Without thinking, I leap over the following three sections as they collapse under my weightless body. The jaunt, bloodsoaked faces of the Feral's below me meet my eyes, a cruel reminder of what will happen if I miss the window. 

I can feel the windowpane under my fingertips. 

My feet bounce off the outer wall of the main building. 

The window rises, and Dani's face is getting further away. 

My heart stops in my throat, along with my scream, moments too late; 

I missed. 

The echoes of the Feral screams and roars of hunger are the only thing that's drowning out the thunder of blood in my ears, drowning out every thought in my head and replacing it with blind panic. 

Panic turns to pain as my face connects with the side of the building, and my arm is nearly ripped from its socket, my knees and boots bouncing against the metal wall of the structure I missed. The Feral's growl and screech, gathering under me as I dangle, the first thing I see, and they're already trying to pile onto one another to get to me. 

Above me, Dani hangs from the open window, red-face scrunched in pain and concentration, her hand latched around my wrist in a white-knuckled grip; the only thing keeping her from falling with me is a precariously placed support pole that she's looped her other arm through. 

She strains, trying to pull me up, but she has no leverage. 

She actually saved me? 

"Climb up!" She grunts, doing her best to pull herself back through the window, but with my added weight, that makes the endeavor all the more difficult. 

Not planning to hang around and wonder why she would risk herself to save someone she mistrusts so much, I grab her arm with my other hand, walk myself up to the window where I catch the windowsill, allowing her to use her now-freed hand to haul herself up enough to grab the back of my jacket and pull. I spill into the window, collapsing onto Dani, the both of us gasping and wheezing for breath while the Feral's outside yelp and holler at us. 

"You... caught me..." I pant, my entire body shaking with adrenalin as I sit up. "Why?" 

She pries her hands from where they were balled in my jacket and flexes her fingers, sitting up and scooting away enough to lean back against the railing of the balcony we landed on. "Why not?" she breathes back, watching me out of the corner of her eye. 

I mean, that's fair enough, I guess, but her answer is infuriatingly vague. "You could have just let me drop," I return, leaning up against the wall for a short breather. "You clearly don't trust me."

Dani nods with a shrug. "Just because I don't trust you doesn't mean I want to watch you die." 

Good to know she's enough of a decent person not to let me fall to my death, but she still watches me with a wary eye as though I'm going to jump up and run off at any given moment. However tempting it may be, I share the same sentiment as her; I might not trust her and the others, especially not Matt or Leon, but I don't want them dead. 

Not unless they give me a reason, anyway. 

"Well, regardless," I grunt, standing and adjusting my shoulder, "it was a nice catch, so, uh, thanks." 

She stands as well, giving a grunt in acknowledgment, and rolls her shoulders. I already knew that Dani was physically... capable, given our initial meeting in the woods several days prior, as well as how she handled herself during the raid, but catching me with one arm? Without slipping and falling herself? 

To say it's mildly impressive is one Hell of an understatement. 

"Alright," Dani says, glancing around the main room we ended up in, "where do we go from here?" 

"This way," I tell her, heading for the stairs while casting a glance back out of the window. "There's a lot more of them here now than there were when I was here last..." 

She readies her shotgun, keeping her eyes trained ahead of us. "Think it'll be a problem for Cottonwood?" 

"Not if we can get these supplies back there quick enough," I inform her. 

I lead the way down a flight of stairs and pull Dani into cover with me behind a crate as a group of Feral's sprint past us, heading for the back of the building where they can hear the larger group banging on the walls. I motion for her to follow me along the edge of the room and around the large machinery until we find the corridor leading down into the boiler room where the generators are. 

I dig out my flashlight and clip it to my jacket as Dani shoves the rusted metal door open. It takes several tries, but eventually, it pries open to a set of stairs leading deeper into the darkness. At the bottom of the landing lies the old gear my family and I had before we were forced to leave; our old sleeping bags, scattered food wrappers, and the map my sister lost. 

Chuckling, I pick it up and pocket it. 

"What's that?" Dani asks. 

