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<br/>​</div>The hard thud of the door made LuAnn shudder.  Whatever those ... things ... were, they were stronger than any walker she'd encountered.  Walkers relied on surprise and numbers, and occasionally just plain old luck.  If they didn't have that, they were pretty easy to elude for someone in decent shape.  There were plenty of survivors who didn't agree with her on that, but she hadn't been one for excuses even back in the old days when they were the norm.  If you were hurt, sick, exhausted, or stupid, evolution was a lot likelier to step up and rip out your jugular ... without bothering with the thousands or tens of thousands of years to make you extinct.  She could make allowances for the first three, but stupid all too often got someone else killed in the new world that was their reality.<br/><br/>They were all moving toward the buildings entrance ... or if they weren't moving, they were smart enough to hide.  If it was the former, they still had a pretty good chance.  If the latter ... well, the odds had just gotten a lot worse that this story was ever going to have anything resembling a happy ending.<br/><br/>When Zach pulled her away, she didn't resist.  He was right.  They couldn't just wait around to see whether whatever was throwing itself on the door was going to win out.  Who knew how good those hinges and the screws holding them on were even before things went to shit.<br/><br/>She had a length of cord in her pack, but left to her own devices, she'd probably have tried using the windows of the building to get them down.  It'd be slow, and there'd be a chance that their hunters would hear them and come at them through one of the other apartments.  Jumping for an open window was crazy, and she'd have told him so in the before ... but that was the mentality of a world with OSHA and liability insurance.  They'd both made jumps before, and just like anything else, the more you did it, the better you got ... unless you weren't good enough to start with.<br/><br/>"Give me your pack. I'll ...<span style="font-size: 12px">throw it to you."</span>The last few words were said to Zack's back as he sprinted away, on a breath of frustration.  Might as well talk to the wall sometimes.  LuAnn was glaring at him to hide her worry even as she jogged to catch up, with a muttered "Goddammit" under her breath.  'If she needed to' ... part of her wanted to shove that concession right up his nose, but the wiser part prevailed after she watched him grasp the window ledge and heave himself up.  His movement was a thing of beauty, pure grace and power, and there was a part of her that noted it and stored it away like a grandiose sunset emblazoned in her memory ... but the rest of her was just thankful that he made it and determined that she wasn't going to end up coming out the ass of some piece of animated carrion anytime soon.<br/><br/>LuAnn's world narrowed to the scope of her vision, and a scant inch or two around her own body.  The sounds of the thuds behind her disappeared into the strong beat of her heart, the rush of air into her lungs, the surge of blood through the veins nearest the ear, and when Zack motioned, she threw her pack to him.   It had been designed for easy tossing, and the throw was good.   Her backpack stayed on.  If Zack could do it, then she sure as bloody hell could too.  She backed up a few steps as he slung the pack to the side, and then made a running leap, simply refusing to worry about the what ifs.  What if she didn't jump long enough, high enough, or low enough.  What if the wind shifted, or her gloved hands couldn't hold the grip.<br/><br/>People who thought that way weren't survivors.  Might as well worry about if she had cancer, diabetes in a world without insulin, a blood vessel in her brain that might give way under the adrenaline surge.<br/><br/>In her mind there was no question that she could, and would, do this, and it was validated as her fingers closed around the ledge, and her body slammed into the brick with a thud.  The pain only made her hands clench tighter, and Zack's hands, strong and sure, were gripping her, helping pull.  Her booted feet scrambled a little, and then she was in, gritting her teeth as she lunged for the duffel and slung it over one bruised shoulder.<br/><br/>"Fuck!  Let's go before they get curious."<br/><br/>What 'they' were didn't matter at the moment.  They had to find the others and retreat until they had a better idea of what they were facing.  Without waiting, she headed toward where she thought the door would be.  Thankfully, all these damn places looked alike, and there was plenty of light.  "I'll check the hallway while you get the window."<br/><br/>Her voice was little more than a whisper, contained and determined, her eyes cold and hard as stone.  She didn't have time to feel, and panic ... panic was something that relied on luck, and at the rate her luck had been going, she aimed to do without it.  God gave her brains and enough brawn to let her run fast enough to use them, and that'd just have to do.<br/><br/>This time, she didn't bother with scavenging, or doing anything more than giving a cursory examination to make sure some half-decayed corpse wasn't crawling along the moldy, rotting rug toward them on their retreat.  The door had been kicked in at some point and hung askew, half-in and half out, and beyond it, there was only a narrow, dark space with a light coming in from the far end at what looked to have been a stairwell.  There were other doors that looked to be open, though in a more conventional manner, and there was no way to tell what might be lurking.