As Ramie walked to the kitchen, the policeman gave him glance, and then resumed staring at the ground, lost in his own thoughts.
The other policeman woke up at this moment, and started looking around absentmindedly. Obviously, still half awake, half asleep.
Ramie sighed, and walked into the kitchen. He headed straight to the refrigerator.
Yesterday, he and the two policemen weren't sure that they'd live past the night. So food and water wasn't high up in their lists of concerns.
Now however, with no immediate danger on their lives, there was no room to ignore the issue anymore, as their own physical and mental functions were dependent on it. And obviously, staying at optimum condition was very necessary, considering their gloomy situation.
As Ramie opened the refrigerator, he wasn't welcomed by the expected cold, fresh air. Instead, it was the rancid smell of rotten food.
It wasn't weird, considering that the power went off days ago.
Ramie felt disappointed. He started searching the counter drawers, and shelves for a while, hoping to find something to eat.
To his dismay however…nothing was found.
He felt bitter, and started regretting all the times that he thrown a good food in his life. Not only that, but he started remembering them all.
Shaking his head, he walked back to the living room with lowered shoulders.
"There is no food or water in here…" he spoke in a weary tone before sitting back in his spot.
The now awake policeman displayed a bitter expression on his face.
He waved in Ramie's direction, to draw his attention, before saying: "nothing? Nothing at all…?"
"Nothing!" Ramie replied, wryly.
"Am Neil by the way." the policeman said to Ramie in dispirited tone, after a while of sighing nonstop.
"Ramie!" Ramie answered.
"Did you look everywhere?" Neil, the policeman asked again, unwilling to accept this fact.
Ramie shook his head in dejection.
Sigh!
The middle aged policeman, Lance, issued a long, heavy sigh: "we have to get food and water first! As for what to do afterward… we can think of that later."
Ramie felt heavy in his heart, the inevitable has come. As to get food, there was no choice but to go out of the apartment.
If they were to find food in other apartments, it would be the best scenario. But if there wasn't, or if it was already spoiled, then it means that they'll have to go out to nearby stores to get supplies.
Meaning that... they'll have to go into the streets, out in the open!
'But what other choice is there…'
Taking a deep breath, Ramie asked: "there are few sharp tools in the counter drawer that we can use in case anything happens! I think we should look first in the other apartments before going to outside."
Speaking to this point, Ramie remembered that before he or the two policemen goes into this building, others had, before them. He had seen three men himself, the ones that were trying to pull the building door shut on them. But, it didn't mean that others hadn't got in here before them.
He couldn't forget how those three had tried to close the door on them, and leave them outside. He could understand the reason behind that action, as they were trying to prevent anything from getting into the building that can threaten their lives. But he still couldn't accept it, as they were letting others die to save themselves. And in this situation, he was the others!
He thought to himself, if they were willing to go this far to themselves, would they share the food they find!
At this moment, the middle aged policeman, Lance, stood up, and looked at both Ramie and Neil: "we should go search in this floor's apartments. If we can't find a thing, then we'll to go to other floors. But keep in mind, there are others here. So, try not to startle them. And try not make any sound."
Lance continued: "the problem is that we don't have not even one bullet! So we should arm ourselves first with the knifes you've mentioned, and anything else that could be used as a weapon."
Both Ramie and Neil nodded, agreeing with him.
Then, the three of them went to the kitchen to pick up whatever that could be used as a weapon.
…
After few moments, they quietly left the apartment, tip-toeing their steps to the other apartments in the same floor.
Unfortunately, all the doors were locked, except for one apartment. So, they went in and searched for food and water. But in the end it was still the same, and they didn't find anything at all.
At this point, there was no choice but to try other floors.
Standing next to the stairs; Ramie stood holding a relatively large sized screw driver.
After Lance took the meat knife with the thick blade, and Neil took the other good knife, Ramie was left with the salad knife, which was utterly useless with its long handle and short, thin blade, which he wouldn't trust against a chicken, much less a beast.
