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Saff looked back at the building. "Window.”
She ran her fingers along the metal frame and gently tugged upward. But the window didn't budge. She shifted her hands, getting a little more leverage under a lip of the wooden frame. Then she yanked upward with a hard jerk.
The window opened an inch with a loud screech, and the girl beside her flinched.
She dragged it up the rest of the way; the window continuing its loud protest until she finally stopped when it was wide enough for them to fit through.
"Well, that's wonderful,” the girl hissed. “Just let everyone in the city know we’re here."
Saff ignored her, although she hated that she was right. They needed to move fast.
She bent her head down, peering inside the small opening.
The stench reminded her of her grandmother's house when she and her father had cleaned it out after she died. The smellsof a lack of human presence, but also something else. Some faint odor that reminded her of long shifts at the hospital.
She squinted, scanning the darkness.
"Can we go in?" the girl asked, a hint of fear reentering her voice.
Saff reached down into one pocket of her cargo pants and pulled out the mini flashlight. She clicked it on and put it up to her mouth, biting down on the grated rubber handle.
She slowly tilted her head, illuminating different areas of the room.
No signs of human activity. And she couldn't hear any zombie noises, either.
She lifted her leg into the opening, stepping through and down onto what looked like a small dresser. Then she hopped off, landing quietly on the carpeted floor below. She paused, scanning the room once more, toys littering the floor around her.
"Okay," she whispered, turning back. "Step through."
The girl used her hands to feel the frame of the window, then held on to the top as she crouched down, setting one leg carefully through.
"What's below me?" she asked.
"A dresser. One foot down."
She slowly lowered the foot farther until it came to the top of the dresser, followed by the next.
"Can you guide me down?" the girl whispered.
"Yeah." She stepped forward and grabbed hold of the girl's forearms one by one as she let go of the windowsill. "It's a three-foot drop to the carpet."
She shimmied the rest of the way through, placing her hands on Saff's shoulders and leaning her weight against her. Then she scooted herself off of the dresser, feeling below her with her foot until she gently stepped off.
Saff watched as she reached up and removed her sunglasses, hooking them on the front of her shirt.
She blinked a few times, then squinted, looking around the room before turning to look back at the window.
"How much light perception do you have?" Saff asked, thinking back to some of the blind patients she’d had during her time at the hospital. Each one had wildly different ranges of vision.
The girl paused, a look of surprise settling on her face. "Some, but not a ton." She swallowed, her throat bobbing in the dim light. "I'll still need you to guide me in here unless I can use my cane."
Saff nodded, then took the girl's hand and placed it around her arm before turning back to face the rest of the apartment.
She shined the flashlight at the doorway in front of them, slowly stepping around the array of items littered on the floor. When they came to the doorway, Saff stopped and turned each way, checking the hallway. She spotted some light streaming into a room at the end of the right side, and turned them that way.
Then, suddenly, without warning, the girl stopped. Saff glanced at her curiously.
"Did you hear that?" she whispered.