The gunfire did not stop the next day. Nor the day after. That weekend slunk past in a crawl, time's passage only noted through Nadir's watch and the periodic intervals in which Erik left to check the outside's state. It was too dangerous for them to venture out, and whatever fighting that was happening below was vicious and loud, with gunfire and shouting echoing late into the night. Christine passed the time by reading her father's book and occasionally playing cards with Nadir, who, to her surprise, turned out to be quite the adversary. She lost a lot, but it was still a fun way to pass the time.

And there was not much else to do.

Nadir was evidently used to being cooped up, and he did not seem to mind so much having another few days of forced quarantine, especially now that he wasn't completely alone in the apartment. Even to Christine it didn't seem so bad, all the days of long walking and traveling had left her ready for an excuse to sleep in, and it felt damn good to not have to wear shoes for once. Staying there was a little bit on the boring side, sure, but it wasn't bad by any means. Nadir was good company. Erik was… there.

Of all of them, he seemed to be the one having the hardest time adjusting to being holed up in the apartment. Whenever he did stop to sit with them in the living room, he seemed twitchy, impatient. Nadir asked if he wanted to join one of their many games of cards once, and Erik had looked at him as if he'd just asked him to lick the ground.

Over the next few days she and Erik ran over their plan a little more thoroughly– though they had no map, there was paper and pencils lying nearby, and he had drawn out a rough sketch of their path to and from the theater for her to look at, marking the neighborhoods where he'd previously had encounters with the RF. Those were the places they would avoid.

"Stealth will be key," he said to her on the second evening, when they sat huddled around the kitchen island, dim light coming from the lamps in the living room. "The quicker you can familiarize yourself with the location, the easier it will be to navigate it unseen. We have been lucky thus far to not come face to face with any member with a gun. I am not keen on starting now."

She was a little bit surprised when he elected to remain in the living room that evening while she and Nadir ate their dinner, boxed noodles with a great helping of soy sauce on top, boiled till soft. He did not join in with their conversation much, which had devolved into a heated discussion on whether VHS tapes or DVD's held up the quality of a film better. There wasn't really a whole lot else to discuss, in all fairness.

Nadir shook his head. "How many people still have DVD players?" he said. "Finding electricity is hard enough, but what are you gonna play your film on? You have to find a working playstation? No thanks."

She waved her fork at him. "You can play a disc on things other than a playstation. And where are you still finding a working VHS player at? One that hasn't been broken yet has to be, what, forty, fifty years old at this point? C'mon."

"I used to have a player with a radio and a clock attached. Very handy. Hard to beat that sort of innovation nowadays."

Christine was almost startled when Erik spoke up, his voice low and deep. "VHS tapes are not durable. Your nostalgia is showing, old man."

Nadir choked on a noodle. "Wh- You're taking her side? This feels unfair. I didn't know you had opinions on film technology."

Erik rolled his eyes. It looked so humorously out of character for him that Christine had to blink a few times to make sure that was what she really had seen. "Your argument is unconvincing," he simply replied.

Nadir clucked his tongue. We will have to agree to disagree on that."

The room settled into a comfortable silence. Christine had just finished her plate, and was about to stand to wash it out when Erik spoke again.

"I am thinking that we will leave tomorrow evening," he said.

Nadir seemed entirely unfazed by the sudden turn in conversation, almost as though he had been wondering about it himself. Even she had been wondering as to when they would leave, but that seemed… soon. There had been plenty of gunfire that day, and when she'd chanced a glance out the window of her room in the afternoon, she was pretty sure she saw a dead body on the curb below. It had freaked her out too much to double check.

Nadir raised a brow, glancing towards the entrance, towards the street that had only momentarily gone quiet. "Are you sure it is safe?"

"If we wait for them to leave, we will likely be stuck here for weeks. You've practically said so yourself. If we leave when it is dark enough out, they may have less energy. We cannot stay here much longer. Eventually the RF, or whomever they are battling, may come searching this building for supplies to scavenge."

Christine's stomach turned at the thought of being stuck, cornered in this small space while potential enemies were loose right outside their doorstep.

"We will take with us as many of the supplies here as we can," it was there that Erik's eyes flickered to Nadir, who was still sitting as though in deep thought. "You may help yourself to anything I am unable to carry. From there we will make a brief stop at the theater, and then I will bring you to the edge of the city. You arrived on a highway, right?"

She nodded. It was the easiest way to navigate the large, empty swaths of unfamiliar land that lay between the city and her home.

His fingers tapped against his leg. "Then I will take you there, far enough up that none of the inhabitants here would be likely to travel." He went quiet again, and she said nothing, waiting for him to continue speaking, only until she realized that he was waiting, in fact, for a response from her.

