"Nothing... It's all useless, again." William grumbled under his breath. "Anything over there?"
He closed the cupboard he was inspecting and looked over to the other side of the kitchen, where Nora was.
"No... Everything that's left here is spoiled already..." All the cupboards were full of trash and rotten leftovers from long ago. She briefly opened the fridge door, but immediately closed it back as she smelled the putrid odor emanating from within. "Ugh... Oh god..."
"This can't be a coincidence."
"Maybe whoever lived here consumed all of their food reserves?"
William took a look around. There weren't any signs that anyone had lived there since long ago. Doors were busted, windows broken and unbarricaded, trash and dried blood all over the place...
"Remember how the epidemic started? It hit fast. Way too fast for anyone to react. By the time the authorities truly grasped the severity of the situation, it was already too late. It only took a couple of days for most of the city to get wiped out and fall into utter chaos. The vast majority of the buildings were overrun by the infected long before proper measures could be taken. Which is why it's common to find canned goods and food; their owners never even had a chance to use them in the first place."
Nora seemed to think about it for a second, and then nodded. "Then, why...?"
It was strange. After they left the bridge and got back into the relative safety of the building rooftops, they stopped at several points to try and scavenge for supplies. But everywhere they had tried, they found nothing of use.
"We'll keep moving. Our main destination should be nearby. I want you to keep your eyes peeled out there, you hear?"
"S-Sure..." Nora agreed, although with a look of worry on her eyes.
As they returned to the stairwell and headed up towards the rooftop, William kept taking glances at Nora. She was sweaty, shaky, her movements had gotten clumsier and slower. The bags under her eyes denoted her lack of rest and sleep. And of course, she was still shaken up from the incident at the bridge. When they started their trip that morning, she kept trying to keep her clothes tidy and fix her hair when she had the chance. Her clothes were now kind of dirty and her hair unkempt, yet she didn't seem to notice or care about it anymore. He figured that sudden lack of self-care could be attributed to emotional shock, she probably had more important things on her mind right now.
'It almost feels like I'm babysitting her now...' To be fair, he understood her situation. And he couldn't say he didn't care about her at all, not anymore. He didn't really like her, but he didn't mind her either, even if her psychological condition wasn't the best. He also knew he didn't want to just abandon her unless she gave him a good reason to do it first.
However, one didn't have to be a genius to realize she needed some proper rest. And they wouldn't be able to tend to those needs until they were back at the shelter.
"We're getting back outside, stay close to me, and stay alert."
******
[Are you that easy to break down? Is that really all you got?]
'Leave me alone... Shut up, I'm doing my best... To survive, for me, for them...'
[Doing your best? Don't say it like there's something you can do. All you can do is let your instincts run wild. But you have no say whatsoever. If it wasn't for them, you'd be worthless.]
'So what...? If protecting them keeps me going, what's the problem...?'
[Who's going to protect you? Are you going to depend on others? Again?]
'Shut up... Leave me alone...'
[Of course you are. On your own, you can only curl up and pray. Pray that you get to live another day. Pray that you don't get hurt again.]
'Please... Stop... Get out, leave, get out...!'
[Some things never change.]
...
A sudden impact brought Nora back to reality. Drowned deeply in her thoughts, she had run into William, who had stopped walking right at the edge of the rooftop.
"What the hell are you doing!? I told you to stay alert...!" he complained.
"A-Ah...! I'm sorry...!"
"Seriously, pull yourself together... We've arrived."
"Ah? But, I don't see anything special around..." she said, while looking at the surroundings..
"Look down." William pointed his finger down at the street.
As Nora got closer to the edge, she leaned forward and looked down, not sure what to expect. However, as soon as she set her eyes on the balconies below, she noticed right away. The building looked like another apartment complex, similar to their own. A peculiar glint of sunlight reflecting off the object gave away its position. It was a couple of levels below the rooftop, on the third floor. The balcony contained a fancy glass table with what looked like a laptop on top of it, along with some other electronics. And there, hopefully intact, was a portable solar panel.
She remembered the conversation she had with William earlier during the morning, before they left the shelter.
######
"So... We're gonna go look for a solar panel?"
William was leading her through several corridors, up to a room in the top floor. The place looked like an ordinary apartment that had been refurbished and transformed into some kind of management office. Although dark, Nora could tell the room was full of lockers and shelves covered in books and documents, along with lots of random tools and utensils. There were also food reserves stored in there, neatly piled up inside crates in a corner. They weren't plentiful though.
