded, signaling that we were. Carl was the only one who voiced an opinion about it; "Seems catchy." 

Beth sighed before going back to the map, "So, we are going to make a run for the apartment building?"

"Yea. Although I think some of us should go beforehand and maybe clear it out a bit." 

We all nodded in agreement. 

I looked up at Carl, "So, who's going?"