Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 20

"You can make it," I reassured him.

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one jumping off the ledge," he said.

"You play all kinds of sports, man. I don't know. Maybe this would be like a cakewalk."

"Well, yeah, but that's not what I'm worried about. I don't know what's waiting for me inside."

He had a good point. I was too focused on trying to make it to the windowsill that I never really thought of what dangers might be lurking inside the building.

"Just remember, it's point and shoot," Miguel added.

Logan rolled his eyes and slung his rifle behind his back. He climbed over the fence, mistakenly looked down, and gulped. Logan tried extending his legs, but he couldn't reach the windowsill that way, ending up a couple of feet too short.

Without even counting down, Logan suddenly leaped for the windowsill. For a plit second, I thought he wasn't going to make it, barely reaching his arm on it, and maybe grabbed on for a second or two before he fell back down to the pavement. Logan managed to get both arms on the windowsill. With his foot, he found a break on the wall where a mason brick was supposed to be and used it to haul himself up on the window's ledge.

He tried the window. It easily slid up.

"You make it look easy," I commented, grinning.

Logan glared and gave me the middle finger. He cautiously stepped inside.

I listened intently for any sound of disturbance. There was none, but I hoped Logan was doing okay. A couple of minutes passed. Then, I heard the doorknob shuddered slightly. The door opened, and Logan's head peeked out, scowling.

"It's fucking unlocked," he said. "I had to wade through the dark just for an unlocked door."

I knew I shouldn't, but I stifled my laughter, bubbling up my throat. Miguel tried to hide one as well.

"It's not funny, man! I think I bruised my knee when I slammed against a coffee table or something," Logan said, massaging the area an inch below his right knee.

"You find anything inside? Nothing unusual?" I asked when my laughter subsided.

He shook his head. "It's dark. And I didn't want to switch on the lights, so I didn't see anything much."

I shared a look with Miguel. He nodded, "Keys. I know," he said, voicing what I was thinking. "Jim locks up the store around seven, which includes the counter where they kept the meds."

I stepped inside a dimly lit hallway. To our right was an open door, which I surmised was Jim's apartment. Logan led us there. I switched on the flashlight on my rifle. Logan glared and frowned at me again. He grabbed his AR-15 and looked at the flashlight attached to it.

"I didn't even think of that," he said.

I tried not to laugh again. "It's alright. Let's go find those keys."

I made sure that all the rooms in the apartment were cleared first before we did our search. I made instructions for them to follow. There were only three bedrooms and one bathroom. We each took one while I also did the bathroom. I didn't find the keys there, so I moved to the living room and the kitchen.

Logan found it inside a nightstand drawer in his room. It was at least a dozen keys dangling from one silver keychain shaped like an iguana.

"Do you know which one opens the back door to the store?" I asked Miguel. He shook his head. "Damn. Well, at least he labeled the counter key." I pointed to the key in the middle.