"Thanks," she said, and she meant it. "I… don't know how I would be able to do this without your help. I really appreciate it."

He watched her steadily, gaze unwavering, intense, and for a second she could almost see something flicker in his eyes, thoughts going through his head that she could not quite read, and he did not say anything for a long moment. The repetitive tapping of his hands paused as though digesting her words, then resumed as he spoke again. "It will likely take us near a week- maybe even two, to reach a safe spot near where you entered. These next few days will be very long and tiring for you."

"Oh. Okay," she said.

That ever-familiar silence fell between the three of them once again, though this time it seemed curt, awkward. She didn't know what to say to break it, nor where the tension had even come from, but judging from the glances that Erik sent Nadir's way, he wished to speak to him. Alone.

Well. Christine wasn't in any rush to remain in a place where she wasn't quite wanted, and so she raised herself to her feet, palming her empty bowl from one hand to the other before going over and setting it on the kitchen island. She'd clean it tomorrow. She rubbed her hands together.

"Well," she said. "I'll… be going to bed, then." She glanced from Erik to Nadir. "Goodnight," she said, to no one in particular.

Nadir gave her a warm smile back. "Goodnight," he replied.

Erik said nothing, and she could feel the weight of his amber eyes on her until she had left the room. She opened the door to the bedroom she was staying in. The hinges squeaked.

Distantly, barely audible, as though he were whispering, she could hear Nadir's voice.

"That was rude," he murmured. "What is it that you are so desperate to say to me that you couldn't possibly do in her presence?"

No response came from Erik, or if it did, it was too low for her to hear. Christine went inside the bedroom and shut the door.

Inside the solitude of the room, the silence that hung in the air buzzed around in her ears, like empty static in the absence of noise. She went over and dropped onto the bed, hands reaching out to steady herself against the comforter as she laid on her back, legs hanging off the edge of bed. It was cold in the room, and the wind from the outside world pushed against the building, seeped through the walls and the window.

She was all alone, she thought. In the room, in the apartment, in the city. It was just her. She was all alone.

She rubbed her eyes. And when it inevitably took far longer to return than had been planned, Antoinette and Meg would likely fear the worst. And they wouldn't even be completely wrong. In that moment it felt as though there was little that could bring her lower than she felt then. Her father was dead and she was alone.

…

Christine woke up sharply, as though hands had reached forward and jolted her, leaving her heart racing for a second as she blinked the sleep away from her eyes.

The room sat around her, silent and unchanged as ever. She'd been dreaming again. Though whatever it was that had gone through her mind had slipped from her memory as soon as she woke, a headache lingered at the forefront of her skull, and her neck hurt from the awkward angle she'd fallen asleep at, leaving her to rub at her muscles with a wince as she shifted into a sitting position. From the small window on the wall, it was still nighttime, the sky outside not much more than inky blackness, no moon nor stars to be seen. When she reached up to her tiptoes to peer down at the streets below, what little she could see, that is, everything appeared quiet and still.

Eventually her head pounded badly enough that she had to drop away from the windows, rubbing at her temples with a palm as she squinted around the room.

Her backpack was where she'd left it at the foot of the bed, and she managed to find her flashlight, clicking it on to root through her belongings until she located a bottle of pain relievers, setting it down on the carpet as she peered in the bag to lift out her water bottle. It was too light, and she realized, with a groan, that it was empty.

Well, screw her luck. Christine glanced toward the door- Erik was sleeping in the living room, but she'd recalled there being a spare jug of water in the kitchen that she could refill with. Did she want to try and sneak out there without waking him? The man was grumpy enough as he was, she couldn't imagine how pleasant he'd be if she managed to startle him from his sleep.

Her head really did pound, though. And she was exhausted and desperately wanted sleep, and knew that it in no way would return to her with such an awful headache. And so she decided to chance going to the kitchen, teasing the door open as slowly as possible so as to not cause any noise. All the lights in the hall were off, leaving her to navigate through in pure darkness, almost near blind as she struggled to make out any objects before her. She made it into the living area, and quietly tiptoed over to the kitchenette as her eyes adjusted to the light. She hardly made a sound.

It was a slight motion to her left that had her nearly jumping, heart racing until she realized it was only Erik, standing from one of the couches.

Her voice was little more than a whisper as she spoke. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

Through the dim light she could see him glance towards the hall where Nadir still slept. "No," he said. "I do not need sleep. I was keeping watch."

"You said that before. About not sleeping. Do you have insomnia?"

He did not reply.

"I get it either way, I guess is what I mean. I've been having a hard time sleeping since my dad died," she said. "I don't remember the last time I got a real full night's sleep."

