I was startled awake by voices. I sat up and was fully awake within moments. The cold morning light was assaulting my eyes, but I saw the others standing at the window looking down. I ran to join them. 
"What is it?" I asked. 
But my question was answered for me. Down below, tethered to a street light pole, was a horse. It flicked its tail and pawed at the ground restlessly. 
"Oh," I said. My heart sank. "How long has it been there?" 
"We're not sure," Jules said angrily. 
"Dammit," Adept said, messing with his gun and clicking mechanisms into place. 
"No humans yet, though?" I said. 
"None yet," Adept said. He would see them before the rest of us, that was for sure. 
"We going to wait them out?" Ashton asked. 
"We'll have to," Jules said. "One horse means one rider and that usually means they're setting a sniper." 
"Then I'm going to find him," Adept said with finality, throwing the rifle strap over his shoulder and running off without another word. I was going to say something, but Jules gave me a look that said don't bother. 
"So we wait," Spec said, and it was clear he was very nervous. 
"Yeah," Jules breathed. "We'll give Adept enough time to find him. He's good at that kind of thing. Then we can leave." 
"Wish he would have said something before leaving," Ashton said, bristling with irritation. "Is he going to meet us back here? How long should we wait?" He finished off his rant with some ill-tempered muttering. 
"Just calm down," Jules said, rolling her eyes. "We'll just wait for..." 
"For what?" 
"For something to happen, I don't know, okay?" She was visibly mad, now. We quieted down. 
We resigned to killing time until "something happened", as Jules had so aptly put it. But nothing happened for the majority of the day. We kept a sharp eye on the horse, but it just stood there and ate grass. We also watched the surrounding buildings and streets. Ashton put his good hearing to use listening for any gunshots or sounds of a fight. 
Ashton lent me one of the books he picked up. I can't say that I actually comprehended much of it, or even read it at all, but it gave my eyes something to focus on and dull the edge that anxiety brought. I tried to place the bad and good guys, the mythical figured Ashton sought. But how could I focus on something like that? How could I ignore the fact that good guys absolutely didn't exist in the real world? We were all the villains here, some just more vicious and cruel than the others. 
"What was that?" Ashton said suddenly, standing up and looking out the window all at once. That got our attention. I shut the book and ran over. 
"What?" I said. 
"I think... it's the sound of the author not knowing where this scene is going," Ashton said. 
"I hear it, too," I said. 
"That's the saddest sound I've ever heard," Jules said, laughing.