UNREST

Something he deeply regretted? What kind of question was that? William spent a couple of seconds gazing in confusion at Desmond, who was now trembling and fidgeting even more than before.

"Hang on, what do you mean by that…? Did something happen? Are you sure you're okay…!?"

"W-Well… A-Ah… There's been something on my h-head lately, and I thought… U-Um…" Desmond wasn't really conveying any relevant information through his babbling.

This kind of behavior was completely uncharacteristic of Desmond. He was usually shy and reserved, as well as indecisive. But that looked like a full-blown panic attack, like nothing he'd ever had before, at least not that William knew about. As a matter of fact, he had seen him just before he departed on that day's scavenging trip, and there wasn't anything weird about him. Just good old Desmond, like always. Something was off.

"Hey, you need to calm down." William grabbed his shoulder and looked at him straight in the face. Desmond avoided direct eye contact at all costs. "If you don't calm down and speak properly, I can't understand what's going on. What's gotten into you, man?"

He just kept whimpering and babbling incoherent words. After a while, his anxious eyes finally rested on William's. His face was contorted with some bizarre mix of uneasiness and fear.

'Fucking hell, this guy is terrified out of his mind. What is going on!?'

"I… I got some news about a certain m-matter earlier this d-day… But I, um… I think I need to collect my t-thoughts for a little bit…" he said. He was a bundle of nerves.

"Right… I see…"

"I'll go down a-and rest for a while… I'll see you l-later, Will…" Desmond turned around and started walking away.

"Hey, take care, alright…? You sure you don't want me to go down with you?"

Desmond stopped for a brief moment and seemed like he was about to look back, but he just kept walking. "I-I'm okay… Sorry for d-disturbing you…"

William watched him until he eventually disappeared through the door into the nearby stairwell. He was astonished, he didn't know what to make of what had just happened.

'I'll make sure to keep an eye on him later. I'll have to report it to the others as well. Something about this isn't right.'

In all honesty, he felt like going down and taking care of the issue right away, but the rationing meeting was about to start soon. He figured he'd have a perfect chance to bring up the subject after the meeting was over.

…

William leaned back against the wall and waited. The meeting "hall" was actually the apartment right in front of their storage unit in the fourth floor. The bedroom and bathroom walls had been destroyed in order to turn it into a single, big room. Only one door allowed access inside, and William watched it closely as the rest of the building's inhabitants arrived.

Emma was already inside, checking the rations. Richard and Wattson came in… Then Amanda, who threw him a warm smile as she saw him. He reciprocated, then went back to observing the door. The elderly couple came in at their own pace. Then Elijah, then Daniels… Eventually the kids showed up as well. Everyone came for the meeting, one by one.

Well, almost everyone. Desmond wasn't showing up.

William was nervous. He couldn't stop thinking about the conversation he had with him a short while ago, for some reason. Why the hell did he have such a bad feeling about it? He didn't want to wait anymore.

"Has anyone seen Desmond…?" he asked.

"Desmond? I saw him a while ago going up to the rooftop. I think he was going to talk with you about something?" answered Emma.

"Yeah, he did… But something was wrong with him. He was anxious about something."

"Now that you mention it, the dude was indeed acting strange today…" said one of the men in the room. "He wouldn't stop wandering around the whole building. I wonder what the hell was he doing…"

"Bah, that young man can't lift a finger to save his life…! He must have been up to no good." grumbled the old man.

"Oh, come on darling, don't be like that." his wife didn't seem too happy about that comment. "I've told you; you should be more lenient with the youngsters. You can barely lift your own rear yourself."

"But I'm a raisin already, you can't be comparing them to me!" he complained.

Arbitrary chit-chat came up in the room, mixes a couple of laughs here and there. Everyone seemed to disregard Desmond's behavior. Probably because of how inconspicuous and harmless he was considered. What was the worst he could do? Well, from William's perspective, not a lot of effort was needed to take things for a bad ride.

