by Lauren Beltz
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“We all did. Sebastian and I cleared the second floor a few days back and cleaned out the last of the apartments.”
Anna couldn’t read the look on William’s face, but she didn’t have to in order to know she didn’t like it.
William pondered over the revelation for a moment longer, leaning his tall frame against the door. “It’s too soon to tell the others,” he finally spoke, voicing the sentiment she had been feeling all along. Telling them they no longer had a safe means of finding what little food they had would not go over well with any of them, and the prospect of leaving the building after what just happened with Hayley… even Anna wasn’t looking forward to the thought.
“Keep a tight lid on it for now. Tell Sebastian to as well. Continue your normal schedule, but work your way back up through the building and double check every nook and cranny of all the apartments again. Collect anything you might have missed the first time.”
She was slightly insulted to have him think they could have possibly missed anything in the past few months. They would find nothing edible left in any of the apartments; Anna was confident of that fact. They would only be wasting precious time and energy on a hopeless mission, when they should be using that time to come up with the next step of their survival plan. She had half the mind to tell William just that, but she kept it to herself. They all just needed a few more days to recover and adjust.
With a slight nod, Anna decided to leave it at that. No point voicing her concerns at this juncture. Better to let William think he was still the smartest and in control. But Anna planned on spending those wasted hours searching the empty apartments at least coming up with ideas on where to go from here. When they finished re-searching all the apartments and undoubtedly found nothing, she wanted to be able to bring a plan of attack to the group instead of leaving them feeling helpless. The last thing they needed right now was to start turning against each other in an every man for himself mentality. Another incident like Hayley’s, and she highly doubted they would all make it out of the encounter alive.
Sebastian
The knock at the door surprised him enough to pull him from his stupor. With the routine open door policy in their group, the sound of a knock sometimes made him forget where he was for the smallest of moments. He waited for the guest to let themselves in, but time continued to pass in silence. Begrudgingly, he rose from the couch and moved to open the door. With all that had gone on in the past few hours, he didn’t know whom to expect, but he wasn’t surprised to find Anna waiting in the hallway.
“Where’s your sister?” Anna asked him, her tone harsh and her voice lowered.
“Locked herself in her room and is refusing to come out. While a hunger strike is the last thing she needs right now, it will at least help buy us some time with our supplies.” As he spoke, he couldn’t even tell himself if he was joking or serious, but he suspected it lay somewhere along the spectrum of seriousness.
“Then can I come in?” she suggested as they continued to stand there.
Stepping back, Sebastian ushered her inside. “Can’t say I’m looking forward to the type of conversation that requires a sit down and secrecy from my sister.”
“It appears as if everything should be kept a secret from your sister,” Anna commented.
“Hey.” He was exhausted and not ready for a fight, but he wouldn’t tolerate her bad mouthing his family as if that whole incident had been their fault. Especially not by the person who had been swinging the machete.
She held her arms up in an offering of peace. “Just trying to lighten the mood, amigo.” While he sank back onto the couch, she propped herself on the edge of the coffee table.
He was used to close proximity to her as it was something that had been forced upon him during countless days of clearing small sized apartments. This voluntary closeness, however, was new to him and rather unsettling. It felt a bit like standing next to someone with a grenade in their hand. “Can you just say what you came to say?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes. “It’s been a tiring day.”
“I talked to William.”
“I bet that was a pleasant conversation.”
“See, now who’s trying to lighten the mood?” she accused, but it did not bring a smile to his face.
Prodding, he said, “Anna.”
“He wants us to sweep the building again, from the bottom up, to see if there is anything left that we might have missed the first time around.”
He snorted at the absurdity of the suggestion. “Bullshit,” he snapped, extending his arms across the back of the couch as he leaned back into it. “There is nothing left, we made sure of it.”
“I know that and you know that, but William is looking for some kind of excuse to hold off on telling everyone so the whole Hayley situation can blow over.” It bothered him how casually she breezed over what she did to Hayley, but the last thing he wanted to do was start an argument over something that was already done.
“So we’re just going to waste what, a week? Two weeks? Looking for supplies and food while everyone else keeps consuming what little they have left while we find nothing? What happens when we come back to William with nothing to show for all the time we wasted?”
“By then, hopefully you and I have come up with a solution to the problem that we can present to the group.”
The thought was downright laughable. “And you think that they aren’t going to turn into an angry mob when they realize we’ve known about the little problem for a while without telling anyone? Delaying the inevitable is not going to solve anything. Sure, tempers might have calmed down a little by then, but the fact that we hid the truth will counteract that. And then they will be starving, and panicked, and do you really think William is the one they are going to turn on first?”
“What is the point in telling them if we don’t have a plan to fix it? Once we’ve had some more time to brainstorm, then we can approach William again about telling everyone.”
“We have been brainstorming,” Sebastian reminded her. “And we haven’t come up with anything yet. Our best chance at finding a viable solution is to let everyone help in the planning. We both know the answer to our problems isn’t going to be simple or easy, so the more time we have to plan for it, the better our chance at survival will be. It’s suicidal to keep this hidden from everyone.”
The look she gave him then told him that she agreed with him, even if she argued against him. He had always admired her for being a strong, independent person, even if it caused tensions with others more than necessary. But as he sat there and stared across the short space between them, he found himself staring at a soldier of William. She opened her mouth, and he heard William’s words spewing from it.
“Look, if you really think it’s a good idea to hold off on telling people, then I won’t open my mouth to anyone. Far be it for the youngest, most inexperienced in the group to stir up trouble.” The bitterness in his voice was not well masked.
“The last thing we need right now is a panic, Sebastian. Give them time to cool off, even if it’s just a few days. We’ll spend our time roaming the floors bouncing ideas off of each other, and then once Nathan and the others have calmed down, we’ll discuss going to the group again, even if William doesn’t think it’s time.” The way she spoke, he felt like her interest lay in self-preservation. Anna was not only the one who had taken Hayley down, but she was now the scavenger that had to bare the bad news. His gut told him that they were wrong, but he squashed the feeling.
“Then I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” he sighed, tilting his head against the back of the couch and staring up at the shadows on the ceiling.
She responded with a nod, and he could read the relief written across her face. “Get a good night’s sleep. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time.” Sensing her dismissal, she stood. With a nod, she led herself to the front door.
“What else is new,” he mumbled as he stared up at the ceiling even after the door swung s
hut behind her.
Davidson
“Hey,” he called out when he looked up and saw Sebastian approaching. He had given up on throwing pebbles and settled on sitting on the ledge and staring down, deep in thought. He longed for something to do, but without direction he didn’t want to return to his empty apartment. They all needed space right now, and the stale air on the roof was better than the dim lighting and the wafting breeze through the open window in his apartment.
“Was hoping I would find you here,” Sebastian said in greeting. He did not share his sister’s nervousness and promptly plopped himself down next to Davidson, swinging his legs over the side of the building.
“Hope I’m not in trouble,” Davidson commented vaguely as he turned his attention back to the city that stretched out endlessly before him, a vast sea of concrete, metal, and glass.
“I am hoping I can request a favor,” Sebastian confessed, and Davidson had to give him props for not beating around the bush, though he thought he could have lived with a bit of small talk.
“I am intrigued. Request away.”
“I need you to teach Lenore self-defense.”
That caught Davidson’s attention. He turned his gaze towards her brother. “Did she tell you what happened earlier? Because honestly, she just took me by surprise, that’s all.” By the puzzled look on