The group waited in silence. What happened inside had affected them, some more than others. So they didn't mind Eric taking his time, they could do with the time to think.
None of them had gotten a chance to process everything that was happening, and it would still be a long time before any of them did. But standing in the hallway they finally had a moment to try and begin.
It was surreal. They'd all been awaiting their fates within their cells. But in the space of a few hours, they'd fought a horde of flesh-eating humans and found that the governor had declared a state of emergency. And then they'd learned if they got bitten, they'd become ill and within hours die and become infected. That had only cranked up the constant anxiety.
There were some that questioned if it was all even real, but one look out the window and the answer was irrefutable. The city was burning and with it their hopes.
The officers had given up, at least the ones from the station they'd come from. They'd seen riot officers and other organised groups trying to regain control, but in the areas without any police presence things had begun to spiral out of control. The promise of the army and safe zones gave some optimism, but others were sceptical.
The military couldn't be everywhere. The infected would fester where their gaze wasn't looking. They might prolong the collapse, but it was already spreading like wildfire and the military likely already faced their own losses from the disease.
At least they could take comfort in the fact they had run into someone as ruthless and competent as Levi. He may not be a saint, far from it, but if anyone would keep them safe it would be him. And no matter how dire the circumstance, they at least had a silver lining–with him, the odds of getting their families increased.
Morbid thoughts wouldn't stop rising though. What if when they arrived, but it was already too late? What if they went through what Eric was experiencing? Could they do what Eric had done? These thoughts whirled in many heads.
The one who was most unperturbed was Levi. He stood with the same glacial face, but the others found his indifference comforting. While they might be unsure, he remained unphased, doubt washing from him like waves breaking against a cliff, unmoved.
While they sat, they heard the first sound in a while emanating from the inside. Bang. Elise gasped, before the others went for their weapons, and backed away from the door. And only relaxed when it was Eric who left the apartment unharmed.
There was confusion. Nobody was sure what had happened in that apartment; only Eric knew, but his spiritless eyes made nobody ask. Levi walked to the front before shouting behind, "Let's go. We're done here," and without another question, they were already on the road again.
"Can't believe it's almost twelve at night," said Marcus, looking down at his watch that read eleven-thirty. The deeper the night fell the brighter it got. The fires in the city having been rampaging for hours causing the city to look like a warzone, an amber glow now encompassing the whole sky.
"It Just says how bad things have gotten," replied Garett, his eyes narrowing at the warble of shadowy figures moving near a burnt-out car pileup.
They had moved towards more built-up areas, and the sight of wandering groups of looters and rioters became all the more common. And they often pelted cars attempting to rob fleeing citizens, or scurrying into smashed-up buildings under the ringing of burglar alarms.
Although the looters posed a danger themselves, the much more dangerous threat had been the drivers. On more than one occasion they had seen a crash. The closest call being when, a car had come into a ruined street accosted by rioters at high speed and the vehicle flipped, landing only feet from them. A woman rocketed from the windscreen, her neck snapping on impact before the momentum dragged her dead body scraping across the concrete. Her limp form only stopped when it hit a curb.
Whenever they heard a car now, they kept their distance as much as possible. Times like these had safe drivers scarce.
The rioters, though got more precarious as the night got longer, the casual sort disappeared after a while. The unruly ones that stayed. Some got intimidated by the weapons and the imposing figures Garett and Eddie, content to find an easier target.
Others weren't so simple and had a sharper edge about them, their appearance more dangerous and co-operation slicker. They often saw the appearance of the older Marcus, the younger Elise and Eric and felt they were an easy pick. But usually, Levi's bone-chilling gaze was more than enough to make them back off, they might have been criminals, but they weren't stupid.
The issue was with the kind they were dealing with, neither the ragtag opportunists nor the hardened criminals. They were somewhere in the middle. Intimidating enough to be criminals but inexperienced enough to underestimate the threat Levi promised.
A large group moved towards Levi's who had come to a stop. They were jeering and whistling as they stalked closer, their predatory gazes scrutinising. They encircled the front of the group, coming as close as they could until Levi was face to face with a young man in his twenties.
