From the second that Daniel opened his eyes, he gasped for air.

There was a musk that he couldn’t pinpoint. The air was heavier. Thicker. And despite the meagre light that leaked through the cracks of the mouldy planks boarding  up the windows, Daniel was no less frazzled than the night before. He blinked hard. His gaze trailed down the length of the room and settled on the far wall parallel to him and Roderick.

It still reeked of rot.

It’s gotten worse, he thought. It most definitely has.

But at least the Guzzlers were quiet for now and Daniel wondered if the parade guarding the door had left overnight. 

His attention from the door went to his throat when he swallowed. There was sandpaper in his throat, his tongue dry, stuck flat up against the roof of his mouth. A quick and frantic pat down his chest, arms, and legs somewhat relieved his fear of illness when there was no numbness throughout his body. His cotton-mouth was just in need of water. Daniel reached for his flask in the side pocket of his pack.

Disturbed by Daniel’s jarring movements, Roderick’s face crumpled into a displeased grimace when he cracked his eyelids open. “What’s wrong?” he asked and pushed himself up into an upright position. The swoop of his ebony bangs were plastered to the side of his face like inky tendrils, soaked in cold sweat. A cough wracked through Roderick’s body.

Daniel stared right at him.

“Nothing,” Daniel answered slowly, “It’s alright.” He unscrewed the cap of his flask. Unashamedly, and slightly irresponsibly, Daniel tipped his head back and glugged down a full swig of water. Then he held it out to Roderick. “Do you want some?”

“No,” Roderick paused. He then muttered, “ I wouldn’t want to give you what I have. In case you hadn’t gotten it already.”

The pang of unsettling distress hit Daniel square in the chest. 

With a slight tremble in his hands, he lowered the canteen and twisted the lid back on. His stomach lurched. “Wait—are you.. Are you sick?” Daniel almost drew back the moment Roderick’s watch met with his.

“I’m not bitten,” he replied firmly. “If that’s that you’re asking,” he added.

Trust him, Daniel thought. Trust him. He would’ve turned by now if he was. “Well… what about your leg?” 

“Fine.”

The firmness of Roderick’s voice agitated something within Daniel. He shuffled to his feet without a word and shifted his attention towards the row of covered windows. Winter’s whistle rattled the boards and the rickety-clicks filled the silence in the room.

“Wow,” Roderick deliberately enunciated. “Are you scared of me now?”

“No,” said Daniel tentatively. He absentmindedly rubbed the back of his hand once across under his nose. That stench. “Do you smell that?” Daniel asked. Roderick did not reply.

As he walked up to the side of the room, Daniel peered up to the egress windows above him and eyeballed it. He estimated them to be about three metres off the ground. Out of the four, there was one in particular that was closest to them; underneath it there was a deteriorating mountain of crates that were long-gone foraged from floor to sill. “See that window up there, Roddy? I’m going to give it a little looksie.”

Roderick snorted. “What?” The annoyance was evident in his voice, dark eyebrows coming together.

Reaching down and unsheathing his boot knife, Daniel searched for the first crate he could possibly mount. “There’s a chance I’ll be able to pry off the boards on the frame. Might be our way out.” He placed the grip of the blade into his mouth and hoisted himself up.

“Are you insane?!” Roderick hissed. The sudden shrieking beyond the only door in the room led him to then lower his voice into a hush, “Those crates are not going to hold your weight, Dan. Are you aware of how large you actually are? Muscle is heavy. You know this!” He bit down on his tongue as he wobbled onto his feet and waddled towards Daniel.

The crates swayed like a thin palm tree caught up in a thunderstorm and made Roderick instinctively throw himself at them, desperate to hold everything in place.  Daniel clamoured upwards and was not a graceful cat by any means. “You’re just as stubborn as Jinny was,” Roderick hollered. Daniel could only grunt in response, knowing that there was going to be an onslaught of words to follow.

“Do you know what she would’ve said if she were still here and saw you doing all this, Dan? Well, let me tell you. She would’ve been like, ‘Dan, you big oaf, get down from there right now and let me do it.’ And I would’ve said, ‘No, let me do it.’ Because half of the time, I had to look after the both of you with the reckless shit the two of you would get up to. And dammit, after that incident with Jinny, I am appalled that I’m even letting you climb these crates. I should be the one up there—”

With Roderick’s voice now just a garble within his head, a damp muskiness left out of nowhere hit Daniel once again in the back of his nose. A bitterness coated his tongue and surprised him, his body jerking with the loss of concentration. The boxes below shimmied when he lost balance, even only for a second.

“What the hell was that?!” Roderick called out from below. Daniel could feel eyes glued to the back of his head. “Are you okay?”

