SOLIDARITY

The boy grabbed the visor of his cap and tilted it forward, hoping that it would obscure his face as much as possible. He kept his eyes on the open double doors across the room. The hallway was empty, with the exception of the occasional person passing by. And he knew that sooner or later, the one he wanted to see would show up.

Nobody seemed to mind his presence at all. With his face half-hidden by shadows, wearing dark clothes and standing suspiciously against a pillar, he expected to attract one or two pairs of curious eyes. In solitude or in small groups, some of them wandering around and some others sitting in their own corners; the hospital was bustling. There was a lot of activity, of the kind the place hadn't seen since ages ago. And yet, not a single soul gave a damn about him.

To be honest, they were most likely thankful to be where they were. Too thankful to question anything. Most of those people had spent months living under horrible conditions or performing heinous atrocities just to survive. And, out of nowhere, that place opened its gates to anyone in need.

Food. Water. Shelter. Safety. The humanitarian help everyone needed. Even if it was more than six months late, it became a new, renewed beacon of hope for those who were already scraping the bottom of the barrel. And he was no exception.

He pondered about what he was about to do. Just days ago, it would've been unconceivable for him to care about anything that didn't imply a spoonful of beans or a sip a water. It was almost funny, how the tables had turned.

'What am I even doing…?'

…

A man walked in front of the door.

'…!!'

It was the one he was waiting for. At last. Keeping his calm as best as he could, he walked towards the door.

He peeked towards the right side. The man got farther and farther away, until he eventually disappeared behind a corner. Everyone has to urinate sooner or later. He looked towards the left side, focusing his attention on a particular door in the hallway. Nobody was guarding it now.

He walked as fast as his legs allowed him, but making the conscious effort of softening his footsteps as much as possible. Getting caught would be problematic, if not outright dangerous.

As soon as the doorknob was within reach, he turned it, swung the door open and slipped inside. He made sure to close the it behind his back. He didn't want any potential passerby to stick their nose into that room.

After rummaging in the pockets of his coat in complete darkness, he pulled out a flashlight and turned it on. His heartbeats got louder and faster, and his nerves skyrocketed as his eyes crept over the many boxes and shelves packed with supplies.

'Come on, Ethan…! You have to be quick…!'

It didn't take him long to identify a box half-empty of canned food. A couple of missing cans would be too obvious in a brand-new box, but they might go unnoticed in that one, which made it the optimal target.

His pockets weren't too big, but they were deep enough to conceal the smaller cans.

'Alright…! Let's get out of here…!'

As he turned around back towards the entrance, several footsteps approached the door from the other side, along with a faint, unintelligible murmur.

'Ah, crap…! Did he come back already…!?'

…

"—the hell is Carson? Wasn't he supposed to be watching the place? Did he go take a piss, or something…?" a male voice echoed within the room as soon as the door opened, followed by a couple of figures stepping inside. "Ah, whatever. I'll report this to him later."

"I'm really sorry about this…"

"Jeez… You folks really need to be punctual when we share the rations for the day! It's already hard enough to keep track of everything and everyone! Man, so many things have been happening all at once…" the man kept speaking as he opened boxes and retrieved some items from within. "Here you go."

"Thank you…!"

"Don't sweat it. Come on now, we all have things to do."

"Yes, of course…! Again, thank you!"

"Alright, I'll go see if I can find Carson now. What's taking him so long…? Did he go to—?" the dialogue was cut off and became undecipherable noise as the door shut again.

Ethan stopped holding his breath and gasped for air. He slowly got up from behind the boxes at the back of the room, before turning his flashlight back on. Everyone seemed to have left. He took a deep breath.

'Damn, that was way too close…! I need to leave, now! But what is this thing I've…?'

He aimed the flashlight down. When he hid behind the pile of crates, he had stumbled upon something metallic and small, something he couldn't quite identify by touch alone.

By his feet was a small briefcase. He thought it was strange. It was almost as if whoever put that briefcase there had intentionally meant to keep it hidden out of view. He opened it. There were several slots for syringes. Three of them were missing.

'Holy crap…! Are these… drugs!? W-Wait, I'm really going to get in trouble if someone catches me messing around with these…! That's it, I'm out…!'

…

Ethan reached the very top of the stairwell, and he approached the door. There was a small sign on it, which said "STAFF ONLY"; words that had lost their meaning long ago. Inside, the darkness was almost absolute. He turned the flashlight on. The light flickered for a couple of seconds, but it eventually stabilized.

'I wonder how long will these batteries last… I guess I'll have to ask them to recharge them again. What a pain.'

In front of him, the entire top floor of the hospital would extend as far as he could see, if rows of machinery weren't obscuring his view. Box shaped hunks of metal, riddled with pipes, grates, button panels and other electrical devices. He wasn't too sure of what those machines were, but they resembled big air conditioners.

He didn't have to walk too far into that place. He followed a nearby passageway between the machines, crouched under some pipes, turned a corner and walked several steps further until he reached a well-hidden, small area enclosed from nearly every direction.

He put the flashlight on the floor and sat down. Despite how dark it was, he liked it up there. It was calm, silent. There was nobody around to bother him, he had the whole floor for himself.

Well, almost.

"…are you there…?" he asked, not raising his voice too much. "Hello…?"

A low rustling noise came from the shadows. To his right, under a cluster of pipes, something moved slowly in the dark. Ethan retrieved the stolen cans of food from his pockets and placed them down on the ground, close to where the noise came from. Then, he grabbed the flashlight and aimed it at the pocket of shadows.

