"They'd be on the 7th floor by now, right?" Christian spoke, aggressively pressing on the elevator button.
"Maybe. I mean, Waylen's a slowpoke, so I'm not sure." Axelle replied, as the elevator arrived with a ding.
"you'll never leave him alone, will you?" Christian sighed, stepping inside after Ruby. They all entered the elevator one after the other.
After a moment of silence, "This elevator is pretty big," Maverick broke it.
You just can't go a few minutes without saying something useless, can you?" Axelle commented back as Maverick just gave an annoyed eyeroll.
Perry swore she saw the sign 'out of service' on the elevator door on the 7th floor. Which is why she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the elevator working, as they reached the 9th floor.
"Hey." she turned back, looking at Waylen. "You're sure that the elevators were out of service?" she asked, looking slightly uncertain.
"I'm.. 10% sure?" he said, sounding less than 0% sure. 10% was already unsure enough.
"Waylen." Perry called out, in a rather serious tone. Waylen went silent.
"Fine.." he mumbled quietly. "It just didn't turn on when I pressed the button."
It wasn't until he heard nothing Christian realized that group one was probably not on the 7th floor anymore. He had definitely called out more than 5 times for every individual person in that group.
"Shouldn't they be here by now?" Axelle said, her eyes darting around the empty room before looking at Ruby who was observing graffiti on the wall too closely.
"It's been over an hour. We agreed on 45 minutes." Christian stated before turning back to the elevator.
"Maybe they used the stairs to come look for us?" Ruby assumed.
"So… great—" Axelle let out an exasperated sigh. "We have to go look for them using the stairs?" she asked, though the answer was clear.
"No choice.." Christian didn't waste any more time, heading to the staircase.
"We could run, if slowness is what you're worried about." Maverick suggested.
"No. Laziness is what." Acelle followed behind Christian with slumped posture.
"It's just a few floors—" Ruby started but only to be quickly cut off by a loud thud.
Their heads turned to the source of the sound, only to see Waylen fall head first down the flight of stairs they stood in front of.
"What the.." Axelle mumbled, as she looked up, completely unconcerned for the boy at her feet. She saw Perry, Elu with a completely unfazed expression, and Rexine standing at the top.
"Overdramatic." Rexine said, shoving past the boy on the floor.
"WHAT?!?" Waylen yelled theatrically, abruptly sitting up.
"There's stairs for a reason, Len. If I wanted to roll down head first, I would've put on body gear." Axelle remarked sarcastically before kicking his shin lightly. "Get up." she added, stepping aside.
"Did you guys find anything?" Ruby's voice cut through, as she, being the kind person she was, helped Waylen up to his feet.
Waylen mumbled a 'thanks', before brushing himself off.
"Well not really. Some dead zombies, if they count as anything." Perry replied, following behind Eli down the stairs.
"We've got a bluey marker if ya want, mate." Eli said, shoving a dark blue permanent marker into Christian's hand.
"I meant something useful. Useful, know the word?" He bit back, looking down at the marker that got forcefully shoved into his hand.
Eli rolled his eyes, his knowing smirk faltering. "Yes. I do. More than you, I assume."
"Guys, focus." Perry interrupted. "Did you guys find anything useful?"
Maverick had somehow slipped away, and returned back within 5 minutes. Without anyone noticing. And of course being the person he was, butted in.
"What're we talking about?" He asked casually, standing next to Waylen.
"Dude." Waylen replied. "Where have you been?"
"I left a chocolate bar back there, alright?" Maverick said defensively before anyone could say anything else to him about 'how stupid' that decision was.
"...We did find something." Christian spoke up, glancing at Ruby.
Ruby took out a folded up paper from her pocket, opening it up. Which actually surprised Perry and Eli at first since it seemed to be so small. But it happened to be pretty darn big.
"This." Ruby said, laying out the map over the floor, crouched down.
Perry looked over it, scanning over the map. It was a small one, just of the area they were in.
What stood out was a door, circled in thick red marker.
Then, Ruby pointed at a symbol drawn in the corner of the map. Group one stared at it— just as confused as group two had been at first.
"..Are we supposed to know what that is?" Waylen asked, narrowing his eyes, then raising an eyebrow.
"Wait." Perry's voice, serious, cut through. "That's.." Her voice trailed off, as she rolled up her sleeve just a little to reveal the same exact symbol/logo? It was the 'funky' drawing she had scribbled on her arm from before. She had seen it on a box, which seemed burnt. But now… this changed everything— well.. not really.
They all stared at her arm then looked back at the logo on the map. It was the same. But yet, as confused as ever.
"Still, dunno what it's supposed to be. And I'm sure starin' won't help." Axelle spoke, backing away from the crowd gathered by everything.
"..Well then, what do you suggest, since you're clearly the smart one, huh?" Waylem replied sarcastically, never sparing Axelle a sarcastic remark or insult.
Axelle rolled her eyes.
".. I'm just saying.. why don't we go there?" she suggested, pointing at the map, the place circled in red marker.
"It could be dangerous. We should at least discuss this with Lorrell and Ty, right?" Rexine said, eating the stupid chocolate bar Maverick had handed her because she seemed 'hungry'.
"..It can't be that bad? We'll just poke our heads in, see what's up and leave. It'll take barely 10 minutes." Christian finally spoke.
"What if the room's filled with zombies? Then, I'm quite sure, it'd be 'that bad'." Perry retorted to his suggestion.
You could kind of never be too careful in a zombie apocalypse.