Chapter Five: The Chase
Noah left the supermarket as quickly and quietly as possible. The last thing he wanted was to attract the attention of a giant dog and end up a pile of half-chewed meat like the would-be looters in the storeroom.
As he crept back into the night, it was like a heavy blanket had been lifted from him. The interior of the store had been dark and shadowy, heavy with the smell of ruined food and the iron tang of blood. Out here he could see the stars at least, though they weren’t the only lighting. The distant light of fires burning deeper into the city made orange and black splotches on a canvas highlighted by intermittent white and yellow electric flickering.
For a moment, Noah felt the ground slipping out from underneath him. The world was ending. Death on a scale never before seen by humanity had visited suddenly and without warning. It had already taken an unfathomable toll, and it would only continue to rise. Nothing would be like it was before.
Light-bro bobbed up beside him, and Noah took a few deep breaths, leaning against the side of a truck. The ground firmed up again. He had been through bad times before. His whole life had been a bad time. If anyone could make it through this, it was him.
He gave light-bro a determined nod, then peered out at the shops around him. Many of them had smashed in windows too. A surprising amount were intact though. Noah guessed the looters must have been scared off by the wildlife before they could get to them.
Suddenly, the shapes in the window of a store across the carpark resolved into something like clarity. Thin lines of shadow with slightly bulkier bits near the bottom. He grinned. Fishing rods.
Noah checked the coast was clear and then hurried across. Sure enough, he found himself standing outside a camping store -only partially broken into, too. One of the front glass sliding doors had taken a solid hit from something and cracked, but hadn’t quite shattered.
Noah cast about for something he could use to finish the job. In the end he just gave it a solid whack with his baseball bat. The glass shattered easily, dropping in a rain of tinkling shards. Noah cringed at the noise, but it was worth it. The things he could loot from here would form the basis of years of survival in this new world.
Noah scanned the guns and bows but quickly dismissed them as options. He knew stores like this often disabled them, but he had no idea how to tell if they had been, or how to fix them if they were, and he couldn’t just google it, either. The door to the back rooms was made of thick steel and locked. He imagined that would be where they’d keep the bits and bobs needed to actually make the guns operable.
He also had never used a bow before, and though he thought they were probably simple enough, he was sure there were things he’d overlooked. He wouldn’t have either the space or time to practise enough with it to make it worthwhile, and that was the clincher for him. He wasn’t planning on roaming about like some post-apocalyptic warlord. No, it was the hermit crab strategy for him.
He wasn’t particularly bothered. It’d be nice to have a gun for deterrence, but he’d rather not have to shoot anyone. He’d never used a gun either, for starters. He imagined it’d be pretty embarrassing if some street gang called his bluff and then he couldn’t even shoot them. Or even at them. No, it was fine. There were other options, anyway.
Noah stood in front of a glass cabinet display full of sharp things. He could have just smashed the front, but he was conscious of causing too much noise, and he’d found a big key ring behind the counter anyway. He got the right one on the twenty-something-th try.
He took a couple of big hunting knives and slid them into their sheaths. He tucked one into his pack and buckled the other around his waist. He grabbed a small hatchet too. He wasn’t planning on hitting anyone with it, but it’d be useful for breaking into places and chopping up furniture if he needed to. He slipped the handle through his belt.
Noah was acutely aware that likely every single thing in this store could be useful to him one way or another, so he took his time ‘shopping’. He found some firestarters, and packed them away. Finding several different varieties of water filters put a grin on his face. Now he wouldn’t have to carry heavy bottles around.
His pack was becoming so full that he struggled to fit them in. Then he cursed himself for a fool and went and found a nice, top of the line camping pack. He took five minutes to repack everything from his old one to his new, and by the time he’d finished, it was only half full. The weight was also much better distributed. It even had a tiny wee pocket just for his drugs.
He left out most of the cans he’d found in the supermarket. They were heavy as fuck, and he’d spied something better in here anyway. He packed away a variety of freeze dried packs, MREs, and tins, then topped it off with a small, portable cooking station and collapsible pots.
