But someone was already blocking the way.
He was an enormous, powerfully built man, so broad that he nearly filled the entire doorway.
Short, fiery red hair stood stiffly on his head, and a thick beard of the same color covered almost the entire lower half of his face, leaving only a pair of angry, startled eyes visible.
He wore a black tank top stretched tight across his muscles, with a rifle slung over one shoulder. Everything about him gave off the pressure of someone hardened by countless battles.
"Stay right where you are! Don't move!"
The red-haired giant raised his rifle and aimed it at Maggie. His eyes flicked toward his groaning companion on the floor, then snapped back to her.
Maggie froze.
This man felt incredibly dangerous, like he could kill her with one punch, and he was holding a military rifle.
Trying to force her way past him would be suicide.
"Rosita!" the red-haired giant barked toward the doorway without looking back.
Another figure immediately slipped inside.
It was a striking young woman with long black hair and a beautiful face, though her eyes were sharp as knives. She carried a shotgun.
She quickly took position on the other side of the doorway, the barrel trained directly on Maggie. Her movements were clean and precise, clearly those of someone with training.
"Abraham, who is this woman?"
Rosita? Abraham?
Maggie had never heard either name before.
The situation was bad.
One man and one woman, both well-trained and well-armed, were blocking the room's only exit.
There was also the man lying on the floor, who didn't look like much of a fighter. He might be useless in a fight, but he was still another body to deal with.
With only a pistol and a rifle, Maggie had almost no chance of taking on two prepared opponents with superior firepower at once.
Negotiate?
They didn't exactly look like the reasonable type.
"I'm sorry. I... I thought you were from Grady Memorial Hospital." Maggie slowly raised both hands to show that she wasn't a threat. "I'm just passing through. I don't want any trouble!"
It was a lie, but her eyes remained fixed on Abraham's every movement.
"Passing through?" Abraham snorted, clearly unconvinced.
He glanced at Eugene, who was still groaning on the floor and fumbling around for his backpack.
"That's one hell of a way to say hello when you're 'just passing through.'"
Abraham's gaze swept over Maggie like a searchlight, then moved around the room.
"You're alone? In a place like this? Watching the hospital across the street?"
"I told you, it was a misunderstanding," Maggie insisted, her heart pounding.
She could feel Rosita's stare boring into her like needles.
Abraham ignored the explanation and gestured toward Rosita.
"Watch her."
Then he strode over to Eugene and effortlessly hauled the slightly overweight man to his feet with one thick arm before inspecting his face.
"How are you doing, Dr. Eugene? Still alive?"
His tone wasn't gentle, exactly, but there was an odd trace of concern in it.
"My... my visual perception system has suffered a severe impact, Sergeant Abraham." Eugene clutched his eye, speaking with exaggerated pain. "Additionally, the backpack containing my critically important equipment became detached from my person. I believe I may have suffered a mild concussion, which could impair my subsequent cognitive and analytical functions and affect our mission..."
"Shut up, Eugene. If you're not dead, you're fine!"
Abraham cut him off impatiently, picked up the backpack, and shoved it back into his hands.
Then he turned toward Maggie again, his expression even colder.
"Now it's your turn, Miss 'Just Passing Through.'
"Slowly put every weapon you're carrying on the floor and kick them over here. Don't try anything. Rosita's a damn good shot."
Maggie bit her lower lip, torn by indecision.
Giving up her weapons meant putting herself completely at their mercy.
But if she refused, the two people in front of her could turn her into Swiss cheese in seconds.
Glenn and Dr. Caleb were still inside the hospital waiting for her...
"You're not with Grady Memorial Hospital, right?" she asked, partly for confirmation and partly to buy herself a little more time.
"Grady Memorial Hospital?" Abraham's brow furrowed deeply. "What bullshit hospital? You mean that rundown building across the street? The idiots in police uniforms marching around like they're in a damn choir?"
He spat contemptuously.
"We've got nothing to do with them. Now hand over the weapons!"
They're not together!
A faint spark of hope immediately flared inside Maggie, though she didn't let her guard down.
Abraham and Rosita might not belong to the Police Gang, but they could still be part of some other dangerous survivor group.
Still, with Rosita's shotgun pointed straight at her and Abraham staring her down with overwhelming pressure, Maggie knew she didn't have a choice.
Very slowly, she bent down.
First, she carefully placed her machete and rifle on the floor and nudged them toward Abraham with the tip of her boot.
Then, even more slowly, she reached behind her waist with two fingers, pulled out her Glock pistol, placed it on the floor, and kicked it over as well.
"Anything else?" Abraham asked, his gaze sharp.
Maggie silently shook her head and spread her hands.
Abraham gave Rosita a look.
Rosita stayed on guard while Abraham stepped forward and quickly searched Maggie himself to make sure she wasn't hiding anything.
Then he found a small dagger near her boot.
He shot her a hard glare and confiscated it.
Maggie bit her lip in frustration.
Abraham's search wasn't inappropriate, but it was firm and impossible to resist. Once he finished, he stepped back two paces and continued blocking the exit.
"Now, Miss 'Just Passing Through.'" Abraham folded his arms, his massive frame casting a heavy shadow over her. "Tell us who the hell you are.
"Why are you here? Why did you attack us? And what did you mean when you said 'people from Grady Memorial Hospital'?"
Maggie took a deep breath.
She knew what she said next would matter.
She looked at the huge man in front of her, then at the strange man clutching his eye and muttering something about "possibly abnormal intracranial pressure," and finally at the woman who remained calm and alert, shotgun still in hand.
Maybe... this wasn't a dead end.
Maybe these people could actually help.
Maggie steadied herself and began to explain.
"M-my name is Maggie. My husband and a friend were taken by the people in police uniforms at the hospital across the street. It happened this afternoon!
"I followed them here, trying to find a chance to rescue them. I thought... since you came from that direction and showed up here, you might be working with them, or maybe you were their scouts."
She paused and looked at Abraham.
"You... don't look like the kind of people who just grab strangers off the road. Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Abraham and Rosita exchanged a glance.
For a moment, silence filled the room.
The only sound was Eugene occasionally sucking in a pained breath.