Chapter 16

The first thing Emily felt when she woke up was a throbbing pain in her temple. She groaned as she tried to reach for it and message it but then she realised she couldn't move her hands. She slowly opened her eyes and saw herself sitting on a chair and a rope held her to it, binding her hands and legs.

'You know,' Robert said. 'One thing the scientists at Alka haven't been able to figure out is why the zombies don't attack the vaccinated.' Emily rose her head up and saw Robert sitting across from her with a small sadistic smile on his face. She remembered the events of hours before and wanted to shout at him but the gag in her mouth muffled her shout to near non-existence. 'It's like the zombies just know they can't do anything. They see us as superior beings.'

Emily struggled against her binds. She looked around the room for anything that could help her escape and that was when she saw the scores of unbound zombies standing motionless around her. Her jaw dropped and she began hyperventilating.

'Imagine my shock when these zombies didn't attack you.' He stood up from his wooden chair and took his time to walk over to her. 'How did you get vaccinated? Or is there something else about you?' She turned to him with her eyes burning in anger. 'I guess it doesn't really matter.'

'My son almost spoilt all my plans.' Lucy looked at the doorway where David was standing and sadly looking down at his feet. 'I will have to make up something for your absence. You're probably wondering why. After all the time you all took to get here, your friends are going to become the very thing you all were running away from.'

Emily remembered the others who were still lying on their beds, oblivious to what was happening. Tears welled at her eyes at the thought of their lives being in danger. 'I'm taking your reaction as fact that they aren't vaccinated.' He chuckled. 'The government isn't doing anything about the cure. Something has to be done. If there are no more survivors coming, they'll be forced to act.' He walked around her and to the zombies, looking at their faces one after the other.

'Don't worry, I will ensure to get your friends the cure when I get it. I always make sure to explain this to them after they've been drugged and they can't do anything to stop my plans. I'm not a wicked man. All the survivors were treated kindly before they were turned. Your friend, Tyler, is it? He wouldn't have given me enough time to treat you all well so I made sure he would sleep early and you all won't go.'

He stopped at the last zombie and his sadistic look turned to that of sadness. 'My poor Maggie.' He reached out and caressed the face of the zombie in front of him. 'My beautiful wife.' She made a groaning sound and he took his hand away from her face. He walked back to Emily and stood in front of her.

'All I'm doing is the government's fault. My wife was part of the military personnel charged to make sure the survivors got to the safe house. She had to stay at the borders so I decided to come back home and stay with her whenever she was on duty. Then, one day one of the survivors brought a zombie in, not wanting to let them go. They thought they had it under control but it still got loose and bit my wife.' His hands formed a fist and his face squeezed up in anger.

'We weren't vaccinated then. She begged her colleagues to let her see me one last time and they brought her here with a gun to her head.' His eyes became glassy. 'She turned in front of me. I pleaded with them to spare her and I was able to convince them there would be a cure. They were already working on the vaccine by then so they helped me tie her up and warned me it was a risk. But, it was a risk I was willing to take. The vaccine came out and my son and I got vaccinated but still, they didn't do anything about the cure.'

'More survivors hardly came and the borders weren't as watched anymore. One day, a survivor came to my home and I had to hide my wife so she wouldn't hurt him. I realised that if he was to get to the safe house, the military would be back at the borders again and they would be more focused on vaccinating them than finding a cure. I had to do something; something for the greater good.'

Emily screamed inaudibly and struggled fiercely against her binds, tears streaking down her face. 'Careful,' he said. 'If you make too much noise, the others will come here and the zombies will attack them. In the end, I win.' She slowly stopped moving and then began to sob. 'I'm sorry. You'll see later on that this is for all our good.'

He turned away from her and walked to the door. He held his son's shoulder and roughly pushed him out of the room. He gave her one last look and then he shut the door, leaving her in darkness.

***

Lucy stirred awake on her bed. She looked beside her and frowned when she didn't see Emily there. 'Emily?' she called out, facing the toilet but she didn't hear any response. She stood up and walked out of her room, thinking Emily must have woken up earlier and gone out.

