Dave looked towards the open balcony door. He walked through it and out on the balcony. He stood next the balcony wall nearest the boundary fence before leaning out slightly to peak out towards the road. On the street in front of the apartment he could see the dead dashing about. They really seemed to get faster at night. Was speed the only attribute of the dead that got better at night? Dave wondered if they got stronger as well. If the speed increases were derived from improvements to the walkers' muscles at night, then strength is another obvious improvement that better muscles bring.
Dave listened. All he could hear were the occasional scuffles as the dead dashed around. Dave tried to focus and improve his listening ability but he heard nothing else. In particular he heard nothing speaking. In a way that was a relief because he was worried that there was something that could talk to the dead. In another way it created a sense of self-doubt as he began to fear that he had imagined the whole talking event.
At any rate, Dave was happy that he had chosen to camp the night in the rear of an apartment building. This was a good experience.
Dave looked up at the sky. There weren't any clouds and some stars were starting to appear. It didn't look like it would rain through the night. Dave walked back into the lounge room and gently slid the balcony door almost closed, leaving a finger wide gap to let air through. It was a warm night, so Dave just lay out on the sleeping bag and closed his eyes. He didn't fall immediately to sleep, but he didn't have to wait for long for a dreamless sleep to take him.
* * *
It was during the faint light of the pre-dawn that Dave woke up. He stood up and went out onto the balcony to look about. There was nothing dangerous in the backyards that he could see. He then leaned out over the balcony wall so that he could look towards the street. He could only see a solitary walker staggering about. If Dave had noticed a pattern with the walker habits then the streets would soon be empty of them.
Dave returned to lounge room and picked up a can of soup with a grimace on his face. He gathered up a clean spoon and returned to the balcony where he repeated his eating sequence that he had done last night. As he finished he tossed the rubbish into the stepped garden below him. This time he wasn't too bothered by the slight noises that he made. The coming of day makes the fears of night go away.
He used a tissue to wipe his spoon clean and dropped the wadded tissue over the edge of the balcony. Dave didn't intend on staying in this apartment for long so he didn't feel bad making a mess. Even so, the habits of civilisation are strong and so he still felt a twinge of guilt every time he littered.
As he looked down at the rubbish that he had thrown into the stepped garden Dave had an uneasy revelation. If the stepped garden had given Dave an easy way to climb up to the second floor of the apartment then something else could have found it easy climbing up to the second floor as well. Not only that but Dave had left the balcony door slightly open all night (not that he could have locked the door as he had throughly broken the lock). Dave was annoyed at how slow he had been at seeing the danger that he had put himself in.
The sun was starting to rise above the horizon, it was time to go.
Dave returned to the lounge room and looked over all the stuff that he had spread out on the floor and tried to plan out in his head how to put it into his backpack. Dave had some vague idea that he should probably place the most useful stuff at the top of his bag but at the moment he wasn't too certain what the most useful items actually were. Instead he decided to pack the heavy items like the tools at the bottom and the light items like food and books at the top. It wasn't an optimal way to pack his bag, but experience was the best teacher so for now he just needed do something and not over think it. Dave rolled up his sleeping bag and attached it to the outside of his backpack.
It didn't take long before he was ready. Dave hefted up the backpack and put it on with a grunt - the tools had really added to the weight of what he had to carry. He went out to the balcony and pointlessly closed the door behind him. Having broken in the day before, the door didn't latch close. He leaned out over the edge of the balcony and peered towards the street. He couldn't see much of the street but he didn't see anything moving on the fragment of the street that he could see. Dave focused on listening for a moment. It was quiet.
Although heavy Dave's backpack wasn't an impossible burden