Luckily, Ramie had seen the long screwdriver when he searched the kitchen for food the first time. And now he ended up with the best stabbing weapon among them.
Standing next to him, was Neil. Both of them were holding the rail in alert, waiting for the signal from Lance that was ahead of them, scouting the third floor.
Ramie had learned from Neil that Lance was an elite former soldier, while Neil was a newbie policeman, who had joined the force only months ago.
And that was the reason why Lance took the lead to scout the third floor first ahead of them, while they stayed at the stairway, waiting for his signal.
After making sure that everything was fine, Lance waved them to follow.
Making his way to Lance with Neil walking alongside him, cautiously, Ramie noticed that there were two open doors, which stirred up his hopes again.
At first, they decided to go down to the first floor, but Lance changed his mind at the last minute. His reasoning was that if a creature was to infiltrate the building, then the first floor would be the most likable place for it, as they didn't have the time to scan if there was another open door or a window in there when they got to the building in the first place.
That was more than enough of a reason to convince them. Besides, it was Lance who was doing the scouting anyway, and he was the expert among them, so his opinion held a considerable weight.
Following the guide of Lance, Ramie stepped into the first open door quietly, Neil followed behind.
They moved as a unit, not separating to search the place, but staying together. They moved as silently as possible. The kitchen was naturally the first target for the search.
After quick search, two small sacs of noodles, and seven bottles of water turned up, two of them were half empty. But that was more than enough to bring delight to their anxious hearts.
Ramie had never thought that such simple things would bring him so much relief.
After the disaster broke out, and cities fell one after another, the original inhabitants of this city were relocated to the east side. And when the refugees were brought here from the other cities, few them at first had settled in some of the buildings, and used whatever they could find of resources, albeit for only a day or two before being evacuated to the east side too, hence the reason why some of these apartment's doors were left open.
So there was a high chance that all of the food and water was consumed.
Besides, even if some of these apartments had food and water, they were closed. And none of the three of them was willing to break in and make noise that might attract sudden death to them, especially with the deathly silence inside and outside the building.
Ramie was already feeling weakened. And the prospect of not being in top condition, while at any second something might jump at him, had left him quiet restless.
Luckily, this problem would soon be pushed down the list of concerns. And the three of them rejoiced at once.
Ramie let out a sigh of relief: "should we search the rest of the place for useful things or go for the other apartments?"
Saying so, Ramie picked up a flashlight from the counter drawer, and a long sharp knife. He had made this suggestion as the food was too little for the three of them.
"Pick what you find useful! But don't carry too many things! You have to maintain your mobility." Lance spoke after some thought.
After going over the drawer and shelves, they didn't find anything else useful aside from few batteries for the flash light.
Just as they were making their way to leave the apartment to the other apartment with opened door, Ramie felt the faint sense of coldness in his hand intensifies, all of sudden.
This feeling did not go away from when he was back in the boat to this very moment, but, due to the dangers around, Ramie pushed this matter to the back of his mind.
Now however, and with no apparent explanation, the coldness started intensifying, and pulsating, spreading to all of his left hand.
Ramie felt a sudden overwhelming sense of danger explode in his heart!
He felt an intense feeling of imminent death looming over him, causing his skin to goose pump all over his body.
Unconsciously, he turned to look at the bedroom to the side… And the moment his eyes fell there, his complexion frozen.
Lance took notice of the sudden change. Feeling alarmed, he turned to look where Ramie was looking, holding up the knife in his hand high! Preparing to explode into action at any moment!
Thud!
At this moment, the sound of something in the nearby bedroom fell!
Through the bedroom door which was half open, Ramie could vaguely make out the shadow of something crawling through the dim lighted bedroom, toward their direction, slowly…
The figure started growling in low voice, and stared at them with shining eyes in the darkness of the room!
Lance and Neil saw the same… And at once, the three of them subconsciously knew…
These moments… will be the deciding moments between life and death…
…