Beyond the noise from all the talking in the room, William heard something else, an intermittent sound coming from the hallway. Sounded like footsteps. Running footsteps.

Suddenly, a man showed up on the doorframe and knocked loudly on the open door to grab everyone's attention. There a moment of silence as everyone turned around to face him. He looked concerned.

"Hey, hey…! What's up with the roof!?" he asked, while panting slightly.

"What do you mean, what's wrong with the roof?" William instantly replied with another question, almost bouncing from the wall and taking a step forward.

"There's a crapload of red smoke coming from the roof…!! It's emitting light too, it's fucking bright up there!"

"What…!?"

The people in the room started looking at each other with worried faces.

"That's strange… I don't think we had anything flashy like that in store…" added Emma. And she probably knew better than anyone else, at least that day in particular.

"I'm going to check it out. Richard, Elijah, with me. Everyone else stay here, turn off the lights and lock the door. Something dangerous might be going on." suggested William.

Nobody objected. While the remaining people locked themselves in the apartment amidst concerned mumbling, William and his small team headed for the roof. They didn't really know what was going, but William had a sense of urgency taking over him. He sprinted at full speed down the hallway and towards the stairs, then started climbing them in a rush. Richard and Elijah had trouble keeping up with him.

Right there, in the landing just below the rooftop, Desmond was crouching down in a corner. The rooftop door was open wide, and the flashing red lights emerging from whatever that was on the roof beamed down on him. He was sweaty, shaking like crazy, and bawling his guts out.

William crouched beside him and grabbed him by both shoulders. He wasn't gentle this time, he shook him around and forcibly turned him around.

"Desmond…!? What's going on, Desmond!?"

"I-I'm sorry…!! I'm s-s-sorry…!!!"

"You're sorry for what!? What's happening!?"

Before they could keep talking, a sound resonated in the distance, interrupting their conversation. It was like a siren. It was an incredibly loud sound, its twisting ring blaring down the streets and permeating everything. It sounded like it came from quite far away.

"Oh god…!! Oh, dear god, forgive me…!! Aaaah….!!!" Desmond's face was covered in tears. "I'm sorry, Will…!! Please forgive me, I didn't want to do it…!!!"

"What the fuck is going on, Desmond!? What have you done!!?"

######

"Uuh… Is everything okay?"

Nora's voice abruptly drew William out of his deep thought. He pretty much flinched, it wasn't like him to sink in his own thoughts like that. He even lost track of time for a short while.

"Yeah, yeah… I was just thinking for a moment." he replied. "Alright, we should keep moving. We still have plenty of time, but we shouldn't be lounging around anyway."

"Sure."

As they got ready to leave, he tried to focus on the task at hand, and leave memories for another moment. It wouldn't do him any good to keep them floating around.

It was hard to move on from certain things, but letting emotions become stagnant is a recipe for disaster. Sometimes shit happens in your life, and it's best to find a new path to follow as soon as possible. Something that allows you to leave those obstacles behind and still be true to yourself. But it's when those obstacles linger around, that moving on becomes a real challenge.

William knew that all too well.

'Amanda…'

******

She couldn't hear anything. She couldn't see either. Were her eyes open? She didn't know. They probably were, she seemed to perceive something, but it didn't mean much. Or rather, she couldn't bring herself to give it a meaning. She tried to move. Or maybe not. Again, she wasn't sure if she did. Her head didn't hurt, it just felt numb. What was going on? Did she even care?

Something could be heard. Voices? Maybe. There were several of them. They seemed to argue with each other. She had no idea why.

'Shut… up…'

'Just leave me alone…'

She felt so incredibly tired.

…

It was a matter of time until the effects of the drug started to wear off.

Claire started to slowly regain her vision and her consciousness over time. Once again, she tried to move, but it didn't work. Something was restraining her movements. She couldn't speak either, only some uncoherent blabbering came out of her mouth.