Next he went to the clothing section. The first thing he grabbed was a pair of nice, sturdy hiking boots. They’d probably be a bitch to break in, but once he did, they’d hopefully last him for years. He got stuck on that thought, then grabbed a second pair, tied them together by the laces, then he hung them from his pack. A pair of nice thick socks went on his feet, and several more pairs into the backpack.
He found one of those sleeping bags that rolls up into an absurdly tiny bundle. One of those lightweight jackets that does the same. Then he grabbed a second one of each after seeing how much room he had. He quickly swapped his pants for a pair of new, warm, durable hiking pants, and stowed a second pair of them, too. Some thermals, beanies, and gloves went in on top.
Finally, he ended up in front of the tents. He was torn on whether to take one. His pack still had a bit of room, and he could probably fit one. But he also didn’t know how to put one up, either. He was sure he could learn, but he was also pretty sure he wouldn’t actually be sleeping outside, either.
In the end, he left them. It was not so much sleeping outside that bothered him, but only having a flimsy wall between himself and a potential killer animal. If he had to sleep outside, he’d rather do it in the open. If he had any choice, he’d take four solid walls every day of the week.
Noah went and stuffed a few extra bits and bobs in his pack to fill it up. No sense leaving with room to spare. While he was finishing up, he found another gem -a plain brown one- and put it in the gem-pocket of his new pack when his tattoo wouldn’t have it.
Noah felt pretty damn pleased with himself. He felt much better prepared to take on this fucking nightmare world now. He shrugged on his pack, testing the weight and balance, and decided he was satisfied with both. The top of the line pack made a huge difference. He must have had twice the amount of stuff in it as his old one, and yet it didn’t feel heavy at all.
Just as he was about to leave he spotted something else, up on the wall above the shelving units: boar spears. He immediately knew he had to have one. Bats and knives were all well and good, but you had to get close to use them. If Noah could poke holes in something from a decent distance away, he’d be much happier. Plus, spears were supposed to be easy to use, weren’t they?
Noah quickly found the ladder they used to access the displays and shuffled it under the spears. Then he shrugged his pack off and leant it against one of the aisle displays and clambered up to grab one.
He had no idea what he was doing, but he chose one that looked about the right length. He plucked it off its pegs and hefted it in his hand. Just then, a deep, throaty growl sounded behind him.
Noah whipped around, which caused the ladder to wobble. He dropped the spear, which made an awful racket as it landed, which in turn caused the freakishly massive dog at the store entrance to charge him.
Noah yelped, but there was nothing he could do. The dog was easily bigger than the staffy he’d seen outside his house, some kind of rottweiler from the looks of it this time, much taller, much heavier, and much more savage looking. He could only watch as easily several hundred pounds of muscle rocketed towards him, snarling and slavering as it came.
He clung to the ladder with all his strength, petrified. The dog leaped at him, snapping, and smashed into the ladder midway up its length. Thankfully, the gnashing teeth missed his leg by half a foot, but the ladder tipped over, sending Noah careening towards the ground.
He lost his death grip on the ladder and fell, smashing onto the top of a shelf and from there falling hard onto the floor. The ladder kept tipping and ended up lengthwise across the other end of the aisle. The dog wriggled around on its back but righted itself, then surged towards him.
Noah scrambled backwards on all fours, but he knew he wouldn’t be fast enough. He squeezed his eyes shut. He felt wet sprinkles on his face and heard an almighty clamour, but no pain came.
He forced his eyes back open. The dog had its head stuck in one of the rungs of the ladder. The ladder, now perpendicular to the aisle he was in, was preventing it from getting any closer. It was lunging at him, over and over, desperate to get at him, but each time the ladder brought it up short.
If he did nothing, it wouldn’t stay that way for long though. The dog was huge and bulky, and with every lunge it was pushing the aisles with the ladder and getting closer to him. The ladder looked like it was bending a little too.
