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“What part of the city are they in?” the woman asked in a low, serious tone.
Maddie almost let out a laugh. If she couldn’t win a fight against her, making her worry for no real reason was the next best alternative.
She remembered a street name that Tyler had mumbled aloud as they were walking through the city. It hadn’t been too long before, so the street should still be pretty close to where they were now.
“Lincoln Drive.”
More silence.
Then the quiet sound of a single breath that was heavier than the rest. Frustration?
Good.
A few more seconds ticked by, the silence lasting just long enough to grate on her nerves.
Then she heard something scraping against the floor with a screech that sliced into her eardrums. It came from the same corner where Tyler had been just minutes before, frantically trying to escape.
“Are you—are you trying to open that door?” Maddie asked incredulously.
The woman gave no answer beyond a grunt of effort, followed by another metallic screech.
“Are you joking?” Maddie scoffed. “Isn’t that exactly what you were just telling him not to do?”
Another grunt, and then the screeching stopped. Heavy breaths came from a few feet in front of her, followed by a muffled cough.
“I’m not—“ The woman began with an irritated tone before being cut off by another cough. “I’m not going through it yet.” She let out another cough, then a frustrated exhale.
Maddie was about to make some snide remark about how stupid that sounded, but lost her train of thought when another loud thud hit against the main door. There were more infected gathering outside by the minute—she could hear it. The noises had nearly doubled from what they’d been just seconds before.
“Will the door hold?” she asked, jerking her head toward the noises.
Another cough. Then a zipper opening. And then the next sound she heard was different, yet somewhat familiar in a weird way that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Compressed air being released?
She listened to the woman suck in a deep breath, then release it a couple seconds later.
“I asked you a question,” Maddie snapped, stepping forward. “Will it hold?”
A moment later, the woman finally answered, her voice slightly more coarse than before. “It should.”
That was better than nothing. At least it would give her some amount of time to figure out her next move.
Without Tyler, she would be alone—alone for the first time since the outbreak. So she would need a safe way to make it back to her family. Before the outbreak, she’d traveled easily on her own through the cities and the areas she knew. Every street and every landmark had been imprinted in her mind. But this was different. She didn’t know this city. And even if she could easily navigate through, she’d also have to worry about running into the infected. Could she fight them off? She’d never really had to before, being protected in their community all that time.
And then, if she could make it safely out of the city, she’d still need to travel quite a way to make it to where the group was supposed to stop at the midway point before reaching the new settlement that had agreed to take them in.
Another loud bang hit against the door, and Maddie tightened her grip on the cane. “How long will they be out there?” she asked, her eyes following the bobbing flashlight.
Some more items, boxes from the sound of it, shifted around the room.
“How fast will your group get here?” the rough voice responded.
Maddie gritted her teeth. She was sick of her questions being answered with questions. “Why does it matter?”
The woman grunted as the sound of another box hit against the floor.
“Because,” she started, her breathing slightly heavier than before, “if they’re smart, they can help divert the horde away. And depending on what’s behind this door, that might be the only way out.”
Maddie swallowed, her throat drying out. That couldn’t be the only way. If it was, then they’d be trapped with no way out.