search and locate

Without having a working watch or a clock it’s hard to judge accurately, but you would estimate that you have been walking through the silent and still city for perhaps twenty-five or thirty minutes before Alice gestures you and Janet to a come to a stop.

The tall, slim red haired woman has brought the three of you to a halt, standing in the middle of what had once been a fork in the road; there was a coffee shop in the middle and it was flanked on each side by bland, stereotypical office buildings. The once busy streets around you are now empty, home to nothing than a few burnt out cars, windblown trash and the occasional set of skeletal remains.

“This is where the four of us split up” Alice tells you, her red hair fluttering in the soft breeze as she continues “When we were ambushed by those gang member bastards Joan and Peter ran that way” she points off to your left. “Janet and I were cut off from them and we had to run...” her voice trails off and her face looks pale.

You nod slowly as your eyes study the area “Where did the men that attacked you come from?”

It’s Janet that answers you this time; tossing her thick golden curls over one shoulder, she points at a narrow side street a few yards away. “There, they came from inside that alleyway”

“Three of the men that attacked you went after you and Alice, how many of them went after your friends instead?” you ask Janet.

The two women look at each other silently for a long minute before turning back towards you, “I don’t know” Janet admits finally “Maybe four or five” she shakes her head, biting her lower lip cutely and you once again feel that peculiar flicker of heat deep inside you, stronger than ever “I can’t be sure”

You want to lean forward and kiss her almost as much as you want to curse in angry frustration at the answer but instead you simply sigh inwardly and nod a second time. You touch your hand to the hunting knife at your waist, the cool metal of the handle giving you a renewed surge in your confidence.

After a few moments the three of you slowly continue walking, eyes still searching the area as you head down the silent street, both Alice and Janet following a few steps behind you.

You haven’t gone far, perhaps another three quarters of a mile before you hear something that causes you to come to a halt; your head tilted and ears straining. After a moment the sound comes again, the way Alice and Janet both stiffen tells you that this time they heard it as well. It was a high pitched feminine gasping and something else...something...was that moaning? This time the woman’s voice rose into a shrill wail and was overlain by a man’s deep laughter.

You cast about for a moment searching for the source of the sound; after a moment another burst of laughter draws your attention to a three story parking garage on the far side of the street from you and your companions; the laughter is coming from the uppermost floor.

You gesture for your companions to be silent, than indicate they are to follow before scurrying across the street and ducking inside the building, the cool shadows enveloping you as you drop into a crouch behind a minivan, Alice and Janet joining you a moment later.

The three of you quickly make your way through the building this way, scurrying
from car to car, always with an ear cocked for footsteps or shouts of alarm; halfway up the stairs another shrill wail echoes throughout the building followed by a man’s voice, though you cannot make out the words.

“Do you recognize either of those voices?” you murmur into Alice’s ear, just loud enough to hear

“Sorry, I can’t be sure” She shakes her head slightly, red tendrils of hair brushing against your face and drawing a faint gasp from your lips. She looks at you questioningly, eyes gleaming in the dim light; you turn away from her and resume your climb.

Soon enough you reach the top, coming to a halt before closed metal door marked with a large stenciled number three in glossy yellow paint. You drop into a crouch beside the door before gingerly easing it and placing one eye to the narrow crack, searching for the source of the sounds you had heard down in the street.

And you see it immediately, it had been a woman’s voice you heard, and she was not alone...