Not-yet-titled sequel

Part 2

Rebecca knelt at the side of her own apartment door, carefully extracting the tip of the flexible "snake" camera from under it while her friends covered her. Her peek hadn't revealed anything obviously unusual inside, but at least she could confirm there wasn't someone lurking just the other side of the door.

She wasn't entirely sure it wasn't just procrastination, but she decided she'd feel better focusing on her apartment after checking the rest of the apartments on that floor. Maybe then they could linger without worrying about someone coming up behind them. She gestured that idea to the others, who nodded and followed her lead without just like Ronnie told her they would.

307. 308. 309. 310. Everything down the hallway was the same, all the way to 316. Doors smashed in, rooms all clear, not much useful left inside. Certainly nothing food or survival related. Rebecca sighed and called that in, and then they crept back along the unsettling hallway. Rebecca briefly compared it to some kind of alternate reality in a horror movie, and mentally facepalmed when she realized how apt the notion was.

Setting up back at 306's door again, she took one more quick look with the camera, stowed that away, and held her key up just in front of the lock. She glanced at Sam once, both to confirm she was ready and for reassurance, and slid the key forward into the lock as quietly as she could, turning it, and pushing the door open... lifting up slightly as she did to keep the hinge from squeaking, just like she did every time she came home late a world ago.

The first thing she noticed was that the curtains were open. Then, her brain clicked through a handful of other things — some "wrong" in contrast to the rest simply because they were how they used to be. That was definitely her couch, and one of the chenille end pillows from Target, but that wasn't her blanket tossed over the back. The right shelves under the window, but they'd been swapped. The place was tidy, but not how she left it.

A whispered "What the..." escaped before she could stop herself, and she bit her lip in self-admonishment as she took another step into the entry hall. Bathroom would be on the other side of the wall her to right, kitchen behind the wall on the left where a picture of the view from Edinburgh Castle still hung. As she neared the end of the hallway, she could see most of the apparently unoccupied bedroom at an angle through its door. But as she pivoted left to pan her view into the kitchen as she cleared the wall carefully, she heard a slight scuffle of movement and trained her sights on a scared-looking couple brandishing one of HER frying pans and chef knives.

Rebecca was almost as startled as they were, jumping slightly, but her appearance was probably more menacing. The girl raised her hands slightly, open-palmed, so the knife wasn't pointed forward anymore, and the guy's eyes widened and he took a half step back.

"Oh Jesus, please don't hurt us..." The young woman, in her twenties with light-skin and frizzy brown hair, was terrified. Rebecca lowered weapon slightly, relaxing her tightly hunched posture, which raised her face above the obstructing front of her weapon, and the girl blinked. "Oh... I recognize you. You're the girl in the pictures. Sorry... if this is your place, we... "

The words jolted Rebecca's consciousness like she'd fallen into cold water. "If this is your place." Exactly what she'd heard Jaime say around the corner of a hotel kitchen as he must have been staring down the barrel of a gun, and now here she was hearing it, holding the gun.

She stammered a little as she tried to reply. "I... it's okay. Uh... that sweatshirt looks a little familiar." She took a step back and lowered her gun a little farther, and saw Sam do the same. The girl reached behind her to put the butcher knife down on the counter, then glanced down at the hoodie she was wearing and plucked at it self-consciously.

"Oh god, this is awkward. I'm sorry, you can have it back. This was just the only apartment in the building with a working lock, so we thought it would be safe. We didn't know anyone would come back. I mean, we knew it was a possibility but there's so few people left... oh no. Are you going to make us leave?"