A cold beat of sweat formed on Daniel’s brow. He had one arm up above his head, anxiously fondling the sill for an edge to hold onto, and the other arm down, hand gripping the crate below him. He kept his core engaged to keep his body steady. And when he found a ridge enough for his fingertips to curl over, he matched his hands, pushed with his legs and hoisted himself up onto the last box. Then he met eye-to-eye with the old, wooden plank.

Daniel cracked his knuckles and took the knife out from within his mouth. “I’m fine,” he finally answered. The blade squeaked as Daniel rammed it into the space between the board and the window frame. With one hand on the handle and the other on the pommel, he pushed.

And to his anticipation, it started to lift, despite the rusty nails desperately trying to hold on for dear life.

“How’s it goin’ on up there?” Roderick nervously called from below.

“Just give me a second,” Daniel muttered. He tried to not sound as frustrated as he felt. “It’s  on there better than it Goddamn looks.”

His hope being fed by what most likely was empty expectations at this point, Daniel used the mass of his body and shoved himself down into his knife. The groans of disintegrating wood beneath his feet were nothing but distant in his ears from the beating of his heart.

“Babe, be careful!” Roderick was frightened, arms hugging the crates as if that would hold them in place any better than they possibly could be.

“Almost there.” It made Daniel wince seeing his favourite blade undergo so much pressure that it was not meant to be used for. He tensed, feeling the last couple of centimetres of resistance that he struggled to push through. He drew in a breath, because he forgot to breathe.

Then his body lunged forward and the nails popped off the frame.

Rays of light shot into the icebox and cut through the Dark, like those laser guns Daniel remembered from those science-fiction pictures they used to watch before everything went down. His eyes burned, trying hard hard to adjust to the newfound brightness he hadn’t seen for days. “I-I’ve got it!” he exclaimed. “Roddy, I’ve gotten the board off!” It wouldn’t be a lie to say that it didn’t take all of him to immediately just jump with joy.

“Can you get it fully off the frame?” Roderick asked. 

“I’m working on that.” he mumbled, placing the handle of the dagger back into his mouth. Daniel heard his own heartbeat as he inserted his fingertips into the tiny space where he felt the bite of winter from outside. His forearms squeezed and his fingers tightened. 

Creak.

Squeeaak.

Creeeaakkk.

As light crept into the room, millimetre by millimetre, Daniel felt more and more elated.

But as stubborn as he was, Daniel was not a master of focus. His mind wandered, much to his dismay, and he waited for the board to fully lift. Why in God’s name did I ever think that it was a good idea for Roddy to come with me on this run? He should be at home. He should be with Soozi. Not here, not with me. We’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to at least get him out of here.

“Dan?” Roderick called from below.

That stench.

Again.

“It’s awful, isn’t it, Dan?” said a whisper in his ear. The hairs on the back of his neck rose without hesitation.

Bile rose to the back of throat and Daniel hacked a cough, the knife falling out from his mouth. He heard a faint cry from Roderick as the clink of metal clattered to the floor below. “What the fuck, Dan! Watch it!”

Daniel wheezed as he failed to stop the stinging in his throat. He coughed into his hands and the ground of crates shivered beneath him. He coughed enough that his body lurched forward. He coughed enough that he lost his footing.

As he tried to regain his composure, he locked eyes with the Darkness across the room. He saw those eyes that he’d acquainted himself with the night before. 

Just when he was about to point at them and say something, he fell.

“Babe!” Roderick belted, his wail echoing off the walls in Daniel’s mind.

The crates cascaded down onto the hardwood flooring like a rumbling waterfall, dropping Daniel to land on his feet with a resounding, powerful smash. Electricity shot up his ankles. Bits of wood and debris went flying everywhere. He bellowed as the stinging pain continued up into his calves. And when he most definitely heard a deafening crack, he knew that he’d fallen onto his knees.

Daniel winced, struggling to regain his senses. “R-Roddy?”  he growled through gritted teeth.

As if on cue, Daniel felt the chill seep into his bones and  knew that the Darkness was creeping towards him. It crawled along the freezing floor, like smokey tentacles searching for its prey to engulf. He felt it slide around his swollen ankles, like shackles. Up his numb calves, around his torso, and straight over his head. It was stifling.

The potent rot was enough to make him forget his pain for a second. His hands were so clammy that they were almost numb. He rushed to his feet, his eyes frantic, looking about in the rubble. Then he saw it. A tawny-beige hand with nimble and lean fingers that he knew so well.

They were twisted, mangled and broken.

He gagged. 

Oh God. Roderick—

And then, Daniel screamed.