Adrenaline pumped clarity into Noah’s brain. The spear was behind the dog, lost to him now, but his pack was in reach. He got to his feet, which sent the dog into a new frenzy, then in between lunges he reached forward and snatched the pack. He turned and bolted, throwing it around his shoulders as he did, and ran for all he was worth.
There was a tremendous crash from behind, followed by a metallic scraping. Noah didn’t need to look behind him to know what had happened. Noah running triggered the dog’s chase instincts. It had toppled one of the aisles and managed to get past them.
The thought of the dog closing behind him threw Noah forwards, faster than he’d ever run in his life. He cleared the front door at a full sprint and the dog hit it a second later. A resounding boom echoed across the carpark as the ladder struck the security scanner in front of the door. They broke at the base on impact, but carried into the unbroken door panel and pulled the dog up short.
Noah skidded on the broken glass and carried on running. He had absolutely no faith that the glass doors would hold the demon dog for long. Sure enough, just as he reached the street and turned the corner, there came the sound of glass shattering.
The metallic scraping and jostling of the ladder began again. The dog let out a bark that was closer to a roar, both joyous and savage. Several distant howls answered.
Noah’s legs were pumping like pistons, his breath filling his chest in a rush and leaving it in great gusts. His feet flew over the pavement. Wind rushed past his face. His world narrowed to a single idea: faster.
He could hear the ladder screech as the dog reached the road and cornered. He pushed himself faster. The sound of the dog’s breath came, a noise like ragged bellows. He eked out a little more speed. He could hear claws clicking on the pavement. He ran faster still.
From blocks away, he could hear the baying of more hounds as they closed in, eager to get in on the chase.
Noah could feel the noose closing. He knew that at any moment a lunge would pull him down. He had no idea how he’d even run as fast as he had so far, or for so long, but he knew it couldn’t last.
All it would take is a single stumble. It wouldn’t even take that.
Noah’s body was running smoothly. He almost couldn’t believe he wasn’t flagging yet. He could see the grove with the misty pool ahead. The scraping drew closer. Closer still. He had to do something.
He entered the intersection and cornered hard around a building. The ladder grated on the concrete as the dog tried to hard corner after him. Noah risked a glance back, terrified by how loud the sound was.
The dog had been close. Far too close. It would have caught him moments later. As it was, its bulk had worked against it. Its top heavy frame had been unable to handle the abrupt turn and it had rolled.
The ladder swung around wildly as the dog righted itself, and by the time it got back upright it had its front legs tangled in the ladder too. Noah felt a brief flash of hope, but it was crushed just as quickly. The dog let free a frustrated snarl, tossing its head about and trying to free itself of the ladder. Then, when it refused to be dislodged, and seeing its prey gaining ground on it, it started running again.
The dog was slower now, its stride forcibly shortened by its tangled legs and its gait thrown off. It was no longer gaining on him, but it wasn’t losing ground, either. It didn’t matter overly much. He was certain he’d lose to it in an endurance race just as surely as a sprint. It only bought him a little more time.
Noah sped down the pavement, desperately looking for an open door, a window, anything he could use to escape. There was nothing; the doors were all closed, the windows too high. He did catch a few curious faces peering out at him, drawn by the noise of the ladder jangling along the pavement, but they offered no help and made no move to intervene.
Noah kept pounding along, the dog trailing after him. He couldn’t think of a plan. There was no help coming. The barks and baying of other dogs were getting louder and louder. Noah was sure that more would join the first at any moment.
The forest loomed ahead. Noah didn’t particularly want to go in there, but he had no choice. There were no more side streets, and no one was gonna let him run in their front door with Cujo on his tail. The front door probably wouldn’t last long anyway.
He’d have to hope he could lose them in the forest somehow. Maybe the ladder would get caught on a shrub. It was more likely that he would. At least he wasn’t running out of steam just yet.
Noah put his head down and tried for more speed. He crashed through a bush at top speed and then he was running on soft, loamy soil. The metallic rasping of the ladder became a rhythmic thumping as it tapped on the earth.
A triumphant howl pierced the night as one of the other dogs caught sight of him. A second howl followed it a moment later.