"Exactly. The gate you all used to enter the building, the cellphones I use to lure hordes away and move around the city, traps around the building, lighting, appliances... This entire shelter depends on that thing to function." he explained as he flicked the light switch.
"I see... That makes sense. I assume you've been using one so far? What happened? Did it stop working?"
William kept a moment of silence. He stared at her, as if measuring his words. Nora didn't know what to make of it, but didn't comment on it either.
"It got busted, beats me how. Thankfully, there's several car batteries rigged up as emergency energy storage, but those will eventually run out. We need a replacement for the panel, otherwise this building might stop being safe."
There was a table in the center of what used to be the bedroom. A map of the city was spread on top of it, full of markings and scribbles. William pointed at one specific building block, at the other side of a nearby river.
"Here. Several weeks ago I passed through this area while taking care of unrelated business, and managed to spot a suitable replacement in a balcony. It's quite rare to spot one of these, to be honest, but I couldn't afford to take a detour and grab it at the time."
It wasn't that far away, but she somehow knew it wouldn't be easy to get there. If it was, William himself would've probably gotten it already.
"There's no guarantee the panel will still be at the same spot where I saw it." he added, as he approached a nearby locker and started gathering some supplies onto a backpack. "I don't frequent the other side of the river too much, mainly because of the dangers involved in crossing the river itself. We're likely to find unlooted buildings in the area. So, even if we don't manage to get the solar panel, we shouldn't come back empty-handed."
######
'We're still empty-handed after all...'
In an ironic twist of fate, the dubious element was right there, in plain sight and in the exact spot where it was expected to be.
"We're going in. Get ready, now more than ever." William said, as he pulled a weapon from his bag.
Nora readied her hammer. She kept it ever since she used it at the bridge. It proved more than capable of getting rid of a shambler, and it should be durable enough. Furthermore, it was easy to handle and swing around, and didn't exhaust her in the same way a heavier weapon would. However, the weapon William was holding was not what she expected to see.
"Wait a moment...! A handgun...!?" she exclaimed. "Isn't that too dangerous to use? Won't it draw more shamblers towards us!?"
"This isn't for the shamblers."
Upon hearing that, Nora realized. All this time, she had been oblivious to another very obvious threat in this new world. She inched closer to William, almost touching him, and started feeling a chill down her spine, as if someone was watching her.
"All the buildings we checked on this side of the river were already ransacked. Yet as far as I know, they shouldn't have been. Which means, another group of survivors must be operating on this area."
"You think they'll be hostile...?" she looked around at the neighboring rooftops. Every odd shape and shadow started to look more and more like a potential threat, a stalker watching them from a distance, waiting for the perfect chance.
"I'm certain they will. For all they care, we might just be extra mouths eating their food. You can't hesitate. Shoot first, ask questions later, you hear?"
"O-Okay... Ugh..." Nora picked up on the look William gave her. He likely knew she wasn't too eager to attack another human being unprovoked. She didn't want to become a burden, yet she questioned her ability to avoid doing so. Perhaps she did already.
As they entered the door to the stairwell, William gave her a signal with his index finger on his lips, reminding her to keep quiet before entering the darkness of the building. The sudden transition from daylight to the dim indoors environment made her go blind for a couple of seconds, before her eyes started adapting to the lack of light.
The interior was damp and dusty, the eerie atmosphere of decay and abandonment permeated every pore of Nora's skin, and she felt as if she could jump and flinch at any moment. The previous buildings they had tried to loot also had similar creepy features, but for some reason this one felt different. The potential danger of hostile survivors, along with the shamblers, made every random noise in the distance feel like an imminent threat to be encountered.
Distant creaking noises, little taps and scratches coming from the walls... What sounded like low gurgles and mumbles echoing across adjacent hallways... As they descended the stairs, step by step, a myriad of strange noises seemed to greet them. Nora figured most of them were either coming from her own imagination, or from all the insects and small rodents that now thrived in the city after humanity left it vacant. It wasn't the noise that concerned her, but rather the possibility of the noise's origin being a reason of concern.
Upon reaching the landing above the fourth floor, William stopped in his tracks, and told her to get closer with a gesture. She did as instructed, and took a look at the next landing, where he was now pointing. She struggled to see in the darkness, until she eventually managed to identify a strange mound laying on the floor, right in front of a doorway. It was a shambler. A dead shambler.
