Without courtesy or warning otherwise, Lexi was shoved into the small, bare basement room of the house the raiders called home. The force behind it nearly sent her into the opposite wall but, even with her hands cuffed behind her back, she managed to catch her balance before falling or smashing face-first into it. Looking back she saw Law, his face bruised from the punch he'd earned back at the department store, shoved inside in much the same way, though they made sure to trip up his feet so he went stumbling to the floor with a grunt.
The two raiders who'd brought them down here stood just outside the door frame, watching their captives carefully. Lexi eyed both warily, waiting for them to make a further move, but they didn't.
"Don't try nothin' stupid." The curly-haired leader of the group said, then shrugged with a grin. "Or do, and see what happens."
With that, the door shut soundly. Both captives could hear the sound of a lock being placed on the outside, heavy duty or just complicated at the very least. Law shuffled to his knees as the sound ceased and their footsteps faded from hearing.
The sound of their staggered breathing was all that was left behind. Lexi looked around, inspecting their prison cell for any means of escape. Law did the same, both of them silent in thought.
There was no furniture at all, and for the most part it was a relatively clean room. Lexi suspected that it may have been newly renovated before the zombies rose up. No scuff marks or scratches from previously being lived in, and for being nearly three years into the apocalypse, the 'new' window installed still had the protective plastic covering the inside face. Just outside, she could see a metal grate placed atop the window well to prevent anyone or anything from getting in. Or out, in their case.
The only things breaking up the monotony of the interior room was a closet with sliding doors, both portions resting on the left to leave the right side open, and an air vent towards the right corner of one side.
An empty room. No apparent way out without alerting the people who'd captured them. What a predicament.
Lexi sighed, moving to kneel in front of Law, inspecting his face much closer than she had until that point. The area just under his right eye was a blatant red, some areas already fading into the darker black it would be the next day. "You ok?"
He winced, trying to adjust his shoulders into a more comfortable position, but felt too uncomfortable to look her in the eye while they were this close. "I'll live..."
"I don't see any obvious way out of here." She said, glancing behind him at the window. "I mean, I guess the window is one way but...I don't know if we'd be able to climb out of here cuffed like this."
"They'd hear it shatter and be on us in a second." He added, shaking his head. "Not much of an option."
"Yeah..." She admitted sadly, glancing around again with distain. "Didn't even spare a couch for us."
Law huffed without smiling, the closest thing he could come to a laugh right now given the state of his face. "Not much for hospitality, obviously."
They went silent for awhile, Lexi standing and pacing the edge of the room as if their escape lie in a crack in the wall or some minuscule detail they'd missed the first glance around. Law watched her for a moment, then shook his head. "Give it a rest for now. I doubt we'll be able to find a way to escape."
"I'm just keeping busy, really." She said, but ultimately walked back over to where he'd leaned against one wall and joined him a foot or two away. To her, it felt even further.
They stared at the opposite wall, tired and a bit morose as their situation fully sank in. Things had been going great. Well, nearly. And now this?
"We really fucked up this time, huh?" She questioned in a mutter.
"Maybe..." He said, then shrugged. "Shachi and Penguin are still out there. They know where we went scavenging, so I'm sure they'll check out the store and see we aren't there. Hopefully they'll take a lack of our bodies as a sign that we're still alive."
Lexi's head rested back against the wall, her eyes traveling up to the ceiling. There wasn't even a ceiling fan, lest they find a way to weaponize the fan blades or something. "How are they even gonna find us, though?"
"Just have a little faith..." He suggested, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh.
Another pause. Well, at least their conversations weren't as awkward as they had been for the past 3 weeks. She couldn't count the times they'd tried to force themselves to talk to each other. More so in Law's case, but the whole thing had really been frustrating for both of them. It was like they didn't know how to interact with each other at all anymore. Ever since Brittany's death...
Lexi's eyes wandered the ceiling, idly counting the imperfections in the paint, purging the thought entirely. Somewhere above them, they could hear the raiders talking amongst themselves. Someone was laughing.
"...why didn't they just kill us on sight?" Lexi thought aloud, trying to pick out words or phrases from the men above, but there was too much distance and a ceiling in the way. "Why go through all the trouble to bring us here?"
"..." Law took a moment to think. "Maybe they know about our supplies at the base, but don't know where they are. They'll probably try to interrogate us to find out where we holed up."
Well, she supposed that was a reasonable enough guess. For the past few weeks, they'd spent whatever time they could making trips between the warehouse and the water bottling facility to stock up on food and water. The apartment building they'd fortified and moved to after Brittany's demise was stocked full of anything they'd need for the next several months. It was a treasure trove and a valuable target to any outsider.
