Marcus and Ed raced around the building, keeping an eye out for any other zombies that might be getting nearby, but didn't encounter any. They ran around the wall that enclosed the entrance to the women's restroom. The door was closed almost all the way, a mere crack remaining. Marcus crashed through it with his shoulder, stumbling into the room, Ed behind him, breathing heavily. They both brandished their weapons.
Maya was standing in the middle of the tiled room over a pair of corpses, pistol in hand. She spun around, raising the pistol, then stopped. A look of anger flashed across her face as she lowered the black and silver gun.
"What the fuck are you guys doing?!" she snapped.
"I thought..." Ed began.
"We heard gunshots," Marcus replied.
"Well, yeah. There were a few of the jerkoffs in here. I was inside a building with almost no windows and a closed door, so I figured the sound wouldn't bring any of the others running, so I put them down. It's not like I've got a melee weapon on hand," Maya replied. Her gaze drifted from Marcus to Ed, then back to Marcus, and suddenly she smirked.
"Were you coming to rescue me?" she asked. Before either of them could say anything, her smirk disappeared and her expression became hard. "Because I don't need it."
Marcus sighed quietly. "Fine, let's just get the job done."
Maya seemed to find that assessment adequate. Marcus pushed the door open all the way to let some light in and told Ed to stand guard. Together, he and Maya searched the women's restroom. There didn't seem to be anything of value hidden among the stalls or on the two bodies that Maya had produced. They left the bathroom.
"Now what, move on?" Ed asked.
"No, I saw a door at the back of the building when we were coming in," Marcus replied as they headed out of the enclosed area. "Probably some kind of maintenance area or something, might be something useful in there."
"Fine then, let's go," Maya replied.
They made their way around the back of the building. Marcus glanced up at the sun. He was startled to see how far it had traveled since his time by the lake. He wondered what time it was. That thought sparked another and he fished his phone out of his pocket. It was off, so it should still have a lot of power left. Marcus booted it up, suddenly very excited, then his hopes fell. Who the hell was he going to call, even if he could get a signal?
Either way, the phone booted up. There was, indeed, no signal. But time told him it was now past seven o'clock in the afternoon. In another couple of hours it would be dark. He sighed and replaced the phone after turning it back off.
Ahead of him, he heard Maya grunt angrily. He looked up to see her at the back door.
"Locked," she said, then, before either of them could reply, she abruptly bashed against the door with her shoulder. She grunted and it popped slightly out of its frame. Twice more and the door flew inwards, slamming against the interior wall.
Marcus winced at the noise, but no zombies came running at the sound. Once again, Ed stood outside while Marcus and Maya went within to inspect. There wasn't much inside the dimly-lit room. A battered metal shelf, a big red toolbox on the floor, a desk and uncomfortable foldout chair. The desktop was scattered with all manner of paperwork, magazines, pencils, empty coffee cups. While Maya went over to the toolbox, Marcus found himself staring at the desk, trying to imagine having a job that required him to spend most or even some of his day in a back maintenance room in a public restroom facility.
"Ah-ha!" Maya said suddenly, standing up.
Marcus glanced over. She hefted a big, silver hammer.
"What do you think?" she asked.
Marcus considered it for a moment. She had her pistol holstered, and it took him a second to realize it, but she had an actual holster. "Might get stuck," he said finally.
Maya frowned, assimilating this information, then turned around and crouched back down. He found his eyes involuntarily drawn to her ass and the way her pants were so tight as to be practically non-existent. He averted his gaze, feeling strange. Twenty six years and still he wasn't sure about the social protocol for checking out women. Sometimes they seemed pleased at the attention, sometimes angry, sometimes embarrassed.
Maya stood back up, hefting a big, red wrench now. "Well?" she asked.
"Looks like it could do some damage," Marcus replied.
"Good, anything in the desk?" she asked, moving over to the shelves.
Marcus replied by going over to the desk and opening the drawers. After a few moments, both of them had come up empty and headed back outside to join Ed.
"All that's left are those cabins, right?" Maya asked as they came around from behind the bathroom. She stared at the trio of cabins across the way, nestled at the forest's edge. They seemed silent and inert, ominous tombs.
"Them and a small warehouse," Marcus replied, setting off across the dirt and grass.
Maya and Ed followed. Each cabin was a small, single-story structure, coming complete with their own little lawn, picnic table and BBQ stand. There were no zombies around, at least in the immediate area. Occasionally, they all heard the distant, echoing moan of a dead-headed creature. Marcus found the noise terrifying.
They came to stand before the trio of cabins. "Split up or stick together?" Maya asked.
"We should stick together," Marcus replied.
"All right, but let's hurry up, I don't need to spend the night out here," Maya said.
With that chilling notion in mind, the trio crossed the lawn to the first cabin. Marcus went first, opening the door and stepping inside. He was alone. The main room tripled as a living room, bedroom and kitchen. There were only two doors. The place was a mess. The bed was a bloody wreck, the blankets and sheets shredded. The refrigerator hung open and empty. A bloody hand-print was smeared on the far wall.
The trio split up, searching any likely areas. Marcus moved to the two doors at the back of the room. The first led to a small closet with a dresser at the back. Nothing of any use there. The second was a bathroom, also empty.