Noah tried his best to block it all out. There was nothing he could do but run.
~~~~~
Piper’s lungs were burning. Her feet hurt from her ill-fitting shoes. She was too hot because of her stolen coat. Her purse was an absolute nuisance, but she refused to drop it. All of a thousand different tiny complaints piled on her. She tried her best to ignore them, to push them away, but they clamoured for her attention, trying to drag her down.
It felt like she’d been running for hours. Being hunted through a dark forest was probably messing with her perception of time. Every time she thought she’d lost her pursuit, every time she slowed down, another gunshot would split the night, and a piece of wood would fly off a nearby tree, and she’d be off again.
She was scratched and bruised and dirty. She’d gotten turned around so many times she couldn’t be sure she wasn’t running straight back towards the bar. She didn’t care. She didn’t have room to think. She only had room to run.
She was a rabbit chased by a wolf. A mouse being slowly cornered by a cat. With the slowly dawning certainty of all prey, she knew she was being run down.
Piper crashed through glowing shrubs, skirting around a huge tree, before vaulting over a waist-high root and sprinting off again. Shouts sounded in the distance.
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For what seemed like the longest time, she hadn’t been tired. She’d run further and faster than she ever had before. But she’d started to flag eventually. Gradually, she’d gotten slower and slower, and her pursuers had caught up. Now, she was only keeping ahead by the skin of her teeth.
Half the issue lay with the glowing shrubbery. Every time she had to run through it, it broke, and the sap and pollen glowed too. She had the stuff smeared all over by this point.
She couldn’t stop and hide, or the glow would give her away. She couldn’t run too straight, or for too long in the more open spaces between the enormous trees, or the guards started shooting at her. At the same time, juking around obstacles was less effective because they could clearly see her moving due to her coating of technicoloured sap.
Piper wracked her brains trying to come up with a plan, trying to come up with anything she could do to throw them off, to get away, but like her body, her mind was feeling sluggish. The long night was finally catching up with her.
Her legs started to slow. She knew if she allowed herself to stop, she’d never start again. She tried desperately to find some new reserve of energy she’d overlooked. There was nothing.
The sound of rough male voices shouting to each other floated through the gloom. They were close now. It wouldn’t be long. She could hear them crashing through the undergrowth as they came after her.
There was a metallic jangling too. Was that …barking? The sound of footsteps pounding on the loam echoed through the trees. It sounded like it was coming from ahead of her.
She was surrounded. The realisation only brought relief. She could stop running now. She could finally stop running.
A man burst through a clump of ferns, running at an angle ahead of her, sending brightly coloured leaves flying in a spray. Piper frowned. He wasn’t at the bar. He definitely wasn’t a bouncer. He looked even worse off than her.
They almost collided, both sprinting full tilt, but he didn’t slow down. Instead, he glanced back over his shoulder at her, almost stumbling for his trouble, and screamed at her, “RUN! -FUCK! RUN!”
Piper was confused, at least until she saw some kind of demonic bear chasing after him. Chasing after them, now, she realised with a jolt.
The realisation broke into a new reservoir of adrenaline, and she angled to her right to follow after the sprinting man. He glanced at her again as she pulled alongside him, but neither of them had any more words to spare for the other. Piper sensed in him a kindred soul: someone whose world had also been reduced to one simple imperative: run.
So they ran.
Piper risked a glance back at the creature. There was a ladder trailing along underneath it. It was acting like an anchor, churning up the earth and slowing it down, but the sheer mass of the beast meant it was still keeping pace with them.
Even worse, she could pick out the shapes of more creatures barrelling through the trees too. And those didn’t seem to be as slow.
Piper turned and kept running. She glanced at the man next to her, and he glanced back. In his wild eyed stare she saw all the information she needed. He’d also tried everything, come up with nothing, and was at the end of his rope too.
Suddenly, he was reaching out and pushing her. She stumbled, went flying, crashing into the earth. The man landed on top of her. A small indignant part of her railed against it. What the fuck was he thinking? They had to run! But she was also very tired. It was nice to stop. It was nice to lay down.
