The Rain: The End, Marietta Standlee [year 7 reading list TXT] 📗

"Let's double-check before we actually move people in though." Colin orders.

"Yes, Sir." Derek acknowledges.

We stop, where several other vehicles are already parked, after we passed the last boarded house.

"Here we go." One of the new guys says with an apprehensive smirk.

Disembarking, we get our weapons ready. To our right is a three-story apartment complex. Colin nods towards it, "Let's go."

Our small group moves as one towards it. The glass entrance door was smashed-in long ago by somebody. Colin is the first through, careful to avoid the jagged edges left behind by the glass. I follow suit, with the others close behind me. Inside the entrance hall, we stop and listen for any kind of noise. It's an impressive building. The floors, even though they are crusted with dirt and in places stained with blood, look expensive. By the stairway stands an abandoned oak desk where the concierge must have sat.

"Kat and you." Colin points to one of the new guys.

"Levi Stein." He introduces himself.

"Kat and Levi, check the basement." Colin orders. "The rest follow me up to the first floor."

We make it in and up the empty, foul-smelling, dark stairway to the first floor before opening the door leading into a hallway when Colin stops.

"Derek and…." He points to the woman, whose name we haven't been told yet.

"Rose Vanderbilt." She introduces herself.

"And Drew, go up to the second floor, secure it." Colin finishes.

Leaving Sean with Colin and me to check the first floor. Sean opens the heavy door. It gives off a squeak of protest for having been neglected for so long. Once opened, we hold our breath and wait, but no maniac comes rushing at us.

Several doors on both sides of the long hallway are set in regular intervals. Slowly, we make our way to the first apartment door.

Colin presses his ear against it. "No sounds," he tells us before he pulls out tools to jimmy the lock.

Once the lock is picked, Colin tells Sean to keep watch outside, while he and I will go investigate. Using the barrel of my gun, I push the door open all the way. It, too, squeaks like in a horror movie. The stench hits me first, and I feel my breakfast come back up. I swallow hard before I pull my shirt over my mouth and nose. Colin, who hasn't entered yet, gives me a questioning look.

"Decomp," I state repulsed.

He nods, slowly following me inside, where we soon discover the source of the smell. Two corpses. One in the living room and another smaller one in a children's room. I don't think there is anybody else here, but we have to check so the cleaning crew can come in after us.

I don't envy them their jobs at all. I would much rather fight maniacs than to clean up the half-rotten bodies lying around. We check the other rooms, closets, cupboards, even under the beds. Any place we can think of where somebody could be hiding and find nothing.

Back in the hallway, I take a deep breath of clean air. That was pretty bad. I curiously watch Colin attach a note to the door. 2DB

It takes me a minute. Two dead bodies. For the cleaning crew. How does he know how to do all these things? I don't remember being briefed on this. And then I remember shamefaced our last meeting before Operation Clean sweep and how I zoned out again, like I usually do during meetings. I promise myself to be better from now on and to pay more attention. One of these days, I'll miss something important.

We move on to the room across the hall. Same procedure, Colin picks the lock, and we enter. No stench, thankfully. We search the entire apartment, nothing. On we go to the next and the next.

From upstairs noises of a skirmish reach our ears, followed by gunshots. Derek's crew must have found somebody. We listen carefully for more, making sure our teammates don't need backup. But everything falls quiet again, and we move on to the next apartment.

The fifth door opens with a squeak, just like the others before. By now, we have a routine going. Sean stays outside; I open the door with the barrel of my gun while Colin advances with his weapon out and ready.

All the apartments so far had the same layout, except this one. A large hallway leads left and right; Colin points for me to go left while he goes right. I come to a door that is locked from the inside. I step away from the door and hiss Colin's name.

Within seconds he's next to me. First, we listen for any kind of noise. It doesn't take long until we hear a light rustling and something sounding like a soft sob. Questioning I look at Colin, who shrugs his shoulders and takes a step back.

Without further ado, he kicks in the door. With a crash, it swings inwards, against the wall on the other side, and slowly swings back. I venture a look and stare into the barrel of a massive Colt .45. Quickly I withdraw, just in time before a powerful shot rings out and creates a hole the size of my fist in the wall behind me.

"Stay back. I'll kill you." A high-pitched scream pierces the air, followed by another shot.

Colin crouches against the wall on the other side, looking at me, asking me silently what I saw. I mouth the words, "Young girl."

"We don't want to hurt you," I yell at the kid I saw for a split second.

In my mind's eye, I can still see her. Maybe thirteen, long, blonde, stringy hair, huge grey eyes full of fear, trembling hands that hold a gun way too big for her.

Instead of an answer, a loud boom sounds out, followed by the appearance of another hole in the wall. By now, my ears ring loudly from the deafening noise the big gun creates inside the hallway's confined space.

"Honey, please put the gun down." I try