The System's warning – CRITICAL WARNING! MULTIPLE CONCEALED BIOSIGNATURES... ARMED... POTENTIAL AMBUSH PROTOCOL! – flashed across Ethan's vision with an urgency that made his heart seize. Glenn was a step ahead of him, about to break cover from the overgrown treeline onto Taylorsville's seemingly deserted Main Street.
"Glenn, NO! Get down!" Ethan hissed, his hand shooting out to grab Glenn's arm, yanking him back with surprising force. He practically threw them both sideways behind the dense cover of a thick, untamed rhododendron bush at the very edge of the tree line.
"What the hell, Ethan?!" Glenn whisper-yelled, surprise and anger flashing in his eyes as he landed awkwardly. "I didn't see anything!"
"Windows!" Ethan breathed, keeping his voice low and urgent, his eyes darting towards the second-story windows of the pharmacy across the street and the hardware store flanking it. "Second floor. Pharmacy, left window. Hardware store, right window. I saw a glint. Metal. Like a rifle barrel. And movement. They're watching the street." He forced himself to sound like he'd made a last-second visual observation, the System's precise data translating into his own panicked but seemingly sharp-eyed warning.
Glenn's anger vanished, replaced by instant, professional alertness. He crawled forward a few inches, peering cautiously through the leaves. He was too low to see directly into the upper windows from their current angle, but he scanned the openings intently.
[SYSTEM UPDATE: HOSTILES REMAIN STATIONARY. THREE CONFIRMED: PHARMACY – SNIPER RIFLE (BOLT ACTION), HANDGUN (BACKUP). HARDWARE STORE – ASSAULT RIFLE (SEMI-AUTO). OVERLAPPING KILL ZONE ESTABLISHED COVERING MAIN STREET APPROACHES. DISCIPLINED. LIKELY WAITING FOR UNSUSPECTING TARGETS.]
"You sure?" Glenn murmured, but there was a new tension in his voice. He trusted his own eyes, but Ethan's certainty was unnerving. "This street's usually crawling with geeks by now if anyone's home. It's too quiet."
"That's what's wrong," Ethan insisted. "It's too quiet. Like they cleared it, or they're waiting for it to be clear for them. Perfect setup for a trap." He didn't mention the System's "ambush protocol" assessment, but the implication was clear.
Glenn was silent for a long moment, his gaze sweeping the silent, sun-drenched street and the dark, unblinking windows. Finally, he nodded slowly. "Okay. Okay, I hear you. A well-placed rifle could pick us off before we even knew what hit us. Damn. Good call, Ethan. My head was too focused on the pharmacy shelves."
Relief, swift and potent, washed through Ethan. Glenn trusted his "instinct."
"So, Main Street's a no-go," Glenn continued, already shifting into problem-solving mode. "Pharmacy and grocery store are both on that strip. We came all this way… Any ideas, sharp-eyes?"
Ethan pretended to scan their surroundings, his mind actually focused on the System's integrated map of Taylorsville, now overlaid with the hostile positions.
[ANALYZING ALTERNATIVE ROUTES... PARALLEL ALLEYWAY RUNS BEHIND MAIN STREET STRUCTURES. POTENTIAL ACCESS TO REAR OF TARGET BUILDINGS. WALKER DENSITY IN ALLEYS: UNKNOWN, LIKELY LOW TO MODERATE. RISK OF DETECTION BY MAIN STREET AMBUSHERS IF NOISE IS MADE: MEDIUM.]
"They're watching the street," Ethan said, thinking aloud as if piecing it together. "Their focus is out front. What about the back? There's usually an alley running behind these old Main Street blocks, right? Service entrances, trash bins… Maybe we can loop around through the residential streets we just passed and come up behind them."
Glenn considered it. "Could work. Alleys are tight, though. Easy to get cornered by walkers if we're not careful. But yeah, less chance of getting our heads blown off by those window-watchers." He gave Ethan an appreciative look. "Worth a shot. Lead the way, but we go slow. Real slow."
Their retreat from the edge of Main Street and subsequent detour felt like navigating a minefield. They backtracked, then cut through a series of overgrown backyards of deserted houses, the silence broken only by the buzzing of flies and the distant, ever-present moans of the dead. The System guided Ethan, highlighting clear paths, warning of loose fence boards or patches of broken glass that could betray their presence with a careless step. Ethan relayed these as his own observations, his "luck" or "good hearing" becoming increasingly apparent to Glenn.
They found the alley. It was narrow, choked with overflowing dumpsters and shadows, reeking of decay. A few lone walkers shambled aimlessly further down, which they dispatched with coordinated, silent takedowns – Ethan with his bat, Glenn with his tire iron, their movements surprisingly synchronized for a new partnership.
[REAR OF TARGET BUILDINGS APPROACHING. PHARMACY REAR ENTRANCE: STEEL DOOR, HEAVILY BARRED FROM OUTSIDE. GROCERY STORE REAR ENTRANCE: WOODEN DOOR, STANDARD LOCK, PARTIALLY BOARDED UP BUT BOARDS LOOK ROTTEN.]
"Grocery store looks like our best bet for a quiet entry," Ethan whispered, pointing to the boarded-up rear door of a building that matched the grocery store's position on Main Street. The System confirmed the wood was weak.
Working together, they pried away the rotten planks with minimal noise using Glenn's tire iron and Ethan's smaller crowbar (which he claimed he'd "found a while back"). The lock on the door itself was old and rusted; a sharp kick from Glenn and it gave way with a dull thud.
They slipped inside, into the dim, cool interior of the grocery store's stockroom. It was surprisingly untouched, or at least, not completely ransacked. Shelves were messy but still held canned goods, dusty boxes of pasta, jars of preserves.
"Jackpot," Glenn breathed, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Or close enough."
They worked quickly and quietly, filling their backpacks. Canned vegetables, beans, fruit, some sealed bags of rice and pasta, even a few jars of peanut butter. It wasn't a feast, but it was more than they'd dared hope for.
[SCAVENGING SUCCESSFUL: MODERATE QUANTITY OF NON-PERISHABLE FOODSTUFFS ACQUIRED. EXP +30. SP +25.]
[CAUTION: INCREASED MOVEMENT SIGNATURES DETECTED OUTSIDE REAR ALLEY. UNKNOWN ORIGIN. POSSIBLY WALKERS DRAWN BY MINOR NOISES, OR AMBUSHERS INVESTIGATING.]
"We should go," Ethan said suddenly, a new urgency in his voice, mirroring the System's warning. "I don't like how quiet it's gotten out there again."
Glenn, his pack significantly heavier, nodded. "Got what we came for. Let's not push our luck."
They exited the way they came, even more cautiously this time. The alley seemed clear, but the silence felt heavier, more menacing. As they reached the end of the alley, preparing to cut back through the residential area towards the woods and the highway camp, Ethan's System flared with another, more immediate warning.
[IMMINENT THREAT! TWO HUMAN BIOSIGNATURES (MATCHING MAIN STREET AMBUSHERS – RIFLE AND HANDGUN FROM PHARMACY) DETACHED FROM OVERWATCH POSITIONS. MOVING RAPIDLY. TRAJECTORY SUGGESTS THEY ARE ATTEMPTING TO INTERCEPT YOUR LIKELY RETREAT PATH THROUGH RESIDENTIAL AREA. THEY MAY HAVE SPOTTED YOUR EXIT FROM THE GROCERY STORE'S REAR OR ARE SYSTEMATICALLY SWEEPING BACK ALLEYS.]
The watchers had become hunters. Their discreet scavenging run was about to turn into a desperate race.