Snippet #1753351

Fredrick Venkel
Day 6
Downtown

A soft beam of light shone through near the top of his barricaded window, in a spot he'd apparently missed. It shone down on his face as he muttered to himself coming out of his fitful sleep. He'd been dreaming of yesterday when someone had somehow realized he was holed up in this building and had been beating on the front door.

At first he'd tried to ignore the pounding but it wasn't long before it became more panicked and what sounded like an older man began shouting.

"I know you are in there you coward! I seen you barricading this place yesterday but it was too dangerous to leave our spot! You know as well as I do you have to let me in! I'm making too much noise they will come!"

Fredrick stayed quiet for some time as the man began to beat harder and he heard a little girl clear as day.

"Daddy! Auntie is coming again! Daddy! She's coming and she's not alone!" Then the man stopped beating on the door for a moment. Fredrick scuttled closer to the door, uneasily examining it for signs of breaking.

Before he could think anything though the man began pounding with what had to be all his might. "You yellow bellied fuck! Let us in! I know you are in there! You can't let this happen!"

His heart ached for a moment, a brief moment but still a moment, before he said aloud. "And you know I can't let you in. Your little girl already told me there are things out there."

He was silent a moment before continuing, "Go away! Just go away!"

With that he turned his back to the door and listened as the man's determined pounding stopped. He could hear the man tell his little girl to run, she screamed as he guessed one of the walkers had gotten what he expected was her father. He didn't even move as he heard the girl crying and the man fighting for their lives.
He opened his eyes suddenly as his mind's eyes had finished the scene, his heart beating and his body ached. He'd had a rough few days. He'd fallen from a third story balcony and was sure he hadn't broken anything but it sure the fuck hurt. He'd had to lie still for hours in a sewer at one point and just generally hadn't been having a wonderful past six days.

Slowly he forced himself to his feet and stretched silently. His body ached and his mind was numb. The daylight was warm against his skin through the tattered clothing. His barricades were already failing. He'd never been much of a carpenter though or any good at tetris for that matter, the thought made him smile.

He moved to the door and for the first time since two days ago he peered through the cracking reinforced wood. The door had taken a hell of a beating since he got here and the incident yesterday hadn't helped. Not even ten feet from the entrance was the bloodied remains of what had indeed been an older man. From his vantage he couldn't see the little girl, which made his heart skip a beat. He wasn't a complete dick. He had truly hoped that the two would have been fine and even as he knew what was occurring he still hoped the little girl would have had the sense to run.

It wasn't long before he found himself in one of the empty offices sitting at the nice mahogany desk. The chair was an extremely comfortable brown leather series of some sort. He'd already gone through and "stolen" everything of importance only to replace them and steal them again out of boredom. Shaking his head he looked at the food he'd laid out before him on the desk. A bag of pork rinds, a can of applesauce, and half a bar of chocolate he'd found in the desk. He smiled, he was really on the up and up now. After figuring out how to open the can with his steak knife he had himself his meager breakfast.

Afterwards he found himself sitting in the front room cross legged staring at the door. His mind racing with nonsense questions and idle inward chatter before a real thought occurred. He was out of food, and had zero water. When the building had been abandoned the water and power had been shutoff and disconnected overtime due to gang use. And then another thought made fear pang through him. He was going to have to go outside.

He continued to sit there for what would seem like hours and hours but it was truly only twenty minutes before he slowly forced himself to stand and extend his hand to the lock latch. Slowly he fumbled with it as if his hand was not his own, before unlocking the door and removing the boards with a bit more effort. In the end he was standing before the unopened door silently straining to hear the slightest sound of anything so that he could retreat back into his shell. But it was eerily quiet at that moment and he couldn't even hear what had become the normal moaning or shuffling of the dead.

Trembling he reached out grabbing the brass knob and pulling the door open. Immediately he was hit with both sunlight and the stench of death. He could see the rest of the man's remains clearer then when he was peering through the hole and swallowed hard. He stepped out of the building into the warm light his tattered shirt sticking to his sweaty body. He'd worked up a cold sweat hyping himself out before he opened the door.

Quickly his situation dawned on him and the daze he was in cleared. He moved with purpose as he darted through the empty streets looking for a a home, store, restaurant that was at least mostly clear of the dead and didn't look to ransacked.