“A long time ago someone came up with the idea of putting a wire mesh in the glass. It means that even if you smash the glass, the mesh pretty much keeps it there and it still stops people getting in. My guess is all that smashed glass is the ghouls’ handiwork.” He gestured at the concrete ceiling with his shotgun “be careful, the ceilings only a few feet thick and the top is open to the sky and connected to the buildings. Ghouls could be on it.”
“I can’t hear anything,” Amber replied.
“Well we’ve got an option at this point. We can climb up onto it and go across the roofs. They should still be pretty secure, especially the concrete and once we’re on them we shouldn’t be visible from the ground. Or we can go through the building. It’s a corridor into a hall and then one more long corridor,” he explained.
“I’d rather then roofs,” she replied.
He nodded. He opened the door fully so that it rested against one of the walls and slung his shotgun over his shoulder. With one hand he grabbed the top of the door and using the door handle as a makeshift step, lifted himself up onto the wall. He stayed low in a defensive crouch, trusting in the shadows to conceal him and his longcoat to break up his silhouette. Slowly, hugging the building he partially stood up and looked onto the concrete overhang, before easing himself up onto it, this time, ending up lying down on it. He unslung his shotgun and took a few moments to check the surrounding area, both below and above him.
Amber followed him and eased the door closed behind her. “So far, so good,” she said hopefully. They stayed low and made their way across to the next set of buildings, using each other silhouette to break up their own.
When they reached the next building, Amber realised that there were more glass windows above the concrete. She nudged Ghost.
“To let light in during the day. Same thing with the hall we would have gone through,” he gestured to the right and climbed up onto the roof.
Amber followed him and could now clearly see that a large section of the roof had indeed been made from glass. No-one had considered investing in wire mesh this time though and looking down through the jagged edges she could see shards of smashed glass lying forlornly on the wooden floor below her. “I’m glad we came this way,” she said.
Ghost nodded. Fighting ghouls was bad enough but having to fight surrounded by broken glass when someone could paralyse you with their touch and would happily try to drive you into the ground was not an experience he wanted. He started to move, but then stopped as he felt Amber’s warning hand on his arm. He followed her gaze, but at first could see nothing but shadows among the glass. Gradually his eyes adjusted to the gloom and he was barely able to make out the feral figure of a ghoul. It appeared to be hunched up in sleep. Its dirty torn rags and grey faded skin camouflaged its form in the twilight.
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