Suddenly, something slapped her in the face. Repeatedly.

"…ey! …akey, wakey! …bout dam… …ime."

The repeated slaps seemed to kick her brain awake, and she was able to make sense of her surroundings once the slapping stopped.

She was no longer in her apartment, although it still felt like the same building. It was a bigger room, whose walls had been busted down for some reason. As she looked up, she saw her wrists tied with rope to the metal bars that sealed the window. Her ankles were also restrained with tape. Panic started to kick in.

"Ah…! Aua…!!" no coherent words came out, as she attempted to fight against the restraints in vain.

A man was standing in front of her. Wearing old dirty clothes, half bald, beard of God knows how many months… His appearance was terrible, yet Claire was particularly terrified of his face. He wore a dead serious expression, but his eyes denoted a deep, wicked malice. And those eyes were drilling her down to her very core. She started shedding some tears of fear.

"I'll go straight to the point, brat." he said. Then, he crouched and got really close to her face before he continued talking. "Where is the stash?"

Stash? What was he talking about? Claire didn't know anything about a stash.

"Oaa….! Aah...!!" again, no words came out. She wasn't entirely sure if she couldn't talk because of the effects of the drug, or because her brain was crapping its pants.

"Oh, come on…" the man got up, turned around and started walking in circles around the room. He pulled an automatic knife from his pocket and started to play around with it. "I really don't want this to get ugly…"

'Why…? Why…!? I don't know anything…! Why is this happening...!?'

"I'm getting tired of waiting, dude. If those two end up coming back we might run into trouble." said another voice. "And this one over here can't talk shit even when fully awake."

It was then that Claire noticed there were more people in the room. Another man, looking as disheveled as the first one, was sitting on top of some boxes in a corner of the room, sulking. And at his feet, a much smaller body remained immobile on the ground. Claire knew that body. Even though she couldn't see her very well, she recognized Lilian almost immediately.

"Ah...! Lilln…!! Linn…!!!" she tried calling out to her. Lilian seemed to move a little bit, but nothing else. Her hands and legs were immobilized as well. Knowing her, it was likely that both the restraints and the situation felt overwhelming enough to emotionally incapacitate her.

The thug in front of her bounced his eyes between Claire and Lilian for a while.

"Hey, you wanted to have some fun with the girl, right? Maybe that will make this one over here feel like cooperating a little bit." he suggested.

"Shit, can I really go for it?"

"Do it."

"Damn, alright." to Claire's horror, the guy on the corner got up and immediately fell upon Lilian. She couldn't see what he was trying to do, but she didn't have to think a lot to figure it out. "How old is this one anyway? You think she's a teenager? Her reactions are as flaccid as a dead fish, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't get much better than this!"

"Aaaoo… Uaaauaaaa….!" Lilian started to emit undecipherable complains in a low voice. Claire could see her legs attempt to move and break free, but it obviously wasn't going to work.

"Ah…! Nn-no…! Shta-p….!!" Claire's voice seemed to compose itself from the horrific scene unfolding before her.

"Oh? Feeling talkative…?" asked the thug besides her.

"Pl-ease…! Yo-u… monstr….!! St-op…!!!"

The man kneeled down beside her and gave her a much stronger slap across the face, knocking her glasses entirely off her head and onto the ground. Miraculously, they didn't seem to break.

"Stop fucking around and tell me what I want to hear already, brat!!! Where is the fucking weapon stash!?" he screamed directly to her face. "Perhaps you want some action as well?" without a second thought, he grabbed her chest and started groping it roughly. It hurt.

"Ah…!! No…!! Yo-u p-pig…!!!" she yelled and struggled as much as she could. "D-Don't… touch me-e…!!"

Somehow, Claire managed to squeeze her legs closer to her torso and then put them on the man's stomach. She pushed with all her strength, which wasn't a lot, but it seemed to be enough to make him lose his balance and fall backwards.

