Chapter 17 - Captured

The officers stopped firing st us as we stopped but they kept a distance. It seems they truly believed that I caused this and were being cautious. Demi took this chance to contact his people. He was working quickly, the officers won't stay still for long.

In less than three minutes Demi was finished organizing everything on his end.

"There's a lot of things I probably haven't accounted for, but we will get there safely. I'll make sure they aren't rough with you two. Now, are you ready?" Demi asked with conviction. 

"Ready," we both said in unison. 

Demi nodded and opened his door, slowly getting out of the car with his hands raised. Lia and I followed him. We walked away from the car and stopped a few feet away to show we weren't up to anything funny.

It didn't take long for the officers to get out of their car. Some stayed behind with their guns pointed to us, as three of them approached. 

They cautiously put the hand cuffs on us and took away our weapons. When they were sure everything was safe they guided us to their cars.

"Some heinous villain, at least she's smart enough to know when to give up," the man, I assume who is their commander, spoke up as we were about to enter the cars.

He looked like your typical corrupted cop, balding with a sleazy look on his face.

"A shame I won't be the one interrogating you, but I'll be sure you have a very comfortable esort there," he laughed as he eyed Lia and I.

I swear, no matter the timeline there are idiots who get drunk off power as soon as they get a high position. Wait, why did I think that?

"You're the one responsible for this so I'll personally escort you in my car," he said and reached for me.

Demi stepped in between us and threatened, "Try anything funny with either of them and I'll make sure that you're mangled by zombies."

The man took a step back in freight. You could see how uncomfortable some of his subordinates were too. 

I mean seriously? Who hits on a suspect that started a zombie outbreak?

The man coughed awkwardly and left as we were told to get in the car. As we sat down I examined the handcuffs, I've seen a few criminals arrested on TV before and they wore different ones. These covered from my fingers straight to my elbows and they locked them together. It was uncomfortable. 

"They only use these on dangerous criminals to stop them from escaping," Demi leaned down and explained to me.

I was caught off guard by his sudden closeness so I flinched and Lia laughed. Demi chuckled as well. I swear none of them can stay serious for long.

"So where are we going Mr. Officers?" Lia asked after a while.

They didn't answer her so she decided to annoy them, "Come on, you arrested my friends and I so you can at least let us know our fate. Tell us."

She started to repeatedly kick the back of the seat when they ignored her. 

Finally getting fed up the officer exclaimed, "We're going to the D2 gates! From there you'll be escorted to D1 for interrogation. Now please, shut up."

As he said this I recalled something Demi told me about, "The gates? Not the warp stations?"

Demi's head snapped towards me, it seems like he forgot about those too. But it was suspicious, the warp stations would be much easier and less risky.

"Shouldn't you know what happened since you released these zombies?" The driver shot back snarkly.

"If I did would I be asking right now?" I retorted sarcastically. 

"You could be feigning ignorance. It won't be the first time criminal scum like you tried it," he spat hateful.

"You seem to harbour a hatred for criminals. Mixing your personal feelings with business? What a terrible cop," Demi provoked.

"Say that again and I'll make you regret it you bastard!" He seethe.

Demi continued his provocations for a while until the other officer stepped in.

It seems like we have to tone it down a bit for now. We need to have them change our escorts when we reach D2, that's the only way to ensure everything goes smoothly. 

Before we exited the car Demi had given us more instructions on what to do. After we were captured we'd provoke the officers, forcing them to switch our escorts at the D2 gates checkpoint. I'm not sure what happened to the warp gates, but it's a good thing we didn't base our plan off of them.

______

We've been driving for hours. It would take us a few more days to reach the gates. There was the occasional stop here and there to eliminate zombies that blocked us but otherwise they wouldn't even stop for a toilet break.

One thing that changed throughout our arrest was the sirens and notices. The sirens had been turned off and the notices now had a captured stamp across my photo. Demi and Lia were also up there too.

I don't think I saw this many people who weren't infected in a while too. It was an odd sight with everything that happened these past few days.

"We'll be stopping at the super-center that's coming up to stock up on supplies since this will be a long drive. Let  me know if you criminals are allergic to anything so I can get it," the driver said snarkly.

"I'm allergic to your father but I bet he didn't tell you that," Lia said sasily and I struggled not to laugh.

It seems this ticked him off a lot because he slammed the breaks and was about to get out of the car.

"Dude they're doing it on purpose, calm down!" His partner tried to reason.

"That's right, listen to your boyfriend before I beat your ass," She taunted again.

The man started throwing curses at her as she provoked him more. I nudged her to tone it down a bit since the other cars stopped and the commander came up to the car.

It seems we provoked them too well.

He knocked on the windown, "What's going on in here?"

"She-" he stopped mid-sentence.

What was he going to say? We told him about his father and he got upset? 

"Nothing sir, I just fell asleep for a moment," he gritted out.

His commander seemed to buy it and he explained, "Well then you're in luck officers. There's a refugee camp coming up and we'll be going there instead of the super-center. HQ just told me they saw an increase in the number of zombies."

After saying that he walked back to his car and drove off. The officers shot us a glare and followed him. 

For some reason a feeling of dred started to rise. Demi noticed and asked if I was okay. I told him I was and shook it off. But I knew that was useless, whenever I had a bad feeling it was always justified. This time I'll have to try and prepare for anything.

Though my self-assurance struggled to assert itself as the camp grew closer.