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Chapter 13: Vanishing Grace

"What…" Louis awakened. His head felt heavy, as if struck by quite a force. Reaching to its back, however, he did not sense any signs of damage. Taking a moment to gather his bearings, something was definitely wrong. This place, confined and chilling, is not at all what he remembered doing. The last thing on his mind was being on the beach, teaching Cindy proper English, though he never quite cared of them himself. This room reminded him of the ungodly holding cell in Millhaven, before it was laid to waste anyhow. There were not any bars on the door here, however, just a block of wood. He needed to get out of here fast, because this was clearly the work of some hostile force. They might not have the means, or the stomach to kill just yet; but if their last encounter with survivors ever taught him anything, it would be stick with what you know.

The room appeared to be empty, except for some broken wooden furniture. This might have been used as a storage house, and he was lying on the floor this whole time. Back on his feet, Louis contemplated his option. If he was here, taken against his will, then it was safe to assume the same happened to Cindy as well. A brief surge of fear crossed his mind, thinking of what the Witch might do against hostile individuals. However, seeing that he was successfully carried here unharmed, more likely than not Cindy would also be the same. More importantly, he needed to find Cindy. Funny, he had but one job.

"Hello?" After being unable to find a reasonable path of escaping short of simply breaking the door down, Louis decided to test his luck. His eventual awakening should not be much of a surprise to anyone, and whoever put him here most likely have expected so. On the off chance that they are here, and somehow not actually hostile, calling out would be his best bet. Otherwise, the door was coming down.

There was no answer, perplexingly. Regardless, he went over his options again. It was definitely possible to break something like this down given enough time, but that would only work should there be no interference from the other side. The room's only non-solid side was the window behind him, which was expectedly planked. Peaking outside the cracks only revealed the sights of trees, which was pretty much what he guessed anyways. Still, thinking back, perhaps escaping through the windows might be a better idea, providing that there were not infected lurking outside within those woods. It was either that or risk higher chance of being detected by crashing the door down. A choice had to be made, and soon.

…

"Are you sure this is it?" Francis whispered to his companion. It was already rather deep into the evening, as they had been walking for quite a few extra miles than they had previously planned to. Following the tracks across the beach was definitely not difficult, but the forest was an entirely different beast, quite literally in fact.

"It simply the only thing we could feasibly trace back to." Zoey grunted. She was very unhappy with how the night turned out, but that was the least of their problems. Going back to the camp to see it cleared of all signs of life was truly a terrible experience, as it had her fearing for the worst. She was ready to simply break down and weep, should she find the other two dead inside. Fortunately, at least in this context, there did not seem to be any blood or even signs of struggle. The camp was without a doubt heavily looted, but it did not seem to have witnessed any violence. "I have no expectations of any kind, but be on your guard."

"I have been thinking. If they were just raiders, we can reason with them." Francis' best hope of optimism was just that. They could not have been friendlies, or enough to warrant a talk. Otherwise, there would simply be no reason for Louis to just leave with them without notifying the other two on scout of what happened in some way. It was perfectly reasonable for those to have a tranquiliser gun, which would explain a lot of it. "Provided that Cindy and Louis are unharmed, 'ye?"

"What if they're not?" Zoey was certainly not in the mood for discussion. She knew that should there be any kind of altercation, they would be on the back foot, and that simply was unacceptable. However, pride was for a different, day, as all she wanted was her teammates back alive and well. The raiders could keep the guns and the supplies if it truly could not be helped, as long as safety was guaranteed. However, there was a good chance of that not being possible, and it was bothering her greatly. "I do not want to take any chances."

"Would you be ready to kill them then?" Francis enquired. Unlike what some may think, he was definitely not, and never had been, in the business of killing anyone. He might steal a TV here and there, and violate property laws in five states, but that was just for fun. Infected was easy, but people would be an entirely different matter. "Living, breathing human beings?"

"If it turned out that they did in fact kidnap Louis and Cindy, robbed us, and refusing to reason." Zoey appeared quite determined. She never thought she was going to say that, her father being a police officer and all, but she did. It simply made sense to her. She hated how this giant catastrophe kept leading to other, and she was being forced to morally alter herself, but nonetheless it was necessary. "We are going to save them, no matter what."

