Beyond the Walls

Clues Left

"What do you think?" Gabrielle while looking at a bloody room.

"It's too early to tell. This is a storage area connected to the main building. Have you checked it?" Alexa answered.

Gabrielle shakes her head. This is the second time she has been here. First is when she discovered this place and this part was wielded to not move. Last time she had been in the vicinity she had to go back almost immediately to present the newly turned undead former human named Victoria Dreadmon.

They went up from the sole stairs beside the storage area.

The smell surely smells like dead and blood but it doesn't stink much when an undead is near. Though her nose is reliable it's not invincible. As long as the organs are not rotting she can't smell them, like newly turned undeads.

Gabrielle and Alexa jumped to the nearest hiding place they could find and a gun in their hands. Making eye contact, Alexa gives an open palm signal to stop and takes out a mirror from her side bag. She place it down and reflected the pathway

The pathway was like a bridge connecting the parking lot to the main building. Alexa's mirror reflected moving bodies. She signalled three undeads were spotted and pointed at her nose. Gabrielle only shook her head.

Getting ready, Gabrielle, rounded her silencer and so did Alexa. As they both went out of hiding they pointed their gun to the undead who caught their presence. They didn’t pull the trigger just yet.

The undead came to them really slow and observing them closely there is no doubt that this undead is decaying. One undead doesn’t even have a jaw anymore.

“Gabrielle.” Alexa called and looked over at her. She sees her grimacing.

“...it stinks.” Gabrielle commented.

“You only smelled it right now? At this distance?”

“Yes.”

“You sounded like a normal person.”

Gabrielle turned to look at her with a sour questioning face like she is mentally relaying her thoughts. “What the hell is that to mean?”

“Uwargh!”

The undead reached them, Gabrielle spinned to its back and tied its mouth with a cloth before pushing to the side. She confidently walks at the jawless undead and stares at it for a while.

She grabbed it by the hair and dragged it along with the gagged undead. Alexa already finished tying the other undead when Gabrielle walked over to her and tied her undead too connected to Alexa's undead. In sync, they wrapped around the same rope around their necks and pulled it from the back by Gabrielle. That way the undeads cannot bend down or take any other biting position.

The undead lined in almost like a straight line groaning and growling little.

“Let’s go.” The ends of the rope were tied to broken pillars and pipes.

“I am so proud of you.” Alexa said as she stared at the work of art.

“I don’t know what you are saying.” Gabrielle walks out and proceeds to flash lighted the dark end of the bridge.

“I am just saying that you are no longer the same clumsy child in the military academy.”

“Ofcourse, I get older.”

“Haaa. You are really not a cute junior.” Alexa shrugged her shoulders.

Reaching the end there was a door. It was locked.

Gabrielle took a step back and gunned the lock. Alexa kicked it down and the flash lit the room immediately.

No movements.

Gabrielle, smelled a strong iron smell.

“It’s only a stair and…. An idiot.” Alexa commented on seeing Addington on the opposite door with a gun pointed at her.

They are all reunited on the second floor of the main building.

Xian who finished his explanation regarding what they’ve found by the elevators and roof top proceed to the topic he wanted to discuss ever since Alexa and Gabrielle met up with them.

“What are you doing? Walking a pet?” Xian stepped a few steps away from the lined undead.

“This is the first time seeing one?” Addington asked.

“Well not really, I remember seeing the much stronger version. They leap through the air and can rip you whole with bare hands, but hey, what do I know, the world changed after 20 years. Those can’t exist now, as long as we all keep ourselves vaccinated.”

“What about Victoria Dreamond?” Apollo asked. Most of the time he is alone and keeps to himself and this is the first time he initiates a conversation all throughout their journey.

“I haven’t seen the body myself, out here she might have encountered a different level of undead monster---”

“She did have several bites on her body. If something else had changed her, it’s probably here in the building with her.”

“Ey. stop scaring me like I am a child. I might not remember much but I saw the apocalypse. I was already an adult by that time.”

Nobody had spoken up after that, they just exchanged glasses except for Apollo who answered.

“You must be an idiot.”

“What?! Excuse me? Aren’t you too young to disrespect me like this? I am not an i***t, in fact, I am very smart.”

“Then why convince yourself it’s not here, when clearly during the brief, says, that person might be trapped here. If she had acquired the bite from outside, why move here?”

“There were multiple scenarios that might have happened… Like she must have found herself after the undeads had left or …” He kept blabbing different scenarios, all but not the fact that he is standing in the same building with a monster that is stronger than a vaccine.

Apollo is about to talk again, when Addington stops him and Alexa takes forward to calm Xian. “You might be right. Besides Gab told us her vaccine was due in a few days before she had disappeared, right Gab?”

Gab is frowning and wants not to agree but Alexa is wearing a very serious face so she answered. “Yes.”

The camera on the side, films it all.

[Xian Lee. 27 years old. 29 Wall Resident. Occupation:1st Grade Detective, Consultant to Police [...] ]

“With his IQ he is a great asset to the renaissance or inner military force but he is also a coward. Too much of a coward… then how did she manage to get him outside the walls?” Macord muttered.

Same question probe by Alexa, as they let the now okay Xian examine the body of the tied undead held by two men.

“Ah, that… It was simple.”

“Formalin.” Xian said as he removed his surgical gloves.

“They didn’t smell anything like that. How were you able to tell?” Gabrielle asked.

“Exactly, can anyone else smell anything on them or even anything around?”

“No.” One by one they answered, starting to get amused.

Smiling at Gabrielle he continued. “You are the only one who can smell it, the oldness and musky, at a certain distance you can smell them too… your olfactory sense is really keen, while others can’t pick up the smell. You can. I’ve seen a case like this where a murder used orderless formalin to hide a body...”

It makes sense now why she wasn’t able to smell anything dead in the whole place.

*Ping ping ping

Killing the undead they walk and exit the building.

“Now I know why he went along.” Alexa whispered. Gabrielle gave her a smirk.

“Xian Lee might be known as a genius and a coward but he can’t resist solving mysteries, by just showing how competent the team he will be going with he is able to relax.”

“I thought I was the last one you were convinced to join…”

“You were...”

Rounding her eyes on Gabrielle she questioned. “You, don’t tell me… you didn’t.”

“But I did…”

She already anticipated that they all will join her and therefore claimed before Xian, her first recruit the team, she will build.

“I am scared of you.”

“You were the one who taught me this method.”

Alexa gives a small laugh before she wraps her arm in her shoulders.

“Where are we going next?” Addington is standing on the steps of the jeep.

“That way.” Gabrielle pointed.

It was clear in Gabrielle’s memory the tracks of vehicles of that night.

“I’m going to sit with them, I have questions to ask.” Xian with sparkling eyes of curiosity said.

“Yeah, seat in the back.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“You have him by the mouth now.” Alexa whispered.