Cruz watched me, his expression filled with understanding. “It’s all right. I’ll take care of it.”
He seemed like a man who could handle anything, and I had a feeling he’d do it every time without complaint. “The dead are out in the hallway.”
“Any idea how many?”
I rubbed my nose with the back of my hand and walked out into the living room, wondering how long it would take to accept what Haruto had done. A heavy weight had settled on my chest that made it harder to breathe. “I’m not sure anymore,” I said as Cruz followed me. “There used to be four, but when people started scavenging on this level, I think they left some of the doors open and others came out to join them. It’s noisier out there than it used to be.”
“I’ll take a look.”
“I’ll come with you.” I sidled past him and headed for the door, needing to keep busy so I wouldn’t sit around thinking too much. If we got this done now, we could spend the remainder of the day planning where we were going next—and I could talk to Cruz about the idea of making Bridgehill our destination.
“You don’t have to be involved in this part,” he said from behind me.
Instead of turning to him and accepting the out he wanted to give me, I squared my shoulders and reached for the top plank. “This is the last thing I can do for him. Considering what he did for me, all alone with no one to hold his hand while he died, I owe him.” Tears filled my eyes as I slid the first length of timber from the barricade, and I lifted my shoulder to blot them. I rested the plank against the wall and reached for the next one.
Cruz didn’t try to talk me around or physically stop me. He stepped up beside me and helped remove the remaining three pieces. “Smart using these as a barricade,” he said as he took the last one from me. “You could have installed extra locks but that wouldn’t have stopped anyone from breaking the door in if they wanted to get through.”
I shot him a quick smile, thankful for the shift in conversation. As I flicked the two locks that originally came with the apartment, he slapped his hand in the middle of the door to stop me from following through. “Wait.”
I paused and gave him an expectant look.
“Are you up to this?”
I lifted my chin, relieved that my eyes were dry now. “Don’t worry about me.”
He kept his hand on the door and looked at me in such a soft, searching way I honestly could have melted into a puddle at his feet. “Can’t seem to help it, and I barely know you. Imagine how annoying I’ll be weeks from now.”
I bit back a smile and glanced down to hide the heat rushing to my cheeks. He had an easy way about him that made me forget my sadness, even if it was only for a moment. “I’m fine. I promise.” I looked into his eyes so he could see I wasn’t hiding anything. “This won’t take long, and I wouldn’t risk either of us getting hurt by going out there if I wasn’t up to the task.”
“We’ll need to clear the entire hall and shut any open doors before we move Haruto. I want a safe passage so we don’t get any surprises while we’re focused on him. You okay with that plan?”
I nodded.
Cruz looked me over one final time then released a loud breath through his nose. “All right then.” He lifted his hand from the door and pulled a knife free from his belt.
I grabbed my bowie knife—I saved the tanto for less confined spaces when I had plenty of room to swing—and flipped the shutter on the peephole to check if anything was lurking nearby. When it appeared we were safe to leave, I eased the door open and stepped out into the hall for the first time in twelve months.
I’d been back and forth down this corridor countless times visiting Haruto and Yoshino. At first, it had been purely as a friend and neighbour who enjoyed spending time with them, but toward the end, I’d helped Haruto take care of his wife when she got sick and the hospitals stopped accepting new patients. Once she was gone and I moved him into my apartment, I closed my door for what I thought was the final time.
There were ten residences and one elevator on this level. My place was situated at the eastern end opposite an apartment with its door closed and locked. The young couple who’d lived there had fled the city six months into the craziness, and the people who’d stayed behind in the other apartments had either died from the virus or been bitten by family members at home.
From a sweeping glance, several doors were hanging open and four of the dead were lurking at the other end of the hall. I knew more could be bumbling around inside the open apartments, so we'd need to be ready for anything.
As one of the infected turned to face us, I shared a look with Cruz. The man was big and muscular, dressed in tracksuit pants and nothing else, with a full beard and a torso completely covered in tattoos. I didn’t recognise him from before when life was normal. He looked fresh and hadn’t decomposed to the level many of the others had. When Cruz said, “That one’s mine,” I didn’t even attempt to argue with him.
“I’ll get the doors and take down any dead I find along the way.”
“If you see corpses in the apartments, shut the doors and leave ‘em there.”
He’d obviously learnt the same things I had about the dead and knew they were harmless in a closed-off room. I wondered if he’d seen anything that I hadn't come across yet and reminded myself to exchange information with him when we got done here. I nodded, and the two of us set off down the hall with Cruz keeping a couple of steps ahead of me.
After I’d helped Haruto relocate to my place, I locked his apartment to make sure no one could mess with it while he was gone. I stopped at the apartment opposite his, and as I grabbed the partially open door to pull it toward me, a row of fingers clutched my wrist from inside. There was the off chance a healthy human had gone in there looking for food or supplies, but I'd react as if my life was in danger until I could confirm otherwise.
Twisting my arm to break its grip, I pushed the door open wider and grabbed the shirtfront of an infected man. He had grey hair with rotting skin hanging off one side of his face, and his cold, dead eyes locked onto me. He let out a low moan and bared his teeth, but before he could get hold of me again, I jammed my knife up through his jaw.
Adrenaline coursed through me as I shoved him backwards into the apartment and swung the door shut.
“Okay back there?” Cruz called out.