Piper realised with a start that the popping noises in her ears weren’t her joints creaking with exhaustion; it was more gunfire. The man had thrown her out of the line of fire, and was protecting her with his body.
The indignance swelled. She could protect herself. She didn’t need this lump throwing his weight around. Spite threatened to follow, but she crushed it ruthlessly. It was kind of nice to have someone look out for her, for once.
She could hear wood splintering and chipping, hear bullets zinging away into the woods. She glanced to the side, could just make out a man stepping out from behind a tree, handgun raised.
A massive shadow impacted him, throwing him to the ground like a ragdoll. There was a confusion of gunshots and vicious snarling, and then the man was pulling her to her feet.
She stared at him. She didn’t want to move. She wanted to lay right the fuck back down and go to sleep. Or die. She wasn’t sure she cared. She especially did not want to run.
But the man was pushing her, pulling her, trying to cajole her onwards. She could see in his eyes that he didn’t want to run anymore either. But she could see something else, too.
He was angry. Angry at her. He was angry at her?
Why? She didn’t ask to be saved. She didn’t ask him to risk himself for her. She was doing fine on her own until this stupid fucker brought literal fucking demons into the mix. And he was angry at her?
Cold green spite slipped its leash. Fuck him. I’ll show him. And she did.
She ran. Again.
She sprinted past the man through the trees. Her world narrowed to keeping ahead of him. She was fairly sure his world had narrowed in the same way. It was minutes before she realised she couldn’t hear gunshots, couldn’t hear pursuit of any kind. She could hear some kind of ruckus, but it was distant now, unimportant.
All that mattered was running.
Ever since the disaster, Piper had found some new reserves of energy, but it was finally running out. No matter how hard she pushed herself, she was slowing. It was okay though, the man was slowing too. She took some small satisfaction that he hadn’t outrun her.
Slowly, slowly, they ground to a halt. They both petered out at the same time, two old cars running out of gas, sputtering to a stop.
The forest filled with the rasping sound of their breathing. Piper hugged her midsection, wheezing, as if it would help her dispel the stitch in her sides.
The man was bent double, bracing himself on his knees. He was tall and broad, dark haired, and incredibly pale too, though she couldn’t tell if that was his natural complexion or a result of the sprint through the woods. Now that she had a moment to assess him, she thought he looked about her age.
“Are you okay?” The man asked in between breaths.
Reflexive indignation rose, but she pushed it down again. He had saved her, after all.
“I’m fine,” she managed between gasps. “You?”
He flashed a grin at her in response, like they’d just pulled off some epic prank. Against her better judgement, she found herself grinning back.
Their triumph was short-lived. A savage bark floated through the trees, then a series of gunshots, followed by a high-pitched squealing. The two of them shared a look, smiles dropping off their faces. Not out of the woods yet.
The dark haired man offered her his hand. She shook her head slightly, starting to walk, but absently noticed the weird tattoo on it. He didn’t strike her as the tattoo type of guy.
He fell in alongside her. They walked in silence, both listening for any sound of pursuit. It wasn’t until half an hour later that some of the tension began to bleed out of them.
Piper’s injuries began to clamour for her attention now that the adrenaline had run its course. She’d skinned both her elbows. Her hands and legs were full of scratches. Her hip was sore as fuck from smashing into the counter in the kitchen. She knew her neck would be a ring of ugly bruises.
She noticed the man was staring at her out of the corner of his eye. He saw he’d been caught out and offered a sheepish grin.
“Noah,” he said.
Piper eyed him suspiciously, unable to decide whether she was being churlish or not. Her body was too wrung out to support any serious thinking.
“Piper,” she replied, eventually. The man smiled like he’d seen a sunrise.
Don’t you fucking dare… she thought, but Noah swiftly mastered his grin, and simply nodded. Then he slowed, and Piper almost bumped into him. She took a step around him, curious.
Just ahead, the forest gave way to city again. She spent a moment trying to place the buildings, the streets, the skyline, but somehow she intuitively knew it was not her city.
