Efthirteen

He did freeze, but not for long. He picked up a wine bottle and smashed out the the glass of the nearest window, and scrambled through. There was another shout and a pop, as something thudded into the window frame beside him. It looked like some kind of dart, but he didn't have time for a good look. As he clambered through, he felt the glass cutting his leg.

It seemed dark inside after being out in the daylight, and it took him a moment to find the door out of the room he was in. He heard someone running and a shout.
"Go 'round to the other side!"
Finster opened the door and found himself in the hallway of the old apartment building. But where could he go now? He ran up a flight of stairs. There was a window on the landing looking down on the street. He saw the second man running up the street. He was carrying a rifle. Finster continued up to the second floor.

He heard the two men meet in the hall below. They began trying the apartment doors on the first floor. As they opened the doors, the stench of death increased. The apartments were full of corpses. That was not a pleasant thought, but he would have to find someplace to hide. He did not want to shoot anyone else, but he would, if it came to that. He had already killed Mr. Porter.

The third door he tried, opened easily. The air did not seem so foul in there. He noticed that a window was open, but he did not have time to think about it. He could hear the men climbing the stairs now.
There was another room, a bedroom, and he entered it. He could hear the men getting closer, trying the doors. There was no more time, and he stepped into a closet, closed the door softly, and drew the 45.
Then, he had a strange felling, and looked beside him, straight into the frightened face of a young woman. Her eyes were locked on the pistol in his hand. Now, he could hear the men entering the apartment. They were talking in low voices.
"He must have come in here. It's the only door that was unlocked."
"Here's a drop of fresh blood."
"Be careful, he's already shot Porter."
"Where did he come from?"
"I don't know. But Porter knew him. I think he worked for him."

Finster held his finger to his lips for silence, but it was unnecessary. The girl quietly moved farther back. Finster saw her slip into a hole in the wall, behind some of the clothes. She motioned for him to follow. Then she covered the hole with a piece of the cheap wallboard the closet was made of.
They were in a small area in the wall between two apartments. It was too dark to see anything, but he could hear the frightened breathing of the girl close beside him. He could also hear the men in the other room.

"Someone's been staying here."
"Him?"
"I don't think so, I think this is a woman, look at this hairbrush."
Finster could hear them moving some things around in the kitchen. Then they were in the bedroom.
"Dr. Ekhard want's him alive. But we don't want to get ourselves killed. You saw what happened to Porter."
Then they were quiet. He heard footsteps and the closet door was yanked open.
Then,
"I don't see any more blood anywhere."
"Damn. I was sure he was in here."
The men walked away. They had left the door open. Finster could see the light through the cracks in their hiding place.
"Maybe he went out the window. There is a roof over here he could have gotten to."
"Yeah, we'll find him eventually."

Finster began to breath easier. He felt his leg. There was a wet place on his pant leg. It was a miracle he hadn't left a trail of blood all the way to the closet. He could hear the men rummaging around the apartment, knocking things over.

Then, he remembered the woman. He could feel her beside him, although it was too dark to see. She was obviously not one of them. She must have survived the plague like he had. He wondered if there were others.

"Well, there's no one here now. We might as well leave," came the voice from the other room.

Then, Finster heard the men leave.


*The Fuzz realizes that if someone were to actually read this stuff, they would be getting it sorta backwards. There is a link in the sidebar, "Finster", that will take one to another page with this mess in it's proper order.