When All is Lost

Chapter 10

"Is that it?"

A sour feeling twisted in my gut as we'd approached. The walk had been easy. Almost too easy. It had been only a little over two miles and a straight shot from the grocery store. The main problem as we had been getting closer was how completely exposed the road left us. Even sticking to the side of the road didn't help much due to the lack of tall and dense foliage. It made me miss the trees from back home in New England.

In just over an hour and a half, we'd made it to the convenience store. The morning light reflected off the abandoned cars, making me shade my eyes as I tried to peek around them to check the store. Unfortunately, a five-story hotel blocked most of our view, making it impossible to check for people.

"What's the plan, boss?"

I don't know.

"Do you guys know anything about the hotel?" I asked, looking at Mark and Abby. They both shook their heads. I eyed the hotel with a strange mixture of suspicion and hope.

"Okay," I said, my mind racing. "Okay. Well, there are a couple of ways we can do this. We can approach it head-on. Go the long way around and try to approach it from the front or side. Or... or we can go in the hotel and try to get a bird's eye view of the situation."

They all seemed to be contemplating, so I put in my two cents. "I think we should go in the hotel. It will give us the best chance of spotting if anybody is around."

"I don't know." Ian pushed his hair out of his face as he looked around the area. "If people are here, it seems like that would be the perfect place for them to hole up."

I glared at him. "It's big. We'll be careful. And, if there are people already in there, we'll know to get the hell out of here even faster."

"I agree," Owen said, surprising me. "If there are people there, going around won't even matter, they'll see us from above. At least this way we'll know."

I looked at Mark. "I don't know... but okay I guess. Let's just be careful, yeah?"

Abby nodded and that was good enough for me. "Ian?"

"Fine. Sure. Okay." He glowered at the tan brick building in distaste.

I wasn't happy about it either, but we'd already come this far. We were all dehydrated and grouchy and this was our best bet.

"Alright then. Let's approach from the back." Without another word I took off in a light jog for the hotel's back door, climbing up the slight hill between it and the road. The others all followed slightly behind, readying their makeshift weapons as we got closer.

I tried the backdoor but was unsurprised to find it locked. "Abby?"

"Not sure I can get this one," she said as she looked it over. "Might need more than a hanger, but I'll try."

I watched as Abby got to work, finding myself still impressed by how quickly her hands seemed to work. In just a few minutes, the door popped open.

Abby didn't smile. In fact, her mouth actually twisted in displeasure.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure," she said, looking a little confused. "It's either the door's really out of date or..."

"Or?"

She glanced up at the looming floors of the building towering above us before looking back at me. "Or someone's already broken into it."

Dammit.

"Is it possible that runners have been here before?" I asked.

She shrugged. "It's possible."