“Okay. That has to be the worst yet.” Nauseated, Henry shuddered as he stood with the back of his hand over his nose. He slipped off his pack and tucked the axe into the largest compartment. He pulled off his shirt and began tearing it up so they could have some sort of buffer between their mouths and noses and the horrific funk that would soon permeate every pore of their body. Once his pack was securely on his back again, Henry put his hand on the door handle. He inhaled every ounce of fresh air that he could before he pulled the door open.
The first hallway only had a few rooms. They opened each door, hoping to find Addie’s daughter right away. Henry would call out for her in every room they entered, but not a single sound greeted him. They cleared room after room in that hallway.
When they made it to the end, he saw it would lead them either left or right. They decided left because they thought that the right would lead them to the front where there were hundreds of undeads tripping and bumping into one another.
They cleared room and after room, hall after hall, until they reached a staircase. There were true dead bodies piled up on the stairs, almost like a barricade. To Henry, that was a sure sign that some people must be, or had been, alive.
They clambered over the decaying corpses. After he slipped several times on the black sludge that was oozing around them, Nick had to stop to vomit. The true deads were piled all the way up to the third floor.
They made it to the landing and stopped for a moment to look around. Henry tried to pull open the door and quickly realized it was chained from the inside.
“Shit!” he yelled. He punched the door, not thinking about his broken hand. He growled in agony. His frustration was at a boiling point after scaling piles of true deads. He put his hands on his hips and sighed in frustration. When he looked up, he saw that there were two small windows at the top of the door. Nick glanced up to where Henry was looking.
“Henry, let’s break those and push Thomas through. He’s the only one thin enough to fit.”
Henry looked back over his shoulder at Thomas, and he shrugged. “You up for that?”
“I guess bein’ scrawny will actually come in handy for a change.” Nick began smashing out the windows with his axe. Once he cleared it, he had Thomas climb up his back and look around.
“What do you see?”
“Nothin’. I don’ hear or see nothin’.”
“Alright. I’m going to bring you down.” Nick squatted down, and Thomas got off his shoulders. They worked out a plan to get him over and shoot the locks, if necessary.
Once Thomas got through the window and landed on the floor, Henry and Nick backed away from the door and pressed up against the side wall. Thomas shot the padlock, then opened the door. They scrambled in and wrapped whatever chain was left back around the handles.
The floor plan looked to be a square, with rooms all around the outer perimeter and again around the inside. There was another door, like the one they had just entered, directly across from them at the end of the corridor. It, too, was chained and padlocked. They decided to start at the end where they were, going through every room until they circled all the way around.
They were halfway around when they heard several soft footsteps near them. Henry put his finger to his lips, indicating to tread lightly as they tried to find the source. Nick stayed in the back and they shuffled toward the faint sounds. Henry stopped at the corner and peeked around it. He caught a glimpse of a younger girl. She saw them and hid back around the corner. Henry signaled for everyone to remove the shirt scraps from their faces.
“We’re here to help, sweetheart,” Henry said loud enough for the girl to hear, but not so loud as too attract attention.
She peeked out from around the corner again. He got a good look at her, and knew right away that she wasn’t Addie’s daughter. She was too young.
“Listen, sweetheart, we’re here to help. We’re looking for a particular girl. Rosa MacEntyre. Do you know her, or where she is?” She continued to peek around the corner, but didn’t come any further. “I’m going to get closer to you. I promise you that my friends and I will not harm you.” Henry led Thomas and Nick down the hall, toward the girl.
They could hear her breathing. Henry stopped about five feet from the corner. “It’s okay. I promise you no harm. Can we talk, please? Here…” Henry reached in his pack and pulled out a bottle of water and a Power Bar. He set them on the floor and pushed them toward the terrified girl.
She looked to be extraordinarily filthy and close to being emaciated. Henry pegged her to be about seven or eight-years-old. Her blood and gore-stained clothes hung on her, much like Thomas’. She looked at the offering for a moment. Then she scurried over like a wild animal, snatching the packages and tearing open the bar. She ate and guzzled the water like she hadn’t had a thing to eat or drink for days.