A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the wait - I just battled a buttload of Writer's Block for this chapter. But my ideas for this chapter extended too long to fit in one part, so hopefully Chapter 7 will come much quicker!
CHAPTER SIX: DARKNESS IN THE HEART
"This place is weirdly quiet," I told Hailee as we walked through the deserted town that was over the wall of our base.
"Don't be fooled," Hailee said quietly, "this town's dangerous,"
"How?" I asked.
"There are creepers around every corner," she told me, "all they need is one noise to lure them all out. This place is one of the worst to be in,"
I frowned. "So why stay here? Why settle down and build a base in this town if it's so precarious?'
"The site of the warehouse is one of the biggest around," she replied, "and also one of the most secure. With Haz's modifications...it's the perfect sanctuary. For us – the pros of this place outweigh the cons,"
"Even though it's full of walkers outside our walls?"
Hailee nodded. "Even so,"
I nodded back before changing the subject. "So, uh...what exactly are we doing out here?"
"It's time for our daily scavenge. A few of us spread out into town each day to find supplies,"
"Haven't you picked this place clean yet?"
Hailee shook her head. "It's really hard to get around with these monsters all over the place; especially since we're aiming for the more dangerous areas of town these days. It's our best bet to find supplies – since hardly anyone's got the balls to go into those places,"
I gulped in fear at the statement. "But, uh...you've been in some of them before, right?"
"Oh, yeah. Louis & I have been in and out of plenty," she said with a nod, "but not so much anymore...I mean after all we have Eric to think about,"
"Of course," I nodded, "so...you get used to being around these dark areas then?"
"Mhmm. As long as you're good with stealth, you have nothing to worry about,"
"Stealth?" I bit my lip, "that's, er...something I could use some brushing up on. I'm more of a, um...straight-out killer,"
"Well, that's fine and dandy if you're just facing a few," said Hailee, "but when it's a whole big group of them, there's no way you can face them off on your own,"
"I know," I sighed, "it's gonna land me into trouble one day if I don't try to improve my stealth,"
"How come you prefer to kill than to avoid?" She asked; looking at me.
"I can't...stop hating them," I said; feeling anger beginning to boil up inside me as I spoke, "they took away everything...everyone that I loved," I inhaled sharply; angrily tightening my grip on my hatchet, "every fucking time I see them...I just want to mutilate them all,"
"I can understand that," said Hailee with a nod, "but...the key to surviving these things is learning how to control your hatred, Laura. If all you want to do is kill them...you're gonna end up being the dead one. Or undead,"
"I know," I sighed, "I'm trying my best,"
"Well, here's your chance to prove that,"
Confused, I looked up at her and frowned – only to see that she was looking directly in front of us instead. Following her eyes, I felt my jaw drop at the obstacle in front of us. A giant truck crashed into the side of an office building – leaving a gaping hole in the window just above the vehicle.
"This is how we get into the more treacherous part of town," said Hailee; gesturing to the battered truck, "the other side of this building leads into the heart of the place – where the majority of this town's undead are. The only way to get through, is with some hardcore stealth," she looked at me, "think you can handle it?"
I looked up at the hole; my stomach lurching as I took in how eerily dark it looked...making me unable to see anything beyond it unless I entered. I gulped; and I wrung my free hand and took a deep breath before turning to Hailee and nodding.
"If I don't start getting into it now, I never will," I said.
"That's the spirit," Hailee smiled and patted my head playfully, "come on, then. You need to give me a boost,"
"OK," I replied with a nod.
Cautiously, I made my way to the truck and crouched down; putting my hands together so that Hailee could step into my open palms and hoist herself onto the top of the truck with a grunt. As soon as she was on top, she held out her hand to me.
"One big jump, Laura." She instructed me.
I nodded and made a jump for her outstretched hand; my sneakers squeaking against the truck's cargo carriage as I scrambled on top of it.
"You ready for this?" Hailee asked me seriously.
