2.26

"Hi, I'm Laura," a petite woman stood by Dr. John's side, "I was Dr. John's med student before the…" her voice wavered unable to continue.

Dr. John smiled warmly, taking over the conversation, "Laura here will be just as secretive as I am, for now," he nudged me to take a seat, then sat down himself, not caring it Laura followed suit, "plus, some of the examinations can be a bit, scary, for a single female."

I blushed, remembering that the baby was going to come out of me and that someone had to actually deliver the thing.

I groaned, sinking into the chair wishing to hide.

"The blood results are okay aren't they?" He shouldn't be smiling so damn much if they weren't. He seemed more excited than I'd expected at the prospect of getting to deliver a baby during the apocalypse.

He explained that he worked with children since graduating, only having worked in gynae whilst studying. Never once got to deliver a child himself, but he had seen it done.

"Yes, well into six digits and climbing nicely," he smiled, and I smiled back, not having a clue what that meant or how he had tested me with limited supplies.

"Going off your period and these results I am certain you're at least twelve weeks now."

"So, so," I repeated myself in a dazed voice doing the maths in my head. Did that mean Hannah was already pregnant when she killed herself? How did she survive? Why hadn't System said anything? Why had it disappeared when I needed it the most? I felt tears creep out of my eyes.

"Aww," Laura cooed, making me feel twice as young as I already felt, and pulled me into a tight embrace, "it's alright Dr. John's amazing, your baby will be fine."

But we were leaving soon.

"I-I took a plan B at that time though," I frowned, remembering clearly Hannah buying a plan B. Trying not to feel hopeful that I'd get to see those little round eyes in my dream full of life.

"That one only works before ovulation," Dr. John explained as if this wasn't the first time he was having this talk, "if you took it during or just after ovulation then it would be ineffective."

Though I had been just as careless, trusting System, still I felt a tiny bit relieved that I could at least shift some guilt and now blame the original Hannah for this major fuck up. Then I felt even more immature at the thought. Now wasn't the time to point fingers.

"Anyway, without an ultrasound, I cannot really tell you for a certain date of conception," I blushed realising he wasn't even sparing me some face in front of Laura. I'd told him the second time we'd met without a chaperone that I was unsure of the father.

"Either way, you've made it to the end of the first trimester, my little patient is about the size of a plum now."

My thumb dug into the sweater, pressing against the slightly more solid lump a few inches under my rounding stomach. How much longer could I just pretend to have put on weight before Will notices?

How could I tell him? He had not long buried his own child, a child that Hannah had had to put out of his semi-dead misery. Hannah in the dream had not the willpower to do it to her own child, leaving Noah to…

More tears now fell, despite my trying so hard to hold them in. I glanced at the clock on the wall over Laura's shoulder, who was still trying to console me. It was half past seven, at this rate Will would really come and find me.

A shrill scream broke the awkward silence as Laura hugged me whilst Dr. John read a book on pregnancy, with the twelve-week page open.

"What was that?" Laura asked, shivering, she'd heard that kind of scream before. Anybody still alive now would have heard someone scream like that at least once, that was the scream of someone dying.

"Stay here," Dr. John jumped up, leaving us standing staring at the door for his return. A few minutes later he burst through the door and reached for the shutters to go down.

"Trouble?" I asked, bending to try and see what was going on. Glancing back at him I noticed specks of blood on his crisp white shirt.

"Gates gone," he said as if still in denial whilst Laura began stuffing medications into a gym bag.

"Gone?" The gates were so heavy that it took two power users to open them, how could they just disappear?

"There are hundreds of them," he placed his hand on his heart, "I'm so close to calling it quits."

"Wait, hundreds of zombies, no gate," whilst I was slowly overcoming my denial at his words remembering the way the trees had called out for food earlier in the week. Fuck, my brain had been too muddled lately.

In the background Laura continued to rummage through drawers, her hands trembling as she lifted boxes and bottles to read labels.

I heard a thump against the metal shutter alongside a growl and the strangled cry of someone's throat being ripped out. It disturbed me more that I recognised the sound than the fact it was happening only one thin pane of glass and metal away from me.

With the wall around us and only one gate in and out. Everybody was sitting ducks, these weren't the rotting corpses loitering about when I went into my coma. These bastards were faster, agile, and able to climb stairs and fight back. With a more sensitive hearing and sense of smell, though thankfully most still couldn't see well. How long that would last though…

"I need to get to my brother," I glanced back at the clock, unless he came searching for me they should all be in the dorms. Which were right next to the gates. Shit. If anyone could make it out it would be those from the special forces; however, everyone else…

"Nope," Dr. John yanked me back from the door by my jumper, pulling me to the backroom behind the counter where Laura was still diligently going through the medicines to pick which to pack in her bag. Seeing the turmoil on her face I debated whether or not to expose my space. Before I could get a chance I saw Dr. John pat Laura on the shoulder and whisper something in her ear. She passed the bag to him and ran up the stairs.

"Don't suppose if I asked you to close your eyes you really would?" He laughed, then let out a heavy sigh.

Then drawer by drawer he tossed them into his bag, not even making an effort to try and hide the Mary Poppin-like bag as I had with Leo and Holly.

"Wait, you're an immortal too," I sprang to his side, clutching his arm desperately. System had been quiet for so long now, that I was beginning to worry it had all been a delusion. Maybe I really was Hannah and simply took one too many recreational drugs.

"Tyrion, or Ty, nice to meet you," Dr. John, no Ty, nodded his head as if giving a formal greeting, then continued to pillage the pharmacy for anything useful, leaving just a bulge of random meds in his bag.

When Laura returned he took the longsword she offered, she was geared up ready to leave, though weaponless. Could she not fight? Instead, she put on the bag, reminding me of how Alex and his teammates often travelled.

Would Alex and the boys make it out of here okay? Remembering the way they fought tooth and nail on the beach I tried to calm my breath.

Stress was not good for the baby. I needed to relax. Relax. Neither potential baby daddy would die, not that it mattered, she was mine, all mine, and unlike in the dream, she was still alive.