“We shouldn’t have come here! Maybe we should’ve just made a run for any of the other empty streets…! This is creeping me out so much, it’s awful! And we don’t even know what he’s planning to do with us…”

“Stay calm, please. I don’t like this either, but right now we don’t have any other choice. Besides, he did save our lives after all. Let’s try to be cooperative for now, okay?”

Claire nodded, although Nora could clearly read signs of hesitation in her eyes. Not too surprising, that entire situation came as a shock. They had been living in relative comfort and safety until some days ago. And now, all of a sudden, they find themselves buried under a shambler wave, running for their lives, and then threatened and forced to strip at gunpoint. Not exactly your everyday routine.

‘If this man wanted us dead, he wouldn’t have helped us in the first place, right…? Of course, he could still have other sinister intentions in mind, but for now we should be safe. At least, safer than out there.’

Nora turned to Lilian, crouching down a little bit to get to her eye level, and patting her head.

“Sis, are you doing okay?”

“Mhm…” Lilian mumbled in affirmation.

The girl dragged her eyes around the room, before making shy eye contact with Nora again.

“I… don’t like this place…” She pinched Nora’s blouse, as if this provided her with extra safety. ”But… I like it more than the bad guys outside.”

A warm smile formed on Nora’s face, followed by a hug.

“Aha, that’s right, the bad guys can’t get to us here! Let’s go, okay?”

The room they had gotten into was quite unusual. It was a plain square room, completely empty except for a ladder in the middle, leading to a crude opening in the ceiling. It looked like the hole had been made by busting the ceiling from above. There was another door in the room, but it had been sealed shut with wooden planks and scrap metal. With no other way to go, the group headed for the ladder.

“I’ll go first.” said Nora. “Lilian will go right behind me. Claire, can you watch over her from below and make sure she gets up safely?”

“Sure.”

The ladder didn’t stop at the first floor. It had been enclosed on all four sides with brick walls. The same thing seemed to repeat over several floors, there was nowhere to go but all the way up. At the very top of the third floor awaited them a large metal hatch, already open. Nora noticed it looked really heavy, she doubted any of them could have pushed it open. They got up into what looked like the bedroom of an ordinary apartment. The bed itself was nowhere to be seen, most likely to leave space for the ladder hole.

As she helped the girls up, she couldn’t help but think about how elaborate and intricate the modifications to the building were. It didn’t look like something a single person could have done.

‘What now…? He obviously guided us here, but I doubt he’ll just let us roam freely around the building…’

“Girls, stay close to me.”

Claire and Lilian followed her through the bedroom door, into the rest of the apartment. The place itself was small and cramped, consisting only of a kitchen area with some essential furniture and a single, rundown bathroom. The entrance door had been removed, and replaced with a barred metal door, similar to the ones found in jail cells. Nora tried to open it, but to nobody’s surprise, it didn’t budge.

She sighed.

“All the cupboards and drawers are empty, there’s nothing anywhere…” said Claire. Her tummy groaned in complaint.

They had been forced to run away and steal the car in a panic, without any chances to grab proper supplies. The places they decided to try and scavenge for food had already been swept clean. They were thirsty, and none of them had eaten anything since days ago.

‘Just hang in there a bit longer. I’ll get us out of this somehow.’

Nora sat down against the wall and rested her eyes for a while.

…

Footsteps broke the silence, echoing through the hallways, prompting Nora to immediately stand up.

******

Among their stuff, the only useful things he found were a pocket mirror, a lighter and a couple of cellphones. All of these resources could be put to good use in the right situations. The rest of the stuff was random crap. He even found money. For what reason were these people carrying money around was beyond him, bills were nothing but glorified fire kindling now.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

As he approached the apartment door, he was met with a defiant gaze. Nora was the only one in sight. He leaned against the metal door, and pointed at himself with his right thumb.

“The name’s William.”

He was carrying a bag over his left shoulder, which he proceeded to drop on the floor.

“This is the stuff I took from you earlier. You’ll get mostly everything back, except some select items I found of special interest. But we need to talk about a couple of things first.”

Nora was just staring at him and listening. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but decided to stay silent out of caution. William leaned back against the hallway wall, pulled out the lighter and a single cigarette, and started smoking.

“So, what can you do?”

“Wh-what do you mean…?”

“Any skills? Useful skills? I’m not exactly running a charity here. What did you do before everything went to hell?”

“Um… I was an accountant. Office work most of the time…” Nora avoided his eyes and bit her lips, aware of how unimpressive that sounded, given the situation.

“I see… And the other two?”

“Claire was a university student, and Lilian… she’s my younger sister, and she has… mental health issues. She needs special care.”

“Alright, I get the idea…” William took a long puff. “So, you’re mostly dead weight.”

