Ch. 7 Meeting

"What the in the actual fuck" Lucas opens the womens bathroom door and makes sure there aren't any more walkers inside.

He processes what just happened.

Sure he didn't see the walker open the door, but all the evidence proves that it did. There isn't really another explanation.

This raises many more questions. If they can open a door, what else can they do? Do they just know how a door works through trial and error? Did it get lucky? Or did it remember how from its past life? And if that's the case, how much does it remember?

Lucas has to force himself to stop thinking about this.

He goes to the stairs near the elevators and opens the door. It's dark as hell and he can't see a thing. Lucas takes his flashlight from his pack and holds it in his left hand. He holds his knife ready and in a reverse grip in his right hand. He slowly makes his way up the staircase. It's so quiet he can hear each step he makes. He doesn't rush it and takes his time. It's dark and he doesn't want to spring a trap a person might have set. There was already possible evidence of a survivor due to the rope.

He manages to get to the correct floor after some time and hasn't found any evidence of a survivor. He checked each floor through the small window in the door but only saw walkers or dead bodies in the halls and some doors left open.

He looks down the hall and this is the cleanest floor. There is only some blood and a few doors off their hinges.

Lucas grips his knife tighter.

This is what he was looking for. A sign that somebody in this building was alive. And it was the floor that his parents and brother were supposed to be on.

Lucas ignores the fact his parents and brother could have gone to the Atlantas refugee camp and died. He ignores it like he has for the past few days.

He slowly opens the door and steps out into the hall. He looks around but doesn't notice anything vastly different. Sure there was blood and some damage to the hall, but it looks like it always had. At least for as long as they lived here since his little brother was born.

The hall is silent and his shoes can be heard pressing against the partially bloodied carpet. He looks into the rooms that don't have doors and see that the places are a total mess. Like the place was searched. Like cushions off the wall, photo frames broken, furniture upside down, books and papers flung everywhere, the whole shabang.

Lucas hastily makes his way to the end of the hall. He doesn't just charge ahead, but he isn't taking his time.

The door is locked and Lucas can feel some hope well up inside of himself for the first time in years.

He knocks three times lightly on the door and looks around to make sure he doesn't get surprised by any walkers.

"Ron, Jasmine, Sebastian. It's me Lucas, I'm here to get you guys, open up" Lucas whispers. He calls out to his dad, mom, and brother in that order.

He can hear some shuffling inside like furniture being moved. But then he hears more than 3 people inside. It's at least 5 footsteps.

Lucas isn't able to dodge or react when the door swings open and a man comes charging out.

The man is a few inches shorter than Lucas. He's also got a curtain style haircut with his bangs being long while the side and back of his brown hair is shorter.

Lucas attempts to move out of the way of the man's charge but is tackled.

The man drives his shoulder into Lucas' stomach and drives him back away from the door. After knocking Lucas back the guy jumps backwards and pulls a revolver from a holster on his hip and aims at Lucas. "Drop the knife!" He demands as he flicks the safety off.

Lucas looks at the man. He's in a police uniform but it's not for Atlanta, it's some random city he hasn't heard of.

"I said drop it!" The man shouts.

Lucas looks up and down the hall, no walkers are coming. He looks back to the man and sees a name printed on his uniform.

Leon K.

"What happened to the people that used to live here?" Lucas asks as he drops his knife to the floor.

Leon doesn't move and keeps his gun aimed at Lucas. "Don't know, but the place was a mess when we got here. Minimal blood that we were able to clean. Your family lived here?"

Lucas nods. "Yeah, parents and little brother. What are you and the other people in there doing in their apartment?"

"They aren't here. And I don't want to shoot another person. So just leave. Your family isn't here and I'm sorry about that. But we're just trying to live" Leon explains.

"And I'd rather not get shot" Lucas side kicks the gun out of Leon's hand and goes to punch him in the chin.

The gun goes flying down the hall. Leon sees the punch quickly approaching his face and uses his palm to change its direction to slightly miss him.

Leon strikes Lucas in the kidney with his fist and hits his jaw with his elbow.

Lucas backs up and rubs his jaw. "So you've got training, guess I've gotta get serious"

Leon brings his fists up in front of him. "You aren't the only one"

Lucas jabs at Leon but the strike is blocked with a forearm.

As Leon blocks the strike he tries to sweep Lucas' leg that was put forward to increase the force of the jab.

Lucas' leg isn't moved more than a few inches by the sweep. His running made his legs stupid strong to the point he'd be surprised if a sweep can knock him off balance if he's expecting it.

Leon plants his foot next to Lucas' and moves in for a grapple.

Lucas is surprised that Leon is trying to grapple him.

Leon wraps his leg between Lucas and moves his body close to Lucas. He then brings his hand to Lucas' collar and forces him back.

As Lucas is pushed off balance he grabs Leon and twists his body with his one foot still on the ground.

Both men land on their side.

Lucas and Leon both roll away from each other.

Leon grabs the knife Lucas previously dropped and Lucas grabs a new one from his hip.

