Chapter 12- They Will Pay

“How long will it take us to get to D2?” Lia asked as she helped barricade the front doorway.

“It normally takes eighteen days. But there are officers patrolling everywhere and then there’s the mutated zombie as well. It’s hard to say,” Rina explained.

She would traverse between here and D2 so we could trust her estimation, but with all the obstacles that are appearing we were stuck.

“Let’s not be hasty, we’ll stay here for the rest of the day and monitor the situation,” Demi said just as he finished barricading the doorway.

Everyone agreed with him. We barely managed to escape earlier, and we’re not sure how fast this mutation would spread. The safest option would be to wait it out.

Night fell and I laid on the bed as I stared at the ceiling. Lia and Demi were taking turns to keep watch, we may have a roof over our heads but we couldn’t let our guards down. It would’ve been better if it was Rina keeping guard but she’s been acing strange since earlier. I thought I would have a chance to talk to her but after everyone finished eating, she locked herself in one of the rooms.

I let out a sigh as I got up. Nothing will happen if I just lay here, it’d best if we sort this out now. I approached the door but stopped in my tracks when she spoke.

‘You know she’s purposely distancing herself from you. Why do you still approach her? You know better than anyone that your love for your family is never reciprocated.’

The End was cruel at times like these. She would forcefully feed me the truth. I found it difficult to answer her, Rina was more than a best friend to me, she was like a sister. But my feelings are one sided, there was a point in time where it was evident that she viewed me as a sister as well, but those times are long gone.

I know that I’ll end up chasing after her love like I did with mother, but I can’t help it. I know that I have two friends who care about me now, but I still want my family to love me. I know that me doing this is useless, but what else am I supposed to do?

A sharp pain shot through my head as I clutched it and slumped to the ground. I bit my lip as a scream threatened to burst from my mouth. Everyone was already worried about our situation; I can’t burden them.

As tears of pain fell from my eyes, I saw The End approach me. She knelt and reach her hand out, gently caressing my hair.

‘Doubt causes pain. I told you before, do not doubt your actions. Fully accept them, make your choices and follow through with them. Do not hesitate, do not hide and do not run away. Now, tell me, what is it that you want us to do?’

I couldn’t answer her. I want the pain and nightmares to stop, that’s all I want.

And so, I laid there and eventually succumbed to the pain.

“…ay……..k…..up…May….ke…p..”

I slowly opened my eyes. Lia supported me as I got up and guided me to sit.

“What happened?” Rina asked after Lia helped me sit on the bed.

“I…I think I had a dream. But I can’t remember what I saw,” as I said this, I noticed The End wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“What?!” She exclaimed in anger, “How can you not remember what you saw? What the hell are we supposed to do now?!”

“Why don’t you calm the hell down four-eyes. Your best friend was passed out on the floor so a little concern would be appreciated right now,” Lia defended.

“Concern? Do you think we have the time for that? If I showed concern for every little thing that happened to her how the hell would she grow up?” Rina shot back.

Lia stomped toward her and grabbed her shirt, “Grow up? Since yesterday you’ve been nothing but a child throwing a tantrum! You know what I mean when I say to show concern for her so what the hell is wrong with you, huh?!”

She clicked her tongue and grabbed Lia’s collar, “Say that again emo bitch!”

The two of them argued back and forth and things were quickly getting heated. If this went on, zombies would be alerted of our location.

“Stop them,” I pleaded with Demi.

He glanced at me for a second before walking up to the two of them, “I think that’s enough ladies, unless you want us to become zombie food.”

They continued to glare at each other for a while before finally letting go of the other’s collar.

I left out a relived sigh and massaged my forehead, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you Rina, but at this rate we’ll be at each other’s throats before the zombies. Go cool your head off.”

“Oh? So you’re ordering me around now?” She said as she took a step forward.

Demi and Lia shielded me in response. My heart ached at this; my only family left was threatening me. I swallowed the lump in my throat and mustered up all the courage I could.

I walked passed the two of them and grabbed her shirt, “Go cool your head off now or you’re on your own from now on, Rina Rosenberg.”

Everyone was surprised by my statement but Rina was the first to recover, “So you’ll abandon me like you abandoned those people in D4?”

“Would you have preferred us all to die then?” I countered.

She clicked her tongue, her expression filled with frustration and anger. It didn’t take long for her to storm off.

I held my head as I felt the pain from last night resurfacing, and with it, fragments of my dream.

“You okay?” Lia asked.

“My dream from last night is coming back to me in bits and pieces,” I said, grimacing from the pain.

“Take your time,” Demi said as he rubbed my back

The action was strange, but not unwelcome. I could feel Lia eyeing us but thankfully she kept quiet.

“Can you use your ID watch to hijack a vehicle for us Lia?” I asked.

From the fragments of my dream that I recalled, I saw Lia driving us as we were escaping from a mutated zombie. Things will get worse by tomorrow so we had to move quickly. The zombies were mutating at a fast rate and the District Officers were no longer winning. The death rates were quickly rising as well.

Seeing who died was a curse, but thanks to that I knew which route we could take. If we keep driving without stopping at any houses on the way for rest, we would make it in five days.

After I finished explaining Demi spoke up, “I’ll show her how to hijack the hover-car. In the meantime, you should pack as much supplies as you can. We’ll have to prepare for the situation in D2 as well, but that’ll have to wait until we see the state that it’s in.”

“Actually…there aren’t any zombies in D2” I stated.

“What?” Lia retorted, confused. “Then why was there a mass lockdown?”

“I don’t know,” I replied.

I didn’t miss the dark expression on Demi’s face. Lia didn’t know his identity, so I couldn’t ask him anything right now.

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Demi and Lia had successfully secured a car for us, Rina and I were filling the truck with supplies when I saw a chance to speak with Demi. I asked her to give me a few minutes and approached the others.

“Can I talk to you for a moment Demi?” I asked.

Lia smirked at me and walked away with a playful expression. I am one hundred percent sure she misunderstood why I asked to talk with him, but I’ll deal with that later.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“Earlier, you looked like you knew something. I think I should know. I haven’t recalled the full dream yet, so maybe your information can help me if it’s related,” I explained.

He pondered for a while before speaking, “I told you before that my father was the one who spread this infection right?”

I nodded; he had mentioned that he thought it was him, but I didn’t expect his suspicions to be correct. To think that the President would do this to his own people.

“Firstly, I would like to apologize. That night, when your apartment was broken into, I was the one who reported it,” he said sincerely as my eyes widened in shock. “I was secretly investigating a serum that my father had created a few years ago. Turns out it was one of the many viruses he had created. I had managed to get rid of most of them over the years but only one managed to slip though my fingers. That very serum is the chaos we’re seeing today, the reason why the residents of D2 are unaffected……is because almost all of them have funded the project.”

I was speechless. How could people be so mad as to fund something like this? What could they ever say to justify the lives that have been lost for their own sick and twisted gain, if any?!

I clenched my fists in anger. My suffering is their fault, the blood of the people who died is on their hands.

“Guys! We’re finished here so we should get going,” Lia signaled.

“We should go before Lia says anything inappropriate,” he quickly changed the subject and walked away.

I felt a stinging pain in my palms. My nails had dug into my flesh from how hard I was clenching my fists. I watched the blood slowly surface to the bruises and as I looked up The End was staring at me.

Emotions that I didn’t know I was capable of feeling were quickly rising in me, but my mind was focused. I would make all of them pay.