Again he said nothing. Those amber eyes keenly watched her, and his lack of response, his seeming dislike towards her, and all of her sadness and grief and exhaustion just seemed to weigh down on her all at once. She looked down at the empty water bottle in her hand.

"I'm sorry," she sniffled. "I didn't mean to bother you. I just woke up with a bad headache and wanted to get some water. I'll be out of your hair soon."

Christine had meant that in only the sense that she'd be leaving the room just as soon as possible, for she knew that to say that she'd be gone from his life soon entirely was a lie. He still had to help her leave the city, and so that was what, another week of them traveling together? For a little while there, before they'd arrived in the apartment and been cooped up for three days, she thought that they'd been doing well. Something close to being amiable with one another, but now after spending an entire weekend with a buffer between them, she felt as though they were back at square one.

They didn't have to be friends. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to be his friend. But Christine had always been a people-pleaser– Papa had always said it was one of the things she had to overcome the most, and something in her felt so sad when someone did not like her. Especially when that person in question would be in her company for another week.

Why did he agree to help her, she wondered, if he did not wish to be in her presence? She'd suggested his help to find her home out of sheer desperation. He had been the one to suggest he help her leave the city. He must've had a reason for that. She did not know Erik very well, but from what little she did know about him, what little she had gleamed and had been told from Nadir, he was a very smart person. So what had been his reasoning?

She turned around to retrieve the water jug from where it sat in the nonfunctioning fridge, pouring some into the water bottle that she'd carried with. She tightened the lid back on, and when she turned, Erik had moved slightly closer, though the kitchen island still remained between the two of them. Her gaze met his, and then she looked down at her water once more.

"I know this isn't ideal," she murmured. "But I meant what I said before– about really appreciating this. I mean, you didn't have to do any of this… you could've just shot me and robbed me for all I'm worth. I did kinda barge into your house, after all. But you didn't."

She let out a puff of air, not entirely sure where she was going with her words, other than that loose sense of discomfort between them that nibbled in the back of her mind that she felt she needed to address. She nibbled at her lip before she continued speaking. "I haven't had very many encounters with them- with the RF out there, other than them killing Papa, but if we really are going to be going headfirst into their territory tomorrow… I just want you to know that I'll have your back out there, too." She gave him a small smile. "That's… that's all, I guess. Goodnight, Erik."

And she left the room after that, departing down the hall and back into her own bedroom. She spared a glance back right before shutting the door. He hadn't moved at all, and still stood, staring at where she'd been as the door clicked shut.

…

The following morning was a quiet one. Christine spent the first few hours after she woke up gathering and organizing her belongings back up, and she used the sink in the bathroom to wash some of her dirty clothes. Shirts and pants she often would simply wear until they began to stink so bad she couldn't handle it, but underwear was a different topic altogether. She had closed the door shut and hoped that neither Nadir nor Erik would come looking for her as she scrubbed her unmentionables with soap and water, before leaving them in her room– hidden under the bed for modesty's sake, to dry.

When she finally was ready enough to go into the living room, she saw that on the kitchen table lay an assortment of weaponry and armor, including the bullet proof vests she'd gained a glimpse of the other day. Erik stood above them, straightening them out from the boxes that he had pulled from Nadir's room. The unopened ones were cluttered around his feet.

He looked up at her when she entered, and gave her the smallest of nods in acknowledgement. He did not speak of their conversation last night at all, and she didn't bring it up.

Nadir was sitting on one of the couches, a book in his hands, and he waved at her as she made her way over to the living room area. He himself had a few boxes by him, opened with the cardboard flaps sticking up, and as she settled down on the couch opposite him he nodded towards them.

"Feel free to look through those," he said. "Erik told me that he doesn't need anything in them anymore. They'll just be left here otherwise. How'd you sleep?"

"I slept fine. I'm about ready to leave this place," she replied. She made no mention of her late night conversation with Erik.

Nadir nodded, and she could see the sentiment reflected clearly within his face. "Imagine how I feel. I almost forget how sunlight feels against my skin, I've been stuck inside for what feels like decades."

Erik's voice came low from the kitchen island where he still stood sorting through weaponry. "You will be sorely disappointed to venture outside then," he said. "The sun has kept itself rather conservative as of late."

Christine sighed. "I'd hoped it'd brightened up while we were here. I feel like it's been so long since there was nice weather."

Nadir scratched at his beard and hummed in agreement.

