C12 Open Sesame
Weak daylight was streaming through the triangle shaped windows, announcing another grey, dreary day. After the message from Annette Markus had fallen asleep exhausted.
The moment he had closed his eyes the dreams came. About the doctor with his stained white coat who was ordering the dead, sending them towards him so that they could attack him and eat his warm flesh. But now he was awake, thinking about the images from his dreams.
When he thought back on Platkow, there had been something different in the doctor’s gaze. It was not the blunt bloodthirsty gaze of the regular infected. The doctor apparently knew exactly what he was doing and how to guide his underlings.
And that scared Markus more than anything else. He stretched extensively, got up and listened at the door behind which survivors allegedly were located. But nothing could be heard, no sound, no breathing, just a strange deathlike silence. Markus was about to just stick the note back onto the wall and to forget about the whole thing fast. Let the next survivors deal with it. The moment light was seeping through the little windows the child stirred. She came to him right away and looked at Markus.
“I’m hungry and I need to pee!”
So he moved the cots aside and opened the door. One scrutinizing gaze out of one of the windows showed him the same view as last night, with one difference, there were even more crows now on the poles and tents’ roofs. He opened the door carefully, his battle mace ready to use in his other hand and he was peeking outside through a small gap. It felt good to inhale the fresh air which was streaming through the opening into the container‘s interior. When he was to some extent certain that nothing was lurking outside, he opened the door completely and was lurking outside, he opened the door completely and they both stepped outside. Markus turned towards Marie.
“Stay beside the vehicle, do you understand? And once you’re done, go inside again immediately, and then there will be cookies for breakfast.”
He could not offer her more than cookies because they did not possess anything else anyways. Markus went outside briefly as well in order to relieve himself, but he had an uncomfortable feeling about it. He felt observed and he constantly expected for some of the dead to be charging out of the bushes in order to attack him.
But nothing happed of course, apart from the fact that a lot of birds were watching him bored while he was doing his business. The animals were possibly pondering if those two human beings down there were still alive or dead already and therefore carrion. It did not take longer than two minutes for them to be inside the secure container again, with the door barricaded anew. Now Markus was observing Marie, who sat on one of the cots, scribbling on the back of some files. Even before their pitiful breakfast a decision had to be made about the door. Markus now felt the strong urge to open it after all.
If he just walked away now, the uncertainty would haunt him for the rest of his life. But first he had to take care of Marie’s safety and only the Defender‘s interior would provide for it. Once again the child crawled under the backseat and pulled the blanket over her head. Markus actually knew that this procedure was total idiocy because if he got attacked and bitten, and maybe even killed, the child would not stand a real chance of survival either inside the car or outside because she was simply too small.
Regardless, he held on to this procedure to give the child at least a temporary feeling of security and him the assurance that she was out of the way. Then he fetched his crossbow from the car, loaded it with a bolt and cocked the weapon. Keeping his battle mace safely by his side, he locked the vehicle.
Just do not think too much longer about this idiot action.
There was no time anymore for doubts. But still Markus was standing in front of the access door for a couple of minutes before he was brave enough to put the key into the lock and turn it as soundlessly as possible. Once it clicked loudly, he pushed the doorknob down and gave it a hard push – the door smashed into the wall.
Immediately he had the crossbow ready. A disgusting smell of feces and, what was even worse, like smeary corpse was wavering out from the half-darkened room. Judging by the equipment it must be a treatment room in which everything was in shambles now. An old man was lying in the middle of the room, probably the source of the horrid smell.
A big puddle made of brownish corpse water, in which maggots were swimming, had built up already underneath him. Only with effort did Markus manage to suppress his urge to vomit and concentrated instead on what else was also visible in the room. He was about to close the door again, leaving this whole thing behind him. But then, all the way in the back underneath the operation table at the wall a pile of dirty blankets was moving.
Following his first instinct he was about to pull the trigger and to simply shoot a bolt into it, but at the last moment he decided against it. Wait first. There was still enough time because the distance was big enough in order to react to any threat. He placed everything on one card.
“Hello? Anybody there?”
Markus felt ridiculous when he uttered the words he usually made fun of in movies.
“Yes, here in the back. Please…”
He had not expected to get an answer. In shock he pulled the trigger and the bolt crashed against the wall above the pile of blankets. Uncertain he pulled his second weapon out.
“Okay, whoever is under those blankets, come out slowly. And I want to see your hands!”
He had seen the last part many times in movies before and thought them somehow fitting. Slowly a body peeled itself from the blankets. It was a young woman, maybe around twenty-five but not more than twenty-eight years of age. Dark and rather long hair, which was now stringy and full of dirt, was framing her face.
She was wearing a dark jeans and a nearly insanely frog-green quilted jacket. With it heavy army boots to blue frightened looking eyes. And she was dirty as well. Her face was smeared with dirt and make-up, but it was still obvious how pretty she was. When she finally stood up with slightly raised arms, Markus noticed that she was just tall enough to look him straight into his eyes. As tall as Sabine, he thought briefly.
“Nadja, my name is Nadja.” Her accent could not be ignored. She was probably from Poland or the Czech Republic. Nonetheless, Markus remained tense and raised his weapon up warningly when she moved a step towards him.
“Don’t be afraid, I’m healthy. They have locked me up in here, those pigs.”
He breathed in deeply three times, then he lowered his weapon and nodded. “Okay, all right. Everything is fine. My name is Markus.”
Reluctantly he reached out his hand, which she shook thankfully. Felt her cold, sticky fingers. It had not been a mistake to open the door after all. Markus pointed towards the corpse on the ground with his weapon.
“What’s with the old man?”
“I think he had a heart attack, died just like that and has been rotting ever since.”
Markus locked the door for safety reasons once Nadja had entered the front area. And for sure not only so the stink and maggots would stay where they were. She turned around to him.
“Are you alone?”
Markus’ alarm bells started to ring right away.
“Why do you want to know?”
She tried an insecure smile. “Because there are crayons and child drawings on the table.”
Damn it – he had completely forgotten about those. Unsure, he shrugged his shoulder.
“I have a child with me. She is waiting in a safe hiding place, got it?”
Nadja nodded and kept looking around.
“Do you have anything to eat, anything at all? I’m starving, you know?” Great, now they had to split the few sweets they had as well. Oh well, at least they were not alone anymore and maybe the polish woman would proof her worth in one or another situation. Without saying a word he pointed to the table with the coloring stuff.
“Take a seat, I’ll fetch Marie. Then we eat and after that we’ll leave. You have until then to think about if you want to join us or not.”
Nadja nodded. Despite Markus’ understandable suspicions, all she wanted to get away from here as fast as possible. She just wanted to go to a safe place, take a shower, eat and sleep. And fuck, finally fuck again.
“No matter where the journey goes to, I’m in. As long as it is just away from here.”
She did as she was told and watched how the strange guy fetched a little blond, bright girl from the off-road vehicle which was parked directly in front of the door. It was an old dented British car, one of those one knew from movies. He emptied chocolate bars and cookies out of a stained duffel bag onto the table.
“Ladies, that’s our breakfast for today.”
Markus smiled. He was really relieved about the fact that he had found a normal and most importantly healthy human being behind the door and he was happy about not being alone anymore.
“Well, eat first then. Afterwards we’ll discuss how we should proceed,” he said facing Nadja.
The woman did not need to be told twice. She was hungry like a wolf and pounced on the different bars greedily. The guy was not unlikable, even though he was a little too old for her taste.
But no matter. He seemed capable and he had just rescued her. Maybe now was not the right time to be picky.
From: [email protected]
Date: 26.12.2013 9.00.35 p.m.
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