BAIT

William ran as fast as his legs allowed him, jumping over obstacles and turning corners as he quickly approached the street that separated them from the apartment building, with Nora following closely behind. She was yelling something, but he wasn't listening, his mind was somewhere else. He knew he had been forgetting something since the day before, and it was so obvious now that he actually felt like an idiot for not realizing sooner.

The men who had ambushed them the day before, he knew them. More precisely, he knew what group they belonged to. And he had a strong feeling that whatever was happening at the shelter was directly related to that encounter.

He came to a stop behind a corner, with the street right ahead. He chose not to go out in the open. Even if time was of the essence, rushing in would probably be a bad idea. Besides, if his suspicions were on point, Claire and Lilian should still be alive.

Nora came barrelling down in his direction, he had to grab her to stop her form giving away their presence.

"Stop...!" he said, holding her back with both hands.

"What are you doing!? Let me go…!! They might be in danger!! Let go!!!" she was yelling and fiercely trying to break free from him.

"Stop losing your shit and calm down!! We need to act very carefully, or we'll end up putting them in even more danger!"

She let out a loud huff. William understood her worry, but there was no time to waste talking. He signaled her to stop and wait where she was, and then he peeked past the corner and into the street.

A large horde of shamblers piled up against the apartment building's side. They had probably been attracted by the scream from before. The overhangs he and his old companions had built all around the structure prevented the shamblers from creeping up and reaching the windows of the upper floors. They covered most of the street in their effort to get to the source of the sound.

All the shamblers were bunched up on that particular spot, which could only mean the girls were somewhere on that side of the building. The first, second and third floors had been completely sealed shut with brick walls and welded scrap metal, those apartments were no longer accessible. So, it was very likely they were either in the fourth floor, or in the top floor.

'Where are they…?' he squinted his eyes as he looked at the boarded windows, in hopes of spotting some sign of movement through the gaps. However, it was too far away, and the inside was too dark.

'Damn it…'

"How is it…!? Do you see something!?" asked Nora, impatient.

"Listen… I have a vague idea of where they might be, and I think I know what we're up against… But there's no way to know their numbers. And they are armed, I'm sure of it."

"Are you sure it's people…!?"

"Yeah, I am. Had those things found their way inside, they wouldn't be dragging their feet down there…"

"Oh god, oh god…"

"I have a plan. But it's in no way safe, we're going to have to take a lot of risks. We might all die."

"Just tell me already…! I can't leave them in there to their fate…! I'm willing to take the risks…!"

Her face was contorted with fear and worry, yet there was something burning in her eyes, something that felt both like anger and pure, raw willpower. William figured she really wasn't going to hesitate this time, no matter how scared she was. Which was a good thing. They couldn't afford to hesitate if they were to take back their shelter.

******

Nora waited impatiently. Sweat was dripping from her face. She could feel her arms and legs shaking from all the nerves. She looked down. The shamblers were now directly underneath her feet, clawing at the air, trying to reach her. She had done that before, on a similar fire escape, just the previous day. And she freaked out back then, but that wasn't going to happen again. She was focused on what she needed to do. She had to focus, for Claire and Lilian's sake.

*Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!*

The phone alarm exploded at full volume, and the shambler horde slowly dragged itself away and in the direction of the sound. As William had instructed her, she dropped the ladder as soon as the ground below was clear enough, she climbed down, and she made a run for the apartments.

According to William, the way of entry they used to use was the shelter's own fire escape, but it would be too difficult for her to use it on her own, so she headed for the only other option she had available. As she turned the corner of the building, she spotted a door up front. It was a big metal door, that looked like it was reinforced by welding additional layers of metal sheets over the original door.

Nora felt like she was being watched. There was no way whoever was inside of the building hadn't heard the sound of the ringing phone. And it was very likely they had their eyes on her as well. After all, a human running around on an empty street was pretty easy to spot.

She turned the handle and pushed. It was open, but the door barely moved. She rested her shoulder on it and pushed harder, with all her weight. That thing was incredibly heavy. With some effort, she managed to slip inside and push the door closed again.

[Once you get inside, close it and block it shut. I'll use a different entry point.]

The door had two U-shaped metal brackets to the sides. Nora noticed an iron bar laying against the nearby wall. She slid the bar over the brackets, following William's advice. Then, she turned around.

The room was very dimly lit, but she could still notice a ladder similar to the one William had her climb when she first arrived at the building two days ago. It went right through the ceiling and several floors up.

She gulped, and started heading up. Her shaking wouldn't stop, she knew what was probably waiting for her up above.

She wondered if William was already inside the building at that point. As her steps echoed up and down the ladder hole, she kept praying for the safety of the others. She didn't really care that much about her own well-being, as long as what she was doing could help save Lilian and Claire in one way or another.

'I hope this works out… God, please…'

When she reached the top of the ladder, she peeked out for a while. It was a bare room, with a single door leading out into a hallway. If she counted the floors correctly, she should be at the top floor of the building. It was the floor where Claire and Lilian had been staying, yet not a sound could be heard, except for her own heavy breathing.