Leon gets in a lowered stance with the knife in a reverse grip, mimicking Lucas. "Just walk away man! This doesn't have to end like this"

Lucas looks at his stance and he can tell this guy has similar training to himself. "Are you their leader?"

Leon grips the knife. "For the moment, but I'm more of a protector"

Lucas struggles to let this fight drop. But he doesn't want to kill a human again, it would tear down all the progress he has made in suppressing his PTSD. "Alright, I'll lea-"

Lucas sees movement from the corner of his eye and leans back as kitchen knife cuts his white shirt and chest a little.

"Stop Chase!" Leon shouts and moves his empty hand forward dramatically.

Lucas catches himself and puts a hand over his chest as blood starts leaking from the cut.

The attacker is a guy also in a police uniform, but his stance and way he is holding the knife is that of an amateur.

The guy, Chase, has short and spikey black hair that is a few inches long. He takes a second before lunging forward with the life aimed at Lucas' chest.

Lucas easily is able to side steps the attack and grab Chase's wrist and force him down to the floor by pulling him to the side.

Chase is knocked off balance and can't keep his feet beneath him and gets his arm forced behind his back as he is slammed into the ground and the knife in his hand falls next to him.

Lucas forces Chase's arm behind his back and puts his knee on Chase's back as he holds the knife to the guy's throat. "Stop struggling or I'll show you the proper use of a knife you dimwit"

"Lucas! Wait!" Leon states as he cautiously walks forward. "We got off on the wrong foot. And Chase is just a rookie officer, he also gets jumpy in stressful situations. Let's not do anything we will regret later"

Lucas glances at Leon. "I'm not gonna kill him unless he does that again. I already disarmed him, this is just a precaution"

Leon nods and holds his hands in the air and holds the knife to his palm with his thumb. "Yeah. So your parents lived here? We're just holed up in here because of the damned reanimated. We've got some people that have survived but we've lost a lot of people to get here"

Lucas doesn't respond but looks down at Chase who is in pain and trying to muffle his groans. "I'm getting off of you, and I expect you to behave"

Chase nods. "Ghh! Y-yeah! I-I… understand…"

Lucas lets his arm go and takes his knee off the guy. He also grabs the kitchen knife as he stands up. "This was mom's favorite when she bothered to cook"

Leon stands up and lowers his hands. "Let's restart this whole thing. My name is Leon K, and I'm trying to protect the people in the apartment. The man who just attacked you is Chase O'Neil. You said your name was Lucas?"

Lucas sheathes his knife and holds the kitchen knife at his side. "Yeah, Lucas Meyers. Why did you attack me? You seem to actually be reasonable, so why attack me without talking first?"

Leon tosses the knife into the air and catches the blade between his fingers and holds it out towards Lucas. "Because the reanimated aren't the only dangers in this world right now. We've had people attack us in the past, some sort of gangsters or something. They killed two good people and I didn't want a repeat. You didn't exactly give any comfort with your knife out"

Lucas takes his knife back and also sheathes it. "Didn't really expect a group of survivors to be holding up inside the apartment. And I understand the caution. People can be worse than the walkers"

"Walkers?" Leon smiles and puts his hands on his hips. "Is that what you call them?"

"Better than reanimated" Lucas jokes back. "So what? You clearly aren't just an officer. Where's you get your training?"

"Special forces. And I'll ask you the same. No civilian can do what you did" Leon asks.

"No shit" Lucas smirks and reaches into his pocket and pulls out his dog tags. "Military Special Forces. Small world I guess"

"Apparently so" Leon looks past Lucas. "Chase, stop moaning and groaning and get up"

Chad holds his arm and stands up. "Sorry about….. the cut"

Lucas looks down at his now white and red shirt with a cut on it. "It was a white shirt, it was bound to get ruined sooner or later. And the wound is already clotting. Just don't stab me again and I'll let it slide"

Chase weakly smiles. "I'll try to avoid that" He says as he moves next to Leon.

Leon looks at the apartments open door. "So Lucas. What do you plan on doing next? There wasn't a note or anything in the apartment. Or any of the apartments we've cleared on this floor. It also looked like your family left in a panic. Everything was left in a relatively normal manner until we came. Some people liked making messes in the other rooms and did the same to your apartment. I'm not sure you'll find your family easily"

Lucas sighs. "This was it. They probably went to the refugee center…." He solemnly says.

"Shit" Leon rubs the back of his head. "We were able to survive that event, but we were all hiding away. I'm sorry about your family"

Lucas shakes his head. "It's fine. I kinda expected this…. I just hoped, y'know"

Leon nods. "If you got nothing to do, why don't you join us. We can use somebody like you. It looks like you can handle yourself and then-some"

Lucas looks down the hall. "I've actually got some friends outside the city. There's a group of survivors at the quarry. I can guide you guys out of the city, it might be difficult depending on how many of you there are though"

Leon smiles. "Is the quarry safe? Because that sounds much better than this place if it is"

"It's safe, for now at least. Not sure how long it will be though. How many people do you have?" Lucas explains and asks.

