Apex

Chapter 15

•Asher•

"Thank everything holy on this godforsaken planet," Marcus sighed.

We stumbled into the dusty office building. The only entrance and exit was what should have really been an emergency exit on the side of the building. The alarm must've stopped working years ago.

"Shut up, Mark. You're not making sense," Conner said as he trudged in last. He shut the door, leaning against it heavily.

"This was a bad idea," Audrey grumbled. She planted her butt on the floor in the middle of the dusty room. "You've had plenty of bad ideas Asher, being born still takes first place but this is a close second." She twirled a lock of purple hair around her finger.

I ignored her, going deeper into the building to one of the offices that we hadn't boarded up. I pulled out my pistol more so out of habit than anything else. This place had been abandoned long before we'd set up in the heart of what used to be Los Angeles. Now it was just an amalgamation of empty buildings, rotting corpses, and disappointment.

I kicked the door open and put my back against the wall, waiting for a person or animal to run out and attack. I was met with silence as usual. I walked into the room, gun pointed in front of me.

It was empty.

I shoved the thing back into the waistband of my jeans and uncovered a tarp full of water and canned goods. I uncapped a bottle of water. They were all mismatched with the seals already broken. We didn't have the luxury of wasting things anymore. They were each refilled with whatever fresh water was found from who knows where. For all I knew they could be water from the toilet tanks in this building. Clean water was clean water.

I downed the bottle. Then I pulled a can of corn from the stash and started working at it with my knife.

"You look cheerful," Hudson's deep voice interrupted my silence. I kept my focus on perforating the lid of the can.

"If you're here to give me your two cents, then take it up with Aud. She'll be happy to pass on the message for you."

"I think you did the right thing," he crossed his arms. His bulky body filled the doorway with his presence. His dark skin was covered in dirt and sweat just like the rest of us after spending over a week in the jungle.

And for what?

It was a rumored that Syes were taking human prisoners in recent years. They'd all been second hand accounts or whispered between rare groups of roaming humans. We hadn't seen it for ourselves until they'd found an occupied building, one of the few on our radar. The people housed there stayed out of our territory and kept to themselves so we didn't bother them.

The Syes had been taking there usual patrols around the city when they finally discovered them. Instead of gassing the building or crumbling it with the people still inside, they'd reached in and grabbed them one by one as easily as taking food out of a pantry. They dropped the people into some sort of cage to save them for whatever sick plans they had in store. Of course, the building was destroyed by the time they were done pushing their hands through windows and walls. They'd simply stepped on whatever humans they saw fleeing the building and tipped the whole thing over once they were done for good measure.

"One person," I said. I popped the lid open, some of the liquid spilling on my hands. "One person and we couldn't even save her." I took a gulp of canned corn, swallowing without tasting it.

"Whoever she was, she wasn't who we were looking for," he countered.

"We don't even know who we were looking for! But the Syes captured them near the outer edge of the city. We saw them take those people. What happens to them? Why capture them instead of kill them?"