It was unsatisfying but Dave couldn't think of anything else to do. "Okay. Okay. I'll leave."
The man on the couch turned back to watching the TV. Dave had been completely forgotten.
Dave walked back to his bags, picked them up and looked through the glass in the door frame. He could see a single dead man standing on the street and looking at the house where Dave was. The TV had been loud for some time and had attracted this one dead man. With the volume even louder then many more of the dead would come.
Going out the front door wasn't an option. Dave almost returned to the lounge room in order to ask if he could use the back door. Dave understood the futility of that. From the front door there was a hallway that lead directly to the back of the house where there was another door. Dave walked down the hallway, opened the back door, looked about, stepped out, and closed the door behind him.
Dave walked over to the back fence. It wasn't as intimidating as the front fence and had a simple wooden gate with a latch. Dave put his bags down and climbed up onto the fence. On the other side there was a dirty single lane road. Dave squinted as he looked back and forth along the road. He hated the idea of being trapped on this street but there was no where else to go.
Dave dropped back off the fence and picked up his bags of supplies. He flipped up the gate latch, opened the gate, stepped through and pulled the gate closed behind him. After hearing the click of the latch, Dave rattled the gate a bit to be sure that gate had closed. If the family within were to meet a bad end, then it wasn't because of some thoughtlessness on Dave's part.
The back street was currently clear, but Dave didn't know for how long. He started to jog away from the sounds of the loud TV, his bags of supplies flapping on his shoulders. But even as he ran he was eaten by doubts. Could he have done that better? Was there something that could have brought that family back to reality? Did he give up too early? The doubts grew into guilt and clouded Dave's mood.
* * *
There was still plenty of light in the day but Dave wanted to find a place to stay for the night. He had walked out of the busiest part of the city centre and had just reached a slightly more residential area. It was the twilight zone of the city - it wasn't high rises, nor was it suburbs. There were plenty of three story apartments along the main road. Once you got into the small, side streets you'd find tightly packed single family housing. Dave was looking for an apartment with an open balcony door - as he didn't like the idea of going deep into any building, where there was the chance of discovering something human shaped that wasn't a living human. A balcony gave him the means to run away if he were to see anything within.
Dave had found a few potential places, but though he could see an open door he couldn't determine a way to climb up to the balcony to reach that door. A part of Dave was worried that he might have no choice but to risk going fully within the a building and climbing the claustrophobic stairs. Then he spotted a building that had an abandoned ladder in its lawn. From the various scattered tools it looked like someone was recently attempting to do some painting to the apartment's outside walls.
Dave put down his bags and picked up the ladder and placed it along side the nearest balcony. He climbed the ladder and jumped onto the first floor balcony. The door was all glass and the walls either side of the door were windows that reached from floor to ceiling. For privacy there were curtains and these were pulled tight. Dave still found a gap in the curtains that he could squint through. After checking that the room was empty of any threats, Dave tried to open the balcony door only to find that the door was firmly locked.
Dave retreated, climbed down the ladder, picked up the ladder and carried it to the next balcony. There were three balconies on the front face of the apartment and this was the middle one. Dave climbed the ladder and paused at the top of the balcony wall. The curtains were open and he had a clear view inside. And if he had a clear view in then anything inside would have a clear view out. Yet Dave didn't see a thing.
Deciding that the room was clear, Dave climbed onto the balcony and tried the door. It was open. Careful to make as little noise as possible, Dave slid the door all the way open. Now came the dangerous part of his plan. Dave entered what was a combined lounge-kitchen room. He immediately began looking around for doors. To one side was a hallway with two closed doors, at the far end of which was a what appeared to be the front door.
Sneaking as slowly as possible, Dave walked towards the kitchen area. He looked behind the counters before walking into the hall. Near the front door on the kitchen side of the hall was an open door. Dave carefully approached and peeked in. It was an empty bathroom. At the far end of the bathroom was a closed door. Slowly, Dave turned the door knob and opened the door a crack. Looking though the crack Dave
