BEYOND THE DEAD ZONE | COMPLETE

Eighteen |

Eighteen |

"I'm afraid."

My fingers twitched at the noise. Cerci's voice.

"You don't have to be baby girl," Valen replied but the stress in his voice was undeniable, "You're safe. She won't turn."

"I'm not afraid of that—I'm afraid for her!"

The longer they talked, the more I was dragged out of the darkness. Light danced across my eyelids and I could smell dirt and salt. My body was hot, I felt like I had a cold and confusion filled me for a long moment. Until the memories of what had happened filled my mind, and I felt my stomach lurched.

"Cici," Valen whispered.

"Something's wrong—with all of this."

"I know."

There was another pause, and I found my strength slowly returning to me.

"Maria—Maria talked. She had something left in her mind. She could fight a bit."

"I know," Valen hissed, "I know what that means."

I peeled my eyes open, it felt like they'd been dried together. I let out a small breath, looking around the room. We were in what once looked like a gas station. I was set up on a makeshift bed behind the counter, Valen sat in the opening beside Flash and Cici sat on the counter, her knees pressed to her chest.

"W-what does that mean?" I managed, my throat so dry, I could feel my lips cracking as I forced the rough words through my lips, "W-what does any of this mean?"

They flinched at the sound of my voice, relief passing their faces.

Cici began, "Eero you're—"

"It means they're evolving." Valen cut her off.

My eyes widened but I don't really know why I acted shocked. That was the truth. I had known it since Rose died—there was something wrong with the zombies and that was their evolution. That's why I wanted to find out who was behind the dome—their evolution wasn't normal. I'd learned about evolution from class and it was supposed to happen over years and years—not in the spawn of five years. Not to mention what Ophelia had said on the walkie, it meant something was speeding up the zombie's evolution.

This was all planned.

And Rose was used as a lab rat. My fists tightened as I struggled to sit up. My head felt heavy but other than that I felt fine. I didn't feel any sort of hunger that Maria and Rose spoke off, I felt like I had a cold but nothing more.

Why?

"How's Flash?" I asked.

Valen smiled slightly, "It's been three days but she hasn't turned. Her tails healing."

No thanks to me. I looked down at my hands, "I'm glad."

"I'm glad you didn't turn," he replied, "But I was pretty confident."

My eyes rolled, "Three days? We need to get moving."

"Can you?" Cerci whispered, hopping down to kneel beside me, she pressed her hand to my forehead, "Can you move yet?"

I nodded. It didn't matter how horrible I felt, if I could move then we would. We couldn't stay in one place for so long, we had to move. So, I dragged myself up slowly, both Cici and Valen helping me stand. I wrinkled my nose at my stench, and Cici let out a small giggle, pulling a stick of deodorant from her bag. My brow rose—how the fuck?