No one greeted him. No one acknowledged him at all. It was bizarre.
I wanted to peek inside his apartment and see if Laura had left anything untouched, or get in his face and confront him about being an underwear-stealing creep, but now wasn’t the time.
With a curious glance in my direction, Dustin pushed his glasses higher on his nose and raised his brows. “Well,” he said, “I’m here. You can begin.”
“Appreciate it, your lordship.” Owen scrutinised the group. “Why don’t we get straight to business? We’ve all seen what’s going on in the news?”
Surprised by the dismissal, Dustin stepped backward, regarding the entrance to his apartment as if he wanted to slink straight back in there.
“We were watching as it happened,” Varesh said, wandering over to join us.
“I still can’t believe it.” A slight tremor moved through me, my body rejecting the idea and trying to come to terms with it at the same time. “It doesn’t seem real.”
“But it is.” Tim ran a hand over his ginger buzzcut. “Zombies. Moving corpses. Whatever you want to call them, they’re out there now, waiting to turn us into entrees.”
“Thanks, Timbo.” Ellie rolled her eyes and tilted her head in Willow’s direction.
“Oops. Sorry, sweetie.”
Owen stood and paced a bit. Laura rose and rounded the chair her daughters were sitting on, pulling out the tie securing Willow’s messy braid. She loosened the strands and finger-combed the lengths as if she needed a task to keep herself busy.“It’s all right,” she said. “We’ve already spoken about it. She understands what’s happening, and the danger involved.”
Willow winced as Laura found a knot. “I’m not a baby. I can take it.” She’d changed in the last few weeks. No longer the carefree teenager. For some reason, that part hit harder than anything else I’d seen.
I crossed my arms, my eyes flicking to Dustin again. He was just… watching everyone. Analysing.
I shivered, and Theo rested his hand at the base of my neck, rubbing his thumb back and forth.
“So, anyone have ideas on next moves?” Laura asked, fixing the hair tie in place. She ran her palm over Willow’s fresh braid and looked around at each face.
“We want to get some experience dealing with these freaks before we even think about leaving here,” Owen said.
“Experience?” Tim said. “What does that mean?”
“The lethal force part,” Laura clarified. “We’re testing out the tools Sadie bought. Great timing, by the way,” she said to me. “We’d be lost without the supplies you dropped off.”
We were forming our own little murder club right here in the foyer like it was just a typical day. A vague headache thudded in my temples. “I don’t know what to say.”
“We’re in too.” Varesh approached the stairs and lowered himself to the last step, resting his elbows on his knees. “If we can separate one or two of them, it’s a smart way to learn how they operate.”
“Have you seen their eyes?” Ellie left Willow on the chair and sidled in next to her dad. “I don’t even think they can… think.”
“You’re all insane or incredibly stupid,” Dustin chimed in, peering down his nose. “No one should be outdoors. The minister painted a perfectly clear picture of the dangers, and you’re choosing to ignore the message. How do you see that ending?”
He almost sounded like he cared about our safety, but when his eyes flicked to mine, his lids lowered slightly, and I could have sworn he sneered behind his mask. An electric current moved through my body, a sense of awareness the likes of which I’d never experienced before.
“So we… what? Hide out in here for who knows how long?” Owen asked, slipping his arm around Ellie’s shoulder. “How do you plan on getting more food, or water when the taps run dry?”
“Food can come from the other apartments—or the empty houses across the road when there are no infected in the area.” Dustin paced across the foyer with his hands linked behind his back, stopping at the rear doors. He gazed out into the dreary morning before facing us again. “It’s more intelligent than trying to overpower one of the dead.”
I disagreed, and not just because I couldn’t stand him. The thought of getting close to one of the deranged made my breaths quicken, but we had to take control now before it was too late. “We should fill the bathtubs and sinks in the abandoned apartments before we do anything else,” I pointed out, remembering the minister’s instructions.
“Already done on our level,” Varesh said, stretching one leg out in front of him. “Laura and I had time to fill a few before we came downstairs.”
The low hum of the heating system vibrated around us, and a motorbike peeled past the building, the high-pitched whine fading as fast as it appeared.
“We’ll take care of our floor.” Theo brushed his thumb over my shoulder. “I’ll grab the keys from whoever’s got them.”
The mention of keys had Dustin’s posture stiffening, and his beady eyes slid in my direction again, surveying me in a way that made me shiver. He’d once regarded me with interest before it morphed into irritation. Now… he had me thinking about carrying a weapon inside the building for the first time.
