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<br/>​</div>Given the close quarters, LuAnn positioned her bow to carry, fastening it to the 'carry strap' she'd jury rigged on her backpack, and grimly unsheathed her sawback machete.  She'd been lucky to find it early on, not far from the body of a hunter who'd outfitted himself with the best Amazon -- or some other online supplier -- could provide.  He hadn't known how to sharpen it, or use it, from the look of things, but his mistake had been her gain.  It was strong, heavy enough to let the weight guide the swing, and the saw teeth on the back had even come in handy a time or two.  Best of all, the grip was perfect, a modern rubberized nubbed plastic that didn't slip in her grip at the first sign of moisture.  It wasn't as showy as Zack's spear, and it didn't have the reach, but it got the job done, and that was what mattered.<br/><br/>She headed down the hall, half turned to give herself plenty of room to swing if she had to.  She hated these fucking buildings with their gauntlet of doorways, but most of the easier pickings were clean and they didn't have the luxury of picking and choosing.  She walked with a hunter's stance, carefully placing her feet to minimize noise.  Those things they'd seen were an unknown.  Walkers didn't pay all that much attention to a little whisper of noise so long as it wasn't furtive -- they made enough noise on their own, presumably, as they shambled about, and gods knew they didn't hunt by smell, but for all she knew, these new things might hunt on the infrared spectrum like the fucking monsters in that movie with "I'll Be Bahk" Arnie.   They were screwed if such an improbability happened, but she'd once have scoffed at the possibility of zombies.<br/><br/>Both of them were tense, but they were used to it.  Life was now an almost continual walk on the edge.  By now, they probably were less at ease when they were out of danger, afraid that relaxing would make them soft -- or maybe it was just her.  Her heart kept a steady rhythm as she craned her neck, peering into the shadows, and when the first walker came out, Zack had taken care of it so quickly that she didn't even get another shot of adrenaline before he ground its head beneath the heel of his boot.<br/><br/>At the stairs, she switched out weapons again, though if she had to shoot something, it was going to make a hell of a racket, whether from the body falling or the arrow making impact.  There was too much metal, and the thin coating of protectant on the steps probably wouldn't keep the arrow from bouncing off.  Worse, it would probably break the fucking arrow, so best not miss if she had to shoot.  There was no argument or protest when Zach gave her the lead.  It made sense, just as it did to have him open the door to the lobby floor so that she could be prepared to skewer anything blocking their escape route.<br/><br/>There was nothing in the lobby, and the elevator door that had once carried residents up and down was still stuck at lobby level, it's door once blocked open by a corpse that was now nothing but bones, but the electricity had given out before the door stop, rendering the once-convenience as extinct as as the dinosaurs.  They closed the door softly behind them, and sprinted for the side entrance, farthest away from where their pursuers had last been seen.<br/><br/>There were two walkers stumbling around in a mindless meandering path near a wrecked ambulance down the street, but she spotted nothing moving with the speed of a hunter as they emerged into the light, the relative freshness of the air drawn in with a welcome gasp of relief.  Of their fellows, there was no sign.  She motioned forward, to the left, toward a once nursing home that might have been overlooked as a potential drug supplier back in the days when the chains and hospital pharmacies had been better targets.  Medicine was getting scarce, and worth more than gold or diamonds ... maybe even more than granola bars and chocolate.<br/><br/>Almost as one, they started off, but they hadn't even made it across the street before another howl sounded out, raising the hairs on the back of LuAnn's neck.  A quick look, and she could see the figure that had produced the sound, loping toward her in an awkward, loping run that ate away the pavement with fearful speed.<br/><br/>"Oh, shit," she groaned, her teeth grinding together in the back of her jaw, and then she was off, her position giving her a step or two on Zack, at least for the moment.