Check it out yourself

The weight of the pistol in your hands gives you confidence and you decide to check out the noise on your own.

Keeping low, you carefully step over the broken glass and overturned display cases that block the way and you level your flashlight on the closed storage room door. You listen carefully, but don’t hear anything else coming from inside. Slowly you push the door open, keeping your pistol out in front of you the whole time.

The beam of the flashlight cuts through the dark as you scan around the room. Suddenly, you hear a faint rustle behind you. You whip around and level you your gun at a tiny rat that quickly scampers away. You take a deep breath and calm yourself down. You realize that rat was the first you have seen since the outbreak. They must have been affected to.

You sigh and turn around to head back to Carol when you run straight into a hooded figure draped in some black cloth. The impact jars the gun from your hand and it drops to the floor in-between the two of you. Your flashlight falls into a pile of broken glass, illuminating the hallway with odd reflections and strange lines of light.

The figure steps on your pistol before you can even think of trying to get it. With a quick flick of its foot, the pistol is kicked up off the floor and into it’s hand. Your eyes go wide as the figure holds the gun in front of you.

A muffled voice from deep within the hood says, “Stay back. I’ll kill you if I have to.”

You put your hands up in the air, “I’m not going to kill you. My name is Alex Smith. I just came back here because I heard a noise.”

“That was me. Are you alone?”

You hesitate, and then say, “No, there are ten armed men outside waiting for me to come back.”

“Bullshit. I was just outside; there is no one else for miles. I take it that…”

The figure stops talking as a shotgun is leveled against the side of its head. “Drop the gun.” Carol says coldly.

The figure immediately drops the pistol to the floor. You quickly pick it up and back away. “Thanks” You tell Carol.

“Don’t mention it. You’re lucky I’m a light sleeper.” She then addresses the stranger. “The hood is a bad idea. It cuts down on your peripheral vision and makes it harder to hear things, like someone sneaking up with a shotgun. Take it off so that I can see who we are talking to.”

The figure doesn’t move. Carol pumps a shell into the chamber. “Do it now.”

Slowly the hood is drawn back.