Wither With Me

CHAPTER 5 - THREAT

"Nothing... It's all useless, again." William grumbled under his breath. "Anything over there?"

He closed the cupboard he was inspecting and looked over to the other side of the kitchen, where Nora was.

"No... Everything that's left here is spoiled already..." All the cupboards were full of trash and rotten leftovers from long ago. She briefly opened the fridge door, but immediately closed it back as she smelled the putrid odor emanating from within. "Ugh... Oh god..."

"This can't be a coincidence."

"Maybe whoever lived here consumed all of their food reserves?"

William took a look around. There weren't any signs that anyone had lived there since long ago. Doors were busted, windows broken and unbarricaded, trash and dried blood all over the place...

"Remember how the epidemic started? It hit fast. Way too fast for anyone to react. By the time the authorities truly grasped the severity of the situation, it was already too late. It only took a couple of days for most of the city to get wiped out and fall into utter chaos. The vast majority of the buildings were overrun by the infected long before proper measures could be taken. Which is why it's common to find canned goods and food; their owners never even had a chance to use them in the first place."

Nora seemed to think about it for a second, and then nodded. "Then, why...?"

It was strange. After they left the bridge and got back into the relative safety of the building rooftops, they stopped at several points to try and scavenge for supplies. But everywhere they had tried, they found nothing of use.

"We'll keep moving. Our main destination should be nearby. I want you to keep your eyes peeled out there, you hear?"

"S-Sure..." Nora agreed, although with a look of worry on her eyes.

As they returned to the stairwell and headed up towards the rooftop, William kept taking glances at Nora. She was sweaty, shaky, her movements had gotten clumsier and slower. The bags under her eyes denoted her lack of rest and sleep. And of course, she was still shaken up from the incident at the bridge. When they started their trip that morning, she kept trying to keep her clothes tidy and fix her hair when she had the chance. Her clothes were now kind of dirty and her hair unkempt, yet she didn't seem to notice or care about it anymore. He figured that sudden lack of self-care could be attributed to emotional shock, she probably had more important things on her mind right now.

'It almost feels like I'm babysitting her now...' To be fair, he understood her situation. And he couldn't say he didn't care about her at all, not anymore. He didn't really like her, but he didn't mind her either, even if her psychological condition wasn't the best. He also knew he didn't want to just abandon her unless she gave him a good reason to do it first.

However, one didn't have to be a genius to realize she needed some proper rest. And they wouldn't be able to tend to those needs until they were back at the shelter.

"We're getting back outside, stay close to me, and stay alert."

******

[Are you that easy to break down? Is that really all you got?]

'Leave me alone... Shut up, I'm doing my best... To survive, for me, for them...'

[Doing your best? Don't say it like there's something you can do. All you can do is let your instincts run wild. But you have no say whatsoever. If it wasn't for them, you'd be worthless.]

'So what...? If protecting them keeps me going, what's the problem...?'

[Who's going to protect you? Are you going to depend on others? Again?]