There was snow in my shoes, making my socks cold and wet.
"We're almost there!" George called back over his shoulders as we started to see a break in the dense view of trees.
Thank god. I was over the need to walk through this snow. My toes had to be frozen.
"So, George," I said as I ducked under a tree branch, spinning back on my heels to make sure Spirit clears it as well, "we've been following you for the past twenty odd-so minutes, where exactly is your group staying?"
"Umm... you can say we're pretty well hidden. There's only two ways in and out of the place we're taking shelter."
Alex cleared his throat out, "The only building out this way is the old community arts center."
"Well, if the Center of the Arts is the building that you're talking about then that's exactly where we are." George let out a small laugh as he looked back at us, only for his laughter to die off when he saw the shocked expressions on Alex and I's face.
"How?" I sputtered out and skidded to a stop. "There's nothing but spores and infected in that place."
It's impossible that the spores were no longer there. Patrollers boarded that place up thick to make sure that nothing living could get in and that nothing dead could wander out. That place has been off limits well before I got to Jackson.
George's face split into a smile, "Not anymore. Come on, I'll show you."
Alex and I shared a concerned look but tugged on Spirit and Carl's reins once more to continue moving forwards.
I haven't even been to the Arts Center. All I knew was that it was a death trap, overflowing with spores and filled with stalkers and clickers. Infected that have just been growing more and more deadly over the years of being stuck inside that building.
How in the world were they able to clear the place out? Even if they were successful in eradicating all the infected, what about the spores? The place was airtight. There was no way they aired the place out, especially with only being here a month's time.
We broke through the tree line, finally able to see the convention center itself and it looked like shit. The front of the place used to be nothing but glass, now it was covered with boards full of nails and screws. The decorative wood paneling on the side of the walls was either missing, broken, or slowly curling away from the structure. The name of the place no longer even said 'Center of the Arts' but instead 'Cnter of h ts' with the metal letters disappearing over the years.
"How do you even get in?" Alex questioned. "The whole place is boarded up."
George tilted his head and waved for us to keep following him. "There's a loading dock around back where you can bring your horses out of the weather."
There were little to no tracks around the place. Most of the surrounding land was a parking lot that had a glimmering sheen over the snow. My boot almost slipped out from underneath me, my hand grasping at Spirit to find my balance again.
"Oh, yeah, watch out for the ice." George said a few seconds too late. ""It's annoying but it hides tracks since it's thick enough for our weight to not go through."
Well, that explains a lot actually.
Carefully making our way across the ice and around the building until we reached a space on the side that had piles upon piles of empty wooden pallets leaning against one another and a couple stacks of random junk balancing on a few pallet jacks.
"This was the only door we could get into. We boarded up the other ones so much. There has to be a couple inches of wood nailed up over the front of the place. It's impossible to break through."
George pulled out one of the pallet jacks to reveal a door and moved it to the side before sticking his arm between two of the pallets to the right of him. His face scrunched up as it looked like he was trying to reach for something.
"And so, how did you get into this place then?"
"One of our boy scouts had a lock picking badge." One of his eyes squinted shut before he said, 'ah ha' and clicked his tongue after I'm guessing he found what he needed, which was a broken crowbar. "We can get into this room and that's as far as we can go. The next door was completely boarded over. It was so nailed in that nothing we did could get those boards down. So, we keep our horses here."
George pushed the door open just enough to slip the crowbar in before jerking it up with a small jump to get enough momentum. There was the sound of metal scraping against metal as the door swung open all the way.
Inside were a total of six horses that were just standing there drinking out of makeshift troughs. Dirt and old grass lined the floor as sunlight peered through the wooden slots from the small narrow and boarded up windows.
The horses were covered in old blankets to help them keep warm. They were healthy and well-nourished in the surprisingly warm loading dock. The chains that would open the doors for trucks to come in were broken and gone as the horses wandered up and down the ramps with nothing else better to do.
"You can leave your horses in here and let them rest. The door is designed to lock behind us. A metal bar slides back down the second we close the door. The only way to open it is to slide it up and over fast enough." George informed us as he walked in to hold the door open.