A pair of eyes stared at him, painted with fear and insecurity. The girl had barely moved since the last time he had seen her that morning. He grabbed a can opener, cracked the cans of food open, and pushed them closer to her.

"…come on, you need to eat." he said.

It took her a very long time to react, but she eventually reached for the cans, after which she snapped, starting to devour their contents with vicious vigor.

'Good grief… She's still that hungry, huh…?'

The scene reminded him of the moment he met her for the first time, three days ago. He thought about it, while he opened his own can of food.

######

At a first glimpse, he almost mistook her for a shambler. Something in his subconscious must have been able to see past that first impression, preventing him from screaming in shock.

After a closer inspection, her human features, although emaciated, became more obvious. She must have been around eight or nine years old. Her bright brown hair was dirty and messy, curling in knots that didn't look intentional. She wore a tattered, yet still pretty blue dress; a sad attempt at beautifying her weak body. The little girl was skin and bones, and her lips looked dry, as if she had been famished and thirsty for days.

What struck Ethan the most was her eyes. Wide open, watching his every move, sundered in what could only be described as overwhelming horror.

"W-W-What…!? W-Who are you…!?" he scurried back against the wall. He wasn't expecting to run into anyone in such a remote corner of the hospital, let alone a little girl.

The girl didn't say anything, she simply continued to watch him. Ethan was unsure of what to do. He had already started to eat, not even noticing he was being watched. The girl's eyes dragged themselves down from his face, and stopped on the can he was holding.

"You… you want food…!? T-This is mine…!"

Her stomach proceeded to emit the most cavernous growl he had ever heard in his entire life.

"I-I said no…! I'm hungry too…!"

She continued staring at the food.

…

"…w-why don't you go get food d-downstairs…? They'll give it to you…" he asked.

"..." she stopped looking at the can and looked back at him instead. She wasn't even blinking, despite the flashlight hitting her directly in the face. "…don't wanna." Ethan was shocked upon hearing her voice. He wasn't really expecting a response. It was a raspy voice, one that hadn't been used in a while, but all that roughness masked a sweet and gentle tone.

"…why are you alone…? Do you have parents…?"

"…don't have… mommy went somewhere…"

"…"

She refused to blink, her body refused to move, and her stomach refused to stop making noises, awakened from its slumber by the presence of delicious, precious food.

"…ugh…! Jeez…! O-Okay…! Stop looking at me like that…!" Ethan placed his can on the floor within her arm's reach, offering it to her.

Like some kind of feral animal, she grabbed it and started consuming it very quickly.

'W-What happened to this girl…!?'

"What's your name…?"

"..." she didn't respond at first, focusing instead on the contents of her can. After several seconds of chewing, she muttered a single word under her breath. "…Eleanor…"

######

"Listen, I'll try and get you something else to eat, okay?" Ethan finished his portion and stood up, ready to go back down again. "You can keep hiding there, I'll be back."

"…will mommy also be back?"

"U-Uh… I d-don't know…"

"…I miss mommy."

******

Logan sat in front of the desk, completely occupied with a pile of old radio equipment, which he turned on. He grabbed a nearby headset, which was a bit small for his head, but he managed to make it fit nonetheless.

The knob turned with ease, pacing through the frequencies. For the most part, it was all radio silence. He had managed to get in contact with some people over the previous days, but it wasn't exactly a common occurrence. Enough to draw small groups of survivors to the hospital, but not enough to gather a crowd like Julien wanted.

At last, he settled on a particular frequency, and got ready to broadcast his message.

"This is Saint Marie Hospital. We have food, water, shelter and weapons. We have a stable community, and we are safe from the undead hordes. Help us, and we'll help you. We can get through this together. I repeat…"

As he recited the message over and over, Logan was overrun by unease. Something was urging him to leave that place as soon as possible, and never look back. They were all fucked anyway.

Staying anywhere near that girl would only speed up the inevitable. Jacobs had probably realized, and that's why he had left. Now, Logan was starting to see it too, clear as water. That huge creature was after her, and it'd kill everything in its path. The Army didn't give a crap about their lives, and they'd kill them all as soon as they secured her. If it was bad, it was coming after Lilian, and everyone else was in the way.

And their mysterious benefactors? If he had to take a guess, they were nothing but puppeteers, taking advantage of their situation for whatever purpose they wanted to achieve.

Julien was blinded by his own dogmatism, and clung to delirious fallacies. At that point, it felt like any tangible hope, no matter how fishy, would be enough to shift that man's beliefs.

'I think I do need to start looking after my own interests after all… No matter how you look at it, none of this is worth the risk… This whole mountain of crap will come crashing down on us sooner or later.'

******

The sound of the rain roared relentlessly across the city. After days without a drop of water, the sudden downpour was a welcome occurrence. Besides, the never-ending noise and the bad visibility provided the perfect conditions to move around unnoticed.

Two humanoid figures followed the sidewalk, hugging the buildings under cover of the rain. Both of them wore black, hooded raincoats. One of them was noticeably taller than the other one.

Upon reaching an intersection, the back of Saint Marie Hospital came into view. The taller of the two raised their right hand. About fifty meters behind them, the military truck recognized the signal, stopping the engine.

"Alright… Remember everything we talked about?" asked William. "This is probably going to be dangerous. Don't do anything reckless, and stick to the plan."

"I know. I'm ready." replied Claire.

"Good… I don't see anyone keeping watch here. Let's go."