"The map we lost," I tell her with a grin, even though she likely can't see me very well in the darkness. "We had to leave a lot of stuff behind when the hoard blew through." 

"You mentioned that before," Dani notes, looking at the pile of discarded supplies and picking through what might be useful. "You said you were here a week before you came to Cottonwood?" 

"Yeah, why?" 

In the periphery of the flashlight's beam, I can see her eyeing me, and I roll my eyes. 

"God, you must never skip leg-day with how often you jump to conclusions," I groan before she can accuse me of anything. "We stuck around because it's hard to travel on foot when you're dealing with a gaping hole in your leg." 

Her accusatory glare turns into surprise, and her eyes dart to my legs before searching my expression for bullshit. "Why didn't you mention that before?" She asks after a beat. 

I shrug. "Wasn't really important. It's scabbed over, and I can walk on it just fine now; just hurts if I put too much pressure on it." 

She glares at me again, though there's more worry and exasperation in her expression this time than blame. I'll take what I can get at this point. 

"Anyway," I trail, turning to face the entrance to the room itself where the massive generators sit on the far wall. "We'll need to turn both of them on to get the attention of all of the Ferals. One of those generators turns on the machines, and the other one deals with the electricity of the building itself." 

"You seem to know a lot about this place," Dani notes, following me inside. 

"My uncle used to do factory maintenance in older places like this and sometimes brought me to work with him," I say and chuckle. "Ha, one time, he-"

CRA-BANG! 

The door to the room flies open, and the sound of the Banshee's limbs smacking against the metal stairs is the only warning we get before its large leathery eyeless face slides around the corner and pokes into the room. 

Dani readies her shotgun, face drained of all color, but I jab my hand out in front of her, hoping she doesn't shoot. Panic flashed across her face as the creature steps further in, moving its head this way and that as fresh blood pools from its razor-toothed lined maw. Thin strands of oily hair hang from its blackened scalp, and two slits where its nose should be pulse as it draws a raspy breath, trying to smell us out. Where its eyes should be have been grown over with the thick hide-like flesh that covers its body, and its talon-like fingers drag across the concrete as it crawls further in. 

I step back, forcing Dani to do the same as it crawls up the pipes inlaid into the walls and hauls itself up to the ceiling until it's hanging like a cannibalistic sloth. I motion to Dani to head for the generator further away from the creature as it burrows its way into the pipes. She gulps, creeping along the far wall towards the generator, keeping an eye on the Banshee. 

Taking a silent breath, I tip-toe towards the generator just below the Banshee, careful not to let my arrows rattle or my bow bump against any of my surroundings. Hand over the button, I glance up to see if Dani has made it yet, but the echo-y sound of the barrel of her shotgun bumping against a pipe causes everything to still. 

The Banshee pauses its nesting, its ugly head rising from the pipes, and pointed directly at Dani. 

Dani sucks a breath as the Banshee creeps from the ceiling and crawls onto the generator I'm next to, headed for her. 

I slam the start button on my generator, and it roars to life. The Banshee's head whips around to face me and swings an arm down, raking its claws against the back of my bomber as I dive out of the way, rolling towards Dani, who only watches, wide-eyed and paralyzed. 

The Banshee leaps down from the generator and swings wildly again for where I was, roaring in anger when all it hits is empty air, and that seems to spur Dani into action. She slams her fist onto the start button on her generator, but nothing happens. The ugly face of the monster before us whips back around to face us as Dani rapid-fires the start button, and after a dozen times, it kicks on at the exact moment the creature lunges for us. 

Grabbing Dani, I yank us out of its way as it smashes its head into the pipes behind us. Dani pulls me back to my feet, and we fly towards the stairs, the thunderous hum of the generators masking our heavy footfalls on the stairs. 

We throw the rusty door shut behind us, muffling the frustrated screams of the Banshee, but we still don't have time to catch our breath. A Feral barrels its way down the corridor straight for us, streaked in blood and missing a section of its face. It tackles me after I shove Dani out of the way, its teeth gnashing at my throat as it tries to claw its way into my flesh.