"Argh!"

Of course, that was only going to make him angrier. But what was she supposed to do? She didn't know what they wanted from them. She couldn't possibly escape on her own. The only thing she could do was pray for William and Nora to come back before it was too late.

"Ouch…! Ow, ow, owww!! Aaargh…!!!" the other individual, who was molesting Lilian, suddenly let out a panicked scream. He quickly got up, holding his hand.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked the one on the floor.

"This bitch…! I figured she was starting to resist a little bit, and I grabbed her face to keep her down, but she actually went and bit me!! Fucking hell, it's bleeding a lot!! Shit!!"

"For fuck's sake… Go and get the other two, get that shit treated…"

The injured man left the room in a hurry, leaving Lilian visibly distressed on the floor. Her clothes were messed up, and they had been slid out of the way, revealing most of her tummy and her thighs. She looked unharmed though. Claire's blood started to boil in her veins, and she threw a killing stare to the remaining thug.

Honestly, she was absolutely terrified, but that didn't change the fact that she was furious at them. She clenched her teeth out of frustration.

"You…! Fucking… disgusting pigs…!! Go die…!! Pieces of shit, damn it…!!!" tears kept bundling up in her eyes, but these weren't caused by fear. That was anger.

The man got up and looked up to the ceiling, thinking. He sighed, annoyed.

"Well, at least you look like you can speak properly now."

"Go to hell!!"

He stared at her for several seconds. Then, in a quick bout of anger, he grabbed his knife and plunged it directly into Claire's left thigh, all the way to the handle.

He twisted it very slowly.

Claire had never screamed in such a way before. A bloodcurdling scream of agony, at the top of her lungs. The screaming went on for a while, until she ran out of air and started to grind her teeth instead.

"Listen here, brat… The boss doesn't like it when people fuck around with him, you know? If we don't go back with results for him, we're dead meat. And I swear to whatever fucking god you believe in… you're going to be dead meat long before I do. Are we clear?" he was barely a couple of centimeters away from her face.

Her anger and momentary bravado had been flushed down the drain in an instant. All she had left was pure terror. She nodded. She nodded as if her life depended on it. Because it most likely did.

"P-Please… D-Don't hurt me a-anymore…!" she begged.

"Then start talking. Simple and easy."

"I… I don't know a-anything…!"

"Don't make me stab you again... I swear it's going to hurt a lot more than the first one."

"Aah…! I-I'm telling the truth…!! We were locked up the moment we set foot in here…! That man didn't tell us anything…!"

"Locked up…? So, you're newcomers? Is that what you're saying?"

"Y-Yes…!"

He remained silent for some moments, before bringing the knife up to her face and caressing her skin with it. He was applying dangerous amounts of pressure, but not so much as to actually injure her.

"Right, and I was born yesterday. Do you expect me to believe that?"

"Aaaah…!!"

Claire was shaking so much that she feared her own trembling would cause the knife's blade to pierce her skin.

"We know this building hides a lot of firepower. An entire police department's worth of it, to be precise. We've known for a long time. We've looked everywhere, even in the heavily reinforced vault in the basement, where it was supposed to be. Nothing. And we're running out of time. Nobody fucks with us. You've got guts, brat, that's for sure. But you're about to regret having them."

'Aaah…! Please…! Someone, anyone… save me!! Nora…!!'

******

Nora was getting noticeably tired from the trip back. However, they could already see the apartment building in the distance. The day still had several hours of daylight left before sunset, so time management had been a great success that day. William had been looking gloomier than usual since their little talk a while ago, but to be honest, he had his fair number of reasons.

Something suddenly got their attention. A horrifying scream in the distance. And it came from their building's direction.

"Huh!? Wait, was that…!?" Nora looked at William, but he had already started sprinting.

"That definitely came from the direction of our shelter… Shit!"

"No, no way… Claire!! Lilian…!!!"