Leon walks to the door and pokes his head inside. "Guys, we might be getting out of here. Come and meet somebody"

Lucas watches as 13 people walk out of the apartment. He looks at Leon. "You had 15 people living in there? It was barely spacious enough for 4 people"

Leon shrugs. "Desperate times call for desperate measures. And we used the space wisely. Wasn't like we had many other options either"

The 13 people line up along the wall across from Lucas. Leon walks next to Lucas. "Everyone, this here is Lucas Meyers. You can probably recognize him from some pictures in the apartment. If you picture him without the muscle and about 5 inches shorter. And you squint a bit. Basically his parents used to live here before the world went crazy. He also said there was a group of survivors outside the city in the quarry. Let's introduce ourselves and then get ready to leave"

Lucas gives a small wave to the 13 people. It would be difficult moving in such a big group. But if they rush they can make it back and only have to kill 30-40 walkers in the streets and alleys.

The people introduce themselves down the line.

There is Isabell Salas. She is 23, 5'8" tall, and was a Librarian. Her brother, Jed Salas, is 18, also 5'8" tall, and was a waiter.

Alex Howells has light skin. He is 19, 6 feet tall, and was a door to door salesman.

Raul Gardnener is Hispanic. He's 26, 6'2" tall, and was bouncing between crappy jobs. He is dating Myles Flem. Myles is black, 24 years old, 5'9" tall, and is a tattooist.

Sasha Jehsen is Caucasian like her childhood friend and roommate Morton McGrath. Sasha is 26, 5'5" tall, and a fashion designer. Morton is 28, 5'6" tall, and is a carpenter.

Kyle and Chelsie are your married couple of the group. They're both white and don't have any children. Kyle Baker is 33, 5'7" tall, and was a stay at home husband. Chelsie Baker is 34, 5'6" tall, and was a lawyer. A very good lawyer.

Alister Beil is dating Karla Parks. Alister is Asian, 27 years old, 6 feet tall, and was a teacher. Karla is Hispanic, 30 years old, 5 feet tall, and is a chef. Karla has apparently been cooking meals for the group. They weren't luxurious, but the meals were rationed properly and apparently tasted good for what it was.

Lastly was the father and son pair. Tobias is 42 years old, 6'1" tall, and is a butcher. His son is Osman Stott who is only 5 years old, 3'7" tall, and the only kid.

Lucas had to ask them to slow down a bit since he was having a hard time remembering so many names at once. But he eventually remembers their names.

"Ok. You guys should grab your things quickly. We need to move fast and quietly through the city. I have a truck just outside the city so everyone can sit in the bed of the truck and I'll drive slowly back to the quarry. If we stick together and don't make much sound we should be fine. I'll explain more once we're ready to move out" Lucas dictates.

Leon steps forward and motions towards the apartment. "Let's go. We don't have all day" He then says a few words to get the more cautious or stubborn people moving. It's mostly him saying this was their chance out of the city and they wouldn't get a better chance.

Lucas follows them inside and checks the apartment out. There wasn't much that he remembered about the apartment. "It's been what? 7 years? Damn it"

Lucas tightly grips a family photo that was in a broken frame.

"Uhm, Sir….. Lucas?" A feminine voice says behind him.

Lucas turns around and sees Isabel standing with a backpack in her hands. She looks like she is scared of him. He holds the photo in his right hand and turns around towards the woman. "Isabel, right? You don't need to call me sir"

Isabel gives a small smile that goes away just as fast as it showed up. "You got it right" She quietly says. She moves her feet slightly. "Sorry we moved the things on the apartment" She quietly apologizes.

"That's alright. And are you usually this quiet? I'm not going to hurt you" Lucas says and then he remembers his shirt. Probably not the best for first impressions.

"I-I'm just used to talking quietly from my job. I used to be a librarian…." Isabell quietly says.

"Ah, ok" Lucas takes the photo from the frame and puts it in his pocket. "I'll be waiting outside, could you tell the others to come out when they're finished?"

Isabell nods and looks at the ground for a few second before turning and walking away.

Lucas just assumes she is a shy girl. He didn't notice any signs these people were bad, evil, or had malicious intentions.

He really liked being able to read people from their mannerisms. Sandra was good at it, probably what made her a good unit leader, but Julius was the best at it. He could tell if a person was lying by just watching them talk. He didn't even have to be in the room sometimes. Julius was able to read people extremely well, and it saved a few peoples lives in the unit more than once. But he could only do so much, can't really read a sniper bullet.

Lucas tries to distract himself from himself as his mind wanders about. His family is either dead or he will never see them again. And he is remembering his dead friends from his unit.

Lucas goes through his plan to get these people out of the city. They can't go roof to roof. But since they have some people capable of combat they could clear the alleyways. They just have to be quick and not get stuck in the dark.

He also gets a new shirt from an abandoned apartment. It's black, and is barely able to fit him. It's even tighter than his white shirt, but it doesn't hinder his movement so it's all good.

"Now if only I can find a jacket" Lucas mutters to himself as he goes back to the hallway and sees Leon picking his pistol up.