They were all busy counting their chickens before they hatched as they walked down the driveway towards the big house. Standing around in the parking lot outside the home they were forced to reconsider. The house was still gorgeous. The sun reflecting off the water made this a truly spectacular day. That missing door meant the home could be infected with crawlerz. After his run in at the gas station Drew was pretty paranoid about going into an enclosed space that could have one of those deadly stalkers hanging out in it.
“Should we try a different house?” LeBron whispered. He said it almost too quietly for them to hear him. When the sun was out, they were a little less cautions about making noise, but they still had to watch the volume. Whether that would work out for them in the long run or not remained to be seen. They were pretty much making this up as they went along. It wasn’t like there was a guidebook. They couldn’t even pull up the house on Yelp and see how many stars previous looters had left for it.
None of them wanted to walk another step in their damp clothes. They knew it wasn’t super smart to risk their lives to avoid additional chafing but that’s what it was coming down to. Carefully avoiding thinking of what Bart would’ve told them if they did this they lined up at the front door and took the plunge.
Drew went first. He had a flashlight he was using to scan the inside of the house. He was holding it with his pistol the same way he’d seen people on TV doing it. That way wherever he looked the pistol was also pointed. That seemed like a pretty good way to explore the house to him. Plus, as an added bonus, the flashlight by itself was an effective stunning weapon against the light fearing crawlerz. Anything that might throw off a crawler lunging at him full speed out of the dark was a good thing.
LeBron was in the middle of the train. Being the least athletic of the three of them it made sense to put him there. He was also the youngest which made the older two feel protective of him. If they had a few more people, they probably would’ve had LeBron sit outside while they cleared the house. As it was each of them played an integral part. In addition to guarding their backs Yue was also doing her best to let some light into the house. She took every opportunity to quietly open curtains and twist Venetian blinds open to let in those gorgeous crawler crushing rays.
The entryway was one big well-lit foyer. A set of windows high up on the walls making the inside of the home as bright as the outside once they got past the mudroom area. The furniture in the large open sitting room had been tossed around at some point. The couch was tipped over and the lamps and side tables were knocked all over the place. A knife was sitting on the ground in the middle of a large stain on the expensive looking tile. With nothing to loot in this room they continued on through the large brick lined arch that led into the house proper. Each of them marveling at the cool architectural feature. It must be nice to be rich.
The next room was similarly torn apart. This one had a few bodies lying around as well. The fight that’d started in the foyer must’ve carried over into this room. Drew let the light play over the unmoving bodies on the floor then shined it around the walls. The drywall had been completely ripped off in a few places revealing the studs. They all vividly remembered seeing the crawler rip apart their bathroom wall, so it was easy for them to picture what had happened here. The desperate fight in the foyer followed by a retreat into the living room. A few members of the family dying defending the home. They’d probably locked the kids in that back bedroom. The final act of that drama being the infected parents joining the other crawlerz in ripping apart the walls to murder their own children.
“Looks like they fought pretty hard.” LeBron said under his breath. The others nodded. This family hadn’t gone down without a fight.
The far wall was one gigantic series of sliding glass doors. They were covered currently by hanging blinds that stretched the entire length of the wall. Yue imagined the view was going to be pretty spectacular once they opened up those blinds. Based on the way the house was sitting on the property it should give them a panoramic view of the lake. Even better than the Zillow highlighted view it should definitely let in a ton of sunlight. That would be a good thing since the corpse littered living room was creeping her out.
“Shine the light around again. Then let’s go open up those shades.” Yue told Drew. The three of them watched as Drew shined the powerful flashlight over every piece of the living room visible from where they were standing. There were a few places still in the shadows, but they felt like they’d taken most of the risk out of it.
“Smooth is fast and fast is smooth.” LeBron reminded them. It was a favorite saying of their dads. It seemed like a pretty apt description of the proper mindset to try to get to for traipsing across a living room turned morgue in the middle of an apocalypse.
Without another word Drew quickly began walking across the living room. He’d already sketched out the best route in his head and was now hurrying to get through it. He was worried they were being stalked like he’d been back in the gas station. His imagination pumping up the fear a thousand
