The shadow the old hospital cast in the winter sunlight was as fear-inducing as it was structurally unsound. The highest floors seemed to sway whenever the wind shifted. Just looking at the thing made not too hard to believe that dozens of people died trying to scavenge this thing for whatever could be useful.
"Hey, she's a beaut," Ambrose called out in a bad Australian accent. "Real solid legs and-"
The Man abruptly cut in. "Ambrose, I will not hesitate to slice your throat!"
The Luitenant chuckled. "Sorry, boss," he spoke in his normal tone of voice.
The small group of people stepped through the double doors on the ground floor. A lot of it was shelled to kingdom come by whatever forces were fighting here. Judging by the charcoaled skeletons lying around the floor, it was once used as an infirmary or people were disposed of here.
Sasha followed behind Ricochet and Johnny. Dean split off with Nikki, while The Man searched the lower levels by herself.
Ricochet climbed over a pile of rubble to get to the second floor. Johnny hoisted himself up and the two helped Sasha find her footing and lifted her to join them.
"The Man says there isn't much left on the second floor," Johnny said out loud, looking straight up through the ceiling onto the next floor. "Should we risk climbing higher?"
Richochet shook his head. "I don't know. I wanna say that's where the good stuff is because that's where I would put it. But at the same time, we could just be risking our necks for no reason."
Johnny looked at Sasha. "What do you think?"
Sasha looked around at the crumbling building. An old printer suddenly fell through the floor to the outside. The Man, Ambrose, and Nikki all yelled to tell the others they were fine. Sasha knew the risk/reward factor into climbing higher was most likely not going to pay off, but there was always going to be that "what if?" factor.
"Higher," Sasha said with a slow nod. "I would keep the good shit where it's harder to reach too. Plus, we can't just assume there's nothing there."
Johnny nodded. "Great. So we climb."
For the most part, the trio just climbed up a few flights of stairs. When they reached the fifth floor, they found the door jammed. Ricochet had to shimmy along a narrow ledge that went outside of the building just to pull himself into another part of the floor. Sasha's stomach did a somersault when Ricochet slipped, but the ever nimble human dove into a broken window to save himself.
After a few seconds, Ricochet popped open the door. Johnny and Sasha, being ever mindful of the holes in the floor, searched each room, as did Ricochet.
"Find anything?" Ricochet yelled down the hall.
Sasha opened a few lockers in what seemed to be an old nurse's locker room that was being used to store weapons and ammo. Nothing was left except a few empty boxes of bullets and a heavily damaged handgun.
The next room over was an office. Sasha's heart skipped a few beats when, not paying attention for a moment, saw the entire back wall was gone and only a five-story drop awaited her if she walked too far.
"Anything?" Johnny asked, stepping into the room behind Sasha.
Sasha gestured at a locker. "I'll try there."
Carefully, as any misstep would likely send her plummeting to her doom, Sasha shuffled across the room to the stand-alone locker. Trying the handle, she was surprised to find it open.
"Holy shit!" Sasha exclaimed.
"What?" Johnny asked, tiptoeing behind Sasha.
"Lots of meds and water," Sasha revealed, stashing the treasures in her bag.
Johnny and Sasha stuffed as much of the supplies into the knapsacks as possible. Ricochet came by and put the remaining items in his bag.
"I think we did ok for today," Ricochet said.
No sooner than when he stopped talking, the floor underneath them shifted. Ricochet jumped back into the hallway. The floor suddenly started to crumble. Johnny shoved Sasha to safety and threw his backpack away from the opening hole, but Johnny wasn't quick enough to save himself.
Sasha and Ricochet yelled out in horror as Johnny suddenly disappeared in a cloud of ash and rubble.
"What the fuck?!" Ricochet flew back to the stairs, taking them two at a time, and ran to the room underneath where he just was. Sasha peeked over the edge. As soon as the dust settled, her chest tightened. There was nothing under their floor; Just a straight drop to the concrete below.
"FUCK!" Ricochet screamed. "FUCK! GODDAMMIT!"
Sasha covered her face and backpedaled quickly from the ledge. Crying through her fingers, Sasha didn't dare move in the fear that she would join Johnny in a deadly plummet to the cement.
"Sasha?" Ricochet called from underneath her. "Grab Johnny's stuff. We better get the hell out of here."
Sasha, her whimpers and tears flowing from her heavily, picked up Johnny's abandoned backpack and hurried back to the ground floor.
In the lobby, The Man was waiting for everyone to regroup. The first ones back were Ricochet and Sasha.
"Where's Johnny?" The Man demanded.
"He fell," Ricochet told. "He got a bunch of supplies and the floor gave out under him. He died saving Sasha."
The Man looked at Sasha for confirmation, but the other girl's weepy eyes and sobs were enough proof that what Ricochet had said was true.
"Fuck!" The Man cursed. "Where the hell are the other two?"
"Uh, sir?" Ambrose called out, rounding the corner. "We got armor coming up from the South."
"Which side?" The Man asked.
"It doesn't matter," Ambrose explained. "They catch us scavenging, they'll have us executed."
The Man nodded. "Let's head back now. We've got a lot of shit to sort out now."
Ambrose noticed they were down a man. "Where's Johnny?"
"Dead," The Man replied flatly, leading what was left of her group back the way they came.