She tugged the nearest box over and lifted it onto the coffee table. Inside of it lay a random amalgamation of different hygiene products, deodorant and body sprays and basic bandages, even a couple small packs of menstrual pads, which she quirked an eyebrow at Nadir upon pulling. Disposable pads seemed rarer than gold, sometimes. They– and tampons, had many uses beyond periods, and in the early days she could remember people using them as bandage supplements when people got gravely injured and there were few supplies.

Nadir shrugged. "I won't have any use for it. Neither will Erik. Go crazy."

Bar any gravely unforeseen circumstances (Erik's words, not hers,) they would depart that evening as soon as the sun set. The darkness would give them an advantage in the landscape, and though the RF likely had watchdogs posted up around the neighborhood, it would be much more difficult for them to be able to catch sight of the three of them if it were pitch black out.

"And we will not be traveling by the main road," Erik said as they looked over the weaponry later that afternoon. "It is far too dangerous. I know this area well, and there is a large museum a few blocks down that we can cut through. It should save us some time."

The three of them stood around the kitchen island, where Erik had arranged an array of guns, ammo, granola bars, and other miscellaneous items that would come in handy. He lifted a pamphlet for the museum from one of the cardboard boxes at his feet, and handed it to her. It was faded and wrinkled at the corners, and she flipped it open to examine. There was a map on the backside, showing a large expanse of hallways and exhibits.

"It will be best if you familiarize yourself with the layout," he said. "I will take the lead, but if a situation in which we were to get separated arose, you will need to know where the nearest exits and hiding points lay."

He pointed a pale finger at a few of the emergency exits, signified by a small drawing of a man running through a door. "I believe they have begun working on getting electricity operational in this neighborhood. I do not know if they have extended that to the museum, but in the case that it is the truth, a few of these exits, marked like so, will set off fire alarms upon being opened. If it comes between setting off the alarms and hiding– do your best to hide. Setting off the alarms will be a last case scenario. A noise such as that would announce our presence to everybody in the nearby vicinity. If you hide instead, we will find you once the coast is clear."

She swallowed and nodded.

Nadir leaned back in his seat, closing his book and exhaling. He looked at Christine. "I'll be joining you two. Erik said as long as I wasn't "troublesome" I could tag along."

She smiled at that. Nadir was nice, and she quickly found herself liking him quite a bit. Him coming with them on their journey out would be a welcome change from the uncertainty that was her and Erik's relationship, if it could even be called that, and not to mention how there was undoubtedly safety in numbers.

Erik waved a hand at the assortment of gear that sat out before them. "You two may help yourself to whatever you need. I have already packed all that I desire to keep. If I recall, you have a small pistol, no?"

He was talking to her. She glanced back towards her room- where it sat at the bottom of her bag like a leaden weight- and nodded. He'd knocked it out of her hands when she broke into the theater, and he'd returned it to her afterwards. She supposed he hadn't seen it since; she didn't like using a gun, nor was she immediately familiar with how to wield it beyond the basics. Turn off safety, cock, pull the trigger.

"I have some spare ammunition that will work for your model," he said, and moved to pull over a small plastic toolbox, flicking open the clasp to reveal an assortment of gleaming cartridges. "You may help yourself to whatever amount you find suitable. Otherwise, we will reconvene at dusk."

She thanked him softly and looked down at the box. Erik nodded briskly and then moved away from the kitchen entirely, stepping towards the entrance.

"I am going to scout the building one last time before we leave. When I return, be prepared to leave," he said, his voice low and calm, and then he was gone.

…

The sky was a hazy mix of fog and smoke when they departed later that evening, the sun entirely obscured by clouds from its cradle low on the horizon. It was quiet out, for once, and every step of Christine's foot as she moved out onto the concrete sidewalk after Erik and Nadir felt too loud. The wind nipped at her nose and cheeks, yet thankfully it was not as cold as it had been in weeks past.

They did not head into the street before the apartment complex that had been their sanctuary for the past few days, instead leaving through a side door that emptied out into a thin, winding alley that they followed. Their movement was as silent as possible, keenly aware of every loud sound and unfamiliar rustle that lingered around every corner. Wherever the RF or those that they had been fighting were, the streets were empty and vacant. While their absence was entirely welcome, the lack of any signs of life entirely left her feeling on edge. Wary.

She could tell Erik felt similarly from his tense stance, the way he was always the first to peer around every corner they neared. He was always difficult to read- especially with the mask blocking any facial expressions he could make beyond those with his eyes, but here she could sense the discomfort and suspicion clear as day.