"Do you think we're doing the right thing?" Francis certainly had his second thoughts. Thinking back, if he was ever in such a dire situation, he would not be above doing the same things. Circumstances were difficult for all parties, and just maybe that made it excusable. He was torn, because raising a gun to someone and actually firing that gun were entirely different things. What surprised him the most was that it was him who was trying to convince Zoey of all people. "Are we being a bit overzealous because our friends were taken?"

"If you're asking whether we should approach this more diplomatically or not, I certainly do not want to force a fire fight if I could help it." She was indeed very sound, nonetheless emotionally affected. Today had to be the worst day for this to happen, compounded by the fact that she was quite aware that there was drama within whatever group she was about to confront. After all, they were back at the museum. She felt somewhat guilty that she did not stick around longer. Perhaps they could have caught the perpetrators as they were walking back. Perhaps they actually could have, if she and Francis were not trying to avoid any type of human contact. "However, if it's necessary, I would not hesitate gunning down every single one of them."

The biker sighed. He did not want to hear it, but he knew he needed to. It was not that the girl was somehow becoming bloodlust; she simply had no patience anymore. After all that has happened, perhaps the disdain for other survivors was warranted. Still, all hopes to anything but a gun fight. Zoey signalled them to move forward, and it was time to find out.

…

"Argh!" The window thundered open after a kick at its middle frame. Louis took a last look around the room, grabbing a wooden bat as the best piece of weapon he could carry. It did take him quite a while to take down the boards blocking the glass, but he did it regardless. The moon was quite important, and he was able to determine his relative position. Having spent what seemed like the last month staring at the map, he could certainly draw it from his memories. Climbing over the ledge, he made a point to shut the window after him. It was certainly possible that the infected could climb through it. While he did not know any of the people within the compound, it was best for him to not leave a whole in its defences. Forethought, he nodded to himself.

Escaping from here was not particularly difficult, as there appeared to be some well-maintained roads across the back. He did spot a few infected lurking within the darkness of the forest clearings, however, so he kept himself quiet and out of sight. The place was quite big, however, expanding across the flattened hillside. If he recalled correctly, and he certainly did, this is a museum. It would be a rather fitting, if not ironic place to hole up into in the apocalypse. After settling at the back of a courtyard, Louis considered his options. Zoey and Francis should be back at the camp by now, and have noticed that he and Cindy were gone. This should prompt them to go for a search, but there was only a slim chance they would be able to make it here. Thus, his number one priority was to find Cindy; as unlike him, she definitely looked like a threat. The only thing he could do then was hope that she turned out to be all right, but now he had the opportunity to do something about it.

Weapon in hand, Louis entered the courtyard, back sticking to the wall to avoid detection. There did not seem to be any kind of guards at this time of night, which surprised him. Perhaps the group was small, or perhaps they were occupied from something else. Regardless, he needed to locate where they were keeping other captives, before he could start doing any kind of rescuing.

…

Francis knocked on the door. In spite of the doom and gloom dialogue they had previously, there was no better way to approach this situation. They had to be constantly on guard, as blindly trusting others, even in the face of a global crisis, could be quite regrettable. However, it was the best way to get information, as any would be better than hastily guessing the situation. They initially thought of only one appearing, while the other hid and provide back up of necessary. However, they decided that the intimidation factor, prevention, was a much better approach. If anything, it was easier to talk.

What they did not expect, however, was simply no response. There was no doorbell to ring, as far as they could see, and it would be a bit ridiculous not to have anyone watching the front door, especially at night. The two stared at each other, not quite decisive on what to do. They were forced to wait for a bit more, along with some louder knocking, to see whether they were missing something. Soon enough, they found out that there was simply no answer.

"This is… awkward." Francis noted. Zoey simply was at a loss for words. This was not how the plan was supposed to go, and now they were faced with an even greater issue – how to process from here. Would simply breaking in be reasonable, or would that simply set off whoever was inside, sleeping or otherwise, and cause a huge ruckus. That would risk whatever discussion they might have been able to make otherwise, but at this point, it seemed unavoidable. Coming back in the morning was simply out of the question, as no doubt they will lose the upper hand in terms. "What do you reckon we do?"

"We're going in." Not another word was needed. The door seemed to be open outward, which made it substantially more difficult to fail. After a brief moment to think it over, they decided the best way was to find a place to sneak in. A basement somewhere to quietly enter would be much better than barging in the front door, just in case there was still anyone else within the building. Finding an alternate entrance was surprisingly easy, perhaps for emergency escapes when the place was first designed. It was much more of an old-fashion hatch than anything else, and was fairly easy to break through after a few stomps.

