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Her chest tightened as she felt the darkness pressing in against her.
“Don’t you have someone that will come?” she asked, her voice losing the strength and anger it held before. “A group or—I don’t know—someone? Anyone?”
The sounds of moving items around her stopped, and the woman went quiet. Maddie waited, watching the light in front of her go still.
Then the woman cleared her throat, letting out another small cough. “No.”
“No?” Maddie echoed, as cold panic seeped into her veins. “Then how—what—“
“When will your group be here?”
Maddie’s brain stopped working for the first time since that first gun shot had rung out around her. “They—“ She whispered, the words catching in her throat. “There isn’t—“ She stopped,swallowing away the last of the lie. “There isn’t anyone else,” she whispered. “It was just us.”
The room went quiet. Even the pounding on the door seemed to lessen a fraction.
Maddie waited, the silence stretching on so long it felt like it would never end.
Then the screeching metal of the desk returned, along with the thud of boxes.
“What—what now?” she asked.
One final loud screech of metal cut through the air, scraping over her ears.
Then the slow creak of hinges—a door opening?
The woman let out a heavy breath. “Hope there’s another way out.”
***
Maddie waited there for a minute, listening for any signs that the woman had run into more infected on the other side of the door. She could still hear her light footsteps moving somewhere nearby, but that was it. No other noises resembling the grunting or groaning came from the other side.
Her mouth and throat were dry, reminding her of why they’d traveled into the city in the first place.
Water.
Tyler had said they’d gotten to a pharmacy right before—
She let the thought trail off.
If they’d been right in front of it, then that must have been the building they’d gone into when the infected came after them.
Getting water would definitely need to be priority number one before anything else. It would be embarrassing to make it so far through the end of the world just to die from dehydration. No—she was better than that.
Maddie swung her cane, feeling the ground in front of her as she moved to where she’d heard the woman leave.
She reached one hand out, fingers grazing along the wall until they touched a metal door frame. The second she walked through it, her nose crinkled in disgust.
The new area had the faint stench of trash and something resembling the smell of finally opening a container of leftovers after weeks of forgetting them at the back of the fridge.
She blinked, taking in the new darkness. It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust and capture any light they could. Then, once they did, she could just barely make out two large white orbs to the right. Judging by their size, they must have been glass doors or windows. But doors made more sense. Maybe an entrance and exit?
She looked to the left and saw nothing but darkness. Still, that was at least better than being outside in the overpowering sunlight and having no orientation whatsoever.
She turned back toward the lights and moved her cane from side to side. After a few careful steps, it hit against something solid with a quiet metallic echo.
She froze, the sound still ringing in the air.
Faint plodding footsteps quickly rushed toward her.