Taking a deep, shaky breath; I nodded. "I guess,"
Hailee nodded back. "Just follow my lead,"
She turned around and disappeared into the dark hole; and I gulped and crossed my fingers before following her – trying to avoid the sharp shards of broken glass as I awkwardly climbed through. There was a bit of a space between where we were and the floor; but after a little jump our feet were set firmly on the ground.
"Last time we were here, it was clear for the first few sections," Hailee told me, "then there was a whole bunch of them around the middle of the first floor, but once we started going up the building they began to wean out. We only have to go as far as the third floor to come out from the other side,"
"OK. Sounds easy enough," I said; sounding way braver than I felt.
She didn't say a word and kept moving forward – beckoning at me to follow her. Biting my lip, I pulled out my crowbar and jogged slightly to catch up with her. Together we maneuvered through a dark, empty hall – the silence between us unsettlingly eerie. Despite how much more pacified I'd feel if we shared a little bit of conversation – I still knew perfectly well that it was a terrible idea.
Hailee suddenly stopped in her tracks, and she immediately grabbed my arm and pulled me beside her into a dark corner before I could move any further. Confused, I frowned at her – but she was way too focused to notice – looking like a hungry cat silently stalking its prey.
"There's our first guy," Hailee whispered to me; pointing ahead of her.
My eyes followed her direction, and in the darkness I could just make out the silhouette of a dazed walker wandering around on the path ahead of us; its strained moaning sounding almost pained as it lumbered down the hall in wonky, limping steps.
"We take him out, we move forward. Care to do the honours?" Hailee asked, looking at me.
"Sure," I replied; tightening my grip on my crow bar and holding it at the ready. However, just as I was about to make my way over, Hailee held out an arm in front of my chest and stopped me.
"Don't use that," she nodded at my crowbar, "soon enough we'll be dealing with way more than just him in here. Things like that will get stuck in their heads way too easy – nowhere near suitable for a swift kill," she pulled a screwdriver out of her pocket and hand it to me, "put that crowbar away, and use this instead. It's much easier,"
I nodded and sheathed my crowbar; taking the screwdriver from her with a thankful nod. She nodded back and gave me a look that said 'Do your thing.' I looked back at the walker, and chewed on my lip anxiously; taking a deep breath before gingerly edging towards him. Despite how quietly I was walking, I could still hear my footsteps echoing off the walls; my breathing heavy and ragged as I continued to make my way over. How the hell was this zombie not hearing me yet? Maybe it's my mind making me think I'm being louder than I actually am.
Fuck. Why is this making me so damn nervous? I've killed so many of these things before – more than enough times on my own. But I suppose trying damn hard to be quiet so he doesn't hear me in a long, echo-ey hall puts a little bit of pressure on.
Fuck this. I'm not coming to him. He's gonna have to come to me.
I tightened my grip on the screwdriver in my hand before ducking down behind a vending machine where the zombie was just a few feet away. I peered around the corner of the vending machine; having to squint in the dark to see him properly. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
I hope I don't regret this.
"Psst!" I hissed at the walker, "Hey!"
He turned around slowly; moaning almost questioningly as he lumbered toward me – craning his rotten neck to try and find the source of my voice.
"That's it..." I whispered; only loud enough for me to hear, "just a liittle closer..."
I saw his shadow reflecting off the dimly lit wall; and I could see his head beginning to poke around the vending machine. Fighting the chills that were already shooting down my spine, I kicked the thing in the knee until he was face-palmed onto the ground; and kneeling over him I raised the screwdriver and immediately plunged it deep into the back of his head.
"Nice," Hailee said; stepping over the corpse to stand beside me, "I see you're fond of the kick-in-the-knee trick,"
"Yeah," I nodded, "knocks 'em down right away. Tons easier to finish them off. It works like a charm,"
"Harry's fond of that move too," said Hailee, "he's a pro at the kick-and-stab,"
"Really?" I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
"Yeah, well, if you're the leader of a survival group, you gotta know a few good moves,"
"True," I said with a nod.