This path led them into the hall, which appeared rather empty. Stealth was hardly a viable option, but it would not hurt to try. Sidestepping a few yards, they took the nearest stair down. There, they found themselves in what could only qualify as a vault, understandably so. There was a lot more smashed glass than there were artefacts, however. There could be no blamed placed on those trying to survive with all the tools they needed, though.

Soon enough, the two of them simply could no longer progress by going through the basement, and had to take the stair up to the hallway. It was a different section of the building, but was still as silent as the last one. They had no choice but to proceed deeper into the premises. They were still directionless.

…

Bang

…

Louis heard that loud and clear. It was coming from inside, only a few dozen feet away. He had to think of the worst, as gunshot at this time of night could never mean anything good. There was no window for him to climb onto, however, and he needed an entrance. While there was not one on hand, thankfully it was within sight. Dashing across the untrimmed grass, he found out the door was locked. However, it being one with a handle did make things a lot easier, falling over just after a few bashes of the bat. Rushing inside, Louis noticed a string of lanterns barely visible. There had to be someone here; most likely a group, but they did not seem to be anywhere he could observe. The string of halls before him was a bit disorienting, but he was quite sure of where the gunshot was. 'To the left', he thought. He could no longer be reckless, though. This was enemy territory, after all, and the last thing he wanted to do was being discovered before he absolutely needed to. Keeping himself to a corner, Louis paced himself towards the turn. Soon enough, he found himself in a decent position to peak out of the edge. There stood two people kneeling, staring another one on the ground, in a puddle of blood.

"Josh…"

"Emmy, I…"
"What have you done?"

As expected, Louis did not recognise any of these people. However, from the look of things and the pistol in the kneeling man's hand, it was safe to guess that some altercation was taking place. These people were in a very unstable emotional state, and it would be unwise of him to interfere. The good thing was that Cindy was most likely not at all involved in this incident, and this was a good time for him to go find her. Others within the place should have heard the gunshot as well, and sneaking around amidst the confusion was ideal. However, he could not help but feel disgusted that his first reaction to seeing a person shot down is to leave, instead of helping him. It was a choice he made, though, and nothing could be done of it.

"What the hell happened here?" A nearby doorway roared open. Standing in front of it was a well-built man, seemingly in his fifties, looking both baffled and half-drunk. He carried a rifle, which Louis was absolutely sure was taken from his camp. It would appear they did in fact loot the valuables, which was what he had expected from the start. However, he felt compelled to stay, if only to just catch a hint of what might have happened to Cindy, instead of sprinting off like a lost dog, aimless and helpless. "Who… what the fuck did you do Josh?"

"I'm sorry I…" Josh swiftly stood up, as if drunk in rage and confusion. He could not speak, only murmuring meaningless gibberish. It was easy to see that the man at the door was quickly losing his patience.

"You shot George you motherfuc'er." It was not quite clear whether it was his fumbling; trying to talk, or it was simply his accent. Still, the situation was quite clearly heating up. His colossal arms slammed into Josh shoulders, picking the man up. "I'll fuc'in kill you!"

"Please, Dave, stop." The woman, Emmy, was at wit's end. However, continuously yanking at the man's arm in order to somehow calm the situation turned out to be quite futile. If anything, he was even more enraged. His hands moved quickly to Josh's neck, fiercely crushing it with all of his might. That was when another gunshot was heard.

Josh dropped onto the ground, and so did Dave. A bullet in the stomach was what ended the fight, and it left the older man squirming in pain. Blood was flowing out, but he was not dying. The couple panicked and simply bolted off the scene, leaving the gun behind. At this point, more footsteps could be heard from the front, a tell-tale sign that others are catching on. However, there are also those from the forest. If Louis knew anything, it was that the infected have no doubt heard the gunshot as well, and was rushing towards them. It was high time for him to leave, but 'where' is the question.

"ARGH!"

A scream was heard within very close proximity. If he had to guess, it would only be right around the corner of this same building. It was quite a debate as to whether he should investigate, but there was nothing else to work as clue. Darting off to the source of the scream, he came across an open door. Looking in, Louis was deadpanned. One part of him was extremely glad to see Cindy, but the other was very bothered by the dead man lying at her feet, and the blood covering the room.