I stood with my back firmly pressed against the rotted wooden door.
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" I mumbled to myself. Wait. No. What am I doing? I need to figure out what to do instead of freaking out, but what can I do?
As my mind conjured up some bullshit plan that might not even work, the twins who were holding each other started to freak out much like myself. They would be of no help it seemed, so back to rapid planing I went.
"W-what the hell is out there!?" Emi near enough cried.
"Nothing good" I retorted
I then rushed to the staircase in an attempt to think of how I could even begin going about climbing it to the second floor. All the lower ones were collapsed but halfway up they seemed to be stable. I rushed back to the table where the chair a set in previously lay, picking it up and placing it next to the stairs. I mounted it and leaped from it to the stairs. I barely made it,with the chair collapsing mid jump and had to pull myself up on to it with great effort due to all my equipment that wasn't guns or booze. Once up I calmed down, the Yao Guai couldn't follow even with its considerable height, its weight would be to much for the aged stairs to handle, hopefully.
The front door buckled, presumably because the Yao Guai had charged it in place of opening it. Miraculously it had held up, but would likely not repeat the result if tested again. The girls likely also realised this as they dashed madly towards the stairs.
"Let us up! Please for god's sake let us up!" Alma pleaded, clearly panicking.
"Please help us, we'll give you anything you want, we'll give you the ransom money if you help us up!" Emi bargained wildly.
I briefly thought about what they said, if they were being ransomed and haven't just been forgotten then I could come out this shitstorm smelling of roses. That did mean however escorting a couple of greenhorns through the wastes, sure I'd ran protection before for caravans but they usually had some wastes experience of their own, these two seemingly had none which was a whole other kettle of fish.
Another bash against the door, followed by a bit of the wood splintering, yet it still stood against the odds but was definitely on its last legs.
"Please for the love of god! Help us!" Alma pleaded once more.
"Fuck it." I sighed.
I lay down on my stomach and dangled my right arm down whilst hooking my left on what was left of the bannister to secure myself.
"Grab on!" I told them, "one at a time!" I clarified.
Alma guided Emi forward so she would go up first, she leapt up and grabbed hold of my hand and forearm, I hefted her up with some effort on my part and the aid of her sister pushed her up by the feet. Once she was able she grabbed and climbed up the rest of the staircase by herself, she ascended further up the stairs and I repeated my movements for the other girl. She leapt as well and grabbed hold, but without help from below the weight was too much for the bannister as it snapped and I lost a bit of my anchorage. Luckily Emi grabbed ahold of my legs to keep me in place, allowing her sister to continue to climb and not let me plummet down.
Alma climbed up me in a bid to get up faster, she did so with enough grace that I didn't fall further thankfully. Just as she got over me and on to the staircase proper, the door finally gave way to the huge mass of muscle that was the Yao Guai. I scrambled from my prone position to my feet and race to the top of the staircase as carened towards me, just barely missing its powerful jaws as they snapped at thin air where I had been. I coerced to girls up towards the landing quickly as possible as it veered onto its hind legs, making it stand easily 3 metres up right, it pawed at the stairs to attempt the climb, but just as I had hoped it caved abruptly at the pressure almost all of the rest of the stairs gave way with it.
Seeing it could not climb up it fell back to all fours and proceeded to prowl about, growling, snapping and licking its chops in anticipation for a solid meal.
I let out the breath I was holding as it paced, the crisis was averted for now so I could go back to thinking about what to do with the other two problems I had at hand. As I turned to them they were watching the Yao Guai with rapt attention as if it would leap from the ground all the way up to them if they let it out of their sight.
"Calm down, we're safe up here." I casually explained.
"What!? How can we be safe? It's right there?" Alma exclaimed like I was insane that I could have possibly thought we were safe.
"Y-yeah, what if it tries to climb up again?" Emi added agreeing with her sister in my apparent insanity.
"It won't because it can't, and it knows that! Yao Guai are annoyingly smart when it comes to hunting but not overly patient, run to a bolthole or somewhere it can't reach and eventually it will get tired and leave for another hunt." I explained clearly over their panic.
With that out in the open the girls seemed to calmed down ever so slightly but were still wary as to let the beast out of their sight. So I left them to their vigil so I could get a better feel for our surroundings, since while what I said was true, it would still be some time before it gave up and left.
