Hunkering Down (Rewrite)

The fortification of the apartment only took a few hours with everybody chipping in. They had to be a bit creative and ended up ripping the floorboards up and using them to board up windows.

They also took the time to open up the apartments that Levi hadn't checked the night before. Only one of the apartments had contained infected. It hadn't responded because the infected was hanging in the bathroom from a noose. Maggie and Ricky had been there when they found it, Maggie had emptied her stomach in the hallway away from the thrashing infected.

Levi had put it out of its misery and set its body down on the floor. Checking its body for bites, but found none. All but assuring his thought that bites weren't the only method of infection. This new virus still holding many mysteries.

Of the other three remaining apartments, all contained living people. Maggie, a familiar face, calmed the residents when they all but demanded entry. This was why he brought her, most of the people knew Maggie, or more accurately, she knew them.

None of the families had seen much, only what they had heard on the television and radios up until the power went out. Though one still had a functional radio. It had continued giving updates over the airwaves, and the family had been considering going to the refugee camps they had talked about.

Most stations now had the repeated public announcement to move towards the nearest major city to get into refugee camps, the messages on repeat. Talking about how this would make it easier to protect people if they were all together.

This didn't bode well with Levi. If people flooded into Boston, It would only make the infection spread faster.

After they had confirmed, that there was no infected hiding away, Levi gave all the families a request. One that was more of an order than a request. Everyone had to check in with the person on guard every morning. Levi wanted everyone accounted for at all times, more so after what he had seen earlier.

With the apartments somewhat secure, Levi spoke to Garett and Marcus about the feasibility of destroying the bottom flight of stairs. They weren't sure whether it was safe and instead decided they should block the bottom flight making it impassable. The only exit points, the fire escape that ran behind the building and the elevator, which was out of operation.

It might make moving supplies into the apartment harder, but staying here was temporary. Staying here wasn't a permanent solution. They decided that after they collected enough supplies to hold out for around a week, they'd block off the stairwell and begin waiting it out.

And with two guards always on watch, everyone should be safe. And at least get alarmed if they got overwhelmed.

—

"Do you need to go out there?" Maggie asked, watching Levi check his pistol and strap it to his waist. Levi turned and sighed as he grasped her hand.

"We need enough supplies to last us a week. There isn't enough from what we scrounged in the apartments," Levi said, before smiling, "we won't be going far. We'll be back before you know it." Maggie nodded as she watched Levi grab his sword and walk out of the room.

Levi greeted Garett at the entrance. They'd had a chance to survey the street from the upper floors, and things looked okay. But the city seemed to be heating up once more. The military vehicles they saw steaming past now and then seemed to have brought the temperature down from last night.

As they opened the door, an infected lunged from behind the door. Levi saw the movement as soon as he opened the door and thrust it into the wall before plunging his knife into its temple. Watching it slump to the floor, Levi's eyes frowned when he recognised the infected as the one whose eyes he'd met earlier that morning. 'Did it set an ambush?' Levi wondered

"Fucking hell, man, that was close," Garett said, kicking the corpse that ambushed them. "We'll have to be even more cautious. I didn't know these things were so stealthy."

"They aren't, but this one… It looked like it was waiting for us…." Levi said, his thoughts swirling as he looked down at its body. His words silenced Garett, who looked to see if he was joking, falling into contemplation when he realised he was serious.

"Anyway, let's move. The grocery store is two blocks away," Levi said. Garett gave a reserved nod but kept turning back to look at the infected that had attacked them.

The two moved through the streets, avoiding the wandering infected where they could. This didn't pose much challenge. Levi had noticed that besides the infected they had first encountered, most had devolved into slow-moving shamblers. Besides moderate hearing and basic sight, they weren't very sensitive and passed most without issue.

They only had to take down one infected, who was eating a body on the floor near a flaming wreck of a crashed Volvo. Garett had taken it out, but took an extra moment to look at the half-devoured corpse and grimaced before following after Levi.

It was around three in the afternoon, and most of the streets they had trekked felt empty. Usually, at this time, cars and pedestrians would be passing back and forth. But besides the groaning infected, there was not a hint of a living person in sight.

