Shane spun around and yanked the door open, only to be hit by a suffocating stench of decay.
Outside the doorway, the yellow raincoat lay silently on the floor, soaked through with blood and shredded flesh.
"Louis…"
Shane whispered the name, his vision blurring as his eyes reddened.
He remembered the boy's forced smile.
"I am a Wizard."
"I don't have a home anymore."
An eleven-year-old child, clinging to what looked like an innocent fairy tale, had accomplished something most adults would never even dare attempt.
And yet, Shane had no idea where the boy was now. He did not know whether Louis was safe, or even still alive.
Every instinct screamed at him to go search the streets and find the kid.
But the final lines of the letter echoed in his mind, stopping him in his tracks.
"There are more important people waiting for you."
"They must be very scared and lonely right now, just like I was before."
Lori. Carl.
Shane's breathing grew heavy.
He knew he could not waste the chance Louis had risked his life to create.
Grinding his teeth, he packed every last supply into his backpack and stepped toward the door. He looked down at the disgusting raincoat one last time, his eyes hardening with resolve.
On a bench down the street, Louis had been quietly watching the office building.
Soon enough, Shane appeared.
To Louis's surprise, Shane did not leave immediately.
It seemed the impression Louis had deliberately left behind ran deeper than expected.
Shane searched the surrounding streets again and again, calling out and checking every corner from morning until well into the afternoon. Only when he found a functioning car parked nearby did he finally leave the area, driving away reluctantly.
Once Louis was certain Shane was gone for good, he stood up from the bench, stretched his aching body, and returned to the office building they had used as shelter.
For now, this would be his safe house.
The reasons were straightforward.
First, the structure was solid. Every ground-floor door and window had been reinforced with heavy furniture, and the building had already been cleared, leaving no hidden Walkers inside.
Second, the view from the upper floors was excellent, allowing him to monitor movement in the surrounding area.
Most importantly, from the manager's office window, he had a clear view of the hospital across the street.
According to the original timeline, Rick Grimes would soon wake up there.
The moment Rick appeared, it would mark the true beginning of the Walking Dead storyline. That would give Louis the most accurate possible reference point for the unfolding plot.
Exhaustion finally caught up with him.
He resecured the barricade downstairs, returned to the manager's office, ate a small amount of food, and fell into a deep sleep that lasted until the next morning.
When Louis woke up, he felt better than ever.
His strength had mostly recovered, and his mind was sharp and clear.
After briefly organizing his thoughts, he began preparing for the day's exploration.
Ideally, he would have left the suitcase full of books behind, but no matter how he considered it, Louis could not bring himself to do so.
Those textbooks were essential to his magic. If something happened to him while scavenging, or if the building caught fire, losing them would be catastrophic.
After careful consideration, he found a hiking pack in a nearby store, packed the suitcase inside it, and headed out with the pack on his back and the invisibility cloak draped over him.
His current strength was limited, so he focused on essentials first. Food and water came before medicine, and medicine came before weapons.
Louis worked like a tireless ant, traveling repeatedly between the safe house and nearby convenience stores and pharmacies.
During this process, he developed an ingenious method.
He found a large coat and smeared it with Walker blood and flesh, just as he had done with the raincoat earlier.
Scavenged supplies such as canned food and bottled water were placed into a large bag, which he completely concealed beneath the invisibility cloak.
Louis himself wore the bloodied coat. Beneath it, he held his wand and cast the Levitation Charm on the invisible load.
To any observer, he appeared to be nothing more than a thin, exhausted child in filthy clothes, carrying an empty pack while struggling to survive.
No one could imagine that beside him, a massive invisible cache of supplies was floating effortlessly through the air under magical control.
This method ensured his safety and solved the problem of weight.
Through constant use, his control over the Levitation Charm improved rapidly.
Although he still could not cast silently or without a wand, he could now lift himself off the ground for dozens of seconds and even perform short gliding movements.
Once he had gathered enough supplies to last one or two weeks, Louis stopped venturing out.
He returned to the safe house and began lying low, officially entering the stage of true magical growth.
Perhaps because his first successful spell had unlocked his perception of magical flow, his progress accelerated noticeably.
Over the following days, he successfully mastered two additional highly practical spells from the Practical Spells Encyclopedia.
"Aguamenti" and "Scourgify."
Louis chose to learn these two spells for entirely practical reasons.
The former allowed him to break free from dependence on bottled water and maintain a continuous supply of clean drinking water.
The latter let him restore scavenged clothes and tools that were caked with dust and blood, making them look brand new. More importantly, it spared him from having to endure the nauseating stench of decay that clung to everything.
Naturally, Louis also attempted to learn more offensive spells such as Incendio, Protego, and Expelliarmus.
But there were two major obstacles.
First, he lacked higher-grade textbooks, which made studying advanced magic extremely difficult. Second, the complexity of those spells far exceeded his expectations. With his current magical capacity and understanding, he simply could not cast them successfully.
Even Aguamenti had been barely mastered. A spell that could be weaponized through water pressure in the original world could, in his hands, only produce enough water to drink.
"Still too weak."
The thought made Louis frown.
The spells he currently possessed were excellent for survival and comfort, but if he encountered hostile survivors, they would be woefully insufficient for self-defense.
Just as frustration crept into his thoughts, a faint but unmistakably deliberate sound rose from downstairs.
Click. Creak.
It was not the dull, mindless collision of Walkers.
Every hair on Louis's body stood on end.
He froze instantly, extinguished the flashlight, and melted into the darkness. Pressing his ear against the cold floor, he listened intently.
Soon, muffled voices drifted up from below, low and restrained, yet unable to conceal their vulgar undertones.
"Fuck, this door's blocked like hell. Someone definitely stayed here," a hoarse male voice muttered.
"Even better if they're alive. Bet there's plenty of supplies," another voice replied.
A third voice followed, laced with sickening lewdness. "Hope it's a pretty girl. Haven't had a taste of fresh meat in days."
"Enough bullshit. Move faster," an impatient voice snapped, clearly the leader. "Shift the furniture. Search every corner. Don't miss anything."
The words slithered into Louis's ears like venomous snakes.
His blood ran cold.
The warmth drained from his face as his blue eyes hardened instantly.
This was no random encounter.
A group of ill-intentioned survivors had broken into his safe house.