"You should join us," he said. His face was somewhere between that of a young child and a grown man, but his imposing frame and sharp eyes made up for that lack of maturity. His physical presence was enough to make Elise step back in fear.
"No, we're fine," said Levi, his eyes scanning the opposite group. They were all young, around the same age, close to Levi's own. They numbered around fifteen and had a significant numerical advantage.
"Yeah, you heard him. Fuck off, cabrón," shouted Sergio, giving the man a side-eye. His jacket propped open to reveal a pistol underneath
"Oy oy, samurai, you better get your chihuahua to settle down. Or this isn't gonna end well for you after all," the man smiled, acting unphased by Sergio who looked ready to pull his gun.
"Calm down, Sergio." Levi said before looking at the smirk of the other man and asking, "What you wanna do here?"
His smirk widened as he spread his arms and said, "You seem like a smart guy, so I'll shoot straight. I want you to slide all your weapons over, and all your money and valuables. You do that and we all walk away alive. Make the smart choice," the rest of his group found twisted amusement at thinking they had cornered Levi and the others.
Levi sighed and looked back up at the man, his gaze now razor-sharp. "Are you sure about this?" the man hesitated at the change in Levi's eyes, making him freeze for a moment before he shook it off, more unsure this time, and said.
"Yeah, your weapons and valuables and you wal-" Bang. Before he could even finish, a sinking feeling had overcome him as if he'd made a grave mistake. And when he saw the smoking barrel and his vision he idly thought to himself, almost as if he were an observer that he'd been shot.
It happened in an instant. The pistol was already in Levi's hand, and the man had died. Their shock didn't last long though as several more guns pointed in their direction. They then realised that almost all Levi's group held firearms.
"That's my first and last warning. Try your luck again and you'll all join him. You have until I count to ten, before this time we all start shooting," there was a cruel severity to his tone, and his blue eyes betrayed no emotion. And when they met his gaze, they all realised that they had made a severe mistake.
They didn't want to kill anyone, but one of them had already died. And they knew if they didn't leave, soon that number would go up. Nobody knew who the first to run was, but after the first, soon they'd all begun sprinting away. Their leader, likely their friend, was cast aside, left alone dead, as everyone began to scatter. By the count of ten, they had all disappeared, but Levi still shot the gun three times. Bang. Bang. Bang.
The street that was in complete chaos was now barren of anyone besides their small group. Besides the few ambling bodies of the infected that moved towards the sound. After the smoke had cleared, Levi faced the gazes of his ragtag group, causing most to avert their eyes. "Don't be shook already. We're barely halfway there."
After the encounter the group moved with a renewed urgency, treading through streets avoiding looters and intimidating them when needed. The atmosphere of lawlessness had only gotten worse the closer they got to Elise's house. She had begun to guide them down busy commercial sidestreets, not too far from the main downtown strips and skyscrapers only a few blocks away. The echoes of police loudspeakers telling rioters to back down and go home, interspersed with gunshots for the rioters of the more undead variety.
But, there was a distinct feeling of desperation and fear. These were people who had seen the city beginning to crumble at the seams—seen something that made them discard their fear of the law. And despite the police's best efforts, the infected seemed to increase in number. Blending in within the chaos, going unnoticed before they sprang an attack, catching an officer or looter by surprise.
Causing the streets to become littered with corpses. The monotone grey now coloured with flourishes of crimson. That was until the dead got up and joined their brethren prowling the streets looking for another victim.
They now only dealt with the infected that attacked them. There was so much turmoil that attracting any attention would only cause trouble. But the increased chaos meant they could slip through the streets, avoiding most attention. Or at least with Levi leading them, they could.
Any infected attracted to them met with Levi's blade, as they didn't slow a beat. They avoided the open and travelled beside the flaming shroud of vehicles and buildings, taking detours whenever they could to avoid large gatherings of people and escape the hellish streets.
Nobody thought coming here was a good idea, but Elise's pleading and the tantalising closeness made them take the risk. After all, it wasn't far, and they could be in and out with minimal trouble. Some already regretted the decision. If it weren't for Levi, most thought someone would have gotten attacked or bitten.