After yesterday, everybody who wasn't stupid knew the streets were dangerous. And those who hadn't realised this, the lack of utilities and cell reception clued in that something was happening, it was impossible not to.

As they got close to the grocery store, Garett grabbed Levi's arm and pointed down a street, towards a large white van that sat parked at the side of the curb.

"That's the kind I can hotwire," Garett said. Already moving towards the vehicle.

Levi followed behind and watched as Garett used a small knife and a bobby pin to pick the door. "These older models are too easy," Garett said. He pulled the door open and entered the van, where he checked the gas meter which read a little below half. He looked around the back, ensuring there was no infected inside before turning towards the panel beneath the steering wheel.

He opened it up, and fiddled with the wires inside, playing with them for a moment until the engine roared to life, attracting the infected on the street. Levi jumped into the passenger seat and closed the door. In time to see the closest infected swipe its bloody hand across the window as Garett pulled away.

It wasn't a great ride. The van felt like it was on its last legs, and the mileage meter agreed, but it got to the grocery store.

Rilton's community grocers appeared like it had better days, with smashed windows and a ransacked interior. Looking like the military had already gotten to work, bullet-sized holes were visible on the walls and displays of the street, with corpses often nearby. The only infected remaining were those attacking the chain link fences in the alleys attracted by the sound of the engine.

They ignored the infected and walked over the shattered glass of the storefront. At the tills, the body of a cashier, mouth slathered in blood, lay on the floor a gunshot to the head; amongst the trash dropped by looters.

Garett gawked, while Levi moved around the store, and found the shelves were almost barren. But made a discovery that in the back of the store, away from the shop floor there was plenty of goods stocked up. Levi hollered to Garett, who grabbed some discarded trolleys amongst the aisles to fill with the boxes stored out the back. The non-perishables were their main target, though they weren't being picky, they had plenty of space in the van.

Halfway through their second run collecting items, an infected appeared in the back. It dragged itself forward, making a terrible racket as it knocked over everything in its way. It looked recently turned, and the jeans stuck around its ankles making it so it couldn't stand for long.

When it did stand, before it fell once again, they got a good look. It was a woman, who appeared in her late teens. She had a half-ripped blouse, open bra, jeans and undergarments pulled down to her ankles, and multiple bruises across her body, especially her neck. It was clear that last night some looters weren't only here for groceries, and she met her end at their hands.

"What a sad way to go…." Garett said as he looked at the young blonde girl dragging herself towards them.

Levi pulled out his sword and stabbed the girl's head, saying, "Times like these bring out the worst in people."

Garett nodded and moved towards the girl's corpse and pulled her jeans up, getting a weird look from Levi. "Don't look at me like that. I'm giving her some dignity. She might be dead, but we can't leave her like that."

Getting a smile from Levi, who said, "Didn't take you as an honourable man." Making Garett click his tongue as he finished pulling her jeans up.

"It just rubs me up the wrong way. This… This is wrong," Garett said, his gaze firm.

"I know. I know," Levi responded. And turned away, resuming collecting boxes. After the incident, they continued in silence no longer in the mood to talk.

Time passed fast, as they moved between the van and the store ferrying supplies into the back. They did three runs and had six trolleys worth of supplies in the back and figured this much would last them a week and then some.

The engine roared back to life as they pulled away from the store, riling up the infected stuck in the alleys. "Do you think the military will fix the situation," Garett asked Levi as he drove, looking over the corpses that lined the street.

"Who knows. But I'm not taking any chances. If they fix everything, that's great. They can come find me out in the country. If they don't, with all the people flocking to the cities, everyone's gonna wish they steered clear of Boston," Levi said. Garett was pensive at those words, mulling them over.

The bodies on the streets showed the military was doing something, attempting to restore order. But Levi was never known for his optimism. If things could go wrong, they would go wrong. If they banked on getting saved, they would die waiting for salvation.

Levi could see the naive glow of hope in Garett's eyes. He could read his face that said, 'Maybe we should wait until this all blows over.' There was nothing wrong with that. Only Levi couldn't be like that. He couldn't put his life in the hands of another, with hope his only reason.

And if that meant leaving without everyone, he'd do it. Maggie was his main concern, not whether everyone wanted to go or not. After thinking that, Levi spotted a woman running from an infected further up the street. She spotted the van, while under pursuit. Levi felt the van slow down, meeting Garett's unsure eyes as he heard the woman scream, "Help."