She climbed out of the hole. Staring at the empty, dark doorframe made her stomach churn with unease. She let out a deep breath, and stepped outside into the corridor.

Almost immediately, she was met with something cold on her neck. She froze. Out of the corner of her eye, to her right, she saw a shadowy figure, which was holding a knife to her throat. From the shadows to the left emerged two more figures.

"Where is he?" asked the one to her right. "Don't fuck around and answer clearly."

Nora's insecurity made her bite her lips for a moment, so hard that she was probably close to bleeding. She had to say something. If she didn't, things wouldn't end well for her. She remembered William's instructions once again.

[If they ask about me, tell them this…]

"He's dead. He was bitten."

The men looked at each other for a while, then stared back at her. She noticed how they stared at her attire. She was wearing a very damaged jacket which was way bigger than her size, along with two backpacks, one on the back and another one on the front.

"Come with me, and don't pull any tricks. You guys should keep watching this entrance just in case." he said, before he started pushing Nora to walk down the hallway, the knife still on her neck.

While they were midway to the stairs, Nora heard a scream coming from the floor below. It sounded like Claire.

"Ah…! Claire…!!"

The knife pressed tight against her skin, threatening with piercing it at any moment. "Don't even think about it, or I'll skin you like alive."

She couldn't help but let her tears flow down her cheeks, almost hyperventilating from the sudden burst of anxiety.

'Come on, William… Please tell me you made it…! Please…! Hurry up…!!'

******

A direct approach from the front door would only end in disaster. If they wanted to beat those bastards, they had to play smart. As William navigated the dark underground passage, he could only hope that Nora had managed to get to the building safely.

The plan was simple enough: make it seem like Nora was the only one able to make it back. He had given her his own leather jacket and his backpack. Both backpacks would have been too heavy to carry on her own, so most of the contents had been stashed in a safe location nearby; to make the bluff more believable, and also to ensure they could be easily recovered later on.

If they took the bait, they might have lowered their guard. At the very least, they would be focusing their attention on the newcomer. Any possibility of staging an ambush was worth taking.

The sewer tunnel was cramped as hell. After all the infrastructure had fallen apart since the beginning of the pandemic, many sewer tunnels across the city had overflown and clogged themselves, while others dried up completely. That one in particular was among the ones that had dried up. Still, humidity was very high, and the place was claustrophobic, it smelled like shit, and it was infested with rats and other pests.

Guided with only his flashlight, he rushed along the tunnel, following a path he knew very well. Right, left, straight, left, right… He had done that many times before already, specially when the shambler hordes ended up occupying the entirety of the streets surrounding the apartment building, which made accessing them an impossible task.

Eventually, he stopped at a particular ladder, which led up to a manhole. He grabbed the flashlight with his mouth and started climbing up. With a lot of effort, he managed to push the cover open. He slid it out of the way, and got up into the building's underground parking lot.

That area of the building had been sealed off almost entirely, but he knew it was an available access point, used only during emergencies. The usual street access was an automatic gate which had been welded shut. The stairwell was blocked as well, most of the stairwells only had access to the top floors. The only available route was the elevator shaft.

The elevator itself had been removed and scrapped for materials long ago, leaving the empty shaft as the only remnant of its existence. William made sure to not shine any light into the shaft itself, turned his flashlight off, and approached it.

Dim beams of light rained from above, but it was pretty dark overall. An improvised rope ladder run up the wall of the shaft, all the way up to the fourth floor. That would be his way inside. He held his pocket knife with his mouth, made sure his pistol was secure in the holster on his waist, and started climbing, trying not to make any unnecessary noise.

…

As he approached the fourth floor, he could hear someone whimpering, along with another voice yelling profanities. The elevator was located on the same side of the building where the shambler horde was piling up outside, so his deductions had been correct so far. The girls were probably somewhere nearby.

He got close enough to the fourth level floor to peek his head over the ledge and take a look at the corridor. The entrances to the elevator shaft on each floor were located on a small nook on the corridor, tucked away from view unless the observer was directly in front of it. As long as there was nobody on the immediate vicinity, he should be able to get up onto solid ground safely.

He really counted on Nora for that. If she had managed to properly distract the invaders, it should be less likely that anyone was wandering aimlessly around the hallways, unless they knew about the underground entrance. But if they knew, they'd have been guarding it already.

William got out of the shaft, and readied himself. Knife in left hand, firearm in right hand. He could almost hear his own heart pumping like mad inside his head. He tightened the grip around his weapons, the sweat made it feel like they could slip from his hands at any moment.

The noise was coming from somewhere down the left hallway. It sounded like it was several apartments away. He held his back against the left wall, and approached the corner of the hallway, keeping his eyes set on the right side. It looked clear. The right corridor wasn't too long, and he could see all the way to the wall at the very end. There was nobody in sight.