Her eyes opened wide upon realizing what that meant.
"You get it, don't you?" William whispered.
Nora nodded. Shamblers don't die on their own.
"Keep your eyes open, and don't make a noise. This place is dangerous. We grab the solar panel, and we're out. No exceptions."
Open doors, dark hallways, corners... Danger could be lurking anywhere. Being spotted before spotting them, that was all it would take.
They sneaked past the shambler corpse and down the stairs, every step as slow and calculated as possible. Nora felt as if every single one of her steps was about to make the floor creak in agony, even though it was solid concrete. Once again, cold sweat started flowing down her face. She could feel her heart pumping like crazy, as her five senses focused on her surroundings. They really needed to grab that panel and get out of that building as soon as possible, before her nerves got the worst out of her.
Step after step, landing after landing, they got to the third floor, where their target was. A hallway extended from the stairwell, with many doors on both sides leading into the apartments. According to what they saw earlier, the solar panel balcony should belong to one of the housings on the right wing, but Nora was unsure of which one. She looked at William, as if hoping he knew. And as a matter of fact, he did. He noticed her gaze, and proceeded to point at the right side of the hallway, before raising four fingers.
'Got it... The fourth door.'
They advanced deeper. Several of the doors were wide open, others were completely busted or caved in, as if something had torn them apart with extreme force. As they approached the first one to the left side, William crouched down just around the corner of the open doorway, and looked for something on his pocket.
He pulled out the pocket mirror he had gotten from the girls when he looked through their belongings the previous day. He inched the mirror past the corner, and took a peak inside through the reflection. After a couple of seconds, he put the mirror back in his pocket and gestured Nora to advance.
'I see, that's why he took the mirror. Clever...'
They repeated the same procedure on another two open apartments, until they finally reached their target. The door was closed. William reached for the doorknob, and very slowly started to turn it. It gave in without resistance. He pushed the door open and readied his gun.
Nora clenched the hammer and attempted to psyche up for the worst, yet she still froze on the spot once they could see what was inside. Dim rays of sunlight coming in through the windows revealed a standing figure, a couple of meters away from the entrance doorway, looking straight at them.
It was a shambler. But it looked different. Its eyes were wide open, and instead of the monotone, milky white color of the ones Nora had seen before, those eyes seemed to glow in a faint blue hue. Slight traces of that same sickly blue light seemed to emanate from the creature's blood vessels, barely visible under its decaying skin, like some kind of otherworldly bioluminescence.
It only stared at them for a split second. Nora barely had time to react, the thing had already lunged towards them.
"Shit! Watch out–!" William reacted without hesitation. He pushed Nora out of the way and barely evaded the shambler, which slammed against the wall behind them.
Nora watched in horror as he stomped the shambler right on the head, not giving it a chance to get back up. Over and over, until the skull caved in and it stopped moving.
"W-What... what was that...!? Oh god..." her voice came out shaky and insecure.
"There's a reason why darkness is considered dangerous. Now get up and–" William stopped talking abruptly.
'Huh...?'
Why did he stop all of a sudden? Why was he raising his gun and aiming in her direction? She really didn't have a chance to ask herself more questions. She felt a strong force grabbing her from behind and raising her up, along the cold feeling of steel against her neck.
"Don't move, sweetheart. Or I'm gonna paint the walls with your insides." she heard an unknown male voice talking directly on her right ear.
She felt like she could piss herself at that point. Without realizing it, she dropped her hammer, which made a loud noise as it banged against the floor. Her heartbeat went through the roof, she could do nothing but stand still, paralyzed by the fear.
"Let her go. Now." William was aiming directly at them. Nora didn't feel safe. She didn't know if William would actually be willing to shoot and risk hitting her by mistake. She didn't know to what extent he trusted her, to what extent he cared about her at all.
"Ooooh, a gun, how scary... I think I have an idea of who you are..." said the man.
"He's definitely the bastard that has been roaming around the area and stealing our food. I've seen him before." a second voice emerged from behind. Nora couldn't see either of them, but there were at least two men behind her.
"Don't make me repeat myself, let her go and piss off." William switched his aim between the two individuals. His trigger finger looked like it was shaking. Insecure, or eager? Nora couldn't tell.
