The sounds of breaking glass and gunfire continued throughout the night. They walked around peering out the holes in the windows without touching the curtains in any way. They had no way of knowing if they were being overly cautions or not. There wasn’t a way to know if they were going to end up ripped apart by some fiend regardless of whether they wore socks or shoes to move around the loft. The number of crawlerz swelled as the night went on. When it got to the point that they couldn’t look below without seeing a dozen of the demonic figures Yue decided they should just huddle together in the middle of the floor.
LeBron followed her docilely enough, but Drew seemed to think if he couldn’t see the crawlerz then they might come crashing into the house. He resisted Yue at first until she got close enough to him to whisper that curiosity killed the cat. She filled her voice with such animosity that he had no choice but to listen. The old timey saying shattered through the black ice of his current terror and managed to sink deep enough for him to see reason.
As luck would have it though as soon as they’d abandoned making the circuit to look out the windows something slammed into the door downstairs. Drew shot an accusatory glare at Yue. She couldn’t see him in the darkness though, so the glare was pretty much wasted. Seeing it wouldn’t have mattered as she was too busy being completely petrified the same as LeBron. Drew was scared too but his first instinct was to fight. He started searching his pockets to make sure he had his flashlight in case whatever was slamming into the door managed to get in.
The loud bangs from downstairs continued for a few more minutes. As randomly as the assault on the downstairs door had begun it ended. The sudden silence casting doubt into their minds if the door had held or not. The loud sounds had included what could’ve been boards cracking. For all they knew the assault had ended because the door had opened up enough to let a crowd of crawlerz inside to hang out in their living room. Knowing they had to check and knowing she was the least likely to make any noise Yue stood up. Her brothers intuited what she was doing and stood up to follow her. She pushed them both gently back, so they’d know she was going by herself.
Hoping they got the message and wouldn’t come thundering down the stairs after her she tip-toed over to the top of the stairs. One step at a time she descended into the darkness below. Heart working like a jackhammer as her imagination filled the darkness with the faces of the damned. In her mind’s eye a group of the hunched over crawlerz gathered by the foot of the stairs. Drool leaking out of their mouths as they stared at the sacrifice willingly descending to the slaughter.
Heart threatening to thump out of her chest she made it to the bottom of the stairs without anything taking a bite out of her. She struggled to control her breathing. She’d held her breath the entire time down the stairs without even realizing it. Starved for air she gasped like a marathon runner who’d just made it across the finish line. She walked over to the door and could tell that it’d taken a beating. Based on how it was wiggling around when she pushed gently against it, they were very lucky whatever had been trying to get in had given up when it had.
A cool breeze was the only benefit of the loose-fitting door. The house was hot. Even at night it felt like they were living in a sauna. Her clothes were sticking to her and she knew she was going to start getting a rash pretty soon unless they all decided to start walking around in their underwear. The Florida heat was no joke. She remembered their dad had tried to hold out one time for a second bid on their AC system when the one they had in one of their old houses had conked out. He was positive the first company they’d called had been trying to rip them off. He’d made it about two hours before calling them back and paying the exorbitant price to get the new system installed. It was Yue’s firm belief that If it weren’t for air conditioning Florida would’ve been the only state in the country with a population of less than fifty people.
Judging by all the screams and gunfire they’d heard earlier they may very well be on track to hit that fifty-person population. Assuming you didn’t count the crawlerz as people. Allowing herself to enjoy the cool air seeping in around the abused doorframe she listened to the screams coming from outside. These weren’t the muted screams they were able to barely hear in the loft. It hadn’t even occurred to her that ignoring those distant cries for help was a moral dilemma. What she was hearing now was coming from somewhere close by.
She was working on angling her head to see out the side window when her suspicions were confirmed. The loud blasts of a pistol being fired multiple times mingled with a woman’s screams from the house next door. She didn’t even
