[Sylvia and Austin] “It’s open,” a squeaky voice says from the inside. [i]That...doesn’t sound right. Not at all. It’s not...fear.[/i] Sylvia thinks, alarmed. “I said it’s open. Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you,” the voice resounds again from the inside, louder. [i]Oh snap. Nope nope nope nope.[/i] Sylvia watches Austin’s reaction and quickly grabs his hand away from opening the door. She whispers furiously, “I don’t trust him. And don’t tell me I’m being paranoid. Let’s go back to our room so he can’t overhear us and so we’re not staying outside longer than necessary. Quietly.” “Wh-what? Okay...?” Austin just nods and follows her. As annoying as it could be, she was usually right. Once they were safely back in their own apartment Sylvia explains frantically, “When he first said it was open, something was wrong. I’ve seen and heard who lives there before, and he does [i]not[/i] sound like that normally. These aren’t normal circumstances sure, but he almost sounded... broken. And the whole ‘Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you’ was a line that was completely unnecessary. Sounded exactly like a doctor saying ‘Oh it won’t hurt just a bit’ when in reality, it will hurt a heck ton. Also, why would [i]anyone[/i] leave their door open when a freaking zombie apocalypse is outside their door?? What if I was a zombie? And the timing between his two responses. He repeated ‘It’s open’, as if overly eager for us to come in. Why did he want [i]us[/i] to open the door? It would’ve been far safer if he checked personally.” Austin nods, listening. Sylvia pauses before continuing, “So considering that 1) the voice sounded distant 2) ‘Oh I won’t hurt you’ is a lie 3) leaving the door open under these circumstances 4) wanting [i]us[/i] to open the door 5) eager for us to get inside… the most likely conclusion is that he’s going to attempt to hurt or kill us the second we walk in. And with a long range weapon too.” “It makes sense. I guess I would have realized it too if I really thought about it longer... Well, what do we do about that?” Austin asks. “I mean, do you still want to go inside?” Sylvia questions. “You’re saying he might have a gun, right?” “It’s possible he has a gun. Could be something like a bow as well,” Sylvia states. “True. Well it’s too dangerous to go in through the door unless he comes out. Maybe, we could go in through the window?” “Ha. No. Maybe [i]you[/i] could but I’m not going through any window. We could also… wait. As in, do something else, and then come back. That way we have the advantage of surprise and maybe he’d give up on us by then. Maybe. But I personally wouldn’t recommend trying to overwhelm that guy. He is clearly expecting a human.” “Who even lives there? I’ve only seen some old lady leaving or entering before.” Austin says. “Her son. Large man.” “She has a son??” “Well, would I lie about that?” “Ugh. (no). If he wants to harm us though, we should deal with him now. If we wait, it just means he could come out later and attack us then. “We could prevent him from getting outside. That would also protect him from zombies too.” “I don’t care about protecting him. “You’d care once he turns into a zombie though.” “I’d rather he was a zombie. Zombies can’t spear me through with an arrow.” Austin grumbles. Sylvia sighs, “Well in any case, we should prevent him from going outside. I don’t want someone that wants to hurt others outside and loose.” “All the more reason to kill him now. Just listen. We knock, or rather, you knock and say the door is stuck. He thinks a weak girl is outside. Even if he does try to attack, we can deal with him once he’s near. I could push the door and knock him over, or just pull out. The only chance he has is if he opens the door, throws it back, then steps away to shoot us. If he has a bow or crossbow, he won't even be able to aim it without both hands.” “No. Why do you want a gun so badly? We’re unnecessarily risking ourselves. We could just make it so he can’t leave and then he’d eventually starve to death or die from dehydration. Then you could get your long ranged weapon.” “He would last too long, and there’s a chance he could still get out. Unless you’re confident you can somehow barricade an inward opening door from opening.” -_- “I don’t want to deal with him. We already have zombies theoretically out there, we shouldn’t waste our time with this,” Sylvia says, shaking. “Now that I think there might be a guy ready to unload a clip into my back, I’m definitely not going downstairs. Think about it, we go down, then the guy follows us down. We’ll be trapped between zombies and a mad gunman.” “A maybe-gunman. I don’t know what weapon he has on him. He could’ve planted bombs or something so that the second we step in, we’re toast,” Sylvia flails her arms. “Urgh then we do it the complicated way. We convince a harmless but useless innocent person to enter in front of us, set off whatever bullets, bombs, and dynamite he has waiting, then clean up the ashes. No risk to us. Sound acceptable?” Austin growls. “Why would we do that? That’s mean. And what if he has more ammo and stuff? We’d be next. We’re risking too much for the [i]possibility[/i] of a gun.” “Going downstairs is risking too much for the [i]possibility[/i] of getting shot in the back of the head. And too bad. They’d just be wasting food anyways.” “It’s not [i]nice[/i] to put someone into a death trap,” Sylvia comments.