With a heavy sigh, he returned to the main area and helped the others finish the search. After five more minutes, the trio left the first cabin and moved onto the second one empty-handed. A feeling of discouragement began to settle over them as they searched the next two and turned up nothing more than a backpack for Maya. She shrugged into the empty pack, seeming frustrated at the lack of supplies they'd turned up.
The final building was the fenced-in industrial warehouse with the truck. Marcus hoped it was still there. A part of him felt that he must have imagined the damn thing, that they weren't getting out of here, they'd always be stuck up on Mount Tanner.
They crossed the distance between the cabins and the warehouse. As they approached, Marcus threw a glance up at the ranger station, perched up high like some kind of monolithic overseer. He couldn't see anyone moving around inside but, then again, he was too far away to really make out any kind of details and the sun was reflecting off of most of the glass anyway. He was eager to get back, find out what was going on.
A small, discordant symphony of moans and groans issued from behind the weather-beaten wooden fence that surrounded the gravel pit parking lot of the warehouse. Through the wooden planks, Marcus glimpsed a handful of undead horrors waiting for them. He glanced at the others, hefted his crowbar. Both Ed and Maya did the same.
"Quick and quiet," Maya said.
Marcus and Ed nodded. They came to the edge of the fence, waited a few seconds, then, on some unspoken signal, rushed into the lot. Marcus counted around half a dozen of the things milling about the lot. He rushed the nearest one, a twenty-something man in jeans and a t-shirt, raised the crowbar and brought it down with a sickening crack on his head. The man dropped immediately, and the others began stumbling towards them.
Marcus, Ed and Maya made quick work of the zombies, swinging and smashing as they came to them. Blood, brains and bone fragments sprayed the graveled ground. Marcus felt sickness rising up in him once more, but pushed it back down with fierce determination. No time for weakness, no time for anything but getting the job done.
As the last zombie fell, Maya marched over to what might be the only vehicle left on Mount Tanner. It was a battered old blue pick-up from the previous decade, maybe even the one before that. It was covered in dust and rust.
Ed was breathing heavily. "God, Marcus, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up," he groaned, bent forward, hands on his knees. "These things..." he trailed off.
"Stow the shit!" Maya snapped suddenly. They both looked over at her, startled. "You two go weak on me and I'm cutting your asses loose." She pointed at the warehouse. "Go check it out while I see if the truck still works."
She stared at them, her face hard and unreadable. Marcus considered the situation. What if she was sending them off to check the warehouse while she just took the truck? He considered telling her to come with them, or let him check the truck, but knew it was fruitless. Maya was a great shot, she was fast and she could likely lay him out with one punch. If she wanted the truck, she was getting it. The only way he could take it was by force, a lucky shot maybe, and there was no way he could bring himself to do that.
He wanted her to trust him, but realized that trust was a two-way street. He and Ed were going to have to start trusting her.
"Fine, come on, Ed," Marcus replied.
"But, Marcus-" Ed began.
"Come on, Ed," Marcus urged.
Ed sighed and turned. He and Marcus began making their way across the lot, towards the rust-eaten warehouse. Marcus opened the door. He peered cautiously within, the interior lit by the thin light still offered by the setting sun. No one and nothing waited for them within. A small hope he'd been holding onto died then. So there were no more survivors, just him and Ed and Maya and that group of people up at the cabin. Unless Maya decided to take off.
He prayed she didn't.
Ed came in behind him and shut the door.
"So, that Maya, she's something else," Ed said.
Marcus knew he wasn't referring to the heated conversation they'd just had back there. He rolled his eyes as he began hunting along a pair of shelves occupying the back wall. Ed walked up to him and helped.
"This is probably the worst time to discuss something like this," Marcus replied. "But she wears those pants really well."
Ed laughed and elbowed him. "See, I knew it wasn't all doom and gloom."
"Yeah, yeah. What's the point of life if you can't laugh even once in a while? My old man always said that."
"I remember," Ed replied.
They searched in silence, not finding anything until Marcus came upon another desk, pulled open a drawer and grinned at his fortuitous discovery.
"Holy shit," he whispered, reaching in and pulling out the black revolver.
"Whoa, nice," Ed said.
Marcus set it down on the desk, reached in again and pulled out a full box of bullets. He couldn't believe his luck.
"You want this?" he asked, staring at the revolver and bullets.
"No, you'd better take it. You're a better shot than I am," Ed replied.
Marcus considered it for a moment, then pulled the pistol from his belt and checked it out. The bullets he'd found fitted both his revolver and the one in the desk. He fed six more shots into his own revolver, then flipped it around and handed it to Ed, handle-first.
"There's six shots in here. Last resort. And don't shoot me on accident," Marcus said.
Ed grinned as he took it and shoved it into his own belt. "What about on purpose?"
Marcus sighed and rolled his eyes. He loaded up the revolver, snapped the chamber shut and tucked it. He considered what to do with the extra twelve bullets and finally shoved the box into his pocket. He and Ed kept searching the shed until they heard the truck outside come to life. The pair exchanged glances and hurried out the door.
Maya sat in the driver's seat, the door open, a grin on her face.
"She works just fine! Almost a full tank, battery looks good and I even found the keys," she said. Then she pulled the keys from the ignition. Stepping back out onto the gravel parking lot, she closed the door behind her and locked it.
"Anything in there?"
"Revolver and some bullets," Marcus replied.
"Good find. Now let's get back to that ranger station and get some answers."