Two days
Chapter 20
*The next day.*
With only a couple of hours left before the dead marched through their turf, the crew got to work boarding up, sealing off, blocking anything that could be blocked. No space was left uncovered.
The groaning was already loud enough to set nerves on edge, and with no weapons and no protective gear between them, they all knew exactly how exposed that made them. Everything they'd scavenged from the mall — the bats, the pads, the knives — had been left behind in the chaos of the freak encounter, and nobody had dared go back for it since. The hotel had twelve floors. The first one, they cleared out entirely — furniture, door frames, any wiring they could strip and repurpose, until it looked less like a lobby and more like an empty shell, stripped of anything that might give them away. Only the windows stayed uncovered, kept clear for watching.
By sunset, it was time. The horde came pouring through the streets in that same mindless way, each one simply following whoever happened to be shuffling in front of it. A few peeled off into nearby buildings; the rest just kept groaning past. The crew watched it all from the top-floor windows, careful not to be seen, praying none of them had already found a way inside downstairs — a feeling that wasn't going to leave any of them until they could actually confirm it for themselves.
They stood there for what felt like hours, just watching the horde crawl past. Alex, who'd never been built for this kind of pressure, finally cracked under it — slipping away quietly, locking himself in a bathroom, curling into a ball on the floor, and crying.
*This can't be happening. This can't be happening. I'm going to wake up soon.* He repeated it to himself over and over, unable to make the last few days fit into anything that felt real. The freak he'd killed back at the mall had happened so fast his mind hadn't had time to process any of it — not until he was staring at the horde outside, and it all caught up to him at once. His body went numb. He could still smell the iron tang of blood, the rot underneath it, and before he knew it he was throwing up.
The horde kept passing, on and on, until the crew finally gave up watching and went to sleep — as much as anyone could call it sleep, with every one of them facing the door, ready to move at the first sound of something coming through it.
Morning came in a wash of light straight into Kaito's eyes, jolting him awake instantly. The first thing he did was get up and go door to door, waking everyone.
The horde had moved on. A handful of stragglers were still lingering nearby, which kept the whole group on edge regardless.
"Are they still out there?" Amy asked, arms wrapped tight around herself. Jane pulled her into a gentle hug.
"We don't know how many are left," Leo said, taking charge. "We all heard them last night. For all we know, they haven't gone far — could be right around the corner."
"So what, we're just supposed to sit locked in here like caged animals?" Brad cut in. Before all this, he'd been a bodybuilder, and proud of it — there wasn't much he believed he couldn't solve with enough muscle behind it. Being stuck lying around like dead weight had him wound tight, closer to his breaking point than he wanted to admit.
"I'm saying we wait until we're actually sure it's safe," Leo said.
"How long is 'sure'?" Jane asked, locking eyes with him. She hadn't said much, but she felt exactly what Brad was feeling. Her family — were they even still alive out there? And if they were, how would she ever find them stuck in here?
Leo paused, wiping a hand down his face. "A day or two, minimum." He braced for the pushback he figured was coming.
None came.
Silence stretched out until Kaito finally spoke up, agreeing to the wait.
"Two days isn't so bad, when you actually think about it," he said, lightening the mood on his way back to his room. That was apparently all it took — the rest of the group settled on two days without much more argument. Even Brad, reluctant as he was, eventually came around.
"That went better than I expected," Leo said, smirking.
The day dragged on quiet. Most of them didn't interact much, except the women, who spent most of the afternoon together while Kaito slept straight through it. Brad kept himself busy with push-ups, sit-ups, anything he could improvise without real equipment — as long as it was heavy enough to lift, it counted. Leo spent most of his hours somewhere else entirely, turning over the memory of the night his daughter died. Duncan just kept watch at the windows, patient and still, like a hawk waiting for something to move.
By the time the first day wound down, everyone was hoping for something close to the meal Amy had put together two nights before. Instead, what they got was stale bread and a couple of cans of meat, and the disappointment landed hard.
"What happened?" Jane asked, not quite believing it.
"We don't have any food left," Amy said, voice barely above a whisper.