When she walked out onto the corridor, the door opposite her opened and Tyler stepped out, stretching. 'Look who's up,' she said teasingly and he frowned playfully at her.

'I can't stay asleep when I've got my favourite person to see.'

She chuckled. 'That didn't stop you from dozing while you were eating yesterday.'

He scratched the back of his neck and bashfully looked away. 'Has Emily given you your early morning hug yet?'

'I actually haven't seen her yet.'

He shrugged. 'She probably just stepped out early. She must be excited we're finally going to the safe house today.'

Lucy smiled. 'As crazy as it sounds, I think I'm going to miss travelling with all of you.'

Tyler smirked at her. 'Yeah, me too.' He took a step closer to her, maintaining eye contact. 'I'm glad we made it… together.'

'Me too,' she said, her cheeks heating up.

Dave opened up the door, interrupting them. 'Good morning,' he happily said and they greeted him back. The three of them went downstairs and met Robert there, smiling at them.

'Good morning. I hope you all slept well?' he asked nicely, keeping up the act. They nodded and thanked him. 'I'm already preparing something for the road for you. I know you'll want to leave early.'

'Let me help out,' Lucy offered but he shook his head.

'Don't worry. I'll soon be done.'

Tyler looked into the living room and at the corridor leading to the kitchen. 'Have you seen Emily?' he asked Robert.

'She stepped out to take some air but I already told her about breakfast. She'll be back inside soon.'

Tyler nodded and then the three of them sat in the living room since the dining only had four chairs. Robert came back some minutes later with plates of food for four people and David come to them with a tray and five cups of juice on it. He placed it on the table and stepped away with his head bowed.

'Hi, David,' Lucy said but he looked away from her. He knew what was going to happen and even though his dad always said they were doing a good thing, he never felt right about it. He couldn't bring himself to look at their faces, knowing that they would become very sick soon.

'He'll smile again when Emily comes in,' Tyler joked and Lucy rolled her eyes at him.

When David heard her name, he imagined how frightened she would be in that room, just as how frightened he always was when his dad made him help with tying the zombies back. He knew he would have to help in tying the new zombies too. He became scared. He didn't want to do that anymore, but his dad was strict. His shoulder still ached from when his dad held him fiercely when he was angry that he told Emily about the zombies.

'I want to propose a toast,' Robert said as he held up one cup. 'To your successful journey here.'

They all held up their cups and chorused, 'cheers.'

'Daddy poisoned your drinks!' David quickly shouted.

They stopped short and looked at the boy. 'What?' Dave said.

'Daddy wants to make you sick.' Dave had his head down and he shook in fear.

'Don't mind him,' Robert said, standing up and frowning at him.

Dave looked at his drink unsettlingly and then he looked up at Robert. 'I'm sure you won't mind taking my drink then.' Robert froze and Tyler stood up angrily.

'I knew something was off.'

'Where's Emily?' Lucy worriedly asked, putting her drink down. 'You said she was coming in soon.'

'My son is just making things up,' Robert assured.

'He locked her up!' David shouted. Robert made a move to hit him but he ran away to the kitchen.

'Tell us where she is, now!' Dave angrily shouted, pointing a fork at him. Robert raised his hands in surrender. He went to the door where she was at and put the key in the keyhole.

'She's in here.' He opened the door. Dave and Tyler moved to the doorway and they saw Emily shaking her head at them with her eyes wide but it was too late. The zombies in the room snapped their heads to the doorway and they immediately rushed for them.

Dave and Tyler doubled back but Robert took a hold of Tyler's shoulder and pushed him to the zombies. Dave punched Robert away and Lucy pulled Tyler off the floor. They ran to the dining with the zombies hot on their heels. Lucy brought up a chair and slammed it into the first zombie that ran up to her.

In the disarray, David ran out of the kitchen with a knife in his hand. He made his way through the zombies still running out the door and to a frightened Emily. He ran to her back and began cutting through the rope expertly.

'Don't worry, Emily.' He freed her hands and began cutting at the binds on her legs. She removed the gag in her mouth and breathed in deeply. Just as her feet got freed, Robert stepped into the room.