"You should ask him to teach you some of them one day," she suggested, "you've got spunk, kid. If anyone call pull off Harry's techniques, it's you,"
"Aw...thanks," I said with a shy smile.
"No problem," she winked at me, "now come on. We gotta get moving. Haz gets worried if we're out for too long. Sometimes he goes out to look for us himself,"
"Huh. Caring," I said (mainly to myself). I was pretty surprised that he'd go out of his way like that for his team.
"Mhmm. Another reason he's loved by all," Hailee chuckled.
However, as we turned a corner, she then turned serious again and looked at me – pressing a finger to her lips and telling me to be quiet. After I looked at her questioningly, she cocked her head in the direction of the corridor in front of us; and as I peered around the corner, my eyes widened as I saw that the room at the end of the hallway was packed with walkers.
"Walker encounter number one," Hailee whispered to me; pointing at the cluster of creepers, "we're not going through there, don't worry – there's a little notch just before the end of the corridor that leads to an elevator. The lift itself is long gone – but the elevator shaft is still there. There's a ladder in there that will lead as far as the top of the building – but we're not going that far,"
"Won't they see us walking down the hall?" I asked.
"Not if we hug the walls and stay totally silent," Hailee replied.
I nodded slowly. "OK. Gotcha,"
We darted over to the other side of the hall; shimmying along the walls as we slowly made our way down the corridor. I was beginning to see the notch in the hallway Hailee was talking about – dark and doomful and making me feel as if once I walked in there, I was never coming out.
Hailee grabbed my arm and pulled me into the shadows. I could hear her hand against the wall as she felt her way through the darkness. I felt her release me, and then I just stood there awkwardly – trying to figure out what she was doing as I began to hear her fumbling around.
I had to gasp a little as a bright light suddenly illuminated the area at about a 3-foot radius from where we were standing.
"Can you hold this for me?" Hailee was pushing her torch into my hands before I could look twice.
"Uhh...sure," I replied, nodding and taking the torch from her.
"Thanks. Just keep the light around me,"
I nodded again and shone the light towards her; and I watched as she crouched down to the ground and began to crawl around as if she were searching for something.
"Come on, where the hell did Viv put them last time..?" she was mumbling to herself, "where the fuck—ah! Here we are,"
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
"Looking for these,"
She held up a strange contraption into the light of the torch; some freaky-looking silver device with two metal things that looked like blades attached to another metal thing with a jagged outer edge, and a hand-cranked lever attached to one of the blades.
"What the hell is that?" I asked with a gulp.
"They're rib spreaders," Hailee replied casually.
My jaw dropped, and I felt goosebumps beginning to form on my arms & legs. Rib spreaders? That sounded fucking terrifying.
"W-Why the hell do we need rib spreaders?!" I demanded.
"Shh!" Hailee reminded me with a loud shush, "We need them to open this elevator door. It's the only way we can get through – these doors are always jammed pretty tight. Now help me pry them open a bit so I can get this in between them,"
Shaking slightly; I nodded and hooked my fingers around one side of the thin gap that separated the elevator doors, while Hailee grabbed the other side and told me to pull on the count of three. With strained grunts we pried open the doors by a small crack; and Hailee wedged the rib spreaders in between them.
"Stand back, Laura," Hailee told me, "this thing requires a lot of elbow grease,"
I nodded and took a step back; watching with fascination as Hailee began to crank the lever; the blades moving further and further apart and easily separating the doors. Soon enough the rib spreaders opened a gap in the elevator doors far enough for us to shimmy through.
"Let's move," said Hailee, "but watch out – you need to step to the side and swing onto the ladder as soon as you're in,"
She turned so that her shoulder was the first to go in as she carefully slipped into the gap in the elevator. I poked my head through the gap to see what she meant by 'swinging' on to the ladder.
Indeed, she meant exactly what she meant – as she shuffled across the thin ledge along the inside of the doors towards a ladder on the wall that led all the way up the elevator shaft. Like she said, she grabbed a rung and swung herself onto the ladder; beginning to climb it with slightly ragged breaths.