“Yours?” she asked Noah. He glanced at her, but shook his head.
“I dunno about you, but I could use, like, at least a week’s sleep,” she said.
“A-fucking-men.”
With that decided, they crept into the city. They slunk along the sidewalk, ears pricked for any sounds, moving quickly and quietly. By unspoken agreement, they moved directly inwards, putting some distance between themselves and the forest.
They’d have to find somewhere to stay soon though. Both of them were at their ragged edges. Piper could feel her legs turning to jelly, and she wasn’t carrying a massive camping pack like Noah. She could see his hands trembling whenever they paused.
After a few blocks, they passed from a residential area into a commercial one. Something about it was scratching at Piper’s subconscious. They continued inwards for a few more blocks, and Noah drew to a halt. He pointed at a strange building.
“They’re different,” he said.
Piper was momentarily confused, then it clicked. She got exactly what he meant. Just as the cities and forest had been thrown together, here, two different cities had been spliced. Now that he’d pointed it out, she could see the skyline was weird.
In the distance, buildings were cut off weirdly, some looking too thin, others far too thick. Some had crumbled into one another. Further in, it looked as though it had caused fires. The faint scent of ash drifted on the breeze, and smoke smudged the sky in several places.
Right in front of them, across the street, was a shop, or maybe a small warehouse. It had been jammed right up against a modern looking three story office block. Piper could see what had caught Noah’s attention. At a glance, the buildings looked like they were merely close together, but they were actually joined.
Noah raised an eyebrow at her. “Should we take a look?”
She nodded, then wandered across the street. Noah followed.
They did a full lap of the conjoined buildings, but found no entries. They’d been joined together by their fronts.
The warehouse-looking side had steel roller doors at the back, but they were locked. The only windows had been shattered by whatever force had spliced the buildings together, but they were also small and high off the ground.
The office building was the same. Thin, horizontal, architecturally designed windows were set high into the ground floor to provide light while retaining privacy. It wasn’t until the first and second floors that the windows became larger, but they were out of reach.
It wasn’t until the last corner of the warehouse building that they found what they were looking for: a fire escape. It was extended, too.
They ambled over. Noah tested it with his weight, pulling on it to make sure it would hold. It was rusty, and looked as rickety as an old wicker porch chair. After some tugging and twisting they judged it solid enough. They scrambled up the ladder and through the gap in the metal landing.
The roof was flat and slightly rubbery. Noah reached down and wrestled with the ladder. He stopped, shrugged off his pack, took a few deep breaths, and set himself against it again.
He strained, the muscles in his neck standing out as he hauled on it with all his might. Eventually, it let out a tortured groan, and started to come up. He had to pause again, panting for breath, but after the initial battle, the rest of the war was easily one. He soon had the ladder retracted.
The pair headed across the roof to where the front of the taller office building had been spliced onto the front of the lower building. Here was what they were placing all their hopes on, what they had noticed from the street: a balcony.
There was still a small height difference between it and the pitch roof. Noah tossed his pack over the glass balustrade, then helped Piper over before climbing up himself.
There was a thin table here, surrounded by plastic chairs. A couple of well-used ashtrays sat on it. There was a rubbish tin in one corner, tipped on its side and yawning open.
Noah crossed to the balcony door and tried it. It slid open soundlessly. Piper crowded up behind him. He pressed his fingers to his lips, and Piper rolled her eyes and shooed him with her hands. Together, they ventured inside.
Noah had dropped his bat during the run through the forest, not that it had been much good to him. He drew the knife at his belt, and Piper drew one of hers, too.
They crept cautiously through the dark interior of the building, both strung out, but alert to the tiniest of noises.
The first room was a break room. It was tidy, and obviously empty. The adjoining hallway contained a few meeting rooms in the centre of the building, and offices around the exterior. Noah and Piper check each one thoroughly. All of them were empty too. Brief scans of the documentation, the degrees hanging on walls, told them this was a legal office.
They found the stairs and elevators at the back of the floor. Noah pointed up and down, raising an eyebrow. Piper pointed up, and up the stairs they went.