“W-Wait! We’re not! We’re willing to help if that’s what you want!” Nora got closer to the door, flustered.

“But can you? Are you aware of what it takes to survive out there?”

“Uh…! I-I’ve seen what’s out there, alright? We came all the way from–“

“Seeing isn’t enough.” He went back to the door and stared at her dead in the eye. If looks could kill, she would be dead and buried. “People like you don’t survive out here for long. You haven’t been exposed to the perils outside on a daily basis, have you? I can tell just by looking at you and the things you’ve done so far. From the way you arrived here, the way you look, the way you act…”

As some tears bundled up on her eyes, she crumpled down against the door.

“I just can’t figure you out. You’re trying to put on a front for those two, I assume? Yet you dragged them into this. Hoping to find more survivors? In the middle of the city? That logic is fucking insane; no amount of survivors would make such a trip worth it, blindly tumbling into the most dangerous place I could think of. The more I look at you, the more hopelessly unaware you seem. There has to be some ulterior motive at play here.”

Nora started mumbling, with barely audible words. “I know… I know, damn it…”

Her mumbling quickly turned into bitter sobbing, the atmosphere getting more and more uncomfortable by the second.

“We… we need help…! We’re hungry, thirsty, we have nowhere to go… We can’t survive this on our own…! I brought them here, I made mistakes, I know I’m hopeless!! Yet I don’t know how to fix it…!”

‘Finally some honesty, huh? She’s been acting tough most likely to protect those two, but everyone has a breaking point.’

“Nora, are you okay…!?” Claire’s voice sounded distant, emerging from the bathroom. “H-Hey Lilian, stay still, you can’t go…!”

“Stay in there, girls! I’ll handle–“

“Hey, pipsqueak, come out here.” ordered William.

Claire’s head peeked from the bathroom door at waist height. “M-Me…?”

William nodded and gestured with his left hand, prompting her to approach him, while having another puff at the cigarette. As she got closer, he started rummaging through the bag he had dropped earlier. Nora, still slumped over, observed and listened with teary eyes.

“So, what’ve you been studying?”

“Um… Biology, sir.”

“Huh, biology... Then maybe this will be up your alley after all, makes it easier.”

He pulled out a smaller bag, looking quite heavy for its size. After throwing the still unfinished cigarette away, he grabbed a key from his pocket and opened the door, prompting Nora to stand up and get out of the way.

“Here.” William handed Claire the small bag, which she took after a moment of hesitation. “The sooner you start, the better.”

“Uh… these are… books?” The bag contained several books, on the topics of botany, gardening, and basic survival skills. “My studies didn’t really cover all of this, though…”

“Like I care. Get familiar with all this, then you can be of proper help.”

As he pushed the bag with all their clothes and possessions inside the apartment, he pointed at Nora.

“You get out, the other two girls stay here. I’m willing to give you a chance, it’s up to you whether you survive this mess you’ve gotten into, or you end up as a shambler’s meal.”

Nora nodded, wiping her face from the earlier tears. “Thank you. I’ll do my best.”

******

Nora knocked on the apartment door. Claire took a peek from behind a corner, and quickly rushed to meet her friend.

“Nora!! Are you okay!? He didn’t do anything weird, right…!?” She almost stuttered, unable to contain her nervousness. “You’ve been away for hours!”

Nora let out a giggle.

“Don’t worry, I’m just fine.” She handed Claire a couple of small cans of food through the door, as well as a bottle of water. “Take this, it’s all I can get you for now. Are you doing okay? How’s Lilian?”

“Food…!” her eyes flared up, she looked eager to devour the food, containers included.

“Please, try to ration it. There might be nothing else to eat for a while.”

“I know, I know… Lilian’s okay, she managed to fall asleep earlier. I’ll let her know there’s something to eat once she wakes up!”

As she grabbed the cans and the bottle, Nora reached out through the door and grabbed her shoulders.

“Listen, Claire. I’m really going to need you to look out after Lilian for a while, okay?” The look on her face was very serious, and Claire noticed. “Tomorrow morning I’ll be… going out with William, we’ll be looking for some supplies.”

Claire’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “Wait, what!? No, no, no, you can’t go out there…! You’ve seen those things! You’ll just get yourself killed…!”

“I have to do this…!” Nora’s tone was way louder than usual. “Claire, we’ve been surviving for the last six months thanks to the hard work of others… But I knew that reality wouldn’t last forever, especially with everything at stake here. We can no longer sit back and hope that our issues go away, not anymore. We need to pick up the pace if we want to make it.”

Claire’s eyes avoided her. She looked down, fidgeting with her fingers. “I know… I know that, okay? But please… be safe!”

Nora smiled at her. “I will, don’t worry. I’ll leave Lilian in your care, alright?”