But they soon did manage to reach Elise's parents without anybody injured– although there was a close call when a leaking car exploded. But the results were disheartening.
Elise's home was empty, with clothes on the floor and picture frames knocked over on cabinets. Clear that whoever lived there had left in a hurry. Elise wanted to keep searching, overcome with emotion, for a clue where they had gone. But time was one thing they lacked. And before she could even complain, they had forced her back outside, and they were already back on the road–moving away from the area as fast as possible.
Her parents had been the last stop before they went for Maggie. Everybody else either had no loved ones in the city or the locations had been too far out of the way to attempt. And after what they had seen, nobody even had the confidence to traverse these streets on their own.
They soon approached the Harvard Bridge. Levi didn't live far from the MIT campus. As long as they passed the bridge, they would only be a few minutes away. The bridge allowed the group to look down Massachusetts Avenue and see an array of discarded cars in gridlock. With the shadows of looters weaving between the vehicles avoiding the black riot geared lines of officers.
When they had approached the bridge they heard a chortle of heavy-duty trucks. And turned to see a parade of military trucks moving from across the bridge. Levi spotted the American military symbol painted proudly on the side of each.
"Move, move, move," he shouted at the group. He pointed to the embankment on one side of the bridge. And they all followed confused. After they all hid beside the bridge, they heard the trucks move past overhead and waited until they all moved past. When they had passed only then did Levi crawl up the embankment, and peer from over between the concrete barriers towards the direction of the convoy.
They had pulled up beside the lines of riot police. And conversed, before they aligned the trucks each mounter with heavy calibre machine guns, each armed with a gunner, along the main avenue. And began opening fire on the protestors causing screams to sound as the rioters attempted to flee.
*Duhduhduhduh*
The police looked confused before they regathered, accepting the scene and moving forward.
Levi's group wasn't so accepting. They couldn't comprehend what was happening. But Levi didn't allow them to gape and watch and said, "Hurry and move. We don't wanna get mistaken as part of the riots. We need to move now." Prompting the group to jump back onto the road and break out into a run across the bridge.
The sound of gunfire became fainter as they moved across the bridge. The military had forced their way through the bridge, despite the gridlock, with cars discarded aside, leaving only enough room for a single vehicle to travel across.
As the gunshots became fainter, so did the fear, as Garett spoke aloud. "What the fuck just happened?" his hands grasped the cold metal railings, and looked back across towards the city where the carnage continued.
Levi killed a nearby infected trapped by the clearing job and looked up at him before glancing over at the group, who also looked shaken. "The military stopping a riot. As far as they're concerned, re-establishing order in the city is more important than the lives of a few."
"But isn't there a better way than killing until the crowds disperse?" Elise asked, looking back, flinching at the occasional sound of gunfire.
"You tell me?" Levi asked, "Doesn't it seem like rioters will now get off the streets." Elice opened her mouth to respond but closed it without speaking.
"Anyway, It looks like the military has some kind of encampment in Cambridge. Be careful moving forward. They might not be friendly," Levi cautioned leading the way.
Cambridge felt more ordered than downtown Boston, which felt more like a warzone. The military had set up camp at the MIT campus. With crowds of people huddled in groups outside chain link fences. Everyone clambering to enter the gates, protected by guard towers and armed military men everywhere you could see.
Though gunfire sounded on occasion, there seemed to be control. Any infected discovered got shot before they could even get close to the fence they had established.
They bypassed the military safe zone, trekking the streets Levi was familiar with. Moving through the rows of quaint pastel houses and avoiding the percussion of people and cars that lined the main roads, moving towards the refugee camp.
Soon they reached Levi's apartment, one of many brick townhouses that lined the street. The entrance wasn't unlocked. Levi fumbled for his wallet but remembered the Police had taken it from him and sighed. Forcing Levi to kick the door open—alerting any occupants that may await.
They moved up the stairs, where Levi knocked on a door, awaiting an answer from inside. But one never came. Unsettling Levi, who decided he'd had enough, took down his second door of the night.
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P*treon: https://www.p*treon.com/ForeignSeeker (10 chapters ahead)