Xander waved at his friends. “Hold up.”

He returned to the hallway and unscrewed a leg from a wooden chair. He hefted it, testing its weight. It was solid enough to do some damage. He handed it to Li.

She stared at the chair leg. “Do you think we’re going to need weapons?” she asked.

Xander answered, “We have to be ready for anything.”

He unscrewed two more chair legs, one for Priya and one for himself. Once armed, they made their way down the stairs. The light below seemed to flicker. As they reached the landing and turned the corner, Priya spotted the source. Set beside an open door was an old-fashioned lantern. The candle wick inside cast an eerie orange glow on the walls.

Priya reached the bottom of the stairwell and peered through the open doorway. More lanterns were spaced out along a corridor that ended at a set of metal doors.

The gang crept in.

Xander gripped his chair leg, ready for an attack. Priya eyed the doors along the corridor. She signaled the others to stop and listen.

They could make out a faint murmur of voices.

Xander glanced at Priya. She frowned and said, “I hear them too.”

Li twisted her hands around her chair leg. “If they hurt Omar...”

Xander took a step toward the doors and spotted the sign above them. Morgue. “You were right,” he said.

Priya shrugged.

“Omar has to be inside,” Li whispered. “And alive.”

She pressed her hand against one of the doors, but Priya grabbed her wrist. She tapped her right ear. They leaned closer to hear the voices on the other side.

“Dude, all you had to do was split,” a gruff-sounding man said.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were here,” said a familiar voice.

Li turned to the others. “That’s him. It’s Omar.”

Priya put a finger to her lips. “Shh. We need to know how many people are in there.”

A woman interrupted. “Quest, what’s your bag, man? The plan was to scare the kids away, not take hostages.”

The one called Quest answered, “Rainbow, let me think. Just chill.”

“Please. Let me go,” Omar pleaded.

“Took us a long time to set up our home here, dude,” Quest said. “And you think we’re going to let you go and tell the fuzz? No way. Winter is almost here, man. I don’t plan on waiting in line at the shelter for a lumpy bed.”

“I won’t tell anyone. I swear,” Omar said.

“Don’t flip out, dude,” the woman said. “We need time to think.”

Xander stepped back and whispered to Li and Priya, “They’re squatters, I think. Homeless people living here.”

Li shook her head. “No. They’re kidnappers.”

“Whoever they are, we have to get Omar away from them,” Priya said. “We have to call the police.”

Xander chewed his bottom lip, unsure. Li slid the chair leg under her arm and reached into a pocket to pull out her phone. As she lifted the device to her face, the chair leg slipped out. Xander tried to catch it, but he was too slow. The wooden leg clattered on the tiled floor.