The top floor was a little different. The front third of the floor was set out lobby style, open for its entire width. A large desk sat in front of an alcove, which was lined on either side with copiers and printers and fax machines, and terminated in a door. To either side of the desk, further along each wall, were two more doors.
They checked one, then the other. Both led to large, stately offices belonging to the partners. The middle door in the alcove behind the PA’s desk led to a small legal library the partners must have shared. They stopped inside it.
“I’m so fucking tired,” Noah whispered, shrugging off his pack.
“Me too,” Piper replied, stifling a yawn. “But we should check the rest, just in case.”
Noah nodded in agreement. “Wouldn’t be able to sleep without making sure. Let’s go.”
~~~~~
The two of them prowled back downstairs, knives in hand.
“Wait here a moment,” Noah whispered, when they reached the first floor. Piper cocked her head at him, and he produced some keys he’d found on the receptionist’s desk.
“Gonna lock the breakroom. Make sure nothing comes up the stairs.”
He slunk off, quickly rechecking the offices on one side of the floor as he went. He reached the break room, and this time, unlike in the camping store, the keys were helpfully labelled. He locked it, then checked the offices on the other side on his way back to the stairs.
Noah felt paranoid as hell, but after finding the massacre in the supermarket storeroom and his subsequent encounter with the dogs, he wasn’t taking any chances. It was unlikely in the extreme that anyone was still in the building, but given the unlocked breakroom and the extended fire escape, it seemed like someone could have been here late at night when the disaster struck.
It was tedious, but better safe than sorry.
The ground floor had a single, larger conference room taking up the back half, with two smaller rooms for utilities and servers. The lobby was quiet. The slowly lightening sky outside filtered through the small, high windows, casting the glass-strewn marble floor in glittering patterns. The pair crunched and clopped their way across it as quietly as they could manage.
What had once been the glass double doors to the lobby was now an unrelieved white brick wall: the outside face of the other building aligned with the office’s shattered entry.
They listened at the wall, but there was no noise but the occasional low grumble as one of the buildings moved minutely. They felt around the edges of the office’s entryway, but there was no gap whatsoever between the buildings. They’d been well and truly fused together.
Piper let out a slow breath through her nose. Noah sighed in relief. Both of them straightened, the tension flowing out of them.
“Just us, then,” she declared.
“Safe,” Noah agreed.
“Library had couches.”
Noah shrugged, too tired to talk more, and trudged back up the stairs.
~~~~~
Piper followed him. When he slouched off towards the break room again, Piper was too tired to give it any thought. She just kept putting one foot in front of the other, making for the library. She wasn’t even sure she’d make it that far.
As it happened, she made it all the way there. Just. She collapsed on one of the plush modern couches, and it took all her willpower to wrestle off her shoes and arrange a cushion into a pillow.
Noah slid the door closed quietly a moment later. He had a couple of blankets, a bottle of water, and two cups.
“Saw these while we were going through. Must get cold on the balcony, sometimes.”
He shrugged the blankets at her. Piper said nothing. Sleep was rolling her under like a fog.
“I can…” Noah started, unsure of himself. “There’s a couch in the breakroom too.”
Piper would have laughed if she had the energy. She managed a smile though. There’d been a world-shattering cataclysm, and this fucking goose was worried about propriety.
“No,” she said sleepily. “Stay.” She nodded at the other couch.
The relief in his eyes was palpable. He probably didn’t want to spend a night alone in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar building, in an unfamiliar city, in a world that had just become completely unfamiliar too. Even a random spontaneous running buddy seemed like a beacon of familiarity.
Plus, he was harmless. Piper could tell. She had a fucking great bullshit detector, after all.
He placed the cups and water down, poured her one and left it on her side of the coffee table. Then he shook out one of the blankets and tossed it over her.
Okay, he’s probably closer to kind than harmless. Thoughtful, too.
And, she grudgingly admitted, she didn’t much care for being alone either, after everything that had happened. There were worse things than sleeping in the same room as a kind stranger.
She didn’t even care if he snored.