Her screams stirred the other infected on the street, which began to appear from the alleys and open doors of houses. There must have been around six hot on her heels and another eight she had attracted with her screams.

Levi clicked his tongue as he saw the woman making things worse and said, "I'll handle this. You stay put." Then opened the door and jumped out, unsheathing his sword and walking forward towards the woman about ten metres away.

The woman was more than happy to run past Levi towards the van, leaving the infected following behind to him. But when she found the van locked, she panicked and screamed towards Garett, "Open the door. We need to leave." Garett shrugged at the woman.

Levi ignored the woman's screaming in the background. Although he'd fought infected before, and even a large number in the police station, this was the first time he was facing so many at once on his own. And not in the tight confines of a corridor either. They weren't tough to avoid. His main concern was their numbers which could surround and overwhelm him.

As long as he avoided overextending and letting them get close to bite, fifteen infected didn't seem too hard to manage.

He moved forward, swinging his blade at the closest infected, beheading it with the swing. Moving with its momentum, Levi swerved from the lunge of another infected and swung again, killing another.

The infected converged into a group as they chased him, Levi doggedly avoiding their grasp. He reaped their lives one at a time, making it look effortless as he dodged their grasp with what seemed like practised ease and took them out with ever-increasing efficiency. His movements became crisper and more conditioned with each life he took. Levi's body always managed to position itself to not allow them to ever get close., the reaching arms not able to graze the edge of his shirt.

Although not someone experienced in swords, Garett could see that Levi's swordsmanship was adapting at a frightening pace. At the start, he worried seeing how close the infected were getting, but his fears were soon assuaged seeing how things developed. A shiver ran through Garett's body. It was monstrous.

If he didn't know any better, he would've thought Levi had been dealing with these creatures all his life. The sheer improvement in the space of less than a minute was astonishing—the intimidating group helpless. If this world remained stuck like this, Levi wouldn't only survive, he would thrive. He almost seemed born for this world. He didn't even seem all that tired, even having dealt with most of the infected.

The woman outside was also stunned, and had her mouth agape, at least until a straggler wandered towards her catching her by surprise. She released a scream and tripped backwards, desperately trying to back away on her hands and feet. Up until the infected fell against her when she thought everything was over.

But as she pushed it off, she felt no resistance. That was when she saw the knife sticking out from its head, and her eyes widened. But still kept backing away, her body trembling. It had been close. Too close.

She saw Levi walk towards her, using his shirt to clean the blood from the katana in his hand. He stepped over the body in front of her, yanked the knife from its head and turned and stabbed another infected that had ambled towards him.

"You're welcome," He said. Kicking the body of the infected onto the floor and putting the knife back into his belt. He didn't say anything else and moved towards the van door, the sound of the door unlocking.

The woman looked up and realised they were gonna leave. "Wait," She shouted, stopping Levi, who directed his gaze towards her. She swallowed hard. His cold blue eyes stared towards her, and the words that she wanted to say became stuck in the back of her throat.

She tried to open her mouth, but each time she tried to speak, no words came out. Levi turned back around and opened the passenger door, making the woman's heart sink before she heard him say. "Get in the back." A smile bloomed on her face, as she went to thank him before he cut her off.

"You try anything, you're gonna wish they'd caught you when I'm through with you. You understand," he said with a cold simplicity. Pointing towards the group of corpses cut beyond recognition.

She nodded her head meekly, hearing her heart beat against her chest. And when she stood, she realised her whole body had broken out into a sweat. She knew when he said he'd make her regret surviving, he meant it.

She tried to shake it off, but she couldn't stop trembling as she opened the van's back doors and moved through the boxes stored in the back. She sat between a small gap between two boxes. She knew she should be happy, but her stomach lurched knowing she would be near that man.

But as she felt the van move, she didn't dare to ask to leave. She was the one who'd all but asked to come.

So she sat between the boxes in silence, stifling a small sob that overcame her as she broke out in tears. Sat amongst boxes in the back of the van, unsure of where she was going, led by unknown men. To safety? She didn't know. But what she did know was she didn't feel saved.

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