He held the knife with his mouth again, and reached for his pocket, grabbing the pocket mirror. He crouched and peeked it past the corner, as close to the ground as he could. Clear. The entire hallway seemed to be empty.

He returned the knife to his hand. Without wasting a moment, he sneaked past the corner, with his gun up front. When looking at the corridor directly, he quickly noticed something he hadn't seen in the mirror. A couple of doors ahead, he focused on the open doorway of the meeting hall. As a matter of fact, almost every single door in the entire hallway was open, but the meeting hall grabbed his attention for a very particular reason.

Although the light was very weak overall, he could distinguish shadows moving around. There was someone in that room.

'Bingo… Okay…'

Aware of how easy it would be for anyone to surprise him right there and then, he advanced forward. The noise coming from the hall masked the sound of his footsteps. The groaning and crying kept going, and so did the yelling, but they were still too far away to clearly understand what was happening. It was bad, though. That much, he could tell.

He advanced carefully along the corridor, checking the rooms at both sides with caution, taking advantage of the mirror whenever he could. Blind spots were unavoidable in that situation, he'd just have to take the risk.

Miraculously, he made it to the apartment neighboring the hall without incidents. He rushed inside and listened. He could finally hear what was going on.

"Please… No… more…" a faint voice begged for mercy.

'That voice… That's Nora's friend… Claire, was it? Damn it…'

"I can do this all day, brat. I don't give a fuck if you die."

Ah, William knew that voice. Of course he did. It brought him way too many painful memories.

'Fucking hell… It had to be that son of a bitch…'

He could feel his trigger finger getting nervous. It was thirsting for action. He knew that shooting a weapon would drag a lot of attention, but the apartments wouldn't be in that much danger during the day. No, that would be the perfect moment for some very necessary payback.

Then, he heard footsteps. Someone was coming. That was close, he had been about to rush out of the room, weapons ready. He waited some more as the steps got closer.

"Keep walking, bitch! Hey Jacobs, you there!? Here's something for you!" William heard a voice shouting down the hallway. He chose not to bring out the pocket mirror, fearing the newcomers might notice it if he did. Any reaction could potentially blow his cover.

He kept listening, as the footsteps reached the meeting hall.

"Aaah…!! Claire…!!? Lilian!!! Oh god, Claire…!! What have they done to you…!!?" Nora's voice sounded terribly distressed. "Let me go!! You fucking… monsters…!!"

Nora's complaints were suddenly cut short.

"I don't know what your relationship with these two is, but you sound like you care. And that's all I need to know." Jacobs sounded as sly and fucking annoying as he remembered. "You see, this one over here is still relatively untouched. I can fix that very, very quickly. Do you get where this is going?"

There was a short pause.

"Good girl."

'Nora must be shitting bricks right now… I need to do something, and quickly, damn it… But if I don't find the right moment to do so, I'll put them in more danger…'

"She said William's dead." said the man who had brought Nora.

"Dead, you say…?"

Another short pause.

"Speak up. And you better sound convincing."

"H-He was b-bitten… A-After barely surviving the n-night, one of t-those things b-bit him, and he t-threw himself i-in the r-river…" Nora was almost whispering, it was difficult to understand what she was saying.

"I find it hard to believe. That guy was tough as hell, I'll give him that. But the one survivor that came back did say he had been knocked unconscious…"

'There was a survivor yesterday…!? God damn it all, just as I suspected… That's why they rushed the building before we had a chance to come back…'

"So, you're telling me that motherfucker is actually dead…? And here I was hoping we could get some juicy information out of him… Oh well."

Another short moment of silence ensued.

"We're leaving. We'll come back later and take care of their supplies."

"Why not take care of the supplies now? We still have enough time to fuck them up today." asked the other thug, confused.

"Are you fucking stupid? When you rob a bank, you don't piss on the money. We'll be taking everything they have, bit by bit. This place no longer has anyone to fuck up."

"Ah, right…"

"So, only one more thing to take care of, then."

"Wait…!! No…!! What are you doing…!!!?" Nora started screaming again.

"I'm going to kill these two. What's so hard to understand? You're only going to live because we might be able to get something useful out of you. And if we can't… Well, we'll figure out a way to make you useful."

'That psychopath…!'

"Stop!! Nooo, stop!!! I'm begging you!!!"

"This one can't even talk, and that one over there is so beaten up I'm actually convinced she doesn't know shit. As a matter of fact, I sort of figured out she didn't know anything a while ago, I just kept going for fun, not going to lie. And I'm a little bit tired now, so I'd rather wrap this up quickly."

"Aaaah…!! Aaaaargh!!! Noooooo!!!"

'Shit…!'

William should have known Jacobs was capable of taking any situation to unwanted extremes in a matter of seconds. He prayed it wasn't too late. He only needed a couple of seconds.

In the blink of an eye, he flew down the hallway and barged into the meeting hall.