Of course, the question was how they could have found out about it in the first place if that was the point of this kidnapping. Now that she thought back to their department store outing, she could remember them both talking about it when they'd tried finding something, anything, to talk about. Shit...next time they'll keep their mouths shut. Lexi couldn't help but think of something else, too...
"Do you think they know about Shachi and Penguin?" She ventured to ask, more for the sake of keeping the conversation going than really wondering about an answer. Obviously it was impossible to know. The long stretch of hours ahead of nothing to do was going to be rough. Especially if they fell back into the same behavior as before.
"Hard to say..." He shifted in place, no doubt uncomfortable from the handcuffs. "If so, alternatively, they could try to use us as leverage. A sort of ransom...our lives for the provisions."
"Fuck..." She said, hoping that it wouldn't come down to that. They would end up handing the provisions over, and then there was no guarantee that their captors would even go through with their deal. This sucked...
Lexi tried moving, wiggling her hips to sit higher up against the wall. It was fruitless; in an hour or so, her back would be sore and her ass would probably go numb from sitting on it so long. There was no way to be totally comfortable the way they were now.
Law glanced at her wearily, before directing his attention ahead again. "For now, all we can do is wait. Maybe we'll learn more about what they want."
"Yeah, I guess so..." She trailed off, sparing him a side glance but he'd already closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall again. She tried thinking of something else to say, but any words caught in her throat, feeling like the moment had passed.
Taking his lead, she settled in place and closed her eyes, hoping that the hours wouldn't drag by as she suspected they would.
Shachi entered the department store knife-first, ears perked for any sound at all. Penguin covered his back, just a few steps behind him in case of any zombie approaching them unexpectedly. Stepping over shards of shattered glass where the front doors had been smashed, they made their way inside.
"Law? Lexi?" The redhead called in a whisper, hoping for a response but not getting one.
"They might be further in." Penguin suggested, keeping just as quiet.
"Let's hope." Shachi muttered, heading further into the establishment.
They could hear soft shuffling towards the back of the store, the signature sound of a zombie wandering aimlessly around in place. Not the more rigorous sound of human activity. Passing by empty and messy shelves, they made it to the back, where a lone zombie, dressed in some kind of uniform stood facing the other direction.
Shachi crept up behind it and jammed his knife into its skull. Pulling it out and stepping back, the undead thing went limp and collapsed in a pile at his feet. Black-colored fluid soaked into the short carpet, and Shachi wiped the stuff from his knife onto his jeans.
"Law, Lexi, you here?" Penguin called out, a little louder this time now that the only zombie around had been taken care of. Both of them swiveled around, searching for movement of any kind. Still, silence persisted. He pursed his lips together and shook his head. "Fuck...where the hell are they?"
Shachi swallowed, glancing at his friend. He didn't want to be that person, but perhaps it was wise to at least consider the possibility. "What if they-"
"Don't." Penguin interrupted angrily. He pierced the redhead with a glare. "Don't even say it. They can't be, and we will find them."
"Alright, alright..." He held his hands up defensively. "Let's keep looking. We'll split up to search faster."
So saying, they went to separate sides of the store, searching for any sign of their missing companions. All of the shelves were pretty much empty, the supplies left over poached long ago. Most of the ruin inside the store looked old, perhaps in the first few days of the world ending. Debris and dust and dirt littered the inside of the department store. The windows had been busted in long ago, allowing the elements inside the building.
Shachi kept an eye on the carpet, morbidly searching for any fresh blood stains of the human variety. So far, nothing, which he supposed was a good sign but didn't really help in determining what had happened to Law or Lexi.
He stepped past an overturned shopping cart, spotting a small lump on the ground. He tilted his head, approaching it with sudden recognition. He crouched down, opening the pack to check the contents.
Lexi's back pack. Still full of stuff. It looked like it had been dropped, perhaps in a hurry. Or maybe from being startled or like she'd been forced to. The way it sat on the ground, it obviously wasn't just set there while she scavenged.
"Shachi, come look at this!" Penguin called from the opposite end right before he could call out his finding. Grabbing the pack, he stood and made his way over to where he thought he'd heard Penguin from.
Spotting him in front of the pharmacy counter, he wandered closer. Penguin's gaze was fixed on a piece of paper stuck on the handle of Law's sword, which was jabbed through the chest of a dead zombie laying on the floor. Doubtful that it was Law's own handiwork. He only went for the head.
The sheath lay a few feet away, tossed there unceremoniously.
"What the fuck..." Shachi murmured, and Penguin reached out for the note, reading what was written.