"That's... impressive." I commented as I guided Spirit through only for him to completely ignore me the second he saw the water.
"I can't take the credit for that. We have an engineer here who graduated from one of your country's top schools. She helped make this place so secure. Made us feel secure staying here for so long."
"MIT?" I raised my eyebrows.
George shrugged, "Probably? Fuck if I know, I'm not from here."
Alex let out a loud laugh as my mouth formed a straight line. At least Alex was getting a kick out of it. This was impressive to see and hear. This engineer could definitely help Jackson in a number of ways. Maybe even figure out those solar panels that Callahan has been working on for months...
I'm getting ahead of myself.
With Spirit and Carl getting rehydrated, I cracked my wrists as I turned back to the only working door in this place. "Alright so how do we get in? You mentioned two ways of getting in."
George snapped his fingers, "Ahh yes, come on. We need to climb for a second."
"Climb?" Alex glanced over at me as we followed George out.
"Yup, don't worry, it's easy. When we cleared out all the infected, we pulled down all the boards to air out the spores. Once the place was clean and safe to breathe without the constant need for gas masks, we put all the boards back up. It took a couple days but with everyone helping out, it was an easy job."
George led us a little ways down from the makeshift stables to a shipping container that conveniently had a large shrink-wrapped pallet right next to it. Without any hesitation, George hopped up and made his way up to the roof.
"This is our way in unless you wanna use the air ducts that will definitely make you sneeze more than once."
"You've got to be shitting me," I mumbled out loud.
It's so obvious why we've never found these guys.
They've been traveling for months to get here and before they had a goal who knows where they were or what they were doing. They were nomads. Hiding tracks and staying low is all they know what to do. George had probably never settled in a place for longer than a month or two since the outbreak. This was second nature to him.
They weren't going to be found unless they wanted to be found... or unless ya know, you fall out of a brush right in front of us.
George's head popped out from over the side of the roof, "You two coming?"
I looked over at Alex who I saw physically swallow nervously. He drew his bottom lip between his teeth as he craned his neck to look back at me.
He gestured for me to take the lead, "Ladies first?"
I simply blinked at him.
"Pussy."
"Can't deny that right now."
Pushing my body up and on top of whatever was wrapped in shrink wrap, I followed George with Alex a couple paces behind me. I couldn't help but shut my eyes as the shipping container echoed my footsteps back at me as I swung my leg up and over the edge to get the rest of my body up.
The roof was covered in dirty snow and gravel as George led us to an area that suspiciously lacked the white, fluffy frozen rain I was definitely tired of seeing until Christmas next year.
"Uhh, George?" It was my turn to swallow my nerves. "What exactly is this entrance?"
George kicked aside some snow to retrieve a bundle of braided and colorful climbing rope that laid between some ventilation units.
Oh, fuck me.
"We're jumping down?"
"Yup." George didn't falter at all as he walked over to the hole in the roof and threw the rope straight in the middle of it.
I carefully leaned over the edge of the hole. The rope was just swinging in the slight breeze as George tugged on it twice to make sure it was sturdy around the air conditioning unit that functioned as an anchor. It had to be at least a two and a half story drop down.
"Umm..." My mouth suddenly felt dry. "Is it a bit late to choose the air ducts?"
"What's wrong, Ka-" Alex caught himself and acted like he had a sudden coughing fit. "A-Alice?" Alex clapped me on the back as he placed his other hand on his hip. "Scared of heights?"
"No." I snapped back at him. My palms grew clammy as my breaths shortened. "I just never did well with the rope in gym class."
Why couldn't there be a ladder?
George pulled a pair of gloves out of his pockets and slipped them on over his fingers. "You'll be okay. It's not as bad as it looks. There's padding at the bottom in case anyone does actually fall." He leaned down to grab the rope, turning his body so his back faced the gaping hole in the ceiling before speaking again. "And the air ducts are only an exit, you can't get in that way unless you can jump three feet in the air."
He took a deep breath, glancing down at his feet as he shuffled them to get into some kind of position, "See you at the bottom." And then he fucking jumps.