The sun seeped lower on the horizon, before vanishing entirely in the outcrop of buildings that lay ever on their peripheral. The moon, wherever he was, did not cast much light, and so she was left squinting in the dark at what little she could see, and following after Erik and Nadir. They rounded another corner, yet this alleyway before them lay blocked with an overturned bus; glass was spread out on the ground, reflecting millions of tiny stars on the concrete, and the underbelly of the vehicle was visible from where they approached, front and end wedged between each adjoining wall of the small road in which they were on. There was no way under or around it. And in the darkness… she wasn't too confident in her abilities to climb such a tall thing. Not with glass all lying about.

Fortunately Erik did not push them further through the alley, merely pausing at the site of the crash before redirecting them towards a small, rusted metal door in the wall. It was locked, and did not budge upon his first (quiet) push. From a pocket he withdrew some narrow object that was too small for her to properly see, and seemed to fiddle around with the keyhole for a second before the door gently gave way. He looked back at her and Nadir before giving a beckoning nod.

It was a little difficult inside to really see what the building had once been– perhaps an apartment, she thought, for the two connected rooms that lay before them were messy and strewn about within, overturned bookcases that littered the floor, a television thrown in the corner like an errant ball, dented hole in the drywall above it as though it had been lobbed at full speed.

Erik moved with his usual cat-like gracefulness, not a single sound coming from him as he walked. Nadir was quiet, too, and Christine was left gingerly stepping between broken plates and moldy books and glass so as to not make noise. She did a good job, she thought, and the three of them made it towards the front door without issue.

It was for that reason that her heart entirely sank into her stomach as with her next step she found herself lightly tripping on a string of some sort– a shoelace, maybe? Yet before she was even aware of what was happening, cans were being loudly rattled about, glass mugs clinking together with noisily brutality.

"Dammit," Erik hissed, and he spun around, eyes wide in the dark. "Sound trap."

There was little chance to move before a sharp light broke into the room, blinding her enough to cover her eyes and duck away. At her side, Erik and Nadir both froze, reaching for the guns. Someone had appeared in a side-door that she hadn't even seen in the darkness, along with a gun, cocked and pointed directly at the three of them.

"Don't you fucking dare move," said the voice. "Drop your bags. Turn around now."

A second shuffling sound came from where the person stood. There were multiple people with them. Angry eyes gleamed at her from behind the flashlight they held aloft.

Her hands rose to her head, heart thumping desperately loud as she glanced over to Erik and Nadir. What the hell were they gonna do? She couldn't get shot. She didn't want to die.

Erik's gaze met hers, those amber eyes steady, and he matched her stance, long, pale hands rising slowly. Nadir did the same.

"We mean no harm," Erik said, his voice a dulcet murmur. The main person that held a gun aimed at them– the one to first arrive at the sound of the trap, was an older man, judging from the sound of his voice.

"God-damn," he hissed. "You're like a fucking cockroach. How are you not dead yet?"

Erik's eyes narrowed. "Delightful as ever, Joe."

A loud boom rang through the room before she could even blink, some sort of smoke fogging up the small space until she could barely see before herself, the dimmed flashlight waving wildly amidst the clouds away from her. A cold hand grasped her wrist in a vice grip– Erik was there in front of her, faster than she could've known possible, and he tugged her forward sharply towards the exit they had been so inopportunely prevented from passing. Gunshots rang out blindly into the space behind them as they dove for the doorway, along with sharp yells of anger. The smoke choked her throat, and she gave a cough to clear her lungs. Had he dropped a smoke bomb? She didn't even know he'd had a smoke bomb.

They broke outside of the building, and she only glanced behind them briefly enough to catch sight of Nadir following them quickly behind, his face just as shocked and startled as her's. They wove through the streets at a stunning speed, jerking sharply around corners and between overturned cars. The streets they passed were not much more than a blur to Christine until Erik tugged her into a large, white building, waiting for Nadir to follow behind them before he released her wrist and closed the front doors tight. He tugged from his pocket a rope-like material, and looped it around the handles before tying it off in a knot.

Christine's ears were still ringing from the blast, and the silence– and darkness– of their newfound hiding place made the lack of sound all the more clear. Her breaths were harsh, winded from the running, and similarly she could see Nadir leaning against the wall as he rubbed at his face, chest rising and falling sharply. She turned slightly to look at the room surrounding them, and jumped slightly to see what appeared to be a large skeleton of a dinosaur looming above their heads. The blank skull of… something gleamed down at her from hundreds of feet up, large and still.

They were in the museum.

Before they could relax, Erik turned around to look at both of them, eyes scanning them each up and down as though examining for injuries, before clicking on his flashlight and pushing past both of them down into the entranceway of whatever room they were in. He looked back at them when neither immediately moved to follow.

"Come," he said. "They will undoubtedly be following."

as always, reviews are the best fuel for me to get the next chapter out faster that there is ^-^ please tell me your thoughts!