"You've got some nerve, coming into our territory and even making demands! Who the fuck do you think you are!? Just because you have all those fancy weapons you get to do whatever the fuck you want!? No wonder the boss is pissed off with you!"
"How do you know about...? Shit, I should have figured, you pieces of shit are–!" William's sentence was cut short by a blunt hit to the back of his head.
"Shut it already." a third man had sneaked behind him from the other side of the hallway. He was holding a heavy-looking pipe in his right hand.
"Well, what do you know, we actually got rid of this motherfucker, and got ourselves a juicy treat. Talk about a lucky day."
As the first individual pressed the knife against her neck, the other two approached her to take a better look at her. They were covered in dirt and blood stains; their clothes were pretty much in pieces and ruined all over. The look on their faces denoted nothing but depravity, like predators who had just captured the most delicious prey of their lives.
"Behave, will you? And maybe you'll get lucky." said one of them, as he proceeded to grab her face, as if inspecting her in detail.
'I'm going to die.', thought Nora. Yet dying wasn't the worst part. Perhaps dying would be a blessing. Who knew, what kind of things those men had in store for her? She was like a cornered, terrified rat in front of a pack of hungry cats.
She snapped under the pressure. She couldn't take it anymore. If that knife on her neck was going to kill her, then so be it.
Her sudden bout of strength got the men by surprise. She pushed and kicked with all her might, somehow breaking free of the knife threatening her throat. As she stumbled back towards the stairwell, she attempted to run, but the corpse of the shambler they had previously killed caused her to trip and fall.
One of the men fell on top of her, attempting to restrain her.
"Stay put, bitch!!"
Nora yelled and screamed while clawing back at his face and trying to gouge his eyes. The man complained and groaned in pain, but quickly managed to overpower her and grabbed her neck with both hands, trying to strangle her in a fit of rage.
"Woah, woah...! Hey, shut her down already!!"
The other two individuals rushed over to try and help restrain Nora. Her vision was starting to get dizzy and blurry from the pressure on her neck, and it wasn't long until she started to lose strength on her arms. As the other two men grabbed her arms and pinned them down against the floor, the one on top of her released her neck, causing her to start coughing violently.
"Hey, hang on a second... You hear that...!?"
"Oh shit... Hey, hey, we need to go, now!!"
"No way, man...! I haven't touched a woman in so long, you've got to be joking!"
"Are you retarded!? Do you want to die over a sack of meat!?"
Nora didn't really know what was happening. All she could hear was noise. She could tell the men were arguing with each other over something, but she was unsure what it was. The grip on her arms had been released, the heavy weight on top of her was gone, so she rolled over to the side and kept coughing for a couple of seconds.
'Am I... saved...?'
She quickly realized she wasn't. The distant growls, getting louder and louder by the second, were an obvious sign of danger.
"Damn it!! This stairwell is no good, we've got to head for the other side, hurry!!"
"You're joking!? Go for the window!! They're coming from that side too!!"
"Ah, shit–!!"
Screams. Loud, bloodcurdling screams filled the hallways. Nora looked up, and despite her dizziness, she saw many figures. They were hurrying past her, bumping into her and tripping on her legs as they tumbled across the corridor, pouring in mass into one of the nearby apartments. Like guided by an animalistic hunger, they ignored everything but the source of the screaming. It sounded like many voices were shouting in agony, crying for help, but she didn't really care.
She looked over, and saw a big dark lump on the floor besides her. A lump she knew quite well.
'William...'
She crawled towards him, dragging herself along the floor. She barely had any strength on her limbs.
'I can't... Not here... Come on, move... Please...'
The screaming had stopped already, but the horrific sound of the shamblers in their feeding frenzy kept attracting more and more to that particular apartment, to the point where they could barely fit inside anymore.
Tapping on all the strength she had, Nora pulled on William. And she kept pulling. She could still feel the shamblers dragging their feet past her, literally touching her, but the sound of the crowd seemed more interesting to them. She just pulled. At that point, she knew she couldn't possibly do much more than that.
As she looked to the left, she saw an open door. It didn't look broken. With a lot of effort, she dragged William inside. She noticed blood on her right arm. There was an obvious cut near her shoulder. When had she gotten that cut? It didn't really matter for now, it didn't hurt.
After making sure William's body was completely inside the room, she pushed the door closed, and laid herself against it. She didn't bother locking it, she lacked the emotional strength to do so.
...
She wept as silently as she could.