"Where are you going?" Emi meekly asked.
"To see what we're working with." I shot back without thinking
The second floor seemed to be made up of three rooms, two bedrooms and a bathroom. The bathroom didn't yield much in terms of supplies as expected, a two rolls of gauze bandages that seemed clean enough and a small bottle of antibiotics. The toilet still had water in the tank but I doubted its freshness or drinking value due to the background radiation. Coming out of the bathroom I went to the first bedroom with may have been a guest bedroom or a kids, no obvious indicators as to which. A through searched resulted in a single bullet, thankfully .44 caliber which brought the total to 24 and a small switchblade, I stowed both on my belt. I proceeded to the last room, noting one of the sisters in the hallway, Emi looking considerably more calm than before.
"Anything?" She asked.
"Not much so far but one more to go." I replied.
I pushed open the ajar door into what had to be the master bedroom considering its size, I noticed a bed with a single skeleton on it, the bones charred black and clothes of it more or less rendered non existent due to degradation.
"Must have been napping when the bombs fell." I wondered aloud.
As I began my search for anything of use Emi came in after me, probably to have a look for herself for something. Her eyes were instantly drawn to the pile of bones as well, her eyes widening at the sight.
"Oh god" She seemed to say to herself.
"Yea, whoever they were probably owned this place before the bombs. They've been here for centuries so I wouldn't worry about them." I reassured her.
"Oh." She said in response, understanding and agreeing with me I assumed.
I kept on searching the room while she stared at the bones still, finding knick knacks and other personal items but nothing of any real use. Finally though I opened the wardrobe to find something that could definitely be useful.
Emi's eyes switched to me as I pulled out the old rifle and began looking it over, the barrel was fine, the wooden furniture was decayed but seemingly still viable for use, the biggest issue was that the loading gate had warped so it wouldn't cycle rounds properly. Regardless I took it and the box of rounds next to it, a total of 10 which I added to the five I had already had on me. Once we were out of here I could see about getting it repaired or atleast sell for spare parts.
Then it hit me, I'm already thinking about me and them as a group. It was far too early on in this relationship for such trust, they are with me because I've allowed it, but unless they prove their worth they are nothing more than a burden and I should remember that.
"Does it work?" I was broken out of my internal self lecture by its topic asking a question.
I turned to her to reply "No sadly, its gates warped so it won't cycle rounds."
"Can you fix it?"
"No, not without the proper materials which I don't have, so until I do it's useless" I explained with a hint of annoyance at the fact.
"Oh." She usefully added.
I slung the rifle over my shoulder and made my way out of the room, Emi sidestepping to let me past and following closely behind. I returned to the end of the hallway where Alma still stood and watched at the yao guai, who had ceased its growling but kept on pacing back and for in the vain hope we would fling ourselves from the landing right into its waiting mouth.
"Hey." I said to Alma making her jump at my voice.
"What? Find anything we can use?" She asked irritably.
"Not much, but here." I said presenting her the switchblade.
"Well this is quite the step down from my other knife but beggars can't be choosers I guess." She was clearly quite annoyed about me disarming her.
"Couldn't be too careful." I retorted firmly.
She seemed to understand slightly and let the matter drop for now, stowing the knife on her belt. I gestured for her to follow me down the hallway, she quietly complied as we got to the master bedroom. I ushered them in and pointed towards the bed.
"Rest, I'll keep watch for that thing to go." I instructed them and turned to go begin my watch.
"What, wait what about the bones?" Emi asked with no small amount of concern.
I turned back with a sigh, I went into the room and grabbed to top sheet to form a makeshift bag for the pile of bones. I picked it up and took it to the bathroom where I put it in the bathtub, out of sight out of mind. I returned to the girls who were still staring at me with a hint of disdain at my treatment of the long dead corpse.
"Happy now?" I probed.
"Fine." Alma replied with annoyance.
"Good." I said as I turned to leave again.
"Wait!" Emi quickly blurted out.
"What!" I turned on my heels and snapped back.
Emi recoiled abit but still insisted on her intention, "What's your name?"
It took me a second as I realised I knew their names but not the other way around, I also considered whether I should even give it to them for they had not earned it yet. No, trust is a two way street or so I'm told plus what harm could it really do?
"The names Jacob."