"You coming?"
Biting my lip, I nodded and pressed my back against the doors – shimmying along the tiny ledge and continuously telling myself to not look down. As soon as I was close enough I grabbed the rung closest to me and swung myself onto the ladder; trying to look up and see what was ahead, but it was hard with Hailee's rear end in the way.
"Sorry that you have to look at my ass," Hailee said; as if reading my mind.
I couldn't help letting out a little snicker. "No problem,"
"You only have to put up with it for a couple floors,"
"I'll survive," I promised; and she let out a quiet chuckle in response.
However, after that we continued our climb in silence; and I heard nothing but the small sounds of shoes meeting with metal as we made our ascension.
I began to hear the unmistakable pained moans of walkers echoing around the whole space; clearly indicating that they were somewhere on a floor nearby. My breath hitched; and I stopped climbing immediately out of fear.
"Don't worry about it," Hailee said, "just keep moving,"
"B-But they sound so-"
"If they try to follow us, they'll fall forward and plummet down, down, down until they face-plant on the ground floor. They'll be toast,"
"Y-Yeah...I guess y-you're right,"
"Of course I am," said Hailee, "now, uhm...don't freak, but those zombies you're hearing? We're about to pass by them in a minute,"
"Oh...O-OK..." I began to chew on my lip all over again.
"Just keep moving and don't focus on them," Hailee instructed me.
As I continued to climb, I could hear the walkers getting louder as I came closer. I began to see light coming up ahead as we began to approach an open floor. Soon enough, I passed it, and looking through the open doorway I felt my eyes widen as I took in the vast amount of creepers wandering around the whole storey. One of them came too close to the doorway and stumbled forward; plummeting all the way down to the ground floor and making me wince as it crashed into the ground with a loud crack.
"Told you," Hailee said, "now come on – keep it together. One more floor and we can get out of this hell hole,"
I nodded slowly and gulped; looking away from the floor full of zombies and continuing the climb. Soon enough we reached the third floor, and following suit from Hailee I took one big jump and made it into the third floor.
"Keep moving," said Hailee, "just a few more feet and we're in the heart of town," she beckoned me closer, "just watch out though – there's monsters everywhere. They never give you a break,"
Before I could even reply she was already running off without me – causing me to gasp and jog after her. We turned a corner and went down a small corridor before Hailee hoisted herself onto another vending machine and moving towards the ledge of a broken window.
"Here's our ticket out of here," she called down to me, "watch out for broken glass,"
Without waiting for me she disappeared through the window – urging me to immediately hop onto the vending machine and climb onto the ledge. I sighed in relief when I saw that Hailee actually was waiting for me just outside; smiling as she saw me crawl through the window.
"Nice work. Good to see that you can keep up," she said with an approving nod.
"Thanks," I said with a heavy sigh; smiling up at her tiredly. However, it immediately disappeared when my head turned and I took in the sight of what Hailee called the 'heart' of the town, "Holy..."
From where Hailee & I were standing on top of some sort of platform that looked like a giant cargo crate, the only thing I could see was walkers. They were everywhere...walking around in wonky circles in the middle of the courtyard in front of us. I could see them through the broken windows of abandoned buildings, and I saw them constantly emerging from the shadows.
"Welcome to Zombieville," Hailee said, "I told you we'd be facing a lot of 'em,"
"H-How the fuck are we supposed to get down there?!" I whispered urgently.
"Ah. That's the fun part," Hailee let out a chuckle, "follow me,"
She walked over to the left side of the crate; where a school bus had crashed right beside it. She climbed onto the school bus and then onto a broad fallen tree trunk – which led to a building with a ladder running up the side of it which led to a bell tower.
"Hailee!" I hissed; getting sorta annoyed that she was continuously leaving me behind.
With a sense of urgency, I followed her exact steps: hopping onto the bus, and then onto the trunk (which made my heart stop for a second because my foot slipped on the smooth wood and nearly made me fall), then up the ladder and finally stopping by the bell tower.
