Nepenthe | Sapnap |

Free Fall

There was snow in my shoes, making my socks cold and wet.

"We're almost there!" George called back over his shoulders as we started to see a break in the dense view of trees.

Thank god. I was over the need to walk through this snow. My toes had to be frozen.

"So, George," I said as I ducked under a tree branch, spinning back on my heels to make sure Spirit clears it as well, "we've been following you for the past twenty odd-so minutes, where exactly is your group staying?"

"Umm... you can say we're pretty well hidden. There's only two ways in and out of the place we're taking shelter."

Alex cleared his throat out, "The only building out this way is the old community arts center."

"Well, if the Center of the Arts is the building that you're talking about then that's exactly where we are." George let out a small laugh as he looked back at us, only for his laughter to die off when he saw the shocked expressions on Alex and I's face.

"How?" I sputtered out and skidded to a stop. "There's nothing but spores and infected in that place."

It's impossible that the spores were no longer there. Patrollers boarded that place up thick to make sure that nothing living could get in and that nothing dead could wander out. That place has been off limits well before I got to Jackson.

George's face split into a smile, "Not anymore. Come on, I'll show you."

Alex and I shared a concerned look but tugged on Spirit and Carl's reins once more to continue moving forwards.

I haven't even been to the Arts Center. All I knew was that it was a death trap, overflowing with spores and filled with stalkers and clickers. Infected that have just been growing more and more deadly over the years of being stuck inside that building.

How in the world were they able to clear the place out? Even if they were successful in eradicating all the infected, what about the spores? The place was airtight. There was no way they aired the place out, especially with only being here a month's time.

We broke through the tree line, finally able to see the convention center itself and it looked like shit. The front of the place used to be nothing but glass, now it was covered with boards full of nails and screws. The decorative wood paneling on the side of the walls was either missing, broken, or slowly curling away from the structure. The name of the place no longer even said 'Center of the Arts' but instead 'Cnter of h ts' with the metal letters disappearing over the years.

"How do you even get in?" Alex questioned. "The whole place is boarded up."

George tilted his head and waved for us to keep following him. "There's a loading dock around back where you can bring your horses out of the weather."

There were little to no tracks around the place. Most of the surrounding land was a parking lot that had a glimmering sheen over the snow. My boot almost slipped out from underneath me, my hand grasping at Spirit to find my balance again.

"Oh, yeah, watch out for the ice." George said a few seconds too late. ""It's annoying but it hides tracks since it's thick enough for our weight to not go through."

Well, that explains a lot actually.

Carefully making our way across the ice and around the building until we reached a space on the side that had piles upon piles of empty wooden pallets leaning against one another and a couple stacks of random junk balancing on a few pallet jacks.

"This was the only door we could get into. We boarded up the other ones so much. There has to be a couple inches of wood nailed up over the front of the place. It's impossible to break through."