Chapter 396: Daily life 6.

A shape moved behind a stack of old boxes.

Bai Li stepped around the corner. A zombie lunged. She caught it by the

throat and slammed it against the wall. Whisperfang ended it

immediately.

Another emerged from behind an old washing machine. Yan Cijin shot it.

A third came from the dark.

Bai Li kicked a metal bucket into its knees and Yan Cijin finished it.

That should have been everything.

It was not.

A low scratching sound came from the far end of the basement.

They both turned.

There was a dead maintenance worker on the floor near the pipes. Or what

should have been a dead maintenance worker. The man’s body jerked once.

Then his fingers moved.

Yan Cijin raised her weapon.

Bai Li held up one hand.

"Wait."

The body sat up.

Its eyes opened.

It smelled the living people in the room.

Then it looked toward them.

Bai Li sighed. "Another one."

A quick strike ended it.

Yan Cijin looked at the body. "How long has it been down here?"

"Long enough."

"Then we really should have checked this floor earlier."

Bai Li nodded. "Exactly."

She looked around the basement again. "This isn’t a swarm. It’s a

cleaning problem."

Yan Cijin smiled. "That is the most Bai Li way you could have described

it."

"It’s accurate."

They spent another twenty minutes checking every corner of the basement.

They opened storage cages, looked behind boilers, checked the generator

room, searched the water pump area, and even examined the old trash

room. They found three more zombies. One had been trapped behind a metal

door for days. Another was under a staircase. The last was in an old

maintenance closet with a broom still in its hands.

Yan Cijin stared at it.

"How did a zombie end up holding a broom?"

Bai Li looked at the corpse. "Maybe it was cleaning."

Yan Cijin laughed. "Then it was doing a terrible job."

"Very terrible."

They cleared the remaining basement.

Bai Li repaired the service gate before going upstairs. She straightened

the hinge, reinforced it with a piece of metal from an old shelf, and

installed an extra locking pin. It took less than ten minutes.

Yan Cijin watched.

"You really cannot stop yourself."

"The gate was broken."

"And there are zombies in the building."

"Exactly why the gate should not be broken."

"You sound like a mother."

Bai Li glanced at her. "Is that bad?"

Yan Cijin smiled. "Not really."

"Then stop complaining."

"I wasn’t complaining."

"You were."

"I was observing."

Bai Li laughed. "You really do use that word for everything."

They returned to the first floor.

The residents were waiting. One of the guards looked relieved. Another

looked embarrassed that Bai Li had needed to do their job for them.

Bai Li did not care.

"We’re clearing the building," she said. "Don’t follow unless I call

you."

A few people exchanged looks.

"All twenty floors?" someone asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

Bai Li looked toward the stairwell. "Because I live here."

It was such a simple answer that nobody knew what to say.

Yan Cijin looked at her. She could hear what Bai Li had not said. If the

building was full of wandering zombies, Bai Li’s trips outside would

become harder. Every return meant checking the entrance. Every departure

meant wondering what might be hiding above. Clearing the building once

would make future movement much easier.

It would also make the other residents safer.

Bai Li would probably deny that part.

Yan Cijin did not mention it.

They started climbing.

Second floor.

Three zombies.

One had been trapped inside an apartment whose door had been left

slightly open. Another was in a laundry room. The third was standing

near the window as if it had been waiting for someone.

Bai Li ended the first two. Yan Cijin took the third.

Third floor.

Nothing.

Fourth floor.

A single zombie behind a refrigerator that someone had dragged into the

hallway as a barricade.

Fifth floor.

Two zombies in an empty apartment.

Sixth floor.

Nothing.

Seventh floor.

A woman opened her door with a kitchen knife in her hand when she heard

movement. She relaxed the moment she saw them.

"You two?"

Bai Li nodded.

"We’re clearing the building."

The woman stared. "By yourselves?"

Yan Cijin smiled. "Apparently."

The woman looked at Bai Li. "Thank you."

Bai Li waved it off. "Just keep your door locked."

"I will."

They continued.

On the eighth floor they found a young couple hiding in a bathroom with

a chair shoved under the door. There were no zombies. They had mistaken

a pipe knock for footsteps.

Yan Cijin explained the noise while Bai Li checked the hall.

The couple apologized.

"Don’t," Bai Li said. "Being careful is better than being careless."

The woman nodded.

As Bai Li turned away, Yan Cijin looked at her with a small smile.

"That sounded very motherly."

Bai Li looked at her. "You keep saying that."

"Because you keep sounding like one."

"Maybe someone has to."

Yan Cijin smiled. "Maybe."

The ninth floor was where the main problem had started. Four zombies had

gotten inside through a broken balcony door. Two were already dead

because the residents had managed to kill them. Bai Li dealt with the

remaining two.

She then inspected the damaged balcony door.

"This is another entrance."

The resident, a middle-aged man, nodded. "The frame got damaged when

someone was moving furniture."

Bai Li crouched and examined it.

"You need a stronger latch."

The man looked embarrassed. "We don’t have one."

Bai Li opened her tool pouch. "You do now."

She spent several minutes reinforcing the latch with a piece of metal

and some bolts. When she finished, the door could not be pushed open

from outside without a great deal of force.

The man stared.

"How did you learn all this?"

Bai Li shrugged. "I learn things when I need them."

Yan Cijin leaned against the wall. "She also takes apart perfectly good

things when she’s bored."

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TO BE CONTINUED.