Climbing

Summary
Lawrence takes Ryker on a car ride to San Francisco another time telling him it's just another looting event until they pull up to the Financial District in front of a skyscraper. Lawrence leaves the car and Ryker does the same.

Lawrence gives Ryker climbing gear and tells him to put it on, Ryker does just so, albeit reluctantly. Lawrence begins to climb up the skyscraper and is confused as to why Lawrence is doing that, he turns back around and faces Ryker and tells him to start climbing. Ryker still staying on the ground asks why, and says that can't be good for Lawrence's back.

Lawrence tells him the most resources are at the very top of the skyscraper and the elevator is broken as well as the stairs are completely boarded up. Ryker sighs and begins to climb the skyscraper as well. After around twenty minutes of climbing, Ryker accidentally looks down and realizes how high up they are, then begins to freak out.

"Is it really worth dying by falling off a skyscraper for a few coffee bags!" Ryker yells to Lawrence who at this point was about a dozen feet above him.

"Any resource we can get our hands on only means that you get to live longer, so yes, it's worth the risk." Lawrence shouts back down. Ryker sighs and continues to climb up, the backpack he's wearing for gathering resources ends up dropping the water bottle that was within it and falling down at a million miles an hour. Ryker looks down in horror once more than takes a deep breath and holds his head against the glass of the building trying to stay calm.

"If you freak out and cause you're climbing gear to fall, then I guarantee you'll fall, but if you just stay calm you'll be fine." Lawrence shouts back down. Ryker sighs then continues to climb, eventually reaching the near top of the building.

As Ryker reaches the floor directly below the final floor, his climbing gear eventually snaps and he's just about to fall, but Lawrence grabs Ryker's wrists and painfully and barely just drags Ryker up to the roof of the building.

Ryker collapses on the ground and stares at the sky for a few minutes, shell shocked, then turns to Lawrence.

"Why didn't you let me fall? If you let me fall you could've gotten rid of me." Ryker asks, genuinely confused.

"If you fell, that Aaron kid would never agree to another blood transfusion ever again." Lawrence grunts.

Lawrence walks over to a rooftop entrance and kicks open the door leading a stairwell to the final floor. They both walk into it and began looting the final floor. Eventually, Ryker gets curious and walks over to the elevator and pushes the button, realizing it goes down.

Ryker realizes what's happened and angrily walks back to Lawrence and shouts.

"The elevator worked this whole time! I could've died climbing the building but there was a way up this whole time?!"

Lawrence sighs as he puts water bottles into a duffel bag, then turns to Ryker.

"There's a war coming, kid. I needed to see how you do under the pressure of being half an inch from death, now i'm afraid when you're within a centimeter of it you'll cause havoc." Lawrence sighs.