"To whoever's left, bring your stash to this address or we do some pretty nasty things to your friends. You've got til sundown tomorrow. I'd hurry, though. A lot of our guys like brunettes, and yours is a looker..." Below the note was a written address, and a crude drawing of a map, an x marked over what was supposed to be the house in question.
"Those fucking bastards..." Shachi scowled, hitting his fist against the pharmacy counter beside them. "Sick fuckers..."
Penguin narrowed his eyes, reading over the note again for any clues that could help them. "It's a sign they're alive, at least."
"They were when they wrote this but...now? No guarantee. And even if they are, they could kill them at any time before the deal and we wouldn't know the fucking difference." Shachi said bitterly, upset and with no real way to vent his frustration. "We don't know anything about them, where they are, or if we have a chance of rescuing them...fuck!"
"We know they outnumber us, if the wording is anything to go by." He said, glaring at the note. "And we don't have a lot of time if we want to try before anything happens to them."
"So, now what? Are we gonna give them the supplies?" The redhead asked, watching his friend as he crumpled up the note.
"Let's try to find more information first. We have until tomorrow night, so it gives us time. We should scout out the area, see what we can learn." He looked back at Shachi. "Up for it?"
He nodded, grabbing the handle of Law's sword and pulling it from the zombie. "I'm not just gonna sit by and take this."
The pair gathered anything else left behind by their compatriots and headed out the door of the department store, intent on finding out where their friends were and how to save them.
The house in question was about half an hour's walk from their own hideout in the apartment complex. Zombie activity was sparser than in the inner city, though there was still a cautionary number walking around. Set on the edge of a neighborhood, it was relatively easy to get to and find a place to watch without being seen. A typical suburban home in a middle-class development; 2-story, 2-car garage, and space above for what they assumed to be an attic. At one point the lawn had probably been regularly mowed and kept trim, but now it was wild and dying. The exterior paint was faded and most of the siding was chipped or falling, but the structure appeared to be sound.
Shachi and Penguin sat behind a group of bushes opposite the house's face, far enough away to not be seen and still make out any details, but saw little activity. They were either smart or just unconcerned about any attempts at subterfuge. Whoever was inside hadn't covered the windows as Law usually did when settling in a shelter, and the shadow of someone passing in front of a window could be seen every so often. They'd posted a watch detail, which in of itself wasn't suspicious by today's standards, but neither could get a read on just how many men were inside. Could be 4. Or even 12. No way to tell quite yet.
Deciding that they'd seen all they could from the front, they worked their way around another street to the back side. The boys settled on the opposite side of a roof from another house directly behind it. This gave them a vantage point to see the backyard from up above, too. A few of the men chatted outside, meandering back and forth in the yard. Held in their hands were some high-powered rifles. At long range, they'd be devastating. They both made sure to keep their heads low, just in case.
"Can't see where they're keeping them."
"It's not like they're gonna have them kept in the front room..." Penguin said evenly. "They'll have them hidden somewhere. Hard to get to."
"Attic? Or...Basement, maybe?" Shachi nudged his elbow, pointing at something down below. "The window wells have grates on them. The heavy, metal kind, see? Seems a bit excessive for a neighborhood like this."
Penguin grabbed his binoculars, focusing down on the grate in question. Most houses had the thin, flimsy plastic covers that served more for decoration than function in the end. But these were heavy, detailed, and probably screwed into place. He'd seen a few during a summer job fixing the siding of houses as a teenager.
"Can't get a look inside..." He muttered, trying to focus past the grates, but the angle wasn't entirely in their favor and most of his view was covered by the metal itself. "Hard to say if that's where they are."
Shachi shrugged. "I bet you anything they've got them in there. Easily to keep watch from the backyard and keep an eye for us trying to sneak them out."
"Hmm, maybe...If they try an escape that direction, the guards outside will see it too." He thought about it all for a second, then nodded. "Sounds about right. So, we can assume 6 or more, I'm thinking. Hard to tell for sure, but we know they're all heavily armed and vigilant."
"No way are we sneaking in to break them out, then. There aren't any openings to do it without being noticed." Shachi sighed, staring at the house in concentration. "We should probably give them the supplies, and just hope they won't kill them anyway."
He waited for some sort of response from Penguin, but received none. So, after a moment, he looked over at his friend, who was staring at the house in thought.
"Maybe we won't have to..." Setting the binoculars down, he reached behind him and opened Lexi's backpack that they'd found at the store, searching for something in particular. After a moment, he pulled a bundle of tubes and small cylinders from within. Fireworks. He turned to Shachi with a sly smile.
"I've got an idea."
ns 15.158.61.55da2
