The search was methodical. They don't want to waste time.
Clyde moved with deliberate steps to scan every corner and every pile of debris.
The living room gave him nothing but the stench of mildew and the remnants of a life violently cut short.
He saw broken mugs, a smashed clock, and papers that had rotted into unreadable mush lay scattered.
In the kitchen Mina was rifling through cabinets, most of them empty.
She found cans of food but most were dented and swollen and were long past edible.
Her attention shifted when she noticed a section of the floor that sounded hollow under her boot.
"Clyde!" she called, her voice low but urgent.
He appeared in the doorway almost instantly.
She tapped the spot with the toe of her boot again. It sounded hollow.
Clyde knelt down and brushed away broken tiles to reveal a metal ring embedded in the wood.
He pulled it with ease with one hand and the hidden hatch groaned open, exhaling a breath of stale cold air from below.