'David!' he shouted angrily. Emily quickly stood up and the rest of the rope fell off her body. She took the knife from David and hid him behind her.

'Stay back!' she shouted, pointing the knife at him.

Robert laughed. 'This won't be the first time I'm dealing with something sharp.'

He came at her cautiously and dodged her attacks. He brought his leg up and kicked her hard in the gut. She fell to the ground, grunting in pain and missed falling on David by a centimetre. David looked at her worriedly. He turned to his dad in anger and jumped on him. Robert easily threw him off him but David didn't relent, he jumped on him again and again.

Emily slowly propped herself up with her arms. She reached for her knife that had flown a short distance away from her when she fell. She crawled to Robert and using the distraction David was making, she dug her knife deep into his calf and immediately brought it out so he would bleed. He shouted in pain and lifted his leg off the ground. Emily stood up, grabbed a bruised David by the arm and ran out of the room.

Outside was chaos. Lucy, Tyler and Dave could barely protect themselves but they couldn't just leave Emily behind. Lucy swung a chair wildly at the zombies near her. Tyler had picked up the serving tray and was hitting it hard on the heads of the zombies but it was barely good enough to kill them. Emily squeezed herself and David through the mob of zombies and once Tyler spotted her, he reached for the door and they ran out with the zombies still chasing after them.

They ran straight to the truck through the snow and Emily and David ran amidst the mob of zombies. Just before they could all get to the vehicle, a zombie leapt on Dave and knocked him down. Tyler turned back to help but the number of zombies coming to him and Lucy overwhelmed them. Emily saw the zombie on Dave and she immediately grabbed it by the shoulders and pushed it away. She fell on him and used her body to cover him so the other zombies wouldn't come too near to him.

Lucy and Tyler jumped into the cargo bed, got their guns loaded and started firing at the zombies. David saw the zombies falling one after the other and he frantically searched the mob for his mother. He found her and ran to her.

'David!' Emily screamed when he left but she couldn't get off Dave so he would get bit. David touched his mum and she froze. He pulled her down to the ground and held onto her so they wouldn't shoot her.

When the zombies still standing became few, Lucy didn't want to waste time reloading her gun. She picked up the sickle and began impaling them as they came to the vehicle until they were all down. They all breathed heavily once the danger was taken care of. Emily crawled off Dave and then he stood up, looking at her gratefully. She turned to David who was still protecting his mother.

She began walking toward him when the front door of the house opened and Robert limped out, holding a gun. 'I can't let you leave,' he said and aimed his gun at Emily. Dave saw him and then ran to Emily to push her away. Robert pulled the trigger and the bullet sunk into Dave's back.

Tyler's eyes widened in shock as Dave fell to the ground. His shocked look transformed into that of anger and he pointed his gun at Robert with his eyes ablaze. Before he knew what he was doing, he had pulled the trigger three times and Robert fell backwards with his face a mess of torn-up flesh and shattered bone.

Tyler let his gun fall from his hand and tears welled up in his eyes. He jumped off the cargo bed with Lucy following behind and he rushed to Dave's side. The snow around Dave had turned pink and he couldn't move a muscle. Tyler knelt beside him and turned him over to see the wound. There was too much blood. He tried covering it with his hands and applying pressure on it but the blood kept pumping out.

Dave made a groaning sound and Tyler turned him back. He was struggling to keep his eyes open but he was getting weaker by the second. He looked at Lucy, at Emily and then at Tyler who had tears coming out of his eyes. He was happy they were all safe, and then he saw Helena smiling at him one last time. He exhaled and closed his eyes in death.

Tyler shook him with tears running down his face but Dave was gone. He buried his face in Dave's chest and muffled his sobs and Lucy and Emily cried on either side of him. They carried him up and put him in the cargo bed. Emily got David and told him his mum couldn't come along since she could hurt them. He left her reluctantly after he was assured that she was safer alone and they left.

David could barely remember the way back to the safe house but he was able to guide them till they found some military personnel heading towards the borders in their vehicle. They explained to them what happened. Afterwards, they were guided back to the safe house. Tyler and Lucy got vaccinated, Emily took David under her care and Dave was given a proper burial.