"Oh, fuck no! Nope! I'll wait out here." I started to wave my arms and back away from the rooftop entrance.
"Kate!" Alex harshly whispered as he grabbed the sides of my arms. He glanced back at the giant fucking hole before switching his attention back to me. "Come on! We can get an entire group of people to join or at least be allies. This is huge! Don't let some height ruin that. George said there was padding on the bottom, it'll be okay."
"Come on!" George yelled out from the bottom. The rope moved a couple inches like he tugged on it to grab our attention. "It's fun, I swear!"
Alex glanced over his shoulder before turning back to me as he slowly took his hands off me like he was afraid I'd flee like a wild animal. "Let's go, yeah?"
I gulped, "... I guess."
Alex swiped the rope up from the ground as he situated the back of his heels to the very edge of the broken roof. He gave me a nod with one more glance down to the ground and then he jumped as well.
My legs reacted faster than my head as I ran to the edge and sunk down to my knees to watch Alex slide down the rope. Landing on his feet with a thud as George clapped him on the back. Both of the guys laughed as they clasped their hands together and did that one arm hug that all guys seem to do.
"It's gonna be okay!" Alex yelled up to me. "George was right! It's fun!"
"You're fuckin' nuts, bro!" I yelled back.
I shut my eyes tight as I leaned back on my knees, wiping my hands on my thighs as I collected my thoughts for a second. Trying my best to tune out the hollers from George and Alex from the bottom of the pit.
Alex was right, sadly enough. We needed these people. Their numbers, their ideas, their strengths, even their weaknesses that hopefully we can turn into strengths.
But I don't fuck with heights. Well, it's more like the possibility of falling that I don't want to mess with. This doesn't feel safe at all and that's what was messing with my brain. If there was like a team of people and a harness that was connected to some kind of machine, I wouldn't think twice.
Just that thinking about jumping down and hoping that I have enough upper body strength to hold on to that rope wasn't enough to actually move my body to do it.
There's padding. How thick is that padding though?
Can you die from a 25-foot fall? I guess it depends on how you fall and what you land on.
Oh, stop fucking thinking and just do it, Kate.
I swallowed whatever thoughts I had as I stood up to my feet, grabbing the rope as I rose. Lining my heels up with the crumbling roof structure and gripping the rope tightly between my hands, I glanced back over my shoulder. The ground seemed to be getting farther and farther away as I felt like I couldn't breathe at all anymore.
Ripping my gaze away from behind me and back to my hands, I bit the bullet and jumped.
I think I mentally blacked out as I didn't remember seeing anything. I felt some air blow against my face but the next thing I remember was landing on my feet before falling backwards onto my ass with my fingers stinging from what I could only guess came from the rope.
"Hey! You did it!" Alex wrapped his hands around my upper arm to pull me to my feet.
My legs felt weak and shaky as I steadied myself, "I wouldn't call that fun."
We were on top of a stage. The hole was directly over the middle of the stage in the auditorium.
There were rows upon rows of seats in front of us. Snow covered the black flooring of the stage, but from the messed-up snow from our entrance there was in fact blue padding around the rope.
"You okay?" Alex asked me quietly as George gave us a hand down from the stage and led us up the main aisle between two sections of seating.
"... I think?"
"You did good, dude," he rubbed my back as I let out a little halfhearted chuckle, nerves still muddling with my mind. "Take a breath."
"It's been an eventful day, man."
George paused right in front of two double doors as he turned back to us. "Welcome," he gave us a smile as he pushed open the auditorium doors to let us into the exhibition hall.
Honestly, the best way to describe the look of this place was how someone would imagine how the Hob looked in The Hunger Games. There were pitched tents where families and others would sleep. Constant fires going in anything that could hold them to either cook whatever was found or to simply stay warm. Even a couple of stalls that looked like small businesses were created. That's probably where George got his fishing pole fixed before he broke it again.
People had trinkets and random supplies set up on top of tables as they either played cards or did something else to keep themselves busy just off to the side. A makeshift grill had two metal garbage cans blazing and some kind of grate over the top of it that had a few fish almost blackened with char.
