[sylvanSpider]

The pair hardly spoke as they stepped into the shelter of one of the side entrances to the hospital. Had either of them been completely aware of the culture prior to the Reckoning, they would have recognized it as the entrance that ambulances pulled into, patients on flatbeds would have wheeled in through this door, some alive, some already dead. One of the ambulances still sat somewhat close to the entrance rotting from the inside out. Both, before entering, donned their masks. They had no way of knowing what was in there besides themselves and neither had a wish to get infected. Taka removed her jacket and wound it up, squeezing. A torrent of water came from the fabric and Aren repeated the process. The sound of water hitting the floor joined the rest of the rain outside and, for the time being, the pair was safe.

The cloud cover outside ensured no light spilled through the windowed doors they just entered and Aren flicked on his flashlight. “See that?” he asked, pointing to the small dots falling into vision in the light's beam, “Spores. Well, there's dust too, but those are definitely spores. It's a damn good thing we put on our masks.” Taka nodded her agreement and narrowed her eyes as if looking at something.

“Hey, Aren, shine the light over here a sec,” she said, crouching. Aren did as he was told, looking at the grooves Taka now squat over.

“...What is it?”

“Can be a couple things, but either way, we're not alone. Either we'll be dealing with Maverick's men as this could be where bodies or loot have been stowed away orrr we've got something big that likes to take its victims into the dark places. We could be headin' right for the den of a big infected fucker,” Taka shook her head, sighing. This wasn't going to be easy, but if they could be silent enough going deeper, they might just be able to pull it off.

Aren was silent for a moment until he finally just said, “Oh...” letting the silence fall between them once more. A couple of minutes went by where Taka sat examining the grooves before he cleared his throat to ask, “If...if it was Mav's men, wouldn't you, ah, wouldn't you fuckin' know? I mean, you were one of Mav's “men” too at one point, right?”

“He had us doing different things. Sectioned us off into groups to perform separate tasks, just like an assigned job that we'd do over and over again. This sector was assigned to a different group. All classified. We couldn't talk about our shit with other groups. That was part of the reason he wanted our group dead. We started asking questions. Questions he didn't like.” Taka's voice was matter-of-fact, void of emotion. Like she wasn't the one who lived through those memories under that man though up until a day ago, she'd been carrying out his orders.

Then noises came from the inside. A tinkling of glass breaking. The clattering of boots hitting rotting tile. If they knew they weren't alone before, that knowledge was cemented now. “The light!” Taka hissed, “Turn it off!”

Aren did as he was told immediately.