Chapter 7

As soon as I heard Rocco yell his room number, Arthur and I rushed to the elevator and went to the fifth floor, before I remembered that Rocco lived on the third floor with me; or maybe I was mistaken. I shrugged the thought and focused on Cassidy, who was watching me trail behind her father. "Wouldn't it be safer if you put Cass at your front?" I whispered. 

Arthur glanced at me, holding his pipe ready in case of a sneak attack. "No, I won't be able to fight and defend properly." He went back to check the numbers of every door we passed. "What if something attacked from behind?" I walked faster to match his pace. He stopped immediately, and I looked around in panic. "What? What's wrong?" I whispered. His mouth formed a thin line and said, "That's why I put you behind; so you could look out for her. I didn't know I had to tell you. Now, be a good egg and help me out." He shook his head and walked.

I frowned and stood still until Arthur passed me so I could follow from behind; and there, sat Cassidy with her mouth open, amused. Probably laughing at me. The audacity. I stuck my tongue out, and she giggled, so I pathetically rolled my eyes before glancing behind me in case something did follow us. You have to be attentive, Levi.

"Here it is." Arthur and I stopped in front of a room at the end of the hallway. He did swift and quiet knocks and waited, but Rocco was taking too long to respond. So we wondered that we must have misheard the room number. 

"Should we leave?" He asked, glancing sideways.

I mouthed 'wait' and placed my ear at the door; listening to the muffled clanks, clinks, and thuds that came from inside. Rocco must be tinkering.

"There's someone in there," I whispered.

"I haven't seen a single animal in the building, so we're probably safe." He said, before knocking loudly. 

"It's open!"

I twisted the knob and it was. Why were we being respectful of his property at a time like this? 

 "We've been knocking out there," I said, putting my hands in my pockets while I feed myself some information about the bleak room we're in. It's just like mine. Dim, warm, kind of filthy, and have clutters all over the place. Arthur approached Rocco who was bent over his window wearing camouflage shorts and a white dirt-smeared tank-top.

"What's that for?" Arthur dropped his pipe at the sofa and checked the thick and long pole at Rocco's feet.

"Gon' use it for the bait," Rocco replied without looking.

"Arthur," He lent his hand for a handshake. Rocco looked up to check him out before looking at me; he stayed silent for a moment. "What???" I asked. Cassidy started crying, so Arthur withdrew his hand and said, "I already know your name."

Confused, Rocco stood straight and looked behind Arthur, who carefully took off the baby carrier. "I have bottled distilled water and food in my refrigerator. Help yourselves." Arthur thanked him and went to his kitchen.

"Thanks, so, what's the plan?" I said.

"I need ya to get a dead body and bring it back to me. 

What? "That's the bait? Where are we supposed to find one?" I looked him in the eye.

"Outside?" He said, and the woman's cry distracted us. "We need to do it, fast." He added, looking out the window.

"But, isn't it dangerous? It's like facing the animals surrounding the car head-on. Might as well do that."

"Nah, ya get a chance to dodge them animals. Just do it." He turned away and went back to his work.

Arthur went back, confused. "Wait, why can't we just use loud noises?"

"Or just use one of us, like Arthur?" I said pointing at him while facing Rocco.

"What- me? You should do it, you're lighter. I have a kid, what happens to her if I die?"

"If you think being a bait will kill you then why me-"

"See- this is why I said dead body! We ain't here to waste time! I didn't call you here, to- waste- time!" Rocco clapped his hands mid-sentence and it shut us up.

"I need y'all to get it for me while I fix this pole. Won't take long but we need to save some time, understand???" Rocco looked agitated.

"I have a kid." Arthur frowned at me.

"I'm 17." I frowned back.

"Coming here means y'all gon' help. Leave the baby." 

We looked at him in unison. Arthur argued about leaving Cass but I tried to convince him to do so because time is running out. The argument wasn't going anywhere until Rocco yelled at us; his veins popping out of his neck and forehead. I was shocked, scared even. I have never seen him that way, ever, but I have not seen anyone do anything for months anyway. 

He told us why we have to take people's lives seriously and that we shouldn't have come if we didn't want to help. I agreed. We knew that helping that lady out there won't be easy, but we came up here anyway, so Arthur resigned and gave Rocco the baby, who has no idea what's happening, but cried because her papa's going away.

Arthur went to the sofa to take his favorite pipe, informing Rocco about what to do if ever she gets hungry, or pooped. I went to Cassidy and tried to cheer her up, assuring her that papa's going to come back real soon and she needs to be a good girl. I noticed Rocco staring at me in my peripheral vision, so I stopped and walked to the door.

We finally head out to start our search. "Where do you think we could find one quickly?" I asked. "I don't think we can find anything here, there have been no signs of animals." We decided to use the stairs and exit somewhere far from the car crash. I'm glad he was keeping his mouth shut and using it for necessary information only instead of guilt-tripping me for making him leave Cass with a stranger. 

"Do you remember the corpse I cut in half?" I whispered. He carefully swung the door open and peeked out to see if any animals were lurking outside this part of the apartment building, before signaling me to follow him out after confirming it was safe. "Too far," he replied, crouching slightly. I mimicked his every move and found a car with its door open. I told him about it and he decided to check if it's useful.

We double-checked if the back seats are occupied before hopping in and checking for its keys. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any. Arthur grit his teeth and groaned, stopping himself from punching the steering wheel midway and ran his hands on his hair instead. "We have to find one, soon," he looked around, nervous. I was going to tell him that Cass would be okay when a vivid imagination of Rocco preparing to throw her out the window made me shake my head rapidly.

"You okay?" Arthur whispered. I slowly raised my head and opened my eyes when a gray wolf standing on its hind legs appeared in front of us from a distance.

I exhaled from my mouth and reached for Arthur's arm without breaking eye contact with the animal. Arthur was silently waiting for me to snap back to reality until he glanced at where I was looking. A pig then appeared from afar, and like the wolf, it stood on its hind legs.

We were going to head out of the car and run for our lives when the two animals began approaching us like humans; like they were born to walk like us. What the fuck.