An older woman was sitting in a chair that was definitely ripped out of the floor of the auditorium hall was sewing a jacket with another shirt that was missing a few buttons laid over her lap. She had a full basket of clothing placed right next to her feet. She smiled gently at us as we passed by.
It almost looked like an actual convention or market was happening in this place with all the people and how at home they made themselves. It was a functioning community right under our noses.
"Best thing about this place," George started as he smiled at us, "the plumbing works. So, no more shitting outside after digging a hole in the frozen ground, and we can properly clean ourselves in the bathrooms."
He continued to lead us around the place, making quick and easy conversation with a couple people. He seemed to be well known and liked around here.
Alex and I got a couple odd looks here and there, but no one said anything. They would greet George, glance our way, and then go about their day. I guess when George said they were used to picking up strays left and right, they grew accustomed to not questioning new faces.
"Ahh, okay here's the worst thing about this place," George jogged for a moment before clapping his hands on the shoulders of a tall guy with wavy, brown hair that was organizing some medical items. George pulled on his shoulders to get the guy to stagger and turn around to face us, "is this dude."
"What? What is happening right now?" 'The worst thing in this place' raised an eyebrow at George.
"I found them."
The guy's slightly tilted downwards eyes widened as his jaw dropped, "No fucking way. You did?" His jaw dropped as he pointed at me and Alex before moving his hand to point at George. "You found them? This is them? You found some people from Jackson."
I gave Alex a quick look before giving this new guy a slight wave, "Uhh, hi."
"Holy shit. We've been looking for you guys for ages." A large smile broke out on his face as he rushed over to me to pull my hand into a handshake. "It is so nice to finally meet you guys. I still can't believe this! Oh my god, hi! I can't really form a coherent thought right now, but hi!"
He moved on from me and over to Alex, doing the same overly excited handshake as George just shook his head at his friend's antics and crossed his arms over his chest. "Karl, this is Alex and Alice. Alex, Alice, this is Karl. He's one of our medics."
"You're a medic?" I asked as I rubbed my thumb across the back of my hand, trying to soothe my hand from the tight handshake I was just given.
Karl scratched the back of his neck, shuffling back to stand next to George again. "Kind of? I'm not the most experienced nor best medic, but I know some stuff. If you come to me, you'll definitely get a scar. Like you'll live, but it won't be pretty." He chuckled to shake off the awkwardness and inconfidence that he had in his abilities.
Giving him a small laugh myself, I shrugged my shoulders to try and help ease the tension, "Hey, that's better than a lot of people."
"I don't want to rush this, but we are on a tight schedule," Alex's eyes were on his watch for a moment. "We would love to talk more about possibly getting you and your people into Jackson, do you have, like, a big man in charge or something?"
"Ehh, not really...?" Karl scrunched his face up. "We aren't exactly like a unified group with a leader, but we all care about each other. And we all have the end goal of making it to Jackson."
I glanced down at my watch to quickly find out that we only had about an hour and a half to make it back to town before people started to worry. Actually, even less since Alex and I had the fastest route.
"Okay, so how about this?" I started to propose. "Do you two know everyone in this place?"
They nodded.
"Alright then, we're going to escort you two back with your own horses. I would offer a ride, but we shouldn't be drawing too much attention."
We needed these people. And to be frank, I didn't feel uncomfortable in this place at all. No one was making a scene or being a hassle. Only problem was getting everyone and their things back to Jackson and bringing two of their well-known people to bounce ideas off of would definitely help.
"You want to bring us to Jackson?" George asked.
"We do?" Alex questioned as well.
"We do," I nodded. "We'll show you the way and you can tell us all about you and these people. And we need to give you important information that might waver your decision of joining, hence why we should only bring you two. If you don't want to come, that's okay too-"
"No, no!" Karl and George started to exclaim and wave their hands.
"Umm, we mean," Karl cleared his throat, "we definitely want to come and if you think that is the best idea then of course."
I clapped my hands together, "Sounds good. Now George, where are those air ducts because I am not going near that rope ever again."