"This bell leads all of them to the other side of town," Hailee explained, "it clears the area for about 10 minutes – enough time to get down into that courtyard and decide what building we want to raid – before they come back. Then, through another route, you get back to this tower, ring the bell, and run for your fucking life,"
"And then?" I asked, intrigued.
"And then it's back to where we started: Back through the broken window, down the elevator ladder and out of this building, and then back to base,"
"Sounds tedious," I said with a frown.
"Survival isn't meant to be easy," Hailee said matter-of-factly.
"I guess not," I replied; nodding in agreement.
"Would you like to get used to the feel of the bell?" Hailee asked; offering the bell rope to me.
"Uhh...sure. Why not?"
Hailee smiled and handed me the rope. "It's all yours,"
I bit my lip and took a deep breath; citing a silent prayer before making a tight grip on the rope and beginning to pull. Loud, booming rings projected throughout the whole town. I looked down into the courtyard, and saw that the zombies were beginning to look up in the direction of the ringing, and began to disappear to the other side of town.
"Nice," Hailee complimented, "a few more, and we should be sweet,"
I pulled the rope five more times before releasing it, and as soon as Hailee called out 'GO!', we ran all the way down into the courtyard.
"Which building?" I asked her hastily.
Hailee bit her lip and turned her head in all directions; seemingly unable to decide which building we should raid. However, as I watched her face, I saw her brows beginning to furrow in confusion.
"Hang on...was that..?" She asked distantly. It mainly seemed like she was talking to herself.
"Uhm, Hailee?" I addressed her, "In case you forgotten, that bell-"
"I know. Just give me a second. I'm thinking,"
"This is no time to be thinking! Just pick a place so we can get the fuck outta here!"
"That building..." she began, pointing to what was probably the nicest building of the block, "...has been blocked by a police car for at least four and a half months,"
"What? A-Are you sure?" I asked.
"Positive," she nodded vigorously, "somebody unblocked it. They must've found a way to get in here, too,"
"How come you're only noticing this now?!" I demanded.
"I haven't actually been in this part of town for two months," Hailee said, "my priorities have changed for a while now,"
"Well, are we checking it out or not? 'Cause these zombies will be coming back any minute,"
"Laura, this is a building that's been opened up for the first time since we've been taking refuge in this town. Of course we're checking it out,"
"OK, so let's move our fucking asses!" I hissed.
Hailee nodded and took my arm, and we both ran towards the building.
"It is locked?" I asked, glancing at the door.
Hailee gave the door a pull. It opened with ease, and she gasped in surprise.
"...no. I-It's...it's open..." she breathed.
"W-What? B-But how?" I felt my eyes widen, "If someone went as far as to get a police car out of the way so that they could use the building blocked by it...wouldn't they keep it a little more secured?"
"It is pretty fishy..." Hailee admitted; beginning to chew her lip nervously.
I nodded in agreement. "This is a risk we probably shouldn't take. Not when it's just us two, at least. Should we try somewhere else?" I asked.
After a long pause, Hailee nodded, and we both turned and began to make our way back. However, we both gasped as we saw the shadows of the town walkers slowly appearing on the walls of all the other buildings; indicating that they were returning.
"It's too late," Hailee whispered, "we're out of time, Laura. We have to go in,"
"But-"
"I know it's suspicious, but where else can we go?"
I gulped; watching with fear in my eyes as I began to see the zombies coming around the corner. Hailee was right. There was no way we could make it into a different building without them seeing us. We had to do it.
"You're right," I said quietly. Taking a deep breath, I looked at her and nodded, "let's go."
Hailee nodded back, and she began to reach out for the door. I saw her hand beginning to tremble as she reached for the door handle and opened it just enough for us to slip inside. And as soon as we entered, we heard the moaning and growling of the walkers coming from just outside – proving that there was no turning back.
Even though the walkers were on the other side of the door, I still felt as if entering this building just put us into some real deep shit.